Chairman Gonzalo established the international line of the Communist Party of Peru. As proletarian internationalists, he teaches us that we must begin by unfolding the Peruvian revolution through the People’s War as part of, and at the service of, the world proletarian revolution. We are marching towards our inalterable goal, Communism; taking into account that each revolution is unfolded within the zigzags of world politics.
In appraising the world situation, Chairman Gonzalo begins with Lenin’s thesis: “The economic relationships of imperialism constitute the basis of the existing international situation. The history of the XX Century has been defined completely by this new phase of capitalism, its last and highest phase,” and that the difference between oppressed and oppressor countries is a distinctive feature of imperialism. Since we are in its final and highest phase, imperialism, in order to analyze the current situation we cannot depart from the fundamental contradiction of capitalism.
Furthermore, upholding what Chairman Mao taught us, that imperialism and all reactionaries are paper tigers and that what is truly powerful are the people, and that: “Working hand in glove, Soviet revisionism and U.S. imperialism have done so many foul and evil things that the revolutionary people the world over will not let them go unpunished. The people of all countries are rising. A new historical period of struggle against U.S. imperialism and Soviet revisionism has begun.” He sustains that the destruction of imperialism and world reaction to be carried out by the Communist Parties, leading the proletariat and the peoples of the world, will be an incontrovertible reality. He calls upon us to fight against the two imperialist superpowers, Yankee imperialism and Russian social-imperialism, against the imperialist powers and world reaction, in accordance with the specific conditions of each revolution to determine the principal enemy and to confront their actions.
The victory of the October Revolution in 1917 marked an extraordinary milestone in world history, the end of the bourgeois revolution and the beginning of the world proletarian revolution. This new period was signaled by the intensifying violence expressing the decrepitude of the bourgeoisie in leading the revolution and the maturity of the proletariat to take, lead, and maintain the Power of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The revolutions of the oppressed nations also occur within this framework.
In the midst of a complex system of wars of all types, imperialism will be sunk along with world reaction, from which socialism will emerge; consequently, revolution and counter- revolution are conscious that only through war political changes are defined. Since war has a class character, there are imperialist wars such as the First and Second World Wars that were wars of plunder for an allotment of the world; or imperialist wars of aggression against oppressed nations such as those of England in the Malvinas, Yankee imperialism in Vietnam, and social-imperialism in Afghanistan; and national liberation wars such as those which are waged in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The People’s War in Peru is led by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought, for this reason, it cannot be held back by the superpowers, nor any imperialistic power because of its just character and correct ideology. It is in the vanguard, it is a reality that demonstrates to us that the Communists should focus on this principal aspect of developing people’s war as the principal form of struggle to serve the world revolution.
Facing this situation, it is only through war that the world is transformed; as outlined by Chairman Mao, we uphold the omnipotence of the revolutionary war, meaning people’s war, as the highest military theory, that of the proletariat which must be applied according to each type of country whether imperialist or oppressed. The world people’s war is an adequate response that serves to prevent the imperialist war or, if this is already happening, to transform it into people’s war. As Communists we wage war to destroy war through war in order to establish a “lasting Peace.” We are the only ones that fight for a real peace, not like Reagan and Gorbachev who wage war the more they speak of peace; they are the warmongers.
Upon analyzing the world in this era, we see that four fundamental contradictions are expressed:
the contradiction between capitalism and socialism, referring to the contradiction between two radically different systems, which will encompass this entire era. This contradiction will be one of the last to be resolved, and will continue after the seizure of Power;
the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the contradiction between two opposite classes that will persist after the taking of Power, expressing itself through multiple ideological, political and economic forms until its resolution with the arrival of Communism;
the inter-imperialist contradictions, the contradiction between the imperialists themselves for hegemony in the world and occurring between mutual superpowers, between superpowers and the minor imperialist powers and among the minor imperialist powers themselves. This contradiction will be solved during the subsequent era of 50 to 100 years;
contradictions between oppressed nations and imperialism which is the struggle of the oppressed nations to destroy imperialism and reaction, whose resolution is also framed within the next 50 to 100 years. During this period, this is the principal contradiction, although any one of the four fundamental contradictions can become principal in accordance with the specific circumstances of the class struggle, temporarily, or in certain countries.
