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p Dear Comrades,

p We representatives of the Peruvian Communist Party have come to this important Meeting from a most crucial front of the present-day anti-imperialist struggle in Latin America. This alone speaks of our profound conviction that co-ordinated action by all forces, above all active steps to cement the world communist movement, is necessary more than ever before. That is why, with revolutionary enthusiasm, we look forward to the success of our Meeting. We salute and thank those who have worked so fruitfully in the Preparatory Committee, particularly the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Party of the immortal Lenin, for their valuable contribution to preparing the Meeting and for the splendid facilities they have placed at our disposal. We also salute the fraternal Parties with deep appreciation for the expressions of solidarity from various delegates, embodied, too, in the concrete activity of their Parties.

p We think highly of, and express our thanks for Comrade Brezhnev’s speech, which is helping us to get our bearings.

p After the military coup last October, Peru entered a special, crucial and difficult phase. Its most significant feature is the opposition to US imperialism displayed not only by our people, but also, for the first time, by our government.

p Nationalisation of oil, Peru’s main power source, expropriation of the stocks and shares, of the oil refineries, the industrial complex and the commercial agencies of International Petroleum Company, a Standard Oil branch, coupled with the exaction of $690 million which International Petroleum owed Peru—all this signified the end to imperialist oil monopoly and its conversion into a state monopoly, which was followed by the establishment of diplomatic and trading relations with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, and by firm action in defence of our maritime sovereignty against piratic imperialist fisheries.

p Recently, two important political actions took place: a) Nelson Rockefeller, President Nixon’s emissary, was officially refused entry into our country, this contributing greatly to the failure of the provocative tour on a continental scale, and b) the US military missions, which tied Peru’s armed forces to the Pentagon and were actually a support base for imperialist armed intervention against the liberation struggle in pur country, were expelled.

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p What is the explanation for this line of conduct by the military government against the background of Peru’s recent history and the relatively recent advent to power of “gorrillas” in other Latin American countries ? How to explain the fact that this can occur with the war-financial complex so firmly entrenched in Washington ?

p What we have is doubtless an extraordinary thing, a new symptom of our transitional epoch or, perhaps, the beginning of a new and higher stage marking an expansion of the anti-imperialist struggle in Latin America.

p The roots of these events should be sought in the structural crisis in Peru and other countries of the continent, or, in other words, in the country’s dependent condition and the survival of pre-capitalist relations of production that impede growth, of the productive forces.

p In the past two decades the country witnessed an extremely rapid economic growth^ highlighted by increasing production of various export goods and a considerable expansion of industry. This has brought about far-reaching changes in the balance of class forces—a numerical and organisational growth of the working people, a marked reduction of the rural population, a growth of the national bourgeoisie and the emergence of a new oligarchy. However, in the conditions of foreign domination this growth, with its distorted forms, only added to our country’s dependence, deepened the chronic agrarian crisis and caused an appalling impoverishment of the masses, entailing all the usual terrible consequences.

p I cannot cite any figures in my intervention, but I should like to recall some facts. The Alliance for Progress, the imperialist alternative to the way opened up by the Cuban revolution, has failed. With it failed the new oligarchy, hand-fed by giant US loans and investments, to whose diktat the now deposed president Belaunde Terry submitted, acting in collusion with the APRA party, an undisguised imperialist agent, and the old oligarchy. Although our country is extremely rich, particularly in minerals and fish, the increased exports and the brighter economic situation benefited none but the foreign trusts, big landowners and big capitalists. When the drain of foreign exchange and the monstrous speculation reached the culmination point, while the state debt grew enormously, credits were considerably restricted, causing an acute deficit in the balance of payments and precipitating a financial crisis. At that point, the government shifted the burden of the crisis to the people by raising taxes and devaluating our currency. It also betrayed national interests by renewing agreements that robbed us of our oil on terms inferior to the previous. The economic crisis and the rampant corruption brought on a political crisis, the government’s complete isolation and inevitable downfall.

p In the course of this process, all strata of the people became aware of the burning need for changes, which impelled mass actions, the participants of which demanded improvements and formulated anti-imperialist slogans. There was also an upswing of national sentiment, which gripped broad strata of the small and national bourgeoisie, representative organisations of the technical intelligentsia and a large section of the priesthood and the armed forces.

