Dear Friends, Anti-Fascists and Comrades,
During this tour across Canada, our anti-fascist struggle has received the warmest of welcomes. Hundreds of people have demonstrated their support for the Resistance of the Chilean people and have made a contribution in support of our Front. This internationalist contribution of the people of Canada is enormously appreciated by all the people’s Resistance and in particular by the People’s Front. I would like to thank once again those who have made this trip possible – the comrades from the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and those who have prepared the conditions for the formation of the Committee in Solidarity with the Chilean Resistance.
We would like to publicly hail the support that the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) has given our struggle against fascism and imperialism, and, in the name of the Chilean Resistance fighters, we communicate our appreciation for such a valuable contribution.
We have had the opportunity to get to know and live the situation in your country, to see the living conditions of the Canadian people and the popular struggles, as well as the activities of the reactionaries and the U.S. imperialists. We have seen that our enemies are also your immediate enemies and this fact leads to a unity between the two countries which is always the most effective, full of solidarity and mutual sympathy. But not everyone wants to understand that, or share this internationalist point of view. There are representatives of the opportunists from our country, working in Canada, whose aim is to make the people believe that in Chile, since the defeat of Allende, there is nothing, there are no more struggles. These people are supported by the Canadian opportunists whose sole aim is to impose and maintain a wall of silence regarding the defeats of reformism in Chile to thus be able to implement in Canada these same politics which have failed so miserably in our country. We can see how the reformists and their running dogs run away when confronted with our presence in Canada. . . Wherever we have been, we have seen the boycott that the false friends of Chile and of the Chilean people have organized . . . the slanders and the intrigues have pleased and created doubts and fears amongst the most backward elements. But when the comrades showed us that amongst the workers the leaflets on the Chilean Resistance were received with enthusiasm, we were very happy. Even if they have not come to the meetings, the important thing is that the wall of silence created against the People’s Front and the Resistance is broken. The important thing is our penetration right amongst the people – we have made the first steps into Canada and now we are preparing to penetrate further.
Thus, comrades, with patience and courage, we, the revolutionary fighters, have made our struggle known to the world, we have won the anti-fascists abroad, etc. This method, this conviction comes to us from Chile, from our comrades who, in the difficult conditions of clandestine work, work without let-up. many times without anything to eat, without the financial means which will permit the publication of a mimeographed page of a clandestine newspaper. It is only in knowing the situation of those who are fighting in such conditions that we come to understand the great harm that the bureaucrats and the reformists are causing to the anti-fascist struggle of our people.
In these meetings and rallies, we have seen the nefarious existence of defeatism and confusion amongst the Chilean political refugees and the demobilizing and pacifist work achieved by the reformists within the solidarity movement. The anti-fascists of the whole world are aware of the massacres perpetrated by fascism in our country; the reformists have denounced in front of the whole world the ferocious crimes that the fascist military Junta has committed but this is only one part of the reality in Chile. Why don’t they speak of the successful actions of the Resistance? Why do they insist on mourning our dead without giving any view of the struggle waged by our people against this situation? Our people have dried their tears long ago and begun to advance. Our people have learnt the lessons of their own experience and built their own organizations at the base: the Resistance Committees. The people are presently fighting. And what are the pacifists abroad doing? They hide the struggles and thus maintain their political hegemony over the Chileans abroad. Supported by social democracy and the opportunists of all hues, these nostalgics and political defeatists are in the process of building an entire bureaucratic apparatus abroad, and from these positions they aspire to control the solidarity movement with Chile . . . The Canadian workers are very little aware of the strikes of the Chilean proletariat: that of the three thousand copper miners, of the movement of the coal workers, of the strike of the railworkers at Valparaiso, of the strike at the Promar, in Vina de Mar, of the thermal plant Terkmon, of the shoe workers of Santa Rosa in Santiago. The popular masses are hardly aware that during the last few months, the peasants from Colchagua declared to the fascist government that they would defend their lands by all means necessary and that a similar thing took place throughout the province of Bio Bio. The anti-fascist Canadian youth were most enthusiastic to hear the news of the events which have taken place at the University of Chile, of the thousands of students who opposed the reactionary politics of “self-financing” by boycotting the registration fees. This movement of the university students was the source of great enthusiasm amongst the Chilean people. During this struggle, the students held various meetings, notably in the Schools of Dentistry, Agronomy, Medicine, etc. and this for the first time in the four years of fascist dictatorship.
The demobilizing and pacifist politics of the opportunists and so-called “anti-fascists” do not enjoy the support of the anti-fascist youth and they keep silent about the great mass struggle of the students precisely because it was directly led by the University Resistance Committees, broad organizations which adhere to the People’s Front.
How could they acknowledge these facts after having stated that the People’s Front does not even exist in Chile?
How can they acknowledge these facts after having launched their base and desperate intrigue according to which we are agents of the CIA!
But the facts are stubborn and are the only reality: the popular Resistance proves that the bureaucrats and so-called “anti-fascists” abroad want to hide the facts and maintain the naive profoundly entrenched in defeatism.
