From: Luis Quispe <lquispe-AT-blythe.org>
Subject: PERU: Warning on May First
To: marxism-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu
Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 01:07:29 -0400 (EDT)
Cc: marxism-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu



       THE FOUNDER OF THE PCP MARIATEGUI AND MAY DAY

           MARIATEGUI: MAY FIRST AND THE UNITED FRONT

A CALL TO ALL REVOLUTIONARIES OF THE WORLD,

Throughout the world May Day is a day of unity of the revolutionary
proletariat, a day in which all the worker organizations gather
together in an immense international united front. On this day, the
words of Karl Marx resound, "Proletarians of all countries, unite!" On
this day, the barriers that separate the vanguard proletariat into
different groups and schools, fall spontaneously.

May Day does not belong to one Internationale, it is the day for all
Internationales, socialists, communists, and libertarians of all hues
are fused and mixed today into one sole army that marches toward the
final struggle.

This day is, in sum, an affirmation and verification that the united
front is possible and practicable, and that its realization is not
opposed to any interest or requirement of the present.

This international day induces many contemplations. But for the
Peruvian workers, the most immediate, the most opportune, is that
which concerns the necessity and the possibility of the united front.
Recently there have been some attempts at creating a split. It is
understanding and action that is urgently needed to prevent these
attempts from succeeding in undermining the nascent vanguard of the
proletariat of Peru.

My attitude since I joined the vanguard has always been one of a
convinced supporter, one of a fervent propagandist of the united
front. I remember having declared this in one of the first conferences
on the history of the world crisis. Responding to the initial shows of
resistance and apprehension of some old-fashioned and pompous
libertarians, more preoccupied with rigid dogma than with the
effectiveness and richness of action, I said, in response from the
podium at the People's University, "We are too few to divide
ourselves. We will not deal with questions of etiquette or titles."

Later, I repeated these or related words. I do not tire of repeating
them. The class movement among ourselves is still too young, too
limited, for us to think about factionalizing and splitting it. Before
the time arrives, when an inevitable split occurs, we have a great
deal of work to do in common, a great deal of joint labor. We have to
undertake many long journeys together. It falls upon us, for example,
to arouse in the majority of the Peruvian proletariat, class feelings
and class consciousness. This chore belongs equally to socialists,
syndicalists, communists and libertarians. All of us have the
obligation to plant the seeds of renewal and spread the ideas of class
consciousness. All of us have the obligation to win the proletariat
away from the yellow assemblies and phoney "representative
institutions". All of us have the obligation to fight against attacks
and reactionary repression. All of us must sustain the reawakening of
the enslaved and oppressed indigenous people. In completing these
historic obligations, these basic requirements, our paths will join
together, whatever our ultimate goal.

The united front does not negate the personality nor the relationship
of any of its component members. Nor does it signify the confusion of,
or the meshing together, of all the different doctrines into one
doctrine. It is concrete, contingent, contributing, and practical
action. The program of the united front concerns itself exclusively
with immediate reality and is outside of all abstraction and utopian
thinking. To propose the united front is not to propose ideological
confusion. Within the united front, each member should maintain its
own connections, and its own principles. Each one should work for its
own beliefs. But all should feel united in solidarity for the class,
linked by the struggle against the common adversary, linked by the
same revolutionary will and the same passion. To form a united front
is to have an attitude of solidarity in the face of concrete problems
and urgent necessity. It is not to renounce the doctrine which each
one serves, nor the position which each holds in the vanguard. A
variety of tendencies and diversity of ideological hues is inevitable
in this immense legion of humanity called the proletariat. The
existence of tendencies and defined groups is not bad, on the
contrary, it is the sign of an advanced period in the revolutionary
process. What is important is that these groups and these tendencies
understand themselves in light of the concrete realities of the day.
They must not become sterile with useless hairsplitting and mutual
recriminations. They must not alienate themselves from the
revolutionary masses with the spectacle of dogmatic quarrels and
preaching. They must not use their weapons nor waste their time in
injuring each other, but must aim their blows at the social order, its
institutions and its injustices and crimes.

