From owner-marxism Mon Sep 11 02:58:38 1995
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 1995 22:58:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maoist Internationalist Movement
Subject: Re: Shining Path and Ridgway
On Sun, 10 Sep 1995, Jim Jaszewski wrote:
>
> Senderistas have come to Canada looking for support for their
> cause, but most people on the Left -- including other latin american
> groups -- tend to give them a wide berth, and they do come across as
> strident and dogmatic...
>
> They have a VERY bad reputation.
>
Strident we think is fine. Those who feel the suffering
of death squad government or the millions starving and
homeless should be strident. It is the bourgeoisie that
would want us to be speaking in placid tones as if
there were no state of emergency.
When a friend is walking off a cliff, do you not raise
your voice in warning?
Dogmatic is bad. I don't know your politics enough to know
what you mean by dogmatic, but I will say not to forget who
has an interest in making the PCP look really bad--the CIA,
the Peruvian cops etc.
We ourselves have received numerous death threats from
Peruvians abroad, sometimes openly on behest of the Peruvian state.
Hence, treat all ideas seriously, but keep in mind some
calling themselves comrades are actually cops.
mim3 for the Maoist Internationalist Movement
--- from list marxism@lists.village.virginia.edu ---
From owner-marxism Mon Sep 11 19:22:10 1995
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 15:22:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maoist Internationalist Movement
Subject: Re: Shining Path and Ridgway
On Mon, 11 Sep 1995, Louis N Proyect wrote:
> Louis Proyect:
>
> It was a few minutes before noon on April 8, 1987 when a Senderista
> "annihilation commando" entered San Juan de Salinas, in the
> department of Puno near the Bolivian border. Zenobio Huarsalla knew
> who they were after. As a long-time campesino leader, founder of the
> powerful Federacion Departmental de Campesinos de Puno, his
> radicalism had led him to sympathize with Sendero. But at the end of
> 1986, when the townspeople asked him to run for mayor on the
> Izquierda Unida ticket, Huarsalla agreed. Sendero considered him a
> traitor, a servant of the "old state." Soon after his overwhelming
> victory at the polls, the town hall was dynamited.
MIM replies: I notice that the organization Solidarity used to bash us with Izquierda Unida. Some leftists have had the integrity to since admit that Izquierda Unida was never anything but the worst social-democratic figleaf for fascism. IU endorsed Fujimori for president and took places in his cabinet. I hope that you comrade are just lightlyread and not very serious, because otherwise it would appear you andthe legal-minded social democrats who respected Hitler's rise topower have much in common.
Are you defending Fujimori and if so, what does that have to dowith Marxism?
>
> Now, as they drag him toward the center of the plaza he sees his wife
> and his parents among the crowd that is gathering to watch the
> "popular trial". The commando commits the error of asking the crowd
> if Huarsalla should be executed. The response is an emphatic "No!"
> The Senderistas argue with the crowd, and it finally falls silent. Then
> Huarsalla, who has been kneeling under the muzzles of two rifles,
> jumps to his feet.
>
> "I have been jailed five times," he says looking at this executioners. "I
> know who you are, but I have never given you away." Then he speaks
> to the townspeople: "If you ask me to, I will resign." Cries of "No!"
> again fills the plaza. The campesinos begin to close in on the
> Senderistas. The commando is nervous. Then "La Gringa" jumps
> forward. She is a white woman famous in Puno for the savagery of her
> attacks. People say she has even gouged out the eyes and cut out the
> tongues of her victims. La Gringa moves toward Huarsalla and with
> one shot blows out his brains. Amid the cries and confusion, the
> Senderistas retreat.
MIM replies: if factually true the above is bad. The "La Gringa" thinghas the taste of a police concocted story, however. We should try tolook harder at the social composition of the PCP-led movement.
Are you meaning to say if one militant makes a gross mistake you should call off the revolution? Do you fantasize that the massesand PCP army militants are perfect? Are there any revolutions that haveoccurred that you supported that didn't have such violence?
How does picking at one case of violence to typify a revolutiondiffer from the tactics of the police?
