Original article: Reafirmo mi deber militante con el socialismo, la Revolución Cubana y la línea política del PCCh
By Hugo Gutiérrez Gálvez
On January 23, 2025, the Communist Party of Chile publicly released the Report of Resolutions from its XXVII National Congress, passed in a plenary session after nearly a year of debates among party members across the nation to define our policy for the next four years.
Today, I reaffirm my militant duty: to communicate the political line of the Communist Party and to apply it in concrete reality.
The defense of the resolutions from the XXVII Congress is a defense of collective debate and democratic centralism. Engaging in communist politics, upholding party positions, and sharing our history and identity is not merely the responsibility of a party spokesperson or a specific committee; it is a militant duty that all of us accept when we choose to join the ranks of the Communist Party.
In the face of any distortion of our political line, it is legitimate for any militant to express their discomfort or concern. Our policy is not random; it was defined through collective debate, democratically approved and ratified.
Moreover, our resolutions are clear-cut, with no vague or ambiguous definitions, as we all understand what it means to be a militant of the Communist Party of Chile.
Thus, attempts to suggest a lack of clarity or ambiguities in our definitions seek not to enrich our debate but to undermine the legitimacy of our current leaders through questioning and cancellation, a practice that is utterly unacceptable.
A clear example of this political clarity, often targeted by attacks, is our internationalist stance. There is nothing ambiguous when we state that «in international matters, we reaffirm that we are an anti-imperialist, internationalist party, and we stand in solidarity with peoples fighting for their self-determination (…) Proletarian internationalism, as a principle, is one of the ideological pillars of the party.»
Furthermore, «our anti-imperialist principles and internationalist vocation must decisively contribute to confronting the attacks made against countries pushing for transformative projects, such as Cuba.»
«The situation in Cuba, subjected to a blockade for over 60 years and included on the list of countries promoting terrorism, has severely damaged its economy and quality of life, pushing the island into extreme deprivation. The situation is critical and must spur us to take bolder actions. We must find ways to strengthen solidarity with Cuba, providing more support during this difficult time» (Resolutions from the XXVII Congress of the Communist Party of Chile, January 2025).
I reaffirm that for those who disagree with the Cuban Revolution, its justness, and its anti-imperialist objectives, the Communist Party of Chile is not the appropriate political space. This does not mean they should be excluded from politics, but rather that this is not and will not be the place from which they should conduct it. This is not just my assertion; these are political definitions made by our collective at its highest instance. Our political line is not built on beliefs but on collective debate.
The forum for discussion and debate on definitions like our anti-imperialist principle and our commitment to Cuba was the national party congress where these principles were reaffirmed, and each militant assumed the responsibility to act in accordance with this definition. Furthermore, it is our duty to defend our political line. It is our militant duty.
When the call for «necessary updates» disguises what is essentially a relinquishing of our anti-imperialist principles, it betrays internal democracy. Public figures of the Party are not free interpreters of our policy but its executors. To contravene the definitions regarding our solidarity with transformative projects like Cuba undermines democratic centralism.
There is no personal opinion for those who speak from the visibility that the Party has granted them; there is only the duty to defend what the collective of communists in Chile established in the sovereign debate of the XXVII Congress.
This is not about nostalgia or an outdated policy. It is, at its core, about organic coherence. The Communist Party of Chile is not a federation of individualities with separate opinions, but a living body that analyzes, debates, and ultimately decides collectively. Our true strength lies in the cohesion of our theory and practice.
The analysis of our national and international reality compels us to be responsible for the principles we have ratified. If the anti-imperialist identity and proletarian internationalism feel burdensome or ambiguous to some today, it is imperative to remember that our militancy is not compulsory, but our discipline is. The freedom to join our ranks carries the ethical commitment to respect the sovereign will of the bases.
This internationalism, reaffirmed in our last Congress, was embodied with unmatched strength by our comrade Gladys Marín.
Gladys could not conceive politics without concrete solidarity. For her, defending the Cuban Revolution was an unrenounceable ethical imperative for communists. Gladys stood at the forefront of defending the island when the empire intensified its attacks, understanding that the fate of Cuba is the fate of all peoples striving to shape their destiny.
Those who today attempt to manage our identity with a calculator should remember that the Party of Gladys Marín never bowed to the pressure of those who, from privilege, demand that we abandon our brothers to be accepted in circles of power that only tolerate us if we renounce our principles.
It is imperative to ask ourselves today: What is Allende-ism, which so many profess so lightly, but the unwavering defense of anti-imperialism and popular sovereignty? Many seem to forget, with a suspiciously convenient amnesia, that it was Salvador Allende who invited Fidel Castro to Chile during that historic visit in 1971, sealing a revolutionary brotherhood that transcended borders.
Let us refresh our historical memory: while the Communist Party unwaveringly supported the project of the Popular Unity and the Chilean road to socialism until the very last breath, it was precisely those sectors, who today lecture us on democratic reason, that once turned their backs on President Allende.
In 1967, inspired by the mystique of the Cuban Revolution and Guevarism, they opted for the armed and insurrectional path, qualifying the institutional route of the Communist Party and Salvador Allende as insufficient and reformist.
It is, at the very least, paradoxical that sectors that initially (when arrogantly questioning our Party for being part of the New Majority) enthusiastically greeted the Cuban Revolution and donned Allende’s shoes to win popular favor; those same individuals who only a couple of years ago vehemently denounced the blockade and criminal embargo against the island, now, comfortably positioned in state management, seek to give us lessons in democracy by labeling Cuba as a «dictatorship.»
They used the banners of Latin American dignity to gain power and now lower them to reconcile with the imperialist choir. That is not the principled politics Chile needs; it is merely the servility of those who confuse pragmatism with surrender.
In the midst of the current assault by the United States against Latin America, with the intensification of sanctions against Cuba that we have witnessed in these early months of 2026, and the direct threat of military aggression, the criticisms directed at the island are not political errors: they are inhumane, cruel, and servile to the same imperial interests that these actors once denounced.
While in Cuba, the people cannot maintain electricity during the day due to Washington’s criminal pressures on oil providers, leaving them in energy vulnerability; while the island faces a real and harsh humanitarian crisis caused by external siege, it is incomprehensible that the priority of certain sectors of Chile’s «progressivism» is to align with the American empire.
They tire themselves denouncing a supposed dictatorship and labeling communists as undemocratic while maintaining a complicit silence in the face of the genocidal attempt against the Cuban people. They have abandoned Latin American politics and Allende’s legacy; they have decided that it is more comfortable to be servile to the current U.S. administration than to uphold anti-imperialism.
Unity is Built on Difference
In the current scenario, unity has been mistakenly sought on the basis of uniformity or silence.
It is imperative to remember that political unity is only genuine when built on the foundation of difference and mutual respect. Today, there are external voices, and even some internal ones, inviting us to a so-called ‘sensible’ approach, suggesting that ‘these are not the times’ to advocate for our solidarity with Cuba or to deepen our anti-imperialist vocation.
These suggestions are, in reality, an invitation to self-censorship; an attempt to inhibit us from pursuing our political line under the pretext of communicational pragmatism or the stability of alliances.
However, we communists are and do what we have defined as a collective. Unity cannot be achieved by conceding our principles or blending with foreign visions. Real unity can only be achieved through the convergence of distinct forces towards a common goal. The invitation to a supposed sensibility is nothing more than a pressure to blur our identity as a tool for transformation.
Reaffirming our militant duty is, ultimately, an act of intellectual and political resistance to ensure that the Communist Party continues to belong to its bases and its history, not to the concessions of the moment.
By Hugo Gutiérrez Gálvez
