First Published: Resistence, Vol. 8, No. 10, November 1977.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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This is the presentation prepared by the League for Proletarian Revolution (Marxist-Leninist) for the Conference on the International Situation sponsored by the Revolutionary Communist League M-L-M on October 15th in New York. Time limitations compelled us to edit the presentation in the event but we are printing it in full today.
Although we are in the process of thoroughly summing up the event, we firmly believe that overall the^ conference was a good initiative toward bringing clarity in one of the most burning issues for Marxist-Leninists and other revolutionaries the world over.
Presentations were delivered at the conference by representatives from the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), the Pan African Congress (PAC), the Iranian Student Association (ISA) and the Ethiopian Student Union in North America (ESUNA). The Anti-Imperialist Cultural Union (AICU) made a cultural presentation consisting of a puppet show.
A scientific understanding of the present international situation is a must for all revolutionaries the world over. Today, it is impossible to correctly analyze the problems facing a particular revolution, in our case the proletarian revolution in the United States, without taking into consideration the class forces and the correlation of those forces in the international arena, the development of the contradictions in the world, etc. We have to make the analysis not as an intellectual endeavour, in the abstract; but as part of our-preparation for waging proletarian revolution.
In this spirit, we have agreed to participate in this conference and deliver this short presentation on the international situation and our tasks. For us, the center of the discussion, the focus of it, has to be the U.S. proletarian revolution and the tasks facing us as a detachment of the international proletariat. Any attempts to make this conference something else, any attempts to substitute phrasemongering, name calling and quotes learned by heart for the concrete analysis of concrete conditions will encounter our most resolute opposition. We call on all comrades and friends here present to act in the same way.
In the same manner, we will oppose all attempts by those who will endeavor to take this opportunity in which a polemic on fundamental questions of principle is unfolding in the midst of the international communist movement to launch slanderous attacks against the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania. We consider this polemic to be of great importance to all revolutionaries the world over, and it is our task to study it seriously, to examine the arguments in the light of the universal truths of Marxism-Leninism Mao Tse-tung Thought, and on the basis of this analysis, put forward our position on the existing differences. It is also our task to approach the matter patiently, to look for ways of resolving the contradictions, no matter how serious they are, for it is the sacred duty of all communists to uphold and strengthen the unity of the international communist movement.
It is not genuine Marxist-Leninists, but counterrevolutionaries who will engage in such a polemic with the aim of further widening the differences, of splitting, rather than striving to achieve principled unity. The CPC and the PLA are two great fraternal parties that have been correctly leading both in theory and in practice, the international communist movement for the past decades. We are certain, and we will fight for this, that as the present contradiction in the international communist movement is resolved, it will result in the greater unity and vigor of that movement, and in its greater success in the task of uniting all those forces that can be united to defeat our common enemy, imperialism and all reaction, particularly the two superpowers.
Talking about the relation between a particular revolutionary struggle and the international situation as a whole, comrade Stalin put forward that:
Formerly the proletarian revolution was regarded exclusively as the result of the internal development of a given country. Now, this point of view is no longer adequate. Now the proletarian revolution must be regarded primarily as the result of the development of the contradictions within the world system of imperialism, as the result of the breaking of the chain of the world imperialist front in one country or another. (Stalin, Foundations of Leninism, page 29)
Marxist-Leninists in the United States have then to know both the concrete conditions confronted by the U.S. proletarian revolution and the concrete conditions of the world proletarian revolution, and we have to know both well. If we limit ourselves to just dealing with our national situation, the scope of our analysis will be narrow; we will be isolating ourselves from that great revolutionary trend well defined by the Chinese comrades under the slogan: “Countries want independence, nations want liberation and the peoples want revolution.” On the other hand, if we become “experts” on the international situation and know too little about what is going on in our country, we will not be able to fulfill our task of defeating the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie. It is not China and Albania, already under the dictatorship of the proletariat, that we have to liberate, but the U.S. multi-national proletariat, the oppressed nations and nationalities in the U.S.
