Manifesto – Revolutionary Student Front

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Manifesto ¹

Peru, August 1973

NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY STUDENT FRONT (FER)

For the Shining Path of Mariátegui!

Long Live the Revolutionary Student Front!

With the aim of serving the reconstitution of the FER as an organization fully identified with the popular struggles led by the proletariat for the National-Democratic Revolution, the Revolutionary Student Front “For the Shining Path of Mariátegui” has emerged at the national level. This is a decisive milestone in the struggle between two lines that has been escalating since the moment of its constitution. By defining camps with a series of opportunistic variants, it has been possible to establish the FER as a class conscious mass organization that adheres to the Thought of Mariátegui.

Last May’s National Assembly of the FER, attended by various delegations under the vague banner of anti-fascism—and at which a Coordinating Committee was established—clearly raised the need for those of us who adhere fully and unconditionally to Mariátegui’s thinking to unite organically and promote the Reconstitution.

ORGANIZE CORPORATELY OR DEMOCRATICALLY

With the basic laws now in place, the fascist regime has launched an organizational offensive in line with the corporate model, in order to deepen bureaucratic capitalism and prevent the outbreak of a People’s War. Under the iron fist of a vertical, single-party, police state, the government promotes “Social Mobilization” through SINAMOS. ² Its central orientation in this regard is to pit the masses against each other in order to undermine, divide, or destroy popular organizations. To this end, it acts directly through its repressive and infiltrated apparatuses, agencies, and armed gangs, and indirectly through opportunism and splittism [escisionismo]. The action of SINAMOS, which is reinforced and expanded, seeks to mobilize and organize the masses for the enforcement of the laws.

IN THE FACE OF FASCIST AGGRESSION: DEFEND THE UNIVERSITY

Continuing with old reactionary plans -cl D.L 17137 ³ is recent and clearly shows that the military regime has enacted Education Law 19326. ⁴ This law establishes mass indoctrination in counterrevolutionary ideological-political concepts and the preparation of human material for the development of bureaucratic capitalism. To carry out these plans at the University, the regime intends to corporatize it, bringing it totally under its control. In its destructive action, it attacks the principles of the University, threatens its survival, and tries to prevent its connection with the masses. To this end, it resorts to brutal budget cuts, against which it is necessary to fight hard, since the very life of the University is threatened.

The CEN Statute does not fail to enshrine the destruction of the University by not fundamentally opposing the Education Law. Behind the noisy rhetoric of its propagandists (PR ⁵ and VR ⁶ ) lies the planning of collusion for the total subjugation and corporatization of the University.

At present, the student movement is engaged in isolated struggles that lack direction, disintegrating into the incoherence into which the FEP ⁷ has plunged it, whose leadership has abandoned its role in mobilizing and organizing students against the reactionary offensive. Every day, the reconstitution of the FEP becomes more urgent. With the student movement as its backbone, it is necessary to develop the university movement—of teachers, workers, and students—and link it closely to the popular struggles to resist the fascist aim of destroying the university. The central task of the university movement is the defense of the university, which expresses the uncompromising struggle against fascism and is the synthesis of three aspects:

Defense and development of the principles of the University.

For the survival and development of Universities.

Connection with the masses.

RECONSTITUTE THE FER UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF MARIATEGUI

The struggle between lines or the FER, fought irreconcilably between the proletarian line and the separate opportunist variants, has a distinctive feature throughout its development: The defense of the positions held by the proletariat regarding our society and the revolution, which are nothing less than an important part of Marintegui’s Thought—the application of Marxism-Leninism to the concrete conditions of the Peruvian Revolution. It is definitely a struggle that is taking place within the FER due to its adherence to the proletariat. The First University Reform Seminar “J.C.M. ⁸” in November 1968 was an important milestone in the reconstitution of the FER, as it crystallized adherence to Mariátegui’s thought. Whether or not to establish Mariátegui’s thought as the doctrinal foundation of the FER organization is the subject of the struggle between two lines.

The long period leading up to the establishment of the basis for unity presents a new confrontation, a new perspective: the struggle for Reconstitution on the basis of unity, the struggle for the development of the FER as a class-conscious mass organization that adheres to Mariátegui’s Thought and is subject to democratic centralism; as a movement that the proletariat generates within the ranks of the student body.

