In the midst of the People's War, the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) has introduced the armed strike as a new and advanced weapon of struggle to mobilize the masses in the cities. In Lima (Peru's capital) the PCP has organized the People's Revolutionary Defense Movement (MRDP) which is an organization that plans and implements stunning and successful armed strikes. The MRDP not only struggles for the economic demands of the people, but it provides the most conscious masses of the country, the proletariat, an opportunity to express through various actions their hatred for the old landlord-bureaucratic State. This form of struggle empowers the desire of the masses to radically transform society, to end oppression and misery, and to bury once and for all the unburied corpse of the existing system.
The armed strike shows the great development of the four forms of struggle in the People's War: Agitation and propaganda, sabotage, selective annihilation and guerrilla combat.
Throughout Lima, mainly in the poorest neighborhoods, the fighting is intense; at the start of the day, the agitation and propaganda spread out to the entire city. This helps to generate favorable public opinion. With simple words and examples, the PCP analyzes the concrete problems of the country, especially the rights and just demands of the masses that are being denied without remorse. Against hunger and misery, against repression and genocide, against the old State and imperialism, the MRDP mobilizes broad sections of the masses, and leads the fight in confrontations with reaction, heroically challenging them for every inch of land, at all times taking the initiative in the war.
What does an armed strike mean to reaction? A shattering blow, because it strikes and weakens its economic structure, the foundations of bureaucratic capitalism, of semi-feudalism and of imperialism. It forces the Peruvian State to send into the streets all its police and armed forces, in ever greater numbers, which shows the fear they have when facing the legitimate outrage of the people.
What does reaction do in the face of a stunning armed strike? Among other things:
1. Through its government spokesmen and the whole network of communications media at their disposal they complain about the lack of transportation, the closing of shopping centers, the sabotages, and the open clashes and annihilations of their uniformed servants.
2. With the assistance of a handful of strike breakers at their work places, reaction tries to make the masses believe that the armed strike was a failure and that they should reject it. For example, during the February 14, 1992 armed strike, Fujimori's Minister De Los Heros said: "The supposed armed strike by Sendero Luminoso has failed completely because 97.3% of the workers went to work, which means the repudiation by the workers of such violent action."
3. Now more than ever, the reactionaries desperately hide the achievements of the People's War, the greater development and construction of the New Power, the mobile warfare, the growing struggle of the masses with their just demands and concerns.
The imperialist media, including the outlets of revisionists and fake leftists in many countries, echo this farce. But looking only at the transportation sector whose operations were completely stopped, and which has about 150,000 workers, more than 2.7% of the workers of Lima, the lie of the reactionaries is exposed. Even if we count only the "creative entrepreneurs" as imperialism calls the super-exploited ambulatory vendors, the statistics of the Minister were like cheap snake oil he was trying to sell. Of the total number of enterprises in Lima (production and services) more than 85% are small and medium firms that not only closed on the day of the armed strike, but in many cases had agreed in advance to abide by the strike. Markets, grocery stores, retail shops, ambulatory workers, schools and universities remained closed in compliance with the authority of the New Power, the MRDP.
Then what remains is a very small number of companies whose owners and personnel are utterly reactionary, as an expression of the class struggle.
The armed strike is not a union strike, but a mass strike carried out as part of the People's War and its development, by the continuing destruction of the obsolete structures of the old State and the construction of the New State.
The armed strike also helps to expose and crush opportunist positions and the collusion of the treacherous and servile revisionists, who crawl like running dogs behind reaction and imperialism. It is not a coincidence that on the same dates that the armed strikes are called, they schedule their "marches for peace" in Miraflores (a wealthy neighborhood), or "cultural events" in Villa El Salvador, which is counterproductive for these miserable wretches because very few participate and back such efforts. The only support they get is from reaction and imperialism.
Those attending such marches are the most recalcitrant elements defending the interests of the old State, and they even act as agents provocateur in the midst of the masses, and propose so-called anti-terrorist fronts and struggles against subversion, specifically against the PCP. This is merely opposition to revolutionary violence, to the need for communist parties to lead revolutions, to the dictatorship of the proletariat, and opposition to communism as the inevitable goal of humanity. The armed strike helps to expose and crush these opportunists so the people can see clearly who defends their class interests and who really just trafficks with them as part of the counterrevolutionary tasks: to reinvigorate bureaucratic capitalism, to restructure the old State apparatus and to annihilate the People's War.
