imperialism deals with No Soviet
harm the more advanced revolutionary struggles. To get what it wants in Afghanistan for example, Mascow might be led to make concessions at the expense of Nicaragua, which is less important for its own security- This is why, rejecting Among the assessments of the Afghan events from the Trotskyist movement is this statement, issued on March 21, 1988, by the United of the Fourth Secretariat International
USSR must withdraw its forces ghan progressive forces struggling against the feudal-tribal and Islamic reactionaries, who are lim states. It should conform to the an- nouncement by Moscow on March 17 that its troops will withdraw, even if no agreement is Moscow is continuing, however, to express its desire for such an accord and to pursuc that end. tional level The most reactionary currents in the imperialist countrics are disgusted by the perspoctive oFlosing what has been one of their Mujahadin organisations will lose their aura of appear as they are - profoundly corrupt reac- tionary organisations representing contending. 1E, however, the goverument proves in- capable of surviving the Soviet withdrawal, its Ty in Afghanistan. In any eveat, in the long run, the withdrawal will benefit the development of Nuch deals in principle, we call for a withdrawal of Soviet without negotiations between Moscow and Washington. The from Afghanistan without delay, and continue to provide aid for the Af- reached with Pakistan and the United States. Even before being implemented, the Sovict decision has already sown deepgoing disarray in the enemy camp. This is true at an intema- main anti-Soviet arguments in recent years, Some have gone as far as to denounce the decision for a Soviet withdrawal, calling it "Machiavellian"! Far from making it easier for After baving concealed their differences and rivalries behind a facade of unity aguinst the Soviet invader, the various components of the tani territory, are clashing niore and more open- ly. Recentiy, the strongest of these forces, hut liance. As the Soviet troops withdraw, the "freedom fighters", as Keagan calls them, and fall would anyway be a lesser evil than the a mass revolutinnary movement in Afghanistan troops from Afghanistan supported by imperialist and reactionary Mus- Moscow to withdraw its troops, the IS is up- The same thing is happening on the ground. Islamic Alliance based in Peshawar, on Pakis- also the most reactionary - Hekmatyar's Hezh- i-Islamic - has taken the leadership of the Al- Soviet Union geiting bogged down indelinite. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 13 March 1989 Washington raises the imreconcilable ambitions for power. and its neighbouring countries stakes ping the ante: called for the withdrawal of Soviet troops From The withdrawal decision announced by Mik- hail Gorbachev will be executed when the damage that it aims to limit has long since cicarly refused to link the withdrawal of Soviet lamabad on the formation of a new Afghan When it is suggested that the Sovict Union must take part in negobations over this and still more with third states, we answer clearly: Spare us this, it is not ourproblem, or yours." That is what This attitude is in total contradiction with the tion of Soviet troops in Kabul in December 1979. Just as it stands in contradiction to the negotiated the fate of governments in other countries with imperialism and forced its allies The coming months and years will make it penalism and reaction. Only the leaderships of Mujahadin a condition for the withdrawal of its troops From Afghanistan, it rapidly found itself 8 statement, Gorbachev troopsto an agreement with Washington and Is- government, as is being demanded by the Pakis "This in a purely interal Afghan problem. Only the Afghans can settle it, even if they belong to different, or even opposing camps. crude interference represented by the interven- very numerous occasions throughout the his tory of the Soviet bureaucracy when it has possible to verify whether the principle declared hy Gorbachey is more than a purely circumstantial argument, especially since under Gorbachev Moscow today is advocaling a worldwide course of "reconciliation" for the Middle East, South Africa, Kampuchea and Central America! We will oppose any attempt by the Kremlin to pressure the peoples of tiese countnes and regions into accepting so-called The USSR's duty is to provide aid, without promises with the imperialists and theii ly made ending US and Pakistan aid to the to conform to the results of these negotiations. strings, to the peoples struggling against im- partners. In this respect, since Moscow initial these struggles have the right to negotiate con Gorbachev: looking for new deals reconciliation with their worst enemics. grown to enormous proportions. Mikhail Gorbachev has said. In his February tani dictatorship. Afghanistan, The fact that the withdrawal of these troops Soviet intervention - have not disappeared but • The USSR is bogged down in an invasion, • The 'progressive" regime in Kabul is even through their aid to the "Mujahadin" - is greater • US imperialism and its European allies On February 8, Mikhail Gorbachev an- nounced that Soviet troops would withdraw from Afghanistan in the ten was decided on when 'the causes that led to their presence in the country" - to repeat the phrase used by Leonid Brezhnev in the wake of the are more operative than ever, is in itself a strik- ing recognition of failure. More than eight years after the start of the intervention, the balance which has led to slaughter and enormous • Its intervention has run up against deepgo. • The Afghan reactionary forces have been able to increase their influence enormously in more unpopular and more fragile than it was on I The intervention in Afghanistan by US im- perialism and its regional partners - including in particular Pakistan and Saudi Arahia, have gained considerable political advantage from the vast revulsion of world public opinion. including in the workers movement, against gendered moral gangrene in the ranks of the army and deepgoing discontent in the popula- tion. This is espocially true in the "Muslim" republics, where anti-communist Islamic propaganda has enjoyed a vigour uncquailed The Fourth International correctly judged that the massive intervention of Soviet troops, as it unfolded, was not only contrary to the right tan but also to the real interests of the struggle of the exploited and oppressed throughout the region and to those of the Soviet workers' state: The prolongation of this intervention could only aggravate the harm that it did to these in- terests. This is why the Fourth International ing hostility from the great majority of the Af Il In the USSR itself, this "dirty war" basen of self-determination of the people of Afghanis- the name of a struggle against the invader. months following May 15, 1988. Why we called for the eve of the Soviet intervention. withdrawal the Soviet war in Afghanistan. sheet is terribly negative: for several decades. ghan population. destruction. Page 12.
Str: the orvattacks * MISt WOMEN'SLIBERATION en ( IST 1913 the date was changed to March 8 - the date of an important Revolution and thence the first successful workers' revolution in The first international women's day took place on March 19, 1911 At the Second International Conference of Working Women in 1910, Clara Zetkin, a leader of the German workers' and women's movement, declared that it should be an annual celebration. In In the USSR in 1917, women determined to celebrate March 8 (February 23 on the old calendar) as usual and called strikes and demonstrations, providing the spark that led to the February Women of the world as a celebration of the uprising of the Prussian workers. WOMEN'S strike by