230

Social and Economic
Situation in Latin American Countries

p The First World War resulted in a sharp deterioration of the position of Germany and Japan in Latin America and some weakening of that of Great Britain and France. Objectively, the situation favoured the economic development of the Latin American countries.

p In Argentina, for example, new meat-packing plants were being built and existing plants enlarged. Numerous new industrial enterprises appeared in Brazil. Industrial development was in progress in Mexico, Chile, Uruguay and Cuba, and to a lesser extent in other Latin American states. Only the countries of Central America (i.e., Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama) remained practically wholly agrarian, for this was the domain of the North American monopolies, the "banana empire" of the United Fruit Company.

p The increasing rate of capitalist development in the Latin American countries strengthened the economic position of the national bourgeoisie in its bid for political dominance, in which, however, it was running up against the determined resistance of the ruling oligarchy, that is to say, the bloc of the landowners and the big bourgeoisie, which was linked with imperialist circles abroad.

p It was in the interests of foreign capital that the countries of Latin America should forever remain backward, and to this end it took pains to block their industrial development and to maintain their pre-capitalist relations and their system of great rural estates, while being the owner of huge estates in its own right.

p Economic changes produced by the First World War failed to shake the dominance of the imperialist monopolies. The only result was a shift in the balance of power: leadership in the semicolonial exploitation of the countries of Central and South America had passed into the hands of the United States. The 231 industrial boom turned out to be only temporary, produced by the economic conjuncture. With the war over, production had to be curtailed because demand for Latin American raw materials dropped off sharply. The economic crisis of 1920-21 made things worse. Packing plants began to shut down in Argentina, oil wells in Mexico, nitrate and copper mines in Chile; and huge stocks of Brazilian coffee could find no market.

All this produced a sharp rise in prices on prime necessity goods and a new drop in living standards. In Brazil, for instance, prices on some products were 400 to 600 per cent higher in 1923 than in 1914. In Peru the cost of living was 250-300 per cent of the pre-war level. Elsewhere in Latin America the picture was the same. Resentment grew in the masses, and the revolutionary movement gathered force.

October Revolution and Upsurge of Class
and Anti-Imperialist Struggle

p News of the proletarian revolution and the establishment of Soviet power in Russia was received with great enthusiasm by the workers and progressive elements of Latin America. Numerous meetings passed resolutions proclaiming solidarity with the Russian proletariat; and when the Russian counter-revolutionaries and foreign imperialists unleashed the Civil War a mass movement in defence of Soviet Russia developed in Latin America.

p In Argentina, news of the October Revolution in Russia evoked a warm response among the population. Class warfare flared up in Buenos Aires. In November 1918, workers went on strike in a British-owned (Vasena Company) metallurgical works, demanding an 8-hour working day and better working conditions. On January 7, 1919, police fired on strikers gathered to protest against the employment of strike-breakers, killing and wounding several. On January 9, a general strike broke out. Some 200,000 took part in the funeral procession, and this, too, became a target for machine-gunners. Provoked by the outrage, the workers procured fire-arms by raiding arms shops and the armoury and gave battle to the police and troops.

p Fighting continued in Buenos Aires till January 15; and though the workers suffered a defeat, the struggle against the reactionaries at home and the dominance of the imperialists went on. Throughout 1919 there were strikes in foreign-owned enterprises at Mendoza, Chaco and Santa Fe. In 1921 there was serious unrest among the farm labourers of Patagonia, a section of the 232 Argentine proletariat subjected to worse exploitation than any other. The movement was suppressed by the troops, who seized and shot farm hands at random without trial.

p This slaughter roused the country’s entire working class. In protest, strikes began in Buenos Aires, Rosario and Tukuman.

