Develop Guerrilla Warfare!

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Develop Guerrilla Warfare! 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 in Two Important Documents of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru, Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru, Berkeley, November 1985.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a document drafted by Comrade Gonzalo for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru in Lima, Peru in March 1982. It was first published as a pamphlet by the Red Flag Publishing House.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#DEVELOP GUERRILLA WARFARE!

#Gonzalo

#March 1982

#★

Those who are not afraid of death by a thousand cuts dare to unhorse the emperor.

#1. THE ARMED STRUGGLE BLAZES VICTORIOUSLY

The Communist Party of Peru — the organized vanguard of the proletariat founded by Mariategui, reconstituted through more than 15 years of stubborn struggle as a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist political party of a new type, and taking up its historic and inevitable role of fighting for the political power of the proletariat and the people — set burning the invincible and ever-growing flames of armed struggle, of guerrilla warfare, in our country in May 1980. This struggle is linked up with and rooted more deeply every day in the class struggle in our country which will sooner or later become a raging hurricane of armed struggle to demolish the old, rotten prevailing order, and to bring to life a really free, sovereign country that provides for the well-being of the millions of exploited and oppressed people.

In 21 months the Party has vigorously launched and developed the only means for our people's and nation's emancipation: the armed struggle, the guerrilla war which blazes victoriously in the 2'900 armed actions that have swept the country in all but four departments — that stirs up the jungle, the coast, and the highlands most of all, that shakes the city and especially the countryside, whose struggle is served by the former. And so it is, since the mountain region and the countryside are the powerful and natural support for any possible revolutionary war in our country. Thus, this is a peasant war that is being led by the Party. It is converting the countryside into an armed bastion of the revolution, concentrated in base areas — in base areas of the workers' and peasants' New State — isolating the reactionaries and their imperialist masters in the cities, where the proletariat and the masses, by burning the soles of the enemy's bloody paws mainly through armed actions that serve the struggle in the countryside, the eye of the storm, prepare conditions for the final assault on the cities and the total, complete, and thorough defeat of the reactionary order and the army that maintains it. This road, the only road to revolution, is now open; this is the road on which more and more of the proletariat and the masses of our people are moving toward their own armed emancipation, by their own hands, since «the people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history».¹

2'900 actions! These actions began with the boycott of the 1980 General Elections, realized in Chuschi and many other places; striking with armed agitation and propaganda through the seizure of radio stations, leaflets, and posters; and direct actions that sow panic among the reactionaries and awaken the enthusiasm of the people with our rallying cries of «Armed struggle!«, «A workers' and peasants' government!», and «Down with the reactionary government!». This showed a new world to win through the hammers and sickles that light the hills, and through the unfading red flags that dominate the heights, proclaiming: «It is right to rebel!»²

These actions are armed mobilizations that awaken the peasants, teach the people, and alarm the reactionaries — such as the actions in Miraflores and San Isidro. Sabotage weakens and undermines the socio-economic system of the ruling exploiters, as in demolishing microwave and electric towers and producing blackouts in wide areas in the central and northern parts of the country, including in the capital itself. Fires have hit ENCI in Huacho, San Martin de Porres, Fiat, Toyota, Hindu-Hogar in Lima, and in the cane plantations of the North. Repeated actions have been taken against banks throughout the country, and against reactionary companies like Bata, Hartinger, Centromin, and so on, or against renowned elitist colleges, which are concentrated and humiliating expressions of a fiercely reactionary, foreign education.

These are overwhelming actions that rock the semi-feudal basis of the State, unleashing armed vindicating actions against landowners of the new and the old type — like in Airabamba, Aisarca, Urpihuata, Palermo, Toxama, and Pincos, among others — real rejoicing of the peasants witnessing a vibrant reemergence of their hopes and combativity which has never languished. To this list could be added the very important seizure of cities like Acosvinchos, Vinchos, Cayara, Pomatambo, and Occroro, which intensely and profoundly stir up the countryside by advancing the incorporation of the masses into the armed struggle.

Solid actions have hit directly against US imperialism, the main imperialist power on our soil — like the attack against Southern in the South of the country, the series of actions against US companies or those connected with them in the capital, and, especially, the resounding blow against the US embassy and the symbolic blasting of Kennedy's statue in Miraflores — as well as the blows at the Chinese embassy assessed Deng Xiaoping and his lackeys, that sinister guardian of revisionism, that notorious chum and accomplice of US imperialism, and vile traitor to the international Communist movement and mainly to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.

Vitally important actions have been carried out against the State, its repressive apparatus and forces, especially the police. Many actions have been conducted against the courts, government offices, labour recruitment headquarters, tax offices, voter registration offices, city halls, and ministries, and a great number of the offices of Popular Action all over the country, including their central headquarters in Lima, and even the National Parliament and the local offices of the Civil Guard, the Republican Guard, and the Investigative Police of Peru throughout the country, as well as the punishment meted out to known agents of repression like those in Arequipa and Huaraz among others, and against certain arrogant landowners and local tyrants known to be enemies of the people and murderers of fighters. Above all, the very important and audacious assaults on police stations and outposts like those of Ocobamba, Luricocha, La Ramada, Quinua, Tapuc, Yauli, Tambo, Quicapata, Totos, Yanahorco, Acchi, and in Puno and Tacna, whose effectiveness was highly expressed in the recent assault on San Jose de Secce; in the disarming of police in Lima and especially Ayacucho; and in the important raid on the naval air base at Callao which they have unsuccessfully tried to cover up. All these actions have hit powerfully at the reactionary armed forces, their personnel contingents who, as mere cannonfodder, are being used for interests other than their own; actions that have allowed us to take arms from the enemy — the main source of our weapons — and, most importantly, have delivered powerful blows to the morale of the reactionary State apparatus and its forces.

