Originality of thought
International Viewpoint #261 November 1994
1994 marks the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the great Latin
American
Marxist José
Carlos
Mariategui
(1894-1930), a thinker comparable, in the strength and originality of his thought, to the great European
Marxists.1
MICHAEL LÖWY
16
I MARIATEGUI I NE OF the most important — and also contro versial - aspects of Mariategui's work is his conception of the Peruvian and Latin American revolution, developed mostly in the course of his last years, often in polemic with Haya de la Torre and his party (APRA). It represents a strategic vision with striking analogies to permanent revolution. Mariategui was familiar with Trotsky's writings (he had published an article by Trotsky — on Lenin — in his review, Amauta); yet it would be a mistake to believe that he deduced his theory of the Latin American revolution starting from this source. Trotsky himself did not formulate his theory of permanent revolution, as a theory with a universal application, until 1929; the book was only published in 1930, after the death of Mariategui. In reality, the founder of Peruvian communism arrived by his own road, through an autonomous and original reflection, at conclusions close to or comparable with Trots-
At the time when Stalin formulated the doctrine of "revolution by stages" and the "bloc of four classes", and applied it (or had it applied) in China — with consequences which are well known — Mariategui reacted in a contradictory fashion. On the one hand he seemed to accept, around 1927-1928, the Comintern's Chinese policy, but on the other he denied that it had any validity for Latin America: "The collaboration with the bourgeoisie, and even with the feudal elements, in the Chinese anti-imperialist struggle, is explained by reasons of race, of national civilization which do not exist among us. The Chinese noble or bourgeois feels himself to be profoundly Chinese, and so on. In Indian America the circumstances are not the same. The Creole aristocracy and bourgeoisie do not feel any solidarity with the people through the link of a common history and culture." Later, in 1929, he recognised his error in relation to China: "The treason of the Chinese bourgeoisie, the rupture of the Kuomintang.. have demonstrated how little confidence one can place, even in a country like China, in the revolutionary nationalist sentiment of the bourgeoisie."2
Whatever his views on the Orient, he was convinced that the local bourgeoisie could not play a revolutionary democratic role in Peru and in Latin America. He wrote, for example, in 1927-28 that, "A progressive bourgeoisie, with a national sensibility, does not exist, and has never existed, in Peru."3 That is why he turned in an active fashion towards the workers and peasants as the motor force of the Peruvian revolution, and founded in 1928 the Socialist Party, affiliated to the Communist International, as well as, in 1929, the CGTP trade union federation.
"Populist"
The writings of Mariategui on the indigenous peasantry of Peru and Indian America have earned him the epithet of "populist" from Soviet (Stalinist) spokespersons. According to V.M. Miroshevski, the principal representative of this "orthodox" critique, Mariategui's principal heresy consists in believing in the possibility of a socialist revolution in Peru, denying the possibility of a prior stage, the "bourgeois democratic, antifeudal and anti-imperialist revolution": "To provide a basis for his affirmation of the socialist character of the immediate revolution in Peru, he appealed to arguments which started from romantic nationalism, from idealisation of the Inca social regime, from the "populist" fetishisation of the peasant community."4
1. Several conferences on Mariategui have already taken place in Lima, Mexico, Havana and so on. An international conference will be held in Paris, at the Sorbonne, on 4 & 5 November 1994.
2. J.C. Mariategui, 'Punto de vista anti-imperialista", June 1929, in 'Obra Politica', Mexico, Ed. Era, 1979, pp 273-274.
3. J. C. Mariategui, 'Siete ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana', 1928, Ed. Universitaria, Santiago de Chile, 1955, p. 29.
4. V. M. Miroshevski, "El populismo' en el Peru. Papel de Mariategui en la historia del pensamiento social latinoamericano", 1942, in J. Arico (ed), 'Mariategui y los origenes del marxismo latinoamericano', Cuadernos de Pasado y Presente, Mexico, Siglo XXI, 1978, pp. 67-69.