p The aims proclaimed by the Russian October Revolution won great popularity in Mexico. Learning of the decrees of the Soviet Government, whereby land was turned over to the peasants and industrial plants to the workers, the Mexican people made an attempt to follow the Russian example. Thus, in the state of Sonora miners took possession of the mines and endeavoured to keep them going. In the state of Puebla unemployed textile workers seized landed estates with the aim of organising a farming colony. Soviets cropped up in several states during 1920 and 1921, and workers in Yucatan called for the proclamation of a Soviet Republic in Mexico.

p Needless to say, conditions were not propitious for a socialist revolution in Mexico in those days. That Mexicans set up revolutionary organisations known as Soviets, bears witness to the great popularity of Soviet Russia and to the common yearning of workers and peasants for a new life, a life free of exploitation and oppression. This growing political activity on the part of the people, especially the proletariat, was a matter of deep concern 233 to Mexico’s ruling classes. And the Obregon government crushed the revolutionary organisations and suppressed the Soviets.

p A stiff fight was put up by the proletariat in Brazil, led by the workers of Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of the country. A general strike was started here in November 1918, by the textile workers, supported by workers of the metallurgical, building and printing industries. When the strike was in full swing the anarchists rose in revolt. They were joined by some of the workers, and street fighting flared up, but the revolt had been ill-organised and ended in defeat.

p In 1919 railwaymen, textile and construction workers presented demands for an 8-hour working day, higher pay and lower prices.

p The government was compelled to grant an 8-hour day to the construction workers, raise the wages of some categories of workers, and introduce on-the-job accident insurance. Strikes continued through 1920. There was a stronger trend towards unity among the workers. A marked feature of the workers’ movement during the period under review was the inability of the anarchists and reformists to provide adequate leadership for the revolutionary movement of the proletariat and the working masses.

p Developments in Chile followed a similar pattern. An economic crisis forced thousands of Chilean workers out of their jobs. A mass movement against poverty and the high cost of living started as early as 1918. An Assembly for Workers’ Basic Rights was set up through the efforts of the Chilean Workers’ Federation, which organised a number of mass demonstrations and meetings. In January 1919, the workers of Puerto Natales took over the town but the government sent troops against them.

p Later in the year, in August, a hunger demonstration took place in Santiago, in which some 100,000 took part. The workers demanded an 8-hour working day, a minimum wage, measures against unemployment and the high cost of living, and the introduction of social insurance. These fair demands drew savage reprisals on the part of the government, with whose connivance British- and American-owned enterprises resorted to lock-outs and shut down mines and factories. Antofagasta miners, Valparaiso dockers, and workers and farm hands at Punta Arenas were fired upon by troops and police.

In Peru the workers’ movement began to gather momentum in 1918, the demands put forward by the Peruvian workers repeating those of the Chilean proletariat. The struggle reached its height in 1919. A mass demonstration was staged on May 1 in Lima; and workers were on strike in many towns and regions.

234

Communist Movement Begins
in Latin America

p Government troops and police were thrown against the strikers, and the movement was crushed with heavy loss of life. For the Peruvian workers lacked organisation and had neither a party nor a trade union centre. Their losses, however, had not been in vain: it was precisely during the period under review that nation-wide trade unions and communist organisations began to appear. As social contradictions sharpened, the working class began to play an increasingly important part in the political struggle. Yet the Latin American proletariat was still under the spell of pettybourgeois ideology. It took the revolutionary upsurge of 1918-23 to convince the enlightened part of the working class that neither anarcho-syndicalism nor social-reformism would serve the ends of the workers’ movement and that the anarchist inclination towards putschism, the anarcho-syndicalist abstention from politics, and the revisionism of the social-reformists were actually harmful for the movement.

p The October Revolution gave rise to a division among the anarchists, part of them coming out even more strongly in support of putschism and the other part calling for a revision of such policies in favour of Marxism-Leninism. The socialist movement, too, was overtaken by a crisis. The revisionist leadership of the Socialist parties assailed the Russian proletarian revolution, while a substantial part of their membership acclaimed that event with great enthusiasm.

