Basis for Discussion of the General Political Line of the Communist Party of Peru

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Basis for Discussion of the General Political Line of the Communist Party of Peru has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the edition published by the Maoist Documentation Project.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is the General Political Line drafted by Comrades Gonzalo, Norah, and Miriam for the First Session of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of Peru in Lima, Peru before January 1988. It was first published as a pamphlet by the Red Flag Publishing House in September 1987.

As the General Political Line was only generally approved, but not definitively adopted, by the Party's First National Congress, it remained a basis for discussion to be further developed in the course of the People's War in Peru. Nonetheless, it served as the main expression of the content of Gonzalo's Thought and as one element of the Party's basis of unity, together with the Party's Fundamental Documents.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#INTERNATIONAL LINE

#Gonzalo, Norah, and Miriam

#September 1987

#★

#INTRODUCTION

Chairman Gonzalo has established the International Line of the Communist Party of Peru. He teaches us that, as proletarian internationalists, we must begin by developing the Peruvian revolution through people's war as part of, and to serve, the proletarian world revolution, marching toward our unalterable goal, communism, taking into account that each revolution develops within the zigzags of world politics.

In appraising the world situation, Chairman Gonzalo's first starting point is the following thesis of Lenin's: «The economic relations of imperialism constitute the core of the entire international situation as it now exists. Throughout the 20th century, this new, highest, and final stage of capitalism has fully taken shape.»¹ His second starting point is Lenin's thesis that the distinction between oppressing and oppressed countries is a distinctive feature of imperialism. Therefore, in order to see the current situation we cannot take the fundamental contradiction of capitalism as our starting point, since we are in its last and highest stage, imperialism.

Furthermore, he upholds what Chairman Mao taught us, that imperialism and all reactionaries are paper tigers, that real power belongs to the people, and the following thesis: «Working hand in glove, Soviet revisionism and US imperialism have done so many foul and evil things that the revolutionary people the world over will not let them go unpunished. The people of all countries are rising up. A new historical period of struggle against US imperialism and Soviet revisionism has begun.»² On this basis, he expounds that the destruction of imperialism and world reaction, which is to be carried out by the Communist Parties leading the proletariat and the peoples of the world, will be an incontrovertible reality. He calls upon us to fight against the two imperialist superpowers, US imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, against the imperialist powers, and against world reaction, by specifying the conditions of each revolution to determine the main enemy and to avert the actions of the rest.

#1. THE NEW ERA

The victory of the November Revolution in 1917 marked an extraordinary milestone in world history, the end of the bourgeois world revolution and the beginning of the proletarian world revolution. This new era is characterized by an intensification of violence, the inability of the bourgeoisie to lead the revolution, and the maturity of the proletariat to conquer, lead, and defend the political power of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The revolutions of the oppressed nations also occur within this framework.

In the midst of a complex system of wars of all types, imperialism and world reaction will collapse, and socialism will emerge; consequently, both the revolution and the counter-revolution are conscious that only through war can political changes be defined. Because war has a class character, there are imperialist wars, such as the First and Second World Wars, which were wars of plunder for a redivision of the world; imperialist wars of aggression against oppressed nations, such as those of England in the Malvines, US imperialism in Vietnam, and social-imperialism in Afghanistan; and wars of national liberation, such as those which are waged in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Because the People's War in Peru is a war guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, which does not submit to any imperialist superpower or power, it is in the vanguard due to its appropriate character and correct leadership. It is a reality that demonstrates to us that the Communists should focus on the main aspect, that is, developing people's war as the main form of struggle to serve the world revolution.

Facing this situation that only through war can the world be transformed, we uphold the omnipotence of revolutionary war (meaning people's war) as the highest military theory, that of the proletariat, which must be specified according to each type of country, whether imperialist or oppressed, as mapped out by Chairman Mao. Thus, the worldwide people's war is an adequate response that serves to prevent imperialist war or, if such a war is already taking place, to transform it into people's war. But, as Communists, we wage war to destroy war through war in order to establish a «lasting peace». We are the only ones who fight for peace — unlike Reagan and Gorbacev, who wage more war the more they speak of peace; they are the warmongers.

In appraising the world in this era, we see that four fundamental contradictions are expressed:

• Firstly, the contradiction between capitalism and socialism, referring to the contradiction between two radically different systems, which shall encompass this entire era. This contradiction shall be one of the last to be resolved, and shall endure after the conquest of political power.
• Secondly, the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the contradiction between two opposed classes that shall also persist after the conquest of political power, manifesting itself in multiple ideological, political, and economic forms until its resolution with the arrival of communism.
• Thirdly, the inter-imperialist contradictions, the contradictions among the imperialists themselves for world hegemony, which occurs between the superpowers themselves, between the superpowers and the imperialist powers, and among the imperialist powers themselves. This contradiction shall be solved during the epoch of the next 50 to 100 years.
• Fourthly, the contradiction between the oppressed nations and imperialism, which is the struggle for the liberation of oppressed nations in order to destroy imperialism and reaction, whose resolution is also framed within the next 50 to 100 years. During this time, this is the main contradiction, although any one of the four fundamental contradictions can become the main one in accordance with the specific circumstances of the class struggle, temporarily or in certain countries.

In perspective, in order to arrive at our final goal, communism, we Marxist-Leninist-Maoists must carry out three types of revolutions:

• Firstly, the democratic revolution, the bourgeois revolution of a new type led by the proletariat in the oppressed countries, which establishes the joint dictatorship of the proletariat, the peasantry, the small bourgeoisie, and, in certain conditions, the middle bourgeoisie, under the hegemony of the proletariat.
• Secondly, the socialist revolution, in the imperialist and capitalist countries, which establishes the dictatorship of the proletariat.
• Thirdly, cultural revolutions, which are made to continue the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. These serve to subjugate and eliminate any regeneration of capitalism and to wage armed struggle against attempts at capitalist restoration, and also to strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat and the march toward communism.

Just as no class in the world has ever been able to conquer political power all at once, but only through a process of restorations and counter-restorations, when the proletariat conquers political power and establishes its dictatorship, the bourgeoisie's zeal to restore capitalism and to recover its political power is strengthened and opens up a historical process of struggle by the proletariat, which seeks to maintain and defend its dictatorship and to avert capitalist restoration, and by the bourgeoisie, which seeks to recover political power. This struggle between restoration and counter-restoration is an inexorable historical law, until the dictatorship of the proletariat is definitively established. In world history, when the feudal class advanced in China, it took 250 years to definitively crush the restoration of slavery; when the bourgeoisie in the West fought against feudalism to crush the attempts at restoration or the actual restorations of feudalism, it took 300 years for it to be definitively established in political power. And, addressing a revolution in which the proletariat is definitively established in political power, the struggle between restoration and counter-restoration is uniquely sharp and bitter and will last approximately 200 years, starting from the Paris Commune in 1871. The experiences of capitalist restoration in the Union of Socialist Council Republics [USCR] and in China leave us with great lessons, positive as well as negative; here, we should especially emphasize the gigantic steps forward in the formation of the New State and how the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is the solution to avert restoration.

We, who uphold Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, reaffirm revolutionary violence as the universal law governing the conquest of political power, and that it is crucial in order to replace one class with another. Democratic revolutions are carried out with revolutionary violence, socialist revolutions are carried out with revolutionary violence, and, in the face of restorations, we shall recover political power through revolutionary violence. We shall maintain the continuation of the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat with revolutionary violence through cultural revolutions, and we shall only reach communism through revolutionary violence. As long as there is any place on Earth in which exploitation exists, we shall finish it off through revolutionary violence.

This new era arms us richly, and we Communists must strengthen ourselves ideologically, politically, and organizationally to take up the corresponding responsibilities.

#2. THE PROCESS OF THE WORLD REVOLUTION

The international Communist movement operates within two currents: the international proletarian movement and the national liberation movement. The first is the guide and the second is the basis.

The national liberation movement is waged in the oppressed nations against imperialism and reaction. In the first decade of this century, Lenin paid close attention to the struggles in India, China, and Iran. He expounded that the socialist revolution would not be only and exclusively a revolution waged by the proletariat against its «own» bourgeoisie, but also by all the colonies against their oppressors. He said that there was a fusion of two forces, the international proletarian movement and the national liberation movement, and that the weight of the masses in the oppressed nations constituted most of the population in the world and would be decisive in the world revolution. He concluded that the centre of the revolution was shifting to the oppressed nations, but that this fact did not negate the revolution in Europe, but rather demonstrated how a socialist State, such as the USCR, could develop itself in the midst of imperialist encirclement. Developing Marx further, Lenin laid the foundations of the strategy for the world revolution to undermine imperialism, link the struggle of the national liberation movement with the struggles of the international proletarian movement, and develop the revolution. If the slogan for Communists was, «Proletarians of all countries, unite!», he put forward the slogan that should guide the struggle of the two forces: «Proletarians of all countries and peoples of the world, unite!» Chairman Mao Zedong further developed Lenin's strategy by centring on the transcendental importance that the national liberation movement has for the world revolution, because imperialism robs more and more from the oppressed nations, which in turn rise up in powerful revolutionary storms that should be led by their Communist parties. Thus, the national liberation movement is the basis for the international proletarian movement, and these two forces push forward the development of world history. Chairman Gonzalo teaches us that the strategy that we Communists must unfold should start from the foundations laid down by Lenin and further developed by Chairman Mao.

The international proletarian movement is the theory and practice of the international proletariat. The proletariat fights on three levels: theoretical, political, and economic. Since the proletariat appeared as the last class in history, it has advanced in the course constant struggle, in which the following milestones should be emphasized:

• 1848, where the Communist Manifesto elaborated by Marx and Engels established the foundations and the programme of the proletariat.
• 1871, the Paris Commune, where the proletariat conquered political power for the first time.
• 1905, the dress rehearsal of the revolution.
• 1917, the triumph of the November Revolution in Russia, where our class established the dictatorship of the proletariat and opened up a new era.
• 1949, the triumph of the Chinese revolution, where the joint dictatorship led by the proletariat was established and the passage to the socialist revolution was resolved, thus changing the correlation forces in the world.
• In the decade of the 1960s, with the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, led by Chairman Mao Zedong, the revolution was continued under the dictatorship of the proletariat in the sharp struggle between restoration and counter-restoration.

In its struggle for daily demands, the proletariat created the union and the strike, which are not only weapons for the economic struggle, but also temper our class «for the great battles to come». The strike is the main weapon in the economic struggle, and the general strike is a supplement to the armed uprising, but what Sorel, the Anarchists, and others expounded, that political power can be conquered by the general strike alone, is wrong. We develop the struggle for daily demands to serve the conquest of political power.

The proletariat created a political apparatus, the Communist Party, which is completely opposed to and distinct from the other political parties, because it has the objective of conquering political power. This is how Marx defined it. Lenin established the characteristics of the political party of a new type, combating the corrosive influence of old-style revisionism, which created bourgeois labour parties based on the labour aristocracy, the trade-union bureaucracy, and parliamentary cretinism, all fitted to the old order. Chairman Mao Zedong developed the construction of the Party around the gun and proposed the construction of the «Three Weapons». Chairman Gonzalo has established the thesis of the militarization of the Communist Parties and the concentric construction of the «Three Weapons».

The proletariat has created an ideology: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism for the world revolution and Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, mainly Gonzalo's Thought for the Peruvian revolution.

Marxism was founded on the ideas of Marx. Marx and Engels took the best that humanity had produced — classical German philosophy, British political economy and French Socialism — to found the ideology of the proletariat. Marxism has never taken a single step forward in its life without fighting against wrong standpoints. Thus, it had to confront Proudhon and Anarchism, the Right-wing deviations or supposedly creative contributions of Dühring, and the opportunist standpoints that emerged in the German Social-Democratic Party. After the death of Engels, old-style revisionism developed with Bernstein and Kautsky; Lenin went on to defeat them. In synthesis, in its first stage, Marxism established Marxist philosophy, or dialectical materialism, Marxist political economy, and scientific Socialism.

Lenin further developed Marxism and brought it to a second stage, Marxism-Leninism. He did this through hard struggles fought against old-style revisionism, which negated Marxist philosophy, saying that neo-Kantianism should be the philosophical basis of Marxism instead, that is, idealism and not dialectical materialism. In the sphere of political economy, they negated the growing impoverishment of the proletariat and claimed that the demands of the proletariat were being satisfied by capitalism and imperialism. They negated surplus value and imperialism. In the sphere of scientific Socialism, they took aim against the class struggle and revolutionary violence and propagated pacifism.

Revisionism means to revise Marxist principles by invoking new circumstances. Lenin said that revisionism is the vanguard of the bourgeoisie in the ranks of the proletariat and that, in order to fight effectively against imperialism, one must also fight against revisionism, since they are two sides of the same coin. Lenin emphasized that revisionism aims to split the trade unions and the political movement of the proletariat and that it creates a split in the Socialist movement. In this precise and relentless struggle against revisionism, Lenin further expounded, in the context of the First World War, the need to convert the imperialist war into revolutionary war, thus unmasking the old-style revisionists as social-patriots. He pointed out that, in revolutionary times, one must create new organizations, since the reactionaries strike against the aboveground organizations, so we should develop underground organizations, even for mass work. Afterward, he shaped the November Revolution with the Communist Party through the armed uprising.

Stalin continued Lenin's work and, in the process of building socialism in the USCR, he fought against the deviations of Trotskij, Zinoviev, and Kamenev; this struggle concluded in 1937. It was a 13-year-long struggle, and it is untruthful to say that things were administratively resolved. We take up the standpoint of Chairman Mao on the role of Comrade Stalin as being 70% positive. We Communists of today have the task of making an adequate analysis of the Second World War, an evaluation of the international Communist movement, and, particularly, a good study of the Seventh Congress of the Communist International, including of the role played by Comrade Stalin along with the deeds of the revisionists in France, Italy, and so on.

In further developing Marxism-Leninism, Chairman Mao Zedong raised Marxism to its highest summit, and the theory of the proletariat thus became Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. He fulfilled this task in the midst of a tenacious and persistent struggle, crushing the Right-opportunist lines within the Communist Party of China. Here, we emphasize the revisionist line of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. On the international level, he led the struggle against and the defeat of Hrusev's modern revisionism. He shaped the democratic revolution in China, the transition to the socialist revolution, and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The fundamental aspect of Maoism is political power. Political power for the proletariat, political power for the dictatorship of the proletariat, political power based on an armed force led by the Communist Party. Maoism is the elevation of Marxism-Leninism to a new, third stage in the struggle of the proletariat to lead the democratic revolution, the development and construction of socialism, and continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat through proletarian cultural revolution, at a time when imperialism is increasingly decaying and revolution has become the main trend in history, in the midst of the greatest and most complex struggles ever seen, along with the inexorable struggle against modern revisionism.

Thus, we Communists have three great swords: our founder Marx, the great Lenin, and Chairman Mao Zedong. Our great task is to uphold, defend, and apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism and make it the commander and guide of the world revolution.

Further developing Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, developing the Peruvian revolution, and supporting the world revolution, Chairman Gonzalo upholds, defends, and applies our undefeated and unfading ideology, constituting Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought as the Party's basis of unity. For us, Gonzalo's Thought is the main thing that we must embody, because it is the guarantee of victory that shall lead us to the democratic revolution, the socialist revolution, the cultural revolutions, and finally communism.

From another point of view, Chairman Gonzalo expounds that, in the process of the world revolution to sweep imperialism and reaction off the face of the Earth, there are three stages:

• Firstly, the strategic defensive of the world revolution.
• Secondly, the strategic stalemate of the world revolution.
• Thirdly, the strategic offensive of the world revolution.

He does this by applying the law of contradiction to the revolution, since everything is governed by the law of contradiction and all contradictions consist of two aspects in struggle; in this case, the revolution and the counter-revolution. The strategic defensive of the world revolution, as opposed to the offensive of the counter-revolution, began in 1871, with the Paris Commune, and ended with the Second World War. The strategic stalemate took place around the time of the victory of the Chinese revolution, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and the development of the powerful national liberation movement. Afterward, the world revolution entered into the strategic offensive; this stage can be identified in history in connection with the 1980s, in which we see indications, such as the Iran-Iraq War, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, and the initiation of the People's War in Peru, an era contained within the period of the «next 50 to 100 years».³ From then on, the contradiction between capitalism and socialism will develop, whose resolution will carry us to communism. We conceive of a long process, not a short one, with the conviction of reaching communism, even if it means passing through a series of twists and turns and setbacks that will necessarily occur. Furthermore, it is not strange that we should apply the three stages to the world revolution, since Chairman Mao applied them to the process of the protracted people's war. As Communists, we should see not only the current moment, but the long years to come.

#3. THE CURRENT AND PROSPECTIVE SITUATION

In the current and prospective situation, we have entered the strategic offensive of the world revolution, within the period of the «next 50 to 100 years»,³ in which imperialism and world reaction shall collapse and we shall enter the stage in which the proletariat settles into political power and establishes its dictatorship. From then on, the main contradiction shall be between socialism and capitalism on the road to communism. The fact that capitalist restorations have occurred in the USCR and China does not negate the thriving process of development of the international proletariat; rather, it shows how fierce the struggle is between restoration and counter-restoration. From this, we Communists draw lessons to avert the restoration of capitalism and to definitively establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.

We reaffirm Chairman Mao Zedong's thesis that a period of struggle against US imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism has begun; thus, the two main enemies are defined at the world level for those who make democratic revolutions or socialist revolutions, including those who wage nationalist movements, and the corresponding task is that each revolution or movement must define its specific main enemy and avert domination by the other superpower or by the other powers. In Peru, US imperialism dominates us in collusion with the big bourgeoisie and the feudal lords. Nevertheless, at the world level, there is contention between the two superpowers for world hegemony. We fight against US imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism, but we cannot allow its substitution by the domination of social-imperialism, nor of any other power. In Afghanistan, the direct aggression is by Soviet social-imperialism, which contends for hegemony with US imperialism, China, and other Western powers, and there, a struggle must be unleashed against social-imperialism as the main enemy, without permitting either domination by US imperialism or by other powers; the problem is that the struggle is not correctly developing due to the lack of political leadership by a Communist Party. In synthesis, there are two superpowers that are the main enemies, with one being primary in each case, and we do not ignore the actions of the other powers.

We consider Chairman Mao Zedong's thesis on the question of the differentiation of the three worlds to be appropriate and correct, and that it is connected with Lenin's thesis on the distribution of forces in the world based on the analysis of classes and contradictions. We reject the opportunist and revisionist distortion of the three worlds by Deng Xiaoping, which tends toward tailing the United States and selling out the revolution. From this starting point, Chairman Gonzalo analyses the current situation in which the three worlds are differentiation and demonstrates that it is a reality.

The First World consists of the two superpowers, the United States and the USCR, which contend for world hegemony and can unleash an imperialist world war. They are superpowers, because they are economically, politically, and militarily more powerful than the other powers. The United States has an economy centred on non-State-monopoly property. Politically, it develops a bourgeois democracy with a growing restriction of rights; it is a reactionary liberalism. Militarily, it is the most powerful country in the West and has had a relatively long process of development. The USCR is economically based on a State monopoly. Politically, it is under the fascist dictatorship of a bureaucratic bourgeoisie. It is a high-level military power, although its process of development has been relatively short. The United States seeks to maintain its dominions and also to expand them. The USCR aims more toward expansion, because it is a new superpower, and, economically, it is interested in capturing Europe to improve its own conditions. In synthesis, there are two superpowers which do not constitute a bloc, but rather have contradictions, clear mutual differences, and move within the law of collusion and contention for the redivision of the world.

The Second World consists of the imperialist powers which are not superpowers, but rather have less economic, political, and military power, such as Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and so on, which have contradictions with the superpowers, because they have to live with, for example, the devaluation of the dollar, military restrictions, and political impositions; these imperialist powers want to take advantage of the contention between the superpowers in order to emerge as new superpowers, and they also unleash wars of aggression against the oppressed nations. Furthermore, sharp contradictions exist among them.

The Third World consists of the oppressed nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. They are colonies or semi-colonies where feudalism has not been destroyed, and, on that basis, bureaucrat capitalism develops. They find themselves subject to one or another imperialist superpower or power. They have contradictions with imperialism; furthermore, they fight against their own big bourgeoisies and feudal classes, both of which serve and collude with imperialism, especially with the superpowers.

All this gives us the basis on which we Communists can establish the strategy and tactics of the world revolution. Chairman Mao Zedong had achieved the establishment of the strategy and tactics of the world revolution, but the Chinese revisionists conceal this. Therefore, it falls to us to extract this from his own ideas, most especially if there are new situations, above all in perspective.

Our Party holds the view that, in the current world, there are three fundamental contradictions:

• Firstly, the contradiction between the oppressed nations, on the one hand, and the imperialist superpowers and powers, on the other. The thesis on the differentiation of the three worlds is part of this contradiction. We formulate it in this way, because the essence of this contradiction lies with the superpowers, but it is also a contradiction with the imperialist powers. This is the main contradiction, and its solution is the development and triumph of new-democratic revolutions.
• Secondly, the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, which has as its solution the socialist revolution and, in perspective, the proletarian cultural revolution.
• Thirdly, the inter-imperialist contradictions: among the superpowers themselves, between the superpowers and the smaller imperialist powers, and, finally, among the imperialist powers themselves, which tends toward war for world hegemony and imperialist wars of plunder, which the proletariat must oppose with people's war and, in perspective, worldwide people's war.

We do not list the contradiction between socialism and capitalism, because today, it exists only on an ideological and political level, since socialism does not exist anywhere as a State; today, there are no socialist countries. Socialism existed, and to say that it exists today would in essence be to claim that the USCR is socialist, which would be revisionist.

