CALLS ATTENTION TO LESSONS OF BRAZILIAN DEFEAT
In a long editorial April 30 the People's Daily of Peking called attention to the lessons of the counterrevolabronary coup d'état in Brazil, The first part of the.editorial advqnces evidence _ to prove the complicity of U.S. imperialism in toppling the govern~. ment of Joao Goulart and points to the heavy American investments and high profits as the basic explanation for Washington's reactionary intervention in the internal affairs of Brazil, The editors then point out the conclusions which they hold should be drawn from the events, ‘Since little publicity has been given Peking's views on the downfall of Goulart, we offer below the concluding part of the editorial as reproduced from the May 1 issue of Hsinhua;
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The first lesson is that U.S, imperialism is the sworn enemy of the Latin-American peoples and that they must not entertain “any illusions about this most ferocious enemy.
The Goulart government wanted no more than to safeguard the interests of the nation and effect certain social reforms, Washington would not tolerate this and set its heart on getting rid of that government, This proves'to the hilt that the interests of the Latin- American countries which consist in winning national independence are incompatible with the interests of U.S. imperialism which, consist “in committing aggression, - "
In Latin America, U, S. “investments total more than § $10, 000- - 000,000, U.S, monopolies run big estates and industrial enterprises in every part of the continent. “The profit they squeeze out of Latin Amerioa exceeds $2,000,000,000 every year. There is hardly a Latin-American country where the United States has no vested inter~ est, The U.S. ruling circles talk glibly about assisting the Latin- American countries in working out "reforms" and "for progress," But in reality, they refuse to tolerate any reform or progress made by the Latin-American countries, however inconsequential they may be, The U.S. imperialist policy in relation to countries in Latin America is to maintain and tighten in every possible way its control over them, so that the U.S. may go on plundering and exploiting this rich continent to its heart's content, Therefore, any Latin-American country would earn the inveterate hatred of U.S. imperialism if it shows any desire to preserve its. independence, protect its national interests, or carry out social reforms, It is indeed difficult to keep count of the legitimately constituted governments in Latin America that have been overthrown by U.S. imperialism because they | wanted to defend their national interests, ‘The JOaO Goulart govern~ ment of Brazil is the latest case in point.
What happened in many Latin-American countries has made it: clear long ago that there are two alternatives before the Latin-~ - American countries: either allow themselves to be ruled by lackeys
of U.S. imperialism and be dominated and enslaved by the United States as in the case of Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, or rid themselves of the influence of the U.S. aggressors and resist U.S. intervention as in the case of Cuba, There is no third possi-~ bility. The events in Brazil are fresh proof that there is no room for Latin~Amerioan countries to come to a compromise with U.S. imperialism and its henchmen, The people of any Latin-American country, who refuse to live in subjugation and slavery and who want to achieve real progress and emancipation, must combat U.S, imperialism and its agents resolutely and defeat them,
The second lesson is that the national-democratic foroes in the Latin-American countries, like those in all other countries controlled and enslaved by U.S. imperialism, must be fully prepared to face armed suppression by U.S. imperialism and its lackeys and to strike back relentlessly, by armed force if necessary,
~The U.S, imperialists have always used counterrevolutionary two~faced tactics in their aggression of and interference in the Latin-American countries, while armed intervention, armed suppres-~sion and armed subversion are their customary methods of smothering the national-democratic movements there. Apart from supporting the reactionaries of these. countries and helping them ‘to suppress the people's revolutionary movements, by every conceivable means, they have continuously engineered and unleashed armed intervention and subversion, Since World War II, U.S. imperialism has engineered more than thirty armed rebellions or military coups in the fourteen [?] Latin-American countries, Any government, even one fostered by it, is overthrown by force whenever it incurs its displeasure, trife to the obedient and death to the disobedient" is the policy ‘of U.S. imperialism towards the Latin-American countries. In other parts of the world, too, U.S. imperialism uses violence against the revolutionary peoples fighting for liberation, Its armed interven~. tion in the Congo (Leopoldville) and South Vietnam are cases in point.
