The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.15           April 20, 1998 
 
 
Letters  
Stalinism and Indonesia
The "Book of the Week" column of the April 6 issue of the Militant printed selections from the article "Lessons of the Defeat in Indonesia" by Ernest Mandel. The article appeared in the 1966 Pathfinder pamphlet, The Catastrophe in Indonesia - Three articles on the fatal consequences of Communist Party policy.

The article illustrates the depth of the catastrophic defeat that the working class and peasantry suffered in Indonesia in 1965 at the hands of capitalists, landowners, and their army.

But that article fails to draw the central lesson: the treacherous role of Stalinism in leading the masses to a defeat without a battle. Mandel's article does not mention Stalinism; reading it one gets the impression that the problem with the Communist Party of Indonesia was that it did not understand certain theoretical questions.

However, other parts of the pamphlet do take up the question of Stalinism. For example, an article written by a young member of the Indonesian Communist party who had succeeded in making his way into exile points out, "During the struggle against the Japanese military occupation [during World War II], the PKI [Partai Kommunis Indonesia] was instructed or `advised,' under Stalin's guidance, to cooperate with the Dutch imperialist government, to carry out `joint actions' against Japanese imperialism."

Thus they sold out political independence of the working class and its march toward power to the class collaborationist dictates of the Stalinist bureaucracy in Moscow.

In his introduction to the pamphlet, Joseph Hansen explains the role of Stalinism in the defeat of the workers in Germany in 1920s and '30s and the defeat of the Spanish revolution in the '30s.

Hansen then writes, "In relation to Indonesia, Mao played a role comparable to that of Stalin in the German events. Just as Stalin, out of passing diplomatic needs, blocked the German Communist party from developing a revolutionary policy that could have stopped Hitler and put the German working class in power, so Mao out of similar passing diplomatic needs (an alliance with Sukarno and the Indonesian bourgeoisie) blocked the Indonesian Communist party from developing a revolutionary policy that could have stopped the reactionary generals and put the Indonesian working class in power."

The role played by Stalinism in the defeat suffered by the toilers in Indonesia is not simply a question of history.

Now that masses in Indonesia are recovering from the effects of that catastrophic defeat and are beginning to fight back against the capitalist assault on their living conditions, they no longer have to cope with such an ubiquitous counterrevolutionary agency on a world scale that, using the prestige of great Russian and Chinese revolutions, could derail their struggles into reformist paths and to defeat.

In fact, imperialism has been weakened by the collapse of Stalinist apparatuses worldwide.

Mámud Shirvani

New York, New York

Corrections on France
The April 13 Militant incorrectly said in a photo caption box that the five "provincial presidents" elected with the votes of the fascist National Front had resigned. The article further stated that these presidents were members of both the Gaullist RPR [Rally for the Republic] and the conservative UDF [Union of French Democracy].

The elections were to choose regional (not provincial) presidents. The five elected with the votes of the National Front [FN] were all members of the UDF. None were members of the RPR.

Following the election, three additional presidents were elected with the votes of the National Front, but all three immediately resigned, saying they would not accept the National Front support.

Of the five who tried to form regional governments following their election with National Front support, two have resigned under pressure and three have made repeated statements that they would not resign and are continuing their efforts to form regional governments with FN support. They have all been expelled from the UDF.

The former general secretary of the RPR has also been expelled from the RPR because he called for the traditional conservative parties to make a common bloc with the National Front.

Nat London

Paris, France

The letters column is an open forum for all viewpoints on subjects of general interest to our readers. Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they will be abridged. Please indicate if you prefer that your initials be used rather than your full name.  
 
 
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