On May 17, 1997, a popular insurgency, more correctly a revolutionary People's War, celebrated 17 years of victorious armed struggle against tyranny and oppression in Peru. Today it engulfs the entire country from small Andean towns to Amazonian villages to the very heart of Lima, the capital and largest population center containing one third of the nation's people.
This struggle is actually organized and led by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP). Today's PCP is a Maoist Communist Party, it was founded in 1928 by Peruvian Marxist Jose Carlos Mariategui. The PCP is an organization that bases itself on the science of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, seeing each as embodying the necessary principles of successive historical developments. The indisputable leader of the PCP, until August 1992 when President Gonzalo was captured. The People's War, however, continues as boldly as ever toward the conquest of Power. He left in place a bold political and military organization, including the powerful ideological weapon for revolutionaries in Peru and the world: Gonzalo Thought. The PCP as the leader of a growing and increasingly successful revolutionary movement, particularly in our post USSR-Washington led New World Order era, takes more significance than geography and population alone would suggest. Within Peru, as even its international critics acknowledge:
"... and the party's leader, Abimael Guzman, known to supporters and sympathizers as Presidente Gonzalo, the Fourth sword of Marxism' not only seems to be the only man with a plan for the future but has, in a perverse way become the country's dominant political figure." (1)
President Gonzalo was born in 1934 to a poor single mother in Southern Peru, Arequipa. He lived with her until his teens. Then he went to live with his father who sent him to a Catholic high school and afterwards to the University of San Agustin to study Philosophy and Law. He was known as "gifted and intellectually passionate." (2) After graduation, in 1962, he was appointed as a philosophy professor at the National University of San Cristobal de Huamanga in Ayacucho.
In the early 1950's, Gonzalo joined the youth branch of the PCP. During this time, he was close to Carlos De la Riva, an artist and writer and a determined communist in Arequipa. During the Chinese- -Russian communist split in the 1960's, De la Riva and the youth leader Gonzalo rejected the then emerging revisionism that Khrushchev and the Soviet leadership were putting forth. He looked toward, traveled to and wrote about China as a country that was not so likely to give up revolution and follow the road of revisionism. When Gonzalo arrived in Ayacucho, the PCP put him in charge of the youth work. Finding the local Party chapter inactive with lazy bureaucrats in charge, he set out to change things.
"His objective was clear: to use the university to recruit, educate, organize and subsidize the growth of communist cadres. Gonzalo had the university create a high school that was mostly staffed by teachers who were PCP members or sympathizers. Those students who became early activists proved an ideal way to forge a relationship with their towns and communities. They would return home to lay the groundwork for revolutionary activities." (3)
In February 1964, Gonzalo married Augusta La Torre (the daughter of a local communist leader), who two decades later and in the midst of the People's War, became to be known as Comrade Norah. They remained together as comrades and as man and wife until she died in combat in the late 1980's. The worldwide ideological struggle that broke out in revolutionary movements after 1963, when the Chinese Communists openly denounced the Soviet Party for revisionism, hit the PCP as well. The bases of the PCP and the most militant fraction of the leadership, chose the revolutionary path led by the Chinese Communist Party. In Ayacucho, Gonzalo emerged as leader of the PCP's Regional Committee.
He soon was organizing a clandestine and armed component to the party's structure. Meanwhile he continued to successfully reach out for and stressed the importance of recruiting the poor and especially peasant students and youth.
In 1965, pro-Cuban foco theory-based guerrilla groups launched an armed struggle in Peru. After careful analysis and synthesis that this strategy was incorrect, the PCP did not involve itself in this activity. The guerrillas were crushed in less than six months and the military launched a crackdown across the left. Gonzalo became wanted by the State and the PCP ordered him underground. The PCP then sent him to China to attend cadre school. This was a decisive experience for him.
The ten-year period known as The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was just beginning as Gon- zalo arrived in People's China. For many people worldwide, this period represents the highest level of revolutionary struggle and mass democracy that humankind has yet achieved. The young Peruvian communist leader not only received detailed training in the theory, strategy and tactics of revolutionary struggle and People's War, but he did so during an extremely positive and highly charged period. He attended the mass rallies along with the thousands and millions of youth, who were trying to take the destiny of their land and future into their own hands. Gonzalo greatly benefited from this experience in revolutionary China.
