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Selected Highlights of the International Campaign to Defend the Life of Dr. Abimael Guzmán

IEC HOUNDS FUJIMORI AT US-SPONSORED SUMMIT IN MIAMI

AP Photo of IEC Activist[December 1994] Activists from several US cities, organized by the International Emergency Committee to Defend the Life of Dr. Abimael Guzmán (IEC) and the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru (CSRP), converged on the "Summit of the Americas" in Miami to denounce the crimes of the US-backed Fujimori regime in Peru and the summit itself. Fujimori was opposed before the summit even began when he arrived to give a speech at the opening of an Inca art exhibit in Miami. Fujimori and dozens of international reporters were confronted by demonstrators - one dressed in a striped "1509" prison uniform - carrying the banner "Defend the Life of Abimael Guzmán" in Spanish, French, and English. Several protesters later got inside the event and chanted, "Fujimori, asesino, vendido hijo del imperialismo!" ("Fujimori, assassin, sellout son of imperialism!"). A picture of the demonstrators was carried nationally by Associated Press, and Reuters ran a story, "Shining Path Supporters Mar Fujimori Appearance."

[AP CARRIES PHOTO OF IEC PROTESTING FUJIMORI (above-right)
"Protesters in Miami picketed an event for Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori (during Summit of the Americans) to call attention to his human rights policies" reads caption of AP photo in S.F. Chronicle.]

On the second day of the summit IEC activists took leaflets and banners to a counter-summit event. Some activists lined up holding signs, "70,000 children die of malnutrition in Peru each year" and "Dr. Abimael Guzmán has been held in solitary confinement for 2 years and 54 days." A group of American Indian Movement activists delivered a powerful speech describing the struggle of native people from "Wounded Knee to the jungles of Peru." They denounced the presence of US imperialism in Peru and other places, declaring that native people will fight back from "South Central to Chiapas."

Day three was the "official" summit demonstration day. While people gathered from various groups, the IEC contingent was the largest and liveliest. The summit area was heavily guarded with hundreds of police, including rooftop snipers. The IEC and CSRP block arrived carrying a bullhorn and chant sheet, intent on using both until Fujimori lost his hearing. The banners read "Defend the Life of Chairman Gonzalo" and "US get your bloody fangs out of Peru." After some initial experiments with walk-in-a-circle-carry-a-sign protest, old ideas were cast aside and a bag of dog biscuits were pulled out. They were offered to the police to a cheerful chant of "Come get your free dog biscuits all running dogs of imperialism." The biscuits were also offered to press that would not take the press packets.

During the entire week of the summit, activists took to the streets in Little Haiti and Liberty City neighborhoods and at three local colleges, speaking out for millions in Peru and around the world. An international petition condemning the treatment of Dr. Guzmán was printed in two Miami university newspapers. Students and hundreds of people downtown were treated to Dr. Guzmán's last public statement, the September 24, 1992 speech from the cage, which was performed by a guerrilla drama troupe. Uncle Sam was also there, holding Fujimori on a short leash.

Many Peruvian and other Latin American journalists followed the activities of the protesters, taking photos, press packets, and statements. The Spanish newspaper El Nuevo Herald (Miami) published a report on the demonstrations that included parts of an interview with IEC Steering Committee member Heriberto Ocasio. A Haitian radio station aired an interview (translated into Creole) with a IEC spokesperson who traveled all the way from New York to support the Miami protests. A local cab driver later told the activists that he had heard the broadcast.

The IEC has once again shown Peru's dictator that he can not slink around the US unnoticed or unopposed!

TWO YEARS TOO LONG! - SEPTEMBER 1994 ACTIONS

IEC activists around the world held protests and demonstrations during September, 1994 to condemn the barbaric imprisonment and complete isolation of Dr. Abimael Guzmán. Since his capture, he has been held in a dark underground cell and denied visits with his lawyers and doctors. Tens of thousands of leaflets were distributed globally, and public meetings, video showings, and fundraising drives were held around the world.

In the US, IEC chapters across the country took the campaign to thousands from the Mission District of San Francisco to Union Square Park in New York. Video showings of "You Must Tell the World..." were also held in Rhode Island, Washington DC, and Boston. Internationally acclaimed Chicano poet and IEC activist Ricardo Sanchez was the focus of a well-attended program in San Francisco marking two years of isolation.

