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p Dear Comrades,

p For our Party, we want to express our deep appreciation to our hosts, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, for the magnificent way they have provided to make our stay here productive as well as pleasant.

p It has taken a lot of hard work by many hard-working comrades but the World Conference of Communists and Marxist Parties is now an important part of reality.

p This conference will make an important imprint on the revolutionary pages of our times. Archives will record what we decide here, but the revolutionary ledger of our class will record what we do after we leave here. It will record whether this historic gathering fulfilled its purpose, whether it served as the propellent, as the catapult, that raised the struggle against imperialism to new heights.

p There is no objective reason why we cannot fulfil this great promise. There have been few moments in history when so many objective factors have converged, and pressure for united concentrated action. There is no insurmountable reason why we cannot meet this central challenge of our times.

p We represent the most advanced forces of the class, that class which history has assigned the task of guiding human society through this, the most profound revolutionary turning point in mankind’s existence.

p Some are having difficulty in adjusting to the unique and unprecedented fact that human society’s sharpest, most revolutionary turning point is neither ancient history nor speculation about some occurrence in the distant future. It is integrated into the current events of our times. The transition from capitalism to socialism is history’s greatest happening. It is human society’s most explosive qualitative leap. It is both an historic process and a current event, precisely because it is a total shift in a way of life. This process is explosive—it is revolutionary. It is a many-sided process—economic, political, military and ideological. This is the essence of the events that gives life its present direction.

p This turning point has given rise to, and is propelled by a world-wide, threepronged revolutionary development that is now converging into a single process. There are periods when the process does not produce a shift of state power in any country. There are setbacks, frustrations, and periods when the 426 process levels off to a new plateau. There are moments of explosions and periods of revolutionary development. There are violent transfers of class power and some transitions that are not so violent.

p Through all this, the revolutionary process goes on, the constant maturing and gathering of the forces of the revolution. There is the accumulation of experiences. There is the deterioration of capitalism, resulting in the sharpening of internal class relations and of the relations between imperialism and the oppressed peoples and nations. And there is the ideological and political growth of the forces of the transition. This many-sided process of the unfolding of reality is based on the laws of social development. In this sense—this is a conference of the turning point of history.

p Our Party has a deep sense of pride in being a part of this historic event. We draw great strength from the world-wide nature of the Marxist-Leninist movement. We place a high priority on our working-class concept of internationalism.

p We do not view internationalism as a burden, a concession, or a cross to bear. It is not as if it is a frosting on a cake that you add to improve its taste and appearance. It is a basic ingredient that adds indispensable, revolutionary content to the class struggle.

p There is much talk about the rise of nationalism. What is not always seen clearly enough, is the unprecedented growth of a mass desire for internationalism. The very nature of world developments has given rise to a new mass sense of anti-imperialism and internationalism. The three-pronged world-wide revolutionary process is the propellent—the fresh source of internationalism.

p This is truly a new, historic phenomenon, especially of the young generation.

p Because of this, the internationalism of the communist movement is a source of .strength in a new way. We need not apologise for our internationalism. On the contrary, we must find additional and bolder ways to demonstrate this side of our movement.

p The recent 19th National Congress of our Party without a dissenting vote endorsed the line, the political essence and the spirit of the draft Main Document presented by the Preparatory Cornmitee to this conference. In our opinion it correctly reflects the Marxist-Leninist essence of this moment. Considering all of the problems the committee faced—it is a very fine piece of work. It is a collective document, therefore it cannot, in every word or phrase, have the wording or style of any one of the Parties. The passage of the appeal on ending the US aggression in Vietnam is of special importance for our Party. We fully approve the statement on the observance of Lenin’s one-hundredth birthday.

p It is the opinion of our delegation that this conference was a success before we convened here. The eighteen months of preparations have been a process of reunification. The process of moulding the Document has served to clarify positions, to narrow down the areas of differences.

p The habit and the lessons of working together are in themselves an invaluable asset for the world movement.

p We are hopeful the lessons of working" collectively have struck deep roots. We are hopeful the world communist movement will become addicted to this habit.

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p There are 75 Parties represented here. This is a technical count. By political count there are over eighty Parties. Because there are many parties who are not represented here for technical reasons, but who have expressed their oneness with the political substance of this gathering.

p This is itself a significant fact.

p We are in agreement with so many of the very fine contributions made here, by Comrades Brezhnev, Gomulka, Rochet, Arismendi, Corvalan, Ulbricht and others, that it is not necessary to go into all areas or all questions.

p Permit us to again express our deep sense of warm comradeship and oneness with the fighters against US imperialism the world over. We feel especially indebted to the valiant people of Vietnam, who by unparalleled heroism and sacrifice, are administering US imperialism a historic defeat. They are giving the world a magnificent demonstration of the invincible nature of the forces of socialism and national liberation.

p We hail the peoples and Communists of Latin America who by militant mass actions have just sent Mr. Imperialism himself. Nelson Rockefeller, bag and baggage, back to his lair.

p We salute the people and Communists of socialist Cuba who continue to repel the acts and policies of US aggression—and have successfuly lit the beacon light of socialism ninety miles from the shores of the central power of world imperialism.

