Peru
Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (PCP M-L)
The party is in a difficult situation coming out of an ebb, so it should make greater efforts to move forward. 17 years after the death of our main leader we must face the onslaught of the remnants of opportunism that our comrade Saturnino Paredes (SP) also suffered, from an anti-Party clique that was dedicated to cause confusion in our ranks with unjustified "expulsions" and dedicated to liquidate organizations, both the political and mass organizations. Also its practical activity is aimed at strengthening an opportunist party, Patria Roja [Red Fatherland] that is dedicated solely to implementing all agreements of this opportunist organization.
It is time to promote the broadest patriotic unity, taking as its basis the defense of our sovereignty, the self-determination of the peoples, the defense of communal territories, the defense of schools and public health care, solidarity with all the peoples of the world who are struggling for national liberation and socialism.
The CC of the Party is striving to maintain the organization based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism and reorganizing the mass work, which for a long time has been guided by revisionism and opportunism. We are few but based on the firmness of our principles we have been able to overcome both internal problems, as well as confronting the opportunism of organizations that call themselves revolutionary but only plunge the masses into lethargy. Their main activity is to welcome the administration of the governments in office that are deepening the policies of imperialism to plunder our lands and accentuate the current system of oppression and exploitation. In this framework, we have held several plenums, the most important of which was held on October 7 for the 84th anniversary of the foundation of the party by José Carlos Mariategui on October 7, 1928.
Confronting colonialism
The imperialist policy of "globalization" is geared toward total domination of the planet.
The empire is promoting a uniform legal framework in all countries that are subjected to it. Peru's constitutional framework is almost the same as that of Chile and Colombia. In the case of Ecuador, with the victory of Rafael Correa they are now rubbing their hands to do away with the progressive and patriotic constitution approved five years ago by the Ecuadorian people. Correa has already stated that he will change the constitution to carry out the projects that are pending such as the handing over of natural resources, the criminalization of social struggles, the privatization of education, among others.
In Peru these elements have already been developed by Fujimori 20 years ago, with a constitution that put an end to the legal loopholes allowed by the 1979 Constitution, which was drafted under the pressure of the masses, with important participation of party cadres such as comrade Saturnino Paredes. For example, this Constitution did not permit the reduction or seizure of communal lands by expressly prohibiting the communal territories registered in public records from being violated, seized or alienated. This legal regulation protected the people from having their lands confiscated by the so-called Contract Law created under the Belaunde government from 1980-85, but which had an obstacle in the 1979 constitution. It could only be repealed by calling another constituent assembly, as provided in Article 307. This was only changed by the coup carried out by Fujimori against his own regime on April 5, 1992, which met no popular resistance because the people were subjected to Shining Path and the State.
Fujimori's 1993 constitution opens the way for the privatization of education, health care and social security, which are gradually passing into private hands with little-known mechanisms that are already given, such as is the municipalization of education, cutbacks in job security and economic benefits for teachers of 30% for preparing classes that have been cancelled. "Job security" is no longer applicable because we are in an "age of labor flexibility" (this is what the Ecuadorian people have to expect with the announced constitutional reform) just as the benefit of 30% for class preparation is very "expensive" since the national budget according to "modernity" is oriented toward payment of the external debt, going to the extreme to budget for education even less than half of what the UN itself establishes. This is due to the appropriation by imperialism of the international reserves which have been converted from gold to dollars. This game has allowed the empire to keep the gold and fill Peru’s reserves with paper that is not backed up, in dollars, so that the rising price of gold in recent decades and the decrease in the price of dollars has resulted in Peru’s losing more than 150 thousand million dollars in reserves, equivalent to 500% of Peru’s total external debt, reflecting the colonial treatment of the economy. Thus a poor country enriches imperialism due to the treachery of its rulers. Not content with this, they have criminally plundered our resources of gold, silver, copper and gas for which they have designed legal measures complementary to Fujimori’s constitution, such as Toledo’s decrees to "encourage private investment in agriculture," the signing of the Free Trade Agreement with the United States, which supersedes the national interest and violates the constitutional order, the 102 legislative decrees of APRA [American Popular Revolutionary Alliance] that allow concessions for almost the whole national territory and that criminalize the protest of Peruvians who have raised their voices in protest against this. The State has the authority to deploy the armed forces, whose main task is to ensure territorial integrity, to intervene and reestablish order groups by acting against "hostile groups that express violence" that may alter the internal order (Legislative Decree #1095).
Currently Ollanta Humala is in charge of building the fourth floor of Fujimorism, with legislative proposals that once approved would allow entry by the armed forces and police onto college campuses without consultation with the university assembly, in violation of university autonomy, to silence the student movement, so that progressive forces working in the universities could not involve the students in the nation's problems. They argue that the universities are hotbeds for training of terrorists, so that the struggles taken up by the students for the defense of free education, for the increase in the budget for education and research, are discredited by the groups in power who want to privatize the Peruvian university and that see in the government of Ollanta an ally to enact fascist laws. On the other hand he has been responsible for promulgating new laws to confuse the peasant movement, such as the "law of prior consultation." This is not what its name says, but quite the contrary since it does not allow the communities to democratically express their position on conceding their territory, as provided by agreement 169 of the ILO [International Labor Organization] but merely reflects the opinion of a few members of the communal territories, generally citizens who have been previously trained to say yes or yes to the concession. And if it is still not approved then the law allows for the indefinite postponement of the referendum until the concession is approved; during that time "sensitivity workshops" are held in which the government officials offer incentives to the members of the communal territories such as roads, schools, health clinics, etc. with the blackmail that if these "offers" are not approved then they will be considered enemies of progress, saboteurs and are even branded as "terrorists." By this dirty maneuver they won over certain mayors with bribes that range from 10 to 15% of the volume of the works to be carried out. That is, if a district is allocated 10 million there will automatically be a bribe of a million or a million and a half to fill the mayor's pocket. Naturally the story does not end there, since the mayors who accept or receive the bribes will not be investigated, while those who do not accept them are automatically investigated by the agencies of state control to seek the reason for the non-acceptance and provoke their resignation.
