REVOLUTIONARY PARTY FORMED IN CHILE
SANTIAGO, Chile -- The Movimiento Revolucionario Comunista together with the grouping associated around Polémica with the Trotskyists of the Partido Obrero Revolucionario [POR] united to form a new Chilean party February 1, The new organization decided to continue the name "Movimiento Revolucionario Comunista" [MRC].
The original MRC group was composed of young students, workers and employees who were formerly members of the Communist party, With the development of the Chinese-Soviet conflict, they began to form a pro-China tendency about a year ago, Some of them broke with the GP; others-were expelled; and others tried to stay in the CP to develop a left-wing. The initial nucleus of the MRC was then formed, It published bulletins which attracted much attention in the bourgeois press and which were harshly attacked by the CP,
_ At the end of 1963, the MRC joined another pro-Chinese group, “"Espartaco" [Spartacus], and the two groups staged a pro-Chinese meeting in the Teatro Baquedano which attracted a crowd of some 700 persons, This meeting was supported by the Trotskyists of the POR.
The two groups soon split, however, The reason for this was that the Espartaco group turned out to be both pro-Stalinist and pro- Chinese, Its membership was dominated by old bureaucrats, little interested in the national scene, who did not care to unite with other groups, who held arti-Trotskyist prejudices and whose main activity was the distribution of Chinese documents. The building of a revolutionary party was beyond them,
In view of this, the MRC broke with the Espartaco group and at the beginning of the year called for the unification of all revolutionary groups, The POR and Polémica accepted.
The Polémica group was made up of members who had left the organized Trotskyist movement for one reason or another and by others who had left the’Communist and Socialist parties,
The POR was a Trotskyist group, linked to the working class, whose trade-union and political leaders are well known for their activities in defense of the Cuban Revolution. They have suffered police persecution for this in recent years, The Trotskyists joined the young Communists in their ideological struggle, offering them
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help in their meetings and publications, This greatly facilitated the unification,
The new party has now been joined by Clotario Blest and his group, This is of great significance. Clotario Blest is the outstanding leader of the Chilean working class, He served as president of the confederation of trade unions for nine years and has been hauled into court many times for participating in demonstrations in behalf of the Cuban Revolution, He had previously joined with the POR in common actions,
The Revolutionary Communist Movement is based on Marxist-Leninist principles: Struggle for the defeat of the bourgeoisie and the installation of the dictatorship of the proletariat as a stage of transition in order to arrive at a classless society.
It rejects the Stalinist policy of class collaboration and sup~ ports the Cuban Revolution, attempting to draw the best lessons from it for the Chilean revolution,
The new party supports the most revolutionary and progressive Chinese positions in the Chinese=Soviet conflict (the problems of peaceful coexistence, support to the colonial revolutions, the revo-~ lutionary road versus the peaceful and parliamentary in order to achieve socialism, oetc.).
This support to the Chinese revolutionary positions, appealing to the best militants who have appeared in the crisis of the Communist party, does not constitute unconditional. support to all the Chinese positions. In order to make this clear, the Unification Plenum of the new party adopted a resolution against Stalinism as a political and organizational concept, and opposed the mistaken positions of the Chinese with regard to the Indonesian Communist party, and with re-~ gard to Yugoslavia which the Chinese contend is a capitalist state, etc,
As for national policy, the new Marxist-Leninist party is strug-~ gling for: (a) widening of the process of unification to include other revolutionary groups; (b) supporting with revolutionary methods the Allendista movement (Allende is the candidate of the Communist and Socialist parties for the presidency of Chile in September 1964 and is supported by most workers), attempting to develop a revolution-~ ary tendency within this movement through rankeand-file Allendista revolutionary committees; (c) strengthening the ties between workers, unions, CUT Ltrade-union confederation], peasants, poor people, pro- Cuba committee, etc.; (dad) improving the already existing links with rank-and-file Communists and Socialists,
The newspaper of the MRC is El Gallo Rojo [The Red Rooster], a biweekly of which three numbers have already appeared,
Some conclusions can be drawn from this experience:
(1) This is one of the first unifications between Trotskyists and revolutionary Communists to come out of the Chinese~Soviet crisis. It is proof that within the Communist parties pro-Chinese wings arise which rapidly evolve toward revolutionary Marxist positions without anti-Trotskyist prejudices and tending toward revolutionary regroupment without sectarianism, Such cases are of greater probability in countries or continents like Latin America where a rising revolutionary process exists,
(2) There are various pro-Chinese wings. Some evolve rapidly toward revolutionary Marxist positions, without anti-Trotskyist prejudices, especially those composed of young Communists who joined the Communist party after the twentieth congress and "de-Stalinizetion." Other pro»Chinese wings, on the contrary, become ossified in the old Stalinist positions, especially when they are led by Communist cadres educated in the Stalin era,
(3) The main question in the Chinese-Soviet dispute is the discussion on the peaceful versus revolutionary road, The Communist rank and filer who decides in favor of the Chinese position does not do it to defend Stalin but to reaffirm the revolutionary road, Pri-~ marily he sees in the Chinese the revolutionary road and in the Rus~ sians the peaceful and parliamentary road, This aspect is decisive for a strategy that attempts to win Communist militants and to oonstruct a Leninist-Marxist party with mass influence.
(4) In Latin America, the pro-China wing which rose up in the Communist parties has been strongly influenced by the Cuban Revolution, Still more, in some cases these pro-Chinese wings were at the beginning pro=-Cuban wings, This influence is decisive because the Cuban Revolution has stirred up new forces and revolutionary groups that tend toward revolutionary regroupment, Thus it is not strange that the pro-China wings that evolve most rapidly toward revolution~ ary Marxism, pose as an immediate objective the unification of the various revolutionary groups, In this sense, unification can occur -- it has already occurred in some countries -~ between Communist groups that break with the Communist party and new organizations and forces brought forward by the Cuban Revolution,
(5) The unification of a Trotskyist group with rank-and-file Communists who break with the Communist party is possible to the extent that the Trotskyist group acts without sectarianism, trusting not so much to the Trotskyist label as to the program of the Fourth International, loyally supporting the Communists who break with their party without carrying on any dirty, splitting activities which might win this or that isolated militant, constantly carrying on common actions, not giving paternalistic advice, but acting together in the class struggle,
(6) In Latin America, an over-all strategy is required for the construction of Marxist-Leninist parties with mass influence, This strategy consists, in general, with the exception of certain countries, in the revolutionary regroupment of the Castroist currents, the Com-
munists who break due to the Chinese-Soviet crisis, Trotskyist groups, revolutionary trade-union sectors, militants who break with the Socialist party, and workers disillusioned with the petty-bourgeois nationalist movements, This regroupment -- which is not centrist but revolutionary -- can appear in its first phase as a United Revolutionary Front, leading later to the complete unification of the revolutionary forces,
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