Outline of the Central Document of the Third Plenary Session of the First Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru
#PUBLICATION NOTE
This edition of Outline of the Central Document of the Third Plenary Session of the First Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru has been translated, 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 the magazine The New Flag.
#INTRODUCTION NOTE
This is the Outline of the Central Document of the Third Plenary Session of the First Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru drafted by Comrade Gonzalo in Lima, Peru in March 1992. It was first published in the magazine The New Flag.
#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!
#OUTLINE OF THE CENTRAL DOCUMENT OF THE THIRD PLENARY SESSION OF THE FIRST CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU
#Gonzalo
#March 1992
#★
Take into account the documents of the Third Plenary Session; publish those of the Second Plenary Session; reprint the document Let the Strategic Stalemate Shake the Country More! for the directors; circulate the document On the Two Camps down to the level of the fighters, and have them reproduce them; disseminate the pledge; and so on, and so forth. These are the relevant documents; let us apply them at once. They are the Party's fundamental standpoints.
Concerning the document Karl Marx. It is necessary to see how the comrades handle Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. There is a problem of empiricism, and we must see how to combat it. There are serious difficulties in this: there is a lot of subjectivism and individualism — it is an ideological problem. One time, in the Communist Party of China, they studied On Practice and On Contradiction. This was very important, because, if you do not know what reality is, how can you handle its contradictions, and, if you do not study it, how can you take a leap? We should think about these questions. Karl Marx is a work by Lenin, and it contains some questions which were further developed by Chairman Mao, for example, in On Contradiction. When studying this text, we run the risk of falling into Stalin's criterion. Therefore, it is important to know exactly at what point in time one is studying each document, or one must publish a note alongside the document.
Certain comrades say that they suffer from empiricism. This is an ideological question. This question will come up time and again. It is a reality that must be investigated. Otherwise, I ask, how can we solve new problems? Chairman Mao, at important moments in the revolution, raised the necessity of understanding everything according to our worldview by applying the law of contradiction to practice, and this is a problem which must be looked at by the whole Party. We must understand how to study. There is a strong lack of knowledge, and reactionary ideas are affecting the Party. It would be best to take our specific problems and analyse each committee individually. In that way, we can see the problems that exist in the ideological sphere. People repeat a lot of things without understanding them.
#1. ON THE CENTRAL DOCUMENT, THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THIRD PLENARY SESSION, AND OTHER PROBLEMS
The January meeting dealt with the content of the Third Plenary Session and concluded that a Central Document should be prepared, consisting of the following parts:
#1.1. INTERNATIONAL SITUATION
Look at the subject of imperialism, while taking into account Lenin's and Chairman Mao's thesis. Look at the character of the decay of imperialism, the contradiction between collusion and contention between the superpowers and powers, the collapse of revisionism, the oppressed nations, the Third World, and the strategy and tactics of the world revolution. Aim to look at revolution as the main trend.
#1.2. ANALYSIS OF MODERN PERUVIAN SOCIETY
This analysis is centred on bureaucrat capitalism, on the basis of the questions raised, for example, in the August document (On the Rectification Movement Based on the Study of the Document «No to Elections! Yes to People's War!»). Bureaucrat capitalism matures the conditions for the revolution. Look at the reactionization of the Old Peruvian State, the armed forces that are its backbone, and the groups and sections of the big bourgeoisie: the comprador bourgeoisie and the bureaucrat bourgeoisie. Look at the Church and its growing influence, particularly that of the Catholic Church. Look at the importance of the land question, semi-feudalism, and the changes in this sphere brought about by the People's War. Look at how the basic contradictions — between the masses and feudalism, between the nation and imperialism, and between the people and bureaucrat capitalism — are concretized. Look at the democratic road and the People's Republic of Peru. Aim to look at the inexorable course of Peruvian society toward its destruction.
#1.3. SUMMARY OF THE PEOPLE'S WAR
Look at the campaign and counter-campaigns, the transfer of the centre of the Party's work, and the uprising. Look at how to complete the democratic revolution by seizing the cities as a part of the road of encircling the cities from the countryside.
