From Lucha
Organ of the Communist Party of Labor of the Dominican Republic
July-August, 1997
First International Seminar "Problems of the Revolution in Latin America"
Revolutionary Declaration from the Center of the World
As the dawn of the third millennium is approaching, in the Americas the great contradictions of the present day world are converging and sharpening.
I - Latin America is bearing the blows of the general crisis of the capitalist system.
Finance capital, the large monopolies, imperialism, principally U.S. imperialism, are sinking their claws into the Latin American peoples and nations, they are plundering its natural resources, exploiting the workers, oppressing the masses, sowing despair and misery. They are the causes and beneficiaries of the crisis, they are responsible for the unemployment and generalized hunger, for the poverty.
The imposition of the neo-liberal policies by means of the dictates of the IMF, the World Bank and the decisions of the Organization of American States, of the mandates of the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department, have further aggravated the situation of the masses and the dependency of the Latin American countries.
Neo-liberalism is a policy of finance capital which attempts to resolve in its favor the general crisis of the capitalist system. Its application in Latin America, at various levels in all the countries, instead of resolving the crisis has contributed to its sharpening, to the heightening of the super-exploitation of the workers and the peoples, to tightening the chains of dependency. For the popular masses, neo-liberalism is synonymous with unemployment, misery, the suppression of trade union and political rights, the privatization of education, health, transport and other services. For the Latin American countries, neo-liberalism means de-industrialization, the massive destruction of the productive forces, the denationalization of the economy, the imposition of the free market by the international monopolies and the customs and trade restrictions for its products in the markets of the imperialist countries.
Neo-liberalism, proposed by the monopolies as a magic formula to resolve the crisis, as a means to overcome the tendency of the falling rate of profit, is turning against its proponents, against the monopolies, it is ensnaring them even more in the claws of the crisis. The great expansion and concentration of capital reached by the large transnational companies contains a very high component of speculative capital which turns on itself, which inflated the monetary bubble, which punishes the workers and the peoples, but which also threatens the monopolies themselves with the outbreak of a new crash.
The great expansion and concentration of the monopolies, the fall of "actually existing socialism" and of socialism, which had competed with U.S. imperialism, the drive of neo-liberalism and the scientific-technical revolution, have led to a single capitalist market, to the globalization of the present day world. The globalization, its strength and its theory make more evident the internationalization of capital, of its clutches and policies. At the same time the monopolies proclaim the disappearance of national sovereignty of the dependent countries, while this exists for the imperialist states and regional coalitions for the defense of their interests. These changes also make clear, more forcefully than before, the international character of the working class, the necessity of unity and coordination of the struggle of the workers and peoples.
II - The imposition of neo-liberalism, in the various Latin American countries, has followed diverse mechanisms and paths, in no place has it found a smooth path. The working class and other laboring sectors, the youths and students, have resisted, have born the blows and suffered temporary defeat. Capital can not destroy the labor force which is the principal sector for the accumulation of capital and the extraction of surplus-value. Nowhere has this put an end to the militant and revolutionary character of the working class and the other laboring sectors, to the rebellious spirit of the youth. All over, the masses are rising up and struggling, first in resistance, but they are advancing and sooner rather than later they will pass in a general way to the counter-offensive.The contradiction between the social character of production and the private appropriation of the riches created, between labor and capital, between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, is shaking up the Latin American continent, it is being expressed with vigor in all the countries, there stands out the historical role of the working class, its class nature as the leader of the process of social emancipation.
Neither the ferocious military dictatorships, nor the deceits of the social-democratic regimes, nor neo-liberalism, nor the consequences of the scientific-technical revolution, nor the anti-communist offensive, have changed the nature of the proletariat. On the contrary, they have reaffirmed its class character, which is at the center of the epoch, as creator of the riches and with the virtues of the progressive and revolutionary class.
These affirmations are not only a repeated refrain, they are demonstrated by facts. In the resistance of the workers and the peoples against the abusive big packages of the International Monetary Fund, in the great street battles taking place in almost all the Latin American capitals and cities, in the general strikes, in the civic strikes, in the uprisings of the indigenous peoples and peasants, in the combats of the youth and students, in the continuation of the revolutionary armed struggle, in the overthrow of the neo-liberal government of Bucaram by the popular masses of Ecuador.
