Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 23:54:01 -0500
Subject: M-G: Struggle Against Bourgeois Feminism


Below you will find the two initial parts of the article from El Diario
International as kindly proofread by comrade Louis Godena.  I take this
opportunity for thanking him publically and also to re-send them for those
collecting the article in its final version.  

Also, to Gary Maclennan and to k.pelles apologies for just having been able
to finally get their addresses right in this mailing list (which know has 31
currently active subscribers and 4 others in temporary leave for the Easter
period).

Adolfo




Dear comrades:

I am going to start translating El Diario Internacional and delivering it
directly to the list.  I will be grateful if any of the comrades whose
mother tongue is English will volunteer to do the proofreading before it is
sent out from this list for publication in bulletin boards.  We aim to have
the best possible clarity and the most understandable language.  So please,
any help in that regard will be greatly appreciated.

Please let me know who among you will have a little time available to help
by E-mailing me.  If more than one comrade is willing to assist, I will make
a rota so that everyone of them can have a whip at the different articles.

So, without any more preambles, I ll start the translation directly in this
mailer below:


MARXISM OR APRISM?

MRTA:  THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY GUERILLA

III PART

By Luis Arce Borja

There are many questions around the MRTA.  The fundamental question to
be asked is if this group which is permanently requesting "Dialogue" and making
proposals for "peace agreements" with the regime, is or is not part of the
camp of revolution.

What does the MRTA want?  Against whom are their arms aimed at?  What is the
connection between this group and the anti-insurgency plans of the Peruvian
state?

These are the questions we have set out to answer in this article.  To begin
this task  we shall publish revealing statements of one of the leaders of the
MRTA.    By means of quotations and concrete examples, we shall reveal the true
face of this self-proclaimed "revolutionary" organisation.

"The minimum conditions we demand before accepting government offers for
pacification 
must necessarily include the defeat of Shining Path.   Handing
over our weapons under present conditions would result in an
increase in violence because it would mean the growth of Shining
Path.....In that context, we are determined to defeat Shining Path
politically and militarily, as we have already done in one area where we
have killed more than 60 Shining Path cadres.  This would be our
contribution to the pacification of the country......" (Interview with
"German" and "Ricardo", regional commanders of the MRTA, published in the
Peruvian magazine Caretas, June 15 1991)

BIRTH OF THE MRTA

In what context did the MRTA come into existance?  This organisation
surfaced in 1984 when Peru was already in the throes of the armed struggle
led by the Communist Party of Peru(PCP) - what the media calls "The Shining
Path".

At that time, the main problem for the state and its repressive organs was
already the Maoist guerilla.   At that juncture the social classes were
already manifesting their most acute contradictions.  The official parties,
including those of the self proclaimed "Left" had begun an
accelerated process of decomposition and decay.    At the government level,
the regime
under Belaunde Terry's leadership was faltering all along the line.

The police forces (120.000 strong) and their elite corps assisted by US
instructors had already demonstrated their incapacity to smash the
rebellion.  The
armed struggle which began in May 1980 in Ayacucho department spread rapidly
to other regions.  

In December of 1982, the government put the Armed Forces (Army, Navy and
Air Force) in charge of waging war against the guerillas.  In this span of
time (1983-1984) - that is in only two years - the armed forces had
assassinated more than 4.000 peasants in the areas of Junin,
Huancavelica and Ayacucho alone.

The MRTA soon appeared claiming itself as a "Marxist-Leninist" organisation and
on several occasions boasted of being  "the most advanced form of the
politico-military struggle of the Peruvian people". They allege that they
seek to "organise the whole people for a victorious revolutionary war".

WHAT IS THE PRAXIS AND THEORY OF THE MRTA?

In Peru, as well as in any other country in the world, a Marxist-Leninist
organisation shares similar characteristics.  Their tactical actions may
vary, but their strategic aims are identical. That means: An organisation
that struggles for power for the working class, it is based and subscribes
to the ideology of the proletariat, carries out an internal two line
struggle, applies democratic centralism with the same discipline for all and
also has a revolutionary program with the central aim of struggling for
communism.

