CSRP Celebrates 20 Years of People's War
in Peru with San Francisco Event
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National Spokesperson for the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru. In 1992, Heriberto traveled to Peru along with other international delegates to protest the treatment of Chairman Gonzalo and other political prisoners.
Latino poet Jimy Salcedo. Solidarity Performance. 5 minutes.
Yuri Kochiyama. Solidarity Statement. 4 minutes.
 CSRP member recreates the historic "bend in the road" speech by Chairman Gonzalo.
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Heriberto Ocasio
The 20th anniversary of the People's War in Peru was celebrated at a Mission District community center in San Francisco on Sunday, May 21. On May 17, 1980 the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) made the historic leap to launch the People's War in order to seize statewide power, to form a socialist People's Republic of Peru that will serve as a base area for the world revolution. Today, the revolution continues.
About 75 people attended this event organized by the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru (CSRP), including CSRP members and supporters, Latin American immigrants, veteran activists, Bay Area youth, and others who came to learn about the revolution for the first time. Every wall of the hall was decorated with revolutionary art from Peru and CSRP banners. From the beginning, an atmosphere of revolutionary unity and international solidarity filled the hall.
This internationalist character was underscored by solidarity greetings from supporters of the People's War in the Philippines who recently returned from visiting with a contingent of the New People's Army, led by the Communist Party of the Philippines. Solidarity messages from also presented by the All African People's Revolutionary Party and the All African People's Revolutionary Unification Party.
In another solidarity statement, a local spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party - which like the PCP is a participant in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement - spoke of how the People's War in Peru has been a beacon for the world revolution: "Our Party works for and looks forward to the day when here in the belly of the imperialist beast, revolution takes the ruling class and it's system down, all the way down. We take tremendous heart from the achievements and advance of the People's War in Peru, this advanced detachment of the world revolution."
Cultural presentations included spoken word from Latino poet Jimy Salcedo and a beautiful performance of Mexican folk dances. Songs recorded by the revolutionary prisoners in Peru's "Shining Trenches of Combat" were played, and video clips were shown of interviews with guerrilla combatants, as well as historic footage of the revolutionary battle to defend the Shantytown of Felix Raucana from government attacks.
Special guest Yuri Kochiyama, a veteran of the struggles to defend US political prisoners - including fighters in the struggle for Black liberation and Puerto Rican independence - gave a moving solidarity statement. Yuri spoke about her trip to Peru in 1993 as part of the third delegation of the International Emergency Committee to Defend the Life of Abimael Guzman (PCP Chairman Gonzalo). She described her visit to the shantytowns of Lima and how the revolutionary people there told her delegation, "We realize that with your very big revolutionary spirit you may have risked your lives to come. You must tell the world what you have seen."
Heriberto Ocasio, National Spokesperson for the CSRP, opened the event with a speech on how the PCP has applied the Maoist principles of people's war to overcome the difficulties it has faced in the past 20 years of revolution. Quoting Mao Tsetung, "nothing is impossible if you dare to scale the heights", he described how the first revolutionaries were few in number when they launched the People's War. Armed only with slingshots, fake wooden guns, dynamite, and a few small arms, he told of how the revolutionaries grew into the fighting force that has sustained the revolution through the past 20 years. With the principle of self-reliance, they captured weapons and munitions from the enemy rather than relying on assistance from a foreign power, and powerfully advanced the People's War. Heriberto called upon people here in the US to intensify their support for the people's war in Peru, and to especially take up the struggle to defend the life of Chairman Gonzalo and to break the isolation that he has been held in since 1992. He also called on people to defend the life of recently captured Comrade Feliciano, to support the resistance of the revolutionary prisoners in Yanamayo and to oppose all US crimes against the people of Peru. His speech drew enthusiastic cheers of "Viva!" from the audience.
The centerpiece of the evening was presentations by CSRP members highlighting important aspects of the Maoist People's War in Peru, and their contributions to the world revolution. One of these presentations focused on women's participation in the People's War, as both combatants and leaders of the revolution in Peru, and why this is a tremendous example for revolutionaries around the world. The harsh reality of the "triple oppression" suffered by women in Peru was described: as poor peasants and workers, as Indian, and as women. Lillian Torres, a street vendor-turned guerrilla fighter, was quoted in 1982 after being released from El Callao prison: "At first when they asked me to join the Party I was a little scared. But when I finally understood I was fighting not just for Peru but for breaking chains worldwide, for the world revolution, then I wasn't scared anymore. Finally I had something to live and die for. At that time I stopped being a vegetable." A video clip showing the celebration of International Women's Day by revolutionary women prisoners marching in formation and singing revolutionary songs in a prison yard was an inspiring climax to the presentation.
Another presentation discussed the importance of the revolutionary base areas in Peru, where the masses wield revolutionary political power based on revolutionary principles such as "land to the tiller". Led by the PCP, the people have organized a new economy, a new system of justice, and new social relations in which women are free from feudal traditions and customs, where divorce is granted on demand and "freedom of religion" also means the freedom NOT to believe. People study political science, natural science, language and history in the base areas, and are brought forward in the armed struggle for nationwide power.
Another supporter spoke about the heroic struggles waged by revolutionary prisoners in Peru's prisons - the "Shining Trenches of Combat". In particular, the resistance of June 19, 1986 was noted, when 300 prisoners were killed in two days of fighting against government assaults on El Fronton, Lurigancho and El Callao prisons. Also, most recently the uprisings in Yanamayo and other prisons demanding an end to the murderous conditions inflicted on prisoners in Peru, and especially an end to the isolation of Chairman Gonzalo. The revolutionary spirit in the prisons was concentrated in a quote from Comrade Inez in an interview published in A World to Win magazine, "The attitude of the companeras is based on a revolutionary optimism, which belongs to our class... We are strengthened by a profound conviction that the revolution will win, that victory is our sweet sentence, our only one - one in which the conditions of a being a prisoner is seen as only transitory. In daily life it is reflected in the joy of carrying out our tasks, in our songs and in our dances, that for the reactionaries is a huge affront and clear proof that they will never subdue us."
Members of the CSRP also recreated the historic "bend in the road" speech by Chairman Gonzalo on September 24, 1992, when the Fujimori regime presented him in a cage to the world in an attempt to humiliate him after his capture. Instead, his powerful revolutionary speech thoroughly disarmed the circus-like gathering of hundreds of international and reactionary press, and turned the intended spectacle into an international platform from which Chairman Gonzalo reaffirmed the Party's plans and directives to advance the People's War. He declared his capture only "a bend in the road" to final victory.
The event ended with the group breaking up into lively discussion circles, forming new friends and alliances, and new inspiration to build support for the revolution in Peru.
