PEOPLE'S WAR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Peru is located on the central western region of South America facing the Pacific Ocean, bordering Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, and Brazil over a total of 6,940 km. The climate varies from tropical in the eastern portion of the country and dry desert in west. It has three geographic regions: Costa (western costal plain), Sierra (highland or Andes in center), and Selva (eastern jungle abutting the Amazon River and others in the borders with Colombia and Brazil.) Between the Sierra and Selva there is a long area known as "Ceja de Selva" (jungle strip.) These three regions encompass the following 24 departments and a province: Ayacucho, Amazonas, Ancash, Apurimac, Arequipa, Cajamarca, Cusco, Huancavelica, Huanuco, Ica, Junin, La Libertad, Lambayeque, Loreto, Madre de Dios, Moquegua, Pasco, Piura, Puno, San Martin, Tacna, Tumbes, Ucayali, Lima and Callao (province).

• Territory: 1,285,220 Km2 or 502,040 square miles.
• Territorial sea: 200 NM.
• Population: 24, 500, 000 (July 1997, est.)
• Rural 30.2 percent (1996).
• Illiteracy 11.3 percent.
• Density (Population per Km2) 19.0 (1996)
• Annual demographic growth rate: 1.76%.
• Men = 49.6%; Women = 50.4% (1997)
• Demographic projection for the year 2000 (25,720,000)
• Birth rate: 24.33 births/1000 population.
• Death rate: 6.13 deaths/1,000 population.
• Infant mortality rate: 52.2 deaths/1000 live births.
• Fertility rate: 3.3 children/women (1993).
• Lima had 33.3 percent of the total population in 1993 as compared with 9.4 percent in 1940.

Source: National Institute of Statistics of Perú(INEI), 1997. UNESCO Data Base 1995, UN Population Division (UNPOP).

2. WHAT ARE THE NATURAL RESOURCES AND RAW MATERIALS EXTRACTED?

MINING: The mining resources of Perú are enormous. Among the minerals exploited are petroleum, copper, gold, silver (Perú is in the top ten in the world), iron, lead, zinc (worlds's 4th producer), antimony, coal, phosphate, molybdenum, tungsten, and bismuth (essential to the manufacture of X-ray machines and high technology instruments).

AGRICULTURE: Only 3% of the available land is being utilized (arable land). The main crops are rice, potatoes, corn, barley, wheat, rye, oats, cotton, sugar cane, and lumber in the Amazon region.

FISHING INDUSTRY: Anchovy fishing comprises three fifths of the total fishing, making Peru one of the world's suppliers of anchovy meat and derivatives (oil, flour, etc.).

3. WHAT IS THE NATURE OF PERUVIAN SOCIETY?

Peruvian society is semi-feudal and semi-colonial. At the beginning of the 19th century Peru had two problems, which with minor variations persist to this day: one, the land question, meaning the problem of feudalism and serfdom of the peasantry imposed by the big landlords (the latifundia); two, the question of national sovereignty. At the beginning of the 16th century, Peru was the center of the Inca empire whose capital was Cusco, with Quito in the northern part (Quito is now part of Ecuador). A civil war, on the interregnum of the Inca's throne, prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in 1532 helped the latter to defeat and overthrow Inca rule and turn their empire into a Spanish colony.

In turn, Peru became the richest and most important of the Spanish colonies: its territory also comprises today's Bolivia (High Peru), Ecuador, northwestern Brazil, northwestern Paraguay (the Chaco), northern Chile (Atacama desert) the southern Colombian panhandle and parts of northern Argentina. Lima, known by the colonizers as the"City of Kings" was founded in 1551 along the University of San Marcos (the oldest in the Americas.) During the war of independence from Spain armies came from the south with San Martin and from the north with Bolivar. At the battle of Ayacucho in 1824, Marshall Antonio Jose de Sucre defeated the Spanish general, La Serna, the last Viceroy of Peru, ending Spanish rule in the American mainland.

However, independence in the 19th century only meant breaking the ties with Spain. Soon thereafter Peru was controlled and later dominated by England, at the time the foremost capitalist power, which ultimately ruled all of Latin America. England introduced higher methods of development, capitalist methods, mainly through its foreign trade, and tied them directly to the then flourishing guano trade (natural bird's fertilizers for agriculture). The influx of English commodities and capitalist methods accelerated the development of feudalism and began the process of semi-colonization of Peru. Thus, English rule meant the transformation of Peru into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country, with the coming of age of the comprador bourgeoisie.

With the arrival of the 20th century, the United States of America (U. S.) managed to replace English rule, and by the 1920's established its domination over Peru. In these conditions of Yankee imperialist rule, Peruvian society evolved its semi-feudal character but without destroying it completely: semi-feudalism continues to survive to the present. There is increased pressure acting upon society to destroy feudalism, but it is a form of capitalism linked to big monopolies, which is dependent on imperialism (bureaucratic capitalism).

In synthesis, Peru preserves its semi-feudal character, and is also semi-colonial; that is, a subject country that while formally independent, is still being ruled by imperialist powers economically, diplomatically, culturally and militarily, a fact which turns political independence into a mere facade (a formality). The U.S. and European powers continue to oppress and exploit the people and sack the natural resources of Peru: it is imperialism (mainly the U.S.), which effectively and completely dominates Perú.

Social classes evolved in Perú within the above historical context. The big bourgeoisie and big landlords (allied to and servants of the big monopolies of the imperialist powers) impose their old landlord-capitalist state in order to dominate and exploit the other social classes in Peru (the medium or national bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, the proletariat and the peasantry). The masses of workers and poor peasants are in the front line in opposing the rule of the big capitalists, landlords and imperialists. These social, economic and political conditions generate today's revolutionary struggle in Peru: the People's War led by the proletariat and its organized vanguard, the Communist Party of Peru. (Read our page on the "The National Question", PCP document)

4. WHAT IS THE ECONOMIC SITUATION IN PERÚ?

Two out of three Peruvians live in extreme poverty. More than 17 million Peruvians live in misery. Since 1990 poverty has been growing steadily at an annual increase of approximately 660,000 people per year. This means that each year 660,000 more human beings are thrown into poverty. Extreme poverty is generated constantly by the relations of exploitation of the bureaucratic capitalism and semi-feudal economic system dominated by the big monopolies and imperialist powers. Under this system, poverty results directly from the growing unemployment, underemployment, and the crisis of national production.

UNEMPLOYMENT, UNDEREMPLOYMENT AND NATIONAL PRODUCTION

Total work force available (TFTD) for economic activity: 8,900,000 persons over 15 years old, representing 36.5% of the total population.

1996 work Force	% of TFTD	No. of persons
Steady employment	9.3	827,700
Underemployment(e.g., ambulatory)	7.6	678,180
Underemployment (e.g.,unpaid domestic family work)	4.3	379,000
Domestic work (maids, etc.)	2.8	248,310
Total work force	23.96	2,133,190

Unemployment (1996)	Percentage	No. Persons
	76.04	6,766,667
Total (unemployed and underemployed)	87.9	7,823,847

SOURCE; National Institute of Statistics (INEI) of Perú, October 1996. WSID- 1995 Edition. Programa Regional del Empleo Para America Latina y el Caribe (PREALC).

High unemployment and underemployment have been endemic in Peru, but figures by the government itself show these to have increased considerably after 1992 (military coup and abolition of the Constitution), and the food stock and gasoline increases in 1996 and 1997 reflect the worsening economic crisis. This can be observed in the following table:

Fiscal Year	Percent(%)of unemployed and underemployed
1990	73.1
1991	78.5
1992	76.8
1993	77.4
1994	74.3
1995	74.0
1996	87.9
1997	88.5

SOURCE: National Institute of Statistics (INEI) of Peru; PREALC, Economic Survey of Latin America (ECLAC), Desco, Gestion.

• Exports: $6.5 billion (U.S.A. 19%, Japan 9%, Spain, Germany, Italy, etc.; 1995)
• Imports: $7.5 billion, in machinery, vehicles, food, chemicals, etc. (U.S.A. 21%, Japan, Brazil, etc., 1995)

The high unemployment, added to the deficit, which is the disproportionate increase of imports with respect to exports, reduces the internal demand for national products. As a result, the national industry is liquidated. This causes a permanent recession in national production. For instance, the internal consumption of maritime products (fish, etc.) decreased more than 3% in 1996. The fishing industry cannot keep its current production levels because it cannot compete with the big international monopolies in search for markets abroad. At the same time, the smaller national productions, coupled to lesser internal demand, mean more layoffs and unemployment, because the work force demand also goes down. On the other hand, imperialist enterprises optimize their earnings by reducing to a minimum their work force. This is the sector that provides the least employment in Perú.

