The Communist Party of Uruguay issued a Resolution discussing recent imperialist provocations and the ways to consolidate the Frente Amplio in Uruguay.
ICP, 5 July 2018
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uruguay (PCU) unanimously approved the Political Resolution discussed in CC meeting held on June 16 and 17. The CC session commemorated CC members César Brien and Omar González who had passed away after the last CC meeting in March. César Brien was the former General Secretary of PCU at Maldonado Department and had been imprissioned during the fascist regime. Omar González was a member of the Secretariat of PCU at Montevideo and member of the direction of the municipal workers union who died in a labour accident.
The Resolution defined the world politial situation as 'a counteroffensive of imperialism and oligarchies' especially trying to recover the spaces of political power in the Latin American continent. The PCU reiterated the central objective defined by the XXXI Congress to defeat the counter-offensive with 'a struggle to advance democracy, towards socialism' by mobilizing the masses. The Resolution determined seven axes of struggle, including the movement regarding National Budget, participating in the tripartite (public-private) and bipartite (private) Salary Councils, reorienting the trade unions, calling into account fascist crimes, fighting against anti-imperialism and for peace. The Resolution expressed special solidarity with the struggling people of Latin American countries, demanding freedom for Lula in Brazil, calling to end the blockade against Cuba and supporting the Colombian people's struggle against the entrence of NATO in Latin America.
The Resolution also mentioned the interventionist conduct of the ambassador of the USA in Uruguay, Kenneth George. According to the Resolution, 'The government of Donald Trump, in a change in quality of politics to Uruguay, appointed for the first time an ambassador of political trust for our country and not a career officer. George appeared before the US Senate a few days ago, the first ratification hearing. There he said that "his main focus" of work will be "change the Tabaré Vázquez's government stance on Venezuela”. He also said that he will act to stop "China's growing influence in the region and in Uruguay". These expressions, of intolerable imperial arrogance, self-explain that his actions in our country will be of permanent interference and provocation.' In addition, the CC of the PCU expressed that it follows with great attention 'the evolution of the negotiations for the strategic agreement with China, both by our solely country, and the one proposed with the entire CELAC, and considers them of enormous importance.'
The Resolution welcomed the holding of PIT-CNT labour union congress, saying that it 'constitutes a victory for the workers and for the entire popular movement ... reaffirmation of the unity of class in a single trade union; the ratification, by a large majority, of the historical line of the trade union movement, the accumulation of forces and the construction of the social and political unity of the people; the construction of a unitary list to shape the direction and the relevant role of the women comrades in the elected direction'. The CC congratulated the efforts of the militants of PCU and of the Communist Youth (UJC) in the Congress.
Condemning the dictatorship of the coup that had falled 45 years ago, the Resolution of the CC underlined its determination never to let a coup d'etat supported by 'Yankee imperialism and the oligarchy' to happen again. The Resolution of the CC also expressed PCU's condemnation of 'the antidemocratic coup carried out a few days ago, in Santa Clara de Olimar, by members of the "Un solo Uruguay" movement, the National Party and the oligarchy landowner of the area' against the assembly of workers which added to the burning of a union camp of rice workers; the whipping to strikes “rebencazos” to a rural worker by a landowner last year; and the murder of a trade union leader in cargo transport beside other expressions of hatred and criminalization of the popular organization and the left.
Regarding the National Budget, the PCU stated the following considerations:
'It insufficient to give answer to the needs of the productive development of our country, to the just demands of important social and to fulfill the programmatic commitments of our Frente Amplio. In political terms, we consider the guidelines presented an important mistake, since they erode the unity of the political and social block of the changes, said in other terms, isolate our government from its political force and both of their social base. We share the concern about the restrictions imposed by a complex external and internal situation, but we believe that, despite all the advances conquered, we continue with an increasingly primarized productive matrix, which affects the non-expansion of jobs and the quality of them, betting on Direct Foreign Investment as almost the sole variable of economic impulse, diminishing the role of state public investment, establishing the so-called "accounting balance" as the only concern and leaving on the way actions to move towards the redistribution of wealth. Not to modify this vision, conspires against the maintenance of the advances achieved by the Frente Amplio and the popular struggle since 2004. The announced Budget is insufficient for the needs of strategic areas of the country (education, health, housing, public investment that generates jobs, etc.).'
The PCU reminded that it had raised along with the the trade union movement and various sectors of the Frente Amplio the initiative 'to tax more to big capital and its gains to generate more genuine economic resources to allocate to public investment state ... which we return to vindicate against options that say there are no alternatives'. The PCU demanded a discussion of the Budget Project before its entry into Parliament, 'which includes the FA as such and not only to his parliamentary bench'. To contribute to this effort, the CC appointed a working group to raise in a few days, concrete proposals to improve the Budgetary Project requesting interviews to the President of the Republic, Tabaré Vázquez and also to the public authorities in education and health.
The Resolution gave credit to the Frente Amplio governments in the fight against crime, especially drug traffic. However, it was underlined that 'the crisis of capitalism and its current structure that includes the globalization of drug traffic and its influence, reproduces constantly phenomena of social marginalization and violence'. The PCU denounced the manipulation of right and of the big media 'that use this topic for a scary campaign and of impulse of reactionary solutions'. This was exemplified with the proposal to lower the age of the imputability which was defeated by the people of Uruguay and with the recent signature campaign to militarize the police or directly taking the army to the street, which has already been implemented and failed to prevent crime and drug traffic in Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and even in the USA.
The Resolution indicated to the alternative proposals in this struggle campaigned by the PCU, such as the Exit Program in the Child and Youth Ïnstitute (INAU), the current agreement to generate reincorporation to normal path of minors offenders of the law by the work, between the constructions workers trade union (SUNCA), the Chamber of Construction and the institute for the internation of adolescents (INISA), or the experience of clothing trade union (SUA) of job training in several prisons in the country.
The Resolution finally said, 'to defeat in Uruguay the counter-offensive of the imperialism, the national, departmental and municipal elections will be a key moment of political and ideological synthesis of all our people'. The CC of the PCU declared that it would mobilize the people 'with the central objective of constructing a political synthesis that modifies in a popular sense the correlation of forces in our society... This construction has a key political and ideological dimension, the Government Program, the central expression of unity and of the proposal articulator for the transforming action. ... for the conquest of a fourth national government of the Frente Amplio front with parliamentary majorities.' The Resolution affirmed that it conceived this struggle as 'a historical process and it is fought throughout the society, every day. This is the dispute for hegemony, for power'.