MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT POSITION PAPER ON PERU Last edit: 8/26/92 Subject: Moyano Most of the U.S. "Left" buys into typical ultra-rightist, military government propaganda as soon as the struggle of the oppressed "goes too far," which means going far enough to actually succeed. One day the settler "Left" will denounce Bush/Quayle for taking cues from Hitler on how to organize women and the next day it will be backing those who run "women's organizations" for a military regime. Little wonder that the IU and other "left" reformists legitimized an openly military dictatorship of the bureaucrat-capitalists and landlords and then would-be Vichy-administrators in the United States did too--Maoist Internationalist Movement. The Untold Story of Maria Elena Moyano On February 15, Maria Elena Moyano was killed in Lima. The press stirred up a major international campaign with this incedent, trying to portray the Communist Party of Peru as cold-blooded killers of the legal left in Peru. The following article, translated and reprinted by the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru is a shortened version of an article by Luis Arce Borja, exiled editor of El Diario International. Copies of that monthly publication in English may be obtained from the Maoist Internationalist Movement, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576 for $1 cash or check made to "ABS." The press and all the media linked to the world powers are crying over the death of Maria Elena Moyano. Amidst laments and curses they have baptized her "Mother Courage." What has happened? Why does the same press that justifies thousands of murders and brutal assaults against oppressed peoples when they rebel now cry for "the heroine of the poor?" Fujomori's government called her "a martyr in the struggle against Sendero." Her burial drew representatives of Peru's most reactionary political parties. Parading before her casket was General Juan Briones, current interior minister of Peru. Fujimori sent Maximo San Roman, the vice-president, as his personal envoy...Not to be left out was Fernando Belaunde Terry, ex-president of Peru and leader of the rightist and reactionary Popular Action Party. Felipe Osterling, President of the Senate and leader of the ultra-right Popular Christian Party was there. Mercedes Canbanitas, ex-minister of the previous government, headed up the delegation of the corrupt APRA party. Ricardo Vega Llona, head of the Liberty Movement, represented the big businessmen and industrialists of the country. The official left (IU, MAS, PUM, IS, etc.) send their most notable leaders. "...the imolation of the leader, Mrs. Maria Elena Moyano, is a symbol of the valor and sacrifices of our people, and a symbol of her wisdom." The eulogy, the words, are not those of some humble citizen--they belong to the current interior minister. Let it be known that never in the history of social struggle in Peru, has a popular leader, alive or dead, brought together such a select and well-dressed gathering, not to mention such official discourses. Hundreds of thousands of popular leaders, peasants, and humble masses have not only been violently assassinated by the Armed Forces and police, but they have been denied the right to funeral and burial. Since 1980, unburied bodies and clandestine cemeteries abound in Peru. How many mothers (with courage in the full sense of the word), have been brutalized, abused, and respressed, and even imprisoned for reclaiming the mortal remains of their children? Who was "Mother Courage"? The title of "Mother Courage" did not come from the people. This ostentatious name was given to her in December 1991 by the magazine Caretas, well known to have links to the antiterrorist police and the paramilitary groups of the APRA party. Caretas itself, which in various issues has shed light on the principal and true activities of M.E. Moyano, says: "At the head of many mothers and popular leaders, she defied Sendero on numerous occasions and did not allow this group to develop a base of support in Villa El Salvador. If this is a war, the assassination of Moyano is the equivalent of the loss of one of our most effective generals of the campaign." Moyano was a militant of the Movment for Socialist Affirmation (MAS), whose main leaders are Henry Pease and Rolando Ames. MAS is part of the United Left (IU), and together with the other members of this front pushed forward the electoral victory of Alberto Fujimori. Gloria Helfer, a militant of the MAS, was the minister of education in Fujimori's government. Since 1989, "Mother Courage" was the vice-mayor of Villa El Salvador. She represented the old Peruvian state. She occupied high positions in the administration of the people's cafeterias and the programs of the Glass of Milk Organizations created and directed by each one of the official political parties, the government, the Church, and the Non-Governmental Organizations (ONGs). Behind the facade of the glass of milk and the people's cafeterias is hidden the ideological and political manipulation of the masses. The objective is