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Documents from the Communist Party of Peru
Peru Communist Party
FUNDAMENTAL DOCUMENTS
I. ON MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM
In the furnace of class struggle, the ideology of the international
proletariat emerged as Marxism, afterwards developed into
Marxism-Leninism and later Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Therefore, the scientific ideology of the proletariat, all-powerful
because it is true, has three stages or landmarks in its dialectical
process of development: 1) Marxism, 2) Leninism, and 3) Maoism.
These three stages are part of the same unity which began with the
Communist Manifesto one hundred and forty years ago, with the
heroic epic of the class struggle, in fierce and fruitful two-line
struggles within the communist parties themselves and in the titanic
work of thought and action that only the working class could
generate. Today, three unfading lights are outstanding: Marx,
Lenin, and Mao Tse-tung who, through three grand leaps have
armed us with the invincible ideology of Marxism-Leninism-
Maoism, which today is principally Maoism.
Nevertheless, while Marxism-Leninism has obtained an
acknowledgment of its universal validity, Maoism is not completely
acknowledged as the third stage. Some simply deny its condition as
such, while others only accept it as "Mao Tse-tung Thought." In
essence, both positions, with the obvious differences between them,
deny the general development of Marxism made by Chairman Mao
Tse-tung. The denial of the "ism" character of Maoism denies its
universal validity and, consequently, its condition as the third, new,
and superior stage of the ideology of the international proletariat:
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, that we uphold,
defend, and apply.
As an INTRODUCTION, in order to better understand Maoism and
the necessity to struggle for it, let us remember Lenin. He taught us
that as the revolution advanced to the East it expressed specific
conditions that, while they did not negate principles or laws, were
new situations that Marxism could not ignore, upon the risk of
putting the revolution in danger of a defeat. Notwithstanding the
uproar against what is new by pedantic and bookish intellectuals,
who are stuffed with liberalism and false Marxism, the only just
and correct thing to do is to apply Marxism to the concrete
conditions and to solve the new situations and problems that every
revolution necessarily faces. In the face of the horrified and
pharisaic "defenses of the ideology, the class, and of the people"
that revisionists, opportunists and renegades proclaim, or the
furious attacks against Marxism by brutalized academicians and
hacks of the old order who are debased by the rotten bourgeois
ideology and blindly defend the old society on which they are
parasites. Lenin also said clearly that the revolution in the East
would present new and great surprises to the greater amazement of
the worshipers of following only the well-trodden paths who are
incapable of seeing the new; and, as we all know, he trusted the
Eastern comrades to resolve the problems that Marxism had not yet
resolved.
Furthermore, we must keep well in mind that when Comrade Stalin
justly and correctly stated that we had entered the stage of
Leninism as the development of Marxism, there was also
opposition by those who rend their garments in a supposed defense
of Marxism. There were also those who said that Leninism was
only applicable to the backward countries. But, in the midst of
struggle, practice has consecrated Leninism as a great development
of Marxism, and thus the proletarian ideology shone victoriously in
the face of the world as Marxism-Leninism.
Today, Maoism faces similar situations. All new things, like
Marxism, have always advanced through struggle, and similarly,
Maoism will impose itself and be acknowledged.
As for the CONTEXT in which Chairman Mao Tse-tung developed
and Maoism was forged, on an international level it was on the
basis of imperialism, world wars, the international proletarian
movement, the national liberation movement, the struggle between
Marxism and revisionism, and the restoration of capitalism in the
USSR. Three big historical landmarks must be emphasized in the
present century: first, the October Revolution of 1917, which
opened the era of the world proletarian revolution; second, the
triumph of the Chinese Revolution, in 1949, which changed the
correlation of forces in favor of socialism; and third, the great
proletarian cultural revolution, which began in 1966 as the
continuation of the revolution under the proletarian dictatorship in
order to maintain the revolutionary course towards Communism. It
is enough to emphasize that Chairman Mao led two of these
glorious historical feats.
In China, as the center of world revolution, Maoism was concretely
expressed within the most complex convergence of contradictions,
and the intense and ruthless class struggle which was marked by the
pretensions of the imperialist powers of tearing and dividing up
China after the collapse of the Manchurian Empire (1911), the anti-
imperialist movement of 1919, the revolts of the great peasant
masses, the twenty-two years of armed struggle of the democratic
revolution, the great contest for the building and development of
socialism and the ten years of revolutionary storms for carrying
forward the Cultural Revolution, as well as the sharpest two-line
struggle within the Communist Party of China, especially against
revisionism. All this was framed within the international situation
described above. It is out of this aggregate of historical deeds that
we have to extract four events of extraordinary importance: The
founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1921; the
Autumn Harvest uprising which initiated the path from the
countryside to the city, in 1925; the founding of the People's
Republic, 1949; and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
(GPCR), from 1966-1976; in all of which Chairman Mao was a
protagonist and the acknowledged leader of the Chinese
Revolution.
