The peasant movement fights back
The peasant demonstration that took place on April These results represent a major victory for the was an extra-ordinary event in Mexican independent peasant movement
"Plan de Ayala" First of all, despite the repression suffered by the
Coordinating Committee (CNPA), peasant movement, with more than 130 perested and a systematic refusal to meet the demands
Agricultural of the peasant mobilizations, the movement has grown in several respects.
National
Independent
Federation
Red Federation and Peasants (IOAC), and the considerably in strength over the past 15 years.
The April 10 demonstration was the expression of this national mobilization culminated in a march this slow accumulation of strength, as well
Mexico city from all over the country and in a demonorganizational level of the peasant's fighting structures stration that assembled more than 50,000 persons.
and the extent of the unity achieved
At the same time, more than seventy regional peasant demonstrations were held around the country. Accordpeasant forces. This action was an historic event, ing to the media, these various initiatives mobilized since it is the first time in recent years that such a large number of peasants have mobilized in this way.
about a million peasants nationwide.
Margarito MONTES PARRA
The April 10 demonstration was an effective counterattack against the government's antipeasant offensive that was accelerating in the days that preceded this initiative. On the very day of the peasant mobilization, the secretary of state for agrarian reform, was obliged to issue a statement, published as a paid advertisement in the national papers, in which he said that the peasant movement had no cause to mobilize, that the action was not a genuinely peasant mobilization, that the motivations for the protest did correspond to the not in any way peasants' demands but rather reflected electoral objectives of the political the parties supporting this initiative.
The breadth of the mobilization of refuted the
Mexican peasants clearly government's claims that the April 10 demonstration not genuinely was representative of the peasant population.
be noted that April
It should also
10 is a significant date in Mexico, representing to an extent what May 1 does for the international workers movement. It was on April 10, 1919, that Emiliano Zapata was assassinated in Chinameca in the state of Morelos.
of the
This murder marked the end cycle of the Mexican revolution, and the government has always sought to appropriate Zapata's prestige to consolidate the regime's official ideology.
year, the government
So, every organizes demonstrations to pay homage to Zapata. But since 1979, the regime its ability to wrap itself in has lost
Zapata's banner. In the past, it was the president himself who honored
Zapata occasion. But as the CNPA on this grew and pushed a policy of opposition to this exploitation of the memory
8
(UGOCM-Roja) of the revolutionary leader, the official ceremonies lost a lot of their impact.
In recent years, for example, speeches were no longer given by president but only a secretary of state. This last April 10, it was an undersecretary of state who gave the address, showing the extent to which this official ceremony has lost legitimacy.
So from the ideological standpoint also, the April 10 demonstration was a big success, inasmuch as it removed any credibility from the government's attempt to steal Zapata's mantle.
Another aspect of this demonstration was its clearly national character. represented a confluence of a peasant movement that is developing at same time in various regions of the country but not always in an even way. The April 10 march focused peasant discontent throughout the country, giving it a national and simultaneous expression. This represented an advance in the development of the peasant movement.
The divisive role played by some forces in the peasant movement that were clearly manipulated by the press and the government has to be pointed out. These forces tried to create the impression that there were two CNPAs, one of them independent and the other controlled by the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT), the Mexican section of the Fourth International.
This operation was a total failure, because the peasant organizations that went along with this maneuver were unable to assemble more than 3,000 or 4,000 persons, despite the fact that they considerable means at their disposal, while the three peasant organizations mentioned before brought nearly a million peasants throughout
The failure of this maneuver a setback for sectarianism in the peasant movement, and it opens up new possibilities for consolidating the unity of the movement and broadening it.
A people's agrarian law
From the programmatic standpoint, the peasant march represented a signiadvance for the movement. In the traditional demands for the land, increases in the prices guaranteed for peasant products, cheap credit, and the release of the political prisoners, the peasant movement posed two important axes for the demonstration. The first was for equal rights to the land for peasant women, that is, the inclusion of the demands of peasant women in the demonstration. This was something new.
Secondly, the peasants demanded an alternative agrarian reform law. Nearly a year ago, PRT activists began raising this slogan, and today it has become one of the principal axes of the peasant mobilizations.
