HarshThakor
30th May 2013, 05:07
My assesment
From 1980 to 1992 the PCP led the greatest peoples war after the Chinese Communist Party .Whatever be the errors in theory and practice the peoples war was a lesson to all the proletarian revolutionaries worldwide .No protracted War resembled the Chinese revolution led by Com Mao as the Sendero Luminoso and it will be written in red letters in the annals of history.It was remarakable the way the P.C.P’s army could engulf the cities from the countryside and resist the enemy forces.It’s achievement in that period was comparable to that of the Vietnamese against the Americans.Imagine fighting when being on the border of a great military superpower and with support of no Socialist Country.Com Gonzalo made some outstanding contribution stowards developing MaoTse Tung’s military theories and combining them with the massline.In the 1988 plenum he demonstrated his mastery of Maoist theory not only in the military line but also on the question of party building.Revolutionary force s demaracated this movement as the outstanding revolutionary war in the World.Without heistaion the author calls Com Gonzalo as the greatest Marxist leader after Comrade Mao.He brilliantly innovated de-centralisation in the military strategy. Quoting Bhavin in June 2003 of the C.P.I(M.L.) Naxalbari “After the Chinese revolution led by CPC under the leadership of Mao, it is only in Peru and Nepal that we see the concrete application of strategic planning and that too in a creative manner. Based on this understanding PCP Chairman Gonzalo established the axes, sub-axes, and the directions and lines of movement, so as tomaintain the strategic direction of war. This was done after a thorough study of history of social relations, ast wars, political, military and economic conditions, terrain etc. Next on the basis of this National Military Plan was formulated, which was strategically centralised and tactically decentralised guided by the Maoist understanding of linking strategy and tactics, strategic operational plans were formulated. Every committee below it formulated their own strategic operational plans based on the strategic operational plan followed by the entire party. All military plans are based on thorough reconnaissance and careful study of the situation of the enemy and our forces, and are guided by the political strategy and the military strategy. (From PCP Base Document,p43) The strategic centralistion and tactical decentralisation gives full play to the lower committees to decide specific struggles to be carried out in their area, based on the guidelines.”
One of the most significant aspects of the peoples war was the preparatory stages initiated to build it.From 1970 to 1979 no armed action was launched but the peoples preparatory schools were launched to prepare for the peoples War.An Important contribution of Gonzalo is also the 2 line struggle to re-organize the party in 1965.With remarkable skill the PCP combined the armed struggle with the mass movements,forming people’s mass organizations.The peoples Guerilla Army formed in 1983 had remarakable similarity with that of the Chinese Red Army in the 1930’s.The village committees formed displayed great democratic functioning.Some of the most heroic armed actions were launched implementing Com Mao’s theory of protracted Peoples War.The PCPled P.G.A would comeback facing any setback like launching daylight in the most hazardous of storms .Although Peru had several neo-colonial features one of the most remarkable aspects was the way the P.C.P carried out the peoles war inspite of such a high urban population.the War actually gave credit to Mao’s theory of protracted peoples war in semi-colonial countries.I recommend readers to read the article ‘Red Flag flying in Peru ‘ in the 1990 edition of a ‘World to win’It brilliantly summarizes the military actions in ambushing military patrols and in creating revolutionary power in the countryside.Peasant committees were formed in late 1982 where land was seized from landlords and distributed to poor peasants,relying on the massline.From building peasnt committees guerilla Zones were built into base areas.A superb action was launched in 1982 on the prison of Ayacucho,after which Edith Lagos was martyred.In 1986 the peoples war entered the phase of building base areas.New revolutionary political power was not created.Peoples Commitees were established taking into account the subjective forces.The Commitees comprised 5 members-called commissioners.They were chosen by representatives of the village mass organzaitions of poor peasants,labourers,women,intellectuals,youth an d children.The secretary represented the party and the proletariat.The commissioner,also a party member was in charge of the defence of the political power,by the local organized people,into militias.Finally the commissioner of production and economy organizes the new production relations,supervising the dividing of the land.He alos organizes the production directly owned by the committee.The security commissioner was in charge of police functions The job of the committee was to creat a new politics,new economis,new culture in the countryside,as part of preparing to be able to do so on a countrwide scale.
In 1983 the PCP had formed the Organizing Committee for a New Democratic Peoples Republic.In the cities ,with the situation different from the villages a Revolutionary Peoples Defence Movement was created “ with the goal of mobilizing the masses to resist and to rsaie their struggles to a higher level-peoles war .Snaty town dwellesr were mobilized .The Revolutionary Peoples DEfence Movement called for armed shutdowns in Ayacucho lasting 3 days in 1988.The armed shutdowns later rocked Lima and the capital was shaken in November 1989 and March 1990.On the eve of the November strike,the traditional day of the daed’ about 3000 families of the prisoners of war marched into Lima in honour of the fallen heroes of the p[eoples war.On 21st August another shutdown was launched following Fujimori’s price hikes with leafleting at markets,factories,schools.etc.
The documents of the PCP had remarkable similarities with those of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930’s.Where the P.C.P showed weaknesses was their formulation of the Peoples Guerilla Army doing the mass work in the cities and weakness in developing urban work.Pre-revolutionary China did not face the onslaught of neo-colonialism or multi-nationals like Peru which had stronger impact of Capitalism.Com Mao had a more analytical understanding of work in the towns which is revealed in the writings of the C.C.P.on work in the yellow Unions.There is alos an overemphasis of Com Gonzalo on the military aspect in his writings as against the overall question of the mass line and the proletarian party.A term like ‘militarization of the party’ was used which is erroneous to me as the party is not a military organization.He also stated that it is the stage of ‘principally Maoim’ which is an error as it undestaimates Com Lenin’s dcefinition of era of Imperialism and Proletarian Revolution.A kind of Personality cult was formed around Com Gonzalo and the introduction of Gonzalo Thought is questionable.Another error is stating that ‘boycott of parliamemtray elections’ is the strategic path of Revolution and that extra-parliamentary tactics can never be deployed.This is counter to the views of Lenin or Mao.However the author asses a lineage in Gonzalo thought although in the end its form was distorted from the mass line.In the period of Gonzalo itself there was an attempt to copy the Chinese party experience in toto.There was alos over –emphasis on bureaucrat-capitalism.Although there was a preparatory stae and adequate base of revolutionary mass organization or movement was not created.There was alos an under-esatimation of the strength of the enemy forces.