We can say from Chairman Mao Tse-tung's biography that he was
born on December 26th 1893, opening his eyes to an agitated world
scorched by the flames of war; son of peasants, he was seven years
old when "Boxer Rebellions" began; a student at a Teachers'
Training College, he was in his eighteenth year when the empire
collapsed and he enlisted himself as a soldier, later to become a
great organizer of peasants and of the youth in Hunan, his native
province. Founder of the Communist Party and of the Red Army of
workers and peasants, he established the path of surrounding the
cities from the countryside developing People's War as the military
theory of the proletariat. He was the theoretician of New
Democracy and founder of the People's Republic; a promoter of the
Great Leap Forward and of the development of socialism; the leader
of the struggle against the contemporary revisionism of Khrushchev
and his henchmen, leader and head of the Great Proletarian
Cultural Revolution. These are landmarks of a life devoted
thoroughly and solely to the revolution. The proletariat has seen
three gigantic triumphs in this century: Two of them belong to
Chairman Mao, and if one is glory enough, two are even more.
On the CONTENT of Maoism, of its substance, we must point out
the following basic issues:
1. Theory. Marxism has three parts: Marxist philosophy, Marxist
political economy, and scientific socialism. The development of all
these three components gives rise to a great qualitative leap of
Marxism as a whole, as a unity on a superior level, which implies a
new stage. Consequently, the essential thing is to show that
Chairman Mao, as can be seen in theory and practice, has generated
such a great qualitative leap. Let us highlight this with the
following points:
In Marxist philosophy he developed the essence of dialectics, the
law of contradiction, establishing it as the only fundamental law;
and besides his profound dialectical understanding of the theory of
knowledge, whose center are the two leaps that make up its law
(from practice to knowledge and vice versa, but with knowledge to
practice being the main one). We emphasize that he masterfully
applied the law of contradiction in politics; and moreover he
brought philosophy to the masses of people, fulfilling the task that
Marx left.
In Marxist political economy, Chairman Mao applied dialectics to
analyze the relationship between the base and superstructure, and,
continuing the struggle of Marxism-Leninism against the
revisionist thesis of the "productive forces", he concluded that the
superstructure, consciousness, can modify the base, and that with
political power the productive forces can be developed. By
developing the Leninist idea that politics is the concentrated
expression of economics, he established that politics must be in
command, (applicable on all levels) and that political work is the
life-line of economic work; which takes us to the true handling of
political economy, not just a simple economic policy.
Despite its importance, an issue which is often sidestepped,
especially by those who face democratic revolutions, is the Maoist
thesis of bureaucratic capitalism; that is, the capitalism which is
being developed in the oppressed nations by imperialism along
with different degrees of underlying feudalism, or even pre-feudal
stages. This is a vital problem, mainly in Asia, Africa and Latin
America, since a good revolutionary leadership derives from its
understanding, especially when the confiscation of bureaucratic
capital forms the economic basis for carrying forward the socialist
revolution as the second stage.
But the main thing is that Chairman Mao Tse-tung has developed
the political economy of socialism. Of the utmost importance is his
criticism of socialist construction in the Soviet Union, as well as
his theses on how to develop socialism in China: Taking
agriculture as the base and industry as the leading economic force,
promoting industrialization guided by the relationship between
heavy industry, light industry and agriculture; taking heavy industry
as the center of economic construction and simultaneously paying
full attention to light industry and agriculture. The Great Leap
Forward and the conditions for its execution should be highlighted:
One, the political line that gives it a just and correct course; two,
small, medium, and large organizational forms in a greater to lesser
quantity, respectively; three, a great drive, a gigantic effort of the
masses of people in order to put it in motion and to take it through
to success, a leap forward whose results are valued more for the
new process set in motion and its historical perspective than its
immediate achievements, and its linkage with agricultural
collectivization and the people's communes. Finally, we must bear
well in mind his teachings on the objectivity and the subjectivity in
understanding and handling the laws of socialism, that because the
few decades of socialism have not permitted it to see its complete
development, and therefore a better understanding of its laws and
its specification, and principally the relationship that exists
between revolution and the economic process, embodied in the
slogan "grasp revolution and promote production". Despite its
transcendental importance, this development of Marxist political
economy has received scant attention.
In scientific socialism, Chairman Mao further developed the theory
of social classes analyzing them on economic, political, and
ideological planes. He upheld revolutionary violence as a universal
law without any exception whatsoever; revolution as a violent
displacement of one class by another, thus establishing the great
thesis that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun". He
resolved the question of the conquest of political power in the
oppressed nations through the path of surrounding the cities from
the countryside, establishing its general laws. He defined and
developed the theory of the class struggle within socialism in which
he brilliantly demonstrated that the antagonistic struggle between
the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, between the socialist road and
the capitalist road, and between socialism and capitalism continues.
That in socialism it was not concretely determined who would
defeat whom, that it was a problem whose solution demands time,
the unfolding of a process of restoration and counter-restoration, in
order for the proletariat to strongly hold political power definitely
through the proletarian dictatorship; and, finally and principally,
the grandiose solution of historical transcendence, the Great
Proletarian Cultural Revolution as the continuation of the socialist
revolution under the proletarian dictatorship.
