Vietnam Stalinists Face Worsening Crisis

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Kampuchean refugees flee from hunger: now a new threat to food supplies One result of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan appears to be a reduction in the USSR's economic aid to According to the Far Eastern Economic Review the Moscow Stalinist bureaucracy has told its counterpart in Hanoi that in 1980 it can no longer count on receiving the large quantities of foodgrains (mainly wheat) it has been getting up to now.

If true, this will create an even more serious situation for the Vietnamese CP leaders who are already in dire economic and political trouble.

Purges

Goods are scarce; inflation, the black market and corruption are rife; low agricultural productivity has been exacerbated by drought; and they have to feed an army of occupation in Kampuchea which (at 200,000) is twice the size of the Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

The . political difficulties created by these economic and military ones became apparent in the recent purges of sections of the top leadership of the Vietnamese party, and evidence that hundreds of thousands of party members have been purged or have left the CP in the last few years.

Recent statements on radio and in the party r WSpaper Nhan Dan show tha the bureaucracy is extre ely jumpy.

Bearing fruit

Beijing (Peking) radio has been taking adyantage of the situation to launch a massive propaganda attack on. Hanoi with the aid of the ex-Political Bureau member Hoan who defected to China last year.

Hanoi complains that the campaign is a "psychological war* in which China is spreading lies about shortages of goods, imminent changes in the currency and so on.

The malicious intentions of the Chinese bureaucracy are evidently bearing some fruit-a fact which the top Vietnamese leaders, are blaming on their inferiors.

On January 22 Nhan Dan complained of a "lack of vivacity and militancy" on the part of "some party organs" in reacting to the rumours.

They were failing to. tell the people what is true and what is false"

Disagreement

But it isn't quite so simple since some "indifferent and irresponsible comrades" had been "revealing State and party secrets in their conversations"

Who'd be a Vietnamese CP member? You've got to tell the people what is true but not, it appears, too much of it!

There is obviously a lot of disagreement about just how much the people deserve to be told.

They are significantly being told very • little about the progress of their army of occupation in Kampuchea.

Over a year after the invasion, it still has not subdued the tiny country-despite presence of one Vietnamese soldier for every 15 or so people in the country!

Some parts of Kampuchea are still controlled by the Khmer Rouge government -now led by Premier Khieu Samphan after the infamous Pol Pot stood down last year.

The Samphan regime has continued its all-out drive to get imperialist aid for its war against Hanoi.

Last week leng Sary (Samphan's deputy) told journalists from capitalist papers that he was grateful to the US for helping his regime to keep Kampuchea's UN seat.

"Their interests and ours coincide". , he sala.

The "communist" Khmer Rouge leaders also declared:

"Our principal duty is not to make the socialist revolution or to build socialism but to push the Vietnamese forces out of Kampuchea, to defend our nation, our people and our race."

To do that, these people whose policies were responsible for the deaths of millions of Kampucheans, now want to treacherously lead their few remaining followers into a military alliance with imperialism and to "unite all Cambodians in a great national, patriotic and democratic front"

As the masses of IndoChinese workers and peasants continue to face the terror of war, bloody repression, a deterioriating standard of life, and in many cases starvation, there is certainly unity on one thing between the various Stalinist holed up north-east corner of Kampuchea, they are unanimously opposed to carry: ing out the socialist revolution in Indo-China.

Economic growth. in Poland seems to be slowly grinding to a halt. The increase in GNP hovered at around 9.5% in the 19711975 period, but since then it has fallen to reach a nadir of -2.8% last year.

Government plans expect the rate to pick up in the 80s but various unofficial publications inside the country gloomily predict zero or negative growth rates.

Whichever source is believed, both mention that serious difficulties face the country in the future.

The most important of these these is Poland's agricultural sector. Uniquely amongst Comecon countries, 80% of the farms are in private hands.

Small (on average 20 acres) holdings, predominate; they tend to use primitive farming methods, relying greatly on horses to carry out the heavy work.

Much of the available fodder is eaten by the horses and growth in livestock herds is thus seriously held up.

Food and especially meat shortages are a very common experience for the Polish consumers.

When the bad weather conditions exacerbate the problem as they did in 1975-76 for instance, it is not unusual to have no meat at all in any shops for days and days on end. * The Polish government realises that industrial development is greatly held back by the poor agricultural sector.

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bureaucrats: whether: they be in Moscow, Dance Peking or

in dire straits