to maintain an enormous impoverished mass of people as beggars, without a critical spirit, without the will to fight, not thinking of anything higher than the next plate of food to be dispensed. Behind this "charity" and "donations" of food is hidden the true causes of hunger and misery for millions of Peruvians. They want to save the system of oppression. It is no coincedence that all the official parties (right and left), and even the military, have developed hundreds of "survival" programs. Violeta Conea de Belaunde, wife of ex-president Fernando Belaunde was quite active in the formation of the "family kitchens" in the shantytowns of Lima. Pilar Nores de Garcia (wife of Alan Garcia) was in charge of the Program for Direct Assistance, and as part of this official institution formed 2,000 "mother's clubs" that later were converted into people's cafeterias in the shaty-towns...Patricia Vargas Llosa distributed food and even toys as part of her husband's electoral strategy...And even the military are not to be outdone, even as they kidnap, torture and murder, they also distribute food--they call it "civic action." Food--and masses against masses Much has been said about "Mother Courage" and the people's cafeterias, but silence has been kept about her links to the counterinsurgency plans of the Armed Forces and the government. Organizing "rondas" to "confront Sendero" was Moyano's contribution to the military plans of the regime. An activity she had never kept hidden; on the contrary, the rightist press has given it ample publicity. Long before her death, the magazine Caretas called her a "national civic herioine" for her activities in the formation of "urban defense groups." The main problem for the government is the Maoist guerrillas and their powerful advances towards the seizure of power. Part of the counterinsurgency plans designed by the U.S. and the Armed Forces of Peru is utilizing "masses against masses." That is, forcing peasants and other masses to confront the Maoist guerrillas (as cannon fodder). The Army, supported by laws and decrees, has organized "peasant rondas" and "civil defense" groups in the rural areas... The growth of the Maoist guerrillas in the shantytowns of Lima has been a cause of panic and fear for the government and other political forces. The official left, in particular, has been the most affected, as they were used to trafficking with the interests of the workers, and felt themselves to be the "supreme representative of the masses." They now see the masses ignoring them and they find themselves in danger of losing everything. Let us not forget that the only reason that the official left was at one time taken into account was that they still pulled along a considerable mass of workers. This is precisely what has changed with the people's war...The impact of the war has created serious internal problems for these parties. For all that they try to radicalize their discourses and demagogy, their practice, separated from the masses, is bringing them down. Their militants are in turmoil, they desert, not infrequently joining the ranks of the Maoists. The IU may still control the people's cafeterias and distribute food, but the masses no longer believe in them...more and more, they turn to revolution. Organizing the urban rondas and turning control of them over to the military is the last resort of the government, the IU, and the rest of the parties of the right, to try to close off the path of the Moiasts...Rolando Ames, leader of the Movement for Socialist Affirmation, MAS, has called for "an agrement among all the political parties in order to develop the urban rondas as a form of self-defense." At the explicit request of the IU, the House of Deputies (Feb. 1992) passed decree number 1716 that approved the creation of "urban rondas" and "self-defense committees." According to this parliamentary decree, these organisms would be armed and come under the control of the respective military commands. Ricardo Vega Llona, businessman and rightist parliamentarian affirmed: "the urban ronda project promotes a barrier against the advance of Sendero." Moyano, who represented the IU and the State, had been known as an active partisan and organizer of the "urban rondas." This becomes clear in a well-publicized interview where she is asked: "Are your people organizing rondas." Moyano: "Yes, we are organizing neighborhood rondas." The same "Mother Courage" affirms to a meeting of big Peruvian businessmen her decision to defend the state from the "Senderista threat." She makes this promise in her address to the annual meeting of Peruvian excutives (CADL '91). Most of Peru's media reported extensively on Moyano's eloquence that day. On February 29, the Class Conscious Urban Slum Movement (Movimiento Clasista Barrial--an organization led by the PCP) issued a communique which was published in El Diario. It said: "Was she a people's leader? No! Just one of the superficial elite who cash in on the hunger of our people. From the start, she found her niche in the official state under the pretext of struggling for the people; creating