noteson

revolutionaryorals

MARIO ROBERTO SANTUC

INTRODUCTION"A communist can not be egotistic. To the extent that be

goes on conquering egotism and translating self-respect intolove for bis comrades and be converts himself into a generous,brave, honorable, trustworthy and loyal person, he will beable to change the society in -which all of these are changedinto their opposities, and be will return humanity to a societywhere these human virtues can develop the way they oncedid and were able to humanize us. This is the dream of everygood person. The forces that want to destroy are a minority,illness is held back by health, and health is the signal that wehumans are in harmony with nature, of which we are a verybeautiful and intelligent product."

Dona Consuelo Lee Corretjerfrom "Talking with Comrades"

It is with the above thought that we reprint one of the rhost significant theoretical worksever produced by the Latin American Revolutionary Movement. For, in an era of "NewCommunist Thought," the questions as to the nature of the communist movement and thebuilding of socialist society are widely debated; yet, very little, if any, attention is given to thequestion of the character of those who struggle for this new society. While people continue topolcmicize about every matter under the sun, little thought is given to the process by whichone rejects bourgeois values and builds new communist ones.

We believe that this phenomenon, like all other things, has a profoundly material basis.There can be no question that the lack of both theory as well as struggle around this mostimportant issue arises from the fact the much of the leadership of the socialist movement is byits class origin petty bourgeois and actively chooses to remain so. There can be no mistakingthe fact that it is this which has given birth to the reformist deviation of the communistmovement and created the so called social democratic third road. Let us make no'mistakeabout it.

We within the Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional, M.L.N., recognize the fact that socialdemocracy is not a period of transition, but rather it is the perpetuation of capitalist domi-nation in a partnership with opportunists and cowards who are too frightened to enter intoopen battle with the enemies of the working classes of all countries. Furthermore, let us stateonce and for all to both the pseudo-revolutionary left and their comrades in the social demo-cratic left that we, as Lenin before us, recognize that:

We are marching in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holdingeach other by the hand. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies and we have to advanceunder almost constant fire. We have combined voluntarily, precisely for the purpose offighting the enemy, and not to retreat to the adjacent marsh, the inhabitants of whichfrom the very outset, have reproached us with having chosen the path of struggle instead ofthe path of conciliation. And now several among us begin to cry out: let us go into thismarsh! and when we begin to shame them they retort, how dogmatic you are! Are you notashamed to deny us the liberty to invite you to take a better road! Oh yes gentlemen! Youare free not only to invite us, but to go yourselves wherever you will, even into the marsh.In fact, we think that the marsh is your proper place, and we are prepared to render youevery assistance to get there. Only let-go of our bands, don't clutch at us and don'tbesmirch the grand word "freedom" for we too are "free" to go where we please, free tofight not only against the marsh, but also against those who are truning towards it!

We dedicate this work to Angel RodriguezCristobal, revolutionary, comrade, and martyr.Defender of the island of Vieques and the nationof Puerto Rico. His life was a lesson from whichall may learn.

Luis RosaRicardo JimenezOscar LopezDylcia Pagan MoralesHaydee TorresAlicia RodriguezPablo Marcano GarciaJorge Albizu Orta

DARE TO STRUGGLE!DARE TO WIN!

Carlos Soto ArriviArnaldo Dario Rosado

Carmen ValentinAdolfo Matos

Ida Luz RodriguezElizam Escobar

Carlos Alberto TorresFelix Rosa

Nydia Ester Cuevas

To all those who fight from clandestinity

VIVA PUERTO RICO LIBRE Y SOCIALISTA!

LONG LIVE A FREE AND SOCIALIST PUERTO RICO!

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CONTENTS

/MPOfl TANCE AND L/M/TA TION 3OF TH£ PROBLEM

PR OLETA RIZA TION AND UNION 5OF THE MASSES

INDIVIDUALISM AAJQ REVOLUTIONAR Y 1ORGANIZATIONS^, .

THE FAMIL Y IN THE RE VOLUTION AR Y 11PERSPECTIVE :iy-

THE RAISING OF CHILDREN 13

THE ROLE OF WOMEN 15r if

SELF-CRITICISM 16

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NOTES ON REVOLUTIONARY MORALS

IMPORTANCE AND LIMITATION OFTHE PROBLEM

Today, the Leninist assertion that thebourgeoisie in capitalist countries exertsits class dictatorship — that is, its domina-tion of the working class and the entirecountry — is commonplace among therevolutionary sector.

However, one lesser-known aspect isthe concept of the hegemony of the bour-geoisie in society, which complements itsdomination in social practice.

This Leninist conception has been pre-cisely defined by Gramsci in his Notes onMachiaveili, where he points out that theState is the "complexity of practical andtheoretical activities with which the rulingclass not only justifies and maintains itsdomination, but also obtains the activeconsensus of the dominated sector ofsociety."

In this paragraph which we have citedGramsci clearly raises the question ofhegemony. This means that if the bour-geoisie still has us under its domination, itis not solely by virtue of its repressive ap-paratus but first and foremost, because aconsiderable sector of the people continueto adhere to bourgeois conceptions and be-cause practically all the people continue tolive according to the system of life that thebourgeoisie have constructed.

For example, bourgeois hegemony ismanifested in the mass media that dailybombards us with ruling class ideology, notonly in the general political sphere, but alsoin every aspect of everyday life, providingbourgeois "models to emulate" through theradio, theatre, movies, novels, sports, andin thousands of other forms.

It appears in the unions absorbed bythe capitalist regime as an escape valvefrom social tensions. It is manifest inthe churches, clubs, sports, in every aspectof human life.

Here is where the problem of hege-mony flows into the problem of ethics,or morals. This is the question raised by

Che Guevara in his impassioned call for theconstruction of the New Man. This is thequestion raised by the mobilization of themultitudes of the Cultural Revolution inChina. This is the problem that the revolu-tionary sectors in Argentina are beginningto raise, with its calls for the proletariani-zation of its cadre and militants.

This issue can not be taken as a mereaspiration of wishes, as those who try totransform Che into a simple romanticlegend would prefer. Nor is it an issue thatcan be left for after seizing State power,as others believe.

On the contrary, it is an issue that isat the very center of the problems ofRevolutionary War.

Lenin has clearly established that theproletariat will not be able to establish thedictatorship of its class, which is to say,the conquest of political power if they havenot won the great majority of the heartsand minds of the working class and thepeople.

If we correctly understand proletarianhegemony, as we have outlined it above, wecan see that proletarian hegemony consistsnot just in winning the majority of thepeople to the ideas and political programproposed by the proletariat, but also putsforth the problem of the "new morals."

