three documents below -- an official communiqué issued by the MR-13, an official reply by the Mexican Posadists. and an official clarification by the Mexican Trotskyists.
World Outlook reserves comment for the moment to the following:
(1) Judging from its communiqué, the MR-13 leadership does not yet understand the true nature of the Posadist group, but still. believes them to be genuine Trotskyists and genuine representatives of the Fourth International. This is no doubt due to the isolation of these guerrilla forces. ©
(2) The Khrushchevists (and no doubt forces much to the right of them, particularly in Mexico) will seek to utilize Yon Sosa's break with the Posadists to grind their own factional ax. This was immediately indicated by the fact that in Mexico the Communist party engaged in massive distributions of the MR-13 communiqué. The break lends itself to factional use by the Khrushchevists, however, only because of the fraud that the Posadist group represents Trotskyism, a fraud which these sectarians help maintain by their own fraudulent claim to being "the Fourth International." In this respect the "reply" of the Mexican Posadists to Yon Sosa plays completely into the hands of the heirs and continuators of Stalinism.
“(3). Thére is a minor error in the communiqué of the Mexican Trotskyists. They state that Posadas and his group were expelled
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from the Fourth International because of their "sectarian and adventurous positions." Inside the Fourth International, Posadas and his faction advocated sectarian and possibly adventurous views 5, but were not expelled because of that. So long as they abided by soe majority decision they retained full right to maintain their views and to advocate them inside the movement in accordance with the Z rules of democratic centralism. However, Posadas finally broke these © rules. He publicly. proclaimed that an emergency congress had been. — called and that this congress had "reorganized" the Fourth Inter--national, deposing the former leadership and vesting all authority in him and his Latin-American Bureau. He even went so far as to reproduce the official publications of the Fourth International, taking their titles and faking them down to the very type face. It was because of this that the Fourth International "expelled" him.
-(4) On the organizational level, Posadas acted just as arbitrarily with the MR-13 leadership as he had with the leadership of. the Fourth International...He usurped authority. This occurred in connection with both the handling of.MR-13 funds and the functioning of the Political Bureau of the MR-1%3. Both instances . are reminiscent of the abominations typical of the Comintern in the days of Stalin, denounced innumerable times by the world Trotskyist movement as examples of the worst bureaucratic practices. Insofar as the abstract principle advanced by the Posadists in their |. "reply":is concerned, it is true that the international revolutionary-. socialist movement must be financed by its adherents, but it is _ completely impermissible to do this without their knowledge and consent. In this area, the revolutionary movement has no recourse but to rely on the level of consciousness of its members. Anything else means political suicide.
This applies a thousandfold to other organizations -- trade unions, civil-rights bodies, cooperatives,.and other groupings. with . avowedly limited aims.~- in which revolutionists are granted = .-: positions of responsibility. To divert funds, or to manipulate the. ~ organization, no matter how laudable the professed aim, is a betrayal of trust. How many promising organizations have been wrecked by such practices! This was one of the most bitter fruits of Stalinism.
~ €5) The Posadist communiqué refers to the Guatemalan FAR [Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes]. These guerrillas are headed by Iwis A. Turcios. Lima, who split from the MR-134, alleging the influence of the "Trotskyists" (Posadists) as his reason. Turcios is influenced, .. it would seem by the PGT (Guatemalan Labor party -- the Communist. _ party), but it would be a mistake to assume that he is dominated by it or by its tendency to adhere to the line of "peaceful coexistence." Turcios enjoys strong backing from the Fidelista current and was given great prominence at the Tricontinental Conference in Havana last January. It may be that Yon Sosa's break with the Posadist | group is not unconnected with moves to unite the two guerrilla groups. Objectively this would be a favorable development if it occurs on the basis of a program of socialist revolution, whatever
tactical adjustments may be required concretely in Guatemala. Should "peaceful coexistence" become the axis of unification this would be a disastrous setback. In that case, however, much more would be involved than the fate of the Guatemalan revolution. It would be a sign of a big turn to the right by the Fidelista leadership. There has been no decisive evidence of such a turn yet. In fact, the positions taken by the Cuban leaders in the main at the Tricontinental Conference and subsequently indicates the contrary.