p Comrades,

p On behalf of the Argentine Communist Party delegation, I declare our full agreement with the Main Document and with each of its four sections. I believe that the Document continues the good tradition of the unanimously approved 1957 and 1960 statements of the Communist and Workers’ Parties. By applying Marxism-Leninism to the new situations and phenomena of the present decade, the draft formulates scientifically grounded conclusions and outlines a broad plan of anti-imperialist struggle. I take pleasure in mentioning these statements because they are part of our great treasure-store, and excellent examples of creative Marxism-Leninism.

p The draft reaffirms that the chief contradiction is that between imperialism and the socialist world system. This refutes the erroneous view that the chief contradiction is between imperialism and the so-called Third World. That view is supposed to further the anti-imperialist revolutionary struggle for national liberation; actually, it deprives that struggle of its genuine historic aims, since it tends to sever its contacts with the socialist world system and the international working class, its supporter and guarantor. This is corroborated by theory, by the Marxist-Leninist classics and by historical practice. For evidence will show that the great battles the colonial and semi-colonial peoples fought prior to the Great October Socialist Revolution ended in serious defeats because capitalism held sway throughout the world. But the first Russian revolution of 1905 already began to exert a strong and very beneficial influence on the East, and after the emergence of the first proletarian state insurgent oppressed peoples scored one victory after another. Imperialism could no longer deal with them as it saw fit: the anti-imperialist struggle had the support of the Land of the Great October.

p In pointing out that in these years the contradiction between imperialism and the socialist system has become more profound, the draft notes growing imperialist rivalry and shows that new features in the capitalist system— continued development of state-monopoly capitalism and concentration, powered in part by extra-economic stimuli, and monopoly regulation arrangements—cannot check the spontaneous forces at work in the capitalist market. The draft also indicates that in this age of transition to socialism, imperialism directs its main blow at socialism, the national liberation movement and the 336 working class, but the sharpest thrust is against the socialist countries. This is all the more understandable because, as the draft says, the socialist world system is the decisive anti-imperialist force. The proposition that defence of socialism is an internationalist duty of all Communists, in whatever part of the world, is inseparable from Marxism-Leninism, indeed one of its cardinal elements. The draft emphasises the deepening of the general crisis of capitalism in contrast to the tendency, a few years ago, to embellish imperialism and idealise its institutions, such as the European Common Market, as the embodiment of "organic capitalism”.

p The draft reaffirms that the building of socialism, though assuming diverse specific forms, is based on common laws valid for all countries. This requires heightened vigilance on the part of all adherents of proletarian internationalism. The draft draws attention to the dangers fraught in national narrowness and its sequel, nationalism. It emphasises the role of the working class as the chief anti-imperialist force in capitalist countries, and thus refutes the view that that role is played by non-proletarian social groups. It singles out the role of the Communist Party as the vanguard of the entire anti-imperialist movement. And closely kindred with this thought is another, namely, that of all antiimperialist trends only Marxism-Leninism can give a scientific and consistently revolutionary analysis of imperialism and the problems involved in combating it. The draft speaks of the new forces that are joining the anti-imperialist front, particularly the youth and the students, but also emphasises the need to expose the pseudo-revolutionary views which various groups are inculcating in these new forces. Reverting to the proposition set out in earlier statements, the draft indicates that the anti-imperialist movement does not renounce any particular form of struggle: it chooses forms that do or do not involve civil war, depending on the situation. Such is the attitude of Marxism-Leninism. Lenin’s position on this issue was determined by two principles: first, the Party must not bind itself to one form of struggle and, second, forms of struggle must be treated in their historical context. In relation to Latin America, the draft indicates that imperialism, jointly with the oligarchic forces, is engineering coups d’etat and supporting military dictatorships. The imperialist press itself has been obliged to admit this. Newsweek of April 14,1969, says that since the inauguration of the Alliance for Progress there have been nine coups in Latin America. To this should be added that their perpetrators were trained by the US army at centres in the US and Panama. According to Time of December 27, 1968, three of every four Latin Americans live under a military regime.

