this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
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Maoism is when committing crimes against humanity and terrorism on innocent villages in Peru’s countryside, obviously.
“You won’t let us ransack and pillage your village, steal all your food, and then occupy your houses?”
“Guess we have to shoot all your children, rape your women, and then pillage your village anyways”.
The PCP were a disgusting abomination. On the same level as the Khmer Rouge. Utter garbage and evil. They are a terrorist organization that use Marxist symbols for aesthetics and nothing else. Utter scum.
I highly recommend reading up on the Shining Path. Their founder and leader was a deranged megalomaniac, who was a fascistic nationalist and cared more for his personal cult of personality then Marxism. He has admitted to never even READING MARXIST THOUGHT. The entire history of the organization is insane and I highly recommend the BadEmpenada episode on them.
I feel like the article made some arguments that could hypothetically work if there were proper context, goals, and strategy in mind. Like, sure, in some contexts excesses are expected and accepted, but did you actually do something positive in that work. Sure, the state probably used a lot of violence too, but was the PCP aimed at them in response or mostly targeting civilians? People can do good with hatred as a motivation but can you really say violence is acceptable purely as a manifestation of hatred for the oppressors? (If the tone is not clear these questions are directed as Gonzalists, not you Comrade Salad).
What episode of the deprogram is it? I think I’ve listened to all of them, but I don’t remember one on Gonzalo. Any specific reading recommendations? I don’t want to pick up some random bourgeois book because then I’d be fulfilling the MLM stereotype of MLs being “left anti-communists” not believing lies about Stalin, but believing those about PolPot and the PCP.
My mistake, the video I was referring to was from BadEmpenada. I am very wary of him as a person and his material, but this video is excellently researched and gives a good socialist lens on the horrific nature of the Shining Path and their leader. His description also gives a very long and thorough reading list centered on leftist and South American sources that you might want to look into.
https://youtu.be/OHqJDs3OuhQ
Also The PCP's violence was aimed at the people. That's what makes them reprehensible. They commit heinous acts of terrorism against the poor in Peru, are associated with Nacrotrafficking and cartels to make money, they utilize child soldiers as young as 10 to fill their militant ranks, and so on. They are not using "a means to an end", they are just using a mean that is so vile and reprehensible that every leader and associated member deserves death or imprisonment at the very least.
They accomplished nothing leftist related, and instead murdered trade unionists, feminist activists, Marxist professors, and foreign emissaries. They probably pushed back the leftist movement in Peru by decades if not centuries with their actions.
The PCP of Gonzalo did not and does not engage in narcotrafficking. The "Militarized" PCP, which hates Gonzalo and is considered the "third right-opportunist line" in the MPP's literature, is the group that profits from the drug trade. Again, your accusations are nothing new for communist or even normal progressive groups, as every revolutionary anti-imperialist group has been accused of heinous crimes rather baselessly.