These basic questions, simply and plainly stated but known and
undeniable, show the Chairman's development of the integral parts
of Marxism, and the evident raising of Marxism-Leninism to a new,
third and superior stage: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally
Maoism.
Continuing with this brief synthesis, let us look at other specific
points which, although deriving from the above, should be
considered even if only enumeratively, to emphasize and pay due
attention to them.
2. The New Democratic Revolution. Firstly, it is a development of
the Marxist theory of the State, establishing three types of
dictatorships:
1) Dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, in the old bourgeois
democracies like the United States, a type in which the
dictatorships of the oppressed nations such as the Latin American
ones can be assimilated;
2) proletarian dictatorships, like the ones in the Soviet Union or in
China before the usurpation of power by the revisionists; and
3) New Democracy, as a joint dictatorship based on the worker-
peasant alliance, led by the proletariat headed up by the Communist
Party, which was formed in China during its democratic revolution,
and which is concretely expressed in Per? today through the
People's Committees, in the base areas and in the People's Republic
of New Democracy in formation. It is fundamental to emphasize,
within this development of the theory of the state, the key
differentiation between a state system as a dictatorship of a class or
classes that hold political power, which is principal, and a system
of government, which is understood as an organization for the
exercise of political power.
On the other hand, New Democracy, one of the extraordinary
developments made by Chairman Mao, masterfully materializes for
us the bourgeois revolution of a new type, which only the
proletariat can lead. In synthesis, it is the democratic revolution
within the new era of world proletarian revolution in which we
evolve. The New Democratic Revolution implies a new economy, a
new politics, and a new culture, obviously overthrowing the old
order and upholding the new one with arms, the only way to
transform the world.
Finally, it is important to emphasize that New Democracy is a
democratic revolution. Although it mainly fulfills the democratic
tasks, it also complementarily advances in some socialist tasks, so
that the question of two stages, democratic and socialist, which
corresponds to countries like ours, is thoroughly solved by
guaranteeing that once the democratic stage is concluded, it will be
continued as a socialist revolution, without any intermissions or
interruptions.
3. The three instruments. The problem of the construction of the
instruments of the revolution presents the Party with the problem of
understanding the interrelationship between the Party, the army and
the united front; and to understand and correctly handle the
interconnected construction of the three instruments in the midst of
war or in the defense of the new State based on the power of the
armed people, expressing in that way a just and correct task of
leadership. Their construction is guided by the principle that a just
and correct ideological line decides everything, and it is on this
ideological-political basis that the organizational construction is
simultaneously developed in the midst of the struggle between the
proletarian line and the bourgeois line and within the storm of the
class struggle, mainly in war, as the principal form of current or
potential struggle.
Regarding the Party, Chairman Mao starts from the necessity of the
Communist Party, a new type of party, a party of the proletariat.
Today, we would say a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Party: a party
whose aim is to conquer political power and to defend it, and
therefore it is inextricably bound to people's war in order to initiate
it, develop it or wage it to defend itself. A party sustained by the
masses of people, be it by way of people's war which is a war of the
masses, or by the united front which, being a front of classes, is
based on the broad masses. The Party develops and changes itself
according to the stages of the revolution and the periods that these
stages may have. The driving of its development is the contradiction
which materializes in its heart as the two-line struggle, the
proletarian line and the bourgeois or in general non-proletarian
line, which is in essence and mainly a struggle against revisionism.
This leads to the decisive importance of ideology in the life of the
party and to the development of rectification campaigns that serve a
greater adjustment of all the systems of party organizations and the
membership to the just and correct ideological and political lines,
guaranteeing the predominance of the proletarian line and keeping
the Party leadership in its iron grip. The Party serves the
establishment of political power for the proletariat as the leading
class of the New Democracy, and principally for the establishment,
strengthening and development of the proletarian dictatorship, and
through cultural revolutions the conquest of the great, final goal:
Communism. Because of this, the Party must lead everything in an
all-around way.
The revolutionary army is of a new type. It is an army for the
fulfillment of the political tasks that the Party establishes in
accordance with the interests of the proletariat and the people. This
characteristic is concretely expressed in three tasks: To combat, to
produce in order to pose no parasitical burden, and to mobilize the
masses. It is an army based on the political development of the
proletariat's ideology, from Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (today),
and from the general political line as well as the military one that
the Party may establish. It is an army based on people and not on
weapons, an army that surged from the masses with whom it has
always been linked, serving them wholeheartedly, which allows it
to move among the people like fish in the water. Without a people's
army the people have nothing, said Chairman Mao, at the same time
he taught us the necessity of the Party's absolute leadership over the
army and his great principle: The Party commands the gun and we
will never permit it to be otherwise. Besides having thoroughly
established the principles and norms for the construction of a new
type of army, the Chairman himself called for preventing the use of
the army for the restoration of capitalism by usurping the
leadership through a counterrevolutionary coup d'etat and,
developing Lenin's thesis on the people's militia, he carried out
farther than anyone the general policy of arming the people, thus
opening a breach and pointing out the path towards the armed sea
of masses that will lead us to the definite emancipation of the
people and the proletariat.