This problem becomes particularly im-portant in the present stage of worldwiderevolution. Imperialism finds itself in thefinal and irreversible crisis of its domina-tion. The growth and affirmation of thesocialist camp and the Revolutionary Warof the colonial peoples have made imperial-ism's final defeat into an obtainable reality.

But precisely because it is confrontedwith its definitive crisis and defeat, imper-ialism will dispute inch by inch, each andevery position it still holds, clinging tothem tooth and nail. As demonstrated bythe practice in our country and the rest ofthe world, revolutionary war will heroinemore savage, cruel and hard every day.

We cannot even begin to t h i n k ofwinning this war, if we have not already

decided to begin the construction of thenew num. of the man capable of strugglingand winning the war, in the very practice ofthe war.

The lucid Australian journalist, WilfredBurchett, clearly points out in his book,Why the Viet Cong is Winning, that these"little yellow men in black pajamas haveconverted themselves into the most for-midable war machine known in history,"because they have learned to "win thehearts and minds" of their people, andthey have been able to accomplish thisbecause they have from the first momentgiven particular attention to the politicaland moral formation of their cadres, theircombatants, and their entire people.

It is here that the question of hege-mony — the conquest of the hearts andminds of the masses — and the ethicalaspect of this issue, become the very centerof the dialectics of the war.

The construction of the new moralsemerges as a tool just as valuable and esse*n-t'al ior revolutionary victory as the ideolo-gical economic and politico-military strug-gle. It is linked to these other struggles; onthe other hand, the new morals will only beconstructed in the practice of the war.However, we must not take the term"practice of the war," in a limited sense,as in moments of political-military combat,but rather in a broader and more profoundsense; to be precise, in the organization ofthe totality of our lives in relation to war,witb the people, with our comrades, ourmates and our children, with our families,with the people around us in general, andwith the enemy.

Only in this manner will we achieve arevolutionary morality — a combativemorality which here and now constitutesthe necessary transition to the socialistmorality of tomorrow.

This is the key to the epic of theVietnamese. It is impossible to understandthat a people could wage 40 years ofalmost continual war unless we understandthat those people have removed even thevery seeds of their daily life, inserting thatlife which is oriented along the new axisof thi* revolution.

If we want new Vietnam* in Latin

America, as did our !>eloved Che, we mustlearn how to creatively apply the lessons ofthe Vietnamese "experience to our reality,not only in the practice of the strategy andmilitary tactics, of ideological education,and of political work, but first and fore-most, in the sphere of revolutionarymorals.

INDIVIDUALISM, THE ESSENCE OFBOURGEOIS MORALS

Just as socialist society can only beseen as the dialectic advancement overcapitalist society, socialist morals and theirembryo, revolutionary morals, can only beseen as the dialectic advancement overbourgeois morals. Bourgeois morals are theexpression of capitalist relations of produc-tion in the relations of everyday life betweenhuman beings and of their attitudestowards them.

Marx proved that capitalist society isbasically a society of producers and com-modities, and that the archaic and anony-mous character of commodity production,has the power, among other consequences,of objectifying human relations.

Social relations which are in realityrelations between persons, appear asrelations between objects, things. Cpeci-fically, as the relationship of all people andall things to a very special thing, Money:the commodity among commodities, queenof commodities and the supreme god ofour time.

As a general medium of exchange andcirculation of commodities, money, — andcommodities in general — are transformedinto a way of life. The possesion of moneydetermines whether or not one possessesother commodities (food, clothing, etc.)It means life or death, a miserable sub-sistence or languishing in the lap of luxury.Labor loses its character as a creative acti-vity, man's specific and superior activity,and is transformed imo a simple means ofobtaining money, and the possession ofmaterial things becomes the goal of life.

Confronted with the anonymous capi-talist market that surrounds him like ajungle, each person behaves in this way,and is pushed to fight, to compete for

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survival. The worker is pushed to competewith his working class brothers in order toobtain a job, to keep it and to earn moremoney. The capitalist competes savagelywith other capitalists in order to win awaytheir clientele, and increase his profits atthe cost of the others.

The petty-bourgeoisie compete amongeachother sometimes to survive, sometimesto excell, and sometimes to "advance inlife."

In this savage competition of everyoneagainst each other, or better stated, of every-one against the market, that appears as ananonymous hostile force, each person hasno other point of reference than his ownindividualism.

Every individual struggles to surviveand triumph in the battle against the hos-tile forces of the market, which are noneother than the rest of the people, just aseach individual constitutes part of thesehostile forces for each of the others.

Therefore, individualism constitutes theessential characteristic of bourgeois moral-ity, since it emanates from the mercantilecharacter of the relations of capitalistproduction.

How is this individualism developedand manifested? Once capitalist hegemonyis established in the productive relations,thereby establishing bourgeois hegemony insociety, individualism becomes the domi-nant feature of human relations.

Adults consciously or subconsciouslytransmit individualism to their children,who begin to nurse individualism with thefirst swallow of mother's milk. The childwill compete against his brothers fornourishment and parental attention. Hewill compete for toys, in school hewill compete for better grades, and at playor in sports, for the victory of his team.Finally as an adult, he will compete fero-ciously in industry, commerce, science, thearts, politics and war. Individualism be-comes the basic skeleton of the personality,which is integrated on this base and formedby the competitive mold of capitalism.

In this way, individualism operates notjust on the level of conscious thoughts, ofopinions and current ideas, but also on thelevel of emotions, feelings and reflexesconditioned by the environment, of the

spontaneous unconscious attitudes, of theembryonic formation of any thought.

Individualistic characteristics and be-haviors are constituted in each person'sbasic personality. These characteristics andbehaviors are reinforced daily through theuse of mass communication media, schools,etc.

Herein lie the dimensions of the pro-blem. This is why it is so difficult to strug-gle against individualism. To become arevolutionary, it is not enough to con-sciously acquire the ideas of the workingclass, the most general consciousness ofthe problem. On the contrary, it involvesa true revolution within our very selves,a radical change in opinions, tastes, inclina-tions in regard to the most common thingsand daily attitudes that surround us.

In a word, it involves the total disin-tegration of our individualistic personalityand a new reconstruction and re-integrationalong proletarian revolutionary lines. Justbecause this is a difficult task, it does notmean that it is any less urgent or necessary.On the contrary, individualism is a veri-tible gangrene which continually destroyswhat we build. How can we defeat theenemy forces still powerful and willing towage a cruel and prolonged war, if we donot begin by destroying the advance guardof the enemy forces that operates in ourvery hearts and minds: bourgeois andpetty-bourgeois individualism.

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PROLETARIANIZATION AND THEUNION OF THE MASSESWe have pointed out that in order to

combat individualism it is necessary tototally revolutionize our personalities,to integrate it anew, along revolutionarylines.

