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Afro-Asian Solidarity Delegation in South Africa New worker 25/9/98 Keith Bennett attended the XII Non-Aligned Summit as part of a British Afro-Asian Solidarity Organisation (BAASO) team in the delegation of the Afro- Asian People's Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO). AAPSO is one of seven bodies rec- ognised as Observer Organisations by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The others are: the United Nations, Arab League, Organisation of African Unity, Organisation of the Islamic Conference, New Independentist Movement of Puerto Rico and the Socialist National Lib- eration Front of Kanaky (New Cal- edonia) (FLNKS). Other BAASO members attending were its General Secretary Mohammed Arif and Sriyani Arif. The AAPSO delegation was headed by its Secretary General Noori Abdul Razzak Hussain. Besides BAASO, other members included the organisa- tion's administrative secretary, E Vidyasekarar; retired Ghanaian diplo- mat and veteran activist, Kojo Amoo Gottfried; a delegation of the Interna- tional Institute for Non-Aligned Stud- ies, based in New Delhi, headed by its Director General, Dr Govind Narain Srivastava; a delegation of the Japan Asia, Africa and Latin America Soli- darity Committee, headed by its Presi- dent, Toshio Akiniwa; and A A M Marleen, a member of the AAPSO organisation in Sri Lanka. Besides taking an active part in the work of the Summit, members of the delegation participated in a state ban- quet given by President Nelson Mandela and visited various parts of South Af- rica, meeting political and social activ- ists from all walks of life. (Continued on page7)

OUT NOW! London SW11 2PQ NCP PO Box 73, From £2 (plus 50p P&P) DECEMBER, 1997. OF BRITAIN, COMMUNIST PARTY CONGRESS, NEW 11th NATIONAL THE DOCUMENTS OF the struggle today our reality tomorrow SOCIALISM So 2PQ. NWFund, PO Box 73 London SW11 RETURN THIS FORM TO: Signature. Account No. each month starting on. the sum of £. (in words) Kingston-upon-Thames, KT1 1LP, Co-operative Bank plc,17 High St, account No. 50492464, 08-90-34, Please pay to the New Worker Bank Banks address. The Manager. COMPLETE THE BANKER'S FORM BELOW socialism the struggle for peace and sustaining the New Worker in make your commitment to BOOST OUR FUND years. come into force over the next 15 Topean standards which will N Jol o loy A D a

25 September 1998 THE NEW WORKER Non-Aligned conference: co-ordinating a new future (Continued from page5) During ten days in Durban, the members of BAASO held constructive and friendly meet- ings with leaders and members of member, observer and guest delegations. Prominent among them were meetings and dis- cussions with: Cuban leader Comrade Fidel Castro, who laid particular stress on the prospects for fur- ther improvement in his coun- try's political and friendship relations with Britain, the role of non-governmental organisa- tions in the work of NAM, and developments in the Socialist International; Laurent-Desire Kabila, Presi- dent of the Democratic Repub- lic of the Congo, to whom soli- darity was expressed in the struggle to maintain the unity, sovereignty, territorial integrity and progressive orientation of his country; Comrade Kim Yong Nam, President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assem- bly of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), then Vice Premier and Foreign Minister. Warm greetings were extended for the 50th founding anniversary of the DPRK and views were exchanged on the work of the Korea Friendship and Solidarity Campaign (KFSC), as well as on the par- liamentary level; Taha Yassin Ramadhan, Vice-President of Iraq, who recalled his meeting with a BAASO delegation led by Bernie Grant MP shortly be- fore the Gulf War, and ex- pressed thanks for BAASO's consistent solidarity work; Aziz Pahad, Deputy Foreign Minister of South Africa and Secretary General of the Sum- mit, who passed on best wishes and warm regards to his many comrades and friends from his days in London; President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka, who expressed a wish to intensify practical coopera- tion with AAPSO; Prime Minister Kenny Anthony of Saint Lucia, with whom views were exchanged on the strengthening of rela- tions between Labour Parties in Britain and the Caribbean; Foreign Minister Clem Rohee of Guyana, who outlined the concept of the New Global Human Order, advanced by his country's late President, Dr Cheddi Jagan; Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail of Sudan, who expressed his appreciation for activities in solidarity with his country following the US at- tack on Khartoum's Al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant; And representatives from Libya, Ghana, China and many other countries, as well as the December 12th Movement, an African-American revolution- ary organisation, who attended as guests. An AAPSO reception for summit delegates was attended by the Foreign Minister of Belarus, newly admitted as the movement's 114th member state. Also present were mem- bers of the British government's guest delegation, this being the first summit that Britain has attended in a formal capacity. Keith Bennett also visited Cato Manor and other places in Durban associated with the revolutionary activities of the late Comrade Melville Fletcher • Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe (centre) arrives at the NAM Summit. • Members of the BAASO delegation: Left to right -- Keith Bennett, Nouri Abdul Razzak, Toshio-Akiniwa, Takashi-Kono, Sriyni Arif and Mohammed Arif. of the South African Commu- nist Party and later the NCP, during his period as National Organiser of the Textile Work- ers' Union of South Africa, in the 1950s. Members of the BAASO del- egation will report back to a meeting of the Progressive Fo- rum on Sunday October 4th at 2:30pm. Venue is the Marchmont Community Cen- tre, Marchmont Street, London WC1 (nearest tube: Russell Square). Further details from: 0956 464998. All friends wel- come. The members of BAASO would like to express their thanks and appreciation for the courtesy, cooperation and as- sistance extended by personnel from the Foreign Ministry of South Africa, the South Afri- can security forces, departments concerned, the Moodliar, Govender, Pillay and Pandayachi families, and the people of Durban, as well as the British High Commission.

