Develop the People's War to Serve the World Revolution!

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Develop the People's War to Serve the World Revolution! 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 A World to Win, Nos. 8 and 9, 1987.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a document drafted by Comrade Gonzalo for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru in Lima, Peru in August 1986. It was first published as a pamphlet by the Red Flag Publishing House.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#DEVELOP THE PEOPLE'S WAR TO SERVE THE WORLD REVOLUTION!

#Gonzalo

#August 1986

#★

A great revolution must go through a civil war. This is a rule. And to see the ills of war, but not its benefits, is a one-sided view. It is of no use to the people's revolution to speak one-sidedly of the destructiveness of war.¹

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.²

#1. SIX YEARS OF PEOPLE'S WAR

#1.1. CONTEXT OF THE SIXTH ANNIVERSARY

The 17th of May, 1986 marked the sixth anniversary of the initiation of the People's War in Peru. Six years ago the Communist Party took up arms to advance the democratic revolution — to overthrow the exploitation and oppression by imperialism (mainly US imperialism), bureaucrat capitalism, and subsisting semi-feudalism — in order to conquer political power for the proletariat and the people, as a part of and to serve the world revolution. Since then, under the invincible banners of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Guiding Thought, we have marched along the road of encircling the cities from the countryside, and waged revolutionary war taking the countryside and the city as a single whole with the countryside the main theatre of armed action and the city a necessary supplement — in short, a people's war, in essence a peasant war led by the Communist Party, whose essence is the creation of revolutionary base areas.

These years can be synthesized like this:

• 1980 was the initiation of the armed struggle, of guerrilla warfare.
• 1981 and '82 saw the development of guerrilla struggle and the sprouting of the people's committees: the New Political Power of the workers, peasants, and small bourgeois, a joint dictatorship based on the worker-peasant alliance led by the proletariat through its political party.
• 1983 and '84 were years of struggle centring around restoration and counter-restoration, that is, counter-revolutionary war to smash the New Political Power and restore the old, and revolutionary war to defend, develop, and build up the newly arising people's power, a hard contest waged between the reactionary armed forces and the People's Guerrilla Army.
• From 1985 through today there has been a continuing defence, development, and construction to preserve the base areas and expand the People's War throughout our mountains from the North to the South.

Since 1983, the Peruvian revolution has unfolded under the guidance of the great strategic conception, in political terms, of the Plan to Conquer Base Areas, and, in military terms, of the Plan to Develop the People's War, which means mainly guerrilla warfare supplemented by guerrilla actions such as sabotage, selective liquidation, and propaganda and agitation, so as to carry out the central task of building, preserving, and developing base areas and spreading the People's War throughout the mountains, taking into account the variability that the fluidity of guerrilla warfare imposes not just on the New Political Power but on all forms of revolutionary construction and work. This basic Plan to Conquer Base Areas forms the context for the present Plan for the Great Leap, based on the specific political strategy of «Two Republics, Two Roads, Two Axes», that is, the old reactionary Republic of Peru versus the New Democratic People's Republic in a process of formation; the old dead-end road of votes which only serves to preserve the old exploiting order versus the new road of arms which is transforming Peruvian society to serve the people; and the axis of the big bourgeoisie heading up the dictatorship of the ruling classes to serve imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and semi-feudalism, the black and odious past, which is being destroyed, versus the proletarian axis, represented by the Communist Party in the leadership of the democratic revolution whose victory will open the way to socialism and through the course of repeated cultural revolutions fused with the great epic of the world revolution someday lead to communism, the sole, necessary, and inevitable objective of humanity that can never be abandoned. Through the military strategy of generalizing the People's War, this political strategy has taken the concrete form of four campaigns, each with its specific content.

#1.2. ON THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY WAR

Since every war is a struggle between two camps, the development of the People's War inevitably led to the unleashing of counter-revolutionary war. The Peruvian State, the dictatorship of the big bourgeoisie and the landowners under the protection of imperialism (principally US imperialism), defended their threatened existence. At first they tried to minimize the problem in order to preserve their phoney democratic image and not endanger the influx of capital in the form of loans and investment. They sent in their police forces, which, despite their abuses, outrages, and crimes, suffered humiliating defeat and were forced to withdraw from the countryside in the disputed areas and seek refuge in the provincial or departmental capitals. Thus, all the police operations, launched with such loud and confusing propaganda, were soundly defeated, and the first people's committees arose. In the face of the advance of the New Political Power, the Belaunde government abandoned its reticence to send in the reactionary armed forces; the class necessity of the exploiters and oppressors carried the day, and the task of restoring public order was handed over to the armed forces (the army, navy, and air force), the backbone of the State, supported by the police forces (the Civil Guard, the Republican Guard, and the Investigative Police). In December 1982 a state of emergency was declared in the region of Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Apurimac, and it was placed under the political-military command of the armed forces. This status was later extended to other areas in Pasco, Huanuco, and San Martin Departments; it is still in force essentially despite some variations. Military control reached a new and important phase with the imposition of a state of emergency and curfew in Lima and Callao beginning in February 1986, which subjected the capital of the republic and its more than 6'000'000 inhabitants to military rule. As a result of these moves, 7'500'000 of Peru's 20'000'000 people are under military authority: 1'500'000 people live under the absolute and unrestrained political-military authority of the armed forces, the new rulers over their lives and property, revived local tyrants decked out with noose and knife; while 6'000'000 people in the very capital of this much-touted democracy live without any guarantees or rights, subject to overbearing brutality and disguised murder under a martial law which goes so far as to give itself the right to ban one or another specific artistic performance even in a public gathering previously authorized by the military.

#1.2.1. HOW HAVE THE ARMED FORCES CARRIED OUT THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY WAR?

Basically, they have followed the doctrines of their master, US imperialism, with its theories of counter-revolutionary war based on its own experiences, especially in Vietnam, and particular lessons it has drawn from its fight against the armed struggle in Latin America, especially Central America. To this fundamental theoretical basis they have added the «anti-terrorist» experience of Israel and their chums in Argentina, as well as advice from West Germany, Taiwan, Spain, and so on. On top of all this they throw in their few months' experience in the 1965 anti-guerrilla struggle and the more limited experience of La Convencion. Operations are under the leadership of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, acting according to the instructions of the Council of National Defence headed by the President of the Republic, whether it be Belaunde or Alan Garcia, who have been directly and undeniably responsible for every measure carried out, as well as for the war's overall political leadership, which means that they bear the main responsibility of the conduct of the counter-revolutionary war. In short, they have applied the well-known strategy of world counter-revolution against revolutionary struggle, armed subversion, and people's war, a strategy which has been defeated many times — smashed and thoroughly and completely beaten by people's war, time and again demonstrating to the world the superiority of the strategy of the proletariat over that of imperialism.

#1.2.2. MASSES AGAINST MASSES

When the armed forces came in they had already been studying the revolutionary war for three years as well as advising and planning the police actions, so they had certain advantages from the beginning, and obviously they had more and better human and technical resources than the police. They immediately began to implement their plans of setting masses against masses, following the old imperialist doctrine of using natives to fight natives. First they used pre-trained units made up of handpicked army veterans and peasants linked to local tyrants and livestock rustlers, whom they had employed as agents and infiltrators among the peasants, and hooked up to the refurbished intelligence network they had begun to set up years before in the 1970s. Based on these agents, infiltrators, spies, and snitches, aided by the authorities, local tyrants, evil gentry, and their lackeys, they formed vigilante bands under military authority to take part in joint actions with the police and armed forces (who themselves often acted disguised as peasants or police), unleashing White terror in the countryside, assassinating Party members, fighters, mass leaders, and peasants, carrying out real witch-hunts against revolutionaries and progressives, as well as robbery, rape, torture, looting, arson, and slaughter. This is how they carried out the sinister policy of «burning all, looting all, and killing all». Later, they used the White terror and death threats to subjugate a part of the masses, and in this way masses under direct vigilante coercion and control were forced to aid the counter-revolutionary war. These coerced people from among the masses acted as guards, arrested and murdered guerrillas, carried out razing operations against neighbouring communities or towns and even more distant ones, and took part in search-and-pursuit operations against the guerrillas. Later these people were regrouped along with people from neighbouring areas into strategic hamlets under direct military rule. There, in addition to being forbidden to come and go freely, since no one is allowed to go anywhere alone, even to work, and subject to constant control, they were militarized and organized into «patrols» and «defence committees», forced to take up rudimentary weapons, and, sunk in starvation and poverty, obliged to take part militarily in the White terror and the counter-revolutionary war. In conclusion, while the police forces were also used as cannon-fodder by the armed forces, as even the soldiers, sailors, and aviators have always been, these coerced masses have been the main and real cannon-fodder in this sinister plan of pitting masses against masses, of using natives to fight natives; these coerced masses have been and still are used to spearhead all the reactionary attacks and operations or to surround the repressive forces like a human shield. These coerced masses have suffered 2'600 losses (including vigilantes), almost five times more than the number of uniformed soldiers and police killed (without taking into account the hundreds of infiltrators, agents, and informers).

#1.2.3. GENOCIDE

When their policy of masses against masses proved unable to check the People's War, the reactionary armed forces resorted to the most evil, perverted, and criminal genocide, one of the greatest infamies in the history of the Republic of Peru. The military showed its genocidal tendencies from the beginning, in Huambo, Iquicha, Huaychao, and so on. President Belaunde cynically saluted and approved of these incidents as «the Ayacucho peasant's gallant answer to terrorism». It should be made clear that he himself had approved and authorized such actions and not only publicly praised, but called for genocide: this is the self-proclaimed democrat, humanist, and Christian full of respect for the Constitution and the law, covered forever in the blood of the people which began to flow in torrents. Among the victims were the journalists cynically and cowardly murdered in Uchuraqay.

They began to wipe out the peasants and their communities and small towns in 1983 in Ayacucho Department. In June of that year, in Espite, in Cangallo Province, they used helicopters to machine-gun the masses and throw grenades at villagers trying to flee through the mountains. In July, in the towns of Oqopeja and Uchuraqay, in Huanta Province, again they used helicopters to machine-gun the masses and wipe them out with grenades. In Paccha, a town in Vinchos, Huamanga Province, the majority of the population were murdered and the rest carried away to Lima. In July, the first monstrously tortured bodies began to turn up in the streets of the city of Ayacucho and the surrounding areas; during the two months leading up to the November elections the bodies of more than 800 people were found — people who had been brutally murdered after bestial tortures and their bodies left to rot. In November, in Silvia, La Mar Province, in a reprisal for an ambush against the army, they arrested 60 people, and indiscriminately killed 20 of them. A month before, in Sillco, Huanta Province, they threw grenades and fired directly on the masses for the first time. Culminating this slaughter, on election day, in Socos, Huamanga Province, the local police detachment tortured and murdered more than 50 people who had been taking part in a wedding party. Officially, 37 people were reported dead.

Along with all this reactionary White terror, they began to set up concentration camps in the department, massive and evil torture centres, under the control of the army in the «Los Cabitos» barracks in the city of Ayacucho, in Totos (Cangallo), and Qoisa and Pichari (La Mar), and under the control of the navy in Huanta. In the Totos camp, as of July 1983, they had secretly buried more than 100 people; more than 20 of them had their throats cut, prisoners were tortured and buried alive, new prisoners were forced to dig graves over three metres deepand then were shoved in, while others were thrown in with their hands and feet tied. In Totos the torture is especially brutal and sadistic. To terrify the people, they cut off heads and impale them on stakes.

But the genocide was not confined to Ayacucho. In October 1983 it spread to Pasco Department, the country's mining centre; there, in Chinche, a hamlet of Alcides Carrion Province, 45 peasants were wiped out. On the 13th of November, the day of the municipal elections, three helicopters were used to machine-gun the population in Parabama, Tauacaja Province, Huancavelica Department, killing more than 50 people in retaliation for an ambush guerrillas had carried out against an army patrol that day.

During 1984 the genocide became macabre, reaching the heights of horror. The armed forces, mainly, as well as the police, unleashed their evil, rotten, inflamed, blind, and rabid hatred against the people, in their frustrated efforts to stop the revolutionary war by isolating the guerrillas from the masses of peasants, particularly the poor peasants. Once again, as is their tradition, the armed reaction fed upon the flesh and blood of the unarmed people. Let's look at some of the «heroism» that serves to prop up their false glory and unfounded pride.

#1.2.3.1. THE GENOCIDAL SLAUGHTERS

In Ayacucho Department at the end of June, they killed 150 people in the San Francisco area. On the 5th of July, they killed 30 peasants in Chiara. On the 8th, they killed 40 after an operation in Rosario. On the 12th, they wiped out 30 people in Pomabamba. On the 15th, in a reprisal for an action at Apacheta, they killed 17. On the 16th, 25 tortured bodies were found along the highway to Huamanguilla. On the 3rd of August, the tortured bodies of 37 people were found in Puramanta. On the 18th, the corpses of 17 tortured children and adolescents were found in Cocahuichun, Via de los Libertadores, and eight bodies, two of them children, in Leompata. On the 27th, 19 people were found murdered in Sajrarumi and 21 in San Francisco. On the 1st of September, 23 peasants were killed in Churrubamba and Misquibamba. The same month, in Paraiso, Mariscal Caceres Province, San Martin Department, they killed 22 peasants. In Huancavelica Department, between the 15th and 23rd of October, an army operation killed 75 peasants in Milpo and 15 in Pillo-Pachamarca. On the 19th of November, once again in Ayacucho, they wiped out 50 peasants in Putis and Chullay. In Lucmahuaiqo, Vilcabamba, Cuzco Department, soldiers and vigilantes from Andahuaylas killed 22 peasants on the 23rd and 20 more on the 26th. Once again in Huancavelica, on the 6th of December, the police killed 38 peasants in Cuni, near Marcas in Acobamba Province. The same month 16 bodies were found in Ayahuarcuna, Ayacucho.

Some actions that took part in June and July in Ayacucho as part of this sinister wave of genocide in 1984 should be specifically mentioned. In Vinchos, they killed 40 commissars of various people's committees. In Remillapata, they shot a nine-year-old and an 11-year-old child together with their mother and their father who was the Commissar of Security. In Mayopampa they threw a commissar into a burning building. These vile murders — so merciless and ferocious that children are shot because they happen to be the children of members of the New Political Power — are a monstrous expression of the hate a fear with which this New Political Power fills them. In Balcon 70 marines came in and murdered 18 peasants, among them six children, whose bodies were carried off. 1/3 of the dead were children — this murder of children is a constant policy to terrorize and break the parents, as well as a disgusting and often-used way of punishing revolutionaries especially. Nevertheless, the marines came back again the next day, sarcastically and contemptuously offering people food, trying to buy them off. The people quite justly became enraged and drove them away. After an ambush in Pichari the «glorious» Civil Guard came in and stopped a truck carrying passengers, who were taken off and killed. Local forces of the People's Guerrilla Army buried these 20 people, but the murder was attributed to the People's Guerrilla Army. This is another common trick used by the reactionary forces who often disguise themselves in peasant clothes in order to commit atrocities, looting, rape, arson, razings, and the most frightful crimes, especially against children, and then blame the guerrillas so as to turn the masses against them. One example of this is the murder of 50 peasants by the marines in a place called Azangaro, 20 minutes from Luricocha, during this same period. Another example of their terror tactics took place in San Francisco, when peasants going down to the jungle to harvest were indiscriminately wiped out, without even being asked for their papers. In Huamanguilla they killed nine peasants, burning one of them alive. That is one of their usual ways of terrifying people by showing their mercilessness toward anyone considered a Communist or a guerrilla. A similar example happened in Chuschi on the 10th of January, 1983, where they tied dynamite to a peasant and blew him up while shouting: «This is how terrorists die!» This barbaric policy has been implemented since the beginning of the intervention by the armed forces and continues today. In this black wave of death razing became widespread. A small example is the operation in Incaraqay, where, after stealing everything, they burned down 500 houses. The extermination made whole towns disappear. On the 15th of July, the armed forces backed by vigilantes killed the entire population of Quinuas and completely wiped the town off the face of the Earth. But even this was not enough for them. The White terror continued fattening on the people's flesh. On the 22nd of August, 1984, in a reprisal for an ambush, a marine unit in Silvia arrested 50 youth at random and shot them; emulating the German fascists who set Europe aflame during the Second World War they murdered ten children of the people for every marine who fell in combat. On the 10th of November, marines aided by the Republican Guard finished off 40 peasants in Quimbiri, after having savagely tortured them in Luisiana — a telling example of their ongoing policy of covering their tracks and hiding their crimes by exterminating the victims.

#1.2.3.2. DISCOVERIES OF COMMON GRAVES

Another shocking proof of the genocide perpetrated by the armed forces has been the discovery of common graves, a macabre and disgusting sight. The inextinguishable death-cries of men, women, and children shook the national conscience. The broken lives of the people have fueled history's enraged clamour for class justice — a justice that only the advancing armed revolution can and will bring about — as well as the constant and unsilenceable exposure of the barbarism with which the Peruvian State defends itself, using its armed forces, under the leadership of whatever government happens to be on duty, whether it be Belaunde's Popular Action party or Alan Garcia's American People's Revolutionary Alliance [APRA], because what is at stake is their class dictatorship, their very order of exploitation and oppression. In Ayacucho Department on the 19th of August, 1984, a grave with ten bodies was found in Via de Los Libertadores, and on the 22nd, a grave with 30 corpses along the Huanta-Mayo Road, 30 kilometres from Huanta. On the 23rd seven common graves with a total of 89 bodies in an advanced state of decomposition were found in Pucayacu, a discovery which profoundly shook public opinion and unleashed the masses' condemnation and repudiation of the armed forces and the Belaunde government then in power. The political-military command of the region was in the hands of General Adrian Huaman and the officer directly responsible for the massacre was Naval Captain Alvaro Artaza. Garcia tried to rename Huaman the chief of Ayacucho, and Barrantes used to call him «the peasant general». The trial of Captain Alvaro took place within the navy itself, and the present APRA government gave him a promotion, closed his case, and sent him to Spain for his own protection. The same day a common grave with 30 bodies was found in Ayahuarcuna (Macacharca); on the 25th, others were found in Quinua and Muyuri; and on the 28th, a grave with 12 people whose throats had been cut was found in Cocahuischaca, Via de Los Libertadores. In September, peasants exposed the existence of common graves in Toldorumi, Zamatapampa, and Usutapampa in Victor Fajardo Province, and in Pichuyrumi and Qarpaqasa in Cangallo. The authorities and the daily newspapers paid little attention to these exposures by the peasants, just as they ignored many others in order to hide the real extent of the genocide. On the 13th of September three new common graves with 50 dead were discovered in Iribamba; on the 14th, a grave with five bodies was found in Luricocha and another in Qasa-Orqo with ten tortured corpses. On the 18th, a grave with five bodies in Yanaorqo. On the 18th of October, a grave with 25 bodies in Vado Chico (Huanta); on the 20th, one with eight dead in Capitanpampa, another with three in Ayahuarcuna, and a third with five corpses in Iribamba; on the 25th, four new graves with 41 bodies in Vado Chico; on the 28th, a grave with four dead in Laurente (Huanta). On the 13th of November, a grave with 15 bodies in Huamanguilla; on the 19th, three graves containing 45 murder victims were found in Las Vegas, at Kilometre 25 of the Ayacucho-Huanta Road; and, on the 22nd, three graves with ten bodies were found in Neque.

#1.2.3.3. CONTINUATION OF THE GENOCIDE

The genocide continued in 1985, though not with the same intensity. Right up until Belaunde left office, common graves continued to be discovered in Ayacucho: on the 11th of January, a grave was found in Paqueq (Huanta) with four bodies; on the 16th of January, four graves were uncovered, one in Huamanguilla with 11 bodies, a second in Qanqana (Huanta) with five, and in Huamanga Province, a third in Pava with three bodies and a fourth in Pacha with 16. Two graves with 30 bodies were found on the 10th of March near Huanta. The massacres continued in this region, as these statistics show:

• On the 23rd of February in Canaire, they killed 50 peasants.
• On the 26th of June in Miopata-Suco (Huanta), they annihilated 12.
• On the 9th of July in Manzanayoq (Cangallo), they cut the throats of eight peasants and cut their bodies into pieces, and did the same to another eight in Pacomarca, also in Cangallo Province.
• On the 12th of July, they killed 12 peasants and sacked and burned homes in Waracayoq; five were killed in Chacari.

This genocide also began to spread throughout Huanuco Department:

• On the 21st of February, a grave with five bodies was found in Alto Pacae.
• On the 22nd, they killed 12 peasants in La Soledad.
• Another grave with seven dead was found on the 28th in Aucayacu.
• In March, they killed 30 people in Arancay.
• On the 27th of June, a grave with 11 bodies was found in Yanajanja (Nuevo Progreso).

Thus, the Popular Action government, which had plunged the country into a bloodbath, ended its term in office completely soaked in it, covering former President Belaunde with the indelible shame of genocide, and leaving us a valuable lesson: the more the various governments which by turn head the Peruvian State talk about «democracy», «human rights», and «peace», the more hunger, poverty, repression, terror, murder, and even genocide they furiously unleash against the Peruvian people.