Also, there has been a brilliant and successful application of the policy of breakouts — the concentrated expression of which is the 2nd of March, 1982, assault on the Public Jail of Ayacucho. This was a heroic action that marks a heroic milestone in our armed struggle and in the annals of the Peruvian revolution: freeing our comrades and fighters from the dungeons of the reactionary Peruvian State. With the audacity, strength, and blood of the people's soldiers, our guerrilla war has been strengthened and has taken a great leap in its development. But even while we celebrate this undeniable victory, we protest, denounce, and condemn the despicable murder and massacre of three of our brave comrades by the police who, rabid in their defeat and sinister hatred, carried out a vile, cowardly murder in the Regional Hospital of Ayacucho, and attempted to execute two other sons of the people (who were saved by other patients and employees who snatched them from the claws of the henchmen). The five were recovering in that hospital under police custody. The people will not allow this detestable murder to go unpunished! We are fighters and we know that the armed struggle demands its measure of blood and, as the people and the proletariat have taught us and as the revolution demands, we offer our lives — our practice proves it. But in our revolutionary war, we apply and will continue to apply a policy toward prisoners which corresponds to the laws of war, and as we demand be done. Thus the tortures, the rapes, the crimes against and murders of the children of the people, and especially of our fighters, will be punished as the justice of the people demands, and we, their soldiers, will carry them out no matter how long it takes. The Peruvian reaction and its government, led by Belaunde and his gang, using its police forces, have mounted a new campaign against us. Basing ourselves on our just and revolutionary war, we will only say that this campaign, like the previous ones, will fail. And, finally, we can say that the demagogue Belaunde has already directly received our reply: On the 10th of March we rocked his «Government Palace» with a dynamite blast so that he might continue to hear the voice of the armed people.

These 2'900 actions clearly prove the combativeness and aggressiveness of our nascent revolutionary armed force, which embraces Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and is led wholly by the Party. Armed actions that take place in the countryside and in the cities, mainly in the former, constitute an armed struggle that assumes diverse forms of action but whose axis is the guerrilla war — which all the other actions serve. These armed actions are fueled by and based on our people's class struggle and thrive solely on the inexhaustible energy of the people themselves, especially the workers and peasants.

Successful armed actions, increasing and offering a bright future, have until now yielded four great victories. First, the tempering of the Party — directors, cadres, members, and fighters, together in the struggle, become forged in the only definitive revolutionary crucible: the armed struggle. But though this is already a great victory, we must add to this another of obvious and clear consequence: the formation and construction of an armed force led by the Party which surges into the life-giving flames of guerrilla warfare as the main weapon for completing the political tasks of the Peruvian revolution and which, under proletarian leadership, has established an armed force that is developing as an arm of the workers' and peasants' New State. A third victory is to be found in the continually increasing quantity and growing quality attained by our armed actions — actions that have taken on a mass character both in their number and in the ability of the nation's children to carry them out, as well as in the increasing quality shown by the higher level that has been achieved. And, finally, there is a fourth victory which, because of its importance, is the main thing: the emergence and development of guerrilla zones within whose boundaries, because of the vigorous and growing tide of armed struggle, we can establish our future base areas — those advanced revolutionary bastions that are the legacy of the military thought of Chairman Mao Zedong — base areas that are the very essence of the road of encircling the cities from the countryside, the very essence of people's war.

Because of this, we say to our class, the proletariat, and to the people of our country, especially to our indomitable peasantry: The armed struggle blazes victoriously. Through its initial flames signaling the great blaze to come, the masses themselves will take their own destiny in their triumphant, creative, and sure hands — the source of all history and every revolution.

#2. COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY ACTION KINDLES OUR STRUGGLE

And what has been the reactionary response? What has been the reaction of the democratic government, as it calls itself, that self-proclaimed upholder of constitutional order and of sacred human rights? It has responded in the manner that its reactionary character and logic demands. Since the beginning it has hurled persecution, repression, torture, jail, and murder against us Communists and revolutionary fighters. Belaunde's phoney democratic, hypocritical, demagogic government has set loose its forces of repression, mainly its police, to drown in blood our nascent armed revolution.

Trampling on the most basic, universally recognized rights set forth in their much-bragged-about Constitution of 1979, the reactionary Belaunde government and its so-called forces of order have brutally broken into and looted whatever homes they've wanted; they have persecuted, arrested, and jailed whomever their arrogance and abuse has led them to; they have burned, robbed, raped, and murdered with impunity the children of the people in accord with their basest instincts; they have gorged their dark, reactionary zeal on savage beatings of the masses, mainly the peasants, in a stupid attempt to intimidate them and drive them away from the armed struggle; they have generalized the use of torture, trying to crush the will and extract false confessions, despicably and perversely humiliating people so as to bend the revolutionary morale and destroy fighters; they have used rapes as an infamous, vile, and abusive means to force submission and to tarnish the pure, resolute, and firm spirit of the children of the people; they have denied all rights and guarantees to prisoners, forcing them to endure continuous persecutions even behind bars in filthy dungeons, and they have extended their harassment and repression to include the prisoners' families. Thus the persecution and repression of the armed struggle and the people unfolds as a treacherous farce on the most basic rights and as a real and sinister plan to crush the people through counter-revolutionary violence. But all this has failed to produce its dark, hoped-for ends, for the children of the people, of our class, and of the Party hold their heads high, victorious and firm in their trenches of struggle wherever that may be.

