[p. 82]
The February 7 issue of the Samasamajist, English paper of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party of Ceylon, announced that Chou En Lai, the Chinese premier, had invited a delegation of that party to visit China. The invitation was accepted by decision of the Central Committee of the LSSP.
A tour of China by Ceylonese Trotskyists could do a great deal to aid in the defense of the Chinese revolution against the imperialist powers by providing reliable reports on the problems confronting the workers of China. An invitation for this purpose would be welcome. But an invitation given and accepted under conditions that obscure the LSSP position of intransigent political opposition to the Stalinist misleaders of the revolutionary people of China is an entirely different matter.
PRAISE CHOU
The acceptance of the invitation was preceded by an editorial in the January 31 issue of Samasamajist. The editorial is entitled "Tribute to Chou En Lai." It said, "Despite our political differences we recognize the tremendous sacrifices made by these men who led the Chinese Revolution to victory." The editors criticized the local Ceylonese Stalinists because they "wave flags for their heroes; it has not been given to them to understnd the achievement and to follow the example of Chou En Lai."
This is a sudden and surprising shift of the Samasamajist from its clearly expressed traditional view that Stalinism is an international force of class-collaboration, emanating from the economic interests of the privileged bureaucratic caste in the Soviet orbit. It is precisely the subordination of Communist parties in the capitalist world to these policies of opportunism that constitutes the main danger to the world socialist revolution.
We would like to remind our comrades of the LSSP of Ceylon of fundamental conceptions that Trotskyists have always been careful to make clear:
Chou En Lai and the Chinese Communist Party did not lead "the Chinese revolution to victory," nor can they legitimately be identified with that victory. For many years during the civil war after 1945, the Chinese CP tried to conciliate Chiang Kai-shek, offering to subordinate the revolutionary forces to the Chinese dictator, the puppet of U.S. imperialism.
Chiang Kai-shek's refusal to compromise and his prosecution of war to the finish against the Chinese revolution left the Stalinist leaders with no other alternative but to yield to the pressure of the revolutionary masses and take power. Even at that time, however, the Chinese Communist Party prohibited revolutionary action by the small but militant Chinese working class for fear of losing control of the insurgent mass movement.
Thus, the leadership of the Chinese CP is no more to be credited with the inspiring victory of the Chinese revolution than the Stalin regime in the Soviet Union is to be credited with the great industrial progress in that country. In both cases the revolutionary achievements were made despite the leadership and its false policies.
CHOU DEFENDS KREMLIN
Chou En Lai came to Ceylon following a visit to Moscow, Warsaw, and Budapest. The purpose of the tour was to bolster up the crumbling structure of Stalinist power in the Soviet orbit. Using the prestige of the Chinese revolution, Chou lent himself to the ignoble task of justifying the Kremlin's repression in East Europe. The tour followed adoption by the Chinese CP of a document, calling for all Communist parties to accept the leadership of the Kremlin.
Doesn't a "tribute to Chou En Lai" at this very moment when the workers are challenging the rule of the bureaucrats in the Soviet orbit aid in the cover-up of Stalinist crimes against the political revolution of the working class?
And finally, the Chinese Trotskyists are imprisoned and tortured by Mao Tse Tung's regime. On this score, the Samasamajist editorial greeting Chou as a "revolutionary" was completely silent. How will a "tribute" to their jailer be greeted by genuine Marxist-Leninists from their prison cells?
The Ceylonese Trotskyists should, in our opinion, lend strong support to the demand for the liberation of our Chinese comrades and for full democratic rights for the Chinese working class. Only workers' democracy can make the victory of the Chinese revolution secure, assure its progress, and serve to advance the struggle for socialism in the whole of Asia.