It is of utmost importance, and this is the fundamental point that we want to get across in our presentation, to understand that although in content proletarian revolution is internationalist, in its form it is national. This concretely means that first and foremost the task of the U.S. multinational proletariat is to settle accounts with the US imperialist bourgeoisie, that first and foremost it is our duty to carry out proletarian revolution in the U.S.
In brief, all talk about the international situation, about main enemies and dangers, about trends, about danger of war, etc., in the absence of a real commitment to the task of carrying out proletarian revolution in the U.S. is pure idle talk and phrase mongering. That is why we consider it proper that before we enter into an analysis of the world situation, we not only stress that our main responsibility with the international proletariat and all other oppressed peoples, and nations of the world is to defeat the U.S. bourgeoisie but also briefly enumerate the most important tasks facing us, in relation to the U.S. proletarian revolution.
1. First of all, the central task facing us is the building of a genuine Marxist-Leninist Communist Party. The party does not exist nor is it a settled question. Without that party it is impossible to carry out proletarian revolution in the US or anywhere else in the world.
2. The struggle against revisionism, right and “left” opportunism, trotskyism, etc. We cannot build our party and we cannot bring class consciousness to the multinational proletariat, win over its advance representatives to communism, imbue them with the party building spirit, etc., without carrying out a tit-for-tat struggle against all forms of revisionism and opportunism. Our fire has to be concentrated at this moment on the main danger, which is revisionism and right opportunism, without letting down our guard against “left” opportunism.
3. Lead the working class and oppressed nationalities in the struggle against the U.S. imperialists, in defense of democratic rights, to improve working and living conditions, against the menace of fascism, to resolutely oppose arms expansion and war preparations, to defend world peace by opposing the superpowers’ war preparations; at the same time we support the revolutionary struggles of the third world. These are in a nutshell what to us defines the character and the scope of the struggle for proletarian revolution in the U.S. at present.
With this always in mind, we will then deal with the international situation.
In analyzing the world situation, in looking at world politics and economics as a whole, we have to start by analyzing the fundamental contradictions in the world today. These are:
1. The contradiction between socialism and imperialism. This is a contradiction between two fundamentally different social systems, between the countries under the dictatorship of the proletariat and the countries under the dictatorship of monopoly capital.
2. The contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. This is the fundamental contradiction of the capitalist system. It is the result of the contradiction between social production and individual appropriation.
3. The contradiction between the oppressed nations, particularly the third world, on the one hand, and imperialism, especially the two superpowers, on the other.
4. The contradictions among imperialist countries and among monopoly capitalist groups, especially between the two superpowers.
All these contradictions are interrelated and influence one another. The same holds true for the struggles that each of these contradictions give rise to. No one of these contradictions is, from the standpoint of theory, always the main contradiction, and practice has confirmed this consistently. But one of them has to be the main one at a given time.
We understand that today that main contradiction is between imperialism, especially but not exclusively the two superpowers, and the oppressed nations of the third world. The areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America are the storm center of world revolution where the national liberation struggles are the main force dealing direct blows to all imperialisms. The contradictions of the world are concentrated in these areas. The victories of the national liberation struggles of Vietnam, Kampuchea and Laos, the defeat of Portuguese imperialism in Africa the moving forward of the revolutionary process in Azania, Zimbabwe and Namibia, the marching forward of the Ethiopian and Eritrean struggles, the heroic struggle of the Palestinian people, are just some of the many examples of why it is in the third world and no place else, the area in which the contradictions of the world are concentrated. And the result of those victorious struggles is the weakening of the imperialist system as a whole. Comrade Stalin pointed out as early as 1925:
The colonial countries constitute the principal rear of imperialism. The revolutionization of this rear is bound to undermine imperialism not only in the sense that imperialism will be deprived of its rear, but also in the sense that the revolutionization of the East is bound to give a powerful impulse to the intensification of the revolutionary crisis in the West. (Stalin, “The Revolutionary moment in the East.”)
