We re-publish the translation of this document we found on ci-ic.org:

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

FIRST CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF PERU

(Marxist Congress, Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Thought, Congress)

PREPARATORY SESSION:

GREETINGS WITH THE PLETHORIC ENTHUSIASM THAT THE CONGRESS GIVES US¹

After much toil we are gathered here to celebrate the First Congress of the Communist Party of Peru, that is our main task, the centre that will endorse the brilliant and victorious culmination that we have conquered in this Second Campaign. All of us who are here for our honour and for one more triumph of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to establish one more triumph of the People’s War, all of us present here, must feel deeply moved to be members of the First Congress of the Communist Party of Peru. We assume the task of making this Congress a Congress of victory, a triumphant Congress; this is our historical necessity, it is the consequence of our long journey and it is personally up to each one of us to decide to strive for the golden brilliance of this Congress.

This date will remain indelible and each one of us already has and must have in the future the brilliant honour of having belonged to it, shaping decades of ardent struggles of the proletariat and establishing a milestone that we have only been able to achieve with the people’s war.

First of all, in the name of the Standing Committee, of the Political Bureau and of your comrades, we express a greeting full of the enthusiasm that the Congress gives us because this Congress, understandably in each one of us, sets our souls on fire, raises them up, catapults them and the enthusiasm can only be a red flag raised to the sky, a trembling flag, a flag full of light that will mark the process of the Peruvian revolution for decades to come and thus serve the world revolution, and thus raise to the top the unfading banners of Marx, Lenin and Chairman Mao, three flags of victory that will always remain firmly in the hands of the international proletariat of which we are a vibrant part.

Please receive this greeting and in you we salute the leaders, cadres and militants of our Party, the Communist Party of Peru, the ardent, thunderous greeting as it is appropriate to salute the combatants of the People’s Guerrilla Army and our grateful greeting as sons of the Peruvian proletariat and the Peruvian people, I salute the masses of our homeland and the masses of the world because it is they who have made, are making and will make the great transformations, it is from these glorious hands that the new will always come forth to guide humanity.

What a great occasion we are gathered here: how many dreams have come true here, how many dreams of comrades who have given their blood so that we can be here celebrating the Congress, how much it has cost our people for us to be here because the people are the source from which we receive strength and throbbing energy that allows us to fulfil what history disposes by transforming necessity.

We are here first and foremost because of the undefeated ideology of the international proletariat, because of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism; we are here also as a concretisation of that great almighty truth by application to our concrete reality from which the Gonzalothought comes. Without Marx, Lenin and Chairman Mao we would not be here, without the international proletariat plus the masses of the world we would not be here. Of this we are profoundly convinced and acutely clear, with a penetrating historical vision.

It is quite understandable that we greet you with the full enthusiasm that the Congress gives us, the Congress imprints on us, renewing our communist souls. May this greeting then be the greeting that the Central Leadership extends to you from this crucible which today begins to burn and which will cradle the victory, the triumph of the democratic revolution in this country serving the world revolution and to persist in upholding, defending and applying Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, mainly Maoism. Comrades, welcome to this historic First Congress.

Long live the First Congress!

Long live the Marxist Congress!

Long live the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Congress!

Long live the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, Gonzalo Thought, Congress!

Let us establish a historical milestone of the Party!

Long live the Party!

There is nothing greater than being a communist!

January 26, 1988

1Excerpted from the Report presented by Chairman Gonzalo at the Preparatory Session of the First Congress of the Communist Party of Peru.