|STATEMENT of IWL(FI)
Written by IWL-FI – International Secretariat
Monday, 04 May 2015 16:01
On February 28 this year, the union leaders of the General Confederation of Workers of Peru, CGTP, issued a motion pointing and threatening the IWL’s section of Peru, PST, and the labor lawyer Jorge Rendon Vasquez, because they expressed their critical position on the policies of that Confederation leadership with regard to the General Labor Act promoted by the government against the interests of workers and because of their attitude towards the struggles that the youth and sectors of the workers movement have staged.
We call on the organizations of the workers, their unions and parties to join us in a campaign of pronouncements against this totalitarian abuse made “in the name of the unity of the working class”, which erodes the fundamental basis of workers’ democracy. This type of behavior should be condemned by all those who defend the most fundamental right of expression. We reproduce below the statement by the IWL-FI International Secretariat.
IWL-FI’s Statement
We have learned that the VIII General Assembly of the CGTP passed a motion in which the labor lawyer Jorge Rendon Vasquez and the Socialist Workers Party PST-P) are declared as “enemies of the CGTP”. In addition, the PST is accused of “sectarian and divisive” and calls on all CGTP unions to “reject and fight in all areas, stressing forcefully” the enemies of the Confederation.
The leadership of the IWL-FI emphatically rejects such accusations both against the labor lawyer Jorge Rendon Vasquez as well as PST, which is our section in this brother country.
We understand that this attack is an attempt by the CGTP leadership to put up a smoke screen, given the strong criticism of its policy of consensus with the government on the General Labor Act, which is harmful to the interests of workers and whose criticism has deepened after the large demonstrations against the Pulpín Act, in which the rank and file of the CGTP participated accompanying the Youth, while their leadership stayed out in the same way it did during the different struggles that took place during the month of February. The Peruvian workers are waiting for their Central to centralize and coordinate immediately all struggles that are taking place and others which are being announced, against the harsh attacks of the bosses and the government. But its leadership policy is to prioritize the negotiations with the government, while pointing out that its critics are “divisive.”
Our rejection is rooted in the deepest conviction that such methods are unusual in the international working class movement and their practice through history by some trends, such as Stalinism, have made a huge damage to unions and political organizations of the working class. This method of accusing and condemning against the most basic right of opinion undermines the foundations of the true unity of the class, based on the broadest democracy, to face the onslaught of the bosses, the bourgeoisie and imperialism.
The workers require a broadly democratic functioning of their organizations to discuss the various alternatives and proposals and they know that once determined the best, they will carry it out with the most iron confidence and discipline. Conversely, bureaucratic and totalitarian methods are applied by a minority to impose class conciliation policies whose consequence is strengthening the interests of employers and governments. To prevent democratic discussion, a fundamental principle of the working class, they resort to all kinds of maneuvers and accusations with empty phrases used thousand times throughout its history such as “divisive,” “will play into the hands of the right”, “conspiracy.”  This is the recent history of what has happened in almost every country in the world where the leaders of the big unions have backed the implementation in deeds of all neoliberal plans while claiming their rejection in words, in the name of unity and the interests of workers. It is clear that to pass these policies it’s needed to “stress forcefully” the true union democracy and attempt to gag the currents and classist and independent positions that do not share their point of view.
We demand the history and actions of the Peruvian PST because “over 40 years since it was founded, and in 80 years of existence of our current, from the rank and file and fighting side by side, we have contributed to the strengthening of trade union organizations, the foundation of the CGTP in 1968, the success of the historic national strike of 1977 and countless struggles, and sharing with many members of the Communist Party and other parties the imprisonments, deportations and layoffs, and have become part of demonstrations and events organized by the Confederation; all while maintaining an independent and critical position on its leadership.”
With what moral authority does the communist CGTP leadership brand of our party of sectarian and divisive? The facts show otherwise, the whole history of our Trotskyist current, despite the deep programmatic and methodological differences we have with Stalinism, has been marked by class solidarity. We have stood by their organizations and their defense when they have been attacked in many countries by fascism, by bourgeois governments, by paramilitary groups and by imperialism. We defended the “socialist states” when they were attacked by world imperialism; we defended as nobody else the former USSR, despite the extermination of an entire generation of Bolshevik revolutionaries, the persecution, exile and murder of Trotsky himself and the Trotskyists at the hands of Stalin; we defended Cuba and other workers states.
We can’t say the same today, when just the Communists gave up this great conquest to imperialism and allowed the capitalist restoration in all of them. When they support unconditionally the bourgeois governments, which they call “alternative” but apply all plans against the working class. When they justify and keep silent about the brutal attack which the Cuban workers are victims of, with hundred thousands of layoffs and starvation wages, the true product of capitalist restoration. When they keep a complicit silent towards the occupation of Haiti by the armies of Latin American governments which are called by them “workers’ friends” such as Brazil and Bolivia.
The CGTP leaders do not have the slightest authority to lift a finger accusing their opponents within the labor movement, neither of sectarianism, nor divisive, or enemies of the workers. Yes, we are enemies of their conciliatory, bureaucratic and totalitarian political methods.
We demand this motion to be repealed
We call on the Peruvian workers, as well as around the world, to unify the struggles against the hunger and misery plans defined by imperialism and implemented by the submissive capitalist governments in power. To recover the trade unions so as to turn them into true instruments of these struggles, applying the principles of workers’ democracy, solidarity and internationalism. We call you to take up a relentless struggle to defend our most basic democratic rights against both the state and within the trade unions, to reject the methods of accusation in the workers movement. We make accountable the leadership of the CGTP of any physical attack on our comrades. Every worker has the right to express their ideas and proposals. An organization that prevents the right of expression will not be able to defend the economic, political and trade union rights of workers.
The call the workers to build together with us the Socialist Workers Party of Peru and the International Workers’ League, to fight for the interests of the world working class, and to build a society free from exploitation and oppression.
IWL
International Secretariat