If you are meaning to ask about this case of violence, then why don't you also print the PCP 's self-criticisms for killing the wrong people sometimes that are spray-painted on buildings in Peru?
>
> Since Zenobio Huarsalla was murdered, at least eight other Izquierida
> Unida mayors have been assassinated by Sendero, including Ayacucho
> mayor Fermin Zaparrent. Between 1987 and 1989, Sendero killed five
> leaders of the mineworkers union. In April 1989, a dozen community
> leaders who had opposed Sendero in the Cunas Valley of the Central
> Andes were massacred; several of them were members of the leftist
> Confederacion Campesina del Peru. In Lima, at the beginning of 1989,
> the president of the textile workers union, Enrique Castilla was
> murdered; a sign was left on his body: "This is how traitors who sell
> out the workers die." Castilla was a member of the Partido Unificado
> Mariatequista (PUM), the most radical of the legal Left. PUM leaders
> maintain that twenty of their members have gunned down by Sendero
> to date, most of them in the southern Andes.
>
MIM replies: I gather from your reprinting this part without comment
that you haven't studied this deeply yet. Since that time these
IU people you talk about helped engineer Fujimori to power. He
abolished what you call "the legal Left;" albeit partially by
incorporating some of its ever-putrid elements.
Have you no shame for what the IU path led to? Fujimori now leads
a military dictatorship openly. This is in contrast to the
covert military dictatorship of social-democratic figleaf regimes
in the past.
The central fact is this: Peru's "legal Left" has remarkable
flexibility in serving in Parliament and military regimes in
craven capitulation. The only organization otherwise--and
there was every stripe imaginable in Peru, Trots, Deng Xiaopingers,
social-dems etc--the only other organization to actually be independent
of the government was the pro-Cuban group, and even that one
dissolved in 1993. Now it is PCP vs. the military dictatorship.
That's all.
Pat for Maoist Internationalist Movement
From owner-marxism Mon Sep 11 19:47:28 1995
Subject: Re: Shining Path and Ridgway
From: "Gonzalez, Francisco"
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 15:47:28 -0400
I just have one question regarding the MIM; WHO ARE these guys, and how
can they even begin to justify the murdering practices of the
Senderistas? I have followed the events in Peru for the last 10 years,
both thorough mainstream and "alternative" media from the US and Latin
American, besides personal contacts with Peruvians of all political
points of view. To state that the assassinations like the one described
by Louis where isolated event is nonsense. Sendero Luminoso carried out
thousands of similar assassinations across Peru, I guess as a way to
intimidate the campesinos and the Aymara and Quechua Indians into
supporting their "revolution". The Indians, who are devoutly Christian,
and lack a strong "class" (as opposed to ethnic) consciousness, resented the heavy handed "reeducation" tactics of the Senderistas (who, as hinted in Louis posting, were mostly non-Indian mestizos from the cities, ignorant of the languages and ways of the highland peoples). Sendero also carried out terrorist attacks in Lima, detonating car bombs in crowded shopping districts as well as on the wealthy neighborhoods of the city.
This campaign of terror gave Fujimori the perfect excuse for his coup,
also allowing him the opportunity to blame Sendero Luminoso the economic problems of the country (caused in reality by the corruption and incompetence of Fujimori's and Alan Garcia's administrations). As a foot note, I want to remember the readers that the military junta that ruled Peru during the 1970's had strong leftist tendencies (the USSR provided advanced military equipment , Soviets and Cubans served as technicians and trainers of the Peruvian military; also civilians from Cuba and USSR served as engineers, teachers, doctors, etc.). The military is an inefficient (was badly defeated early this year by the smaller, ill-equipped Ecuadorians), corrupt (due to bribes from cocaine lords) and ideologically bankrupt organization, whose brutality in repressing the Sendero Luminoso undoubtedly cased the deaths of thousands of innocents but is not the driving force behind the current regime. It can maintain Fujimori in power because there is no effective political opposition, specially from the Left, thanks to the ideologically driven murders of Sendero. Since the capture of Abimael Guzman, Sendero Luminoso is less of
a threat, but I think that the damage done to the progressive forces in
Peru limits their ability to mobilize against Fujimori. It is the
"neoliberal" right (led by writer Mario Vargas Llosa and former UN
secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar) that is the main opposition
force to Fujimori.
