File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1998/marxism-general.9801, message 22


Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 15:51:03 +0100 (MET)
From: rolf.martens-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se (Rolf Martens)
Subject: M-G: Fwd: 1/2 NEUE EINHEIT: Criticism of J.C.Mariátegui by Klaus Sender


Fwd: 1/2 NEUE EINHEIT: Criticism of J.C.Mari=E1tegui by Klaus Sender
[Re-forwarded, with a couple of notes on language etc: 06.01.98]


Subject:      1/2  NEUE EINHEIT:  Criticism of J.C.Mari=E1tegui 
	      by Klaus Sender
From:         weklu-AT-aol.com
Date:         1997/07/02
Newsgroups:   alt.politics.radical-left,alt.politics.socialism,
	      alt.politics.socialism.mao,alt.politics.usa,
	      alt.society.revolution


(- Part 1/2 -)

NEUE EINHEIT Extrablatt Nr. 32

Klaus Sender

JOS=C9 CARLOS MARI=C1TEGUI AND CULTURAL QUESTIONS
OF THE PERUVIAN REVOLUTION

(Translation of the German text)


                    I.

Among the revolutionaries of Latin America, José Carlos
Mari=E1tegui has become very well-known internationally during
the past years, unmistakably he is occupying an important role
in the entire Latin-American revolution. Besides numerous
Marxist writings which deal with political practice and the
program, he wrote a lot about Peruvian literature and culture.
Beyond Latin America, only during the last decades he was moved
more into the public awareness. So far the translations of his
"Siete ensayos de interpretaci=F3n de la realidad Peruana" and of
a further dozen of articles have been published in German.

Mari=E1tegui comes from the Peruvian revolution of the first third
of this century. Numerous political parties and even governments
in Latin America refer to him. The PCP (Sendero Luminoso of 
J. C. Mari=E1tegui) refers to him just by its name and very
decidedly enters the claim for him.

In order to deal with him it is necessary to see the role of the
Peruvian revolution in the international context and, moreover,
the role of Latin America in general in the international
development.

Peru is the country in Latin America which is characterized by
the strongest and most intense reverting to its own early
American history, the Incan history preceding the Spanish
conquest. Thereby the country has individual national impetusses
in the deep embedding of the millenia-old Indian culture which
combine themselves with the more recent development of the
Spanish vice-kingdom and the modern Peruvian republic (since
1821). A long-standing peculiarity of the Peruvian revolution
lies exactly in the reverting to this old Peruvian people's
consciousness which above all embodies itself in the Incan
population. This reverting to the indigenous traditions has been
a characteristic feature in the literature of the country as
well as of other Andine states for approximately one hundred
years.

The importance of J. C. Mari=E1tegui derives from his application
of Marxism which undisputedly played such an important and
propellant role in the whole world at the beginning of this
century, to the Latin American conditions, and from his attempt,
among other things, to join together with these traditions and
to concentrate the light of materialistic analysis upon these
traditions themselves. The Latin-Americans therefore are looking
at him as an important and original representative of Marxism
who creatively undertook to reappraise the own history as well
as the history of the Latin-American continent.

Up to now the state of Peru is the core area of the old
Peruvian, or rather Incan, state which at its zenith extended
from Ecuador to the South, far into Chile,  and according to
some conjectures even to the La Plata region of South America.
It was here that the most highly developed state community of
the American Indians emerged that ever existed, resulting in a
state of approximately 20 millions of inhabitants, with a high
level of organization, of road construction and centralization
although this society still was living on the Bronze Age
cultural level. It was still accompanied by a good deal of
phenomena which are being found frequently at that stage of
development. Belonging to these human sacrifices, sacral cults
and similar phenomena and a corresponding despotism are to be
named here.

Already a long time before Incan rule a culture of village
communities had been existing in the Andes, and the Incas
presumably were an "Ayllu" (this is the ancient village
community in the Andes) which worked its way up to be the ruler
of the other state-like groupings. The Incan empire then
continued to incorporate a lot of neighbouring realms. This
society did not know the wheel, the script as far as we know,
the horse and several technological achievements which
developed in the Euro-African-Asian hemisphere; but on the other
hand it displayed a high degree of organization, in road
construction e.g., and developed  specific, relatively advanced
ethics, as far as that was possible within the context of the
Bronze Age.