Comrades:
The bloody fascist dictatorship which oppressesour people came up as the violent answer of the oligarchy to the great mass development, development which is opposed in numerous ways to the reformist conduct and which tends to escape its hegemony. The entire bourgeoisie acts as a compact bloc against the people and above all against its vanguards; the armed forces have lost several groups of soldiers who have betrayed their role of mainstay of the rule of the exploiters, and gone over to the side of the people; they also have been massacred like the workers and peasants. The opportunists prostrated themselves in front of the reactionary Armed Forces and created the illusion that the Armed Forces would join the people in the event of a coup d’etat ... As we have seen, they called on the traitors, Pinochet and the Junta, on September 11, 1973. On the contrary, we believe that these jackals fulfil their mission of defending the interests of the imperialists and the oligarchy and that the Armed Forces accomplished, once again, their task, the task for which they were created: to defend the interests of the rich and the imperialists.
But the opportunists have a hard head. These traitors to the popular interests still insist on saying that the Armed Forces have a great constitutionalist tradition and that Pinochet is the only one responsible for the massacre of over 40,000 Chileans. These doctors of the bourgeoisie attempt to give a certificate of long life and excellent health to the imperialist interests, attempt to save the institutions which uphold the repressive regime, offer all sorts of care and assistance to the faction of reaction which is today in contradiction with the Junta or with the most reactionary section of Christian Democracy directed by the nefarious CIA politics of Mr. Frei.
To accomplish this rescue plan of the repressive apparatus and the structures of the exploiting regime, the Carters and their reformist disciples of stupidity find themselves in straightforward and violent contradiction with the people’s Resistance. When we speak of popular Resistance, we are speaking of the Resistance Committees in organizational terms. In practical terms of the struggle, we are referring to the broad masses who organize and tight the fascist regime with all their forces and all their means.
We do not confuse, and affirm that one must not confuse, anti-fascism with the contradictions between Mr. Frei and the Junta. We also do not confuse anti-fascism with the interests protected by the reformists – their plans, objectives, methods, compromises with reaction, etc. None of that can be mixed up with the anti-fascist popular Resistance.
Those who oppose the Junta by putting forward reactionary positions, enjoying the support of U.S. imperialism, do not oppose the Junta by advancing anti-fascist positions. They defend specific interests which are far from being those of the people and the proletariat; these sectors are not for the overthrow of fascism, even less for national liberation. They represent an “enlightened” faction of U.S. imperialism, the “democrats” of the most bloody imperialism in the history of capital. We cannot put into the same bag the genuine anti-fascists with this band of reactionaries and opportunists who follow them.
As we can see, today these ostriches hide their heads in the sand and are beginning to get agitated. Recently the most reactionary section of the Christian Democrats made a statement which was made public in Chile. In this statement, Mr. Frei called for the construction of a “humanitarian and democratic front” in which “all the sections can participate . . . except those that organize the violent Resistance and speak of armed struggle”. This means that this “humanitarian and democratic front” is open to all the bourgeois, opportunists, pacifists, snivelers – that is, all the scum of this moribund society, whose activities during these years of fascist dictatorship have been to oppose the mobilization of the masses around the line of struggle.
Who is this Mr. Frei and these stalwarts of “democracy”, who can make these statements without suffering any consequences on the part of the fascist Junta? They are the authors of the nefarious Gun Control Act – the law which opened the doors to fascism. They are those who ordered the massacre of the copper miners in 1956; the same ex-President Frei who ordered the massacre at Puerto Montt, the butchery and repression at San Miguel and Puente Alto. This is the man who today presents himself as the greatest anti-fascist fighter. This same criminal supported the coup d’etat against Salvador Allende and organized the right wing demonstrations against the people. He allied himself to the fascist gangs organized in the Patria y Libertad and immediately after the coup d’etat appeared on television to tell the people that this “effort” on the part of the Armed Forces was necessary in order “to get the country out of chaos”. This hardened bourgeois, who trembles at the mention of the people’s mass Resistance, is today claiming that he has changed and holds the “only solution” for the Chilean people.
We cannot include this man and his band of traitors in the popular Resistance . . . They are part of the bourgeois opposition which relies on one section of U.S. imperialism in order to replace Pinochet while maintaining the apparatus of repression and exploitation against the masses.
A malinformed individual, maybe an idealist full of Utopian and unrealizable dreams, will tell us that in this manner we are dividing the forces that are against the Junta, that we are playing into the hands ot fascism, etc., and he will tell us that “We should all be united” and we should put aside our differences for the time being. We answer these arguments with certain positions of principle: Firstly, genuine unity is forged in struggle and at the base. Secondly, unity is forged around concrete programmes and not on the basis of good wishes. Thirdly, unity must have as its objective not only the overthrow of the fascist Junta, but also the overthrow of its entire repressive apparatus. Fourthly, unity must be forged by taking into account the interests of the people and not of a particular group. On the basis of these elementary principles, the Resistance has developed and the sections which do not adhere to these basic principles have been abandoned by the development of the mass movement. In our struggle, being an anti-fascist and anti-imperialist struggle, we cannot, in order to win liberty for our people, make an alliance either with fascism, or with imperialism, or with any of their factions. The Resistance knows how to take advantage of the contradictions which exist in the ranks of our enemies, but it will never place itself at the mercy of one of these cliques. Those who deny the struggle of the masses and substitute it with the politics of “intrigue”, with negotiations with the main spokesman of so-called “human rights”, Mr.Carter, cannot adhere to the principles mentioned above. They reject the concept of “unity and struggle” and “unity at the base”. These sects cannot have a genuinely anti-fascist programme which furnishes the basis of concrete unity because they are not against fascism. They are not against the military Junta of Pinochet but they are ready to use every repressive apparatus against the people once they have replaced Pinochet with Frei or another reactionary.
