WORKERS, OPPRESSED NATIONS AND PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, UNITE!
NEWSPAPER OF THE CENTRAL ORGANIZATION OF U.S. MARXIST-LENINISTS
P.O. Box 11942, Chicago, Ill. 60611
Vol. 6, No. 2
February 1, 1976 25¢
[Front Page:
OPPOSE THE FASCIST ANTI-BUSING MOVEMENT AS AN ATTACK ON THE AFRO-AMERICAN PEOPLE AND ON THE ENTIRE WORKING CLASS;
RESISTANCE GROWS IN LOUISVILLE;
SOVIET SOCIAL-IMPERIALISM INTENSIFIES AGGRESSION IN ANGOLA]
CONTENTS
| UNITA STATEMENTS.................................................. | pp. 7-9 |
| Two Poems by Chairman Mao......................................... | p. 2 |
| China: New Year's Statement........................................... | p. 3 |
| Support the Struggle of the Zimbabwe People: ZANU Interview........................................................................... | p. 4 |
| 50th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party in India.................................................................... | p. 10 |
| Canada: Economic Crisis................................................. | p. 11 |
| Lessons from the Struggle Against Police Murders of Afro-Americans in Seattle............................. | p. 12 |
| Deeply Mourn Deaths of Comrades Chou En-Lai and Kang Sheng | centerfold |
RESISTANCE GROWS IN LOUISVILLE
SOVIET SOCIAL-IMPERIALISM INTENSIFIES AGGRESSION IN ANGOLA
Nothing Is Hard in This World If You Dare to Scale the Heights
SUPPORT THE ZIMBABWE PEOPLES STRUGGLE
UNITA'S OFFICIAL POSITION ON THE CURRENT WAR IN ANGOLA:
UNITA Representative Addresses Conference
Features of the current crisis in Canada
LESSONS FROM THE STRUGGLE AGAINST VIOLENT REPRESSION OF THE AFRO-AMERICAN PEOPLE IN SEATTLE
SPEECH BY VICE-CHAIRMAN TENG HSIAO-PING AT MEMORIAL CEREMONY FOR COMRADE CHOU EN-LAI
The life of Comrade Chou En-Lai was one of glorious fighting for the cause of communism
Socialist in word, imperialist in deed.
We Will Kill You Just The Same!
As 1976 opened and a new school semester began, the question of busing and the fascist, anti-Black, anti-working class activities of the anti-busing movement is continuing as a problem which the American working class and people must confront. A new, very limited busing program has been instituted in Detroit. A large-scale program may be instituted soon in Cleveland. Programs are continuing in Boston, Louisville and elsewhere. Struggles are raging between the fascist anti-busing movement and its monopoly capitalist backers, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the revolutionary and progressive Black and white workers, Afro-Americans as a whole and other progressive people, who are resisting these attacks. As part of their drive to develop fascism in the U.S., the monopoly capitalists are organizing a fascist mass movement on the question of busing. This movement is mobilizing white working people to violently attack the democratic right of the Black people to attend integrated public schools, thereby attacking the interests of the entire working class and working to split it. The anti-busing movement is directly assisted and promoted by the monopoly capitalists' armed state machine (government with its courts, police, etc.) and its agents. They work overtime to promote the busing issue in a distorted way so as to pose as the "friends" of the Afro-Americans while stirring up to the maximum the contradictions among the people on the question. But in fact, far from promoting school integration, the monopoly capitalist state is actually doing everything in its power to disrupt and sabotage it, directly attack the Black and other working masses with reactionary violence, and, through wide-scale political deception about "peaceful desegregation", attempt to disarm the masses in the face of these attacks and sow illusions that the monopoly capitalist system can be democratic.
Discussions of this situation among workers and people in general are at a boiling point in many places. The monopoly capitalists have created a certain amount of confusion in progressive people's minds. Doubts are sown, undermining lessons learned in the struggles of the 1960's: Is it right to defend school integration as a democratic right of the Blacks? What importance does school integration have for white working people? Can the working class unite? Why do the government and the rich seem to support busing and integration when they have always been the cause of racial discrimination? Why can't we have peaceful desegregation under the present system Using this confusion as a cloak, and relying on the absence of a large-scale mass movement to force them to carry out even a limited democratic reform, the monopoly capitalists through their anti-busing movement and their armed state machine are escalating their violent attacks on the Black people and also on the broad masses of white working people who support the democratic rights of the doubly oppressed Blacks. As The Workers' Advocate pointed out in December 1974, the monopoly capitalists are attempting to reverse the gains the Afro-Americans made in their.glorious struggles of the 1960's. They want to intensify the Black people's oppression and deepen the present split in the working class so as to sabotage its united struggle for its immediate interests in the face of the deep economic crisis and also to undermine its struggle for a proletarian revolution, which alone can eliminate racial discrimination and capitalist exploitation altogether.
In this situation, a situation filled with danger for the Afro-American and working-class movements, it is necessary to examine busing and the anti-busing movement in general once again. It is also necessary to examine how it has developed in the particular case of Louisville, where this past summer and fall the fascist anti-busing movement reached its highest peak since Boston the previous year and exceeded the intensity and scale of the Boston events in several ways.
WHAT IS BUSING AND THE ANTI-BUSING MOVEMENT?
As The Workers' Advocate pointed out in its December 15, 1974, issue, in an article analyzing the Boston busing crisis, the anti-busing movement is a fascist mass movement of attack on the Afro-American people and on the working class in general. Violently and in other ways it attacks the democratic right of the Afro-American workers and other Afro-Americans to have their children attend integrated public schools together with the children of white workers and other laboring white people. Buses are only a necessary means of transportation between segregated communities. Thus school integration, not the riding of buses, is the heart of the question.
This is the immediate aim of the anti-busing movement, not defending some supposed "democratic right" of whites to go to a segregated school next door to their house rather than to an integrated school a mile away. School integration was a democratic demand of the Black and white masses in the great struggles against racial discrimination and violent repression of the 1960's, one which was won to a limited extent in the South but which has remained only a promise in the North. The monopoly capitalists are still smarting from their defeats in these struggles and want revenge. Today the monopoly capitalists are taking this democratic demand and are promoting it in a distorted way in an attempt to turn it into an instrument for deceiving and splitting the workers and suppressing the Afro-Americans. They are taking advantage of the low level of the Afro-American, workers' and student movements, hoping to be able to present school integration in such a disruptive and mutilated way as to stir up conflicts among the people to a high pitch, organize a fascist mass movement, and not only sabotage further integration but deprive the Afro-Americans of the meager rights they won in the 1960's and in revenge drive them backwards towards all the oldest and most barbaric features of the Jim Crow segregationist system. Under the hoax of "quality education", they want to restore Black people to the degraded status of "separate but equal", that is, segregated and entirely unequal. To accomplish this, the monopoly capitalists are trying to mobilize a section of white workers and other laboring white people to go against their own real class interests, split the working class still further, take the side of the bloodthirsty capitalist class enemy and trample on the Afro-Americans' rights, up to and including making violent lynch-mob attacks on Black people, thus performing the role of hangmen of the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie. The Afro-Americans are singled out as the immediate target of the anti-busing movement because of their condition of extremely severe special class and national oppression and their resulting resolute fight against the monopoly capitalist authorities. The monopoly capitalists would like nothing better than to create a racial civil war in the U.S. between one section of the working class siding with the bourgeoisie and another consisting of the blacks and progressive workers and people opposing the bourgeoisie. This would undermine the over-all struggle of the working class and oppressed people against the monopoly capitalist class and seriously hinder the development of the proletarian revolution in the United States. Under such conditions, think how much easier it would be for the monopoly capitalists to further develop fascism in the U.S., shift the entire burden of the economic crisis onto the working class and oppressed nationalities and prepare for war with the other imperialist superpower, the Soviet Union!
The anti-busing movement is organized, backed and instigated by the entire monopoly capitalist class operating mainly through its armed state machine. In this the bourgeoisie uses dual tactics. The Republicans, the "conservatives", etc., including President Ford, the chief political representative of the bourgeoisie, along with some Democrats, never tire of egging on the anti-busing movement. They all take a virtually open white chauvinist and fascist stand of opposing school integration, hiding only behind the transparent guise of claiming that it is not integration, but only "forced busing", which they are against. This is the same line promoted among the masses by the leaders of the fascist anti-busing movement, which now includes a section of the representatives of the labor aristocracy (these representatives are labor misleaders bought by the bourgeoisie to serve its interests in the working class movement) in Louisville, Boston and elsewhere. (Sad to say, even a small section of the "left" has taken up this line.) The remainder of the bourgeoisie relies more on political deception to accomplish the same goal. They include most Democrats, the "liberals", most of them also a part of the bourgeois state machine, such as the Kennedys, certain federal judges, mayors, etc. Most of the top labor lieutenants of the bourgeoisie are aligned with them, as are a broader section of so-called "leftists". These champs continually beat their breasts loudly claiming to be the "friends of the Black people", "defenders of civil rights" and "friends of labor". Occasionally they "give" a crumb to the masses because without doing so they could not keep their allegiance. They pose as the greatest foes of the "conservatives" who, they claim, are the only reactionaries. But all this is sheer fraud by masters at political deception who at heart and in deed are just as bourgeois, just as much white chauvinists and fascists, as the "conservative" Republicans. These liberals are oh so interested in promoting mutilated, disruptive busing programs now, when the progressive mass movements are at a low level and it is hard for the masses to force the bourgeoisie to really carry out their demands. The "liberals" provide a good foil for the "conservatives" and the two stage ''tremendous battles" in order to fool the masses and set them fighting each other. While pretending to be "for" integration, the "liberals" in the state machine go all out to make its execution limited, mutilated, difficult and disruptive for the broad masses, and utterly refuse to explain the democratic nature of integration in order to win real support for it. Instead they call for the masses to "obey the law of the land". This means, on the one hand, that those who are confused on the question and angered at the bourgeoisie's high-handedness will be easy prey to be mobilized by the fascists with their "anti-government" rhetoric and susceptible to the suggestion that the Black people are the cause of their problems. On the other hand, the anti-fascist people are expected to passively submit while the racist attackers of children go unpunished. On the one hand, the white working masses' legitimate hatred of the bourgeois state is demagogically turned against the Blacks. On the other hand, those Blacks and whites who already support integration are told to rely on the bourgeois state to achieve democracy and to deal with the fascists. These "liberal" monopoly capitalists even claim that a democratic right like school integration can be achieved fully and peacefully under the reactionary rule of the monopoly capitalist class. Thus, in instigating conflicts among the people and in sowing illusions about the "democratic" nature of the imperialist system, the "liberals" in the bourgeois state do their full part in developing the fascist anti-busing movement. Such is the hypocritical role of the "liberal" bourgeoisie.
These are the aims and the dual tactics of the monopoly capitalists in developing the fascist anti-busing movement and encouraging the masses to surrender to it. The development of this fascist mass movement presents a grave challenge for the class-conscious workers, for the entire Afro-American people and other oppressed nationalities, and for all progressive people.
But where there is oppression, there is resistance. The monopoly capitalists cannot trample the people's rights at will. Everywhere that the fascist anti-busing movement has reared its ugly head, resistance against it has also developed. In Boston, massive demonstrations were held and armed self-defense against racist attacks was organized. In Louisville, the resistance movement developed still further. Today, in the whole world, revolution is the main trend, and the reactionary rule of the two superpowers) including that of the monopoly capitalists in the United States, no matter what fascist machinations they resort to, will not last long. Dark night has its end. The workers and other progressive people will certainly organize to smash the fascist anti-busing movement, defend and extend the democratic rights of the Black people and bring down the monopoly capitalist class itself.
SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE BUSING SITUATION IN LOUISVILLE
In the past year or so since the first really major busing crisis took place in Boston, the anti-busing movement has found a second major theater of operations --Louisville, Kentucky, once touted throughout the South as the "model city" of school integration. In the Louisville busing crisis, all the main features of the monopoly capitalists' fascist anti-busing offensive, as described above and witnessed in Boston, were present. But in the Louisville situation some of these features became more intensified, while at the same time certain new features emerged which were not present or were hardly present at all in Boston.
In Louisville, the anti -busing movement reached a size and scale which it never reached in Boston. In Boston, in the 1974-5 school year, the movement was concentrated in the neighborhood of South Boston and two or three other specific neighborhoods. In Louisville, where busing was carried out across school district lines, it spread throughout the city and Jefferson County. On one night the number of people rioting reached an estimated 10,000. Several anti-busing demonstrations were held with from 2500 to 6000 participants, and 3000 Kentucky residents attended a national anti-busing march in Washington October 26. Further, the reactionary fascist violence, coercion and intimidation used by the anti-busing movement was more intense and widespread in Louisville. In addition to stoning buses and beating Black passers-by at anti-busing demonstrations, on the nights of rioting the attacks on Blacks and whites and their homes throughout the county, the burning of houses, etc., reached a high pitch and continued afterwards. This was one of the intensified features of the situation in Louisville.
A second important feature, a new feature, still more significant for its potential danger to the workers' movement, is that in Louisville a large number of the local leaders of the industrial and craft unions took an open stand against integration and in many cases manipulated their local unions into voting against it. On several occasions they openly mobilized thousands of white workers in reactionary anti-busing demonstrations' inducing them to go against their own class interests and aid those of the monopoly capitalists. To do this they gave the class-traitor slogan: "Mr. Businessman and Mr. Labor Leader, Unite", which is based on the reactionary theory that workers and capitalists have "common interests" -- against Blacks. These labor lieutenants of the monopoly capitalists, indeed uniting firmly with "Mr. Businessman" (the capitalist), have formed an anti-working class, fascist labor front (coalition) against school integration, called Union Labor Against Busing (ULAB), and are attempting to extend this white chauvinist organization nationally. These actions showed that these people do not represent the interests of the working class at all, but are part of a small upper crust of workers who have gone over to the side of the capitalists and do their dirty work inside the workers' movement. Their actions brought about a deepened split in the local workers' movement and created the possibility of the break-up of some of the unions. This is a second important feature of the Louisville situation.
The third important feature in Louisville is that the "liberal" bourgeoisie in the state machine and outside of it exposed its support. for the white chauvinist anti-busing movement. As it did in Boston, the "liberal" bourgeoisie sabotaged the integration process. It worked hard to disarm the masses in the face of the fascist movement by raising the cry of "peaceful desegregation" as the banner around which to unite in opposition to the fascist movement. This was outright hypocrisy. As if the "liberals" like the Louisville Courier-Journal were really interested in desegregation when they used Louisville's "days of glory" in the 1960's as the "model city" of integration as a chance to segregate the schools fully and thoroughly once again! As if the Ku Klux Klan and other fascist vigilantes, and the armed bourgeois state which stands behind them, would ever allow genuine democratic rights for the Black people and allow them peacefully! As if this capitalist government, the very creator of segregation and instigator of white chauvinism, was the least bit interested in "peaceful desegregation"! These children's myths of the 1960's, which are being dragged out of the grave again today, got a sharp self-exposure by the events in Louisville, where the "liberals" collaborated in the promotion of fascism.
Finally, the fourth significant feature of the Louisville situation was the stronger and sustained movement of resistance to the anti-busing movement which has also developed. The Black and progressive white masses fought back against the racist and fascist attacks, protested, marched and rallied in defense of the democratic rights of the Afro-Americans and against the anti-busing movement, struggled for the actual carrying out of school integration, opposed the racial discrimination which is being practiced against Blacks in the newly integrated schools, and Black workers organized themselves against the efforts of the labor misleaders to utilize the unions to organize and finance the anti-busing movement. This is the fourth significant feature of the busing situation in Louisville.
These are the new or intensified features of the busing situation which have developed in Louisville, in the second year of large-scale crises over this question. They show that the monopoly capitalists have not given up their vicious fascist efforts to split the working class and attack the Afro-Americans in their drive to suppress the masses. But they also suggest that the resistance movement against fascism is bound to grow, win the confused sections of white workers away from the fascist leaders and put up still stiffer resistance to the monopoly capitalists' fascist drive.
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE LOUISVILLE SITUATION
a) A "Model City" of Segregation
A closer look at the Louisville situation will show how it actually developed.
For over 50 years, from 1904 to 1956, the Louisville schools were officially and legally segregated by race. The reactionary segregationist Day law was instituted in 1904, The monopoly capitalists' drive to reverse the advances the Blacks had achieved in the Civil War and Reconstruction and re-enslave them was then at a peak. The Day law set up a rigid system of "separate but equal" schools, sanctioned by the Supreme Court's Jim Crow Plessy vs. Ferguson decision, a system in which Blacks and whites were entirely separate and entirely unequal. Throughout this entire time, Blacks in Jefferson County, which had no Black high school, were bused (or otherwise transported) past the white schools to the Black Central High School in Louisville.
In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court, top judicial organ of the monopoly capitalist class, made the Brown vs. Bd. of Education school integration decision under the fire of the masses at home and abroad. Immediately the anti-democratic bourgeoisie itself sabotaged its implementation. In Louisville, in 1956, the school board adopted the "Louisville Plan", a "freedom of choice" plan supposedly to desegregate the schools. Operating under this plan the Louisville school system was declared by the "liberal" bourgeoisie to be the "model city" in the South for school integration. But between 1956 and 1975, when the present busing plan went into effect, the schools first underwent a certain trend towards limited integration until 1963-66, when the Afro-American struggle was at its peak, and then reverted to full segregation by the "free choice" (deliberate manipulation) of the Louisville school board During the 19 years since 1956, the monopoly capitalist government in Louisville "freely" never integrated at all 28 of its 68 schools, "freely" built six new ones on a consciously segregated basis, "freely" transformed one from all-white to all-Black in the first year of "freedom of choice", transformed six more from nearly 90 percent of one race in the early '60's to over 90 percent of the other race by 1971, transformed 12 from all-white to nearly all-Black in the same period and "freely" closed 10 integrated schools. This new segregation under the banner of integration fully exposed the falsity of the "freedom of choice" system, under which students are "free" to attend "schools of their choice". One study ("Louisville School System Retreats to Segregation", Commission on Human Rights of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, 1972, p. 16) points out how "freedom of choice" means freedom only in words and segregation in practice: "We see a system in which white students living in predominantly black neighborhoods find it easy to get transfers... in which black students from predominantly white areas are encouraged to attend black schools in the inner-city either through recruiting or through disciplinary transfers." President Eisenhower was so enthusiastic about this plan that he flew the Louisville school superintendent to Washington, claiming ''he pursued the policy that I believe will finally bring success in this." By 1970, Louisville schools were more segregated than at any time since 1956 and Louisville had become the most segregated school system of twelve major cities in ten southern states, according to a 1972 study by the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. Thus while the Black students were free in theory to attend integrated schools, in practice the systematic racial discrimination by the monopoly capitalists, which pervades the whole society made that freedom merely a hollow phrase, a sham, a trick-to prettify the same old Jim Crow system in a new form.
Thus the "model city" of school integration, Louisville in the 1960's, proved to be nothing but a new form of segregation. The Jefferson County Schools remained segregated throughout this period. This shows the deceptive and flimsy nature of all democratic reforms under the reactionary rule of the monopoly capitalists; no sooner are they "granted" than they are mutilated, undermined and, as soon as possible, entirely destroyed by the bourgeoisie and its government.
b) The Bourgeoisie Sabotages Integration and Instigates the Anti-Busing Movement
In December, 1973, the Sixth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Louisville schools to be integrated the following year. The anti-busing movement began to develop roughly from that date. As soon as the ruling was made, the city and county school boards, trying feebly to hide their role in segregating the schools, raised a hue and cry that there was no segregation and discrimination in the school systems, and even if there was, it was not "state-imposed", and declared that nothing should be done to change the situation. At the same time, Kentucky state legislators from the county began initiating anti-busing meetings under. the guise of "informing the public" about an "important issue", illustrating one method with which the monopoly capitalist government organizes the anti-busing movement. Also, a number of groups were formed, all with the sole purpose of opposing school integration. From the beginning these groups tried to conceal their racism and white chauvinism under a barrage of demagogy. They claimed that they were only against "forced" "busing", but no one ever heard them complain about "forced" school attendance in general, or "forced" riding on buses to segregated schools. And the fact that they have now come out against "forced" compulsory attendance in public schools in general, opposing a demand which the working class fought long years to achieve, only shows their entirely reactionary character.
In fact, it is the Afro-Americans who have been forced into segregated schools! It is the oppression of Afro-Americans which has been maintained by force by the bourgeoisie! The anti-busing groups also complained that "we're not against integration", but instead money should be spent on "quality education not buses" But dear sirs and madams, Black people have suffered for over 100 years from the kind of "quality education" that results from segregated schools. Segregated schools are part of the systematic racial discrimination practiced against the Black people by the reactionary monopoly capitalists, a practice which you deliberately hide with your rhetoric about "quality education". Black people have found through bitter experience that separate schools can never be made equal since they were made separate in the first place for the sole purpose of enforcing inequality of nationalities. The issue is not quality, but equality" of education. To counterpose quality education and integration in this way is simply a way of demagogically pitting the honest desire of the workers for better quality of schools against the necessity for fighting for the democratic rights of the oppressed Black. people. In fact, it is this very segregation of schools which splits the workers, deprives the Blacks of even the "quality" "enjoyed" by the whites and undermines united struggle to actually improve the quality of the schools.
Through such demagogy, some confusion was sown on,school integration. But still, throughout 1974 and at least until July, 1975, the monopoly capitalists in Louisville were unable to trick any large section of the masses of white working people into supporting the fascist anti-busing movement. In fact, the only anti-busing demonstration held during this period mobilized just 20 participants.
But during 1974 and 1975, the selfsame "liberal" bourgeoisie in the state machine, which poses as such champions of civil rights for the Blacks, deliberately issued and executed the busing orders in such a way as to cause the maximum of confusion and disruption, This created perfect conditions for the fascist leaders to capitalize on the irritation of the ordinary white working masses at the government's arbitrariness and inconsiderateness in order to whip up a massive hysteria against busing and the Black people and quickly grab wide support for the anti-busing movement. The Circuit Court, in December 1973, had ordered desegregation of the Louisville and Jefferson County schools by September, 1974. But District Court Judge Gordon, who was assigned to carry out the order, didn't bother to draw up a plan or begin preparations for busing until July, 1974, just two months before school was to begin. This meant that it was impossible to make the necessary preparations, or for parents to know what was to happen to their children. The anti-busing movement immediately cranked up its propaganda machine and began spreading wild rumors about the so-called "dangers" of busing. In the atmosphere of such confusion, the anti -busing movement was able to bring out 650 people to their only large meeting in 1974. But just two days after Judge Gordon issued his integration plan, the U.S. Supreme Court voided the order and remanded the case back to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to be reconsidered in light of the Supreme Court ruling against cross-district busing in Detroit. Thus, integration was again delayed. The Circuit Court again, in December, 1974, ordered desegregation, but this time it said that none should take place until all of the appeals or time allowed for appeals had run out, meaning that none would begin earlier than September, 1976. But in July, 1975, just two months before school was to begin, the court suddenly reversed itself and demanded desegregation by September of that year. This meant that, with only two months before school was to start, there was as yet no plan drawn up for how the desegregation was to take place. This, in turn, meant the maximum disruption of the process of organizing the integration program, resulting in disrupted curriculum, shortages, etc. The people of the area did not know where their children would be going to school, what classes they could take or even what time they would have to leave home to get to school. People were confused and outraged at the arbitrariness and inconsiderateness of the court's ruling. Right away the anti-busing movement seized the opportunity to channel this outrage of the people, which in fact was caused by the government's sabotage of school integration, into a hysteria against school integration and "busing".
All the worn-out arguments against integration which the bourgeoisie hatched in Boston were trotted out once again in Louisville. The anti-busing movement unfurled their American flags and began preaching that the fight against busing was a fight for "democracy" and "freedom of choice" against the "communist" government that had "forced busing" on Louisville. This ridiculous argument attempts to hide the fact that for 100 years the U.S. monopoly capitalist ruling class has "freely chosen" to discriminate against Black people and segregate the schools and it has only been the fight against such discrimination and segregation that has "forced" the government and the monopoly capitalists to integrate anything. The demagogy of the fascists implies that the courts were really interested in promoting integration when they ordered busing in Louisville in July, 1975, when it is clear from their actions that their real interest was to undermine and sabotage integration and create pretexts for the anti-busing movement to get support, attack the Blacks and split the workers. A particularly graphic example of assistance to the anti-busing movement by the bourgeois state was Judge Gordon's order that there be areas designated at each school as places where the anti-busing movement could "peacefully" demonstrate, thus legalizing violent attacks on the Black students at the schools, which is what took place. At the same time, as soon as these attacks took place, the local government banned all meetings and gatherings in Shawnee Park, a customary gathering point in the Black community for protest actions. Thus the "democracy" and "freedom" called for by the anti-busing movement is only democracy and freedom for the capitalists and fascists to attack and suppress the Afro-Americans and white working masses, while there is no democracy and freedom for them to fight back. Such is the condition of the working and oppressed masses under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.
The anti-busing movement also spread wild racist, white chauvinist slanders about so-called "dangers" facing the white children who attend schools in the Black community and floated rumors that it was "unsafe" for children to take long bus rides. The Ku Klux Klan suddenly began I holding public anti-busing rallies and, together with the Nazis, provided the most vicious and vengeful propaganda for white supremacy and against the Black people.
c) The Labor Misleaders Play a Dirty Role
It was in the midst of this developing racist hysteria that certain reactionary labor misleaders stepped forward to organize the industrial workers in Louisville against school integration. On August 23rd the Executive Board of Local 761 of the International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE), the largest local in the state having some 16,000 members who work at the huge General Electric plant in Louisville, called a special membership meeting. There they announced their endorsement for an anti-integration demonstration called under the class-collaborationist slogan: "Mr. Businessman and Mr. Labor Leader, Unite", a general strike and a school boycott against integration. To successfully manipulate the membership present into supporting the program, speakers were brought in from the county board of education, the state legislature and anti-busing groups to turn truth on its head and develop the theme that school integration was an attack on the workers' rights. For example, it was argued that the government has year after year been imposing higher and higher taxes and that gasoline prices have been increasing yearly due to the government's handling of the "energy crisis". Therefore, it was argued, it is time for the workers to take a stand and that stand should be to stop "forced busing"! What a fine piece of fascist logic! Since the monopoly capitalists have been shifting the burden of the economic crisis onto the shoulders of the workers and, to do this, have been using such things as the "energy crisis" and the exacting of higher tribute in the form of raising taxes, then the workers shouldn't fight the monopoly capitalists and their government, but "Mr. Businessman", "Mr. Labor Leader" and the ordinary white workers should unite to stop the children of white and Black workers from going to the same school (where they actually might get some common experience fighting together against the capitalist authorities). In other words, in the name of fighting against the plunder and exploitation of the masses by monopoly capital, the white workers should turn against the Black people, split the working class, unite with the capitalists and be their lynch-mobs. This fascist logic is at the very heart of the anti -busing movement.
The anti-busing demonstration the next day, approved by Local 761, was the first large anti-busing demonstration in Louisville, having some 750 participants. In the course of the demonstration not only did an IUE official blurt out the call for the workers to unite with the Ku Klux Klan ''because they are against busing", but the demonstration went marauding down Forth Street and seized and beat unconscious a Black youth, while the police stood idly by. That is how, in practice, the anti-busing movement is "against" the government and "for" the workers!
When the Black workers of Local 761 strongly opposed these fascist actions taken by the union misleaders, they were viciously slandered by these reactionary labor lieutenants of the monopoly capitalist class. These dogs even went so far as to claim that the Black workers who supported integration and opposed the anti-busing movement were "discriminating against" themselves, since the busing plan intended to bus Black children for eight out of their 12 years of school and white children only for two years! This is how these fascist misleaders of labor turn truth on its head and accuse the victims of racial discrimination of the crime itself. This is absolutely outrageous! These labor misleaders also had vicious slanders for the white workers who supported integration and opposed the anti-busing movement. Small wonder that in reaction to these splitting activities, some Black workers threatened to leave the union! Furthermore, these devious liars in top union spots even had the nerve to claim that "race, sex or religion has nothing to do with our decision" to oppose integration and that "in our opinion, forced busing is used by some to create racial unrest when there should be no problem between races, but races should unite, stick together and get the problem corrected." What hypocrisy! First, race has "nothing to do" with their opposing sending their children to school with children of -- a different race. Then the Blacks should unite with them, the labor misleaders, the agents of the bourgeoisie in the working-class movement, who are not only supporting but intensifying the systematic racial discrimination that Black people experience at the hands of the monopoly capitalists every day. No, they say, the Black workers should not unite with the oppressed masses of white workers, defeat these reactionary servants of the capitalists, fight for equal rights for the Blacks and in the spirit of equality and proletarian solidarity jointly fight against the reactionary rule of Capital. Oh no! Instead Black workers should stay in "their place" and not create "racial unrest" while these white chauvinist bullies trample on them and trick the ordinary white workers to take part in this reactionary activity. "Mr, Labor Leaders," the revolutionary workers are very sorry to inform you that they will never take your suggestion to be cringing lackeys for their class enemy. The Black workers and white workers are brothers; the Black workers are not only exploited as workers, but unlike white workers, are oppressed as Blacks. The working class is a revolutionary class and its own fundamental interests lie in freeing all oppressed sections of society including all races and nationalities. Without doing so, it itself can never win its emancipation from the chains of Capital. If all class-conscious workers do not defend this most oppressed member of their class and of society, they will surely be deprived of his strong arm in the battle against their common exploiters. There is nothing the workers hate more than diehard, unrepentant traitors from their own ranks. "Mr. Labor Leaders" of the Louisville anti-busing movement, as a final payment for your services to your masters. the workers sincerely promise that you will be sent to the same fate as the monopoly capitalists themselves.
