[The following article was published in the June 20-27 issue of Avanzada Socialista, the weekly newspaper of the Argentine Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores (PST- Socialist Workers party). The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
After eighteen years in exile, General Perón is returning to the country. His return is cause for rejoieing for the majority of the Argentine people, who remember the great gains made during his governments —the standard of living, the formation of massive unions that gave strength to the workers movement, and the nationalization of imperialist companies. Perón's return is one more in a line of victories won by the working class during the course of the struggles that have been dealing blows to the regime of the bosses since May 29, 1969, the date of the Cordobazo.
But General Perón is not coming back in order to head up these struggles all the way until the oligarchy and imperialism are expelled from the country. He is coming to attempt to salvage the bourgeois regime, which is flailing about in one of the most acute crises of its history.
His return is just one more step in his efforts to unite all sectors of the Argentine bosses and oligarchy in a common front. This is demonstrated in his approach of bringing the other big bourgeois party in our country, the Unión Civica Radical [UCR - Radical Civic Union], into the government with full honors.
General Perón is also returning in order to try to move forward the coun try's economy, which continues to drag along in the state of chronic crisis it has been in since 1930. But he is not attempting to do this by turning to the workers movement and placing the mainsprings of production and distribution under its control. On the contrary, he intends to carry out "National Reconstruction" without in any fundamental sense laying a hand on private ownership of 866
the means of production and exchange -industry, land, trade. Thus he brought about the "Social Pact" [an agreement between the bosses and the labor bureaucrats on social peace and a truce on social struggles, which, once again, lays the consequences of the economic crisis upon the shoulders of the workers; it does this with the consent of all the country's exploiters, who came together in what the oligarchie daily La Nación termed "the most complete and representative business gathering held in more than a quarter century."
This attempt at National Reconstruction, which General Perón has just strengthened with his presence, has as one of its bases respect for the fundamental interests of imperialism and its monopolies, which, set up on our soil, are sucking out the wealth of the country. This is shown first of all by the nearly total absence of measures leading to the expulsion of these monopolies, and second, by the warmly approving commentaries on the government of President Cámpora by the big bourgeoisie's press in the United States.
Finally, Perón is returning in order to personally put a brake on all struggles of the workers movement that might constitute a danger for the bosses' government of Dr. Cámpora. In order to do this, he will use all the prestige he still has with the working class to try to convince it to passively agree to the role of silent partner to the Great Bosses Agreement put together around this government. The plea by Abal Medina on behalf of the Movimiento Nacional Peronista [National Peronist Movement], during which he called for an end to the occupations just a few days before Perón's arrival, is only a foretaste of this policy of holding back workers struggles. This is a policy that General Perón has applied in every instance in which mass mobilizations threatened the stability of the bosses' regime; the highest expression of this was his refusal to call on the working class to arm itself and struggle when his own personal fate was at stake in 1955.
These plans of Perón-for unity among the exploiters, good relations with imperialism, rebuilding the coun try on the basis of the exploitation of the workers movement, and defense of the bourgeois regime- are destined to fail, first of all because the working class will continue to press forward with its struggles in the face of the inability of the system to solve its problems and those of the country; and second, because the economic crisis and imperialist exploitation will become increasingly sharp and will undermine the foundations of the bosses' agreement. Temporary improvements in the economic situation and partial retreats in mobilizations could postpone this inevitable process for a time. During this respite the Peronist movement could retain unity, and General Perón could its maintain and even increase his prestige and influence among the workers. But once this process speeds up and erupts, the crisis of Peronism will be full-blown and total, and Perón himself, forced to choose sides in the clash between workers and capitalists, will cease to be the great legend he now is for the Argentine workers movement. Perón's return, then, represents the last card played by the Peronist movement and the first step toward its complete and final crisis. It is also the final card of the bosses' regime, for with the disappearance of Peronist influence in the mass movement, the doors will remain open to the taking of power by the workers.
Perón is returning at a time when, unlike the situation during his previous governments, the capitalist system is in a wretched state of affairs and lacks any medium- or long-range solutions. He is coming back to a workers movement that has gone through four years of big mobilizations that have left it with rich experiences and a new determination to continue the struggle. He is returning to defend a weak government, badly situated in the quagmire of this situation, that has seen itself forced to grant democratic freedoms on a scale never before known. The workers will make use of and defend these democratic freedoms, conscious of the fact that they are the fruit of their own struggle, not of any brilliant stra-
PERON
tegic maneuvering on the part of Gener al Perón.
During his government, Perón had sharp frictions with imperialism. These frictions could again oceur, and if there is no letup in the pace of workers struggles, they could lead to the taking of positive measures that, although partial, would recover for the country some sector of our economy presently dominated by the monopolies. The workers movement must support this type of measures and struggle to make them more and more deepgoing, without having any faith in either the government or Perón to carry them to their logical conclusion.
Every extension of democratic freedoms and every anti-imperialist measure will provoke a reaction from imperialism and the oligarchy. The workers must defend the government from any attack by the forces of re- July 16, 1973
action; in doing so they can count on the total support of our party, the Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores.
But defending the government in the face of reaction, and supporting the positive measures that it might take, must not mean either compromise or the slightest political support on the part of the working class for the government and Perón, since they are the present representatives of the permanent and historic enemies of the workers movement. With regard to the return of Perón, the great architect of this government, socialists call on the workers to continue to struggle against these enemies — the bosses, the oligarchy, and imperialism - and against those who are serving to synthesize their interests: the government and General Perón. We call on the working class to mobilize to kick the bureaucracy out of the unions and the CGT [Confederación General del Trabajo - General Confederation of Labor] in order to replace it with a new, class-struggle leadership and build an independent workers party that can organize the struggles and lead them to their final goal: a workers and popular government that can begin the construction of socialism.