p We express our ardent support to the national liberation, anti-imperialist fighters of the Middle East, and to the plundered and oppressed peoples of Africa, We greet with joy the actions of the people of Sudan.

p We hail our fellow Communists and the people of People’s Republic of Korea, who have stood firm against US provocations.

p To these fighters the world over, we can only promise to heighten our efforts to match their great cpntributions jn the struggle against US imperialism.

p When we are dealing with the phenomenon of imperialism, we are dealing with a constantly changing reality. The struggle against it must reflect these changes.

p There is the continuing, irreversible shift in the balance of forces between imperialism and anti-imperialism. There is the changing scene between the countries; of imperialism, reflecting the laws of uneven development of capitalism. And there are the contradictions, shifts and changes within each of the imperialist countries.The forces of anti-imperialism are compelled to take note of these changes, because they are also reflected in the changing and shifting battle plans of imperialism.

p Imperialism develops new tactics, new ideological arguments to meet the changing reality. We cannot be satisfied either with the scope or the effectiveness of our anti-imperialist, propaganda.

p These changes in objective reality are world wide. The shifts in tactics and ideological positions of imperialism are world wide. Any idea that each sector of anti-imperialism can effectively deal with this changing and shifting global challenge in a piecemeal fashion is a dangerous illusion. Such illusions can only result from an underestimation of the resourcefulness, the craftiness and the totally aggressive nature of imperialism.

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p As the draft Document correctly states—US imperialism remains the most aggressive war-like force in the world.

p It continues its bloody aggression against the people of Vietnam. It continues its policies of aggression against the people of socialist Cuba. It is the decisive force of military, political and economic aggression in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

p It remains the base of operation for the forces of imperialism everywhere in their futile attempts to halt the world revolutionary processes. It is the greatest danger to world peace. It is the nuclear Damocles Sword, held in bay, only by the forces of this new epoch and especially by the powerful military and nuclear shield of the Soviet Union.

p US imperialism is in an ever deeper crisis. It can be defeated, but to underestimate the aggressiveness and the danger that it presents would be the height of folly. Creating the illusion that it presents no danger of war, is imperialism’s trump card in preparation for war. Only this week, Nixon announced the fake withdrawal of 25,000 US troops in order to create the illusion of disengagement while the US resumed the bombing of the territory, of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

p In fact, with the election of Nixon, the forces of reaction have become emboldened. Nixon continues the policies of the old administration but minus its small tactical concessions.

p Aggressive continuation of the old policies without tactical concessions is the new format for both the policies at home and the imperialist policies abroad. Nixon has already abolished the "Alliance for Progress" with its appearance of concessions to its Latin American “Empire” and replaced it by the grand tour of the number one robber of the continent—Nelson Rockefeller. . He has wiped out the appearance of concessions in the foreign aid programmes.

p In place of tactical concessions the Nixon administration will place a higher priority on the use of open terror—on the use of the para-military forces or the use of the CIA and FBI. Nixon will continue the tactic of the carrot and the club—but with less carrots.

p This is the main direction. Of course, one has to keep in mind that the new administration has not yet dealt with the real world, which includes the wrath of the people of the USA. And, it is a fact that a policy with less sugarcoating on it can be exposed faster.

p For an effective struggle, in any arena, one must know one’s enemy. Because the US is the center of world imperialism, permit us to dissect some of its bloated innards. It is a powerful, dangerous foe, but it is in serious difficulties. In cash values, the annual price tag on the US policy of aggression is reaching the one-hundred billion dollars level. For the people, this becomes translated into a runaway inflation, sky-rocketing prices and rents. Forty per cent of all workers’ wages are now extracted in taxes, direct and indirect. Because of this, real wages are now declining for a third year in a row.

p No people or nation has ever been in such debt. The total debt by individuals, corporations and the government owed to the banks has now reached over one and one-half trillion dollars. We are the most mortgaged people in the world.

p The Nixon policies of cutting back on tactical concessions is setting the stage 429 for new explosions in the ghettos, for more bitter strike struggles—for ever greater mass upheavals.

p The US financial-industrial capitalist complex, interlocked with the powers of the state machinery at its service, with the new scientific breakthroughs at its command, organised and controlled through monopolies and ever greater monopolies known as conglomerates, has developed into history’s most brutal, inhuman, fiendishly efficient, cold-blooded exploiter and devourer of resources—both nature’s and man’s. It has become an ever more savage monster of exploitation extracting maximum profits. It finds ever new forms of how to squeeze a little more. During the last ten years the rate of exploitation of labour has been forced up by 17 per cent.

p The special, brutal nature of US capitalism is shown in its oppression of national minorities. For 350 years it has maintained a special system of oppression, applied today to 25 million Afro-American citizens. And after the long years of militant and heroic struggles, even though some important victories were won, the special system of racist oppression remains largely intact. Thus the brutal system continues in force, the discrimination and inequality, the segregation and the ghettos, with its degradation, hunger and misery. It results in an income for the black people that is one-half of the national level, in an unemployment rate that is three times higher, in a death rate that is double, in slum housing and chronic hunger for the majority of Afro-Americans, in denial of education, in being forced to work at the lowest-paid and most dangerous jobs, in being at the bottom of the seniority lists. Despite all the heroic struggles of the Negro people and allied forces among the majority white population, this vicious system in its essentials remains intact.