The necessity of understanding these contradictions serves to analyse the world situation and to define its strategy and tactics, and, in this context, its strategic regions and points of conflict. Today, the most incendiary points of conflict are the following:

• Firstly, South-East Asia, where the struggle in Vietnam, Laos, and Kampuchea are a focal point in the immense strategic region of Asia, a region where great masses are concentrated, for example, in India. If they sufficiently developed Communist Parties, it would serve to powerfully advance the revolution.
• Secondly, the Middle East, the great oil centre, where there is also sharp contest between the superpowers and powers connected to the issues of the Near East and to nationalist and even reactionary movements.
• Thirdly, another area is Southern Africa, where there are guerrilla movements that are being usurped by the superpowers or powers to convert them into occupation forces and dominate their countries.
• Fourthly, in Latin America, there are the important struggles of Central America (Nicaragua and El Salvador), the explosiveness of the Antilles (Haiti, and so on), and the People's War in Peru, a people's war guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought that fights for an authentic democratic revolution without submitting to any superpower or power.
• Fifthly, in Europe, where persistent anti-imperialist military actions are developing; it is necessary to study their ideology and the policies that sustain them, the classes that they serve, their links to the ideology of the proletariat, and their role within the proletarian world revolution, as well as their standpoints on modern revisionism. These movements express the existence of an unevenly developing revolutionary situation in the Old World.

Any one of these points of conflict could provide the spark of an imperialist world war, an event that will take place once the strategic superiority of one of the superpowers has been defined. Therefore, it is increasingly urgent and essential to rely on Communist Parties based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism that are tempered for and in people's war through their militarization. To strategically define the regions of primary and secondary importance for carrying out the world revolution is the key link in establishing the role that each region and each Communist Party should play in the world revolution.

For the Communist Parties, the point is not to focus on the imperialist world war, but on people's war, since only from people's war can proletarian-led political power emerge. We consider that, as long as there is imperialism, there is a likelihood that imperialist world wars will develop. What Chairman Mao said is certain, that either the revolution will prevent the world war or the world war will provoke the revolution. In order for an imperialist world war to break out, the strategic superiority of one of the superpowers must be defined. According to reactionary military theoreticians, such a war would break out with a first period in which nuclear weapons are used, either by a first strike or by an overwhelming nuclear bombardment by both parties. Then, a second period would begin, in which great detachments of millions of troops would participate; a conventional war to occupy territory (because the objective is a redivision of the loot, especially the oppressed nations). Finally, a third period would begin, a great and wild massacre, which would have repercussions against the imperialists and provide even better reasons for the oppressed nations, the peoples of the world, and our class to rise up in people's war. Thus, if an imperialist world war presents itself, firstly, we are opposed to it; secondly, we do not fear it, because we focus on the revolution; thirdly, to focus on the revolution means to wage people's war led by the proletariat through its Communist Parties; and, fourthly, this people's war must be applied to the specific conditions of each type of country and according to the type of revolution. Therefore, the worldwide people's war is on the agenda.

#4. THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST MOVEMENT AND THE REVOLUTIONARY INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT

The history of the international Communist movement is a glorious process of struggle, through which the Communists in the world have fought, and continue to fight, to unite in order to attain their unalterable goal: a communist society. In this heroic struggle, three Internationals have been formed.

The International Workers' Association, or the First International, was founded by Marx and Engels in 1864. In hard struggle, they opposed and crushed the Anarchist standpoints of Bakunin and established that the proletariat only had one doctrine: Marxism. Lenin said that the role fulfilled by the First International was to lay down the ideological basis for the doctrine of the proletariat. This International split, and when this was blamed on Marx and Engels, they answered that if such a split had not occurred, the International would have died anyway, killed by a unity which put aside principles.

The Second International was founded by Engels in 1889. It served to multiply organizations and political parties, but, with the death of Engels, old-style revisionism emerged unchecked, which was confronted and crushed by Lenin. This International became bankrupt during the First World War, when its leadership, such as Kautsky and Bernstein, instead of fighting against the imperialist world war to to transform it into revolution, supported that war of plunder and their own countries' bourgeoisies, turning into social-patriots.

In 1919, Lenin organized the Third International, the Communist International, conceiving of it as a fighting machine that had to take responsibility for the world revolution and the construction of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Two questions emerged in the Communist International during the 1920s, which were to have great repercussions: the German question (or the question of the revolution in a developed country) and the Chinese question (or the question of the revolution in a backward country). Afterward, the situation sharpened with the emergence and triumph of fascism and the question of how to conceive of the united front. There were the revisionist criteria of Thorez and Togliatti, who sought to support rather than destroy the old order, focusing solely on the anti-fascist struggle. It is an urgent task for the Communists, and for our Party, to evaluate the Communist International, especially its Seventh Congress, within the context of the Second World War, and the role played by Comrade Stalin. In 1943, the International was dissolved, leaving only an Information Bureau.

The struggle of the Communists to unite on an international level is hard and complex. This was shown in the struggle against modern revisionism after the Second World War. Tito was condemned in 1948. The ideas of Browder also played a sinister role. The Communist and Workers' Parties met in Moscow in 1957 and '60, after the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Council Union in 1956, at which Hrusev had already usurped the dictatorship of the proletariat in the USCR and attacked it under the pretext of fighting Comrade Stalin. However, the prestige of the USCR was still very high throughout the world, and, in such circumstances, the meetings of 1957 and '60 agreed on ambiguous standpoints, despite the firm, principled stand taken by the Communist Part of China (especially those taken by Chairman Mao) and by the Labour Party of Albania. The standpoints of Chairman Mao caused the Communist Party of the Council Union to alter some of its standpoints, but the standpoints of modern revisionism were systematized in 1961, when the Communist Party of the Council Union held its 22nd Congress.

Chairman Mao, leading the Communist Party of China, probed the essence of the new revisionism as systematized in the «Three Peacefuls» and the «Two Entires». By «peaceful coexistence», Hrusev had twisted Lenin's thesis that distinguished between relationships among States and those within States to propose that the general line of the international Communist movement should be «peaceful coexistence». For Hrusev, the point was to prevent war, because, according to him, nuclear weapons did not distinguish between exploiters and exploited, and people had to fraternize in order to prevent the extinction of humanity. «Peaceful transition» proposed that the revolution no longer required revolutionary violence, but rather that one social system could be transformed into another through the «peaceful road»: through elections or parliamentarism. The concept of «peaceful competition» expressed the idea that, in order to destroy the imperialist system, the socialist system had to compete with it in order to demonstrate to the imperialists that the socialist system was superior, and thus encourage the imperialists to become Socialists. The «State of the entire population» was the revisionist thesis with which Hrusev intended to negate the class character of the State. It was specifically aimed against the dictatorship of the proletariat. The «political party of the entire population» was another monstrosity, which negated the class character of the Communist Party as the political party of the proletariat. Thus, Hrusev held that the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Council Union was the new programme of the Communists, and that the Communist Manifesto should be replaced with the bourgeois slogan of «Liberty, Equality, Fraternity». The Manifesto is the programme of the Communists, and its negation incited and sharpened the struggle between Marxism and revisionism.

On the 14th of June, 1963, A Proposal Concerning the General Line of the International Communist Movement (also known as the «Chinese Letter») was published. It was followed by the circulation of the «Nine Comments», in which Chairman Mao and the Communist Party of China brilliantly unmasked and crushed modern revisionism in all aspects.

We understand that Chairman Mao and the Communist Party of China felt that, because the political and ideological basis — which had to be Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought — had not yet been defined, it was inconvenient to form a new Communist International in such circumstances. This was mainly due to the fact that the Labour Party of Albania, led by Enver Hoxha, did not accept Mao Zedong's Thought and aimed for an International based only on Marxism-Leninism, disregarding the new developments. In essence, Hoxha was opposed to Mao Zedong's Thought.

The growing influence of Chairman Mao in the world developed with the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The Communist Party of China focused on very urgent problems, such as recovering political power in the People's Republic of China from the usurpation by the revisionists Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, and on how to continue the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Thus, Chairman Mao, in the class struggle against revisionism on the domestic and international levels, became the great teacher of the proletariat and the top leader of the world revolution. His Thought developed into the third stage of Marxism. In that era, Communists referred to this further development as «Mao Zedong's Thought». The Communist Party of Peru adopted Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong's Thought as the Party's basis of unity at the Sixth National Conference in January 1969. This was achieved as a result of the struggle led by Chairman Gonzalo and the Red Faction of the Party that had been adhering to Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong's Thought since 1966. Chairman Gonzalo had already upheld the standpoints of Chairman Mao since 1962, and, on the basis of that point of view, went on to temper the Red Faction of the Communist Party of Peru. We authentic Communists were waiting for the Communist Party of China to define Maoism as the third stage of Marxism, but, with the death of Chairman Mao in September 1976, the Chinese revisionists pulled off a counter-revolutionary coup aimed against Chairman Mao and his Thought. Thus, the unity of the Marxists encountered serious and complex problems, but the Communist Party of Peru remained firm and unshakable in the defence of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought, immediately unmasking the counter-revolutionary coup and the revisionist usurpation in China. It was at that time that an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Peru in October 1976 declared: «To Be a Marxist Means to Adhere to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought.»

With the death of Chairman Mao and the revisionist usurpation in China by Deng and his gang, the Communists were left scattered in the world without a centre or a base area for the world revolution; the counter-revolutionaries brandished their claws to negate Chairman Mao and the validity of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought, unleashing the triple revisionist assault of Deng Xiaoping (Chinese revisionism), Hoxha (Albanian revisionism), and Breznev (Russian revisionism). In the face of this situation, at the First National Conference of the Communist Party of Peru in November 1979, Chairman Gonzalo called on the whole Party to defend and apply Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought against the revisionist triple assault. The Party remained firm in these standpoints and carried forward an unalterable, principled standpoint. In 1980 the Communist Party of Peru launched the People's War on the basis of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought; it is by applying and developing the People's War that the Communist Party of Peru has advanced further in the comprehension of Maoism as the third stage of Marxism. Hence, at the Second National Conference, held in May 1982, the Party decided that Marxism-Leninism-Maoism was the third stage of Marxism. Thus, the Communist Party of Peru was the only Communist Party in the world to play the role of vanguard in the defence of Maoism, and took up the task of fighting for the unity of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoists of the world, so that this ideology may become the commander and guide of the Peruvian and world revolutions.

Marxism-Leninism-Maoism must be applied to the specific conditions of each revolution, so that it does not become a mechanical application. For this reason, the Peruvian Revolution has created Chairman Gonzalo and Gonzalo's Thought, which is specifically the main aspect of the Party's basis of unity. Thus, each revolution must create its own specific guiding thought, without which there can be no application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, nor any development of the revolution.

In the autumn of 1980, 13 Communist Parties and organizations signed a statement, To the Marxist-Leninists, the Workers, and the Oppressed People of All Countries, calling on the Communists to unite around Marxism-Leninism and to uphold Chairman Mao, but without considering Maoism as a new stage with universal validity. The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA [RCP-USA] mainly carried out this effort. In 1983, the RCP-USA contacted the Communist Party of Peru and invited it to sign the 1980 statement. The Communist Party of Peru did not agree to sign such a statement, because Mao Zedong's Thought was not considered in it; furthermore, we already based ourselves on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. In March 1984, the Second Conference of these organizations was completed, and the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement [RIM] was founded, which approved a joint declaration, which talks about uniting around Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought. Our standpoint on the incorporation of the Communist Party of Peru in the RIM was summed up in a letter written to the Committee of the RIM [CoRIM], dated October 1986:

We want to repeat two points on this question.

Firstly, at the beginning of our ties, the origin of our differences was the substantive and decisive question of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, as the only, true, and new stage in the development of the ideology of the proletariat, having universal validity, with Maoism being the key link in the question. Hence, our disagreement with the expression «Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought». Nevertheless, we thought and still think that the resolution of this matter, which for us is an indispensable starting point, is complex, demands time, and especially demands the development of the revolution.

Secondly, in signing the Declaration derived from the Second Conference that founded the RIM, we did so with observations and even clear opposition, which were expressly put forward in letters. We repeated these points in meetings, reports, and correspondence, which clearly indicate differences on the questions of the main contradiction, the unevenly developing revolutionary situation, world war, some criteria on the role of the RIM, and other more important issues, such as the universal validity of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and, in particular, the general validity of people's war (the expression of the military theory of the proletariat that our class has recently developed totally and completely with Chairman Mao Zedong), and our insistence on always raising the great slogan: «Proletarians of all countries, unite!» Nevertheless, we thought and still think that the Declaration contained and still contains a relative basis of unity, whose further development and improvement will be demanded by the very advance of the RIM, as facts are plainly demonstrating already.

Today, the Declaration has been repudiated by some as opportunist. Others assert that it is insufficient to resolve the burning problems that the revolution demands, and that, therefore, we should move on to a new declaration. The Communist Party of Peru believes that the RIM faces problems on various levels: On the ideological level, it needs to advance toward the understanding of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. This advance is the main thing, and even political development hinges on it. On the political level, it needs to advance in defining the fundamental contradictions, and the main contradiction, on the world level, the question of the Third World War, that revolution is the main trend, and, given an imperialist war, transforming it into people's war. In regard to construction, what political lines we must follow to achieve the formation of the International that we need, which must be the continuation of the glorious international Communist movement. Concerning mass work, our starting points are the following slogans: «The masses are the makers of history», «It is right to rebel», and «The tremendous pile of rubbish», and that the purpose of mass work is to launch or develop people's war. In regard to leadership, it is the key link, requiring time for its formation, development, and the recognition of its authority. In regard to the two-line struggle, it is not being handled as it should be. These are problems of development, but if they are not addressed appropriately and correctly, they can cause phenomena of disarticulation, and these negative possibilities necessarily cause us concern. We believe that the CoRIM aims to impose the denomination of «Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought», trying to frame us within the Declaration, and thus resolve the problems of leadership of the CoRIM, which gives reason to believe in the existence of hegemonic tendencies.⁴

Taking this situation into account, we reaffirmed, at the Fourth National Conference of the Communist Party of Peru in October 1986, to develop as the Red Faction of the international Communist movement in order to make Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism the commander and guide of the world revolution. We call to uphold, defend, and apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism, because only thus shall the international proletariat, through its Communist Parties, be able to lead the conquest of political power and emancipate the oppressed, so that it can emancipate itself as a class.

We support the reconstitution of the Communist International, and we regard the RIM as a step in that direction. It will serve this purpose as long as it bases itself on and follows an appropriate and correct ideological and political line.

The struggle to make Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism the commander and guide of world revolution will be long, complex, and difficult, but, in the end, the Marxist-Leninist-Maoists of the world shall succeed. Marxism has never taken a single step forward in its life without struggle.

#GLORY TO THE INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAT!

#LONG LIVE THE PROLETARIAN WORLD REVOLUTION!

#UPHOLD, DEFEND, AND APPLY MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM, GONZALO'S THOUGHT, MAINLY GONZALO'S THOUGHT!

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#LINE FOR THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

#Gonzalo, Norah, and Miriam

#September 1987

#★

#INTRODUCTION

By upholding, defending, and applying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism, Chairman Gonzalo establishes that the Peruvian revolution, in its historical process of development, must first be a democratic revolution, then a socialist revolution, which, in turn, must develop cultural revolutions in order to reach communism, all in an uninterrupted process by waging people's war and defining its specific characteristics. To reach this conclusion, his starting point was what Marx taught us, that Germany needed a second edition of the Peasant War of the 16th century, that it would have to channel the democratic energy of the peasantry. Later, Lenin developed this point further, holding that, since the bourgeoisie was an outdated class and the peasantry had raised the necessity of destroying feudalism, it could only concretize a democratic revolution under the leadership of the proletariat. Afterward, Chairman Mao established New Democracy, which was part of the proletarian world revolution; it implied a joint dictatorship of the revolutionary classes that must be formed in opposition to the bourgeois dictatorship, which can only be fulfilled under the leadership of the proletariat.

Chairman Gonzalo takes into account the specific conditions of Peru, such as the following: In Peru's historical process, there has never been a bourgeois revolution, because the bourgeoisie was incapable of leading it; therefore, the land question and the national question are two pending problems that remain to be solved; that we live in the era of imperialism and the proletarian world revolution, and that, therefore, the proletariat is the only class that takes up the destruction of imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and semi-feudalism, not for the benefit of the bourgeoisie, but rather for the proletariat, the peasantry (mainly the poor peasants), the small bourgeoisie, and the middle bourgeoisie; that the Peruvian proletariat has matured with a Communist Party of a new type capable of leading the revolution; that the democratic revolution of the old type is no longer appropriate, but rather a bourgeois revolution of a new type is needed; and that this type of revolution, and all revolutions today, can only be made through people's war, the main form of struggle, and by the revolutionary armed forces, the main form of organization.

Thus, Chairman Gonzalo establishes that the character of Peruvian society is semi-feudal and semi-colonial, and that bureaucrat capitalism develops within it. He also establishes the targets of the revolution, the tasks to undertake, the social classes, the essence of the democratic revolution, how it shall be realized today, and its prospects.

#1. THE CHARACTER OF MODERN PERUVIAN SOCIETY

By basing himself on historical materialism, Chairman Gonzalo analyses the process of Peruvian history and shows that, in the old society, an agrarian order developed on the basis of the clan, which was a communal agrarian order that was beginning to develop into a form of slavery, the Inca Empire, which was erected through wars of domination. Later, in the 16th century, the Spanish brought an outdated feudal system and imposed it by force of arms against the resistance of the natives, and Peru became feudal and colonial; afterward, with independence, Spanish domination was broken, but the feudal system was not. The liberators were feudal lords, and the peasants were not able to conquer the land. The 19th century expressed an intense struggle between England and France to dominate us; by the middle of the century, the first sprouts of capitalism began to develop on the existing feudal basis. This whole process in Peru came to mean a change: the passage from feudalism to semi-feudalism and from colonialism to semi-colonialism.

Later, in characterizing modern Peruvian society, Chairman Gonzalo has said: «[...] Peru today is a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society in which bureaucrat capitalism is developing.»⁵ Although Mariategui defined this well in Point 3 of the Programme in the Party Constitution, it is in the light of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism that Chairman Gonzalo has demonstrated how this semi-feudal and semi-colonial character maintains itself and develops through new forms, and, in particular, how bureaucrat capitalism has developed on this basis throughout the entire process of modern society. This a question of transcendental importance for understanding the character of Peruvian society and of the Peruvian revolution.

Bureaucrat capitalism is a fundamental thesis of Chairman Mao's that is not yet understood nor accepted by all the Marxists throughout the world, that for obvious historical reasons was not known to Mariategui, and that Chairman Gonzalo applies to the concrete conditions of our country. He holds that, in order to analyse the modern social process, one must start from three intimately linked questions: the periods of development of bureaucrat capitalism; the process of the proletariat, which takes form in its highest expression, the Communist Party; and the road that the revolution must follow. He teaches us that, since 1895, three historical periods can be differentiated in modern Peruvian society:

• First period. Development of bureaucrat capitalism. Constitution of the Communist Party of Peru. Definition and outline of the road of encircling the cities from the countryside.
• Second period. Deepening of bureaucrat capitalism. Reconstitution of the Communist Party of Peru. Establishment of the road of encircling the cities from the countryside.
• Third period. General crisis of bureaucrat capitalism. Leadership by the Communist Party of Peru of the People's War. Application and further development of the road of encircling the cities from the countryside.

At the same time, he expounds that modern Peruvian society is in a general crisis, a serious and incurable illness that can only be cured through the armed struggle. The Communist Party of Peru is leading the people in carrying this out, because there is no other solution.

Why is Peru semi-feudal? Chairman Gonzalo states: «[...] the rotten semi-feudal system [...] continues to exist and characterizes the country from its most basic foundations to its most elaborate ideas. This situation maintains the great land question — the motive force in the class struggle of the peasants, especially the poor peasants, who are the absolute majority.»⁵ He emphasizes that the land question continues to exist, because the semi-feudal relationships of exploitation allow semi-feudalism to evolve, and that it is the fundamental problem in society, which is expressed in the land question, serfdom, and the rule of local tyrants. We must see these conditions in all their aspects — economic, political, and ideological — in both the basis and the superstructure. The peasantry constitutes about 60% of the population, which for centuries has worked the land, but it is tied to big property and to serfdom. He teaches us that a great concentration of land exists on a few hands, with both associative and non-associative forms, and that the immense majority of the peasantry are the poor peasants, who have very little to no land, thus giving rise to phenomenon of small landownership, which is subject to the voracious appetite of big landownership.

These conditions crush the peasantry underfoot in a system of serfdom, which, as Lenin taught us, expresses itself in a thousand and one different forms, but whose essence is personal subjection. Thus, we see forms centred around relations of serfdom, such as unpaid labour in the Agricultural Societies of Social interest [SAIS], the Agrarian Producers' Cooperatives [CAPS], the peasant groups, the Popular Cooperation, the Unemployment Aid Programme [PAIT], the Emergency Employment Programme [PROEM], and so on. Additionally, it is well known that, in the countryside, for every three peasants able to work, only one works, and the State tries to channel the unused labour power into forms that benefit itself with unpaid labour. We can also observe, particularly in the Highlands region, an autarchic economy on the margin of the national economy.

Reaffirming Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Chairman Gonzalo upholds the principle that the land reform consists of the destruction of feudal landed property and of the distribution of land to the peasantry on an individual basis under the slogan, «Land to the tillers!», which is achieved through the People's War and the New Political Power, led by the Communist Party. This is equivalent to Lenin's thesis that there are two roads in agriculture: the landlords' road, which is reactionary, evolves feudalism, and supports the Old State, and the peasants' road, which is progressive, destroys feudalism, and leads to a New State.

