In the face of the reactionary right that seeks to take over the government and Castillo’s inaction in the face of the problems that afflict the working people…
General Strike!
The crisis in which the government and the parliament are immersed reached decisive stages: a new motion of impeachment led to Castillo’s dismissal of the Congress.
By PST-Peru
Like two bad chess players, the government and Congress moved their pieces quickly trying to impose themselves, regardless of what is happening in the country: rising cost of living, layoffs, employers’ intransigence in the face of claims, lack of fertilizers in the countryside, a drought unparalleled in the last 50 years, gender violence, the fifth wave of covid and a long etcetera… put at risk the living conditions of the working people of the countryside and the city.
It is true, the working class and the poor people will not benefit at all if the right-wing opposition in Congress removes Castillo, whether by means of impeachment, suspension, or early elections. Nothing better will come from a government armed by Fujimorism and the ultra-right of “Porky” and company. That same right-wing wants direct control of the government to attack our already battered rights and guarantee corporate profits.
But it is also true that Castillo’s government has shown that it is not a “government of the people,” since it abandoned the most minimal measures of change offered during the electoral campaign – let alone the Constituent Assembly, for example – in order to please the same bosses who to this day want to get rid of it. This is not to mention the tangle of corrupt practices Castillo was incapable of clearly distinguishing himself.
Finally, so that there can be no doubt as to the character of the government, it has run into the arms of U.S. imperialism, through the OAS, seeking to gain oxygen.
The leaders of the CGTP (Confederación General de Trabajadores del Perú) and the parties that call themselves leftists (Communist Party – Unity, Red Fatherland, New Peru, etc.), grouped in the self-styled “Assembly of the Peoples”, are wrong, therefore, when they call on the working and popular bases to mobilize only against the actions of Congress. In doing so, they themselves abandon the struggle to find a solution to the urgent demands of the working people.
There is no way to confront, consequently, the reactionary right, without touching its economic and political interests. But if Castillo intends to confront the putschist right, he would have to adopt concrete measures to give a solution to the workers and popular demands:
- General increase in salaries and pensions. Minimum wage equal to the cost of the basic consumer basket.
- A 4-hour workday with no reduction in wages to distribute the work among all those who need it.
- Reinstatement of all workers laid off in the last 3 years.
- Expropriation of the factories that have been closed so that they may begin to operate under workers’ control.
- Confiscation of the fertilizer hoarded by the agroindustrial companies to be distributed among the poor peasantry.
- Emergency drought plan to bring water to poor farmers.
- Distribution of basic necessities, by the State, among the poorest people in the countryside and the city.
- Sanction those who raise the prices of fuels and essential products.
- Nationalization of the mines and oil wells to put these resources at the service of the education and health of the working people.
Only in this way would the working people have real reasons to rally alongside the government!
However, the reality is that the only cause for which the reformist leaders and organizations are calling on the workers to march is the so-called “defense of democracy” and “against the coup”… A corrupt and bosses’ democracy that only guarantees rights for the businessmen! While they are asking Castillo to “fulfill his campaign promises”… Promises that he threw out the window during his swearing-in on July 28, 2021!
It is not sufficient just to ask the government to comply. It will be in the streets where we workers must conquer, uniting our struggles, like the combative Celima strike, in a great National General Strike, not only to defeat the putschist right, but also to impose our demands, including the call for a Constituent Assembly to discuss the recovery of our resources and the lands of the peasant communities, as well as to guarantee work and bread for all the working and poor people.
The union leaders have this responsibility. If they refuse to call for a big National General Strike, in fact, they will demonstrate that all their talk about the “fight against the coup”, is just talk. It will be by raising the banners of struggle of the working class, demanding a solution to our demands, and by bringing the country to a standstill, that the working class and the people will deal a withering blow to the attempts of the most reactionary sectors of the bosses and at the same time will demand from the government concrete measures for the solution of our demands.
However, we warn that it will only be through a true workers’ and popular government, a government of our organizations of struggle, that we will be able to guarantee, against all the attempts of the bosses to stop us, the fundamental solution to these urgent needs. A government that puts into effect a workers’ and popular emergency plan to confront hunger, unemployment, the problems of health, education, male violence, the demands of the native peoples and peasant communities, and to guarantee equal conditions and rights for all the people.
