Vol. 73/No. 21      June 1, 2009

BY HUGO BLANCO  
We must always keep in mind that the historic problem of the peasant, around which all others revolve, is the problem of the land. Another thing we must never forget is that your struggle is only a part of the struggle of the exploited against the exploiters, and that the road to solving all the problems of the peasantry is to seize the political power from the hands of the exploiters and form a workers’ and peasants’ government.

Nothing short of this will fully solve the problems of the peasantry. Therefore, in all the efforts we make to win small victories, we must not lose sight of the fact that these victories represent only a step forward in our liberation struggle.

It might seem strange that we, who affirm that only with the seizure of state power by the workers will their problems be definitively solved, are also the ones who attribute the greatest importance to each victory won by the workers, however small it may be.

We consider each success a step forward, mainly because the way it has been achieved educates the peasantry, especially when it has a well-tested revolutionary leadership. We gain each victory, no matter how small it may be, through the collective and militant action of the peasantry. At all times we recommend collective action, unity of action, and after each success we show how it resulted from this mass action.

We always show that the authorities are the class enemies of the peasants, and that if they have made some concession, it is not because of their “sense of justice” but because of their fear of the wrath of the masses and in order to co-opt them precisely by making them believe that they are “just authorities.”

The best thing we gain from each victory, aside from the victory itself, is the lesson for the masses. Each triumph serves to give them more confidence in themselves, in the power of their united action. Each triumph serves to show them that we are in a war of exploited against exploiters. With this criterion, even defeats can be educational.

We function this way because we are profoundly convinced that only through their own actions will the workers be able to free themselves, and that therefore it is most important that they have confidence in their own ability and that they learn how to fight. When we accomplish this, we will have accomplished everything.

For this reason, those leaders who attribute victories to the sense of justice of some official or to the cleverness of a lawyer or to their own ability, we consider dangerous traitors. Although we do not totally disregard such factors, we must constantly make clear that the fundamental force is the workers’ fighting unity. Sometimes we win a victory without carrying out any act of force. That is because even the suggestion, even the possibility of forceful action intimidates the enemy.

I consider, comrade, that these general principles will serve you in your future struggle better than a thousand bits of detailed advice that I might give you. Nevertheless, while I can, I will continue collaborating with you with all my strength.

Let us move on to the concrete matter. There are five demands that you raise: (1) Return of stolen lands (2) Abolition of the abuses by the “distinguished citizens” or llaqhta taytas (3) Purchase of a hacienda (4) A school (5) Abolition of the yerbaje [peasants’ payments to a landlord] in money, in kind, or in labor.

We see that all this can be solved by only one measure: the first thing that should be done is to form a union of tenants and freeholders.

The point is that the first step has to be the formation of one single union to which the tenant farmers from various haciendas and the members of various communal villages will belong: a union with doors that are open to all peasants. Later on, when it is stronger, we will see if committees evolve for each hacienda or communal village, or if several unions evolve and are grouped in a district federation. For now, I believe it is necessary to concentrate your forces and form one single union.

This union will be the body that decides what to do with respect to the land problem. For my part, I think that the purchase of that hacienda is a mistake; not only because the land belongs to the peasant, and he has no reason to pay a cent for it, but also, chiefly, because it fosters divisions among the peasants and thereby weakens your movement and strengthens the enemy. That is the bitter lesson we learned in Ongoy, and in many other cases, when the “buyers” went over to the side of the enemy against their brothers.

You too will understand what happens when some have money and others do not; some have more and others less; and when the landlord proposes a price, those most readily disposed to accept it will be those who have the most money. There may be some who buy larger tracts than others, become little gamonales [landlords]. In summary, I feel that the purchase, whether direct or through the intermediary of the famous agrarian reform, would be a step backward, not forward. In any event, the decision must be made by the majority of the peasant masses, when they are organized.  
 
 
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