After the arrest of Gonzalo the movement received a setback but the documents of the P.C.P. revealed there was virtually no setback to the peoples WarSympathisers upto 2001 felt that the War was winning.However morally there ws great setback and conflict had seriously abrupted within the forces of the CORIM and the M.P.P.Strangely it was the MPP that supported negotiations.
2.Communist Party of Phillipines statement commemorating 40 years of formation of party in 2009.
With boundless joy, we celebrate the 40thanniversary of the establishment of the New People’s Army (NPA) on March 29 under the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Since then, the NPA has won great victories in the Filipino people’s revolutionary struggle for national liberation and democracy through protracted people’s war against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords.We congratulate all the Red commanders and fighters, the Party cadres and members in the NPA and the broad masses of the people for their accumulated and current victories. We render the highest tribute to our revolutionary martyrs and heroes. Our high revolutionary principles, courage, perseverance, hard work, fierce struggle and sacrifices have won us our victories since the establishment of the Party and the NPA.The NPA stands today as the largest revolutionary army built by the Filipino people nationwide. It is larger and stronger than the Philippine revolutionary army that fought Spanish colonialism from1896 to 1898 and against US imperialism from 1899 onward. It is also larger and stronger than the People’s Liberation Army against Japan from 1942-45 and the People’s Liberation Army from 1949 onward.
The NPA today is far stronger than itself in the 1980s. It has excelled as a force fighting the enemy, spreading revolutionary propaganda, organizing and mobilizing the masses in campaigns for advancing their national and democratic rights and interests. It is the main organization for 2defeating and overthrowing the reactionary state and for establishing the people’s democratic government. It has succeeded in integrating the revolutionary armed struggle, land reform and mass base building.It has built its strength by waging tactical offensives within the stage of strategic defensive and
looks forward to carrying out bigger offensives in subsequent strategic stages of the people’s war. It is attnding to the demand for land reform and all other demands for the attainment of national and social liberation. Thus,it has won the participation and support of the peasant masses and the rest of the people in the armed revolution.
With the NPA, the people have been able to establish revolutionary organs of democratic political power. These draw strength from the mass organizations and the mass campaigns. With the NPA as its weapon, the people’s democratic government is developing and is bound to defeat and replace the reactionary state of the big ompradors and landlords completely.The NPA has benefited from the First
Great Rectification Movement against the Lavaite opportunists and the Taruc-
Sumulong gangster clique in the 1960s and 1970s and the Second Great Rectification Movement in the 1990s. Through these rectification movements, the NPA
has reaffirmed basic revolutionary principles, has enabled itself to overcome errors and
weaknesses in ideology, politics and organization and has always emerged ever stronger.
The NPA has overcome tremendous odds posed by military campaigns of suppression unleashed by the Marcos fascist dictatorship and the succeeding post-Marcos regimes. It has proven to the entire world that it is possible to wage a protracted people’s war successfully in an archipelagic semicolonial and semifeudal country dominated by the US imperialists and the most clever and cruel puppets.It is precisely through fighting the armed counterrevolution that the NPA has grown in strength and advanced. It has totally frustrated and defeated Oplan Bantay Laya I (OBL I) from 2001 to
2006 and Oplan Bantay Laya II (OBL II) from 2006 onward. The brutal attacks unleashed by the US-directed Arroyo regime on the broad masses of the people, including communities and unarmed activists from various walks of life, have isolated and weakened this regime and discredited it throughout the world.Today, the NPA enjoys high prestige as a revolutionary force. It shines as a valiant fighting force
against the rottenness of the Philippine reactionary ruling system and the current regime of puppetry, corruption, cruelty and mendacity. As the crisis of the world capitalist system and the domestic ruling system worsens, the NPA is availing of the exceedingly favorable conditions for people’s war and winning greater victories and accumulating strength. The broad masses of the people clamor for the intensification of the people’s war and are waging all forms of struggle.
My asssement
I rate the Communist Party of Phillipines the organization to combine mass struggles with military line more than any revolutionary party in the world.The celebrating of 40 yaers of the National democratic front illustrates this.It also made a thouroughgoing rectification campaign and I uphold their using of the parliament as an extra-parliamentary tactic.They do not mechanically implement protracted war.
3.C.P.I(Maoist) documenty-strategy and tactics(2004)
The strategy and tactical principles for the Indian revolution have beenevolved based on the concrete economic, political, social, cultural, historicaland geographical conditions of India and taking into account the richexperiences of the world revolution, particularly the great Chinese revolution.They took final shape in the course of the protracted ideological-politicalstruggle against revisionism of various hues and in the course of the longpractice of armed struggle in India. The protracted people’s war, with armedagrarian revolutionary struggle as its principal content, being waged in ourcountry ever since the great Naxalbari revolt, had incontrovertibly proved thecorrectness of the political-military Strategy and the various Tactical principles
adopted by the Maoist revolutionaries 36 years ago. These have been furtherenriched in the course of advancing the armed struggle.Implementation of our strategy of overthrowing the three big mountains
weighing down the Indian people-imperialism, CBB and feudalism-by firstconcentrating on the backward rural areas that have strategic importance fordeveloping the guerrilla zones and the establishment of Base Areas, and
orienting our work in all other areas and fronts to conform with the abovebasic, principal and immediate task, has led to great advances in therevolutionary movement in the country. Several guerrilla zones could be formedin the past three decades of struggle; the people’s guerrilla army came intoexistence in the form of the PLGA; political power of the revolutionary massescould be established in some pockets in the countryside; and, several tacticalsuccesses could be achieved in the guerrilla war against a vastly superior enemy.
