With capitalism in a worldwide crisis, inter-imperialist rivalry on the rise, and the bosses’ liberal democracies under siege, Peru is in bloody turmoil. Competing ruling-class factions are pushing our class to fight and die for their profits. Following the ouster of fake-left misleader President Pedro Castillo in December, mass demonstrations have erupted against his unpopular successor, Dina Boluarte. Workers have barricaded roads, blocked airports, and even forced the shutdown of the historic Inca site of Machu Picchu (Washington Post, 1/26). More than 50 workers, many of them Indigenous workers who’ve been targeted for racist oppression since the Spanish conquest of Peru in the 16th century, have been killed in clashes with the cops.
Militant, antiracist fightback against capitalist exploitation is always welcome. But when protests are channeled into support for one rotten, corrupt politician or another, they only strengthen the bosses’ hand. Our struggle must be aimed at the very core of the racist, sexist profit system. Capitalism must be smashed, root and branch. Without revolutionary communist politics and leadership, mass movements wind up funneled into dead-end reforms. Workers are left with crumbs—and even those crumbs will be taken away with the bosses’ next crisis.
The international Progressive Labor Party is fighting to build a mass revolutionary movement to destroy the capitalist profit system and create an antiracist, egalitarian world. We invite workers across South America and worldwide to join the Party for true working-class liberation.
All politicians serve the capitalist state
Peru is simmering for rebellion. Rich in natural resources, the country is one of the world’s top exporters of gold and copper (Ernst and Young, 2/21/22). It is also marked by staggering racist inequality, with one of three workers living in poverty (Foreign Policy, 1/25). With a healthcare infrastructure in a state of collapse, Peru has the world’s highest Covid-19 mortality rate (Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center). Indigenous workers in remote rural areas suffer from intense discrimination and high unemployment (Lima Easy, 5/6/21).
To win election as president in July 2021, Castillo, an Indigenous former schoolteacher, campaigned as a political “outsider” who promised sweeping reforms. He followed the playbook of other “pink tide” misleaders, from Hugo Chavez in Venezuela to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil. Once elected Castillo railed against U.S. imperialist policies, promised a new constitution, agrarian land reforms, and wealth redistribution to the working class from levying heavy taxes on imperialist mining companies.
After Castillo was impeached and jailed on charges of rebellion and conspiracy, his number-two, Boluarte, seized the reins. She quickly changed sides to ally with Peru’s right-wing bosses. Her new best friend is one-time rival Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, the CIA-backed butcher whose regime killed thousands of civilians in the 1990s in its “dirty war” against the Shining Path and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement guerilla groups (Silvio Rendon, Research & Politics, January-March 2019.) Castillo and Boluarte prove once again that “lesser evil” capitalist stooges have nothing to offer the working class.
Rival imperialists scrap over spoils, workers pay the price
The extreme instability in Peru reflects sharpening, worldwide inter-imperialist competition. Like most of Latin America, the country has been pillaged by U.S. imperialists for more than 200 years. It recently served as the seat of the so-called “Lima Group,” a U.S.-led coalition that tried and failed to topple the government of oil-rich Venezuela (Pressenza, 9/13/21).
But over the last decade, China has replaced the U.S. as Peru’s top trading partner. Chinese bosses have poured billions into the country as they build ports and mines, including deals to connect Peru to its massive Belt and Road infrastructure project (Jones Day, January 2020). Far from bringing new prosperity to the region, this infusion of Chinese capital has only perpetuated worker exploitation in Peru. In 2022, workers repeatedly blocked roads leading to the Las Bambas copper mine after the Chinese firm MMG refused to share revenues with working-class communities (Reuters, 2/16/22). Perhaps not coincidentally, the incarcerated Castillo had moved Peru closer to the Chinese bosses and away from the U.S.
While we have no way to know when rising tensions between U.S. and Chinese imperialists will spill into open conflict, it’s clear that the two imperialist powers are heading toward World War III. When proxy conflicts inevitably expand into a global conflagration, the international working class will pay the highest price.
We can and will run society as a united working-class
As capitalist politicians show their callous contempt for the lives of those who vote them into office, other workers are rallying to support protestors who risk their lives in the streets. From Ferguson and Memphis to Gaza, Tehran, and Lima, workers and students have opened their homes and donated food and medical aid. Amid a crisis created by the violence and corruption and greed of the imperialist bosses, workers continue to show the courage and ability to fight for their class. The historic task before Progressive Labor Party is to transform these isolated reform battles into a worldwide fight for communism. Only the dictatorship of the proletariat can permanently end the bloody nightmare of capitalist rule. Join us!
