Brussels, 30 January 1995

A RESPONSE TO THE 'INVESTIGATORS' OF THE REVOLUTIONARY INTERNATIONALIST
MOVEMENT (RIM)

IN DEFENSE OF THE PERUVIAN REVOLUTION


by: Luis Arce Borja

The Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) is
currently circulating two political documents that refer to the
purported negotiation of the People's War in Peru.  One of these
documents is dated June 1994, nine months after Fujimori published the
first 'peace letter' (1 October 1993).  The other document is more
recent, dated 10 November last year.  According to their authors, these
documents reflect 'a very important process of investigation and study'
in relation to the current situation in Peru.  Despite the
chronological difference between the first and second documents, the
contents of both are nearly the same, with only small variations.

Both documents pretend to be serious and claim to be based on a
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist analysis.  These documents pretend to adopt an
objective stand: They give equal importance to the political position
of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru and the
position of the capitulators and police agents propagating the 'peace
agreements'.  The authors of these documents pore over the history of
peace negotiations conducted by communists, revolutionaries and
reformers.  The examples of Brest-Litovsk in the rising Soviet Union of
1918, the negotiations undertaken by Chairman Mao during the Chinese
revolution, the negotiations in Nicaragua and El Salvador, etc.  The
ideological framework of both documents is restricted to general
theoretical formulations.  For the sake of the unity of the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, they ask for patience and calm
in dealing with the problems generated by the 'peace letters'.
Hesitantly, merely trying to keep up with events, they make a mild
criticism of

The leadership of RIM points out that the distribution of these
documents should be restricted. That they 'should not be revealed in
any public or semi-public fashion'.  According to them this is 'to
prevent the enemy from taking advantage of these polemics'.  They
propose a clandestine debate on these facts.  What should be done?  We
cannot remain silent.  When there are questions of principle involved,
the right attitude is not to remain silent. That would mean
conciliating with incorrect ideas; ideological differences should not
be covered up.  On the contrary, historical experience shows that their
wide and open debate is healthy for the revolution.  In his time Lenin
advised: "The duty of communists is not to cover-up the shortcoming of
their movement, but to criticise them openly and to rid themselves from
these in the most radical and prompt fashion'. (1)

Chairman Gonzalo points out: "But if the leadership is not just and
correct, if the leaders follow an erroneous line ..... then those with
the correct line must struggle to make it prevail". (2)

The leaders of RIM are seriously mistaken. Their analysis of the
Communist Party of Peru and the struggle against the fraud of 'peace
agreements' contributes nothing to the revolutionary process directed
by the CPP.  We believe that the opinions advanced in those documents
seriously damage proletarian internationalism.  That they run counter
to the ideological and political principles relating to the unity of
the international communist movement.  Hence the necessity of
responding and clarifying the erroneous ideas advanced by the
leadership of RIM.  Our criticism essentially centres upon the
following aspects:

First Aspect:   The RIM Committee asserts that 'since October 1993 a
very important struggle is taking place within the CPP'.  They affirm
that this is a problem of a 'two-line struggle'.

Second Aspect: They resort to a quotation of Chairman Mao Tse-tung and
call for 'treating the sickness to save the patient'.

Third Aspect:  They paraphrase Chairman Mao and point out that he who
makes no investigation has no right to speak and that one should seek
truth from facts.

Fourth Aspect: They hold that the elements promoting the 'peace
agreements' are people who historically played a leading role in the
Communist Party of Peru. That they are mainly to be found in the jails,
but that they also have support outside the prisons.

Fifth Aspect:   They ask that the debate around the 'peace agreement'
should not undermine the task of defending the life of Chairman Gonzalo
and exhort for continued support for the International Emergency
Committee (IEC).

TWO-LINE STRUGGLE OR COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY FRAUD?

First Aspect: 'Since October 1993 a very important struggle has been
taking place within the CPP, principally around the peace
negotiations'.   'Evidently a struggle in two different directions has
arisen within the ranks of the Communist Party of Peru'.  '... This is
a two-line struggle within the largest organisation of our
Movement.....' (Documents of RIM).

It is a mistake to hold that the 'peace letters' belong in essence to a
process of two-line struggle within the CPP.  This question is
erroneously formulated. The analysis of the leading Committee of RIM is
trundling in the wrong direction.  The assertion that the 'peace
letters' are a product of the 'two-line struggle' within the CPP falls
into the following deviations and dangers:

1.      If one considers the 'peace letters' as an external
manifestation of contradictions within the CPP, one is denying that
these are in reality but a montage set-up by the Peruvian regime and US
Imperialism.  Thus, this fraud is given the category of an inner Party
contradiction.  If one is to adopt this position, it then becomes
logical to draw the conclusion that it is not right to treat this as a
police plot.  That one should demand, as the leaders of RIM do, to be
'cautious and restrained' in dealing with this problem.  In this
fashion, one would not only be overlooking Fujimori's fraud, but also
the counter-revolutionary and criminal aims of the 'peace agreement'.
To hold that the 'peace agreement' is part of a process of internal
conflict within the CPP, portrays it as an organisation corroded by an
scandalous division, an organisation divided and undermined and on the
very verge of destruction.  This point of view is similar to that of
the die-hard enemies of the revolution.  Merely as an exampl

"Internal documents of the terrorist organisation reveal that the
factional struggle between those who support the Peace Agreement and
those who support Feliciano is ending with a clear victor: Abimael
Guzmn". (3)

Now, consciously or unconsciously, the leaders of RIM are sliding into
the bog of conciliation with the enemies of the People's War in Peru.
This conciliation is evident, not only in the content of the documents
we have mentioned, but also in their attitude of keeping at arms length
from the struggle against the so called 'Peace Agreement' fraud.  Here
lies the explanation for the protracted silence that the leaders of RIM
have been keeping for over a year.

2.      The leaders of RIM are confusing a police plot with a two-line
struggle.  In history we can find many cases of revolutionaries having
to face frauds concocted by experts in anti-insurgency struggle.  The
most elementary manual of counter-insurgency procedures shows the two
main methods for destroying a communist organisation or a revolutionary
process.  The first method is to use violence and outright repression.
This method makes use of the military superiority and the ample
resources of the state.  The second method uses the system of
psychological warfare. It makes use of the enormous publicity machine
in the hands of the reactionary state. This method aims at weakening
and undermining the ideological and organisational capacity of the
party leading the revolution. Its objectives are: Dividing,
disorganising and slandering the revolutionary organisation, isolating
it from the masses while generating capitulationism.  Usually,
psychological warfare makes use of infiltrated agents within the party,

It is an ideological and political error not to differentiate between a
police plot and a two-line struggle. What is the gist of the 'peace
letters'?  Where and how were these concocted?.  The 'peace letters'
were fabricated in the offices of the Intelligence Service of the
Peruvian state (SIN).  These letters did not originate in any Party
organism, nor are these the product of any internal process of debate
within the Communist Party of Peru.  It is an error to hold, as the
leaders of RIM do, that this is 'a two-line struggle within the ranks
of the Communist Party of Peru'.  The authors of these letters are
functionaries of SIN, police agents, high ranking army officers, and
specialists from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).  A police
plot is not the same thing as an inner party struggle. The fact that
some capitulators have participated in the elaboration and distribution
of this montage, does not make this a two-line struggle within the
CPP.

