ON 18 JANUARY, as night was falling, an crowd of several thousand people from the factories, the university, and the 'pueblos jövenes' , the immense belt of impoverished surrounding the capital, gathered in front of the National Election Court in downtown Lima. come to show their support for a new electoral bloc, made up of nearly all revolutionary and struggle forces, registering for national elections in May..
With chants of 'a government without generals or bosses', crowd greeted the representatives of virtually the entire Peruvian left who had come to file the to register the (Revolutionary Left only moments before the legal deadline. 'Yes' ARI, which means 'yes' in the Quechua Indian language of Peru's highlands, is running Hugo Blanco for president. Blanco is a leader of the PRT (Revolutionary, Party), the Peruvian Fourth International, and is the best-known and most respected figure on the Peruvian left.
Blanco's candidacy support of the forces in the workers movement and in the organizations that have carried out the mass struggles of recent years that forced the military rulers to begin to prepare for then retun to barracks. He is the candidate of those who are actively fighting political and organizational independence of the workers movement.
The fact that Blanco's campaign has received nearly support from the left and from much of the organized labour movement is of tremendous significance for all the workers and exploited of Peru. It is also a-major breakthrough for the Peruvian left, which has characterised by a long tradition of being extremely divided atomized — and sectaran.
Jeopardy Just a few short weeks ago, when all the workers organisations were still debating what tactic to adopt for the 18 May elections, even the most determined supporters of broad unity behind Blanco's candidacy would not have dared predict this success. It even semed, in fact, that the gains that had already been made you brackets on the list) - LD|-A WAR IN AN IRISH TOWN by Eamonn McCann (£1.
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14 February 1980 Page 12 elections for the Constituent 1978, the per of FOCEP UDP — two left fronts - might be in the undemocratic the Blanco) nearly 12 per cent of the vote. It would undoubtedly have done even better if illiterates and Indians who spoke no Spanish had been allowed to vote, if the lefs had had equa. coverage in the mass media, and if candidates. had been deported prior to the election.
The UDP received a little over 4 of the vote, while the VUINICH QUARTER 1980 Wi you Please send lst A + LI5ls) l . A small part of the crowd that came to hear Hugo Blanco (centre) during the campaign in southern Peru Communist Party received nearly 6 cent. The three working class slates, therefore, received 22 per cent of the total vote.
FOCEP made a deep impression on the most adyanced sectors of the workers movement and the organised peasant movement, which continued to support it and identify with it after the elections. But the preparations for the presidential election led to a known Ledesma, together with a small group of supporters, broke with FOCEP's working class independence from bourgeois political forces to consummate an electoral alliance SOCIALIST STUDENTS ALLANCE NATONAI inspoton, Oxford Ra Curphy on the birth of their daugtie lessica NEW issue of REVOLUTION out now/ Copies from Red, Jude or Mic on 01-359 8371 the CP, nationalist PSR, and several smaller groups that have no real political weight Ledesma's splitting could have consequences.
Maoist groups, both inside the UDP, had come out in favour of candidate who would narrowly represent their current alone.
Genaro Faced Inis PRT and Hugo Blanco came out for setting up the electoral front, within organisation would have the right to present all its positions. But this front FOR US!
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how Chants force November successful At each candidate.
class and the MIR the bourgeoisalliance. discussions operation PRT's initiative.
very serious Already several outside 'Marxist-Leninist' greeted situation, the broadest each rank-and-file due llct Support In the The main bourgeois historically August ARI and forward the Peru.
wil practice, a vehicle for expressing the need for political independence of the working class. And it would have.to be an instrument that would make it UlUYe LOWAEN COHSICIr realisation of that objective in the Such an electoral front, the PRT felt, should not try to use muddled to resolve the deep differences that the various Maoist, Trotskyist, and centrist organisations and curients making up the front.
they argued, CEOIE recognise that these differences exist and should allow each of the organisations in the bloc to put forward its whole range of The front itself, however, would be based on an action programme that responds to the immediate needs of the masses and to their desire for Being the electoral expression of the independent class mobilisation of the masses. the tront wond have to exclude any bourgeois organisations trom participating in it, no matter small they might be. And it would have to reject any accord with bourgeois sectors or forces, however marginal they might be.
The PRT's proposal was, in fact, a response to concrete demands by the masses for unity. These demands have been. expressed with growing in recent months. In late and December speaking tour southern Peru was organised by the PRT and several groups in the UDP.
stop along the tour the crowds broke into chants in favour of 'left unity for a workers government, without generals or bosses?, and for Hugo Blanco to be the presidential • Because the proposal of the PRT was rooted in the present reality of struggle, made rapid headway. Very soom-there was an initial discussion between the PRT (Movement of the Revolutionary Left), to lay the basis for a draft platform for an electoral This was then followed by with all the component groups in the UDP, again at the the meantime national general assembly of the UDP was held. At that meeting there was a last-ditch attemipt to block unity. But the acclamation with which the assembly Hugo Blanco who was litterally carried around the hall on the shoulders of the crowd when he artiver to oring greetimes trom tre PRT and express his party's position OLe ReNAO SONee Ro oRer these sectarian tendencies were. The UDP delegates had dramatically expressed the desire of all the Peruvian masses for unity.
Finally, on 17 January, the day before the final deadline for legally registering slates for the election, an concluded between the PRT and all the components of the UDP, establishing the ARI.
several weeks the election campaign will start in earnest. It will be waged in a context where the crisis of the present dictatorship is forcing military officers to relinquish their hold on the government at a time when the bourgeois alternatives are weak and divided Revolutionary American Alliance (APRA), the party which has had big following among sections of the masses, has gone through severe internal conflicts since the death of its historic leader Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre last This is the context in which the Hugo Blanco will put alternative of the working and exploited masses of Latin American . revolutionists and internationalists throughout the world. should support this campaign and give it the active solidarity that enable it to develop to the broadest extent possible.
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