p The October Revolution had a tremendous impact on the development of the Latin American revolutionary movement, and it can be said that its influence continues to grow. The Soviet Union and the socialist world system are a beacon illumining the path of every liberation movement.

p Fortunately for mankind, the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, in discussing Lenin’s proposal for an armed uprising made in September 1917, repudiated the minority which opposed an uprising. The Central Committee meeting on October 10 (23), 1917, supported Lenin’s proposal for an armed uprising by 10 votes to 2. The enlarged meeting of the Central Committee on October 16 (29) confirmed that historic decision by 19 votes to 2 with 4 abstentions. In 337 violation of elementary organisational principles, the minority, far from submitting to the majority decision, committed the infamous act of revealing preparation of the uprising in the Menshevik press. The Great October Revolution triumphed, and now, in this hall, we are able to discuss the problems of anti-imperialist strategy.

p There is no underestimating the gains of the world revolutionary movement. And they are working under a delusion who, in an attempt to revise our Parties’ fundamental principles, paint a gloomy picture of the development of socialism and the revolutionary struggle and a glowing picture of capitalism, as if socialism and the revolution were in a bad way, or were not doing very well, whereas things were going splendidly with the bourgeoisie. In this past period the socialist world system, the working class in the capitalist countries, the national liberation movement and the fight for peace, have prevented imperialism from unleashing a third world war. Israel’s infamous "six-day war" against the Arab countries did not escalate into a seven-day or longer war because the Soviet Union and nearly all the socialist countries brought the aggressor to a halt, thereby foiling the insidious plans of imperialism and the Zionist oligarchy to suppress the progressive and anti-imperialist movement in the Middle East and turn the area into a seat of war and reaction. The world revolutionary forces did not allow Egypt and Syria to be defeated. The socialist world system has been developing at a much faster rate than the capitalist countries. Socialism plays a bigger role in world affairs. Socialist Cuba has consolidated its position despite threats, provocation and boycott by the US imperialist government. Such are some of the achievements of the anti-imperialist movement. As a result of all this there are much better conditions for struggle in the capitalist countries. The draft is fully justified in saying that imperialism no longer determines the course of events and cannot alter the balance of world strength. However, imperialist intrigue and conspiracies can lead to very grave situations if—as we have seen only recently—the revolutionaries relax their vigilance. Imperialism is now employing more subtle methods of anti-communist subversion and does not hesitate to use a Left image in order to penetrate our ranks and continue its work from within. Did not Milyukov “defend” the Soviets, but without Bolsheviks ? Last year a sub-committee of the US House of Representatives recommended the appropriate US agencies to use Left, even ultra Left, anti-communist elements in fighting Latin American Communist Parties.

p The development of the general crisis of capitalism is bringing once passive forces into the struggle, and a broad anti-monopoly programme could bring them into joint action. They will come with their illusions and prejudices, with their lack of experience, and the Communists will be playing the role of revolutionary teachers, re-training them in the spirit of Marxism-Leninism, doing so patiently and sincerely in the course of joint action. But we shall be doing them a poor service indeed if we refrain from repelling the drivellers who tell the students that they must fight the Communist Party which, they say, has become “senile”; if we do not repel those who use demagogic flattery to instil in the students the idea that they are the barometers of the revolution; if we allow generation-gap slogans based on the views of Ortega y Gassett to take root. Student unrest in various parts of the world has big democratic 338 and revolutionary implications. In this context, I would recall that in Argentina the movement for university reform, which later spread to many Latin American countries, began in 1918, and that the first leaflets concluded with the words: "Long live the Russian Revolution!", "Down with the war!”.

p At that time the students at Cordoba and the Communist-led provincial Workers’ Federation formed an alliance. And it is gratifying to know that in the struggle now being waged in Cordoba, workers and students stand shoulder to shoulder in the streets against the police and the army.

