First Published: New Dawn, Vol. 5, No. 6, May 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Staunch opposition to the interference of the two superpowers in the internal affairs of the Angolan people, particularly directed at exposing the role of the Soviet Union, has resulted in sharp differences and struggle throughout the U.S. and the world. One such organization in the U.S standing in the front ranks to defend the treacherous role of Soviet social-imperialism has been the Communist Party U.S.A.
“People’s World,” official newspaper of the CPUSA, has launched an attack against New Dawn and the Coalition For Angolan Self-Determination (CASD) for standing firmly against superpower intervention in Angola and for upholding the Angolan people’s right to self-determination free from foreign interference. The CASD, representing a wide range of progressive and communist organizations and individuals in the S.F. bay area, has put forward a broad eight-point analysis of the Angolan situation pointing out that superpower contention in Angola is rooted in their struggle for world hegemony, that this contention poses a serious threat of world war, that the Soviet Union is the more aggressive and dangerous of the two superpowers, and that the threat of war posed by the two superpowers, and Soviet social-imperialism in particular, faces a growing opposition from the broad masses of working and oppressed people in the world today.
“People’s World” decries the exposure of Soviet social-imperialism as “foolish nonsense” aimed at proving that the “moon is made of green cheese.” However, showering their argument in such abusive talk only goes to show that when it comes time to defend the new tsars of Russia, the CPUSA has no just ground to stand on.
Soviet aggression against the Angolan people has been of the most brazen type and no amount of invectives can refute this. Turning Angolan against Angolan, the Soviet aggressors have trampled underfoot the sovereignty of the Angolan people, opening the door for all manner of foreign interference while using the opportunity to gain dominance and influence over U.S. imperialism in their contention for a strategic foothold in southern Africa. The rotten deeds of Soviet aggression include the dual tactic of claiming to be the “supporter of African national liberation movements” while transporting large quantities of personnel and arms by sea and air over a distance of more than 6, 000 miles resulting in the massacre of more than 150, 000 Angolan people. This is further proof that Soviet social-imperialism is the most deadly enemy of the Angolan people and of the whole African continent.
Recent history bears out the decadent features of Soviet social-imperialism. The recent breaking off of the Egyptian-Soviet “treaty of friendship and cooperation” by the Egyptian people under the leadership of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is a sharp repudiation and exposure of Soviet “aid” as nothing more than an instrument of neo-colonialism and a club to bully the Egyptian people into accepting an imposed state of “no war, no peace” in the Middle East.
The Kampuchean (Cambodian) people will never forget that the Soviet Union, dreaming up the alibi of “fratricidal war,” opposed the just war of national liberation waged against U.S. aggression and the Lon Nol regime in order to frustrate the Kampuchean people’s struggle for independence. In 1971, the Soviet Union instigated the forceful dismemberment of Pakistan for the purpose of worming its way into the Asian subcontinent and carving out spheres of influence. All this further exposes the treachery of Soviet social-imperialism.
These truths of the extreme belligerence of Soviet social-imperialism, its policy of sabotaging the national liberation struggles of oppressed peoples and nations and its fierce contention with U. S. imperialism for world hegemony are truths that dearly offend the Communist Party U.S.A.
In defending Soviet aggression in Angola, the CPUSA lays claim to the falsehood that Soviet “aid” was crucial in combatting South African intervention. It is true South African intervention in the internal affairs of the Angolan people must be thoroughly condemned and opposed. However, it is Soviet aggression – by splitting the three Angolan liberation organizations, and fomenting a state of civil war – that created the long-awaited opportunity for South African intervention. Using “aid” as a means to split the three liberation organizations and then using “opposition” to South African intervention to divert attention away from its own criminal deeds, Soviet social-imperialism has interfered in Angola in a big way.
