Here we want to share an inofficial translation of an article from the Brazilian newspaper "A Nova Democracia".
Peru, Turkey, Austria and Philippines: Maoists defend the immortal work of Chairman Gonzalo
As soon as the reactionary media monopolies announced the death of Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, Chairman Gonzalo, countless Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties, revolutionary and class organizations around the world issued declarations in defense of his revolutionary legacy. We publish below excerpts of four of the declarations: from the Popular Movement Peru (MPP), the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML), the Central Management Committee of the Committees for the Foundation of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Austria, and the Communist Party of the Philippines (PCF).
MPP: 'CHAIRMAN GONZALO HAS DEFEATED THE REACTIONARY PLAN TO DEAL A DEFINITIVE BLOW TO THE PEOPLE'S WAR!
The first organization to release a statement was the Popular Movement Peru (MPP), the Communist Party of Peru's (PCP) organism for international work. The party organization begins the note with a quote from Chairman Gonzalo about Chairman Mao Tsetung's teaching that "war is a quota of individual sacrifice." The quote taken by MPP from Chairman Gonzalo states, in this perspective, "these are heroic lives, well lived, gloriously invested, and above all, sealed on the battlefield, sowing communism."
The note goes on to communicate to the international proletariat and the peoples of the world that "Chairman Gonzalo gave his life" for ideology (Marxism-Leninism-Maoism), for the Party and for the People's War in "the highest luminous combat trench," in reference to the military prison at the Callao Naval Base. The announcement was made, according to the MPP, "with immense emotion and deep pain, with fist raised and chanting songs of war and victory, under the red flags with sickles and hammers hoisted to the top and firmly subject to the Chieftainship of President Gonzalo and his all-powerful thinking." The militants of the party organization refer to the application of the universal truths of the scientific ideology of the international proletariat to the concrete Peruvian reality that generated the Gonzalo thought, which is still in force, according to the statement.
The party organization goes on to state that "with the sacrifice of his own life, Chairman Gonzalo caused to fail the plan of the CIA-Indian reaction-LOD to destroy him as Head of the Party and of the revolution, as the greatest living Marxist-Leninist-Maoist on the face of the earth." Such a machination is characterized as "monstrous and infamous crime against the world's most important revolutionary prisoner of war, as part of the genocide against the Peruvian people, was consummated by the government mandate of the counterrevolutionary rondero Pedro Castillo Terronas."
All of Chairman Gonzalo's resistance during the 29 years he was imprisoned in the Callao Naval Base was, according to the MPP, "a great victory, political, military and moral for Maoism, for the Communist Party of Peru, for the people's war, for the democratic revolution in uninterrupted march to socialism and communism, for the class, for the Peruvian people and the peoples of the world, for the international communist movement," won by President Gonzalo who "keeps winning battles and serving the revolution."
The MPP also stated that it is sure that "the communists, the revolutionaries and the peoples of the world will mobilize themselves by highlighting this great achievement, the surrender of the life of President Gonzalo, in a daring and incandescent warlike challenge for the people's war to culminate in the seizure of power throughout the country and move immediately to develop the socialist revolution and through successive cultural revolutions, always with a people's war, to enter with all humanity into the ever golden communism.
The note also deals with the concrete situation surrounding the death of President Gonzalo: the sinister work of the reactionary government of the opportunist Pedro Castillo and the Right Opportunist Line (LOD). The MPP stressed that "the counter-revolutionary opportunist Pedro Castillo Terrones, upon assuming the presidency of the old Peruvian State, took on the task of consummating the assassination attempt against Chairman Gonzalo and announcing his death," and that only after the announcement of his death was a series of collusions between factions and groups of the big bourgeoisie, including the parliamentary "opposition" to Castillo's government, expressed in a series of events bringing together these reactionaries. The MPP claims that this was a "smokescreen for the consummation of the sinister plan.
So that for the organization for international work of the PCP, the surrender of his own life, by Chairman Gonzalo, "is a call to persist in the people's war." And that due to the fulfillment of this unbreakable decision to serve the popular masses "the life of Chairman Gonzalo, like that of the comrades of the party, fighters of the EPL [Popular Liberation Army, directed by the PCP] and comrades of the masses, as he [Gonzalo] had said: 'These are heroic lives, well lived, gloriously invested and, above all, sealed on the battlefield, sowing communism.'"
