A Call by the Commitee of the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement to
Step Up Support for the Communist Party of Peru
and the People's War
For fourteen years the Communist Party of Peru, a participating party of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, has led broad masses to rise up in arms, defy the rule of the reactionary classes and their imperialist overlords, and wrest political power, bit by bit, for the proletariat and the Peruvian people as part of the whole world proletarian revolution. Those who yearn for an end to exploitation and oppression the world over have correctly seen this People's War as a beacon pointing the direction forward and as living proof of the truth, vitality and power of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, especially when wielded by a vanguard proletarian party and taken up by growing numbers of masses transforming it into a tremendous material force.
These great accomplishments of the revolutionary people of Peru, achievements wrenched from the enemy through fierce struggle andgreat sacrifice and blood of the communist fighters, workers and peasants of Peru, are under attack, not only from the savage efforts of the reactionary regime aided by international imperialism, but also from a line which emerged from within the PCP itself calling for the abandonment of the People's War.
We call upon the Marxist-Leninst-Maoist parties and organisations, class conscious proletarians and all revolutionary fighters to close ranks with the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement and urgently step up their activities in support of the People's War in Peru, to fight against the erroneous line, defend the revolution in Peru from all attacks and support the Central Committee of the PCP, which has been leading the People's War, and to even better fulfill our proletarian internationalist duties.
The great advances and the contributions of this people's War and of the PCP to the world revilution struck telling blows at the reactionary ruling class in Peru and its imperialist masters, in particular the Yankee imperialists.
The enemies reacted by intensifying their counterinsurgency against the People's War and their repression of the masses of Peru. They carried this out in genocidal dimensions-- in massacres, as well as "disappearances", fo masses in the countryside and the cities and mass murders of imprisoned revolutionary fighters. Still, the People's War continued to advance and by the early part of this decade the imperialists and reactionaries began to speak openly of the danger, for them, of this Maoist people's War actually winning complete victory and seizing nationawide power in Peru. Reacting according to their nature, the imperialists and the ruling classes in Peru, working through the Fujimori regime, carried out a coup representing a further concentration of reactionary state power in the hands of the executive and the armed forces. They stepped up the repression of the masses and their revolutionary leadership, as well as the exploitation of the workers and peasants in general. This took concentrated form in the attemptto decapitate the leadership of the PCP and the People's War. In September of 1992, this led to the capture of Chairman Gonzalo, the main leader of the PCP. A number of other important leaders of the PCP have also been captured and/or killed in the last several years. Chairman Gonzalo, in his historic and inspiring 24 September 1992 speech from the cage in which the Fujimori regime had presented him to the world media, declared that his capture was but a bend in the road in the revolutionary struggle and that the People's War must continue until final victory, in the intersts of the masses in Peru and in the service of the world proletarian revolution. He spoke to the importance of developing Marsixt-leninist-Maoist parties around the world, called particular attention to the role of RIM, and emphasized the prospect and the need for Maoism to be the commander and guide of a gathering wave of world revolution.
Despite this bend in the road, the People's War continued. Reaffirming the Party's basis of unity and reinforced by Chairman Gonzalo's speech, the Communist Party of Peru, led by its Central Committee, with firmness in principle and flexibility in tactics, beat back the enemies' efforts to crush the revolution, and developed the People's War under these new conditions, maintaining the Party, the People's Liberation Army and the core of the base areas. Internationally, RIM launched a worldwide campaign to Defend the Life of Chairman Gonzalo which mobilized tens of thousands of revolutionaries and progressives on all continents whose actions struck at the Fujimori regime and its U.S. masters and gave heart to the struggling people of Peru.