Next, Chairman Gonzalo accurately establishes the character and the results of the agrarian laws passed by the Old State, thus proving the continued existence of semi-feudalism, whose existence today is often denied. He characterizes Perez Godoy's Basic Law of 1962, Law 15'037 of 1964, and Law 17'716 of 1969 (essentially corporative laws that fomented big associative property) as being three laws governing the purchase and sale of land, executed by the bureaucratic apparatus of the State to develop bureaucrat capitalism. He warns us that the Law on the Promotion of Agriculture of 1980 treats the land question as resolved and, at the same time, advocates associative property and the return of the local tyrants to push forward bureaucrat capitalism, which is also under the control of the big bankers and has the direct participation of US imperialism. This is the road that the fascist and corporatist government of the American People's Revolutionary Alliance [APRA] is taking, reclaiming Velasco's fascist and corporatist «land reform», raising cries of «revolutionizing agriculture» to thus strengthen the rule of local tyrants; that treats the land question as resolved and focuses on productivity; that adopts the Law on the Peasant Communities and the Law on the Peasant Night Patrols in order to deepen bureaucrat capitalism and to spread it to every corner of the country; that calls on the masses to be corporatized, aiming at the peasant communities as the foundation of their corporatist zeal, which equally serves the creation of the micro-regions, the regions, the Departmental Development Corporations [CORDES], and other fascist and corporative creations. All of this signifies nothing except new forms of concentration of the old property of the big landownerships, still not destroyed, and it is the old landlords' road taken in modern Peru that was promoted in the 1920s, deepened in the '50s and especially in the '60s, and that is still taken today under new conditions.

This landlords' road is expressed politically in the Old State through the rule of local tyrants; as Mariategui said, the rule of local tyrants does not only designate a socio-economic category, but an entire phenomenon, represented not only by the local tyrants, but also encompassing a large hierarchy of officials, intermediaries, agents, parasites, and so on, and the central factor of this phenomenon is the hegemony of big semi-feudal property in politics and in the State machine, which should be attacked at its roots. Chairman Gonzalo expressly emphasizes the manifestations of semi-feudalism in politics and in the State machine by conceiving of the rule of local tyrants as the political manifestation of semi-feudalism, by which this regime of serfdom is supported, in which bosses and lackeys, who change hats according to the government in turn, represent the Old State in the remotest villages of the country. This is the factor which the spearhead of the democratic revolution is targeted against, because this is a peasant war.

Why is Peru semi-colonial? Chairman Gonzalo teaches us that the modern Peruvian economy was born subject to imperialism, the last stage of capitalism, which was masterly characterized as monopolistic, parasitical, and moribund. Even though it consents to our political independence as long as it serves its interests, imperialism still controls the entire economic process of Peru: our natural resources, export products, industry, banking, and finances. In synthesis, it sucks the blood of our people, devours the energy of our nation in a process formation, and, most strikingly today, it exploits us and other oppressed nations through foreign debt.

Chairman Gonzalo first reaffirms Lenin's thesis, later accurately developed further by Chairman Mao, to define the semi-colonial character of our society. In synthesis, Lenin established that there are many forms of imperialist domination, but that two are typical: the colony, which is the complete domination by an imperialist country of an oppressed nation or nations, and an intermediate form, the semi-colony, in which the oppressed nation is politically independent, but economically subjugated. It is an independent republic, but one that finds itself subject to the ideological, political, economic, and military web of imperialism, no matter whether it has a government of its own. He rejects the term «neo-colony» used by the revisionists in the 1960s, whose basis is the conception that imperialism applies a softer form of domination and which led them to the characterization of Peru as a «dependent country». Later, by applying Chairman Mao's thesis that a period of struggle was opening up against the two superpowers that contend for the redivision of the world, and that one must define who is the main enemy at each specific moment, he defines that the main imperialism that dominates Peru is US imperialism, but asserts that we must ward off Russian social-imperialism, which is penetrating the country more every day, as well as the actions of the imperialist powers that are not superpowers. Thus, the proletariat, in leading the democratic revolution, shall not be tied to any imperialist superpower or power and maintains its ideological, political, and organizational independence. In conclusion, he demonstrates that Peruvian society continues to be a nation in a process of formation, and that its semi-colonial character continues to exist, showing itself as such in all spheres and under the new conditions.

Regarding bureaucrat capitalism, Chairman Gonzalo states that comprehending it is essential to understanding Peruvian society. By taking up Chairman Mao's thesis, he teaches us that it has the following five characteristics:

• Firstly, bureaucrat capitalism is the form of capitalism that imperialism develops in the backward countries, which is comprised of the capital of the big feudal lords, the big bankers, and the magnates of the big bourgeoisie.
• Secondly, bureaucrat capitalism exploits the proletariat, the peasantry, and the small bourgeoisie and restricts the middle bourgeoisie.
• Thirdly, bureaucrat capitalism passes through a process, in which it is combined with the political power of the State and becomes State-monopoly capitalism, comprador and feudal, from which can be derived that, in a first period, it develops as non-State big monopoly capitalism, and, in a second period, when it is combined with the political power of the State, as State-monopoly capitalism.
• Fourthly, bureaucrat capitalism matures the conditions for the democratic revolution as it reaches the peak of its development.
• Fifthly, to confiscate bureaucrat capital is the key link in reaching the peak of the democratic revolution and is decisive for the transition to the socialist revolution.

In applying the above thesis, Chairman Gonzalo conceives of bureaucrat capitalism as the form of capitalism that imperialism creates in the backward countries, which is tied to a decrepit feudal system and subject to imperialism, which is the last stage of capitalism. This system does not serve the majority of the people, but only the imperialists, the big bourgeoisie, and the feudal lords. Mariategui established that the bourgeoisie, upon creating banks, for example, creates a capital that is subject to imperialism and tied to feudalism. Chairman Gonzalo masterly establishes that the form of capitalism that is developing in Peru is a bureaucrat capitalism hindered by the surviving shackles of semi-feudalism that bind it, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, is subject to imperialism, which does not permit the development of the national economy; thus, it is a bureaucrat capitalism that oppresses and exploits the proletariat, the peasantry, and the small bourgeoisie, and restricts the middle bourgeoisie. Why? Because the form of capitalism that develops is a delayed process that only allows an economy that serves imperialist interests. It is a form of capitalism that represents the big bourgeoisie, the feudal lords, and the rich peasants of the old type, classes that constitute a minority, but which exploit and oppress the large majority, the masses.

He analyses the process of development that bureaucrat capitalism has passed through in Peru. The first historical period developed from 1895 to the Second World War, during which, in the 1920s, the comprador bourgeoisie took control of the State, displacing the feudal lords, but respecting their interests. The second period developed from the Second World War to 1980, a period of the deepening of bureaucrat capitalism, during which one section of the big bourgeoisie evolved into the bureaucrat bourgeoisie, a process that began in 1939, during Prado's first government, when the participation of the State in the economic process began. Subsequently, this participation has grown more and more due to the fact that the big bourgeoisie, because of a lack of capital, is not capable of deepening bureaucrat capitalism. Thus, a clash between both sections of the big bourgeoisie is generated, between the bureaucrat and the comprador bourgeoisie. In 1968, the bureaucrat bourgeoisie took over the leadership of the State through the armed forces by means of Velasco's military coup, which in turn created a great growth in the State economy. The number of State-owned companies, for example, increased from 18 to 180; therefore, the State became the motive force of the economy led by the bureaucrat bourgeoisie, but it was during this period that the economy entered a grave crisis. The third period began in 1980, and in this period, bureaucrat capitalism has entered a general crisis and its final destruction, a period that began with the People's War. Because bureaucrat capitalism is a form of capitalism that is born in critical condition, sick, rotten, tied to feudalism and subject to imperialism, at this time, it entered a general crisis, its destruction, and no measure can save it. At best, it shall prolong its agony. On the other hand, like a beast in its death throes, it shall defend itself by seeking to crush the revolution.

If we see this process from the standpoint of the people's road, in the first period, the Communist Party of Peru was constituted by Mariategui in 1928, and the history of the country was divided into two; in the second period, the Communist Party of Peru was reconstituted as a political party of a new type by Chairman Gonzalo, and revisionism was purged; and, in the third period, the Communist Party of Peru began to lead the People's War, a transcendental milestone which radically changed history by taking the qualitatively higher leap of making the conquest of political power a reality by way of armed force and the People's War. All of this only proves the political aspect of bureaucrat capitalism, which is rarely emphasized, but which Chairman Gonzalo considers to be the key question: that bureaucrat capitalism matures the conditions for the revolution, and today, as it has entered its final phase, it matures the conditions for the development and victory of the revolution.

It is also very important to see how bureaucrat capitalism takes the form both of non-State-monopoly capitalism and of State-monopoly capitalism, which is the reason why Chairman Gonzalo differentiates between the two sections of the big bourgeoisie, the bureaucrat bourgeoisie and the comprador bourgeoisie, in order to avoid tailing one or the other — a problem that led our Party to 30 years of wrong tactics. It is important to understand it in this way, because the confiscation of bureaucrat capitalism by the New Political Power leads to the completion of the democratic revolution and the transition to the socialist revolution. If only State-monopoly capital were targeted, the other part, non-State monopoly capital, would remain free, and the big comprador bourgeoisie would remain economically able to rear its head, snatch away the leadership of the revolution, and prevent its transition to the socialist revolution.

Furthermore, Chairman Gonzalo makes the generalization that bureaucrat capitalism is not a process particular to China or to Peru, but rather follows from the backward conditions to which the various imperialists subject the oppressed nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, at a time when these oppressed nations have not yet destroyed the vestiges of feudalism, much less developed capitalism.

In synthesis, the key link in understanding the process of development of modern Peruvian society and the character of the revolution is this Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo's Thought thesis on bureaucrat capitalism, which is a contribution to the world revolution that we Marxist-Leninist-Maoists have firmly taken up with Gonzalo's Thought.

What type of State is sustained by this semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, in which bureaucrat capitalism develops? In answering this question, Chairman Gonzalo has analysed modern Peruvian society and bases himself on the masterly Maoist thesis in On New Democracy, which expounds that the many State systems in the world can be classified, according to their class character, into three fundamental types:

• Firstly, republics under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, which also include the old democratic States and may include the States under the joint dictatorship of the feudal lords and the big bourgeoisie.
• Secondly, republics under the dictatorship of the proletariat.
• Thirdly, republics under the joint dictatorship of the revolutionary classes.

Hence, Chairman Gonzalo establishes that the character of the old reactionary State in Peru is of the first type, a joint dictatorship of the feudal lords and the big bourgeoisie, that is, of the the bureaucrat and comprador bourgeoisies that, in collusion and contention, struggle for the leadership of the State. Since the historical tendency in Peru is that the bureaucrat bourgeoisie imposes itself, this necessarily implies a very acute and long struggle, especially because today, the bureaucrat bourgeoisie is in command of the old feudal-bureaucrat State.

At the same time, Chairman Gonzalo differentiates between the State system and the government system. They are two parts of a single whole: the former is the position that the different classes occupy within the State, and the latter is the form in which political power is organized. Chairman Mao taught us that the main thing is to define the class character of a State, because the forms of government that are introduced can be civilian or military, elected or by decree, liberal-democratic or fascist, but they always represent the dictatorship of the reactionary classes. Not to see the Old State in this way would mean to fall into the trap of identifying dictatorship with a military regime and to think that a civilian government is not a dictatorship, thereby tailing one of the sections of the big bourgeoisie under cover of the tale of «defending democracy» or of «avoiding military coups», standpoints that, instead of destroying the Old State, support and defend it. Such is the case in Peru with the revisionists and opportunists of the United Left.

The Old State is subject to imperialism, in our case mainly US imperialism, and is propped up by its backbone, the reactionary armed forces, and counts on an ever-growing bureaucracy. The armed forces have the same character as the State that they support and defend.

Chairman Gonzalo tells us clearly: «This is the social system to which the ruling classes and their US imperialist masters are faithful and defend with blood and fire, through their bureaucrat-feudal State based on their reactionary armed forces; constantly exercising their class dictatorship (of the big bourgeois and the feudal lords), whether it be through de facto military governments [...] or through governments born out of elections and called constitutional [...].»⁵ «Thus, the decrepit system of exploitation destroys and holds back the powerful creative forces of the people, the only forces capable of the thorough revolutionary transformation for which our country has cried out for so long.»⁶

#2. TARGETS OF THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

Chairman Gonzalo teaches us that the democratic revolution has three targets — imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and semi-feudalism — with one of them being the main target according to the period of the revolution. Today, in the period of the peasant war, the main target is semi-feudalism.

The first target is imperialism, mainly US imperialism, because it is the main imperialism that dominates us, tries to ensure its continued dominance, and imposes the condition of semi-colonialism on our country, but we must also ward off penetration by Russian social-imperialism and by the other imperialist powers. We should use the different factions of the Old State to sharpen these contradictions, isolate the main enemy, and strike against it.

The second target is bureaucrat capitalism, which constantly blocks the democratic revolution, maintaining semi-feudalism and semi-colonialism to serve imperialism.

The third target is semi-feudalism, which continues to exist today in new forms, but still constitutes the fundamental problem in the country.

#3. TASKS OF THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

The tasks of the democratic revolution are:

• Firstly, to destroy domination by imperialism, mainly US imperialism in the case of Peru, while warding off the deeds of the other superpower, Russian social-imperialism and of the other imperialist powers.
• Secondly, to destroy bureaucrat capitalism by confiscating both big State-monopoly and non-State monopoly capitalism.
• Thirdly, to destroy the property of the feudal landlords by confiscating both big associative and non-associative property and distributing the land on an individual basis, mainly and primarily to the poor peasants, under the slogan: «Land to the tillers!»
• Fourthly, to support middle capital, which is allowed to work under certain conditions.

All of this implies the collapse of the Old State as a result of the People's War waged by the revolutionary armed forces under the leadership of the Communist Party and the construction of the New State.

#4. SOCIAL CLASSES IN THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

Chairman Gonzalo defines the social classes that must be united according to the conditions of the revolution: the proletariat, the peasantry (mainly the poor peasants), the small bourgeoisie, and the middle bourgeoisie. The classes we aim against are: the feudal lords of the old and the new type, and the big bourgeois of the comprador and the bureaucrat type.

Chairman Gonzalo tells us: «[...] it is the peasantry that is the main motive force [...].» «A peasantry with a centuries-old fundamental objective, ‹Land to the tillers!›, which, despite its undaunted struggle, has yet to achieve its objective.» «[...] the proletariat [...] rises up and develops as the class leading our revolution» «whose long, vigorous struggle has yielded only a few miserable wages and other concessions from its exploiters — only to lose them in each economic crisis society endures. This is a proletariat which struggles inside a vicious cycle [...].» «A small bourgeoisie — making up a broad stratum characteristic of a backward country — that sees its dreams ruined by the relentless impoverishment to which the ruling order subjects it.» «[...] a middle bourgeoisie, a national bourgeoisie, that is weak and lacks capital, that totters between revolution and counter-revolution [...].» «These are the four classes that historically make up the people of our country.»⁵

Chairman Gonzalo assigns particular importance to the scientific organization of the poor, a thesis that comes from Marx and for us implies organizing the peasantry (mainly the poor peasants) and the poorest masses of the cities into a Communist Party, a People's Guerrilla Army, and a New State that is given concrete form through the people's committees. He establishes a relationship: If you're talking about the peasant question, you're talking about the land question; if you're talking about the land question, you're talking about the military question; if you're talking about the military question, you're talking about the question of political power, that is, the question of the New State, which we shall reach through the democratic revolution led by the proletariat through its political party, the Communist Party. He establishes that, in the People's War, the peasant question is the basis and the military question is the guide. Furthermore, without a peasantry in arms, there can be no proletarian hegemony in the united front. Thus, it is of great significance to understand that the peasant question is fundamental and that it sustains all of the actions in the democratic revolution. It is important even in the socialist revolution.

The proletariat is the leading class, and Chairman Gonzalo teaches us that it is this class that guarantees the Communist course of the revolution, and that, united with the peasantry, it makes up the worker-peasant alliance, the basis of the united front. It is a proletariat that is concentrated largely in the capital and that is proportionally greater than it was in China, but that, in terms of percentage, decreases day by day in Peru, a specific situation that presents itself as we apply the democratic revolution; that is why we wage the People's War in the cities as a supplement to the countryside. This class has today arrived at the formation of a Communist Party; a political party guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, which has created a People's Guerrilla Army that it leads absolutely and a New State that it leads in a joint dictatorship; a political party that, through almost 20 years of reconstitution and seven of leading the People's War has impressed a great historic leap upon the people. It is vital to understand its leading role in the democratic revolution, because it guarantees the correct course toward communism. Without the leadership of the proletariat, the democratic revolution would evolve into an armed struggle under the leadership of the bourgeoisie and would fall under the tutelage of one or another imperialist superpower or power.

To the above two classes should be added the small bourgeoisie, and, taken together, they form the solid pillar of the revolutionary united front, which is nothing but a united front for the People's War and the framework of the alliance of classes that makes up the New State, the people's committees in the countryside, and the Revolutionary Movement in Defence of the People [MRDP] in the cities.

Concerning the middle bourgeoisie, today, it does not participate in the revolution, but its interests are respected. It is not a target of the democratic revolution; it is a class that suffers ever-greater restrictions imposed by the reactionaries, but it has a dual character, and, in the course of the democratic revolution, it can join the side of the revolution at any moment. If the interests of the middle bourgeoisie are not taken into account, then the revolution would change character; it would no longer be democratic, but socialist.

From all this, Chairman Gonzalo derives that the New State that we are forming in the democratic revolution shall be a joint dictatorship, an alliance of four classes led by the proletariat through its political party, the Communist Party: a dictatorship of workers, peasants, the small bourgeoisie, and, under certain conditions, the national or middle bourgeoisie; a dictatorship that today consists of three classes, because the middle bourgeoisie does not participate in the revolution, but its interest are respected. These classes make up the dictatorship of New Democracy as a State system and the people's assemblies as a government system.

#5. FUNDAMENTAL CONTRADICTIONS IN THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION

In the democratic revolution, there exist three fundamental contradictions:

• Firstly, the contradiction between the nation and imperialism.
• Secondly, the contradiction between the people and bureaucrat capitalism.
• Thirdly, the contradiction between the masses and feudalism.

Depending on the period in which the revolution finds itself, any one of these three contradictions can be the main one. Today, as we develop a peasant war, if we carefully take note of the three, the main contradiction is the contradiction between the masses and feudalism. This contradiction has a process of development in the different phases of the war; thus, in our case, the main contradiction between the masses and feudalism has developed, first, as a contradiction between the masses and the government, and, later, shall develop as a contradiction between the New State and the Old State, and its perspective is a contradiction between the Communist Party and the reactionary armed forces.

#6. STAGES OF THE REVOLUTION

Chairman Gonzalo teaches us that the democratic revolution is the indispensable first stage of the revolution in the oppressed nations, which shall pass through various periods according to how the above-mentioned contradictions are resolved. He conceives of an unbreakable relationship and an uninterrupted road between the democratic revolution and the second stage, which is the socialist revolution, and its perspective is a series of cultural revolutions that serve to arrive at communism, all while serving the world revolution. As such, we have a maximum programme and a minimum programme, the minimum programme being the programme for the democratic revolution that is applied to the specific conditions of each period. This democratic revolution implies new politics — the joint dictatorship of four classes; a new economy — the confiscation of big imperialist capital, of bureaucrat capital, and of big feudal landed property, with distribution of the land on an individual basis to the peasantry (mainly the poor peasants); and a new culture — a national (or anti-imperialist), democratic (or that serves the people), and scientific (or based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought) culture. The maximum programme implies keeping in mind that we, as Communists, must aim to eliminate the «Three Inequalities» between city and countryside, between mental and manual labour, and between workers and peasants. We give our lives against every kind of injury, taunt, and abjectness for these two programmes. Only the Communists can fight to maintain the revolution on its course.

Thus, Chairman Gonzalo states:

What, in essence, is this democratic revolution? It is a peasant war led by the Communist Party, which intends to create a New State comprised of four classes to crush imperialism, the big bourgeoisie, and the feudal lords in order to fulfil its four tasks. The democratic revolution has a main form of struggle, the People's War, and a main form of organization, the armed forces, which is the solution to the land question, the national question, and the question of the destruction of the feudal-bureaucrat State and the reactionary armed forces, the spinal column that sustains it, in order to fulfil the political objective of building a New State, a new-democratic State, and to establish the New-Democratic People's Republic, advancing immediately to the socialist revolution. In synthesis, the democratic revolution becomes concrete through a peasant war led by the Communist Party; any other form would only serve the feudal-bureaucrat State.

In synthesis, Chairman Gonzalo demonstrates the validity of the two stages of the revolution in the oppressed nations and establishes that the proletarian world revolution has three types of revolution. As such, by making the democratic revolution, the Communist Party of Peru is serving the world revolution, and Chairman Gonzalo is contributing to the world revolution. We, who uphold Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, take up the Line for the Democratic Revolution established by Chairman Gonzalo.

#7. HOW IS THE DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION BEING APPLIED TODAY?

