Peru has occupied the center of the political scene and the class struggle in Latin America for more than 45 days. Like previously in Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Haiti and Puerto Rico, today in Peru there is a new process of mobilization that has reached a profound development and a terminal crisis of the regime.
By Nadia Burgos from Lima
This situation deepened with the fall of the Castillo government, which, as we have pointed out from the ISL, we can say was not surprising. The permanent concessions to the right in the search for consensus and the abandonment of the program for which he was elected prevented him from putting an end to the economic and social crisis that has affected the country for decades. Castillo broke with the social base that had led him to the presidency and entered a dead end. Pressured by the right that tried to force his vacancy via parliament, on December 7, 2022 he announced a series of measures that included the closure of Congress itself. The answer was the vacancy of Castillo and the assumption, via parliamentary coup, of Dina Boluarte, the vice president who had already demonstrated her alignment with the right.
Mobilizations break out
After the new government took office, mobilizations broke out throughout the country and, after almost two months of fighting, the Peruvian people tried multiple ways to fight with a clear objective: the resignation of Dina Boluarte. The mobilization process is clearing the confusion. Initially, a sector demanded the restitution of Castillo. Quickly, the deepening of the debate made it clear that the social and political crisis will not be resolved with changes of figures or through the institutions that govern today. For this reason, the people on the streets began to demand Dina’s resignation, the closure of Congress and the call for a Constituent Assembly. It was expressed in this way that the right in general and Fujimorismo in particular, have no response in the political life of Peru other than repression. The people express their unrest and advance in their breaking with the old, racist and bourgeois political regime.
The expressions of protest became radicalized with the blocking of roads, the seizure of airports and mines, and the mobilization with the Taking of Lima on January 19 and 24.
From the International Socialist League, we actively participate in the actions and promote a way out of the situation with class independence, raising the need for the coordination of the organizations in struggle, for them to take over the government and the call for a Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly.
Thou shalt not kill with hunger nor bullets
The regime’s response to the mobilizations was an escalation of repression: bullets and gas fired at the mobilizations and roadblocks, persecution and imprisonment for leaders and activists. Also disseminating speeches to criminalize the protest, accusing those who organize and express their rejection of Dina and Congress of being terrorists.
The advance on Lima of contingents from the interior of the country, indigenous peoples, peasants, students, poor residents, small merchants -even from middle sectors that abstained at the beginning of this whole process- radicalized as the indiscriminate repression progressed.
Last Saturday, the highest expression of the government’s repressive authoritarianism was the intervention at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, where the police stormed the campus with tanks and police abuse. The violent entry of 500 police officers into the university resulted in the arrest of 193 people, including a pregnant woman, an 8-year-old girl, and senior adults. Thanks to the persistent struggle, all detainees were released within 48 hours and the impact of the situation has not only awakened the student movement but also put into question the continuity of the Chancellor, who played a key role for the repression to be unleashed.
The brutality of the Dina government is strongly rejected by more and more sectors that, seeing the consequences of the repression, join the fight.
Within the mobilized sectors there is a great radicalization. In Puno, a dry strike (general strike) was held. There were also strikes by mining and fishing workers, and threats to close oil pipelines and power plants.
This dynamic also has an impact on the reformist sectors and leaderships who are overwhelmed by the situation. Those who have repeatedly reconciled and have remained comfortable within the bourgeois institutions, today fall into this spiral of crisis. Nuevo Perú and all its internal expressions, the most prominent leaders such as Verónica Mendoza, did not go beyond formal declarations and pacifist proposals within the framework of bourgeois democracy and the current regime.
Likewise, the CGTP (General Confederation of Workers of Peru), although it mobilizes important contingents, is far from offering itself to coordinate the sectors in struggle and propose to lead the process globally. It is also a task of the labor movement to be able to get rid of these bureaucratic leaderships and it is a responsibility of the revolutionary left to lead the fight for a new class based militant leadership.
The magnitude of the mobilization makes it unlikely that Boluarte will be able to perpetuate herself in power. The only alternative they can reluctantly offer is early elections. A measure that, within the framework of the Fujimori constitution of 1993 and with the current electoral authorities, will become a new trap with the sole objective of stopping this process.