p The draft warns against deviations towards Right and Left opportunism. The Communists reject the false concept that draws no distinction between the two blocs. They reject the advocacy of non-alignment, concepts that tend to minimise the revolutionary forces and exaggerate imperialism’s potential, and subjectivist voluntarism. Communists reject the views propounded by a certain Yugoslav academician that scientific progress puts an end to ideology and that internationalism does not presuppose the victory of one social system over the other. Some erroneous views are reflected in foreign policy attitudes, for example, in efforts to curry favour with the Bonn rulers.

p The superiority of socialism over capitalism is becoming more tangible in every sphere, and particularly in the development of democracy. The liquidation of capitalism and emancipation from bourgeois oppression made the proletarian state, from its very inception, a million times more democratic than the most respectable bourgeois democracy. The consolidation of socialism and the building of communism are attended by extension of democracy, and this has found eloquent expression in the Programme of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Imperialist “Sovietologists” are trying in vain to discredit this trait of socialism. All these appeals for "pure democracy" are a favourite weapon in imperialism’s anti-communist "psychological warfare". Lenin often referred to Engels’ well-known remark that "pure democracy" is the last straw to which any bourgeois or even feudal regime will cling. Engels wrote: "In 1848, from March to September, the whole feudal-bureaucratic mass supported the liberals in order to keep the revolutionary masses in submission ... At any rate, during a crisis and on the day after it our only adversary will be the entire reactionary mass united around pure democracy and this, I believe, must never be lost sight of" (Letter to Rebel, December 11 -12,1844). The events of 1968 have fully confirmed this prediction of Engels.

p The national element is not something self-contained; it is dialectically linked with the international and, as is always the case in such inter-connections, the international cannot be sacrificed to the national. In oppressed and dependent countries, the national struggle slogan has a powerful revolutionary impact. At the same time, however, the 1960 Statement of Communist and Workers’ Parties gives us a profound analysis of cases when inclination towards bourgeois nationalism manifests itself in the class struggle as an attempt to reach a compromise or agreement with imperialism. Basing himself on the theoretical tenets of Marxism-Leninism, Dimitrov could declare, at the historic Seventh Congress of the Communist International, that proletarian internationalism must be rooted in native soil, that socialism is the salvation of the nation, and that the proletarian class struggle acquires national forms.

p However, the communist struggle against manifestations of national nihilism in no way implies that nihilism can be allowed in our internationalist attitude. But those who absolutise national specifics, who elevate the partial, local to a universal category and try to impose it on all the rest are sliding into such nihilism. The attempt to “Sinoise” the world is an obvious example of rabid chauvinism, and that is what we have in Maoism.

p This problem has a special relevance for us Argentine Communists, inasmuch as in our own struggle it is important to rescue the workers and the masses generally from the influence of bourgeois nationalism, notably Peronism. National narrowness is the road to defeat.

p Lenin urged Communists everywhere to take close account of the distinctive features and conditions of their countries. Replying to Serrati, who accused the Russian comrades of wanting to impose their pattern on others, Lenin said this was a fairy tale. Far from wanting others to imitate, "we want the very opposite", he said, for the Italian revolution will proceed in a different way. In condemning Lazzari for the Reggio Emilia deal with the reformists, Lenin remarked that the reformists were Italian, not Russian, Mensheviks.

p But at the same time, Lenin insisted on the world-wide relevance of Bolshevism, urging Communists of other countries to draw on its theoretical and practical experience in order to be able correctly to approach and solve the problems of their own revolution.

