Beware of Russian Social-Imperialism and Super Power Rivalry
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1 A JOURNAL OF SOUTH AFRICAN AND SOUTHERN AFRICAN POLITICAL ANALYSIS NUMBER 5 APRIL 1977 AFRICA : BEWARE OF RUSSIAN SOCIAL-IMPERIALISM AND SUPER POWER RIVALRY THIS ISSUE INCLUDES: AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICA (AFRICAN NATIONALISTS): WHITE-LED SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY PARTY USE MARXISM LENINISM TO MAINTAIN WHITE PRIVILEGES IN SOUTH AFRICA: HARRY HAYWOOD, AFRO-AMERICAN MARXIST LENINIST ON THE BACKGROUND TO THE BLACK REPUBLIC; BASIL DAVIDSON AND | REVISIONISM IN SOUTHERN AFRICA; FRELIMO THESIS ON CONVERSION TO MARXIST LENINIST PARTY ANGOLAN MARXIST LENINISTS ON MPLA: MASSES AND REVOLUTION IN THE PEOPLES CONGO: BLACK ARTS FESTIVAL: IMPERIALISM AND AID; NATIONAL AND SOCIAL LIBERATION 50p EDITORIAL (1) THE LAND AND WEALTH TO THE BLACK PEOPLES OF AZANIA. We have witheld our own analysis of the 1928 Black Republic Thesis of the Communist International. Instead we carry a very interesting account from the pages of the Afro-American Marxist-Leninist, Harry Haywood's forthcoming autobiography to be published in spring this year. The account gives a background to the Thesis drawn up at the Comintern Conference and shows the early history of the racialism and chauvinism of the white "communists" of the SACP. Haywood's account should be read in conjunction with the reply document of the ANC (African Nationalists) who sharply trace the history of manipu'ations that the white SACP have been engaged in in sabotaging the freedom struggles of the Black peoples in Azania. It is these same people who try to teach the Black peoples of Azania to hate the great Peoples Republic of China, a Third World country that the people of Azania naturally look upto. But the days of the Slovos, Carnesons, Buntings, etc. are fast coming to an end. Their Black hangers-on better take not** and not be foolishly playing their game. Their is no future with them, despite all the Cuban mercenaries and Russian armaments they might be able to harness. Both these articles should be read in the light of the extract from Mao-Tse-Tung's Ten Major Relationships, which enables Azanians to correctly approach the question of white racialism, to reject the "non-racial democracy" approach that the white CP wants us to accept. It is also important for Azanian revolutionaries to approach the question of national oppression (racialism) from a class point of view and for this reason we carry an article from an old school of writing shwoing the umbilical links between South African capitalism. Imperialism and national oppression. It is important not to look at South African Capitalism apart from its roots in the history of Imperial sm, which nurtures and s jstains it in the country, and to whom it is a much junior partner. Failure to do so will mean that we cannot have a correct concept of national independence, and fie meaning of our slogan: THE LAND AND THE WEALTH TO THE BLACK PEOPLES OF AZANIA. Tito articles of the Angolan Marxist-Leninists on the situation in Angola during the war of intervention by the two super powers, the USSR and the USA, should be read in conjunction with the article on the "Masses a id Revolution in the People's Republic of the Congo." Both of these underline the new types of "socialism" that is being promoted in some African s ates, in some cases - as with Somalia - under the patronage of the Russians. This type of "socialism" while it might carry with it certain welfare benefits, is often mere rhetoric and phrase-mongering, and really constitutes a form of state bureaucratic capitalism and new elitism. What we have is that an unrepresentative movement (as in the case of the Neto clique of the MPLA) seizes State power and declares itself a Marxist Leninist Party. This so-called Marxist-leninist Party, without basing itself on mass mobilisation intends to bring socialism to the unenlightened masses by administrative decress. This was the road of the Russian Revolution and that has led right back to the restoration of capitalism in Russia, and even given rise to a social-imperialist phase in Russia's history. While we do not categorise FRE LIMO in the same manner we also realise that the danger remains with it too. The documents of the Angolan Marxist-Leninists throw a great deal of light on the real nature of the MPLA which its apologists cannot shrug away. Certainly the class analysis that the Angolan Marxist-Leninists present reveal who are the true revolutionary Marxist-Leninists in the country. On the question of Zimbabwe while it is the policy of IKWEZI not to interfere in the internal affairs of the liberation movements, and we believe that the Zimbabwean revolutiona ries if left to themselves will eventually be able to sort out their