p In Argentina, the Left wing of the Socialist Party made steady gains. At a congress convened by Left-wing leaders in January 1918, delegates condemned those Party leaders who had taken a chauvinistic, pro-imperialist stand and slandered the October Revolution. The congress addressed a message of greetings to the Soviet Government and adopted a resolution providing for the formation of an International-Socialist Party.

p The founding of this party, which adopted the MarxistLeninist doctrine, meant a radical shift in the development of the workers’ movement in Argentina. In 1919 the Party became a member of the Comintern, and a year later took the name of the Communist Party of Argentina.

p In Mexico, the prestige of the anarcho-syndicalist leadership diminished perceptibly under the impact of the October Revolution. Communist groups were organised in the leading industrial centres as early as 1918. A swing to Marxism-Leninism among the revolutionary intelligentsia and the progressive elements of the proletariat, as well as the appearance of Communist groups, prepared the ground for the founding of a Communist Party. 235 And, indeed, when a congress of Communist and Socialist groups and some workers’ organisations met at Mexico City on September 14, 1919, a majority of the delegates called for the foundation of a Communist Party and its joining the Comintern.

p Duly established, the Communist Party of Mexico adopted a policy of internationalism, proclaimed the solidarity of the Mexican proletariat with the Great October Socialist Revolution, and actively supported Soviet Russia. On November 7, 1920, it celebrated the anniversary of the October Revolution.

p That Revolution, and the founding of the Communist International, as well as of the Communist Parties of Argentina and Mexico, hastened a swing to the Left of the working class and increased the popularity of the ideas of communism in other Latin American countries. By the beginning of 1920 the Left wing had gained a majority in the Socialist Party of Uruguay, and the advocates of adherence to the Comintern had established contact with the leadership of the International-Socialist Party of Argentina, which had already decided in favour of recognising the Comintern programme.

p In September 1920, a congress of the Socialist Party of Uruguay resolved, by an overwhelming majority of votes, to join the Third International. And an extraordinary congress, convened in April 1921, resolved that the Party should hence be known as the Communist Party of Uruguay.

p In Chile most of the Socialist Workers’ Party members also belonged to the Left wing, which took an internationalist stand on the crucial issues of the international workers’ movement. Influenced by the October Revolution, the Socialist Workers’ Party had begun a gradual revision of its platform in favour of Marxism-Leninism, an important contribution to this process being made by Luis E. Recabarren, the Party leader.

p A Party congress, meeting in December 1920, authorised the Party leadership to submit for discussion and approval of the local Party organisations a proposal to join the Communist International and to rename the Party the Communist Party of Chile. The following congress held in January 1922 met as a Communist Party Congress and resolved to adhere to the Comintern platform.

p Brazil’s first Communist group was organised in 1918 at Porto Alegre. It established contact with the International-Socialist Party of Argentina and the Communists of Uruguay. Similar groups and Marxist circles were later organised in Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Sao Paulo and Bahia. Their members discussed the proceedings of the Communist International, particularly the TwentyOne Admission Requirements. On November 7, 1921, the fourth anniversary of the October Revolution, representatives of certain 236 groups met in Rio de Janeiro to discuss the problem of convening a congress for the purpose of founding a Communist Party.

p A constituent congress of the Communist Party of Brazil met in Rio de Janeiro on March 25, 1922. It adopted its statutes, an address to the people of Brazil, and messages of greetings to the Communist Parties of Russia, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, and to the Communist International.

p In Cuba, with the strike movement on the increase between 1918 and 1923, the anarcho-syndicalists began to lose ground while the influence of the socialist and Marxist-Leninist ideas grew. Prominent in the propaganda of these ideas were Carlos Balino, a veteran of the Cuban workers’ movement, and Julio Antonio Meglia, a representative of Cuba’s revolutionary youth.

p The first Communist group appeared in Havana in May 1923; and other Cuban towns followed suit. These groups came to be the foundation on which the Communist Party of Cuba was built in 1925.

