From: Klasber-AT-aol.com
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 21:45:42 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: M-I: 1/2 NEUE EINHEIT: Criticism of J.C.Mariategui by Klaus Sender



(- Part 1/2 -)

NEUE EINHEIT Extrablatt Nr. 32

Klaus Sender

JOSE CARLOS MARIATEGUI AND CULTURAL QUESTIONS 
OF THE PERUVIAN REVOLUTION

(Translation of the German text)


               I.

Among the revolutionaries of Latin America, Jose Carlos 
Mariategui 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 interpretacion de la realidad Peruana" and of a further dozen of 
articles have been published in German. Mariategui 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. 
Mariategui) 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. Mariategui 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 
Mariategui 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 Mariateguis 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. Mariategui 
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. 



Mariategui 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 Mariategui, 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 Mariategui 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 Mariategui concerning 
the position towards religion, the catholic one in particular, where 
still several things have to be analyzed.
In his analysis Mariategui 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 Mariategui 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 Mariategui a "thorough Marxist-
Leninist" as there are elements with him which are incompatible 
with Marxism. So, there are elements of idealism with 
Mariategui.

Finally we shall sum up furthermore:

With Mariategui 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.





                   II.  ABOUT INCAN SOCIETY

Now let us proceed to the concrete points. In his most famous 
writing, "Seven Interpretative Essays on Peruvian Reality" 
Mariategui 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 Mariateguis 
works in different forms, touches a central point of Mariateguis 
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.
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 Mariategui. 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 Mariategui 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.				




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