#1.4. THE QUESTION OF CONSTRUCTION
We have to highlight urgent and important questions: the revolutionary united front for the conquest of political power, the construction of the New State, and the exercise of democracy. Look at how to develop the People's Guerrilla Army and strengthen its armament with the highest fighting spirit. Look at the Party and how to conceive of the rectification movement. The Party sticks to the course toward our immediate and final objectives. The content of the rectification movement should centre on the question of construction. Look at the function of studying Lenin's Karl Marx. The rectification movement to serve the Great Completion is based on three documents:
- Quotations From Chairman Mao Zedong on People's War
- On Policy by Chairman Mao
- On Party Building (Bandera Roja [Red Flag], No. 46)
We emphasize that all this serves to lay the basis for the Sixth Plan and for the Strategic Construction Plan.
#★ ★ ★
In sum, the document should consist of five parts:
- The World Revolution
- Peruvian Society
- On the People's War
- Construction, the Specific Programme, and Other Questions
- The New Plan and the Strategic Construction Plan
We have been discussing these questions. Our ideas reflect reality; at first, they were not clear, but the development of reality and the discussion of it have allowed for our ideas to take shape and for us to specify the questions with more clarity. Now we are handling and understanding these questions in a more clear and precise way. It is very good that we have defined the basic documents of the Plenary Session. The Central Document has to be developed on the basis of the discussion at the Preparatory Sitting. It is necessary to deliver a report and to work for two or three months to elaborate it further. These questions are serious and complex; for example, the strategy and tactics of the world revolution or the questions of the People's War in Peru. The document should not be very extensive but rather clear and simple, so that it can be spread more easily. The revolution has a need for elaborate, simple, and clear ideas that express the truth. They have to be well elaborated, simple, and straightforward. Look at what the rank and file requires without falling into too many details. Sometimes the reactionary gangsters, who are specialists in trickery and in twisting our ideas, put pressure on us with their criteria. The document should be spread among the masses and the people to whom it should be addressed. The masses are faced with decisive, basic questions, which cannot be answered with subtleties, but only with well-elaborated thoughts, clear ideas, and the fusion of our general theory with concrete reality. We need other documents for the directors, who are required to study more classical works and to analyse reality — they have to master theory firmly and skilfully, so as to learn how to direct, lead, and maintain the course. The cadres in turn need more extensive texts which can be spread on a wider scale. Our rank-and-file members are largely peasants, so let us educate them by using concrete and practical words. Marx founded our theory, which we are applying today in a verifiable and genuine way. Our efforts aim at discovering our own specific conditions, our own laws, and, if the circumstances demand it, we also discover laws that are more or less universally valid.
#2. OUTLINE OF A CENTRAL DOCUMENT
#2.1. INTRODUCTION
#2.1.1. SOCIALISM, THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT, THE PARTY, AND MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM
Some people are systematically and sinisterly attacking us on four points:
- They are denying socialism.
- They are attacking the dictatorship of the proletariat.
- They are denying the necessity of the Party.
- They are proclaiming that Marxism has become outdated.
Let us remember Section 4 of No to Elections! Yes to People's War!, which contains Marxist-Leninist-Maoist lessons and truths. That document teaches us how to uphold our immortal principles; it is a declaration of our convictions and principles, which are great truths. The document is very fine. Some comrades say that they have problems studying that section of the document, and that they feel like these four accusations are true. But we have to aim to defend socialism, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Party, and Marxism by taking up the extraordinary transformation and the unprecedented greatness that socialism, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Party, and Marxism have brought about on Earth in only a few years. It should be made clear that the benefit to the proletariat and the people has been more immense than ever before, because beforehand it was only ever minorities who benefited. It should be made clear that the disappearance of socialism is only temporary, and that, even though the attacks on the ideology of our class have done immense damage, people will soon realize that they suffered an immense loss and that they have to reconquer what was lost by blood and fire. It was Heaven itself that was lost and it is necessary to reconquer it, to storm Heaven again — it is not so complicated.
