The following article is from the May issue of the West German revolutionary-socialist newspaper Was Tun. Ihe translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
The 1968 Vietnam congress in Berlin was unquestionably a milestone in the protest movement against the Vietnam war. It reflected a qualitative change in anti-
The "peace movement"
imperialist actions.
led in the spirit of "peaceful coexistence" by the Stalinists and Khrushcherists was buried.
Ine Vietnam congress was, however, not only a milestone but a turning point. Since then the movement has retreated and seldom gone beyond a parochial level.
This decline in the movement of solidarity with Vietnan went hand in hand with a not inconsiderable radicalization and broadening of the anti-imperialist forces. The focusing on actions directed against our own West German capitalism as well as the fragmentation of the movement and concentration on "specific local conditions" has helped to reduce the support for the Vietnamese revolution.
Of course it is true that the best support for the revolution in the Third World is struggle against our own capitalisn. Of course it is true that we must organize on a "grass roots" level in order to develop a base in the working class. But the "scissors" between anticapitalist activity and activity against U.s. imperialism also shows plainly the weaknesses and failings of today's left, shows where self-criticism is called for.
The revolutionary left has not yet been able to unite on a concrete anticapitalist program in the framework of concrete political internationalism. Spontaneous and ad boc actions against essential (and not so essential) capitalist institutions are not without their value. But their significance is diminished when they are not integral components of an international strategy and practice.
Since the Vietnam congress virtually nothing more than verbal analyses have been contributed in this area. The reactions to international class struggles and international revolutionary mobilizations were sporadic rearguard actions, which were forgotten as quickly as they developed. We reacted when something hit us in the face; we reacted empirically.
The spontanéist and anarchistic tendencies - which unquestionably broke and, in the through countless taboos, ossified political life of the Federal
Iy of the masses of youth -- no longer have a progressive character. Spontaneity is no substitute for political planning noI radicalism for organized revolutionary strategy.
The Vietnam negotiations in Paris seem also to have had an effect. At any rate, since the negotiations began the course of the Vietnamese revolutionary war has not been followed so attentively as before. This has been true not only of the liberals but also of the far left, who should have been the first to expose the U.S. imperialists' game by the proper reactions, i.e., actions.
The Nixon regime, in reality, is trying to win a military victory by an enormous escalation which exceeds everything done up to now. Since the end of the bombing of North Vietnam, the bombing in the south has increased at a growing rate. The "pacification" actions and saturation bombing have cost the south Vietnamese population a terrible number of victims. Nixon is determined to take an appreciably harder line in defending imperialist interests than his not exactly squeamish predecessors Johnson and Kennedy.
It is only natural, therefore, that the National Front for Liberation has appealed to all those who supported the Vietnam protest movement in the past to resume, continue, and step up the activity. so far, however, the NEU's magnificent counteroffensive has not gotten the proper response, has not gotten the support, IoI example, that last year's Tet offensive
A renewed and intensified struggle against American imperialism cannot mean, however, beginning again where the movement more or less stopped -- on the national level. Protest demonstrations which can unite on little more than the formula of "peace through negotiations" belong to the pacifist or Khrushcherist past of the protest movement.
But breaking windows in U.s. embassies ana staging militant demonstrations in front of U.S. imperialist institutions also have hardly more than a symbolic character now. The real task before us today is political agitation among the GIs, the creation of a broad protest movement or the reinforcement of it where it is already present in its initial stages.
Our task is to create an antiwar movenent in the army! It is not to orgauze a degertion campaiga. Inat 18, we must leave antiwar GIs in the American war machine as disruptive elements and not hide them individually in the civilian world as in the desertion campaiga.
Such political work can no longer be done simply by Isolated, more or less unconnected groups like scattered "GI grass roots committees." In Germany we must coordinate the activity concretely and on a permanent basis. Day-to-day, small-scale activities of individual groups are not sufficient either. In order to increase the effectiveness of the work among the GIs we need militant mass actions from time to time, but not like before in West German centers but where the GIs are concentrated.
Moreover, such necessary mass actions require coordination, require agreement on a unified concept by an active collective. Revolutionary activity among
While waiting at Cape Kennedy for Apollo Il to blast off for the moon dent If the to ted states the vited an 1- July 16, spiro 1. Agnew (the vice-presithe United States) granted an interview in which he said: "It is my individual feeling that we should articulate a sted fitat to Mars by the end of tol ambitious, optimistic goal of a century."
The public response was hearty. Why wait until the end of the century? Why not go ahead at once -- and include Agnew in the crew? Ihe trip would only take a Jear.
At the Apollo 11 launching, a group headed by the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy protested spending such vast sums of money on space rocketry while hunger ravages the earth.
Agnew answered the demonstrators. "I regard the space budget as an investment," he said, "Just as I do some of the monies we have been using to assist other nations. This comes back to us indirectly." He could have added that the investment "comes back" in a highly profitable way, what with somewhere between $24 billion and $33 billion (up to now) being spent for highly obsolescent objects.