The popular Resistance goes against all this. It aims at destroying the fascist apparatus and is ready to take up arms against the U.S. imperialists, Carter and all the rest, and against the fascists and those who paved the way to establish the dictatorship. In this Resistance, the working class, the peasants, the progressive intellectuals, the youth and the small proprietors lost everything following the application of the politics of plunder of the monopolies. This Resistance unites at the base in thousands of Resistance Committees, underground trade unions and specific fronts, as for example in the Front of Anti-Fascist Artists or the Patriotic League of Merchants. The Resistance uses all the legal and semi-legal means and knows how to exploit the contradictions within the enemy camp for the anti-fascist cause. It is this Resistance which organizes the youth and students, which organizes the strikes and which sabotages production, which organizes underground newspapers. The Resistance is the declaration of the peasants of Colchagua. The popular Resistance is also the spontaneous part of the struggle, the product ot the consciousness and the hatred of the masses, who without having a sufficiently strong organization, act spontaneously, as, for example, on the barricades of Pintor Cicarelli Street in the people’s commune of San Miguel where hundreds of people, and above all, the housewives, protested against the continuous explosions at a chemical plant, AGA, which was endangering the lives of all the inhabitants in the district. The repression could not be used against them after their decision to fight on the barricades and the Junta had to use demagogy and empty promises. There are many examples of this type but the Junta does not give them all the same importance. For example, at Colbuco, in the Province of Languihue south of Santiago, the inhabitants of the shanty-towns threw rocks on Pinochet’s car. This action was violently repressed by the fascist apparatus. These facts show us that the fear perpetrated in the initial stages by the fascist terror has disappeared and that the people’s miserable state and their anger are beginning to find a violent expression.
Within the popular Resistance, there are those organizations which work on the propaganda and organizational fronts: our Front is one ot these organizations. Furthermore, there are some parties that work in a united manner. Of these parties, we would like to detach the sections which comprise the coalition of the Popular Unity, who today, following a large-scale internal discussion and tight against reformism and opportunism, have adopted a critical position instead of the reformist position of the years between 1970 and 1973. This has created serious differences between the reformist leaders who are abroad and the rank and file of these parties within Chile. But the reformists have a great disadvantage because the masses are in Chile and follow the line of struggle. With these comrades our Front works in a united manner.
The People’s Front is a united front born in April of 1974. We are united in various Resistance Committees, clandestine trade unions, specific fronts, such as the native students, etc. In the Front, the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile, a party of the Resistance, works. It is this Party which gave rise to the formation of the Front and which militantly works within the Front. Since the beginning, we have established that the People’s Front is the seed of what the Front should be in the final analysis, the Front which will guide all the people to their genuine liberation. The People’s Front greets with revolutionary enthusiasm the political rapprochement between various parties of the popular Resistance. We think that it is a very positive event for unity in practice of the RCP-SP-MAPU. Abroad also we have to build this unity at the base, we have to build the unity of the committees in support of the popular Resistance, in opposition to the defeatist politics of the reformist strongmen. We must break with the sectarianism of those who have taken over the leading positions amongst the Chileans abroad, in the most all-powerful, bureaucratic manner by calling on the most backward sections. We must break with defeatism,immobilism and sectarianism. We have to establish close links with all the peoples, wherever we are, and especially with the working class of each country and when we speak of the working class, we do not mean the trade union bureaucrats. It is necessary that the anti-fascist Chileans organize the solidarity, with our people together with the genuine anti-fascist and anti-imperialist forces. This is the only genuinely uniting and anti-fascist politics and it is in accord with the spirit of struggle of our people. Our struggle for the overthrow of fascism cannot tolerate any capitulation in the face of the Pinochet regime and the faction which supports it; we fight for the destruction of the fascist apparatus and for a genuine justice. These assassins should pay for their crimes. The government of anti-fascist unity should be the fruit of a Resistance struggle where all the forces which oppose fascism in a significant manner and which fight for its final overthrow are united. This democratic government will not be like those governments that have existed in the past; it will be a genuinely popular government that will base itself on the forces of the armed people, which will base itself on the mobilization of the masses who must necessarily create their own army: the People’s Army. This government of anti-fascist unity will give the broadest democracy to the people and will repress in the staunchest manner the minority of reactionaries who are part of the fascist dictatorial regime. It will act in the same manner against the torturers and the ignoble assassins of our people. It is not simply a question of seeking vengeance. We want to see popular justice executed, to see that the arch-reactionaries pay dearly for the genocide, hunger and suffering that they have imposed on the large majority of our people, on more than 90 percent of the Chilean population. We want our people’s aspirations for freedom to be satisfied; our people have understood that the only manner of obtaining their freedom is by attacking and defending oneself against one’s enemies, it is in eliminating the very roots of the exploitation and poverty. These roots that our people must burn are fascism and U.S. imperialism – the main enemies of the Chilean people.