In this way, these labor misleaders revealed the fact that they do not represent the working class and its true interests against the bourgeoisie, but instead they represent the influence of the monopoly capitalists on the workers' movement. To do their masters' bidding they work to split the workers and ally a section of them with the capitalists. Such is the role of the labor aristocracy, a small upper crust of workers and their representatives, a stratum which has been bribed by the bourgeoisie using the super-profits it extracts from exploitation of the oppressed nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America. These reactionary elements participate and share in that exploitation and are corrupted thereby into working to suppress the masses of Black and white workers at home, who are all the more oppressed owing to the fact that their leaders have by and large been turned into tools of the class enemy.
Thus, using the wide-scale confusion and outrage caused by the courts' July order and the high-handed tactics of the government in general, the monopoly capitalists' anti-busing movement was able to develop a racist hysteria against integration in the city and to mobilize a section of workers to come out against their own class interests and violently attack the democratic rights of the Black people.
This development led, in the next few weeks, to the closing of a number of factories due to a boycott by the many white workers on the first day of school, to the stoning of buses full of school children, to the rioting of some 10,000 people in which homes were burned to the ground and ordinary people and even children were wantonly beaten, and to the whole massive anti-busing tirade that was so widely publicized nationally by the monopoly capitalist newspapers and television networks.
Furthermore, the monopoly capitalist authorities, both "liberal" and otherwise, did not stop their sabotage of school integration after issuing the abrupt integration order. There was a shortage of school buses, so that students were forced to go to school in shifts, the first one starting in the early hours of the morning and the last one returning the children home very late in the day. Not only that, but large numbers of buses never showed up in the morning, leaving hundreds of Black school children on street corners and in school yards. In December the school board admitted that it needed 300 more buses to transport the students satisfactorily, but even now they only plan to buy 50. Once the students got to school, they found that there was a shortage of teachers. Recently the school board admitted that they purposely had not hired enough teachers because they had "expected greater white flight". At the same time as this sort of sabotage of integration was going on, the capitalist school authorities launched a vicious campaign of racial discrimination against the Black students in the newly integrated schools. Many were segregated into "special remedial" classes and special schools, and some classrooms were even segregated with whites on one side and Blacks on the other. There have been large-scale suspensions of Black students. For example, school suspensions jumped 40 percent in September and over 50 percent in October from what they had been the year before. Despite the fact that Black students are only 23 percent of the school population and despite a number of large anti-busing walkouts by white students, Black students accounted for 58 percent of the children that have been suspended from school. At the same time, county judge Hollenbach refused to enforce truancy laws for a period of time, thus aiding the racist boycotts. Finally, while the government "banned" anti-busing demonstrations during the crisis, it did not seriously interfere with them when they took place.
This is the nature of the anti- and "pro" school integration tactics of the monopoly capitalists of every stripe -- sabotage school integration and incite white workers and masses to attack Blacks. That is how "democracy" is administered by the ruling class in the United States.
d) The Bourgeoisie Attempts to Disarm the Progressive People Mindful of the fact that oppression breeds resistance, and that the Black masses and progressive whites would not take these outrages lying down, the monopoly capitalist authorities early began their campaign to undermine the anti-fascist, anti-racist resistance movement. In the spring of 1974, when there was already widescale propaganda against busing in Louisville but the anti-busing movement was still small and weak, the city and county governments formed and financed what was called the Community Consensus Committee. It was the task of this committee to launch a campaign, particularly into the Black community, for what was called "peaceful desegregation". The explicit basis for this campaign was that people need not be for or against school integration, and that issue itself need not even be discussed and clarified, but that everyone should peacefully "obey the law". Meetings were organized on this basis with PTA's, among teachers, and coalitions of different organizations were formed. When the campaign really got underway in mid-1975, large signs and advertisements appeared around the Black community (thus aimed at the oppressed Blacks and not at their fascist attackers) saying, "Nobody wins if you lose your cool." Organizations were formed pledging support for "peaceful desegregation". Full-page advertisements appeared in the newspaper with such groups as the Chamber of Commerce pledging to "obey the law" and news stories appeared relating the "peaceful integration" of Louisville schools in 1956. The courts even established designated areas around the schools where people could "peacefully" demonstrate against busing (but, unfortunately, the anti-busing movement leaders did not "choose" to do so peacefully). Thus, in the face of the rise of the anti-busing movement with its violent anti-Black, anti-working class words and deeds, in the face of calls for a boycott of the schools and general strike and in the face of the open anti-busing assault on a Black youth on August 24th, the Afro-Americans and progressive white masses were told not to stand for or against school integration, not to resist fascist attacks, just "obey the law" and have faith that the government will carry out "peaceful desegregation"! And what was the fruit of these promises? First, the government sabotaged and made as difficult as possible the integration program, then it directly organized the fascist anti-busing movement to attack the Black people and split the workers, then it discriminated against the Black students in the newly integrated schools, and finally it hypocritically claimed that it was doing everything possible to carry out "peaceful desegregation".
e) The Resistance Movement
But what the monopoly capitalist press and television did not publicize was that, just as the bourgeoisie feared, all across Louisville and Jefferson County, Afro-Americans and progressive whites stood up to the attacks and threats of the fascist movement and fought to carry out the integration of the schools. Progressive people held demonstrations against the Klan on July 24 (125 people) and August 16 (85 people). When the Klan attempted to picket downtown last August, 100 Afro-Americans and other people angrily surrounded them and they had to be protected by the police. On August 30, over 200 progressive people demonstrated. When the busing program began, black parents went to the schools to supervise the loading and unloading of the buses and to defend the children against attacks. They rode alongside the children on the buses as they traveled to county schools. When buses didn't show up, they organized cars to transport the children and insure that they were allowed to attend classes. When the buses were stoned by the fascists, and the police refused to lift a finger, the school children on the buses lowered the windows and threw tin cans and other objects back at the anti-busing demonstrators. In one case, when the fascists tried to stop a bus from leaving the parking lot, the bus driver got out and chased them away with a club until the police rushed up and grabbed him and forced him back onto the bus. When crosses and garbage were burned on people's yards, their windows broken by bricks and stones and phone call threats on their lives made in an effort to stop them from sending their children to school, white parents in the county armed themselves, defended their families and resolutely continued to send their children to school. In fact, the very fury of the terror and coercion practiced by the anti-busing movement against whites in addition to Blacks is a tribute to the staunch, democratic character of the masses of both white and Black parents who refused to go along with the racist boycott and became targets of attack. It is also an exposure of the paper-tiger nature of the fascist movement, which escalated its terror as it became more discredited. By the first of October this active resistance by people who did not rely on the government to bring about "peaceful desegregation" had broken the racist school boycott. In the middle of October, on the first of November and on the first of January, the anti-busing movement tried repeatedly to mount school boycotts, but each time they utterly failed. Thus the Afro-American and other democratic and revolutionary workers and people were able to break the racist school boycott, but they have not yet been able to smash the entire fascist movement itself.
On other fronts, Black workers from at least twelve unions in Louisville organized themselves into the United Black Workers of Jefferson County and held meetings of as many as 250 Black workers to protest and wage struggle against the support for the fascist movement by the reactionary labor misleaders. Locals of the American Federation of Teachers(AFT) and the Service Employees International Union(SEIU) have supported integration. The local Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Louisville Central Labor Council passed resolutions against the Klan (though they took anti-busing stands as well). The UAW Local 817 at the International Harvester foundry, with a majority of Black members, took a neutral stand on busing. At the same time, Afro-Americans and their supporters waged struggles against the racial discrimination by the authorities in the newly integrated schools. They protested the suspensions and disciplinary acts unjustly imposed on the Black students by the racist authorities. On several occasions, mass demonstrations were held by the progressive masses to protest the fascist activities of the anti-busing movement and to struggle for genuine school integration. In August, a demonstration of over 200 people took place against the anti-busing movement. On October 11, nearly 1000 people held a demonstration in support of integration and against the anti-busing movement. On November 22, to counter an anti-busing demonstration the same day, progressive people held another demonstration of 150 people.
Due to this vigorous and widespread resistance and to the growing disaffection of the white working masses with the fascist movement, the leaders of the anti-busing movement had to change their tactics. As the movement lost support, a number of groups turned to more and more openly nazi tactics of blatant white racism and chauvinism, calling for Blacks to be harassed and run out of town. They further stepped up their terror tactics and openly called for "revolution", by which they mean a fascist military coup. In a number of cases these most fascist elements have crept up under the cover of darkness to the homes of Blacks and progressive whites living in the county and burned crosses in their yards, broke their windows and shot up their parked cars. In the December and January anti-busing demonstrations, these groups organized lynch-mob attacks on Black passers-by.
The anti-busing labor misleaders, on the other hand, verbally withdrew their slogan "Mr. Businessman and Mr. Labor Leader, Unite", withdrew their support for the anti-integration school boycott and general strike and instead formed their own "independent" fascist labor front called Union Labor Against Busing (ULAB), a body of labor misleaders formed outside of the actual local and central union bodies in the Louisville area. These labor misleaders, through ULAB, now try to present themselves as the "responsible" anti-busing group that is "independent" from the rioters and racists. This is further proof of the paper tiger nature of the fascist anti-busing movement, which is changing its outward tactics, but not its inner nature, in the face of resistance and the growing disaffection of the white working masses with its fascist activities. In addition to the resistance struggle, another factor causing these fascists to change their tactics is pressure from the international union leadership. These top labor lieutenants also represent the interestsof the bourgeoisie in the working-class movement, but for them the open association of the unions with the Klan and Nazis, which the Louisville leaders engaged in, was, at the moment, too blatant a way of coming out in favor of the bourgeoisie. But this "change" by the Louisville labor lackeys of the monopoly capitalists is merely a tactic of theirs to deceive and maintain their leadership of the workers. ULAB has continued to pursue the same line of trying to make the trade unions into servile tools of the bourgeoisie to attack the democratic rights of the Black people and split the working class. On October 26, ULAB organjzed a national anti-busing march on Washington, which drew 6000 people, 3000 of them from Kentucky. In this it had the full support of all the fascist Louisville anti-busing groups, even though the ULAB labor traitors had the unmitigated gall to declare that their anti-equality, anti-Black march was aimed at the goal of "Equal Rights"! Further, ULAB has declared its intention of forming some kind of national fascist anti-busing labor organization, and has reportedly gotten support in this endeavor from labor lackeys from the Boston area. Meanwhile, in Louisville, it was ULAB which organized demonstrations against busing in December and this January. In each case they called for, and got, the full support of the other anti-busing groups, including the KKK and the Nazis. And it has been from these demonstrations that open mob attacks have been launched against Black people.
Further illustrating its consistently pro-capitalist nature, ULAB was particularly active in campaigning for Robert Gable, a notorious coal baron, for Governor of Kentucky in the November elections. Gable was running on a platform of greater handouts to the coal industry and against granting collective bargaining rights to public employees. While all of the candidates, to a man, were against integration, it was Gable who presented himself as the champion of the anti-busing movement. Like ULAB, the Executive Board of Local 761 of the IUE also endorsed Gable. But when this was brought before the local's membership, the membership rejected the anti-busing rhetoric, pointed to Gable's notorious anti-working class record and voted against endorsing him. Following the meeting, the Executive Board suddenly found some "irregularities" in the voting, rescinded the membership's vote against Gable and endorsed him anyway, brazenly flouting the will of the workers. Kenneth Cassidy, the local's president, even did numerous radio and television commercials calling for support for Gable. Thus the "new", "responsible" image of the reactionary labor misleaders in ULAB, of which the Local 761 leadership is a part, is only a new guise for the same program of betrayal of the working class under the myth that the workers and the capitalists and their politicians have "common interests". Claiming the workers and capitalists have common interests to attack the Afro-American people and their right to school integration, these labor lackeys support a capitalist coal baron who is campaigning against unorganized government workers having the right to organize into trade unions. This is how low these reactionary elements have sunk. Thus while the monopoly capitalists are specifically aiming at violently attacking the democratic rights of the Black people, their overall objective is to use "anti-busing" as an issue to penetrate the workers' movement and broad masses and win a section over to the bourgeoisie, thereby creating a mass basis for the overall fascisization of U.S. society by the monopoly capitalist class.
The movement of resistance to the monopoly capitalists' fascist anti-busing movement reached its highest point in a massive demonstration January 15th, in which over 2500 people from the local area, the majority Afro-Americans but including many progressive whites, held a spirited march and rally in downtown Louisville, the largest activity against the anti-busing movement so far. The march protested. against the racist activities of the anti-busing movement and the local government, demanded full implementation of school integration and celebrated twenty years of glorious Afro-American struggle from the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 to date. The march was endorsed by 43 different groups and organizations, including the Louisville Branch of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists. The marchers paraded through downtown six lanes abreast, shouting militantly:: "Stop, Stop the Racist Cops!" and "There'll be no peace till Blacks are free!" and held a rally at the Court House. Bystanders cheered the marchers. Hundreds of city workers, who had demanded and won time off from their jobs for the demonstration, joined the march along the route.. The Louisville Branch of COUSML carried a bright red banner in the midst of the masses, which declared: "Down with the Fascist Anti-Busing Movement! Long Live the Afro-American Struggle Against Racial Discrimination and Violent Repression and for Full Emancipation!" Comrades of the COUSML distributed over 550 copies of The Workers' Advocate to the broad masses, who showed keen interest in communist literature. Following the rally, pro-integration meetings attended by 600 and 550 people each were also held.
At present, the situation in Louisville is that the fascist anti-busing movement has received some sharp blows at the hands of the progressive people, but it is still alive and kicking and still marauding against the people. The monopoly capitalists are persisting in their evil activities, perpetuating racial discrimination and violent repression against the Blacks and working to split the working class in the face of the economic crisis. Such is the recent history of the busing crisis in Louisville.
CONCLUSIONS: PREPARE FOR STRUGGLE
A number of important conclusions can be drawn from the experience of the busing situation, the activities of the anti-busing movement and the resistance to it in Louisville.
First, the entire monopoly capitalist class, both ''liberals'' and "conservatives", are against the democratic rights of the Afro-American people and the interests of the entire working class and are viciously attacking them in order to divide the oppressed classes, preserve their rule and shore up their profits. Some capitalists openly organize the anti-busing movement, while others stir up contradictions among the people and sabotage integration, then work overtime to undermine the resistance of the broad masses to fascism. The agents of the bourgeoisie work to sabotage the workers' movement from the inside. Comrade V. I. Lenin, the great leader and teacher of the international working class, pointed out the significance of these two tactics of the bourgeoisie long ago, in 1910, when reviewing a book by the Dutch then-Marxist Anton Pannekoek. Lenin wrote: "... IN EVERY COUNTRY THE BOURGEOISIE INEVITABLY DEVISES TWO SYSTEMS OF RULE, TWO METHODS OF FIGHTING FOR ITS INTERESTS AND OF MAINTAINING ITS DOMINATION, AND THESE METHODS AT TIMES SUCCEED EACH OTHER AND AT TIMES ARE INTERWOVEN IN VARIOUS COMBINATIONS. THE FIRST OF THESE IS THE METHOD OF FORCE, THE METHOD WHICH REJECTS ALL CONCESSIONS TO THE LABOUR MOVEMENT, THE METHOD OF SUPPORTING ALL THE OLD AND OBSOLETE INSTITUTIONS, THE METHOD OF IRRECONCILABLY REJECTING REFORMS … THE SECOND IS THE METHOD OF 'LIBERALISM', OF STEPS TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL RIGHTS, TOWARDS REFORMS, CONCESSIONS AND SO FORTH... 'THE POSITIVE, REAL AIM OF THE LIBERAL POLICY OF THE BOURGEOISIE,' PANNEKOEK SAYS, 'IS TO MISLEAD THE WORKERS, TO CAUSE A SPLIT IN THEIR RANKS, TO CONVERT THEIR POLICY INTO AN IMPOTENT ADJUNCT OF AN IMPOTENT, ALWAYS IMPOTENT AND EPHEMERAL, SHAM REFORMISM"'. (Collected Works, Vol. 16, pp. 350-51.) Just as Lenin pointed out, in the U.S. today the "liberal" bourgeoisie, like the "conservatives", works just as hard to suppress the workers and broad masses and, as Lenin points out and the example of Louisville shows, both types of bourgeois work equally hard to split the workers and tie them to the coattails of the capitalist class. No amount of anti- and "pro"-busing rhetoric can hide this fact.
A second point that is clear from the Louisville situation is that equal rights for the Afro-American people are impossible, in any serious, thorough-going sense, under the reactionary monopoly capitalist system. The monopoly capitalist system means reaction all along the line, and especially on the national question. The integration of the Louisville schools after 1956 proved to be the most minimal and was quickly taken away again, showing, as Lenin quoted Pannekoek in saying, the "IMPOTENT AND EPHEMERAL, SHAM" nature of "REFORMISM". Despite the heroic, massive struggles of the Black people in the 1960's, the Louisville schools again became segregated, and the basic condition of the Black people did not change for the better as a result of these struggles. This teaches that the Afro-American struggle against racial discrimination and violent repression must be waged on a revolutionary basis. It must be directed at the basis of the system which is practicing racial discrimination and violent repression -- the monopoly capitalist system it;self. As Chairman Mao Tsetung, the leader of the communists and people of the world, pointed out in his 1968 statement "In Support of the AfroAmerican Struggle against Violent Repression" : "ONLY BY OVERTHROWING THE REACTIONARY RULE OF THE U.S. MONOPOLY CAPITALIST CLASS AND DESTROYING THE COLONIALIST AND IMPERIALIST SYSTEM CAN THE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES WIN COMPLETE EMANCIPATION."
As a result of the fact that the contradiction between the 22 million Black masses and the monopoly capitalist class cannot be resolved under capitalism, the Afro-American struggle is a revolutionary struggle and a tremendous lever giving a great impetus to the struggle of the American working class to overthrow the bourgeoisie. The great Black struggles of the 1960's, which shook the imperialist system in the U.S. to its foundations and acted as a clarion call arousing the working class and other progressive people to struggle, are proof of this.
Thus Chairman Mao also stated in 1968: "THE BLACK MASSES AND THE MASSES OF WHITE WORKING PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES SHARE COMMON INTERESTS AND HAVE COMMON OBJECTIVES TO STRUGGLE FOR. THEREFORE, THE AFRO-AMERICAN STRUGGLE IS WINNING SYMPATHY AND SUPPORT FROM INCREASING NUMBERS OF WHITE WORKING PEOPLE AND PROGRESSIVES IN THE UNITED STATES. THE STRUGGLE OF THE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES IS BOUND TO MERGE WITH THE AMERICAN WORKERS' MOVEMENT, AND THIS WILL EVENTUALLY END THE CRIMINAL RULE OF THE U.S. MONOPOLY CAPITALIST CLASS. This means that the Black and white workers, the Black people generally and all progressive people in the U.S. must throw off the influence of the labor aristocracy and other agents of the bourgeoisie and rise up in a proletarian revolution, violently smash the state machine of the monopoly capitalists and replace it with a government of armed workers. This means replacing the present dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the rule of a tiny handful of parasites over the people, with a dictatorship of the proletariat, the rule of the immense majority over the exploiting handful. This dictatorship, and it alone, can and will give real democracy to the working people for the first time while forcefully suppressing the exploiting capitalists and depriving them of their means of production. One of the foremost tasks of this proletarian dictatorship will be to bring about the complete emancipation of the Black people, for, as Comrade Marx taught the American workers at the time of the Civil War: "LABOR CANNOT EMANCIPATE ITSELF IN THE WHITE SKIN WHERE IN THE BLACK SKIN IT IS BRANDED". (Capital, Vol. 1, p. 801) This, and this alone, will thoroughly put an end to the racial discrimination and violent repression which has been the lot of the Afro-Americans for long years. That is, only a revolutionary struggle, and not any myth of "peaceful desegregation", will emancipate the Afro-Americans and the working class as a whole.
Thus as part and parcel of preparing and bringing about the proletarian revolution and the emancipation of all oppressed U.S. society, the working class must take up the Afro-American struggle as its own. It must struggle to bring about the maximum improvements possible in the Afro-Americans' conditions under capitalism by fighting for the Black people's democratic rights, and improving their economic and social conditions. A militant struggle must be waged against the fascist anti-busing movement and the bourgeoisie must be forced to carry out as much of its promises of school integration as the working masses can make it do. School integration assists the working-class struggle over-all in that it opens up wider contacts and collective life between Black and white youths and their parents, making it easier for them to unite in common struggle against the bourgeoisie in school, in the factories and in society at large. In addition, the workers must oppose racial discrimination in the integrated schools and demand, in addition to integration, genuine special programs for the children of all oppressed, minority races and nationalities, including, for exampIe, the teaching of Afro-American history, the languages of other oppressed nationalities, and the hiring of Afro-American and other nationality teachers.
But the main importance of white workers and progressive people taking up the cause of the Afro-American struggle as their own is that only by doing so can white workers and revolutionary people break down the walls of distrust erected over the years by the monopoly capitalists and their agents among the workers and masses with their practice of racial discrimination and violent repression against the Black people, by their maintenance of the Afro-Americans in a status of special class and national oppression, and unite the working class for proletarian revolution. This task rests especially on the white workers, because it is to them which the bourgeoisie and its labor lieutenants are looking for its cannon-fodder for racist attacks against the Black people to still further split the working class. As the League of struggle for Negro Rights, organized by the Communist Party when it was still a revolutionary party, pointed out in 1933: "Today a new class has arisen to assume command of the march of history. That class is the working class. In its hand lies the fate of the future; it alone possesses the ability to so transform the present foundations of society as to wipe out once and for all the oppression of the vast majority of the people by a small group of exploiters, to eradicate for all time the causes of the present plight of the Negro people. Just as the fate of the Negro people is inextricably bound to that of the working class, the white workers cannot strike the fetters of wage slavery from their necks unless they strike the shackles from the Negro people... Unless white labor wishes to be dragged down to the oppressed and degraded position of the Negro toilers, unless it wishes heaped upon itself also the thousand and one persecutions which plague labor with black skin, unless it wishes to remain in perpetual wage bondage and misery, let white labor extend its arm of alliance and solidarity on every issue which faces it as well as the Negro people! It devolves upon the white workers to cast to the winds the least stench of the slave market and the lynching post still clinging to them if they are to appear in their full grandeur as the makers of history and the molders of the future. Unless they do this, they cannot rightly claim the Negro people as their allies, they will be deprived of that powerful black arm in the struggle against the adversary. The only way the white workers can break through the wall of mutual distrust that has been erected by three centuries of the oppression of Negroes in this country is to step forward as the champions of the cause of Negro liberation. They must emblazon on the banner of labor the demands born in the struggle for Negro liberation."
Today, as the monopoly capitalists' deep economic crisis enters its third year and its burden is being increasingly shifted onto the working class and oppressed nationalities at home, a storm of class struggle in the United States is brewing just over the horizon. As the two superpowers step up their contention for world domination, leading the world towards a new world war, and step up their wild attacks on the people of the world, with the Soviet social-imperialist wolves taking the lead, the anti-imperialist, anti-hegemonist struggles of the people of the whole world are also building up more and more power. In this situation, there is nothing that the U.S. monopoly capitalists can do but step up more reaction all along the line and attempt to disarm the masses with political deception, using every sort of opportunist element to aid them. Today their attempt to develop a fascist mass movement of attack on the Afro-Americans, to drive them backwards towards the barbaric Jim Crow system once again and in so doing split the working class, is the cutting edge of the U.S. monopoly capitalists' drive to the consolidation of fascism in the United States. Their aim is to smash the resistance of the working masses, shift the entire burden of the economic crisis onto them, and create a secure home base for the world war they are preparing to slaughter the world's people. This development presents a very grave challenge to the American working class, to the Afro-American people and to the democratic people in the United States. But the revolutionary workers and masses welcome this challenge. They tasted the storms of struggle in the 1960's. The days are gone when the monopoly capitalist Hitlers could strut for long on the face of this earth, including the U.S. As Chairman Mao points out, "THE PEOPLE, AND THE PEOPLE ALONE, ARE THE MOTIVE FORCE IN THE MAKING OF WORLD HISTORY." The class-conscious American workers, Black and white, the masses of Afro-American people, other oppressed nationalities and white working people, will surely fight for the long-trampled rights of the Black people, defeat the fascist anti-busing movement and unite under the leadership of a proletarian party based on Marxism Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought for the proletarian revolution. The monopoly capitalist reactionaries will surely be crushed. End Item
[Photo: Part of the mass demonstration against racial discrimination and violent repression against the Black people in Louisville January 15. Comrades from the Louisville Branch of COUSML carry a banner.]
[Photo: 2500 Afro-Americans and other progressive people held a demonstration and rally in Louisville January 15 in protest against the attacks of the government and the anti-busing movement on the Black people, in support of resistance to attacks and in support of school integration and in celebration of two glorious decades of Afro-American struggle since the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955.]
In this issue The Workers' Advocate is reprinting documents about Angola including statements from UNITA, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola. The situation in Angola is very serious. The Soviet socialimperialists are continually escalating their intervention in Angola. Since the last issue of The Workers' Advocate in December, the number of Cuban puppet troops has increased from over 3,000 to a figure reported at over 10,000, a Soviet naval flotilla has been amassed off Angola, and tremendous pressure was put on many African countries in an unsuccessful attempt to subvert or split the Organization of African Unity at its meeting in mid-January. The Soviet social-imperialists are attempting to overwhelm a small, struggling nation -- there are only six million Angolans -- with a barrage of sophisticated weapons, tanks, missiles, aircraft, and thousands upon thousands of puppet troops, mostly Cubans. Already more Angolans have been killed in the civil war instigated by Soviet agression than died in the entire national liberation war against Portuguese colonialism of 1961-1974. And the Soviet aggressors are the arch-criminals who, in splitting the unity of the Angolan people and preventing the creation of a government of national union, have allowed the other superpower, U.S. imperialism, to fish in troubled waters; thus the U.S. imperialists are also nosing around and have instigated the invasion of Angola by the vile racist regime of the Union of South Africa. The New Tsars of the Soviet Union want to turn Angola into a Soviet base in Southern Africa in order to contend for world hegemony with U.S. imperialism, plunder Angola's abundant resources, and make preparations for a new world war. Victory for the Soviet social-imperialists would not only mean subjecting the Angolan people to a new servitude, but would move closer the threat of a new world war, more terrible than the last. This is a matter of grave concern for the entire world's people, who should support the struggle of the Angolan people against intervention and aggression by the two superpowers. All those people who still have illusions about Soviet social-imperialism should study the situation in Angola closely. Just as Hitler plunged the world into World War II and committed Nazi crimes under the banner of fake "national socialism", so today the New Tsars of the Soviet Union are seeking world hegemony, preparing for war and contending and colluding with the U.S. imperialists under the banner of sham "socialism" and sham "communism".
The Angolan people have been tempered in the nearly five centuries-long struggle against Portuguese colonialism. What the U.S. imperialist-backed Portuguese colonialists with their NATO weapons couldn't do, neither can the Soviet social- imperialists with their massive weaponry and Cuban and East European puppet troops and personnel. The Angolan national liberation organizations cannot be wiped out by force. The Angolan people demand a government of national union that will stop the civil war, expel all imperialist "aid" and intervention, reject superpower meddling and ensure total independence. Otherwise there will be a government of national betrayal, ruling Angola by military despotism in the interests of the Soviet New Taars and propped up by a foreign army of occupation. Such a government of national betrayal could not last long. The Soviet aggressors, their hands stained with the blood of Angolan patriots, will be defeated. As Chairman Mao has pointed out: "A WEAK NATION CAN DEFEAT A STRONG, A SMALL NATION CAN DEFEAT A BIG. THE PEOPLE OF A SMALL COUNTRY CAN CERTAINLY DEFEAT AGGRESSION BY A BIG COUNTRY, IF ONLY THEY DARE TO RISE IN STRUGGLE, TAKE UP ARMS AND GRASP IN THEIR OWN HANDS THE DESTINY OF THEIR COUNTRY. THIS IS A LAW OF HISTORY."
THE STRUGGLE AGAINST PORTUGUESE COLONIALISM
The Angolan people have a glorious history of struggle against foreign domination. The Portuguese colonialists plundered Angola for its resources and subjected Angola to the barbaric slave trade. Angola suffered more than any other African country from the slave trade, with 3 1/2 million Angolans sent to Brazil alone. Whole areas of Angola were literally depopulated -- so that even now Angola, which has over twice the area of France and has a mild climate, has only six million inhabitants. The Angolan people's resistance to this aggression was so strong that although the Portuguese colonialists first reached Angola in the 15th century, by as late as the beginning of the 20th century only a handful of white settlers lived in the interior. Through uprisings, war, mass movements, diplomacy, even playing off one colonialist power against another, the Angolan people kept alive the spirit of resistance. The main lesson learned from these struggles was the necessity of the unity of the Angolan people to defeat foreign domination, colonialism, imperialism and white racism.