The Communist organisations which had appeared in the comparatively advanced countries of Latin America had modest memberships and were still weak in an ideological sense and in respect of organisation, but the very fact of their formation was an event of great importance and a definite milestone in the history of the workers’ and the national liberation movement. The working class was hence to be an active force in the struggle against the local oligarchies and foreign imperialism.

Peoples of Latin America Fight
Imperialism, 1924-1929

p The North American monopolies meanwhile steadily gained ground in the countries of Latin America. Squeezing out their British competitors, they acquired meat-packing plants in Argentina, copper deposits in Chile, tin deposits in Bolivia, etc. United States capital became dominant in Latin America’s foreign trade through the wide use of loans, a proven means of obtaining control. Over the period of 1914-28 Latin American countries received 191 United States loans totalling approximately $2,000 million.

p The dominance of foreign capital and especially the growing expansion of the United States retarded the national development of these countries. Their peoples were subjected to the monstrous double oppression of their own ruling classes and the foreign monopolies; which explains why in Latin America class warfare was so closely linked with the anti-imperialist struggle. Thus, plantation hands of the United Fruit Company in Guatemala 237 struck in demand for higher pay and better working conditions; in Mexico people called for the implementation of the antiimperialist provisions of the Constitution of 1917; and in Colombia workers in British- and American-owned oilfields organised mass actions.

p Between 1924 and 1929 this popular movement was particularly intense in Brazil and Nicaragua.

p The domestic and foreign policies of President Bernardes of Brazil, reactionary and pro-imperialist, respectively, drew increasing protests from the democratic elements. In July 1924, came the insurrection of the garrison at Sao Paulo, a big industrial centre. That same autumn there was revolutionary unrest in the navy. A revolt followed in the south, led by Captain Luis Carlos Prestes, who went to the aid of the Sao Paulo insurgents, who found themselves in a tight place. Both the revolt and the unrest in the navy were suppressed by the government, however, and Prestes began a war of manoeuvre against the government forces. Fighting day and night, and facing great privations, his fighters made extensive raids over the country, marching nearly 26,000 kilometres, inflicting losses on the government troops, freeing political prisoners, and burning records of debts.

p In February 1927, Prestes’s detachments were forced to cross the frontier into Bolivia, where they were interned. Although defeated, Prestes’s exploits imparted great momentum to the activities of the democratic forces and the growth of national consciousness among the people of Brazil. Prestes became a legendary figure, a symbol of resistance to tyranny of whatever kind, offering the oppressed the hope of overthrowing the Brazilian oligarchy and forcing out the foreign imperialists. More than that: Prestes’s campaign gave valuable aid to the anti-imperialist struggle of all the peoples of Latin America.

p In 1924, the US marines pulled out of Nicaragua, after being in that country since 1916, but only after the US imperialists had set up a puppet ruler in the person of Chiamorro. The country’s liberal forces began a struggle against this puppet, and this brought armed intervention in Nicaragua by the United States, which was to strangle the liberation movement and protect its interests not only in Nicaragua, but in all of Central America as well.

p This intervention sparked an international movement in support of the patriotic elements of Nicaragua. And in that country the people at large—peasants, farm hands and urban workers—rose in arms against the pro-American reactionary clique. Among the partisan commanders, one gained particular fame. This was Augusto Cesar Sandino. A man of the people, he became enormously popular. In April 1927, the partisan forces threatened 238 Managua, the national capital and a reactionary stronghold. The government of the United States, wary of using its troops against the army of liberation, sought to strike at the latter through the capitulatory elements of the liberal clique. Arriving in Nicaragua, Stimson, the American president’s emissary, suggested a ceasefire and the surrender of arms by both sides to the United States headquarters.

