guilty of the crimes of aggression, widespread, deliberate and systematic bombing of civilian targets in Vietnam, and violating the neutrali and territorial integrity of Cambodia.
* * *
As we meet in quiet comfort, the people of Vietnam are made to suffer new and greater crimes. Hour by hour, and day by day, the horror intensifies, inflicting wanton pain and torment on a nation which has known no peace.
We are calm and unhurried. We have carried on our work these many months in the tranquility of our laboratories and reading rooms. We have studied the war through the means which are customary to us as scholars. The written word, pictorial evidence, the material remains of incinerated villages -- all these are transported to us for examination at our convenience. We form our judgment as we would judge right and wrong in a war of antiquity. The anguish of the Vietnamese people is as remote from our lives as that of a people who are removed from us by centuries.
We have not shared their suffering. Our judgment does not vindicate them, but vindicates ourselves. The idle man has no right of judgment over those who support the concept of morality and justice by their active struggles against cruelty and injustice. Our words are a small charity, causing us to endure no hardships. Ours is a meagre role in history. Can we consider ourselves actors when the drama of our epoch is a life and death struggle between the peasants of Vietnam and the mechanised slaughter perpetrated from Washington?
The course of history is being shaped in Vietnam. We shall not alter it much by our words. It is the people of Vietnam who refuse to submit to United States hegemony, who are altering history. They are proving the might of men inspired by ideals. They face the richest armies and the most modern instruments of extermination.
America spends seventy million dollars per day to enact mass murder, but the impoverished nation of Vietnam cannot be deterred. The power of this example will be felt in every continent where the poor have been cowed before the military prowess of their oppressors. The power of their example extends even to the affluent nations of the West, where their heroism has stirred politically inert people to massive protest against the new barbarism of the Pentagon.
What we may say counts for little beside their deeds. By examining and exposing American war crimes in Vietnam we do no more than ask to be counted on the side of those who are struggling in a just cause. By fulfilling the minimal obligations which we recognise, we seek merely to avoid moral impotence.
We have already presented conclusive evidence of the aggressive character of the United States intervention in Vietnan. As we proceed we must recognise how profoundly the concept of aggression covers all of America's crimes in Vietnan.
We are not examining a border dispute between Great Powers to determine which is the aggressor, in the sense of the first party to transgress the frontiers of another. In such a case, I should be reluctant to say that the incident of aggression would constitute the totality of all war crimes in the ensuing battles.
I do not agree with the rigorous
===== p1011 ===== -1,010-
adherence to formal definitions which prevented our placing the bombardment of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the same moral plane as the crimes of the Axis in World War II. Japan's aggression does not exonerate the United States for using the atomic bomb against civilian centres.
But I believe firmly that America's aggression in Vietnam is a pure crime of conquest, delineating precisely between aggressor and victim. I cannot remember any war within my own lifetime in which the term "naked aggression" so profoundly explained the full meaning of the bloodshed.
In Vietnam there is a race of men who, in modern times have never been free and who have never known peace. This explains why the war knows no middle course between national salvation and genocide. Men who have known only war, injustice and suffering can make no compromise, for they possess nothing to concede.
They may lose their lives, but these were already taken from them. Their culture may be brought to ruin, but it was already perverted and abased by the power of alien forces. Their wealth may be wasted, but it was already stolen. A century of western oppression forms the prelude to a quarter century of violent strife.
The struggle aims not to restore the past, but to create the future. The epic struggle of Vietnam continues so long as one man survives, embodying these hopes, demanding to create a new life, free of impoverishment and fear, with
dignity and courage. Every man of this
race, who has not been bought by the
United States, carries this hope. Each
threatens America; for each must be ex-
terminated if America's will is to pre-
vail. .
We meet in the coming days to con-
sider the extent to which America is al-
ready guilty of genocide, in the most ex-
act juridical sense of the tern.
America's intent is plain; the log-
ic is unmistakable. Our task is to hear
the evidence, document the atrocities, and
declare the extent to which this -- the
most heinous of crimes -- has been commit-
ted.
Vietnam has much in common with
other struggles for justice. Although it
is not the task of our Tribunal to con-
sider these other struggles, we cannot
forget them. They are the raisons d'étre
of new tribunals and future enquiries.