The nearly five-centuries-long struggle against Portuguese colonialism climaxed with the war of national liberation starting in 1961. By this time U.S. imperialism had replaced British imperialism in dominating Portugal and thus gained access to the Portuguese colonies. Portugal used the same tactics as its U.S. imperialist masters used in Viet Nam and was supplied with NATO weapons, but could not suppress the Angolan people. Several liberation organizations emerged in Angola. MPLA, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, was founded in 1956-58 and led by Augustinho Neto. FNLA, the National Liberation Front of Angola, was founded, then under a different name, in 1960-61 and led by Holden Roberto. But in the early '60' s the national liberation war faced severe problems and lost its initiative. It was badly directed by leaders residing abroad and torn by dissensions and rivalries, which even reached the point of armed fighting between different nationalist groups. To remedy this situation, in 1966 certain exiled leaders returned to Angola, organized themselves among the people and founded UNlTA, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, which is led by Jonas Savimbi. UNITA's policies included: basing the organization and its leadership inside Angola and never retreating from Angolan soil; waging a protracted people's war based on mobilizing the peasantry and recognizing the need for proletarian consciousness; self-reliance and not depending on outside assistance; staying independent from all imperialist powers, including both U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism; fighting for total independence and guaranteeing the continuing and sequence of the national democratic revolution with the socialist revolution; and constantly striving to unite all the Angolan liberation organizations in a united front and calling on them to transfer their bases of operation, located abroad, to Angola. UNITA also recognized its international responsibilities. For example, since 1968 cooperation and solidarity with the Afro-American people has been part of UNITA's program. Also UNlTA cooperates in the struggle to liberate all Southern Africa and enjoys close relations with the fighters of SWAPO (the South West African People's Organization, which is the liberation organization of Namibia, the so-called "South West Africa"). 3,000 SWAPO fighters have used UNITA camps in Southern Angola as their base in the fight against the domination of Namibia by the U.S. imperialist-backed regime of the Union of South Africa.
UNITA has made outstanding contributions to the Angolan people's struggle, a fact which has resulted in it bearing the brunt of the slanders of both superpowers. The Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FALA), under UNITA's leadership, armed themselves with NATO weapons captured from the Portuguese army and liberated entire regions of the country with large populations. This gave tremendous impetus to the war of national liberation. When, after the April 25, 1974 coup in Portugal, the Portuguese government finally started negotiations with the liberation movements in its colonies, it sought out PAIGC of Guinea-Bissau, FRELIMO of Mozambique and UNIT A of Angola. Thus it was shown that the Portuguese regarded UNITA as an opponent on the same level as PAIGC and FRELIMO, the organizations that successfully liberated Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.
Thus three liberation organizations exist in Angola. All of them participated in the war of national liberation, all of them enjoy some popular support, all of them were recognized during the war of national liberation on an equal footing by the Organization of African Unity. To achieve total independence, the unity of the Angolan people is necessary. Thus UNIT A, when contacted by the Portuguese, laid down among its conditions for a cease-fire that negotiations must be conducted with all three Angolan liberation organizations and not just one of them. The Angolan liberation movements, aided by the Organization of African Unity, made a number of attempts to resolve their differences and unite. In the Angolan Independence Agreement signed in Alvor, Portugal, on January 15, 1975, the Portuguese government recognized the three liberation movements as "the sole representatives of the Angolan people", agreed to the independence of Angola to be proclaimed November 11, 1975, recognized the territorial integrity of Angola, and provided for a transitional government to be composed of members of the three liberation organizations as well as the Portuguese government. After fighting broke out between MPLA and FNLA, the liberation organizations again attempted to compose their differences in the Nakuru Agreement of June, 1975. This agreement stated that the three organizations, "aware of the grave situation in which the country finds itself and of the national interests which must necessarily be put above any political and ideological divergencies, solemnly affirm to renounce the use of force as a way to solve problems and to honor all obligations resulting from the conclusion of the accord."
Had these agreements been honored, an excellent situation would have resulted in the struggle for strengthening the unity of the Angolan people and ensuring total independence. The demand of the Angolan people is for national unity to ensure genuine independence and a government of national union. A government of national union would signify that all three liberation organizations keep the general interests of the Angolan people in mind, compose their differences, oppose the common enemies and expel superpower meddling and all outside imperialist powers. Without national unity, the Angolan people will remain divided and prey to interference and intervention from outside. It is impossible to rule Angola without a political settlement among the liberation movements of Angola, which have shed their blood for Angolan freedom. The only alternative to a government of national union is a government of national betrayal, ruling Angola by sheer military force supplied by an outside imperialist power.
MAKING ANGOLANS FIGHT ANGOLANS
But the ink was hardly dry on the Nakuru Agreement before it was violated. The fighting between MPLA and FNLA continued. In June and July MPLA launched attacks on UNlTA offices in various cities, climaxing in an attempt to assassinate President Jonas Savimbi of UNlTA by firing on his plane in the city of Porto Silva. Thus, UNITA, too, was drawn into the civil war.
Behind the breakdown of the various attempts to mediate the differences between the Angolan liberation organizations, including the Nakuru Agreement, lay the rivalry of the two superpowers and particularly the undisguised expansion and crude interference of the Soviet social-imperialists, who single-handedly provoked the civil war. During the war of national liberation the New Tsars had confined themselves to sending small amounts of aid to one organization only, seeking hegemony over one organization while slandering and instigating splits with the others, and to propagating such theories as that "a single spark" of national liberation war could produce a world war and that the world's people should rely on "peaceful coexistence", "disarmament" and "detente" between the two superpowers. However, as soon as the victory over Portuguese colonialism seemed imminent; the social-imperialists intensified their interference in a big way. They labelled one organization as "socialist" and the other two as "reactionary." Following the cease-fire with Portuguese colonialism and the Alvor Agreement, the New Tsars continued sending their military supplies, under the guise of "aid", to one organization only. In the year following November, 1974, the New Tsars sent more military supplies than in all fourteen years of the war of national liberation combined. Sophisticated weapons including tanks, missiles and aircraft were sent that had never been sent previously during the war against Portuguese colonialism. The New Tsars were faced with the fact that the Angolan people, on the threshold of victory over foreign domination, were determined to safeguard and cherish their independence. Thus, just as when U.S. imperialism found itself in a weak position in IndoChina, in desperation former President Nixon turned to the policy of making "Asians fight Asians", so the Soviet Union adopted the exact same vile policy and provoked a war in which "Angolans fight Angolans".
This policy of "making Angolans fight Angolans" reveals the complete contempt of the New Tsars towards the liberation struggles of Africa in general and Angola in particular. The Angolan people regarded the rivalries and dissensions between the liberation organizations as a curse and made many attempts to form a united front. Indeed, as pointed out above, it was revulsion at these fratricidal conflicts that was one of the reasons for founding UNITA in 1966. But the New Tsars regard these conflicts as a welcome opportunity to pull Angola into their sphere of influence. Making use of the serious error made by one liberation organization, that has consented to serve social-imperialist dreams in Southern Africa in exchange for "aid" in massacring the other liberation organizations, the New Tsars have plunged Angola into a sea of misery and even introduced puppet troops of occupation, mostly Cuban but also including East European and Soviet advisors and technicians of various sorts. Meanwhile the U.S. imperialists, anxious not to be outdone and to regain the "lost paradise" which the defeat of Portuguese colonialism deprived them of, have courted directly and indirectly another liberation organization. Meanwhile, UNITA opposes the disunity of the Angolan people and even now fights only for the purpose of stopping the civil war and obtaining a just political settlement that safeguards Angolan independence, but at present the civil war provoked by the Soviet social-imperiaIists rages on.
In splitting the unity of the Angolan people, the Soviet social-imperialists have become the arch-criminals who have unleashed a whole series of calamities upon Angola. These include:
-- The transitional government agreed on in the Alvor Agreements of January, 1975 was first paralyzed and then destroyed. Instead the disunity of the Angolan people has become reflected in two different governments now operating in Angola.
--The Portuguese authorities, taking advantage of the split, attempted to go back on their agreements. On August 14, 1975, the Portuguese government issued a unilateral statement to resume government power of Angola. On August 29 the Portuguese suspended the Alvor agreement on Angolan independence. However, Portugal, which itself is racked internally by the contention of the two superpowers, was defeated in these plots and forced to withdraw from Angola on November 10, 1975, Thus Angola became independent on November 11, as agreed.
--Thousands of Cuban and other puppet troops trample Angolan soil and massacre the Angolan people. The presence of such puppet troops of the Soviet Union severely curtails the independence of Angola.
--The U.S. imperialists instigated an invasion of Angola by the vile racist regime of the Union of South Africa.
These events, along with the civil war itself, are the bitter fruit of the New Tsars' temporary success in splitting the Angolan people. The social-imperialists oh so innocently shout about the South Africans, but this is just demagogy to cover up that were it not for the crimes of the New Tsars in provoking the civil war, the South Africans would not be on Angolan soil.
Since December, like a desperate gambler frenziedly raising the stakes in hopes of making a killing, the Soviet social-imperialists have increased their aggression against Angola. The number of Cuban puppet troops has more than tripled, increasing from over 3,000 to a number reported to be above 10,000. Cuban troops are now brought to Angola directly by Soviet jets, abandoning even the pretext of being brought over by Cuban planes. Soviet arms continue to flood the country. The lack of popular. support for Soviet domination gives rise to the constant necessity for further escalation. Totally deluded by some temporary successes in conventional, positional warfare -- a type of warfare where an overwhelming advantage in sophisticated weaponry operated by foreign troops can compensate a while for lack of popular enthusiasm, the social-imperialists and their friends have become very arrogant. They actually believe they can accomplish what the Portuguese colonialists could never accomplish in almost 500 years -- the military destruction of the Angolan movement for independence and the submission of the Angolan people to foreign domination. This is a startling exposure of the imperialist thinking of the Soviet New Tsars. Actually since each of the three liberation organizations has bases of support among the masses, there is no way that only one liberation organization could rule Angola. That is why the alternative to the government of national unity is a government of national betrayal, ruling by military despotism and dependent on the Soviet social-imperialists. Such a government would not last long. The Angolan people have stood up in the struggle against Portuguese colonialism. They have already inflicted defeat after defeat against the hegemonistic designs of the superpowers. Following in the traditions of the Indochinese people, the small nation of Angola will certainly be able to defeat a large imperialist power. The Angolan people will win victory against Soviet social-imperialism, expel the meddling of' the two superpowers and establish a free and totally independent Angola.
MAKING AFRICANS FIGHT AFRICANS
An important part of the aggression of the Soviet social-imperialists has been the tremendous pressure they have exerted on all the independent African countries to subvert the just stand of the Organization of African Unity(OAU). The O.A. U. was founded in 1963. The principal aim in the charter of the O.A.U. is to, promote integration and solidarity among the African countries. The O.A.U. has in its past history on several occasions settled disputes among African countries via mediation and it has waged struggle against imperialism, colonialism, and hegemonism. In regard to Angola, the O.A.U. has made a number of attempts to resolve the differences among the Angolan liberation movements and help establish a government of national unity, The O.A.U. has aimed at preventing outside interference and intervention in Angola and against any "internationalizing" of the Angolan problem. These just actions by the O.A.U. were a great embarrassment to the social-imperialists with their aim of establishing hegemony in Angola through fomenting disunity. The social-imperialists therefore relied on intimidation, threats and pressures in an attempt either to force the O.A.U. to reverse its just stand at its meeting in mid-January 1976 or to split the O.A.U. The Soviet Union even temporarily suspended diplomatic relations with Uganda in order to pressure the current chairman of the O.A.U., who is also President of Uganda, to reverse his stand against Soviet intervention in Africa. Despite the vile antics of the Soviet Union, the meeting of the O.A.U. was a great rebuff to Soviet plans. On the crucial resolution, whether to recognize MPLA's "People's Republic of Angola" and thus endorse the military destruction of the other two liberation organizations and close one's eyes to Soviet aggression or to condemn all outside imperialist aggression and call for a government national union the vote was 22 to 22 with 2 abstentions. This tie vote thwarted the Soviet scheme to have the O.A.U. endorse its aggression against Angola. The O.A.U. also preserved its existence against the threat of a split. Frustrated on the diplomatic front, Soviet social-imperialism continued its arms build-up in Angola, staking everything on a military victory.
This hostile stand by the Soviet Union to the O.A.U. is not something new. A united fighting Africa is unfavorable to the social-imperialists' plans to dominate the world. They have no respect for the independent African states or the unity of the Third World, of which Africa is a part. Instead, the social imperialists constantly seek to divide the African people, set one nation against another, arbitrarily label one set of countries "progressive" and another "reactionary" at the least, and set Africans fighting Africans. Whether to safeguard African unity or to divide Africa and undermine its unity is now a crucial question in the struggle against Soviet social-imperialism in Africa.
Consider, for example, the splitting and sabotage activities of the Soviet Union at the time of the O.A.U. ministerial council held in April, 1975. At this time the Soviet social~imperialists published several articles accusing "certain African leaders" of "betraying the interests of the oppressed southern African people" and condemning the "presidents and prime ministers of 24 African countries" for seeking "detente" with Southern Africa. Yet after the meeting the New Tsars resumed their old tune that "international detente had created favorable conditions for the liquidation of colonialism and racism". And the New Tsars have been supporting the vile "detente" scheme in Zimbabwe and seeking to undermine the Chimurenga (war of national liberation) there (see article starting on page 4). Why does the Soviet Union denounce the African countries for the same "detente" that the Soviet Union advocates? Clearly the Soviet Union was demagogicilly playing on the African countries' legitimate hatred for the South African regime in order to aggravate the difficulties that this regime's "detente" scheme caused black Africa, prevent Africa from uniting, and set Africans against Africans.
WHY THE SOVIET SOCIAL-IMPERIALISTS COMMIT AGGRESSION IN ANGOLA
The Soviet Union is the land of the' Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 led bY Lenin. The Soviet people led by the Communist Party of Lenin and Stalin consolidated socialism in the U.S.S.R. In World War II the Soviet people led by Stalin smashed the Nazi hordes. But after Stalin's death, the revisionist Khrushchov seized power on behalf of a clique of new bourgeois elements, vilified Stalin, and restored the . man-eating capitalist system inside the Soviet Union. Kosygin and Brezhnev have followed in Khrushchov's footsteps. Chairman Mao points out: "THE RISE TO POWER OF REVISIONISM MEANS THE RISE TO POWER OF THE BOURGEOISIE." "THE SOVIET UNION TODAY IS UNDER THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE BOURGEOISIE, A DICTATORSHIP OF THE BIG BOURGEOISIE, A DICTATORSHIP OF THE GERMAN FASCIST TYPE, A DICTATORSHIP OF.T HE HITLER.. TYPE." Having restored capitalism, the revisionist leaders naturally could not avoid the political consequences that follow from capitalism and the now capitalist Soviet Union became imperialist. The Soviet revisionist leaders continued to flaunt the signboard of socialism in order to mislead the world working-class movement and to present their seeking of world hegemony as the extension of socialism. They can justly be called social-imperialists, socialists in words, imperialists in deeds. This was a great betrayal of the world's people,as well of the Soviet people and it split the international communist movment.
Since Russia had experienced almost four decades of socialism, from 1917 to after the death of Stalin in 1953, the country had made great advances on all fronts. The social-imperialists utilized the fact that Russia had been built up economically, technologically and scientifically to make it into a superpower once capitalism had replaced socialism as its economic system. They began to build up an empire and spheres of influence. They made most of Eastern Europe into client states of their empire. They are now contending with the U.S. imperialists for world hegemony.
The Soviet social-imperialists are in Angola as part of their drive for world hegemony. They are interested in plundering Angola's rich natural resources, including oil, copper, industrial diamonds, iron ore, coffee and other riches. Angola is also a strategically important country. A Soviet base in Angola could be used to establish Soviet penetration into the South Atlantic Ocean. The South Atlantic ocean is a center for many trading routes and Soviet ability to disrupt and dominate these sea-lanes would be an important blow at u.S. imperialist hegemony and increase Soviet pressure on Western Europe, the focus of the contention of the two superpowers for world hegemony. The Soviet Union is also interested in Angola as a base for its contention with U.S. imperialism in redividing the whole area of Southern Africa and the surrounding waters. With the independence of Mozambique and Angola and the sharpening struggles in Zimbabwe ("Rhodesia") and Namibia ("South West Africa"), the position of the vile racist regime of the Union of South Africa and thus of U.S. imperialist hegemony is becoming shakier and shakier. The liberation struggles of the African people are surging ever further south on the continent. This has not escaped the notice of the Soviet social-imperialists who would like to subvert these struggles so they can replace U.S. imperialism and gain hegemony in southern Africa. A liberated southern Africa truly independent of imperialism would definitely weaken both superpowers. Soviet hegemonism in this area, however, would introduce a new oppressor to replace the old, encourage the contention of the two superpowers, and bring the world closer to a new imperialist world war to redivide the world.
The Soviet Union engages in the pretense that it is sending aid to Angola to help fight the Union of South Africa. Actually the social-imperialists are only interested in extending their hegemony in Angola. It is their policy of making Angolans fight Angolans that allowed South Africa to invade Angola. The Soviet Union also slanders UNITA, the organization that aids the SWAPO guerillas fighting South African occupation of Namibia. Further proof can be seen by examining Soviet behavior in Zimbabwe ("Rhodesia''). In an article starting on pg. 4 it is shown that a serious situation exists for the liberation forces in Zimbabwe led by ZANU due to the fraud of constitutional talks being promoted by the racist Ian Smith. The social-imperialists, far from giving aid to ZANU and the war of national liberation, are in fact supporting Nkomo and the scheme to undermine the armed struggle. The social-imperialists are thus working in favor of the South African "detente" scheme. If the social- imperialists favor detente with South Africa in Zimbabwe, how can they be in favor of armed struggle against South Africa in Angola? Why aren't the social-imperialists sending their tanks, missile-launchers, machine-guns, etc., to ZANU if they are so interested in fighting South Africa? Conversely, if the Soviet Union really wants "detente", why doesn't it have "detente" with the Angolan people and withdraw its puppet troops? Clearly, whether the Soviet propaganda machine talks of "detente" or "fighting South Africans", the real aim is the same, to establish hegemony: that is why the New Tsars are mortally afraid of the fiercely independent ZANU that is fighting Ian Smith in Zimbabwe, while in Angola the New Tsars send arms and troops to massacre the Angolan people.
Furthermore, if the Soviet social-imperialists send "aid" to Angola to be used against South African invasion, then why, we may ask, does it turn out that this "aid" only kills Angolans? If but one-tenth or one-twentieth of the Angolans killed by Soviet "aid" were South Africans, the entire South African invasion force would be annihilated to the last man and a big dent would have been put into the South African forces occupying Namibia to boot. But only a handful of South Africans have been killed. It seems that Soviet "aid" is only effective when used to massacre black Angolans but not when used to repel white South Africans. Perhaps this reflects the racism of the Russian New Tsars themselves, who face periodic revolts against racial discrimination from the African students studying in Lumumba University in Moscow. The motive may be inferred from the effect. Russian "aid" massacres huge numbers of Angolans because it was sent to kill Angolans, pour oil on the flames of the civil war, destroy any possibilities of a government of national union and create a government of national betrayal subject to Russian hegemony and kept in power by Cuban bayonets.
CASTRO - ABJECT LACKEY OF THE NEW TSARS
As the Soviet social-imperialists escalate their interference in Angola, a notable feature is the use of thousands upon thousands of Cuban puppet troops. Trying to disguise its aggression in Angola, the Soviet New Tsars are using Cuban puppet troops as their cats' paw. Fidel Castro's use of Cubans as cannon-fodder for Soviet aggression is a great crime against the Cuban people. Castro has become a most abject lackey and fawning yes-man of the social imperialists. He has dutifully followed the Soviet baton and praised Soviet aggression around the world. Even most of the revisionist parties couldn't stomach the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, but Castro approved of it. Castro has also publicly humiliated himself in front of the U.S. imperialists and, grovelling in the dirt, has withdrawn his criticism of Krushchov's betrayal of Cuban sovereignty in the Cuban missile crisis. Castro's present role of hangman of Angolan independence clearly exposes him as an anti-Cuban, anti-Third World puppet of a superpower. How this came about should be examined closely as it reveals the ugly features of how social-imperialism sabotages and subverts the people's just struggles against imperialism. This is extremely important for Americans to look into because for a time in the late 60's and early 70's Castroism was widely promoted throughout North and South America as the new revolutionary theory and alternative to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. In the U.S. and Latin America, Castroism was never fully and decisively repudiated. Even today trips are organized for American youth to visit Cuba and see the joys of being a Soviet client state, while in Latin America Castroism is used to do anti-China propaganda. Castro functions as a Trojan Horse for the Soviet Union in the Third World and at nonaligned conferences.
The Cuban people overthrew the dictator Batista, front man for U.S. imperialism, in 1959. This was. a high point in a protracted struggle against foreign domination, first against Spanish colonialism and, after 1898, against U.s. imperialist domination. Since Castro actually seized power by military force, in contrast to the "peaceful" road of degeneration and betrayal of the official revisionist parties treacherously calling themselves communist, Castroism developed a great prestige. And the American people correctly supported the Cuban revolution against the many attempts of the U.S. imperialists to regain their "lost paradise" through such vile means as blockade, invasion (Bay of Pigs), economic and diplomatic sanctions, etc. However, Castro has gradually compromised the independence of Cuba. Nominally independent, Cuba is today an economic client state of the Soviet Union. The one-crop economy, the sugar cashcrop economy, that for years was a corner-stone of U.S. domination of Cuba is still the mainstay of the Cuban economy 17 years after the overthrow of Batista. Today the sugar economy links Cuba to its "guaranteed" market supplied by Russia and its new empire. Cuba has joined the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (C.M.E.A.), which is the body the Soviet Union uses to "integrate" the economies of its East European dependencies with the Soviet economy. Cuba's budget is heavily dependent on Russian aid and Cuba has amassed a debt of several billion dollars to the Soviet Union. In short, Castro is tied both hand and foot, economically and politically, to the New Tsars who pull the strings. But the glorious Cuban people, who defeated both Spanish colonialism and U.S. imperialism, will surely be victorious in overthrowing Soviet domination and the traitor Castro.
Castroism itself, despite its outward superficial appearance of militancy, was actually never a revolutionary philosophy, but a liberal bourgeois philosophy. Castro took power by a coup d'etat, not a people's war; this was possible as U.S. imperialism did not at first feel threatened by Castro's coup. Castroism as a theory negates the role of the masses and holds to the liberal bourgeois view of a handful of enlightened ones, guerrillas or "focos", operating independently of the masses. The revolution is made for the masses by a handful of elite ones, rather than being the conscious act of the masses themselves. Castroism also negates the leading role of politics and takes a purely military and putschist view of revolution. Such a theory cannot guide a revolution to victory. Thus although Castro did manage to come to power, Castroism was completely incapable of guiding Cuba through a revolutionary transformation and consolidation after the seizure of power. Instead Castro casted around for support from various quarters internationally, finally proclaimed himself a "communist" to curry favor with the social-imperialists and degenerated to complete dependence on revisionism and the New Tsars. Castro's betrayal was so thorough that he forced Che Guevara, who was a heroic revolutionary and martyr despite the fact that he followed a wrong theory of revolution, to rely on the revisionist parties in Latin America when he started his guerrilla band in Bolivia. The revisionist parties, following their longstanding practice of "peaceful" betrayal of the people, betrayed information about Che Guevara to the political police and this was the immediate reason for the tragic death of Che Guevara.
The painfull lesson of Cuba bears serious attention. Castro's degeneration to a traitor to the Cuban people and a hangman of Angola shows that to support the Soviet social-imperialists on the pretext of fighting U.S. imperialism is to sell out the interests of the world's people. Siding with either superpower in the struggle against the other increases their contention and makes one a tool in their preparations for a new world war. There are some American groups that are making this serious error today and who hail every extension of Soviet hegemony, every new crime of the New Tsars as a set-back for U.S. imperialism. This is not a revolutionary activity. It simply shows that some people who have no faith in the revolutionary struggle of the masses, but who nevertheless see that U.S. imperialism is sinking, are shifting their loyalties to what they foolishly hope is a rising imperialism. These opportunists will come to no good end. All progressive people must learn from Castro's negative example and resolutely denounce both superpowers.
THE IMPERIALIST PRESS AND INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNISM
The press of both'superpowers and their sympathizers has propagated a large amount of lies and nonsense concerning Angola. On certain points both superpowers give the same lies; this reflects the fact that while the two superpowers are fiercely contending, nevertheless they are both imperialist, share a common outlook and certain common interests, and collude against the liberation struggles of the world's people. One example of this is that it serves the interests of both superpowers to maintain the pretense that Russia is still socialist; the Soviet New Tsars commit aggression under the signboard of "socialism" while the U.S. imperialists use this lie in order to keep the working-class movement in the U.S. split and under the influence of revisionism and to propagate the lie that to oppose Soviet social-imperialism one must be "anti-communist".
Since UNITA has led the Angolan people in opposition to both superpowers, it has been the most vilified organization. Both superpowers constantly reiterate that one liberation organization is "Marxist" while UNITA is supposedly a "pro-Western, anti-communist" faction. This exposes the Soviet dream of recolonizing Africa under a socialist banner while the U.S. dreams of regaining its "lost paradise". Both superpowers propagate the big lie that invasion of Angola was by the invitation of "the pro-Western, anti-communist" Angolans. This allows the Soviet New Tsars hypocritically to don the mask of fighting South Africans, while the U.S. imperialists pretend that they are not responsible for the South African invasion, oh no, it was by the consent of the Angolans.
It is not surprising, of course, that the press of the superpowers tells lies. Most ordinary Americans are quite aware of this. It is common- place for American politicians to moan about the "credibility gap" while CBS recently sighed that 85% of Americans do not believe the Warren Report on the assassination of the imperialist chieftain Kennedy. What is remarkable, however, is that a certain section of opportunists, who like to present themselves as super-revolutionaries and knowledgeable and certainly more "advanced" than the ordinary man, have soft ears for the distortions and concoctions from the imperialist press.
When the Soviet social-imperialists launched their efforts to create an international debate concerning which liberation movement in Angola is good and which is bad, the opportunists immediately jumped in. The opportunists showed no respect for the struggling Angolan people and the Angolan liberation organizations which have shed their blood against Portuguese colonialism and did not support the national liberation movement of the Angolan people as a whole. Instead the opportunists were anxious to engage in all sorts of speculation on what imperialist political pundit said what about which group, and posed as pure and noble souls carefully measuring the various organizations against various abstract and eternal principles. An atmosphere of gossip and rumor was created stories and fantastic tales planted in the press and in these circles by revisionists and agents of the Soviet Union circulated widely. All these activities constituted blatant interference in the internal affairs of Angola and were designed to aggravate differences among the Angolan people and help Soviet social-imperialism in its dirty work of provoking civil war in Angola. We may may also note that this atmosphere of gossiip and rumor affected a number of liberals -- you certainly could not call them revolutionaries --who would have liked to support the Angolan people but got queasy stomachs from reading The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor.
SUPPORT FOR ANGOLAN PEOPLE GROWS
It is an important part of the proletarian internationalist duty of the American people to support the Angolan people in their struggle against the hegemonism of the two superpowers, for a government of national union and for total independence. There is quite a barrage of revisionist propaganda in the U.S. from supposed "left" groups supporting the fratricidal policy of making "Angolans fight Angolans". This is a reflection in the ''left'' of the great-power chauvinism of the U.S. and Soviet imperialists themselves. Nevertheless, more and more Americans are standing up to condemn the massacre of the Angolan people. On Saturday, January 10, in New York City, over 300 people demonstrated on a biting cold day. Most banners called for throwing the superpowers out of Angola and for a government of national union, while the speeches concentrated on attacking Soviet social-imperialism for instigating the civil war. In Detroit on January 10, 200 AfroAmericans attended a meeting called by an Afro-American organization and heard a representative of UNITA speak. The COUSML has held a number of meetings in major American cities denouncing the Soviet social-imperialists for provoking civil war in Angola. The Seattle Branch of the COUSML united with the Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Forum (Seattle) and the Angolan People's Liberation Support Committee to denounce the Soviet social-imperialists and oppose the meddling of both superpowers in the internal affairs of the Angolan people in a meeting on January 17. This is not to mention Canada where People's Canada Daily News has given firm support to the Angolan people's struggle and carried documents from UNIT A. It will suffice to mention that on December 27th in Toronto at a meeting to celebrate the founding of the Communist Party in India, over 1000 people enthusiastically welcomed a representative of UNITA and denounced Soviet social-imperialism as well as denounced the international opportunist trend as supporters of the two superpowers. The resolution on Angola from this meeting is reprinted on page 10. A just cause finds abundant support. Support for Angola will undoubtedly grow and help expose to many Americans the evil features of Soviet social-imperialism and the importance of combatting the hegemonism of the two superpowers.