At the second congress of the CNPA, which was held last November, it was proposed that the peasants themselves draw up a new agrarian law designed to break with bourgeois legality in the countryside. It was not to be a simple alternative bill to be presented to parliament but an initiative coming from the peasants themselves.
It was for the peasants to say how they wanted the campaign organized, what the limits of private ownership of the land should be, what sort of legal relationships should prevail, what the rules should be for the functioning of the peasant organizations, how the
International Viewpoint 29 July 1985
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MEXICO Political history Orgatred diy
native people should be dealt with, etc. independent even of their official rep- to regain their communal lands.
The PRT works together in a united way with other political adopted as a central slogan in the April 10, 1985 mobilization. forces in the leadership of the CNPA. And, more important,
The PRT has also linked its electoral campaign to the the PRT respects the organizational and political autonomy peasant movement. It has made a very broad election agree- of the CNPA and all the regional peasant organizations. It ment with various peasant organizations, some of which are respects their decisions and their leaderships, whether or not members of the CNPA and others not. Notable in this respect those involved are members of the PRT.
are the agreements concluded with the Independent Mexican The PRT puts forward its political orientation through its
Peasants Coordinating Committee (CCRI), the Organization activists, but it does not try to impose it on anyone. If the of Highland Villages (OPA), the People's Defense Committee peasant organizations adopt it, the PRT activists devote
(CNP), the Triqui Organiztion for Unity and Struggle (MULT) themselves to carrying it out. If it is rejected, they respect the Regional Union of Communal Lands and Communities in this decision, because this is the best way to maintain democrathe South of the State of Puebla (URECSEP), the Indepen- tie political relations between these mass organizations.
They had to decide all these questions to come up with an agrarian law that would break radically from the present legislation.
Today, the agrarian laws provide for the exploitation of the countryside by the cities, the exploitation of the peasants and agricultural workers by the capitalists, and for state control over the native communities. The present legislation maintains a situation where the courts try Indians in Spanish and not in their own languages. Moreover, it institutionalizes discrimination against women as regards rights to the land, to work, and as regards the rights of peasant women relating to production and family life.
The Alternative Agrarian Law, on the other hand, was to be the result of a discussion starting at the grass roots of the peasant organizations, because the laws that presently govern the situation in the countryside were not drawn up by the peasants, and, by this fact alone, could not reflect their interests.
In order to gain legitimacy in of important peasantry, this Alternative Agrarian Law put into concrete operation immediately in the countryside resentatives in parliament.
The Indian communities are a very important factor in the peasant movement. For example, in the state of Chiapas,
Totzil, Tojolabajales, and Zeltales communities Emiliano Zapata Peasant Organisation, which is part of the CNPA. In Michoacan, the Purepecha Indians are organized in the Union de Communeros Emiliano Zapata. In Oaxaca, the Zapotec Indians who live on the isthmus of Tehuantepec are grouped in the Workers, Peasants, and Students Coordinating Committee of the isthmus, which also includes members of the Triqui Unification Movement, which represents the Triqui native communities.
Indians form the backbone of the movement
So, a number of sections of the native their own organizations for representation and defense which join in mobilization massively with the other peasants defense organizations. For example, the Independent
Coordinating Committee (CCRI) mobilizes members of the Nahuatl communities in Copalillo and San Francisco-Acuitlapan. These two communities, which are located
In general, in the April 10 demonstation most of the corteges coming from the south, the southeast, and the north other Indian communities, notably from Buay Siacobe. So, there was a very communities in this demonstration.
In fact, it could be said today that the native communities are the backbone the Mexican peasant They are, perhaps, the sections of the population that furthest toward rebuilding independent peasant organizations, such as National Confederation of Peasants, which is linked to the government party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party
The organizations that have grown up in the Indian communities have managed to build autonomous leaderships and to find methods of expression and organiza tion based on community cohesion and solidarity, which represent very important advances. Their first demand is for the restoration of their former communal lands. This is a special interest of theirs and distinguishes them from the rest of the peasant movement.
