EXTEND THE FIELD OF REVOLUTIONARY ACTION 14
[The following is the text of a declaration issued June 22 by the United Secretariat of the Fourth International, |
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For some five months the armed forces of American imperialism have been carrying on round-the-clock attacks on the territory of. the Democratic Republic of Vietnam without any effective reply being made to them, Men, women and children are being killed in north Vietnam, the achievements of ten years of reconstruction are being destroyed, without hindrance to the escalation of the American imperialist aggression,
The Fourth International calls the attention of the workers ‘and revolutionary militants in all countries to the immeasurably grave consequences that can result from this shameful passivity, or insufficient reaction of the workers states’ and masses of workers,
Far from drawing imperialism into ‘the quicksands of a long war of attrition in which it would gradually become exhausted while the anticapitalist camp retained its strength, passivity or insufficient reaction can bring about increasing escalation of the aggression, its extension to other countries, a rising direct threat to the security of the People's Republic of China, socialist Cuba, and even the Soviet Union, and the danger of placing humanity immediately -at the brink of a nuclear world war.
The first imperialist aggression in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964 was not answered. American imperialism thus felt encouraged to step up its acts of aggression on an increasingly wider scale. It began to bomb north Vietnam, first under pretext of reprisals, then continually without any pretext, starting with purely military objectives, then attacking industrial targets and communication * routes. It is now preparing to dump its deadly bombs on the big. cities, coming closer and closer to the Chinese border,
In the same period it has brought the number of its troops in south Vietnam up from 21,000 to more than 70,000. The fiction that American troops were serving in the role of mere "advisers" has now been abandoned and they are to be plunged. into direct combat with the heroic partisans of south Vietnam. .It:is only a question: of time’ until the American planes that. have been bombing north Vietnam will be followed by American ground troops and artillery.
While this was going on, American imperialism intervened in
the Dominican Republic the instant it saw the people arming them= ° selves and moving toward a popular revolution. It has multiplied its counterrevolutionary moves in the Congo and the rest of Africa, clearly letting it be known that it is determined to play the role from now on of world gendarme in an energetic way, resorting to military force wherever revolutions appear to be making fresh head= way.
This increased determination, this more pronounced aggressiveness of American imperialism, cannot be explained by any essential modification in the world relation of military forces. It is possible that in going into mass production of intercontinental rockets, American.imperialism rapidly closed the technical gap it ran into at the end of the fifties in this field of armaments. But this did not fundamentally alter a military situation in which both the USA and the USSR are capable of dealing each other annihilating nuclear blows.
What has changed is the political situation, particularly the tacit abandonment by the bureaucratic Soviet leaders of the threat of a nuclear reply to any imperialist aggression. What has changed is the level of the Sino-Soviet conflict, shifting from a dispute between parties to one between states. -From this, imperialism drew the conclusion that the Sino=Soviet military alliance had been ruptured and that these two states were incapable of common and rapid replies, What has changed is the impression given the Soviet bureaucracy, the new leadership appearing lamentably weak and lacking in resolution.
The Soviet and Chinese replies to the escalation of American aggression in Southeast. Asia amount to very little.
The Soviet bureaucracy has sent anti-aircraft rockets to north Vietnam, but with great delay and in insufficient quantities to influence the daily outcome of hostilities. As for the People's Republic of China, despite the most firm verbal declarations, it too in reality has granted only negligible aid to the heroic struggle of the . Vietnamese people.
The apologists of the two bureaucracies offer all kinds of arguments and reasons to justify this scandalous passivity in face of the ever-mounting aggression of American imperialism. Some claim that energetic intervention by the Soviet bureaucracy would have "provoked" nuclear aggression, would even have led American imperialism to unleash a nuclear world war. This argument is false to the core. A nuclear world war would signify the. certain suicide of the- American bourgeoisie, a fact that is fully understood among the rul-— ing circles. To believe that American imperialism is ready to conmit suicide while it is enjoying economic prosperity and unparalleled military power -- merely to save face in Southeast Asia -- means. to truly lose sight of the very wide margin for maneuver still possessed by American imperialism,
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Others claim that what is required is to react in a limited way in order-to permit imperialism to find an "honorable way out," otherwise the war can last "indefinitely." To believe this is to accept for good coin the theory spread by American imperialism itself, according to which the only aim of the aggression is to bring about negotiations that can end the war in Vietnam, This disregards the aim of American imperialism; i.e., to crush the revolution in south Vietnam, to crush any revolution anywhere in the world.