To illustrate this point we shall refer to certain instances in history
where police plots have been notoriously used.  Between 1901 and 1904,
the people's revolutionary movement in Russia was in full swing.  Then
the Czarist police organised within the proletariat's ranks several
bogus workers' organisations.  The brains behind this scheme was police
Colonel Zubatov. Although these organisms claimed to be working class
they were in fact led by police agents. Their aim was to arrest the
growing influence of the revolutionary social democrats upon the
workers and oppressed masses.  Later, also in Russia, this time in
1917, another plot was hatched: Lenin arrived in Petrograd in the
German sealed train.  Then, all the enemies of the Bolsheviks, the
Mensheviks and the provisional government itself took the opportunity
for a furious campaign to depict Lenin as 'a German imperialist
agent'.  Four months later, in July, the Kerensky government issued an
order to arrest Lenin and charged him with 'treason'.  The ob

In Peru, police frauds can be counted by the dozen. Since 1980,
different Peruvian regimes have included within their
counter-insurgency policies the fabrication of lies against the CPP and
the People's War.  Among the most widespread fabrications we shall
mention three in particular: The first is the lie that links the CPP to
the international drug dealing gangs. The second is the portrayal of
the Maoists as brutal and bloodthirsty murderers of the people: They
accuse the CPP of being a fanatic sect led by lunatics. The third lie
refers to the so-called 'internal weaknesses of Shining Path',
specifically its ideological weakness. All kinds of fabrications are
put in motion purporting to show that the CPP is an organisation on the
verge of collapse due to 'intense internal struggle'. All this slander
is based on sheer lies while promoting different personalities who
contribute to lend credibility to these farcical charges. Here,
propaganda is used as the principal means in attempting to destabilise
the Party

3.      The leaders of RIM hold that the 'peace agreement' is a
two-line struggle.  By doing this, they cast aside the analysis and
position of the CPP's  Central Committee in relation to this issue.
The CPP, by means of various documents, characterised and denounced the
'peace letters' as vile slander fabricated by the Fujimori regime and
by US imperialism.  There is nothing that can justify contradicting the
Party that is leading the People's War, especially if we consider that
their analysis was carried out in the very field of operations, at the
very centre of the fray. One of these CPP documents, dated February
1994, clearly states the following:

"The purported letters presented by Fujimori, the bogus international
telephone call, and all other subsequent concoctions are
counter-revolutionary plots.  These are fabricated by US imperialism
and the mass-murderers quisling dictatorship in combination with the
sinister actions of the black gang of turncoats.  This plot is aimed at
winning elections, to impede the celebration of the Centenary of
Chairman Mao in December and to cover-up the Cantuta scandal.  These
are its immediate aims.  Its essential objectives are the defeat of the
People's War.  In this context, they are continuing their plans to
assassinate Chairman Gonzalo.  We must denounce, condemn and smash the
black gang who are promoting revisionism and capitulation.  We must
point out that they are a group of infiltrated agents, turncoats,
capitulators and rotten old revisionists. This handful of traitors are
a group directly linked to the reactionary camp'. (4)

Since the presentation of the first letter (October 1993), the Central
Committee of the CPP has decidedly fought against the 'peace agreement'
plot.  This struggle took place at both national and international
level.  In Peru, the emphasis was on strengthening the development of
the People's War and on unmasking the individuals who from inside the
prisons were appealing for capitulation.  Abroad, precise directives
were issued:  To oppose those individuals members of the black gang
working in Sweden, Paris, Germany and Mexico.  To stop them peddling
the 'peace letters' and the purported telephone instructions by
Chairman Gonzalo.  Why are the 'investigators' of RIM ignoring these
facts?.

To understand the 'peace agreement' and its political and repressive
implications, any person or political group must consider the position
of the Central Committee of the CPP.  It is not possible to overlook
the solid reasons of the organisation carrying out the armed struggle
in practice, the principal protagonist in this conflict. Those who,
while proclaiming themselves of the Left, fail to take on board the
position of the CPP, inevitably slide into opportunism.  It is worth
noting what Lenin said about the manner in which opportunism approaches
problems:

'The opportunist, because of his very nature, always avoids approaching
problems definitely and precisely.  He seeks the aggregate result. He
wriggles like a snake between mutually exclusive points of view. He
makes efforts 'to agree' with both sides of every argument, while
reducing his differences to small amendments, doubts, innocent good
wishes, etc., etc.'. (5)

4.       To promote at international level the view that the 'peace
agreement' is a 'two-line struggle' within the CPP, leads directly into
the camp of the enemies of the Peruvian revolution.  The foreign media,
at the service of the imperialist powers, permanently make propaganda
about a purported 'division of Shining Path into two factions'.
According to them, 'one is led by Feliciano and is a diehard ultra-Left
line' and the other is headed by the 'peace loving Gonzalo'. This
propaganda is aimed at slandering the CPP and at isolating it
internationally.  To isolate the Party in the face of all the
imperialists powers of the world.  In Peru, the armed struggle is the
centre and the highest expression of the class struggle, leaving no
room for doubt about the revolution's continuation. Thanks to the scope
of the revolution, in Peru it was not difficult to smash this plot very
rapidly.

The international movement of support and solidarity with the People's
War abroad, however, is characterised by an uneven level of
development.  This movement is composed by communists and
non-communists, by friends and sympathizers, Maoists and non-Maoists,
and even by the advanced masses of the Third World.  Its development
has a wave character and its prospects depend directly upon the
strength of the revolutionary process in Peru. Experience confirms that
there is a close link between cause and effect, between the people's
war and the international tasks of support.  In this field, proletarian
internationalist action is still in its beginnings.  It is easy to fall
into idleness and to become demoralised. Any setback of the revolution,
and even the imperialist propaganda itself generates doubts and
suspicions.  Basing ourselves upon this reality, the way of dealing
with the 'peace letters' should be unequivocal.  Those who speak of
'two-line struggle' only impede the struggle against the capitulators.
Th

5.      Reducing the affair of the 'peace letters' to a two-line
struggle within the CPP amounts to opting out, avoiding to take up a
position and evading the struggle against Fujimori's fraud.  Basing
oneself upon this false premise, one ends up conciliating with all
those in Peru and abroad who are promoting the 'peace agreement'. The
tactics of keeping silent is a conciliators' charter, its ideological
and political roots are to be found in opportunism and revisionism.  In
this fashion, those individuals in Europe and America who are
distributing the documents about the 'peace agreement' are allowed to
cause maximum damage.  If we consider the 'peace letters' as a problem
of 'two-line struggle' we cannot but conclude that this is a purely
internal affair of the Communist Party of Peru.  We must conclude that
this is a case in which it is better not to meddle.  A problem in
which, as the leaders of RIM assert, we should not interfere
'irresponsibly'.