It was Chairman Mao who for the first time developed a complete
theory on the united front and established its laws. A front of social
classes based on the worker-peasant alliance as a guarantee of the
proletariat's hegemony in the revolution, which is led by the
proletariat represented by the Communist Party; in synthesis, a
united front under the leadership of the Communist Party, a united
front for the people's war, for the revolution, for the conquest of
power for the proletariat and the people. In synthesis, the united
front is the grouping of the revolutionary forces against the
counter-revolutionary forces in order to wage the struggle between
revolution and counter-revolution mainly through the armed
people's war. The united front, obviously, is not the same in every
stage of the revolution and, furthermore, it has its specifications
according to the various historical periods of each stage; likewise,
the united front in a concrete revolution does not equal the one on a
world level, although both follow the same general laws. Apart
from this, it is important to emphasize the relation between the
front and the State that Chairman Mao established when the war of
resistance against Japan was evolving, setting forth that the united
front is a form of joint dictatorship, a question that deserves to be
especially studied by those who face democratic revolutions.
4. The People's War is the military theory of the international
proletariat; in it are summarized, for the first time in a systematic
and complete form, the theoretical and practical experience of the
struggles, military actions, and wars waged by the proletariat, and
the prolonged experience of the people's armed struggle and
especially of the incessant wars in China. It is with Chairman Mao
that the proletariat attains its military theory; nevertheless, there is
much confusion and misunderstanding on this issue. And much of
it springs from how the People's War in China is seen. Generally, it
is considered derisively and contemptuously simply as a guerrilla
war; this alone denotes a lack of understanding. Chairman Mao
pointed out that guerrilla warfare achieves a strategic feature; but
due to its essential fluidity, the development of guerrilla warfare is
not understood as it exists, how it develops mobility, a war of
movements, of positions, how it unfolds great plans of the strategic
offensive and the seizure of small, mid-sized, and big cities, with
millions of inhabitants, combining the attack from outside with the
insurrection from within. Thus, in conclusion, the four periods of
the Chinese revolution, and mainly from the agrarian war until the
people's war of liberation, considering the anti-Japanese war of
resistance between both, shows the various aspects and
complexities of the revolutionary war waged during more than
twenty years amidst a huge population and an immense
mobilization and participation of the masses. In that war there are
examples of every kind; and what is principal has been
extraordinarily studied and its principles, laws, strategy, tactics,
rules, etc. masterfully established. It is, therefore, in this fabulous
crucible and on what was established by Marxism-Leninism that
Chairman Mao developed the military theory of the proletariat: The
People's War.
We must fully bear in mind that subsequently, Chairman Mao
himself, aware of the existence of atomic bombs and missiles and
with China already having them, sustained and developed people's
war in order to wage it under the new conditions of atomic weapons
and of war against powers and super-powers. In synthesis, people's
war is the weapon of the proletariat and of the people, even to
confront atomic wars.
A key and decisive question is the understanding of the universal
validity of people's war and its subsequent application taking into
account the different types of revolution and the specific conditions
of each revolution. To clarify this key issue it is important to
consider that no insurrection like that of Petrograd, the anti-fascist
resistance, or the European guerrilla movements in the Second
World War have been repeated, as well as considering the armed
struggles that are presently being waged in Europe. In the final
analysis, the October Revolution was not only an insurrection but a
revolutionary war that lasted for several years. Consequently, in the
imperialist countries the revolution can only be conceived as a
revolutionary war which today is simply people's war.
Finally, today more than ever, we Communists and revolutionaries,
the proletariat and the people, need to forge ourselves in: "Yes. We
are adherents to the theory of the omnipotence of the revolutionary
war. That it is not bad thing; it is good thing. It is Marxist"; which
means adhering to the invincibility of people's war.
5. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in a historical
perspective is the most transcendental development of Marxism-
Leninism made by Chairman Mao; it is the solution to the great
pending problem of the continuation of the revolution under the
proletarian dictatorship: "It represents a more profound and wider
new stage in the development of the socialist revolution in our
country."
What was the situation that presented itself? As stated in the
Decision of the Communist Party of China on the Great Proletarian
Cultural Revolution states: "Although overthrown, the bourgeoisie
still tries to avail itself of the old ideas, culture, habits and ways of
the exploiting classes in order to corrupt the masses and to conquer
the minds of the people in its endeavors to restore its power. The
proletariat must do exactly the opposite: It must deal merciless,
frontal blows to all the challenges by the bourgeoisie in the
ideological arena and change the spiritual composition of the whole
society using its own new ideas, culture, habits and ways. Our
present aim is to crush, through struggle, those who occupy leading
posts and follow the capitalist road, to criticize and repudiate the
reactionary bourgeois 'authorities' in the academic fields, to
criticize and repudiate the ideology of the bourgeoisie and other
exploiting classes, and to transform education, literature, and art
and the rest of areas of the superstructure that do not correspond to
the economic base of socialism, in order to facilitate the
consolidation and the development of the socialist system."
