Concerning Three Chapters of Our History

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Concerning Three Chapters of Our History has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the edition published by the Maoist Documentation Project on maoism.org.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a speech delivered by Comrade Gonzalo at the Enlarged First National Conference of the Communist Party of Peru in Lima, Peru on the 3rd of December, 1979. It was first published in the pamphlet For the New Flag, Red Flag Publishing House, Lima, 1980.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#CONCERNING THREE CHAPTERS OF OUR HISTORY

#SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE ENLARGED FIRST NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU

#Gonzalo

#3rd of December, 1979

#★

History tells us that correct political and military lines do not emerge and develop spontaneously and tranquilly, but only in the course of struggle. These lines must combat «Left-wing» opportunism on the one hand and Right-wing opportunism on the other. Without combating and thoroughly overcoming these harmful tendencies, which damage the revolution and the revolutionary war, it would be impossible to establish a correct line and win victory in this war.¹

We have been saying for a few days that we wanted to talk about certain issues. There are moments when people resort to talking in symbols, metaphors, or less intellectual forms. But we would prefer that our group of Communists speak in a direct and general manner.

We want to briefly talk about how the today's history will be seen decades from now. Let us place ourselves on the plane of our revolutionary imagination and look backward from the future; this is useful and also serves to strengthen the spirit. We have clear minds, resolute wills, and inextinguishable passions, and revolutionary imagination will increase them even more. Let us think about this and allow our imagination to speak to us from the future. Let us place ourselves decades ahead in the future, in the second half of the coming century.

We are in the final part of the 20th century; very soon, we will see the years go by, and they will pass even faster as we advance toward the transformation of our society in the third millennium of human history. The end of the 1990s will mean the end of one millennium and the beginning of another, in which communism will be definitively stamped on history and humanity will take a leap from the realm of necessity to the realm of freedom.

We should think about the second half of the next century. History will be written by us, and those who will follow us will be the Communists of the future, because we are an inexhaustible force. When children begin to read and adults begin to remember, they will have a history to read, and it will have recorded the following:

#1. HOW DARKNESS PREVAILED

In this society, there was a time in which darkness prevailed. This does not imply that everything was dark, but it means that darkness prevailed. In our country, in our America, there is an old and long tradition and a slow history, which should be known. We need to search for the deep roots of who we are, not because we are nationalists, but because we have historical particularities, and nobody can make revolution if they do not have historical roots. We are an old society.

Some 20'000 years ago, humanity arrived in these lands in a very primitive state; 10'000 years passed. In the course of about 4'000 to 6'000 years, they began to develop agriculture and basic sheltering to protect themselves from extreme weather conditions, and they also started sewing covers to protect their bodies. 2'000 years later, we already had very productive agriculture and became a great agrarian system. The community developed, and the clan began to be tempered: a specific agrarian-communal expression of our people. Thereafter, a surplus product was created, along with the creation of class distinctions, private property, and the State.

Approximately 700 years ago, the State began to develop and expand, and, as the State grew, exploitation came into existence, giving rise to oppression. Thus, the people were divided into the oppressors and the oppressed. Moreover, these lands were divided into small regions, big confederations, and kingdoms; for example, the Huari. Time passed, and the Inca Empire was formed. Then came Sapa Inca Pachacuti, who brought about a more functional imperial order and reorganized the State, making it stronger. This shows that, in ancient Peru, there were some nationalities that exploited others. The existence of classes was evident, there were the exploited and exploiters. However, such a petrified kingdom did not last long. Strange people came and destroyed the existing agrarian order. But it is not true that the people of the Americas fell on their knees. People resisted and defended the system of exploitation that they had created, but it was a rotten system based on exploitation, and it collapsed when confronted with a higher social order.

Thus, in our country, the system collapsed and a long and vicious process of feudal exploitation began. Our people were taken to the mines, their blood was transformed into gold and silver for Europe. We view the development of European capitalism as the product of the flesh and blood of our ancestors.

Centuries passed, and a mixed-race system developed. There were rebellions, especially the mobilizations and uprisings of the peasants in the 18th century, which rocked the system to its foundations. The worldwide actions of capitalism prospered along with the spirit of the emancipation of the masses; and because classes were not eliminated and the questions of land and sovereignty were unresolved, these two old problems continued to persist.

The 19th century involved the transformation of the feudal order into a semi-feudal order, and of the colonial order into a semi-colonial one. We changed masters from one group of Europeans to another, from Spanish hands into English ones. The new exploiters were enthroned, and they were more cruel and evil than the previous ones, but the people always rose up to fight ceaselessly in an arduous class struggle, although there were periods of greater upsurges in which the system was shaken up.

In the latter part of the last century, a new imperialist order rose up, that of the United States of America. It arrived early in these lands, and, in the 1920s, its domination was consolidated. Hence, at that stage of our history, darkness prevailed in our lands. At the same time, a new class emerged, the proletariat, and a new chapter began.

#2. HOW THE LIGHT EMERGED AND THE STEEL WAS TEMPERED

The working class emerged, a new class was born. The international proletariat was also expressed as the proletariat in our country. That is who we are. The proletariat began to light up the darkness, it is the class that is represented here. This light was transformed into steel.