We have also pointed out that this cannot be achieved through mere introspectionand self-punishment, but rather in practice:revolutionizing and transforming the wholeof our relationships with those around us.

Social practice establishes a dialecticalrelationship between the subject and itsmedium. To the extent that man formsand transforms reality through his work,his human relations, or any act iv i ty whichhe exerts: that same activity and the condi-tions that the surroundings impose also

- . ' .• ' ' • • ' . ' "l - v • * ' • " •- • '"• : . •form and transform the subject. This isthe essence of Marx's statement that••existence determines consciousness." Anyone that has a working class social practicewill aiso tend to have a worker's conscious-ness. He who has the practice of a police-man will have the consciousness of apoliceman. This is the primary key tothe question of proletarianization. Doesthis mean that just because they are workersthey are free from this nefarious individ-ualism? Categorically no. The wage laborof the workers is precisely the basis formarket production, since that very labor isconsidered by the capitalist as a com-modity to buy and sell to obtain surplusvalue, which constitutes the foundation ofhis capital. Thus, the worker is not freefrom the oppression of the market; instead,he suffers more acutely than anyone; andbourgeois hegemony in society tends togenerate individualism in his personality,too.

However, the very role that the workerf u l f i l l s in commodity production instillsin him the opposite tendency. In fact incapitalist industry and especially in thelarge modern factories, organized in assem-bly lines the interdependence of the dif-ferent partial jobs is so close that the workerer tends to acquire easily a consciousnessof the social character of the productionrealized by his class and the contradictionbetween this character and the private own-ership of the commodities.

The practice of collective work and theobvious injustice of its private alienationinstills in the worker a tendency contraryto the individual tendency that society as awhole imposes. This positive and winningtendency is reinforced by many otherelements of its social practice.

Collectively the workers suffer in theirhomes and neighborhoods the consequencesof their social oppression, in the form ofmalnu t r i t ion , substandard housing, inade-quate healthcare and limited if any, accessto the official culture of society — collect-ively , they are fired from their jobs or goon strike, collectively they collide with thepolice when expressing their protests: andwhen the class struggle is developed, theycollar r.ivels suffer the gunshots and bom-bardments.

This exploited situation instills in theworker a profound class hatred and a ten-dency towards egalitarianism that con-stitutes a negation and surmounting ofbourgeois and petty-bourgeois individualism.

Marx points this out with total clarityin the Chapter 5, Vol. I of Capital, whenhe states: "From the very beginning, theworker is on a superior plane to the capital-ist, given the fact that he (the capitalist)has taken root in the process of alienationof labor and is absolutely satisfied with it;while, on the contrary the worker, in hiscondition, as victim of this process, findshimself in a state of rebellion from thebeginning and interprets his condition asa process of subjugation."

Whichof these two tendencies is pri-mary in the consciousness of the worker,the negative individual tendency imposedby bourgeois social hegemony, or thepositive collective tendency that rises fromhis exploited character? It is a problemthat is resolved in tho class struggle, takingnote that individualist features are mani-fested more often in the less politicallyadvanced sectors of the working class,while in the other sectors, authentic pro-letarian virtues such as humility, simplicity,patience, the spirit of sacrifice, breadth ofviews, decisiveness, tenacity, the desire tolearn, generosity and love for his fellowmen, tend to predominate.

Regardless of the extent to which thesevirtues win out in each individual person-ality, what is important is that the very-condition of the workers, due to thecharacter of their role in production,objectively contains the possibilities ofovercoming individualism by generating thecharacteristics and points of views thattend to overcome it. This is the essence ofthe idea of proletarianization, that is,acquire the characteristics and viewpointsof the proletariat, understanding these notas the subjective characteristics and view-points of the individual workers, whichmay be as bourgeois as those of his em-ployer, but as the characteristics and view-points which emanate objectively from hisclass character, historically concerned withthe liberation of humanity, the liquidationof all classes.

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Proletarianization is the basic'conditionthe essential first step in combatting am;l iquidat ing individualism; and with thisstep, all the manifestations of bourgeoishegemony, in order to establish the soda!hegemony of the proletariat, which in turnconsti tute the first important stop towardsthe conquest of political power.

Ho\ then, do we achieve proletarian-ization9 Although it may sound trite, thefundamental manner to proletarianize therevolutionary organizations is to conslantly increase the proportion of workerin their ranks, to increasingly win ovethose vanguard workers that reflect tinauthentic virtues of their class. Howevertrite, it is well worth repeating becausemany revolutionary comrades, althoughthey sincerely recognize this need in theory,fail in practice to fi l l their revolutionaryranks with workers.

When the base and leadership of revolu-tionary organizations are constituted by aclear majority of workers, then they willhave acquired the political maturity withwhich to fulf i l l their historical mission.

Individually, for the revolutionaries ofnon-proletarian origin, the proletarianiza-tion process begins with sharing the socialpractice of the working class, its way of lifeand work. It is erroneous to believe thatmerely by embracing and struggling for theideology of the working class, one willacquire its characteristics and viewpoints.Even taking up arms is insufficient if ourdaily lives remain locked in the frame-work of bourgeois or petty-bourgeoissocial practice.

But as indicated above, it is also erron-eous to believe proletarianization consistssolely of working in a factory, or livingin a ghetto. If on the one hand, the situa-tion of the working class instills in it apositive tendency; then on the other hand,the bourgeoisie exerts a contrary hege-monistic pressure on the whole of society,including the working class, generating,therefore, the tendency towards individual-ism.

Proletarianization, the development ofthe new morality, is a more complete andprofound process, which concerns everyrevolutionary militant, including the work-ers; but most of it concerns the non-

workers. P of the proletarianisationprocess is to situate our own lives in workersconditions, but it does not end there. Onthe contrary, as the revolutionary begins toincorporate proletarian conditions in hisl i f e , his work and his struggle and newdemands are formula ted . He begins thelong path which we must fol low, that willnot only liberate peoples as surh; butwill also liberate each person out of thenarrow cell of individualism. As LeonTrotsky stated: "Someday the revolutionwill liberate man from the dark night of thecircumscribed 'I. ' This long and marvelouspath of man's liberation from all his chainscan only begin from a point of departurethat every revolutionary and revolutionaryorganization must reach in order to initiatethe march to victory: in the bosom of thevery' class who with their hands, hearts andminds each day creates the values and turnsthe wheels of history." In the palpitatingbreast of the popular masses who mostcrudely suffer the alienation of their work.and are most denied by capitalist society.but nonetheless each act affirms the funda-mental values of man, the values that willbe restored by the revolution: LABOR,THE FUTURE OF OUR CHILDREN,AND THE GREAT FRATERNITY OFHUMANITY.