Chairman Mao said that in a short period of time, the world had been transformed as never before; that what took 250 years in England would take 50 years in China; and that in this way one can see the potential of the relations of production.
Old, backward Tsarist Russia suffered under centuries of dead weight; under a crippling feudal system that coloured the social system from its deepest roots to its highest branches; under a brutal aristocratic dictatorship, which was known as the «gendarme of Europe»; but the revolution overthrew these centuries of oppression, swept them away, and, in a few decades, reached great productive heights and laid the basis that the revisionists later used to develop the economy of a superpower.
If we look at the five-year plans, then, even according to non-Marxist authors, such as Bernard and Colin, say that, in the Council Union, the First Five-Year Plan, from 1928 to '32, gave priority to the development of heavy industry; the Second Five-Year Plan, from 1933 to '37, gave priority to the iron and steel industries; and the Third Five-Year Plan, from 1938 to '42, gave priority to the future development of the machine-building industry; because of the Nazi attack in 1941, this plan was interrupted. That is to say, they did not even complete three five-year plans. Before 1928 they had seized political power and had to fulfil pending democratic tasks, and then came the New Economic Policy, which was a step backward in other to maintain the economy of the new republic, because back then they had to struggle for the stabilization of the economy. So, they did not even have 15 years of five-year plans, and only in the 1920s did the planning system begin. Now that they attack the planning system, we should point out that it is like a supporting pillar that allows for the management of the economic process according to the interests of the class which controls the dictatorship by moving the masses under the guidance of people who are capable of managing society and of imposing conditions of the world by planning according to its laws. It is an expression of freedom, not a puppet show. Planning allows one to empower and deploy the social character of production, to conduct management according to the interests of the majority of the population, and this is something that some people don't agree with. The Council Union only began the planning system in the 1920s because they previously had to deal with serious problems because the New State was still being born.
The Fourth Five-Year Plan, from 1946 to '50, served to organize economic reconstruction. The Fifth Five-Year Plan, from 1951 to '55, gave preference to the manufacture of the means of production. Stalin died in 1953.
These are five five-year plans, consisting of a period of 25 years, including a world war in which the Council Union suffered the loss of 25'000'000 dead and had to apply scorched-earth tactics. The push forward and the conditions created at that time allowed for a vigorous advance and development until the 1960s. The revisionists were incapable of containing the continued expression of the powerful force, strength, and vigour of the forms created by the new system. The Seventh Five-Year Plan, from 1961 to '65, gave importance to the economic basis; the ones from 1966 to '70 and from '71 to '75 similarly developed the economic basis. Concerning the First Five-Year Plan, which gave priority to the development of heavy industry, Chairman Mao said that Stalin did not know how to manage the system of production well, that he did not let it walk on two legs: agriculture and industry. But in spite of the mistakes made, the power of the new social relations created a complete revolution, which laid a certain basis for economic development and satisfied the needs of millions of people.
What system has ever done anything similar? For example, the United States had its umbilical cord tied to England, which was already bourgeois, and when the settlers arrived in the United States, there was no feudal basis to hinder the development of the productive forces. How many centuries did they deed? A long journey of 350 years, which it is not possible to separate from that of England. In 30 years, were they able to build a country as big as the Council Union? Were they able to end hunger like in China? What can they boast about? Nothing!
The World Bank published a book which analyses 30 years of development in the backward countries and in England, the United States, Germany, Japan, and China. The book states that the country that made the greatest leap in the shortest period of time until today was China. This has nothing to do with Deng's laws; China's economic development is due to the basis laid during the democratic revolution and after Liberation in 1949.
#2.1.1.1. THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT
Some people say that the dictatorship of the proletariat is totalitarian. We should look at what Chairman Mao said in On the People's Democratic Dictatorship, and ask ourselves who benefits from this dictatorship. It is the people and the working class. We have to sweep away this old story about «totalitarianism» with which the bourgeoisie wants to stun us. Chairman Mao's comments are only superficial, so they need to be substantiated.