Class-Conscious, because it bases its existence on the principle of “Recognition and practice of class struggle,” which can only be achieved by taking a firm class position and adhering to Mariátegui Thought. Of the masses, because within the categorization of organizations for the Revolution—Party and Mass Organizations—the FER falls into the latter category. To reflect this in accordance with these norms, the FER raises “On the shining path of Mariátegui,” with a national dimension, to serve the Reconstitution of the Revolutionary Student Front.

LET US UNITE IN A SINGLE FRONT TO DEFEND THE PERUVIAN UNIVERSITY

The university movement today has the serious responsibility of vigorously defending the achievements won over more than 50 years (autonomy, academic freedom, co-government, exclusive professionalization, etc.). It is necessary to wage decisive struggles to repel the fascist offensive against the Democratic and Autonomous University, for which we must unify the university movement—students, among whom the FER is responsible for providing leadership, teachers, workers, and non-teaching staff. Unite all those who are capable of uniting, who in theory and practice fight against the fascist onslaught and the corporatization of the UP [Peruvian University? – Trans]

The central task is to champion the struggle for the principles of the Peruvian university, the survival of universities—now threatened with reduction or disappearance—and to strive to closely link the university movement to the popular masses in order to serve the people and, therefore, to create the future National, Scientific, and Democratic University.

Let us join the university movement for a United Front for the Defense of Peruvian Universities, beginning with the creation of United Fronts in different universities.

For the struggle to unify the student body and create a United Front, we propose the following program:

PROGRAM OF STRUGGLE

1) AGAINST FASCISM AND ITS MEASURES. FOR THE UNMASKING OF EDUCATION LAW 19326 AND THE STATUTE.

2) FOR THE DEFENSE OF THE PERUVIAN UNIVERSITY

DEFENSE OF PRINCIPLES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT.

FOR THE SURVIVAL AND DEVELOPMENT OF UNIVERSITIES.

CONNECTION WITH MASSES AS A GUARANTEE OF SUBSISTENCE AND DEVELOPMENT.

3) FOR THE FACULTY AS THE DEMOCRATIC FOUNDATION OF ACADEMIC AND ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE.

4) FOR THE UNIVERSITY DEFENSE FRONT BASED ON STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS AND EDUCATION WORKERS AND NON-TEACHING STAFF TO FORM A FRONT WITH THE PEOPLE.

5) FOR THE COHESION AND STRENGTHENING OF STUDENT AND WORKER ORGANIZATIONS.

6) FOR THE RECONSTITUTION OF THE FEP

7) AGAINST THE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL RIGHTIST LINE OF SUBMISSION TO THE GOVERNMENT.

8) FOR THE SOLUTION OF SPECIFIC PROBLEMS. HIGHER INCOME FOR PERUVIAN UNIVERSITIES

9) SERVE THE PEOPLE’S STRUGGLES. FOR THE DEFENSE OF DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS, FOR A LIVING WAGE, AND AGAINST THE RISING COST OF LIVING.

10) FOR THE DEFENSE AND RECONSTITUTION OF TRADE UNIONS AND PEOPLE’S ORGANIZATIONS, AGAINST SINAMOS.

11) SUPPORT THE STRUGGLES OF LIBERATION AND WORLD REVOLUTION

Footnotes

Translated and Prepared by Maoism Library from https://cedoc.sisbib.unmsm.edu.pe/public/pdf/gorriti/Subfondo_%20FOLLETOS/Serie_%20FOLLETOS%20POL%C3%8DTICOS/1.2.23.pdf ↩︎
National System of Support for Social Mobilization, Velasco regime led corporativist mass organization. -ML ↩︎
Law promoting Juan Benuccelli Biondi to the Chief of the Navy on Nov 19, 1968 by the fascist Velasco regime. – ML ↩︎
The General Education Law. Counter-revolutionary education law passed by the Velasco regime on March 21, 1972. – ML ↩︎
Patria Roja [Red Fatherland], right opportunists expelled from the Communist Party of Peru in 1965. “first Red Fatherland left the Party, expelled for following a Right-Opportunist Line, negating Chairman Mao, negating Mariátegui, negating the existence of a revolutionary situation in Peru.” – Interview with Chairman Gonzalo (1988) – ML ↩︎
Possibly Vanguardia Revolucionaria, a Peruvian Trotskyite organization. – ML ↩︎
Student Federation of Peru, founded in 1916 – ML ↩︎
Meaning Jose Carlos Mariátegui – ML ↩︎

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