What Stalin saw with the telescope of Marxism-Leninism, we are living today.
We consider as a correct Marxist-Leninist analysis of the present international situation the three worlds thesis advanced by our comrades of the Communist Party of China. This thesis takes into account the following profound changes in the world since the 50’s:
1. The restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union and many former socialist countries of Eastern Europe.
2. As a result of this capitalist restoration the emergence of Soviet social-imperialism, a new superpower that contends with U.S. imperialism for world hegemony and constitutes, together with the U.S., the main enemy of the world’s peoples.
3. The disintegration of the socialist camp as a result of the rise of revisionism to power in many of the former components of the camp.
4. The emergence of a powerful and victorious national liberation movement in Africa, Asia and Latin America that is capable of bringing imperialism to defeat after defeat.
5. The loss on the part of the old imperialist powers, France, England, Portugal, etc. of most of their colonial possessions either as a result of victorious national liberation struggles or at the hand of the superpowers.
Taking into account all the above-mentioned facts, the Chinese comrades advanced the three worlds thesis which in brief states that:
The two hegemonic powers, the Soviet Union and the United States, are the biggest international exploiters and oppressors of today and the common enemies of the people of the world. The third world countries suffer the worst oppression and hence put up the strongest resistance; they are the main force combating imperialism, colonialism and hegemonism. The second world countries have a dual character; on the one hand they oppress, exploit and control the third world countries, and on the other they are controlled, threatened and bullied by both hegemonic powers in varying degrees. Chairman Mao’s thesis differentiating the three worlds gives a correct orientation to the present international struggle and clearly defines the main revolutionary forces, the chief enemies, and the middle forces that can be won over and united, enabling the international proletariat to unite with all the forces that can be united to form the broadest united front in class struggles against the chief enemies on the world arena. This strategic formulation conforms to the strategic requirements of the contemporary struggles of the international proletariat and the oppressed people and nations of the world and also of the struggle for the triumph of socialism and communism. It is the correct strategic and tactical formulation for the world proletariat in the present era and its class line in its international struggle. (Peking Review #35, 1977, page 41)
In upholding this correct Marxist-Leninist position, we have to oppose the following incorrect views.
1. The one that fails to acknowledge the profound changes in the world situation and insists on the existence of the two camps–the imperialist and the socialist–and makes the contradiction between these two camps the principal contradiction in the world today.
2. The one that fails to realize that although both superpowers are the main enemy of the world’s peoples, there are differences among them that have to be taken into consideration. Specifically the facts that the Soviet Union is a newcomer as an imperialist superpower; that it covers itself under the cloak of socialism and is not as exposed as U.S. imperialism; and that the Soviet Union has not yet suffered any major military defeat like the U.S. in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, etc. All of this points to the fact that with all probability it is the Soviet Union who will trigger-the very possible new world war.
3. The one that, conscious of the facts mentioned above, incorrectly concludes that the Soviet Union is the main enemy and that U.S. imperialism can be an ally in the struggle against Soviet social-imperialism. We cannot depend on one superpower to fight the other; both are the main enemy and the United Front of all those that can be united has to be directed against both superpowers and not only against the Soviet Union. Failure to do this can lead, and has led, opportunists like the OL-CP, to a policy of class collaboration with their own bourgeoisie.
4. The one that raises the contradictions between the second and first worlds to an absolute and liquidates the collusion of the second world with the superpowers as well as the contradiction between the oppressed nations of the third world and the oppressor nations of the second world, and the contradictions between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in the second world. The United Front has to be an instrument of both unity and struggle. We have to support the second world when it struggles against the superpower hegemonism, bullying and control; but also oppose the bourgeoisie of the second world in the oppression of third world countries and of their own proletariat.
5. The one that raises the contradictions between the third world and the superpowers to an absolute and liquidates class distinctions and class struggle within the third world countries, as well as the contradictions between the third world and the second world countries.