A fundamental solution
Since our arrival in Lima, we have accompanied our Peruvian comrades from the ISL in all the mobilizations, we have met with numerous leaders and expressed our vision that we are in the midst of a very profound struggle. There are favorable conditions for this brave and heroic fight to be won. We put our militant effort in Peru and our international solidarity fully committed to that purpose.
The debate on the way out of this crisis runs through the streets and the labor, political, indigenous, student and social organizations. In Peru, the working class and popular sectors have already experienced the proposals for solutions via the rules of the institutions of this regime. The result was six presidents in six years and the deepening of the social and economic crisis. As revolutionaries, we point out that the institutional channels of the regime have failed resoundingly. To reverse the crisis, the need arises to prepare and fight for a revolutionary solution. For this reason, from the ISL, we strongly express that it is urgent to promote the coordination of the sectors of struggle, in order to strengthen and give continuity to the mobilization of the people and that this coordination be assumed by a provisional government. At the same time, we must fight for a Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly, to debate the necessary measures to really solve the great social, racial and economic problems and reorganize the country on new bases. Along with this, revolutionaries must unite to fight harder for this solution. Within the mobilization process and in the different sectors in struggle, the work of regrouping the revolutionaries, native communities, students and those who want to fight for this solution must be deepened.
From the International Socialist League, we reiterate this call for the regrouping of the revolutionary sectors. The revolutionary left has this great challenge. We call for unity to fight this battle so that once and for all we can win a government of those who never governed in Peru, the workers and the popular sectors.
Why it is essential to defeat the Fujimori constitution of 1993
When Fujimori won the elections in 1992, the Washington Consensus was put into action. They promoted a neoliberal economic policy document from the Treasury Department, the IMF and the World Bank. It was prepared by John Williamson and representatives of the establishment and became the road map for the president-elect, who was expressly summoned to receive those clear orders. One of the points of the Washington Consensus document proposed privatizing all state companies, in this case the 228 that Peru had. Peru became the only country that privatized all its state companies. The neoliberal constitution of 1993 was elaborated in the heat of this policy dictated from the North, without any safeguard for the interests of the country. Even the US subsidizes its farmers. The Peruvian state cannot intervene or implement measures for the protection of rights.
In Fujimori’s constitution that is in force today, 71 rights have been eliminated. The country’s inhabitants are not considered citizens with rights, but simple consumers.
In a quick overview of some articles of the Constitution that reflects its neoliberal capitalist spirit, its reactionary character is evident.
-Article 19.- «Universities, higher education institutes and other educational centers constituted in accordance with the legislation on the matter are exempt from all direct and indirect taxes. For private educational institutions that generate income that by law are classified as profits, the application of income tax can be established.»
-Article 58.- «Private initiative is free. It is exercised on a social market economy. Under this regime, the state guides the development of the country, and acts mainly in the areas of employment promotion, health, education, security, public services and infrastructure.
-Article 59.- «The State stimulates the creation of wealth and guarantees the freedom of work and the freedom of business, commerce and industry. ….»
-Article 60.- «…Only authorized by express law, the can the state subsidiarily carry out business activity, directly or indirectly, for reasons of high public interest or manifest national convenience.»
-Article 61.- «The state facilitates and monitors free competition. Combats any practice that limits it and the abuse of dominant or monopolistic positions…»
-Article 62.- «…Contractual terms cannot be modified by laws or other dispositions of any kind. Conflicts derived from the contractual relationship are only resolved through arbitration or in court, according to the protection mechanisms provided for in the contract or contemplated by law. Through contracts-law, the state can establish guarantees and grant securities. They cannot be modified by law, without prejudice to the protection referred to in the preceding paragraph.»
-Article 62.- «Natural resources, renewable and non-renewable, are the patrimony of the Nation. The state is sovereign in their use. The organic law establishes the conditions for its use and its granting to individuals. The concession grants its owner a real right, subject to said legal norm.»
These are some of the reasons that make it essential to call for a Free and Sovereign Constituent Assembly to put an end to Fujimoriism and its influence and conditioning.