Building a World Party of Socialists Senegal
LEGALIZATION OF THE OST
Combat Ouvrier Workers Fight) is a legal newspaper which describes itself as a political information and opinion bulletin (temporary address: numero 1037, HLM IV, Dakar, Senegal); its latest issue comments on the application for legalization of the Organisation Socialiste des Travailleurs (OST-- Socialist Workers Organization).
In an editorial entitled "The road to the revolutionary party, " Combat Ouvrier writes: "On the basis of an analysis of the political situation in our country, and with the strategic perspective of building the revolutionary party, Senegalese revolutionary Marxists have decided to set up the OST."
In discussing the political framework of the democratic "opening" initiated by president of the republic Abdou Diouf-Leopold Sedar Senghor's successor--and imperialism, Combat Ouvrier notes: "We have no illusions about the current democratic opening. We know the government will move to end it--and even resort to bloody repression--as soon as it feels the level of militancy, organization, and consciousness of the workers and their vanguard is beginning to threaten the government." Nonenization is because they are convinced that their program --for the revolutionary conquest of power by the working class-is the only one that corresponds to the authentic interests of working people, the only one that can defeat imperialism. Asserting this is not an act of self-proclamation. Revolutionary Marxists still have the duty to demonstrate the correctness of their program in practice. This is a challange which they accept."
Since the publication of the first issue (Issue No. 0) of Combat Ouvrier, three months ago, the OST has succeeded in getting legalized. It is now circulating a manifesto which, after a long analysis of its strategic perspectives, states: "The OST is in political solidarity with the fight of the Fourth International. For the OST this is a means to help bring about the Socialist United States of Africa, a component of the worldwide republic of workers and peasants
One of the OST's first initiatives was to publish and distribute a statement at the February 13 rally of the Rassemblement Democratique National (RND--National Democratic Unity); this sets it off from the organizations that have already been legalized but have done nothing on behalf of the fundamental interests of the exploited masses. In this statement, the OST called on all groupings that claim to fight for the working masses to struggle for an "Action the government party, the PRI (Revolutionary Institutions Party).
The PRT has become the target of a violent anti-communist campaign, including a variety of attacks (anti-communist leaflets, ransacking of headquarters, systematic defacing of PRT posters and wall paintings).
Following the attack on PRT headquar ters in La Paz, Baja California Sur, on January 21, leaflets were found at the headquarters and at the home of a party activist. They were stamped with a human skull and proclaimed: "Supporting Communism is treason against Mexico"; they were signed by the so-called FUEP (Student and Popular Forces). While this is the first time these initials have been seen in La Paz, they have appeared previously in Mexicali, Baja California Norte. In the purest antiCommunist vein, the leaflet dribbled on: "Communism means nothing but theft, death, hunger and slavery--these are not one but several reasons to fight Communism...." Quite likely, this propaganda is financed by the very people who hire thugs to cover up the PRT election wall paintings and posters with others calling on people to vote for the PRI candidate.
This has not been enough, however, to stop the election campaign of Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, which is conceived as a means of helping the working people to organize and defend themselves.
In early February, for instance, the PRT theless, Combat Ouvrier continues, "re- Front in Defense of Jobs and Buying Power. " candidate was in La Paz, in southern Baja volutionaries do not choose to function underground. They are forced to by the relationship of class forces. Each time a possibility of legal work appears, they must take advantage of it. This is the reason for the formation of the OST."
The OST did not appear out of the blue. "The fact that is exists today is the result of the Trotskyist movement's activity--under the auspices of the GOR (Groupe Ouvrier Revolutionnaire--Revolutionary Workers Group)--over several years of clandestinity."
Combat Ouvrier answers those who complain that the OST's legalization attempt comes after that of eleven other organizations: "For the Trotskyists, the party is first of all the program. The reason they constitute themselves as a distinct political orga16
Mexico
THE PRI ATTACKS
THE PRT CAMPAIGN
The Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores (PRT-Revolutionary Workers Party), Mexican section of the Fourth International, has been campaigning for Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, the leader of the FNCR (National Front Against Repression), for president. Systematic work in this election campaign is beginning to extend the party's base and influence. This has been enough to irritate
California, one day before the official trip of Miguel de la Madrid, the PRI candidate for president. And PRT activists managed to pull off the first activity of an opposition political party in La Paz.
Meetings were held in the villages of the region for the impoverished population, who ordinarily don't get any attention from the traditional political parties.
In Puerto Lopez Mateos, a small fishing village of 4,000 people, for instance, 200 workers gathered for a dialogue with the PRT candidate. In Ciudad Constitucion, the PRI and PRT are the only two parties running in the election, and a PRT meeting was attended by over 150 people, including many schoolteachers.
The support of the population of the region for the PRT was concretized in the
formation of committees to support the candidacy of Rosario Ibarra de Piedra. These committees assume responsibility for preparing meetings and propaganda, and they are being coordinated to organize the election campaign, and set up poll-watching teams to minimize irregularities in the forthcoming July 4 vote. At the same time, these committees are based on specific sectors like the peasants of Cuadano, the women of Cuadano, educational workers, the people of Puerto Lopez Mateos, etc, and they lay the basis for organizing workers in their respective sectors.
