Montoneros 1973
Source: Montoneros, documentos internos, resoluciones, y partes de guerra. Cuadernos de la memoria;
First Pubished: in “Militancia Peronista Para la Liberación,” No. 8.
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2008.
PERÓN PRESIDENT
“We should more fear the enemies within than those without, the oligarchy encysted on our own ranks” – Evita
“I only ask of them, don’t leave the General alone, for treason nests in the shadows, and sometimes hides itself behind a smile or a proffered hand.” – Evita
TREASON NESTS IN THE SHADOWS
When on March 22 we defeated the dictatorship of the monopolies, which for years had exploited, persecuted, tortured, and imprisoned us, we knew that within the Movement there were BUREAUCRATS AND TRAITORS who had boycotted our struggles, negotiated away our victories, mocked our hopes, stolen our uprisings, and trafficked in the blood of the thousands of workers and militants who had made this victory possible.
And we knew that they would not resign themselves to this victory of the people, but rather that they’d try by every means to attach themselves to the popular triumph that wasn’t theirs in order to change its path, to twist the direction and content given by the base. And we knew we couldn’t be wrong about this, for the role of this treasonous and opportunist bureaucracy in these 28 years of resistance was always to act as infiltrators of the regime within the movement, to divert its revolutionary essence and to put a brake on its resolute march towards the postponed National and Social Revolution.
We know this because THEY REPRESENT DIFFERENT INTERESTS, ONES THAT ARE NOT THOSE OF THE WORKING CLASS AND THE PERONIST PEOPLE. We know this because for a long time Gen. Perón has been telling us that “THE EMANCIPATION OF THE WORKERS WILL BE THE WORK OF THE WORKERS THEMSELVES, “ while they represent the interests of the monopolist bourgeois class allied to imperialism.
THEY PLAN THE HOAX
And thus, when on May 25 we ratified our victory in the streets, these bureaucrats and traitors – in their luxurious offices – began to plan the counter-revolution in alliance with our enemies through all these years of struggle, and among them neither the big exploiting bosses nor the torturing soldiers were lacking. They served the “Great National Accord” of the dictator Lanusse and resolved – ignoring the opinions and wishes of the working class and the Peronist people – to try to impose it in a disguised form, from on high, from the apparatus without a base, from the unions controlled by killers and using the gears of power that remained in the hands of continuism.
THE EXECUTORS Fulfilling these dark designs, they cradled themselves within the popular government in the form of the international magnate Gelbard, the CIA agent and “sorcerer” Lopez Rega, the boss Otero, the torturer Osinde, the old squealer Villalon, and the eternal traitors Brito Lima, Norma Kennedy, Rucci, Miguel, Calace, Rubeo, Varela, Rosales, Calvan and other names, which neither the working class nor the people are unaware of.
Behind the people’s back they signed the “Social Pact,” which again weighed down workers’ the shoulders with the 18 years of economic devastation, and impudently stole our riches and efforts. They negotiated our demobilization with the monopolies, believing they could fool us. They placed obstacles before our meeting with the Leader and that of the Leader with the people through the sad success of the massacre at Ezeiza, where they killed and tortured authentic Peronists. They launched their attack against Compañeros Cámpora, Righi, Puig and the provincial governments most loyal to the opinions of the base. SCARED AND MADE FEARFUL by the consciousness of the Peronist people and the advance of the popular mobilizations that placed their fiefdoms in danger, they hatched a palace coup, and they had no hesitation about making use of the old wish of our 18 years of struggle that they themselves had so often sabotaged: PERÓN PRESIDENT.
THE BUREAUCRATS ARE MISTAKEN
THEY ARE MISTAKEN. Because as Gen Perón said: “If there is something in the country that imperialism cannot cut off it is its people, and within it its working class, which has a clear opinion concerning the defense of its interests.”
AND THEY ARE MISTAKEN. Because as Gen Perón said: “IF THE MOVEMENT KEEPS ITS BASE PURE IT IS BECAUSE IT’S SHAPED BY THE PEOPLE, EVEN IF SOME LEADERS ARE ROTTED BY THE INFLUENCE OF MONEY, OF PREBENDS, OF ELECTORAL APPETITES AND BOUNDLESS AMBITIONS.”