The armed strike also unmasks and crushes all the imperialist propaganda that "the Party is divided," or "PCP calls for peace talks," or "peace talks is a two line struggle within the PCP," mere fairy tales refuted by reality. It forces the most recalcitrant "senderologists" at the service of imperialism, such as Raul Gonzales, Ivan Degregori and Carlos Tapia to recognize the success of the armed strikes, and that the PCP is a bold and strong organization of a new type, expressing the qualitative development of its actions, in preparation for the taking of the cities through armed insurrections.
At the international level, the armed strike generates public opinion favorable to the People's War. Before and after an armed strike, the world media (even in imperialist countries) cannot hide the strong offensives carried out by the People's Army of Liberation. That means that the actions of the PCP transcend our borders and that among the masses throughout the world the awareness of the development of the People's War in Peru is increasing every day, which proves that the People's War serves the world revolution.
ANATOMY OF THE ARMED STRIKE: THE PEOPLE FIGHT FOR EVERY INCH OF THE BATTLEFIELD
Beginning in 1991, the modality of the armed strike was applied to most major cities and localities in the country. Cities such as Puno, Ucayali, La Libertad, Huallaga and Ayacucho have been the most prominent. But it is in Lima, with nearly 8.5 million inhabitants, where an immense majority of the masses witness and participate in the strength of the New Power and the repudiation of the old State. The armed strike unmasks the demagoguery of "economic success" by the government. It confronts the anti-people assaults of the government and imperialism through their crushing taxes and Legislative Decrees to sweep away the basic rights of the workers, the benefits and previous gains of the people; it confronts the full-fledged capitulation practices of the revisionists through their bureaucratic union leadership, the trafficking of hand-outs (asistencialismo) and the decomposition of the MRTA. The armed strike represents the highest point of the class struggle, where millions of people actively participate and show their optimism and confidence in the Communist Party and the victory of the Democratic Revolution thought the People's War. As an example, let's describe the historic February 14th, 1992 armed strike in Lima.
At least two weeks before hand, the powerful "word of mouth" information system of the Party announcing the forthcoming armed strike is put into full operation. On February 7th, upon request of the MRDP, a stunning guerrilla offensive shook Lima in anticipation of the large scale military action the following week. This had the purpose of boosting the fighting spirit and will of the masses, with the public display of banners featuring slogans calling for the strike.
The reactionaries responded with a massive counterrevolutionary campaign in their papers and TV, intimidating the workers, students, street vendors, small entrepreneur and the people in general, with threats of being labeled as "terrorists", being fired from their jobs, expelled from school, etc. And also the military intensified its "search and seizure" operations in poor neighborhood, factories and university campuses.
When the day of the battle arrived, at dawn, red flags of the proletariat were already raised on top of the hills surrounding Lima and on the bridges of the capital. Early that day, the masses in the districts of Independence, Comas, San Martin de Porres, Los Olivos, Puente Piedra and Ancon were already waving red flags on the streets, shaking up Peru's capital with political and military actions. Agitation and propaganda, sabotages and ambushes went on and on from sunrise to sundown. The people shook up the entire city of Lima.
Among the actions of higher quality was a spectacular ambush against a troop carrier of the National Police on Tupac Amaru Avenue in the district of Comas. The Maoists rapidly annihilated 4 bullies, wounded 10, and let those who surrendered go free. The high battle readiness of the guerrillas, as well as their precision of execution stunned the international press, while the masses celebrated with joy.
The murderer Fujimori ordered the deployment of his mercenary troops in quantities never seen before. Tanks, trucks and all sorts of armored vehicles armed to the teeth with plentiful and sophisticated weapons, were positioned on the main highway from Lima to the neighborhoods of Canta and Ancon. Other police, on foot, positioned themselves at strategic points in areas where major confrontations could be expected, such as the neighborhoods of El Progreso, Porras Barrenechea, Collique, Av. Espana, and areas in the district of Independencia, among others. To complement the repressive activities on the ground, several helicopter gunships overflew Lima at a low altitude.
Lima looked like a battle zone where one of the contenders was the residents of some of the poorest neighborhoods and shanty towns surrounding Lima. However, despite the huge military deployment, the oppressed masses have massively heeded the Maoist call for an armed strike, not only paralyzing their usual activities for 24 hours, but actively mobilizing under the leadership of the MRDP. All public transportation was suspended for the day, the markets were closed, the municipal and banking agencies did not function. The same thing happened with the commercial stores and small industries located along the Tupac Amaru and Panamericana Norte freeways; also the national and private schools heeded the Maoist call. Even though the armed forces put into circulation military vehicles, "pirates" (gypsy cabs) and government "Enatru" busses, thousands of workers heeded the Maoist call. The masses of workers and employees mobilized under the noses of the military. A woman worker said: "This is the way the people must rise against the murderous Fujimori who is taking away our rights." At various parts of avenues and roads, groups of workers set tires on fire and threw rocks at military vehicles and the "Enatru buses." A young construction worker said: "We won't allow the murderer Fujimori to starve us to death."
