Hugo Blanco
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PERU THE INTERNATIONAL campaign in solidarity with Hugo Blanco and other arrested leaders of the Peruvian Peasant Confederation (CCP) has achieved its first aim (see IV 157). Following the release of the others, Blanco was finally set free on Friday, February 24 and was able to return to Lima the following day released
• In Sweden, where Blanco's wife and children live, a daily protest was organized outside the embassy, which included the classmates of Hugo
Blanco's two younger children.
Support was also mobilized in the trade-union movement, which led to the president of the trade-union federation sending a tele-
• gram of protest. On
February 18 a large meeting brought together representatives of the Communist
Party, social-democratic MPs, writers and academics supporting Blanco's release.
• In Belgium, our comrades demanded that the European Parliament take up the case.
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• In Switzerland, our comrades contacted the Socialist Party, whose Geneva section demanded a meeting with the Peruvian Embassy.
• In Germany, the Greens also approached the European Parliament, and a number of rallies were planned.
• In Spain, our comrades in the LCR immediately informed the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the General Workers' Confederation and the Workers' Commissions. A public meeting was held on February 13 in Madrid.
• In France, a delegation led by the International Federation for Human Rights, the Human Rights League and Alain Krivine from the LCR went to the Peruvian Embassy on February 13. The LCR organized an embassy picket and a special solidarity poster was flyposted.
• In Latin America and the United States many protest actions have taken place. The Peruvian embassy in Washington told callers that their telephone was ringing non-stop - they even had a call from Senator Edward Kennedy!
Once again an international campaign has helped our comrade Hugo Blanco escape from the clutches of the military. Peruvian peasants will continue to struggle against their conditions of poverty, repression and exploitation, and Hugo Blanco and his comrades in the CCP will continue their work with them. The danger of future repression demands ongoing vigilance. *
Notebooks for Study and to continue his work as organizational secretary of the
Research
CCP.
A
FTER HIS arrest in Pucalpa on
Number 10: Marxism andLiberation Theology,
February 9 following the peasby Michael Löwy ant strike movement in the region, Hugo Blanco was taken to
The emergence of revolutionary Christianity and liberation theology in Latin
Lima. On February 21, the Lima prosecu-
America opens a new chapter and poses exciting new questions which tor had ordered his release. However, the cannot be answered without a renewal of the Marxist analysis of religion.
police ignored this order and attempted to
Michael Löwy attempts to begin the process in this notebook which reviews forcibly take Blanco back to Pucalpa. A traditional and recent Marxist views on the subject and focuses on the first attempt was prevented by demonstraexperiences of Brazil, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Appendix by Frei Betto.
tors at Lima airport, who forcibly stopped
40 pages. £2, $3.50, 20 FF.
the aircraft from taking off. But early in the morning of February 22, Blanco was returned to Pucalpa.
N°1 - The Place of Marxism in History, by Ernest Mandel. 20FF, £2,
Blanco appeared in court in Pucalpa on
$3.50. N°2 & 3 - The Chinese Revolution, by Pierre Rousset. Respectively
February 24. His lawyer demanded the
20FF, £2, $3.50 and 25FF, £2.50, $4.00. N°4 - Revolutionary Strategy dropping of all charges and his release, ar-
Today, by Daniel Bensaid - 20FF, £2, $3.50. Nº5 - Class Struggle and guing that there was no proof whatsoever
Technological Change in Japan since 1945, by Muto Ichyio. 48 pp., 25FF substantiating the charges of "armed rebel-
£2.50, $4. Nº6 - Populism in Latin America, by Michael Lowy, Adolfo Gilly, lion". The prosecutor again ordered Blanet al. 40 pp. 20FF, £2, $3.50. N°7/8 - Plan, Market and Democracy: The co's release, putting no restrictions on his
Experience of the So-Called Socialist Countries, by Catherine Samary.
64pp, 40FF, £3, $5. Nºg The Formative Years of the Fourth International
This success is the result of an active in-
1933-1938, by Daniel Bensaid. 48 pp. 25FF, £2.50, $4.
ternational campaign of protests and pressure on the Peruvian government:
• Amnesty International made the Blanco case an urgent international action, thus
28 aiding solidarity actions in many countries.
International Viewpoint #158 • March 6, 1989
Published by the International
Institute for Research and Education
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