From: Maoist Internationalist Movement <mim3-AT-blythe.org>
Subject: MIM Congress, 1996 "On RIM and Peru"
Date: Sun, 7 Jul 1996 15:38:47 -0400 (EDT)


 "On Peru and the RIM"

With the participation of some of the RCP-USA influenced 
organizations in the RIM, A World to Win published a magazine on 
Peru. It has already proved to be the work of the center-right in our 
movement--those like Hua Guofeng waving the red flag to conciliate 
with counterrevolution. Although the document is marked as 
published in 1995, MIM only just received it in recent months of 
1996.

Italicized in the document is a statement summing up the centrist 
approach to waving the red flag.  "In the actual circumstances and 
given the relation of class forces at this stage in Peru, there is, from 
the standpoint of the proletariat, no need for and no correct basis for 
negotiations leading to the end of the People's War. There is no basis
--in terms of the freedom and the necessity of the revolutionary 
camp on the one hand and the reactionary camp on the other--for 
achieving a peace accord that would not represent abandoning the 
revolutionary road and compromising away the fundamental 
interests of the people. Under these circumstances , the only kind of 
peace accord which would be accepted by the Fujimori regime--and 
more generally by the ruling classes in Peru and their imperialist 
masters--is an agreement to end the war on a basis that could not 
benefit but would harm the revolutionary process in Peru. Therefore, 
a proposal for peace accords to end the war could only lead to 
opportunism and must be combatted." (p. 15) 

On the same page that it refers to itself as the "emerging political 
centre of the international communist movement," the RIM says, 
"Those who have been confused by the right opportunist line or 
stumbled off the revolutionary path should repudiate this line, 
oppose and counter the damage being caused by this line and its 
adherents, and retake the revolutionary road." (p. 17) Therein 
lies the essence of the problem of the A World to Win stand. We take 
the stand that of course there is a two-line struggle at all times in the 
party, but in the instances that the RCP-USA is pointing to in this 
document, what we see is not right opportunism but 
counterrevolution. Furthermore, those conciliating with these 
counterrevolutionary forces while maintaining the appearance of a 
different line also lose their credibility as Maoists. Unlike the RIM, 
we do not suggest to the PCP-CC to conciliate with these counter-
revolutionaries and police to the extent of keeping them in the party. 
We find it unlikely that the PCP could have kept such people in the 
party and maintained its progress with the armed struggle and it 
also seems likely to MIM that whatever discussions were about the 
"peace accords" were done with years ago, at least in relation to this 
type of most fundamental question in which such a party as the PCP 
would have achieved unity very quickly.

The statement "It was important that the masses, and especially 
some of the middle strata, realize that Mao had gone to great efforts 
to reach a reasonable accord with Chiang" (p. 25) is correct. Those 
who deny this aspect of the peace sentiments of the masses are 
metaphysicians. However, it is a different question when it comes to 
the party and what is permissible for a party member to believe, and 
this is the crux of the problem with the RIM line on 
the People's War in Peru.

MIM never saw one of the documents released on pages 64 and 65 
before. In the "Outline for a Basic Document," we see a clear call for 
counterrevolution. "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. "Outline for a 
Basic Document" does exactly that, but the RIM calls it "written in the 
latter part of 1993 by leaders of the Right Opportunist Line." (p. 64)

Whatever right opportunism there might be in the PCP pales in 
comparison with this counterrevolutionary document. Without MIM 
ruling on questions unique to Peru or determining Peru's Guiding 
Thought, MIM can clearly say that  the universal 
aspects of Maoism in the oppressed, semi-feudal countries include 
never laying down arms except for partial and limited symbolic 
gestures, not as across-the-board action or strategy. It does not 
matter the conditions. There is nothing about Maoism to integrate 
with the conditions on that question. The document cannot be called 
Maoist, no matter what conditions in Peru might be.

Hence, even though MIM does not know the conditions or pretend to 
have a Guiding Thought for Peru, MIM knows that that document 
went too far. Its signers can not be members of the PCP. The whole 
affair of pretending otherwise is a montage of the police and its press 
lackeys.

RIM talks about 
"stumbling," but this goes further than that. This kind of "stumbling" 
removes one from the party. Perhaps these people can take up work 
in the new democratic forces. Others may prove themselves in the 
people's army, but they cannot be immediately trusted. A well-
publicized example of this is in the Philippines with the case of 
General Jarque whose story is told in Maoist Sojourner, May 1996. If 
someone clamors to join the proletarian-led forces that is good, and 
we must let them, but in the case of someone like Jarque with a 
history of bloodshed on his hands, caution and step-by-step struggle 
is necessary. Furthermore, 
those saying they want a "peace accord" and would conciliate with 
the signers of "Outline for a Basic Document" to the extent of keeping 
those signers in the party--such conciliators should also be thrown 
out of the party. The core of the party must be with those who 
recognize the "Outline for a Basic Document" as counterrevolutionary. 
Abroad, this means the line of Luis Arce Borja has been vindicated 
by the publication of A World to Win.

On the INTERNET, those defending the RIM line have reminded MIM 
of its own internal purge of the anarchist wind. They speak of "not 
casting out" people, blather about going on the offensive through 
outreach with everyone vaguely included in the Maoist forces and 
emphasize how their approach is "practice." Those unwilling to purge 
the party go against what Lenin taught on how purges strengthen 
the party. This is to leave aside the whole issue of police infiltrators, 
which is also connected up with a reluctance to purge and a happy-
go-lucky approach to unity.

Other defenders of the RIM are a case in point of how difficult it is to 
break with the RCP-USA's revisionism without the MIM line on the 
imperialist countries. Already some ex-RCP USA circles are crawling 
back to the RCP-USA line as the struggle intensifies.

In light of these documents in A World to Win, and also other press 
reports about RIM-
sanctioned people attacking the PCP-CC as "totalitarian," MIM sees 
that this struggle has gone beyond the confines of what is acceptable 
within the universal principles of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. We do 
not seek to present a Guiding Thought for Peru from here in the 
imperialist countries. We will not march through Peru's conditions 
the way A World to Win did as if we should form the Guiding 
Thought from here--though it is certain that the blow to the 
leadership and the lack of inter-imperialist war will make the 
People's War more protracted than would otherwise be the case.

We recognize instead of trying to form the Guiding Thought, we 
abroad should follow Luis Arce Borja in his 
approach. He has warned against RIM centrism and conciliation with 
counterrevolution and police plots. Meanwhile, he has rebuffed the 
obviously non-Maoist attacks on the PCP including the recent police 
plot activities of the New Flag aimed at MIM and Luis Arce Borja 
himself, and Luis Arce Borja
has earned MIM's trust in these matters including detailed 
questions that MIM cannot know much about. Meanwhile, the RIM 
belies its claim to be fighting the "right opportunist line" by 
distributing leaflets against Luis Arce Borja internationally. If one is 
conducting a struggle against the "right opportunist line" for the 
peace accords, one does not proceed against those like Luis Arce 
Borja who have steadfastly opposed them. Such is the tell-tale sign of 
the center-right: wave the red flag to attract adherents, but attack 
the left and base oneself in the support from the right. In such a way 
it is possible to confuse the left momentarily, strike down its forces 
and achieve counter-revolution, whether subjectively intended or 
not. This is the outcome we must struggle now to avoid.

Adopted unanimously 1996 MIM Congress


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