#1.2.3.4. THE COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY WAR UNDER THE APRA GOVERNMENT

How has the counter-revolutionary war gone since Garcia's APRA government took office, especially regarding the question to which we have been referring? In Political-Military Zone No. 5, whose main centre of operations is Ayacucho Department, once again, on the 2nd of August, they began an operation that razed villages in Huambalpa, Carhuanca, Pujas, Vilcashuaman, Vischongo, and Cangallo; on the 10th, they razed Huamanmarca and murdered seven peasants. The genocide at Aqomarca on the 14th of August shook all of Peru: in a place called Llocllapampa eight graves were found, containing a total of 69 corpses; in addition, two people were murdered in Piteq, one in Yuraqera, one in Mayopampa, two in Ahuaqpampa, and three in Qeuqeqata, all savagely killed by the army, which would surround the village, round up the peasants, separate the men from the women and children, and rape, pillage, shoot, finish them off, then cover some of the bodies with lye, burn the rest, and bury the unidentifiable bits and pieces of bodies in pits. Amidst all the fanfare and demagogic bluster about «revolution», «a national, democratic, and popular State», «democracy», «respect for human rights», «not answering barbarism with barbarism», «reconciliation», «fighting while upholding the law», and other cheap phrases thrown to the wind by the APRA government, the exposure of Aqomarca tore apart their lies and revealed their double-dealing, shattered illusions, and once again unmasked their opportunism. Then came a great hustle and bustle in parliament, a farce of gestures and so-called presidential measures, while the opposition rent their clothes and made easy deals, and the people repudiated and condemned all this and advanced further toward becoming clear about the highest ruling circles. Almost a year has gone by since then. Commands have been reshuffled; Lieutenants Hurtado, Paz, and Rondon have been held responsible; the various commissions have represented their reports; and so on and so forth. Today Hurtado has been given a promotion and sent abroad for further training, probably in the United States or some part of the world under US control; Paz also got a promotion, and Rivera will undoubtedly get one in 1987. What happened to the investigation, the indictments that the army was preparing? Buried under silence. The sentence of ten days' hard labour the military investigators proposed for Lieutenant Hurtado — has it been carried out? Just as in the case of Pucayacu, only the triumphant revolution will bring about justice.

But this «fighting while upholding the Constitution and the law» continued. Between the 28th of August and the 4th of September, 60 peasants were murdered in Huambalpa; in Pucayacu on the 28th of August, a new grave containing seven bodies came to light. The «democratic» application of the principle «fighting while upholding the Constitution and the law» went on. The villages of Aqomarca, Umaru, Incaraqay, Patin, Tankiwa, Cochapata, Mayopamba, and Manallasaq were razed between the 1st and 25th of September. A new genocide took place on the 2nd and 3rd of September: 66 dead in Umaru and Bellavista, 29 murdered in Bellavista on the 2nd; and, immediately afterward, on the 3rd, 37 peasants wiped out, among them 11 children under nine years old. On the 13th of September, they killed seven eyewitnesses to the Llocapampa massacre, including a nine-year-old child. On the 28th, four graves were found with over 80 bodies in Totora, near Sachabamba. In Huanuco Department, four graves with 14 bodies were found in Huancar (Ambo Province), and in San Martin Department a grave with the bodies of seven murdered people was uncovered in Situyi (Mariscal Caceres Province).

On the 4th of October, Peruvian society was once again shaken by another genocide, this time in the very capital of the republic, in Lurigancho Prison where 30 prisoners of war were murdered and 23 wounded, before the eyes of 7'000 prisoners. Following a pre-established plan meant to break the prisoners of war and deal a blow to the revolution, the Llapan Atic, the anti-subversive troops of the Republican Guard, armed to the teeth, were unleashed against the British Pavilion where those convicted of «terrorism» were being held. When instead of surrender they were met with heroic resistance, they used dynamite and explosive charges to open a breach in the walls, then threw dynamite into the cellblock, along with teargas and firebombs. After the assault, they finished off the wounded, burned alive and brutally beat the survivors, and finally burned down the cellblock to hide the evidence of their monstrous, criminal genocide. But, despite their cynical efforts to cover up their crime and silence all witnesses, the truth got out, further unmasking the APRA government and its undeniable guilt for this new, coldblooded barbarism.

On the 2nd of November in Uchuyunqa, La Mar Province, Ayacucho Department, they killed 19 peasants; at the end of the year, peasants in San Martin exposed massacres in Aucayacu, Campo Grande, Venenillo, Madre Mia, and Palo de Acero. As 1986 began, this situation continued, as the following facts are enough to show:

• On the 21st of January in Churrupampa, near Huanta, seven bodies were found.
• In Uchiza, Huanuco Department, 30 people were killed in February.
• In Pasco Department, in the hamlets Ocho de Diciembre and Independencia, five peasants were shot dead on their own doorsteps in relation for a guerrilla raid.

In short, Garcia's APRA government is continuing the same genocide the Belaunde government started.

#1.2.3.5. THE MISSING

The policy of making people «disappear» has been part of this genocide since the armed forces came in; it intensified greatly at the beginning of 1984 and has continued through today. Now, especially in the last few months, once again there have been more and more reports of people turning up «missing». The «missing» amount to thousands of people but the exposures and protests bounce up against the official silence which denies or ignores the suits brought against it and stonewalls everything. This perverse policy, long practised by the reaction, has become especially intensified lately. Its immediate precedent was the sinister policy of «disappearances» carried out by the 1970s Argentine military government that bathed its people in blood and even more ignominiously made tens of thousands «disappear». A similar policy is being carried out here, also feeding on the poorest masses, above all peasants, who are not reported missing because of lack of any documentation or because of the restrictions and persecutions their families face, but who undoubtedly make up the bulk of the thousands never found. They lie wrapped in the shadow of as yet undiscovered graves or in secret cemeteries in the many concentration camps, together with the remains of other exemplary children of the people, of the class, and of the revolution. These thousands of «missing» make up yet another historically implacable accusation that will dig the ground out from under the reactionary armed forces and, along with the devastating blows of the armed people, bring about their destruction, and so prepare the end of the rotten order of the Peruvian State they hold up.

#★ ★ ★

What have been the results of this genocide? The evil and shameful murder of 8'700 Peruvians, 8'700 children of the people, including 4'700 murdered from among the masses, the poorest and most exploited, especially from among the peasants, as well as from the poor and working neighbourhoods of the cities, and 4'000 disappeared, of the same classes, flesh of the same flesh. The policy of genocide carried out by the armed forces has cost the people, the proletariat, the peasantry, and the small bourgeoisie 8'700 of its children, who have fallen murdered, and not at all in the way claimed by phoney and inconsistent revolutionaries, or those opportunists who pretend to be revolutionaries while preaching the evolution of the existing social order, or those hacks who openly or secretly scribble in defence of the system, or those such as the reaction and its lackeys who claim that the genocide is a result of the People's War. No! The genocide is clearly and specifically a policy approved and ordered by the government of the Peruvian State, proposed and implemented by the armed forces with the help of the police, an evil and barbarous practice begun in 1983, cruelly and bloodily intensified in 1984 and systematically carried out through today, and now being worsened and once again intensified by Garcia and his reactionary APRA government whose responsibility must be resoundingly exposed. But what has been the purpose of this genocide? To contain the People's War launched in 1980, which, by the end of 1982, had begun to establish the New Political Power in the form of people's committees; to smash the guerirlla war, to separate the masses from the revolutionary war, to destroy the New Political Power and hold back its development, to hold back the development of the People's War; to achieve the reactionary political objectives of the armed forces — the army, navy, and air force — institutions which together and through a genocidal division of labour among them killed 1'767 children of the people in 1983 and «disappeared» 730 — until that year there were only 14 losses among the masses and no «missing» — a total of 2'497 people from among the masses murdered in 1983. In 1984? The spiraling political genocide against the masses reached 2'522 dead and 2'881 disappeared; a total of 5'403 children of the masses murdered, the highest peak of the genocide perpetuated so far by the armed forces.

Did they succeed in their objective of smashing the People's War, of putting an end to it? No, because the People's War, corresponding to its class character, has shown its superiority; it has proven itself capable of confronting persistent evil violent offensives and genocide of tremendous proportions, and, more tempered, of continuing to develop and grow. In these hard times of forging and heroism and turbulent trumpets of the New State beginning to be born, pregnant with the future, the masses are showing themselves ready and willing to change our society, and they are doing it; the Party, the Communist Party of Peru, leafing the People's War, is fully demonstrating that it is the vanguard of the proletariat and that it adheres strictly to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and its accurate and correct application to the specific concrete conditions of the democratic revolution in Peru, and, further, with firmness and resolve, the Party is holding the course of the People's War — a war that is and will continue to be marching unwaveringly toward the founding of the People's Republic of Peru, opening the door to socialism and to the final objective. The People's War has not been smashed, stopped, or held back; rather, as the regime's chieftains have been forced to admit even while continually trying to minimize it, and as their fears, frantic manoeuvres, and measures especially demonstrate, the People's War is rising, developing, and delivering resounding blows. Thus, the genocidal plans and the genocide itself have failed, as their policy of using masses against masses failed, and as their whole reactionary strategy is failing. What has come of using masses against masses, of their genocide, of their reactionary strategy? It has once again covered the armed forces of the Peruvian State with the blood of the people, to an extent never before known in the history of the republic; the genocide they have perpetrated will turn more and more against them and spur on the concentrated class hatred with which their criminal barbarity has filled the masses. Their new heights of infamy have been registered forever in the memories of countless masses who will mete out crushing punishment to those who are politically and militarily responsible, no matter how long it may take. This blood, which has been cynically and perversely spilt today, has become a thundering and powerful public accusation against the Peruvian State and its armed forces and police, its political leaders and chieftains of crimes against humanity, and it will more and more become the unfurled banner at the centre of the revolutionary storm, waving and shining as the victorious People's War carries out the complete and thorough justice denied it today.

What we have seen and experienced in the People's War in Peru has reaffirmed even more deeply for us the ineluctable law established by Chairman Mao Zedong:

All reactionaries try to stamp out revolution by mass murder, thinking that the greater their massacre, the weaker the revolution. But, contrary to this reactionary wishful thinking, the fact is that the more the reactionaries resort to massacre, the greater the strength of the revolution and the nearer the reactionaries approach their doom. This is an inexorable law.³

#1.3. THE SIXTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PEOPLE'S WAR

The application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the concrete conditions of Peruvian society leads to the conclusion that revolutionary violence, or violent revolution, the only way to conquer political power and transform the world, must take the form of people's war and more specifically a peasant war led by the Communist Party of Peru as the representative of the proletariat, a war which develops as a single whole waged principally in the countryside and supplementarily in the cities, following the road of encircling the cities from the countryside, whose essence is the establishment of base areas, so that the democratic revolution culminates in the establishment of a People's Republic, a great victory which must be followed by continuing the revolution through socialist and cultural revolutions, under the dictatorship of the proletariat, with the firm exercise of its class violence, until achieving, together with all humankind, glorious communism, the realm of true freedom. Posing the question this way, four fundamental questions arise and must be taken into account:

• Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as the ideology of the proletariat.
• The Party as the leader of the war.
• People's war in the specific form of a peasant war which follows the road of encircling the cities from the countryside.
• Revolutionary base areas or New Political Power.

Let us judge the sixth year now completed in the light of these relevant points.

#1.3.1. CONCERNING MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM

We take the stand of the international proletariat, the last class in history, with its own class interests distinct from and opposed to those of other classes, and with an aim that only the proletariat leading the peoples of the world can attain, communism, the only unsurpassable new society, without exploited or exploiters, without oppressed or oppressors, without classes, without a State, without political parties, without democracy, without weapons and wars, the society of «Great Harmony», the radical and definitive new society toward which 15'000'000'000 years of matter in motion — that part of eternal matter of which we know — has been inevitably and irresistibly heading, but only by pushing the class struggle forward until it reaches the epic heights of people's war, with guns in the hands of the armed class and masses of people, and counter-revolutionary war is destroyed forever, imperialism and reaction are overthrown and swept off the face of the Earth, and in the shadow of the guns of invincible people's war upon which the dictatorship of the proletariat rests, society is transformed in all spheres, destroying and eliminating all class distinctions and private ownership of the means of production that gives rise to them, ending war forever, and communism shines for all humankind. Since we take the stand of the international proletariat, our starting point is that its ideology today is Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, with Maoism the main thing as its third stage, the highest point the ideology of the proletariat has reached in its historical process of development. It is within this context that we take up the position and class interests of the Peruvian proletariat as part of the international working class, since only on the basis of the universal doctrine of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is it possible to stand with the proletariat and fight for its interests, here or anywhere else. There is only one proletarian ideology; it is applicable to the whole world and its development is a single world process.

On the other hand, ever since Marx founded Marxism and through the advanced made by Lenin and Chairman Mao Zedong, the fundamental question has always been the application of this science to the conditions of each revolution; consequently the problem is the application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the concrete conditions of the Peruvian revolution and, specifically, the application of the universal law of revolutionary violence, people's war, to the revolutionary war in this country. From this fusion of Marxism with our concrete reality there arises and develops the Guiding Thought, that is, the application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the concrete conditions of the Peruvian revolution.

In short, our starting point is the worldview of the international proletariat, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and Chairman Gonzalo's Guiding Thought. These are the basis of all our political, theoretical, and practical action; without this basis it is not possible to serve the class firmly and consistently.

#1.3.2. CONCERNING THE PARTY

First, let's look at the need for a party; then, later, when we take up its construction, we'll deal with its present role.

Since its very beginnings, Marxism has held that there must be a political party to lead the struggle to conquer political power; this was reiterated by Leninism and emphatically reaffirmed by Maoism. Without a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist revolutionary political party of a new type, there can be no revolution for the proletariat and the people. This is a great truth that no Communist can evade without ceasing to be one, a truth we Peruvian Communists had to confront. The Communist Party of Peru was founded on the 7th of October, 1928, on a solid Marxist-Leninist basis by Jose Carlos Mariategui, who provided it with basic theses concerning Peruvian society, the land question, imperialist domination, and the role of the Peruvian proletariat, as well as programmatic points and a general political line, and, consequently, particular lines. But the founder died in 1930, less than two years afterward; even the First Congress remained pending, so the Party did not have time to consolidate itself before trends that had already been developing took a leap, Mariategui and his line were openly put into question, and the line was changed by Ravines. Thus opportunism usurped the Party's leadership and imposed its authority in the two-line struggle within the Party, with the gravest consequences for our class and the revolution. This road led to the parliamentary cretinism manifested in the 1939 elections, in the service of the comprador bourgeoisie represented by Prado. Later, during the Second World War, there was a phoney «Constitutional Congress» which adopted the general political line of «national unity» under the guidance of Browderite revisionism, an expression of capitulation to US imperialism's domination and the domestic rule of the comprador bourgeoisie and the feudal landowners, under the pretext of the struggle against fascism. Subsequently this situation led to the Party's participation in the 1945 elections as part of the «National Democratic Front» with the APRA party, with the excuse of bringing about a democratic opening; this new electoral adventure ended when the balloon the Party had become blew up after Odria's 1948 State coup.

In the beginning of the 1960s the Red Faction founded by Chairman Gonzalo began to develop within the Ayacucho Regional Committee. By a faction, what is meant is what Lenin taught us: «A faction in a political party is a group of like-minded persons formed for the purpose primarily of influencing the party in a definite direction, for the purpose of securing acceptance for their principles in the party in the purest possible form. For this, real unanimity of opinion is necessary.»⁴ The Red Faction arose as the product of the development of the class struggle on the world level, especially the great struggle between Marxism and revisionism that spread Mao Zedong's Thought, as Chairman Mao's further development of Marxism-Leninism was known in the mid-1960s. This was the principal and decisive factor giving rise to the Red Faction. At the same time, a substantial basis for it was provided by the development of Peruvian society, the advance of bureaucrat capitalism, the sharpening class struggle of the masses, the intensification of political activity and growing propaganda about armed struggle, and by developments in the region itself where the Red Faction arose, a region where the decrepitude of semi-feudalism was becoming increasingly stark and where the peasantry was beginning to awaken in a particularly militant fashion reflecting a similar process going on throughout the country. Within the Party at that time, the struggle between Marxism and revisionism deepend. The Red Faction headed by the Ayacucho Regional Committee fought the revisionism of Del Prado and his followers and took part in the Fourth National Conference where Del Prado and company were expelled. From then on the Red Faction developed within the Party nationwide. The further development of Marxism-Leninism by Chairman Mao and the great lessons and experiences of the Communist Party of China played a vital and decisive role in this initial process. Since then both our initial commitment to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and our application of it to our conditions have developed further.

After the Fifth National Conference in November 1965, in the two-line struggle within the Party, the Red Faction came to fight for building the «Three Revolutionary Weapons»: the Party, the armed forces, and the united front, demanding that these tasks be fulfilled in the light of the political line of the Conference which had established the construction of revolutionary armed forces for the armed struggle as the principal task. But in a thousand and one ways the dead weight of revisionism hindered and opposed the fulfilment of the principal task; under these circumstances the Red Faction, reaffirming the necessity of an ideologically united and organizationally centralized Party, called for the «reconstitution of the Party» based on the thesis on «the heroic warrior».⁵ This process was carried out in three phases, each with its corresponding political strategy.

#1.3.2.1. DEFINING THE PROBLEM OF RECONSTITUTION

The phase of «defining the problem of reconstitution» was guided by the political strategy of «encircling the cities from the countryside». At that point the problem was to build up a political party to lead the armed struggle on this road, which meant that the peasant and land questions acquired tremendous importance and it was vital to put the Party's centre of gravity in the countryside. Further, the decisive question of ideological and political line centred on «basing ourselves on Mao Zedong's Thought», as it was said in those days, and on «retaking and further developing Mariategui», with further development being the outstanding aspect of this. It was not enough to retake him for two key reasons: the further development of Marxism-Leninism by Chairman Mao Zedong, and the further development of bureaucrat capitalism in Peru. This phase took place during the struggle against Hrusevite revisionism and its manifestations in various spheres of the Party's life, and ended with the January 1969 Sixth Conference which decided on «the reconstitution of the Party» «on the Party's basis of unity around Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought» (as was said in those days — now it is Maoism), «Mariategui's Thought, and the General Political Line».

#1.3.2.2. CARRYING OUT THE RECONSTITUTION

The following phase, «carrying out the reconstitution», was guided by the political strategy of «reconstituting the Party» in accordance with the Party's basis of unity. October 1968 saw Velasco's State coup, who took on the task of deepening the developing of bureaucrat capitalism, carrying out the corporatization of Peruvian society guided by a fascist political outlook, and suppressing the rising mass movements. This phase divides into two parts.

First, the struggle against Right-wing liquidationism, a form of revisionism which sought to destroy the Party by centring it on open mass work and pushing it into legalism; on the strictly political level this line put forward expropriating the land instead of confiscating it and above all denied the fascist character of the government. When these liquidators couldn't take over the Party they perversely attempted to destroy it, and the Red Faction took up the Party's defence. In February 1970 a split took place and the Red Faction took up the Party's leadership; from then on it led the process of reconstitution.

In the second part there was a struggle against «Left-wing» liquidationism, another variant of revisionism that tried to destroy the Party by shutting it up behind four walls, denying the importance of peasant work and the possibility of any mass work because, according to them, mass work and mass organizations were impossible under fascism. They reduced fascism to simply a question of violence, and worse, to an irresistible violence in the face of which nothing could be done but wait for better times. They put forward the «relative stability of capitalism» and consequently of the social system. They said that «the line is enough» and that there was no reason to develop Mariategui further, and called Maoism into question, bragging about being «pure Bolsheviks». This «Left-wing» liquidationism was smashed in 1975 at a plenary session of the Central Committee.

During this phase, our political understanding of Peruvian society deepened, especially our understanding of bureaucrat capitalism, based on Chairman Mao Zedong's thesis. This question is fundamental for understanding and leading the democratic revolution. In fact, this concept slammed the door on the opportunist tendency to tail one section of the big bourgeoisie while pretending to unite and struggle with the national bourgeoisie, and to support Velasco's fascist and corporate plans, «reforms», and measures, and it continues to be extremely useful today. The ideological-political construction of the Party also advanced, especially regarding the understanding of Mariategui's Thought and general political line — synthesized for the first time in five fundamental points taken from his works — as well as the necessity of developing it further. The relationship between secret and open work was delineated and the latter was developed according to the Leninist criterion of strong points of support for the Party's mass work; thus mass organizations were created by the Party to develop the links between the Party and the masses.

#1.3.2.3. COMPLETING THE RECONSTITUTION

The last phase, «completing the reconstitution», was guided by the political strategy of «completing and laying the basis», in other words, completing the reconstitution and laying the basis for launching the armed struggle. With the unfolding of the process the Party was approaching the conclusion of its reconstitution and so had to sum up what had been achieved, define and approve the General Political Line, continue Party building on a national level with its centre of gravity in the countryside, define the particular characteristics of the armed struggle, and lay the basis for launching it by developing the work among the peasants. The Left-wing fought tenaciously to attain these objectives, waging intense and sharp struggle against a Right-wing deviation. This Right-wing deviation developed into a Right-opportunist line that first opposed the completion of the reconstitution and then launched an onslaught against the General Political Line, labeling it «ultra-‹Left-wing›», and ended up rabidly opposing the initiation of the armed struggle. Nevertheless, with firmness and wisdom the Left-wing repeated defeated Right-wing opportunism, another form of revisionism opposed in the last instance to revolutionary violence, to armed struggle, to people's war, to the Party's fulfilment of its role of fighting to conquer political power for the proletariat and the people, and to the advance of the proletariat in its historic mission. In April 1977 the Left-wing defeated the Right-opportunist opposition to completing the reconstitution, with the approval of the Party's National Construction Plan under the slogan «Build for the purpose of launching the armed struggle!»; the Left-wing again resoundingly defeated the Right-wing in September 1978 with the approval of the «Summary of the Reconstitution», the approval of «Mariategui's general political line and its further development», and the drafting of the «Outline of the Armed Struggle». Finally, it thoroughly and completely defeated the Right-opportunist line at the May 1979 Enlarged Ninth Plenary Session of the Central Committee when, under the slogan «Define and decide!», the decision was made to «launch the armed struggle». A long chapter of the Party's history had closed and another one opened: the reconstitution had been completed and a new period would open, that of the armed struggle. It should be clearly and firmly emphasized that, during this period of the completion, when Chairman Mao died, the Party pledged to the international proletariat and the revolution that it would always hold high the banners of Marx, Lenin, and Mao, and declared: «To be a Marxist today means to adhere to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought» (today, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism). Thus, when the Hua-Deng coup took place, with the latter of course in charge at the end of the day, the Party condemned it as a counter-revolutionary coup against the dictatorship of the proletariat in China, against the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, for the restoration of capitalism, and against the world revolution.