Returning home, Gonzalo found that the PCP's underground structure was in complete disarray. Some members had joined the focoist guerrillas and others were involved in low level armed actions. Gonzalo regrouped the Ayacucho communist youth branch. By 1968, he successfully led the struggle to purge the pro-Cuban guerrilla position, thus consolidating the PCP line and structure.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PERU
To understand today's Peru, it is necessary to examine Peruvian history, particularly the history of the class struggle in that country. People have been living in Peru for at least 10,000 years. "The largest, oldest, and best organized . . . was the Incan, which flowered in the harsh environment of the Andes. By conquest, the empire extended in all directions from Cuzco, regarded as the center of the universe. It stretched nearly 3,000 miles from Ecuador into Chile, and its maximum width measured 400 miles . . . In weaving, pottery, medicine, and agriculture, the achievements of the Incas were magnificent." (4)
Europeans first reached Peru and the advanced Incan civilization in 1524. In 1531, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas and killed their last leader Atahuallpa. Spain established the Viceroyalty of Peru and colonized this and other areas of South America. A type of feudalism, the encomienda and later repartimiento system, centered around the hacienda, was established. For several centuries Peru was a colony. Independence was won in July of 1821, but a small white (later somewhat mestizo) class took and still is in power.
In modern times bourgeois politicians and generals representing the interests of the elite, have ruled Peru. In 1968, a military coup took over and tried to impose reforms in order to derail the revolutionary process. Initially under the control of General Velasco, the junta sought to implement land reform, reduce some of the power of the traditional oligarchy nationalize some resources and have the state intervene in the economy. In 1975, a more conservative military junta replaced Velasco and these reforms ended. Though huge haciendas were broken up and some foreign companies nationalized by the late 70's, the country was in worse debt and trouble than before.
"The PCP, led by Chairman Gonzalo describes contemporary Peru as a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society within which bureaucratic capitalism is developing. This characterization is based on a qualitative assessment of the determining features of the society: the outworn semi-feudal system continues to exist and affect the country from its deepest foundations to its most developed ideas, with the essential persistence of the land question, which is the main objective of the class struggle of the peasants, especially the poor peasants who make up the majority. Most of the land is still concentrated in a few hands, both in the form of traditional landlord ownership and associative forms established in the 1960's and 70's when the state bought the old individually-owned estates and set up state linked agrarian enterprises (SAIS). The administrators of the SAIS are often the landlords' sons. They continue the tradition of local political tyrants whose power is based on monopoly ownership of land. The production relations holding those who work the land in bondage have little changed. This is why the PCP considers these SAIS an evolution of feudalism." (5)
The huge majority still labor and suffer while the same tiny elite remains in power. In 1980, the military turned the government back to the traditional politicians. On April 5, 1992, its president, the most faithful U. S. lackey in Peruvian history, Fujimori along with a clique of drug generals carried out a military coup. Under the pretext of fighting the people's war, he usurped all power (closed parliament and the courts, opposition newspapers, etc.). Throughout all this, Peru continues to have the worst human rights record in all of Latin America. Human rights are violated with impunity by the military.
The majority of Peruvians are Quechuas, Mestizos and whites are the other two main ethnic groups. There is also a large segment of Aymara speaking peasants in Juliaca and Puno, while the Ashaninkas and other native nationalities live in the jungle area. White racism is a significant reality in Peru. Although never announced officially by the Party, the PCP, cadres, leaders and rank and file, is largely Quechua speaking. Even the NY Times (certainly no friend of any communist revolution) can't hide it:
"...But the driving force behind the rebellion is the racism that permeates Peruvian society . . . Sendero doesn't have to prove that they are Andean, . . . they speak Quechua and everyone knows it." (6)
This is a significant aspect, but as the Peruvian revolutionaries themselves explain, "the war the PCP is leading is mainly a peasant war. Though it also involves fighting and other work in the cities, it is based in the countryside." (7) The PCP begins with a class analysis and understands that the dynamic forces pushing forward all societal development are rooted in the struggle of classes. They also recognize the unique character of Peru and its majority peasant population, who are not only exploited as peasants workers, but also oppressed.HISTORY OF THE PCP
Turning to the history of the PCP, it is useful to look at its main points of development pre and post 1980. The people's war began on May 17, 1980.
