First Published:The Workers’ Advocate Vol. 10, No. 2, February 25, 1980.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Revisionism and opportunism means capitulation to the side of imperialism. The stand of the revisionists and opportunists in regard to the Soviet Union’s fascist aggression against Afghanistan is providing the people with another clear exposure of their thoroughly treacherous and counterrevolutionary nature. In the most criminal fashion the pro-Moscow revisionists of the “CPUSA” along with their trotskyite fellow travellers are yelling themselves hoarse in defense of the Soviet social-imperialist barbaric occupation. And equally criminal are the pro-Beijing social-chauvinists of the “CP(M-L)” who are tearing their hair out about the Soviet invasion for the sole objective of recruiting the masses behind the U.S. war machine of imperialism and slavery. By carrying out this low-life dirty work for one superpower or the other these two factions of revisionist so-called “communists” and so-called “Marxist-Leninists” are only demonstrating their true nature. They are fake “anti-imperialists” and authentic bought-and-paid- for lackeys of imperialism and social-imperialism. They are fraudulent “revolutionaries” and real defenders of the two warmongering superpowers which are the two biggest counter-revolutionaries and enemies of the people on the face of the earth.
The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan by 90,000 Soviet social-imperialist troops is a wanton act of aggression. It has no other objective than the complete enslavement and subjugation of the freedom-loving Afghan people. With their tens of thousands of troops and their tanks and heavy army, the Soviet New Tsars hope to keep their newest puppet regime in Kabul in power and to mercilessly plunder the people and resources of Afghanistan. This is a further powerful demonstration of the fact that the once genuinely socialist and Marxist-Leninist Soviet Union of the days of Lenin and Stalin has been converted into a thoroughly social-fascist and social-imperialist state under the capitalist dictatorship of the new revisionist bureaucratic bourgeoisie. The Marxist-Leninist Party and the working class and progressive people of the U.S. and the people the world over have vigorously condemned the Soviet Union’s unbridled aggression against Afghanistan. They also ardently support the struggle of the patriotic Afghan people to destroy the Soviet invaders and to liberate their homeland.
For its part, the U.S. imperialists have seized on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to whip up war hysteria in order to hide the feverish intensification of its own warmongering activities. The U.S. imperialists continue to step up their blockade and counterrevolutionary plots against the Iranian revolution. And Carter has outlined his “Carter doctrine” of imperialist slavery and war which has placed the entire Persian Gulf region within the zone of “vital interests” of U.S. imperialism. This doctrine is designed to justify the complete subjugation of the oil-rich Persian Gulf to the “vital interests” of U.S. imperialism and to provide a “security framework” of U.S. aggressive activities throughout the Middle East and the world.
Thus, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan marks the further deepening of the inter-imperialist rivalry between the two superpowers for the seizure of oil resources and strategic positions. Within this rivalry the Chinese social- imperialists too are playing an ever greater role, openly siding with the United States in order to advance its own global ambitions. And as the events in Iran and Afghanistan show, this rivalry is directed first and foremost at the oppression and exploitation of the people, at liquidating their independence and freedom and putting down the revolution.
For this reason it is necessary to vigorously condemn the revisionist and social-chauvinist and opportunist agents of imperialism and social-imperialism who are taking advantage of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan for the purpose of attempting to mobilize the people behind the ambitions of one superpower or the other.
On the one hand, Gus Hall’s revisionist “Communist Party of the USA” has once again obediently put its seal of approval on the barbaric crimes of the Soviet revisionist counter-revolutionaries. The revisionist “CPUSA” is cynically hailing the Soviet invasion and occupation as a “victory for socialism” and “revolution” in Afghanistan! These revisionist gangsters are worshippers of the “Brezhnev doctrine” of so-called “limited sovereignty” according to which the Soviet New Tsars have granted themselves the right to wantonly trample on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other peoples. According to the perverted social-imperialist mentality of the “CPUSA” revisionists, the struggle against U.S. imperialism and for social progress can only be defended by Soviet tanks and bayonets. However, in reality these tanks and bayonets are bearers only of social-imperialist slavery and the revisionist counter-revolution. It is the sad fate of the “CPUSA” revisionists that they are the lackeys of two masters. While these decrepit opportunists are the most notorious reformists and defenders of the U.S. big bourgeoisie, at the same time they are obedient public relations men for the aggression and imperialism of the Soviet New Tsars.