This campaign, which is both winning support for the PRT and building the organization of the poor masses, gives the government party, the PRI, every reason for
We must therefore remain alert for possible new attacks against our comrades in the PRT who were granted legal status only reluctantly by the powers that be. •
THE CONGRESS
OF THE PERUVIAN PRT By Angel Munoz
The Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajodores (PRT-- Revolutionary Workers Party), Peruvian section of the Fourth International, held its second congress in Lima February 26-28.
The party has just come through a difficult period of sharp internal disputes. Despite this, the PRT has maintained its previously acquired assets--its mass influence focused on the personality of Hugo Blanco; and the dedication and enthusiasm of its activists in the factories, in the countryside, and in the pueblos jovenes (the shantytowns around the cities).
For example, at the beginning of last year, the slates headed by the PRIor including PRT representatives scored major successes in enterprises such as Moraveco, Centromin, and in the Municipal Workers Union (FENAOM)--all of which are among the most militant sections of the Peruvian workers movement.
At the congress of the largest engineering workers union, FETIM, out of 150 delegates 25 were members of the PRT. This was far more than the Union Democratica Popular (UDP--People's Democratic Union, a left centrist coalition, the most closely identified with the Cuban leadership of the Peruvian left parties). It had just five. Only the Maoists of the Partido Comunista Revolucionario (PCR--Revolutionary Communist Party) had more delegates than the PRT. They had 30.
The outstanding result of the second congress of the PRT was a change in the atmosphere within the party. Whereas a year ago, a factional spirit prevailed, today there is a strong determination to create the conditions for a comradely and democratic discussion. A strong will to assure united and disciplined action by the entire party also clearly emerged.
The central moment in the congress was the adoption of the party's new program and the election of the leadership. Also, commissions elected by the congress discussed and developed reports on the political orientation and the organization of the party. These reports were referred to the incoming Central Committee, which was charged with carrying the studies further and adopting the recommendations.
The program that was approved represented an important step forward, especially on the peasant question. Other important questions were decided in general resolutions, which now need more thoroughgoing study. These include, the policy of alliances that the party should follow in connection with the democratic and anti-imperialist tasks, a question that today is at the center of political debate in the Latin-American left.
The PRT leadership has undergone a far-reaching renewal. Some 70% of the CC are new; 25% are workers, and 15% are women (there were no women on the old CC). About 70% of the members of the Executive Committee are also new.
It would be foolish to think that all the PRT's problems have been solved or are going to be solved easily. But there is an opportunity to reorganize the PRT. The new leadership has the main responsibility for this task. Antilles
TROTSKYIST WRITER SPEAKS IN HAVANA
Vincent Placoly, a member of the Groupe Revolution Socialiste (GRS), Antillian section of the Fourth International, served in January as a member of the jury that awards the literary prizes of the Casa de las Americas, the Cuban publishing house. Placoly is the author of several movels published in France.
In the speech he gave in Havana when the jury made its report, Placoly stressed the role that intelligent and politically aware publishers can play in helping new generations of writers and thinkers mature and widen their outlook, especially in the colonial world, new generations that can give expression to the struggle of their peoples for self-consciousness and libera-
The Casa de las Americas meeting was an appropriate place for these remarks, since the Cuban publishing house to a considerable extent has continued the tradition of early Soviet publishing, and is distinguished by a hospitality to creativity and a nonsectarianism quite unlike the official publishing houses of the bureaucratized West European states.
The following are extracts from Placoly's speech:
"We are still suffering the effects of the balkanization of our world by the old colonial powers, effects that are aggravated today by the well-known policy of the U.S. to divide the peoples in order to establish its rule. But there are also other reasons for this, especially in the French-
"Many of our young are abandoning French for Creole, which they consider more suited to our culture. This is a problem that the Casa de las Americas will face in the near future, I think; the problem of including works in Creole in this
"Moreover, the idea of a specific Latin-American civilization, even though it is catching on in the heads of some of our intellectuals, is still very embryonic. In this respect, I have to note, not without some bitterness, that writers such as Aime Cesaire, who enjoys a great authority in our country, are not turning the attention of our young intellectuals towards the Americas, because they remain too attached to the virtues of European thought.
"I think that it would be very positive to promote the development of friendship societies with Cuba, like the one that already exists in Martinique, not only in the Antilles themselves but also in France and Canada, where there are large communities of French-speaking people of Antil-
"Secondly, and I think that this is the most important point, 1am convinced that Europe, and especially France, does not yet have a clear idea of our importance (I am speaking about Latin America and the Caribbean) in the formation of modern thought....It would take me an hour to list the major Latin American works that have never been translated into French. Think, if it were not for the courage and intelligence of a publisher like Francois Maspero, a work like Carlos Mariategui's Seven Essays would have remained unknown
"I should also mention the basic writings of Jose Marti, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara's Episodes of Revolutionary War ....
"Can you imagine that the world of Roque Dalton, Alfonso Reyes, and Onetti are almost unknown in France, and therefore in the Antilles....
"Comrade Retamar talked yesterday about books that have been able to exercise a political influence on a whole generation. To convince you of the importance of translations, do you know the book that most deeply influenced my generation, the generation of 1946. Far more than West Indies LMDT by Nicolas Guillen, far more than Reino de Este Mondo by Alejo Carpentier, it was the French translation of Bertillon 166 by Jose Soler Puig, who got the Casa de las Americas Prize in 1960. "