Our struggle is a struggle against U.S. imperialism and we make no distinction between the so-called good and so-called bad sections. The internal contradictions of imperialism are the contradictions and natural clashes which have always existed between the different monopoly groups, between the curs that fight amongst themselves to better devour the people. These contradictions sharpen with the deepening of the crisis of the system of exploitation which they have themselves imposed, because of the gradual development of the people’s struggles, of the explosions and popular struggles in the countries which they dominate. These struggles increase as a result of the crisis of the system of imperialist domination which necessarily leads them to have differences on the question of the tactics and the “solutions” which they attempt to put forward to maintain the system of oppression on the peoples. But the imperialists unite against the popular struggles, they act as one block against the liberation struggles of the peoples.
We have heard say that there are presently differences between Mr. Carter and one of the Rockefellers; these “great differences” which are so broadcast and praised by the opportunists also have their reflection in Chile. Certain people want Pinochet (or at least the same system of the dictatorship) to be maintained without any changes or with minor changes to thus allow the U.S., European and Japanese monopolies to continue their most savage plunder and robbery. These are the same imperialists who support the most reactionary section of the oligarchy in Chile. On the other hand, we have the section of U.S. imperialism which is “enlightened”, which, in order to safeguard its interests in Chile and in Latin America, is ready to allow certain sections of the liberal bourgeoisie, sections which serve a certain type of the monopolies: the sections which are for the “planning” of the plunder in order to gild the cage through demagogy and populism. These imperialists then, are ready to give them the possibility of exercising power. These two sections are in agreement on one point: smash the popular struggles, maintain oppression. What the opportunists and the reformists do not understand or do not want to understand, is that between Rockefeller and Carter there are no differences on the point of theorizing on the “split” in the imperialist camp. Following this theory, these “illuminated souls” hide behind the “enlightened” sections of U.S. imperialism and say, just like the most shameless lacklustre politicians: “We exploit the contradictions within the United States”. This is the most pure and base servility, the rare pearl of stupidity studded with sentences that attempt to be political. It is straightforward capitulation to the interests of the imperialists.
The pacifists and the opportunists of all hues not only cause great harm to the struggle against fascism but also to the struggle for genuine national independence. The opportunists have theorized in one thousand ways their politics of betrayal and we see how also the self-proclaimed “revolutionaries” are today at the mercy of the imperialists and their interests. Let us quote for example, the leadership of MIR abroad: from Havana, it spouted off the most bankrupt nonsense to justify their unconditional capitulation to reformism. They said that in Chile fascism does not exist, that there is only “goonism” or a few “goons”. What a great scientific contribution on the part of these intellectuals that deny reality! They concocted the theory of “the crucial role” of the petit-bourgeoisie in Chile, thus denying the historic role which the working class is playing and has played in Chile, denying that the Chilean proletariat has one of the longest traditions of struggle on the Latin American continent. Many things are beyond us in the articles written by these “brains” and that is why we are not surprised that they are extremely sectarian towards us and towards those who defend genuinely anti-fascist politics. We are not impressed by the “important” joint declarations which they have signed with the dead and buried “Popular Unity” coalition when in the work carried out at the base, they implement their sectarian politics towards the People’s Front.
We think that our struggle against fascism and imperialism must be accompanied by a constant struggle against all types of opportunism. The popular Resistance cannot be channelled down the roads which will perpetuate the oppression of our people under the imperialist yoke. That is why we reject all kinds of alliances which place the people under the umbrella of a faction of the reaction and imperialism! We will never ally with the imperialists in the name of anti-imperialism! No, we will never place ourselves under the wing of the reaction to fight against the reaction! We will never rely on imperialism in the name of “liberation” and the “economic independence of our country”! We will never forget that the only way to liberate our country from imperialist domination is by relying on the people’s forces, by eliminating our internal enemies, by relying on the potential of the popular masses!
The anti-fascist struggle today is an integral part of the struggle for genuine national liberation. In order to achieve our national independence we must necessarily overthrow fascism – that is the first necessary step. Fascism is the first obstacle which we must smash. From this point of view, our fight cannot permit itself to vacillate in the face of the opportunists who separate the anti-fascist struggle from the question of national independence.
By separating the struggle against fascism from the struggle for national independence and theorizing that “today the principal task is to hit at the military Junta – no matter how, and no matter what it is replaced with”, and that we must “choose between the lesser ot two evils”, to say that “the situation of our people is so terrible, that anything could be better”, etc., is pure opportunism. It is the greatest cowardice and means to have no faith in the people and openly give up the struggle for our complete and total liberation.
Do these reformist gentlemen and those who support them want national independence? Do these fanatics for reforms want our people to overthrow fascism and fight imperialism? Do they want our people to take their destiny into their own hands? No, they don’t want this and they don’t fight for it. They only seek to regain the ground they lost with the fascist coup d’etat. They only seek to control once again the bureaucratic apparatus which they have always led. They miss their armchairs in the parliament and they wish to once again enjoy the bourgeois “democracy” which gave them so much and from which they have drawn so much class benefit. And the people’s interests – those of the workers, peasants and popular masses? These people parade themselves as the defenders of these interests, but nonetheless during the four years of the fascist dictatorship, they have done nothing to organize the people in the struggle. They have boycotted the Resistance Committees, they have attempted to immobilize the people, they have created defeatism amongst the refugees abroad, channelled the international solidarity along defeatist and bureaucratic roads, denounced the execution of spies and traitors as “provocative” measures. The opportunists of today are nothing but running dogs and faithful lackeys of the bourgeoisie . . .