25 September 1998 EW WORKER Web: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2853 Fax 0171-223-4057 phan crisis deepens ix g in V- ot he s he ed al ed lighting of a fire in this region that could be hard to extinguish. But all should know that a very great and wide danger is quite near," he warned. Last week Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz made an unscheduled visit to Tehran but it seems that he cut no ice with the Iranian leadership. He was reported to have brought a letter from Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, but was unable to Taliban. deliver it to Iranian President Mohammad Khatemi who was "not available" in Tehran. By all accounts Aziz heard tough talk from the Iranian lead- ers he met and he was given an unambiguous warning about the "darkening" in ties between the two countries and about growing popular pressure in Iran to use the military option against Observers say that if common- sense prevails the eight powers meeting in New York will agree on a policy of non-interference in Afghanistan and work to pave the way for a new all-party peace dialogue in the war-torn country. And they hope that the leaders of Pakistan and Iran, the two most important players in the Afghan peace process, will reach some understanding on how the crisis is to be handled.Xinhua Anti-Taliban forces rocketed the Afghan capital, Kabul, last week killing over 100 people and injuring many more. The attack, by troops loyal to Afghan war- lord General Ahmed Shah Masood, is the first counter to the Taliban offensive which has swept the Northern Alliance out of much of the north. General Masood's troops are just 20 km from Kabul. Congolese rally to defend the Republic n- ce nd eedn een RUCTION NATIO DEMOCRATIC CONGO forces have gone onto the of- fensive against Tutsi rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda and covertly supported by Western imperialism. Gov- ernment troops, with the sup- port of units from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, have swept the west clear of rebel units. But the rebels claim to still control 40 per cent of the country from the eastern fron- tier with Rwanda and Uganda to the city of Kisangani. • Volunteers in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, ready to crush the rebels. Spain rejects Basque peace offer SPANISH Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said last week that the proposal for peace talks with Basque nationalist groups only aimed at creating confu- sion and false hopes before re- gional elections in three Basque provinces in Spain next month. Aznar, who recently survived a tropical storm in Sierra Nevada (Colombia) where he was trapped for four hours in a military cabin, told a news conference he rejects the ne Lizarra Declaration says that no conditions should be imposed before peace talks could begin and that in a subsequent stage in negotiations, all violent activi- ties would cease. The ruling Popular Party and the main opposition party, the Spanish Socialist Party, rejected the peace initiative. Ardanza, who is the outgoing president of Bascongadas, [Spanish Basque In contradiction with his hardline stance against ETA, Aznar supports talks between the government government of of Colombia Colombia and and the the Revolutionary Armed Forces guerrilla group. The president of Colombia Andres Pastrana, who took office last month, has agreed to demilitarise part of the coun- try by early November to set the stage for peace talks with no conditions including a cease- fire. Euskal Herria • The Lizarra Declaration was signed by representatives of the 23 political parties, unions, and grassroots groups that partici- pated in the Ireland Forum (dis- cussions of the Accord in North- ern Ireland) promoted by Herri Batasuna. The declaration was issued in the city of Lizarra (Navarre) on September 12, 1998. ETA, the Basque national- ist guerrilla army, has been fight- ing for independence since 1959. No hope for Middle East deal by our Middle East Affairs Correspondent WHILE Bill Clinton struggled to retain some dignity over the Lewinsky affair in Washing- ton his special envoy Dennis Ross had the equally thankless task of shuttling about the Mid- dle East on yet another futile effort to breath life into the "peace process". "We have made some head- way but there is still work to be done," Ross said on Monday af- ter 11 days of shuttle diplomacy. Most say he achieved nothing and some fear all he's done is force the Palestinians to make even more concessions to Israel to reach a third-stage withdrawal which Clinton can pass off as yet another foreign affairs achieve- ment. Originally the Palestinians agreed to a US proposal for Is- rael to hand-back a further 13 per cent of the West Bank to the "autonomous" Palestinian au- thority. Now it seems that Pales- tinian President Yasser Arafat is going to bow to pressure from Washington and Tel Aviv and accepta 10 percent pull-out with the other three per cent given in the form of a "nature reserve" in the desert. Ross, who is Jewish, was com- pared to Shylock demanding his pound of flesh in a Palestinian newspaper run by Arafat's own Fateh resistance movement. And many believe that even if Arafat accepts the new plan, including the worthless bits of desert, it will still be blocked by Benyamin Netanyahu's hard-line Zionist government in Tel Aviv has no wish or incentive to give the Palestinians anything than they've already got. which more Printed by New Age Press (TU). Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper.

