(The following article appeared in the October 31 issue of the biweekly Rood, the organ of the Belgian Revolutionaire Socialisten (Revolutionary Socialists), the Flemish affiliațe of the Confédération Socialiste des Travailleurs (Socialist-Workers Confederation). The translation from the Flemish is by Intercontinental Press.]
The majority of the Antwerp section of the Kommunistische Jeugd [KJ - Communist Youth] have decided to disaffiliate from the CP and become an independent political group.
Thus a landmark (the first) has been reached after a process of political maturation extending over the past two years.
The pattern of this crisis in the Antwerp section is almost the same as that in the Communist youth in Ghent, in which the entire Ghent section of the Vlaamse Kommunistische Studenten (VKS) [Flemish Communist Students] broke away from the party. (Some joined the SJW [Socialistische Jonge Wacht- Socialist Young Guard], some joined anarchist or spontanéist groups, others remained active in the university groups, while still others finally became demoralized and left politics. So far no new VKS has appeared in Ghent.)
The two crises went through
• the same development— at first difficulties with the bureaucratic party representatives in the youth organization; a first awareness of the opportunism of the CP (a witch-hunt against "the leftists" and an "alliance" with the right); various concrete points of conflict in action (e.g., the Antiatomic March): the threat of expulsion, finally a new political consciousness among the youth and an insight into the neo-Stalinist and opportunistic character of the CP.
The conflict between the youth movement and the traditional workers parties is an international phenomenon. The SDS (Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund —German Socialist Student Union] in Germany, the JCR leunesse Communiste
Révolutionnaire- Revolutionary Communist Youth] in France, the SUF (Socialistisk Ungdomsforum - Socialist Youth Forum] in Denmark, the Young Socialists in England, Falce e Martello [Hammer and Sickle] in Italy, and finally the Socialistische Studenten [Socialist Students] and the SJW in Belgium are eloquent proof of this.
This general character points to a deeper factor. The radicalization of the youth has become a mass phenomenon and can no longer be controlled by the traditional workers parties, which are increasingly integrated into
Latin America (Che...), support for the Vietnamese revolution, the French May and the Krivine campaign, and, last but not least, Czechoslovakia.
In Belgium, another factor is present. The CP wants to integrate itself as fast as possible (that is, in an unprincipled way) into Collard's"progressive front." In Flanders the CP is so weak with respect to the BSP | Belgisch Socialistische Partij- Belgian Socialist Party! that the pressure of the CP trade unionists is not sufficient to force the Social Democrats to collaborate.
The BSP, however, is leaving a (cautious) back door open through its youth organization. Thus a regular liaison was set up between the KJ, CVP (Christelijke Volkspartij - Christian People's party, the Belgian Christian Democrats] Youth, and the Jongsocialisten (Young Socialists].
The KJ, which made a left turn after the Antiatomic March (under pressure from the SJW), had won a greater degree of freedom from the CP leadership. But when the Collard front was launched, the KJ again became an essential element that the CP wanted to control no matter what. "Better a paper KJ than an independent K.J," they said. The break between the two organizations was therefore logical and inevitable.
The group that left is now seeking to make its own way in the political arena. This is a difficult task, it goes without saying; and all the more so because these militants realize with bitterness their lack of political education, an aspect of work that no longer seems to be in favor in the CP.
Another obstacle is that the political differences with the CP had already developed to such a point that the new group has come very close to the line of the SJW on all important questions. And now an additional difficulty arises. The SJW is well on the way toward transforming itself from a loosely structured regional group to a national youth vanguard organization with selective recruitment, a revolutionary political line, and democratic centralism.
From the political standpoint, nothing prevents these left Communists from joining the SJW. But from the organizational point of view, they are so disgusted with the bureaucratic centralism of the CP that they want to throw out the baby (democratic centralism) with the bath water.
The "Kommune" group which they are trying to set up is seeking to turn toward the masses without any clear analysis, without a program, without a defined tactic and strategy.
This "all together," which is a proper slogan in concrete cases for concrete actions with concrete objectives, is entirely ineffective when seen as a program and the basis for building an organization.