BOLD AMBUSHES AND ATTACKS AGAINST MILITARY AND ECONOMIC TARGETS
In a selected spot at km. 14.5 of the Tupac Amaru Avenue, a Maoist contingent waited patiently for the passing of a military contingent. Several hours earlier, the revolutionaries had installed a remote electrical detonation system and 50 kilos of dynamite, covered by a layer of soil, while others placed themselves strategically on a nearby hill armed with pistols and submachine guns to prevent any surprise. Not noticing the guerrilla plan, two troop carrier trucks approached the mined area, separated from each other at small intervals as they usually do. That didn't help them at all. At the right time, a rebel contingent audaciously stopped one of the trucks, using a decoy, while others activated the detonating mechanism. At 5:40 a.m., a deafening explosion blew up the military truck, raising a large cloud of black smoke and debris in the air, and spreading a fog over the ground. The explosion was heard in the entire neighborhoods of Año Nuevo, La Pascana and San Agustin, barely four blocks away from the Police headquarters in the area. One car of the counterinsurgency battalion of Independencia was completely burned by the explosion. The guerrillas retreated without any casualties.
After 15 minutes, hundreds of police and army troops came to the site, collected the corpses, and took the wounded to the hospital in the locality of Collique. The military casualties were members of the 73th Precinct who have debts of blood with the people. They have arrested, tortured, and murdered many residents, students and workers. A woman resident of the place asserted: "They were very abusive with us, they ransacked our homes several times, that's why the guerrillas killed them."
At 6 a.m., looking for ways to revive their fallen morale, the armed forces of the localities of Carabayllo, Comas and Independencia, began a witch hunt in the shanty towns of "El Progreso" and others, arresting unarmed residents. They conducted "combing operations" from km. 7.5 to km 19 and nearby areas, but without any results. In addition, journalists who were trying to cover the armed strike were brutally assaulted by the police.
The armed strike was also a success in the areas of Avenue Argentina, Colonial, and neighboring working class shanty towns (e.g., Carcamo, etc.) The welcome of the masses for the MRDP was expressed in various ways. Starting in the evening on Thursday February 13th, the area around Union Square (Parque Union), and the streets going to El Callao, were completely darkened.
At 11 PM, only minutes away from the start of the armed strike, the cashier [el cobrador] of a bus line warned the public constantly: "To Ave. Argentina, to El Callao, Callao, Callao! This is the last bus leaving the station until the day after tomorrow! Tomorrow no buses! Tomorrow is the Armed Strike! NOBODY WORKS, so board it now!" And the passengers rushed to board the bus. Inside the bus, the only thing they spoke about was the Paro Armado called by the MRDP. And those not talking were avidly listening.
February 14th, at 4 a.m., then 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., the train that normally whistles to wake up the area shanty towns couldn't be heard. That train runs daily, transporting the miners to the mines in La Oroya and Cerro de Pasco (Central Peru), and to El Callao, transporting the wealth of our country (minerals such as silver, gold, lead and copper) which the imperialists steal with pleasure from us.
At 5:30 a.m., a powerful dynamite blast destroyed the lobby of a bank branch at km. 11 in the district of Comas. At the same time another 10 explosions against economic targets were heard in the districts of El Ermitaño, Tahuantinsuyo, Collique, and other areas.
Already at 6:30 a.m. the reactionary newscasts (print, TV and radio) of the mercenary hacks, "Radio Programas," "Radio Honda," and the others, could not be heard since there was no electricity, and on the streets the reactionary papers did not arrive either. The only news circulating in Lima at the time was true and clear-cut: The armed strike, for the rights of the people and the People's War!
At 7 a.m. several vehicles heavily guarded by armored cars and police patrols, including private cars of bourgeois businessmen, showed up at the doors of factories at Avenida Argentina; they wandered around the city without getting any passengers, much less any workers. The government of Fujimori provided a "grace period" of several hours without reduced pay for lateness. It failed. Then, the exploiters who own the factories threatened with firing, and labeling as "subversive" any worker who was absent. But all in vain; the masses of workers heeded the call of the MRDP which will lead the workers and peasants to victory and to the People's Republic of New Democracy.
