The Workers' Advocate

WORKERS, OPPRESSED NATIONS AND PEOPLE OF THE WORLD, UNITE!

NEWSPAPER OF THE CENTRAL ORGANIZATION OF U.S. MARXIST-LENINISTS

P.O. Box 11942, Chicago, Ill. 60611

Vol. 6, No. 3 [Note: newspaper originally incorrectly identified as issue number 2]

March 15, 1976 25¢

[Front page:

SUPPORT ZIMBABWE PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE AGAINST THE RACIST REGIME OF "RHODESIA"!;

ONLY REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE, NOT WOODCOCK'S "NATIONAL ECONOMIC PLANNING", CAN FIGHT AND ELIMINATE UNEMPLOYMENT AND CRISES;

Communists Resist Anti-busing Fascists at Louisville Factory]

--CONTENTS--

ANGOLAN PEOPLE FIGHT ON AGAINST SOVIET AGGRESSION! (See centerfold for UNITA interview and documents.)

SUPPORT ZIMBABWE PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE AGAINST THE RACIST REGIME OF "RHODESIA"!

ONLY REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE, NOT WOODCOCK'S "NATIONAL ECONOMIC PLANNING", CAN FIGHT AND ELIMINATE UNEMPLOYMENT AND CRISES

Communists Resist Anti-busing Fascists at Louisville Factory

RESIST THE FASCIST ATTACKS OF THE ANTI-BUSING MOVEMENT!

HAIL THE 13th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE INTERNATIONALISTS!

March 13, 1963 - - March 13, 1976

Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist) Hails the Internationalists

IN MEMORY OF PAUL ROBESON - GREAT FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE

DENOUNCE NEW U.S. IMPERIALIST BOMBING OF CAMBODIA!

THE PRINCIPLES OF THE PARIS COMMUNE ARE ETERNAL

QUOTATIONS FROM MARX AND ENGELS ON THE PARIS COMMUNE

The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and The Great Cultural Revolution

HAIL INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY-March 8, 1976!

EXCERPTS FROM A SPEECH BY COMRADE HARDIAL BAINS DELIVERED AT THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF REVOLUTIONARY AND PROGRESSIVE WOMEN ORGANIZED BY THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA (MARXIST-LENINIST) January 25, 1975

Five Years of Continual Backsliding

ANGOLAN PEOPLE FIGHT ON AGAINST SOVIET AGGRESSION!

150,000 PEOPLE SLAUGHTERED BY SOVIET MERCENARY TROOPS

SUPERFICIAL "RECOGNITION" AND CAMPAIGN OF LIES AND SLANDERS WILL NOT STOP THE STRUGGLE FOR TOTAL LIBERATION OF ANGOLA!

Who is "Supported By the West" in Angola?

Eyewitness Account of UNITA Liberated Area, January 13 - 27, 1976

UNITA:PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE UNTIL VICTORY

correction NOTE: UNITA's Official Position on the War in Angola

SUPPORT ZIMBABWE PEOPLE'S ARMED STRUGGLE AGAINST THE RACIST REGIME OF "RHODESIA"!

In southern Africa, and in Africa as a whole, the people's revolutionary struggles are raging.

In Zimbabwe (the country in southern Africa which the imperialists and racists call "Rhodesia"), the armed liberation struggle of the African people (Chimurenga - the war of national liberation) against the white racist minority regime of Ian Smith, which is backed by U.S. and British imperialism, has surged forward strongly in recent months and years, throwing Smith and his imperialist backers into a panic. ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union) and its military arm ZANLA (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army) have liberated a base area as large as the state of Mississippi in the northeast of the country, while on the northern border Mozambique has thrown off colonial rule entirely. The racist regime in Zimbabwe is tottering.

To head off its complete collapse, Ian Smith and his senior partner, John Vorster, the racist ruler of South Africa, have been attempting since October 1974 to suppress and liquidate the Zimbabwe people's armed struggle through the hoax of "detente" between oppressed and oppressor, hoping to force the Zimbabwe people to lay down their guns before victory -- immediate African majority rule -- is won. At the same time the racist regime has intensified its armed suppression of the Zimbabwe people, slaughtering its leaders and masses. These counter-revolutionary dual tactics of fraudulent "detente" combined with bloody suppression are instigated and supported by the two superpowers, U.S imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, along with British imperialism. Each of them deeply fears the creation of a liberated Zimbabwe, not only because it threatens their own profits and aggressive designs, but because it will also provide the Azanian ("South African") liberation fighters with a secure base on the border of South Africa from which to launch people's war against the Vorster regime. But the reactionary "detente" scheme met with a strong rebuff in 1975 by the militant Zimbabwe revolutionaries and people, led by ZANU, who rejected capitulation and vowed to continue the armed struggle until victory.

Smarting with defeat but unwilling to step down from the stage of history on their own accord, the racist regime and its imperialist masters have launched a new conspiracy to try to liquidate the Zimbabwe revolution. This time they conspired with their agents among the African people to wreck the revolution from within. Once the Zimbabwean revolutionaries had sternly opposed and defeated the "detente" fraud at the constitutional talks at Victoria Falls Bridge last August, the superpowers induced an accommodationist and reformist traitor faction in the ANC led by Joshua Nkomo, leader of ZAPU (Zimbabwe African People's Union), to split from the united front of the ANC and strike a dirty deal with Ian Smith, betraying the Zimbabwean revolution to the racist butchers. The intent of this new plot by the superpowers and their henchmen is to split the Zimbabwe people, divide the Organization of African Unity, make Africans fight Africans (as has taken place in Angola), stamp out the flames of revolution in southern Africa and thereby preserve the racist minority rule in Zimbabwe under a new mask.

On September 11, 1975, Nkomo was expelled from the ANC for attempting to usurp its authority and for collaborating with the Smith regime. Immediately Nkomo held a bogus "congress" of his faction inside Zimbabwe (where the other leaders and organizations were unable to assemble publicly due to the fascist state of emergency imposed by the Smith regime, which Smith conveniently lifted only for Nkomo and his supporters, so that they could carry out their treacherous activities). Dubbed the "real" ANC by Nkomo, this illegal "congress" was called for, subsidized and protected by the racist regime, and it led to still further secret dealings with Smith. In early December, Smith and Nkomo unilaterally signed the "Declaration of Intent to Negotiate a Settlement"

Meeting in Smith's army barracks, Nkomo and his illegal faction held negotiating sessions with the racist regime in December and planned to complete their secret deals in January of this year. Recently the imperialist press has been predicting the signing of such a pact any day now. At the same time, fully revealing the reactionary nature of this deal, Smith again declared publicly his utter rejection of the fundamental right of the Zimbabwean people to majority rule now and jailed hundreds of ZANU supporters while releasing Nkomo supporters.

This plot between Smith and Nkomo, backed and instigated by the superpowers and British imperialism, is an attempt to foist onto the people of Zimbabwe a bogus constitution which will have some appearance of granting political freedom to the African people but which will actually leave power right where it has been all along -- in the hands of the racist and imperialist- lackey settler regime. The only difference will be that the regime will take up something of a neo-colonial rather than a directly colonial character -- with the addition of some black faces in order to serve imperialism and hoodwink the African masses. Thus this deal is nothing but a plot to liquidate the national liberation struggle of the Zimbabwe people and maintain them in their long-standing condition of racist slavery. The United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain and South Africa are all expected to publicly support this dirty deal, and large, interest-free loans are being offered to African countries to support the betrayal when it is discussed by the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations.

But this sell-out, like the "detente" fraud of, Vorster and Smith last year, will never be accepted by the militant Zimbabwe people. ZANU has often warned of the possibility of the imperialists and racists attempting to set up a neo-colonial regime in Zimbabwe in order to halt the revolution. In an editorial in Zimbabwe News in November, 1974, ZANU declared: "The truth of the matter is that as the war against the combined forces of Smith and Vorster intensifies, the international monopoly and finance capitalists will try every insidious method to prevent the victory of the Zimbabwe revolutionary forces. Threatened with defeat by the people's forces, these monsters who have been ruling Zimbabwe through their local agents -- the settler reactionary racist clique -- would be prepared to abandon and disown their settler agents in preference for an African agent, who has the same class interests as the settler racist reactionary clique. This, in essence, means the continued exploitation of the majority of the people of Zimbabwe. Black capitalism and reaction under the supervision and direction of international monopoly capitalism, will have replaced settler capitalism and reaction. " After the revelation of Nkomo's betrayal, ZANU's National Organizing Secretary recently stated: "ZANU rejects most uncompromisingly the present constitutional discussions between Joshua Nkomo and Ian Smith. ZANU believes that it is only by the strength of the armed revolution that true independence shall be won." Comrade Ndabaningi Sithole, President of ZANU, declared: "No agreement between two rejected parties (Nkomo and Smith) can be binding on the people of Zimbabwe." Thus the Zimbabwe people are militantly prepared to defeat all superpower conspiracies and carry their armed national liberation struggle through to the end. In fact, in recent weeks the armed struggle led by ZANU and waged by ZANLA has surged forward powerfully. At the same time, the small armed force of ZAPU has broken with the sell-out Nkomo faction and allied itself with ZANU and ZANLA to fight for Zimbabwe's freedom.

ZANU's National Organizing Secretary, Comrade Michael Mawema, further commented on Nkomo's sell-out deal in a recent interview with People's Canada Daily News (reprinted in the Feb. 1, 1976 Workers' Advocate). He said:

"What amounts today to be a constitutional discussion going on in Rhodesia is in actual fact the result of imperialist conspiracies that have been directed against ZANU. Joshua Nkomo is now negotiating with Ian Smith government. I think the world has seen how much not only Rhodesia with South Africa's support, but also even the social-imperialist Russia and the Americans, everybody has made Joshua Nkomo a hero, a 'reasonable' man, who can talk sense into the white man and the black man, a man who can squeeze 'majority rule' from Ian Smith. But as far as ZANU is concerned, it indeed does not object to negotiation, because it did participate in some negotiations, but ZANU has taken up a decision and is committed to the liberation of Zimbabwe by armed struggle and this it has been able to demonstrate as the only way, the most correct way. Only by armed struggle can ZANU set up an independent state based on its own principles, on its own structure not determined by the white colonial forces of Southern Africa, not even consulting with the international 'socialism' which is destructive of our ambition. So therefore at the moment, ZANU is committed to fighting. ZANU rejects unequivocally Nkomo's discussions with Ian Smith."

WHY THE SUPERPOWERS ARE TRYING TO SUPPRESS THE ZIMBABWE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE

A little investigation clearly shows why the superpowers are interested in suppressing the Zimbabwe people's armed liberation struggle. The U.S. imperialists, the oppressors and exploiters of the American working class and people, are the primary backers of the racist Smith regime. Through it they viciously oppress and exploit the people of Zimbabwe. U.S. imperialism particularly values Zimbabwe for its mineral resources, especially chromium ore, and for its strategic location as part of southern Africa. Zimbabwe is the principal source of chromium ore for the U.S., without which the U.S. could not build rockets to send men or nuclear bombs into space. U.S. monopoly capital also participates in many other ways in exploiting the Zimbabwe people, as, for example, in its participation through the European-American bank in a gigantic iron and steel project at the town of Que Que, along with British, West German, Swiss and Austrian capital. Southern Africa, of which Zimbabwe is a part, also is an important strategic location astride the trading oil-carrying route between the Middle East and Europe and North America.

Southern Africa as a whole, which includes Angola as well as the three remaining African countries still under outright colonial rule (Zimbabwe, Namibia -- called "South West Africa" by the imperialists, and Azania -- called "South Africa"), is a focal point in the world both for anti-imperialist struggle by the people and for fierce contention and collusion by the two superpowers, U.S. imperialism and Soviet ^social-imperialism, who are seeking to gain world domination (hegemony) and to suppress the people. U.S. imperialism seeks to preserve its dominant position in southern Africa as chief plunderer of the rich mineral and agricultural resources and the labor of the people of the area, while the Soviet social-imperialists are aggressively seeking entrance to this strategic and miner ally-rich region. Both superpowers contend fiercely against each other for hegemony, and at the same time both of them oppose the movements for total and genuine independence from all imperialist domination by the various peoples in the area. The last thing either superpower wants is for the movements for genuine independence to succeed. In Zimbabwe, thus, the Soviet social-imperialists are fully prepared to back a neo-colonial regime led by Nkomo even though it would be mainly under the influence of U.S. imperialism, rather than see the country move completely out of the sphere of imperialist exploitation, which would be the consequence of the victory of the armed liberation struggle led by ZANU. This is the reason for the superpowers' detente conspiracies leading up to the most recent dirty deal between Nkomo and Smith.

Comrade Mawema, in the above-mentioned interview, commented on the dirty role played by each of the two superpowers in suppressing the Zimbabwe people. About the role of U.S. imperialism, he said; "U.S. imperialism has not supported the resolution of the United Nations to apply sanctions against Southern Rhodesia. The U.S. has passed a law to violate sanctions, to economically support any illegal regime of Southern Rhodesia. Presently there are more than five hundred white U.S. Viet Nam veterans fighting with the Rhodesian army. The U.S. supplies almost everything that it provided to its allies in Viet Nam to the Rhodesian forces. It is the U.S. multinational corporations which continue to block publication and propaganda of the people's revolution in Zimbabwe. It is the U.S. that maintains, runs, directs, and controls the total economy of South Africa, which has been the guarantee of our exploitation. Hence, as far as the people of the Zimbabwe are concerned, the U.S. is indeed an enemy."

As for the equally dirty role of the Moscow social-imperialists, Comrade Mawema declared: "Russian imperialism is seen by its consistent support for Joshua Nkomo, who is today the running dog of the Russians and U.S. imperialism. He is an eager brainchild of the South African and Rhodesian political draftsmen. We have been informed, and I think it has been authenticated, that it is the Russians who have continuously financed ZAPU, that they have told Nkomo to split from the umbrella organization ANC. After he split from the ANC, the Russians gave him more than $50,000 to support him in his bid for recognition by the Ian Smith and South African governments. So far as the people of Zimbabwe are concerned, the continuing support by the Russians of ZAPU and Nkomo, is an act of aggression to the people of Zimbabwe, particularly to the armed forces of ZANU".

Thus, in Zimbabwe, the masses of African people are locked in a bitter struggle against the racist minority regime, which has the backing of both superpowers, British imperialism, and South Africa, and face a new conspiracy to liquidate their armed struggle before victory. Each superpower is trying to exploit the situation to its own advantage, but both are opposed to total independence which will be won by the people through the armed struggle. While the superpowers contend furiously against each other for world hegemony, and lead the world toward another world war, they also collude with each other to suppress the struggles of the oppressed nations and peoples, in attempts to destroy opposition to their own drive for hegemony.

In this complex situation, it is extremely important for the American working class and all revolutionary people in the U.S. to grasp the nature of the struggle in Zimbabwe, oppose the counter-revolutionary conspiracies of the Soviet social-imperialists and "our own" U.S. imperialist government and support the Zimbabwe people's struggle through to the end. This struggle is directed against the common enemies of the American and Zimbabwean peoples -- the two superpowers and their henchmen -- and therefore the Zimbabwe people's struggle is a firm ally of the struggle of the American working class and oppressed people against the U.S. monopoly capitalists and for a proletarian revolution. The Zimbabwe people's struggle weakens U.S. imperialism in one of its strongholds, the racist regimes of southern Africa, while it is also frustrating the expansionist aims of the other superpower, Soviet social-imperialism. Thus the Zimbabwe people's struggle contributes to the struggle of the whole world's people against the two superpowers and their preparations for world war. It deserves firm support

HISTORY OF THE ZIMBABWE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE

The struggle of the Zimbabwe people has a long and glorious history. Zimbabwe was colonized by British imperialism in the 1890's. The colonialist name for Zimbabwe, "Rhodesia", comes from Cecil John Rhodes, the British imperialist pirate who organized the original theft of Zimbabwean independence through trickery and force. In 1893 and 1896-7 the African people rose in armed resistance against the British colonizers. They were defeated but have never given up the struggle. A white settler class was imported by the British to rule Zimbabwe and exploit the labor of the African people. Today in Zimbabwe there are only slightly more than 200,000 white settlers, who hold all political power, while there are about 6,500,000 Africans, who have no political rights or power whatsoever.

The British South Africa Company ruled Zimbabwe until 1923. Then "Rhodesia" became a "self-governing" colony of Great Britain. That is, the white settlers got the right to rule Zimbabwe in the interests of British imperialism. Fewer then 500 Africans ever got the right to vote under the 1923 constitution. Theoretically Britain retained the right to veto legislation which discriminated against the African people, but this never happened. Instead the enslavement of the African people was further consolidated with the "Land Apportionment Act", the "Industrial Act" and the "Native Registration Act". Under the "Land Apportionment Act" the land was divided between African and European areas with roughly half the land, the best half, going to the Europeans. No African was permitted to hold or occupy land in the European areas except "under condition that he supply labour to such owner or occupier." In addition, all mineral rights on African lands have belonged to Europeans since the occupation. Under the "Industrial Conciliation Act" Africans were excluded from the definition of "employee" and thus had no right to bargain collectively or become apprentices in the skilled trades. All Africans were forced to work for the Europeans for at least part of the year, however, in order to pay the tax which was imposed on each male African adult starting in 1894. The "Native Registration Act" was passed in 1936. It required Africans in towns to carry at least one pass in addition to the registration certificate which had been required for all African males over 14 since 1902.

In 1961 Rhodesia got a new constitution which made certain superficial changes. Africans now got 15 seats out of 65 in parliament with the right to vote heavily restricted. By 1962 only 10,632 Africans had registered to vote. At the most the Rhodesian regime expected up to 60,000 Africans to register out of a total African population of over 6,000,000.

The anti-racist, anti-imperialist struggle of the Zimbabwe people began to rise again in the 1950's. One after another, organizations arose to struggle for the Zimbabwe people's rights and were immediately banned and suppressed by the Smith regime. At first, they largely followed the line of pleading with the racist regime for it to become "reasonable" and grant political rights and power to the African people. The first African political party in Zimbabwe was the African National Congress, founded in 1957 by Joshua Nkomo. It followed peaceful methods and "dialogue". It also put much emphasis on lobbying for the British government to force reforms in Rhodesia. In spite of this, the racist settler government banned it while Nkomo was out of the country, arrested many Zimbabweans and also shot and killed many. Another nationalist party, the National Democratic Party was formed in 1960. It rejected "peaceful dialogue" and launched a struggle for political power. It, too, was banned, its leaders arrested and members killed. Again Joshua Nkomo, who became leader of the National Democratic Party after its leader, Michael Mawema, was arrested, was out of the country. Then Nkomo formed the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) which was also banned while Nkomo was abroad. Nkomo also formed the People's Caretaker Council in 1964. The Zimbabwe people's movement at this time was dominated by the line of relying on the "reasonableness" of the oppressor, of begging and pleading for reforms from the British imperialists or the Rhodesian racists, of settling for less than genuine freedom and independence.

To suppress the rising mass movement the racist government instituted increasingly fascist measures. By 1960, "Political parties could be banned by executive action; freedom of assembly was abolished; the police were given arbitrary powers of arrest, while individuals, guilty until proved innocent, could be detained without trial." (U.D.I. The International Politics of the Rhodesian Rebellion, Robert C. Good. (Princeton University Press, 1973), p. 37) The Inaugural Congress of ZANU in 1964 was only allowed on condition that police be allowed to observe and record all sessions. Soon after this Congress,. ZANU was banned and Comrade Sithole and others were jailed.

A new phase in the Zimbabwe people's national liberation struggle began with the formation of ZANU. Right from the start its President, Comrade Ndabaningi Sithole, declared in his address to the Inaugural Congress; "WE ARE OUR OWN LIBERATORS." Rejecting the line of relying on others to liberate Zimbabwe, he stated, "No one can liberate another. Independence is not ours unless we liberate ourselves. There is no such thing as being liberated by others. Others can only help us to liberate ourselves. "ZANU rejected the methods of dialogue, peaceful pleading and relying on the supposed "reasonableness" of the racists and imperialists. Comrade Sithole pointed out that the fascist suppression of peaceful opposition to racism and colonialism made violence inevitable: "Any oppressive set-up can only create conditions for violence and those who support such a set-up are morally responsible." Comrade Sithole said, "Time for fine speeches has gone. This is now time for action in order to solve the problem facing us." The central political demand which ZANU has upheld unwaveringly is for immediate majority rule for the Zimbabwe African people, not a "blocking third" in parliament for Africans, not "parity" (equal numbers of representatives for whites who are 4% of the population and Africans who are 96%), both of which proposals also entailed a highly restricted franchise, but one man, one vote immediately.

The diehard racists in Rhodesia organized the Rhodesian Front party in 1962 in opposition to the line which the British imperialists were pushing of making superficial concessions to the African people. In 1965 the Rhodesian Front government, led by Ian Smith, made the "Unilateral Declaration of Independence" (UDI) from. Great Britain. This was an open declaration of war on the people of Zimbabwe, a naked attempt to preserve forever white minority rule in service of imperialism. The British imperialists, while making certain statements against UDI, have proved, by their refusal to take any effective steps against their "kith and kin", that they support UDI as a means for publically absolving themselves of responsibility for maintaining open racist rule in Zimbabwe. The arrogant actions of the Smith regime and its lackeys have earned them the condemnation of the world's people. The Smith regime has become extremely isolated internationally, with the U.N. calling for all countries to refuse to trade or have diplomatic relations with it. Revealing their hand in the racist regime, the U.S. imperialists openly violated this call for sanctions by having their Congress pass a law specifically permitting the U.S. to buy Rhodesian chrome and certain other materials the U.S. imperialists want.

Since UDI several negotiations have been held between the Smith regime and Britain to work out some agreement on a constitution for Rhodesia which will appear to give political rights to the Zimbabwe people after which Britain will formally allow Rhodesia to become independent. First there were talks aboard the H.M.S. Tiger in 1966. Then there were talks aboard the H.M.S. Fearless in 1968. No agreements came out of either meeting. Finally, in 1971, an agreement on a constitution was reached between the British government and Smith. This constitution contained just the barest shreds of pretense of providing for eventual majority rule. According to one expert the earliest date on which more African representatives than European could be expected in parliament was 2035. (UDI., p. 306) And these African representatives would be elected by only the small proportion of the African population who could meet the high property qualifications for voting. A delegation of British government officials called the Pearce Commission went to Zimbabwe to find out whether this constitution was acceptable to the people of Zimbabwe i To their surprise they found that the people of Zimbabwe could not be tricked or intimidated into agreeing to the legalization of their continued oppression. A mass movement of protest broke out which Smith was unable to suppress and wide support for the Zimbabwe people's struggle developed throughout the world. Massive demonstrations and other types of protest took place. The fascist minority regime killed at least 14 Zimbabweans. As a result of this struggle, the British government was forced to drop this scheme to legalize racist rule.

While these negotiations over the future of the Zimbabwe people were going on behind their backs, the people's struggle against racism, colonialism, and imperialism entered a new stage. In 1964, as the racists were planning to declare unilateral independence, ZANU answered with the CLARION CALL TO ARMS to the Zimbabwean people to prepare for and take up the armed struggle against the illegal regime by any means necessary, arming themselves with whatever arms were at hand, storing supplies and launching armed attacks on the racist regime. The African masses answered this call and violently attacked the racists and their property. In 1965, the racists declared unilateral independence (UDI). In 1966 ZANU launched the war of national liberation (Chimurenga). On April 28, 1966, ZANLA, (Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army), the military wing of ZANU, fought a fierce battle with Rhodesian security forces at Sinoia, marking the first organized blow of Chimurenga. Other battles followed steadily and by June 1966, even the racist government had to admit that five whites had been killed, although the figures released by the ZANLA High Command were much higher. ZANLA carried on the armed struggle continuously through 1969, at which time ZANU concluded that it should be re-organized on a new basis.

The years 1970-72 were used to prepare the ground for waging people's war and establishing liberated base areas in the northern, northeastern, and eastern parts of the country. The masses were politically mobilized and military supplies were built up. ZANLA re-opened the armed struggle on the new basis in December 1972, and it has been developing steadily and gaining strength ever since. The Smith regime has used increasingly desperate and bloody measures to try to stem the armed struggle. It has attacked the masses in the war zones -- confiscating their cattle, destroying their homes, arresting them and finally forcing them into concentration camps (so-called "protected "villages", like "strategic hamlets" in Viet Nam). Captured freedom fighters are given severe prison sentences and many have been hung. Smith has had to call up increasing numbers of whites for his armed forces, use military forces from South Africa (since 1966), and recruit mercenaries from the U.S., Great Britain, and other countries.

None of these fascist measures have worked. By the end of 1974, ZANLA had liberated base areas covering 20,000 square miles. In two years of armed struggle ZANLA had grown to ten times its size of Dec. 1972, and had killed 1096 enemy troops, shot down 33 enemy planes, destroyed 63 enemy trucks, and destroyed 18 enemy camps. Beginning steps have been taken to reconstruct society in the liberated base areas on a democratic and independent basis.

SUPERPOWERS PUSH "DETENTE" FRAUD

By the end of 1974, faced with the impossibility of liquidating the armed struggle in Zimbabwe by military means alone and with the victory of the national liberation struggles in the Portuguese colonies, including Mozambique next door, the superpowers and British imperialism came up with a new means of suppressing the Zimbabwean people. They ordered Vorster, the racist, imperialist-lackey ruler of South Africa to come out with the scheme of "detente". Vorster forced Smith to announce that he was willing to negotiate with the leaders of the nationalist movement, many of whom he had been keeping in jail for up to 10 years. In December 1974, Smith suddenly released Comrade Sithole and other nationalist leaders and flew them to, Lusaka in Zambia.

In Lusaka, Presidents Kaunda of Zambia, Khama of Botswana and Nyerere of Tanzania urged the leaders of the different Zimbabwean organizations to unite in order to prepare for constitutional talks. ZANU was willing to unite but insisted that the armed struggle must not be given up and must be part of the new ANC's program. ZANU was successful in this and the four organizations -- ZANU, ZAPU, FROLIZI, and ANC (African National Council) -- united into the new ANC with one of the points of unity being 'The new ANC recognizes and respects the inevitability of armed struggle.' ZANU's tactics were based on its views that 1) Armed struggle is the fundamental means to liberation and 2) Negotiations can be engaged in for the purpose of exposing the fraud of "detente". That is, use revolutionary dual tactics to oppose counter-revolutionary dual tactics.

Following the unity talks, preliminary discussions were set up with Smith. Smith used this occasion to try to declare a ceasefire unilaterally. His definition of a ceasefire was that ZANLA fighters should surrender because he had released a few nationalist leaders, while in fact Smith had never met a single one of the pre-conditions for a ceasefire, which essentially involved releasing all political prisoners and creating conditions for peaceful political struggle in the country.

Therefore, ZANU never agreed to a ceasefire, never ordered one and it never took place. Smith re-imprisoned Comrade Sithole to try to force him to order a ceasefire. Naturally this did not work, and in fact it backfired on Smith as the other leaders in the ANC refused to negotiate until Comrade Sithole was released. Thus Smith was again forced to release Comrade Sithole, but forced him into exile and threatened to re- arrest him if he returned to Rhodesia. Shortly after re-imprisoning Sithole, the Smith regime through its agents brutally murdered Comrade Herbert Chitepo, Chairman of ZANU, on March 18th, 1975, in Lusaka, Zambia, thus revealing once again that no matter how much they babble about "detente" the racists will never lay down their butcher knives until their doom.

In August 1975, constitutional talks began at Victoria Falls on a bridge over the Zambezi River, which forms the border between Zambia and Rhodesia. Smith demanded that all substantive negotiations be held inside Rhodesia where he could use his police to arrest leaders of ZANU and others and thus dictate who should represent the Zimbabwe people. The Zimbabwean revolutionaries refused to submit to this dictation, and the talks collapsed.

However, behind the backs of the ANC and ZANU, Joshua Nkomo made the above-mentioned secret deal with Smith to sell out the Zimbabwe people's struggle in return for a position in the government of Ian Smith. With the protection and help of Smith's fascist police, Nkomo held a bogus congress inside Zimbabwe as a means to falsely usurp the name of ANC for himself and his faction alone and to prepare a capitulationist deal with Smith. The ANC expelled Nkomo for this. On the basis of his traitorous use of the name ANC, Nkomo is now secretly preparing a neo-colonialist constitution with Smith. Smith has been releasing Nkomo's supporters from jail at the same time as he continues to arrest ZANU supporters. A big propaganda campaign can be expected soon from the imperialist and social-imperialist press in support of Nkomo's neo-colonialist betrayal in Zimbabwe in an attempt to split off support for the armed struggle from people both inside and outside the country. The U.S., Britain, the Soviet Union, and South Africa are all expected to support this deal. Large, interest-free loans are being offered by the Rhodesian and South African governments to any country which will support this deal in the OAU and the UN.

The "detente" scheme of the superpowers and the Smith and Vorster racist regimes has also instigated difficulties between Zambia and ZANU. The ZANU Military High Command has been imprisoned in Zambia, and the ZANU bank account has been frozen in Lusaka. There was a clash between Zambian soldiers and ZANLA fighters in a camp in Zambia in which 11 ZANLA fighters and one Zambian soldier were killed.

THE ZIMBABWE PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE IS BOUND TO BE VICTORIOUS!

However, none of these attempts to split the liberation movement and liquidate the armed struggle will succeed. The temporary difficulties caused by "detente" are being overcome. ZANU has great support among the masses in Zimbabwe, as was shown, for example, by the overwhelming joy with which the masses greeted Comrade Sithole after his release, when he was carried shoulder-high by jubilant crowds through town after town. The armed struggle. led by ZANU and ZANLA has surged forward despite Nkomo's attempts to create a split. ZANU now has no shortage of fighters and has wide support internationally.

ZANU has correctly pointed out that liberation can only come through armed struggle and that the struggle must be carried through to genuine independence and immediate majority rule. This point has been repeatedly stressed in all of ZANU's publications. For example, in the editorial in Zimbabwe News of January 1975, it is pointed out, "Africans have not fought for half-measures or for the creation of a bourgeois neo-colonialist regime that will be controlled from London, Washington, or Pretoria. We have fought in order to achieve genuine independence. And to that end we have fully committed ourselves." The scheme of the two superpowers to set up a neo-colonial regime using the traitor Nkomo will never deceive the people of Zimbabwe nor stop the armed struggle waged by ZANLA. In fact, ZANU is now carrying out a major offensive to show the alternative to the Smith-Nkomo deal -- armed struggle for majority rule now.

The American working class and people must support the armed struggle of the Zimbabwe people led by ZANU against racism, colonialism and imperialism as part of our own struggle against the two superpowers and for liberation from U.S. monopoly capitalism. Comrade Tapson Mawere, ZANU representative to the U. N. and to North America, pointed out when he spoke in Chicago, March 27, 1975, that in Zimbabwe the revolutionary people are cutting off a tentacle of U.S. imperialism, in Indochina they have cut off a tentacle, but that the monster U.S. imperialism will not die until its heart is pierced here in the U.S. itself. The workers and oppressed people in the U.S., therefore have a grave responsibility to oppose both superpowers and to pierce the heart of U.S. imperialism and eliminate it from the world once and for all.

All Africa is standing up. The Zimbabwean people are standing up. The Smith and Vorster racist regimes are in deep trouble. The armed struggle (Chimurenga) led by ZANU is surging ahead irresistibly to the liberation of Zimbabwe. As Chairman Mao, the leader of the communists and people of the world, has stated: "THE EVIL SYSTEM OF COLONIALISM AND IMPERIALISM AROSE AND THROVE WITH THE ENSLAVEMENT OF NEGROES AND THE TRADE IN NEGROES, AND IT WILL SURELY COME TO ITS END WITH THE COMPLETE EMANCIPATION OF THE BLACK PEOPLE." There can be no doubt that the revolutionary people of Zimbabwe will overcome all bloody suppression and all superpower conspiracies, liberate themselves, and thus make a tremendous contribution to this great cause. -end-

[Photo: Zimbabwe guerrillas at drill.]

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ONLY REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE, NOT WOODCOCK'S "NATIONAL ECONOMIC PLANNING", CAN FIGHT AND ELIMINATE UNEMPLOYMENT AND CRISES

The U.S. economy is entering its third year of deep economic crisis. The two superpowers, U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, are intensifying their rivalry for world domination and leading the world into a new world war. In this situation, the monopoly capitalists in the United States are more and more shifting the burden of their crisis onto the backs of the working class and other oppressed people in the U.S. Large-scale lay-offs and extreme job insecurity are the fate of the masses of workers. In the factories their exploitation is intensified through speed-up, compulsory overtime, etc. Wage cuts are being openly called for and imposed. The capitalists hold the threat of firing over the workers' heads if they do not accept this blatant robbery. More and more the ordinary worker is made to bear the heavy burden of the crisis caused by the monopoly capitalists themselves, while the bourgeoisie grows fat by sucking the workers' blood. Throughout society, the bourgeoisie is stepping up their development of fascism, of outright violent rule, aiming at forcing the working masses to accept the increased exploitation and at preparing them to be sent to die as cannon fodder in an imperialist war. At present, the capitalist politicians are spitting in the face of the workers by conducting an utterly meaningless election campaign, squandering millions of the workers' dollars while covering up the fundamental problems of the workers with lies and double-talk.

But this intensifying oppression calls forth in the workers greater and greater hatred for their oppressors and greater and greater resistance to them. Every day the desire grows in their hearts for a decisive fight against the shifting of the burden of the crisis onto their backs, against the exploitation by the capitalists. Every day the desire burns hotter in the workers' hearts for a basic change from the man-eating system which is oppressing them, crushing them, draining their very life's blood. Every day the workers look around them and say, "Nothing can be worse than this!" and yet it gets worse and still worse. The organized workers have already begun to fight back heroically in an effort to make the rich, not the workers, bear the burden of the crisis. This burning desire for a decisive fight, for a basic change, which is building up rapidly among the workers, will soon lead to great struggles, to class battles, to attempts at revolution.

The bourgeoisie knows this very well. At the same time that it pursues the policy of large-scale lay-offs, of cut-backs in government funds and programs such as food stamps, elimination of jobs, etc., as represented by the Ford administration, it also pursues a more cunning and treacherous policy of deception combined with the organization of new methods of exploitation, new methods of oppression, to enforce the same old wage slavery on the workers. To do this, the bourgeoisie relies heavily on its agents in the working-class movement, the labor lieutenants of the monopoly capitalist class, to do its dirty work among the workers.

Especially at this time, with an election campaign underway, the bourgeoisie needs someone with influence among the workers to peddle the policy of deception, giving the workers the illusion that their problems can be solved under capitalism, and sneaking in new methods of exploitation under this smokescreen.