The Chinese people have their own experience in this aspeot, After their victory in the war of resistance against Japanese aggression in 1945, they longed for peace and democracy, The Chinese Communist party firmly stood its ground to realise these aspirations of the people. However, U.S. imperialism and its lackeys in China, the Kuomintang reactionaries, were bent on suppressing the Chinese people's revolutionary forces with arms. In these circumstances, .the Chinese Communist party led the people throughout the country in the struggle for peace and democracy and at the same time, was engaged in building up the strength of the revolutionary armed forces, to be ready to deal with armed suppression by U.S. imperialism and the Kuomintang reactionaries, Comrade Mao Tse-tung pointed out then that the revolutionary people must be prepared to take up swords to deal with the oppression and massacre by the imperialists and reactionaries, He said: “When we see the other fellow holding some- . thing in his hands, we should:do some investigating. What does he —= hold in his hands? Swords, What are swords for? For killing.
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Whom does he want to kill with his swords? The people, Having made these findiags, investigate further the Chinese people, too, have hands and can fake up swords; they can forge a sword if there is none handy. The Chinese people have discovered this truth after long investigation and study.. Warlords, landlords, local bullies and bad gentry and the imperialists all have swords in their hands and are out to kill. The people have come to understand this and so aot after the same fashion." Thanks to their preparations, the Chinese | people were able to take up their swords and put up a resistance when the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys in China, the Kuomintang reactionaries, brandished their swords to suppress the Chinese peoplets revolution, After a protracted armed struggle, the Chinese people defeated their enemies and won the great victory of the revo~ lution.
The Cuban people understand this truth, After a bitter armed struggle, they overthrew the rule of U.S. imperialism and its lackey, Batista, and achieved genuine national independence and liberation, After the vistory of the revolution, the Cuban people persisted in armed struggle against aggression by arming the whole nation and defended the revolutionary fruits by smashing, time and again, armed intervention and aggression by U.S. imperialism. Influenced and inspired by the victory of the Cuban Revolution, more and more Latin- American peoples have come to understand that armed suppression by U.S. imperialism and its lackeys must be opposed with revolutionary armed struggle. This is where the hdpe lies for the victory of the | national-democratic revolution in Latin America,
The tragedy of Brazil lies in the fact that Goulart and the political forces supporting him, while trying to uphold certain national interests as demanded by the people, had insufficient understanding of the savage nature of U.S. imperialism and its stooges and lacked vigilance. The most tragic thing is that they neither had reliable armed forces under their control nor firmly relied on the people, So they failed to crush the armed subversion by U.S. imperialism and the Brazilian reactionaries.
The Brazilian tragedy.is a fresh lesson in blood. When U.S, imperialism and its lackeys are intensifying their ruthless violent suppression, the modern revisionists are preaching "peaceful tran~ sition" to the oppressed nations and peoples of the world, the Brazilian and other Latin-American peoples not excepted, *By $0 doing, they are not only spreading an illusion but committing a monstrous crime, Counterrevolutionary violence can only be answered with revolutionary violence. This is universally applicable truth, The Second Havana Declaration says: “Revolution, in history, is as the doctor who assists at the birth of a new life: it does not use forceps unless it is necessary, but it will unhesitatingly use them every time labor requires them, .A labor that brings the hope of a better life to the enslaved and exploited masses." The Brazilian tragedy has once again borne out the correctness of this conclusion
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from the converse side, It has provided fresh proof to the insolveney of the theory | of "peaceful transition,’
The third lesson from the Brazilian events is that in order to carry out a national-democratic revolution and win national and social liberation, the oppressed nations and peoples of Latin America must form a broad national-democratic united front by rallying all patriotic domestic forces and resolutely fight against U. S. imperialism and its lackeys,.
The Second Havana Declaration correctly says: "Tt is possible to organise the immense majority of the people in the anti-imperialist and antifeudal struggle for- the goals of liberation which unite the efforts of the working class, the peasants, the intellectual workers, the petty bourgeoisie: and -the-most progressive sectors of the national bourgeoisie, Together these sectors include the immense majority of the people and command great social forces which are capable of sweeping away imperialist domination and feudal reaction,
From the old militant Marxist to the sincere Catholic who has no love for the Yankee monopolies and feudal landowners, all can and must fight side by side in this broad movement for-the welfare. . of their nations, for the welfare, of their ‘peoples, for the welfare ‘ of America," - .