6. The one that is incapable of going from the general to the specific and incorrectly puts forward that in all countries the two superpowers are the main enemy. In relation to the international proletariat, to the oppressed peoples and nations of the world, the two superpowers are the main enemy, but in relation to one particular country that is not the case most of the time.
In other parts of the presentation and in the following discussion we will be deepening our analysis on these questions.
The struggle for proletarian revolution, the national liberation struggles and the struggle for the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the socialist countries are the three great historical currents of our times. This is the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. In this era, which starts with the victorious October 1917 proletarian revolution in Russia, the national liberation struggles are part and parcel, and a very important component, of the contemporary proletarian world revolution.
The fact that it is the victorious national liberation struggles of the third world, the ones that are weakening imperialism the most, the ones that are putting off the start of a new world war, etc., is what makes the statement that the national liberation struggles of the third world are the main force dealing direct blows at imperialism and all reaction, a correct one.
Does this position deny in any form the question of the leading role of the proletariat in both the liberation movement and the proletarian revolution? We do not think that it does so in any way. Marxism-Leninism teaches us that on the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution no revolution can be carried out successfully without the leadership of the proletariat and its Marxist-Leninist Party. Precisely in the struggle against modern revisionism headed by the Khruschov revisionist clique, both the Chinese and Albanian comrades exposed the revisionist thesis that revolution can be led successfully through to the end without a communist party, etc. These views together with those of “peaceful transition to socialism”, “non-capitalist road of development”, etc. were destroyed by the great Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania in their defense of Marxism-Leninism during the great polemics of the 60’s.
These views were summed-up by Chairman Mao in his thesis on New Democracy, enriching in the process the treasure of Marxism-Leninism. The Khruschov revisionist clique was, in fact, the first to accuse the Chinese comrades of denying the leading role of the proletariat in the national liberation movement. They said:
The Chinese comrades want to ’correct’ Lenin and prove that hegemony in the world struggle against imperialism should go not to the working class, but to the petty bourgeoisie or the national bourgeoisie, even to ’certain patriotic minded’ kings, princes and aristocrats.(Open letter of the CC of the CPSU to the CC of the CPC July 14, 1963)
Any similarities between this slander made by the Soviet revisionists and the present slanders of forces like the opportunists of COUSML, MLOC, et al, are not mere coincidence. It is unity on line; it’s revisionism. The Communist Party of China answered the slander in their Fourth Comment on the Open Letter, under the title of Apologists of Neo-Colonialism. They stated:
On the basis of the worker-peasant alliance the proletariat and its party must unite all strata that can be united and organize a broad united front against imperialism and its lackeys. In order to consolidate and expand this united front it is necessary that the proletarian party should maintain its ideological, political and organizational independence and insist on the leadership of the revolution.
Our views are perfectly clear. In the national liberation movement it is necessary both to insist on leadership by the proletariat and to establish a broad anti-imperialist united front. What is wrong with these views? Why should the leadership of the CPSU distort and attack these correct views?
The proletariat is the only thoroughly revolutionary class in capitalist society and it is the only class with the capacity, the strength and the will to, in the process of liberating itself, liberate also all other oppressed. In the national liberation struggles of the third world, the proletariat and its Marxist-Leninist party are the forces who can lead the struggle successfully on the path of the New Democratic Revolution towards the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism.
It is precisely the existence of genuine parties like the Communist Party of Colombia Marxist-Leninist, the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party, the Communist Party of the Philippines, etc. that show us that indeed the national liberation struggles of those countries are moving in the correct path.