The despicable Belaunde government has also appealed to the Legislature, promulgating Legal Decree No. 46, a real terrorist law raised like a club against the armed struggle and the people. This neanderthal decree violates the most elementary principles of the bourgeoisie's own criminal law, and establishes punishment of unusual proportions. And if they have not yet instituted the death penalty that they so eagerly and cunningly seek, it is because the present constitution prohibits it and they have not yet found the conditions to modify it. The whole reaction, especially its errand kids and media hacks, all in the name of «order» and «social peace», call for the «drastic application of the law». Thus the so-called autonomous Judiciary has put in motion its sinister intrigue; oppressive laws, judges, trials, and prisons; utilizing contrived evidence, accelerated procedures, twisting laws, and selling the principles that they claim to safeguard. They have begun to swing their rotten club on the children of the masses, imposing monstrous punishments that even some reactionaries have criticized for being vile and counter-productive. Blind and dumb reactionary justice has been put in motion, as it must, in defence of the dying, exploitative, and repressive order. But in so doing, it cannot but reveal its profoundly counter-revolutionary essence, and expose even more the dark nature of the legal system and the sacrosanct Judiciary. But even this old legal butchery cannot bend the children of the people who proudly defy it in the revolution.

But beyond persecution and repression, torture and jail, legal club and judicial machinery, and the actions of their police bloodhounds of the security and intelligence units — some of whose henchmen the people have and will keep clearly in mind — the government has mounted independent police operations and joint actions with the police forces of the Civil Guard, Republican Guard, and Investigative Police of Peru and their corresponding anti-subversive Sinchi and Counter-Terrorism Directorate [DIRCOTE] units in particular. They have mounted to large operations up until now: the first in January 1981 and the second, of a larger magnitude and importance, in October of the same year, where they declared a state of emergency in five provinces in Ayacucho Department in order to give themselves more freedom of action and broader impunity, counting upon the support and advice of the armed forces.

What has been the result of the well-publicized October operation? Categorical failure; it was even ended quietly without fanfare or glory and without even the merest public report summing up the results of the vast police mobilization which obviously entailed enormous expenses. That the «definitive operation», as it was called, was an anti-climax and more noise than substance is easily proven. It failed in its deftly understood objectives: to eradicate the armed struggle, to destroy the armed people's organizations, and to liquidate the Party in the affected region. That none of this was achieved is testified to when one remembers that on the 10th of December, amidst the still-operative state of emergency, an assault was carried out against the police outpost of Totos, and other actions immediately followed in the Ayacucho region, culminating in the resounding action at San Jose de Secce.

What did the anti-subversive operation reveal? Plainly and simply that the masses reject and resist aggression; that reactionary brutality, arrogance, and violence did not dishearten them, but rather it so awakened their just class anger that they even confront with their bare hands the armed aggressors protected by their cumbersome State. It shows that the people support and protect the armed struggle, the guerrilla war that they sustain and defend with their lives, and that their understanding, heart, and will go out to the guerrilla war because it advances and serves their liberation. The police operations and all the repressive actions only confirm that the war is gaining in strength and developing, and that, if we pay with our blood, sweat, and tears, this is no more than our quota for having risen in arms in a just and necessary rebellion for our class and our people. It is proven that we learn to wage war through waging war, and that we have advanced and will advance further as we follow the Party's leadership more closely and better, whose appropriate and correct ideological and political line is expressed and moulded in irrefutable deeds like those that mark the past 21 months of vigorous revolutionary armed struggle.

And what is the essence of the government's political and military position with regard to the guerrillas? It is to combat them as «terrorists». But in this, the Peruvian reaction, its State, and Belaunde's government are only following the model set down by their US imperialist masters on how to counter the armed struggle. It is known to all that US President Reagan, his Secretary of State Haig, and their followers put the brand of «terrorism» on revolutionary wars now being waged in the world. With this they try to discredit armed action, playing on the masses' correct rejection of the old, individualist, Anarchist, dead-end terrorism long condemned by Marxism, lumping together the defence of property and so-called «social peace» along with what they claim is the defence of life — all with the idea of winning the masses to their side or at least neutralizing them.

This method of branding the armed struggle as «terrorism» is nothing but the demagogic and reactionary position of US imperialism, raised up in order to oppose the armed revolution, seeking to cover it in a cloak of slander while they mount the bloodiest repression and genocide. Further, they use this rotten manoeuvre in their contention for world hegemony with Russian social-imperialism, trying to link revolutionary action, through so-called «terrorism», to the social-imperialist superpower. In this way they seek also to discredit genuine revolution, which can in no way be compared with the sinister centre of modern revisionism which has converted Lenin's and Stalin's homeland into the hegemonic superpower of today.