III - Neo-liberalism, as we have shown, at the same time as it rivets the chains of wage slavery and widens the gap between rich and poor, between the exploiters and exploited, between the capitalists and the workers, reaffirms the dependency of the Latin American countries.The great imperialist powers, especially U.S. imperialism, have a thousand threads to sustain their economic domination and consequently the imposition of their expansionist policies upon the Latin American peoples and countries. The U.S. monopolies have established the back yard of their empire in Latin America.
The globalization, the computerization and the communications reenforce this dependency, they carry out a process of recolonization to which the large monopolies are recurring with greater force.
The peoples and nations of Latin America and the Caribbean are not remaining indifferent, they are resisting and struggling against foreign impositions, against the strangle-hold of external debt, the are opposing the plunder of their natural resources, of the economic readjustments and impositions of the international organisms, to the cultural imposition.
In Latin America there are expressed as well the great contradictions of our time, which oppose the oppressed peoples and nations against imperialist domination.
The consciousness and repudiation of foreign domination are increasing, the bonds of unity among the Latin American peoples are developing, the forums and debates to unify the liberating forces are multiplying, the popular actions for democracy and the defense of national sovereignty are being linked and interrelated against the exploitation and oppression of the native bourgeoisies.
IV - The big Latin American bourgeoisies and the landlord oligarchies have demonstrated with greater evidence than before their comprador character, their role as partners and lackeys of imperialist domination. It is by means of them that the domination of the monopolies is made possible. They are directly responsible for the imposition of neo-liberalism. They are accomplices of the imperialist plunder, the protagonists of the so-called modernization, of the privatization of the strategic areas of the economy and of the public services, of the decrease in the social budget, of the restriction and elimination of social security.The Latin American oligarchies have become part of the international monopoly groups, they form cartels on the national level, they consequently have differences, inter-bourgeois contradictions. This can not be denied, it is expressed in the political and economic struggle which they wage among themselves. Nevertheless, altogether they are unified with regard to the neo-liberal mantle, the globalization. All these strive to involve themselves in the globalized world, they make a theory of the modernization and the alienation of the national sovereignty. They fight among themselves for the imperialist umbrella. It has been a long time since they lost their progressive and national character and converted themselves into a support for foreign domination.
This situation reaffirms the Marxist-Leninist conception that the bourgeoisie is incapable of leading the struggle against imperialist domination, for the defense of national sovereignty and independence.
The revolutionary parties and organizations of Latin America, assembled in Quito, in the First International Seminar "Problems of the Revolution in Latin America," propose to coordinate and unite their forces for the following tasks:
* Participation in the World Festival of Youth and Students to take place in Havana, Cuba, in July of 1997.
* Promote and participate in the International Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist Youth Camp, in the Dominican Republic, in August of 1997.
* Commemorate and regain possession of the revolutionary path of Che Guevara, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of his assassination.
* Celebrate the 80th anniversary of the October Revolution.
* Organize the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Communist Manifesto, in 1998.
* Gather forces for the victorious celebration of the VI Anti-Imperialist Meeting of the peoples of the Americas for life, sovereignty and solidarity, to be held in 1998 in Ecuador.
* Organize meetings between popular organizations on a Latin American, sub-regional and bi-national level.
* Hold conferences among the revolutionary forces for participation in international anti-imperialist activities such as the Sao Paulo Forum, the Anfictitionic Congress, etc.
* Urge on the solidarity with the struggle of the peoples and the revolutionaries, with the disappeared and other victims of repression.
Signatories [of the preceding agreements and resolutions]:
Revolutionary Communist Party of Argentina, Liberation Movement of the "Landless" of Brazil, Communist Party of Colombia (Marxist-Leninist), Communist Party of Chile (Proletarian Action), Communist Party of Peru (Red Fatherland), Movement of the New Left of Peru, Communist Party of Labor of the Dominican Republic, Red Flag Party of Venezuela, Popular Democratic Movement of Ecuador, Communist Party Marxist-Leninist of Ecuador, a member of the Communist Refoundation Party of Italy.
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