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Argentina and Bolivia – the Balance Sheet

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Nahuel Moreno, Ernesto Gonzalez, Hugo Blanco, Peter Camejo, Joseph Hansen Argentina and Bolivia – the Balance Sheet A polemic with the guerrilla (1969-1972) Nahuel Moreno, Ernesto Gonzalez, Hugo Blanco, Peter Camejo, Joseph Hansen Argentina and Bolivia – the Balance Sheet A polemic with the guerrilla (1969-1972) “Argentina and Bolivia – the Balance Sheet” was presented to the December, 1972, meeting of the International Executive Committee of the Fourth International as a contribution to the discussion on Latin America. Sections II and III, “The Lesson of Bolivia” and “The Lesson of Argentina” were presented for a vote. On “The Lesson of Bolivia” the result was 11 for, 18 against, 2 abstentions and 1 not voting. On “The Lesson of Argentina” the result was 11 for, 15 against, 3 abstentions and 1 not voting. First Edition: Published by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) of the USA, as a fraternal courtesy to the Fourth International, in the International Discussion Bulletin, Vol. 10. No 1, January 1973. Second Edition: Ediciones CEHuS, Buenos Aires, March 2016 Cover design: Marcela Aguilar Interior design: Daniel Iglesias © Copyright by CEHuS Centro de Estudios Humanos y Sociales Buenos Aires, 2016 [email protected] CEHuS Centro de Estudios Humanos y Sociales Table of Contents Foreword A key text for understanding the 1970s ........................................................................3 Argentina and Bolivia – the Balance Sheet Chapter I Two Orientations ...........................................................................................................10 1. The Main Axis of Work .......................................................................................................... 10 2. “Technical Preparations” vs. Implementing Transitional Program ............................................ 11 3. Unrelieved Reaction vs. Possible Concessions ...................................................................... 11 4. Effect of Trend Toward ‘Classical’ Norms ............................................................................... 13 5. Castroism vs. Leninism ......................................................................................................... 13 6. Two Views on the Place of Guerrilla War ................................................................................ 14 7. The Danger of a Revival of Stalinism ...................................................................................... 16 8. Correct Field of Work ............................................................................................................ 17 9. The Struggle for Democratic Demands .................................................................................. 17 10. Broadening and Deepening of Erroneous Line ..................................................................... 18 11. A Harvest of Disasters ......................................................................................................... 18 12. Adaptation to Ultraleftism .................................................................................................... 19 Chapter II The Lesson of Bolivia ...................................................................................................20 1. From Barrientos to Banzer .................................................................................................... 21 2. A Disorienting Line ................................................................................................................ 24 3. The Problem of Linking Up With the Masses ......................................................................... 26 4. What Axis for the Struggle for Power? ................................................................................... 27 5. Arming of the Masses ........................................................................................................... 30 6. After Torres Comes Guerrilla War ........................................................................................... 31 7. The Anti-imperialist Revolutionary Front ................................................................................. 33 Chapter III The Lesson of Argentina ..............................................................................................35 I. Turn of the Tide ...................................................................................................................... 36 2. The Labor Movement ............................................................................................................ 37 3. The Gathering Storm ............................................................................................................. 38 4. The Rosariazo and the Cordobazo ........................................................................................ 38 5. Leftist Challenge to the CGT Bureaucracy ............................................................................. 39 6. Rise of a Militant Opposition .................................................................................................. 40 7. The SITRAC-SITRAM Plenary Meetings ................................................................................ 42 8. Broad Mass Mobilizations ..................................................................................................... 43 9. The Test of Two Lines in Argentina ........................................................................................ 45 10. Call for a New International .................................................................................................. 46 11. Two Views of the Cordobazo ............................................................................................... 48 12. Two Views of General Strikes .............................................................................................. 49 13. The Day to Day Class Struggle ............................................................................................ 50 14. Some Revealing Statistics ................................................................................................... 51 15. On Popular Frontism ........................................................................................................... 53 16. The Problem of Peronism .................................................................................................... 55 17. The Struggle for Legality ...................................................................................................... 56 18. The Question of Armed Struggle ......................................................................................... 58 19. The Kidnappings and Assassinations .................................................................................. 60 20. Castro on the “Execution” of a Hated Bourgeois Figure ....................................................... 61 21. Majority Defense of the Line ................................................................................................ 63 22. Our Argentine Martyrs ......................................................................................................... 65 Chapter IV The Crisis in the Fourth International .........................................................................67 1. Politics Gives Way to the Gun ............................................................................................... 68 2. The Deepening Commitment ................................................................................................. 69 3. From Bad to Worse ............................................................................................................... 70 4. ‘Democratic Centralism’ Dragged In ...................................................................................... 71 5. Blind to the Logic of the “Turn” .............................................................................................. 72 6. France— Ripe for Guerrilla War? ........................................................................................... 73 7. “A Continental Revolutionary War” ......................................................................................... 75 8. Why They Have Been Attracted to the Way of the ERP ......................................................... 76 9. Guerrilla War for the Workers States? .................................................................................... 77 10. Time to Call a Halt! .............................................................................................................. 78 Biographical Appendix Biographical Appendix .................................................................................................80 Foreword A key text for understanding the 1970s By: Martín Mangiantini1 Argentina and Bolivia: the Balance Sheet is a significant text that was forged in the heat of a radicalization of the class struggle in the political situation in Argentina and Latin America in the early 1970s and in the context of a deep and decisive theoretical and strategic debate within world Trotskyism. This production is a reflection of the controversies occurred within the Fourth International (United Secretariat) since the completion of its Ninth World Congress, held in April 1969 until the completion of the next Congress in 1974. In this period, its majority current adopted positions which took as its own the theoretical and organizational paradigms of the Cuban revolutionary model, specifically the impetus towards guerrilla warfare
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