In the more than seven years of the People's War in Peru, the appropriate and correct character of Gonzalo's Thought has been demonstrated, and we see that the Communist Party of Peru, under Chairman Gonzalo's headquarters, is leading the peasantry (mainly the poor peasants) in arms, is forming a joint dictatorship of workers, peasants, and the small bourgeoisie under the hegemony of the proletariat, is respecting the interests of the middle bourgeoisie, and is destroying the 13-century-old reactionary State. It is a dictatorship that marches within the people's committees, today underground, which are expressions of the New State that exercises political power through the people's assemblies, in which everyone expresses their views, elects, sentences, or decides by applying true democracy. They do not hesitate in applying dictatorship or using coercion in order to maintain their political power and defend it from the exploiting classes or their oppressors, the local tyrants, or their lackeys, thus giving specific form to the new politics and advancing the conquest of political power from below. The very basis of this society, semi-feudalism, is being destroyed, and new social relations of production are being introduced by applying a new economy, taking into account the agrarian tactic of combating the evolution of semi-feudalism by aiming against associative property and avoiding non-associative property, neutralizing the rich peasantry, winning over the middle peasantry, and relying on the poor peasantry. The agrarian programme of «Land to the tillers!» advances through a process by means of confiscation and individual distribution, with plans of leveling, whose concrete objective is to destroy semi-feudal relations in order to disarticulate the productive process, directing the spearhead of the revolution against the political power of the local tyrants through armed actions; applying collective sowing and harvesting of crops; all the peasants collectively working everyone's land, always favouring the peasantry (mainly the poor peasants); and, in the event of a surplus, a form of tax is calculated and produce or seeds are distributed to the poor and middle peasants. The land of the rich peasants is not touched unless such land is needed, but restrictions are imposed on them. This policy has had highly positive results: it has benefited the poorest, increased the quality of the products, and, above all, is defended better; the prospect of this policy is land invasions and individual allotment. Also, particularly in new peasant zones, we have applied land invasions and individual allotment, kindling the struggle in the countryside and disturbing the plans of the Old State, of each government in turn, and organized armed self-defence when opportunities emerged. Today, we have generalized the land invasions throughout the country. Furthermore, the organization of the production of an entire people is being achieved, for example, through the exchange of produce and seeds, the collection of firewood and dyes, and communal shops, trade, and mule-driving. This process is served by actions in cities, sabotage actions against bourgeois-democratic and corporate-fascist State organizations, State, private, and imperialist banks, centres of the imperialist superpowers or powers, industrial and «research» sites, and bureaucrat-capitalist businesses, such as Centromin Peru. It is also served by the selective liquidations, the agitation and propaganda campaigns, and armed propaganda actions.

And, on the basis of the new politics and new economy, a new culture is being erected that beats in the hearts of the peasantry (mainly the poor peasants). Elementary education is a problem that deserves our fundamental attention and is developing through mutual education, education by teachers, and labour, with a basic programme for children, adults, and the masses in general alike; it is truly important. The problems of the health and recreation of the masses are also of vital importance. Thus, the masses are organized in the course of their mobilization, education, organization, and armament, aiming toward the sea of armed masses, based on the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, under the leadership of the Party, with the experience of the People's War, and, above all and mainly, with the New Political Power, by exercising it, conquering it, defending it, and developing it in the form of the people's committees, base areas, and the New Democratic People's Republic in a process of formation.

This is the democratic revolution that the Party is applying to the specific conditions of Peruvian society by overthrowing imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and semi-feudalism in the country through a unified people's war, mainly in the countryside and with an urban supplement, and not the «democratic revolution» falsely proclaimed by the current fascist and corporatist APRA government, which negates the character of Peruvian society, classes, and the class struggle, especially the feudal-bureaucrat and dictatorial character of the Old State, as well as the need for violence to demolish it. It is a democratic revolution guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought that constitutes an ardent and growing flame that serves the proletarian world revolution and is guaranteed by Chairman Gonzalo's masterly leadership.

#DOWN WITH THE FEUDAL-BUREAUCRAT STATE!

#FIGHT FOR THE NEW-DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC!

#LONG LIVE THE PERUVIAN REVOLUTION!

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#MILITARY LINE

#Gonzalo, Norah, and Miriam

#September 1987

#★

#INTRODUCTION

By upholding, defending, and applying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism, Chairman Gonzalo establishes the Party's Military Line. At the Enlarged First National Conference of November 1979, it was decided that the Military Line is the central aspect of the General Political Line, and it is now being developed further through the People's War.

Chairman Gonzalo has persistently integrated the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism with the concrete practice of the Peruvian revolution, combating and crushing revisionism and the Right-opportunist lines. In applying dialectical materialism to the question of war, the Military Line also expresses the philosophical thought of Chairman Gonzalo and sums up the laws of war, of revolutionary war in general, and the laws of the revolutionary war in Peru in particular. The Military Line is vital to our ideological, political, military, economic, and cultural work and allows us to differentiate between the proletarian military line and the bourgeois military line.

The Military Line consists of the laws that govern the People's War for the conquest and defence of political power. It contains three elements:

• Firstly, people's war, in our case applied specifically as unified people's war, waged mainly in the countryside and in the cities as a supplement.
• Secondly, building the revolutionary armed forces, in our case applied specifically as the People's Guerrilla Army, which has the particular characteristic of incorporating the militia in order to advance toward the sea of armed masses.
• Thirdly, strategy and tactics that take shape through «encirclement and suppression» campaigns and counter-campaigns. In our case this is applied specifically by applying political and military plans that have a political as well as a military strategy and develop through campaigns with specific objectives.

#1. PEOPLE'S WAR

#1.1. ON THE PEOPLE'S WAR IN PERU

By reaffirming the universal law of revolutionary violence, Chairman Gonzalo takes up the highest military theory, that of the proletariat established by Chairman Mao, people's war, which is universally valid and applicable in all types of countries, according to the conditions of each revolution. The worldwide people's war is the main form of struggle that the proletariat and the oppressed peoples of the world should launch to oppose imperialist world war. His starting point is that a people's war is a war waged by the masses that can only be accomplished by mobilizing the masses and relying on them. He says: «The masses give us everything, from crumbs of bread, which they take from their own mouths, to their precious blood, which stirs jointly with that of the fighters and Communists, which nourishes the road of the People's War and the New Political Power.» The masses should be organized with arms into the People's Guerrilla Army. In the rural base areas, all the adults of each people's committee are organized militarily. In the cities, the People's Guerrilla Army also acts and incorporates more and more of the masses in the various new organizations that participate in and serve the People's War. The MRDP is the concrete form of the united front in the cities, and its objectives are to mobilize the masses for resistance, to serve the war, and to serve the future armed uprising.

Chairman Gonzalo holds that, in order to carry forward the People's War, we must take into account four fundamental questions:

• Firstly, the ideology of the proletariat, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, which must be specified in a guiding thought; therefore, we base ourselves on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, mainly the latter.
• Secondly, the necessity of the Communist Party of Peru to lead the People's War.
• Thirdly, the application of the People's War in the specific form of a peasant war that takes the road of encircling the cities from the countryside.
• Fourthly, base areas or the New Political Power, that is, the construction of base areas, which is the essence of the road of encircling the cities from the countryside.

Chairman Gonzalo analyses the historical process of development of our people and demonstrates that they have always struggled, stating: «Thus, our people, like all peoples, have been nurtured and have advanced in the course of revolutionary violence. It is here, in its diverse forms and gradations, that our people have won demands, rights, and liberties. None of this fell from the skies, nor was it given, ‹despite what traitors might say›. In the final analysis, all was conquered and defended with revolutionary violence in fierce contention with reactionary violence. That is how the eight-hour day was won, how territory was won and held, and how rights were won and tyrants overthrown. Revolutionary violence is the essence of our historical process and, if the freedom of the Republic was won on the battlefield, it is easy to understand that the development and triumph of the Peruvian revolution, of our democratic revolution, of the emancipation of the people and our class, will be won only through the most splendid revolutionary war waged by our people, rising in arms on a mass scale through people’s war.»⁵

Chairman Gonzalo draws the historical lesson that these political and military events have defined the major transformations in the country. He tells us that first comes the military deed and later political change. Thus, he reaffirms that war is the continuation of politics by other means. He teaches us how the masses of our people have fought against the exploiters. Since the 7th century, in which the Peruvian State emerged, the masses have fought against oppression and exploitation. The Incan empire established its domination through wars of conquest which culminated in the battle of Yahuarpampa against the Chancas. Later, the Empire further expanded through war. This is a political and military fact.

The conquest by the Spanish Crown was another political and military event that was imposed, crushing the resistance of the native people and utilizing the internal struggles of the conquered. Nevertheless, we should emphasize, among others, the struggle of Manco Inca, who led a rebellion against the Spanish.

The imposition of the Vice-Royalty was another political and military event that was used to crush the Conquistadors themselves. To maintain itself, it had to face large peasant uprisings, such as the one led by Juan Santos Atahualpa, and, in 1780, the powerful movement of Tupac Amaru, who raised 100'000 troops, extending from Cusco and Puno into Bolivia, putting the domination of the Vice-Royalty at serious risk, and having repercussions in Argentina, Columbia, and Mexico that shook up the Americas. The movement was defeated, but it had shaken up and undermined the Vice-Royalty, thus preparing the conditions for Liberation. To see its class character, we should recall that Tupac Amaru was a chief.

Liberation was another military and political event, which had three periods:

• Firstly, in the 18th Century, peasant uprisings, for example, Tupac Amaru's.
• Secondly, the uprisings in the cities, such as that led by Francisco de Zela in Tacna and the guerrillas, emphasizing those of Cangallo and Yauyos, among many others.
• Thirdly, confrontations between big armies that completed the liberating exploits of San Martin and Bolivar at the Battle of Ayacucho in 1824.

It is important to understand that, even though Liberation was led by the creoles, it had the merit of breaking the domination of the Spanish Crown. San Martin was a great military strategist and Bolivar proved to be both a political and military strategist. Both of them fought for the liberation of several American countries without seeking personal gain, showing that, to serve a great cause, we must always put the general interest first and never the personal, and they did so without being Communists.

In the Republic, the feudal lords remained in power, but had to confront the great peasant struggles with fire and blood, among them those of Atusparia and Uscho Pedro, or that of Llaccolla in Ocros. Here, we have the dark chapter of the war with Chile, where both countries faced each other manipulated by the interests of the English and the French that were seeking our wealth in guano and nitrates. This war halted the incipient capitalist development of the country and revealed the dirty role of the ruling classes, one part of which capitulated to Chile. But, we must emphasize the heroic resistance of the masses against the invaders in defence of the people and our territorial integrity, a resistance that was especially strong in the mountainous central and southern regions of the country, where guerrillas were formed; Caceres, who was a feudal lord and a soldier, played an important role in these conditions.

The war with Chile was waged from 1879 to '83, and it led to the collapse of the Peruvian economy. Shortly thereafter, in 1895, the development of bureaucrat capitalism begin, which launched the development of modern Peruvian society. As the 19th century passed, Peru went from being a colony to being a semi-colony and from being feudal to being semi-feudal. Bureaucrat capitalism began to develop, bound to US imperialism, which thus displaced the English. The modern proletariat emerged, which changed the terms of the political struggle.

From this historical process of development, we can draw the following lessons: that the people have always fought, they are not peaceful, and they apply revolutionary violence with the means they have at hand; that the peasant struggles are those which have most shaken the foundations of society, and these struggles have not won victory, because they lacked the leadership of the proletariat represented by the Communist Party; and that political and military events determine major social changes.

From the standpoint of the Military Line, modern Peruvian history has three periods that are linked with the appearance of the proletariat, which founded its political party to conquer political power through revolutionary violence, by determining its specific road, which is synthesized in the process of the Party's Military Line.

First period (1895 to 1945). The Communist Party of Peru was constituted. Regarding the Military Line, Mariategui established the «indication and outline of the road». The heroic workers' struggles for better wages, the eight-hour workday, and decent working conditions, the peasant movements of the southern Highlands for land and the farm workers' movements, and the movements to reform the universities, lead to a complex sharpening of the class struggle, in which the Peruvian proletariat matures and Mariategui founds the Communist Party of Peru on the 7th of October, 1928 under the banner of Marxism-Leninism.

Mariategui indicated and outlined fundamental ideas on revolutionary violence. He said: «There is no revolution that is moderate, balanced, calm, placid.» «Political power is conquered through violence [...]. It is preserved only through dictatorship.» He conceived of a protracted war: «A revolution can only be completed after many years. Frequently, it has alternating periods of predominance by the revolutionary forces or by the counter-revolutionary forces.» He established the relationship between politics and war, understanding that the revolution creates an army of a new type with its own tasks that are different from those of the exploiters' army; he also understood the role of the peasantry and the vital importance of the participation of the working class in a leading role, that the revolution will come from the Andes, that, «with the defeat of feudal big landownership, urban capitalism will lack the strength to resist the growing working class»; and that, in order to make the revolution, rifles, a programme, and a doctrine were needed. He conceived of the revolution as a total war, in which there was a conjunction of political, social, military, economic, and moral elements, and that each faction made every effort and mobilized all the resources that it could. He totally rejected the electoral road.

With the death of Mariategui in April 1930, the Right wing led by Ravines went on to usurp the Party's leadership and began to question and negate Mariategui's road. They invoked the armed uprising in words, but deteriorated into electoralism in deeds. The so-called «Constitutional Congress» of the Party in 1942 approved the capitulationist tactics of «national unity», both in domestic politics as well as internationally. The Party was influenced by Browderiite ideas, a predecessor of modern revisionism, and there was a clear abandonment of revolutionary violence and an electoral tactic was promoted that focused on the «National Democratic Front». Nevertheless, the Red Line in the Party fought to defend the Marxist-Leninist standpoints, although it was bitterly fought and the internal struggles were resolved through expulsions.

Second period (1945 to '80). The Communist Party of Peru was reconstituted. Regarding the Military Line, Chairman Gonzalo established the «definition and foundations of the road». This second period had two phases: the first phase, in 1945-63, is that of «new impulses for the development of the Party and the beginning of the struggle against revisionism», and the second phase, in 1963-80, is that of the «establishment of the General Political Line and the reconstitution of the Party».

In the first phase of the second period, by the mid-1950s, the struggle had begun to reactivate the Party, which had been left in disarray after Odria's State coup. Afterward, the Party began the opening step in the struggle against revisionism. This process took place in the midst of the repercussions of the Cuban revolution and mainly because the development of the struggle between Marxism and revisionism began on the world level. The revolutionary road began to be discussed, the armed struggle was talked about again, and, at the Party's Fourth Congress in 1962, it was decided that, in Peru, the so-called «Two Roads» were viable: «The peaceful road and the violent one.» Moreover, «the revolution can either follow the road of encircling the cities from the countryside or the road from the cities to the countryside». But, in spite of this empty talk, the Party in essence was hanging on to the old electoral strategy then taking the form of the so-called «National Liberation Front». This was Hrusev's revisionism. At this time, the political standpoints of Chairman Gonzalo began to emerge, who laid the foundations of the Red Line that adhered to the standpoints of Chairman Mao in the struggle between Marxism and revisionism.

In the second phase of the second period, in 1963-80, we have the «establishment of the General Political Line and the reconstitution of the Party». This task was carried out by Chairman Gonzalo in constituting the Red Faction of the Party in an intense struggle of more than 15 years and through three political strategies:

From 1963 to '69, he guided the Red Faction under the political strategy of taking the «road of encircling the cities from the countryside». From 1969 to '76, he led the Party with the political strategy of the «reconstitution of the Party for the People's War». From 1976 to '79, there was the political strategy of «completing the reconstitution and laying foundations» for the initiation of the armed struggle.

During the first political strategy of taking the «road of encircling the cities from the countryside», the Communists of Peru were profoundly stirred by the struggle between Marxism and revisionism, and Marxist standpoints soaked into the organization. In the 1960s, there was a great peasant movement that mobilized 300'000 to 500'000 peasants, who fought for land but did not develop into armed struggle due to the leadership being in the hands of revisionists; a great movement of labour strikes took place among the working class, and the university struggle developed to a higher level. All these events had repercussions on the Party, and Chairman Gonzalo went on to temper the Red Faction in Ayacucho, with clear ideas that the Party must conquer political power, and that it must be based on Marxist theory. He unleashed a frontal assault on revisionism, which was centred in the Council Union, and adhered firmly to the standpoints of the Communist Party of China and mainly those of Chairman Mao. He expounded: «The countryside is in a powerful revolutionary ferment.» «We must pay special attention to the countryside and to the poor peasants.» «Our revolution will be from the countryside to the city.» At the Fourth National Conference of January 1964, he met with the different Party branches to expel revisionism and its crusty representatives, Jorge del Prado, Acosta, and Juan Barrio. Thus, our Party became one of the first to break with and expel revisionism from its ranks.

Chairman Gonzalo began to consolidate the Party in the Ayacucho Regional Committee; he put the centre of the Party's work in the countryside; in the cities, he organized the poor masses in the Neighbourhood Federation and reorganized the Revolutionary Student Front. But what is of transcendental importance is that, despite the opposition of the new Central Leadership, Chairman Gonzalo, by applying a Party decision, launched the «Special Work», which was the military work of the Regional Committees, by giving it three functions: political, military, and logistical. Afterward, in sharp two-line struggle against the standpoints of the Central Leadership, which wanted to control the military work, he combated militarism, the ideology of roving rebel bands, and the focus theory. In these circumstances, the guerrillas of the Movement of the Revolutionary Left [MIR] developed a standpoint that expressed the struggle of our people from a small-bourgeois worldview, followed a militarist line, and sidestepped the Party. In spite of being out of step with the rise of the peasants, this movement showed the feasibility of armed struggle as a prospect, provided that it be guided by an appropriate and correct line under the leadership of the Party. For that reason, Chairman Gonzalo was opposed to liquidating the Party in order to tail the MIR and the National Liberation Army [ELN] in a supposed united front. At the September 1967 Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau, he expounded the Strategic Plan, which contained a set of measures that the Central Committee should take for the construction of the «Three Weapons», having as its main task the formation of the armed forces that was agreed upon at the Fifth National Conference of 1965. This took place in the midst of a factional struggle, where most notably the factions of «Red Homeland» and the Paredes' Right-wing liquidators contended to corner the Party's leadership. Paredes intended to replay the tactic of tailing one section of the big bourgeoisie, while «Red Homeland» went on to plunge into Right-wing opportunism.

During the second political strategy of «reconstituting the Party for the People's War», Chairman Gonzalo expounded the underlying revisionism within the Party and that it was necessary to reconstitute it on the Party's basis of unity: Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought, Mariategui's Thought, and the General Political Line. This standpoint was fought against by the aforementioned factions. The mishandling of the two-line struggle by Paredes led to the fragmentation of the Party. Chairman Gonzalo understood the necessity of the reconstitution of the Party and the necessity of unleashing an internal struggle to make it a reality by sweeping away revisionism, as evidenced by the editorials he wrote in the Bandera Roja [Red Flag] of December 1967, Develop the Internal Struggle in Depth, and of April 1968, Deepen and Intensify the Internal Struggle in Revolutionary Practice. He worked tirelessly to channel revolutionary violence into people's war and for the road of encircling the cities from the countryside, thus accomplishing the main task demanded by the Party: the construction of the revolutionary armed forces. He expounded that the indispensable basis in this undertaking was the development of revolutionary peasant work, that without good work among the peasant masses, that is, work guided by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought and led by the Communist Party, there could never be a development of the armed forces nor of a people's war. Afterward, he said that we must not only reclaim the continuing validity of Mariategui's Thought, but also develop it further. He established the Party's Agrarian Programme in May 1969. In 1972, he established the Strategic Plan of the Ayacucho Regional Committee. He defeats Right-wing liquidationism, and two factions remained in the Party: the Red Faction based in Ayacucho and led by Chairman Gonzalo, and the «Majoritarian» faction acting primarily in Lima. The so-called «Majoritarians» developed a «Left»-liquidationist line, a form of revisionism that isolated the Party from the masses. Their conception was that it was impossible to fight under fascism, that having a correct line was enough. They had a military line that was opposed to people's war. They were crushed in 1975 and their leaders fled.

During the third political strategy of «completing the reconstitution and laying foundations» for the initiation of the armed struggle, the point was to finish, to complete the reconstitution of the Party, and to lay foundations for launching the armed struggle. This issue was defined at the Seventh Plenary Session of April 1977, at which the whole Party worked under the slogan to «Build to serve the armed struggle!», in struggle against the seeds of a Right-opportunist line, which held that Velasco had carried out the land reform, that there was a need to organize the peasants around the Peasant Federation of Peru, and that people's war needed to be waged for the «most deeply felt daily demands of the masses», forgetting about the questions of land and political power. In the cities, they developed Economism by concentrating on organizing the workers in trade-union commissions, and opposed the class playing its leading role. Once these standpoints were crushed, Chairman Gonzalo launched the National Construction Plan in June 1977; dozens of cadres were sent to the countryside to serve the strategic needs of the People's War and to build regional committees by taking into account the future base areas. At the Eighth Plenary Session of July 1978, he established the Outline of the Armed Struggle. In essence, he expounded that the People's War in Peru must be developed as a single whole in both the countryside and in the cities, with the countryside being the main theatre of armed actions, taking the road of encircling the cities from the countryside. Furthermore, it must take into account the historical social process of the country, especially the military aspect, the importance of the Highlands and mainly of the central and southern regions in our history, the importance of the capital, and the necessity of viewing Peru within the context of Latin America, in South America particularly, and within the international context and the world revolution. The whole Party entered a period of general reorganization, in which the centre shifted to the countryside in order to develop the main form of struggle and the main form of organization. Thus, the foundation for the construction of the «Three Revolutionary Weapons» was laid.

In synthesis, the entire process of the reconstitution left us with a political party of a new type that was ready to launch the People's War and lead it to the conquest of political power throughout the country. In this process, the historic detachment was tempered, which, guided by the ideology of the proletariat under the leadership of Chairman Gonzalo, was ready to take responsibility for the conquest of political power through the People's War.

Third period (1980 to the present). The Party has begun to lead the People's War. Its Military Line has been formed with the «application and further development of the road». This third period has had four milestones:

• First, Definition.
• Second, Preparation.
• Third, Initiation.
• Fourth, Development of Guerrilla Warfare.

First, the Definition. In essence, the Party made the historic and transcendental decision to launch the People's War in Peru, which was defined at the Enlarged Ninth Plenary Session of June 1979. This decision was achieved in the midst of three intense struggles:

• The first was against the Right-opportunist line that was opposed to the initiation of the armed struggle. It negated the existence of a revolutionary situation, stating that the conditions for the initiation did not exist, and held that there was «stability». They were expelled, and the Party decided upon a new stage and a new objective.
• The second struggle was against a new Right-wing deviation that held that initiating the armed struggle was impossible, that it was a «dream», and that there was no need to make that decision, because it was a matter of principle.
• The third struggle was among divergences within the Left wing, one in which the nuances of how to develop the People's War were discussed. It was established that the proletarian standpoint was Chairman Gonzalo's and that it therefore was the one that should be enforced; the entire Party made a commitment to be guided by Chairman Gonzalo's headquarters.