In perspective, in order to arrive at our final goal, Communism, Marxist-Leninist-Maoists must carry forward three types of revolutions:
democratic revolution, the bourgeois revolution of a new type led by the proletariat in the oppressed countries, which establishes the dictatorship of the proletariat, consisting also of the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie, and in certain conditions the middle bourgeoisie, under the hegemony of the proletariat;
socialist revolution, in the imperialist and capitalist countries, which establishes the dictatorship of the proletariat;
cultural revolutions, which are made to continue the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The latter is to suppress and eliminate the regeneration of capitalism and to wage armed combat against attempts at capitalist restoration, and which also serves to strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat and to facilitate the march towards Communism.
Just as no class in the world was able to seize Power all at once, but only through a process of restorations and counter-restorations, when the proletariat takes power and establishes its dictatorship, the eagerness of the bourgeoisie for restoring capitalism and to recover its power grows and opens up a historical process of struggle by the proletariat to maintain and defend its dictatorship and to combat the conspiracy of capitalist restoration. This struggle between restoration and counter-restoration is an undeniable historical law, which is replayed under the dictatorship of the proletariat. In world history, when the feudal class advanced in China, it was delayed 250 years while it crushed the restoration of slavery; when the bourgeois class in the west struggled against feudalism to crush the attempts at restoration or the restorations of feudalism, it took 300 years to be definitively established in Power. And, addressing a revolution in which the proletariat is definitively established in Power, the acute struggle between restoration and counter-restoration will last approximately 200 years, starting from the Paris Commune in 1871. The experiences of capitalist restoration in the USSR and in China taught us great lessons, positive as well as negative; especially emphasizing the gigantic steps forward in the formation of the new State and how the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is the solution to avert restoration.
We, who follow Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought, reaffirm ourselves in revolutionary violence as the universal law to seize power, and to do so it is crucial to substitute one class by another. The democratic revolutions are carried out with revolutionary violence. Socialist revolutions are carried out with revolutionary violence and, since they are faced with restorations, power will be recovered through revolutionary violence. We will maintain the continuation of the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat with revolutionary violence through cultural revolutions and we will only reach Communism through revolutionary violence. While there is a place on the Earth in which exploitation exists, we will finish it off through revolutionary violence.
This new era arms us with a wealth of new weapons, and we Communists must strengthen ourselves ideologically, politically, and organizationally to assume the responsibilities that correspond to us at this time.
There are two currents that operate in the international Communist movement: The international proletarian movement and the national liberation movement. The first leads and the second is the base.
It takes place in the oppressed nations against imperialism and reaction. In the first decade of this century, Lenin paid close attention to the struggles in India, China, and Iran. He outlined that the socialist revolution would not be only and exclusively of the proletariat against its bourgeoisie, but also of all the colonies against their oppressors. He said there is a fusion of two forces, the international proletarian movement and the national liberation movement and, that the weight of the masses in the oppressed nations constitutes most of the population in the world and will be decisive in the world revolution. He concluded that revolution is shifting to the oppressed nations, but this fact does not negate the revolution in Europe, which was demonstrated by how a formerly socialist State such as the USSR could develop in the midst of imperialist encirclement. Developing the ideas of Marx, Lenin laid the strategic foundations of the world revolution to undermine imperialism by linking the struggle of the national liberation movement with the struggles of the international proletarian movement in order to develop the revolution. Although the slogan for Communists is “Proletarians of all countries, Unite!,” he proposed the slogan that must guide the struggle of the two forces: “Proletarians of all countries and peoples of the world, Unite!” Chairman Mao Zedong developed Lenin’s strategy based on the great significance the national liberation movement has for the world revolution since imperialism plunders ever more from the oppressed nations, which in turn rise-up in powerful revolutionary storms that must be led by their Communist parties. Thus, the national liberation movement is fused to the international proletarian movement and these two forces propel the development of world history. Chairman Gonzalo teaches that the strategy that Communists must follow should be based on the thesis laid down by Lenin and developed by Chairman Mao.
