The proletariat is the greatest class in the history of mankind. It is the most powerful revolutionary class ideologically, politically and in strength. It can and must unite the overwhelming majority of people around itself so as to isolate the handful of enemies to the maximum and attack them.
Vol. 4 No. 4 MAY 1 1973
Newspaper of the American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist-Leninist) PO 5221, Cleveland, Ohio
CLASS STRUGGLE AT THE PLACE OF WORK!
A SHORT TALK ON THE HISTORY OF THE ACWM (M-L) AND ITS METHOD OF WORK AND ORGANIZATION
HAIL THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (M-L)!
Communique Of The CENTRAL COMMITTEE Communist Party Of India (MARXIST-LENINIST)
PROGRAMME OF THE Communist Party Of India (MARXIST-LENINIST)
"Renmin Ribao" Editorial
MAY DAY is INTERNATIONAL WORKING CLASS DAY. It is on this day that millions and millions of proletarians the world over celebrate the history and cause of the working class. These celebrations represent our deepest aspirations to overthrow capitalism and the system of exploitation of man by man once and for all. On this MAY DAY when the forces of the American working class have begun organizing anew, we can set ourselves only one task -- to BUILD THE COMMUNIST PARTY ON THE BASIS OF MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT.
Many comrades and friends ask: "How should we go about building the Party?" We say: Let us build the Party by CONCENTRATING ON BUILDING THE ORGANS OF WORKING CLASS PROPAGANDA. The revisionists and their allies are most vehemently opposed to us for building genuine revolutionary instruments of the working class. The revisionists and their allies oppose building the Party and say we should BUILD A REFORM MOVEMENT NOW AND POSSIBLY GET AROUND TO THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY LATER. They are intent on promoting REFORMIST IDEOLOGY amongst the workers and intent on promoting bourgeois aspirations. According to the revisionists, workers only want "a comfortable life" and "a bigger piece of the pie" and not PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION. It is because of the dirty work that the revisionists have been and are still doing that the question of BUILDING THE INSTRUMENTS OF WORKING CLASS PROPAGANDA IS ESPECIALLY DECISIVE. In other words the question of REVOLUTIONARY THEORY and PROLETARIAN IDEOLOGY (the question of MARXISM-LENINISM MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT) is DECISIVE especially because the revisionists have spent years building SOCIAL-FASCIST (socialist in words, fascist in deeds) INSTRUMENTS OF PROPAGANDA in order to chain our minds, hearts and hands with the slavish and reformist ideas of the capitalist class. They do constant propaganda against PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION, against PROLETARIAN ASPIRATION, against CLASS STRUGGLE and the DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT, against the PROLETARIAN PARTY, against MARXISM- LENINISM MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and the WORKING CLASS, and they do constant propaganda for the capitalist class and the capitalist system. BUILDING THE INSTRUMENTS OF WORKING CLASS PROPAGANDA means AT ONCE TO INSPIRE THE WHOLE PEOPLE WITH THE BURNING DESIRE TO SERVE THE WORKING CLASS AND OVERTHROW THE MONOPOLY CAPITALISTS; it means to widely propagate both MARXISM-LENINISM MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and the lessons of the class struggle in the U.S. MARXISM-LENINISM MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT IS THE BRIGHT RED SUN OF THE WORKING CLASS. It is MARXISM-LENINISM MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT which crystalizes the entire experience of class struggle of the modern proletariat and fills us with tremendous enthusiasm and spirit to smash up the old world of capitalism and build the new world of socialism and which gives a scientific guide for doing this. ONLY WHEN MARXISM-LENINISM MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT IS GRASPED BY MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF AMERICAN WORKERS WILL WE BE VICTORIOUS IN OVERTHROWING THE EVIL SYSTEM OF CAPITALISM. The lessons of class struggle in the U.S. are the lessons of how the revisionists have betrayed the working class and liquidated our Party, the lessons of how the AMERICAN COMMUNIST WORKERS MOVEMENT (MARX1ST-LENIN1ST) and other genuine Marxist-Leninists are struggling against the revisionists and to rebuild the Party, the lessons of how the working class struggles on a day-to-day and second-to-second basis against the capitalist system and the capitalist dictatorship and how the labor aristocrats and others betray these struggles, the lessons of how U.S. imperialism rose to become number one enemy of the people of the whole world and how it is being eaten up by the flames of people's war, how we must support the national liberation struggles and organize the overthrow of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class right here in our country, the lessons of how the capitalists are instituting fascist rule against our class and our people in hopes of using us to help them conquer the world and the lessons of how nothing can move forward in our society without the working class establishing and building its own MARX1ST-LENIN1ST POLITICAL PARTY TO LEAD THE ANTI-FASCIST PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION.
BUILDING THE INSTRUMENTS OF WORKING-CLASS PROPAGANDA, means to BRING MARXISM-LENINISM MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT AND THE LESSONS OF CLASS STRUGGLE TO ALL OUR CLASS BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY OF THE COUNTRY, and through the MASS LINE to broaden and deepen our analysis and increase our grasp of MARXISM-LENINISM MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT.
There are so-called Marxist-Leninists both inside and outside our organization who say that -organizing the workers is most important" without saying organizing the workers around what political line or what set of ideas. We say organizing anything under bourgeois leadership and bourgeois ideas is counter-revolutionary and that the only correct basis of organizing anything is under the revolutionary authority of MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and the MARXIST-LENINIST POLITICAL LINE. We must not only oppose the line of those who want to "organize workers" but also the line of those who want to "organize workers to study Marxism-Leninism' but oppose organizing REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS. We say to learn Marxism-Leninism workers must actively participate in REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS. We see the necessity to ORGANIZE GENERALIZED REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLES in all spheres and in every cell of society to FIGHT AGAINST THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE MONOPOLY CAPITALISTS and to REPRESENT THE PROLETARIAN ASPIRATIONS AND THE PROLETARIAN PROGRAM. Only in this way can we steel our cadres, build our communist units and establish genuine PROPAGANDA CENTERS OF THE WORKING CLASS.
To sum up: BUILD THE INSTRUMENTS OF WORKING CLASS PROPAGANDA BY ORGANIZING REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS IN ALL SECTIONS AND CELLS OF SOCIETY TO FIGHT FOR PROLETARIAN ASPIRATIONS AND PROGRAM AND AGAINST THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE BOURGEOISIE. ORGANIZE WORKERS AS THE MAIN FORCE IN REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS. DISSEMINATE MARXISM-LENINISM MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT AND THE LESSONS OF CLASS STRUGGLE IN THE U.S. CONTINUOUSLY BROADEN AND DEEPEN OUR ANALYSIS BY GOING INTO EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY OF OUR COUNTRY AND BY APPLYING THE MASS LINE.