But we have to also take into account another teaching of Marxism-Leninism in relation to national liberation struggles, and that is that we cannot demand guarantee of proletarian leadership as a requirement for rendering support to national liberation struggles. To demand such guarantee is an incorrect view; in fact a trotskyite line. We support the struggle of the Puerto Rican people for independence although a thorough investigation of the revolutionary movement in that country tells us that that struggle is not led at this moment by the proletariat and its revolutionary party. The same happens in Panama and in many other countries whose struggles we support without making the support equivalent to support for a particular organization. In those places in which our analysis allows us to recognize the existence of genuine Marxist-Leninist parties, like in the cases of Ethiopia, the Philippines and Colombia mentioned earlier, then it is our responsibility to voice, together with our support for the struggle of that country our disposition to support by any means possible that particular vanguard organization. The crux of the matter in those struggles that are being led by forces other than the proletariat and its party is whether or not they weaken imperialism. And if they weaken imperialism, then it is our sacred duty to support them irrespective of who is leading them. Comrade Stalin precisely summed this up in the following way:
The unquestionably revolutionary character of the vast majority of national movements is as relative and peculiar as is the possible reactionary character of certain particular national movements. The revolutionary character of a national movement under the conditions of imperialist oppression does not necessarily presuppose the existence of proletarian elements in the movement, the existence of a revolutionary or a republican programme of the movement, the existence of a democratic basis of the movement. The struggle that the Emir of Afghanistan is waging for the independence of Afghanistan is objectively a revolutionary struggle, despite the monarchist views of the Emir and his associates, for it weakens, disintegrates and undermines imperialism. (Stalin, Foundations of Leninism, page 75)
We expect that nobody will accuse Comrade Stalin of denying the leading role of the proletariat. On the same question Stalin further concludes:
Lenin was right in saying that the national movement of the oppressed countries should be appraised not from the point of view of formal democracy, but from the point of view of the actual results, as shown by the general balance sheet of the struggle against imperialism, that is to say, not in isolation, but on a world scale. (Ibid, page 76)
This is a question of utmost importance especially in the present conditions in which the main enemy of the world’s peoples is not one particular imperialist country, but the two superpowers. Conditioning our support for a particular national liberation struggle on whether or not the national liberation movement opposes both superpowers is simply a repulsive theoretical justification to avoid fulfilling our proletarian internationalist’ duty. With this view people would not have had to support Vietnam in its struggle against U.S. imperialism and it’s lackeys because Vietnam did not oppose Soviet social imperialism. By the same token, such super-revolutionaries would not have to support the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people because the genuine representative of that struggle, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, does not recognize the existence of Soviet social-imperialism and so on and so forth.
Other forms in which this opportunist line is manifested is in making the two superpowers the main enemy in every particular struggle. The social chauvinists of the October League-Communist Party, for example, call for Both Superpowers Out of Puerto Rico, letting U.S. imperialism off the hook. In a country where 13% of its territory is occupied by U.S. military bases, in which there are thousands of U.S. troops stationed, in which the U.S. bourgeoisie controls almost all aspects of life, etc., and where the Soviet Union has no real presence, calling for the two superpowers out, is equivalent to covering for the U.S. bourgeoisie, equivalent to misleading the Puerto Rican people to stop concentrating their fire on their main enemy, the imperialist that exploits them since 1898. The fact that there are revisionists in P.R. like the PSP who follow the line of the Soviet social-imperialists from A to Z does not change this in any way.
Summing up this question, it is our responsibility to render support to all oppressed countries and nations in their struggle against imperialism, social imperialism, feudalism, bureaucrat capitalism, racism, Zionism, hegemonism, etc. As the proletariat of one of the two superpowers we have to champion the cause of liberation for all oppressed countries especially those oppressed by U.S. imperialism. Although our support to a particular struggle does not require the existence of a genuine Marxist-Leninist party leading that struggle, it is our responsibility to investigate the concrete conditions in which these struggles are being carried out in order to be able to establish fraternal ties with the genuine forces that exist in those countries.
The danger of a third world war is a real danger to which we have to pay close attention. The source of war is imperialism. It is the rivalry among the different imperialist bourgeoisies, in this case between the two superpowers, that is driving the world towards war. As Marxist-Leninists and revolutionary people our position toward imperialist war can be only one. We oppose it, although we do not fear it. We have to lead the struggle in this country for world peace, oppose arms expansion and war preparations, educate the working class and raise their political consciousness in order to effectively struggle against the imperialist war. If the imperialists unleash the war, it is our duty not to side with one or the other of the combattants, but to struggle for transforming that imperialist war into a civil war in which the proletariat fights its bourgeoisie.