International Viewpoint #261 November 1994
It is true that Mariategui had, in several essays, advanced the heterodox idea that the pre-Columbian communitarian traditions of the indigenous Peruvians could constitute the point of departure for a socialist re-organisation of the countryside. If that was sufficient to characterise a theory as populist, Marx himself would have been a "populist" thinker. As is well known, he had, on several occasions — and notably in his preface to the 1882 Russian edition of the Communist Manifesto - defended exactly this idea, in relation to the traditional Russian peasant commune (the obschtchina).
In reality, Mariategui's ideas can in no way be assimilated to populism. On the one hand, because for him, (as for Trotsky), the emancipation of the peasants could only be realised by a proletarian revolution, at the same time socialist and democratic ("'anti-feudal"" to use the terminology of the period, which is fairly imprecise): "In our Spanish America, still semi-feudal, the bourgeoisie has neither known how to nor wished to accomplish the tasks of the liquidation of feudalism... This enterprise falls to socialism. The socialist doctrine is the only one which can give a modern, constructive sense to the indigenous cause which, situated on its real social and economic terrain... could go a long way towards the accomplishment of this task with the will and the discipline of a class which appears today in our historic process; the proletariat."
Indigenous communities
On the other hand, because he in no way advocated a return to the past, his recognition of the role of the traditional indigenous communities did not at all mean a "romantic and anti-historic tendency of reconstruction or resurrection of Inca socialism which corresponded to completely outmoded historic conditions" , rather, it took into consideration the habits of co-operation and socialism of the indigenous peasants as factors which could be utilised in a perfectly scientific technique of production.S
Mariategui's great merit and originality was to recognise precisely the immense revolutionary potential of the indigenous peasantry, the richness of its ancient culture, the vitality of its collectivist traditions, while simultaneously showing, with vigour and realism, that the socialist revolution was the sole autentic solution to its suffering, its poverty and its exploitation by the big estate owners (latifundistas).
After having characterised Mariategui as populist, the Stalinists would try, some years later, to "retake" him, reinterpreting his writings in the light of the Comintern doctrine of the revolution by stages. They tried to legitimise this distorted reading by referring to one or two paragraphs of his work, taken out of context. For example, they cite the following passage from the "Programme of the Socialist Party", drafted by Mariategui in October 1928: "Only proletarian action can first stimulate and then realise the tasks of the bourgeois democratic revolution, which the bourgeois regime is incapable of developing and accomplishing... Its revolutionary-democratic stage accomplished, the revolution becomes by its objectives and its doctrine proletarian revolution."6 In fact this text can be read and interpreted in a "permanentist" as well as in a "stageist" sense. Yet to decide which interpretation is the most adequate, there is an obvious solution: to compare the passage with the rest of the writings of Mariategui at this period. For example, in the editorial of the review Amauta, no. 17, September 1928, Mariategui stressed explicitly, radically and unequivocally the necessary fusion of the democratic and socialist tasks in the Latin American revolution: "The Latin American revolution will be nothing more and nothing less than a stage, a phase of the world revolution. It
José Carlos Mariategui will be purely and simply the socialist revolution. You can add to this word, according to the case, all the adjectives that you wish: "anti-imperialist", "agrarian", "revolutionary nationalist". Socialism implies them, precedes them, embraces them all. To imperialist, plutocratic, capitalist North America it is only possible to effectively oppose a socialist Latin America. The era of free competition in the capitalist economy is past in every domain and every aspect. We have entered the era of the monopolies, that is the empires. The destination of these countries, in the capitalist order, is that of simple colonies."
One could consider some of these formulations to be excessive or a little schematic: "semi-colonies" (or dependent countries) would be more precise than "simple colonies" and the definition of the revolution as "purely and
5. See Mariategui, "Prefacio a 'El amauta Atusparia', 1930, et principios programaticos del Partido socialista", 1928, "Obra Politica", pp. 231 and 270-271. The concept of "Inca socialism" is very debatable; on this subject also see Robert Paris, "José Carlos Mariategui y el modelo de 'communismo inca" in his book "La formacion ideologica de José Carlos Mariategui", Cuardenos de Pasado y presente, Mexico, Siglo XXI, 1981.
