May 1st 1998:
Long Live the International Proletariat!

Peru People's Movement

May 1, 1998

The Peru People’s Movement, a generated organization of the Communist Party of Peru, greets with revolutionary fervor the international proletariat on this May 1st, the day of the class. We extend this greeting to the peoples and oppressed nations of the world.

May 1st is a day on which the Communists, revolutionaries and progressives, in all countries of the world, celebrate the day of the class and its revolution: the world proletarian revolution. But in no part of the world is May 1st celebrated in as forceful a way as in Peru, because there a victorious and powerful people’s war burns, led by the Communist Party of Peru, the organized vanguard of the Peruvian proletariat. In the midst of this people’s war the People’s Liberation Army, under the all-embracing leadership of the Communist Party of Peru, celebrates the important dates of the proletariat and Peruvian people, such as May 1st, with devastating armed actions. These actions at the same time are a warm and revolutionary greeting to the international proletariat and all those who in one form or another struggle against this parasitical imperialist system. The People’s War in Peru, that is to say the Peruvian revolution, forms part of the world proletarian revolution, and the heroic and revolutionary Peruvian people, with this People’s War, decisively contributes to the struggle of the oppressed peoples and nations of the world. And it is for this reason that the international proletariat and the peoples of the world give their unconditional support to this just and correct struggle, as it is an internationalist duty.

The People’s War in Peru, which was initiated on May 17th 1980, was prepared, initiated and led by Chairman Gonzalo. It was he who, in a creative way, has applied the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, to the specific conditions of the Peruvian revolution, in this way arming the Communists and revolutionaries with an indispensable and invincible weapon which is the guarantee of victory of the revolution until Communism: the all-powerful Gonzalo Thought, which is the scientific foundation of the Great Leadership of Chairman Gonzalo, a Great Leadership that, through the struggle of the proletariat and above all its Communist Party, was generated in the midst of the process of development of the revolution. For this reason Gonzalo thought and Chairman Gonzalo are unbreakably joined. Under the masterful leadership of Chairman Gonzalo, the People’s War developed unstoppably reaching the Strategic Equilibrium in 1991, the second stage of protracted war. Strategic Equilibrium which meant for the revolution the initiation of the preparations for the Strategic Offensive, while the enemy was obliged to recover their lost positions in order to “secure” their very existence. A Strategic Equilibrium which was reached after eleven years of hard and persistent struggle against the genocidal Armed Forces of the Peruvian reaction, advised by their master, Yankee imperialism. During this period the reactionaries applied indiscriminate genocide against the masses of people with the vain intention of drowning the revolution in blood. These masses of people had committed the “crime” of rising up in armed rebellion which the reactionaries could not permit, since these exploiters know that this signifies the beginning of the end of their bloody reign. But it is right to rebel, and under the just and correct leadership of the Party during this period, the New Power was born and was extended across the entire national territory, forming Open People’s Committees in the countryside (organized in Support Bases) and Committees of Popular Struggle in the cities, a New Power which is the concrete expression of the people’s power under the leadership of the proletariat through its Party. In the case of Peru a unified People’s War is being carried forward which is following the path of surrounding the cities from the countryside, where the countryside is the principal theater while the cities are a necessary complement.

But as we know, a revolution can only triumph by generating and crushing a powerful counter-revolution, before conquering power throughout the country. It is in this setting that the “other hill,” as the Communist Party of Peru calls the enemy, saw the necessity of taking drastic measures in their vain attempt to stop the advance of the People’s War. On April 5 1992, a clique headed by Pinochet’s wretched apprentice, the genocidal Hermosa Rios, carried out a coup d’etat using the puppet Fujimori like a cheap figurehead. This coup d’etat (planned by Yankee imperialism), implied a turning point in the civil war, since with this event Yankee imperialism, which principally dominates Peru, assumed direct control of the counter-subversive war, which is being carried out according to their strategy of “low intensity warfare.”

Some thought that it was great defeat when in September 1992 the reactionaries, under the direction of their master Yankee imperialism and with the collaboration of the revisionist capitulators of the ROL, succeeded in arresting Chairman Gonzalo and some leaders of the Party. But Chairman Gonzalo himself uncompromisingly established, in his masterful speech which continues to shine victoriously and powerfully before the world, that this was no more than a bend in the road, a bend in the long road which we must traverse until the final victory. The reaction, impotent in the face of the advance of the People’s War, tried to utilize the fact that they had Chairman Gonzalo, and in their zeal to stop the People’s War launched a sinister hoax with which they tried to imply that Chairman Gonzalo was the author of some so-called “peace letters,” in which he supposedly was calling for the laying down of arms and to struggle for a peace accord. This dark hoax was immediately rejected by the Party and all the organizations tied to it. But in order to put this sinister plan in practice they received the solicitous help of the wretched revisionists and capitulators of the ROL, who were also interested in stopping the advance of the People’s War. They worked hand in hand with their masters, imperialism and reaction, and even became informers, thus propitiating the arrest of valuable leaders, cadre, militants, combatants and masses, many of whom where assassinated as soon as they were arrested.

All of this occurred simultaneously with the launching of massive campaigns of “encirclement and annihilation” against the Support Bases by the reactionary Armed Forces, under the baton of the Yankee imperialists. These campaigns were so intense that the cynical and cunning puppet Fujimori, reaching the height of impudence, began to publically boast that he was making a “little Vietnam” in the Peruvian countryside. Despite this and despite the fact that they used thousands of troops of the Armed Forces backed up by their so-called “rondas,” and despite the fact that they used conventional weapons like artillery, missiles and aerial bombardment from combat aircraft, they suffered an all-around and embarrassing defeat at the hands of the People’s Liberation Army and the masses of the Support Bases. Each and every one of their “encirclement and annihilation” campaigns has been defeated.

