First Published: Unite!, Vol. 4, No. 5, April 1, 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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When Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito visited the U.S. from March 6 to 9, President Carter, along with all sections of the U.S. bourgeoisie, showered Tito with praise for building Yugoslavia as an independent country and as a leader of the non-aligned movement. This meeting shored up an old alliance between the revisionist Tito and the U.S. bourgeoisie, which dates back to Tito’s betrayal of Marxism-Leninism during the Second World War.
Since that time Yugoslavia has received varying amounts of military and financial aid from the U.S. Between 1951 and 1961, under the “Agreement Regarding Military Assistance”, Yugoslavia received $2 billion in arms aid from the U.S. Since 1961, Tito has received U.S. aid in more round about ways, including through various NATO countries and U.S. alliances in the Balkan area. This has amounted to some $1 million a year. Last month, Carter submitted to Congress a military sales bill allowing for $25 million in military sales to Yugoslavia over the next two years.
Carter and Tito found themselves agreeing on many issues, including a call for the Soviet Union and Cuba to pull out of the Horn of Africa. Chiming in with this cosy duo came the Communist Party (M-L). In its newspaper, “The Call”, the CP(M-L) praised Tito for calling for a withdrawal of Soviet and Cuban forces.
But like Carter and Tito, the CP(M-L) wants the U.S. working class to overlook the fact that the U.S. is also moving aggressively in the Horn. Of course the U.S. is going to demand that the Soviets leave, so the U.S. itself can have more room to maneuver. The CP(M-L) apparently wants to help the U.S. bourgeoisie in this task.
This outright social-chauvinism is completely in line with the revisionist position the CP(M-L) holds on the international situation, the theory of the “three worlds”. This theory attacks only one of the superpowers, the Soviet Union, and allows the U.S. to go about the world untouched.
Not only does this revisionist theory do the dirty work for U.S. imperialism, it also promotes traitors to the working class, like Tito. In their article on Tito, the CP(M-L) overlooked the fact that Tito has completely betrayed the cause of revolution not only in Yugoslavia but also in the rest of the world. The CP(M-L) failed to mention the deals the U.S. struck with Tito and instead praised their criticism of Soviet social-imperialism!
Carter issued a statement pledging U.S. backing for Yugoslav national security and the unity of Yugoslavia, which promised “to take firm measures to prevent and prosecute” criminal terrorist activities by anti-Tito groups in this country. Yugoslavia currently faces severe internal struggle among its various nationalities, whose political rights have been suppressed by Tito.
But not a word was said of this by the CP(M-L), even though it is common knowledge that there is severe national oppression in Yugoslavia. This is because it is a capitalist country.
Tito, Carter and the theory of the “three worlds” all work well together – all against the working class and oppressed people of the world.
The theory of the “three worlds” leads to this kind of outright support for U.S. imperialism and reactionaries like Tito. This theory must be smashed. Events prove that both the Soviet Union and the U.S. are the main enemy of the peoples of the world, not just one of the superpowers.
No matter how much the social props like the CP(M-L) try to gloss over the reactionary character of U.S. imperialism and the revisionist Tito, they will be exposed and smashed by the revolutionary struggle.