The Party and the Revolution (Theory, Program and Policy — A Polemic with Mandel) Nahuel Moreno Nahuel CEHuS Centro de Estudios Humanos y Sociales Nahuel Moreno The Party and the Revolution (Theory, Program and Policy — A Polemic with Mandel) 1973 (Taken from the Second Spanish edition, Editorial El Socialista, Buenos Aires, 2012) First English Edition: Editorial El Socialista, Buenos Aires, 2014 Second English Edition: CEHuS, Buenos Aires, 2020 English translation: Daniel Iglesias Cover and interior design: Daniel Iglesias www.nahuelmoreno.org www.uit-ci.org www.izquierdasocialista.org.ar Copyright by CEHuS , Centro de Estudios Humanos y Sociales, Buenos Aires, 2020 [email protected] CEHuS Centro de Estudios Humanos y Sociales Index Foreword to the Second English Edition ..................................................... 1 Foreword to the First English Edition .......................................................... 2 Foreword to the First Spanish Edition: Polemics of the Twenty-first century ........................................................................................................ 3 Why do we republish this book? .................................................................................3 Moreno vs. Mandel .....................................................................................................4 The capitulation of Mandelism to “socialism of the Twenty-first century” ................5 The building of revolutionary parties .........................................................................6 The inexorable crisis of the “broad anti-capitalist parties” .........................................7 The debate about imperialist capitalism and the productive forces ..........................9 A revolutionary program or “eco-socialism”? ...........................................................11 Overcoming the crisis of revolutionary leadership is Trotskyism raison d’être ........12 Preface....................................................................................................... 14 Our origins ................................................................................................................14 The Fourth International in the post-war period ......................................................15 The discussion on the new workers’ States ..............................................................15 Mandel’s impressionism ............................................................................................16 Pabloism ....................................................................................................................17 The betrayal of the Bolivian revolution of 1952........................................................17 The International Committee ....................................................................................18 The reunification of 1963 ..........................................................................................19 The guerrilla deviation of Mandel .............................................................................19 The capitulation to the ultra-leftist youth vanguard ................................................20 Our break with the American SWP ............................................................................21 Mandel capitulates to euro-communism ..................................................................21 The Nicaraguan revolution splits the United Secretariat ..........................................22 Introduction .............................................................................................. 24 An objective criterion to polemise ............................................................................24 Comrade Germain argues as a lawyer ......................................................................24 What should we discuss? ..........................................................................................25 Chapter I Bolivia, the key to the current discussion ................................................. 27 The majority’s predictions .........................................................................................27 “Che” Maitan .......................................................................................................................27 The Frank-Germain Laboratory ............................................................................................28 The “contributions” of the United Secretariat ........................................................................28 A coherent development team: none was right ....................................................................29 Ultraleftism and Trotskyism in the face of the fascist danger ..................................29 Stalinist “third-period” ultraleftism .......................................................................................30 The Guevarist ultraleftism ...................................................................................................31 Are all Governments the same? ................................................................................32 Barrientos – Ovando – Torres ...............................................................................................32 Trotsky vs. the POR(C) .........................................................................................................33 Our section and the coups ........................................................................................34 The first coup ......................................................................................................................35 The second coup .................................................................................................................37 Then the third coup came....................................................................................................38 The actual policy of the POR(C) ...........................................................................39 Despite the POR(C), the masses mobilise .............................................................................42 October 1970: “a defeat of the masses”? ..............................................................................42 From rural guerrilla to … “armament of the masses” .............................................................42 A truly Trotskyist agenda and recommendations ..................................................................43 Armament “in itself” a few days before Banzer’s coup ...........................................................44 How to knead your failure .........................................................................................45 Who must seize power? .......................................................................................................46 Trotsky and the armed struggle ...........................................................................................47 The work within the army ....................................................................................................47 Six years of guerrilla activity versus a day of the masses .......................................................48 The majority blames the masses ..........................................................................................49 Artificial organisms versus organisms of the masses ...............................................49 The POR(C) and the People’s Assembly ................................................................................50 What we said ......................................................................................................................51 With the masses nothing, with the bureaucracy and reformism a few things .........51 Comrade Germain falsifies the POR(C)’s policy .........................................................53 FRA: a front with the Bolivian police and army .........................................................55 Whoever is for the armed struggle is a revolutionary ............................................................56 The POR(C) subordinates to the FRA ....................................................................................56 Moreno, advisor of the POR ......................................................................................60 Moreno was wrong, so was the Ninth Congress ...................................................................60 The true position of the minority .........................................................................................60 The workers’ united front ....................................................................................................61 The armed militias of the COB and the trade unions .............................................................62 What La Verdad said in March 1971 .....................................................................................62 The reason for our “guerrillaism” ..........................................................................................63 Cuba, OLAS and the continental civil war .............................................................................63 Chapter II Argentina: the ultimate test of two lines .................................................. 66 The facts belie Germain ............................................................................................66 First fact: the Cordobazo .....................................................................................................66 Second