In the company of the pro-Moscow revisionists stand the various trotskyist sects and an assortment of other notorious scum. The trotskyist “Socialist Workers Party” and the jumble of other trotskyist disrupters are praising the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan with the same cynical social-imperialist arguments as their “CPUSA” cohorts. One infamous gang of trotskyist provocateurs has even raised the slogan “Hail the Red Army!”. Such is the nature of the trotskyite posture of “opposition” to Soviet revisionism! Of course, it is well known that the trotskyists are professional slanderers and vilifiers of the Soviet Union of the days of Lenin and Stalin when it was genuinely socialist and revolutionary. It is the trotskyites who have written a thousand and one books to vilify Stalin and to portray the glorious Red Army of his day which destroyed Nazi fascism as an army of “Stalinist tyranny” and “aggression”. However, for the Soviet modern revisionists’ army of social-imperialist aggression, the trotskyists have only the most ardent words of praise. Obviously, the trotskyists are not opposed in the slightest to Soviet revisionism but are, in fact, the fellow travellers of the “CPUSA” in defending the Soviet revisionist counter-revolution.
On the other hand, the other opportunists, the social-chauvinist followers of the Chinese revisionist theory of “three worlds”, are equally obedient lackeys of imperialism. Michael Klonsky’s so-called “CP(M-L)” and the other “three worlders” are the most ardent defenders of U.S. imperialism and its policy of war and aggression. Their single mission in life is to line up the working class and people behind the war chariot of the U.S.-China aggressive alliance under the slogan that the U.S. proletariat should “direct its main blow at the Soviet Union”. Like their mentors in Beijing, these social-chauvinists are unbridled warmongers. They outdo the imperialist bourgeoisie itself in flaunting their virulent chauvinism.
The main plank of these Pentagon-socialists is that the American people and the people of the whole world must climb aboard the U.S. war machine as the only way to postpone the allegedly imminent outbreak of World War III. Now with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the “CP(M-L)” is outdoing the U.S. imperialist warmongers in their criminal attempts to foment war hysteria. “Has World War III begun in Afghanistan?” was the headline across the top of the January 7 issue of their social-chauvinist ragThe Call.Constructing a hystericalscenario of the “Soviet Juggernaut” “steamrolling across Asia and Africa” the social-chauvinists are openly calling on the people not only to abandon the struggle against the U.S. imperialists and the other imperialists and reactionaries but to unite with them in a “united effort” against the Soviet Union. These hired scribblers in the pay of the State Department policy makers shamelessly write: “it is folly to fight all enemies at once, or to fight alone. Better to single out the main source of hegemonism and aggression and unite all who can be united to resist it.” Of course, for such brilliant “three worlds” strategists it is indeed “folly” to even pretend to “fight” U.S. imperialism because they have long ago united with it against the proletariat and people of the world. And with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan they are more explicitly than ever spelling out their strategy of uniting “all who can be united” behind the warmongering and aggressive policies of the U.S. government. As The Callputs it: “U.S. government action can be seen only as one component part of a worldwide effort against the Soviet war machine.”
In fact, in league with the most case-hardened warmongering politicians, the “three worldists” are positively ecstatic that Carter has “finally” “come around” to their “hard-line” position of stepped-up aggression and rattling of sabers. “Faced with such obvious threats to its longstanding position of dominance in the world, the U.S. government has begun to take concrete measures against Soviet expansion.... Although these moves are doubtlessly designed to further U.S. imperialism’s own quest for world power, they are positive in that they present obstacles to Soviet aggression, which is the main threat to world peace.” (The Call, January 28, 1980) What unabashed and total enthusiasm for imperialism! The “concrete measures” “designed to further U.S. imperialism’s own quest for world power” and to consolidate its “longstanding position of dominance in the world” have become a “positive” force for “world peace”!
