DANGER OF A COUP D'ETAT IN URUGUAY
Buenos Aires
The impressive series of strikes in Chile and Uruguay may signal a new upsurge of the working class in Latin America. In Uruguay, however, there are indications that this may be offset by a coup d'état. The Uruguayan ruling class is thinking in terms of a coup d'état that would radically change the country's traditional democratic pattern. This is. mainly due to an economic and social crisis that is getting increasingly out of their control.
In relation to its size and population, Uruguay has enjoyed a relatively privileged position in Latin America. With an economy a great deal like that of the province of Buenos Aires, it held a favorable position in the world market. In wool, for instance, its ties with the rugmaking industry in the United States were particularly advantageous. With the rise of synthetic fibers, this privileged position became. seriously undermined. Another important export was meat. The narrowing of the European market and a drop in British buying made deep inroads in this field.
Asa result, the Uruguayan economy underwent a steep decline. The economic crisis led to a sharp struggle among the exploiters over division of the national ; income and to intensified exploitation. of the workers in order to compensate for the losses on the world market: . -
The general offensive ‘against the working class touched off a chain reaction, one strike after another occurring during the past year. This culminated in the unification of all the currents in the trade-union movement in a single center. Thus the last general strike was practically a total one.
The Uruguayan bourgeoisie is trying to cope with the contradictions among its own sectors on the one hand and with the combativeness of the workers on the other. An attractive solution from their point of view would be a strong government that could play the role of arbiter among all these conflicting forces. Such a government could be established in two ways. One would be through an amendment to the constitu- . tion making possible the election of .a "strong" president with full power to confront and repress the working class while arbitrating differences among the different sectors of exploiters. If that should fail, the other way would be to resort to a coup d'état. Since Uruguay has no permanent or mercenary army such as existed in Cuba before the revolution, an attempt to undertake a coup d‘tétat could prove to be very risky if it is met with armed resistance from the labor movement.
Unfortunately, since the bulk of the Uruguayan labor movement is led and controlled by the Communist party, there is no danger of this leadership taking the orientation of organizing armed resistance in face of the threat of a coup d'état. However, the rise in the mass movement together with the crisis caused by Castroism among the opportunist and petty-bourgeois leaderships of the Latin-American masses, including the Communist parties, precipitated a series of splits and led to the appearance of various left revolutionary currents among the traditional Socialist and Communist workers: parties.
The situation in Uruguay urgently requires that these revolutionary currents work out a common program of revolutionary action, of action in the streets, to bring to bear a polarizing revolutionary tendency against the opportunist leaders of the Uruguayan mass movement. Responsibility for what is happening cannot in good conscience be laid against the opportunist leaders if the revolutionary groups and currents do not live. up to their.own obligation to join in a big revolutionary united front with a common program of street action to meet the offensive of the bosses and their government and the danger of a coup d'état.
It is high time for the left currents to launch.the slogan of a workers militia and the arming of the entire Uruguayan workers vanguard to-meet the threat with action in the streets.
Only through such joint. action under a common program that boldly poses. the perspective of a confrontation instead of mere polemics with the reaction.can a coup d'état be prevented and the perspective opened for a genuinely revolutionary struggle in Uruguay.
CHINA