It was in these conditions that the most Earth-shaking political
process and the greatest mass mobilization the world has ever seen
broke out, and whose objectives were thus outlined by Chairman
Mao: "The present GPCR is completely necessary and very timely
to consolidate the proletarian dictatorship, to prevent the
restoration of capitalism, and to build socialism."
We also emphasize two questions:
1) The GPCR implies a landmark in the development of the
proletarian dictatorship towards the proletariat's securing political
power, concretely expressed in the Revolutionary Committees; and
2) The restoration of capitalism in China after the 1976 counter-
revolutionary coup is not a negation of the GPCR but is plainly
part of the contention between restoration and counter-restoration,
and, on the contrary, it shows us the transcendental historical
importance of the GPCR in the inexorable march of mankind
towards Communism.
6. World Revolution. Chairman Mao emphasizes the importance of
the world revolution as a unity, on the basis that revolution is the
main trend while the decomposition of imperialism is greater each
day, and the role played by the masses grows more immense each
year, masses that make and shall make their transforming and
unstoppable strength be felt, and reiterates the great truth: Either
we all reach Communism or nobody does. Within this specific
perspective in the era of imperialism, the great historical moment of
the "next 50 to 100 years", and within this context the opening
period of struggle against Yankee imperialism and Soviet social-
imperialism, paper tigers that contend for hegemony and threaten
the world with an atomic war, in the face of which, firstly we must
condemn it, and secondly, we must prepare ourselves beforehand in
order to oppose it with people's war and make the revolution. On
the other hand, starting from the historical importance of the
oppressed nations and, furthermore, from their perspective both in
the economic and political relationships that are evolving on
account of the process of decomposition of imperialism, Chairman
Mao stated his thesis that "three worlds delineate themselves". All
of which leads to the necessity of developing the strategy and
tactics of world revolution. Regrettably, we know little or almost
nothing about Chairman Mao's writings and statements on these
transcendental questions; nevertheless, the very little that is known
shows the grand perspectives which he watched closely and the
great outlines that we must follow in order to understand and serve
the proletarian world revolution
7. Superstructure, ideology, culture, and education. These and other
related issues have been subtly and deeply studied by Chairman
Mao. For that reason, this is also another basic question that
deserves attention.
In conclusion, the contents seen in these fundamental issues show
clearly to whoever wants to see and understand that we have,
therefore, a new, third, and superior stage of Marxism: Maoism;
and that to be a Marxist in these days demands to be a Marxist-
Leninist-Maoist and mainly Maoist.
All that has been explained in the contents leads us to two
questions:
What is fundamental in Maoism? Political Power is fundamental in
Maoism. Political power for the proletariat, power for the
dictatorship of the proletariat, power based on an armed force led
by the Communist Party. More explicitly:
1) Political power under the leadership of the proletariat in the
democratic revolution;
2) Political power for the dictatorship of the proletariat in the
socialist and cultural revolutions;
3) Political power based on an armed force led by the Communist
Party, conquered and defended through people's war.
And, what is Maoism? Maoism is the elevation of Marxism-
Leninism to a new, third, and superior stage in the struggle for
proletarian leadership of the democratic revolution, the
development of the construction of socialism and the continuation
of the revolution under the proletarian dictatorship as a proletarian
cultural revolution; when imperialism deepens its decomposition
and revolution has become the main tendency of history, amidst the
most complex and largest wars seen to date and the implacable
struggle against contemporary revisionism.
On the STRUGGLE AROUND MAOISM. Briefly, the struggle in
China for establishing Mao Tse-tung Thought began in 1935 at the
Tsunyi Meeting, when Chairman Mao assumed the leadership of
the Communist Party of China. In 1945 the VII Congress agreed
that the CPC was guided by Marxism-Leninism Mao Tse-tung
Thought, a specification suppressed by the VIII Congress, since a
rightist line prevailed in it. The IX Congress in 1969 resumed the
GPCR and ratified that the CPC is guided by Marxism-Leninism-
Mao Tse-tung Thought; that was as far as it advanced.
On an international level, it acquired influence from the 1950s
onwards; but it is with the GPCR that it intensely spread out and
its prestige rose powerfully and Chairman Mao was acknowledged
as the leader of the world revolution and originator of a new stage
in Marxism-Leninism; thus, a great number of Communist Parties
assumed the denomination of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung
Thought. On the world level, Maoism confronted contemporary
revisionism openly unmasking it profoundly and forcefully, and
likewise it did so in the CPC's own ranks, all of which raised the
Chairman's great red banner still more: The new, third, and superior
stage of the ideology of the international proletariat. At present
(1988), Maoism confronts the triple attack of Soviet, Chinese and
Albanian revisionism. But today, even among those who
acknowledge the Chairman's great contributions, including the
development of Marxism, there are some who believe that we are
still in the stage of Marxism-Leninism, and others who only accept
Mao Tse-tung Thought but by no means Maoism.