This interaction of permanent crisis is an unending cycle that is a characteristic of bureaucratic capitalism, a type of capitalism linked to the big monopolies and dependent on the imperialist powers. The crisis in national production is directly related to unemployment, underemployment, low internal demand and increased imports of consumer products from abroad. The Peruvian economy is oriented mainly to export raw materials and natural resources, and at the same time it is a market for the commercialized products of the big multinational monopolies. Therefore, the national production for internal consumption (national industry) remains stuck and in constant crisis. For example, the contraction of the national industry in 1997 with respect to 1996 in the fishing, manufacturing and intermediate goods are -52, -0.8 and -6.6 percent respectively.

In Peru and the rest of the Third World, the extraction of raw materials for export is based on the abusive exploitation (super exploitation) of the labor power of the working class and peasantry, primarily the poorest sections of these two classes. An example in point is oil exploration and extraction. Imperial monopolies, Occidental, Chevron and Shell-Mobil, impose abusive work conditions in Peru's Amazonic and jungle strip regions. The same is true in the south of the country where this latter Yankee corporation (working jointly with Holland's Shell) does exploring work on shale gas in the department of Cusco (the Camisea Gas project). As of now more than 400 poor peasants of La Concepcion province (Cusco) have voiced complaints that the Shell-Mobil bosses (through their Peruvian accomplices and NGOs), force them to work more than 12 hours per day, doing exploration tasks in the jungle for the miserably salary of $3.40 a day (28 cents an hour) without health insurance and other benefits. This salary is nothing compared to the minimum salary in the US, $4.50 per hour paid to US workers, which can amount to $10 per hour to workers doing the same task, including the implementation of safety standards, hygienic environments and unemployment and social security benefits. But, in Peru, these same imperialist corporations exploit our riches, paying miserable wages to the workers, providing no protection, not to speak of causing environmental damage, as they have turned their operating sites into generators of toxic dumps and open cesspools polluting rivers and coastal waters, as is the case in mining and metallurgical centers (Cuajone, Toquepala, Cerro de Pasco, etc.) The complaints of the people of La Concepcion (Cusco) are legitimate ones since they lack even the basic sanitation services.

The super exploitation imposed by the imperialist system is based on the misery of the people. The regime of Alberto Kenyo Fujimori is not answering the peasants' complaints. And so these people have proclaimed that: "The Fujimori government does not care about our problems. The multinational corporations and their Peruvian coyotes treat us like animals. We are human beings and will fight to be treated as such." (Source: the progovernment Daily La Republica, Lima, July 18, 1996).

The Kenyo Fujimori regime and the old Peruvian state keep the export of raw materials, the auction of the State enterprises, and mainly the super-exploitation of the workers as their main sources of hard currency. The hard currency is needed mainly to pay the foreign debt, and it is precisely for that reason that all loans by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the international financial oligarchy have as their main objective, the financing and developing of the infrastructure (roads, etc.) in order to export raw materials to the big monopolistic firms in the U.S. and Europe. These loans are to benefit international banks and big monopolies, and that is what the peoples of Peru and the Third world pay with their sweat and blood. These imperialist relations of exploitation do not help satisfy the needs of the Peruvian people, but on the contrary, only create more oppression, misery and hunger.

EXTREME POVERTY

The number of inhabitants living in extreme poverty continues to rise.

YEAR	No. Persons in Extreme Poverty	Percent (%) of Total Population
1982	9,400,000	56
1986	11,500,000	57
1990	13,000,000	58
1993	15,000,000	68
1995	16,320,00	69
1996	17,700,000	72

As shown in the previous Table, 1996 shows also a marked increase in unemployment and underemployment.
Sources: O'Brien & Sierra, Solidarity Peru Forum, 1994. National Institute of Statistics of Peru, October 1996.

Another factor contributing to the increase of the conditions of misery of the Peruvian population are the low wages of workers and professionals. For instance, in January 1998 a rural school teacher earns an average salary of 100 dollars a month (at an exchange rate of 2.7 soles per dollar, that's less than 1.3 dollars a day! and it is getting worse since in 1996 it was two dollars a day); the teachers in the city earn about $120 and still the dictatorship grabs about $20 in taxes. However, Perú is one of the most expensive countries in Latin America and the living expenses are comparable to those in New York (prices of foodstuff went up and wages were frozen after the military coup in 1992 when price subsidies and the labor legislation were eliminated.) In Metropolitan Lima, unemployment remains at a constant 75% median of those employed, more than half work in small enterprises and factories with less than nine workers. These small enterprises, in conformance with current law, are not required to provide social security and other health and social benefits to their workers. The obsolete liberal (or neoliberal) policy and privatization carried out by the bureaucratic landlord State also causes a serious crisis in the public sector. For example, in 1990 the Ministry of Industry had 2,200 public employees, in 1995 it only had 200 employees and the other 2000 (and their families) were thrown on the streets to suffer more hunger and misery. Overall, income in 1997 was less than in 1964.

In 1990 there were 470,000 public employees in Peru, now only 210,000 remain on reduced salaries, therefore, widespread hunger and unemployment along with bloody repression is preached by the regime as "democratic modernization" and "globalization."
(Source: Figures from ENAPROM, ADEC-ATC 10/94, Julio Cotler and Adolfo Figueroa 1994, Desco Magazine, August 1996. Data for 1997 is from the paper Gestion, Lima. )

THE FOREIGN DEBT.

The foreign debt increases and is another principal cause of extreme poverty conditions in Peru, and in all Latin America and the Third World. The Peruvian foreign debt is shown in the following table:

Year	Foreign Debt (millions of dollars)
1985	12,800
1990	32,141
1994	22,500
1996	33,061

Source: National Bank of Peru, 1997.
In June 1996, the National Reserve Bank of Peru Vice President Mario Tovar said the foreign debt grew 50% in 1996 because of the loans obtained in 1990 and also because of interests accrued and fines imposed for late payments set by the creditor banks (14 billion in arrears). Fujimori acknowledges that his regime's top priority is to make debt payments on time to his imperialist masters. Thus, in 1995 Perú paid 1.1 billion dollars in interests, and in 1996 these payments increased to 1.8 billion dollars. For this reason, the U.S. State Department praises to the skies its lackey Fujimori, who by starving and bleeding the Peruvian people has reportedly paid the arrears to international banks by March 1993. Each year more than 22% of the Gross National Product (GNP or GDP) is used to pay the foreign debt (payments for principal and interest.)
Sources: Gestion, Caretas Magazine, June 20, 1996; El Comercio, Lima, July 3, 1996.

The sudden increase in the foreign debt of Peru is not any surprise. The Brady Plan, developed and imposed to puppet regimes by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, shows that accrued interests are higher than the cumulative total loans disbursed to Third World countries. Specifically for Peru, interests payable to international banks is doubled than the loans received.

The Brady Plan to Pay Foreign Debt to U.S. Banks, November 8, 1996 (in millions of dollars):

Loans to be paid (principal)	$4,400
Accrued Interests (super profits)	$4,917
Total Owed to U.S. Banks	$9,317

The Brady Plan sets the annual payments to be made until 2016. Note that this only refers to the debt with the U.S. banks. Almost the entire foreign debt of Peru (99%) is owed to 180 international banks, including City Bank, Chase Manhattan, Bankers Trust Co., the Bank of Nova Scotia, the Bank of Tokio-Mitsubishi, Ltd.; the Banque Nationale de Paris, the Dresdner Bank, etc.

THE TRADE DEFICIT, INFLATION AND LIVING EXPENSES.

Peru's foreign trade deficit in 1994 was $1.12 billion. In 1995, the deficit increased to $2.02 billion. In 1995 imports reached $7,061 million (a 40% increase compared to 1994) while exports have shrunk to $5,042 million the same year. The GDP in 1995 was 22.433 billion dollars.

Annual Inflation Rate	+10% since 1995
Increase in consumer price index	+12% per year
State Budget Deficit	+9% of GDP

Sources: The Economist Intelligence Unit, Feb. 1996. El Comercio, Lima, Feb. 1996. National Institute of Statistics for Peru, 1996.

The Currency Devaluation (soles/dollar) is as follows:

1992	1994	1995	1996	1996	1997
1.25	1.98	2.20	2.25	2.60	2.75

Source: UN Data Bank, Economist Intelligence Unit, Wall Street Journal, December 30, 1997.

MILITARY EXPENDITURES, PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION

Although the Peruvian regime always claim it has declared "war on poverty," "cut poverty rate in half" and has "modernized the country," in practice it does the opposite. It is deepening the economic crisis and the suffering of the Peruvian people. Throughout the years most resources and state budgets have been slanted in order to pay the foreign debt and increase the military expenditures.

In 1994 and 1995 almost 20% of the State budget went to military expenditures, and this trend has continued since 1990 when Kenyo Fujimori was implanted in the presidency.

