Ecuador

Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Ecuador (PCMLE)

The question of power

"To seize power and maintain it is the most important task of all social classes, because their philosophical, political, economic and social conceptions cannot be fully realized except from power. Before, one makes propaganda for these conceptions, disseminates them, fights for them, one can win some partial demands and achieve reforms; but only with political leadership, only from power, can one put them fully into practice. This is why each social class aspires to political power and fights for it."

POLITICAL LINE OF THE PCMLE

Since the appearance of private property and the emergence of social classes, the social division of labor has been raised; one part of the population had to work in agriculture and animal husbandry, and a minority group was responsible for the administration of the property of the community. This division of labor allowed for the appearance of one sector of the community that did not work. Initially these “administrators” were the result of the election by everyone, later those responsibilities became hereditary; they were taken over by a “select” group. In this way, power was expressed and consequently the struggle to hold on to it. From that time until today the question of who holds power in their hands and uses it for their benefit has been the reason for the social, economic and political confrontations in every society.

The Manifesto of the Communist Party (Marx and Engels – 1848) states: “The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggle.”

The class struggle is essentially the struggle for political power, whose results will allow the use of economic power and its maintenance.

The advent of capitalism simplified class relations in an extraordinary manner. As we know, the existence of the capitalist class, the accumulation and concentration of wealth is not possible without the existence of the working class and the appropriation by the bourgeoisie of the wealth created by it. These circumstances placed the bourgeoisie and the working class on opposite sides. The confrontation of interests between these classes makes the life of society dynamic in all spheres.

The struggle of the working class to break the chains of wage slavery and the determination of the bourgeoisie to maintain and perpetuate their interests and privileges have marked the most important social and political confrontations. For the workers these have meant the trade union organization at national and international levels, the formation of communist and workers' parties, legal demands, petitions, collective bargaining, mobilizations, strikes, uprisings, armed insurrections, the revolution, the rise in several countries of the working class to the position of the ruling class. On the part of the bourgeoisie, the monopolies and the imperialist countries, the establishment of labor laws that, despite the struggle, the social gains and the demands of the workers, preserves the interests of capital; the recent implementation of neoliberal legislation that overturns important rights and gains of the working class; the legalized repression, persecution, imprisonment, torture and murder; the breakdown of bourgeois legality itself that was created by them and the imposition of military dictatorships and fascism.

The epoch of capitalism and imperialism is marked by this acute conflict of interests between the working class and the bourgeoisie which is expressed in all spheres and at all levels, from peaceful demonstrations to revolutionary wars, from the implementation of bourgeois legality to the wars of aggression against the workers and peoples.

However, as in the past of feudalism and slavery, the fight for power also involves struggles within the ruling classes, among the various sections of the class who struggle for hegemony, to be the ones that directly benefit from the power. To achieve this they face each other in conflicts, sometimes sharp and violent, between them. The development of capitalism, of the productive forces as well as the demands of the workers, have resulted in new stages that allow the bourgeois and monopoly groups to fight over the exercise of power through elections in representative democracies. However, when it is necessary, the bourgeoisie has had to resort to military dictatorships, to fascism, to palace conspiracies and coups.

The history of imperialism is essentially one of wars of aggression and plunder of the dependent countries and nations, as well as the confrontation between the various imperialist countries for the redivision of the world. The epoch of imperialism has produced the largest military confrontations in the whole history of humanity, the first and second world wars. In this period the war industry and the use of science and technology for military purposes has developed to the highest levels. However, in some periods capitalism in its highest stage, imperialism, has been able to resolve its contradictions by diplomatic means, by economic pressure, through deterrence, imposing fear and the threat of the military powers and using international organizations.

The inter-bourgeois, inter-monopoly contradictions and those among the various imperialist countries are also, evidently, expressions of the developmental of the class struggle, of the struggle over power.

The response of the working class runs from the instinctive defense to the development of an ideological and political conception, the proposal of a program and a project of society, the society of the workers, socialism and finally the elimination of social inequality, the abolition of the state, of the armed forces, the disappearance of social classes, the establishment of communism.