Francisco J. Gonzalez
gonzalez@blue.usa.com
--- from list marxism@lists.village.virginia.edu ---
From owner-marxism Tue Sep 12 02:11:44 1995
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 22:11:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maoist Internationalist Movement
Subject: Re: Shining Path and Ridgway
On Mon, 11 Sep 1995, Jim Jaszewski wrote:
>
> On Mon, 11 Sep 1995, Maoist Internationalist Movement wrote:
>
> > MIM replies: if factually true the above is bad. The "La Gringa" thing
> > has the taste of a police concocted story, however. We should try to
> > look harder at the social composition of the PCP-led movement.
>
> I agree that it has that `feel' to it, but then there are
> Sendero's many crimes...
>
>
> > Are you meaning to say if one militant makes a gross mistake you
> > should call off the revolution? Do you fantasize that the masses
> > and PCP army militants are perfect? Are there any revolutions that have
> > occurred that you supported that didn't have such violence?
> > How does picking at one case of violence to typify a revolution
> > differ from the tactics of the police?
>
> Such ultra-left violence has shown again and again that it ends
> up COSTING the People's support -- and the Revolution. Hell -- even if
> they win, every indication is of Pol Pot II...
MIM replies: You didn't answer my question: "Are there
any revolutions that have occurred that you supported that
didn't have such violence?"
Nihilism--a generally destructive approach--is easy. Intellectuals
are prone to it, because their careers are built on picking
apart ideas and making their own seem "original." That is their
role in the productive process so to speak.
If your ideas about what is "COSTING" support are true,
then there should be some evidence in revolutions that succeeded.
These days, from the ultraleft--the real Trotskyists, and the
real anarchists--and the right, such as the social-democratic wannabes
so common in the de-Sovietization process--there is a general
avoidance of WHAT WORKS in bringing about class struggle victoriously.
Across the board there is a return to pre-science,
a return to pre-Marxist ideology--a secular religion of communism.
> > If you are meaning to ask about this case of violence, then why don't you
> > also print the PCP 's self-criticisms for killing the wrong people sometimes
> > that are spray-painted on buildings in Peru?
>
> This is an excuse??
MIM replies: Excuse for what? You haven't established anything factually important yet.
>
>
> > MIM replies: I gather from your reprinting this part without comment
> > that you haven't studied this deeply yet. Since that time these
> > IU people you talk about helped engineer Fujimori to power. He
> > abolished what you call "the legal Left;" albeit partially by
> > incorporating some of its ever-putrid elements.
> >
> > Have you no shame for what the IU path led to? Fujimori now leads
> > a military dictatorship openly. This is in contrast to the
> > covert military dictatorship of social-democratic figleaf regimes
> > in the past.
>
> You think the answer to Social Democrat perfidy is assassination
> and Terror??
MIM replies: Again more nihilist questions without substantiation.
Are you a pacifist too? I respect anarchist pacifism. It's very
consistent and it doesn't usually claim to be Marxist.
>
>
> > The central fact is this: Peru's "legal Left" has remarkable
> > flexibility in serving in Parliament and military regimes in
> > craven capitulation. The only organization otherwise--and
> > there was every stripe imaginable in Peru, Trots, Deng Xiaopingers,
> > social-dems etc--the only other organization to actually be independent
> > of the government was the pro-Cuban group, and even that one
> > dissolved in 1993. Now it is PCP vs. the military dictatorship.
> > That's all.
>
> I'm sure Sendero has had a BIG hand in creating this sad
> situation...
>
MIM replies: This is absolutely new in my years of defending the
PCP. I have only seen this on the Marxism List: blame the PCP
for the weakness of ideological tendencies completely unconnected
to it. Always I hear people say the PCP is unaffiliated with the "legal
Left" and why doesn't it "reason" with the state and its social-democratic elements? Never do I hear this other critique that the PCP is to blame for the failure of petty-bourgeois moveemnts that criticized PCP for being isolated from them.