The struggle against fascism requires staunchness and unified work where the broadest sections and the classes that are most affected by fascism will be organized in a single Front. This Front is an historic necessity in these circumstances. It is the only adequate answer to the fascist repression; it is the means of organization which is most correct and most effective to fight fascism. In this United Front, broad and democratic, all the sections of the society have their place, all the sections which, for one reason or another, are for the overthrow of fascism and for the establishment of a government of anti-fascist unity which has the characteristics we mentioned before. The small proprietors and merchants have a place in this Front – those who have been hard hit by the economic policies of fascism. Also, certain sections of the Church which work against fascism by helping the anti-fascist militants that fight in clandestine conditions – these sections are mostly comprised of priests that work at the base of the church structure in the popular districts. Also to be found are the middle proprietors who although they don’t participate actively in the actions of the Front, give their support and assistance to the Front. In the United Front, we must unite the vast majority of the working class, the poor peasantry and the semi-proletarian elements and the popular masses. In brief, all the people must be included. This Front of all the people must be based on the principle of “unity at the base” which means that the basic unity must be realized amongst the people, during the daily work against fascism or on the principle of “unity from below”, which is forged by the people in the course of the daily struggle. This principle is completed by the principle of “unity and struggle” which means that unity cannot be forged on compromises and capitulationist concessions but that it must be a unity forged at the base and in the daily struggle which is accompanied by the consistent struggle against all the deviations which appear in the anti-fascist movement. The United Front is a front which is based on the peoples’ forces, on the basic unity between the workers and peasants. It is this pillar which must maintain the Front. It is the workers and peasants who are the sections most affected by fascism and consequently the most prone to be united and the only ones that can guarantee a political and organizational continuity no matter what “changes” are realized by imperialism in orderto win over the masses and destroy the Front of the Chilean people. This concept of a broad front is at the base of our Front, the People’s Front. We know that the maximum unity, complete unity is not yet realized and that anti-fascist sections still remain which have not organized themselves or who have organized themselves in another fashion. In this regard, the People’s Front presents itself as the seed of a future broad anti-fascist front and we work to unite more and more sections of the people. If to favour this unity we must change our name, if in order to favour this unity amongst the antifascist parties we must forge a broad front, we are ready to do so, so long as the line is that of the People’s Front which has to date been defended and propagated amongst the masses, so long as the Minimal Programme contains those points which are the essential points in our Seven Point Programme. We favour all processes which unite the people based on this line of struggle, which seek the final overthrow of fascism and struggle resolutely against imperialism and are ready to use all forms of struggle against fascism, including the people’s armed struggle.
These sects which have never opposed fascism, these gentlemen who did nothing while the fascization process was taking place, who did nothing to oppose the gradual fascization during the period between 1970 and 1973 and who furthermore assisted the fascization by allowing repressive bills to be passed in Parliament, who “abstained” during the vote on the “Gun Control Bill” which was the main law which paved the road to fascism, are not in agreement with the existence of this Front; those who stopped the mass struggles against the fascist offensive, tied it to the call for the “calming down of the spirits” while fascism took to the streets and the “white guard” unleashed itself against the peasants, those who, beside themselves, cried: “No to the Civil War!”, and attacked the just violence of the masses as a provocation which played into the hands of the right wing, those who did not hesitate to call the workers who were ready to do whatever was necessary to defend their interests, “agents of the CIA”, all these pacifists who did not oppose fascism before it came to power cannot be and in fact are not genuine anti-fascists. He who does not fight against the fascization process will never be an anti-fascist of any worth! And when fascism took power, they were the first to take refuge under the skirts of a section of the bourgeoisie, the first to cry “Mercy” and call on the people not to resist.
Is the behaviour of reformism today a “simple mistake”? This behaviour corresponds to definite interests, a definite line and a definite ideology. The enlightened that parade around saying that the reformist “comrades” are only “mistaken”, that we should not oppose them etc., are as opportunist as the reformists, as cowardly as the pacifists, as ingenuous and nostalgic as the bourgeois politicians, as ridiculous as the bureaucrats abroad who loudly proclaim they are leading the struggle in Chile.
We have been asked . . . why not unite with Frei, if he represents the national bourgeoisie? Why be so categorical, if within the dictatorship there are sections which are against imperialism? And others tell us, why is it not the national bourgeoisie that leads the front against the Junta?
