Monday, January 20, 2025

NOTES AND MATERIALS ON CONTEMPORARY PERU (III, continuation of Annexes)

 

Continuing with our NOTES AND MATERIALS ON CONTEMPORARY PERU (III, continuation of Annexes), we include the following as annexes:

 

I

 

As an introduction:

 

In the light of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism, Chairman Gonzalo has shown how the semi-feudal and semi-colonial character of contemporary Peru is maintained and new modalities are developed, and particularly how bureaucratic capitalism has developed on this basis throughout the process of contemporary society, a problem of transcendence to understand the character of Peruvian society and revolution.

 

The character of contemporary Peruvian society, which not only remains, but which, in the midst of its general irreversible crisis and sweeping process, deepens as we have seen in these notes. In this process, it lashes out like a mortally wounded beast. Thus, the old society and the old State that represents and defends it are mortally wounded, dying, but not dead. This situation will continue until the democratic revolution culminates with the seizure of power throughout the country; because today, any revolution can only be accomplished through the people's war led by the Communist Party, the main form of struggle, and the revolutionary armed forces, the main form of organization. In the case of the democratic revolution, like ours, the path that follows is that of surrounding the cities from the countryside (CCCC), as a unitary people's war, the main countryside and the city as a necessary complement.

 

That Chairman Gonzalo masterfully establishes that the capitalism that is developing in Peru is a bureaucratic capitalism hindered by the subsistent shackles of semi-feudalism that bind it and on the other hand subjugated to imperialism that does not allow the national economy to develop, it is, therefore, a bureaucratic capitalism that oppresses and exploits the proletariat, the peasantry and the petite bourgeoisie, and that constrains the middle bourgeoisie. Why? Because the capitalism that is developing is a late process and only allows an economy for its imperialist interests. It is a capitalism that represents the big bourgeoisie, the landowners and the rich peasantry of the old type, classes that constitute a minority and exploit and oppress the great majorities, the masses.

 

That bureaucratic capitalism is not a process particular to China or Peru, but rather is due to the late conditions in which imperialism subjugates the oppressed nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America and when these have not yet destroyed the subsisting feudalism and less developed capitalism.

 

Logic and history show us the full validity of what Chairman Gonzalo established regarding the character of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial Peruvian society in which bureaucratic capitalism is developing, regarding the targets of the revolution, the tasks to be undertaken, the social classes and the essence of the democratic revolution and also how it is being carried out today and its perspective.

 

In this Annex I, we show how the LOD intends to revise Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought in relation to the problem of bureaucratic capitalism and the evolution of semi-feudalism.


In 2013, the opportunist, revisionist and capitulationist line of the right, continuing its course of revisionist renegades and traitors to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought, the Communist Party of Peru, the People's War, the Peruvian Revolution and the world revolution, raised the "dependent capitalist" character of Peruvian society, that semi-feudalism was undermined and the semi-colonial condition was evolved.

 

Chairman Mao and Chairman Gonzalo clearly point out that the point is to sweep away, through the people's war, the three mountains that oppress us: imperialism, bureaucratic capitalism and semi-feudalism, not to undermine or evolve, for which the democratic revolution must be completed with the seizure of power throughout the country. The process of sweeping away the old social relations of production and the old power takes place amidst restorations and counter-reestablishments amidst the fluidity of the people's war. The Peruvian revolution and the people's war led by the PCP are in this process, which in order to continue its victorious development and carry the revolution to the end demands further development and completion of the general reorganization of the Party.

 

We know that the people's war can never be stopped, because as long as there is a single communist in the Party, it will have to raise everything again and continue with the task.

 

1. Fundamental question: semi-feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism

 

President Gonzalo, in the Second Plenary Session of the Central Committee (1991), on such approaches of reaction and revisionism, in The Document, said:

 

What we must know is that they seek to confuse problems and in this way aim to make us believe that there is a capitalist process that advances, and thus avoid and cover up bureaucratic capitalism.

 

We must see what the specific, concrete situations are in Peru (starting from bureaucratic capitalism) because today they are leading to an unbridled dispossession of the peasants' property.

 

We make the peasants fight against this dispossession and we tell them that only with a new order will there be a profound transformation and that this will benefit them.