While the other peasants who want the land are demanding the expropriation of the big land owners in order to mobilizations,
The PRT and the peasants movement dent Peasant Union (ICI), the Mixteca Auxaquena Union of
The Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT), Mexican section of the Fourth International, has been an integral part of the
Villages (UPM), the Mexican
Mexican peasant movement. Its activists work within it in
(VAPM), and various local groups of peasants.
various ways. The first and most important way is by partici-
Moreover, an agreement was also reached in several states the leadership of various independent peasant with the party of the Socialist Revolution (PRS), a recent organizations on both the regional and national level. A good split from the United Socialist Party of Mexico (PSUM, an number of the first-rank leaders of the peasant movement are members of the PRT. At the same time, the
Committee includes a large number of these peasant leaders.
These accords provide for common candidates in the
The PRT leaders and their many supporters participate in elections for federal deputies and for elected representatives united work with other political currents in the activity and in several states. A number of plans for common campaigns
"Plan de Ayala" National Coordinating have been worked out. In turn,
Committee (CNPA).
can strengthen the peasant organizations by building their
The political ideas and proposals of the PRT have gained a regional and national implantation and making them known lot of ground in the CNPA.
At the Second Congress of the as an alternative to new groups of peasants in their regions,
CNPA, the PRT put forward three axes — greater organizational centralization of the CNPA based on democratic the PRT as a party is methods; building alliances in the peasant movement; and the in support of the peasant movement and its need for a programmatic advance through drawing up a demands. It has integrated these demands into its electoral democratic and people's Alternative Agrarian Law, platform, its national propaganda, its presentations on radio out by the peasants on the basis of their platform of and TV. At the same time, it is participating actively in the peasant campaigns and mobilizations.
This political orientation has been adopted, first by the
With this poliey, the PRT has gained a major role in the peasant movement, to the extent that the government thinks an Alternative Agrarian
Law has been taken up today by that the PRT completely dominates the CNPA. This is false.
other peasant organizations outside the
International Viewpoint 29 July 1985
Mexico City, are fighting every near organization based
PRT Central peasant base.
and so forth.
Finally, campaign and was
CNPA distribute their holdings among
People's Agrarian Vanguard on the CP), which has essentially a waging an extensive
9
peasants, the native communities start from the fact that their ancestral communal lands have belonged to the Indians since time immemorial. To back up their claims, these Indian communities have produced communal land titles that are very old, dating from the sixteenth or seventeeth centuries.
These peasant communities express themselves through forms of organization that are bound up with the cultural traditions of the native people. They communicate in the languages of the Indian communities and identify with these languages and cultures. They argue that within the peasant movement the Indians make up a sector that is peasants, but also oppressed.
The Indians are repressed as peasants mobilizing and therefore subjected to another sort of discrimination. So, they are for recognition as communities with петеливу пі 29v1783119291
Indian women are mobilising (DR)
irrigation facilities and well suited to
1o This offensive is designed to break
Indian up the cohesion of the workers movespecial features of their own.
The Indian communities every day more clearly aware of their own oppression that they suffer because of what they are, the repression that prevents vindicating their identity. interesting to note that in Mexico we have not seen the development of an "ethnicist" consciousness. There is of course a growth of ethnic consciousness, but this has not led to a separatist attitude toward the rest of the peasant
Indians defend their land
To the contrary, the native communities always proudly claim their place as a leading force in the reorganization of an independent peasant movement in which they participate on the same basis as the other peasants.
In the peasant movement, we have always striven to make sure that the program clearly included the demand for the autonomy of the Indian communities and defense of their internal organization and their communal organizational struetures relating to their own land, their language, and their culture.
After the April 10 demonstrations, very violent clashes occurred between the police of the state of Mexico and the Santiago Tequisquiac community, a community that lives about an hour's drive from Mexico City, and which holds titles dating back to 1595 to lands that have been stolen from them.
This community saw its right to the ownership of these lands reconfirmed by Zapata's army on December 5, 1914. It has been fighting now for more than 65 years against expulsion from its lands. Recently, a land owner of Spanish origin took over 180 hectares belonging to this community, very good land with 10 intensive stock raising. The community mobilized to regain its lands.
