Only through storms is the world changed¹

May the Chinese Revolution serve us as a powerful spur to fulfill the Party’s tasks in the place that falls to us!

IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 77TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CHINESE REVOLUTION, we publish after these introductory lines, the document of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru, from the Chairman Gonzalo’s Intervention at a meeting of leaders and cadres on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Chinese Revolution, held on September 30, 1989.²

In this intervention, Chairman Gonzalo emphasizes what the Chinese Revolution contains and the role of Chairman Mao. He tells us, that the Chinese Revolution calls us to reflect on the democratic revolution, the socialist revolution, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and restoration and counter-restoration which, in essence, is the permanent revolution, as Marx said, the tumultuous march of the class to enter communism passing through the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Today more than ever uphold that communism is the future reality toward which we march uncontainably; it is the necessary march toward our final goal but we have to pass through very hard stages and processes and each stage contains new, more difficult problems, but we communists have the necessary strength to overcome them starting from having the most powerful ideology. We reaffirm ourselves, then, in that this is the necessary goal of the communists which the class, the proletariat, has to reach however many difficulties it has to pass through. The problems we see today, restoration in China and the USSR, do not negate that goal, they do nothing but show the long and complex process of the march to communism. Today when the supposed obsolescence of communism is proclaimed let us take up, then, the Chinese Revolution and may our Party, as part of the world revolution, serve the goal: communism.

Chairman Gonzalo calls us to reaffirm ourselves in the great slogan of 1979: Uphold, defend, and apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism! (readjusted, then, at that time we said Mao Tsetung Thought); more so today when they seek to negate it, Vain dreams! Maoism is the new and the new has never been easily accepted; it has been imposed, in hard contest, by the leadership of the proletariat in the revolution under the communist parties. And he underlines, that Without Maoism there would be no people’s war and more, this people’s war would not be a burning flame that imposes itself against wind and tide.

Maoism has transcendence for the international proletariat and the peoples of the world, consequently the task of striving to place it as command and guide of the world revolution continues to be valid, it imposes itself as a necessity. Let us think of the immense power that Maoism contains, of all the might with which it is capable of arming the proletariat and the people. Chairman Mao said in difficult times to think of our all-powerful ideology, we have Maoism; with reason it was said that the proletariat had the most powerful atomic bomb: Mao Tsetung Thought, then.

Only through storms is the world changed, Chairman Mao said. May the Chinese Revolution serve us as a powerful spur to fulfill the Party’s tasks in the place that falls to us!

I. THE CHINESE REVOLUTION

It is evident that it has been a transcendental revolution in humanity for various reasons: one of them because of the immense mass it has mobilized, 400 million at the beginning and in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 800 million; a zone of great conflicts at the world level, extensive and grounded in long struggles of the people, of the peasantry, peasant struggles of long standing, and wars such as the Opium War of 1840, for example. In the Cultural Revolution a summing-up of the long process was made, it was said China has been marked by various struggles that were waged through arms. Upon this come the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Chairman Mao, third luminary of Marxism, the highest summit. All this has given very special conditions to China and what has occurred there has shaken the world.

Think of the democratic revolution; think of its essence as revolution, as the overthrow of one class by another, which is done with people’s war, with violence, think of this universal law, more so today when they want to consider it superseded. The democratic revolution in China is a paradigm, a prototype of revolution that goes against imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism. The democratic revolution leads inevitably to the second revolution, thus the Chinese Revolution not only leads us to think of the democratic revolution but of its uninterrupted continuation as socialist revolution; thus without the democratic revolution the socialist revolution is not feasible in a country like ours. Chairman Mao teaches us that the socialist revolution is the continuation of the democratic revolution; and still more that, as cultural revolution, it is the continuation of the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat sustained on a people’s army capable of defending the New State based on immense masses; he has made us see with great clarity that the construction of socialism is posed to the revolution, that its construction is extremely complex and demands a long time; still more, Chairman Mao told us that even we communists had not achieved a thorough and complete comprehension of the laws of socialism and that this required a long time. He told us that it implies sharp and violent class struggle, that there are two roads that confront one another: the capitalist road and the socialist road and, that it is not settled who will defeat whom; it is clear that he never doubted that socialism would win in perspective, what he made us see was the sharp class struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat, in the concrete.

He taught us that socialism demands supporting oneself on immense masses: peasantry, proletariat, people, to generate new modalities, to avoid repeating the old capitalist roads, demolished by the revolution and which would throw the socialist road off course; more, that socialism would have to generate new forms. He left well established that class struggle continues and very sharply, that the center of the contest is for the dictatorship of the proletariat supported on immense masses. But furthermore, the Chinese Revolution has demonstrated the necessity of the Cultural Revolution, that the revolution demanded determined struggle but that it was necessary in order to continue the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Obviously, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is an epic song of the revolution in the world, a milestone of victory for the communists and revolutionaries in the world, it is an indelible fact. Although it has to be a process we have to confront, that revolution has left us great lessons that we already apply as, by way of example, the question of changing ideology as fundamental for the class to seize Power, today generate an ideological leap to conquer Power.

