(CCP). He is presently a senator. In the interview of which extracts appear below, he talks about the peasant struggles in Peru and the violence in the country, analysing, notably, the roots and the nature of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerilla movement. The Interview first appeared in the who are not Andean creations! Tarzan is a white man who brings justice to the negritos as if the negritos could do nothing for themselves. But, worse still, after having "handed out justice" the Senderistas leave the place free to the forces of the state, who kill innocent people.
massacres have reached big proportions. Sendero Luminoso have killed a unionist in the there is a state monopoly which buys at a very low price the coca produced at La Convencion, then sells it a high price in the Andes, as well as limiting production.
This struggle against coca cultivation, or for that matter against the paqueteros quantities of cocaine paste) is just a smokescreen. In reality, people in high places in the US are involved in the drugs traffic. The same is true here. I have been asked what I think of the links between Sendero Luminoso
Peruvian journal, Tierra Nuestra.
T HESE days it is the fashion to
worship the so-called "informal sector" with its "popular entrepreneurs" ants who have emigrated to the cities to make a precarious living are called. This is cited as a proof of the of the capitalist system.
Peru is a backward capitalist country, Because of the policy of buying goods cheap from the countryside and selling them dear in the cities, the peasants are forced to lcave. The rural exodus is not
The migrants then have to do something; they become small artisans of a new kind. In this way comes into being the "informal sector" , which seems to me to be a characteristic feature of the semi-colonial countries. It is one of the curses inflicted on us by imperialism. • The existence of Sendero Luminoso, above and beyond your disagreements with its actions, is an important phenomenon in Peruvian society. It highlights the meaning and role of revolutionary Violence in the revolutionary movement over the past decade.
Sendero Luminoso is a product of hunger and misery. The situation in Peru is so desperate that all of us feel a bit "senderist" Sendero Luminoso cannot be defeated because it is nourished by poverty.
However, I do not want to apologize for 24 the mentality of the Andean communities. it, nor do I think that it really represents International Viewpoint #210 • July 8, 1991 textile industry, miners, landless peasants at Caneta, activists who had seized land in Puno. • What is your view of the United
"war on drugs" in the
Once, the North Americans used the bugbear of communism. However, after the events in Eastern Europe and the rapprochement between Washington Moscow, this is no longer credible. So new bugbears are necded; hence the "war
I have grown coca, and consumed it when I was in the Andes. I add the last clause so that the police do not think I can be arrested for this; it is not illegal to chew coca in the Andes.
Coca is a part of our culture. It is an indigenous plant, in the first place a medicinal drug. It is also used in certain
My reply was that it seems that such links exist, but no more so than links with certain politicians, among them the former president of our parliament, or another who was a deputy at the same time as myself. At the time we stated that there was a cell of drug traffickers in parliament. The same is true of the military.
... In the south of the Andes, it is possible that some of the coca is going to the drugs' traffic, but this region traditionally produces for local use. On the other hand, in the north east of Peru, in Amazonia, coca growing has appeared along with cocaine production. Furthermore, in the
United States and Europe, the laundering of coca dollars and coca is a lucrative business. You can see in North
American magazines adverts for utensils for taking cocaine...
• Finally; how do you feel about the 500th anniversary of the Spanish invasion of the which will be celebrated in 1992?
Five hundred years ago these people came to massacre us, rob us and suppress our culture. The descendants of the mass murderers continue to commit mass murder. The Quechua language remains ignored, above all in the state
It would be a step forward if it had even the rights accorded to Guarani in Para-
The descendants of the invaders are planning to celebrate the beginning of the massacres, the robbery and the suppression of our culture.
Obviously, we, who were on the receiving end, reject these festivities; we will instead be celebrating 500 years of resistance and the continuing struggle for our liberation. *
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PERU resistance HUGO BLANCO Is a Trotskyist, a leader of Peru's Party of Marlateguist Unity(PUM), and organization secretary of the Peasant Confederation of Peru
Anti-abortion crusade meets resistance
THE young Polish democracy
is being undermined, on the
one hand by the desire of the new political elite to restore capitalism, and on the other by the desire of the Catholic church to impose a confessional state. ZBIGNIEW KOWALEWSKI
N May 16, 1991, the Polish parliament discussed whether to maintain or to abolish the right to abortion. This was the last moment for Poland to fulfil the desire of the country's bishops and clerics and give a big gift to Pope John-Paul II, who was visiting his native land by becoming the "protector child" setting an example to Europe and
As Catholic women have commented: "if the Holy Father could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament." Under pressure from both sides, the majority of the deputies decided to support the last minute proposal from Union of former prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and postpone the decisions