#★ ★ ★

In sum, then, the Communist Party of Peru was reconstituted and became a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist political party of a new type, and so once again there existed the organized vanguard of the proletariat, capable of leading it to the conquest of political power. In this way «Define and decide!» can be considered the first milestone of the People's War unfolding today. Later the Party achieved the second milestone, that of the «preparation»: a phase of the approval of the Party Programme, the General Political Line of the Peruvian revolution, and the Party Rules whose norms guide us today, the resolution of strategic political questions regarding revolutionary violence, people's war, and the Party, the army, and the united front. The following decision was taken:

TEMPER THE FIRST COMPANY IN DEEDS!

Let violence flourish, concretized in launching and developing the armed struggle; let us open up a new chapter with lead and offer our blood to write it, a new chapter in the history of our Party and people, and let us temper the First Company in deeds!

Peru

3rd of December, 1979

And the Communist Party of Peru began to lead the People's War going on today.

#1.3.3. CONCERNING THE PEOPLE'S WAR

Taking international experience as its magnificent starting point, so valuable and rich in positive as well as negative lessons, principally taking people's war as the military theory of the proletariat, and taking the concrete conditions of the country into account, the Eighth Plenary Session of the Central Committee approved the «Outline of the Armed Struggle». In essence this plan held that people's war in Peru must develop as a single revolutionary war in the countryside and the cities, with the countryside the principal theatre of armed actions, following the road of encircling the cities from the countryside. Furthermore, for social and historical reasons and especially their impact on military affairs, it took into account the importance of the mountains, especially the stretch that runs from the central to the southern region, as well as that of the capital city. It also analysed Peru within the context of Latin America as a whole, particularly South America, and within the context of the international situation and the world revolution. With this outline in mind the Party prepared the armed struggle dealing with two questions:

• Questions of political strategy which define the content and objectives of the People's War in the long and short run, as well as its necessary directives and military plans and the construction of the «Three Weapons» — the Party, army, and united front — and their relation to the New Political Power.
• The initiation of the armed struggle, a key and decisive question.

The initiation of the armed struggle merited the very special attention of the Party's leadership; it was solved with the «Initiation Plan» guided by the slogan, «Launch the armed struggle!», the concretization of the overall policies which were to take military form (every plan has an overall political line which guides it). Its content included, first, the political tasks to be carried out, that is, to launch the armed struggle, to boycott the elections, to foment the peasants' struggle for land — arms in hand, and to lay the basis for newborn things, especially political power; second, forms of struggle: guerrilla combat, sabotage, armed propaganda and agitation, and selective liquidation; third, forms of military organization: armed detachments, with or without modern arms; fourth, time schedule, starting date, and duration of the plan, as well as specific simultaneous actions on specific dates; fifth, the slogans: «Armed struggle!», «A workers' and peasants' government!», and «Down with the new reactionary government!».

The first two phases of the People's War — the phases of defining and preparing its initiation — were completed. On the 17th of May, 1980 — not the 18th of May as the reaction claims to confuse it with the date of the elections and which others repeat — the People's War in Peru began, entering its third phase, that of actually launching it, lasting all of 1980, through two successfully completed campaigns which laid the basis to go over to the fourth phase, that of «developing guerrilla warfare», in 1981, a phase which continues today. The 17th of May was 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!»⁶ and «Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun!»⁷, 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.

The Peruvian State launched its counter-revolutionary war and its armed forces carried out their infamous genocide and cut down the lives of the people by the thousands; together with this they launched their propaganda, dreaming of smashing the revolutionary war with ink, paper, lies, and tricks. Opportunism played its part by snitching, sending in «leaders» to stir up the masses against the revolution, propagandizing and agitating against it and in defence of bourgeois democracy and the vote in pursuit of velvet seats in parliament. World reaction, the superpowers, especially the United States, as well as the social-imperialists, and the other imperialist powers, gave their immediate support and sent the government their advisors; among them an outstanding role was played by the Chinese arch-reactionary clique whose black heads Deng, Li Xiannian, and so on, were among the first to stand up as judges to condemn us. As was to be expected, the reaction opened up its hells and let loose its demons, plagues, and horseriders of the apocalypse against the People's War; soaked in blood, drunk with arrogance, they bragged of triumphs and victories, crushing defeats, setbacks and retreats, withdrawals and routs, the turning back and defeat of the revolution. But what really has happened? How have the armed struggle and afterward the genocide unfolded? What has really been the reality of the last two years and of the sixth year of the People's War?

The Minister of the Interior himself recently gave this data:

These figures testify to the yearly increase of our actions, as well as those of the armed forces and their police assistants; their policies, methods, and even their genocide have not held back the growth of the armed struggle, at least as far as quantity is concerned, according to the APRA minister himself. Nevertheless, the total of 6'758 is very far from correct, firstly because of the State's rather understandable desire to minimize the dimensions of the People's War, and secondly because they don't take into account all the various forms the revolutionary war takes, such as armed propaganda and agitation, for example, nor do they count actions carried out in distant and isolated areas. Consider that actions carried out even in Lima Department itself aren't reported for a week, and in general a cover of silence and lies is used to maintain the so-called public calm and the prestige of the repressive forces. During the six years of people's war 30'000 actions have been carried out in all but two of the country's 24 departments, leaving out only Amazonas and Madre de Dios, while including even the constitutional district of Callao. These actions developed principally in the Peruvian mountains and principally centred in the region of Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Apurimac. They also took place in the coastal region, in its cities, and especially in the country's capital, and in the jungle highlands and the important cities there; so the revolution is fighting throughout the whole country. Furthermore, these military actions have developed and increased in quality: blows waged against armed forces anti-guerrilla bases, ambushes, destruction of strategic hamlets, land invasions, devastating sabotage, higher-level selective liquidations, and intensified armed propaganda and agitation — all these show a very important and far-reaching qualitative advance. It should be made clear that more than half of the six years' actions were carried out between June 1984 and today, and 1/3 of the 1980-86 total have been carried out in the last year. This is the clear and concrete reality. What are the great results of the counter-revolutionary war, its genocide, and its offensives of 1983-84? Obviously they failed; they haven't been able to hold back the development of the People's War, let alone put an end to it.

#TABLE ONE

#Great Leap, Forms of Struggle, and Zones

Table One shows the four forms of struggle through which the People's War in Peru is developing. The principal form is guerrilla combat and the other three are complementary forms of guerrilla actions: sabotage, selective liquidation, and armed propaganda and agitation. It can be seen that 45,9% of the total actions carried out in the country are guerrilla engagements (fought by detachments in the cities and by platoons and companies in the countryside), while sabotage only comprises 11,2% and selective liquidations scarcely 8,2%, and armed propaganda and agitation reach 34,1%. These figures clearly show that guerrilla combat is the essence and heart of the People's War in the country; it is significant that the percentage of guerrilla combat reaches its highest level, 54,4%, in the region of Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Apurimac, predominantly peasant zones, and the aim is to develop it in all regions, even, in a specific form, in Lima. Clearly guerrilla combat is the very centre of the armed actions and the other forms only serve to aid it and push it forward, because it is the form that most directly aims to destroy the enemy's military organizations, especially the armed forces. It is also notable that armed propaganda and agitation make up more than 1/3 of the actions. This shows the importance people's war gives to politicizing and mobilizing the masses; obviously this work is directed principally toward the peasants and in the cities toward the proletariat, and although in the countryside it is principally carried out in verbal form, it is complemented by campaigns with posters and illustrated leaflets. This kind of work is most prominent in new areas, but it is given great importance in all areas, occupying second place overall. Sabotage, for its part, is in third place, with the aim of dealing economic blows to the reaction, especially imperialism and the State economy, big capital, and big landowners. In regard to the latter, tearing down the semi-feudal relations of production is extremely important to the peasantry. Finally, only 8,2% of the total is made up of selective liquidations of enemies of the people, carried out either against those who have been condemned directly by the masses in people's courts, or against incorrigible enemies of the revolution who owe blood debts, people who have carried out massacres, torturers, infiltrators, spies, and so on. These actions are carried out without any cruelty but rather as simple and expedient justice, and in the majority of cases have been approved by the masses. Nevertheless the media has portrayed them as something monstrous, clumsily distorted them, and exaggerated their number. Clearly we must underline here that the monstrosities imputed to the People's War are crimes cynically carried out by the armed forces themselves who then attribute them to the revolution. In conclusion, the chart makes the guerrilla character of all the armed revolutionary actions unmistakably clear and shows that guerrilla combat, the very substance of people's war, is their principal aspect and essence; thus it completely disproves the absurd accusation that tries to pin the label of «terrorism» on the revolutionary war going on in this country. In fact, as we have been saying since 1980, those who repeat this lie without any proof — and there is none — are only parroting Reagan and the Peruvian reaction. What is developing in Peru, while the whole world watches, is simply and completely a people's war, and nobody with an ounce of brains can deny it.

The region of Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Apurimac deserves particular attention. This is where the Red Faction first became active and in a word was its cradle; furthermore, it is where the first actions of the war took place, in Chuschi, and where the heroic people and above all the poor peasants have generously split their blood to light the flames of the People's War and keep them burning and ceaselessly rising. The masses of this region have suffered the most vile and insatiable genocide; it is where the reaction has concentrated its armed forces and carried out its most elaborate plans; it is where the reactionaries have bragged about their anticipated triumph and about how the area is «almost» pacified, only to have to eat their words later in the face of the new offensives of the revolution, which never stops them from once again crowing victory. What is the present situation in this region and how has the revolutionary war developed there in the last two years?

#TABLE TWO

#Distribution of Actions by Region (June 1984 to June 1986)

#TABLE THREE

#Forms of Struggle and Percentages by Regions (June 1984 to June 1986)

Tables Two and Three show that in the last two years 63,4% of the total actions in the country were carried out in Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Apurimac, and that furthermore 75,1% of the guerrilla engagements, 43,3% of the sabotage, 74,0% of the selective liquidations, and 52,0% of the armed propaganda and agitation were carried out in this region. So how can it be said that a slackening of the People's War has taken place there? There is no basis whatsoever except the subjective and ever-changing statements by the authorities and military chiefs who have never even given any sort of official report, nor the government, nor the Joint Command, nor the Political-Military Command, despite the fact that the region has been under a state of emergency continuously since March 1982 and sporadically before that during the police operations carried out since the beginning of 1981. Clear and concrete facts show that this region continues to be the main battlefield between the armed revolution and the armed counter-revolution; while the reactionaries dream of sweeping away the People's War it resists all assaults and continues to be like a thunderstorm whose centre is Ayacucho. Almost since the beginning of armed action, more persistently since the armed forces came in, and usually in parallel with the reaction's offensives and campaigns, coffee-house strategists, scribblers, opportunists, «Senderologists», and mistaken or vacillating revolutionaries have advised or pontificated upon the impossibility of keeping the People's War going in the region of Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Apurimac, saying that we should abandon the region and retreat to other areas, in order, as they sometimes said, to «preserve» the armed struggle and launch it again under new and better conditions. We should point out that in general these are the same people who have fought against the People's War either openly or covertly in the name of «widening the democratic space» or simply of «defending democracy». We are convinced of the great truth of what Chairman Mao said about how an area should not be abandoned until it has repeatedly proved impossible to defend; since the most ferocious genocide in the history of the republic has been met head-on and overcome in this region for several years now, what else needs to be said? Who would the recommended retreat have benefited? Simply and purely the counter-revolution; it would have been a great favour to the enemy to dismantle and dissolve the best and most proven bastion of the People's War. But irrefutable facts prove that whatever may be said against the People's War, it continues to develop defiantly and proudly in Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Apurimac, firmly linked to the masses, brimming with heroism, daily writing new pages in the armed revolution which is transforming Peruvian society, and which precisely in recent months has been unleashing devastating blows even within the city of Ayacucho itself, blowing up the phoney showcase of peace in the country's most militarized city, as was done, for example, with the car-bombs in the Republican Guard barracks and more recently in the Ninth Command Headquarters of the Civil Guard on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of the People's War, a blast which shook the city and threw all the repressive armed forces and police into confusion and virtual panic. In conclusion, you can't hide the Sun with your finger: Ayacucho, Huancavelica, and Apurimac continue to be the great bonfire of the People's War and the most defiant revolutionary challenge.

As can be seen in these three tables the armed revolution carried out only 8,4% of its total actions in Metropolitan Lima, while carrying out 17% of all sabotage and 15% of the armed propaganda and agitation there. This data disproves the so-called «retreat» or concentration of the revolution in Lima claimed by the reactionary press, military chiefs, and government authorities, who seek in this way to give some basis to their claims that the revolution is suffering hard blows in the Ayacucho region, on the one hand, and on the other to give some explanation for the resounding actions which have shaken the capital in the last two years. An analysis of Table One shows that during the two years studied 60% of the work in Lima was directed at armed propaganda and agitation, 23,7% at sabotage, and only 3,8% at selective liquidation. Thus we can see from the percentages of the forms of people's war in Lima and their proportions in relation to the rest of the country that the endless cliches about the revolution's retreat are baseless fabrications. The point is that because of conditions in the capital actions there have big repercussions — the large-scale economic concentrations make large-scale sabotage possible, such as the Bayer factory or the Hogar department store; the big central State institutions there can be sabotaged, such as the blows dealt to the Government Palace and the Joint Command; foreign big-shots visit there, so there are occasions for big blackouts such as the one that greeted the Pope; obviously the central authorities are located there, so there are opportunities for selective liquidation such as that of Rear Admiral Ponce Canessa. Furthermore, the repercussions immediately sharpen the contradictions among the reaction — the same of this same rear admiral is an example — while actions there are more difficult to hush up due to the concentration of media and the presence of international news agencies and all kinds of foreign representatives. Thus the capital cannot be neglected in people's war, all the more if we keep in mind some international experience on this point; what is required is better organized work increasingly capable of warding off blows and infiltration, with stepped-up ideological training so as to be able to face any risk and give priority to the development of work linked to the masses of workers and of the poor and working neighbourhoods. When all positive forces are brought into play, it is these conditions, and not any so-called retreat of the work from other areas, which make it possible to wage revolutionary war in the capital as well and to raise it to a higher level.

Now on to the ambit and expansion of the People's War. With the slogan, «Stoke the bonfire, spread the flames, unleash the class struggle of the masses, especially in its armed form, and let the repression spur us on!», the spread of the People's War was taken up with the aim of drawing a compass of action extending from Cajamarca Department on the border with Ecuador in the North-West down to Puno Department on the border with Bolivia in Peru's South-East, throughout the mountains which are the historic axis of Peruvian society and its most backward and poor area, in order to convert this ambit into a great theatre of revolutionary war and to advance this war. Achieving this scope was an important part of the Plan for the Great Leap and its concretization. As can be seen in Table Two, 28,2% of the armed actions were carried out in «Other Regions», that is, outside of the regions of Ayacucho-Huancavelica-Apurimac and Metropolitan Lima, as were 26,2% of the guerrilla engagements, 39,7% of the sabotage, 22,1% of the selective liquidations, and 33% of the armed propaganda and agitation. In this way the People's War is firmly advancing in the country's central region, which is vital to the whole economy because of its mining, agricultural products, and communication and transportation trunk lines, and because it is at the heart of the State's geopolitical plans. In the same way the revolutionary war is rapidly advancing in the country's North, centred in the mountains, as well as in the Huallaga River basin. Both are large and rich regions with important economic potential and a growing population, especially the North. The People's War is also spreading in the South, similarly centred in the mountainous countryside, an extremely poor area, especially in highly explosive Puno. This has come to worry the present government greatly because it is exactly in the area where it plans to build its «showcase of development» that the revolution is hitting it and undermining its plans. Our work there is not something new or only recently taken up; it is as old as the People's War itself, since from the phase of preparing the war this work was conceived of and organized according to a national plan which established regions classified according to their importance, giving each one its due attention according to specific conditions; of course these regions have developed unevenly. Thus the war was not conceived of in terms of one single region but in terms of simultaneously but uneven development in several regions, with one of them principal (which one that is could change according to necessity), all within the framework of a strategically centralized and tactically decentralized plan.

The undertaking of the work in each region and its impact can be judged by the following: In July 1984, in the Huallaga River basin, Huanuco Department and Mariscal Caceres Province in San Martin Department were declared under a state of emergency and placed under the control of Political-Military Command No. 7. This situation has more or less continued until today. In the central region in November of that same year a state of emergency was declared in Alcides Carrion Province, Pasco Department, under the command just mentioned, and this later spread to the important mining province of Pasco. In the North armed actions have rocked Cajamarca, Ancash, and especially La Libertad Departments; the countryside has been profoundly shaken by land invasions promoted by the People's Guerrilla Army. The police forces and army headquarted in Command No. 7 have replied by unleashing repression but it is being insisted that this region too be placed under a state of emergency and that the armed forces come in fully. In the South, above all in Puno which has been thrown into an uproar, police outposts have been assaulted, as happened for instance at San Anton, towns such as San Jose and Chupa have been seized, SAIS have been sabotaged and burned down, and 10'000 peasants have been mobilized in armed land invasions aimed at these SAIS which control immense extensions of land. This has led the police forces to declare «red zones» in San Roman, Azangaro, and Melgar Provinces; reactionary clamour has mounted in favour of the proclamation of a state of emergency and the intervention of the armed forces. Poverty, natural calamities, and armed action are combining to make Puno an extremely explosive volcano.

To the preceding we would add that successive guerrilla actions have penetrated deeply into Apurimac Department, to the very doorstep of its capital, Abancay. With this, the basic task of extending our scope throughout the central mountains has been practically completed. Today the People's War is spreading, extending through the highlands northward to Cajamarca and southward to Puno, from one border to the other, from Ecuador to Bolivia. This great goal was achieved through tenacity, striving, and blood; it has opened up new possibilities for the ongoing Peruvian revolution. But although this would be sufficient, there is more: fighting not only in the highlands but also in the jungle highlands, in two key places, in Apurimac at the strategic convergence of Cuzco, Apurimac, Ayacucho, and Junin Departments, and in the Huallaga River area, a rich region where imperialism and the State plan giant enterprises; furthermore, the struggle is unfolding on the coast, especially in its central and northern regions, and, as we've emphasized, in Metropolitan Lima itself, a city whose strategic importance lies in its being the capital and in its tremendous concentration of people, with the majority of the Peruvian proletariat as well as enormous masses of the poor in its poor and working neighbourhoods. In sum, the People's War has not only won this expansion throughout the mountain ambit; it is spreading in the highlands, the jungle, and the coast, vigorously pushing ahead, building up the new, and opening up the future.

To complete this picture let's look at some outstanding actions. In Ayacucho Department, blows dealt against the armed forces anti-guerrilla bases (there are 70 in the region, according to a recent statement by the Minister of War), in San Jose de Seque and Aqomarca, for example, hitting the foundations of the APRA government's pilot project for the region after the genocide of Aqomarca; attacks against 14 strategic hamlets — forced groupings of peasants carried out by the present government after the farce of the so-called «surrender of Shining Path members» at Llochegua — whose destruction means liberating the masses from reactionary military control; ambushes carried out against the army, marines, and police in San Pedro, Yanamonte, and elsewhere; engagement and even repeated engagements mocking the armed forces' encirclement, wiping out and wounding soldiers; sabotage of the setting up of the micro-regions which are to serve as the basis for corporatization; the blowing up of 27 high-tension towers of the new Corbiza-Ayacucho electrical network, sabotaged even before its official inauguration; carbomb attacks against the Republican Guard and even the Ninth Command Headquarters of the Civil Guard in the city of Ayacucho itself as we've already mentioned. In Huancavelica, the blowing up of six bridges and 35 electrical towers of the Mantaro power lines, the main power network in Peru; the razing of the Cinto and Vichincha agricultural enterprises, whose land was seized and livestock redistributed. In Apurimac, a new upsurge of armed actions in the department, including even Abancay, the capital city, where the Matara power plant was sabotaged, as was the plant in Chincheros, and attacks on police outposts.

In Peru's central region, the attacks spread and escalated; ambushes such as the one in Michivilica against the Republican Guard; sabotage of the Centromin power substation and its steam-shovels, paralysing the area's only open-pit mines; sabotage of the SAIS Tupac Amaru; blowing up of the railroad bridge which paralysed the Huancayo train for months and hindered the shipment of minerals from Huancavelica and Cobriza; sabotage and harassment in Huancayo with exposure of and battles fought against the Second Rimancuy. In the northern region, land invasions under the slogan, «Seize the land!», mobilized 160'000 peasants and led to the confiscation of 320'000 hectares of land, mainly pastureland, and 12'000 heads of cattle, mostly first class, which were redistributed to the peasants; sabotage of Norperu, the country's only oil pipeline; sabotage in the APRA's heartland, Trujillo, during the APRA's national anniversary celebrations presided over by Garcia personally, right in the main plaza of APRA's «capital». In the South, and especially in the convulsed Puno Department, the previously mentioned actions aimed at solving the land problem, the motive force in the class struggle in the countryside. In the Huallaga River region, the assault on the police outpost at Aucayacu; the attack against the vigilante bands at Agua Blanca; razing of the big tea plantation; ambush of the Republican Guard at La Muyuna; engagement with the Mobile Rural Patrol Unit of the Civil Guard at Alto Morona; and firefight with a 30-person army patrol at Patayrrondos.

