CHARU MAZUMDAR
From Liberation, July 1971—January 1972.
As there are victories in struggle, so there are defeats. Just as struggle advances by leaps, so it has to experience setbacks also. The path of struggle is not straight but very tortuous. Only the revolutionary Communist Party — the Party capable of applying Mao Tsetung Thought and adopting the correct style of work — can correctly conduct struggle in the midst of this complexity. Your struggle has reached a stage when it is about to take a leap: now is the time when it is very necessary to strengthen the Party organization. If the Party organization is to be strengthened the struggle between the two lines within the Party will have to be conducted in a principled manner. Even if such questions have not arisen in your area, all the issues concerning the struggle between the two lines within the Party will have to be discussed in detail at all levels of the Party and even by the guerrilla squads and supporter in general.
The four principles[1] of guerrilla struggle enunciated by Chairman should be discussed at all levels.
The guerrilla commanders must be made alert. Attention must always be paid to increasing the initiative of the guerrilla squads of poor and landless peasants and the initiative of the commanders elected from among them. Our intellectual comrades will have to study Chairman’s military writings.
In your area the attempt at “encirclement and suppression” by the military has failed at the initial stage. Now everything depends on whether we are able to take the initiative. Birbhum has become an object of terror to the ruling classes. I hope you will win still more victories.
September 10, 1971
Note :
1. The four principles of guerrilla struggle enunciated by Chairman are:
“Divide our forces to arouse the masses, concentrate our forces to deal with the enemy.
“The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.
“To extend stable base areas, employ the policy of advancing in waves; when pursued by a powerful enemy, employ the policy of circling around.
“Arouse the largest numbers of the masses in the shortest possible time and by the best possible methods.
“These tactics are just like casting a net; at any moment we should be able to cast it or draw it in. We cast it wide to win over the masses and draw it in to deal with the enemy.”
(Chairman Mao, “A Single Spark Can Start A Prairie Fire”)
