Excerpt from Sendero Luminoso on Mao Zedong Ch. 8 from "CPP and Mao Tsetung"
Central Committee The Communist Party of Peru, December 1987 Reproduced by the People's Movement Peru of France. Distributed by the Comite Sol Peru
Re-distributed by the Maoist Internationalist Movement on September 7, 1992
[The Maoist Internationalist Movement is proud to present these excerpts from the political documents of the Communist Party of Peru led by Comrade Gonzalo. To our knowledge, this is the first time these documents appear in the world of electronic communications. Since the original language of the translators is not English, we take some liberties in changing the grammar and idiomatic phrases of Maoism.]
Chapter 8: "Chairperson Mao and the Objective Situation in the Backward Countries" written in September 1979 and redistributed in December, 1987
Chairperson Mao Tsetung employed the term "objective situation" to analyze the revolutionary situation or the objective conditions for the revolution and its development in the backward countries, that is, semi-feudal and semi-colonial countries; he starts from the necessity of penetrating into the essence of things and not staying at simple appearances. For him, it is fundamental to take into account the semi- feudal basis and the imperialist oppression that weighs on the backward countries, in which the revolution is a democratic revolution, that is, anti-feudal and anti-imperialist revolution, and whose development demands the armed struggle from the countryside to the cities through revolutionary base areas as the new State that upsurges accordingly as the old reactionary landlord-bureaucratic State is being destroyed. This is fundamental in order to understand the specific conditions that a revolutionary situation acquires in a semi- feudal and semi-colonial society, and its development in those societies.
Chairperson Mao Tsetung established the conditions that comprise the objective situation and mainly the contradictions that arise, and the development of which derives the unfolding of the revolution, that is in essence armed struggle and the unavoidable triumph of the revolution. As it can be seen in point 4 of his work "A single spark can start a prairie fire," he emphasizes the following points and contradictions:
1) On the international level, a development of the contradictions among imperialist countries. Evidently, today these contradictions are sharper than yesterday, and the struggle for world hegemony between the two superpowers, U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism grows more each day. This derives in our country as contradictions among the exploiters, mainly of the grand bourgeoisie as can be seen in recent times in their factions: bureaucratic bourgeoisie and comprador bourgeoisie, contradictions that, far from diminishing, will continue developing.
2) Contradiction between the reactionary rulers and the vast masses of taxpayers. Among us, the growth of the state apparatus necessarily leads to tax increases that fall upon the vast masses of people and, furthermore, the state economy evolves in a constant budgetary crisis; the process followed under the present regime and the present situation clearly show the above, as well as that it is the masses of people that through indirect taxation suffer more and more the state expenditures, a situation that is worsening each time more and will continue worsening.
3) Contradiction between imperialism and national industry. Also among us this contradiction is obvious; the industry in our country is all the time more subdued to the imperialist rule, and the access to their markets more limited; on the other hand, the aggression of foreign merchandises run by imperialism limits national industry and the financial impositions of imperialism sink it more in economic recession, even worsened by the world crisis. As stated by Mariategui, imperialism does not allow the development of a national industry.
4) Contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the working class. Seeking to escape from their difficulties, the capitalists "try to find an outlet by means of an unbridled exploitation on the workers, and the latter oppose them." This statement of Chairperson Mao's is proved among us everyday to satiety, mainly we see it today in the development of the crisis which our country is suffering in recent years. In synthesis, we see how brutally the salaries are shrunk; the working day hours are increased and hard work conditions are imposed in order to safeguard enterprises' profits; but facing this we see the resistance of the proletariat through persistent strike struggle, even against all forms of harassment and repression, suspension of guaranties and the state of emergency.
5) An even greater deepening of the contradiction between the landlord class and the peasantry. In this country, the State has assumed the collection of territorial rental through the agrarian debt, the imperialist investment mainly through the Banco Agrario and the control of all the associative system (cooperatives, SAIS, etc.) in agricultural production and, furthermore, it maintains servile forms of production, thus joining the old feudal landlord exploitation. In this way, the situation of the peasantry is worsened due to the evolution of feudalism stamped by the agrarian law and the penetration of bureaucratic capitalism in the countryside.
