Peru's APRA: A Case Study
ALEXANDER, RORERT J.
Peru's APRA: A Case Study The Ideology and Program of the Peruvian Aprista Movement. By Harry Kantor. Univ. of California. 163 pp. $2.00. Reviewed by Robert J. Alexander Professor of Economics,...
...Haya in particular was insistent upon this, pointing out that the Nazi appeal was a racial one which sought to put the ethnically heterogeneous Latin Americans in the position of slaves...
...They feel that, united, the Latin Americans will be able to deal on more nearly equal terms with the United States and other foreign nations...
...The oldest of these movements is the Peruvian APRA, organized in the mid-1920s by a brilliant group of men which included many of the country's leading intellectuals...
...In this volume, Harry Kantor makes the first serious attempt to present a rounded picture of the aprista ideology and program...
...Hence, Dr...
...However, the apristas regard Latin American unity as a useful political and economic weapon as well as a natural phenomenon...
...authority on Latin American subjects In recent years, several new political movements have appeared in Latin America in an attempt to evolve political formulas and forms of organization adapted to conditions in that region...
...All these points are dealt with at length by Dr...
...Nor can incitation to revolt...
...The apristas are firmly convinced that Peru's great economic problem is the creation of new sources of wealth...
...Since the great majority of Peruvians are held in semi-feudal subjection to a few great landowners, a fundamental part of the aprista program has been integration of the Indian masses into the life of the nation and redistribution of the land...
...The aprista movement is one of a number of Latin American political groups which have sought to work out what is essentially a democratic socialist program to fit local conditions...
...By tracing the evolution of aprista ideas from the 1920s down to very recent years, the author explodes several myths assiduously propagated by the apristas' enemies...
...They have therefore sought to evolve a program, as Dr...
...It advocates free elections, freedom of organization, and freedom of speech...
...Kantor, who has written one of the most interesting and important recent contributions to the study of Latin American affairs...
...After thoroughly searching party records, he reports: "Language to justify violence in politics cannot be found in the aprista writings...
...In spite of nearly three decades of persecution, the APRA is still Peru's chief party and continues to plague the aristocratic ruling class, which is desperately clinging to its power with the aid of a vainglorious and self-seeking military caste...
...He goes on: "The aprista advocacy of democracy is a facet of its program which merits approval...
...The author shows the apristas' adherence to the cause of democracy in international affairs...
...Kantor points out, which would permit the importation of foreign capital without foreign domination...
...Kantor also devotes a good deal of attention to the APRA's position on political democracy...
...Unfortunately, they have received little notice from political scientists...
...The apristas have also been staunch advocates of Latin American unity, holding that the nations usually referred to as Latin America are in fact "Indo-America" and the inheritors of a common background...
...The aprista program is clear upon this issue...
...This reviewer would dispute the validity of this concept, which Dr...
...This he bulwarks with a recitation of the apristas' and Communists' attacks upon one another over the last quarter of a century...
...In this period of world history when totalitarian ideologies have arisen and won millions of supporters, the aprista insistence upon democracy will be endorsed by the friends of democracy, whereas democracy's enemies will look upon aprismo as an enemy...
...Kantor cites the APRA's support of the AFL-backed Inter-American Confederation of Workers CCIT) in 1948 as an indication of its position in the present world conflict between Communism and democracy...
...Thus, by showing how the apristas, despite their Marxist roots, have diverged from Marxism, he demonstrates the absurdity of the claim that they are "Communists...
...Kantor is rendering a valuable service...
...They have also been almost the only ones to proclaim the necessity of cooperative planning of Latin American industrialization in order to avoid wasteful duplication of effort...
...Kantor is too inclined to accept...
...The diversity of the various Latin American peoples is at least as striking as the things they have in common...
...The apristas have faith that their ideas would win out if given the opportunity to be presented...
...He traces their change in attitude toward the United States after the launching of the Good Neighbor Policy and the rise of Fascism in Europe, and cites the appeals of aprista leaders, including Haya de la Torre and Manuel Seoane, for Latin American support of the democracies in the fight against Hitler...
...The apristas themselves have never summed up their ideas in one place, nor has any outside observer...
...Reviewed by Robert J. Alexander Professor of Economics, Rutgers University...
...He notes that the apristas backed the Confederation, which was violently attacked by both the Communists and the Peruvian Government, "because its trade-union policy was similar to their own and because inter-American cooperation fitted in with aprista ideas...
Vol. 37 • January 1954 • No. 3
