The peoples of Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau dealt a serious blow to imperialist domination in Africa by overthrowing Portuguese colonialism. The struggle of the Angolan masses has opened a breach in the reactionary bastion of southern Africa, under the hegemony of the racist regime in Pretoria. The revolutionary rise of the working class in the metropolis prevented the Portuguese bourgeoisie from responding effectively and healing this breach through a successful neocolonialist operation.
Given this situation, and given the prospect of the dynamic of the mobilization of the Angolan masses developing toward objectives that are not simply anti-imperialist but anticapitalist as well — especially in Luanda, where the workers component has significant weight — all the partisans of colonialism, both old and new, and all the defenders of imperialist interests, both North American and European, have blocked together to crush the Angolan revolution and impose the establishment of a reactionary regime through a civil war. The leaderships of the FLNA and UNITA, which defend tribal and regionalist positions and the interests of bourgeois layers in formation, are taking part in this operation. They have established a common front with the imperialists, the racists, and the neocolonial regimes in Zaire and Zambia, a sort of holy alliance, under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity, against the effective independence of Angola and the struggle of the Angolan toiling masses. The fact that China is aiding this reactionary front in practice through its long standing aid to the FNLA and its present attitude is additional proof of the nefarious consequences of a policy that regards the USSR as the main enemy and aims at reaching a compromise with American imperialism.
The workers and revolutionary movements of the entire world denounce the counterrevolutionary operation that has been launched in Africa. In the present civil war these movements stand in the camp of the Democratic Republic of Angola proclaimed by the MPLA on November 11. The workers states and all workers organizations must make sure that the Angolan fighters receive political solidarity and material support. A defeat for the forces of the Democratic Republic would be a serious defeat for the revolution in Africa; it would represent a strengthening of imperialism and neocolonialism and would be accompanied by a bloody repression. On the other hand, the victory of the Democratic Republic, since it can be achieved only through a very deep mobilization of the masses, would create favorable conditions for the complete elimination of imperialist domination and for a socialist dynamic of the struggle of the workers and peasants.
The Fourth International chooses the camp of the Angolan Democratic Republic against the holy alliance of imperialists, racists, and indigenous reactionaries. In the civil war the Fourth International stands with the masses who are mobilized to defend the independence that has been won through fifteen years of stubborn struggle, to defend their fundamental interests against all foreign and "national" exploiting classes, for the expropriation of the capitalists and landlords, and for the construction of a new state based on revolutionary democratic committees, direct expressions of the masses.
Such an attitude does not mean that the Fourth International and African revolutionary Marxists give up their criticisms of the leadership of the MPLA, which they consider to be petty-bourgeois nationalist and not proletarian and communist. Alignment in the same camp and commitment to a common struggle are not in contradiction with the battle for political clarification necessary for a victorious outcome of the war and for the construction of a proletarian revolutionary Marxist leadership.
Against the holy alliance of imperialists, South African racists, neocolonialists of Zaire and Zambia, and the reactionary leaderships of the FLNA and UNITA! Defend the complete independence of Angola! Defend the Democratic Republic proclaimed by the MPLA! Reject any attempt at Balkanization! Immediate withdrawal of all forces of American and European imperialism, of South African racists, and all neocolonial governments!
Organize an international campaign of solidarity! All workers states and all trade-union and political organizations of the proletariat must mobilize on the side of the Angolan fighters by assuring them political solidarity and material support! Boycott the sending of arms to the reactionary bloc of the FLNA and UNITA!
November 23, 1975