First Published: The Call, Vol. 7, No. 49, December 18, 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The following is a joint declaration issued by the Workers Party of Japan and the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) of the United States.
Meetings were recently held between the leading bodies of the Workers Party of Japan and the Communist Party (M-L) of the United States, on matters of mutual concern.
The meetings were marked by a spirit of militant comradeship and proletarian internationalism. The meetings were significant because of their attention to the war preparations of the two superpowers. Discussions focused largely on the tasks of the Japanese and U.S. communists in preparing against the danger of a new world war, and on the present state of the revolutionary struggle in their respective countries.
(1) Representatives of the Workers Party of Japan reported on the Japanese people’s struggle as follows.
The Japanese people have been carrying on struggle against the encroachment of the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, upon the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Japan; against the danger of war brought about by superpower contention for hegemony; and for winning genuine independence of Japan and safeguarding peace. The “October 19th Rally against Danger of War by Soviet Union and United States,” in which representatives of the Communist Party (M-L) of the United States also took part, is a great victory of this struggle and demonstrates a new advance of the anti-war and anti-hegemony struggle in Japan.
Soviet social-imperialism, which has kept on illegally occupying the Northern Territories and has been intensifying intimidation, pressure, intervention and infiltration against Japan with its powerful military as background, is the most dangerous enemy the Japanese people are facing. In the last several years, the Japanese people’s movement for recovery of the Northern Territories has vigorously advanced. This struggle is an important component part of the struggle against Soviet hegemonism.
U.S. imperialism has still at present subordinated Japan to it by the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. For winning genuine independence of Japan, the Japanese people should certainly achieve abrogation of the Security Treaty and the withdrawal of U.S. military bases.
Both the countries of Japan and China have recently concluded the Japan-China Peace and Friendship Treaty. This treaty is not only to mark a new historical stage in friendly relations between peoples of both the countries of Japan and China, but also is an extremely favorable weapon for the Japanese people’s struggle and a great contribution to the advance of the anti-hegemony struggle of the people of the world with the third world as the main force.
The Japanese ruling class, with the monopoly bourgeois class as its center, has been stepping up its reactionary policy of oppression and exploitation of the masses in order to shift its crisis onto the proletariat and the people. The Japanese proletariat is for independence, democracy and improvement of their living conditions and fighting against the reactionary policy of the ruling class, against the Communist Party of Japan revisionists, the fifth column of the Soviet social-imperialists, and against the class collaboration of the trade union bureaucracy.
The Workers Party of Japan is a vanguard political party of the Japanese proletariat. The Workers Party of Japan is striving for strengthening its ties with the working class and the people, for building up the broad united front based on the worker-peasant alliance and for achieving the independence of Japan and establishing the people’s democratic dictatorship.
Representatives of the Communist Party (M-L) of the U.S. expressed wholehearted support for the struggle of the Workers Party of Japan and of the Japanese people in their revolutionary struggle; in their resistance to the two superpowers; for an end to U.S. political, military, and economic domination; and for the recovery from the USSR of the four islands of the Northern Territories.
(2) The CPML of the U.S. gave a report to the Japanese comrades on the present situation in the U.S. and the tasks of American communists.
The U.S. workers and oppressed people are today facing the twin dangers of war and fascism. U.S. imperialism is in its deepest crisis since the Great Depression. Ten million workers are unemployed. The living and working conditions of the oppressed nationality peoples are being hit the hardest of all.
Internationally, U.S. imperialism is vying with Soviet imperialism for world domination, but it is no longer the uncontested chieftain of world imperialism. Today Soviet social-imperialism is the most dangerous source of war. In no way, however, has the fundamental imperialist nature of U.S. imperialism changed.
Chairman Mao once said: “in order to start a new war, the U.S. reactionaries must first attack the American people.” The CPML reported on the intensified attacks upon the working class and masses in the U.S.
These include deterioration of working conditions, cutbacks of public services and education, increased police repression, and a stepped-up campaign of social chauvinist, racist and fascist cultural propaganda.
A fightback movement is unfolding in the face of these attacks. There is widespread resistance against various political and economic effects of the crisis.
The CPML also reported on its struggle against the revisionist CPUSA, servant of Soviet imperialism which operates within the U.S. workers’ movement, promoting the myth of “detente” and promoting reliance upon the Soviet Union as the means to emancipation.
The CPML is the Marxist-Leninist Party of the U.S. proletariat. It works to lead the working class in carrying out its socialist revolution, and establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism.
The CPML actively organizes the masses in their struggle against capitalism, for democratic rights, against the effects of the crisis, and against the growing fascist menace. It fights for revolutionary unity of the working class and oppressed nationalities and defends the right of self-determination for the Afro-American people and all other oppressed nations.
The CPML fights against the superpower war preparations and stands against aggression and hegemonism. It works to alert people to the threat and the source of a new world war and to delay its outbreak. When war does break out, the CPML will work to transform its character from an imperialist war into a revolutionary struggle against the imperialists.
