First International Conference Analyzing the People's War in Peru Translated by SLALA Edited by International Minister Political Declaration 1. The heroic efforts of the brave Peruvian Communists who from 1980 have developed armed struggle to eliminate the oppressive capitalist system and conquer power for the oppressed are not belittled by the difficulties currently faced by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) nor by the regression of the People's War. In the 20 years of the People's War, the Peruvian Maoists directed by the PCP and President Gonzalo have offered admirable lessons that are solidly rooted in the Peruvian masses and the proletariat. Throughout two decades of titanic struggle against an enormous repressive force of more than 650 thousand military operatives, police and paramilitary that are supported by the United States and other imperialist powers, the PCP has demonstrated that it is an authentic party of the proletariat, capable of facing and resisting its enemies while overcoming obstacles in hostile terrain. In light of the retrogression in the armed struggle the process of the Peruvian revolution led by the PCP re-vindicates the right of the oppressed to revolutionary violence and People's War as the sole means to conquering state power and building socialism. Among other fundamental principles of Marxism that have been re-vindicated are: the dictatorship of the proletariat, communism as the supreme goal of the class struggle, the principles that the masses make history and that the two line struggle is the force and impulse of the growth of the party. In 20 years of armed struggle the PCP managed to implement the fundamental theses of the scientific theories of the proletariat (MLM) and stemming from the experience of Peru has developed theses important to the communist struggle. One thesis refers to the militarization of communist parties and of the concentric leadership of the three instruments. The call to militarize the party corresponds to the dizzying development of militarization in bourgeois society and the increasing number of wars due to the intervention of imperialist forces. Another thesis states that each revolutionary process led by the proletariat engenders a line of thought that guides the revolution. This line of thought stems from the class struggle and the concrete application of Marxism to the specific situation of the country. In Peru the PCP is the only political organization representing the interests of the working class, the peasantry and other oppressed classes of Peruvian society. It is also the only revolutionary movement for the emancipation and social liberation of Peru whose goal is to abolish imperialist domination and the domestic system of exploitation. The PCP that mobilizes the peasantry & the working class to abolish semi-feudalism, landlords and bureaucratic capitalism is a clear & tangible example of revolutionary practice to the effect that there can be no struggle for socialism without a relentless struggle against revisionism, opportunism and any currents strange & harmful to the working class & the revolutionary process. It is in this field that the Peruvian Maoists have, since 1993, struggled against the agents & capitulators serving reaction & imperialism by disseminating the CIA's & National Intelligence Service's lies entitled "peace agreements" or "letters of peace" whose counterrevolutionary objective is to destroy the PCP, President Gonzalo & to stop the revolutionary war. 2. The Downfall and Escape of Fujimori and Montesinos. This crisis essentially reflects the decadence and corruption of the state and the political ruling classes, that with the support of the CIA and the American government plundered the state through which they carried out organized crime, robbery, blackmail, narco-trafficking and other delinquent acts. Peru's current crisis is not exclusively due to Fujimori and Montesinos. These two lumpenesque characters maintained ties to the international drug trade and managed to operate freely because from the get-go they counted on the support and favors of the official political parties (APRA, United Left and others) as well as the media, which for the most part accepted and contributed to consolidating Fujimori's government. Fujimori's regime also came about through the support of the loftiest ranks of the Catholic Church (especially that of the Opus DEI), and fundamentally, through the sponsorship of the American government whose spokespersons not only upheld Peru's narco- government but proposed to impose it as a model for Latin America. The great number of 'opposition' parties, not excluding the legal-left, contributed to Fujimori's victory in the 1990 elections and also gave up their most outstanding cadre to new appointments as ministers, high- ranking officials and consultants to the previous regime. In a similar way they legitimized electoral fraud and the ratification of a Constitution offering unlimited power to a criminal, corrupt regime. For these reasons, Peru's contemporary crisis is profound and reveals the moral and political bankruptcy of all those who collaborated with Peru's narco-government officials. This crisis is not a problem unique to Fujimori's regime; at bottom it is the complete crisis of Peru's bourgeois political system of landlords subject to imperialism. What is there to do about this problem? Peru's exploited people should continue to combat the remnants of Fujimori's regime and all those who, from the nauseating parliament, political parties, NGOs, the church and universities, contributed to and upheld Fujimori and Montesinos' wretched regime. The people of Peru must learn the lessons of the past and realize that those who now proclaim themselves moralists and who stand ardently against Fujimori were the first to uphold Fujimori's narco-regime since 1990. If the oppressed seek to rid themselves of set- ups, deception and lies they must organize their own struggle independently of the bourgeois parties and classes that have engaged in fraud and demagoguery for decades. Without a head-on struggle that is strategically conceived to conquer power and defeat all oppressors and their political representatives, the oppressed will be deceived and taken advantage of time and again to tip the scales in the oppressors' internal feuds. 