Translated "O Militante" Review article by Albano Nunes, Member of the Secretariat of the CC
For communists, revolutionaries and anti-imperialists, Latin America(1) is at present synonymous with hope.
And there are strong reasons for that to be the case.
Unlike other parts of the world, where imperialism is on the offensive – despite the hard but unknown struggles that are taking place and that will eventually surprise us, just as the 1974 April Revolution astonished the world – in Latin America there has been a recent trend that is democratic, progressive and anti-imperialist.
While it is true that we are witnessing processes that claim to be «socialist», we are not yet seeing socialist revolutions, i.e. revolutions where the working class and its vanguard party play the leading role and where in-depth political, economic and social transformations take away economic and political power from big capital and transfer it to the working class and its allies, in particular to peasants who are socially very significant in the whole region. Only Cuba undertook such an in-depth revolution and power was transferred to workers; there, a socialist society is being built under the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba. Thanks to the heroic resistance of the Cuban people against the onslaught of imperialism to undermine and destroy its achievements, the Cuban revolution has become an example and a powerful stimulus for the liberation struggles of the peoples of Latin America, the Caribbean and the world.
Be that as it may, the revolutionary processes taking place in countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia or even Nicaragua and Ecuador, of differing depth and with different features but identical in their democratic, popular, progressive and anti-imperialsit nature, are of great importance. They show that by mobilising the popular masses, it is possible to gain ground on big capital and imperialism, to mobilise national resources for social progress and to take steps towards the erradication of poverty and the most blatant social injustice and inequalities and to address fundamental aspirations such as work with rights and access to healthcare, social security, education and culture.
Even in countries where the economic power of big capital and the capitalist relations of production have remained essentially untouched, the processes taking place, while contradictory, have a strong democratic nature and have resulted in a reassertion of sovereignty and social progress – for instance in Brazil, after Lula's first electoral victory in 2002. These processes are converging with revolutionary processes and, as such, should be valued, if nothing else at least for their positive contribution to the complex process of rearrangement of forces on the world stage.
Indeed, the importance of the developments and positive trends that are currently apparent in Latin America and the Caribbean is reflected in the visible decline of the influence of the US in Latin America, formerly and arrogantly perceived as a mere «backyard». This decline is particularly worrying for the most reactionary and aggressive sectors in the US. Among their recent setbacks, the failed attempt to isolate and defeat Cuba, the FTAA fiasco(2) and the failure of a series of putschist operations by the US to destabilise and overthrow legitimate governments such as those of Venezuela, Bolivia e Ecuador(3) , where the popular masses played a decisive role, are worth mentioning.
It would be a mistake not to value the winds of change that are blowing in Latin America and their significant international implications. Only ignorance or dogmatic and sectarian criteria can justify such a mistake. But it would also be a mistake not to see the limitations and contradictions of the processes under way, which require not only consolidation but intensification, with structural-type measures that will radically alter the correlation of forces which, in the economy and the media in particular, is still favourable to big capital and imperialism.
The setbacks have been severe, but one cannot say that the reactionary oligarchies and imperialism, and first and foremost US imperialism, have been defeated and their subversive ability quashed – as shown by the coups in the Honduras and in Paraguai(4). Nor has the threat of direct military intervention using their dense network of military bases in the region disappeared(5). As a matter of fact, the US have made no secret of their willingness to revive the infamous Monroe doctrine(6) and they are actively working with their local agents to reverse the current situation and recover lost ground. We should remain vigilant. The warning included in the La Paz Declaration of the 20th Meeting of the São Paulo Forum with regard to US subversive actions is very telling .
US imperialism replaced Spanish and Portuguese colonialism at the beginning of the 19th century and upstaged British imperialism and that of other European powers. It does not looked kindly upon the imperialist ambitions of the European Union in Latin America and the Caribbean and remains the number one enemy of Latin American peoples. It is mainly against US imperialism that alliances have to be wrought and the struggle for national sovereignty, social progress and socialism has to be fought.
Class struggles in every country, and in particular the ones that pit the working class and the peasantry against big capital and large landowners, are not contradictory with but rather can be combined dialectically with anti-imperialist struggles in support of national sovereignty and independence, as the alliance between the local dominant classes and big transnational capital is a very close one indeed. Defending sovereignty is a fundamental component of the cooperation and integration processes that are taking place in the region: from ALBA(7) to Mercosur, from CELAC and UNASUR to PetroCaribe and Banco Sur, those processes have different natures and scopes but they all coincide in their anti-imperialist outlook.