As should be expected, the Peruvian reaction, Belaunde's government, and their media hacks can do nothing else but apply at all cost the orders and directives of their master, imperialism. But it is not they alone who condemn our armed struggle as «terrorism». Also jumping on this bandwagon are the opportunists manipulated by the hardened revisionist Jorge Del Prado and his clique, who obediently follow the baton of the Russian imperialist boss and worldwide puppeteer Breznev. And it is only natural that these enemies of the revolution act this way since they cannot remain with their arms crossed while their position over the masses, as old-time sellouts in the service of the collusion and contention between social-imperialism and US imperialism, is being undermined. In this same chorus we find «Red Homeland», which calls furiously to the self-proclaimed «Left wing» to unleash a holy war against the supposed «terrorism», and in their role in an ominous division of labour calls for waging an ideological-political struggle against «terrorism», leaving the task of physical repression to the government. Yesterday's enemies of Deng Xiaoping, and today his admirers, they must attack us for fighting US imperialism, the partner of their new revisionist boss, and even more so, for applying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, which they yesterday invoked, and today reject. Nevertheless, others have united with this chorus of clowns, still dazzled by the so-called «democratic opening» and «parliamentary road», who've yet to realize that the world has smashed their dreams into smithereens, and who continue to be deluded by parliamentary cretinism while they daydream of the 1985 elections.

But, in the end, while some here and others there added up may seem to be a lot, they are nothing but representatives of a thin film floating on the fathomless sea of the masses of our country. And we must keep in mind that for Marxism, there is only one tactic with regard to the masses — to draw a sharp line of demarcation between the broad masses, who descend from the depths, and the filthy, decaying scum that floats unsteadily on the waves as a fragile basis for bureaucratic trade-unionism and counterfeit proletarian political parties, each one truly a «bourgeois labour party».³ This tactic impels us to educate the masses, theoretically and practically, in revolutionary violence and in the consequent resolute and firm struggle against opportunism.

To one and all who claim to be Marxists and revolutionary fighters, whether they lead, go along with, or embrace the imperialist perversion of labeling the armed struggle that emerges from the very heart of our people's class struggle as «terrorism», we reprint these paragraphs from the great Lenin:

And so, matters are moving ahead! Despite the incredible and utterly indescribable difficulties, headway is being made in the matter of getting armed. Individual terrorism, bred of intellectualist impotence, is gradually becoming a thing of the past. [...] military operations together with the people are now commencing. It is by engaging in such operations that the pioneers of armed struggle become fused with the masses not merely in word but in deed, assume leadership of the combat squads and contingents of the proletariat, train in the crucible of civil war dozens of popular leaders who, tomorrow, on the day of the workers' uprising, will be able to help with their experience and their heroic courage thousands and tens of thousands of workers.

[...] Long live the pioneers of the people's revolutionary army!

[...] It is no longer a plot against some detested individual, no act of vengeance or desperation, no mere «intimidation» — no, it was a well thought-out and prepared commencement of operations by a contingent of the revolutionary army, planned with due regard for the correlation of forces. [...]

Fortunately, the time has passed when revolution was «made» by individual revolutionary terrorists, because the people were not revolutionary. The bomb has ceased to be the weapon of the solitary «bomb-thrower», and is becoming an essential weapon of the people.⁴

We proceeded from experiment to experiment; we endeavoured to create a volunteer army, feeling our way, testing the ground, and experimenting to find a solution to the problem in the given situation. And the nature of the problem was clear. [...]

We are still far from having overcome these difficulties. At first, we regarded them in an entirely abstract way, like revolutionary preachers, who had absolutely no idea of how to set to work. There were lots of people, of course, who accused us — and all the Socialists and Social-Democrats are accusing us today — of having undertaken this task without knowing how to finish it. But these accusations are ridiculous, made by people who lack the spark of life. As if one can set out to make a great revolution and know beforehand how it is to be completed! Such knowledge cannot be derived from books, and our decision could spring only from the experience of the masses.⁵

In conclusion, while the initiated armed struggle develops as fiery guerrilla warfare with brilliant prospects, the counter-revolution, following its reactionary logic, fights and attacks us. And there are those who, serving distant revisionist masters, join the chorus, while other follow in this same vein or approach this path. And even as the people support and encourage us, further strengthening our forces, there are those who want to smother our revolutionary advances under the ragged cloak of «terrorism», since we are the advancing armed revolution. There are those who call us the «Gloomy Path», while trying to perpetuate the shadows that begin to recede from the brilliant light of our actions guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. There are those who call us «unpatriotic» while continuing to sell the country to imperialism. There are those who call us «infantile» without any proof whatsoever and without even seeing that even if such was the case, the genuine struggle of our class and our people teaches and matures us, while opportunist senility rots and is a disease that contaminates without regard to age. There are those who brand us as «provocateurs» without ever noticing in their blindness that they are persistently provoking the righteous anger of the people for their frustrated and unrepentant promotion of mass capitulation. And, finally, there are those who call us «adventurists» without noticing in their political stupidity that they are just the same old political swindlers and petty professional careerists. Nevertheless, they are totally and completely right about one thing: We have no love for parliamentary cretinism and we do not worship electoral opportunism. We are simply and plainly Marxist-Leninist-Maoists.

Chairman Mao Zedong has taught us: «It is good if we are attacked by the enemy, since it proves that we have drawn a clear line of demarcation between the enemy and ourselves. It is still better if the enemy attacks us wildly and paints us as utterly black and without a single virtue; it demonstrates that we have not only drawn a clear line of demarcation between the enemy and ourselves, but achieved a great deal in our work.»⁶

For all that has been said, we reaffirm roundly that counter-revolutionary action kindles our struggle!