The line of protracted people’s war has thus become firmly established as theonly path for the liberation of our country.By unequivocally rejecting the parliamentary path and the participationin the elections in any form, we had drawn a clear line of demarcation betweenthe revolutionaries on the one hand and the revisionists and the Rightopportunists on the other. Our practice has vindicated the correctness of ourunderstanding that parliamentary elections and protracted people’s war areincompatible with each other in the concrete conditions of India.All the party members must advance with unflinching determinatio
If we do not formulate a military line corresponding to the correct politicalline we cannot achieve our revolutionary objective. The military line shouldbe subordinate to the political line. The correct military line takes birth instruggle, develops throgh struggle and takes a clear shape in the course ofstruggle. It is only by waging incessant ideological struggle against the Rightand “Left” opportunist lines that we can successfully carry out the protractedpeople’s war.MLM teaches us, and is proved by the experiences of class struggles inworld history and the concrete experience of the class struggles in our country’shistory, that the exploiting ruling classes will never relinquish or give up powervoluntarily even at the time of serious crisis. Without smashing the presentstate machinery and the main constituent of the state power, the mercenaryarmed forces, the instrument of suppression of the people by the ruling classesand without the establishment of the armed power of the revolutionary people,the Indian people cannot establish their political power. Hence, in order tocompletely smash the state machinery of the exploiting classes or overthrowingit, the building of the people’s army as the organized armed force of the massesis indispensable. That is why Mao said that “without a people’s army peoplehave nothing.” and ‘political power flows through the barrel of the gun’.The military line that was comprehensively developed by com. Maoproceeds from two fundamental points. In our people’s war too, we canvictoriously carry out the people’s war by creatively implementing these twofundamental points: One, our army is a new type of army that is fundamentallydifferent from the mercenary armies of the exploiting classes; it is a politicalarmy. It must be an instrument subordinate to the ideological leadership of theproletariat and serving the struggle of the people and the building ofrevolutionary base areas. Two, our revolutionary war is a new type of war-apeople’s war; it must be a war in which we recognise that the enemy is strongand we are weak, that the enemy is big and we are small, and in which thereforewe fully utilise the enemy’s weaknesses and our strong points and fully relyon the strength of the masses for survival, victory and expansion.
The expansion of thearea becomes necessary in order to defend the main guerilla area or the guerilla
base. The guerilla areas have to be strengthened and transformed into Liberatedareas in the course of conducting the guerilla war.While consolidating a guerilla area we have to make the necessary
preparations and send our forces in a planned manner to future areas ofexpansion with the aim of opening new battlefronts. It is very much essentialto have enough room for manoeuvring when the enemy intensifies hissuppression campaigns. Besides, the guerilla bases and base areas cannot besustained in the absence of an extensive area of guerilla war in the surroundings.Hence recruitment and arms should be increased according to a well-laid out plan and the guerilla forces should extend to new areas continuously.The correct balance between consolidation and expansion should be maintainedby concretely assessing the needs of the movement from time to time. One-sided stress on either consolidation or expansion is harmful to the interests ofthe movement. The enemy will try to obstruct our extension. To counter themoves of the enemy the /PLGA should confront the enemy during extensionand go to higher formations such as platoons and companies in accordancewith the situation.
In our country people’s army could not be formed dSanthal rebellion until our Party took the initiative to form the PLGA. Thefailure to form the people’s army even under the leadership of the unitedCommunist party which led the Telangana armed struggle between 1946-51,was due to the absence of a revolutionary political and military line and thedominance of a Right opportunist line for most of the period of its existence.
The upsurge of armed peasant revolutionary movements in the late 1960sand early 70s starting with Naxalbari armed revolt, through heroic sacrificesand armed struggle against the state’s armed forces, could create the embryonicform of the people’s army in the form of armed guerilla squads.Thereafter, going through several ups and downs and bravely resistingthe enemy’s brutal suppression campaigns, guerilla war continued to developand advance as per plan with the aim of establishing the Base Areas. Startingwith irregular guerilla forces, we have formed guerilla forces in the form ofpeople’s militia locally (GRDs, self-defence squads), local guerilla squads,special guerilla squads in AP, Dandakaranya, Jharkhand and Bihar states. Inthis process, the acts of resistance against the state’s armed forces haveincreased. The struggle between the guerilla forces and the state’s armed forcehas become the principal form leading to a qualitative change in the situationand guerilla zones came into existence.The necessity had arisen for further intensifying the guerilla war inaccordance with the changing conditions by confronting the enemy’s brutalonslaught. Besides the separate guerilla squads, the need for the qualitativelyhigher level of platoons and companies became necessary in order to destroythe enemy forces at a specific time and in specific place. The guerilla forcesworking as guerilla squads, platoons and companies were brought under acentralized policy and decentralized command in order to coordinate theseparate guerilla operations with further plan to destroy the enemy by relative concentration of the forces and in this way the PLGA was formed. This is thefirst step in the formation of the PLA and the establishment of the Base Areas.PLGA is the armed organization to achieve the revolutionary politicaltasks. It preserves its strength and destroys that of the enemy. At the sametime, it takes up the political tasks like propaganda among the people,organizing the masses, arming the masses, helping the masses in establishingtheir organs of political power, developing the Party, participating in production.
In order to guide the revolutionary war in India, it is necessary for us to grasp the experiences and the theoretical summing ups of these revolutionary wars made by comrade Lenin, Stalin and Mao. And particularly it is necessaryfor us to grasp the essence of Mao’s contribution on military science.Generalising the experiences of the proletarian revolutions in the era ofimperialism, we can broadly categorise the revolutionary wars in the variouscountries in the world into two types according to the character of theirrespective socio-economic-political systems. If it is a capitalist country wherebourgeois democratic rights prevail, the Party of the proletariat prepares theworking class and its allies through open, legal struggles - parliamentary, trade union, general strikes, political agitation and such other activities, in order toorganise a country-wide armed insurrection at an hour of revolutionary crisis,seizing power first in key cities and then extending it throughout the country,at the same time strengthens appropriate secret party apparatus and combinessecret, illegal and semi-legal activities with open and legal activities inaccordance with concrete conditions.Thus the Path followed by the Russian Revolution is: Inflict decisivesmashing blow, at a hurricane speed, first, on the urban center which is thewell-fortified, consolidated and well-organized controlling center of the state
power of the enemy, crush the heart of the enemy’s state machinery. Establishthe Centre of power of the revolutionary state in the urban area. Then spreadthe revolution rapidly to the countryside - march forward by smashing theenemy’s state machinery in the countryside. Capturing the urban area first,though war of strategically quick decision, establish revolutionary authorityin the urban area, and thereafter, capturing the villages and establishing therevolutionary authority in the state power of the whole country through
insurrection and establishing the revolutionary political authority of the people- such is the general Path followed by the Great October Revolution in Russia.If, on the other hand, the country is ruled directly or indirectly by someforeign imperialist power or powers and is semi-feudal where there is noindependence and democratic rights for the people, the Party of the proletariatfrom the very beginning arouses and mobilizes the people for armed struggleHence, by adopting appropriate and correct strategy and tactics, as thewar is drawn out, the enemy’s disadvantages and our advantages will bothgrow, and inevitably, the degree of the strength and weaknesses of ours andthat of the enemy will continue to change, and changes will continue to occurin the position of relative superiority and inferiority too of both the sides,And, in this way, the military power of the people will continuously anddefinitely attain supremacy over the military power of the enemy and willfinally decisive defeat on the military power of the enemy.To sum up, at the initial stage, that is, up to a certain stage of developmentof the people’s war, the military strength of ours is liable to remain weaker
than that of the enemy. But this strength of the enemy and the weakness of thepeople are never absolute, they are relative, they are temporary. By way ofrelying on the vast rural areas and on the poor peasantry, by way of strictlypursuing the class line and mass line and the principles of guerrilla struggleand the protracted people’s war, in words and in deeds, as shown by Com.Mao, the military strength of the people can gradually and definitely overwhelmthat of the enemy as the revolutionary war draws out and can finally inflict
decisive defeat on the armed forces of the enemy. However strong the forcesof the enemy may be and however weak the people’s forces may be at thebeginning of the revolutionary war, through the realization and creativeapplication of the total teachings of the flexible strategy and tactics of theguerrilla war and the Protracted People’s War, it is possible to build up a newtype of army, that is the red army, and to establish one after another-advancedbase areas in the backward rural areas, and it is entirely possible to carryforward the revolution towards its final victory by gradually consolidatingand expanding the people’s army and the base areas through struggles.Beginning with the great Chinese Revolution, the very historical experiencesof the revolutionary wars of countries like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc.,bear testimony to the above truth.