LONG LIVE PROLETARIAN IDEOLOGY, MARXISM-LENINISM MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT!
LONG LIVE PROLETARIAN ASPIRATION, TO SERVE THE PEOPLE AND OVERTHROW THE ENEMY! LONG LIVE MAY DAY, BRIGHT RED DAY OF THE WORKING CLASS!
BUILD THE INSTRUMENTS OF WORKING CLASS PROPAGANDA TO BUILD THE COMMUNIST PARTY!
Workers at the place of work, in Buffalo, N.Y., are grasping MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and the politics of seizure of political power! They are waging MASS DEMOCRATIC, ANTI-FASCIST STRUGGLE against fascist rules and regulations, against suppression of their SACRED RIGHT TO ORGANIZE AGAINST MONOPOLY CAPITALISM AND FOR PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION, and against fascist committees designed to carry out this suppression. The workers have gloriously INITIATED REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION AT THE PLACE OF WORK. This spark of CLASS STRUGGLE AT THE PLACE OF WORK IS BOUND TO SPREAD.
Bernel Foam Co. in Buffalo employs about 300 workers. Over one half of the workers are women and one fifth are Afro-American. Bernel is quite well known throughout Buffalo as a sweat shop. Historically, the owners of Bernel have tried to maintain an atmosphere of terror and intimidation at Bernel in order to prevent the development of political activity and genuine proletarian organization amongst the workers. While imposing fascist rules and regulations on the workers, making constant threats against the workers and firing class conscious, active workers, the monopoly capitalist owners of Bernel have also relied on class colloborationist trade unionists, revisionists and trotskyites to lull the workers revolutionary class consciousness and fighting spirit (the union itself at Bernel is actually a company union which was organized by the management several years ago so as to prevent any real defense organization from developing amongst the Bernel workers).
With the formation of the BUFFALO WORKERS REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE of the AMERICAN COMMUNIST WORKERS MOVEMENT (MARXIST-LENIN1ST) in November, 1972 the situation at Bernel began to change. Because the BUFFALO WORKERS REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE of the ACWM(ML) was a genuine organization of the working class, it carried out widescale propaganda amongst the entire working class of Buffalo for MARXISM- LENINISM MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION and developed various forms and methods in which workers could participate in the political affairs of the country on the basis of their genuine proletarian interests. This work released the initiative of several Bernel workers who came forward to participate in the program and affairs of the BUFFALO WORKERS REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE. These workers also took an active role in the dissemination of proletarian ideology at their place of work. Widescale discussion was initiated at Bernel on the general line that 1) THE WORKING CLASS MUST BECOME THE RULING CLASS and 2) WORKERS MUST PARTICIPATE IN BUILDING THE COMMUNIST PARTY WHICH CAN LEAD ANTI-FASCIST PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION. Widescale distribution of revolutionary newspapers, the BUFFALO RED STAR and WORKERS ADVOCATE, took place as well as constant discussion on how the monopoly capitalist class exercises its dictatorship on the day-to-day basis over the workers at Bernel. This protracted ideological work of UNITING THE PEOPLE TO STRUGGLE AGAINST THE ENEMY brought about an atmosphere of vigorous daily discussion amonst the workers on MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and on how to organize revolution and a tremendous spirit of optimism and rebellion prevailed. This greatly enhanced the fighting spirit of the workers and constant small-scale struggles developed rules and regulations imposed on the workers by the monopoly capitalist owners of Bernel.
As revolutionary discussion surged forward amongst the workers, the monopoly capitalists at Bernel actively began to encourage and distribute every variety of reactionary, anti-communist propaganda, including fascist shop newsletters. In particular, the revolutionary workers waged sharp ideological struggle against the line of class collaboration and the bankrupt revisionist line that "workers greed in working overtime is the cause of unemployment." With the defeat of these and other counter-revolutionary currents on the ideological front, the monopoly capitalists became completely frenzied and stepped up their fascist harassment, use of fascist rules and regulations, etc. The supervisors and foremen formed a secret fascist committee which began to systematically search the workers and their belongings in the hopes of checking the spread of revolutionary literature. the fascist committee also carried out a constant campaign of surveillance and harassment of workers during breaks and on the assembly line, shifting of workers from one department to another, etc. Finally they resorted to an arbitrary suspension of a communist worker who is an active supporter of the BUFFALO WORKERS REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE.
Because the protracted ideological work carried out by the communist workers had helped till the soil for revolution, these fascist attacks on the workers sacred right to DISSEMINATE AND APPLY MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and HOLD REVOLUTIONARY DISCUSSION AT THE PLACE OF WORK only served to unite the workers more firmly and inspire them to stand up to the fascist rules and regulations and political suppression campaign launched by the management. MASS DEMOCRACY BROKE OUT IN A UNION MEETING when revolutionary workers called upon the meeting to hold democratic discussion in order to sort out what was to be done about the company's campaign of political suppression. When the trade union flunkeys used bureaucratic rules and regulations to suppress the workers from carrying out democratic discussion on this problem and when one openly sided with the management, the workers fought to carry this discussion through to the end. They declared WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP THE RIGHT TO ENGAGE IN POLITICAL ACTIVITIES. The workers took the line then and there that the union meeting belonged to the workers themselves and not some flunkeys for the management and that the workers have every right to take action against fascist suppression of the distribution of revolutionary literature and that trade union lackeys have no right to suppress the workers from taking this stand and no right to use bureaucratic rules and regulations to do so.
This MASS DEMOCRACY right inside the union meeting sent the monopoly capitalists into a complete panic and they began to further harass the progressive workers and fascistically fired the most active communist worker who had dared to organize in the interests of the working class and oppose the interests of fascism. This new attack only helped the workers to grasp firmly that WITHOUT REVOLUTIONARY ORGANIZATION THE WORKING CLASS HAS NOTHING. Relying solely on their hands and hearts and under the guidance of MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT the Bernel workers have organized themselves into the BERNEL WORKERS REVOLUTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP as the best means of carrying their struggle against fascism at the place of work and to organize for proletarian revolution through to the end. The formation of the Bernel Workers Revolutionary Discussion Group is a GREAT EVENT for Bernel workers. For the first time the workers have their own BRIGHT RED REVOLUTIONARY DISCUSSION GROUP, an embryo of political power of the proletariat at the place of work in which to develop and clarify political questions, participate in political affairs and organize themselves against capitalist exploitation and fascist suppression at the place of work.