6. Mariategui, "principios programaticos del Partido Socialista", "Obra Politica", p. 271.
7. Mariategui, "Aniversario y balance", 1928, "Obra Politica", pp. 266-267.
17
Originality of thought
International Viewpoint #261 November 1994
920 simply" socialist seems to underestimate the weight of the democratic tasks. But nobody, short of total falsification, could present the author of these lines as a partisan of the revolution by stages.
### Diverse forms
These ideas are taken up, in diverse forms and accents, in several other writings of Mariategui during the years from 1928 to 1930. We will mention only the most famous, the document "Anti-imperialist point of view" presented by Mariategui to the Latin American Communist Conference in Buenos Aires in June 1929: "Neither the bourgeoisie, nor the petty bourgeoisie can carry an anti-imperialist policy to power... without neglecting the use of any element of anti-imperialist agitation, nor any means of mobilisation of the social sectors which can eventually participate in this struggle, our mission is to explain and demonstrate to the masses that only the socialist revolution is capable of opposing a real and definitive barrier to the advance of imperialism." Once again, one can consider that this formulation underestimates the anti-imperialist aspirations of the petty bourgeoisie (or at least its radicalised sectors) but it is impossible to portray its author as a partisan of the bloc of four classes with the national bourgeoisie against imperialism.
In any case, these theses were rejected by Vittorio Codovilla and the orthodox" Communists during the Buenos Aires conference; as Ricardo Galindo observes in his remarkable book "The agony of Mariategui", whereas the International wished to struggle for a "bourgeois democratic" revolution Mariategui and his comrades refused to consider capitalism as progress and fixed as their objective socialist revolution.?
In other words: the idea of the socialist dynamic of the Peruvian and Latin American revolution is at the heart of the political thought of Mariategui between 1928 and 1930, something which was original and heretical in relation to the doctrine of both "official" communism and APRA. However, it would be wrong to simply identify his conception with that of the growing over of the 18 democratic into the socialist revolution (a more systematic conception), and the articulation between national, agrarian and socialist tasks which Trotsky was in the process of formulating at exactly this time and subsequently published as "Permanent Revolution" in 1930. Yet the similarity of the fundamental political aim, the analogy between the essential line of the two is undeniable.
It seems that in the course of the conference of Latin American parties of 1929, the accusation of "Trotskyism" was launched against Mariategui. It amounted of course to an inexact formulation, but it had its "rational kernel"; Mariategui's theses on the Latin American revolution were closer to those of the Left Opposition than those of the Stalinist Comintern leadership. 10 Later, in their stage of "retaking" Mariategui, certain Stalinist authors presented him as "anti-Trotskyist", under the pretext of his polemic against the "Trotskyist" Max Eastman in his book "Defence of Marxism" (1930). In fact, Max Eastman had little to do with Trotskyism, but also and above all, in this book Mariategui refers to Trotsky as an example, together with Marx, Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg of the unity between action and
Internationalist
A convinced internationalist, Mariategui followed closely the debates inside the CPSU without taking any explicit position for one tendency or the other. In an article written in 1928, while considering the victory of Stalin as an inevitable stage of the Russian Revolution, and the result of a provisional national retreat, he saluted Trotsky as a leader who represented "the international sensibility of the socialist revolution. His notable writings on the transitory stabilisation of capitalism situate him among the most lucid and penetrating critics of the epoch. But this same international sensibility of the revolution, which gives him so much prestige on the world scene, reduces his strength, for the moment, in the practice of Russian politics."12 It required a good deal of political courage and autonomy of thought for a partisan of the Communist International to make an affirmation of this type at the very moment when Trotsky was being expelled from the Soviet party.