If you mean the laboring masses and (over the years) the youth have seen through the uselessness of the "legal Left," I would blame that first on the "legal Left," second on the state, but now that you mention it, the successful example of the PCP. The rise of the PCP showed the masses that they didn't have to put up with the perpetual begging and capitulation of the parliamentary cretins.
--- from list marxism@lists.village.virginia.edu ---
From owner-marxism Wed Sep 13 16:05:46 1995
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 12:05:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maoist Internationalist Movement
Subject: Re: Shining Path and Ridgway
On Mon, 11 Sep 1995, Louis N Proyect wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Sep 1995, Maoist Internationalist Movement wrote:
> >
> > Well Louis, we have come a long way in a short time since you
> > appear to agree with everything else I said in my post and
> > left it unchallenged and now
> > only pick at whether any North Amerikan leftists changed position
> > after the IU endorsed Fujimori. I'm sorry I'm not particularly
> > interested in handing over names of people who have integrity.
> > That is something for cops to do in their spare time.
> >
> Louis: I have to tip my hat to you for protecting the integrity of the
> leftists you cited. I'm very impressed. We certainly don't need to give the
> cops any assistance. I'm just relieved to know that you aren't just a lying,
> two-bit cultist who dreams up political support for his ultraleft
> fantasies the way Baron Munchausen made up stories.
>
MIM replies: I would hate to have to prove my own lack of self-delusion, and since you just claimed that you "love" to look into these
things, I invite you to do so. Why not try available published works
before and after Fujimori dictatorship. Does Solidarity support
IU before and after Fujimori etc.?
As for my "dreams," it matters not to me if the whole Euro-Amerikan
"Left" persisted in its support for the IU/Fujimori. That would only
clarify the muddiness and make our thesis on the labor aristocracy
all the more relevant.
So I pledge to be "entertained" whatever answer you come up
with in your research and I promise not to let my dreams interfere.
Either way I will dream a) The Amerikan Left persists in its
craven support for IU b) Some of it saw the light and actually
had the ingerity to either shut up or criticize what it formerly
supported.
Pat for Maoist Internationalist Movement
--- from list marxism@lists.village.virginia.edu ---
From owner-marxism Wed Sep 13 17:47:25 1995
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 1995 13:47:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maoist Internationalist Movement
Subject: Re: Shining Path and Ridgway
On Mon, 11 Sep 1995, Jim Jaszewski wrote:
>
> On Mon, 11 Sep 1995, Maoist Internationalist Movement wrote:
>
> > > Such ultra-left violence has shown again and again that it ends
> > > up COSTING the People's support -- and the Revolution. Hell -- even if
> > > they win, every indication is of Pol Pot II...
> >
> > MIM replies: You didn't answer my question: "Are there
> > any revolutions that have occurred that you supported that
> > didn't have such violence?"
>
> We're not talking about crimes during wartime -- we're talking
> about Party POLICY.
MIM replies: There is a fine line between lies and polemic.
If Jim were a journalist, I'd say this is a lie, because
journalists are supposed to report fact. Since I read this
on an academic list, I take it to be more nihilism.
Show us where this extreme violence you claim is party policy.
At the bottom of this post I will add more on this subject.
You need to read Gonzalo for the party's policy. There you
will see that official policy is to "dip our handkerchiefs"
"in the rivers of blood" spilled by the regime.
People who want to read official documents from the PCP--in English,
Spanish and French--can ftp ftp.etext.org and check under
/pub/archive/etext/MIM.essays
>
>
> > Nihilism--a generally destructive approach--is easy. Intellectuals
> > are prone to it, because their careers are built on picking
> > apart ideas and making their own seem "original." That is their
> > role in the productive process so to speak.
> >
> > If your ideas about what is "COSTING" support are true,
> > then there should be some evidence in revolutions that succeeded.
> > These days, from the ultraleft--the real Trotskyists, and the
> > real anarchists--and the right, such as the social-democratic wannabes
> > so common in the de-Sovietization process--there is a general
> > avoidance of WHAT WORKS in bringing about class struggle victoriously.
