Re: WHAT HAPPENED IN INDONESIA -or the abstractions of the inconcrete revolutionists!

[hariette@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (hariette spierings)]

The following gobbledigook about "betrayals" and "abstractions" for those
who can read or understand a Marxist formulation unless is a self-cancelling
two sided and real generalisation, and not a concrete application, I think
the best answer is to re-post - as many times as it is necessary - Committee
Sol Peru's London document on the "war with Ecuador" issue.

In this CONCRETE occassion, what was the position of the "fellow leftists"
(of ALL hues, including "super internationalists":  It was either open
support for the Fujimori government in an even more chauvinistic fashion, or
an empty appeal to the UN and US imperialism to "stop the war in the
interests of humanity".

As any one can see, Sol Peru's document is a concrete revolutionary example
of taking the national interest of BOTH countries into account - i.e. their
real contention with imperialism and the reactionary ruling classes, and
thus arriving at a concrete and real INTERNATIONALIST and REVOLUTIONARY
POSITION centered in the People's War.  By subordinating thus the "immediate
interests of the proletariat of both countries" to the national interest of
two oppressed peoples, Marxism arrives at proletarian internationalism,
SOCIALIST anti-imperialism!.

When will the "theoreticians" of REAL Menshevism will learn to be concrete
and not just declarative?

The rest of the comments of this gentleman are mere assertions with no
relation to any thing I have said.  Where does he obtain, for example, that
I am claiming Sukarno as a Marxist.  It was Mr. Proyect who frivoulously
launched the accussation that because Sukarno's articles were published in
the Chinese press in order for Communists to study them - like it can be
done even with an article by Louis Proyect himself if he ever gets near to
have the same political weight and importance in history as Dr. Sukarno has
had - the Communist Party of China or Chairman Mao regarded Sukarno as a
Marxist-Leninist of any sort.  Communists also must study the writings of
non-communists anti-imperialists, otherwise, how are they to know what these
people are thinking at any concrete moment?

Another point is to assume that I believe that Trotsky never said a Marxist
thing in his life.  That would be absurd, and if Trotsky has arrived at the
same formulation on a particular concept, and that concept is a Marxist one,
it only proves the following:

1. - That even by trotskyst standards of ultra-bolshevism, my formulation is
correct (and independently arrived at).

2.  - I have never sought to deny that Trotsky was a Marxist at some point
in his career - when he ceased to be a Trotskyst and for a time became in
Lenin's words the most punctilious of Bolsheviks (i.e. when he joined the
Party of Lenin and played an important role in the early years of the
revolution. I have never denied these facts, since even Stalin has pointed
all this out giving credit where credit is due, unlike Trotsky's own
disciples who only draw lifeless black and white cut-out cartoons to explain
complex and towering historical figures). Then, of course, later on, despite
his own promises and eternal loyalty statements to the Party, and "come what
may I'll never go against the Party" pietys, Trotsky did actually turn his
back on that same Party, and resumed, from the lap of the Rothermere press
in Britain, his own career as a semi-menshevik, degenerating later into a
blunt an unprincipled anti-Soviet propagandist at the service of the most
reactionary circles of monopoly capital.