#3. THE CRISIS OF THE REACTIONARY ORDER BECOMES MORE PRONOUNCED AND THE PEOPLE CALL FOR ARMED REVOLUTION

#3.1. WHAT IS THE CURRENT SITUATION OF THE REACTIONARY FORCES?

The former military government, which lasted 12 years, came to power with two objectives to fulfil:

• To push forward bureaucrat capitalism.
• To reorganize Peruvian society.

To complete the first task, it took as the main lever the functions of the State-controlled economy. In order to fulfil the second, the government was guided by a fascist political outlook and promoted the reorganization of society along corporate lines. In its first phase it made advances in obtaining its objectives, but the economic crisis generated by this, and especially the persistent struggle of the masses, forced the military government to restate its objectives and limit itself to a general readjustment in order to later proceed with corporate reorganization and to constitutionalize those changes that they had set out from the beginning, and, moreover, to proceed to a future transfer of State power. Nevertheless, the deepening of the economic crisis and the intensification of the class struggle cut short their objectives, and the new constitution — representing the third reorganization of the Peruvian State in this century — did not achieve the moulding of a corporate Peruvian society. It only allowed for the strengthening of the Executive at the expense of the parliament, and a greater participation of the armed forces in the running of the State. As a corollary to the military measures, two elections were held, the elections for the Constituent Assembly and the 1980 General Elections. In both, voter turnout declined, part of a trend common throughout Latin America, showing a loss of faith in elections and government.

Under these conditions Belaunde took over the government, and today, more than one and a half years since his term began, the economic crisis continues, the longed-for resurgence of the economy is nowhere in sight, a persistent, growing inflation continues to pound any economic advance, and the budget deficits, the very basis of the government's measures, increase uncontrollably, gravely threatening an increasingly battered Peruvian economy. Imperialist domination sinks its fangs deeper into our country, seizing ever more of our natural resources, especially oil, extending its grip into the peasant areas, and broadening its control over the country's commerce and finance. The so-called «agrarian reform» has been concluded. The electoral opportunists join the chorus of those claiming that the land problem is ended and resolved. They try to sell the peasants on the botched «farming and cattle-raising programmes» at the same time as they advocate the development of «associative property» to cover up the return of the big landowners to promote bureaucrat capitalism in agriculture under the control of the big banks and with the direct participation of US imperialism. The proletariat and the workers are burdened with growing unemployment and declining real wages while working conditions deteriorate and prior gains are negated or threatened every day, such as the right to strike. The small bourgeoisie suffers increasing pauperization, the intellectuals in particular are thwarted, and the people in general confront the urgent problem of hunger while the new reactionary government tries to subjugate them even more. The national bourgeoisie and middle capitalists see growing restrictions on their businesses, suffering also the consequences of the government's intensified undermining of national industry. Meanwhile, in the very bosom of the big bourgeoisie, a sharp struggle — between the bureaucrat and comprador factions, and even within these factions — is taking place over who will reap the most benefits.

In sum, then, guided by an orientation that sees developing big monopoly capital — mainly US — as the motor of economic development, the present government aims at further developing the subjugating semi-feudal structure that still rules the country for the direct benefit of the landowners of the old and new type and the rich peasants of the old type. The current government undermines the basic industrial structure of the economy in order to orient it even more toward extraction production, particularly mining and petroleum. And now, it transfers and seeks to auction off the State enterprises — those which the former government had concentrated in the hands of the State at the cost of a staggering public debt placed on the backs of the people — thus preparing a succulent offering to the insatiable appetite of big, particularly imperialist, capital. The current reactionary government, whose head, prime mover, and most responsible representative is Belaunde, is as servile as any before in its eagerness to build up bureaucrat capital (big monopoly capital, vassal to the feudal landowners, and subjugated to imperialism), mainly to the benefit of big monopoly capital, especially big banking and finance capital under the asphyxiating and ever-widening expansion of US imperialism. But even if this is the outline and scheme of the government, the same complex conflict of interests among the exploiters, the persistent and deepening crisis, and, even more, the class struggle which grows more polarized day by day, does not allow the government to overcome its present difficulties, a crucial matter in order to organize and work out a coherent plan based on the clear and defined programme that the ruling order loudly demands.