Nixon's possible successor held that to refuse to carry on "may well turn out to be the most debilitating thing as far as curing the ills of society is concerned." Thinking again of the poor and the hungry, he added: "This may react to the benefit of the poor in ways that we can't even envisage at this moment."
the GIs, furthermore, represents a bridge to activity against NATO and the Bundeswehr.
Occupied West Germany is an excellent starting point for political, antimilitarist, and anticapitalist work aimed at appealing to the ranks of a whole series of capitalist armed forces. Here is a concrete target we can focus on to demonstrate our solidarity with the revolutionary struggles in other countries not only verbally but in practice. Io cite only one example -- along with GI work, we can influence the French soldiers stationed in West Gernany.
And this work requires coordination more than activity in the Bundeswehr ever did, and not only among the active German groups. Ihis work can be carried out intelligently only with the support, advice, and help of foreign conrades. Real international revolutionary solidarity promotes real international collaboration.
Agnew was well briefed to handle the poverty angle. On July I he took up the subject at the Midwestern Governors' Conference in Wichita, Kansas. He told the governors that they could not expect any increases in federal aid for the people in their states as long as the Vietnam war continues.
No reliel is in sight on that, he made clear. "Our resolution is firm. Ihis Administration wants peace, but not at the price of abdication. Ihis means we must stay long enough to secure the selfdetermination for the people of South Vietnam. "
The main obstacle is the Americans who want to get out of Vietnam. It's a "myth," said Agnew, "that there is an easy way out of Vietnam through unilateral withdrawal."
He appealed for unity and patience. "The tragedy is that, in some cases, sincere opposition is undermining our negotiations for peace and prolonging the war. The Vietcong remains intransigent because of the slender hope that the voices of dissent at home will force us to alter -- perhaps even abdicate -- our policy of proving that confrontation with the United States is costly."
Stick tight in Vietnam and speed on to Mars -- that's how Agnew wants it. For their patience, the hungry may finally be rewarded. For it is well-known that Mars is made out of pie the way the moon is made out of cheese.
AGNEW READY TO TAKE OFF FOR MARS — IF HE CAN STAI IN VIETNAM AGNEW READY TO TAKE OFF FOR MARS — IF HE CAN STAI IN VIETNAM
NIXON'S REAL GAME IN RUMANIA -- CHINESE CHECKERS?
Nixon's visit to Rumania has been generally interpreted in the U.s. press as aimed at encouraging the tendency of the Causescu regime to move away fron Moscow and gravitate toward Washington. However, an additional and perhaps more important aim may be involved, if we are to believe Rowland Evans and Robert Novak.
The team of Washington correspondents claimed in their column of July 14 that the "principal and secret purpose of President Nixon's visit to Rumania is to signal Communist China that the U.s. has no present intention of joining Russia in anti-China alliance."
Evans and Novak point to the significant fact that of all the Warsaw Pact countries, Rumania is the only one that continues to maintain "cordial relations" with Peking. At the recent world conference of Communist parties held in Moscow, Rumania took the risk of seeking to soft-
Moscow's drive against Peking.
"Thus, by visiting Bucharest," the
"Nixon hopes to two columnists stated, end this message to China: Ihe U.s. ca build a special friendship with a Communist country which occasionally thumbs its nose at Moscow, nurtures friendship with Peking, and runs a Stalinist intersopam
KISSINGER: Fascinated by Chinese checkers.
nal regime."
iccording to Evans and Novak, the naneuver was the idea of Henry Kissinger and his National Security Council staff, the strategists in charge of this sector of administration policy. It is part of "secret planning inside the Administration to ease the 20-year freeze in U.s.- Chinese relations."
In a secret session with a group of
"Nixon speculated that the Russenators, sians were trying to line themselves up with the U.S. in an anti-China façade..." He also "made clear that his visit to bility. „was partly to dispel that possi- Rumania
When a senator asked Nixon why be did not also visit Jugoslavia, the president "replied that would be too provocative to Moscow..."
In fact, however, the experts or Nixon's stalf believe that a visit to Yugoslavia "would be considerably less provocative to Moscow" than the visit to Rumania. Besides it would "detract from his visit to Rumania with its special relationship with Peking."
Nixon also has a personal reason for visiting Rumania, according to Evans and Novak. In 1967 Poland barred him as a private citizen and Czech officials publicly insulted him by boycotting a Pakistan embassy reception which he attended. Ceausescu, in contrast, grantea him a very cordial two-hour session.
"But desire to renew acquaintances with Ceausescu scarcely compares with the hope of a dramatic sign to China," Evans and Novak said in conclusion. "Some professional diplomats who regard both the President and Kissinger as amateurs feel they are miscalculating badly in that aim. Whether such skeptics are correct or not, however, the China ploy belies the liberal critics who claim that the President is risking giving offense to Moscow solely to pursue a Rumanian caprice."