The struggle of the Bernel workers has several important characteristics:
1. The workers fought in defense of the right to disseminate MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and it was MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and nothing else which inspired and led their entire struggle. After many years of suffering under the social-fascist (socialist in words, fascist in deeds) dictatorship of every stripe of revisionist, trotskyite and opportunist organization and ideology, the workers took up MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and it was this which filled them with boundless enthusiasm and spirit and provided them with a concrete guide to action. IT IS THE SEED OF MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT which has been planted amongst Bernel workers which sparked the struggle and which can never be extinguished.
2. The workers waged political struggle against fascism and fought for the political power of the working class. It was not reformist issues based on "a bigger piece of the pie" which led to the revolutionary upsurge at Bernel, but the grasping of the politics of antifascist revolution and seizure of state power and the struggle to build the revolutionary discussion group, embryonic organ of political power of the working class.
3. Protracted ideological work created the conditions for and was the key link in advancing the political struggle.
4. The defeat of fascist and social-fascist ideology necessarily led to the unleashing of fascist rules and regulations on a high level and to the fascist attacks.
5. It was the creation and development of the BUFFALO WORKERS REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE of the AMERICAN COMMUNIST WORKERS MOVEMENT (MARXIST-LENINIST), that is the development of a revolutionary political center of the working class and the wideecale dissemination of MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and the politics of the seizure of state power throughout the entire working class in Buffalo, which created the DECISIVE CONDITIONS for workers at the place of work to come forward and organize themselves as a detachment of the anti-fascist proletarian revolution.
(The following article is based on talks given at a series of cadre meetings of the ACWM(ML) during April.)
The AMERICAN COMMUNIST WORKERS MOVEMENT (MARX1ST-LENIN1ST) was founded in May 1969 at the REGINA CONFERENCE OF NORTH AMERICAN MARXIST-LENINISTS.
At that time we organized ourselves into a communist movement, with the principle POLITICAL TASK of carrying out the WIDESCALE DISSEMINATION AND LIVING STUDY AND APPLICATION OF MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT. The execution of this task was and still is the primary task facing American revolutionaries because the WIDESCALE DISSEMINATION AND LIVING STUDY AND APPLICATION OF MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT is the LEADING ASPECT OF BUILDING INSTRUMENTS OF WORKING CLASS PROPAGANDA, the necessary condition for establishing a genuine Marxist-Leninist Party of the proletariat.
First of all we must grasp firmly the fact that the WIDESCALE DISSEMINATION AND LIVING STUDY AND APPLICATION OF MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT is a POLITICAL TASK and that THIS TASK CAN ONLY BE EXECUTED BY BUILDING MASS DEMOCRATIC, ANTI-FASCIST STRUGGLES. The monopoly capitalist class does not want to see MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT disseminated on a wide scale, just as their "new left", revisionist, trotskyite and opportunist agents of all stripes do not want to see MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT disseminated on a large scale and genuine revolutionary organs of working class propaganda built. Hence the monopoly capitalists use their entire political, military, cultural, social and other apparatus to prevent the WIDESCALE DISSEMINATION AND LIVING STUDY AND APPLICATION OF MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT. Thus in order to accomplish this task we have initiated and carried through many MASS DEMOCRATIC, ANTI-FASCIST STRUGGLES in the universities, communities and places of work and participated in the RESISTANCE MOVEMENT TO DEFEND OUR RIGHT TO DISSEMINATE MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT. In order to build revolutionary propaganda organs of the working class it is absolutely necessary that the working class and revolutionary masses see for themselves the necessity of having such organs and that they come forward to build up, sympathize and support and further develop these organs. This is why building these organs is a STRUGGLE FOR POLITICAL POWER and this is why we have waged and must continue to wage many many struggles amongst the masses in order to isolate the concrete forms of fascism and social-fascism and release the masses' initiative to deal with the problem of building their own revolutionary organs.
Thus the WIDESCALE DISSEMINATION OF MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT AND BUILDING OF INSTRUMENTS OF WORKING CLASS PROPAGANDA has necessarily meant and means initiating MASS DEMOCRATIC, ANTI-FASCIST STRUGGLES and these struggles in turn have created large scale EXTERNAL CONSOLIDATION OF THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT. LEARN FROM PEOPLE CAMPAIGNS have been carried out in many areas across the country and many, many struggles waged. Many workers, national minorities and students have come forward to participate in the revolutionary work and various anti-working class, anti-Marxist- Leninist, anti-Party trends were isolated to a certain extent and the masses themselves have taken up BUILDING REVOLUTIONARY INSTITUTIONS OF THE WORKING CLASS.
In the course of our revolutionary work serious struggle developed on the question of WHAT KIND OF INTERNAL ORGANIZATION MUST WE BUILD IN ORDER TO CARRY OUT THE WIDESCALE DISSEMINATION OF MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT, that is, what kind of organization is required for LEADING THE REVOLUTION FORWARD. This struggle reached acute proportions in March, 1971. On one side stood various bureaucrats and anarchists, each claiming to vehemently oppose each other while both stood firmly united against the genuine DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISTS. In essence our struggle to build the internal organization has been a struggle to: 1) build basic units as stable, conscious and self- moving communist groups with a definite material base amongst the masses; 2) build COMMUNIST COMMITTEES at various levels and national leadership, that is, build a collective internal life throughout the organization as a whole and at every single level; 3) base our discipline on the execution of the principle political task and not on anything else (this meant developing the internal life on the basis of a materialist agenda which dealt with the concrete problems facing the organization and the masses in light of Marxism-Leninism Mao Tsetung Thought). 4) take change, development and motion of the organization as absolute and stagnation as relative, that is, discard all forms which become outdated and retain the core and essence of organization as CLASS STRUGGLE TO BUILD THE PARTY AND SERVE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION; 5) SUM UP EXPERIENCE and continuously advance from a low level to higher levels, discard the dross and concentrate and crystallize the advanced experience and persist in coming under the discipline of the advanced experience. In opposition to the concrete method we are developing of BUILDING COMMUNIST COMMITTEES stands the method of building BOURGEOIS CO-ORDINATION COMMITTEES. The two antagonistic class stands and outlooks are seen in most concentrated form in the attitude the two committees have towards the MARX1ST- LENINIST POLITICAL LINE OF THE ACWM(ML) and TOWARDS PROBLEMS THAT ARISE IN EXECUTING AND FURTHER CLARIFYING THE MARX1ST- LENINIST POLITICAL LINE. The co-ordination committee is headed by a bourgeois bureaucrat who is intent on keeping the Marxist-Leninist political line from the members and supporters and broad masses. He builds the organization on the basis of liberalism and class peace. The bourgeois bureaucrat parasitizes off the higher bodies and revolutionary methods developed by the organization and refuses to make concrete analysis of concrete conditions in light of the over-all line and policy and advance the work, but instead constantly "freezes" the organization at each level. When problems arise the bourgeois bureaucrat is intent on first suppressing them and hiding them from the members and broad masses and later using them to attack the organization and the Marxist-Leninist political line. The bourgeois bureaucrats are extreme bourgeois individualists and liberals. That is, they are militant about their own narrow interests and extremely liberal towards the organization and the Marxist-Leninist political line, they are intent on building the organization around anything but the execution of the primary task facing the Marxist-Leninists and revolutionary masses. The COMMUNIST COMMITTEE is lead by a COMMUNIST CADRE who is most eager to ARM THE MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS AND BROAD MASSES WITH THE MARXIST-LENINIST POLITICAL LINE AND WITH MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT. The communist cadre ceaselessly works to build the organization on the basis of CLASS STRUGGLE and on MARXISM-LENINISM MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT. He takes the directives of the higher bodies and experience of the organization as the starting point for making concrete analysis of concrete conditions. When problems arise the communist cadre considers this an excellent situation for further purifying and clarifying the organization's line and methods of work, he makes investigation and on the basis of scientific analysis lays problems before the cadres and broad masses in order to release their initiative to deal with the problems and strengthen the communist committee in the process. While the bourgeois coordination committee is only capable of giving rise to ACTION GROUPS or DIVERSIONARY DISCUSSIONS amongst the masses, the COMMUNIST COMMITTEE builds a basic MARXIST-LENINIST POLITICAL PROGRAM AMONGST THE MASSES.
