BELGIAN MP DEMANDS U.S. WITHDRAW TROOPS FROM VIETNAM
For the first time in parliament in Belgium, if not in the parliaments of all of Western Europe, a voice has been openly raised in support of the National Liberation Front of. south, Vietnam and the heroic: Vietnamese. freedom fighters.
The occasion. was during the debate on foreign policy April on Pierre Le Gréve , a member of. parliament from Brussels, took the floor to express a view that is growing in the radical movement in Belgium. He is a member of the Confédération Socialiste des Travailleurs”™ LSocialist. Workers Confederation], the new left socialist party which broke with - the reformist. ‘Social Democracy eightéen months ago.
Among other things, he said the following: "The extraordinary example of Vietnam, which has held..out against two modern imperialist armies, ‘shows that guerrilla, freedom fighters can even succeed . in imposing real military.defeats, as. they did against France , which isa very. ‘rare feat indeed! Ls;
"That's what they did at Dien Bien Phu..
"To -their misfortune, this unhappy people were. then immediately faced with: the most powerful army.in,the world, “the American army. And nevertheless their nesistance, is. “not weakening at all.
"Recently. all the urban centers ‘have been in turmoil, a clear indication to international public opinion that the puppet government kept. in power by the Americans has no popular base what—— soever and is universally hated throughout the land.
"In my: opinion,. only one attitude can. possibly be adopted towards the war in Vietnam. I do.not.ask Mr. Spaak or the present minister of foreign affairs to serve as médiators. I do not call for negotiations. That's what the Americans want...All I demand is the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the ‘American® interventionist troops from Vietnam and. the rest of the world. a
“Elsewhere in his speech, Le. Gréve. made the first. appeal in’ parliament for Belgium to immediately get out. of the counterrevolutionary NATO alliance. His stand contrasts with that of the pro- Moscow Communist party which only asks that Belgium quit the alliance when it comes up legally for renewal in 1969.
La Voix du Peuple [The Voice of the People], the weekly newspaper of the pro-Peking Communist party, erudgingly admitted * that Le Gréve advanced a "correct position" on both the Vietnam war and the NATO question; and that he had spoken a "Tanguage hitherto unknown" in parliament.
The admission is even more. significant in view of the fact that La Voix du Peuple constantly attacks Le Gréve and other lead= ing figures of the Socialist Workers Confederation as "Trotskyist.'
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By George Novack
What is going on in Peking? This question is not only engross~ ing the diplomats in all the other capitals from Moscow to Washing-. ton; it is troubling the partisans of revolutionary China, regardless of their tendencies. It is of even more serious concern, we presume, to the ranks, of the Chinese Communist party and the people of that — country.
Unfortunately, no one outside ‘the inner sanctum of the regime can know for sure what the precise issues in dispute are or the actual . positions and arguments of the contending sides.
The command center of Communist China must be marked terra incognita. on.the map of world politics. We can learn little about. the real state of political affairs from the officially published materials. Mao and his associates are as secretive and exclusive about the problems and processes of their policy-making as the ancient emperors and their mandarin advisers.
- “Such. customs. may suit a feudal monarchy but are out of place ina ‘democratic: or a socialist government. Thé millions of Communist party members and the 700,000,000 Chinese are entitled to know the different proposals for action, who their sponsors are, and on what grounds this.or that course is accepted: or réjected. So do the working masses of other countries who are anxious to help ward off the threat to the People's Republic of China and’the peace of the world posed by U.S. military escalation in Southeast Asia.
The Mao leadership has insisted on thorotgh discussion and clarification of the questions involved in the Sino-Soviet: dispute... Yet. they keep everyone in the dark when it’ comes | to the (Pros and cons of their, vital decisions at, home.
Such Seclusion and isolationism have’ nothing in common with Marxism and. Leninism. Ever since the Communist Manifesto of 1848, genuine. revolutionary socialist movements have taken. internationalism as the only effective guide for the conduct of a workers party or a workers state, both in arriving at their policies and then explaining and justifying them’ to the world working class.
Mao and his associates have been flouting the principle of international class solidarity by refusing to participate in a common. front against American imperialist aggression with other Conmunist countries on the specious grounds of their differences with the Russian revisionists. This sectarianism has:weakened both the | defense of Vietnam and the security of China itself. Now they are -. equally culpable in disregarding the supporters of the Chinese Revolution who are confused by an enforced ignorance of the issues at stake in ‘the current