INDIVIDUALISM IN REVOL-UTIONARY ORGANIZATIONS

There are many manifestations of in-dividualism deep within the revolutionarycurrents, each of which reflects, with dif-ferent nuances the bourgeois hegemonyover the newborn organizations of theproletariat and the people. Only throughthe practical development of our prole-tarianization, through the permanent exer-cise of criticism and self-criticism, can wecharacterize and correct them all.

In this work we shall point out onlythe most important, those that aiv mostvisibly and continually corroding the effortsfor the construction of a revolutionary-proletarian organization in Argentina:subjectivity, self-sufficiency, the scaivh forprestige, cliquishness, liberalism and lV;ir torone's self. These and other manifestationsof individualism have a common character-

istic: placing personal considerations andprecau t ions before the interests of ther e v o l u t i o n , taking oneself as a point ofreference, instead of the historical process,the working class, and the people.

A. Sl 'UJI-XTIVlTY: 1 his manifestationof individual ism consists of incorrectlyutilizing the scientific methods of analysis;instead of analyzing the objective reality-following the teachings of Marxism andreaching the corresponding conclusions nomatter how disagreeable; it proceeds inreverse: by wishing and manipulating themethod, conclusions are reached to corres-pond with our desires and goals. For ex-ample, there are comrades that characterizea particular zone or front of struggle asunprofitable for revolutionary activity be-cause they are unwilling to go and wagestruggle or to continue struggling there;or the reverse, to justify their own errors,they characterize their activities as veryimportant, covering up personal desires t < ;remain in that area.

This grave deviation can and has reachedthe extreme of deforming the characteriza-t ion of a complete historical era in order toaccomodate personal desires of continuingto lead or returning U - a comfortablebourgeois or petty-bourgeois existence.Subjectivity is also manifested in the failureto honestly recognize one's own errors andlimitations, seeking to down play them toothers or provide false interpretations.H. SELF-SUFFICIENCY: This is a mani-festation of individualism that consists ofunderestimating the capacity of other com-rades and of the masses, and overestimatingone's own capacity. The self-sufficientcomrade will always believe that he k n o w severything, that he is the only one who cando th ings . He will xive little or no a t ten-tion to the opinions of other comrades andthe masses. He believes tha t there is no th-ing he can learn from them and on thecontrary, will a t tempt to impose his ownscience on others. Haste, thoughtlessnessand pedantry are consequences and naturalcomplements of the a t t i tude . The end re-su l t is that the se l f - suf f ic ien t comrade wi l llose- I he respect and esteem of the othersand lose sight of reality, whici , in turn wil llead him to subjectivity in order to j u s t i f y

his errors, thereby creating a vicious circleextremely harmful to revolutionary devel-opment.C. THE SEARCH FOR PRESTIGE: This

manifestation of individualism generallycomplements the aforementioned ones andmore acutely demonstrates the mostessential feature of individualism, puttingthe individual person before the interests ofthe revolution. This consists of trying todo things correctly but not for their useful-ness. Revolutionary tasks are taken up towin merit, to be flattered by others and toflatter oneself. This is prevalent on alllevels, but is particularly noticeable andharmful among the leadership.

The rank and file militant who isguilty of this manifestation of individual-ism seeks to excell in the eyes of his leader-ship in order to be praised and consideredfor the next "promotion."

The middle cadre who exhibit thismanifestation, on the one hand seeks tobe admired and respected by the basemembership in order to use them toorchestrate their desires and "promotions"in the organization; and on the other hand,seeks to excell and win merit before theleadership in order to ascend to theirpositions. Finally those elements in theleadership of the organization who areguilty of this serious deviation behave likecaudillos-despots seeking the militant'sadmiration and competing for admirationamong his peers.

This form of individualism createsserious problems in the ranks of the revolu-tionary organizations.

Firstly, a spirit of competition is createdamong the comrades who fall into thisform of individualism, generating confront -ations, problems and deviations. Insteadof contributing modestly and s i lent ly tothe collective success of the organizationand helping the other comrades make theircontributions, they seek to project them-s !ves individually at the cost of the others,: u i e m p t i n g to monopolize the easy tasksthat bring quick glory while leaving theobscure and d i f f i c u l t tasks for others: co-vering up the i r own errors instead of cor-recting them, while loudly pointing out theshort comings of others, leading them tomake mistakes or knowingly letting them

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fail only to project their own success ordiminish their own faults.

On the other hand these comradesdistort reports and viewpoints, projectingthe negative aspects of the activities andopinions of others while emphasizing andinflating their own merits. For example, intaking on an activity that has been dev-eloped in the hands of another comrade,they report negatively citing multipleerr.. ,s and deficiencies in the project andafter a short period of time they issue anexcellent report on the advances made inthe task.

Through this they attack the sourcesof understanding. An organization hasnumerous instruments of knowledge — itsown militants; however, if the organizersin charge of centralizing activity operateon the basis of information that has beendistorted by its militants or those in charge,they will formulate a mistaken impressionof reality or will make mistaken decisionsthat will lead to errors through the organi-zation.

Finally, this search for prestige willlead to the formation of cliques and theutilization of bureaucratic practices.

D. THE SPIRIT OF CLIQUESThis manifestation of individualism is

a direct result of the ones previously men-tioned. It reproduces at a group level, whatthe search for prestige signifies at theindividual level and consists of the con-struction of groups, more or less closed,that seek splits or privileges for its members.

This is represented at the base level in"Team Chauvinism;" where each organismtries to stand out as the "best," forgettingthe role that each plays in the correctdevelopment of the organism as a whole.This deviation leads to competition bet-ween teams while their superiors in the cen-tral organisms fight over the materialsnecessary for the activity, the best combat-ants, the front of struggle, etc. When thegroups who are guilty of this deviationshould be collaborating in an act, each triesto subordinate the others in order to takethe best role in the task and excell. Thisdeviation also emerges as regionalism.Groups from the Port, Rosario, Cordoba,Tupaman, etc. try to stand out as the best

forgetting that the revolution is a nationaland international problem. Regional com-petition arises, which produces the afore-mentioned problems on a larger scale.This is what we describe as the spirit ofcliques at the organizational level. Therealso exist other forms of expression atthe organizational level. One form con-sists of a group of companeros who hadrelationships before or outside their activ-ism in politics, and form groups outsidethe organizational structure.

This is the most harmful form becauseit breaks security and creates all kinds ofproblems. The comrades who form thesecliques trade gossip, and the problems ofthe organizations, endangering the securityand the correct operation even leading tothe construction of real internal pressuregroups (factions)'. However, the mostharmful of these are cliques at the inter-mediate and leadership level. This inevit-ably leads to bureaucratic practices andcreates service problems.

This deviation begins to manifestitself through seemingly innocent means,as in the following examples; the elementsin leadership form a "private language" tocommunicate certain comments or refer-ences to special deeds and tasks that thebase membership does not have access to.