problems through struggle and attain unity against their common imperialist foes, nevertheless we cannot accept the crude interference of the Front-Line States in matters that are really the business of the Zimbabwean Liberation Movements. Let them sort out the question of their representative organisations and leaders. The Zimbabweans through their own struggle were able to raise the level of their struggle to a high level, that threatened to topple Ian Smith, and orobably make the greatest revolutionary breakthrough in South African history, until the Front Line States interfered • I This interference, while in some ways plays into the hands of the Russian social-imperialsts, also lays the seed of future divisions in the country. The fact is that neither MUgabe nor Nkomo have the major mass follow in gs in Zimbabwe, and whilst we have no illusions about the petit buorgeois nature of Bishop Muzorewa, the fact is that the mass of the Zimbabwean people trust him as a honest leader and support him. His organisation, the ANC, is the only mass organisation of the Zimbabwean people. They are sick and tired of ZAPU and ZANU who have no mass followings inside the country. The nature of the Zimbabwean struggle can only radicalise the ANC and bring it under the leadership of the most revolutionary elements, as Chen Chimutengwende describes in his article on "Zimbabwe and the Dangers of Neo-Colonia- lism." (2) Oppose Russian Social-Imperialism in Africa • In our last issue we carried an article pointing out that the continent of Africa was now undergoing a new phase of imperialist rivalry: that between Russian social-imperialism and Western Imperialism led by the United States. Recent events on the African continent have borne out how true this is. It is not only a question of Angola where there was flagrant and wily interference on the part of the Russians and their pawns, the Cubans, under the cover of repulsing South African aggression. The South Africans who had no desire to interfere in the first place, and did so under the promptings of that other Super Power, U.S' Imperialism, in its contention with the USSR, have long ago withdrawn but the Cuban Army is still in Angola, on the one hand fighting against UNITA guerillas, whom the combined might of the Russians, Cubans and MPLA have failed to subdue, and on the other hand virtually running the country on behalf of the Angolans. If that has not reduced the MPLA to a puppet status we don't what can. The Cubans could sit down with Annibal Escalante and Bias Roca and become integrated into their Commu nist Party that sided with Batista at the time of the revolutionary struggle led by Castro and GUeverra, but they find intolerable that Savimbi should be incorporated into a national government in Angola, so that the killing and sufferings of the Angolan people can be brought to an end, and the Angolans can be allowed to run their own affairs. It is becoming clear also that the intervention in Angola is not going to stop there and that the Soviet imperialists having a taste of victory wish to push on with their advantage. The recent incursions into Zaire, reportedly led by Cubans, demonstrates quite clearly that Angola is going to become the base for Soviet aggression against African countries. At the time of the Angolan War of Intervention, when Zaire asked for the return of the Katangese mercenaries, who in the past were hired by the Portuguese fascists to kill innocent Angolan people, and whom the opportunist MPLA had no hesitation in hiring - 6,000 of them, far outnumbering the other mercenaries, - it knew what it was doing. The fear that the MPLA would* use the Katangese mercenaries against Zaire has come true. Can any progressive or democrat sanction the breakaway of Katanga (now called Shaba) from Zaire, over which so much Zairean blood was spilt. Is this not encouraging tribalism and the weakening of an African state. The Soviet Union and its revisionist apologists like Basil Davidson have for long been attacking Zaire as a CIA agent, etc. There has been a deliberate attempt by the revisionist world in recent months to pick out Zaire for attack. Certainly we would like to see a genuinely anti-imperialist and people's government take over from Mobuto. But that is a task that Zairean revolutionaries must undertake. We would definitely support and welcome a struggle of that sort that is indigenous to the ppeoples of Zaire. What we are not fooled by is under the guise of labelling Mobuto as a CIA agent, etc. others wish to to bring Zaire under its heel and threaten its national independence as the Russian social-imperialists are doing at the moment. WE SAY WITHOUT ANY HESITATION: HAND OFF ZAIRE. As far as we can learn the invasion in Shaba, Zaire, has not in any way been linked with the struggle of the Peoples Revolutionary Movement.