My asssment of the C.P.I.(Maoist)
In practice the C.P.I.(Maoist ) today is the most correct and genuine revolutionary force in the practical light in India and the world ,leading the biggest armed revolutionary movement in the World. I would sympathize with the C.P.I.(Maoist),who receive no support from any Socialist Country as the C.P.C.had in the 1930’s and 1940’s and are facing the onslaught of Imperialism with globalization much more than the Chinese C.C.P.The Indian revolutionary situation is far more complex with the factor of caste and so many varying cultures and nationalities. Today ,we have to salute the Peoples Liberation Guerilla Army formed in 2000 ,which is the strongest of it’s kind in the world and resembles the red army of the C.C.P. of the 1930’s and 40’s,in many ways.The 2004 formation of C.P.I.(Maoist) and The 2007 C.P.I.(Maoist)conference were historic occasions in the Communist Movement. They have proved the correctness of launching armed resistance for 3 decades without which the mass movement would never properly develop. However it has to recognize that the subjective conditions do not still exist for waging of of all-out war. Today in their guerilla Zones they are launching mobile warfare before the building of a peoples armed peasant revolutionary resistance. A correct military line has not been developed by which the armed squads intervene in the people’s movements. Remember the setback in Andhra Pradesh in 2000 after 2 decades of armed struggle. The movement in India is still the stage of building people’s revolutionary resistance and self-defence in the agrarian revolutionary stage . Infact the actual practice of the C.P.I.(Maoist) has not been able to live upto the goals they declared in 1980 and the self rectification of the Charu Mazumdar era.
The C.P.I.(Maoist party )made a major contribution in sharpening the teeth of the Jungalmahamal movement, complementing mass struggles with their armed movements. They made great sacrifices but not enough independence was given to the P.C.A.P.A. or enough space made to extend the mass democratic movement of the Adivasis.The P.C.A.P.A. virtually became a front for the Maoist armed squads. In Orissa too, although the Chasia Mulia Adivasi Sangh is sympathetic to the Maoist movement, the mass leaders or cadres have differences and a correct mass-organsiational structure has not been created. I agree that the C.P.I.(Maoist)has made a historic contribution and resisted valiantly in defending the guerilla Zone in Dandkaranya.Great rectifications of previous errors have been made in Dandkaranya and it is the highest form of armed resistance since the Naxalbari period . Prof.Amit Bhattacharya compared it’s level of development to the Chinese communist party in the 1930’.struggle. However still it has not gone beyond the stages of Naxalbari or Telengan a in building armed peasant. Dandkaranya is not a liberated base area, as the Chinese Communist Party formed n the 1930’s or 1940’s. It is similar to the A.I.C.C.R. declaring Srikakulam as a base area in 1967. Historically one has to remember how initially from the 1980’s armed squads migrated from Andhra Pradesh to directly establish liberated areas in Dandkaranya.
A remarkable factor has been the massive protests within the jails as in 1995 in Andhra Pradesh and later in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.The most remarkable in have been the jail committees of Maoist political prisoners in West Bengal struggling for rights in central jails such as Presidency, Alipur and Dumdum. It is creditable that the P.L.G.A of the C.P.I.(Maoist) has carried out actions in self defence and retaliated killings of Comrades as well as held certain mass protest rallies.. However they have hardly involved the broad masses in the protests against killings of their leaders.
The experience of the revolutionary people's struggles of India in thepast, notably the Telangana peasant armed struggle (1946-51), the Naxalbariarmed peasant uprising (1967-68) and the Srikakulam peasant armed struggle(1968-70) clearly indicate the validity of the path of protracted people'swar for the People's Democratic Revolution of India. Despite the historicallimitations and other weaknesses of these struggles, all three of them positivelydemonstrated how the anti-feudal struggles of the peasant masses, under theleadership of the proletariat, when conducted on the basis of an agrarianrevolutionary programme or perspective and imbued with the revolutionarypolitics of seizure of State-power, invariably tend to develop into armedagrarian revolts and guerrilla war against the reactionary Indian State.The great Telangana armed struggle in particular, provided the most authenticpractical evidence of the feasibility of establishing parallel people's politicalpower in the Indian countryside by dint of the peasant-based and communist-ledguerrilla armed struggle.
The author feels the mass movement led by the C.P.I.(Maoist)has not established this criteria.
There is also a weakness of not considering using tactics of participation in parliamentary elections throughout the coures of the revolution.This isan outcome of the Charu Mazumdar line which propogated the slogan of 'boycott ' as a strategy.There is also an inssufficient urban base linked with the armed struggle in the countryside nor the sufficient development of mass organizations.