p The latter fact partly explains the events in Peru. But if we want a fuller explanation, we should take into account two other factors directly related to the 419 content of our Main Document, that is, the connection of the political processes in each country with the international events add the need to pinpoint these processes, to analyse them and provide a general description. We speak of the role of the revolutionary vanguard, the Communist and Workers’ Parties, of the special importance that their unity and cohesion has for solving the specific national and world tasks, in order to fulfil our duty to the working class and progressive mankind.

p We cannot ignore the fact, comrades, that the current events in Peru vividly reflect the character, content and main trends of our era, the era of the transition from capitalism to socialism, of which the world socialist system is the leading force. These events are impelled by the disintegration of the imperialist system, the cause of its desperate aggressiveness, on the one hand, and the growing influence of the socialist camp, above all the Soviet Union, its foremost contingent, on the other. The latest and for us the closest example of this influence is the Cuban revolution. None will deny that the events in our country are part of the continent-wide process that began with the victory of the Cuban revolution and its winning battle against the imperialist blockade. The Cuban example has brought home to broad national circles that Latin Americans are now able to defeat the common enemy. Here one could depart from the main theme: the Peru delegation is very happy to welcome at this Meeting the delegation of the Communist Party of Cuba.

p On the other hand, none can deny that this revolution, the doing of the people, Party and government of Cuba, is historically rooted in the glorious October Revolution and that its most dependable international support stems from the existence and consolidation of the socialist camp and, chiefly, the spirit of proletarian internationalism, the firm sense of principle and the might of the Soviet Union.

p Also, we owe Peru’s recent successes in breaking one of the links of the imperialist chain largely to the victories of the heroic Vietnamese people who have driven their foes to the brink of total defeat; we owe them to the big antiimperialist battles of the workers, students and broad strata of Latin Americans, to the precipitate growth of the class, trade-union and political struggle of the proletariat in the capitalist countries of Europe and the resistance of the Arab countries to the annexationist intervention of Israeli Zionism, which is acting in collusion with the bellicose US imperialists and the West German revengeseekers. We also feel the influence of the irrepressible national liberation movement of the Asian and African peoples and the staunch battles fought by the US people in defence of working-class and youth rights, against racial segregation and the suicidal Vietnam war.

p “At present," says the Main Document, "there are real possibilities to deal imperialism new blows". What is taking place in Peru confirms the fact expressed here by Comrade Brezhnev: "Under the onslaught of the forces of socialism and democracy imperialism’s positions in the world continue to grow weaker." It is more than obvious that we need a common strategy based on a Marxist-Leninist appraisal of the general situation in order to strip imperialism of its positions, to defeat it all down the line. That is why we agree that the Document should be adopted whole, with no deletions of any kind. We disagree 420 with the comrades who advocate united action on the basis of an unsubstantiated platform of a tactical character. This is doubly important, because of the considerable changes of the past nine years, which imperialism takes into account in its global strategy.

p The socio-economic development of our country and that of the international situation did not occur spontaneously. Our Party has always played a worthy role as the organising and directing factor in the fight waged by the antiimperialist, national and democtratic forces. Not only have we always, since our Party was formed, fought for the nationalisation of International Petroleum and other big US enterprises holding key positions in our economy; it is also to our credit that we were the first to advance these slogans in the stage ushered in by the Cuban revolution. What was still more important than advancing these slogans, however, was that we secured mass support for them. Jointly with other anti-imperialist, democratic and progressive forces, we organised the National Oil Defence Front, later converted into the National Liberation Front. These movements, which advocated unity, subsequently exercised a strong influence on public opinion and helped mobilise the people in the early sixties. After we overcame the strong reactionary counter-offensive in and outside the Party, we reorganised and improved the leadership of the movement on a new basis, making the most of two factors: the class unity of the working class, which we delivered from the clutches of the yellow Apraist unions, and the unity of the revolutionary political forces in the Left Unity Front. This was accomplished by revising Party policy along Leninist lines and by reorganising the Party organisations, enlivening the Party press, by Party building and many other measures. In the battles that followed in recent years against the treacherous policy of the former government, for the expulsion of International Petroleum, we became the most influential force unifying the people. During the last election campaign, on the eve of the military coup, the Left Unity Front acquired new possibilities, acting in concert, for the same aims, with the Christian-Democratic Party and the People’s Action Party, which by then turned against President Belaunde and the Right circles.

