The announcement of the split by a group of members of our party generates agony, no doubt, and even some insecurity among part of the active vanguard of our country, honestly dedicated to the struggle for a socialist revolution to free all exploited and oppressed from the ills of capitalism.
By Zé Maria – National President of PSTU.
We know without a strong revolutionary party, deep-rooted among the most exploited sectors of our class, this revolution is just a dream.
First, I want to say I respect all comrades who split with us. They are revolutionaries that walked in struggle with us for a long time, and made their contribution to the construction of our party. And I am really sorry about the decision they made. But I cannot stop saying I think what the comrades made is a major mistake. To split with a revolutionary party to build another one is not the way of strengthening such construction. It does not help fighting the reformist alternatives disputing the consciousness of the working class, nor to lead its struggles.
It is true that important political differences emerged between us (see the letter of the comrades[1] and the response of the leadership of PSTU[2]). However, those are common differences for a debate among revolutionaries, in a party that is alive, acting on struggles, and debating internally to define the best position to act.
What can resolve such differences in an organization like ours, when there is no synthesis during the democratic Pre-Congress debate, is the practice, through the implementation of the policy voted by majority.
In this regard, we did not have irreconcilable differences; even less if we consider the debate is just beginning. Countless comrades with the same positions as the ones that split, totally or partially, remained in the PSTU with no need to abandon their political positions.
The concern of the comrades in avoiding a sectarian or self-proclamatory position is fair. Nevertheless, we have made mistakes in one and other direction. But the struggling process of Rio de Janeiro today –strikes and demonstrations of public and State workers, metal workers, unemployed and students- is quite illustrative of the position of the Party.
The action of the PSTU militants for the construction of this mobilization, together with many other leaders and activists of other tendencies, was exceptional, struggling for a wide unity of action to gather all entities who wanted to struggle. In this process, we took our policy to the movement. This is what we believe in.
To weaken this alternative is to weaken the construction of a revolutionary alternative in our country; that is why it is a mistake to split. So, I can only say to the comrades I hope the processes of class struggle, and the debate we will pose to the movement, brings them back.
To the thousand of activists all around the country, I tell you we will go on. We cannot pick only flowers on the road. But the hardest struggles are the ones to come. Come with us, to build the PSTU, a workers, socialist, revolutionary party.
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Notes:
[1] Soon to be translated.
[2] http://litci.org/en/statement-of-the-national-leadership-of-pstu-brazil/
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Translation: Sofía Ballack.
