THE STRUGGLE OF THE PEOPLES OF SOUTH-EAST ASIA FOR FREEDOM AND NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE
FOR A LASTING PEACE, FOR A PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACY!
NO. 35 (95), FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1950
EDITORIAL: THE STRUGGLE OF THE PEOPLES OF SOUTH-EAST ASIA FOR FREEDOM AND NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE
Cominform
A sharp and strenuous struggle of the peoples against imperialist national and social oppression and against colonial slavery, for freedom and independence, has developed in the countries of South-East Asia.
For five years the people of Viet Nam have been waging a heroic struggle against the French colonisers and their US inspirers. Despite the uninterrupted dispatch of fresh military reinforcements from France and despite US military assistance, the French expeditionary corps is suffering one defeat after another. The territory held by the French troops does not exceed 10 per cent of Viet Nam’s territory. Throughout the rest of the country a new democratic system has been firmly established.
For more than two years the British imperialists have been waging a bandit war in Malaya. However, neither the army, one-hundred thousand strong, equipped with tanks and aircraft, nor the special punitive units have helped the Labour lieutenants of the City to break the will of the peoples in Malaya who are fighting for their liberation from the colonial yoke. The impotence of the imperialists is evident from the draconic law recently issued by them in Malaya, a law which punished with death participation in any movement directed against military operations carried out by the British Government.
The national liberation movement is extending also in Burma to which British imperialism granted “independence”, having first enmeshed it with onerous treaties and having done everything to deprive the Burmese Government of real power. However, although British imperialism succeeded in buying native feudal chiefs, the bureaucracy and the Right Socialists, it did not succeed in deceiving the people. The liberated areas of Burma account for half the country’s population, while, in the remaining part, workers’ strikes, accompanied by the advancement of political demands, do not cease while the peasants refuse to pay both interest to usurers as well as the unbearable taxes to the government.
In Indonesia the struggle for national independence is going on unceasingly. In a number of regions the partisans are engaged in serious battles against Dutch colonial troops.
A powerful movement for freedom and for a really independent and democratic republic is unfolding throughout the archipelago.
The successes of the national liberation movement of the peoples in South-East Asia are the outcome of the vigorous awakening of their national consciousness. These successes become possible as a result of the world historic victories of the Soviet Union, the People’s Democracies and the international working class movement; as a result of the general strengthening of the camp of peace, democracy and Socialism. The victory of the people’s revolution in China has, in turn, stirred the peoples of South-East Asia who have seen in the Chinese revolution a vivid example of how to fight for their national liberation and what fruitful results are brought about by such struggle under the leadership of the Communist Party.
The successes of the international democratic front have resulted in a radical change in the correlation of forces in favour of the camp of peace and democracy and in the weakening of the imperialist camp, which fact decisively undermined the entire colonial system of imperialism.
US imperialism, which has openly announced its bandit course aimed at winning world domination, has now emerged as the gendarme and hangman of the peoples of South- East Asia. The line of foreign policy of US imperialism is based on the false assumption that the countries of South-East Asia can, allegedly, quickly taken into its hands and then, utilising their territories as a base, the great Chinese people and the peoples of the whole Asia, can be enslaved. To halt the liberation movement of the peoples of South-East Asia, US imperialism went over from preparations for aggression to direct acts of aggression.
However, US intervention in Korea encountered the united and firm will of the Korean people for national independence and freedom. On behalf of all Korean people, the United Democratic Patriotic Front of Korea has declared: “We do not need the ‘freedom’ of the American Negroes, built by US imperialism on the bones of the Negroes. We do not need ‘freedom’ of the peoples of the South America who are in colonial bondage to US imperialism which, like a spider, is sucking blood of the peoples, dooming them to alter starvation, poverty and lack of rights. We do not need the ‘freedom’ given to the people of South Korea by the US occupation army – with the support of the Syngman Rhee traitors – and which signifies poverty, ignorance and lack of rights for the people of South Korea. When talking about the so-called ‘freedom of the Korean people’, the US imperialists have in mind freedom for US imperialism which waxes rich on the sweat and blood of the Koreans who, according to the racial ‘theory’ of the American imperialists, are not regarded as human beings. We do not need such ‘freedom’. The Korean people need real freedom without the interference of foreign imperialists”.
Such as the will of heroic Korean people, and it cannot be broken either by guns and the brutal bombing of peaceful towns and villages or by the mass shooting of Korean patriots.
The more ferocious and frantic becomes US imperialism, the greater determination to struggle it evokes among all peoples who desire freedom and independence.
American intervention in Korea has made clear to all, the real aims of Wall Street in South-East Asia. The blood thirsty butcher, MacArthur, intends to turn Taiwan (Formosa) into a huge aircraft carrier, the Philippines into a submarine base and the whole of the Pacific into an “American lake”. The scale of this imperialist programme goes far beyond the plans of the Japanese militarists. The US aggressors are seeking to realise this programme by fire and sword, killing tens of thousands of Korean women and children. They want to intimidate all freedom-loving peoples, threatening to wipe them out.
Consequently, the struggle for national libration is a vitally essential, sacred and just cause for all the peoples of South-East Asia. Only armed resistance, only a resolute armed struggle against the foreign occupiers and against home reaction and traitors of the people can secure the national freedom and independence of the countries of South-East Asia.
The great Chinese people have shown a remarkable example of how an armed rebuff to the imperialist enslavers should be organised. A successful national liberation movement, under present conditions, can be headed only by the working class and its vanguard – the Communist Parties. Under the banners of the liberation struggle against the brutal colonial regime, for profound, democratic transformations, the working class is rallying all – above all the peasantry – who treasure the freedom and independence of the homeland. The slogan of land reform against feudal ownership is, at the same time, and anti-imperialist slogan, because it mobilises the forces of the peoples for the struggle against feudal chiefs – the supporters of imperialism – and activises millions upon millions of peasants who receive not only national but also social liberation.
US imperialism is mobilising all the forces of world imperialism against the liberation movement: British, French and Dutch imperialists are acting as junior partners of US imperialists in realising their colonial policy. The peoples, fighting for freedom and independence, have to deal with well-armed imperialist armies. However, these armies of the colonisers have a low morale; they are mercenary armies whose soldiers are fighting for interests alien to them and they are far from their own countries. At the same time the peoples of South-East Asia are fighting on their native land and for their vital interests. Herein lies the source of their strength and invincibility.
The strength and invincibility of the national liberation movement lies also in the fact that it is an integral part of the international movement in defence of peace. The peoples of South-East Asia want to decide their fate themselves; they want peace.
The peoples throughout the world, including the American people, are solidly with the heroic Korean people, with the peoples of South-East Asia who are waging a just liberation struggle. This struggle of peoples of South-East Asia, who know they are right and who know their national duty and who defend their homeland and world peace; this struggle which enjoys the tremendous moral support of the entire freedom-loving mankind, will end in complete victory.
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