These people proclaim opposition to political parties. They aim to liquidate the politics of the working class, the politics of the proletariat. The only thing they want is the politics of the bourgeoisie. They don't even need political parties to impose bourgeois politics, just see how they kill people. Our politics, on the other hand, require strenuous efforts to be spread and concerted actions to conquer political power.
#2.1.1.2. MARXISM
The bourgeoisie is so rotten that it does not even always attack Marxism directly but resorts to ideas from two centuries ago. It is reviving completely ultra-reactionary figures, idiots like de Tocqueville, and promoting the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in the US fashion as seen through rose-coloured glasses. They say that Marxism has become outdated, but they are the ones who are outdated. What have they proved? None of them has ever managed to prove that Marxism has become outdated. Their so-called intellectuals are apprentices of the bourgeoisie, careerists like Dühring, who cackle while they plunder Marxism for whatever parts of it suits them.
In sum, it is necessary to defend Marxism, socialism, the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the Party by looking at the great feats they have achieved and whose interests these achievements serve, and by counterposing them to the interests of capitalism, imperialism, the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and the political parties that serve them. This is not the time for vagueness. In order for the revolution to advance, it requires a violent struggle to draw great lines of demarcation. Chairman Mao said that only great disorder can lead to a new order. We have not had enough disorder, and we need to create more. We must do so on the ideological level, because putting ideas into motion is vital in creating public opinion. Without doing so, political power cannot be conquered.
#2.1.2. REVOLUTIONARY VIOLENCE
Lenin spoke of the panegyric Engels sung to revolutionary violence. This is what is fitting for a Marxist or a revolutionary. What is fitting for a reactionary is to praise pacifism, that is, the two-faced peace of the bayonets. These are two different positions, each of which has its own method of handling peace and war. There is an immense effort throughout the world to talk about peace, pacification, and dialogue. All of this talk is overflowing with the most unbridled and vulgar bourgeois and small-bourgeois pacifist positions, which is nothing but poison to stupefy the working class and the masses. We are seeing peace, the end of the Cold War, but the world is already being shaken once again by brutal conflicts, like in Iraq, with every kind of weapon, except the nuclear bomb. We are seeing massacres and wars in Yugoslavia, the Caucasus, Ukraine, and Moldova.
The world is a powder keg which is going to explode. We are seeing quarrels between the imperialists as the United States systematically imposes its hegemony, while the other powers are struck with mortal panic, just like Hrusev, who said that if the United States and the Council Union were to unite, everyone else would die of fear when they raised a little finger. Pomelli has said that the United States is now the one calling the shots everywhere. The new gendarme presents itself as omnipotent. Every day it relies more and more on nuclear weapons and applies military and nuclear blackmail. It is dreaming of a Pax Romana [Roman Peace], but that peace was imposed on the oppressed people by relying on iron legions. We have to unmask all of this monstrous propaganda about pacification, which is nothing but the defence of the exploitative and oppressive order by a bunch of imbeciles who want to maintain their daily standard of living. Let us clarify the question of revolutionary violence by studying the section on revolutionary violence in the Outline of the Initiation of the Armed Struggle.
#★ ★ ★
This serves as an introduction to demonstrate that our worldview, our line, our dictatorship, socialism, under the guidance of Marxism, achieved the greatest feats that the Earth has ever seen, which was lost due to the monstrous actions of revisionism. Let us look at the process of revolution and counter-revolution, without being pessimistic, because the transition from one system to another is necessarily complex, hard, and brutal.
#2.2. THE INTERNATIONAL SITUATION
The documents contain basic ideas which must be developed further and worked out well. They are a source and a basis. We also have to take into account the Party's experience, that is, the lessons of our Communist work. Many Communists don't understand their own process well.
Let us look at Lenin's thesis that imperialism is the last stage of capitalism, which is a monopolistic, parasitic, and decaying cancer. Let us look at Chairman Mao's thesis that imperialism is a paper tiger, that the United States and the Council Union are paper tigers. Where is the Council Union now? Clearly, it was a paper tiger. We have to look at the law of imperialism and the people, and see that the people do not need imperialism, just as they don't need the plague.