The international proletarian movement, is the theory and practice of the international proletariat. The proletariat struggles on three levels: theoretical, political, and economic. Since the proletariat appears in history as the final class, it does so in constant struggle, highlighted by the following milestones: 1848, the Communist Manifesto elaborated by Marx and Engels established the basis and the program of the proletariat. 1871, the Paris Commune where for the first time the proletariat seizes Power. 1905, the dress rehearsal of the revolution. 1917, victory of the October Revolution in Russia, the class established the joint dictatorship of the proletariat and opened a new era. 1949, victory of the Chinese revolution, and the establishment of the joint dictatorship led by the proletariat which resolved the passage to the socialist revolution, and changed the correlation forces in the world. The decade of the 1960s with the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, led by Chairman Mao Zedong, the revolution continued under the dictatorship of the proletariat in the acute struggle between restoration and counter-restoration.
In its struggle for its rights and demands the proletariat generates the union and the strike, which are not only meant to be instruments for economic struggle, but to forge the class “for the great battles still to come.” The strike is the principal instrument in the economic struggle and the general strike is a complement to the insurrection, but it is wrong to expound, as do Sorel, the anarchists, and others, that Power can be seized by the general strike alone. We develop the struggle for better living conditions as a function of the seizure of Power.
The proletariat generates a political apparatus. As defined by Marx, the Communist Party is totally opposite and different from the other parties seeking political power. Lenin established the characteristics of the Party of the new type, combating the undermining influences of the old revisionism that generated bourgeois workers’ parties based on the labor aristocracy, the union bureaucracy, parliamentary cretinism, all tied to the old order. Chairman Mao Zedong developed the construction of the Party based on the gun and outlined the construction of the three instruments. Chairman Gonzalo established the thesis of the militarization of the Communist parties and the concentric construction of the three instruments.
The proletariat generates ideology: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism for the world revolution and Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought, principally Gonzalo Thought, for the Peruvian revolution.
Marxism was based on the ideas of Marx. Marx and Engels drew ideas from the best that humanity had produced: German classical philosophy, English political economy and French socialism on which they based the ideology of the proletariat. Marxism has not taken a step in its life without struggling against wrong positions. It stood up against Proudhon and anarchism, against right-wing deviations of the supposedly creative developments of Dühring, and against the opportunist positions that emerged in the German Social Democratic Party. After the death of Engels, the old revisionism unfolds with Bernstein and Kautsky; Lenin is going to defeat them. In sum, in its first stage Marxism establishes the Marxist philosophy or dialectical materialism, Marxist political economy, and scientific socialism.
Lenin develops Marxism and brings it to a second stage, Marxism-Leninism. This stage is achieved through hard struggles fought against the old revisionism that was denying Marxist philosophy, by proposing neo-Kantism instead; that is idealism and not dialectical materialism. In political economy, they were denying the growing pauperization among the proletariat, and claimed that the proletariat was being satisfied by capitalism. They denied the fact of imperialism and surplus value. In scientific socialism, they propagated pacifism, denying the class struggle and revolutionary violence.
Revisionism means to revise Marxist principles by invoking new circumstances. Lenin said that revisionism is the advance of the bourgeois ideology in the ranks of the proletariat and that to fight effectively against imperialism one must also fight against revisionism, since they are two sides of the same coin. Lenin emphasized that revisionism seeks to divide the trade unions and the political movement of the proletariat and that it generates the split in socialism. In this effective and relentless struggle against revisionism, during World War I Lenin further proposed the need to convert the imperialist war into a revolutionary war, unmasking the old revisionists as social-patriots. Lenin pointed out that in revolutionary times one must create new organizations, since the reactionaries can destroy the legal organizations and we should develop clandestine organizations even for mass work. Based on these principles, he led the October Revolution with the Communist Party through the insurrection.
In the process of building socialism in the USSR, Stalin continued the work of Lenin. He waged a 13-year struggle against the deviations of Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev that concluded in 1937. It is untruthful to say that things were administratively resolved. We agree with the position of Chairman Mao on the legacy of comrade Stalin as being 70% positive. As Communists today we have the task of making an adequate analysis of World War II, the standing of the International Communist movement and, particularly, to study well its VII Congress and, within this, the role of Comrade Stalin, along with the actions of revisionists in France, Italy, etc.
In developing Marxism-Leninism, Chairman Mao Zedong raises Marxism to its highest summit, thus the theory of the proletariat evolves into Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. This task is fulfilled in the midst of a tenacious and persistent struggle, crushing the right opportunist line within the Chinese Communist Party, especially the revisionist line of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping; and on the international level, he led the struggle against and the defeat of the contemporary revisionism of Khrushchev. Mao forged the democratic revolution in China, the leap to the socialist revolution and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. What is fundamental in Maoism is political power, the power of the proletariat, the power of the dictatorship of the proletariat, based on a armed force led by the Party. Maoism is the application of Marxism-Leninism to the oppressed countries, of the strategic offensive of the world revolution, and of the continuation of the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat.