No bus line circulated on Avenida Argentina, and the trailer truck drivers parked their immense vehicles all along a side of that long avenue. None of the banks were open. At the shoe factories such as Bata Rimac, El Inca and El Diamante, no workers were present. Similarly at the noodle factory of Nicolini and Alianza the workers refused to listen to the hypocritical call for help from the reactionary dictatorship. Also in the textile industries, Peru Knitting, Fanritex, National Cotton Mills, San Miguel Fabrics, Rayon, Cuvisa, Amazonas Threads, etc., etc. All those factories closed their doors since the working class refused to show up to work, abiding by the call for the armed strike "against hunger, misery, unemployment and the crisis."
By 11 a.m., the armed strike was a success. A group of workers from a glass factory approached the MRDP with a serious complaint. The owner of the factory, a man named Harthinger, had fired 400 workers five months before for no reason at all, and without paying or even acknowledging a cent of their salaries and the legal compensation he owed for the time they worked in his factory. The workers of the Harthinger glass factory adopted a position to militantly support the armed strike, asking that this form of struggle not only be in Lima but in the entire country. They asked that the PCP apply just sanctions against cruel factory owners such as Harthinger, "Because many of the children of our fellow workers have died of hunger."
IN EL CALLAO. After 5 a.m., the avenues Argentina, Colonial and Venezuela and the intersections with avenues Universitaria, Faucett, Gutierrez, Saenz Peña, and Guardia Chalaca were deserted. These streets were packed with the armored cars and tanks of the military. Callao's markets such as "La Libertad" of the Obelisk, Northern zone "Chacaritas", "South Santa Maria" and many others were closed. Neither of the bank branches opened their doors. That did not save them from becoming targets of the People's Army of Liberation: two of them, one on the 19th block of Peru Avenue, and the other on the 25th Avenue of Jose Granda, were attacked.
Many merchants took advantage of the day off to clean their establishments, but without serving the public. Workers standing near the doors of their factories formed pickets. Their opinion about the armed strike was unanimous: "This is a genuine form of struggle and certainly shows the need for a new power against the old, not to mention the points of the platform, the slogans for better wages, for land, for national production, and against hunger, genocides, excessive taxes, against imperialism. Those are all correct."
Other guerrilla attack occurred on Santa Rosa Ave. at the intersection of avenues Angelica Guzman and Tomas Valle. During the entire day, the city was patrolled constantly, including by helicopters. Raids and arrests went on, until well into the night.
Around 4 a.m. on Friday February 14th explosive charges were detonated at the front of the house of the Mayor of Ventanilla, Cesar Guzman Lopez. In Breña, at 5:50 a.m. guerrillas detonated an explosive at the home of Carlos Rodriguez, a death squad member. Minutes later, other members of the Maoist guerrillas sabotaged the installations of the telephone company of the district.
At 5:30 a.m. the Maoists ambushed two police vehicles: the first was attacked on Manuel Iglesias St., in the district of Agustino, where one policeman was killed and another was wounded; another military vehicle was ambushed at 11 a.m. in San Juan de Lurigancho, on Proceres de la Independecia Ave. where the three occupants of the vehicle were seriously wounded.
In the district of Surquillo, at 7 a.m., PCP combatants blew up the Angamos and Gonzales Prada bridges of the Expressway. At the same time, three bank branches were smashed in the district of Chosica, 35 km. east of metropolitan Lima. The same fate befell the saving and loan cooperative in Huaycan. At the same time, residents of Ave. Wiesse and Santa Rosa burned tires and blocked the streets with rocks. Here, the uniformed goons showed their sadism, savagely beating many. But by then the armed strike was already a success.
On February 14th, the uniformed goons of the armed forces took over public places, squares, markets and universities such as San Marcos, where they climbed to the roofs of various pavilions, ostensibly to "preserve the public order." Since that wasn't enough, they brought helicopters. Despite all that "security" displayed by the reptilian Fujimori, there was no public transportation anywhere in Metropolitan Lima.
During the night, the struggle of the masses continued in various places in Lima and El Callao. In the Yerbateros area (midtown Lima) the Maoists placed an explosive near the police station.
Thus, the workers, the proletariat, the residents of the neighborhoods and shantytowns, the homemakers, students, professionals, in synthesis all the oppressed, today salute the vibrant armed strike in Lima, in the very heart of the reactionary power. The exploiters know that this is one more step toward the prospect of conquering power in all the country. You no longer will be able to stop the windstorm that will sweep you away. And you know that, just as well as we do.
