Stages of the Peruvian Revolution

[Luis Quispe <lquispe@xxxxxxxxxx>]

      THE TWO STAGES OF THE PERUVIAN REVOLUTION

The two stages of the Peruvian revolution are based on the
country's semi-colonial and semi-feudal condition, Mariategui
analyzed the revolutionary forces that there are two basic
classes: the proletariat and the peasantry, that while the latter
is the main force being the majority and supporting the weight of
semi-feudalism, the former, the working class, is the leading
class; further on, he noticed that only with the appearance of
the working class can the peasantry fulfill its role: "Socialist
doctrine is the only one capable of giving a modern, constructive
sense to the indigenous cause, which, placed in the true social
and economic arena, and elevated to the level of a realistic and
creative policy, counts for the fulfillment of this enterprise
with the will and discipline of a class now making its appearance
in our historical political process: The proletariat."

Joining the peasantry and the proletariat is the
petty-bourgeoisie, which "always played a very minor and
disoriented role in Peru," put under pressure by foreign
capitalism "it appears destined to assume, as its organization
and orientation prospers, a revolutionary nationalist attitude."
These are the driving classes of the revolution, who under
certain conditions and circumstances can be joined by the
national bourgeoisie, which Mariategui calls the "left
bourgeoisie." Those are the four classes who united target the
blanks of the revolution: Semi-feudality and imperialism.

In two well known paragraphs of the Communist Party Program,
written by the founder himself [Trans. Mariategui], the stages of
the Peruvian revolution are defined and its character specified:

"The emancipation of the economy of the country is only possible
by the action of the proletarian masses, in solidarity with the
world's anti-imperialist struggle. Only the action of the
proletariat can first stimulate and later on realize the tasks of
the democratic-bourgeois revolution which the bourgeois regime
itself is incapable of fulfilling."

"The democratic-bourgeois stage accomplished, the revolution
becomes, in its objectives and doctrine, a proletarian
revolution. The party of the proletariat, qualified by the
struggle to exercise power and develop its own program, fulfills
in this stage the tasks of organizing and defending the socialist
order."

Here, we see the problem of the Peruvian revolution and its
stages masterfully condensed: The national-democratic or
bourgeois-democratic of the new kind in the wording of Mao Tse
Tung, and the proletarian revolution. Two stages, the first one
of which we now live since 1928, but which still has not been
fulfilled or concluded, and the future, proletarian stage; two
uninterrupted stages of the same revolutionary process. Under no
circumstances should their character and contents be confused.
This great thesis by Mariategui became, after ample debates and
struggles, a fundamental truth of Marxist understanding of the
laws of our revolution.

It is fundamental, only the working class and only it, is capable
of leading the national-democratic revolution. That only by
preparing and organizing can it develop the second, proletarian
stage. Consequently, if the national-democratic revolution is not
led by the working class, in no way can it be fulfilled and even
less build socialism. This is the paramount question today, since
counter-revolution and social corporativism deny this great truth
and assert that in our country the armed forces of the old State
is fulfilling the first stage of the revolution and even, they
claim, setting the bases for socialism. This key question
differentiates revolutionaries from counter-revolutionaries: The
first ones, with Marxism and Mariategui, maintain that the
proletariat and only it "can first stimulate and later on fulfill
the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution which the
bourgeois regime is incapable to develop and fulfill." That is
our position. We must upheld and fight the counter-revolutionary
theses, aiming our spear against social-corporativist revisionism
that preaches against the thesis of Mariategui and it is the
detachment of social-imperialism in our country, whose effort
serve only to its collusion and collision with the Yankee
superpower for world domination.

               THE ANTI-FEUDAL STRUGGLE.

The land program is basic to our country and, in synthesis, it is
the question of feudalism with its two elements: Latifundia and
servitude; that is why, as Mariategui said, the agrarian problem
in Peru is the destruction of feudalism, whose relations taint
our society from top to bottom, from the base to the
superstructure. The motor of rural struggles has been and is the
problem of land, and that the three agrarian laws of the 1960's
did not destroy its base is clearly shown by today's struggles by
the peasantry.

In analyzing the land problem, the founder of the Party
highlighted the struggle confronting community and latifundia; he
showed its economic and social superiority, pointing out that the
community had given the peasant majorities strength to resist the
thievery by feudal landowners throughout the centuries, and that
it entails the living yeast which will help socialist development
in the future. Reviewing the agrarian labor regime he highlighted
the existence of feudal relations of exploitation hidden behind
seemingly capitalist forms. These questions do not belong to the
past, but to a present which we must search well to discover its
blurred semi-feudal essence hidden behind the apparent and
purported "destruction of feudalism" of the so-called agrarian
reform.