and imposing new and crippling taxes on the small merchants and street vendors; creating the 'people's inspectors' in charge of collecting commissions; she only generated more abuse and corruption. She cashed in on land sales in the seventh sector that financed her electoral campaign in a wild and ambitious race for a seat in parliament. She had for herself: a cheese factory (Villa Chesses), a grain factory, as well as other hidden businesses..." by the Maoist Internationalist Movement, supporters of Comrade Gonzalo's Communist Party in Peru, 6/27/92 Maria Elena Moyano: Feminine Role Model, not Feminist The assassination of Maria Elena Moyano has brought forth condemnations from the leaders of the military regime in Peru and the so-called democratic socialists in Peru and in Amerika. It's an example of the kind of thing that no doubt led Stalin to refer to social-democrats as a figleaf for Hitler fascism--"wolves in sheep's clothing"-- just prior to World War II. One would have thought that these so-called democratic socialists would have been embarrassed by the open military coup of Fujimori. These are after all the people who had been telling us that there was "democracy" in Peru, and that the ballot box could replace the bullet. The news of the assassination of Moyano provided these phony leftists the chance to latch onto something as an excuse for their failing the people of Peru. When President Alberto Fujimori imposed martial law in the first week in April in those few parts of the country where it hadn't already been declared, the so-called democratic socialists still showed no shame. They had told the people there was democracy in Peru; even though the real threat of military coup existed all along and even though coups like that against Allende in Chile had already proved that the democratic socialists bought themselves temporary political office with the blood of the people. In the case of Maria Elena Moyano, she no doubt participated in this lie to the people with good reason: she was a vice-mayor and capitalist. People ask us why the Senderos use force instead of persuasion. However, the Senderos did try persuasion. When you are talking to people who are a legitimate part of a regime like Peru's, it's hard to win your arguments. The vice-mayor's interests were too entrenched in opposition to those of the people. One might as well ask why war was necessary to free slaves from slave-owners. Then "Mother Courage" supporters played the feminine role so approved in Amerikan "Left" circles in order to make a bid for their support. Hundreds of thousands of peasants can die at the hands of a supposedly "democratic" regime, but let one bourgeois woman die and the Amerikan "Left" senses that someone is taking women off the pedestal and reacts with righteous indignation fitting for people steeped in sexual privilege. The Moyano-supporters who were with Moyano at the end told us the shameless lie that women naturally eschew political violence. They told the Amerikan "Left" that the Senderos were just trying to control women with this assassination. But who is "controlling women" with this image of women as not taking up arms for political power? How shameless these lies are! Moyano herself organized political violence through work with para-military groups, work that was no secret to public newspapers of the ultra-right in Peru. Then the Moyano supporters neglected to tell Amerikan pseudo-feminists that the PCP that assassinated Moyano is over half women, which is itself a powerful counterargument to the "biology is destiny" bullshit the Moyano-supporters were spreading about women and political violence. Then there is the strong charity work role Moyano played. This really pulls on the patriarchy's heartstrings. The patriarchs think: "How lovely! Women don't want power to organize to feed themselves. They just want to leave the landlords and capitalists in power and beg for food. What perfect women these are! How much more feminine than the women who patrol their own base areas and land, guns in hand, those Maoists!" But the Amerikan "Left" ate it all up. There's their model: a woman who does charity work in the midst of military repression and starvation, a woman respected by all sorts of fascists and military leaders. How perfect these pseudo-feminists reason: a woman smart enough to know that her only role is to curry favors through her access to men in power, not stand up for women's interests with military force. In addition, although the "democratic socialists" had no shame about the lies about democracy they told the peasants being killed in the hundreds of thousands, they also had no shame about granting "Mother Courage" the label of "feminist." One would have thought that people like Amerikan democratic socialists who had not led a relatively successful movement for women's liberation would at least keep their mouths shut. How it is these democratic socialists think they have the right to talk about feminism is beyond us. The Marxist-Leninist-Maoists have brought the fastest progress for women's liberation in the world. Let's take