p The general laws of revolution and socialism operate in each country through concrete national phenomena. And it would be wrong to say that they are not applicable in certain circumstances. The Communist Manifesto does not ignore national peculiarities, but never did its authors maintain that it could be suitable for one country and not suitable for another. To retreat from proletarian internationalism and from the fundamental propositions of Marxism-Leninism on the plea that there are inimitable peculiarities—- sometimes called "new models"—is to set out on a false path. And the very first step on that path leads to disuniting the very concept of Marxism- Leninism, counterposing its two elements, renouncing Lenin’s contribution on the pretext that it is purely the product of Russian reality. The petty bourgeois on the La Plata maintains that he is a Marxist, but not a Marxist-Leninist, because Leninism, in his view, is merely a national Russian phenomenon. The communist movement does not today need an international centre. But it does not follow that internationalism has lost its raison d’etre. With a Communist International or without it, through bilateral or multilateral meetings, proletarian internationalism retains all its viability and strength, for it is an essential and important condition of the communist movement. Petty- bourgeois groups try to justify their anti-internationalism by claiming that they want a national communism. In other words, they are justifying it in the name of bourgeois nationalism. That has been the method of the fascists: German fascism officially designated its party as the National-Socialist Labour Party.

p We cannot agree with the Australian delegation’s proposal to deal with, and sign, only Section Three of the Main Document. The characteristic feature of this Meeting is free and democratic participation and co-operation of 340 Communist and Workers’ Parties. Its purpose is to adopt, after the necessary discussion, the Main Document and other statements. It would be advisable and desirable for all participants, all delegations, to sign the Main Document. That would greatly facilitate full unity of the world’s Communists. The draft is an integral, inter-connected document; the third section is insolubly connected with its theoretical substantiation, set out in the three sections we were asked to delete. The Australian comrade has ruthlessly attacked Sections One, Two and Four, citing among other reasons that they are theoretically weak, superficial and hollow. But instead of proposing something theoretically more profound, he simply suggests leaving only Section Three, and vastly abridged at that. But Section Three is, so to say, the practical part of the draft. We are therefore asked to indulge in undisguised and unmitigated pragmatism.

p Communists sincerely want to join with other anti-imperialist forces in large-scale united actions. They believe that ideological differences with possible allies are no obstacle to mutual understanding for joint struggle. But that does not mean that they renounce their views on the anti-imperialist struggle, or that they abandon their other goals. And proceeding from that attitude, they are prepared to join their will with the will of others. If we were to confine ourselves to discussing the problems only in the light of Section Three, that would be humiliating ideological abdication.

p The communist movement has always supported a united anti-imperialist front, while fully retaining its political and ideological identity. I shall cite only a few instances: the great Congress of the Peoples of the East, convened on Bolshevik initiative in Baku in 1920; the 1927 World Anti-Imperialist Congress in Brussels held, with the support and participation of Ghandi, Nehru, Sukarno, Romain Holland arid other prominent personalities; the American Anti-Imperialist League of the 1920s, whose participants included outstanding Communist leaders, of whom I shall name Mella of Cuba; the 1961 Latin-American Conference for National Sovereignty, Economic Emancipation and Peace, which met in Mexico and declared in its final statement: "We are not alone", a direct allusion to the socialist countries.

p I would add that at the Brussels Congress the Latin American delegation advanced these demands: against dictatorships, those accomplices of imperialism; for nationalisation of industry and land distribution; absolute freedom for Puerto Rico, the Philippines and other colonies; repeal of the Platt amendment; withdrawal of American troops from Haiti and Nicaragua; independence for Panama. In none of these instances did the Communists renounce their theoretical views or their independence.

p And so, we reject the Australian proposal. Nor do we agree with the proposal that the Meeting discuss only questions which have the support of all delegations without exception, in other words, that we apply the unanimity principle used in some cases in the Security Council. But this world communist conference has nothing in common with the Security Council. It does not represent a single centre, though this does not mean that it is being conducted anarchistically, or that the minority can impose its opinion on the majority. But that is precisely what would happen if we were to accept the unanimity principle, when one dissenting vote could disrupt all our work. That is not a democratic 341 procedure; democratic procedure presupposes free and open discussion followed by formulation of decisions that reflect the majority opinion.

