Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1997 01:39:45 GMT
From: hariette-AT-easynet.co.uk (hariette spierings)
Subject: M-G: The question of the MRTA (in answer to Doug's query)


>Adolfo - in your brief time here, I wonder if you could comment on the
>MRTA's takeover of the Japanese embassy in Peru. What's your analysis of
>them in general, and this action specifically?
>
>Doug
>


Hello again Doug:

Yes the coup de main of the MRTA commando is a very interesting development.
As with all such events still unfolding in the present a full analysis is
not immediately possible.  However, I will try to synthesise some of my
views in this regard.

It seems to me that this event as it unfolds in the eyes of media is being
little understood and not a few ill-judged conclussions and allegations have
been floated around.  Nevertheless, not everything that has been said is of
no value.  It seems that a lot that was kept under wraps about the awful
fascist Fujimori dictatorship has finally hit the journalistic windmill -
particularly the vesanic nature of the World War II Japanese style
concentration camp state of affairs that the current clique ruling the old
Peruvian state has been imposing on the country for a number of years in
their attempts to smash the revolution of the workers and peasants.

However, and as far as Marxists should be concerned, a number of questions
should be clear:

Firstly - in the bourgeois media a great play has been made of the MRTA's
ideology describing these people under the label of "Marxist
revolutionaries".  Moreover, they are constantly counterposed as
"gentlemanly rebels" against the undescribably horrid and murderous "Maoist
Shining Path" - who are presumably therefore not recognisably "Marxists" for
the bourgeois scribblers, and not quite a few of their phoney left
regurgitators.

However, from the mouth of the MRTA itself is now clear that this
organisation is not a revolutionary organisation.  It has no intention - and
never had - of toppling the Peruvian state, and only wants Fujimori himself
to change his  policies!  Moreover, the whole objective of its operation is
a counter-revolutionary one:  To enrol themselves in the ranks of the state
of the Peruvian ruling classes while singing from the same anti-communist
and anti-People's War hymn sheet as does Fujimori, and all other
propagandists of the "peace agreement" ploy favoured by the CIA.

Here is what the economist Francisco Sagasti tells of his convesation with
Cerpa Cartolini - the leader of the MRTA detachment - in today's El Pais
(the Spanish Newspaper quotes from an interview in the Peruvian magazine
Caretas):

"We received the first visit and had a first chat with Commander Huertas,
who we had clearly identified as Nestor Cerpa.  He said that the aim of the
economic model (Cerpa only speaks of just the model, i.e. neo-liberalism,
and not, as any kind of marxist even most superficially would, of the
capitalist system itself, even less of imperialism - my own notation (A.O.)
is to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.  He revealed an ideology
which is a curious synthesis of a rudimentary communitarian view with some
elements of a return to our profound (Incan and pre-Columbian roots - A.O.)
and with ***the use of the market with a social dimension**** (my
underlining - A.O.). 


The eyewitness - who was one of the released hostages - continues:

"Cerpa repeats his points of view going from (embassy) hall to hall.  He
says that the MRTA are not terrorists but guerilla fighters (presumably to
curry favour by casting the PCP in the demonic role which is a pre-condition
for any imperialist "understanding" for this organisation - A.O.).  Cerpa
speaks of the possibility of a political way out (i.e. negotiations for
terms to enrol themselves in the ranks of the state of the oppressing
classes) of the same kind as that of the M19 in Colombia, and claims that
they (the MRTA) have tried before to approach the government both in 1985
and in 1990". 

El Pais itself concludes: "He is now trying to do the same, although by the
use of truculent means and determined to achieve this aim not matter what".

I have also seen posted elsewhere in Internet a similarly truculent version
disseminated by the impostors who go under the label of "New Flag" and
MPP-USA. These hooded gentlemen, besides acting as agents provocateurs and
barely disguising their egging-on of the MRTA group towards presumably
showing its "revolutionary mettle" by executing the imperialist hostages
they have captured, have also defined the action of the MRTA as "objectively
anti-imperialist".  People should be clear that these views have nothing in
common with the views of the PCP or with any form of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

Thse are the words of a European diplomat as reported in today's El Pais:
"I would have placed my signature under each and everyone of the demands in
their (MRTA) communiques, except that they had spelled the verb to have as
to habe". So much for the "objectively anti-imperialist character" of this
event.