Trying to find a shortcut and making concessions to a certain individualistic political or petty-bourgeois mentality ("enough talk," "to hell with discipline," "nothing but action") does not automatically get you back on the main road-that is, the road toward building a revolutionary party capable of leading the working class to socialism.
The correct road is that of a solid doctrine (Marxism), an unwavering political line, a coherent strategy, she not incy dary cadre training, and political education, as well as effective activism.
This road is the most difficult today in view of a certain mentality among the youth.
This is the road the SJW is following. And we are really moving against the stream.
Already Have Enough Dust on Earth
When officials of the University of Pittsburgh put on a display of moon dust brought back by the Apollo 11 astronauts, they thought people would "be breaking down the doors to get in." A spokesman ruefully admitted that the display of the precious stuff is attracting "about as much attention as a sack of coal dust."
Bolivia
Against the Wage Freeze
La Paz
In response to the Ovando government's latest decree, the Executive Committee of the Partido Obrero Revolucionario [Revolutionary Workers party, the Bolivian section of the Fourth International] states the following:
1. The wage and salary freeze is directed against labor and against the people. It denies the workers any improvement in their miserable living conditions, while preserving intact the profits of the exploiting bourgeoisie allied to imperialism. It is untrue that an increase in wages would endanger the stability of the currency. This is the standard maintained by the American employers; but a government that proclaims social justice could well raise the incomes of the workers without affecting the currency by redistributing the national income. The price of the crisis must be paid for by the economically powerful and not, as up until now, by the wage earners alone.
2. We remind the people and the workers that the struggle against foris ineign imperialist oppression timately linked to social revolution, that abandoning the revolution for the sake of the anti-imperialist struggle assures, in fact, the victory of imperialism.
The workers support the nationalization of the Gulf Oil Co. because they associate it with their own revolutionary class objectives. But if these aspirations are deferred, as in the case of the Teopente gold-mining company, as in the leasing system in the mines, and now the wage freeze, instances where capitalist interests were favored, a de facto rupture develops between the government and the workers.
Therefore, in order to defend the nationalization of the Gulf Oil Co. and widen the anti-imperialist struggle, in order to defend the national sovereignty consistently, it is necessary to revitalize the workers movement and speed the emergence of a vanguard capable of leading the process now in motion. And this vanguard must have a clear understanding of the fact that in the world of today national economic independence is inseparable from socialism.
3. If, in fact, there are difficulties in selling our oil because of an imperialist boycott, we call on the Ovando government to reestablish trade relations with Cuba, whose market is large enough to absorb Bolivian oil production.
For the Executive Committee of the POR:
Eliseo Vásquez Aldana October 27, 1969.
Nigerian Students Stage Demonstration
Lagos
Students from three universities in Ibadan, Lagos, and Ife staged a mammoth demonstration October 29 to back their demand for the abolition of the present scholarship and indigent scheme and its replacement with a system of government loans.
Students from Ibadan and Ife, af ter demonstrating on their own campuses, boarded chartered buses for Lagos where they joined in a mass march on the Federal Ministry of Education. The building was heavily guarded by a contingent of armed policemen led by the deputy commissioner of police for Lagos State, Mr. Yisa Lawani. There were no incidents.
The students carried placards reading: "Scholarships Unworkable, Loan Is the Answer," "Indigent Scheme Scrapped, Scholarship Withdrawn," and "Loans Are Not Shameful." Other signs called on the head of state, General Gowon, to support their demands.
A student delegation held a closeddoor meeting with Mr. Ade John, permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, but the outcome of the meeting was not immediately made public.
Despite the Generals
The Gulf Take-over Is a Victory for the People
Oruro
With regard to the recent developments, the González section of the Miners Fraction of the Partido Obrero Revolucionario (Revolutionary Workers party, the Bolivian section of the Fourth International states the following:
1. The Trotskyists salute the nationalization of the imperialist Gulf Oil Co. as a triumph of the revolutionary people of Bolivia and as the first fruit of the anti-imperialist revolutionary war begun in the mountains of Nancahuazú by the guerrillas of Che Guevara and Inti Peredo.
