Peru - May 26th, 2021
Faced with the electoral trap and the call of the ITU-CI / Uníos to vote for Castillo
Interview with Raúl Palomares, health worker, former leader of FENUTSSA
"... how to call to set up a Workers' Party with working class independence, and the next day to call to vote ... for Pedro Castillo from Peru Libre"
The International Worker Organizer: What is the situation of the workers and the electoral situation for the presidential elections in the runoff?
Raúl Palomares: Actually, here in Peru we workers are in a chaotic situation because this pandemic has already taken away many fellow workers. There is also concern about the economic situation and their jobs, because there have also been many layoffs. Poverty increased enormously and these elections are as if they were looking the other side. The workers in all these years have already had experience with all these politicians who promise everything but are corrupt and leave even more misery.
Before the presidential elections there was a great struggle that was embodied in the slogan "let everyone of them go out, not one must remain"; the exploited went out into the streets tired of so much robbery and deceit to the people. In that week there were three presidents in Peru: Vizcarra, Merino and Sagasti. Every day we were more workers winning the streets, there was even a period of power vacuum; however, the Stalinist leadership of the CGTP (General Confederation of Workers of Peru) ended up boycotting a workers' breakthrough, they refused to take power, they did not call even for a general strike. Actually they no longer respond to the interests of the workers, indeed they are involved with the NGOs and the “caviar” lefts like Verónika Mendoza. And now after so much sacrifice of revolutionary combats, it is clearly seen that the bourgeoisie and the discredited regime in crisis are trying to divert and deceive the workers with their farce of elections, which they seek to dress as democratic; but we workers know that they are stained with the blood of the oppressed, as it is a bloodthirsty regime based on USA military bases. For this reason, also in the first round of the presidential elections, none of the parties reached even 20% of the vote.
Now the hated Fujimorista regime tries to consummate its trap and electoral deception with these elections where two bourgeois parties dispute the administration of the State for the US imperalists: Keiko Fujimori, who is the daughter of the fascist Alberto Fujimori for the Popular Force party, and Pedro Castillo for the Peru Libre party; he is a well-known professor who has a speech that poses on the left and in favor of the people, but looking at it in depth, both candidates are from the bourgeoisie, only that Castillo is pictured as more to the left and is supported by the same worn out Bolivarian bourgeoisie.
OOI: We saw that today, in front of the presidential elections, the ITU-CI / Unios calls to support Pedro Castillo from Peru Libre. What is your opinion, comrade?
RP: I am very surprised, and I am sure that for many workers it is something unbelievable. In the first round, Unios and its renowned leader Fernández Chacón correctly denounced Peru Libre as a defender of businessmen and now in the second round they are calling to vote for him albeit "critically". The truth is that I do not understand this position of Unios, because Castillo's party clearly supports the capitalists and their investments to continue looting the country. He has sweetened speeches since he said that he was going to increase the budget for health and education to a 10%, that he was going to nationalize mining, but it is like the false speech of Bolivarians like Chávez and Evo Morales.
Uníos has just come from breaking with the Broad Front of the bourgeois Verónica Mendoza and called to set up a Workers Party to be built up from the labor base, they even made that call together with the National Federation of Mining, Metallurgical and Steel Workers of Peru (FNTMMSP). Several workers, including myself, had an agreement and we also supported the formation of said party with class independence, so that it is put at the service of the working class to continue the struggle of 2020 and be a point of support to unify the workers against to the corrupt leaderships of the CGTP. That is why there is a contradiction here, as is calling for a Workers' Party to stand up with working class independence, and the next day calling to vote for a party that represents the executioners of the workers. Thus, the Workers' Party will end without class independence and subjected to the Fujimorista regime.
Moreover, with all the trajectory of the leader of Unios, Fernández Chacón, as a former labor leader, who belonged to the Front of Workers, Peasants and Students of Peru (FOCEP) of the 1970s where he fought for a workers' and peasants' government, without bosses... And now he is calling to vote a party that represents and defends the bosses, the businessmen?
OOI: What would you say to the workers in the face of the offensive of imperialism and its regimes and the electoral trap?
RP: First of all, we have a great ally fighting in Colombia. The Colombian people have stood up against so much infamy and they deserve all the solidarity of the Peruvian health workers, construction workers, mineworkers and all proletarian sectors.
In these elections we workers cannot vote for the parties of the oppressors of our class, that goes against what the exploited are doing in Colombia. Fernández Chacón, his group and the leadership of the Mining Federation must withdraw their support for Perú Libre's Castillo, break with this policy of class collaboration. The way out is to resume the fighting of 2020 that made the capitalists tremble, but this time to lead it to victory, without collaborationist leaders at the forefront like the CGTP leaders. It is about following the path of our Colombian class siblings.
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