From: pnews@igc.apc.org (Hank Roth)
Newsgroups: alt.society.revolution
Subject: BIDOM on SENDERO (2)
Date: 27 Jan 93 10:01:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1672200008:000:14074
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!pnews    Jan 27 02:01:00 1993


/* Written  1:56 am  Jan 27, 1993 by pnews in igc:p.news */
/* ---------- "BIDOM on SENDERO (2)" ---------- */
<<< via P_news/p.news >>>
{From IN DEFENSE OF MARXISM (BIDOM), #102, January 1993}
INTERVIEW WITH DAVID TRUJILLO:
THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN PERU AND THE ACTIVITY OF SENDERO 
LUMINOSO
 
[David Trujillo, a leader of the left in Peru and a member of the 
PUM, was interviewed by Marty Goodman and wrote out his responses 
in Spanish in November 1992. They were translated by F.Mailman.]
 
                               -2-
 
MARIATEGUI'S VIEW
 
Mariategui's view was that despite the existence of different 
modes of production in Peru --- primitive on the Amazon and 
semi-feudal in the Anean sierra --- capitalism still had 
hegemony. In a polemic against the APRA and the Comintern, 
Mariategui siad, "The Latin American revolution can only be above 
all a part of the world revolution. It will be, simple and pure, 
the socialist revolution. To this word can be added, in some 
cases, all the adjectives you want: anti-imperialist, agrarian, 
revolutionary-natinalist. Socialism assumes them, precedes them, 
encompasses them."
 
This sentence can be subscribed to by any Trotskyist, since it 
contains the very essence of permanent revolution. This is not by 
accident. Mariategui did his apprenticeship as a Marxist studying 
the documents of the Communsit Interantional of Lenin and Trotsky 
in Italy, as recorded by the historian Alberto Flores Galindo. 
Later he drew his own political conclusions from the experience of 
the first Chinese revolution, which reaffirmed to him the thesis 
that only the proletariat can meaningfully go the distance, and 
as the leader of all oppressed classes, must inevitably carry out 
a socialist revolution. 
 
As we see, in spite of the fact that SL presents itself a 
follower of Mariategui, in practice it follows Ravinez, who years 
later became part, with all his baggage, of the most reactionary 
sector of the Peruvian bourgeoisie.
 
MUCH OF THE TERRITORY CONTROLLED BY SL IS INHABITED BY INDIAN 
PEOPLES. YET, PARADOXICALLY, SL'S LITERATURE DOES NOT CALL FOR 
FIGHTING THE RULING MESTIZO CULTURE'S OPPRESSION OF THE INDIAN 
PEOPLE. HOW DO YOU EXPLIAN THIS?
 
This can only be explained by the fundamentalism of so-called 
"Gonzalo thought." In order to achieve the necessary level of 
fanaticism in its followers, SL had to construct a world view 
which, like the Catholic catechism, leaves no room for doubt. 
Peruvian researcher Carlos Ivan Degregori noted precisely this 
fact in the doctoral thesis written by Guzman, in which the 
history of Peru is concentrated in three chapters carrying us 
"from the darkness to the light." In the first chapter, according 
to Degregori, the coolness of the text toward the pre-Hispanic 
civiliztions is quite noticeable. "Within the classist vision (of 
Guzman) ethnicity plays no role. What is important is the 
emergence of the state and of classes, during Tiwanaku and Wari. 
The conquest is a simple change of exploiters. Paradise is in the 
future."
 
The second chapter of the Senderist catechism, "On how the light 
emerged and iron was forged," is dedicated to Mariategui and to 
the young Peruvian proletariat, with phrases that are also 
religious: "A most pure light began to emerge, a resplendent 
light, that light we carry in our breasts, in our souls. That 
light was founded with the land and that clay became iron. From 
the light, clay, iron, emerged EL PARTIDO in 1929..."
 
