No conciliation with imperialism or those behind the coup!

No to the farcical elections set up to legitimize Micheletti and his regime!

For an independent working class and popular strategy to bring down Micheletti and those behind the coup!

After two months of resistance against the coup-mongers led by Roberto Micheletti and encouraged by US imperialism and the OAS itself (which served to legitimize them), the struggle of the Honduran people has reached a decisive point. In these two months the working class and popular mass movement of Honduras has resisted the violent repression and persecution which the government submits it to. It is encouraging how the workers and a sector of the Honduran mass movement keep confronting the new regime resulting from the coup, at a time when this resime tries to legitimize itself with presidential elections at the end of November. Until now, the OAS and the US government would refused to recognize the future government emerging from these elections; this is what Micheletti is trying to revert.

The dictatorial regime, weakened and internationally isolated, is trying to give itself a democratic image: through selective repression of the vanguard alongside preparations of elections to legitimize itself. But it finds itself weakened and worn out, both in political and, especially, economic terms. Not only has it had to face various closures of borders and customs of vital importance for its international commerce, but various governments on an international scale have refused to recognize it, which has led to a sort of marginalization and isolation, despite the attempts by the coup-mongers to present themselves as the organizers of a “constitutional transition” and the fact that imperialism keeps propping it up.

Politically, the regime is trying to paint a picture of democratic normality which would support their call for elections. And, although denunciations of human rights violations continue, the army has not repeated its repression of mass mobilizations since Toncontín, but rather, behind a mask of “normality”, is selectively repressing the vanguard sectors, made up leaders of the mass movement and, especially, the resistance to the coup.
Apart from the air of confusion which exists at a national level, characterized by rumours between Zelaya and those who support the coup, who sometimes create the image of an irredeemable polarization, it is true that the mediations of Óscar Arias and the San José agreements have begun to consolidate themselves as a possible bourgeois solution to the crisis, and with this aim Arias has called the presidential candidates to a meeting in Costa Rica. On Friday 11th September, in the face of rumours going round that Zelaya was in the military base in Palmerola, the exiled leader hurried to say that this information was false, stating “I will return in the next few days, very soon”, so that Honduras could “return to peace and normality (…)” And he ended by stating that he would very soon sign the San José pact, so that “in the moment when the process is totally confirmed (…), we ourselves can seal our commitment to carry it out in the city of Tegucigalpa”. And Micheletti on his part, while he carries out his pantomime of “democracy” and “disputes” with the US, has come out to reaffirm that the San José declaration (which he agrees with) is a sign that Costa Rica wants to help and resolve the political situation of Honduras.
The truth is that, independent of the insults and rhetoric of one or other side, Zelaya has garuanteed as a condition of his return the continuity of the permanent meetings which he has been holding with the US Department of State. A hypothetic return of Manuel Zelaya, in the context of the San José Agreement, would serve to legitimize the elections, garuantee the impunity of those behind the coup and the effective control of the state apparatus by those who have always dominated it, with Zelaya’s hands tied so that he could even attempt to call a Constituent Assembly (because the Declaration of San José explicitly prohibits this). However this is only one possible scenario. The other is that the dictatorial regime tries to keep the same course, with the support of a sector of the North American right, trying to realize the aim of holding these elections and bringing in the next government. Neither can we dismiss the possibility that, if this scenario becomes reality, we see spontaneous acts of resistance motivated by the insult of the elections (as happened in Choluteca) or against the possibility that the coup-mongers may get away witht heir crimes. If there are acts of resistance, there could also open up a more dynamic scenario characterized by greater repression and polarization.

Faced with the different possibilities, it’s necessary to articulate a working class and independent strategy to help the struggle of the Honduran working people and its vanguard (“the resistance”) take an orientation in favor of bringing down the dictatorial regime and expelling US imperialism.
No to participation in the dictatorship’s electoral circus: for an active boycott of the elections.

The Micheletti regime, which used the strategy of mediation via US imperialism (implemented through the mediation of Óscar Arias and the San José Agreement) to win time and consolidate itself, is now impulsing a costly election campaign which has as its main objectives the legitimization of the military coup and the regime which ahs emerged from this, as well as letting the mass movement have a space to let out some steam and avoid these taking a radicalized path which could bring down the dictatorship.

