[The following speech by Hugo Blanco was given to a rally of 5,000 held July 16, the day he returned to Peru from exile in Europe. At this rally representatives of a number of Trotskyist groups spoke, including the Partido Obrero Marxista Revolucionario (Revolutionary Marxist Workers Party, a group that shares the views of the Organizing Committee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International.)
[There was a broad spectrum of speakers, including the president of the teachers union, SUTEP; and Andrés Luna Vargas, a leader of the Peruvian Peasant Federation. Alfonso Barrantas Lingán, president of the Democratic People's Union, one of the two slates to the left of the CP, also spoke and called for unity of the left.
[The translation of Blanco's speech is by Intercontinental Press/Inprecor.]
[Applause, shouts, chanting of slogans "Land or death, we will win!" "Hugo, Hugo!" "Down with Bedoya!"]
Compañeros, I'm going to begin by reading a message from [deportees still in exile in] Paris. It's a joint statement by the FOCEP and the UDP.
"Through Compañero Hugo Blanco we send joyful greetings to the Peruvian working people, and we hail their great struggles in which we are participants. We announce that we are demanding that the Peruvian military government pay the fares of returning deportees. Since it deported us, it has the obligation to give us the material means to return. [Applause, shouts of "Bravo!"] As you know, the government bought only one-way tickets!"
I remind you all that we have to fight to get the government to pay the fares for these compañeros. The government deported candidates, and now that these candidates have been elected, it doesn't want to pay their way back. So, we've got to fight to make sure that they don't get into the habit of doing such things.
[Laughter, applause.]
During the campaign itself, we said that the elections were a farce. That's what we said, and we still say it. We have said that we were using the elections to give impetus to the struggles of the masses, which are the only thing that can lead to the liberation of our people. We said this during the campaign and it is what we say today.
[Applause.]
There would be no justification for our being in the Constitutent Assembly if we didn't use our presence there to support the struggles being waged day after day by the workers in the factories, in the shantytowns, in the countryside, and in the streets. If we can use our position in the Constituent Assembly for this purpose, then we are doing something. If not, then being in the Constituent Assembly accomplishes nothing. [Shouts of "Bravo!" Applause.] Because we are not going to convince Señor Bedoya Reyes and Señor Haya de la Torre. [Shouts of "Down with them."] If he doesn't learn now, he never will. There's no point in trying to argue with corpses. What's important is that we use our position there to promote the struggles of the masses.
We are not interested in what they say up there. What interests us is what the people are interested in, what they are struggling for. Let all these gentlemen keep on cooking up their deals, keep on with their card tricks, keep on plotting. What we should do is concentrate on organizing the struggles of the masses and on working openly among the masses to achieve the unity of the left. We shouldn't work behind closed doors as the others do.
[Shouts of 'Bravo!' Prolonged applause, chants of "The people united will never be defeated."]
We are not going to unite so that we can divide up posts, or offices, or that sort of thing. We are going to unite to give impetus to the struggles of the masses. That should be very clear.
There have been some discussions among the deported compañeros. We could begin by proposing a presiding committee. (I don't know what they call that damned thing, the arrangement they have, a preliminary slate.) What's happening is that they are going to propose a presiding committee for the Constituent Assembly.
[Laughter.]
Of course, Haya de la Torre's going to preside over it. [Laugher. Shouts of "That creep should drop dead!"] He's going to run for chairman (let Bedoya take note). We were talking it over with the compañeros and we thought that it would be a good idea to run an opposition slate. Of course, it would lose. But this would show that we have nothing to do with them and that we are completely opposed to them. It would be an opposition slate made up of compañeros on the left.
We had only one little problem here. It was over the PSR. As you probably know, the compañeros of the UDP were in favor of including them in the left. We were opposed to this. But now there is no problem any more, since "Chango" had a fight with his generals. [Loud laughter, applause]. So, now the argument about whether the PSR was left or right is over. We found out that the PSR was left and right. The right has gone off in one direction, and the left in the other.
So, such a left opposition slate gives us a way to begin to demonstrate to those gentlemen and to the people that we are a completely different thing, that we aren't going to get involved in any wheeling and dealing, any fancy card tricks, or any damned thing like that. Putting up an opposition slate doesn't have any importance in itself, but it is important to show the people that they shouldn't have any illusions in this Constituent Assembly circus. [Laughter.]
You know what a farce this whole thing has been. The crowning touch was when they arrested Leonidas Rodriguez as he was going to vote. (He is not a man of the left, but I respect him and I respect his democratic rights.) That's already enough to make a joke of this Constituent Assembly. This is the way the government has made a mockery of the Constituent Assembly, the way it has trampled on it.