a look at what Maria Elena Moyano and the Amerikan "Left" oppose for women's liberation when it comes to Maoism. And let's not give them the easy out of saying patriarchy hasn't been abolished anywhere, hence all movements against it are equally failures. No, let's compare where the great feminist movement in Amerika has gotten compared with where the movement in China under Mao got. Below we remind the Amerikan "Left" of the recent accomplishments of pseudo-feminist organizing in Amerika and then compare them with those in China. The National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) was founded by Betty Friedan, a feminist icon of the Amerikan "Left." ----------- National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) ad 1275 K Street N.W. Suite 750 Washington, DC 20005 New York Times, 10/25/91, p. a5 "What if 14 women, instead of 14 men, had sat on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas?" "As long as men make up 98% of the U.S. Senate and 93% of the U.S. House of Representatives, women's voices can be ignored, their experiences and concerns trivialized."--excerpts from the NWPC ad What if groups like NWPC did not waste their time lobbying an imperialist Senate of 98% men expecting a different outcome? The truth is NWPC's concerns were not ignored. They were put on television for days. Rarely does any real struggle of the oppressed get such attention. That struggle failed because it was designed to fail. The goals were vaguely conceived and the strategy was absolutely no good. What if groups like NWPC worked for a Maoist revolution instead? In one generation (1949-1974) (before capitalism came back in China) China went from a society that allowed buying and selling of women as slaves to a society with 22.6% women in its highest government body of 2885 members, (1) which would be the rough equivalent of our top 700 Congressional, military and business leaders. (Remember that the United States has one quarter the population of China.) Within that body, it's highest ranking members composed the Standing Committee. Women were over 25% of this group in 1975. Women in all levels of power in China were higher in proportion than in the United States, or god forbid, their comparative counterparts in Taiwan, southern Korea or even industrially advanced Japan. Since U.S. women would not start in as bad a position as Chinese women did before China's revolution--semi-feudalism-- it is likely a Maoist revolution in the United States would bring even more than 22.6% women to the top posts of leadership. As it is now, with the evident failure of generations of the NWPC type strategy in the United States, the United States of 1992 is still way behind the China of 1974, as evidenced by the figures on Congress provided by the NWPC. In 1949 the infant mortality rate in Shanghai was 150 deaths per 1000 births. In 1972 it was down to 12.6, lower than the infant mortality rate of 18.1 for whites in New York City in 1972. (2) Those concerned with the well-being of women understand that this is a statement on the health of women in the two countries and this is despite the fact that the United States is several times wealthier than China. China under Mao also abolished the use of womenUs bodies in advertising, not to mention more blatant pornography. All this and much more was accomplished in 27 years. When capitalism came back to China in 1976, it came back after defeating the effort of a communist woman Jiang Qing to take the top leadership role in China. It has meant the return of pornography, sexist ads, prostitution, cosmetics, skyrocketing rape rates, and a decline in rural health care coverage and the percentage of women in government. Moyano knew very well that the Senderos supported Mao's China as their model, but she could not bear to see workers, peasants and women liberate themselves the way they had in China. What was Moyano opposing when she opposed the Maoist Senderos? She was opposing revolutionary feminism, real feminism with a track record of real change. Notes: 1. See China Social Statistics, 1986, William T. Liu ed. 2. China:Science Walks on Two Legs, Science for the People, Discus Books, 1974 and Serve the People, Victor and Ruth Sidel, Macy Foundation, 1973. We at MIM are delighted to print ALL the letters replying to our material, letters from both supporters and opponents. We use them in our theory journal and newspaper and remove the names unless requested otherwise. Please address replies to us at science@mitvma.mit.edu or send them to MIM PO Box 3576 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576 Send a few bucks and get copies of the Senderos' monthly magazine in English at a buck a piece. Send cash or make checks out to "ABS." For a copy of a free literature list send a message to science@mitvma.mit.edu. Also available are a series of posts that defend Maoism made in a conference with Chinese students. Notes: 1. See China Social Statistics, 1986, William T. Liu ed. 2. China:Science Walks on Two Legs, Science for the People, Discus Books, 1974 and Serve the People, Victor and Ruth Sidel, Macy