THE ANGOLAN PEOPLE WILL SURELY WIN!
MAO TSETUNG
The following two poems by Chairman Mao were published in the January 1976 issue of the Chinese journal Poetry and were also printed in People's Daily and other Peking newspapers in the New Year's Day issue. They are reprinted from Peking Review, Jan. 2. 1976.
- to the tune of Shui Tiao Keh Tou
May 1965
I have long aspired to reach for the clouds,
Again I come from afar
To climb Chingkangshan, our old haunt.
Past scenes are transformed,
Orioles sing, swallows swirl,
Streams purl everywhere
And the road mounts skyward.
Once Huangyangchieh is passed
No other perilous place calls for a glance.
Wind and thunder are stirring,
Flags and banners are flying
Wherever men live.
Thirty-eight years are fled
With a mere snap of the fingers.
We can clasp the moon in the Ninth Heaven
And seize turtles deep down in the Five Seas:
We'll return amid triumphant song and laughter.
Nothing is hard in this world
If you dare to scale the heights.
Expanatory Notes by The Workers' Advocate, adapted from Peking Review No. 2, 1976.
These two poems by Chairman Mao profoundly reflect the tremendouschanges in the history of the Chinese revolution and the world revolution. They were written on the eve of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a great revolution aimed at combatting and preventing revisionism. The idea that "Nothing is hard in this world if you dare to scale the heights" is a summing up by Chairman Mao of the Chinese people's prolonged revolutionary struggle and an encouragement to the Communist Party of China and the whole Chinese people to continue the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is an inspiration to all revolutionary people to march forward under Chairman Mao's revolutionary line and scale one height after another.
1. Chingkangshan, or the Chingkang Mountains, was where Chairman Mao established China's first rural revolutionary base area in October 1927. Chingkangshan was an important starting point of the Chinese revolution and the Chingkangshan road is the road to the victory of the Chinese revolution, Chairman Mao revisited Chingkangshan in 1965, after a lapse of 38 years.
2. Huangyangchieh is the most perilous and crucial of the five passes in the Chingkang Mountains and once it is passed no other place "calls for a glance". A historic battle was fought at this pass in 1928, at which the young Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, under the guidance of Chairman Mao's revolutionary line, achieved a great victory over a numerically superior reactionary Kuomintang army.
3. The triple pact refers to the so-called partial nuclear test ban treaty which the Soviet revisionists concluded with the United States and Britain in 1963 in order to deceive the people that they were disarming while they were and still are actually engaged in arms expansion.
4. Potatoes with beef refers to the "goulash communism" promised by Khrushchev. Khrushchev never made good his promise and fell from power one year before the poem was written. Since Brezhnev took office he has proved himself an equal to his predecessor, with the result that the economy in the Soviet Union is now a mess, the agricultural crisis is worse than ever and news of crop failures keeps pouring in.
- to the tune of Nien Nu Chiao
Autumn 1965
The roc wings fanwise,
Soaring ninety thousand li
And rousing a raging cyclone.
The blue sky on his back, he looks down
To survey man's world with its towns and cities.
Gunfire licks the heavens,
Shells pit the earth.
A sparrow in his bush is scared still.
"This is one hell of a mess!
O I want to flit and fIy away."
"Where, may I ask?"
The sparrow replies,
"To a jewelled palace in elfland's hills.
Don't you know a triple pact was signed
Under the bright autumn moon two years ago?
There'll be plenty to eat,
Potatoes piping hot
With beef thrown in."
"Stop your windy nonsense!
Look you, the world is being turned upside down."
[Photo: Chairman Mao on the Chingkangshan when he revisited the place in 1965.]
- 1976 New Year's Day editorial by "Renmin Ribao," "Hongqi" and "Jiefangjun Bao"
NINETEEN seventy-six has arrived. Today witnesses the publication of two poems written by our great leader Chairman Mao in 1965: "Chingkangshan Revisited - to the tune of Shui Tiao Keh Tou" and "Two Birds: A Dialogue - to the tune of Nien Nu Chiao." Through artistic images which splendidly combine revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism, these two brilliant works describe the excellent situation at home and abroad in which "the world is being turned upside down" and "past scenes are transformed"; they hail the heroism of the revolutionary people who "can clasp the moon in the Ninth Heaven and seize turtles deep down in the Five Seas"; they set forth the historical law that Marxism-Leninism is sure to prevail while revisionism is bound to fail. The publication of these two poems of Chairman Mao's is an event of great political and immediate significance and a great inspiration to the people throughout the country. As we stride into the new year reading Chairman Mao's poems and surveying our vast country and the revolutionary storms around the world, we are full of emotion and pride and are all the more confident of winning new victories.
Look! "Orioles sing, swallows swirl... everywhere." Through the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the movement to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius, the movement to study the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the criticism of the novel Water Margin, our Party is full of vigour, our people are in high spirits, our country is flourishing, and the dictatorship of the proletariat is stronger than ever. New socialist things are blooming in profusion throughout our country. The masses of the people of all nationalities are perseveringly studying Marxism-Leninism- Mao Tsetung Thought; they are deepening their understanding of classes, class struggle and the struggle between the two lines in socialist society and their awareness of the need to restrict bourgeois right and continue the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. The three-in-one combination of the old, the middle-aged and the young has invigorated leading bodies at all levels, and millions of successors to the cause of proletarian revolution are tempering themselves in accordance with the five requirements set by Chairman Mao. The revolution in literature and art exemplified by the model revolutionary theatrical works has resulted in an efflorescence of creative work in socialist literature and art. The revolution in education is advancing in struggle in the direction pointed out by Chairman Mao, and gratifying results have been achieved in the efforts to transform schools into instruments of the dictatorship of the proletariat and bring up workers with both socialist consciousness and culture. The revolution in health work is overcoming the rural shortage of doctors and medicines, barefoot doctors are steadily maturing, and the co-operative medical system has become more consolidated, By entering May 7 cadre schools, going down to do manual labour and studying afresh, large numbers of cadres have increased their awareness of the need to continue the revolution and regained their revolutionary youthfulness. More than ten million school graduates have gone to the vast countryside where they are persevering in the revolution and growing sturdily. The entry of the working class into institutions of higher education, middle and primary schools and other organizations in the superstructure has put an end to the domination of these organizations by bourgeois intellectuals. The formation and growth of theoretical contingents of workers, peasants and soldiers are pushing the socialist revolution forward on the ideological and cultural fronts. The mass movement to learn from Tachai in agriculture is actively progressing. Hundreds of millions of people have been aroused and a million cadres have gone to the agricultural front line. The revolutionary drive to build Tachai-type counties throughout the country is surging ahead. China has had good harvests for 14 years running. The mass movement to learn from Taching in industry is developing in depth, giving fuller play to the revolutionary spirit of independence and self-reliance and increasing industrial production beyond previous levels. Professional scientific and technical personnel are integrating themselves with workers and peasants and doing scientific research in an open-door way, a man-made earth satellite has been recovered, and science has made further progress. The target for gross industrial and agricultural output set in the Fourth Five-Year Plan has been successfully met. In our country prices are stable, the market is brisk, and people's living standards have been rising steadily.
All this is a forceful refutation of the fallacy that "the present is not as good as the past." All this represents a great victory for Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line and for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the movement to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius.
Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Mao, the whole Party, the whole army and the people of all nationalities of the country should in the new year adhere to the Party's basic line, conscientiously study the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, take class struggle as the key link, continue to implement Chairman Mao's important instructions, advance the socialist revolution in all spheres of the superstructure, promote stability land unity, accelerate the development of socialist agriculture. and industry and the entire economy, and strive to further consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Chairman Mao has taught us: "Never forget classes and class struggle."
Recently Chairman Mao has again taught us: "Stability and unity do not mean writing off class struggle; class struggle is the key link and everything else hinges on it."
Taking class struggle as the key link - this has been Chairman Mao's fundamental theory and practice in leading our Party in carrying out the socialist revolution over the past 20 years and more. As Chairman Mao pointed out once again in 1965 when criticizing Liu Shao-chi's revisionist line, "Class contradiction, the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and the struggle between the socialist road and the capitalist road exist throughout the transitional period. We shall go astray if we forget this fundamental theory and practice of our Party over the Iast dozen years or so." Many years of historical experience show that negating or revising the principle of taking class struggle as the key link is bound to lead to mistakes in theory and practice. The struggle between the two lines - to practise Marxism or to practise revisionism - is the reflection within the Party of the struggle between the two classes and between the two roads. The recent farrago on the educational front, representing a right deviationist wind to reverse previous verdicts, is a conspicuous manifestation of the revisionist line that stands against the proletariat on behalf of the bourgeoisie. This shows once again that class struggle is long and tortuous and at times very acute in socialist society. We should remain sober-minded, persevere in our proletarian struggle against the bourgeoisie and never for a moment forget the key link, class struggle. Only when the key link is grasped will everything fall into place. In criticizing the eclectic view that puts politics on a par with economics, Lenin said: "Politics cannot but have precedence over economics. To argue differently means forgetting the ABC of Marxism." What is politics? Lenin said: "Politics means a struggle between classes." If one forgets the key link, class struggle, one will be a blind, half-baked and muddleheaded revolutionary and depart from the socialist orientation.
How to assess the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution - this is a concentrated reflection of the current struggle between the two classes, the two roads and the two lines. Both the Ninth and Tenth Congresses of the Party definitively appraised the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. To approve or negate this great revolution is in essence a struggle between continuing the revolution on the one hand and restoration and retrogression on the other. This struggle will go on for a long time. Our cadres must continue to study the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, carry on criticism of the novel Water Margin, restudy Chairman Mao's instructions on the Great Proletarian Cultural. Revolution, gain a deep understanding of the fact that the principal contradiction in socialist society is the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, a deep understanding of these two classes and the class struggle between them and of the character, target, task and prospects of the socialist revolution, and consciously grasp the Party's basic line and policies for the historical period of socialism. Only thus can one have a correct attitude towards the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the masses and oneself. It is essential to go on criticizing the counter-r evolutionary revisionist line of Liu Sbao-chi and of Lin Piao, capitalist tendencies and the ideology of bourgeois right and to defend and develop the fruits of the victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
A correct attitude towards this revolution calls for a correct attitude towards the new things that have emerged under socialism, New socialist things are the fresh fruits of the triumph of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie. They are the great and vital inventions of hundreds of millions of people. They restrict bourgeois right in all spheres and reflect the trend of historical development - socialism and communism will inevitably replace capitalism. Chairman Mao has said: "New things always have to experience difficulties and setbacks as they grow"; "The masses are the real heroes." Every member of the Communist Party and every revolutionary must fervently support new revolutionary things, It should be noted that new things have to go through a process of development and that they are liable to have certain shortcomings. One should adopt a positive attitude towards them and take measures to perfect them on the basis of fully affirming their achievements. In no way should one behave like a bourgeois lord, peremptorily denounce them and pour cold water on them. Still less should one follow the handful of hostile people who have ulterior motives in their attempts to strangle new things. We should take class struggle as the key link and continue to do a good job in carrying out the revolution in education, in literature and art and in health work, and in conducting struggle-criticism-transformation on all fronts.
"The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is a powerful motive force for the development of the sociaI productive forces in our country." 1976 is the first year of the Fifth Five-Year Plan for the development of our national economy; efforts should be made to fulfil and overfulfil the state plan. It is essential to persist in building our country independently and with the initiative in our own hands, through self-reliance and struggle, diligence and thrift, continue to carry out the principle of "Grasp revolution, promote production and other work and preparedness against war," go all out, aim high and achieve greater, faster, better and more economical results in building socialism, and push the national economy forward. We must continue to deepen the mass movment In agriculture, leam from Tachai and, with the whole Party taking part in a tremendous effort to develop agriculture, strive to build Tachai type counties throughout the country. We must adhere to the Charter of the Anshan Iron and Steel Company, continue to deepen the mass movement In industry, learn from Taching and take our own path of industriaI development. Whether in industry, agriculture or any other field of work, it is necessary to take class struggle as the key link, rely on the masses, conduct investigations and studies, sum up experience and do a good job in grasping typical cases.
Leadership by the Party is the basic guarantee for the victory of our cause. Party committees at all levels must strengthen their leadership, pay close attention to study, educate and train cadres, and conscientiously implement Chairman Mao's revolutionary line and principles and policies. The great debate on the educational front should be conducted under the leadership of Party committees at various levels; no "fighting groups" should be organized. A strict distinction should be made between the two types of contradictions which differ in nature and they should be handled correctly..Major issues of right and wrong in the two-line struggle should be settled through debate so as to achieve clarity in ideology and draw a clear line of demarcation between Marxism and revisionism. With regard to comrades who have made mistakes, we should follow the policy Learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones and cure the sickness to save the patient, basing ourselves on the formula "Unity - criticism and self-criticism - unity." We should continue to pay attention to the three-In-one combination of the old, the middle-aged and the young. Guided by Chairman Mao's revolutionary line, we should unite more than 95 per cent of the masses and cadres, unite with all the forces that can be united with, mobilize all positive factors and do our work in every field still better.
The current international situation is excellent, there is great disorder under heaven. All the basic contradictions in the world are daily sharpening. The factors for both revolution and war are visibly increasing. Phoney "goulash" communism has gone bankrupt. The Marxist-Leninist Parties and organizations in various countries are growing stronger in the struggle against modern revisionism. The countries and people of the third world have been playing their role as themain force in the struggle against imperialism, colonialism and great-power hegemonism. The contention between the two hegemonic powers, the Soviet Union and the United States, is intensifying; strategically Europe is the focus of their contention. Soviet social-imperialism, which is "making a feint to the east while attacking in the west" and most energetically playing the fraudulent game of "detente," is precisely the most dangerous source of war today. We must heighten OUI' vigilance and be prepared against war. We must continue to carry out the strategic principles advanced by Chairman Mao: "Dig tunnels deep, store grain everywhere, and never seek hegemony"; "Be prepared against war, be prepared against natural disasters, and do everything for the people." The People's Liberation Army and the masses of militiamen should carry forward their glorious revolutionary traditions, strengthen preparedness against war, train hard, be strict with themselves and always be ready to wipe out any invading enemy. We are determined to liberate Taiwan Province, our sacred territory.
"Nothing is hard in this world if you dare to scale the heights." Chairman Mao's brilliant verses show the bright and magnificent prospects before us and the tortuous struggle we have to go through on our way forward. They will guide us in breaking through brambles and thorns and in advancing COUrageously along the great road of continuing the revolution. Under the guidance of Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line and the leadership of the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Mao, and with the unity of the whole Party, the whole army and the people of the whole country, we are sure to overcome all difficulties and hazards and win still greater victories in the new year. End item
INTERVIEW WITH REPRESENTATIVE FROM ZIMBABWE AFRICAN NATIONAL UNION
Editor's Note:
In southern Africa, and in Africa as a whole, the people's revolutionary struggles are raging. In Zimbabwe (the country in southern Africa which the imperialists and racists call "Rhodesia"), the armed liberation struggle of the African people (Chimurenga - the war of national liberation) against the white racist minority regime of Ian Smith, which is backed by U.S. and British imperialism, has surged forward strongly in recent months and years, throwing Smith and his imperialist backers into a panic. ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union) and its military arm ZANLA (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army) have liberated a base area as large as the state of Mississippi in the northeast of the country. The racist regime in Zimbabwe is tottering.
To head off its complete collapse, Ian Smith, and his senior partner, John Vorster, the racist ruler of South Africa, have been attempting since October 1974 to suppress and liquidate the Zimbabwe people's armed struggle through the hoax of "detente" between oppressed and oppressor, hoping to force the Zimbabwe people to lay down their guns before victory -- immediate African majority rule -- is won. At the same time the racist regime has intensified its armed suppression of the Zimbabwe people, slaughtering its leaders and masses. These counter-revolutionary dual tactics of fraudulent "detente" combined with bloody suppression are instigated and supported by the two superpowers, U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, along with British imperialism. Each of them deeply fears the creation of a liberated Zimbabwe, not only because it threatens their own profits and aggressive designs, but because it will also provide the Azanian ("South African") liberation fighters with a secure base on the border of South Africa from which to launch people's war against the Vorster regime.
This interview with Comrade Michael Mawema. Organizing Secretary of Zimbabwe African National Union, is reprinted from People's Canada Daily News, January 13, 1976. Comrade Mawema is currently on a fund-raising tour of Canada and has received wide support from broad masses of the Canadian people. Later this month ZANU representatives will speak in a number of American cities. In the interview Comrade Mawema explains the significance of the "detente" talk and the "constitutional conferences" in Zimbabwe and why ZANU rejects these imperialist conspiracies against the Zimbabwe revolution.
Question: Comrade Mawema, to begin with, could you tell us briefly the history of the Zimbabwe people's struggle against colonialism and racism. We think it is important to inform the people here in Canada about the history of the Zimbabwean people's struggle, which has been going on for a long time and is not an new phenomena, as the Western propaganda machine would like us to believe.
Answer: Yes, Comrade. The struggle in Zimbabwe has been going on continuously for nearly a century. Now Zimbabwe was colonized at the end of the nineteenth century and by 1893, the first rebellion, they call it "revolt", was launched by our people against the British colonial settlers. This war of liberation has continued since 1893 to the present. Although the war of liberation has suffered temporary setbacks over the periods, it is indeed not a new struggle, as one woldd probably read in the Western imperialist press as you said. This is indeed an old struggle. The present revolutionary movement is being led by ZANU.and starts from the birth of ZANU, the Zimbabwe AfricanNational Union, in the sixties. ZANU came into being as a continuation, of course, of the struggle that began with the formation of the African National Congress in the 1950's, and then by a National Democratic party in the sixties, by ZAPU in the sixties, and continues on until now under the Zimbabwe African National Union. So, the struggle of the people of Zimbabwe is as old as colonialism is in Zimbabwe.
Question: Couid you briefly describe the origin and development of various organizations preceding the formation of the ANC and why it was that they survived for only a short time and later gave rise to new organizations.
Answer: The colonial government of Rhodesia, which is of course a white racist and fascist minority regime, has employed very destructive political, psychological, sociological and economic measures against the people of Zimbabwe. In order to frustrate the rising opposition against this government, the white minority settlers have continuously banned African Nationalist movements. They have proscribed movements beginning from as early as 1902 when they banned, and deported an Afro-American from the United. States who had come to work in what then had been called Southern Rhodesia. Now we organize ourselves as political movements over a long period culminating, of course, in the formation of the Congress in the early forties: This Congress was led by a number of our best leaders. In 1957 the Bulawayo Branch of the Congress joined together with the Salisbury Youth League to form the Southern Rhodesian African National Congress. This Congress was led by Joshua Nkomo. I was one of the founding members of the African National Congress. The African Congrest was a conciliationist and reformist movement. It arose in the circumstances where the psychology of the time was one where the Africans were to plead with their oppressor for understanding and sympathy. The idea here was to tell the white man that it was wrong for him to oppress Africans, it was wrong to discriminate against the Africans, it was wrong to segregate against Africans etc. So the African National Congress had a reformist type of politics in which it always met local officials, government officials, and presented memoranda against restriction here and there. The African National Congress then developed from being an urban type of organization to a mass organization. It found itself seeking reforms not only in the urban areas but in the rural areas. This created resistance amongst the rural population against the racist settlers and in 1959 the Rhodesian government banned the African National Congress. After this measure was declared all the national leaders of the African National Congress, provincial leaders, district and branch officials were arrested and detained. This became the first emergency in the history of the politics of African resistence declared by the Rhodesian government. But, as I said, the ANC was a reformist. movement. It was very accommodationist. It sought understanding. On January 1, 1960, I founded the National Democratic Party. I was its founding president. It was in 1960 that the whole pendulum of African politics was changed. I changed the reformist politics of the ANC to one of political action. A politics for demanding self-determination. a politics based on the democratic principle of one-man,one vote, a politics no longer pleading with the white man to be understood or to be appreciated, no longer demanding the removal of segregation against the African people of Zimbabwe. Rather we demanded political power. It was the first time in the political development of the African people that we came out to demand for political power and the general terminology used was always to have a full life in the politics of our country. I led the first delegation to negotiate with the British government for a constitutional conference over the problems of Rhodesia. It was under my leadership that we adopted the. name Zimbabwe as the national name of our country against the colonial and racist name Southern Rhodesia. It was under my leadership that for the first time the people of Zimbabwe came out resisting and protesting against my arrest in July 1960, that they led the first violent demonstrations against the Rhodesian government. It was also the first time since the revolt of 1893 that the Rhodesian government shot cold-bloodedly African people who were demonstrating against this government. It was also the first time that the white settler felt that his power was now being threatened. He was confronted by the people who did not seek to be "understood", to be "heard" and to be "appreciated". He was confronted by people who were fighting for their birthright and this birthright was demanded in terms of political power.
This political power was demanded in terms of establishing a democratic and socialist state, in other words the NDP was totally against capitalist exploitation and colonialism. The NDP therefore grew from a small party despite oppressive laws and intimidations, after the ban of the ANC, to the best ever organized political party. It struck unity amongst the rural population, amongst the religious population, amongst the trade unionists because the proper leadership was from the trade unions. Including me too, I come from the trade unions. So the NDP put together the elements that suffered. experienced economic oppression both in the urban and rural areas and hence there was a spontaneous reaction against my arrest by the whole country and for the first time the white industries were burned, destroyed and, that process developed into the armed struggle now. But the NDP was later to be banned and from its ashes, the Zimbabwe African Peoples' Union was formed which is ZAPU. The ZAPU was formed under the leadership of Joshua Nkomo who had taken over leadership from me at the end of 1960. ZAPU also continued with the politics that the NDP had developed, the conscious politics of fighting against the white minority racist regime. Zapu also came into a situation where the NDP had rejected a settlement, a constitutional settlement which had been brought about by the colIaborationist and accommodationist Joshua Nkomo by accepting the very treacherous constitutional arrangement of 1961. When ZAPU emerged and adopted the resistance structures that had come from the NDP in our time, it too was banned like the NDP. Something happened when the NDP was banned and something happened also when ZAPU waf banned. This process of banning the parties and detention of its leaders and a total expropriation of all party properties has been a continuous system practised by the white racist minority and fascist regime of Southern Rhodesia. ZAPU having been banned, its ieadership was detained and, like always, Joshua Nkomo was never arrested. He was outside Zimbabwe when ANC was banned in 1959, and when the NDP was banned. He was away again when ZAPU was banned. He always had information from the Rhodesian governement. ZAPU developed a new type of politics. It was advised by Joshua Nkomo that they could set a government in exile and then operate from outside. And ZAPU set a government in exile in Tanzania. And this type of government, exile politics, did not work. There was no coordinated action between the people in political detention in the country and the people within the country as well. There was a total disarray of the whole political system. Here is the root cause of the division in ZAPU. There were elements in ZAPU who felt they were committed to the policy as set by the NDP of confrontation with the enemy on the soil of Zimbabwe. Hence those who took the decision to take up arms against the Rhodesian government broke away from ZAPU and formed the Zimbabwe African National Union. ZANU was formed in August, 1963 under the leadership of Comrade Ndabaningi Sithole with the late Comrade Theopold Takawira as Vice-President. At that time, I had just left prison and was there at the formation of ZANU and later became the International Organizing Secretary. ZANU operated for a period of about a year. Joshua Nkomo also returned to Rhodesia and formed a People's Caretaker Council against ZANU. These two parties existed and they were banned by the Rhodesian governement in August 1964. With the ban of the PCC and ZANU, the government repeated the same system of arresting and detaining the total national, central, provincial and district and branch leadership. This one was a more thorough arrest than previous ones, because here we had tens of thousands of people arrested and detained. This has been the process of development of political parties. A number of political parties have been emerging and the reason for this is that evey time the Rhodesian government felt its power being threatened, it banned the political movement and arrested the leaders. But the good thing about it is that the consciousness never died. I personally have been instrumental in the birth of almost every party after the ban of the other. And so, the next protest party which came into being from the ashes ot the PCC and ZAPU came the African Nationa lCouncil" which was formed in 1971. The African National Council came about as a protest movement, as a politicizing movement, against a political agreement which had been reached between Ian Smith and the British government. Their sellout political structure had been developed and we found that we had to activate resistance to the political sellout. And hence the birth of the ANC which I was also the founding member of the ANC and its national organizing secretary. I led the people and organized the people to resist what was then called the Pierce Commission. And so the ANC is presently the party that operates in Zimbabwe, the protest and politicizing movement that is used today by ZANU for politicizing its masses in the country.
Question: Could you tell us about the development of armed struggle as it has been led by ZANU, and also its development after the "detente" exercise by Smith and Co., which is aimed at Iiquidating armed struggle and its effect on the general-situation there.
Answer: ZANU arises from the indecision, from the accommodationist and reconciliation politics of ZAPU which it has associated itself with in the politics of exile. The birth of ZANU introduced terms like 'confrontation' which have continued up to this day. Before ZANU was banned we had taken a decision of terrorizing the racist settlers and here we had, I think, what was the beginning of what we can call the urban guerrilla warfare. Areas then were set up in 1963, it started the destruction of factories, stores, burning of farms, terrorizing the white racist settlers. After ZANU was banned, we took a decision in detention to launch the armed struggle, in other words, it was a development from the terrorising method that had been adopted. The idea here was to create psychological warfare in the minds of the white settlers and subject them to our position where they would be ready to discuss. I must admit that by early 1963-64, ZANU was also interested in a constitutional conference if it was to come about.. But that had failed, and by the decision of the Central Committee in prison we commissioned certain members of the Central Committee who were not in political detention, who were outside' Zimbabwe. We commissioned them at this time to set up a military structure. So the resolution of the Central Committee empowered Comrade Chitepo who was Party Chairman to lead the armed struggle. So we who were in detention took upon ourselves the responsibility to mobilise the young men and women in our country to cross the boundaries of Southern Rhodesia into the neighbouring countries and to walk into the training camps in Tanzania. Of' course, I must say that the early stages of this recruitment program was not an easy experience. Having gone through almost a century of psychological bombardment by the white racist settler against violence and who made a law against armed revolution, we also had to go through a process of mentally decolonizing our people to be ready to accept the inevitable consequences of their resistance against the white racist minority regime. And this system of politicization took us a lot of time and it also cost us a lot of manpower because then we sent men to operate in areas where the other way to operate, or other men to operate with, other than these, and this we did and finally succeeded. We succeeded, so much so that in 1966, ZANU was able to launch the first conscious armed struggle ever with the Sinoia Battle. This was the first major battle fought within a hundred miles of the capital of Salisbury and this battle laid the foundations of armed confrontation. Since then ZANU had been on the march, it has been able to be on the offensive so much that it has dug into the enemy's psychological mind, it has dug into the enemy's economic structure and the entire political structure.
Question: Recently, for the past 12 months or so, there has been a lot of talk about "detente" and "constitutional conferences" etc. Could you tell us about the effects that these things have had on the situation in Zimbabwe, ZANU and the armed struggle.
