From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The NSC International Conference 1998 is now history and materials pertaining to this important Conference shall be on their way to you, plus the write-up in the March issue of Northstar Compass shall be devoted to this Conference.
You were elected to the Editorial Board and its Editorial Committee at this Conference. Congratulations!
As an Editorial Member you shall be receiving the Minutes of the Editorial Board once per month or more often (as the situation shall demand) and you shall be asked your opinion on any major decision that will come before the NSC Board to decide. Besides... your ongoing suggestions and criticisms are necessary.
Why?
The Conference decided on and elected an Organizing Committee for the formation of an International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with Soviet people which shall approach all countries and their organizations - parties, movements and associations to elect a representative to this Organizing Committee.
Also... the Northstar Compass is now not the organ of the Canadian Friends of Soviet People but (until the First Congress of this International Committee has its first meeting in 1999 in Europe) the organ of the Organising Committee for the International Council!
Therefore... your input is very necessary and valuable.
Yours as ever,
Michael Lucas,
Editor,
Northstar Compass
From Prague, Czech Republic.
Many thanks for sending Revolutionary Democracy. It always contains a stimulating article or two (there's British understatement for you).
Best wishes and comradely greetings,
Ken Biggs,
Editor,
Postmark Praha.
From: Wroclaw, Poland.
Thank you for No. III/2 of Revolutionary Democracy which I received last week. I read the articles, critique, discussions book review and political information with great interest. In my opinion the review Revolutionary Democracy has a high theoretical, ideological and intellectual level and it brings very much-needed material not only for the Indian Communists, Marxist-Leninists, but for all.
With best congratulations, greetings and wishes from Poland, from the League of Polish Communists 'Proletariat.'
Zbigniew Wiktor,
Chairman of the League of Polish Communists 'Proletariat.'
From: Hove, East Sussex, U.K.
I am anxious to obtain a copy of The Armed Insurrection in Albania and the Imperialist Intervention.
I spent six days in Albania during 1967 - the six days of the Israeli six-day war, in fact. It was a fascinating country then and I have an almost complete file of documents issued by the Albanian Party of Labour during the whole of the decade.
During my stay, I visited Shkodra, Durres, Tirana, Fier, Berat, Apolonia and Kruja.
I watched the progress of the six-day war on Yugoslavian television picked up on the hotel set in Durres. Albania did not have a television broadcasting station in those days.
I could probably review the above booklet in the New Worker, of which I have been a regular reader and to which I have been an occasional contributor since No. 1.
By the way, thank you for the current issue (Vol. III, No. 2) of Revolutionary Democracy.
With very best wishes,
Yours fraternally,
Ernie Trory,
Crabtree Press.
From: New York City, USA.
I read with interest the polemic between Revolutionary Democracy and Proletarian Path on the current stage of the Indian revolution. Although I do not have enough information about India to be able to comment on the question of the degree of feudalism in agriculture there, it seems that Proletarian Path ignores the crucial fact that India remains a country dependent on imperialism, both US and British. Whether India is semi-feudal or dependent capitalist, India is certainly not a monopoly capitalist country, and therefore, there is definitely a stage of anti-imperialist revolution as a first step to socialism.
In the African-American Nation in the Black Belt South of United States, pre-capitalist relations mainly in the form of share-cropping declined from covering about 60% of the Black Belt in 1945 to about 15% by the end of the 1960s. The African-American tenant farmers have largely become a proletariat, working in industries owned by the Anglo bourgeoisie. Thus, the African-American nation remains a nation dependent on US imperialism with the right to self-determination up to and including secession. This would necessitate a revolution of all democratic forces against imperialism as a first step to socialism.
The view that the elimination of feudalism, at least to a large degree, means the elimination of dependency, is an attitude reminiscent of Kautsky. Lenin quoted Kautsky in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, that: 'Imperialism is a product of highly developed industrial capitalism. It consists in the striving of every industrial capitalist nation to bring under its control or to annex large and larger areas of agrarian' (Kautsky's italics) 'territory, irrespective of what nations inhabit those regions.'
One would think that the distinction between oppressed and oppressor nations should be clear enough for Marxist-Leninists. There have been many changes in the form of oppression of the dependent nations, particularly since World War II. Many of the former colonial countries have gone through a process of building some industry, but their development remains dependent on imperialism. This dependency can not be eliminated short of an anti-imperialist revolution. Meanwhile in the imperialist countries themselves the working class must directly carry out the stage of socialist revolution leading to the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Yours in struggle,
George.
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