Pedro Castillo: A capitalist coalition to stop the Peruvian revolution

Statement of La Marx International 6/10/21 

The mass media and analysts describe Pedro Castillo as a "left" or "communist" leader, who won the ballot for the election of Peru's president by a few votes. It is thus defined by Keiko Fujimori, who heads the other capitalist coalition that competed in the elections, as well as the 99% of the world left that supports him. 

But Castillo is not a Marxist or a communist, but rather heads a coalition with a capitalist and reactionary program that seeks to put out the fire of the revolutionary process that Peru is experiencing. The Peru Libre program is a capitalist program called "popular economy with market", which respects private property and private investment. It is a project that the leaders of Peru Libre themselves clarify that it is not communist or socialist. 

In fact, Peru Libre already governed the province of Junín, when the founder and leader of that coalition, Vladimir Cerrón, was governor between 2010 and 2014, a period in which he aggravated the conditions of poverty and misery for the people. 

And when he renewed his mandate as governor in 2018, he was prosecuted for corruption in the cases of the works of the Daniel Alcides Carrión de Huancayo Hospital, and in the case of La Oroya, for which he was sentenced to 4 years and 8 months in prison. The one who advises Peru Libre is the former economic advisor of the World Bank Pedro Francke, who calls for "fiscal prudence", inflation targets, and opposes the nationalization of companies. 

But in addition to being Peru Libre a coalition that publicly defends capitalism, Castillo defends a clearly reactionary program. Castillo has declared himself a fervent "Catholic" and defender of the family. He has publicly spoken out against minority rights, is against legal abortion, and is against the rights of the homosexual, lesbian, gay, and transgender community. 

Castillo has defined himself against equal marriage, and in general defends a program to defend sexism and the oppression of women. 

A hoax organized to stop the revolution 

How is it possible that a capitalist and reactionary program like the one defended by Castillo, Cerrón and Perú Libre is presented as "communist"? The first thing is to understand that there is a huge shift to the left of the masses in Peru, just as it is happening worldwide with sectors of the masses that come out to confront capitalism. 

The Peru Libre Coalition wants to present itself as "communist" to divert and contain the rise of the masses and the radicalization of fringes of activism and youth that is leading a revolutionary process in Peru. In November 2020, millions of Peruvians took to the streets and overturned two capitalist governments in one week: First the capitalist government of Martin Vizcarra and Peruanos por el Kambio (PPK) fell, and five days later, the mobilization overthrew the capitalist government of Manuel Merino and the Popular Action party (AP). 

In seven days two governments fell, a crisis in the power of the country that expresses the putrefaction of the political regime of capitalist Peru, with its political parties and Parliament dedicated solely to working doing business with multinationals, bankers and large capitalist businessmen. 

The people exploded fed up with hunger, disastrous measures against the COVID pandemic, misery, unemployment, femicides, and murders of women victims of the machismo of the Peruvian capitalist state. The massive mobilizations opened a power vacuum, and forced the call for elections. 

During the election, the hatred of the masses was expressed for all the capitalist parties and leaders of the country. There was a massive abstention of more than 40%, and the most voted candidates obtained only 18% Castillo, 13% Fujimori, and 13% López Aliaga. This election expressed a colossal crisis in the heights, which added to the economic, social and political crisis, opened a revolutionary situation in the country. 

All the political and union leaderships betrayed the Peruvian people by accepting the electoral exit of the bourgeoisie. The CGTP had the possibility of calling the National Strike and imposing a working-class and popular solution to the crisis. But he refused to do so, and negotiated with the ruling classes the electoral solution to sustain capitalist Peru. 

The entire world left betrays the Peruvian people and supports Castillo 

Even so, the enormous shift to the left of a sector of the masses was expressed, and the ballotage served the bourgeoisie to increase the pressure on the masses and lead them to vote to strengthen the institutions of bourgeois democracy. They mounted the campaign, especially Keiko Fujimori, that the ballot was the fight of "communism" against "freedom."

