Peruvian women are forged in the class struggle. Nowadays thousands of them under the leadership of the proletariat and its party, are taking the revolutionary road toward the conquest of power nationwide. This process has the following historical background: In 1969, a flyer published by the Huamanga (Ayacucho) Peasant Federation on the historic uprising for free education and against the regime's Law of Education read: "In every struggle there are sacrifices and death is a common occurrence. Only the struggle educates the exploited classes. Only the struggle reveals to them how mighty is their strength, expands their horizons, enriches their capacities, clarifies their intelligence and tempers their will."And this Law of Education that Ayacucho's peasants opposed so firmly in 1969, enables us to understand what is behind the combativeness and the daily toil of the women for the education of their children. This struggle has continued, and today they actively participate in the People's War led by the PCP. This shows the high political consciousness of women workers and peasants in the revolutionary struggle of Perú.
The struggle of Peruvian women has a rich history. Lima's Daily "El Tiempo" for example reported in 1923: "Indian women arose in rebellion in the Ancco and Chusqui district, they mistreated the mayor and the chief of tax collectors of these districts in a cruel and inhuman way, and left them fatally wounded." This was one important peasant movement in the 1920's in the province of La Mar-Ayacucho. Also, in the 1960's the peasant women took an active part in the struggle in the city of Pomacocha (Ayacucho.) From the outset, in the events of this city, market peddlers were among the most militant bases of the People's Defense Front.
In 1969, women heads of households smashed the doors at the Ayacucho food market, after the police closed it during the demonstrations. This protest was against Decree Law No. 006 of the fascist Velasco dictatorship. Here, an elderly woman, whom other protesters tried to turn away from the skirmish with the police, delivered a furious and spontaneous speech to the masses: "I know how to defend my rights too!"
A PCP militant, then a teenager, spoke admiringly about "the heroism of Mrs. Lozano," that elderly woman was mercilessly shot in the head. She was the first victim of repression in the city of Huanta, Mrs. Lozano with vibrant gestures challenged the police. The courage of another woman who used slingshots forced the trigger-happy police to retreat. This occurred after the body of a little child, savagely murdered by the myrmidons, was still warm.
Today's PCP women fighters are the social product emerging from the warm clay of the people turned guerrilla fighters by historic necessity, assuming their own emancipation as part of the proletarian struggle. They raised their political consciousness with the class that for 18 years has been fighting the People's War led by the PCP. Women could not remain on the sidelines, so they took a historic step into the fight, and we see the daughters of the people among the best front line fighters. The PCP women fighters incarnate a superior ideology, Marxism-Leninism- Maoism, Gonzalo Thought.
REACTIONARY LUCUBRATIONS ON THE ROLE OF WOMEN Since the sawdust in their heads prevents the understanding of reality, there are some reactionaries, like the disgraced "senderologist" Gustavo Gorriti (today himself a victim of those he served so faithfully writing hallucinations against the PCP, the intelligence services). There are also those U.S. "consultants" (e.g., the rat Robin Kirk) who deliver the State Department's disinformation campaign against the PCP through Human Rights Watch and other well-financed NGOs. They indulge in fantasies by speculating that women follow the road of revolution as "deceived victims," who romantically take part in it as a "mournful epic" to sacrifice their lives. Another one in Peru, that murderous vulture Armando Villanueva (former Prime Minister of the APRA regime), had once, the cynicism of "visiting" the tomb of Edith Lagos! With his genocidal "visit," he tried to negate the class conscious position of that young woman, who with her blood, irrigated the revolution in the mid 1980's.
THE FORGING OF WOMEN IN THE PEOPLE'S WAR
The experience of each fighter is forged by the class struggle and her participation in it. In this process they develop their strength, increase their capacity, clarify their intelligence, and temper their will. Similarly, we see that from tender age, many women have been preparing for what later in life would be their leap into the PCP.
In 1977, during a university professor's strike, the body of a student riddled with bullets was transported to the morgue in a military truck. They buried it in a common grave in the locality of Acuchimay. Five women rescued his body and it was then taken to a cemetery during a mass rally protesting his assassination.
