JAPANESE CP REJECTS MAO "CULT"
The Japan Communist party, which began moving away from its former pro- Peking stand last year, has opened a series of sharply critical attacks on Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communist party.
Previously the JCP party leaders had been very reluctant to explain their
differences with the CCP and little had
appeared on the subject in their press.
Recent issues of Akahata, the of-
ficial paper of the JCP, show how open
the struggle between the two parties has
become. An editorial in the August 21
Akahata, entitled "The Decisive Answer to
the Disrupters," attacked Mao's followers and the CCP. This editorial denounced the beating of two members of the JCP at the Peking airport by Red Guards. It also denounced the charge of the Chinese People's Daily that the Japan Communist party is a follower of the Soviet revisionists.
The editorial said, "The Chinese Communist party is permeated with a personal cult for Mao Tse-—tung....the CCP has forced friendly parties internation-— ally to regard dictatorial Maoism and the 'Proletarian Cultural Revolution' as the basic line of the international Communist movement."
"We will struggle resolutely," Akahata continues, "against the CCP's ultraleft utopianism and chauvinism. We will also throw light on the character of the ‘Cultural Revolution’ and Maoism itself. We will exercise our right to criticize them by scientific means."
It is ambiguous whether their "scientific criticism" suggests support-— ing the Liu Shao-chi and Teng Hsiao-ping group or not. Recently Koh Nakanishi, a member of the JCP, published an article supporting the Liu-Teng group. He was denounced within the JCP.
Judging from this, the JCP seems to be hesitating about collaborating with the Liu-Teng group, averring that it is reluctant "to intervene in the domestic affairs of China."
Meanwhile in Korea, the August 16 issue of Central News, the paper of the Korean Democratic People's Republic, carried an article by Kim Il Sung which criticized the Chinese CP as well as the Communist party of the Soviet Union.
The president of Korea said, "We are firmly opposed to the line of making compromises with imperialism....At the same time, we cannot agree with paying only lip-service to overthrowing imperialism without any action. This attitude is a kind of compromising line too."
There is no doubt that the latter criticism is leveled at the CCP which is launching verbal attacks on American imperialism while not showing any positive attitude toward international united action against American world policy, especially in Vietnam.
Another indication of the impact of the developing independent tendency in the world Communist movement was shown in the lineups of foreign delegations at the World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs that met in Tokyo at the beginning of August.
Actually two rival conferences were held at the same time and under the same name. One was sponsored by Gensuikyo (Japan Council Against Atom and Hydrogen Bombs], which is supported by the Japan Communist party.
The other was called by Gensuikin [Japan Congress Against Atom and Hydrogen Bombs] which is backed by the Socialist party and Sohyo [General Council of Trade Unions of Japan].
The Soviet Union was not invited to attend the Gensuikyo conference. Also missing this year were delegates from the People's Republic of China, New Zealand and other countries which quit the pro- JCP organization last year.
Delegates at the Gensuikyo conference included participants from Cuba and North Korea and messages of support were received from President Kim Il Sung of North Korea and Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnan.
The Soviet Union, which attended the rival Gensuikin conference last year, sent no delegation at all. This marked the first time that Moscow was not represented at either world conference since the first one was held in 1955. The Asahi Evening News commented August 1 that "Observers believe the Soviet Union decided to miss the Gensuikin conference because it is presently attempting to remedy strained relations between its Communist Party and the Japan Communist Party....
"The Soviet Union's decision to abstain from attending the Gensuikin conference is also believed to have been motivated by considerations for other Communist countries. Gensuikyo sent invitations to North Vietnam, the South Vietnam People's Liberation Front (Viet Cong), Rumania, Cuba, North Korea and other Communist countries which are taking 'independent' courses.
"Consequently, if the Soviet Union should attend the meeting sponsored by Gensuikin, now at odds with the Japan Communist Party, it would place itself in the position of ‘confronting' these ‘independent' Communist nations."
If indeed these were conciliatory overtures on the part of the Soviet bureaucracy, there was no indication that Gensuikyo responded to them favorably. First there is their refusal to invite a Soviet representative. In addition, the Japan Times reported August 1 that Masaharu Hatanaka, director of Gensuikyo, at the opening session of the Gensuikyo conference the previous day had "said in his speech that unified action should be taken against the Vietnam war. He criticized the policies of both the Soviet Union and Communist China by saying that one followed a policy of ‘spurious peace-
ful coexistence' and the other a policy of noncooperation with those which did not adhere to its own line. He said unified action, should be taken on matters
PENTAGON JUBILANT OVER APPARENT
An authoritative Washington correspondent reports that the Pentagon brass are "gloating" over their success in carrying the bombing of North Vietnam to the very borders of China, without touching off a defensive response such as occurred in the Korean war.
Anthony Howard of the London Observer Service comments wryly on the Pentagon's gamble in his column carried in the August 25 issue of the Asahi Evening News of Tokyo:
"The raids, one is given to understand, were ‘an edgy thing to decide upon' but, having taken place and produced no obvious Chinese response, they have significantly strengthened the hands of those who all along have called for a more resolute prosecution of the war."
Howard describes the air of jubilation that pervades ruling circles in Washington:
"A certain degree of gloating is now apparent even at the top of the Administration. 'Suppose,' one is told, ‘that someone two years ago had forecast that we could have half a million men in Vietnam, and bombing at its present level, without Chinese intervention, would you or anyone else have believed it?'"
On the basis of China's failure to respond in any meaningful way to the continued escalation of the war, Johnson and company feel emboldened to plan a whole new series of escalations. where everyone was in agreement, such as opposition to the Vietnam war and other pressing issues."