THE FASCIST COUP IN INDONESIA AND THE LESSONS COMMUNISTS DRAW FROM IT
Zëri i popullit
May 11, 1966
The tragedy which the Indonesian people and communists are experiencing should shock the conscience of all progressive people. The Indonesian fascists, assisted openly and indirectly by the US imperialists and the Khrushchevite revisionists, are repeating, on an ever larger scale, what the Nazis did in the past after they took power. Their hand must be stayed. Every honest man, every revolutionary, every anti-fascist should raise his voice in powerful protest against the massacre of communists and progressives in Indonesia. Today this is the most elementary duty of all, because it is a real crime that the most rabid reactionaries should murder hundreds of thousands of innocent people (probably in no war, except the world wars, have there been so many victims) and go unpunished.
The Albanian people and communists express their internationalist solidarity with the Indonesian communists, victims of the fascist terror. We are convinced that regardless of the great damage it has suffered, the Indonesian Communist Party will reply to the fascists with a determined revolutionary struggle for the total defeat of reaction. Now it is clear that there is but one way open to Indonesian communists and patriots to oppose fascism and the terror: they must respond to the counterrevolutionary violence with revolutionary violence, with the armed struggle of workers and peasants in defence of freedom and democracy.
The developments in Indonesia are a bitter fact for the communists and for all revolutionaries. However, what has happened in Indonesia constitutes a major experience which must be carefully studied and valuable lessons must be drawn from it. The revolution never goes straight ahead. It advances through triumphs and setbacks. It is the duty of revolutionaries and Marxist-Leninists to consolidate the victories, while they must learn from the temporary setbacks and draw the necessary conclusions so that the revolution is raised to a higher level and waged with even greater force. The experience of a revolution is useful, not just to the revolutionaries and communists of one country alone, but to all revolutionaries, to all the Marxist-Leninists of the world. Therefore, not only the Indonesian communists, but all the revolutionaries and communists of the various countries should draw the appropriate lessons from the Indonesian events. This is of first-rate importance.
The Indonesian Communist Party grew up and developed as a Marxist-Leninist party in stern class struggle against internal and external enemies. After the heavy blows it received from reaction in 1927 and 1948, when thousands of communists and the whole leadership of the party were massacred, the Indonesian Communist Party was rebuilt through struggle and effort until it became, such a force that, from the number of its members, it represented the biggest communist party of the capitalist countries. There is no doubt that, despite the major losses it is suffering now, little by little, through courageous and consistent revolutionary Marxist-Leninist struggle it will recover once again. We Albanian communists are firmly convinced that the Indonesian communists will carefully analyse their work up to date, that they will discover the shortcomings, mistakes and weaknesses which have been manifested in the work of the Party, and will draw the necessary conclusions, so that in the future, the Indonesian Communist Party will lead the Indonesian people to success in their revolution. No one can do this better than the Indonesian communists themselves.
The events in Indonesia are not an isolated phenomenon.
They are links of a single chain, a component part of the assault of international reaction against the communist movement and the peoples' liberation struggle.
They are linked with the aggressive activity of US imperialism in Vietnam and elsewhere, with the bloody imperialist intervention in San Domingo and throughout Latin America, with the organization of counter-revolutionary coups against several new states in Africa, with the subversive, disruptive activities which the Khrushchevite revisionists have long been engaged in within the ranks of the international communist movement, with their sabotage of the peoples' national liberation struggle, with the active support they are giving US imperialism and all the various reactionaries, and so on.
For this reason the revolutionaries and communists of various countries must give these phenomena serious consideration, must analyse them carefully and draw the necessary conclusions so that the revolutionary struggle will advance steadily from victory to victory.
COMMUNISTS AND ALLIANCES WITH THE PROGRESSIVE FORCES
Historical experience shows that in their revolutionary struggle the communists always enter into alliances with various progressive forces, because, especially in the case of democratic revolutions or struggles for national liberation from imperialist and colonialist oppression, other broad strata of the population, ranging from workers and peasants to the national bourgeoisie and other progressive people apart from the communists and genuine revolutionaries, are also interested. It would be wrong, sectarian and harmful to the revolution if all those that can be united are not united to carry it through. The communists and genuine revolutionaries, as the most courageous fighters and most faithful representatives of the broad masses of people, are always interested in the unity of all those who want to carry the revolution forward.
The events in Indonesia are a significant lesson also in regard to the question of alliances. NASACOM , which represented the alliance of nationalist, religious and communist forces, had been in existence for a long time in Indonesia. The Indonesian Communist Party did well to take part in NASACOM. By this means it strengthened its position and that of the working class in the whole life of the country. But as the events show, sound organizational and revolutionary work was not done there.
Harmful euphoria was permitted and NASACOM itself, the alliance of its three constituent forces and «freedom» of action were boosted excessively. The fact is that one storm was sufficient to bring the whole NASACOM structure tumbling down. NASACOM was not a dyke strong enough to withstand the tide of counter-revolution.
In their struggle, therefore, the communists and revolutionaries should never content themselves with the formal conclusion of alliances. They should not be over enthused by declarations about the «vitality» of such alliances, but should work to ensure that these alliances are of maximum benefit to the revolution.
For this, it is essential that in the various popular, democratic, national and national liberation fronts, the genuine Marxist-Leninist parties should win the trust of their allies through their work and struggle, should emerge at the head of these fronts and exert effective leadership over them. The leadership of the Marxist-Leninist party, its correct revolutionary line in the interests of the broad masses united in the front, is the guarantee of the strength and vitality of fronts and their major role in achieving the objectives of the revolution. It has been proven more than once that when these fronts are led by other social forces and political parties they do not last, do not follow a consistent revolutionary line, are often used for counterrevolutionary purposes, and burst like a soap bubble at their first encounter with reaction.
In following the line of unity with all those that can be united in the front, Marxist-Leninist parties, contrary to the views of modern revisionists, must not only preserve their independence and their role of leadership but must, at the same time, struggle against the vacillations of various allies, against their reactionary tendencies, against their attempts to split the front and start making deals with the forces of reaction. The line of unity and struggle helps strengthen the fronts, purges them of reactionary counter-revolutionary elements, increases their solidarity and revolutionary spirit, and assists to attain a higher level of unity on sounder foundations. Following the line of unity alone and neglecting struggle creates a false, formal unity and enables reactionary elements and forces to undermine and eliminate it easily, dealing a heavy blow to the cause of the revolution itself.
In their alliances with various social strata and forces to achieve one objective or another in the various stages of the revolution, the communists must never lose sight of their ultimate goal — the triumph of socialism.
«One must know how to unite the struggle for democracy with the straggle for the socialist revolution, subjecting the former to the latter,» says Lenin. «Herein lies the whole difficulty; herein lies the whole essence... Don't forget the main thing (the socialist revolution); put it in the forefront...; subject to it and co-ordinate it with all your demands for democratic rights...»* * V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, vol. 35, pp. 260-261 (Alb. ed.).
The communists are sincere in their alliances with other social forces. They are resolute fighters for putting into practice the programs of united fronts, but at the same time, they make no secret of their ideals, and once they have accomplished their democratic and national tasks, they are determined not to stop half-way, but to carry the revolution forward to the triumph of socialism and communism.
The struggle of our Party during the National Liberation War, its agreements, talks with progressive elements, and even with the factions of the reactionary bourgeoisie, taught us how to find our bearings successfully in this labyrinth. This experience gained in the war has been and is of immense assistance to our Party in its correct policy with the broad masses of workers, helps the Party in its internal policy and in the orientation of its foreign policy, in studying and resolving antagonistic and non-antagonistic contradictions both inside and outside the country and in the international communist movement.
Against Modern Revisionism 1965-1967
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