Answer: During the first four years of armed struggle, 1966-1970, ZANU was operating under heavy pressures. This was because we operated from areas far away from the enemy territory. Our armies were trained in Tanzania and they had to walk long distances through Zambia, and there was only one open front and that was to cross the Zambezi River. After the New Year battle of 1966, the Southern Rhodesian armed forces were consolidated by South African forces which came on the Rhodesian soil and they have been on Rhodesian soil ever since that date. Despite this unholy alliance. between the' reactionary forces of South African and those of Portugal and Rhodesia, ZANU forces have been able to win decisive victories. They confronted the armies of both South Africa and Rhodesia and were able to show 'that the Rhodesian and South African forces together were not as invincible as their supporters had made the African world believe. ZANU forces showed that both the Rhodesian and South African forces were paper tigers. ZANU was able to destroy the combined armed forces of Rhodesia and South Africa in spite of their sophisticated arms and equipment. After the failure of the Pierce Commission in 1972, we had worked hard at politicizing the masses, we had worked hard to inject the spirit of armed revolution in our people. From 1972 onwards, hundreds upon hundreds of young men and women crossed the border to join the ZANU training camps and by the end of 1972, ZANU was able to feel that they were the largest and the best of its guerrillas. The years between 1972 and 1974, saw increasing successes by ZANU, both through the front which had been considered to be fortified by the Rhodesian and South African forces, our armies were able to penetrate. We also had the advantage of sharing the assistance of the people of Mozambique. Working together with FRELIMO gave us the opportunity to get into certain areas of Zimbabwe which the Rhodesian forces together with the South African forces found hard to protect. Early in 1974 ZANU had fielded large armies, had liberated large parts of Zimbabwe, the north-eastern part. Presently ZANU controls an area equal to the state of Mississippi. It was this fighting ability, continual movement, and victories that were achieved by ZANU which created chaos amongst the white racist settler minorities. For the first time, the farmers ran away from their farms, for the first time, the Smith propaganda machine did not have any effect in the rural areas, particularly in the areas where the ZANU armies had taken over. For the first time in Rhodesia, Smith was confronted by white refugees or his own people who were running away from the rural areas of Zimbabwe. This created a very vital area particularly in that ZANU was able to show the African people that the settlers claim of invincibility was not true. He was as vulnerable to attack and defeat as all other imperialists and colonialist forces which have been wiped out all the over the world. It was this growth and pressure of ZANU on the Rhodesian government that forced them to resort to the most destructive, inhumane activities in the countryside of Zimbabwe. They went about poisoning the running water of the country, they killed animals; they spoiled; in actual fact, poisoned the water in the rural to kill men and antmals because they supported ZANU guerrillas. When they found that thelr terrorising of the population was not as useful to them as they thought it would be, Rhodesia was advised to adopt the methods used by the Americans in Viet Nam to create concentration camps, which in Rhodesia are called "protected villages". The Rhodesian.government had found that not only were the guerrillas fighting against it, but even the local populace were rising against it: So they adopted measures of expropriating people's property, arresting and intimidating people, assassinating leaders, executing people in prisons and total confiscation and removal of peasants from their land, When we speak of people in concentration camps, in Zimbabwe, we are speaking of the landless, propertyless people whose property has been confiscated by the Rhodesian government because, they say, they are collaborating with the freedom fighters of ZANU. In response to this progress and development in 1974, the capitalist and imperialist world saw that something had to be done in order to rescue and to protect their interests. Hence they collaborated, colluded that they would recognize for the first time that ZANU is a fighting might force. Thev would seek constitutional discussion with ZANU, but in order to do so, some of their lackeys suggest that it would be good to also release such people as Joshua Nkomo and others who had been in restriction. They were released and it is this new thinking which has been called the South African "detente" which has been a machination of the collusion of the reactionary forces in Southern Africa together with British and American imperialism. Detente brought about problems for ZANU, in that when the collaborationists and revisionists were released from detention, they were given maximum publicity and maximum support by their masters in order to operate. The Smith regime required that ZANU should stop fighting, but ZANU did not submit to that. It was required that there should be a united front of the people of Zimbabwe. ZANU did not object to a united front of the people of Zimbabwe, but what ZANU did object to was the tampering with or watering-down of their policy of chimurenga, their policy of armed confrontation with the white minority settler forces of Rhodesia. So this policy having been the one that all the imperialist and colonialist forces were working against had to be tampered with, one way or the other. The only way they were able to destroy ZANU. In order to do so, they assassinated the man who was leading the ZANU Military High Command, the late Herbert Chitepo and the Zambian government found itself arresting and detaining more than one hundred and fifty of the ZANU army leadership and entire military high command including the ZANU Central Committee members, and these people are still languishing incarcerated in the Nambian prisons. So what amounts today to be a constitutional discussion going on in Rhodesia is in actual fact the result of imperialist conspiracies that have been directed against ZANU. Joshua Nkomo is now negotiating with the Ian Smith government. I think the world has seen how much not only Rhodesia with South Africa's support, but also even the social-imperialist Russia and the Americans, everybody has made Joshua Nkomo a hero, a 'reasonable' man, who can talk sense into the white man and the black man, a man who can squeeze "majority rule" from Ian Smith. But as far as ZANU is concerned, it indeed does not object to negotiation, because it did participate in some negotiations, but ZANU has taken up a decision and is committed to the liberation of Zimbabwe by armed struggle and this it has been able to demonstrate as the only way, the most correct way. Only by armed struggle can ZANU set up an independent state 'based on its own principles, on its own structure, not determined by the white colonial forces of Southern Africa, not even consulting with the international "socialism" which is destructive of our ambition. So therefore at the moment,ZANU is committed to fighting. ZANU rejects unequivocally Nkomo's discussions with Ian Smith. It rejects the entire theory that in 1975 after almost twenty years of negotiations, Ian Smith continues to say publicly everyday that he is not willing to give majority rule to Nkomo, that he can spend his time hobnobbing it with colonial and imperialist masters of these people. ZANU is not going to waste its time on this, ZANU is committed in the direction to which it has promised the people of Zimbabwe, and enjoys support for that policy because now ZANU commands the total support of the entire youth of Zimbabwe. ZANU's military camps are overflowing with guerrillas.
Question: It is clear that the imperialists and social-imperialists and South African racists are quite interested in liquidating the Zimbabwe revolution. Now could you tell us about the importance of the Zimbabwe revolution and its effect on Southern Africa as a whole.
Answer: Clearly John Vorster, the Prime Minister of South Africa would not like to see the black independent socialist state of. Zimbabwe. What South Africa would like to see is a disturbed situation in Southern Rhodesia. They would like to maintain the whole structure there under the pretext of being good brothers who would like to have good relations with their neighbours. This hypocritical type of intention can be seen by the present interference of South Africa in the Angolan situation. This is exactly what they have been doing on Rhodesian soil. So I think it fools no African, particularly no Zimbabwean, who has fought against the South African forces, no one can be deceived by the South African hypocritical intentions. The Zimbabwean revolution is important to the liberation of South Africa in that we are almost the center of Southern Africa. We are next nearest country to South Africa and hence our liberation creates unprecedented instability in South Africa. This is because once we are able to determine our political destiny and establish our democratic government, then, and only then can the Azanian forces be able to attack the racist government of South Africa effectively. Otherwise the South African forces under the PAC have no way of getting to South Africa to fight. They are grouped in Tanzania which is close to 3,000 miles away and so the defeat of the imperialists and the colonialists in Zimbabwe spells doom for South Africa. Another point is that the total independence of Africa, I think, is geared in the south. Perhaps you know that almost 82% of all Africa's wealth is south of the equator and hence NATO, for example, finds itself supporting the South African racists. What is important aboutthe Zimbabwean revolution is that once Zimbabwe becomes independent, then I think that it can be said that the greater part of Africa may be independent. Zimbabwe is, I think, the harbour of the wealth of mother Africa. It has vast mineral wealth and hence we think our independence can assist the economic development of our neighbouring countries, particularly Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana who have as a matter of tradition developed together with Zimbabwe. It would give, I think, the greatest psychological benefit to the people of Azania that armed struggle is not a myth but a reality and that they too can defeat the white South Africans as the people of Zimbabwe have done.
Question: Could you comment further on the position of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism with regard to the Zimbabwe people's struggle.
Answer: Yes. U.S. imperialism has not supported the resolution of the United Nations to apply sanctions against Southern Rhodesia. The U.S. has passed a law to violate sanctions, to economically support any illegal regime of Southern Rhodesia. Presently there are more than five hundred white U.S. north Viet Nam veterans fighting with the Rhodesian army. The U.S. supplies almost every thing that it provided to its allies in Viet Nam to the Rhodesian forces. It is the U.S. multinational corporattons which continue to block publication and propaganda of the people's revolution in Zimbabwe. It is the U.S. that maintains, runs, directs, and controls the total economy of South Africa, which has been the guarantee of our exploitation. Hence as far as the people of Zimbabwe are concerned, the U.S. is indeed an enemy.
Russian imperialism is seen by its consistent support for Joshua Nkomo, who is today the running dog of the Russians and of U.S. imperialism. He is an eager brainchild of the Soutti Aftican and Rhodesian political draftsmen. We have been informed, and I think it has been authenticated, that it is the Russians who have continuously financed ZAPU, that they have told Nkomo to split from the umbrella organisation ANC. After he split from the ANC, the Russians gave him more than $50,000 to support him in his bid for recognition by the Ian Smith and South African governments. So tar as the people of Zimbabwe are concerned, the continuing support by the Russians of ZAPU and Nkomo, is an act of aggression to the people of Zimbabwe, partlcularly to the armed forces of ZANU.
Question: Could you comment on the present situation of your organization, ZANU, and what is the situation of armed struggle at this time and also on the political and economic program of ZANU after liberation.
Answer: At the present time ZANU is enjoying maxium support. For the first time the ZANU training camps are overflowing with young men and women who have committed themselves to the armed revolution. ZANU has maximum support in the country. This has been demonstrated every time ZANU has called for action within the country. Its process, its progr,amme of training continues very effectively. ZANU has enjoyed the support of both the Tanzanian and Mozambique governments. At present, our training camps are under the direction of the Party Secretary General. This time of the year ZANU is going to launch the greatest of its offensives on the Rhodesian forces, particularly in that we have to set up such a pre-emptive action before the sellout agreement is announced between Joshua Nkomo, Ian Smith and the British government. It is true that ZANU has suffered from great setbacks particulerly in the arrest of its able leadership which languishing in the Zambian prisons. But ZANU has come back to restructure itself, to redefine; to re-establish and to reset itself on the course to armed oonfrontation. For the first time ZANU has the largest force; we have the force that we believe the Rhodesian forces can never stand. Given the support which we believe the people of Canada and the people of the world will give us, and given the means to train and to put our people in readiness, we are ready to give what will be the hardest blow, if not the final blow to the white racist minority regime of Ian Smith. As far as our programme is concerned, we are going to continue our policy of politlcization of the masses making them ready firstly, to receive and co-operate with our guerrillas as they come into the country which they have been doing very effectively. Secondly, we are making our youth ready to submit itself to the discipline of the party, coming in to train and work with us. This ZANU has continued to enjoy. It is intended in the near future to launch massive resistence programmes within the country in order to support the guerrilla activity both in the urban and the rural areas.
Now as far as ZANU's government of the future is concerned, ZANU is very clear, it has committed itself both in prindple and in action to the establishment of a socialist state. We mince no words as far as our commitment is conerned. We are all out against social-imperialism and against any forms of capitalism. We would not be party to anything that has been or may continue to be a means or source of exploitation of the people of. Zimbabwe. We will rid Zimbabwe of the total capitalist structure. This the people of Zimbabwe have accepted when they adopted the party'policy of ZANU in 1964. It was made clear that ZANU is not concerned very much in dealing with the issues of segregation or discrimination etc. We are fighting to establish majority rule now and on that policy our people are committed and they will stand by it. We will fight and will win. The time factor is hard for me to say, but it is no exaggeration to say the distance of success is nearer than the distance we have come in the past.
Question: What, in your mind, would be the effect of the present "constitutional talks", which are going on between Nkomo and Smith, if they come out with some sort of deal, say giving a position to Nkomo in the Government?
Answer: This treacherous sellout conspiratorial agreement will have very disastrous effects particularly on the body politic of Zimbabwe in that it will firstly create an atmosphere of doubt and an division amongst the weak elements that have always been floating. The liberals that have one time chased with the hounds and run with the hares will find an opportunity in which they will say 'here is an opportunity where majority rule may come and hence it will be good to support a programme that is not violent'. It will probably divide the OAU - which is already divided by the machinations of South Africa and Zambia and some French-speaking countries that have gone all out to support South Africa's actions. If the OAU is divided then ZANU will experience some problems. One of the problems is that ZANU will have its total support withdrawn from the OAU. Because once the OAU divided then the OAU support to the Zimbabwe armed struggle will be divided. Secondly, ZANU will have to face and surmount a very high degree of false propaganda in the world because whatever Nkomo and Smith will agree, the Western press and other media will herald this. It will be such a great thing for them because then they will be able to sponsor and support the new-icolonialist plans through Nkomo. The division of tile OAU will, probably, help Nkomo in that, probably, some of our supporters who are not quite clear about what is going on in Rhodesia may go through a process of doubt about the effectiveness of armed struggle and against the racist white mirtority. We are, of course, aware that certain countries will go along with ZANU, but ZANU is also aware that its areas of operation probably may be tampered with; so governments that support us now may not be as ready and willing to support armed confrontation. If there is a programme that will bring out some form of political struggle. What we do know is that Nkomo is not going to bring about majority rule and that ZANU is committed to the programme of majority rule now. So since they are going to produce a transitional constitution, we hope that the effects of the success of this constitutional arrangement will not be as destructive on the one hand as probably we may think, because once they do not produce majority rule, then our armies will have no reason to be divided. The loyality probably of the people of Zimbabwe will not be tampered with, their support of the armed struggle will not be dented, since to this day they are committed to the principle of majoity rule now. But it is true that the various lackeys will do everything to destroy, to tamper with the armed structure of ZANU and probably will even try to weaken the international support that we have been given by trying to drive 'reasonableness' amongst our people and our supporters. So that is the unwelcome effect of this agreement, but then the welcome effect of this agreement is that there has been a definition, a clarification of who is the enemy of the people of Zimbabwe. Going into this negotiation has clarified one thing, that is, the divisionists and,the collaborationists who had always hidden under the shelter of being African nationalists. They have come out as collaborators, accommodationists and conciliationists, so that now the armies of national liberation have no problems, the enemy has been defined. And hence this gives us now a greater strength to attack because nobody shall accuse us of failing to discriminate between our supporters and our enemies. ZANU is not fighting a racial war. It is fighting a war against racism, exploitation and discrimination. So those who have connived and collaborated against the people of Zimbabwe, ZANU will destroy them resolutely, regardless of their colour.
Question: The current situation in Angola is a reflection of the policies of Soviet social-imperialism, that is of splitting Africa by having Africans fighting Africans. With the whole question of 'detente' and of the role of Nkomo, it is quite clear that the plans for Rhodesia are the same - to divide the African people by having them fight one another. In your view, how is this imperialist policy on the international front going to affect the situation in Southern Rhodesia, and how are the nationalists in Zimbabwe going to prevent the same thing from happening in their struggle?
Answer: It is a sad thing that Africa should be going through the process of colonization by the end of the 1970's, that Africa is being recolonized by new systems of colonization, some of which are militaristic and some which are economic. The people of Zimbabwe view the Angola situation with great disgust, in that the people of Angola seem to be losing their independence before they can enjoy it. Moscow is interested in what is going on, so is Washington. The OAU's decisions seem always to have been flouted on the Angola situation. This the people of Zimbabwe view with regret. But, I hope that what is happening in Angola should serve as an example of wbat Zimbabwe must not go through. I hope that the Zimbabwe situation will be different fromAngola in that in the first place, the three political parties in Angola all have a very viable armed structure. The MPLA has an army, UNITA has an army, FNLA has an army. Zimbabwe presently has a sitwation in which the ANC has no army of its own, FROLIZI has no army of its own, ZAPU has a token army, but ZANU has an army. So that alone changes the Angola situation in relation to Zimbabwe. Whereas in Angola you have three armies fighting against each other, but in Zimbabwe you have only the ZANU army controlling the armed front. We also hope that by the time the Zimbabwe situation comes to the level of establishing a government, that the OAU will have gone back to understand redefine its responsibility to Africa. I am a strong believer of Nkrumahism in terms of the establishment of the African Military High Command. I believe that if Africa had established an African Military High Command it would have the ability to save Africa from international intervention. It would have the ability to create peace and stability within the confines of the OAU. And it is my prayer that the OAU in its meeting in January shall definitely consider the establishment of an African Military High Command and never to depend on the divisive forces of the United Nations. I cannot see the Angola situation being solved by submitting it to the United Nations, because the superpowers control the United Nations in one way or another and it is the superpowers that have destroyed the independence of the people of Angola and therefore my hope lies in the African nations being able to take openly their responsibility to guard, direct and protect the borders of Africa and settle the disputes within Africa. I hope that by the time we take over in Zimbabwe, the colonialist and imperialist forces will not have mushroomed new armies that will fight against the ZANU army, which I call, the ZANU people's army. If that situation arises, I think we may be able to contain it, but as I say, presently Zimbabwe has an advantage in that there is one army fighting for national liberation and hence we may be able to avoid the Angola situation. But it is my earnest desire that Africa must be able to take on its shoulders, its political, economic and social responsibility to guide Africa and the new developing countries and particularly us who are getting our independence when the world is being tossed about by the superpowers.
Question: Comrade Mawema, there is a fundraising programme that is going to be launched here in Canada. Could you tell us about the importance of the support of the Canadian people for the Zimbabwean revolution and the contribution that the Canadian people can make on this front.
Answer: The people of Zimbabwe will start by being grateful to the democratic people of Canada and those who are conscious of the socialist principle upon which our international solidarity is established. The people of Zimbabwe have received support before and it is this awareness, this conscious awareness of the help that we are now engaged in a programme to raise first the political consciousness of the problems facing the people of Zimbabwe. We believe that it is only after knowing what we are going through and why we are going through it, that the people of Canada can help us. So my mission here shall be to give that information, that service as will be able to create a consciousness of the reality of the situtation, the graveness of the effect of collusion by imperialist and colonial forces on the people of Rhodesia. We would like the people of Canada to give to us moral support. It is this spirit of proletarian internationalism, particularly for the socialists that gives us courage whilst our young men and women are fighting in the countryside; they will know they have friends and comrades that will stand and have stood by them. Indeed, the success of the battle does not depend on moral support.alone. It depends on material support also, but material support alone is not enough. It will depend on the willingness of the people of Zimbabwe to commit themselves to action. Indeed the people of Zimbabwe have demonstrated their ability to commit themselves to action and to action that will succeed. So presently, we are seeking for material support, financial and otherwise. We would not have probably succeeded as much as we have done if our comrades in Canada had not given us assistance. We need of course such things as funds, medicines, and clothing. We will also try to publish a small article discussing the various needs of ZANU and how we would like the people of Canada to assist us. ZANU is grateful to the people of Canada for what they have done, particularly in showing their deep desire and understanding of the problems of the people of Zimbabwe. End item.
[Photo: Comrade Mawema]
[Map: Map of southern Africa showing the locations of Zimbabwe and Angola.]
[Zimbabwe guerilla at drill]
[Photo: Zimbabwe guerrillas study the works of Chairman Mao Tsetung]
The internationalization of the war and UNITA's open strategy of its cessation
-By UNITA Information-Office, London, W.1. (partial text only)
UNITA realizes that the longer the fighting goes on in Angola, the greater the dangers of further international involvement in it. Already Russia, Cuba, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and other East European countries on the one hand-and 'South Africa on the other-have actual physical presence in Angola. We also know that, if the Soviet Union continues its established path of continued imperialist intervention, the physical presence of other foreigners is a virtual certainty - not because UNITA invites it, but because superpower politics will make it inevitable. Therefore, UNITA realizes that it is an urgent necessity that the mass destruction of Angolan people on the Angolan terrain be halted as quickly as possible-consistent with UNITA's determination to win the total independence of Angola from foreign rule.
It is with this goal in mind that UNIT A continues its just siruggle and is pressing for enough military victories to force Soviet dominated MPLA to the bargaining table in recogriition that no one group alone can militarily dominate our country,. which geopolitically is controlled by three forces-UNITA, MPLA and FNLA, There must be this recognition on all sides of the Angolan reality-that each of these movements, like it or not, controls certain areas of the country where the majority population at this point in our history will only accept a government in which the people feel that they have some representation. To ignore this is to deny the geopolitical realities of Angola and to predict the future of Angola on hopeless lies and dangerous myths which will keep our country in turmoil for generations to corne.
If no one group can control the whole of our country without resorting to military force to kill, maim and otherwise subdue the Angolan people in the regions where its political support is non-existent, how then can Angola now realistically be governed and unified?
UNITA, from the time it succeeded in bringing the three movements together to build a platform from which it could negotiate with the Portuguese for the transfer of power, has tried to devise a formula that recognizes the Angolan political realities. In this spirit it has sought and diligently worked for an interim arrangement that would allow the total Angolan population to be represented through a coalition-type government, which would include equal or proportional representation from the three liberation movements.. At a mutually agreed upon point in time, elections could be held, again giving proportional representation to the three Angolan parties.
At the same time, however, UNITA is realistic enough to realize that no country- at any time in history-has ever been run effectively in that fashion. We know that from such a coalition a dominant party will eventually emerge to lead the people down the long road of freedom, revolution and reconstruction. UNITA believes that, during the period of peaceful transition, all three parties should patriotically collaborate on national programmes and projects to help unify the country by involving all of its people from all of the regions in mutual efforts designed to demonstrate the need and purpose of a national consciousness and national unity.
Angola's history of ethnic, regional and political division - a legacy of five centuries of Portuguese colonialism, demands such an approach. UNITA recognizes the continuing need to heighten the national conciousness of the people as ANGOLANS - not Bankongo, Chokwe, Kimbundu, Ovimbundu or Kwanyama: not mestilo. Assimilado or indiginene: not Protestant, Catholic or animist - but as ANGOLANS first and formost. To fail to recognize this need for the building of a national conciousness among all of our people is to fail in a great part of our historic mission to lead our people in the struggle for liberation, independence and progress. This is a goal ferverently to be desired, but one which cannot be imposed upon our people. Angolans did not suffer the terrible centuries of colonialism and the horrors of the most recent 15 years of continued colonial war to be subjected again to the iron-fist rule of people who do not truly represent them. Angolans will never again submit to the domination of people they see as enemies. whether they be domestic or foreign. Neither UNITA, nor FNLA, nor MPLA, nor the powerful Soviet Union itself can defeat the will of the Angolan people to be free. All forces must come to recognize. as UNITA always has, the limits of military force and work for a political solution to Angola's crisis.
This conviction is the guiding force behind UNITA's current determination to match MPLA's Russian-exported military strength as represented by the hundreds of tons of sophisticated armaments, tanks, missiles and MIGs that the Soviet Union has brought or sent to Angola since the time of the formation of the transitional government last January. (UNITA estimates that Russia and its client states and allies have already delivered enough arms and weaponry to wipe out every Angolan town and village, destroy each of Angola's few schools and hospitals, kill every Angolan man, woman and child 20 times over - and still the Soviet weapons pour in. They come by shipload and planeload day after day, week after week, into the ports of Luanda. Congo-BrazzaVille, Guinea-Conakry and Dar-es-Salaam, where they are expeditiously put in the hands of MPLA and its 3,000 Lumumba-killing Katangese mercenaries. 3-4,000 Cuban, 1500 Mozambican war veterans, 400 Russian "advisers" and East German and other East European and other ill-assorted, misguided, adventurous counter-revolutionary forces from other parts of the world. (Here it would be fitting to point out that of the 3-4,000 Cubans dutifully dispatched by Castro at the Soviet's behest, most are Black Cuban infantry-men, who, in the prevailing racist class structure in Cuba, are usually led by white Cuban officers and technicians. Is Castro sending our Black brothers to Angola to defend the revolution of the Angolan people, or is he, while following the Soviet imperialist line, also opportunistically ridding himself of part of his worrisome "race problem" in the so-called "classless" state of Cuba? Is it an accident that it is the Black Cubans who are doing most of the fighting and dying on Russia's behalf in Angola, while the White officers, advisers and technicians live to fight another day?
Background of the Current War
Prior to the January 1975 Alvor agreement with Portugal, in which conditions were hammered out for the establishment of a transitional Angolan government prior to independence then set for November 11th,1975, UNITA had worked increasingly to bring the three movements together to build a common platform from which we could together negotiate with Portugal for the orderly transfer of power.
By early March, 1975, the mutual distrust and antagonism between MPLA and FNLA had begun to manifest itself in armed confrontations in the streets of Luanda, marking the beginning of the wanton killing of 20,000 Angolans who have died since that time - most of whom have been innocent civilian victims. Meanwhile, MPLA had begun to secretly stockpile weapons for the armed struggle for power that it was determined to win. Then, as now. UNITA did not believe that a military solution was the answer to Angola's historical. Geo-political, ethnic and ideological divisions. During this time (early March, late July) UNITA patriotically and repeatedly tried to mediate between the other two movements at Kakura. During this same period, UNITA continued to prepare for the previously agreed upon October elections by going throughout the country further organizing peasants and workers. while emphasizing UNITA's programmes for national unity, socialist development and national reconstruction. Incidentally, UNITA, unlike MPLA, has since its inception talked with the people in their traditional languages about the need for national unity, the need for socialist development, the need for the struggle against colpnialism, as well as the dangers of both right and left neo-colonlalism and imperialism. We have continued to do so. speaking the languages of the people, using terms, references, analogies and comparisons and examples that are a part of their own experiences of foreign oppression and exploitation. Therefore, UNITA's socialist principles and anti- imperialist stance is readily comprehended and accepted by the people because they can see how their own everyday lives are affected' by these concepts and practices. During the process of waging this political education campaign, UNITA already enjoying nearly a 60 per cent majority support of the Angolan people, began to get more and more popular support in places other than our traditional southern areas. which had been liberated during the guerrilla warfare against the Portuguese. As an example of this kind of popularity UNITA …
***
Finally, MPLA's war acts against UNITA reached their climax in the August 5th firing upon President Savimbi's plane in the southern city of Silva Porto. UNITA could then no longer delude itself with the wishful thought that it would be possible to have a peaceful settlement between the three Angolan liberation movements. We took the shooting upon our President's plane as the sign that UNITA must, however regretfully, declare war on MPLA and enter the fighting. To do less would have been a betrayal of the masses of Angolans who see UNITA's revolutionary principles and deeds as the hope of justice, peace and progress in our country.
UNITA's Military Position Immediately Following Its Entry into the Civil War
Because UNITA had lived and worked among the people and fought the Portuguese from bases inside the country, with no external support or propaganda apparatus, it had never received any significant support from the outside world. Instead it had always rightly practised a Policy of independence and self-reliance; that is relying only on the support of the Angolan people in our guerrilla war against Portugal. Therefore, at the time of our entry into the current fighting in Angola, we did not have a ready source of arms. UNITA had no superpower connections. Thus UNITA, while politically strong, was very weak militarily, having begun only recently to receive modest supplies of weapons from African countries who had begun to recognize UNITA as the Pan Africanist hope for Angola. But, since no African country manufactures weapons, these friendly African states could only share with UNITA the weapons they had secured from the major powers through a variety of trade and aid relationships. By this means, UNITA indirectly received weapons made in Russia, China, the United States, France and other weapon-manufacturing countries. With these modest supplies, coupled with the critical and active support of the Angolan population, principally in the south and centre, UNITA began a counter offensive against MPLA-Soviet Union with their tons of tanks, bombs. bazookas and other heavy and ultra-sophisticated weaponry from the Soviets and their lackey states and clients. But, not only had the Soviet bloc sent all these thousands of tons of weapons, but it also began to pour in "advisers and technicians" of all descriptions - Russian, East German, Czechoslovakian and Cuban mercenaries.
Finally, the Soviet-supported state of Cuba, there-to-for always regarded by the world as a friend and supporter of the socialist aspirations of the world's peoples, allowed itself to be used and/or bullied and coerced by Russia into supplying 3-4000 Cuban infantrymen to fight against the very Angolan people who comprise the huge peasantry and much of the smaller proletariat in our country. Furthermore, these 3-4000 Cuban infantrymen are mostly BLACKS, led by mostly white officers!
Tanzania's Vacillation and Hypocrisy and the Effect It has Had on the Course of the Angolan Civil War
Clearly the conditions outlined have demanded that UNITA begin to quickly seek additional armaments to meet the Soviet threat. Tanks cannot be destroyed by rifles. Carbines will not deflect missiles. And armour plates are no shields for bazookas. Heavier armaments needed to be found.
If UNITA was not to take the reactionary position of meekly accepting military defeat of its revolutionary forces and of surrendering the people of Angola into the waiting clutches of Soviet imperialism, then UNITA had to decide to do whatever is necessary to withstand and defeat the imperialistic Soviet onslaught.
Thus UNITA began scouting the world market for the tanks, bazookas, missiles and anti-missiles needed to match those of the Soviet Union. Where could they be found? Since Africa doesn't manufacture such weapons they must necessarily come from sources outside the Continent of Africa.
UNITA, which had earlier in 1975 sent a goodwill delegation to China, used the good offices of President Julius Nyerere to help secure such armaments from China. (Nyerere, of course, after several long discussions with President Savimbi, had been duly convinced - he said at the time - of the need to support UNITA, which he had by then learned was a revolutionary, Pan African socialist party. China agreed to help UNITA in its revolutionary struggle against Soviet imperialism in Angola and in August, 1975. sent UNITA a vast quantity of badly needed weapons to the port of Dar-es-Salaam, where 15 trucks had been sent overland to pick them up for transport back to UNITA bases in southern Angola.
Meanwhile, MPLA-Soviet Union was on a military rampage in the South and quickly by force gobbled up Luso, Sa da Bandeira, Mocamades, Lobito and other cities where UNITA has always had virtually total political support. These quick military victories, along with MPLA-Soviet bloc worldwide propaganda projecting MPLA as the "party of the people", "controlling 12 out of 16 Angolan provinces", etc., apparently convinced Nyererle that he should not - in spite of his previous agreement with China and UNITA -- should not be seen to be helping UNITA by allowing the use of Dar-es-Salaam for importation and delivery of weapons to us.
When he refused to allow UNITA to pick up its supplies, Nyerere offered us the spurious excuse that he did not want to further the war of brother against brother. This would have been an understandable position, except that at the very same time he was allowing the Russlans and others to deliver hundreds of tons of weapons into Dar-es-Salaam where they were quickly flown to Luanda and other MPLA-Soviet captured cities!
In other words, it is all right and "revolutionary" for MPLA-Soviets to kill UNITA militants, supporters and other Angolans; but wrong and "counterrevolutionary" for UNITA to fight back in defence of the people's revolution. (Is this the Nyerere that Pan Africanists everywhere have looked up to? Pan Africanists all over Africa and indeed the world will be taking a harder look at Julius Nyerere and his various vacillations that, as frequently as not, find him on the side of imperialism in Africa.)
At this point, with the weapons we had begun to receive from African countries and other sources, and the weapons captured from MPLA soldiers fleeing after defeat at the hands of now better armed UNITA militants and an aroused populace, we were able to begin to further our counter offensive to recapture some of UNITA's lost positions in the South. Soon also, UNITA began to receive some heavy armaments by another route from China. The increased supplies have been of tremendous importance in helping UNITA recapture all of its southern territory and to advance northwards.
