First Published: Discussion Bulletin #2, January 15, 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Patrick Muldowney, Anita Hood and Paul Saba
Copyright: This work is in the Public Domain under the Creative Commons Common Deed. You can freely copy, distribute and display this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit the Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line as your source, include the url to this work, and note any of the transcribers, editors & proofreaders above.
In the era of imperialism and the proletarian revolution, our basic program is the complete overthrow of all exploiting classes, the establishment of working class rule (the dictatorship of the proletariat) in place of capitalist class rule (the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie) and the triumph of socialism over capitalism.
Our ultimate aim is the classless society of world communism.
As proletarian internationalists we firmly unite with the genuine Marxist-Leninist Communist Parties and organizations, with the proletariat, the oppressed people and nations of the whole world, and fight together with them to overthrow the two superpowers – the Soviet Union and the United States, to overthrow all imperialism, revisionism and reaction and to abolish the system of exploitation of one person by another over the globe, so that all humanity will be emancipated.
The Australian revolution forms part of the world proletarian socialist revolution.
...the socialist revolution will not be solely or chiefly, a struggle of the revolutionary proletarians in each country against their bourgeoisie – no, it will be a struggle of all the imperialist-oppressed colonies and countries, of all dependent countries, against international imperialism... (Lenin, “Address to the Second All-Russia Congress of Communist Organizations of the Peoples of the East”, November 22, 1919, Collected Works, Vol 30, p159, Moscow, 1965)
Countries want independence, nations want liberation and the people want revolution – this has become an irresistible historical trend.
Australia’s independence struggle is part of that irresistible trend. So is the Australian people’s revolution, led by the working class.
The whole world has long been divided into a large number of oppressed nations and an increasingly insignificant number of oppressor nations which command colossal wealth and powerful armed forces. We emphasise this distinction between oppressor and oppressed nations.
The whole world has long been divided into a large number of oppressed nations and an increasingly insignificant number of oppressor nations which command colossal wealth and powerful armed forces. We emphasise this distinction between oppressor and oppressed nations.
Since the second world war and the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union, imperialism has developed so that at present the Soviet Union and the United States, the two superpowers constituting the First World, are the biggest international exploiters and oppressors and the sources of a new world war. While the developed capitalist countries of the Second World, including Australia, oppress and exploit Third World countries, they themselves are at the same time subjected to superpower oppression, exploitation, control or threat. Australia oppresses and exploits Niugini, Fiji and other Third World countries as well as the black people at home. It has air force bases in Malaya. Yet Australia is also subjected to U.S. oppression, exploitation and control, including economic domination and military bases, and is increasingly subject to Soviet economic penetration and military threat.
The numerous countries of the Third World are the most heavily oppressed and exploited by colonialism and imperialism. The peoples and countries of the Third World are the main force in the fight against imperialism and particularly against the superpowers. This main force includes socialist as well as capitalist and semi-feudal countries. The working class is the leading force and the genuine Marxist-Leninist Communist Parties are its vanguard. The people and the people alone are the motive force in the making of world history.
Of the two superpowers, the Soviet Union is the latecomer to the imperialist feast. It finds the world already carved up by its rivals, especially the United States, and has to prepare for war to re-divide the world in accord with its new and increasing strength.
The Soviet Union is the more aggressive, expansionist, militarist and fascist of the two superpowers and is therefore the main danger and the principal source of a new world war. Its cloak of fake “socialism” makes it especially dangerous.
The whole world has long been divided into a large number of oppressed nations and an increasingly insignificant number of oppressor nations which command colossal wealth and powerful armed forces. We emphasise this distinction between oppressor and oppressed nations.
The Soviet Union occupies a position remarkably similar to that of Nazi Germany before the second world war. It is fundamentally much weaker, than its opponents and can be defeated if all stand firm against appeasement. It is a paper tiger and it’s aggression stems from economic weakness, not strength. Communists were in the forefront of the struggle against appeasement in the 1930s and should be in the forefront of that struggle today. As in the 1930s when we found strange bedfellows like Winston Churchill, so we will find strange bedfellows today. But all anti-fascist forces must unite against the new “socialist” fascism.
All the countries and peoples subjected to aggression, subversion, interference or control should form the broadest possible united front against imperialism and particularly against the two superpowers. Everyone threatened by Soviet war preparations should unite to oppose this and reject appeasement.
...The more powerful enemy can, be vanquished only by exerting the utmost effort, and without fail, most thoroughly, carefully, attentively and skillfully using every, even the smallest, “rift” among the enemies, of every antagonism of interest among the various countries and among the various groups or types of bourgeoisie within the various countries, and also by taking advantage of every, even the smallest, opportunity of gaining a mass ally, even though this ally be temporary, vacillating, unstable, unreliable and conditional... (Lenin, “’Left-Wing’ Communism, An Infantile Disorder’, Chapter VIII. “No Compromises?” pp66-68. FLP Peking 1965)
The “rift” and antagonism between the Soviet Union and the United States, as well as the possibility of allies in the Second and Third Worlds, must certainly be used in the interests of revolution.
Whether revolution prevents the outbreak of war or war gives rise to revolution, revolution is the main trend in the world today. The world is in great turmoil, which throws the enemies into confusion and arouses the people. The situation is excellent.
The concept of “three worlds” and the international united front is based on a proper estimate of the changes in the alignment of revolutionary and counter-revolutionary forces in the world since the defeat of U.S. imperialism in Indo-China and the rise of Soviet imperialism.
It means rallying millions of people and all the Governments that are potentially friendly to strike at the main enemy. It avoids wasting ammunition on lesser enemies and allies.