It should be pointed out that the “three worlds” revisionists do not support the Afghan people and genuine patriots in their liberation struggle. Rather, they support the designs of U.S. imperialism in arming its own reactionary mercenary bands. They applaud the interventionist activities of U.S. imperialism in exactly the same manner and with the identical superpower chauvinist logic with which the “CPUSA” revisionists apologize for Soviet social-imperialist aggression. The pro-Moscow revisionists have concocted the hoax that the victims of U.S. imperialism would be defenseless and done for without Soviet tanks and other forms of “solidarity with the Soviet Union”. In the same fashion, the pro-Beijing revisionists merely echo the U.S. superpower ultra-chauvinism that the fate of the “freedom” of the people and “peace in the world” resides under the U.S. nuclear umbrella and behind the Pentagon’s military might. As the January 21 edition of The Call so explicitly puts it: “No Asian nation or group of nations has the military might and resources to block a Soviet invasion without the aid of U.S. technology and arms support”! Thus, these social-chauvinist lackeys have taken to whimpering that “the Carter administration’s actions have been only partial”, that U.S. imperialism must “make a heavier commitment” to “military security” and intervention and aggression in Asia and across the globe!
But, contrary to the lies and pseudo-logic of the revisionists of all hues, for the people to fall into the trap of lining up with one superpower in order to defend themselves from the other superpower means to follow a suicidal course. It means to fall prey to the ravages of one ferocious monster in the struggle against the other. For the purpose of laying this trap, the propaganda of both superpowers has created the idea that no people can stand on their own two feet and guarantee their own freedom and independence outside of the “sphere of influence” of either Washington or Moscow, without their so-called “protection” and tutelage. But in fact, it is only through smashing the heads of both superpowers and the other imperialists and reactionaries that the people can realize their genuine liberation and freedom. The present propaganda that the Afghan people or any other people can not rise up and on the basis of their own efforts liberate their country from the foreign yoke and take the path of independent development is totally false.
Look forexample at the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania. While a small country, socialist Albania consistently pursues the Marxist-Leninist line of the Party of Labor of Albania of relentless opposition to U.S. imperialism, Soviet and Chinese social-imperialism and all imperialism and reaction and vigorously supports the Marxist-Leninists and the proletariat and the people of the world in their revolutionary struggle. The brilliant Albanian example shows that genuine liberation and freedom of the people cannot be safeguarded by placing it in the hands of one superpower or the other. To the contrary, to side with one superpower against the other means to betray the working class and people and join the counter-revolutionary camp of the imperialist superpowers.
The Marxist-Leninist Party vigorously opposes the revisionist and trotskyist apologists of Soviet social-imperialism and its barbaric invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. At the same time the Marxist-Leninist Party vehemently condemns the social-chauvinist “three worldist” class traitors that advocate stepped-up “U.S. government action”, aggression and preparation for war. The Marxist-Leninist Party, USA is the party of the working class and it is absolutely loyal to the class interests of the proletariat, to Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. The watchword of the proletariat is that its principal enemy is at home. The working class and people are resolutely opposed to U.S. imperialist aggression and its preparations for war. The working and progressive people will never support the “Carter doctrine” for the enslavement of the people of the Middle East, nor the U.S. imperialist blackmail against the Iranian revolution, nor the U.S. imperialists’ plans to sink its own claws into the flesh of the Afghan people. At the same time, the working class and its Marxist-Leninist Party resolutely oppose all the other imperialists, warmongers and reactionaries including Soviet and Chinese social-imperialism. Despite the ravings of all the revisionists and social-chauvinists, the Marxist-Leninist Party does not consider that it is “fighting alone” because it opposes both superpowers and all imperialism. On the contrary, it is the working class and its Marxist-Leninist Party which are fighting in solidarity with the proletariat and people of the entire world who are fighting for liberation and socialism and to destroy these international barbarians once and for all.