(The following article has been translated from the September 5 issue of Rood (Red), the semimonthly organ
Revolutionaire Socialisten of the (Revolutionary Socialists), the Flemish affiliate of the Belgian Confédération Socialiste des Travailleurs (Socialist Workers Confederation). A year's subscription costs US$4. Inquiries and money may be sent to Rood, E. Bockstaellaan 187, Brussels 2, Belgium.]
Belgrade
"They don't live for the revolution any more, they live off it." That is what one of the leaders of the students in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia,* said in an interview published not long ago by Yugoslavia's most important weekly, Vjesnik u Srijedu. By "they," he was referring to the old leaders, those who together with Josip Broz Tito led the partisan struggle and the revolution.
Remarks like this are not uncommon. Still stranger, when you compare this situation with the other workers states, it is also not uncommon for such statements to appear in the press.
For a year, or to be more precise since the beginning of June 1968, students and the student movement have been in the news here. At that time, after a minor incident (a hall that was too small to hold all the audience at a concert), disturbances developed in Belgrade.
These disturbances quickly turned into a political movement against repression, against bureaucratic privileges, and for real selfmanagement.
The university was occupied and de clared "Karl Marx University." Protesting especially against those whom they called the "red bureaucracy" (and many even spoke of a "red bourgeoisie"!), the students hung up portraits of Tito in partisan dress instead of the marshal's uniform of his official portraits. It was only after Tito himself intervened with promises to grant the students' just demands, that the movement came to a halt.
At the trade-union congress at the end of June 1968, Tito explained further that the "criticisms of the youth that we had allowed capitalist elements to develop in our socialist society were not unfounded." But the examples he gave were exclusively examples of small-scale capitalist accumulation (private hotels, the spread of small transportation companies with a few vehicles, etc.) and not of bureaucratic privileges enjoyed by members of the apparatus.
For the past year, the students have waited in vain for concrete implementation of the promises that were made to them. The Soviet Union's invasion of Czechoslovakia and the threat that likewise seemed to loom over Yugoslavia produced a reflex of national unity. As a result, a climate developed in which it was difficult for the students to successfully conduct any action in support of their demands, especially after the head of state had promised them that these demands would be granted.
But in this context those leaders who had favored a "strong hand" against the students prepared the way for repression.
A discussion on the student question took place in the Central Committee of the Yugoslav League of Communists. Marko Nikezic, who defended himself against administrative meawas put in a minority. Petar sures, Stambolic and Draza Markovic (who had called for forcibly dispersing the demonstrations last year but were outvoted then) won the majority this time.
On June 9 the Belgrade daily Politika announced that the paper of the students in Sarajevo (the capital of the republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Nasi Dan, had been banned. /
Still worse, the entire editorial board was expelled from the League of Communists. In July the Communist cells in the Belgrade University School & Philosophy were dissolved because they had declared their solidarity with the students. Moreover, two Belgrade student papers. Polet and Susreti, were
•were dent papers, rolet and susrer, suspended. Some members of their editorial boards were also expelled from the League.
At the end of May the most radical student group in Belgrade issued a "30,000 Word Manifesto" (a play on the "2,000 Word Manifesto" of Prague in 1968!) in which they criticized the government because it had not kept its 1968 promises, and denounced "growing social inequality," as well as "the catastrophic consequences of the market economy,"* and the "enrichment of the red bureaucracy." A section of the students had called for a symbolic occupation of the university buildings for the anniversary of the 1968 events. But they were outvoted both in the League and in the student movement.
One fact is important. Milovan Djilas, the former No. 3 man in the party and the author of such works as The New Class and Conversations with Stalin, originally tried to win support among the students. But now he is attacking the students as "adventurists." Djilas, who had adopted openly Social Democratic and pro-American positions, tried in vain in the summer of 1968 to find a base among the students. Now he is attacking them with the same arguments as the conservative bureaucrats.
The chairman of the student coun cil of the University of Zagreb (in Croatia), Dag Strpic, told the paper Vjesnik that the students' principal demands remain as follows: a new basis for distributing surplus value in the Yugoslav economy; the introduction of real workers power on all levels of the society; and a radical reform of the universities.
The student movement in Yugoslavia is outspokenly left and revolutionary, more so than in the other workers states (even in Czechoslovakia the movement in 1968 was rather confused). This is explained by the combination of four factors:
I. The university "explosion" in Yugoslavia has been quite spectacular. It jontrasts sharply with the level of unincluding for young employment, graduates.
graduates.
2. The climate resulting from the selfmanagement system has favored a certain degree of democracy. In contrast to the other workers states, people are not afraid to express themseives here.
3. There is much better information about international events than in the people's democracies. Here people read Le Monde as well as l'Unità,* l'Humanité, the International Herald Tribune, and Pravda.
4. Since the 1965 economic reformand even before - the debate over the organization of society and selfmanagement has been open, and no one can shut off this debate.