p After the passage of many new laws and after many fine speeches, racism still stalks the land. It is still capitalism’s most used and useful tool for extracting superprofits.

p No ruling class has ever singled out for special oppression so many of its people, within its own national boundaries—a fact that constitutes an enduring anti-humanist indictment of US capitalism.

p To the special oppression of twenty-five million Afro-Americans, US capitalism has also designed special forms of oppression of eight million MexicanAmericans, two million Puerto Ricans and the segregation of what numbers remain of the original Indian Americans, into reservations, which are barren graveyards of hunger, social deprivation and inhuman wretchedness. This same policy is applied to the Eskimo people of Alaska. The capitalist racist equation— of divide and rule equals superprofits—remains a central feature of US capitalism.

p Capitalism has thus created a monster. But it has also created something more. It has given rise to a militant working class. It has created a mass revolt. It has generated a courageous, militant freedom movement of Black Americans, of the mass of Negro people. It has given life to a youth and student revolt. It has set multi-millions into motion and struggle.

p It has spurred a mass struggle for peace and against militarism, which cuts across class lines and has penetrated deeply into the armed forces of US imperialism.

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p It has stirred into action millions of women who in many areas are more active and militant than men. A point this conference could well take note of. It has given rise to a deep probing—to a national uneasiness, to dissatisfacton, distrust and contempt for the capitalist establishment. It has set into motion a process of radicalisation—in a word, it has created a storm of protest and struggle.

p We pay special tribute to the heroism of our soldiers and sailors who are challenging the autocratic military regime, who are raising the banner of peace and equality, who are exposing the aggressive character of US imperialism’s wars—in the barracks, in the military mobilisation and induction centers, and at the military bases.

p Never before, in the history of our country, have so many members of the armed forces taken direct action against militarism. Just look at these official, government figures; more than 53,000 desertions took place in the year ending June 30, 1968. This means that in the two-year military hitch of the average GI, approximately one out of thirty men risks long prison terms, loss of jobs and ostracism for life, because his conscience will not permit.him to act as an instrument of the racist, colonialist, genocidal US military establishment.

p There are more than twenty-three thousand draft delinquents. There are thousands fleeing the US for Canada, and added thousands seeking refuge in Sweden, France and many other countries. There are underground and open anti-war papers published by the GI’s on the major military bases. No wonder the ruling class is exploring the possilility of abolishing the conscription system of the draft and raising military salaries, and to build an army of paid professional hirelings of imperialism.

p The most dynamic and potent expression of the new wave of struggle and the process of radicalisation in the United states is the rapid growth of organised rank-and-file movements in the shops and trade unions. The power of these movements can be seen in the trade union elections. Old encrusted Trade Union bureaucracies are being overthrown.

p The qualitative political shift on the American scene finds expression in these rank-and-file caucuses. The most dynamic of all the expressions, of this upsurge, are the caucuses of the Afro-American trade union members. The popularly named "Black caucuses" are now an active force in hundreds of shops and locals. A glimpse of the level of this development can be obtained from the names they adopt. The name of "revolutionary workers’ caucuses" is an accepted form among increasing sections of black workers.

p Motivating this rank-and-file upsurge are the new problems of the class struggle, the special problems of black workers, and the desire to reshape and to retool the trade union movement as an instrument of class struggle, so that it can meet the problems of today.

p The workers who make up the rank-and-file movements are the shop militants, the radicals and, -of course, the Left and the Communists.

p This development is the key link in the class struggle in our country today. More, it is the key link in the struggle for social progress.

p This rank-and-file upsurge is reflected in the formation of .a new national trade union center, the American Labour Alliance. The base of the new center 431 is the three million members of the Teamsters Union and the United Automobile Workers’ Union. It is a direct challenge to the infamous, reactionary Meany-Lovestone AFL-CIO leadership.

p This new formation has taken up the task of organising the unorganised, especially in the racist south. But most important, it has taken a stand against the further militarisation of the country. This is an important step away from a position of open and aggressive support given by the leadership of the American Federation of Labour—Congress of Industrial Organisation to policies of United States imperialism. It has a position of seeking new ties with all sections of the world’s trade unions.

p Needless to say these developments on the working-class front have had great significance in all areas of struggle, including the struggle against the policies of imperialism.

p The shock-brigaders of the revolutionary transition, the youth, are continuing to set the pace of militancy. The ruling circles are praying for the return of the good old days—the days of the student pranksters—of the panty raids and goldfish swallowing. The liberals are now also worried because the students are not just "letting off steam" but have presented some non-negotiable demands.

p These demands go into some very basic issues of our capitalist society. They are demanding that higher education be recognised as an inherent right and a realistic possibility for all youth. They are demanding the end of the system in which the wealthy trustees benevolently dole out college entrance permits. They are demanding an end to the racist bars and the system of tokenism in all institutions of higher learning. They are demanding that educational institutions break their ties with the military-industrial complex. They want to close the doors of our colleges and universities to recruiting tor the military and for the manufacture of lethal gases and other instruments of mass death. They want to abolish the eliteist Reserve Officer Training Corps.