One question is to see how empires collapse and to understand how imperialists or great empires collapse, including the States which currently exist. Let us look at how the Council Union collapsed; it was imperialist with a socialist mask, which has showed us how such a giant with feet of clay can collapse. The collapse of a system takes place over a long period of time. We have to understand imperialist as an unburied corpse, which passes through a period of recovery, followed by a period of deeper decline, until its total extinction or destruction; this is the case because, if it is not swept away in the course of many years, it will reappear again under new conditions. For example, Spain collapsed as a part of the capitalist order once, but it has recovered. The collapse of a system is a long but inexorable process of agony. Once can turn to history for examples of this.
The current state of the great empires, the current imperialist economy since the Second World War, is increasingly in serious trouble. For example, let us look at the United States. How is it possible for a country to spend 1/4 of its budget on paying back interest? It becomes more parasitic day by day. It is USD 4'000'000'000'000 in debt, USD 700'000'000 of which is foreign debt, its production is in recession, and it has gigantic amounts of unemployment with people even working for food rather than pay — it is a rotten giant with clay feet.
The German economy is trapped in the incorporation of East Germany and is incapable of digesting what it has swallowed. Japan is in serious trouble, for example, in the spheres of finance and real estate. It is not the way it is being portrayed.
Let us look at the unbridled and unrestrained way in which the imperialists are embarking on a new road of collusion and contention. Spheres of influence are beginning to intertwine and friction is emerging. Germany and Japan are in a race to militarize quickly, as we have said, and this is the case: the Japanese military budget is increasing, for example, Japan has a fleet of minesweepers in the Persian Gulf which it does not want to withdraw. Japan is desperate to become a recognized power, and to this end it develops great-power policies and gallops to become a military power, entangling with others and clashing with the oppressed people. We are seeing contradictions between the powers and superpowers, readjustments, modifications, and problems in the Third World, all showing that the rulers' privileges are nothing but smoke and mirrors. These parasites are sucking the blood of Africa and brutalizing Asia, creating so much suffering: 15'000'000 children have died in one single year for the glimmer of the United States, which does not care, because they are not American children. We have to unmask how unscrupulous they are. It is clear that they are going through a long and agonizing collapse leading inevitably to their death. This is a time of collusion and contention, great warlike conflicts, stirred-up nationalism, all according to their interests. A struggle has begun which stretches from the Caucasus through Central Asia as far as to Mongolia, but the spearhead is aimed at the Third World, which is being exploited and oppressed more day by day. They achieved a victory with the disintegration of the Council Union and are proclaiming their «triumph»; what they present as a «revolution» is in reality the counter-revolution in Eastern Europe. All of this serves for the ideas of neo-liberalism, pragmatism, existentialism, and bourgeois democracy to go through the roof. They are eager to ensure the greatest possible extent of exploitation, to devour what has been achieved by different States in the decades of this century as quickly as possible. A movement of expropriation, concentration, and dispossession is being carried out by a few people who want to impose their bourgeois-democratic system by blood and fire. They are unfolding great-power politics, denying sovereignty, and today the tendency is toward an alliance under the control of Yankee imperialism for the subjugation of the oppressed nations. Clear signs of this are Iraq, the threats against North Korea, and the aggression against Cuba. What are they up to? Not the United States alone, but a whole group of powers, are planning an assault on Cuba and dreaming of and plotting an assault on Korea. They are are using military blackmail against the oppressed nations. But this plunder creates a reaction: the development of national struggle. The crisis hitting the imperialist countries will create an awakening of the proletariat, which cannot remain so inactive as it is in Europe much longer. But the point is that the oppressed nations are the key link, the basis, and the very thing that sustains the world revolution.
The main point is that revolution is the main historical and political trend. This has to be proved by looking at the contradiction of progress: The majority of the population want progress so they can have elementary living conditions and develop as people, as human beings, in accordance with historical progress. In 1913, Lenin said that the masses no longer want to continue living in conditions that do not correspond to the 20th century. According to summaries of the economic situation made in the 1950s and in 1975, we can conclude that fabulous wealth has been created, that there are certain better conditions, and that the masses throughout the world cannot continue to live in subhuman conditions that don't correspond to the enormous wealth and the insulting waste present today.