We Communists have three great swords: our founder Marx, the great Lenin, and Chairman Mao Zedong. Our great task is to raise, defend, and to apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, and place it as the command and guide of the world revolution.
Continuing the development of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, developing the Peruvian revolution and supporting the world revolution, Chairman Gonzalo upholds, defends and applies our undefeated and unfading ideology: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought as the base of Party unity. Fur us, what is principal is to incarnate Gonzalo Thought because it is the guarantee of victory that leads us to the democratic revolution, to the socialist revolution, to the cultural revolutions, and on through to Communism.
Chairman Gonzalo teaches us that in the process of the world revolution to sweep away imperialism and reaction from the face of the earth there are three moments: 1st, the strategic defensive; 2nd, the strategic equilibrium; and 3rd, the strategic offensive of the world revolution. He reaches this conclusion by applying the law of contradiction to the revolution since contradiction rules everything and all contradictions have two aspects in struggle; in this case revolution and counter-revolution. The strategic defensive of the world revolution is opposed to the offensive of the counter-revolution, begging in 1871 with the Paris Commune and ending with the Second World War. The strategic equilibrium begins after the victory of the Chinese revolution, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and the development of the powerful national liberation movements. Afterwards, the world revolution enters the strategic offensive, this moment can be identified in history in connection with the 1980s in which we see indications such as the Iran-Iraq war, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, the beginning of the People’s War in Peru, an era circumscribed within the “next 50 to 100 years.” From there onward the contradiction between capitalism and socialism will develop and whose resolution will carry us to Communism. Our conceptions is of a long-term process with the conviction of reaching Communism even if it means passing through a series of twists and turns and the reverses that will necessarily occur. Furthermore, it is not strange that we should apply the three moments to the world revolution, since Chairman Mao applied them to the process of the protracted people’s war. As Communists, we should see not only the specific moment, but the long years to come.
In the current situation and in perspective we have entered the strategic offensive of the world revolution, we are within the “50 to 100 years” in which imperialism will be sunk together with world reaction and we will enter the stage when the proletariat firmly takes root in power and establishes its dictatorship. From there forward the contradiction will be between socialism and capitalism on the road toward Communism. The fact that restorations have occurred in the USSR and China does not negate the strong developmental process of the international proletariat, but shows how fierce the struggle is between restoration and counter-restoration is from which the Communists draw lessons to prevent the restoration of capitalism and to definitively establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.
We reaffirm the thesis of Chairman Mao Zedong that a period of struggle has begun between American imperialism and Russian social-imperialism; thus the two principal enemies are defined at the world level, for those who make democratic revolution or socialist revolution, including those who make nationalist movements, and what corresponds to them is that each revolution or movement specifies its principal enemy and seek to combat the dominance of the other superpower or of the other powers. In Peru, Yankee imperialism dominates us in collusion with the big bourgeoisie and the landowners. However, at the world level there is contention between the two superpowers for world hegemony. We fight against American imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism, but we can not allow its substitution with the domination of social-imperialism, nor of some other power. In Afghanistan, the direct aggression is by Soviet social-imperialism that contends for hegemony with Yankee imperialism, China, as well as with other western powers, and there a struggle must be waged against social-imperialism as the principal enemy and not to permit the entry either to the domination of American imperialism nor of other powers; the problem is that the struggle is not correctly unfolded due to lack of political leadership, of a Communist Party. In synthesis, there are two superpowers that are the principal enemies with one being the principal in each case, and we do not overlook the actions of the imperialist powers.