The ideal of social equality, complete existence of social justice, freedom and democracy has been the dream of humanity since the appearance of private property and social classes. Only with the advent of capitalism and the emergence of the working class as the creator of wealth was it possible for this ideal to take shape in principles and postulates, in proposals and programs, guides and paths.

The multilateral and deep study of capital and of the struggle of the workers carried out by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels allowed one to unravel the course of History, its protagonists and paths. The emergence of scientific socialism allowed the working class to take up its class consciousness, to equip itself with its teachings and embark on the road of its liberation. Marxism-Leninism, its revolutionary principles constitute the guide for the organization and struggle of the working class and the peoples, for the establishment and development of the revolutionary party of the proletariat.

The process of the organization and fight of the working class for its social liberation, for the establishment of socialism placed on the agenda the discussion of how to achieve this great purpose. In the factories, in the trade unions, in the nascent workers’ parties, among the advanced workers who embraced the ideal of communism, there were put forward two paths and perspectives:

This debate between revolution and reform continues. It is obvious between the proletarians and communists on one side and the opportunists of all colors on the other, between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism. Marxism-Leninism is the ideology of the working class, it is the conception of the Marxist- Leninist party, it is the guide to organize and make the revolution. Opportunism, reformism and revisionism are an expression of the ideology of the bourgeoisie within the workers’ and revolutionary movement.

The essence of this theoretical debate is the question of power. For the Marxist-Leninist communists, the overcoming of capitalism by socialism demands the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and imperialism, the establishment of people’s power, the rise of the working class and other laboring classes to the position of ruling classes. For the opportunists of every kind, one can achieve social welfare, the rights of the workers and peoples within the system itself, through the struggle to achieve laws and rules that guarantee these demands. That is, we proletarian revolutionaries fight for power; the revisionists renounce the struggle for power, they advocate the sweetening of capitalism.

For the struggle for power the corporations, manufacturers’ associations, the employers' unions in the sphere of the ruling classes are not sufficient; the workers’ unions and peasant communes among the working people are not sufficient. For a long time the development of the political struggle has raised the need for political parties. This is true both for those above as well as for those below.

The social revolution of the proletariat, the national liberation of the peoples and nations demand the existence of the communist party.

The Marxist-Leninist party represents the interests of the working class, the struggle to really convert these interests into power. At the present time in Ecuador the immediate interests and objectives of the working class coincide, in the main, with the interests of the other laboring classes and strata in the city and the countryside, with the interests of the middle strata who desire national independence, the social and material progress of the country, the high interests of the Ecuadorian nation, of the indigenous peoples and nations, of the blacks and Montubios (mestizo peasants from the Coast – translator s note).

To fulfill its historical responsibility to unite, organize, politically educate and lead the workers and peoples to struggle for power, the communist party must take on important and major tasks:

The PCMLE is the political party of the working class in Ecuador, it genuinely represents their immediate and long-term interests, it is clear that the highest objectives of the workers and peoples can only be completely fulfilled from the people’s power, by building socialism.

The PCMLE has taken up its responsibilities since its appearance in the social and political life of the working class, on August 1, 1964. It will reach 50 years of organization and struggle to lead the Ecuadorean revolution to victory. In this process we have gained experience and maturity; we are forging the revolutionary mettle; we have achieved important successes and victories, we have suffered defeats and setbacks; we are standing firm and we are ready to continue the struggle for the revolution and socialism.

We are fulfilling our responsibility to organize and make the revolution without interruption:

The concrete analysis of concrete reality from the positions of the proletariat, with the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, have led us to conclude that the central objectives of the party at the present stage are the winning of people’s power and socialism; that the building of socialism in Ecuador implies and demands the fulfillment of important tasks of a democratic and anti-imperialist character, such as the comprehensive agrarian reform and the consistent struggle until the end for the national tasks that should be promoted simultaneously with the socialist objectives of the expropriation of private property and their socialization. That is, the Ecuadorian revolution has as its central objective the winning of people’s power and socialism, a single purpose that demands fulfilling tasks and responsibilities of a democratic, national and socialist character simultaneously, in a single process.