All the efforts of the enemy to stop the People’s War have been in vain because the Party has firmly maintained itself on the Basis of Party Unity, on the path to follow, and because it counts with the recognized leadership of Comrade Feliciano who seconds Chairman Gonzalo, who along with other comrades of the Central Committee applying Gonzalo Thought to resolve new problems, are leading the People’s War which continues to burn victoriously and march unstoppably towards the conquest of power throughout the country. In the face of this, the reaction have begun to deploy fascism, but a fascism adapted to combat the People’s War. For this reason the Party has classified the Fujimori regime not only as genocidal and country-selling, because of the planned and systematic murders and massacres carried out against the Peruvian people and because of the selling of the national sovereignty and all the wealth of the country to the imperialists, but also as fascist, because its fascism is being expressed in all spheres: for example its police control, the corporativist militarization of the countryside, etc. But no matter what they do, whatever attempt they make to stop the People’s War will be in vain, since the Party remains firm in the Great Leadership of Chairman Gonzalo and is applying his thought. Let no-one have the least doubt that the conquest of power countrywide will be a reality sooner rather than later, and this will be the ultimate proof of the falsity of everything said by the revisionists and capitulators of the ROL (which is now in disintegration) and their masters, imperialism and reaction. Only the Communist Party of Peru and the People’s War it leads can completely sweep away, with the triumph of the democratic revolution, the three mountains which oppress the Peruvian People: imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism and semi-feudalism, and to immediately continue with the socialist revolution and through successive cultural revolutions, follow our unstoppable march towards the final goal: the always brilliant Communism, which humanity will inevitably reach.

UNITE UNDER MAOISM!

From the point of view of the proletariat, there are favorable developments not only in Peru. In the world today there exists a revolutionary situation of uneven development. That is to say, throughout the globe it can be seen that the proletariat and the oppressed peoples do not want and cannot continue to live as they have up to now, and consequently they clamor for a just society, without exploitation and oppression, without imperialism. The masses want another world, a better world, and this can only be a Communist world. The crisis of imperialism is worldwide: there are wars of different types and in every part of the planet, there is no peace even in Europe itself, the imperialist economy is crumbling, for example the Japanese crisis and the so-called “Asian tigers” have shaked the entrails of the imperialist monster. In reality they have no solution to their problems nor any way out of their crisis. Another very favorable factor for the world proletarian revolution is that revisionism is totally bankrupt throughout the world, the fall of Russian social-imperialism is a very good thing which has occurred, and it should be very clear that what fell was social-imperialism and not socialism, since socialism did not exist in the USSR since revisionism usurped power with the counter-revolutionary coup d’etat of 1956 headed by Khrushchov. As a result of the fall of Russian social-imperialism, their servants and lackeys all over the world, as rats that they are, have abandoned the sinking ship and have tried to save themselves by vilely and monstrously renouncing all they have said and done, and now they no longer even dare to speak of “Marxism-Leninism” (which is a good thing). Many have crossed over to faithfully serve their masters, imperialism and reaction in order to gain a place in the old state. We the Marxists-Leninists-Maoists, Gonzalo Thought, are not, and have no reason to be, ashamed of the fact of being Communists; on the contrary, we are very proud of being that, and in this year which marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Communist Manifesto, we reaffirm ourselves in that this is the program of all the Communists, and it will be so until Communism.

In reality what we are living through is a great disorder under heaven, at a time when we find ourselves in the third and final stage of the world proletarian revolution, the Strategic Offensive in which a new, great wave of the world proletarian revolution is unfolding. We can see how revolution as the principal tendency is becoming more and more clear, we can see how it is advancing in the Third World which is the base of the world revolution: the People’s War in Peru, the People’s War in Nepal, the armed struggles in Turkey, India, etc. are undeniable signs that it is so. For these reasons what is needed now is that the Communist Parties of the world militarize and put Maoism as the command and guide, because by applying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, as the new, third and superior stage of Marxism as Chairman Gonzalo has established, all problems can and will be solved and all sorts of miracles are and will be possible.

The Communists of the world have always struggled and continue to struggle to unite and to serve the achievement of their unalterable goal, a Communist society. Today the Parties and Communist organizations of the world are becoming grouped in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), which is an international organization which serves and works for the reconstitution of the Communist International. The Communist Party of Peru is a member of RIM and considers it to be a step forward towards the reunification of the Communists of the world, and will continue to be so as long as it upholds and follows a just and correct ideological and political line. We reaffirm ourselves on what was established about RIM by Chairman Gonzalo and the Communist Party of Peru in the Basis of Party Unity and other Party documents, including what they say about the problems RIM faces on various levels, the majority of which are problems of development; but if they are not justly and correctly handled they can result in phenomena of disarticulation which are worrisome. With respect to the Committee of the RIM, the Party has also indicated the problems which it faces and the responsibility it has, as well as that it is going to account for the errors it has committed.

Thus, on this May 1st we are full of optimism and joy because the People’s War continues to advance unstoppably, today surpassing the bend in the road which meant the arrest of Chairman Gonzalo, the country-wide conquest of power which approaches closer and closer. Since the month of March the Communist Party of Peru has initiated a campaign which is guided by the slogan, “Unite the people against the fascist, genocidal, country-selling dictatorship, developing more People’s War!,” which forms part of the Sixth and penultimate Military Plan.

Once more we reaffirm ourselves in that today, revolution is the principal tendency in the world and that Maoism is marching unstoppably to command and guide the New Great Wave of the World Proletarian Revolution.