Concerning the construction of the armed forces, measures were taken to train military cadres, to form specific detachments for actions, and to undermine the reactionary forces, by taking aim against the soldiers. In the sphere of strategy and tactics, the organizational system was proposed in a new form.

Second, the Preparation. In this milestone event, the Party Programme was approved, along with the General Political Line for the Peruvian revolution and the Party Rules. Problems of political strategy related to revolutionary violence, the People's War, the Party, the army, and the united front were resolved. The following decision was made:

Temper the First Company in Deeds!

Let violence flourish, realized in the initiation and development of the armed struggle; we open up a breach with lead and offer our blood to write the new chapter in the history of the Party and of our people by tempering the First Company in deeds.

Peru

3rd of December, 1979

The Party prepared the armed struggle by dealing with two questions:

• Firstly, questions of political strategy, that is, how to define both the content and the objectives of the People's War in the long term and in the short term, as well as the guidelines that the People's War should have, its military plans, the construction of the «Three Weapons», and their connection with the New Political Power.
• Secondly, the question of the initiation of the armed struggle. This decisive and paramount question merited the most special attention from Chairman Gonzalo, who established the Plan for the Initiation guided by the slogan «Launch the armed struggle!», which was the condensation of the main policies that had to be applied in military form. Its contents included: firstly, the political tasks to be fulfilled, which were to launch the armed struggle, boycott the elections, militarily promote the armed struggle for the land, and lay foundations for new conquests, especially the New Political Power; secondly, forms of struggle: guerrilla warfare, sabotage, armed propaganda and agitation, and selective liquidations; thirdly, organizational and military forms: armed detachments, with or without modern weapons; fourthly, a time schedule, the date of the initiation and duration of the plan, and simultaneous actions on specific dates; fifthly, slogans: «Armed struggle!», «A workers' and peasants' government!», and «Down with the new reactionary government!».

The Preparation was carried out in the midst of a struggle against Right-wing standpoints inside the Party that negated the conditions, stating that the Party was not prepared or that the masses would not lend us support. The leader of these standpoints deserted and they themselves were crushed.

Third, the Initiation. On the 17th of May, 1980, the People's War in Peru began. It «a political blow, a defiant and far-reaching blow, which unfurled rebel red flags and raised hammers and sickles, proclaiming, ‹It is right to rebel!› and ‹Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun!›, calling on the people, on the poor peasants especially, to stand up, arms in hand, to light the bonfire and shake the Andes, to write a new history in the fields and every corner of our tumultuous geography, to tear down the rotten walls of the old oppressive order, to conquer the mountaintops, to storm Heaven guns in hand and bring about a new dawn. The initiation was modest, almost without modern arms; we fought, advanced, and built up from small to big, the weak initial fire became the great turbulent and raging flames which are now spreading, throwing off sparks of revolution and exploding the People's War forward».⁷

This third milestone lasted from May to December 1980, resolving the problem of how to launch the armed struggle, of passing from times of peace to times of war. The militarization of the Party through actions and the masterly Plan for the Initiation were the key links. This was how the new was born: the main form of struggle, the armed struggle, and the main form of organization, the detachments and the squads. The most outstanding actions in the field were the guerrilla actions of Ayrabamba and Aysarca and, in the cities, setting fire to the municipal building of San Martin. The boycott of the elections in the town of Chuschi was the action that launched the beginning of the People's War. This plan was fulfilled by defeating the Right-wing standpoints that the plan was «Hoxhaite» and that the actions were focused in the city. These arguments confused appearance with reality and distorted the essence, because the propaganda of the reactionaries gave big headlines to the sabotage actions in the cities and minimized the actions in the countryside. It is a specific characteristic of the People's War in Peru that the countryside is the main theatre of action, while the cities are a necessary supplement.

Fourth, the Development of Guerrilla Warfare. It has been fulfilled through three military plans:

• Firstly, the Plan to Deploy Guerrilla Warfare.
• Secondly, the Great Plan to Conquer Base Areas.
• Thirdly, the Great Plan to Develop Base Areas.

Regarding the Plan to Deploy Guerrilla Warfare. This plan was completed between May 1981 to December 1982 and had a pilot period in January 1981. The slogan, «Open up guerrilla zones to serve the base areas!», implied an ideological and political leap by making Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and Chairman Gonzalo's Guiding Thought the Party's basis of unity. Militarily, guerrilla warfare spread like wildfire throughout the country, seeking to «Capture Weapons and Materiel, and Stir the Countryside With Armed Actions!» and «Strike to Advance Toward the Base Areas!». These plans were partially completed with the latter, «Strike», being the link with the subsequent plan. The razing of feudal relations of production, aiming the spearhead against the local tyrants, and fighting against the joint police operations was advanced. A multitude of assaults on police stations and selective liquidations against local tyrants were carried out, thus creating a great mobilization of the masses of the peasants, who incorporated themselves in the militia, thereby giving rise to a power vacuum for the reactionaries. The people's committees emerged, grew, and multiplied. This is how the base areas appeared and were given specific form.

We emphasize actions such as the assault on the city jail of Ayacucho, where the First Company acted for the first time, harassing the city and freeing dozens of prisoners of war; the assaults on the police stations of Vilcashuaman, Totos, and San Jose de Secce; the sabotage actions against the power grid and lines of communication; the razings, like those of Pincos, Toxama, Allpachaca, and Huayllapampa, among others. In the cities, there were the sabotage actions against bureaucrat capitalism and imperialism, as well as support for strikes by armed actions.

Here, the Right-wing standpoints that were combated were those of personal power, independent kingdoms, and flightism. The deployment of guerrilla warfare gave us the most important conquest, the New Political Power, the underground people's committees that are the backbone of the base areas.

Facing the advance of the People's War, the reactionary government of Belaunde from the very beginning launched into persecuting, repressing, torturing, imprisoning, and murdering the Communists, the fighters, and the masses. They have mounted police operations independently and jointly with their police forces, the Civil Guard, the Republican Guard, the Investigative Police, and the counter-insurgency corps known as the «Sinchis». They promulgated Legal Decree No. 046, a truly terrorist law that violates the most elementary principles of bourgeois criminal law. But the result of all their plans has been the most all-round failure; the masses rejected and resisted their aggression. The emergence of the New Political Power broke the reticence of the Belaunde government, which from the beginning minimized the problem to maintain its bogus democratic facade and strengthened the class necessities of the two exploiters, the big bourgeoisie and feudal lords, under the protection of imperialism (mainly US imperialism). Belaunde then entrusted the Armed Forces (the Army, Navy, and Air Force), the backbone of the State, with reestablishing public order with the support of the police forces, imposing a state of emergency under political-military control in the regions of Ayacucho, Apurimac, and Huancavelica, from December 1982 until today.

With the development of the People's War and the counter-revolutionary response that implied a qualitative leap, Chairman Gonzalo outlined the Great Plan to Conquer Base Areas at the Enlarged Plenary Session of the Central Committee from January to March 1983, wherein four political tasks were defined:

• Firstly, the general reorganization of the Party.
• Secondly, the creation of the People's Guerrilla Army.
• Thirdly, the creation of the Revolutionary Front in Defence of the People [FRDP] and its concrete forms, the people's committees in the countryside and the MRDP in the cities.
• Fourthly, the Military Plan to Conquer Base Areas.

Politically, the contradiction between the New State and the Old State was making headway under the slogan to «Defend, develop and build» the base areas. A sharp armed conflict developed, in which the reactionaries fought to restore the Old Political Power and the revolution fought to counter-restore the New Political Power. This is what we call the struggle between restoration and counter-restoration, which encompassed the years 1983 and '84. Military plans were elaborated for the specific zones by applying the tactics of encircling the enemy and striking against their weak points. Two successful campaigns were completed, in which the New Political Power was tempered, thus passing its first baptism by fire; the Party was tempered and the People's Guerrilla Army was developed further.

The reactionary armed forces waged the counter-revolutionary war according to the concepts of their US imperialist master, the theory of counter-revolutionary war based on their experience in Vietnam and particularly drawn from the wars against the armed struggles in Latin America, especially in Central America. That is the fundamental theoretical source, combined with the «anti-terrorist» experience of Israel and its counterparts in Argentina, along with advisors from West Germany, Taiwan, Spain, and so on. This is combined with their experience of the few months of anti-guerrilla struggle of 1965 and the more limited experience of fighting in La Convencion. The operations are under the leadership of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces that acts according to the will of the National Defence Council headed by the President, today under Alan Garcia, who holds direct and inescapable responsibility. This counter-revolutionary strategy has been defeated many times. It has been crushed and defeated completely and thoroughly by people's war, proving to the world again and again the superiority of the strategy of the proletariat over that of imperialism.

Specific policies that were applied by the genocidal government include pitting the masses against each other, genocide, mass graves; and the disappearance of entire villages. In synthesis, they unleashed the White terror in the countryside, especially in Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Apurimac. The result of this genocide is 8'700 hundred Peruvians dead. 4'700 of the murdered were the poorest and the most exploited, mainly peasants, shantytown and slum dwellers in the cities, along with 4'000 disappeared. This genocide has not produced the result they wanted; it did not crush the People's War. On the contrary, the People's War grows stronger, developing and striking powerful blows, proving what Chairman Mao taught us, that repression incites the revolution.

Within the context of the Plan to Conquer Base Areas, the Plan for the Great Leap was established, which is subject to the specific political strategy, «Two republics, two roads, and two axes are expressed», and the military strategy, «Generalize guerrilla warfare». Four successful campaigns were carried out under the political guidelines of: «Open up political space!», «Down with the 1985 General Elections! Disrupt, destabilize, and impede them wherever feasible!», «Down with the rise to power of the new APRA government!», and «Undermine the fascist and corporatist APRA assembly!». The People's War developed further in the region of Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Apurimac and was expanded to Pasco, Huanuco, and San Martin, covering an area from the Department Cajamarca, on the border with Ecuador in the North-West, to Puno, on the border with Bolivia in the South-East of the country, striking and stirring the cities, especially the capital. The People's War is waged fundamentally in the Highlands, the historical axis of Peruvian society and its most backward and poorest part, by transforming it into the grand theatre of the revolutionary war. It advanced to the brow of the jungle and to the headlands of the coast. Thus, the People's War was not conceived of in a single region, but was developed simultaneously in several regions, although in uneven form, with a main area that can vary as necessary. All this is takes place within a strategically centralized and tactically decentralized plan.

Among the most salient actions, we can look at the blows struck against the anti-guerrilla bases in the Department of Ayacucho; the destruction of the counter-subversive strategic hamlets; disruptions in the establishment of the local micro-regions; in Huancavelica, the demolition of the electrical grid and the destruction of the highway system; the destruction of the agricultural cooperatives Cinto and Vichincha, with cattle redistribution and reappropriation of lands; and the breakouts in Apurimac. In the Central Region, there were ambushes, such as the one in Michivilca, the sabotage action against the sub-station of Centromin, and the sabotage action against the SAIS Tupac Amaru. In the Northern Region, land seizures under the slogan «Seize the land!» mobilized 160'000 peasants and confiscated 320'000 hectares, mostly pastures, and 12'000 head of livestock; the sabotage action against the oil pipeline Norperuano, and against the APRA headquarters in the city of Trujillo. In the Southern Region, the land question was stirred by the mobilization of more than 10'000 peasants; in Huallaga, an assault on the police station of Aucayacu, the destruction of the large company, and the ambush against the Republican Guard; in Metropolitan Lima, the sabotage action against the embassy of the Russian social-imperialists, against dozens of local offices of the APRA party, and against banks and factories, all leading to a state of emergency and siege of the capital under the responsibility of the Armed Forces in February 1986.

Alan Garcia Perez has continued the counter-revolutionary policies of his predecessor and sought to crush the People's War through genocide, such as those of Accomarca, Llocllapampa, Umaru, and Bellavista in the countryside. In the capital of the Republic, he has unleashed two genocidal massacres against the prisoners of war, the first on the 4th of October, 1985, where 30 Communists and fighters were annihilated in the Shining Trench of Lurigancho. That did not break the heroic resistance of the prisoners of war, who, with their own blood, constituted the Day of the Prisoners of War. The second was on the 19th of June, 1986, where the most vile and despicable premeditated crime was committed with perfidy to crush the People's War and to annihilate the prisoners of war, who, with a ferocious resistance, inflicted the most serious political, military, and moral defeat on the genocidal APRA government. This emphasized and defined the APRA's dilemma of serving the bureaucrat section of the big bourgeoisie, in order to develop fascism and corporatism, leaving Garcia and the APRA party forever bathed in the blood of the genocidal massacre. Thus, the Day of Heroism was constituted, with the monumental trilogy of 250 dead in the Shining Trenches of El Fronton, Lurigancho, and Callao.

We condemn and unmask opportunism and revisionism in its various incarnations: the pro-Russians, the pro-Chinese, the false Mariateguists, all those who have acted and continue to act as informers, tailing the counter-revolution, negating and fighting the People's War and branding it as terrorism, repeating what Reagan and the Peruvian and international reactionaries say. Unable to prove their charges, they simply hurl adjectives and condemn violence «whatever the source», and continue with their old electoral standpoints with the aim of channeling the people into parliamentary cretinism, sinking further each day into that lifeguard of the old order, their rotten parliament, their electoral farce, their Constitution, and their laws, living in quivering fear and reverential dread before the reactionary armed forces and the threat of a State coup. We condemn the groveling attitude and capitulation of Barrantes Lingan and his stooges and cronies in particular.

Since 1983, the political strategy of the Great Plan to Conquer Base Areas has been completed through two campaigns to defend, develop, and build, and the Plan for the Great Leap, with its four campaigns before December 1986, shows us the advance of the People's War, that we are solidly linked with the masses, contrary to everything some people say, since the facts give the lie to them irrefutably. The People's War has conquered an area that extends itself through the Highlands, the jungle, and the coast, marching vigorously and strongly, building the new and opening up the future. The base areas, the essence of the road of encircling the cities from the countryside, have already been conquered.

Regarding the Great Plan to Develop Base Areas. This plan occupies a special position in the People's War, because the essence of people's war is the development of base areas; therefore, the Great Plan to Develop Base Areas has to do with the construction of the New Political Power and its development, it has to do with the perspective that is being opened up for the conquest of political power throughout the country. The political strategy of the plan is to develop base areas, and the military strategy of the plan is to develop the People's War to serve the world revolution; it is a plan that is being fulfilled through a pilot plan.

The triumph of the revolution begets and crushes a powerful counter-revolution. Thus, we are entering decisive years, in which the APRA continues without having a strategic plan; they talk about a «new strategy», but there is no such thing. The only thing they can do is bestow stronger measures, more political, economic, and social laws, strengthening the military to facilitate the armed forces' fight against us, unleashing a new genocide under new conditions, for us as well as for them. For us, the genocide under way presents itself under new circumstances. We have passed through the genocide of 1983 and '84 that demonstrated great popular repudiation and the strengthening of the revolution. The reactionaries can only apply genocide, but that will consolidate the People's War. There might be initial retreats or bends in the road, but we shall prevail by persisting in Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, in our policy of the «Five Developments», in the invincibility of people's war, and in the support of the people, who make and shall make history always under the leadership of the Communist Party.

On the concrete situations and possibilities that are presented us in the new Great Plan to Develop Base Areas, we must be aware of the following:

• Firstly, the appearance of armed groups, such as the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement [MRTA] and the People's Revolutionary Commando [CRP], who have been isolated, but who do not have a well-defined Marxist worldview. Thus, they tend to serve imperialism, social-imperialism, and the supposed peace talks with the fascists, to whom they have already offered unilateral truces.
• Secondly, the APRA has already begun to develop fascism and corporatism. It faces serious and increasing difficulties, such as its growing and sinuous collusion and contention with the comprador bourgeoisie, among other even more important contradictions.
• Thirdly, the class struggle sharpens and intensifies more, the masses begin to fight and resist; given social explosions in the urban areas, they could be used by social-imperialism and the reactionaries in general, through their representatives.
• Fourthly, a State coup is possible at any moment. Garcia Perez himself may promote a self-coup in order to preserve his political future.
• Fifthly, prospectively, the reactionaries can also play with an Allende-type government, using the APRA member Barrantes or someone similar; within this possibility, one must consider the sinister role of the United Left.
• Sixthly, the Peruvian State has border problems that can be inflamed at any moment, as is shown by the experience of other Latin American countries. This problem must be seriously addressed.
• Seventhly, the sending of Yankee troops is already a real fact and not simply a possibility. Their presence is linked to a similar presence in other countries, especially on the border, and it must be seen in the context of military measures taken by Brazil.
• Eighthly, the imperialist wars and their aggressions continue to increase. A world war for hegemony between the United States and the USCR continues being prepared through collusion and contention on a global scale. Consequently, the People's War is a peremptory necessity and the worldwide people's war is an inevitable prospect.

All these possibilities must be taken seriously into account in order to handle the People's War with politics in command, and particularly with an eye toward the conquest of political power throughout the country that may present itself and which must be taken up. For these reasons, we must be ideologically, politically, and organizationally prepared.

The First Campaign of the Pilot Plan of the Great Plan to Develop Base Areas has meant the largest stirring ever, with greater national and international repercussions. The Old State is fracturing more and more, and it has never before been shaken up in this way by anyone in Peru. Now it is up to us to fulfil the historical and political necessity to «Complete the Second Campaign by brilliantly establishing a historical milestone!», with the understanding that the Pilot Plan is like the initial battle of the Great Plan to Develop Base Areas.

In conclusion, after close to eight years of People's War, we have completed more than 45'000 actions that reveal their high quality; the militarized Party has been tempered; the People's Guerrilla Army has been developed and has increased its fighting spirit; and we have hundreds of organizations of the New Political Power, with the poorest masses increasingly in support of us. The People's War has raised the class struggle of our people to its highest form, and that affects the struggle of the masses themselves, pushing them to incorporate themselves by leaps and bounds in the People's War. Thus, «the People's War in Peru is an authentic people's war which is turning the country upside down; the ‹old mole› is burrowing deeply in the bowels of the old society and no one can stop it; the future already dwells among us — the old and rotten society is decaying hopelessly and the revolution shall prevail. Long live the armed struggle!»⁷ Our task is to develop the People's War to serve the world revolution under the banners of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought.

#1.2. THE ROAD OF ENCIRCLING THE CITIES FROM THE COUNTRYSIDE AND THE REVOLUTIONARY BASE AREAS

Chairman Mao established the road of encircling the cities from the countryside, whose heart is the base areas. He took into account that the powerful imperialists and their reactionary Chinese allies were entrenched in the main cities, and that, if the revolution refused to capitulate and wanted to persevere in the struggle, it had to convert the backward rural districts into advanced and solid base areas, into great military, political, economic, and cultural bastions of the revolution, to fight against the fierce enemy who was assaulting the rural districts using the cities, and to carry the revolution forward step by step to a complete victory through a protracted war.

Based on this Maoist thesis, Chairman Gonzalo has established that we must wage a unified people's war, in which the countryside is the main theatre of armed actions. Because the immense majority of the masses in our country are peasants, that is where we must build the base areas. As Chairman Mao said: «The protracted revolutionary struggle in the revolutionary base areas consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare led by the Communist Party of China. Therefore, it is wrong to ignore the necessity of using rural districts as revolutionary base areas, to neglect painstaking work among the peasants, and to neglect guerrilla warfare.»⁸ Furthermore, Chairman Gonzalo makes the specific application that armed actions should be carried out in the cities as a supplement, since international experience, as well as our own, demonstrates that this is feasible. He draws lessons, for example, from what happened to the guerrillas in the Philippines, who isolated themselves in the countryside and left the cities quiet, especially the capital, resulting in the isolation of the guerrillas. In Brazil, the revolutionaries also carried out armed actions in the countryside and the cities, only they neglected to specify which was the main thing. In Vietnam, important armed actions were carried out in the cities. Thus, by taking into account the particular characteristics of the cities in Latin America, where the percentage of the proletariat and of the poor urban masses is high, the masses are ready to develop actions to supplement those in the countryside. In the cities, however, the New Political Power and base areas are not being built, but rather the united front is consolidated through the MRDP, with centres of resistance that wage the People's War and prepare the future armed uprising, which will take place when the forces of the countryside assault the cities from the outside in combination with the armed uprising from the inside.

The base areas are the strategic bases on which the guerrilla forces rely to fulfil their strategic tasks and to achieve the objective of preserving and increasing their forces as well as annihilating and driving back the enemy. Without such strategic base areas, there would be nothing to base ourselves on to carry out any one of our strategic tasks and to fulfil the objective of the war.

Chairman Mao expounded three conditions for the creation of base areas: to have armed forces, to defeat the enemy, and to mobilize the masses. These were applied to the specific characteristics of our People's War in 1982, by applying the part «Strike» in the Plan to Deploy Guerrilla Warfare, aiming at destroying the old feudal relations of production. Police stations were assaulted, selective liquidations of those representing the political power of the feudal lords were applied, and the police forces abandoned the countryside and regrouped in the provincial capitals. The authorities of the Old Political Power massively resigned, which created a power vacuum, while tens of thousands of people were mobilized. It as in these conditions that the base areas emerged and were applied specifically in the underground people's committees. Therefore, it is wrong to take the Chinese experience dogmatically, since, if the conditions were given and the principles were in effect, we would have had sufficient reason to build the base areas. To decide this implied a struggle against a Right-wing deviation, which argued that we had not yet defeated large enemy forces, when the point was that the enemy forces had abandoned the countryside as a consequence of the routing of their political and military plans.