From 1885 to 1919, there were nearly 30 years of intense class struggle, in which the Peruvian proletariat began to develop, and its presence showed a definitive change in our country. The class struggle, international actions, and the struggles of the proletariat and peasants allowed the tempering of Marxism and of Jose Carlos Mariátegui, who fought like few others in these lands of the Americas. Our people are not weak, as some ignorant people say, we have produced many great people. Mariategui is one of the few people in these lands who applied Marxism-Leninism to their own specific conditions, and our people began to find a new, untraveled road. A new and more pure light emerged, a shining light. That light we carry in our hearts and souls. That light was founded with the land, and that soil became steel. From light, soil, and steel springs the founding of the Party in 1928. The steel was tempered, that is what we are. That is the problem of how the light emerged and the steel was tempered.

In 1928, we were founded, and we have never fallen into the criterion of forming a new political party. We have reached the decision that here the class struggle and the struggle of the masses gave birth to a Jose Carlos Mariategui, who founded the Party; he gave us light and steel and sent us on our own way. Since then, there has been light and steel in our country. No matter what they say, we can turn back history.

It is impossible to turn back while there are still classes. That light will not go out while there are still classes; the steel will not melt while there are still classes. But we had a possibility which came apart when the life of our founder was cut short. Although it was negated, distorted, and concealed, Mariategui's unaccomplished task remained in the form of our programme and plan, the class embodied it, it continued beating in the hearts of our class, the fighting people, and the Communists. We cannot deny that the actions of our class and the Communists who fought tirelessly has allowed us to reach this stage.

Time passed. The Second World War came, the most extensive one in history, which marked us and created a more deep-rooted bureaucrat-capitalist system and a more intense class struggle. The working class kept advancing, but never in peace, always in the midst of torment and storms; it was tempered with more light, more steel, more strength, and became invincible.

Our people were lit up by a more intense light, Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought. We were at first dazzled by the eruption of this unending light, pure light and nothing else; but, little by little, our retinas began to comprehend this light, and we saw our own country, Mariategui, and our own reality, and we found our perspective: the reconstitution of the Party. Thus, the chapter on how the light emerged and the steel was tempered began to end.

#3. HOW THE WALLS COLLAPSED AND THE DAWN BROKE

Today begins a new chapter: how the walls collapse and a new dawn breaks. It will be said that our Party, tempered with the strongest light and purest steel, had a decisive moment. This moment created the National Construction Plan, and the Party, which was a piece of the flag unfurled in the wind, spread out in order to illuminate our country. The Communists from all parts of the country were called upon and a national system was set in motion. Communists rose up and the land reverberated. With the rumbling of the land, the Communists advanced. For this purpose, a milestone conference was held, political foundations were established, and a course to follow was set.

A flag was planted, a very high flag for a new epoch and with a new objective: to initiate the armed struggle. People fought hard, and the few Communists who existed were gathered from various points, and, in the end, they committed themselves by making a decision: to temper the First Company of the First Division of the People's Army in deeds. In this way, they began to clear out the darkness in a definitive way. The walls shook and were breached with clenched fists, and the dawn broke. The key link was the First National Conference, a milestone marking the beginning of a new chapter. The spirits were joyful and our eyes glistened with light. One chapter will say: we carried a heavy burden, we paid the price, and, in difficult moments, we buried our dead, we wiped off our tears, but we continued fighting. This is how it happened, and the People's Republic was proclaimed, a national holiday. Labour was redeemed, and it now brings us joy. The countryside became more productive and freedom began to beat in the hearts of our people, with the Red Flag guiding us forever. Our America will shine. It is already a free world, which has extended itself to other parts of the Earth. Today, the old empires are collapsing. Their muddy waters and poison ashes are being swept away. Labour is redeemed and the fields flourish in the Red Republic.

They will ask, what are we going to do today? Today, we will advance, conspiring so that the shadows will never return and the working class will never lose political power. This is what history will say. We head toward the inevitable arrival of communism in order to reach full and absolute light. The blood of our fallen comrades cries out: «Light! Light! We will reach communism!» That will be written someday, it will be history.

Today, we have made a historic decision. We have promised, with our clenched fists held high, to give our lives. Rising to our feet with our fists in the air, we have offered our lives. In this moment, the walls begin to crumble and the new dawn breaks.

As you have all pledged, I, too, pledge, before the banner of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong's Thought, before the effigy of our founder, before the line of our Party, and before the unconquered banners of our Party: I, too, am committed to fight and struggle to demolish the walls of the old order; I, too, am a fighter of the First Company of the First Division of the People's Army. I only have one aspiration, like all of you: to serve my people, to base myself on the masses who support us, and to struggle for proletarian internationalism. We in the international Communist movement have only one flag: Marx unfurled it, then Lenin and Mao raised it higher; it is the only light that will never be extinguished. We have stood up, and I will do what I must. What matters to me is to complete my journey well. We Communists expect nothing except to serve the realization of communism. My decision is the same as yours. I, too, will be a simple fighter of the First Company, I will do what must be done, I will do what is right, expecting nothing except to serve the cause of Communism. This is also my pledge: My decision is yours, your decision is mine, because we are united. The demolition of the walls and the break of a new dawn begins.