p The growing revolutionary activity of the masses scared the liberals into capitulation. General Sandino, however, refused to lay down arms, and the American troops went into action against his forces. At the same time the Americans took steps to create a bloc of Nicaragua’s ruling classes to combat the popular movement, and, as a result, Sandino was enticed into a trap and killed; after which the national liberation struggle of the Nicaraguan people was crushed by the joint efforts of the American imperialists and their allies, the Nicaraguan liberals.

p The expansion of the United States in the countries of Latin America and its intervention in Nicaragua made the Latin American working class realise the importance of unified, coordinated action. Important in this respect was the first conference of the Latin American Communist Parties, held in Buenos Aires in June 1929, where priority was given to such problems as the role of the Communist Parties in the anti-imperialist struggle and the nature of the Latin American revolution. The consensus of opinion was that the system of landed estates and the dominance of foreign imperialists could be done away with only through an anti-feudal, anti-imperialist, bourgeois-democratic revolution headed by the proletariat. The conference failed, however, to work out any clear-cut tactical programme for the proletariat and its vanguard, the Communist Parties, in respect of the middle strata, the national bourgeoisie.

The decisions of the conference proved useful in strengthening" the Latin American Communist Parties ideologically and organisationally. However, a great deal remained to be done to overcome the influence of reformism and the survivals of anarchism in the workers’ movement. Great harm was being inflicted to the workers’ cause by sectarianism and Trotskyism which tended to split the revolutionary, anti-imperialist forces.

Struggle to Establish
a Popular Anti-Imperialist Front

p The world economic crisis of 1929-33 dealt the Latin American countries a heavy blow. Demand for ores and farm produce, which were the traditional items of Latin American export, fell 239 off, which served to enhance financial instability, increase unemployment, and add to the misery of the masses. The crisis also hit the middle classes, the national bourgeoisie. The foreign imperialists wanted to be reimbursed for their loss of profits at the expense of this bourgeoisie as well. The countries’ mineral resources were being plundered with shameless abandon. And the exploitation of the peoples of Latin America grew and grew. Democratic forces in many countries waged an increasingly stubborn struggle against the domestic oligarchy and foreign imperialists. And contradictions sharpened between the various cliques within the ruling classes, which were backed, as a rule, by rival imperialist countries.

p Thus in Peru, in 1930, the pro-American dictatorship of Legufa was overthrown and replaced by Colonel Sanchez Cerro, who enjoyed the support of the British monopolies and whose ostensible purpose in removing the Leguia group from power was to combat "foreign imperialism”. Instead, however, he began by suppressing the democratic elements. In 1932, to divert the attention of the masses from the calamities at home he began, with the blessings of Great Britain, a war against Colombia, which was backed by the United States. The war ended in 1934. So far as Peru was concerned, it was fruitless. It increased the misery of both peoples.

p The summer of 1931 witnessed mass actions against the reactionary pro-American regime of Colonel Ibanez in Chile. In July Ibanez fled abroad. The downfall of his dictatorship was conducive to the growing movement to establish a constitutional regime, stop the plundering of Chile by foreign monopolies, and combat unemployment and the high cost of living. Strikes occurred in August in a number of industrial centres, such as Santiago, Valparaiso, etc. And in the beginning of September there was a revolt in the navy. The sailors demanded more pay, better rations, dismissal of reactionary officers, and measures to deal with the high cost of living.

p Strikes in support of the sailors were declared in several towns on the initiative of the Communists, and soldiers of several army garrisons joined the revolt. However, there was no unity among the insurgents and the government was quick to turn that circumstance to its advantage: substantial government forces were moved against the insurgent soldiers and non-commissioned officers in Valparaiso, Quintero and Talcahuano; the insurgent warships were bombed by the air force; and the revolts in the navy and the army were soon crushed.