By our modest effort, we wish to
affirm the duty of those who have sought
only to contribute to civilisation to
stand with the men and women who struggle
to uphold its values. Let us remind the
complacent that the crimes against the
American Negro will also receive the most
exhaustive examination. Let this warn the
arrogant spokesmen of the American Century
that the crimes against the people of
Latin America will also be exposed.
We are not the judges; we are wit-
nesses. Our task is to make mankind to bear
witness to these terrible crimes and to
unite humanity on the side of justice in
Vietnam.
CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS LOSE IN BELLWETHER CHILEAN STUDENT ELECTION
Santiago, Chile
In elections held by the Student Federation of Concepcién November 19, the Christian Democrats suffered their first defeat in five years. They were beaten by a joint slate put up by the Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria and the Partido Socialista. The MIR-PS candidates won 1,270 votes as against 1,060 for the Christian Democrats.
The winning slate was headed by 23-year-old Luciano Cruz Aguayo, a student of medicine and member of the MIR who came to prominence last September during some student actions in which he declared a hunger strike. The student demonstrations culminated in mass actions in the streets of Concepcién.
The son of a former army officer, Luciano Cruz, joined the Communist party.
He was expelled from that organization
in 1964 for adopting positions that were
too radical for this "peaceful coexis-
tence" minded party.
The outcome of the university elec-
tions in Concepcién were held to be of
symptomatic importance for the country as
a whole. The daily El Mercurio declared
in an editorial November 21:
"The university election in Concep-
cién represented a decided turn of the
students toward extremist positions. The
slate headed by Luciano Cruz of the MIR
overcame the Christian Democrat candidate
despite the lack of Communist support.
The Communists ran their own slate, get-
ting 257 votes.] The strengthening of the
extremist positions tilts the balance
among the national political parties and
marks a new milestone in the current re-
groupment of the Chilean left. It appears
===== p1012 ===== -1,011-
symptomatic that the coming apart of the FRAP [Frente Revolucionario de Acci6n Popular -- the Socialist and Communist party bloc formed in the last presidential elections], noted in the elections for the FECH [Federacién de Estudiantes de Chile], should be repeated in the south; but this time leading to a collapse of some proportions for the Communists and the Radicals. [The Radicals received 527 votes in the election.] The Socialists were able to verify that their alliance with the MIR can pay off better than bowing to the FRAP. On the other hand, the Communists, upon being isolated, showed lack of pulling power in the vote."
At the same time, the Christian Democrats still appear to be holding their own among the students at the University of Santiago. In the October 22 elections, the Christian Democrat slate won with a vote of 6,191. The Communist party slate came second with a vote of
3,412; the joint MIR-PS slate got 1,965;
the Partido Radical 1,136 and the Partido
Nacional 994.
As yet definitive conclusions can-
not be drawn inasmuch as the returns are
not yet in from other universities. It
could be that the Christian Democrats are
maintaining their majority nationally de-
spite the outcome of the election in Con-
cepcién. In that city the growth of the
MIR and the militant struggles it led
during the past year have evidently had
an important effect.
In Santiago, the strong showing of
the Christian Democrats, the Radicals and
the most reformist sector (the Communist
party) indicates that the Chilean students
have not yet entered the stage of deep
radicalization and are still voting for
the bourgeois reformist and traditional
left sectors.
TRIBUTES TO CHE GUEVARA CONTINUE IN CHILE
Santiago, Chile
Since the mass meeting in this city October 17 in tribute to Che Guevara [see World Outlook November 17, page 927], other gatherings have continued to voice the feelings of the workers over the example set by the heroic life of the greatest Latin-American Marxist revolutionist of our time.
The Socialist party organized various meetings in Santiago and in the provinces. The MIR [Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria] has also conducted mass rallies. In the universities of Santiago, Concepcién and Valparaiso the miristas have organized militant demonstrations.
In Concepcién, at the rally Novem-
ber 19 in the Cervantes theater where the
MIR-SP celebrated the victory of its
slate for the first time over the Chris-
tian Democrats, a victory won by a margin
of more than 200 votes, Luciano Cruz, a
member of the MIR, recently elected presi-
dent of the Federacién de Estudiantes de
Concepcién, dedicated the victory to Che
Guevara.