The forced polarization that all ballotage implies did not change in essence the enormous crisis of the regime, 68% voted for the ballotage candidates, but the abstention percentages remained high with 25% of the population that did not vote, added to which 7% voted blank or null. That is, for every three Peruvians, one voted for Fujimori, another for Castillo, and another abstained or white-null vote. 

This leaves a very weak regime standing to carry out a program of hunger and misery for the masses, which world capitalism has as the only alternative to offer in any country. 

All the world left in unison has come down the line that Castillo was "an indigenous", "a teacher" who "represents the poorest of Peru", against the "rich whites of the country." And that since Castillo led the 2017 teachers' strike, "he represents the masses," 

This line is formulated by the Jacobin Magazine, edited by the Social Democrats who are part of the Democratic Party, the current government of the United States. He suggests that "the right will try to avoid Castillo's triumph" with which the line on the left is: "Unite in a single block around Castillo to block the way to the right." 

This is all a lying nonsense. Jacobin does not speak a word of Castillo's capitalist program, nor of his reactionary proposals against millions of Peruvian women. They lie about Castillo's Marxist character, painting him as something he is not, because Castillo publicly claims to be a Catholic and defender of the "family." 

Jacobin's lies seek to get thousands of activists around the world to support Castillo, believing that with his triumph, "Marxism" advances. It is a propaganda similar to that which has already been done with capitalist governments such as those of Evo Morales, Maduro, or Lula, lying that the "worker", the "indigenous", the "peasant", Lula, Evo Morales come to power. , and Maduro who are rejected by the masses who fought against them. 

The entire world left supports the Jacobin line, copying his claims. The entire world social democracy, the governments that appear to be "progressive" in the world, such as Morena in Mexico, or groups such as Podemos in Spain, the Left Party in Germany, and all the social democracy in the world have declared themselves in favor from Castillo. 

The Stalinists, former guerrillas, Maoists, and Guevarists have given public support to Castillo, such as the MAS of Bolivia, the APR of Venezuela, the Stalinism of Chile. And alongside them, the groups from Trotskyism, from the NPA in France, to the Alan Woods groups, to the FITU in Argentina, all without exception support Castillo, and call to "defend the will of the masses." 

In their abandonment of Marxism, all these groups want to make people believe that bourgeois democracy is the "expression of the masses", when we Marxists have always denounced that bourgeois democracy is a fraud against the peoples of the world. This attitude of the world left, from the most important groups linked to US imperialism such as Jacobin, to the small and marginal groups of poor countries, is a sign of the serious crisis, setback, and decomposition that the reformist left is experiencing worldwide.  

Cornered by the world revolutionary process, and the shift to the left of mass sectors, the reformist left turns to the right to support the worst regimes in the world, and embellishes them by giving them "revolutionary" characteristics to support them. 

The crisis suffered by the world left is a progressive phenomenon. Their corrupt leaderships, surrendered to the regime, are conscious traitors who work to confuse the masses, and they must disappear. Peru is an example of the need to destroy these reformist left groups that repeat the line that North American imperialism descends, and the "Front for Peace and Democracy", which is indoctrinated by Jacobin. 

We must support the people of Peru There is still a number of votes from the ballot that must be counted from the Peruvians who voted abroad. Whatever the end result, whether Fujimori wins, or Castillo wins, a capitalist government wins. And the number one task for Marxists is to call for a fight against the capitalist government that takes over to defeat it. Marxists do not make any block with capitalist coalitions. 

We do not make a single block with our executioners as Jacobin intends to impose, we have nothing to do with that corrupt filth that is called left. All over the world we denounce capitalist governments, even if they are headed by the military, indigenous, men, women, black or white. If it is capitalist, it is not our government. And if it is not our government, our task in Peru is to confront it. 

We are with the people of Peru against the government that wants to defend capitalism. We are going to continue with the revolution that began in November 2020! We are going for a workers' and popular government! Marx International declares war on the next elected government, whoever it is. And we unite the struggle of activists from Peru, America and the world against capitalism, until achieving Global Socialism 

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