Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 01:51:46 +0000
Subject: M-G: PERU: Debunk the Lies of Imperialism.  (Part 2 of 2)


                  PERU: PEOPLE'S WAR SMASHES LIES OF U.S. IMPERIALISM.
                     SWP: A Yankee Cult at the Service of  Yankee Imperialism.
                                          Part 2 of 2  articles.

Although for a person who is fairly informed on Peru most of the SWP's
" information" is superficial and groundless, it is fair to ask the
question: Are they acting consciously on behalf of Yankee imperialism
like Trotsky did in the past on behalf of Hitler, or do they simply
lack real information on the People's War?

For example, in its 1994 Spanish language pamphlet  "Sendero Luminoso,
Evolution of  a Stalinist Sect," (published in English in 1993 as
"Peru's Shining Path, Anatomy of a Reactionary Sect"), the SWP reveals
its gross ignorance of our country. They should analyze the real Peru
and not the bourgeois elite that imperialism displays in the world
thru its mouthpieces such as The New York Times or  Wall Street
Journal. Let's debunk the allegation in the SWP pamphlet.

* Page 9. SWP states that "Fujimori defeated Alan Garcia in the 1990
elections." False, Garcia didn't run in 1990. APRA's candidate was
Luis Alva Castro.

* Page 10. SWP states: "Fujimori is the product of the acute social
crisis, collapse of the economy, and the discrediting of the political
parties, including most of the Socialist and Communist parties."  So,
for SWP,  puppet Fujimori is a sort of  "revolutionary" who suddenly
pops up to save Peru! Here, SWP's imperialist position is crystal
clear. The fact of the matter is that the People's War in 1990 was
already involved in 10 years of successful armed struggle. The
revolution has exposed clearly the semi-feudalism of the country, its
semi-colonial condition and the inability of bureaucratic capitalism
to solve the basic problems of the country. The PCP has combated both
imperialism and revisionism (agents inside of the working class), and
the old State was already shaken to its roots. It is at that point
that the People's War reached the stage of  strategic equilibrium. The
Peruvian revisionists (IU, PUM, Patria Roja) have been completely
discredited and smashed by the revolution, even in the area they most
cherish, the bourgeois elections, when they obtained 0.5% of the vote
and had no other choice than to support the APRA and Fujimori
governments to save the old State.

* Page 13. SWP confuses the eclectic positions of the RCP-USA with
those of the PCP. The People's War is not a "peasant revolution" or a
racial struggle, but a New Democratic revolution led by the
proletariat based on the worker-peasant alliance. SWP even borrows
MIM's positions, comparing the PCP to Pol Pot, and claiming that the
PCP rejects the struggles of unions for better wages and other demands
because it considers them "labor aristocracy." The fact is that the
Party leads those struggles from the bases, unmasking the revisionist
leaders who seek to sell out the workers' interest in favor of the
exploiters and the regime. Let's quote the great Lenin to explain why
the PCP stands for democratic revolution in its uninterrupted path to
socialist revolution and Communism:

"The proletariat must carry to completion the democratic revolution by
allying to itself the mass of the peasantry, in order to crush by
force the resistance of the autocracy and to paralyze the instability
of the bourgeoisie.  The proletariat must accomplish the socialist
revolution by allying to itself the mass of the semi-proletarian
elements of the population in order to crush by force the resistance
of the bourgeoisie and to paralyze the instability of the peasantry
and the petty bourgeoisie". (V.I. Lenin, "Two Tactics of SD", 1905,
see Lenin CW, Vol 8, p. 96)

"From the democratic revolution we shall at once, and just to the
extent of our strength, the strength of the class conscious and
organized proletariat, begin to pass to the socialist revolution.  We
stand for uninterrupted revolution. We shall not stop halfway." (CW,
Vol 8, pp 186-87)

"Without succumbing to adventurism or going against our scientific
conscience, without striving for cheap popularity, we can do and say
only one thing: we shall put every effort into assisting the peasants
to carry out the democratic revolution in order to make it easier for
us, the Party of the proletariat, to pass on, as quickly as possible,
to the new and higher task, the Socialist Revolution" (Lenin, ibid.)

*Page 17. SWP states that, "the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) does not
recruit the `experienced' workers, the union leadership. It attracts
residents of the shantytowns, peasants in poor areas, and the
unemployed  youth." TRUE!! That's the majority of Peru. That's the
expression of the worker-peasant alliance in the People's War. The
corrupt revisionist union leadership has a long history of treason.
They helped to put into power military and civilian dictators  (Prado,
Odria, Belaunde, Velasco, Morales, Garcia, Fujimori), and although the
unionized proletariat is small in Peru, the PCP reaches out and has
influence in this important sector. But, SWP is right that most of the
support for the People's War comes from the proletariat in the
informal sector, the peasants (mostly poor peasants), the petty
bourgeoisie (students, teachers, public employees, owners of small
shops, etc.) and the underemployed, which is the majority of the
population. This reflects the mass character of the Peruvian
revolution.

* Page 19. SWP totally contradicts its position that the PCP is
isolated from the people by stating that the capture of President
Gonzalo has resulted in the unleashing of State repression against
"democratic freedoms."  Exactly! This is precisely because the PCP is
intrinsically linked to the popular movement. If not, why would the
capture of its leader affect the people? The bold recovery of the
People's War from that "bend in the road" has also resulted in the
sharpening of the class struggle by the popular movement.

* Page 22. SWP claims that the Party seeks to put in Power a petty
bourgeois privileged clique that would smash the workers and peasants.
However, it is precisely that type of petty bourgeois  movement that
SWP has historically promoted with its dubious "support." How about
the SWP's icons the slave traitor Nelson Mandela and the "reinserted"
Castro already in Power? In contrast,  the leadership of the New Power
being built in Peru's People's Committees consists of 1/3
proletarians, 1/3 peasants and 1/3 progressives members of other
oppressed classes.