As other Indian cultures, too, the Incan society with its rural
village communities is characterized by deep closeness to the
soil and to the development of agriculture and of agricultural
construction (terraces). Among other things the writings of
Mari=E1tegui are valuable because he attempted to comprehend the
communist traditions of that society, which still were existent
in spite of the already developed despotism.

It is in the nature of things that the awareness of these old
traditions emerged most strongly in Peru. Therefore some people
view Peru to be something like a place of national rebirth for
the South American continent, at least in a specific regard.
This "in a specific regard" is quite important as, of course,
already for a long time modern structures, a modern society have
been existing in Latin America, a capitalist society which
inevitably is winning through with every day. But we know that
in all societies the old structures and also the old mentalities
implant themselves amidst the other factors, and that they form
also an indispensable component of the culture of a country. 
* Each society brings something into modern society also by its
descent.* And considering this we have to evaluate this ideology
and these mentalities. Therefore Mari=E1teguis theoretical
approach to explain this individual development in a Marxist
vein is of import.

Of course, also some modern factors must be brought to the
limelight. We must ask, for example: which significance does
this Andine agriculture have for the modern Peruvian economy? 
There are theories which advocate that the fraction of the Gross
Domestic Product which is being produced there has become a
tiny one. Today out of 25 million citizens 6 millions are living
in Lima alone - a concentration into the large cities, with new
misery and a situation of radical change like that existing in
many parts of the Third World today, which naturally brings up
completely new questions.

Marx once said about Germany in the middle of 19th century that
the cause of the revolution depended upon a new edition of the
great peasants' war of 1522-1525 in Germany which had to
combine itself with the proletarian revolution. Mari=E1tegui
definitely tries likewise to integrate the old history and the
colonial early republican Latin America into the new
revolutionary development. In this way he tried to awaken the
consciousness of the society as a whole, an interrelatedness of
the whole society. In doing so, however, he did not remain
without essential faults. To be clear: we think that an
unambiguous criticism of wrong and even really dangerous aspects
of his views is indispensable.


Mari=E1tegui has been defended by the chairman of the PCP,
Gonzalo, as an advocate of revolutionary violence in particular.
He particularly attacked that "mediocre reformism" as he said,
which in a hypocritical manner celebrates the parliamentary
system, in which actually the dictatorship of the exploiting
classes, even of the most reactionary comprador bourgeoisie is
covered and put into practice, in which actually terror against
the masses exists, accompanied by hypocritical phrases of
humanity and human rights outwardly. In fact, this element among
others is present in Mari=E1tegui, we shall, however, come back to
this subject later. Of fundamental importance remains the
question, however: which social substance, which class does the
violence serve, what is its social character? With that we have
to deal here.


As for our points of criticism, we have our eyes essentially on
the following ones:

First the position towards the former American, Incan society, a
position which is considerably characterized by one-sidedness
and an uncritical attitude, a position apparently widespread
also in other indigenous writings. If Mari=E1tegui dealt with the
former Incan society, we have to consider in which way he did so
correctly. If we draw from the old primary communist conditions
of the past, we also have to take into consideration the utterly
negative aspects of these old American societies.

Furthermore there is an obvious point in Mari=E1tegui concerning
the position towards religion, the catholic one in particular,
where still several things have to be analyzed. In his analysis
Mari=E1tegui quite often refers even to George Sorel, who
rightfully is being described by Lenin as a fideist and chaotic
person and muddle-head. It is, however, exactly this idealist
whom Mari=E1tegui tries to incorporate into his building, and of
whom he absorbs elements. In the same way his position towards
religion and towards the Jesuits in South America is unclear.

Gonzalo is mistaken in calling Mari=E1tegui a "thorough Marxist-
Leninist" as there are elements with him which are incompatible
with Marxism. So, there are elements of idealism with
Mari=E1tegui.

Finally we shall sum up furthermore:

With Mari=E1tegui there is an epistemological phenomenon which
apparently is widespread upon the whole American continent,
which comes closer to pragmatism and which has its troubles with
materialism and materialist cognition. Pragmatism, which means
to construct a reality for oneself, is something principally
different as compared with the acknowledgement of a materially
existing reality, to which we come closer by the process of
realization. It is necessary to principally point to this
weakness. Pragmatism is something principally different from
materialism, although both refer also to practice and
experience. The principal approach in the whole way of thinking
is playing a role here.