"The PCP was founded in October 7, 1928, on a solid Marxist- Leninist basis by Jose Carlos Mariategui, who provided it with basic theses concerning Peruvian society, the land question, imperialist domination, the role of the Peruvian proletariat . . . but Mariategui died in 1930 so that the Party did not have time to consolidate itself. Mariategui and his line were openly put into question . . . opportunism usurped the party leadership." (8)After its founding, the Party traveled through various reformism and class collaborationist policies. In the early 1960's, Gonzalo founded a fraction in the Ayacucho regional committee. This fraction arose in large part as a consequence of the class struggle going on worldwide. The open contradiction between the USSR's revisionist position and the revolutionary opposition led by Chairman Mao and the Chinese Communist Party. This two-line struggle manifested itself in the policies and work of the PCP itself. In the early 1960's, the PCP expelled some supporters of revisionism and became the most pro-Chinese party in South America. In February of 1970, a further split took place and Gonzalo's fraction assumed the leadership of the Party. A process of rebuilding and going back to the roots of Mariategui, while incorporating Maoist principles and many of the lessons of the Cultural Revolution, ensued for the next several years. From 1972 to 75, the PCP grew and solidified. By 1976, "the Communist Party of Peru was reconstructed and became a party of a new type, Marxist- -Leninist-Maoist." (9) In the same year, the PCP sent substantial numbers of cadres to the countryside to intensify and expand political work in preparation for the planned insurgency.
In May 1980, the people's war was launched. Beginning with small guerrilla units, but always with the broad vision of Maoist strategy and tactics, the war began. In 1982, the army intervened directly to combat the insurgency. Prior to this, the police have been conducting the war. The PCP responded with an army of its own: the People's Guerrilla Army.
Beginning in the strategic stage of the defensive, the People's Army, step by step enlarged its theater of operations. The war began in the Andean states of Ayacucho, Huancavelica and Apurimac; the struggle survived and grew. In 1980, 219 attacks were carried out. By mid 1986, a total of more than 30,000 attacks had occurred. Today the war has touched every state and region of Peru. In the 1990's, increasing numbers of battles have been fought in the three regions of Peru: the coast, the sierra and the jungle. Lima and its environ themselves was a special place. The PCP has announced in word and deed that a new strategic level has been achieved. The strategic equilibrium characterized by larger and more heavily armed guerrilla formations assaulting more fortified government positions and attacks in the cities have become a reality. Let's see what an enemy of the revolution have to say:
"The Shining Path now claims to have reached strategic equilibrium with Peru's demoralized army, and analysts fear that as early as next year a violent showdown could take place. Shining Path could easily mobilize 5000 people and take the presidential palace, a rebel sympathizer boasted. But the army would counterattack with 10,000 and there would be genocide. So they will wait." (10)
The strategic equilibrium not only elevates the level of the struggle, but it lays the stage for going over to the strategic offensive, where the revolution has the ability to beat the reactionary enemy and institute a popular regime.
"Raucana (a settlement outside Lima) is only one of the shantytowns where people are rising up in struggles and where the influence of the PCP is spreading. Overall, the main arena of the people's war is in the countryside where the red flag flies openly in growing revolutionary base areas and the People's Army is conducting increasingly large operations against enemy forces. But there are also important revolutionary advances going on in Lima and other cities. In July the PCP led armed shutdowns lasting one to three days in several state capitals . . . These actions led by the Maoists combine the masses' struggles for demands with the struggle for political power. Their strategic objective is to train the workers and people for insurrection in the cities as the final part of the people's war." (11)
Fujimori's coup has only served to strengthen the PCP's position. While Fujimori was easily able to shut down courts and parliament, and then by luck captured President Gonzalo, he has been unable to win any significant battles against the People's Army. In fact more assaults against military and economic targets have been launched since the coup than ever before. These include successful attacks against top government and military leaders and vital government and military buildings and bases. The dictatorial and fascist natures of the gang of three that govern Peru Fujimori-Hermoza-Montesinos are now more clearly seen by the whole world. Internally, the lines of demarcation which the PCP has been trying to make clear for years are now more sharply drawn; one either stands with the fascist Fujimori government, or opposes it and stands with the People's War. The ground has been largely cut from under the various reformism groups in Peru.
Many indicators point to a surge of new support for the PCP since the pyrrhic capture. This is especially true for youth who make up the majority of the population. There can be little question that the spectacular advances of the People's War in Peru are admired and studied by oppressed people and leftist forces in the world, especially in Latin America. Every country has to make its own revolution based on the unique realities of its people. In this sense Peru's revolution cannot be exported, to Bolivia or anywhere else. But its ideology does serve as guidance and an example and inspiration to others.
In the broader context Peru serves this same purpose worldwide. As the USSR and its client states in Eastern Europe collapsed, bringing extreme pressure and hardship to countries and movements who had tightly tied themselves to the USSR and its policies of revisionism and reformism, the example of Peru looms large. As U.S. imperialism constructs and leads its New World Order, claiming victory over socialism and the USSR, while assaulting small and tiny nations with seeming ease and impunity, the example of Peru looms large. A nation within the frame of the U.S. government's historically self-proclaimed "backyard," is step by step ridding itself of its elitist bour- geois/fascist rulers. Without some big power backer and led by a Communist Party, independent, principled, ideologically very clear and firm, while soundly denouncing reformism, the PCP is indeed an eye opening example worldwide.