Police repression was very violent. Some 800 sent in, along with a helicopter that spread teargas. But the people were not passive in the face of this assault. They fought back, and 13 police were wounded. The Mexico City chief of police went into a coma.
After this attack, after the community had taken care of its wounded and buried its dead, it reorganized to build a march on Mexico City. In fact, today in front of the State Secretariat Agrarian Reform, there is a picket of 500 demanding the release of the prisoners, calling on the governan ment to take responsibility for the care of the wounded, to punish those resthis repression, and to their titles to their comgovernment has been obliged to these demands, whereas formerly it purely and simply denied of Indians against whom The power of the community organizations rooted in tradition is so imposing have managed to force the negotiating table to seek a settlement of the peasants' demands.
Despite everything, the peasant movement is going to face grave difficulties, like the workers and people's movement. The economic crisis is hitting the mass movement with full force. In applying its austerity plan, the PRI government has resorted wto repression against the workers movement. It has suppressed the right to strike, attacked collective bargaining, off tens of thousands of ment in order to undermine its capacities for resisting the austerity policy. The working class movement, has in been very hard hit, and is unable to respond union by factory by factory to the government's attacks.
We have seen massive expressions of discontent, such as last May Day, when nearly a million workers raged at the president, hooted at him and whistled at him. (1) But no union on its own can fight back effectively against the regime. Unions such as the Mexico City, subway workers, the telephone employees, and the electrical workers have suffered major setbacks.
Moreover, the movement of the "colonos, the people of the poor neighborhoods of Mexico City, have also come in for severe blows. They have been attacked violently by the police, and expelled from the land that they occupied. The government has tried to break up the coordination of the urban people's movement.
In this context, through the CNPA and the alliance established with the CIOAC and the UGOCM, the three organizations that initiated peasant movethe only section of the masses that has been able to organize a national mobilization. And the government wants cohesion, it wants to deny it any legitimacy by claiming that it is not based on genuine demands and that its only objective is to create conflicts in the countryside.
So, it is no accident that there have been so many murders of peasant activists since April 10. The government is trying to hit every organization separately on the regional level in order to intimidate them, to disorganize them, to keep them from mobilizing. It wants to make 7. 1984 See 'International Viewpoint' No 52, May
International Viewpoint 29 July 1985
was the government that proposed that unleashed against the peasant movement.• the CNPA a hollow shell without a social base. The peasant march on April 10 was an initial response to the govern. ment's offensive. It has opened up possibilities for new forms of coordination attracting other peasant forces into a solider and broader alliance.
However, we have to remain conscious of the fact that in the coming months we are probably going to see another government offensive like the one last year against the peasant movement. It may be an even stronger one. The government this time may even escalate its attacks beyond the regional level and hit the CNPA as a whole, that is, strike at the heart of the movement.
In fact, during the wave of repression in Tequisquiac, the government tried to go after several key members of the "Plan de Ayala" National Coordinating Committee by accusing them of attacks, conspiracy, violation of property rights. If these accusations were pressed in court, they could lead to sentences of 12 to 40 years for these peasant leaders.
In the past, the government has already resorted to such means against other peasant leaders. To take the case of the CIOAC, Comrade Ramon Danzos should enable it to continue the struggle even if it finds itself facing more trying conditions in which to operate.
Today, the Mexican peasant movement is not something that can be easily
The banner of the PRT held high (DRI the peasants submit their demands to various state agencies - the Secretariat for Agrarian Reform, the Secretariat for Agriculture, the director general of the Rural Credit Bank, the director of Agricultural
Palomino, a veteran peasant leader, was accused of the same offenses in 1973 and jailed for a year. The govern- able to confront these new ment's aim was to disorganize the peasant movement. From that standpoint, it suffered a total failure, because the movement reorganized outside the CIOAC itself, and what is today the CNPA gained strength.
However, it would not be surprising if today the government wanted to strike at the head of these organizations in order to break them, combining with local repression against the peasant movement.