Again it is alleged that the situation in Southeast Asia is “evolving excellently," that American imperialism is "becoming more and more isolated in the world," that the south Vietnamese guerrilla fighters are winning one success after another, that the imperialist alliance itself is being "shaken to its foundations" by the aggres-~ sion against north Vietnam,
This disregards the fact that the revolution in south Vietnam was on the verge of winning last February when American intervention began on a big scale, that this victory has now been considerably delayed, that it is not easy to see how the partisans can ever drive out the imperialist forces from some of the beachheads covered by the powerful Seventh Fleet, that the people of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam are paying for this "excellent. political situation" with heavier and heavier sacrifices, while at the same time a most -dangerous precedent has been set -- * that of permitting imperialism to attack the territory of a workers state, a state that is part of the anticapitalist camp, with impunity.
The Chinese hold in particular that their situation is delicate and that they must avoid giving imperialism any pretexts that would facilitate sweeping aggression against the People's Republic of China, especially the nuclear bombing of the Chinese center: pro= ducing nuclear arms, It is true that American imperialism is greatly tempted to undertake such an aggression, and that it has repeatedly given "public warning" to the People's Republic of China. But it is clear that the only effective response in face of such a threat does not consist in abstaining in practice from aiding north Vietnam; what is called for is the energetic reconfirmation of the Sino-Soviet military alliance. The Chinese government must demand that the Kremlin publicly and solemnly declare that it will consider any nuclear attack against China as an attack on.its own territory that would ~ bring about automatic nuclear reprisals against the territory of the United States, That is the only way to make.American imperialism draw back at a time when it has not at all decided to risk everything and to commit suicide.
In general, the only way to stop American imperialism from proceeding with its calculated course of escalating its aggression, is to reply energetically and powerfully -- with deeds. The only thing that this imperialist power respects is force. Political
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argument, the irritation of international public opinion, trouble with its allies, Moscow's and Peking's verbal protests ~- all these are tenth=-rate factors that scarcely influence it and most certainly will not stop it.
The immediate and massive intervention of the Soviet air force was the only measure that could have stopped the aggression against north Vietnam. Similarly only an instant Soviet response, as at the time of the imperialist intervention against Egypt, could have stopped the counterrevolutionary intervention against the Congo and the Dominican Republic. _
- Far from increasing the danger’ of a nuclear ‘conflagration, intervention of this kind would have crushed it. in the egg. Far from reducing the danger of a nuclear conflagration, the passivity or insufficient reaction of the workers states in face of imperialist aggression encourages imperialism to continually amplify its aggression, to widen the range of action, bringing it directly within touch of the territory of the People's Republic of China, Thus a situation tends to be created in which the response of the workers states must be increased symmetrically to the imperialist escalation, A situation thereby tends to be created in which imperialism has become so deeply involved that it risks seeing no way out except to plunge ahead, employing "tactical" nuclear arms,
That is why the Fourth International, conscious of its responsibilities, appeals to the workers throughout the world to struggle for the parallel development of the three most effective responses to the counterrevolutionary imperialist aggression that is being continually extended.
Without muffling or shifting the ideological discussion on the orientation of the international Communist movement from the public arena to the level of secret meetings, for. this discussion should and must be continued, the governments of the workers states, especially the USSR and the People's Republic of China, must form an unbreakable united front against imperialism, publicly reaffirming the Sino-Soviet alliance and the inviolability of the territory of all the workers states, and at once granting full aid to the. Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the South Vietnamese National Front of Liberation, particularly in aircraft and in modern and effective anti-aircraft weapons.
In all countries, the labor movement, the workers organizations, the masses of workers, must go into permanent mobilization in order to unleash wide protest actions against the imperialist aggression and in solidarity with the Vietnamese revolution, the target of counterrevolutionary repression, Following the shining example of the Australian dockers, the maritime and railway workers, the highway transport workers must refuse to handle goods or to transport men being sent to reinforce the armies of intervention in
‘Vietnam. Demonstrations, vigils in front of embassies and consulates of.the United States, student actions and strikes, must constantly stir up publio opinion and keep it alert, not under such slogans as ' Npeace"™ or "negotiation," but "Get American Troops Out of Vietnam"; "Full and Complete Solidarity with the Heroic South Vietnam Guerrilla Fighters -- Help Them Win an Karly Victory.
. Wherever conditions permit, it is necessary to launch revolutionary struggles of wide anti-imperialist and anticapitalist scope, or armed guerrilla struggles that can touch off revolutionary combats. The situation in a number of countries in the world today favors big revolutionary mobilizations of the masses or audacious guerrilla action. As Fidel Castro declared in his May 1 speech, the development of the revolution in more and more countries constitutes the best means of weakening imperialism, of compelling it to disperse its armed counterrevolutionary forces, of outflanking it and bringing it into inextricable difficulties, To the counterrevolutionary strategy of imperialism, only a global revolutionary strategy can offer an effective response today, creating conditions favoring the revival and building of revolutionary forces within the imperialist fortresses themselves, These alone are capable of disarming the | enemy in'time, when, feeling death drawing near, he moves to plunge humanity into a nuclear holocaust,
UNIFICATION CONGRESS IN ARGENTINA
[The following report of a