Adolfo Olaechea

>
>I'm reposting the following, slighty edited, as it returnerd
>undelivered to my mail-box.
>
>
> Adolpho wrote:
>
> HA>  In order to be able to defer, or
> HA> subordinate, you must be able to separate, to understand
> HA> clearly what is what.  The question of subordination is
> HA> linked to the question of separation.
> HA> What we are talking
> HA> here is subordinating the immediate interests to the
> HA> long term ones.  And that is what Marxism is all about.
> HA> Subordination does not mean to give those interests up.
> HA> It means to always take care of the long term interests
> HA> of the proletariat as a WHOLE in defending or
> HA> advancing those interests.
>
>     You like to avoid direct questions, but just speak about
>abstractions.
>     I'm sorry, maybe for my bad English, I cannot follow your
>sophistry. But, also following your talk I rather think that
>you are presenting a Menshevist position on the National
>question.
>
>     The Theses on the Eastern question (fourth Congress of
>the Comintern, November 1922) declare pretty clearly:
>"Equally harmful is the attempt to stay on the borders of the
>the fight for the more urgent and daily interests [can we
>assume that they are the "immediate interests" of A.O.?] of
>the working class in name of the 'national unity' and the
>'social peace' with the democratic bourgeoisie" and the
>Communists "organize the workers and peasant masses in the the
>fight of their own particular class interests" (my
>translation).
>
>      The Theses on National and Colonial question (1920)
>declare:
>"all the politics of the [Communist] International on the
>national and colonial question must concentrate above all on
>the approach between the workers and the toilers of all
>nations and all countries for the joint struggle for the
>overthrown of the bourgeoisie and the big landlords. Because
>only the joint struggle will gain the victory over the
>capitalism. Without this overthrown is impossible to abolish
>oppression and the juridical inequality of a Nation" [BTW this
>is the main concept of the Permanent Revolution]
>
>     NEVER did Lenin or the Communist International say that
>you must "subordinate" (althoug temporarly) the class
>interests to the national intersets (which the Comintern
>called "so called" national interests).
>     In the East Stalin and Mao resurrected the
>Menshevist "theory" of two stage revolution in order to
>manipulate with the national bourgeoisies to whom they sold
>out the need of the socialist revolution in the oppressed
>countries.
>     Indonesia has been one of the clearest examples.
>Furthemore (as in the case of the Vacuum Petroleum) the
>workers were obliged to give up their immediate class
>interests directly to the American imperialists (and probably
>there are a lot of other cases that I don't know right now).
>     Furthemore you have to paint in "antimperialist" coulours
>anticommunist dictators that used to slaughter the workers
>mouvement (as did Sukharno in 1948) in order to capitulate to
>them. If you want I've a lot more to say about Lenin on
>National question, which exposes Stalin's and Mao's
>menshevism. But a theory must be tested in practice and in the
>field of class struggle the "subordination of class interests
>to the national interests" has costed hundred of thousands of
>workers and peasant lives in the so called "Third World", and
>many defeats.
>
>     A.O follows saying:
>
> HA> Reforms are a by-product
> HA> of struggle for the long term aims of the proletariat
>
>     Well said (without irony): this is, virtually word by
>word, a sentence of L. D. Bronstein (as you prefer to call
>him), better known as comrade Trotsky, the founder of the Red
>Army and defeater of the Whites, along with 14 armies of the
>imperialist countries intervened in the civil war after that
>the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky,
>took power.
>     Probably quoting Trotsky you are on the road of
>wisdom.... Who knows?
>
>But I would like a comment by you on what you think about:
>
>1) A couple of hudreds German communists that Stalin delivered
>to Nazi germany in 1939-41.
>
>2) The Chinese embassy that closed doors in front of leftists
>refugees that tried to fly Pinochet' terror in 1973.
>
>     And answer to the CONCRETE questions on Stalin/Mao
>betrayal.
>(Answers by Godenas, Quispe, Gina, or somebody else from the
>gang of four is equally welcomed)
> --- MMMR v4.50reg
>
>
> --- MMMR v4.50reg
>
>
>--VAA25444.828648639/venere.inet.it--
>
>
>
> --- MMMR v4.50reg
>
>
>
>
>
>     --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>
>
            MESSAGE FROM COMMITTEE SOL-PERU - LONDON: TO OUR
            BROTHERS, THE PROLETARIAT AND PEOPLE OF ECUADOR:

London 6 February 1995

"Let us begin from the undeniable principle that the problems bedevilling 
Peru-Ecuador relations,
are not issues for the people of either country". "These are issues created by 
both governments who
periodically stage incidents as a smoke screen to hide their own monumental 
failures".  "The people
of Peru and Ecuador do not want to eat borders". "They want to end their 
obsolete systems that no
longer have any reason to exist". - Chairman Gonzalo - Central Committee of the 
Communist Party of Peru. ('Let
Strategic Equilibrium Shake the Country Even More'- 1991, page 50-51).

With the full knowledge and complicity of the Fujimori dictatorship, and even 
before 1991, Ecuador's military
posts were already in the Cordillera del C¢ndor.  This is something that 
Chairman Gonzalo himself had
pointed out then in the document above.  In this context, the tyrant himself, 
as a quisling and mass-murderer,
visited Ecuador in various occasions.  There he met with President Dur n Ball?n 
and with military and other
ruling circles of your country, thus encouraging in practice this status-quo in 
particular.  Why?.  Then, the big
bourgeoisie of Ecuador, acting upon their own narrow anti-popular class 
interests, attempted to portray
Fujimori as a wise and reasonable leader. They presented him before their 
people as a good neighbour of
generous sentiments and peaceful intentions.  Now you can see the bloody 
evidence that this was nothing
but cruel deception.  

Then the issue was to legitimise his anti-national, pro-imperialist, 
anti-popular and reactionary dictatorship. 
The issue then was obtaining support from the reactionaries of Ecuador.  Then 
he wanted support for his
bloody war against the Peruvian revolution and its New Democratic State.  His 
aim was securing silence and
complicity from neighbouring countries while carrying out bloody mass-murder 
against the Peruvian people
and brutal genocide against the prisoners of the People's War.  Principally, 
Fujimori aimed at covering-up
his endless illegal and inhuman abuses and tortures against Chairman Gonzalo, 
leader of the revolution and
of the people of Peru.  

That is why, not only with Ecuador, but also with Chile, Bolivia, Colombia and 
Brazil, the rotten old Peruvian
state adopted a policy of concessions. They turned a blind eye and allowed 
military garrisons from those
countries to enter Peruvian territory.  In fact, Fujimori's policy positively 
encouraged this under the guise of
'fighting terrorism and drug trafficking'. In this fashion Fujimori cravenly 
carried out Yankee policy aimed at
helping imperialist domination and exploitation throughout our region.  