I have before described the Fujimori regime as a "Stolypin style reaction".
A regime of fascist dictatorial rule based on the concentration of power to
the detriment of other sections of the ruling classes.  I have also spoken,
quoting the words of Georgi Dimitrov, how fascism means the resolution of
political infighting among the ruling circles and the various power
groupings by means of violence, guns and terror.  

While this action has been billed as an action of the MRTA - it is however
an expression of the political infighting within the ruling classes in Peru.
Contrary to the assertions of that other miniature mouthpiece of reaction,
Poder Obrero, the MRTA is not acting on behalf of the petty bourgeoisie, but
acting as a battering ram on behalf of one section of the big bourgeoisie in
Peru.  That section linked to the fascist Apra party - which has its own
brand of genocidal fascism as expressed during the Alan garcia regime
(1985-1990) - and, by extension, to the old pro-imperialist and revisionist
political parties who seek to re-invigorate themselves and are searching for
means to grab back from Fujimori's clique the levers of central power and
all the perks that go with it, in particular the drug business and the
burocratic machinery of the ruling class state.

The problem that the Peruvian state faces is a very deep economic,
political, moral and military crisis to which growing sections of the ruling
classes find no *legal* way out within the straitjacket imposed by the
Fujimori regime.   

Hemmed in by the powerful blows of the People's War all over Peruvian
territory, the Fujimori experiment has hit upon a blind alley.  Failure of
its counter-insurgency strategy and failure of its economic one.

Here is what a Peruvian economist expressing the views of those ruling
circles advocating a change of direction (Apra-IU-AP) in economics and
politics - a view lately widely advanced in such revolutionary sources as
The Economist and The Financial Times - Oscar Ugarteche, has to say (La
Republica, January 5, 1997):

To the question of the journalist: "If the seizure of the residence of the
Japanese ambassador has served for something is to blow-up the myth of the
defeat of subversion.  On the economic front, are there any myths who could
easily be blown-up?" Ugarteche answers revealingly:  "Of course. The first
myth that has already tumbled down is that of the economic recovery which
had solved the fundamental problems of Peru.  That myth is finished.
Secondly, I believe that the difficulties remarked upon by the National
Industry Society (The Peruvian Bosses Corporate Body) have underlined the
intrinsic problems of the economic model.  That is, as far as the
capitalists are concerned". 

Ugarteche continues speaking of the general tendency of Fujimori's current
economics: ".....(There is a tendency) to a final collapse.  And it is a
final collapse because it has not rendered the fruits that the politicians
thought it was going to bring about".  

And to the question:  "Do you believe that ***within the political class ***
(i.e. the ruling classes in Peru - A.O.) there are alternatives to the
current model?", Ugarteche responds: "Yes.  These are going to begin to
emerge. With everything that has happened, suddenly Chancellor Tudela has
become a posible presidential figure because of his honourable behaviour.
Then, there is General Robles, and we have various others.  Now, the
question is to agree between ourselves what is that what we want. How should
we integrate the Andean region with the modern world (in other words, how
should Peru - and the rest of Latin America -  fit into the world wide
imperialist economy A.O.).......".

Finally another interesting expression on the part of this economist shows
better than anything I can say how this section of the ruling class
perceives the problem posited by the action of the hostage takers:

"This which has happened under the label of the MRTA today, can occur
tomorrow anywhere and with any other name.  At the end of the day, it is
only one grown-up man and 20 kids, it is not a political movement.  It is a
movement of desperados, of excluded people. A bit like Chiapas - the dance
of those not invited to the feast".