That is why in expressing internationalist solidarity with the workers and peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, we should not overlook, in the maze of contradictions and new features that characterise the social and political realities of their countries, that their antagonism vis-a-vis US imperialism is particularly intense and that the fight against attempts by the US to recover its lost hegemony should be at the forefront of the revolutionary struggle. Those attempts are aimed at reversing and defeating revolutionary processes under way and at weakening the anti-yankee alliance. This is an alliance that is not free from contradictions (as reflected in Brazil's aspirations to become a regional power) but that has been gradually emerging under the Bolivarian banner of «our America». Cuba and Venezuela play a decisive role in such alliance, which also involves a convergence with large capitalist countries like Brazil or Argentina.
It is against this backdrop that the defeat of the vast coalition of reactionary forces with imperialism in Brazil is of particular significance. The coalition was designed to thwart Dilma Roussef's candidacy to the country's Presidency and to put an end to and revert the process launched after the first electoral victory of PT and its allies (including the CP of Brazil). Dilma's re-election by itself in no way guarantees the continuation and strengthening of the process, which requires in-depth structural reforms that can only be brought about with the mobilisation of the working class and the masses to overcome the resistance of the powerful national bourgeoisie and to alter the correlation of forces that remains unfavourable to revolutionary and left-wing forces within institutions(8) . However, it is true that a victory of the right-wing candidate would have paved the way for an offensive that would have reversed not only the political developments in Brazil but also the liberating trends emerging in Latin America.
It is therefore strange to note that, notwithstanding the inevitable differences of opinion regarding developments in Brazil, some have not understood the aforementioned threat and have publicly criticised and cursed those who understood it and took a stand accordingly.
Historical background
To understand the current situation in Latin America and to value the progressive and anti-imperialist developments in the region, it is essential to understand the history of the region and the protracted struggle against colonialism and imperialism, the slavery and genocide endured by the indigenous peoples, the appaling exploitation of mineworkers or «landless» peasants in large estates. There is no better book than Eduardo Galeano's magnificent work «Open Veins of Latin America» to understand the origins of the cry for freedom that reverberates across the continent and that in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and other countries is reflected in State policies that will eventually be victorious and pull millions of people out of the poverty and underdevelopment that have afflicted Latin American peoples despite the enormous natural riches of their respective countries.
What we are witnessing today is very much a second cycle of national liberation, since the achievement of formal independence at the beginning of the 19th century was immediately followed by imperialist domination, supported by local oligarchies that imposed extreme forms of exploitation and oppression everywhere. There is not a single country in Latin America that, for longer or shorter periods, has not experienced a cruel dictatorship: from Batista in Cuba, Somoza in Nicaragua or Strossner in Paraguai to the military dictatorships that arrested, tortured and assassinated thousands in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguai in the context of «Operation Condor». The fascist dictatorship of Pinochet in Chile will remain one of the most harrowing symbols of the extent to which capital will go when its power is threatened, as happened back in the 1970s with the poweful popular movement in Chile and the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende.
The resistance struggles and popular movements emerging all over Latin America cannot be discussed in detail here. But it would be unforgivable not to mention that the current advancement of revolutionary and progressive forces is inseparable from great and heroic struggles where the working class and the communist parties played an irreplaceable historic role. It was against them that the most savage repression was unleashed, leading in several cases to their weakening and to the emergence of petty-bourgeois forces and trends that vacilated and showed characteristic impatience and radicalism, downplaying the role of mass action and overrating armed struggle. They copied experiences that had taken place elsewhere and were themselves the victims of harsh repression and eventually decimated.
