First Published: Resistence, Vol. 10, No. 3, March 1979
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The counterrevolutionary position taken by the Party of Labor of Albania (PLA) in a lot of fundamental issues facing the world proletarian revolution makes it mandatory for all genuine communists and revolutionaries of the world to establish firm and clear lines of demarcation with this formerly revolutionary party. The PLA has come out with an all-out attack against great Chairman Mao Zedong who not too long ago they called “the dear and respected leader of all the peoples and communists of the world” but now they call a “revisionist,” “non-marxist,” “eclectic,” “narrow nationalist.” etc. It is clear that attacking Mao Zedong is attacking Marxism-Leninism and this is a question of principle in which no concessions are allowed.
The PLA also has been slandering People’s China and the CPC talking about “Chinese hegemonism” and labeling China as a superpower. This is an attack on the dictatorship of the proletariat and this also represents a matter of principle. The same is true regarding the correct three worlds theory, which the PLA slanders and distorts trying to substitute it with its outright Trotskyite thesis of “imperialism is imperialism” and “all imperialists are the main enemy” and the discredited these of the existence of two camps with the contradictions between them being the main contradiction in the world today.
Furthermore, the Albanian line is a cover for Soviet social-imperialism. In fact the Albanians are doing everything they can to protect the Soviet revisionists and to distract the attention of the people of the world from their real enemies (the two superpowers) to focus in on nonexistent-Chinese ’threats’.
We know it is our responsibility to prove concretely the incorrectness of every one of the charges made. This we will proceed to do waging a polemic against the PLA and its “left” Trotskyite line. Parts of it will be printed in the coming issues of Resistance.
The leaflet below was distributed by LPR M-L and CORES M-L-M in an event in solidarity with the heroic Kampuchean people, celebrated in Denver, Colorado, on March 3, 1979.
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ON FEBRUARY 21, 1979, the Party of Labor or Albania published a most repulsive editorial entitled “The Chinese leadership with Deng Xiaoping at the head has launched a military attack against Vietnam.” We are reprinting parts of this editorial with brief comments because we clearly believe that it accurately reflects the bankrupt line adopted by the P.L.A. It is clearly and unmistakenly a stand against the revolutionary struggles of the peoples of the world, such as that in Kampuchea, and a stand of open treason against the dictatorship of the proletariat and open collaboration with Soviet social imperialism. They say:
The attack on Vietnam is a logical consequence of the social imperialist line formulated by the Chinese leadership long ago, when Mao Tse Tung and Chou En Lai were alive and now put into practice by Deng Xiaping and Hua Guofeng.
The PLA leadership introduces their attacks by labelling China and Mao Zedong’s line as “social imperialist,” and, rather than laying out the truth of the Vietnamese provocations of the Chinese they distort the facts in their favor.
China has attacked an innocent country and a heroic people who have not done mankind any harm, but on the contrary have served it outstandingly by bearing the brunt of extraordinary sacrifices and sufferings. Vietnam has resisted and defeated American imperialism, the savagest enemy of the peoples and all mankind.
The PLA does not consider Vietnam’s invasion of Kampuchea as any harm to mankind. On the contrary! They condone it and praise it comparing it to the defeat of U.S. imperialism. And besides, a small but significant inconsistency in their line comes out: the two superpowers are not they are the real instigators behind the Vietnamese invasion, but they go so far as to accuse, just like the Soviet revisionists have accused, the Chinese to be following orders from Washington in their recent counterattacks against Vietnamese provocations. They say:
The fact that the aggressive attack on Vietnam was undertaken immediately after the return of Deng Xiaoping from the United States of America implies that it has the blessings and support of American imperialism. China’s aggression against Vietnam was planned in Beijing and approved in Washington. . . This is also apparent from the fact that the American government is now trying to put China, which has attacked Vietnam, on a par with Vietnam, because it has allegedly (sic) attacked Cambodia.
’Allegedly’?! The Albanian authorities seem to be the only ones in the world who have apparently swallowed the sham puppet ’rebel’ front who was able to overthrow the legitimate Pol Pot government only 3 weeks after forming! But then again, there’s no better blind men than those who refuse to see. And the PLA continue in their vile attacks, repeating the same slanders of U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism:
In Cambodia the people, the communists and the Cambodia patriots have risen against the barbarous government of Pol Pot, which was nothing but a group of provocateurs in the service of the imperialist bourgeoisie and especially of the Chinese revisionists, which had as its aim, to discredit the idea of socialism in the international arena. Prince Sihanouk, who himself was imprisoned for nearly four years in Phnom Penh, has spoken publicly at the UNO about the crimes of this clique and its extermination of the Cambodian people. . .In our opinion, the people and patriots of Cambodia were a bit slow to overthrow this clique which was completely linked with Beijing and in its service.
The Vietnamese should have taken over Democratic Kampuchea earlier! This is in essence what the Albanian authorities are saying. The case of treason by the PLA leadership can certainly rest here. As is evidences by their words they have sided with the despicable crimes of the Vietnamese and the Soviet social-imperialists. The PLA end their repulsive editorial by calling on the Chinese people to rebel against the correct leadership of the CPC, and by attempting to turn the peoples of the world against People’s Republic of China warning them that they too will be “invaded.” By so doing the Albanian authorities have placed themselves clearly and unmistakenly on the side of reaction and counterrevolution. But they are doomed to fail!