In the city of Lima, sabotage of embassies, including the biggest blow against a foreign representative so far, the recent attack against the embassy of Soviet social-imperialism; sabotage of dozens of APRA's local offices; a car-bomb in the middle of the Plaza de Armas in front of the Government Palace during the visit of Argentine President Alfonsin and the subsequent burning of the Scala store on the same square, which provoked tremendous shooting and threw the palace guards into great confusion; the car-bombings of the police headquarters, the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, and the international airport; the usual total blackouts, such as on the 3rd of December and during last March and July; fires, such as the Maruy department store, also right on the Plaza de Armas, with the result that the entire capital of the republic was put under a state of emergency and a curfew established under the authority of the armed forces from last February to the present; selective liquidations, including hitting the Chairman of the National Board of Elections during the General Elections, and armed forces and police officers and most recently a navy rear admiral, as well as the Organizational Secretary of APRA, which sharpened the contradictions within the reactionary camp and gave rise to an enormous political uproar and thunderous threats; and, on the 7th of June, Army Day, the ceremonial pledge of allegiance to the flag presided over by Garcia was sabotaged by explosive charges, one of them only 20 metres away from the official reviewing stands, thus demonstrating that, despite the state of emergency and major military and mounted police presence for the preceding 24 hours, the revolution can hit wherever and whomever necessary.

The struggle of the prisoners of war and those who have come to their direct support merits special mention. Although these struggles have been waged for several years now, stubbornly and heroically going up against and overcoming torture, abuses, subhuman conditions, murder plots, reprisals, assassinations, and even genocide, turning the reactionary dungeons into shining trenches in the struggle, still the struggles taken up since the middle of last year should be given special emphasis. On the 13th of July, 1985, the prisoners of war in the trenches at El Fronton, Lurigancho, and Callao began a united struggle to win special prisoner status; in daring warrior-like actions they forced the Belaunde government to sign an agreement and recognize them as such, with the rights that such status implies. This struggle took the government by surprise and dealt it a defeat, turning the period of the transfer of the presidency to good political advantage. The government prepared to get revenge. The new APRA government took charge of carrying this out; it scarcely had taken office when it began to repudiate the agreement. A difficult and complicated struggle arose, with the government trying to manoeuvre and double deal; when this failed it cooked up and hatched the 4th of October genocide, deliberately unleashed a few days before the anniversary of the Party's founding, seeking to inflict a moral defeat on the prisoners of war in the trenches and on the revolution. But the Lurigancho prisoners of war not only stood up to the genocidal attack with heroic daring; at the cost of their own blood, they turned it around so it backfired on the government itself, and with class solidarity, especially that of the other imprisoned fighters, they celebrated the 7th of October with exultant revolutionary communist ardour and exemplary optimism. They continued their struggle, and once again correctly taking advantage of circumstances, on the 31st of October forced the reactionary APRA government to sign the agreement it had repudiated, only this time it was signed by higher-level authorities. But the struggle did not end and reaction never ceases plotting and manoeuvring against the children of the people. The government proposed the prisoners' transfer to Canto Grande to further its plan to wipe them out; in the face of this the prisoners launched a campaign called «Expose and Resist», declaring their firm resolve to oppose the transfer even at the cost of a new genocide, and powerfully exposing the government. This struggle culminated on the 15th of January, 1986, when a clash between family members of the prisoners of war and the Civil Guard led to the killing of one of the relatives and the wounding of 20 others, forcing the Minister of Justice to declare that «there will be no transfer to Canto Grande because the prison is not for ‹terrorists›». A chapter in the campaign against the new genocide closed but the problem persisted: in violation of their public promises, faithful to their own reactionary nature, they have begun to transfer new prisoners there, while the press clamours for more transfers and the navy represses visitors. The struggle continued and new chapters remained to be written, as we'll see when we examine the infamous June genocide. With their high moral and proven combativeness the prisoners of war have taught and continue to teach how revolutionaries can and must turn the prisons into shining trenches in the struggle.

The actions carried out between June 1984 and June 1986 demonstrate a development not only in quantity but especially in quality, across a wide scale; they provide irrefutable proof of the development of a real people's war through six years of unyielding battle in the countryside and cities of Peru, «and let the traitors say what they like».

#1.3.4. CONCERNING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW POLITICAL POWER

To complete the analysis of the People's War in Peru, we must take up the question of the New Political Power, the New State, the construction of base areas — the essence of encircling the cities from the countryside, the question of political power, the joint new-democratic dictatorship which must transform the old society so that, with the completion of the democratic revolution, socialism under the dictatorship of the proletariat advances and guarantees the march to communism. We'll take up this point within the context of the construction of the «Three Weapons», since the State is inextricably linked to the Party and the army.

#1.3.4.1. THE MILITARIZATION OF THE PARTY

We have already dealt with why the Party is necessary and how the Communist Party of Peru was reconstituted so that it could take up the task of leading the People's War; still to be concisely considered are some important further aspects of its development in the course of the last six years. The Party set itself the task of its militarization at the 1979 National Conference, when preparations for the war were being discussed. Concretely, insofar as what needs to be discussed here, we understand the militarization of the Party as the ensemble of the transformations, changes, and adjustments necessary to lead people's war as the principal form of struggle giving rise to the New State and the joint dictatorship that will transform society and replace the rule of imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and semi-feudalism with a New Democratic People's Republic, thus completing the democratic revolution, and further — within the framework of world imperialism and reaction which are decaying and will decay amidst wars, attacking and seeking to destroy all that is new and revolutionary, especially everything proletarian — to defend and develop the revolution in its socialist stage, preserving the dictatorship of the proletariat and preventing the restoration of capitalism, tightening the omnipresent links with the world revolution by serving as a base area for the joint war of the proletariat and peoples to sweep imperialism and reaction off the face of the Earth, and continue along the road of repeated cultural revolutions until communism. It is within these general outlines that we conceive of the development of a specific people's war fighting an equally specific counter-revolutionary war, taking place within the framework of an era of many varied wars in which imperialism is decaying, in short, a great clash between people's war and counter-revolutionary war on a world level, the highest form of struggle and the one that will decide the issue. Looking at things in the broadest terms, as long as there are classes the advance to communism itself through cultural revolutions will take place in the shadow of people's war as the military line of the proletariat, with its ongoing development. Consequently our Party and all Communist Parties face this necessity and these prospects no matter what specific forms they may take.

To be specific about the militarization of the Party, our Party as a whole has plunged into the People's War, throwing all its members into it; in short, «our centre is combat», as our Central Committee decided. Another important question is that of concentric construction, meaning, in brief, to take the Party as the axis around which to build up the army, and around these weapons, together with the unleashing of the masses in people's war, to build up the New State. An outstanding question is «the training of Party members first and foremost as Communists, and as fighters and administrators», so as to carry out the three great tasks demanded by the revolution. Mass work must be developed through and for the people's war. Leadership is the key link and there must be a leading core. The two-line struggle must be firmly and consistently developed, so as to strengthen the Party and other organizations for the people's war. A vital and decisive question is the further development of the political line: we have achieved a considerably deeper understanding of Peruvian society, of the political conjuncture, and principally of the Military Line, people's war, and how to lead it, especially regarding the specifics of war in Peru and how it unfolds simultaneously in the countryside and the cities without forgetting that the countryside is principal. Finally, as was inevitable, the number of Party members has increased considerably, with peasants becoming a very high percentage and a considerable number of youth and women entering the Party, which entails some obvious problems but more importantly a great future as well, as long as proletarian ideology is strengthened. As the crowning aspect of our advances, the People's War has allowed the Party to more firmly and clearly grasp Maoism as the third and higher stage of Marxism and take up the task of «upholding, defending, and applying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism» and struggling to impose it as the commander of the world revolution, with the consciousness that this will serve communism, the proletariat, and the oppressed peoples; furthermore, more firmly grasping the class outlook and fusing it with the People's War has led to the further development of the Guiding Thought. Finally, the People's War itself has made it possible to further train the Party membership in proletarian internationalism.

#1.3.4.2. THE PEOPLE'S GUERRILLA ARMY

Regarding our armed forces, the People's War, the masses of the people, and the Party have given rise to the People's Guerrilla Army, an army of a new type, to carry out the political tasks of the revolution established by the Party and to take up the tasks consecrated by the international experience of the proletariat: to fight, to produce, and to mobilize the masses, which means mobilizing them, politicizing them, organizing them, and arming them. It is a peasant army under the absolute leadership of the Party according to the principle that «the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party».⁸ Its foundation is work to build it up ideologically, with Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and its application, that is, the Guiding Thought, the Party's General Political Line, and its policies; building up the army politically is complemented by organizing the Party within the army, with Party leadership of all political work within the army as well as of the army's mass work. Militarily the army is built up on the basis of the theory of people's war and the Party's Military Line and military plans; it is organized in detachments in the cities and in platoons, companies, and battalions in the countryside, always under the double command system, one political commander and the other military commander, guided today by the slogan: «Develop the companies, strengthen the platoons, and aim toward battalions!» This construction of the People's Guerrilla Army is also based on Lenin's great thesis regarding the people's militia and its three functions as police, army, and administration. Military training takes place with the aim of developing the fighting spirit so that actions are thoroughly and successfully carried out. The armed forces started out as armed detachments without arms, because, as Lenin taught, the lack of arms cannot be used as a pretext for not organizing an armed apparatus; later they armed themselves with whatever they could, including with dynamite, which is still very important, since rudimentary and traditional weapons play a fundamental role. Though we strive to get modern weapons by snatching them from the reactionary forces, we follow Chairman Mao Zedong's great teaching, which history has proven: «Since history began, revolutionary wars have always been won by those whose weapons were deficient, lost by those with the advantage in weapons. [...] If one cannot fight unless one has the most modern weapons, that is the same as disarming oneself.»¹ The People's Guerrilla Army, with its thousands of fighters, has proven itself; it has been tempered in the forge of the People's War and is the pillar of the New Political Power.

#1.3.4.3. THE NEW STATE

The New Political Power, the New State in the form of people's committees, the developing base areas, and the New Democratic People's Republic in a process of formation — this is the highest achievement of six years of people's war. Taking Chairman Mao Zedong's thesis on the State into account, we consider this question very linked to the united front, especially taking into account the specific conditions in which we are developing and the tradition of opportunist electoral «fronts» in our country. The Central Committee has instructed that the Revolutionary Front in Defence of the People be built up only in the countryside, in the concrete form of the New Political Power, based on people's committees; while in the cities the Revolutionary Movement in Defence of the People is being built up. The people's committees arose toward the end of 1982, first in Ayacucho, after the police forces were dealt humiliating blows and withdrew from large parts of the countryside. These are united front committees that give concrete expression to the joint dictatorship of the workers, peasants, and small bourgeois, the three classes taking part in the armed revolution today: the proletariat, the peasantry, and the small bourgeoisie. These people's committees, taken as a State system, are the concrete form of the new-democratic dictatorship whose government system, in turn, is based on the people's assemblies. Although the national bourgeoisie is not taking part in the revolution now, its interests are respected. The committee is elected by an assembly of deputies according to the «three-in-one» combination: 1/3 Communists as representatives of the proletariat, 1/3 poor peasants as representatives of the peasantry, and 1/3 middle peasants and progressive elements as representatives of the small bourgeoisie. Like all the forms of the New Political Power, the committees are based on the worker-peasant alliance under the leadership of the proletariat represented by the Communist Party and supported by the People's Guerrilla Army. The committee is made up of five commissars, called this to emphasize that they have been commissioned to perform a specific task and can be recalled at any time. Within the framework of the programme of the democratic revolution — the destruction of imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and semi-feudalism — they organize the social life of the masses in all spheres: the organization of production, especially agriculture, and commerce, which are guided toward collective labour; justice, education, and recreation, as well as seeing to the progress of the people's organizations and guaranteeing collective and individual security. The basis of this work is the introduction of new social relations of production. The development of the hundreds of people's committees and of the base areas for which they are the foundation follows the fluidity of guerrilla warfare, since they are principally a product of guerrilla warfare following the road of encircling the cities from the countryside and of the People's War as a whole, and they have suffered the assaults of the counter-revolutionary war. Thus an acute struggle is being waged around the New Political Power, between the armed revolution and the armed counter-revolution. For instance, the struggle between restoration and counter-restoration waged especially during the years 1983 and '84 is very significant. On this subject, it is worth pointing out that during the last two years the People's Guerrilla Army carried out 180 counter-restorations and in connection with this sharp contention seized 591 towns. In short, the vortex of the war between the People's Guerrilla Army and the reactionary armed forces and police is the question of the New Political Power, the creation, defence, and development of the people's committees, the base areas, and the continuing advance in the formation of the New Democratic People's Republic, the New State, which shines and will continue to shine against wind and rain, like a blazing, defiant torch calling on the people to surge forward with the flaming waves of the People's War, devouring the past and vigorously opening up the future for the proletariat and the people forever.

And what has been the cost in lives? The reactionary policy of setting masses against masses, of genocide, and of disappearances has already cost the lives of 11'300 of our people. Adding to that the 1'668 dead of the armed forces and police, plus police agents, informers, local tyrants, evil gentry, and the 1'738 fallen of the People's Guerrilla Army, this adds up to approximately 15'000 dead as of May 1986. This is the truth, not the doctored statistics the reaction publishes to cover up its sinister genocidal policies.

This is the People's War in Peru. Its analysis and comprehension demand that four questions be taken up — Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the Party, the People's War, and the New Political Power — whose consideration has brought us to a clear and concrete conclusion: 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!

#2. ONE YEAR OF THE APRA GOVERNMENT

The Garcia government ended its first year in July; therefore it is fitting that we examine some questions concerning its rise and performance.

#2.1. THE 1985 GENERAL ELECTIONS

Let us remember what Marx taught us: Elections amount to «deciding once in three or six years which member of the ruling class [is] to (mis)represent the people in parliament [...].»⁹ And let us emphasize, in our case, that it is principally a question of who is to preside over the government toward that end. It was within this framework that the 14th of April, 1985, General Elections were organized to elect a president, vice-president, senators, and deputies. As usual, these elections were called the purest, cleanest, and most democratic in Peruvian history, and it was said that they «strengthened democracy in the country and throughout Latin America» and represented a defeat for so-called «terrorism». Garcia claimed that he was «elected by the votes of the absolute majority of Peruvians». What is the reality despite all the propagandist distortions? Let us took at some facts.

#TABLE FOUR

#Coverage by Department of the National Elections Registry

Comparison of people who should have been registered, according to the 1981 National Census, and the number of people issued voter registration cards as reported by the National Board of Elections, not adjusted for deaths.

Total not registered by the National Board of Elections: 1'701'743 (17%)

Total registered by the National Board of Elections: 8'290'846 (83%)

Total of persons who should have been registered according to the Census: 9'992'589 (100%)

The above table is taken from the 8th of April, 1985, issue of Caretas magazine. The first thing that stands out is that 17% of those citizens eligible to register have not done so; further, in five departments the percentage of unregistered persons is around 1/3, while in another five departments this percentage is nearly 1/4; in 13 departments, that is, more than half the total number of departments, including the most important of the Andean region, the percentage of those who have not registered runs from 19,6% to 35,6%. It is rather noteworthy that in Huancavelica 24,2% of the citizens did not register, a percentage that reached 33,9% and 34,8% respectively in Ayacucho and Apurimac Departments, the area most convulsed by guerrilla warfare, where the State made special efforts to make the elections successful. This 17% of those eligible who did not register must be taken into account, especially since these 1'701'743 people amount to 22,5% of those who did vote. Neither the official data issued by the National Board of Elections nor the pompous so-called political analysts have anything to say about these unregistered people; all of them, including the parties of the much-touted «Left-wing», have kept a complicit silence meant to cover up the facts and channel the people along the worn-out path of «electoral democracy» preached by General Morales Bermudez at the end of the military government.

To protect its elections the Peruvian State mobilized 85'000 troops from the three branches of the armed forces and 70'000 police, according to the Chairman of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces and the Minister of the Interior. That same Joint Command usurped the functions of the National Board of Elections by changing the voting places, concentrating them in provincial and district capitals «for security reasons» with a view to possible guerrilla actions. Such actions did take place in hundreds of towns in Cangallo, Victor Fajardo, and La Mar Provinces in Ayacucho Department, as well as in Manta, Acobambilla, Conaica, and Lircay in Huancavelica Department and part of Apurimac Department; in Ticlacayan and Yanahuanca in Pasco Department; and in Huamalies, Ambo, Dos de Mayo, and Maranon Provinces in Huanuco Department. The Joint Command also ordered special security measures «to assure the free exercise of the right to vote» and «protect electoral officials and the voters at large». In this way the reactionary armed forces once more stepped in to fulfil their traditional role as the great voter, «guardians of the republic and of democracy» in this country where the citizens and the people are considered underage incompetents who need military guardianship. Once again we see an exemplary exercise of «the people's sovereignty»!

Let us examine some noteworthy facts about the electoral process. The elections were to have taken place on the 14th of April from 08:00 until 15:00. It was said that the polls would be ready at 08:00 without fail, but in many places, including in the capital as well as the provinces, the polls did not open until noon, as the Chairman of the National Board of Elections himself admitted. In Concepcion, Cangallo Province, Ayacucho Department, 3'700 out of 5'000 eligible voters did not cast their ballots; soldiers assassinated four peasants in Vilcas and jailed quite a few peasants in Cangallo. In Chungui, La Mar Province, in the same department, a town turned into a strategic hamlet by the armed forces, with eight polling places, all the votes were for the APRA party, there was not a single vote for any other party nor one blank or spoiled ballot; 100% of the ballots were for Garcia. In Huamanga Province the Departmental Board of Elections received complaints about armed forces fraud on behalf of the APRA party committed in the small towns of the San Cristobal de Socos, Huamanga, and Acocro Districts as well as in other provinces of Ayacucho Department. There was considerable voter abstention in the towns of Andahualas, Apurimac Department. In Huancavelica, 70% did not vote in the Santa Ana and Huachocolpa Districts; in Pilpichaca voter registration cards were just stamped, while in Santa Ines the army pressed the peasants to vote for APRA. These repeated coincidences raise a question: which side were the armed forces on? In Alcides Carrion Province in Pasco Department the voting was centralized in Yanahuanca, but the elections were held on the 15th, and the same thing occurred in the towns of Caujul, Navan, and Cochamarca in Cajatambo Province, Lima Department. Obviously the question arises: are votes valid if they are not cast on election day? And in how many towns did this situation occur? It is very revealing that in Tingo Maria, headquarters of Political-Military Command No. 7, there was «remarkable absenteeism» according to the pro-APRA daily newspaper La Republica. Finally, in Lima itself, with 40% of the national total of voters, the voting had to be extended until 17:00, while from noon on the television channels let loose a well-orchestrated publicity campaign in favour of APRA, broadcasting poll results and projections in favour of that party; there was a whole plan aimed at influencing voters, conducted especially through Channel 5, whose owners include one of Garcia's well-known advisers. But this was not all that happened in the capital, which saw the most chaotic recount of votes amidst a torrent of denunciations and scandals. Just to cite two eloquent facts: first, 500'000 votes were missing, the difference, according to the spokesperson for the United Left, between the number of voters and the number of votes counted; these 500'000 votes represent 18,9% of the total cast in the capital city. Second, 1'000 record sheets, amounting to 200'000 votes, were withdrawn in order to fix votes in favour of certain senators and deputies. Both these exposures were left forgotten in the final rush to end the counting of the votes in Lima, the last to be forwarded to the National Board of Elections despite the Board's repeated demands. Furthermore, the great scandal made about the rigged votes for senators and deputies, which puts many «parents of the country» and consequently the validity of parliament itself into doubt, served to hide the main question, that of the fraud carried out around the presidential votes to ensure APRA's election. Here are some pearls of wisdom spoken about the supposed democratic purity and cleanliness of the elections: «The most eloquent proof of democratic vocation [...] a truly genuine democratic race, the mark of an unblemished and flawless civic culture», according to then-President Belaunde.

From the reports published on the elections we can extract, for instance, the following:

#TABLE FIVE

#Results of the General Elections

In this table attention must be paid to those who were not registered, who registered but did not vote, or who cast invalid or blank ballots. Their importance can be seen in the next chart:

#TABLE SIX

#Percentage Comparison Between Those Eligible to Register, Those Who Registered, and Voters

(A): In relation to 9'992'509 eligible to register

(B): In relation to 8'290'846 registered with the National Board of Elections

(C): In relation to 7'557'182 who voted

In these tables the bottom line is that the total of the unregistered, the non-voters, and those who cast blank or spoiled ballots adds up to 3'479'204. This great mass is made up of the unregistered, that is, those who are outside the prevailing political system or are openly against it; the non-voters, who are opposed to the elections or are not interested in them; and those who cast blank or spoiled ballots to formally comply with their legal duty while expecting nothing from the elections or not in agreement with any of the political parties taking part in them. In general terms, this enormous mass of citizens is expressing rejection, alienation, or indifference regarding the prevailing system, its elections which only choose oppressors, and its political parties which serve as instruments to maintain, protect, and develop the established order. This is, in short, a rejection, an objective and obvious challenging of Peruvian society and its institutions, of this historically decrepit social system that must be swept away with arms in hand as is now being done because there is no other way to replace it with a new social system that will really serve the people. This enormous mass of 3'479'204 people adds up to 34,86% of those eligible to express themselves politically, 41,97% of registered voters, and 46,01% of those who voted in the General Elections, and this even in terms of the laws imposed by the reactionary Peruvian State; it adds up to a conclusive and irrefutable truth which the exploiting classes, their political parties, and their electioneers and hacks are trying in vain to conceal. The undeniable reality of this mass is a fundamental question in the class struggle in this country. Their potential transforming power, their revolutionary potential, must be taken seriously into account, especially since a people's war has been successfully developing and growing for more than six years, and the context for this question is the developing revolutionary situation which will inevitably continue drawing more and more of the masses into real and definitive transformations carried out by means of «the criticism of weapons».

