Those for instance at the University aroument Zambia and Zaire 1? invasion of Angola.
the contdry FLA. The articles such thing. TONY HODGES replies: Debate among socialists about how best to work for the victorv of the Angolan revolution is to De weicomeo. OnToEL unately, comrade Blair's letter does not help in this regard since it substitutes a string of absurd accusations for reasoned wynet tor example. does comsaae Blair think can be achieved by making untounded and ridiculous assertions suci as that my articles in Red Weekly 'exactly echo the line currently being put forward by none other than Kaunda and Mobutu (the right-wing dictators of Surely comrade Blair noticed that the articies exposed Inese regimes corrusior with the imperialist aggression against the Angolan people? The articles sought, in fact, to expose these neo-colonialist regimes' treacherous roles.
I reported how US military hardware was being poured into Angola under the guise of an 81 million dollar aid programme for Zaire. I reported how bruisn-made munar rado contement has been dispatched through Zambia with the saunda reaime s connivance In fact, both the Zairean and the Zambian governments are thought to have given the green light to South Africa's In comrade Blair's opinion, the articies call tor hands ott Ancola mirrors the non-interventionist stance of Mobutu and Kaunda. Quite The Zambian and Zairean regimes do not have a non-interventionist policy at all. nev are coraooraline uo to mem necks with the imperialist aggression Rather than be hood-winked by these regimes' demagogy about 'non-intervention', socialists should vigorously unmask their real record of collusion with the imperialist intervention.
comrade blair geneves nat te Red Weekly articles equate Soviet and Cuban assistance to the PLA with South African and United States intervention on the side of UNITA and the never did any The United States and South Africa are imperialist powers which nave interveneo in ancola to deene their ability to go on plundering the wearn or atrica. ne soviet union and Cuba, by contrast, are not imperialist states but workers states. As l stated in the 22 January Red Weekly: *The MPLA has every right to accept aid from the Soviet Union in order to detend ancola s indeoendence trom! impenaust InterventIon.
The key responsibility of British socialists is to mobilise opposition in this country to the British Government's involvement in the imperialist assault against the people of Angola. On 6 January, the British Government held talks with the US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, William Schaufele, and voiced support for the US's Angola policy. And on 30 January, several dozen brisa mercennes Vee HOVE out to fight in the Angolan war.
The slogan "Hands off Angola", raised in Britain today, is designed to defend the right of the Angolan people to seit-determination and to stoo britIs! imperialist collaboration with the USsouth atrican intervention. as ine January Red Weekly article stressed: *The greatest aid that we in Britain can give the people of Angola is to demand that all the imperialist powers get out of Angola now. All British collaboration with the US and South African intervention must stop' Elsewhere in his letter, comrade Blair writes that it is 'sterile' to say that the vir _a is not varxist and is ooooser to making a socialist revolution. The MPLA's 'paper programme', he claims, is not important. The point, he asserts is 'what is the class composition of that movements base ano the gotential ovnamic involved in its actions The hed weekly articles did not criticise the MPLA's 'paper programme' They criticised the movement's programme as expressed in its actions: Its opposition to strikes, its support for the Mobilisation Law allowing the Govern ment to militarise labour; its opposition to democratic rents and its oroctamatior of a one-party state; its attempts to disarm the workers or cuanda and outlawy ai selt-detence bodies not under ine contro of the MPLA's army high command. The Angolan revolution cannot be led to victory without a Trotskyist party being built in Angola which can win the masses away from their present misleaders (of the MPLA as well as the FLA and UNAI The 'class composition' of the MPLA is not enough to guarantee the victory of the Angolan revolution. The workers and peasants who support the MPLA are following a leadership whose actions con stitute a roadblock to the victory of the Angolan revolution. Of course it is true that there is a potential dynamic in the revolutionary aspirations and struggles waged by many of the workers and peasants who today support the MPLA but that potential will only be brought to truition under the eadersmo ord mass revolutionary party.