Apart from these two questions the Chinese Revolution has shown us how the revolution takes place within a process of restoration and counter-restoration (a contradiction with two aspects). No class seizes Power just once⁠—restoration presents itself. Therefore, one must strive determinedly to counter-restore, until, finally the class settles in Power definitively. On this road the proletariat has already passed through the greater stretch.

Thus, the Chinese Revolution calls us to reflect on the democratic revolution, the socialist revolution, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and restoration and counter-restoration which, in essence, is the permanent revolution, as Marx said, the tumultuous march of the class to enter communism passing through the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Today more than ever uphold that communism is the future reality toward which we march uncontainably; it is the necessary march toward our final goal but we have to pass through very hard stages and processes and each stage contains new, more difficult problems, but we communists have the necessary strength to overcome them starting from having the most powerful ideology. We reaffirm ourselves, then, in that this is the necessary goal of the communists which the class, the proletariat, has to reach however many difficulties it has to pass through. The problems we see today, restoration in China and the USSR, do not negate that goal, they do nothing but show the long and complex process of the march to communism. Today when the supposed obsolescence of communism is proclaimed let us take up, then, the Chinese Revolution and may our Party, as part of the world revolution, serve the goal: communism.

Thus, we have seen what the Chinese Revolution contains and the role of Chairman Mao.

II. MAOISM

It is the decisive question, Chairman Mao teaches that the ideological-political decides everything, and our ideology is but one: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism. It is not the moment nor is there reason to make an outline of Marxism; we are interested in seeing that the ideology of the proletariat as a grand reality unfolds through leaps and by stages. It has had a first stage Marxism, a second Leninism, and a third the greatest and highest expression: Maoism. Thus, we find as communists that Marxism is an uncontainable, living, vigorous force, in full development; many fools have declared it dead, but Marxism was afterward more highly developed giving a severe refutation to that verbiage; already in Marx’s time the same was said, similarly in Lenin’s and today the same; it cannot surprise us, then, that falsifiers now come forth, supposed buriers of Marxism. And Maoism is attacked, craftily, sinisterly, because it is the highest conception of humanity. However, precisely, when we rise to higher stages of the ideology of the communist parties it is attacked, negated, and declared obsolete; but all that clamor of the supposed obsolescence of Marxism is but, and this is very important, the prologue to a new development of Marxism, thus it was with Marx and with Lenin. Maoism is the highest scientific ideology, consequently the highest transforming reality; issued from matter, material expression, because spirit is but a form of matter. We have received, then, the highest ideology of humanity: Maoism.

We must reaffirm ourselves in the great slogan of 1979: Uphold, defend, and apply Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism! (readjusted, then, at that time we said Mao Tsetung Thought); more so today when they seek to negate it, Vain dreams! Maoism is the new and the new has never been easily accepted; it has been imposed, in hard contest, by the leadership of the proletariat in the revolution under the communist parties. For Lenin Marxism is the tree of life and idealism is but a parasite; thus, today the idealism they spread is but a putrefied parasite, on the other hand Maoism is the living tree of life. We are convinced of the greatness of Maoism; we, how much we owe it, we would not even be here together; without Maoism there would be no people’s war, and more, this people’s war would not be a burning flame that imposes itself against wind and tide.

Maoism has transcendence for the international proletariat and the peoples of the world, consequently the task of striving to place it as command and guide of the world revolution continues to be valid, it imposes itself as a necessity. Let us think of the immense power that Maoism contains, of all the might with which it is capable of arming the proletariat and the people. Chairman Mao said in difficult times to think of our all-powerful ideology, we have Maoism; with reason it was said that the proletariat had the most powerful atomic bomb: Mao Tsetung Thought, then.

Thus, let us reaffirm ourselves in Maoism as the most glorious summit.

III. NEW REVISIONIST COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARY OFFENSIVE THAT AT THE WORLD LEVEL GORBACHOV AND TENG³ CARRY FORWARD

It is clear that they carry it out in collusion with the blackest world reaction, imperialism, because both converge.

Each day what that new offensive contains becomes clearer; everything sinister and perverse in Gorbachov and Teng. The most elementary questions are negated; thus, the Chinese revisionists, Teng’s henchmen, pose that capitalism has moments: embryonic, primary, secondary, and higher, four moments and that from World War II capitalism would have reached its higher stage; they negate Lenin’s central theses on imperialism, still more they say that capitalism is far from its obsolescence, that it has sufficient strength to resolve its problems. Writers in the international press sustain that the world capitalist system, the American one, is demonstrating the falsity of Marx’s theses, that Marx in essence was mistaken regarding the fact that in capitalism overproduction generates crises, that today those crises are manageable, that they do not demonstrate the obsolescence of the system but in turn they say that nobody could negate that crises are generated by an overproduction that could occur; as can be seen they contradict themselves, but what interests us is how the Chinese revisionists and the imperialists collude in negating Marxism.