I have already spoken at length on the character of the contradictions within the bourgeoisie and consequently on the fact that there is no taction of the bourgeoisie which has worked in the defence ot the national interests and opposed U.S. imperialism, which could conclude an alliance in defence of the interests of the broadest masses of the people. This is nothing new in our country and constitutes a characteristic of all the Latin American continent, because the development of the ruling classes in Latin America and in particular in Chile has always been a development protected by the umbrella of an imperialist power; because they have always been the managers of the foreign interests and manipulated power in a dictatorial manner in order to serve a deeper imperialist penetration. In Chile, the bourgeoisie passed from the hands of one power to those of another, and if there had been a section of the bourgeoisie, and without a doubt there have been, which had attempted to take over the leadership of the movement in defence of the national interests, it was always in the minority, smashed by the rest of the bourgeoisie. Cases of this nature present themselves, especially immediately after the independence from the Spaniards in 1810, and at the beginning of the century. But as we have already pointed out, these attempts were smashed by the majority section ot the native oligarchy: the English penetration followed the Spanish domination. Already in the 1860’s English investments were predominant in the country and it was the big English companies which exploited the natural resources of Chile, especially the saltpetre. The bourgeoisie played the role of guardian of the English interests and in the face of the first struggles of the young Chilean proletariat, it was charged with the repression and the disorganization of the people. English imperialism was the cause and the instigator of the bloody war in Chile against Peru and Bolivia in 1879; it was the big English companies alone which profited by the “victory” of Chile against the other two countries; the peoples of these countries paid with their blood to increase the profits of the imperialists . . . and at that time the Chilean bourgeoisie was united on the side of its master, pushing the people into war and to their deaths. This same bourgeoisie furnished its “best cadres” to the Chilean Navy, formed by the English, and it placed at the disposal of the imperialists all its energies for the formation of the Army which was formed (1883-86) under the command of Prussian officers. These “glorious” Armed Forces immediately began their work of repressing the workers, and until the end of the century their main use was against the proletariat and the people. In 1903, they killed forty workers in Huelge, in Valparaiso; in 1905 they massacred the miners in the north of the country. 1907 was the year when the bourgeoisie showed all its repressive and reactionary nature. 3,600 workers and their families were massacred in the town of Iquique, in a school called Santa Maria in this northern town. This is what the reformists call the “democratic traditions of the Armed Forces”.
This dependent and servile bourgeoisie has never been able to separate itself from the ropes which attach it to the imperialists (certain liberal sections have had conflicts with the conservative sectors). These conflicts have always been accompanied by a repression against the struggles of the proletariat and people. When we saw a certain part of the oligarchy arouse the larger popular masses against another section of the oligarchy, it has always been with the aim of being a better guardian of the interests of imperialism in Chile and the masses have been used towards this end. It is in this manner that we see how, after the English companies gave way to U.S. imperialism, the native bourgeoisie also changed bosses, like a chameleon changes colour. Where is the so-much-called-upon “national bourgeoisie”, so sought after by the opportunists? Neither Frei, nor Pinochet are part of what they seek. Neither Frei nor Pinochet defended the national interests. Frei and Pinochet are two servants of U.S. imperialism, each representing and defending a section of U.S. imperialism. Are we to support Frei to fight Pinochet? No! Are we to support Pinochet to fight Frei? No! This “tactic” of capitulation to the traitors is a strategy for the opportunists. Faced with these arguments, others insinuate that Allende and the government of Popular Unity were representatives of the national bourgeoisie.
We answer this in the following manner:
1. The government of the PU does not represent a national bourgeoisie because it represents the interests of the most degenerate sections of the trade union and parliamentary bureaucracy, of the reformist petty bourgeoisie which attempts to convert itself into a new bourgeois class to displace the traditional bourgeoisie by the “peaceful road”.
2. This section was prepared to give into the power which would guarantee it the realization of its plans.
3. It was prepared to make concessions to U.S. imperialism, or at least, to a section of U.S. imperialism; and we see now how they are doing the same thing with Carter and attempting to place the people’s struggle in the hands of one section of imperialism – that is, in the hands of imperialism itself.
4. The government of the PU uses the anti-imperialist aspirations of the people to give itself a mass base in order to consolidate itself as a class.
Basing ourselves on these facts and on our experience of the Popular Unity in practice, we can draw conclusions. On the one hand, we do not justify the basic motivations which led the government of Popular Unity to act in this manner, just as we cannot justify the acts of the reformist leadership today. They are the servants of reaction and imperialism which attempt to appear as new and gallant bourgeois. This is the alternative that these gentlemen offer. But we cannot justify the boycott which they have imposed against the popular Resistance and all the criminal work to paralyze the masses and bring defeatism to the refugees abroad. Precisely because it is necessary to seek the roots of the reformist behavior of today, we must analyze in a very critical manner the actions of reformism throughout history, especially during the three years in which they were in the government. In the countries under imperialist domination, either one governs against imperialism, or one governs for imperialism.
It is from this correct anti-imperialist standpoint that we must analyze the experience of the PU and that the rank and file of the parties which comprise the PU must make every effort to explain to themselves on all fronts what happened in Chile.
It is only by studying the situation in this manner that we will understand that, if we work for the line of struggle against fascism, we will unavoidably have to face the opposition of reformism. Such is the situation: reformism in Chile has reached such a point of decomposition, that an alliance with it will necessarily lead to giving up the staunch struggle against those who today oppress our people: fascism and U.S. imperialism.
