BEHIND THE RESIGNATION OF JUAN BOSCH
By George Saunders
A cryptie October 31 Reuters dispatch from Santo Domingo reported that Juan Bosch had resigned his leadership of the Dominican Revolutionary party [PRD -= Partido Revolucionario Dominicano], the social reformist grouping which.rode to. the fore on the wave of the April 1965 uprising. (Colonel Francisco Caamafio Defié was.a PRD activist.) According to the dispatch, Bosch "told the closing session of his party's congress last night that his resignation would avoid the danger of bossism in the party." It was added that he intended to leave soon for a vacation in Europe.
The report mentioned two other ‘developments of interest. The congress expelled Martinez Francisco, who is serving as finance minister in the Balaguer government . It also demanded that PRD member José Antonio Brea Pena resign as Balaguer's industry and commerce minister.’ Clearly the attitude toward the Balaguer government has become an: issue’ in the PRD.
Since losing the presidential race to Balaguer last June, Bosch has counseled a "constructive" attitude toward the conservative and pro-U.S. regime. Even before that, Bosch's willingness to run in an election imposed by the U.S.. occupying force, coupled with the extremely conciliatory tone of his campaign,.showed that he had no fundamental opposition to Balaguer and the pro-imperialist oligarchy Balaguer represents. .
Bosch's campaign was supported uncritically, even. enthusiastically, by the pro- Moscow Dominican Communist party [PCD -- Partido Comunista Dominicana]. The Fidelista June 14 Movement [Movimiento Revolucionario 14 de Junio]. gave the Bosch campaign critical support -- offering some very sharp and very valid criticism -- and they blasted the PCD for its glossing over of Bosch's role. Although they did not field a revolutionary alternative to the two bourgeois candidates on: the presidential level, the June 14 Movement did run their own candidates, showing healthy revolutionary instincts. Their avowed aim was ‘to use the electoral arena to bring a revolutionary view before the masses. The pro-Pekihg Dominican Popular Movement [MPD -- Movimiento Popular Dominicano-Partido Marxista_ Leninista] followed a policy of boycott toward the elections.
Now the question of the elections, of attitude toward the regime that: issued from them, and of the road to Dominican liberation in general has been sharply. posed within the reformist PRD itself. _
Revolutionary processes most commonly appear first among the youth. The documents approved at the recent national plenum of the Dominican Revolutionary Youth [JRD -- Juventud Revolucionaria Dominicana] are a case in point. The documents were con-. sidered “explosive” by the top leaders of the adult party. ;
The Dominican press was also. disconcerted by these documents; none of the Dominican dailies would print them. Finally, Ahora [Now], a magazine which was a reactionary government mouthpiece before the April uprising but which since then has had a remark able evolution to the left, printed them in its October 31 issue.
The two most important documents are the "Political Declaration" and the "Declaration of Principles." The first "condemns U.S. aggression in. Vietnam and demands withdrawal of: the troops." It also "condemns the dictatorial regimes of tatin- America and Europe," (Ongania, Castelo Branco, Franco, Salazar, etc.). =
The "Political Declaration" takes the following attitude toward the Balaguer government: "In the light of the corrupt origin of the present government, the PRD cannot consider it 'legal' and therefore ‘should not confront it with a ‘constructive and creative" position," .
The document continues: "The Dominican people have rejected this government. How then can a-revolutionary party collaborate with an antipopular, antinational governmént committed to the interests of the exploiters?" It demands that the Balaguer regime be confronted "with a resolute and revolutionary. position." (Emphasis in original. )
The JRD envisages its own role as "not to support the 'constitutionality' of a fraud and an imposition, but to prepare our people for the long and bloody struggle that they will have to launch in order to achieve their liberation." The major step is "to end the Yankee domination of our country." And it concludes that "our principal enemy is Yankee imperialism." The task of the JRD is said to be "to make our party the vanguard of that struggle" whose victory can be assured only "with people, not with conciliators.
~l2-
When Bosch at the PRD congress deplored U.S. imperialism because it "divides people in underdeveloped countries into Communists and anti-Communists," he must have had the evolution of his own youth movement in mind. But, a true liberal to the last, he does not choose sides; he chooses to go to Europe.
The JRD's “Declaration of Principles" is even more significant. In it the JRD defines itself as "a front of exploited classes which has emerged from the national reality as an. instrument of the anti-imperialist and antifeudal revolution and which derives its principles from the materialist study of society and history."
The declaration goes on, "Our party has been created to contribute to the profound and radical transformation of: the social, economic, and political structure of our country," adding that this transformation "must take place through the wise teachings of democratic socialisn."
Within the left, the JRD declares that it is the "only left movement with possibilities of confronting the offensive of the right wing and of Social Christian reformism." (It defines the latter as "a fulcrum of the Catholic Church" which "preaches timid reforms that will not destroy the capitalist system.")
Rejecting blind anti-Communism the document states that the JRD "was founded to fight against imperialism, feudalism and the oligarchy. Our differences and our struggle with the Communist parties is not our first task as a revolutionary youth. We have to see in communism a competitive force, and our youth must, for the sake of democratic socialism, present the Dominican people with a clear and optimistic alternative." As for the parent PRD, the document has some implied criticism: "The PRD was not established simply to achieve power or to maintain certain formal aspects of democracy, which in our country only serve the interests of a privileged minority."
Giving the concept "democratic socialism" a more militant interpretation than is usually found, the "Declaration of Principles" states: "Democratic socialism means that it depends on the exploiting class whether peaceful or violent means are required to carry out a revolution." Also, "In struggling for the national revolution, democratic socialism takes as its goal the building of a democratic, socialist society. Socialist because the wealth, public services and the basic industries of the country wiil be in the hands of the state, while the other means of production will be directly in the ‘hands of the workers through cooperatives; and the state will control all phases of the economic and social process. Democratic because the people will be assured of housing, education, food, and will be able to express their political and religious opinions freely and also to choose, without any compulsion, their political leaders."
On the immediate tasks of the Dominican revolution, the JRD took some strong positions. On land reform: "...we...call for an integral agrarian reform capable of destroying the latifundist system, which involves not only distributing state-owned land, but expropriating the land of the oligarchs in order to destroy their political power." On national independence: "...we will struggle against the subjugation of our country by foreign powers." On democracy: "...we believe in the democratic system of government, but the struggle for democracy cannot take place through democratic means... Even when the electoral. process is functioning, there are other class mechanisms of compulsion, military and religious threats, which falsify and take away its content."
Thus Bosch's reformist party seems to be following a pattern familiar in Latin America in recent years. It was out of Betancourt's party that the MIR [Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria] split, primarily as a youth movement. And in Chile, whole layers of the youth of the reformist Socialist party have evolved toward revolutionary Marxisn.
Within the PRD itself there are differences suggested by Bosch's resignation and the condemnation of the PRD ministers in the Balaguer government. The magazine Ahora reports that the PRD leadership is divided into "moderate" and "radical" wings. The moderates are “inclined to maintain a so-called creative political opposition" to Balaguer. The "radicals" are those who "combat that line and propose that the party adopt a more resolute position." But while the "radicals" refuse to cooperate with the Balaguer government, they do not take a position in regard to imperialism or on the perspectives of the struggle.
.Te JRD, with its call for struggle against imperialism, not shying even from an armed struggle, and for nationalization of industry and the basic means of production, has departed sharply from both wings of the adult movement.