Let us try to understand the threads of history which unite all of the
vanguard, all who aid in the renewal. The examples which daily come
>from afar are numerous and magnificent. The most recent and most
moving of these examples is that of Germaine Berthon. Berthon, an
anarchist, accurately fired his revolver at an organizer and leader of
the white terror in order to avenge the assassination of the socialist
Jean Jaures. Those of noble, elevated and sincere revolutionary spirit
can look beyond the theoretical differences to perceive the historic
import of their efforts and works. The dogmatic mentality belongs to
those small-minded spirits with neither broad horizons nor
farsightedness who wish to petrify and immobilize life in rigid
formulas, the privileges of sectarian egoism.

The proletarian united front is the decisive and manifest desire of
the proletariat itself. The masses demand unity. The masses want
faith. For this reason their souls reject the corrosive and
pessimistic voices of those who deny and doubt, and they seek out the
optimistic voice, one which is cordial, youthful and 
fertiles, that of those who affirm and who believe. 

THE ADMONITION OF MAY DAY

In the process of struggle for socialism, May Day has acquired an
increasingly profound and precise meaning. For a long time May Day has
had a meaning far greater than that is just a commemoration of the 
Chicago martyrs. This was its point of departure.
Since 1888 when the Congress of Paris instituted this commemorazition,
the world proletariat has traveled a considerable way down the road
that leadsto the realization of the class ideals. In this time much of its
history has unfolded in episodes filled with both sorrow and glory.
The working class has come of age. The chronicle of its political and
economic ascent has registered ever greater events which make it
impossible to limit the significance of May Day to one single aspect.
(Note: "aspect" translated from elemerides, a word whose meaning we
could not find. Tr.) The experience of socialism in action began in 1918.
the most difficult and protracted battles are yet to be won.
But in the struggle, the working class is ceaselessly growing in its
capacity to create the new order - the socialist order.

May Day affirms all the years of international solidarity of the
workers. It is the international day - universal in its excellence. In
its celebration the advances of the proletariat of 5 continents are
brought together. On this fact rests its great revolutionary
significance. The reactionary nationalists understand this very well
when they, like the Italian fascists, make every effort to outlaw this
day of working class sentiments. This is, however, a useless effort,
because nothing can give a more religious and profound character to
the commemoration of May Day in the spirit of every worker than its
persecution and condemnation by reactionaries. Fascism is reviving in
Italy the heroic age of the catacombs. This day is occurring in Italy
without strikes, revolutionary hymns, or red flags, yet in a thousand
hidden homes faith in socialism is sworn to with greater fervor and
resolution.

It is necessary to drive out of May Day all of what in large measure
it has had and still retains, the mechanical rhythm of simple events
(again, elemerides -Tr.). The struggle for socialism is not fortified
either by sick and ill-tempered evocations or by exalted hopes. It is,
more than anything, advanced by concrete action, present reality. It
is work to bring into being a new society by those who through
continuous and disciplined, obstinate effort, fight for socialism, not
by those who on this or some other day feel a momentary impulse to
riot or demonstrate.

For our vanguard worker each May Day will represent very little if it
does not signal a step in his/her struggle for socialism. Year after
year this day raises concrete questions. What have been the results
and experiences of the actions carried out? What are the tasks for the
future? The problem which resents itself today is without a doubt a
problem of organization. The vanguard of the workers has the
responsibility to impel and direct the orgarization of the Peruvian
proletariat, a task which demands a sense of responsibility which
cannot be achieved without breaking with individualism, anarchism,
utopianism, and the notion that one can lead the masses toward a new
order through protest and negation alone. We must win back the right
of the workers to associate, win the freedom to organize and form
legal organizations in the cities, mines and landed estates. We must
take on this task of reclaiming this right and thus affirm our power.
Here is the work that needs to be completed, the mission to fulfil.
May Day should serve this time to both comprehend and affirm without
useless declamations, the will and the ability to realize these goals.

-------------------------------
Published by The New Flag
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Queens, NY 11106
E-Mail:nyxfer.blythe.org
http://www.blythe.org/peru-pcp
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