In an alliance with reformism today, even if it is on the most minor points, the anti-fascists have to come under the dictates of the bureaucrats. As a result, they impede any sort of alliance or unity from bottom up. We must work at the base; that is where we find the militants of the reformist parties who are determinedly fighting for their interests. Our practice shows us that this unity at the base is possible and gives excellent results. It is easy to imagine the unity at the base when fascism exercises its violent repression daily against the broad masses. Naturally this unity is not forged abroad, where the reformist leaders control what they do not control, even in the most picayune manner, inside of Chile. Abroad, it is easy for them to wallow in an easy-going intellectualism and reach their absurd conclusions: “There is no fascism in Chile”. But in Chile, it is different. One lives with fascism every day and if the people do not unite at the base and in the struggle, they can do nothing and accomplish nothing.
We are fully in agreement with our socialist comrades who are working in Chile when they say: “A big line of demarcation exists between the leaders abroad and the base of socialism in Chile”. This is applicable to various parties which comprise the Popular Unity.
Comrades, in this analysis which we are presenting today, two lines are evident. The line of the anti-fascist popular Resistance and the line of peaceful and immobilizing opposition, which seeks the support of imperialism to regain the ground it lost with the fascist coup d’etat. Between these two lines lies a gulf. They are two antagonistic irreconcilable lines and this is why the leadership of MIR, with its headquarters in Havana, has given in to opportunism and cannot be qualified except for its capitulation, its weaknesses and its opportunism. This reflects the fear which this organization always felt towards reformism – afraid to fight against it and confront it . . . the fear of the child who has lost his bearings and cannot wait to return to his parents’ arms.
So, to conclude this answer to certain of these professors who put forward scheme after scheme without taking into account the reality of each people, we say simply that there is no national bourgeoisie in our country and that this is the case throughout Latin America. There are sections of the small proprietors, who, because of the politics of plunder implemented by the imperialist monopolies, have lost everything and have seen their interests threatened. We work with these sections and they often join in the activities led by the Resistance and they can make a big contribution to the liberation struggle; but they do not make up what can be called a “national bourgeoisie”. In any case, the name has little importance, but we point out that the issue here is not to push away one section of the bourgeoisie because of some question of principle. We could ally ourselves to a section of the bourgeoisie if it was in accord with our programme and our action, if it accepted our principles on unity and our concept of a United Front. The basic question, comrades, is who leads this front, and since our basic principle is Unity at the Base and Unity and Struggle, the leadership of the Front is going to help those who advance the most correct politics in the mass work, that which is able to assure a line of struggle and does not conciliate with the enemy.
According to the objectives which the anti-fascist movement gives itself, according to its aims, the kind of organization also takes shape. Various parties of the popular Resistance and the People’s Front give themselves a plan to overthrow the military Junta and the fascist regime using all forms of struggle. Amongst these forms of struggle is included the people’s armed struggle. This corresponds to the level of consciousness of our people. The people do not pose a problem as to whether they should or should not take up arms; the problem which the people pose is how to organize to lead this struggle. For this reason, we think that the points of unity between all those who comprise the popular Resistance are mature enough and they favour discussions with those who are in agreement with the formation of a broader front, broader than the seed presently working in Chile: the People’s Front. This must be the first step to arrive at the armed struggle and it is clear that the war must be the result of an anti-fascist and anti-imperialist politics and that this necessarily means the participation of the entire people. The need to build an effective People’s Army is seen by all of us who seriously pose the question of the final overthrow of fascism and the final expulsion of imperialism from our country. The building of the People’s Army must begin right away. This is how the People’s Front sees it and does propaganda amongst the popular masses in Chile. The first step is to arm the people ideologically: arm the masses through the pages of the clandestine press, through the struggle against pacifism, through the daily struggle against fascism, etc . . . To arm it organizationally: build many Resistance Committees with at least three comrades and at most five, form specific fronts and centralize all these organizations united at the base in a united front, broad and democratic. To arm it militarily: learn to use arms to whatever extent it is possible, learn to protect oneself against fascist infiltration, execute with impunity all spies and traitors.
All together that constitutes the embryo of the practice and the organization of the People’s Army. It is the beginning of the people’s armed struggle. This beginning of the armed struggle has manifested itself in various ways and the masses have answered positively to this call. We have the example of the workers from Liberty Foundry. After a clandestine meeting of various Resistance Committees from the foundry and other factories in the district, the workers unanimously decided to execute a dangerous Junta spy. This is a practice of the Resistance and it is practised more and more.