In this way the members of theclique constitute an "inner circle" towhich the common mortals have no access.Their relationships to the base member-ship are paternalistic; they are told thatcertain things are not for their knowledgeand are compensated with inflexibleattitudes, with vague promises of enteringthis circle of insiders if they get goodmarks.

If this error is not averted in time andseverely corrected by the appropriate com-rade or by the organization, the cliquecontinues to grow daily. Its members favorone another; they avoid pointing out theirown errors but emphasize those of others.More and more, the clique becomes a groupbureaucratically separated from the basemembership and a differentiated faction inthe midst of the leading elements. Whenthis level is reached, the clique serves as avehicle with which to violently channelany tactical difference. This difference no

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longer appears as a question of d i f 'Vremcriteria which car. be resolved in pr.idu".'.hut rather is uli l iz; d as a pretext to unleashan open class struggle in the organizationto defend the interests of the group.

However, even in its more embryonicforms, it is extremely harmful — not onlyin its potential capacity to transform it-self into an actual clique, but also for theimmediate problems caused by it: mistrust,resentment, competition, inattention to thecollective interests of the organization.This is why it is necessary to be vigilantwith respect to the embryonic forms ofcliquishness such as subjective friendshipand sidekick-ism

In order to facilitate this vigilance,it is preferable that the relationships be-tween comrades be serious and political;especially among the comrades in the lead-ership and with the base membership.Naturally, we can not, and should not be-come cold unresponsive beings. Vigilancedoes not exclude healthy affection betweencomrades, camaraderie, or good humor,but we should be careful not to encouragesubjective friendships, so that our relation-ships are not based on things other thanthe commonality of historical objectives,in which the principal interest is therevolution.E. LIBERALISM: Mao Tse Tung has dis-cussed liberalism broadly and scientificallyin his renowned work On Liberalism.For these problems we will refer the readerto his general text and discuss here onlyone particular aspect of liberalism which isvery widespread in Argentinian revolution-ary organizations and has caused gravedamage — liberalism with regards to secur-ity matters.

This form of liberalism is based in sub-jectivity and self-sufficiency and consists inover-estimating one's own capacity andunder-estimating that of the enemy. Buton top of this basic form, there appears inpractice many related variations that arerooted in other manifestations of liberal-ism; strict adherence to routine, lack ofenthusiasm or interest in tasks, the tenden-cy to take the easy way, etc. In order tojustify this, comrades affirm that the pro-blems are necessary consequences of theactivity, and that security can be main-

tained only when the politico-militarya c t i v i t y is poor. Noth ing could be fur therf i r m the t ru th . It is a fact that reformistsand those afraid of war vise questions ofsecurity as an excuse for not fighting ornot working among the masses. But theexperience of the organizations that have atrue revolutionary practice demonstratesthat intense activity and the question ofsecurity are not contradictory. On thecontrary, an activity has continuity andstrength when the problems of security arecared for. In the reverse, when we arecareless about security, the first setbackprovokes a "chain reaction" that holdsback the activity both in the short and longrun. We will not expand on the technicalaspect of security, because surely eachorganization has numerous materials basedon the rich experience acquired to date onthis subject. What we want to emphasize isthat liberalism is far from being an exampleof courage and proletarian decisiveness assome comrades believe. On the contrary, itis a dangerous manifestation of bourgeoisand petty-bourgeois individualism that re-veals serious irresponsibility in the com-rades who fall victim to this, and acts cor-rosively against the efficiency and advancesof the organization.

F. FEAR FOR SELF: The frequent andmaterial prolongation of any manifestationof individualism is fear for oneself. Thecomrade who conserves features of individ-ualism tends, consciously or unconsciously,to preoccupy himself with his own personmore than with the organization; the ulti-mate justification of the individualist andhis point of reference for all his projectsand desires, is himself. The individualistcan sincerely struggle for the Revolution,but wishes personally to benefit from itsfruits. He is consumed consciously or un-consciously by the feat of losing his life orbeing seriously physically or mentally in-juied. The individualist will tend to beweak when he finds himself in difficult mo-ments, in which the work of many peopleover a prolonged period of time is involved,when it is his decision whether to advanceor retreat under enemy fire, when it is hisdecision whether to co-operate or remain

s

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si.uit i .u .u i t o i ' t i i ; , or v. In :, conf] ontedw i t h the real or apparent threa t of death.What in daily practice appear as minordefects in apparently exemplary comrades,will be revealed in those moments in alltheir magnitude, as the true cancer of anyorganization, the flaw that can lead evenwell-intentioned revolutionaries to disaster.THE CORRECTION OF INDIVIDUALISMThere is no set prescription that will alle-viate individualism. We will extract thebest methods of correcting this evil basedon the revolutionary practice in the heartof the masses. However, there are somebasic guidelines which arise from exper-ience already acquired. In the first place,it is necessary to have a clear understand-ing of the true role and dimension of in-dividualism in the revolutionary ranks. Wemust not treat this problem lightly, butmust maintain a strict and permanentvigilance together with all comrades,particularly with those comrades in theleadership. Second, we must enforce theconstant proletarianization of the organiza-tion and of each comrade, as we have pre-viously outlined. Third, the constant ex-ercise of criticism and self-criticism aroundevery aspect of activity, keeping in mindindividualism and its diverse manifestationsas a practical and particular aspect.

We must point out two aspects of thequestion of criticism and self-criticism.The whole world recognizes in theory thevalue of this great revolutionary guideline,but it is not always utilized correctly inpractice, and comrades fall into one of thetwo following deviations: sometimescriticism is used as a weapon of personalattack, to criticize those comrades whomwe wish to slander; while other times, wewill remain silent regarding the errors ofothers, in an effort to avoid having our ownerrors pointed out. Sometimes one isguilty of both deviations at the same time:, .ie second deviation with our friends, anaMie first wi th other comrades. The samething occurs when one is the object of thecriticism. It is common for comrades tobecome angry or upset when criticized, andattempt to counter with other criticisms orlo find fault with the criticism. It is there-fore necessary to create an atmosphere con-ducive to criticism and self-criticism.

exercising it on a daily and systematic basiswi thout wai t ing for the problem to hit uson the head before we deal with it.

It is interesting to note what the Viet-namese do with respect to this. Burchettsays in Why the Viet Cong is Winning, "Thebasic organization of the Vietcong is thetrio. Each day every trio meets and anal-yzes the day's activities." These meetingsgenerally consist of criticism and self-criticism sessions. Meetings of this sort areheld every week, at the squad level, everytwo weeks at the platoon level and month-ly at the company level.

It is also useful for every comrade toplace emphasis on self-criticism beforebeginning his criticism.

• t * . r.