Peru: 1990-1995 Military Expenditures (in Millions of Dollars)

YEAR	Millions Per Year	Millions Per Day
1990	1,250	3.42
1991	1610	4.41
1992	1450	3.97
1993	1531	4.19
1994	1649	4.51
1995	1879	5.14

Source: Constituent Congress, Budget of the Republic of Peru, 1994-1995. New Society Magazine, No. 138, Lima, Aug. 1995. The Military Balance 1995-1996, Oxford University.

The 1995 budget does not include expenses incurred during the border conflict with Ecuador from Dec. '94 to March '95, which were an additional US $12 million per day.

In comparison, the state budgets of health and public education are much lower. As a norm, the landlord-bureaucratic capitalist state assigns about 3% of the annual budget for public sanitation and health. In 1995 294 million dollars were allocated to hospitals, ambulances, and maintenance, etc. This amount is equivalent to 12 dollars per year per capita or three cents a day spent on public health. US $784 million was allocated for education, which means 33 dollars per year per capita or nine cents a day -to pay for the maintenance and construction of schools and universities, school supplies, teachers' and professors' salaries, etc. Most of the children in rural areas receive no education at all due to the lack of schools, teachers and supplies. With the midget budget for health and education, and the scarce resources, it is no surprise that epidemics (cholera, tuberculosis, etc.) and illiteracy are "common maladies" in Peru.

Comparison Table of State Budgets on Military Expenditures, Public Health, and Education for the Year 1995

Expenditures	millions of dollars
Military	1,874
Health	294
Education	784

Source: Fujimori's Congress, Budget of the Republic of Perú, 1994-1995. New Society Magazine, No. 138, Lima, August 1995. The Military Balance 1995-1996, Oxford University.

According with the World Health Organization (1995), only 31 percent of the rural population and 81 percent of the urban areas have access to clean water, while less than 23 percent of the later has access to adequate sanitation. This situation, added to the widespread malnutrition, have caused that illnesses such as Cholera and T.B. be present in epidemic proporti.

The 1995 comparison table reflects the meager resources allocated for the health and education of the Peruvian people as compared with the budget spent by the parasitic military. That is why malnutrition and starvation are the leading causes of illnesses and dead. For example, in only two years in power (1990-1992), more than 1,200 children died weekly from malnutrition and extreme poverty, while 38 per cent of the survivors suffered chronic malnutrition. There are 21,800 medical doctors in the country (one per 1,000 persons). Unable to solve these basic socioeconomic problems of children, the regime, the armed forces and imperialist NGOs, are conducting forced abortions and sterilizations in shanty towns and the countryside. They blackmail the mothers in exchange for food, and in some cases under threats of accusing them as "terrorists." Approximately 43 per cent of these abortions are botched and have inflicted physical and psychological damage to the mothers. Yet, the rag called "Constitution" promulgated by dictator Fujimori in 1993 reads: "abortion is illegal in Perú except in cases where the mother's life is in danger."

The larger military expense simply means an internal civil war, since the extreme poverty conditions cause the masses of workers, peasants and progressive to carry out a democratic revolution by way of the People's War against the old State system.

The old capitalist-landlord state is incapable of solving the social and economic crisis. It does not answer to the needs of the Peruvian people because it serves mainly the interests of international banking and imperialist monopolies, and it is for this reason that the crisis deepens more, generating more unemployment, misery, hunger, ignorance, epidemics, etc. In conclusion: The old Peruvian state has no reason to exist any longer.

5. WHAT IS THE POLITICAL AND MILITARY STRUCTURE OF PERU?

THE OLD STATE:

It is a landlord-bureaucratic capitalist State, and dependent from imperialist powers, mainly U.S. imperialism. In 1992, Alberto Kenyo Fujimori imposed himself in government, after a coup d'etat, and crushed Congress, abolished the Constitution, imposed absolute censorship over the press and communications media, jailed those who protested, and annihilated thousands of political prisoners in the prisons. The tyrant Kenyo Fujimori rules by way of the most absolute centralism using his executive powers to enact anti democratic and dictatorial decrees in order to suppress political opponents, it is a corrupt regime involved in narcotrafficking that manipulates the judicial and legislative powers.

There is no separation between the executive and legislative branches nor between the executive and the judiciary. Civilian Law system has not accepted the ICJ jurisdiction. Most members of the Constitutional Tribunal (similar to a Supreme Court) who were appointed by the dictator himself were fired for not following SIN's wishes to once again implant Fujimori for a third "presidential" term.

The reactionary armed forces and the National Intelligence Services (SIN) are the dictatorship's main support, which in practice means the regime is headed by three criminal elements: the clan Fujimori (executive), Nicolas Hermoza Rios (armed forces), and Vladimiro Montesinos (SIN). Under Decree Law No. 746 of 1992, SIN's tasks are: political activism (e.g., elections, media control, surveillance of the opposition), the economy (e.g., infiltration of unions), and psychological warfare (e.g., fabricate hoaxes, terrorize the masses during search and seize operations).

In addition, there is one important function of SIN not written in the Law, but it is part of the law intensity warfare campaign against the Peruvian people: SIN and its appendices (DIE, DINCOTE, etc.) manage and operate various death squads (e.g., Grupo Colina). Under the "Law," SIN only answers to the dictator or the reverse the dictator only answers to SIN, which in turn is controlled and funded by the U.S. Embassy (e.g., CIA).

In the 1995 elections, Kenyo Fujimori obtained only 18 percent (18%) of the total registered voters (this amount includes fraud.) Congressional candidates, hand picked by the intelligence services (many are retired agents), obtained only 15% of the votes. The percentage of absentee, blank and null votes added up to more than 75 percent (75%)of the registered voters. Such a display shows not only that the Fujimori regime is clearly repudiated by the majority of the people, but it is also illegitimate. This is also seen because such an electoral circus was the result of the 1992 military coup.

Militarily, the old state still maintains direct control of nearly 60% of the national territory. This control is imposed mainly in the cities by means of repression, by way of curfews and "states of emergency" under the command of the military, who at the same time have allied themselves with the drug trafficking cartels. In sum, the Kenyo Fujimori regime is a corrupt terrorist dictatorship supported by drug traffickers and the armed forces using fascist methods of repression.

• Total contingent of Police and Armed Forces: 227,000 (1995).
• Contingent of Paramilitary Forces (civil defense committees or rondas) for the internal civil war: 400,000 (1995).

Source: The International Institute for Strategic Studies, "The Military Balance 1995-1996."

The participation of some peasants in paramilitary civil defense (rondas) is generally forced by the reactionary armed forces, for this reason, and because of the intense activity of the PCP, the rondas are dissolving themselves or joining the People's Army.

THE NEW STATE

. The People's Republic of New Democracy in formation are based on the New Power exercised by the classes that make up the people: workers, peasants and progressives (petty bourgeoisie and sectors of the national bourgeoisie). The PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF PERU being formed is the main achievement of the People's War led by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) and its Central Committee. The People's War is developed to carry out the Democratic Revolution, and is the main form of struggle to conquer, defend and develop the New Power to end exploitation and oppression, and to serve the people's interests. At present the People's War has reached the stage of strategic equilibrium, meaning that the strategic counteroffensive is being prepared - without interruptions - constructing the conquest of New Power in all of Peru.

Due to the fluidity of the People's War, the New Power is being developed in over 40-50% of the national territory (the Support Bases and/or People's Committees). In the New State the forms of organization of the New Power are:

• 1. the hundreds of People's Committees (clandestine and open) in the countryside,
• 2. People's Struggle Committees in the cities,
• 3. PCP-Generated Organizations (Poor Peasants Movement, Class Conscientious Workers Labor Movement MOTC, the People's Feminine Movement, the People's Youth Movement, the Revolutionary Students Front, the People's Defense Revolutionary Movement, etc.),
• 4. Five Regional Committees at the national level, and support committees in the 24 departments of the country.

All organizational forms of the New Power are governed by Democratic Centralism, with ample participation by the masses in all tasks and decisions being its most important characteristic. The composition of the People's Committees is one-third peasants (mainly poor peasants), one-third proletarians (PCP militants) and one-third petty-bourgeoisie. This composition reflects the class alliance sustaining the Democratic Revolution and forging the new system of State in the People's Republic of Peru, that is now being formed.

The People's Army of Liberation (EPL): led by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) and its Central Committee. It is the armed force of the New State, and is made up of base forces, local forces and principal forces, having the liberated areas in the countryside as its Support Bases. Special detachments and people's militias operate in the cities, aiming at creating a sea of armed masses as a guarantee of the New Power. The EPL operative units are the mobile columns that fight applying the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Thought Proletarian Military Line. The EPL mobile columns are expert in the active defense and are characterized by their high moral, honesty, productivity (for their own sustenance in food and material), combativity and efficiency in the war of movements in the countryside and city. Each mobile column is made up of 50-60 combatants. (See our page "The Military Line", PCP document).