p That did not end the country’s political crisis, however. In late 1931 and the beginning of 1932 strikes and unrest continued among the workers, and there were revolutionary actions among the peasants. Certain circles of the bourgeoisie, headed by Carlos 240 Davila, former Chilean ambassador to the United States, joined forces with a petty-bourgeois group led by Marmaduke Grove, in command of the air force, for the purpose of taking charge of the popular movement and resolved to oust the government which had replaced Ibanez and was thoroughly hated by the people. On June 4, 1932, army units loyal to Grove rose in revolt, and with the aid of the people a new government was formed under Grove. Chile was proclaimed a socialist republic, and this reflected not only the popular strivings towards a new and just social order, but also the growing prestige of the Soviet Union. Grove called for the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

p The new government declared its intention to establish a monopoly on foreign trade, introduce a capital tax, and put an end to the dominance of foreign monopolies in the national economy. Political prisoners were amnestied, and the government promised to improve living conditions for the masses. The government’s programme was received with enthusiasm. Quite a different view of the programme was taken by the reactionaries and the imperialist powers. Acting on their behalf Davila had Grove arrested and a state of siege declared.

p Although this was a set-back for the Chilean people’s revolutionary movement, the ruling circles were unable to re-establish the old dictatorship. Davila was ousted as the result of a new coup d’etat, whose leaders declared for a constitutional regime. Elections were held in the autumn of 1932, which gave the presidency to Arturo Alessandri, leader of the Liberal Party.

p The policies of the Alessandri government, however, provoked resentment not only among the working people, but also among the petty urban and middle bourgeoisie. This led to the formation, in 1936, of a bloc which united the democratic, antiimperialist forces. This bloc, which came to be known as the Popular Front, included the Communist, Socialist, Radical and Democratic parties and the Chilean Workers’ Confederation.

p During 1938 the struggle between the progressive and reactionary forces became particularly acute. In the spring of the year the Popular Front made substantial gains in the municipal elections, to the great dismay of the reactionary elements. The presidential elections were scheduled for the autumn, moreover. The oligarchy’s nominee was Gustavo Ross, an open backer of the Rome-Berlin axis. On the eve of the elections, in September 1938, the Chilean national-socialists attempted a putsch in the hope of provoking civil war and defeating the Popular Front. The putsch, however, was nipped in the bud.

p When the presidential elections opened the Popular Front parties had but one candidate. This was Aguirre Cerda, leader 241 of the Radicals, who won the elections and formed a new government—the first Popular Front government in the Americas. The oligarchy and the imperialist monopolies remained hostile to the new regime and endeavoured to create economic and financial difficulties by cutting production of copper and nitre, curtailing exports and thereby diminishing the country’s foreign exchange revenues, while the landed proprietors and merchants raised the prices on food supplies.

p All this made for a difficult situation. Moreover, although president Aguirre, who was identified with the interests of the national bourgeoisie, came out against the imperialists and their allies among the big financial and commercial bourgeoisie and landed proprietors, he did not want to see the people victorious, and he hampered all efforts to introduce any basic social and economic reforms. In spite of all that, however, thanks to the victory of the Popular Front, the working masses of Chile succeeded in improving to some extent their political, social and economic conditions. Somewhat higher living standards were reached, civil liberties introduced, and steps taken to develop the country’s national industry.

p The installation of a Popular Front government in Chile meant a defeat for the reactionary extremists, the oligarchy and imperialists. It was, moreover, of great political significance for Latin America as a whole, especially in view of a rapidly approaching new world war.

p In Cuba, the national economy was in a state of collapse and poverty was rampant among the working masses as a result of the country’s dependence upon the United States and as the aftermath of the world economic crisis of 1929-33. Of the country’s 4,000,000 some 600,000 were out of work. The people vented their wrath on Machado, dictator and puppet of the American monopolies. During 1932 petty-bourgeois elements and the national bourgeoisie joined the struggle against him, which turned into a national liberation movement inasmuch as it was now aimed at the dominance in Cuba of American imperialism as personified by Machado, its willing servant. During the spring and summer of 1933 the fight against the Machado dictatorship was stepped up. On August 1, a mass patriotic demonstration took place in Havana and was fired upon on Machado’s orders. In protest against this bloodshed a strike was declared by the railwaymen, tobacco factory workers, employees and students. On August 4, the strike became general and took on a political aspect: its chief slogans were "Down with Machado!" and "Cuba Must Be Free!”