The relations of the party with the masses are of an ideological, political and organizational character. The ideological links with the masses are expressed and are built to the degree that the strategic proposals of people’s power, the revolution and socialism permeate the consciousness of the working masses and the youth, to the degree that the most outstanding social fighters make them their own. The political ties are affirmed and developed to the extent that the workers and youth comprehend the political orientations developed by the party, make them their own and struggle to make them a reality. The revolutionary politics of the party takes into account the problems and aspirations of the masses to propel them to the struggle for power. The organic relations of the party with the masses is built to the degree that the best fighters, the most consistent trade unionists and peasants, the most determined fighters among the youths are incorporated into the ranks of the party, become revolutionary militants and cadres; to the degree that the party cells emerge in the factories and enterprises, in the peasant communes, in the centers of education, in the popular neighborhoods, among the mestizos, indigenous peoples and blacks.

The revolutionary propaganda, the actions of the militants, of the various forces of the party, the very development of the struggle of the masses are, in fact, concrete expressions and manifestations of the tactics that aim at the strategic objective of the seizure of power. This statement is demonstrated by the fact that each of these manifestations helps to strengthen the revolutionary forces, to disseminate the politics of the party, the ideals of change, of the revolution and socialism, the unmasking of capitalism and its evils, the denunciation of the reactionary policies of the bourgeois governments; they help the strengthening of the unity of the laboring classes, the peoples and youth, for the purpose of building the party; they form part of the process of the accumulation of forces.

The historical experience of the party demonstrates the application of Marxism- Leninism, of the Political Line in the context of a society in motion, of the sharpening of contradictions, of the actual development of the mass movement; it shows that we are gaining experience in the task of developing politics, of creating alternatives for the masses, that we have an short and medium-term political project.

“Protest with a proposal” is a formula that sums up the essence of the party's politics. The lies of the bourgeoisie and imperialism, of reaction and opportunism that we are only “against,” that we are “dinosaurs” who are out of step with historical development, that we are “stone throwers” and “bullyboys,” they are obviously expressions of a rabid anti-communism, of their intention to isolate us from the masses and the youth, to divorced us from the people. Even if the campaign has influenced a good part of democratic public opinion, even of certain sectors of the working class and youth; among the popular sectors that are fighting, where the communists and their policies are present and we work with determination these attacks do not have the same affect; they are contradicted by reality. This situation demands that the Party strive to become more evident among the laboring classes and peoples, to show who we are, social fighters committed to the people, to the present and the future, to make clear what we have done and are doing in favor of social change, to disprove the lies of the anti-communist campaign.

In the first place, we must say who we are and what we want for today and for tomorrow, for the workers and peoples, for the country; we have to overcome the situation in which the majority of the people know us from what the ruling classes, the governments in office and the opportunists say about us, from what television and the press say. In the second place, it is necessary to pass over to the counter-offensive in the political and ideological sphere, to denounce the reactionary policy of the government, the evils of capitalism, the looting and plundering of imperialism.

The offensive of an ideological and political nature is being carried out by all means, by rabidly anticommunist reaction, by representatives of the bourgeoisie and imperialism within the government of the “citizens' revolution,” by the opportunists of all stripes, by revisionism and the traitors. Their aim is to eliminate the revolutionary forces, mainly the PCMLE and its forces. This offense is now becoming more virulent and aggressive, under the conditions of the electoral defeat this year. Its inspirers and executors wrongly think that they will obtain a resounding success. The reactionaries and opportunists will crash against the iron resolve of the revolutionaries that will block their path.

We see this conflict as an expression of revolutionary politics, as a new arena of the ideological struggle.