Total Contingent of the People's Army of Liberation: Reserved.

6. WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU?

The Communist Party of Peru (PCP) is the organized vanguard of the Peruvian proletariat, a party of the new type upholding, defending and mainly applying the ideology of the proletariat: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought, mainly Gonzalo Thought. The history of the PCP is the history of the working class and the class struggle in Peruvian society.

The three historical periods of the PCP are:

First Period (1928-1959). The PCP was founded by José Carlos Mariátegui on October 7, 1928 and was originally called the "Socialist Party" and participated in the Third International of Lenin (Comintern). After the death of Mariátegui in 1930, at age 35, the proletarian line he forged was abandoned, and the Party degenerated to become a mere participant in bourgeois elections, expressing revisionist basis ("Marxist" in words, but in practice betrayed the interest of the working class, a perfunctory parasitic appendage fully collaborating with the landlord-capitalist class and its military.)

Second Period (1960-1979). The PCP Reconstitution takes place in intense struggle against revisionism. Many PCP members struggled hard against the revisionist leadership (servants of the bourgeoisie inside the Party who "revised Marxism"). Reconstitution was focused on retaking the road established by Mariátegui, the proletarian line. In this period, the RED FRACTION of the Party, based in Ayacucho (Peru's south-central region) supported the Communist Party of China, led by President Mao Tse-tung, in their fight against the revisionism imposed in the USSR by the Nikita Khrushchev gang. Among the leaders of the Red Fraction was a young communist whose nom de guerre was "Alvaro" (later on to be known as President Gonzalo). After four years of intense struggle the PCP youth expelled the old revisionist leadership in the Fourth Conference in 1964. This practical and ideological struggle generated a greater understanding of Marxism, and so in this period the PCP became the first Communist Party in the world to raise, defend and apply "Mao Tse-tung Thought" as a practical and theoretical advance of Marxism-Leninism. The Party Reconstitution process was completed in 1979.

Third Period (1980-1997). Considering that the main purpose of every Communist Party is to conquer Power for the proletariat and the people, the PCP initiated the People's War on May 17, 1980 to carry out a democratic revolution. The PCP Central Committee, led by President Gonzalo initiated the masses' Armed Struggle to end the oppression and exploitation imposed and stubbornly defended by the old ruling classes, their old state, and imperialism. The PCP fighters, with clear minds, resolute will and inextinguishable passion, displayed armed actions and from the novices they were, they now became experts in armed and political actions to defend and serve the people. After almost 18 years of People's War, the PCP raises with pride the flaming and invincible Red Flag of the international proletariat, symbol of luminous hope and victory. Among the main achievement of this period, of significance are the PCP's confirmation by the revolutionary practice of the People's War that MAOISM is the new, third and superior stage of Marxism, by which once again, the PCP became the first communist party in the world to raise, defend and mainly apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism. With the creative application of this proletarian ideology to the specific conditions of the class struggle in Peru, Gonzalo Thought is generated, which scientifically synthesizes the specific characteristics of the revolution. Gonzalo Thought is generated by the practical actions of the People's War, and at the same time helps guide it to victory. For these reasons, today the PCP is a party of the new type that raises, defends and mainly applies Marxism-Leninism- Marxism, Gonzalo Thought, mainly Gonzalo Thought.

Thus, the PCP, with the honest and heroic leadership of the Central Committee, develops the People's Army of Liberation and the People's Liberation Front to defend, consolidate and expand the New Power exercised by the people. Since 1991 the PCP and the revolutionary masses develop without interruption the strategic equilibrium of the People's War. This means that it is getting ready to launch the strategic offensive for the inevitable Conquest of Power in all of Peru, when the center of the revolution is transferred from the countryside to the city.

7. WHO IS JOSÉ CARLOS MARIÁTEGUI? J. C. Mariátegui fought for the interests of the proletariat and the people of Perú, he applied Marxism-Leninism to interpret Peruvian reality and founded the PCP. Mariátegui says in his autobiography: "I was born in 1895. At age 14 I began to work as an delivery boy in a newspaper. Until 1919, I worked in the daily La Prensa, then in El Tiempo, finally in Las Razas. In this last daily we sponsored the university reform. Since 1918, and nauseated by mainstream criollo politics, I became oriented to socialism . . . From the end of 1919 to mid 1923 I traveled in Europe . . . On my return to Perú, in 1923 . . . I explained the European situation and began my investigatory work of Peruvian national reality following the Marxist method. In 1924 I nearly lost my life. I lost a leg . . . I am self-taught."
Source: Inside cover of the "Seven Interpretive Essays of Peruvian Reality." Tenth edition, Editorial Amauta, Lima, 1965."

Mariátegui always maintained that "Power is conquered by revolutionary violence, and is defended by class dictatorship" and "revolutions are the bloody process by which things are born . . . and are attained only after many years. Alternate periods are frequent in which the revolutionary or the counterrevolutionary forces prevail." (See our page on José Carlos Mariátegui).

8. WHO IS PRESIDENT GONZALO?

President Gonzalo is the battle name of Dr. Rubén A. Guzman Reynoso, the main PCP leader and strategist. He was born in the city of Arequipa (in southern Peru) on December 3, 1934. He joined the PCP at the age of 15. While he was a university student, he witnessed the bloody struggle of the people against their unfair oppression and exploitation and stated: "When the people demonstrated on the streets, reactionaries trembled, no matter how much power they had." At the University of Arequipa, he wrote two theses for his doctorate in jurisprudence and another one in philosophy, "The Kantian Theory of Space" and the other on "The State in Bourgeois Democracy." After completing his university studies, he moved to Huamanga (Ayacucho) to work as a professor at the University of San Cristobal de Huamanga. His faculty colleagues and former students remember him as a friendly, sincere and humble person, of great intelligence. It was in Ayacucho that comrade Gonzalo became one of the principal leaders in the PCP Regional Committee. He traveled to China during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and could appreciate directly the revolutionary transformations forged by the proletariat under Mao Tse-tung's leadership. This experience influenced him profoundly to carry out his relentless struggle against revisionism. After an exhaustive study of Peruvian society, the PCP, already led by Chairman Gonzalo, resolved that the Maoist strategy of surrounding the cities from the countryside was also valid for a semifeudal and semicolonial country such as Perú. It was also in Ayacucho where the Red Fraction was forged to expel the revisionist clique that had manipulated the PCP. The results of this struggle was the Party Reconstitution which prepared the way for armed struggle. In 1980, the PCP Central committee initiated the Armed Struggle (ILA-80). President Gonzalo clearly expressed its historical significance: "Our work with unarmed hands has concluded. We now begin the armed word. The working class demands it, the people demand it, it is necessary. Our people have found the new road, armed struggle. We have called to arms, government of workers and peasants! Either we fulfill what we promise, or we will be a laughing stock, discredited traitors, and that we are not. Let it be written forever on pages of steel over the loins of the mountains, so it can never be erased nor written the opposite way."

President Gonzalo led the armed struggle until his capture in 1992. He was seen and heard for the last time on September 24, 1992, when, from a tiger cage, he spoke to the whole world and confirmed that the PCP will continue the People's War until final victory, and that his capture was nothing but a "bend in the road" to the inevitable conquest of power in all the country. President Gonzalo will always live in the heart of the working class. His modesty and courage inspires all the revolutionaries in the world, and his struggle is materialized in each advance of the victorious People's War in Peru. (See our page on Chairman Gonzalo.)

9. WHAT IS MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM, GONZALO THOUGHT?

The ideology of the international proletariat is generated with the historical process of the class struggle. First it emerged as Marxism, which led to Marxism-Leninism and later on to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Thus the scientific ideology of the proletariat has three stages: 1) Marxism; 2.) Leninism; 3)Maoism. These three stages represent moments or milestones in the dialectical process of the development of proletarian ideology which, beginning with the "Communist Manifesto" 150 years ago, has developed the class struggle. The class struggle is also reflected as a two-line struggle in the communist parties themselves, which evolve within the framework of the established program in order to conquer power for the proletariat and the people.

It is thanks to the immense work of Marx, Lenin and Mao Tse-tung in theory and in practice that now the international proletariat is armed with its invincible weapon of victory: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly today's Maoism.

Gonzalo Thought is generated and developed with the advance of the class struggle and People's War in Perú. To understand this, it is necessary to keep in mind that revolutions generate a guiding thought resulting from the application of the universal truth of the international proletarian ideology to the specific conditions of each revolution. This guiding thought is indispensable to reach victory and conquer Power and, furthermore, to continue the revolution in the direction of the only great goal: Communism. This guiding thought at a certain stage makes a qualitative advance (leap) in the revolutionary process and therefore, becomes identified with the name of the individual who synthesized it in theory and in practice. In Perú this phenomenon was first called "guiding thought," and later the "guiding thought of President Gonzalo," and finally "Gonzalo Thought." In short, President Gonzalo synthesized the creative application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the specific conditions of Peruvian reality, thus giving the PCP and the revolution an ideological weapon indispensable for victory. Summarizing, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought is the highest and most recent development of the proletarian ideology, and it is generated and developed by its application to the class struggle, with the practical action of the People's War, and helps lead it to victory.