Chairman Gonzalo has established a system of base areas surrounded by guerrilla zones, operational zones, and points of action by taking into account the political and social conditions, the tradition of struggle, the geographical characteristics, and the development of the Party, the army, and the masses.

It is of fundamental importance to support the validity of the road of encircling the cities from the countryside and its heart, the base areas, because, with only roving rebel bands, the People's Guerrilla Army would not have had the base areas as a rear to sustain it, nor would the New Political Power have been built. We are totally against the focus theory.

#1.3. THE PROTRACTED WAR

The People's War is protracted because this characteristic is derived from the correlation between the enemy's factors and our own; this factor is determined by the following four fundamental characteristics:

• Firstly, Peru is a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society in which bureaucrat capitalism develops.
• Secondly, the enemy is strong.
• Thirdly, the People's Guerrilla Army is weak.
• Fourthly, the Communist Party leads the People's War.

From the first and fourth characteristics, we can derive that the People's Guerrilla Army will not grow too rapidly and will not defeat its enemy soon. These particular characteristics determine the protracted character of the war.

The enemy is strong and we are weak; in that fact lies the danger of our defeat. The enemy has a single advantage — the numerous detachments of its forces and the armaments they rely upon — but every other aspect constitutes their weak points. Their objective is to defend the old and rotten political power of the feudal-bureaucrat State. It has a bourgeois military line; it is a mercenary army. It does not have conscious discipline and its morale is low. It has profound contradictions between its officers and soldiers, and it is discredited among the masses. Furthermore, the very basis of the reactionary army is of worker and peasant origin, which can disintegrate in the course of an unjust war. Apart from this, the Peruvian Armed Forces have never won a war, and they are experts in defeat. Furthermore, they have repeatedly counted on and still count on the support of world reaction, but we count on the support of the oppressed nations, the peoples of the world, and the international proletariat, which are the new forces.

The People's Guerrilla Army has a single weak point, its insufficient development, but the remaining aspects constitute valuable advantages: it wages the People's War to create the New Political Power; it has a proletarian military line and is led absolutely by the Communist Party; it is based on class valour, revolutionary heroism, and a conscious discipline. Its morale is high, there is close unity between officers and soldiers, and it is an army composed of the people themselves, mainly workers and poor peasants.

But the objective fact is that there is a large disparity between the forces of the enemy and our forces, and for us to go from weak to strong requires a period of time, one in which the defects of the enemy are exposed and our advantages are developed. Therefore, we say that our army is outwardly weak but inwardly strong, and that the enemy army is outwardly strong but inwardly weak. Thus, to go from weak to strong, we must wage a protracted war, which consists of three stages:

• Firstly, the stage of the enemy's strategic offensive and of our strategic defensive.
• Secondly, the stage of the enemy's strategic consolidation and of our preparation for the counter-offensive.
• Thirdly, the stage of our strategic counter-offensive and of the enemy's strategic retreat.

Chairman Gonzalo thus teaches us that the People's War is protracted, long, and ruthless, but victorious, and tells us that its length will be extended or shortened within the framework of its protracted character to the extent that we fight according to the proletarian military line, since Right-wing deviations are the main danger that can cause serious setbacks to the war.

Today, we find ourselves in the stage of the enemy's strategic offensive of and of our own strategic defensive. We must strengthen the People's War by applying generalized guerrilla warfare, laying foundations for the next stage, and paying whatever cost is necessary, but fighting to minimize it.

#2. BUILDING THE PEOPLE'S GUERRILLA ARMY

To unleash the People's War, we must count on the main form of organization, which is the People's Guerrilla Army, since the backbone of the Old State is the reactionary armed forces, and, in order to destroy the Old State, one must first destroy its reactionary army. The Party must count on a powerful army: «Without a people's army, the people have nothing»,⁹ as Chairman Mao taught us.

The question of army building can be seen in the Line for Building the «Three Revolutionary Weapons», which is based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought. In synthesis, Chairman Gonzalo has made a contribution by incorporating the militia in the People's Guerrilla Army. Its creation is a step toward the sea of armed masses and the solution to the question of how to pass over from disorganized masses to militarily organized masses.

#3. STRATEGY AND TACTICS

Chairman Gonzalo emphasizes seven points on the strategy and tactics of Chairman Mao, applying some of them to our specific conditions in the process. We must pay close attention to these in order to lead the People's War.

#3.1. ON STRATEGY AND TACTICS

Chairman Gonzalo starts from Chairman Mao's thesis that the task of strategy as a science is to study the laws for leading military operations that influence the situation in the war as a whole, while the task of the science of campaigns and tactics is to study the laws for leading military operations of a partial character. He makes a strategic development of how to wage the war in the country as a whole and in each district, taking into account its links with the international situation. He establishes the axes, sub-axes, directions of movement, and lines of movement, which allow us to maintain the strategic course of the war under any circumstances and to face all types of political and military operations that the counter-revolution may launch. On this basis, he established the National Military Plan, which is strategically centralized and tactically decentralized, starting from the premise that all plans are ideological forms, that is to say, that they must reflect both reality and the rugged paths which this reality will express. Taking up Stalin, he links strategy with tactics and establishes the strategic-operative plans that are the concrete form in which strategy is linked with tactical operations. As a result, each committee must elaborate its strategic-operative plans within the framework of the strategic-operative plan common to the entire Party.

A correct disposition emanates from the appropriate decisions of the commanders, which is based on the indispensable recognition and careful study of the situation of the enemy, our situation, and the interrelation of both. That is, we must always keep in mind the «Two Camps», and we must be guided by a political strategy and by a military strategy.

For the elaboration of the plans, always take into account the following general features:

• The international class struggle between the revolution and the counter-revolution; ideology; the international Communist movement; and the RIM.
• The domestic class struggle; the counter-revolution; the political situation; and the counter-subversive war.
• The development of the People's War; its summary; and its laws and lessons.
• The need for research.
• The People's War and construction.
• The People's War and the masses.
• The two-line struggle.
• Time schedules.
• Attitude and slogans: «Surmount all difficulties to win greater victories!»

In the almost eight years of the People's War, we have had four plans:

• Firstly, the Plan for the Initiation.
• Secondly, the Plan to Deploy the People's War.
• Thirdly, the Great Plan to Conquer Base Areas.
• Fourthly, the Great Plan to Develop Base Areas.

#3.2. THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF WAR

All the guiding principles of military operations originate with a single fundamental principle: Do everything possible to preserve our own forces and to annihilate the enemy's forces. Every war imposes a price, and sometimes it is extremely high. To conserve our own forces, we must annihilate those of the enemy; but to annihilate the enemy, we must pay a price in order to preserve the whole. Chairman Gonzalo teaches us that one must be prepared to pay the highest price of the war, but that we should fight for it to always be as low as possible. This is a contradiction, and the point lies in attitude and good planning; it is mainly a question of leadership. He tempers us in «challenging death», in «revolutionary heroism», and in «conquering laurels from the crown of Death». In war, we always see the two aspects, destruction and construction, and the latter is the main aspect.

#3.3. GUERRILLA TACTICS OR FUNDAMENTAL TACTICS

«The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.»¹⁰ These fundamental tactics must be embodied and applied, manoeuvring around the enemy and seeking out their weak point to smash them.

#3.4. «ENCIRCLEMENT AND SUPPRESSION» CAMPAIGNS AND COUNTER-CAMPAIGNS

The enemy's «encirclement and suppression» campaigns and our counter-campaigns are the main form taken by the People's War. It is a law that the counter-revolution, in order to crush the revolution, unleashes «encirclement and suppression» campaigns against each unit of the People's Guerrilla Army or against the base areas. The operations of the People's Guerrilla Army adopt the form of counter-campaigns, and Chairman Mao has established the nine steps of crushing an «encirclement and suppression» campaign:

• Active defence.
• Preparations for a counter-campaign.
• Strategic retreat.
• Strategic counter-offensive.
• Starting the counter-offensive.
• Concentration of troops.
• Mobile warfare.
• Lightning warfare.
• War of annihilation.

By applying this law to the conditions of our People's War, Chairman Gonzalo has outlined the five parts of a campaign, which allow us to defeat the political and military plans of the reactionaries. Each campaign has a specific political and military objective, fulfilled by the element of surprise, attacking them when we want, where we want, and as we want. He has also specified the five steps that each military action must follow, always serving the political objective and opposing the criterion of action for action's sake. He stresses the importance of differentiating between the essence and the appearance of the enemy's movements. He has also established for us the four forms of struggle of the People's War:

• Firstly, guerrilla combat, with its two forms, assaults and ambushes.
• Secondly, sabotage.
• Thirdly, selective liquidation.
• Fourthly, armed agitation and propaganda, with its diverse methods.

#3.5. THE STRATEGIC CHARACTER OF GUERRILLA WARFARE

Chairman Mao elevated guerrilla warfare to the level of strategy. Prior to him, it was only considered as a tactical question that by itself did not decide the outcome of a war; but, even though guerrilla war does not decide the outcome of a war, as this requires regular warfare, it does fulfil a series of strategic tasks that lead to the favourable outcome of a war. We conceive of guerrilla war on a vast scale, of generalized guerrilla warfare that must support the protracted and bloody war. From there on, we apply the six strategic problems of guerrilla warfare:

• Firstly, initiative, flexibility, and planning in conducting offensives within the defensive, lightning battles within protracted war, and exterior-line operations within interior-line operations.
• Secondly, coordination with regular warfare.
• Thirdly, the establishment of base areas.
• Fourthly, the strategic defensive and the strategic defensive in guerrilla war.
• Fifthly, development of guerrilla war into mobile war.
• Sixthly, the relationship of command.

#3.6. THE «TEN PRINCIPLES OF OPERATION»

In December 1947, Chairman Mao masterly synthesized the appropriate and correct strategic line followed in more than 20 years of people's war in ten military principles. These principles can be found in his report, The Present Situation and Our Tasks, Section 3. We apply these principles, and it is very important to broaden their application.

#3.7. BRILLIANT SUMMARY OF STRATEGY AND TACTICS

Comrade Mao Zedong has provided a masterly summary of the strategy and tactics of people's war: You fight in your way, and we fight in ours; we fight when we can win, and move away when we can't.

In other words, you rely on modern weapons, and we rely on highly conscious revolutionary people; you give full play to your superiority, and we give full play to ours; you have your way of fighting, and we have ours. When you want to fight us, we don't let you, and you can't even find us. But when we want to fight you, we make sure that you can't get away, and we hit you squarely on the chin and wipe you out. When we are able to wipe you out, we do so with a vengeance; when we can't, we see to it that you don't wipe us out. It is opportunism if one won't fight when one can win. It is adventurism if one insists on fighting when one can't win. Fighting is the pivot of all our strategy and tactics. It is because of the necessity of fighting that we admit the necessity of moving away. The sole purpose of moving away is to fight and bring about the final and complete destruction of the enemy. This strategy and these tactics can be applied only when one relies on the broad masses of the people, and such application brings the superiority of people's war into full play. However superior they may be in technical equipment and whatever tricks they may resort to, the enemy will find themself in the passive position of having to receive blows, and the initiative will always be in our hands.¹¹

The application of this principle allows us to demonstrate the invincibility of the superior strategy of people's war, because the proletariat, as the last class in history, has created its own, higher form of war, and no other class, including the bourgeoisie, with its greatest political and military strategists, are capable of defeating it. The reactionaries dream about elaborating strategies that are «superior» to people's war, but are condemned to failure, since they are going against history. After nearly eight years, our People's War blazes victoriously, demonstrating the invincibility of people's war.

The members of the Communist Party of Peru completely and thoroughly take up the Party's Military Line, established by Chairman Gonzalo, who, on the basis of the highest creation of the international proletariat, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, has specified our Military Line with Gonzalo's Thought, thereby endowing us with an invincible weapon, the unified people's war waged mainly in the countryside and in the cities as a supplement. We wage it as the main form of struggle. It is a bright torch before the world, proclaiming the universal validity of immortal Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

#LONG LIVE THE PARTY'S MILITARY LINE!

#THE PEOPLE'S WAR IS INVINCIBLE!

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#LINE FOR BUILDING THE «THREE REVOLUTIONARY WEAPONS»

#Gonzalo, Norah, and Miriam

#September 1987

#★

#INTRODUCTION

Chairman Gonzalo establishes the Line for Building the «Three Revolutionary Weapons» by upholding, defending, and applying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism.

Chairman Gonzalo teaches us that Marx said that the working class creates organizations in its own image and likeness, that is to say, its own organizations. In the 19th century, with Marx and Engels, we started off endowed with a scientific worldview, our own doctrine, our own objective, our common objective — to conquer political power — and the means to do it — revolutionary violence. All this was achieved in a very hard two-line struggle. Marx established that the proletariat cannot act as a class unless it constitutes itself as a political party that is distinct from and opposed to all the political parties created by the propertied classes. Since its appearance, in a protracted process, the proletariat has created its own forms of struggle and its own forms of organization. As a result, the Party is the highest form of organization, the army is the main form of organization, and the united front is the third weapon, and these three weapons serve to conquer political power by means of revolutionary violence. He tells us that, by the end of the 19th century, Engels came to the conclusion that our class had neither the appropriate organizational forms nor the proper military forms to conquer and defend political power, but he never said that we should abandon the revolution, but rather that we should work for the revolution, seeking a solution to these pending problems. This must be understood well, since the revisionists twist Engels's words to peddle their opportunism.

In the 20th century, Lenin understood that the revolution had matured and created the proletarian political party of a new type, thus shaping the form of struggle — the armed uprising — and the form of organization — the detachments, which were mobile forms and superior to the barricades of the previous century, which were stationary forms. Lenin expounded the need to create new, underground organizations, because the transition to revolutionary action signified the dissolution of the aboveground organizations by the police, and that this transition was only possible if it was made by going over the heads of the old leaders, going over the heads of the old Party, destroying it. The Party should take as its example the modern army, with its discipline and its single will, and be flexible.

With Chairman Mao Zedong, our class understood the need to build the «Three Revolutionary Weapons» — the Party, the army, and the united front — in an interrelated way. This resolved the question of the construction of the «Three Weapons» in a backward, semi-feudal, and semi-colonial country, through people's war. Concretely, it resolved the question of how to build the Party around the gun, and clarified that it is the heroic warrior who leads its own construction and that of the army and the united front.

Chairman Gonzalo expounds the militarization of the Communist Parties and the concentric construction of the «Three Weapons». The militarization of the Communist Parties is a political directive with a strategic content, because it is «the ensemble of the transformations, changes, and adjustments necessary to lead people's war as the main form of struggle giving rise to the New State».⁷ Therefore, the militarization of the Communist Parties is the key link in the democratic revolution, the socialist revolution, and the cultural revolutions.

Chairman Gonzalo defines the Great Construction Principle: «On the basis of ideological and political construction, simultaneously build the organizational forms in the midst of the class struggle and the two-line struggle, and build all three in the midst of and to serve the armed struggle for the conquest of political power.»

In addition, he links the entire process of construction with the fluidity of people's war, starting from Chairman Mao's thesis: «Fluidity in the war and in our territory produces fluidity in all fields of construction in our base areas.»¹²

Thus, in order to understand the Line for Building the «Three Revolutionary Weapons», we must start from the forms of struggle, the forms of organization, the Great Construction Principle, and construction linked with the fluidity of people's war, which is the main form of struggle in the world of today.

#1. ON PARTY BUILDING

#1.1. CHARACTER OF THE PARTY

We base ourselves on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, mainly Gonzalo's Thought, on the ideology of the proletariat, which is the highest expression of humanity, the only true, scientific, and invincible ideology. We fight for the Communist programme, whose essence is to organize and lead the class struggle of the proletariat, so that it can conquer political power and realize the democratic revolution, the socialist revolution and the cultural revolutions on the way to communism, the unwavering objective toward which we march. We rely on the General Political Line for the revolution, that is, the laws governing the class struggle for the conquest of political power, established by Chairman Gonzalo, with its five elements:

• Firstly, the International Line.
• Secondly, the Line for the Democratic Revolution.
• Thirdly, the Military Line.
• Fourthly, the Line for Building the «Three Revolutionary Weapons».
• Fifthly, the Mass Line.

The Military Line is the centre of the General Political Line. We temper ourselves in proletarian internationalism, as we conceive of our revolution as part of the proletarian world revolution. And we maintain ideological, political, and organizational independence by relying on our own efforts and on the masses.

The Communist Party of Peru is a political party of a new type, which has created the top leader of the Peruvian revolution, Chairman Gonzalo, the greatest living Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, who leads the Party. He is the guarantee that the revolution will win victory, and he will lead us to communism.

#1.2. MILITARIZATION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND CONCENTRIC CONSTRUCTION

Chairman Gonzalo expounds the thesis that the Communist Parties of the world should militarize themselves for three reasons:

• Firstly, because we are in the strategic offensive of the world revolution, we live during the period in which imperialism and reaction will be swept off the face of the Earth in the next 50 to 100 years, a time marked by violence in which all kinds of wars will take place. We are witnessing how the reaction is militarizing itself more and more, militarizing the old States and their economies, unleashing wars of aggression, trafficking with the struggles of the peoples, and aiming toward a world war, but, because revolution is the main tendency in the world, the task of the Communist Parties is to uphold revolution and shape the main form of struggle, people's war, to oppose the counter-revolutionary world war with worldwide revolutionary war.
• Secondly, because capitalist restoration must be prevented. When the bourgeoisie loses political power, it sneaks into the Party, uses the army, and seeks to usurp political power and destroy the dictatorship of the proletariat, so as to restore capitalism. Therefore, the Communist Parties must militarize themselves and exercise all-round dictatorship over the «Three Weapons», tempering themselves in people's war and empowering the armed organization of the masses, the people's militia, so as to engulf the army. For this reason, Chairman Gonzalo tells us to «train Party members first and foremost as Communists, and as fighters and administrators»;⁷ for that reason, every Party member is tempered in people's war and remains vigilant against any attempt at capitalist restoration.
• Thirdly, because we are marching toward a militarized society. By militarizing the Party, we complete a step toward the militarization of society, which is the strategic prospect that shall guarantee the dictatorship of the proletariat. The militarized society is the sea of armed masses of which Marx and Engels spoke, which guards the conquest of political power and defends it once conquered. We take the experience of the Chinese revolution, of the anti-Japanese base area at Yan'an, which was a militarized society where everything grew out of the barrel of a gun: the Party, the army, the State, new politics, new economics, and new culture. And, in that way, we develop War Communism.

At the First National Conference (November 1979), Chairman Gonzalo expounded the thesis on the necessity of militarizing the Communist Party of Peru; afterward, in the first months of 1980, when the Party was preparing to launch the People's War, he proposed to develop the militarization of the Party through actions, basing himself on what the great Lenin said about reducing the non-military work in order to shift the focus to the military work; that the times of peace were ending and that we were entering into times of war, so that all our forces should be militarized. Thus, taking the Party as the axis of everything, build the army around it, and, with these weapons and with the masses in the People's War, build the New State around both. That the militarization of the Party can only be carried out through concrete actions of class struggle, concrete actions of a military type, does not mean that we shall exclusively carry out various types of military actions (guerrilla actions, sabotage actions, selective liquidations, and armed propaganda and agitation), but rather that we must carry out mainly these forms, so as to provide incentive and development to the class struggle, teaching with deeds, with these types of actions as the main forms of struggle in the People's War.

The militarization of the Party has its antecedents in Lenin and Chairman Mao, but it is a new question developed by Chairman Gonzalo by taking into account the new conditions of the class struggle, and we must see that new problems will arise which shall be resolved through experience. These problems will necessarily imply a process of struggle between the old and the new that will further develop it, with war being the highest form of resolving contradictions, of empowering the faculties people have to find solutions. It is the militarization of the Party that has enabled us to launch and develop the People's War. We consider that this experience has universal validity, and, for that reason, it is a requirement and a necessity for the Communist Parties of the world to militarize themselves.

The concentric construction of the «Three Weapons» is the organizational fulfilment of the militarization of the Party, and, in synthesis, it can be summed up in what Chairman Gonzalo teaches us: «The Party is the axis of everything; it leads the ‹Three Weapons› in an all-round way, it leads its own construction, it absolutely leads the army, and it leads the New State as a joint dictatorship aiming toward the dictatorship of the proletariat.»

#1.3. THE SIX ASPECTS OF PARTY BUILDING

Building the Party ideologically. The Party members are tempered in the Party's basis of unity with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, mainly Gonzalo's Thought. We say Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, because it is the universal ideology of the proletariat, the last class in history, an ideology that must be applied to the concrete conditions of each revolution and create its guiding thought. In our case, the Peruvian revolution has created Gonzalo's Thought, because Chairman Gonzalo is the highest expression of the integration of the universal ideology with the concrete practice of the Peruvian revolution.

Building the Party politically. The Party members are tempered in the Programme and Rules; in the General Political Line, in the Military Line as its centre, and in specific political lines; in general policy and specific policies; and in the Party's military plans. Politics must always be in command, and our Party is strong in politics.

Building the Party organizationally. This takes place according to the principle that the organizational is derived from the political and bearing in mind that the line in itself is not enough; thus, the organizational apparatuses must be built while bearing in mind the organizational structure, the organizational system, and Party work. The Party's organizational structure is based on democratic centralism, mainly centralism; moreover, the Party establishes two armed organizational networks: first, the territorial network, which encompasses certain jurisdictions, and, second, the mobile network, which is deployed along with the army. The organizational system refers to the distribution of forces to serve the primary and secondary points where the revolution operates. Party work refers, first, to the relation between secret work, which is the primary aspect of our work, and open work, which is secondary, and, second, to the importance of the «Five Necessities»: democratic centralism, underground organization, discipline, vigilance, and secrecy, particularly democratic centralism.