The government trampled on it by deporting candidates and sending them off like prisoners of war to a foreign army. The government trampled on it by canceling UDP and FOCEP broadcasts whenever it felt like it, when the other gentlemen were allowed to campaign even at football games, in news broadcasts, and all the rest. What is more, they let these gentlemen hold a rally to conclude the campaign and didn't let us do it.
So, this Constituent Assembly is a farce through and through. And despite all this, we saw what kind of vote the left got. Do you remember, compañeros, those cartoons that were run in all the magazines, and the rest, portraying me as the odd man out because I rejected deals with any section of the bourgeoisie.
I was crazy because I called for a workers government. I was crazy because I called for disavowing Peru's foreign debt, its debts to the International Monetary Fund, to the banks, and other imperialist agencies like these. Total disavowal of debts, nationalization without compensation, workers management-these propos als aroused laughter on the right, but they won us the support of the masses.
So, you will understand that we have to keep our promises to the compañeros who voted for the program of a workers government and socialism. That is why we have to wage a consistent struggle for a workers government and for socialism. If we were not consistent in this, we would be betraying the half million people who voted for us. [Applause.]
On these points, we have some differences with the compañeros of the UDP. I don't know about the compañeros in the PSR who remain. We will have to have some new discussions with "El Chango" about this. But in any case, we know that although there are differences on this point, although they are not for a workers government today, although today they are not for socialism here and now, there are still many things that unite us.
For example, we can come together in this rally. We all fight for a general strike. We all support the fight for the reinstatement of those who have been fired. We oppose the law on instability in employment. We are all for the rescinding of the sentences and the release of all the prisoners. We are all for the success of the SUTEP strike,* which is the most important thing at the moment. There are many other examples.
On all these points, there is no question, no doubt whatever that we are going to stand together with the companeros of the UDP and with the compañeros of the PSR. That goes without saying. What is more, we are already doing so. And this shows that such unity already exists.
There can be unity on many other points. It already exists, for example, because Compañero Luna Vargas is part of the executive committee of the CCP. This unity already existed between the forces in FOCEP and the UDP before these formations existed. So, compañeros, we don't have to say that we are for unity with the UDP. We have united, we are uniting, we are working together in practice. We are for unity with the PSR, now that the problem has been cleared up.
We also appeal to the compañeros of the Communist Party to unite with us, because we aren't sectarians. The fact that their leaders are more interested in unity with Morales Bermúdez, well, that's another problem. But if they won't unite with us, it's not because we aren't calling for it.
What's happening is that on the other side Morales Bermúdez is also beckoning to them, and they prefer unity with him.
[Laughter.] In any case we appeal to the compañeros of the Communist Party, we remind them that they are a left party and that their place is with the workers and not with the military government. [Applause, shouts of "Bravo!"]
But these are not all the forces you have to unite with. We can't be electoralists. We can't think that the left is only those who chose to participate in the elections. There are some compañeros who thought that it was a mistake to participate in the elections. And these compañeros were not represented on the slates or anything like that. But they are compañeros who are with us in the struggle. And so, unity has to include them too. Whether it was correct to take part in the elections is now a matter for historical debate. We can continue the discussions as historians.
But in the meantime, in the struggles we face here and now, what we have to do to move forward is to close ranks. The SUTEP struggle is an example. Those compañeros are for the SUTEP struggle. We are for the SUTEP struggle. We are all for support to the teachers. And we are all for a general strike to solve the problems of the teachers-and that is the only thing that can solve them, not the Constituent Assembly, or anything like it. [Applause, shouts of "Bravo!"]
And since we are talking about unity, there is another little problem that has to do with unity. [Chants of "Hugo Blanco supports the SUTEP strike!"] Well, even if he didn't support it, the Peruvian people support it. [Laughter.] OK, compañeros, since we are talking about unity, there is another little problem here, a more internal problem.
The compañeros of FIR-POC, one of whom just spoke, were one of the groups that fought shoulder to shoulder with the PST and the other compañeros in the Fourth International. If we want to talk about unity, if we Trotskyists want to talk about unity of the left, the first thing we are going to have to do is unite ourselves. If we don't do that, we won't have any authority to talk about unity of the left.
[Shouts, applause, cries of "Long live the socialist revolution!"]
Besides, we Trotskyists who were in the FOCEP and the Trotskyists who were in the UDP have been taught a lesson by the Peruvian people. When we proposed an election program calling for a workers government and for socialism, we thought that the people were not ready to support this. We thought that the people were going to be for intermediate, halfway solutions. We thought that they were not going to vote for us but for other kinds of candidates. We thought that we were going to get a minimal vote, but that we had to run the kind of campaign we did to educate the masses.