The world needs to advance, progress, and develop. This is why revolution is the main historical trend, and why the bourgeois and small-bourgeois lackeys continue to deny such advances, progress, and development. They are calling it an erroneous, bourgeois idea. But a bourgeois idea would be to believe that progress occurs merely as a result of the passing of time, as the bourgeoisie does. We, on the other hand, conceive of progress as a consequence of revolutionary transformation brought about by the struggle of the most advanced class, which creates more militant people. History moves in the direction of broader human freedom. This is undeniable, but some people deny it and call it a pseudo-Marxist idea. However, there exists a contradiction between the new and the old which creates the main trend of revolution. Look at the May 1976 editorial in Beijing Review, which stated that the new always triumphs, that the struggle between the new and the old is one form taken by the law of contradiction. Chairman Mao said that, while the road is tortuous, the future is bright. Reality consists of contradiction — this is not a gimmick covered up with brilliant phrases. Nothing follows a straight path; there is contradiction, two contending aspects pulling in opposite directions. That is why the road is tortuous, why the course of a river has nooks and crannies, why the river overcomes the whirlpools and continues toward the sea. This is what material reality is like — it is like a river.
In the course of our people's history, our people were reduced to 2'000'000 from more than 10'000'000 in the past, and now they are growing and beginning to affect the whole country.
Revolution is the main historical and political trend. The other trend is that of temporary setbacks. Whenever there are problems, pessimism arises, and people ask, «So much struggle, and for what?», but what has been done can never be lost.
There exists a struggle between the positive aspect and the negative aspect, because the new is superior and imposes itself. We have to look at the law of contradiction, history, and the interests of the masses, which will define their future: either the socialist future or the future of living as slaves to the imperialist master. We have to understand what the masses want, because that defines their historical and political logic.
#THE COLLAPSE OF REVISIONISM
Old-style revisionism collapsed as a result of war. The second type of revisionism came from Hrusev and collapsed without war. It has collapsed and its regimes have disintegrated; this is linked to the process of weakening of socialism and the triumphant revolution because of revisionism. Revisionism is the vanguard of capitalist restoration, and the revisionists are to blame for it. Socialism has not failed; rather, what has failed is the abandonment of socialism, the adjustment to the old world of imperialism, the disintegration of their system to be part of the imperialist world order.
Look at the historical period of struggle against US imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. We have to study why this is changing and coming to an end: because one of the superpowers is disintegrating, its economic system is disintegrating, and its system of semi-colonial control is disintegrating, but this collapse has not yet come to an end. One of the superpowers is disintegrating while the other is in serious trouble and follows the policy of rule based on military power. Other powers are getting stronger and more aggressive and are preparing for the assault. The document, Let the Strategic Stalemate Shake the Country More!, states: «The main prospective enemy is the United States.» But if another enemy comes, it will be the main enemy, and there will be sharp contention. We have to analyse better the theory of the three worlds. There are two superpowers contending for world hegemony; other powers seek to benefit; and the immense masses of the oppressed nations exist. We have to look at how the First World is being redefined, and so on.
We have to define the main trend well.
#2.3. PERUVIAN SOCIETY
We have several documents on this subject. At the Preparatory Sitting of the Second Plenary Session, it was defined that bureaucrat capitalism develops in cycles with gradients, that is to say, it goes through temporary recoveries, but each new cycle begins at the lowest point of the previous one. It has been like this for 30 years. Look how it has developed: the third period in the development of bureaucrat capitalism, or in modern Peruvian society, began in 1980. Bureaucrat capitalism is in a general crisis and is only capable of temporary recovery before its eventual destruction. The People's War operates within this context and is aggravating the process of destruction of the economic system, that is, the People's War takes place in addition to the process of destruction of bureaucrat capitalism, which is precisely why the Peruvian economy cannot recover like it has in neighbouring countries. This is a politically managed war which involves sabotage, armed strikes, limitations on investments, increased insurance caused by the security factor, and so on, and so forth.