However, armaments alone were not enough to solve the problem of countering the Soviet-MPLA offensive to force their regime on Angola, because the only combat experience that UNITA troops had had was in guerrilla warfare against the Portuguese. Our guerrilla-trained and seasoned army had by and large never even seen a tank or a missile, so it was necessary to quickly secure positional battle technicians and experts on modern weaponry. These technicians were recruited where they inevitably were to be found - among the European community in Africa, and they consist mainly of French and Portuguese who had fled to South Africa following the beginning of armed conflicts between MPLA and FNLA last spring.
It is absolute and total lie that South Africans on Pretoria's payroll are fighting with UNITA troops. UNITA - like MPLA and FNLA - has within its ranks some Whites who for generations have considered themselves Angolans and who cannot be equated with the mercenaries, opportunists and imperialist interventionists who are fighting with MPLA. All other Whites in UNITA's ranks are temporarily there as instructors from our sources of arms suppliers or from friendly African independent states.
South Africa's Involvement in Angola
South Africa, for some reason of its own, invaded southern Angola in July, 1975. Both UNITA and MPLA troops attempted to repel this invasion, and both were militarily defeated in the Cunene. The whole town of Ongiva (Pereira D'ECA) was destroyed by South Africa in its successful battle to secure for itself the area of the Cunene Dam along with the Namibian border. Only one single building remains standing in the town of Pereira D'ECA. This invasion was publicized throughout the world and thus South Africa's presence in Angola since July is a matter of record, and UNITA has never felt called upon to deny this fact.
As a matter of record, it should also be known that one of UNITA's leaders and most valiant guerrilla fighters, Vakalakutu, led UNIT A's forces against the South African invasion in which it established a toehold in southern Angola. At this very moment, brother Vakalakutu is somewhere in southern Angola with his remaining troops making guerrilla attacks against the invaders.
Moreover, contrary to Soviet-MPLA charges of a South African-UNITA alliance, UNITA, since its inception, has always enjoyed fraternal relations with the militants of SWAPO from Namibia, who have long been fighting against the Pretoria regime in Namibia. SWAPO guerrillas have lived in UNITA camps in southern Angola, shared UNITA's food and armed supplies and have launched most of their attacks into Namibia from UNITA bases. When the South Africans engage in "hot pursuit" against SWAPO guerrillas, in the process they have often killed UNITA guerrillas along with SWAPO guerrillas. Therefore, the lie that Soviet-MPLA propagandists are spreading that "UNITA wants an alliance with South Africa, represents the depth of the evil and of contradictory absurdities and lies that these imperialist propagandists are spreading from all corners of the globe.
UNITA fought its battles against the Portuguese on the terrain of Angola and never enjoyed the external metropolitan sidewalk cafe, bar and coffee house associations with European journalists, who now are found mindlessly repeating and propagating MPLA-Soviet propaganda that has been digested by them over a period of years of these kinds of contacts and.associations. Even now, European reporters mainly continue to file their stories from Luanda, where they only have access to the "news" that MPLA gives them. By and Iarge, they have not been to Huambo, Silva Porto, Luso, or Sa da Bandiera to talk with UNITA leaders and militants. UNITA … End Item.
[Photo: Comrade Jonas Savimbi, leader of UNITA]
[Graphic.]
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH PEOPLE'S CANADA DAILY NEWS
In an interview on Tuesday, January 27, Comrade Jeremias Chitunda, the UNITA representative to the United Nations reported on the current political and military situation in Angola.
"I wish to say that the propaganda of the U.S. imperialists and the Soviet revisionists that UNITA has been suffering losses on the battlefield is completely false. We would like to expose the propaganda of the revisionists that MPLA and its Russian friends are "encroaching" on UNITA territory and "making headway". This is completely false.
"UNITA's brilliant men are fighting courageously and they have not lost an inch of territory over the last month.
"The Angolan people are determined, under the leadership of UNITA, to defend their country against the Cuban invasion which now stands at over 13 battalions (comprising around 12,000 troops). Included in the invading force are 4,000 Katanguese troops. (The Katanguese troops are the same troops that Tshombe used to murder the beloved Lumumba in the '60s, at that time they were in the pay of the CIA, and are presently working in the pay of the KGB and. are integrated with the Cuban troops.)
"The Cubans and Russians can pump in more and more mercenaries but the Angolan people will not waver. Our people are determined to fight until the country is completely free of foreign troops and to fight for a truly socialist society.
"Contrary to the MPLA lies, the Secretary General of UNITA spent last weekend (the weekend of January 24 - ed.) in the North-Central towns of Novo Redondo and Cela which are still under UNITA control contrary to the reports in the bourgeois press.
"On the Eastern front, the city of Luso is under UNITA's firm control. The battle lines in this region have also not changed for over a month. While the situation is extremely serious in our country, the best the enemy has achieved so far is a stalemate They have not gained any ground."
Regarding South African troops in Angola, Comrade Chitunda said:
"UNITA was the first movement to denounce the S. African invaders as early as August 1975. South Africa invaded Angola against the will of the Angolan people. Their intentions were no different than any other of the invading troops. Whether they have achieved any of their treacherous aims or not, we hope that their withdrawal at this time will signal the withdrawal of other invading forces in Angola.
"The propaganda that UNITA is working with or collaborating with the South African invaders is a monstrous lie. UNITA opposes any foreign invasion or interference in our sacred homeland.
UNITA reiterates her firm position for the formation of a government of national unity. Such a government must include all patriotic forces which will defend the territorial. integrity and sovereignty of our country. UNITA believes that the enemies of the Angolan people will do everything to exploit the existence of three factions in the country in order to fulfil their plans of divide and rule. It has always been the tactic of the imperialists to try and maintain their exploitation by dividing the oppressed people and having them fight amongst themselves.
"UNITA and the Angolan people will not cease their struggle. We will fight to the end to establish a genuinely independent Angola without foreign interference."
"The tasks which face the Angolan people to defend their country are gigantic. We face formidable enemies. But our struggle is part of the struggle of all the oppressed people of the world and therefore we enjoy the support of the entire international community that upholds genuine freedom, human liberty and justice. Genuine independence and total liberation of Angola will be a victory for all of progressive mankind. We call upon all progressive and democratlc people to give firm support at this important point in our liberation struggle. End item.
from PCDN, January 28, 1976
Comrades and Friends:
On behalf of UNITA and the combatant people of Angola, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to share details of our revolutionary struggle with you this afternoon. These are perhaps more intensely historic times than most. On the African continent we are now seeing the demise of the last vestiges of overt colonialism with the overthrow of the fascist regime in Portugal. But even so the time to celebrate is not yet come. We face today an even more significant task. UNITA must and indeed UNITA will ensure the people of Angola, the peasantry that made Portugal's defeat a reality, that the sacrifices they have courageously made through 15 years of armed struggle, will not be subverted either by the Soviet Union or by western imperialism or by the racist apartheid regime of South Africa. There is so much which has been said about UNITA from her enemies, so please let me take up a moment of your time to set the record straight. I would like to give you some background on the development of our struggle and the circumstances under which UNITA was born and accepted the responsibility of becoming the party of the Angolan people.
The contemporary history of revolutionary struggles supports Chairman Mao Tsetung's thesis that the establishment of rural revolutionary base areas and the encirclement of the cities from the countryside would be of crucial practical importance. UNITA, founded deep within the interior of Angola in 1966, was the first movement in Angola to correctly analyze that the peasantry would represent the backbone of the revolutionary movement although in alliance with the small percentage of civil servants and intellectuals. UNITA based its action on an objective analysis of the material condition of Angola. It is a counlry with an 85% rural population. The party program was first presented to the peasantry. Party cadres would enter the villages, live with the local population in order to grasp the real existing problems. At this stage, the party were themselves becoming familiarized with the local situations, they were in fact the students of the masses. Subsequently the party was able to produce a concrete program. And it was at this stage, once the analysis was made that the masses became students of the party cadres, manifesting the permanent relationship between the vanguard party and the people. The Angolan peasanty responded to concrete facts that affected their daily life under Portuguese colonialism - forced labour in mines and coffee plantations, high taxes, no schools. When they consciously and voluntarily accepted the means of fighting against these injustices they would form a political committee and create their own militia along the lines of self-reliance. Step by step political consciousness was created.
UNITA's decision to launch its offensive from a peasant base enabled the party to avoid the cost in human lives which many revolutionary groups paid due to their incorrect strategy of trying to launch a revolution in a rural country from' an urban base. Another significant example of correct ideological position was the establishment of UNITA's headquarters inside Angola. When asked how UNITA was able to achieve impressive territorial and political successes in so short a period and without international recognition, President Jonas Savimbi laid it to one principle: "A revolution against oppressive forces can only be successful when the civilian population supports the guerrillas and will fight with them … if you are prepared to die for your people, get together with your people, fight with them and you will solve many problems you thought were impossible to solve." It is today clear that for reasons of correct revolutionary strategy and tactics, UNITA commands the support of the overwhelming majority of Angola's people - a fact which the enemies of the total independence of Angola have gone to extraordinary lengths to cover up. Before the coup d'etat in Portugal, the imperialist press, copying accounts emanating from Moscow, dismissed UNITA as non-existent, and at one point claimed that Jonas Savimbi was not in Angola at all, but selling fish clandestinely in a little market in Livingston, Zambia. No, the accusations put out by Tass and repeated across the world are not new to UNITA. The incidious attempts to link the righteous struggle of Angola's masses to the racist apartheid regime of South Africa are also old-hat. But UNITA has. a powerful weapon which no amount of Soviet rumour-mongering or MPLA amassing Katangese, Cuban, East European and Russian mercenaries can counter - that is the will of Angola's masses. The Organisation of African Unity acted decisively for the first time in its history by sending to Angola last month a Factfinding and Reconciliation Commission to determine what was actually happening in our war-torn country. The report which has subsequently been covered up stated that after a ten-day mission throughout every corner of Angola, it is clear that four million out of a population of 6 million are in complete support of UNI A. This corroborates in toto earlier assessments taken during the transitional government that were elections to be held, UNITA would have at least 65% support, MPLA possibly 20% and FNLA 15%.
Popular support, especially massive popular support such as what UNITA has been shown, is a rewarding response of the Angolan people to UNITA's guidance in the colonial struggle. But such support also imposes upon UNITA an obligation to unconditionally defend the interests of this people's majority. Throughout the period of the transitional government, UNITA made every effort to do just that, especially when the fighting broke out between MPLA and FNLA. By early March, 1975 the mutual antagonism between MPLA and FNLA had begun to manifest itself in armed confrontations on the streets of Luanda, marking the beginning of the wanton killing of 20,000 Angolans, UNITA tried in vain to stop the escalation of this conflict from January to August 1975. But by then it became clear that those with no popular base among the people, had everything to lose with elections. Even in Luanda, MPLA'S BIRTHPLACE AND STRONGHOLD, President Savimbi was joyously reteived by a wildly cheering crowd of 250,000, waving UNITA flags and banners. Comparable crowds greeting Comrade Saliimbi and other UNITA leaders were occurring in other villages, towns and cities all over Angola during this same period. It thus became crystal clear to MPLA and ominously clear to the Soviet Union which all along has held imperialistic andneo-colonialist designs on Angola, that in any free and open elections held in Angola, UNITA would win, hands down. MPLA subsequently began to attack UNITA offices all over the country, killing not only UNITA militants, but also more civilians. On June 4, even as the Nakuru unity meeting organised by UNITA was getting underway, UNITA's office in Luanda was virtually destroyed by an MPLA armed attack in which men, women, and children were murdered; on June 10 a similar attack occurred in Gabela in the province of Cuanzo-Norte; on June 30, in Cassambai, on July 15, in Henrique de Car~ valho, July 22, Kalabo; and July 30, Lukusse. Finally, MPLA's war acts against UNITA climaxed in the August 5 firing upon President Savimbi's plane in the southern city of Silva Porto. We took the shooting upon our President's plane as the sign that UNITA must however regretfully, declare war on MPLA and enter the fighting. To do less would have been a betrayal of the masses of Angolans who see UNITA's revolutionary prirrciples and deeds as the hope of justice, and substantive progress in our country. At the time UNITA entered the civil war in August, MPLA was already heavily armed by the Soviet Union, and thousands of Cuban infantrymen were already seen fighting with the MPLA forces, they were equipped with tons of Russian AK-47 automatic rifles, Kalashnikov sniper rifles, Tokarev pistols, SAM-7 heatseeking missiles, wire-guided missiles, 122mm rockets and rocket launchers, amphibious tanks, etc.
UNITA was therefore driven into war with two basic goals: a) to protect its popular base against ruthless attacks, harassment and humiliation by MPLA's armed gangs; and b) maintain enough strength for effective promotion of dialogues for an eventual political solution.
The present situation has now been further complicated by South Africa's invasion of Southern Angola in July, 1975. Both UNITA and MPlA troops attempted to repel this invasion, and both were militarily defeated in the Cunene. Later MPLA tried to use this tragic instance of yet more foreign intervention, to accuse UNITA of fighting with South Africa. Their argument was made even more ludicrous by the reality that guerillas from SWAPO, the Namibian independence movement were in fact operating with UNITA against South Africa, and not MPLA as they had tried to convince the world.
On the home front, though, even during this tragic period of civil war, the vital process of national reconstruction is carried on. Education is now a right and medical care the obligation of the state to the people. The schools are ill-equipped although exceptionally well attended. The academic curriculum is complemented by a solid political course.
Children are taught for example that the history of Angola and that of Africa is not made by imperialist kings, queens, princes and prime ministers but by the people themselves. The masses of the people are then the only real motive force behind historical development. They are taught in short dialectics and historical materialism, in a very lucid way, and in such a way that they are able to understand and situate themselves in the historical context of the armed struggle and the reality of their war against capitalist. Exploitation and imperialism. In the evenings the soldiers lay down their arms and instruct the adults. In every province there are likewise medical clinics which is one of the services which the people in the liberated areas welcome the most.
I should like to say that in closing UNITA has been especially heartened to see the extensive coverage given our struggle in the People's Canada Daily News. Our movement has had to suffer the incredible lies and distortions of the western news media compounded by the incidious propaganda of the Soviet Union. UNITA fought its battles against the Portuguese on the terrain of Angola and never enjoyed the external metropolitan sidewalk cafe, bar, and coffee house associations with European journalists. These people are now found mindlessly parrotting and propagating MPLA-Soviet propaganda that has been digested by them over a period of years with these kinds of contacts and associations. Even now European reporters mainly continue to file their stories from Luanda where they only have access to the desperate distortions MPLA feeds them.
UNITA's vision for the new Angola demands as a prerequisite, the country's total independence from all forms of foreign exploitation. It demands that the country be developed following the principles of scientific socialism, creatively applied to the particular needs of Angola's people. It asserts that the pace of genuine revolutionary change can proceed no faster than the elevation of the Angolan woman to her rightful position as comrade at all levels of constructive human endeavour.
For UNITA there may indeed be even rougher days to come. But the support of our people is our greatest strength. UNITA is the party of the people.
AND THE PEOPlE SHALL NOT FAIL!
LONG LIVE THE STRUGGLE OF THE ANGOLAN PEOPLE!
LONG LIVE UNITA!
LONG LIVE THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION!
Thank you.
from PCDN, January 14, 1976
-Special to PCDN-
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) would like to appeal to all freedom and peace-loving people of the world to give all political and moral support to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) currently meeting in Addis Ababa to decide upon the fate of the Angolan people.
We might all too optimistically rejoice over this fact that at last theOAU, the responsible Africans, are now meeting to precipitate an African solution to an African problem. But we should be sober enough to understand the complexities of the Angolan crisis and to exercise caution in assessing any possible solutions. Facts:-
1. The Angolan civil war was triggered by the massive intervention of the Soviet Union, to which other foreign powers have responded by aligning themselves on opposing sides. By July 1975, for example, the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), by sheer military strength wielded from Russia, violated each and every cease-fire agreement; MPLA swiftly and systematically occupied all strategic towns in the country, and it became a mockery to try to uphold and implement the Alvor Agreement tenet on the realization of general elections which were scheduled to take place last October. The FLNA (National Front for the Liberation of Angola),.the traditionally pro-Western faction, did not have enough weapons to withstand the MPLA's offensive - Western support was all too weak to match Russia's. UNITA had the population and the political and moral strength of the peasant masses, controlling 55% of the Angolan population - and an army of 40,000 men. This could have been the largest of the three armies, but, unfortunately, only a fraction of its men were armed, for UNITA never had the support of any superpower; so in practice UNITA's army was the weakest of the three and had no means to resist the Soviet Union's highly sophisticated weaponry. There was no western ally on UNITA's side. UNITA, however, managed eventually to get enough support to repel the invasion and arrive at the present military standoff with MPLA. We perfectly understand that the forces engaged in the war are essentially foreign both in motives and in material resources. It is a very big war now, demanding the deployment of missiles, rockets, helicopters, armoured vehicles and skills and showmanship that guerrilla armies simply could not master. Naturally, the motives of the foreign people are not philanthropic or humanitarian on behalf of the Angolan people! Because of such massive involvement of external forces, the solution of the Angolan problem now largely transcends the ability of the Angolan leaders to resolve the conflict internally.
2. The foreign forces involved in Angola are essentially non-African. The conflict, therefore, surpasses the ability of the African states who are, at most, being manipulated and used by non-African powers. Much is being said about the Soviet Union's arm-twisting and bribing of certain African heads of state to induce them to recognize the MPLA. Soviet pressure started as early as last October; we know how last November President Idi Amin of Uganda vehemently denounced such high pressure. tactics by the Soviet Union. Of course many African countries have already buckled under such pressures and others did not resist the money bribe. But there are also many who are fully and genuinely committed to the search for a stable, lasting solution to the Angolan problem, for it is, after all, an African problem; some of Angola.'s neighbouring countries suffer with us in the flesh, and they could not take the Angolan crisis lightly or emotionally.
3. Politicians the world over are failing to distinguish cause from effect in the Angolan war. Therefore, instead of condemning all foreign intervention the issue has become clouded by South African troops on Angolan soil. UNITA has, and continues to categorically deny any collusion, alliance or support with the racist South African forces. It is necessary to continue to state the nature of South African involvement in Angola simply because the Soviet propaganda machine has used the South African invasion of Angola to brand the rival movements of the MPLA, namely UNITA and FLNA as the agents of racist imperialism.
Since UNITA's leadership returned to fight on Angolan soil the guerrillas of the Namibian liberation movement, SWAPO, have always found sanctuary, arms, supplies and brotherhood in UNITA liberated territory. This alliance of giving blood with blood to our SWAPO brothers enabled SWAPO guerrillas to intensify their attacks on the illegal racist government of Namibia. The escalation of SWAPO guerrilla attacks in Namibia over the past months conclusively confirms UNITA's stand against apartheid South Africa. Where then is the logic which associates UNITA forces with the invading South African forces? The aim has been to undermine the joint command of UNITA/FLNA while attracting African support to the so-called Russiin alternative. UNITA's main objective is the total independence of Angola for which we must never tolerate the expansionist patronizing presence of any imperialist force in the country. Russia must therefore be denounced for its imperialist adventure in Angola along with all other foreign armies now on Angolan soil. No rule should, by sheer military force, be imposed upon the people, for that could only be contrary to the very goals for which we fought the Portuguese colonialists. South Africa is an athema to Black Africa, and UNITA is determined to continue to give its support and fight it to the very end. There could be no possible ground for accusing UNITA of cooperating with South Africa unless there is open malice. UNITA's solidarity with the peoples of Azania, Namibia and Zimbabwe is firm and total for we believe that the total independence of Angola can never be complete until Azania, Zimbabwe and Namibia are free from the oppressive and humiliating apartheid minority regimes. During the 14 year war against the Portuguese the Soviet Union invested a total of about L27 million in aid to the MPlA; but after the defeat of the Portuguese, i.e. during the 12 month period from November, 1974 to October, 1975, the Soviet Union spent about L60 million in aid to MPLA, now obviously having as the only enemy the Angolan liberation movements that did not want Russian imperialism in Angola. UNITA is a pan-African Socialist mass movement in theory and practice, and we do not see why we should go from Portuguese colonialism to Russian neocolonialism.
4. Ideally, OAU member countries should have undertaken more efforts, bilaterally and privately, to convince themselves of the need to analyse the problem as objectively as possible, refrain from recognizing any faction, and then, as a powerful united organization, persuaded the non-African pwoers to withdraw from Angola. The OAU could then finally convene the three Angolan parties and vigorously support the formation of a government of national unity - for the sake of Angola's territorial integrity and people's unity. The weakness of the OAU, at the present time, stems from three main sources; (1) there is no outstanding unifying leadership within the OAU; (2) there is a tendency of the OAU member countries to yield to non-African powers and pressures; (3) the pan-African ideology and philosophy are being overshadowed by the economic strength of the relations of East/West to which OAU members tend to cater, thus reducing the Organisation to an aggregate of East/West clients. We do, however, think that this is a very serious moment and the OAU should transcend all its weaknesses for the sake of Africa. End item
from PCDN, January 12, 1976.
December 25-28, 1925-1975
The Draft Resolutions printed below received unanimous approval at a mass meeting of over one thousand people organized by the Hindustani Ghadar Party (Organization of Indian Marxist-Leninist Abroad) in Toronto, Canada on December 27,1975. The main slogans of the meeting were "To Hail the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist party in India is to Hall the Naxalbari Way" and "Only Communism Can Save India". The rally was addressed by representatives of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the Revolutionary Anti-fascist Patriotic Front (FRAP of Spain) and a number of other organizations.
1. Fifty-years ago, at a conference held in Cawnpore, U.P, between December 25 and 28,1925, a "Constitution on the Communist Party of India" was adopted. The declared object of this Constitution was "The establishment of a Workers' and Peasants' Republic based on the socialisation of the means of production and distribution, by the liberation of India from British imperialist domination."
2. Prior to this, the Communist Party of India was also established abroad. It was established in Soviet Russia from 1920 to 1922 and held the same objective.
3. The general objectives of the communists were further defined in a document published on December 16. 1930 as follows:
"1. The complete independence of India by the violent overthrow of British rule. The cancellation of all debts. The confiscation and nationalisation of all British factories, banks, railways. sea and river transport and plantations.
"2. Establishment of a Soviet Government. The realisation of the right of national minorities to self-determination including separation. Abolition of the native states, the creation of an Indian Workers' and Peasants' Soviet Republic.
"3. The confiscation without compensation of all the. lands, forests and other property of the landlords. ruling princes, churches, the British Government, officials and moneylenders and handing them over for use to the toiling peasantry. Cancellation of all agreements and all the indebtedness of the peasantry to moneylenders and banks."
4. Over fifty years after the founding of the Communist Party in India and after 45 years of publishing the clear objectives of the Indian anti-colonial and anti-feudal democratic revolution. India is still a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country and the state of India is the state of big landlords and the big bourgeoisie of India which has compromised with imperialism and social-imperialism abroad and feudalism and reaction at home.
5. The so-called declaration of independence of August 15, 1947 and the so-called "granting" of "independence" by the British colonialists was actually a compromise struck by the traitorous Indian bourgeoisie led by Jawahar Lal Nehru and M.K. Gandhi with the British colonialists and the feudalists. It was a declaration of war against the anti-colonial and anti-feudal democratic revolution of the Indian people whereby the Indian bourgeoisie revealed its true character -- its greater fear of revolution than of the British colonialists. Furthermore, it was a declaration of enslavement of the nations and the national minorities living on the Indian subcontinent. It led to the bloodshed and division of India engineered by the British colonialists.
6. The Constitution was adopted on January 26,1950 and the Republic of India was declared to "constitutionalise" and "Iegalise" the compromise which the Indian bourgeoisie struck with British coIonialism and feudalism and to make the anti-colonial and anti-feudal democratic revolution of the Indian people "illegal".
7. From 1947 to date, the Indian state has been the state of the big landlords and the big bourgeoisie. It has served imperialism and social-imperialism abroad and feudalism at home. It has slaughtered the Indian people, committed untold crimes against the nations and nationalities. It has repeatedly committed aggression against neighbouring countries: including the People's Republic of China in October of 1962, Pakistan in September of 1965, again against Pakistan in December of 1971 and against Sikkim in 1973. This latest attack led to the final takeover of Sikkim in 1974. It forcibly occupied Kashmir in 1948 and at this time it is threatening all the neighbouring countries.
8. The communist movement in India has, from its very inception, first abroad and then in India continuously faced the enemies of the anti-colonial, anti-feudal democratic revolution. The enemies of the Indian people have repeatedly encircled and infiltrated the communist movement and have used their agents to liquidate the anti-colonial and anti-feudal democratic revolution.
9. Since 1947 the state of India has been a semi-feudal and seml-colomal state. The stage of revolution is people's democratic revolution, the main content of which is the agrarian revolution. The enemies of the agrarian revolution have repeatedly infiltrated the communist movement and used it to attack the armed agrarian revolution. 1. The glorious anti-colonial and anti-feudal democratic armed struggle of Telengana was withdrawn in 1953. 2. The revisionists in the communist movement bound the revolutionary movement hand and foot to the farce of parliamentary democracy. 3. When the communists rose up against the revisionists in 1964 and openly In the spring of 1967 - leading the glorious Naxalbari peasants' armed uprising, and finally defeating revisionism at the Eighth Party Congress May, 1970, the revisionists used international opportunism and the assistance of imperialist and social-imperialist forces to frustrate the efforts of the communist revolutionaries. Again they seized the fortress from within and used it against the armed agrarian revolution.
10. The Naxalbari peasants uprising in spring of 1967 was a historic turning point in the revolutionary movement of the Indian people. It struck a serious blow to revisionism and in April of 1969 led to the formation of the Communist Party on the basis of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. Under the correct slogan of China's Path is our Path it smashed the national chauvinist cobweb of revisionism and clearly identified the armed agrarian revolution as part and parcel of the world revolution.
11. However, the enemies of the armed agrarian revolution did not take their defeat lying down. They again seized control of the inner-party organisation. They openly incited people to attack the correct slogan of waging the "battle of.annihilation of class enemies", and the leader of the Communist Party of India (M-L), Comrade Charu Mazumdar. Beginning with the spring thunder at Naxalbari in 1967, archarch-revisionists like Asit Sen, Nagi Reddy and P. Das Gupta opposed the building of the Party on the basis of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. Once their machinations were defeated and the Party was established, the revisionists arose inside the Party to attack it from within. This attack was led by Satya Narayan Singh. He deliberately split the Party and established an anti-Party and anti-Charu Mazumdar centre. While he incited people to attack CPI(M-L) and Comrade Charu Mazumdar, he advocated unity with all the opportunists and viciously attacked and slandered the armed agrerian revolution. The battle of annihilation of class enemies he called "acts of individual terrorism", etc. This splitting activity however, failed to smash the Party, so, following the dastardly murder of our respected leader Comrade Charu Mazumdar, other groups of revisionists arose and upheld the same slanders as Satya Narayan Singh. The revisionists hoped to paralyse and cripple the Party for good.
12. Using the hoax that Comrade Charu Mazumdar and CPI(M-L) made "mistakes," and feigning interest in "summing up" and "rectifying these revisionists launched an unprecedented attack on Comrade Charu Mazumdar and CPI(M-L). They cooked up quotations, cribbed revisionist lines, sometimes taken word for word from the revisionist Communlst Party of India and Satya Narayan Singh. They took up the infamous task of besmirching the glorious Naxalban Way and declared it out of bounds for the Indiim people. They spread the vicious lies against those who persisted in armed struggle and termed the armed agrarian revolution as "suicide". Now they are running hither and thither in an absolute frenzy carrying out vicious slanders against the Indian Marxist-Leninists abroad. They are threatening anyone who follows the basic line of armed agrarian revolution as formulated by Comrade Charu Mazumdar and adopted by the Eighth Party Congress of CPI(M-L), with "dire" consequences.
13. In India today, the same state of the big landlords and the big bourgeoisie which came into being in 1947 still exists, but it has dropped even the facade of "democracy". It openly serves the interests of imperialism and social-imperialism and is slaughtering the Indian people. The most criminal allies of this state are the revisionists. They say it is an "independent" state presently "fighting against right reaction". They promote the further enslavement of India by social-imperialism. These revisionists, led by the Dange clique, are more afraid of revolution than of the social-imperialists and imperialists and the big landlords and big bourgeoisie, They have undertaken to act as the fifth column in the ranks of the people. The greatest supporters of the Dange clique are the so-called "Marxist-Leninists" who are opposed to the "battle of annihilation of class enemies" and to the armed agrarian revolution. These "Marxist-Leninists" are also more afraid of revolution than of the imperialists, social-imperialists, and the big landlords and big bourgeoisie.
14. On June 26th of this year, the Indira Gandhi government declared the state of "National Emergency" in India. The imposition of the National Emergency in no way alters the nature of the Indian state. Neither does it indicate any change in its attitude towards its domination by Soviet Social-imperialism and U.S. imperialism, nor its attitude towards the basic masses of the Indian people. The attitude of the Indian state continues to be to dispossess, ruthlessly exploit and slaughter the Indian workers, peasants and the broad toiling masses. The "National Emergency" has only escalated this dispossession, exploitation and slaughter. It is nothing but a desperate and hysterical response of the Indian ruling classes to the growing revolutionary might of the Indian people. The treacherous betrayal of the Indian revolution by the opportunists. can only lead to the state intensifying its repression and exploitation of the over Indian people.