At the ideological and strategic level, the MRTA repeats the old positions of
the political organisations in Peru that are part of the "United Left" (IU),
(and which also claim themselves "Marxist-Leninist").  The similarities between
this "left" and the MRTA show up in various political aspects, principally
in the electoral field, in the struggle against the Maoist guerillas, in
their approach to such questions as the Church, the military, the bourgeois
parties, the questions of the state, class conciliation (dialogues), and the
question of the unity of the Peruvian people.

In this occasion we are only going to deal with this problem briefly,
particularly those related to the question of the elections and the
position of the MRTA in this regard,  as well as with the question of the
unity between the
Tupac-Amaru group and the "United Left" in its struggle against the Maoist
guerillas, the questions of dialogue and peace agreements, and the questions
of "mass work".

In analysing these themes we shall see clearly the true face and political
role of the MRTA.  In understanding these elements the reader will become
convinced that in the ideological, political and strategic fields, both the
"United Left" and the MRTA comprise a unity which is geared solely to the
buttressing of the various regimes and the imperialists powers.

MRTA AND THE ELECTIONS

For background,  let us briefly recapitulate the political
conditions under which elections occur in Peru.  From 1980 onwards
this country has existed in a situation of internal war.  The greatest part of
its terroritory and of its population lives under a state of emergency.  One
of the characteristics of this reality is the militarisation of the country
by the rotten old State 
and the suspension of "peace time laws".  

The very Constitution of the state has lost validity and influence.  In the
regions under the state of emergency civilian authority is gone and in its
place is
rule of the Armed Forces.  The military have constituted
themselves into a power that decides the lives and destinies of millions of
Peruvians.  In those areas, the "Polical-Military Command" stands above the
judicial system, the municipal and other civilian authorities.  Citizens are
forced to vote on the elections, and to vote for candidates the military
itself supports.

Within this context of repression and violation of the most basic citizen's
rights, elections are a farce without any political or legal validity.

To take part in elections under such conditions serves only to support and
validate the reactionary political system.  It also serves to cover up the
frauds and anti-democratic entrails of such farces.

>From 1980 onwards, the electoral struggle - besides the question of the
farcical circus atmosphere surrounding it - was deeply affected by the
phenomena of the People's War led by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP).
Each election is an occasion for a sharp struggle - often violent -
between the Maoist forces calling for a boycot (where conditions
permit) and the official parties (right, centre and left) that support the
electoral circus.  This battle is known in official circles in Peru as "the
battle between democracy and Shining Path's terrorism".  It is the struggle
between the electoral boycott and the electoral process.

It is here where we find the electoral ambitions of the MRTA.  The
criteria that this group follows regarding the elections is not very
different from the way the "United Left" and the parties of the Peruvian right
think and act.  Their concept of "democracy", "elections" and "terrorism" 
faithfully replicates the regime's own.  Here's a telling example:

"The [election] boycott called by Shining Path has been a complete failure
[sic].  The people
of Peru reject the policy of terror and threats unleashed by Shining Path.
It is obvious that a few thousand activists of Shining Path cannot impose
their will over twenty million Peruvians".  (Victor Polay Campos.
Interview published in the newspaper El Nacional, December 17 1989).

In 1989, the MRTA, as an ally of the United left, kicked off its electoral
career.   Sponsoring the same programs and using the same rhetoric, the MRTA
became
actively involved in the municipal elections:    On this occasion Victor Polay
Campos crowed  "...on the one hand the reactionary right headed by FREDEMO
advocating anti-popular measures, on the other, the United Left and the
MRTA."  (Victor Polay Campos.  Interview published in the newspaper El
Nacional, December 17 1989).

In 1990 the MRTA rehashed the old procedure and participated in the elections
that elected Alberto Fujimori.  They supported their own candidates or those
of the United Left (IU).  Here Polay Campos again tells us about their
electoral ventures:

"On the other hand, the Presidential elections gave rise to great
expectations.... Our position in the first round was a complicated one given
the complexity of the situation.  We recognised and supported a gamut of
options that ranges from spoiling the ballot to support for consistent
people inside the lists of the United Left.....  Several of the members of
parliament elected belong to the most advanced sectors of the United Left"
(III Central Committee of the MRTA.  Report on the National Situation,
September 1990).

The examples and quotes we have shown demonstrate that the MRTA is tied firmly
to the electoral chariot of the Peruvian state.