p These are fundamental demands that not only affect our schools but go to the heart of the basic problems of our capitalist society—they demand domestic \social reform as a replacement for the policies and expenditures of imperialism. XIThe young workers, who are new in industry, are also in great numbers becolftingjhe shock-brigades for the working class. They spark the rank-and-file movements. They are pushing for a revitalisation of the trade-union movement. It is these young workers, many of whom were themselves recently students, who form the link between the students and the working class.

p They are a strong force in the struggle against racism because they do not have some of the hangups afflicting many of the older workers. They are of the radicalised generation. They are more open to new socialist ideas. In our industrial concentration efforts these young workers are our central concern.

p There is absolutely nothing on the US class scene that in any way challenges the basic concepts pf Marxism.

p That non-working-class sections of the population move into action separately or differently than the working class is not new or unique for the United States. This “discovery” should not be used to uphold any non-Marxist theories that reject the Marxist concepts of the role of the working class.

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p On the basis of the upsurge in non-working-class sections many petty- bourgeois theoreticians in the USA developed theories of revolution without the working class. Theories of revolution made by those who are not in the production process.

p These concepts were especially articulated by the ideologists on the CIA payroll, namely Marcuse.

p What is new and significant on the US class’scene is the historic rise of struggle—the process of radicalisation in the ranks of the working class. And of great importance is that movements representing millions are recognising the fact that in industrially developed countries there is a built-in limitation to non-working class upsurge—unless they become allied with the working class. They are rejecting the theories of petty-bourgeois radicalism.

p Our Party has paid special attention to the youth in rebellion. The question is not only attention—but what is the content of that attention. This is not a generation that can be won over by paternalistic, classless, .bouquets. They want answers to their problems. They have to be won in sharp ideological struggle. Especially against petty-bourgeois radicalism. They have to be won to Marxist and working-class ideas.

p Our Party is a part of and reflects these mass currents of struggle. We have emerged from years of extreme political oppression, on the crest of these waves of mass struggles.

p Our Party has become united in giving a measure of leadership to the mass upsurge. We remain in many ways semi-legal and illegal. There are some new acts of terror and legal moves against our Party.

p With great difficulty, we once again publish a daily Marxist paper now for almost a year. The next stage in the consolidation and building of the Communist Party is taking place on the crest of the new wave of struggles, and on the process of radicalisation now developing in the ranks of the working class. The Party is now giving its concentrated attention to this key area of struggle.

p It is necessary to take note and to emphasise some important changes that are taking place both internally, amongst the monopoly groups within the United States, and externally in relationships between the United States and the other imperialist countries. Some significant shifts are taking place in both areas.

p Some inner structural changes are taking place in both areas. They are true especially for United States imperialism, but they are the forerunner of similar changes of things to come in all imperialist countries. These new features are a further development of the cancerous growth of the general crisis of capitalism. They signify a new level of its parasitic development.

p Internally, there is a new stage in the monopolisation of the economy. The United States, and also some of the other industrially developed countries, is at the height of a totally unprecedented avalanche, a frenzy of corporate mergers.

p In the capitalist process the big fish have always swallowed the smaller fish. But, there are three new factors to this new wave of mergers. First, it has become an uncontrollable avalanche. Second, the dominant movement is by the very large corporations; it is the merging of the giants into supergiants. Giant 433 corporations with assets up to a billion dollars are being swallowed up. The third new feautre is the rise of monopoly formations called “conglomerates”. This new structure is adding a different quality to capitalist anarchy.

p In the trade language of the monopoly thieves, mergers and acquisitions are usually distinguished as either “horizontal”, “vertical”, or now, as “conglomerates”.

p Horizontal mergers are those between corporations in the same industrial classification; vertical mergers are those between corporations which are related to one another as actual or potential buyer and seller. The new conglomerate mergers are those for which there is no technological or market rationale. There are neither technological nor marketing reasons for these mergers or acquisitions. From the point of view of production or marketing such mergers are a-rationale. They are reaching the outer limits of capitalist anarchy.

p The merger movement has spread over the entire economy. Conglomeration is the new, predominant trend, in contrast to horizontal or vertical merging.

p The very pinnacle of this lunacy is reached when these conglomerates are, in fact, only irrational aggregates in a galaxy of conglomerates, all financially owned and controlled by a handful of giant banks.

p These monstrous anarchistic formations result from the inner laws of monopoly capitalism. They are signs of its deep inner sickness in its final stages of development.

p The boom in the acquisition of irrational conglomerates is the result of financial blood clots in the aging veins of imperialism. The shift in the balance of world forces is affecting the internal processes within the major imperialist countries.

p United States capitalism increasingly has faced the problem of accumulation of unused capital. This is related to problems of capitalism in this epoch. Because the shift in the world balance offerees becomes increasingly an obstacle to opening up new areas of investment. Thus the accumulated unused capital tends to become blood clots in the veins of imperialism. They become a source of pressures and irrationality.

p And when the channels for its investment become restricted the monster tends to turn upon itself to devour its own. Under this pressure, its actions become more irrational. Thus it turns to irrational conglomerates, a development which brings significant political and social consequences.

