José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology

314 Pages·2011·1.58 MB·English

by  José Carlos Mariátegui

José Carlos Mariátegui
An Anthology

edited and translated by
HARRY E. VANDEN and MARC BECKER

Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
PART I
On Studying the Peruvian and Indo-American Reality
1. Toward a Study of Peruvian Problems (1925)
2. The Land Problem (1928)
3. The Economic Factor in Peruvian History (1925)
4. The Problem of Statistics (1926)
5. Theory (1925)
6. Anniversary and Balance Sheet (1928)
7. Colonial Economy (1926)
PART II
Peru and Indigenismo
1. Peru‘s Principal Problem (1924)
2. On the Indigenous Problem (1929)
3. Aspects of the Indigenous Problem (1926)
4. National Progress and Human Capital (1925)
5. Class Action in Peru (1929)
PART III
Marxism and Socialism
1. Reply to Luis Albert Sánchez (1927)
2. The Process of Contemporary French Literature (1928)
3. Message to the Workers‘ Congress (1927)
4. Defense of Marxism (1928 and 1929)
a. Henri de Man and the Crisis of Marxism
b. Liberal and Socialist Economics
c. Modern Philosophy and Marxism
d. Ethics and Socialism
e. Marxist Determinism
f. The Heroic and Creative Sense of Socialism
g. The Liberal Economy and the Socialist Economy
h. Freudianism and Marxism
i. Materialist Idealism
j. The Science of Revolution
5. Programmatic Principles of the Socialist Party
6. On the Character of Peruvian Society
PART IV
Imperialism
1. Nationalism and Internationalism (1924)
2. Anti-Imperialist Point of View (1929)
3. Yankee Imperialism in Nicaragua (1928)
4. Martial Law in Haiti (1929)
5. Ibero-Americanism and Pan-Americanism (1925)
6. The Destiny of North America (1927)
PART V
Politics, Organization, Peasants, Workers, and Race
1. The World Crisis and the Peruvian Proletariat (1923)
2. The Problem of Race in Latin America (1929)
3. Preface to The Amauta Atusparia (1930)
4. Huacho Peasants Defend Their Irrigation System (1929)
5. The Herradura Beach Meeting (1928)
6. May Day and the United Front (1924)
7. Manifesto of the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers to the Peruvian Working
Class (1929)
PART VI
Women
1. Women and Politics (1924)
2. Feminist Demands (1924)
3. Magda Portal (1928)
PART VII
Myth and the Optimism of the Ideal
1. Man and Myth (1925)
2. The Final Struggle (1925)
3. Pessimism of the Reality, Optimism of the Ideal (1925)
4. Imagination and Progress (1924)
PART VIII
Aesthetics
1. Maxim Gorky and Russia (1925)
2. A Balance Sheet on Surrealism (1930)
3. Art, Revolution, and Decadence (1926)
4. Cement and Proletarian Realism (1929)
5. On Explaining Chaplin (1928)
PART IX
Latin America
1. The Unity of Indo-Hispanic America (1925)
2. Mexico and the Revolution (1924)
3. Portes Gil against the CROM (1928)
4. The New Course of Mexican Politics, as Seen from the Margins (1930)
GLOSSARY
INDEX
Dedicated to all who have and will creatively use socialist
thought and praxis to make the Americas a better place.
Acknowledgments
This work springs from a profound conviction that José Carlos Mariátegui has much to
say to English-language readers. His Complete Works (Obras Completas) have gone
through numerous editions and have circulated widely throughout Latin America. His works
have been translated into numerous languages, including not only French and Italian but
also Russian and Japanese. Yet in English, translations of Mariátegui's works, especially
his Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality, were out of print by the time the world
capitalist financial crisis hit in 2008.
Mariátegui's writings have much to say in the crisis period through which we are living.
They represent the dynamic, creative vein in Marxist thought that can, we believe, best
nourish cogent analyses and potent praxis. It is far from the dogmatic Marxism that came to
dominate official thought in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Both of us discovered
Mariátegui‘s writing early on in our careers and we were much taken by the cogency and
relevance of his writings. We hope that those who read this volume will discover the creative
insights and current relevance that so impressed us.