> > Across the board there is a return to pre-science,
> > a return to pre-Marxist ideology--a secular religion of communism.
>
> I'm sure that's too often the case, but you would be wrong to
> imply that your organization is the only one willing to bite the bullet...
>
MIM replies: Where did we say MIM was the only organization
undertaking scientific enterprise? For those who read this list
as new Marxists, the above is a very common oversimplification
of Lenin used for knocking down as a straw man. Such Lenin-baiting
is common amongst post-modern intellectuals who see no truth
to struggle for. Rather than state this directly, these
post-modern intellectuals attack Leninists for allegedly
claiming they individually are the only ones who hold truth.
Facts be known though, at least from my experience, you
won't find anyone claiming Leninism who believes he or she
or only its organization is the only one employing science.
You will find people like MIM claiming that they are more
correct relatively speaking than others. Furthermore, you
will find people like MIM who some fraction of the time
run into people like Jim who seem to employ no scientific method,
only idealism. (I have read nothing from Jim prior to
joining this list three days ago, but I am responding to what
Jim has said to us in this short period of time.)
If we judge Jim's posts these last 2 or 3 days, then yes,
we conclude that Jim does not utilize science, only comparisons
of real-world revolutions to his/her morally absolute principles.
That is a uniquely ideological exercise--common to Christianity
and utilization of the Ten Commandments. It has nothing to do
with science.
As we said, we respect anarchist pacifists. They are pre-scientific
and a great ally of the revolution in the imperialist countries.
(Pacifists are not so good in situations of immediate armed struggle
against imperialism.) Judging the last couple days, I hold out
some hope for Jim J. to take up consistent
anarchism as the way for Jim J. to blow off the maximal amount of
nihilist steam.
If Jim J. wants absolute moral principles, I cannot offer any, but
I can suggest the following enterprise: go to Peru; live as a Peruvian;
if Jim J. is willing to die of starvation or government repression
and is still unwilling to support the PCP violence, then Jim J. is
someone of high principle. Meanwhile, in the imperialist countries,
we think Jim J. is overly obsessed with the political violence
which he and Louis Proyect seem to to think is always about to
engulf them. Their fear of "Stalinists" threatening their middle-class
privileges is the only rational explantion for their disproportionate
response to the People's War in Peru.
Pat for MIM
----
MAOIST INTERNATIONALIST MOVEMENT
POSITION PAPER ON VIOLENCE, PART I
Last edit: 8/26/92
People wonder what Comrade Gonzalo means about "lagoons of blood"
being spilled by the existing order in Peru and why the Maoists
are only "dipping their handerkerchiefs" trying to cross the river.
For starters, comrade Gonzalo went to China in the 1960s, and what
he saw there under Mao is something he found that Peru still needs
today. In fact, World Bank figures would back him up.
Peru in 1988 had a per capita annual income of $1,300 while China
had one of $330. However, in Peru the life expectancy was 62, while
it was 70 in China. (China's hasn't changed much since China turned
capitalist. The basic accomplishment came under Mao before 1976.)
People on this net are fairly scientifically adept. If they think about
it they can realize what it means that a country is four times
richer than another (on average), while it has only 88.6% of the
life expectancy: It means the poor are being killed off from
malnutrition and inadequate basic public health measures.
The gini coefficient in Peru is about double what it was in China
under Mao--.458. The gini coefficient is a measure of income
inequality.
Further proof of this is that the average per-capita calorie
supply in Peru actually declined between 1965 and 1986.
The daily figure was 2,325 calories in 1965 and 2,246 in 1986,
down 3.4 percent.
This is not an occasional bombing. This is a certain fraction of
the population dying because Peru doesn't follow the socialist
road. That is not to mention that the Peruvian army kills several
times as many people as the Senderos do in combat.
Elsewhere, we will compare the non-violent road of Gandhi in India
and the revolutionary road of Mao Zedong in China and show that Mao's
road was much less bloody.
We Maoists know that it doesn't matter to the dead and dying whether
they die from socially-caused starvation or a bullet: either way
they are dead. Capitalist societies are insensitive not just to
militarism but economic violence.