What conclusion can we draw from the idea floated by the RIM
investigators of 'not acting irresponsibly' and that we should merely
take up investigation?.  Following their example, there would be no
reason to struggle against the 'peace agreement'.  We should wait for
the outcome of their investigations.  Meanwhile, it would not have been
correct to launch attacks against the gang that is distributing the
'peace letters' abroad. It would have been even less correct to brand
them as Fujimori agents and capitulators.  We should not have defended
the Peruvian revolution.  We should have remained silent while the
media was portraying Chairman Gonzalo as a vulgar politician trading
off the People's War.  According to the point of view of the leaders of
RIM, it is a bad and negative factor that many organisations and
political parties abroad have taken position and are struggling against
Fujimori's plot.  These comrades should have been labelled
'irresponsible people' and held to account for 'talking without inves

Looking at it from this angle, the conduct of El Diario Internacional
can be deemed as worse than 'irresponsible'.  We have dedicated several
editions to the unmasking of Fujimori's fraud.  In this context, and
since October 1993, some organisms closely linked with the leadership
of RIM have initiated an underhand struggle against El Diario. In some
cases, they have even prevented its distribution. El Diario
Internacional is a publication translated into several languages and
well known nearly all over the world. It is, and will indeed continue
to be a serious obstacle for the enemies of the Peruvian revolution.
It is because of this that the Peruvian regime and imperialism are
attempting to boycott and obliterate it.

This explains why an important base of RIM in the USA in charge of
translating El Diario into English stopped doing this work.  Moreover,
they also suspended their sales of El Diario.  How do the leaders of
RIM explain this fact?  How do they justify that a founding
organisations of RIM in Colombia has undertaken to distribute the
publication of the bogus 'Sol-Peru' Committee based in France?.  This
publication is edited by the capitulators. Its exclusive aim is to
promote the 'peace agreement' while furiously attacking the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of Peru (CPP).  The editors of
'Contradiction' magazine, from Bogot, Colombia, have denounced this in
the following terms:

"We want to make clear our opinion on the contents of the bogus
'directive' and the 'secret document attributed to Chairman Gonzalo".
....  "Some people have remained silent and thus contributed to the
disinformation and slanderous campaign undertaken by the
reactionaries". .... "However, the problem goes beyond this issue: The
comrades from the Communist Organisation of Colombia,
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist (OCCmlm) and the Revolutionary Communist Group
(GCR), have distributed the publication SOL PERU (France) without
clarifying anything.  Moreover, they have kept silent". (6)

6.      The leaders of RIM chose to ignore this problem:  If it were
true that there is a very important struggle within the CPP, why do
they then not point out the character of this contradiction and the
interests served by both lines?  Why do they avoid taking up a position
in relation to this problem, even though more than a year has elapsed
since it first arose?.  Suopposing that the 'peace agreement' were
indeed a problem of two-line struggle within the CPP, what is there to
prevent RIM, a political organisation organically linked to the CPP and
claiming to be a defender of the Peruvian revolution, from condemning
the incorrect line?. Here there is no room for intermediate or eclectic
positions.  The counter-revolutionary content and aims of the 'peace
agreement' are absolutely clear and cannot be denied.  In any event,
whether police plot or two-line struggle, this position must be fought
vigorously.  No one claiming to belong to the camp of revolution can
stay aloof from this struggle. To what politic

"Whoever takes the side of the revolutionary people only in words, but
not in deeds, is but a revolutionary in words.  Whoever takes the side
of the revolutionary people not merely in words but also in deeds, is a
real revolutionary".  (7)

There is no precedent, ancient or modern, to back up the behaviour of
the 'investigators' of the RIM leadership.  The struggle against all
kinds of bourgeois deviations within the ranks of the proletariat has
always had both a national and international character.  This is true
from the time of the Communist League led by Marx and Engels.  The
International Communist Movement has never undertaken specific tasks or
struggles in isolation from their struggles and tasks at international
level.  The unbreakable link between communist parties and
revolutionary organisations is a historic law relating to the current
stage of human development.  It corresponds with the objective
conditions generated by the world wide capitalist system and is
principally linked to the process of the world proletarian revolution.
The history of the three Communist Internationals confirm the
international links of the class struggle.  The First was led by Marx
and Engels (1864), the Second by Engels (1889) and the Third by Lenin
(191

The complete failure of the 'peace agreement' and their promoters
abroad, proves that those who, from the very moment of the first 'peace
letter' fought against the enemies of the Peruvian revolution, had the
correct line in dealing with this problem.  That those who are still
'waiting for Godot' are profoundly in error. The leaders of RIM say
that the struggle against the police plot serves the interests of the
enemies of the people. This is utterly false.  On the contrary, what
objectively benefits Fujimori's regime and its imperialist masters is
to give a free hand to the defenders of the 'peace agreement'.  What
really serves international reaction is the adoption of a conciliating
and opportunist position with regard to this issue.

How should we understand what makes up a two-line struggle within a
revolutionary organisation or Party?  How does this differ from a
police plot?

In theory and practice, the two-line struggle is the confrontation
between the proletarian and the non-proletarian line within the Party.
By means of the two-line struggle the internal contradictions of a
political-ideological character within a revolutionary party are
resolved.   Essentially, the two-line struggle serves for fighting
against and eradicating opportunism, revisionism, rightism and
capitulation, and all anti-party phenomena harming the revolution.  The
process of unity and struggle of opposites within a Party is related to
the law of the universality of contradiction within things, in nature
and social phenomena.   Unlike revisionism and opportunism that denies
the two-line struggle, Marxism promotes it as the motive force for the
party's development.  Chairman Mao Tse-tung points out:

"The opposition and struggle between different ideas occurs constantly
within the Party.  This is the consequence of contradictions between
classes within the Party and between the new and the old within
society.  If there were no contradictions or ideological struggles to
resolve these, the life of the Party would end. There is nothing that
does not contain contradiction. If there was no contradiction the world
would not exist". (8)

Assuming that the phenomena of unity and struggle of opposites is
inherent to the Party's development, it then becomes important to
establish the nature of each contradiction.  To establish with
exactitude if this contradiction is or is not antagonistic.  The
character of the contradiction depends on the historical conditions the
Party is undergoing.  In a party like the CPP, involved in a civil war,
contradictions sharpen and their struggle also tends to become more
acute. In our specific case, the different contradictions are centred
on the armed struggle and the road to the conquest of political power.
Within the same phenomena of the struggle of opposites, a
non-antagonistic contradiction will turn into an antagonistic one.
Chairman Mao notes that some contradictions do not initially manifest
themselves as antagonistic, but that in the course of the class
struggle these contradictions become antagonistic.  Moreover, Mao also
teaches the importance of correctly establishing the character of these
contra

The limit of contradiction

The limit of non-antagonistic contradiction relates to the issue of
whether its development goes against the ideological and programmatic
principles of the Party.  Whatever the particularity of this
contradiction may be, it must remain consistent with the interests of
the proletariat and the revolution. In other words, the opposite line
would remain non-antagonistic while it does not develop as a complete
negation of the Party and the revolution.  A non-antagonistic
contradiction is resolved by means of criticism and self-criticism.
This method of struggle is related to the task of persuading those
comrades expressing damaging and erroneous ideas to return to the
correct line.  With the two-line struggle, the Party strengthens itself
and advances, consolidating its class line. The principal
contradictions are resolved by means of unity and struggle.  Chairman
Mao points out that the application of this method is based upon the
necessity of finding the unity of opposites.

"Currently the contradiction between the correct and the incorrect
ideas within our Party does not manifest itself as antagonistic.  If
the comrades that have committed errors can correct them, it will then
not turn into an antagonistic one". (9)

On his part, Lenin says:  "The struggle of different tendencies is
inevitable and necessary within the Party if it does not lead to
anarchy and splits and if it is carried out within the framework
commonly accepted by all comrades and members of the Party". (10)

Under the impulse of class struggle and internal and external factors
the contradiction within a Party may turn antagonistic - thus
expressing irreconcilable interests.  Then the solution of such a
contradiction can only come about by frontal class struggle.  Class
antagonism, a manifestation of the struggle of opposites, by its own
nature, cannot remain and develop indefinitely within the confines of a
organisation or revolutionary Party. Its permanence, by its very
nature, is the negation of the fundamental principles of the Party,
principally democratic centralism and the basis for Party unity.  If
the movement of such an antagonistic contradiction is not detained, it
will lead to the ideological and organisational destruction of the
working class organization.