Leadership. We are fully conscious that no class in history has ever achieved the establishment of its rule without promoting its political leaders, its vanguard representatives, capable of organizing the movement and leading it. The Peruvian proletariat, in the midst of the class struggle, has created the leadership of the revolution and its highest expression, the headquarters of Chairman Gonzalo, who handles revolutionary theory and has an understanding of history and a profound understanding of the practical movement; who, through hard two-line struggle, has defeated revisionism, Right-wing and «Left-wing» liquidationism, the Right-opportunist line, and Right-wing deviationism. He has reconstituted the Party, leads it in the People's War, and has become the greatest living Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, a great political and military strategist, a philosopher, a teacher of Communists, and the Party's centre of unity. The reactionaries have two principles for destroying the revolution: first, liquidate its leadership, and, second, isolate the guerrilla from the masses; but, in synthesis, its point is to liquidate the leadership, because the leadership is what enables us to maintain our course and realize it. Our Party has defined that leadership is the key link, and it is the duty of all Party members to constantly work to defend and preserve the Party's leadership and most especially the leadership of Chairman Gonzalo, our headquarters, against any attack inside or outside the Party, and to subject ourselves to his personal leadership and command by raising the slogans: «Learn from Chairman Gonzalo!» and «Embody Gonzalo's Thought!».

We base ourselves on collective leadership and individual leadership, and we are mindful of the role of directors and how, through the People's War, through the renewal of leadership, the leadership of the revolution emerges and is tempered. We uphold the principle that the command never dies.

We, who follow Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, subject ourselves to Chairman Gonzalo and embody Gonzalo's Thought.

Two-line struggle. The Party is a contradiction in which the class struggle expresses itself as the two-line struggle between the Right and the Left wings. It is the two-line struggle that pushes forward the development of the Party; its appropriate and correct handling requires that the Left wing must impose itself. We fight against conciliation, because it nourishes the Right wing; and the principle of criticism and self-criticism should be practised by all the militants, cadres, directors, and fighters, and the masses, too; we take up the philosophy of the struggle and go against the tide, bearing in mind that the Central Committee is the eye of the storm, because it is there that the class struggle expresses itself the sharpest. The appropriate and correct handling of the two-line struggle by Chairman Gonzalo has served to preserve the Party's unity and to develop the People's War. In general, revisionism is held to be the main danger, although within the Party, the struggle continues to unfold against Right-wing attitudes, opinions, standpoints, and criteria as a struggle among the people. It is necessary to organize the two-line struggle to impose the Party's line, through a plan to develop it in an organized manner.

Mass work. We apply the principle that the masses are the makers of history. The Party leads the struggle of the masses to serve the struggle for the conquest of political power, which is the main daily demand; we develop our mass work within and for the People's War by basing ourselves on the fundamental masses, that is, the workers and peasants (mainly the poor peasants), and on the small bourgeoisie, and we neutralize or win over the middle bourgeoisie, depending on the conditions. We subject ourselves to the law of the incorporation of the masses and the only Marxist tactic of «[going] down lower and deeper, to the real masses»¹³ and educating them in revolutionary violence and in the unbreakable struggle against revisionism. The Party's mass work is carried out through the people's army, and the masses are mobilized, educated, organized, and armed in the form of the New Political Power in the countryside and the MRDP in the cities.

In synthesis, it is through leadership of Chairman Gonzalo and the hard struggle led by him that we have a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo's Thought political party of a new type that leads the People's War and has opened up the perspective of the conquest of political power throughout the country to serve the world revolution.

#2. ON BUILDING THE PEOPLE'S GUERRILLA ARMY

#2.1. CHARACTER OF THE ARMY

The People's Guerrilla Army is an army of a new type which carries out the political tasks of the revolution as established by the Party. It applies the Maoist principle: «The Party commands the gun and we will never allow the gun to command the Party.»⁹ It fulfils three tasks:

• Firstly, to fight, which is the main task, as it corresponds to the main form of organization.
• Secondly, to mobilize, which is very important and through which the Party's mass work is carried out by mobilizing, educating, organizing, and arming the masses.
• Thirdly, to produce, applying the principle of self-reliance, trying not to be a burden on the masses.

Fundamentally, the People's Guerrilla Army is a peasant army that is absolutely led by the Party. Chairman Gonzalo teaches us: «The iron legions of the People's Guerrilla Army are sustained by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Guiding Thought, which is the basis of its invincibility; they are tempered in plain living, sacrifice, and challenging death, which elevate them to the level of revolutionary heroism.»

#2.2. THE PEOPLE'S GUERRILLA ARMY

Marx put forward that the proletariat needed its own army and established the thesis on the general armament of the people. Lenin created the Red Army and established the thesis on the people's militia, which has the functions of police, army, and administration. Chairman Mao developed the construction of the revolutionary armed forces with an immense degree of participation of the masses. The mass character of a people's war is given material form through the «Three Great Coordinations» of the regular forces and the guerrilla forces, of the regular forces and the militia, and of the guerrilla forces and the militia.

By basing himself on these Marxist-Leninist-Maoist theses and taking into account the specific characteristics of the People's War, Chairman Gonzalo proposed the formation of the People's Guerrilla Army. Since the period of the «Preparation of the People's War», Chairman Gonzalo conceived of the necessity of building the main form of organization to carry out the People's War, defeat the enemy, and build the New State. On the 3rd of December, 1979, the formation of the «First Company of the First Division of the Red Army» was agreed upon. In 1980, with the «Initiation», the squads and detachments were formed, and we proposed to pass over from unorganized masses to militarily organized masses.

In 1983, we needed to take a leap forward in the construction of the revolutionary armed forces, and we faced a large growth of the people's militia, which demonstrated how the masses wanted to fight; furthermore, that year, the reactionary armed forces had entered the fight against us. Thus, at the Enlarged Plenary Session of the Central Committee in March of that year, Chairman Gonzalo proposed the formation of the People's Guerrilla Army. Why was it called an army? Because it was a political necessity to confront the enemy and develop the People's War. The whole Party decided on this in the midst of the two-line struggle against Right-wing deviationism, which was opposed to incorporating the militia in the army. Why is it called guerrilla? Because it applies guerrilla warfare during the milestone «Development of Guerrilla Warfare»; it is not a regular army, but rather a guerrilla army, but its characteristics enable it, if needed, to develop itself as some sort of regular army. Why is it called people's? Because it is made up of the masses of people, by the peasants, mainly the poor ones; it serves the people, because it represents the interests of the people. A very important characteristic is how Chairman Gonzalo conceived of the People's Guerrilla Army as incorporating the people's militia, so that it is made up of three forces: main forces — local forces, and base forces — which act mainly in the countryside and supplementarily in the cities; this is a great step toward the sea of armed masses.

#2.3. BUILDING THE PEOPLE'S GUERRILLA ARMY

The formation of the army is based on people and not on weapons; our army is made up of peasants (mainly poor peasants), proletarians, and small bourgeois; it wrests weapons away from the enemy and also uses all sorts of elementary weapons. Our slogan is to «Conquer weapons!» from the enemy by paying whatever price is necessary. The formation of the people's army must be distinguished from its construction.

Building the army ideologically and politically is the main thing; it is based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought. It is also based on the Party's political and military lines, all the political and mass work carried out by the army being under the Party's leadership. The Party is organized on all levels of the army; a double command structure is applied, with both political and military commanders, and the two-line struggle is developed between the proletarian military line and the bourgeois military line. In addition, the revolutionary army requires the formation of three departments, the political, military, and logistical departments.

Building the army militarily is important. Armed with the theory and practice of people's war, the Military Line, and the Party's military plans, it is organized into squads, companies, and battalions in the countryside, special detachments in the cities, and the people's militia. This construction is also based on the two-line struggle. It has three forces, the main, local, and base forces, the latter of which play a specific role as the pillar supporting the New State. «Develop the companies, strengthen the platoons, and aim toward battalions!» is still a valid slogan.

Training is necessary and indispensable. It aims at increasing the fighting capacity; exercise cannot be sidestepped, and the disposition of the commander is the key link in carrying out actions. Training specializes the army; it elevates the forms of struggle. The organization of courage has a class character and strengthens the fighting spirit, because we fight with absolute unselfishness and full conviction of the justness of our cause.

In synthesis, Chairman Gonzalo has created the People's Guerrilla Army as an army of the new type and established the line for its construction on the basis of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, so that it can carry out the specific tasks of the revolution. It is an example to the world and serves the world revolution.

#3. ON BUILDING THE NEW STATE

#3.1. CHARACTER OF THE NEW STATE

The conquest of political power is the central task of the revolution and the united front is the third weapon. By applying Chairman Mao's masterly thesis in On New Democracy, Chairman Gonzalo teaches us our conception of a joint dictatorship which constitutes the New Democratic People's Republic. Starting from the link between the New State and the United Front, the FRDP is given material form, beginning with the people's committees in the countryside, and simply as the MRDP in the cities. We build the New State in the countryside until political power is finally extended throughout the country.

As a State system, it is a joint dictatorship of workers, peasants (mainly poor peasants), and small bourgeois, and it respects the interests of the middle bourgeois, all under the leadership of the proletariat represented by the Party, which applies its hegemony through this worker-peasant alliance. As a system of government, it functions through the people's assemblies.

#3.2. THE NEW STATE AND THE FLUIDITY OF WAR

The construction of the New State follows the fluidity of the People's War: it can expand or contract, disappear in one place and appear in another. It is fluid. Chairman Mao teaches us: «Our workers' and peasants' democratic republic is a State, but today it is not yet a full-fledged one. [...] the form of our political power is still far from that of a full-fledged State [...], our territory is still very small, and our enemy is constantly out to destroy us and will never rest content until they have done so.»¹²

Always bear in mind the system of base areas, guerrilla zones, operative zones, and points of action, because this system constitutes the environment in which the New State develops, and it is the key link in maintaining the strategic course; within this environment, the People's Guerrilla Army, under the leadership of the Party, moves as the backbone of the New State.

#3.3. BUILDING THE NEW STATE

«Strengthen the people's committees, develop the base areas, and push forward the New Democratic People's Republic!» That is the slogan that continues to guide the construction of the New State.

We fight for political power for the proletariat and for the people, and not for personal power. We are against the ideology of the roving rebel bands and neglecting the base areas.

The New State is built in the midst of the People's War and follows a specific process of development, being built, in our case, in the countryside first, until the cities are encircled, and then it is formed throughout the entire country. This is a process in which the Old State is destroyed and the contradiction between the Old State and the New State is expressed. This causes all the political and military plans of the reactionaries to fail and incorporates the masses in the struggle.

At the Enlarged National Conference of November 1979, Chairman Gonzalo established the relationship between the united front and the New State by applying Chairman Mao's theory. At the First Military School of April 1980, he told us: «In our hearts, minds, and wills, the political power of the people is alive, and we carry it with us. In the beginning, we will have no rear, or we will have one that is small, weak, fragile, and uncertain. Comrades, we must never forget the people's power, the State of the working class, the State of workers and peasants. This State marches with us, we carry it in the barrels of our guns, it is nestled in our minds, beating in our hands, and it will always be burning in our hearts. It is the first thing on our minds. We should never forget it. Comrades, the armed struggle will be born fragile and weak, because it is new, but its destiny will be to develop through change, from the variation of fragility, like a tender plant. The roots we grow at the beginning will become a vigorous State in the future. Comrades, all this begins to flourish with the modest and simple actions that tomorrow we will carry out.»¹⁴ In 1980, the distribution committees emerged, the germ of the New State; in 1982, the first people's committees emerged, which multiplied by the end of that year, forcing the reactionaries to order their armed forces to enter the fight against the People's War, since the reactionary political power was threatened. In 1983, we decided on the Great Plan to Conquer Base Areas, one of whose tasks was the formation of the Organizing Committee of the New Democratic People's War. Starting from there, we have followed the struggle between the restoration of the Old Political Power by the enemy and the counter-restoration of the New Political Power by applying defence, development, and construction.

Thus, the New Political Power, by passing through the bloodbath, develops the people's committees, which are being tempered in hard battles against the enemy, watered by the blood of the masses of peasants, fighters, and Party members.

At the Enlarged Plenary Session of the Central Committee in March 1983, Chairman Gonzalo further developed the line for building the united front and the New State. He expounded the levels on which the New State was being organized: the people's committees, the base areas, and the New Democratic People's Republic. The functions of the base areas and of the Organizing Committee of the New Democratic People's Republic are that of leadership, planning, and organization; each base area must elaborate its own specific plan.

Chairman Gonzalo established that the people's committees are the material expressions of the New State. They are united front commissions; led by commissars, who take up their State functions by being commissioned, they are elected by the assemblies of representatives and are subject to recall. They are, up to now, underground; they march forward with commissions, led by the Party, apply the «three-in-one» combination — 1/3 of their commissars are Communists, 1/3 are peasants, and 1/3 are progressives — and they are sustained by the army. They apply the people's dictatorship, enforcement, and security, exercising violence firmly and resolutely, so as to defend the New Political Power against its enemies and protect the people's rights.

A set of people's committees constitutes a base area, and the whole set of base areas is the ring that arms the New Democratic People's Republic, today in a process of formation. We have gone from conquering base areas to developing base areas, which is the current political strategy. We have to sow the New Political Power more and more by applying the five established forms (organizing committees, reorganizing committees, dual power committees, underground people's committees, and aboveground people's committees), especially today, when the conditions are opening up the prospect of conquering political power throughout the country.

In synthesis, Chairman Gonzalo has established the line for building the New State, and two republics, two roads, and two axes are facing off against each other. We have advanced in establishing new social relations of production, and the New Democratic People's Republic in a process of formation is shining defiantly in the face of the Old State and opening up the prospect of the total conquest of political power. This example encourages the revolutionaries of the world, most especially the international proletariat.

As followers of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, we take up the Line for Building the «Three Revolutionary Weapons» of the Communist Party of Peru, the highest form of organization and the primary political society; of the People's Guerrilla Army, the main form of organization; and of the united front and the New State, the central task of the revolution. These are the weapons that are being built in our homeland in the din of the People's War by crossing rivers of blood, in which the Communists, fighters, and masses heroically give their lives to give material form to the appropriate and correct political line established by Chairman Gonzalo; those who survive will carry on the flag of continuing it to serve our objective, communism.

#LONG LIVE THE MILITARIZATION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU!

#LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE'S GUERRILLA ARMY!

#LONG LIVE THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC IN A PROCESS OF FORMATION!

#FIGHT FOR THE CONCENTRIC CONSTRUCTION OF THE «THREE WEAPONS»!

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#MASS LINE

#Gonzalo, Norah, and Miriam

#September 1987

#★

#INTRODUCTION

By upholding, defending, and applying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Chairman Gonzalo has established the Party's Mass Line. He begins by reaffirming the proletarian worldview that we must have in order to judge the question of the masses. He expounds the political role the masses play in the struggle for political power by way of the People's War, and that the struggle for daily demands must serve this end. He outlines to what masses we should go, mainly to the fundamental masses (the workers and peasants), and the many fronts of struggle, according to their specific demands and grievances. We must apply the only Marxist tactic of going to the deepest and lowest masses and educating them in revolutionary violence and in the struggle against opportunism. He specifies that the mass work of a political party that leads a people's war is carried out through the people's army, and he indicates the importance of the organizations created by the Party as one of the forms of organizing the masses. We must carry out mass work within and for the People's War.

#1. REAFFIRMATION OF THE PRINCIPLE THAT «THE MASSES ARE THE MAKERS OF HISTORY»

Chairman Gonzalo reaffirms the powerful Marxist principle that «the masses are the makers of history», and teaches us to temper our Communist worldview in struggle against the bourgeois worldview, which focuses on the individual as the axis of history. He states: «The masses are the light of the world; they forge ahead by themselves. They transform and create instruments with their own hands. They are the social fabric, the inexhaustible heartbeat of history.»¹⁴ «[...] when the masses speak up, everything shudders, the social order begins to tremble, the high summits stoop, and the stars change their course, because the masses are capable of anything.»¹⁵

This reaffirmation is of great importance, because it is part of the proletarian worldview. It is the basis for the mass line and applies to everything; it allows judgement on everything from international questions to specific policies, because it is an ideological question. No historical event, no movement of change, no revolution can be made without the participation of the masses. This applies to the Party, because it has a mass character and cannot be divorced from them, otherwise it would be extinguished or diluted. In order to guarantee the course of their struggle, the masses must be led by the Party. The Party itself has masses, the militants, who, as Communists, must necessarily embody this principle and overthrow rotten individualism through a constant struggle, because it is not a proletarian worldview. It can be observed how the process of our People's War powerfully aids this transformation. Furthermore, our principle of leadership is «from the masses, to the masses».¹⁶ This also applies to the People's War, because it is a war waged by the masses; they are the very source of it. It is with this Marxist worldview that we wage the People's War.

Chairman Gonzalo particularly emphasizes the rebellion of the masses as their method of making history, telling us: «Since ancient times, the masses have been subject to exploitation and oppression. They have always rebelled; it is a long and inexhaustible history. [...] For ages, since they began to fight, the masses have clamoured for the organization of their rebellion, for their armament, for the uprising, for leadership. It has always been this way, and it will continue to be so. Even afterward, in the new world, there will still be struggle, but in different forms.»¹⁵ «The masses clamour for the organization of their rebellion. Therefore, the Party, its directors, cadres, and militants, have an urgent obligation and destiny — to organize the disorganized power of the masses — and this will only be accomplished gun in hand. The masses must be armed gradually, part by part, until the armament of the entire people, and when this comes about, there shall be no more exploitation on Earth.»¹⁵

Here, Chairman Gonzalo expresses his absolute faith in the masses, in the historical and political necessity of their rebellion, their armament, their demand that they be led and organized. He calls on the Communist Parties to fulfil the demand that comes from Marx and Engels, who taught us that there are only two powers on Earth, the armed power of the reactionaries and the disorganized power of the masses. He expounds that, if we organize this power, what is only potential shall become deeds, and what is a possibility shall become a reality. Everything is a house of cards if it is not based on the masses. Concretely, the problem is to pass from the state of disorganized masses to militarily organized masses.

We should organize the masses, gun in hand, because they clamour for the organization of their rebellion. As such, we must apply people's war, which is the main form of struggle, and organize the masses for the conquest of political power under the leadership of the Party. This is clearly in keeping with the main contradiction in the world today, with the strategic offensive of the world revolution, and with the main tendency in today's world, revolution. Furthermore, the Mass Line aims at giving material form to what Marx indicated, the general armament of the people, with the objective of guaranteeing the triumph of the revolution and preventing capitalist restoration. This is an idea of great prospects that shall lead us to communism: Only by organizing this sea of armed masses shall it be possible to defend what has been conquered and to develop the democratic, socialist, and cultural revolutions.

Chairman Gonzalo refutes those who hold that the masses do not want to make revolution or that the masses will not support the People's War. He teaches us that the point is not the masses, because they are ready to rebel, but rather the Communist Parties, who must take responsibility for leading them to rise up in arms. He differentiates us from those standpoints that today are based on «accumulation of forces», which propose peacefully accumulating the masses by way of so-called «democratic spaces» or the use of legality. Such an accumulation of forces doesn't correspond to the current moment of the international and domestic class struggle and doesn't fit with the type of democratic revolution that we are developing; however, the socialist revolution has other characteristics, because we are living in an unevenly developing revolutionary situation in the world. He is opposed to and condemns the opportunist standpoints that make the masses tail the big bourgeoisie, either on the electoral road or through armed actions under the command of some superpower or power.

Thus, Chairman Gonzalo upholds Chairman Mao's great slogan, «It is right to rebel!»,¹⁷ and conceives of the question of the masses today being that the Communist Parties must mobilize, educate, organize, and arm the masses for the conquest of political power by applying people's war to the specific conditions.

Chairman Gonzalo applies the necessity of the scientific organization of the poor to our specific conditions. Chairman Gonzalo stresses that those most disposed to rebel, who clamour most for the organization of their rebellion, are the poorest masses, and that we must pay particular attention to the revolutionary and scientific organization of the masses. This is not opposed to the class criterion, because, as he shows, poverty has its origin in exploitation, in the class struggle: «Poverty exists side by side with fabulous riches. Even the utopians knew that the two are linked: enormous wealth is tied to abominable and flagrant poverty. It is like this, because exploitation exists.»¹⁵

This thesis is connected with Marx, who discovered the revolutionary potential of the poor and the need to scientifically organize them for the revolution. Marx taught us that the proletariat does not own property and is the class that creates, the only class that can destroy property and thus destroy itself as a class. This thesis is tied with Lenin, who taught us that a social revolution does not arise from programmes, but rather from the fact that millions of people prefer to die fighting for the revolution to living as victims of hunger. And it is also tied with Chairman Mao, who conceived of poverty as pushing forward the yearning for change, for action, for revolution, that it is a blank piece of paper, on which the freshest and most beautiful words can be written.

Chairman Gonzalo takes into account the specific conditions of our society, and teaches us that, in Peru, to talk about the masses is to talk about the masses of the peasants, the poor peasants; that the 1920s, '40s, and '60s demonstrated that peasant struggles shake the very foundation of the State, but that they lack a guide: the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought; a motor: the People's War; and the appropriate and correct leadership of the Communist Party. The peasant struggles were not able to take the correct road to power, and the blood they shed was used to fetter them and mould them to the old order. These were unforgettable bloodbaths that left us with extraordinary lessons. The 1980s show that the true mobilization of the armed masses of the peasants organized in the Communist Party and the People's Guerrilla Army has begun, and that they are giving their precious blood for the New Political Power that is blossoming and developing through the People's War.

This has a particular strategic importance, because it allows us to understand that where revolutions take place in the world is defined by where the people are the poorest, where the poor constitute the majority, and where the people are the most disposed to rebel. In each revolution, we must go to the poorest and apply the three requirements that the scientific organization of the poor demands: ideology, people's war, and a Communist Party.