The Mexican peasant movement is becoming a real beacon for the poor masses of the country. The conditions have been assembled for developing a broad democratic alternative representing a united response by the peasant organizations. This can be done by building a national peasant assembly to discuss the Alternative Agrarian Law and a plan of struggle for the peasantry as a whole.
A National Peasant Assembly
It such a national peasant assembly can be held in conditions similar to those that marked the April 10 mobilization, this would represent a qualitative leap in the advance of the peasant movement toward establishing still broader forms of unity and centralization.
While repression may put the independent peasant movement in a very difficult situation, it has already attained a level of experience and strength that International Viewpoint 29 July 1985 disorganized. Even if a very harsh repression is launched against it, it will be perhaps by different forms of struggle. If the present mobilizations to modify the relationship of forces to the advantage of the peasant movement, it will then be possible mass action in the country.
It seems possible now to among the various peasant groups. This may not at the beginning embrace the majority of the peasantry, it will be less than a single peasant union. But it will be coordination on a scale sufficient to give firm and consistent backing to the local or partial demands of the peasants.
For example, on the April 10 march, time, specific questions. for application of the presidential resoluconcerning awards of land. fact, this land has not yet been given to granting it have already been promul-
Discussions with the government have begun for the release of the imprisoned peasants. Negotiations have gotten off the ground with various government authorities, which may give the peasant movement an opportunity to strengthen its position. Interestingly, it was after the April 10 march that top-level officials began meeting with peasant leaders. That never happened before.
In the same week, the government met with representatives of the CNPA. It and Stock-Raising Insurance etc.
Thus, the demonstration had enough impact to force the government to try to channel the peasant discontent by meeting with the leaders of these more ments and listening to some of thei specific demands.
If the mobilization manages to combine political, economic, and agrarian demands coherently in a single framework, this could give a very powerful expression to the peasant movement. There is no guarantee, of course, that things will develop this way. But there is a real perspective for that.
In the present situation, it is in fact possible, with a policy that makes it possible to respond to what is taking to achieve major advances in mobilizing the peasants. In this regard, we must not rest content with capacity for mobilization that already exists, nor can we remain passive in the face of the government's attacks, which are certainly going to recur. the regime is not going to confine itself to negotiating with the peasants.
Historically, ment's response to the demands of the peasants has always been two sided. It has involved both repression and partial concessions. This will probably happen again. On some points there will probably be concessions, while other demands will be met with repression. So, it will be necessary to be able to take advantage of the concessions to strengthen the peasant mobilization so that it can resist the various forms of repression that will be
11
as the revolutionary forces unite
Alongside a process of unification and strengthening Patriotic Union (UPA), members of the United Left ruling power in the Dominican Republic, the Dominican of the revolutionary and popular organisations, a sympathising group of the Fourth International (10) and the Revolutionary Communist League (LCK),
Revolutionary Party (PRD) has been which subsequently joined the Bloque Socialista. (1)
an ever deepening crisis. This crisis has been unfolding In 1984, the agreement imposed by the IMF in double impact of developments in the
Caribbean as a whole and as a consequence of the exchange for renewing price rises in basic goods and provoked economic crisis and the pressures being exerted by the virtual social explosion lasting several days and beginning on April 23,
DOMINICAN REPUBLICunder the
Fund (IMF)
International Monetary ment of president Salvador Jorge Blanco.
massive repression in which dozens were killed and
While class confrontation has been on the increase, wounded. The paradox of the situation was that these so has the pace of developing unity between revoluhunger riots took place on the day of the nineteenth tionary organisations. The years 1970 to 1981 had anniversary of the uprising by supporters already seen discussions leading to the unification of president Juan Bosch and the military constitutionalists three organisations, the Socialist Workers Movement that US imperialism had drowned in blood through
(MST), the Nucleus of Communist Workers (NCT) and the intervention of 42,000 GIs.
the Socialist Party (PS) which were to fuse to form the
Following the hunger riots in April 1984, new
Bloque Socialista (BS). This revolutionary regroupment, then, whose first actual congress took place in June activities around new demands began to take place at
1984, became the motor force for a much larger the beginning of 1985 and this led to the organisation process of unity in action within the working class of a 24-hour general strike on February 11, 1985, in and popular movement.
the preparation of which the FID played a key role.
