File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1997/marxism-general.9706, message 60


From: mim3-AT-mim.org
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 11:03:26 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: M-G: MIM responds to Revolutionary Worker on Peru


Articles on this subject too long to put on the Marxism Space
will appear on MIM's www.etext.org/Politics/MIM page soon.

MIM on the May 18, 1997 RCP-USA statement on Peru

The phony Maoists of the "Revolutionary Communist Party-USA"  (RCP-USA)
continue to speak for the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), evermore
shamelessly as time goes on. In the May 18, 1997 Revolutionary Worker,
despite MIM's criticism, the RCP-USA continues the line that the authors
of the Canto Grande capitulationist document are merely examples of "right
opportunist"  politics within the PCP and not outright counterrevolution.
The RCP-USA is seeking to straddle those who would continue the People's
War and those who would lay down their arms and dissolve the base areas,
but there is no straddling revolution and counterrevolution. 

After the arrest of Comrade Gonzalo, the leader of the Peruvian
Revolution, some comrades in the Canto Grande prison of Peru wrote a
document called "Outline for a Basic Document." This poisonous weed said,

"Ending the people's war represents neither
surrender nor abandoning the revolution, but rather continuing the
struggle under new conditions." In addition, the document continues,
"II. Basic Approach 1. Sign a peace agreement whose application
would lead to the ending of the war the country is experiencing. 2.
End the people's war begun 17 May 1980, in all its four forms of
guerrilla actions. Disband the People's Guerrilla Army, destroying its
arms and combat material; likewise, dissolve the People's Committees
and the revolutionary base areas of the People's New Democratic
Republic."

Going back as far as statements released in 1994, MIM said it would never
be permissible to advocate laying down arms as a matter of principle until
the day of communism globally. "Outline for a Basic Document" advocates
laying down arms now, but the RIM calls it "written in the latter part of
1993 by leaders of the Right Opportunist Line." (A World to Win, 1995, p.
64) By this the RIM means that these Canto Grande authors are
still members of the PCP, just guilty of being off the correct
course. 

In contrast, we at MIM believe that the PCP-CC is in favor
of developing the People's War and distinguishes between 
counter-revolutionaries and right opportunists. Those who brazenly
advocate laying down arms and dissolving base areas are taking
a counterrevolutionary line. It is not permissible within the 
party. Those who hesistated, to consider the idea of a peace
accord or to evaluate the evidence that Comrade Gonzalo wants the
peace accord or to evaluate the mood of the masses toward peace,
these are right opportunists since the PCP-CC wants
to continue the People's War without negotiations. The RCP-USA is
now going beyond right opportunism and hardening its 
counterrevolutionary stance with regard to the Canto Grande weed.
MIM did not know how bad the Canto Grande weed was till 1996 when
we obtained the A World To Win magazine with the weed in it.
Those officially tied to the PCP have no excuse for not acting
quickly on the Canto Grande weed as soon as they had it.

MIM has great sympathy for all people in Fujimori's prisons. We do not
wish to second-guess their tactics for dealing with torture and repeated
prison massacres. Nonetheless, it is a different matter for the RCP-USA to
be saying that the "Basic Outline" is merely "Right Opportunist."  The
authors of the Canto Grande weed are no longer members of a real Maoist
party. They purged themselves from it. 

The RCP-USA points to documents it says are from the PCP; however, the RCP
has never shown that the PCP-CC believes that the Canto Grande weed is an
example of the "Right Opportunist Line." The RCP-USA simply made that up
out of thin air. Numerous other statements from the PCP-CC show that the
PCP-CC considers the peace accords idea a "hoax" of the Peruvian police. 

Should the RCP-USA ever prove that the PCP-CC says that the Canto Grande
document is merely "Right Opportunism," then our criticism will extend to
the PCP-CC as well. This is a question of the universals of
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. 

The fact that the RCP-USA may be correct about what the PCP-CC's position
is, but cannot prove it in detail or in any interactive way is just
further proof how the whole rehashing of the COMINTERN idea is not going
to work--especially outside the narrow confines of Europe where the
participating parties used to be close together. The RCP is basing its RW
article on documents more than one-half year old.  When we add the
consideration that document fraud has occurred inside and outside Peru
with regard to PCP documents, the case against the RIM concoction used by
the RCP-USA to boost its own politics gets all the worse. Inevitably the
RCP-USA inserts its own opinions where details from the PCP are lacking.
Objectively-speaking this means imperialist country domination of the
RIM--even on absolutely fundamental questions like where to draw the line
between counterrevolution and the party. 

The RCP-USA has also made another new and important admission in its own
backhanded way. "Over the last two years, supporters of the Right
Opportunist Line that arose from within the PCP, calling for negotiations
with the government and an end to the people's war, have put out a paper
under the El Diario name.  The Central Committee of the PCP has condemned
and repudiated its line." 

MIM has not seen the copies of El Diario that the RCP-USA is referring to,
but MIM does know that the ones calling for negotiations removed Luis Arce
Borja's name from the masthead and thus attacked him. At precisely the
same time, the RCP-USA launched an attack on Luis Arce Borja
internationally, with individual supporters ranging from Detroit to
Malmoe, Sweden. Now the RCP-USA has basically admitted it was acting in
concordance with what it calls the "Right Opportunist Line" in 1995 and
1996. MIM charged this at the time, but the RCP-USA had nothing to say in
its defense with regard to the pro-peace accords El Diario.  Through the
RIM publication "A World to Win" the RCP-USA has continued its coordinated
attacks against Luis Arce Borja into 1997. 

Just as patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, dialectics is the
last refuge of revisionist mystics like the RCP-USA. For years the RCP-USA
has been criticizing metaphysics in the name of dialectics in the context
of Peru. It turns out that all this criticism of metaphysics is just a
cover to smuggle counterrevolution into the vanguard party. MIM too has
always criticized as metaphysics any line that said that consideration of
peace accords is counterrevolutionary. However, the Canto Grande authors
went far beyond considering the sentiments of the people for peace. The
Canto Grande authors advocated laying down arms and dissolving the base
areas.  Communists do not lay down their arms during peace accords;
although they may cease-fire as long as they protect themselves. 

The RCP-USA's abuse of dialectics does not surprise MIM, because
dialectics apart from materialism is Hegelian idealism. Such is useful
stuff for personality cults seeking to obtain a new deal for the labor
aristocracy tying itself to imperialism. Whenever we talk about how the
oppressor nation workers are parasites, the RCP-USA objects and calls them
proletarians and does so in the name of dialectics. However, just because
crises can and do happen and parasites do return to the proletariat on
occasion and just because even counterrevolutionaries and members of the
bourgeoisie join the revolution in some minority percentage of cases, we
do not have to be two-faced and fork-tongued like the RCP-USA. 





















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