Montoneros 1973
Source: Monotoneros, Documentos internos, resoluciones, comunicados y actas de guerra. Cuadernos de la memoria, elortiba.org;
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitchell Abidor;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2008.
Córdoba, August 22, 1973
The assassins of Trelew, like the assassins of Ezeiza and the assassins of every militant and combatant dead in these eighteen years of struggle, have a common name beyond the faces of their direct executioners. They are the lords of the earth and the cattle, the monopolist bosses allied to capitalist imperialism who enrich themselves with our labor, the soldiers, praetorian guards of the system, the union and political bureaucrats in their service, the gorillas who use the peoples’ sweat to live at the expense of the people. The sad Captain SOSA and the officer BRAVO, like Osinde, Lopez Rega, Brito Lima, and Norma Kennedy; these miserable assassins are the executing arms and are directly responsible, and they can never be forgotten or forgiven. But above these insignificant mercenaries what is in question is something else: the bourgeoisie’s project for the continued usufruct of power, for a continued mocking of the popular struggles, the continued self-enrichment at the expense of the workers and national dignity.
The Jose Sabino Navarro column of the Montoneros wants to render revolutionary homage to the heroes of Trelew, and a revolutionary homage can only mean reaffirming our firm decision to make real the dreams of the combatants executed by the dictatorship of the dominant, the bosses and the military. For this dream is nothing but the hope and the conviction of the working class and the people for a FREE, JUST AND SOVEREIGN FATHERLAND: THE SOCIALIST FATHERLAND. They offered their blood for this dream; for this hope and this conviction we will continue the struggle, giving our blood if it is needed.
This August 22 we say with all our rage that spilled blood will not be negotiated, and for this we will continue mobilizing on the streets against the dictatorship, hitting it where it hurts. And for this we voted March 11 for Perón and the heroes of Trelew against Lanusse and his camarilla. For this we rescued our prisoners from the jails and support the popular government of Campora against the infiltrators who want to change directions. For this we didn’t involve ourselves in this partial victory and change, because we knew that that the bureaucrats and the traitors were protected within our movement. We denounced their maneuvers, denounced their Social Pact behind the backs of the people, denounced their demobilizing ardor via a union apparatus managed by the killers. We called the usurpers by name; we said Gelbard, Rucci, Miguel, Simo, Labat. We repudiated the coup that gave us a gorilla president, and we say that today more than ever is the hour of the organization of the working class and the people independent of the bureaucrats and the bourgeoisie.
And we repeat today, before the heroes of Trelew and the memory of compañeros Jimenez and Molina, that SPILLED BLOOD WILL NOT BE NEGOTIATED, and this is why we will vote for Perón. For the Perón we know from ten years of government and eighteen years of resistance. For the only Perón we know, the one who does what the people want. A people that will say what they want without any intermediaries, organizing itself as the working class in order to be consequent with its struggles, to be faithful to the ideals of the dead militants, to construct the SOCIALIST FATHERLAND, WITHOUT EXPLOITERS OR EXPLOITED.
For Perón and the organized bases are incompatible with the regime that wants to perpetuate the exploiters. For Perón and the organized bases are incompatible with the Gelbards and the Lastris, the Ruccis and the Migueles. For Perón and the organized bases don’t believe in witchcraft and know that the liberation of the working class and the people recognize no other delegates than Pujadas and Astudillo, Susana Lesgart and Kohon, recognize no other councils than those formed by the people’s martyrs. For they know that there was only one Evita and that she is on this side of the trenches, inspiring us in the struggle.
For this reason we will continue the struggle, for this reason we will vote for Perón and the Huerta Grande, La Falda, and May 1st Programs, will vote for workers’ control of the factories where our labor is stolen, will vote for the expropriation of the monopolistic bosses and imperialist capital, will vote for the punishment of the assassins of Trelew and Ezeiza, will vote for union democracy. We will vote, but we will not limit ourselves to voting: we will organize from the base as an exploited class and a marginalized people. Independently of the bureaucrats and the bourgeois we will exercise real power from the factories and the quarters so that no one can fuck with us, so that no one can get a free ride from our fight or make use of the blood of our martyrs. And we will do this no matter what the consequences. We know that the struggle is long.
We know that along with our base groups, with our base units, we must develop our armed militias, which will merge one day into the people’s army and will ensure our march to the un-postponable National and Social Revolution. We propose to reconstruct the movement stating from the base, starting from the objectives of the working class, with neither traitors nor bourgeois. No negotiation or acceptable pact is possible with them. We are conscious of our struggle as Peronists and revolutionaries, and we will not be driven by despair to some form of adventurism. And we say that we have nothing to do with a supposed “Open Letter to General Perón” which we had no part in, because only the working class and the organized people will say to General Perón what the people want.
The Jose Sabino Navarro Column of the Montoneros joins in this way in the just homage to the heroes of Trelew, reaffirming its promise that spilled blood will not be negotiated. That we will make real the JUST, FREE AND SOVEREIGN FATHERLAND: THE SOCIALIST FATHERLAND.
PERÓN OR DEATH
LONG LIVE THE FATHERLAND