Considering the struggles of the Peruvian and of Latin American
peasantry generally, Mariategui brought forward the slogan of the
peasants: "Land for those who till it, expropriated them without
compensation" and that its mobility demands the "arming of
workers and peasants to conquer and defend their vindications."
In that way, feudalism must be destroyed by confiscating the
lands and only the armed workers and peasants will be able to
accomplish this, since there is no other way to break up
feudalism, destroy latifundia and abolish serfdom. We must not
forget that Peruvian laws have been ruling agrarian relations and
abolishing serfdom for over l50 years, but in reality they have
maintained the underlying feudalism.

Consequently, the anti-feudal struggle is the motive of the class
struggle in the countryside and the basis of our
national-democratic revolution itself.

             THE ANTI-IMPERIALIST STRUGGLE.

Peru, like the rest of the Latin American countries, is a nation
in a formative stage. "It is being built over the inert
indigenous strata, and the alluvial sediments of western
civilization." In that way, "the problem of the Indians is the
problem of four million Peruvians. It is the problem of three
fourths of the population of Peru. It is the problem of the
majority. It is the problem of nationality," Mariategui observed,
and he added: "A truly national policy cannot do without the
Indian, it cannot ignore the Indian. The Indian is the foundation
of our nationality being formed.

Oppression makes the Indian an enemy of civility. It annuls them,
practically, as an element of progress. Those who impoverish and
depress the Indian, impoverish and depress the nation...
Without the Indian, the condition of being Peruvian is not
possible. This truth ought to be valid, above all, to persons of
mere demo-liberal bourgeois and nationalist ideology...

Thus, the problem of the Indian is that of the majority ignored
by the policies of the Peruvian State, of the republic generally,
for more than 150 years; it is the problem of acting outside the
interest of four fifths of the population. As our founder said,
of looking and acting with eyes placed on the imperialist
metropolis dominating us. Scratching deeper into the problem,
Mariategui set forth that the Indian problem is the problem of
the land; consequently, the national problem is based on the
problem of the land and in no way can one be separated from the
other, a proposal which follows strictly the these; of Marxism,
proved by the practice of the class struggle of our own masses
and expressed, incontrovertibly, in the character of our
revolution.

On this base, the founder of the Communist Party analyzed the
classes and the anti-imperialist struggle in our country, and in
Latin America in general; he pointed out that the Latin American
bourgeoisie "feeling sure enough of their ownership of power so
as not to care much about national sovereignty," as well as
having common interests with imperialism, adding that: "While
imperialist policy ... is not forced to armed intervention, in
case of military occupation they will count on the absolute
collaboration of the bourgeoisie." In that way the relationship
of the Peruvian "mercantile bourgeoisie" and its position with
respect to imperialism was clarified. Referring to our country,
when treating the subject of the united front, Mariategui
proposed the possibility of uniting "with the left liberal
bourgeoisie, truly disposed to struggle against the remnants of
feudalism and against imperialist penetration," defining the
position of what today we call the national bourgeoisie; and he
specified, besides, as we saw, that the petty-bourgeoisie will go
on developing "a revolutionary nationalist position" as the
foreign domination increases.

On the other hand, charging against the Apristas [Trans.
reactionary Party in Peru] who then raised anti-imperialism "as a
program category, a political attitude, a self-sufficient
movement taking us spontaneously, however by what process it is
not known to socialism, to the social revolution" and exposing
their thesis of "we are leftists (or socialists) because we are
anti-imperialist," Mariategui, keeping in mind that only the
proletariat, together with the peasantry, can be consistently
anti-imperialist, pointed out: "To US, anti-imperialism does not
constitute nor can it by itself constitute, a political program,
a mass movement capable of conquering power," and he concluded:

"In conclusion, we are anti-imperialists because we are
socialists, because we are revolutionaries, because we
counterpoise socialism as an opposite system to capitalism,
destined to replace it, because in the struggle against foreign
imperialism we fulfill our duties of solidarity with the
revolutionary masses of the world."

Thus, the anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggle intermingle
as two inseparable matters and as integrating parts of the
national-democratic revolution which only the working class is
capable of leading, provided it establishes the worker-peasant
alliance as the starting point of the united front of the
revolution.

[Extract from the Document of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Peru "Let's Retake Mariategui and Reconstitute
his Party." October 1975.]

Translated by Peru People's Movement (MPP).
Read the entire document in the PCP WEB PAGE:
http://www.blythe.org/peru-pcp
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E-Mail:lquispe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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