Bureaucrat capitalism is in a process of decline. It has been decaying throughout the 1980s and is declining and collapsing more under the weight of the People's War. The imperialist loans and aid are imposing harsher conditions on the oppressed nations, because they can only expect more investments when it is in the interests of the imperialists. The imperialists are saying: «What a bad example, we have to smash it and invest money», but that leads to more generalized collapse, as was the case in Vietnam and Korea.
It is necessary to develop our criterion of the two roads: We have to look at the development of the peasant road and the development of the New Economy so that we can draw a line of demarcation. Pedraglio is talking about beneficial conditions in the Huallaga River area. We are seeing decline fueled by the war. Let us look at the development of the peasant road and at the little flowers that are blossoming in the midst of the collapse: the New Economy and the New State.
#2.4. THE PEOPLE'S WAR
Let us develop our understanding of our specific war. We have to see what our own laws are, how we run campaigns, and why they don't unfold in a clear way. We have our own programme and policies for the destruction of the system. This war and the circumstances in which it is being waged have particular characteristics. Let us look at the fact that the armed forces entered the fray during the third year of the war, which is one particular characteristic, or how the initiation developed, the plan to undermine the old order, how the campaigns develop, how the stages take place, the potential of imperialist intervention or aggression, how the centre of our work is being shifted, and the particular characteristics of the road of encircling the cities from the countryside, based on the Outline of the Armed Struggle, in which the countryside was defined as the main theatre and the cities as a complement. We have to find the particular characteristics of our People's War, even in the forms of struggle; for example, the armed strike is very important.
All this serves to understand the laws of our own war. We have to make a study of these laws. We are already in the strategic stalemate. It is necessary to sum up the laws of the entire first stage of the war, and on that basis establish the laws of the second stage, and indicate the laws of the third stage, so that we can take our own specific road of people's war.
In this way we will deal with and smash the deeds, actions, and campaigns of the reaction in its attempt to recover its lost positions and maintain itself, and thus we shall persist in the conquest of political power. We must know what road to take and define the laws of war. We must see what forms our army took in the past and what forms it takes today, and develop it further organizationally — the iron legions have their own particular characteristics. We must also look at strategy and tactics.
We have to define three points. First, we have to spread a clear understanding of the war, its course, its current situation, and its prospects, so that the masses, the working class, and the peasantry will understand these questions. By grasping our laws we shall reach our inexorable objective. This will take a shorter period of time if we make fewer mistakes. We have to consider the factor of international repercussions, but the revolution is being carried out here, even though support from abroad is indispensable; one of our considerations points to that. The imperialists will intervene because the political conditions demand that they set an example and stop the spread of our «bad example». They would be able to deal us a demolishing blow, and the situation would become more serious, which is a probability, but another Vietnam is not convenient for them. The question is what kind of political turn is taking place in the United States. Currently they are saying that we should «tremble», that we shouldn't «raise our voice», and that they will «impose» this on us, but they will not allow their own children to rise up in our defence. But in case they try to smash us we will continue to fight. It is best to prepare for all possibilities.
There is an important limitation: Some people don't think about the particular characteristics of our People's War and don't take our particular conditions into account. We will face to have new problems every day. Some people talk and talk, but what do they apply? We have to understand elementary things, understand the particular characteristics of the principal aspect. Some people are always on their toes and prefer to repeat things rather than use their brains. That is because they are Right-wingers who, deep down, do not want to fight in a war.
The situation in Peru is going to worsen.
It is necessary to temper the Party cadres and war in war in general, in revolutionary war, and in the war in this country in particular.
#2.5. THE STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN
The Strategic Development Plan is a new plan that takes into account the experiences of all these years. It aims to reestablish the axes, sub-axes, directions, and lines of movement for the whole country within global criteria. We are taking into account the Outline from 1978 and are reestablishing an outline with the same general characteristics. In 1978 we talked about the countryside being the main theatre and the cities being a complement; we talked about the location of Peru; and so on. In the 1986 document there are also outlines. We are proposing the establishment of a single system covering all of Peru and its regions, a single great whole, with the highlands as the axis, while also bearing in mind the South, the East, Loreto, and Madre de Dios; it is a weak point in the State system. We also have to bear in mind the borders and the coast. If we don't handle it in this way, then what plan are we talking about? This is the problem of defining the Main Regional Committee, the basic committees, and other committees — to define the role of each committee.