The history of the International Communist Movement is rich in examples
of how a non-antagonistic contradiction can turn into an antagonistic
one.  Lenin led a protracted struggle against opportunism and other
anti-Marxist tendencies within the SDLP of Russia.  The contradictions
between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks were at first non-antagonistic, later
turning into antagonistic ones.  Another example is the struggle within
the II International.  For instance, the struggle between Lenin and the
Right wing opportunists led by Kautsky, Plekhanov, Axelrod and others
who openly went over to the side of the class enemy.  The struggle of
comrade Stalin against the trends of Bukharin, Trotsky, Rykov, Tomski,
Kamenev, and others, was non-antagonistic at its onset.  This struggle
also became antagonistic when these 'old Bolsheviks' turned criminal
and sided with international counter-revolution.  In China, the
Communist Party fought against and smashed several antagonistic trends
headed by revisionists, opportunists and

In Peru, Chairman Gonzalo, as leader of the red fraction, fought since
1962 against opportunists, liquidators and all kinds of opposite lines
within the CPP.  In the midst of an acute two-line struggle he
reconstituted the CPP and initiated the armed struggle in 1980.   The
protracted road of the two-line struggle within the CPP, personally led
by Chairman Gonzalo, is proof of three concrete facts: First, that a
two-line struggle carried out under the guidance of
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist principles, serves for the consolidation of the
Party, strengthens its ideological and political foundations and
promotes the revolutionary process.  Second, when the contradiction
within the Party reaches its antagonistic level, it turns into the main
problem that the communists must resolve. That this contradiction is
resolved is the fundamental condition for the attainment of the
strategic objectives of the Party in relation to the seizure of power.
Third, to sweep away 'the colossal mountain of garbage' because the
tools

"It is by means of persistent, determined and wise two-line struggle in
defense of the proletarian line and defeating the opposite lines, that
Gonzalo Thought was generated and established". (11)

If we consider that both kinds of contradictions, antagonistic and
non-antagonistic, have their origins within the party, the latter
develops as a permanent phenomena implicit in matter and thought.  It
exists as a reflection of the class struggle and it experiences changes
and mutations during its process of development.  However, an
antagonistic contradiction, because of its very character, dissolves
the relative unity of opposites and thus excludes itself from the
Party. By clashing openly with the Party's nature, it loses any
identity with its opposites within the organisation. In this respect it
is worth quoting what Chairman Mao states in relation to the exact
character of the antagonistic phenomena:

"Before a bomb explodes, it is a single whole within which the
opposites co-exist due to the presence of certain conditions.  The
explosion only occurs when a new condition presents itself: ignition".
(12)

Where is the bomb that has exploded within the CPP?

We should ask ourselves where the bomb is that has exploded within the
Communist Party of Peru?.  It is true that the 'peace agreement' was
set-up as a kind of sinister bomb by the secret services of the
Peruvian state and of US imperialism.  However, this explosion - in
reality more like a big noise - took place outside and not inside the
Party.  This is a fact, despite the claims of the low-intensity warfare
strategists of reaction.

The fact that some traitors and capitulators participated in priming
and igniting this bomb (the 'peace fraud")  does not mean that this is
an internal conflict within the CPP.  Even less can we speak of this as
a 'two-line struggle within the CPP'. In El Diario Internacional of
September 24, 1994, we have explained in detail how the fraud of 'peace
agreement' was planned and carried out.  In that article we proved that
this fraud was concocted at the behest of the National Intelligence
Service of the Peruvian state (SIN, with the US secret services.  We
also showed that its counter-revolutionary objectives aim at destroying
the CPP, arresting the People's War, assassinating Chairman Gonzalo and
liquidating Gonzalo Thought.

WHAT KIND OF PATIENTS ARE THESE WE SHOULD AIM TO SAVE?

Second Aspect: The leaders of RIM say: "Treat the sickness to save the
patient".

This is an incorrect assessment with no validity for the case at hand.
Let us see why.  The phrase bandied about by the leaders of RIM is
taken from Chairman Mao Tse-tung' speech: 'On the Correct Handling of
Contradictions Within the Ranks of the People'.  This is a clear text
that deals with the two kinds of contradictions existing then in
Chinese society (1957).  Concretely, it deals with the contradictions
that the Communist Party had to resolve to lead the Chinese People's
Republic along the road of socialist construction.

The two kinds of contradictions referred to by Chairman Mao are: Those
that exist within the people's own ranks and those that develop between
the people and its enemies.  Chairman Mao expressly shows that we must
first establish with precision who belongs to the ranks of the people
and who to the enemies of the people.  Only then can we distinguish
correctly between these two different kinds of contradiction.  Chairman
Mao says that we should consider as the people 'all those classes,
social strata and groups supporting and participating in the cause of
socialist construction'.  On the other hand, Mao characterises as
enemies of the people 'all forces and social groups resisting the
socialist revolution, hostile to socialist construction or undermining
it'.  Chairman Mao stresses that the contradictions occurring within
the people's own ranks are not antagonistic and that their resolution
is by the democratic method (criticism and self-criticism).  In this
respect it is perfectly proper to apply the Maoist

Let us dialectically apply the theoretical formulations of Chairman Mao
to the concrete case of Peru.  The ranks of the people in Peru are made
up of the working class, the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie and the
middle or national bourgeoisie. That is, all classes and forces that in
various degrees support the People's War led by the CPP.  Within this
camp there are and will continue to be contradictions for a long time.
These contradictions will be gradually resolved by the Party and the
working class in the course of the democratic revolution, the socialist
revolution and in the transition to communism.  Who are the enemies of
the Peruvian people?:  The imperialists, principally the USA.  Also,
the two factions of the big bourgeoisie (comprador and bureaucratic),
the landowners, Fujimori's puppet regime and its army and police forces
backbone of their state.  In other words, the enemies of the Peruvian
people are those classes, social groups and political institutions
sustaining the oppressor's state a

Who can claim that the 'peace letters' and their authors are to be
found within the people's camp and even within the CPP?. No one can be
confused about this, unless it is intentionally. The 'peace agreement'
is an antagonistic contradiction, an irreconcilable contradiction
pitting the revolution against counter-revolution.  It is a
contradiction between the Peruvian people and its enemies, between
their liberation war and the anti-insurgency war of the reactionaries.
There is no room here to 'treat the sickness to save the patient' as
the leaders of RIM are seeking to do.  To transplant this Maoist policy
mechanically, without consideration for the concrete situation in Peru,
is a theoretical aberration that only serves to generate confusion on
the question of the origins and objectives of the fraud of 'peace
agreement'.  The stand of the leaders of RIM contains two elements in
direct opposition to the CPP and the People's War in Peru:

First: If this 'sickness'- the 'peace agreement' plot - is deemed to be
a 'passing flu' within the ranks of the people, one has to believe that
the 'peace agreement' is a non-antagonistic conflict.  One has to
believe that the opposite lines still have convergent grounds for
unity.  That this is not a 'contagious sickness' and that one should
not worry too much about it.  If we were to accept this view we would
have to advocate that the 'remedy' - the solution of this contradiction
- is not in acute class struggle but a mere question of criticism and
self-criticism. One would have to believe that we should deal with this
issue as a problem among revolutionary comrades.  In other words, this
problem, this 'sickness', could be dealt with by patient persuasion
towards the errant militants. It is in this simple way that the leaders
of RIM want to deal with this 'sickness'.  They propose conciliating
with such 'sick people' - that is, they want to negotiate with
turncoats and police agents!.