The forces of revolution cannot be absolutely pure and the road cannot be absolutely straight.
Mao Tsetung’s revolutionary diplomatic line has been a model of united front tactics.
Opposition and resistance to the concept of “three worlds” and the international united front is a “Left-Wing” Communist or “closed-door” error.
In the international Communist movement revisionists have sought to exploit these errors to win over the Marxist-Leninist Parties and organizations into accepting a counter-revolutionary line and to promote the idea that flunkeyism is the height of revolutionary integrity. Revisionists pretend that “Left-Wing” errors are Trotskyist or “soft on the Soviet Union”. They use these errors to try to split the movement, instead of patiently correcting them as Lenin and Mao Tsetung did.
The principal contradiction in the Communist movement is that between Marxism and revisionism, between revolution and counter-revolution. Some people who are genuinely engaged in revolution are making “Left-Wing” Communist and “closed door” mistakes. Some people who clearly support counter-revolution are loudly beating their breasts in support of the concept of “three worlds” and the international united front. It does not make them Marxists. Eagles sometimes fly lower than hens, but hens can never fly as high as eagles!
In a situation of alliance with the bourgeoisie, the main danger is from the right, the danger that necessary struggles will be forgotten.
Yugoslavia is not a socialist country and Tito is not a “Comrade”. Tendencies to appeasement in the West must not be used as an excuse for capitulation – either to the Western bourgeoisie, or, under the pretence of a new “Nazi-Soviet pact”, to the Soviet Union. At present the main tendency is against appeasement.
Among the forces opposed to the newest revisionism, many are influenced by “Left-Wing” Communist and “closed-door” ideas. This is hardly surprising. The same was true in the early days of the Comintern after the break with Kautskyism. It did not make Kautsky correct.
The new Kautskyites are no more capable of refuting today’s “Left-Wing” Communism than Kautsky was capable of refuting that in his day.
There were many instances in the past where one tendency covered another and when a tide came, the majority went along with it, while only a few withstood it. Today, in both international and domestic struggles, tendencies may still occur similar to those of the past, namely, when there was an alliance with the bourgeoisie, necessary struggles were forgotten and when there was a split with the bourgeoisie, the possibility of an alliance under given conditions was forgotten. It is required of us to do our best to discern and rectify such tendencies in time. And when a wrong tendency surges towards us like a rising tide, we must not fear isolation and must dare to go against the tide and brave it through. Chairman Mao states, “Going against the tide is a Marxist-Leninist principle.” In daring to go against the tide and adhere to the correct line in the ten struggles between the two lines within the Party, chairman Mao is our example and teacher. Every one of our comrades should learn well from Chairman Mao and hold to this principle. (Chou En-lai, “Report to the Tenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China”, August 1973)
In Australia the most absurd ideas have been put forward in alleged “defence” of the concept of three worlds. It is said that Soviet imperialism is the stronger superpower and that it is capable of peacefully taking over the U.S. role as the dominant imperialism here (in the same way that the U.S. took over from Britain after the last world war, but without a new world war).
The “traitor class” in Australia is supposed to be fulfilling its role of attaching itself to the stronger imperialism”, i.e. becoming compradores for the Soviet Union.
The former Labor Prime Minister Whitlam and the present Country Party Deputy PM Anthony are supposed to be “puppets of Soviet social-imperialism” and the Australian state apparatus “functions for the giant U.S. multi-nationals and increasingly is coming under the influence of Soviet social-imperialism.”
The Prime Minister Fraser and other pro-U.S. diehards are supposed to have “a certain progressive role to play both externally and internally” (our emphasis).
The Australian revolution is supposed to be an “independence revolution” which is neither a democratic revolution (old or new), nor a socialist revolution, but a new kind of revolution, previously unheard of. (And not heard much of recently, either).
Superpower contention is presented as the explanation for everything from teacher unemployment to the Newport power station.
All this is supposed to be deduced from the concept of “three worlds”. If that were so then the “three worlds” would have much to answer for. In fact it is a complete rejection of the idea that the ruling class in Second World countries can join the united front against one or both superpowers, in this case Soviet imperialism. It suggests rather that they are its natural allies, makes a complete caricature of opposition to Soviet imperialism and drives many progressive people into the enemy camp.
Unlike the Marxist-Leninist concept of three-worlds which provides orientation in the realm of international class struggle, this “enrichment” is a guide to the liquidation of class struggle in Australia.
People who previously toyed with the view that Australia was a third world country should have the decency not to now proclaim themselves great authorities on the differentiation of the three worlds.
Their crude attack on our party program has no more to do with the concept of “three worlds” than it has to do with the analysis of objective reality. It did not come from China either. It dropped from the skies, from right off the planet.
The task of Communists is to lead the revolution. This applies whether we are at war or in peacetime, whether we are in power or driven underground and whether we are in a united front with the bourgeoisie or split with it.
Our starting point and main weapon is an analysis of the classes in Australian society. No analysis of international affairs, even a correct one can substitute for that. Attempts to deduce the nature of the Australian revolution from the concept of “three worlds” are pure flunkeyism. The fact that the conclusions deduced are absurd only compounds the original error of substituting a “Society for Warmly Hailing Anything That Comes Out Of China” for a fighting Communist Party.
No flunkey has ever led a revolution and none ever will. No flunkey has ever been able to stop a revolution and none will either.
Australian revolutionaries will continue to support Mao Tsetung’s revolutionary line in Australia, in China and internationally.
WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES AND OPPRESSED NATIONS, UNITE!