### Prophetic
One year later (February 1929) when Stalin expelled Trotsky from the USSR, Mariategui wrote an article where this prophetic formula appears: "The Russian revolution owes its international, ecumenical value, its character as a phenomenon prefiguring the rise of a new civilisation, to the thought to which Trotsky and his comrades adhere to with all their vigour and coherence. Without a vigilant critique, which is the best proof of the vitality of the Bolshevik party, the Soviet government probably runs the danger of falling into a mechanical, formalist bureaucratism. 13
Neither "Trotskyist" nor "anti-Trotskyist", Mariategui was a consistent revolutionary Marxist, an authentic anti-imperialist and internationalist, and his thought belongs to all those who struggle, as he did, for the socialist revolution in Peru, Latin America and throughout the world. *
8. Mariategui, "Punto de vista anti-imperialista", 1929, "Obra Politica", p. 275.
9. Ricardo Flores Galindo, "La Agonia de Mariategui. La polémia con le Komintern", Lima, Desco, 1982, pp. 29-31.
10. See on this subject the interesting remarks of Ruben Jimenez Ricardez in his introduction to the Mexican edition of the political writings of Mariategui; "Mariategui utilised in his polemic with the Communist International the principal arguments that he had already advanced against the APRAists. The programme proposed by the Communist International to the revolutionaries of Latin America resembled, like two drops of water, the programme defended by Haya and his partisans. Mariategui had observed the incapacity of the Latin American bourgeoisies to resolve the bourgeois-democratic tasks. He argued, as a logical corollary, that only the working class was capable of resolving them, and in this process transform the continent in a socialist direction. He proposed thus the line of the uninterrupted revolution. In the Latin American Communist conference, Mariategui was harshly criticised by, among others, Codavilla.. it seems that Mariategui was accused of being a Trotskyist". (R. J. Ricardez, "Introducción", in Mariategui, Obra Política, p. 42).
11. Mariategui, "Defensa del Marxismo", 1930, Lima, Ed. Amauta, 1964, pp. 39-40.
12. Mariategui, "Trotsky y la oposición communista", February 25th, 1928, "Obra Política", p. 219.
13. Mariategui, "El exilio de Trotsky", February 1929, "Obra Política", p. 129
Bibliography
To our knowledge, little of Mariategu's work has been translated into English.
Below we have compiled a selection which has been published in Spanish.
• JC Mariategui, 'Complete Works', (20 volumes), Lima, Editions Amauta, 1969.
(A new and more complete edition is currently in preparation.)
• JC Mariategui, "Political Works', Mexico, Ediciones Era, 1979.
• José Arico, Ed., 'Mariategui y los origenes del marxismo latinoamericano,
• Robert Paris, La formación ideológica de José Carlos Mariategui, Mexico,
• Anibal Quijano, 'Introducción a Mariategui", Mexico, Era, 1982.
• Alberto Flores Galindo, 'L a Agonía de Mariategui: La polémica con la
From the International Institute for Research and Education
Notebooks for Study and Research
No. 22, Women's Lives in the New Global Economy'.
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• A new anthology by women writing from their personal and activist experience
Published as part of the NSR's "dossier" series, it explores how capitalist re-organisation of the global economy is profoundly affecting women's lives in every corner of the world.
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• Women's Lives in the New Global Economy demonstrates that feminist and labour struggles can re-assert women's right to decide their future.
International Viewpoint #261 November 1994
Commentaries
Mexico, Pasado y Presente, 1978.
Pasado y Presente, 1981.
Komintern, Lima, Desco, 1982.
milo moll anim bled ed teum
16. 21/291 n000919
• Francis Guibal, Alfonso Ibanez, 'Mariategui Hoy, Lima, Tarea, 1987.
• Osvaldo Femandez Diaz, 'Mariategui o la experiencia del otro", Lima, Ediciones
Amauta, 1994.
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