Second:  Who are these 'sick people'?  There is no doubt that they are
those in Peru and abroad who are promoting the 'peace letters'. In
other words, these 'sick people' include agents of SIN like Vladimiro
Montesinos, the tyrant Fujimori, army and police generals, agents of
the CIA, and the capitulators.  The very traitors and snitches who,
using the resources of the Peruvian state and imperialism, are
attempting to undermine the unity of the CPP and to destroy the
revolutionary process.  The leaders of RIM are proposing that we shall
cure these 'sick people' of their various levels of 'infection' by
applying 'patience and common sense'.  They claim that once they are
cured, they will then return to the correct line.

Revolutionary practice, however, shows that these people are
capitulators, turncoats and snitches (a black gang) with whom there
cannot be any unity or convergence. They, by their own free have opted
out from the CPP and turned their back to the revolution. They have
gone over to the camp of the Peruvian people's enemies.  The fact that
these individuals once had an organic link with the Party, that they
may represent two, or even a dozen individuals, does not alter the
nature of this problem.  The history of social struggles does not show
precedents of a revolutionary Party having to seek within itself
grounds for unity with traitors, police agents and
counter-revolutionary elements.  Experience shows that revolutions or
parties that had to face capitulation or treason were compelled to use
all their forces to smash such danger.  In this respect, Chairman Mao
Tse-tung says:

"... in the present political situation capitulation has become the
main danger...  It is absolutely inadmissible that a group of
individuals undermines or betrays the war against imperialism.  No
matter how much success they may achieve, or how jubilant they may feel
while imagining that no one can harm them, they will not escape the
people's punishment". (13)

On the same theme, Chairman Gonzalo says: "To fight against
capitulation is important.  It is a part of the struggle of the Party
and the people in their striving to follow Marxism, fight against
revisionism, and persist in the revolutionary line.  ...  Inevitably,
capitulators always appear within the revolutionary camp.  There are
old capitulators and also modern ones. They practice class capitulation
within the country and national capitulation abroad. This is all class
capitulation.  They submit to the bourgeoisie and to imperialism". (14)

In synthesis, no Marxist-Leninist-Maoist can demand what the leaders of
RIM do:  That capitulators be dealt with by the methods used to resolve
contradictions within the ranks of the people.  Even less can they
demand, as they also do, that these elements should be considered as
people undergoing an 'illness', as people with whom we should not deal
with 'in hasty or irresponsible fashion'.  Chairman Gonzalo says that
we must deal with capitulation by branding it with searing fire:

"Capitulation expresses itself in two aspects: Capitulation in the face
of native reaction and capitulation in the face of world reaction.  It
is always like this.  Its aim is to sell out the revolution. Therefore,
it is something rotten.  It must be eliminated by searing fire". (15)

"WITHOUT INVESTIGATION NO RIGHT TO SPEAK"

Third Aspect:  The leaders of RIM say that: "Without investigation
there is no right to speak, and that one should seek truth from facts.
That way one shall not act irresponsibly nor jump to conclusions before
having grasped the problem as a whole".

One cannot deny that every problem should be studied in depth,
especially when it affects the most important revolutionary process in
the Americas.  From the inception of Marxism, in the 1840s, the working
class and the revolutionary forces have found a scientific instrument
that serves them to understand and transform the world. Dialectical and
historical materialism are the basis of Marxist philosophy. Of these
two, dialectical materialism makes up the Marxist theory of knowledge.
That is, the scientific method that guides itself by the principle of
studying the phenomena and process of nature and society as permanently
inter-related.  But Marxism teaches and proves that any theoretical
study must be linked with revolutionary practice.  Marxism is
profoundly linked to historical reality.  This principle differentiates
a Marxist study from an anti-dialectical, inane and philistine study.
Chairman Gonzalo points out:

"We always undertake study with a view to its application and to
resolve actual problems.  Otherwise we would fall into bookish studies,
into mere parroting, and that is a bourgeois, idealist and metaphysical
method". (16)

Here, we must, like Karl Marx, point out that words divorced from
reality have no meaning, they are dead letters: "It is in practice
where man has to prove the truth, the power and reality, the
this-sidedness of his thinking.  The debate about the reality or
unreality of an idea in isolation from practice, is a purely scholastic
problem". (17)

Any serious attempt at investigating the counter-revolutionary
political content of the 'peace plot' must evaluate the complete set of
elements that make up the political scene in Peru.  The 'peace
agreement' and its repressive aims cannot be correctly explained if one
does not at least take the following aspects into account:  1) The
vanguard role of the People's War in the development of the world
proletarian revolution.  2) Its links with the liberation process in
Latin America and other parts of the world.  3) The struggle of the
Communist Party of Peru (CPP) for the validity and application of
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as the third and superior stage of Marxism.  4)
The fundamental role of Gonzalo Thought for the continuation of the
revolution and the seizure of power in Peru.  5) The bankruptcy of
bureaucratic capitalism in Peru and its consequences reflected in the
decomposition of the old Peruvian state. 6) The struggle of the CPP
against revisionism, opportunism and other counter-revolutionary trends

If the 'peace letters' are viewed in isolation from the sum of these
elements, one is sure to go astray.  One is sure to fail to arrive at a
correct analysis or synthesis.  One arrives anywhere except at the
truth.  Is it true that the leaders of RIM have seriously investigated
this problem?.  We believe that they have not advanced very much in
their investigations.  Let us, for argument's sake, assume that it is
true that they have investigated. After more than a year of studies,
one question begs to be answered: How do they explain that their
conclusions do not go beyond claiming that the 'peace letters' are an
issue of 'two-line struggle within the CPP?.  How is it possible that
they fail to say anything about the fraud?  How can they not have found
a method to face this fraud from a revolutionary perspective?

The leaders of RIM did not undertake a serious investigation. This
becomes evident from their claim that 'it is very important to know
exactly what Chairman Gonzalo really thinks'.  Moreover, they prattle:
'It is as yet impossible to be sure about Chairman Gonzalo's point of
view'.