THE FAMILY IN REVOLUTIONARYPERSPECTIVE

\ : :• " • ' . ' ' '

In the previous chapters we have point-ed out manifestations of individualism asthe essential features of bourgeois hege-mony in the ethical sphere.

We now want to promote discussionaround these manifestations in the parti-cular area of the couple, the family and theraising of children. In his book, The Originof the Family, Private Property and theState. Engels has demonstrated the classcharacter of the family, refuting the erron-eous belief that the family is a "natural" in-stitution, which is the norm of "human na-ture." In this sense, he demonstrated thatthe family structure that we know is aphenomonon of capitalist society, that ishistorically determined. However, Engelsdid not propose what the socialist couple

or family will or should be like. He did notdo so — in fact could not do so — becausethe family is an element of social relationsand a socialist family could only be pro-jected on the material basis of socialistrelations of production.

Therefore, revolutionaries can onlyconduct ourselves in this as in other ethicalquestions, with a transition morality ap-propriate to the epoch of the transition ofcapitalism to socialism in which wo live.

However, it is important to point outthat Engels supports and defends the bour-geois monogamous couple as a form of

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family relationship superior to other formsprevious to the transition into the socialistfamily.

In effect the freedom of human beingsand their harmonious development aremore viable, although not totally achieved,in this form of family than in the formsthat proceeded it: polygamy/polyandry,group marriage, and promiscuity.

Engel's theoretical affirmation is con-firmed in the practice of the workerstates. The construction of the new familyarises in these countries from the monoga-mous couple as its basic cell, demonstrat-ing that it is superior as a uni r of construc-tion of the socialist family. Revolution-aries in countries still held by the enemymust keep in mind that we must achieveour own forms of transition in the heart of,and in opposition to, bourgeois society.

Above all, it is important at this mo-ment when traditional bourgeois moralityis attempting to revolutionize itself throughwhat some commentators have called thesexual revolution.

This false revolution consists simply ofreversing the traditional bourgeois conceptsconcerning the family, couples, and love.However, it remains part of the sphere ofbourgeois heprmony in its two essentialquestions, Ui petrification of human re-lations and is presented as the remedy forall ills. On the other hand, it places sex,and in particular the female sex, at theservice of the capitalist system, in the ex-pansion of the market, in the self-imagethat bourgeois hegemony and the functionof the superstructure try to give. This canclearly be seen in the role that the image ofthe woman and sex in general play in adver-tising, fashion, the mass media of commun-ication, and so-called public relations. Inorder to construct a new morality of sexand the family, revolutionaries must beginfrom radically opposed viewpoints. In thefirst place, the relationship of the coupleand family relationships should be strippedof the general petrification that commodityproduction imposes on all relationships.We must understand that our partners andour children are not the objects of ourpleasure or of our needs, but rather in-tegral human beings whose personalitiesare not restricted to one single aspect.

either sexual, pertaining to the family, 01filial, but have many aspects that composethe totality of the human persona. If weunderstand this, we will achieve a basicsupposition from which to advance in thisarea: the absolute equality between thesexes and the integral character of the per-sonal relationships of the couple or thefamily.

In the following section we should raisea second problem. What is the materialbasis for this relationship? Sex or socialactivity? Consciously or unconsciouslythe belief that sex is the material basis forthe relationship of couples characterizesthe majority of these relationships, includ-ing between revolutionary comrades.However, modern psychology and numer-ous experiences demonstrate the opposite:only when a couple has a harmonious re-latiunshi: in other areas, can sexual satis-faction also be achieved. On the otherhand, those relationships which are basedpurely on sex end up being frustrating inall aspects, including sex.

The couple can only base themselves inan integral relationship between partners,which is materially based in their own so-cial activity, the concrete role that theyplay in society: that of militant revolution-aries.

Therefore, the revolutionary couple isan integral relationship between two peoplewho have an axis, a material base: theirrevolutionary activity. The relationshipwill be harmonious and positive to the ex-tent that it contributes to the revolution-ary advance of the comrades and the en-richment of their relation to the revolution-ary organization, the working class, thepeople, and the whole of the revolutionaryprocess. This should definitely not be in-terpreted in a mechanical way i.e., that itis enough to belong to the same organiza-tion and be good militants in order to es-tablish a good match. It is clear that otherthings are necessary, other aspects, otheraffinities, other affections.. However,we should interpret it dialectically.

We should understand that for revolu-tionaries, the couple is not a "personal" en-tity peripheral to political relationships andactivities.

On the contrary, the couple also is a

*

political a'-ti'/ily. Its members ran andshould find in it a true basic cell of theirpolitical act ivi ty, integrated into the total-ity of their relationships. We say "ba.MCcell" because in it the members will findthe first element for confrontation of theirown revolutionary advances and the firstpoint of support with which to realizethem. But we say integrated with the total-ity of their relationships, because the re-volutionary couple should not constitute aclosed unit that begins and ends with it-self, but as we have previously mentionedshould integrate their relationship with thewhole of the organization, with the work-ing class, the people, and with the wholerevolutionary process. In fact, the couplecan and should join into a form of com-munity life developed by the group of com-rades who share living quarters (if that isthe case). This group constitutes the basiccell, not only of the politico-military act-ivity of the organization, but of a life-style that constitutes an appropriate trans-ition towards the future style of socialistlife. In the bosom of the organization ofthe home, the comrades who constitute acouple -- as well as those who do not -would share all elements of their daily life.Not only would they actively integratethemselves into the revolutionary activity.but they woi'icl also integrate every ele-ment of their daily lives, sharing their

resources through a mutual '\;nd androtating the domestic and practical tasksof the home, the tasks related to re-volutionary activity and also task- relatedto the daily life of the group; as a resu!:they share their free time, diversion-,studies, etc. In this embryonic life design,the revolutionary couple contributes to thestability of the group and finds in it themeans to positively integrate their relation-ship into the to ta l i ty of their social rela-tionships. However, this "politico-familycell" cannot isolate itself from the realityt h a t surrounds them. To proc/ed in thisway would lie like trying to grow the re-volut ionary organizat ion like a hot houseplant, separated from the rest of society. Itis a certainty that we will never constructany revolutionary organization in this way.The revolutionary organization should beclearly delineated from the masses in theor-

ganizational aspect, as Lenin has pointedout. but politically should be open to themasses, as he also pointed out when he saidthat we must learn from the masses in or-der to educate them. It is worth addingamong some comrades that revolutionariesficienfly mature, they have more to learnfrom the masses than to attempt to teachthem. This is also valid in the sphere of theconstruction of a new ethics for the coupleand for the family. This basic politico-family eeil that is comprised of the groupof comrades who share living quartersshould be permanently open and tied tothe masses, not only in its more generalpolitical relationships, but also in theneveryday life. When we earlier raised thenecessity that the comrades share Le.edomestic tasks of the home, the utilizationof free time, studies, etc. it should beunderstood in the sense of sharing, notonly among themselves, but with themasses. Thi^ siious the importance ofliving among ; -jleturian.s. Revolutionarieswill learn from .ne masses by opening upour family units to our neighbors and i.hemasses that surround us. and integratingourselves with them.

