Cominform - National Liberation Movement

FOR A LASTING PEACE, FOR A PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACY!

NO. 9 (173), FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1952

EDITORIAL:NATIONAL-LIBERATION MOVEMENT OF PEOPLES IN COLONIAL AND DEPENDENT COUNTRIES.

The peoples of the colonial and dependent countries no longer desire to nor can they live in the old way, in the chains of imperialist bondage. The million-fold masses are waging a selfless and heroic struggle against the colonial yoke, for freedom and independence. The crisis of the colonial system of imperialism, based on plunder, absence of rights, ruthless exploitation and streams of blood, has assumed an unprecedentedly sharp character.

The vast scale of the national-liberation struggle waged by the peoples of the colonial and dependent countries is a characteristic feature of the present international situation. This struggle proves irrefutably that there is taking place the process of disintegration of the colonial system of imperialism.

A powerful national-liberation movement is spreading on an ever increasing scale all over colonial Asia; it is spreading day by day in the Near and Middle East, in Africa and in the countries of Latin America.

The smashing by the Soviet Army of fascist Germany and imperialist Japan in World War II further weakened the imperialist camp and gave a fresh impetus to the revolutionary struggle waged by the working class and to the national-liberation movement against imperialism. In a number of countries of Central and South-East Europe there was established the system of people’s democracy. In Asia there arose the Korean People’s Republic and the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. Having smashed the reactionary forces, the Chinese people, led by the Communist Party, brought the great people’s revolution to a victorious conclusion. As a result, China dropped out of the imperialist system.

The historic victory of the people’s revolution in China, which signified a new triumph for Marxism-Leninism, a triumph for the Lenin-Stalin strategy and tactics, was a powerful blow against the entire system of world imperialism and the predatory plans of the Anglo-American aggressors. It marked a new page in the history of the national-liberation struggle of all the peoples oppressed by imperialism.

As far back as 1927 Comrade Stalin wrote:

“The era of undisturbed exploitation and oppression of the colonies and dependent countries had passed away”.

“The era of revolutions for emancipation in the colonies and dependent countries, the era of the awakening of the proletariat in these countries, the era of its hegemony in the revolution, has begun”.

These words of Comrade Stalin, the great leader of the working people of the world, reveal with all profundity the might and irresistibility of the national-liberation movement in the colonial and dependent countries. All over the world, the working class led by the Communist and Workers’ Parties, marches in the van of the peoples waging anti-imperialist, national-liberation struggle.

The working class of the colonial world is fighting for emancipation in close alliance with the peasantry. Workers and peasants comprising the overwhelming majority of the population in the colonial and dependent countries, constitute the main force of the national-liberation movement. The worker-peasant alliance is also jointed by the intelligentsia, by all progressive sections of town and countryside and by patriotic elements of the national bourgeoisie.

A brilliant example of the realization of the united people’s democratic front is offered by the struggle of the Chinese people. The working class of China and its Communist Party became the pivot for rallying all the national anti-imperialist forces in the country. In the working class, headed by the Communist Party, the Chinese people see its leader, the resolute, fully consistent champion of the new life.

The nature of the liberation movement varies in the different colonial and dependent countries. In some countries it has developed into opened armed struggle, in the course of which regular people’s liberation armies and numerous partisan forces came into being. For over six years, the people of Viet Nam, joined by the peoples of Laos and Cambodia, have been successfully combating the 200,000 strong expeditionary corps of the French colonisers inflicting heavy defeat on it. The peoples of Malaya, Burma and the Philippines are courageously fighting, arms in hand, for freedom and independence.

The Japanese people also, who have fallen into misfortune, are intensifying the struggle for freedom and independence of their country which the US occupationists have converted into a virtual colony of US imperialism.

In India, the Communist Party strives to rally all the progressive national forces into a united democratic front, for a people’s democratic government. The Communists fight for the sovereignty of the people, for emancipation of the peasants from feudal fetters, for a better life for all working people. The remarkable success won in the recent elections by the people’s democratic front, with the Communist Party in the fore, testifies to the further growth of the national-liberation movement in India.

The ground is burning under the feet of the colonizers in the countries of Near and Middle East and in North Africa. Despite the obstacles raised by internal reaction which is making a deal with the imperialist invaders, the masses are fighting the colonial oppression ever more vigorously and firmly. They demand that all foreign troops be withdrawn from Egypt and other countries. The liberation movement is growing in Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Lebanon. In Tunisia, the people have replied to the brutal terror by intensifying their struggle against the French colonizers.

In an endeavour to beat back the powerful upsurge in the liberation struggle in the colonial and semi-colonial countries, the imperialists resort to the most foul means; blackmail, deceit, threats, gunfire against demonstrations, and bombing defenceless towns and villages. Savage terror is combined with bribery and manoeuvres aimed at bringing about disruption. In the Near and Middle East they incite enmity between the peoples, seeking in every way to intimidate the national bourgeoisie and split the national-liberation movement.

In this vile and dirty work, the imperialist reaction finds loyal aids in the Right-wing leaders of Socialist Parties – apologists of the inviolability of the colonial regime.

The just national-liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples encounters warm sympathy and support among the working people of all countries. This struggle is part of the general battle waged by the peoples against imperialism, against the camp of reaction and war. The Communist Parties in the capitalist countries are called upon to render the utmost help to the national-liberation movement. Comrade Stalin teaches: “No lasting victory is possible in colonial and dependent countries unless a real link is established between the movement for their liberation and the proletarian movement of the more advanced countries of the West”.

The Communist Parties in the metropolitan countries are rallying all forces in the struggle against the colonizing strivings of the imperialists. The glorious French Communist Party, guided by the Lenin-Stalin teaching, boldly proclaims and consistently upholds the rights to full self-determination and independence of the peoples of Viet Nam and of the other countries enslaved by the French imperialists. The working class of France supports this demand of the Communists. Dockers in Marseilles and Toulon refuse to load arms for Tunisia. The working people of these and other ports continue the struggle against the war in Viet Nam.

The programme of the British Communist Party demands an end to the political, economic and military enthralment of the peoples of colonial and dependent countries, demands full national independence and equality for them. This is the only basis on which real friendship between the peoples can be established. The British Communist Party has ardently called upon the working class to support the struggle waged by the peoples of Egypt and Malaya for independence, and to secure the withdrawal of British troops from these countries.

The imperialists cannot launch the new war now being prepared against the democratic states, without first securing their rear-lines and curbing “their colonies”. Continuing the war in Korea, Viet Nam and Malaya, the American, British and French imperialists strives to ensure for themselves bases for unleashing aggression against People’s China. The US aggressors are going all out to build a new, Middle-East aggressive alliance, to bring the Arab countries into the Atlantic bloc, and transform their territories into war bases and their peoples into cannon fodder for an imperialist war.

But the oppressed peoples are combining their struggle against imperialism, for national liberation, more and more closely with the struggle of all the peoples for preserving and consolidating peace. For example, in Iran, where 500,000 people signed the Stockholm Appeal, the number of signatories to the World Peace Council’s Appeal for a Five-Power Peace Pact so far exceeds two million. Over 7,500,000 signatures were collected for a Peace Pact in embattled Viet Nam. Active preparations are underway for a conference in defence of peace and national independence of the countries of the Near and Middle East and North Africa.

Success in the revolutionary struggle waged by the peoples of colonies and semi-colonies is guaranteed by the spreading on a vast scale of the all-conquering ideas of Lenin-Stalin, by utilization of the rich revolutionary experience of the Soviet Union, the new China and the People’s Democracies. Irreconcilable and ever growing struggle against the imperialist yoke – such is the pathway for the hundreds of millions of working people in the colonial and dependent countries towards freedom, national independence and peace.