p This process has greatly accelerated the process of polarisation of our society. It adds to a sense of mass alienation. It gives the inner contradictions of monopoly capitalism a new quality.

p It is also creating new problems for the class struggle. But in the main it is a further weakening of the structure of United States imperialism.

p The rise of the irrational conglomerates can be a strong argument for the need of a rational planned system of socialism.

p The rise of conglomerates is not limited to the domestic scene. It is becoming a form and a structure for imperialist acquisitions. Increasingly, the imperialist bank has become the means of imperialist control by developing foreign conglomerates under its control. For this purpose the United States has become the world’s largest exporter of banks. These banks are becoming the main centers 434 of imperialist holdings. They are the controlling center of US imperialist conglomerates. For example, Chase Manhattan, a Rockefeller bank, now has over 1,600 overseas banking facilities of its own—plus hundreds of other foreign banks it controls. When Peru moved to end US imperialist domination they nationalised Standard Oil, but they had to move on Banco Continental with its forty-four branches because only a few years ago it was acquired by Chase Manhattan—the Rockefeller bank.

p And, it is Rockefeller’s Chase Manhattan Bank that is at the jugular vein of Venezuela by its control of Banco Mercantile Agricola.

p This same Chase Bank is the head of the racist imperialist conglomerates in South Africa, through its control of Standard Bank of South Africa with its 900 branches in the southern part of the African continent.

p Chase Manhattan is a private imperialist empire. It is one of the big stockholders in the US war industries. It co-ordinates its profits from the war industries with the Pentagon and its world-wide network of banks. To Vietnam it has exported both napalm and banks.

p Thus with the banks at the control of industrial conglomerates US imperialism has added a new link to its chain of imperialism. Through these banks it controls industries and governments.

p It places the direct imperialist control one step further. It ties the noose one notch tighter around the neck of the capitalist class of the enslaved nations. Till now it has picked the pockets of the oppressed. Now it is eliminating the pockets.

p In the present period of advanced general crisis of capitalism, the main contradiction is between socialism and imperialism. There are contradictions present and sharpening between the imperialist powers but they have taken second place to this main contradiction.

p Since World War II, almost all small wars have been between imperialism and the national liberation movements, wars of intervention of imperialism against progressive and Communist-led governments, and imperialist wars against socialist states.

p The imperialists go to great lengths to avoid wars among themselves as they lack the reserves to fight such wars and survive. Moreover, the extreme inequality of power, the absolute supremacy of US military power in the imperialist camp, has tended to render less likely the outbreak of was s among the imperialists. In particular, the military treaties, joint forces, and US bases established in the decade after World War II made such wars difficult. However, contradictions among the imperialist powers are now mounting, even though they express themselves in different forms. Uneven economic development among the imperialists makes for rising economic and financial contradictions. These are intensified by the increasing pressures and struggles for national liberation, to restrict the plunder of the imperialists, and to stop it altogether.

p Uneven development economically is repeating the pattern of the interwar period.

p However, the extent of unevenness is more marked than between thei two world wars. In fact, it is more extreme than at any time in the history of imperialism. Japanese imperialism, at one extreme, is gaining in economic strength 435 with unprecedented speed. British imperialism, on the other extreme, is losing positions most rapidly.

p There are also new important shifts in the relations between imperialist countries. There are important shifts on the world imperialist pyramid.

p In a period when the current of history is running against imperialism, a warorientated economy, such as US imperialism has built since the second world war, becomes a factor in the operation of the law of uneven development between capitalist countries.

p It is the overseas expenditures that annually turn the US trade balance against itself. This has an accumulated negative effect on the US economy. US imperialism is caught in the vise of its plans of conquering the world.

p It either now has to retreat or keep spending billions of dollars to maintain the operation of the 3,405 overseas military bases, while its chief imperialist rivals spend relatively small amounts for their military establishments.

p This and other factors have drastically changed the position of Japan in the imperialist pyramid.

p For exmaple: during the past ten years the US industrial growth rate has been about 5.5 per cent per year. During the past fifteen years the growth fate for Japan has been 13^(per cent. But, even more dramatic—during the past eight years, for Japan itliasjjeen 14.7 per cent and the past three years it rose to a growth rate of 16.5 peFcent. In 1960 Japan’s industrial output was 20 per cent of the US level and 85 per cent of the West German level, but in 1968 it rose to 36 per cent of US level and 157 per cent of West Germany’s level. Thus Japan has by-passed West Germany, and has clearly now become the second industrial producing nation in the capitalist world.

p This has shifted many of the imperialist rivalries. The contradictions between US .and Japanese imperialism have greatly sharpened. The struggle over Okinawa is only symbolic of more far-reaching antagonisms between them.

p This uneven development is undermining the hegemony of US imperialism in the world of capitalism—in all phases, economic, political and military. The drive of the fastest growing imperialists for a larger share of investment opportunities, markets and sources of raw materials is increasingly bringing to the fore elements of rivalry between US imperialism and the other imperialist powers.

p •

p This economic rivalry contributes to growing contradictions in the political and military spheres. NATO and SEATO, the main systems of bases and alliances of US imperialism, are significantly weakened. Even the US military grip on Latin America is now being challenged. The US and its military advisers are being driven—slowly but steadily—from foreign bases in one country after another.

