'Exclusive' comments by Abimael Guzman. (leader of Shining Path)(from Foreign Broadcast Information Service, Latin America, February 25, 1993, reprinted World Affairs, Summer 1993, 156: 1).
Background: Shining Path leader Abimael Guzman, “Presidente Gonzalo,” joined Peru's Communist Party as a university student in Arequipa during the 1950s. He soon became disillusioned with electoral politics and developed an empathy for the plight of the peasants while working in Ayacucho. Guzman participated in the expulsion of the Peace Corps from Peru. After the Red Faction was formed, he left the Communist Party in 1965. Guzman became leader of the faction after defeating Saturnino Paredes in 1968.
MY BEGINNINGS
The beginnings in Arequipa where, as a middle-class child, he had access to formative books and witnessed the social struggles.
"In the mid-1950's, when I was a university student (in Arequipa), I slowly approached Marxism and I matured through witnessing struggles. For example, I was very impressed by the Arequipa uprising in 1950 (Guzman was born on 3 December 1934). The popular uprising against [General Manuel] Odria [who established a dictatorship on 29 October 1948]. Much blood was shed. The uprising was prompted by a strike by students of the Colegio Independencia secondary school.
All this and other things have marked me. During this forging class struggle, my mind was opening, controlled by my reading which was gradually drawing me closer. An important event must be mentioned. We all know that Stalin, a great Marxist-Leninist, died in 1953. This greatly shocked the world. At that time, we were formed by studying the books on Stalin. At that time, there were more books on Stalin than on Lenin - at reasonable prices. Questions about Leninism, a thick, very well bound and superbly translated volume, was sold at a very low price. It is an extremely important work. In 1956, there was another event in the international communist movement: Kruschev's famous address. This was a secret address to the (Soviet) Central Committee. Nevertheless, the following day it was published by newspapers around the world. Obviously, there was a cunning and dark leadership. All this had great repercussions. I was already very close to the party in Arequipa where all this story began. Some of us defended Stalin, even though little was known about his work and all his deeds in the great patriotic war against Nazi Germany. All this, and the construction of the first socialist state on Earth which we could feel and experience. Thus, we rejected Kruschev's sinister stance.
"In addition, as we all know, Kruschev's address was a bunch of adjectives, infamies, and words without any feeling. For example, saying "Ivan the Terrible," "sadistic," "madman," "the worst criminal on earth," and other monstrosities. Like this I matured. I admired Stalin. I repeat: He was a great Marxist-Leninist, a great man. This does not mean that he did not make mistakes. That is something else. This was how I approached and sought to become a Communist Party member.
"At that time, there was a trend in the University of Arequipa that allegedly championed the workers by propounding the odd tenet that only the children of workers could become Communist Party members. Obviously, this was a serious mistake. In fact, it was somewhat absurd. This situation prevented me from joining the party for a long time, maybe years, due to my social status as I was not the son of a worker. Nevertheless, I insisted on becoming a party member, and finally became one. I joined the party in Arequipa. I joined a cell of which I have pleasant memories as it was formed by both workers and intellectuals. I already had contacts and had worked with workers. Obviously, I began operating that way. This is rewarding. An iron spirit: This is the proletariat class. Pleasant memories. The intellectuals: What can I say about them? That they arrived and raised questions, but all they did was talk. It seems there are people for whom words are enough. They did not comply with the basic duties of that time. I am not talking about other activities."
THE ELECTIONS, A GREAT SURPRISE
The young communist immunized himself against democracy after observing the opportunism exercised by some fellow countrymen.
"I think the situations linked to the elections are significant factors. I was greatly surprised and deeply disappointed. I clearly rejected the way the people, including some Marxists and even non-organized communists, behaved at electoral times. The principles dictate that those who are not organized can not be communists. Everybody was attracted by the elections, by the candidacies for deputies, senators. I could see repulsive electoral paraphernalia. This probably made me to reject the elections. I also witnessed how the strikes were negotiated. I saw the people who took to the streets to fight, and how the strikes were negotiated in the offices of corrupt lawyers.
"The problem of the Old Defense Front and the National Liberation Front were main issues at that time. I believe there were positive actions, like the defense of Peruvian wealth against U.S. imperialism - specifically against the International Petroleum. But the paraphernalia of petty politicians was too great. I met various characters. I reassert that it was repulsive because their main objective was not the revolution but to gain a seat in Congress."
THE PEASANTS IN AYACUCHO
Guzman's impression on the critical social condition in Ayacucho was decisive in helping him to shape his Manichean viewpoint.