p Aware that Machado could not last much longer, the American imperialists lined up a successor. On the night of August 11, Machado was arrested, not without the active aid of the American 242 ambassador. He left the country on the following day, and Cespedes, former Cuban ambassador to Washington, became head of the government. His government, however, was rather shortlived, for its pro-American leanings earned it the hatred of all strata of the Cuban people, including the nationalist elements of the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie. The working class, the working people in towns, farm hands, peasants and students, formed the backbone of the movement, but revolutionary, patriotic feeling ran high in the army as well. Soldiers refused to obey the government. And early in September 1933, a new coup d’etat staged by an army sergeant named Batista overthrew the Cespedes government and put Professor Grau San Martin, who enjoyed wide popularity, at the head of a new government.

p Thus, as a result of the 1933 revolution, Cuba had a government headed by the national bourgeoisie and supported by the people at large—the first such government in the country’s history —and the semi-colonial regime established by the United States had suffered a serious set-back. The government annulled the American-imposed constitution of 1901 and with it the infamous Platt Amendment, which gave the United States the right of armed intervention. Moreover, the government took steps to meet the workers’ demands: an 8-hour working day was established, wages were raised, and limits set to the activities of certain American firms.

p This policy of the Cuban Government provoked the wrath of the US imperialists and a number of warships were dispatched into Cuban waters, notwithstanding the "good neighbour" policy proclaimed by F. Roosevelt. Refraining from armed intervention, however, in view of the popularity of Grau San Martin’s government in Cuba and the support of other Latin American countries which it enjoyed, the United States’ ruling circles busied themselves with the organisation of a plot to bring about its downfall. They were aided in their efforts by Grau San Martin’s hostility towards genuinely democratic organisations and anticommunist sentiments, which had had the effect of limiting the popular support he commanded. And thus, in January 1934, Batista, having received certain sums of money from United States agents, induced Grau to resign, and the counter-revolutionary forces were once more victorious in Cuba.

p A mass movement directed against foreign imperialism and the reactionary elements at home was on the increase in Brazil, largest of the Latin American countries. The harmful economic agreements with foreign monopolies concluded by the Vargas government resulted in the gradual impoverishment of the urban petty and middle bourgeoisie. Unrests broke out among the 243 peasants here and there in 1934-35, and over 1,500,000 workers were on strike at various times. The army and navy, too, seethed with discontent.

p In the summer of 1934 the Communist Party of Brazil called upon the people to form an anti-fascist and anti-imperialist front. In March 1935, the country’s democratic forces joined to set up a National Liberation Alliance, a political form of the Popular Front, and elected Prestes honorary chairman thereof. Prestes, following the defeat of his forces in his cross-country campaign, had come to the conclusion that Marxism-Leninism alone could guide the country to success in its struggle for independence and democracy. He had accordingly joined the Communist Party, to become one of its distinguished leaders.

p The National Liberation Alliance adopted a programme of struggle that called for democratic freedoms, provision for the people’s daily needs and an end of imperialist oppression. This programme was actively supported by the people; and Communists, Socialists, anarchists, servicemen of democratic convictions, and members of women’s and youth organisations and the liberal elements of the national bourgeoisie—all worked side by side in the Alliance’s various organisations.