The role of Shining Path
Shining Path tried to make abroad believe that they are "victims of persecution" by the Peruvian authorities. The truth is that here no one cares about them, but they continue to do their job of betraying and discrediting the popular movement with their provocations. The press reports that all the struggles of the workers, peasants, teachers and students are led by the "Shining Path" or their arm called "Movadef" [Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights] which is totally false. Unfortunately this confuses in particular certain intellectual sectors at the same time as it creates justification to crack down with fire and sword on any protests to defend the communal territories. The terrorists have nothing to do with these struggles, but reaction achieved its goal since the press at their service publishes the names of our peasant leaders, linking them to terrorism.
The truth is that Shining Path was created by the CIA to disrupt the organization of the Peruvian people, particularly of the peasantry and their communities. It is no accident that after Shining Path assassinated communal leaders and the army completed the massacres, killing the survivors. The communities were depopulated and immediately after the mining companies appeared in order to exploit the minerals without any opposition because the people who survived were forced to flee to the cities, mainly to the capital.
Shining Path took charge of discrediting the name of the Communist Party and Marxism, carrying out an open propaganda that is subliminally anti-Marxist so that even today the masses are afraid to deal with issues such as scientific socialism and the class struggle for fear of being accused of being "terrorists." This means that once the law of denial is approved, fear would overtake the masses even more; this is a direct service of Shining Path to the empire. It is in charge of assassinating the main popular leaders, including many of our cadres: Misael Oré, Lorenzo Chuchón, Lorenzo Galindo, Ismael Palomino, Pablo Villanueva, Julio Gutierrez, Raul Quispe, all party members who were victims of the cowardly attack by this pseudo-revolutionary group. Shining Path did not forgive their ideological clarity and faithfulness to their Marxist-Leninist principles, as our comrades always demarcated themselves from these counter-revolutionary positions that claimed to make the revolution for the people by annihilating the people, adopting adventurist, despotic and dogmatic positions, defending ideast that never contributed nor made a theoretical contribution to Marxism, who played and still play with the enthusiasm of the youth to fulfill the work commissioned by the drug trade and the empire to discredit and tarnish Marxism. In this way, they leave the working masses leaderless, so that the government can follow the guidelines of the IMF and the World Bank, lashing out against the rights of the workers, peasants and students, privatizing health care and education, selling off our resources and handing over our country to concessions.
The repression of the government and the selective assassination of the main popular leaders, executed by the Narco-Terrorist Organization Shining Path, forced our comrades and our people into an ebb that we believe has come to an end, thanks to the firmness of the ideology of the proletariat and the conscious commitment of our comrades, who never rejected the universal truths of Marxism-Leninism as a supreme science of the interests of the working class, of the class struggle, of the use of revolutionary violence, of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The mining concessions
Peru’s whole territory has been handed over to the mining interests.
There are whole provinces that have been handed over, in which not even agricultural, urban and urban expansion areas are respected. Thus these provinces are doomed to disappear. For example San Pablo Province in Cajamarca has been handed over 100% including its 204 lakes, the district of Cañaris has been handed over 96% so that the life of the population, its agriculture and water have practically disappeared. In the jungle over 30 million hectares have been handed over to petroleum, gas, hydro-electric and other enterprises. The communities are being polluted and if the villagers object then they are tried for terrorism. Now the Ollanta government has handed over facilities to foreign enterprises to carry out the process away from areas of origin of the villagers in order to ensure the legal defeat of the villagers.
Peru has become a country under siege, the police have orders to shoot to kill and when assassinations take place no one can do anything because they threaten to bring them to trial or simply send in assassins to destroy or threaten them. The killings have become the usual way to impose mining, gas, hydro-electric, construction and other concessions.
The perspective of party organization
The picture we see is the result of the ebb to which our party was called, a product of the repression of the Fujimori government and the counter-revolutionary actions of the Shining Path. The lack of a Marxist-Leninist party has meant that the broad popular sectors, the working class and peasantry do not have a correct leadership; that is why the party and its CC assume the responsibility for organizing the party to assume its historic task of leading the masses under the principles of Marxism-Leninism, so that with their leadership and their own efforts they can lead the working class, peasantry and the broad popular sectors to their national and social emancipation. The correctness of our line allows for bringing the progressive and patriotic sectors closer together, from which the future Marxist-Leninist cadres will emerge, with training in the party schools that are being promoted even with limitations but each time more seriously. Above all to attract the revolutionary youth.
Towards the sixth National Party Congress
This is the challenge ahead. We must develop it in order to complete this stage and begin a new stage of growth and strengthening of the party.
There is no new "way." We will continue with Marxism-Leninism
The NGOs and opportunist groups such as Patria Roja [Red Fatherland] or Trotskyites are trying to advocate the end of Marxism Leninism; they line up around socialism of the 21st century. The class struggle remains valid not by decree but because it is a social law independent of one’s will.
Our task is to strengthen and study Marxism-Leninism, the only guarantee to grow and work seriously for the world proletarian revolution.
Let us persist in the task of organizing the working class under Marxism-Leninism.
Our solidarity with Colombian and European proletariat and all the peoples of the planet who dare to rise up against imperialism
Long live invincible Marxism-Leninism
Peru, February of 2013
Click here to return to the Index, U&S 26