Foundation, 1973. We at MIM are delighted to print ALL the letters replying to our material, letters from both supporters and opponents. We use them in our theory journal and newspaper and remove the names unless requested otherwise. Please address replies to us at science@mitvma.mit.edu or send them to MIM PO Box 3576 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576 Send a few bucks and get copies of the Senderos' monthly magazine in English at a buck a piece. Send cash or make checks out to "ABS." For a copy of a free literature list send a message to science@mitvma.mit.edu. Also available are a series of posts that defend Maoism made in a conference with Chinese students. Interview with Comrade Gonzalo translated from MIM Notes Number 42, 6/18/90 by MC5 The general political economy of Peru is now well-know even in the bourgeois press. Peru is experiencing 2000% inflation, double-digit unemployment, widespread and worsening starvation and death squad government. What is somewhat more controversial is that many believe the guerrillas are almost as violent as the army, that there is democracy in Peru and that there is some popular force in Peru other than the Senderos that the masses support. Peru is an excellent case study of who the real leaders of social change in the world are -- Maoists. Every other ideologically organized group has involved itself in the parliamentary charade in Peru, with the exception of the pro- Cuban guerrillas. The Maoist revolutionaries in Peru have understated their case against their revisionist and opportunist opponents, perhaps in an effort to rally all democratic forces against fascism. Yet, for outsiders to understand Peru, illusions should be cast aside. All the social democrats including outgoing President Garca and all the revisionists (with the exception of the pro-Cuban forces) have decided to serve as figleaves for a military fascist regime. That includes the pro-Soviet and pro-Deng Xiaoping phony communists and various so-called democratic socialists. What does it mean to be a democratic socialist in Peru? It means providing a cover for fascism and a prolongation of the starvation and grinding poverty of the masses. It means pretending that democratic processes have a meaning where the military slaughters entire villages and massacres prisoners. It means deceiving the masses about the fundamental nature of society in order to grab a share of power for yourself. The following is an an unauthorized translation of some excerpts from an interview with the Peruvian newspaper El Diario and Communist Party of Peru Chairperson Gonzalo. ("Entrevista Al Presidente Gonzalo," Comite Central Partido Comunista Del Peru, 1989) El Diario: Chairperson. In Peru's case, what has been the highest expression of revisionism? Who are its proponents? Chairperson Gonzalo: It is formally called the Peruvian Communist Party that is known publicly through the publication (Unidad) Unity, fifth column of Soviet revisionism, which is headed by the revisionist Jorge Del Prado, who some consider a "dedicated revolutionary." And, in the second place, (Patria Roja) Red Country, is the agency of Chinese revisionism with its leaders adoring Deng Xiaoping. (p. 15) El Diario: Why characterize the APRA government as fascist and corporatist? What is the basis for this? Gonzalo: On the characterization of the Aprista government without treating the historical problems. . . . The APRA is in a dilemma [contradiction?] with two tendencies, one of fascist criteria and the other of liberal democratic criteria. . . . When does the dilemma become defined? The dilemma is resolved with the genocide of 1986, the class struggles of the masses, the people's war, principally the genocidal action carried out by the APRA to define itself as fascist with the triumph of the fascist faction. Why do we ay fascist? The fascist faction that has existed in the APRA is going to take political measures for the implementation of corporatization. . . What do we mean by fascist and corporatist? For us, fascism is the negation of the principles of liberal democracy; it is the negation of the principles of the democratic bourgeoisie born and developed in the 18th century in France.(pp. 80-3) El Diario: During eight years [of armed struggle -- ed.] the groups and parties of the right, of revisionism, of opportunism and of all the parties of the reaction have screamed and yelled that the PCP is "insane," "messianic," "bloodthirsty," "Pol Potian," "dogmatist," "sectarian," "narcoterrorist," . . . What do you say to these charges? Gonzalo: [It is their] incapacity to understand People's War. The enemies of the revolution are never able to understand it. As regards taking the peasants under fire...because it is precisely the immense majority of peasants that fall in with the People's Guerrilla Army. The problem is understanding the Peruvian state with its armed and repressive forces, which want to drown the revolution in blood. It is our understanding and recommendation that these mssrs. study a little about war in general, revolutionary war and principally People's