[The following is excerpted from an article that appeared in the May 9, 1980, issue of the French Trotskyist weekly Rouge. The translation is by IP/I.]
As Peru's May 18 presidential and parliamentary elections approach, the election campaign being waged by the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT), the Peruvian section of the Fourth International, has achieved considerable scope and is having a marked impact on Peruvian politics. The PRT's presidential candidate is Hugo Blanco, the best-known and most popular figure on the Peruvian left.
According to crowd estimates published in the Peruvian bourgeois press, 100,000 people attended meetings to hear Hugo Blanco speak in the first month of the campaign alone. Many tens of thousands more are expected to attend campaign rallies in the two weeks remaining before the election.
Between eight and ten thousand people gathered at the March 28 Lima rally that kicked off the Blanco campaign. By contrast, the day before in the same place some two to three thousand people attended the kick-off rally of the Left Unity campaign. Left Unity is an electoral slate made up of the Peruvian Communist Party and the Revolutionary Socialist Party, which is a party of so-called progressive generals.
Blanco's first tour of the provinces has been a resounding success. Six thousand people attended a Blanco rally in Cajamarca, ten to twelve thousand in Chiclayo, six to seven thousand in Trujillo, ten thousand in Chimbote, eight thousand in Iquitos, fifteen to seventeen thousand in Arequipa, and twenty thousand in Tacna, to cite some examples.
It is generally acknowledged that in many towns and cities Blanco's meetings have been the largest for any candidate.
Many local meetings have also been organized in the poor neighborhoods surrounding Lima. Each of these has drawn two to three thousand people.
The Blanco presidential campaign will wind up with another tour of the south, especially the Cuzco area, the Puno region, and then a final mass meeting in Lima's central square. The PRT hopes to draw thirty to forty thousand people to the windup rally.
The PRT has also made good use of the free television time that each campaign is entitled to. Many PRT leaders and activists have taken part in these broadcasts, each of which is organized around a specific topic. The impact of the PRT's television broadcasts led Peru's military dictatorship to penalize the PRT for so-called violations of election rules, particularly stemming from a broadcast that assessed the results of twelve years of military rule.
It is felt that the military may be planning to use this broadcast as a pretext to withdraw Blanco's remaining television access rights in the final leg of the campaign.
The PRT campaign is not being waged simply to amass the largest possible vote total. It is popularizing the need for the Peruvian workers to organize themselves independently of the capitalists and generals. The central theme of the PRT's campaign is that only a workers government
(The following article is taken from the April 30 issue of the Peruvian weekly Marka. The translation is by IP/I]
While complaining of the social and political regime in their country, the Cuban "gusanos" (worms) have not been able to hide the objective advances in Cuba in the areas of health, of jobs, and of nutrition. In a country such as Peru, where these three problems are a scourge for the masses of people, the declarations of the gusanos have really boomeranged.
"In Cuba, the children only get milk until the age of eight," complained one unhappy "refugee" mother to a reactionary magazine. In Cuba, at least until that age, this vital food for normal growth is guaranteed to all the children on the island. After that age, we suppose, the ration of milk corresponds with that of other foods. And what happens in Peru?
According to statistics of the Ministry of Health, of the 7,300,000 children under the age of fourteen, 4,307,000 are undernourished-that is, 59 percent. Sixty out of every 100 children suffer from malnutrition. Of these, 250,000 suffer to the degree that they have irreversible cerebral lesions.
We can see the root of this in the consumption of milk. According to the same sources, of the 400,000 metric tons of milk needed by children up to the age of four, only 95,000 metric tons (23.9 percent) was actually utilized in 1979. That is, only 24 out of every 100 children were lucky enough
Nutrition in Cuba and Peru Nutrition in Cuba and Peru can solve the drastic and pressing problems of Peru's workers and peasants.
In addition, the campaign is being used to build the PRT's influence and strengthen its organization. To this end many support committees have been or are now being established in Lima and the rest of the country. These committees are composed of active sympathizers of the PRT, who participate in the campaign in an organized fashion.
The support committees hold meetings and carry out regular activity. In addition, they organize classes on basic Marxist principles for their members.
In Lima alone, several hundred active sympathizers have already been organized into the support committees.
to get milk in this country.
The same "refugees" complain that in Cuba "the monthly ration for each person is only 2.5 kilograms of rice and of sugar, 0.75 kilograms of butter, 0.25 kilograms of coffee, 0.5 liters of oil, 0.75 kilograms of meat, and 2.24 kilograms of beans." This does not count other foods that are in greater abundance, such as fish, tubers, etc.
But let's look at the situation in Peru. At current prices, all these products would cost one person, for one month, 1,768 soles [one U.S. dollar equals 250 soles at official exchange rates], and for a family of six, it would cost 10,304 soles. If we add to this minimum diet other products to round out the basket, (74 breads, 0.25 kilograms of spaghetti, 4 kilograms of potatoes, and five bottles of milk) the cost per person per month rises to 2,437 soles, and for a family to 14,612 soles.
But here in Peru only 20 percent of the economically active population get more than the 18,000 soles minimum wage; the other 80 percent get less. Thus, they are unable to buy most of the products indicated in this family diet.
Doesn't it have the ring of a farce, then, when certain elements come to Peru and complain that they cannot have the plea sure of living like capitalists or like wealthy gusanos in the United States?
How many Peruvians have the luxury of feeding ourselves, dressing ourselves, or working with the security that all Cuban citizens enjoy?