On the one side reformism and opportunism strut about in the government, with many ideological and political resources to captivate the consciousness of the working masses, the peoples and the youth with their ideas and proposals, they have the resources for an aggressive welfare policy that focuses on the poorest sectors of the city and countryside, they has in their hands the ability to buy off a part of the trade union and popular leadership with bureaucratic positions, with embassies and consulates, they have the laws and institutions, the judges and courts to criminalize social protest,⁽⁵⁾ to pursue and apprehend the social activists, the consistent trade union and popular leaders, by presidential decree it dictated Decree 16, which restricts the right to organize and strike. This anticommunist offensive is aimed at weakening and dismantling the mass movement, at dividing and co-opting the indigenous movement, CONAIE and Pachakutik, and at destroying, eliminating and “burying” the MPD. It is working to achieve these objectives with the “carrot and stick.”

In the front lines are the workers and peoples, the leftists and revolutionaries and the communists who suffer from an downturn characterized by the demobilization of the workers, popular and youth movement, by a certain success in the co-optation of trade union leaders, by serious cracks in the trade union organization provoked by the divisive politics of the government and employers, by limitations and weaknesses of the left-wing and revolutionary parties and organizations, by the impact of the electoral defeat of February 2013. However, these circumstances do not eliminate the need for our existence and action; we are the social actors who create the wealth, the protagonists, as always, of the struggle for social and material progress, of the fights for freedom and social equality. This campaign does not eliminate our historical role; we cannot be replaced in fulfilling our responsibilities and tasks. If they hit us we have the ability to recover; if they weaken us we can confront those circumstances, heal those wounds and advance, if they defeat us, we will be able to assimilate the lessons, recognize our mistakes and take up the road again and, in the hypothetical case that they eliminate us, what will happen is what the History of humanity has always recorded throughout the millennia, others will take up our banners and the struggle will continue.

Clearly, we are on the strategic defensive. The class enemy has the initiative, the Correa government harasses us constantly, has managed to delegitimize us among certain sectors of the masses and of public opinion. Faced with all this, one thing is certain. We are here and we have made the decision to continue the struggle: we have difficulties, we are faced with adversity, we are fighting in a harsh terrain under adverse conditions but we have historical right, we have a correct and timely revolutionary politics, fundamentally, we are fully conscious of who are the enemies of the people and the country, who constitute the protagonists of social change, we have deep roots among the workers and peoples, within the youth, with an important experience in the revolutionary organization and struggle. For these reasons and because, principally, we represent the present and the future of the peoples and the fatherland, the Revolution and Socialism, they will not eliminate us, we will continue fighting, we will cope with the blows and setbacks, we will counter-attack and one day we will retake the initiative, pass on to the offense and we will win.

The strategic defensive is the core of the revolutionary politics of the party in the present conditions; it consists essentially in organized resistance, in the defense and strengthening of our forces, in the courageous attitude to cope with the blows and setbacks, in the search for the opportune moment to counter-attack and inflict blows on the enemy, until we regain our strength and recapture the initiative. We must develop that policy in all terrains, in various circumstances, on all fronts and in all places, in the theoretical and political debate, in the assembly, on the street and in the factory, in the peasant commune and association, in the popular neighborhoods and among the self-employed workers, in the universities and colleges, in the political organization of the masses, in the trade union currents and on the political fronts.

The social and national liberation of the workers and peoples of Ecuador can only be achieved by the overthrow of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of people's power.

This is a single process; one cannot obtain social liberation, the elimination of capitalist exploitation and oppression without simultaneously breaking the chains of dependence on imperialism and therefore one cannot achieve full national independence without destroying the power of the class of capitalists established in the country. International capital and its servant partners, the Ecuadorian capitalists, have made a reactionary marriage in which they support each other; one cannot exist without the other.

To overthrow these great enemies of the revolution demands the broadest and most solid unity of the laboring classes and peoples. The Political Line of the PCMLE correctly points out the need for the formation of the Revolutionary United Front.

