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Persevere through the Swirling Currents of
the Two-Line Struggle!
In the past year,
people around the world have rallied to support the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) as it leads the People's War
there in opposition to the imperialists and the Right Opportunist
Line that is fighting to end the war. Meetings have been held in
many countries bringing together veteran revolutionaries and forces
new to Maoism; there have also been internal meetings and conferences,
where the members of parties and organizations have gone more deeply
into the two-line struggle, and important lessons have been drawn
on the implications of this struggle for advancing preparations
for People's War in their own countries. An important Regional Conference
of South Asian parties and organizations in the Revolutionary Internationalist
Movement (RIM) adopted a resolution signifying the high level of
unity achieved against the Right Opportunist Line (see page 25).
In all these forums, a key weapon has been the last issue of A
World to Win 1995/21, in particular CoRIM's Call to "Rally to
the Defence of Our Red Flag Flying in Peru" and the very important
document prepared by the Union of Communists of Iran (Sarbedaran),
"It's Right to Rebel". AWTW has come out in more languages
than usual, including not only English, Spanish, Farsi and Turkish,
but also French and German. This reflects the determination that
broader ranks of the world's revolutionaries should be enabled to
take up this battle in unity with their Peruvian brothers and sisters,
who are themselves courageously pursuing the People's War under
the leadership of the PCP Central Committee, in a living and powerful
refutation of the pessimistic conclusions of the Right Opportunist
Line (ROL).
Thus the two-line
struggle is being increasingly turned into a mass school of revolution
which is teaching rich lessons about matters vital to making revolution
in any country, including on the dynamics and laws of People's War,
on the revolutionary opportunities existing in the world today,
on the nature and role of revolutionary leadership, and on the character
of the party and two-line struggle within it, among many others.
An article entitled "A Hard Look at the Dangers and Opportunities"
(see page 26) makes use of the experience of groups and individuals
from around the world who have taken part in struggle against the
Right Opportunist Line. It concentrates some of the basic questions
and answers that have come up in the course of this campaign, and
makes the lessons from this struggle available on an even broader
basis.
Maoists believe
that struggle and change is permanent, and that the course of development
of any process is marked by twists and turns. This two-line struggle
has not been a neat and tidy affair, where the "good guys" and "bad
guys" line up squarely on opposite sides and go after each other
on a clear field of battle. Indeed, the Fujimori regime's attribution
of the Right Opportunist Line to Chairman Gonzalo himself has made
this struggle a complex and serious matter, with important elements
that were unknown right from the beginning. In this context, the
desertion of a leading member of the PCP Central Committee to the
ROL, not long after her capture, and her claim that her change of
line came about because of her conversations with Chairman Gonzalo,
has given added importance to the Maoist principle that what is
decisive in such struggles is the line itself, not the author. A
document from the RIM Committee, entitled "Twists and Turns in the
Two-Line Struggle" (see page 34), analyses this development
and pointedly concludes that this is a sharp refutation of tendencies
to underestimate the life-and-death character of this battle.
The swirling currents
in this two-line struggle have been stirred up further by an attack
on RIM by a handful of people in Europe and North America who try
to wrap themselves in the mantle of the People's War. Although they
are a motley crew with serious differences amongst themselves, they
have united on the basis of denying the existence of the two-line
struggle and insisting that it could be reduced to a "police plot".
More than a year ago, the most prominent spokesman of these forces,
Luis Arce Borja, editor of El Diario Internacional, vehemently
denounced RIM's determination to seriously investigate the two-line
struggle before reaching a public position, in an article entitled
"A Response to the 'Investigators' of RIM" (see page 78). When
CoRIM published its Call in March 1995, Arce escalated his attacks
further, showing that his anti-RIM offensive did not spring from
misguided impatience, but reflected his deep differences with RIM's
Maoist approach to the two-line struggle. At a time when supporters
of the Peruvian revolution all over the world need and expect the
unity of the revolutionary forces in support of the People's War
and in opposition to the Right Opportunist Line, Arce and a few
others have now made their central task carrying out a hysterical
campaign against RIM, of which the PCP is a founding participant.
A reply to Arce, "On the Maoist Conception of Two-Line Struggle"
(see page 36), was originally circulated privately in hopes of not
distracting attention from the fight against the ROL. It is now
being published here in AWTW in an effort to clarify how
Arce & Co's line departs from the Maoist understanding. Furthermore,
just as the "poisonous weeds" from the Right Opportunist Line in
Peru were included in the last issue of AWTW to enable readers
to deepen their understanding of the two-line struggle, by way of
negative example, so Arce's main attempt to refute RIM's basic approach
is included here. This article, unlike Arce's later diatribes, at
least has the merit of shedding light on the differences between
RIM and him on some important principles of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Unfortunately,
Arce & Co have not confined themselves to polemics against RIM's
line. Congregating on a forum in the electronic "virtual world"
of the Internet, they are now seeking to launch an international
organization in opposition to RIM. They attack CoRIM as "revisionist"
and "the main cause of immobilism" in the effort to support the
People's War and the PCP Central Committee, and declare that their
new organization is the centre of "all support work" internationally
for the PCP and the People's War. An article by an AWTW contributor
(see page 52), "Virtual Maoism and Real Opportunism", shows that
while these forces loudly proclaim their adherence to Maoism, what
brings them together is their opposition to the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist
line of RIM. It exposes some of the opportunist alliances that these
forces are already engaged in establishing.
The extensive
focus in this and the last issue of AWTW on the battle against
the Right Opportunist Line in Peru reflects the truth of Lenin's
observation some 80 years ago that the fight against imperialism
is "a sham and humbug" if it is not linked to the fight against
opportunism. It is in moments like these, when facing up to the
dangers of a full-scale effort to impose a non-Maoist line on the
party, that revolutionaries sharpen their own weapons and take big
leaps in making revolution. CoRIM's Call to rally to the defence
of the PCP Central Committee and the People's War is as urgent today
as when it was issued over a year ago: It is a clarion call to rise
to meet the new and unprecedented challenges facing the revolutionary
detachment in Peru and, in so doing, to strengthen the ability of
new detachments of the world's oppressed to rise in revolutionary
war.
Resolution
of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
The Revolutionary Internationalist
Movement has, in accordance with its principles of functioning,
conducted a vote of its participating parties and organizations
on three important resolutions concerning the two-line struggle
in the Communist Party of Peru. The following resolutions were approved
unanimously:
* RIM rejects
the right opportunist line of negotiating peace accords to end the
People's War in Peru.
* RIM reaffirms
its full support for the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of Peru and the heroic People's War that they are leading.
* The Revolutionary
Internationalist Movement endorses the Call made by CoRIM on 28
March 1995, to "Rally to the Defence of Our Red Flag Flying in Peru!"
September 1995
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