Chinese checkers experts, although eminent to kissinged, opening essed have professed inwilling to be quoted.
He has doomed himself to defeat before even gets started, in their opinion.
What Kissinger should have done, the masters of the game say, is have Nixon first withdraw American troops from Vietnam without any further delay, and next publicly repudiate the Chiang
Kai-shek regime in Iaiwan.
An opener like this might have made the game look at least interesting to Mao Isetung, Lin Piao and Chou En-lai.
CHILEAN POLICE HUNT LUIS VITALE
Santiago, Chile
For more than a month the Chilean political police have been seeking Luis Vitale on charges of violating the State Internal Security Law. In addition the minister of the interior has stepped up pressure on the Supreme Court to turn down Vitale's appeal against the action of the Alessandri government six years ago revoking his Chilean citizenship.
Under the headline "Another Figure Sought," the June 26 La Tarde said: "Now the Argentine citizen Luis Vitale, a known revolutionist who was almost expelled from the country a few Jears ago, is being sought."
Under the headline "Other Searches," the Communist party daily El Siglo commented June 26:
"Yesterday morning the police also visited the residence of the veteran Trotskyist Iuis Vitale, an Argentine citizen who is now one of the ideologues of the MIR [Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria -- Revolutionary Left Movement], to make an investigation. Vitale was not at home. HIs wile, Neomicia Lagos, was taken to Investigations headquarters in an effort to get her to indicate the whereabouts of her husband."
The pro-Yankee daily Ilustrado wrote on its editorial page June 30:
"Iuis Vitale, a member of the MIR, born in Argentina and granted the privilege of
Chilean citizenship, is reportedly the victim of a government action of the most odious kind, according to the evening Castroist paper [ultima Horal. According to the geniuses financed by Havana, he is an outstanding intellectual and the author of many historical works. Vitale was implicated as an accomplice of the MIR terrorists by one of the Miristas themselves, also a fugitive."
The daily La Segunda of June 25 said: "Before noon the third raid took place in the Villa suburb 'El Dorado,' where a search was made of the home of Luis Vitale Cometa, accused by the of being an 'ideologue of the MIR., Police
"The police searched all the rooms systematically and held Vitale's wife, Neomicia Lagos, who had a long 'conversation' with the officials assigned to establishing Vitale's whereabouts. It was learned unofficially that Vitale was in Concepción and that a
'call' was sent out on the police wires ordering his arrest."
On July 1, Ultima Hora wrote: "The people of Villa Eldorado are experiencing the same climate of terror the inhabitants of Concepción are being subjected to. The political police are staging raids every night, and at any hour, writer and professor searching for the
Luis Vitale. This intellectual's house is the main target of the police siege. His vile, DI. Neomicia Lagos, a psychiatri pecialist whose work with children is justly famous, has been subjected to the procedures of the political police to force her to reveal where her husband is."
Under the heading "Pérez Zeta Calls on the Supreme Court to Rule Against Vitale," the daily El Clarín said June 26: "On a personal order from Minister of the Interior Edmundo Pérez, the Supreme Court 'renewed' the case in which the professor and writer Luis Vitale appealed against an illegal cancellation of his Chilean citizenship card..."
There has been an outstanding display of nationwide solidarity with Vitale. The Full Council of the University of Chile, which is composed of professors, students, employees, and workers, passed a resolution June 30 expressing solidarity with him.
The July I El Clarín reported that "the assembly of the Federación de Estudiantes de Concepción approved a resolution of solidarity with Professor Luis Vitale, who 'has made an important contribution to the national culture.' In Santiago, the police raided the professor's home searching for evidence of his alleged participation in the guerrilla encampnent discovered in Guayacán. 'Despite their previous agreement to return to classes, the sociology students at Concepción will remain out in solidarity with Professor Vitale.'"
Both El Clarín and Ultima Hora devoted editorials calling on the workers and students to show solidarity with Vitale. The editorial in the July 3 El Clarin, written by lord Callampa, said: "Vitale was active in the Central Unica de Trabajadores de Chile [United Workers Federation of Chile], where he was a national leader side by side with Clotario Blest.
He has written books showing considerable learning and careful historical and sociological research. Among these I can point to his Esencia J Apariencia de la Democracia Cristiana
• [Essence and Appearance of Christian Democracy], Historia del Movimiento Obrero History of the Workers Movement], and especially his Interpretacion Marxista de la Historia de Chile
Interpretation of the History of Chilel, the second of whose projected six volumes has just appeared.
Now they want to cancel his Chilean citizenship papers for good. They must not deprive him of his citizenship and convert him into a stateless person. They must not hand
'gorillas, ' in
Argentine him over to the whose hands the life of this distinguished writer, this husband of a Chilean proíessional and Iather oi a Chilear daughter, would not be worth a cent."