In the Latin-American countries, as in all other countries — subjected to U.S. imperialist oppression, control and enslavement, -: broad sections of the people oppose the U.S, imperialist oppression and’ enslavement and want to win and uphold national independence, Only a handful of feudal landowners and comprador bourgeois elements who make up the most reactionary forces.are willing to-sell out their national interests, to serve as the accomplices of U.S. imperialism and oppose broad sections of their own people. It is there-_ fore entirely possible and necessary to unite the more than ninety : per cent of the patriotic people to isolate the reactionary forees and defeat U,S. imperialism’ and its accomplices.
Fully arousing the masses of the people is a decisive factor in the consolidation and development of this united front. It must have a strong leadership and base itself on an alliance between the workers and peasants, who form the overwhelming majority of the population, The peasant question is a key question in the nationaldemocratic revolution of the Latin-American countries, It is neoessary, therefore, to make extensive efforts to develop the peasants! movement, to help them organize themselves into a main force of the revolution, That is why in the Latin-American countries a nationaldemocratio united front cannot be firmly established, nor can it lead the national-democratic revolution to victory, if its revolu- =. tionary programme cannot provide a solution to the land problem, |
The national~democratic revolutionary movement of Brazil has © suffered a setback for no other reason than that it did not have a
broad united front with a strong leadership. It had not truly aroused and organised the broad. sections of peasants and other people, Hence it could not. organise a powerful counterattack in . face of the armed rebellion engineered by imperialism and its lack- CySe
The last lesson from the Brazilian events is that the peoples of all the Latin-American countries must form the broadest possible international united front to fight their common enemy -~ U.S. imperialism -- and support and co-ordinate with each other in the common struggle.
U.S. imperialism is pursuing the following policy in order to maintain its colonial rule over the Latin-American peoples, It is doing everything to strangle the Cuban Revolution while strengthen-~ ing its control over other Latin-American countries, consolidating its bases of aggression and turning all other Latin-American countries into vassal states of the Dominican Republic type. One of the principal purposes of U.S. imperialism in baring its aggressive fangs to suppress the Brazilian national-democratic revolutionary movement is to intimidate other countries and force them to give up their policy of noninterference towards Cuba, so that it may. intensify jts aggression against Cuba and put down the national=-democratic revoliitionary movements in other Latin-American countries, Having made enemies in various parts of Latin America and been reduced to a state of passivity, U.S, imperialism,is trying to maintain firm control over the Latin-American. countries by subjugating them one by
,dn this situation, the common interests of the Latin-American peoples demand that they should enter into a close. alliance, support each other and, in particular, regard the defence of the Cuban Revolution as one of their foremost. tasks, Thoy should vehemently condemn the U.S, imperialist aggression on Cuba and suppression of the people's revolutionary struggles in other countries, and frustrate the U.S. scheme of subjugating them one by one. In this way they can cortainly defeat U.S. imperialist aggression and intervention and drive away the U.S. aggressive forces from the Latin-American contincnt,
The incitement of the reactionary military coup in Brazil is. no demonstration of the strength of U.S. imperialism, On the con-+ trary it indicates that U.S, imperialism is in great straits in Latin America and other parts of the world, At present the nationaldemocratic movement is developing vigorously in Latin Amorica where the people's movement against U.S, imperialism is surging forward and the governments of many countries are less and less willing to submit themselves to U.S. oppression and bullying and are trying to free themselves from U.S, control, The establishment of a military dictatorship in Brazil through open U.S. incitement of an armed. rebellion shows that the United States is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain "order" in its "backyard,"
The Brazilian people's revolutionary movement cannot be smashed by any reactionary adverse: current though their national~ democratic revolutionary movement suffered a temporary setback as a result of the counterrevolutionary military coup. Quite the contrary, the Brazilian people will heighten their consciousness and see their road of advance more clearly after this terrific shock, They will accumulate political and military strength, unfold new struggles and push their revolutionary movement to new heights, The revolutionary peoples of Latin-American countries will learn from . the Brazilian coup, raise their consciousness, form .a united front. against U.S. imperialism and its lackeys and ignite the flames of armed revolution with greater resolve and bravery. A second, a third or even more Cubas will undoubtedly emerge in Latin America,
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