15. Nonetheless, it does not matter how hard the reactionary ruling classes or the revisionists of all hues try, the armed agrarian revolution has advanced beyond their control. In spite of vicious and unprecedented attacks by the holy alliance of imperialists, social-imperialists, the state of big landlords and big capitalists, and the revisionists, in spite of their encirclement and infiltration of the armed agrarian revolution through fascist slaughter, jailings and torture, in spite of revisionist slander and malignment, the armed agrarian revolution gloriously marches on. CPI(M-L) is not liquidated. The basic line of armed agrarian revolution formulated by Comrade Charu Mazumdar and adopted by the Eighth Party Congress of CPI(M-L) has not been abandoned. CPI(M-L) is very much alive in the tunnels of Arrah District in Bihar. It is alive in the revolutionary propaganda organs of Kerala, in the peasant revolutionaries of Andhra and amongst the Indian Marxist-Leninists abroad. The fact that we are holding this conference in Toronto is a testimony to the fact that the basic line of Comrade Charu Mazumdar is alive. It is revisionism of all hues that is in total disarray. Without any prinple, revisionists of all hues are reduced to nothing else but gutter-politics and slander.
Recognizing all this, this gathering of Indian Marxist-Leninist resident abroad and their Comrades and friends resolutely declare that
1. The basic objective adopted at the conference in Cawnpore in 1925 at the founding of the Communist Party in India can only be accomplished by resolutely implementing the basic line of armed agrarian revolution advanced by Comrade Charu Mazumdar at the Eighth Party Congress of CPI(M-L) in 1970.
2. India is a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country and the stage of revolution is people's democratic revolution. The main content of this revolution is agrarian revolution, its main methods the armed and violent overthrow of the state of the big landlords and big bourgeoisie which has compromised with imperialism and social imperialism abroad and feudalism at home.
3. All talk about postponing the armed agrarian revolution, under whatever pretext, is revisionism and betrayal, and that
4. The Indian Marxist-Leninists resident abroad and their comrades and friends will do everything possible to support the armed agrarian revolution and those who are engaged in it in India. Neither the hoax of "fighting the National Emergency" or "restoring democracy" will divert us from the main task of vigorously participating in and supporting the armed agrarian revolution in order to complete the stage of people's democratic revolution.
1. After a long, bitter struggle extending over centuries, the valiant and fighting people of Angola in Africa have successfully thrown out the Portuguese colonialists.
2. Ever anxious to extend its international sphere of hegemony in its increasingly sharpening world wide contention with the other superpower US Imperialism, and to subjugate more and more countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, especially those newly emerging from colonialist and neo-colonialist domination, the Soviet social-imperialists have extended their dirty claws into Angola.
3. Under the hoax of 'supporting socialism' and the 'socialist movement', the Soviet social-imperialists are carrying out in a big way their military, economic and political intervention in Angola. They are seriously fomenting civil war amongst the Angolan people, which has already led to serious bloodshed and will lead to much more. To perpetrate their aggression and interference into the internal affairs of Angola, Soviet social-imperialism is using the dirty support of international opportunism.
4. The Indian people have suffered deeply and continue to suffer from the same enemies, Soviet social-imperialism and opportunism, who are responsible for large scale slaughter and violent repression of the revolutionary Indian people. As such, the Angolan people are our close comrades-in-arms.
5. As an expression of our militant solidarity with the Angolan people and the other fighting people of Southern Africa, we have invited to this historic conference, honoured guests and representatives of the fighting organisations, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC).
6. This Conference of Indian Marxlst-Leninists Abroad and their friends and supporters, held in Toronto on December 27, 1975,expresses its resolute indignation at the heinous crimes being carried out by Soviet social-imperialism and opportunism In Angola and calls upon all our people and other people to resolutely oppose this and extend full support to the struggle of the Angolan people to consolidate their independence and expel any foreign intervention.
7. We are fully confident that the revolutionary storm of the Indian and the Angolan and other African people will deal death blows to Soviet soclal-Imperialism and international opportunism.
from PCDN, December 22-31, 1975
The article below is reprinted from the Jan. 13, 1976 issue of People's Canada Daily News, the national daily newspaper of the Canadian working class. It shows how the Canadian economic crisis is caused by the U.S. imperialist domination of Canada as well as by the monopoly capitalist system itself. Thus the struggle of the Canadian working class against the shifting of the crisis onto their backs is part and parcel of the struggle of the world's people against the economic domination of the two superpowers.
The sickness of the monopoly capitalist system in Canada is more and more showing the symptoms of chronic incurable and certainly fatal disease. All of the vital indicalors took a turn for the worse in 1975: production was stagnant, unemployment soared to its highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930's, inflation set new records, the foreign trade deficit grew steadily, and the indebtedness of the state, mainly to U.S. imperialism, surpassed the previous high levels several times over. This deepening crisis not only spread from one branch of the capitalist economy to another, but quickly tightened its grip on the political and cultural spheres, becoming an all-round crisis of the capitalist system. The Canadian ruling class further revealed its absolutely reactionary nature, resorting to fascist state laws and repression against the working people in order to force them to bear the burden of the economic crisis. This imposed great hardships upon the working people, who, in turn, relentlessly developed their struggle against U.S. imperialist domination of Canada and the monopoly capitalist system itself.
Propelling the development of the economic crisis in Canada are the convulsions of the world capitalist system, with U.S. imperialism at its centre. Since the division of the world into spheres of influence of the various imperialist powers was completed at the beginning of this century, capitalism has been in chronic crisis as the major imperialist powers contend to redivide the world amongst themselves. The aggression and warmongering of the major imperialist powers in their contention to redivide the world amongst themselves have kept the economies of the capitalist countries in a state of violent upheaval and general crisis.
Today U.S. imperialism is locked in fierce capitalists, and constantly-escalating contention for world hegemony with the other super-power, Soviet social-imperialism. It is seeking a way out of its economic difficulties by further subjugating and impoverishing not only the "backward" countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America but also the "advanced" industrialised countries which are dependent on it, such as Canada. Thus economic crisis in Canada is caused, first of all, by the fact that the economic system is monopoly capitalism, and secondly, by U.S. imperialist domination of the Canadian economy and Canadian state. To say this the other way around, the struggle of the Canadian working people against the shifting of the capitalist economic crisis onto their backs is part and parcel of the struggle of the entire world's people against the economic domination of the superpowers.
In U.S. imperialism's shifting of the burden of its economic crisis onto the backs of the Canadian people, the key role is that played by the Canadian state. In many different ways, the Canadian state acts as the instrument of U.S. imperialism to extract tribute from the Canadian people.
Take the question of inflation. The current economic crisis is distinctive in this, and that not only is there crisis of overproduction, accompanied by high unemployment and stagnation of production, but inflation, normally associated with a period of strong demand during economic "recovery", is also going full blast. The inflation rate, as measured by the change in the consumer price index from the previous year, rose throughout the 1960's, from 0.9% in 1961 to 4.5% in 1969, and after subsiding slightly to 2.9% in 1971, rose to 4.8% in 1972, 7.6% in 1973, and 10.9% in 1974. The figure for 1975 will be about 11%. Inflation simply means that the necessary balance between the output of goods and services, and the supply of-money used to circulate those goods and services has been upset; that there are " too many dollars chasing too few goods and services". In fact, since 1971 the money supply has been increasing at upwards of 15% annually, while the annual growth of real out-put has never exceeded 7%, and is now at about 0. The reasons why these excess dollars are being put into circulation all concern the essential features of capitalism, for example, the rule of the monopolies. The giant corporations and monopoly groups have seized control of certain key areas of the economy, and, not only in order to ensure maximum profits but also in order to improve their competitive posItion vis-a-vis other monopoly groups, they simply dictate high monopoly prices forever on the rise. Monopoly price-settlng on the capitalist market has become a general policy. The clearest example is that of Oil. While-pointing an accusatory finger at "Arabs" and claiming that the just demands of the OPEC countries were to blame for the steep rise in world oil prices, the Morgan-Mellon-Rockefelter oil trusts simply dictated high energy prices to the entire world, setting off a wave of inflation that went through the entire system. Mr. Trudeau and his colleagues often point to the enormous jump in energy prices as the spark for the current round of inflation in order to argue that it was external and beyond their control. But just look at the facts. Canada has abundant oil and gas reserves, and need not import a drop of oil at "world market" prices. But instead, Canada both exports her own oil at "world market" prices and imports large quantities at these prices, with the U.S. imperialist oil trusts reaping high monopoly profits on both transactions. Not only that, but the high monopoly price of imported oil is actually subsidised by the federal government at a deficit of billions of dollars a year under the hoax of "cushioning Canadians against part of the increase in the cost of imported oil." These facts graphically illustrate the fact that state power in Canada as in every country is in the hands of those who control the means of production. 99.9 % of the oil and, gas industry in Canada is owned and controlled by foreign (mainly U.S.) as are 71.9% of the machine industry, 95% of the automobile industry, 55% of the primary metals industry, 99% of the rubber industry, 83% of the chemical industry, 59% of manufacturing, etc. The foreign monopoly capitalist groupings who own the means of production have subjugated the Canadian state, and it acts as their instrument to shift the burden of the the economic crisis onto the back of the workers. By rendering the Canadian economy more completely dependent and developing its most parasitical elements, the groundwork is laid for further deepening of the crisis.
But dictation of high monopoly prices (with or without the assistance of the state) is only one way in which monopoly capitalism has given rise to the current rampant inflation. The main root of inflation is the deficit budgets of the state. The federal government deficit for 1975 is expected to be about $7 billion, around10 times the previous highest recorded deficit (which was registered not so long ago in 1972). This debt is financed by simply printing money, directly giving rise to inflation, or by borrowing floating bonds, etc., on the financial markets controlled by U.S. imperialism, printing money to pay the usurious interest rates. (The cost of servicing the public debt i.e. government interest payments to finance capital for all levels of government, was running at an annual rate of $5,856,000,000 in the first quarter of 1975, compared with $4,704,000,000 for the first quarter of 1974.) Through this process, not only are huge sums of tribute raised for U.S. imperialism, not only are the working people impoverished through the reduction of their real wages due to Inflation, but the growth of the indebtedness of the state means that future production is already mortgaged to u.s. imperialism, and the economy becomes even more dependent, creating conditions for the next convulsions of the moribund U.S, imperialist monster to wreak even greater havoc with the economy, and so on. The more that is surrendered to the parasite, the more does it demand.
Throughout the development of the crisis, U.S. imperialism has during successive periods demanded varying forms of tribute and assistance from the Canadian state to bail it out of its successive convulsions. On each occasion, the complianceof the Canadian state has resulted in the further subjugation of the Canadian economy to U.S. imperialism, in driving the Canadian state further into debt, and in further impoverishing the Canadian people. In the 1960's, during the period of U.S. imperialist expansion into Canada (mainly for the purpose of extracting Canadian raw resources), the Canadian state spent billions of dollars to provide the infrastructure for U.S. "investment" (transportation and communication networks educational facilities to supply trained manpower. etc.), as well as in direct subsidies to these "investors". At the same time, it worked to provide a market for U.S. manufactured goods by printing money and circulating it in the form of "welfare" to those who were certain to immediately pass it on to the capitalists in exchange for the necessities of life. These schemes to provide a market for U.S. imperialism were further increased in the early 1970's, as the U.S. economy entered into crisis. More recently, U.S. imperialism has required that the state itself undertake the full risks of huge enterprises from which, however, it alone benefits, and which are financed by the state incurring massive debts, at usurious rates of interest, to U.S. finance capital. The James Bay Hydro-Electric Project and the Olympics are two such projects by which U.S. imperialist contractors and financiers are guaranteed fabulous profits by the state at the expense of the working people who must foot the bill. Such projects contribute to inflation by increasing the indebtedness of the state; to the overall instability of the economy by their ephemeral nature; and to increasing the dependence of the Canadian economy on foreign imperialism. Thus far from being the promised panacea to economic crisis, they can only lay the groundwork for worsening of the crisis.
Still more recently, the Canadian state has paid straightforward money tribute to U.S. monopoly capital by "cushioning Canadians against part of the increase in the cost of imported oil" (already discussed) and by the so-called "dirty float" of the Canadian dollar. "Dirty float" means that the Canadian state is intervening in world money markets to keep the Canadian dollar at artificially high rates by selling off its own foreign currency reserves. The effect of this is to assist foreign (mainly U.S.) imperialism in exploiting the Canadian market by making it cheaper for Canadians to buy imported goods, while wiping out Canadian manufacturers who depend on the export market. The Canadian textile industry is already at a last gasp while the future of the automobile industry and others is uncertain. The current account deficit of the Canadian international balance of payments soared to $1,529,000,000 in the first quarter of 1975 compared to only $9,000,000 a year earlier. Monthly figures during the rest of 1975 showed the same trend. In August, for example, exports were down 11.8% from a year earlier, whereas imports were up 1.9%. This "dirty float" ruination of the Canadian economy is perpetrated under the hoax of "containing inflation" by holding down the price of imports, and the decline of exports is blamed by Trudeau and his fellow bourgeois on the workers, who by their "excessive wage demands" supposedly have "caused lagging productivity" and "harmed Canada's competitive position in world markets"! Most recently, U.S. imperialism has demanded that Canada increase its defence spending so as to directly assist them in contending for world hegemony and preparing for war against the other superpower, Soviet soial-imperialism. The Canadian government rushed to comply by placing orders for aircraft and other equipment with U.S. imperialist firms. This form of spending by the government results in a purely parasitical consumption and is financed by the straightforward printing of money, thus fueling inflation and exacerbating economic crisis to the maximum.
All these state panaceas for economic crisis "correct" the deformations of the capitalist system only at the cost of creating more extreme deformations and further developing the crisis. Unemployment is one of the most acute symptoms of the current economic crisis. It now stands at 7.3'%, and has been over 7% for nearly year. These levels are the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930's. Certain regions are particularly hard-hit: Quebec has 9.2% unemployed, New Brunswick 13.5% and Newfoundland 18.1%. Unemployment is an absolutely necessary permanent feature of capitalism; without a reserve army of unemployed workers, there would be no competition amongst the workers for jobs and workers could sell their labour power on terms agreeable to themselves, wiping out the capitalists' profit. In Canada, where the basis of the economy is resource extraction for the U.S. imperialists, there is need for a large reserve army of cheap labour which can be mobilised for various extraction projects, on a "boom and bust" basis. Certain areas in particular, such as Quebec and the Maritimes, are used for this purpose. On the decision of a capitalist in New York or Seattle, entire towns can be wiped out by the closing of a mine or a papermill. For this reason, Canada has the highest unemployment rate of any of the Western countries. Since the period of U.S. imperialist expansion in the 60's, the trend has been for unemployment to climb. With each period of acute crisis, it reaches new heights, and with each "recovery", the decline in unemployment is shallower. Thus in the shortlived "recovery" of 1974, when then Finance Minister Turner was boasting of. "unprecendented prosperity", in this country, unemployment was still at 5.4% (it had never exceeded six in the period 1964-69), and at the onset of the curent period of declining production, unemployment immediately skyrocketted to over 7%. Although bourgeois economists are predicting another "recovery" for 1976, they are almost unanimous in predicting that unemployment will remain at its present levels or may even get worse.
Itself a result of the parasitical capitalist system which finds more profit in the idling and destruction of productive forces than in their full utilisation, unemployment leads to further development of the parasitical and destructive features of the monopoly capitalist system and further aggravation of the crisis. Hundreds of thousands of workers are forced from the sphere of' productive labour onto the government dole, where they collect money that circulates into the hands of the, monopoly capitalists at maximum speed and rate of profit. This further exacerbates the situation of "too much money chasing too few goods and services" and leads to further deepening of the crisis. In 1974, the government spent $2.12 billion to maintain monopoly capitalism's' "reserve army of labour" - well over twice what had been spent in 1971.
To sum up; the current economic crisis is not something new, but is part and parcel of the general crisis of capitalism. The force propelling this crisis is the contention and collusion of the two superpowers. The cause of the crisis in Canada is the U.S. imperialist domination of Canada, and the monopoly capitalist system itself. It is all-round crisis, emanating from production and spreading to all other branches and sectors. The Canadian state plays the key role in shifting the burden of this crisis onto the backs of the working people. Far from having their promised effect, all the panaceas of the state are witches' brews that can only produce further convulsions and a deepening of the crisis. Under these conditions, the proletarian class struggle against U.S. imperialist domination of Canada and the monopoly capitalist system itself is developing by leaps and bounds. End item.
In early 1975 Joe Hebert, a young Afro-American and long-term resident of Seattle's "Central District" was murdered by the police. He was shot in the back of the head with a hollow-point bullet. This murder aroused the anger of the Afro-American community and other progressive people. The Seattle Workers' Movement (SWM) under the leadership of the COUSML participated vigorously in the "Justice for Joe" Committee and other activities to defend the Afro-American community. Despite the efforts of the SWM, reformism and opportunism liquidated the "Justice for Joe" Committee and set back the mass movement. This is a vivid confirmation of Lenin's important statement "that the fight against imperialism is a sham and a humbug unless it is inseparably bound up with the fight against opportunism". We reprint below the summation by SWM of the lessons of the "Justice for Joe" Committee and also their historical research into a similar struggle to avenge the murder of Afro-American activist Eugene Moszee in Seattle in 1945. The article, edited for clarity, comprises Part 2 of SWM's pamphlet "Afro-American People: Advance The Struggle Against Racial Discrimination and Violent Repression".
The recent history of Seattle's Black community shows that the monopoly capitalists often use violent repression against the Afro-American people. The criminal police murders of Sidney Miller, Larry Ward, Leslie Allen Black, Louis Jones, Kamara Kabile (an immigrant worker from Africa), and Joe Hebert, bring back bitter memories. None of these brothers were murdered by "accident". All were victims of fascist terror practiced by the police, who single out the Black masses for special attacks. They hope to spread the psychology of fear and intimidation among Black people. But this has not worked.
Because the Afro-Americans (as an oppressed people and as workers) have a militant and inspiring history of struggle against the Jim Crow capitalists, the reactionaries of all stripes brand Black people as "criminals" and "troublemakers" in order to "justify" their fascist attacks and to drive a wedge between the Black people and the white workers and progressives by means of this propaganda. Under the guise of "checking the spread of crime in the Central Area" and "protecting the community", the Seattle police carry out "preventive measures" (illegal searches, beatings and even murder) and act as the hangmen of Black people in the service of their capitalist masters.
This is a continuation of past history in Seattle. In the late 1920's, U.S. Prosecutor Wickersham was forced to investigate the Seattle Police Department, as well as many others across the country, and found it guilty of widespread violent repression. It ranked as one of the worst in the nation. At that time, the victims of attack were the white workers and immigrant workers, especially Asians, as well as the small number of Black workers who migrated here from the South. Of course, the capitalist politicians publiciy gave the Seattle police a "slap on the wrist" while privately congratulating them.
During the militant labor struggles in the 1930's, the police were used to attack union organizing drives and strike struggle's waged by longshoremen, woodworkers, and others. Bloody clashes resulted and some workers gave their lives in the fight to defend their class interests and to build and strengthen the trade unions, the basic defense organizations of the working class. The police highlighted their ugly practices when they beat to death a young Black man, Barry Lawson, in 1938.
As news of the murder reached the public, a mass movement soon developed in protest against the crimes of the monopoly capitalist state machine. White workers and-progressives, together with the Black community, with the Communist Party (which was then a revolutionary Party) in the lead, forced the prosecution of two of the three responsible police. Just as they were to be punished, one developed heart trouble and died and the other was given a pardon by the governor. Though they were not punished and Barry Lawson's death was not avenged, this mass movement did deal the police a definite set-back in that the police were even prosecuted, a rare event in American history.
On November 15,1945 the police again showed their true colors when they killed Eugene Moszee, a militant defender and champion of Black people's democratic rights in Seattle. Moszee, who left Texas because he hated the Jim Crow system with all his heart, came to the north in search of dignity and equality. When he found the situation to be little different in the north, he decided to fight it, first as an individual and then in a more organized way as he matured politically. In 1942 the Olympic Hotel refused service to Paul Robeson, the Black cultural-political leader, and Moszee participated in a sit-down protest against this segregationist policy. Prior to the war, Robeson himself had stated that the American racists were "the first cousins, if not brothers, of the German Nazis" and this was reflected in the rank discrimination against Blacks by the ruling class in Seattle.
During the Great War Against Fascism(WWII) Eugene Moszee took the position that the fruit of the Black soldiers' fight against fascism should be reaped back home, that full equality should finally come to the Afro-American people, and that his own brothers should not have died in vain fighting the fascists in Italy. So Moszee actively participated in and helped organize struggle against the restaurant and hotel owners, mainly in downtown Seattle. When Blacks were refused service at a place, a "welcoming party" soon awaited the employers, often with Moszee in the lead. Sit-ins were generally the method of struggle used against the Jim Crow capitalists, since the revolutionary militancy of the workers' sit-down strikes in the auto plants in the 1930's still influenced and inspired organizers across the country. Black workers and veterans, as well as white workers, boldly participated in these struggles and many of the business owners were forced to serve Blacks. This of course aroused great hatred for Moszee among the local ruling circles, and they put their Police on his trail.
On the night of November 15, at a bar located at 14th and Madison, Moszee was resolutely defending himself from some racists. The racists became panicked and called on the police for assistance. Moszee then left and went to his gas station on 19th and Madison, which he owned and operated. He promptly turned the lights on inside the station and locked the door. The police soon followed. They demanded that Moszee open the door and he demanded that they produce a warrant. The police had no warrant. At this point, two of the six police on the scene shot the door down and a hail of gunfire shook the neighborhood. After this first barrage, the fascist police fired two more shots point-blank into the wounded Moszee's chest. Scores of people in the area witnessed the attack. Eugene Moszee lay dead on the floor. Outside the station, one of the racist attackers, a jailer turned patrolman, who had helped shoot the door down, also died. It is to Eugene Moszee's credit that he did not die alone.
After this shameful murder, the local capitalist press, in particular the Seattle P-I, branded Moszee a "criminal" and a "felon", a "morals offender" and a "molester of young white girls". All these slanders were gross lies and was an ugly attempt to whitewash the murder of Eugene Moszee. The Prosecuting Attorney appointed a Black deputy prosecutor, John E. Prim, to distort the actual facts in a "public" inquest. Prim, a Black bourgeois and agent of the monopoly capitalists in the ranks of the Black people, helped railroad a "justifiable homocide" verdict through the closed inquest proceedings.
As a result, the bourgeois courts once again passed their blessing on the fascist brutality of the police. In the normal tradition of American "democracy", the victim of capitalist attack was condemned and slandered while the attacker went scot-free. This proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that this "democracy" is only democracy for the capitalist exploiters and dictatorship for the working class and Black people.
At this time, late 1945, WWII had just ended. President Truman was busy launching the U.S. imperialists' campaign to step into the shoes of the German Nazis and drive for undisputed world domination. War plans were being drawn up against the Soviet Union which was then still a socialist country and a bright beacon light of revolution to the world's people. Truman complemented his war plans abroad by stepping up the consolidation of fascism at home. This could be seen in the attacks on the workers' trade union movement, which yielded fruit in 1949 with the passage of the "slave-labor law"--the Taft-Hartley Act, and in the anti-communist witch-hunts of the early 1950's.
In response to the whitewash of Moszee's murder, the Eugene Moszee Committee for Equal Justice was formed and protested the criminal police attack. Many trade unions, (Shipscalers, Longshoremen, and Woodworkers, and others), progressive organizations, and community people participated in this movement. Large meetings were held and an upsurge against violent repression was visible in the community. But the committee failed to follow the revolutionary spirit and example of Eugene Moszee in fighting for democratic rights of Black people and became bogged down with reformist politics. The committee took as its starting point the erroneous view that the racist police attacks stemmed from a "bad policy" of the Police Department and was not an inevitable outgrowth of the blood-sucking capitalist system. Based on their totally wrong analysis, the committee carried out a petition campaign with the intention of ousting the Chief of Police and "eliminating" the racism practiced in the Police Training School. And, as a matter of fact, when the committee presented its petition to the Prosecuting Attorney he literally laughed in their face. Shortly thereafter, the committee was dissolved.
From 1945 to the present, Black people never stopped struggling against violent repression. Many organized attempts were made in the Black community to combat racist and fascist police attacks. Citizens' patrols, picketing and demonstrations by community groups (generally the NAACP, Urban League, and CORE), and the Black Panther Party in the late 60's, represented organized attempts to struggle against violent repression. But either the reformist line or the terrorist line dominated these attempts. The reformist line of the Black bourgeoisie advocates appealing to the white "liberals" in government like Mayor Uhlman in order to obtain funding for petty, insignificant "charity" programs. The monopoly capitalists are more than happy to give a few pennies to the Black bourgeoisie for their miserable "projects". These Black bourgeoisie then puff themselves up with importance and try to act as misleaders of the Afro-American struggle. Examples of such sham concessions are the Model Cities' Community Service Organization (CSO), the token hiring of Black patrolmen, and various schemes for ''better community-police relations". The terrorist line advocated reliance on a few individuals to militarily confront the police.
Early in 1975, the Seattle Police Department murdered Joe Hebert, a young Afro-American and a longtime resident of the Central Area, and this aroused the just anger of the Black people and many other progressive people. From February to May, 1975, the Justice for Joe Committee was active in opposing violent police repression in the Black Community. The committee mobilized the community and its allies to pressure the local government to meet various demands. The first demands put forward were for: 1) an early inquest to be held in the community, at a time and place where working people could attend; 2) the inquest jury to be composed of people living in the community; and 3) Officer Earlywine, who had killed Joe Hebert, to be removed from the police force. (Seattle Workers Movement under the leadership of COUSML supported these demands and actively participated in the committee). Public rallies and community meetings were held to support these demands. Petitions were also circulated in and outside of the Black community. In the meantime, Judge Carl Stokes was selected to preside over the inquest and the committee pushed for exerting a maximum amount of pressure on him to support the demands, since he was a resident of the community and was black. The petitions were presented to the Prosecuting Attorney and were accompanied by extensive press coverage. But none of the demands were met. Christopher Bayley, the Prosecuting Attorney, received the petitions in much the same way as the Prosecuting Attorney who was on the receiving end of the petition presented by the Eugene Moszee Committee for Equal Justice in 1945.
The inquest jury found Hebert's killing to be "death by criminal means". Directly afterwards, Bayley refused to prosecute the guilty cop who was immediately placed back on duty. What was instructive about the inquest proceedings was the way the capitalist state (through their police spokesman) justified the murder of Hebert. They said Hebert was a "criminal" (even though the police couldn't verify the identity of their victim the night of the murder) and that at the time of his death he threatened the police with a 3-inch pocket knife. The police pleaded their case on the basis of "checking the spread of crime in the Central Area" and "protecting the community". Their lies and slanders from the beginning were completely exposed. In fact the inquest jury foreman described the murder as a police assassination.
Both Moszee and Hebert were branded as "criminals" by the capitalist press and police, while in fact the reactionary ruling circles and their state apparatus are the real criminals. Black people are used as scapegoats for the problems created by the capitalist system itself. (When the capitalist press issued their slanders against Joe Hebert, Seattle Workers Movement produced a leaflet entitled, "Who Are the Real Criminals in the Black Community?" which received much support from the people of Seattle).
After the inquest decision, the Justice for Joe Committee followed the line of pressuring the King County Prosecutor to indict the guilty cop, which never occured. The committee organized a demonstration in April with this demand as the central isstie. A few weeks later, the Justice for Joe Committee was dissolved and the movement was set back due to the serious errors in political line that dominated the committee. What were these errors and how were they similar to those made by the Eugene Moszee Committee for Equal Justice?
Both the Eugene Moszee Committee for Equal Justice and the Justice for Joe Committee developed their political activity, their tactics from a completely erroneous analysis of the actual problem of violent police repression in the Black community. These committees had as their viewpoint, and promoted the idea that the problem consisted of: 1) the Seattle police department as an isolated institution; 2) racist ideas being promoted within it (in the Police Training School during the Moszee agitation); 3) certain racist police officers; 4) the Chief of Police; 5) the King County prosecutor. (In other incidents of police murder in the Black Community, when the inquest fails to arrive at a verdict of condemnation of the attack - the Inquest Judge will be singled out as the problem along with the Prosecutor). In short, the political error being made is that of singling out different tools the monopoly capitalist class uses to enforce their dictatorial rule, rather than singling out the ruling class itself.
Today, the U.S. monopoly capitalist class is completely enmeshed in a deepening economic crisis. They are shifting the burden of the crisis onto the backs of the working class and oppressed nationalities who are valiantly resisting these attacks. The capitalist state including the police forces from the C.I.A. down to the local police depts, are tools utilized by the big bourgeoisie to enforce the "laws" and suppress people's resistance to the shifting of the burden of the economic crisis. This is one factor contributing to fascist police attacks in general on the American working class and people.