Gonzalo Thought was forged in years of intense class struggle, a persistent and uninterrupted struggle to uphold, defend and mainly apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. It was a struggle to retake and develop Mariátegui's road a struggle to reconstitute the Party and mainly a struggle to initiate, maintain and develop the People's War in Peru. It is a fundamental impetus, an example and contribution to the World Revolution, proving beyond a shadow of doubt that only Marxism-Leninism-Maoism can be the theory and practice in command of the worldwide proletarian struggle for Socialism and then to Communism. (See item 6. "A Brief History of the PCP, Third Period." and our page "The Interview", PCP document)

10. WHAT IS THE PEOPLE'S WAR?

It is a protracted revolutionary war, some call it non-conventional war or war of the masses, led by the organized vanguard of the working class: the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Communist Party. (See item 5. "The New State," and item 6. "Brief History of the PCP, Third Period.")

11. WHAT IS THE STRATEGIC EQUILIBRIUM?

Because of its protracted character, the People's War has three stages: strategic defensive, strategic equilibrium, and strategic offensive (see item 5. "The New State," and item 6. "Brief History of the PCP, Third Period.")

12. WHY DO PEASANTS SUPPORT THE REVOLUTION?

With the People's War, the PCP upholds and applies the slogan: "LAND TO THOSE WHO TILL IT!" With the defeat of the big landlords, drug traffickers and their lackeys in the countryside, the New Power emerges and is given impetus by the development of the Support Bases, where the PCP leads the poor peasant masses so they themselves satisfy their needs and serve their own interests. This is achieved by developing the New Economy and the New State being formed. As the old Power and the old economy are demolished (the old relations of production and trade) the countryside is cleared and the New Economy can be built, based on self-sufficiency, self provisioning, and collective work according to the needs of the people and the People's War. The New Economy is an economy of a new type. The peasants, mainly the poor peasants, and their families are assured housing and a parcel of land. The land is for those who till it, and it is not permitted to be leased or to be inherited. All those willing to work with the leadership of the People's Committee have the opportunity to work for the collective self-sustenance and development. The sale and consumption of alcohol is strictly controlled and is allowed only on Saturdays and Sundays. With this economic base, the People's Committees are able to provide sanitation, health care and education in people's schools, developing the New Culture, which also serves the need of the people and the People's War. In summary, what the peasantry conquers, develops, defends and achieves in the support Bases is a better life. These are the main reasons why the peasantry, mainly the poor peasants, support the People's War led by the PCP. (See our page "The Peasant Question," PCP document)

13. HOW ARE THE WORKERS AND PEOPLE ORGANIZED IN THE CITIES AND POOR NEIGHBORHOODS?

With the People's War, the PCP has crushed the fake "leftists" of the United Left and their ilk ("market socialists," "democrats," the PUM, Patria Roja, MRTA, etc.) and has developed true mass movements in the cities, mainly in poor neighborhoods. The masses are organized in People's Committees of Struggle, the first form of New Power in the cities, reflecting a great leap in the incorporation of the masses in the People's War, helping to prepare the transfer of the center of the war from the countryside to the city (see item 5. "The New State.") In the cities, the PCP has developed Armed Strikes as the main form of people's struggle. The Armed Strike is a new form of mobilization and struggle of the masses, similar to a general strike, with the variant that in the Armed Strike - which lasts several days in the capital and even weeks in some provinces - many political-military actions of various types are displayed, such as agitation, propaganda, sabotage to the imperialist enterprises, ambushes, selective annihilations of armed forces myrmidons, snitches, intelligence agents and their death squads, along with massive demonstrations of protest against the tyranny, simultaneously with the deployment of armed actions in urban areas to defend, expand and strengthen the New Power.

14. WHAT IS THE PCP POSITION WITH RESPECT TO ELECTIONS AND THE OLD BOURGEOIS DEMOCRACY?

About elections, Marx noted: "Every few years the oppressed are authorized to decide which members of the oppressor class will represent them and crush them in the parliament!" (from the document "Against Constitutional Illusions and for the State of New Democracy," PCP Central Committee) This is still more valid when it comes to elections to ratify constitutional charters. Elections are but the regular order of government renewal in the bourgeois dictatorships in capitalist societies, even the most democratic ones imaginable, and are the normal method for their political development for the preservation and development of capitalism. In landlord-capitalist states, like those in Latin America - in those periods in which the norms of demo bourgeois system have been respected - "elections have only been an instrument of domination of the feudal landlord and big capitalists; whether in periodic renewals, as lately in Colombia, or to end a military government, as in Argentina or Chile. These are a few examples in which our America is so prolific." (See our page, "Elections No!, People's War Yes!" , PCP Document.)

15. WHAT IS THE PCP POSITION ON HUMAN RIGHTS?

The financial oligarchy, a class of imperialism and specification of the big bourgeoisie, has always raised the old and torn banners of "human rights" so as to expand their world domination. Apparently imperialism, reaction, and revisionism defend human rights outside class divisions, but in reality, they only defend their right and freedom to keep peoples and nations subjugated: that is why imperialism today, mainly Yankee, uses "human rights" to dictate its "international norms," justifying their intervention anywhere in the world under the mask of acting on behalf of the "internatioal comunity," subjecting all to its hegemony. Ironically, the United States is the worst violator of human rights in the world, proven inside and outside its borders by invasions and bloody massacres in Iraq, Panama, Grenada, Haiti, Somalia, and Bosnia; and so their "human rights defender" propaganda is but an excuse to impose imperialist class rule. Inside the U.S. by the increasing gap between "haves" and "have nots," permanent massive layoffs, 1.6 million prisoners -more than 10 times the incarceration rate of its NATO allies- some 8 million U.S. children (mostly from oppressed nationalities such as of African and Latin American descend) suffer malnutrition. In New York alone (not to speak of the U.S. colony Puerto Rico), 21 per cent of the total population lives in extreme poverty. Forty two percent of the poor is Latin American and 35 percent is Black, and the unemployment rate for these groups is 9 and 15 percent respectively (U.S. Census Bureau, 1996). The police is acting as occupation army in the barrios and ghettoes. The Supreme Court and Congress are canceling the rights of citizens, legitimate dissident groups (especially those from the Third World) are being suppressed, jailed, and deported (e.g., so-called "counterterrorist law") or are being subject to arbitrary telecommunications surveillance (e.g., illegal intercepts and wiretapping are widespread.) In short, internally the "beast" is gradually turning itself into a huge police state.

Considering today's world, it is clear that the rights of the working class and the people are not included in the touted individual "human rights." The peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America have the right to have a decent life, however, imperialism condemns them to die of hunger, and sink them in growing misery, debt, unemployment, economic crisis, and bury them in profound ignorance. In today's world reality, the so-called "human rights" are those of imperialism to oppress and exploit the people.

To defend the rights of individuals isolated from the class context is absurd because a worker is not equal to a capitalist, as the former has the "right" to be exploited and the latter has the "right" to exploit "selecting" those, he or she chooses to hire. These rights are not genuine rights by warped deceptions to cover up oppression and exploitation. An example of that is the very "right" to private property over the means of production (factories, etc.) that is the supreme "human right" of the big capitalists and bankers which in reality, amounts to the "right" to make wage slaves of the rest of society. Moreover, a homeless person or beggar or even an employed union worker may spend long years in prison for most any mistake he or she makes, and often on completely false accusations, while a "Du Pont" literally would be found "temporarily insane" at most, even if beyond a shadow of a doubt guilty of a capital crime.

The PCP upholds and defends PEOPLE'S RIGHTS, rights of the class to exercise political power, satisfying all their basic needs, and having the freedom to live a happy life with dignity, without suffering unjust oppression and exploitation, and this is possible only with a New State of New Democracy, with the People's Republic of Peru now being formed. The PCP uses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - the Costa Rica agreements - to show before the world that the corrupt terrorist Fujimori regime, the old Peruvian state, and U.S. imperialism, are the biggest violators of these same rights they claim to defend and talk about with both sides of their mouth. In Perú, the defense of human rights propaganda is part of the low intensity war conducted by Yankee imperialism against the People's War and the PCP. The acts of terrorism by the Fujimori regime have already caused over 30,000 victims in Peru. Its bloody military has committed heinous genocides: El Fronton (300 political prisoners murdered), Cantogrande (100 prisoners of war murdered), Barrios Altos, mass annihilation of peasant communities in Accomarca, Bellavista, Cayara, Huanta, Huancapi, heavy bombardment of civilian population such as the Ashaninka community, and People's Committees in Ayacucho, assassinations in universities such as La Cantuta, Huancayo, San Marcos, etc. (See our page on human rights.)