1 The Chinese Revolution and its Lessons for Tomorrow Speech to the NCP meeting, London - May 21 1998 The last time I spoke at an NCP meeting in Conway Hall on the subject of China was very nearly a year ago - on June 26 1997. Then, we were just a few days away from China's resumption of its exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong. Nearly a year later, we can see that, once again, all the anti-China prophets of doom, from right and left, have been proved wrong. Despite the raging crisis in South East Asia, and some other incidents, for example the outbreak of Avian flu which necessitated the slaughter of Hong Kong's chicken population, China has shown its sincerity and ability in carrying out the policy of 'one country two systems', maintaining the underlying economic prosperity of Hong Kong and its overall contribution to China's development. The rising strength of China as a whole can be seen in the fact that, whereas fears were expressed before the handover that the central government would interfere with Hong Kong's currency reserves, what actually happened was that the Hong Kong dollar's peg to its US counterpart was secured with the Chinese statement that, if necessary, the mainland's foreign currency reserves would be available to support and defend the HK dollar. The Hong Kong handover came shortly after the election of the Labour government here. At the handover, Tony Blair met President Jiang Zemin and expressed the view that henceforth Hong Kong should be a bridge, not a barrier, in our mutual relations. Tony Blair's view was supported by his Chinese counterparts and the coincidence between the election of a Labour government and the handover of Hong Kong has initiated a period of unprecedentedly good Sino-British relations.

