VIETNAM SOLIDARITY DEMONSTRATION IN. BELGIUM
SABOTAGED BY PRO-PEKING CP
. The Brussels socialist weekly La Gauche reports [April 17 and 24] a setback in the campaign in Belgium for a united working~ class front against the U.S. aggression in Vietnam. The setback is the clear responsibility of the pro=Peking Communist party.
According to Pierre Le Gréve, chairman of the Brussels teachers union and one_of the leaders of the newly formed Union de la Gauche Socialist [Union of the Socialist Left], who gives an account in the April 17 issue of La Gauche, the pro-Peking Communist party sent a delegation March 17 to consult with the UGS about organizing a demonstration in favor of Vietnam.
The UGS representatives held that it was impossible to organize a strong demonstration in three days but that they were ready to collaborate with them and anyone else who might be willing, on the basis of correct slogans, to show solidarity with the Vietnamese people. "It seemed to us, in fact," writes Le Grdve, "that a larger ' demonstration would correspond better with the gravity of the cause it was designed to serve."
The date of April 24 was chosen by common agreement as the most suitable if the demonstration were not to be postponed until May 8.
The UGS and the pro-Peking Communist party joined in sending invitations to a number of organizations to participate in a meeting to consider plans. The invited organizations included the pro-Moscow Communist party, various youth and student organizations, the Committee Against Neocolonialism and Fascism, the Committee of Solidarity with the People of South Vietnam, the Committee of the Anti-Atomic March, Action for Peace and the Independence of Peoples, and various trade-union figures.
‘Two sessions were held to work out an appeal. In these sessions, the UGS representatives, together with the representatives of the pro=Peking Communist party, argued that it would be wrong to raise a demand for "negotiations" since this would serve the American propaganda,
"It is evident," writes Le Grave, "that the Americans are bombing. North Vietnam with the aim of compelling the government. of that country to negotiate behind the back of the popular insurrection which is developing in the south of Vietnam against the occupation by American imperialism and the puppet governments which it has been supporting, '
The representatives of the pro-Moscow Communist party sought
a
to introduce at least an allusion to "negotiations" but finally gave up on this in face of the united pressure of the other participants in the discussion, particularly the representatives of the UGS and Young Socialist Guards.
A ‘document for use in the demonstration was worked out in acommission, amended in a full meeting and finally adopted unanimously. The text of the document was as follows:
HALT
AMERICAN IMPERIALIST AGGRESSION
IN VIETNAM
"For months, despite growing world condemnation, American imperialism is continuing and intensifying its aggression against” the Vietnamese people, It is conducting a ruthless war in the South (napalm, phosphorous, gas) and systematically: bombing the Democratic Republic of North Vietnam.
"This policy of aggression conducted by American capitalism, threatens, in addition, to escalate until it ends” in a world atomic conflagration.
"we appeal to the workers organizations and the Belgian population to demonstrate their active solidarity with the broad masses of South Vietnam who are struggling for their national and social liberation, as well as with North Vietnam, the victim of the terror raids. .
"The solution of the Vietnamese problem demands, without any precondition, the immediate cessation of the intervention and. the withdrawal of the American military forces as a primary condition for self-determination by the South Vietnamese people."
The meeting designated three members,. one from each of the three political currents, to act as an executive committee and to negotiate with the city administration for a permit for the demonstration,
It was decided to, meet with the city authorities five days later on April 12. But something unusual happened.
The Central Committee of the pro-Peking Communist party decided on the evening of April 11 to pull out of the joint committee, The excuse was that the pro-Moscow Communist party organ Drapeau eee Magazine was continuing. to agitate in ambiguous terms for "negotiation". over Vietnam.
. - The next morning Pierre Le Gréve, who had been chosen to represent the UGS, received a telephone call from the representative of the pro-Peking Communist party, He said that the joint meeting with the city authorities could not be carried through but that his
-Ba
friends were ready to meet with a delegation from the UGS that same eveninge
He also said that he had called the representative of the pro-Moscow Communist party to let him know about the change. However, this proved to be untruthful.
