One of the aspects which shows the hunger and pauperization of the masses of people is the increase of the common pots, or potluck, in the marginal areas of our capital, in which the women play the most prominent role. In the face of the massive increase in the cost of living, the mothers of the most impoverished sectors of the population have seen the need to group themselves together to form a "common pot." This method of feeding the population, in which the burden of unemployment and oppression falls upon the shoulders of the women, is used and directed by the reactionary policy of asistencialismo (hand outs.)Send E-Mail toThe New FlagMagazineHowever, the mothers who get organized through the need to alleviate their children's hunger, slowly come to understand that their toil is all for the mere momentary achievement of obtaining a few crumbs, which in the end (if they get the crumbs at all) are so shameful that they denigrate the people physically and morally. It is appropriate for them, therefore, to struggle for total liberation from the oppressor's yoke.
The obsolescence of the system, as expressed by the general crisis of the old Peruvian state, leads the regime to try to develop the three tasks it has to accomplish to maintain itself in power. These tasks are the following: to reinvigorate bureaucratic capitalism, to restructure the old state, and to annihilate the People's War. All the political and economic measures of the regime have those goals.
THE COMMON POTLUCK As part of this, the common pots in the neighborhoods and young towns express the impossibility of maintaining a sufficient diet family-by-family. Thus, the towns and neighborhoods in Lima, such as of Huaycan, San Pedro de El Agustino, Comas, Canto Grande and other oppressed areas, are the scenes of a common potluck where the mothers get together by blocks and neighborhoods (Unidad Comunal de Vivienda). Here are the testimonies of some women:
Approaching UCV 73 in Zone E of Huaycan, for example, we can observe the menu of the day for that area. A few clams were the main ingredient of the soup, a mother said: "because these give flavor, and one doesn't need so many green vegetables." The main meal was a dish of boiled pumpkin and potatoes, "we prepared this to vary that plate of beans a little bit and we cook rice daily, if we're lucky enough to get it."
"Some other days," the four women cooking there tell us, "we buy a few chicken bones, and if we have enough money, some potatoes and other miscellaneous things, to make broth. The money is not enough to do anything else."
In the district of Comas, the menu of the day consisted of only one dish, the woman in charge said, "because we can't cook another one; it costs too much." The meals' cost varies between $0.50 and $1.00 for each portion and nothing is left by 1:00 P.M. Even so, there are mothers, children, youth and elderly who cannot afford to buy them every day. You can see small, barefooted children looking at those who eat, like dogs waiting to get the bones to chew. That is the real face of the "modernization" and "globalization" that the reactionaries preach.
To maintain the current state of affairs, the reactionaries, at the same time that they increase their hunger-producing plans, implement assistance programs with the object of dampening the explosiveness of the masses, which comes from the misery they suffer. The Social Emergency Plan (PES), the Glass of Milk program, the people's dining rooms, the school dining rooms, among others, is an expression of this.
HUNGER TRAFFICKERS INCREASE ASISTENCIALISMO PLANS Attempting to make beggars out of the people, the exploiters are creating all sorts of organizations of "social compensation," which sap the morale of the masses by giving them alms, handouts, and bibles which are said to "mitigate the hunger of the poor." It is not for "humanitarian reasons" that North American Imperialism is the principal "donor" through organisms (e.g., NGOs) created for that purpose. Thus, the mothers wait for the arrival of "charity" flour which the Clinton and other imperialist regimes may have sent, which the Church, the army or the bourgeois political parties are in charge of handing out. In that way, the reactionaries want to return one drop of the massive amount of blood they sucked and wrested away from the people, or to sugar-coat the piece of bread stolen from them in the first place. Every regime in place speaks demagogically about the "war on poverty," and this is something they will never do anything about.
President Gonzalo teaches that, "Misery exists and is linked to fabulous wealth even the Utopians knew that both are linked. Colossal and challenging wealth exists next to a revealing and clamorous poverty. This is because exploitation exists." Who can deny this truth? He specifies the necessity of the scientific response to poverty. He stresses that those most disposed to rebel, who clamor most to organize the rebellion are the poorest masses, and we must pay particular attention to the revolutionary and scientific organization of the masses. This is not against class criteria, because poverty has its origin in exploitation, in the class struggle.
He says: "This thesis is tied to Marx who discovered the revolutionary potential of poverty and the need to scientifically organize it for revolution. Marx taught us that the proletariat does not have property and is the creative class, the only class that will destroy property and will thus destroy itself as a class. This thesis is tied to Lenin, who taught us that social revolution does not arise from programmes, but from the fact that millions people say that they prefer to die fighting for revolution, rather than live as victims of hunger. This thesis is tied to Chairman Mao, who conceived that poverty will propel the yearning for change, for action, for revolution, and that it is a blank piece of paper on which the newest and most beautiful words can be written."
Finally, President Gonzalo masterfully summarizes the role of the poor in any revolutionary struggle in the world by stating the following:
"Poverty is a driving force of the revolution. The poorest are the most revolutionary. Poverty is the most beautiful song; ...poverty is not a disgrace, but an honor. Our mountains with their masses of people are the source of our revolution, who, with their hands led by the Communist Party will build a new world. Our guide is ideology. Our motor is the armed struggle. Our leadership is the Communist Party."
The common pot luck is an expression of the ever more impoverished proletariat and the people's subjugation to the exploiters, who have turned these programs to induce their "pacifying" asistencialismo in the people. The exploiters insist on this because they fearfully see how the people get more organized each day, not only to solve their more immediate needs, but to defend their class interests, which leads them to join the People's War, led by the PCP. That is the main danger to the oppressors who aim all their plans toward the end of that threat.
THE PEOPLE'S ROAD IS THE PEOPLE'S WAR However, far from fulfilling these reactionary dreams, women of the common pot luck and the people have understood their role in history. They are participating in large numbers in the greatest challenge that our country has ever seen, which is the Glorious People's War!