Such is the role of Leonard Woodcock and the leadership of the United Auto Workers, one of the country's largest unions of industrial workers. This crew has been loudly claiming that the solution to the unemployment and economic crises caused by capitalism is something called "Democratic National Economic Planning". This proposal claims that "Unemployment, recession and the profound and prolonged human suffering they bring do not have to be a regular and periodic way of life for workers and their families. They can be avoided by intelligent economic planning." (Our emphasis, W. A. Ed.) This statement appeared in a pamphlet entitled "A Program for the Nation's People", issued by the UAW leadership last spring at the time of the UAW's rally in Washington. Since then, the mass workers' march on Washington promised by Woodcock has been swept under the rug while the UAW leadership has again and again called for "National Economic Planning" as the solution to the workers' problems. They have popularized this hoax constantly in the pages of Solidarity (the UAW's official organ), at various conferences in preparation for the new contract negotiations and in numerous speeches by Woodcock himself. "National Economic Planning" has become a veritable rallying cry for the "liberal" and "socialist" labor misleaders of the Woodcock brand, for some of the "liberal" bourgeoisie itself and for numerous pious social reformers. It has become a political proposal of major national importance, put forward by the misleader of one of the key unions of industrial workers and represented by him as the demand of the army of the hundreds of thousands of modern industrial proletarians in the auto plants.

But what is the real significance of the noise Woodcock and Co. are making about "National Economic Planning" ? What class does it really serve -- the working class, or the monopoly capitalist class? The over-all number of unemployed in the U.S. as a whole has reached depression levels (really well over 10 per cent, though the official figures minimize it to 7.8 per cent). In Michigan alone the number of unemployed workers who have exhausted all their benefits is predicted to reach over 200,000 by the end of this year. At a time like this, to hear that such evils can be eliminated and that all the benefits customarily considered possible only under socialism can be achieved under capitalism just by doing a little "economic planning" -- this is nothing short of a miracle! What Karl Marx and his followers taught (and teach) the workers that they can get only by their own efforts through a proletarian revolution, Leonard Woodcock will bring about on the basis of capitalism, and under the protective wing of the monopoly capitalists themselves, no less! Surely this must be considered "socialism" -- in words.

But every worker knows that deeds mean more than words. And in deeds, Woodcock's scheme is merely a new version of an old capitalist fraud. It is a trick to convince the workers to give up revolution, tie their trade unions openly to the capitalist government like the unions of Mussolini's fascist Italy or Hitler's nazi Germany, and participate in oppressing and exploiting themselves through the representation in the capitalist government of their own "leaders", the labor lieutenants of the monopoly capitalist class, Leonard Woodcock and others. To see what Woodcock's proposal actually means in deeds, and to see what is the significance of all this propaganda for "planning", let us answer the questions: What is Woodcock proposing? What is the origin of his proposal? What are the real aims and purposes of his proposal? and Can "national economic planning" eliminate unemployment and economic crises under capitalism ? Or is a revolutionary struggle the only means by which the workers can combat and eliminate capitalist unemployment and economic crises?

1. WHAT IS WOODCOCK PROPOSING?

Woodcock's proposal advocates the creation of a "National Planning Board" to "coordinate" economic policy-making under the present monopoly capitalist system. This board would be located in the White House, that is, at the very pinnacle of the monopoly capitalist state machine (government). It would estimate future production "needs" (what the market will bear) for the capitalists and set "goals" (what should be produced ) and "influence" the monopoly capitalists to conform to them. Not only would there be a "National Planning Board", but there would be regional, state and local planning units. These boards and units would consist of capitalists and their political lackeys, the government officials, and, sitting right alongside them, the top misleaders of the big labor unions, including Woodcock himself. Woodcock complained in Solidarity that the economic crisis was caused by "millions of separate decisions made daily in all areas of the economy -- including those made by the federal government itself." His "National Planning Board" and its local units would aim at centralizing these decisions and creating a non-elected government body including the trade union leaders, to make them.

Thus Woodcock's proposal amounts to tying the trade union leadership directly to the capitalist government and the capitalists themselves and using the union apparatus openly (as it is already used covertly) to assist the capitalists in controlling production, stepping up the exploitation of the workers, laying them off, etc. That is, Woodcock's proposal means, first, to place the union misleaders directly in the top management of the national capitalist economy and, second, to more closely centralize and coordinate that economy among the capitalists. Woodcock, Meany and other labor lieutenants participated in the Pay Board in 1972 and assisted Richard Nixon in freezing the workers' wages. Woodcock participated more recently in the capitalist government's Wage-Price Review Board. This trend of class betrayal will be carried a giant step further with the participation of the union misleaders right in the capitalist government and economic management. There the union misleaders will help the capitalists further centralize their economy and thereby further exploit the workers.

This is what Woodcock is proposing.

2. WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF WOODCOCK'S PROPOSAL?

Woodcock's proposal was cooked up by a committee consisting of Wall Street finance capitalists including the Harriman interests, of bourgeois political economists like John Kenneth Galbraith and Wassily Leontieff, and labor lieutenants like Woodcock himself. This committee was formed last year and is called the "Initiative Committee for National Economic Planning".

Woodcock's "concern" for "lack of planning" is shared by Henry Ford, the auto magnate. He, too, complained last year about "anarchy" in the economy and stressed the need for "planning". Speaking to the House-Senate Joint Economic Committee in February, 1975, Ford lamented: "In my 30 years as a businessman I have never felt so uncertain and so troubled about the future of both my country and my company. It is not too much to say that the very survival of our free society may depend on finding good solutions to the three basic problems (unemployment, inflation and energy) I have mentioned today." "Nobody is steering" the economy, he concluded.

Faithfully serving finance capital, the "liberal" senators Hubert Humphrey and Jacob Javits have introduced a bill in the Senate, the Balanced Growth and Economic Planning Act of 1975. Like Woodcock's plan, it also proposes an "economic planning board" in the White House to gather information and "coordinate" policy. Woodcock has stated his support for this bill.

Thus it can be seen that Woodcock's proposal for "National Economic Planning" does not originate from the working class, but comes straight from the monopoly capitalist class. This is its origin.

3. WHAT IS THE REAL AIM AND PURPOSE OF WOODCOCK'S PROPOSAL?

As an agent of the monopoly capitalists inside the workers' movement, Woodcock is well aware of the ever-intensifying oppression of the workers and of their growing rebellion and revolutionary sentiment. And as the capitalists' Trojan Horse in the workers' movement, Woodcock and Company are in a much better position than the capitalists themselves to subvert the workers' struggle from its real path of revolution against the capitalist system, and instead use the energy, sentiments and trade union organization of the workers to solve the problems facing the monopoly capitalists at home and abroad. This is the shameful purpose of Woodcock's proposal for "National Economic Planning".

Forming the kind of planning board in the White House envisioned by Woodcock can only mean tying the trade unions (and therefore the workers) openly and directly to the reactionary monopoly capitalist state machine. This means taking control of the supply of the workers' labor-power almost entirely out of their hands (it would then be infinitely harder to withhold their labor-power from the capitalists by striking) and placing it in the hands of the capitalist government. This is just the opposite of democratic; this is fascist. This is not "Democratic National Economic Planning", as Woodcock whitewashes it, but "Fascist National Economic Planning" as Mussolini and Hitler practiced it. Thus Woodcock and company £re working openly for fascist state control of the trade unions -- under the hoax that this would give the workers control over the government and capitalists!! This is the same shameful role as was played by the social- democratic misleaders of the German working class, who handed power over to Hitler in the 1930's while pretending to be "socialists" and "labor leaders". Very soon the German trade unions were utterly destroyed as defense organs of the workers and turned into outright state-capitalist organizations.

The reason for Woodcock's proposal lies in the declining position of U.S. imperialism m the world today. Beset by the economic and political crises, the U.S. monopoly capitalists must increasingly shift the burden of their crisis onto the workers. Facing intensifying rival- y from the other superpower, U.S. imperialism hopes to win the impending world war against the Soviet social-imperialists and capture new territory and markets for investment away from them, so as to relieve its internal crisis. But to do this, the U.S. monopoly capitalists must first insure a quiet home front by limiting the struggle between the U.S. monopoly capitalists groups and especially by suppressing the working class. By trying to win the working class's allegiance to those finance capitalists who favor ownership of the means of production by the monopoly capitalist state, that is, state-monopoly capitalism (with the full collaboration of the labor-traitors like him- selves), Woodcock and Company are working overtime to solve these problems for the capitalists and establish outright fascist state- monopoly capitalism.

Thus, to divert the workers from revolution and establish fascist state control over the unions and entire economy so as to further exploit the workers and wage imperialist war for redivision of the world -- these are the real aims and purposes of Woodcock's proposal for "National Economic Planning".

In certain circles (never union meetings), Woodcock and Co. admit these facts.

In December, 1974, a small meeting was organized by the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee, a social-democratic outfit, at the Ambassador Hotel in Chicago. Tim Nulty, hand-picked by Leonard Woodcock as the UAW's new chief economist, spoke candidly there about the significance of "National Economic Planning". Nulty said: "The UAW president and others are calling for mechanisms of social planning and the enemy doesn't object! This scares me! I am worried about a corporate state (fascism as organized by Mussolini, incorporating the trade unions and capitalist enterprises into the state)". Nulty later added: "When the U.S. goes to fascism, it will be gradually, to cover the mailed fist with a democratic cover."

Now here is a bare-faced self-exposure! Nulty and the UAW inner circle clearly recognize that Woodcock's proposals are welcomed by the monopoly capitalist groups who favor naked fascist state monopoly. Especially all the more so because they are thereby providing a "democratic" cover for the advance of fascism. How else could Nulty's statement be taken?

This is the role of all these social-democrats and "liberals" who are calling for "National Economic Planning". They preach (in the name of "democracy", "rationality" and "the working class" and against "the capitalists" (or "the monopolies") for more capitalist monopoly, for more centralized control of the crises-ridden economy by the monopoly capitalist state. What the monopoly capitalist class cannot yet do outright (i.e., establish state-monopoly capitalism and fascist style control of the unions, so as to shift the entire burden of the crisis onto the workers (as well as the oppressed nations abroad) and openly mobilize them for imperialist war) for various reasons, their agents in the working-class movement such as Woodcock coat with sugar and dish up to the workers as "their own" union program! Woodcock and Co. are not merely misguided reformers, but through their own self-exposure they demonstrate that they know full well what class they serve in reality. Thus the real aim of Woodcock's socialist-sounding "National Economic Planning" is fascism in deeds.

Through his own self-exposure, Leonard Woodcock (and Woodcock as an individual only represents a whole trend within the labor movement) is not simply a "misguided reformer" who fails to see that only socialist revolution can solve crises. Instead, he is a social-democrat, i.e., a conscious opponent of proletarian revolution who calls himself a "liberal" and a "socialist" to dupe the workers and keep his leading post.

He does not represent the industrial workers in the auto industry, but instead he represents the labor misleaders and upper stratum of the labor aristocracy, who are bribed by the monopoly capitalists, using the super-profits extorted by exploiting the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, to serve as agents of the bourgeoisie in the working-class movement. Woodcock is eager to assist the U.S. imperialists in defending and increasing their exploitation of the working masses at home and abroad because he and his cronies share this feast and, as every worker knows, they actually live the life of the monopoly capitalists. As a labor lieutenant of the capitalist class, his duties to his superior officers, the Fords, Gerstenbergs and Rockefellers, are to undermine the workers' struggles, divert them from the path of revolution and tie them to the capitalist government. His orders are to mobilize the army of labor in this counter-revolutionary direction.

These are the real aims and purposes of Leonard Woodcock in advocating "National Economic Planning".

4. WHAT WILL COMBAT AND ELIMINATE UNEMPLOYMENT AND CRISES -- "NATIONAL ECONOMIC PLANNING" OR REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE?

a) Capitalist Production is Anarchic

"National Economic Planning" cannot combat or eliminate unemployment and crises under capitalism. Only a revolutionary struggle by the workers, leading to a proletarian revolution which eliminates capitalism altogether and replaces it with socialism, can do this. Planning of the national economy, in any real sense, is impossible under capitalism. To illustrate this, let us look at the auto industry. Its recent history shows that not only is the bourgeoisie unable to plan the economy on a national basis, but it can't even consistently plan production in a single industry. Up until October, the year 1973 was the peak production year of all time. The Big Three auto companies were producing cars madly, without any regard to the capacity of the market to absorb them, gloating over their "boom". They had no inkling of the coming crisis.

Furthermore, this market for autos was artificially stimulated to keep up with production and stave off over-production by several factors. First, it was based in large part on the artificial stimulation of consumer credit, which had been zooming upward wildly in the late '60's and early '70's. Without consumer credit large numbers of American working people would never have been able to "afford" new cars (but this credit only defers and increases the tribute exacted for the cars by finance capital). Second, the market's size was partly based on the availability of gasoline at a price which the masses could, so to speak, afford. Robbing the oil from the oppressed nations in the Middle East for decades for next to nothing, the oil monopolies and the government had combined to jack up the price to 30-35 cents per gallon. But in October 1973 the U.S. imperialist-backed Israeli Zionists brought about the fourth Middle East war with their aggressive policies. The Arab people responded with a vigorous armed struggle, with the oil embargo and ensuing oil price increases, shaking the imperialist system to its foundations. Rather than suffer any cut in their fabulous profits, the U.S. oil monopolies used the oil embargo as a pretext to create the fake "oil shortage" and "energy crisis". Under this hoax, they jacked up fuel prices astronomically in the U.S., Western Europe and Japan, shifting the burden of their problems onto the American masses and onto the people of Western Europe and Japan and holding them to exorbitant ransom. The "energy crisis" meant that while the masses suffered intensely, the oil monopolies raked in monstrously increased profits, all the time hypocritically blaming the Arabs for their own crimes. This action by the oil monopolies (who as raw materials processors enjoy a dominant position over the producers of finished goods like autos in the present imperialist stage of capitalism) raised the cost of operating a car, undermined the use of consumer credit for car buying and generally undermined the market for the sale of autos in the U.S.

With the ''energy crisis" as the backdrop, in the fall and winter of 1973-4 a crisis of overproduction broke out in the U.S. Unexpected by the capitalists, car production suddenly overshot the capacity of the market, which had suddenly been diminished to something closer to its true capacity. The crisis broke out in auto and other industries. Auto production, for example, plummeted almost every month after that, and by the fall of 1974 the dealers' lots were filled with unsold cars and the auto companies had cut production by one-third. Hundreds of thousands of auto workers and other workers were thrown out of work for "indefinite" periods. Chrysler Corporation went to the brink of collapse and was being operated "from week to week". Thus, within one year, all the "plans" of the capitalists for booming car sales and a booming economy had gone bankrupt.

As workers well know, this state of affairs befalls the whole of capitalist industry periodically. Thus capitalist production is anarchic; that is, it has a built-in unplanned nature defined by the term anarchy of production. It is this which is the cause of economic crisis and of the large-scale unemployment which they bring. According to Woodcock and the capitalists, this "lack of planning" is not due to the very nature of capitalism (which would require a revolution to eliminate) but is due to "mis-management", i.e., the inability of the capitalists to "coordinate" production "needs" (what the market will bear) with production "goals" (what is actually produced). This inability is not built in to capitalism, according to Woodcock, but instead it is the fault of a few individuals and can be cured by a little dose of "planning". But the fact that capitalist production is anarchic by nature means that even with the help of their government and labor lieutenants like Woodcock, the capitalists will never be able to plan production as a whole.

Nulty, Woodcock's "house Marxist" economist, at the above-mentioned meeting, was asked repeatedly by the audience whether there was really any way capitalist production could be planned. At one point he replied: "No! It's not in the nature of our capitalist economy.... For example, the 'planning horizons' are six months for G.M... only six months!" He said there is a "genuine danger of corporate capitalism" (his term for fascist state-monopoly capitalism) "by those capitalists who see this." Obviously Nulty is admitting here (far from the workers, of course) that the capitalist economy cannot be planned by its very "nature". Yet these very UAW leaders are calling for "planning" under capitalism! Nulty even spells out that those capitalists who see that their struggle against each other is the cause of crises constitute a "genuine danger" of establishing state-monopoly capitalism in a vain attempt to eliminate this struggle. This proves beyond any doubt that these social-democratic labor misleaders are masters at political deception, conscious of the falsity of their proposal for planning and conscious that it only serves the interests of a section of the monopoly capitalist class, not the working class. Thus the social-democratic labor misleaders are not mistaken, misguided reformers, but conscious class traitors.

The fundamental reason why capitalist production is anarchic and can't be planned lies in the fact that, on the one hand, production has become social. It is not carried out by small, isolated., individual producers like the small farmers of bygone days; instead, it is carried out in vast industrial and agricultural enterprises, in each of which thousands and thousands of workers labor collectively and operate the huge, highly developed machinery of production. On the other hand, appropriation (ownership) of the products created by the workers and of the instruments of production is private. Although they are created by the workers, they belong to the handful of big banks which own and control the big enterprises. What the workers produce collectively is taken by a handful of capitalist parasites who do not work. This results in a contradiction, the basic contradiction of capitalism, the conflict between the social character of production on the one hand and private ownership on the other. As Chairman Mao Tsetung, the leader of the communists and people of the world, has pointed out, this contradiction "MANIFESTS ITSELF IN THE CONTRADICTION BETWEEN THE ORGANIZED CHARACTER OF PRODUCTION IN INDIVIDUAL ENTERPRISES AND THE ANARCHIC CHARACTER OF PRODUCTION IN SOCIETY AS A WHOLE." Planning takes place within the enterprises, within the monopolies, within the companies themselves, but can never take place in capitalist society as a whole, due to private ownership. Chairman Mao also points out; "IN TERMS OF CLASS RELATIONS, IT MANIFESTS ITSELF IN THE CONTRADICTION BETWEEN THE BOURGEOISIE AND THE PROLETARIAT. " (On Contradiction) The social product of the workers is stolen by the bourgeoisie who thereby make fabulous profits; therefore, the worker is exploited and the working class wages a class struggle against its exploiters.

As a result of this contradiction, production under capitalism cannot be planned as a whole. The producers are separated from the consumers, so the market for goods can't be fully known. With the advent of the imperialist stage of capitalism, at the turn of the century, it became possible for monopolies to dominate certain industries, and even certain countries, for certain periods of time, and to estimate markets and capture sources of raw materials, but this only intensified the anarchy and uneven development in production as a whole and led to even more intensified crises, such as the Great Depression of the 1930's.

Furthermore, the basic interests of each group of finance capitalists is not at all to permanently plan production, but is to increase its own profits at the expense of the masses and of the other capitalists. While they come to agreements to divide up the markets among themselves, these financial groups change in strength at uneven rates and this upsets the equilibrium among them and sets off new struggles. Furthermore, while certain fields are monopolized, others are not, and the monopolies are continuously battling to subject the non-monopoly capitalists as well as to wipe each other out.

Thus the monopoly capitalist groups, who privately own the means of production, have interests fundamentally directed against overall planning, and will have as long as private ownership of the social means of production, that is, capitalism, exists.

b) Anarchy of Capitalist Production Inevitably Leads to Crises of Over-production

To serve their particular interests and undermine their rivals, the monopoly capitalists have developed immensely productive machinery of production. They were driven to do this by the anarchy in social production, which locks them in a jungle-law struggle with their fellow capitalists. But this very productiveness, this very size of the enterprises, means that they are always verging on overflowing the bounds of the market. Periodically this does take place, these vast forces of production burst their bounds and produce more consumer goods and more means of production (machinery, transportation equipment, buildings, plants, etc.) than the masses of the people, who are impoverished by capitalist exploitation, and the capitalists themselves (both for personal use and for new means of production) can consume. The development of the monopoly stage of capitalism -- imperialism -- did not eliminate crises, but instead it caused them to take place on a scale more colossal than ever before and with still more frequency. As is well known, the Great Depression of the 1930's was an economic crisis far deeper and more immense than any that took place before 1900. Further, since World War n there have been six economic crises, including the present one. Thus, Lenin's words have been borne out in practice: "MONOPOLY WHICH IS CREATED IN CERTAIN BRANCHES OF INDUSTRY INCREASES AND INTENSIFIES THE ANARCHY INHERENT IN CAPITALIST PRODUCTION AS A WHOLE." (Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism)

Thus the anarchy of capitalist production leads to periodic crises of over-production when more goods are produced than the market can absorb. The productive forces have grown too powerful, too productive for the system of capitalist private ownership which created them. Marx and Engels pointed out long ago that capitalism, "A SOCIETY WHICH HAS CONJURED UP SUCH GIGANTIC MEANS OF PRODUCTION AND OF EXCHANGE, IS LIKE THE SORCERER, WHO IS NO LONGER ABLE TO CONTROL THE POWERS OF THE NETHER WORLD WHOM HE HAS CALLED UP BY HIS SPELLS. " (Manifesto of the Communist Party) This over-production is an inevitable result of the anarchy of capitalist production. Thus, contrary to what Woodcock claims, the monopoly capitalists will never be able to foresee, or stave off, economic crises. No matter what information Woodcock's "planning board" provides the capitalists, they will never be able to "coordinate" "needs" with "goals" and avoid over-production so long as the capitalist system exists.

For example, when the auto capitalists step up their struggle with each other and increase production in order to realize higher profits, they begin to produce faster and faster, as they did in 1973. They work the workers long hours of overtime and speed up the pace of work to a deadly rate. Thus, in their drive for maximum profits, they unleash productive forces so powerful that they get all out of hand and suddenly the market is flooded and none of them can sell off his stock of commodities. Large sections of the machinery of production must grind to a halt. As Marx and Engels said, "IN THESE CRISES THERE BREAKS OUT AN EPIDEMIC THAT, IN ALL EARLIER EPOCHS, WOULD HAVE SEEMED AN ABSURDITY -- THE EPIDEMIC OF OVERPRODUCTION." What cannot be sold, they destroy. Masses of workers are laid off, whole factories are closed or even torn down, wars are deliberately provoked.

It was the outbreak of just such an over-production crisis as this which forced the auto capitalists to cut production by one-third in 1974, lay off thousands of auto workers and offer all kinds of rebate schemes (price cuts) in an at-' tempt to get their cars sold off. This crisis also became general, affecting all branches of U.S. production including those which produce means of production such as machine tools, trucks, etc.

Many monopoly capitalists and their lackeys, like Woodcock, in the workers' movement have admitted the unplanned and anarchic nature of their economy. Henry Ford's statement last year is a good example. But they all stop short of admitting that it is the anarchy of capitalist production which sets in motion powerful productive forces they cannot control, causing overproduction crises. Capitalists and their labor lieutenants may moan about the anarchy of production under capitalism, lamenting "if only we could plan"; but they won't admit that it is their system of private ownership ruling social production which causes anarchy and over-production crises.

In the present, imperialist stage of capitalism, the monopolies in a particular industry frequently conclude agreements to "peacefully" divide up the markets among themselves, divide up the sources of raw materials, fix prices, divide the profits, etc. But this "peace" and "unity" inevitably breaks down as soon as one gains an edge on the others and they again fiercely struggle against each other, each hoping to throttle the others and capture the entire market for itself. For a time, the auto monopolies in the U.S. had such agreements, but the present moves by G.M. to take advantage of the difficulties of Ford and especially Chrysler to capture fully 60% of the domestic car market for themselves is typical of what these agreements ultimately come to. Woodcock's "National Economic Planning", if instituted, would meet a similar fate.

While claiming that they are "recovering" from their crisis, the U.S. monopoly capitalists simultaneously admit that they are at a loss as to how to recover from it. In a recent issue of U.S. News and World Report, prominent bourgeois economists admitted that they had no idea whether the present "recovery" will indeed be a real recovery. (In fact, the monopoly capitalist system never fully recovers from one crisis before it enters another one; witness the higher and higher levels of unemployment which are accepted by the capitalist government as "full employment".) As evidence of the economy's complete unpredictability, these economists cited the fact that they were totally unable to predict the outbreak of the current crisis in the winter of 1973-4. They complained that all the usual "economic indicators" are unreliable and that by the same token all the usual panaceas the capitalists apply when beset with crises have had no effect.

c) Monopoly Capitalists Attempt to Get Over Economic Crises by Shifting Their Burden onto the Working People

To attempt to get over their over-production crises, on the one hand the capitalists always destroy some of the social forces of production which they have set in motion but cannot contain. There are temporary or permanent plant closings and under-capacity utilization, which result in large-scale lay-offs. For example today the auto industry alone employs about 170,000 less workers than two years ago as a result of this. In the present period of the general crisis of capitalism, which set in with the First World War and the October Socialist Revolution in Russia, this under-capacity utilization is a permanent feature of the capitalist economies. The need to destroy productive forces to get over crises is also a strong factor driving the monopoly capitalists towards war, which results in such destruction on the largest possible scale. Thus it was only the Second World War (which broke out as an inter- imperialist war but later became a progressive war on the part of the anti-fascist coalition) which allowed for the partial recovery of the U.S. economy from the Great Depression. Likewise it was the U.S. imperialist war of aggression against Viet Nam which gave the U.S. industries some further artificial stimulation. But despite a few temporary economic benefits for the capitalists such wars weaken and bring closer the fall of the world capitalist-imperialist system.

In addition to destroying productive forces, the capitalists try to avoid or get over crises by exploiting new markets and by more thoroughly exploiting the old ones.

As far as more thoroughly exploiting old markets, "galloping" inflation and rising prices are one method the monopoly capitalists use to increase the exploitation and plunder of the working people at home. Finance capital simply compels its lackey government to carry out deficit spending, go borrow huge sums from its banks, and then print paper money to pay the debts (which will be paid for by future taxes on the people;, in doing this, the government prints more paper money than the gold which would be needed to circulate (buy and sell) the amount of commodities actually being produced and circulated with cash purchases at the current speed of circulation. Thus, with more dollars than the gold needed, and therefore more than the goods actually being produced and circulated, the value of each paper dollar declines. The monopoly capitalists simply raise their prices to make up for this, while the workers and other laboring people, whose incomes are more fixed, are subjected to further plunder and exploitation. The wages of the workers, for example, do not rise without a bitter struggle against the capitalists, who are dead-set on keeping their increased profits and maintaining their increased exploitation of the workers.

In the auto plants, in addition to the effects of general inflation, the methods the capitalists are using to more thoroughly exploit the workers include compulsory overtime (of those workers not laid off) and, especially,an intense speedup (increased intensity of labor in the same period of time) coupled with a certain amount of introduction of new machinery, which, far from serving as a "labor-saving device", inevitably results in the loss of jobs and harder work for the remaining workers.

Not only do the monopoly capitalists increasingly shift the burden of their crisis onto the working people in the U.S., they also strive to shift it onto the nations oppressed by them in Asia, Africa and Latin America and even onto other capitalist countries. In the former case, the U.S. imperialists are notorious for, among other things, inflating the price of their manufactured and agricultural goods which they force the developing countries to accept in exchange for under-priced raw materials, resulting in the exchange of unequal values. In fact, the developing countries exploited by U.S. imperialism have lost billions of dollars by these means in the course of the current crisis, during which the price of U.S. goods has continued to soar. The struggles of the raw materials-producing countries, such as the oil-producers, are a reaction against the unequal exchange imposed on them mainly by U.S. imperialism.

Thus, to attempt to get over their crisis, the U.S. monopoly capitalists feverishly shift its burden onto the working people at home and onto the oppressed nations and other countries abroad. In this the selfish motive of the bourgeoisie is to make the masses, not themselves, bear the entire burden of the economic crisis. But, by impoverishing the masses, the monopoly capitalists only end up by diminishing the means by which crises are prevented, prepare the ground for longer and deeper crises, and thereby hasten their revolutionary overthrow by the masses.

d) Monopoly Capitalists Attempt to Relieve Their Crises by Exporting Capital and Waging Wars for the Redivision of the World

As far as new markets to expand into and relieve over-production crises, when capitalism reached the stage of imperialism at the turn of the century the powerful productive forces had produced such an over-abundance of products that capital in the imperialist countries overflowed its brim and these countries embarked on large-scale export of capital to the colonies and dependent countries in an effort to stave off over-production crises and thus artificially lengthen the life of capitalism. This export of capital today has developed to an immense scale, but it has also had the effect of developing capitalism in the dependent countries and with it, national liberation movements, which are kicking out imperialist exploitation thus again limiting its sphere of operation.

The stage of imperialism brought with it the complete division of the world between the imperialist "Great Powers"; since the start of this century there have been no new colonies or spheres of influence to conquer, they are already divided up among the imperialist "Great Powers". This means that the only way for an imperialist country to get new markets, new colonies, spheres of influence, etc., is to go to war against the other imperialist powers; such wars for the redivision of the world are best exemplified by the First World War.

Not only are there no new markets for the monopoly capitalists, but as a consequence of the First World War and the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, one-fifth of the world's people then left the sphere of capitalist exploitation. From then on, the world capitalist-imperialist system faced stagnant or shrinking markets. It was greatly weakened and entered into the period of its general crisis, a permanent crisis which is deepening and will further deepen until its doom. Now each specific economic crisis, like the present one, takes place in the context of the deepening general crisis of world capitalism and is deeper than those of the bygone days of free competition. As the general crisis of capitalism deepens, the capitalists can never really get over one crisis before another one begins. The present economic crisis is already the sixth just since World War II!

Today the markets available to the imperialists and social-imperialists are shrinking still further. The genuine socialist countries such as China and Albania, which do not permit foreign capital to invest in them, deprive imperialism of still more markets to exploit comprising over one-quarter of the world's population. The great national liberation struggles of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America, the main force of the world revolution, are depriving the imperialist powers still further of their ability to plunder the world at their will. As a result of the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union became an imperialist superpower like the United States, exporting capital itself and contending fiercely with the U.S. for world domination. Today it is the contention between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that is the main inter-imperialist contention over the markets and territory of the world. Contention between the two to gain hegemony also means a shrinking market for each to exploit.

Thus, today, driven by their own internal contradictions between socialized production and capitalist appropriation which exist in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, these two imperialist superpowers are desperately struggling to redivide the world between them. They are meeting with the bitter resistance of the world's people who want to throw off their hegemony and break the chains of finance capital. The contention between the two superpowers is a major factor contributing to the present economic crisis, while the crisis, in turn, increases the intensity of this contention. This contention is leading to a world war between them.

Thus all the attempts of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism to get out of their economic difficulties by world domination are only leading them towards their doom at the hands of the world's people. Imperialism means war. The world war being prepared by the superpowers, if it is not prevented by the people's revolutions, will result in such powerful revolutionary struggles by the people of the world that the entire imperialist system will likely be destroyed. In the light of such anarchy, turmoil, disorder as we see in the world today, the pious proposal of Leonard Woodcock to paper over all these conflicts by a little "planning" can be clearly seen for what it is -- the mere chirping of a terrified sparrow who sees that the capitalist world is being turned upside down and wants to "convince" the workers and the capitalists to "cool it" and be "peaceful", "calm" and "rational". In fact, Woodcock's proposal is just as false and just as treacherous as the "detente" between the superpowers and between the Soviet social-imperialists and their Victims promoted by Brezhnev and Kissinger.

e) Capitalist Exploitation and Oppression Lead Inevitably to Proletarian Revolution in Spite of Hoaxes like "National Economic Planning"

The development of the tremendous productive forces in the U.S. has meant the powerful development of the American working class.

The development of these forces is obstructed by capitalist private ownership. They press irresistibly forward urging the working class towards a smashing up of the capitalist system, a breaking of the chains of private ownership by the capitalists over the means of production. Capitalism in its highest, imperialist stage is dying, moribund, already beginning to turn into its opposite socialism. Comrade Lenin taught: "IMPERIALISM IS THE EVE OF THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION OF THE PROLETARIAT." (Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism) Anarchy of production, and the crises it creates, can only be eliminated by eliminating the private ownership of the means of production and placing them in the hands of society, of the people. Then social ownership of the means of production would conform to the social nature of production itself; the producers, the workers and not a handful of capitalist parasites, would collectively take possession of their products and consciously, in a planned way, develop production to benefit the whole of society. Thus, the only way to get rid of economic crises is to overthrow capitalism.

Once the working class has state power and takes possession of the means of production, anarchy in production is in the main ended. Production can be carried on to serve the needs of the masses, because it is the masses who control production. But under Woodcock's "National Economic Planning" the means of production would remain the possession of the capitalists. Economic crises would therefore continue. Thus Woodcock's scheme cannot be achieved under capitalism and is a fraud to hide the necessity of proletarian revolution to eliminate economic crises.

Not only that, but Woodcock's proposal also conceals the role of the government (state machine) of the monopoly capitalist class. The bourgeois state machine, with its standing army, navy, air force, police, courts and National Guard, FBI, CIA, state and local bureaucracy is an armed instrument of the monopoly capitalist class. It legalizes and protects the bourgeoisie's ownership of the means of production by exerting a dictatorship over the working class and oppressed people and defends the interests of the U.S. bourgeoisie against its international enemies. Woodcock's scheme would strengthen the powers of this very state machine which was created to suppress the workers and which is choking every pore of society today. But to solve its problems, instead of strengthening the bourgeois state the working class, led by its Marxist-Leninist Party, must boldly overthrow it by force of arms, must smash it up! In its place the working class, the overwhelming majority of the population, the ones who actually produce the wealth of the capitalists, will organize themselves as the ruling class and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat over the capitalists. This proletarian state will seize hold of the means of production which the capitalists have held as their all-holy private property. It will smash this foul private ownership and put the means of production in the hands of the whole of society. Thus it is only a totally new state, created by force by the workers themselves, which can end private capitalist ownership of the means of production, establish socialist ownership and eliminate economic crises. Only under such conditions can the economy be rationally planned in the interests of the people without the havoc caused by capitalist anarchy of production. This is just what the working class has done in Socialist China and Albania and other true socialist countries under the dictatorship of the proletariat today. In these socialist states, there is no longer anarchy of production, no economic crises, no over-production, nor is there any unemployment, inflation and rising prices, shortages, in a word -- no exploitation -- as there is in capitalist society. Thus, rather than strengthening the state as Woodcock proposes, the state must be smashed in order for the working class to achieve its liberation.

Thus Woodcock's "National Economic Planning" scheme is a brazen fraud, socialism only in words, a hoax which not only hides the necessity of a proletarian revolution to eliminate economic crises but also hides the necessity to smash the bourgeois state to achieve that revolution. Far from eliminating the economic crises of capitalism, it glosses over their cause and perpetuates their existence. As long as capitalism exists with the private ownership of the advanced and powerful social forces of production, there will be struggle between monopoly capitalists groups and contention between the imperialist powers for world hegemony and there will be exploitation of the working class and plunder of the oppressed nations and peoples. All the bourgeoisie's attempts to end crises under capitalism will only lead to new, deeper crises and more misery for the working people, and ultimately to revolution.

It is against this oppression that the American workers today are burning with hatred and feelings of rebellion, that resistance and struggle are rapidly breaking out. Only a revolutionary struggle can solve these problems. Only a revolutionary struggle can defeat the capitalist labor lieutenants like Woodcock, oust them from the leadership of the working class, and can lead to the smashing of the bourgeoisie's state. In fact, only a revolutionary struggle can seriously improve the workers' conditions prior to the victory of the revolution itself. Thus only a revolutionary struggle, not Woodcock's "National Economic Planning", can combat and eliminate unemployment and economic crises.

The working class must and inevitably will wage such a struggle. Only the genuine Marxist-Leninists, who are today working to build a Marxist-Leninist Communist Party, the party of the fighting vanguard of the working class, can lead such a struggle. They must rise to the task. All revolutionary workers and other revolutionary people should come forward to take up Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, build the Party and lead the struggle. Under their leadership the working class will resist the capitalists in a revolutionary way. It will fight great class battles, decisive fights, and bring about a basic change in U.S. society. It will inevitably make a socialist revolution and destroy by force the private capitalist ownership of the means of production which that state enforces. The working class, the immense majority of the people, will then become the ruling class. The workers will enforce a dictatorship of the proletariat over the capitalists, a socialist state, enforce the ownership of the means of production by the whole of society and institute conscious planning of production, putting an end to anarchy in production and, with it, to unemployment and economic crises.

This is the program which the trade unions will inevitably adopt once the labor lieutenants are defeated and the unions are brought under the leadership of a new Marxist-Leninist Communist Party. They must adopt such a program in order to put an end to capitalist oppression as has been done in China and Albania. The struggle to inscribe such a program on the banner of the trade unions, the struggle to defeat their reactionary leaders and transform them into vigorous organizations for the defense and emancipation of the working class, must be begun right now. Only this can defend the working class against capitalist exploitation and ultimately emancipate it from wage slavery.

It is to hide the necessity of just such a revolutionary program, to undermine the every-day struggles of the workers against capitalist exploitation, and to assist the monopoly capitalists in consolidating fascism in the United States, that Leonard Woodcock and Co., are today inscribing on the banner of the UAW the fraud of "National Economic Planning". The revolutionary workers must tear it off and replace it with the slogan: ABOLITION OF THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM.

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Communists Resist Anti-busing Fascists at Louisville Factory

As the resistance movement grows in Louisville against the monopoly capitalists' fascist anti-busing movement, Marxist-Leninist Communists are playing an active part.

In the last week of February, at the gates of the large Philip Morris cigarette factory, several comrades from the Louisville Branch of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists were violently attacked by the anti-busing fascists from inside the plant. The comrades answered these attacks with tit-for-tat resistance, defeated the fascists and won the warm support of large numbers of Black and white Philip Morris workers.

On Wednesday, February 25, two COUSML comrades went to the Philip Morris plant in the afternoon to sell The Workers' Advocate to workers leaving work after the first shift and coming to work for the second shift. They were selling the February 1st issue, which featured a detailed exposure of the anti-busing movement launched by the monopoly capitalists to attack the Afro-American people and the entire working class. The article pointed out the class-traitor role of a large section of the labor aristocracy in Louisville in organizing the anti-busing movement. The article also pointed out the treacherous role of the "liberals" and opportunists in advocating passive capitulation to fascism the banner of "peaceful desegregation". The comrades were determined to organize active resistance to the fascist movement among the workers.

When the comrades arrived at the plant, some 30 or so workers were standing near the gates and several held friendly discussions with the comrades. As the second shift began going in and the first began coming out, a skilled tradesman known as "Smokey", a well-known racist Ku Klux Klansman, one of the labor aristocrats on whom the capitalists are relying for their fascist movement, came out from the first shift. He was immediately recognized by one of the comrades who used to work at the plant. This racist made a bee-line for the other comrade, snatched a paper and called it "dirty communist trash". The comrade snatched it right back while the other comrade immediately denounced the man as a fascist and a Klansman to the workers present, and pointed out that it was the nature of fascists to try to intimidate the people. Another skilled tradesman came running out to back up "Smokey", who arrogantly declared that the comrades should leave. The comrades declared, that the working class has the right to distribute and receive revolutionary literature. At this point, "Smokey" attacked one of the comrades and the second fascist attacked the other comrade.

During the fight that ensued a crowd of about 150 workers gathered, forming a ring around the fight. The plant guards stayed away. No one came to the defense of the fascists, nor cheered them on. Even though the fascists were considerably larger than the comrades, the comrades gave them tit-for-tat and as soon as the fight came to a pause, the fascists ran off. At this point the plant guards ran up yelling to "break it up" and then disappeared into the plant. The comrades picked up their papers and distributed them to the workers present. About 50 workers stayed to discuss the significance of the fight with the comrades. One group of Black women gathered about one comrade and denounced the cowardly attack by the racist thugs, pointing out that "Smokey" was well-known at Philip Morris for his racism, and suggested that next time the comrades come they should bring guns. The comrade pointed out that the fascists had attacked because they were selling The Workers' Advocate exposing the fascist and racist nature of the anti-busing movement. He pointed out that the attack illustrates exactly how the fascist anti-busing movement is an attack on both the Black people and the entire working class. These statements were well-received by the women workers. Another group of white male production workers gathered about the other comrade. They offered their sympathy and several denounced the fascists' cowardly attack. These workers agreed that the comrades had won the fight, observing that the fascists had failed in their attempts to stop the distribution of revolutionary literature and had run off. More and more small groups of Black and other workers stopped the comrades and asked for papers. One group pointed out that the comrades were attacked because The Workers' Advocate tells the truth and the KKK is afraid to have the truth told. They denounced the attack as unjust and congratulated the comrades on their staunch resistance. After the shift change was entirely over and the workers had left, the comrades also left, vowing that they would never be chased away.

On the following afternoon, the comrades returned at the same hour, this time bringing a leaflet militantly denouncing the fascist attack (see below) in addition to The Workers' Advocate.

This time, the city police were parked near the main gate (exposing the role of the capitalist government in supporting the fascist anti-busing movement). Supervisors and plant guards were stationed at each gate. About 50 workers milled around in front of the plant. The comrades began selling the paper and passing out the leaflets. Many of the workers going in for the second shift had not heard about the struggle the day before, or had only heard vague reports. After reading the leaflets, many denounced the fascists and told the comrades to keep up the good work. A young white worker approached a comrade, shook his hand demonstratively, bought a paper and left without saying a word. First- shift workers coming out told the comrades that "Smokey" had been bragging all^ay about how he had "beat up" the communists the day before. When the comrades asked these workers why "Smokey" had run off if he had won the fight, while the comrades had stayed to talk with the workers, they agreed that it was the comrades and not the fascists who had won the fight.

As soon as the first shift started to come out, a crowd began to gather on either side of the gate and across the street. Before the shift change was over more than 200 workers had gathered, clearly waiting to see if the fascist "Smokey" and his cronies would come out and make good on their boasts. While the crowd was waiting, a few reactionary individuals tried to provoke fights with the comrades but backed down when they were firmly denounced. Their activities drew only a few feeble cheers from a clique of skilled tradesmen in the crowd of workers. Comrades pointed out clearly the undemocratic character of the fascists, who do not even want to discuss the anti-busing question among the masses, but must resort to intimidation and physical attacks to prevent democratic discussion from taking place among the workers. As the situation heated up, the plant supervisors were heard to say "let's get out of here!" and scurried back into the plant. Finally, after the handful of provocateurs outside had given up, a crowd of over 200 workers remained, waiting to see if "Smokey", the fascists' champion, would come out.

During this time, a group of some 15 mainly Black men and women workers gathered around one comrade who was standing near where the clique of fascist skilled tradesmen was gathering. About six of these anti-fascist workers militantly declared that they were staying to fight the racists if they tried to attack us; not only this, but they also organized other workers to stay and urged them to fight. A lively discussion took place denouncing and making fun of the fascists. These workers took a copy of the February 1st Workers' Advocate, which had a photograph of the January 15 anti-fascist, anti-racist demonstration in Louisville on its front cover and pointed out just where they had been standing in the crowd at the rally, generating further enthusiasm for fighting the racists and further discussing the previous days' fight. Meanwhile, at the main gate where most of the workers were coming out, where several other comrades were, at first the comrades were standing alone. Then a young white worker came out of the gate and walked straight up to a comrade and vigorously shook his hand, an act of open defiance to the fascists' intimidation. He pointed out that "Smokey" had previously threatened him for acting friendly towards the communists and related how he had laughed at this fascist. He then walked over to a group of about 35 Black workers who were also supporting the comrades. Then several Black and white workers walked right through the middle of the fascist clique, bought papers and took leaflets and walked right back defiantly through the middle of the fascist group, a route which was completely unnecessary to take since the other comrades they had been standing near had plenty of papers to give them.

Towards the end of the shift change, a group of mainly Black women workers gathered around another comrade and encouraged him, saying "don't let them scare you away!" They made fun of the fascists and denounced the cowardly attack by "Smokey". One man asked what the difference was between communism and fascism and said that he had been told that the communists wanted to send Blacks back to Africa. The comrade pointed out that these lies are spread by the bourgeoisie which tries to lump together communism with fascism in an attempt to discredit communism. He pointed out how the fascists attack the rights of the workers, as the day before at Philip Morris, and of the Black people, as in the anti-busing movement. He pointed out that the genuine communists are leading the struggles of the working and oppressed people for their liberation the world over, just as they had done in People's China. The worker then enthusiastically declared that he was a communist.

As the last of the first-shift workers filtered out of the gate, everyone began asking the question: "Where is 'Smokey'?" It was like electricity in the air. The workers began to realize that he must have sneaked out the back door. As soon as this became clear, the workers supporting the comrades and other workers all up and down the street began commenting about how the cowardly fascist must have slipped out the back door and began laughing wildly. After it was clear that no one else was coming out, and as the workers began to leave, the comrades walked back to their car together with them, discussing politics and resistance. One group of mainly Black workers began taunting the fascist clique shouting: "You'd better watch out for the communists!" The progressive workers all laughed and patted the comrades on the back and encouraged them not to be scared away by the fascists. The comrades declared that they would certainly return consistently to distribute revolutionary literature to the workers and had not been scared away and would not be. By this time there were three police cars on hand, but the large number of workers present and supporting the comrades forced them to stay away and not interfere.

The comrades returned that night and the following morning, and the fascists did not risk another attack. All told, in three days at the Philip Morris plant, over 110 copies of The Workers' Advocate were distributed and 450 leaflets were passed out.

Only active, tit-for-tat resistance to fascism, not a passive surrender or a meek plea for "peaceful desegregation" or "non-violent struggle", will arouse the workers and the Black people to unite against the fascist anti-busing movement, support the struggle for democratic rights of the Black people and get prepared for a proletarian revolution to wipe out the masters and sponsors of the fascist anti-busing movement -- the monopoly capitalist class.

Below is reprinted the leaflet issued by the Louisville Branch of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists.

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RESIST THE FASCIST ATTACKS OF THE ANTI-BUSING MOVEMENT!

COMMUNISTS DEFEND THE RIGHT TO DISTRIBUTE REVOLUTIONARY LITERATURE OF THE WORKING CLASS

At Philip Morris on February 25, two well- known racists--members of the Ku Klux Klan, advocates of "anti-busing" and lackeys for the U.S. monopoly capitalist class--launched an attack on comrades of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists in a vile attempt to stop the distribution of Workers' Advocate, and to stop the exposure of the racist and fascist anti-busing movement. This attack was met with stiff resistance by the communists. When the dust settled, these two fascist thugs had run off, while the communists continued to distribute the Workers' Advocate and to hold discussion among the workers gathered at the plant gate. Many workers denounced the attack by the thugs, supported the stiff resistance of the communists, and pointed out that these two-bit thugs were well-known racists who were afraid to have the paper distributed at Philip Morris because it told the truth about the anti-black, and anti-worker anti-busing movement.

Many workers have asked us why these fascist thugs attacked us. The plain answer is that it is their nature. All fascists are alike. First they tell lies, spread rumors and use demagogy to deceive the people. For example, they claim they are against busing and against communism because they are fighting for "freedom and democracy". But what kind of freedom is this when they are afraid to let the workers democratically discuss this busing question and even assault the communists to keep this from taking place. This is simply freedom to spread their fascist lies. Second they use intimidation and terror to try to force people to accept their views. And when anyone opposes them, speaks the truth and stands up to their threats, they attack them. The experience of the people of Louisville shows that while these racists and fascists bluster a lot, when the people stand up and expose their lies and resist their attacks, they run off. Hitler, who dreamed of enslaving the entire world, was like this. Mussolini was like this. Thieu of Viet Nam and Lon Nol of Cambodia were like this. When faced with the revolutionary storms of the people, they all collapsed.

But there is also a fuller answer. These attacks came at a time when U.S. imperialism is in a crisis. Faced with a serious economic crisis at home, the U.S. ruling class is shifting the burden of this crisis onto the backs of the working class. Each day the workers are faced with more and stricter rules and regulations, harassment and speedup at the factory. If the workers oppose this, they are told there are plenty of unemployed workers to take their place.

The U.S. ruling class also faces a crisis internationally. In Indochina, Africa, and throughout the world, the people of the world are standing up to U.S. imperialism and kicking them out. The U.S. ruling class, and the Russian social-imperialists (socialist in words, imperialist in deeds) are contending with each other for who will dominate the world. This contention is leading to world war, and to prepare for war, the U.S. ruling class and its government need a quiet rear--they can't have a united, fighting working class. Thus the government is attacking the people and imposing fascism.

The U.S. ruling class is worried about the rising resistance of the workers to this oppression. In this situation, while they are specifically aiming at violently attacking the democratic rights of Black people, their over-all aim is to create "anti-busing" as an issue to penetrate the masses and the workers movement, and win over a section to the capitalist class, thereby creating a basis for fascism in U.S. society. It is in this overall situation that these thugs made their attack. Their aim is to act as lackeys of the U.S. ruling class, and to stop the spread of revolutionary ideas among the people.

We have been asked who won and who lost in the fight. The answer is that the workers won the battle, but the war is still on. The thugs tried to stop the exposure of the racist and fascist anti-busing movement, and the discussion of revolutionary ideas among the workers. In this they failed miserably. But they were not completely wiped out. At Philip Morris they still squeak from dark corners, while at other plants in the city they are still organizing to attack Black people, split the unity between Black and white workers, and are trying to tie the trade unions to the coattails of the workers' class enemy--the U.S. monopoly capitalist class.

Many people still believe these fascists when they say they are fighting for freedom and democracy. But what kind of freedom is it when they tell lies and spread rumors, use intimidation and terror, and attack anyone who stands up to them. They simply want freedom to be racists and fascists.

These fascists should be warned that the workers have freedom and democracy too. We have freedom to spread revolutionary ideas and to expose the fascists for what they are. We have freedom to unite as one, and to stand up and resist their attacks. We have freedom to completely wipe them out, and we fully intend to exercise this freedom.

LOUISVILLE BRANCH OF THE CENTRAL ORGANIZATION OF U.S. MARXIST-LENINISTS

BOX 2032, LOUISVILLE, KY.

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HAIL THE 13th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE INTERNATIONALISTS!

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March 13, 1963 - - March 13, 1976

Thirteen years ago a small number of men and women founded the Internationalists in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This marked the rebirth of the revolutionary movement in Canada. The Canadian Internationalists grew, re-established the Marxist-Leninist leadership in the Communist Party of Canada by founding the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) in March 1970, and pushed forward the Canadian revolution. The banner of the Internationalists was taken up in other countries also, such as Ireland, England and the U.S. In the U.S., it is the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists and its predecessors which have raised the banner of the Internationalists since 1969, integrated its traditions with the concrete practice of the American revolution, and which can justly be given the proud name of the AMERICAN INTERNATIONALISTS.

The roots of the American Internationalists lie deep, in the surging mass movements of the 1960's, The comrades who were later to form the COUSML and its predecessor organizations were active in the revolutionary movements of the American people, such as the struggle against the U.S. imperialist war of aggression in Indo-china, including the anti-draft and G. I. movements; the struggle against the racial discrimination and violent repression of the Afro- American people; in the youth and student movement; in the workers' movement, including the movement to support the struggles of the agricultural proletariat to unionize; in the women's movement; and the movement to take up Marxism-Leninism. Much rich experience was gained. But these struggles were not raised to a higher level, New Leftism and the line of adapting Marxism-Leninism to New Leftism decisively opposed, and the long glorious road to rebuilding the Communist Party of the American proletariat consciously embarked on, until the comrades took up the banner of the Internationalists. The Regina Conference of 1969, which was actually the First Conference of North American Marxist-Leninists, played an important role in introducing the Canadian Internationalists to the American activists. Following the Regina Conference, in May 1969, the American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist-Leninist) was formed and took up the task of being the first national center for the dissemination of Marx- ism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought in the U.S. Other Marxist-Leninist organizations, such as the Association of Communist Workers of Louisville, Kentucky, also took up the banner of the Internationalists. At present, the American Internationalists are united into the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists, an organization which comes out of the campaign for the (second) Conference of North American Marxist-Leninists in August 1973. The COUSML and its predecessors have played an important role in the U.S. Marxist-Leninist movement. The contributions of the American Internationalists have included: establishing the first national center for dissemination of Mao Tsetung Thought; opposing the imperialist "counter-culture" with struggle on the cultural front; forwarding the resistance movement; exposing the all-round fascization of American society; and the campaign for the (second) Conference of North American Marxist-Leninists that helped bring realization of the importance of party- building and the unity of the Marxist-Leninists to the entire Marxist-Leninist movement.

The COUSML and its predecessors have always seen their tasks in the light of the interests of the whole Marxist-Leninist movement. Today the American Marxist-Leninists, in contrast to the situation in Canada where virtually all the Marxist-Leninists are united into the CPC(M-L), have not yet united and rebuilt the genuine Marxist-Leninist Party of the American proletariat. Marxism-Leninism has won a victory among the ranks of the more conscious activists of the '60's and early '70's -- this is so much the case that even the opportunists are now forced to cloak their treachery in pseudo-"Marxist" phrases. Yet the Marxist-Leninist movement remains in great turmoil. Only theoretical clarity on the basis of the American revolution and a vigorous struggle against opportunism on the theoretical front will provide conditions for the unity of the Marxist-Leninists. Meanwhile the economic crisis deepens, the fascization of American society intensifies and preparations by both superpowers for a new world war are growing. The mass movements of the '60's and early '70's have temporarily subsided. But the American people are stirring. The deepening economic crisis is inevitably giving rise to a storm of struggle against the shifting of the burden of the crisis onto the backs of the workers, national minorities and toiling masses. The resistance to the fascist anti-busing movement shows the imminence of a new rise in the Afro-American movement. The increasing threat of a new world war, more terrible than the previous two, will eventually give rise to a struggle against the two superpowers, U.S. imperialism and Soviet social- imperialism, whose rivalry and contention for world hegemony is the source of the threat of war. To prepare for these movements, the Marxist-Leninists must forge much closer links with the masses than presently exist. The American Internationalists, who in the past have taken up the decisive tasks facing the movement, will not be unequal to these tasks. On this anniversary of the founding of the Internationalists, we must rededicate ourselves to intensifying our efforts at integrating with the masses and to establishing the theoretical clarity so necessary to unity among the Marxist-Leninist.

The Internationalists have had a profound impact on the American revolution. March 13, 1963 -- the day the banner of the Internationalists was first raised in Vancouver, B. C., Canada -- is a milestone for the revolution in all of North America, as well as Canada. Historical experience merits attention. On this anniversary, let us study our history and again clarify these important questions: who are the Canadian Internationalists, our fraternal comrades, and what are their undying historical merits; and, what are some of the contributions of the American Internationalists, the COUSML and its predecessors.

THE INTERNATIONALISTS IN CANADA

At the time the Internationalists were founded, the international situation seemed dark to many. Modern revisionism had risen as a counter-revolutionary force on a world scale, numerous Communist and Workers Parties steadily degenerated into social-democracy and reformism, Trotskyism raised its head again as the closest ally of fascism, and in the'50's and 60's U.S. imperialism engaged in large-scale and frenzied aggression. A dark cloud of fascism loomed all over the imperialist and social-imperialist countries, providing no hope for the future. From the outside it looked as if reaction were strong and on the way to world-wide victory. But it was also during this period that the national liberation struggles were raging in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The great debate against modern revisionism headed by the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labor of Albania was going on and Marxist-Leninists in the parties supporting revisionism were rising up to organize new Marxist-Leninist centers. Since 1963 modern revisionism has suffered repeated defeats, particularly in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China. The Indo-chinese people have defeated U.S. imperialism and liberated their countries. Portuguese colonialism has collapsed. Reaction, outwardly strong, has been shown to be inwardly weak and headed for collapse. The Soviet social-imperialists, who are rising relative to the U.S. imperialists, can not escape this law either and are marching to their doom. As was the case with the U.S. imperialists, the aggressive adventures by the Soviet Union are putting nooses around the neck of the Soviet revisionists and the ends of the ropes are held by the people of the world who have suffered from Soviet social-imperialism, including the people of Angola, India, East Pakistan, Cuba, etc. The contention between the two superpowers for world hegemony, which is leading to a new world war, signals the doom of the imperialist system itself. Either revolution will prevent the war, or war will give rise to revolution. The Internationalists were part of these healthy new revolutionary forces rising to oppose imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction.

Inside Canada, the '60's were a period of rapid expansion into Canada of U.S. imperialism. The U.S. imperialists used the "youth culture" to try to smother the youth and student movement. The betrayal of modern revisionism, which had taken over the "Communist " Party of Canada, was at its height. The revisionists betrayed the working class and revolution. The revisionists, along with other counter-revolutionary imposters, also refused to give leadership to the youth and student movement; indeed they tried to undermine this movement instead. The revisionists aided the U.S. imperialists by promoting every degenerate social form as "progressive", by promoting pleasure-seeking and degeneration. Along with the Trotskyites, the revisionists ran slander campaigns that the Canadian people were "not revolutionary" but were "anti-communist" and "sold-out". The flip side of the opportunist view that the masses were backward was the opportunist view that all the opinions of the masses were "inherently rational" and entirely correct and that there was no need to work hard to analyze and synthesize them. In this way, the opportunists denied that the mass movements must be led and organized by a definite scientific political line, that the Marxist-Leninist party of the proletariat must lead the mass movements or else the bourgeoisie will lead them.

But the U.S. imperialists and their revisionist and opportunist henchmen could not destroy the youth and student movement. Faced with problems people develop the desire to change them. This desire leads them to make attempts to change. This is a law of history. The revisionists and dogmatists attempted to go against this law and attempted to thwart the desire of the people for change and convert it into a desire to serve the imperialists and social- imperialists. The imperialists promote the counter-revolutionary theory that people need the "permission" of the imperialists themselves to overthrow them and they use their state machine fascistically to implement their fascist law. The Internationalists defied them all. With the deep desire to fight imperialism, with faith in the masses and faith in Marxism-Leninism- Mao Tsetung Thought, a revolutionary contingent of youth and students raised the banner of the Internationalists in Vancouver, B. C. on March 13 and with great daring and determination set out on the path to re-establish the Marxist-Leninist leadership in Canada, to the anti-imperialist proletarian socialist revolution, and wrote one of the most remarkable pages in the history of revolution in Canada.

The Internationalists were part and parcel of the youth and student movement. They did not stand on sidelines, shouting sectarian and dogmatic slogans, but came right from the heart of the mass movement, which they served wholeheartedly. The Internationalists provided leadership to the youth and student movement. Among other achievements, they were the only group to analyze the corporate-sensate culture and oppose the imperialist "counter-culture". They had great contempt for the revisionists and dogmatists. The Internationalists did not spring full-blown and theoretically and ideologically complete from the head of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, into Canada. No, they came from the revolutionary masses and had all the virtues and faults of the revolutionary activists of their time. They transformed themselves in the course of taking up the decisive tasks to advance the mass movement and in building the party in the thick of struggle. In this way, the Internationalists moved from one stage to another, upheld revolutionary practice as the basis of unity and discipline and integrated theory with practice. They went from a lower to a higher level, from the struggle against bourgeois hang-ups to the solution of the problem of building a disciplined group, from a small local organization to a national organization, from a youth and student organization to a party with deep roots in the working class. In March 1968 the Internationalists founded the Canadian Student Movement and by 1970 their work resulted in the founding of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist).

It is very instructive to compare the fate of the Internationalists with that of the now defunct Progressive Workers Movement (P.W.M.). The contrast between these two organizations reflects the struggle between two lines, between integration with the mass movements and firm loyalty to Mao Tsetung Thought, on the one hand, and detachment, "expert anti-revisionism" and "critical acceptance" of the authority of the international communist movement on the other, between repudiating revisionism in practice and repudiating revisionism only in words. With the rise of modern revisionism in the Communist Party of Canada, two groups came into existence to smash the counter-revolutionary revisionist clique: 1. the Internationalists -- a completely student and faculty organization founded on March 13, 1963 ; and 2. the P.W.M. -- an organization with its main force from the workers, founded in the fall of 1964. Both organizations, at one time or another, declared their full support for China and Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and their opposition to modern revisionism. The Internationalists were a small organization mainly in British Columbia, with no working class support and led by Hardial Bains who had a rank-and-file association with the Communist Party before. The P.W.M. was originally a comparatively much larger organization with support all across Canada and its main base in the working class and it was led by Jack Scott, a veteran communist. Yet it was the Internationalists who developed into the only Marxist-Leninist organization on a national scale. And it was the Internationalists who, with increasing numbers of workers joining them and with the shift of base from the educational institutions to the place of work, became the Communist Party of all genuine Marxist-Leninists, the Party of the Canadian proletariat. At the same time P.W.M. degenerated into a small organization with some support in Vancouver from petty-bourgeois intellectuals and almost no influence in revolutionary circles across Canada and then went completely defunct. And in the process of decay and dissolution the P.W.M. gave rise to all sorts of bankrupt progeny, including a national chauvinist organization, a social-democratic organization and a branch plant of an American Trotskyite group that holds that "all nationalism is reactionary".

Why did these two organizations have such different destinies ? The answer to this question is very significant. The P.W.M. upheld that ideas came from books and opposed using the criterion of social practice. They had their "anti-revisionist ideology" and their "anti-revisionist" expert scholar on one hand and on the other hand they carried over into their organization the whole legacy of revisionist social practice, style of work and method of organization. A striking example of this was their complete inability to give guidance, their dogmatic inability to use Marxism as a guide to action, when the revolutionary students came to them in the early 60's and humbly asked them for leadership. As a result, the P.W.M. deteriorated and this reflected itself in their ideas too. From upholding Marxism-Leninism, it went to upholding anarcho-syndicalism, advocating "critical acceptance of Mao Tsetung Thought", complaining about the "language of Peking Review" and even sunk into the mud and ended by denying the necessity of a proletarian party, as they held it would spring from the left-wing of the Canadian Independence movement and the social-democratic "Waffle" group. Jack Scott has even sunk to writing a book advocating that the Chinese Revolution and Great October Socialist Revolution are two separate roads and attacking Comrade Stalin. This is a great lesson for those who think that unity is built on documents and not on social practice, that reading and books are primary, and that inner-party struggle must be reduced to detached and intellectualist discussions.

Meanwhile the Internationalists upheld that theory is derived from practice and in turn serves practice. The Internationalists rigidly adhered to serving the particular stage of revolution and in the course of revolutionary practice they transformed themselves, took up Mao Tsetung Thought, continually clarified their theoretical ideas and marched forward. The Communist Party of Canada (M-L) describes the secret of its development as follows:

"CPC(M-L) was the only organisation in Canada which appreciated the necessity for discipline based on revolutionary practice and' accepted the basic Leninist principle that without a revolutionary party based on revolutionary theory there will be no revolution. Neither did we go away from revolutionary practice, nor did we oppose using theory as a guide to action. It is a fact that our organisation is the only one which has step by step, over the years, advanced from low level to a higher, from a small organisation to a relatively large (i.e. we are still quite small), and from relatively correct political line for Canada and Quebec to relatively more correct line for Canada and Quebec. The secret of our development lies in the fact that we keep our eyes on the ground, deepen and broaden our revolutionary practice in a step-wise manner, oppose our enemies, build the Party in a stepwise manner from a low level to a higher level, and use Mao Tsetung Thought as our theoretical foundation. Furthermore, we rely on our own efforts, believe in the solidity of our own organization and the correctness of our own political line, vigorously accept our mistakes, acknowledge these in time and rectify them, and never seek hegemony over others. Instead of lording it over others, we assist others, take a sympathetic view towards them, patiently learn from others as well as teach them, and we struggle hard to develop unity and solidarity of the Marxist-Leninists and the revolutionary forces. Others went against all that is said above. Which meant that they went against the basic laws governing this world, and the world chucked them out of existence. " (from Summing Up The Stage of Discussion Between CPC(M-L) and En Lutte!, PCDN-OTL, Sept. 15-20, 1975).

Today all that is alive and honest in Canada is rallying itself around CPC(M-L). The Party has steeled itself in the heroic resistance movement against the attacks of the reactionary state machine -- having come undaunted through over 2,000 arrests and many deportations. Now the Party is providing ideological and theoretical leadership to and vigorously participating in the new and larger resistance movement of the working class against the declaration of war on the working class by the Trudeau government with its "wages and prices restraint" program. National minority communities are also standing up to resist the fascist and racist government attacks and the East Indian Defence Committee and other groups are flourishing. Serious work on the theoretical front is being expanded and deepened. The culture of revolutionary struggle is developing through such publications as New Literature and Ideology. Large-scale campaigns to support the struggles of the oppressed nations and peoples are being conducted, such as the recent campaigns in support of ZANU, UNIT A and the people's democratic revolution in India led by the Communist Party of India (M-L). There is a new awakening of the Canadian people. Who would have believed in 1963 that the Internationalists, then a small handful of youth and students, would have achieved such results ? Undoubtedly the path ahead has many twists and turns. In the conditions of worsening capitalist world crisis and the threat of a new world war, the U.S. imperialists and the Canadian monopoly capitalist class will subject the Party to new and severer tests than in the past. But the spark of revolution in Canada set by the Internationalists can never be extinguished.

SOME CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INTERNATIONALISTS

In the U.S. the mid-'60's saw the rise of many surging mass movements, in particular the Afro-American people's struggle against racial discrimination and violent repression, the struggle of the broad masses of people against the U.S. imperialist war of aggression in Indo-china, the youth and student movement in support of the above two struggles and against the decadent bourgeois educational system and the bourgeois culture, and the workers' struggle against capitalist exploitation. In the U.S., as in Canada, revisionism had captured the Communist Party from the inside. The revisionists and Trotskyites collaborated with the U.S. imperialists in undermining the people's movements. In 1962 the Progressive Labor Movement (which became the Progressive Labor Party in 1965) was founded as the first national anti-revisionist center. But the PLP was unable to rise to the tasks set before it. It reached a point where it stopped fighting revisionism and adopted the entire method and and style of work of the revisionists, but hidden under "left" phrases. Consequently the PLP totally departed from the Marxist-Leninist political line and adopted the bourgeois ideology of opportunism. The PLP failed to make concrete analysis of concrete conditions, set itself in opposition to the mass movements, attacked the revolutionary struggles of the Vietnamese people, and degenerated into the Trotskyite sect it is today. In 1966 the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, initiated and led by Chairman Mao, burst on the world like a clap of spring thunder. A new impetus was given to the anti-revisionist forces the world over. It was in this situation that a number of activists in the revolutionary mass movements came into contact with the Canadian Internationalists. The Regina Conference of 1969, (the first Conference of North American Marxist-Leninists) played an important role in this and in bringing Mao Tsetung Thought and the lessons of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to the U.S.

The formation of the American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist-Leninist) (ACWM(M-L)) in May 1969, marked a decisive new stage in the American Marxist-Leninist movement. A small group of revolutionary activists from Cleveland, Ohio, took upon themselves the national tasks of American revolution and raised the banner of the Internationalists. They sought to unite with other honest and upright revolutionaries and to encourage others to also take up the crucial tasks facing the revolutionary movement and to do so on a national scale. The ACWM(M-L) rapidly spread to other areas. It was the first national center for the dissemination of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. While dissemination of revolutionary ideology and political line is important at all times, there are certain times in the history of the revolutionary movement when this becomes one of the decisive tasks. One such time in American history occurred after the Great October Socialist Revolution, when the wide-scale dissemination of the works of Lenin in North America played a very important role in the two-line struggle against revisionism and anarcho-syndicalism and in creating conditions to found the Communist Parties of Canada and the U.S. The '60's and early '70's were another such time. There were many activists from the revolutionary mass movements who were summing up the lessons of the '60's. There was silence in the Holy Alliance of the "left" concerning the key documents of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the instructions of Chairman Mao, and on the real significance of Mao Tsetung Thought. To be in the thick of struggle at that time was to take a stand on whether or not there was to be a Party in the U.S. and whether or not Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought was to be the theoretical foundation of this Party. The ACWM(M-L) enthusiastically disseminated works of Mao Tsetung Thought as well as important documents of the International Communist Movement including The Political Report to the 9th National Congress of the Communist of China, the 1963 and 1968 statements by Chairman Mao in support of the Afro-American struggle against racial discrimination and violent repression and Chairman Mao's Solemn Statement of May 20, 1970, "People of the World Unite and Defeat the U.S. Aggressors and All Their Running Dogs!" The ACWM(M-L) also laid stress on the Marxist-Leninist teachings on the necessity for a party. The ACWM(M-L) disseminated Mao Tsetung Thought in application to the concrete conditions of the U.S., gave correct analysis of struggle on the cultural front, denounced growing fascism in the U.S., and opposed such concrete manifestations of revisionism, trotskyism and New Leftism as the opportunist "single-issue" politics, which sought to subvert every outbreak of the mass movements into philistine shock and moralism over isolated events, "exceptions" to the system, rather than leading the mass movements in conscious opposition to the entire monopoly capitalist system. A notable feature of the ACWM(M-L) right from its founding was that it consistently opposed vulgarization, economism and talking down to the masses, and sought to give all its agitation, whether on economic, political, cultural or other subjects a genuinely revolutionary and communist content.

The ACWM(M-L) had from its very outset contacted other Marxist-Leninist activists and organizations and sought to unite with them, unity to be on the basis of Marxism-Leninism- Mao Tsetung Thought in order to build the party and organize the proletarian revolution. For a Marxist-Leninist, unity into a single party, and building that party, are a first principle. Certain organizations declined to unite on the grounds that they were not interested in taking up the task of building a national Marxist-Leninist center yet. Indeed the theory of pre-party collectives held much currency. Another negative view promoted by certain leaders of the student movement was to insist as a price of unity that ACWM(M-L) should take up some special sectarian principle to set itself apart from the others; failing this, these individuals involved founded their own organization in a few years. As time went on, it became clearer and clearer that the reason for lack of unity among the Marxist-Leninists was the prevalence of opportunism. Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought had won victory among the more conscious revolutionary activists and its prestige was very high. But those leaders who had made serious errors in the '60's and opposed Marxism-Leninism then simply adapted themselves to the new situation and, giving lip-service to Marxism-Leninism, continued to oppose it, only now they called the consistent Marxist-Leninists "dogmatic", "sectarian" and "ultra- left". This was neo-revisionism. It counter- posed building the mass movement to building the party, holding that the party would emerge from the mass movements. To move this situation forward, the Internationalists played a key role in uniting several organizations to issue the "Call for a Conference of North American Marxist-Leninists" on November 19, 1972. The "Call" and the resulting campaign for Marxist- Leninist unity played a great role in awakening many Marxist-Leninists to the importance of building the Party and the fallacies of neo-revisionism. It also led to the founding of the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists at the Conference of American Marxist-Leninists in August 1973.

The militant spirit and daring with which the Internationalists disseminated Marxism-Lenin- ism-Mao Tsetung Thought among the working class, national minorities and other oppressed masses distressed the monopoly capitalists. The bourgeois state waged constant attacks on the ACWM(M-L) and, although it was only a small organization, there were over 90 arrests of members and supporters in the period between 1969 and 1973. The ACWM(M-L) was thus called on to take part in the glorious anti-fascist resistance movement of the revolutionary masses against the state machine of the monopoly capitalist class. Two notable highpoints of this struggle stand out. In July 1970, the Wallacite fascists under the direction of the state machine tried to organize a "hard-hat" march in Cleveland. The ACWM(M-L) realized that for communists it is not enough to simply understand the world and understand that the working class is not fascist, but it is necessary to use this Marxist-Leninist analysis to change the world. The ACWM(M-L) thus relied on the working class, aroused extensive public opinion against the fascist "hard-hat" march, and on July 26, 1970, militantly marched right through the "hard-hat" march with red flags and aroused the Black, white and Puerto Rican youth and masses against it. This knocked the wind out of this once-feared movement and exposed it as a paper tiger. It soon vanished completely.

Another important example of the resistance movement took place on July 8, 1972, when the Buffalo unit of the ACWM(M-L) proudly opened the William Z. Foster Propaganda Center directly in the heart of a working-class district. The comrades complied with all the bourgeois legalities in opening the center. But the imperialist state is an organ of vicious class dictatorship of the monopoly capitalists against the working class. The state launched a coordinated attack on the center involving lumpen thugs as well as plainclothes and uniformed police. The comrades won the respect of the working masses by fighting back heroically. One comrade set an immortal example by continuing to defy the police and shout slogans even after the fascist police put a gun to his head. This is the spirit of fearing neither hardship nor death, the way to fight in this era of self-sacrifice and revolution. Such acts of heroism shine like a beacon and penetrate through the fog of flabby philistinism and cowardice that is promoted by the revisionists. The revisionists promote capitulation and defeatism in every struggle and then run to the people wailing about how bad the bourgeoisie is, as it keeps walking right over them. Their partners in this crime are those opportunists who lecture on the importance of recognizing the armed struggle as the means of seizing power in the future--but for today, of course, they call for peace and quiet and denounce resistance as "ultra-left" and "adventurist" and as "provoking" the bourgeoisie. This is not an innocent activity. It is direct collaboration with the state machine by trying to create public opinion against the revolutionaries. It is only when the masses of oppressed people, and particularly the proletariat, are inspired with the spirit of performing daily acts of unsung heroism for the sake of liberating all mankind, that the proletarian revolution will be possible.

Another contribution of the COUSML and its predecessors was their constant exposure of the increasing fascization of all aspects of life in the U.S. Today there are some "wise men" who seek to prettify the imperialist state machine and use the slogan of "bourgeois democracy" to oppose denouncing fascization and to oppose the resistance movement. These "wise men" close their eyes to the everyday facts of American life. Is this not the U.S., where the imperialists simply assassinated such leaders as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, George Jackson, as well as numerous Black Panthers, and where the bourgeois press boasts of the FBI's Cointelpro program against "Black Messiahs"? The imperialists even settle disputes among themselves through murder and assassinated their own former chieftain John Kennedy as well as his brother Robert Kennedy. Many facts, such as the promotion of the fascist anti-busing movement, expose the intentions of the monopoly capitalists. Chairman Mao has clearly expressed the relations between imperialism and fascization in the U.S. in his Solemn Statement of May 20, 1970: "WHILE MASSACRING THE PEOPLE IN OTHER COUNTRIES, U.S. IMPERIALISM IS SLAUGHTERING THE WHITE AND BLACK PEOPLE IN ITS OWN COUNTRY. NIXON'S FASCIST ATROCITIES HAVE KINDLED THE RAGING FLAMES OF THE REVOLUTIONARY MASS MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES. THE CHINESE PEOPLE FIRMLY SUPPORT THE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. I AM CONVINCED THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WHO ARE FIGHTING VALIANTLY WILL ULTIMATELY WIN VICTORY AND THAT THE FASCIST RULE IN THE UNITED STATES WILL INEVITABLY BE DEFEATED. " The COUSML and its predecessors clearly exposed the fascist and utter reactionary nature of both the "liberal" and the "conservative" monopoly capitalists. In the 1972 Presidential election the ACWM(M-L) opposed both the open fascist Nixon and the social-fascist McGovern and pointed out that imperialist pacificism was actually a tool for preparation for further imperialist war. During the Nixon impeachment crisis, the COUSML opposed social-democratic illusions and used the occasion to expose the entire state machine. The correct analysis of the Internationalists concerning the increasing fascization in the U.S. is a sharp weapon in defeating revisionist illusions concerning the nature of the monopoly capitalist class dictatorship in the U.S. and in arming the masses for the great class battles to come.

The COUSML and its predecessors have staunchly adhered to proletarian internationalism and opposed national chauvinism. They have regarded themselves as part of and under the authority of the international communist movement, led by the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labor of Albania. They have held many campaigns in support of the national liberation struggles, including in support of those liberation organizations slandered by international opportunism and both superpowers, and paid close attention to the struggle of the Afro-American people and other oppressed nationalities inside the U.S. Opposition to national chauvinism is an important question inside a superpower. The attitude taken by many opportunists towards Canada, for example, is a shameful example of the prevalence of national chauvinism in the U.S. It is the habit of great-nation chauvinists to meddle in the affairs of Canada, a country oppressed by U.S. imperialism. Countless American opportunists have regarded Canada and Quebec as their backyard and have gone there to float organizations to follow foreigners and subvert the motion of the Canadian revolution. They have advised the Canadians not to fight U.S. imperialism and have even denied the existence of U.S. imperialist domination of Canada. Recently some have gone so far as to advise the Canadian people not to fight Soviet social-imperialism either and have denounced the just struggle of the Canadian fishermen against the plundering Soviet trawlers. The Canadian Internationalists have rebuffed these American chauvinists and in so doing have given aid to the American revolution. All honest and upright American Marxist-Leninists and progressive people should stand up in firm opposition to the great-nation chauvinists. The COUSML and its predecessors have consistently given firm support to the anti-imperialist struggle in Canada and developed equal and fraternal relations with the CPC(M-L).

Above we have discussed some of the contributions of the American Internationalists. Perhaps someone will say that some of these views and practices are not "original", not the sole property of the Internationalists. Yes. Precisely so. The COUSML does not set up any special sectarian principles of its own by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement and with which to justify its existence. On the contrary, the COUSML has always striven to unite the maximum majority in opposition to the common enemy and have greeted with enthusiasm all progress of the revolutionary movement. This is why more and more Marxist-Leninist individuals and groups are bound to unite with and join the COUSML. The American Marxist-Leninists are sure to unite, re-establish a genuine Communist Party of the American proletariat, and lead the proletariat in revolution, uniting with the proletarians of all countries and all oppressed nations in order to achieve final emancipation through emancipating all mankind.

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Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist) Hails the Internationalists

The Workers' Advocate reprints below the full text of the speech delivered by the representative of the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist), Comrade Carol Reakes, in Montreal on March 17, 1973, in celebration of the Tenth Anniversary of the Founding of the Internationalists:

The Communist Party of Ireland(Marxist-Leninist) proudly celebrates the Tenth Anniversary of the Founding of the Internationalists with its fraternal parties - the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), the Communist Party of England(Marxist-Leninist), the American Communist Workers Movement(Marxist-Leninist) and all other fraternal organisations and comrades and revolutionary people and greets the Twenty-Second Congress of the CPC (ML) - the second since the repudiation of the revisionist leadership.

The Internationalists contributed to the revolutionary struggle of the people in a most significant way. In brief, that contribution was: 1) the destruction of the stultifying capitulationist atmosphere created by the rise of revisionism in the late 50's and early 60's,' 2)providing of Marxist-Leninist leadership of a vigorous and powerful youth and student movement, 3) out of the struggle to provide that leadership to the building of a disciplined Marxist-Leninist vanguard, 4) detailed scientific analysis of imperialist superstructure providing the conditions to mobilize youth and students into the overall struggle against imperialism and for waging struggle against imperialism and revisionism within the vanguard group, 5) by building the party in the mass movement. All of these factors provided the basis for the establishment of a Proletarian Party, based On Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought - and this is what the Irish people need more than anything.

It is beyond all shadow of doubt that the workers, peasants and other oppressed peoples of Ireland are instilled with a great anti-imperialist and patriotic sentiment and have a deep desire for revolution. The Irish people constitute a small, weak nation which has suffered brutal aggression and extreme subjugation for many centuries, yet rather than being cowed down by endless years of imperialist and feudal domination, the people daily grow more earnest to defeat imperialist domination for once and for all. As they are at present demonstrating to the world, no amount of British imperialist goons with all their fascist activities, no amount of propaganda about the strength of imperialism and no amount of attempts to try and turn the people f against one another will ever force them to lay down their guns and reconcile their future to imperialist domination. Yet all genuine revolutionaries, who are concerned to actually translate the sentiment into a material force and to lead this struggle to a victorious conclusion, must put the question- Why, after so many years of struggle and sacrifice have the Irish people's attempts at achieving liberation never yet succeeded? And history reveals the answer to this question and that is that what is decisive has been which class had led and will lead the national liberation struggle. Since the emergence of the Irish working class, which due to imperialist suppression was considerably later than the emergence of the working class in England, there have been various attempts to organise this class. These attempts, although providing experience for the proletariat, have not yet succeeded in making it an influential and indeed leading force in the struggle for national liberation and emancipation of the working people from the yokes of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capital ism. Due especially to outright imperialist suppression of the workers attempts to organize, by murder and jailing of their leaders, etc. and especially due to the betrayal of the revisionists soon after the founding of the Communist Party of Ireland (in the 1920's), the working class and oppressed people have not had by the 1960's: the chance to carry out any sustained activity on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and to build actual guidelines as to how to organise a revolutionary party. The experience of the Irish revolutionary struggle shows that without the leadership of the proletariat through its vanguard party, the national bourgeoisie and petty bourgeois elements and even direct representatives of imperialism are bound to as unie leadership and therefore the struggle. 1) for national liberation cannot be led through but will be compromised at crucial times -- (as in the 1920's), 2) the struggle cannot be led through to socialism and eventually communism to bring about complete emancipation of the working people, and 3) due to the influence of the national bourgeoisie and other elements, wrong methods of struggle - eg. terrorism and reformism - will be adopted instead of the waging of People's War on a Marxist-Leninist basis.

Thus the question of who leads the oppressed masses - the national bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie or the proletariat is a question of life and death struggle for the Irish people. The founding of the Internationalists in Ireland provided a decisive answer to this question, and for the first time in Ireland, a well organized, compact organisation, based on proletarian discipline and style of work was formed. This created the conditions for the widescale dissemination of Mao Tsetung Thought and the founding of the Communist Party of Ireland(Marxist-Leninist) in 1970. This trend is inevitably going to lead to the proletariat assuming leadership of the Irish peoples' struggle.

This significant contribution of the Internationalists, the spirit, political line and methods of work adopted in the work to build the party have been indelibly imprinted upon the revolutionary tradition in Ireland. No amount of imperialist suppression, distortion, mystification, or setbacks in the revolutionary movement can ever remove this experience. With this experience and with the deep sentiment of the Irish people, it is inevitable that a People's Republic of Ireland, based on national independence, reunification and sovereignty, be established in the not too distant future, as a first step towards building a socialist country under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

Today, ten years since the founding of the Internationalists, we are living in a rapidly moving world with intense contradictions between the forces. of reaction and the forces of revolution. Today, in 1973, the proletariat, oppressed peoples and nations all over the world are standing up against imperialism, led by U.S. imperialism, and against modern revisionism, led by Soviet social imperialism. The imperialist economic system is in dire straights. The superpowers' dreams of subjugating the whole world have been exposed for the eyes of the whole world with the defeat of U.S.imperialism by the heroic Vietnamese people. Modern revisionism is exposed as yet another form of imperialism. The hegemony of the two superpowers has been shattered and the People's Republic of China, led by the Communist Party of China and Chairman Mao, enjoys the support of all democratic and peace-loving governments and peoples the world over." The world united front of small nations and nations unwilling to be bullied by the two superpowers, U.S. imperialism and Soviet social imperialism, is rapidly developing, beaded by the People's Republic of China, and represents an unshakeable force in the world of today. At home in the imperialist heartlands, the broad masses of the people are awakened and are rejecting the imperialist policies of their governments on the economic, political and cultural fronts.

But these were not the features of the world situation ten years ago at the time of the founding of the Internationalists, and it is very important to see how these conditions have changed, how the Internationalists marched forward with this change and in turn helped to bring about the change.

In the early 1960's, U.S. imperialism was jack-booting around the world stepping up its policies of aggression, violence, and subjugation of other countries. Modern revisionism, headed by the Khruschev clique was beginning to take up its place as a social imperialist power and every effort was being made by both parties to isolate and destroy the People's Republic of China. On the ideological front, U.S. imperialism had just launched its cultural counter-revolution aimed especially against the youth and students and the rise of Khruschevite revisionism in the Soviet Union had had a considerable influence on the revolutionary movement, consolidating revisionist camps around the world and creating a counter-revolutionary atmosphere of conspiracy and betrayal.

But these enemies of the people sowed the seeds of their own destruction and it is those seeds which are blossoming today and giving rise to such a favorable world situation.

In 1965 news of the movement to "Fight Self and Repudiate Revisionism" in China began to arrive - The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution had begun! Also in the early 1960's (1963, 64, 65), genuine Marxist-Leninists began to break with the old parties, now completely stifled by revisionism. This trend was reflected in England and Ireland by a break, in February 1963, led by Michael McCreary - a genuine communist and Marxist-Leninist who unfortunately was to die shortly afterwards. But it was left to the youth and students, led by the Internationalists, to make a clear cut stand against imperialism and the imperialist cultural counterrevolution and against revisionism - of the old and new type - and to re-establish a genuinely revolutionary centre.

Thus when the Internationalist were founded in Trinity College, Dublin(Ireland) in November 1965, there was absolutely no alternative existing to the prevailing conditions of imperialism and revisionism. None of the so-called left - the revisionists and neo-revisionists - or even the nationalist elements had anything to say to the people as to how to move forward and none of them were able or willing to provide any guidance. This was obvious just by looking at the conditions around, the whole conditions were stagnant, cold war abounded (the great contribution of the revisionists) and the only "salvation" being offered to the people was to "get hung up on self", develop bourgeois individualism, egocentricity, selfishness, degeneracy and parasitism to a new level and live in a dream world of individual salvation. This especially was the propaganda provided in the educational institutions. From our direct experience the so-called communists had least to offer. The old style revisionists long departed from Marxism-Leninism said that "as people didn't like communism" you should promote something else and slip the communism in at the convenient moment, whereas the new revisionists - who had in the main descended from the old revisionist parties in the early 1960's - repeated that "as the people didn't like communism" we should go away and study Capital and cook up some theories so that when supposedly the people woke up to life they could descend from their heights with an answer to everything. As young people with a real problem - that is being subjected to all the conditions of imperialist life, especially the decadent bourgeois educational system and the imperialist culture and way of life, we were not inspired by these so-called great communists, for, despite our limited understanding of what was going on in society, we did desire actual change and elimination of oppression as did the large majority of the youth and students. We had great respect for these people calling themselves communists and despite everything, expected that they would provide leadership to us as youth and students. But it gradually became clear that the so-called communism of these revisionists and neo-revisionists was their method of finding themselves individual salvation and not leading the masses in overthrowing oppression.

The Internationalists were founded in Trinity College in November 1965 and the initial group was made up of two students and two teachers. Comrade Bains, then a lecturer in Microbiology in Trinity College, Dublin, was the founder of the Internationalists and it was no coincidence that the group of young people he brought together had no links with the revisionists old or new, but came directly from out of the oppressed students and lecturers in Trinity College. Thus the Internationalists, founded in University of British Columbia in Vancouver just 21/2 years earlier, were - established in Dublin - inspired by the advances made by the Canadian youth and students under the banner of the Internationalists. The Internationalists reflected the sentiment of the youth and students to overthrow the force of oppression on them. They were united by a deep desire to bring about change in society and were convinced that this was possible, but they. were confused by the ideology of the imperialists and revisionists and hung-up on all sorts of crazy things that young people under imperialism are inclined to be hung-up on. It was from these humble beginnings, led by a revolutionary Indian who had already led the youth and student movement in Canada, and in Trinity College - the heart of the English aristocracy and colonialism in Ireland - and with ordinary students who were disdained by the so-called communists for not knowing Marxism in detail, that the Internationalist tradition began in Ireland and a new page in Irish revolutionary history was unfolded.

The sole item on the agenda in 1965 was how to move forward? What should we do and whom to follow ? Dealing with this question was complicated by 1) the imperialist training which the young people had been subjected to which meant that theory v/as detached from practice; it was OK to say one thing, or a number of things and do something entirely different and which had also given rise to a good deal of bourgeois arrogance amongst the petty bourgeoisie of not wanting their ideas proven wrong, not wanting to hear things they didn't want to hear and everyone having "their ideas and there being no struggle for correct ideas, tested in practice; 2) by the effects of revisionism which meant there was a good deal of cold-war anti-communism such that people refused to listen to ideas that were labelled as communist and refused to consider the concepts behind them.

This situation was systematically transformed-by organising a discussion group under the slogan - "Create Academic Dialogue on Campus" between students and students and staff. This cut across the prevailing situation in Trinity College where there was absolutely no discussion of any serious issue, just sophistry and rhetoric engaged in by the official, self-promoted debating societies. Once this was achieved and people began coming together for serious discussion, an atmosphere was created whereby ideas could be challenged, and where participants could be called upon to justify the validity of their ideas and beliefs in the real world. In this way pre-conceived notions were attacked, serious questioning of the nature of society began and a trend of relating theory and practice and learning from practice rather than the imperialist propaganda machine, was created.

The overall effect of this process - the struggle to build a discussion group and create academic dialogue on campus - was that such an atmosphere was initiated on campus and large numbers of students began actively questioning all the ideas and practices of the status quo. A trend had been initiated! Hand in hand with this was that a small number of people came forward most actively who were eager to carry the process to the next stage.

(In the process, various elements who had joined just for the excitement of an exciting atmosphere of discussion, but who did not want this discussion to lead anywhere, were eliminated).

The next phase in the development of the Internationalists began in October 1966 and lasted until August 1967. This stage not only provided important lessons and pointers as to how to move forward for the Internationalists in Ireland, but also developed various guidelines which were later to contribute to the further development of the Internationalists elsewhere. In October 1966, those elements who had participated in the activity of building the discussion group as a first step forward in the process of changing the world, reorganised to form the first step in building an active, fighting organization. Thus in October 1966, the Internationalists reorganised on the basis of building a disciplined group. An inner disciplined, tightly knit and compact group of the most active and staunch elements was formed which initiated a two-fold protracted struggle -1) to build and consolidate this inner group as a leading force and 2) to lead the supporters and sympathizers and the broad masses of the students on the basis of providing a definite revolutionary programme. Right away this broke the Internationalists away from the bankrupt organisational methods of the revisionists, social fascists and so-called Marxist-Leninists. The revisionists and other social democrats believed in organizing on issues from time time and not building any compact organisation, whilst the so-called anti-revisionists believed in building expert groups totally detached from the masses of the people in which the sole criterion for leadership was ability to intellectualize and self cultivate with no regard for practical problems. The Internationalists were different - they linked the problem of building the 'vanguard group to the process of leading the mass struggles of the people. In this way, they reflected actually what was going on in the mass movement and struggled to provide leadership to that; unlike the so-called anti-revisionists who tried to oppose revisionism in the abstract, on general theoretical questions and divorced from the people, the Internationalists came from and remained right in the middle of the mass movement and took up the struggle against revisionism and imperialism right there. This had two effects: 1) the concrete manifestations of revisionism in the mass movement were combatted - for example in the youth and student movement it was the revisionists, trotskyists and others who were openly advocating acceptance of the imperialist, degenerate culture and lifestyle, of "getting on in life", "obtaining one's career", etc. and who suggested that the way to rebel was to drink as much alcohol as possible, avoid as much work as possible, indulge oneself to the maximum sexually and later on to take to hippy life style, drug taking, etc. It is a well known fact that it was the so-called "Communist" Youth League of the C.P.G.B. that promoted and popularised drug culture, luring young men and women to holiday camps to engage freely in the imperialist way of life for 23 hours a day, and self-cultivate on Marxism for the remaining 1 hour.

The CYL is responsible for misleading many Irish and English young people who genuinely looked to the communists for a way forward in the imperialist way of life and this crime will certainly not go unpunished. The Internationalists not only made a break with what the imperialists were offering to the youth and students but also with what the revisionists and trotskyists were advocating. By opposing the ethos of serving self, having a good time, getting on in life, etc. with the ethos of "seek truth from facts", and "understanding requires an act of conscious participation by the individual - an act of finding out", serving the working and oppressed people and transforming oneself to do so, the Internationalists introduced a vital and vigorous trend. The Internationalists through their theory and practice showed that the highest dream of a youth was not to receive the maximum number of sensations to his body in the shortest possible time, to obtain a degree, get a wife/husband and family and settle down, but that what is worthwhile in life is to participate actively and consciously in the struggle of the productive forces in society to move society forward, in the struggle of man with his environment, in this day and age in the struggle of the oppressed people against the imperialist control of the means of production.

The young people - because of their genuine desire to serve the people and participate in progress - responded to this and joined with the Internationalists and all of progressive mankind in this forward march, leaving the revisionists and trotskyists and others to the dust bin of history. Thus the concrete effect of revisionism was opposed in the middle of the mass movement itself.

2) The second effect of the Internationalists style of work of remaining right in the middle of the mass movement, was on the internal life and struggle of the leading group. In other groups, especially the anti-revisionists who were detached from the daily struggle of becoming a communist, and a revolutionary was a matter of definition, of intellectually acquiring certain talents. Thus experts flourished in their groups - ordinary mortals who had not cultivated themselves in Marxism had no role to play, and the broad masses as a whole were granted no role to play in the making of history and specifically in the struggle against revisionism. In the Internationalists, however, the opposite was true - the question of becoming a revolutionary was not open to debate and definition but was based-on the actual practice of the individuals in the struggle to lead the youth and students. Thus the orientation of the Internationalists to find a way forward for themselves and their fellow youth and students laid the basis for internal struggle - whether or not an individual contributed in practice to the movement forward. Thus the Internationalists did not develop a discipline on the basis of "degree of understanding" in the abstract, or ability to intellectualize or on some other arbitrary criterion but on the basis of making the revolution in practice. This differentiated the Internationalists from all other groups like differentiating the living from the dead, and this is why the broad masses could see that "the Internationalists" were "just different". It was on the basis of this orientation that the Internationalists established guidelines for consolidating the leading group. The concrete manifestations of imperialism and revisionism were isolated on a systematic basis as they came up to oppose progress. This was internal "struggle against bourgeois hang-ups" and all members were encouraged to struggle against hang ups such as bourgeois individualism, selfishness and egocentricity. A very good example of our struggle against bourgeois hang-ups was the internal struggle waged against bourgeois attitudes in selling the revolutionary newspaper. The imperialist "sloth like" attitude of apologetically selling an odd paper or two whilst hiding most of them behind ones back, and the egocentric approach of jumping down everyone's throat and denouncing all those who did not buy as reactionary, were both opposed. Comrades were encouraged to sell the paper in a manner reflecting our purpose- that was to humbly but vigorously sell it to the people talking to them and listening to their views. All the other "left" groups were amazed - How do you manage to have such vigorous sellers they said? We can't even get one person to sell our paper. They thought it was just a detail, but in fact it was a practical reflection of the fact that internal nausea brings external impotency whilst,internal consolidation brings external strength. Many struggles against bourgeois hang-ups were waged - especially against the bourgeois hang-up of saying one thing and doing another, against private property attitude towards ideas and for the collective development and implementation of ideas; against the division of the group into "ideologues"-who strolled in every now and then with a few ideas for everyone elses salvation and bureaucrats who just found a comfy niche and mindlessly executed a few tasks. This tendency was opposed by advocating the conscious participation of the individual in each step of the development of the movements. The guideline was developed that discipline entails 1) conscious participation in the process of making decisions and 2) conscious execution of all agreed upon decisions. Thus the organisational guideline was developed to oppose both ideologues and bureaucrats. The struggle on this question was especially fierce on what constituted leadership and a consistent struggle was waged against various elements who considered themselves as the centre of the universe because they came around from time to time with a few ideas, had utter disdain for the ordinary members and did nothing to raise their level or unite with the other members of the group. These people got no support because of the revolutionary nature of Comrade Bains' leadership. The correct line was implemented by Comrade Bains and supported by the rest of the members, that was to oppose revisionist methods of leadership and put the main emphasis on unity with the ordinary members to raise their level and provide guidelines as to how to move forward which were appropriate at each stage to the level of the masses and the level of the members so that the group advanced. Various experts who would have foisted revisionist methods on the groups were prevented from doing so and all levels of the movement advanced step-by-step. It was in this way that Comrade Bains became our cherished leader and won the respect and deep support of all genuine Internationalists just as he has done in Canada today. Comrade Bains was not like any of the other so- called leaders - he was just different - he did not use the respect and trust placed in him to display his intellectual talents or to create an easy life for himself as an armchair revolutionary with task- executing members all around. He worked on every level with the members and supporters - taught them how to differentiate correct from incorrect ideas, executed practical tasks with them and always provided a way forward.

This whole process - struggle against imperialist culture and educational system and against revisionism amongst the masses and struggle against concrete manifestations of imperialism and revisionism internally, would not have been possible without making a detailed analysis of the imperialist culture, relating the problems of the individual to that analysis and thus showing concretely that the root cause of the "cultural oppression" faced by the young people was the imperialist economic system and the need of that system to create a consumer culture for the expansion of its super-profits. By showing that it was the imperialists who created false needs through their propaganda machine and who thus subverted the people into all sorts of divisions. The young were able to relate their situation to the basic characteristics of imperialist society and were eager to stand up against imperialism with other oppressed sectors. This scientific analysis was developed not by sitting on the sidelines but in the course of the actual struggle to mobilize the youth and students to fight against the effects of imperialism.

At the historic Necessity For Change Study Programme in February 1967, Comrade Bains expounded the "Necessity For Change" analysis of the imperialist corporate, sensate culture. This was a most important point in the development of the Internationalists. Now, all the problems of the youth, all the struggles against the imperialist way of life and against the decadent bourgeois educational system and all the internal struggles were summed up in one analysis which charted the only way forward for the Internationalists and the youth and student movement in general - to take up the position of building a comprehensive movement against imperialism and to unite with all other anti-imperialist forces in society and national liberation struggles in the world. Conscious opposition to imperialism now became the basis of internal discipline and the basis of the external programme. Thus the Internationalists had developed from 1965 with first:

External programme: create academic dialogue

Internal task: build a discussion group on the basis of no sophistry and rhetoric

October 1966 - February 1967

External programme: Various slogans and programmes geared at creating the possibility for a left- wing stand on campus. From October 1966 to December 1966 the programme was to take up the theory of the university, show the relation between its theory and its practice and how it was not in fact geared to encouraging scientific investigation to serve the people, but to promoting "accepted theories" to promote careerism and self-interest. From January 1967 to February 1967 the Internationalists raised the slogan "Combat Liberalism" to expose various half-hearted individuals and organizations who wanted to earn themselves a reputation of being progressive. These people were part of the so-called "liberal tradition, they fostered things like anti-apartheid on the basis that it was OK to oppose apartheid as a thing in itself but not to oppose imperialism as the cause of apartheid. They pretended to display support for the struggle on the basis that it "was bad" that the Vietnamese people were being bombed, "Make Love, Not War", but declined to denounce imperialism and support the just struggle of the Vietnamese people.

During this period - December 1966 to February 1967, the internal struggle was to build a disciplined group and struggle against bourgeois hang-ups.

Now in March 1967, the Internationalists issued a call for "youth and students to unite against imperialism", and internal unity was on the basis of organizing to oppose imperialism. On this basis the progressive trend led by Comrade Bains who wanted to move forward, came into sharp struggle with backward forces who just desired to remain at the same level and use the analysis of culture as a way of fixing up their personal problems. This line was soundly defeated and the Internationalists marched on at the forefront of the youth and students against imperialism.

After two Learn From the People Campaigns, one all around Ireland, in late February, 1967, and the other all over England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales in May-August, 1967, the Internationalists distributed the "Necessity for Change" analysis, called on all students to oppose imperialism and join the forward march and most important, confirm that the situation all over the four countries was basically the same as that in Trinity College, i.e. students and youth are totally fed up with the imperialist domination and the revisionists and so-called anti-revisionists were providing no leader ship as to how to move forward. On August 1-15, 1967 in London, England the historic "Necessity for Change Conference" was held. This conference was a most significant conference. Youth and students as well as national liberation movements and all the organizations claiming themselves to be communist were invited. In the Conference the Internationalists put forward their analysis of the existing situation, the Necessity for Change Analysis and called for a discussion on that basis. Any hopes we still had that any of these groups would provide guidance were shattered. The Necessity For Change Conference proved beyond doubt that there was no group in the four countries that was willing or able to lead the people forward. All the so-called communists were suffering from degeneration and were hung up on being "pure" Marxist-Leninists" and giving a correct anti-revisionist line. This only highlighted their irrelevance to the practical struggles of the people and the problems of moving forward. Had not the People's Republic of China and the Albanian comrades denounced and exposed the incorrect theoretical position taken by the Khruschev revisionist clique, and had not the CPGB, as many other communist(revisionist) parties divided on this question, What then was the need to purify the theoretical difference further? Of course there was none, but these dogmatists instead of taking up the struggle against revisionism and to build a new revolutionary Marxist-Leninist Centre amongst the masses became diverted into their intellectualized dog-fights. The Necessity For Change Conference was open testimony to the theory and practice of the Internationalists since their birth. It showed to the world that the Internationalists, led by Comrade Bains had emerged from out of the youth and students, had organized in this one cell of society to actively oppose imperialism and revisionism and in this way had developed a mass movement amongst youth and students against imperialism and revisionism and had initiated the work of building a new revolutionary centre.

And what did our so-called communists have to say about this ? Instead of providing overall leadership and assisting the Internationalists, they jumped up and down on the side lines gesticulating madly - "You do not have permission from China!" Another went on to claim his "superiority" by spouting that he had started studying Capital when he was 15 years old. "You are just students - what about the workers,." said another. But the most despicable crew of all were those who claimed themselves to be revolutionary but who, in order to oppose revolution, came up with the bogus theory that objective conditions were not yet developed for revolution and all that the so-called communists could do was to develop theory for when revolution developed. The difference between these so-called anti-revisionists and the Internationalists was twofold: 1) they wanted to ignore what developments were occurring in society, (i.e.- the youth and student movement) and provided no analysis as to their failing to link themselves with the masses, 2) because they had no analysis of imperialist culture, they could not deal with its effect inside their own organisations. Their opposition to revisionism remained on the purely theoretical level and they had nothing to say about revisionism in style of work and method of organising- Their differences were the reflection of the fundamental difference between the Internationalists, who were part of the oppressed youth and were determined to overthrow that oppression and those revisionists and dogmatists who placed themselves above the people as manipulators of other peoples' struggle.

At the Necessity for Change Conference, it was clear that there was no other way forward but for the Internationalists to take up the task of building communist parties and ourselves struggling to acquire Marxist-Leninist ideologies and outlook- Irish, English and Canadian delegates present resolutely agreed on this task as the only way forward. In England, the English Internationalists were formed at this time as a first step in building an oganisation in England. The results of this historic conference are here today for everyone to see - the Internationalists moved forward in each country to form the Communist Party of Canada(Marxist-Leninist), Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist), American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist-Leninist), Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist).

The next stage of the Internationalists after the Historic Necessity for Change Conference was labelled the "struggle to acquire ideology". From October 1967 to August 1968, various programmes were carried out to this end.

The "What is to be Done Study Programme" initiated serious study of the development of all aspects of the society-from a Marxist-Leninist standpoint. At this programme general ground work was begun for the formation of the Ideological Institute which was inaugurated two months later on February 1968. The internal programme of the Internationalists now' became investigation into all aspects of society to teach the members basic Marxist-Leninist viewpoint as well as regular internal summing up of experience, and the external programme of regular weekly paper and meeting was to give a serious Marxist-Leninist view on important issues in the society.

In May 1968, most important events occurred which proved overwhelmingly the correctness of the Internationalist analysis. The visit of the imperialist Belgium Royal Family to Trinity College provoked the deep indignation of the students and an open clash developed between the state, college authorities, and a few' fascist students and a demonstration organised by Irish Student Movement and Action Group on Southern Africa. Thousands of students came forward and mass democracies began upon the nature of the imperialist universities, imperialist domination of society and how to organise against it. This historic upsurge in mass democracy in Trinity College in May 1968 had a profound effect not just on the students but on the whole society. It really shattered the effects of revisionism, showed to the working people throughout the country that at least one section of society was prepared to stand up and risk all the imperialist threats, and that this time the revolutionary youth were rising under the banner of Marxism- Leninism, Mao Tsetung Thought. An upsurge of the people's movement was bound to occur now that the shackles of revisionism had been broken. This is exactly what happened in August - October 1968. Struggle broke out against the colonial domination 6f the north of the country.

Throughout the period 1965-68 Comrade Hardial Bains directly led the Internationalists in Ireland. He was a staunch and vigorous Internationalist who fought alongside his comrades to build the movement. He made specific contributions in summing up the struggle against the imperialist culture and "the struggle against bourgeois hang-ups" and presenting the comprehensive analysis of the imperialist cultural superstructure - The "Necessity For Change" analysis which provided a scientific basis for the external and internal struggle. He also led and summed up the struggle to oppose revisionism on the organisational front, the struggle for the correct methods of work. This summation is presented in the document - One Struggle, Two Enemies, Three Guidelines, Four levels of Work.

Since 1968 Comrade Bains as leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) has always provided helpful fraternal advice to our party, the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist).

From 1908 -1969 the Internationalists developed into the Irish Communist Movement(Marxist-Leninist), and worked to establish branches in all major cities. In 1969 also the struggle to build a national newspaper was initiated and "Red Patriot" was launched. In 1970 the ICM(ML) launched a campaign to widely disseminate Marxism-Leninism Mao Tsetung Thought. In all major cities, in the universities and in the working class communities, this campaign was vigorously carried out. Bookshops were consolidated and established in new areas, and propaganda teams were sent into various rural areas to distribute revolutionary literature to the peasantry. The reactionaries ran into a panic - using Irish chauvinism as a cover for their outright reactionary activity, they had first declared that "you will never be able to distribute communism and Mao Tsetung Thought in Ireland" - when the Internationalists achieved this in Trinity College(Dublin) they altered their story: "you will never succeed in the working class - working class people don't like foreign ideas. When they were defeated on this, they declared that the people outside of Dublin were the real backward elements. The peasants were supposed to be conservative and would never agree to Mao Tsetung Thought. But again the reactionaries, of course, were proved wrong. The only alternative was to begin attacks on the party and the systematic harassment began very soon. They fired on one of the bookshops and arrested and harassed many comrades. In reply to this the ICM(ML) launched a resistance movement to the attacks of the slate. A large number of comrades were jailed or treated in psychiatric institutions, etc.

This resistance struggle - for the right to disseminate Mao Tsetung Thought and the right to organize - aroused many working people and interested them in communism. And it was during this year that the ICM (ML) gave rise to the Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist). Moreover, it also brought the backward elements inside the Party to the fore raising the banner of "self-sacrifice is not necessary", "all this going to jail is no use","we can do more outside". They made various attempts to disrupt the campaign to expand the Party into new areas and to lead systematic and consistent resistance to the state attacks. To do this - like most revisionist elements - they used the method of attacking the party's organisational form and discipline and attempted to sow anarchy in the party by declaring themselves above the Party's basic units and above the Central Organs. Once they had succeeded in raising themselves above Party discipline, they revealed ever more of their true features. They started peddling openly revisionist lines like "Mao Tsetung Thought is no good for Ireland", "we should not have inner party discipline and struggle, but should have a loose liberal sort of Party full of harmony", amongst the masses we should not wage ideological struggle and fight for what is right but should tail behind any spontaneous movement. Of course, any self-styled individual can afford to give any view once he is no longer under Party discipline and no longer has to justify his views in practice. These disrupters came up objectively to side with the state to prevent the party advancing. They openly sided with the state to create rumours and gossips against the Party gave information to the police and created pessimism and confusion by saying that CPI(ML) was finished. They were totally opposed to the fundamental Internationalist principle of building a disciplined group and waging struggle amongst the masses for the advanced ideas to be grasped.

To their despair, CPI(ML) was far from finished, and following after this disruption the Party regrouped and reorganised and early in 1972 began to re-establish basic Internationalist styled disciplined cells in key places and now it is the disrupters who are being exposed for their lies and distortions and outright counter-revolutionary activities.

During the whole period, many people became actively involved in resistance to the British imperialist occupation of Irish territory and aggression against the Irish working people. The country has divided into 2 camps - there is a tiny handful including the comprador bourgeoisie who are all out supporters of British imperialism and domination of Ireland and there is one large majority who are totally against British imperialist control and who declare that Ireland belongs to the Irish people and that the Irish people will settle their own affairs.

Throughout the country this contradiction is inspiring and arousing the people and the neo-colonial government of the Irish compradors has become extremely isolated. The neo-colonial puppets as well as their British masters and their allies in northern Ireland are all desperately hoping that entry of the country into the European Common Market and openly prostrating Ireland as a "stepping stone into the EEC" for U.S. imperialism, Soviet social imperialism and Japanese imperialism will save their skins. Under such conditions the British imperialists and their lackeys have no choice but to try and resort to deception. They are desperately trying to engineer a civil war between the so-called "Catholic community" and the so- called "protestant community" and turn the working people against one another. They try and make out that the people want to fight one another and that the working people of Ireland will never unite. They blatantly lie and distort the fact of the many attacks made on the imperialist troops and colonial administrators by the people and try to present the struggle as "sectarianism". They spend large amounts of their time decrying the "sectarian murder" while in fact the large majority of these murders are committed by British agents. Imperialist Heath and his class try and "justify" their plunder of Ireland and their presence there as being the "desired wish" of the two "nations" Catholic and Protestant. Thus they try and take their necks out of the noose and hypocritically lay all the blame for the problems they have created on the Irish people. Not only do the imperialists create the propaganda that they are not the No. 1 enemy and that sectarianism is the main problem but they also try and confuse the issue by suggesting that "murderers" and "terrorists" are the main problem- They try and obscure the fact that it is they who are the main perpetrators of violence through their aggression against the Irish people and that the people have every right to reply to that aggression with guns. The method the people adopt to wage struggle against the imperialists is a contradiction amongst the people and a question for the people to sort out themselves. Hoping to lay the blame for violence on the people they hypocritical^' appeal for peace, collude with various social democrats who claim to support the people but not their use of violence, and in this way they are making false promises of an "alternative" to be realised with the publishing of their "White Paper" and the establishment of a new form of colonial puppet government.

This class struggle -- the armed resistance of the people, the fascist propaganda of the imperialist state machine has created a focus on which everyone is taking and will take sides. But the Irish people have a long experience of struggle against British imperialism and who is going to support the imperialists? It is very instructive to see that the only dogs whom the imperialists could find to readily wag their tails at their masters were the so-called great communists of 1966-67. At that time they were shouting on the sidelines, gesticulating and saying that objective conditions were not ripe and that now' was the time for theory and always looking for some angle by which to oppose any revolutionary development. The intensification of class struggle has sent these so-called communists into a frenzy and they have openly come out to oppose the armed struggle, support counter-revolution and repeat, under the guise of Marxism, every lie of the imperialist propaganda machine. Thus they shamelessly support the fascist theory that the "protestant" working class have their interests with British imperialism. Instead of providing guidance to the struggles of the people and participating they shamelessly say that it is the people's resistance that is the cause of all the problems and fail to point out that I) large numbers of the so called "terrorist atrocities" are imperialist created and 2) in any case, the question of whether to accept terrorism or people's war as a method of fighting is a question which will be decided within the anti-imperialist ranks.

Moreover, no amount of imperialist propaganda can hide the brutal suppression of the Irish people by British imperialism. For every working man, whether he be from Belfast, Dublin or Cork, British imperialism is his enemy and oppressor and his fellow worker his ally in the struggle to overthrow this oppressor. Armed with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tsetung Thought and with a Communist Party the Irish people will surmount all difficulties, build unity and defeat the common enemy of all Irish men and women and found the People's Republic of Ireland.

The CPI(ML) firmly holds that the future of the Irish people is inseparably tied up with the future of the English proletariat and that the struggle to build a People's Republic of Ireland will set the first stage in establishing a united socialist republic in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

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IN MEMORY OF PAUL ROBESON - GREAT FRIEND OF THE PEOPLE

On January 23 Paul Robeson, progressive Afro-American and staunch anti-fascist cultural and political leader, died at the age of seventy- seven after boldly championing the cause of freedom for the workers, oppressed nations and people of the world for several decades. Paul Robeson was warmly cherished by the working and oppressed masses all over the world and was despised by the monopoly capitalists all over the world. A towering and outspoken opponent of the American racists and the capitalist system, comrade Paul combined his creative talent as actor and his rich baritone-base voice with progressive and anti-fascist politics which aroused in millions of the downtrodden the instinctive thirst for freedom from capitalist exploitation and oppression. Paul Robeson, too, deeply loved the people and the socialist countries in the world.

In 1927, he left the U.S. for Europe in order to escape the racial discrimination encountered in the stage and screen business. For twelve years,, he stayed out of the U.S., and during that time he paid attention to his own experience and to the world around him and started to draw progressive and revolutionary conclusions from his observations and experience and study.

In 1934, Paul Robeson was drawn to the Soviet Union to observe the development of the formerly oppressed nationalities and races in the construction of socialist society. What he saw truly pleased him. Inequality and discrimination was broken down in a mere twenty years. National culture flourished in the formerly oppressed nations and the young men and women there were mastering the sciences and arts and mastering their own destinies as well. Robeson held up as an example of equality and emancipation for the Black people the Soviet Union, the land of Great Lenin and Stalin.

In 1938, Paul Robeson actively took up the banner of anti-fascist struggle and stood on the side of the patriotic, anti-fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War. He made these observations: "And so it was that I, as an artist, was drawn into that movement (ed: the anti-fascist movement led by the working class) and I came to see that the struggle against fascism must take first place over every other interest... And I saw, too, that the struggle for Negro rights was in inseparable part of the anti-fascist struggle." Robeson's experiences in Spain finally brought him back to the U.S. He was deeply moved by what he saw in Spain:"... that it was the upper class--the landed gentry, the bankers, and industrialists--who had unleashed the fascist beast against their own people. From the ranks of the workers of other lands volunteers had come to help in the epic defense of Madrid, and in Spain I sang with my whole heart and soul for these gallant fighters of the International Brigade... My heart was filled with admiration and love for these white Americans, and there was a sense of great pride in my own people when I saw there were Negroes, too, in the ranks of the Lincoln men in Spain. Some of them, Oliver Laws and Milton Herndon, were to be among the heavy casualties suffered by the volunteers and would be buried with their white comrades in the Spanish earth... a long way from home? Yes, from America, my own home, and I knew in my heart that I would surely return there someday."

The following year Paul Robeson returned to the U.S. He tirelessly plunged into active political and cultural work among the Afro-Americans and the entire working class. He helped establish the Council on African Affairs and served as its chairman. For eighteen years the Council on African Affairs served as the one organization in the U.S. which organized the people to support the liberation of Africa from colonial bondage. In addition, Robeson fully supported the economic and political struggles of the American working class and militantly spoke out for equal rights and freedom for Black people. He correctly stated that the American racists were the first cousins, if not brothers, of the Hitlerite Nazis. And during World War Two, he unshakeably held these positions and gave his full support to the Great Anti-fascist War.

The American bourgeoisie hated the ground Paul Robeson walked on. In 1942 in Seattle, the owners of the Olympic Hotel denied him room accommodations when he came here to sing. In response, scores of Black and white people carried out sit-down demonstrations in protest against this Jim Crow discrimination. Among the leaders of the people fighting racial discrimination was the Afro-American Communist Carl Brooks and Afro-American militant Eugene Moszee, whom the police murdered three years later in his small gas station in the Central Area. In 1948 the monopoly capitalists organized fascist;,goon squads to attack Robeson as he sang in concert on two different occasions at Peekskill, New York. None of these things deterred his spirit.

Thousands of workers, organized by Communists and other progressive people, came to the defense of Paul Robeson at Peekskill and in other parts of the country. In 1950, the U.S. government revoked his passport for speaking out against the war threats of U.S. imperialism at the huge World Peace Conference in Paris in 1949. He said that his people "would never fight the Soviet Union. " Commenting on the so- called "crime" committed by Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois stated: "It was that while he did not rail at America, he did praise the Soviet Union; and he did that because it treated him like a man and not like a dog; because he and his family for the first time in life were welcomed like human beings and he was honored as a great man. The children of Russia clung to him, the women kissed him; the workers greeted him; the state named mountains after him. He loved their homage. His eyes were filled with tears and his heart with thanks. Never before had he received such treatment."

For nine years, Paul Robeson was put under virtual house arrest. He did not capitulate to the racist and fascist U.S. government during the McCarthy days. He did not make deals. He was unafraid because he had deep faith in the masses of people.

On May 18, 1952, the Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers Union organized a concert to be held at the Peace Arch Park at Blaine, Wash. Over 30,000 Canadian and American people came to hear him and to demonstrate their friendship and protest the reactionary restrictions on travel imposed on him by the U.S. government. The local ruling circles were driven to a frenzy by this display of international solidarity against the racial discrimination of the U.S. government. After the concert and demonstration, government police agents attacked many people, most of whom were Communist organizers and staunch supporters of Paul Robeson.

Since the mournful death of Paul Robeson on January 23, various opportunists of the "left" have been dragging the honorable comrade's name through the mud. Trotskyite slander sheet "The Militant" wrote an article entitled:"Paul Robeson: The Real Tragedy", in which they slander Robeson as supporter of imperialist war and as follower of "Stalinism. "Now, what the trotskyites mean by Stalinism is Marxism-Leninism and the building of socialism, which they dreadfully oppose; and Paul Robeson supported scientific socialism and great Stalin and hated the trotskyites, whom he compared to the KKK. As for the revisionist trend, they try to say Paul Robeson was a professional revolutionary and Marxist-Leninist leader. Why do they say this? Paul Robeson never pretended to be a professional revolutionary, one who boldly takes up the decisive task of building the Party among the people and mobilizing them for revolutionary politics. Robeson honestly and straight-forwardly said he was an artist who had deep sympathy for scientific socialism and socialist countries. He was a courageous fighter for Black people's rights and expressed internationalism with the oppressed nations and people of the world. Paul Robeson was not a professional revolutionary, nor an opportunist. The revisionists (especially the "Communist" Party USA) are not professional revolutionaries. They are opportunists. Since 1960, the "C"PUSA has been taken over by Khrushchovite revisionists and the Soviet Union itself has become an imperialist country. In the 1950's the CP leadership directed many of its cadre to work in the churches, to have roots in the community by being "respectable" church-goers, Sunday school teachers, gospel singers. This was total capitulation to bourgeois ideology. Paul Robeson propagated religious beliefs most of his life, and this was one aspect of his world outlook. The revisionists promote Paul Robeson's religious spirituals and his stage career as the dominant aspect of his life, which is completely untrue, and they then label him " Marxist-Leninist". What the revisionists mean by "Marxist-Leninist" is really traitor to the working class and servant of the bourgeoisie. They maliciously try to make Paul Robeson in their own image.

Only professional revolutionaries armed with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought can chart a course for the American proletarian revolution, can arm the people with revolutionary politics, and lead them to victory.

All progressive and revolutionary people mourn the death of Paul Robeson and hail the great accomplishments and fighting spirit of the progressive, anti-fascist Afro-American.

Reprinted from Seattle Worker, Vol. 4, No. 1, February 12, 1976.

[Photo.]

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DENOUNCE NEW U.S. IMPERIALIST BOMBING OF CAMBODIA!

The Government of Democratic Cambodia issued a statement on February 26 strongly denouncing the barbarous bombing raids by U.S. aircraft against the Cambodian city of Siem Reap on February 25. The statement pointed out that at 8:30 a.m. on February 25, a U.S. plane flying at a high altitude dropped three bombs in the centre of Siem Reap. At 2 p.m. that same day, another two U.S. aircraft dropped several blast bombs in Siem Reap.

The statement said: "The two raids inflicted considerable damage on the city of Siem Reap, particularly on a hospital, a children's centre and a school. Fifteen persons were killed and over 30 others wounded, among the inhabitants, soldiers and infants. " "By dispatching planes to savagely bomb the city of Siem Reap on the territory of Democratic Cambodia," the statement added, "the U.S. imperialists have committed barbarous acts of exceptionally insolent aggression against an independent, peaceful, neutral and non-aligned country and a member of the United Nations, shamelessly violating international law and practice."

The statement added: "The Government of Democratic Cambodia solemnly declares before the peace- and justice-loving peoples and governments of the world that it most indignantly condemns the aggression committed by the U.S. imperialist aircraft against the city of Siem Reap. " "The U.S. imperialist air pirates in an impasse have risked themselves in bombing the city of Siem Reap, " the statement noted. "They will certainly suffer the most bitter defeat in face of the heroic Cambodian people and the peace-and justice-loving peoples the world over."

Over 10,000 representatives of the Cambodian armed forces held a rally in Phnom Penh on February 28 expressing their determination to heighten their vigilance and be ready at all times to smash any plots of aggression by U.S. imperialism and its lackeys.

The Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists, on behalf of the revolutionary American workers and people and all peace-loving people in the United States, resolutely denounces and sternly condemns this new act of aggression by the adventurous U.S. imperialists against the nation and people of Cambodia. Obviously U.S. imperialism's ignominious defeat in Indochina has not caused it to lay down its butcher knives and become a buddha and it will not do so until its doom at the hands of the American people. If the U.S. imperialists continue their new aggression in Cambodia they will certainly be defeated once again by the Cambodian people and will once again meet with the stiff opposition of the American and world's people.

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THE PRINCIPLES OF THE PARIS COMMUNE ARE ETERNAL

QUOTATION FROM COMRADE MARX

"WORKING MEN'S PARIS, WITH ITS COMMUNE, WILL BE FOR EVER CELEBRATED AS THE GLORIOUS HARBINGER OF A NEW SOCIETY. ITS MARTYRS ARE ENSHRINED IN THE GREAT HEART OF THE WORKING CLASS. ITS EXTERMINATORS HISTORY HAS ALREADY NAILED TO THAT ETERNAL PILLORY FROM WHICH ALL THE PRAYERS OF THEIR PRIESTS WILL NOT AVAIL TO REDEEM THEM. " (Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Civil War in France, 1871)

On March 18,1871, the working class of Paris arose in a mighty proletarian revolution, swept away the capitalist class and its government and proclaimed the founding of the Paris Commune, the first dictatorship of the proletariat in the history of mankind. Like a thunderclap, the news shot throughout the world: The working class of Paris is the ruling class! The centuries of class struggles of the slaves, the serfs and now the modern wage-laborers against slavery, exploitation and degradation, had reached the dawn of victory. The teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who had laid bare the economic laws of development of society and had shown that the class struggle inevitably leads to proletarian revolution and to the dictatorship of the proletariat, were proven true in practice. The working class had proven capable of playing its independent historical role and executing its mission to emancipate all mankind from exploitation and slavery. The day when the rule of the exploiting classes over the producing classes would come to an end and the workers would rule the world could be seen, like a ship far out at sea, its masts rising over the horizon.

The Paris Commune taught the proletariat of all countries two fundamental lessons, as Comrades Marx and Engels pointed out:

1. "THE WORKING CLASS CANNOT SIMPLY LAY HOLD OF THE READY-MADE STATE MACHINERY AND WIELD IT FOR ITS OWN PURPOSES" (Marx, The Civil War in France) but must violently smash the state (the government, with its standing army, police, courts, prisons, bureaucracy, etc.) of the capitalists; and

2. The working class must replace the capitalist state with its own state, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the working class organized as the ruling class, in order to suppress the overthrown capitalists by force, defend the sacred interests of the working class, and carry the class struggle forward to the elimination of classes and the establishment of communism. The Commune "WAS ESSENTIALLY A WORKING-CLASS GOVERNMENT, THE PRODUCE OF THE STRUGGLE OF THE PRODUCING AGAINST THE APPROPRIATING CLASS, THE POLITICAL FORM AT LAST DISCOVERED UNDER WHICH TO WORK OUT THE ECONOMIC EMANCIPATION OF LABOUR. " (The Civil War in France) The Commune demonstrated in practice, for the first time in history, how the working class would play its independent historical role.

The Paris Commune emerged in a great storm of class struggle. In 1870, to defend Paris against the invading Prussian Army, the French bourgeoisie was compelled by the working people to arm the proletariat. On March 18, the French bourgeoisie, criminally collaborating with the invading Prussian militarists, attempted to disarm the workers of Paris. The working people mobilized as one man, used their arms to smash the bourgeoisie's armed forces in Paris and proclaimed the Commune, a proletarian dictatorship. The Commune abolished the standing army of the bourgeoisie and replaced it with the self-acting armed organization of the workers. The Commune smashed the old government, an organ of class rule of the tiny minority of capitalists, standing above the working people and enforcing the tyranny of Capital upon them, and replaced it with a government of the vast majority, consisting of working people and their representatives, to repress the capitalists and act as a lever to uproot the exploitation of man by man. Thus the Commune smashed the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and replaced it with the dictatorship of the proletariat. This is why Marx called it "THE GLORIOUS HARBINGER OF A NEW SOCIETY". (The Civil War in France)

The working class of Paris replaced the bourgeois state with a truly proletarian state. They replaced the capitalists' organs of repression (police, courts, standing army, etc.) with the armed workers, instruments of their own emancipation, who now repressed the capitalists. They replaced the old executive and legislative branches of government, divorced from the masses and parasitically choking the people's every pore, with a government of working people, paid at workers' wages, responsible personally to carry out and test their own decisions and subject to recall by the working people at any time. In place of the exploitation of labor by capital, they began to expropriate the means of production from their capitalist "owners" and place them in the hands of the workers to direct production in the interests of the people. In the place of the conflicts between nationalities caused by capitalism among the laborers, the Commune championed the emancipation of the international working class and elected German and Polish workers, alongside the French, among its leaders. In place of the age-old degradation and enslavement of women, the Commune encouraged them to exercise their revolutionary initiative in the class struggle and put forward women among its leaders. The Commune was the first example of the political form for the emancipation of all mankind from exploitation and slavery, the first emergence of Communism on earth.

The workers ruled Paris for 70 days until they were savagely suppressed by the capitalists. Comrades Marx and Engels summed up the experience of the Commune and pointed out the great historical example of the Commune as the first dictatorship of the proletariat. In 1891, Comrade Engels castigated the reformists and other opportunists in the ranks of the working- class movement, who opposed following the path of the Paris Commune. Engels asked them: "WELL AND GOOD GENTLEMEN, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT THIS DICTATORSHIP LOOKS LIKE? LOOK AT THE PARIS COMMUNE. THAT WAS THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT." ("Introduction" to The Civil War in France)

Comrades Marx and Engels pointed out that while the correctness of what the Commune had done was its-main aspect, its mistakes should also be learned from in order for the working class to avoid the same mistakes in the future. They pointed out that at the time of the Commune, although many of its leaders and members were members of the International Working Men's Association, the first international Marxist organization of the working class, yet Marxism was not fully in command as the ideology of the workers' movement in Paris. As a result, the workers of Paris failed to take vigorous enough steps to smash the remaining power of the bourgeoisie by taking over the Bank of France and by marching immediately on Versailles, where the counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie had its headquarters. Thus Comrades Marx and Engels pointed out that the working class must have a political organization of its leading, vanguard elements, a proletarian party based on the ideological foundation of Marxism, to lead its struggle to complete victory. Thus Marx and Engels pointed out that the working class must carry the class struggle against the bourgeoisie under the dictatorship of the proletariat through to the end.

The lessons of the Paris Commune were applied and carried forward by Comrade V.I. Lenin in building the Bolshevik Party and leading the Russian working class to victory in the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917, establishing the world's first durable proletarian dictatorship, founding the Third International and developing Marxism to the stage of Leninism. The lessons of the Commune were also applied and carried forward by Comrade J.V. Stalin who, after Lenin's death until his own death in 1953, led the Soviet working class in defending the dictatorship of the proletariat, in socialist revolution and socialist construction and in supporting the revolutionary struggles of the people of the world, and led the people of the world to victory in the great Anti-Fascist War against German, Italian and Japanese fascism. The lessons of the Paris Commune were further applied and carried forward by Chairman Mao Tsetung, who led the Chinese people to victory in the new-democratic revolution in 1949, in socialist revolution and socialist construction and in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat during and after the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, thus developing Marxism to a still higher stage, that of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. It is Chairman Mao who is today leading the communists and people of the whole world forward on the path of the Paris Commune.

The Soviet working class, led by Lenin and Stalin, successfully defended and developed the dictatorship of the proletariat for nearly 40 years, until it was overthrown by the revisionist bourgeoisie headed by Khruschev, who seized control of the Party and state and restored capitalism after Stalin's death. Drawing universal lessons from this vivid negative example, Chairman Mao led the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese people in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, overthrowing the bourgeoisie's initial attempts at restoration of capitalism in China, defeating the plots of the capitalist-roaders led by Liu Shao-chi and Lin Piao, and showing the way forward for the workers and oppressed people of the world to defeat revisionism and persist in carrying out the principles of the Paris Commune -- the principles of the proletarian revolution and the proletarian dictatorship.

Thus the truth pointed out by Comrade Marx in summing up the Paris Commune in 1871, that the working class would have to pass through a long epoch of class struggles in order to execute its historic mission of eliminating the bourgeoisie and all exploiting classes, has proven true. Comrade Marx wrote that the working class "KNEW THAT IN ORDER TO WORK OUT THEIR OWN EMANCIPATION, AND ALONG WITH IT THAT HIGHER FORM TO WHICH PRESENT SOCIETY IS IRRESISTIBLY TENDING BY ITS OWN ECONOMIC AGENCIES, THEY WILL HAVE TO PASS THROUGH LONG STRUGGLES, THROUGH A SERIES OF HISTORIC PROCESSES, TRANSFORMING CIRCUMSTANCES AND MEN. " (The Civil War in France) Thus, in the decades of class struggles reaching from 1871 to the present, the principles of the Paris Commune have proven to be eternal.

Today the two superpowers, U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, are the main enemies of the people of the whole world. Their struggle for world hegemony, which is leading the world into a new world war and causes them to viciously attack the workers, oppressed nations and people of the world, is arousing ever more massive and determined resistance on the part of the world's people. With People's China at their head, the people of the whole world, with the Third World as the main force, are forming a powerful fighting united front against the two superpowers. No matter what machinations and foul deeds the superpowers resort to, they will be buried eventually by the people who are persistently marching ahead on the route first opened up by the Paris Commune.

In the United States today, the monopoly capitalists are escalating their exploitation and oppression of the working masses. The working class and oppressed people face the task of contributing to the glorious worldwide struggle against the two superpowers. Principally they must arise in the glorious manner of the Communards, carry out a proletarian revolution and violently smash the monopoly capitalist state, establish the dictatorship of the proletariat and march on towards communism. In order to achieve this, the first step is for the genuine Marxist-Leninists and revolutionary workers and people to firmly grasp the revolutionary ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, uphold the lessons of the proletarian revolution and proletarian dictatorship from the Paris Commune to the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, struggle against the opportunism of the revisionist "Communist" Party USA and others and in the process build a truly Marxist-Leninist Communist Party to lead the American working class and people in the proletarian revolution.

Comrade Marx pointed out that the soil out of which the Paris Commune grew "IS MODERN SOCIETY ITSELF". (The Civil War in France) Countless times, in the same heroic spirit of self-sacrifice as the workers of Paris, the American workers have shed their blood fighting against the criminal rule of the capitalist class and other reactionaries. For over 120 years American Marxists have struggled, at times succeeding only to be temporarily defeated again by the bourgeoisie, to build a revolutionary proletarian party. Today, out of the soil of modern America, the working class is again preparing to assault the bourgeoisie. Sooner or later, without a doubt, the workers will build just such a Party and wage a mighty storm of class struggle, and then the monopoly capitalists will be crushed. In this way the American workers will honor the memory of the Paris Commune.

[Photo: The Paris Commune, holding high the great banner of proletarian internationalism, demolished the "Victory Column" on the Place Vendome, a symbol of Napoleonic militarism and chauvinism, and renamed the place "International Square". Above are Commune fighters on the square.]

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QUOTATIONS FROM MARX AND ENGELS ON THE PARIS COMMUNE

A QUOTATION FROM COMRADE MARX

"(The Commune was) THE DAWN OF THE GREAT SOCIAL REVOLUTION WHICH WILL LIBERATE MANKIND FROM THE REGIME OF CLASSES FOREVER. " (Resolutions of the Meeting in Honor of the First Anniversary of the Paris Commune)

A QUOTATION FROM COMRADE ENGELS

"OF LATE, THE SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC PHILISTINE HAS ONCE MORE BEEN FILLED WITH WHOLESOME TERROR AT THE WORDS: DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT. WELL AND GOOD, GENTLEMEN, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT THIS DICTATORSHIP LOOKS LIKE? LOOK AT THE PARIS COMMUNE. THAT WAS THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT." ("Introduction" to Marx's The Civil War in France)

FROM LETTERS BY MARX TO DR. KUGELMANN ON THE PARIS COMMUNE

April 12, 1871

"...If you look at the last chapter of my Eighteenth Brumaire you will find that I say that the next attempt of the French revolution will be no longer, as before, to transfer the bureaucratic-military machine from one hand to another, but to smash it, and this is essential for every real people's revolution on the Continent. And this is what our heroic Party comrades in Paris are attempting. What elasticity, what historical initiative, what a capacity for sacrifice in these Parisians! After six months of hunger and ruin, caused rather by internal treachery than by the external enemy, they rise, beneath Prussian bayonets, as if there had never been a war between France and Germany and the enemy were not at the gates of Paris. History has no like example of a like greatness. If they are defeated only their 'good nature' will be to blame. They should have marched at once on Versailles, after first Vinoy and then the reactionary section of the Paris National Guard had themselves retreated. The right moment was missed because of conscientious scruples. They did not want to start the civil war, as if that mischievous abortion Thiers had not already started the civil war with his attempt to disarm Paris. Second mistake: The Central Committee surrendered its power too soon, to make way for the Commune. Again from a too "honorable " scrupulosity! However that may be, the present rising in Paris--even if it be crushed by the wolves, swine and vile curs of the old society--is the most glorious deed of our Party since the June insurrection in Paris. Compare these Parisians, storming heaven, with the slaves to heaven of the German-Prussian Holy Roman Empire, with its posthumous masquerades reeking of the barracks, the Church, cabbage-junkerdom and above all, of the philistine...."

April 17, 1871

"... How you can compare petty-bourgeois demonstrations a la 13 June, 1849, etc., with the present struggle is quite incomprehensible to me.

World history would indeed be very easy to make, if the struggle were taken up only on condition of infallibly favorable chances. It would, on the other hand, be of a very mystical nature, if "accidents" played no part. These accidents themselves fall naturally into the general course of development and are compensated again by other accidents. But acceleration and delay are very dependent upon such "accidents", which include the "accident" of the character of those who at first stand at the head of the movement.

The decisive, unfavorable "accident" this time is by no means to be found in the general conditions of French society, but in the presence of the Prussians in France and their position right before Paris. Of this the Parisians were well aware. But of this, the bourgeois canaille of Versailles were also well aware. Precisely for that reason they presented the Parisians with the alternative of taking up the fight or succumbing without a struggle. In the latter case, the demoralization of the working class would have been a far greater misfortune than the fall of any number of 'leaders'. The struggle of the working class against the capitalist class and its state has entered upon a new phase with the struggle in Paris. Whatever the immediate results may be, a new point of departure of world- historic importance has been gained. "

[Box: The Paris Commune opened up the path of the dictatorship of the proletariat. On the next page, we reproduce an article showing the great significance of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution for consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat and preventing capitalist restoration.]

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The Dictatorship of the Proletariat and The Great Cultural Revolution

by Chung Shih

THE proletarian revolutionary teacher Lenin once made the famous statement: "The further that great day recedes into the past, the more clearly we see the significance of the proletarian revolution in Russia, and the more deeply arc we led to reflect upon the practical experience gained in our work as a whole."(The Fourth Anniversary of the October Revolution.) The same can be said for China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. As time recedes into the past, the far-reaching influence of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution on consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, promoting the development of the cause of socialism and other aspects will become clearer and clearer.

Great Revolution for Consolidating the Proletarian Dictatorship

The theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat, is the quintessence of Marxism. Lenin pointed out: "The dictatorship of the proletariat is a most determined and most ruthless war waged by the new class against a more powerful enemy, the bourgeoisie, whose resistance is increased tenfold, by its overthrow (even if only in one country), and whose power lies not only in the strength of international capital, in the strength and durability of the international connections of the bourgeoisie, but also in the force of habit, in the strength of small production. For, unfortunately, small production is still very, very widespread in the world, and small production engenders capitalism and the bourgeoisie continuously, daily, hourly, spontaneously, and on a mass scale. For all these reasons the dictatorship of the proletariat is essential." ("Left-Wing" Communism, An Infantile Disorder.) Lenin stated very clearly that after the proletariat has seized political power, the overthrown landlord and capitalist classes will always turn their hopes for a restoration into attempts at restoration and that new bourgeois elements will also continuously be engendered who will attack the socialist system. Without the proletarian dictatorship, therefore, the proletariat will not be able to maintain its political power, defeat the bourgeoisie and build and consolidate socialism. Consequently, throughout the entire historical period of socialism, particularly after the socialist transformation of ownership of the means of production has been completed in the main, whether or not to recognize that there are still classes and class struggle and whether or not to uphold the dictatorship of the proletariat are fundamental questions concerning the future and destiny of the Party and the state and of the proletariat and other working people.

It is precisely on these fundamental questions that the Soviet revisionist renegade clique has utterly betrayed Marxism-Leninism and converted the world's first socialist country into a social-imperialist country. Chairman Mao has waged a tit-for-tat struggle against this clique and inherited, defended and developed the Marxist-Leninist theory of the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Chairman Mao has comprehensively summed up the historical experience, both positive and negative, of the dictatorship of the proletariat, advanced the great thesis of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, formulated for our Party the basic line for the entire historical period of socialism and led the whole Party and the people of the whole country to struggle for the consolidation and strengthening of the proletarian dictatorship, thus guaranteeing China's continual advance along the socialist road.

Personally initiated and led by Chairman Mao, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is a great political revolution carried out under the conditions of socialism by the proletariat against the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes; it is of tremendous significance to consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat and preventing capitalist restoration. After the socialist transformation of ownership of the means of production had in the main been carried out in China, Chairman Mao led the whole Party and the people of the whole country in a series of struggles against the bourgeoisie and against revisionism. From the struggle against the bourgeois Rightists in 1957 to the struggle to shatter the Peng Teh-huai anti-Party clique in 1959 and from the great debate in regard to the general line for building socialism to the socialist education movement in the cities and countryside, great victories were scored one after another.

However, just as Chairman Mao pointed out in a r speech in February 1967: "In the past we waged struggles in rural areas, in factories, in the cultural field, and we carried out the socialist education movement. But all this failed to solve the problem because we did not find a form, a method, to arouse the broad masses to expose our dark aspect openly, in an all-round way and from below." Summing up the experience of the successive struggles in accordance with the theory of the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, Chairman Mao has finally found the form -- the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution -- which is the inevitable result of the protracted and sharp struggle between the two classes, the two roads and the two lines in the period of socialism. This great revolution has forcefully pushed forward the struggle carried out by the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, Marxism against revisionism, and has in theory and in practice enriched and developed the Marxist theory of the proletarian dictatorship. The practice of the Chinese people has completely proved that "the current Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is absolutely necessary and most timely for consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, preventing capitalist restoration and building socialism."

Two Bourgeois Headquarters Shattered

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has smashed Liu Shao-chi's and Lin Piao's plots to restore capitalism and has consolidated the dictatorship of the proletariat in China. The history of class struggle since the founding of New China shows that the toppled landlord and capitalist classes at home invariably try for a comeback, that new bourgeois elements may arise and that the struggle between the two classes and the two roads in society is bound to find expression in our Party. Internationally, imperialism and social-imperialism which want to carry out aggression and subversion against our country are bound to look for agents inside our Party. Representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into our Party will do whatever they can to push a counter-revolutionary revisionist line in an attempt to change the Party's basic line and the socialist system. When the opportune moment arrives, they will come forth to seize political power and replace the dictatorship of the proletariat with the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

Liu Shao-chi and Lin Piao were such representatives of the bourgeoisie. In their attempts to restore capitalism in China, they shouted themselves hoarse to advocate the theory of "the dying out of class struggle" and the theory of productive force. Wielding that portion of power they had usurped, they not only exercised the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie in same spheres of the superstructure but also tried to Change the nature of socialist ownership in the economic base. Just as Chairman Mao pointed out at the First Plenary Session of the Ninth Central Committee of the Party: "Apparently, we couldn't do without the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, for our base was not solid. From my observations, I am afraid that in a fairly large majority of factories -- I don't mean all or the overwhelming majority -- leadership was not in the hands of real Marxists and the masses of workers." The question was that the leadership in these factories "followed that line of Liu Shao-chi's."

During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the two bourgeois headquarters with Liu Shao-chi and Lin Piao as their ringleaders were crushed, their counter-revolutionary revisionist line was deeply criticized and a handful of renegades, enemy agents and absolutely unrepentant persons in power taking the capitalist road who had wormed their way into our Party were expelled from our ranks. Thus their plots to restore capitalism were completely destroyed. This was a great victory for the Great Cultural Revolution.

All-Round Dictatorship Over the Bourgeoisie Strengthened

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has strengthened the all-round dictatorship of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie in the superstructure including all spheres of culture, and consolidated the socialist economic base. The historical experience gained in China's revolution proves that a socialist revolution on the economic front alone is not enough and cannot be consolidated by itself. There must be a thoroughgoing socialist revolution on the political and ideological fronts as well. The bourgeoisie has lost the means of production but it still has a superior force in the cultural and educational fields, and it is bound to make use of this "hereditary domain" to continue its trial of strength with the proletariat. Before the Great Cultural Revolution, Liu Shao-chi and his gang made desperate efforts to use ideology and the superstructure to serve their purpose of restoring capitalism and frantically exercised counter-revolutionary dictatorship over the proletariat in those departments they controlled. Such a situation was sharply criticized by Chairman Mao who at the time pointed out: "If it (the Ministry of Culture) refuses to change, it should be renamed the Ministry of Emperors, Kings, Generals and Ministers, the Ministry of Talents and Beauties or the Ministry of Foreign Mummies"; the Ministry of Health should likewise be renamed the "Ministry of Health for Urban Overloads." With regard to the field of education, Chairman Mao pointed out: "The domination of our schools and colleges by bourgeois intellectuals should not be tolerated any longer."

Marxism holds that the superstructure is determined by the economic base. Under given conditions, however, the superstructure in turn plays the principal and decisive' role. When the superstructure (politics, culture, etc.) obstructs the development of the economic base, political and cultural changes become principal and decisive. If we had not unfolded the Great Cultural Revolution from below in an extensive and penetrating way, how could we change the situation in which the bourgeoisie exercised dictatorship over the proletariat in the spheres of culture and education? How was it possible for us to consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat and strengthen the socialist economic base? In the Great Cultural Revolution, the counter-revolutionary revisionist line of Liu Shao-chi and Lin Piao was criticized in a deep-going way, the mire left by the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes was cleaned up, and the proletariat seized back the positions previously occupied by the bourgeoisie. Acting in accordance with Chairman Mao's instruction that "the working class must exercise leadership in everything," the working class and its most reliable ally, the poor and lower-middle peasants, mounted the political stage of the superstructure. A vigorous revolutionary situation ensued, with a host of socialist new things growing in strength and profound changes favourable to the proletariat taking place in the entire superstructure.

However, we are fully aware that the struggle in the superstructure is still acute and complicated and that the bourgeoisie is not reconciled to its defeat and will not withdraw from this position of its own accord. Since the Great Cultural Revolution started first in the fields of culture and education, the bourgeoisie is certain to make the first moves in these fields in its efforts to negate the Great Cultured Revolution and launch counter-attacks against us. We must resolutely implement Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line and carry through to the end the socialist revolution in the entire superstructure, including the revolution in education, literature and art and health work.

Building an Iron Wall to Combat and Prevent Revisionism

The proletarian dictatorship is a dictatorship of the masses, a dictatorship of the majority over the minority. This is where it differs fundamentally from the dictatorship of all the exploiting classes, and herein lies the profound source of its powerful strength. Only by fully arousing the broad masses is it possible to build an iron wall to combat and prevent revisionism so that the dictatorship of the proletariat can be really consolidated. One outstanding feature of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is the direct mobilization of the people in their hundreds of millions in the great fight to combat and prevent revisionism and consolidate the proletarian dictatorship.

Chairman Mao has pointed out: "Never before in any mass movement have the masses been aroused so thoroughly and on so broad a scale." Hundreds of millions of people rising up to speak out freely, air their views fully, hold great debates and write big-character posters are like an avalanche which in no time smashed to smithereens the revisionist "independent kingdoms" in some places and crushed seemingly impregnable bourgeois fortresses in some units. No one can ever eradicate the great historical merits of the mass movement. In the Great Cultural Revolution the broad masses of the people received a very profound education in Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and came to understand the truth that "the correctness or incorrectness of the ideological and political line decides everything." They also enhanced their ability to distinguish Marxism from revisionism and the correct line from the erroneous, and raised their consciousness to Continue the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Lenin put it well: "Nothing will ever compare in importance with this direct training that the masses... receive in the course of the revolutionary struggle itself." (Revolutionary Days.) Since the Cultural Revolution began, more and more comrades upholding Marxism and opposing revisionism have come to the fore on all fronts. This is true even in educational circles where "bourgeois prejudices have struck very deep root." (Lenin: Speech Delivered at an All-Russia Conference of Political Education Workers of Gubernia and Uyezd Education Departments.) This will surely be of profound significance to combating and preventing revisionism and to ensuring that the task of consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat is fulfilled right through to the grass-roots level.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has provided us with extremely valuable experience in future struggles to combat and prevent revisionism and consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat. As a form of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Great Cultural Revolution is of universal significance in the entire historical period of socialism. Chairman Mao has said: "Our country at present practises a commodity system, the wage system is unequal, too, as in the eight-grade wage scale, and so forth. Under the dictatorship of the proletariat such things can only be restricted. Therefore, if people like Lin Piao come to power, it will be quite easy for them to rig up the capitalist system."

This instruction of Chairman Mao's points out to us that the emergence of revisionism is not accidental but has its profound class and social origins. Because of the fact that in socialist society there still are classes, class contradictions and class struggle, there is bourgeois right, there are the soil and conditions for engendering capitalism and a new bourgeoisie and there is the danger of capitalist restoration, it is imperative to carry out the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

(An abridged translation of an article "HongQi," No. 1976. Subheads are ours.)

Peking Review, No. 7, February 13, 1976

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HAIL INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY-March 8, 1976!

The Workers' Advocate hails International Women's Day and sends its red salute to all women of the world fighting against imperialism, social-imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism and hegemonism. Women all over the world constitute a vigorous and reliable force in the struggle for proletarian revolution in the capitalist and revisionist countries and for national liberation and independence in the oppressed countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Women make up a very important section of humanity who participate actively both in production and in reproduction of real life. It is the revolutionary spirit of women together with men which holds a bright future for the entire mankind.

The revolutionary spirit of women shines forth in the life of the French revolutionary Louise Michel. Louise Michel participated in the historic Paris Commune of 1871, which was the first time the proletariat seized political power and established the dictatorship of the proletariat. She never capitulated before the reactionary forces. After the fall of the Commune, the French bourgeoisie went on a rampage and literally depopulated the working class districts of Paris. Accused of high treason, Louise Michel defiantly told the court: "I will not defend myself; I will not be defended. I belong to the social revolution, and I declare that I accept the responsibility of all my acts. I accept it entirely and without reserve... Since it seems that every heart which beats for liberty has only the right to a little lead, I too demand my part. If you let me live, I shall not cease to cry vengeance and I shall denounce to the vengeance of my brothers the assassins of the Commission of Pardons. If you are not cowards kill me." Despite imprisonment and two periods of exile, she persisted in revolutionary struggle until her death in 1905.

The revolutionary spirit and daring of Louise Michel have lived in the actions of millions of other working women. International Women's Day dates back to a powerful demonstration of women garment workers and housewives on the Eastside of New York City on March 8, 1908. The women garment workers demanded shorter hours, better working conditions, an end to sweatshop conditions and also raised the political demand for the right of women to vote. In commemoration of this event, Clara Zetkin, a German Marxist, introduced a resolution to proclaim March 8 International Working Women's Day to the Stuttgart Congress of the Second International in 1910. This again confirms that women's emancipation can only be achieved through the world socialist-proletarian revolution. It shows the militant solidarity between the world communist movement and the struggle of American working women and the necessity for the women's movement to take up international issues and proletarian internationalism.

The U.S. is an "advanced" capitalist country with large numbers of working women, women of oppressed nationalities and other downtrodden women. Imperialist society is rotting alive, and this particularly oppresses women. In order to undermine the youth and student movement in the '60's, the monopoly capitalists concocted the "counter-culture" or "youth culture" and forced a number of humiliations on women under the hoax of being "liberated"; bourgeois feminism, the view that men are the cause of the oppression of women, is only the opposite side of this same seamy imperialist philosophy. With the intensification of capitalist world economic crises, the increasing fascization of all aspects of American life, and the threat of world war, the distress and suffering of women is becoming very acute. This is inevitably giving rise to the desire for change, for revolution among the masses of women. Lenin teaches: "THERE CAN BE NO SOCIALIST REVOLUTION UNLESS VERY MANY WORKING WOMEN TAKE A BIG PART IN IT". The coming awakening of the masses of toiling women will be a sure guarantee of the overthrow of the bourgeoisie.

In commemoration of International Women's Day The Workers' Advocate is reprinting below excerpts from Comrade Hardial Bains' speech on January 25, 1975 in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada, at the opening of the National Conference of Revolutionary and Progressive Women organized by the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist). (The speech is reprinted from PCDN/OTL, March 8, 1975) - end -

[Photo: Louise Michel, resolute Communard who feared neither hardship nor death.]

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EXCERPTS FROM A SPEECH BY COMRADE HARDIAL BAINS DELIVERED AT THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF REVOLUTIONARY AND PROGRESSIVE WOMEN ORGANIZED BY THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA (MARXIST-LENINIST) January 25, 1975

I think it is erroneous to suggest that the Party did not take a serious attitude towards organizing women. It is erroneous, in the sense that organizing the Party itself is the reflection of taking a serious attitude towards organizing women. All the comrades must understand that women in the society exist as communists, as workers and as women. And all the struggle in the past has been in opposition to this idea: against those people who either wanted to say that women only existed as women in this society or women only existed as workers, or women only existed as some political formation. Over the years, especially since 1968, our Party has taken a correct attitude towards women, and has taken a serious attitude toward organizing women and I think it is erroneous to suggest that we have not taken a correct attitude or a serious attitude. Many times I have been asked by petty bourgeois women what attitude we take towards women in the Party. These petty bourgeois women are interested in equality under bourgeois dictatorship, which is equality on the minimum or lowest level. They have asked us what attitude we take towards women in the Party, and we have always answered that we have Communists in the Party. As far as the Party is concerned, there is no distinction; no differentiation in terms of sex, in terms of colour, creed, nationality or anything else. We have communists in the Communist Party and this is the first principle as well as the last principle. The question of what attitude we have towards women doesn't arise as far as the Party is concerned. We advocated that in terms of organising women we must first organise the Communist Party, which can lead all classes and sections of society against the main enemy.

The significance of this meeting is not that we have taken an erroneous or not serious attitude in the past and that we are going to take a serious attitude now. The significance is that the Party is founded, its leading organs are established and the Party is now going into the mass movement, going into the phase of organising the broad masses of the people against our main enemies. Organising women comes under that category, that is organising the broad masses of the people. Comrades and friends have to look at the significance of this meeting in this light; that the Party considers the organising of women, as women, as an important activity at this time and the meeting is called to establish an organisation, establish a program, in practical as well as in general terms. We will have discussion on this question throughout the day, and various women comrades who have come out of the Women's Liberation Movement as well as with other experience, that is the trade unions, will lead the meeting.

Another point I would like to make is that this is a women's conference, not a conference of men, so I was quite surprised to see men in this meeting. When we were organising this conference and contacting various people, some individuals objected to myself coming here to address women. As far as the Party is concerned, women have the same leadership as workers in the society, as immigrants in the society, as anyone else in society. There cannot be two types of leaders as far as women are concerned. Even when the People's Republic of Canada is declared you are not going to have two prime - ministers, one a woman and the other a man. People who want to introduce these kind of questions-I used to call them godforsaken, people who believe in deism, that is that there are some divine rights which god has bestowed on them and one of these rights is that women should have their own leaders. As far as we are concerned we want leaders coming from all sections of the classes of society to oppose the main enemy, and we look at leaders only in that respect. The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist- Leninist) is an organization of communists. As far as the leadership of this conference is concerned, the leadership is going to be the leadership of CPC(M-L). As far as the main force of this conference is concerned, it is going to be women, because it is dealing with the question of women in terms of organising them. Any progressive or revolutionary women are permitted to come to this conference, as are some male comrades who are in leading positions in the Party at various levels.

Comrades; there are 5 points on which you have to give your views, which means there has to be a very definite decision taken on these 5 points. The first point is to determine whether women, as a section of the people in society, are singled out for super-exploitation by the monopoly capitalist class. This of course, doesn't include the big bourgeois women, the small minority of women which belong to the big bourgeois class. We have to make a decision whether women, as a section of the people, are singled out for super-exploitation or not. This point is very important, in the sense that women do not exist as a class. Just as any other section of society women come from all the classes. We have to decide whether there is such a thing as exploitation of women, as women, and as a section of the people in society, irrespective of which class they come from. Now usually when this discussion begins in society, the first point which comes up is that some women think that exploitation of women is caused by men. This whole line of thinking should not be taken seriously for discussion, because we reject it. You cannot be a communist if you believe that a division of people in the society can be based on sexuality or sex.

We are not presenting this for serious discussion, but at the same time we must look at what happens when the women's movement arises in terms of working women. Various individuals have made some nauseating statements that they are "working women" who are exploited. But when these "working women" take up issues, it is all bourgeois women's issues for which they agitate, and there is a serious betrayal of the cause of women as people in society. For example, there was an organisation in Vancouver called the Working Women's Association. When they took up causes, in the main they were all issues dear to the hearts of bourgeois women. So why did they call themselves the Working Women's Association? Why not the Women's Association to take up the Issues of Bourgeois Women? As far as we are concerned, women, as a section of the people, are exploited and have been exploited throughout the history of class society.

It is altogether erroneous to suggest that this is not the case. Women have faced the worst kind of exploitation right from slave society to feudal society to capitalist society, and now in social-imperialist society; women as women. Even though a small minority of women have been incorporated into the ruling class.

The actual amount of exploitation and the nature of exploitation is the second point. Our point of view is that all women face class exploitation. This exploitation is not something independent of class exploitation, and for this reason it is in the interest of women to support the emancipation of the working class and proletarian revolution. Even for bourgeois women, it is in their interest for their own emancipation, as women, to come out to support the emancipation of the working class, for otherwise there can be no emancipation of any woman whatsoever. So, while those people who do not believe that women as women, are exploited and try to give this workers' chauvinist line for women; then taking up bourgeois issues and trying to mislead women on that; we believe that women are exploited as a section of the people and face super-exploitation, and have faced it throughout the history of class society, and that their emancipation, their struggle, has to be in terms of proletarian revolution, which means that all classes of women, in the main, should take up the cause of the proletariat and only then can they find emancipation.

These are the first two points, or you can say the general analysis, which the comrades have to have some consensus on during the conference. If the general analysis given before is agreed upon, that is the basis and nature of exploitation of women as a section of the people in a class society, and that the exploitation which they receive is class exploitation, then a very serious issue arises, at this time in history, and that is the issue of International solidarity of women. This in terms of participating in the proletarian revolution in Canada.

Women have a very important role, as do other sections in the society, to support those women, on a world scale, who suffer the most vicious and worst kind of exploitation, repression and extermination at the hands of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. I have in mind the women of Asia, Africa and Latin America who suffer the worst kind of feudal exploitation, as well as capitalist exploitation, as well as imperialist and social-imperialist exploitation. It is the view of the Party that Canadian women have a great deal of responsibility on the international, scale and they should discuss their role in terms of International solidarity - how to support the women of those countries which are facing the worst kind of aggression from imperialism and social-imperialism. This is not to say that we are going to have a hollow solidarity, devoid of the main content of national liberation; that you can have solidarity with all women and thus life will be fine. To have solidarity with women in Asia, Africa and Latin America, or have an International solidarity, is to participate in arousing a section of the people against imperialism and social imperialism here, and we feel that it is very important that the comrades here make a decision on how they can participate in that aspect of work.

Now lastly, as far as the Party is concerned, we are mainly interested in women as workers, and then women as communists; which means that the main emphasis of our work will be amongst the women workers and we will have communist leadership amongst women workers and will take up those causes that concern us as communists. This doesn't mean that we consider that those women who come from the petty- bourgeois class and who are in petty production, or those women who come from the bourgeois class or who have some means of subsistence in independent of their labour--that these women are unimportant to be mobilized. We are not saying that; and we are not saying that class background decides whether a person is going to be a revolutionary or counter-revolutionary. This means that we oppose the line that says that except for workers everyone is a reactionary in this society. This is not the case. What we are emphasising is that we all will deal with our class; the majority of women in the society, in capitalist society, are workers and we would like to build a program which makes them the target, and all the bourgeois and petty bourgeois and other women should support that program, for, as I said before, in the first point, there is no program for women away from the program of the proletarian revolution.

In this respect, special emphasis has to be made again on the national minority women workers; the native women, who face the worst kind of exploitation, the women workers in Quebec, who suffer the worst kind of exploitation at the hands of the capitalist in terms of unemployment, and also women in other depressed areas of Canada, like the Maritimes where unemployment and other various problems are multiplied as far as women workers are concerned.

As the chairman of the meeting announced before, this is a working session and not a conference like those we usually have. My comments therefore, are going to be very brief. I would just like to go over our five points. The first is to decide whether women as a section of the people, are singled out by the monopoly capitalist class for exploitation. Secondly, what is the nature of the exploitation; is it that which some feminists talk about - men exploiting women, or is it of a class nature ? The third is the question of International solidarity. The fourth is the organizing of women as workers, and the last point is to organize women as communists. On all of these points the comrades have to make decisions.

So, in this conference, comrades must take a stand; that women must be communist organizers. Women must be communist organizers as individuals, independent of their husbands, independent of their parents, independent of their boyfriends, and of their kids, just as a male communist is. This disease, as I said before, is not just a disease of women comrades. Men are more to be blamed in many ways. But the point is that there is a negative line which all communists have to oppose.

All kinds of sexualism, disruption, and confusion arises from this erroneous attitude towards social relations in the home in terms of attitudes towards kids, that is, how the kids should be brought up and how the comrades should participate in revolution. And this point, I think, has to be discussed as a very serious organizational point. As far as the Party is concerned, the Party will not be doing its work properly in a resolute revolutionary manner if a large number of comrades are not women. By large I mean close to a majority of the total comrades. Whenever we organized correctly, we had that situation: women enthusiastically joined the revolution. There is no such thing as women having greater affinity towards the capitalist class than somebody else.

In terms of the correct orientation on political line, the question of mobilization cf women cannot be relegated to a secondary position. The reason for that is this; in those societies where capitalism has reached its final stages, such as Canada, the U.S., in many Western countries, where you have a monopoly capitalist system, an advanced capitalist system - in those countries, the question of women is going to become a very serious question immediately after the proletarian revolution, and women have to be the leaders, women have to be the organizers; while in other societies these questions don't have that kind of urgency. Of course, there is urgency, in terms of emancipating from the feudal and other forms of oppression, women in Asia, Africa and Latin America, but the material conditions are not developed, for the issue of women workers, and the issue of women in production to arise; this issue does not have that kind of immediacy or urgency as it will have in the capitalist countries, and I will leave it to the comrades to arrive at correct orientation and conclusions. I believe that good secretaries are those who have the largest number of women in their organization. And IT m not saying that this can just be based on a head count - for example, we have one secretary of whom I asked how many women he had mobilized to come to this conference. He said eight. I was really impressed that one local secretary, with a very small branch, a unit of four or five comrades, could organize eight women to come. Then just out of curiosity I looked at the list. All those eight women were from the Party, people already mobilized, which means that a dishonest attitude was taken by the secretary in reporting eight. When we said "mobilizing women", we meant going to activist women, arguing with them, and persuading them, having discussions with them that they should be sympathizers of the Party. Their emancipation lies only in terms of being communist organizers. It didn't mean that you fill form and have eight Party comrades and friends listed there, and then you say that you have fulfilled your task. Many people have this sort of attitude, and in the initial stages - and this still is the case - a wrong line is taken-that is, one of "organize my wife and I will be organized" or "organize my husband and I will be organized". I won't say much more on this question.

(Editor's Note: After the day-long session, which was stormy at various times, the majority of the comrades agreed with the five-point analysis presented by Comrade Hardial Bains. All delegates agreed to take these five points home and begin their work on the basis of these five points.) -end-

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Five Years of Continual Backsliding

-- From the Soviet revisionists' 24th congress to their 25th congress

by Hsiao Lou

FIVE years have gone by since the Soviet revisionists held their 24th congress in 1971. To give the current 25th congress a shot in the arm, the Soviet revisionist renegade clique has in recent months been shamelessly bragging about their so-called "achievements" obtained since the 24th congress. What have the Soviet revisionists done in the past five years and what are the results?

Five-Year Plan on the Rocks

The 9th five-year plan adopted by the Soviet revisionists at the 24th congress has gone on the rocks. This fact which is known to all shows that the militarization of the national economy has brought serious consequences to the Soviet economy; it reveals the extremely decadent nature of Soviet state monopoly capitalism and completely explodes the lie of "high-speed" development and the "welfare plan" trumpeted by Brezhnev and company at the 24th congress. Let's look at the facts.

The basic targets of the national economy all came a cropper. The national income merely attained the target set in the five-year plan for 1974; that is, it took five years to accomplish the tasks set for four years.

The production of consumer goods was astonishingly low. Statistics show that the gross output value in the production of consumer goods only came to about 89 per cent of the target and there is a serious shortage of many important consumer goods on the market.

Agriculture showed a decline. In the five years, the average annual total output value of agriculture was far short of the target. Grain production was even worse, showing a decrease in output in four of the five years with the average annual output coming only to about 91 per cent of the planned quota. In the "disastrous" year of 1975, in particular, even the official figures given out by the Soviet authorities showed that grain production met only two-thirds of the planned target. If we reckon on a per-capita basis, grain output was even lower than in 1913 when the tsars ruled. The amount of grains imported during the 9th five-year plan was five times that of the 8th five-year plan period.

The people's standards of living are low. According to reports in the Soviet press, one-quarter of the total population are now living below the level "guaranteeing the lowest standard of material life." Retail prices of major foodstuffs and other goods have been constantly rising and exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous levies are continually on the increase. According to what' the Soviet revisionist authorities themselves have published, every Soviet employee paid, on an average, 157.6 rubles in taxes in 1973 as against 84.1 rubles in 1960 -- an increase of 87.4 per cent.

Debts have piled high. Incomplete figures show that since Brezhnev came to power in 1964, the Soviet Union has borrowed more than 20,000 million U.S. dollars from the Western countries, more than 80 per cent of which were secured in the period of the 9th five- year plan.

Such examples are numerous and are quite revealing.

However, it should be pointed out that there is indeed "high-speed" development of certain projects in the Soviet Union and these are the munitions industry and certain related heavy industries, which have all developed like a malignant growth. It is estimated that in the Soviet Union today, about 60 per cent of the industrial enterprises are directly or indirectly involved in arms production and they employ some 3.5 million people. During the 9th five-year plan, the output of the machine-building industry, of automatic meters, instruments and tools and of computer technology -- all linked with arms production -- have grown by 70, 80 and 300 per cent respectively. According to an estimate by Western countries, the Soviet Union has surpassed the United States in expenditures on military research since 1973.

The Soviet Union's all-out drive for arms expansion and war preparation inevitably reduces the people's consumption, sacrifices agriculture and light industry and brings about a serious lopsided development of • the national economy. The result: a huge industry but a very weak agriculture, with heavy industry, particularly the machine-building industry, steadily expanding while production in light industry is extremely poor; technology in the arms industry has developed rapidly while technology in industries producing goods for civil use is backward; there is a large number of nuclear weapons while the people's standards of living are on the decline; and more and more investments are made in capital construction centred on expanding military might while there is a steady fall in the effects of investments in all fields. Such a situation was particularly pronounced during the period of the 9th five-year plan.

The decadent nature of state monopoly capitalism determines that the Soviet revisionists' 9th five-year plan is simply impossible to fulfill. They want to tighten the monopoly and control by the bureaucrat state and at the same time boost the incentive for profits. This is in itself an insurmountable contradiction. The contention for the right over profits between the central monopoly clique and the local monopoly cliques and between the- capitalist cliques in the various enterprises and the central and local monopoly cliques has brought with it much in-fighting and a host of contradictions. To seek profits, accounts are often falsified and embezzlement and theft as well as extravagance and waste are rampant within the enterprises, while new technology is not being fully utilized. In particular, the labouring people who are unwilling to sweat for the bureaucrat- monopoly capitalists, resist or fight back by work stoppages, slowdowns and other forms of struggle. All this has caused complete failure to the state plan -- the chief means of the Soviet revisionists to implement monopoly and control.

Facts fully show that the past five years are five years of failure for the Soviet revisionists' 9th five-year plan, of bankruptcy for their "welfare" slogan, of stepped-up militarization of the national economy and of evei'-aggravating economic difficulties.

Internal Contradictions Sharpen

At the 24th congress, Brezhnev bragged that efforts would be made "to further develop socialist democracy," that "harmony" in the relations and "rock-firm unity" between the "various classes, social strata and big and small nationalities" in the Soviet Union were maintained. But facts have proved the exact opposite.

In the last five years when it has become increasingly isolated and its rule more and more feeble, the Soviet revisionist renegade clique has doffed the guise of "developing socialist democracy" and steadily strengthened its fascist dictatorship. Its armed forces, which are used to suppress the people at home and perpetrate aggression and expansion abroad, have in recent years grown rapidly from over three million to more than 4.2 million. Its intelligence agency K.G.B. (the State Security Committee) and the Ministry of the Interior, whose power has considerably increased, have made their way into every nook and corner. They have armed their secret agents and spies with sophisticated detection and interrogation equipment and up-to-date monitoring and telecommunications devices. Its "psychiatric hospitals" have become places of political persecution with increasing intensity. What is more, the Soviet revisionists have in the last few years expanded and set up many auxiliary organizations to enforce their fascist dictatorship. They have expanded the so-called "voluntary pickets" and "supervisory groups," which are directed against the people, and set up pickets and operative detachments for various specialized fields. In addition, they have established many "mass" organizations exclusively controlled by secret and police agencies. The main task of such organizations as "public committees," "law- breaking prevention committees" and "public and police social security stations" is to deal with persons holding "views and habits incompatible with" Soviet revisionist rule.

However, the Soviet people have not been cowed by the ruthless fascist rule of tenor. Discontent and resistance on the part of the Soviet people have been on the rise in recent years. It is reported that underground organizations and secret publications have emerged continually in the last five years. In Kiev, Rostov, Lvov, Dnepropetrovsk, Dnieprodzerzhinsk, Vitebsk, Tibilis and many other cities, workers' strikes and demonstrations have taken place while slowdowns have swept the country's towns and villages. Despite strict ideological and organizational control, the broad masses of Party members have never ceased in their struggle. During the two years beginning March 1973 when "Party membership cards were renewed," an estimated total of nearly one million "passive members" charged with "alien thoughts" were purged. Protests by many intellectuals against the Brezhnev clique's reactionary rule have gradually become a component part of the Soviet people's struggle.

Sharpening contradictions among the various nationalities have become another serious problem confronting the Soviet revisionists. Brezhnev and company are stepping up the implementation of the Great- Russian chauvinistic policy under the deceitful slogan of "a new historical entity of the people." From Transcaucasia to the Central Asian region, from the Baltic coast to the shores of the Black Sea, there have been large-scale struggles waged over the past five years by the people in various union republics against Great-Russian chauvinistic oppression and assimilation of nationalities. This has been proved by the big purges carried out.one after another by the Brezhnev renegade clique in these republics. For instance, large-scale "ideological rectification" and organizational purges have been carried out first in the Georgian, then in the Ukrainian and Armenian Republics since 1972, mercilessly persecuting and crushing the cadres and masses and removing the first secretaries of the central committees of the revisionist party in these three republics. Discontent is rife among the people and resistance struggles have surfaced one after another in these union republics.

Social problems have become more serious than ever in the last five years. Speculation is rampant and bribery has become a common practice, while theft, embezzlement, prostitution, alcoholism, the taking of drugs and juvenile delinquency are quite commonplace.

Class contradictions and contradictions among the nationalities are reflected in the upper stratum of the ruling clique, thereby aggravating internal strife and rocking its rule.

It is clear that the last five years have witnessed the continuous strengthening of the dictatorship of social-fascism and the further isolation of the Brezhnev renegade clique. And in these five years the working people of all nationalities in the Soviet Union have waged indomitable struggles to re-establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.

"Peaceful Programme" -- A Flop

The notorious "peaceful programme" was dished up by Brezhnev at the 24th congress. Since then, the Soviet revisionists have linked up all their acts of aggression abroad with this "programme." In fact, what the Soviet Union has done in the last five years in the international arena precisely shows that it is not "seeking lasting peace," but stepping up its contention for world hegemony under the smokescreen of "detente." Far from "opposing the threat of a new world war," it is trying its utmost to create the danger of a new war; instead of "supporting" national-liberation movements and the revolutionary struggles of the people of various countries, it stoops to anything in carrying out infiltration, interference, subversion and sabotage in a vain attempt to dominate and enslave the world's people.

Contention between the Soviet Union and the other superpower in the last five years has spread all over the globe. The intranquillity in Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, southern Africa and other regions of the world invariably is tied up with the expansion and infiltration by the Soviet social-imperialists. After many years of preparations, they concocted a so-called European security conference which was actually a European insecurity conference. While clamouring about "materialization of detente,", "the irreversibility of detente," and "supplementing political detente by military detente," they have deployed and reinforced their forces and replenished their armaments in Eastern Europe. They have stirred up troubles in Southern Europe and in the Balkans, engaged in feverish infiltration in Portugal and other countries and strengthened their military dispositions in Northern Europe, thereby aggravating and complicating the situation in Europe. While mouthing disarmament, they have piled up more and more nuclear and conventional weapons, rapidly increased the number of troops and continually raised their military expenditures which have in the last few years outstripped those of the United Slates to make the Soviet Union the leading nation of the world in this field. They have conducted global military exercises, and warships of their huge navy prowl the waters of the world to make a big show of their strength. By signing so-called "treaties of friendship and co-operation," they have grabbed military bases abroad and, through so-called military and economic "aid," they have stepped up their plunder of some countries and tightened their political and military control over them. They regard some revisionist political parties as their special detachments in pushing their social-imperialist policies. They brazenly supported India in dismembering another sovereign state. They resort to blackmail and intimidation to refuse to return the four northern Japanese islands which they have occupied. Now, flouting public opinion the world over, they have blatantly interfered in the internal affairs of Angola. This is a concentrated exposure of the gangster features of the ferocious social- imperialists and is a very good footnote to the essence of their "peaceful programme." In short, this overly ambitious superpower assumes a menacing offensive posture in its contention with U.S. imperialism for world domination; it is more adventurous and it has become the most dangerous source of a new world war.

But madness does not mean real strength. The mere places to which it stretches its tentacles, the more nooses it puts around its own neck. More and more people in the world today are clear about its expansionist and hegemonic features. Numerous facts over the past five years have pointed up the plight of the Soviet social-imperialists who have run up against stone walls and found themselves in a bad fix. The fraud of detente they have cooked up to conceal their contention with the United States has been exposed by more and more people. At the so-called strategic arms limitation talks, the Soviet Union and the United States, each with its own ulterior motives, are locked in both overt and covert struggles, both refusing to make concessions. The Soviet-U.S. trade agreement, which was once flaunted as having made "fruitful contributions" to the strengthening of Soviet-U.S. relations, has been declared null and void. Despite ceaseless preparations, the Soviet revisionists have so far failed to convene the conference they have set their mind on holding, to be attended by various European parties. The absurd theory of "peaceful transition" which they advocate has gone bankrupt in what they call a "model" Latin American country.

Following the expulsion of 105 Soviet spies by the British Government in September 1971, large numbers of Soviet secret agents and spies have been exposed in various parts of the world in the past few years. The tens of thousands of Soviet advisers and military personnel sent to Egypt to control that country were forced to pack up and go home. Since the October War in the Middle East, the traitorous features of the Soviet revisionists in betraying the liberation struggle of the Arab and Palestinian people have been more and more bared. The great victory of the Cambodian people put to shame the Soviet revisionists who, as counterrevolutionary double dealers, had throughout maintained friendly relations with the Lon Nol clique. Their agitation for the establishment of an "Asian collective security system" aimed at dominating Asia met with little response. The Soviet revisionists have aroused fresh discontent among some East European countries for limiting the supply of raw materials and fuel to them, forcing up prices and intensifying the plunder of capital and manpower in these countries. All these have given headaches to the Brezhnev renegade clique and caused internal strife.

It can thus be seen that the past five years were years in which the Soviet revisionists engaged feverishly in aggression and expansion and intensified their contention for world domination; they were also years in which the "peaceful programme" has gone bankrupt and the Soviet social-imperialists have become more isolated in the international arena.

Bankruptcy of "Developed Socialism"

The Soviet revisionists formally flaunted the banner of "developed socialism" at their 24th congress. Now what is their so-called "developed socialism"?

People may recall that at the 22nd congress Khrushchov dished up the slogan of "basically building communism within 20 years" between 1961 and 1980. which was nothing but a bluff. When he gave that dud cheque, Brezhnev was his accomplice. Later Khrushchov's "goulash communism" went bankrupt; this, coupled with other reasons, finally toppled this clown. Taking over the mantle from Khrushchov, Brezhnev took down the tattered banner of "all-round construction of communism" and replaced it with the banner of "completion of developed socialism" in an attempt to cover up the bankruptcy of sham communism and the reality that the Soviet Union has moved from capitalist restoration to social-imperialism. The so- called "all-round construction of communism" and the "completion of developed socialism" are as like as two peas. The only difference is that since Brezhnev came to power the pace of all-round restoration of capitalism has been accelerated and the degree of monopoly by state monopoly capitalism and of capital concentration has been steadily increased, with the result that contradictions and difficulties are developing in depth.

Brezhnev and his ilk also have a political motive in trotting out the so-called "developed socialism." They prattle that a "developed socialist society" has "a corresponding political superstructure -- a state of the whole people which replaces the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat." Obviously, they are creating a theoretical basis for the fallacy of a "state of the whole people" which has already been completely repudiated. It seems as if the state of the whole people is the "result conforming to the laws" of "developed socialism" and, since there is the "completion of a developed socialist society," the fallacy of a state of the whole people is viable. Their aim is, in reality, to cover up the harsh fact that, under the signboards of the state of the whole people and democracy of the whole people, the Soviet Union today is practising a fascist dictatorship.

The Soviet revisionist renegade clique is also using the fallacy of "developed socialism" to serve its social- imperialist policies of aggression and expansion, the argument being that "developed socialism" is necessarily linked with "socialist integration." Brezhnev and company say that "developed socialism" makes all countries' "economic and political life highly internationalized" and demands a "more perfect form of socialist internationalism" to suit the needs; they also claim that implementation of economic integration "is the most important factor in establishing a developed socialist society" and so on and so forth. What they have said boils down to this: Since the Soviet Union has "established a developed socialist society," it has every reason to control and plunder the other members of the "big community" in the name of integration while the other member countries in the "big community" will have to be Soviet social-imperialism's appendages if they want to build "developed socialism." Acting on this fallacy, the Soviet revisionists have not only energetically worked for economic integration but have taken a step further in putting forth and bringing about ideological integration, military integration and diplomatic integration. The objective is to exercise all-round control over its partners in the "big community." At present, the Soviet Union is wooing and inveigling some Asian, African and Latin American countries to join the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance, an integration organization. Doesn't this mean that the Soviet Union which has "established a developed socialist society" also has reason to stretch its aggressive talons to all parts of the world with "integration" as a tool? It is thus clear that the so-called "developed socialism" is only a euphemism for social-imperialism, social- fascism, state monopoly capitalism and hegemonism.

With nothing much left up its sleeves, the Soviet revisionist renegade clique has concocted the "theory" of "developed socialism." Such action is aptly described by what Lenin said; "The old word socialism had been desecrated by the traitors to socialism." (The Third, Communist International.) The clique's action, however, can in no way save it from utter failure. Countless facts over the past five years and the as yet unhatched new constitution which the Soviet revisionists have worked for a long time to sum up and embody "developed socialism," all prove that Brezhnev and company are extremely weak and poor politically and theoretically.

* * *

In short, the five years since the Soviet revisionists' 24th congress show that, whether in theory or in deeds and in domestic or international affairs, Soviet social- imperialism with its wild ambitions is outwardly fierce but inwardly feeble, is beset with difficulties at home and abroad and is on the decline. It is sliding down in accordance with the law that imperialism will inevitably perish. "Flowers fall off, do what one may" is a Chinese verse which aptly portrays the plight of the Soviet revisionists. Like imperialism and all other reactionaries, "revisionist Soviet Union is a paper tiger too." History will show that Soviet social-imperialism which is out on a limb will sink ever more deeply in insoluble political and economic crises. With the third world as the main force, the people of the whole world, including the people of the Soviet Union, will raise still higher the banner of anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism and anti-hegemonism and march forward valiantly.

Peking Review. No. 9

February 27, 1976

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ANGOLAN PEOPLE FIGHT ON AGAINST SOVIET AGGRESSION!

Angola became independent on November 11, 1975. This was the result of a struggle of nearly five centuries against Portuguese colonialism, climaxing with the war of national liberation of 1961-74. Three Angolan liberation organizations participated in the armed struggle and have some mass support: MPLA, The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola; FNLA, the National Liberation Front of Angola; and UNIT A, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola. UNITA was founded in 1966 to solve the impasse the national liberation war found itself in at the time. It was the only liberation organization to base itself entirely inside the country, and it was able to solve a number of problems of the Angolan revolution, liberate vast areas, and through its outstanding contributions, lead the Angolan national liberation struggle. The Alvor Agreement of January 1975 provided for a Transitional Government involving all three liberation organizations. The Nakuru Agreement of June 1975 stated that the three organizations: "aware of the grave situation in which the country finds itself and of the national interests which must necessarily be put above any political and ideological divergencies, solemnly affirm to renounce the use of force as a way to solve problems and to honor all obligations resulting from the conclusion of the accord. " These agreements, if implemented, would have led to a government of national union ensuring the genuine independence of Angola.

The Soviet aggressors waited with arms folded until the Portuguese colonialists collapsed and then rushed in to snatch the fruits of victory from the Angolan people by splitting the unity of the Angolan people and making Angolan fight Angolan. Labeling one organization as "Marxist" and the other two as "reactionary" and "imperialist agents", the Soviet revisionists incited the first to attack the latter two. The Soviet revisionists sent in large quantities of arms to the organization they labelled "Marxist". In this way, the Soviet Union single-handedly provoked a bloody civil war between the liberation organizations. The Soviet Union then tried to overwhelm the small country of Angola -- there are only six million Angolans-- with 15,000 Cuban puppet troops, over 1,000 Russian and East European troops and personnel, and huge amounts of sophisticated weapons like rockets, tanks, missile-launchers, jet aircraft, etc. The Soviet New Tsars hope to crush two liberation organizations and make use of a third in order to establish a Government of National Betrayal subservient to Soviet social-imperialism and kept in power by foreign bayonets.

At the present moment the Soviet social-imperialists and their allies, international opportunism, are very arrogant. Using their temporary success in occupying a number of Angolan cities and slaughtering the local population, they are asserting their "victory" and seeking recognition for their conquest from a number of countries. This is a striking exposure of their imperialist way of thinking. They think that they can do what the Portuguese could never do -- utilize modern arms to suppress the national liberation organizations of the Angolan people. Actually this is a pipe-dream of the New Tsars. What has happened is that, faced with a massive onslaught of puppet troops well-equipped with all the modern weapons, the Angolan people have switched from conventional, positional warfare- a type of warfare where sophisticated heavy equipment can compensate for a while for lack of popular support -- to a guerrilla form of warfare that was perfected in the long struggle against the Portuguese. The Angolan people are fighting on gloriously against Soviet aggression! UNITA has preserved its base areas, is in high morale, and still exercises control over 50% of the area and 60% of the population of Angola. The Soviet Union should not be unduly elated over its "victory". Its hands stained with the blood of Angolan patriots, the Soviet Union is getting bogged down deeper and deeper in Angola and is bound to meet its deserved fate sooner or later.

In order to cover its tracks, the Soviet New Tsars have provoked an international debate on which liberation organization is good and which is bad. International opportunism has fallen head over heels for this debate and is flagrantly intervening in Angolan internal affairs in order to give aid to Soviet social-imperialism. The opportunists spread all sorts of rumors and slanders and set up eternal and arbitrary standards for liberation organizations; this is precisely the way the New Tsars opposed the Royal Government of National Union of Cambodia during the Cambodian people's national liberation war and supported the CIA regime of Lon Nol on the grounds that Prince Sihanouk was a monarch but Lon Nol was for a "republican" form of government. This issue is not whether or not one supports MPLA, FNLA or UNITA. It is the two superpowers who interfered in Angolan affairs and the Soviet Union who is the arch- criminal in splitting the unity of the Angolan people thus bringing a host of calamities to Angola. The issue is opposition to Soviet aggression in Angola and its slaughtering of the Angolan people. All progressive people should vigorously support the national liberation struggle of Angola and oppose all foreign intervention -- Soviet, Cuban, South African, American, etc. -- in Angola. The COUSML staunchly supports UNITA and its correct stand for a government of national union and opposes the tragic wrong stand of serving the interests of Soviet social-imperialism of a certain other liberation organization -- but the COUSML has never cast slanders or rumours against any Angolan liberation organization or wished it evil. This is entirely consistent with the COUSML's support of the entire national liberation struggle of Angola and its opposition to intervention in the internal affairs of Angola.

The Soviet aggression has been widely denounced in Africa and elsewhere. In order to ensure "recognition" of the Soviet-Cuban-MPLA "government", the New Tsars have had to use bribery of African leaders, pressure up to and including breaking diplomatic relations with an African country (Uganda) for a period of time, and extensive lies. What support Soviet aggression has is largely due to confusion concerning the South African invasion of Angola. Africans and people all over the world have a legitimate and burning hatred of the fascist and racist South African regime. But the truth about the South African invasion actually exposes the Soviet New Tsars even more.

--The Soviet aggression in Angola precedes the South African invasion and therefore certainly cannot be justified by it. The truth is that the Soviet Union is the arch-criminal who in splitting the unity of the Angolan people created the indispensible conditions for South African invasion.

--Contrary to the big lies spread by both superpowers, UNITA was the first organization to denounce the South African invasion and has fought it right from the start. UNITA has always been the bitter enemy of the fascist South African regime. The guerillas of SWAPO (the liberation organization of Namibia, so-called "South West Africa", who are fighting illegal occupation by South Africa) have always found sanctuary, arms, supplies and brotherhood in UNITA liberated base areas. Over 3,000 SWAPO fighters use UNITA bases in southern Angola as their own.

--The Soviet-Cuban-MPLA forces are not fighting the South Africans. The Cubans do not engage the South Africans in battle. The MPLA has already declared itself ready to protect the main interest of the South African racists in Angola (the Cunene River dam and water project) in return for the recognition of MPLA as the government of Angola by South Africa.

The role of U.S. imperialism in Angola is also widely misunderstood. Portugal was dominated by U.S. imperialism and held its colonies on behalf of U.S. imperialism. The collapse of Portuguese colonialism was a severe defeat for U.S. imperialism. It is only the Soviet aggression that has given the U.S. the opportunity to put its hand back into Angola. The U.S. imperialists fervently prefer a government of national betrayal in Angola, even though that government is Soviet-dominated, to free Angola. A free and totally independent Angola weakens both superpowers and strengthens the forces of the world's people against hegemonism and for revolution. But the U.S. can always make deals with a government of national betrayal--and the U.S. has already started large-scale oil and aircraft agreements with the MPLA "government" -- and bide its time for a favorable opportunity to steal Angola back from the Soviet Union. Similarly the Soviet New Tsars prefer a Western-imperialist dominated deal between racist Ian Smith and traitor Nkomo in Zimbabwe ("Rhodesia") to a truly liberated Zimbabwe. The U.S. has there therefore colluded with the Soviet social-imperialists against the liberation of Angola. This » collusion serves the sharpening contention of the two superpowers to redivide the world -- since a liberated Angola (like a liberated Zimbabwe) would not be available for redivision. Those who have failed to oppose Soviet aggression in Angola have thus also capitulated to U.S. imperialism.

It is very significant that all the U.S. bourgeoisie, both ''liberal" and outright reactionary, have united to attack UNIT A and the Angolan people. The entire bourgeois press and mass media repeats the lies on Angola. And who can forget the nauseating farce in the Congress in the debate over ending "aid" to the "pro-Western" factions. The "liberals", masters at political deception, smugly congratulated each other on how "bold" they were in "preventing another Viet Nam" by "exposing" how the U.S. government was supposedly supporting UNITA through recruiting mercenaries and by well- publicized "secret" funds. The liberals hypocritically wailed and beat their breasts that being associated with such a "collaborator of South Africa" as UNITA hurt the good name of the U.S. in Africa. Congress, which never could seem to stop appropriating funds to massacre the Vietnamese, now stands up as the lord and master of the executive and "cuts off" funds for Angola. All this was to hide the fact that the U.S. was the instigator of the South African invasion against UNITA and all the Angolan people. The "liberals" showed that they were quite aware that association with South Africa is the kiss of death as far as African support is concerned, and they consciously worked to strip UNITA, which is fighting both superpowers, of any diplomatic support. The role of the "liberals" stands out clearly. If the open reactionaries had said that U.S. -backed South Africans were invading at the request of the Angolans themselves, this might engender some scepticism. But if the liberals "expose" this, well, if Pravda, the New York Times and the Congressional liberals all agree -- then it must be the truth. This verifies what we in the COUSML have maintained all along: that the "liberal" and "conservative" wings of the political representatives of monopoly capitalism are both utterly reactionary and imperialist, that the imperialist pacificism of the "doves" is really just political deception and preparation for more imperialist war, and not an alternative, even a halfhearted or "lesser of two evils" alternative, to the open reactionaries at all.

Chairman Mao has pointed out: "A WEAK NATION CAN DEFEAT A STRONG, A SMALL NATION CAN DEFEAT A BIG. THE PEOPLE OF A SMALL COUNTRY CAN CERTAINLY DEFEAT AGGRESSION BY A BIG COUNTRY, IF ONLY THEY DARE TO RISE IN STRUGGLE, TAKE UP ARMS AND GRASP IN THEIR OWN HANDS THE DESTINY OF THEIR COUNTRY. THIS IS A LAW OF HISTORY." The Angolan people, persisting in protracted armed struggle, are sure to defeat Soviet aggression, smash the collusion of the two superpowers, and win victory in their struggle for national liberation and total independence. - end -

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150,000 PEOPLE SLAUGHTERED BY SOVIET MERCENARY TROOPS

During an attack on Ambriz in northern Angola on December 6 last year, the Soviet mercenaries killed and wounded large numbers of civilians with 122 mm. rockets and reduced the city into a shambles. On January 5 this year, Soviet planes killed several thousand civilians while bombing Carmona and Negage in northern Angola.

On January 27, the Soviet-Cuban forces slaughtered 250 unarmed villagers, including women, children and the aged, in Busako, 72 kilometres north of Luso. TASS had to admit in a report on the same day that the three towns of Quibala, Santa-Comba and Cela in the central front of Angola were"laid waste."

Since early February, 7,000 mercenaries under the direction of Soviet military personnel have mounted a major offensive on areas controlled by a liberation organization. In their February 8 advance on the central Angolan city of Huambo, more than 6,000 mercenaries were involved, supported by 20 armed helicopters, 70 armoured vehicles and tanks, two Mig-21 fighters as well as rockets and ground-to-ground missiles, inflicting heavy casualties on the local inhabitants.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union dispatched warships to bombard the country's coastal cities, thereby staining its hands with the blood of the Angolan people.

As a result of Soviet intervention and aggression, there are now over one million refugees out of a total population of six million. Many of these homeless people had to flee to neighbouring countries.

The Angolan economy is now in chaos. Ports, railways, factories and other economic installations are seriously damaged, production has come to a standstill, and transport has been inteiu'upted. With food and daily necessities in short supply, the Angolan people are living in dire misery.

The Soviet social-imperialists' atrocities have enraged theAngolan people who declare: "For our freedom and our motherland, we are determined to continue the fight in the forests, mountains and valleys. The Soviet invaders will meet with the same fate as the Portuguese colonialists in Africa." This is the Angolan people's best reply to the Soviet neo-colonialists who are trying to enslave again the Angolan people in place of the old colonialists.

Peking Review

No. 10 March 5, 1976

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SUPERFICIAL "RECOGNITION" AND CAMPAIGN OF LIES AND SLANDERS WILL NOT STOP THE STRUGGLE FOR TOTAL LIBERATION OF ANGOLA!

Exclusive People's Canada Daily News interview with UNITA Representative to the United Nations, Comrade J. Chitunda, conducted on Monday February 23, 1976.

Comrade Chitunda:

The first thing to realise is that what MPLA is calling a "military victory" is no real victory at all. To begin with, it is Soviet-backed Cuban and other foreign invaders that are making the military manoeuvres in Angola and how can this be equated with an MPLA victory? UNITA leadership anticipated the possibility of a large-scale invasion and has been making preparations for the last several months. The cities which Cuban-MPLA forces have reported capturing are, in most cases, no longer cities but ghost towns. Let us take the example of Huambo as a case in point. UNITA fighters held out under a barrage of multiple rocket launchers attacking for over a week. These rocket launchers had a devastating effect on the town and did a lot of destruction. Finally, the military command decided it was time to withdraw from the city and evacuation operations began. By the time Cuban-MPLA forces entered Huambo the urban population had gone from roughly 80,000 to less than 2,000 occupants! The people, under UNITA's leadership, had melted into the countryside and MPLA-Cuban forces took over an empty city. This situation was the same in many of the other towns which Cuban-MPLA forces have "captured".

We have foreseen this offensive and UNITA strategy now is to return to exclusive guerilla campaigns and consolidate our bases in the rural countryside among the large majority of the population -- the peasant masses. Here, the situation has not changed in any fundamental way. UNITA still holds political power in 50% of the land area of Angola and controls 60% of the population. The fact that empty cities have been taken over has not changed this basic situation. Even in those towns which Cuban-MPLA forces have occupied, to speak of their "controlling" them is not really accurate. The invaders are mainly trying to secure the main transportation arteries, highways, etc. and have not established any administrative apparatus in these towns.

I just heard Mr. Castro say that he is going to send 40,000 Cubans to Angola. He may have in mind sending them as settlers to occupy these empty towns! The invaders are going to face real problems for production and food supplies. This is unlike UNITA which has no problems with food supplies, since we enjoy the support of' the basic peasant masses.

So when MPLA speaks of a victory it must be seen in this light. Similarly, their recognition internationally cannot change the basic situation inside the country. We remember that for 20 years it was Chiang Kai-shek who "represented" the Chinese people in the UN and in other places after the government of the People's Republic of China was established. The recognition of MPLA is a paper-recognition, and has come about as a result of the massive propaganda campaign and pressure by the two superpowers and by a big campaign by the Soviet Union in particular to pressure the OAU into recognising MPLA. We were not surprised by this development and our position is clear: We will not be bullied by anyone!

On the international front there are other developments which give the lie to alleged UNITA- South African cooperation. It can be seen by one and all that it is MPLA and South Africa which are showing great willingness to negotiate. This is a first in the history of African liberation movements that negotiation in this way takes place between the South African fascists and MPLA. This is becoming a very big exposure of the MPLA. It is also clear now that Cuban troops are not in any way engaging the South African troops. They are not heading south to Azania, nor are they involved with South African troops in Namibia or anywhere else. The Soviet social- imperialists have sent Cuban mercenaries to 'get UNITA' and this is another big exposure.

Regarding alleged UNITA atrocities, Comrade Chitunda said:

These press reports of UNITA atrocities and mass killings are absolute lies. To begin with, UNITA has neither motive nor reason to be killing any of the Angolan people. Those soldiers that have been captured are being properly treated and can be visited at any time by an international agency to verify it. These horror stories are being promoted by the imperialist press with a two-fold aim: to turn international public opinion against UNITA and to try and turn the Angolan people against UNITA. But our people will never believe these lies. If you want to see atrocities, visit Cuban-MPLA headquarters in Luanda -- that is where the torture houses are and we are being accused by the enemy of the things he himself is doing.

On the current military situation, Comrade Chitunda said:

Our present strategy is to consolidate our liberated areas in the countryside. We have prepared the fighters and the masses for a protracted struggle which we know will last for months and quite possibly a number of years. We are not following the strategy of trying to re-capture towns and cities at the present time. They do not have the military importance. Rather, we are deploying our 30,000 guerrilla fighters in the following fashion. Some 12,000 troops are now organised and dispersed throughout the country in guerrilla fashion as shock troops. There is no positional warfare but rather attacks on the enemy troops and enemy-held towns. The remainder of our troops are throughout the countryside -- organised as part of the People's Defense Guards in the liberated areas or carrying out political work amongst the population. We are well-equipped for this kind of guerilla warfare and our light weapons are ideal and in good supply for this kind of battle. Even before the evacuation of Huambo by our UNITA Command, our commanders and our President had prepared the underground headquarters. We were not caught by surprise on any front.

At present we are carrying out attacks on the enemy positions. Just a few days ago there were successful attacks and more Cuban soldiers were captured. Just recently also, we intercepted a large column of supplies going from Huambo to a location near Serpa Pinto, which were intended for the Cuban troops. Interestingly, although UNITA is not in Serpa Pinto, the Cuban invaders have not been able to enter that town yet because of the resistance of the local population.

So as you can see this "victory" and "occupation" which the Soviet-backed Cuban mercenaries and MPLA are claiming is a most superficial thing and cannot for one moment negate our struggle for total independence and victory. Our people are in good condition, and fighting spirit and morale is just as high as ever. We will never be corrupted and will fight on until complete victory. - end -

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Who is "Supported By the West" in Angola?

After months of slandering UNITA in Angola as "pro-western", "western-backed", etc., the Soviet Union was caught with its pants down when the U.S. State Department gave its go- ahead to Gulf Oil Co. and Boeing Aircraft Corp. to resume business which was interrupted by the civil war. This business was resumed at the repeated request of the MPLA leader, Agostino Neto as well as other high MPLA officials. The sum involved in the Gulf Oil deal is variously reported to range, between $100 million (Toronto Globe and Mail, Monday, February 23, 1976), and $500 million (London Times, February 2, 1976). The most accurate figure, however, probably is the New York Times figure of $200 million. This money is a portion of the oil royalties due to the Angolan people for 1975 which now goes into coffers of MPLA. The money has been in an interest-bearing trust account since sometime between September and January last year to be handed over to whichever government establishes control in Angola. This sum far surpasses the amount of aid said by the Soviet Union to have been given to FNLA by the U.S. imperialists. UNITA has received no aid from the U.S. imperialists, whatsoever.

The payment of the royalties gives Gulf a free hand to exploit the oil resources in the Angolan province of Cabinda.

The alleged sum of $33 million given by the U.S. to the FNLA was enough in the eyes of the Soviet Union to taint both FNLA and UNITA with the charge of being U.S. imperialist agents, but when their own "genuine liberation movement", MPLA, actually invites the U.S. to plunder Angolan oil under a deal worked out by the Portuguese colonialists, and accepts money in payment, this is not called "receiving western backing". No, it is politely said by Tass that the deal "may be assessed as the first step toward the establishment of (U.S.) diplomatic relations with the MPLA government. " In other words, the Soviet Union's own chosen faction has the right to sell out to either imperialist superpower without complaint from the Soviet Union. But those who resist both superpowers, like UNITA, have no rights and just to resist Soviet social-imperialism and Cuban invasion is to be branded an "agent of U.S. imperialism".

This arrogant superpower which one day said that conditions in Angola did not exist for a political settlement between the three liberation movements and only a few days later declared that it has "never opposed a political settlement" to the Angolan problem, has now revealed what the substance of its "political settlement" is. U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism "peacefully" decide to set Angolans against Angolans and then together sit down to share the spoils. - end -

(This article is reprinted from People's Canada Daily News, Volume 6, Number 24, February 24, 1976.)

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Eyewitness Account of UNITA Liberated Area, January 13 - 27, 1976

The Workers' Advocate is grateful to Florence Tate of the African Services Bureau, Wash. D. C. for sending us the following eyewitness report. The report is not an official UNITA statement; it is however a vivid description of the lively atmosphere inside UNITA's liberated areas and the indissoluble bond between UNITA and the masses, the bond responsible for UNITA's victories against Portuguese colonialism and Soviet aggression.

Note that since Florence Tate's visit, the military situation in Angola has changed. UNITA still controls 50% of the territory and 60% of the population of Angola, but it has abandoned positional warfare, left the cities, and is carrying out guerrilla warfare against the Soviet aggressors. (see p. 17)

A recent study trip inside southern Angola proved politically reassuring because in the face of increasingly hostile and malicious social-imperialist-generated attacks on UNITA in the media and elsewhere, the writer has spent most of the past two years attempting to inform the African-American community of the true history and Pan-African socialist principles of the National Union for the Total Liberation of Angola (UNITA).

Therefore, it was both politically and personally rewarding to see the dramatic progress which has been made since the November 11th independence date in substantively improving the living conditions of the nearly 4 million, overwhelmingly peasant southern Angolans in UNITA territory. The party is thus well underway to translating its revolutionary theory into practice, which is the real and ultimate test of ideological principles.

The observations and impressions in this report are based on days of unescorted walking and talking with a broad cross section of Angolans in Huambo and Silva Porto and the countryside surrounding these cities. Conversations were held with: officials of the UNITA party and the government -- two distinct entities, with the party being supreme; UNITA soldiers; schoolchildren; factory workers; hotel workers; women at the marketplace; party intellectuals; a Sindaco (union) organizer; campesinos (peasants); organizers for the LIGA da Mulheres Angolanas (LIMA); internationally-based journalists who went back and forth to the front everyday ; an old Portuguese-Angolan woman who had chosen to stay behind when her family fled to Portugal in the wake of independence; agricultural workers now cooperatively running former Portuguese plantations; Red Cross nurses; and finally, Dr. Jonas Savimbi and Colonel Miguel Puna, UNITA's Secretary General and Commander of the armed forces in the Huambo and Bie provinces.

Additionally, the writer visited several key ministries held by UNITA in the provisional Democratic Republic of Angola (which for all practical purposes is a UNITA government, with little FNLA visibility); as well as medical, educational and other social service organizations, institutions and agencies.

These conversations, visits and observations substantiated UNITA's determination to fulfill one of its key objectives as set forth in the 1966 constitution: " Our national and democratic revolution is accompanied by a socialist revolution, this being the sole guarantee of defense of the interests of the more oppressed classes and fair distribution of means of production."

Before describing the programs and institutions begun by UNITA, it is necessary to emphasize certain pre-independence socio-economic conditions imposed by Portuguese colonialism upon the people in the area. One of the most heinous crimes perpetrated against the Angolan people was the deliberate under-development in areas from which Portugal could see no immediate financial returns. Unlike the Luanda city area where the infrastructure was highly developed by the Portuguese to suit their own purposes -- with the central government machinery, industrial headquarters, communications industry, etc. concentrated there -- the southern part of Angola was largely and deliberately under-developed. Accordingly, far fewer of the assimilado and mestizo classes which were virtually the only Angolans provided with educational opportunities, ever lived in this area of the country. Therefore, not only is the social economy of this area underdeveloped, but there is no educated elite which has had experience in administration. Laboring under this particular facet of Portugal's abominable colonial legacy, UNITA's reconstruction efforts are understandably much more difficult than those being undertaken by the Luanda government. Nevertheless, under the most trying circumstances, tremendous progress is taking place, particularly in the improvement of the living conditions of the campesinos through better housing, free education and free, though minimal, health care.

Schools -- Now Open to All

Formerly, the schools were set aside almost exclusively for children of the settlers; and only the few Angolan families who could pay had a chance to educate their children. Now the schools are free and open to all Angolan children, with some schools operating six days a week and handling two shifts of students. In Huambo and Silva Porto, there are several elementary schools, a high school, and in Huambo, a commercial and technical institute, as well as a university for which re-opening is being planned under the direction of party official Dr. Jako Jambo, a former minister in the Transitional Government of Angola. Needless to say, the educational facilities are strained under the enormously increased enrollment coupled with wartime shortages. School books and supplies are inadequate, the teaching staff is woefully small, but morale of both teachers and students is high.

Paulino Mande, a high school student, commented to me on the significance of the schools being opened up to all Angolan students. "This shows one reason why UNITA is so popular here, because UNITA wants us to become educated to better serve our country," he said in English which he has been studying for several years.

Employment -- Sindaco and the Ministry of Labor

Sindaco is the national association of labor unions which is responsible for organizing and improving working conditions for railway and dock workers, agricultural laborers and workers in the factories. Some of the factories are operating quite normally, including Moveis Leal, a furniture factory; Nova Fabrica de Molbas, a clothing factory; Nova Lisboa Sapado Fabricado, a shoe factory ; and a serveja (beer) plant -- all in the industrial area just outside Huambo.

Napoleon Olivera, a Sindaco organizer and administrator, like his wife Flora, spent several years in Portuguese prisons because PIDE discovered that they were UNITA organizers.

"Most of the workers are in the south, " Olivera responded to a question regarding the number of workers in UNITA territory. "Thousands who were working in Luanda and other towns in the east and north returned to the south when UNITA left Luanda," he continued. Olivera said that organizing will continue all over the south where Sindaco has branches in all provinces.

"We believe that the workers must cooperate with the peasants who are in the majority, to build together the new Angola," declared Olivera, who defined his ideology with a shrug and a smile as "socialist, socialist."

Elisio Chimbili, the soft-spoken but hard working Minister of Labor (who is a member of UNITA's Central Committee) also has direct responsibility for the welfare of the workers. Under the colonial government, Chimbili had worked in the fiscal management office of the Customs House in Luanda where he was twice arrested on suspicion for UNITA organizing. He spoke of the credit, farm, insurance and food cooperatives that the Ministry of Labor has established throughout the south to help serve the approximately 30,000 workers in UNITA-controlled territory; and he took me to inspect the workers' food cooperative near what was formerly the Portuguese central business district.

At the food cooperative workers were busy sorting the beans, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, bananas, oranges and beef that arrive by truck from farms outside Huambo. On one side of the cooperative store the produce is sorted, stored or refrigerated; on the other side of what had been a Portuguese "supermercado" workers' families come to shop. Each worker's family can obtain the weekly amount of food needed by the family and pays a fixed amount determined by the family wages. A true application of the principle "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need"!

Chimbili said that although the food supply is abundant, distribution is a problem because of the shortage of petrol and transport vehicles. But despite this problem, "all families in our area can get enough food," he assured. (A visit to the Municipal Mercado and to the nearby countryside further substantiated this claim of an abundant supply of maize, beef, fruits and vegetables.)

Housing -- Modern, Well-Built and Abandoned by the Portuguese

Viewing the modern, recently-developed and well constructed housing in numerous residential areas, it becomes crystal clear that the Portuguese had planned to remain in Angola for at least five more centuries. This good supply of housing is largely 5-15 years old and was built to suit the needs and aspirations of the Portuguese families who settled in Nova Lisboa to manage the budding business and industrial development undertaken by the colonialists in the very recent past. The houses and apartments are well built with the generous use of Angolan stone, marble, tile and beautiful hardwoods, and are well equipped with modern appliances and conveniences. They usually have no less than three bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, several baths, a beautiful garden and the ever-present "quadro pelo serventes" or servants' quarters.

Since independence and the concomitant flight of the Portuguese, UNITA has systematically assigned these houses and apartments to the peasants and working families who formerly lived in dirt-floor mud hut barrios with no water, electricity or sanitary facilities surrounding the city. The change this represents in the housing conditions for the people is the most dramatically impressive witness to what independence under UNITA signifies for those who were formerly the most oppressed and exploited people and section of the country.

"Of course you know we've had no experience in things like this, " said Alexander Francisco, an Angolan friend who spent much of his exile studying in the United States and returned last summer to be Director of Social Services in the Huambo province. In that post Francisco is responsible for the equitable distribution of housing, using a self-devised system of assessing family need and housing supply.

Angolan Women in the Struggle for Independence and Socialist Progress

The Liga da Mulheres Angolanas (League of Angolan Women -- UNITA's women's movement) has a membership of approximately 10,000 women, many of whom are wives or widows of UNITA veterans and soldiers. In the beginning LIMA was organized to fight and work alongside UNITA's bush guerillas. Now that the colonial war is over, the women veterans of that war are using their organizing, mobilizing, political and social service experience to help in the socialist reconstruction now underway in the south.

Headed by Sister Eunice Sapassa who organized and supervised the schools in the bush, LIMA seems to be the best organized and most effective of the civilian organizations under UNITA's umbrella. It is responsible for mass mobilization for the huge public comisios (rallies) attended by tens of thousands of peasants and workers and used by the leaders for reporting on the political-military situation, as well as for morale-building purposes. LIMA also conducts political education classes and helps to organize the democratic public assemblies at which the people express their opinions and feelings, criticize and question the party leadership (including Dr. Savimbi) and vote on controversial issues. To help carry out this work LIMA produces street posters and signs, leaflets and other political education materials. They also produce a radio program which brings revolutionary messages and news to the masses in Portuguese as well as the several local languages over the rather weak-signalled Radio Huambo.

LIMA, with branches in every region of every province under UNITA control, runs the major social welfare institutions of the country. In Huambo they operate a creche where sick, abandoned and war refugee children are taught and cared for; Kwacha Institute which houses and provides occupational therapy for the blind, invalid and other disabled adults who were formerly beggars on the streets; and a huge cooperative farm on which they produce food for the army, the hospitals and other public institutions. The women also serve in the hospitals and clinics which care for wounded soldiers, in addition to providing free medical care to the civilian population.

Eunice, who is a member of UNITA ' s Political Bureau and Central Committee, does not view LIMA as a "women's liberation" organization. "We are working with the men toward a common goal," she explained. "LIMA has a special task of waking up the women who were subservient both to the Portuguese and to our own men," she continued animatedly. "Now attitudes are changing and more women are participating in the society."

The 25-year-old LIMA president attributes this change to the experience gained by both men and women during the days they fought side by side in the bush against the Portuguese.

"Some of us fought, others carried arms, and others did other kinds of work. We all learned from that experience that women can play an equal part with men in bringing independence and progress to our country," Eunice concluded. (Also some LIMA women remain in the military.)

Outstanding among other LIMA organizers, administrators and activists are Judith Chimu- ma, assistant director of the Department of Social Services; Salome Olivera, who speaks five languages and produces the radio program; Augusto Chinguichi, widow of a UNITA hero; and Maria and Celia, wives of the Minister of Labor and Director of the University, respectively.

If, then, as Kwame Nkrumah once said, "The degree of the revolutionary consciousness of a country can be measured by the political maturity of its women." UNITA's place in the history of African socialist revolution is assured for all time. -end-

[Photo: LIMA (League of Angolan Women -- UNITA's women's organization) farm brigade composed of peasant women and women from the city who walk 18 miles to the countryside twice weekly to work on LIMA'S farm cooperative which helps feed the soldiers, hospital patients, etc.]

[Photo: LIMA women returning to Huambo after working alongside LIMA peasant women half a day at LIMA cooperative farm.]

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UNITA:PEOPLE'S STRUGGLE UNTIL VICTORY

issued by:UNITA'S OBSERVER MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS New York, U.S.A.

February -- 1976

"We shall support a government only after the masses have expressed their opinions: only through general elections, after peace has returned to the country, will it be possible to determine definitively who will be the nation's leaders." Dr. Jonas Savimbi November 11, 1975.

"We firmly believe in the need for the formation of a national army -- a people's defence force -- for we know that ideologically, in our conception of armed struggle and of the world, an army is an essential and decisive element for the seizure of power." Dr. Jonas Savimbi

"National unity can also be achieved by armed struggle. Unity is a goal in the national revolutionary process. Unity cannot be forged merely with words, it must manifest itself through action so that such unity may become a tangible experience in the daily life of the people." Dr. Jonas Savimbi December 31, 1975.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I INTRODUCTION

After the April 25th coup d'etat in Portugal the very complexion of Africa shifted from steeled determination in the face of imperialism to exuberance. Who could have predicted that the oldest colonial power in Africa, one of the most fascist states in Europe would fall like a pack of cards under the march of history. African people had won the fight against colonialism in Angola, reflecting one of the most dynamic instances of triumph in contemporary African History.

Yet the same face of exuberance was soon to reflect anguish. Instead of reaping the fruits of victory in Pan-African Socialism, Angolans are today faced with a far more treacherous war. It has already condemned to violent death nearly twelve times more African people than fell during the whole 14 year long war against the Portuguese. They must today confront more sophisticated weaponry than they ever met against the Portuguese colonialists and, most repugnant of all, witness African massacre African in an externally fanned war without African benefit.

The background to the present civil war finds its roots in the colonial period during a time when all the outside world learned about the African resistance was contingent on which groups held the superpower hook-ups to promote an elaborate international propaganda mechanism. This propaganda often-times spiralled in its own independent orbit with but fanciful links to any actual activity in the field. The Portuguese encouraged public confusion on the relative strengths of each liberation movement. They would manipulate communiques so that an attack by one movement was attributed to another. The aim of this ploy was to discredit the most effective movement in Angola so that it would not develop the outside support base to intensify its own operations against the enemy. When the colonially-imposed veil of secrecy lifted after the Portuguese coup, there was only one movement which actually controlled vast liberated areas, and only one nationalist leader who had opted to direct his operations from inside Angola itself -- The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) lead by Dr. Jonas Savimbi.

It is to clarify issues of the present conflict in Angola that this pamphlet has been prepared. It also aims at redressing in part the injustice done to Angola's cause through false and distorted reporting by those whose own political self-interests conflict with the genuine independence of the Angolan people.

II WHAT IS AT STAKE

The diplomatic policy of non-alignment which Africa had adopted from the OAU's inception in 1963 offered the continent a means of neutralizing superpower war games on African soil. African governments refused the role of tropical pawns in the wars of European nations in the knowledge that the first through to the last casualties would be the African populations and their own economic development. But the sordid spectre of victimization to international manipulation has reared its vampirish claws in Angola. It threatens to abort the independence for which the Angolan people so bitterly struggled. It proposes as well a haunting scenario for the independent development of the entire African continent.

Thus the real issue at stake for Angola is whether the efforts of an African people who have braved tremendous sacrifices to win their freedom will be thwarted by those now trying to make up in military terms for popular ground lost during the actual struggle for independence. In terms of Soviet foreign policy -- Angola is a trade-off of sorts. Russian military intervention in Portugal would have violated the Helsinki agreement and the potential for further concessions from the west. The Soviet Union could however concentrate its efforts with practical impunity in attempting to win a military victory in Angola. It would then obtain new access to Africa through one of its potentially richest countries and realize its aim of constructing arms depots for the trans-shipment of military wares to any corner of Africa which might suit its political purposes. The stakes in playing the game on African soil are all the more favorable as the only real losers are the hapless Angolan people caught dead in the crossfire.

The point Russia is attempting to prove is that there is an easier way to gain power than to suffer in any massive way through the decades of ordeal entailed in liberation war. Let the colonialists and the African population fight it out and when the African victory is declared, then the self-righteous conquerors can descend from their mountain top with battalions of un-battle scarred tanks, 12,500 Cuban-Russian mercenaries, propaganda stuntsmen, and fill up the space left from departed colonialists and war-weary African population. During the fourteen year war against the Portuguese the Soviet Union invested a total of less than 2 million pounds a year in aid to the MPLA. This sum could be more than halved when one reckons the amounts paid out in bribes, propaganda and military hardware aimed at discrediting or physically eliminating all other liberation movements fighting desperately for African independence but not under the auspices of the Soviet Union. Why then after the defeat of the Portuguese, when the Angolan parties were supposedly preparing for democratic elections, did the Soviet Union spend over 60 million pounds to aid MPLA and today that figure hovers well over the 100 ($250) million mark?

Angolans did not suffer the excruciating centuries of colonialism and the horrors of the most recent fifteen years of continued colonial war to be subjected again to the iron fist rule of people who do not truly represent them. Angolans will never again submit to the domination of people they see as enemies, whether they be domestic or foreign. Neither UNITA, MPLA, FNLA nor South Africa, nor the powerful Soviet Union and America can defeat the will of the Angolan people to be free. All forces must come to recognize, as UNITA always has, the limits of military force and work for a political solution to Angola's crisis, that is, an Angolan Government of National Unity.

At UNITA's annual conference held December 31, 1975 in Silva Porto, Angola, the tenets of a National Unity Government were clearly laid out! It would be guided by the principle that no party alone must impose by sheer force, its will upon the people of Angola. The process of the formation of such a government would necessarily pass through the following stages:

1) Immediate ceasefire with pre-conditions, keeping all forces at their present positions.

2) Creation of a neutral force to implement the ceasefire.

3) Realization of a tripartite conference under the auspices of the OAU, to be held on the national territory, tor the formulation of a political solution to the conflict.

4) The formation of a Provisional Government of National Unity] to restore the climate of peace and work conducive to the realization of general elections in the country.

III ROOTS OF THE PRESENT CONFLICT

The April 25th coup forced a new willingness upon Portugal to negotiate with the three liberation movements for Angolan decolonization. The stumbling block was the disunity between the parties, further aggravated by violent factional feuds within MPL A itself. UNITA played the leading role m this reconciliation process, shuttling back and forth between the other two movements until multilateral ceasefire agreements were signed among the three groups. The Mombassa Conference held in January 1975 laid a common platform from which to compose the historic Alvor Agreement. This accord was signed on January 15, 1975 by FNLA, MPLA, UNITA and Portugal. The Agreement established among other things:

a) The territorial integrity of Angola with the inclusion of Cabinda.

b) The date for the total independence of the countrv -- November 11, 1975.

c) The formation of a national army by the integration of the military forces of the movements into a unified Angolan command.

d) The phasing out of all Portuguese military forces

e) The installation of a transitional government which would rule the country until the date of the proclamation of total independence.

f) Resolution of the problem of power transfer to the3 liberation movements by general elections.

The most contentious point of the accord stipulated the integration of the military forces of the movements into a unified command. Only one of the three movements -- UNITA -- proceeded to implement this tenet, presenting each month its quota of 500 men.

The Transitional Government faced a multitude of difficulties and collapsed: (a) There was no national army or police force with which to maintain public order and enforce the law; (b) The members of the Government had no administrative experience, and their partisan politics undermined seriously their ability to govern evenhandedly; (c) Portugal who still had a responsibility to lead the way during this critical transitional phase was treacherously one-sided and openly promoted the MPLA.

It is also important to recognize that the prospect of general elections was not received with equal enthusiasm by all three movements. Polls taken by the Portuguese, the OAU, foreign and internal media alike affirmed that UNITA would clearly carry a minimum 55 percent of the Angolan electorate with the remaining 45 percent being shared between FNLA and MPLA. Increasingly evident that MPLA would not receive an honourable showing through elections, it then began moving decisively to shift the issue of who would determine Angola's future from the ballot box to the battlefield. The strategy to undertake such a course of action was apparently proposed months earlier as evidenced in a newly uncovered secret document from the communist governor of Angola to Agostinho Neto, MPLA's President, written in December 1974.

Fighting erupted in March, first sporadically then with increasing continuity. Several ceasefire agreements were signed but broken almost immediately. Arms distribution by MPLA to civilians in Luanda became commonplace. Because of further factional splits, MPLA member-lists were too small to themselves sustain an anarchical situation in the capital which would disrupt the possibility of elections. Consequently young teenagers of 12 and 13 years old were enlisted and armed with automatic weapons without, however, being given any serious training in their proper use. Arms build-up multiplied along with the presence of foreign advisors, adding to the growing aversion of the people to foreign intrusion. Finally, the MPLA integrated 4,000 Katangese mercenaries (2) into its forces, further betraying the people's sense of justice in its self-proclaimed cause.

MPLA was by this time heavily armed by the Soviet Union. (3) But in fact even before the formal establishment of Transitional Government let alone the outbreak of actual war, MPLA was receiving steadily augmenting supplies of Soviet weaponry. In August of 1974 the Tanzanian press publicized the arrival of a Soviet cargo plane carrying a shipment of arms valued at $6 million destined for MPLA. In October 1974, three months before the Alvor Agreement establishing the transitional government, the Soviet Union re-routed military wares for MPLA to the port of Pointe-Noire, Congo-Brazzaville and to that country's airport at Maya-Maya.

On June 4th, UNITA's office in Luanda was razed by an MPLA armed attack in which scores of women and children who had been attending literacy classes on its premises were maimed or and killed. On June 10 a similar attack occurred in Gabela; on June 30 in Cassamba; on June 15 in Henrique de Carvalho. In view of the rapidly deteriorating situation, the Nakuru summit conference was convened at the initiative of UNITA. The Nakuru Agreement was a reminder to the Alvor Agreement and called for an effective ceasefire, peace, tolerance and realization of elections and cessation of all acts of provocation. The agreement was signed in mid-June but was broken three weeks later by a new wave of violence between MPLA and FNLA. MPLA likewise increased its attacks on UNITA. on July 22 at Kalabo; July 30 Lukusse and August 5. the firing on a plane carrying Dr. Savimbi in Silva Porto.

UNITA was at this point forced to counter this offensive and entered the civil war. Moreover, Cuba has to this date, provided MPLA with 12.500 armed troops (4)and there are over 1,000 Russian military advisors' and still more technicians from Eastern Europe to augment MPLA's army. Thus the present situation finds the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Cuba, the U.S. and others involved directly or indirectly in the Angolan civil war.

IV SOUTH AFRICA'S GAME

In July of 1975 the racist apartheid regime of South Africa launched its own invasion of Southern Angola. It justified its aggression in terms of protecting its interests in the Cunene Dam project. What is not commonly known is that in response to that invasion, an integrated force of UNITA-MPLA-FNLA who were at the time positioned along the dam construction site (on behalf of the Transitional Government) were defeated by the invading South Africans. The issue of alliances around this sordid matter were fast distorted by MPLA's international propaganda machine and by their access to journalists based exclusively in Luanda. MPLA's reasons for attempting to tie UNITA to the racist South African Government are clear. South Africa's designs in fueling the rumor campaign are more intricate.

South Africa's most persistent military threat in recent years has been attacks by the liberation movement SWAPO (5) against the South African racists who illegally occupy Namibia. SWAPO could not have stepped up its guerrilla activities against South Africa as it has done in the past months were it not for their intimate cooperation with UNITA. SWAPO has throughout the history of their liberation'struggle, fought alongside UNITA, shared with them bases and supplies, military victories and defeats. But because of SWAPO's backing by the Soviet Union they were compelled to share diplomatic platforms with MPLA in the international arena. (6)

Today SWAPO has a force of over 3.000 guerrillas encamped in UNITA bases in Southern Angola. The escalation of SWAPO guerrilla attacks into Namibia over the past months conclusively confirms UNITA's stand against apartheid South Africa. South Africa recognizes all too well that the only way to effectively dislodge SWAPO is to first DESTROY UNITA. Thus the racist regime hoped to discredit UNITA before her progressive supporters and thereby "kill a trio of birds with one stone".

President Jonas Savimbi has repeatedly called on all African nations who are earnestly concerned with removing the South African scourge from Angolan soil to act jointly in tackling this menace. The Annual Conference of UNITA (Silva Porto, December 31. 1975) reiterated the demand for the total withdrawal of all South African troops now occupying Angolan national territory.

V THE FAILURE OF THE OAU

The Organisation of African Unity meeting in Addis Ababa in January 1976 failed to reach any decisive formula to solve the Angolan crisis. This failure, which was skillfully promoted by both superpowers and their puppet forces fighting in Angola, enabled all restraints to be lifted from Soviet aggression against our people, for the failure to find an African solution to an African problem enabled, in their eyes, justification for a superpower solution, namely a Soviet one.

For UNITA, this means that we must double our vigilance and determination to free our people and we therefore must reiterate our appeal to all progressive forces the world over to assist us in every way possible. We can no longer expect from the Organisation of African Unity any decisive leadership in our struggle when they reconvene in the near future but again must expect the divisions perpetrated by the superpowers to rear their ugly heads once more.

There are four main basic causes for this failure which are:

1. The internal weakness of the Organisation which stems from the lack of an outstanding, strong unifying and coaching leadership.

2. The tendency for OAU member countries to yield to non- African pressures -- the Soviet Union pressured many, blackmailed some, and bribed a few Heads of State.

3. A unifying, Pan-African ideology has not been developed and put into practice; African countries are still overwhelmed by the economic strength of the East-West axis to which they tend to cater, thus reducing the Organisation to an aggregate of East- West client states, and finally,

4. Politicians are failing to distinguish cause from effect in the Angolan civil war; the war has become militarily very big and politically very complex; it is a war created by the massive military intervention of Russia and Cuba to which other powers decided to respond militarily; unfortunately, instead of condemning all foreign intervention the issue has become clouded by the presence of South African troops on Angolan soil. Most of the delegates at the OAU summit did not go to Addis Ababa to resolve the Angolan crisis but rather to discuss the South African issue -- not to resolve it but rather to engage in familiar rhetoric.

The lack of resolution by the OAU has strengthened the superpower hold in Africa and terefore UNITA's definition of TOTAL INDEPENDENCE becomes an even greater priority in the surge for African freedom.

VI DISTORTED PRESS COVERAGE ON ANGOLA

The role of the media as a powerful instrument in any situation, whether it be reactionary or progressive, must never be underestimated. The coverage of events in Angola, however, have proved conclusively to the people of Angola that the Western media is a force attempting to manipulate events rather than report them.

Rather than seek out facts, freely available and accessible to them, newsmen from all parts of the western hemisphere have chosen two paths: either to sit in the bars of Lusaka and Kinshasa and create the news among themselves, each reporter acting as the others' source of information (how often have you seen the words "from a reliable source"), or to base themselves permanently in Luanda (considered "safe" by all of them) allowing their stories to be fed to them by the MPLA-Soviet-Cuban propaganda machine and deliberately participating in feeding the world lies about the civil war.

On many occasions UNITA cadres have offered to take newsmen to the front line in Angola to determine for themselves whether UNITA is fighting with South African forces or net A large number have refused while those who accepted continued either to perpetuate the lie (still not based on evidence) or maintained silence on the basis that the sensationalism generated by the lies was "newsworthy" A tiny number of reporters (the number that can be counted on one hand) have, however, maintained their integrity in the search for truth but have been betrayed by editors who refused tc print their stories.

Many of UNITA's supporters have been perplexed and disheartened by the reports in the Western media and continuously ask why UNITA did not refute the allegations made against it. In fact UNITA has consistently denied these allegations of South African collusion with the movement ever since the lie was first reported, (in late October, early November 1975). However suffering from the fate of many liberation movements, our cadres' statements have largely gone unreported, misquoted and. many times, just downright distorted. Television interviews have been cut from one hour or 30 minutes, most of which the time was spent dealing with the South African issue, to 30 seconds when the only question that comes across is UNITA's reaction to USA or Russian involvement. Taped interviews for prominent papers such as The Times of London, The Manchester Guardian, the New York Times, etc, all of which were solicited by these papers, have appeared with gross distortions and statements made up by the reporter or editor but attributed to the UNITA interviewee. Pictures have appeared showing a white person in UNITA held territory with captions such as "South African forces aid UNITA" when in fact, the person concerned in the picture is a doctor working in Silvo Porto. Note the nature of the caption since often they are so vague a law suit cannot be brought against the paper, however, the implication is there.

The South African lie is not the only one perpetuated by the media. Such statements assigning UNITA as pro-Western or CIA- aided continue day by day the stream of abuse against the Movement. Constantly UNITA has attempted to retaliate by writing articles, letters, making telephone calls to elusive editors, but to this day the truth has yet to be printed since the aim is once again to confuse cause with effect. For example, if it is reported that UNITA forces are being thrashed by the advancing Cuban army many of UNITA's allies in Africa will begin to withdraw their support, not wishing to be associated with a losing side, which in turn will create a shortage of supplies to the front and weaken the military capacity of UNITA's armies. Instead of the story eminating from the reality, it instead created the reality, and caused it to take shape after a lapse of time. This, in effect, is what has been happening to UNITA.

The effect of the South African lie, the CIA lie, the pro-Western and anti-communist labels, the lie of military defeats nave lost UNITA many of its traditional friends and allies. However, there are lessons to be learnt which obviously have still not been digested by progressives in the world, despite the history of Vietnam, Cambodia, and the experiences of many movements throughout the world. These lessons, exposing the enemy in all its manifestations including so-called liberal to outright fascist, by their very nature conclude the necessity to establish an alternative media with its own independent investigative processes and sources of information.

UNITA's resolve has not weakened despite this barrage of abuse and history will exonerate the Movement for its continued integrity and its stated objectives and policies, and its vigilance in the face of its enemies.

VII THE HISTORY OF UNITA

Dr. Jonas Savimbi was often called by the Portuguese colonialists the most dangerous man in Angola. The movement UNITA which he founded, was formally constituted in the central Angolan village of Muangai in March of 1966. The armed struggle for the liberation of Angola had erupted in March 1961. It was preceded a month earlier by an unsuccessful attempt by MPLA supporters to storm a Luanda prison. (7) The political climate had by 1961 clearly attained a fervent tenor of anti-colonial insurrection. Frantz Fanon described the beginnings of this struggle thus:

"We may remember that on the 15th March 1961 a group of 2 or 3 thousand Angolan peasants threw themselves against the Portuguese positions. And... it must be added that thousands of Angolans were mown down by colonialist machine guns. It did not take long for the leaders of the Angolan uprising to realise that they must find some other methods if they really wanted to free their country. So during the last few months the Angolan leader Holden Roberto has reorganised the National Angolan Army, using the experience gained in various other wars of liberation and employing guerrilla techniques." (8)

However, by 1964 the Angolan liberation war had reached an impasse. A tendency commonly manifest in puppet governments began to show in this instance as well. It was an increasing dependency of the liberation movements on outside support. Such relatively high-level aid dissipated the initiatives for building strong internal support for their movements. It was in fact this profound issue of levels and timing of support which so starkly differentiated MPLA from her substantially more effective diplomatic allies FRELIMO and PAIGC, all of whom held together in the alliance called CONCP. The latter two movements had early established a solid leadership core and revolutionary infrastructure inside their respective countries. The aid they later received was consequently much more a complement to their own efforts at liberating their countries, not a substitute for it as occurred with MPLA.

Occasional forays across the Zambian or Zaire borders followed by a quick retreat to foreign base areas had also begun to seriously alienate the peasantry and create an obstacle to further development of the resistance movement. The peasant population resented the tactics whereby roving guerrilla bands would move in and out of combat zones while the peasantry fixed permanently on the terrain had to suffer unaided, vicious Portuguese reprisals.

When UNITA was formed in 1966 it proposed a new strategy to the evolution of the struggle. Rather than concentrate the resources of the movement on gaining international support (and manipulation), UNITA's headquarters and leadership would be permanently established inside the country. The bonds which must be developed between the leadership and the masses could only solidify when the leadership was in day-to-day contact with the people they claimed to serve. In order to overcome the hesitation, the fears of the peasantry, it was the leaders first who had to offer an example of total dedication to the cause they were espousing. The leaders then lived, ate, slept, worked and died alongside the people.

From this vantage point the guerrillas could assume the initiative in the fight against the Portuguese. By maintaining complete contact with the peasantry and studying at close quarters the factors specific to this population and this war, UNITA succeeded in implanting within Angola's core an infrastructure for revolutionary warfare. The peasants at the beginning armed only with bows and arrows were in a short time able to multiply their supplies with carefully planned attacks on Portuguese arsenals Through an intense campaign of mobilisation, a diffuse and sporadic resistance evolved into an efficient and tightly- structured liberation movement. The liberated areas, used as rear bases for launching attacks became complex structures for training guerrillas, providing rudimentary educational and medical facilities to the civilian population and experimental agricultural techniques to increase the productivity of the land.

The emphasis which the organisation gave to the peasantry was not to imply that the level of political consciousness among that group was inherently advanced. The program of the party was first presented to them. Party cadres would enter the villages, and live with the local population in order to grasp the real existing problems. At this stage, as they were becoming familiarized with the situation, they were in fact the students of the masses. Subsequently the party was able to produce a concrete program. And it was at this stage, once the analysis was made that the masses became the students of the Party cadres, manifesting the permanent relationship between the vanguard party and the people. The Angolan peasantry responded to concrete facts that affected their daily life under Portuguese colonialism such as forced labour in mines and coffee plantations, exceedingly high taxes and starvation wages, the non-existence of schools for their children. When they consciously and voluntarily accepted the means of fighting against these injustices, then they would form m their local viflage a political committee-which made their own decisions, produced their own food, and created their own militia along the lines of self-reliance. From this low-level of political mobilisation carried out over long periods among the peasantry the party moved to a higher level of political education. Step by step consciousness was enhanced. It was through this process that the rural population was integrated into the armed struggle. UNITA's military wing, "The Armed forces of Liberation" (FALA), was so organised around the slogan "revolution and reconstruction" that they served not only as a fighting instrument, but as an instrument for production and mobilisation as well. In the evenings the guerrilla officers would lay down their arms and offer instruction to the people.

Through this process, UNITA was consolidated in the rural areas and then expanded to urban areas as well, operating in clandestine cells. By the time of the coup d'etat in Portugal, UNITA clearly controlled the Angolan countryside, not through force of arms, but through its acts of leadership and devotion to Angola's liberation. Because of UNITA's methods of struggle, she was able to galvanize massive popular support, particularly in the rural areas. And as Angola is a rural country with a 90 percent majority, its popularity was translated into overwhelming polling power.

VIII WHAT UNITA STANDS FOR

UNITA's structure and ideological position are subject to constant critical analysis from the highest echelons of leadership to the peasant in the village. It is this factor of permanent criticism at times called permanent revolution that has enabled the Party to reflect the interests of the masses of the people dictated by the people themselves.

The Constitution of UNITA specifically and clearly states the structure and ideological base of the Party and therefore we feel it better to reproduce in total the document, rather than elaborate on a flowery basis.

IX WHO WILL DECIDE ANGOLA'S FUTURE

The international interests vying for the privilege of determining what political course Angola will take are now actively manifest. And so the Angolan people,combative victims of nearly 500 years of Portuguese colonialism, find themselves today tragic prey to a massive Soviet military manoeuvre in Angola.

It is imperative that Africa now clearly recognizes the compelling need in Angola for a government of national unity. For any less would assure the further victimization of Angola's people to ugly fratricidal struggle and even more intense superpower manipulation.

Through militant participation in the armed struggle against colonialism, the Angolan people have demonstrated to the world their political maturity to decide and join fully in the total reconstruction of their country. The real question today shorn of all propagandistic underhangings, is whether these war-weary people will be allowed to decide through democratic elections and despite superpower meddling, their own future. No less than the long-range security of Africa itself will pivot on that answer.

X FOOTNOTES

(1) Angola is one of the largest and wealthiest areas on the African continent, richly endowed with vast deposits of oil, diamonds, gold, and a score of other natural resources.

(2) These Katangese were the Congolese secessionists of the early 1960's who were well remembered throughout Africa for their role in killing Patrice Lumumba.

(3) MPLA was equipped with tons of Russian AK-47 automatic rifles, Kalashnikov sniper rifles, Tokarev pistols, SAM-7 heat- seeking missiles, wire-guided missiles, 122 mm rockets and rocket launchers, amphibious tanks, T-54 tanks, GTR armoured personnel carriers, PPSH submachine guns, SKS semi-automatic rifles, AKM assault rifles, six-wheeled trucks, etc.

(4) One Cuban soldier captured when he was cornered by a village woman in UNITA territory and pelted with stones, evinced confusion and dismay that fie had been briefed before leaving Cuba that he was going over to fight a war of independence. But when he arrived he realized that he was involved in a civil war and the Cubans were the only foreign troops he saw. Another Cuban was bitter about MPLA troops who deserted their Cuban allies at Sa da Bandeira when it was recaptured by UNITA on October 25.

(5) South West African Peoples Organisation

(6) MPLA had throughout the course of the anti-colonial struggle accused SWAPO of bartering supplies to UNITA for their assistance. MPLA demanded in vain that SWAPO help them in liquidating UNITA from Southern Angola. With SWAPO's refusal MPLA then sought to have the Namibian movement derecognized by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Liberation Committee

(7) MPLA which was formed in 1956 had evolved from the Angolan branch of the Portuguese Communist Party. It was Alvaro Cunhal who in fact in 1964 organized direct contacts for Agostinho Neto with the Kremlin. It was much later, an evolution of this already established political relationship which promised Neto massive Soviet support in provoking civil war.

(8) Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, MacGibbon and Keel, 1965, p. 107.

[Photo: Jonas Savimbi, leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), receives a warm welcome after the liberation of the port of Lobito.]

XI UNITA'S CONSTITUTION

Art. 1: Definition:

UNITA, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, is a revolutionary party of all the Angolans struggling for the liberation and national reconstruction of the country.

Art. 2: Structure:

UNITA is organised administratively and militarily as follows:

1) the Nation, the Province, the District, the Council and the Village.

a) on the national level there is the Congress held every four years; the Annual Conference; the Political Bureau; and the Central Committee.

The Supreme Organ of UNITA is the Congress formed by all the delegates of the basic organisations, the Political Bureau and the Central Committee.

The Congress evaluates and reviews the development of the struggle every four years and establishes in general lines the policy of the party. The Congress reviews the Constitution, the programme of the party and elects all the members of the Political Bureau and Central Committee.

The Annual Conference is the organ formed by the delegates from the Political Bureau, Central Committee, Armed Forces and the People's Assembly. The Annual Conference formulates the policy of the party and establishes the Internal Regulations of the Party.

The Political Bureau is the Executive organ which implements the policy approved by the Congress and by the Annual Conference. The Political Bureau is composed of 10 members elected by the Congress who are proposed by the President after he himself is elected by the delegates of the Congress.

The Central Committee is the organ which safeguards the implementation of the policy decided by the Annual Conference and whenever asked the Central Committee can assist the Political Bureau and Central Committee in consultation with the General Secretary of the Party.

UNITA adopts three principles as methods of work:

1) Collective leadership.

2) Democratic Centralism.

3) Criticism and Self-criticism.

(a) in each province and district function a provincial and district Committee elected by the inhabitants.

(b) on the Council level functions a People's Assembly also elected by its own inhabitants.

(c) the Village is the basic unit of our organisation. On its level function a local committee equally elected by its own inhabitants.

(d) the Cells are composed of 3 to 9 people. They function in all administrative levels of the party. Their functioning is necessary where the work of the party is clandestine as the only vehicle to spread the party ideas.

2) The FALA's Structure is as follows:

A) on the National level:

a) the Military High Command which defines the strategy of the struggle for all the national forces.

b)the General Chief of Staff which defines the tactics of the struggle from the defined strategy of the Military High Command.

B) On the Regional level;

a) the Military Region.

b) the Regional Chief of Staff.

C) On the District Level:

a) the Military District

b) the District Command formed by guerrillas and sentries of the people.

D) On the Military Council there is a command of the Council formed by the guerrillas and sentries of the people.

E) On the level of the village there is a local force formed by the sentries of the people.

Art. 3: The Immediate Aims of UNITA:

To continue the mobilisation of all Angolans especially the peasants, workers, revolutionary intellectuals in order to establish a firm base for the struggle for national liberation.

1. To struggle vigorously against tribalism which can be a 'latent enemy of our national unity.

2. To struggle against illiteracy and to increase the political consciousness of the Angolan people.

3. To unite all the Angolan forces susceptible of being united in order to tirelessly struggle against colonial domination.

4. To educate constantly the Angolan people in the light of the protracted and cruel struggle in order to achieve a true national independence.

5. To intensify the process of reconstruction of the liberated areas in order to conquer immediately the moral and material well-being of the inhabitants until national reconstruction.

6. To teach the militants of UNITA about the necessity of class struggle with the process of the National Democratic revolution, in order to

a) maintain the leadership of the struggle in the hands of the most ideological advanced elements of our society.

b) to guarantee the continuity and sequence of the National Democratic revolution with a socialist revolution in order to safeguard the interests of the most oppressed class in our country, because only a socialist revolution guarantees the just distribution of the means of production.

7. To denounce all the defeatist tendencies which often count on the goodwill of the enemy for the solution of the problem of national independence.

Art. 4: United Democratic Front in Angola

Unity of all the fighting forces in Angola for national independence is a necessity for victory. In Angola, experience has proved that without unity of all the patriotic forces, victory over our enemy becomes more difficult because efforts will be spent on false objectives.

1) UNITA is ready to participate in a large democratic front with other Angolan political movements struggling with arms.

2) A united front in order to be democratic must engage all the Angolan patriots, all political and nationalist groups, trade union organisations and student organisations which are opposed to Portuguese colonialism. But a true unity which can resist imperialist intrigues must be based on clear ideological principles reinforced in practice by the process of class struggle.

3) UNITA is ready to join a still much larger front among all the revolutionary forces in Southern Africa against the racist minority regimes which are enslaving our respective peoples. The genuine revolutionary forces which are struggling in the Continent of Africa must establish a common strategy in the struggle against our enemy. We must oppose the reactionary unity of the enemy with a revolutionary unity in order to reach our objectives.

4) UNITA is equally ready to take part in a much larger front of all the progressive forces of the world in the common struggle against colonialism and imperialism in order to safeguard the interests of peace, liberty, democracy and socialism.

5) To maintain and reinforce more and more the independent nature of our struggle in relation to outside assistance.

Art. 5: Membership

Every Angolan who accepts and struggles for the implementation of the major programme of UNITA can become a member of the party

The admission of new members is made by recommendation of two party members and approved by one of the organs of the party on a lower level, such as the Local Committee.

Art 6: On National Policy

On the National level UNITA struggles for:

1) to establish in Angola a government of the African majority without outside interference.

2) to free and develop all the productive forces of the country.

3) to free all the political prisoners detained by colonial regime.

4) to reconquer our total national independence.

5) to organise general elections for the formation of a national Assembly according to the principles of universal franchise of secret and direct vote. All sexes over 18 years will have the right to a vote.

6) the National Assembly will be the supreme body in Angola. All the deputies of the National Assembly will enjoy parliamentary immunity. The National Assembly will write the Constitution which will guarantee the fundamental rights of all the citizens. The Constitution will have to be approved by the people through a Referendum before it is enforced.

7) to guarantee the territorial integrity of Angola.

8) to promote a free national education from primary schools up to university.

9) to promote an authentic Angolan and African culture, and to fight against obscurantism.

10) to guarantee the emancipation of Angolan women.

11) to protect the family and the children.

12) to promote an agrarian reform on the national territory with the principle that the land belongs to those who till it. Land must be considered as a communal property and never a private property.

13) to guarantee the equality of all Angolans before the law without discrimination.

14) to promote a planned economy in order to develop fully all the resources, human and material potentialities which guarantee the construction of socialism in Angola.

15) Mint a national currency.

16) to abolish all the privileges rendered by the colonial regime.

17) to abolish every form of forced labour and the exploitation of human labour in every part of our national territory.

18) to create a national army for the defence of the motherland. The national army will be formed by the veterans of the liberation war who have along the years of struggle learned how to serve the people above their own lives.

19) to assure the participation of the people in the leadership of all the internal and external affairs of the country in order to maintain the best revolutionary tradition of a people's democracy.

Art. 7: On Foreign Policy

1) to eliminate all foreign military bases on the national territory.

2) no participation in any military alliance pact.

3) to practice a progressive policy which guarantees our independence and national sovereignty.

4) to nullify all the unjust and unequal treaties created by the Portuguese colonial regime on behalf of Angola.

5) to support without reservations all the movements which are genuinely fighting for the liberation of Africa.

6) to support completely and entirely the struggle of all the brothers of African descent at home and abroad.

7) to subscribe to the principles of the United Nations Charter on the basis of "no interference in the internal affairs of the member countries, big or small".

Art 8: Finance

The funds of the party will come from the subscriptions of the party members and other donations.

[Back to Top]

correction NOTE: UNITA's Official Position on the War in Angola

Volume 6, Number 2 (dated February 1,1976) of The Workers' Advocate carried an item entitled: UNITA'S OFFICIAL POSITION ON THE CURRENT WAR IN ANGOLA. At that time only a partial text was available. The two additions belong in the middle and end portion of the statement. Portions missed were indicated in the original by asterisks.

FIRST ADDITION Continuing on from: As an example of this kind of popularity UNITA....enjoyed even in MPLA's birthplace and known stronghold - Luanda - was President Savimbi's joyous reception there by 400,000 cheering Angolans enthusiastically waving UNITA flags and banners. Comparable crowds greeting Savimbi and other UNITA leaders were occurring in other villages, towns and cities all over Angola during this same period.

It thus became crystal clear to MPLA and ominously clear to the Soviet Union, which has imperialistic and neo-colonialistic designs on Angola, that in any free and open elections held in Angola UNITA would win, hands down.

Only through military force could MPLA dominate the Angolan people all over the country, who did not politically support MPLA. Soviet weapons were then supplied to the extent necessary to make this domination possible.

Once this fact was unmistakably demonstrated through UNITA's mass rallies and other forms of popular support, MPLA began to attack UNITA offices all over the country, killing not only UNITA militants, but also more than 600 civilians in the process. On June 4, even as the Nakuru unity meeting was getting underway, UNITA's office in Luanda was virtually destroyed by an MPLA armed attack in which men, women and children were murdered; on June 10 a similar attack occurred in Gabela in the province of Cuanzo-Norte; on June 30 in Cassamba; on July 15, in Henrique de Carvalho; July 22, Kalabo; and July 30, Lukusse. After each such attack on UNITA offices until the last one, the MPLA leadership would apologise for the "mistakes of a few undisciplined MPLA troops" and make a treacherous pretense of continuing lack of hostile intent toward UNITA.

SECOND ADDITION Beginning from: By and large, they have not been to Huambo, Silva Porto, Luso or Sa da Bandeira to talk with UNITA leaders and militants, UNITA...

supporters or any other Angolans for that matter. Instead when they leave the beaches and hotels of Luanda, they do not come to Huambo where UNITA is headquartered, but to other places in Africa for second, third and fourth hand accounts and "reports" of what is happening in southern Angola. Therefore, it comes as no surprise to UNITA that the European press, including American correspondents, is quick to spread the Soviet-MPLA lie that UNITA is "an ally of South Africa".

THE DANGERS OF FURTHER SOVIET/CUBA IMPERIALIST INVOLVEMENT IN ANGOLA AND HOW TO STOP IT.

If the Soviet bloc continues its interventionist, imperialist path in Angola, it is easily predictable that the Western bloc will deepen its involvement here on a tit-for-tat basis. They will not have to be invited, they will come not in the interest of one liberation movement or another, or in the interest of the Angolan people, but out of pure international world order and politics.

If, like UNITA, peace loving peoples and governments of the world want South Africa out of Angola and do not want the rest of the western powers to intervene, then they must succeed in forcing the Soviets out also. Then, and only then, will it be possible for the Angolan parties and people to settle their differences internally. This is the goal that UNITA has always pursued, continues to believe in and is determined to fight for.

You see UNITA takes lightly neither its revolutionary history or self-reliance and independence, nor its name. We are rightfully called the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.

LONG LIVE THE ANGOLAN REVOLUTION!

LONG LIVE THE ANGOLAN PEOPLE!

LONG LIVE A FREE ANGOLA!

For more information please contact:

T. C. Fernandes UNITA Inform-office,

35/37, Grosvenor Square,

London, W. 1. -end-

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