The Municipal Workers of Santiago,
which has a membership of 3,000 workers,
resolved at a meeting November 11 to pay
revolutionary homage to the life and
struggle of Che Guevara.
This was in response to a proposal
made by militant workers of the MIR who
have advanced perceptibly in this union
during the past year.
CONCERNING J. POSADAS
[The following statement was issued November 11 by the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. ]
* * *
A person named J. Posadas, and the group he leads, expelled more than five years ago from the Fourth International, continues to conduct a campaign of lies and slander with regard to the revolutionary workers movement and. the Cuban leadership in particular.
After having declared that Che Guevara had been murdered by Fidel Castro in 1965, that the documents "attributed" to Guevara were false, that the guerrilla struggle in Bolivia was a "comedy" and
that the Bolivian government had not "pre-
sented a single body of a guerrilla" to
prove that there were guerrillas (in July
1967!), this group has not hesitated now
to say that the death of the "fake Gue-
vara" was a show put on by the Cuban and
Bolivian governments!
The frenzy of J. Posadas to deny
all evidence has led him to invent the
worst charges against the revolutionary
tendencies and to present all their acts
as "miserable comedies."
The United Secretariat once again
calls attention to the fact that the Po-~
sadas group has nothing in common with
the Fourth International whose name it
utilizes without authorization.
===== p1013 ===== -1,012-
BOLIVIAN CP VIEW ON THE GUERRILLAS AND THE DEATH OF CHE
(The following interview, entitled, "Bolivia After the Death of Che Guevara," was granted by Jorge Kolle, a member of the Secretariat of the Bolivian Communist party, to Eduardo Labarca, editor of the Chilean Communist daily El Siglo.
(The interview is evidently considered to be of prime importance by the pro-Moscow Communist parties. Translations of it have appeared in the Italian CP daily 1'Unita and the French CP daily 1'Humanité.
(World Outlook does not have the original Spanish text as published by El Siglo and we have therefore made an English translation from the Italian version published in Rome November 17.
{The Italian text included two editorial notes, one of some length. It is not clear whether these were added by the editor of El Siglo or by the editor of 1'Unita.
(The interview is of special inmportance in the context of the general attack now being mounted against the Cubans by the right-wing leaders of the Latin-American Communist parties and their allies and backers in the Kremlin.
(The attack and its meaning is considered by Livio Maitan in an article on page 1,014 of this issue of World Outlook. ]
*x* * *
What role has the PCB played in the guerrilla action which developed in the country and what has been its position toward it?
In the view of the PCB, guerrilla warfare, as one of the forms of armed struggle, within the framework of "methods of struggle" for the seizure of power by the revolutionary forces, has been and still is a method, a tactical category; but, in the PCB's view, its application as a strategy does not suit the concrete historical reality of the country's economic, social and political conditions. The basic fact in Bolivia today is the military government's counterrevolutionary offensive against the people, the working class, its organizations and leaders: the breaking up of the national, democratic, popular and revolutionary forces; government control over the unions; repression and imprisonment of patriots, democrats and revolutionaries.
(Note: The PCB is underground. It was outlawed by decree of the military dictatorship three weeks prior to the first episode in the guerrilla action.)
The PCB believes that we must seriously look toward a period of reorganization and strengthening of our forces: we must create the necessary preconditions for forming a popular, anti-imperialist front based on unity between the working class and important layers of the peasantry which would permit us to confront the tasks of seizing power. And in this we must not underestimate any method of struggle, utilizing them all in mass action and in every concrete case adapting them to the situation.
Guerrilla warfare started off without a proper appreciation of the political and social factors indispensable to its development; it emerged prematurely. Nonetheless, as a matter of principle, the PCB extended solidarity to the guerrillas and supported them with all the means at its disposal, without taking part in an organizational way. And there was a nucleus of our members who, outside the party bodies, took part in the armed actions.