While the imperialist news channels like CNN transmit to the world the image of a Honduras which is holding electoral preparations which “could put an end to the crisis”, in the principle Honduran cities the protests continue, as do some clashes with the police and the armed forces (in Choluteca for example), while the most important trade union confederations in the country continue calling national strikes. In addition, during these months of struggle, sectors of the working class, peasantry and the mass movement have taken up other demands alongside the struggle against the coup. The peasants in the north of the country, who today suffer greater repression, began to occupy lands and carry out tough struggles against the landowners, while the workers of the city now not only march for the return of Zelaya, but have also found themselves forced to mobilize to defend their most basic democratic rights attacked by the de facto regime: freedoms of assembly, expression, association and even circulation. The health workers have occupied various hospitals in Tegucigalpa, raising many demands specific to their own sectos (like the threat of swine flu) alongside the direct struggle against the new order imposed by Micheletti. And the workers of the state energy company (ENEE), in the context of their struggle against the arbitrary appointment of functionaries (linked to the de facto government) who will receive exorbitant salaries, have undertaken a struggle which has reached the point of occupying the central offices of the company and forcing these appointments to be cancelled. There is also the case of the teachers, which has been one of the most dynamic sectors since the first days of the coup, and without doubt their determination to keep fighting gives dynamic to the struggle of the Resistance and inside the Front, with them recently announcing a national strike for the September 7th and 8th, showing that despite the repression and the adverse conditions, it is possible to keep fighting against the coup.

The increasing trade union demands and struggles for land, and in particular the appearance of more radicalized methods like those mentioned before, can be directed, if they are generalized and unified, towards a revolutionary overthrow of the regime. But it is necessary to extend the struggle against the coup to all the popular and working class sectors and to transform them into actions which can decisively hit the capitalists profit and the regime. It’s necessary to put into action local committees of resistance to organize and coordinate the political dynamic and actions of the resistance, and for the National Front Against the Coup to work on the basis of elected delegates recallable by the rank and file whenever necessary, in order to strenghten the struggle. In the face of the possibility of the regime which supported the coup consolidating itself, encouraged by a fraudulent electoral process, the broadest unity of action against this con is necessary; this means beginning by refusing to recognize or participate in the national elections of November 29th and above all boycotting them, in the context of putting the working class and its methods at the centre of the struggle. Only with a powerful general strike and the entering into the scene of the state and private workers, the agricultural working class with the support of the poor peasantry and the popular sectors of the cities, will it be possible to accelerate the isolation of Micheletti with regards to the society as a whole; but above all, this will hit the profits of national and imperialist capitalists and bring down the regime.
Down With the Coup: For a Revolutionary Constituent Assembly
The organizations who make Fraccion Trotskista Cuarta Internacional fight alongside the Honduran people for the defeat of the Micheletti government and we accompany their struggle for the of Zelaya with no negotiation or conditions. But we alert that Zelaya and the ALBA bloc, led by Chávez, subordinate themselves to the politics of the OAS and therefore to imperialism, by negotiating with those behind the coup and accepting the conditions imposed by the San José Agreement (despite Chavez’ rhetoric about having alerted Zelaya of this con), among them the formation of a government of national unity with the coup-mongers, amnesty for those who carried out the coup, murdered and tortured, as well as the renunciation of the call for a Constituent Assembly. With the acceptance of the Agreements and the possible support of imerialism, Zelaya puts himself forward to avoid the decline of the regime generating an important struggle by the masses against those behind the coup and the whole of the Honduran bourgeois establishment, beginning with a generalized boycott of the elections next November. Int his way, his return would allow to remain intact the reactionary regime of the 1982 constitution and the institutions used to carry out the coup, fo which Zelaya himself forms a part. For these reasons, today more than ever we believe that the solution is to take advantage of the strategic weakness of the regime fighting for an independent working class solution based on the strength of the workers and the city, the poor peasantry, the youth, the women who have been confronting the repression, and all the popular sectors of society. The experience of these two and a half months of struggle indicates that neither diplomacy behind closed doors, nor high level negotiations, will serve for a victory of the Honduran workers against the coup.
Zelaya’s staregy of placing trust in imperialism and maintaining a pacific resistance to “pressure” the dictatorship into accepting negotiation, warning against “provoking repression”, will only encourage the right, leaving the working masses immobilized against the aggression of the armed forces, the police, torture and detentions and the bands of thugs, under the leadership of none other than Billy Joya, the chief of the death squads of the last dictatorship during the sinister 1980’s, and with the logistic support of the US base of Palmerolas.