 

The so-called "agrarian reform" of the fascist government of Velasco did not resolve the problem of land ownership, neither the latifundia nor its counterpart the minifundia were destroyed. What was done was to deepen bureaucratic capitalism according to fascist and corporate molds.

 

The peasantry wants the land for those who work it and the exploiters could not and cannot apply that, they are opposed to the slogan of true agrarian reform because this can only be fulfilled if semi-feudalism is destroyed with a people's war, raising the peasantry and leading it towards a red Republic, the People's Republic of Peru, only by applying the peasant path led by the Communist Party.

 

Semi-feudalism persists with its three characteristics: latifundia, serfdom and gamonalism, despite the evolution generated by the landowning path of development of bureaucratic capitalism.

 

The important thing is that in the Sierra the extensive properties are maintained despite the fact that there has been an "agrarian reform."

 

Para diferenciar: de una manera se explota a la clase campesina: como clase organizada la burguesía la explota a través del Estado mediante impuestos; y como capitalistas, en las modalidades de la usura, del préstamo, del capital, del interés, los que no pagados se cobran con la hipoteca. Y ¿cómo lo explota el terrateniente? por la renta. Así es como se diferencia la semifeudalidad.

 

 Las formas feudales tienen tres modalidades que son: el pago de la renta en trabajo personal, en especie y en dinero; también el pago en dinero es una modalidad feudal y que el capitalista la aplique no quiere decir que no tengan raigambre feudal

 

Criticando una de las conclusiones de un informe de un representante de la reacción, que afirmó:  “Se reduce la importancia relativa del minifundio, que aumentó su tamaño promedio”. El Presidente dice,, claro su posición es que hay un desarrollo capitalista derivado de su exitosa reforma, de ahí que minimice o tergiverse la realidad; aquí sus propias palabras son: “se reduce el minifundio”, por tanto, existe aún no ha desaparecido, así que no hay tal éxito de su reforma; las formas serviles de explotación también subsisten, el latifundio y el minifundio siguen coexistiendo.

 

Dice, el minifundismo determina un retroceso en el cultivo del suelo, porque se restringe la posibilidad de aplicar formas nueva. En la parcela, trabaja toda la familia hasta el agotamiento, se invierte una gran fuerza de trabajo pero el producto neto disminuye progresivamente al aumento del producto bruto. Esto mismo rige en la micro y pequeña producción. Esto es óptimo para el imperialismo porque compra a menor costo explotando inmensamente.

 

Este fenómeno (está en la base semifeudal del capitalismo burocrático) en el campo, además repercute en con­tra del proletariado porque así el campo tiene que consumir menos, la producción tiene que bajar, los salarios de los obreros se reducen y hay mucho margen de desocupación.

 

Ver en la Línea de la Revolución Democrática:  El caduco sistema semifeudal sigue subsistiendo y marcando al país desde sus bases más profundas hasta sus más elaboradas ideas y, en esencia, manteniendo persistente el problema de la tierra, motor de la lucha de clases del campesinado, especialmente pobre que es la inmensa mayoría

 

Las formas asociativas que se gestaron con la ley corporativa de Velasco se vinieron abajo.

 

Con el gobierno de Fujimori a partir de julio de 1990, es la nueva concentración que pretenden ahora que la empresa privada tiende a jugar un papel importante en la economía peruana.

 

Decir, que ese proceso (de parcelación), ha comenzado espontáneamente es también soslayar que lo que se está expresando es el camino campe­sino que subsiste y se desarrolla frente al camino terrateniente; y sobre todo que con la parcelación hoy día lo que se está buscando de parte de la reacción es que se den los títulos de propiedad a los campesinos para atarlos al proceso de la hipoteca y la usura, despojarlos de las tierras y que de éstas se apropien los banqueros, la gran burguesía y los terratenientes; quieren amplio campo para que puedan invertir en el campo y desenvolver la agro-industria; apoderarse de las tierras; usufructuar de las pocas irrigaciones que hay o agarrarse las grandes concesiones de terrenos eriazos a través de los “PRIDI”.

 

 En síntesis, despojo de la tierra de los campesinos para que los terratenientes y la gran burguesía se apoderen y desenvuelva el campo en función de lo que demanda el imperialismo, producir para exportar no para ali­mentar al pueblo ( pero si un país no produce sus alimentos comienza a depender de otros, y no hay que olvidar que la política del imperialis­mo es controlar precisamente la producción alimenticia).