We consider Chairman Mao Zedong’s thesis that three worlds are delineated just and correct and that it is connected with Lenin’s thesis on the distribution of forces in the world based on the analysis of classes and contradictions. We reject the opportunist and revisionist misrepresentation by Deng Xiaoping of the three worlds that follows at the tail of the U.S. or USSR in order to betray the revolution. Starting from this, Chairman Gonzalo analyzes the current situation in which the three worlds are delineated and further demonstrated that they are a reality. The first world is the two superpowers, the U.S. and the USSR which contend for world hegemony and which can unleash an imperialist war. They are superpowers because they are economically, politically, and militarily more powerful compared to the other powers. The U.S. has an economy centered on non-state monopoly of property; politically, it develops a bourgeois democracy with a growing restriction of rights. It is a reactionary liberalism; militarily, it is the most powerful in the west and has a longer process of development. The USSR is economically based on a state monopoly, with a politically fascist dictatorship of a bureaucratic bourgeoisie and is a top-level military power although its process of development is shorter. The U.S. seeks to maintain its dominance and also to expand it. The USSR aims more towards expansion because it is a new superpower and economically it is in her interests to dominate Europe to improve its conditions. In synthesis, they are two superpowers which do not constitute a block but have contradictions, clear mutual differences, and they move within the law of collusion and contention for the redivision of the world. The second world are the imperialist powers which are not superpowers, but have smaller economic, political, and military power such as Japan, Germany, France, Italy, etc. which have contradictions with the superpowers because they sustain, for example, the devaluation of the dollar, military restrictions, and political impositions; these imperialist powers want to take advantage of the contention between the superpowers in order for them to emerge as new superpowers, and they also unleash wars of aggression against the oppressed nations and furthermore, acute contradictions exist among them. The third world is composed of the oppressed nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. They are colonies or semi-colonies where feudalism has not been destroyed, and on that basis a bureaucratic capitalism unfolds, they are tied to a superpower or imperialist power. They have contradictions with imperialism, furthermore they fight against their own big bourgeoisie and landlords, both of which are at the service of and in collusion with imperialism, especially with the superpowers.
All this gives us the basis on which the Communists can establish the strategy and tactics of the world revolution. Chairman Mao Zedong had come to establish the strategy and tactics of the world revolution but the Chinese revisionists concealed it. Therefore, it remains for us to extract from his own ideas, especially if there are new situations in sight.
Our Party sustains the view that in the current world there are three fundamental contradictions:
The contradiction of the oppressed nations, on one side, against the superpowers and imperialist powers, on the other. Here the thesis of the three worlds is delineated, and we formulate it this way because the kernel of that contradiction lies with the superpowers but it is also a contradiction with the imperialist powers. This is the principal contradiction and its solution is the development and victory of new democratic revolutions.
The contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, which has as its solution the socialist revolution and within that perspective, the proletarian cultural revolution.
The inter-imperialist contradictions between the superpowers themselves, between the superpowers and the smaller imperialist powers and, finally, among the imperialist powers themselves, which leads to war for world hegemony and imperialistic wars of plunder which the proletariat must oppose with people’s war and in the long run, world people’s war.
We do not list the contradiction socialism-capitalism because it exists only at an ideological and political level, since socialism does not exist anywhere as a state; today there is no socialist system. It existed, and to say that it exists today it is to claim in essence that the USSR is socialist, which is revisionism.
The need to address the contradictions serves to analyze the world situation and to define its strategy and tactics within its strategic and conflicting zones. Today, the most incendiary conflicting points are: Southeast Asia where the struggle in Vietnam, Laos, and Kampuchea are a focal point in the immense strategic region of Asia, a region where great masses are concentrated. If India, for example, had a sufficiently developed Communist Party, it would serve to powerfully advance the revolution. In the Middle East, the great oil center, there is also an acute contest between the superpowers and powers bound to the issues of the Near East and to nationalist and even reactionary movements. Another area is South Africa, where there are guerrilla movements that are usurped by the superpowers to convert them into occupation forces and dominate them. Latin America is an important center of struggle, from Central America (Nicaragua and El Salvador) to the volatility of the Antilles (Haiti, etc.), and the People’s War in Peru, a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Thought revolution that struggles for an authentic democratic revolution without submitting to any superpower or power. In Europe, where persistent anti-imperialists military actions are developing, it is necessary to study their ideology and the politics they uphold, the class which they serve, their links with the ideology of the proletariat, and their role within the world proletarian revolution, as well as their position on contemporary revisionism. These movements express the uneven development of the revolutionary situation that exists in the Old World. Any one of these points of conflict could provide the spark to an imperialist World War, a situation that may occur when the strategic superiority of one of the superpowers is defined. Therefore, it is increasingly urgent and peremptory to rely upon Communist parties based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and be forged for and in people’s war through their militarization. To strategically define the zones of secondary and principal importance in waging the world revolution, is key to establishing the role that each region and each party will play in the world revolution.