The PCP and its leadership represent an ideological opponent to imperialism, capitalism, reformism and Soviet style revisionism. They provide an example of what a people are capable of doing no matter how small, poor or oppressed. The PCP stresses reliance on scientific revolutionary principles, consistent ideology and a disciplined organization and the firm conviction that revolution in the 90's is not just possible, but the only real solution to their economic, social, political and military problems. As imperialist ideologues proclaim the "end of history," a red flag is rising in the Andes, signaling the irrepressible march of humanity toward the next era of social reality socialism leading to communism. And it is doing so forthrightly, recognizing both the contributions and shortcoming of previous revolutionary leaders and struggles. No vague "democratic left coalitions" rather clear principles of communism and class struggles are put forth.
"Finally, another issue that makes us different from others concerns independence, self-reliance, and making our own decisions. Others who do not have these characteristics are used as pawns, while we are not. One far-reaching difference: we take Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as our guide, others do not." (12)
CONCLUSION
History has placed President Gonzalo and the PCP in a crucial and unique role. As an entire phase of creating socialism (the Soviet revisionist model) has reached its conclusion, even while the historical enemy, capitalism still dominates most of the world, the principled revolutionary efforts of a country as Peru becomes especially important. A Maoist, communist party requires its leadership, to perform many tasks. This includes being a visible rallying symbol, a teacher and guide, with the responsibility of coordinating the work of the lead organs of the Party. President Gonzalo has carried out these duties forthrightly and brilliantly. There is no question that the unique contributions that this man has imparted to Peru's revolution have helped get to the high level it is at today. But any revolution is much more than just the effort of one person.There is no doubt that even though President Gonzalo fell in the struggle, which was only a bend on the road that the PCP had overcome and surpass developing further the People's War. That is what happened. Today, the revolution is continuing and advancing. The PCP is a time and war tested fighting organization. It can and does fill in all positions.
It is possible that in the foreseeable future, Yankee imperialism will further intervene with troops or indirectly through the OAS (e.g., neighbors), or the UN, against the revolution in Peru. The U.S. firebase at Santa Lucia in the Amazon jungle is well known. Covert U.S. involvement is already extensive. But not even a large scale military intervention can block the People's War. The people of Peru will suffer and die, but in the long run even foreign troops led by the U.S., will be defeated. As long as the PCP continues to correctly analyze issues, apply policies and firmly uphold consistent ideology and revolutionary principles, it will advance and ultimately succeed.
The PCP's successes are directly impacting on revolutionary struggles worldwide. This is already happening. Steadily and hopefully rapidly, revolutionary socialism will regain its leading position as the primary guiding ideology leading to the still necessary emancipation from exploitation and oppression of people on Earth.
Here in the belly of the beast (USA), the New World Order has now come to roost. Budget cuts and austerities, privatization, breaking labor unions, fascist creatures like the Contract with America, growing repression, previously saddled in Peru and other Third World peoples, are now here, borne on a tide of racism. Support of the People's War in Peru is therefore taking place in an atmosphere of upsurges in political and social struggles. The convergence of our struggle with the People's War is becoming increasingly clear. Support and solidarity work on behalf of the triumph of the revolution in Peru is increasingly being linked to the struggle for social justice at home. The duty of exposing the real nature of US intervention in general and in Peru in particular is more important than ever. In order to effectively fight against the developing social blitzkrieg at home, people need to understand the real nature of the forces behind it, and they are not simple Newt Gingrich, Le Pen, Clinton and the Republican Party. To deal with our enemy, we must be able to see how imperialism operates in every arena, in every environment, abroad as well as at home. To deal with our enemy, we must join our struggle with the struggle of the people the world over, especially the most advanced struggle in today's world: the people's war in Peru.
NOTES.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Twelve Years of Peoples' War, El Diario, Lima, Feb. 1992.
Rosenberg, Tina. "Guerrilla Tourism." The New Republic, June
18, 1990.
Nash, Nathaniel, "Peru roots rebels in 4 day prison fight."
New York Times, May 11, 1991: 1
Peru, Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. 9 (15 ed. 1989) 316-318.
Burns, E. Bradford. Latin America: A Concise Interpretative History, 5th
Ed. (Prentice Hall 1990). The New Flag Magazine: May 1995 and January 1997.
[Editor's Note: This essay was written by Jan K. Laaman, a supporter
of the People's War who is a U.S. political prisoner (Ohio 7) held at the
Federal Prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.]