 

The big bourgeoisie, especially the buyer class, is favoured by the parcelling out because it facilitates the dispossession for a new concentration with the objective of evolving the countryside, to create large agro-industrial complexes.

 

They do the parcelling out in function of new accumulation of capital, they bring bureaucratic capitalism to the countryside.

 

The community is not as it is believed, an organism that works collectively, it is not like that, they are made up of family productive units, there is a distribution, a distribution of lands, that should make one think because then a process of dismemberment of the community is taking place, it is not like the pum (revisionists) do, a united process in which everyone has the same interest, it is not like that.

 

In the communities there are poor, middle class and rich, apart from the fact that they are constantly harassed by landowners. This means that there is the process of that decomposition of the community. There, of course, forms of collective work subsist, such as sowing, ayni, etc.; These things are like that, but that doesn't mean that we don't see classes within the community.

 

In the communities, what is also happening? Owning the land is the clear demand of the peasantry, that is a key element in the background of the destruction of the associative forms. That expresses the survival of the peasant path and obviously in a dominant order, which directs the reaction, that path becomes a subservient and subsidiary path that complements the other; but they express two paths: the peasant path and the bureaucratic path, we must keep in mind.

 

I insist again, the community is a process of increasing decomposition and there are rich, middle class and poor. That phenomenon, I repeat, is expressing the peasant path.

 

The problem is that the titling and the exercise of their rights within this order, only leads to coupling to the system, to being a complement to it; but if the peasant path is not directed by the revolution, it serves bureaucratic capitalism.

 

In 1972, at an event in Ayacucho, analyzing the invasions, particularly those of Caccamarca and Pomacocha, in the province that was then Cangallo, the Party concluded that all this courageous, heroic and bloody struggle, which cost blood, although it gave the land, by not developing a revolutionary process, ended up coupling and complementing the old order and linking, unfortunately, to the power of the gamonal, which in the Sierra is the system through which the old State exercises its functions.

 

Something similar to what was previously stated, we should consider today. The parceling out of lands that occurs, dismantling the associations, expresses the peasant path that is concretized in that need of the peasantry to have their own land; but if it is not linked to the revolution, it will also simply be a complement and serve bureaucratic capitalism in the countryside. This is what we must think about.

 

The Fujimori government sees a long time frame for rural development, focuses on productive development and wants to change the model; it is waiting for what the presidents of Latin America decide to adjust to Bush's initiative for America; it is within the criteria of the Cepal that we studied at the Bureau in August 1990, it states that in Latin America, by the year 2000, land will not increase nor will the number of workers increase, so it should focus on agricultural productivity; it says that the problem is to develop agricultural technology, etc. That is precisely what Fujimori is proposing and what the buying bourgeoisie applauds; for them the problem is no longer the distribution of land because it has already been distributed but rather productivity, how to produce more, with what techniques, with what organic devices, what markets to cover, etc., etc.

 

There we have the position of the purchasing bourgeoisie in Peru, seeking to evolve the countryside, to regularize the titles of property for dispossession and new concentration. (This scientific prediction of the President has been fulfilled and there has been a new concentration of land in the hands of landowners and the big bourgeoisie, as we have been seeing with reports from academics and reactionary institutes, for export and not for the benefit of the people).

 

As we will show with other reports, which study the new concentration of land, what the President said has been fulfilled, that:

 

The big bourgeoisie, especially the purchasing bourgeoisie, is favored by parceling because it facilitates dispossession for a new concentration of plots because the plot is small and unproductive; they want parceling with the objective of evolving the countryside, to make large agro-industrial complexes.

 

Also on the social classes in the countryside, the President says:

 

We can take the agricultural census of 1972, the National Survey on Rural Households that has been done in the countryside, although it has some limitations (we now have the last census from 2012 and the new Surveys, our note), so we could establish a table to classify based on property and exploitation relationship, to define the poor, medium and rich peasants, the landowners and the agricultural wage earner; and in turn establish the differences in each of these areas. What we must know is that they seek to confuse problems and in this way aim to suggest that there is a capitalist process that advances, and thus avoid and cover up bureaucratic capitalism.