In this country, obviously, the revisionists who follow the baton of
their diverse masters, Gorbachev, Teng, Alia or Castro have
continuously attacked Maoism; among them one must condemn,
unmask, and implacably combat Del Prado's callous revisionism
and his gang, the so called "Peruvian Communist Party"; the abject
deviousness of the self-proclaimed "Communist Party of Peru,
Patria Roja" who, after raising themselves up as "great Maoists"
became Teng's servants, after having condemned him when he was
defenestrated in 1976, as well as the anti-Maoism of the so called
"Izquierda Unida" (United Left), in whose heart swarmed all the
revisionist and even anti-Marxist positions passed off by false
Marxists and opportunists of many kinds. We must raise Maoism
as a revealing mirror for revisionists in order to combat them
implacably, working for the development of the People's War and
the triumph of the democratic revolution underway, which is an
unavoidable and unrenounceable task of a strategic character.
The Communist Party of Peru, through the fraction led by President
Gonzalo, who propelled its reconstitution, took up Marxism-
Leninism- Mao Tse-tung Thought in 1966; in 1979 the slogan
"Uphold, defend, and apply Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung
Thought!"; in 1981: "Towards Maoism!"; and, in 1982, took
Maoism as an integral part and superior development of the
ideology of the international proletariat: Marxism-Leninism-
Maoism. It is with the People's War that we have understood more
deeply what Maoism implies and we have taken up the solemn
pledge to "Uphold, defend, and apply Marxism-Leninism- Maoism,
principally Maoism!" and to work relentlessly in helping to place it
as leader and guide of the world revolution, the always red and
unfading banner that is the guarantee of triumph for the proletariat,
the oppressed nations, and peoples of the world in their inexorable,
combative march of iron legions towards the golden and always
brilliant goal of Communism.
II. CONCERNING GONZALO THOUGHT
All revolutions, in their process of development, through the
struggle of the proletariat as the leading class and, above all, the
struggle of the Communist Party that raises their unrenounceable
class interests, give rise to a group of leaders and principally one
who represents and leads it, a leader with acknowledged authority
and influence. In our reality this has taken shape, on account of
historical necessity and causality, in President Gonzalo, leader of
the Party and of the revolution.
Moreover, and this is the basis upon which all leadership is formed,
revolutions give rise to a thought that guides them, which is the
result of the application of the universal truth of the ideology of the
international proletariat to the concrete conditions of each
revolution; a guiding thought indispensable to reach victory and to
conquer political power and, moreover, to continue the revolution
and to maintain the course always towards the only, great goal:
Communism; a guiding thought that, arriving at a qualitative leap of
decisive importance for the revolutionary process which it leads,
identifies itself with the name of the one who shaped it
theoretically and practically. In our situation, this phenomenon
specified itself first as guiding thought, then as President Gonzalo's
guiding thought, and later, as Gonzalo Thought; because it is the
President who, creatively applying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to
the concrete conditions of Peruvian reality, has generated it; thus
endowing the Party and the revolution with an indispensable
weapon which is guarantee of victory.
Gonzalo Thought has been forged through long years of intense,
tenacious, and incessant struggle to uphold, defend and apply
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, to retake Mari?tegui's path and to
develop it, to reconstitute the Party and, principally, to initiate,
maintain and develop the People's War in Per? serving the world
revolution, and that Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism
be, in theory and practice, its sole command and guide.
It is of substantive necessity for the party to study Gonzalo Thought
for a more just and correct understanding of the general political
line, and mainly of the military line, aiming at deepening the
understanding of the particularities of the Peruvian revolution, what
is specific and particular that President Gonzalo has masterfully
emphasized. In this way we serve "the great plan to develop base
areas", the development of the People's War and the perspective of
conquering political power countrywide.
We must study Gonzalo Thought, starting from the historical
context that generated it; examine the ideological base which
sustains it; explain its content, more substantially expressed in the
general political line and in the military line which is its center;
aiming at what is fundamental within it, the problem of political
power, of the seizure of power in Per?, which is inextricably linked
to the conquest of power by the proletariat in the whole world; and
we must pay close attention to its forging in the two-line struggle.
In synthesis, these fundamental issues can be dealt with by
applying the following scheme:
I. HISTORICAL CONTEXT.
International context. In relationship to historical events:
1) the development since the Second World War onwards;
2) the powerful national liberation movement and, within it, the
process and triumph of the Chinese Revolution;
3) the Cuban Revolution and its repercussion on Latin America;
4) the great struggle between Marxism and revisionism;
5) the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. But the key point is
to see how, in this great class struggle on the world level, Gonzalo
Thought considers that a third stage of the proletarian ideology
arises: First, as Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung Thought; then
Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought; and later, it is defined
as Maoism, understanding its universal validity; and in this way
reaching Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism, as the
present expression of Marxism.
National context.