16. WHAT IS THE PCP POSITION WITH RESPECT TO WOMEN AND ETHNIC GROUPS?

The PCP is outstanding for organizing and fully incorporating Peruvian women in the ranks of the party and the People's War. To that end, it generated the People's Women Movement with class conscious basis according to the line established by our funder J. C. Mariátegui: "Feminism did not appear in Perú artificially nor arbitrarily. It appeared as a consequence of the new forms of intellectual and manual work for women. The women of true feminist affiliation are the women who work. The women who study. feminist ideas prosper among women doing intellectual work or manual work: professors, college students, workers. They find a welcoming environment for the development of classrooms in the universities which attract Peruvian women more and more, and in labor unions, where factory women enroll and organize with the same rights and the same duties as men."

"There is, besides that, a bourgeois feminism of dilettantes, a little pedantic and a little mundane. Feminists of this kind turn feminism into merely a literary exercise or a fashionable sport . . . "

"No one should be surprised if all women do not join a single feminist movement. Feminism has necessarily different shades, and diverse tendencies. Three main tendencies are distinguished, and three substantive colors: bourgeois feminism, petty-bourgeois feminism and proletarian feminism. Each one of these feminisms formulates its vindications in a different way. The bourgeois woman solidarizes her feminism with the interests of the bourgeois conservative class. The proletarian woman identifies her feminism with the faith of the revolutionary multitudes, in the future society. The class struggle (historical fact and not theoretical assertion) is reflected in the feminist plane. Women, like men, are reactionary, centrist or revolutionary. They cannot, therefore, fight the same battle together. In the current human panorama, class differentiates individuals more than sex."

Wherever capitalism exits, wherever private property of the factories is kept, wherever the power of capital remains, men continue to enjoy privileges over women. The experience of all the liberating movements confirms that the success of the revolution depends on the degree in which women participate. It is for these reasons that the PCP integrates the women masses of workers and peasants in the ranks of the Party, the People's Army (EPL) and the generated organizations.

THE PEOPLE'S WOMEN MOVEMENT is a movement generated by the proletariat in the women masses and has the following characteristics:

• 1. It is guided by the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought.
• 2. It is a class mass organization.
• 3. It is subject to democratic centralism.

(See our page "Marxism, Mariategui and the Feminist Movement", PCP document)

Similarly, ethnic groups in Peru -descendants of the great American cultures (Quechua, Aymara, etc.)- voluntarily join the ranks of the revolution, keeping their class interests in mind. After centuries of exploitation, most of them are now peasants (mainly poor.) They organized themselves into open People's Committees, and have joined massively the ranks of the People's Army of Liberation, and are leading armed contingents who are engaged in frontal attacks against the reactionary armed forces.

The PCP mobilizes and organizes the peasant masses respecting their cultural characteristics (e.g., religiosity) and fighting the racism imposed by the old exploitative relations. These are eliminated by destroying the old landlord-bureaucratic, capitalist state. The poor peasants are organized into the Poor Peasants' Movement, and constitute the majority of the People's Army of Liberation (EPL), with many peasants - men and women - serving as political and military leaders in the PCP ( see item f, Why Do the Peasants Support the Revolution?).

17. WHAT LESSONS CAN WORLD COMMUNISTS AND REVOLUTIONARIES LEARN FROM THE PCP?

The PCP shows how communists -in reconstituting and transforming the Party- transform themselves, and that in turn, helps carry out the transformation of society in the only possible way: the People's War, the highest form of the class struggle. Other aspects relevant to world communists are:

• 1. The importance of the Basis of Party Unity (BUP), and their relationship to the two-line struggle focused on the conquest of power, which reflects the Universal Law of Contradiction (unity and struggle of opposites) and class struggle in society.

• 2. The importance of understanding and developing the proletarian ideology, of applying it to the practical transformation of reality (revolutionary action) which is essential in developing the Party programma according to the general proletarian line, based on democratic centralism. The PCP teaches in facts that the main purpose of every Communist Party is to conquer Power for the proletarian and the people.

• 3. How the three instruments of the revolution are formed: Party, Front and People's Army. The masses make history, the Party leads them.
• 4.The militarization of the Communist Party which becomes the proletarian war machine.
• 5.The development and application of the science of Maoism in the current world. The elevation of Marxism to a third stage: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism.
• 6. Introduction of the armed strike as a weapon of the proletarian struggle in the cities.
• 7. Confirming that revolution is the principal historical and political tendency, which is generated by the class struggle in today's world.
• 8. The practice of proletarian internationalism. The People's War is developed as part of the world revolution, therefore, it is part of the struggle of the international proletariat, and the international communist movement. (See our page "Developing the People's War in the Service of the World Revolution," PCP Document.)

18. WHAT IS THE PCP POSITION WITH RESPECT TO THE DISAPPEARED SOVIET UNION, CHINA AND CUBA?

Imperialism and revisionism are two sides of the same coin. Revisionism means abandoning communist principles, and it is a mortal enemy of every revolution led by the proletariat. Revisionists use Marxist terminology and -even traffick with the Red Flag and the Party card - to in fact impose capitalist oppression and exploitation over the working class (just like a radish "red on the outside, but white on the inside"). That is precisely what happened in the former Soviet Union, when revisionists (the Russian bourgeoisie inside the communist Party of the Soviet Union) led by Nikita Khrushchev, carried out a coup d'etat in 1953 and restored state-monopoly capitalism. The PCP always fought soviet revisionism on all fronts, all the way to Gorbachev. The corruption and dissolution of the former Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries is a product of the bankruptcy of revisionism. The lesson to be drawn from these facts is that, under socialism, the Proletarian Cultural Revolution is the only way to fight revisionism and prevent capitalist restoration.

The PCP supported the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, under President's Mao Tse-tung's leadership, which managed to destroy the various attempts to restore capitalism for more than a decade (proven by the repeated purging of Teng Xiaoping). But after Mao's death in 1976, the bourgeoisie inside the Communist Party took over power with a coup d'etat supported by the United States and other imperialist powers. So, capitalist dictatorship was restored in China. The PCP also fought Teng Xiaoping's revisionist clique and his agents in Perú (e.g., Patria Roja and others). Today in China members of the "Communist Party" are the bosses of big capitalist enterprises. These heirs of the late Teng Xiaoping are entrepreneurs "with a party card" who exploit the Chinese working class and even dare to do it in our country with the exploitation of the Marcona (Hierro Peru) mine. Facts show what Mao Tse-tung maintained - that not one, but several Proletarian Cultural Revolutions are needed. The PCP teaches that successive Cultural Revolutions are the road to reach communism from socialism.

The case of Cuba has two aspects. First, we must consider Cuba within the contradiction unfolding in the world between oppressed nations and imperialist powers. Therefore, the resistance of the Cuban people against the Yankee imperialist superpower is one more proof that revolution is the main political and historical tendency in today's world. Second, Fidel Castro developed a deformed state capitalism, a bankrupt economy heavily dependent on Soviet social imperialism aid until the late 1980s. At the time, the productive activity was mainly focused on a single agricultural product (sugar cane) to be exported to the former USSR and its satellites in Eastern Europe. Once freed from Russian control, Castro is trying to develop an economy based on tourism attempting to return to the times before 1959 when Cuba was filled with hotels and casinos for the vacationing of wealthy Europeans and Yankees. According to Castro, "socialist Cuba is a good vacation resort for wealthy capitalists." This is a bourgeois politics as is the discredited ideas of "market socialism" and "special economic zones" of the Chinese revisionists... (See our page "Latin America: People's War", PCP Document)

Fidel Castro went from being a bourgeois democrat to a progressive fighter, but he never was a genuine Marxist, although he has shouted that lie repeatedly to his people and the world. He assumed Marxism as an opportunist alternative after the U.S. State Department turned its back on him. It was then that Castro and his troupe embraced State capitalism, disguised as "Marxism" as proclaimed by the XX Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Khrushchev 1954). In 1996, Castro went to the Vatican, to kneel and kiss the hands of the anti-communist Pope, apologizing and asking him for support for his "Revolution," and in January 1998 he got a "blessing" from the arch reactionary Pope, so instead of providing food to the Cuban masses, he can offer them (as Marx taught us) the "opiate of religion." This is a thesis valid today, and in the future.