Faced with the new colossal revolutionary ascent that is shaking Latin America and especially Bolivia, faced with humiliating defeat of Yankee imperialism in Vietnam, and convinced that reactionary violence cannot defeat a people determined to liberate itself, the mass murderers of yesterday have changed their colors. To halt the revolution from below, they are now offering a revolution from above, kept within the limits of capitalism. The officers have been forced to nationalize the Gulf Oil Co. by the mounting popular insurrection which threatened to sweep them from the political scene as in 1952.
2. This popular victory must be defended, not only against the maneuvers of the imperialists but against the limitations of the rulers themselves. At the same time that Gulf was nationalized, contradictorily, the government was already talking about respecting private investment and keeping intact the imperialist Trojan Horse represented by the El Alto La Paz air base (a little Guantánamo), the Yankee military missions doing advisory or educational work in the military bases, USAID (United States Agency for
International Development], USIS [United States Information Service], the Peace Corps, and the missions operating at all levels of public administration.
As a result, the nationalization of the Gulf Oil Co. was imperiled from the very moment it was enacted. The government is not capable of carry- December 1, 1969
ing this nationalization forward, just as the bourgeois MNR (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionaria - Revolutionary Nationalist Movement] was incapable of doing so at the time of the nationalization of the mines.
What is needed to carry through the nationalizations effectively is a revolutionary political leadership interlocked with a profound mass mobilization, which would incorporate the nationalizations of imperialist property into the struggle for socialism and the establishment of workers power.
Neither the political tendencies that declare themselves to be of the left nor the masses can repeat the mistakes made in the MNR decade. The nationalization of the Gulf Oil Co. cannot be defended by placing confidence in a bourgeois government and still less by abdicating to it the revolutionary role of the proletariat and its vanguard.
In this regard, it is infantile to propose socialist programs for General Ovando to carry out. The defense of the statization of petroleum can be assured only by the revolutionists following a correct independent strategy of contending for power and creating their own armed political instrument, capable, at the insurrectional high point, of replacing the present government.
Without this revolutionary outcome, we repeat, the nationalization of the Gult Oil Co. risks being emasculated and, after being deprived of its progressive character, incorporated into the functioning of the imperialist apparatus.
3. In accordance with our line, we Trotskyists propose the formation of a great mass front including all the trade-union organizations, the revolutionary political groupings, the progressive sectors of the church, the left intellectuals, the students, and the peasants.
We propose that this front be headed by the Ejército de Liberación Nacional [Army of National Liberation] which by its actions, its heroism, and its sacrifice has touched the country's most responsive chord and shown that a revolution is not made in a forum hall or at a round table but by firm and combative action in attacking the supports of imperialism. Only a front of this nature, with a clear ideology and backed by arms, will be capable of raising a real and not a utopian governmental alternative.
4. In saluting the nationalization of the Gulf Oil Co. as a popular victory in spite of the generals, we Trotskyists pay homage to some of the great anti-imperialist fighters of recent times. We pay homage to fighters like Che Guevara, Inti Peredo, and their comrades who fell in the struggle for the national and social liberation of Bolivia in their confrontation with the military officers trained by the imperialists' Green Berets.
As part of the anti-imperialist struggle, we call on the entire Bolivian people, its workers, peasants, and student organizations, and on the intellectuals to take a stand demanding the release of dozens of anti-imperialist fighters held for alleged complicity with guerrillas in the Panóptico de San Pedro, the Obrajes women's prison, and the Camiri military prison.
We call on them to demand full civil liberties for our general secretary, Comrade Hugo Gonzalez Moscoso, and the ending of the furious persecution that has been launched against him.
The release of these revolutionary patriots will be a victory over the CIA and Yankee imperialism!
Ever onward until victory is won!
For the POR Miners Fraction by:
José Luís Vásquez, Juan Pérez Solía, and Federico Herrera Aldana.
October 20, 1969.
Progress Report
"[South] Korea is still in the bottom 20 per cent of developing countries, despite receiving one of the highest levels of aid per head in the world, mainly from its good military ally in the United States." - November 8 London Economist.