By the way, the source for this post is the four bourgeois economists
Malcolm Gillis, Dwight Perkins, Michael Roemer and Donald Snodgrass,
three of which work on government grants at the Harvard Institute of
International Development. Economics of Development, 3rd ed., NY:
W.W. Norton & Co., p.10, p. 76, p. 251. These economists favor
export-led development like south Korea's, back the IMF and
multinational corporate investment in the Third World.
Maoist Internationalist Movement, PO Box 3576, Ann Arbor, MI
48106-3576
--- from list marxism@lists.village.virginia.edu ---
From owner-marxism Mon Sep 18 21:26:17 1995
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 1995 17:26:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maoist Internationalist Movement
Subject: Re: MRTA in Peru.
Matt D. is essentially correct. MRTA is
the pro-Cuban group that I already described
as the one to openly capitulate to the
regime. In addition to the bourgeois press, MIM spoke
to a Patria Roja member supportive of any
organization on the "left," but the PCP. According
to him, in 1993 the MRTA was through. MIM Notes readers
are informed of this already.
Here is another
reason to subscribe to MIM Notes. MIM Notes uncovered
the basis for false rumors concerning the PCP and gays/lesbians.
It was simple confusion of the MRTA and the PCP.
"In a small investigation conducted since September, 1992, MIM
had found a pattern in false or misleading accusations against the PCP.
A press release from a gay rights activist group in San
Francisco contains the following:
'In 1987, in the jungle town of Pucallpa, the MRTA [
Revolucionario Tupac Amaru, the armed pro-Cuban organization]
executed 7 gay men in one of the streets, as part of their
'cleaning of undesirables' actions. MHOL,
which was formed in 1982, is the only openly gay group in
Peru. The group has been outspoken on gay rights and has
condemned the violence imposed on the population of the country
for more than 12 years by the MRTA and Sendero Luminoso
(Shining Path).
'This is just another reminder that gays, according to these
groups, have no right exist. It is an attempt to
discourage our work and stop our struggle,' says an MHOL
member.
In speaking with the activist, MIM found that the attack
on the PCP was unfounded, as the activist
distributing the press release admitted:
'The press release. . . did not specifically mention
abuses against gays by Sendero Luminoso. It simply
said that MOHL condemned the violence imposed on the
population of the country by the MRTA and
Sendero Luminoso."
We criticized the activist further for this kind of
association of the PCP with supposedly repressing
the rights of gays to exist and the activist agreed
that he would have to look into it and that other views
are valuable.
MIM Notes, March 1993, p. 7.
If you subscribe to MIM Literature, you also find that
MIM has forced the Americas Watch to admit that it was
championing a government official in the Peruvian regime,
which PCP had killed when the Americas Watch had initially
protrayed her simply as one of a handful of women
the PCP killed as part of their "systematic" killing of women.
Since Louis N Proyect upholds Cuba as a model--going
beyond defending as a a nation oppressed by imperialism
as all internationalists must--he should look into this and come
back with a report, especially since he has yet to admit that
he was wrong about IU and wrong to suggest that there
was choice other than between the PCP and the regime.
Jamal Hannah should also tell us how a group whose last
actions were to make threatening phone calls to gays--how
such an organization is really an alternative to the PCP?
This is where idealism leads-- first to criticizing
practice with ideals and then when cornered for
idealism to turn to anything but the PCP.
Pat for MIM
On Mon, 18 Sep 1995, Louis N Proyect wrote:
> What are your sources for the information below?
>
> Louis
>
> On Mon, 18 Sep 1995, Matt D. wrote:
>
> > My understanding is that they had a rather incongruously bifurcated
> > self-identity as sort of a focoist crystallization point for the revolution
> > in the countryside, and as armed support for the "popular movements" in the
> > cities. The inadequacy of focoismo has been historically demonstrated
> > (sadly, by Che himself) and needs no recounting here. As for their "armed
> > support" role, they made the typical revisionist mistake of believing that
> > the "popular movements" could actually acquire state power, for example with
> > the inaugartion of the APRA government in the mid-eighties (dates here,
> > anyone?). They declared a "truce" with the government (as if they were
> > equals!), which meant that they basically hung around and waited for the
> > army and police to get around to completely fucking them up, which of course
> > is what happened.