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST SHINING PATH

The similarities between the MRTA and the "United Left" do not only exist 
in the electoral field. Their unity is above all reflected in the "struggle
against Shining Path".  This "Left" unconditionally supports - from
Parliament, the municipalities or any other organ of the old state - the
criminal military plans of the regime.

Since 1980 the "United Left" collaborated in the organisation of para-military
anti-insurgency groups ((kulak whiteguards (rondas campesinas), civil
defence committees, neighbourhood watch committees, etc.) which the armed
forces then wielded for their war effort.

It is with this "Left" that the MRTA maintains the highest levels of  "unity".
And it is here that the counter-revolutionary role of the MRTA becomes
most evident.  This is how one of their leaders puts it:  "With the left, yes we
are working with them.  The problem with Shining Path is very complex. They
are an antagonistic organisation".  (Alberto Galvez Olachea, Caretas
magazine, August 1988).

The anti-Shining Path unity between the MRTA and the "United Left" should be
seen as part of an strategic task aimed at the preservation of the state's
stability and insuring the survival of the old system.  The MRTA, openly
or covertly, supports the organisation of kulak militias and participates
in actions against the Maoist guerillas.  They repeat like parrots all the
lies and slanders the regime or the Yankees invent against the PCP guerillas.
We could continue with this theme extensively.    However, for the time being
it is enough to show these few examples.

For this purpose we quote the statement of the "leader" of the MRTA.  These
words are clear enough as to need no further elaboration:

"More than 90% of the casualties of (Shining Path's) actions are from the
civilian population.  They do not merely kill members of the armed forces,
mayors and government functionaries.  They also kill peasants, priests and
clerics, foreigners assisting development proyects, popular leaders. Their
messianic view of society makes these people be of the same kind as the
islamic fundamentalists.  The Shining Path people believe themselves to be
the only depositories of truth.  They are the Peruvian version of Pol-pot".
(Victor Polay Campos in an Interview by Tomas Borge, Caretas Magazine,
December 1991).

"We have clashed with Shining Path within the peasant
communities themeselves.   They practice a dictatorial policy of forced
recruitment and
implement organisational forms alien to the Andean peasant.  The MRTA help
the communities to reject them and we inflicted upon  them around twenty
casualties"
(Victor Polay Campos in an Interview with "SI" magazine, May 8, 1989).

"Also, we decided to support the "rondas campesinas (kulak militias) and the
neighbourhood watches against the dirty war of the Army and that of the
Shining Path
against the people......  In practice, Shining Path advocates a dictatorship
of the Communist Party of Peru over the whole of society..... In their war,
they do not respect the laws and principles enshrined in the international
treaties and the Geneva Conventions, and they use terror as an indiscriminate
weapon".  (Declarations of Victor Polay Campos to the Peruvian
anti-terrorist police, June 18 1992).


THIS ARTICLE TO BE CONTINUED


Adolfo 
     




First to thank comrade Godena for his excelent help with the first part of
the article from el Diario Number 38, and then to ask again for another
volunteer English mother tongue - or father tongue in any case - pace all
touchy Queen Bee-rishas of whom I would like to say something in a separate
mailer since they are currently in a hilarious lather in M-I trying to turn
events and facts upside down and rewritting history a la Trotsky) to help
with the proofreading.

So in we go with translation:


"MASS WORK" ACCORDING TO THE MRTA

The MRTA makes use of double-talk and exhibits two-faced political
behaviour. On the one hand it crows that they are leading a revolutionary
war with the aim of achieving socialism, on the other, its allies are
choosen from within the camp of the enemies of the revolution.  The MRTA
seeks out its friends among circles around the official power who struggle
agains any kind of revolutionary change in Peru.  They attempt to establish
its legitimacy within the ranks of the legal left.  

The MRTA identifies with the Apra party and with the "rank and file" of the
Fujimori crowd. The MRTA tails behind reactionary political corpses such as
Perez de Cuellar (the former Secretary General of the UN).  With base
chicanery it builds bridges of unity with such institutions as the army, the
police and the reactionary Peruvian Church.  All this "unity" - as Polay
himself declares - is aimed at opposing the "dictatorship proposed by
Shining Path".