Furthermore, these same tables show that the APRA party obtained 3'457'030 votes, that is, 34,59% of those eligible to vote out of Peru's total population, or 41,70% of those registered, or 45,73% of the voters. One can easily see the falsity of Garcia's assertion that he was «elected by the absolute majority of Peruvians» as he claimed in his message to Congress on the 28th of July, because 45,74% is not even the absolute majority of voters, still less is 41,70% the absolute majority of those registered, and in no way is 34,59% the absolute majority of Peruvians eligible to vote. Garcia's «absolute majority of Peruvians» is just another demagogic phrase in his so-called «new style of government» — a style of falsehoods, cynicism, and demagoguery. Moreover, it must be kept in mind that such «landslide victories» are becoming a common trend in bourgeois elections in many countries. For instance, in the United States Reagan was also said to have won a «landslide victory», which did not protect him against the tremendous erosion and loss of his reputation. We saw something similar here, in 1980, when Belaunde's «landslide victory» was followed a year later by his plumetting prestige despite polls attempting to prove otherwise. The roots of these «landslide victories» lie in the way in which the reactionaries manipulate elections, and deeper still, since elections are the reaction's way of replacing its members who are to «(mis)represent the people» in the way these elections serve and are channelled to benefit those best suited to perform these functions. What's more, Garcia and his party apparatus obviously failed in their aim of winning an absolute majority in the first round, but nevertheless, in shameless disregard for reality and for the respect the people deserve, Garcia insultingly and insanely declares himself «faithful to my electoral promises, endorsed by more than 80% of the electorate». Incredible but true! This is a remarkable example of «the new ethical style of government» and the basis of his «great moral authority based on the votes of the absolute majority of Peruvians».

As for the so-called United Left, it obtained 1'606'914 votes, that is, 16,08% of the total number of Peruvians eligible to vote, 19,38% of those registered to vote, and 21,26% of votes actually cast. What role is it playing in the country's class struggle with these votes? First, it is a continuation of the old electoral line, today even more reckless and tied to Soviet as well as Chinese revisionism, to callous bourgeois parliamentarism, to nationalist or inconsistent revolutionary positions that tried to trap the people into parliamentary cretinism, unable to understand the necessity of revolutionary violence, and still less the ways this violence has been taking shape through six ardent years, and sinking ever deeper into protecting the old order, its rotten parliament and fraudulent elections, its constitution and laws, and is living trembling with reverential fear before the armed forces and the threat of a State coup, and on its knees before APRA and especially before Garcia, whom it considers its protective democratic wall. A concentrated expression of this crawling and capitulationist attitude is Barrantes, the APRA-ist who heads the United Left. Further, if we analyse its 16,08%, the reactionary role it plays in the service of reaction stands out clearly. This percentage shows that it opposes an alignment of the majority of Peruvians against the present system of exploitation and oppression; without its harmful promotion of electoral illusions, a clearer and more vigorous polarization would have developed. How much harm does this opportunist United Left do to the cause of our people's emancipation and to the People's War? Barrantes' own words so often repeated are very revealing. When he handed Garcia victory on a silver platter, this «APRA member who has never been expelled» said: «The battle has not ended; we shall continue with greater strength against imperialism, terrorism, and the enemies of the people.» Here the key word is «terrorism», a word whose current usage was popularized by Reagan to fight against revolution, a term promoted by all who thrive and prosper with the system. This position is not new, since Barrantes called for «defeating terrorism» during the 1983 Municipal Elections, and thus it represents a persistent defence of the system and hatred of everything that works to undermine it. This is the same Barrantes, that phoney Mariateguist and real APRA-ist, who invented the sinister lie that what is going on in Peru is not people's war but only «terrorism» because «a Lin Biao-ist line has seized the Party's leadership»; for this fellow the recent elections were «a rejection of terrorism» and once again during his trip to Venezuela in May he said: «The Shining Path will fail [...] the results of the 14th of April elections and the mass turnout were the best rejection of terrorism», clearly coinciding with Belaunde, who also said: «The big loser is terrorism.» We should think seriously about the role played by electoral opportunism and its divisive efforts, and, as Lenin said, combat it implacably, because without fighting against parliamentary cretinism one cannot conquer political power for our class and the people, just as imperialism cannot be swept away without fighting revisionism. Furthermore, that 16,08% for the United Left made it easier for APRA to take the presidency, and shamelessly fit the reactionary plan. What was the excuse they invoked? That «the people voted for change by electing the Left-wing», as the APRA-ist who heads the United Left claimed when he went to congratulate his party comrade on election night: «I have come to congratulate him and in this way show that, despite our ideological and political differences, we can recognize the people's endorsement and thus demonstrate to our people that, with their votes, they have ousted the political Right wing and have chosen the political expressions of the Left wing.» (Our emphasis.) When Barrantes conceded his defeat, he further said: «The people voted in their majority for the APRA party, and this is why I went to congratulate Dr. Alan Garcia and to tell him that the United Left does not want to stand in the way of his taking office.» (Our emphasis.) What purpose, then, has the United Left served? Simply and plainly to facilitate the triumph of APRA. Today, when hunger and genocide fatten themselves even more on our people, let us not forget how the United Left, particularly its leaders and mainly Barrantes, swindled the masses by serving as a Trojan horse. The people must draw that great lesson and never forget.

As for Popular Action and the Christian People's Party allied with the Rank-and-File Hayaist Movement under the CODE label, they obtained 4,73% and 7,74% respectively of the ballots of those Peruvians eligible to vote; thus this sinister effort of the Popular Action-Christian People's Party governmental alliance was doomed.

Another point that deserves to be analysed regarding the elections is the so-called «rejection of terrorism». Let us look at the results in Ayacucho, Apurimac, and Huancavelica, the region where the People's War has been developing most intensely.

#TABLE SEVEN

Election Results in the Departments Under Political-Military Command No. 5

This table is based on population statistics and on data regarding those registered with the National Board of Elections, as well as the vote tabulations from each department established by the Board, as published in the daily newspapers El Comercio [Commercial] and Expreso [Express], both beyond suspicion of any revolutionary ideas but on the contrary great defenders of the establishment. The first thing that stands out is the high percentage of the unregistered: 33,9% in Ayacucho, 34,8% in Apurimac, and 24,2% in Huancavelica; and all this despite the big campaign and pressure the armed forces exerted in their efforts to demonstrate a rejection of the People's War, which they call terrorism. Secondly, let us emphasize the percentage of those who did not vote. In Ayacucho Department 20,9% of the people did not participate in the elections; nevertheless, the official results of the National Board of Elections (according to percentage statistics published, not absolute numbers) assert that abstentionism in that department was 1,04%, a big lie to «prove» that the majority voted. In Apurimac 20,4% and in Huancavelica 29,5% did not vote, but, according to the National Board of Elections, these percentages were 17,90% and 21,69% respectively; these same figures verify the clumsy adulteration of the data regarding Ayacucho. Thirdly, the percentage of spoiled and blank ballots is very important. In Ayacucho it reached 37,6%, while in Apurimac it reached 36,6% and in Huancavelica 39,8%. The data shows that in each case the spoiled and blank ballots equalled and surpassed the percentage obtained by the APRA party, since APRA got only 33,3% in Ayacucho, 33,4% in Apurimac, and 29,4% in Huancavelica. Such being the case, who in their right mind can claim that so-called terrorism was defeated in the voting? Besides the fact that it is absurd to speak of armed actions by means of paper ballots, it has been clearly and conclusively shown that in the region of Ayacucho, Apurimac, and Huancavelica over 1/3 of those eligible did not register (1/4 in the case of Huancavelica); 1/5 did not turn out to vote (almost 30% in Huancavelica); while in these three departments the number of spoiled and blank ballots largely exceeded those obtained by the APRA party, and this with the help of the armed forces and the frauds they committed. So who was defeated? APRA, the armed forces, the electioneers, and the organizers of this electoral farce, for, in short, APRA could not get more than 1/3 of the votes, and so was far from the 45,7% attributed to it on a national level by the National Board of Elections, and obviously very far from the 50%+1 required to win. However, in a grotesque mockery the official results give APRA 50,19% of the votes in Apurimac, 61,84% in Ayacucho, and 41,20% in Huancavelica! How did the National Board of Elections rig these figures so as to «defeat terrorism» in the most convulsed region of the country? They simple waited until June to release the percentage results by department while rejecting or ignoring a tremendous number of challenges, and that was it! The rest is based on the «unappealable authority» of the National Board of Elections!

And in the rest of the country the situation was the same: a big hue and cry about how the elections were «impeccable and irreproachable», how «the big loser as terrorism», as then-President Belaunde claimed. «We have seen, therefore, the most overwhelming and massive defeat of Communist terrorism imaginable», according to the political hack Ulloa, the former executive of International Petroleum who was Belaunde's Prime Minister, «there were two big losers in Sunday's General Elections: the Shining Path [...]». It is very telling that these renowned pro-imperialist reactionaries cooked up this so-called «defeat of terrorism», but it is also rather revealing, in turn, that Barrantes should chime the same tune, boasting, during one of his countless trips abroad, in Mexico: «For me and for the United Left it is very significant that we won in Ayacucho. We have drawn a clear dividing line between ourselves and terrorism in our speeches. And the fact that the people supported us in Ayacucho, one of the main operational areas of the Shining Path group, means that the people there reject terrorism.» Once again this APRA-ist United Left mayor celebrates his defeats, for the plain truth is that in Ayacucho the United Left only obtained 21,23% of the votes, and that Garcia, his party comrade, defeated him there, with the aid of the armed forces. But the total of non-voters and of spoiled and blank ballots there adds up to 58,5%, overwhelmingly and hopelessly burying both of them. In these elections, as in the past, the Communist Party of Peru limited itself to calling for an electoral boycott, for thwarting and hindering the elections wherever possible, but not for trying to stop the entire process, as the reactionaries mendaciously implied in order to claim a false victory when they lacked a real one. But the main historical tendency is the fusion of the People's War led by the Party with the great torrent formed by millions of people who did not register, or who registered but did not vote, or who cast blank or invalid ballots. It is this torrent which the Party is helping to organize as a part of the sea of armed masses that will inevitably sweep away the old order of exploitation and oppression.

All this fuss and manipulation did not put an end to the electoral contest nor solve the central question of the presidential elections. Article 203 of the Constitution stipulates:

The President of the Republic is elected through direct suffrage and by more than 1/2 of the valid votes cast.

If none of the candidates obtains an absolute majority, a second election is held within 30 days, between the two candidates who have obtained the highest relative majorities.

Obviously, if one goes around proclaiming to the world one's respect for the Constitution and the established legal order of the Peruvian State, if one proclaims one's respect for «the State ruled by law» and «the sacred rule of law», then one's deeds must conform to the law if one's words and deeds are to be consistent and if one is to assume the exalted title of «constitutional president» and make such a fuss about one's «respect for the democratic establishment». Has this been the case? Obviously not; just the opposite. During the months of April and May the electoral process unfolded amidst contention and collusion among the reactionaries, behind the backs of the people, as always; once again the political bigshots, the institutions, and the powerful interest groups, along with the direct participation of the imperialist superpowers, especially the United States, chose who would best serve their interests. This period should be kept in mind to understand the reality and essence of their so-called «democratic elections».

Shortly before the elections, the candidate Garcia told the magazine Caretas [Masks] that, if he should end up in second place, he would concede and not take part in a second round of voting; this was a rather important statement because it is exactly what his party comrade Barrantes did later. When the results of the voting were made known, the candidates obtained 45,74% and 21,26% respectively of the valid votes cast; consequently, since no one had won the absolute majority stipulated by the Constitution, a second round of elections was called for. This was acknowledged by the daily newspaper Commercial itself in its 15th of April issue: «A second round absolutely must be held.» Furthermore, this was understood and expressed by the best-known United Left leaders. The United Mariateguist Party, one of the parties that make up the United Left, wrote that «the United Left must take part in the second round of elections». The daily newspaper El Diario de la Marka [The Newspaper of the Mark] said on the 2nd of May: «The real Right wing, the Right wing of the big transnational interests, the oligarchy run by imperialism that blindly serves the International Monetary Fund and shamelessly grants tax exemptions to oil and mining enterprises, this oligarchy is brazenly demanding that the Constitution be pole-vaulted and Garcia be declared President-Elect without a second round of elections.» Agustin Haya de la Torre agreed: «If APRA has not won 50%+1 of the votes in the 14th of April elections, a second round must be held.» Senators Carlos Malpica and Rolando Brena took a similar stand. Senator Bernales himself stated: «The Electoral Law stipulates that if none of the candidates obtains 50%+1 of the votes, a second round must be held, without fail, no matter what. [...] That is why we confidently await a second round in which Barrantes will pull off a surprise victory.» And even the revisionist Senator Del Prado said: «In any case a second round must take place as much for constitutional reasons as because APRA avoided debating its programme in the first round.» These and others were the good intentions then expressed.

But let us remember that, on the very night of election day, when only the preliminary results and projections were known, D'Ornellas, a well-known journalist linked to Ulloa, Belaunde's Prime Minister and a representative of US imperialism, proposed that Barrantes should concede before the second round. Further, that same day Barrantes himself told Garcia that «the United Left does not want to stand in the way of [Garcia's] taking office». Thus, since the beginning, the Mayor sought to pave the way for his co-religionist, and was only awaiting the moment and opportunity to do so. The Chairman of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces jumped into the arena on the 20th of April, indicating that, since APRA had received only 47% of the votes, «the possibility of discounting blank and spoiled ballots now arises. I believe it must be recognized that we are in a difficult situation and the appropriate bodies can declare Sunday's election valid despite the results». These positions marked the initiation of a big campaign in daily newspapers like La Republica [Republic], magazines like Equis X, and radio and television, invoking the «serious risks with which the country and democracy are threatened» amidst legal debate over the interpretation of the Constitution. What was APRA's position? Two-faced: While, for Alva Castro, now Prime Minister, «a second round, organizing yet another election for the Presidency of the Republic, would be a big waste of time that could be better used and of millions upon millions of soles», Garcia said: «If it turns out that we don't have 50% of the votes plus one we will have to have a second round of elections to ratify the people's triumph.» Fundamentally APRA did not want a second round, and so it hatched up an alliance that would allow it to take the Presidency with 45,74% of the votes. As he had so often done during the campaign itself, Garcia made all sorts of promises and told the audience whatever they wanted to hear.

On the 25th of April, after Barrantes had met with the Popular Action and APRA top leaderships and held an unusual meeting with his two vice-presidential running-mates Bernales and Haya, and taking the attempted assassination of the Chairman of the National Board of Elections as a further pretext, Barrantes withdrew his candidacy, amidst the boundless approval of those who had promoted him and the unhappy confusion of his followers. Some spoke recriminatingly of capitulation to APRA and others like Brena supported the move as having avoided a State coup, but in the end all reconciled themselves to this shameless capitulation to APRA and to the reaction as a whole. Barrantes was recognized by the Church when Cardinal Landazuri blessed him and declared that he had earned «the Lord's favour». But this did not solve the problem, since the legal debate continued and attempts to resolve it through an interpretative law failed, while the contradictions among the reactionaries intensified further.

In the end, the solution was left in the hands of the National Board of Elections. In a 1st of June resolution it said that, while «none of the candidates for the Presidency of the Republic has obtained the more than half of the valid votes necessary to be elected as stipulated in Article 203 of the Constitution, the largest relative majorities were obtained by the candidates Dr. Alan Garcia Perez, with 45,74% of the votes, and Dr. Alfonso Barrentes Lingan, with 21,25%», and then proceeded to state that «Dr. Alfonso Barrantes declined to take part in the second round of elections». «Neither the Constituent Assembly nor the Legislature», it continued, «foresaw a situation in which one of the two candidates lawfully entitled to participate in the second round of elections would decline.» Finally, it made the astonishing claim that «moreover, the APRA presidential list headed by Dr. Alan Garcia Perez has obtained, according to the official tabulation, 53,10% of the valid votes» in order to accept Barrantes' concession, conclude that there would be no second round, and «proclaim Citizen Alan Garcia Perez President of the Republic». This resolution is clearly in violation of the Constitution and the laws which govern the elections of the Peruvian State; clearly, if one does not obtain 50%+1 of the total votes, according to their own rules, one cannot constitutionally be considered the President, and the resolution itself says that Garcia only obtained 45,74% of the total ballots cast. Therefore, a second round had to be held, and given the imperative character of Article 203, Barrantes' decision not to stand in the second round was inadmissible, as was fully brought out in the debate; finally, the claim of «53,10% according to the official tabulation» is fallacious, absurd, and groundless. It is clear that the resolution of the National Board of Elections only ratifies a connivance and collusion meant to install as President the person best suited to the interests of imperialism and the Peruvian exploiters, without having to run the risks of a second round and the consequent dangers of increased abstentionism and even more blank and spoiled ballots, which would have increased the difficulties faced by the reaction and further discredited the elections, thus serving to turn the people's hopes increasingly toward armed revolution.

In sum, the most salient points of the April 1985 elections described above indisputably demonstrate that, just as the counter-revolution has had to violate its own Constitution and laws to combat the People's War, so also, in holding their elections amidst a developing people's war, these reactionaries have been forced to violate their Constitution and electoral laws and to carry out wide-scale fraud in order to replace their officials. Consequently, not only is the parliament of a specious and objectionable composition, but Garcia himself pretends to be President without being the constitutional President of the Peruvian State, because the Constitution and the electoral laws have been violated. This incontrovertible truth cannot be covered up by any flattering fanfare or propaganda whatsoever, no matter how vile and high-sounding it may be; moreover, within its own bourgeois-democratic framework, the very Constitution that Garcia pledged to obey stands against him, since its Article 82 states: «No one owes obedience to a usurper government nor to anyone who takes public office or employment in violation of the procedures established by the Constitution and the law.»

#2.2. THE SO-CALLED «NATIONALIST, DEMOCRATIC, AND POPULAR STATE»

On the 28th of July, 1985, at the beginning of his address to Congress, Garcia said: «I must repeat, to the whole nation, that my commitment is to all of its citizens.» These are the same concepts that Belaunde used in 1963 and '80 when he proclaimed himself «President of all Peruvians» with similar tiresome speeches about «the people's vote» and bragging about «taking office with the support of the masses». Simple coincidence? By no means: this is the same old content and chatter of the exploiting classes and their hacks. But this person who pretends to be President dusts off and recycles old APRA ideas and with his well-known demagoguery is given to farreaching historical analysis, pontificating: «Our history is also the history of our dependence on external forces allied to and expressed through powerful internal interests which have brought out country to its current crisis. Lacking a national agenda, lacking a historical and popular leadership, we have lived by adjusting our economy to the powerful interests of international capital.» Further on, when «proclaiming the revolution», he asserted: «The crisis we are going through today is not a crisis that arises from dependency, rather it is dependency itself which is in crisis, and there is only one solution to that crisis. The democratic revolution will make us more free, more just, and more masters of our own wellbeing, and this revolution which I proclaim is the declaration of the independence of our economic interests.» What, in essence, is this all about? What is being covered up? The history of Peru in this century which Garcia claims to outline is in fact a history of domination by imperialism (principally US imperialism), in league with the Peruvian big bourgeoisie and feudal landowners; this exploitation and oppression are the cause of the present crisis and of the ties that bind us to the imperialist system, and not the «lack» of an «agenda» or «leadership», a claim which expresses his «thesis» about our supposed co-responsibility along with the «civilizing» domination of imperialism, a thesis which, as an APRA-ist, he must believe in, though his demagoguery prevents him from saying it. As for the second paragraph, the «crisis of democracy» which he invokes is simply and plainly the crisis of imperialism and its domination, which can be solved only by democratic revolution, not merely by «proclaiming the independence of our economic interests», but fundamentally and principally by political action to destroy the «Three Mountains» that weigh upon us — imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and semi-feudalism — a political action that can be carried out only through people's war, and, what's more, as a part of the proletarian world revolution that will sweep imperialist and reactionary rule off the face of the Earth. It is not a matter, as Garcia says, of «new relations» being reinserted within the imperialist system to keep it going, but of the destruction of the system. Thus, the question is a political one, a point demonstrated by the great turns in Peruvian history where political and military action preceded economic change. Today in Peru nobody can hide this fact: the pressing need is for democratic revolution, which is already unfolding, carried out by the People's War within the framework of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Guiding Thought. What Garcia is saying is simply the same old rotten APRA-ist nonsense now made up with pseudoscience about a «different future», as can be seen by his different lucubrations in the same message and even more clearly by comparing all this to reality, to practice, which is the highest criterion of truth.

#2.2.1. ON THE SO-CALLED «THREE INJUSTICES»

This is how Garcia orates about the «Three Injustices»: «Our economic history has resulted in a situation of profound injustices, and the economic problems we suffer today are because of them.» Here the problem is no longer «the crisis of dependency», the phoney anti-imperialism has vanished; now it is «profound injustices» that are the cause of our problems. The self-styled anti-imperialist becomes an avenger who leaps to the fore as the «champion of justice», waving the flag of «social justice», that stale slogan of 19th-century anarchism, a current trend within APRA represented by the knights of so-called free trade-unionism, such as Sabroso and his hacks, to say nothing of Gonzalez Prada, a well-known figure whom APRA has always tried to make use of. What, concretely, are these injustices? Let's look at their first «dimension», as Garcia says: «First, there is the regional injustice that separates Lima and the coast from the forgotten rest of Peru. Lima has 80% of the country's industry, located not in the slums, which are still provincial, but in the Lima of the wealthy and middle classes, where the State apparatus and the administration of education and health are also concentrated. [...] If things continue like this and the country gets poorer and poorer, for whom will Lima produce?» This «regional injustice» has two outstanding aspects: conditions in Lima, and the State. Why is there such a big difference and separation between Lima and the rest of the country? Because semi-feudalism persists, a reality stubbornly denied, although reality itself and especially the People's War are increasingly forcing them to admit the existence of the Andean region, where semi-feudal conditions meet the eye at every glance due to the development of a bureaucrat capitalism that increasingly concentrates the means of production in the capital city. It should be recalled that Velasco also talked about «decentralization» but promoted centralization; today centralization is greater than ever, mainly due to imperialist domination (principally by the United States). The backward world, particularly Latin America, exhibits a monstrous macrocephaly, as exemplified in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. This is the cause of the problem and what we should talk about, and not hide behind terms like «regional injustice». Furthermore, this person, who pretends to be President, talks about «the Lima of the wealthy and middle classes». The middle classes are the intermediate classes, including the national bourgeoisie and the upper strata of the small bourgeoisie, the so-called «emergent classes». Is the wealth in their hands? No, it is in the hands of the big bourgeoisie, with its comprador and bureaucrat sections, the big bankers, industrialists, merchants, and real-estate tycoons, who control the ownership of the means of production, along with the biggest imperialist interests also concentrated in Lima. It is the economic power of these classes and of imperialism which is being obscured. In short, the power of the big exploiting classes is being covered up. But Garcia can't be accused of forgetting about classes, because, as quoted above, he does speak about the «middle classes». The other outstanding aspect is the concentration of political power, of the armed forces, which are its backbone, and the bureaucracy; they are concentrated in the capital city exactly in order to maintain the landowner-bureaucrat class dictatorship that is the Peruvian State and from there to control the whole country. This is the basic point, and not the concentration of «administration of health and education», which arises on this basis; this is the central question that must be analysed, especially given the growing militarization and bureaucratization of the Peruvian State during the last decade as a consequence of the very functioning of the antiquated social system, and especially of the revolutionary development of the masses, particularly the People's War, which undermines it and aims to tear it down. Finally, Garcia says: «If things go on this way, for whom will Lima produce?» What does he want? Is he fundamentally in agreement with this «regional injustice»? Is he fundamentally interested in a «market» for the productive system of the exploiting classes and imperialism, which was what earlier interested Velasco, Morales, Belaunde, and the rest of the «heads of State» before them, each in different conditions and circumstances, whose love, as the popular saying goes, was «not for pigs, but for bacon»?

