By Alternativa Socialista of Peru
After months of popular mobilization in Peru, and when the protests have diminished in their intensity, from Alternativa Socialista we understand that it is indispensable to advance in the evaluation and the tendencies that are developing from the heroic deed of our people. While authoritarian and conservative groups seek to deny that the massive protests that began in December 2022 in Peru have put the establishment in check, we revolutionary socialists vindicate that expression of weariness that swept the country from north to south, but we also reflect and debate with thousands of comrades, because Boluarte is still in office.
While international organizations ratify all the human rights violations denounced in a timely manner: extrajudicial executions, torture and arbitrary detentions; in spite of which the state of emergency is maintained, which is a permanent threat to the population that mobilizes and militarizes society to prevent what seems inevitable, that sooner or later the path of the fight against the civil-military dictatorship will be resumed.
The relatives of the murdered Peruvians continue to seek justice; there are also some progress in the defense of human rights, thanks to the persistence of the organizations in struggle, the release of three leaders of the Defense Front of Ayacucho [FREDEPA] has been achieved; however, 4 other leaders remain detained and are being held for 18 months in preventive detention.
We are not surprised then by the internal confrontations that appear day by day in the government itself, which has been transformed into an articulation of a bunch of dispersed and diverse groups that coincide in defending their interests, but that does not make them a coalition but rather transforms them into an articulation of criminals, diverse mafias and remains of the decaying fujimorismo.
In view of this, the central motive for doing politics on the part of the sectors of power in Peru is to try to avoid going to jail in the not too distant future.
The virtues of mobilization
For months an anti-racist, anti-monocultural, anti-centralist, anti-elitist movement was expressed in the streets and simultaneously a new subject of political action appeared again, the one who was nobody before, the Indian, the cholo, the rural, the peasant, the one who previously was only the subaltern who could not speak, who was an instrument of the tutelage or manipulation of the elites.
These sectors have protested uninterruptedly for months. They have questioned the bourgeois institutionality and also had the sympathy of broad sectors of the Lima middle class which has supported and viewed this process with sympathy and this is a new fact that we must emphasize.
These changes that were created in the consciousness of millions have been boosted by a deep process of self-organization that occurred spontaneously from the generalized unrest. We are living an unprecedented process that has brought politics closer to a lot of social, peasant, student and popular organizations.
Why is the institutionality of the the regime of the 93’ Constitution surviving?
As we have already explained on several occasions, the lack of coordination between regions and diverse organizations is added to the massive absence of sectors of the labor movement, and the defection once again of the CGTP which, pressured by the situation, called only for an isolated strike and without any continuity plan.
Nor did the center-left pass the test, from Veronica Mendoza to the rest of the “caviar” variants made an effort to desperately channel the whole process in the framework of a hypothetical request for “early elections”, thus expressing once again that the reformist variants are incapable of responding to the Peruvian capitalist crisis.
Both the trade union bureaucracy and the center-left played a fundamental role in halting the mobilization process and objectively became supporters of the Boluarte government.
Where are we heading?
While new expressions of the crisis of Peruvian capitalism are manifested daily as when we denounce that Peruvian labor exploitation is full of impunity, for example, last May 6 there was a fire in the Esperanza 1 Mine, located in Yanaquihua – Arequipa, causing the death of 27 mine workers while they were extracting gold. The company tried to cover up the incident. However, the family members were present and the regional authorities are investigating the causes of the accident in an event that has caused national outrage and is a reminder of the appalling conditions in which they work. During 2022 at least 38 workers lost their lives in different mining accidents. Also during February and March, more than 70 Peruvians died victims of floods and waycos.
These are the local expressions of a profound process taking place worldwide. That is the reason why we can foresee new struggles and insurrections also in Peru, because there will be no response to the popular demands on the part of the supporters of the regime and because events like these are likely to be repeated with greater frequency.
As we have already stated on several occasions, only the organization among the anti-capitalist sectors can offer an alternative of real, socialist and revolutionary change whose first step is the formation of a government of the workers, peasants, students and popular organizations that calls for a constituent process to put an end forever to the Fujimori constitution of 1993, put an end to its institutionalism and advance towards a new society that responds to the demands of the great majorities.
Our future is on the line in this challenge, from there we are optimist and we call on all the fighters to join this one which our comrades of Alternativa Socialista are a part of.