The history of the armed struggle in Latin America is a very complex one. On the one hand, its roots are to be found in social-economic and political realities, as is apparent in the case of Colombia's FARC, the longest-lasting Latin American guerrilla movement which has now been officially acknowledged and is engaged in peace talks with the Colombian authorities in Havana(9). On the other hand, there were cases of mechanical reproduction of foreign experiences (namely of the heroic guerrilla war waged in the Sierra Maestra) and external influences, in particular Maoism, that were particularly negative. It is true that the violence of repression made armed struggle inevitable in many countries to achieve freedom. And indeed, armed struggle, when combined with the people's struggle, became a decisive tool for liberation. Some important rural and urban guerrilla movements were eventually defeated, such as those in Venezuela, Bolivia (with Che Guevara) or Brazil. Others, however, led to the victory of the revolution, as happened in the cases of Cuba and Nicaragua. And in El Salvador, the powerful Farabundo Marti movement achieved freedom and eventually access to power. The role played by patriotic and progressive military in several countries confirms that armed action was a necessary component of the fight against dictatorships. Jacobo Arbenz (Guatemala), Velasco Alvarado (Peru), Juan José Torres (Bolivia), Torrigos (Panama) put forward important nationalist and anti-imperialist policies that generated tremendous popular support and expectations. However, they were unable to consolidate their power base and were eventually toppled by counter-revolutionary coups or even by US military interventions, as happened in Guatemala and in the Dominican Republic.
This brief sketch of the Latin American revolution is only intended to draw attention to those issues that Portuguese communists deem to be essential: the concrete analysis of concrete situations and the historical perspective. One should not simplify things, turn them into absolutes and, especially, one should not make dogmatic a priori statements. If, for example, it is true that the Latin American communist movement is not so strong now as it was once in the past, it is also true that one would not have arrived at the present circunstances without its contribution. Almost all communist parties that emerged with the revolutionary tidal wave that swept the world in the wake of the October Revolution were the builders who laid the ground for the current situation. It is not by chance that their political and ideological significance is far greater than what their numbers or electoral weight would lead us to believe, as is the case, for example, in Venezuela, Uruguai or Brazil.
Where is Latin America going?
To acknowledge and to welcome the winds of change blowing in Latin America is not contractictory with acknowledging the limits, contradictions and threats looming over the revolutionary processes and other democratic and progressive changes taking place in the continent.
The class struggle is very intense and imperialism is on the lookout.
Capital, big capital associated to imperialism, has a very powerful influence over the economy, the State apparatus, media, the education system and other structures of ideological reproduction, the armed forces. Generally speaking, the forces leading the aforementioned processes are heterogeneous in nature, their cohesion is sometimes too closely linked to charismatic figures and they are usually subject to ideological pressures, often characterized by prejudice with regard to Marxism-Leninism, communist parties and the historical experience of socialism. Indeed, the intense activity carried out by organisations such as the Friedrich Erbert Foundation and other European reformist sectors is quite conspicuous.
From the viewpoint of Marxist-Leninist theory, as well as from the viewpoint of revolutionary experience and, first and foremost, the experience of the Latin American revolution, it is indisputable that the revolutionary process will not be consolidated until such time when key issues have been settled, including those of the revolutionary vanguard, the State, the property of major means of production and, decisively, the role of the popular masses not only in support of the process, but actively intervening in an conscious and creative way.
The consolidation of anti-monoply, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist transformations is an issue that has been on the political agenda of Venezuela ever since President Hugo Chavez: gathering the political will and the social and political strength to bring about such transformations is of vital importance, not only for the Bolivarian revolution but for Latin America as a whole.
There are question marks and uncertainties regarding the future. This has to do not just with the initiatives of counter-revolutionary forces and imperialism meddling in domestic affairs – which have, in general, been defeated whenever they have shown their heads –, but also with economic developments and the way the capitalist crisis manifests itself on the perifery of the system. Another factor that has to be taken into account is the fall in oil prices, as countries like Venezuela and Bolivia are highly dependent on the revenue from oil. Counter-revolutionary forces await an opportunity to make the most of the economic hardship to stoke dissatisfaction and social unrest and to destabilise the political situation.
However, the challenges, doubts and uncertainties should not lead us to underestimate the importance of what was achieved so far for the masses who were historically exploited and opressed (as has happened with the indigenous peasants in Bolivia, who have now proudly «arisen from the ground» ). Nor should they make us forget that the ways of social progress, while obeying laws that have universal validity, are increasingly more diverse and influenced by the history and national specificities of individual countries. Indeed, they do not follow pre-defined «models» but are rather the creative work of the masses with their revolutionary vanguard.