To illustrate: In Mid 1971 an important meeting was held of all members and supporters of the organization for the purpose of launching a rectification movement. After listening to the correct political line that was given, the bureaucrats were only interested in executing "x number" of tasks and stopping all discussion on the political line. The anarchists, although claiming great opposition to the bureaucrats, were only interested in raising vicious criticism of the organization and various cadres, completely divorced from criticism centered on development and execution of the basic political line. The genuine revolutionaries organized themselves around the correct line and carried out protracted revolutionary work amongst the masses in order to gain experience and lead revolutionary summing up and class struggle inside which could advance the organization to a higher stage, while the bureaucrats and anarchists refused to implement the political line. They engaged in one chance activity after another one irrelevant discussion after another amongst the masses and refused to participate in internal summing up and moving forward. Naturally the same bourgeois individuals find it very difficult to come under the discipline of the advanced experience and they continually try to undermine the organization by whining "my problems aren't solved yet, therefore there is no leadership". Likewise they refuse to start from the problem of executing the Marxist-Leninist political line and building the organization but persist in preserving their "own line" and "solving their problems first" and thus seeking to make the entire organization and the revolution subordinate to themselves.
The entire process of struggle to build the ACWM(ML) on the correct DEMOCRATIC CENTRALIST basis, which first became acute in 1971 and has continued right up to today, has created and is creating tremendous material conditions for carrying through to the end the EXECUTION OF OUR PRIMARY POLITICAL TASK OF WIDESCALE DISSEMINATION AND LIVING STUDY AND APPLICATION OF MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT AND BUILDING THE INSTRUMENTS OF WORKING CLASS PROPAGANDA. We are defeating the bourgeois bureaucrats and anarchists exactly by building the COMMUNIST COMMITTEES in various places for the SOLE PURPOSE OF EXECUTING THE MARXIST- LENINIST LINE OF THE ORGANIZATION. It is the task of all members and supporter to learn the lessons of our methods of work and organization, learn the lessons of four years of execution of Marxist-Leninist political line and UPHOLD BUILDING THE COMMUNIST ORGANIZATION AS DECISIVE IN CARRYING THROUGH TO THE END THE SACRED TASK OF WIDESCALE DISSEMINATION AND LIVING STUDY AND APPLICATION OF MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and the LAUNCHING OF FURTHER MASS DEMOCRATIC, ANTI-FASCIST STRUGGLES.
GREAT LENIN DREAMED OF THE DAY WHEN REVOLUTIONARY INDIA WOULD UNITE WITH REVOLUTIONARY CHINA AND BRING ABOUT THE COLLAPSE OF THE WORLD IMPERIALIST SYSTEM."--Charu Mazumdar
April 22, 1973, the 103rd anniversary of the birth of GREAT LENIN also marks the 4th anniversary of the founding of the COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MARXIST-LENINIST).
WORKERS' ADVOCATE hails the 4th anniversary of the founding of the CPI (ML), the party of the Indian proletariat and hails the beginning of the seventh year of ARMED AGRARIAN REVOLUTION initiated by the heroic peasants of Naxalbari under the personal guidance of the beloved and respected leader of the Indian revolution, Comrade Charu Mazumdar. We resolutely denounce the fascist regime of bureaucrat capitalists and landlords led by Mrs. Gandhi for the brutal assasination of the respected and beloved leader of the Indian revolution, Comrade Charu Mazumdar, as well as for her recent massacre of over 200 students in Moga, Punjab.
India is a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country of 500 million people. After so-called independence from the British in 1947 it has become a "model" of neo-colonialist plunder for the U.S. imperialists and Soviet social-imperialists. The ruling Congress government, a government of compradores, big landlords and bureaucrat capitalists has always been most zealous in selling out to the imperialists and in brutally suppressing with reactionary violence the just resistance of the Indian people against imperialist and feudalist exploitation and domination. This resistance is developing mainly in the form Of the ARMED AGRARIAN REVOLUTION led by the CPI (ML) as well as in other militant mass uprisings.
In the spring of 1967, Indian revolutionaries inspired by the GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION dared to stand against revisionism and took MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT directly to the poor and landless peasants, the most oppressed section and the main force of the Indian revolution. By applying MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT to the concrete condition of India and exposing the revisionist politics of parliamentarism and "peaceful road to socialism" the poor and landless peasants and tea plantation workers in Northern West Bengal were aroused to initiate armed struggle against the direct agents of imperialism and feudalism, in the countryside, the jotedars (big landlords), usurers and their police and private armies. Thus, the heroic peasants of Naxalbari village, aroused by the politics of ARMED AGRARIAN REVOLUTION launched a guerilla war not just for land but for political power and in the face of counter-attack by 60,000 police sent by the fascist Gandhi government held the RED FLAG aloft in Naxalbari for four days. The bright red spark of Naxalbari, the path of guerilla war against the class enemy in the countryside spread to the length and breadth of India, engulfing its vast countryside in a prairie fire of peoples' war. By 1969 armed struggle had spread to over 50 districts in 10 of the 15 provinces and a red base area was established on the coast of Andhra Pradesh in Srikakulum. On April 22, 1969, after two years of armed struggle the CPI (ML) was founded in order to carry through to the end the Indian peoples' New Democratic revolution. This was a great victory as it consolidated the lessons of the GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION, MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT and the Naxalbari path, the path of Peoples War, as the only path to liberation for the Indian people. In spite of vicious counterrevolution and white terror of the state the Indian revolution continued to develop. The 8th Party Congress (the first Congress since the establishment of the CPI (ML)) was held underground in May 1970 and the draft program of the Peoples Democratic Revolution was issued. In December 1971 the campaign of seizing weapons from the enemy and uniting numerous guerilla squads resulted in the formation of the Indian Peoples Liberation Army.