PLATFORM AND SLOGANS OF THE ARMED STRIKE
"AGAINST HUNGER, UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE CRISIS!" is the first cry of battle. This targets the economic program of the government, which in more than 6 years has only increased the hardships of the population, while the profits of the big bourgeoisie, landowners and the imperialists have increased considerably. It exposes the reactionaries' obsession with reinvigorating the rotten bureaucratic capitalism that is generating a greater crisis, which is hitting children and poor people the hardest. The farce of "national reconstruction" or "sacrifice today for a better future" has blown up in the air. Such demagoguery of the regime only entails the preservation of the exploitative system, their State and their Armed Forces.
"AGAINST REPRESSION AND GENOCIDE!" Every protest by the people has been answered with the most brutal repression and genocide by Fujimori's Armed Forces. The workers are beaten, jailed and murdered on a daily basis, but still the government claims it "respects human rights." The defeated National Police and Armed Forces are chronically corrupt and in decomposition. They commit all sorts of abuses, thievery, murder, rape, and narcotrafficking. They perpetrate genocides against the unarmed people. While the revolutionary forces generally release enemy prisoners, the policy of "war without prisoners" is a pattern of the reactionaries. They claim "the number of disappearings has decreased", but it is because the prisoners are murdered instead, and abandoned at some deserted location, or presented as "fallen in combat." At the same time, as part of their psywar, they publicize the arrest of hundreds of thousands of civilians as suspected "terrorists" who in reality have nothing to do with the PCP.
"AGAINST THE OLD STATE AND IMPERIALISM!" Added to the plundering of our wealth and natural resources by imperialism, are the cuts in wages and the increase in the cost of living because of more crippling taxes imposed in order to keep their profits up and to pay the foreign debt to imperialism on a timely basis. The old State, principally the Armed Forces, is a gendarme for imperialist interests. Other State apparatuses collect taxes for services they do not provide. Year after year, there is more unconditional servility to imperialism, mainly Yankee, so much so that the economic and political plans are elaborated and subject to prior approval by the U.S. and its financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Agency for International Development (AID), which today has plans for greater military intervention to combat the People's War under cover of the "war on drugs." This situation characterizes Fujimori as the most sinister mercenary of imperialism, a genocidal sell-out in the service of imperialism, mainly Yankee. To shake them up a little bit, at dawn on February 14, PCP combatants completely destroyed SUNAT (tax collector) and hit the residence of the Yankee gendarme in Peru.
"FOR LAND, BETTER WAGES AND NATIONAL PRODUCTION!" This slogan upholds the peasant struggle for "Land to the tiller!" ("La Tierra para quien la trabaja"), as well as an increase in wages for the workers and the proletariat in general. Likewise the demand for "national production" upholds the present need to confront imperialism and bureaucratic capitalism and to develop national production. This just demand covers the rights of the national bourgeoisie and the repressed petty bourgeoisie of Peruvian society. The level of wages has decreased ever year, to the point that now one worker's wages only cover about 17% of the family budget.
On the other hand, through legislative decrees covering the agricultural sector, the government promotes the mortgage of land and the mechanisms for the concentration of land in the hands of big landowners, big banks and foreign imperialist companies. All of these perpetuate the exploitative order on which the landlord-bureaucratic dictatorship is based under the guise of "parliamentary democracy" and "elections."
"FOR THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF PERU!" which is the alternative in the face of the collapse of the old State and the greater putrefaction of its institutions such as the parliament, the judicial system, and the armed forces (backbone of the reactionary dictatorship against the people). For the exploited and oppressed who make up more than 90% of the population, there is only one way to win their rights: The People's Republic of Peru, which already has shown its superiority in meeting the needs and interests of the proletariat and the people, through the hundreds of People's Committees which are the seeds of the emerging People's Republic of New Democracy.
"FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE'S WAR!" While imperialism orders reactionaries like Fujimori to raise its "human rights" banner to sidestep the oppression and exploitation which the people suffer, and to legitimize its aggression against the oppressed nations of the world, the proletariat raises the struggle for People's Rights and People's War, which represent their just demands and rights, starting with the right to life itself, all the way up to the right to rebel and to conquer Power.
In conclusion, the armed strike is a victorious milestone for the Party, for the proletariat and for the masses. It is a combative struggle in which the masses actively participate during the entire day against the old State and the reactionary regime, thus expressing a high level of development of the People's War, destroying the foundations of the old State and marching forward toward the conquest of power countrywide and the installation of the new State: the People's Republic of Peru.
The armed strikes are not only stunning blows to reaction, but represent the undermining of the old reactionary order, the unmasking and crushing of revisionists and opportunists of all kinds and, therefore, it undermines the interests of Yankee imperialism in our country; sabotaging the plans of the IMF and other imperialist institutions amidst spectacular police deployments, which means that nothing is impossible today for the PCP and the People's Army of Liberation!P