Communist Party of Chile (Acción Proletaria), Parque Almagro, Santiago, Saturday 8th January 2022
Saturday 8th of January, at 18h00, the PCAP held an anti-imperialist political and cultural event at Almagro Park. In a radiant sunny day, some 200 people convened with other organisations, such as the CEP (Corriente Estudiantil Popular – Popular Student Current), the Woman’s Front for the Refundation of Chile, representatives from MAPU and MIR (historical organizations, who were members or linked to Allende’s Unidad Popular programme in the 70’s).
Comrade Eduardo Artés (president of UPA-PCAP-MIR alliance) as well as representatives of the Woman’s Front for the Refundation of Chile gave their working class, revolutionary and anti-imperialist analysis. There was also a special guest, a Chilean internationalist, who supported the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, who gave a very moving message. There was also a book stand with posters and PCAP caps. And there was also a poet and folk singers.
The clear and convincing message was that the anti-imperialist flag could not be dropped, and that we would move on; the struggle will be intensified. A direct message was given to the next government of Chile. The new administration was warned that it should not surrender themselves to United States imperialism, that they must have a policy of sovereignty and independence. If they do not do this, we will reaffirm even more our struggle for sovereignty and independence; for a socialist perspective.
We are not the only nation who struggles for sovereignty and independence. We have many possibilities for change, because having the option of being a charade of a country or one of sovereignty and self-government, we prefer the latter. We cannot allow this country to be a charade, since we have all the human and material resources (with natural resources) to be a free and sovereign nation. But for that, we have to walk towards socialism, which will lead us to a better society, where we can all live with dignity and have the same opportunities and rights, apart from obligations. We cannot allow the all-powerful and owners of everything to trample us.
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Inverview with Luís Aravena, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Chile Proletariat Action (PCAP)
PCAP : ¿How did the PCAP do in the last general elections and how do you see the general situation of Chile?
Luís Aravena: It is important to make clear that as communists, we participated in the elections not as an end in itself. We did not measure this with just a vote (in spite of the fact that we didn’t do that badly, considering it included presidential elections; we did have a presidential candidate. And, we obtained more than a hundred thousand votes. Among all the lists that we took up; for counsellors and members of parliament, we obtained more than 240 thousand votes. This in itself speaks for a certain growth in our electoral process. But fundamentally, us communists use the electoral option to raise up a program (a fighting platform) that will indicate a need to transform society. We clearly understand that true transformations (and to finish with the Neo-liberal model) are not generated with the electoral option. We need a strong, organised and popular uprising, with all the necessary forms of struggle in this process included. But we must use all trenches simultaneously, including the electoral one. In this way, we can show an alternative communist, socialist project that will benefit the oppressed, and to put the working class at the centre, as a great transforming hub.
PCAP: ¿How can the PCAP help in re-creating the social fabric that in the last 30 yars has been destroyed by neo-liberalism?
Luis Aravena: Firstly, we must acknowledge that the military dictatorship imposed in Chile was to destroy an organised people’s model – as main objective – with a perspective or idea of capitalist transformation (to destroy the capitalist model), which was the aim of the Allende government. It was to deeply transform Chile. The people’s movement, the unions, the student organisations, the settlers and peasants were stopped on their tracks by the dictatorship. Today, we are on that; re-finding each other, re-organising, creating experiences again – from our reality, of 2022 – but also considering all the history of struggle of the people of Chile. And, on this path it is important that – us communists – understand that our work is to be at the disposition and at the service of the building of social, revolutionary, progressive and sovereign organisations. This is the job that us communists have. We must be involved in the transformations that the people require in time, to help people understand how important those transformations are. They are at the centre of these changes. They are not at the margin of them. They are the majorities of the exploited, and the great richness of the nation is actually created by them. It is very important that these majorities become organised. Now, we communists understand that we are the party who should organise this because we are the party of the working class, of the workers. And therefore, our main job, our principal task, is to organise the people so that they can truly liberate themselves from wage slavery, even ideological slavery. This is a long process but if we the communists don’t do it, no one will. There’s been several organisations that have “helped” the development of of territorial organisations but oftentimes they have a liberal, reformist ideology and in the long run have only brought problems. Instead of coming to create a project with organisations that are really healthy, robust and that they put the great transformations in the centre of everything (and not only the permanent struggle for reforms), because each time that we we fight for a reform as an end and not as means, we stall the general process of deep transformations, that the people of the world need.
PCAP: ¿How do you see the relations with other political parties who also claim to have a worker and proletariat base, along the same lines as the PCAP?
Luís Aravena: That is essential. The people of the world, the workers, are just one class. We understand that we are artificially divided by borders. We must solve those problems, within those borders, where each of us workers lives. Therefore, we must solve Chilean problems. But for us to definitely solve those problems (intimately linked with international solidarity and reciprocity) and among those parties and organisations that we claim for ourselves for the great transformations that the people of the world require, we believe the need for revolution. We believe the need to definitely destroy the Neo-liberal and capitalist model. Thus, the international solidarity of the peoples and exploited workers will always come first, because national struggles also have an international character. Also because there are powers that dominate different countries. The best way to support the liberation of peoples of the world is to do our own work in our own country – called Chile – to free ourselves. In this fashion, we decompress and avoid the even stronger knocks, because we make capitalism concentrate on what is happening in this country. The unity of the people is of primary importance. Also important are political and revolutionary organisations in the world. We must emphasize the importance of international unity, international support, reciprocity and mutual support. Without these, it would be challenging to advance on the great transformations that the world requires. The unity of peoples is extremely important.
PCAP: Do you have any greetings for those organisations, internationally, who supported the electoral process of Eduardo Artés, as candidate for president?
Luís Aravena: We should always acknowledge any support for the struggles from the world. In each country where there is a political organisation, such as the Communist Party of Britain ML or the Liberation Party of Argentina, as well as other ones, who have supported the proper use of the electoral struggle – not as an end in itself – this is welcomed. And of course, we greet them (with the respect they deserve in their own process of struggle and with the respect that we also need) but we understand that solidarity is essential; among us parties who claim to be Marxist Leninist, among communist parties who claim to have the need for sovereignty and anti-imperialism. That being so, we are proud to stand with them. In these general struggles, where we have come to agree on and lift this project of building an alternative for the people – a real alternative – a concrete alternative. It is possible and we can only succeed in-as-much as there is a great process of unity of the different Marxist-Leninist and communist parties the world over.
Thank you.