PC of Uruguay says Frente Amplio can win, but must govern with the people

In an interview with Red Portal, Juan Castillo, general secretary of the Communist Party of Uruguay, says that the three years of the right wing governing the country have brought more concentration of power. “The ruling classes, who never lost ownership of the means of production, land, financial capital and the means of communication, have now added the administration of the State, which we had managed to wrest from them,” he states.

For Juan Castillo, the main consequences of the right-wing government’s policies are the increase in inequality, the surrender of sovereignty and a worrying democratic deterioration.

According to him, this right-wing government is the one that has had the most cases of corruption in history and used the State to try to hide these cases. He also denounces a huge fiscal adjustment that transferred billions of dollars from workers to big business

Juan Castillo is a former senator, currently a substitute in the Senate and member of the Board of Directors of the Frente Amplio. Assessing the electoral process taking place this year in the neighboring country, he says that the Frente Amplio’s chances of victory are real, “but we know the concentrated power they have and that they will use it without hesitation. Therefore, nothing has been won, it is necessary to fight in these months so that our people embrace the FA program and fight for it”.

Read the full interview given during the Red Festival, held in Salvador.

Uruguay has lived under a right-wing government in recent years. What were the main setbacks at that time?

In 2019, after three national Broad Front governments, the five right-wing and center-right parties came together and voted together for the first time in history, without having a government program and with the main reason being to displace the left of the government.

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The Frente Amplio remained the main political force in the country and maintained the government of three key departments, equivalent to state governments in Brazil. The Broad Front carried out a process of self-criticism, where we assumed the mistakes made that led to the defeat, including not prioritizing grassroots militancy, distancing ourselves from our social bases and neglecting the cultural battle. We immediately realized that the most acute consequences of the right-wing victory would be felt by the vast majority of working people and the most humble sectors.

With the victory of the right, there was a greater concentration of power, the dominant classes, who never lost ownership of the means of production, land, financial capital and the media, now added the administration of the State, which we had managed to wrest from them.

The main consequences of the right-wing government’s policies are the increase in inequality, the surrender of sovereignty and a worrying democratic deterioration. The Uruguayan economy grew, but poverty also grew, especially child poverty, and wages and pensions fell for four years. Bank deposits abroad and in our country have increased and there are more children who are food insecure. The right-wing government handed over the port of Montevideo, the country’s main port, to a multinational for 60 years.

This right-wing government is the one that has had the most cases of corruption in history and used the State to try to hide these cases. A huge fiscal adjustment was implemented and billions of dollars were transferred from workers to big business. Basically, it is a question of class, of the country’s project. And if it wasn’t worse, it’s because they weren’t able to implement all their adjustments, they were prevented by the struggle of workers and popular organizations and also by the parliamentary and mobilization action of the Frente Amplio.

The Broad Front will hold its primary elections, what is the PCU’s main proposal for these primaries?

It’s true, the time for political synthesis has arrived, four years of setbacks in rights and equality, four years of struggles and mobilizations need to be transformed into an advance in the people’s consciousness. But this is not automatic, there will be changes in political signs in the government, if we are convinced of the objective and if we work daily to achieve it.

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Under Uruguayan legislation, in June, presidential primaries are held in all political parties simultaneously. The FA has four pre-candidacies and a single and common government program, which commits us all.

The PCU, with its historic list of 1001, supports the pre-candidacy of comrade Carolina Cosse, former president of ANTEL, the state telecommunications company, former Minister of Industry and current Intendant of Montevideo, the country’s capital. We are fighting very hard to achieve, firstly, a large vote for the Frente Amplio in the internal elections in June, for Carolina Cosse’s pre-candidacy to triumph and, as a contribution to both objectives, a large vote for 1001, our list .

The June primaries are important, there is no doubt, but the most important thing is the presidential and legislative elections in October this year, where the two country projects confront each other and the central objective of this stage for us is to recover the government for the people. with the Broad Front, with a greater weight of workers, of what we characterize as the political and social bloc of changes, to promote democratic advances, towards an advanced democracy.

How was the construction of the Frente Amplio program and what, in your opinion, are the chances of victory?

The peculiar way of building the Frente Amplio government programs marks the difference with the local right. While they hold a summit meeting, with technical advisors, deciding on ways to divide management and profits, the left calls and organizes all activists, leaders and technicians to prepare the Programmatic Bases throughout 2023.

In this part of the process, hundreds of companions participated. After being elaborated and organized, they were discussed for months in all the Base Committees, which are base organizations where the Frente Amplistas fight in a unitary way; There, hundreds of contributions and modification proposals were collected, among the activists themselves.

Finally, Congress was convened, which definitively approved the Program. It is a deeply democratic process focused on our people. The FA program is not a set of electoral promises, nor is it even a commitment to goals for those who hold government responsibilities; It is a challenge to fight together with our people.

The materialization of the Program will depend on the electoral victory, of course, but also on the size of the organized people that we can mobilize behind each proposal and idea. The possibilities of victory are real, today all polls indicate that the FA is in first place in terms of voting intentions and with a big difference over the National Party, the main right-wing party, and even surpassing all the parties in the right-wing coalition together. But we know the concentrated power they have and that they will use it without hesitation. Therefore, nothing has been won, we must fight in these months so that our people embrace the FA program and fight for it.

In Brazil, Argentina and other countries in Latin America and the world, the extreme right has acquired a mass character. How does this phenomenon manifest itself in Uruguay?

Today we live in a convulsed world, the main feature of this period, according to our modest point of view, is the structural and organic crisis of capitalism, which does not offer answers to any of humanity’s problems.

The development of capitalism puts life and the very existence of our planet at risk, with an ecological crisis of enormous impact. At the same time, it generates levels of inequality that the UN Secretary-General recently described as obscene. The gap between the richest and most powerful and the humblest and poorest sectors is grotesque, humiliating.

More than 20 wars have been developing since the end of the year until today, hundreds of thousands of human beings die as a result, but only two of them are talked about and the tendency is for those who promoted them to appear as the good ones, and those who are truly attacked are presented as villains.

Billionaires have seen their wealth double, while millions live on less than two dollars a day, but in the daily press of our countries, society condemns anyone who stole a chicken to eat. It’s the world in reverse, as Eduardo Galeano said. It is imperative to build the unity of democratic and popular forces, of the left, of revolutionaries and to build an alternative. If the right advances, it is a sign of our weakness, it speaks of our mistakes, political deficiencies, ideological regression, lack of self-criticism, lack of unity.

Our immediate task is to organize the people, devise strategies, coordinate efforts, work for broader unity, and not forget when we arrive, when the people give us an opportunity, that we need to govern not for them, but with them. Revolution is not easy, it never has been, but today it is more necessary than ever. It is fundamental, for everything that has been said before, to build a different society, with other values, more fair and supportive, socialist.