File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-02-25.170, message 92


Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 22:38:34 -0500 (EST)
From: louisgodena-AT-ids.net (Louis R Godena)
Subject: M-I: The Communist Party of Peu and Its Role in the Peruvian Revolution



A TALK AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL
Instittue of Latin American Studies

February 21, 1997

by Adolfo Oleachea,  Spokesman for Sol Peru Committee - London


First of all,  I would like to thank the Latin American Society and the
students of the Institute of Latin American Studies of Liverpool University
for their cordial invitation.

The theme is a very important one,  dealing as it does with possibly one of
the most controversial issues of our day.    It is thus important,  not only
in the context of Latin America,  the primary field of interest here,  but
at the world level as well.

I am referring to the Peruvian revolution and the true role and character of
the Communist Party of Peru -- what the media describes as  "The Shining Path".

My prupose is to attempt an explanation of the mechanism behind the
demonising of the Communist Party and the Peruvian revolution.    In this
context I shall also address the root ideas distorting a correct
understanding of this revolution,  the PCP,  its ideology and its role.

I will try to contribute,  too,   some theoretical weapons that may serve
progressive people in debunking the reactionary Academic constructions
thickly woven around this topic.    I contend that these constructions are
not merely scientifically invalid,  but thorougly outdated as well -- having
therefore no place in any legitimate and up to date seat of learning.

THE MEDIA IMAGE OF THE PCP AND THE PROCESS OF ITS FORMATION

For the unbiased student of this theme,  a glaring fact towers over every
aspect of this issue:  In this theme,  we have a carefully crafted orthodoxy
presisting to this day.    This orthodoxy I had,  back in 1985,
characterised thus:

"Today,  the facts about the events unfolding in Peru are being distorted,
suppressed,   minimised and hidden away by the imperialist bourgeoisie and
by the opportunist left in equal measure".

"However,  people have heard news about massacres,  battles,  black-outs,
mass graves,  prison massacres,  waves of strikes,  riots,  rampant
corruption and state-sponsored drug dealing on a gigantic scale.    They
have read about counter-insurgency operations,   strategic hamlets,  states
of emergency and of elections and armed electoral boycotts".

"Moreover,  they have been told that a 'left wing socialist' government has
come into office;  that 'communists'  enjoy large parliamentary
representation,  control many municipal councils,  etc.    They have also
heard that all this 'progressive advance' is endangered,  frustrated and
overshadowed by an 'obscure' organization with a fancy name,  'The Shining
Path'.     An organization described as ruthless,   murderous terrorists,
a freak phenomenon of 'Indigenous ideologists'  with Pol - pot like ideas,
dogmatic,  sectarian,  and intractable".

"Curiously,  this image comes from such different sources as the U.S.
magazines Time and Newsweek,  The New York Times,   The Washington Post,
Miami Herald,   Herald Tribune and others.    It also comes from French
sources such as Le Nouvel Observateur,  Le Monde,   Liberation,   L'Humanite
-- the organ of the French CP -- and also British,   German,   Russian,
Chinese,  Cuban,  etc".

"Here in Britain,   a consensus exists on this issue ranging from The Times,
The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph to 'socialist'  sources such as The
Morning Star,   The New Statesman,  City Limits,   the Trotskyist Press,  etc".

"Anyone would have thought that such unanimity,  from Murdoch to Tariq Ali
and beyond,  should have set alarm bells ringing among our 'Marxist
specialists'.    After all,   the 'Shining Path',  although people from
darkest Peru,  were part of the known universe and hardly non-human invaders
>from outer space against whom all classes could unite in defence of
humanity's home".

"Therefore,  either 'absolute truth above class' had been arrived at --
uniting all schools of thought and bringing the historical and political
process to its ultimate end and thus dispensing wth the need for Marxist
theoreticians of all sorts -- or the facts (stubborn facts) would be a
little different indeed.    In any case,  a bit of class analysis should of
necessity be undertaken by our 'non-specialist',  our generalist Marxists".  (1)

THE SHAPING OF A COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY AND ANTI-COMMUNIST ORTHODOXY

The question is,   how did such a unanimous -- and demonstrably false --
orthodoxy arise?    How was this "absolute truth above class"  fabricated?

We all know about what is these days billed as  "the power of the media".
We understand well the fact that ruling classes shape and distribute ideas
by means of their gigantic propaganda machine involving newspapers,  radio,
television,  film,  books,  etc.     Blaming the media for the distorted
views it distributes is fashionable,  even if everyone with an ounce of
sense can perceive that these have almost no relation to reality.

However,  the "media",  as its very name shows,  is but the vehicle for the
distribution of these ideas.    The factories,  the means of production
fashioning these ideas,  lie elsewhere.

What are the sources of bourgeois orthodoxy mystifying the issues around the
Peruvian revolution and demonising the Communist Party of Peru in its just
struggle for social and political emancipation?

ASSEMBLY LINES

It is in the Universities,  Institutes,   Think Tanks,  policy groups and
such like,  where the handful of reactionaries and imperialist subjecting
the world to their catastrophic dictatorship have installed their assembly
lines for such ideas.   It is in such  "factories" and "laboratories" where
their prototypes are designed,  sampled and tested,  before entering the
media mills for mass distribution.