(Note: The role and sacrifices of the Bolivian Communists are not well known. Guillermo Peredo Leigue, called "Inti," who is now leading the survivors from Guevara's group is a member of the Central Committee of the PCB. Communists who died in battle were "Inti's" brother "Coco," Aniceto Reynaga, Antonio Jiménez, called "Pan de Dios" F'bread of God"] and Jorge VAsquez Viana, who received a bullet wound in the stomach, was operated on in Camiri and then killed with a pistol shot in the back by an officer of the Fourth Division for "an attempt to escape"; this pretext was clearly a lie since, according to the medical report, the prisoner was in no condition even to move. Orlando Jiménez Baz4n, called "Camba," who was captured and called as a witness at the Debray trial, is a Communist. After he refused to swear "before God and the sign of the Holy Cross," and swore "on honor and by my fatherland," Camba declared: "I went into the guerrilla action because I am a member of the Bolivian Communist party." Loyola Guzm4n and Paquita Leyton, who are being held in the La Paz women's prison, are Communists.
(All the following Communists are in prison: Pedro Aliaga, Clara Torrico, Olivares, Gabriel Pocel and Fernando Martinez, the chief editor of the Communist party organ, Unidad. Every week the eee omentP arrests more Communist activists).
How do you view the possible consequences of Guevara's death?
We would like first of all to express our admiration and our sorrow: admiration for the revolutionary who gave
===== p1014 ===== -1,013-
his life for the cause; sorrow all the more intense inasmuch as this was a coldblooded murder perpetrated far from the field of battle by the hand of agents of the CIA with the complicity of some Bolivian officers.
The death of Compafiero Guevara and the guerrilla action's unfortunate outcome do not mean, in our opinion, that the guerrilla action was unsound. Perhaps we should speak of a "calamity" rather than of “unsoundness." The consequences are a heavy loss, too much so, for the revolution. They are creating the conditions in Bolivia for a new heightening of the crisis of the revolutionary movement and encouraging the offensive of the enemy, who is today in a position to exploit this "success"; but, in the last analysis, a positive iesson for the revolutionary cause can be drawn from this. Our people were and remain morally at the side of the guerrillas. The unfortunate thing was, as we predicted, that this support could not be concretized in an active manner.
It can be predicted that two tendencies will show up on a continental scale, one current parallel to the Communist movement, the other in opposition to it: on the one hand, development of armed guerrilla movements; on the other, reactionary activity directed by the CIA, which will seek to create provocations and to "establish" responsibility in order to decapitate the revolutionary movement. The main thrust of these attempts is directed against Cuba and the more well-developed Communist parties, like the Chilean for example.
What are the current prospects for the Bolivian people's and democratic movement?
As to our perspective, we will say basically that our people's and democratic movement will surely be victorious. Without question, the forces and also the organization which will clear the way for the struggle and for its victorious conclusion are maturing in the present crisis. For the present, we are passing through a crisis. The enemy has the initiative, but his inner contradictions limit his margin for maneuver; however, if these contradictions develop, they can and should create a situation favorable to the people. This is the period for reorganizing our forces.
What _is your opinion of the news report that the diary of the guerrilla called "The Doctor" mentions. the presence
of the first secretary of the PCB in the
guerrilla zone and certain conditions
which he is supposed to have put to Gue-
vara?
Everyone knows that the PCB's
policy consists in uniting the revolution-
ary forces to present a single powerful
bloc against the continental and world-
wide activity of imperialism. Nothing
will be done by our party which could
divide these forces. Furthermore, this
is the policy of the Communist parties
on this continent in general.
On the other hand, it is our view
that the revolution must be an essential-
ly national phenomenon: this is our
principled position and it is no secret.
In my view, this is a new machi-
nation against our party: since our po-
sition is known, no party leader, no
party body has been authorized "to nego-
tiate" and could not have done so. Fur-
thermore, there has been such a prolif-
eration of guerrilla "diaries" published
by the press and exhibited by the Boliv-
ian high command that, whatever their
source, they have lost all documentary
or historical credibility. Simple common
sense makes it impossible to believe in
such a terrific quantity of "historians"
for a guerrilla movement. It cannot be
taken seriously.
What lessons does the negative
outcome of the guerrilla action hold for
the revolutionary movement of Latin Amer-
ica?