"My greatest and deepest need was to meet and discover the peasants in Ayacucho. Their reality shook my eyes and my mind. There are peasants in my township, but they are different from those of Ayacucho. The peasants from Ayacucho are very poor. They endure the oppressive semi-feudal burden. I saw people working as slaves on ranches, people who even had to provide their own food. I met people who had to walk tens of kilometers, taking their own food with them, to work. I saw the peasant's struggles and the strong repressions. I could sense the plight of the poor Peruvian peasants who have struggled and worked in the communities for centuries. But the centuries have not managed to exterminate them. They are vigorous and fight against all odds. They are the cornerstone of the land. I saw that the peasants are the cornerstone of Peru. There was a national student assembly (in Ayacucho) that I helped to organize until I was able to provide it with appropriate protection. It was then that I realized that people behave like buffaloes. Yet when someone confronts them they become very democratic. Elephants, mongols. [as published]
THE RED FACTION
The group of staunch faithful followers, essential for the fulfillment of the goals, is established.
The great controversy not only involved an historical issue but a decisive one for the party, especially for the Red Faction, for the formation of a true Communist Party, which until then did not exist.
"Even though we read about - and even devoured - the problems involving the (international) controversy, we never became detached from regional problems. The Ayacucho committee supported land invasions because we were involved in those actions. During the students congress, leaders from Lima held a meeting with the regional committee. Their agenda included two points: The nature of the Belaunde administration (during his first term in office) and peasant land invasions.
"Concerning the first point (they said): Why doesn't your committee agree with the party line that notes that the Belaunde administration represents the national bourgeoisie? They claimed that an alliance with it was appropriate. We said: "It represents a broad, but not a national, bourgeoisie, so there is an antagonistic struggle with it." They were unable to give us a reason. Even the figures were interesting. There were two or three national leaders from Lima. One of them dozed through the entire meeting . . ."
"The other point was: "Why do you support land invasions? Why are you promoting them?" We told them: If Belaunde approves the reforms, we will press on. We were told: "Belaunde does not approve of them because the people oppose them." In response to this, our reasoning was: "Land invasions must be promoted in order to break that opposition." I believe prudence is necessary, but it cannot become a restraint."
WE DECIDED TO FORM A SPECIAL GROUP
He continues, now within the Maoist tendency, to build the sect.
After talking about his experience in the Communist Party of Peru [PCP], among the Maoist tendency headed by Saturnino Paredes, Abimael Guzman explains about the Red Faction, the organization he headed until he was captured.
We became tired. Who doesn't become tired of waiting. We decided to form a special work group. We did so in 1974 before travelling to China. I organized the group from the military, political, and logistic point of view. At this point we became stronger and realized that we needed "our own forces." We used our own money, and we worked. . . .
"The party was one thing and the (Red) faction was another. The faction was a group of people that followed Lenin's guidelines, that is, those who accepted the full implementation of Marxism, the open struggle within the party. It would have been most unfortunate not to have done it. Different modalities within the whole apparatus wreak havoc with everything. That is a crime. We have never done such a thing."
THEY ACCUSE ME OF BEING A TROTSKYIST
Your detractors within Maoism itself label your intellectualism and factious character as Trotskyist.
"Even though it is said that I am a Trotskyist - when I first came to Lima I was told: In Arequipa, you are branded as a Trotskyist - I have never been one. Some of my schoolmates must have been Trotskyists when I was a student in Arequipa. But it is not a plague that can be transmitted to other people . . .
"(After the 4th Congress) there were those who believed that the world would come to an end because they had decided to remain on the sidelines. The world did not collapse - heaven is always above, man! The earth will neither quake nor leave its orbit. One must not be misled by sham earthquakes. After all, what does it matter? During a real earth-quake, houses fall down, we remove the rubble and carry on working. After all, the faction believed: Our only concern is to set up a party, to organize a party. If the party is destroyed we will rebuild it. If it is destroyed ten times we will rebuild it eleven, twelve times. It will always be like that.
"What did we propose? The party, the armed struggle, and the front. The three magic wands, as Mao used to call them. Replacing departmental committees with regional committees; giving up electoral districts in favor of the armed struggle that we, the party, had to undertake. The armed struggle would be the main concern of the party, around which everything would revolve, with a political section . . .
"As for the front, the problem lay in how to envisage it - whether it would be a class front or a front made up of parties. That damned obsession - a front made up of parties. What parties would we appeal to? But that is not the problem . . . "
Conclusion: Notice the deep divisions of personality and party as well as the ideological splits dividing these leftist movements. Such schisms kept the Latin American revolutionaries from mounting the concerted efforts needed to overthrow corrupt regimes. Only in a few cases, Cuba, Nicaragua, did the left succeed, in the latter case only temporarily.
|