Of course, the solutions posited by these sections of the big bourgeoisie
have already being tried in Peru:  Coorporativism, both under the Velasco
military regime (1968-75) and the Apra party (1985-1990) with equally
disastrous results.  
The views expressed by some people alleging that the action of the MRTA is a
CIA plot, are also not correct.  There is no doubt that the policy of
monopoly of power characteristic of the Fujimori brand of fascism sustains
itself upon a cruel and vesanic dictatorship and inhuman tratment of **all**
kinds of political opposition.  The system installed by Fujimori does not
brook peaceable political challenges, even from other sections of the ruling
classes.  The repeated arrests of High Ranking military officers, such as
General Robles, for example, demonstrate clearly that the Hitler system of
rule is indeed that of Fujimori and his gang, contrary to the infantile
assertions of the Poder Obrero cretins.  The sufferings of the imprisoned
leaders of the MRTA are all too very real and the desire of their
correligionists to do something about that is clearly the principal moving
force for their coup de main.

However - Ugarteche is right in denying this sect (originating from within
paramilitary groups linked to the Apra party and to old and modern
revisionism) the character of a political movement in the proper sense.
Their truculent action is prefectly understandable and needs no other
esoteric conspiracy theories to be logical.  Even dogs will bite the hands
of their masters if ill treated to such an extent. 

Another thing is that **now** the political action surrounding this event is
taking the characteristics of an slow motion coup de etat - the only way
left to the bourgeois sectors to settle their differences within the
framework of Fujimori (or Yeltsin) style fascist dictatorships.  And there
are innumerable indicators to show that the intelligence services of the
imperialists powers, and the diffrent factions within the military and the
inteligence services of the Peruvian state are using this affair both as a
battering ram and as a window of opportunity, respectively, to advance their
conflicting interests.  These shennanigans explain too why Fujimori has
declared a state of emergency taking - illegally - this police matter
incident as an excuse.  The oven is too hot, and rivals must be intimidated
and conspiracies discouraged. 

It is also worth pointing out that no matter how much objectively and
subjectively the aims of the MRTA are counter-revolutionary insofar as these
target the Peruvian revolution and particularly the leadership of the
revolution, the Communist Party, and Chairman Gonzalo for particularly
vicious innuendo and slander (showing once again that their aim is to enrol
themselves in the ranks of the reactionary militias at the service of the
old state and imperialism), both sections of the ruling classes, and the
MRTA itself, have ended by picking up stones which are falling upon their
own feet.  That is the inescapable logic of counter-revolutionary action.

Particularly, and it jumps clearly to mind on reading the same page of El
Pais where the mother of Victor Polay, the MRTA founder and close friend of
Alan Garcia the former Apra president of the old Peruvian state, reveals the
appalling conditions under which the vesanic tyrant has her son buried in
the same Navy base in which Chairman Gonzalo has been interred alive.

Mrs Victoria Polay has this to say:  "My son is being kept in a tomb for the
living"........"They are being slowly killed".

El Pais goes on to describe how Victor Polay is kept: ".....he cannot make
telephone calls, and only occasionally is allowed to exercise for half an
hour in the prison yard.  The rest of the time, he spends within his cell
where meals are passed through a hole in the door.  He has a hole in the
ground for his physiological needs and he must use his daily water ration to
drink, wash himself and clean this makeshift toilet".

"In 1992 Fujimori imposed the hardening of the prison regime for guerilla
fighters.  ***After a first year without family contacts they can enjoy a 30
minute visit every month*** separated by a thick glass screen and carefully
monitored.  Their reading is also censured.  For example, Polay has been
denied a biography of Winston Churchill and books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
The prisoners recibe little food and rarely any medical treatment.  Many are
suffering from tuberculosis, AIDS or cancer. They cannot receive blankets,
or any warm clothes".

However, Mrs Polay also revealed that "up to the start of the present
crisis" she was allowed to visit her son once a month for half an hour at a
time, in accordance with the "laws" instituted by the Fujimori regime itself.