p Accumulating forces had not been easy. Throughout its long history, the Party was exposed to brutal repressions by a succession of military and oligarchic dictatorships. During the past decade we were subjected time and again to cruel police round-ups and persecuted by the disgraceful politico-military tribunals. However, the enemy’s subversive activity, effected through Leftopportunist splitters, prompted, organised and led by Maoists, had a particularly debilitating effect on our fighting capacity. This retarded the development process by diverting it from its natural course.

p The splinter group appeared at the time of an upswing in the class organisation of the working people, during broad peasant actions for land, the student movement for the initiation and extension of a university reform and in the initial stage of the popular fight for oil. The group set itself but one task: to split the Party and destroy the contingents called upon to unite in a great anti-imperialist, nationalist and democratic front. It acted, in effect, in collusion with the police, since to begin its work it took advantage of a far-flung police round-up of thousands of Communist leaders, Party members and other Left 421 groups during the 1963 military dictatorship. The subversive elements were soon released, while we were kept in prison for a long time.

p There was yet another fact: at the time of the guerrilla actions of 1965, though not involved because it thought them premature, our Party did not evade coming to grips with the common enemy and gave what support it could to the fighters and members of their families. The subversive elements, on the other hand, were busy saving their own skins and publicly denounced these actions. In other words, they were ultra-revolutionaries in words only, and base reactionaries in deed, acting like their teachers, the miracle-makers, are acting on the international arena, scorning the specific features of the country concerned and the changes caused by time. In order to reorganise our ranks and conduct a successful policy of alliances and work with the masses, we had first of all to unite the Party firmly on a basis of principle, purging it of these elements. That was when a good nucleus of leaders emerged, improving the policy, improving and extending our organisation, adding to our influence, and all this despite the actions of Right and Left opportunist groups who tried to stand in our way. By now, Maoism has been fragmented and politically defeated in Peru.

p As we see it, this experience, similar to that of many contingents of the international communist and workers’ movement, proves quite convincingly that to conduct effective work in building up a united front and co-ordinate action with other forces, we should, above all, as Lenin recommended, unite ideologically and politically ourselves. Furthermore, it proves that in order to achieve the first and second aim, it would be wrong—and, by the way, impossible—to avoid an ideological struggle.

p For this reason, though we do not insist that the Main Document should on all accounts contain these propositions, we, ourselves, should bear them in mind in relation to the common struggle against imperialism; we insist, therefore, on qualifying Maoism as neo-Trotskyism coloured by bourgeois nationalism in a ruling party at the head of a very large and yet backward and self-isolated socialist country. Maoism’s importunate anti-Sovietism, its systematic factional and subversive activity, its military-bureaucratic conception of state and Party structure, its bellicose tendencies and what is in effect collusion with imperialism—all this, reaffirmed and legalised by the so-called 9th Congress, shows that Maoism is just this trend, revived in the new conditions, complemented, moreover, by a tendency to absolutise its own experience.

p It should be noted that neo-Trotskyism is becoming more dangerous than the old Trotskyism, primarily because it operates on the international scene, exploiting the prestige of the victorious socialist revolution, indoctrinating a vast nation whose hopes of a better life have been disappointed, in a spirit of superstitious fanaticism, and, secondly, because it has gone over from antiLeninist theoretical concepts to anti-Soviet armed action. We must address ourselves constantly to the internationalist spirit of the sound part of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese nation in order that they should rectify the incorrect line. But that is one thing. It is an entirely different thing to let Maoism undermine this Meeting as well, while we wait in vain for this rectification.

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p Now let us go back to the the events in Peru in order to describe in general outline the present situation and the outlook ahead.

p What we said earlier does not mean that the military junta is, or can be, a revolutionary government, that is, a consistently anti-imperialist and democratic government. The 5th Congress of our Party described the military junta by reason of its social composition, maximum programme and dominant influences as a bourgeois national-reformist government which, though consisting of military people only, is not at all homogeneous. Elements distinctly nationalist and progressive share power in it with conservative or vacillating elements saturated with the military authoritarian spirit. We see this from the attempts to prevent a radical agrarian reform, to prevent the modification of the basic aspects of the previous government’s economic policy and from the fact that an antilabour and anti-student policy is being followed. Willy-nilly, this policy conflicts indirectly with the national course and with the actions so energetically begun; thereby it is losing the necessary devoted support of the masses. In these circumstances, it was impossible to avert the continuously sharpening economic crisis. Taking advantage of the popular discontent caused by this crisis, home reaction and US imperialism are assiduously hatching conspiracies aimed at overthrowing the government or at altering radically its present nationalist policy.