We reject all generalizations. We
are sure of the fact that, in one way or
another, the Bolivian case is an experi-
ence for the world and continental revo-
lutionary movement. But it is up to the
Latin-American revolutionaries in every
country where they work, according to
the situation in which they find then-
selves, according to their own experi-
ence and state of development to draw
the lessons from the Bolivian experience.
None are more qualified or more entitled
to do this than the Communist parties
and their leaders.
When the circumstances permit, we
Bolivians must make our experiences known.
I repeat, this experience and its results
are ours alone. This does not represent
"localism," nor, obviously, any abandon-
ment of internationalist principles, but
only our respect for each of our brother
parties and the responsibility they as-
sume before their peoples.
===== p1015 ===== -1,014-
IN REPLY TO THE BOLIVIAN CP AND ITS BACKERS
By Livio Maitan
While revolutionists the world over anxiously wonder about the fate of the guerrillas in Bolivia following the death of Che Guevara, the offensive mounted by adversaries of the revolutionary line is being broadened and sharpened more and more.
Certain organs of the Latin- American Communist parties have even used their funeral eulogies to the guerrilla leader to stress their differences with his concepts and to insinuate, more or less implicitly, that his death, in the final analysis, was the practical result of a false orientation.
A few days after Fidel Castro's official announcement, Pravda opened its pages to two of the most hostile enemies of the Cuban line -- the Argentinian Ghioldi and the Chilean Corval [see World Qutlook November 10, page 912] -- enabling them to level an attack which, behind an obviously hypocritical screen, aimed in reality at the Fidelista leadership and its present orientation. It is thus clear that the leaders of the Latin- American CPs, in a very uncomfortable situation since the polemic over the activities of the Venezuelan CP broke into the open and they were nailed to the wall by the outcome of the OLAS [Organization of Latin-American Solidarity] conference, judged that the time for the counterattack had come.
The interview which Rodney Arismendi granted to the Italian CP weekly (see Rinascita, November 17) was another element in this generalized offensive, although Arismendi continued to stand on the ground which he had chosen at Havana, trying to play the role of a centrist moderator. The secretary of the Uruguayan CP stated in his opening observations that "the process underway in the Latin- American continent has all the characteristics of a prerevolutionary situation," but he was far from drawing from this the necessary conclusions; and in fact he once again resorted to his polyvalent formulas the aim of which is to cover up all kinds of opportunist adaptations.
It is significant moreover that he explicitly held out the perspective of a victory for the left in the next presidential election in Chile, bringing out at the same time with a certain pride that as for him, he had already been elected seven times to parliament in his own country, thus becoming the dean of that body.
But the interview granted by the leader of the Bolivian CP, Jorge Kolle,
is the item that in particular marks a
new stage in the offensive of the pro-
Soviet CPs (the interview appeared in
the Chilean CP daily, El Siglo, and was
immediately reprinted in the daily news-
papers of the French and Italian CPs).*
Kolle made sure to stress that his party
had expressed its solidarity with the
guerrilla struggle and that Communist
militants had played a very important
role in it. But at the same time he con-
firmed in essence what has been clear
for some time in the light of a series
of reports and declarations (including,
particularly, the declarations made by
Régis Debray) and which was prominently
indicated in addition in the account
from La Paz which World Outlook published
in its issue or November 10. In short,
Kolle's statements constitute further
evidence for the following conclusions:
(1) The Bolivian CP -- reference
here is obviously to the pro-Soviet CP
-- did not favor guerrilla struggle,
which it considered more or less a method
to be used contingently within the frame-
work of a more general strategy.
(2) When the CP understood that
the struggle would be developed despite
it, it sought to gain the controlling
positions, utilizing top level leaders
in an attempt which did not succeed
owing to Guevara's opposition.
(3) When this attempt failed, the
CP adopted a more and more critical and
hostile attitude toward the guerrillas.
(4) Some of the Communist mili-
tants and leaders did play a major role
among the guerrillas, but in opposition
to the party line and by breaking with
the party -- whether formally or in
practice. (Kolle tries to make his read-
ers believe that some of those who fell
in the struggle or who are still carry-
ing out leadership tasks in it remained
members of the party, whereas in reality
they left it.)