But let's continue with the analysis of these famous «injustices»:

There is a second dimension of injustice, an economic divorce between the sectors; when we analyse the country's economic workings we see that there are two clearly separate sectors.

On one side there is modern industry [...]. This is the modern sector, which contains 85% of Peru's investments but employs only 38% of its people. The other side is the marginalized sector, the rural agriculture of the Andean region, with millions of indigenous peasant communities and small landowners, and that other part of humanity that some call the urban marginalized sector, made up of the unemployed and underemployed who almost always live in the slums. It must be asked, if the majority get poorer and poorer, for whom will industry produce? If there is no production in the country, what will the State administer? I have come to say that there will be no solution as long as the State only concerns itself with industry and administration. There will be no farreaching revolution until the State goes out to the indigenous peasant communities and the unemployed.

Let us ask ourselves once more, what is modern industry in Peru? Simply bureaucrat capitalism, tied to imperialist domination and the feudal landowners. The degree of subjugation of modern industry to imperialism (especially the United States) can be seen in the following two extracts from industrial studies:

The dynamic of industrial growth in Peru during the last two decades has been pushed forward by big enterprises and multinational conglomerates based in the United States, Europe, and Japan, which have tended to establish monopolistic and oligarchic forms as they entered our economy, both in terms of the production as well as the distribution of their products [...].

The penetration of large enterprises and multinational conglomerates into «Peruvian» industrial manufacture has directly contributed to the slow but steady marginalization of new and old sections of the national bourgeoisie. [...] Thus, in the last two decades, the «national bourgeoisie» has increasingly played the role of developing new industrial groups that with time come under the control of foreign capital. Therefore, at present, what is developing is an intermediary bourgeoisie emerging from certain groups who, based on their prestige, experience, and socio-economic connections, have been integrated into the big enterprises and multinational conglomerates, becoming part of the ever-increasing intermediate sector.¹⁰

(It must be kept in mind that, when the author speaks of the national bourgeoisie, they mean the domestic bourgeoisie and, moreover, the big bourgeoisie.)

Perhaps the most significant conclusion to be drawn from a structural analysis is the high degree of control that foreign enterprises still possess in the extractive and industrial sectors of the Peruvian economy. Furthermore, a simple quantification of the level of foreign investment in a country would not give a correct picture of the degree of control foreign capital exerts over the economy. That control has been substantially strengthened due to the strategic character of this investment, since the most important enterprises in each industry are foreign-owned, and since the majority of these enterprises are subsidiaries of large multinational corporations.¹¹

This is the question, and not some cover-up «second dimension of injustice»; what needs talking about is this evil bureaucrat capitalism and especially its subjugation to imperialism — these are the mountains to be overthrown, arms in hand, so as to build a real national economy that will serve the oppressed masses of the people, including an industry for the benefit of the proletariat and the people. But Garcia, cunning and demagogic, poses the question: «If the majority grow poorer and poorer, for whom will industry produce?» Once more it is evident which side he is on and what he is really concerned about.

What is this «marginal sector»? First of all, what is rural Andean agriculture? Concretely, it is semi-feudalism, with the three characteristics described by Mariategui: land, serfdom, and the rule of local tyrants. The land question is the motive force in the class struggle in the countryside, a centuries-old problem of land concentration rooted in feudalism; it was evident that it is one of the country's basic problems in the 1960s, when three agrarian laws were passed regarding the purchase and sale of land that essentially did nothing but preserve the concentration of land, as is shown by the following table from the Board of General Land Reform and Rural Settlement:

#TABLE EIGHT

Advance of Land Reform, 1963-79 (Summary as of the 24th of June, 1979)

This table clearly shows that the land handed over to individual peasants amounted to only 7,7% of the total that had been appropriated; this means approximately 1'800'000 peasants. According to the 1981 census, there are 6'245'000 peasants, so these much-publicized «land reforms» did not affect so much as 1/3 of the peasantry. If we recall that, according to the National Farm Census of 1961, 83,5% of the total farm units owned less than five hectares, or, in other words, only 5,4% of the total land, while 1% of the units owned 81% of the land, the question necessarily arises: what is the problem? What is at the root of this situation? This is sharply and seriously shown today by the situation in Puno, which Garcia himself called «another Ayacucho», and indeed that is what Puno is becoming, much to the dismay of Garcia and others.

#TABLE NINE

The Land Reform in Puno (Legal Decree 17716)

X: Does not include the 6'663 families of the SAIS communities; in practice they do not receive any significant benefits from the units. They should not be considered «beneficiaries». (This is generally true in all the SAIS in the country.)

This December 1983 chart from the Board of General Land Reform shows that 23 SAIS with a total of only 20,87% of the families own 52,20% of the awarded land, while 74 peasant communities with 48,59% of the families possess only 2,30% of this land. Further, the associated enterprises with 45,64% of the total families received 88,76% of the appropriated land, while communities and peasant groups, with 53,46% of the families, only received 9,10%. This is the big basic problem in the Andean region, the principal problem, though not the only one. It is not «another dimension of injustice», but the persistence of semi-feudalism with its characteristics of land, serfdom, and the rule of local tyrants, and it cannot be resolved by any law passed by the Old State but only by the peasantry under the leadership of the Communist Party, conquering and defending the land, arms in hand, through people's war, as is being demonstrated in our country.

Let's look at the other part of this «injustice», the question of unemployment and underemployment. If we consult the Statistical Compendium of 1985, published by the National Institute of Statistics, we find:

#TABLE TEN

Levels of Unemployment, Underemployment, and Adequate Employment in Farm and Non-Farm Sectors, 1980-85 (Relative Statistics)

Unemployment and underemployment are clearly growing; the former rose from 7% in 1980 to 11,8% in 1985. Moreover, it should be emphasized that, in the non-farm sector, that is, concretely, in the cities, unemployment jumped from 10,9% to 18,4% during these same years. Underemployment rose from 51,2% in 1980 to 54,1% in 1985, but this includes both city and countryside, and it is particularly notable that, while it dropped from 68,2% to 60,4% during these years in the countryside, in the cities it rose from 41,4% to 50,5%. Is this another form of «injustice»? Not at all: it is simply the necessary consequence of a decrepit semi-feudal and semi-colonial system with bureaucrat capitalism developing in its midst and of the crisis we are suffering; it is the necessary result of an evil social system that can maintain itself only by condemning 2/3 of the population to hunger, a rotten system that condemns the masses of the Peruvian people to living on a per capita income little changed since 1965. The survival of this social system increasingly requires a more militarized and bureaucratic State gripping the farthest corner and the poorest masses to contain their revolutionary explosiveness and their participation in the People's War, a State ready to repress the people by fire and sword, carrying out continuing genocide; this is what Garcia is trying to conceal behind the phrases, «if there is no production in the country, what will the State administer?», and, «the State must go out to the indigenous peasant communities and the unemployed».

Finally, let's analyse the last element of the trinity of injustices Alan Garcia has pontifically consecrated. Due to its importance, we will refer to it in parts in the order followed in his message: «But injustice in Peru is not only between regions and between sections of the population. It is also profound social injustice. I have spoken of a symbolic pyramid. At the peak of this pyramid 2% of the population receive the highest incomes thanks to their monopolistic enterprises and their ownership of the means of production. Frequently these riches created through the efforts of all Peru are achieved at the cost of the hunger suffered by the Peruvian people [...].» Here, we would point out, the pyramid we have run into is magical and we need to get to the bottom of its symbolism. Let's consider the «2% of the population at its peak». Who does this percentage of the population include, as seen from the standpoint of proletarian ideology? It is the very core of the exploiter classes, the big bourgeoisie (with its comprador and bureaucrat sections) and landowners, as well as the most direct representatives of imperialist domination (especially by US imperialism). In other words, this 2% is the concentrated expression of the «Three Mountains» that oppress the people; they are the core of that minority (which can be calculated at roughly 10% of the population) whose power has to be wholly and completely destroyed, at least on the political and economic levels, in order to carry through the democratic stage of the revolution. The essence of this question is not its percentage but its class character. In the same way, the problem is not simply that these people «receive the highest incomes thanks to their monopolistic enterprises and their ownership of the means of production», as Garcia demagogically says, but that they are part of the three targets of the revolution: imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and semi-feudalism. They are clearly monopolists and exploiters in that they have taken possession of the most important social means of production of Peruvian society and the riches created by the masses of the people, the exploited, snatched through exploitation and oppression, which daily suck the people's blood while casting them deeper into hunger and poverty.

«But as I have also said», continues this person who pretends to be President, «the State, in order to preserve this pattern of domination and guard the wealth of this 2% of the population, has become an instrument of this unjust concentration of income, a kind of bureaucratic defensive buffer serving the most powerful, and so has become unproductive and centralist. It has given out jobs, but far more than necessary, sometimes in order to pay off political supporters and in other cases to accumulate bureaucratic riches.» Once again Garcia, after covering up the class struggle, distorts and confuses the main questions concerning the State, all with his famous «Three Injustices». What does Garcia seek to accomplish? To reduce the question of the Peruvian State to the statement that it «has become an instrument of an unjust» (once more his clumsy magic word) «concentration of income», giving away too many jobs «to pay back political supporters», thus becoming «unproductive and centralist» «to preserve a pattern of domination»; therefore the problem would seem to be how to reduce bureaucracy and bring about the long-promised decentralization. This hides the essence and the main question: the role of the armed forces. «The two most characteristic institutions are the bureaucracy and the standing army [...] the bureaucracy and the standing army are ‹parasites› stuck to the body of bourgeois society, engendered by the internal contradictions that divide it, but exactly a parasite that ‹plugs up› the body's vital pores», as Lenin taught, and he emphasized: «In particular, imperialism results in an extraordinary strengthening of the State machinery, a hitherto unknown development of the bureaucratic and military apparatus, in relation to the increase of repression against the proletariat.» To this must be added Chairman Mao Zedong's great summation: «Everything grows out of the barrel of a gun. According to the Marxist theory of the State, the army is the chief component of State power.» This is the only true and scientific way to analyse the problem, emphasizing how this person of the so-called «injustices» not only negates the historic process of development of the State, but also seeks to cover up the truth and hide the chief component of the State, the very source of reactionary power, a question of the greatest importance, especially in a country where revolution and counter-revolution are facing off in armed confrontation. Once again, we emphasize the following Marxist thesis: «A standing army and police are the chief instruments of State power. But how can it be otherwise?»¹²

After these lies, exposed above, Garcia exhibits the reactionary essence of his «symbolic pyramid» with his own demagogic rhetoric:

But, proceeding down this road, the State has got itself and the country deeper and deeper into debt, and almost all the debt has been incurred by the top 30% of the country that is urban, industrial, and administrative.

But below that stratum there is the 70% of the population that is marginalized, the unemployed and the street vendors, the people from the provinces and the shantytowns.

First of all, the Peruvian State's debt has been incurred within the framework of development plans, loans, and investments imposed by imperialism on oppressed nations like ours, in concert with the plans the Peruvian exploiters unfold through their State to develop bureaucrat capitalism and evolve semi-feudalism. If we focus on the period from 1970 to the present, in which foreign debt has greatly increased, we find that from 1974 to '83 the economic growth rate was almost zero (0,1%), in contrast to the preceding nine years, in which the average rate of growth was 5,1%. Industrial production as a percentage of the Gross National Product went from 24,7% in 1970 to 25,1% in 1980 and then dropped to 22,0% in 1984. The manufacturing proletariat, which had represented 14,6% of the workforce, was reduced to 13,7% in 1980. While business profits went from 17,5% of the national income in 1972 to 31,9% in 1980 (and in 1979 hit 33,3%), wages and salaries, which made up 51,2% of the national income in 1972, fell to 39,3% in 1980 (State employees suffered the biggest wage cuts). Hand in hand with this process, the agricultural workforce as a percentage of the country's total fell from 43,7% in 1970 to only 35,4% in 1980, while farm production, which had accounted for 14,34% of the Gross National Product in 1969, fell to 12,14% at present. Since these people could not be absorbed by industry, there was an inevitable growth in the service sector, from 28,6% in 1970 to 38,8% in 1980. This phenomenon took place in the capital city itself, which is the country's industrial centre, as can be seen in the following data: in 1972 industry employed 19,1% of the economically active population, while by 1981 it only employed 16,9%. Employment in the commercial and service sectors, which had accounted for 48% of the economically active population in 1972, rose to 62% in 1981.

From these figures it can be seen that foreign debt and the various plans carried out have not benefited the «top 30%, the urban, industrial, and administrative areas of the country», but instead benefited imperialism, the domestic exploiters, and their State, as is seen both in the growth of business profits and the jump in foreign debt from around USD 800'000'000 in 1969 to USD 16'000'000'000 at present. What is Garcia trying to do? To defend his so-called «peak 2% of the population». With his demagogic invention of the «top 30%» he is trying to confuse the proletariat with part of the small bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie, to mix them up all together in one mass, behind which are hidden the interests of the imperialists, big bourgeois, and landowners. It is to this phoney agglomeration that he demagogically opposes the interests of the «marginalized 70% of the population: farmers and peasants, unemployed and street vendors, people from the provinces and the slums». This can be seen in the following extract from his message to Congress: «Until now the State has not belonged to these people, because it has enriched the few and extended its scarce resources in employment, health, and services to a few others, while remaining alien to the 70% of the population on whom I believe the future of our country's history depends. We must resolve the social confrontation that pits the owners of the means of production, plus their public or private subsidiary groups, on one side, against the disinherited, who make up the immense majority, on the other.» (Our emphasis.)

The reactionary essence of the «symbolic pyramid» built by the person who pretends to be President is this: around his «2%» — the monopolists and the owners of the social means of production — he groups his «top 30%», and to this he opposes his concept of «the marginalized 70%». Thus the two opposed ends of the pyramid, the two terms of the contradiction which gives rise to «social conflict», are, he claims, the «owners of the means of production plus their public or private subsidiary groups» on one side and the «disinherited who make up the immense majority» on the other. Since «we must resolve the social confrontation that pits» them against each other, what is the purpose of this «symbolic pyramid»? Its purpose is to defend the exploiters and oppressors of our people; the rest is foolish imagination, rhetoric, and demagoguery, at bottom the same old APRA-ist ideas recycled by sprucing them up with the latest pseudo-scientific sociological jargon. He completes his trinity of «injustice» by resolving the question of the Peruvian State with a simple declaration: «I declare, and this is my pledge, that from this day on the State will belong to all Peruvians, and if until now no one has spoken in the name of the indigenous peasant communities and the unemployed, from now on the State will speak in their name in favour of righteousness and justice.» (Our emphasis.) One year after this statement, anyone who believed these hypocritical and arrogant lies and who has confronted the everyday reality of life in this country, cannot but have an increasingly better grasp of what Marxism, the worldview of the proletariat, teaches about the State: «The State is a product and a manifestation of the irreconcilability of class antagonisms. The State arises where, when, and insofar as class antagonism objectively cannot be reconciled. And, conversely, the existence of the State proves that the class antagonisms are irreconcilable.»¹²

In conclusion, the three so-called «injustices» clearly deny the character of Peruvian society, the classes and class struggle that exist within it, and especially the character of the Peruvian State as a landowner-bureaucrat dictatorship, as well as the necessity of revolutionary violence to overthrow the Old State and the exploiters in order to launch the development of a new society. This is the basis on which he proposes his so-called «democratic revolution», which the message referred to defines as follows:

What I have come to propose is something different. What Peru needs is a democratic revolution, a historic restructuring that reactivates and frees the profound social forces which have been ignored until now.

I propose to encourage agricultural production, from which millions of Peruvians have lived in the same way for centuries, so that this land that is now abandoned, seedless, without fertilizers and tractors, this land that is now cultivated only about every eight years, will produce the food that we now buy abroad.*

That is the reactivation of social production. Secondly, I propose that the hundreds of thousands of unemployed and underemployed hands in the shantytowns be given access to income or employment. That will be the reactivation of social consumption.

And in this way, when at the very foundations of society we link agricultural production with consumption by those who today cannot eat because of a lack of jobs, a new Peru will arise, which will be the national market for Lima's industrial production, a production now being slowly extinguished due to the lack of buyers. Then public administration, which is mainly centred in Lima and which now appears to be administering an unproductive country, will have a historical reason to exist in a country reactivated from the bottom up.

[...] if we don't decide to change the situation very soon it will be a thousand times worse, with more violence, more recession, and more unemployment. [Our emphasis.]

Is this the democratic revolution Peruvian society needs, the overthrow of imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and semi-feudalism throughout the country, by means of the People's War which has been developing for six years? No, it is not. Instead it has more in common with the basic problems that have been pointed out and with solutions proposed decades ago. It will suffice to recall some aspects of the Plan for Socio-Economic Development, 1967-70, passed during Belaunde's first administration, which said, for example: «In general, if present economic tendencies are not vigorously corrected and turned around [...] they may give rise to severe tensions, with unforeseeable economic, political, and social results.» «It should be taken into account that the principal political decisions regarding economic development usually have to do with the process of capital formation [...] they set limits on the consumption of luxury goods in order to free capital and direct it toward investments made attractive by adequate incentives.» The development of agriculture, held to be a strategic sector, was given particular importance so as to reduce the import of agricultural products and especially to expand the national market considered «indispensable for the growth and expansion of industry», requiring «structural changes» and «concentrated direct and indirect State intervention in agriculture». Another basic goal of the plan was industrial development. It emphasized that, «at present, industry is highly dependent on imported inputs» and claimed that financially «the role of the State in this plan is to transfer income from consumption, especially in the urban areas, to investment; from the point of view of income distribution its role is to transfer income from the city to the countryside». The so-called People's Cooperation organization, among others, was set up precisely for the so-called marginalized masses.

Further, to be brief, we will give two quotes from General Velasco's speeches:

In upholding and defending a nationalist and quite revolutionary policy, we are fulfilling our highest patriotic duty. We believe that our country can attain neither security nor grandeur by leaving untouched its old structure of discrimination against the majority of the nation. We aspire toward the creation of a truly free and just social order, which we consider incompatible with the persistence of the inequalities that have made our country a nation of great injustices. [April 1969]

We have correctly and repeatedly emphasized that one of the central goals of our government is vigorous industrial development. Within the traditional framework that prevailed, Peru had no industrial future. The underdevelopment imposed on this country by interest groups with no sense of history had made any real industrial development impossible. The disequilibria of underdevelopment always translate into the existence of social groups made up of millions of our fellow Peruvians whose extremely low purchasing power would never permit the development of the internal market indispensable for the development of a truly Peruvian industry.

This was precisely one of the reasons for the land reform. It served not only the need to transform the unequal and unjust system of land ownership, but also to redistribute the wealth so as to increase the purchasing power of the peasantry, who must become, in the future, the consumers of the products manufactured by the industry that we have lacked.

[...] The accelerated development of industry must be a cornerstone of the structural transformations we seek to achieve [...]. [October 1969]

What does all this mean? That the various governments of Peru, whether de facto or elected, have been confronting the same problems and making the same statements for decades, all the while seeking nothing more than to expand Peruvian society by developing bureaucrat capitalism and evolving semi-feudalism within the framework imposed by imperialism (principally US imperialism); each confronting specific conditions giving rise to specific differences, but all striving to maintain and defend the landowner-bureaucrat dictatorship that is the Peruvian State.

In general terms, these are the foundations on which Garcia's July 1985 message is based, upon which his «nationalist, democratic, and popular State» is established and which guide his government's actions.