Documents compiled from
1.Signal Fire
2.Banned Thought
From 1980 to 1992 the PCP led the greatest peoples war after the Chinese Communist Party .Whatever be the errors in theory and practice the peoples war was a lesson to all the proletarian revolutionaries worldwide .No protracted War resembled the Chinese revolution led by Com Mao as the Sendero Luminoso and it will be written in red letters in the annals of history.It was remarakable the way the P.C.P’s army could engulf the cities from the countryside and resist the enemy forces.It’s achievement in that period was comparable to that of the Vietnamese against the Americans.Imagine fighting when being on the border of a great military superpower and with support of no Socialist Country.Com Gonzalo made some outstanding contribution stowards developing MaoTse Tung’s military theories and combining them with the massline.In the 1988 plenum he demonstrated his mastery of Maoist theory not only in the military line but also on the question of party building.Revolutionary force s demaracated this movement as the outstanding revolutionary war in the World.Without heistaion the author calls Com Gonzalo as the greatest Marxist leader after Comrade Mao.He brilliantly innovated de-centralisation in the military strategy. Quoting Bhavin in June 2003 of the C.P.I(M.L.) Naxalbari “After the Chinese revolution led by CPC under the leadership of Mao, it is only in Peru and Nepal that we see the concrete application of strategic planning and that too in a creative manner. Based on this understanding PCP Chairman Gonzalo established the axes, sub-axes, and the directions and lines of movement, so as tomaintain the strategic direction of war. This was done after a thorough study of history of social relations, ast wars, political, military and economic conditions, terrain etc. Next on the basis of this National Military Plan was formulated, which was strategically centralised and tactically decentralised guided by the Maoist understanding of linking strategy and tactics, strategic operational plans were formulated. Every committee below it formulated their own strategic operational plans based on the strategic operational plan followed by the entire party. All military plans are based on thorough reconnaissance and careful study of the situation of the enemy and our forces, and are guided by the political strategy and the military strategy. (From PCP Base Document,p43) The strategic centralistion and tactical decentralisation gives full play to the lower committees to decide specific struggles to be carried out in their area, based on the guidelines.”
One of the most significant aspects of the peoples war was the preparatory stages initiated to build it.From 1970 to 1979 no armed action was launched but the peoples preparatory schools were launched to prepare for the peoples War.An Important contribution of Gonzalo is also the 2 line struggle to re-organize the party in 1965.With remarkable skill the PCP combined the armed struggle with the mass movements,forming people’s mass organizations.The peoples Guerilla Army formed in 1983 had remarakable similarity with that of the Chinese Red Army in the 1930’s.The village committees formed displayed great democratic functioning.Some of the most heroic armed actions were launched implementing Com Mao’s theory of protracted Peoples War.The PCPled P.G.A would comeback facing any setback like launching daylight in the most hazardous of storms .Although Peru had several neo-colonial features one of the most remarkable aspects was the way the P.C.P carried out the peoles war inspite of such a high urban population.the War actually gave credit to Mao’s theory of protracted peoples war in semi-colonial countries.I recommend readers to read the article ‘Red Flag flying in Peru ‘ in the 1990 edition of a ‘World to win’It brilliantly summarizes the military actions in ambushing military patrols and in creating revolutionary power in the countryside.Peasant committees were formed in late 1982 where land was seized from landlords and distributed to poor peasants,relying on the massline.From building peasnt committees guerilla Zones were built into base areas.A superb action was launched in 1982 on the prison of Ayacucho,after which Edith Lagos was martyred.In 1986 the peoples war entered the phase of building base areas.New revolutionary political power was not created.Peoples Commitees were established taking into account the subjective forces.The Commitees comprised 5 members-called commissioners.They were chosen by representatives of the village mass organzaitions of poor peasants,labourers,women,intellectuals,youth an d children.The secretary represented the party and the proletariat.The commissioner,also a party member was in charge of the defence of the political power,by the local organized people,into militias.Finally the commissioner of production and economy organizes the new production relations,supervising the dividing of the land.He alos organizes the production directly owned by the committee.The security commissioner was in charge of police functions The job of the committee was to creat a new politics,new economis,new culture in the countryside,as part of preparing to be able to do so on a countrwide scale.
In 1983 the PCP had formed the Organizing Committee for a New Democratic Peoples Republic.In the cities ,with the situation different from the villages a Revolutionary Peoples Defence Movement was created “ with the goal of mobilizing the masses to resist and to rsaie their struggles to a higher level-peoles war .Snaty town dwellesr were mobilized .The Revolutionary Peoples DEfence Movement called for armed shutdowns in Ayacucho lasting 3 days in 1988.The armed shutdowns later rocked Lima and the capital was shaken in November 1989 and March 1990.On the eve of the November strike,the traditional day of the daed’ about 3000 families of the prisoners of war marched into Lima in honour of the fallen heroes of the p[eoples war.On 21st August another shutdown was launched following Fujimori’s price hikes with leafleting at markets,factories,schools.etc.
The documents of the PCP had remarkable similarities with those of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1930’s.Where the P.C.P showed weaknesses was their formulation of the Peoples Guerilla Army doing the mass work in the cities and weakness in developing urban work.Pre-revolutionary China did not face the onslaught of neo-colonialism or multi-nationals like Peru which had stronger impact of Capitalism.Com Mao had a more analytical understanding of work in the towns which is revealed in the writings of the C.C.P.on work in the yellow Unions.There is alos an overemphasis of Com Gonzalo on the military aspect in his writings as against the overall question of the mass line and the proletarian party.A term like ‘militarization of the party’ was used which is erroneous to me as the party is not a military organization.He also stated that it is the stage of ‘principally Maoim’ which is an error as it undestaimates Com Lenin’s dcefinition of era of Imperialism and Proletarian Revolution.A kind of Personality cult was formed around Com Gonzalo and the introduction of Gonzalo Thought is questionable.Another error is stating that ‘boycott of parliamemtray elections’ is the strategic path of Revolution and that extra-parliamentary tactics can never be deployed.This is counter to the views of Lenin or Mao.However the author asses a lineage in Gonzalo thought although in the end its form was distorted from the mass line.In the period of Gonzalo itself there was an attempt to copy the Chinese party experience in toto.There was alos over –emphasis on bureaucrat-capitalism.Although there was a preparatory stae and adequate base of revolutionary mass organization or movement was not created.There was alos an under-esatimation of the strength of the enemy forces.
