Editorial Board
On May 17th communists and revolutionaries around the world commemorate the Peruvian Initiation of Armed Struggle-1980 (ILA-80). One of the historical developments which emerged during the ongoing People’s War in Peru is the combination of the urban war with its rural base in semi-feudal countries. The Communist Party of Peru wrote:
“On May 17, 1980, the People’s War in Peru was initiated. “It was a defiant political blow of transcendental significance that, displaying rebellious red flags and hoisting hammers and sickles, proclaimed: ‘It is right to rebel’ and ‘Power grows from the barrel of a gun.’ It summoned the people, especially the poor peasantry, to stand up in arms, to light the bonfire and to shake the Andes, to write the new history in the fields and hidden features of our tumultuous geography, to tear down the rotten walls of the oppressive order, to conquer the summits, to storm the heavens with guns to open the new dawn. The beginnings were modest, almost without modern weapons. It was fought, it was advanced and it was built from the small to the large and from the weak material and initial fire came the great turbulent fire and mighty roar that grows, sowing revolution and exploding into ever more impetuous People’s War.”
The principles of people’s war assert themselves every day. Communists argue that—with the uprisings around the world, with the People’s Wars at their forefront and the wars of national liberation at their base—more and more evidence is available to prove that Chairman Mao Zedong’s military theory is universally applicable to all countries, considering the given conditions of each. The Communist Party of Peru explains it like this:
“A key and decisive question is the understanding of the universal validity of people’s war and its subsequent application taking into account the different types of revolution and the specific conditions of each revolution. To clarify this key issue it is important to consider that no insurrection like that of Petrograd, the anti-fascist resistance, or the European guerrilla movements in the Second World War have been repeated, as well as considering the armed struggles that are presently being waged in Europe. In the final analysis, the October Revolution was not only an insurrection but a revolutionary war that lasted for several years. Consequently, in the imperialist countries the revolution can only be conceived as a revolutionary war which today is simply people’s war.”
Palestine is proving that the principles expressed here are completely valid today.
Those who study the situation in Palestine, in which the very urbanized Gaza Strip not only withstands one of the most bloody genocides in history but overcomes superior military forces with guerrilla tactics, will understand that Chairman Mao’s military theory is alive and well. More so, Gaza is proof that with mass support and correct tactics, urban guerrilla war is victorious even in the most surveilled and densely populated parts of the world.
Electronic Intifada’s John Elmer details the situation in Gaza in the remarkable video Inside Qassam Brigades’ “Gates of Hell” Ambushes; in the video, Elmer quotes extensively from the Brigades and compiles video of combat. It depicts how the terrain is utilized in complex mobile warfare, endlessly frustrating the genocidal plans of US imperialism and Zionism at its behest.
It is detailed how the Brigadists use the Israeli armed forces as a weapons supply chain. Elmer comments “This war has shown us that Qassam has used its indigenous built weapons but we have seen moments throughout the war where the tunnels have played a key role in building up the army over the last two decades…” noting the captured Israeli rifles displayed during the release of the Israeli-American soldier last week—the resistance snatches these and other captured weapons from the hands of the enemy through sneak attacks from their extensive tunnel network. Even the weapons built by the resistance—like the famous Yassin RPG—reuse unexploded ordnance from the immense amount of bombs dropped on the Palestinian people by the US-Zionist forces.
The Gates of Hell operation, according to Palestine Chronicle:
“Regarding the details of the operation, Al-Qassam said that the complex ambush began by targeting the ground floor of a house where a number of occupation soldiers were fortified with several anti-fortification and anti-armor shells, followed by engaging them with appropriate weapons.
“Afterward, Al-Qassam fighters retreated to a tunnel entrance, where they lured the occupation soldiers into a ‘killing zone’ prepared with a number of explosive devices. As soon as they arrived, the devices were detonated, inflicting casualties among them, according to the clip.
“The footage documented the entry of an Israeli drone and police dogs to ensure the area was clear of resistance fighters before the Israeli force arrived at the ambush site. The force consisted of nine soldiers, and the ambush was detonated, inflicting casualties among the force members, amid chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is the greatest) by Al-Qassam fighters.”
The fighters then repositioned through the tunnel network to strike Israeli armored vehicles sent to relieve the first ambushed force.
The next ambush was accomplished in the ruins of a warehouse bombed by the Israeli armed forces; the resistance fighters bait the Israeli soldiers into the building through Yassin fire before escaping and detonating a bomb. The resistance fighters used common body cameras and back up cameras found on cars to document the operation and track the IDF’s movements.
The widespread use of tunnel war has been well established in the people’s war in China and in the Vietnamese war of national liberation carried out against US imperialism. In 1965 the Chinese film Tunnel War offers a cinematic telling of how the tunnels were perfected to crush the fascist invasion by the Japanese, using Chairman Mao’s teachings.
Chairman Mao in his work On Protracted War explains that “Our army’s main sources of manpower and materiel are at the front.” and “Without preparedness, superiority is not real superiority and there can be no initiative either. Having grasped this point, a force that is inferior but prepared can often defeat a superior enemy by surprise attack.” These military principals are demonstrating their invincibility in Gaza.
Image: Getting into position for an ambush, a Qassam fighter hands a Yassin RPG to his fellow fighter while “mousehole-ing” between buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardment. Still from a resistance video from January 2024.
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