#2.2.2. THE SELF-PROCLAIMED «NATIONALIST STATE»

«We know that, in order to carry out the democratic revolution, we must be anti-imperialists», Garcia said before the United Nations. But anti-imperialism does not mean simply defending «the nation against the monopolistic structure of some corporations»; it means frontal combat against the monopolies which form the economic foundations of imperialism. Still less does it mean favouring the biggest petrol monopoly in the world, as has been done with the contracts awarded to Occidental Petroleum. One cannot call oneself an anti-imperialist and at the same time claim that the problem of foreign debt, one of the gravest and most concrete problems afflicting mainly the backward countries, is a question of «the relationship between the poor and the rich» or «between the North and the South». We all know that the burning question is capital export, one of the characteristics of imperialism, an expression of its parasitic character, of living by «clipping coupons», as Lenin wrote. This is a striking and decisive example of the relationship between the oppressed countries and the imperialist countries which exploit and squeeze them — while Garcia implies that the oppressed nations share the responsibility for the overwhelming debt which crushes and suffocates them. One cannot be an anti-imperialist and at the same time seek to separate the problem of foreign debt from the worldwide contention between the superpowers for hegemony, nor much less pretend to stand aside from that contention, claiming to ignore it, which means to serve it. On the contrary, one should oppose it, denouncing the collusion and contention carried out by US imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism which cast the Third World especially into ever deeper suffering as they unleash counter-revolutionary wars in different parts of the world and prepare for a Third World War brandishing their nuclear bombs to frighten the oppressed and keep them from fighting back. Likewise one cannot be an anti-imperialist and at the same time call upon the rest of the imperialists, particularly European imperialism, to help out the world's poor, nor much less dream of and await understanding and support from the superpowers themselves. This phoney anti-imperialism drops its mask rather quickly when it comes to serving monopolies like Occidental or to recognizing and promising to pay the country's foreign debt under the pretext of «honouring our obligations», and even more when Garcia raises an uproar about «imperialist aggression» when «military aid» is suspended, aid whose purpose is to train genocidal officers like Hurtado, nicknamed «The Lorry», and others of their ilk. Garcia's «anti-imperialist» accomplices from the chieftains of the Second International to Fidel Castro to the United Left headed by Barrantes added their voices to the clamour for more such «aid». After all this fuss Garcia finally ended up meeting his overdue debt payments and the «military aid» programme to train officers to commit genocide was reestablished. Despite his pompous promise to limit debt repayments to 10% of Peru's export earnings, Garcia ended up paying 35,5% — and 56,9% in the second half of 1985 (14,7% to pay public debt, 6,4% for Central Reserve Bank Debt, and 35,8% for private debt), according to economists. After threatening to withdraw from the evil International Monetary Fund if it didn't accept these conditions, and after the International Monetary Fund rejected them, Garcia concluded that it was better not to withdraw after all. This «nationalist State», then, doesn't really exist; this false anti-imperialism is really pro-imperialism.

#2.2.3. THE SELF-PROCLAIMED «DEMOCRATIC STATE»

«Secondly», reads the message that some people found so hopeful, «we need a democratic State, a state which is democratic not only because it was elected and because of its respect for freedom of opinion and expression, but also because of its role as arbiter of justice, and fundamentally because of its new organizational structure.» First, regarding its being «democratically elected», we have previously shown that the present APRA government took office in violation of its own Constitution and other laws, that, in short, Garcia did not obtain the 50%+1 of the votes as required by the Constitution to be elected President of this country, but that rather his election was the product of a sinister alliance between US imperialism and the domestic exploiting classes, with the backing of the armed forces. Because of this Alan Garcia Perez only acts as if he were President, and consequently the ministers he appoints and the actions they carry out are without any legal basis according to their own establishment. In the same way the Congress of the Republic is deeply tainted by the rigged voting that was exposed and challenged, giving rise to scandals still not cleared up. Regarding «respect for freedom of expression», as it applies within the reactionary order, this freedom is reserved for the exploiters, the owners of almost all the mass media; but the striking thing is the uniform manipulation that the APRA government has imposed in this field, as obviously and undeniably exemplified in the information given out about the 19th of June genocide committed against the prisoners of war. There are indirect and even brutally shameless restrictions placed against the few mass media that escape government control; the censuring and persecution of the newspaper El Nuevo Diario [The New Newspaper] and of television programmes are clear examples. Furthermore, let us ask a simple question: When has any newspaper or other means of mass communication other than The New Newspaper or Equis X agreed to publish any communique denouncing the persecution, torture, disappearances, or genocide carried out against the people? But the freedoms and rights the people have won and have forced into law cannot be reduced to simply freedom of opinion and expression. The right to life and physical integrity, freedom of thought and expression, the inviolability of the home and the mail, the right of assembly, association, and strike, job security, social benefits, and so on, and also the right to bury one's dead — are any of these respected in this country under their so-called «democratic State»? And this without mentioning the state of emergency, the curfew, and all that their sacrosanct «defence of the established order» implies. As to the State being an «arbiter of justice», it will suffice to ask the workers of Sima, Moraveco, the miners of Canaria and Pasco, the members of the trade unions CITE and SUTEP (teachers), the doctors, the sugarcane workers all over the country, the people of Puno, Cuzco, and San Martin, and the inhabitants of shantytowns like Garagay — not to speak of what this «arbiter of justice» did in Aqomarca, Lurigancho, and the recent genocide committed in the three shining trenches in the struggle, nor Garcia's frenetic scream, «That's enough! I have run out of patience!» with the workers' struggle, nor all the repression against the workers that the APRA government has carried out since it took office. All this is part of a policy of «reestablishing the natural order and returning to the principle of authority», or, as he said in his 1985 message: «If those who don't wish to listen stir things up, the State order will punish them, applying the law firmly and energetically [...] vacillation would promote disorder, instead there will be decisiveness and firmness.»

What merits special attention is the claim that the State is «democratic fundamentally because of its new organizational structure». The Peruvian State is conceived of fundamentally as a bourgeois «representative democracy», that is, a parliamentary democracy. Thus, what is meant by a «new organizational structure»? In short, to organize the State along corporate lines, which is the aim behind the «decentralization and deconcentration», regionalization, development committees, micro-regions and «peasant communities as the social basis», and the «National Economic Congress», in addition to the State's organizational attempts mainly among the so-called marginalized masses, in the shantytowns and among the peasants of the «Andean Triangle» mountain region, with the planned slum organizations and federations, the «Rimanacuy», the onslaught of «people's kitchens», «mothers' clubs», and other activities with women through what they call the «Direct Assistance Programme», and the recently-created «Youth Development Programme», as well as the takeover of various «professional associations», and so on, and, unavoidably, dual unionism and especially APRA's accelerated formation and training of shock troops, in order to pit the masses against each other, as they did, for example, with the PAIT (a minimum-wage government work scheme) during the recent strikes by teachers and doctors. The organization of these corporate structures is linked to a fascist political conception whose expression can be seen in the parliamentary crisis increasingly enmeshing the Legislature, in a systematic denial of rights and liberties, and in Alan Garcia's dictatorial actions and moves — rather significantly, his closest lackeys call him «the Supreme Leader». In short, does this much-ballyhooed «democratic State» exist? No, absolutely not. What is developing and being prepared is the replacement of the representative-democratic establishment by a social-corporate order, under the leadership of a fascist policy already pushing forward and promising sinister future developments.

#2.2.4. THE SELF-PROCLAIMED «POPULAR STATE»

«But», reads the 1985 message, «the popular State must resolve the immediate and grave problems the country faces.» How has the economy been run — has it benefited the masses of the people? Previously, in this same message, Garcia had warned: «I hereby announce, as is my duty, that we are instituting a government austerity programme to reorder the economy and promote its revolutionary transformation [...].» (Our emphasis.) Immediately after taking office, Garcia put into effect an emergency plan that was simply a modified version of Argentine President Alfonsin's, with the goal of what was called «expansive adjustment» (Alfonsin's plan, consented to by IMF head J. de larosiere, aimed to bring that indebted country into compliance with the International Monetary Fund). This plan had to be readjusted in October 1985, again in February 1986, and then once more in July 1986. In general, we can say that this plan has had to be increasingly modified to meet the need to develop bureaucrat capitalism under imperialist domination (principally that of the United States), linked to semi-feudalism, while focusing on overcoming the crisis bureaucrat capitalism has undergone since 1974, and anxiously seeking to «reactivate the economy». For a long time the government hailed the great successes of the «new economy» it had launched, but the reality turned out to be quite different, and today the person who pretends to be President has had to call for «thinking it over», to face facts, and to drop the premature claims of triumph that had filled the air for months.

Let us examine some points. There was a lot of talk about the sharp reduction of inflation, but now it is clear that it was Belaunde, with the inflationary increases and devaluations at the end of his government, who made the present government's so-called «success» possible. As United Left member J. Iguiniz said: «After an economic package like this, it is normal for inflation to level off or fall, as was the case with previous adjustments.» But, furthermore, the containment of inflation, which is basically recessive, should have generated «higher real wage increases than turned out to be the case», so that, consequently: «By holding back wage increases, the government had held back the reactivation of the economy.» Thus, according to this writer, the government does not deserve any credit for reducing inflation, and, at the same time, it has held back wages and the much-talked-about economic expansion.

If we analyse the problem of real wages more deeply, we see that by January 1986 they had declined to only 89,4% of their purchasing power of July 1985. Furthermore, it should be emphasized that, when the July 1985 wage increases were decreed, «salaries jumped curiously higher than wages», while workers without collective bargaining contracts received higher increases than those covered by such contracts — the former rising by 8,8%, the latter by 4,9%. As Actualidad Económica [Economic News] said: «The real May-February wage increases in industries where there is no collective bargaining compared to similar enterprises with collective bargaining contracts is particularly noteworthy: 36,9% as opposed to 4,6%!» The class outlook of the APRA government and its goals in this are rather indicative. Concerning the boost in the minimum wage that the government has bragged about so much, the following should be emphasized: What does a wage of PEI 700 a month mean when a minimum monthly budget just for food is PEI 2'586? How much has the price of food gone up between July 1985 and June 1986? 210,8%, taking into account only the most basic items people usually eat in thecities, particularly the capital, without including milk, bread, sugar, and rice (items under price control which have appeared and disappeared from the market time and again).

What has happened in the countryside? There have been grandiose plans, especially regarding the so-called «Andean Triangle» region. Interest-free loans for the region were announced, but these credits were extended to only 8% or 10% of producers, and many of them were not in the mountains. Then there was the PEI 3'200'000'000 «Fund to Promote Agriculture and Guarantee Food», 80% of which goes for crops cultivated on the coast. Actually, the «Triangle» region has received only PEI 50'000, given to an undetermined number of communities, half in cash and the rest to be delivered, through the usual intermediaries, in materials for community projects. What can be accomplished with this, and for whose benefit? It is easy to see that these materials will benefit whoever controls them, especially APRA party members, who will take advantage of the peasants' free labour. It should be kept in mind that the People's Cooperation scheme, in its so-called community works, ended up paying only 23% of their costs, while the peasants paid the remaining 77% with their own hands. This scheme is still in operation, let us recall. Furthermore, the blows dealt to domestic agricultural production by big increases in imported foodstuffs should also be kept in mind, as should the fact that, despite this scheme's emphasis on the development of domestic agricultural production, in the mountains in particular, it envisions subjugating it to low prices and State control.

We should give some emphasis to the PAIT, another scheme that the government brags about. It employed about 50'000 people in 1985, especially in Lima and the surrounding shantytowns, 80% of them women, paying minimum wage, partly in goods. As the government itself admits, the programme supplements others already in practice elsewhere, and it is inevitably leading to more unemployment. But, moreover, the PAIT is a method to organize and control the marginalized masses, to use them against others among the masses. Now the government is seeking to expand the number of people involved to 150'000, of whom 80'000 would be in the mountains and the rest on the coast, mainly in Lima. We can easily see the corporatist political goals that lie at the heart of the PAIT. In the same vein, we should emphasize the overall attacks on the proletariat and the workers in general, and especially underline the so-called «Job Security» Law, which violates the Constitution and opens the way for massive numbers of workers to become redundant. This aspect is even worse in the so-called «Emergency Employment Scheme», which allows public as well as private enterprises to hire personnel for up to two years at minimum wage, provided they are also paid «all the benefits provided for by law», of course; this means that the 2/3 or so of the workforce which is unemployed or underemployed, this huge army of the hungry, will be thrown into the maws of capital accumulation to be squeezed to the last drop like a lemon for the sake of profits. All this without mentioning the government's measures to undermine the workers' grievances, to destroy and divide their unions, and to prevent strikes, so as to force the working class and working people to accept the crumbs thrown to them with gratitude for the kindness of their exploiters and the «popular State».

Despite everything being said, neither health nor education receive any consideration. Further, also in violation of the Constitution, to reduce State health expenses they have combined social security services with those of the Ministry of Health, to the detriment of the interests of the workers and working people. Education is also undergoing an assault by APRA teachers and authorities, in order to seize control of it. The government's effort to take direct control of the State universities represents an extremely important attempt to fulfil an old APRA dream. This is the reason for unleashing the campaign against the universities and labeling them «centres of terrorism» several months ago.

To all this must be added the reduction in export earnings by USD 500'000'000 this year, plus the increase in imports, leading to a deficit commercial balance which began to appear in June, alongside the foreign exchange deficit beginning last February. Furthermore, despite government denials, there is a growing budget deficit, which clearly in this country has always hurt the people, and of course all this inevitably comes on top of the growing foreign debt problem. But we must have faith, because, as the message we've referred to says, «food does not spring up overnight [...] nor do wages [...] but anyway, a people's government starts by strengthening the national morality, which must be guarded over by the country's police forces». We've already seen this «morality» — the reorganization of the police is its best example.

All of this led Garcia to say in his recent July 1986 message: «This has been a hard year. There have been shortcomings and problems [...] but the truth, sir, is that this has been a difficult year and the coming years will be too. [...] Nevertheless, we have made progress during the last 12 months, in regard to socio-economic development, and, most importantly, in regard to the development of the nation's patience.» (Our emphasis.)

In sum, is this a «popular State»? Does it serve the masses of the people? Absolutely not. It is simply the same pro-imperialist, anti-democratic, and anti-popular class dictatorship, along with some recycled old ideas, old wine in new bottles, and lots of demagoguery, all tending toward the corporatization of Peruvian society under a fascist political leadership able to draw lessons from its domestic predecessors.

#2.3. THE GENOCIDE COMMITTED AGAINST THE PRISONERS OF WAR IN THE SHINING TRENCHES IN THE STRUGGLE

Despite all the meetings between APRA's National Government Planning Commission and the heads of the armed forces and all the Velascoite military advisors, the reactionary APRA government has not yet made public its so-called «new strategy to fight subversion». Plainly all they have done is to continue the old strategy, which we analysed in Section 1; at most they have given the armed forces more economic, political, and social resources, and a freer hand to develop more counter-revolutionary warfare, now aided by the police, against the raging People's War which has been growing and will continue to grow. At first the present government tried to ignore the People's War, but it exploded in the government's face with the genocide at Aqomarca; then it tried to evade responsibility for this massacre by removing the chief of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces. But that was a farce, because that dismissal had already been decided upon a week earlier, due to differences of opinion concerning the entry of US troops into the jungle region, while the other resulting changes in the military were taken care of by the military command itself. However, it should be recalled that, several days before the genocide at Aqomarca, General Jarama, then head of the Second Military Region, was in Ayacucho accompanied by five generals and eight colonels and lieutenant colonels. What were they doing there? Obviously setting into motion a plan approved by the Council of National Defence, presided over by Garcia himself. As for the proposed investigations, they came to naught, despite all the evidence, and, as we will see, the genocidal criminals Hurtado and Artaza were rewarded and upheld as «heroes of democracy». Thus the firings and the investigation were two sides of the same coin, a manoeuvre especially meant to defend the international image of «Mr. Constitutional President, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and the Police», who had strutted like a righteous peacock before the United Nations. «Our respect for the people's lives and rights constitute the democratic credentials we present to the world. Nothing justifies torture, disappearances, or summary execution. Savagery cannot be fought with savagery.» Let everyone compare his words and deeds! These words fit in with what he said on the 28th of July, 1985, to the so-called «Peace Commission». What was he trying to do? What did he do and how did he end up? Shipwrecked, like a boat that had been leaking all along, as a co-participant in the June genocide; the United Left leadership that solemnly negotiated an amnesty for its imprisoned followers is still waiting for Garcia to fulfil his promise.

Then came the October 1985 Lurigancho genocide. After this, the reactionary APRA government staged a big farce about a supposed «mass surrender of Shining Path members» in Llochegua and Corazon-Pata, La Mar Province, Ayacucho Department. The mass media even broadcast a staged meeting between the «Supreme Commander-in-Chief» and the «surrendering leaders» Garcia received in the Presidential Palace, filmed from a distance so that nobody could hear anything or see anyone's face, for what were called «understandable security reasons». But this poorly worked-out plan soon fell apart when the declarations of the marine officer who took part in the operation that started it all were made public: «The officer himself», when interviewed by this correspondent, «explained that the 100 or so people involved, including men, women, and children, did not come to the armed forces bases at Corazon-Pata and Llochegua of their own free will, but rather were rounded up by the marines in the high mountain ranges and were then taken to these camps. When Lieutenant ‹Anibal› was asked if they were carrying arms when they surrendered, he said no», according to The Republic on the 25th of October, 1985 (our emphasis). This was the famous «surrender» hoax.

Nevertheless, these plans, actions, genocides, and farces were part of APRA's measures against the People's War. To quote the 18th of May, 1985, El Nacional [The National]: «APRA will try to crush terrorism during the first 100 days of its government. This is one of the objectives of the emergency plan, part of the overall APRA plan for the government, elaborated and approved by the National Government Planning Commission.» But everything, all the manoeuvres and «objectives», blew up in their faces with the unleashing of a new and thundering offensive in the People's War at the end of that year. The Joint Command itself, presided over by Army Commander-in-Chief General Guillermo Monzon Arunategui, Navy chief Vice-Admiral Victor Nicolini, and Air Force head General Luis Abram Cavallerino, and their advisors all had to travel to Ayacucho for several days in early February 1986. Why? Essentially to formulate new plans which were then approved by Garcia's Council of National Defence. Thus, new operations were launched, especially in Political-Military Command Zone No. 5. As we've seen in Section 1, the revolutionary war developed still further, striking violently and hard in the capital city itself.

The June 1986 genocide should be seen within this general framework and the specific plans cooked up a year earlier, as well as taking into account the upcoming anniversary of APRA's first year in government and the planned congress of the so-called «Socialist International» Garcia sought to use as a trampoline to boost his image as a «Third World leader» and to strengthen his government's position internationally, seeking to offset the failures suffered by his domestic political and military plans and the setbacks suffered by his international policies. In addition to this framework, there was an intensification of systematic provocations against te prisoners of war, in violation of agreements they had extracted from the Belaunde government and the APRA government itself on the 31st of October, 1985, agreements which recognized them as «special prisoners» and acknowledged their rights as guaranteed by international law subscribed to by the Peruvian State, as well as by Peru's Constitution and the relevant laws. These signed documents and rights were won and defended through firm and stubborn struggles; there was really no other way they could have been obtained. These provocations also included naval incursions in El Fronton, reconnaissance flights over that prison, as well as other provocations against families and supporters of the prisoners of war, and death threats and beatings given to prisoners who were being taken to court. Moreover, a campaign was relaunched to transfer the prisoners to the new Canto Grande concentration camp, and prison authorities made provocative statements about it. Parliament approved a law stipulating that the prisoners should be transferred to prisons in the areas they were from, but Garcia postponed its implementation. With all this in mind, it can be clearly seen that there was a plan to commit large-scale genocide, by hook or by crook, and that the APRA government and reactionary armed forces were awaiting the most politically favourable moment to carry it out, in order to strengthen their so-called «democracy» and the APRA government, especially Garcia, and deal a heavy blow to the People's War. It was within this political context of sharp class struggle and the development of the armed struggle led by the Party, and of the struggle between revolution and counter-revolution in general, waged principally by force of arms for over six years, that the prisoners of war rose up. The reactionary Peruvian State under Garcia's political leadership, his government, and its armed forces and police responded with a genocidal extermination that provoked international repercussions and horrified condemnations of this barbarous genocide. Alan Garcia's touted international prestige crumbled like a sandcastle; domestically it provoked the APRA government's most serious crisis so far. The genocide sharpened the contradictions within the reaction itself, particularly shaking up the political institutions, including the United Left, whose head, the APRA-ite Barrantes, had acted as an accomplice by proposing a «united front against terrorism», and shocked the masses of the people, whose condemnation can never be obliterated. Thus these repeated and unrepentant genocidal murders have provoked worldwide condemnation and a political crisis which will not abate, a crisis with long-term repercussions.

In June the Communist Party of Peru put out the following resolution:

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

DAY OF HEROISM

Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, since the very start the reactionary APRA government has resorted to genocide against the People's War, covering it up with pompous demagoguery, with the support and aid of the electoral opportunists. This was amply proven by the crimes committed by the police and armed forces of the Peruvian State in Aqomarca, Umaru, Bellavista, and Lloclapampa.

The reaction took sinister aim against the prisoners of war, planning their genocidal liquidation. This took place on the 4th of October last year, with the cowardly and brutal murder of 13 fighters in Lurigancho Prison. This is another abominable crime that has gone unpunished, and only the victorious people will be able to mete out punishment.

On the 18th of June, 1986, at El Fronton, Lurigancho, and Callao, the prisoners of war rose up in rebellion against the new genocide under way, after having publicly and repeatedly denounced, before the courts and the authorities themselves, the slaughter that the government and its armed forces were plotting. They arose in defence of the revolution and their lives, putting forward 26 very just and reasonable demands.

On the 19th, after the reactionary APRA government headed by Garcia went through the grotesque farce of manipulating the so-called «Peace Commission», it unleashed the most vile and evil extermination operation, mobilizing the army, navy, air force, and police under the Joint Command to carry out the most monstrous genocide, killing hundreds of prisoners of war, guerrilla fighters, and children of the people, and bathing themselves once more in the ardent blood of the people. Let Alan Garcia, his cabinet, the Joint Command, the armed forces, and the police be covered with indelible ignominy that the people shall never forget and that only the people shall punish!

The fighters of the People's Guerrilla Army, prisoners of war, fought heroically and daringly, upholding the slogan, «It's right to rebel!», and setting a landmark of heroism, valour, and courage that history will cherish as exemplary of the heroes that only a people's war can bring forth.

Thus, the 19th of June is forever stamped as the Day of Heroism. The blood of these heroes is already nurturing the armed revolution, fanning its flames, arising like a tremendous flag unfurled and like an inexhaustible war cry summoning the inevitable final victory.