Bear in mind the cities and the countryside. Yesterday we shifted from the cities to the countryside. Today we are developing the People's War in the countryside and preparing conditions for the uprising in the cities.
We have to bear in mind how to conceive of the contradiction between the countryside and the cities so as to develop the war in the countryside, see how to manage it in the cities, and see how the reactionary forces are going to move in defence of their cities, which are their strong points; in the shantytowns they are developing social work, intelligence work, and population control. The revolution from the countryside to the cities is beginning to touch points in the cities. But the work in the cities is lagging behind, which can be seen by looking at the plan for our work in the cities. We should look for other ways to develop this work, to mount military campaigns according to a strategic plan. In this way, for example, we will be able to set objectives and fulfil them on time.
They need to develop campaigns to recover lost positions and to maintain current ones. This is what they are preparing for.
We have to solve the question of setting up a general staff. We need to think about this in a more complex way in which we keep in mind a system and a general staff which orders our forces to different places. For example, we should study the North-Eastern Campaign in China in Volume 4. They sent cadres, troops, and weapons. Thus the plan, the better we manage it, the further we develop it, the more initiative and weight the subjective conditions have, the better our criteria for unified work. Warfare requires a lot of thought. We are seeing so much localism, which is bastardizing the process. Either we understand the war as a great single whole or some people will flee.
Keep in mind the Strategic Construction Plan, which is already being implemented as a pilot plan. We receive little information about construction aside from the fact that it is being applied. We adopted documents at the Preparatory Sitting of the Second Plenary Session in which we can see the course of the organizational line, because we always have to keep in mind our own experience in everything. We are developing the Strategic Construction Plan on the basis of the «Three Bases» and «Three Guides». Keep in mind the following:
- In the general orientation of the Party's work, construction is the basis, the People's War is principal, and the Congress is the guide.
- In construction work, the Party is the guide, the army is principal, and the New State is the centre.
The slogan, «Develop, Build, and Conquer!» corresponds to this.
As to the «Three Weapons», the Party says that they must be «developed». We have to develop the Strategic Construction Plan for the Party, the army, and the united front. See Point 2 of the Outline of the Preparatory Sitting.
We have to develop our work with initiative, flexibility, and planning. We need to adopt a Strategic Construction Plan which encompasses each apparatus and keep in mind its basis and its guide.
We have to specify how to grow and consolidate the Party.
We have to develop and strengthen the army, its structure, its construction, and its training. (See the point on consolidation in Introducing «The Communist».) Keep in mind colleges, infantry, artillery, grenades, and mortars, for example; the immense masses are organized in the infantry, while cavalry serves to develop faster deployment. Keep in mind communications and sanitation, which can be improved. In terms of the fighting spirit, we must elevate it and conquer weapons. Strengthening the army has to do with the fighting spirit.
The New State needs to be expanded and stabilized.
In the Party, we need to organize the Central Department and expand the Central Committee.
In the army, we need to strengthen mobile warfare, develop the army, and raise its ability to fight.
In the New State, we have to form a government, develop the State organization, establish a plan, basis, guide, and key link, and always grasp the key link.
We have to look at how to concretize the united front.
The axis of the united front is the specific programme. We have to keep in mind the worker-peasant alliance, the hegemony of the proletariat, and the four classes. It is a united front for the conquest of political power. In this conception, in the event of imperialist aggression, it is transformed into a national united front, and the contradiction shifts. We have proposed the promotion of national production, which even the big bourgeoisie finds convenient, and there are convergences and divergences. As to the Sixth Plan to Build the Conquest of Political Power, in 1981 we carried out a plan to study the whole country; it would be good to return to studying the whole country again, ten years later. We will apply this plan here, in the old society, but according to the interests of the new society which is developing under the Party's leadership.