1) the postwar Peruvian society and within it the political struggle,
the so called National Democratic Front, the action of APRA,
Odr?a's coup d'etat and the struggle against his Eight Year Rule, the
contest between APRA followers and Communists; and
particularly, the development of bureaucratic capitalism in the
1960s and part of the 1970s and the sharp class struggle that
accompanied it; "Velasquism" and its so-called revolution, the
contention and collusion between the comprador bourgeoisie and
the bureaucratic bourgeoisie (factions of the big bourgeoisie), and
opportunism and mainly revisionism by their supporters;
2) the class struggle in the peasant movement;
3) the process of the working class movement;
4) the intellectual movement;
5) the armed struggle in the country, especially by the MIR
[Movement of the Revolutionary Left] and the ELN [National
Liberation Army] in 1965, as well as their antecedents in Blanco,
Vallejos, and Heraud; and
6) the problem of the Party: How a Party founded on a clear
Marxist-Leninist basis degenerated into a revisionist party, the
need to retake Mari?tegui's path, develop it, and to reconstitute the
Party, the Communist Party of Per? that Mari?tegui himself
founded in 1928, and how through this reconstitution a Marxist-
Leninist-Maoist Party was built. Here it is fundamental how
Gonzalo Thought profoundly understood Peruvian society, and
focused on the crucial problem of bureaucratic capitalism, and saw
the need to reconstitute the Party and to conquer Political Power
and defend it with the People's War.
II. IDEOLOGICAL BASIS.
Without Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought cannot be
conceived, because the latter is the creative application of the
former to our reality. The key question on this point lies in the
understanding of the historical process of the development of the
proletarian ideology, of its three stages shaped in Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism and with Maoism as principal; and, principally,
it is the application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism as a universal
truth to the concrete conditions of the Peruvian revolution; hence
Gonzalo Thought is specifically principal for the Communist Party
of Per? and the revolution it leads.
The guiding thought, having reached a qualitative leap of decisive
importance for the Party and the revolution, has evolved into
Gonzalo Thought, thus stamping a milestone in the Party's life.
III. CONTENTS.
a. Theory. How it understands and applies the three integral parts
of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism; it emphasizes the
importance that Marxism gives to philosophy, the necessity of
forming ourselves in it, and especially its application of the law of
contradiction in the study of every problem, always aiming at
defining the principal aspect and the process of things; in political
economy, the concern about the relations of exploitation, and
especially about bureaucratic capitalism, orienting itself towards
ripening the revolution and the repercussion of the People's War on
the base, as well as paying attention to the economic relations of
imperialism, looking for their political consequences; in scientific
socialism it centers on the People's War and its concrete expression
in the country, since it always has the problem of political power in
mind and, particularly, its shaping and development as a New State.
b. On the contents. The most substantive and developed part of
Gonzalo Thought is found in the Party's general political line; this
thought directly sustains, therefore, the line and its five elements,
with the point of departure being how it understands and maintains
the Programme firmly on course.
c. In Gonzalo Thought we must highlight the remarkable fulfillment
of the demands stated by Chairman Mao: theoretical solidity,
understanding of history, and a good practical handling of politics.
IV. WHAT IS FUNDAMENTAL
What is fundamental in Gonzalo Thought is the problem of
political power; concretely, the conquest of political power in Peru,
wholly and completely throughout the country, as a consequential
application of the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in
our revolution. But, being a Communist thought, it understands the
conquest of political power in Per? as a part of the conquest of
power for the proletariat on a world level; and that the conquest of
power in the country, shaping itself today in the People's
Committees, base areas, and People's Republic of New Democracy
in formation within the perspective of establishing the People's
Republic of Peru, serves to establish the proletarian dictatorship in
our country, because without it, it is impossible to march towards
Communism. And, all of this is a function of firmly and decisively
serving the setting up of people's republics and mainly the
proletarian dictatorship throughout the whole world, under the
leadership of Communist Parties, with revolutionary armies of a
new type, through people's war and the development of cultural
revolutions, so that Communism may illuminate all of the Earth.
V. FORGED IN THE TWO-LINE STRUGGLE
It is through a persistent, firm, and wise two-line struggle,
defending the proletarian line and defeating the opposing lines that
Gonzalo Thought has been forged. Among the most outstanding
struggles that deserve to be emphasized are those waged against
contemporary revisionism, represented here by Del Prado and his
henchmen; those against the rightist liquidationism of Paredes and
his gang; those against left liquidationism headed by the one who
was called Sergio and his self-proclaimed "Bolsheviks"; and against
the right opportunist line that opposed the initiation of the armed
struggle. Without struggle, Gonzalo Thought could not have been
developed; and his remarkable handling of the two-line struggle
within the Party is a fundamental question which we must study
and grasp.
To study and principally to apply Gonzalo Thought is decisive in
order to better serve the Party, the development of the People's War
and the world revolution. Likewise, to learn from President
Gonzalo is decisive in order to wholeheartedly serve the people.