It is through this discussion - in which the national conference of workers councils in 1970 is to be a high point - that the students are able to break out of their temporary isolation, through which they can break out of the isolation the bureaucrats are trying to lock them into.
In contradiction to what has been written in the international press (for example, the articles in the Chinese press "supporting" the students), the Yugoslav students are not opposed to the system of self-management. To the contrary, they advocate full implementation of self-management; among other things, by the introduction of a permanent national congress of workers councils.
To the extent that they are able to present responsible, well-thoughtout, and well-formulated proposals to the working class before the 1970 conference, they will have taken an essential step toward forging a front to defend the society against bureaucratic parasitism.
August 20.
* The national organ of the Italian Communist party. - IP.
Among Mexico's Wonders According to a UNESCO study,
1.46
million tons of pollution are poured into Mexico City's air each year. This is increasing by 250,000 tons a year.
October 20, 1.969
Venezuela
Marcos Gomez Scores MIR Leadership
[Marcos Gómez, a leader of the MIR (Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria - Movement of the Revolutionary Left) sent a letter to the Caracas daily El Mundo, indicating his point of view in the discussion now going on among revolutionists in Venezuela. El Mundo reported the letter in its September 8 issue. Because of its interest, we have translated the article in full.]
A few days ago, Marcos Gómez, a MIR guerrilla leader in the east, sent a message to the Buró Nacional Juvenil [National Youth Bureau] of his party. In this letter he expressed sharp criticisms of the party, warning that it was in danger of liquidating its revolutionary potential, or: "deviating from the revolutionary road by capitulating."
After making a harsh analysis, summed up in seven points which he considered fundamental, Gómez concluded by saying that "the factionalism and right-wing preaching of those who are negotiating with the government behind the Party's back must be unmasked before the Party, the Youth, and the guerrillas without fear of any sort."
"The MIR," Gómez said, "is faced with liquidationism. By their lack of audacity and initiative, those who retain the traditional old left conceptions of organization and mass work threaten to reduce the MIR to an institutionalized bureaucratic apparatus opposed to the revolutionary aspirations of the people. They threaten to re duce it to a springboard for success in petty-bourgeois parliamentary democracy, making the Party into a broad constitutional and mass alternative.
"It is these people," he added,
"who fear the progressive radicalization of the Party and the Youth, and
. who frequently protest loudly against sectarianism (which is how they view any bold and militant action in leading the masses). This is a pretext to conceal their real intentions and their malignant Social Democratic plans."
Further on he said: "The timid centrist direction of the leadership elected in January 1964 and confirmed with few changes in the first conference, facilitated the development of this tendency and the progressive bureaucratization of the Party. The repressive persecution and harassment did the rest. The Party suffered defeats.
Unprepared for revolutionary struggle, it lost its ties to the masses, it became isolated, and along with this the internal crisis sharpened.
"The pragmatism, the astonishing passivity and incapacity of the central leadership, infected by pettybourgeois ideology and habits, were more than sufficient factors to prevent the MIR from overcoming the objective difficulties of the revolutionary process. This has reduced the MIR to the condition of a profoundly weakend Party, isolated from the masses, instead of what it should be- a revotionary vanguard force.
"As a result," he pointed out, "the Party today is a mishmash of right and left opportunism. The MIR faces a historic challenge of tremendous implications.
Threatened with destruction, the MIR must either rebel against its present condition and transform itself or perish. This is the alternative facing the revolutionary militants, activists, cadres, and leaders."
Green Berets in Latin America
U.S. Senator Vance Hartke, a Democrat of Indiana, is the source of the following statement, as recorded in the June 25, 1969, Congressional Record:
"Not only does the United States support South American armies and police, but U.S. soldiers have on occasion engaged in actual combat against native rebels. U.S. rangers have battled the forces of Yon Sosa and Cesar Montes, two Guatemalan guerrilla leaders; Green Berets have also been in Colombia.
EXPENSIVE ROCKS
It cost $24 billion to get 80 pounds of rocks from the moon. For the U.S. civilian labor force of 70 million persons, this averages out at $343, or $38 a year since the project was launched.
RICARDO GADEA
The "progressive" military junta of General Juan Velasco Alvarado sentenced three survivors of the 1965 guerrilla movement to long prison terms September 26. The best known of the three was Ricardo Gadea Acosta, the brother of Che Guevara's first wife. Gadea was sentenced to five years in prison.
Gadea's codefendants, Eusebio Dante de la Cruz and Carlos Erick Arata Hurtado, each received three-year terms.
De la Cruz and Arata, having been three years in prison before being tried, were ordered released. The main effect of the tribunal's verdict against them was to endorse their illegal detention by the previous regime.
Gadea, however, will have to serve out the remaining time of his sentence on Peru's ill-famed prison island of El Frontón, if the tribunal's verdict is not overturned. According to the September 26 issue of the Lima daily La Prensa, the former guerrilla has indicated that he will take his case to a higher court. "After consulting with his lawyer, Dr. Alfredo Battilana, Gadea reserved his right to appeal to the Supreme Council of Military Justice."