 

He tells us that we have to look at: “sharecropping.” We have seen very small smallholders, now we are seeing tenants, who rent their land because they cannot work or who, not being able to work it, are linked to whoever has capital and work with tax modalities and in this way the semi-feudal relationship is concealed. It could be sharecropping or another form; it could simply be delivering in kind, in products (we will see all this in detail with the new reports that we will address in these notes).

 

The President quotes part of a report, which says: “Of the population grouped in agricultural production, 2,175,000, that is, 96.5%, would correspond to households that own agricultural holdings. These households add up to 1,573,000.”

 

And he comments: An immense mass. When he speaks of households here, he refers to the entire family that works on the agricultural holding. “From this group, what could we derive? 601,000 are employed in family farms and/or are salaried workers of other units or of an associative company.” Very interesting and extremely important. Of course, this is discounting the group of people who manage these work units. The question is, as you say, that there are a good number of salaried workers.

 

Let's take your figures, 1,700,000 would be direct and indirect drivers, but there are 702,000 who are salaried workers, 45% more or less. Very important. In other words, we have a good percentage of agricultural salaried workers, here they are not called that, but they are; they are not simply salaried workers, they are not industrial proletariat, nor are they factory proletariat, they are agricultural proletariat that sells their labor force in agricultural tasks. They are direct brothers of the proletariat. It is very important to work with this sector, there are, roughly speaking, 700,000 agricultural workers, they are rural proletarians, they do not have the peculiarity of the industrial, the factory, but both are proletariat, they generate surplus value.

 

We are in the process of conquering power and we should consider doing an investigation ourselves into the general and specific situation of the Peruvian proletariat. There are so many in the factory, so many in mining, so many in the countryside as agricultural wage earners. Then, in the factory, classify by production sectors, how much they contribute to the GDP, how much is taken from them by surplus value, how they are being exploited more and more, how their purchasing power is being reduced, what are their working conditions like, how they apply their own reactionary laws torn from the struggle of the Peruvian proletariat, what is the working day like in each sector. There are 80,000 miners, but their importance lies in the fact that they move wealth, they generate 50% of the foreign currency at a national level by exporting. The agricultural proletariat is important because of its size and of course, it is in the countryside; It would be a good instrument to penetrate more rural areas because they come from the mountains or from coastal towns that we have not yet worked... Then, these semi-salaried workers would also have to be organized, the fact that they are temporary does not mean that they are not salaried workers;

 

On the peasants from the mountains who emigrated to the jungle, he says:

 

It is a peasant mass that has to develop within a relationship, no longer servile but of capitalist modalities, but what type of capitalism? The capitalism that gives them the land, within the peasant path or the forms of capitalist property within the landowning path that develops semi-feudalism under bureaucratic capitalism? Who rules over all this?: the big bourgeoisie and imperialism.

 

Here, too, the two paths that confront each other are expressed, both paths occur and collide; the peasantry wants the land, wants to have property over the land and finds itself with the possibility of possessing a few and not so good lands; In order to develop its plans, the reaction facilitates land ownership for the national bourgeoisie and the petite bourgeoisie, but above all it facilitates the large property, the big bourgeoisie, the landowners, and imperialism so that they can invest in large areas for products to be exported; it also favors the imperialists who apply development plans in the jungle and in the lower jungle, for example the CORAH project of the World Bank.

 

All this makes the two paths collide and the Peruvian experience shows that in these areas of the jungle, when one passes from one form of exploitation to another, from semi-feudalism to capitalism, they engender sharp class struggles; this is what explains the mobilization and the sharpening of the class struggle that occurred years ago, for example, in Quillabamba and recently in San Martin.

 

We have to specify the demands that the middle bourgeoisie, the rich peasantry, the national bourgeois have; also those of the petty bourgeoisie in the countryside and in the cities. In the specific case of the countryside, we persistently uphold and put into practice the idea of ​​basing ourselves on the mainly poor peasantry, but in certain cases we are expressing it not as the main one but as the exclusive one and that is not good, although they are the majority there are also middle class and rich people and the revolution is democratic.

 

(The above extracts belong to the document “II PLENO DEL COMITE CENTRAL, DEL PARTIDO COMUNISTA DEL PERU, EXTRACTOS DE LA SESIÒN PREPARATORIA DEL II PLENO DEL COMITÈ CENTRAL)

 

2. Bureaucratic capitalism and the agrarian process in Peru

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