COLOMBIA
Communists hold conference right in Bogotá
By Andy McInerney
For the first time in seven years, the Colombian Communist
Party (PCC) is holding a national congress. Its 17th congress
opened in the capital city of Bogotá on Oct. 8.
There couldn't be a better time for communists to meet.
The PCC's opening ceremonies happened on the same day that
800,000 public-sector workers walked off the job on an
indefinite strike. Half the country is under the effective
control of the two main armed revolutionary groups, the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP)
and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
At least 450 delegates from around the country were expected
to attend the congress.
In the face of severe repression by the Colombian military
and its paramilitary death squads, even convoking a congress is
an act of defiance. Plans to hold the congress in 1995 were
suspended due to repression.
Since the 16th Congress in 1991, five members of the party's
Central Committee have been assassinated. Five others were
forced into exile. Paramilitary groups have issued death
threats against half the members of the Central Executive
Committee.
On the eve of the congress, 25 party leaders in the
Urabá region were sentenced to a total of over 1,000
years in prison. They were sentenced by "faceless justice,"
so-called because accusers and judges are hidden from the
accused.
'A democratic way out of the crisis'
The theme of the 17th Congress was "For a democratic way out
of the national crisis." Party General Secretary Jaime Caycedo
Turriago described this perspective in an interview with the
PCC biweekly Voz.
"We are facing a crisis of the capitalist system and of the
privatizing neoliberal model of the World Bank and the U.S. And
we face a crisis of the two-party Colombian political
regime….
"We are in favor of a political and institutional reform
that opens doors to new relations of power, that democratizes
economic and social power, as well as in the means of
communication."
A critical issue that the PCC is addressing is the
possibility of talks between the government, the armed
insurgency and "civil society." Both the FARC and the ELN have
expressed willingness to enter such talks, and the new
government of President Andres Pastrana campaigned during the
elections on a platform of peace. In the days before the PCC
congress, representatives of Pastrana's government met with ELN
representatives in Colombia to advance talks.
"The causes of injustice and war are today also the causes
of crisis in the forms of traditional power," Caycedo said.
"For that reason, the struggle for a democratic and popular
outcome to the crisis requires putting forward the need for new
relations of power."
The revolutionary situation in Colombia is among the most
advanced in the world today. The armed revolutionary movement
continues to make spectacular gains. The mass movement of
workers and peasants is on the rise.
At the same time, right-wing violence is also on the rise,
and U.S. intervention is growing with every new advance for the
revolutionary movement.
For these reasons, the issues that the PCC's 17th congress
is raising-the interaction of the armed and mass struggles, the
role of the Communist Party in the mass movement, the
possibilities of revolution in the new international
situation-are issues that should be watched closely by
revolutionaries everywhere.
Due to security problems, there were few international
delegations. But many parties and movements sent messages of
solidarity to the congress.
The Secretariat of Workers World Party in the United States
sent a message of solidarity and greeting. "The tide is
turning, and you in Colombia are on the front line," the
statement read. "Your struggle is advanced and conscious, and
we follow your successes with enormous interest and deepest
international solidarity."
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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