Hail the Seventh Anniversary of Gonzalo's "Speech from the Cage"!
Celebrate the People's War in Peru this October 1st!
by the International Minister, September 16, 1999
October 1st marks the 50th anniversary of Mao's liberation of China from semi-feudalism and semi-colonialism. It is a bittersweet day for us Maoists, because we celebrate on the one hand while mourning the takeover of revisionism in October, 1976 on the other hand. Of the 50 years since Mao's liberation of China, only 27 were under genuine dictatorship of the proletariat. The rest have been capitalist dictatorship--the legalized enforcement of starvation, homelessness and unnecessary disease.
The sadness and bitterness we feel regarding the restoration of capitalism makes it all the more important to celebrate the new Maoist People's Wars going on throughout the world in Peru, Turkey, the Philippines, Nepal, India, Bangladesh and elsewhere. In the language of North Amerikans, these countries have Maoist parties making a reality of the people's "rights to self-defense." Fighting starvation, homelessness and exploitation-caused disease with People's War is self-defense. Supporting these struggles is the duty of every imperialist country communist, for the new People's Wars are the true celebration of the 50th anniversary of Mao's liberation of China.
The parties conducting Maoist People's Wars are more advanced than the incipient Maoist organizations in the imperialist countries. The Third World comrades have been through the hottest furnace of class struggle--the armed struggle. Yet, it would be easy to make the mistake of thinking there is nothing that we of the imperialist countries can do for these struggles. We say to all who read this that supporting these struggles is as good as supporting MIM itself. We must steel ourselves and become more efficient in supporting these struggles.
September 24th marked the seventh anniversary of the speech of Comrade Gonzalo from the cage in Peru. He was placed behind bars in typical jail pinstripes after his arrest September 12, 1992, but Comrade Gonzalo still told the media watching the spectacle that his capture would only be a "bend in the road."
The arrest of comrade Gonzalo was a very difficult moment for us abroad gearing up to support the People's War in Peru. It was especially difficult because the struggle is not something that the people of the imperialist countries should go to casually visit. Visiting the People's War is in fact a bad idea and may create opportunities for the Fujimori regime.
Although we cannot go to Peru to celebrate the 50th anniversary of October 1st, 1949, we can take this moment to hail comrade Luis Arce Borja and his publication El Diario International published out of Belgium. A number of charlatans and police agents arose to take advantage of the aftermath of Chairpersyn Gonzalo's arrest in 1992. Some of El Diario International's own previous supporters turned around and blocked distribution of El Diario International in the aftermath of the "Peace Accords" idea of 1993. Yet, even abroad in the movement to support the People's War, the enemy is not successful.
Some have sought to oppose Luis Arce Borja in the name of international organizational principles. They have missed the principal struggle at-hand here in the imperialist countries regarding the arrest of Gonzalo. Although MIM has always had its disagreements with Chairpersyn's Gonzalo's Maoist party in Peru including before the arrest of Gonzalo, MIM and others can put aside various disagreements and focus on what the necessary principles of unity abroad must be in such circumstances. Those principles must be above all continuity in the face of U.$.-Fujimori attacks.
As the dust settles after desperate enemy attempts to crush the movement to support the People 's War in Peru, Luis Arce Borja still stands as the persyn continuing comrade Gonzalo's work in the imperialist countries. MIM calls on the genuine communists located in the imperialist countries to rally around Luis Arce Borja. In this way we do not have to visit the comrades in Peru to do our part to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Mao's liberation of China or the seventh anniversary of Chairpersyn Gonzalo's speech from the cage.
Read Gonzalo's historic speech of 1992