The Worker: Comrade Prachanda on Revolution in Peru

(The item below is taken from the interview with Comrade Prachanda in issue 10 of The Worker. Comrade Prachanda synopsizes the positive and negative aspects of the revolution in Peru since initiating people's war in 1980. Specifically, while heralding the Communist Party of Peru's (PCP) defense of Maoism and steadfast opposition to revisionism of communist principles, he criticizes the revolutionary movement in Peru for certain "Left sectarian" errors, principal among them being insufficient tactical flexibility and an incorrect view of revolutionary leadership. It is highly commendable that Comrade Prachanda has taken the initiative to speak candidly on the Peruvian movement, as this is part of a summation of lessons that will aid both the world revolution, as well as the Peruvian revolution, as comrades in that country struggle to regain the ideological and political initiative.)

Question: The Peruvian movement, which was some time before a center of hope for the revolutionaries in the world, seems to have fallen into a serious crisis now. What is the Party's viewpoint on this? What lessons has the Party drawn from this?

Comrade Prachanda: The experience of the Peruvian revolutionary movement, which had to go through intensive development and extensive setback between the last two decades of twentieth century, is very important for those who are leading revolution in the twenty-first century. In the context of preparation and initiation of People's War in Nepal, the Peruvian movement had played a major role in inspiring us, and in this sense, it is of special significance for our Party to take lessons from the positive and negative experiences of this movement. It is our understanding that it will be a big mistake to devalue the contributions made by the Peruvian People's War for world revolution, which, fighting back the ideological attack made by right revisionism after the restoration of capitalism in China, was initiated on the basis of MLM. However, in no case, can it and must it be taken lightly that the People's War, which was developing rapidly for 12 years, is now in a crisis of existence because of the setback following the capture of the leadership. Sufficient indications that Chairman Gonzalo himself is the main spokesperson of the two-line struggle developed within the Party after his arrest, as well as of the right opportunist line that argues for peaceful conciliation with the enemy by abandoning war, reveal the seriousness of the situation.

MLM demands correct application of dialectical materialism to continue relentless struggle against all kinds of mechanical, subjective and one-sided thinking. It is necessary to be cautious of drifting towards another extreme while struggling against one. Following the counterrevolution in China, the communist movement, on the one hand, happened to fall prey to right extremism that mainly sides with class collaboration and, on the other, to left extremism that seeks to go straightforward without looking left or right, forward or backward. Following Mao's death, the Nicaraguan Sandinista movement that waged guerrilla war happened to fall prey to the former, i.e. right extremism, and the great revolutionary movement in Peru ideologically happened to fall prey to the second i.e. left sectarianism. It is our understanding and evaluation that, as a result of the mechanical and one-sided thinking, like for example of negating completely the question of building necessary adjustment, compromise or front with the secondary reactionary or middle class against the main enemy, of being unable to maintain proper balance between strategic firmness and tactical flexibility based on the equation of enemy's central power, of understanding the protracted People's War mechanically rather than developing military strategy according to today's world situation, of idealizing Comrade Gonzalo as a supernatural leader who never makes a mistake and of placing him above the whole Party and the Central Committee by asserting his leadership as Jefetura, of being unable or unprepared to learn in the real sense from the metaphysical mistakes of Comrade Stalin, etc.- the Party has reached a stage of crisis of existence in such a short time despite the sacrifice of more than 60 thousand people. Although one is revolutionary in spirit, the result can nevertheless be fatal if, from the viewpoint of applying the science of dialectical materialism, one gets caught in mechanical and metaphysical weaknesses - this is the lesson taken by our Party from the great Peruvian People's War and the blood of thousands of revolutionaries flown there. All the programs which our Party has been adhering to, such as our concepts regarding the 'development of democracy in the twenty-first century', military line of 'fusion', series of tactics adopted against the enemy, etc., incorporate the lessons from all positive and negative experiences of Peru.