(5) Given its orientation, the CP
did absolutely nothing to mobilize and
help the guerrillas win; on the contrary
the party did its best to put obstacles
in their way and sabotage their action
in every possible way. Kolle's statement:
"The unfortunate thing was, as we pre-
dicted, that this [popular] support could
not be concretized in an active manner,"
* For the full text of this article see
World Outlook, page 1,012.
===== p1016 ===== -1,015-
constitutes nothing but revolting hypocrisy.
It should be noted, finally, that in concluding, Kolle indicates that when the time comes his party may adopt new positions -- which could be a way of already indicating a new phase in the anti- Castroist offensive.
Within the framework of this whole operation of the Latin-American CPs, which from all the evidence has been worked out in consonance with Moscow, the attitude of the Maoist leadership assumes a significance not to be minimized. It should be noted that the Chinese have remained completely silent on the polemic between Fidel and the Venezuelan CP, on the message from Che Guevara and on the OLAS conference, while at the same time remaining reticent about the guerrillas in Bolivia, at times publishing some indirect commentaries critical of the Cuban orientation (some Latin-American, and not only Latin-American, groups openly supported by Peking have gone so far as to formulate quite explicit attacks on the "revisionism" of Fidel Castro).
The enormous fact should now be underlined that during the days and weeks in which the entire world followed the events in Bolivia, the Chinese press quite simply ignored the death of Che.
There is no need for us to insist on the fact that such an infamous attitude reveals a sectarianism carried to such an extreme that one can scarcely conceive it, and it says much about the concept held by the Maoists on relations within the international workers movement, But it is above all clear that at the root of such an attitude is a profound difference held by the Chinese with regard to the revolutionary strategy of Fidel Castro, Ernesto Guevara and the Latin-American vanguard. How otherwise can it be explained that people who polemicize every day with the Soviets and the CPs under their influence on practically all questions evade condemning the current offensive against the revolutionary road and guerrilla struggle and do not breathe a word on the events and conflicts of the highest degree of interest to the revolutionists of Latin America?
In reality, it is absolutely necessary that the revolutionary movement in Latin America and particularly in Bolivia reply in a resolute way to the questions that have been posed, meeting head on the attack of the adversaries of the revolutionary road and the guerrilla struggle.
This signifies, above all, recalling the essential aspects of the analysis of the situation in Bolivia in the years 1965-67 as outlined by the Bolivian vanguard (see the many articles which have appeared in World Outlook up to the account from La Paz published in the Novenber 10 issue). From this analysis, it follows without any possibility of ambiguity that the initiative taken of unleashing a guerrilla struggle was not artificial or premature, but corresponded to social and political dynamics that made it possible and necessary. The fact that the guerrilla struggle was greeted with enthusiasm by certain sectors and with sympathy by others and that it contributed immediately to greater sharpening of the contradictions faced by the regime and Bolivian society is an additional confirmation of the correctness of the fundamental choice that was made.
More generally, it would be completely arbitrary to draw from some grave setbacks or even the possible failure of this experience the conclusion that the concept of armed struggle and guerrillas is erroneous and must be abandoned. Defeats are always possible and guerrilla war likewise is a method of struggle that does not assure success on every occasion.
But what happened or may have happened in the current guerrilla struggle in Bolivia does not in the least change the fundamental tendencies of the Bolivian and Latin-American situation and it is these tendencies on which the revolutionary strategy of the Cubans and the vanguard throughout the continent is based.
The gentlemen leading the pro- Soviet CPs ought, moreover, to explain why in this case they rush to draw conclusions allegedly based on experience, while they pay no attention to the negative experiences of the "democratic" or "peaceful" road going back for decades.
This does not at all mean that we want to disregard the necessity for a precise analysis of the causes of certain setbacks. The analysis of the Bolivian guerrilla struggle must be made and will be made; it goes without saying that the first who should speak are not the strategists of the Latin Quarter or "cultural" circles somewhere in the world, but the organizations and the groups which have been participating in the dramatic struggle that is continuing against the Barrientos regime. We repeat -- a struggle that is continuing and which the revolutionists throughout the world are duty bound to support and help with everything in their power in these crucial weeks.
November 20
===== p1017 ===== -1,016-
WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL FINDS U.S. GOVERNMENT GUILTY OF GENOCIDE
The International War Crimes Tribunal ended its second session of hearings December 1. It