The withdrawal on March 27 of South African troops from Angola, prompted by the extreme opposition from the people of Angola, the peoples of Africa and the entire world, has left Soviet interference in Angola in an awkward position. On the day the South African troops withdrew from the Angolan border town of Calai, it was reported that a mass demonstration was held there denouncing all foreign interference as the demonstrators shouted: “No Russian-Cuban intervention in Angola–Angola for the Angolans!”
In their frenzied defense of Soviet aggression in Angola, the CPUSA accuses New Dawn and the CASD with having joined an “alliance” with “anti-Soviet forces on the Right.” This bit of trickery is truly contemptible and outright demogogery. The “anti-Soviet” opposition by CASD is precisely anti-imperialist opposition, it is opposition to all imperialism, aimed particularly at the two superpowers and as such stands thoroughly opposed to both U. S. imperialism as well as Soviet social-imperialism. The U.S. “anti-Soviet Right” on the other hand represents an integral part of the U.S. ruling class, an integral part of U. S. imperialism in sharp contention with the new tsars of Russia for world hegemony. The “anti-Soviet” opposition of the U.S. “Right” is precisely inter-imperialist rivalry between the two world superpowers that strives to maintain the exploitative system of imperialism under its own rule and for its own profit. The so-called ”alliance” between anti-imperialist forces and imperialist forces, between CASD and the “anti-Soviet forces on the Right” is utterly absurd.
By conjuring up such accusations, the CPUSA attempts not only to obscure the imperialist essence of the Soviet Union today, but tries even harder to mislead the mass opposition to U.S. imperialism against the very forces that stand opposed to the two imperialist superpowers. This kind of demagogy earns only bitter contempt.
The treachery of the CPUSA attack further lies in spreading their degenerate influence among the growing sectors of the American people that are daily being drawn into spontaneous struggle against increasing capitalist exploitation. Exploiting this mass sentiment against U.S. imperialism, the CPUSA feigns ”anti-imperialist” opposition to U.S. imperialism in Angola to ride the crest of mass support while masking the danger of Soviet social-imperialism.
New Dawn, the CASD and other forces in the U.S. workers and communist movement as well as other progressive sectors of the American movement have become sharply aware of the necessity to deepen and further the exposure of Soviet capitalist restoration and Soviet foreign aggression. A resolute struggle against the CPUSA and their like can serve as a sure means to beat back the dangerous influence of these social-imperialist worshippers.
Owing to its total capitulation to U.S. imperialism and in its utter worship of Soviet social-imperialism, the CPUSA represents a most dangerous and backward trend within the international and U.S. workers and communist movement. Their preachings of a “peaceful transition” to socialism and reliance on the “parliamentary road” are basic revisions of the universal truths of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. Using such revisions in an attempt to obliterate the irreconcilable antagonism of interests between workers and oppressed people on one hand and the whole of the monopoly capitalist-imperialist system on the other, the revisionist CPUSA substitutes the line of class collaboration in place of class struggle by contriving the absurd theory of reliance on the monopoly capitalist class for social revolution while spreading the revisionist fallacy that the monopoly capitalist state can serve as a bargaining agent for the working class and oppressed people. Such a reactionary theory, running counter to the historical experience of class struggle, would condemn the working class to passivity and is of the greatest service to the rule of U.S. monopoly capital that directly controls the state apparatus.
The revolutionary teachings of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought consistently point out the historical necessity to establish the all-round independence of the working class and its vanguard Party in order to triumph in the world historic struggle to overthrow the capitalist state and establish socialism under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Reveling in their role as the direct U. S. sounding board of Soviet revisionist policy, it is no wonder that the CPUSA is bound to capitalist politics.
The revisionist CPUSA is an excellent teacher by negative example. Clinging to their “Communist Party” label, the CPUSA’s complete degeneration has served as invaluable learning material by negative example for the growing anti-revisionist workers and communist movement in the U.S. This latest CPUSA attack on New Dawn and the CASD reveals only more clearly their counter-revolutionary role and heightens vigilance to deepen the exposure of modern revisionism.