On the political plane, the government continues to face a complex and entangled turning point of the class struggle which generates the introduction of a new constitution, the consolidation of a bureaucracy totally devoted to it, and a regrouping of reactionary political forces placed in hibernation during the previous 12 years, and, mainly, generates the need to rein in the masses who have been drowning in years of stifling crisis that propels them one more time into action to defend their own vital interests — masses trained in the long harsh years of a demagogic government pretending to be «revolutionary» and aided (as always!) by the same opportunists, and who have seen their most basic needs mocked. All this has created an already quite complicated political situation for the reactionary rulers. Nevertheless, the reality is sharper still. In a year and a half the decrepitude of the bourgeois-democratic order has become abundantly clear to the people, who see the contrast in a hypocritical invocation of human rights and liberties alongside their brutal negation. The obsolete parliamentary institutions are coming apart like an empty barrel rolling downhill, sinking in the pompous and sterile rhetoric of the anointed «national guardians», while basic legislative functions give in to the arrogant invasion of jurisdiction by the Executive. And an arthritic and anemic so-called Judiciary carries out its functions, compelled only by the mountains of pending proceedings, crooked dealings, and servile subjugation to whatever arrogant authority is in charge, and in constant violation of its own reactionary laws — directed, as always, against the people and which, especially today, feeds on revolutionary fighters. And then there is also the so-called autonomous electoral power that routinely rigs elections, covering up its crudest manipulations. Added to this is the sharp contention and division between the reactionary parties that are repeatedly revealed in public scandals and which find expression in all kinds of lawless proceedings. Thus the reactionary political system clearly reveals the frailty and rot that it attempts to hide behind the mask of democracy and its phoney concern for the masses (who are needed only for occasional voting and for demagogic drum-beating). In this way, as Marxism teaches, the armed forces and the police, mainly the former, are ever more the true backbone of the reactionary State and its true bastion; hence their growing importance and growing interference in the running of the State. Nevertheless, we can never forget that an armed force, in essence, strategically, is only as strong as the social order it defends, no matter how heavily armed it may be tactically.

The ruling, exploitative, oppressive social order is also in an ideological crisis despite its hypocritical handwringing over the so-called «moral crisis of the people», which is nothing but the destruction of old principles shattered by the blows of acute economic crisis and the political feebleness of the reaction. And, this is precisely what is the main thing, the crisis of bourgeois-democratic principles and the social order that, superseded by historical development, by the class struggle, by the vigorous rise of the proletariat and the masses of the people, and the great radical transforming process that has put the stamp of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism the world over, is left more exposed in the light of day not only in the historical sense, but also in the sense that every day its political decrepitude grows more pronounced. Every day witnesses a decline in the influence of bourgeois-democratic principles which, if in centuries past were revolutionary, have for decades been reactionary. That their hold on the people is waning can be seen from the results of the last election. Belaunde took office with 46% of the votes and felt exalted to Heaven, the holder of absolute power, the unchallenged voice above the class struggle and contentions. Nevertheless, a year and a half has been enough to smash his electoral sandcastle, dissolving it like rotten foam, with his fictitious «great authority» cast among the pounding waves and swirling vortexes, totally in ruins.

Finally, we should speak, though it be in passing, on the question of Ecuador. Ecuador's questioning of the Rio Protocol of 1942 goes back many years. The situation has become aggravated in recent years as proven by the border incident at Cordillera del Condor of January 1981. But the present Peruvian government and Belaunde who heads and leads it (even more, being the person who directly conducts international politics and who consequently is mainly responsible) has been dealing with this delicate and important problem in a totally erroneous and irresponsible way; instead of looking for a means to clarify the border question, they adopt an alarmingly superficial and frivolous attitude: if the Ecuadorean question is not treated appropriately and correctly, it could create grave and serious problems of vast consequences. This will obviously not be felt directly by anyone but the people, who with their own blood and efforts have given us the territory which makes up our country. Here, too, the reactionary policies and measures of Belaunde's government are evident, since no one can fail to see that the many conflicts in our Latin American countries and the many years our people have had to confront all derive from the union of interests of the imperialists, in contention with those of its agents and internal partners who govern our republics. And this is a greater worry today, when the Latin American scene reveals various potential conflicts unfolding in the stirred-up climate of contention between the superpowers in their pursuit of world domination.

In sum, we see the sharpening crisis of the reactionary order as it faces its own grave prospects in 1982.

#3.2. WHAT IS THE CURRENT SITUATION OF THE PEOPLE?

A peasantry with a centuries-old fundamental objective, «Land to the tillers!», which, despite its undaunted struggle, has yet to achieve its objective. This is a peasantry whom they have tried to deceive with three supposed land reform laws in the past 20 years. And yet, after the bombastic demagoguery has died down, the peasant is left with the same old, unsatisfied thirst for land.

A proletariat, 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 and which once again today is involved in the unending battle over wages, hours, and working conditions.

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.

There is a middle bourgeoisie, a national bourgeoisie, that is weak and lacks capital, that totters between revolution and counter-revolution, while each new crisis crushes it nearly to the point of suffocation.

These are the four classes that historically make up the people of our country. Of them, it is the peasantry which is the main motive force, as much as it is the proletariat that rises up and develops as the class leading our revolution. United, they make up the worker-peasant alliance, the only possible solid basis for any possible revolutionary united front. The small bourgeoisie united with them, and together, the three, under the leadership of the proletariat, are the pillar of the revolutionary united front, which is nothing if it is not a united front for the armed struggle and the class framework for the New State. This solid union, this solid united front, is held together so long as the proletariat firmly retains its hegemony, bases itself on the worker-peasant alliance — forged and developed in the furnace of the armed struggle, of guerrilla warfare. It is this united front of classes that the national bourgeoisie will sometimes join (and sometimes leave) depending on the raging winds of the class struggle.

And the Peruvian people, this immense majority, these masses that are the true makers of history, these powerful productive forces, are constrained by the persistent decrepitude of the exploitative social relations that impose unemployment and underemployment on 56,3% of the «economically active population» (according to the government's own statistics), and in the countryside, 2/3 of all peasants are underemployed. 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. The reactionaries defend this evil destructive system with blood and fire to the benefit of the landowners of the old and the new type, of the big comprador and bureaucrat bourgeois, and of their master, US imperialism, which for every dollar it invests extracts five. This rotten, bloody system is held together by the oppression imposed by the old, reactionary landowner-bureaucrat State, through its State apparatus, its bureaucracy, its armed forces, its Judiciary, its jails, and its ancient and scheming repression, but mainly through the armed forces and their repressive actions which are the real backbone of the ruling-class dictatorship that dominates and increases its profits extracted from the blood, sweat, and tears of our people.