p Maoism is not a variety of Marxism-Leninism, but an anti-Marxist, antiLeninist trend which, in addition, is working against the unity of the antiimperialist forces, against world communist unity and against the socialist gains of the heroic Chinese people. Its provocations against the Soviet Union reveal the depths to which it has sunk. And it is important to note that while hurling abuse at the great Land of Soviets, Maoism is flirting with Portuguese fascists in Macao and British capitalists in Hong Kong. Maoism has destroyed the Communist Party in China in order to replace it by a military bureaucracy. I am convinced that the present Meeting will be of fraternal help to the Chinese Marxists-Leninists who live and work in strenuous, tragic conditions.

p It is inadmissible to speak of the differences between the Communist Parties of the USSR and China as if both sides are equally responsible. The former is the victim of aggression and the latter the aggressor. But apart from that, how did the Chinese leaders react to the manifestations of good will towards Peking? We know that the Soviet comrades are always prepared to negotiate; this cannot be said of the Maoist leaders. Even now, they not merely rejected the invitation to attend this Meeting, where they could freely put forth their ideas and proposals, but responded with a veritable torrent of invective. They did not come but sent us a message of abuse. Let no one advise us, then, to act in a Christian way and offer the other cheek.

p The struggle of the Argentine people is part of the united struggle of all Latin American peoples. Strengthening of the socialist world system is an active factor in our political life. Despite all the machinations of imperialism and reaction, the beneficial influence of the Cuban revolution continues to grow. Its flourishing youth can be seen in the vast achievements in every field. This has evoked a living and spreading response throughout Latin America, especially in view of the ignominious failure of the anti-Cuban Alliance For Progress.

p The recent 13th Congress of our Party brought expressions of solidarity from all Communist and Workers’ Parties. It emphasised the need for closer ties with fraternal Latin American Parties waging a great and difficult struggle. It especially emphasised its wish for united action with the Communist Party of the United States, for we are convinced our two Parties are fighting, on different fronts, one and the same battle against one and the same enemy. Our Party affirms anew one of its fundamental principles, namely, its indestructible and warm friendship with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, that reliable and invincible bastion of Marxism-Leninism.

p The Vietnamese peoples’ heroic struggle is central to the world struggle against imperialism and war. The cause of the Vietnamese is the cause of all peace-loving peoples striving for democracy, national liberation and socialism. The people of the world do not doubt that Vietnam will emerge victorious in its just war and will eject the imperialist invader. The Argentine workers and representatives of all the anti-imperialist forces are intensifying their political, moral and material solidarity with Vietnam. Last year, the Vietnam relief fund amounted to 15 million pesos, or 6 million more than in 1967 and 342 three times more than in 1966. Our Central Committee has decided to donate 5 per cent of Party income to Vietnam as a token of solidarity. Recently, in Hanoi, we handed over 150 kg. of valuable and much needed medicines and we are now collecting money for a new school in Vietnam.

p Argentina is ruled by an unscrupulous fascist-type military dictatorship. It is conducting its terrorist campaign under the "ideological boundaries" doctrine, which alleges that the enemy should be sought at home, that is, in the working class, in the people. More recently the dictatorship has been resorting to wholesale murder in an attempt to stop mass action,

p In his opening speech^ Comrade Brezhnev noted that our Meeting is being attentively followed by the class enemy, the imperialists of all countries and their henchmen. The Argentine dictatorship did not want to refute this: a decree promulgated on June 4, on the eve of our Meeting, provides for a new formula of criminal offense, under which persons participating in international Communist conferences are liable to 10 years imprisonment. This fresh piece of brutality means that our struggle is becoming more difficult still. At the same timej however, it is proof of the dictatorship’s weakness, proof of fear, rather than of strength and confidence. Despite everything, I believe that a good wind is blowing in Argentina, one that favours our struggle for a national democratic front that will open new vistas for a democratic agrarian and antiimperialist revolution, for advance towards socialism.

p Forty-eight years ago I had the good fortune to participate in the work of the Third Communist International Congress. I rejoice in the thought that the delegates who at that Congress worked under the immediate guidance of Lenin, would be proud today of our Main Document.

Comrades of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, thank you for your hospitality!