In this way we shave in confronting thetriumphs a.'v; errors of their practice andviewpoints, tad will be able 10 at t r i i>-J t . • tothe masses :he legitimate prog-, ̂ sshe ad-vances that are made in our life as ix .u iu -tionaries. In passing, we state that at thesame time this is the only way to correcti.vguarantee seeuirty.

RAISING CHILDREN' . \"- ' ' ••'.,

In the first place it is nec> ssary to de-part from the fixed opinions det ,> ly roole:!among some comrades that r e x - J u t i o n a r i i -should no* have children because they limitthem in their revolutionary work. This af-f i rmat io . i.-, incorrect.

It is true that we can cite cases wherecomrades who. for fear tha t their childrenmight be harmed, have demonstratedweakness before the enemy, that becauseof their children they have been can-lessabout their revolutionary activity. !low-ever, this does not mean that the childrenare the cause of these individualistic atti-

I

tildes, bu on the contrary, that they are anef f ec t , ar .other manifestation of bourgeoisand petty-bourgeois individualism, whichis manifested in this case as fear for theirciiildren. or carelessness in their work. Asin o ther circumstances, it is manifested inother ways. The revolutionary can only bewho!'.- i n the extent that he is a completehuman being, who develops the whole ofh i > h u m a n condition; as vice-versa, ther e v o l u t i o n a r y activity is the nasic conditionfor the in tegra l development of the person-

I n t h i s sense, the natural and instinctiveh u m a n tendency to prolong the existenceof it.s species can and should be treated in arevolutionary manner. This'surely does notimply the obligation of being a super mo-ther or father in order to be a complete le-vo iu t iona ry ; but it does imply the opposite,••' .leaning that the fact of being a goodmojit-r of fattier is not in opposition to,b u t rather complements the formation of acomplete revolutionary.

But in order to accomplish this, it isnecessary to break from the current indivi-dualist a t t i tude regarding children. This in-dividualist attitude consists of building one-skied parent-child relationships, one-sidedin the same way that all other human re-lationships become one-sided, by consider-ing only one aspect of the person. In thiscase Uie condition of our children. Thiscommon attitude regarding children is thenatural prolongation of the individualismthat comes from bourgeois hegemony.From the moment that their own indivi-duality is constituted under this hegemonyover the center of their values and point ofreference, these are the persons who bearour most intimate elements.

In order to erradicate this individualistattitude we must begin by learning that ourchildren, like any other person, do not havejust one single aspect, which is to say theircharacter as children, but that they arehuman beings like ourselves, and as suchhave their own needs of integral develop-ment like anyone else. We have pointedout that high among these human needs isintegration into the historic process inwhich we live. Natura l ly , in the case ofchildren ihese necessities have very specialcharacuvisiics. since the i r youth requires

from the adults, a special protection, andit impedes their understanding of iissues.

In this sense, we should begin by under-standing that children are not short uduhsbut children. Our first obligation is to pro-vide them in each case wi th the elements o;understanding o ! ' t h e i r cu\; • - 'ances in ter-minology appropriate to l ixir age and pro-vide them with the protection t h a t theirvulnerability and defenselessness requireThis at tent ion must be provided in a revolutionary, not an individualistic mannerbased on the viewpoint of ethics foundecin collective life. This means that the at-tention given the children must not be incontradiction to the whole of the activitiesol the revolutionary, but must be integra-ted with them. The children of revolu-tionaries must share every aspect of theirparents' lives, including the risks. Althoughof course, we must try to provide specialprotection for the children appropriate totheir tender age. but always insuring thatthis special protection is not in oppositionto the superior interests of the revolution.The beautiful image of the Vietnamesewoman who carries her child with her rifleat her side, which we have seen in variousmagazines and posters, is a symbol ofthe new revolutionary attitude towardchildren. The Vietnamese afford their children all types of special attention, butwhen at times it becomes necessary toshare with them the risks of war, they donot hesitate to do so. In order for this re-volutionary attitude toward children to be-come possible, it is necessary to integratethem into the concept of the couple and ofthe family unit that we have mentionedpreviously.

We should bury once and for all theconcept that the rearing of children is sol-ely the "mother's task," even in its mostelemental practical aspects. The rearing ofchildren is a common task of the couple,and not only the couple, but also of allthe comrades who share a house. Weshould actively promote a new attitudewith regards to this. When one speaks ofsharing in the bosom of the collective homenot only the politico-military activity ofthe group, but also the study time, the uti l-ization of free time and common tasks of

14

daily life, these tasks should include thesuperior task of raising the children of thecomrades who share the house.

With respect to this it is interesting topoint out the experiences of the revolution-ary people of Cuba, on the Isle of Pines.There young couples experience new mo-dels of communal life, practicing amongothers, the common rearing of children.The experience is highly satisfactory forthe parents as well as the children, demon-strating in practice what psychology hadestablished theoretically: what the chil-dren need is not so much "their" mother orfather, but the image of father and mother.Which is to say, everything that this signi-fies in affection, protection, support, per-sonality identification for learning, etc.And these images are perfectly interchange-able when this interchange is effected cor-rectly, even when the child distinguisheswhich are his biological parents. If childrenare not raised with their parents in currentsociety, they experience all types of pro-blems; this is not due to the deficiency assuch of their parents, but because thepeople who replace them do not fulfill therole of a revolutionary parent. Which is tosay because individualism will not permitthem to treat other children as their own.If on the other hand, one invests in therearing of children all the caring and af-fection that one would give one's ownchild, the child would experience no di-ficiency whatsoever. It is the differencesthat one makes with them which harmsthem. This revolutionary attitude towardsthe rearing of children is perfectly pos-sible and we should promote this withinthe framework of the new family unit thatshould be constituted by the group of com-rades living collectively.

As such, it constitutes a geniune task,as important as any other political-militarytask, because it concerns nothing less thanthe education of future revolutionary gen-erations, (hose whose shoulders will bearthe task of constructing socialism.

Finally, this attitude should be comple-mented by serious attention which shouldbe given by the revolutionary organiza-tions to the care of the children whose par-ents are dead or imprisoned. The organiza-tion will grow to take up not just the mosturgent material aspects of the care, but also

with promoting the integration of thatchild into a new family unit in the heartof the organization. This is particularly im-portant in the case of the children of non-proletarian comrades. Generally, thesechildren remain in the care of grandparentsor uncles, and in this manner, the child willlose all the advances that their parents havemade in the struggle against bourgeois andpetty bourgeois individualism once hebegins to feel the influence of bourgeoishegemony in the home of his grandparentsor uncles.

