Re: Confessions of a Recovering Stalinist

[Louis N Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 6 Apr 1996, Hans Ehrbar wrote:

>
> The PCP needs a much hardier dose of criticism than Louis P seems
> willing to give them.  Rahul was not the only one who rubbed his eyes
> while reading Louis's declaration.  I was somewhat prepared for it,
> because I had started to pay attention to Louis P's behavior in the past
> few weeks.  He squandered a lot of his credibility with me, as he did
> with many others on the list.  It is also enlightening to me that
> Adolfo, who had such an important role in exposing Louis P., now has
> no qualms accepting him as his ally when it is politically expedient.
> This reminds me of Mao and Sukharno.
>

Louis: Hans, this is totally ridiculous. I supported the NLF against the
Dhiem dictatorship, even though it repressed Trotskyists after WWII, and
I devoted 6 years of my life organizing demonstrations against US
imperialism. This is the type of support I meant. I specifically said
*against* the Garcia and Fujimori dicatatorships. If I was in Peru, I would
not be a member of the PCP. Those are not my politics. I have my own
politics which I have never been shy about sharing with the list.

As far as the power of this primarily Maoist peasant revolt in comparison
to struggles in other countries in Latin America, there is not the slightest
doubt that this has been a potent and deeply rooted movement. Have you
been looking at Bolivia, Ecuador and other countries lately. The conditions
are as cruel, but there has been no organized response. I made a mistake by
omitting the Workers Party in Brazil which is clearly a group that I identify
more with politically, but apart from these two formations, Latin America has
been mostly quiescent since time of the Allende regime.

Finally, as to the question of the character of the PCP. There was never the
slightest doubt in my mind that it was *not* terrorist and that this is a
false allegation. There were also allegations that it is just another
Khmer Rouge in the making. Nobody can ever predict how a political
formation will end up, but at this stage the PCP looks nothing like the
Khmer Rouge to me.

As far as being frightened of anybody is concerned, I think most people
are more afraid of me than I am of them.


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