As I have noted above,  with the Peruvian revolution we could classify the
sources of these ideas into two.   These, for convenience sake we could
speak of as "right-wing" and "left-wing",  according to the different
frameworks and styles in which the very same reactionary message is
presented:  The Peruvian revolution is bad and inhuman.   The Communist
Party of Peru is nothing but the devil incarnate and the direst enemy of all
humanity.

RIGHT WING IDEA FACTORIES

However,   here,  the idea factories of the Right should not concern us
overmuch.    It is more than clear that beyond reactionary and obscurantist
tenets openly justifying oppression and exploitation.    Beyond bestowing
moral virtue upon the alleged right of a tiny minority to live the life of
Riley at the expense of the great masses of working people,  or beyond
simple racist and jingoistic demagogy for inflaming the most backward
instincts against the so-called dangers of foreign,   foreign,   barbarian
peoples -- be it the yellow,  the black or the brown peril -- the overt
Right has not very much to offer to delude enlightened persons everywhere.
And here we are,  I assume,  among enlightened people.

"HUMAN RIGHTS' AND COUNTERINSURGENCY ADVISORS TO THE WORLD'S TYRANNIES          

Nor are we concerned with those disguised defenders of imperialism who speak
in the name of democracy and human rights,  while fawning upon the ugliest
satraps of this world.

People who speak today like the old Constitutional Democrats spoke yesterday
under the Tsar's government in Russia.    People such as David Scott Palmer
or Cynthia MacClintock,  to name but two among many,   also instrumental in
demonsing the Communist Party of Peru in this country and at the
international level.

We can synthesise the entire content of their ranting againt the PCP and the
Peruvian revolution,  together with their role as apologists and
counterinsurgency experts to the criminal regimes in Peru,  in the same
phrase the old Russian Constitutional Democrats used to apologise for
Tsardom;  "We should bless this government,  which alone,  with its bayonets
and jails,  protect us from the ire of the people'.

ANTI - PCP IDEA FACTORIES FROM THE "LEFT"

What shall we say then about an alleged "Left - wing body of public
opinion",  comprising all those who,  while invoking inspiration in
different authorities -- in particular the doctrines of the Marxist Classics
-- that comes,  by roundabout ways,  and making use of a different jargon
full of socialistic and even revolutionist catchwords,  to equally
right-wing and counter-revolutionary conclusions?

Moreover,  to conclusions that -- in essence -- are as similar in content
and spirit to those of the overt Right as one drop of water is to another?
Would it not be enough to just say that such "left" is nothing but a
concealed,   hidden,  masked,  Tweedledee to the Tweedledum Right?    Should
we just dismiss them in the same manner?

It surely would not be something unjust or undeserved.    However,  in the
pursuit of scientific knowledge,  justice or injustice,  guilt or
punishment,  are but secondary considerations.    That factor compels us to
dig deeper into the roots of why these "left" organs manufacturing ideas in
countries such as Britain,   Germany,   France,   or the USA,  etc.,  have
landed themselves into such an awkward position.

I want to ask the question of how these people arrived at playing a role,
which in the face of it,  seems so contrary to all their proffered beliefs,
moreover,  so antagonistic to the most vital interests of the working
people,  those upon whom their existence and the very ground -- the very
life -- of what we understand as "the left" and its values -- in the last
analysis depends?

THE SOURCES OF RAW MATERIALS FOR THE ELABORATION OF ANTI - PCP "LEFT - IDEAS"

Another level where the "raw material" for the key ideas elaborated by
centres of knowledge comes from does exist.

I am referring here to the sources back in Peru -- and other similar
oppressed countries -- with which the "left",  particularly the academic
left,  holds direct relations.

In the oppressor countries,  what Lenin in his work *State and Revolution*
described as "the elements of opportunism that accumulated over the decades
of comparatively peaceful development" whose existence has "given rise to
the trend of social - chauvinism which dominates the official socialist
parties"  pervade also today even the most faithful Marxists in these countries.

Moreover,  it manifests itself as a strong liberalistic tendency both in its
theory and practice,  mostly everywhere.

We can,  for convenience's sake,  describe these people as "Western
Marxists"  or "Left - wing intellectuals or academics of the West"  in
particular.    How do these people obtain the "raw materials" for assembling
these ideas in their "academic factories"?

It is not surprising that in their relations with those in the oppressed
countries who also portray themselves as Marxists,   revolutionaries,   of
the left,   progressives,  etc.,  the "Western Left - wing intellectuals"
should gravitate towards the "raw materials" provided by those sources
within the oppressed countries that best fit with their own trends of
thought and liberal prejudices.

In studying the politics and social conditions in the oppressed countries --
there where the very spirit,  then temper of Marxism -- given the concrete
conditions -- tends to be undoubtedly and viscerally more militant and
uncompromising,  our Marxist intellectuals and academics of the oppressor
countries,   understandably and most spontaneously,  gravitate towards the
"Marxist compromisers" and towards those "intellectual circles" most
inclined to partake,  spiritually and ideologically of their own penchant
for accomodation and peaceful development.

People of like minds who think and orient their politics along the very
lines demanded and imposed by the weight of the ruling class state and its
institutions,   including the political and academic ones.

TO BE CONTINUED...    



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