3. President Gonzalo and Prisoners of War. We demand that Peru's current government allow a commission consisting of Peruvian journalists, lawyers and the International Red Cross to enter the Callao naval station, and to verify at that site the true status of Dr. Abimael Guzmán and Mrs. Elena Iparraguirrie who have been shut away (according to the previous government's version) for the past 8 years completely incommunicado from the outside world. To this day no one knows for sure if they live or if Fujimori and Montesinos' government murdered them. We propose that Luis Arce Borja, director of El Diario Internacional, accompany this commission and that he receive the current government's guarantee that he may return to Peru and freely exercise his profession. For the political prisoners we request the immediate annulment of all verdicts and sentences delivered by Fujimori's judges and anonymous military tribunals for they are illegal, unconstitutional and contrary to the most fundamental principles of State justice. It is well known that once in the hands of the police or the military, those accused of subversion were denied the right to counsel and were brutally tortured. The testimony leveled against them was manufactured on false declarations and with un-verifiable information originating from military and civil prosecutors appointed by the government. An essential step determining the judicial framework for liberating political prisoners and prisoners of war, including those incarcerated since the early 80's, is the annulment of all proceedings and sentencing against citizens accused of terrorism and treason. Together with this measure, the government must permanently shut down 'high-security' prisons set up by the previous criminal regime and in general, completely re-structure the prison system. Additionally, the persecution of prisoner's families must be halted and the Peruvian Association of Democratic Lawyers must be permitted to carry out its professional duties freely. Problems in the International Arena. 1. Opportunism and Revisionism continue as the principal perils in the heart of the International Communist Movement (ICM). The present crisis over the direction of the ICM and the relative scarcity of genuine proletarian parties are a direct result of the fact that opportunism and revisionism continue to infiltrate and operate in the heart of the workers and the revolutionary movement. These counterrevolutionary currents camouflage themselves as Marxist-Leninists, and wholehearted Maoists. Through those masks, these moles divide the revolutionary movement and traffic in the heroic struggles of the oppressed nations. A resounding example of this fact is the political maneuvers of the leaders of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) that radiates from London and the United States. This group falsely calling itself Maoist interferes in the process of armed struggle in the poor countries. In the case of Peru, the RIM has played a sorry role whose realization impelled its leaders to ally with police agents and capitulators disseminating abroad the police set-up known as "letters of peace." The leaders of RIM attributed these letters to President Gonzalo and in so doing played along with the Peruvian police and all those abroad that promoted these "letters of peace." For these reasons we call upon the comrades of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), who have been waging a powerful people's war and on the comrades of the Communist Party of Turkey, that for several years have carried out an important armed struggle, to combat the clique heading the RIM. Any compromise with this group only favors the enemies of the revolution. The complicity with agents tied to the Peruvian police on part of the leaders of the RIM demonstrates the danger posed to the revolution by not implementing strong measures against traffickers and swindlers posing as exemplary Maoists. To guard the process of armed struggle in Nepal and Turkey, those individuals that infiltrate and divide revolutionary movements behind the cloak of the RIM must be combated until they are politically eliminated. 2. The essential political task for propelling the International Communist Movement is to establish, re- constitute and strengthen genuine communist parties. This noble and historical task involves the collaboration of both organized and isolated communists and all those forces apt to unite and follow the revolutionary road. The greatest weakness to successfully confronting the world hegemony of Yankee imperialism and imperialist domination is the scarcity of vanguards in both the wealthy and poor countries. While the working class lacks a party of its own the reign of the powerful will persist. While there is no revolutionary party, revisionism and opportunism will continue to deceive and swindle the workers and oppressed classes. Brussels, December 8-9, 2000 Administrative Council for the First International Conference, Brussels, Belgium.