The MPP concludes the note by making a promise to build on this "heroic example of the Chefatura, of Chairman Gonzalo to gather this blood and to put it into our own flesh. Also stating that "the best homage we can give to them and we are giving it today is to persist on this path, on this course and we will not stop, as a Party, as a class, as masses, we will not stop with the international proletariat, with the Communist Parties and with the immense masses of the people of the planet, and we will not stop until communism"
TURKISH COMMUNISTS CLAIM THAT 'THE HEAD OF THE REVOLUTION OF TURKEY IS IMMORTAL!'
The Communist Party of Peru/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML) has issued a salute to the "ideological-political-organizational head of the glorious People's War led by the PCP, the valiant son of the Peruvian people and the international proletariat." The note also states that President Gonzalo's struggle "guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism will continue to grow."
The Turkish Maoists also asserted that it was Chairman Gonzalo who "led the PCP to the revolutionary war" through theoretical and practical contributions that were "results of a long-term struggle." Among the political contributions of the leadership of the PCP, according to the TKP/ML, was the determination that "the Peruvian Revolution would only be victorious through the Prolonged Popular War," begun in 1980 and conducted under his personal direction until 1992, enduring to this day despite the arrest of his leadership, "against the bloody, suffocating and destructive reactionary war of the fascist Republic of Peru."
The TKP/ML also addresses how President Gonzalo faced the situation of counterrevolution at the world level "in which Russian social-imperialism had taken off the mask of socialism and the propaganda of 'the era of socialism and revolution is over' was launched into the class struggle." In this context, the note states that President Gonzalo would "build a communist vein that would inspire Latin America," "succeeded in making the Peruvian people an active subject," and that as the People's War "was developing, advancing and marching toward victory the attacks against the communist line and its leadership increased even more with this fear and anxiety."
About the context of his arrest, the Turkish Communists' note states that "all the norms and rules of war, of local and international law were ignored and violated against the person of Gonzalo." In the goal of "strangling, isolating and defeating the Peruvian Revolution, the Peruvian state saw [the arrest] as a means of separating it [the people's war] from its founder and theoretician."
"On the morning of September 11, he was murdered by the Peruvian state, in his isolation cell. It is savage, brutal; It is a massacre carried out by the rulers who are hostile to the revolution and socialism with 'class hatred.' Gonzalo was deliberately and deliberately murdered by imperialism and the reactionary Republic of Peru," the Turkish Maoists affirm.
The TKP/ML also states that President Gonzalo "theoretically proved that 'Marxism-Leninism' has now reached the stage of Maoism and presented it to the international proletariat", succeeding also "in inspiring all Maoist forces with his level of understanding and application of MLM". And that with his death "the time had come to honor his memory!
Concluding the note, the Communists call on "all our people, the revolutionary forces, the Communist Parties and revolutionaries of all countries to embrace the revolutionary communist memory of Gonzalo, to organize widespread and powerful commemorations and protests."
AUSTRIA: 'GENERATIONS OF COMMUNISTS WILL BE FORGED HEADED BY THE RED FLAG OF CHAIRMAN GONZALO!'
The Central Management Committee of the Committees for the Founding of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Austria released a statement on September 12 that begins with the following words, "The unforgettable and fascist crime of the assassination of Chairman Gonzalo is being demonstrated by the international proletariat with flaming class hatred, with the formation of a number of new communists and the destruction of the old order."
The note begins with two quotes, one from Chairman Gonzalo that the counter-revolution seeks at all times to eliminate the leaders of the international proletariat, and another from Chairman Mao Tsetung who points out that "dying for the interests of the people weighs more than Mount Tai, while dying for the exploiters and oppressors of the people weighs less than a feather."
The Austrian Maoists state that "Chairman Gonzalo gave his life for the World Proletarian Revolution" and highlight the reconstitution of the PCP and the elaboration of the Party Unity Base (BUP) at the First Congress of the PCP as highlights of his work. They also note that in the course of his life, "Chairman Gonzalo made universally valid contributions to the only scientific, all-powerful because true, ideology of the proletariat and enriched Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in all essential aspects" through the systematization of Maoism.
About the physical annihilation of President Gonzalo, the revolutionary militants working for the reconstitution of the Communist Party in Austria state that "the assassination of President Gonzalo shakes communists and revolutionaries all over the world." About the plans of reaction they state that "to bring confusion, depression, indiscipline and capitulation to the ranks of communists and revolutionaries". But these plans clash with the fact that "the communists, that is, the Marxist-Leninist-Maoists of today are armed with the teachings of President Gonzalo, who underlines revolutionary optimism and synthesizes it with the necessity of the Communist Party."