We wish to thank the Mariátegui family, and in particular the late Javier Mariátegui, for
gracefully receiving us and for granting access to many papers, documents, editions of
Mariátegui‘s works, and a wealth of personal information that nourished our study of
Mariátegui and his work. Special thanks also go to Michael Yates of Monthly Review Press
for believing in this book, supporting us, and demonstrating that editors still exist who
closely read and edit a manuscript. We also want to thank Erin Clermont for carefully
copyediting this work. HARRY E. VANDEN MARC BECKER Tampa, Florida Madison,
Wisconsin
INTRODUCTION
Amauta:
An Introduction to the Life and Works of José Carlos Mariátegui
As we move into the twenty-first century, scholars and activists still debate the status and
relevance of Marxism and Marxist thought. Some would argue that both are to be relegated
to the back pages of history. Yet as this is said, world capitalism is suffering one of its worst
setbacks in a century, and the very theoretical foundations on which neoliberal capitalism is
based are being called into question as they prove inadequate to guide the modern world
system. Whereas the rigid orthodox visions of Marxism that Joseph Stalin propagated when
he had an inordinate influence on official Marxism have little to offer in this new reality,
interest continues to grow in non-dogmatic, original Marxist thinkers like Antonio Gramsci
and Rosa Luxemburg. Other writers outside of Europe also come to mind: Amílcar Cabral in
Africa, Rabrindanath Tagore in India, or even Mao Tse-tung in China. Many find their
analyses, insights, and formulations of considerable use in our current reality. Their thought
combines well with more subtle forms of class, gender, cultural, and ecological analysis, and
nourishes fresh visions for, and critiques of, our times.
In recent years, Latin America has emerged as an area that has challenged many
neoliberal assumptions. As the region begins to restructure many of its internal class
relations and foreign policies, it provides a fertile alternative to globalized neoliberal thought.
In this context, it is worthwhile to turn to significant thinkers and writers who have
contributed to the development of leftist thought in Latin America, whose work could
successfully challenge the neoliberal cultural hegemony that the globalized world capitalist
system has thrust upon the peoples of the global South as well as those of the global North.
The intellectual atmosphere in Latin America has been nourished by leftist thought and has
often embraced Marxist thinkers. Indeed, Marxism in Latin America is a rich and fascinating
subject. As diverse as the Latin American people, it has reflected some of the most plodding
and sectarian Latin American thought, but it also includes creative, innovative, and brilliant
improvisations. Although Western philosophical traditions and political institutions have
strongly influenced Latin America, it is part of the global South, and acknowledging this
reality allowed some aspects of Marxist theory to develop in unique ways.
As we survey the Latin American intellectual landscape, one innovative thinker springs to
the fore. He nourished the early Marxist thought of Ernesto Che Guevara, championed the
causes of Indigenous peoples, realized the revolutionary potential of the peasantry,
asserted a mature Marxist feminism, and even resisted the Stalinization of Latin American
Marxist parties. This person is the Peruvian Amauta(Quechua for ―wise teacher‖), José
Carlos Mariátegui (1894–1930). Mariátegui came from an impoverished family, yet he said
that this allowed for wide exposure to Indigenous, mestizo, African, and European peoples
in both Peru‘s sierra (Andean highlands) and coastal regions. He interacted with everyone,
ranging from Lima‘s intellectual elite to Peru‘s proletariat, peasants, and miners. Mariátegui
also enjoyed an extended stay in Europe, and engaged in political, literary, and even
scientific discourse in three languages (Spanish, Italian, and French). His thought was
original and eclectic, and extended well beyond the narrow confines that came to
characterize many Marxist thinkers from the 1930s to the 1960s.
Mariátegui left an unmistakable and lasting legacy not only on the political, social, and
intellectual landscape of his native Peru, but on the entire continent. He energetically and
actively engaged with European thought, working out new methods to analyze the problems
of non-Western societies like his own. In the process he developed what subsequently
become known as National Marxism, an approach that addressed the realities of a local
situation within the context of Marxist theory. Mariátegui implemented a new theoretical
framework that diverged from the doctrinaire ideology adopted by most of the Latin America
Communist parties—an approach that attempted to apply a mechanical interpretation of
Marxist strategy to a national reality. He broke from a rigid, orthodox interpretation of
Marxism to develop a creative Marxist analysis that was oriented toward the specific
historical reality of Peru and Latin America in the 1920s. Mariátegui did not believe that
Marxism was a finished project. He favored a non-sectarian ―open‖ Marxism and believed
that ―Marxist thought should be revisable, undogmatic, and adaptable to new
situations.‖1 Rather than a rigid reliance on objective economic factors to foment a
revolutionary situation, Mariátegui also examined subjective elements such as the need for
the political education and organization of the working-class proletariat, a strategy he
believed could move a society to revolutionary action. He downplayed the passive economic
determinism found in orthodox Marxism and followed a dynamic ―voluntaristic conception of
Marxism [that] did not allow him to wait for the economic conditions to force the peasants to
act.‖2 In addition, unlike orthodox Marxists who believed that peasants formed a reactionary
class, Mariátegui looked to rural peasants and Indigenous peoples along with an
industrialized urban working class to lead a social revolution that he believed would sweep
across Latin America.