No one mildly acquainted with the theoretical contributions of Chairman
Gonzalo can possibly have any doubts about the great Peruvian
revolutionary's thoughts about the 'peace letters'.   One cannot
overlook the fact that since 1962, for more than 32 years, Dr Abimael
Guzmn has led the most solid and coherent revolutionary process in
Latin America.  Any one of his authentic documents amply proves his
character as a communist. It places him above any suspicion of being
the vulgar capitulator that the bourgeois media is attempting to
portray.  Who, within the camp of the people, can imagine Chairman
Gonzalo as the author of those despicable tracts advocating the 'peace
agreement'?  Expressing doubts about the position of Chairman Gonzalo
vis a vis Fujimori's negotiations plot only serves the Peruvian regime
and US imperialism.  One of the strategic aims of this plot of 'peace
agreement' is to liquidate and vulgarise Gonzalo Thought.  With this
objective in sight, the leader of the Peruvian revolution is counte

"Carlos Reyna, from DESCO NGO, affirmed that two years of incarceration
have transformed so-called Gonzalo Thought. The new Maoist bible of
Shining Path has been turned into a new pragmatic, long term
perspective based upon the acknowledgement of his virtual military
defeat". (18)

Clearly the investigation carried out by the leaders of RIM is merely
descriptive, lacking objectivity and scientific scope.  Not in a
million years could this investigation be considered as a true Marxist
analysis.  They overlook most of the elements implicit in Fujimori's
plot, both political and repressive.  That is why their preliminary
conclusions sound rather like a bad joke. Especially, since the
investigators of RIM reduce this issue to studying and reading four
documents emanating from Peru: 1) The Speech of Chairman Gonzalo of
September 24, 1992.  2) 'Struggle for a New Great Decision' (document
elaborated by the capitulators and the Peruvian secret police).  3)
Statement of the CPP of October 7, 1993. 4) Statement of the Committee
of Relatives of Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War of December 3,
1993.  Besides these documents the leaders of RIM suggest the study of
certain theses of Chairman Mao Tse-tung and some RIM documents.

It is true that the documents listed are relevant to this problem, but
these are not the only ones that exist.  Various valuable documents of
the CPP dealing specifically with the 'peace agreement' and clearly
characterising this plot as a reactionary police scheme are not
included.  These documents are very important to understand this
problem, for example: The International Directive of the CPP from
November 1, 1993.  The Statement of the Women War Prisoners in
Chorrillos Jail, also from November 1993.  The Statement of CPP "Long
Live Chairman Gonzalo and His All Powerful Thought", issued in February
1994.  The Report from the Central Committee also from February 1994.
All these documents have been published abroad in various languages.
They analyse in depth and reject the plot of Fujimori and US
imperialism.  Apart from these texts, there is ample information on the
development of the People's War.  To be able to understand fully and
objectively the 'peace fraud' one must seriously study the specific cha

Of all these documents, we must particularly emphasise the Report of
the Central Committee of February 1994.  This document clearly resolves
the questions about the origin and aims of the 'peace letters'.  In
that document the CPP denounces the purported 'peace agreement' as a
sinister plot of the security services of the Peruvian state.  The role
of the turncoats and capitulators is fully revealed.  It says: "Let us
condemn and smash the black gang".   "..... they are infiltrated
agents, traitors, capitulators and callous revisionists.  Their
fabrications are a complete negation of the First Congress of the
Party, a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Thought Congress.  These
fabrications are a negation of the Basis of Party Unity, of the
Leadership, of the Party and the People's War. Therefore, the authors
of these fabrications have excluded themselves from the Party by their
own free will".  Why have the leaders of RIM not recommended the study
of this Report from the CC of the CPP?  What was there to stop t

The investigators from RIM have ignored all this valuable information.
Therefore, we want to put on record the following facts:  The
capitulators have issued more than a dozen documents and statements
promoting the 'peace agreement', including four letters and a
declaration 'signed by Chairman Gonzalo and comrade Miriam'.  These
documents were concocted in the central offices of the National
Intelligence Service (SIN).  They have been widely circulated by the
Peruvian reactionary press, especially by the media that directly
supports the government.  Peruvian television has turned the chieftains
of the turncoats into film stars.  They have on various occasions
appeared on TV, smirking and boasting of their 'victories'. They even
appear in TV presenting gifts to the dictator Fujimori.  From the
different prisons, they acclaim the 'peace agreement' and issue
hysterical attacks against the Central Committee of the CPP.  Socorro
Popular (The People's Assistance), one of the most important organisms
generated by

"This gang of gutless traitors ..... they openly snitch on the leaders
of the Party and issue calls for their 'immediate delivery into the
hands of the secret police'.  In this way they show their concentrated
hatred towards Chairman Gonzalo, the Communist Party of Peru, the
People's war and the people". (19)

According to the government's own sources, nearly 200 capitulators have
bought their freedom by giving information to the police and the armed
forces.  Some of these individuals have now been sent abroad 'to work
in favour of the peace agreement'.  Others have been doing the same
inside Peru.  Various media sources admit that those prisoners of war
opposed to the 'peace agreement' are grassed on by the capitulators and
that, these prisoners are subsequently brutally repressed and punished
by reaction.  Recently, a group of capitulators were released from
prison.  They are now busy distributing a bogus edition of El Diario
supporting the 'struggle for a peace agreement' with the support of the
government.

But the arbitrary investigations of the RIM leaders are not just
limited with regard to documentation and concrete facts relating to the
revolutionary process in Peru.  They also overlook the fact that from
the moment that the first 'peace letter' appeared (October 1993), a
great wave of direct struggle arose at international level, a struggle
against this fraud and its promoters.  It is also a fact that the
leaders of RIM excluded themselves voluntarily from this struggle under
the pretext of 'studying the problem'.  Many political organisations,
friends and supporters of the Peruvian revolution have contributed to
the unmasking and rejection of the 'peace letters' by various means.
These organisations and friends have developed important activities in
defense of the People's War and the life of Chairman Gonzalo.  For
example: The leaders of RIM do not say a word about the three JOINT
CONFERENCES that took place in Europe during 1994. Representatives of
the Peru People's Movement (MPPs), the Sol Peru Commit

To complete this point, we want to ask the following question: What
would have been the result at international level if all those who
struggled against the 'peace agreement' from the very beginning had
instead followed the example of the leaders of RIM?.  Then all would
have adopted the 'tactics of silence' and remained firmly hidden inside
their bolt-holes awaiting better times.  In political terms, and from
the fundamental principles of Marxism and class struggle, this would
have meant open conciliation with the enemies of the people's
liberation war in Peru.

ON THE 'HISTORICAL LEADERS' OF CAPITULATION

Fourth Aspect:  The leaders of RIM claim that there is "A group of
people who have historically played a leading role within the CPP.
That these are people strongly and decidedly promoting a line
concerning the peace conversations .... This group appears to be
concentrated inside the prisons. However, they also have support among
CPP members and supporters outside the prisons, both in Peru and
abroad.....".

Here we can point out at least three errors.  This evaluation is
drenched in subjectivism and reflects mainly the influence of the
psycho-social campaign of the peruvian government.  Let us analyse
these points in detail:

1) Is it true that the individuals promoting the 'peace agreement'
belong to 'A group ... that have historically played a leading role
within the CPP?  How do the leaders of RIM come to this conclusion?
Where do we find this historical role of the capitulators?  This is
what the Committee of Families of Political Prisoners, Prisoners of War
and the Disappeared in Peru, an organism generated by the CPP have to
say on this issue in their statement of December 3, 1993:

".....the sinister activities of this handful of proven and known
capitulators, snitches and cowards ...... servants of US imperialism
and the mass murderers' dictatorship ..... they are the same group of
people who for a long time attempted to take advantage of the
revolution, seeking to obtain important positions.  They dreamt about
seizing power without messing up their fine coiffeurs.  They dreamt of
dividing up the cake of power among themselves.  Meanwhile, they were
carping about the development of the strategic equilibrium and the
achievement of the aims of the Party".  "......their 'historical
contingent' (is) made up of renegades who have taken upon themselves
the frontal task of assassinating Chairman Gonzalo and destroying the
Party".  "They are the same old puny bourgeois politicians" .....
"usurping the name of the Party.....".

