The primary elections and the Uruguayan workers movement
Interview with PVP leader
Shortly before the Uruguayan primary elections, Luis Romero, In 1970, elements coming from the FAU played a key role in a leader of the PVP, gave the following interview to Luis Alon- the emergence of two groups.
so, correspondent of International Viewpoint in Madrid. ple's Organization 33, an armed group whose purpose was to back up workers struggles.
The PVP was formed in 1975 in the underground, representing a fusion ofelements coming from the anarchosyndicalist Fede- dents Resistance, a mass organization that included many work ration of Uruguay (FAU) and the Tupamaros. After the stepup of repression in 1976, it had 200 members in prison. Anarchosyn- In 1972, after the defeat of the Tupamaros, a section of the dicalism has historically been a major current in the workers MLN broke away looking for a more political strategy. It fused movement in Argentina and Uruguay, with a revolutionary tra- with elements from the FAU. All of these streams fed into the
The PVP represents the regroupment of a radical political Romero, a rubber worker, was a leader of his union before current that developed over more than a decade. the union movement was suppressed and a member of the Naers.
PVP.
One was the Revolutionary Peo-
The other was the Workers and Studition. participated in the founding conference of the Movimiento de tional Confederation of Labor (CNT) executive that called the Liberacion (MLN-Tupamaros) in 1962, but it soon broke away 1973 general strike. Today he is a member of the coordinating for the MLN in disagreement with its military line. body of the CNT in exile.
How would you evaluate the constitutional referendum held by the dictatorship in November 1980?
You must understand that my country is in the grip of a bloodthirsty dictatorship, one of the most brutal in Latin America. Its prison system is one of the harshest. Torture is employed on a massive scale, and the number of "missing persons" is quite large.
Against this background, the majority of "no" votes against the junta's draft constitution on November 30, 1980, was a severe blow to the dictatorship. results raised the hopes of the comrades who are fighting inside the country, of dents, and all those who are working outside the country to keep the resistance
We have to recognize that the weakness of the workers political organizations and trade-unions kept us from taking advantage of this victory to move toward achieving a fundamental
The effects of many years of repression and disorganization prevented the people from gathering the fruits of their victory. It is clear, however, that the people are continuing to resist, and that there are going to be new opportunities to throw monkey wrenches into the dictatorship's plans and to go from the victory won on November 30,
Q. What role did the traditional bourgeois parties play in this process?
The results of the referendum represent rejection of the dietatorship by
But the traditional parties of the bourgeoisie - the Blancos and
- saw the referendum solely as an opportunity for advancing specific interests against the dictatorship. The people rejected the dictatorwhile these bourtion proposed by the military. This is
The FAU had why the military were able to bounce back.
Between a return to indiscriminate repression and a dialogue with the traditional bourgeois parties, which it found amenable enough, the military opted for the latter solution. In defense of the interests of their class, these politicians opened up a dialogue with the dictatorthereby throwing away the victory in the referendum.
The bourgeois parties oppose certain aspects of the government's economic policy, but they see the military as their this dialogue make it a bit of a farce. The their conditions, which bourgeois parties cians have never been able to resist dialogue with the dictatorship and to demand that the people's will be respected.
In their very first meeting with the political committee of the armed forces, the party leaders were forced to accept a reduction of the number of their representatives. The Blanco and Colorado parties presented draft statutes, on which the armed forces committee imposed restrictions, and then further restrictions were imposed by the Council of State. It was only in this truncated form that their statutes were accepted.
The demands of these parties have never gone so far that they have come in with the dictatorship's plans. This is why the people do not regard them as a serious opposition to the dictatorship. If they did that would open up possibilities for making alliances to fight parties ban the main leaders of these parties, and they have accepted this. rules prohibit the parties from having international ties, and they have accepted this, even though this affects Communist, Social Democrat, and Christian Democrat
The upcoming primary elections are an integral part of the military's program. After the elections, the leaders of these legalized parties will draw up a constitution together with the military. The military will impose what they want, that is, the inclusion in the constitution of the Council of National Security (COSENA) as a body to oversee the government. This council will be made up of the top generals, the ministers, and the president.
It is clear that the parties are going to accept these proposals because they have no class difference with the military and agree with the policy they are pursuing against the workers. It is in this frame. work that the military are preparing the scheduled to take place in 1984.
Q. How important do you think these primary elections are?
We think that these elections have to be used in the same way the 1980 referendum was, since the population as a whole will vote in them. That is, they have to be used to expose the dictatorship, to register a rejection of the milita-
In the left, there are three positions on these primary elections. One calls for voting for the most progressive candidates in every constituency. Another calls for boycotting, and we have to consider the possibility that there may be a high abstention rate, given the slight interest that these elections have aroused among the
The third position, which is the one that the PVP shares, calls for a blank vote, which involves rejecting the dietatorship altogether. For us a blank vote is means of mobilizing the masses organizationally and programmatically. vote that can serve to regroup the left and the consistently democratic forces. It is the kind of vote that will show that after so many years of repression the Uruguayan left is alive and fighting to bring
down the dictatorship.
Q. What is the position of the Frente Amplio?
A. It should be remembered that When it was set up in 1971, the Frente Amplio embraced all of the left and sections of the Blanco and Colorado parties, that it had the support of the Tupamaro guerrillas and the March 26 Movement.
and to get the feeling that it has some backing in its struggle to reorganize the workers.
We cannot forget that the working class desperately needs its own independent organizations that defend its interests. We should not forget that the real wage has dropped 53% in a year's time, that 12% of the workers are unemployed, and hundreds of thousands of people (out of a population of about two and a half million) have had to leave the country, either because of the repression or because they could no longer earn a living