First Published: The Forge, Vol. 2, No. 16, September 2, 1977
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Malcolm and Paul Saba
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In the latest issue of its newspaper (dated September 1), In Struggle launches into open attacks against socialist China. As part of the preparation for its third conference – its third mish-mash made up of ’opportunist and counter-revolutionary groups which claim to be discussing a “program” for Canadian revolution – IS has filled its newspaper with demagogic lies and distortions concerning the positions of our Chinese comrades especially about the theory of the world divided into three. From beginning to end IS sets out to actively spread doubt about the nature of the China of today, even going as far as to say that to consider “the theory of three worlds as a strategic concept is to weaken the dictatorship of the proletariat in socialist countries” (IS, No. 96, p. 2 supl) IS is clearly trying to say that the dictatorship of the proletariat has been weakened in China!
What does IS say about the 11th Congress of the CPC which has just ended and enthusiastically confirmed the smashing of the gang of four, that great victory for the dictatorship of the proletariat in China? Not a word! IS has not said one word about the congress nor has it voiced one bit of support to the CPC and its Chairman, Hua-Kuo-feng. All you’ll find about socialist China in IS are slanderous attacks against China’s position concerning the international situation.
Apart from the token reference to Hua Kuo-feng in an editorial ten months ago, IS still hasnt taken a position on the new leadership of the Communist Party of China. And it has not said a word about the “gang of four”, something which is unacceptable in Canada today. In the present context, this is clearly an attack against the Communist Party of China. And the positions IS has just taken are the logical conclusion of its 10-month silence. In acting as it does, IS is serving the Canadian bourgeoisie which likes nothing more than to see all kinds of lies spread about China.
But IS still has the nerve to quote from a document of the CPC and to claim to pay hommage to Chairman Mao Tsetung. What hypocrisy! IS reprints a text in its supplement, with neither criticism nor comment, that denies that the three world theory is a strategic concept developed by Mao Tsetung. And then in its “hommage” to Chariman Mao, IS is careful not to say a word about the present leadership of the CPC and tries to disassociate it from and oppose it to Mao in an underhanded way. This “hommage” is nothing but a hypocritical cover which IS is using to play down its attacks. IS’s demagogical pretext, according to which it wants to “open up debate” concerning the divergences within the Marxist-Leninist movement, will never be able to hide what IS is really concentrating on: attacking China and sowing division in the international communist movement.
If you look at the situation squarely. IS’s positions ring a very familiar bell. As a matter of fact, who else rejects the theory of three worlds, refuses to take a stand on the “gang of four” actively spreads doubt about China and attacks the Communist Party of China? None other than the Bains’ clique. These counter-revolutionaries who call themselves the “CPC (ML)”, after years of trying to fool the masses by pretending to support the Communist Party of China, are now lashing out their slanders against China, the Party and its leaders. And we musn’t forget about the “Communist” Party of Canada either, those revisionists and strong supporters of Soviet social-imperialism, who don’t let an opportunity go by without spewing their poison at socialist China.
IS has now dropped the facade it was using, when it came to the CAPT conference in Montreal on July 9. At the time IS claimed to “defend and apply” the theory of the world divided into three. IS’s acrobatics have been exposed for what they are: pure opportunism, blatant hypocrisy. After our criticisms, IS felt obliged to pay lip service to the three world theory. But since then it has tried in every way possible to disown this verbal “support”. Today IS comes back to its position in the pamphlet For the unity of the Canadian proletariat and which in fact has been its position all along: demagogical deformation of this theory in order to attack and reject it.
As a strategic concept, the three world theory calls for the building of a broad world united front to attack head on the two super powers, the US and the USSR, the main enemies of the world’s peoples, and to use all contradictions to advance revolutionary struggle.
Faced with the war preparations of the two superpowers, especially Soviet social-imperialism, the main source of war, it is the task of communists to identify the different enemies confronting us and to deal the hardest blow to the biggest enemies. To do this, is to do as the Chinese comrades say, “to bring all positive factors into play”.
The three worlds theory is a precious guide which enables us to advance the revolutionary struggle of the world proletariat, the struggle of nations for their liberation and of countries for their independence. IS, for its part, claims the theory leads to the “weakening of national liberation struggles,” to the “abandonment of proletarian revolution in imperialist countries”, not to mention the “weakening of the dictatorship of the proletariat in socialist countries”!
After the deaths of great proletarian leaders like Lenin, Stalin and last year Mao Tsetung, there are always opportunists who try to take advantage of the situation to breed confusion and to play into the hands of the bourgeoisie. This is the side that IS has taken with its anti-China propaganda, the side of the bourgeoisie, along with the revisionists and the “CPC(ML)”.
IS doesn’t stop at attacking China. It also slanders other Marxist-Leninist organizations and parties in the world. Up to now, IS has never paid the slightest attention to the international Marxist-Leninist movement nor worked to develop fraternal ties. Today, it has begun to raise a lot of dust about the differences in the world communist movement. That’s what you call working for scission rather than unity! What’s more IS has the gall to spit on the fraternal relations the League has established with Marxist-Leninist parties in other countries!
But IS’s attacks on the theory of three worlds no longer fool anyone. Especially the drivel about how it would result in Marxist Leninists “allying with their bourgeoisie”. IS, which talks so much about attacking the Canadian bourgeoisie, is not even capable of raising a finger when the capitalists fire on workers as they did on July 22. Where was IS then? Where were its great attacks “with no compromises” against the Canadian bourgeoisie? They melted like snow in the sun. and IS like intellectuals cut off from class struggle, demonstrated the most deplorable passivity and economism. It was the League, and not IS, that mobilized all its energies to launch and organize a strong class fighthack against this vicious attack by the bourgeoisie. The facts and practice, are pulling the mask away from all of IS’s opportunist verbiage.
IS is getting ready for its next conference, the last in a series of opportunist exhibitions where counter-revolutionaries like Bolshevik Union come to do their number. They’re going to turn it into a soapbox to launch anti Chinese attacks, to attack and try to divide and weaken the world Marxist-Leninist movement, and to continue, as they have for months spreading slander and lies about the League. And while it never before showed any interest in the other parties and organizations in the world, now it’s going to try. as it already has, to profit from the debate now going on in the world communist movement and build itself an “image” on the international level by attacking the theory of three worlds.
This is the point IS has reached by abandoning Marxist-Leninist principles one after another. The downhill slide IS has been on since its second congress is steep and the decline has been rapid. The last positions taken by this group make any illusions impossible. IS is about to fall completely into revisionism. Authentic communists must always keep in mind these words of the International, the song of the world proletariat: “O comrades, keep your wide open And see behind the traitors’ mask Dispel the mist and the smokescreen. Join your brothers in the task!”