III. PROGRAMME AND STATUTES
PROGRAMME
The Communist Party of Per? is based on and guided by Marxism-
Leninism-Maoism, principally Maoism and, specifically, by
Gonzalo Thought as a creative application of the universal truth to
the concrete conditions of the Peruvian revolution, as made by
President Gonzalo, chief of our Party.
The Communist Party of Peru, organized vanguard of the Peruvian
proletariat and integral part of the international Proletariat,
especially upholds the following basic principles:
Contradiction as the only fundamental law of the incessant
transformation of eternal matter;
The masses make history and "it is right to rebel";
Class struggle, dictatorship of the proletariat and proletarian
internationalism;
The need for a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Communist Party that
firmly applies independence, autonomy and self-reliance;
To combat imperialism, revisionism, and reaction unbreakably and
implacably;
To conquer and to defend power with the People's War;
Militarization of the Party and concentric construction of the three
instruments of the revolution;
Two-line struggle as the driving force of Party development;
Constant ideological transformation and to always put politics in
command;
To serve to the people and the world proletarian revolution; and,
An absolute unselfishness and a just and correct style of work.
The Communist Party of Per? has Communism as its final goal;
given that the current Peruvian society is oppressed and exploited
by imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism, and semi-feudalism, the
revolution has first a democratic stage, then a second socialist one
that will later develop successive cultural revolutions. Presently
with the People's War the Party develops the democratic revolution,
having as its immediate goal to seize power countrywide. Because
of this we raise the following objectives:
GENERAL PROGRAMME OF THE DEMOCRATIC
REVOLUTION
1. Demolition of the Peruvian State, the dictatorship of the
exploiters led by the big bourgeoisie, and of the armed forces and
forces of repression that sustain it and of all its his bureaucratic
apparatus.
2. To sweep away all imperialist oppression, mainly Yankee, and
that of Soviet social-imperialism and of any power or imperialist
country. In general to confiscate their monopolies, companies,
banks and all forms of their property including the external debt.
3. To destroy bureaucratic capitalism, private as well as state
owned; to confiscate all their properties, goods and economic rights
to benefit of new state, as well as those belonging to imperialism.
4. Liquidation of semi-feudal property and everything subsisting on
it, in the countryside as well as in the city.
5. Respect the property and rights of the national bourgeoisie, or
middle bourgeoisie, in the country as well as in the city.
6. Fight for the setting-up of the People's Republic of Per?, as a
united front of classes based on the worker-peasant alliance led by
the proletariat headed by its Communist Party; as a mold for the
new democracy that carries forward a new economy, a new politics,
and a new culture.
7. Develop the People's War that, through a revolutionary army of a
new type under the absolute control of the Party, destroys the old
power a piece at a time, mainly their armed forces and other
repressive forces. This serves to build the new power for the
proletariat and the people.
8. To complete the formation of the Peruvian nation, truly unifying
the country to defend it from all reactionary and imperialist
aggression, safeguarding the rights of the minorities.
9. To serve the development of the Peruvian proletariat as part of
the international working class, and the formation and
strengthening of real Communist Parties and their unification in a
revived international Communist movement guided by the
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism; all as a function of the proletariat
fulfilling its great historical mission as the final class.
10. To defend the freedoms, rights, benefits, and conquests that the
working class and the masses have achieved at the cost of their own
blood, recognizing them and guaranteeing their authentic
enforcement in a "Declaration of the Rights of the People". To
observe, particularly, the freedom of religious conscience, but in its
widest sense, of believing as not to believe. Also to combat all
arrangements harmful to the popular interest, especially any form of
unpaid work or personal burden and the overwhelming taxes
imposed on the masses.
11. Real equality for women; a better future for the youth;
protection for the mothers and the children; respect and support for
the elderly.
12. A new culture as a combat weapon to solidify the nation, that
serves the popular masses and is guided by the scientific ideology
of the proletariat. Special importance to education will be given.
13. To support the struggles of the international proletariat, of the
oppressed nations, and of the peoples of the world; fighting against
the superpowers, the United States and Soviet Union, imperialism
in general, and international reaction and revisionism of all types,
conceiving the Peruvian revolution as part of the world proletarian
revolution.
14. To struggle tenaciously and heroically for the complete victory
and of the democratic revolution nationwide and after completing
this stage, at once, without pause, to begin the socialist revolution
so that, together with the international proletariat, the oppressed
nations and the peoples of the world, through cultural revolutions,
will continue the march of humanity towards its final goal,
Communism.
But considering that the democratic revolution in the country
crosses a period characterized by:
1) deepening of the general crisis of Peruvian society, mainly of
bureaucratic capitalism;
2) greater reactionarization of the State, today with an Aprista
government, fascist and corporativist, headed by the genocidal
Garc?a P?rez;
3) sharpening of the class struggle, with the masses accepting more
and more the need for combating and resisting;
4) the People's War developing vigorously and growing; and,
5) the people's need for a People's Republic built according to the
principles of New Democracy.
We must apply a concrete programme for this period, with the
following specific objectives:
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