It was in this contest that, one year later, a call was issued for nogotiations to "reach a peace accord to put an end to thirteen years of People's War", which the Fujimori regime attributed to Chairman Gonzalo. The Central Committee of the PCP pledged to carry forward the war and denounced the regime for fabricating a hoax.(1) A group of people historically asociated with the PCP, centred mainly in the prisons but finding at least some support from PCP members and sympathizers outside of prison and abroad, called upon the whole Party to "fight for a peace accord". it thus quickly became apparent that a crucial two-line struggle had erupted within the PCP, focusing on the question of a peace accord but involving a whole series of questions facing the revolution in Peru and the world. This initial evaluation was further reimforced by the appearance of documents with alarming arguments that went against basic Marxist-Leninist-Maoist principles and against established positions of RIM.(2)
Since the communist movement is always an international movement the outbreak of the two-line struggle affecting the most important struggle in the world today could not help but have serious implications for RIM. This is all the more true since the PCP has contributed greatly to the political and ideological development of RIM itself, especially in the recently culminated struggle to adopt and unite around Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Indeed, this two-line struggle represents the most important struggle that our Movement had faced since its formation in 1984. A line struggle whose resolution not only determines the future development of the revolution in Peru but has great consequences for RIM and the whole international communist movement.
In these circumstances it was incumbent upon RIM not only to continue its support for the People's War in Peru but also to join this two-line struggle: to undertake the necessary investigation, study, discussion and struggle to achieve a correct and comprehensive understanding of all the questions involved and onthat basis render the most powerful support to the Marxist-Leninst-Maoist line and comrades carrying it forward in Peru.
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism had to be applied to the questions involved in the struggle. This included a study of the history of negotiations in theinternational communist movment -- both positive and negative examples -- as well as a study of ways other than negotiations through which the communist movement has responded to important twists and turns in the revolutionary struggle. It has been necessary to deeply study and apply the basic Marxist-Leninst-Maoist principles of people's war. On this basis, the Committee of RIM (CoRIM) established the two basic criteria for evaluating a call for a peace accord:
Do the proposed negotiations serve the task of seizing political power through revolutionary wargare, regardless of what stages or turns this warfare may go through, or are they aimed at returning to the pre-war situation of l980 -- a protracted period in which no revolutionary armed struggle existed?
While certain compromises may prove to be necessary, do the proposed negotiations safeguard the "fundamental interests of the people" referred to by Mao, that is, the essential core of people's power and the revolutionary armed forces?(3)
With these two criteria in mind a many-sided investigation was undertaken, going as throroughly as possible into a number of questions:
This investigation has aimed at determining whether any pro-negotiations position, even if it should involve some kind of temporary and partial retreat by the revolutionary forces and perhaps even some kind of formal agreement with the other side, would not give up all the hard-won gains of the People's War, would not disband the people's army and would not give up all the base areas of the People's War, even if certain areas had to be pulled back from temporarily. In short, to see if such a position would not abandon the revolutionary road but would be part of carrying forward the subjective and objective aspects of this question: what has been the intent of those promoting the call for negotiations; and does this call in any case correspond to the objective situation, to the needs of the masses and the revolutionary struggle at this point, *UL1*and*UL0* is there any basis -- in terms of the freedom and necessity of the revolutionary camp on the one handand the reactionary camp on the other -- for achieving a peace accord that would not represent abandoning the revolutionary road and compromising away the fundamental intersts of the people?
Of great importance has been learning and understanding more deeply the position and analysis of the Central Committee of the PCP on the questions involved.
Through this process the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement has reached the following conclusions:
1. Objectively and irrespective of the intentions of those who are arguing for it, the call for negotiations to reach a peace accord and the arguments, or rationalizations, put forward in defence and elaboration of this call, do not represent a necessary and justified compromise but rather a compromise of the fundamental interests of the people and an abandonment of the People's War and the revolutionary road.
2. The specific terms proposed for a peace accord(4), the "eleven point proposal", would lead to the disarming fo the People's Liberation Army and to the dismantling of the Base Areas, effectively abandoning the fruits of the revolution and leaving the masses at the mercy of the reactionary classes and their armed forces.