Although the imperialist war between the two superpowers is a great possibility, we do believe that this war can be stopped or put off. In order to do so the international proletariat, the oppressed peoples and oppressed countries of the world and the socialist countries have to struggle tirelessly against both superpowers and all their lackeys. As early as 1950 Chairman Mao spoke on this question as follows:
The menace of war by the imperialist camp still exists, the possibility of a third world war still exists. But the forces thwarting that danger of war and preventing a third world war are rapidly developing, and the political consciousness of the broad masses of the people of the world is rising. A new world war can be prevented provided the Communist Parties of the world keep on uniting and strengthening the forces of peace and democracy that can be united. (Mao, Fight for a Fundamental Turn for the Better in the Financial and Economic Situation in China, June 1950)
We think that in the present conditions this view of Chairman Mao is still valid. And equally valid is the correct position advanced by the Chinese comrades that ’Either revolution stops war or war brings about revolution.’ Both possibilities exist and we have to prepare both ways.
We feel that the proposition, mainly advanced in this country by the petty-bourgeois intellectuals of WVO, that the question to decide is whether or not revolution will in fact stop war or the other way around, is a completely incorrect one. It is incorrect because it implies that our course of action will hinge upon whether we believe it will happen in one way or in the other. It is equivalent to saying that it the revolution is going to stop war then we have one task, but that if war is going to bring about revolution, we have another task.
In fact the tasks of the proletariat are the same in the case of either eventuality. We have to wage the struggle against war and for revolution. The common struggle of the international proletariat, of the socialist countries and oppressed peoples and countries of the world for peace and the world proletarian revolution is what creates the conditions for revolution to stop war. And if in the course of that struggle the superpowers dare unleash an imperialist war, then the forces of revolution must be prepared to assure that the outcome of that imperialist war is revolution on many fronts. Every day that we win, every day that our common struggle puts off the start of a war, is one more day that we have to advance the revolutionary process. Time is in favor of the peoples of the world and only through revolutionary struggle can peace be won.
It is important that at the same time that we resolutely oppose the superpower war preparations and all imperialist wars we also concretely show our support for the national liberation struggles and the civil wars launched by the proletariat against the bourgeoisie in the capitalist countries. These struggles are also wars but of a different kind. Wars for freedom, for the emancipation of labor, for socialism. We must not only support these just wars, but we must also wage them against our own bourgeoisie, this should be our battle cry in case of the starting of a new imperialist war. Let us transform the imperialist war into a civil war in the capitalist countries and into a national liberation war in the oppressed countries.
In terms of opposing the superpowers’ war preparations there are definitely important tasks that we must carry out. We have to oppose staunchly each an every attempt of the two superpowers to build up their arms capabilities. In this respect, we want to categorically condemn the social-chauvinists of the October League-Communist Party who have the nerve to criticize President Carter because he stopped the building of the B-l bomber. In the footsteps of the renegade Kautsky and the Second International, the O.L.-C.P. is objectively allying themselves with their own bourgeoisie. Their accusation to the U.S. bourgeoisie of “appeasing” the Soviet Union, their support for NATO, their defense of the Shah of Iran... of the new Panama Treaty, etc., can be understood in no other context. This is outright class collaboration. We definitely oppose the B-l bomber, the Neutron Bomb, the sending of weapons to NATO and each and every attempt of the U.S. bourgeoisie to keep and improve its military capabilities. U.S. imperialism is one of the two superpowers, and it is, together with the other superpower, the main enemy of the world’s peoples, and their military strength can only bring more harm, more oppression to the world’s peoples. This policy pursued by the O.L.-C.P. was the same line pursued by the CPUSA under Browder. And we all know that this line brought the formerly revolutionary CPUSA to become the mouthpiece of modern revisionism and Soviet social-imperialism that it is today. The O.L.-C.P. obviously gets more than the name from the old CPUSA. It gets the same line of class collaboration and social-chauvinism and will end in the same garbage can of history.