The ARMED AGRARIAN REVOLUTION has struck terror in the heart of the reactionary Gandhi government and her imperialist masters. The dreams of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism of enslaving and exploiting the Indian people and their natural resources and raw materials forever are turning into dust. They are most anxious to maintain their spheres of influence, their economic domination and their military control of India. The imperialists are also most anxious to use the fascist regime of compradores and big landlords as a model of "Western democracy" and neo-colonial plunder, and as a reactionary base area against the peoples of Asia and especially against the bastion of world revolution, the People's Republic of China. The dismemberment of East Pakistan and the creation of the puppet state of "Bangladesh" is an example of these counter-revolutionary plots of the super-powers. Not only were the Indian reactionaries anxious to suppress the ARMED AGRARIAN REVOLUTION in East Pakistan, led by the COMMUNIST PARTY OF EAST PAKISTAN (MARXIST- LENINIST) and to turn East Pakistan into a dependent base of imperialist aggression against China but they also had illusions of diverting the Indian people's revolution through a flagrant display of Indian expansionism, militarism and chauvinism.
The plots of the imperialists and the fascist white terror of Gandhi's government cannot suppress the development of the ARMED AGRARIAN REVOLUTION. The massacre of over 200 people in Moga on October 5th and 7th has not deterred the people of Punjab from continuing militant demonstrations and carrying out attacks against the police throughout the province. Throughout the country there is an upsurge of strikes, encirclement of factories, demonstrations and mass uprisings. The assassination of the beloved and respected leader of the CPI (ML), Comrade Charu Mazumdar has only caused a more intense upsurge in the armed agrarian revolution. The Indian comrades have further organized themselves to establish the proletarian revolutionary line of Comrade Charu Mazumdar and to put into practice his teachings, the theory and tactics of Indian revolution. It brings the American working class great joy to see the fraternal Indian people standing up against our common enemies U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism and their running dogs.
As Chairman Mao pointed out: "LIKE FREE CHINA, A FREE INDIA WILL ONE DAY EMERGE AS A MEMBER OF THE SOCIALIST AND PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC FAMILY: THAT DAY WILL END THE IMPERIALIST REACTIONARY ERA IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND."
May 24, 1970
The Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) -the First Congress after Naxalbari, after the Party was rebuilt on Mao Tsetung Thought was held about the middle of May,1970. The Party Congress was successfully held in underground conditions, conditions of utmost secrecy, and was attended by comrade delegates from various States of India, who had been elected by their respective State Conferences.
The Congress unanimously adopted the Party Programme, the Party Constitution and the Political-Organisational Report and elected the Central Committee.
The Congress was convened at immense risk when the reactionary ruling classes, threatened by the surging revolutionary struggle, had intensified their attack on the Party. The Congress aimed at developing and strengthening the unity that already existed among the revolutionary ranks.The Congress was truly a Congress of unity and became the pledge of the victory of the Indian revolution.
Adopted at the Party Congress
Held in May 1970
1. Our beloved country is one of the biggest and most ancient countries of the world inhabited by 500 million people. Ours is an agrarian country, a country of peasant masses, hard working and talented. They have rich revolutionary traditions and a glorious cultural heritage.
2. The British imperialists conquered India and established their direct rule some 200 years ago and since then history of our country has been a history of ceaseless struggle waged by the Indian peasantry against British imperialism and feudal oppression. It has been a history of innumerable peasant uprisings against colonialist rule and feudal exploitation. The First War of Independence in 1857, a war fought by the peasantry and rebel soldiers, turned into a conflagration engulfing the whole of this vast country, inflicting many humiliating defeats on the imperialists and shaking the very foundations of the alien imperialist rule. This great uprising of the Indian people failed owing to the betrayal of India's feudal princes.
3. Since then India has witnessed innumerable armed peasant revolts. However, these revolts failed as there was no scientific theory and no revolutionary leadership capable of leading them to victory.
4. The Indian bourgeoisie, comprador in nature, intervened to divert the national liberation struggle from the path of revolution to the path of compromise and surrender. Beginning from the Champaraji peasant struggle, the Gandhian leadership representing the upper stratum of the bourgeoisie and feudal class, with its ideology of ahimsa, Satyagraha, passive resistance1 and charka sought to tailor the national movement to serve the interests of the British imperialist rule and its feudal lackeys.
5. The preat October Revolution brought the ideology of Marxism-Leninism to our country and the Communist Party of India was born. However, despite tremendous opprtunities, the leadership of the working class could not be established over the national liberation struggle as the leadership of the Party refused to fight Gandhism and the Gandhian leadership and to take the path of revolution. The leadership refused to integrate the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of Indian revolution. It refused to integrate the Party with the heroic masses, chiefly the revolutionary peasantry, and to forge a revolutionary United Front. It refused to learn from the national liberation struggle of the Chinese people led by the CPC and Chairman Mao Tsetung and to take the path of armed struggle.
6. On the contrary, the leadership of the CPI consciously trailed behind the leadership of the Congress and betrayed the revolution from the very beginning. The leaders of the GPI were agents of imperialism and feudalism. Despite the treachery of the leadership, the Party ranks stood with the suffering people, led many class battles and made untold sacrifices for the cause of the Indian proletariat.
7. The smashing defeat of the fascist powers at the hands of the world's people led by the Soviet Union under the leadership of Great Stalin and the world-shaking victorious advance of the great Chinese liberation-struggle under the leadership of Chairman Mao bright about a new alignment of forces the world qver.. Imperialism was very much weakened and the national liberation struggle of the colonial people surged forward like a torrent throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America threatening to sweep imperialism and its lackeys away.
8. An unprecedented revolutionary situation overtook the Indian subcontinent too. The mighty movement for the release of 'Azad Hind' prisoners, powerful.anti-imperialist demonstrations by students all over India, the great Tebhaga and Bakasht struggles, the anti-feudal struggles in the princely states, the powerful struggles of the P & T workers, the armed revolt of the R. I. N. ratings along with the rebellions in the air force and in the army and the police revolt in the province of Bihar, the great solidarity actions of the working class and the beginning of the historic armed peasant armed struggle in Telangana brought, the imperialist rule in India almost to the verge of collapse.