The debates between the various political currents
In May of this year a delegation from FID were in continued during this time and culminated in the
Europe. We spoke to comrades Antonio Aquino,
June 14, 1983 of the Dominican formation on
Carmen Sanchez, and Enrique Pichardo about the
Left Front (FID) which grouped together workers developments in the political situation in the country as well as the developments towards unity of the and peasants organisations from the left inclucing
BS, the Dominican Workers Party (PTD), the Moverevolutionary forces. The following is a summary of ment for Socialism the Anti-imperialist
How was the Dominican
Left Front (FID) first set up?
Answer. The policies of the Dominican gave way to increased social tensions and a significant denial of basic democratic rights. Up until June
1983, all the strands of the revolutionary been divided into main fronts. But seeing the depth of the crisis of the regime and the social chaos
Dominican people, they agreement to set up the FID. Of course discussions. This political event raised great hopes among the Dominican people but it also created a huge panic among the forces of reaction.
But in any case, this unitary initiative is now irreversible. Revolutionaries today are convinced that without unity, they have no strength with which to achieve possible victory. This recognition of the need for unity has meant that Dominican revolutionaries have been able to put the discussion on the actual situation in the region to the forefront in the joint debates — going beyond any ideologdifferences on the situation of the international communist on the governthat discussion. movement and the international situation
This does not mean to say that we deny the differences which exist between different components of the FID. can put forward within the FID, in the way they think best and as each event comes
But the FID does not aim to deal with such problems within its terms of reference. The main thing is that there is agreement on the fact that we cannot continue under the presence of foreign monopoly businesses, nor in the position of a neo-colonial country and that we cannot tolerate the fact that the proletariat and the impoverished masses in the countryside continue to live under the yoke of oppression and exploitation. So, in that case it is a duty for us to unify ourselves and unite
Strengthened by these two elements, we are certain that no force in the whole hold back the Dominican revolution. Our revolutionary perspective however, is not a long term one. It is generation that has the task of leading the revolutionary and people's movement to overthrow oppression; of liberating our people; of making our
La loan of 450 million dollars 1984. (2) This resulted in country prosper and of creating the conditions for the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the short term. These are our objectives and it is around these that we are
The unification of organisations with different political and organisational traditions must pose some problems. How have you sought to resolve the problems of working within the FID and also the question of the relations between the FID and the mass movement?
A. In the first place, within the FID we all share the same views on the analysis of the current situation and on the path that revolutionaries should take. So any problems which may arise are always secondary to this. Also there exists a very good spirit of cooperation between revolutionaries of different organisations. Sometimes in practice, it is impossible to tell who is a member of the Dominican Workers Party the Dominican Communist Party, the Bloque Socialista or the Patriotic Union.
See 'International Viewpoint, No 76, April 22. 1985.
See 'IV' No 53, May 21, 1984. International Viewpoint 29 July 1985
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Regime in crisis going through
the problems are exist and in occasional come we current decline.
revolufront.
tionary of each the were rep-
15 often only being out within activity the of the framework they came from.
into a measures had taken which
Women peasants demonstrate in Santo Domingo (DR) popular masses. was another important element. The majority of the years to mission which political body on majority this would have have a fixed Journal called The political commission as the up of members therefore some and local committees full-time of the FID are elected by an assembly of members of all the organisations in the area, the provinces or the region. These individuals then have both the real and moral authority necessary to fulfill the functions of leaders of the international Viewpoint 29 July 1985
FID in those areas. This has allowed us to make great progress at the level of effective action. Nobody challenges the political origins of a secretary of a local committee any more, or of a town or provincial committee.
In fact often, up until last November when we wanted to take any decisions, we had to first get each organisation together separately. Now the political leadership of the FID, the national leadership and the regional, provincial and local leaderships and even the mass fronts, have become collective structures.
It is also important to note that we have created a national department for the mass fronts. This department is subdivided into sub-departments made up of activists responsible for clearly defined areas of intervention; peasants, workers, youth, culture etc. Also before we had no programme or model. Now we have a political project and we know at each point what we want and how we are going to get it.