The case of NATO best illustrates this policy of class collaboration. The OL-CP has consistently advocated the arming and strengthening of NATO by U.S. imperialists. They went as far as to attack President Carter because he banned the building of the B-l Bomber. Now, is it or is it not a fact that NATO is an integral part of the military strength of the U.S. imperialism? Is it a fact or not that, to use President Carter’s words, ’NATO is the heart of the U.S. foreign policy’? Is it a fact or not that the building of the Neutron Bomb by the U.S. has been conditioned to its use by the NATO forces, who according to Carter, ’are the only ones that need it’? Only those who substitute gymnastics for dialectics can boldly say that in order to fight against their own bourgeoisie, first their bourgeoisie must strengthen itself militarily as much as possible. Regardless of how much the OL-CP tries to cover it, reality is a stubborn fact that betrays their real position. They have taken sides in the very possible war between the two superpowers. They are–a la Kautsky-allying with their own bourgeoisie. (Although they tried to play around with words and quotes, objectively, the RCL M-L-M put forward the same class collaborationist line in relation to NATO during the conference. Ed. RESISTANCE)
At the same time, we oppose the Soviet Union’s military build up. Just as we oppose NATO, we oppose the Warsaw Treaty. This is just another attempt of the Soviet social-imperialists of consolidating their forces in their strive for world hegemony. We strongly condemn the Soviet social-imperialists’ breach of maritime limits and threats to the European continent, particularly their concentration on the Kola peninsula. In their thirst for world domination they have reinforced their naval power and they attempt to bully Europe by sending submarines equipped with ballistic missiles pointed at the most important industrial cities of Europe. We especially oppose and condemn their military buildup along their border with the People’s Republic of China in an attempt to intimidate the Chinese people. Their military manuevers in the Baltic Sea, using as imaginary enemies the Northern European countries, their attempts to pressure Norway into recognizing “special rights” over the Spitzberg Archipelago, their attempt to control the strait of Denmark, the Feroe Islands, the waters adjacent to Greenland, Iceland and Scotland, threatens the security of Europe. We must also be vigilant and expose their attempts to subvert the national liberation struggles of the third world. Posing as a socialist country and as ’natural allies’ of these movements, and using Cuban troops, they try to control these countries and rob them of their natural resources. We must expose and condemn these actions just as we oppose the maneuvers of U.S. imperialism.
In summing up this point, we reiterate our commitment to wage, and tirelessly struggle for, proletarian revolution and peace, to oppose all superpower war preparations, especially those carried out by the U.S. bourgeoisie. To oppose all and every’, buildup of arms, the selling of arms to U.S. lackeys like the NATO forces, the Shah of Iran, etc. To talk about revolution without resolutely opposing our own bourgeoisie is very fashionable in this country, but contrary to the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism Mao Tse-tung Thought.
Comrades and friends, in socialist China and Albania, the Chinese and Albanian people under the leadership of the CPC and PLA, have scored tremendous victories in the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat in those countries.
In Africa the struggle of the people of Azania, Zimbabwe and Namibia is near victory. Revolutionary situations are developing in the horn of Africa where the struggle of the Ethiopian and Eritrean masses have brought the Soviet social-imperialist-backed junta to chaos. In Angola, the Angolan masses show with their struggle that the victory of the Soviet social-imperialists and Cuban mercenaries that put Agostino Neto in power was just a temporary reversal in the motion forward of the Angolan revolution.
All around the world a vigorous Marxist-Leninist movement is growing in the struggle against modern revisionism. Genuine communist parties like the Communist Party of Australia, the Communist Party of Brazil, the Communist Party of Colombia M-L, the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party and many others are spreading in all corners of the world.
