First Published: The Call, Vol. 9, No. 3, January 21, 1980.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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Far from the Khyber Pass, the reverberations of the Russian tanks smashing through Afghanistan can still be heard and felt. No matter how distant Afghanistan may seem, people all over the world have sensed that its invasion by the Soviet Union is a threat to the independence of all small nations and to peace in the world.
The naked display of Soviet military might in Afghanistan, wielded purely for imperialistic, expansionists aims, is not an isolated case. It is the high water mark of a trend of Soviet hegemony-seeking that could first be seen with the invasion of Czechoslovakia, and to different degrees, with the joint Soviet-Cuban operations in Africa and the Soviet-Vietnamese actions in Indochina.
What is new about Afghanistan is that it represents the first time Moscow has committed large numbers of troops to aggression outside the East Bloc. Thus the shadow of Soviet expansion is now cast over a new–and highly strategic–region of the world.
In the wake of the invasion of Afghanistan, many people, political organizations and governments that have been supportive of Soviet actions in the past find that they can no longer support what is an obvious case of imperialist aggression. The Italian and Spanish Eurocommunist parties, for example, have denounced the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Iraq and other Arab countries receiving extensive Soviet aid have also not feared to speak out against the Soviet activities.
Yugoslavia and Romania, long noted for their independence from Moscow despite their geographical proximity to the USSR, have used Afghanistan to make clear once again their opposition to all types of big power domination. In the UN, not only have a vast majority of the world’s countries opposed the invasion, but Cuba, closely associated with Soviet international policies, saw support for its election to the Security Council among third world countries evaporate to the point where it had to withdraw.
Here in the U.S., a number of organizations which the pro-Moscow Communist Party has traditionally tried to influence, have found themselves deeply divided over the Afghanistan issue. In groups like the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Women’s Strike for Peace, the Peace Action Council, Clergy and Laity Concerned and a variety of others, honest members genuinely concerned about world peace, including rank-and-file members of the CPUSA, have found themselves at odds with Gus Hall and the CPUSA leadership, which has openly proclaimed its support for the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.
We support the courageous stand of those who are speaking out against the Soviet invasion, especially from inside organizations where the pro-Soviet trend of thought has held sway in the past. We may have differences with these people over a great many other political questions, but we must seek the ways to unite and make our voices heard together against the growing trend of Soviet aggression.
We further appeal to other members of the Communist Party U.S.A. to come over and join with us and the broad array of other forces who are taking a stand on this issue. Those who genuinely believe in peace and the right of all nations to self-determination cannot allow themselves to remain silent on the Soviet Union’s flagrant violation of the UN charter and every principle of international law in Afghanistan.