Even though Mariátegui‘s thought has retained central importance to ideological struggles
in Latin America, in the English-speaking world few people are aware of his contributions.
When Mariátegui died in 1930, his funeral turned into one of the largest processions of
workers ever seen in the streets of Lima, but in the United States his death was hardly
noticed. Waldo Frank, a U.S. writer and a close friend of Mariátegui, wrote in The
Nation that Mariátegui‘s death plunged ―the intelligentsia of all of Hispano-America into
sorrow; and nothing could be more eloquent of the cultural separation between the two
halves of the new world than the fact that to most of us these words convey no
meaning.‖3 Almost one hundred years later, Mariátegui‘s works still have relevance for
those who seek to create radical thought and build a more humane and just world.
JOSÉ CARLOS MARIÁTEGUI
José Carlos Mariátegui was born on July 14, 1894, in the small southern Peruvian town of
Moquegua. He was the sixth child of a poor mestiza, María Amalia La Chira, who had lost
her first three children shortly after childbirth. Mariátegui‘s father was Francisco Javier
Mariátegui, a grandson of a liberal independence leader of the same name. Shortly after
Mariátegui‘s birth, La Chira separated herself from her children‘s father and sought to
shelter her children from his liberal influence. She eventually returned with her children to
live with her parents in Sayán, a town frequented by travelers following the trade routes to
and from the Peruvian highlands. There, Mariátegui spent countless hours in his
grandfather‘s leather-working shop listening to the travelers recount their stories of their
lives laboring as near serfs on the large landed highland estates called latifundios. At an
early age he developed a tubercular condition, and when he was eight years old he hurt his
left leg, which crippled him for life.
Mariátegui spent his adolescence on the outskirts of Lima. Because of a lack of financial
resources and the need to support his family, he acquired only an eighth-grade education.
At the age of fifteen, he began to work at the Peruvian newspaper La Prensa. Here he
demonstrated a good deal of talent at journalism, and quickly moved from copy boy to
writing and editing positions. Throughout his life, Mariátegui used his skills as a journalist to
earn a living, as well as a means to express his political views. By the age of sixteen, his
writings showed a socialist orientation. Together with his friend César Falcón, Mariátegui
launched two short-lived papers, Nuestra Epoca and La Razón. Although these papers took
a pro-labor stance, they did not espouse the revolutionary Marxism found in Mariátegui‘s
later writings. Mariátegui‘s vocal support for the revolutionary demands of workers and
students did, however, run afoul of the Peruvian dictator Augusto B. Leguía, who in October
1919 exiled Mariátegui and Falcón to Europe as Peruvian ―information agents.‖ Mariátegui‘s
time in Europe strongly affected the development and maturation of his thought and
solidified his socialist tendencies. Mariátegui later looked back on his early life as a
journalist as his ―Stone Age,‖ in contrast to his later writings in the 1920s when he had
matured as a Marxist thinker.
From 1919 to 1923, Mariátegui lived and studied in France and Italy where he found
opportunities to meet with many European socialists. In France, he encountered Romain
Rolland, Henri Barbusse, and others from the revolutionary Clarté group. Mariátegui spent
three years in Italy where he met Benedetto Croce, Giovanni Papini, and others. The
founding of the Italian Communist Party in 1921 deeply impressed Mariátegui with the
revolutionary potential of a voluntarist approach to Marxism. By the time he returned to Peru
in 1923, Mariátegui stated that he was ―a convinced and declared Marxist.‖4
Soon after Mariátegui returned to Peru in 1923, he met student leader Víctor Raúl Haya
de la Torre who had recently organized the Universidad Popular González Prada (González
Prada Popular University) in Lima to educate Peruvian workers. Haya de la Torre invited
him to give a series of lectures on world events that drew on the experiences and insights
he had gained in Europe.5 Mariátegui emphasized a working-class critique of recent
European events in these lectures while demonstrating his broad comprehension of major
political themes in postwar Europe. He was much better prepared than most of the other
teachers at the university, and soon was one of the most popular lecturers.6 Despite student
requests, the public University of San Marcos refused to give him a professorship because
he lacked the proper formal academic credentials. Although he was largely unschooled, he
had a creative and brilliant mind. He loved to read and was, for the most part, self-educated.
In short, Mariátegui was an intellectual who was at times at odds with the bourgeois
intellectual world.