2 In the first half of January, both Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and President of the Board of Trade Margaret Beckett visited China. They will be followed by John Prescott in July and by Tony Blair himself in October. In the other direction, less than two months ago, China's new Premier, Zhu Rongji, paid his first overseas visit in that capacity, to Britain, less than two weeks after assuming office. The substitution of cooperation for confrontation in Sino-British relations is not only conducive to China's development of foreign trade and the overall increase in its national strength. Communists and other friends of China have the responsibility to use this favourable situation to build support and to develop links with China on the broadest possible basis within the Labour movement. Very recently, Campbell Christie led a delegation of the Scottish TUC to visit China at the invitation of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. Comrades should not be defensive, but pro-active in raising the question of China in all Labour movement bodies. The fact that Unison's Black Workers Conference last year threw out an anti-China resolution further illustrates that the most advanced sections of the working class, increasingly concentrated among the low paid, women and national minorities, are the most open to a positive pro-socialist position. This is not only a matter of our duty towards the Chinese people. Ultimately, despite the vast difference in circumstances between our two countries, the significance of the socialist countries, and first and foremost the People's Republic of China, lies in the fact that they prove the viability of the socialist project. That the working class and its allies should not only struggle to defend their democratic rights and to improve wages and conditions, but also that they are capable of taking hold of the economy and society and running them in their own interests, the interests of the vast majority. Not surprisingly, this is a message that is now resounding with increasing force in the countries of South East Asia. In its edition of May 14, the 'Far Eastern Economic Review', reporting on the response to IMF intervention in Thailand, stated as follows:

3 "Disaffection with market forces is even prompting an ideological rethink. Students at Bangkok's conservative Chulalongkorn University have formed a Marxist discussion group. And even some businessmen are entertaining doubts. 'Perhaps we should take a closer look at China's concept of a socialist market economy,' suggests Sophon Supaphon, president of state-owned Bangkok Petroleum." As the Review comments, perhaps somewhat naively: "This may sound far fetched in a country which still bans communism." It adds, however, that throughout South East Asia, China is increasingly seen as the main counterweight to domination by the United States and the international financial institutions under its effective control. Nowhere is this a more pressing matter than in the rapidly developing revolutionary situation in Indonesia. Today's 'Financial Times' states with candour: "Indonesia contains more Moslems than the entire Middle East. Its importance to the US has been seen mainly as an economic and strategic counterweight to China." It is an 'importance' that has been underlined in red with the blood of millions of people, following the brutal dictator Suharto's rise to power over a mountain of corpses of communists, democrats, Indonesian patriots, national minorities and Overseas Chinese. The PKI, the greatest communist party in the world, outside the socialist bloc, all but destroyed. The Suharto regime has been bankrolled by corruption, cronyism, venality and sheer theft on a Mobutu scale. The people of East Timor have also paid a terrible price for Indonesia's 'importance' to the anti-China strategy of US imperialism. In November 1975, as the Portuguese empire disintegrated, the people of East Timor, led by their vanguard liberation movement, FRETILIN, the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, moved to proclaim the Democratic Republic of East Timor. Terrified by what was seen as the possible emergence of a 'Cuba in the South Pacific', so soon after the ignominious collapse of US imperialism in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, the US war criminal Henry Kissinger rushed to Jakarta and gave the green light to Suharto's invasion. What a contrast with 'poor little Kuwait'! Since then, at least a quarter of the East Timorese people have lost their lives in one of the cruellest genocides of modern times.

4 But as the East Timorese resistance leader Jose Ramos Horta said on the BBC World Service this afternoon, the Indonesian people will not now be content with cosmetic reforms at the top. The recently formed People's Democratic Party (PRD) has, in many respects, taken up the banner of the PKI, which has itself continued to organise underground and in exile, with a number of its veteran leaders based in China. The events in Indonesia once again vindicate the remarkable insight of Karl Marx. That years can pass when nothing apparently happens. But then there comes days when the events of several years are compressed into a single moment. It is the latter days we are now seeing in Indonesia. As Mick James has explained, China's economic policy is based on a long-term strategy, founded on the country's concrete conditions and features, as well as both the positive and negative lessons learned from the attempts to build socialism in China and other countries, to eventually build a fully and comprehensively developed socialist society. This project also unfolds against a background of extremely rapid changes in international politics, economy, culture, science and technology. The process of economic globalisation, combined with the developments in communications science, information technology, satellites and so on, not to mention environmental and climatic changes, means that, more than ever before, no country in the world can be indifferent to what happens in any other. The economic fortunes of a country can be changed overnight. It is less than two years since the World Bank published a much-trumpeted report lauding the supposed miracle of the Far East's 'Tiger' economies. These developments by no means negate the validity of the socialist cause. Rather, they mature the objective basis for socialism throughout the world. Neither do they invalidate the basic Leninist thesis on the possibility and practical necessity of building socialism in a single country. But they do place on the shoulders of the working class party in power the responsibility of facing up to the new situation and challenges in good time and making the necessary changes and adjustments with the utmost flexibility and pragmatism so as to safeguard the working class state power, develop the national economy and strength, and continue the advance towards socialism from the long-term point of view.