2500 people from Punjab, India attended the Anti-Repression/IEC-IDA conference in the city of Rampura Phul. Later, 2000 marched through the bazaars of the city taking up the IEC slogans! Activists developed a special 36-page pamphlet for the occasion. They also reported many video showings, and are still putting the "first" world to shame with their enthusiastic and successful fundraising. Supporters emphasize that these events that link the repression of the people in India to the repression faced by the people in Peru have had a very positive impact and there has been increasing debate and support.

In Copenhagen, IEC slogans appeared on the walls of the city, and more than a thousand leaflets were distributed in various neighborhoods. A public meeting and video showing were held and the IEC-Denmark wrote: "We are very grateful for the video `You Must Tell The World...' It is a strong weapon in the campaign because it contains important documentation and information and is well composed." Refugee Radio carried a message in Farsi about Dr. Guzmán and called on people to join the campaign. A similar message was carried by a Turkish language station.

Australian activists reported that a large red banner reading, "Defend the Life of Dr. Abimael Guzmán, Imprisoned Leader of the Maoist Revolution in Peru! End the Isolation Now!" hung from a bridge above a busy highway in Australian Capital Territory for five days. Also the "Statement to End the Isolation" was read at a public meeting in Melbourne, endorsed, and sent to the Peruvian Embassy.

Activists in Hamburg, Berlin, and Cologne, Germany took to the streets -- tens of thousands of leaflets were distributed, over 1500 signatures of support were collected, and significant donations were raised. In Hamburg, people took out the September 12-24 "Call to Action" to schools in the mornings and to transport stations in the afternoons. In the evenings activists took the campaign to pubs and restaurants, making short speeches and calling on people to give financial support to make sure that people in poorer countries can receive IEC materials.

In Izmir, Turkey, the Human Rights Association held a program featuring the IEC video "You Must Tell The World..." and the documentary "People of the Shining Path." There was lively discussion over the necessity to defend revolutionary leadership and how in Kurdistan and Peru, regimes are attacking peasants and villages in the countryside and driving people to live in poverty on the outskirts of the cities. The president of the association said that in his opinion all human rights activists in the world need to take up the IEC Campaign in order to oppose the USA's program of state sponsored terror aimed toward killing leaders of the oppressed peoples so it can establish its New World Order.

IEC materials were also shown and distributed in Ankara, Turkey. This is the location of Haymana Prison where Professor Haluk Gerger, a member of the fifth IEC delegation to Peru, is serving a 15 month prison term. He was convicted of "dividing the country" for supporting the struggle of the Kurdish people. Dr. Gerger has been an outspoken defender of rights for political prisoners. He has written numerous articles on the struggle of the Peruvian people, and has protested the treatment of Dr. Guzmán and other political prisoners in Peru at human rights meetings, universities, and elsewhere.

In Istanbul, Turkey, striking transport workers who were occupying company offices hung a banner with IEC slogans from the window and announced an IEC video showing at the Union offices. The program was broken up by police (six arrests and video equipment confiscated), but an enthusiastic discussion about the importance of the IEC campaign continued and the program was rescheduled. Also in Istanbul, a rally was organized by the New Democratic Youth that focused on ending the isolation of Dr. Guzmán.

Bogota, Colombia reported that bannering and agitation took place on major city avenues attracting media attention, and that a huge mural was painted on the National University Library. IEC materials were distributed during the five-hour construction of the mural. In the days leading up to the September 12-24 commemoration, two large murals were restored at the District University and the University Pedagogica. During the spring of 1994, two of Colombia's national news magazines featured colored pictures of murals depicting Dr. Guzmán on Plaza Che Gueverra at the National University. In one article the reporter asks, "Is Chairman Gonzalo (Dr. Guzmán) replacing Che Gueverra on Plaza Ché?"

DENOUNCE THE CRIMES OF THE US-BACKED FUJIMORI REGIME!
STOP THE TORTURE AND KILLING OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN PERU!
DEFEND THE LIFE OF DR. Abimael Guzmán! END THE ISOLATION NOW!

IEC-MEXICO UNDER ATTACK BY GOVERNMENT (Winter 1994)

The IEC and the Committee to Support the People's War in Peru (CAGPP) have been the target of a vile campaign of repression. Last August 27, 1994, a compañero activist with the IEC in Mexico was detained by police agents who were dressed in black and heavily armed. The news media called the activist a "terrorist." They also falsely identified this Mexican citizen as being Peruvian. Last June, another participant in the IEC, a North American citizen, was detained at gunpoint by a dozen agents of Gobernación. She and her husband were deported despite the fact that they had been legal residents for over a decade. Another participant of the CAGPP was kidnapped for an hour and beaten. There has been surveillance and anonymous death threats against other participants of the two committees.