The third chapter deals with the recent history of Peru and the 
history of Sendero Luminoso up to its supposed achievement of 
"strategic balance":
 
   "The people will become aroused, will arm themselves and, 
   rising in rebellion, will bind imperialism and the reactionaries 
   hand and foot, will grab their throats, will tear their flesh: 
   and, necessarily, will strangle them, necessarily. The 
   reactionary flesh will shred will become tatters, and that black 
   scum will disappear into the mud; what remains will be burned and 
   the wind will disperse the ashes throughout the land in order 
   that nothing will remain but an unfortunate memory of what shall 
   never happen again because it cannot and must not happen again." 
 
Finally, Guzman defines what communism is:
 
    "The society of "great harmony," a radical and definitive new 
    society toward which 15 billion yars of matter in motion, that 
    part of etneral matter which we know, has been moving in a 
    necessary and irresistible direction...
 
    "[The] only, the irreplaceable new society, without exploited 
    or exploiters, without oppressed or oppressors, without classes, 
    without the state, without parties, without democracy, without 
    weapons, without wars" [PCP, 1968] 
 
A concept as elaborate as this cannot permit any doubt, 
especially if the "means of persuasion," or rather, sufficiently 
violent resources, are available to get all Senderist militants 
to think alike, unanimously. 
 
CAN YOU EXPLIAN THE SUCCESS SL HAS ACHIEVED IN ATTRACTING WOMEN 
TO ITS BANNER?
 
The particpation of women in politics is not new in Peru. It is 
in the Inca mythology, where in the founding of the empoire Manco 
Capac and Mama Ocllo are equally recognized. During the 
resistance against the Spanish, the women had their outstanding 
role because during the grat genocide, millions of men were 
decimated. It was the surviving women who in priciple preferrred 
to kill their children to prevent them from becoming slaves for 
the Spanish. Then, during Tupac Amaru's uprising, a women was 
recognized in a leadership role, Micaela Basidas, and then there 
was the sacrifice of those women who continued the resistence. Int 
he struggle for independence Maria Parado de Bellido is also 
remembered: she was shot by the Spanish. In the case of Sendero, 
women's access to certain levels of leadership is the result of 
the fgact that in the actions of the early years, and above all 
the notable repression in 1983-84, many men died or were 
arrested, so the women took up the struggle at many levels of 
leadership. 
 
We must remember once again that SL is above all the party of 
"Chairman Gonzalo," an absolutely patriarchal leader who refers 
to the women of the party as "my daughters," reproducing a 
herarchic and protective tie. A researcher, rosa Mavila Leon, 
pointed out how the usefulness of the women ot SL and more 
specifically to Guzman was revealed in the course of violent 
actions, "Because in the action of war they believed their 
equality was concretized by the obligation to be as or more 
courageous than the men, and in this way obtain the men's 
respect," thus becoming "the most macha among the machos" 
(Presente y Futuro de las Mujeres de la Guerra" [Present and 
Future of the Women of War], in the magazine QUE HACER, October 
1992).
 
SL WOMEN CANNOT BE MOTHERS
 
In the same article an interview with a Senderist illustrates 
another point: "The Senderist women cannot be mothers, and couples 
are subject to absolute rules; marriage [is permitted], but 
according to rank, the officers with officers, the leaders with 
leaders." And still another point: "...the emotional issues 
linked with sexuality are not compatible with the concept of 
militancy."
 
In any case, the supposed high value that SL places on women is 
countered by the brutal killing, ordered by Guzman himself --- 
which he admitted at his trial --- of Maria Elena Moyano, whose 
body was blown up with dynamite after she was killed. This is 
nothing more than part of the same exclusivity with which Sendero 
always acts. Just as there can be no revolution other than 
theirs, no other party but themselves, no alternative but theirs, 
neither canthere be women revolutionaries outside their ranks. It 
was not only Moyana but other women leaders of the Vaso de Leche 
(Glass of Milk) program who had to pay with their lives for being 
courageous and revolutionary but opposed to Sendero Luminoso.
 
