Mexican Section
of the Fourth International
June 24, 1966
COMMUNIQUE OF THE MEXICAN TROTSKYISTS
{The following is a translation of. the full text of a leaflet distributed by the Marxist Workers League, the Mexican.section of the Fourth International. The original title of the leaflet is "El MR-13 Desenmascara al Posadismo" (The MR-13 Unmaska Posadism). i
*x* * * COMMUNIQUE FROM THE LIGA OBRERA MARXISTA TO THE REVOLUTIONARY VANGUARD OF MEXICO AND LATIN AMERICA
Ina communiqué dated May 15, 1966, the National Leadership of the (Guatemalan) Movimiento Revolucionario 14 de Noviembre made
publie»the expulsion of three militants accused of disloyalty and the surreptitious diversion of funds. It is stated in the same communiqué: that the three who were. expelled are Trotskyists and members of: the Fourth International.
- The LIGA OBRERA MARXKISTA, MEXICAN SECTION OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL, specifies: FIRST: That. on: the, basis of the charges in the communiqué and ‘the reply-of the defendants, IT APPROVES THE EXPULSION DECIDED ON BY THE MOVIMIENTO: REVOLUCIONARIO. 24 DE NOVIEMBRE AND COMMENDS THE DEMOCRATIC WAY IN WHICH THE PEOPLE'S COURT WAS CONDUCTED. SECOND: It rejects the "political arguments" which the Partido Obrero. Revolucionario published in Mexico in reply to the charges. = THIRD: It agrees with the MOVIMIENTO REVOLUCIONARIO 13 DE NOVIEMBRE in characterizing those expelled and the entire group to which they belong as "sectarian, haughty and arrogant." FOURTH: -It strongly denies that the Partido Obrero Revolucionario, or the three who were expelled are Trotskyists - or members of the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL. FIFTH: The Posadist group, to which they belong, was: expelled more. than three years ago from the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL.
The LIGA OBRERA MARXISTA (LOM), MEXICAN SECTION OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL, feels doubly obliged: to solidarize with the MOVIMIENTO . REVOLUCIONARIO: 13 DE NOVIEMBRE. First because it concerns an organization that represents the exploited Guatemalan masses; and, second, because it was taken in by the adventurous group headed by J. Posadas in the name of Trotskyisn.
Posadas and his group were expelled from the FOURTH INTERNA- |, TIONAL in 196% because of their sectarian and adventurous positions. :- They continued to speak in the name of our world organization after . this in the most irresponsible and piratical way.
On the organizational level, Posadism is reduced to subsidized groups of two or three members who publish newspapers all of which print the. same absurd articles written by their "chief" Posadas. They are groups without any real links with the masses in their countries, without any serious program and having in common nothing more than being blindly obedient to a mentally sick person and being recipients of the disesteem of the political groups in the few countries in which they are active. Their life depends precisely on the economic aid sent by their center, aid which -- as . we now know -~ originated in tapping the funds of the MR-13.
-On the ideological level, they exist on a few items developed: by the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL, smothered in all kinds of ridiculous absurdities that only arouse laughter whether taken singly or as a whole. Nevertheless the question is only too serious. It is
serious in that it succeeded in coming up in the ranks of a movement, the MR-14, which is the vanguard of the Guatemalan masses. And. it is tragic in that the vanguard of the Guatemalan movement confused the adventurous Posadas group with the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL.
On the political level, Posadism is sectarianism carried to an absurdity -- provoked from one side by the opportunism of the traditional organizations. In effect, some revolutionary youth who _ rejected the faulty methods of the CP's and other Stalinist orga- — nizations, .entered the ranks of Posadism in search of an -alternative leadership. The "political" justification for mishandling the funds of the MR-13 is the most recent example of this sectarianisn. They argue, basically, that the money was utilized "for the world revolution." In reality the money was utilized to maintain subsidized groups in various countries dedicated to reproducing and distributing the articles of Posadas. In other words, the sectarian Posadists did nothing less than to get the world revolution confounded with these tiny groups.
Sectarianism, under normal conditions, especially when it. reaches fantastic, religious extremes, merits no more attention than.a few biting sentences. But if this sectarianism takes over |. real revolutionary leaderships it becomes an actual danger. In Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, etc., Posadism is only the butt of jokes among political. organizations. In Guatemala it has cost lives. Revolutionaries throughout the world must consider this problem seriously before it becomes of major importance. Our course is to organize the revolutionary vanguard, offering a way | out for revolutionaries who correctly despise the faulty leaderships of the CP and other groups allied openly or covertly with the class ehemy.
From the historic point of view, Posadism was born with the expulsion of a group that controlled the BLA (Buré Latinoamericano [Latin-American' Bureau] of the Fourth International) and which succeeded in dragging along, for a short time, the big majority of the sections of the International in Latin America. Within a few months these sections abandoned the Posadist leadership, reducing it to nothing, and rejoined the ranks of our Party. The process of disintegration of the group was held up precisely because it succeeded in linking up with the leadership of the _ MR-13, for which it set itself up as spokesman, gaining prestige for itself and above all, economic resources. Immediately news- | papers underwritten by this group began to appear in various countries, including Europe, in which they designated themselves as: "the Fourth International." The common denominator of these newspapers was that all of them published exactly the same material: articles, declarations, appeals to the masses, etc., Signed by J. Posadas. No other name was permitted to appéar in these newspapers beside that of the "chief." There are unsigned notes and what’ Posadas writes. From time to time the name of a certain Luis appears, whom Posadas himself praises, but this is not to be marvelled at in this marvelous religion, since Luis and Posadas are pseudonyms of the same person.