It should be noted that this statement never accepts that the promoters
of the 'peace agreement' are high leaders of the CPP. Even less does it
imply that they are people with an historical role.  In reading this
statement, it becomes evident that these people are but old renegades.
It is true that the Peruvian government, as part of their psycho-social
warfare, portrays these capitulators as historical leaders of the
Party.  This lie is but a component of the 'peace agreement' plot.  It
is true that, within the prisons they control, the National
Intelligence Service (SIN) has elected a 'Central Committee of the
CPP'.  This Committee is under the control of the police and headed by
the 'historical' Osman Morote Barrionuevo who has been promoted by the
Peruvian government as 'Shining Path's N2 man'.  In the November 1994
issue of El Diario Internacional, we already dealt with the case of
Morote.  In that issue we reported on a conversation between the author
of this document and Chairman Gonzalo. What transp

- Journalist: Chairman Gonzalo, what is the concrete situation of Osman
Morote?.  Is it true that he is the N 2 in the CPP? Is it true what the
media says about him?

- Chairman Gonzalo: "These are fantasies invented by our enemies.
Morote has nothing at all to do with the leadership of the Party. Even
less could he be the 'N2'.  We are not people who number themselves
from 1 to 100.  On the question of wether or not there is a line
opposing the leadership:  It is important to note that the Party's
First Congress has consolidated us, both organically and at
ideological- political level.  On the other hand, there could be some
truth in that Morote may have some problems with the leadership.  That
is very worrying".

If Morote was not a leader and if we also remember that he has been in
gaol since 1988, how does he then magically turn up as a 'top leader of
Shining Path', and leading the 'peace agreement' at that!?  Who
appointed him as a member of the Central Committee?.  We understand
that the CPP resolves its organic problems at its various Party levels
such as the Party Congress, the Plenums of the central Committee, The
Enlarged Plenums, Party Conferences, etc.  These events take place
periodically but not within the prisons and even less with the support
of the police. In synthesis, Morote and the high position he is
supposed to occupy within the CPP is a mere invention of the
government.  This whole charade is a key element of "Operation
Capitulation". (20)

2)  The leaders of RIM say that this group is concentrated inside the
prisons but that they also enjoy support among militants outside the
prisons, in Peru and abroad.  This opinion is completely lacking in
analytical seriousness. It does not tally with concrete facts.  Even
the reactionary Peruvian media supporting Fujimori recognises the
fundamental fact that: The weakness of the 'peace agreement', and
therefore its failing, lies in the fact that its chieftains and
supporters are exclusively within the prisons.  Some 'senderologists'
and the Peruvian media also admit the following fact: The government,
in its counter-insurgency strategy, is setting some capitulators free
and giving them the concrete task of promoting the 'peace agreement'
and snitching on the Maoists fighters.  Here we quote the opinion of a
commentator who is familiar with the internal affairs of the army and
the police:

"Therefore, cadres and leaders of Shining Path who favour the Peace
Agreement are being selectively released from prison. They are then
given the task of contesting the rank and file away from Feliciano's
group and to win them over to Guzman's position....". (21)

On the other hand, the Peruvian state's propaganda has made strenuous
efforts to back-up the assertions of the capitulators.  They have tried
to back-up their claim to have the support of the majority of political
prisoners and prisoners of war.  This is also false.  It is true that
this black gang, supported by the National Intelligence Services (SIN),
has toured all the maximum security prisons.  It is true that they have
tried to convince the prisoners and sell them the charms of the 'peace
agreement' - in reality, to pressurise, threaten and blackmail them.
It is well known that this campaign resulted in total failure and in
several gaols the 'official delegation' headed by Morote was loudly
disowned.  To prove this, it is sufficient to refer ourselves to the
official information of the Peruvian state who controls every step of
this plot of 'peace agreement'.  Considering their grossly distorted
figures - lumping together prisoners of war and hundreds of other
people rounded up en masse and falsely accussed of belonging to the CPP
- here is a summary of the statistics concocted by the Intelligence
Services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.  This report claims that
the prisoners 'in favour' and those 'against' the 'peace agreement'
are: In Castro Castro Jail (Cantogrande) 820 in favour and 469
against.  In Chorrillos (women's prison) 168 in favour and 168 against.
In Pcsi 50 in favour and 65 against.  In Chiclayo 6 in favour and 43
against.

Commenting on this issue of the police evaluation of these figures, it
is worth quoting the newspaper La Repblica: "The figures crudely reveal
that Abimael Guzman's 'Great Decision and New Definition' did not gain
credibility among real Shining Path prisoners ....." (23)

3) On the question of the purported support that capitulation enjoys
abroad: Here the leaders of RIM are chewing on a half truth.  On the
one hand, it is true that the leaders of the old Peru People's Movement
(MPP) took the lead of the international campaign to promote the 'peace
agreement'. In their dirty task, they circulated the 'peace letters'
and even invented a telephone conversation with Chairman Gonzalo. Thus,
they claimed to have received his orders to capitulate and sell out the
People's War.  But it is also true that these individuals, in turning
coat and going over to the camp of the enemies of the Peruvian people,
ended up excluded from any links with the CPP and its work abroad. In
November 1993, the true Central Committee of the CPP - not the one led
by the National Intelligence Service (SIN) - issued an International
Directive unmasking these elements. In this Directive the CPP gave
precise instructions for the reorganisation of the MPPs around those
supporters that had kept their distance f

It is also true that the leaders of RIM did not take up a position
regarding the capitulators of the old MPPs and that they are still
persevering in this course of action, despite the time that has now
elapsed since the beginning of this struggle (more than one year).  On
the contrary, they have kept links with them as if nothing unbecoming
had been going on. To justify this behaviour, they use their stock in
trade excuse of 'conducting investigations'.  From this position, they
have even refused to circulate the documents from CPP and any
information against the 'peace letters'. This obviously pleased the
capitulators who are denying the authority and the validity of the
Central Committee of the CPP.  In essence, the political behaviour of
the leaders of RIM in this problem, is open conciliation with elements
that the CPP has expelled from its generated organisms abroad.

DEFEND THE LIFE OF CHAIRMAN GONZALO IN DEEDS AND NOT MERELY IN WORDS

Fifth Aspect.  The leaders of RIM say: "It is also imperative that the
present debate does not affect the importance of continuing with the
task of Defending the Life of Chairman Gonzalo and supporting the
People's War in Peru.  We must continue supporting and helping the
International Emergency Committee to Defend the Life of Abimael
Guzman...." .

How should we distinguish with precision a real campaign to defend the
life of Chairman Gonzalo from an erroneous and unrealistic one?  On
several occasions when we held talks with the functionaries of the
International Emergency Committee (IEC) we gave them our points of view
on this issue.  A brief synthesis of these opinions is as follows:
Before October 1993 (date of the appearance of the first 'peace
letter') the international campaign to defend the life of Chairman
Gonzalo was in the main correct.  This campaign could be carried out
within a wide democratic framework.  It could base itself on collecting
signatures, statements on questions of human rights, sending
delegations to Peru, faxing campaigns, etc.  This method of conducting
the campaign is now obsolete and does not correspond to the new
situation arising from the 'peace agreement'.  If the essential
elements of this campaign are not changed in form and content, it will
certainly fail.  It will die a natural death. Why?

