Re: pigs in peru

["Chris, London" <100423.2040@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>"the National
>Food Assistance Program (PRONAA) was shocked to discover recently
>that food aid intended for poor families in the Andean highlands was
>being fed to pigs.



I appreciate Michael forwarding parts of this item to the l'st.
It had struck me too, reading the ppn.peru moderated "conference", as a
quite extraordinarily horrific piece illustrating how the most personal
aspects of family life in Peru cannot be isolated at
present from the pounding logic of the world wide neo-liberal
capitalist commodity market.

At the same time I also thought the comments of Gina were spot on.
The ppn.peru conference is unusually closely moderated
with a special explanation that the igc and apc networks have permitted
this, partly to protect people in Peru who might otherwise
receive material from sources that would put the recipients
in jeopardy from the government's counter terrorism campaigns.

Now whether this is the sole reason that PCP supporters are not in
a position to contribute to that conference, is of course open to
question. But what I would say is the net effect of repeated posts,
on ppn.peru like the one Michael referred to and others, eg child
rape being widespread in Villa El Salvador etc etc, is to create a helpless
impression that what the people of Peru needs is "condescending
saviours". Indeed periodic "good" initiatives are reported.
In the abscence of sufficient reports of effective resistance, the
overall effect is one of pity, rather than solidarity.

There is no way I am going to be so arrogant or foolish to
say from London, whether people in Peru are wise to wage a
people's war, defensive armed struggle, armed passive resistance,
armed strikes, or any other combination of political resistance.
That is for them to decide.

But I do feel that news items like the one Michael forwarded,
cry out, and I am sure he would agree with this, that ordinary
people in Peru should be in the position to take their lives
into their own hands.

I think it is our job outside Peru to do everything to create
the international situation that allows them to do this. Again
I get the impression that Michael would agree.

Chris B, London.



     --- from list marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---