First Published: The Call, Vol. 3, No. 12, September 1975.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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In a glaring exposure of the Soviet Union’s role as “socialist in words, imperialist in deeds,” this superpower has played the main role in splitting Angola’s national liberation movement and causing civil war.
Using the cover of “aid” to the Angolan people, the Soviet revisionists have sought to manipulate one liberation organization against the other two. This has created the conditions for civil war among the three groups, and has led directly to the Portuguese government stepping into Angola and assuming power once again.
For over a decade, Angola’s three liberation organizations have bravely led the armed struggle against Portuguese colonialism. These organizations are the Angolan National Liberation Front (FNLA), the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). All three of these groups have received the backing of the Organization of African Unity as legitimate representatives of the Angolan people.
But now the Soviet Union has stepped in, seizing on some differences among the groups to proclaim one as “revolutionary,” another “non-revolutionary,” and the third “counter-revolutionary.” Even at the very moment when the three groups were meeting in Kenya to work out principles of unity, the Soviet Union was beginning massive shipments of arms to one particular group. These arms are of the type for capturing and holding urban centers – including tanks and armoured personnel carriers. Now the Moscow revisionists are urging certain forces to set up their own power base in the capital city of Luanda and unilaterally declare independence from Portugal, and launch all-out war on the other liberation forces.
The Soviet splitters, however, will not succeed in their attempts to dominate Angola. The June summit in Kenya, which included all three liberation organizations, pledged that the fight against colonialism comes before any political or ideological differences.
The 3,000-word communique issued at that time guaranteed the right to free political activity for all the groups, the formation of a unified national army, and joint work to neutralize reactionary forces inside the country and expel the former secret police. The three groups also affirmed that the Cabinda region is an integral part of Angola and must be defended.
The decision on Cabinda was especially important since imperialist interests such as Gulf Oil Co. were trying to “liberate” the oil-rich Cabinda enclave from the rest of Angola. But now that the USSR has deepened and fomented splits among the liberation forces, Gulf Oil has been given a free hand to step up its own splitting activities in Cabinda.
Another tactic the Soviet social-imperialists have used is wholesale slanders against the People’s Republic of China and the aid it has given the Angolan movement. Wild charges are thrown in hopes of covering the USSR’s own tracks. But the fact is that China has maintained a principled stand of support and aid to all the genuine liberation forces in Angola, consistently adhering to the road of non-interference in the internal affairs of the Angolan people.
With formal independence set for November 11, the Soviet Union is guilty of the worst degree of sabotage and imperialist penetration in Angola. They are trying to turn the Angolan people’s historic victory against colonialism into a pawn in their superpower rivalry with the U.S. They are forcing a dangerous and deadly situation on the Angolan people in their desperate bid for world domination.
The Angolan people do not welcome what the USSR has been doing. For example, Soviet ships met with militant protest when they unloaded weapons disguised as “medical supplies” in Luanda harbor.
The people of Angola have been tempered in their 500 year struggle against Portuguese domination. Ultimately, no foreign power will be able to halt their long-sought goal of independence.