First Published: Class Struggle, Vol. 4, No. 10, May 1980
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Sam Richards and Paul Saba
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The first public meeting of the British-Kampuchea Support Campaign (BKSC) was held in London on 3rd May. Over 100 people including Kampucheans and other Third residents in Britain were present.
University lecturer and South-East Asia specialist Laura Summers spoke of the disastrous effects of the invasion on the Kampuchean people saying that even those who had supported the invasion for one reason or another were now changing their minds. Laura highlighted the disastrous consequences for the Vietnamese people who have had to abandon their five year plan and are on the verge of starvation, most industries working only a five or six hour day because the workers are so undernourished. She traced the root cause to the line of the “Indochina Federation” which has long been pursued by the Vietnamese Party. Welcoming the formation of the BKSC she called on former supporters of Vietnam to put pressure on its leaders to change their disastrous policies.
’Guardian’ journalist and expert on Latin America, Richard Gott, said that the western powers had vilified Kampuchea because of its policy of self-reliance. Citing examples from Latin American history he showed that this was always the case when a poor country tries to escape from the imperialist world economic system. Whilst not seeking to deny the ’price of change’ in Democratic Kampuchea he noted also ’the price of non-change’ in the Third world. Using recent detailed statistics on Peru he showed that even in ’good times’ one quarter of the population of the capital city was starving and noted that this applied to 40 or 50 other Third World countries.
Speaking on behalf of Kampuchean residents in Britain, Mr. Phok welcomed the interest shown by non-Kampucheans of differing political views. He stressed that the main issue to be taken up was “KAMPUCHEA FOR KAMPUCHEANS!”
The speakers were followed by a lively discussion.