Support for Shining
Sir: How true it is that the right and left of the imperialist bourgeoisie is united in painting the revolution in Peru in the dark- est colours. Anthony Daniels in 'The Shin- ing Path's camp followers' (22 August) goes a step beyond the barrage of abuse charac- teristic of the reactionary intelligentsia. He resorts to misrepresentation and sheer invention to fit our opinions into his philis- tine and petit bourgeois prejudices (what, pray, can be more petit bourgeois and par- venu than to brag about his chance to serve me smoked salmon?).
Neither the Communist Party of Peru nor I hold the opinion that Stalin and Mao did not go 'far enough' in repressing counter-revolution, since those charges are untrue and do not correspond to historical facts. Nor did I ever propose smothering the infant Gorbachev in the cradle. That Mr Daniels has had to invent such Herodi- an statements to substantiate his portraying as lunatics, idealists and monomaniacs
those who hold that the revolution led by the Maoists in Peru is most timely, justified and necessary only goes to show that his McCarthy-like hysteria results from his inability to counter our arguments — in our discussion Daniels had to take cover in the truly lunatic and idealist theory that no rev- olution or war is ever justified.
After 12 years of war the Communist Party of Peru, at the cost of around 30,000 lives (the majority victims of the repressive forces of the old Peruvian state), now stands at the gates of a historic victory capable of offering a new and just society to a nation which long before the beginning of the war had been losing 70,000 children a year due to malnutrition and preventable diseases.
Meanwhile the imperialist bourgeoisie, including the former USSR, Deng's China and civilised Britain under the aegis of a UN led by the US, inflicted 120,000 casual- ties in Iraq in less than a month without achieving its political objectives. They only have the restoration of the feudal Emir of Kuwait and its mediaeval regime plus cheap oil to show for all their trouble. Now, solely to boost a discredited leader's stand- ing in the opinion polls, they are contem- plating a re-run. The Peruvian revolutionaries do not need lessons in humanity from those like Mr Daniels who hold that such a world order, new or old, should last eternally while they peddle the infamy that semi-feu- dal and semi-colonial regimes like Fuji- mores are merely bad administrations and represent 90 per cent of the people of Peru. The Peruvian people are not masochists and the fact that they are winning their People's War fully demonstrates this.
Betraying his anti-democratic character, Daniels espouses his own version of the Herod theory for dealing with bolshies: `The trouble with extremist groupuscules is that they are funny until they are strong enough to be vicious, and by then it is too late.'
Apparently major big-time intellectuals like Mr Daniels prefer their counterparts on the left to be as philistine as themselves. How easy it is then to debunk communism. But when confronted with true Marxist ide- ology they fib, misrepresent, insult and frantically emit smoke signals for the secu- rity services and repressive organs to come to their rescue. Then democracy, rule of law and free speech be damned!
Adolfo Olaechea
10B Homestead Road, London SW6
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