This aspect should also be integratedwith the lives of the masses. The childrenshould also integrate themselves into thelife of the masses in a manner which is ap-propriate for them, living and playing withthe children of workers. And parentsshould equally share the responsibility ofchild rearing, by confronting with neigh-bors their practices and viewpoints on therearing of our own children and theirs,giving general attention to the problemsof children, without establishing hatefuldifferences between "our own children andthose of others."

THE ROLE OF WOMEN

Based on the general criteria raised inthe above sections, we should analyze inparticular the problem of the woman,understanding her concrete situation hereand now. In bourgeois society, the woman,especially the working class woman, con-stitutes a particularly exploited sector ofexploitation and oppression in general. Weshould differentiate in this situation be-tween the differences which are derivedbiologically in their role as mother, andthose elements that are purely social inorder to integrate the former into a schemeof ethics and to combat the latter.

In the first case, it is clear that duringpregnancy and nursing, maternity entailsspecial obligations. The female comradesmust assume this reality and not believethat they can be active in the same waywhen they become mothers. There will belogical limitations, and habitual practices.

But these limitations should l u > under-stood in a revolutionary way. as problemsimposed by the higher task o!' educatingfuture revolutionary generations and

15

should he compensated in practice byanother type of viable activity, like study,for example. Her partnei and other com-rades should understand this problem andsupport the women comrades in a revolu-tionary way, helping them to understandand overcome these practical limitations.This also can be accomplished to the ex-tent that our daily life is integrated into thelife of the masses. For example, learningfrom proletarian women about how theydo child-care for each other and many-other ways.

On the other hand, other forms of li-mitation and oppression of women aremanifestations of bourgeois hegemony,such as we have pointed out above.These expressions should be actively corn-batted. To achieve this, revolutionary or-ganizations must take up, among theirstruggles, the liberation of the woman,particularly the working class woman.The double exploitation to which womenare submitted is very visible in the form oflower salaries, inferior working conditions,and sexual harassment by their employersor the personnel heirarchy. On the otherhand, this struggle can only go as far inpractice as the extent to which proletarianwomen integrate themselves into revolu-tionary organizations.

It is obvious how much bourgeois hege-mony manifests itself in the heart of ourorganizations by way of the large deficitin working class women.

It is very important that the whole or-ganization and in particular its women, pre-occupy themselves with winning more pro-letarian women into our ranks, elevatingthem to revolutionary cadre, and proletar-ianizing themselves.

We should raise the particular problemsof women and direct ourselves to them bywinning them into our ranks in order tostruggle for these demands and for all re-volutionary objectives.

The proletarianization that we demandfor all organizations should be especiallyemphasized among the female elements.

Only in this way will we resolve in prac-tice the problem of the double oppressionof women and integrate the etnical aspects'.>i t h i s question in to our efforts toward theConstruct ion of a new revolutionary moral-ity.

SELF CRITICISM

In the preceeding sections we have triedto initiate the criticism of bourgeois moralsin the area of love and the family. Weshould also complement this criticism witha self-criticism of the reflections of themorality in our ranks. The practical casesare numerous, and we will try to summar:

ize them in a few typical cases.In the first place, there is the projection

of the disunity of the couple with the prac-tice of militancy. Frequently, couples whoare involved in an inharmonious relation-ship become weak in their militancy. Thisis a manifestation of individualism that a-rises from considering the couple as a separ-ate entity apart from the whole member-ship. This should be overcome by consi-dering the couple as a political-military cell,as we said above.

In the second place there is the oppo-site case, mutual protection, trying to avoidone by one other risks in one's tasks orshowing weakness in the face of the enemyby fearing for the security or physical in-tegrity of the comrades. It is a geniunelack of respect of the revolutionary person-ality by another, and it has the same indivi-dualist origin as the previous case.

A lack of respect for one's part-ner can be seen when a separation is re-quired by one's tasks or because one orboth comrades fall into the enemy's hands.Frequently in this case, comrades tend tobegin new relationships. It is a comfortableway to resolve one's own immediate de-ficiencies and it exhibits strong individual-ism — not putting oneself in another'splace and not looking at the whole arrayof things from the point of view of thehigher interests of the revolution.

It has the same origin mentioned beforeand also the erroneous belief - either con-scious or unconscious — that the materialbasis for the couple's relationship consistsof the most elemental manifestations of sexand not social practice. This does notmean that it might not be legitimate andpositive to begin a new relationship in cer-tain circumstances. But it should always bedone through a careful analysis of all theelements, and not in a thoughtless superfi-cial and hurried way, giving in i o circum-stances and superficial impulses.

All these deviations can be correctedonly with the criteria cited above, andtheir correction will contribute to the con-struction of a revolutionary morality andto the advance of its revolutionary or-ganizations.

17

Since 1898, the Puerto Rican people have waged revolutionary warfare upon the imperialistU.S. presence on the island. While the active nature of the struggle has, like all things, beensubject to the processes of ebb and flow. The continous revolutionary character of our strugglehas never waned and it is this charecter which has given Puerto Rican Revolutionaries not thedefensist ideology of a flame of resistance, but rather has found its ideology in the will to win.For true revolutionary character cannot allow for the slightest co-existance between bourgeoisexistance and revolutionary thought or practice.

In this, the era of "putting the state on trial," the Puerto Rican revolutionary movementhas blazed a trail which only a coward afraid to think his or her thoughts to their logical con-clusion could ever deny.

Consuelo Lee Corretjer stated that "One can be a Marxist and not a communist, but onecannot be a communist and not a Marxist," and it is true. For Marxism is a liberating ideologywhich ushers in a new humanity and finds its fullest expression in communist thought andrelationships. Communist thought which is profundly revolutionary is the thought of fullycognizant beings who are willing to accept the consequences of thier actions in order to build anew, more humane society. Where there are neither exploited nor exploiters. Communistthought is the ideology of true lovers of democracy, and communist relationships create themorality and basis for a new society.

It is important to point out that what is required of a communist is not just courage, sincethat alone is an instinctual phenomena, while the merging of courage and political conscious-ness is a good starting point, a determining factor, we must remember the words of PuertoRican Prisoner of War Elizam Escobar "Consciousness without true faith and love, is an idealwithout emotion, a mind without a soul. As Corretjer has stated in the case of Puerto Rico"An independentist without true patriotism:" and in the case of the world communist con-ception: "a Marxist without revolutionary fervor."

In is with this understanding that we offer you this work, for we must be capable of a newvision if we are to enter the stage of true history.

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