One should also note that liberation processes follow uneven and bumpy routes and include brealthroughs and setbacks, victories and defeats. We are living in the era, inaugurated by the October Revolution, when capitalism will be replaced by socialism, but the stages, forms and pace at which different countries move towards socialism will depend on the specific circumstances of individual countries and the relations and relative strengths of its various classes, and will therefore be very diverse.
Where is Latin America going? Nothing is written in the stars, but the relations between and the relative strengths of the classes on the continent, as well as the intensification of the contradictions within the capitalist system suggest that, alongside major threats – which include the militaristic and aggressive escalation of imperialism worldwide – there are great opportunities for progressive and revolutionary transformations. The example of Cuba, a country that despite being only a few miles away from the most powerful imperialist country in the world and being subject to a criminal blockade, persists on the road to socialism, is a living example that there are opportunities for the revolutionary action of the masses. At the 16th meeting of Communist and Workers Parties that was held in November 2014 in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the importance of a broad unity of anti-imperialist forces was emphasized and the two aforementioned aspects of the current situation came out very clearly. In any case, PCP, while respecting the decisions of its Latin American comrades and seeking to learn from their experiences, will always express solidarity with their struggle and the struggle of other revolutionary and anti-imperialist forces in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Notes
(1) The references to Latin America should generally be construed as including also Central America and the Caribbean.↵
(2) FTAA, «Free Trade Area of the Americas», was a project of the Clinton Administration aimed at establishing a vast «free trade» area involving 34 countries, from Canada to Argentina, but excluding Cuba. This project of US dominion was scheduled to come into effect in 2005 but was abandoned in the face of significant popular struggles against it and the opposition of countries such as Venezuela and Brazil. The US have tried to replace it with other treaties like the «Alliance of the Pacific», involving countries such as Mexico, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Costa Rica.↵
(3) In the wake of the defeat of the 2002 coup against Chavez, who was arrested and removed from the Presidency of Venezuela for 47 hours, new attempts against the processes taking place in Bolivia (2008) and Ecuador (2010) have also failed, as has the fascist coup against Nicolás Maduro following his election in April 2013.↵
(4) Coups arranged by the US toppled Presidente Zelaya in Honduras (2009) and President Lugo in Paraguai (2012).↵
(5) Despite the fact that they were forced to close down an important facility in Manta, Ecuador, the US have kept their 4th naval fleet and an extended network of military basis in the region, under the pretext of fighting terrorism and drug-trafficking. This is in addition to the military bases of the United Kingdom in the Malvinas and of France in its colonies of Guadaloupe, French Guiana and Martinica. It should also be noted that Colombia has recently requested its accession to NATO.↵
(6) A doctrine designed by US president James Monroe (1758-1831) which, under the motto «America for Americans» aimed at eliminating the imperialist competition from European powers and at promoting a large-scale expansionist policy in the Americas.↵
(7) ALBA, the «Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America», was established by Cuba and Venezuela by means of a treaty that was signed in Havana by Presidents Fidel de Castro and Hugo Chavez in December 2004. Bolivia (in 2006) and Nicaragua, Dominica, Ecuador, Antigua, Barbados and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines eventually accessed ALBA as well.↵
(8) Although the re-election of Dilma Rousseff in the presidential election of October 2014 represented a victory for the popular and progressive forces, the correlation of forces in Brazil remains unfavourable in institutional terms, as the right has kept significant positions in the National Congress and the state administrations. This fact will undoubtedly influence the make-up of the Government and the inclusion in it of people associated to big capital represents a very serious threat.↵
(9) The roots of FARC, the guerrilla organisation that took on this designation in 1966, are to be found in the 1840-1850s in the peasants' self-defence movement . The historical leaders include one of its founders, Manuel Marulanda («Tirofixo»), Jacobo Arenas and Raul Reys, who was infamously assassinated in Ecuador in an operation led by the air force. FARC-EP, which became a powerful guerrilla army, was accused of all sorts of crimes by those who have had to acknowledge its significance in the political landscape of Colombia and are now engaged in peace talks in Havana. These are difficult negotiations and the outcome is unpredictable, the more so because the government of Juan Manuel Santos has refused to suspend military operations. Be that as it may, the current negotiations reflect the complex situation in Colombia and in Latin America in general.↵
