First Published: The Guardian, June 16, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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An important article on the international situation and China’s foreign policy appeared in the May 31 issue of The Call, the newspaper of the October League.
The article, titled “Working Class Must Get Prepared for War Danger,” is an interview with the chairman of the October League, Michael Klonsky, who recently returned from a trip to China. Summing up the world situation, Klonsky states: “A few years ago, it was correct to say that ’revolution is the main trend in the world today.’ Now this statement is no longer fully complete or applicable to the present conditions. Today both the factors for war and revolution are developing ’ together. By saying that both factors are developing together, we are clearly emphasizing the growing danger of a war. In this way, we take note of the changes since 1970 and help people get prepared.”
As part of the task of getting prepared for war, Klonsky states, “We must expose the Soviet Union as the main aggressor and the most dangerous of the superpowers and take on our special responsibilities of opposing our own imperialism.”
In implementing the strategy of “directing the main blow at the Soviet Union,” Klonsky says U.S. revolutionaries must “firmly oppose those in the U.S. who appease or conciliate to (sic) Soviet social-imperialism.” (In the same issue of the paper, The Call incredibly demands “worldwide protest” and “thundering denunciation” against the MPLA and the People’s Republic of Angola.)
The previous week, The Call, putting into practice firm opposition “to those who appease the USSR,” criticized Henry Kissinger for being too soft on the Soviet Union: [Kissinger’s] “strategy is to appease the USSR by giving it a free run of East Europe,” and the article concludes: “The fact that the section of the ruling class now on top is openly abandoning half of Europe to the Soviet Union shows that the situation is changing rapidly and the war danger is increasing.”
The Klonsky interview states that “the main blow” should be directed “against the Soviet Union,” but says that both the charge that this leads to class collaboration and the trend toward a united front against the USSR are “lies which have been fabricated in Moscow.” This in spite of the fact that William Hinton, chairman of the U.S.-China People’s Friendship Association has stated: “While a united front of all forces against the main danger [the USSR] is not ruled out in the future, the conditions for it do not exist at present,” and “the conditions” involve the reluctance of the U.S. “to unite with the wide coalition of popular forces necessary to contain the Soviet threat.”