The brutal and unprovoked invasion and occupation of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic on August 2lst was an act that all socialists should resolutely condemn.
There can be no justification for such a violation by one workers! state against another. We feel that it is superfluous for us to even examine here the flimsy and ludicrous excuses put forward by the Kremlin, because these have been completely falsified by events since they occupied ? Czechoslovakia.
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We have printed elsewhere in this issue a statement by the United Secretariat of the Fourth International on this question, and we are in complete agreement with it. Therefore we will not repeat what is said there, but we will take up some issues that are not dealt with in that statement, .
Firstly, we feel that the support of Cuba and North _Vietnam for the Soviet Stalinist action should be a sharp reminder to some Marxists that they have been forgetting some elementary propositions. One of these is that as Marxists we give unconditional support to any workers' state under attack from imperialism, but this in no way implies unconditional support for the particular political regimes of such states. Hero worship has been put in the place of objective assessment in some quarters and because of this there is now some confusion. Our task as Marxists is not to form fan clubs for individuals or even countries, but to sympathetically and critic- Pe) ally learn from them and at the same time point to any mistakes that we feel are made.
Secondly, the Stalinist invasion of Czechoslovakia should put paid to any illusions about ‘liberalisation’ for those who had them (and we did not). Stalinism can only be eradicated by a political revolution that will remove the bureaucracy from the seat of power and privilege. Despite the reforms that were introduced in Czechoslovakia after January of this year, it is now quite clear that bureaucrats such as Dubcek cannot defend the working class of that country. Socialist democracy is not something that can be bargained about in Moscow, it can only be exercised in practice.
However, we feel that these extraordinary events indicate, very clearly, that a simplistic approach to the question of the development of political revolution in the deformed workers' states is one that cannot be sustained, any more than it can be in relation to our own labour movement. We shall be returning to this subject and deal with it in some detail in our next issue.
Lastly, we feel that whatever differences there may be among Marxists on this question they should not allow them to obscure their basic, elementary duty - and that is to demand the end to the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. A united front on. this question should not be prevented by other considerations. The enemies of socialism will. squeeze every drop of propaganda out of these events; we should not assist them in their hypoeritical task.
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