9. Faced with such a situation, the British imperialism pressed into service its tried agents -the leaders of the Indian National Congress, Muslim League and of the CPI with a view to crushing, the revolutionary -upsurge of the Indian people. The country was partitioned amidst communal carnage and the Congress leadership representing the comprador bourgeoisie and big landlords, was installed in power while the British imperialists stepped into the background. The shaip independence declared in 1947 was nothing but a replacement of the colonial and semi-feudal set-up with a semi-colonial and semifeudal one.
10. During these years of sham independence the big comprador-bureaucrat bourgeoisie and big landlord ruling classes have been serving their imperialist masters faithfully. These lackeys of imperialism, while preserving the old British imperialist exploitation, have also brought the U.S. imperialist and Soviet Social imperialist exploiters to fleece our country.
11. They have mortgaged our country to the imperialist powers, mainly to U.S. imperialists and Soviet Social imperialists. With the weakening of the power of British imperialism the world over, the Indian ruling classes have now hired themselves out to U.S. imperialism and Soviet Social imperialism. Thus, instead of two mountains, British imperialism and feudalism, the Indian people are now weighed down under the four huge mountains, namely imperilaism headed by U.S. imperialism, Soviet Social imperialism, feudalism and comprador-bureaucrat capital. Thus,- India has turned into a neo-colony of U.S. imperialism and Soviet Social imperialism. The ruthless exploitation and oppression by these four enemies of the Indian people have created unprecedented miseries, sufferings and calamities. Millions are struggling on the brink of death. Several millions go hungry, naked, houseless and unemployed.
12. In the name of "national integration"these enemies of the people have, been suppressing the genuine rights of all nationalities and national and religious minorities. The right of self-determination is being denied to the Kashmiris, Nagas and Mizos. Equal status to all national languages is being denied and Hindi is sought to be imposed on the people by them.
13. Our country is the couhtty of the peasant masses who constitute over 75 per cent of its population. They are the most exploited people of our country living in conditions of semi-starvation and pauperisation. In India's semi-feudal economy, 80% of the land is concentrated in the hands of 20% of land-owners i.e., rajahs, landlords and rich peasants, while the starving peasantry constituting 80% of the rural population has no land or very little land.
14. The landless and poor peasants have to turn over 50% to 90% of their annual harvests in the form of rent to the landlords. The extortionate usurious capital continues to fleece the peasants. Eviction of peasants is the order of the day. Social oppression on scheduled castes including the lynching of Harijans, reminiscent of the middle ages is continuing unabated.
15. The semi-feudal land relations have transformed our country into a land of perpetual famine as a result of which millions of people die of starvation every year.
16. In brief, out of all the major contradictions in our country, that is, the contradiction between imperialism and social imperialism on the one hand and our people on the other, the contradiction between feudalism and the broad masses of the people, the contradiction between capital and labour and the contradiction within the ruling classes, the one between the landlord and the peasantry, i.e., the contradiction between feudalism and the broad masses of the Indian people is the principal contradiction in the present phase.
17. The resolution of this contradiction will lead to resolution of all other contradictions too.
18. While preserving and perpetuating the semifeudal set-up, the big comprador-bureaucrat bourgeoisie and big landlord ruling classes have become pawns in the hands of U.S. imperilaism and Soviet Social imperialism.
19. The phenomenal increase in the total quantum of foreign capital, the heavy remittances of profits abroad, thousands of collaborationist enterprises, total dependence on imperialist " aid, grants and loans" for capital goods, technical know-how, military supplies and armament industries, for building military bases and even for markets, unequal trade and PL 480 agreements have made U.S. imperialism and Soviet Social imperialism the overlords of our country.
20. U.S. imperialism and Soviet Social imperialism have brought the vital sectors of the economy of our country under their control. U.S. imperialism collaborates mainly with private capital and is now penetrating into the industries in the state sector, while Soviet Social imperialism has brought under its control mainly the industries in the state sector and is at the same time trying to enter into collaboration with private capital.
21. U.S. imperialism and Soviet Social imperialism, do everything possible to foster the growth of comprador-bureaucrat capitalism for continuing their unbridled exploitation of the Indian people.
22. The much trumpeted "public sector" is being built by many imperialist exploiter? for employing their capital and exploiting cheap labour power and raw materials of our country. The public sector is nothing but a clever device to hoodwink the Indian people and continue their plunder. It is monopoly capitalism i.e., bureaucrat capitalism.
23. With their octopus-like grip on India's economy the U.S. imperialists and Soviet Social imperialists control the political, cultural and military spheres of the life of our country.
24.At the dictates of U.S. imperialism and Soviet Social imperialism, India's reactionary ruling classes pursue a foreign policy that serves the interests of imperialism, social imperialism and reaction. It has been tailored to the needs of the global strategy of U.S. imperialists and Soviet Social imperialists to encircle China and suppress, the national liberation struggles raging in various parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America, of which Viet Nam has become the spearhead. India's aggression against Socialist China and then continual provocations against China since then at the instance of U.S. imperialism and Soviet Social imperialism, her support to the Soviet attack on China, her tacit approval of Soviet aggression against Czechoslovakia, her dirty rule in supporting U.S. imperialism against the Vietnamese people prove beyond a shadow of doubt that India's ruling classes are faithful stooges of U.S. Imperialism and Soviet Social imperialism.
25. These hard facts irrefutably prove the semi-colonial character of our society, besides its semi-feudal character.
26. As the obsolete semi-feudal society acts as the social base of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism and as it facilitates also the plunder of our people by comprador-bureaucrat capital, the problem of the peasantry becomes the basic problem of the Indian revolution.
27. Therefore, the basic task of the Indian revolution is to overthrow the rule of feudalism, comprador-bureaucrat capitalism, imperialism and social-imperialism. This determines the stage of our revolution. It is the stage of democratic revolution, the essence of which is agrarian revolution.
28. It, however, is not the old type of democratic revolution, but a new type of democratic revolution. People's Democratic Revolution, as it forms a part of the world socialist revolution, ushered in by the Great October Revolution and as such, it can be successfully led by the working class alone and by no other class. The working class is the most revolutionary class and the most organised advanced detachment of our people.
29. This revolution will establish the dictatorship of the working class, the peasantry, the petty-bourgeoisie and even a section of the small and twiddle bourgeoisie under the leadership of the working class. They together constitute the overwhelming majority of the Indian people. It will be a state guaranteeing democracy for 90 per cent of the people and enforcing dictatorship over a handful of enemies. That is why it is People's Democracy.