3. The argumentation, or rationalizations, put forward in defence and in elaboration of this call are arguments against the very possibility of maintaining and carrying through to victory the People's War in Peru. These arguments go against the fundamental teachings of Marxism-Leninsm-Maoism on the need and possibility for the protracted people's war to develop and seize political power.(5)
4. In a fundamental sense, revolutionary warfare led by the proletariat, once embarked upon, must continue until one of the two opposing sides has been defeated. It cannot be turned on and off at will as a mere pressure tactic to achieve concessions from the reactionary state. The means and goals of Marxist-Leninist-Maoist forces are fundamentally different than those of the warfare of other classes, for even when such warfare is opposed to the reactionary state, it does not and cannot aim for the very destruction of that reactionary state and the establishment of the rule of the masses.
The twists and turns of the revolutionary struggle, the relative strengths and weaknesses of the opposing camps, changes in the objective situation and so forth sometimes make it necessary for Communists to make substantial adjustments in their strategy and tactics, including retreats as well as advance. In some cases these necessary adjustments have taken military expressions -- such as the Long March led by Mao in the course of the Chinese Revolution. At other times, communists do not reject negotiations or even reaching possible agreements with reactionary ruling classes as tactics which may be possible and necessary as a result of concrete developments in the revolutionary struggle and in the context of a correct revolutionary strategy and perspective.(6)
However, in the actual circumstances and given the relation of class forces at this stage in Peru, there is, from standpoint of the proletariat, no need for and no correct basis for negotiations leading to the end of the People's War. There is no basis -- in terms of the freedom and necessity of the revolutionary camp on the one hand and the reactionary camp on the other -- for achieving a peace accord that would not represent abandoing the revolutionary road and compromising away the fundamental interests of the people. Under these circumstances the only kind of peace accord which would be accepted by the Fujimori regime -- and more generally by the ruling classes in Peru and their imperialist masters -- is an agreement to end the war on a basis that could not benefit but would harm the revolutionary process in Peru. Therefore a proposal for peace accords to end the war could only lead to opportunism and must be combatted.
5. The present international situation is notmarked by a period of world peace and the settling of conflicts. Peace agreements such as that reached in Palestine reflect the imperialists' efforts to incorporate non-proletarian forces (such as nationalists and revisionists) as gendarmes of U.S. imperialism's self-proclaimed "new world order". These types of peace accords are directed against the masses. Genuine revolutionary struggle led by Marxist-Leninist-Maoists, which represents the fundamental interests of the proletariat and the oppressed peoples, will continue to be viciously opposed by world imperialism and reaction.
The current world situation, despite contradictory features, is favourable for the intiatiating, developing, and advancing fo the revolutionary armed struggle for power. The collapse of the Soviet Union (and with it the East bloc) is the collapse of a reactionary social-imperialist power, a great enemy of the world proletarian revolution, and does not mean the people must stop or suspend their revolutionary struggle.
6. The reactionary Peruvian state represents imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism in that country and is a tool of its Yankee overlords. The reactionary state has no long-term solution to the crisis it is facing and can onlu offer more exploitation, oppression and misery to the masses of people. Only New Democratic Revolution and the subsequent advance to socialism can save Peru.
7. Chairman Gonzalo remains in extreme conditions of confinement and the hands of the reactionary regime, denied contact with lawyers, kept in isolation, refused the visits of five distinguished international delegations and placed upon what the regime boasts is an "information diet". The Fujimori regime is notorious for its murder,lies, manipulations and physical and psychological abuse of prisoners of war. Under these circumstances one cannot accept indirect and unverifiable communications attributed to Chairman Gonzalo as representative of his thinking, and the fight must continue for an end to his isolation.
It is clear that the negotiations line runs contrary to the basic line of the PCP which has led the People's War forward and which was forged under the leadership of Chairman Gonzalo. It is important to continue to try to determine Chairman Gonzalo's current views. The key question, however, is the line, not its author.
Chairman Gonzalo's temendous contributions in developing the PCP's line for the Peruvian revolution has taken place in the course of concentrating the experience and knowledge of the whole Party and leading it forward as part of the international communist movement. The Marxist-Leninst-Maoist line forged by the PCP under the leadership of Chairman Gonzalo is both a product of the struggle of the masses in their millions and, in turn, has further enabled the masses to take history into their own hands and transform the world. It is precisely this process of "from the masses, to the masses" and the party's chain of knowledge based on its system of democratic centralism that the regime is severing through the isolation of Chairman Gonzalo. This is a major reason why the battle to gain access to him must be carried through to a victorious conclusion.
