Perestroika for the Revolutionaries...

Author(s): G. P. D.
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 24, No. 15 (Apr. 15, 1989), p. 762
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4394662
Accessed: 20-09-2016 06:50 UTC

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 INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
Perestroika for the Revolutionaries...
GPD
Gorbachev has proposed more 'civilised' terms for class struggle,
but Afghanistan, El Salvador, Grenada and Chile are reminders
that the time for 'civilised,' forms of class-conflict are still many,
many years away as far as the coloured world is concerned.
THE victory of Alfredo Cristiani in the
presidential election in El Salvador is no
less important than Yeltsin's election in the
Moscow poll a week later. Cristiani and
his Nationalist Republican Alliance
(ARENA) managed to capture 53.8 per
cent of the vote. It has been an easy and,
from ARENA's point of view, a dazzling
victory. There are two problems with that
victory. One, the voter turnout was less
than 50 per cent. Two, the rebel Farnbundo
Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN)
had boycotted the election in protest
against the rejection by the El Salvador
government of its proposal to postpone
the election by six months so that it could
participate. The government thus kept a
major challenger out of the election fray.
The term of the ailing president, Jose
Napoleon Duarte, ends on June 1. Gran-
ting the FMLN request would have meant
postponement of the inauguration of the
new president by no more than three
months. It is not clear if any attempt was
made to persuade the FMLN to bring its
six-month embargo on elections down to
three months. Probably not. The objec-
tive was to keep the FMLN out of the elec-
tions and that has been achieved. The
ARENA is no ordinary anti-communist
party. It was founded by Roberto
d'Aubuisson, an ex-army major, who
quickly took over the nation's political
right. An agonising, bloody civil war has
been going on in this small country of lit-
tle over three million people for the last
nine years. Over seventy thousand people
have already died.
Not all of them of the civil war though.
D'Aubuisson has earned his 'status' in
Latin American politics and history as the
organiser of death squads which hunted
down and killed the leftists. How many
have been killed by these death squads
would be difficult to guess. But the
number could not have been insignificant.
The ARENA found dAubuisson's reputa-
tion a trifle uncomfortable. The result was
that the killer was replaced as candidate
by Alfredo Cristiani who has captured the
presidency in an oppositionless elections
market by low turnout of voters. This
means that the death squads will probably
762 Economic and political Weekly April 15, 1989
This content downloaded from 159.178.22.27 on Tue, 20 Sep 2016 06:50:46 UTC
really come out ot them.
In the meanwhile the bloodshed-would
go on. Gorbachev has proposed more
'civilised' terms for class war. The god (of
the Russian Orthodox Church) alone
knows what he means by that. Grenada
conducted a very civilised class war. Chile
did the same. Both came to grief. Allende
and Bishop both tell a story which has
only one moral. The Americans and their
cronies in Latin America do not know
continue to function under the facade of what the civilised forms of class conflict
moderate government. The ruthlessness of are. El Salvador is yet another example,
Latin American politics is, of course, in or at any rate threatens to be one; A coun-
a class by itself. South Asia has not known try of the size of Hyderabad or Bangalore
anything of that order as yet. But it may will probably continue to witness further
well be a question of time. Hence one loss of lives.
must watch how things are going in theseEl Salvador' has an uncertain future
countries. before it. Afghanistan, El Salvador,
Cristiani has promised a 'moderate' Grenada and Chile are reminders that the
government. In the Latin American con- time for civilised forms of class conflict
text it may not mean much. As a first sign are still many many years away as far as
of his 'moderation', he has promised to the coloured world is concerned. In the
privatise banking and the coffee and sugar name of fighting (the unjustified) Soviet
industries. With coffee and sugar privatis- intervention in Afghanistan, the west has
ed, almost the entire economy would be created a situation in which the Afghans
privatised. There is nothing else which is would continue to bleed for god knows
nationalised or even co-operativised. Cris- how long. The west has an extraordinary
tiani has thus proposed a thorough-going sense of civilisation. It attacks Imam
perestroika of the economy. He has pledg- Khomeini for his barbaric Fatwah to kill
ed to reinstitute a 'free economy', giving Rushdie and at the same time works over-
the impression that the outgoing president time to put- fundamentalists in power
Jose Duarte is some kind of Latin wherever it can. FMLN was willing to play
American Yigor Ligechev. He has promis- the electoral game. It was not allowed to
ed to revitalise the economy by privatis- because it asked for more time. Allende
ing it, a language now not altogether un- and Bishop played it and paid with their
familiar in most parts of the globe. From lives for doing so.
Beijing to Rio de Janiero via Moscow and The third world radicals are caught in
New York, the free economy has become an impossible situation. If they win power
the fashion. Some call it socialism. Some electorally they are not allowed to retain
others call it capitalism. But what is there it. If they continue to fight, Gorbachev
in a name warned the Elizabethan play- and his freedom-loving comrades advise
wright long ago and not entirely without them to pursue more civilised forms of
reason one would think. class struggle! Deng Xiaoping, in fact, ad-
In the meanwhile the FMLN would vised the Mozambique president not to
probably pursue its strategies. Guillermo think of socialism. In 1974 he had told the
Ungo, the unsuccessful candidate of the UN conference that the socialist camp was
Democratic Convergence Party has blam- dead. Now, with Allende and Bishop
ed the FMLN for its tactics. He has said behind them, the coloured world has
that its boycott of the elections has given neither the civilised nor the violent ways
the presidency to Cristiani on a platter. of class conflict open to them. At any rate,
The presidency is unlikely to be very com- the perestroika of the liberation ideology
fortable though. There were attacks on currently fashionable in Moscow would
San Salvadore, the capital, immediately seem to suggest that. It is perestroika for
after the election results were known. The the radicals and the glasnost for the free
FMLN has called upon the president-elect economy! Let us see how the FMLN faces
to share power with the FMLN and for the dual challenge.
the merger of the rebel and government Economic and Political Weekly
armies. Cristiani has rejected the call. The
Available from:
negotiations on a peace settlement bet-
ween the government and the guerillas Bhaskar & Co.
were started in February. Cristiani and the News Agents and Book Sellers
Pulimoodu
FMLN have both pledged to resume
Trivandrum - 695 001, Kerala
them. It would be hard to say what would
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