The following are excerpts from a statement circulated and published in Mexico:

The Mexico IEC has been able to mount an important response to the outrageous attacks by taking out the news very broadly to students, workers, intellectuals and others - and getting political and financial support from them! With this support they published an ad denouncing the attacks in the leading Mexican daily La Jornada. The ad included signatures from numerous student, labor, and other political groups, as well as some well-known prominent individuals.

The activists in Mexico are determined to beat back these attacks and continue their work. They are continuing to expose the US-backed Fujimori regime and its genocide of the Peruvian people while fighting these attacks. The attacks have included surveillance and intimidation of IEC activists, an abduction and beating of a woman IEC activist, the deportation of two IEC activists, and legal charges against an IEC activist under the Mexican government's "Print Law." This law, which prohibits publishing or possessing material that criticizes the government of Mexico or any "friendly country," was enacted in 1917 and is being resurrected today as a tool to suppress the IEC and other political forces in Mexico.

A public forum was held at the National Autonomous University of Mexico to rally in defense of the work of the IEC and the Mexican Committee to Support the People's War in Peru. The 40+ persons who attended made the forum a great success. The event included a showing of the IEC video "You Must Tell the World..," and speeches by representatives of the Committee to Support the People's War in Peru (Mexico), the Mexican IEC activist who is facing legal charges, and his lawyer.

Mexican IEC activists see the government's attacks against them as part of the US-led counterinsurgency against the People's War in Peru which is targeting people in Mexico who are expressing political solidarity with the revolution in Peru or defending the life of Dr. Guzmán and other imprisoned revolutionaries. They also see these attacks as an attempt to eliminate such organizations from the political landscape of Mexico.

MAY 1994 INT'L DAYS OF ACTION PUT FUJIMORI REGIME ON NOTICE

In April, IEC-London issued a call for International Days of Action (IDA) to bring the campaign to defend the life of Abimael Guzmán to the people of the world - in the streets, schools, markets, prisons, and to the doorsteps of US and Peruvian consulates and embassies.

People around the world raised the demands:

The new IEC video "You Must Tell the World..." was shown in dozens of countries. In Mexico City and London the video was shown at events celebrating the 14th anniversary of the People's War and was greeted enthusiastically. It was also shown in a dozen US cities, Italy, Australia, and Denmark. In Barrancabermeja, Colombia, the video was shown to oil workers who then organized workers, peasants, and residents of the shantytowns to show the video at a meeting of people's organizations. These workers then took it to a union meeting of soft-drink bottlers. Supporters in Colombia report that "the IEC video has brought a spirit of optimism to audiences wherever it has been shown."

Peruvian embassies and consulates around the world received visits from IEC supporters. In San Francisco the Peruvian Consul General was given "Statement of Outrage - End the Isolation" petitions with hundreds of signatures. Supporters in Washington DC demonstrated in front of the White House. IEC Supporters in New York City protested at the Peruvian Mission. The US Federal Building in Cleveland was also picketed. In London 50 people braved torrential rains to picket the embassy. In Melbourne, Australia, IEC supporters, including representatives of the Kurdish, Turkish, and Filipino people, picketed the Consulate and covered the area with IEC stickers. In Mexico, a letter of protest signed by attorneys, intellectuals, human-rights activists and academics, was sent to the Peruvian Ambassador.

Tens of thousands of copies of the IDA leaflet were distributed. In San Francisco, supporters joined a parade celebrating Cinco de Mayo, carrying banners as they distributed 5000 leaflets announcing the upcoming IDA. Thousands more were distributed in Copenhagen, Bogata, Bucaramanga, and Medellin, Colombia. Supporters in 40 countries, and on every continent, distributed the IDA leaflet.

Large banners appeared in strategic locations in cities all over the world - London, Copenhagen, New York City, Bogota, Cleveland, Melbourne, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Rome, Bucaramanga, Chicago, Medellin, and others. Guerrilla theater featuring Fujimori, Uncle Sam and Dr. Guzmán greeted people on the streets of Honolulu and other cities. In San Francisco peasant fighters, democratic lawyers, and IEC supporters joined the cast. Onlookers jumped in to stomp Fujimori and Uncle Sam for the finale! IEC Atlanta acted out a skit on stage and distributed literature from behind a cage at the annual Athens, Georgia, Human Rights Festival. Supporters in Chicago held an event in a park where high school students organized live music, guerrilla theater, a literature table, and an open mike.