AND THEY ARE MISTAKEN. Because Compañero Cámpora, demonstrating his loyalty to his people, renounced his position so as to make possible the ascension of Gen. Perón to the presidency of the nation, and Gen Perón rejects the palace coup of a fascist type so as to submit it to the verdict of the people of the Fatherland.
AND THEY ARE MISTAKEN. Because the Peronist base, its popular and revolutionary organizations and Gen. Perón, cannot at this stage of commitment accept or consent, even passively, to the expense of sustaining the regime, or the refashioning and disguising of its essence.
Because the base – the working class and the Peronist people – will not retreat a step from what it has gone through in these last 18 years in order to make real the JUST, FREE, AND SOVEREIGN FATHERLAND: THE SOCIALIST FATHERLAND. Because the popular and revolutionary organizations will not hesitate in calling upon and organizing the working class and the people independently of the bureaucracy and the regime, while we will construct the people’s army as guarantor of the process that has been initiated. Because PERÓN – and this is what the bureaucrats don’t understand – WILL STILL BE PERÓN, THE LEADER WHO DOES WHAT THE PEOPLE DESIRE, and they don’t know either Perón or his people, because they never been anything but rich leaders who never wanted to defend the poor workers.
FOR ALL OF THESE REASONS, WE PROCLAIM PERÓN PRESIDENT AND CALL FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKING CLASS AND THE PEOPLE
BECAUSE WITH PERÓN PRESIDENT AND THE BASE ORGANIZED we will make our leader wish a reality: “Those who want to leave behind Peronism in order to serve the interests of the dictatorship, may they do it, but openly and not simulating going about with the Peronist undershirt that they have no right to wear in order to BETRAY the working class.”
BECAUSE WITH PERÓN PRESIDENT AND THE BASE ORGANIZED we will form a popular government without bureaucracy, thus fulfilling the objective of the workers to drive out the traitors, taken care of by the gorilla government of the day, by the assassins paid for with the money taken from our sweat and struggle.
BECAUSE WITH PERÓN PRESIDENT AND THE BASE ORGANIZED we will put an end to GELBARD and his monopolist policies, disguised in a false nationalism, which distributes the sacrifices to us and the profits to the exploiters: the industrial pro-monopolist bourgeoisie.
COMPAÑEROS:
For some months we have been staying that we are confronting the concrete possibility of establishing a popular government, but that the only thing that will guarantee its character is the active presence of the masses and the entire people, the working class and Gen. Perón. And for this the fight will continue. And therefore the fight continues. WE MUST TAKE THE NEXT STEP, ORGANIZING OURSELVES FROM BELOW SO AS TO ELEVATE GEN. PERÓN TO THE PRESIDENCY OF THE NATION THROUGH THE MOBILIZATIONS, in order to throw out the traitors and bureaucrats, to realize the project of liberation.
COMPAÑEROS:
In these historic moments ONLY ONE MAN can accompany Gen. Perón in keeping with the presidential forms: COMPAÑERO HECTOR CÁMPORA
FOR ALL OF THESE REASONS WE CALL ON VERYONE TO ORGANIZE AND TO CARRY FORTH FROM THE BASES, FROM THE FACTORIES, THE BARRIOS, AND THE UNIVERSITIES THE SLOGAN: “PERÓN PRESIDENT.”
FOR ALL OF THESE REASONS WE CALL FOR THE CARRYING OUT OF THE WORKING CLASS PROGRAMS OF HUERTA GRANDE, LA FALDA, AND MAY 1.
FOR ALL OF THESE REASONS WE CALL FOR THE DEFENSE OF ALL THE REPRESENTATIVES LOYAL TO THE PEOPLE AND PERÓN, AND AT THE SAME TIME WE DEMAND THE DEEPENING OF THE PROCESS.
We know that the war is long and that we will only arrive at power through the organization of the working class, politically independent of the union and political bureaucrats and the bourgeois sectors of the movement, and by developing the POLITICO-MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS, including the construction of the People’s Army.
PERÓN OR DEATH!
LONG LIVE THE FATHERLAND!
MONTONEROS, JOSE SABINO NAVARRO Column.
Rosario, July 24, 1973