[Note: By "principally different" and "principial approach"
here, the author no doubt meant to say "different in principle",
respectively "approach on principle", overlooking the difference
in meaning between the German word "prinzipiell" and the Eng-
lish "principal". The same error recurs later. - RM, Jan '98]




                   II.  ABOUT INCAN SOCIETY

Now let us proceed to the concrete points. In his most famous
writing, "Seven Interpretative Essays on Peruvian Reality"
Mari=E1tegui writes the following in the beginning of the chapter
on economic development:

"Until the conquista, an economy developed in Peru which came
out of the soil and the people of Peru spontaneously and freely.
In the Incan empire, that joining together of agricultural and
settled communes, the most interesting was the economy. All
historical testimonies agree in the statement that the people of
the Incas - hard-working, disciplined, pantheist and simple -
lived in material well-being. Livelihood was abundant; the
population was growing, Malthus' problem was completely unknown
to the empire. The collectivistic organization led by the Incas
had weakened the individual impetus in the Indios; but, to the
benefit of this economic system, it had developed the habit of a
modest and religious obedience towards their social duty to an
extraordinary extent. The Incas reaped any possible kind of
social benefit from this virtue of their people, they increased
the value of the vast realm by constructing roads, channels
etc., they expanded it by sujugating neighbouring tribes to
their authority. Collective labour, common efforts had fruitful
effects upon social aims."

(From: "Esquema de la evolucion economica" - Outline of economic
development - p. 17 of the German edition. Translation corrected
from the Spanish original)


This quotation, the gist of which is being repeated in
Mari=E1teguis works in different forms, touches a central point of
Mari=E1teguis historical and cultural views: the picture of Incan
society as a harmonious society from the mass of the people up
to the Incan aristocracy.

In the Andean region, in which later the Incan empire was
erected, the village communities called Ayllus with their
channels, their terraces and their developed agriculture had
been existing for a long time before the Incas erected their
rule. These village communities had already had a history of
many centuries. The culture of these Andine people stands out
due to deep closeness to the soil and had produced excellent
agricultural results. Significantly enough, this culture had
developed in the Andine plateau, not in the coastal oases or in
the tropical rain forest. People struggled against the tough
natural conditions, and eventually their culture stood upon a
higher level than the culture of the inhabitants of the river
mouths. (The conditions of the sea climate at the South American
west coast cause deserts in the coastal strip, which are
interrupted by oases at the river mouths.) 

These village communities which had an organisation of the
agricultural land similar to the Old-German Mark and the Slavic
Obshcina and which, as Engels noted already, astonishingly bear
the denomination "Marca" as well, produced early forms of state
organization even prior to the Incas.  Moreover, historical
research assumes that a relatively large trade had developed
already, and possibly preliminary forms of money.

The Incas were a tribe, very probably originating from the
region of the today lake Titicaca, which brought the numerous
estranged "Ayllus" as well as the centres under its military
overlordship. At first they conquered the region around Cuzco by
overcoming the local powers by cunning and force. From there
they were able to take larger and even larger regions. After 300
years this state had occupied the area of a truly large empire
extending from today's Ecuador far to the Southern Andes and
even, according to the assumptions of some historicians, to the
La Plata region. This community bore the name "Tawantinsuyo".

The concept of the state, at the same time the great historic
achievement of this empire, consisted in a centralization of the
forces of the single estranged Indian communities which
transcended the regions, in the unification of the language
which was at least partly achieved, in the inclusion of backward
regions which were brought to the level of the then advanced
regions. This, however, did not come about without the formation
of a class society, in the course of the building of which the
Ayllus were committed to cultivate up to two thirds of their
soil for the interest of the Inca (appr. one third) and the
theocracy (a further third). A tribute system was created which
had to be taken without objection. Wealth concentrated upon the
Inca and his surrounding favourites, upon the military-
bureaucratic stratum and the theocracy (all of them being
members of the Inca tribe).

* The social reality of this state was by no means only idyll
and harmony. *

The Inca concentrated incomprehensible wealth, which culminated
in the laying out of whole gardens in which everything was
reproduced of gold, of precious gowns and food really in
abundance. On the contrary, life of a simple peasant of a
village community who had to pay tribute looked anything but
extensive. He actually toiled his life long, always confined to
the narrowness of his Ayllu, and as to his material well-being,
this was indeed very modest. One may take into consideration the
social security of his life which, though, actually was provided
by the Indian community in which he lived and not primarily by
the Incan system which itself existed on the fundament of these
communities.