5 Failure to adopt such an approach can only lead a socialist country to disaster and tragedy, irrespective of how brilliant its achievements may have been in the past or how prestigious its party or leaders may be. As Jiang Zemin put it, in his report to the Chinese party congress last September: "We must be soberly aware that international competition is becoming increasingly acute, that the economic, scientific and technological gap between China and developed countries has brought great pressure to bear on us and that we ourselves still have many difficulties. "Great and rapid changes are taking place in the world, and particularly, the daily advancing science and technology have profoundly changed and will continue to change the current economic and social activities and the appearance of the world. Marxists of any country have to take this seriously." As Mick has outlined, through their summation of their own experience, and their concrete analysis of China's place in the contemporary world, the leadership of the Communist Party of China has come to the assessment that China is in the primary stage of socialism, and that it will remain in this primary stage for a considerable period to come. As Jiang Zemin put it: "Socialism is the primary stage of communism and China is in the primary stage of socialism, that is the stage of underdevelopment. In this large Eastern country, it is a great victory for us to take the socialist road after a period of New Democracy. But, at the time when China entered socialism, it lagged far behind developed countries in terms of the level of development of the productive forces. We are, therefore, destined to go through a rather long primary stage of socialism." This line of march and historical perspective distinguishes the Chinese communists from social democracy, of whatever variety, irrespective of real or apparent similarities in immediate political policies or in current economic forms. As Jiang Zemin explains: "The primary stage of socialism is a historical stage in which we shall gradually put an end to underdevelopment and realise socialist modernisation by and large. It is a stage in which an agricultural country, where people engaged in agriculture take up a very large proportion of the population and mainly rely on manual labour, will

6 gradually turn into an industrial country where non-agricultural people constitute the majority and which embraces modern agriculture and service trade...It is a stage in which a society with illiterate and semi-literate people making up a very large proportion of the population and with backward science, technology, education and culture will turn step by step into one with fairly developed science, technology, education and culture. It is a stage in which a society with poverty-stricken people making up a very large proportion of the population and people having a low standard of living will gradually become one where all people are well-off. It is a stage in which a society with every uneven economic and cultural development among regions will become one in which the gap will be gradually narrowed, with some regions becoming developed first. It is a stage in which, by introducing reforms and exploring new ways, we will establish and improve a socialist market economy, a political system of socialist democracy and other systems that are relatively mature and full of vitality. It is a stage in which the great number of people will firmly foster the common ideal of building socialism with Chinese characteristics and will make unremitting efforts to overcome difficulties, build the country with industry and thrift, and promote cultural and ethical progress as well as material progress. It is a stage in which we will narrow the gap between our level and the advanced world standards and bring about a great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on the basis of socialism. It will take at least a century to complete this historical process. It will take a much longer period of time to consolidate and develop the socialist system, and it will require persistent struggle by many generations, a dozen or even several dozens." In this period of the primary stage of socialism, according to Jiang Zemin, the Chinese people are required to "emancipate our minds and seek truth from facts more firmly and more conscientiously, and judge everything by the fundamental criterion of whether it is favourable toward promoting the growth of the productive forces in a socialist society, increasing the overall strength of the socialist state and raising people's living standards, or the 'three favourables' for short." The Chinese rightly stress the originality, innovativeness and even the experimental nature of their present path. In his report to congress, Jiang Zemin said: "It is the first time in the history of Marxism that the scientific concept of the primary stage of socialism is specified in a party's programme. When talking about building socialism in the primary stage, Deng Xiaoping