They are attempting to defend the existing social order using religion as its ideological shield, because the ideology of revisionism is now obsolete. As Chairman Gonzalo teaches in his interview: "The ecclesiastic hierarchy, the Papacy, defends the interests of the oppressors and exploiters, acting as an ideological shield for the reactionaries, changing and adapting itself as new situations emerge." It is clear that Castro seeks God and imperialist dollars for Cuba, but true socialism he never had. He prays and begs Yankee imperialism for forgiveness. He said, for example, that "the O.A.S. is not longer a tool of the U.S." and pleads Clinton to allow him to "fully reincorporate Cuba" to the "family of nations of Latin America," which in plain words means the return to the backyard of U.S. imperialism (the colonies and semi-colonies in Latin America.) (See The New Flag, August 1997.)

19. WHY SOME COMMUNICATION MEDIA CALL THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU (PCP) THE "SHINING PATH"?

The demeaning term "Shinin Path" is used by the mainstream communications media owned by the big capitalists, bankers and landlords to defame and ridicule the PCP.

According to the "new world order" utopia propagated mainly by the U.S. Government, today "communism is dead," "socialism does not work," etc., and it is based on that utopian dream that they attempt to hide and deny the fact that in Peru a Communist Party, the PCP, is developing a victorious revolution leading a People's War with the participation of workers and peasants. This incontrovertible reality destroys all that propaganda about the "death of socialism."

In addition, the international financial oligarchy mobilizes all its informative resources trying to tarnish the international prestige of the PCP with the following objectives:

• To spread the lie that in Peru there is a cult to the terror of the so-called "Shining Path" or "Shining Pathway" in order to create public opinion against the COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU.
• To justify the military intervention of the imperialist powers against the People's Committees and Support Bases of workers and peasants. This intervention is closely linked to the guise of "fighting narcotrafficking" so as to cover themselves with a "moral superiority" they never had and never will.

The term "luminous path" was used by the Revolutionary Student Front (FER), a youth branch of the PCP at the San Marcos University (Lima) in the 1960s, whose publication had the headline: "The PCP follows the luminous path laid down by Jose Carlos Mariategui." When the People's War was launched in 1980, several scholars, many of them hired as consultants by the Intelligence Services and NGOs, announced: "the PCP-Shining Path!" Thus, with the intent of deceiving the people that there are other "legitimate" and "well behaved" communist parties who were participating in elections and parliamentary cretinism, the reactionary media repeats the lie that the demonized, crazed, suicidal, polpotian, and terrorist cult "Shining Path" or "Shining Pathway" is waging a revolutionary war in Peru. The English term "shining" (brilloso) is just a bad translation of the Spanish term "luminoso." This manipulation tries to hide the fact that it is exploitation, misery and oppression of the masses that is what is nourishing the revolution led by the PCP. In sum, it is not a "bunch of anarchistic rogue terrorists" brainwashed by "communist orthodoxy" the main cause of the revolution, but it is the self-proclaimed "civilized," callous, inhumane, exploitative, ruthless, and lawless imperialism, along with its genocidal puppet regime of Fujimori, who fuels and fans the flames of the glorious People's War in Perú.

The fantasy about the "Shining Path terrorists" has become a very profitable business (paid mainly by U.S. taxpayer dollars) for reactionary "scholars" and "undercover" journalists, experts in the myth of "Senderology," who continuously announce the "death of Sendero," to then announce just as many times "the resurrection of Sendero," all aiming at deceiving and confusing public opinion. But all these manipulations have failed, and the people, therefore, reject them. The only accomplishment of the mercenary senderologists and their CIA masters, after all these years, has been to fool themselves and to lose all credibility before the people.

20. WHY FUJIMORI'S "PEACE AGREEMENT" IS A FAILURE?

The "peace agreement" is a psychological operation (manipulation and deceit) of the low intensity warfare that the U.S. Government and its puppet regime in Perú conduct against the PCP and the People's War in Peru. During his visit to the United Nations headquarters in New York, October 1993 Kenyo Fujimori publicly called for "peace negotiations" and announced that the People's War would end by July 1995. This turned out to be a hoax. Fujimori's "peace agreement" is nonexistent, it is a so called "peace" to exploit, to oppress, and to further sink the people in misery, and it was repudiated by the Peruvian people. To that end, the National Intelligence Services (SIN), led by the CIA, generates a series of fake "letters" and "videos" (crude digital manipulation of images and sound) to "show" how from inside a cage, subject to torture and drugs, President Gonzalo "asks for peace." But if so, why not show President Gonzalo on a live press conference attended by Peruvian and world journalists? This evil and cruel machination was immediately denounced and rejected by the PCP Central Committee, People's Committees, Support Bases, prisoners of war, and international organizations and supporters of the PCP. The "peace agreements" hoax was crushed by further development of the People's War. The CIA "brainstorm" achieved only failures. In desperation, Fujimori and SIN launched other dark propaganda campaigns through his dailies, newscasts and fake "journalists," announcing a "split in Sendero," claiming that as a result, "Peru has been pacified," "Feliciano vs. Gonzalo," "red Sendero vs. black Sendero," including full page advertisements in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and even paid "scientific" articles in "National Geographic" and other "scholarly" frauds like the mediocre piece published in the Harvard University Journal by the smelly rat Robin Kirk, etc. What is the bottom line of the reactionary campaign against the PCP overseas? It is to wash the bloody hands of the regime and aim to encourage further penetration of imperialist monopolies and foreign capital in our country.

The announced "July 1995" deadline to "finish off Sendero" is already past and the People's War cannot be annihilated, but quite the contrary, it grows and gets stronger in all Perú. The testimony of Sinesio Jarama, retired general of the reactionary armed forces (former political and military Chief in Ayacucho), expert in counterinsurgency warfare, shows the current situation:

"The profound social and economic inequalities in Peru are the reasons for Sendero's (PCP) advances, and it recruits many youth from the poor sectors of society. Sendero (PCP) is not divided, and there are no antagonistic elements in its organization. If the current leaders are captured, other young leaders will emerge, because there is a lot of people in Perú with leadership and Gonzalo Thought in their minds. In conclusion, we cannot eliminate the subversion by capturing leaders, because the conditions of extreme poverty and misery exist and fuel the revolution. Now, Fujimori and his experts are the ones who must answer since they created their own exaggerations and they announced once and again, and everywhere, that the leaders of Sendero (PCP) were captured and that solved the problem. It is clear that things did not happen that way. Sendero (PCP) is advancing." (Published by the Daily La República, Lima, Perú, August 7, 1966. On this matter, General Jarama's statement speak by itself.

21. WHO ARE THE DRUG TRAFFICKERS?

The U.S. Government constantly talks about the "war on drugs," but facts show that the real drug traffickers are the tenants of the White House in Washington, D.C. Always remember the nefarious role of Ronald Reagan, the CIA, and George Bush with Noriega, in the transport and sale of cocaine in the United States to finance the Nicaraguan contras. Do not forget that the CIA also used and promoted drug sales to finance the war in Afghanistan. In Perú, the old state armed forces have forged a strong alliance with drug trafficking cartels in Colombia and Mexico. The main coordinator of this alliance is the lawyer and former army captain Vladimiro Montesinos, who for years has been known as a CIA agent, chief of SIN, and main adviser to Kenyo Fujimori. Sometimes, due to incompetence, scandals surface which cannot be covered up. These are some reports published by the official press: "Fujimori's army works for Colombian cartels. Peruvian troops are sunk in misery," Retired General Carlos Mauricio stated, "the Colombian cartels have infiltrated the Peruvian armed forces, the salaries of officers are not enough even to educate our children. The morale of the troops is on the ground." (Published in the pro-government paper La República, Lima, July 8, 1996.) How many journalists who were investigating this drug partnership were murdered by the military? Why don't they open the files of the assassination of U.S. "journalist" Todd Smith at the hands of a military patrol acting on behalf of a Colombian drug cartel? Because it was more easy to blame it on "Sendero", jus like they did with the murders of union leaders Saul Santoral, Pedro Huillca and Castilla, the 8 journalists murdered in Uchuraccay-Ayacucho, and even the torture and murder of the Director of the military school, Army colonel Obregón, etc.

Also, cocaine shipments have been found in Fujimori's own plane and navy ships. What is clear is that the Fujimori regime-supported by the U.S. government sustains itself on drug trafficking to pay the foreign debt, buy weapons, bribe its corrupt politicians, and provide "awards" to its military officers who are facing defeat at the hands of the People's Army of Liberation.

