The Present Stage of the Colombian Revolution

Abstract

In this essay, José F. Ocampo of the Umversidad Nacional in Bogotá offers a historical and political framework for the articles which follow. Ocampo employs the theory of "new democracy" (sometimes referred to as Marxism-Leninism, or simply Maoism ) to analyze the current situation in Colombia. He presents the analysis of classes in Colombia; the strategy and tactics of the dominant classes; the spontaneous struggles of the oppressed classes; and the rise of a nonrevisionist vanguard party of the proletariat.Colombia is a neocolonial and semi-feudal country. Its neocolonial character is the result of imperialist domination by the United States; its semi-feudal character is the result of the degree to which agricultural backwardness has affected Colombia's economic development. The United States has maintained its domination over Colombia throughout the whole of the twentieth century. Initially the United States instigated the separation of Panama; during the 1920s it exported huge amounts of capital into the countrythe so-called &dquo;dance of the millions&dquo; -and began to plunder the natural resources of the nation: platinum, gold, silver, oil, and bananas. Finally, in the last twenty years the United States has achieved a degree of control over the Colombian national economy through the various tentacles of finance capital.Capitalism in Colombia received a definite impulse from imperialism at the beginning of the century, and since then imperialism has dominated the industrial development of the country. The underdevelopment of the country can be seen in the low degree of capitalist development, and the low level of the development of the productive forces. This latter is the consequence of the persistence of the old landholding system in agriculture, and the feudal and semi-feudal forms of production, which together act as a powerful obstacle to the free development of the country. Imperialist domination and the type of national economy which this domination generatespredominance of finance capital and of state capitalismhelp maintain the relative backwardness of Colombia, despite the serious transformations that have taken place in this century.