Let us analyse the MRTA's concept  of "mass work":

"In Peru, despite the depth of the current moral and economic crisis, there
are major healthy and democratic forces inside the political parties -
both among the traditional (right wing) kind, as well as those of the
left. Such forces exist too within popular organisms, the Armed Forces, the
Police Forces. We believe that the Episcopal Conference should play an
important role.  Also, important figures such as Javier Perez de Cuellar can
play a role as facilitators in initiating a process of discussion, a
dialogue in different levels, and in arriving a certain agreements".
(Victor Polay Campos, in the Peruvian daily La Republica, 8/7/92).

It is plainly self-evident and absolutely logical that the "masses" the MRTA
speaks about may serve for any purpose except for making a revolution.  The
"mass work" of the MRTA is aimed and designed for the amelioration of Peru's
social tensions. 

The MRTA begins its armed activities at a moment in which the "official
left" embarks upon a process of internal decay.  This "Left" - exposed and
despised before the masses - is no longer useful for controlling the social
explosion and struggle of the popular masses, as had been its role prior to 
1980. 

With the initiation of the armed struggle (May 1980) Peru's social classes
underwent a
process of intense polarisation under the weight of their own
contradictions.  The Maoist-led
people's war turned into a powerful pole of attraction.  The masses of the
poor instinctively saw in the armed struggle a concrete form of resolving
their own historic struggle. 

It is within this context that the MRTA arrived  "miraculously" onto the
scene. And the curious fact is that from the very beginning the MRTA
attempted to revive the sagging fortunes of the self-declared  "United Left".  

"We are already in a position to begin more serious tasks such as the
re-organisation of the unity of the left and our people"  (III Central
Committee of the MRTA - Report on the National Situation, September 1990).

The MRTA hooked up with the United Left and announced the building of a great  
"mass front" to be used for electioneering, and, fundamentally, to "stop the
advance of Shining Path".  The MRTA seeks the support of the organisms
controlled by the United Left.  This can be observed in the following paragraph:

"Alonside that, we must build, strenghten and give firm and correct
leadership to the embryos of people's power which actually express
themselves in People's Assemblies, Defence Fronts, Rondas (kulak white
guards) and Peasant Communities and the highest expression of
centralisation: the National People's Assembly (ANP)"  (II MRTA Central
Committee, August 1988).

Take note, however, that the organisations mentioned in that MRTA document
and which they present as "embryos of People's Power", were in fact - until
their inglorious natural demise - led by the groups of the legal left in Peru
(Patria Roja, Partido Unificado Mariateguista (PUM), Izquierda Socialista,
etc.) 
 
It is easy to recognize beyond doubt that the MRTA never thought for a moment
to develop a real war for the seizure of power.  Their posturing and their
grandiose actions are aimed at attempting to distort Peruvian reality.  It
is evident that one of the aims of the MRTA is and continues to be the
thwarting of the process of armed struggle initiated in 1980.  This is
clearly revealed by
the declarations of the MRTA leaders themselves:

"We do not want that this civil war to take place, we want to avoid it....
The people demand change, the people are ripe for change, this country is
pregnant with a revolution. We all feel the pangs of this process, we must give
birth to this new society and the possibility exists that it will be either
by a civil 
war or by means of negotiated settlement  (Victor Polay Campos
- "Interview While in HIding", August 1985).

Polay's declarations about "avoiding civil war" were made in 1985.  At that
moment, the revolutionary war led by the Maoists had already five years of
successful development and the very dynamic of the class struggle was
driving the masses to increasingly take part in the revolutionary process.
When "Commander Rolando" (Polay's nom de guerre) spoke of "avoiding civil
war BY MEANS OF AN UNDERSTANDING" it is clear that he meant an understanding
to fight against the revolutionary war begun in 1980.

POLAY INITIATES "DIALOGUES"


The MRTA began its political activities offering its services to the Apra
regime.  When they were still in no position even to set a parked mini-bus
on fire, they were already proposing "dialogues" and "peace agreements".

In August 1985, just one year after they had initiated their armed struggle,
they offered a "truce" to the government of Alan Garcia Perez (Apra).  As
historical events have demonstrated,  Alan Garcia began one of the
blackest eras in Peruvian political history.  Later, when Alberto Fujimori
had just come to power, the MRTA again produced their usual "dialogue" and
"peace" proposals.  They requested a chance to  "negotiate the end of armed
struggle"
with the new government.