We started educating the masses, but it was the masses who completed our education. They showed us that they were in favor of our program. Because that's what was shown by the vote we got, that the masses agreed with our program, and that they did not see a workers government as something fantastic, something out of science fiction.
This is what we Peruvian Trotskyists learned in this last period from the Peruvian masses. And so we know that there are hundreds of thousands of workers who are ready to struggle for a workers government and for socialism. And so, the immediate task of those of us who said we were fighting for that is to begin to organize these masses. That must be the immediate basis of a unification of the Trotskyists.
[Applause, shouts of "Trotskyists united to build the party!"]
I repeat, these are internal problems among Trotskyists. The fact that I am talking about them here in front of you shows the honesty with which we confront these problems. This is a commitment made before you to unify the Trotskyist movement so that we can speak with authority about the need to unite the left.
I have also learned that the comrades of the PSR, Vanguardia Revolucionaria, and other currents are involved in processes of unification. I think that's wonderful.
There is another little problem we have to take up. The respectable gentlemen in the Constituent Assembly, not us, but the respectable ones, are discussing together with all of the right, including the section that is not in the Constituent Assembly, like Belaúnde,!? for instance. They are plotting among themselves to see how they can set up a Ménage à trois [laughter] between the APRA, the PPC, and the government. What is Señor Bedoya going to tell the masses who voted for him. They voted for him because he said all sorts of bad things about the military.
So, compañeros, he is going to have to do a lot of wiggling to explain to the masses who voted for him why he is going into a coalition government now-because that is what he is going to do. You don't need a crystal ball to see that; you don't even have to be particularly clever. There is going to be a coalition government including the APRA, the PPC, and Morales Bermúdez.
Of course, Bedoya could say anything he liked against the military, and be very bold about it too, because he owns them. So, how could they deport him. [Laughter.] But now the people can see that they were cheated when they thought they were voting for the APRA and for the PPC as a way of voting against the military government. These parties are going to form a single government together with the military dictators that they attacked.
When the people see that this marriage is being consummated in order to continue the policy of the IMF, which is the most hated enemy of the Peruvian people, then we will see where the masses who voted for the PPC and for APRA go. They are going to swell our ranks. [Applause, shouts of "Bravo!"]
Among the matters that these gentlemen are discussing is the "Hugo Blanco phenomenon." [Laughter.] That is, they can't put him in prison for very long, because the masses protest; and if they deport him, he comes back like a yoyo. [Laughter.] So, what can be done about him? Maybe the solution is to kill him. They eliminate him, and then the left is done for.
Well, compañeros, we have to talk about this question. But we should do so in a political way and not an emotional one. Specifically, what we have to do is to take steps so that even if they eliminate me, the unity of the left will not be wrecked. I am absolutely confident that this can be done, because out of the last sixteen years, I have spent only twenty months free and in Peru. And despite this the Peruvian people keep fighting. So, it's not Hugo Blanco that's doing the fighting, it's the Peruvian masses. [Applause.]
So, let's look at the little problem they have here in this farce that they staged to fool us, and which ended up fooling them. If they keep me out of the Constituent Assembly by doing me in, then they are going to show the masses what their democracy is like. They are going to convince the masses that parliamentarism leads nowhere-that they are the ones who cannot live with democracy and not we. And in doing this they are going to show the masses the real road to their liberation. If my blood is spilled, the people should see the color of the road that leads to their liberation. [Applause, shouts of "Bravo!"]
As the members of FOCEP who are here know, I have gotten a mandate from the chairman of the front. This has to do with a general problem. It is a tragedy that there are only a few hundred organized members of the FOCEP, and a half million who voted for the slate. This cannot be. A few hundred persons cannot make decisions for a half a million. It is this half million people who must decide on the future steps to be taken by the FOCEP, and not the 500 persons in the FOCEP organization now.
Here is a letter of authorization that I would like a FOCEP member to read.
FOCEP member: "In view of the need to begin immediately to organize the masses who voted for the FOCEP in the June 18 elections and in view of his excellent qualifications as an organizer, Campañero Hugo Blanco Galdos is designated organizational secretary for the national leadership of the FOCEP and has the responsibility to report to this body. [Applause.] Signed by the national chairman, Genaro Ledesma, July 14, 1978." [Applause.]