The War Council of the Second Police Zone, which passed sentence on the three revolutionists, admitted that 924
Peru
Gadea Sentenced to El Fronton there was no proof that any of them participated in armed actions.
The sentences were based on charges of giving material support to the guerrillas, such as bringing in supplies and money, and helping to construct roads and paths in the Mesa Pelada area where the guerrillas were active.
All three of the defendants were convicted of crimes against "the constiand "state security."
tutional order"
In addition, Gadea and de la Cruz were found guilty of "violating the public faith" for allegedly using forged voters' cards. The defendants were acquitted of the charges of "crimes against the security and honor of the nation," that is, treason.
The War Council's verdict also contained a number of allegations about the activities of the accused. Gadea was said to have received $30,000 for the guerrillas from "Communist organizations in France and Chile." De la Cruz was supposed to have received guerrilla training in North Korea, Arata in Cuba.
Two other participants in the 1965 guerrilla movement- Enrique Amaya Quintana and Oscar Alvarado Araujo- were each sentenced in absentia to two and one-half years in prison.
The case of Enrique Amaya Quintana is one of the most notorious instances of the "mysterious disappearances" of guerrillas captured by the repressive forces. No word has been heard from Amaya since 1965 and his comrades believe that he was summarily executed. They have demanded that the government account for his disappearance as well as that of other guerrilla fighters.
By passing sentence in absentia on "missing" guerrillas and thereby closing their cases, the military tribunal seemed to indicate that the same arbitrary and illegal practices will be continued under the "reformist" junta as were employed under the Belaúnde Terry government which preceded it.
Police Arrest Guerrilla Group
In the last week of September, a few days after severe prison sentences were handed down against three members of the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolutionaria (MIR) (Move ment of the Revolutionary Left - a pro-Cuban revolutionary movement led by the late Luis de la Puente Ucedal, the Peruvian regime announced the arrest of nine other members of the organization in Lima.
The nine, reportedly taken into custody between September 13 and 15, were accused of planning to initiate urban guerrilla warfare.
The alleged guerrillas were captured "in possession of firearms - pistols and machine guns - abundant Communist propaganda and 'training materials,'" according to the September 28 issue of the Lima daily La Prensa.
The government's announcement caused general concern, according to
La Prensa: "On learning the news of the arrest of the nine Miristas, many people asked, with understandable apprehension:
'Does this mean that urban guerrilla warfare in the style of Uruguay, Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia is about to be launched in Peru?"
It seems possible, in fact, that the government intends to use the prosecution of the Miristas as an occasion for red-baiting the miners who went out on strike September 10. "The recent episodes arising out of the strike of the Cerro de Pasco miners and their 'march on Lima' put the Servicio de Inteligencia [Intelligence Service]
… on the track of these subversives,"
" La
Prensa wrote.
The names of those arrested were given as José P. Jorrat Calero, Fer nando Carrillo Arauz, Mario Manuel Verano de la Fuente, Francisco Tord
VELASCO: Not unlocking prison doors.
Nicolini, Eduardo Gustavo Peralta Chávez, Leopoldo Efraín Cuentas An-
Carlos Torres Tuesta, Máximo ci, Gálvez Román, and Victor Rubén Elías Bautista.
However, La Prensa reported that the names of some of the prisoners were rumored to have been slightly altered by the police to conceal their relationship to prominent families. Two of those arrested were reportedly related to important military figures; one was supposed to be the nephew of a retired general.
"The Second Police Zone - before whose War Council the detainees and their respective warrants were brought -as well as the Dirección General de la Policía de Investigaciones [General Bureau of Police Investigation], and the Ministry of the Interior itself are maintaining the strictest secrecy re garding the identity, occupation, acand family connections of the tivities, detainees," La Prensa reported.
Informal inquiries had shown, according to the Lima daily, that the oldest of those arrested, Francisco Tord Nicolini, is a professor of Peruvian history at the Universidad Femenina del Sagrado Corazón. José Jorrat Calero and Fernando Carrillo Arauz were said to be noncredit students at at the Universidad Católica.
La Prensa interpreted the government's prosecution of the Miristas as evidence that the junta intends to fol- October 20, 1969
low a hard line with respect to the revolutionary left, despite its "progressive" and anti-imperialist-sounding declarations:
"In the opinion of many, General Velasco's government has just given a new demonstration of the fact that it is not inclined to tolerate 'urban guerrillas,' subversive activities, or bloody explosions, despite the regime's connections with left personalities and advisers.
"The military tribunal has just sentenced three young revolutionists of the MIR to terms of three to five years in prison. Certainly in a few days the trial of the nine arrested by the Servicio de Inteligencia del Ejército [Army Intelligence Service] will begin and we will know what is involved."
Notes
* The most developed of Yugoslavia's six republics.
* Yugoslavia makes extensive use o market mechanisms in managing its economy. - IP.