In this regard, Chairman Gonzalo says: «Poverty is one of the driving forces of the revolution. The poorest are the most revolutionary; poverty is the most beautiful song; [...] poverty is not a disgrace, it is an honour; our mountains, with their masses, are the source of our revolution, who, with their hands led by the Communist Party, shall build a new world. Our guide: ideology. Our motor: the armed struggle. Our leadership: the Communist Party.»

#2. THE MAIN ASPECT OF MASS WORK IS THE STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL POWER, BUT THE STRUGGLE FOR DAILY DEMANDS IS NECESSARY

Basing himself on Chairman Mao, who generalized revolutionary violence as the universal law for the conquest of political power, and who established that the main form of struggle is the armed struggle and the main form of organization the armed forces, and that, before the outbreak of a war, all the struggles and organizations should serve to prepare it, Chairman Gonzalo teaches us that, in our mass work, the struggle for political power and the struggle for daily demands are two sides of the same coin, with the struggle for political power being the first and foremost demand of the masses.

Organize the masses, so that they can go beyond what is permitted by the existing legal order, so that they fight to destroy the old order and not to maintain it. This is accomplished by the use of the «Three Revolutionary Weapons»: the Party, where the few converge; the army, with more participants; and the New State and united front, which is the basis that progressively accumulates the masses through leaps. In the countryside, this is achieved through the people's committees, and, in the cities, it is accomplished through the MRDP. In this way, the tradition of electoral fronts, which the revisionists and opportunists apply to channel the struggle of the peasantry and to divert the masses in the cities from not conquering political power through war, is destroyed.

To focus on the question of political power also demands the organization of the masses in diverse new forms of struggle, because war imposes changes on the forms of struggle and organization of the masses. As Lenin taught us, in revolutionary epochs, new organizations must be formed in opposition to the old leaders, who seek to sell the revolution in order to find a place for themselves within the reactionary system. For that reason, the old forms of struggle and organization of the masses cannot be used.

The struggle for political power being the main aspect does not mean that we are going to incorporate the masses all at once right away. Chairman Mao taught us that developing base areas and armed forces is what creates the high tide of the revolution. This has to do with the law of incorporation of the masses in the revolution, which was established by the Party at the Second Plenary Session of 1980, an incorporation that shall take place through progressive leaps; with more people's war shall come a greater incorporation of the masses. Thus, the People's War is a political event that continues to hammer ideas into people's minds through powerful actions, and these people shall bit by bit come to understand their only true road, thus developing their political consciousness. The People's War summons all revolutionaries and blazes a trail for itself as it develops.

The masses want politics, and it is the task of the Communists to organize and lead them. The masses have concrete problems everywhere, and we must worry about them and attend to them. Our mass work is done within the class struggle and not on its margins. If we do not do mass work, the reactionaries and revisionists shall utilize the masses for their own ends, whether to develop fascism and to corporatize them or to hand over their struggles to another imperialist master. Thus, there are two distinct and mutually opposed wills.

The masses seek the voices of those who affirm them and not those who doubt them. In our Party, during the «Initiation», Chairman Gonzalo demanded that no one must ever doubt the masses, and he fought those who were blind and deaf to the voices of the masses, explaining that we must listen to their faintest rumours and attend to their daily, concrete problems. The masses must never be fooled, they must never be forced, they must know the risks that they may face. They must be summoned to the long, bloody struggle for political power, but they must understand that it the struggle for this struggle will be long and bloody, but victorious.

Therefore, the struggle for political power is the main thing, but it cannot be separated from the struggle for economic and political demands, which are two sides of the same coin, and the latter struggle is necessary.

How do we conceive of the struggle for daily demands? We are accused of not having a specific line for the economic and political struggle of the masses. The fact is that we apply it in another way, in other forms, with different policies opposed to those applied by the opportunists and revisionists, in a new way way that differs from the traditional forms. Chairman Gonzalo teaches us that the struggle for economic and political demands is one side of a coin, which has the struggle for political power on the other side. It is completely wrong to separate them — to talk only about the struggle for economic and political demands is revisionism. In applying Marx's thesis to our specific society, he tells us:

The crisis presents us with two problems: Firstly, how to defend what has been won, since in crises, the gains are lost, and more would be lost if they were not defended. This is the necessity of the struggle for daily demands [...], an economic and political struggle [...]. Furthermore, it tempers the class and the workers in their struggle for political power. Secondly, how to put an end to the crises? They cannot be ended unless the predominant social order is ended [...] [there is a] necessity of revolutionary struggle to serve the conquest of political power through armed struggle under the leadership of the Party [...] one cannot be separated from the other. The relation between both questions is given material form in the development of the struggle for daily demands to serve the struggle for political power.

To carry forward the struggle for daily demands, the trade union is used, along with the strike, which is the main form of the economic struggle of the proletariat. We develop strikes as a kind of «guerrilla warfare», which educates our class in the struggle for political power. This elevates our class through concrete armed actions, which strengthens this form of struggle, giving it a higher quality.

In sum, the struggle for daily demands must be developed in a way that serves the conquest of political power. This is a political principle of doing mass work.

#3. TO WHAT MASSES DO WE GO?

In order to resolve the question, «To what masses do we go?», our starting point must be the class criterion. This is very important to make sure that the masses are organized according to the common interests of the classes to which they belong. Chairman Gonzalo teaches us that this approach is essential to combat those who pretend to separate the masses from the classes with tales of «unity», betraying the true interests of the masses by trafficking with their struggles. Moreover, because it allows us to understand that the masses are always an arena of struggle, where the bourgeoisie and proletariat clash over who gets to lead them. However, only the Communist Party is capable of leading the masses, because it is the only political party that can represent them and struggle for their interests. Those who talk about «mass democracy» or who create aboveground mass organizations as though they were a form of political power without violence are merely upholding bourgeois standpoints that negate the leadership of the proletariat and its dictatorship.

To take the class criterion as our starting point has to do with the character of the revolution, with the classes that make up the people who should be united under the leadership of the proletariat. In our case, in the democratic revolution, the proletariat leads, the peasantry is the main force, the small bourgeoisie is a firm ally, and the middle bourgeoisie has a dual character. The fundamental masses to whom we must go are the proletariat and the peasantry, mainly the poor peasantry; we must also go to the small bourgeoisie and the middle bourgeoisie.

Bearing in mind the specific daily demands of the masses, we should distinguish the sections of of the masses that suffer more oppression, with the objective of organizing them, so that they shall fight to win conquests and resolve their specific contradiction. This refers to the mass fronts on which we must work. These are:

• The workers, the proletariat, the leading class of all revolutions, a class whose main and decisive political objective is the conquest of political power through people's war to emancipate itself, emancipate the other classes, and finally to destroy itself as a class. Its specific daily demands are the winning of conquests and rights, such as increased wages, a shorter workday, and better working conditions. To this end, the labour movement and its struggles, mobilizations, marches, agitation, and strikes must be developed further with armed actions. «Worry about the fundamental problems of our class and of the workers, their general and concrete problems, for which they fight daily.»
• The peasants are the main force, especially the poor peasants, who fight for the conquest of land through armed struggle under the leadership of the Communist Party. Not to see the question in this way leads to so-called «land grabs» and to conforming to the old order. Further develop the peasant movement by applying the «Three Withs»: live with with, work with, and fight together with them, thus tempering peasants with a proletarian mentality.
• The women, who make up half the world. We develop the women's movement for the emancipation of women, a task that is the work of the women themselves, but under the leadership of the Party. We must fight the bourgeois thesis of women's liberation. Women fight against the constant increases in the cost of living, which affect the physical integrity of our class and the people. Mobilize the working, peasant, and intellectual women, and so on.
• The intellectuals must fulfil their role as revolutionary intellectuals who serve the proletariat and the peasantry as part of the People's War. Among them are high school students, university students, professionals, and so on. We must understand their specific daily demands, that they should defend what has been conquered, and aim for a new national, scientific, and mass culture, by making them conscious that they can only achieve this through the revolution.
• Mobilize the urban poor in the shantytowns and slums against hunger and poverty, so that they fight for the programme of the revolution. Summon them to the People's War, so that they may win their conquests and rights, which are trampled on more each day. Do not allow them to be struck with impunity, and teach them how to defend themselves, so that they can resist the enemy's aggressions using all the available means at their disposal. Apply «Fight and resist!», which is the common slogan for this class.
• Mobilize the youth, so that they directly participate on the front lines and in the trenches of the People's War. Let young workers, peasants, and students develop their struggles for a new world, their right to be educated, against unemployment and other ills that cause their deterioration.
• Make the children active participants in the People's War. They can carry out many tasks which will help them understand the necessity of transforming the world. They are the future, and in the end, they shall live in the new world. Change their ideology, so that they adopt the the ideology of the proletariat.

#4. PERSIST IN THE ONLY MARXIST-LENINIST-MAOIST TACTIC

In establishing the only Marxist tactic, Lenin's starting point was the following thesis of Engels's: «In a country such as this, with an old political and labour movement, there will always be a vast accumulation of traditionally received rubbish to be gradually got rid of.»¹⁸ On this basis, Lenin established: «The only Marxist line in the world labour movement is to explain to the masses the inevitability and necessity of breaking with opportunism, to educate them for revolution by waging a relentless struggle against opportunism [...].»¹³ Chairman Mao indicated that a period of struggle against imperialism and revisionism was opening up, with revisionism being one of the main sources of imperialist wars and a danger for Communists in general, as it structured itself inside the Party. Chairman Gonzalo calls on us to persist in the only Marxist tactic, which implies four questions:

• Firstly, sweep away the tremendous heap of rubbish that is revisionism and opportunism, mainly parliamentarism. None of these revisionists and opportunists, nor any of their kin, can represent, much less defend, the masses. Now, as before, they only defend the exploiters in turn. Yesterday, they were mere stooges for the fascist and corporative APRA government, sinisterly dragging along the trade-union organizations dependent on them. All these political and trade-union organizations and their leaders do not represent the people, but that crust of the labour aristocracy. The trade-union bureaucracy and the bourgeois labour parties that always try to distract the masses from their revolutionary road and are but part of that tremendous heap of rubbish, which must be gradually swept away, as Engels said.
• Secondly, go to the deepest and lowest masses, who constitute the majority, and who, in our country, are the workers and peasants (mainly the poor peasants), and the small bourgeoisie, and also bear in mind the national bourgeoisie. Of these, the most important are the workers and the peasants (mainly the poor peasants), and we must mainly go to them in both the countryside and the cities. We must push forward their movement, lead it, and mobilize them for the conquest of political power, so as to demolish and overthrow the Old State. This is the main tactical question. Thus, among the masses, it is necessary to distinguish between the superficial foam, the crust that serves the bourgeoisie, and the immense majority of the deepest and lowest masses, who shall emerge more and more until the decrepit Peruvian State has been swept away, even more so when the People's War starts to demolish the old Peruvian State.
• Thirdly, the masses must be educated in the People's War, in its theory and practice. Thus, to educate them in the peace of bayonets is to allow them to be slaughtered. The masses should no longer shed their blood with impunity only to be betrayed by their false leaders, for capitulation — but rather, this precious blood should serve the conquest of political power for our class and the people.
• Fourthly, it is necessary to struggle unbreakably against revisionism and opportunism, fighting it as the dangerous cancer that it is, both inside and outside the Party and among the masses themselves; otherwise, they will not solidify their revolutionary road. This is a struggle that we have been unleashing since the reconstitution of the Party and that today, in open people's war, is more urgent and inexorable, because of the increasingly treacherous way the revisionists and opportunists act against us, the people, and the revolution, all the more so when social-imperialism operates behind them within its policy of collusion and contention with US imperialism for world hegemony. This is applicable to revisionism and opportunism of all kinds, no matter who their representatives are.

Regarding this question, Chairman Gonzalo tells us: «Rise above this marsh, this superficial revisionism, opportunism, and parliamentarism, which rides on the backs of the masses. The main thing is that, below this, the colossal and self-moving masses agitate, and we operate among them with the most powerful weapon of rebellion that exists on Earth: armed action. We are the cry that says: ‹It is right to rebel.›»

#5. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE MASSES

By taking the ideological and political basis and, simultaneously, organizational construction as his starting points, Chairman Gonzalo has established the forms of struggle and of organization of the masses. He teaches us about the process in which the Party's mass work has developed:

Chairman Gonzalo tells us that, during the period of the constitution of the Party, Mariategui outlined the foundations for the Party's mass work and determined specific lines by unleashing the two-line struggle against Anarchism, which neglected the necessity of the Party, and against the APRA, which negated the Marxist-Leninist worldview and the capacity of our class to constitute itself into a Communist Party, through its work in the united front.

In the 1930s, with Mariategui's death, his line was abandoned. The work became focused on making the masses tail the big bourgeoisie, misleading them toward «frontism», elections, and revisionism, which weighed down on the efforts of the Red Line to oppose this. These erroneous tactics lasted for more than 30 years.

During the period of the reconstitution of the Party, Chairman Gonzalo established the Party's Mass Line and the organizational forms. This was a period of over 15 years of hard two-line struggle, which achieved partial leaps. During the first political strategy of the reconstruction, he developed the initiation of the Party's mass work. All the Party members in Ayacucho did work among the peasants, the civil construction workers, the intellectuals, and the poor masses in the slums, for example. He supported the land seizures and led peasant events, the most transcendental being the First Regional Convention of Peasants of Ayacucho, where the Agrarian Programme was established. He led the historic struggles of the 20th, 21st, and 22nd of June, 1969 in Ayacucho and Huanta, mobilizing the masses of high school students, parents, and families against General Velasco's Legal Decree 006, which was defeated. He organized the Front in Defence of the People of Ayacucho [FDPA], reorganized the Revolutionary Student Front [FER], and created the Popular Women's Movement [MFP], the Mariategui Centre for Intellectual Work [CETIM], the Revolutionary High School Student Front [FRES], and, above all, the Poor Peasants' Movement [MCP]. Thus, he established new policies mass work, new forms of struggle, and new organizational forms for mass work.

In the two-line struggle, Chairman Gonzalo fought against revisionism, which led the masses toward parliamentarism and opposed revolutionary violence in order to preserve the old order. He fought against «Red Homeland», which adhered to a form of revisionism that trafficked, as it still does today, with the slogan, «Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun», negated semi-feudalism, and focused on the small bourgeoisie, especially students and teachers. He also defeated Right-wing liquidationism, which diluted the Party's leadership among the masses, preached legalism, and said that everything should be done through the Peasants' Confederation of Peru [CCP], that the peasants didn't understand confiscation, but only expropriation, and that the fascist and corporative measures of the Velasco government should be supported.

During the second political strategy of the reconstitution, Chairman Gonzalo established the organizations created by the Party according to the decision of the Third Plenary Session in 1973: «The movements themselves, as organizations created by the proletariat on the different fronts of work, have three characteristics: firstly, they adhere to Mariategui; secondly, they are mass organizations; and, thirdly, they are bound by democratic centralism.» He established the character, content, and role of the organizations created by the Party by applying Lenin's thesis on the underground Party and the support points for the Party among the masses, learning from the Chinese experience with open and secret work. He defined the specific necessity, in order to develop the reconstitution of the Party, of opening up the Party to the masses more. In order to reach a decision on and carry out this policy, he had to defeat «Left-wing» liquidationism, whose starting point was the notion that fascism would sweep everything away, thus aiming for the Party's extinction by isolating it from the masses; it neglected the peasantry and the proletariat and preached that «the line alone is enough».

With the defeat of the «Left»-liquidationist line, our ties with the masses grew and the people's schools began to be formed, schools that educated the masses with the Party's worldview and line, which played an important role in our agitation and propaganda by linking the struggle for daily demands with the struggle for political power. They carried out systematic and planned studies on the basis of study guides, unleashed the two-line struggle, and developed our mass work.

The advance of the work of the organizations created by the Party led Chairman Gonzalo to propose their development into a single torrent, under the political guideline of launching the armed struggle. This led to the formation of district work. The Metropolitan Coordination was established for the cities by applying Lenin's thesis on open work and Chairman Mao's thesis on work in the cities, so that the struggle of the masses should be developed on just grounds, to our advantage, and with limitation. This application allowed us to keep the Party underground and entrenched in the masses. The Metropolitan Coordination worked by moving in a good number of activists, distributing a lot of propaganda material in a short time, and facilitating agitation and mobilization under a centralized plan established by the Party.

All of this is what we call the «Three Feet» of our mass work in the cities:

• Organizations created by the Party.
• People's schools.
• The Metropolitan Coordination.

In the countryside, the first two forms were applied.

During the third political strategy of the reconstitution, the Party broadly developed its mass work in the districts of the Highlands, linking itself with the peasants, mainly the poor peasants. In the cities, it linked itself with the proletariat and the masses in the slums and shantytowns. The organizations created by the Party played a poisitive role during the period of completing the reconstitution and laying foundations for the armed struggle. The specific lines were developed even further; thus, the Class-Conscious Workers' and Labourers' Movement [MOTC] put forward the 15 Fundamental Theses on the Labour Movement; the MCP educated the peasants with the Agrarian Programme applied to new specific conditions; the Class-Conscious Shantytown Movement [MCB] published the List of Denunciations and Demands of the People; the FER further developed the thesis, Defence of the University Against Corporatism; the FRES pushed forward the struggle of the students for people's education; the MFP raised the thesis on women's emancipation, thus pushing forward the mobilization of working women, peasant women, shantytown dwellers, and students. Furthermore, there was participation in the Union of Peruvian Educational Workers [SUTEP], which led to its specific class line being adopted in the 1970s. The National Federation of Peruvian University Teachers [FENTUP] was also formed. All of this work led to a broad ideological and political mobilization for the initiation of the People's War.

In synthesis, all the Party's mass work during the reconstitution served to prepare the initiation of the People's War. As Chairman Mao taught us, before launching the war, everything serves to prepare for it, and, once it has begun, everything serves to develop it. Chairman Gonzalo has firmly applied and further developed this principle.

During the period of leading the People's War, there was a great leap in the Party's mass work, a qualitative leap, which shaped the main form of struggle, the People's War, and the main form of organization, the People's Guerrilla Army. This highest task was carried out through the militarization of the Party, and, with respect to our mass work, this means that all our mass work is done through the People's Guerrilla Army, which, as an army of a new type, fulfils three tasks: to fight, to mobilize, and to produce. We conceive of the army's second task as implying the mobilization, education, organization, and armament of the masses, a task that is not opposed to fighting, which is the main task, because the principle of concentrating our forces for combat and dispersing our forces for mobilization is applied. In addition, the masses are educated in the war itself. This is a principle that governs the three forces — the main, local, and base forces — which carry out different specific levels of actions.

To mobilize the masses, the Party runs the people's schools and creates the mass organizations and the support groups through the People's Guerrilla Army. This policy is applied in one way in the countryside, because that is where the New Political Power is being formed, and in another way in the cities. In the cities, the MRDP was formed, which aims for the future armed uprising.

In the countryside, where we have political power, base areas, and people's committees, we see to it that all the masses participate in an armed way by being organized in the Party, the army, and the united front and the New State. If all the masses are not organized, the New Political Power will not be able to sustain itself for long. Amorphous masses or political power without the masses organized under the leadership of the Party is not enough.

In the cities, our mass work is carried out by the army as well, and the main thing is the struggle for political power through the People's War, with the struggle for daily demands being a necessary supplement that serves the struggle for political power. Obviously, this happens through many armed actions, with the objective of giving the new forms of organization a material form. We have formed the MRDP, which attracts the masses of workers, peasants, urban poor, and small bourgeois, neutralizing the middle bourgeoisie, and aiming for the democratic forces that support the People's War. The objective is to lead the masses toward resistance and the elevation of their struggles to the level of people's war; to hinder, undermine, and inhibit the Old State; and to serve the future armed uprising by preparing the cities for it with people's war, which is specifically waged as a supplement. We apply the dual policy of developing our own organizational forms, which is the main thing, and of penetrating all types of organizations. We apply the slogan: «Fight and resist!»

Regarding the organizations created by the Party, in the course of the People's War, they have expressed a further development and have taken on different characteristics. They continue being the Party's mass organizations, and today, they adhere to the following characteristics:

• Firstly, they are guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought.
• Secondly, they are governed by democratic centralism.
• Thirdly, they serve the development of the People's War.

In the countryside, the organizations created by the Party are militarized; in the cities, many degrees of militarization can be applied. Today, we have the following:

• The MOTC.
• The MCP.
• The MCB.
• The MFP.
• The Popular Youth Movement [MJP].
• The Popular Intellectual Movement [MIP].
• The Peru People's Aid, which is also important. It has risen up in the course of the People's War as part of the struggle for the prisoners of war and the disappeared.
• The Peru People's Movement [MPP], which has been formed for the Party's work abroad, with its own specific tasks.

Today, after the nearly eight years of our People's War, the Party has taken a great leap forward in its mass work, proving that it is appropriate and correct to develop our mass work within and for the People's War. As a result of its application, our people are learning more each day that the class struggle necessarily leads to the struggle for political power; their growing participation in the People's War is a good expression of this, and, even if not everyone reaches an understanding of it, they see in it the concrete hope of their emancipation. They are developing their struggles with new forms of struggle and organization, and the class struggle in Peru has been elevated to its main form: the People's War. The masses are organized in the People's War and form its basis and sustenance. They are organized in a Communist Party, in the People's Guerrilla Army, and mainly in the New Political Power, the main conquest of the People's War, in which the workers, peasants, and small bourgeois participate, exercising political power like never before in Peruvian history.

These are qualitative leaps that give rise to the conditions for a new chapter in our mass work within and for the People's War, which leads to the conquest of political power throughout the country.

We, who uphold Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo's Thought, embody the Party's Mass Line, giving our lives, so that the Party may conquer political power throughout the country and servesthe world revolution.

#EMBODY THE PARTY'S MASS LINE!

#ORGANIZE THE REBELLION OF THE CLAMOURING PEOPLE!

#TAKE A GREAT LEAP FORWARD IN THE INCORPORATION OF THE MASSES IN AND FOR THE PEOPLE'S WAR!