Statement by the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru on the 20th Anniversary of the People's War in Peru
May 2000
 
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Twenty years ago the PCP, led by Chairman Gonzalo, embarked on the road of new democratic revolution-the strategic path first blazed decades earlier by the great revolutionary Mao Tsetung in liberating the Chinese people. Applying Mao Tsetung's teachings to the conditions of Peru, the PCP has been leading the people to stand up and free themselves.
Peru, like all oppressed nations, has long been robbed and pillaged by the imperialists (in this case mainly the U.S.) who work hand in hand with Peru's big capitalists and big landlords to exploit Peru's land and people. The PCP has understood that no elections, no political or economic reform, can ever free the people as long as these mountains of exploitation weigh down upon them. The PCP is motivated by an understanding that the old Peruvian state must be destroyed, that domination by the imperialists must be swept away and a new socialist society built-a society based on serving the needs of the people and advancing the world revolution toward Communism.
The PCP has staunchly defended and applied the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist principle that a new liberating society can only be brought into being through a revolutionary war of the masses, a war that relies on the masses themselves for everything and that genuinely puts power in the hands of the oppressed. They know that this form of struggle-an armed struggle-is what is needed today more than ever, because the imperialists and reactionaries never peacefully give up power to the people.
The PCP initiated the People's War in a remote region of the Andes, understanding that the peasants would be the backbone of the revolution. They took their vision of a revolutionary society out to the peasants, uniting with their struggle for land, and organized them into a people's army. The heroic fighters of Peru have put into practice Mao Tsetung's principle that the enemy (the oppressors) fight their way, but we (the oppressed) fight our way. They initiated their People's War using dynamite hurled with Inca slingshots, the few revolvers that were on hand and handmade weapons-instead of relying on modern weapons and having to buy these from the oppressors. The PCP has fought "our way"-showing that, as Mao Tsetung said, "in warfare, it is people, not weapons, that are decisive."
The heart of the People's War is the building of revolutionary base areas where masses begin to wield a New Power as they fight to defeat the forces of the old state. In these base areas they forge the beginnings of the new society. People's committees are elected. Land is taken from the landlords and government and it is re-distributed. The old tyrants and oppressors face righteous justice at the hands of the masses. Women who had long been victims of rape and abuse stand up and become political and military leaders. The New Power in the base areas serves the armed struggle, bringing forward new fighters and providing intelligence against government troops.
The PCP is building the strategic alliance of peasants and workers. They apply the Maoist strategy of surrounding the cities from the countryside, gradually building up strength to defeat the enemy bite by bite as more masses are won to the revolution. This enables the People's War to advance in the face of difficulties and to eventually seize the bastions of power in the cities.
One of the most significant lessons of these past twenty years in Peru is that revolution proceeds through twists and turns, and through overcoming setbacks and difficulties. The People's War in Peru has shown that persevering on the revolutionary path and relying on the unquenchable thirst of the masses for revolution is the only way to advance and defeat imperialism.
From its outset the People's War has had to resist the genocidal attacks of successive US-backed regimes. The Peruvian government's police and military have massacred, tortured, raped, and disappeared thousands of people in their dirty counter-insurgency war. In the face of this, the People's Army has carried out thousands of actions against the police and military and has led the masses to resist the government's brutal campaigns to suppress the revolution. Thousands of heroic fighters have been captured, tortured, and locked away in Peru's hellish dungeons. But men and women prisoners have converted these prisons into Shining Trenches of Combat, organizing themselves to meet their own needs and to resist attempts to kill them. With all its brutality, the regime has been unable to break their revolutionary spirit.
Desperate to crush a revolutionary challenge right in its own backyard, the U.S. has firmly backed the Peruvian government's counter-insurgency. It has supplied military advisors under the cover of the "war on drugs", torture experts trained at the School of the Americas, modern weapons, spy satellites and a whole barrage of slanders against the People's War spewed out by media mouthpieces. The People's War has proceeded through a process of making revolutionary advances, withstanding counter-revolutionary attacks from the government and the imperialists, and deepening its ties among the masses in order to meet the new challenges.
In 1992 in the face of significant advances throughout the country by the People's War, President Fujimori launched a self-coup, setting himself up as dictator and vowing to crush the People's War once and for all. He unleashed a genocidal reign of terror throughout Peruvian society, arresting thousands, massacring prisoners and terrorizing the population. Then in September 1992, with the help of US intelligence, the Peruvian government succeeded in capturing Chairman Gonzalo, and other top leaders of the PCP. Chairman Gonzalo was put on display in a cage before the world's media. But he defied his captors with a powerful speech, declaring that his capture represented only a bend in the road on the tortuous path to victory. The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement rallied many thousands around the world to defend Chairman Gonzalo's life, and the struggle continues today to break the cruel isolation in which he is being kept.
With Chairman Gonzalo's capture, the revolution faced a difficult juncture. A right opportunist line emerged which said that the setbacks were insurmountable and that the People's War must be ended. This capitulationist line was staunchly opposed by the PCP's Central Committee, which declared that the People's War had taken deep root among the people and would go forward.
In a 1995 document called Overcome the Bend in the Road, Developing the People's War the PCP's Central Committee speaks to the decisive role of the masses in the current situation, saying: "It is important that we recognize and give a heartfelt salute to the extraordinary Heroism and Great Firmness on the part of the Base Areas in withstanding suffering and sacrifice. These masses are an example to all the Peruvian people and they deserve our great respect and admiration; together with the People's Liberation Army and the Communist Party of Peru, they struggle shoulder to shoulder to maintain the New Power, whatever the cost; developing a new economy, new politics, and a new culture."
The PCP has kept fighting heroically under difficult conditions to overcome this bend in the road, despite the government's further attempts to crush the Party leadership, including the capture of Comrade Feliciano who had stepped forward to lead the Party after Chairman Gonzalo's arrest. Fujimori has arrogantly and falsely proclaimed numerous times that the People's War was defeated. But the people of Peru want revolution, and the Party is staying firmly on the revolutionary road that will lead them to victory.
The People's War in Peru is precious to the people of the world. All around the globe imperialism fattens itself, gloating that this is the best of all possible worlds, while millions and millions live in poverty and hunger, their resources stolen, their labor exploited. But around the world today, people's wars are also being waged in Nepal and the Philippines, and the people of many other countries are resisting, taking up arms, and searching for the road to free themselves. The living example of Maoist people's war being forged in Peru shines out as the hope of the oppressed and the road to the future.
On this twentieth anniversary of the Maoist revolutionary war in Peru, the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru salutes you, the heroic fighters who are carrying forward the People's War under new and difficult conditions. We here in the US, the nation most responsible for the misery of the world's people, proclaim our determination to rally many others to defend the People's War in Peru. We will take up our special responsibility to oppose all US attacks on the people of Peru, all attacks on the revolutionary prisoners, and all attacks against the Communist Party of Peru that is leading your just revolution.
Celebrate 20 Years of People's War!
Support the Revolution in Peru!
Defend the Life of Chairman Gonzalo!
Break the Isolation!
