Shining Path

[Robespierres Neck]

I was wondering what everyone's thoughts were on Peru's Shining Path, specifically under the leadership of Abimael Guzman.

I recently re-watched this program: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HnH-MguElU which sparked my curiosity.

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

an absurd sect who understood how to use force. They came close to taking power in the country in the late seventies/eighties, didn´t they?

[TheGodlessUtopian]

A couple other threads...

http://www.revleft.com/vb/shining-pathi-t29986/index.html

http://www.revleft.com/vb/path-seems-still-t121893/index.html

[marl]

The Shining Path were brutal and harsh to the indigenous peoples, and thus never had the support of the peasantry (coupled with their social conservative policies within occupied territories).

[Ocean Seal]

an absurd sect who understood how to use force. They came close to taking power in the country in the late seventies/eighties, didn´t they?
No, they were never close to taking state power. They became a huge headache for the state though.


The Shining Path were brutal and harsh to the indigenous peoples,

This is true, and unnecessarily so.



and thus never had the support of the peasantry

This isn't true, they enjoyed widespread support from the peasantry in Southern Peru, but then started losing it when they started to kill peasants who participated in providing the Peruvian state with trade materials.



(coupled with their social conservative policies within occupied territories).
This isn't something that the peasants were particularly against.

[Grenzer]

This isn't something that the peasants were particularly against.

Unfortunately, this doesn't make it any less reactionary; and also serves to demonstrate why it is the class interest of the workers we should be concerned about rather than the peasants'.

[Os Cangaceiros]

An awful group, just awful. I can't really imagine anyone really supporting them except for perhaps a few Maoist wingnuts (since the Shining Path leadership despised the USSR).

[Ostrinski]

I can't remember anyone supporting them myself, even amongst the Maoists, at least not on here.

[Os Cangaceiros]

You've been lucky, then. They're have been a few supporters of SL on here in the past, but unlike other left-wing groups, support for SL necessitates a certain level of apologetics unlike support for, say, FARC. Probably because SL freely admitted to it's massacres, one of which was described by a Maoist here as a "discliplinary action" against some 70 or so disobediant peasants.

[Ostrinski]

On second thought I can definitely see someone like Orlov supporting them.

[seventeethdecember2016]

They are people that are struggling with their government. I can't say that I support them directly, but I likely would support them as a liberation movement. Their insurgency has been pretty counter-productive though.

[Prometeo liberado]

I have read and heard RCP people support SL. Is this RCP policy? Do they have policies besides hiding from ghosts that don't exist?

[Ocean Seal]

Unfortunately, this doesn't make it any less reactionary; and also serves to demonstrate why it is the class interest of the workers we should be concerned about rather than the peasants'.
I'm not saying that it wasn't reactionary, I'm just saying that it wasn't part of what made them unpopular as marl suggested. And in Peru which enjoys endemic poverty and a huge peasant class, we should also make sure to incorporate the peasantry into our agenda otherwise we will never see socialism emerge.