cific negotiations and peace deals under way, it is important to consider some of the general principles which guide revolutionaries in such situations.
There is nothing unprincipled about negotiations or peace deals as such. No trade unionist who refused to engage in negotiations with the bosses would be taken in the least bit seniously; but of course no trade unionist who agreed to disband the union in exchange for ending a strike would be taken se riously either.
This general point can be illustrated for example by reference to the 1972-3 Paris peace talks between the Vietnamese leadership and the United States.
Sectarian forces denounced these peace talks as a 'sell-out. This turned out to be absurd when just two years later the Vietnamese army marched into Saigon.
In fact, the peace talks were about creating a face-saving formula to enable the United States to withdraw the vast majority of its from the country. Whatever formal concessions were made Jhe debate in the internaParty to achieve this objective, a vital one for eventual victory, the peace deal did not amount to surrender. The crucial thing was that the Vietnamese insurgent forces kept their weapons, did not disband their forces, but held back the struggle for a short period to enable the Americans to withdraw and 'keep face. Far from being a 'sell-out, the withdrawal of US forces put the seal on a military defeat that the US had suffered.
Indeed, every victorious lib eration struggle has ended with negotiations. It is not the fact of negotiations but the real content of what is agreed that matters.
Neither is it wrong to make compromises if these are neces sary to achieve the main goal. For example, the Evian agreement which ended the Algerian war imposed harsh economic conditions on the incoming FLN government: a big price was paid for French withdrawal. With historical hindsight, it is difficult to be sure that a better deal could have been achieved. Moreover, no national liberaI tion struggle and no revolution, cialism or simply being the vicis guaranteed victory. Faced with insuperZA FOR VlosA SAMe mor The struggle