In 1924, Mariátegui lost his right leg, and this confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of
his life. In spite of his failing health, Mariátegui increased the intensity of his efforts to
organize a social revolution in Peru. In 1926, he founded Amauta, a journal intended as a
vanguard voice for an intellectual and spiritual movement to create a new Peru. It would
examine developments not only in the realm of politics but also philosophy, art, literature,
and science, all with a clear political agenda. Amauta reached a wide audience not only in
Peru but throughout Latin America.7
Because of its cost and vanguardist stance in art, literature, politics, and culture
generally, Amauta did not find an ample audience among the Peruvian working class. As a
result, in 1928 Mariátegui launched a less doctrinaire and more informative biweekly
periodical called Laboras an extension of Amauta. Labor, which sought to inform, educate,
and politicize the working class, survived less than a year before the Leguía dictatorship
shut it down. Although the government never provided an official explanation for its closure,
the newspaper was seen as a threat to Leguía‘s ―increasingly unpopular and insecure
regime.‖8 Amauta continued publishing until shortly after Mariátegui‘s death in 1930.
During his lifetime, Mariátegui published many articles in various Peruvian periodicals, as
well as two books, La escena contemporánea in 1925 and 7 ensayos de interpretación de la
realidad peruana in 1928. The first book, La escena contemporánea (The Contemporary
Scene), is a compilation of articles he wrote for the popular Peruvian
magazinesVariedades and Mundial. In these essays he explores the current world political
scene, including the rise of fascism, democracy, socialism, and anti-Semitism. His second
book, translated into English in 1971 asSeven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality, was
a critically acclaimed success for its original and creative insights into the Latin American
reality. Mariátegui presents a brilliant analysis of Peruvian, and by extension Latin
American, problems from a Marxist point of view. The book includes seven essays on the
topics of economic development, Indigenous peoples, land distribution, the education
system, religion, and literature. Intellectuals widely regard it as a fundamental work on Latin
American Marxism.
Mariátegui‘s revolutionary activities were not to remain on a solely theoretical level. He
made numerous demands that indicated the nature of the socialism he wished to construct
in Peru, including labor and social reforms, an end to the hated enganche (debt peonage)
system, implementation of an eight-hour workday, an increase in salaries, and the
establishment of a minimum wage. In order to agitate for these changes, he founded
the Partido Socialista Peruano (PSP, Peruvian Socialist Party) in 1928 and served as its first
secretary general. In 1929, the PSP launched the Confederación General de Trabajadores
del Perú (CGTP, General Confederation of Peruvian Workers), a Marxist-oriented trade
union federation, as an effort of the party to organize the working class. Both the PSP and
the CGTP were involved in an active internationalism, and participated in Communist
International–sponsored meetings.
The exact extent and nature of Mariátegui‘s organizational activities is not entirely clear,
though apparently he was actively involved in the organization of communist cells all over
Peru. His activities were enough of a threat to the security of the Peruvian state that twice
the Leguía dictatorship arrested and imprisoned him, although he was never convicted of
any crime. The first arrest came in 1924 for his alleged subversive activity at the González
Prada Popular University. The arrest triggered an immediate and strong international
reaction, and he was soon released. The Leguía dictatorship arrested Mariátegui for a
second time in 1927 and charged him with involvement in a communist plot. He was
detained for only six days at a military hospital, but afterward he continued to be a victim of
police harassment and surveillance. In September 1929, Mariátegui‘s working-class
periodical Labor was shut down, and in November of the same year the police raided his
house and ―kidnapped‖ him for three days. Mariátegui rejected the validity of the charges,
and claimed they were politically motivated. ―Naturally, they speak of a communist
conspiracy,‖ Mariátegui wrote to a friend. Mariátegui had published articles in
both Amauta and Labor that were critical of the lack of safety measures and exploitative
labor practices at Cerro de Pasco, a copper mine owned by a U.S. company. The Peruvian
government feared that Mariátegui was ―defending and inciting the workers to resistance.‖
His support for the miners‘ organizational struggles and ensuing strike action alarmed the
North American corporation, and the Peruvian government did not want to alienate powerful
foreign economic interests.9
Although the political party and labor confederation he had helped to launch flourished,
Mariátegui‘s health floundered. He planned to move to Argentina in search of a better
climate, both for his health and his political work, when he died on April 16, 1930, at the age
of thirty-six. After his death, the movement that Mariátegui had founded lost its vitality and
its revolutionary potential.
IDEOLOGY
Mariátegui had the audacious attitude of a young reporter; using a wide diversity of life
experiences and intellectual sources, he looked for the story wherever it could be found.
Although he was a convinced international Marxist, his Peruvian and Latin American identity
inclined his thinking in original ways. He was one of the first to develop revolutionary
socialist thought from within the Latin American reality—―pensar en América Latina,‖ to
think in Latin America— which Chilean philosopher Helio Gallardo suggested that committed