War and Maoism; although we doubt they can understand it because of the class position they hold. (p. 69) El Diario: The reaction and the revisionists and the opportunists of the United Left (IU), say the [Senderos] are isolated from the masses. What can you say in this regard? Gonzalo: To these revisionists and opportunists, I have a question: "How do you explain the existence of a movement that developed a people's war in eight years without international support if you have no support from the masses?" El Diario: What do you think of the political line of the IU? What destiny do you assign to this revisionist front? And about the ANP, what position does the PCP take? Gonzalo: About this we want to be especially brief, first because, "what is the line of Izquierda Unida (United Left) in these moments?" We don't know it. From previous documents it is "a front of masses of socialist tendency," and it makes evident the fact that it is involved in parliamentary cretinism. At the bottom of these positions what is there? A question very simple -- to believe that they are able to capture the government and immediately take power; since they intend not to capture one without the other . . . because the essential problem of the state is the system of the state, who is to decide the dictatorship that is exercised, which class is, and derive from this the system of government. The rest are cheap elaborations of the rotten revisionists. . . . They are not for the destruction of the state but are for a government that permits them to continue evolution of this dying and rotten order, that is what they seek proclaiming that with this government and reforms they are able to march to socialism; and all this is simply unbridled revisionism condemned by Lenin. . . . As for the Popular National Assembly [ANP]. Good, the ANP is an interesting case, for on the one side, it says, "it is the birth of power," [connoting grassroots power -- ed.] very good, "grassroots power." The question is are they desiring to form soviets? Are they republishing the Bolivian experience with Juan Jos Torres? Are they able to create a a power in this way? Raising this supposed "grassroots power" is simply building opposition to the New Power that we have been constructing really and concretely. On the other side, is also the ANP that says it is "a front of the masses," oh, is that a competitor of the IU, also a "front of the masses?" Good, that defines that case then. Is it "grassroots power" or is it "front of the masses"? That case concretely and clearly establishes it as invention of power. What is the truth? Simply that the ANP is managed by the revisionists. El Diario: How do you define the politics of the front? Gonzalo: We are absolutely opposed to the revisionist theory that they apply in Central America and they want to send out to other parts, of "all are revolutionaries," "all are Marxists," "there is no need for a Communist Party to direct," "it is enough to simply unite everybody and base themselves in a front for conducting a revolution." That is the negation of Marxism; it is the negation of Marx; it is the negation of Lenin; it is the negation of Chairperson Mao. . . . [The party provides] the necessary direction, but we don't want to make the revolution because it is the masses that want to make the revolution, consequently the necessity of the front's uniting 90% of the population, the immense majority; that is what we are searching for, that is what we are pursuing and that is what we are doing. ____________ If you had subscribed to MIM Notes, you knew this all already back in 1990. If not, you are making our life hard since we have to work hard to post free documents just to make up for your obstinacy! Send $12 check to "ABS" to Maoist Internationalist Movement, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI 48106- 3576 Here is just another piece of what is available on Peru: (Question about political leadership leadership:) Gonzalo: Here we have to remember the thesis of Lenin's about the problem of the relation masses-classes-party-leaders. We consider the revolution, the party, the class generates leaders, generates a group of leaders; in all revolutions there is this aspect. If we think, for example in the October Revolution, we have Lenin, Stalin, Sverdlov and some others in addition, a small group; the same in the Chinese Revolution, again we have a small group of leaders: the Chairperson Mao Zedong and the comrades Kang Sheng, Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao among other. All revolutions are this way. This is also the case in ours. We are not able to be the exception. . . . All processes, then, have leaders. . . . According to these conditions, we are not able to assign all the leaders an equal dimension: Marx is Marx; Lenin is Lenin; Chairperson Mao is Chairperson Mao and each will never be repeated and no one is equal to them. >From MIM Notes 43, August 1, 1990 translated by MA10 The following is an excerpt from an interview conducted in 1989 by the Peruvian newspaper El Diario which supported the PCP and the people's