OK, compañeros, this has an importance for the question of the unity, or division of FOCEP. The right is chortling, saying, "The chairman of the slate is Genaro Ledesma, and the one who got the most votes is Hugo Blanco. So, a power struggle is already on." [Laughter.] This is all lies. Genaro Ledesma remains the head, and I am an activist who holds the post of organizational secretary. [Applause.] Genaro Ledesma will continue, of course, to be chairman of FOCEP.
The right has also thought that there was going to be a power struggle in the CCP, as a result of the vote, between Vargas, who is the chairman of the organization and me, who is a lower-ranking member. This other so-called power struggle is not going to take place either. Because I am a trade-union activist, and I will continue carrying out my duties there when I don't have to be occupied with the foolishness in the Constituent Assembly. I will continue carrying out my duties in the leadership of the CCP, since it is the organization that is going to solve the problems of Peru and not the Constituent Assembly. [Shouts of "Bravo!" Applause.]
So, compañeros, to come back to the tragedy that is constituted by the fact that only a few hundred organized persons are representing a half million people, this means that we have to organize this half million people as soon as possible. The task of FOCEP members today is to go out immediately to every neighborhood to every factory, to every peasant union, and organize a local committee of the front.
[Shouts of "Bravo!" Applause]
Since we aren't bureaucrats, no signature or stamp from the organizational secretary is needed to organize these committees. The only thing that is needed is for the people in the local areas to want to form a FOCEP committee. [Applause. Shouts of "Bravo!"] And then they will be the ones who in their meetings and congresses will decide how the line of the FOCEP will be carried forward, how FOCEP will fight for a workers government and socialism.
Therefore, compañeros, the task is not mine alone. It is the duty of all of us, all members of the FOCEP, to begin to build local committees of the front. Compañeros, don't worry about the form in which these committees should be organized. Organize them any way you like. No committee can function unless it is set up, and these questions can't be decided in advance. The organizational task today, compañeros, is to organize supporters of the FOCEP throughout Lima and throughout Peru!
[Applause, shouts of "Land or death!"]
The Chair: "Companeros, we said in the beginning that we should greet Compañero Hugo Blanco with shouts of 'Land or death!" Today, the revolutionary slogan can only be 'Socialism or death!" [The audience takes up the chant.]
"Compañeros, all out to the Plaza de Mayo on July 19 to commemorate the heroic national strike of July 19, 1977."
Notes
1. A leader of the Partido Popular Cristiano (PPC—Christian People's Party, the Peruvian Christian Democrats), a rightist formation that claimed to oppose the military government. It got 27% of the vote in the June elections.
2. Frente Obrero, Campesino, Estudiantil, y Popular (Workers, Peasants, Students, and People's Front, the electoral slate for which Blanco was a candidate).
3. Unión Democrática Popular (Democratic People's Union, an electoral front that includes the majority of the miners federation leadership, Maoists, and some Trotskyists. Maoists were the dominant force.
4. Leader of the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA-American People's Revolutionary Alliance.) This is an old anti-imperialist formation that has turned right-wing and proimperialist. It has connections with the Social Democracy internationally.
5. Partido Socialista Revolucionario (Revolutionary Socialist Party, a formation that represented the left wing of the military government). When it was formed it included a number of generals and others who held high positions in the government of General Velasco Alvarado. It also included a number of leftists who went into the mass organizations of the military regime, which were supposed to mobilize the masses to carry through the government's reform program.
6. Antonio "Chango" Aragón was a leader of the Peruvian Trotskyist movement during the 1962- 63 peasant struggles. He headed the wing of the PSR that split July 5 from the party of the socalled progressive ex-military officers. Aragon's PSR includes the bulk of the party's trade-union and peasant leaders.
7. The chairman of the PSR.
8. Since May 8, the vast majority of Peru's 140,000 public high-school teachers have been on strike, demanding a 100 percent wage hike, better working conditions, and recognition of their union, SUTEP, as their bargaining agent. The union leadership is predominantly Maoist.
9. Confederación Campesina del Perú (Peruvian Peasant Federation).
10. Frente de la Izquierda Revolucionaria- Partido de Obreros y Campesinos (Front of the Revolutionary Left-Workers and Peasants Party. a sympathizing organization of the Fourth International).
11. Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores, Socialist Workers Party, the Trotskyist organization of which Hugo Blanco is a member.
12. A former president, deposed by the military coup that installed the Velasco Alvarado government. He opposed calling elections for a Constituent Assembly.
13. In this strike, which was touched off by a 50% increase in the prices of basic necessities, at least six persons were reported killed. Some 300 union leaders were arrested, and more than 5,000 union activists were fired from their jobs.