> >
>
>
> --- from list marxism@lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>
From owner-marxism Thu Sep 21 14:46:38 1995
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1995 10:46:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Maoist Internationalist Movement
Subject: Re: A unique new theory about the CPP?
On Wed, 20 Sep 1995, Marc Luzietti wrote:
[tons deleted]
>
>
>
> On Fri, 15 Sep 1995, Matt D. wrote:
>
> > Marc Luzietti wrote:
> >
> > >Sendero, in fact, had a huge hand in the destruction of the NON-PCP left.
>
> However, as for MIM3's contention that the CPP doesn't kill gays,
> "Louis Cachay, president of the San Martin Defence Front explains, '[. . .]
> That is what Sendero offers: protection. Besides, in this region, since
> there is a lot of money, there is alcohol, paretying, violence. . . .
> Sendero puts an end to all that and puts everyone to work. And they close
> the discotheques, the brothels, *KILL THE HOMOSEXUALS* and they send the
> prostitues packing.'" (emphesis added). This was from a supporter.
MIM replies: I forgot to say that according to our gay activist source
in San Francisco working on this, "there are no documented cases" of PCP gay-bashing. If there were, MIM would criticize them; we don't tolerate those kinds of divisions in our movements, because it is hard enough to rebuild the genuine communist movement without splitting over
who you sleep with.
I have seen this quote above before and can't remember the context
or investigation. You are saying this is what a random member of the
masses said, right? Do you have any way of knowing if this member
of the masses could distinguish MRTA and PCP? (Let's face it; in
a region under contention, some people with guns named XYZ and
some others with guns named QRS may look the same to some folks.)
In addition, we have checked with the PCP itself on this numerous times
and have been told there is no policy on homosexuals. So I would
not doubt that some masses mistake MRTA and the PCP and support the
PCP because MRTA killed some gays.
Another possibility is that PCP killed a government official who
happens to be gay and then some rumors started. That's just speculation
based on what happened with the issue of women that I will talk about next.
Some seem to think if you are a woman in a fascist regime, you should
be protected from violence from the people, while male fascists are
fair game. Hence, if you have those assumptions, and the people's
military forces kill a woman government official, you say the
PCP is "anti-woman." And of course that is absurd given that the PCP
has a nearly equal proportion of women in places of power, certainly
better than any organization in Peru or the government there or
the U.S. government.
>
> My main problems with Sendero is with their habit of offing their
> rivals. One could very easily suppose that the IU amd MRTA backed the
> government because the CPP was killing them, than from any assumptions in
> the supposed good will of a dictatorial regime.
>
MIM replies: I would have a problem too, if those "rivals" were just
members of the people. In the case of the IU, "rivals" turn out to
be mayors, vice-mayors, army or otherwise involved in military activity
against the PCP. It really reminds me of how Hitler turned around
and used all these social-democrats.
As for MRTA, your quote above is pretty convincing. When there
is a conflict over who governs an area, there is going to be
a firefight. But let's remember that the MRTA-PCP violence though
spectacular news, is a tiny, tiny (and confused) portion of what
goes on.
> Be that as it may, of the 25,000 deaths in the civil war, the
> *VAST* majority are commited by the government, at least 20,000 of them.
> As well, about 15,000 children die prematurely in Peru. The government's
> murdering of its own people fully outweigh any "excesses" by the CPP.
> Despite the fact that they will undoubtedly make the rivers of Peru run
> red with blood after they win (and I have no doubt that they will),
> things will probably get better for the average Peruvian. That said, it
> won't be socialism, but a very rigid authoritarian dictatorship of the
> Party.
>
> Marc Luzietti
MIM replies: The more we support the PCP, the less it's dictatorship
will hang by a thread, and the less it will feel compelled to
use violence to hang on to prevent the return of worse violence.
Pat for MIM
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