8. The CoRIM salutes the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru for its firm, vigorous and correct opposition to the right opportunist line which would bring defeat to the People's War in Peru and a serious setback for the whole international communist movement. The Central Committee has boldly and courageously carie forward the People's War amidst the difficult conditions created by the capture of Chairman Gonzalo and other blows to the Party. The greatest difficulty facing the Party is the right opportunist line itself and the actions of those who are promoting it.
It is the internatioanlist duty of our Movement as a whole, as well as of the Committee as the embryonic political centre of RIM, to contribute all we can to the waging of the two-line struggle against the right opportunist line of negotiations for a peace accord, to assisting the Central Committee of the PCP in carrying out this two-line struggle on the strongest basis and with the most powerful effect, to helping strengthen the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist leadership and line guiding the People's War in Peru and carrying it forward on that basis, through whatever twists and turns, toward the goal of nationwide political power and the ultimate aime of communism, worldwide.
9. Since its formation in 1984 the development of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement mas been inextricably linked with the Communist Party of Peru. The PCP has been leading the most important revolutionary struggle in the world today, illuminating the shining path of people's war for the whole world to see. This has had an even more resounding echo on all continents as the PCP has carried out its struggle consciously and avowedly as part of the world proletariat's revolutioanry march toward communism and has done so as a vital part of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the emerging political centre of the international communist movement.
The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, united on the basis of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, stands even more firmly united with its comrades of the Communist Party of Peru, reaffirming our support and determined to fulfill our responsibilities. The CoRIM calls upon the entire Revolutionary Internationalist Movement and the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist forces the world over to take up the battle to defend the People's War in Peru and support the comrades of the Communist Party of Peru in the struggle to preserve the revolutionary achievements, defeat the right opportunist line and march forward toward nationwide victory as part of the world proletarian revolution.
Those who have been confused by the right opportunist line or stumbled off the revolutionary path should repudiate this line, oppose and sounter the damage being caused by this line and its adherents and retake the revoltionary road.
Let the fight against the right opportunist line serve as a fiery cauldron forging even greater unity of our movement and regining its steel to the highest quality. Let this furnace of two-line struggle also serve as a great school of Marxism-Leninsm-Maoism, revealing the difference between real and sham Marxism, and helping revolutionaries around the world to understand the necessities of the hour and to fulfill them.
SUPPORT THE PEOPLE'S WAR IN PERU!
DEFEND THE LIFE OF CHAIRMAN GONZALO, 20 March 1995
Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
1. The 7 October 1993 statement by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru is reprinted in A World To Win 1995/21.
SUPPORT THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE PCP!
LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM,
DOWN WITH THE RIGHT OPPORTUNIST LINE!
FIGHT TO BREAK THE ISOLATION!
2. A number of articles proposing the erroneous line of fighting for a peace accord have appeared, the most notable being "Take Up and Fight for the New Decison and New Definition" ("Asumir y Combatir por la Nueva Decision y Nueva Definicion" in the original Spanish), reprinted in A World To Win 1995/21.
3. These two criteria are taken from the circular of June 1994 reprinted in A World To Win 1995/21.
4. The "eleven point peace proposal" was widely distributed by pro-negotiation prisoners in Peru. It has also been reprinted in a number of Peruvian publications, and is reprinted in A World To Win 1995/21.
5. The Union of Iranian Communists (Sarbedaran) wrote an important criticism of the main arguments contained in "Take Up and Fight for the New Decision and New Definition" ("Asumir") and other articles reflecting the same line. This criticism was prepared at the request of the CoRIM, and is reprinted in A World To Win 1995/21.
6. See the aformentioned June 1994 CoRIM circular and the UIC(S) article for a discussion both of the historical experience of using negotiations and the experience of the Long March in China.