If you're talking about exploitation and oppression, you're talking about the State; if you're talking about the State, you're talking about classes; if you're talking about classes, you're talking about class struggle; if you're talking about class struggle, you're talking about mass struggle; and, as time has shown over and over again, if you're talking about mass struggle, you're talking about rebellion, armed struggle, guerrilla warfare — as our own situation proves today. Our people, like all the peoples of the world, have their own proud history of struggle etched with their blood and heroism. The most earthshaking, turbulent, and splendid battles have been those waged untiringly by the peasantry, especially the poor peasants, throughout the centuries. It is sufficient here to remember that our republican emancipation was won as a result of the great armed peasant actions of the 18th century, and our own 20th century has been marked by big peasant struggles in the 1920s and '60s. These and the powerful struggle of 1963 are sources of extraordinary experiences, to which it is necessary to add the armed struggle led by the Movement of the Revolutionary Left back in 1965 — a struggle which left us invaluable lessons which every revolutionary must know about. Nevertheless, it is with the appearance of Marxism and the Communist Party that the peasant struggle acquired its full revolutionary expression. With the leadership of the proletariat, through its political party, the peasantry has met with and is following the real road to the overthrow of the present exploiting order — that is, people's war, the highest expression of proletarian military thought established by Mao Zedong.

Thus, our people, like all people, 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.

And today, our heroic people, inheritors of such a rich history and following the glorious path, wage battles against the new reactionary government, wage battle in the countryside against the landowners and the local tyrants, the social basis of reactionary State power in agriculture; wage battle in the factories and mines against their exploiters and oppressors, wage battle in the countless poor neighbourhoods, striking out against hunger and poverty; wage battle in the universities and colleges for their need to learn and become educated; wage battles in the small and middle cities against a suffocating centralism; wage battle in education, science, and culture for the undeniable right to nourish the spirit and enjoy peace of mind; wage battle in the streets for the right to earn a living; wage battle for rights and liberties already won — the freedom of conscience, speech, association, assembly, striking, and numerous other victories wrenched through their struggle and toil which, despite being stamped into law and in the National Constitution, are trampled on, questioned, and negated 24 hours a day by the arrogant and abusive actions of those in power, and by whatever highly placed careerist is in a position of authority (as is the natural order of things among those who run the State). If our people are more conscious today than yesterday, more politicized than yesterday, and more organized, firm, and decisive than yesterday, it is because of the enormous presence of the proletariat guided by unconquerable Marxism-Leninism-Maoism that arms their minds and fists. Our heroic fighting people enter into battle even when this means taking on clubs, bombs, bullets, and fierce battalions of reaction. They do it in certainty that struggle tempers, mobilizes, politicizes, organizes, and arms, and prepares them for the great battles to come. And if our people are learning anything, today more than yesterday, it is that the class struggle necessarily leads to the struggle for political power, and that this can only be won through violent revolution, which for us means revolutionary war, armed struggle — the guerrilla warfare of people's war. Only in this way can political power be seized by our class and the people. And only in this way can the New State arise and the dictatorship of the proletariat be established, so as to carry out the great and complete transformation of society so that, finally, the brilliant, resolute light of communism will shine in our country. This spirit already dwells among the people. This is clearly shown in the countryside and in the cities where the people begin to once again use violence to repel reactionary violence in defence of their rights. And, more important and demonstrative still, is the greater support the people give the armed struggle, the guerrilla war, led by the Party. Though they may not yet understand it in its total depth and scope (that requires its continued development), with the wisdom of collective action the people are fully capable of seeing that these flames of today begin to presage the armed bonfires to come, and in this the real hopes for inexorable emancipation is bellowed and welded.

#★ ★ ★

This is, according to our Marxist-Leninist-Maoist way of seeing things, the situation of the reaction and of the people. In this contradictory situation we see the two concrete aspects and specifics of today's revolutionary situation. So we can see clearly the revolutionary situation manifesting tiself and how Lenin understood it: those on top can no longer continue ruling as they did yesterday, and those on the bottom are no longer willing to live as they have until now. In the reaction we can see the lack of a precise and defined acceptable programme capable of welding the reaction and the erratic jumble of moves and counter-moves that betray the lack of a fixed course, the understandable result of the lack of a unified programme and much less an accepted one. Among the people we can see the firm and decisive move toward armed revolution, their will for revolutionary transformation — although with some limitations, sometimes only expressing itself in the desire to overthrow the decrepit ruling system. But still, if this was all there was to it, it is enough and it is basic to a sound and correct evaluation — to finding the correct course, since it is a sound and true testament that the armed struggle itself, through its accomplishments, will open even wider the road of armed struggle and, likewise, bring home forcefully the correctness of this road in human minds, and thus the masses become more and more part of this great road of people's war.

Such are the concrete issues of the developing revolutionary situation. We have reached this point due to two factors:

• The polarization of the class struggle.
• The armed struggle that is sprung from the very heart of this class struggle in the country and is unfolding as guerrilla warfare.

