Peru's Shining Path Maoist group.

[R_P_A_S]

When I was a little kid I used to hear about this people and their leader Abimael Guzman. I remember watching him pase and scream in a cage, they would show this on the news.
I didn't know who he was or what his problem was. But now that I've started to get into all this stuff I just recently found out that he was the head of this communist movement in Peru and that they commited many murders of even villigers and civilians. I just know what the BBC says. Not sure how true this all this. But out of other groups and "revolutionaries" this is the guy I hear less about.

What are you guys' views on Guzman, The Shining Path and their actions?

[LoneRed]

I think they are a bunch of crazies, another petty-bourgeois communist group.

Guzman, or Gonzales, was a professor at some uni, where he really got the shining path going.

He is nothing but a burnt out intellectual that has caputured thousands to follow what he says and does.

They are quite elitist in the sense that any other "left leaning" or "progressive" group that doesnt call for a Peoples Republic, or an overthrow of the system can be a target of their attacks

[Janus]

What are you guys' views on Guzman
He basically formed a cult of personality around him and was obsessed with conformity to his ideas. His arrest was one of the causes of the group's downfall as he had killed off most other leaders.


The Shining Path and their actions
They gained some original support by helping out the peasants but soon lost this when their policies began antagonizing the peasants who were later forced to form bands against possible Shining Path attacks.

[Guerrilla22]

Guzman was a nutjob, like Janus said his initial intent was good, however S.L. started randomly attacking villages and the peasants actaully had to form groups to defend themselves from them, they also started attacking the MRTA for some reason, rather than focusing on attacking the government forces.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

To be fair though, it was the Fujimori government giving the peasants arms.. and sometimes instructing them to attack el Sendero Luminoso.

[Guerrilla22]

Originally posted by Compañ[email protected] 16 2006, 06:41 PM
To be fair though, it was the Fujimori government giving the peasants arms.. and sometimes instructing them to attack el Sendero Luminoso.
This is true, Fujimori played a large role in causing conflict beteen the two, however I'm still upset at the SL for attacking the MRTA, it was completely pointless.

[Tekun]

Their initial aims and practices were good, such as not participating in bourgeois elections and allying themselves with the peasants
But soon after, they started attacking union leaders and other leftists for "working" with the bourgeois system
And this definitely alienated them from the movement and from those that would benefit from it, mainly some peasants and indigenous ppl who were recruited and brainwashed by Fujimori and co.

[Prairie Fire]

I think that you are all very critical of Chairman gonzalo.

You have to remember that Sendero Luminiso was one of the few Latin American
Guerrilla groups at the time that had both male and female fighters, going against the stereotypical Macho image of the latin american revolutionary.

I don't know... I had a Comrade who wen tot Peru during the height of the SL
resistance, travelling through the mountains with a red book in his back pocket.
He has never spoken about any SL attrocities.

Keep in mind that most information on Sendero Luminiso, like most other revolutionary figures and groups, comes only from the bourgeosie sources.
Somehow I think that BBC is not going to report the truth about a group that aims to establish communism in a country.

[izquierda80]

The thing is, it's not only the BBC and mainstream media that mentions those abuses, but also Latin American and Peruvian communists, NGOs and in general progressive sources. Not that long ago, some Peruvians were interviewed about the subject in TeleSUR (if I recall correctly, it could have been another channel but I doubt it...), and I don't think that they were making it all up.

Exaggerating, maybe, perhaps even surely, but something had to happen for so many people to speak out against SL, for many peasants to join those Rondas (brainwashing is not magical, it needs to have at least some material basis), so I don't believe that "nothing at all" occured. The Peruvian government may exaggerate it all for propaganda purposes, and Senderistas may justify it all, but that's another story.

This doesn't deny the revolutionary character of SL, nor the legitimacy which it once had, it simply means accepting that not all methods are equally justified and that even revolutionaries can make mistakes and committ abuses. They aren't superhuman beings protected from mortal flaws.

[LoneRed]

I also heard something about a More marxist guerilla group that started there, from people who were in the shining path, that disagreed with its radical maoism

[Guerrilla22]

Originally posted by [email protected] 17 2006, 05:18 AM
I think that you are all very critical of Chairman gonzales.

You have to remember that Sendero Luminiso was one of the few Latin American
Guerrilla groups at the time that had bith male and female fighters, going against the stereotypical Macho image of the latin american revolutionary.

I don't know... I had a Comrade who wen tot Peru during the height of the SL
resistance, travelling through the mountains with a red book in his back pocket.
He has never spoken about any SL attrocities.

Keep in mind that most information on Sendero Luminiso, like most other revolutionary figures and groups, comes only from the bourgeosie sources.
Somehow I think that BBC is not going to report the truth about a group that aims to establish communism in a country.
The SL attacked other communist, who criticized them, like I said before, they even attacked the MRTA, which makes no sense what so ever. Like Marx said, communist should not attack other working class movements, especially other Marxist!

[combat]

But the Shining path and MRTA are NOT marxist groups. They radical nationalist petit bourgeois organizations.

[Redmau5]

Good riddance. Most Maoist groups are bad enough enough, but the Shining Path were a particularly poor example.

[Guerrilla22]

Originally posted by [email protected] 17 2006, 08:24 PM
But the Shining path and MRTA are NOT marxist groups. They radical nationalist petit bourgeois organizations.
How so?

[Prairie Fire]

At this time Maoists are the only group that seems to be waging active revolution.

As a Hoxaist, I have much of the same reservations against maoism as everyone else...still, I can not criticize the wars they are waging in the 21st century, wether it be Sendero luminiso, The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), The philipines, Turkey, India, etc, etc.

I don't know... It's easy to criticize a revolution; it's much harder to actually wage one.