Peru: not another death for protesting!

(...) with the recent deaths sought by the reactionaries, which are the culmination of the protest. Incredibly, the perpetrators seek to turn themselves into victims. What happened in Cajamarca, as well as the case of Bagua, to mention just two symbolic cases, were MASSACRES, which have the blood-stained hands of the current Ollanta Humala government and his Valdes cabinet, who did not hesitate to declare States of Emergency for greater social control, and to show their true neo-liberal, repressive, pro-imperialist and anti-popular face.

In these times of struggle we direct ourselves to our rebellious people, to express our total opposition to the massacre that has been perpetrated in Cajamarca, against common brothers whose only "crime" was daring to fight for what they believed just. The bullets of capitalist reaction, the impact of state repression and the indolent violence of transnational mining, that wants to impose Conga at any price, had a thirst for blood and have claimed new victims:

We never forget: Cesar Medina Aguilar (17), José Antonio Sánchez Huamán (29), Faustino Silva Sánchez José (35), Eusebio García Rojas (48), all those of Celendín and Joselito Vásquez Jambo (28) of Bambamarca. We are confident that their deaths will not be in vain, for every blow the people receives better prepares us for the next fight, because the fear is past.

"They killed them for defending the water and for defending life!", is the spirit which has swollen the breasts and throats of the protesters in each slogan. The enemies of the people dreamed that the blood spilled would scare off the protest or disturb the reason and action of the conscious and rebellious spirits that struggle for social demands that are human rights that we will never cease to defend, to the last breath of our lives.

Cajamarca, Espinar, Puno and all the combative people of the present hour, of yesterday and those soon to be raised, are our banner, our example and our hope. Therefore, now more than ever, Conga will not pass! Conga won't be! And with the same strength and conviction we say that Xtrate and Toromocho will also not pass!

Also the recent deaths sought by the reactionaries, which are the culmination of the protest. Incredibly, the perpetrators seek to turn themselves into victims. What happened in Cajamarca, as well as the case of Bagua, to mention just two symbolic cases, were MASSACRES, which have the blood-stained hands of the current Ollanta Humala government and his Valdes cabinet, who did not hesitate to declare States of Emergency for greater social control, and to show their true neo-liberal, repressive, pro-imperialist and anti-popular face.

These events are also a logical consequence of the increasing CRIMIALISATION OF SOCIAL PROTEST, launched globally by capitalism to defend its system in slow agony, even more so after the last great general crisis in the Age of Globalisation.

Nationally, within the repressive policies implemented by the Executive Power itself under cover of legislative faculties granted by the Congress of the Republic, the Aprista government enacted the Legislative Decree 982, which amended several articles of the Penal Code, specifically article 20 in order to declare immunity from prosecution. That is, that "are exempt from criminal liability: Staff of the Armed Forces and the National Police of Peru, which in the line of duty use their weapons in accordance with regulations, resulting in injury or death". The present government is, therefore, not only in economic policy but also in repressive policy the same NEO-LIBERAL CONTINUATION, which will always need to criminalise all popular protest in order to continue implementing their plans for massive layoffs, lack of labour and social rights, privatisation of public services, the concentration of big land ownership in the hands of groups of economic power, sacrifice of resources and raw materials for the indiscriminate extractive activity of big transitional property, etc.

The main tendency is then to continue producing even more massacres and deepening sanctions against protesters, alongside a major "MEDIA CRIMINALISATION" on the part of "communication" companies and "journalists" financed by big capital, in order to justify the repressive actions and to mask the reality of all this: state terrorism. One must be blind not to see that the deepening of neo-liberal policies in a context of crisis of the system will sooner or later generate a shift towards a fascist resurgence, that we have here warned of.

Faced with this, what is the option of the proletariat, the peasantry and other oppressed sections of the people? A political solution (electoral and reformist) within bourgeois democracy has already proven unviable. The main proof is the current government, which managed to assume the administration of the state at an electoral rate mainly of popular sectors and with the alliance of almost all the Marxist and populist left. Leaders of political and labour organizations managed by said "left" have since the beginning of this government occupied strategic posts, in the Legislative and Executive Power, which means they have achieved their longtime aspired goal: to be government, take over state power, with the same result: CONTINUATION OF NEO-LIBERALISM. This, despite the fact that some electoral parties continue bamboozling their bases and activists with a false radicalism, infiltrating or trying to direct social protests, only to look for media prominence in order to win votes in the face of 2016 to then become agents of the political and economic power groups subservient to capitalism.

Consequently, there is only one popular alternative and it is already being exercised, germinating and being implanted in the heart of the protest: DIRECT ACTION. That is the effective exercise of popular power against the power of the state. That the rebellion is generalized, that the popular assemblies, that the communities of struggle and resistance flourish from the squares and streets liberated for the people, in every humble barricade that is raised on the roads, in neighborhoods, in hearts and minds.

What the population itself is doing in Cajamarca, in Espinar, in Puno, Ayacucho and various other parts of the country where the people fight for their rights, surpassing the leadership and bureaucratic and opportunists unions is precisely to exercise mass direct action and democracy. Breaking with all kinds of mediation in order to snatch their rights and break the unpunished repression on the part of the state. It is certain that is is a struggle of demand, but is fertilising and baptising by fire popular forces towards higher horizons of social emancipation.

We conclude these lines reaffirming our militant and libertarian commitment with the people of which we are part and from which we struggle. We urge all brothers in struggle not to leave their fighting posts. The demonstrations should continue and unity in struggle must lead the way to beat back the forces of repression. The lakes and natural reservoirs are part of the ecosystem itself and do not belong to any mining company and nor will all economic power cause the fighting people to give in in their efforts to protect life. It is clear, once again, that the best government is one that doesn't exist, that every president acts on the basis of market interests. Only the organized people point the way.

Down with the state of emergency in Celendin, Bambamarca and Hualgayoc!

Transnational mining companies out of our communities!

The blood spilled will never be forgotten!

Humala, Valdes, servants of mining capital, murderers of the people!

Direct action, solidarity and self-management against capitalism and its servants!



LIBERTARIAN SOCIALIST UNION (USL)

Translation: Jonathan, ZACF