First Published: Resistencia, Vol. 10, No. 3, March 1979
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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OH, WHAT GREAT DEFENDERS OF PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM are those who uphold the idea of 2 camps! AND HOW vigilant these so-called revolutionaries are when it comes to exposing social chauvinism! Even Lenin and Stalin have to sit up and take notice.
The RCP attack on the Chinese Liaison Office during Teng’s visit is shining proof of such ’internationalism.’ Teng arrived as the representative of the People’s Republic of China, an underdeveloped third world country, a socialist motherland that had finally succeeded in forcing U.S. imperialism to recognize it as the legitimate government of China, and to pull its troops out of Taiwan. Now along come the super-revolutionaries of the RCP and their natural allies (a total of 6) burning effigies, breaking windows, and attacking the Chinese people’s representatives. The demonstrations by the RCP against Teng are in contrast to their lack of such campaign work when the Shah, Ian Smith, and others visited the U.S. But the RCP, KICK, and pro-Taiwan demonstrations taken together do not even compare to the overwhelming support by the American masses for normalization.
RCP did not demand that the U.S. bourgeoisie fulfill their part of the normalization (US troops out of Taiwan, no interference in the internal affairs of China); nor did they hail this victory over their own U.S. imperialists. Instead of acting like Marxist-Leninists within an imperialist country, they put on a display of social chauvinism that only serves the interests of the most reactionary sectors of the U.S. bourgeoisie (a la Goldwater) and Soviet social-imperialism while bringing discredit to the genuine Marxist-Leninist forces in the U.S.
Other members of the 2-world camp are just as “conscientious” about their proletarian ’duties.’ For instance, in Denver, at an anti-imperialist event in support of the Puerto Rican struggle (February 27, 1979), COUSML members and sympathizers made a rare public appearance. But they did not come to prove what great defenders they were of Puerto Rican independence, nor to out-do all others in exposing U.S. imperialism’s control of the Puerto Rican nation. About the Puerto Rican struggle, about U.S. imperialism, they said nothing. In fact, they never–not even once–spoke up. At the conclusion of the event we found out that COUSML and Co. had come to pimp off the Puerto Rican struggle and event. They had come to pass out leaflets announcing an activity of theirs which would be condemning China and the Three Worlds Theory.
One week later, we were given another dose of their ’staunch stand’ against social chauvinism. At a forum on the international situation, they brought up the Puerto Rican event to claim that the event had encouraged ’relying’ on the Puerto Rican state apparatus. In fact, it had merely been pointed out during the very course of the event that the struggle of the Puerto Rican masses had forced the governor of Puerto Rico to support the release of the five nationalist prisoners. Yet COUSML distorted this for the sake of finding any means necessary to attack the Three Worlds Theory and its defenders.
We cannot accept the militant sounding words of the 2-camp-ers who say they are the best defenders of proletarian internationalism, because their deeds are to the contrary. Their lack of support for the liberation struggles in Zimbabwe, Azania, Palestine, Kampuchea, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines is an integral part of their line and practice. It reduces itself to exploiting these liberation struggles in order to attack the People’s Republic of China, the Communist Party of China (CPC), and the Three Worlds Theory. In just this way their newspapers pay only lip service to these struggles, using them to launch another attack on the Three Worlds Theory. For a time, some of the 2-world-camp-ers did some work on the Eritrean struggle. But even that is coming to an end as the 2-camp-ers rush to get into line to condemn the Eritreans (COUSML and MLOC, for instance).
At the abovementioned forum, when asked their position on the Kampuchean invasion by Vietnam, the Marxist-Leninist Collective, KCRWC, and Wichita Communist Collective (all who unite with the anti-Three Worlds Theory line) told us they had basically no position. This is fully one year after repeated Vietnamese attacks against the Kampuchean nation; after the military pact between the Soviet Union and Vietnam; after the Vietnamese incursions into China and their harassment of Chinese nationals. We were told that these groups were “too small” to have an analysis on these questions. But it will be no surprise that after having said nothing about these issues for all that time, these same “small” groups will undoubtedly – in a matter of days – have, an analysis and launch attacks against the People’s Republic of China’s punitive expedition into Vietnam. In this way, the 2-campers objectively side with Soviet social-imperialism.
The RCP’s actions and other actions by groups which unite with the 2-camp theory will repeatedly follow the same track. They will seldom come to the assistance of third world struggles and groups, and even then will try to turn such work into forums for attacking the CPC and the Three Worlds Theory. Such exploitation of the liberation struggles has nothing in common with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedung Thought, and only serves the interests of all national chauvinists – whether in state power or not, whether in the U.S. or the U.S.S.R. Thus it is the task of the genuine Marxist-Leninists and the anti-imperialists to rid ourselves of these lice in order to continue to carry on our proletarian internationalist duties to one another. We must not allow them to carry out their trotskyite maneuverings which would disrupt the work of building an international united front against the two superpowers.