First Published: The Call, Vol. 6, No. 41, October 24, 1977.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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What is life like in Kampuchea (Cambodia) today? What have been the activities of the Communist Party of Kampuchea during the last 17 years through which its existence has been secret? How did the Kampuchean people succeed in defeating U.S. imperialism?
The answers to these and other questions were given in a historic press conference held by Pol Pot during his recent visit to China. Pol Pot is the Secretary at the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and the Prime Minister of its government.
The interview is the most comprehensive account of the history of the Kampuchean revolution published to date and, as such, deserves careful study. Below, we reprint excerpts from the text published by the Hsinhua News Agency Oct. 3.
Recalling the birth and growth of the CPK in the ordeals of the struggle, Comrade Pol Pot emphasized that the people’s revolutionary movement can emerge victorious only when it is led by a revolutionary political party and guided by a correct line.
He said that class, class contradictions and class struggle have existed in Kampuchean society for many centuries. The Kampuchean people’s struggle dates back a long, long time.
They had fought unremittingly against the French colonialists following their invasion of the country. History gives witness to the lofty heroism of the embattled Kampuchean people who have advanced wave upon wave, defying all possible sacrifices. Yet their brave struggles had always ended in defeat.
“So we strove to find out why the revolution had failed invariably, by summing up our experience again and again,” Pol Pot said. “Finally, we came to see that the fundamental reason for the failures lay in the absence of a political party to lead the revolution and a correct political line to guide it. The lesson learned is of crucial importance for our revolution.
“The situation in our country in 1957 was marked by the steady upsurge of popular struggle, while there was at the same time international confusion as regards revolution and the line which the revolution should follow. The talk about the parliamentary road was also heard.”
He continued: “In the light of the concrete conditions in Kampuchean society, we summed up our own experience and lessons and also learned from the experiences of the world revolution. The domestic experience is that the enemy suppresses the revolution every day and the revolution suffers losses every day. For us, the parliamentary road will get nowhere.
“We also learned from the experiences of the world revolution, and in particular Comrade Mao Tsetung’s works, and the experience of the Chinese revolution played an important role at that time. ”
Pol Pot said that the Founding Congress of the Party was held Sept. 30, 1960, in Phnom Penh City, attended by 21 deputies.
The Communist Party of Kampuchea set forth the tasks for the country’s national democratic revolution. Pol Pot noted:
“By carrying out the national revolution, we mean to combat imperialism, win liberation and independence of the country and liberate the people, the peasants in particular.
“After putting forward the task of opposing imperialism, particularly U.S. imperialism, we set forth the task of opposing feudalism and the reactionary comprador bourgeoisie, thus confirming the basic forces and targets of the revolution. The principle of struggle we laid down is to arouse the masses boldly, bring into play their positive factors and rally the forces of the people of all nationalities to accomplish the tasks of the revolution.
“Therefore, we launched struggles both in the countryside and cities and took the countryside as base areas. We waged both overt and covert struggles with covert struggle as the basis. We waged both legal and illegal struggles with illegal struggle as the basis. We attached special importance to violent struggle, unfolding both violent political struggle and armed struggle with armed struggle as the main form.
“It took us just five years and one month to win victory in the people’s national liberation war, and this was a very short space of time.
“We had long before this acquired the basic conditions for waging the struggle, but our force was still relatively isolated and inadequate. The situation underwent a tremendous change after the Lon Nol clique staged the reactionary coup on March 18, 1970. The whole nation quickly swung over to the side of the revolution and rallied around the national united front or Kampuchea, and this force was extremely powerful.
“A broad national united front was thus formed on the basis of the worker-peasant alliance, a united front led and nurtured by our Party. After the reactionary coup, changes also took place in the world attitude toward us, and people throughout the world stood squarely behind us. This situation enabled our nationwide struggle to develop apace.
“First of all, we mobilized the masses of the people to rise in uprisings to seize political power in villages and townships. At the same time, we quickly expanded our armed forces, upgrading our military organization from the platoon and company to the battalion level and arming ourselves with weapons captured from the enemy.
“With the upsurge in the people’s uprisings, our armed forces grew rapidly and liberated 75% of the country’s territory by the end of 1970.”
Comrade Pol Pot spoke of the development and building of the revolutionary army in the course of the struggle and its monumental contributions to the liberation war. He said:
“Our party called on the army units to solve the problem of equipment self-reliantly and stressed that they must capture weapons from the enemy to arm themselves. During the five years of war, 80% of the weapons in the hands of the revolutionary army were captured from the enemy.
“Many divisional units had been formed in the large administrative regions by 1974, but guerrilla operation remained the principal form of warfare. This made it possible for the regular forces to concentrate their strength – to wipe out the enemy and capture major communications lines and strategic positions.” Ultimately, he said, victory was won on April 17, 1975. with the liberation of Phnom Penh. He added:
“After the nationwide victory in the revolutionary war, though there were many complex problems, the initiative was in our hands. We have successfully safeguarded the fruits of revolution, the people’s revolutionary state power and democratic Kampuchea. Factors for our success are legion. One of the important factors is the evacuation of city residents to the countryside.
“This was decided before victory was won, that is, in February 1975, because we knew that before the smashing of all sorts of enemy spy organizations, our strength was not strong enough to defend the revolutionary regime. Judging from the struggles waged from 1976 to 1977,the enemy’s secret agent network lying low in our country was very massive and complicated.
“But when we, crushed them, it was difficult for them to stage a comeback. Their forces were scattered in various cooperatives which were in our own grip.
“The second success is the solution of our people’s livelihood. Our 1976 harvest can, in the main, meet the people’s needs for livelihood. After the war, we had first of all to solve the problem of grain and the problem of people’s livelihood. A guarantee is thus provided for defending the people’s revolutionary political power and democratic Kampuchea. In solving the problem of grain, we have solved a basic problem.”
Recalling the tremendous success scored in the two years after nationwide liberation. Comrade Pol Pot said: “We are convinced that under the leadership of the Party and with the masses fully mobilized, the situation will grow even better. Although there will still be difficulties on our road ahead our future is bright.”