After the arrest of Gonzalo the movement received a setback but the documents of the P.C.P. revealed there was virtually no setback to the peoples WarSympathisers upto 2001 felt that the War was winning.However morally there ws great setback and conflict had seriously abrupted within the forces of the CORIM and the M.P.P.Strangely it was the MPP that supported negotiations.
2.Communist Party of Phillipines statement commemorating 40 years of formation of party in 2009.
With boundless joy, we celebrate the 40thanniversary of the establishment of the New People’s Army (NPA) on March 29 under the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Since then, the NPA has won great victories in the Filipino people’s revolutionary struggle for national liberation and democracy through protracted people’s war against US imperialism and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords.We congratulate all the Red commanders and fighters, the Party cadres and members in the NPA and the broad masses of the people for their accumulated and current victories. We render the highest tribute to our revolutionary martyrs and heroes. Our high revolutionary principles, courage, perseverance, hard work, fierce struggle and sacrifices have won us our victories since the establishment of the Party and the NPA.The NPA stands today as the largest revolutionary army built by the Filipino people nationwide. It is larger and stronger than the Philippine revolutionary army that fought Spanish colonialism from1896 to 1898 and against US imperialism from 1899 onward. It is also larger and stronger than the People’s Liberation Army against Japan from 1942-45 and the People’s Liberation Army from 1949 onward.
The NPA today is far stronger than itself in the 1980s. It has excelled as a force fighting the enemy, spreading revolutionary propaganda, organizing and mobilizing the masses in campaigns for advancing their national and democratic rights and interests. It is the main organization for 2defeating and overthrowing the reactionary state and for establishing the people’s democratic government. It has succeeded in integrating the revolutionary armed struggle, land reform and mass base building.It has built its strength by waging tactical offensives within the stage of strategic defensive and
looks forward to carrying out bigger offensives in subsequent strategic stages of the people’s war. It is attnding to the demand for land reform and all other demands for the attainment of national and social liberation. Thus,it has won the participation and support of the peasant masses and the rest of the people in the armed revolution.
With the NPA, the people have been able to establish revolutionary organs of democratic political power. These draw strength from the mass organizations and the mass campaigns. With the NPA as its weapon, the people’s democratic government is developing and is bound to defeat and replace the reactionary state of the big ompradors and landlords completely.The NPA has benefited from the First
Great Rectification Movement against the Lavaite opportunists and the Taruc-
Sumulong gangster clique in the 1960s and 1970s and the Second Great Rectification Movement in the 1990s. Through these rectification movements, the NPA
has reaffirmed basic revolutionary principles, has enabled itself to overcome errors and
weaknesses in ideology, politics and organization and has always emerged ever stronger.
The NPA has overcome tremendous odds posed by military campaigns of suppression unleashed by the Marcos fascist dictatorship and the succeeding post-Marcos regimes. It has proven to the entire world that it is possible to wage a protracted people’s war successfully in an archipelagic semicolonial and semifeudal country dominated by the US imperialists and the most clever and cruel puppets.It is precisely through fighting the armed counterrevolution that the NPA has grown in strength and advanced. It has totally frustrated and defeated Oplan Bantay Laya I (OBL I) from 2001 to
2006 and Oplan Bantay Laya II (OBL II) from 2006 onward. The brutal attacks unleashed by the US-directed Arroyo regime on the broad masses of the people, including communities and unarmed activists from various walks of life, have isolated and weakened this regime and discredited it throughout the world.Today, the NPA enjoys high prestige as a revolutionary force. It shines as a valiant fighting force
against the rottenness of the Philippine reactionary ruling system and the current regime of puppetry, corruption, cruelty and mendacity. As the crisis of the world capitalist system and the domestic ruling system worsens, the NPA is availing of the exceedingly favorable conditions for people’s war and winning greater victories and accumulating strength. The broad masses of the people clamor for the intensification of the people’s war and are waging all forms of struggle.
My asssement
I rate the Communist Party of Phillipines the organization to combine mass struggles with military line more than any revolutionary party in the world.The celebrating of 40 yaers of the National democratic front illustrates this.It also made a thouroughgoing rectification campaign and I uphold their using of the parliament as an extra-parliamentary tactic.They do not mechanically implement protracted war.
3.C.P.I(Maoist) documenty-strategy and tactics(2004)
The strategy and tactical principles for the Indian revolution have beenevolved based on the concrete economic, political, social, cultural, historicaland geographical conditions of India and taking into account the richexperiences of the world revolution, particularly the great Chinese revolution.They took final shape in the course of the protracted ideological-politicalstruggle against revisionism of various hues and in the course of the longpractice of armed struggle in India. The protracted people’s war, with armedagrarian revolutionary struggle as its principal content, being waged in ourcountry ever since the great Naxalbari revolt, had incontrovertibly proved thecorrectness of the political-military Strategy and the various Tactical principles
adopted by the Maoist revolutionaries 36 years ago. These have been furtherenriched in the course of advancing the armed struggle.Implementation of our strategy of overthrowing the three big mountains
weighing down the Indian people-imperialism, CBB and feudalism-by firstconcentrating on the backward rural areas that have strategic importance fordeveloping the guerrilla zones and the establishment of Base Areas, and
orienting our work in all other areas and fronts to conform with the abovebasic, principal and immediate task, has led to great advances in therevolutionary movement in the country. Several guerrilla zones could be formedin the past three decades of struggle; the people’s guerrilla army came intoexistence in the form of the PLGA; political power of the revolutionary massescould be established in some pockets in the countryside; and, several tacticalsuccesses could be achieved in the guerrilla war against a vastly superior enemy.
