EDITORIAL
THE DICTATORSHIP TREMBLES
Have you noticed how little news is coming out on the People's War in Peru these days? On the surface it appears that nothing is happening there. But like the loud sounds unheard by reporters' ears or sights "unseen" by foreign journalists' eyes, momentous events that are determining the future of millions of people, are taking place throughout the country. These are the military and political actions carried out by the People's Army of Liberation, led by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP). This is the suppressed information destined to be tomorrow's headlines, which is today, brutally censored as "terrorist" or distorted beyond comprehension as "trivial news." There lays the importance of The New Flag.
In mid-year 1997, the bloody struggle for power is continuing. While the revolution led by the PCP is applying its plans and timetables responsibly, in accordance with the laws of war, reaction is split and desperate like a wounded beast, and finds itself in an irreversible political, social, military, and moral decomposition. The incompetent and corrupt ministers resigning from the government acknowledged that "the State has collapsed," and the demo-liberal faction of the big bourgeoisie (who competes for the control of the old State with the fascist faction headed by Fujimori and Nicolas Hermoza) has denounced some crimes by the regime's death squads. But the bourgeois "opposition" of the regime barely mention the regime's blatant policies of hunger and reign of terror (genocide or mass muurder.)
Based on this proof and confession, we clearly see the failure of the plans of Yankee imperialism, implemented in Peru under the labels of "modernization," "privatization," "globalization" and "pacification." All of them have the purpose of reinvigorating bureaucratic capitalism and annihilating the People's War. What is the result? The economy is in shambles. In 1997, more than 80% of Peruvians are unemployed or lack a meaningful job. The "defeat of subversion" and the tight press censorship on the war, are sugar-coated fantasies, to sweeten the sour drink of imperialist investment.
Continuing the VI Military Plan to Conquer Power, the PCP is preparing for the insurrection in the cities. It emphasizes the importance and necessity of developing the People's Liberation Front, which in Peru's case, an oppressed semifeudal nation, is composed of four classes: the proletariat, the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie, and of the progressive sectors of the national bourgeoisie. These classes, which are led by the Party of the proletariat, must win over the majority on the side of the revolution, and isolate the recalcitrant minority.
On the international arena, the PCP thesis that revolution is the principal historical and political tendency in today's world, is being confirmed in deeds. In the midst of the general bankruptcy of modern revisionism, the general counterrevolutionary offensive headed by the only world hegemonic power, has reached its peak and has began to fall. Contrary to their wishes, they are sharpening the class struggle in the world, and this is happening not only in oppressed nations, but also in the same imperialist countries. In the latter, the proletariat and the people are waking up from their lethargic state and are mobilizing in defense of their rights and gains, grasped over decades of hard struggle.
Leading the new wave of the World Proletarian Revolution and the Marxist counteroffensive is the invincible People's War in Peru, which like a brilliant torch of the international proletariat and the peoples of the world, is showing the proper revolutionary path to follow.
Finally, we dedicate this issue to the combatants of the People's Army of Liberation, the leadership of the Party, the prisoners of war, and our heroic Peruvian people, who with theirdetermination, blood and precious lives, are building the People's Republic of Peru.
The Editors.