Let us briefly deal with this sequence of events:

In July 1985, Alan Garcia Perez, leader and candidate for the Apra party
fraudulently "won" the presidential elections.  One moth later (August 16),
the MRTA announced in a well publicised "Clandestine Conference" a
"unilateral truce" with the recently installed regime. 

The MRTA "truce" sounded like a joke and was much derided on the
political front.  In 1985, "Polay's guerillas" had done no more than smash
the windows or the occasional door in unguarded private banks.  Their main
activity was to send press releases to the media.  The "armed struggle" of
the MRTA did not worry the Peruvian police, even less the ruling Apra party,
where "Commander Rolando" was well known.

It is Polay himself who justifies this truce.  His statement - published in
the front pages and transmitted far and wide by all the TV channels -
reveals the secret
links of the MRTA with the Apra regime and the Armed Forces. Polay said:

"Because we think that with the change of government a new political
situation opens up in the country..... We are in the midst of a new political
situation that is ripe with opportunity.....  We do not want a
civil war.  We want to avoid it if justice may be established before hand.
And today we have that historic opportunity...."   

In the same statement, Polay continues:

"We know and believe it to be the case that the Apra government has a will
to change and they at least have promised the people a change.  We want to
give them that opportunity and we are going to believe in what the Apra will
do. The first thing is that for now we shall not undertake any actions
against the government or the Apra party....... Respecting their (electoral)
majority, the MRTA will not undertake any actions against Apra and the new
government while they do not attack the people".

At the very moment in which Polay was announcing that the MRTA would carry
out no "military actions" against Apra "while they do not attack the
people", the Apra government had already the blood of a dead student on its
hands,  
assassinated during a brutal police operation in one of Lima's shanty-towns.
In the same month
of August - while the MRTA was offering its services to Apra - a military
patrol entered the township of Accomarca (Ayacucho), assassinating 69
peasants.  On August 27, practically when Polay's peace declarations were
still warm of the presses, the Army assassinated another 70 townspeople in
Umaro and Bellavista (Ayacucho). 

Polay does not restrict his praise to the government.  He extends it
lavishly to the criminal armed forces:

"Concerning the Armed Forces we consider that these institutions have a great
tradition and a rich history.  The Armed Forces were born from the
organisation of guerillas that fought for independence...... We know that
inside the Armed  Forces, the Army and the Navy, there are consistent
sectors which we support and upon whom we place our expectations..."

>From the moment the armed forces took charge of counter-insurgency
operations they began committing horrendous crimes against the Peruavian
people.  From 1980 to 1985 more than 12.000 people had died, the great
majority assassinated by the army and its para-military squads.  At the
moment of Polay's declarations above, more than 5.000 had been kidnapped and
dissapeared in the zones under state of emergency.  You can imagine what
Peruvians said when they read or heard the praise heaped by Polay upon the
Peruvian military.

The attemps at dialogue of the MRTA during the Apra regime were many.  Just
to mention those that received the greatest publicity:

On March 26, 1989, the MRTA sent a letter to Cardinal Juan Landazuri in
which they solicited his help with the government in order to have a
"dialogue to end the war".  Again in July 1989, MRTA took up this
initiative.  They kidnaped Apra leader DEmetrio Tafur - Chairman od the
Regional Development Corporation of San Martin Department.  The "hostage" was
released and turned himself into a spokesman for the rebel group.  He
announced that the MRTA requested the intercession of the Church in order to
hold a "dialogue about surrendering their weapons".

In July 1990 Fujimori came to power.  Two months later -- in September --
the MRTA
again harped on negotiations and proposed a dialogue with the new government.
Their style was the same brand they used before on Alan Garcia.  This stunt
was given wide 
publicity of by the regime.    During this "historic opportunity",   the
MRTA "kidnapped"
Gerardo Lopez, a member of parliament from Fujimori's party (Cambio 90).

After a few days the "hostage" was freed and from that moment he transformed
himself into an emmissary of the MRTA "revolutionaries".   Gerardo Lopez took
his new functions very seriously and announced that the MRTA "wants to
have a dialogue and are even ready to surrender their weapons".


(TO BE CONTINUED)






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