In the "Interview," when asked about the process of development of a PCP militant, President Gonzalo stated:"It first starts on how each one of the future militants was forged in the class struggle before becoming a militant, and how each person begins to participate, to advance, to work closer to us, until the time comes when each individual takes the major step of requesting to join the Party. The Party then analyzes their strengths, merits, limitations and weaknesses because we all have them, and grants membership or militancy as warranted."
THE WOMEN FIGHTERS SPEAK A prisoner of war, confined for many years, told us:
"I looked for the Party a lot since I was a law student, it was 1983. The Party's work in the universities still did not have today's dimension, especially the opening toward the masses as it has developed today.All work was secret. It was difficult to find out who was a comrade. I wanted to join. And I looked and looked. There was this very humble and soft speaking student who spoke in class. I could see that he had a firm class position, and I began to pay more attention to him. I sought his friendship, which wasn't easy because he did not talk much. He guarded his militancy closely. I persisted and persisted seeking simple clarification about current issues from him. Finally, he opened up, and I joined the Party. That was my experience."
Another young woman told us:
"I was in the ranks of revisionism (Patria Roja). Once I was arrested and taken to DINCOTE. I arrived at night around 11:00 P.M. The cell was small. They wanted to put me in one of the downstairs cells, where there are rats, but I refused to move. They told me: 'It is the same upstairs and you will be without a blanket.' But I stayed there. She was a young woman asleep in that cell. When I laid down on the floor, she called me and offered a part of her blanket. The next day we began to talk. Her name was Cecilia and she was my age. They were moving her to Cantogrande. I will never forget how resolutely she told me:'Our revolution will win because it is led by the Communist Party, the PCP.'
"That remained in my mind. It was the first time anyone spoke to me about the Party, and I began to sympathize with it, and to analyze objectively the practice of the PCP and to compare it with the organization I was in. There, all you could hear about was how sectarian the PCP was, but there was no ideological discussion. I asked them, why don't you educate me about the 'erroneous principles of the PCP'? But their only reply was: 'You are becoming pro-Sendero.' Soon thereafter, I left that swamp. To me, it was quite a struggle, but in the end, the red stripe prevailed. I approached the Party and joined. Unlike the armed revisionism (MRTA), lacking a proletarian ideology, the militants here are given the most powerful weapon: the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought, with the military subjected to the political decisions."
A woman formerly in a NGO told us:
"I was an old-style feminist, a militant at the Flora Tristan bourgeois feminist group (a NGO in Lima). There, we were taught that our reproductive organs belonged to us and there was talk about the equality of the sexes. By reading Mariátegui and confronting him with reality, I then understood that not all women can fight the same battle together, and class differentiates individuals more than sex.
My political conscience began raising, until I achieved the rigorous ideological standards required to join the PCP. I requested the Party to serve in the People's Army of Liberation, and today, I am accomplishing my duties of producing, mobilizing and fighting. These are the three basic tasks of the PCP combatants. I am part of that sea of armed masses, that is, the men and women who are waging the People's War."
Recently, on February 15th, the University student, Leticia Regina Ramirez Rojas along with a male student, were brutally shot by the marine infantry troops between Faucett and Argentina Avenues in Lima. One of her former classmates told us about this tragic event: "Her death empowers us to continue fighting," and I could discern in her eyes a stern firmness.
We see then, that women have never been passive beneficiaries of the people's deepening class struggle, but tempered combatants and resolute fighters for the cause of the oppressed. All trenches of combat show the indelible mark of their blood.
We cannot forget to mention the call made by the women prisoners in their declaration:
"We the women fighters, prisoners of war, call upon the women of our people, the workers, intellectuals, toilers, women in the neighborhoods and young towns, to join the People's War. Let's continue the fight with more resolution and bravery, and meet the demands of the revolutionary storm taking place in Peru today. We are entering decisive and historic years, and a new phase of battle between revolution and counterrevolution, and more bloody and shattering chapters. But this situation will permit the revolution to advance, and the People's War to develop in the perspective of conquering power countrywide. The masterful leadership of the PCP by way of the great `Gonzalo Thought,' is the guarantee of triumph of the Revolution that will take us to communism."