- In Mexico: everybody knows the Posadists.. They were the ones. who took the floor at an assembly of the school of economics to predict the Atomic World War..amid general laughter. They are the ones who. from thé platform in an assembly of fifty students or in their newspaper with a circulation of 300 which’ they distribute in the UNAIT [Universidad Nacional Auténoma de México]; make-pathetic appeals to the’ masses of the world for a Genéral Revolutionary Strike Against’ the Nuclear World War. They are the ones: who maintain the thesis of "War and Instant Revolution." We know the Posadists for their sectarian postures, for their bemusement by a general slogan that makes them lose touch- with reality,-‘that takes them like magic * into a world of fanciful dreams. So that they state that "there is now no time for anything, the World War is. on us." A striking instance of the unreality of their "Marxist" analyses was provided by the declaration they issued when the Posadists were recently imprisoned in Mexico. They said it "is a proof of the weak=: ness of the bourgeoisie..." Is the arrest of its cadres a sign of the strength of Posadism? “Who raised protests? Was there any mobilization, any public meeting... ve
~An odd group of this kind, lacking a sense of. the » ridiculous,’ is difficult to classify politically. To characterize a group with such a strange religion as sectarian or bureaucratic is: “not much.
_ This phenomenon must be viewed by revolutionaries as one of the consequences of lack of effective leadership in the revolutionary movement, as a product of the incapacities of the leaderships — holding responsibility in the mass organizations of the workers. Concretely, as the other side of the coin of opportunism, likewise — carried to an absurdity by the CP's and other working-class leaderships affected by Stalinism. Posadas is the echo, the inverted mirror image of all the big opportunist ‘traitors of the workers movement like Lombardo, Thorez, Togliatti, Khrushchev, etc.
Posadism has been dealt a hard blow by being deprived of the resources of the MR-13. As hard as it received when the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL won back the sections which it’-controlled in Latin America. But this does not mean that Posadism will disappear. Posadism, like any social phenomenon, will not disappear as long as the causes that engendered it continue to exist -- as long as the : revolutionary leadership of the proletariat is not organized on a world scale. Until this is accomplished, Posadism will continue to attract elements who can be counted on for adventurous moves, for infiltration into other organized groups, especially in groups that initiate a struggle without a clear political program and who are easily taken in by the ultraleft demagogy which the sectarians generally employ. So long as the world crisis in proletarian leadership continues, the sectarians throughout the world will be able to sacrifice the lives of revolutionary militants who mistakenly join their ranks out of disappointment with opportunism in general.
The LOM declares that on an international scale, the task of the revolutionaries in struggling against sectarianism (and against its other face, opportunism) is to organize revolutionary Marxist
parties. In Mexico this means organizing the > -Tevolutionary party of the workers. ; Lots
The LOM declares that from any point: of. view it is. unjustifiable to confound Trotskyism with the activities. of the Posadist sect. It.is as unjustifiable as to hold communism responsible for the . betrayals and errors of hundreds of. political groups. that adopt the most opportunistic positions in the name of Marxism-Leninisn. .
The LOM protests against the arrest of the Posadists in Mexico and against the torture to which they were subjected. Despite our deep differences with this group, the LOM considers it necessary to state that it opposes bourgeois violence against revolutionary . militants, whether or not they are mistaken, whether or not they are sectarian. The LOM registers the same protest against the arrest and torture of the writer Adolfo Gilly.
. The LIGA OBRERA MARXISTA urges Mexican : ‘revolutionaries to struggle to overcome the crisis in leadership affecting the working class; to overcome the contradiction between the objective condi- © tions..of capitalist crisis and the absence of a leadership capable of burying it and constructing a new-state, a socialist state. The way to overcome this crisis, a crisis determining the present Situation, is to construct a vanguard revolutionary Marxist party.
The LIGA OBRERA. MARXISTA declares. that the ‘construction of such a party will occur in. turn. through a process. .of alliances and fronts among revolutionary : groups in order .in this way to achieve an effective organizational ; level in which the revolutionary program can be consistently applied. To overcome the barriers of sectarianism and to promote the formation ofan. Anti- imperialist and Anticapitalist United Front | is a slogan ‘inscribed on the ban-. ners of our World Party. bape, wt
The LIGA OBRERA MARXISTA, MEXICAN SECTION .OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL, urges revolutionaries, the youth, the. vanguard of the working class to join its ranks. Not to struggle for -improvements in the present system, but to bury it. We. urge the most con-— scious sectors. of society to participate under the banner ‘of the , FOURTH INTERNATIONAL in carrying out the World. Socialist Revolution.
| WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! _ ne 7
CENTRAL COMMITTEE...
LIGA OBRERA™ MARXISTA
MEXICAN. SECTION OF THE
FOURTH . INTERNATIONAL
July 1, 1966