This high purpose must count on the leadership and direction of the working class, the only laboring class that, by being in the center of the chain of production, by its historical experience, because its immediate and long-term objectives coincide fully with the interests of the other laboring classes and, because its liberation is tied to the emancipation of all humanity and therefore has the capacity to unite all the working people into one torrent. The Revolutionary United Front is based fundamentally on the worker-peasant alliance.

The Revolutionary United Front takes into account the need to unite in its liberating objectives the Ecuadorian nation, the indigenous peoples and nations, the black people around its programmatic proposal, its organizations and activities.

To build that Front one should keep in mind that the peoples of Ecuador are suffering from imperialist oppression, the blatant interference in the affairs of the country, and therefore the interventionist nature of the aggressive and plundering lock-hold of the international monopolies and imperialist countries can be seen, and in practice significant sectors are becoming conscious of this domination and of the need for liberation. It is also indispensable that we Marxist-Leninists be clear that Ecuador is a multinational country which is inhabited by various peoples, who have lived together as brothers for a long historical period, who have ties of blood and who have common objectives of freedom and progress; but they bear the brunt of capitalist exploitation and oppression, of the reactionary and decadent ideas of the ruling classes, which have implanted certain racist, discriminatory and exclusionary intercultural relations that are obstacles to unity and to the common struggle of the workers of the various peoples.

The objectives of independence, the opposition to and struggle against foreign domination, in opposition to imperialist globalization that seeks to destroy the country and absorb it into the “globalized” world, are awakening the patriotic ideals among significant sectors of the middle strata and class who aspire to a sovereign Ecuador; these sectors can and should be integrated into the Revolutionary United Front, keeping in mind that they will try to direct it and lead it for their specific purposes.

We have been building the Revolutionary United Front since the foundation of the party; we are laying out the foundation and continue to build it every day, brick by brick. It is a social and political project that demands a correct revolutionary political approach from the party that takes into account the interests of those concerned with it, that it is raised on the basis of a frank discussion of the proposals, that seek the elements of unity and leave aside the issues that hinder it.

The emancipatory project of the workers and peoples has been developing for decades. In recent years, in the streets and the struggles we have participated together with the majority of the protagonists, we have united for immediate goals and even in medium-term programmatic proposals. In practice the workers, the majority of the union federations, those grouped in the United Front of the Workers (FUT), the UGTE [General Union of Ecuadorean Workers], the independent unions, the militant teachers' union, the organizations of peasants, of poor neighborhood people, of small traders, of battle-tested organizations of the student youth, FESE [Federation of Secondary Students of Ecuador] and FEUE [Federation of University Students of Ecuador] have been joining that project; a valuable torrent of the indigenous movement is incorporating itself in it, mainly CONAIE [Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador] and ECUARUNARI [Kichwa Confederation of Ecuador], the various organizations of the black people; it is integrating the left-wing and revolutionary parties and organizations, both legal and illegal. This Project has to its credit its participation in the daily struggle for the interests of the workers, peoples and youth, the organization of important actions and provincial and regional strikes in opposition to centralism and backwardness, the development of numerous national strikes in courageous battle against neoliberalism, the carrying out of popular uprisings against tyranny and corruption, against the betrayal and ineptitude of reactionary governments, victorious uprisings that stopped the neoliberal and traitorous governments of Bucaram, Mahuad and Gutierrez in their tracks; it has an important experience of participation in victorious electoral processes that united in deeds and objectives the workers, indigenous people, blacks and the left. Obviously these policies do not follow a straight course; they develop in a zigzag process, with advances and setbacks. This year we suffered a serious electoral defeat.

From our positions we are working tenaciously for the strengthening of this Emancipatory Project, we gave it our main energies and efforts, but clearly its strengthening also demands the participation of other forces.

