Overcome the Bend in the Road, Developing the People's War

From the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru, September 1995

Revolutionary Worker #908, May 25, 1997

The following is an excerpt from a major document from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru, written in September 1995. This important document gives a sense of the direction the Central Committee is giving to the Party, the revolutionary army and the masses in Peru for continuing the people's war. It is the most recent document from the Central Committee which is available to us. Thanks to the Information Bureau of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement for sending it to us. The translation to English is by the RW. We encourage our readers to get hold of the entire text of this important document--it is available as a pamphlet from the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru.

NOTES FOR SUMMATION OF THE GREAT FINAL PUSH

The People's War advances against all odds. In July [1995--RW] the first part of the Great Plan of Building the Seizure of Power was brought to a conclusion. "Defend the Headquarters, Oppose the Genocidal Dictatorship!" Laying the basis for unfolding the second part, which will be guided by the slogan: OVERCOME THE BEND IN THE ROAD, DEVELOPING THE PEOPLE'S WAR!

Once more the country was rocked by the blazing flames of people's war, from the Principal Region to the capital itself, the zone of operations of the Metropolitan Committee. In this way, in the Ayacucho Zone Committee, we defeated the sinister "encirclement and suppression" campaigns of the genocidal and sellout armed forces. We carried out operations throughout base number seven and base fourteen, agitating and mobilizing the masses. There were seizures of cars on the Ayacucho-San Francisco highway; mesnadas [paramilitary groups--RW] were wiped out in Ccano; in Yanamonte a tractor belonging to the old State was sabotaged; in base 33 (Ene River) enemy forces were wiped out and cattle were taken to feed the "Red Bastion" Revolutionary Base Area and the forces of the People's Liberation Army--and as a complement to this, there were ambushes, wiping out and harassing of enemy bases. Similarly, the Cangallo-Fajardo Zone Committee carried out a magnificent incursion in La Mar, Vilcashuaman, and Cangallo, right under the nose of the counterinsurgency bases, resulting in confiscation of more than 30 boxes of dynamite and a radio transmitter. Meanwhile, the Huancavelica Zone Committee carried out the stunning Supaymayo-Lachoc ambush, wiping out 9 police (including a major), and confiscating 9 HK rifles. In addition, magnificent ambushes were carried out in the Huallaga Regional Committee, wiping out more than 50 special forces (commandos), confiscating one MAG machine gun, an RPG rocket launcher and more than 30 FAL, M-16 and AKM rifles and a radio transmitter. And in Lima, the Metropolitan Committee and Socorro Popular placed powerful car bombs at the Maria Angola tourist hotel, and the home of the lackey congressman Joy Way. These are just a few of the most notable of all the actions carried out during the July offensives; there were also actions in the north, the south, and the center, such as the ambush at Pichanaki.

For all the above reasons we say that our plan has been successfully brought to a close. In this way we also have celebrated the 15th anniversary of the invincible People's War, smashing the dried-up cackling of the genocidal and sellout Hermoza Rios and Fujimori, who said repeatedly that "in July '95 Sendero Luminoso will be wiped out." Once more they have suffered a defeat, and they have had to swallow their own rotten vomit. The same with the revisionists and capitulationists of the right opportunist line, who made the dark prediction in '93 that the people's war could not be maintained because "the conditions don't exist."

It is important that we recognize and give a heartfelt salute to the extraordinary Heroism and Great Firmness on the part of the Base Areas in withstanding suffering and sacrifice. These masses are an example to all the Peruvian people and they deserve our great respect and admiration; together with the People's Liberation Army and the Communist Party of Peru, they struggle shoulder to shoulder to maintain the New Power, whatever the cost; developing a new economy, new politics, new culture.

Also we salute the heroic militants and combatants of the Communist Party of Peru and the People's Liberation Army, who by putting politics in command, being always guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought, have won victory after victory, overcoming all difficulties, always holding high the banners of the people's war, always fighting against imperialism, reaction and revisionism.

TAKE THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS INTO ACCOUNT

PEOPLE'S WAR: It must be developed, taking the Military Line as the basis, along with more than 15 years of victories and reversals, especially in the countryside; pay great attention to execution of campaigns (enemy campaigns are carried out in the framework of the so-called "low-intensity warfare" strategy; they are its main form. The complementary forms are population control, civil control and "intelligence" work, including psychological operations) and countercampaigns, the main form of the Civil War. We must carry out our offensives and counteroffensives within this context and not outside it; always taking into account the national political situation and the specific situation of each committee, without underestimating or overestimating the enemy (see "Problems of Strategy in the Guerrilla War against Japan," chaps. VII and IV). Applying the Grand Strategic Concept.

In terms of the cities, we uphold the criterion of one single people's war, but with the specific feature in this period of developing a gradual advance, seeking to fuse people's war with the class struggle of the proletariat and the broad masses of the neighborhoods and shantytowns; at all times applying the concept of two hills [the enemy and the people--RW] and laying the basis for insurrection.

PARTY BUILDING: While smashing revisionism, develop a General Reorganization of the Party.

In the countryside for some time now a corporativist militarization has been taking place, with the aim of shackling the peasant masses. Therefore only through armed conflict and political mobilization can we incorporate the peasantry into the people's war, eliminating step by step the control and pressures exercised over them by the repressive forces and the paramilitary groups. (Resettlement without repressive forces! Resettlement without paramilitary groups! Civil Defense is criminal defense!)

In the cities this government has set up an almost fascist police presence under the control of the armed forces; this must be exposed and defeated. Because of this we must pay a lot of attention to the relation between open and secret work, aiming at developing secret work. In all we do, we must be better than the reactionaries!

TWO-LINE STRUGGLE: Unfold two-line struggle against the revisionist and capitulationist right opportunist line (ROL).

Study these documents: The struggle against revisionism; Lenin and the Proletarian Revolution; and Khrushchev's Revisionism.


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