6) The merchants of national products and the independent producers are pushed more each time towards bankruptcy. Today the economic crisis clearly shows the validity of this statement. It is enough to remember the bankruptcy situation faced by the small industrial production and small trade, as well as the small mining; let us emphasize the serious situation the street vendors suffer, on whom also repression falls. But the situation hits even the middle producers.
7) The reactionary government increases its troops unlimitedly. In our country the development and reinforcement of the reactionary armed and police forces is evident, both in number and weaponry, with the creation of new repressive corps and the wider range of their functions and the greater control they exercise upon all the functions of society. Evidently, this process will be further developed.
8) Hunger and banditry extend all over the country. The Peruvian masses of people suffer chronic hunger, but today the crisis is even greater; really the masses, specifically the poor peasantry, have nothing to feed on, and with hunger sickness comes at its side, fattening itself mainly on children and youth. Delinquency expands more and more, and cattle stealing increases in the countryside backed by the authorities themselves.
9) The vast peasant masses and the urban poor find themselves in a situation in which they can hardly keep alive. This verification made by Chairperson Mao in China is also a cruel reality among us. Misery settles more and more among the masses of people of our country.
10) Due to the lack of budgetary means, many students fear to be unable to continue their studies. With regard to our country this is also true. The budget for education as well as that for health, decreases, and education agitates in deep crisis; in this way, many students quit studying due to the lack of academic centers and, moreover, due to the lack of resources.
11) Due to the backward character of production, many graduated students have no hope of finding work. Among us, this situation also happens, thousands of graduated students work in anything but in their profession.
This is how Chairperson Mao Tsetung judges the revolutionary situation in the backward countries, and when he analyzes the contradictions that the objective situation presents, he finds the material basis that gives support to the armed struggle, its development and triumph. From the above we can see that in our country a similar objective situation is given, and the same contradictions are developing. All this is very evident. They are contradictions that are developing and in no way can they be solved by a reactionary government; furthermore, we all know that the contradictions that can not be solved sharpen; therefore, the objective situation in our country is and will be more propitious for the development of the revolution, for the development of its superior form, the armed struggle; in consequence, the question is to initiate the armed struggle, this is the unavoidable perspective of our condition as a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country. What other perspective can our country have? What other road can we follow in Peru? What other hope can our masses of people and the proletariat possess?
Chairperson Mao Tsetung, concluding his analysis said: "Once we understand all these contradictions, we shall see in what a desperate situation, what a chaotic state China finds itself. We shall also see that the high tide of revolution against the imperialists, the warlords and the landlords is inevitable and will come very soon. All China is littered with faggots, which will soon be aflame."
Following our country the same laws of the revolution, being our situation similar as well as our perspective, can we think in a different manner? No, in no way.
But, furthermore, Chairperson Mao Tsetung has established a brilliant distinction between a revolutionary situation in development and a stationary revolutionary situation, as can be seen in point 3 of chapter II of his work "Why is it that red power can exist in China?" Chairperson Mao starts from that in a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country, as ours is, there always exists a revolutionary situation, or an objective situation, as he calls it, for the development of armed struggle, but this is presented in two forms: 1) stationary revolutionary situation, and 2) revolutionary situation in development. Moreover, analyzing his statements, we can say that a stationary revolutionary situation can be transformed into a revolutionary situation in development through the action of the subjective conditions upon the objective situation; it is very important to keep this in mind. Furthermore, it is necessary to differentiate the unequal development of the revolutionary situation and to take into account that this situation can appear even in a region, and that the revolutionary action itself can generalize it in the whole country and that, also, armed struggle can be initiated in the midst of a general falling back of the revolution, as proven by the Uprising of the Autumn Crop in August of 1927 in China.
Develop the People's Growing Protest! September, 1979