For the Communist Parties, the problem is not to center attention on the imperialist World War but to do so on the people’s war, since only from such a conflict will power led by the proletariat derive. We believe that while there is imperialism, there is a likelihood that imperialist World Wars will develop. What Chairman Mao said is certain, that either revolution will prevent war or World War will provoke revolution. In order for an imperialist world war to happen, the strategic superiority of one of the superpowers must be defined. According to the reactionary military theoreticians, this situation would unfold at the moment of the first use of atomic weapons, or the overwhelming atomic bombardment by each belligerent. This would be followed by a second moment, which would involve contingents of millions in an invasion and, subsequently, (since the objective is the division of the spoils, especially of the oppressed nations) a conventional war to occupy territories. Then it will enter into a great and ferocious massacre which will have repercussions against the imperialists and will provide great reasons for the oppressed nations, the peoples of the world and the class to rise up in people’s war. Thus, if another imperialist world war presents itself, first, we will oppose it, and second, we will not fear it as we will focus on revolution. Third, to focus on revolution means to wage the people’s war led by the proletariat through its Communist parties; and fourth, this people’s war must be specified in each type of country according to its type of revolution. Therefore, the world people’s war is the order of the day.
The history of the International Communist Movement is a glorious process of struggle through which the Communists in the world have fought, and continue to fight, for unity in order to attain their unalterable goal: a Communist society. In this heroic struggle, three Internationals were forged.
The International Workers’ Association, or First International, was founded by Marx and Engels in 1864. In hard struggle they opposed and crushed the anarchistic positions of Bakunin and established that there is only one doctrine of the proletariat: Marxism. Lenin says that the role fulfilled by the First International was to lay down the ideological foundations of the doctrine of the proletariat. This International split, and when this was blamed on Marx and Engels, they answered that if such a division had not occurred, the International would have died in any case—killed by those who united in rejecting principles. The Second International was founded by Engels in 1889. It served to multiply organizations and parties, but with the death of Engels, the emerging old-style revisionism was confronted and crushed by Lenin. This International became bankrupt in the First World War when its leadership (Kautsky and Bernstein), instead of opposing the imperialist world war in order to transform it into revolution, supported the war of plunder and their own countries’ bourgeoisie. Thus, they turned into social-patriots. In 1919 Lenin organized the Third International, the Communist International, conceiving of it as a fighting machine to carry out the world revolution and the establishment of the proletarian dictatorship. Two problems emerged in the Communist International during the 1920s which were to have great repercussions: The problem of Germany (or rather, the revolution in an advanced country), and the problem of China (or revolution in a backward country). The situation became more acute with the emergence and victory of fascism and the question on how to conceive the United Front. Thorez and Togliatti proposed revisionist opinions, seeking to support rather than destroy the old order, while focussing solely on the anti-fascist struggle. In 1943 the International was dissolved, leaving only an Information Committee. It is an urgent task for Communists, and for our Party, to evaluate the Communist International, especially its VII Congress before World War II, and the role of Comrade Stalin.
The struggle of Communists to unite at an international level is long and complex. This was shown in the struggle against contemporary revisionism after World War II. Tito was condemned in 1948. The ideas of Browder also played a negative role. The Workers’ and communist parties met in Moscow in 1957 and 1960 after the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1956, in which Khrushchev had already usurped the dictatorship of the proletariat in the USSR, and assaulted it under the pretext of combating Comrade Stalin. However, the prestige of the USSR was still very great throughout the world, and in such circumstances the meetings of 1957 and 1960 agreed on ambiguous positions, in spite of the firm, principled positions upheld by the CPC, especially those of Chairman Mao, and the Party of Labor of Albania. The positions of Chairman Mao caused the CPSU to alter some of its positions, but the positions of contemporary revisionism were systematized in 1961, when the CPSU held its XXII Congress.