In their effort to create international public opinion, against the PCP, the big capitalists and imperialist bankers use their communications media (New York Times, CNN, El Pais, ABC, Le Monde, etc.) and without showing a shred of evidence, they spread the lie about "Sendero being with the drug traffickers. But the PCP position in theory and practice crushes those slanders. In its own words: "The narcotrafficking problem must be seen in various facets. One of them is drug addiction, a product of social degeneration, more common in capitalist societies, in the entrails of imperialist society, and less so in the oppressed nations, and that is a consequence of the actions of imperialism of -their empty and fatuous lives. They pretend to fill it with drugs, and they are the ones inducing drug addiction. We are totally against that, because the only genuine escape is not drugs, but revolution. This an action that transform human beings by creating a new system, and we know it is possible to do it. The more we struggle, the closer we will get to the conquest of Power. We will march toward the definitive transformation of humanity and we'll arrive to our destination: Communism. Drugs damage the mind and the body, and reveal loss of perspective, to us that is a social problem and it is solved only by revolution." -From the Document, "Let the Strategic Equilibrium Rock the Country!" PCP Central Committee, 1991.- (See our page PCP documents.)

22. WHAT IS THE TRUTH BEHIND THE SCURRILOUS SLANDER OF YANKEE IMPERIALISM AND FUJIMORI THAT THE PCP IS A "TERRORIST" ORGANIZATION?

It is an obscene travesty and parody to try to coin the PCP the label of "terrorist", which in reality fits Yankee imperialism and its lackey Fujimori as a glove. Before our country and the world it is clear who is the terrorist and genocidal in Perú. It is they, U.S. imperialism and its puppet regimes since 1980 to the present, who lead the reactionary Peruvian State, it is the reactionary armed forces, the forces of repression -they are the vile mass murderers and terrorists. Has it or hasn't it been Yankee imperialism and particularly Reagan, who has branded all revolutionary movements as terrorists, yes or no? So, this is the easiest way that they try to discredit and isolate the PCP at the international level. But that is their dream. And it is not only Yankee imperialism and the other imperialist powers that combat the so-called terrorism. So does revisionism. Lenin said: "Long Live the pioneers of the people's revolutionary army! It is no longer a plot against some detested individual, not an act of vengeance or desperation, no mere intimidation- no, it is a well thought-out, and well prepared political military operations by the revolutionary army... Fortunately, the time has passed when revolution was 'made' by a single 'bomb thrower', and it is becoming an essential weapon of the people." President Gonzalo teaches: "Lenin taught us that the times have changed. That we are talking about is no longer conspiracy, an isolated individual act, but the actions of the Party, with a plan, with a system, with an established People's Army, with mass generated organizations, with People's Committees, and with a New Power. Therefore, the bomb had become a weapon of combat for our class (the proletariat), for the people. So, where is the imputed terrorism? It is pure slander. They charge the PCP as 'terrorist' in a futile attempt to hide the People's War, the armed strikes, the frontal and daily armed combats between the fighters of the People's Army and the reactionary armed forces in almost the entire country. The People's War in Perú has national and international significance, the same reactionary regimes in Perú from the Belaunde regime to the genocidal Fujimori, they always admit: The armed insurgency is the number 1 problem facing the State. What terrorism could do that? None. Moreover, they can no longer hide that a Communist Party is leading the People's War." (See our page "Interview to Chairman Gonzalo", PCP Document).

The People's War has captured the imagination of the oppressed in Perú and the world with heroic methods of fighting such as relying on the people themselves to capture and to manufacture weapons. They have carried out over 500,000 political and military actions throughout the country, and most of them are frontal clashes with the armed forces (estimate until 1996). If the revolutionaries were spreading "fear and intimidation", why have so many people enthusiastically join the ranks of the revolution despite the government's barbarous record of reprisals? If they didn't have the active support of the people, how could they control areas comprising more than 1/3 of Perú's territory without relying on any outside economic or military aid during almost 18 years of armed struggle?

Senderologists and foreign intelligence "experts" claim that people support the revolution out of fear. They hide the fact that our people have been fighting fearlessly and courageously against imperialist domination for the last 150 years. Our people have fought and defeated "without fear" the Spanish and British imperialists along with savage civilian and military dictators planted by imperialism such as those of Odria, Velasco, Leguía, Morales Bermudez, and they will bury the present bloody Dictator Fujimori and his Yankee master.

The claim that the PCP is "terrorist" is unsupported by facts and lacks credibility. Let's analyze this with some examples: the definition of the term "terrorism" (even in the most deceptive version used by the Yankee State Department) does not fit the PCP in any shape or form. The CIA defines terrorism as follows: "Terrorism is best defined as acts of violence committed against innocent persons or noncombatants that are intended to achieve political ends through fear and intimidation." The CIA even provides categories of terrorism. It states: The first category is the "state sponsored terrorism." Well, the People's War is self-sufficient and self-supportive, and it is not controlled nor influenced by the interests of any foreign power. The masses support the revolution and the weapons are wrenched from the enemy. On the other hand, the Fujimori regime receives weapons and training from imperialist powers (mainly the U.S.), it has death squads who are trained at the School of the Americas and Panama, they are ones who commit atrocious crimes against the civilian population, hence, the Fujimori regime fully meets the first category of being "terrorist."

The second category of terrrorism is defined as follows: "These are groups trying to overthrow their own governments or to achieve independence." The PCP after eight years of People's War (1988), was able to liberate large areas of the country (an estimated one-third of the terrritory), it organized the population in People's Committees, with their own economy, education, government, and army to defend it. That's the New State, and it seeks to replace the old State that represents more than 500 years of genocide (from Pizarro to Fujimori), rape, misery, and imperial plunder. Thousands of People's Committees have replaced the old feudal power structure; where peasants and the People's Army are seizing land; where voluntary collective work is encouraged, where food production is replacing coca plantation; and where the whole community is armed to defend itself and advance toward conquering power countrywide. On the other hand, the Fujimori regime is illegitimate. It's a product of fraud (18% of the vote) and a military coup (1992) that was implanted in Perú by Yankee imperialism to try to annihilate the People's War, and try to overthrow the legitimate government of workers and peasants, the New Power. Thus, the Fujimori regime also fits this category of "terrorism."

The third category of terrorism, according to the CIA is: "terrorism committed by Islamic groups." On this, let's leave the well-paid senderologists to explain us how the PCP fits this category.

23. WHAT IS THE POSITION OF THE PCP ON THE ACTIVITIES OF NGOs? DOES THE PCP ATTACK THE "SOUP KITCHENS" AND "COMMON POTS"?

In Perú, many NGOs often work hand-in-hand with the military's counterinsurgency "civic action" programs, most of them traffick with the hunger and misery of the people. These "civic programs" are modeled on the infamous plan of the U.S. in Vietnam to gain the "hearts and minds" through hand-outs that do nothing to solve the fundamental conditions of misery. Some leaders of NGOs, like "Mother Courage Moyano" (who was a government authority, a thief, police informer and organizer of paramilitaries) were rightfully executed by the PCP. At the time, the PCP clarified its position:

"...The Communist Party of Perú is not against the mass organizations such as the Glass of Milk, mothers' clubs, peoples' cafeterias. The PCP is against the leaders who manipulate, steal and traffick with the hunger of our people by trying to put these masses behind the government so that the State won't fulfill its obligations of providing health care, food, housing, education, jobs, etc... We are against the informants (soplones), snitches and collaborators of the police and armed forces. To those, the Party apply a fair and just punishment. We will continued doing so... We have not acted in any way against the Food Warehouse of Villa El Salvador (Centro de Acopio), the authors were the known revisionist and corrupted leaders of MAS, led by Maria Elena Moyano, the Vice-Mayor... The informant Juana Lopez of the Shanty town 'Juan Pablo II' of Callao was executed by the Party for her proven crimes against the people, among them for trying to organize the 'urban paramilitary' rondas in close cooperation with the bloody Marines . . . We call upon our people to participate actively in the People's War, the only way to end hunger and oppression."

24. IS THE CIVILIAN POPULATION CAUGHT BETWEEN TWO FIRES?

The current situation in Perú is that of Civil War. On one side are the capitalist and landlord classes and the well equipped armed forces supported by the imperialist powers, mainly Yankee. On the other side are the workers and peasants' masses, allied to the petty bourgeoisie and sectors of the national bourgeoisie led by the organized vanguard of the proletariat: the Communist Party of Perú (PCP). The propaganda about "civilians caught between two fires" tries to conceal the mass support the People's War has, since the conditions of exploitation, repression, corruption and misery worsened with the liberal economic policy (privatization, unemployment, etc.) imposed by the landlord-bureaucratic capitalist dictatorship. It is shown that the terrorist Fujimori regime uses its armed forces to repress, imprison and murder the people, causing more than 30,000 victims so far. It is precisely for those reasons that ample sectors of the population-with their humble work, their few crumbs, and their blood -support the powerful and growing People's War.

Consequently, thousands of youth, women, peasants, workers, students, teachers, progressives, etc. join the ranks of the People's Army of Liberation (EPL) to fight for the RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE to a dignified, healthy and happy life, building the conquest of power countrywide. That is how light emerges and steel is forged!

January 1998.

Developed by Peru People's Movement (MPP) and The New Flag Magazine.

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