In Peru, in recent years, there is a loud talk about "modernism", "post-modernism", and "modernization". Why is there emphasis on such themes when millions of people are hungry and unemployed? When millions are exploited and underpaid? When thousands of children die before reaching one year of age? When there is so much malnutrition and hopelessness? When reactionary and imperialist governments cannot provide food, clothing, housing, health care and education for the vast majorities of people? When the number of people in chronic poverty are increasing by the millions every year?
The truth is that the ideology of "modernization", "modernism" and "post-modernism" is an old weapon that imperialists use to sell the idea of social progress through capitalism (the exploitation of people and accumulation of wealth as private property for the benefit and free enjoyment of a few capitalists.) At the same time, the terms "modern" and "post-modern" are employed to preach the funeral of socialism, when the truth is that revisionism (counter-revolutionary fascism disguised as "socialism") has been defeated. This only shows that the oppressors only dream of the eternal domination of the planet so that those who are exploited will always continue to be exploited, dreams that only greedy genocidal imperialists can follow.
Imperialism employs this ideological weapon of "modernization" and "post-modernization" every time that it goes on the offensive against exploited people in oppressed countries. The oppressors promise a "modern" life, full of comforts, with electrical appliances and computers and gadgets, etc. As if these things, for the people, are the most important things in the world. It is all part of an imperialist deception to fool the masses of poor and oppressed peoples in all countries.
For instance, those who represent the old state preach everywhere that "Perus reinsertion into the international financial system" means to enter the modern era, when we know quite well that such "reinsertion" only means more profound semi-colonial exploitation of poor people; nevertheless, modernization is preached as progress for all social classes. But in practice one must ask: progress for whom? It is not for the people, it is progress for imperialists seeking more profits, and for all kind of reactionaries in Peru.
The terms "modernization" and "post-modernization" are covers for the capitalist system of exploitation; such terms divide history into Antiquity, the Middle Age and the Modern Age, without taking into account the social relations in slavery, in feudalism, and much less in capitalism. Thus, the Modern Age starts when the Middle Age ends, with the nation states, industrialization, artistic and cultural developments, scientific developments, and even Marxism, as products of modern times.
Through such discourse, the capitalist system does not exist as such, we are simply living within the period of the Modern Age. The "virtual reality" created is an illusion where everything that occurs on the face of the Earth is the casual and chaotic result of the "Modern Age".
Following such fallacies, the lobby groups and other "groups for political pressure" mainly financed by European imperialists, are changing disguises. Now these mercenaries start to change their political language and concepts to accommodate them to the strategic plans of imperialists, chiefly Yankee imperialists, and at the same time, in coordination, to attack the peoples struggles: the invincible Peoples War!
One apologist for "modernization" in Peru, the drooling Sinesio Lopez, a writer of the NGO DESCO, starts his talk with a long silence, then, exaggerating self-pity, he lowers his head and whispers: "We believed in the promises of socialists, but we were wrong. Our previous political ideas are not valid any longer; our books have old ideas, our slogans are also old, and in such circumstances we need to change the paradigm for political work and catch up with the modern age."
This is how the theories regarding national identity, national culture, anti-imperialism, peoples expression, alternatives, etc. employed by various servants of imperialism, now change and are replaced with "modern" manipulations, only creating new labels and titles, such as "the political class", "the entertainment class", "the religious class", "the feminist class", "the European class", "the Afro-American class", "the Latino class", "the labor aristocracy class" etc. Thus, they make up "classes" to mix up the rich and the poor in each as a unified whole, in practice imposing the views, domination and power of capitalists and reactionaries. These are vain attempts to confuse, mislead and defeat the struggles of the exploited social classes: the proletarians of all countries leading the oppressed masses.
At present, within the theory of "modernism" and "post-modernism", any other theory regarding the defense of national identity is considered obsolete and outdated, a symptom of backwardness. The highest expression of modernism is to take down the walls of national states in order to facilitate the circulation of commodities (material and cultural products) appropriated by the imperialist capitalists through exploitation and oppression. Actions for "free circulation" and destruction of barriers for "free-markets" embody the essence of "modernism" and "post-modernism".
Through such manipulations, reactionaries lubricate "liberal" capitalist economics to mislead the masses and to force many to join "informal manufacturing clubs", "clubs of mothers", "glass of milk" programs, etc., and in this manner to defend the unjust system "no matter how imperfect it is". In coordination with such deceiving actions, the armed forces carry out search-and-destroy operations against those who oppose them.
Let us ask: How long can a poor child survive with a glass of milk a day while lacking adequate food, clothing, shelter, health care and education? Who wants to live depending on petty hand-outs every day? Modern "relief" programs only serve to maintain conditions of poverty, trafficking with the hunger of the people, to keep them submerged in poverty, within a corrupted system that only benefits big capitalists, big landlords and reactionaries of all kinds.
Even the mercenary senderologist Carlos Ivan Degregory declares in the daily Expreso<D> in Lima: "with the political parties in crisis, only the Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), the Church and other modern social organizations remain in the front line against sendero". Is that clear enough?
It is also clear that the so called "modernization" is another counter-revolutionary manipulation, it is another imperialist ideological weapon applied against the people (that is why the NGOs, the Church hierarchy, etc. increasingly receive funding from foreign sources, mainly Yankee imperialists and indigenous European imperialists.) But imperialist ideological weapons are bound to fail, they are exposed and crushed by the advances of the just and invincible Peoples War led by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), to serve the Peoples Rights in all aspects of life. The construction of the Conquest of Power advances!