Hdochina Splits Emerge

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CR The dence in critical annexed Political divisions between the newly liberated states of Indochina emerged in sharper relief at the beginning of November. While the Vietnamese regimes in Hanoi and Saigon swung themselves definitely behind Soviet foreign. policy, the Cambodian royal government of national unity' cemented its links with China and Thailand.

A November 2nd joint communique announced that the Thai and Cambodian governments are to establish full diplomatic relations following a visit to Bangkok by Ieng Sary, Cambodian deputy Prime Minister now judged to be the leading figure in the PhnomPenh government. Thailand will supply large quantities of rice -mainly paid for by China - to the Cambodians, and will open the rail link between the two countries to help meet the acute shortages (especially of fuel and cement) now hampering the recovery of the The joint communique declared - in terms which brought it into harmony with Chinese policy towards Cambodia - that 'the political economic and social system of each country is an internal matter concerning only the people of that country, and that all outside interference cannot be tolerated' There was no comment on the continued presence of over 16,000 US troops in Thailand, now likely to stay beyond the date effectively set for their withdrawal in March next year, not of the powerful guerrilla and strike movement whict has shaken the Pramoj government in recent months.

CONTRAST

This stands in sharp contrast to the mounting attacks by Vietnamese and Laotian radio stations on the Thai government, denouncFor aCtion ries in the Too chint ese states, protesting at its border provocations, and demanding the return of right wing refugees and the boats and aircraft they have stolen.

The Hanoi government has now aligned itself quite clearly with the Soviet leadership, taking its distance from China. Le Duan, First Secretary of the Vietnam Workers Party, an returned from an official visit to Moscow at the end of October, having signed a joint declaration with Brezhnev. In it the Vietnamese government and party:

"express their support for ihe central committee of the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet government who are applying on the international area a policy aimed at realising the Leninist principles of peaceful coexistence, at supporting the struggle of peop les for nationa liberation and social progress, at consolidating by every means universal peace and intemational security and at rendering 'detente' irreversible"

IRONY

Needless to say Brezhner's "peaceful coexistence' has nothing to do with Leninism'. It is an irony that the Hanoi leadership -having only months ago put an end to three decades of the most bloody revolutionary war to free themselves from imperialist oppression - should attach themselves to the counter-revolutionary 'peacekeeping' diplomacy of Brezhnev and Kissinger.

Le Duan - who also effectively speaks for the Provisional Revolutionary Government in South Vietnam; many of the ambassadors in Hanoi have also been accredited with the Saigon authorities - also led a Vietnamese delegation on:an official visit to Peking at the end leng Sary, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister of September. But on that occasion there was no joint declaration and the two parties put forward quite distinct foreign policies.

Chinese vice-premier Teng Hsiao-Ping denounced 'the rivalry between the two super-powers (ie. the US and the Soviet Union) over achieving world hegemony, while Le Duan identified the main enemy as 'imperialism, of which the leader is American imperialism'.

The political divisions between the Indochinese states make it clear why Ieng Sary rejected in Bangkok the idea of an 'Indochinese fede ration' linking Cambodia, Laos and the two Vietnams. The : split between Cambodia and Vietnam is not over issues of principle; it reflects the Stalinist character of the leadership in each country and their domination by Peking and Moseow respectively.

BACKING

Despite the fact that neither government could exist without the backing of a mass revolutionary and nationalist movement against US imperialism, they are now both drawn into the orbit of the major Stalinist powers, adjusting their foreign policies. to the expediencies of the complex system of agreements and alliances with preimperialist governments set up by the Soviet and Chinese stalinist leaderships.

raphical differences. An-estimated 600 were killed in interfactional fighting a year ago. But insubordination resulting from a refusal to fight fellow Eritreans, coupled with the enormous recruitment since the Ethiopian attacks on Eritrea in February, has forced the unification of the movement.

This unification, expected to be complete in a few months, is based on a reportedly 'Marxist' perspective. A recently-returned British correspondent reports that "the class struggle, the history of oppression In Eritrea, and democratic centralism are the main themes" in the ideological trade union base. been established in Banbury. perspective.

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