p Naturally, our Party takes a clear-cut class stand against the anti-popular aspects of the present government, while backing with mass action that aspect which is historically most significant: the government’s determined struggle against imperialist aggression. All this is closely associated with the struggle to change government policy in the sphere of labour and education, and to extend the measures aimed against the landowners and the oligarchy. The programme of immediate action adopted by the 5th Congress contains demands consistent with the degree of maturity attained in resolving the national problems and, at once, envisaging ways of coping with the economic crisis and improving the living conditions of the people. These demands are: radical agrarian reform, development of copper deposits by the state, restrictions on remittance of dividends by Peru-based US enterprises to their mother enterprises in the United States, currency control, an indefinite moratorium on foreign debts, and credit and technical aid agreements with the socialist countries in order to stimulate independent growth of the state economy and a general rise in wages. The pur* pose of all this is to pave the way for a truly popular government that would embark on building socialism and communism in a way. made practicable by the general conditions.

p The dynamics of events favours these aims, making them more comprehensible and more familiar to the masses and the foremost figures in the government and the armed forces. Just as the government responded to US sanctions, that is to the termination of "military aid", by expelling the US military missions, it is quite possible that if the Hickenlooper, Holland, Pely and other amendments are invoked to stop credits and investments for an indefinite time, the government may retaliate by nationalising copper mining and by other similar measures. However, we reject completely the idea of spontaneous, wait-and-see development, whose exponents expect this to happen by decision of the military junta only.

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p We have never been prey to illusions and have never shed our class independence. We have kept up and made more militant the General Confederation of Labour, which has grown since its establishment a year ago into a trade-union centre embracing the majority of the organised proletariat, because it never ceases to fight for the economic and political demands of the working class and peasants. The united anti-imperialist front is growing and expanding politically on the "Left Unity" basis, advancing towards a broad national and democratic front. We are also making headway in organising the broad peasant masses and in reviving the leading and unifying role of the student federations. All this is complemented by the effort to turn our Party as quickly as possible into a wellorganised, mass party with deep roots in the people.

p We reaffirm our internationalist attitude. We are fighting for socialism and communism on the world front. We are waging a frontal struggle against imperialism. We need your solidarity. That is why, in the interest of the whole movement, we need the cohesion and unity of our great world detachment more than ever before. That is our contribution and, at the same time, it is our appeal.

p In conclusion, allow us to make clear our position on the following issues:

p 1. Our Central Committee is in complete accord with the Main Document, including the amendments which have enriched it in form and coptent.

p 2. We hold that the conditions for signing that Document are at hand, firstly because this is required by the present world situation and, secondly, because it is the product of an unprecedented democratic procedure to which all our Parties contributed, having discussed it broadly, with the vast majority of them taking part here.

p 3.As we see it, in the present conditions this Document is the biggest possible success for us, a success achieved after painstaking preparations; we are sure that the Document will be an effective means for cementing the world communist movement. Comrade Brezhnev’s speech has eminently enriched its ideological content.

p 4. We do not hold it appropriate, therefore, to voice any reservations, especially if they are intended to stress, no matter how vaguely, the existence of some differences that are being overcome in practice.

p 5. We reject as anti-Leninist any proposition that would place the developed capitalist countries and the socialist countries in the same category on the assumption that the world is divided into rich and poor countries, or that there is a "Third World" consisting of underdeveloped countries. That is not a class criterion, because, by using the word “world” we imply systems, with presentday society consisting of just two antagonistic systems—the socialist and the capitalist—with the capitalist system dominated by imperialism and including colonies, semi-colonies and dependent countries.

p 6. That is why we also reject any amendment implying that there allegedly exist in the socialist system various negative tendencies and vices, such as racialism, anti-Semitism or any other type of discrimination, typical only of societies divided into classes.

p 7. We are particularly pleased that this Meeting, intended to attain a higher stage in the consolidation of our world movement, is taking place on the eve 424 of the centennial of the great Lenin’s birth, that it is taking place in Lenin’s homeland and that we are being extended hospitality by the Party founded by Lenin.

p 8. We are in accord with Comrade Brezhnev’s proposals of holding periodical theoretical conferences and bilateral meetings with the purpose of cementing our unity.

Thank you very much, comrades, for your patient attention.