Hari Kumar with Mike B. and Alfonso Casal
October 2021
On October 11th 2021, the revisionist, guerrilla leader – Abimael Guzmán or Chairman Gonzalo – of the ‘Shining Path’ died in prison. Partido Communista del Perú (‘Sendero Luminoso’) was founded in 1970, in a split from the Peruvian Communist Party Red Flag (PCP-Red Flag). Shortly after the ‘Shining Path’ was a co-founder of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM).
After his capture by the Peruvian state in 1992 Abimael Guzmán was jailed and imprisoned for life. He died in prison on September 11, 2021. Generally, his followers deny that with Guzmán’s imprisonment the party ‘the Shining Path’ was destroyed.
Naturally adherents of Mao have mourned the loss of one of their icons. However, his death in 2021 has received relatively little comment from non-Maoist Marxist-Leninists. Yet the ‘Shining Path’ revisionist and individual terrorist strategy, derailed for a historical period, the Peruvian revolution. Therefore, it is important to extract relevant lessons.
Frederick Engels wrote to Vera Zasulich that there were ‘exceptional cases as in Russia; where:
“The Russians are approaching their 1789… This is one of the exceptional cases where it is possible for a handful of people to make a revolution, i.e., with one small push to cause a whole system, which (to use a metaphor of Plekhanov’s) is in more than labile equilibrium, to come crashing down, and thus by one action, in itself insignificant, to release uncontrollable explosive forces. Well now, if ever Blanquism—the phantasy of overturning an entire society through the action of a small conspiracy—had a certain justification for its existence, that is certainly in Petersburg.” [1]
Were the ‘Senderosos’ in 1970 Peru one of those ‘exceptional’ cases?
The ‘Shining Path’ developed a form of ultra-leftist, individual terrorism inspired by Mao Ze Dong. We believe the ‘Shining Path’ will be remembered by Marxist-Leninists as a horrendous betrayal of the workers and peasants of Peru, as they followed the revisionist theory of a ‘countryside encirclement of the towns’.
Naturally, the full history of the revolutionary process in Peru, can only be written by the Marxist-Leninists of Peru – in our view – the Communist Party Peru (ML) Bandera Roja (Partido Communista del Peru (Marxista-Leninista) – hereafter PCP(ML)BR. However, to put ‘Sendero Luminosa’ in history, we describe key junctures in Peru. We do this by highlighting the role of Jose Carlos Mariátegui. Our limited scope has four main goals:
I. To consider Mariátegui’s history of Peru and of imperialism.
II. To review the pre-history and history of ‘Sendero Luminoso’ itself.
III. To consider Abimael Guzmán’s analysis in the interview by ‘El Diario’; which place Sendero in context to Maoism.
IV. To assess the theory of ‘bureaucratic capitalism’.
1. Reaction of international followers of Guzmán
We first acknowledge reaction to the news of Guzmán’s death. Guzmán had been ill for a few months. As the Greek Maoist organisation KKE-ML said, after Guzmán’s heart attack in July 2021:
“In July, the imprisoned leader of the Communist Party of Peru, Abimael Guzmán (Gonzalo) at an advanced age, and after 29 years in solidarity confinement, suffered a heart attack…
Abimael Guzmán, from the moment of his arrest, was imprisoned for life and in solidarity confinement from the military courts with a brief trial. He was caged like an animal in order to give an exemplary tone from his arrest to the revolutionary movement in Peru, but also all over the world. However, Gonzalo has been mocking the reactionary forces of Peru and imperialism ever since, when from his cell he was singing the international with a raised fist.” [2]
Guzmán evidently bore his imprisonment with dignity and courage. He certainly did not waver in his own fealty to Maoism. The ‘Maoist Committee in Finland’ on September 11, 2021 quoted Guzmán’s words from his imprisonment Speech of 1992:
“As a prisoner in his Great Speech of September 24th, 1992:
“Some think this is a great defeat. They are dreaming! We tell them to keep on dreaming. It is simply a bend, nothing more, a bend in the road! The road is long and we shall arrive. We shall triumph! You shall see it! You shall see it!”
“As we see in the world, Maoism is marching unstoppably to lead the new wave of world proletarian revolution. Listen well and understand! Those who have ears, use them. Those who have understanding – and we all have it – use it! … We need Maoism to be incarnated, and it is being incarnated, and by generating Communist Parties to drive and lead this new great wave of the world proletarian revolution that is coming.” [3]
Guzmán’s death was commemorated by several organisations:
“Two powerful demonstrations (honored) Chairman Gonzalo (Abimael Guzmán Reynoso) in Hamburg, Germany and Vienna, Austria, a week after his death on September 11…. multiple speeches were given by revolutionary parties and organizations, such as Serve the People, Norway; Maoist Committee, Finland; Vorbote (Herald), Austria; TKP/ML Central Committee – Political Bureau; TKP-ML Rojava; the Committee for the Construction of the Maoist Communist Party of Galicia; and the Peru People’s Movement (the PCP’s generated organism for abroad work).” [4]
Twelve organisations headed by the ‘Communist Party of Peru’ – joined in the “joint international declaration by Communist parties and organizations in honor of Chairman Gonzalo (Abimael Guzmán). The original statement of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist newspaper “Communist International” [5] proclaimed that:
“Since the death of Chairman Mao and the revisionist coup in China in 1976, Chairman Gonzalo has been the main protagonist of the red line within the International Communist Movement. Proving with the People’s War in Peru the universal validity of Maoism, he defined it as the third, new and higher stage of the ideology of the international proletariat and it was he who put forward for the first time the great truth that to be a Marxist today means to be a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist.”[3]
To what extent are we in fact, at a ‘third, new and higher stage of the ideology of the international proletariat? Is it correct that ‘the universal validity of Maoism is proved‘?
We examine the formation of the first Communist Party of Peru.
(Continued)
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[1] Engels to Vera Zasulich In Geneva London, 23 April, 1885; In Marx-Engels Correspondence 1885; Gesamtausgabe, International Publishers, 1942; and Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Correspondence, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1975; at https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1885/letters/85_04_23.htm
[2] The International Bureau of CPG(m-l); “The Peruvian State Leads The Revolutionary Communists To Death; Let’s Defend His Right To Freedom And To Life!’; 21 August 2021; at: http://www.kkeml.gr/solidarity-with-abimael-Guzmán-chairman-gonzalo/
[3] https://ci-ic.org/blog/2021/09/20/maoist-committee-in-finland-long-live-chairman-gonzalo/
[4] Roscoe Mackernasey; ‘Europe: Powerful Demonstrations in Honor of Chairman Gonzalo’; ‘Tribune of the People’; September 24 2021; at: https://tribuneofthepeople.news/2021/09/24/europe-powerful-demonstrations-in-honor-of-chairman-gonzalo/
[5] Joint International Declaration ‘Eternal Glory To Chairman Gonzalo!”; At ‘Tribune For The People’’ Sep 24, 2021; At: https://Tribuneofthepeople.News/2021/09/24/Joint-International-Declaration-Eternal-Glory-To-Chairman-Gonzalo/