The question of the armed struggle and the manner of developing the armed people’s war, is a thing on which we cannot allow any kind of deviations. Military deviations of an adventurist nature which lead to a purely militarist practice without even taking into account the state of the people’s consciousness are dangerous and if they multiply can cause a lot of damage to the struggle. Such was the leadership imposed by the MIR right after the coup d’etat. This politics of “resisting every blow to not allow the Junta to breathe” which was expressed by the rank and file itself of this organization as being the politics of “dying with your boots on”, caused the useless death of many young people and even led to the death of the General Secretary of that organization. In order to wage people’s war one must have adequate tactics but above all the political conditions must have been created by the mass movement so that the Front and the Army can develop this tactics. We think that all the conditions exist in Chile which permit the combination of all forms of armed struggle possible in the people’s war; the non-armed actions of the masses, the partial and general strikes, whether peaceful or with an insurrectional character, the actions executed in the streets, and the guerilla actions in the countryside, the creation of liberated zones where the mass movement of the peasants permits, etc. We think that because of our conditions and our tradition, and also because in this war the participation of the masses plays a crucial role, no form of armed struggle can be rejected. And it is the correct combination of these forms which gives us the upper hand over the enemy who is better armed but weak and without morale. Where will we find the arms? First of all, we must say that a war does not begin just like that, the result of a spontaneous struggle, neither is it an explosion without leadership. We cannot confuse insurrection and war, the first being included in the second. People’s war begins the moment that the masses understand the necessity of answering the enemy with arms, when a United Front exists which correctly leads the people on the road ot struggle, arms the masses politically and organizationally. The war begins when the most advanced sections of the popular Resistance begin to undertake military actions with the support of the masses, when these actions are undertaken when the mass movement is in upsurge and they favour the general offensive of the people against its enemies. All this is the beginning of a people’s war, even if we have no armed detachments which form the People’s Army. But the problem is to ensure the continuity of this war, its growth, its development and that alone can assure us of the constant support of the masses. Asa result, the problem is a political one, political and organizational. In the course of this war, with the development of the mass struggle, with the consolidation of the Front, the military actions develop and increase. The Committees multiply themselves, cadres will be formed which will improve the military work and thus the conditions will be created for the formation of the People’s Army and thus we will arm the people. Little by little, the people will take the arms away from their enemies. But the bourgeoisie is also in motion. Faced with the possibility of a change of Pinochet for Frei and another reactionary, the popular Resistance must continue its tactic: in such a case, we must continue resolutely along the road of the construction of a broader and more united Front, we must continue to uphold the necessity of the people’s armed struggle and for the need of the people having its own army. Furthermore, we will unleash a mass struggle which will confront the government with the reality and truth because the people have no illusions about any change brought about by the imperialists, but believe in their own forces and capabilities alone. We are not against any “change” that the reactionaries may want to put forward, but we will use every opportunity such changes offer to redouble the struggle against fascism and imperialism, for our total and genuine liberation. The only road for our people in order to achieve their objectives is the violent struggle against its enemies, the armed struggle of all the people – protracted war.
Comrades,
The great confidence that we have in our people is born out of our practice amongst them. We have become larger and consolidated ourselves amongst the masses and will continue to work on this path because we know that it is the only path which will lead the Front to become what we want it to become. We are the seed of a future broad anti-fascist front and our conscious activity is the first historic step, which will lead our people to unite and bring down like a single fist of steel all our strength against the enemies of our people, against imperialism which is also your enemy.
In this struggle we are not alone. All the people of Latin America tight for liberation and independence. We wish to use this occasion to denounce in front of you, dear comrades, the massacre perpetrated less than a month ago by the forces of the reactionary government of military fascists in Ecuador. More than 120 workers and family members were horribly massacred and thrown into wells where the sugar cane is cut. Over 120 people met their death, strangled, smashed and shot to death. This savage crime adds itself to the massacre realized before by the reactionary government of Lopez Michelsen in Colombia. In that country, over twenty workers and young people were demonstrating on the occasion of a national strike and were killed. But it is precisely in Colombia also that the greatest example of popular armed struggles comes to us. The liberated zones of Alto Sinu and Alto San Jorge, led by the glorious People’s Liberation Army, are a beacon which guides the mass struggles in Colombia; the people’s war in these zones gave the people a breath of air and inspired great fights in the towns. Lately, the forces of the PLA and the forces of the National Liberation Army, a Castroite organization, who after being abandoned by its leaders who fled to Cuba, has taken critical positions against the activities it waged to date, united. Our support and our greetings to the zones of Alto Sinu and Alto San Jorge, to the PLA and the guerilla forces which are guiding the people’s armed struggle of the Colombian people.
Comrades,
The mass movement demanding freedom in Brazil, the mobilization of the peasants in Peru, the general mobilization of the masses in Nicaragua, Salvador, etc., are symptoms of struggles which give us great optimism in the future of the struggle on the entire continent. Our Front works to establish in a short time, the coordination of all the liberation movements which work amongst the masses in each country.
Rejecting the theories of “continental revolution” conceived by the adventurists and the Castroites, we stand for the unity of all the peoples of the continent against our common enemy: U.S. imperialism.
Dear comrades and friends,
Once again, the People’s Front salutes your inestimablehelpand your unconditional support. Before concluding, I will say only that in Chile the revolution has not failed, but it is reformism which has failed. The Chilean people have not given up the struggle for a better society. The Chilean people have not prostrated themselves before their enemies and, passing through the school of struggle which has taught us so much, our people have once again hoisted the flag of battle which the reformist traitors, the capitulationists, pacifists and all their disciples dragged into the ground once again. OUR PEOPLE WILL DEFEAT FASCISM! OUR PEOPLE WILL DEFEAT IMPERIALISM! LONG LIVE THE CHILEAN RESISTANCE!
LONG LIVE THE UNITY BETWEEN THE CANADIAN PEOPLE AND THE CHILEAN PEOPLE!
DEATH TO FASCISM AND IMPERIALISM, LIBERTY FOR THE PEOPLE!
BREAD, WORK, LAND AND LIBERTY!
THE ARMED PEOPLE WILL NEVER BE CRUSHED!
EL PUEBLO ARMADO JAMAS SERA APLASTADO!
(translated from the original Spanish)