war in Peru. This is the first in a two- part series; next month MIM Notes will publish Chairperson Gonzalo's discussion of the conditions for world revolution. The interview is distributed by Red Flag Editions and is available (in Spaninsh) from MIM for $6.00. (This is first class mail; send only cash or check made out to "ABS," MIM, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576) Note: Where MIM translates "popular war," we should say "People's War" in Maoist idiom. Bureaucratic capitalism El Diario: Chairperson, what is the analysis of the PCP (Communist Party of Peru) on the process of the Peruvian state and where is it going? (p. 77) Gonzalo: We have an understanding of the contemporary Peruvian society, understood as that which began in 1895, we consider that from there began the process which we are living and we think there are three moments. The first moment in which were established bases for the (disentanglement) of bureaucratic capitalism; a second moment after the second world war because until then embraces the first, to go deeply into bureaucratic capitalism; this (deepening) of bureaucratic capital will mature the conditions for the revolution and with the beginning of the popular war, in 1980, we entered the third moment of general crisis of bureaucratic capitalism; the destruction of the contemporary Peruvian society because it historically lapsed/expired, consequently, what we see is its finale and that which fits is hard work, and combat, and a struggle to bury it. Diario: Why do you consider the thesis of bureaucratic capitalism fundamental? Gonzalo: We consider this thesis of Chairperson Mao Tse-tung key because without understanding it and acting on it, it isnUt feasible to develop a democratic revolution without conceiving of its uninterrupted continuation as a socialist revolution. We understand that bureaucratic capitalism, which began to occur in Peru since (1895), in the three moments which we just sketched. We conceive of this form, on a semifeudal base and beneath a dominant imperialism develops a capitalism, a late capitalism, a capitalism which was born from feudalism and submitted to dominant imperialism. It is these conditions which generated that which Chairperson Mao Tse-tung designated bureaucratic capitalism. So, bureaucratic capitalism developed the large monopoly capitalism which controlled the economy of the country, capitalism made up of, as Chairperson Mao said, the large capital of the large landowners, of the comprador bourgeoisie and the large bankers; from here was generated the bureaucratic capitalism (tied up/reiterated) with feudalism, submitted to imperialism and monopoly, and this one must keep in mind, is monopoly. This capitalism reached a certain moment of evolution and combined with the power of the state and used the economic means of the state, utilized economic influence and this process generated another faction of the grand bourgeoisie, the bourgeois bureaucrat; in this way it will give a development of bureaucratic capitalism which is monopolistic... but this process will lead to generate conditions which mature the revolution; this is another important concept, speaking politically, which the Chairperson raised regarding bureaucratic capitalism. It is erroneous to consider that bureaucratic capitalism is the capitalism which the state develops with the economic means of production it has in its hands; it is erroneous, and doesnUt (agree) with the thesis of Chairperson Mao Tsetung. It would be enough to think this way, if bureaucratic capitalism was only the state, if this capitalist state was confiscated and the other, monopoly capitalism, wasn't, in whose hands would it be? In those of the reactionary of the grand bourgeoisie. Besides, politically we permit a differentiation with much clarity between the grand bourgeoisie and the national or middle bourgeoisie, and this we see as instrumental to understanding so as not to put ourselves at the tail of any of the factions of the grand bourgeoisie, nor of the comprador nor of the bureaucrats, which in Peru is what the revisionists and the opportunists have done and continue to do, decades of this sinister/left politics of labeling a faction of the grand bourgeoisie as national bourgeoisie, progressive and supportive. The comprehension of bureaucratic capitalism allows us to understand the difference, reiterated, between national bourgeoisie and grand bourgeoisie, and to understand the correct tactic which we must follow: precisely that which Maritegui established. For this we consider extremely important the thesis of bureaucratic capitalism. (p. 79) On Nicaragua Diario: What is your opinion of Nicaragua, what of Cuba? (p. 123) Gonzalo: I would like to reiterate that which I said in a conversation with friends on these problems. Nicaragua had an inconclusive revolution and its problem is that is didn't destroy the power of all the grand bourgeoisie, it was centered in antisomocismo, and I think this is a problem. A democratic revolution must remove the three mountains and here that wasnUt done. On the other hand, it developed