The polarization of the class struggle and its further development as armed struggle has intensified the preexisting revolutionary situation. Thus, today, and in perspective, we can see that as the developing revolutionary situation heats up it will further stimulate the class struggle and both will strongly impel the further advance of the armed struggle. This is, in sum, the current situation of both the people and the reaction. The latter proposes, through Belaunde's government, a «social contract» or «reconciliation». This is nothing but a rehash of the position of the previous government, but the people's point of view is one: support the armed struggle.

Thus, the class struggle is polarized and will continue to be polarized around the question of reconciliation or support for the armed struggle. Reconciliation is the white flag of the reaction; support for the armed struggle is the red flag of the people. Reconciliation is the flag of reaction bent on binding the people's hands and feet, and, in more limited terms, to weld together the contending factions in the reactionary camp. To achieve this the reactionaries will resort to whatever means, including repression, with the objective of maintaining their dominance. In the last resort they increase the use of armed force, since that is the card reaction keeps up its sleeve for the opportune moment. Support for the armed struggle is the red flag of the people and must be their necessary perspective, since, for the people, reconciliation means capitulation. The road for our people begins to manifest itself with greater clarity and determination: supporting and building up the armed struggle is the only historic road that corresponds to the road of the people — there is no other. Supporting the armed struggle today means simply to develop guerrilla warfare.

For all that has been said, we conclude: The crisis of the reactionary order deepens and the people cry out for armed revolution.

#4. DEVELOP GUERRILLA WARFARE!

Chairman Mao wrote:

The conquest of political power by armed force, the settlement of the issue by war, is the central task and the highest form of revolution. This Marxist-Leninist principle of revolution holds good universally, for China and for all other countries.⁷

And later he said:

Before the outbreak of a war, all organization and struggle are in preparation for the war [...]. After war breaks out, all organization and struggle are coordinated with the war either directly or indirectly [...].⁷

The Communist Party of Peru, a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist political party of a new type, loyal to its principles and programme, conscious of its historic mission as the organized vanguard of the Peruvian proletariat, has taken up its responsibility to launch the armed struggle to fight for the conquest of political power by the working class and the people, and is developing guerrilla warfare, learning from advanced and setbacks, fanning more widely the living flames of armed conflict and rooting them more deeply among the peasants (mainly the poor peasants), and will lead in building up revolutionary base areas that will finally give concrete form to the triumphant road of people's war.

Previously the Party had to be reconstituted, following the expulsion of Del Prado and company — standard-bearers of revisionism in the Party's ranks. At the Fourth National Conference in January 1964, we entered the long and complex process of reconstitution, decided upon later by the Sixth Conference of January 1969 at which the Party threw off the dead weight of revisionism and became a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist political party of a new type. With the completion of this arduous and glorious task, the Ninth Plenary Session of the Central Committee in 1979 approved the initiation of the armed struggle.

Once this historic mandate was completed, in May 1980, the armed struggle was launched with the proclamation of two basic slogans: «Armed struggle!» and «A workers' and peasants' government!» Thus our actions were launched, unfolding as guerrilla warfare, and now, in accord with the January 1981 Plenary Session of the Central Committee, we are further developing guerrilla warfare.

The armed struggle launched and led resolutely by the Party is the continuation of the class struggle of the Peruvian people; it is the armed continuation of its political struggle and is profoundly linked to and indissolubly united with the masses, mainly the poor peasants. The masses are our only basis and support, the source of our strength and vigour. We are firm practitioners of the great principle of self-reliance, as we are firm followers of proletarian internationalism, unfurling that immortal call by Marx and Engels: «Proletarians of all countries, unite!»⁸ And, as Communists, we always raise highest the three great banners of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism — Marx, Lenin, Mao — which demands that we be irreconcilable enemies of revisionism and all forms of opportunism. In waging the revolution in our country we are serving the proletarian world revolution which will not rest until communism shines across the face of the Earth.

The revolutionary reality of our country shows that in fact the armed struggle burns victoriously, that the counter-revolutionary actions kindle our struggle, that the reactionary order sinks in crisis, and that the people call for armed revolution. Thus, our heroic people are faced with the pressing historic necessity of supporting the armed struggle, which today means developing guerrilla warfare.

The Communist Party of Peru, the Party founded by Mariategui, the Party reconstituted as a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist political party of a new type, has launched the armed struggle in our country and has, through 21 months of the enrichment of combative life, developed it as guerrilla warfare. The Communist Party of Peru, which has raised to the skies the red flags of rebellion to serve the working class and the people in their emancipation, calls on the Peruvian proletariat, and especially the poor peasantry and the broad masses throughout the country, to take our historic destiny in our hands and overthrow the existing decadent, reactionary ruling order and build up the new revolutionary social order that the people demand and cry out for.

Peruvian people! Proletarians, peasants, workers, women, youth, and intellectuals, support the armed struggle! Support the development of guerrilla warfare!

Peruvian people! Your vigorous voice, like furious thunder, has begun to be expressed in the vibrant and purifying language of revolutionary violence, in armed struggle. Through guerrilla actions, through guerrilla warfare, you are creating milestones in your new history, your definitive history. We have embarked on a great road, a long and arduous one, but victory will be decisive, since «Everything is illusory except power»!⁹

#DEVELOP GUERRILLA WARFARE!

#LONG LIVE THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU!

#GLORY TO MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM!