First Published: in Struggle! No. 120, August 16, 1978
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Malcolm and Paul Saba
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Last July 7, China informed socialist Albania of its decision to terminate all of the economic and military aid that it had been giving up to that point and to recall all of its experts and technicians. This unilateral decision put an end to over 25 years of close collaboration in which the two peoples and their parties gave one another mutual assistance in their common struggle for socialism and against all enemies of the revolution.
The significance of this action should be evident to everyone, especially given the fact that it took place at the same time as a series of other actions which are no less significant: China’s reconciliation with Yugoslavia and its revisionist party; the aid given by them to Mobutu ’s reactionary regime in Zaire which is tied in closely with western imperialism; its support for the treasonous policy of Egypt’s president Sadat to seek rapprochement with israel; its interference in the affairs of the indochinese countries; its policy of allying with U.S. and European imperialism under the cover of building a “united front” against Russian hegemonism...
No matter how much the Chinese government managed to pack its July 7 statement with allegations of acts of sabotage on the part of Albania, no matter how often they sing their own praises for the ever so generous aid they have given to the Albanians, no matter how much they pretend that the Chinese people are no longer willing to make the immense sacrifices that this aid has required – the rationale they put forward to justify their behaviour is on the some level as their betrayal of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.
The truth of the matter is not, as the Chinese statement implies, that for 25 years China’s aiding of Albania was a one-way street. The facts are there to prove that for 25 years the two people cooperated closely on a principled basis in all fields to serve the cause of the revolution in their respective countries and around the world. That kind of co-operation could only be based on an unshakeable adherence to and resolute defence of Marxism-Leninism.
And that’s precisely where the problem lies. In the last few years, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has adopted dearly opportunist positions expressed in a concentrated fashion, in reference to international questions, by the famous “three worlds theory” while the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA) has conducted a vigorous struggle to make the Marxist-Leninist point of view, the perspective of proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, prevail. And now we’ve reached the point where the Chinese leaders can’t find any better way of defending their line than to take up the “Khrushchevite dialectic”: the PLA has criticized the line put forward by the CPC, therefore the PLA is engaging in “anti-Chinese activities’!
Faced with this unseemly spectacle, there are nevertheless many Lawrence Welks springing up all over the world to sing along with the Chinese leaders. One of these is the Canadian Communist League (M-L) who denounced the PLA for spreading “unfounded accusations and venomous slander about China and the CPC” in the July 28 issue of The Forge. These attacks are playing into the hands of Soviet hegemonism, adds The Forge. If you follow the logic of those who sing along with revisionism, the PLA ought to be satisfied with putting forward its disagreements with the CPC in private. In other words, the PLA should knuckle under gracefuly, keep their mouth shut, and become accomplices in spreading the opportunist “theory” of “three worlds” and other distortions of Marxism-Leninism. Why if they would only do that then “the sacrifices of the Chinese people” could again be made to give aid to Albania instead of being channelled into supporting the reactionary Mobutu regime which the western imperialist powers have to prop up since he is so well loved and widely supported by his own people.
But the PLA has not given in to this disgusting blackmail. The Albanian people have demonstrated their commitment to their independence over a long period, an independence which is rooted in its own efforts and not an “independence” bought at the price of the crudest compromises with the imperialist powers,whether they are on the ascendancy or in decline.
The PLA and the Albanian people have encountered many road blocks in the course of the revolution. The revisionists have tried many times to poke their noses into their struggle trying. to sabotage it in line with their hegemonic alms. From the forties on, Tito and the League of Yugoslav Communists (LYC) have been trying to sink their hooks into Albanian by creating a federation of Balkan countries which they would lead; later Khrushchev and the Russian revisionists tried to turn Albania into a satellite of the USSR. Today the Chinese leaders have chosen the some path and are using the same methods. Yet again the PLA and the Albanian people are standing firm, faithful to Marxism-Leninism and uncompromising in their defence of their complete independence.
This revolutionary attitude has won our admiration and our most profound respect. It calls for an indestructible support on our part. Because what is at stake here is not just supporting the building of socialism in Albania. It is a question of defending the Marxist-Leninist line which is the only line which leads to the victory of the revolution.
A line is judged by its results. A line like the ’theory of three worlds” which leads to reconciliation and collaboration with revisionists like Tito and with the imperialists and their front men like Carter, Sadat, Mobutu and the Shah of Iran; a line which leads to interfering in the affairs of other countries such as in Indochina; a line which `“obliges” (the word is the Chinese government’s) a country to sabotage the aid going to a socialist country while at the some time giving aid to henchmen of imperialism and reaction – a line like that has nothing in common with Marxism-Leninism. It is a line of class collaboration, a revisionist line, a line which serves the interests of the bourgeoisie.
Marxism develops in the struggle against what is anti-Marxist. Socialism is built in the struggle against the bourgeoisie and against their revisionist servants. The entire history of revolutionary Albania and of its party is living proof of that.
Guided by their vanguard party and faithful to Marxism-Leninism, the Albanian people will win yet one more time.