Regarding the alleged "crimes of President Gonzalo" so propagated by the Peruvian and international press monopolies, the Austrian revolutionaries state that "they call 'terrorists' [those] whose 'crime' was to have dedicated his life entirely to the service of the proletariat and the masses and, even more, [those] who made the interests of the proletariat and the masses their own and fused them into thought and action." And they point out that "President Gonzalo is a great model in what it means to put one's life fully at the service of the liberation of the proletariat, of giving life to communism."
On the claim made by the Peruvian reaction that "with Gonzalo's death, the Gonzalo thought also dies," the note is emphatic: "This is a dream, a reactionary dream that failed before it even began and therefore will never materialize. This reactionary dream is extremely unmasking, because they implicitly admit that the gonzalo thought, the concretization of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in Peruvian reality, exists and they cannot free themselves from its existence. Their reactionary dream is doomed to failure because the Gonzalo thought is true, and even the angry and rabid bourgeoisie cannot kill the truth." Proof of this, according to the note, is the position about the dignified burial of President Gonzalo: "Well, if the Gonzalo thought died with President Gonzalo and is not rooted in the people as the reaction claims, where would the feared honors at the grave come from? It is perfectly clear: even with his assassination, President Gonzalo does not lose his horror to the bourgeoisie, despite his assassination the reaction has no calm."
The note also refers to the justice that revolutionaries around the world are demanding as a response to the assassination of President Gonzalo, stressing that "the proletariat will not demand this justice from the old state nor from the bourgeoisie," but that it is "first and foremost a demand of the proletariat and its Communist Party for itself. The Communist Parties themselves are being constituted and reconstituted in order to initiate and promote popular wars or to prepare new ones. And that from now on "the Communists will continue their campaign in defense of the life and health of President Gonzalo," but under the new events, they will transform it "into a great campaign to unfurl, defend and apply the Gonzalo thought and the universal contributions of President Gonzalo to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism."
In its last paragraphs, the note relates President Gonzalo's victory over the reactionary executioners to the case of Dimitrov who, once accused, used the trial as a tribune and presented the grand strategic plan to the international proletariat. And he states, "This great leadership is now being followed by the red and forged leadership of the left in the International Communist Movement, which is continuing this work, further proving the universally valid contributions of President Gonzalo and directing the reunification of communists on a world level."
Faced with all the difficulties presented by the present situation, the Austrian revolutionaries state that "we will take up the struggle, make even greater demands on ourselves to make leaps and bounds and concentrate our previous experiences and teachings under the example and leadership of President Gonzalo and hand them over to the International Communist Movement. The present moment is a difficult one. But as Marxist-Leninist-Maoists, we will also master this moment."
PHILIPPINE COMMUNISTS HAIL PRESIDENT GONZALO
The Communist Party of the Philippines issued a statement entitled Long Live the Memory of President Gonzalo! In it, the Maoists express "the deepest condolences to the workers, peasants and all oppressed classes and sectors of Peru on the death of the revolutionary leader Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reynoso, the renowned President Gonzalo, founder and leader of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP)."
The PCF also joins the denunciation to the "Peruvian government for having subjected Comrade Gonzalo to prolonged persecution through physical and mental torture since his capture in 1992." It goes on to denounce the trials carried out by the old Peruvian state: "He [Gonzalo] and his comrades have been subjected to repeated illegal trials. The reactionaries have refused to heed the clamor to release him, despite his nearly 30 years of imprisonment in fascist dungeons," also pointing out that the imprisonment of President Gonzalo took place as "a cruel and extreme punishment for having founded the PCP," initiating and leading the People's War against the old Peruvian State.
About the actions of the Headquarters of the PCP, they state that "Comrade Gonzalo gave his best to advance the popular democratic revolution through the People's War in Peru and overcome all the obstacles placed by the reactionaries, revisionists and reformists." And that such an achievement took place in a context of capitalist restoration both in the USSR (a process begun in 1956 by Kruschov's revisionism) and in China (beginning in 1976 by the actions of Teng Siaoping).
The Filipino communists affirm that "the universality of Maoism in the primary basis of the theory and practice of continuous revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat to defend socialism and prevent the restoration of capitalism was declared by the PCP together with other communist parties on Mao Tsetung's centennial."