A new phase of struggle The following statement was issued November 28, 1984, by the Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores (PST — Socialist Workers Party) of Uruguay, which is in solidarity with the Fourth In-
On November 25, after thirteen long years, national elections were held. Given the results, it would be easy to say that the election reflected only the conservatism of the Uruguayan people, that calling elections was only a maneuver by the dictatorship and the bourgeoisie, a hook that the masses swallowed without difficulty, and that nothing has changed in the country.
It would be good, however, to begin by clarifying one thing: Those of us who have participated in the people's struggle throughout this dark decade know that the military were not so "tired" of ruling that they decided on their own to withdraw. They are retiring because the workers and the people have made this country ungovernable for the dictatorship. These elections represent the regaining of a right for the society as a whole thanks to the mobilization of the workers' and people's movement. They were not a gift from the dictatorship.
Nonetheless, when November 25 arrived, there were still persons banned from participating in public life, political prisoners, exiles, and there was the shameful trial against Ferreira Aldunate. (1) We got elections that because of their restrictive form excluded a large part of the people's demands. cannot be denied that the electoral way out of the dictatorship has come before an opening to democracy, which would involve defeating military authoritarianism. This is why we reject any overoptimistic assessment of the elections, which would lead to disarming ourselves. This is why we say categorically that the struggle for democracy is not over.
It would be wrong to conclude that the great majority of those who voted for Sanguinetti did so because they wanted to avoid any break in the continuity of the political system. It would also be wrong to think that the negative effects of the Naval Club accords and Social Coordination on the masses were
The regime had its back to the wall (which does not mean that it was about to fall any day). Its authoritarian model was worn out, having been rejected by nearly the entire population. Without any doubt, the Naval Club accords enabled it to avoid a situation where there was a clear alternative between the dictatorship and the people's movement, between authoritarianism and democracy. But these accords did more. Not only did they divide the opposition front and the most consistent sectors in the fight against the dictatorship but they also opened up the way for the more regressive strategy, which sought continually to achieve an "honorable" settlement with the regime, and attempted by every means possible to sabotage the mass mobilizaposal for "peaceful transition without trauma position, the pro- These accords reinforced the "gradualist" of this deal made the Colorado Party appear to public opinion as a responsible and coherent party, as the guarantor of the withdrawal of the military. In this way, a good part of what was won in the day-to-day struggle was lost at the negotiating
Social Coordination was the extension to the social sphere of what the Naval Club accords attempted on the public level. The meetings of the National Programmatic Coordination (CONAPRO) have become the major occasions of national life. They continued, building up increased expectations. ments proliferated, fostering illusions. However, on the decisive questions there was no agreement. No social pact was concluded, not because of any unwillingness on the part of the Colorados and the bosses but simply because it was impossible to reconcile the interests of the exploiters and the exploited....
In fact, it is impossible to reconcile the democratic aspirations of the people and the interests of those who opposed a general, unrestricted amnesty, and who have the affrontery to go so far as to say that they are ready to use the repressive machinery contained in Decree 19! [This is the cornerstone of the dictatorship's repressive legislation]
The election result must not lead us to a defeatist position underestimating the gains made up until now. A new period is opening for the workers' and people's struggle. And it must not be forgotten that the majority of the people have voted against authoritarianism, for democracy without tutelage, for economic and social changes. But we cannot either ignore the fact that the Colorado victory had a major negative impact, tavoring social demobilization and promoting a confrontation between the most dynamic political forces in the opposition to the military regime that is as absurd as it is sterile. This is owing in the first instance to the Naval Club accords and national coordination. It is on the basis of this reality that all supporters of the Frente Amplio have to assume their part of the responsibility in the historic events we are living through.
It would be as wrong as it would be dangerous to try to evaluate the elections simply on the basis of the numerical scores. No one can deny that the Frente Amplio made important electoral gains, essentially in the working-class and poor areas. No one can forget the years of persecution, torture and prison that the Frente Amplio's adherents suffered, nor the thousands of its supporters and leaders who remain banned from political life or in exile. We cannot forget the virulent anti-Communist campaign against the Front and the pressures
"realistically." These elements have to be taken into consideration in an analysis, but they are not justifications. At the same time, we have to consider the overall vote for the Front and not just that for each of its components. To be sure, the meaning of the vote for the different components is not
Who can deny that the tens of thousands of votes for the Independent Democratic Left (IDI) gave support to a political project, for the aim of forming a party for socialist revolution, and weighed against the Naval Club accords? But while this is important, it is not yet the essential thing.
Moreover, there is something still more important. The results of the 1971 elections, as well as those of November 25, 1984, the vitality of the Frente Amplio as an instrument of working-class and popular unity and as an expression of the aspirations for radical change...unequivocally confirmed the fact that the breakdown of the bourgeois two-party system in this country is a definitive historical reality.
Thus, two roads are opening up now. Either the Frente Amplio, together with the social movements, will take the leadership of the workers' and people's struggle on the basis of total political independence from the traditional political parties and the new government, or it will become only an additional opposition party, trapped in the framework of bourgeois parliamentarism. It needs a political line designed fundamentally to serve the interests of the exploited, which excludes collaboration with, or participation in, the pro-imperialist capitalist government of the Colorado Party.
This is why it is becoming urgent to hold a congress of the base committees of the Front that would be democratic and sovereign. This is needed not only to resolve the problem of structures and of representativity in the Front leadership and to make the most accurate assessment possible. The essential thing lies elsewhere. It is the role of the Front in the workers' and people's struggle, in the fight for democratic demands, for a general and unrestricted amnesty, for the dismantling of the repressive apparatus, the fight for higher wages and a break with the IMF, the fight against the education law [which abolishes the autonomy of the high schools and universities vis-a-vis the government] and for the immediate reinstatement of all workers fired or demoted by way of reprisals. Of particular importance, moreover, is the fight for the abrogation of Decree No.
19, along with all the other repressive decrees of the dictator-
The leader of the Blanco Party, who remains banned from political In the period leading up to the elections, the military not only refused to lift the proscription against him but subjected him to new per-
International Viewpoint 28 January 1984
Sent to Germany by the International, he helped the German section build its
After returning to military apparatus.
Bulgaria, he became part of the leader-