Chairman Mao, leading the Communist Party of China (CPC), summarized the essence of the new revisionism systematized in the “three peacefuls” and the “two alls.” With “peaceful coexistence,” Khrushchev had twisted the old thesis of Lenin that distinguished between relationships among states to those within states to propose that the general line of the international Communist movement is “peaceful coexistence.” For Khrushchev, the problem was to prevent war, because according to him, atomic weapons did not distinguish between exploiters and exploited and men had to fraternize in order to prevent the annihilation of humanity. “Peaceful transition” proposes that revolution no longer required revolutionary violence but that one social system could be transformed into another through the “peaceful route”: through elections or parliamentarism. The concept of “peaceful emulation” expressed the idea that to destroy the imperialist system, the socialist system had to emulate it in order to demonstrate to the imperialists that the socialist system is superior, and thus encourage the imperialists to become socialists. The “state of the whole people” was the revisionist thesis with which Khrushchev intended to deny the class character of the state. It was specifically aimed against the dictatorship of the proletariat. The “party of the whole people” was another monstrosity which denied the class character of the Party as the party of the proletariat. Khrushchev maintained that the Twenty-second Congress of the CPSU was the new program of the Communists, and thus the Communist Manifesto was substituted by the bourgeois slogans of “liberty,” “equality,” and “fraternity.” The Manifesto is the program of the Communists, and its negation generated and sharpened the struggle between Marxism and revisionism.
On June 14, 1963, the Proposal on the General Line of the International Communist Movement (also known as the Chinese letter) was published. Then the Nine Commentaries, in which Chairman Mao and the CPC brilliantly criticized and crushed modern revisionism in all aspects, were circulated.
We understand that Chairman Mao and the CPC felt that because the political and ideological base—which had to be Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought—had not yet been defined it was inconvenient to form a new Communist International in such circumstances. This was mainly due to the fact that the Party of Labor of Albania, led by Enver Hoxha, did not accept Mao Zedong Thought and advocated an International based only on Marxism-Leninism, disregarding the new developments. In essence, Hoxha was opposed to Mao Zedong Thought.
The growing influence of Chairman Mao in the world unfolded with the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. The CPC focused on very urgent problems, such as recovering power in the People’s Republic of China from the usurpation of the revisionists Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, and on the method to continue the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Chairman Mao became the great teacher of the proletariat and the leader of the world revolution, in the class struggle at home and in the struggle against revisionism on the international level. His thought developed into the third stage of Marxism. In that era, Communists referred to this development as Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. The Communist Party of Peru adopted Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought as the basis of party unity at the VI National Conference in January 1969. This was achieved as a result of the struggle of Chairman Gonzalo and the red fraction of the Party that had been adhering to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought since 1966. Chairman Gonzalo upheld the positions of Chairman Mao as early as 1962, and on the basis of that conception, went on to forge the red fraction. The authentic Communists were waiting for the CPC to define Maoism as the third stage of Marxism, but with the death of Chairman Mao in September 1976, the Chinese revisionists pulled off a counter-revolutionary coup aimed at Chairman Mao and his thought. Thereafter, the unity of the Marxists encountered serious and complex problems, but the Communist Party of Peru remained firm and unshakable in the defense of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, immediately denouncing the counter-revolutionary coup and the revisionist usurpation in China. It was at that time that the Expanded Political Bureau in October 1976 declared, “To be a Marxist is to adhere to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought.”
With the death of Chairman Mao and the revisionist usurpation in China by Deng and his gang, the Communists were left scattered in the world without a center or base for world revolution; the counter-revolutionaries brandished their claws to negate Chairman Mao and the validity of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, unleashing the triple revisionist assault of Deng Xiaoping (Chinese revisionism), Hoxha (Albanian revisionism), and Brezhnev (Russian revisionism). In the face of this situation, in 1979, at the PCP’s First National Conference, President Gonzalo called upon the whole party to defend and apply Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought against the revisionist triple attack. The Party’s principled positions remained firm and unalterable. In 1980, the PCP launched the People’s War based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. And it is with the application and development of the People’s War that the PCP has advanced further in the comprehension of Maoism as the third stage of Marxism. Hence, at the Second National Conference held in May 1982 the Party agreed that Marxism-Leninism-Maoism was the third stage of Marxism. The PCP was the only party in the world in the vanguard of the defense of Maoism, assuming the task of struggling for the unity of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoists of the world so that this ideology be the command and guide of the world and Peruvian revolution.
The application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism must be specific to each revolution, so that it does not become a mechanical formula. For this reason, the Peruvian Revolution has generated President Gonzalo and Gonzalo Thought, which is the main principle in the basis of Party unity. Each revolution must specify its guiding thought, without which there can be no application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, nor any revolutionary development.