1)  The success that the international campaign to defend the life of
Chairman Gonzalo achieved was the expression of the prestige of Dr
Abimael Guzman as the leader and theoretician of one of the most solid
armed struggle processes of our era.  Here, the inter-relation between
cause and effect can be concretely appreciated in the linkage between
Chairman Gonzalo and the People's War.  The prestige of Chairman
Gonzalo and the prestige of the People's War are part of one and the
same historical process.  These two ideas cannot exist in isolation
while also going their own separate ways.  This fact is proven by the
thousands of people not familiar with the theoretical work of the great
Peruvian Maoist, who may even have difficulty in finding Peru on the
map, but who gave firm support to the International Campaign led by the
IEC.  Those masses marching in the streets of Europe, America, Turkey,
India, Nepal and countless other places in the world, were expressing
solidarity and sympathy with the revolutionary l

This situation underwent a sudden turn.  This turn occured from October
1993 onwards. Then Fujimori appeared before the General Assembly of the
UN to read the first 'peace letter' requesting negotiating away the
revolution and purportedly signed by Chairman Gonzalo.  The Peruvian
regime and US imperialism portrayed Chairman Gonzalo as a vulgar
capitulator.  As a man for whom a rigorous imprisonment was sufficient
reason for him to renege his ideology and to cravenly crawl before the
tyrant Fujimori.  From that moment, any campaign to defend the life of
the leader of the People's War in Peru had to be based, primarily, in
defending his prestige.  Any such campaign had to defend his condition
as a Maoist, as a communist and unflinching revolutionary.  In other
words, the campaign to defend the life of Chairman Gonzalo is, today
more than ever, linked to supporting the People's War.  Now this
campaign can only be effective when linked to the unmasking of the
'peace agreement' and fighting against the capitulato

By simple political logic, the revolutionary or democratic masses are
not going to support a campaign to defend the life of a Chairman
Gonzalo turned capitulator.  They would not mobilise in defense of a
person who according to the official propaganda holds daily
negotiations with his jailers.  A man equipped by the secret police
with a private mobile phone.  A man free to hold meetings with 'his
central committee' and give lectures on the 'peace agreement' under the
protection of the state.  A man who writes and publishes essays about
the economical, political and military successes of the puppet
Fujimori.  In synthesis, the masses, consciously or instinctively,
would never struggle on behalf of anyone in cahoots with repressive and
murderous governments such as the Peruvian regime.

The leaders of RIM and the IEC are closing their eyes to these facts.
They do not want to see what even the blind can see.  They call for
defending the life of Chairman Gonzalo and supporting the International
Emergency Committee (IEC).  However, they do not take up a position vis
a vis the 'peace agreement'.  They contribute nothing to debunk the
black propaganda woven by imperialism and the reactionaries around the
fate of Dr Guzman. They do not lift a finger to unmask the
capitulators.  This attitude places them in an untenable position. They
are falling into the most elementary subjectivism and leading the IEC
to its final bankruptcy.

SOME FINAL NOTES

>From the above analysis, and taking the perspectives and international
significance of the People's war in Peru into consideration, we can put
forward the following conclusions:

1)  Revisionism continues to be the main danger within the
International Communist Movement.  The conciliating tendency of the
leadership of RIM reflects this phenomena. It is imperative to fight
against this deviation.  This struggle must guide itself by the
scientific ideology of the proletariat.  Failure to undertake this task
would contribute to undermine the international revolutionary process
and would render succour to the imperialist powers.  To remain aloof in
this contest is tantamount to going over to the opportunist swamp.

2.  We must put into practice the three guidelines advanced by Chairman
Gonzalo in relation to the unity and development of the RIM: a) To
unite around Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.  b) To serve the world
proletarian revolution.  c) To fight uncompromisingly against
revisionism. (24)

"Unite to overthrow imperialism, revisionism and world reaction.  This
battle cry remains fully in the order of the day". (25)

3.  Consider the position of the CPP regarding the RIM.  Chairman
Gonzalo points out that currently we do not have a Communist
International and that it is the duty of the revolutionaries to strive
for its establishment.   To this aim, the RIM is a step forward "which
would be useful on that account if it bases itself upon a just and
correct ideological line". (26)

4.      The support for the People's War in Peru and the defense of the
life of Chairman Gonzalo is a revolutionary stance based on the
principles of proletarian internationalism.  In theory and practice
this means struggle against capitulation.  It means fighting against
the police agents, against imperialism.  It means smashing revisionism
and opportunism. By following these Marxist principles we will
accomplish the task of contributing to the revolutionary process in
Peru and at international level.


BIBLIOGRAPHY


(1)     V.I. Lenin, Thesis on The Fundamental Tasks of the Second
Congress of the Comintern,Selected Works, page 135.  (2)     Chairman
Gonzalo, Speech at Plenary Session of the Second Plenum of the
Central                 Committee, August 1990, page 9.  (3)     Carlos
Tapia, 'Diario La Repblica' August 18 1994.  (4)     Central Committee
of the Communist Party of Peru, February 1994 Report.  (5)     V.I.
Lenin, One Step Forward Two Steps Back, February-May 1904.  (6)
Revista Contradiccin, Bogot, Colombia, N15, November 1994.  (7)
Chairman Mao Tse-tung, Speech at II Session of the First National
Committee of theChinese People's Consultative Assembly, June 1950.
8)      Chairman Mao Tse-tung, On Contradiction, SW, Vol 1, page 340
9)      Selected Works of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, 1976, On
Contradiction, Vol 1, page 366 10)     V.I. Lenin, One Step Forward,
Two Steps Back, SW, page 15.  11)     Fundamental Documents of the CPP,
The Forge Amid The Two-Line Struggle, 1990Edition.  12)     Chairman
Mao Tse-tung, SW, Vol 1, 1976 Edition, page 366 13)     SW of Chairman
Mao Tse-tung, Vol 2, Against Capitulation, page 260 14)     Chairman
Gonzalo, Report to the Preparatory Session of the 2nd Plenum of the CC
of              CPP, August 1990, pages 14-16.  15)     Chairman
Gonzalo, SpeechReport at the Plenary Session of the 2nd Plenum of the
CC ofCPP, August 1990, page 14.  16)     Chairman Gonzalo, On the
Rectification Campaign - No to Elections Yes to the People'sWar, Vol 2
of People's War in Peru, Gonzalo Thought.  17)     Karl Marx, Theses on
Feuerbach, 1845, SW page 401 18)     Shining Path Enters Into its Third
Age, by Abraham Lama, Interpress Service, December15 1994. APC
Electronic Network.  19)     Committee of Families of Political
Prisoners, War Prisoners and Dissapeared in Peru,December 3, 1993.
20)     El Diario Internacional N24, November 1994 - Item 'Operation
Capitulation'.  21)     Carlos Tapia, La Repblica, Lima Peru, July
1994.  22)     Source: Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs, July 1994, as publishedby the newspaper La Repblica.
23)     Angel Pez, Diario La Repblica, Investigations Unit, August 21
1994.  24)     Chairman Gonzalo, Speech at the II Plenary Session of
the Central Committee of CPP,             October - November 1990.
25)     Chairman Gonzalo, Speech at the II Plenary Session of the
Central Committee of CPP,             October - November 1990.  26)
Document of the Congress of the CPP, Bases for discussion,
International Line, 1989,page 323 of Vol 1, People's War in Peru by
LAB.


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