within Cuban criticisms readjusted in recent times and this simply lead it to depend, in the final analysis, on the Soviet Union. How can we understand this? Because in the conversations between diplomatic representatives of the two superpowers is where... we see and act the situation of Nicaragua, like that of Afghanistan or that of the Middle East; they are all very symptomatic of the steps of progress and counterprogress that it is very coincidental with reunions and agreements of the superpowers the measures taken in Nicaragua, in its relationship with the contra. We think that Nicaragua, as well deserves this heroic country, to follow the correct road must develop the democratic revolution completely, and this will demand a popular war, it must break with the stick of command of the Soviet Union, assume in its hands its own destiny and defend its class independence and this demands a party, and obviously, to subject to the concept of the proletariat; otherwise continue being a pawn and this is lamentable. We think that this country has shown the sign of great combativeness and its historic destiny cannot continue without developing the revolution as corresponds with a party based in Marxism- Leninism-Maoism and a popular war, and develop itself independently without guardianship of anyone, and no-one, neither near nor far. On Cuba Of Cuba, I can only say this concretely, the game of a role in service to the Soviet Union is not only in Latin America, it is carried out in Angola for example, and in other places. Passed from one hand to another hand, from one owner to another; a process presented as an "exceptional case" to the Cubans themselves. Cuba has a high responsibility in America because it was a hope; but we must record well what happened in 1970, Fidel Castro said that the strategy of armed revolution had failed, looked to abandon it, to leave that which was it incentive and support. Douglas Brava left the front arguing that it wasn't the fault of the strategy but of the "Castro" tactic, but also unfortunately after Brava sought amnesty. We think these situations have generated many problems in America, but today these same criteria readjusted will be the voice of the social imperialist owner spread and presented as a new revolutionary development which will be concretized in Nicaragua. This is a falsehood. That which we must affirm, is that Latin America is already mature (enough) for popular war, and this is its road. Latin America has an important role to carry out, we donUt forget "backyard of the U.S." as the insolent imperialist yanqui continues to say. Latin America also has importance in the world, fulfilling the ideology of the proletariat, the Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, of forging communist parties and moving toward popular wars within the world revolution. Latin America at the end of the century will be more than 500 million people. We have many things which unite us and we must work together for closeness. I don't want to say that we will disentangle from the world revolution, because we will only fulfill our work as part of the world revolution; not enough with Latin America, communism is for all the world or for no- one. (p.125) Peru and the world revolution Diario: What is the contribution of the Communist Party of Peru to the world revolution? Gonzalo: The principal contribution is to (plan/outline/carry out) Maoism, as the new, third and superior stage of Marxism; we assumed serving and contributing what this ideology constitutes in commanding and guiding the world revolution. The question derived from this is to show the strength, the transcendental perspective of Maoism. Also to show that it principally supports the proper efforts, without continuing the staff of command of the superpower, nor any imperialist power, it's possible to make the revolution, and even that it's necessary to do it thus; and demonstrate the potential of popular war which is expressed in spite of all our limitations. And if it happens, we will be as some say a hope, that which implicated responsibility and will be a torch for the world revolution, an example which can serve other communists. In this way we are serving the world revolution. ___________________ Postcript by mc5: The most difficult point above is the one concerning bureaucrat capitalists. The context is the common revisionist practice of seeing state-capitalists as progressive or at least a certain wing of the bureaucratic capitalists as progressive. Gonzalo is not attributing a "progressive" role to state-capitalism the way many revisionists and "leftists" do. In seeking temporary allies in a national bourgeoisie, Gonzalo looks outside of the bureaucrat capitalist class. _____________________________________________________________ If you had been reading MIM Notes, the newspaper of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, you would know all this already. Subscriptions: Send $12 for 12 issues of MIM Notes MIM Distributors PO Box 3576 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3576 Make checks out to "ABS" or send cash.