- The government of Dina Boluarte, hand in hand with Congress, has unleashed a ferocious repression in the interior of the country with the aim of defeating the popular rebellion. Centered in the poorest districts and provinces of the countryside, this revolt has taken over the cities of the South, confronting what they understand to be the theft of their votes by Congress.
27 dead is the balance, so far, of the state of emergency dictated by the murderous government of Boluarte and her Congress, which has given free reign to the armed forces and the police to shoot to kill.
- On the other hand, seeking to legitimize itself and prevent the movement from rising and unifying in a national struggle, the Congress, in a second session, has approved the advancement of the general elections to April 2024 in a timetable made to suit itself and lacking a second vote.
- What Congress has agreed to has nothing to do with what the poor people who are struggling are demanding. What is being motivating the struggle in the streets is the demand that the Congress and Boluarte leave right now. And that immediate elections and a Constituent Assembly be called.
- Unfortunately, up to now, the policy of the leaders of the central trade unions, such as the CGTP (Workers’ General Confederation of Peru), has prevented the working class from joining the mobilization led by the rural population that has come to the cities to confront the government.
- This is the same policy implemented by the so-called “leftist” parties, who, clinging to their electoral strategy, have avoided pronouncing themselves categorically in the face of the situation we are living through.
Neither Veronika Mendoza, nor Arana, nor Huilca or Glave have made a frank call to strengthen the popular rebellion, to extend it, nor to demand the immediate fall of the government and the Congress.
- Now, 27 deaths later, the CGTP is beginning to talk about the possible call for a National Strike. However, its call is subject to a National Assembly of Delegates which has no date. The struggle is now, because in the streets of the interior of the country, the people continue to lay the dead.
- Today the struggle of the working people poses a serious dilemma: either the ruling class and Congress triumph, mounted on their bloody repression, or the mobilized organizations triumph. Either the bullets guarantee the continuity of the regime of corrupt democracy, or that regime falls at the hands of popular mobilization. We are betting on the latter.
Therefore, to achieve this objective, it is necessary to extend the struggle, deepen the rank and file coordination and demand of the CGTP leadership the immediate call for a national strike for the fall of the Boluarte-Congress government, an end to the state of emergency, and the fulfillment of the demands of the popular rebellion in progress.
This is possible to achieve, but only on the basis of the unified and national action of the people and the working class. It is enough to remember that, when the corrupt and murderous regime of Fujimori – Montesinos was overthrown in the streets (November 2000), the bosses and their parties called elections for 5 months later (April 2001), fearful that the action of the working people would be the only way to put an end to the state of emergency and the fulfillment of the demands of the people.
- It is also necessary to discuss and organize within the mobilized bases the self-defense of the people against repression and to call on the troops of the Armed Forces and the police not to shoot against their brothers and sisters who are fighting. Disobey your officers and join the struggle of the poor and working people!
- Finally, from the Socialist Workers Party (PST Peru), we think that the struggle of the people against repression and this government allied with Congress puts on the table a fundamental issue: Who should govern the country?
Congress and Boluarte are betting on controlling the situation after the holidays and imposing their calendar to rule against the workers and the people. The reformist parties, even those that call themselves “leftist,” allow for the whole problem to be reduced to the electoral calendar.
Basically, none of these sectors is willing to confront the interests of those who dominate the country: the mining, oil and agribusiness. Nor the big banks and corporations, as well as imperialist interests.
We think that the road is precisely the opposite. To get the country out of the misery unveiled by the pandemic of Covid 19 and the 240,000 deaths among the poor people, it is essential to recover the mines, oil wells and lands of the country, to put all that wealth at the service of the working people and their needs. It is urgent to distribute work among all those who need it, and for that we must take over the factories and big businesses. We must break with parasitic imperialism that condemns us to prostration and barbarism.
These are measures that we can only take if we, the workers and the people, take power into our own hands through our organizations of struggle. This is the enormous task that is once again bursting in front of us: a workers’ and popular government that raises an emergency plan to give solution to the demands of the poor people, and directs the country on the path of socialism, and defends its conquests with the organized self-defense of all the poor people.
Call for general elections now!
Constituent Assembly to recover the land and our natural resources, to guarantee work, health and education for the poor people of the countryside and the city!
For a government of the workers’ and peasants’ organizations, and of those who are struggling!
Statement of the Socialist Workers’ Party (PST), Peruvian section of the International Workers’ League