The especially vicious attacks on the Afro-American people are one aspect of the shocking national oppression and inequality historically suffered by the Afro-American people. The capitalists find racial discrimination very profitable and have always used the black people as a pool of cheap labor super-exploited by the capitalists to obtain super-profits. The capitalists construct an elaborate racist ideology to both "justify" national oppression and to attempt to divide the resistance of the working and oppressed people on a national ("racial") basis. This is why racism is inherent in the capitalist system. Currently, in the midst of the deepening crisis, capitalists spokesmen try to shift the blame for the crisis onto Black people and away from the real cause, the capitalist system itself. This is the Hitlerite policy of creating scapegoats of which the Jewish people are acutely familiar. One only has to remember the campaign against "crime" in Rainier Valley in the winter of 1974 where the local businessmen in alliance with the Mayor, police chief, and the "P.I." and "Times" tried to whip up racist hysteria against the black people in the housing projects. Hysteria against "crime" was promoted in an attempt to create a lynch-mob atmosphere and to increase manyfold the police presence in Rainier Valley. (See Seattle Worker, Vol. 2 No.1) In short, the capitalists use the issue of "crime" to single out the black people as the source of the problems confronting the American masses. Through this process of scapegoating, the capitalists, the real criminals, attempt to avoid the blame that rests on their own shoulders. In creating scapegoats, they try to develop an atmosphere favorable to especially vicious, violent police repression against Black people. This is all the more necessary for the bourgeoisie, because the Afro-American people have always been heroically in the forefront of resistance to the capitalist exploitation, and to racial discrimination. And due to the tremendous revolutionary mass movement of the Afro-American people of the 1950's through the '60"s, certain concessions were wrenched from the capitalist tyrants, which they are now trying to take away through fascist terror. This is a second factor contributing to racist and fascist police activity in the Black Community.
A third factor contributing to growing fascism is that in the midst of the capitalist world economic crisis the contention between the U.S. imperialists and Soviet social-imperialists for world domination is sharpening. The rivalry is developing in the direction of world war, despite the two superpowers attempts to disguise their war preparations by talk of "generation of peace", "detente" and by joint space flights. In the international arena, the two superpowers are being dealt severe setbacks to their war preparations by the countries and people of the Third World. But, in pursuing preparations for war the monopoly capitalists put great importance on "securing their rear" -- ie., "law and order" and fascism at home. All three of three of these factors are interrelated, and all are contributing to the consolidation of a fascist police state.
But the analysis dominating the Justice for Joe Committee (similarly the Moszee Committee) failed to take this into account and instead was based on singling out one small part of the bourgeois state machine as the problem. According to this viewpoint, individual "pigs" or the "police chief" or the "prosecutor", etc. are the "problem" because of "racist ideas" that somehow popped into their minds. This completely erroneous and simple-minded analysis necessarily had definite negative implications in the tactics derived from it which dominated the Justice for Joe Committee and (the Moszee Committee similarly).
In discussing tactics we are dealing with the question "How should the Black Community and its allies respond to violent police repression?" Both Committees answered this question in a reformist fashion, and not in a revolutionary fashion. The reformist line unfolded in the following manner in both committees: (1) First attempt to utilize the indignation in the community in order to; (2) initiate a petition campaign and hold several meetings demanding changes in the Police Department, (oust the chief of police, suspend the guilty cop, prosecute him, etc.) (3) Rely on legal procedure of the court system to effect these changes, and supposedly to "solve the problem of violent repression," tie the whole movement down to, and make its success or failure dependent on manoevers in the bourgeois courts; (4) Rely on "respectable community leaders" to be the committee's "contacts" inside the bourgeois system to pressure for changes. These leaders are so "respectable" that, in the movement against Joe Hebert's murder, the chief of police admitted that he consults with them whenever a "problem" arises inl the Black Community. Besides reliance on these Black bourgeois "firefighters" of the Afro-American struggle, it was promoted as a reliable "tactic" to phone and write letters to Judge Stokes, the black judge responsible for the inquest proceedings. This is supported by the view that he is "black" and "influential" in the community, despite the well-known fact that he holds reactionary views and is notorious for being a tyrant in the courtroom. The sum total effect of this reformist tactical line is to tie the whole movement to reliance on the pipe dream that some section of the fascist state will reform itself and become democratic and sensible, especially if enough pressure is applied through "respectable" channels. In this way reformist politics and ideas stifles the instinctual revolutionary understanding, spirit and initiative of the masses. And when the revolutionary people display little enthusiasm for these reformist tactics, certain individuals start promoting the "ultimate reform" to maintain their legitimacy. This "ultimate reform" is the line of salvation and emancipation under capitalism through "community control of the police." The bankruptcy of this line is evident by the simply asking the question: "How can the black community in Seattle "secede" from the control of the fascist monopoly capitalist class and become "independent"? It is just too ridiculous to even consider. So the people are then left with the basic reformist line of reliance on the fascist courts. (5) And when the legal manoevers of the capitalist state have run their course and a whitewash of some degree or another has been created, whatever is still remaining of the mass upsurge is left hanging in the air, as the committee considers its work done and dissolves. In this way, the particular struggle of the Afro-American people against racial discrimination and violent repression is then liquidated organizationally, thus giving the mass movement a setback and insuring that the community is not in a position to defend itself politically from future attacks.
The revolutionary leaders of the Afro-American struggle must not follow such a tactical line. We cannot just fan the flames of indignation so as to be able to wage a narrow reform campaign. We cannot rely on the bourgeois government and courts to establish justice, and call for the removal of this or that cop or government official in such a way as to promote the illusion that this type of activity will result in the elimination of violent repression. We must surely organize to give the racist government a set-back and call for the elimination of their fascist repression. The demand for a public inquest was fine and SWM completely supported it. The Justice for Joe Committee organized around this inquest demand and the capitalist press was compelled to cover the inquest which exposed to the people of the entire city the fascist nature of the police and the bankruptcy of capitalist "justice". But the reformist line in the Committee used the inquest demand to spread illusions about the courts and suggest that "Justice for Joe" could be achieved through them. The revolutionaries, however, must not spread illusions about capitalist justice but must raise these indispensible partial demands in such a way as to 1) not narrow the issue to simply one incident (the killing of Joe Hebert) and thus divert the issue from violent repression in general. 2) must organize around the demands so as to expose every lie, every hypocrisy and trick of the capitalist state machine in connection with the just demands and in the process educate the masses concerning the real nature of the capitalists which will never change and must be suppressed through revolutionary coercion. Historical experience shows that when the mass movement forces a concession from the capitalists, they will utilize every opportunity to try to retract it.
lt is not sufficient to merely fan the flames of indignation in the community on a strictly emotional basis. We must also conduct thoroughgoing, systematic and scientific political education and propaganda among the people on a daily basis. In this way the political unity of the Afro-American people, other national minorities, and the whole working class including the white working people can be further consolidated. In this way the revolutionary people can be united against the common enemy. In doing so the revolutionary principle of self-reliance, reliance on the revolutionary masses replaces the reformist principle of reliance on "respectable" (bourgeois) elements who use their "influence" to create faith in the sham justice of the capitalist court system. In addition the mass organizations of the community to oppose racial discrimination and violent repression must not be created, only to be dissolved after a few months existence. The Afro-American revolutionary leaders must utilize the strength of the mass upsurge and movement to build lasting and stable organization to defend the community politically from the present and future attacks of the monopoly capitalists. In this way the political and organizational maturity of the masses and the leadership can be consolidated, over time, thus preparing conditions for truly powerful and organized, and higher levels of revolutionary struggle. From defensive struggles, Black people can prepare to launch an offensive. And as Chairman Mao Tsetung points out: "The struggle of the black people in the United States is bound to merge with the American workers' movement, and this will eventually end the criminal rule of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class".
So to briefly sum up the activity of the two committees previously discussed: 1) The mass movements centered in the committees definitely show the irrepressible revolutionary spirit of the Afro-American people who will never submit to the fascist rule of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class; 2) The starting point for the political work of the committees was not the understanding shown in Lenin's statement: "... capitalism has no 'room' for other than legal emancipation and even the latter it curtails in every way... --capitalism cannot give either complete emancipation or even complete equality". As a result, the committees lapsed into reformism and the mass movement was set back. And, as is stated earlier in this article, the reformist line in both committees was led by revisionists, those who have betrayed Marxism-Leninism and revised the basic revolutionary principle of tireless and uncompromising struggle against the capitalist class. This has profound implications in determining a forward path for the Afro-American people's struggle. End item
In recent weeks the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists and other American communists and revolutionary people were deeply grieved to learn of the deaths of two outstanding leaders of the Communist Party of China and of the international communist movement, Comrade Chou En-lai, a Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, who passed away on January 8, 1976, and Comrade Kang Sheng, a Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, who died December 16, 1976.
Comrades Chou En-lai and Kang Sheng were great leaders and outstanding communist fighters not only of the Chinese people but of the people of the whole world. All their lives they struggled tirelessly for the victory of the Chinese and world revolution, for the liberation of the Chinese and the international working class and of all oppressed mankind from imperialist, colonialist and capitalist slavery and for the victory of the bright future of socialism and communism throughout the world. Under the leadership of Chairman Mao Tsetung, respected leader of the communists and people of the whole world, and guided by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, the revolutionary ideology of our era, Comrades Chou En-lai and Kang Sheng always firmly opposed revisionism, implemented Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line, made indelible contributions to China's new democratic and socialist revolutions, to the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, to the movement to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius and to continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, greatly contributed to the struggle against modern revisionism internationally and to the struggle against the hegemonism of the two superpowers, and dedicated their entire lives and energies selflessly to the people. Their deaths are a gigantic loss to the Communist party of China, to the Chinese people and to the communists and people the world over. As American Marxist-Leninists we express our deep sorrow at these sad events and in the name of the American working class and oppressed people we extend our heartfelt condolences to Chairman Mao, to the Communist party of China, to the Chinese people and to the bereaved families of the two comrades.
At this moment of loss to the world revolution, we pledge to turn our grief into strength, learn from the example of the heroic lives of Comrades Chou En-lai and Kang Sheng, escalate our struggle to defeat opportunism and build a truly Marxist-Leninist Communist Party in the U.S. and lead the American working class and people in the great struggle against the two superpowers, waging a proletarian revolution to eliminate U.S. imperialism, enemy of the people of the whole world, from the face of the earth. As Chairman Mao teaches: "THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF MARTYRS HAVE HEROICALLY LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES FOR THE PEOPLE; LET US HOLD THEIR BANNER HIGH AND MARCH AHEAD ALONG THE PATH CRIMSON WITH THEIR BLOOD!"
We are confident that the Communist Party of China, with Chairman Mao at the helm and guided by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, will bring up a host of worthy revolutionary successors to Comrades Chou En-lai and Kang Sheng and will persevere in leading the struggle of the Chinese and the entire world's people against colonialism, imperialism, social-imperialism, the hegemonism of the two superpowers, revisionism and all reaction from one victory to another until the whole world belongs to the people.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the State Council of the People's Republic of China on December 16 issued an obituary notice which reads in full as follows:
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the State Council of the People's Republic of China announce with deep grief: Comrade Kang Sheng, Member of the C.P.C. Central Committee, Member of the Political Bureau of the C.P.C. Central Committee, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the C.P.C. Central Committee, Vice Chairman of the C.P.C. Central Committee, and Vice-Chairman of the N.P.C. Standing Committee, failed to respond to medical treatment and died of illness at 06:05 hours on December 16, 1975 in Peking at the age of 77.
Comrade Kang Sheng was a fine member of the Communist Party of China, a great revolutionary fighter of the Chinese people and Marxist theoretician, and one of the outstanding leaders of the Party and the state.
The life of Comrade Kang Sheng was one of fighting for the cause of communism, one of persevering in the continued revolution. During the new-democratic revolutionary struggle, during the socialist revolution and construction, during the struggle to strengthen our Party's unity with the Marxist-Leninist Parties and organizations the world over and to combat modern revisionism, and during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, he remained loyal to the Party and the people, steadfastly implemented and carried out Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line, resolutely repudiated the revisionist lines of Wang Ming, Liu Shao-chi and Lin Piao, and staunchly defended Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, thus making an immortal contribution to the Party and the people and winning the wholehearted love and respect of the whole Party, the whole army and the people of the whole country.
The whole Party, the whole army and the people of the whole country should learn from Comrade Kang Sheng's proletarian revolutionary spirit and his noble qualities and, under the leadership of the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Mao, take class struggle as the key link, adhere to the Party's basic line, persevere in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, consolidate and develop the victories of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, unite as one, and strive to consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat, combat and prevent revisionism, and build our country into a powerful modern socialist state. Comrade Kang Sheng, a great proletarian revolutionary of the Chinese people and a glorious fighter against revisionism is immortal.
[Photo.]
Peking Review, No. 52, December 26, 1975
With deepest grief, we pay tribute today to the memory of Comrade Chou En-lai, a fine member of the Communist Party of China, a great proletarian revolutionary, an outstanding communist fighter and an eminent, long-tested Party and state leader of the Chinese people.
From the time Comrade Chou En-lai fell ill with cancer in 1972, he received constant and affectionate attention from our great leader Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee and was given meticulous, many-sided treatment by medicalpersonnel. He persisted in working through-out and waged tenacious struggle against the disease. Comrade Chou En-lai's condition worsened despite all treatment, and his heart ceased to beat at 09:57 hours on January 8, 1976. The whole Party, the whole army and the people
throughout our country are deeply grieved at the loss of our Premier.
Comrade Chou En-lai's death is a gigantic loss to our Party, our army and the people of our country, to the cause of China's socialist revolution and construction, to the international cause of opposing imperialism, colonialism and hegemonism, and to the cause of the international communist movement.
From youth, Comrade Chou En-lai dedicated himself to the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people. He took an active part in the May 4th Movement of 1919, undertaking revolutionary activities against imperialism and feudalism. Between 1920 and 1924, he studied in France and Germany under a work-study programme and spread Marxism among Chinese students and workers living in Europe. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1922, became Secretary of the European General Branch of the Chinese Communist youth League and worked in the European General Branch of the Communist Party of China.
During the period of the First Revolutionary Civil War, he participated in the Northern Expedition and made important contributions to the overthrow of the reactionary rule of the Northern warlords. From 1924 to 1926, he served successively as Chairman of the Kwangtung-Kwangsi Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China, Director of the Political Department of the Whampoa Military Academy, Director of the Political Department of the First Army of the National Revolutionary Army and Standing Committee Member and concurrently Military Affairs Department Director of the C.P.C. Kwangtung-Kwangsi Regional Committee. He went to Shanghai in the Winter of 1926 to work with the Party Central Committee and later became Secretary of the C.P.C. Kiangsu-Chekiang Regional Military Committee and Secretary of the Military Commission of the C.P.C. Central Committee. He was the principal leader of the 1927 Shanghai workers' armed uprisings. After Chiang Kai-shek and then Wang Ching-wei betrayed the revolution, Comrade Chou En-lai, together with other comrades, led the August 1 Nanchang Uprising to save the revolution; in that uprising he was Secretary of the C.P.C. Front Committee. During the Second Revolutionary Civil War period, he also carried on the Party's underground revolutionary work in Shanghai, served as Director of the Organization Department of the C.P.C. Central Committee and Secretary of the Military Commission of the Party Central Committee and held other posts. After he entered the Central revolutionary Base Area in Kiangsi in December 1931, he was Secretary of the Central Bureau of the Central Soviet Area, Political Commissar of the First Front Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and Vice-Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Party Central Committee and held other posts. He remained after the Tsunyi Meeting as Vice Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Party Central Committee under Chairman Mao's leadership and took part in organizing and leading the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in its triumphallt 25,000-li Long March. When the Sian Incident occurred in December 1936, Comrade Chou En-lai, as the representative with full powers of our Party, held talks with Chiang Kai-shek who was then under arrest. During the negotiations, he firmly carried out Chairman Mao's policy, compelled Chiang Kaishek to stop the civil war and brought about the peaceful settlement of the Sian Incident, and thus promoted the formation and development of the national united front against Japanese aggression. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he engaged in united front work in the Kuomintang areas and led the work of the Party organizations there as the representative of the party Central Committee and Secretary of its Southern Bureau. Stationed for a long time in Chungking, then the seat of the Kuomintang government, he was fearless in the face of danger, firmly adhered to Chairman Mao's policies and fought heroically against the Kuomintang's counter-revolutionary policy of being passive in resisting Japan but active in anti-communism. In August 1945, during the early period of the Third Revolutionary Civil War, he accompanied Chairman Mao to Chungking for negotiations with the Kuomintang. After the signing of the "October 10th Agreements," he, as leader of the C.P.C. delegation, continued to wage tit-for-tat struggle against the U.S.-Chiang reactionaries in Chungking and Nanking. Comrade Chou En-lai returned to Yenan from Nanking in November 1946. When the Chiang Kai-shek forces launched massive attackS on the Shensi-Kansu-Ningsia Border Region in March 1947, Comrade Chou En:-lai remained in northern Shensi with Chairman Mao and took part in directing the People's Liberation War. During the new historical period in China of socialist revolution and proletarian dictatroship, Comrade Chou En-lai was Premier of the Government of the People's Republic of China from the time of its founding and for a period was concurrently Minister of Foreign Affairs; he was Vice-Chairman of the Military Commission of the C.P.C. Central Committee, Vice-Chairman of the First National Committee of the Chinese People'S Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of its Second and Third National Committees. He was also elected a Deputy to the First, Second, Third and Fourth National People's Congresses.
Comrade Chou En-lai was elected to the Central Committee at the fifth and all subsequent National Congresses of the Party. He was elected Alternate Member of the Political Bureau at the August 7, 1927 meeting of the Central Committee. Starting with the Party's Sixth National Congress, he was elected uninterruptedly to full membership in the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. Comrade Chou En-lai was elected Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee and at the First Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party. He was elected a Member of the standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee at the First Plenary Session of the Eighth, the Ninth and the Tenth Central Committee of the Party. He was elected Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee at the First Plenary Session of the Eighth and the Tenth Central Committee of the Party.
Comrade Chou En-lai was loyal to the Party and the people. Fighting heroically and working with utter devotion, he selflessly dedicated all his his energies throughout his life to the implementation of Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line and to the victory of the liberation of the Chinese people and the cause of communism. Under the leadership of Chairman Mao, Comrade Chou En-lai made indelible contributions and performed immortal services in the building and development of the Marxist Communist Party of China; in the building and development of our invincible people's army; in the bringing of the new-democratic revolution to victory and the founding of the socialist New China in the consolidation of the great unity of the people of all nationalities led by the working class and based on the worker-peasarit alliance and in the development of the revolutionary united front; in the struggle for the victory of the socialist revolution-and construction and the victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the movement to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius, and in the consolidation of the proletarian dictatorship in our country. The whole Party, the whole army and the people of the whole country love him and respect him from the bottom of their hearts.
Internationally, Comrade Chou En-lai resolutely implemented Chairman Mao's revolutionary line in foreign affairs and upheld proletarian internationalism. He made outstanding and indelible contributions as well in strengthening the unity of our Party with Marxist-Leninist Parties and organizations in other countries, in combating modern revisionism and in promoting the development of the international communist movement; in strengthening the unity of our people with the people of other countries, especially those of the third world, in striving to establish and develop relations with all other countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, in uniting with all forces in the world that can be united with and in carrying out the struggle against imperialism and social-imperialism. He won the respect and admiration of the people of the world.
Comrade Chou En-lai's life was one of glorious struggle for the cause of communism and one of continuing the revolution with perseverance. He is an example that the whole Party, the whole army and the people of the whole country should learn from.
In mourning Comrade Chou En-lai, we should learn from his boundless loyalty to MarxismLeninism- Mao Tsetung Thought. He loved and revered our great leader Chairman Mao wholeheartedly, safeguarded Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line resolutely, persevered in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat and in combating and preventing revisionism, and fought all his life for the realization of the great ideal of communism.
We should learn from his noble quality of serving the people wholeheartedly. Under the leadership of Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee, Comrade Chou En-lai undertook the arduous day-to-day tasks of the Party and the state. He was always diligent and conscientious, hard-working and uncomplaining, indefatigable and selfless in working for the interests of the people of China and the world.
We should learn from his staunchness in fighting the enemy. No matter how ruthless the white terror, how fierce the armed struggle and how sharp the battle in face-to-face negotiations with the enemy, he was daring regardless of personal danger, brilliant and resourceful, brave, steadfast, calm and fully confident of victory.
We should learn from his strong proletarian Party spirit. He was open and aboveboard, paid attention to the interests of the whole, observed Party discipline, was strict in "dissecting" himself and good at uniting the mass of cadres, and upheld the unity and solidarity of the Party. He maintained broad and close ties with the masses and showed boundless warmheartedness toward all comrades and the people. He resolutely implemented the principle of the three-in-one combination of old, middle-aged and young cadres, and ardently supported the new forces and new things that emerged during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
We should learn from his fine style -- being modest and prudent, unassuming and approachable, setting an example by his conduct, and living in a plain and hard-working way. We should should follow his example of adhering tothe proletarian style of life and opposing the bourgeois style of life.
We should learn from his revolutionary tenacity in fighting illness. While he was ill, he constantly studied and implemented Chairman Mao's principles and policies and kept on studying works by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin and by Chairman Mao. Even when his condition became very grave, he attentively listened to several readings of the two brilliant poems of Chairman Mao published on New Year's Day. This fully showed his indomitable revolutionary spirit.
Comrade Chou En-lai, a great revolutionary fighter of the Chinese people, has left us forever. We should turn our grief into strength. Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Mao, we should unite as one, take class struggle as the key link, conscientiously study the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, keep to the Party's hasic line, persevere in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, adhere to Chairman Mao's revolutionary line and policies in foreign affairs, consolidate and develop the victories of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat, combat and prevent revisionism, and strive to build China into a powerful modern socialist country and bring the cause of communism to triumph.
Unite to win still greater victories!
Peking Reveiw, No.4 January 23, 1976
Obituary Notice Issued by C.P.C. Central Committee, N.P.C. Standing Committee and State Council
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the State Council of the People's Republic of China announce with extreme grief: Comrade Chou En-lai, Member of the C.P.C. Central Committee, Member of the Political Bureau of the C.P.C. Central Committee, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the C.P.C. Central Committee, Vice-Cliairman of the C.P. C. Central Committee, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, died of cancer at 09 :57 hours on January 8, 1976 in Peking at the age of 78.
Comrade Chou En-lai was a fine member o(the Communist Party of China, a great proletarian revolutionary of the Chinese people, a loyal revolutionary fighter of the Chinese people and an outstanding, long-tested leader of the Party and the state.
Since Comrade Chou En-lai fell ill in 1972, he had been given meticulous, many-sided treatment by medical personnel under the constant and affectionate attention of our great leader Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee. He persevered in work all the time and waged a tenacious struggle against the illness. Owing to the worsening of his conditions despite all treatment, Comrade Chou En-lai, the great fighter of the Chinese people, finally departed from us. His death is a gigantic loss to our Party, our army and the people of our country, to the cause of China's socialist revolution and construction, to the international cause of opposing imperialism, colonialism and hegemonism, as well as to the cause of the international communist movement.
Loyal to the Party and the people, Comrade Chou En-lai fought heroically and with utter devotion for the implementation of Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line and for the victory of the cause of the Chinese people's liberation and the cause of communism, to which he selflessly dedicated all his energies throughout his life. Under the leadership of Chairman Mao, Comrade Chou En-lai made indelible contributions and performed immortal services to building and developing the Marxist Communist Party of China, to building and developing our invincible people's army, to the vietory of the new-democratic revolution and the founding of socialist New China, to consolidating the great unity of the people of all nationalities led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants and developing the revolutionary united front, to the struggle for the victory of the cause of socialist revolution and construction, the victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the movement to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius, and the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat of our country, to strengthening the unity of the international revolutionary forces and to the struggle against imperialism, social-imperialism and modern revisionism, and thus won the wholehearted love, respect and admiration of the whole Party, the whole army and the people of the whole country.
The news of Comrade Chou En-lai's death will arouse deep grief in the hearts of our people. We must turn our grief into strength. The whole Party, the whole army and the people of the whole country should learn from Comrade Chou En-lai's proletarian revolutionary spirit and his noble revolutionary qualities and, under the leadership of the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Mao, unite as one, take class struggle as the key link, adhere to the Party's basic line, persevere in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, uphold proletarian internationalism, consolidate and develop the victories of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, and strive to consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat, combat and prevent revisionism, build China into a powerful modern socialist country and win victory for the cause of communism.
The life of Comrade Chou En-lai was one of glorious fighting for the cause of communism; it was a life of persevering in continuing the revolution. Eternal glory to Comrade Chou En-lai, great proletarian revolutionary of the Chinese people and outstanding communist fighter!
Peking Review, No. 3 January 16, 1976
[Photo.]
[Photo: Comrade Chou En-lai was in France and Germany from 1920 to 1924, engaging in part-time work and part-time study and publicizing Marxism among the Chinese students and workers residing in Europe. After he joined the Communist Party of China in 1922, he became Secretary of the General Branch of the Communist Youth League of China in Europe and worked in the C.P.C. General Branch in Europe.]
[Photo: From October 1934 to October 1935, Comrade Chou En-lai took part in organizing and leading the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in its triumphant 25,000-li Long March. Photo shows Comrade Chou En-lai in north Shensi.]
[Photo: Chairman Mao and Comrade Chou En-lai in Yenan. 1945.]
[Photo: Representing the People's Republic of China, Comrade Chou En-lai attended the First Asian-African Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, in April 1955.]
[Photo: Comrade Chou En-lai attended the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949.]
[Photo: During the anti-Japanese War period, Comrade Chou En-lai worked as representative of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and stayed for a long time in Chungking where the Kuomintang government was located. Undaunted in the face of perils, he adhered to Chairman Mao's principles and waged a heroic struggle against the Kuomintang's counter-revolutionary policy of being active against the Communists and the passive against the Japanese.]
[Photo: Comrade Chou En-lai persevered in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat and performed immortal services for the victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.]
[Photo: Comrade Chou En-lai resolutely rebuffed the vicious attack upon our Party by the Soviet revisionist renegade clique and defended Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought when he took part in November 1964 in the celebration activities marking the 47th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution at the head of a Chinese Party and Government Delegation. Photo: A grand and warm welcome for Comrade Chou En-lai upon his return to Peking from Moscow.]
[Photo: On August 24, 1973, Comrade Chou En-lai delivered a political report to the Tenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China on behalf of the Party's Central Committee.]
[Photo: Comrade Chou En-lai took part in physical labour at a construction site of the Ming Tombs Reservoir on the outskirts of Peking in June 1958.]
[Photo: Comrade Chou En-lai visited the Tachai Production Brigade in Hsiyang County, Shansi Province, in May 1965.]
[Photo: From January 12 to 14, more than 40,000 workers, peasants, soldiers, government cadres, students and residents in Peking, with most profound proletarian feelings, offered their condolences to Comrade Chou En-lai, great proletarian revolutionary of the Chinese people and outstanding communist fighter, at a solemn ceremony held at the Working People's Palace of Culture.]
"In defence of socialism"
That's the signboard of your aggression
Against the people of Angola
But your mask is falling off
You're exposed for what you are
Socialist in words, imperialist in deeds
Soviet Social Imperialists
You are digging your own grave.
Mr. Brezhnev and Co.
You think you can sneak in
Through the back door
After the U.S. Imperialists
Have been thrown out the front
But the people of Angola
Are freedom loving people
With liberation on their minds
Independence in their hearts
And Revolution is their soul
So don't go to them with a
Hammer and sickle on your chest
And fascism in your heart
Because they will kill you just the same!
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun
With the gun, the colonizers conquered
The gun is all they understand.
A people that have blessed their homeland
With their own sweat and blood
Who with gun in hand
Freed themselves from the puppets of U.S. imperialism
Will never lie down before your puppets
But Messrs revisionists, you will never learn.
A weak nation can defeat a strong,
The people of a small country
Can certainly defeat the aggression of a big country
When they dare to rise in struggle
Take up arms
And seize their destiny firmly in their own hands.
Soviet Social Imperialists, you have lifted a big rock
Only to drop it on your feet.
So don't come to us with a
Hammer and sickle on your chest
And fascism in your heart
Because we will kill you just the same!
You have robbed us of the victories
Of the 1st Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Of the workers and peasants of
Lenin's and Stalin's homeland
And now you are trying to rob us
Of the victories of the people
Of Asia, Africa, and Latin America
But we will not be deceived
We will not be defeated
And you will pay for your crimes.
With Chairman Mao at the helm
And the People's China as our reserve
The tide of revolution is rising
The east wind is prevailing
The people of the world are marching forward
With gun in hand
We will never be your slaves
We will put you in your graves
Along with your class brothers.
So don't come to us with a
Hammer and sickle on your chest
And fascism in your heart
Because we will kill you just the same!
(Editors Note: This poem is reprinted from People's Canada Daily News, January 13, 1976. The poem was accompanied by a letter which concluded as follows. "Enclosed is the first poem that I have ever written. It attempts to express the contempt and class hatred revolutionary people around the world share for the revisionists who have seized control of the Party of Great Lenin and Stalin, and the crimes they have committed under the banner of 'Socialism'.")