 * Page 23. SWP supports the low intensity warfare tactics of Yankee
 imperialism when it advocates  a "counter-terrorist front."  "Workers
 and peasants must confront Sendero Luminoso to defeat it." That's
 exactly what the armed forces, advised by the Yankees are doing in
 Peru. They are organizing paramilitary forces known as Civil Defense
 (peasant rondas) and urban rondas, which are being smashed by the
 Peruvian people through People's War.

Many revolutionary activists in the U.S. wonder why the SWP is
blatantly reactionary on Peru when they have advocated some
progressive causes in the past. It's interesting to note that just
recently they have even reprinted in "The Militant" one of our
statements on behalf of a Peruvian immigrant arbitrarily arrested in
New York City.  

Our answer is simple: SWP is not a counter- revolutionary group for
all times and periods. This would be like saying Trotsky was always  a
counter-revolutionary, which is not true. During the October
Revolution he was a revolutionary. Even Stalin said "Trotsky fought in
October and fought well." But just like Trotsky, the SWP has been
totally  inconsistent with revolution here and with proletarian
internationalism; and with respect to the Peruvian revolution SWP is
definitely playing a counter-revolutionary role at the service of U.S.
imperialism and the fascist Fujimori dictatorship. The imperialist
slanders against the PCP are feeble and especially designed to fool
the unaware.

SWP and other academic "leftists" in the U.S. also attempt to ridicule
the ideological developments of Marxism by the PCP known as "Gonzalo
Thought". Yes,  Lenin said that Marxism is complete and harmonious and
needs no providential discoveries. However, the science of Marxism is
not static; it develops not by negating itself and coming up with a
new "improved formula", but by deepening its understanding of society
and the laws that govern it, and that can only come from the
application of this understanding to society in order to change it. In
other words, Marxism does not "change" but it becomes more clear, more
easily understood by the masses, deeper and more radical.  

On the question of Stalin as set forth by the Trotskyites, the PCP
upholds the dialectical analysis of Chairman Mao Tsetung (Vol. V,
Collected Works) which debunks the Trotskyites and Khruschovite lies
of accusing of every crime under the sun to Comrade Stalin. It's not
true that Stalin did away "administratively" with political opponents,
but it is true what the U.S. trained and funded army does now in Peru
with hundreds of political prisoners when they perpetrated genocides
in the prisons of El Fronton (300), Cantogrande (100), and more than
30,000 murdered by Fujimori's military and death squads. Does the PCP
kills? Yes, it does. But selectively, to military and economic
targets, including executions of members of death squads and
paramilitary.  

SWP pays a little lip service to these crimes of the regime,  but
saves its most savage denunciation for the People's War and its armed
attacks against the old State and imperialism.

Let's look at Trotsky's desertion of the revolution to explain the SWP
position with respect to the PCP and the People's War. Isn't that true
that once Trotsky abanndoned the cause of the revolution, he was
already associated with the bourgeois press and the slanders of the
U.S. government in spreading anti-communist propaganda?  The trots and
imperialists accuse Comrade Stalin of killing Trotsky.  The fact is
that he died as a result of internal splits of the Trotskyites
organizations.  

The SWP knows that Mercader was an agent working for the anti-Stalin
faction who, realizing that Trotsky would be more useful to them dead
than alive, did away with him, to later present themselves as victims
of the "Monster Stalin." This analogy is interesting because in Peru,
where Trotskyism has no political relevance at all, the SWP accuses
the PCP of killing a Troskyite worker even thought the PCP does not
target anyone for their political or religious beliefs, unless they
are involved in specific and PROVEN actions on behalf of the regime's
intelligence services and/or imperialism.  

Peru's most prominent Trotskyites leader Hugo Blanco, and the Peasant
Federation of Puno which he infiltrated for years, ended up on the
payroll of the CIA (See Mike Wallace's CBS Transcript "In the Pay of
the CIA, an American Dilemma," March 13, 1967, cited in The New Flag,
Vol.2, No.1, p.28). No wonder Blanco's irrational hatred for the
People's War! In 1992, Blanco was presented by the SWP, the United
Left and a Church group at the New School of Social Research  in New
York City  to spread his anti-PCP diatribes.  

Another Peruvian Trotskyites is the journalist Nicholas Lucar, now one
of the TV propaganda chiefs of butcher Fujimori in Lima (Channel 4.)
Are these the "workers" attacked by the PCP the SWP is referring to?
Imperialism blames the People's Army of Liberation for the murders of
worker and peasant activists committed by the death squads of
Fujimori. The case of miners leader Saul Cantoral is such a case .

Mao says that to be attacked by the enemy is not a bad thing but a
good thing. It is part of the contradiction between revolution and
counterrevolution. This only goes to show that the People's War is the
most advanced and revolutionary one, otherwise imperialists and
revisionists of all sorts would not bother to slander it.  Without
this genuine revolutionary character, it would never have won the
praise of the people in Peru and abroad. That's one more reason why
people all over the world want to learn more about the PCP, President
Gonzalo, the People's Army of Liberation, People's Committees, Armed
Strikes, the Shining Trenches of Combat in the prisons. The PCP's
reputation and prestige at home and abroad have been rightfully won
and deserve your support.

Proletarians of all countries, Unite!
Victory to the People's War!
Viva el Partido Comunista del Peru!
Honor y Gloria al Pueblo Peruano!

Movimiento Popular Peru (MPP), Enero 1997.

Published by The New Flag.
E-Mail:lquispe-AT-nyxfer.blythe.org
PCP Web Page:  http://www.blythe.org/peru-pcp


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