Major articles on the IEC campaign appeared in two Bengali newspapers distributed in England and Middle Eastern countries. In Colombia, youth brigades carried the message of the IDA to shantytowns, industrial zones, and parks.

IEC TOURS THE PHILIPPINES & JAPAN (March 1994)

Members of the IEC, including former delegates to Peru and an international coordinator, went on an IEC speaking tour of the Philippines and Japan. In the Philippines, the tour was sponsored by BAYAN, a broad mass organization with a membership of more than 1.3 million people, including organizations of workers, peasants, women, indigenous peoples, students, lawyers, and intellectuals. Numerous public events and press interviews brought the IEC to thousands. The Japan part of the tour covered Tokyo and Fukuoka, and was sponsored by the Japan Adhoc Coordinating Group IEC/IEC Speaking Group.

This tour was especially important for the IEC Campaign. In the Philippines there are millions of people who have been fighting a war of liberation for many years. They waged a resolute struggle in defense of their own leader Jose Sison (now living in exile) who was imprisoned by the US-backed Marcos regime for nine years. They, like the people in Peru, have suffered centuries of foreign domination, and their support will strengthen the campaign to defend Dr. Guzmán tremendously. Because Fujimori is of Japanese ancestry, the slanders against Dr. Guzmán and the revolution in Peru are especially virulent in the Japanese media, where Fujimori has been chauvinistically adopted as a hero. Since Fujimori's presidency, financial ties between Peru and Japan have increased. The IEC Tour helped bring out the truth of Japan's role in Peru, and challenged the people of Japan to take up the IEC campaign.

IEC Organizer Fired For Political Activism - Students Respond (May 1994)

The teaching contract of an IEC activist, first year probationary teacher of history in suburban Chicago, will not be renewed despite his excellent performance reviews and popularity among students.

While the school plans to hire 30 new teachers, the IEC activist will not be one of them. Shortly after the student newspaper published an article about him, "Teacher Acts Against Peruvian Tyranny," the activist was told that he was a "mismatch" for the school and the community. The article outlined his political activism focusing primarily on his views about Peru, his role as an IEC organizer, and the fact that he was a US delegate to the IEC's 1993 Founding Conference in Germany. Some teachers and school officials have clearly been upset by criticism of the Peruvian regime, and by the fact that students are discussing these issues.

After the news broke, students, parents, the IEC, and others sprung to his defense. Students resolved to do everything possible to save the job of their favorite teacher. For many students, he had opened their eyes to the reality of politics, power, and injustice. In the experience of struggling over their teacher's situation, the students tuned-in to the unjust decisions made by the administration and clearly realized who the administration was, and was not, serving. In an open letter a student argued, "It is possible that he is not 'compatible' with the administration. But, shouldn't the important issue be his 'compatibility' with the students?"

Students organized visits to the history department head, principal, dean and superintendent. They raised the stakes by packing school board meetings, speaking out about free speech and censorship, and by writing letters to officials and newspapers. After receiving an inadequate response to their concerns and demands, 25 students staged a defiant occupation of the superintendent's office - holding out for 9 hours until midnight when the police were sent in arresting 11 students! Earlier that evening at a school board meeting next door, students and supporters disrupted the meeting to the point that a security guard was called upon to throw people out. He refused, saying that the students were not his enemies. He was subsequently fired for taking this courageous stand!

All of this action has inspired local politicians and organizations such as the NAACP to lend support, as well as parents who staged two pickets at the school with students. On May 31, African-American parents and students initiated one of the pickets, denouncing institutional racism at the school. They exposed how the IEC activist was one of many minority teachers being terminated or driven out of the district.

Several students have gotten involved in IEC activities, and a group of them were actively involved in planning and carrying out the IEC's International Days of Action event at a park near their school. Along with supporting the IEC work, the students have helped keep their teacher in the public eye locally by sponsoring his music band. This is a band with political conscience that recently wrote a letter to Fujimori supporting the demands of the IEC.

The students, inspired by the work and dedication of their teacher, have formed their own action group, Generation Y. They chose the name to counter the "Generation X" notion of apathy, and to signify their transformation into an active movement whose goal will be to challenge traditional perceptions. The group wants to focus on student empowerment and social justice issues, and provide logistical support for other groups.