p Some congressmen and senators also joined the Alliance; and its activities were such as to alarm the bourgeois-landowner oligarchy, the Catholic Church and the imperialist powers. The upshot was that the Vargas government outlawed the National Liberation Alliance in the middle of July 1935, conscious of the support of the above-mentioned reactionary forces. This was a signal for members of the bourgeoisie, intelligentsia and petty bourgeoisie to dissociate themselves from the movement. Any protests by democratic organisations against the outlawing of the Alliance were suppressed by force. And these repressions, in turn, brought demonstrations and strikes in protest. Late in November, armed revolts occurred at Natal and Recife, and a revolutionary government was set up in the former. There were revolts elsewhere, but these were all put down by the government troops. The Popular Front movement had suffered a defeat. On the other hand, it had been of lasting historical importance. For the revolutionary events of 1935 had been the first instance of an anti-imperialist movement being headed by the Brazilian proletariat in a gallant fight for genuine democracy and national independence.

p In Argentina, too, there had been a movement in favour of a Popular Front. A dictatorship headed by General Augustm Justo had taken over here, in 1932, in a situation of aggravated political tension associated with the world economic crisis. There was nation-wide opposition to the dictatorial regime, however, in 244 which an active part was played by the Communist Party of Argentina, which, profiting from the experience of the Communist Party of Brazil and basing itself on the decisions of the Seventh Congress of the Comintern, initiated a campaign for a united antiimperialist, anti-fascist front.

p In the autumn of 1935 the Communist Party invited the Socialist and Radical parties to co-operate. In consequence of this offer Popular Front committees were set up in several towns, and when construction workers went on strike in Buenos Aires, in January 1936, Communists, Socialists, Anarchists and Radicals acted in concert. In the March elections to the chamber of deputies a majority of votes was cast for the Left parties’ candidates, which proved helpful for the development of the democratic movement. The victory of the Popular Front in France and in Spain was greeted with enthusiasm in Argentina; and when the fascist revolt was staged by Franco in Spain the working people of Argentina rallied to the defence of the Spanish Republic.

p Thoroughly alarmed by the growing strength of the antiimperialist forces, particularly the Communist Party, the Argentine Government launched a counter-attack. In June 1936, the members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party were arrested, and the police, aided by fascist elements, raided the premises of the unity committees. Socialist and Radical Party leaders began to back out of co-operation with the Communist Party and the Popular Front movement began to ebb.

p Active struggle against foreign imperialist domination was carried on in Mexico during the period under review. A great deal was done by the Communist Party of Mexico to unite the country’s democratic, revolutionary forces. An agreement on joint action with the progressive Mexican Confederation of Labour was reached in February 1936, and contact established with democratic peasant organisations. The working class, however, failed to take charge of this mass movement, the initiative in this respect being seized by the national bourgeoisie, which formed the Mexican Revolutionary Party, including therein the various workers’ and peasants’ organisations. As the mass movement gathered momentum and the contradictions between the Mexican nation and the foreign imperialists grew sharper, the Left wing of the national bourgeoisie, headed by President Lazaro Cardenas, launched a programme of important anti-imperialist and democratic reforms.

p Between 1934 and 1939 the Cardenas government expropriated from the landed proprietors and turned over to the peasants 18,000,000 hectares of land. A law on the nationalisation of the foreign-owned main railway network, promulgated on June 23, 1937, dealt foreign imperialist interests in Mexico a telling blow. 245 And on March 18, 1938, President Cardenas announced the nationalisation of the petroleum industry, including all property belonging to British and American petroleum concerns. The foreign monopolies refused to recognise this decision and appealed to their governments for help. The Government of the United States placed an embargo on the purchase of Mexican silver. The export of silver being a major source of revenue for the Mexican Government, the American embargo was intended to injure Mexico’s economic interests and foment internal political trouble. As to Great Britain—that country took so hostile a stand that the Cardenas government was constrained to suspend diplomatic relations between the two countries.

To sum up, the social and economic reforms initiated in Mexico between 1935 and 1939 seriously weakened the system of great landed estates and impaired the position of foreign capital in Mexico. What is more, they prepared the ground for an accelerated national development of the country.