Later in the day when Le Gr&éve went to the meeting place that had been arranged, he found the representatives of the pro=-Moscow party there. They then got in touch with the police commissioner concerning the permit for the parade. They were told that this had been granted that very morning to the representative of the pro-= Peking Communist party, who had appeared at the office and negotiated in the name of the Committee of Solidarity with the People of South Vietnam,
The astonished committee protested this unilateral procedure and went to the commissioner's office the next morning. He con= — firmed having granted the permit to the pro-Peking Communist party representative,
Pierre Le Gréve than called Jacques Grippa, the head of the pro-Peking Communist party to find out what it was all about. “He told me that we didn't have the right to compel his party to sit with 'traitors,' that we were caught up in the elections, that we had never wanted to demonstrate since we had turned down the March 20 date. When I expressed regret that a joint action was.not pos-~ — sible then, J. Grippa said that it was easy to see where I had come from and that I was steeped in the language of the Social Democracy."
Le Grave tried again, but was told that all the bridges | had been burned,
All the members of the Committee Against Neocolonialism and Fascism were then called, and, following that, contacts throughout the labor movement, including the Flemish who wanted to demonstrate,
"The desire of the 'pro-Chinese! Communists to set up a monopoly ruined our hopes," Le Gr&éve concludes. However, it only means postponement of a united demonstration, “because we will certainly regroup all those for whom the Vietnamese cause is more important than sectarian interests; and means will be found to hold a demonstration worthy of the cause,"
The pro-Peking Communist party went ahead trying to build up an isolated demonstration on April 24.. Besides appealing in its own press for a turn out, it issued leaflets in the name of the Belgian Committee of Solidarity with the People of South Vietnam, even including a form to be filled out and returned to the Lidge secre tary of the committee, Henri Vaume. (Vaume issued a press release denouncing the unauthorized use of his name and deploring the sec tarian effort to stage an isolated demonstration. )
= Qee-
The result of this effort to capture control of the demonstration was to destroy the chances for anything on April 24 but the most limited show. In addition, the "clever" maneuver was most damaging to the reputation of the pro-Peking Communist party through= out the Belgian labor movement.
The tactic reminded all the old-timers of the foul practices commonly seen during Stalin's heyday when the. Communist parties quite ruthlessly sought to wreck any movements in the working class which they could not bend to their arbitrary, bureaucratic purposes, It would seem that in Belgium at least, the effort mounted in Peking to put Stalin back on his. pedestal has “borne the kind of fruit to be expected,
Fortunately it is not possible in Belgium to refurbish Stalin and to revive his methods on an extended scale. The Belgian Committee of Solidarity with the People of South Vietnam is proceeding with its work for a powerful united demonstration. It announced in the April 24 issue of La Gauche that more than 300 responses had been received to its appeal. This figure includes individuals in the labor and radical movement as well as organizations.
A LESSON IN PENTAGON ARITHMETIC
The Washington correspondent of the London Times, in commenting on Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's April 26 presentation of the Pentagon's case for. continued bombing of North Vietnam, indicated that he agreed with James Reston of the New, York Times "that truth is the first casualty in any war."
At the press conference, McNamara stated that the present strength of the Vietcong was from 38,000 to 46,000 mogulars and 100,000 local part-time guerrillas,
The Times correspondent notes: "The official White Paper, entitled ‘Aggression from the North,'! published on February 28,. estimated the regular strength at 35,000 and the volunteers at from 60,000 to 80,000. Thus, if one arrives at a mean figure, in less than two months the hard-core has been increased by 20 per cent and the local volunteers by rather more than 40 per cent,"
How is this to be explained? "The Secretary blamed what he called an intelligence lag, but insisted that the Vietcong had been greatly reinforced. No explanation was offered for the increase of South Vietnamese support, although a picture published in the New York Times today of a terrified peasant woman clutching a baby and fleeing from American marines as they charged into her hut is perhaps one explanation."
An additional explanation comes from the National Liberation Front which is leading the fight for liberation of South Vietnam from the American occupation.. In a dispatch relayed through Peking, . they announce that during the first three months of 1965, no less than 12,400 soldiers deserted the ranks of the forces under the command of the puppet Saigon government.
In- one instance, on February 10, three days” after the Pentagon escalated its intervention in the civil war into a war. on North Vietnam, an entire company killed its three American "advisers."
"american imperialism," said Hsinhua by way of comment, “always underestimates the strength of the people."
IN VIETNAM WITH THE AMERICAN "