Now, all that is absolutely true and disgusting proof of the repugnant face
of the Peruvian regime.  However, the same MRTA, the Fujimori regime, the
Poder Obrero fleas, the Quispe crowd, the Avakian clique, and the bourgeois
reactionaries in general - including the roaches in the former Marxism 1 -
have on many occassions tried to smear the unimpeachable communist and
revolutionary credentials of Chairman Gonzalo, a man who is kept under the
same or worse conditions AND WHO IS NOT ALLOWED - AND HAS NEVER BEEN ALLOWED
- EVEN A SINGLE VISIT in complete disregard of Fujimori's own "legal"
dispositions.  

These same people have regurgitated every allegation of the "peace agreement
plot", validated the phoney videos and letters that Fujimori presented to
the United Nations, and ignored completely the simple fact that no one, I
repeat no one, has been allowed to see, speak, or visit with Chairman
Gonzalo, his imprisoned lawyers, or anyone else upholding the People's War
in Peru.

They ignore and cover up the fact that there are over 10,000 political
prisoners and prisoners of war in Peru, and that apart from the black gang
of around 350 capitulators who have enrolled themselves in the
counter-insurgency forces of the Peruvian police, most of them are in
equally horrid or worse conditions than Victor Polay.  On the contrary,
these purported "leftist" and even rrrrevolutionary sources happily carry
out the psychological warfare plans of the regime smearing the PCP and its
leader, the greatest and most courageous, self-sacrificing revolutionary and
correct communist in today's world. 

In this respect it is worth quoting what was recently said by the Spanish
daily Egin:

""However Shining Path continues with its military actions, even operating
within Lima.  Public opinion is beginning to question if Abimael Guzman is
at all involved in this affair and if the famous letters are or not part of
a farce. "After all these years Fujimori continues without presenting Guzman
in good health.  On the contrary, he presents letters and videos.  If an
agreement between Fujimori and Guzman had been reached, they would have
presented them both shaking hands on television.  At least, Guzman would
have been able to communicate with someone other that police and military
personnel.  However, none of that has happened, and therefore one must think
the worst, that this is another criminal action on the part of the Peruvian
regime. At the very least, it is pertinent to consider the prisoner as a
"dissapeared person", and should expect human rights organisms to take a
stand on this issue". Those thoughts are now being openly discussed in Peru".

And that is the voice of a democratic journalist of a main stream organ in a
capitalist European country.  However, our phoney leftists and phoney
rrrrrrevolutionaries in this list, unshamedly used Fujimori's slanders and
even innuendo of their own, as ammunition against this great revolutionary
for purely sectarian reasons.  Was it wrong to label them as Orwellian
agents of imperialism?

Moreover, the innuendos and slanders of the MRTA and Poder Obrero continue,
even when the beans have already been spilled beyond redemption. Recently,
the Peruvian Intelligence Service in conjuction with the Peruvian Military
High Command have themselves revealed the facts in a 600 pages book (Peru:13
Years of Shame).  In this book the "experts" of the dictatorship boast of
their "achievements" and claim that the "peace letters" have played a most
important role in the psychological warfare waged by the regime.  The book
alleges that the political effect of the letters meant a "victory for
democracy against subversion".

As El Diario Internacional has said:  "The authors of the book ask
themselves: "What objectives was the President (Fujimori) able to achieve
with this gambit of the letters?".  The answer to this question makes it
clear that the authors of this concoction of "peace letters" were indeed the
SIN in cahoots with the CIA and that their main aim of their "gambit" was to
try to undermine and destroy the revolutionary prestige of Chairman Gonzalo".

However, whatever the outcome, the main factor in Peru continues to be the
People's War.  The revolution of the oppressed classes would not be denied,
whatever the Peruvian ruling classes and their imperialist master can dole out. 
In that respect, one of the most positive things is the attitude observed
within the international communist movement, where the action of the MRTA,
has not for a moment led to illusions or to falling for the siren songs of
the "peace program" which the burocratic wing of the Peruvian bourgeosie -
many posing as Left wing - has, on the backs of this coup de main, been
quite widely floating. 

As I said at the beginning, these are some preliminary thoughts and
conclussions that I have derived and noted from this on-going affair.
Surely, a more detailed article will appear in El Diario Internacional which
will eventually be available in this list.

Hope not to have been overlong.


Adolfo  





 







     


    



     --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---