He whetted the ambitions of the ruling classes of these countries to secure 
desperately needed imperialist
investments and loans.  Nevertheless, today, the criminal tyrant Fujimori needs 
to legitimise his rule before
the Peruvian masses. For this he is attempting to resort to fraudulent 
elections under a fascist military
jackboot.  In 1990, this counterfeit clown disguised himself as a poor Indian 
peasant and made his electoral
campaign deceiving the people aboard a farm tractor. Today he wants to generate 
a Falklands' Factor to
emulate Margaret Thatcher.  Thus he wants to harvest votes by disguising 
himself as a tin-pot Napoleon and
making his pitch atop a battle tank.  

However, Fujimori finds himself in political, economic and military trouble. He 
is frustrated by the stubborn
and growing People's War that he had vainly vowed to end before 1995.  He has 
mounting electoral
difficulties amid a deteriorating economic situation while undergoing grave 
political internal problems even
with his own wife. His henchmen, Montesinos and the drug dealing military find 
themselves caught red
handed. This is because of a case of cocaine trafficking involving them with 
the General in Chief of the
military zone bordering with Ecuador.  This large scale criminal activity was 
under intense judicial and
journalistic investigation just before he started the conflict with Ecuador.

To cover up these mounting embarrassments, and to rope along the backward 
masses, Fujimori has today
resorted to the stock in trade of chauvinist provocations.  He has resorted to 
blackmail and war threats - he
has resorted to the only language he understands: air bombardments, artillery 
fire, ominous military
mobilization and the navy blockade of the waters around the gulf of Guayaquil.  
Thus, the ruling classes of
Ecuador are harvesting the whirlwind. They are paying the price of the craven 
homage they rendered the
mass murderer fascist Fujimori during his 'conquering hero' visits to that 
country.  For the proletariat and
oppressed people of Ecuador, and for their suffering Peruvian brethren, this is 
nothing but a harvest of death,
anxiety and destruction.

The people of Ecuador and Peru are both victims of the same imperialist 
oppression.  The robber-barons
of both countries want to insure for themselves the absurd privilege of selling 
out to imperialist monopolies
this or that portion of our homeland. For this aim, they use the masses as 
cannon fodder. The soldiers on
both sides are mainly workers and peasants in uniform, recruited by force and 
hurled against each other
armed to the teeth in fratricidal combats. 

The ruling circles, murderers of the people, hide their political and economic 
disasters behind nationalistic
bombast. They also hide the corruption and the swindles of tyrants and drug 
dealing dictators. The workers
and peasants, students and white collar workers, are the oppressed masses of 
the countryside and the cities.
They are the unemployed and the victims of starvation, those who make up more 
than 90% of our peoples.
They have nothing to gain and very much to lose in this kind of militarised 
farce.

It is therefore right to denounce the reactionary character of this war.  The 
Peruvian and Ecuador's big
bourgeoisie, and the landowners, big bureaucrats and high ranking military 
circles, are all anti-national
elements in both countries. They serve mainly US imperialism. Both sides sell 
out our respective motherland
to the foreign exploiters.  Both ferociously repress our masses who only fight 
for bread, liberty, and for the
people's democracy they need for their authentic development and progress.

During more than 150 years of 'independence', the semi-feudal and semi-colonial 
states have fought over
the corpse of the Spanish colonial empire. They have continued oppressing our 
masses and treating our
territories as their private property. They have failed to offer our peoples 
peaceful and secure borders.  They
foster and tolerate a situation of neither peace nor war that entails heavy 
economic, political and social
burdens for both nations.

Therefore, the popular masses of both our countries must strengthen their 
unity.  They must unmask and
fight the chauvinistic politicians, social-fascists and revisionists fanning 
fratricidal hatred for purely electoral
purposes.  The people and the revolutionaries of Peru have fifteen years of 
glorious and heroic experience
in fighting and defeating the genocidal armed forces of the old Peruvian state. 
They will certainly render the
people of Ecuador the most decided and effective support in defending their 
integrity from the criminal
merchants of war. 

The unity of our peoples in fighting against US imperialism, our main common 
enemy, and against their
lackeys, the big bourgeoisie and the reactionary classes of both countries, 
will develop victoriously.  The
hyena Fujimori may indeed carry out his threats. If he hurls his legions 
against the towns and cities of
Ecuador, the masses of that country will know how to defend their homeland.  
They will know that the people
and the revolutionaries of Peru - principally the People's Liberation Army led 
by the Communist Party - will
be in the same trenches.  They will then stubbornly and ceaselessly fight 
against the same enemy.

That the People's War may achieve victory in Peru, and that the people in 
Ecuador may find the road to
develop it on their own.  This would be the best guarantee of failure of 
imperialist and reactionary plots to
divide our peoples and to pit them against each other.

                         DOWN WITH US IMPERIALISM!
                 DOWN WITH THE FASCIST US PUPPET FUJIMORI!
                        DOWN WITH REACTIONARY WAR!
            DOWN WITH THE REACTIONARIES ENEMIES OF OUR PEOPLES!
                  LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION WAR!
LONG LIVE THE FIGHTING UNITY OF THE INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAT AND THE POPULAR
        MASSES OF ECUADOR, PERU, LATIN AMERICA AND THE WORLD!   
            LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM, GONZALO THOUGHT!


Sol-Peru Committee - London
10 B Homestead Road - London SW6 7DB  - Telephone: 071 386 7607 - Fax: 081 743 
7946