On the role of the Church. An entrepreneur of the big bourgeoisie, tied to imperialism, mainly Yankee imperialism, says that the Peruvian economic process leads necessarily to a very explosive moment and that, because of this, they already apply, together with the Catholic Church, plans to contain that explosiveness; precisely Community in Action administered by Cáritas is part of these plans to rein in the revolution and traffic in the hunger of the masses. In China today they say one must see the new role of the Church, that in socialism it cannot be said that religion is the opium of the peoples; this is open negation of Marx, with the tale that it had already been said that way before, but it was before Marxism gave a scientific explanation of the role of religion. And we also see in this how revisionism coincides with reaction. For us the role of the Church is clear, we have posed it before differentiating the class interests of the hierarchy and the religiosity of the people; furthermore nobody forgets the Pope’s furious injunction: “lay down your attitude” while he blessed the reactionary armed forces;⁴ the Pope goes where there are problems and fulfills a counter-revolutionary role, Poland is another example.

Thus, revisionism is showing specific forms in its negation of Marxism, negation that contains its own death and disintegration.

The Party posed that the moment would arrive for the great battle for the defense of Marxism on all planes; that moment has arrived, the moment to defend Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism. The question demands studying revisionism thoroughly, as the enemy is studied, because we are in a war to the death with it; study it, disembowel it, demonstrate its monstrosity before the entire world. Aim to make precise how Marxism is questioned, negated from revisionism, imperialism, and world reaction in collusion.

On the economic plane they sustain that capitalism has found the solution to its problems and, consequently, does not march toward its collapse; they want to make the peoples of the Earth, the proletariat, accept that capitalism is eternal. Politically they also want to stupefy us, make us believe, fools!, that the bourgeois dictatorship is not a system that marches toward its ruin, that the bourgeoisie is not obsolete but has entered its renewed greening, the perpetuation of the bourgeois dictatorship. Ideologically, they proclaim the validity of idealism patched with religion, mainly Catholic which contains more superstition and deception, the most reactionary.

Armed with Maoism, which is the summit of Marxism, with the people’s war, with the Party, mobilizing the masses, we have to unmask all those hoaxes and crush them⁠—the main thing is to serve the advance of the world revolution.

IV. THE PCP⁵

It is the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Thought PCP. The Communist Party and the people’s war it leads are a demonstration of the invincibility and vitality of Marxism, of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism; consequently, extremely high responsibility. Therefore, we must develop the people’s war so that it shows all the validity of the power of Maoism and conquers Power in the entire country.

The conquest of Power will be transcendent because we are in a key part of Latin America which at this moment, in relation to Asia and Africa, is passing through the hardest economic, political, and ideological crisis, a general crisis of black perspective in the immediate years; as is shown by the fact that while Asia has countries growing above 9%, in Africa 3%, in backward zones of Europe and in North Africa and the Middle East 2.5%, the countries of Latin America grow at 1%, which goes together with a high population percentage.

Meditate on the role of the PCP and what the conquest of Power in the entire country implies, it is of historical transcendence; that the facts show what was established by the Party, for example that two decades would come together for reaction, today they themselves say it. Reflect seriously on the campaign of American imperialism, Bush says to go against coca; Peru is the main producer, Bolivia the second and third Colombia, it is true. But, where does the United States aim? At unfolding its counter-revolutionary war in the Andean countries which are the backbone of all Latin America, especially South America; and in this backbone where does people’s war burn? In Peru, because of the leadership of the Party and the action of the masses. Thus, they aim against us; what implication does this have? It leads to the development of the contradiction between nation–imperialism, main American imperialism, without forgetting the other superpower and other powers; it contains the change of contradiction: Let us not forget that other countries can be used; within this perspective, they pose carrying forward Brazil’s outlet to the Pacific through the ports of Matarani and Ilo has serious implications, especially for the South of the country, as well as the denounced policy of the Peruvian State of distancing itself from Bolivia and drawing closer to Chile. Yankee aggression directly or using puppets leads us to a war of national liberation; and despite the sacrifice and effort it demands it will be a magnificent perspective for uniting ninety percent of the Peruvian people, at moments when the Party poses conquering Power in the entire country, more conditions although very hard for the triumph of the Peruvian revolution. Imperialism dreams then if it thus seeks to suffocate the revolution; and however much it may be an extremely difficult, complex, bloody period, it leads to the triumph of the people, serves the emancipation of the class and the world proletarian revolution; what is decisive, to place Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, as command and guide of the world revolution.

Only through storms is the world changed, Chairman Mao said. May the Chinese Revolution serve us as a powerful spur to fulfill the Party’s tasks in the place that falls to us!