30. The main force of the democratic revolution led by the working class is the peasantry. The working class fully relies on the landless and poor peasants and firmly unites with the middle peasants and even wins over a section of the rich peasants while neutralizing the rest. It will be only a tiny section of the rich peasants that finally joins the enemies of the revolution. The urban petty bourgeoisie and the revolutionary intellectuals of our country are revolutionary forces and will be a reliable ally in the revolution.
31. The small and middle bourgeoisie, businessmen and bourgeois intellectuals are vacillating and unstable allies of the democratic revolution. They will now support, then oppose and sometimes even betray the revolution. Their dual role in the revolution arises because of their contradiction as will as unity with the enemies of our revolution.
32. Thus, in order to carry the democratic revolution through to the end it is necessary that a Democratic Front of all these classes is built up under the leadership of the working class.
33. This Front, however, can only be built up when worker-peasant unity is achieved in the course of armed struggle and after Red political power is established at least in some parts of the country.
34. It must be understood that the working class can and will exercise its leadership over the People's Democratic Revolution through its political party, the Communist Party of India (M-L). It also performs its vanguard role by launching struggles on political issues, both national and international, by solidarity actions in support of the revolutionary classes, mainly, the revolutionary struggles of the peasantry and by sending its class-conscious vanguard section to organise and lead the peasants' armed struggle.
35. The path of India's liberation, as in case of all other colonial, semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries is the path of People's War. As Chairman Mao has taught us," THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR IS THE WAR OF THE MASSES; IT CAN BE WAGED ONLY BY MOBILIZING THE MASSES AND RELYING ON THEM".
36. The working class can wage a successful people's war by creating small bases of armed struggle all over the country and consolidating the political power, of the people. This is possible only by developing Guerrilla warfare which is and will remain the basic form of struggle through the entire period of our Democratic Revolution.
37. As Comrade Lin Piao has pointed out, "Guerrilla warfare is the only way to mobilize and apply the entire strength of the people against the enemy." Guerrilla warfare alone can unleash the initiative and rouse the creative genius of the Indian people, make them perform miracles, function in various ways and can enable them effectively to co-ordinate those ways. Thus guerrilla war alone can expand the small bases of armed struggle to large, extensive areas through mighty waves of people's war and develop the People's Army which will overthrow the reactionary rule of the four mountains in the countryside, encircle and capture the cities, establish People's Democratic Dictatorship all over the country and resolutely carry it forward to the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and Socialism.
38. The People's Democratic State will carry out the following major tasks:
a. Confiscation of all the banks and enterprises of foreign capital and liquidation of all imperialist debt.
b. Confiscation of all the enterprises of the comprador-bureaucrat capitalists.
c. Confiscation of all land belonging to the landlords and their redistribution among the landless and poor peasants on the principle of land to the tillers; cancellation, of all debts of the peasantry and other toiling people. All facilities necessary for development of agriculture to be guaranteed.
d. Enforce eight hours a day, increase wages, institute unemployment relief and social insurance, remove all inequalities on the basis of equal pay for equal work.
e. Improve the living conditions of soldiers and give land and job to the ex-servicemen.
f. Enforce better living conditions of the people and remove unemployment.
g. Develop new democratic culture in place of colonial and feudal culture.
h. Abolish the present educational system and educational institutions and build up a new educational system and new educational institutions consistent with the needs of People's Democratic India.
i. Abolish the caste system, remove all social inequalities and all discrimination on the religious ground and guarantee Equality of status of women.
j. Unify India and recognise the right of self-determination.
k. Give equal status to all national languages.
1. Abolish all exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous assessments and adopt a consolidated progressive tax system.
m. People's political power to be exercised through Revolutionary People's Councils at all levels.
n. Alliance to be formed with the international proletariat and the oppressed nations of the world under the leadership of the CPC.
39. The Democratic Revolution in India is taking place in the era of Mao Tsetung when world imperialism is heading for total collapse and socialism is advancing towards worldwide victory. Our revolution is a part of the Great Poletarian Cultural Revolution which has consolidated socialism and proletarian dictatorship in China and has turned China into the reliable base area of World Revolution. Our revolution is taking place at a time when the great Ninth Congress of the great, glorious and correct CPC -- the Congress of unity and victory -- has tremendously inspired the international proletariat. It is taking place at a time when the CPC headed by Chairman Mao and Vice-Chairman Lin Piao is leading the international proletariat to fulfill its historic mission of emancipating the whole of mankind from the rule of imperialism and reaction and establishing Socialism and Communism on this earth. We are a contingent of this great army of the international proletariat.
40. The CPI (M-L) is placing this programme of People's Democratic Revolution before the Indian people and dedicates itself to this great revolutionary cause. The Party is confident that the granite unity of our people with all socialist and oppressed nations, particularly the Chinese people, will bring about the victory of the Indian revolution, which, as Chairman Mao has predicted, "will end the imperialist reactionary era in the history of mankind" and will ensure the world-wide victory of Socialism.
[Photo: Charu Mazumdar, respected leader of CPI (ML)]
Resolution of the Communist Party of India (M-L)
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), at its meeting held on December 5th & 6th, 1972, pays its deepest respect to the memory of our respected leader Comrade Charu Mazumdar. The Central Committee believes that by murdering our respected leader, the reactionary Indira government, the satellite of social-imperialism cannot arrest the irresistible onward march of our revolution. The great revolutionary authority of our respected leader is science nursed with Chairman's blessings and based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. This authority is immortal. It is our respected leader who has established Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought deep among the Indian people by smashing all social-imperialist influence and revisionist ideas. He has personally kindled the spark of Naxalbari which has created the prairie fire of armed revolution in Srikakulam, Punjab and in other places of India. It is our respected leader who has created and nursed our party, the vanguard of the Indian proletariat. It is our respected leader who has given birth to thousands of martyrs and now men among peasants and thus formed the People's Liberation Army of India. He has roused the workers, youths and the toiling people of the towns on the basis of the politics of armed agrarian revolution. He has created revolutionary committees led by poor and landless peasants. He has even turned jails, the greatest citadel of imperialism, into centres of revolt. It is he who has taught the oppressed and exploited people of India to dream the dreams of revolution and also showed them the way to translate the dreams into reality. In a word, he has kindled the light of hope amidst darkness. Our respected leader lives and will live for ever among the people and in the party itself. Today there has been a countrywide upsurge, true to the letter of what our respected leader had foreseen. Today our task is to carry resolutely our respected leader's revolutionary authority deep among the masses, to make our revolution successful, to grasp our respected leader's revolutionary authority by practising his revolutionary line and to apply this line in the process of struggle. The Central Committee resolves that it will avenge the murder of our respected leader and of thousands and thousands of other martyrs by shedding the last drop of our blood to realise by 197 5 his dream of composing the epic of liberation of 500 million people of India, to defeat on the soil India itself the social-imperialist and imperialism's new war-plot against socialist China, the base of world revolution, by quickening the pace of the Indian revolution and thus unite still more firmly with the revolutionary people the world over. This meeting shares the sorrow of our respected leader's family.