The line of protracted people’s war has thus become firmly established as theonly path for the liberation of our country.By unequivocally rejecting the parliamentary path and the participationin the elections in any form, we had drawn a clear line of demarcation betweenthe revolutionaries on the one hand and the revisionists and the Rightopportunists on the other. Our practice has vindicated the correctness of ourunderstanding that parliamentary elections and protracted people’s war areincompatible with each other in the concrete conditions of India.All the party members must advance with unflinching determinatio
If we do not formulate a military line corresponding to the correct politicalline we cannot achieve our revolutionary objective. The military line shouldbe subordinate to the political line. The correct military line takes birth instruggle, develops throgh struggle and takes a clear shape in the course ofstruggle. It is only by waging incessant ideological struggle against the Rightand “Left” opportunist lines that we can successfully carry out the protractedpeople’s war.MLM teaches us, and is proved by the experiences of class struggles inworld history and the concrete experience of the class struggles in our country’shistory, that the exploiting ruling classes will never relinquish or give up powervoluntarily even at the time of serious crisis. Without smashing the presentstate machinery and the main constituent of the state power, the mercenaryarmed forces, the instrument of suppression of the people by the ruling classesand without the establishment of the armed power of the revolutionary people,the Indian people cannot establish their political power. Hence, in order tocompletely smash the state machinery of the exploiting classes or overthrowingit, the building of the people’s army as the organized armed force of the massesis indispensable. That is why Mao said that “without a people’s army peoplehave nothing.” and ‘political power flows through the barrel of the gun’.The military line that was comprehensively developed by com. Maoproceeds from two fundamental points. In our people’s war too, we canvictoriously carry out the people’s war by creatively implementing these twofundamental points: One, our army is a new type of army that is fundamentallydifferent from the mercenary armies of the exploiting classes; it is a politicalarmy. It must be an instrument subordinate to the ideological leadership of theproletariat and serving the struggle of the people and the building ofrevolutionary base areas. Two, our revolutionary war is a new type of war-apeople’s war; it must be a war in which we recognise that the enemy is strongand we are weak, that the enemy is big and we are small, and in which thereforewe fully utilise the enemy’s weaknesses and our strong points and fully relyon the strength of the masses for survival, victory and expansion.
The expansion of thearea becomes necessary in order to defend the main guerilla area or the guerilla
base. The guerilla areas have to be strengthened and transformed into Liberatedareas in the course of conducting the guerilla war.While consolidating a guerilla area we have to make the necessary
preparations and send our forces in a planned manner to future areas ofexpansion with the aim of opening new battlefronts. It is very much essentialto have enough room for manoeuvring when the enemy intensifies hissuppression campaigns. Besides, the guerilla bases and base areas cannot besustained in the absence of an extensive area of guerilla war in the surroundings.Hence recruitment and arms should be increased according to a well-laid out plan and the guerilla forces should extend to new areas continuously.The correct balance between consolidation and expansion should be maintainedby concretely assessing the needs of the movement from time to time. One-sided stress on either consolidation or expansion is harmful to the interests ofthe movement. The enemy will try to obstruct our extension. To counter themoves of the enemy the /PLGA should confront the enemy during extensionand go to higher formations such as platoons and companies in accordancewith the situation.
In our country people’s army could not be formed dSanthal rebellion until our Party took the initiative to form the PLGA. Thefailure to form the people’s army even under the leadership of the unitedCommunist party which led the Telangana armed struggle between 1946-51,was due to the absence of a revolutionary political and military line and thedominance of a Right opportunist line for most of the period of its existence.
The upsurge of armed peasant revolutionary movements in the late 1960sand early 70s starting with Naxalbari armed revolt, through heroic sacrificesand armed struggle against the state’s armed forces, could create the embryonicform of the people’s army in the form of armed guerilla squads.Thereafter, going through several ups and downs and bravely resistingthe enemy’s brutal suppression campaigns, guerilla war continued to developand advance as per plan with the aim of establishing the Base Areas. Startingwith irregular guerilla forces, we have formed guerilla forces in the form ofpeople’s militia locally (GRDs, self-defence squads), local guerilla squads,special guerilla squads in AP, Dandakaranya, Jharkhand and Bihar states. Inthis process, the acts of resistance against the state’s armed forces haveincreased. The struggle between the guerilla forces and the state’s armed forcehas become the principal form leading to a qualitative change in the situationand guerilla zones came into existence.The necessity had arisen for further intensifying the guerilla war inaccordance with the changing conditions by confronting the enemy’s brutalonslaught. Besides the separate guerilla squads, the need for the qualitativelyhigher level of platoons and companies became necessary in order to destroythe enemy forces at a specific time and in specific place. The guerilla forcesworking as guerilla squads, platoons and companies were brought under acentralized policy and decentralized command in order to coordinate theseparate guerilla operations with further plan to destroy the enemy by relative concentration of the forces and in this way the PLGA was formed. This is thefirst step in the formation of the PLA and the establishment of the Base Areas.PLGA is the armed organization to achieve the revolutionary politicaltasks. It preserves its strength and destroys that of the enemy. At the sametime, it takes up the political tasks like propaganda among the people,organizing the masses, arming the masses, helping the masses in establishingtheir organs of political power, developing the Party, participating in production.
In order to guide the revolutionary war in India, it is necessary for us to grasp the experiences and the theoretical summing ups of these revolutionary wars made by comrade Lenin, Stalin and Mao. And particularly it is necessaryfor us to grasp the essence of Mao’s contribution on military science.Generalising the experiences of the proletarian revolutions in the era ofimperialism, we can broadly categorise the revolutionary wars in the variouscountries in the world into two types according to the character of theirrespective socio-economic-political systems. If it is a capitalist country wherebourgeois democratic rights prevail, the Party of the proletariat prepares theworking class and its allies through open, legal struggles - parliamentary, trade union, general strikes, political agitation and such other activities, in order toorganise a country-wide armed insurrection at an hour of revolutionary crisis,seizing power first in key cities and then extending it throughout the country,at the same time strengthens appropriate secret party apparatus and combinessecret, illegal and semi-legal activities with open and legal activities inaccordance with concrete conditions.Thus the Path followed by the Russian Revolution is: Inflict decisivesmashing blow, at a hurricane speed, first, on the urban center which is thewell-fortified, consolidated and well-organized controlling center of the state
power of the enemy, crush the heart of the enemy’s state machinery. Establishthe Centre of power of the revolutionary state in the urban area. Then spreadthe revolution rapidly to the countryside - march forward by smashing theenemy’s state machinery in the countryside. Capturing the urban area first,though war of strategically quick decision, establish revolutionary authorityin the urban area, and thereafter, capturing the villages and establishing therevolutionary authority in the state power of the whole country through
insurrection and establishing the revolutionary political authority of the people- such is the general Path followed by the Great October Revolution in Russia.If, on the other hand, the country is ruled directly or indirectly by someforeign imperialist power or powers and is semi-feudal where there is noindependence and democratic rights for the people, the Party of the proletariatfrom the very beginning arouses and mobilizes the people for armed struggleHence, by adopting appropriate and correct strategy and tactics, as thewar is drawn out, the enemy’s disadvantages and our advantages will bothgrow, and inevitably, the degree of the strength and weaknesses of ours andthat of the enemy will continue to change, and changes will continue to occurin the position of relative superiority and inferiority too of both the sides,And, in this way, the military power of the people will continuously anddefinitely attain supremacy over the military power of the enemy and willfinally decisive defeat on the military power of the enemy.To sum up, at the initial stage, that is, up to a certain stage of developmentof the people’s war, the military strength of ours is liable to remain weaker
than that of the enemy. But this strength of the enemy and the weakness of thepeople are never absolute, they are relative, they are temporary. By way ofrelying on the vast rural areas and on the poor peasantry, by way of strictlypursuing the class line and mass line and the principles of guerrilla struggleand the protracted people’s war, in words and in deeds, as shown by Com.Mao, the military strength of the people can gradually and definitely overwhelmthat of the enemy as the revolutionary war draws out and can finally inflict
decisive defeat on the armed forces of the enemy. However strong the forcesof the enemy may be and however weak the people’s forces may be at thebeginning of the revolutionary war, through the realization and creativeapplication of the total teachings of the flexible strategy and tactics of theguerrilla war and the Protracted People’s War, it is possible to build up a newtype of army, that is the red army, and to establish one after another-advancedbase areas in the backward rural areas, and it is entirely possible to carryforward the revolution towards its final victory by gradually consolidatingand expanding the people’s army and the base areas through struggles.Beginning with the great Chinese Revolution, the very historical experiencesof the revolutionary wars of countries like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc.,bear testimony to the above truth.