The CPML views our struggle as part of the worldwide front against the two superpowers and their war preparations. Internationally, the contention between the superpowers is the cause of war, and especially the hegemonism and aggression of the USSR. The CPML carries out its work to oppose the U.S. monopoly-capitalists and to support those countries suffering from exploitation and oppression by U.S. imperialism. At the same time, it stands shoulder to shoulder with all movements for liberation and revolution, the world over.
The CPML opposes the ruling class policy of appeasement of Soviet social-imperialism, which is a continuation of the appeasement policy carried out towards Hitler fascism 40 years earlier. Such a policy will only hasten the outbreak of a new world war.
The CPML stands firmly on the side of the Japanese proletariat and people and with all the revolutionary and anti-hegemonist forces in the second world as well as building support for the third world.
Representatives of the Workers Party of Japan expressed wholehearted support for the struggle of the Communist Party (M-L) of the U.S. and of the American people. The Workers Party of Japan firmly believes that the American people will, under the leadership of the Communist Party (M-L) of the U.S., strengthen the revolutionary unity of the working class and the oppressed minority nationalities and win a great victory in their struggle against the menace of war and fascism and for defense of their democratic rights and improvement of their living conditions and for socialist revolution.
(3) Chairman Mao Tsetung’s theory of the differentiation of three worlds is a great strategic and tactical guide for the general direction of the international struggle under today’s conditions.
Both parties agreed that its correctness has been proven in the practice of recent years.
With the third world as its main force, the struggles of the peoples of the world to win, safeguard and consolidate national independence and to defend world peace against imperialism, colonialism and hegemonism, have been making stormy progress.
Side by side with the socialist countries, the international working class stands in the forefront of the struggle against hegemonism. In many countries, it is combining its struggle for socialism with the struggle for national independence.
The People’s Republic of China, both parties agreed, is marching on the road to construction of a modern, powerful, socialist country firmly under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Both parties hail the victories won since the overthrow of the counter-revolutionary “gang of four,” and both agree that People’s China is a most reliable citadel of revolution. Nothing can halt the irresistible trend of history: countries want independence, nations want liberation, and the people want revolution!
On the one hand, the contention between the two superpowers, the USSR and the U.S., for world hegemony, is growing more and more fierce. It increases the danger of a world war. Particularly Soviet social-imperialism, a newly emerging imperialist power with greater aggressive and adventurous nature, has become the most dangerous source of war.
On the other hand, the social-imperialists employ greater and more powerful military forces than the U.S., as in Europe, for example, the focal point of their contention. On the other hand, the Soviet social-imperialists resort to interference, oppression, infiltration and subversion everywhere in the world, in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America, employing the Cuban mercenaries and the revisionist parties, the fifth column of social-imperialism.
Such phrases as “support for the national liberation movements,” “detente” and “disarmament,” are nothing but a smokescreen to hide the real, aggressive and war-mongering policy of the Soviet social-imperialists.
The superpower contention is bound to provoke a world war. The people of the world must strengthen the force of revolution, consolidate unity and organize the broadest possible international united front to oppose the hegemonism of the two superpowers.
They must fight to prevent the outbreak of the world war and to maintain world peace. They must wage bold struggle, above all, against Soviet social-imperialism, the most dangerous source of war. The appeasement policy will serve only to make Soviet social-imperialism more arrogant and hasten the outbreak of the war.
Our two parties firmly support the Chinese people in their fight to build a modern, powerful and socialist, country. The two parties hail the victory of the Japan-China Peace and Friendship Treaty. They agree that the U.S. government should faithfully implement the spirit of the Sino-U.S. Shanghai Communique and speedily normalize full relations with the People’s Republic of China.
We extend firm support to the Korean people in their struggle for independent peaceful unification of their homeland, against the plots to create “two Koreas.” The U.S. government must withdraw all U.S. forces from south Korea and disband the so-called “headquarters of UN Forces.”
We firmly support the just struggle of the Kampuchean people to safeguard independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and the results of their revolution, by fighting against regional hegemonism, and expansionism of Vietnam instigated by Soviet social-imperialism.
(4) The international communist movement has been developed in struggle against imperialism and modern revisionism with the CPSU leaders at its head. The highest duty of Marxist-Leninist parties and organizations in each country is to strengthen their unity on the basis of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, and proletarian internationalism. The Workers Party of Japan and the CPML of the U.S. firmly support the great strategic concept of the theory of three worlds proposed by Comrade Mao Tsetung. Both parties will fight resolutely against modern revisionism and opportunism of any hue which takes a hostile stand to this great theory or which attempts to split the international communist movement.
The Workers Party of Japan and the CPML of the U.S. confirm with deep satisfaction that the talks between the parties laid the basis for further developing the unity of our two parties. Both will make further efforts to strengthen unity on the basis of the principles of independence, equality, mutual respect, fraternal friendship and international cooperation.
The CPML is a communist party inside a superpower which has sought for 33 years to dominate Japan economically, politically, culturally and militarily. The Workers Party of Japan is a communist party of a second world country, waging struggle against both U.S. imperialism and the growing Soviet menace. The meeting has emphasized the solidarity of our two parties in confronting the two superpowers and their war preparations.
Our people have a long history of common struggle against war and fascism. Our parties and peoples have a bright revolutionary future. Our parties pledge to carry on the great tradition of common struggle and mutual support.