The glorious death of these prisoners of war in battle is wrapped in the blood already spilt, and before it we Communists, fighters, and children of the people pledge our unwavering commitment to follow their shining example, to develop the People's War to serve the world revolution until the inextinguishable light of communism dwells upon the whole Earth under the forever victorious banners of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Mao Zedong, of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism ever green.

GLORY TO THE FALLEN HEROES! LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!¹³

Furthermore, we must also see that the truth comes out and the facts be recorded for history just as they really occurred; as everyone can see, the episodes we have witnessed are already an indelible part of our history, and we must make sure that they are handed down clearly preserved for future generations. The question is, to make it perfectly clear, in the first place, the responsibility of Alan Garcia, the APRA party leadership, the cabinet, the Joint Command, and the armed forces and police. It is evident that the political responsibility principally rests with Alan Garcia, who, besides acting as President, is Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and it was he and his cabinet who directed the genocidal extermination, carried out principally by the armed forces under the leadership of the Joint Command, with the aid of the police.

Secondly, the United Left leadership, and especially Barrantes, the APRA-ite who heads that organization, are also responsible. In particular, the Mayor is an accomplice because his call for a so-called «united front against terrorism» undeniably helped to prepare the genocide.

Thirdly, it is generally known that the leaders of the political parties and of the Church had been informed of the situation and the measures to be taken. Therefore, the question arises, what did they do? Doesn't their silence imply co-participation and in some cases complicity?

Fourthly, the cunning distortions and disgusting implications poured out by the press and broadcast media are impermissible. Among these, the weekly newspaper Amauta [Teacher] has provoked surprise and repugnance. Do such distortions and implications serve the people or the reaction? Whatever disagreements and opposing positions there might be cannot justify vile filth, all the more when it is a matter of fighters willing to give their lives for their ideas, who deserve no less than respect from any decent person.

Fifthly, this genocidal extermination is undeniably a milestone in the class struggle in this country, and its repercussions have brought about the APRA government's biggest crisis so far, provoking shock at home and abroad. It shows the decrepitude of the prevailing social system and the incontrovertible need to completely and thoroughly overthrow it, no matter how long it takes, because history already demands it; moreover, and very revealingly, it has shattered the phoney «nationalist, democratic, and popular» mask worn by APRA and the sham President, demonstrating the essence of things for all who wish to see — the fascist and corporatist road the government has set out on and will continue to follow.

Finally, the armed actions unfolding since 1980 show very clearly, even if some people choose not to see it for whatever reasons, that a powerful and ever-growing people's war is developing as the ardent expression of the class struggle, sustained by the masses, whose support is undeniable because without it the persistence of the People's War would be inexplicable. It is a people's war led by the Communist Party of Peru, following Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the ever victorious ideology of the proletariat whose emancipation it serves, together with that of the people, as a part of the world revolution. The genocide committed in the Shining Trenches of El Fronton, Lurigancho, and Callao against Party members, fighters of the People's Guerrilla Army, and children of the people, who fought alongside us, is an inseparable part of our People's War; and, moreover, it is a milestone of that war. With their rebellion they built a monument that we will always commemorate as the Day of Heroism, on which are engraved, along with others, the indelible names of our comrades David Javier Guevara Torres (Alejandro) and Victor Felipe Vidal Marino (Jose).

As for the background to this genocide, we must take into account the different struggles that had taken place in the shining trenches in the struggle, emphasizing among them the joint struggle of the 13th of July, 1985, in which the first signed agreement was won, and the genocide of the 4th of October of the same year and its corollary on the 31st of the same month, when the second agreement was extracted from the APRA government. As for the facts, a good chronology of the events of the 18th and 19th of June is needed; moreover, the general tendency is to emphasize the events at Lurigancho. Without at all minimizing the special importance of the events there, it is also very important to expose what happened at El Fronton; to cover up the events there would mean covering up the responsibility of the navy, an institution which has carried out sinister genocide and which perversely and bloodthirstily continues this policy today, with the disappearance of the bodies of the fallen heroes. We reiterate the army's responsibility at Lurigancho, despite its attempts to make the Republican Guard the scapegoat; the Republican Guard shares the blame but is not the main culprit. It is also appropriate to point out the statements signed by judicial and parliamentary authorities who initially took steps regarding the situation only to be ignored, and who subsequently resigned their posts, whereupon they were replaced by members of the Military Court of Justice. Likewise, it is also worth clarifying the role of the so-called «Peace Commission», which, either consciously or through manipulation, served to make it look like there was mediation when really there was none. Regarding what happened after the genocide, it is key to analyse Garcia's speeches at the Congress of the Second International, on television, and, above all, his performance at Lurigancho. Aware of the facts since the very beginning, he let loose a flood of hysterical demagoguery to cover up, deceive, and especially to save his own image. It should also be emphasized that Alva's absence at the start doesn't exempt him in any way from his responsibilities as Chairman of the Cabinet; moreover, though he was present at Lurigancho and knew all the facts, he shrewdly kept his silence so as to absolve himself of all responsibility. In the same way, then-Minister of Justice Gonzalez Posada is also directly responsible, despite his cunning resignation for phoney «ethical reasons». One fact should be remembered: After the bloody events of the 15th of January, 1986, he said that those accused of terrorism would not be transferred to Canto Grande, but, with his «resignation», he seeks to keep his imagine clean for the future. Apart from this question of political responsibility, it is evident that others responsible are General Monzon Arrunategui, Chairman of the Joint Command, and Vice-Admiral Nicolini and General Abram Cavallerino, also of the Joint Command, members, respectively, of the army, navy, and air force and those principally responsible for leading the operations, along with the secondary responsibility of the police. These people, in accordance with the policies of genocide and extermination taught them by their US masters, planned, organized, and carried out the genocidal extermination plans in violation of even the most basic and universally accepted laws of war, such as those of the Geneva Conventions. Likewise, it is indispensable to analyse the role played by the Standing Commission of Congress, which, instead of dealing with the events as a matter of public interest, which should have been openly aired, maliciously treated them as secret and then postponed looking into them until the following session of parliament. The performance of the different parties that belong to the Standing Commission has been very revealing, especially that of the United Left, whose document presented in the Commission condemns those who arose in defence of the revolution and their lives, and treats the rights of their relatives as humanitarian gifts for which they should beg.

Finally, we must denounce before the proletariat and the peoples of the world the slimy role played by the so-called «Socialist International» in this genocide. It should be recalled that it originated from the old-style revisionists, who defended their bourgeoisies and led the masses to be cannonfodder under the slogan of «defence of the homeland» in that first great imperialist war of plunder, in opposition to Lenin's great thesis of converting the imperialist war into a revolutionary war, which, when firmly applied, led to triumph over the renegades and to the Great October Revolution. The counter-revolutionary work carried out by Social-Democracy, with Ebert at its head, should also be recalled — united with the exploiters and the German militarists, they drowned the German revolution in fire and blood and held back the revolution throughout Europe; sinking further into parliamentary cretinism, they became a prop of imperialism, firefighters to be used to smother revolutionary sparks among the proletariat and the people. Since the 1950s, they have discarded like old leaves the few Marxist terms that, empty of content, had clung to them, in order to continue wheeling and dealing as Social-Democratic Parties in the service of European imperialism principally, and in recent decades, in the service of these masters, they have tried to extend their influence in Latin America, which was why they were so eager to hold their Congress in Lima. We must especially denounce their party boss Willy Brandt for his dirty and miserable defence of Garcia, seeking to exonerate him of his responsibility for mass genocide while defaming the People's War being waged in Peru. In the same way we denounce Carlos Andres Perez, a bloodstained swaggerer who, like his predecessors, used fire and sword to crush the Venezuelan armed struggle, and who today, passing himself off as a democrat, has been Garcia's and APRA's big defender. Thus, the self-proclaimed «Socialist International», by trying to cover up the June genocide, has only continued to bathe itself in the blood of the proletariat and the people, this time of the Peruvian proletariat and people, of the hundreds of their children who were savagely liquidated; but, in doing so, they undermined their own Congress, which took place amidst the shocks and tremours provoked by the genocide they had tried to cover up, thus sharpening their own internal contradictions, until it fizzled out without grief or glory in the middle of the night, amidst confusion due to changes in agenda and meetings suspended and even prematurely brought to a halt, despite the thousands of soldiers and police guarding their meeting headquarters. In this way, the rebellion and the subsequent massacre served to once more unmask the long and black history of the slimy «Socialist International», with a bloody and shocking new lesson that makes plain its pro-imperialist and reactionary essence.

After this genocidal extermination, Garcia tried to wash his indelibly bloody hands and restore his image with huge advertisements in the principal newspapers of the world, costing the Peruvian people USD 8'000'000, to no avail. Today he continues this effort, cynically and scandalously lying in «interviews» published in foreign publications, such as El Nacional [The National] of Caracas, where he said: «No. At El Fronton the marines only helped out with explosives to blow open a breach»; referring to the shooting of the prisoners of war at Lurigancho, he says: «We have denounced it. We have arrested 100 people for that crime, and right now they are being held in jail.» However, faced with the political defeat he has suffered due to his own errors, which are as big or bigger than his vanity, he resorts to the same stale insults as Belaunde and others to express the hatred that revolution fills him with: «The ‹Shining Path› is an anarchist and cruel outburst, in the style of Pol Pot, and that's why I am vigorously anti-‹Shining Path›», he recently told the US magazine Newsweek. The basic question behind all this demagogic foliage is clear and concrete — the People's War is the main problem confronted by the Peruvian State and its reactionary APRA government, as «Mr. Constitutional President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and the Police» clearly said in his July 1986 message: «The foremost obstacle to our democracy is subversive violence» (our emphasis); further, in the same message, knowing very well what is holding up the reactionary State and himself, he reiterated for the Nth time recently: «I salute and express my full support for the armed forces and the police, which are loyal, respectful, and obedient to the constitutional government.»

#2.4. REFUTATION OF THE CONDEMNATIONS OF THE PEOPLE'S WAR

For years now, but especially since the genocide, the condemnations of the People's War have grown, condemning revolutionary violence in the name of bourgeois pacifism and the masses, and accusing the Party of being sectarian. We propose that all those who are capable of seeing reality, and especially those who are obliged to see it, think seriously and deeply about the following quotations and experiences.

#2.4.1. CONCERNING PACIFISM

We ask, aren't the calls for peace in accord with the «pacification» sought by the armed forces, Garcia, APRA, and so on? Is this a coincidence? No — one should recall what happened in Uruguay in the 1970s. To combat the Tupamaros, the repressive forces also put forward the necessity of «pacification». The revisionists, according to Rodney Arismendi, their leader, promoted a movement for peace, justice, democracy, and other pleas; the end result, as we all know, was that all this only served to help the Uruguayan reaction smash the Tupamaros. Is this, then, what they want in our country? The smashing of the People's War? The difference is that here, what is developing is a people's war led by a Communist Party that follows Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Guiding Thought; we are not Tupamaros, ours is a different ideology, with everything that derives from that. These words from Lenin deserve serious consideration:

Marxism is not pacifism. Of course, the speediest possible termination of the war must be striven for. However, the «peace» demand acquires a proletarian significance only if a revolutionary struggle is called for. Without a series of revolutions, what is called a democratic peace is a philistine utopia.¹⁴

Whoever wants a lasting and democratic peace must stand for civil war against the governments and the bourgeoisie.¹⁴

#2.4.2. CONCERNING REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE

On revolutionary violence, Engels's words, called by Lenin a «panegyric on violent revolution», should be kept in mind:

That violence, however, plays another role (other than that of a diabolic power) in history; that, in the words of Marx, it is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one; that it is the instrument with which social movement forces its way through and shatters the dead, fossilized political forms — of this there is not a word in Mr. Dühring. It is only with sighs and groans that he admits the possibility that violence will perhaps be necessary for the overthrow of an economy based on exploitation — unfortunately, because all use of violence demoralizes, he says, the person who uses it. And this is in spite of the immense moral and spiritual impetus which has been given by every victorious revolution! And this is Germany, where a violent revolution — which may, after all, be forced on the people — would at least have the merit of wiping out the servility which has penetrated the nation's mentality following the humiliation of the Thirty Years' War. And this parson's mode of thought — dull, insipid, and impotent — presumes to impose itself on the most revolutionary party that history has known!¹⁵

And what Lenin taught:

The necessity of systematically imbuing the masses with this, and precisely this, view of violent revolution lies at the root of the entire theory of Marx and Engels.¹²

And, furthermore, Chairman Mao's great thesis should be deeply considered:

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

[...]

Whoever has an army has power, and war decides everything.

[...]

A few small political parties with a short history, for example, the Youth Party, have no army and so have not been able to get anywhere.

In other countries there is no need for each of the bourgeois parties to have an armed force under its direct command. But things are different in China, where, because of the feudal division of the country, those landowner or bourgeois groupings or parties which have guns have power, and those which have more guns have more power. Placed in such an environment, the party of the proletariat should see clearly to the heart of the matter.

Communists do not fight for personal military power (they must in no circumstances do that, and let no one ever again follow the example of Zhang Guotao), but they must fight for military power for the people. As a national war of resistance is going on, we must also fight for military power for the nation. Where there is naivety on the question of military power, nothing whatsoever can be achieved. It is very difficult for the working people, who have been deceived and intimidated by the reactionary ruling classes for thousands of years, to awaken to the importance of having guns in their own hands. Now that Japanese imperialist oppression and the nationwide resistance to it have pushed our working people into the arena of war, Communists should prove themselves the most politically conscious leaders in the war. Every Communist must grasp the truth: «Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.» Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party. Yet, having guns, we can create Party organizations, as witness the powerful Party organizations which the Eighth Route Army has created in northern China. We can also create cadres, create schools, create culture, create mass movements. Everything in Yan'an has been created by having guns. All things grow out of the barrel of a gun. According to the Marxist theory of the State, the army is the chief component of State power, whoever wants to seize and retain State power must have a strong army. Some people ridicule us as advocates of the «omnipotence of war». Yes, we are advocates of the omnipotence of revolutionary war; that is good, not bad, it is Marxist. The guns of the Communist Party of Russia created socialism. We shall create a democratic republic. Experience in the class struggle in the era of imperialism teaches us that it is only by the power of the gun that the working class and the working people can defeat the armed bourgeoisie and feudal lords; in this sense we may say that only with guns can the whole world be transformed. We are advocates of the abolition of war, we do not want war; but war can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.¹⁶

And, since we are on the subject, while discussing other fundamental questions it is not out of place to analyse the profound meaning of the following words by Lenin:

The only thing that does occur to the opportunist is what they see around them, in an environment of small-bourgeois philistinism and «reformist» stagnation, namely, only «municipalities»! The opportunist has even grown out of the habit of thinking about proletarian revolution.¹²

#2.4.3. CONCERNING THE MASSES

The following deserves to be studied conscientiously:

One of the most common sophistries of Kautskyism is its reference to the «masses». We do not want, they say, to break away from the masses and mass organizations! But just think how Engels put the question: In the 19th century, the «mass organizations» of the English trade unions were on the side of the bourgeois Labour Party. Marx and Engels did not reconcile themselves to it on this ground; they exposed it. They did not forget, firstly, that the trade-union organizations directly embraced a minority of the proletariat. In England then, as in Germany now, not more than 1/5 of the proletariat was organized. No one can seriously think it possible to organize the majority of the proletariat under capitalism. Secondly — and this is the main point — it is not so much a question of the size of an organization, as of the real, objective significance of its policy: does its policy represent the masses, does it serve them, that is, does it aim at their liberation from capitalism, or does it represent the interests of the minority, the minority's reconciliation with capitalism? The latter was true of England in the 19th century, and it is true of Germany, and so on, now.

Engels draws a distinction between the «bourgeois labour party» of the old trade unions — the privileged minority — and the «lower mass», the real majority, and appeals to the latter, who are not infected by «bourgeois respectability». This is the essence of Marxist tactics!

Neither we nor anyone else can calculate precisely what portion of the proletariat is following and will follow the social-chauvinists and opportunists. This will be revealed only by the struggle, it will be definitively decided only by the socialist revolution. But we know for certain that the «defenders of the homeland» and the imperialist war represent only a minority. And it is therefore our duty, if we wish to remain Socialists, to go down lower and deeper, to the real masses; this is the whole meaning and the whole purpose of the struggle against opportunism. By exposing the fact that the opportunists and social-chauvinists are in reality betraying and selling the interests of the masses, that they are defending the temporary privileges of the minority of workers, that they are the vehicles of bourgeois ideas and influences, that they are really allies and agents of the bourgeoisie, we teach the masses to appreciate their true political interests, to fight for socialism and for the revolution through all the long and painful vicissitudes of imperialist wars and imperialist armistices.

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, to utilize the experiences of the war to expose, not conceal, the utter vileness of national-liberal labour politics.¹⁷

And, most especially, this great truth expressed by Chairman Mao Zedong should be thoroughly and deeply reflected upon:

Marxism consists of thousands of truths, but they all boil down to the one sentence: «It is right to rebel.» For thousands of years, it has been said that it was right to oppress, it was right to exploit, and it was wrong to rebel. This old verdict was only reversed by the appearance of Marxism. This is a great contribution. It was through struggle that the proletariat learned this truth, and Marx drew the conclusion. And, from this truth, there follows resistance, struggle, and the fight for socialism.⁶

#2.4.4. CONCERNING SECTARIANISM

Finally, regarding our supposed sectarianism, we would like to recall Mariategui:

We are living in a period of total ideological war. Those who represent a renovating force cannot, either by accident or chance, unite or merge themselves with those who represent conservatism or regression. There is a historic abyss between them. They speak different languages and have a different understanding of history.

I think we should unite the like-minded and not those who differ. We should approach those whom history wants to unite. There should be solidarity between those of whom history requires solidarity. This, it seems to me, is the only possible alliance. A common understanding with a precise and effective sense of history.

I am a revolutionary. But I believe that people who think clearly and definitively will be able to understand and appreciate each other, even while struggling against each other. The one political force with whom I will never reach an understanding is the other camp: mediocre reformism, domesticated reformism, hypocritical democracy.

#★ ★ ★

These, in our judgement, are some of the basic questions that have emerged after the APRA government's first year. In sum, the APRA party, its government, and Garcia who heads them both, responding to the development and future prospects of Peruvian society, which is rotting alive, and of the reactionary Peruvian State, and developing their own contradictions, have plunged into the corporatization of the Peruvian State and society guided by a fascist political orientation. The key reasons behind this reactionary decision and future prospect are the persistent and unyielding struggle of the people, the masses, and the organizations that genuinely defend the people's interests, above all the People's War led by the Communist Party, and, concretely, in the current conjuncture, the sharpening of the class struggle, the intensification of the People's War, and the rebellion of the prisoners of war against whom this vile genocidal extermination was unleashed, a genocide which was the last straw and in turn has drawn a line of demarcation and shattered the phoney demagoguery about the «nationalist, democratic, and popular State», and helped to sharpen the contradiction within which the APRA party is trapped, by exposing its underlying fascist and corporatist essence. Under Garcia's leadership, APRA has followed the strategy of relying on the poor masses of the shantytowns, and of winning over the peasants in the mountains, especially in the so-called «Andean Triangle» region, to hold back the people's struggle, especially by using the United Left as shock troops, and of uniting all the reactionaries under APRA's command, to isolate the proletariat, repress the broad masses, and target the People's War. To accomplish this, APRA has relied on repression carried out by the armed forces and the police. Now this strategy will be heightened with even more demagogic lies about the «nationalist, democratic, and popular State» and even more pompous verbal anti-imperialism.

During the last year, the United Left has supported the APRA government and even acted as its shock troops, mainly due to the work of Barrantes, the APRA-ite who heads up the United Left, and to the course set by its national leadership. Furthermore, in the context of the past months, and especially of the crisis generated by the unleashing of the genocide, the United Left — despite its internal contradictions, since its principal aspect is electoralism — has continued to be what the British call «Her Majesty's loyal opposition», the government's shield against wind and rain, in the name of the «defence of democracy», as it so often claimed, and even more in the name of «preventing a State coup». These old opportunist excuses for the most wanton electoralism in our history have been more fervently upheld than ever under the empire of Barrantes and his supporters. Today, with the United Left's «disagreements overcome», but its internal contradictions remaining, as well as those between the United Left and APRA, the United Left is preparing for the Municipal Elections into which they and APRA hope to channel the people and keep them from their real interests and true path.

#CONCLUSION

These are the more than six years of the People's War, its flames blazing and spreading, led by the Party, relying on the masses of the people (principally the peasants), under the streaming banners of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the sole and universal world outlook of the proletariat, and the Guiding Thought, its application to the concrete reality of the Peruvian revolution. This People's War, which has served the international proletarian revolution since the beginning, and will continue to do so, enjoys the support of the international working class and the peoples of the world, of the genuine Communists and revolutionaries, and especially of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, of which the Party is a member. This People's War, which will continue to advance undaunted, because, as Marx pointed out, the banner of armed struggle cannot be lowered until the achievement of communism, pledges more solemnly than ever before, under the Party's leadership, to develop base areas for the emancipation of the Peruvian people, and thus advance in fulfilling the main contribution the Communist Party of Peru can make to the world revolution at present. And this Party that is leading the People's War, the greatest accomplishment of the Peruvian proletariat and people, with a profound sense of historic responsibility, pledges to strive untiringly to impose Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as the commander and guide of the proletarian world revolution, since only in this way will it march ahead steadfastly and victoriously, and, with the full conviction that only with guns will we transform the world, holds high the struggle for the proletariat and the peoples of the world to take up people's war as the only complete and true proletarian military doctrine and the principal form of struggle, through which we shall sweep imperialism and reaction off the face of the Earth, putting it into practice, as Chairman Mao taught, according to conditions, whether they be of democratic revolution, socialist revolution, or the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and according to the specific conditions of each concrete revolution as well as of the world revolution taken as a whole.

#DEVELOP THE PEOPLE'S WAR TO SERVE THE WORLD REVOLUTION!

#GLORY TO MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM!

#LONG LIVE THE WORLD REVOLUTION!

#LONG LIVE CHAIRMAN GONZALO!