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Conference On World Situation Draws 2,000

By VVAW

On November 20th, over 2200 people attended a day long conference in New York City on the International Situation, War, Revolution, and the International tasks of the American people. Called for and sponsored by a wide range of prominent individuals and political organizations, including VVAW, the conference met to clarify the issues named in the theme of the conference and to openly view the major political trends in the US today, in light of the current world situation.

The conference was called as an important step to broaden and sharpen the debate on the International situation, to put the different views and ideas out squarely and clearly. The various forces that attended see the world today in great turmoil with the contradictions and struggles sharpening on all continents, in all countries.

Major questions, which can mean life or death for millions of people were addressed. Where does the threat of war come from? What is the role of the US and the USSR? Of China? Of Cuba? And what are the duties and tasks of the American people in the international struggle against imperialism and oppression?

These questions, how they relate to the American people, how they relate to the world's people, particularly in various geographical areas, were discussed in a realistic way as they apply to our everyday lives. Based on the experience of the great movement that we, the American people, built against the war in Vietnam, many of these same forces who stood up and fought the US ruling class in 1960's and early 70's came together, putting forward different analyses, different answers, different directions for our actions. The conference was a tremendous event that brought out these different trends in the US and world today, pointing the way forward in our work. There were four predominant political lines that ran throughout the speeches, workshops and debates of the conference. It was those major positions and the raging debate around them that brought life and enthusiasm to the entire conference.

To and overflow crown, many of whom had to have the sound piped in since they could not get into the main room three main speakers during the morning session of the conference put forward three of the main positions concerning of the situation in the world today. And these main positions, with all kinds of variation, flowed through each of the workshops during the afternoon, and were present again during the debate in the evening.

One morning speaker, Eqbal Ahmad, began by saying that he wasn't committed to any "position" on the world situation. He went on with a speech that made it clear that he saw the United States, despite its being weakened by its defeat in Indochina was the main danger to the people of the world today; the Soviet Union, he said, while it is a rising power, still has many progressive aspects to its positions. The US and the Soviet Union, he said are in a struggle for the "status quo to change through detente." War, he seemed to say, is planned policy of a bunch of evil men who run the country--as if a new group of leaders could somehow prevent another war if just they really wanted to avoid it.

Unfortunately, the world isn't that simple. Imperialism, such as that works the US ruling class fosters on which their counterparts in the Soviet Union follow, is not a matter of "policy"--instead, there are laws which dictate how imperialism develops and survives. Primary among these laws is the one which says that imperialists must "expand or die--they must keep growing, sucking more and more profits out of their workers and exploit more and more workers around the world, or else they would collapse. And when there are two imperialist powers, both trying to grab all the resources and workers in the world, there is contention. And that contention will inevitably lead to war.

The reason behind this, with Mr. Ahmad refused to recognize, is that the Soviet Union, once a socialist country, has, since 1954 been moving more and more into capitalism. Like the US, there is now a ruling class in the Soviet Union--it's not for nothing that Brezhnev gets expensive foreign cars as "gifts" from rulers of other capitalist countries, or that the Soviet rulers run off to their "dachas" (resort estates) just like Jimmy Carter or Gerald Ford.

In the afternoon workshops the same political position came out again and again. IN the same workshops on Angola, for instance, this political position said that the Soviet Union was right in there supporting liberation struggle of the Angolan people, never pointing out that the Soviet Union was, like the US, trying to gain as much of a political and economic foothold as possible and using Cuban troops to secure their position.

Another political position was proclaimed at the morning session, and throughout the conference, by William Hinton, onetime chairperson of the US-China Peoples Friendship Association. Although covered over by all kinds of subtleties and qualifications, Hinton's position seemed to be just the reverse of the first position described--that, although the US was a dangerous imperialist power, and although it was still the primary enemy of the people in the US, worldwide the Soviet Union, because it is the rising imperialist power, is the main danger today and the main source from which will arise the next world war.

In the real world what this position comes down to is to side with rulers of the US against the ruling class of the Soviet Union. When a new war comes, the American people should rally to the banner of the rich, g off and fight their war and, once it is over, return home with these same rulers still firmly holding on to heir positions of wealth and power. And that, as discussed in VVAW regional conferences (see page 10) isn't at all what we're looking for.

Because people who see the world in this light do not want to admit that what their position finally says is to support the US ruling class, they go through all kinds of verbal gymnastics talking about "main dangers," "main sources of war," "main blows," etc. During the evening session of the conference, Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Ventral Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, shattered some of this verbal fancy footwork when he said, "I've heard all this muddled nonsense about main blows, main enemy, etc. I'm going to set this straight right now. The main enemy (i.e. the two superpowers) is the main danger in the world today and that's who we'll direct the main blow against."

Throughout the morning speeches, the afternoon workshops, and the evening debate, the position put forward by the RCP--and supported by the great majority of the 2200 people attending the conference--sees the clash between the two imperialist superpowers as the source of the growing danger of war, and the moving force behind much of what is happening internationally. Inside this framework, particular regions, countries or situations are more threatened by one of the superpowers than the other. In the countries of Eastern Europe, for instance, the revolutionary drive of the people for those countries to be free of outside domination must be directed against the rulers of the Soviet Union while US imperialism is much lesser danger at this time. Just the reverse is true in the case of South America.

The way in which conditions can change--sometimes rapidly--is seen in a country such as Egypt where, for a period of time, they were closely allied with the Soviet Union, receiving large amounts of economic and military aid and assistance. But what they increasingly discovered was that this aid had a whole lot of strings attached to it and that when decisions were made for the good of the country rather than at the direction of the Soviet Union, those strings were pulled tight. And so they finally rejected Soviet aid, a good thing for the people of the country. At the same time, however, they began to turn to the other superpower for help--and US aid comes with all the same strings, just a different puppet-master.

As was pointed out again and again throughout the conference, a correct understanding of the situation in the world is crucial to building our struggle here at home--that is why workers, veterans, students from all over the country came to the conference so that they could return home to whatever battles they were fighting with a clearer understanding of the international situation. Particularly during the debate in the evening session of the conference, it was seen that issue after issue came down to our redoubling our efforts to throw off the imperialist rulers of this country as the greatest single contribution the American people can make to the struggles of the world's people. We can--and do--fight against war preparations in this country, against US operations in potential hot spots (like US troops in South Korea) and expose new moves by both US and Soviet Union imperialist bosses. But though struggling against the imperialist maneuverings of the US ruling class can have on effect--as it did in the massive support for the Indochinese people--the only long range solution is to get rid of the imperialist ruling class.