There was the "mita"-system, that is to say forced commitment of
the inhabitant of the Ayllu for large works in mines, in the
construction of roads and fortifications. Incidentally the
Spaniards were able to tie up to this system immediately after
their conquest by placing themselves in the place of the Incas.

Under the Incas there was the "yanacona"-status which at least
resembled the slave status of the old empires in the
Mediterranean region. A great part of the phenomena of the Incan
empire are to be found in other early empires as well. The
emergence of slavery and of the system of tribute are not
uncommon at that historical stage and thereby not to be
condemned, although this Incan system shows a couple of
peculiarities. But to depict all this as a communist idyll
signalizes - to put it mildly - romantic blindness which cannot
be accepted without objection. Obviously such an attitude
towards the own history is bound to influence today's policy as
well, all cultural factors being of political import.


The country witnessed uprisings, too, which were put down in
blood by the Inca. It must not be forgotten that also the system
of the Incas was a system of barbaric human sacrifice, which
cannot be dismissed with a reference to religious fervor alone
but already was a means of repression. A further obvious point
was the compulsory recruiting of young women from the ayllus and
the conquered cities for various functions of the Incan system.
This led to a particular aversion to the Incan system. These
girls were recruited to be "holy women" of the sun (the symbol
of the supreme god) as well as labour force, as well as numerous
bedfellows of the upper castes.

As far as human sacrifice is concerned: according to various
descriptions it assumes the magnitude of several hundreds of
children for certain "festive" events. It is not clear to what
extent it has not been especially introduced by the Incan
system. Some of the states preceding the Incas knew human
sacrifice on a large scale, the Chimu e.g. (a coastal realm),
and some facts indicate its having been moderated with the Incas
as compared with others. It is completely certain that the
number of victims was limited as compared with the Aztec and
Maya cultures in Middle America, e.g. It is a fact worth notice
that for example also in China a long struggle took place during
the last millennium before the year 0 in order to make an end to
the former large-scale human sacrifices, of which there were
hundreds as so-called burial objects.

[Note: Not to nitpick, but just to set the historical record
straight: There wasn't actually any "year 0". Not even the ("or-
dinary") Christian fideists claim there was. - RM]

It is by no means certain if the ayllus in the highlands of the
Central Andes knew this human sacrifice, especially in these
numbers. It is important that one must not idealize or
trivialize such an empire of early times. This is a very
dangerous mistake and a fatuous undertaking.

With the development unfolding this human sacrifice meant a
tremendous humiliation of the people. It has been handed down
that giving one's daughter for sacrifice provided a privilege
for the career as an official. It was a means of terror by which
this rule was being held together, in addition to the force
employed in the repression of rebellious people.

With view to all these facts it is eccentric to call the early
state of the Incas communist as does Mari=E1tegui. One has some
justification in calling the village community agrarian
communism, but it is only the productive unity, it is not
identical with the Incan system. The whole thing reminds a
little of Alexander Herzen who sometimes trivialized zarism and
embellished the picture of the Russian village communes and
called them an already existing "communism". But even
Alexander Herzen is much more critically minded towards the
Russian conditions than is Mari=E1tegui towards the Old Peruvian
ones.

Finally the pitiless bloody massacres of the Incas among
themselves show that it is not a "harmonious" communist society
we are dealing with but a developing slave system and feudalism
emerging from barbarism. One should read what the followers of
Atahualpa (the last Inca, ruler of the North) did to the
partisans and even to the uninvolved retinue of Huascar during
the Incan civil war. This is being dealt with even by the famous
Inca biographer Garcilaso de la Vega, who is a descendant of the
house of the Inca himself.

((To be continued in Part 2/2))

Copyright by Klaus Sender, Berlin, 1997

___________________________________________________________
		    neue  einheit
    Zeitschrift fuer Politik, Oekonomie und Kultur
		- Extrablatt Nr.32 -
_______________________(1/2)_______________________________

     copyright 1997 Verlag NEUE EINHEIT (Inh.H.Dicke)
	Koernebachstr.50, D-44143 Dortmund, Germany
	    or D-10973 Berlin, Postfach 309,
     Phone:   +49-231-838932    resp. +49-30-6937470


         --Posted on behalf of the author.--

[Re-fwd by RM]







     --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005