THE SL IS KNOWN FOR ITS "MORALIZING" CAMPAIGNS. IN PEASANT 
VILLAGES POPULAR COMMITTEES ARE SET UP BY SL THAT REGULATE LOCAL 
PRODUCTION AND CIVIL DISPUTES BUT ALSO WEDDINGS, PROHIBITIONS ON 
INFIDELITY, DRINKING, PROSTITUTION, AND HOMOSEXUALITY. AN SL 
"FOUNDER", ACCORIDNG TO PERUVIAN JOURNALIST AND POLITICAL ANALYST 
JOSE E. GONZALES, SAID OF THE TOWN OF LA MORADA, "THE CAMPANEROS 
BEHAVE WELL...THEY HELPED US GET RID OF THE HOMOSEXUALS, 
PROSTITUTES, AND CRIMINALS THAT USED TO GATHER AROUND HERE. THEY 
TOLD THEM TO LEAVE; THOSE THAT DIDN'T SHOWED UP DEAD IN THE 
ROAD." WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SUCH CAMPAIGNS?
 
This reflects various factors. First, the scarce presence of the 
Peruvian state in helping to resolve the problems of daily life. 
In the years 1958-64, years of the great struggle for land which 
the FIR and Hugo Blanco headed, and in which more than 700 
peasant unions were created, one must remember that such 
organizations also fulfilled the fuction of resolving marital 
conflicts and even popular justice. (Incidentally they too 
harassed prostitutes and homosexuals, but did not kill them, as 
the SL later did.)
 
The performance of such fuctions led Blanco to say that the 
peasant unions became a "dual power." In the case of the 
Senderists, this actions is very different, becasue the party 
replaces the action of the masses with paternalistic behavior. 
 
THE U.S. RULING CLAS HAS SPENT MILLIONS COMBATING THE ALLEGED 
LINK BETWEEN SL IN THE UPPER HUALLAGA VALLEY, WHERE IT IS 
POWERFUL, AND THE INTENSE HARVESTING THERE OF THE COCA LEAF (USED 
IN PRODUCING COCAINE). WHAT IS THE TRUTH?
 
First of all it must be pointed out that the U.S. ruling class 
acts hypocritically and in an imperialist manner in its supposed 
struggle against drug trafficking. First, it places all he 
responsibility on Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, producer countries 
of one of the raw materials used for cocoaine: the coca leaf. The 
coca leaf does not convert itself into cocaine; it needs chemical 
inputs; which are produced in the untied states, and if their 
production and sale were controlled, that would be the key to the 
struggle against the production of drugs and therfore for the 
control of drug trafficking. 
 
But the ruling class in the united states prefers to combat the 
poor Peruvian peasants rather than confront the powerful 
industrialists who manufacture the chemicals used to make 
cocaine. Thus, ignoring the peasants' demands, it proceeds to 
combat the coca harvests with pesticides and bactericides, which 
are damaging the econology of the region. The peasants have shown 
themselves willing to replace that crop. In some cases they have 
cultivated rice and then have seen their harvest rot, because the 
Peruvian government did not resolve the problem of 
transportation. At the same time, it appears that the brains of 
the North American government are more comfortable killing 
Indians. There is no other way to explain the prioritization of 
the military and repressive aspects against thousands of people 
who have the right to earn their living by working. 
 
That is the reason why the SL and MRTA, who are rivals for the 
control of the zone of Alto Huallaga, have had a relative success 
in defense of the producers of the coca leaf, producing better 
prices for them from the drug traffickers who buy the leaf. They 
have also defended the area against joint U.S. --- Peruvian 
government repression. People must be aware that the United 
States also has a military base in the Alto Huallaga and that the 
guerrillas have already shot down a military helicopter belonging 
to that invasion force.
 
Lastly there is a curious "strategic balance" in the Alto 
Huallaga among the North American-Peruvian forces and the MARTA 
and SL guerrillas. It is a fact that drug trafficking is so 
powerful in this zone that it permits the existence of this 
"balance." It is known that not only Peruvian army officers but 
also the U.S. army itself is involved in the resulting 
corruption. 
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