U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism are confronting a deep general crisis. This general crisis affects the whole imperialist world and has brought the reactionary bourgeoisie to disarray. With problems at home and abroad, the superpowers are resorting to all sorts of political maneuvers as well as direct armed intervention to try to maintain their power. But the peoples of the world are vigilant and every day are scoring victories over their class enemies.
The proletariat and oppressed masses of the capitalist countries are experiencing a new revolutionary upsurge in response to their bourgeoisies’ attempts to shift the burden of the crisis on to their shoulders. In strike after strike, protest after protest, the working class shows its capacity and willingness to struggle for its own emancipation, becomes ever more conscious of its historical mission, and organizes itself in preparation for the final onslaught against the capitalist system, for proletarian revolution, the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism.
All the struggles of the proletariat and oppressed masses for democratic rights, for better working and living conditions, against the menace of fascism and the danger of a new imperialist war concretely show how all the basic contradictions of the world are sharpening and developing in favor of the world’s peoples.
All these things point to what is the main trend in the world today. The trend of revolution which as a mighty force advances the cause of the world proletarian revolution.
It is important that we break with the view that because we are in the era of proletarian revolution, revolution is always the main trend. As a matter of fact, Comrade Stalin lays this out clearly:
There can be no doubt that in time the trends that are unfavourable for capitalism and favourable for the revolution must triumph, for imperialism is incapable of resolving the contradictions that are corroding it, for it is capable only of alleviating them for a time with the result that they break out again later on and manifest themselves with fresh destructive force. It is also beyond doubt, however, that at the present time the positive trends, that are favourable for capitalism, are gaining the upper hand.
That is the specific feature of the present international situation. (Stalin, The International Situation and the Tasks of the Communist Parties)
In this country the prize for the most anti-dialectical position on this question goes to the bourgeois intellectuals of the Workers’ Viewpoint Organization and its infamous two contending trends. According to this “innovation of Marxism” war and revolution are in a perfect equilibrium (the same occurs to the contradictions in the world) making it impossible to determine the main trend and the main contradiction. This metaphysical conception (now also shared by the October League-Communist Party under a different mask) has been a mere cover for their real line that war and counterrevolution is the main trend. According to WVO the fact that there are no proletarian parties in the superpowers (at least they say something that’s true) makes war inevitable. Fantastic! Thanks to the typewriter of the “overall most correct line” the struggles of the third world peoples, the main force struggling against the two superpower hegemonism and the danger of a new imperialist war, is liquidated.
It’s obvious that without knowing which is the principal contradiction in the world today, without determining which is the main trend, it’s impossible to have a correct strategy and tactics for revolution. This is the ABC of Marxism. Therefore, it is not an accident that instead of real solutions to the very complex problems facing the U.S. proletarian revolution and the world wide proletarian revolution, we get gems, like the OL-CP7 asking us to direct the main blow to Soviet social-imperialism, and WVO, waiting for the new world war to bring us the revolution. WVO is wrong both in their ’official’ position of the two contending trends as well as in the position that they really uphold all along-that war is the main trend and that revolution cannot stop war.
If the struggle of the third world peoples does not put off the imperialist war, Why is it then that we have not had a third world war already, despite the fact that there have not been genuine parties in the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. since the middle 50’s?
Temporary reversals like the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union, like the tragic events of Chile and Angola, do not deny the fact that it is revolution and not counterrevolution that is surging forward, that it is the factors that weaken imperialism and not those that strengthen it that have the upper hand in this period.
This is briefly our view of the present international situation. To the questions of what are our tasks we feel that we concretely have responded in the following way:
1. First and foremost wage proletarian revolution against the U.S. bourgeoisie.
2. Render resolute support to the national liberation struggles of the third world and to the struggles for proletarian revolution in the second world.
3. Oppose the superpowers’ war preparations, oppose all arms expansion and arms dealings, etc. of both superpowers.
4. Be part of and build the broad united front against the two superpowers, who are the main enemy of the world’s peoples.