[PRWC Party Documents] Pomeroy's Portrait: Revisionist Renegade, April 22, 1972

Pomeroy's Portrait: Revisionist Renegade

Apologia for Soviet Revisionism

IV. On "Peaceful Coexistence" And Social-Imperialism

Basahin sa Pilipino

Amado Guerrero

April 22, 1972

Revolutionary School of Mao Tse Tung Thought, Communist Party of the Philippines

From the Khrushchov to Brezhnev, the foreign policy of the Soviet Union had reflected the all-round restoration of capitalism. Though the Soviet revisionist rulers pay lip-service to proletarian internationalism, they actually betray the interests of the world proletariat and all oppressed peoples for the benefit of the international bourgeoisie, particularly of the Soviet monopoly bourgeoisie. Since the sixties, a full-blown Soviet social-imperialism (with state monopoly capitalism as its base) has joined U.S. imerialism to become one of the two main enemies of the world proletarian revolution. It has become the principal accomplice of U.S. imperialism in counter-revolution and has always tried to outbid U.S. imperialism in counter-revolution.

The anti-Stalin campaign launched by Khrushchov formally marked the inception of the bourgeois foreign policy by the Soviet Union. In itself the campaign had the motive and effect of causing a serious disruption and split within the international communist movement. Under the banner of anti-Stalinism, the modern revisionist and Right opportunist crept out of their holes in all Communist Parties and in socialist states and acted to seize control over these, succedding in so many cases. The sudden complete negation of Comrade Stalin constituted a surprise attack on the international communist movement which had always held him in high esteem as a great leader and teacher of the Soviet people and world proletariat. Refusing to be taken in by the anti-commnuist stand taken by Khrushchov, the Chinese Communist Party, the Albanian Party Labour and other Marxist-Leninist parties stood their ground.

Putting forward the line of "peaceful transition" and the "parliamentary road", the 20th Congress of the CPSU opposed the Marxist-Leninist theory on the state and revolution. It was loudly proclaimed by the Soviet betrayers of Lenin and Stalin that the transition from capitalism to socialism had become peaceful and the aggressive nature of U.S. imperialism was already changing and becoming tractable and that Communist Parties in countries dominated by reactionary regimes could get power through elections and the parliamentary road. The historical experience and lessons of the world proletariat were covered up by the modern revisionists. The old merger party of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Socialist Party for one was taken in by the revisionist line through the instrumentality of the Lava revisionist renegades who promptly heeded the call for betrayal made by Khrushchov.

Khrushchov and his fellow revisionist renegades, including Brezhnev and Kosygin, knew no bounds in their betrayal of Leninism. They raised "peaceful coexistence" to the level of a general line and elaborated it into the three "peacefuls" and the two "wholes". They touted the agreements with U.S. imperialism to monopolize nuclear weapoms as the key to world peace. Even as they sang duets about "peace", the Soviet Union and the United States engaged in arms expansion and war preparations against the people and acted as superpowers colluding and contending with each other as their respective self-interests dictated, at the expense of the peoples of the world.

Pomeroy misrepresents as "putting nationalist interests ahead of the struggle for peace and for the unity of all revolutionary forces against imperialism" Chinas's resistance to the sanctification of the nuclear monoploy by the superpowers and to the imperialist privilege of nuclear blackmail. After all the "disarmament" treaties (such as the "nuclear test ban treaty" and the non-prolification treaty") signed by the Soviet Union with the United States, how far have these gone toward complete nuclear disarmament? Not an inch.

Absolutely contradicting the principle of proletarian internationalism, the Soviet revisionist renegades gave way on matters of principle to the U.S. imperialists. A short while before his visit to Eisenhower in 1959, Khrushchov arbitrarily tore up the Chinese-Soviet agreement on nuclear cooperation and took sides with the Indian reactionaries who provoked an armed conflict with China and belligerently encroached on Chinese territory. While in the United States, he made buffoonish counter-revolutionary statements like "even capitalists can join the communist movement" and "communism is beef plus goulash". After his U.S. visit, he went to China and asked the Chinese leadership to accept the U.S. "two China" policy and the U.S.occupation of Taiwans, to release U.S. agents and spies who had been arrested during the Korean War and to change attitude towards Eisenhower because of his supposed peaceful nature.

China rebuffed all these ridiculous demands of Khrushchov even as he resorted to economic blackmail. After completely failing to get what wanted, he eventually tried to sabotage the Great Leap Forward and take advantage of the imperialist blockade and natural calamities that had created difficulties in China. Without prior consultations with the Chinese leaders, he ordered the sudden total withdrawal of Soviet experts in clear violations of the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Aid and paid heed to China's demands that the case be reconsidered and the experts be returned. But Pomeroy now wishes to depict this as "gradual withdrawal" resulting form "differences over the observance of economic laws" He prates:

Differences over the observance of economic laws appear to have been the cause of the gradual withdrawal from China of Soviet technicians whose recommendations were ignored or overruled.

The real cause was that Khrushchov was so maddened by the refusal of the Chinese Communist Party to follow the revisionist line that he pounded on, the dictates of his great-power chauvinism, his capitulation to U.S. imperialism and his scheme to turn to China into an economic appendage of the Soviet Union. After the withdrawal of Soviet "aid", it was discovered to the great relief of the Chinese people that the glossly-designed Soviet goods and Soviet technical services were extremely overpriced and payments in the form of Chinese products were in effect underpriced. It was also discovered that the Soviet Union had relabelled and resold West German goods to China at great profit.

It is utterly ridiculous, therefore, for Pomeroy to rave that "the Chinese people would have had no need to carry out economic construction by depriving themselves of the prime necessities, as was earlier the case of the Soviet people, if the leaders of China conducted a policy of all-round cooperation within the framework of the socialist community." Despite all attempts at sabotage by the Soviet revisionist renegades and their Chinese agents like Liu-Shao-chi, the Great Leap Forward triumphed in the end and proved correct Chairman Mao's line of "going all out aiming high and achieving greater, faster and more economical results in building socialism" and of "maintaining independence and keeping the initiative in our own hands and relying on our own efforts".

What "socialist community" is Pomeroy talking about? The Soviet Union imposes fetter upon fetter on its socalled fraternal countries. Under the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance, it uses its overload position to force these countries to have their national economies serve as the markets, subsidiary workshops. orchards, vegetables garden and ranches for the making of superprofits by the Soviet revisionist renegades, Under the Warsaw Treaty Organization, it employs the most brutal methods to keep these countries under control and stations massive numbers of troops there. The "socialist community" is nothing but the colonial empire of Soviet social-imperialism.

The Brezhnev revisionist renegade clique has pursued basically Khrushchov's foreign policy and carried it to the extreme through the most brazen acts of aggression against its colonial dependencies as well as against the People's Republic of China. It has invaded Czechoslovakia with hundreds of thousands of foreign troops under its command and put up a puppet government at bayonet point. It has stationed several Soviet divisions in the Mongolian People's Republic and has moved millions of troops to the Sino-Soviet borders. It has repeatedly made nuclear threats against China island and the Tiehliekti area. It is overstretching itself on a scale even larger than what the old tsars aspired for.

It is under the exponents and practitioners of Khrushchovism without Khrushchov that Soviet modern revisionism has emerged full-blown as social-imperialism. Lenin defined this social-imperialism as "socialism in words. imperialism in deeds, the growth of opportunism into imperialism". Once the political power of the proletariat is usurped by a revisionist clique, a socialist state either turns into social-imperialism, as in the case of the Soviet Union, or is reduced into a dependency or colony, as in the case of Czechoslovakia, the Mongolian People's Republic and other revisionist countries. In having the state power in their hands, the modern revisionists of the Khrushchov-Brezhnev type are far more dangerous and vicious than the classical revisionists of the Kautsky-Bernstein type. These sham anti-imperialist but real imperialist of today can report to the most brutal measures and deceptive tricks against the people.

Under the banner of social-imperialism, the Soviet revisionist renegades have laid out a number of "theories" to make the "Brezhnev doctrine".

First, there is the theory of "limited sovereignty". It means that the Soviet Union holds the "supreme sovereignty" which is "unlimited" while the sovereignty of other countries is "limited". The socalled interests of socialism that are to be safeguarded are nothing but the interests of Soviet social-imperialism.

Second, the theory of "international dictatorship". It means that the Soviet Union can engage in military intervention in or military occupation of a number of East European countries and the Mongolian People's Republic. The Warsaw Pact is nothing but a bludgeon of Soviet social-imperialism; the signboard of "aid to a fraternal country"is raised merely to ensure a puppet goverment as in Czecholovakia.

Third, the theory of "socialist community". It means the colonial empire with the Soviet Union as the metropolitan state and the lesser revisionist countries as the colonies. The metropolitan state and its colonies are supposed to be "inseparable".

Fourth, the theory of "international division of Labor". It means that a number of East European countries and the Mongolian People's Republic as well as all countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America should specialize in "traditional exports commodities" that suit the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is supposed to expand its colonial spheres of influence in order to get raw materials from backward countries at great profit for itself.

Fifth, the theory that "our interests are involved". It means that since the Soviet Union is a "superpower" it iss entitled to meddle in the affairs of every other country and make bargains with the other superpower, U.S. imperialism, against the people. The Soviet social-imperialist are repeatedly embarked on "gunboat diplomacy" under this theory.

In its relations with countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America,Soviet social-imperialism has always sought to exercise the political control and extorts superprofits through its "aid". It pretends to extend loans at low interest rates but overprices the goods and technical services that it gives. Payment for these is made mainly in the form of raw materials which are in effect greatly underpriced. The Soviet Union also acts as a munitions merchants and sets as arbitrary price for the military materail that it delivers. It is very instructive to study closely how the Soviet Union has taken advantage of India, Egypt, Indonesia and other countries.

Completely opposing the principle of proletarian internationalism, the Soviet Union has extended far more military aid to the Indian reactionaries than the United States has done. The arms supplied to India have been repeatedly used in chauvinist and expansionist acts of aggression against China and Pakistan. The Soviet Union also continues its economic and military "aid" for the Indonesian fascist who have butchered at least one million of the Indonesian people. including hundreds of thousands of Communists. Because it has more interest than the United States in the opening of the Suez Canal, it strikes bargains with U.S. imperialism and Israeli Zionism and ceaselessly maneuvers for a "political settlement" behind the backs of the Palestinian and Arab peoples.

Pomeroy tries to create a picture of all-out support by the Soviet revisionist renegades for the Vietnamese people's revolutionary struggle for national liberation and national salvation against U.S. imperialism He convieniently forgets to cite the fact that Khrushchov never wanted to support the Vietnamese revolutionary struggle. But what Pomeroy wants to impress on others now is that the Brezhnev revisionist renegade clique is giving billions of roubles worth of "aid". It needs to be pointed out that the Soviet revisionist renegades have always had the bad habit of drawing up bloated and falsified figures to deceive the Soviet people concerning "aid " to Vietnam.

The Soviet revisionist policy on Vietnam is one of sham support and real betrayal. In fact, the Soviet Union has given more "aid", including more powerful military equipment to certain governments. The real purpose of the Soviet "aid" to Vietnam is only to be able to make use of the Vietnam war as a leverage for cheap bargains with U.S. imperialism and as a medium for introducing intrigues among revolutionary forces. At one stage, the Soviet Union even had the temerity to demand that China allow it to have its own air corridors and military bases in China under the pretext of wanting to transport its own "aid to Vietnam. Of course, China rebuffed this demand inasmuch as Soviet "aid" to Vietnam had always passed unimpeded through China. After the rebuff, the Soviet revisionist renegades whipped up the rumor that China did not want Soviet "aid" to pass through China.

The Brezhnev revisionist renegades have repeatedly raised the slogan of "united action" and "united anti-imperialist struggle" on the U.S. war of aggression in Vietnam. But their aim is merely to shake off their isolation arising from their counter-revolutionary actions and slander the revolutionary forces that are isolating them. If their aim were really to support Vietnam, they can always make use of bilateral agreements. But their aim is to make trouble among the revolutionary forces and to put into question the undeniable fact that China is the clossest, strongest and most reliable rear not only of the Vietnamese people but also of the entire Indochinese people. As the U.S. war of aggression has expanded throughout Indochina, China has emerged as the most powerful supporter of the revolutionary struggle of the Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian peoples; and the Soviet Union as the most sham supporter, always angling for an opportunity to strike a bargain with U.S. imperialism.

There is also both collusion and contention in the relationship between Soviet social-imperialism and U.S. imperialism. There are two "superpower" agreed on opposing revolution, the people, China and communism. At the same time, it is in their imperialist nature to struggle for a redivision of the world. Each has its own hegemoniac schemes. The only difference between them is that one covers up its imperialist nature by spouting slogans of anti-imperialism, as sufficiently manifested by Pomeroy's own posturings.

It is an important and necessary to study thoroughly Soviet social-imperialism and every attempt of the local revisionist renegades to promote modern revisionism in the Philippines. Therefore, William J. Pomeroy's Half a Century of Socialism cannot pass unnoticed. Our study should sharpen our understanding of Marxism-Leninism and revolutionary politics, imporve our current work and style in fighting for people's democracy and provide us with a clear view of the future -- socialism.

Chairman Mao has provided us with the theory of continuing revolution under the dicatatorship of the proletariat and has shown us in practice how to prevent the restoration of capitalism in a socialist society. An antidote to opportunism at its worst and to social-imperialism has been found. That is Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, the revolutionary theory of the proletariat in the present era when imperialism is heading for total collapse and socialism is marching toward worldwide victory.

Within the Soviet Union, the revisionist renegades are doomed to failure. Chairman Mao has pointed out:

The Soviet Union was the first socialist state and the Commnunist Party of the Soviet Union was created by Lenin. Although the leadership of the Soviet party and state has now been usurped by revisionists, I would advise comrades to remain firm in the conviction that the masses of the Soviet people and of the Party members and cadres are good, that they desire revolution and that revisionist rule will not last long.

Chairman Mao has also pointed out:

Working hand in glove, Soviet revisionism and U.S. imperialism have done so many foul and evil things that the revolutionary people the world over will not let them go unpunished. The people of all countries are rising. A new historical period of struggle against U.S. imperialism and Soviet modern revisionism has begun.

The counter-revolutionary collusion between U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism against the people, communism and China has its own limits. In deepening crisis of world imperialism, the struggle among imperialist powers for redividing the world will intensify and hasten their own doom. Like U.S. imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism is over-extending itself. As it overstretches, its crisis at home will inevitably worsen. It is setting on a volcano. The Soviet proletariat and people of various nationalities will in due time rise to overthrow the monopoly bureaucrat bourgeoisie and all its retinue of revisionist renegades. Social-imperialism is nothing but a passing phase in the downward course of imperialism.

Chairman Mao has urged us:

People of the world, unite and oppose the war of aggression launched by any imperialism or social-imperialism, especially one in which atom bombs are used as weapons! If such a war breaks out, the people of the world should use revolutionary war to eliminate the war of aggression, and preparations should be made right now!