My asssment of the C.P.I.(Maoist)
In practice the C.P.I.(Maoist ) today is the most correct and genuine revolutionary force in the practical light in India and the world ,leading the biggest armed revolutionary movement in the World. I would sympathize with the C.P.I.(Maoist),who receive no support from any Socialist Country as the C.P.C.had in the 1930’s and 1940’s and are facing the onslaught of Imperialism with globalization much more than the Chinese C.C.P.The Indian revolutionary situation is far more complex with the factor of caste and so many varying cultures and nationalities. Today ,we have to salute the Peoples Liberation Guerilla Army formed in 2000 ,which is the strongest of it’s kind in the world and resembles the red army of the C.C.P. of the 1930’s and 40’s,in many ways.The 2004 formation of C.P.I.(Maoist) and The 2007 C.P.I.(Maoist)conference were historic occasions in the Communist Movement. They have proved the correctness of launching armed resistance for 3 decades without which the mass movement would never properly develop. However it has to recognize that the subjective conditions do not still exist for waging of of all-out war. Today in their guerilla Zones they are launching mobile warfare before the building of a peoples armed peasant revolutionary resistance. A correct military line has not been developed by which the armed squads intervene in the people’s movements. Remember the setback in Andhra Pradesh in 2000 after 2 decades of armed struggle. The movement in India is still the stage of building people’s revolutionary resistance and self-defence in the agrarian revolutionary stage . Infact the actual practice of the C.P.I.(Maoist) has not been able to live upto the goals they declared in 1980 and the self rectification of the Charu Mazumdar era.
The C.P.I.(Maoist party )made a major contribution in sharpening the teeth of the Jungalmahamal movement, complementing mass struggles with their armed movements. They made great sacrifices but not enough independence was given to the P.C.A.P.A. or enough space made to extend the mass democratic movement of the Adivasis.The P.C.A.P.A. virtually became a front for the Maoist armed squads. In Orissa too, although the Chasia Mulia Adivasi Sangh is sympathetic to the Maoist movement, the mass leaders or cadres have differences and a correct mass-organsiational structure has not been created. I agree that the C.P.I.(Maoist)has made a historic contribution and resisted valiantly in defending the guerilla Zone in Dandkaranya.Great rectifications of previous errors have been made in Dandkaranya and it is the highest form of armed resistance since the Naxalbari period . Prof.Amit Bhattacharya compared it’s level of development to the Chinese communist party in the 1930’.struggle. However still it has not gone beyond the stages of Naxalbari or Telengan a in building armed peasant. Dandkaranya is not a liberated base area, as the Chinese Communist Party formed n the 1930’s or 1940’s. It is similar to the A.I.C.C.R. declaring Srikakulam as a base area in 1967. Historically one has to remember how initially from the 1980’s armed squads migrated from Andhra Pradesh to directly establish liberated areas in Dandkaranya.
A remarkable factor has been the massive protests within the jails as in 1995 in Andhra Pradesh and later in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.The most remarkable in have been the jail committees of Maoist political prisoners in West Bengal struggling for rights in central jails such as Presidency, Alipur and Dumdum. It is creditable that the P.L.G.A of the C.P.I.(Maoist) has carried out actions in self defence and retaliated killings of Comrades as well as held certain mass protest rallies.. However they have hardly involved the broad masses in the protests against killings of their leaders.
The experience of the revolutionary people's struggles of India in thepast, notably the Telangana peasant armed struggle (1946-51), the Naxalbariarmed peasant uprising (1967-68) and the Srikakulam peasant armed struggle(1968-70) clearly indicate the validity of the path of protracted people'swar for the People's Democratic Revolution of India. Despite the historicallimitations and other weaknesses of these struggles, all three of them positivelydemonstrated how the anti-feudal struggles of the peasant masses, under theleadership of the proletariat, when conducted on the basis of an agrarianrevolutionary programme or perspective and imbued with the revolutionarypolitics of seizure of State-power, invariably tend to develop into armedagrarian revolts and guerrilla war against the reactionary Indian State.The great Telangana armed struggle in particular, provided the most authenticpractical evidence of the feasibility of establishing parallel people's politicalpower in the Indian countryside by dint of the peasant-based and communist-ledguerrilla armed struggle.
The author feels the mass movement led by the C.P.I.(Maoist)has not established this criteria.
There is also a weakness of not considering using tactics of participation in parliamentary elections throughout the coures of the revolution.This isan outcome of the Charu Mazumdar line which propogated the slogan of 'boycott ' as a strategy.There is also an inssufficient urban base linked with the armed struggle in the countryside nor the sufficient development of mass organizations.
Documents compiled from
1.Signal Fire
2.Banned Thought