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So what do people think about the Shining Path?
"The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
Workers of the World Unite!" -Karl Marx
"The dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e., the organization of the vanguard of the oppressed as the ruling class for the purpose of suppressing the oppressors, cannot result merely in an expansion of democracy. Simultaneously with an immense expansion of democracy, which for the first time becomes democracy for the poor, democracy for the people, and not democracy for the money-bags, the dictatorship of the proletariat imposes a series of restrictions on the freedom of the oppressors, the exploiters, the capitalists. " -Vladimir Lenin
"The People's democratic dictatorship needs the leadership of the working class. For it is only the working class that is most far-sighted, most selfless and most thoroughly revolutionary. The entire history of revolution proves that without the leadership of the working class revolution fails and that with the leadership of the working class revolution triumphs." -Mao Zedong
Well generally my thoughts are: "why the fuck did they throw away their masssupport by starting killing peasants who wouldn't joint them?"
In my oppinion it has something to do with the kinda culture that develops in some guerilla groups, after all most are mostly disconnected from the massfight
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An idiot can ask so many questions it will take years to reply. So if I don't reply to your posts it's probably why
It would be cool for people to check out the great article that ran in A World to Win, which analyzed the Peruvian Communist Party. Comrades can check it here:
A Sober Look at the Situation of the Peru Revolution and Its Needs
There is some good academic literature on them by Carol Andreas. Check out the article "Women at War" in the December 1990 issue of NACLA as well as her books. While there were ideological problems with them from a Maoist perspective, as analyzed by the AWTW article, which may have ultimately set back Maoism in the continent, the degree to which they mobilized women and developed women's leadership was unique in the history of the Peruvian left and may have been unprecedented in the history of guerrilla movements in all of Latin America.
"I learned during [the fight against the colonial war in Algeria] that political conviction is not a question of numbers, of majority. Because at the beginning of the Algerian war, we were really very few against the war. It was a lesson for me; you have to do something when you think it's a necessity, when it's right, without caring about the numbers." - Alain Badiou
Am not sure about the extent to which there is anything special about the mobilisation of women by the Shining Path. It's actually been a fairly general trend in third world guerilla outfits for the last couple of decades or so. It's generally more a statement on how dreadful conditions are for many women in the area (that mean they see a guerilla army as an escape) rather than anything else.
http://www.revmedia.net/tpsp.html
Is a good documentary
“We think too small, like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view.” - Mao Tse-Tung
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I don't think this is correct. While it is true that other guerrilla armies have mobilized women, they have not developed women's leadership to the degree that Shining Path did. Eight of the 19 positions in the PCP's central committee were held by women. Two of 5 positions in the political bureau were held by women. From the 60s and 70s onwards, the forces that would later become the PCP devoted much of their theoretical and propaganda work to women's issues. Women's emancipation was a key part of Shining Path ideology in a way that was not true for any guerrilla movement up to that time.
"I learned during [the fight against the colonial war in Algeria] that political conviction is not a question of numbers, of majority. Because at the beginning of the Algerian war, we were really very few against the war. It was a lesson for me; you have to do something when you think it's a necessity, when it's right, without caring about the numbers." - Alain Badiou
everyone interested in the Shining Path should check out No. 2's documentary that he posted. It's one of my favorite documentaries.
"Love Other Human Beings like you would Yourself"
-- Ho Chi Minh
"We Don't Care who gets elected, because whoever it is will be Overthrown"
-- Subcomandante Marcos
On women's involvement, leadership, etc., FARC should be mentioned..
http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia20.htm
That's older.. this is newer:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/prog...war/html/12.stm
Of course it's not perfect; but I want to make it clear that Sendero isn't/wasn't the only guerrilla to take such steps..
"Getting a job, finding a mate, having a place to live, finding a creative outlet. Life is a war of attrition. You have to stay active on all fronts. It's one thing after another. I've tried to control a chaotic universe. And it's a losing battle. But I can't let go. I've tried, but I can't." - Harvey Pekar
Not to mention, some guerilla groups have even given children equality by allowing them to join their ranks. Amazing.
The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves. Flora Tristan, 1843.
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wardhiigley! bang bang muqdisho! xarunta dalka SOOMAALIYA!
I heard that the Shining Path ruined a wonderful revolutionary opportunity and lost the support of the masses, but I think that's what Wikipedia said. I tend to support revolutionary groups struggling for a socialist Latin American, but we shouldn't blindly trust them because they're revolutionaries. Again, though, I haven't read much into it, so the Shining Path is fine with me. I think Latin America is tired of civil war though, and they'll equate revolution to civil war. Even though the Venezuelan people are using electoral politics, their revolution is advancing splendidly.
I caught the lol there.
Shining Path are anti-peasant. End of story.
No, the Peruvian movement wasn't the only one to mobilize women. Many nationalist guerrillas have also done so. But there is still a qualitative difference between mobilizing women and having a leadership core that is nearly half women. This qualitative difference was rooted in the ideology of the Peruvian movement on women's emancipation, that saw women's emancipation as key to communist revolution, which was more advanced (on this issue) compared to all other Latin American radical trends. In addition to Carol Andreas, see for example Juan Lazaro's article "Women and Political Violence in Contemporary Peru."
On the sarcastic comment about child soldiers, that is reflective of certain bourgeois-legal prejudices. If children can be exploited in sweatshops, sold into the sex trade, and killed enmass by imperialist and reactionary forces, why can't they fight for liberation? If children can be exploited and oppressed, they can also rebel against exploitation and oppression.
As for the oh-so-insightful one liner "Shining Path are anti-peasant. End of story," that is crude anti-communism at best, a conclusion that is not reached by even the reactionaries who have investigated the movement (which are most of the scholars who have studied and written on them).
"I learned during [the fight against the colonial war in Algeria] that political conviction is not a question of numbers, of majority. Because at the beginning of the Algerian war, we were really very few against the war. It was a lesson for me; you have to do something when you think it's a necessity, when it's right, without caring about the numbers." - Alain Badiou
