After the N26 election, the country lives a tense political situation. On one side, JOH and his national and international allies guaranteed the electoral fraud at any cost; on the other, the heroic neighborhoods’ actions paralyzed the country in a true popular insurrection that defeated the state of siege at its high point, caused a rupture in the Federal Police and the Cobras, and occupied the heart of Honduran capitalism for over 48h. Why is it, then, that this heroic resistance does not see the fall of JOH from the presidency as something possible?
For the Socialist Workers’ Party (PST), the answer is in the conciliatory, opportunistic and traitor policy of the Alliance in its opposition to the dictatorship. This leadership has been surpassed by the neighborhoods, villages, towns, and sectors at a national level, so it cannot be the leadership of the process anymore.
By PST Honduras.
Where do we come from, and where to?
We want to highlight that the post-election process had 3 moments regarding class struggle.
First, a spontaneous uprise that quickly spread over the country. Then, independent organization by neighborhoods and industries in national strikes that put the bourgeoisie in check, crying for its millionaire financial loss at each day of strike. The third and less encouraging one is the current situation, in which the conciliatory policy of the Alliance, of not deepening the insurrectional strikes, changing form occupations to marches, allowed the government to reverse the relationship of forces in its favor, evicting strategic occupations like the ones in Quebrada Seca, in El Progreso, and so to increase repression.
Along the three moments, the policy of Nasralla and the Alliance was to prioritize the negotiation, allowing imperialism to make effective its support to JOH. This strategy can also be summarized in three stages:
First, the pre-electoral period. They built an electoral opposition to stop the reelection through press conferences and joint statements that aimed to pass reforms to stop the fraud that was already visible.
Second, once the fraud took place, their policy was to count the 4 thousand acts – then 18 thousand.
Third, and the most serious one: once JOH was declared president, they change their strategy to getting political support by the OAS and the US State Department, which turned them down brutally.
Beyond the despicable role of Nasralla, we cannot leave the other Alliance leaders free of charge. On the contrary: with some nuances, Manuel Zelaya, as the coordinator of the joint political space, took distance from him but in the worst direction – to claudicate before the government and the imperialist pressure. He accompanied this with warm calls to keep the struggle, just like in 2009 he relied on the masses only to negotiate in better conditions and always looking to take control of the masses to demoralize them.
It is the people on the streets that have to lead the process against JOH
To sum up, unlike the bourgeois opposition that never bet on the struggle, the youth, the population, and workers in the neighborhoods came close to stop the fraud, and were the leadership of the three national strikes all over the country, paralyzing the economy 100%, specially in the North Coast, with major industries in San Pedro Sula, Villanueva, Choloma, El Progreso, Puerto Cortes, and the Atlantic Shore. These are the sectors that showed the way to throw JOH down, and they should be the unquestionable leadership of the anti-JOH struggle, based on the broadest democracy and political independence from Mel [Zelaya], Nasralla, and the Alliance as a whole. The people never needed Mel or Nasralla to fight – this is evident, there is no way to deny it.
The National Meeting against Continuation and the opportunity of strengthening the independent struggle
The PST salutes the National Meeting of Strugglers because it represents an opportunity to make a balance of this first stage of the process and make the necessary corrections to achieve a victory. Unfortunately, the JOH administration strengthened with the support of imperialism and the mistakes of the current leadership that we pointed out above, and now it is outraged and coming for us, workers, with massive evictions and detentions, as well as selective murders. In other words, we are not on the offensive anymore, as we were two weeks ago.
Thus, we propose for the Meeting to consider this three tasks as urgent:
- To choose an independent leadership from the sectors that were more consequent with the struggle, from the working class, neighborhoods, and youth, from organizations that were at the front line of the fight and in defense of human rights.
- Regional actions towards a 48h Insurrectional National Strike. For this strike to solve matters like the incorporation of the working class as organized, which requires a special plan, as this would give the strikes a superior quality. Also, the organization of self-defense to stop the repressive escalade. This new strike has to be organized through meetings, assemblies, pamphlets, and other activities that help to build that strike.
- The definition of common programmatic points adjusted to the new necessities of the process. We propose these points to be:
A- National and international denounce of the government for the murders, in respect of and to ensure democratic freedom. B- The immediate resignation of JOH from the government. C- Trial and punishment to JOH, the TSE [Superior Electoral Court] and the entire leadership of the National Party [PN] involved in the fraud. D- The economic demands most felt by the working class: stop layoffs, right to labor organization, bonus, and guarantee of all labor rights.
Only the people can save the people! Organization from below to defeat JOH and his gang!