p Contribution to this is the relative strenghtening of the socialist camp in economic and military power. And especially the economic, military and political might of the Soviet Union. This increases the risks to any capitalist power in being involved with the Pentagon planners militarily.

p It is, however, a continuing part of reality that the centripetal forces tending to bring the imperialist powers together against the “menace” of communism, remain strong. Consequently, we cannot take for granted the continuation of 436 any given split among the imperialists. On the contrary, there is always the striving to patch things up, and to restore relative unity among the imperialists.

p To ignore the possibility of an imperialist military unity directed against either the socialist sector, the forces of national liberation, or both, would not only be an illusion about the nature of imperialism, it would be a misreading of what is the main contradiction of our times.

p One must not ignore the element of desperation and irrationality of imperialism.

p From this it follows that only an unbreakable unity and a constant and total mobilisation of the forces of anti-imperialism can keep this possibility defused.

p These are only examples of the changing scene of imperialism. We must get used to the idea that this is a period of fast moving events. This applies to changes within class forces.

p The draft before us correctly raises the struggle against racism—against anti-Semitism and all forms of chauvinism. Based on our experience we would like to sharply emphasise the importance of this phase of the struggle against imperialism.

p Racism has always been a tool of imperialism. It is its most effective ideological tool. The use of the colour of a man’s skin is an age-old weapon of slave masters. Imperialism has refined it. It has given it a global character.

p The influence of racism is the most serious roadblock to the development of an anti-imperialist consciousness in the imperialist countries. It is an obstacle to the development of class consciousness in the ranks of the workers. Class consciousness is the strongest antidote against racism.

p Racism is a live virus everywhere. Struggle and experience create the conditions for its elimination. But like all enemy ideologies—it does not disappear without a struggle. It must be taken head on. US imperialism is the main world dispenser of racism. For US imperialism it is an extension of its racism at home. US capitalism exploits 60 million wage workers to the amount of 250 billion dollars in profits each year. But it extracts close to 30 billion additional superprofits each year from a special system of racial and national oppression of 40 million of its citizens at home. They can continue these policies and practices only because of the influence of racism on the white Americans who permit it to go on.

p We are speaking about raising the level of the anti-imperialist struggle. As an important feature of this struggle we must raise to a new level the struggle against racism in all its forms.

We would like to see a world ideological conference devoted to burning out the influence of racism. Communists must not only be the staunchest, but also the most skilful fighters against racism. This struggle must be seen as a key and most crucial feature of the struggle against the ideology of imperialism.

p Marxism-Leninism, and the world, and class, outlook’of the communist movement was largely moulded in the struggle against the influence of opportunism.

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p At crucial moments the acid of opportunism, unseen and unnoticed, had weakened the ideological fibres within the revolutionary movements. It finally destroyed powerful working-class parties of socialism. The acid had done its harm. It is of importance that the crisis which tested the metal of the parties came in the struggle against imperialism. When the test came the professed internationalism of the different working-class parties vanished. The unity between parties first was diluted to a formal unity. But very quickly, even the formal ties became obstacles. World, class, ties between parties became an embarrassment.

p Each party stated—their internationalism will be expressed thrbugh effective work, each within each of the national entities.

p The leaders of the socialist parties, in these critical times, made new discoveries. They, very quickly, decided Marx was wrong. There were no laws of capitalism that applied universally; There were no world-wide concepts of the class struggle. In each country they discovered fundamental national peculiarities that overshadowed international similarities.

p The class struggle became purely a people’s struggle. Class concepts became national concepts. No party condemned internationalism, they just put it on the shelf for the duration.

p The parties became large mass parties. This was good. But what was not good, was that they became broad popular parties by going along with popular concepts of nationalism and classlessness. They became mass parties by giving up their advanced working-class positions.

p Only Lenin saw the nature of the acid. Only Lenin took up the struggle before it reached the crisis stage. Only Lenin saw its creeping insidious nature.

p Much has happened since then. Much has changed, because the Leninist fibre of the Communist Parties is stronger than in the past. But the need to be on guard against the acid of opportunism has not. The acid is the same. It still eats at the fibres of internationalism. It still erodes class concepts. It feeds on and itself feeds nationalism. It still leads to an accommodation to the pressures of the enemy.

p The relationship of forces is different—the pressures are different—the influence of opportunism is different. But as long as there will be a struggle between the two classes there is a need for a struggle against opportunism.

p There are two opposite approaches to the question of relationships between internationalism and national interests. Whenever these are momentary differences between international responsibility and some specific national interests, opportunism will in all cases lead to discarding of internationalism. Opportunism leads to an emphasis on the difference and on nationalism. A working-class revolutionary concept will lead to a search for the points of unity. Opportunism will seek to widen the points of difference. A revolutionary concept leads to the elimination of the differences. The struggle for concepts of internationalism is a struggle against opportunism.

p Theories of disunity are also not new in the history of the revolutionary movement. They appear in exact ratio to opposition to working-class internationalism.

p In the parties of the Second International, internationalism was never 438 condemned. It was dispensed with, as an obstacle to unity. Their scuttling of internationalism was covered by the numerous theories of disunity.

p We are for the rejection of all disunity.

p We rejected the theory that constant splitting is as natural for the revolutionary movement as it is in nature. It is an open theory of disunity. It is also a distortion of the dialectics of nature.

p It is also one thing to take note and examine differences and momentary contradictions within the world socialist sector. But it is another matter to use this as the basis for a theory of disunity. A theory that in essence says "that’s how-things are"—"and that is how it will be"—we must therefore accept it as a fact of reality, and any attempt to find a path of unity is only an illusion.

p We reject all theories which say in word or deed that attempts to bring about class unity in fact only bring disunity. We also reject the concept that silence can disperse ideological differences and thus create the basis for unity.

p US imperialism has never for a moment given up its drive to chip away at the unity of the socialist world. For it, the focus of the class struggle on the world scale is the Soviet Union. For it, the Soviet Union is the political and military power base of the world’s working class. It views the Soviet Union as the main roadblock to its plans of world conquest. This has been and remains the pivot of its imperialist policies.

p Thus its main ideological attack is on the Soviet Union. US capitalism is ready to make significant short range concessions to any group, party or state, if these concessions fit into the tactical or strategic plans against the Soviet Union, into its plans of dividing the socialist sector and the other forces of anti-imperialism.

p For example, for years there has been a well-organised high power political group composed of some of the most reactionary imperialist forces—called the "China Lobby". It has been the organising and ideological center for the US policies of aggression in the Far East. This most reactionary force has now undertaken the drive, both in the open and behind the scenes, to bring about a working relationship between the US and People’s Republic of China. This is a well-financed drive, supported by some of the most aggressive monopoly circles in the heartland of world imperialism. Needless to say, these forces are not interested in US-Chinese friendship. Their main interests are not even trade with Communist China; Their aim is to use the split in the socialist world. Their aim is to try to use the People’s Republic of China in its anti-Soviet plans. Its main aim is to open the doors of China for political penetration. One cannot blame China for what US imperialism does, but one cannot ignore policies that lead imperialism to conclude that it can use them.

p The use of such negative policies is not a matter of agreements or contracts.

p The same end is accomplished by giving the massive imperialist networks the material with which to vilify and slander the Soviet Union, socialism and the Communist Parties of the world. The imperialist network is much more anxious to spread slander coming from such a source than slander from its own barn of ideological fabricators.

p US imperialism has a specific, worked out plan of action for every socialist 439 country—for every newly liberated country—for every political party throughout the world.

p • What the world must understand, no world power has ever had an active policy of penetration, of subversion, of corruption, of buying off, of terror and murder on the massive scale as is the case with US imperialism.

p But the pivot around which these plans revolve is the plan against the Soviet Union.

p Any accommodation to the ideological pressure that arises from this reality weakens the forces of anti-imperialism. No amount of ideological tip-toeing or side-stepping is going to change this hard rock of reality.

p It is true that the Soviet Union does not ask for nor does it need the kind of defense the first young socialist Republic did. But. even then the significance of the world-wide campaign was far more than the defence of the Soviet Union per se. It was an important ideological campaign. In fact this was its central purpose.

p For this same reason the statement of Soviet self-sufficiency, while correct, cannot be a cover for not taking up the challenge of the anti-Soviet campaign. Such silence for whatever reason has political and ideological consequences— not in the Soviet Union, but to the masses in the rest of the world. Herein lies the importance of replying to the slander no matter where it comes from.

p No one wants to condemn or to "read out" any other Communist Party. The best possible of all solutions would be for all Communist and Marxist Parties to be here in this comradely and democratic discussion. This is the only path to greater unity. However, no one can honestly say that every possible effort has not been made to bring this about. I am sure we are of one mind in our determination to continue to bring about such a collective dialogue between all Parties.

p But let us not forget—there is a long history to the efforts of most Parties in trying to find a basis for a dialogue with the present leading group in the leadership of the Communist Party of China. In this history there have been periods of private exchanges, periods of public discussions, periods of no public or private retorts, to the vituperative and slanderous attacks from Peking. But as we know it has all fallen on deaf ears. Silence in the face of injustice, silence in the presence of slanders and falsehoods, silence in the knowledge of a military attack is acquiescence, is support for the slander, the falsehoods and the attacks. Whether one inwardly means to acquiesce or not, is not important. It is the effects of such silence that count. The imperialist network spreads such silence as support for the slander.

p The main content of the Maoist ideological attack is anti-Soviet. It is directed against the other socialist countries and the world communist movement but it is sharply focussed against the Soviet Union. This, as we all know, is the main focus of US imperialism’s attack also. How are we, therefore, to separate these attacks? They cannot be separated in content, in their viciousness, in scope and persistence.

p Where then is the logic in a position of remaining silent when hearing every possible kind of slander, and vilification that has no limits. Where is there logic in remaining silent when there is also proof of military attacks—all these attacks 440 coming from one direction. And as soon as there is even the most responsible and measured reply to the slanders and attacks—then the silence ends and the response to these slanders is called slander and abuse—these responses are called divisive. During this conference the Mao group has said, "the Soviet Union and its socialist satellites are a fascist prison camp of peoples". How can partisans of socialism, a partisan of the working class remain silent? Must not one weigh the effects of such silence? Do not masses have a right to draw the conclusion that such silence is, in fact, acquiescence? Whether they have a right or not? They do.

p Under these circumstances those who remain silent and those who dig into the pile of slander and falsehoods, in search of a word or two from which they can construct some far fetched positive connotation—may do so. But they must also accept the responsibility of what conclusions the millions draw from such positions.

p What should concern all is the slanders and the attacks, of course, but what is of even greater concern is the consistent direction of the Maoist policy.

p It is not a policy of confrontation with the forces of imperialism anywhere. The policy moves in the direction of a sharper confrontation with the forces of socialism and anti-imperialism everywhere. Neither the ideological nor the military confrontation moves in the direction of confrontation with imperialism— anywhere.

p The point is not to read the Communist Party of China out. The real question is—how to reverse the present direction of the Maoist policy and to bring the Chinese people and nation back into the stream of anti-imperialism, and into the world communist and socialist movements.

p We are in full agreement with the draft Main Document in its emphasis on the centrality of the struggle against US imperialism. This is a world-wide struggle.

p In the other imperialist countries, however, this struggle will be most effective if it related to the struggle against the imperialism of one’s own coury. Communists can never be in the position of supporting the replacement of one imperialist domination by another—especially if the replacement is the imperialism of one’s own country.

This can also be a form of opportunism.

p The US Air Force and Navy have destroyed most of the substantial structures and bridges in North Vietnam, including, by their own claim, tens of thousands of trucks, thousands of railroad engines and cars, large numbers of vessels, the bulk of all industrial installations. They have destroyed the majority of aboveground schools and hospitals, countless homes, damaged the invaluable dikes and irrigation systems.

p The US Armed Forces have destroyed most of Hue, large parts of Saigon, Cantho, and other cities in South Vietnam, and countless villages and hamlets, by aerial bombardment and artillery fire.

p The US Armed Forces have ruined a million acres of arable land through 441 defoliation, bulldozing, conversion into military bases. They have destroyed vast rubber plantations, and rice fields, shops, and small industrial establishments in South Vietnam. They have destroyed or stolen hundreds of thousands of tons of rice, tens of thousands of head of livestock.

p The US government strives openly to kill the maximum number of Vietnamese people, boasts daily of the number killed, and of the "kill ratio". It has in fact killed more than one million Vietnamese men, women and children.

p The US government has surpassed all of its past efforts at destruction in this war. It has dropped more tons of bombs than in any previous war. The damage has been correspondingly colossal.

p The US is completely responsible for this war, and is guilty of unprovoked aggression against the people of Vietnam, North and South. Similar massive destruction has been carried out in Laos, and serious damage in Cambodia.

p World public opinion must force US imperialism to pay full reparations for the damage it has wrought.

p Nobody needs or wants the charity of US imperialism, and their so-called aid is only given to their clients and puppets.

p What is involved here is reparations which by international custom are paid by the aggressor to the country attacked. And it is our supreme duty to make sure that US imperialism is in fact defeated in its criminal attempt to make a de facto colony of South Vietnam.

p How much reparations? There is no value big enough that one states for human lives lost.

p The damage done to property in Vietnam, measured by US standards, by the prices the US pays its munitions makers, by the actual costs of rebuilding at world prices, would mount into the tens of billions of dollars.

p Undoubtedly, the Vietnamese people themselves will be able to add up the bill accurately. But I think:

p To make economic amends, to pay its just material debt to Vietnam, the US must pay at least the amount it spent in a single year striving to conquer and to destroy Vietnam—30 billion dollars.

p Let the American workers now producing munitions be put to work on providing some of the goods represented by these 30 billion dollars owed to Vietnam.

This must be made an issue in the anti-imperialist movements and struggles.

p The US is not only the economic and military citadel of world imperialism. It is also its political and ideological center. It has in its service the most massive propaganda machine of any power in history. It has at its service tens of thousands of well trained ideological and political specialists. This is a most highly class conscious cadre. This imperialist network is sharply keyed to this conference. They have been briefed and rebriefed. They have been supplied with political, ideological, health and psychological dossiers on most top communist cadres. They are not afraid of any secret decisions from this conference. They are worried about the effects the conference will have on the millions. This 442 network is geared to minimise the effects. They can do this to the extent that they can create an impression of disunity. Every discordant note is being magnified a thousand-fold. In this sense the statement of Comrade Rodriguez for the Communist Party of Cuba that they would not let their absence here be used by the forces of imperialism is of very great importance.

p Let us not feed this imperialist network of propaganda.

p Let us rather feed the spirit of struggle, the sense of new confidence that masses will gather from a new level of unity symbolised in this historic conference of Communist and Workers’ Marxist Parties.

p There are some in the communist movement who feel that the draft Document is too positive in tone. We do not think so. Communist analysis must be rounded out.

p But there is one special quality in communist assessments. We are dealing with processes in motion. We are dealing with-currents only in the process of emerging. It is necessary for us to seek out that which is positive, that which is emerging. We must examine weaknesses, but we must build on that which is positive.

Communists deal with currents and forces that contain within themselves the future. Our assessments reflect our deep confidence in the future of these forces. We have positive posture, because we are the present—but we are also the future.