OUR GREAT IMMORTAL LEADER AND REVOLUTIONARY AUTHORITY OF INDIA COMRADE CHARU MAZUMDAR - ZINDABAD!
THE MARTYRS OF OUR ARMED AGRARIAN REVOLUTION - ZINDABAD!
THE ARMED AGRARIAN REVOLUTION OF INDIA- ZINDABAD!
THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MARXIST- LENINIST) - ZINDABAD!
RED SALUTE TO THE HEROIC PEOPLE OF VIETNAM, TO THE HEROIC PEOPLES OF INDOCHINA !
RED SALUTE TO THE GREAT, GLORIOUS AND CORRECT COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA!
VICE CHAIRMAN LIN PIAO - ZINDABAD!
INVINCIBLE MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT - ZINDABAD
CHAIRMAN MAO ZINDABAD! A LONG, LONG LIFE TO CHAIRMAN MAO!
From Peoples Canada Daily News
CAMBODIA'S Head of State Samdech Norodom Sihanouk will arrive in Peking, China's capital, today after an inspection tour of the Liberated Zone of Cambodia and a friendly visit to the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam, bringing with him the happy news of the heroic Cambodian people's victory in their war against U.S. aggression and for national salvation. With great warmth and joy, the Chinese people ceremoniously welcome the arrival of respected Samdech Sihanouk and warmly congratulate him on the great success of his inspection tour of the Liberated Zone of Cambodia.
Samdech Sihanouk's tour is a great event in the current struggle of the Cambodian people against U.S. aggression and for national salvation, a great victory for the Cambodian people. With deep love for his motherland and confidence in the victory of the Cambodian people's struggle, he stayed in the Liberated Zone of Cambodia for more than one month disregarding hardship and danger and visiting the provinces of Stung Treng, Preah Vihear and Siem Reap. He had cordial meetings with the leading members of the Cambodian National United Front and Royal Government of National Union in the interior and wide contacts with people from all walks of life in the Liberated Zone. He received a warm welcome. Of special significance is the fact that he joined the patriotic armymen and people of the Liberated Zone in the celebrations of the glorious third anniversary of the founding of the National United Front of Cambodia and the People's National Liberation Armed Forces. With his own eyes, Samdech Sihanouk saw how the patriotic armymen and people of Cambodia.were fighting with one heart and one mind under the banner of the National United Front, and gave them great encouragement. His inspection tour's success is a strong impetus, to the Cambodian people's fight against U.S. aggression and for national salvation and a heavy blow to the traitorous Lon Nol clique.
This inspection tour is having great impact both inside and outside Cambodia. It eloquently proves once again that Samdech Sihanouk is the Head of State supported and loved by the Cambodian people, that the Royal Government of National Union of Cambodia is the sole legal government exercising power over the land of Cambodia. At present, the Royal Government of National Union of Cambodia under the leadership of the National United Front with Samdech Sihanouk as its chairman effectively controls nine-tenths of the territory containing eight-tenths of the population of Cambodia. The People's National Liberation Armed Forces of Cambodia have become courageous and staunch armed forces, well-organized, well-trained and combat-worthy. The Liberated Zone of Cambodia is constantly expanding. The unity of the patriotic army-men and people is growing ever stronger. The situation is getting better and better in the Cambodian people's war against U.S. aggression and for national salvation. Samdech Sihanouk's successful inspection tour fully shows the unbreakable unity of the National United Front of Cambodia and the Royal Government of National Union with the people. It fully demonstrates that the Royal Government of National Union of Cambodia is a legally representative government, and has smashed to smithereens the fallacy spread by the traitorous Lon Nol clique and the propaganda machines of the West that it is "a government in exile."
It should be noted that while Samdech Sihanouk was inspecting the Liberated Zone of Cambodia, the crises of the Lon Nol traitorous clique were being aggravated. Besieged ring upon ring and subject to victorious attacks by the patriotic Cambodian armed forces and people, the Lon Nol clique is huddled up in isolated Phnom Penh, short of electricity and grain supplies. It is in a desperate situation and has to rely on U.S. airdropped supplies to bolster its tottering regime. The archtraitor Lon Nol who has tried frantically to suppress the people and stepped up his fascist dictatorial rule, is in total isolation, opposed by the masses and deserted by his followers. Three years ago he staged a reactionary coup d'eta't in an attempt to overthrow the Royal Government of Cambodia led by Samdech Sihanouk, but the result is just the reverse. Today, the raging flames of the war against U.S. aggression and for national salvation of the Cambodian people are spreading and fiercely burning under the Lon Nol clique's feet. The great success of Samdech Sihanouk's inspection tour and its powerful influence have thrown the clique into a worse panic than ever. The days of this handful of the scum of the nation who wreck the country and ruin the people are numbered.
The present situation inside and outside Cambodia is developing in the direction that is more and more favourable for the Cambodian people. The Cambodian people's struggle to safeguard national independence, sovereignty, peace, unification, neutrality and territorial integrity is completely just. The Cambodian question can only be solved under the conditions in which the fundamental national rights of the Cambodian people are fully respected. In his "Five-Point Statement" of March 23, 1970, Samdech Sihanouk put forward reasonable proposals, widely supported by the people throughout the world, for the solution of the Cambodian question. The dispatching of large numbers of aircraft by the U.S. Government to intensify the barbarous bombing of the Liberated Zone of Cambodia is a complete violation of the obligations it has undertaken in the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet Nam. Moreover, it is absolutely futile. Any attempt by any reactionary force or any foreign interventionist to use the death-bed struggle of the Lon Nol clique to drag out the solution of the Cambodian question and obstruct the victorious forward march of the Cambodian people will prove to be a pipe dream and is bound to end in total failure.
The Chinese and Cambodian people are close comrades-in-arms and brothers. The Chinese people regard every victory of the Cambodian people as their own. In the future struggle, the Chinese people will, as always, firmly support the just struggle of the Cambodian and other Indochinese peoples till complete victory.
Peking Review, No. 15 (April 11)
[A page with a graphic and the following slogans and messages: GREAT CELEBRATION!; HAIL MAY DAY!; HAIL THE FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE REGINA CONFERENCE! (May 7-12, 1969); BUILD THE COMMUNIST PARTY!; Program Organized by the AMERICAN COMMUNIST WORKERS MOVEMENT (MARXIST-LENINIST) May 5--8 p.m. Foreign Student Center -- Lounge COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY N.Y., N.Y.]