We have pointed out that this Emancipatory Project of the Workers and Peoples raises three flags: the tricolor, the yellow, blue and red of the Ecuadorian people, of the Republic, recognized historically as the symbol of the fatherland; the huipala, the rainbow flag representing the indigenous peoples and nationalities; and the red flag of the workers, which is the banner of the social revolution. These are the three flags that are flying on the same level, that protect the fighters for social liberation, the patriots who are fighting for national liberation, the peoples and nationalities who demand multiculturalism and the respect for cultural diversity. The Ecuadorian revolution raises the objective of social equality and cultural diversity, of national liberation and proletarian internationalism.

In the field of the ideological struggle we have come as standard bearers of the revolution and socialism, as staunch detractors and opponents of capitalism and imperialism. We are an expression of solidarity, we are fighters for social liberation, for equality and cultural diversity. We are sworn enemies of individualism and personalism, of pettiness and selfishness engendered by feudalism and the bourgeoisie.

The workers and peoples of Ecuador have fought and continue to fight great political struggles for freedom and democracy. They have been actors in the bloody days against dictatorships. They have overthrown several bourgeois governments in the streets and they have fought in the electoral battles for immediate and medium-term objectives, for spaces in the institutions to turn them into new trenches of combat.

We communists have understood through the social process the need to participate in the elections of representative democracy. We have done this since our emergence as a party.

In the beginning and in the hard struggle against revisionism and opportunism, we denounced the elections as a farce in which the ruling classes determined every so often, which of their sectors would directly hold the reins of power; we participate in these processes, unmasking them, denouncing the candidates of the employers and calling on the masses to cast a blank vote, at that time we marked important forms of rejection of the electoral farce.

Later on, and in keeping with the development of Ecuadorian society, of the confrontations of the workers for their rights, of the contradictions among the bourgeoisie; more concretely, after the transition from the military dictatorship to representative democracy, which took place in 1978 when the longest military dictatorship was overcome by a plebiscite, we made the decision to participate actively in the electoral struggle.

The decision to participate in representative democracy was taken without losing sight of the fact that elections are an expression of bourgeois democracy to perpetuate its rule, knowing that the electoral laws and rules are imposed in their favor; being clear that revolutionary participation in elections takes place under extremely unequal conditions, but at the same time analyzing that anyhow, the elections were an event in which the great majority of the population took part, excited by one or another of the representative of the rulers, which in its development puts forth the question of power, of the government, of the interests and desires of the masses.

We always point out that the elections will not lead us to power, but as long as large numbers of people are interested in them, it was necessary for the revolutionaries to participate, precisely to have a tribune in which the communists can put forward programmatic proposals for today and tomorrow, so that they express the strategic objectives of the seizure of power.

In our view the participation in elections is one of the forms of the political struggle that will allow us to advance in the accumulation of forces; therefore, we always state that our intervention is not nominal; it is an ideological and political battle between the right and the left, between the patriots and traitors, between the democrats and reactionaries, between revolution and reformism.

In 1978 we consistently supported the decision of the workers, teachers and students who organized the Democratic Popular Movement. Together with them we have been waging fierce battles in the regional governments and in the bourgeois parliament. Together with them we have grown, won battles and suffered serious setbacks and defeats.

We proletarian revolutionaries always understood these lessons of History and put forward the necessity and decision to overthrow the power of the capitalists and imperialism in our ideology and program.

The process of accumulation of forces in which we are emerged demands the understanding in theory and practice of the need to use all forms of struggle in order to organize and educate the masses for the legitimate use of revolutionary violence; we put forward the responsibility of stating in the party and its forces the ideological conditions and technical capabilities to build the instruments of revolutionary violence. In this process we must continue to develop the initiative and tasks.

The Ecuadorian revolution will result from the existence and struggle of the Communist Party, and the party will assert itself, will grow and develop to fulfill its objectives as a result of the existence and struggles of the working masses and youth. That is the dialectic: without a revolutionary party there will be no revolutionary movement of the masses, and without the struggle of the masses there will not be a battle-hardened and powerful party.

For almost 50 years we have been making our best efforts to build a great and correct communist party. The PCMLE is developing as such; it will achieve its objectives carrying the Ecuadorian revolution through to victory.

We are fighting for people’s power and socialism!

Notes: