Soviet secret diplomacy: the main issue

Nor was it an accident that Nor was it an accident he names of the two names of the MICHAEL NOLAN, quite rightly, stresses the importance of the development of the Palestinian liberation movement and its significance for the Arab RevoluSince he has followed runner, "The Newsletter' , for some time, he will know that we have frequently devoted attention in our press to the Palestinian guerrillas and have stressed their significance for both the Palestinian people's own struggle and the Arab Revolution in general.

Our record on the Palestinian struggle and the Arab Revolution has been principled and consistent, which is more than some other 'left' publications can claim.

We are not with the trendylefties, the dedicated followers of political fashion, who have rushed to get in on the Palestine question because it was latest 'in' thing in the universities.

We took sides with the Arab masses from the start; and we were drawing attention to the development of popular guerrilla struggle before the war of June 1967.

That is important, because the Palestine problem did not begin in 1967, but a long time 'European' miners who were also killed were published • in the South African press, but the Africans remained unnamed. masses, he has to take some kind of stand on the Palestine The Soviet bureaucracy on the other hand, as part of its accommodation to imperialism, has been bringing pressure to bear on Nasser and other Arab leaders to back down.

It is one of the aims of issue Declaration was issued.

The guerrillas are not just fighting to push back the latest Zionist conquests.

They want to overthrow the whole Zionist structure and set up a democratic Palestinian state.

Of course, as Michael Nolan says, the Arab governments, including Nasser's, have shown that they would be prepared to sell out the Palestinian masses.

In The Newsletter' and warned against reliance on Bonapartist regimes in the struggle against imperialism. That is why we attacked the leaders of the Egyptian Communist Party for liquidating their party into support for Nasser.

Last May, we dealt in 'The Newsletter' with the restrictive measures being taken by various Arab regimes against the guerrilla movements and we pointed out that not only teudal Saudi Arabia, but also the bourgeois nationalist regime in Iraq, were imposing these measures.

We have seen how the Iraqi government sided with the Lebanese government in the recent crisis, making it easier for Nasser to fix a deal. (See However, we should not forget that there is an underlying conflict between the struggle of peoples such as Egypt, even led by Nasser, and imperialist domination, with its ally Israel.

Because there is this conflict, and because, as a Bonapartist, Nasser must attempt to maintain some prestige among the nonsense.

The Zionists themselves acknowledge (except perhaps when raising funds in the USA) that the Kremlin has been a 'moderating' influence.

The main issue to which the ber 14 was drawing attention was this counter-revolutionary role of Soviet secret diplomacy.

That was the main issue. It is the issue which Michael Nolan completely evades in his letter.

The other main fault in this letter is one which is unfortunately typical of much that passes for political analysis among 'left-wing intellectuals' at present, and this is the idealism with which Nolan approaches the development of the guerrilla moveHe writes that: ' . . the existence of disciplined and dedicated groups of armed fighters provides an alternative source of political power ..!.

Of course the ruling class generally insists on having a monopoly of the use of armed force and resents the existence of groups which it does not But to say that groups of armed fighters, by their existminers receive no compensation, nor do the relatives of those killed in the coal, gold and other mines there.

Michael Nolan both exaggerates the present importance of the guerrilla movement and misses its real significance.

Political power does not come 'from the barrel of a ', whatever it says in Mao's Little Red Book-it only expresses itself through a gun.

Political power comes from the class, and a movement can only constitute an alternative source of power when it has mobilized behind it, with clear aims, the support of the class or classes it represents.

The real signficance of the Palestinian liberation movement is the extent to which the guerrillas have taken the initiative away from the ruling classes in the Arab states and opened the way for a new popular liberation movement based on the workers and peasants.

However, the main guerrilla movement, Al Fatah, itself led by middle-class nationalists with the same ideological mixture as Nasser, etc., is not even

The-aim of odpression. such as colour bars, police persecution, 'treason trials' (another one is about to open in Pretoria), is to put the workers in a position where they candifferent enough from the existing Arab nationalist leaders to be a political alternative.

Nolan writes that : ... the mobilization of the Arab masses in the areas contiguous to Palestine is an inevitable product of the struggle against Zionism'.

No, there is nothing inevitable about it. It is a necessary task, but that means it to be consciously fought for.

The guerrilla movements have turned to the Palestinian masses for support and aroused popular backing in the other Arab countries and they do mark a new departure in Arab politics; but to go further, to the revolutionary mobilization of the workers and peasants in the Arab countries, to create an alternative power, would mean going much further than the existing stage of leadership of the Palestinian movements. It would mean creating revolutionary, Marxist parties in the Arab region.

Whatever the present leadership of the Arab guerrillas, Marxists must give principled support to the Palestinian people in their liberation struggle; but to idealize the existing stage of the movement, to pretend that it is more than it actually is, does not serve the struggle in any way, and can only encourage illusions and confusion both in the Middle East and here.