What is The Day of Heroism?

Today, June 19th, 2026, is the 40th anniversary of the Day of Heroism. On this day 40 years ago on June 19, 1986, the sons and daughters of the Peruvian masses were cowardly murdered in the dungeons of the old state of El Fronton, Lurigancho, and Callao by a combined attack of the army, navy, air force, and police forces.

In spite of this cowardly attack by the old state the Day of Heroism represents a moral, military, and political triumph of the Peruvian revolution and people. But why? This is because the combatants so wimpishly massacred teach the oppressed masses and all combatants of the struggle for a better world a very important lesson. That lesson being to not be a victim, but rather when faced with oppression and attack of reaction to stand upright and fight with all you have.

They transformed the decaying and decrepit dungeons of reaction into the most luminous trenchs of combat for a better world, for the liberation of the oppressed billions. For this we must study closely the lessons of the day of heroism, the actions taken by the prisoners, and how we can embody the same tenacious spirit in the face of reactionary oppression, where reaction throws everything it has at us.

El Fronton was a prison island and so completely indefensible by any outside forces. Likewise in Lurigancho the prisoners had little actually weapons and defended themselves with makeshift spears, or whatever other weapons they could construct. In both cases the combatants unwaveringly faced off in battle against the fascist assault with only one capitulating while all the rest, the vast majority, gave their lives.

Reaction only knows how to kill but not how to die. This is why they committed this crime 40 years ago. In the face of a people’s war marching implacably toward victory they lashed out, attacking the people with no remorse. The revolutionary, on the other hand, knows how to die. This is because we, the oppressed majority, are condemned to win. As Mao says reaction fights and fails till its doom while the oppressed masses fight and fail till they are successful. We can see this in the Russian, Chinese, Peruvian, Indian, and Phillipine revolutions among others. There have been many bends in the road, this was even the case for the Russian and Chinese revolutions even the entire international communist movement at certain points, but the communists and masses of the world never stopped fighting. And they never can stop fighting so long as oppression exists. This is why reaction is bound to lose, and why the heroic prisoners of war of the 3 prisons fought till their death in spite of everything.

Why Does This Matter For Trans People?

Therefore it is of utmost importance for us trans people to learn from the heroic combatants of those 3 prisons. How many of us are imprisoned in suffocating social situations where our lives are placed at risk for the crime of living in accordance to what our bodies tell us. It is not criminal to be trans just as it is not criminal to rebel and fight for a better world. Yet the rabid reaction thinks otherwise and seeks to attack us for just actions.

In our own dungeons, where many of us find ourselves trapped and cut off from the rest of the world, we are beaten and attacked so often with minimal to no support. What can we do? We shouldn’t befall into loathing and defeatism, this emboldens and stregthens reaction and weakens our own fighting capacity. We need to learn to fight like the prisoners of those 3 prisons.

This is why the Day of Heroism matters for us trans people. Today reaction is laying the ground work for a genocidal assault against us. Now there are more reported murders of trans people, not to mention the many more which are going under reported, because we are largely defenseless. We are such a small portion of the population and so often marginalized and impoverished. So then what do we gain from being victims sitting idly by, watching in horror as our own brothers, sisters, and siblings are left out to die, legislated out of existence, or out right murdered? We need to fight! And we must learn this very quickly. Of course where there is repression there is resistence as well. In the US, where the gun laws are relaxed compared to many other places, there has been some increase in trans people attaining arms for self defense purposes. This is a very positive development though it is not nearly as proliferated as needed.

There remains a false consciousness among trans people that our struggle must be mainly in the trench of “rights” granted to us by the bourgeois states. But as we can see with the minimal rights we do have, they are easily overturned and not secured things. If some reactionary comes to power who does not like us they will take away these “rights” without a second thought. Even the supposed “progressives” are much the same, they will throw us under the bus the first chance they get. The UK and US lead the charge of this anti-trans assualt in the world, but many are following suit.

And so it is imperative we cast off these illusions of any possibility of liberation (via the attainment of rights) under capitalism. It will not happen! The only way we can achieve liberation is by taking up arms for self defense and joining together in organization to fight the reactionary onslaught and muderous assaults everywhere they happen.

How many people care about the lives of us trans people? And how many of those people who feel themselves to have the bare minimum of empathy are willing to join ranks with us and fight for the defense of our lives? It is not enough it seems. We must first and foremost rely on eachother for defense and support. And most importantly learn from the heroes who bravely gave their blood 40 years ago today and fight implacably against the reactionary onslaught no matter what.

From this what we must takeaway from these events is that we need to embody a spirit of unmatched courage and tenacity in organization to fight the reactionary onslaught and join up with the rest of the international communist movement in the struggle to annihilate oppression.

Where there are constituted Marxist-Leninist-Maoist communist parties we must join up with them and ensure they are are with us in our fight as a part of the fight for socialism and ultimately communism. And where the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist communist party is yet to be constituted/reconstituted we must join the constitution/reconstitution effort where it exists or join the struggle for it’s generation. This is because the masses need the guiding leadership of the communist party to coordinate the struggle against the decomposing putrid society which oppresses and murders us for the new societies of new democracy or socialism.

We must congregate in organizations to fight for the new society which does away with the murdeous assaults and opression imposed upon us. Where there is oppression of any form against us we must fight it with blinding tenacity to ensure we are all safe and have what we need. Just as the heroic combatants of El Fronton, Lurigancho, and Callao did. And throw the oppressors and murderers into the grave once and for all.

DOWN WITH THE GENOCIDAL ASSAULT AGAINST TRANS PEOPLE FOR THE CRIME OF LIVING!

COMPOSE OURSELVES INTO ORGANIZATIONS TO FIGHT FOR OUR SAFETY, NEEDS, AND FUTURE!

DOWN WITH ALL REACTION AND OPPRESSION!

VICTORY TO MARXISM-LENINISM-MAOISM!