In the Fall of 1980, 13 Communist parties and organizations signed a statement, “To the Marxist-Leninists, Workers, and the Oppressed of All Countries,” calling upon Communists to unite around Marxist-Leninist struggle and to uphold Chairman Mao, but without representing Maoism as a new stage with universal validity. The Revolutionary Communist Party of the US principally led this effort. In 1983 the RCP of the US contacted the PCP and invited it to sign the 1980 statement. The PCP opposed such a statement since Mao Zedong Thought was not considered therein; furthermore, we were already basing ourselves on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. In March 1984, the Second Conference of these organizations was held and the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) was founded which approved a joint declaration, referring to uniting around Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. Our position on the participation of the PCP in RIM is condensed in a letter written to the Committee of RIM dated October 1986: “We wish to reiterate two questions about this issue. First, from the beginning of our ties, the origin of our differences was the substantive and decisive question of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as the only, true and new stage in the development of proletarian ideology, of universal validity, having Maoism as the key issue. Therefore, our objection to the choice of ‘Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought.’ Nevertheless, we have thought and still think that the resolution of this matter, which for us is indispensable as a point of departure, is complex, demands time, and especially revolutionary development.”
“Second, in signing the Declaration produced by the Second Conference which founded the RIM, we did so with observations and even clear differences, which were briefly explained. We reiterated these issues in meetings, reports, and communications which clearly indicate differences on the principle contradiction, the revolutionary situation of unequal development, on world war, and on some criteria on the role of the Movement, and other more important issues, such as the universal validity of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, and in particular the general validity of People’s War (the expression of proletarian military theory that our class has developed completely with Chairman Mao Zedong), and our insistence in always raising the great slogan, ‘Proletarians of all countries, unite!’ Nevertheless, we thought and continue to think that the Declaration constituted and continues to constitute a relative basis of unity, whose development and improvement will be demanded by the advance of our Movement, as facts are clearly demonstrating already.
Presently, the Declaration is repudiated by some as opportunist. Others assert that it is useless to resolve the burning problems that the revolution demands, and therefore, we should move on to a new declaration. The PCP believes that the RIM faces problems on various levels: On the ideological level, it needs to advance towards the understanding of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. This advance is principal, and even political development hinges upon it. On the political level, it needs to advance in defining the fundamental contradictions, and the principal global contradiction, the question of the Third World War, and that revolution is the main tendency, and in the event that imperialist war becomes a reality, we must transform it into people’s war. In regards to this construction, what political lines we must follow to achieve the establishment of the International that we need, which must continue the glorious International Communist Movement. Concerning mass work, our point of departure are the slogans ‘The masses make history,’ ‘It’s right to rebel,’ and ‘The colossal garbage heap.’ The purpose of mass work is to begin and develop people’s war. In regards to leadership, it is a key issue, which requires time for its formation, development, and credibility. In regards to two-line struggle, it is not being handled as it should be. These are problems of development, but if they are not addressed justly and correctly, they can cause disarticulation, and such negative possibilities necessarily cause us concern. We believe that the Committee of the RIM aims to impose the denomination of ‘Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought,’ trying to frame us within the Declaration, and thus resolve the problems of leadership of the Committee, which leads us to believe in the existence of hegemonic tendencies.”
Taking the above situation into account, the Fourth National Conference of the PCP of October 1986 reaffirmed our intention to develop a fraction within the International Communist Movement in order to place Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, as the command and guide of the world revolution. We call to: Uphold, Defend, and Apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Principally Maoism!, since only through this can the international proletariat, through its Communist Parties, lead the conquest of power and emancipate the oppressed so they can emancipate themselves as a class.
We are for the reconstitution of the Communist International, and we regard the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement as a step in that direction. It will serve this purpose as long as it upholds and follows a just and correct ideological and political line.
The struggle to make Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, the command and guide of world revolution will be long, complex and difficult, but in the end, the Marxist-Leninist-Maoists of the world will succeed. Marxism has not taken a step forward in its life without struggle.
GLORY TO THE INTERNATIONAL PROLETARIAT!
LONG LIVE THE WORLD PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION!
UPHOLD, DEFEND, AND APPLY MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM, GONZALO THOUGHT, PRINCIPALLY GONZALO THOUGHT!