The policy of the de facto government of selective repression, attacks against the anti-coup means of communication, murders (which according to the human rights organizations now number various multiples of ten), the raping of women at the hands of soldiers and the police, the torture and the arrests, and the recent bomb attack against Canal 36 (Cholusat Sur), call for an urgent form of organization in the self-defence of the working class and the people, with a view to organizing workers, peasants and popular militias which can not only guarantee the defence of the masses in struggle but divide the rank and file of the army, winning voer the soldiers and the troops, who today are under the command of the coup-mongering officials.

The only realistic perspective is to deepen the mobilization, generalize the resistance and organize a true indefinite general strike until the defeat of the coup. Until now, the thousands of workers of the maquilas are hostages of the bosses and the dictatorship. Micheletti and the big businessmen linked to the export of textiles to the US, have exploited their dominant and hegemonic position within the private companies to terrorize the workers and mobilize them in favor of the coup, under the threat of being fired, taking advantage of the fact that this is an unorganized sector of the working class. Since the coup, the Honduran capitalists have fired 6000 workers and closed 58 businesses. It is vital that the trade union confederations and the National Front Against the Coup have a position to win the support of the key legions of the national working class, especially in the case of the private sector workers who, as well as their key positions in the chain of production of the commidities necessary for life, are the overwhelming majority of the country’s workforce. For this reason it is necessary for the leadership of the resistance to raise a program clearly linking the struggle against the coup to the struggle against the Honduran bourgeoisie and imperialism.

The bosses parties and the institutions of the regime, Congress, the Supreme Court, the Armed Forces and the Catholic Church and evangelical churches, as well as the bosses, are committed to the coup and the 1982 constitution written under imperialist tutelage at the end of the last dictatorship. It is necessary to demolish this pro-imperialist bosses regime, and for a provisional government of the workers and peasants organizations against the coup to call a Revolutionary Constituent Assembly to put in discussion the organization of the country; to resolve the demands of the landless peasants through a profound agrarian revolution to liquidate the semifeudal, servile remains which dominate in the countryside, and to open up the perspective of breaking with the imperialist oppression which Honduran people suffer form historically. The occupations of land in the north of the country, combined with the resistance of the workers in the city, reflect clearly that only through the closest alliance between the workers of countryside and city alongside the poor peasants, will it be possible to break with the backwardness, the oppression and the squalor of the country. This means a huge step forward in the experience of the workers of country and city, the poor peasantry, and the popular sectors, towards the struggle for a government of the workers and the peasants based on mass organs of self-determination.
For the mobilization in all of Latin America against the coup in Honduras
Only the independent and radical actions of the workers and the Honduran masses, alongside ethe broadest mobilization in Latin America, can achieve a revolutionary downfall of the coup-mongering regime. It is necessary to redouble our efforst and organize the solidarity of the peoples of the continent for the struggle against the coup. Chávez, Evo Morales, Ortega and other ALBA leaders have only made declarations, but far from calling for a generalized and active mobilization in all the continet, they have allowed, in the act and despite the rhetoric, for imperialism to take forward its politics of negotiation, encouraging in this way illusions in the Obama government, the same one which has just installed six new military bases in Colombia.

If Micheletti and the right manage to legitimize and consolidate themselves definitively in Honduras, a new correlation of forces may arise in Latin America, more favourable to US imperialism and its offensive against the peoples of the subcontinent. But a victory for the workers, peasants and the poor masses of Honduras, would be an example to put the brakes on imperialism and the semicolonial bourgeoisies of the region.
From Fracción Trotskista Cuarta Internacional we put all our strength at the disposition of the struggle against the coup in Honduras and for the victory of the resistance. We call to take up the broadest possible mobilization on an international scale and to take forward the movement of internationalist solidarity until the regime behind the coup falls.