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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 26, No. 10. 1963.

Sino-Soviet Dispute Effects All Reds

Sino-Soviet Dispute Effects All Reds

The struggle between the Soviet Union and Communist China for exclusive control of the world Communist movement is having a profound effect on the international front organisations, such as the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), International Union of Students (IUS), International Organisation of Journalists (IOJ), and the many others.

Although the numerous congresses and conferences initiated by these organisations have always served as pipelines for the Communist—specifically, Soviet—foreign policy line (the zigs and zags of Soviet foreign policy over the past 15 years can be easily traced by following the IUS resolutions of the same period), these congresses are now turning into open battlegrounds for the tug-of-war between the pro-Soviet and the pro-Chinese factions within the Communist movement.

The basic dispute in the ideological realm is whether the attainment of world communism can best be brought about by "peaceful" means or by war and revolution. Peking's leaders are bitterly opposed to Khrushchev's policy of "peaceful coexistence" with the legitimate non-Communist governments of the West and the "non-committed" nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Moscow has the backing of the West European Communist parties and of the East European regimes with the conspicuous exception of Albania. Peking's "allies" include the powerful Indonesian and Japanese Communist parties.

That this dissension has impaired the efficacy of the Communist-controlled international organizations and their attempts to present themselves as broadly based non-partisan movements representing the universal aspirations and interests of students or women or peace-lovers-as the case may be—without regard to politics is now quite obvious. Delegations from the non-committed countries have shown increasing annoyance at the tendency of the conferences to degenerate into sounding-boards for controversies which have no bearing whatever on the advertised purposes of the conference.

At the seminar held by WFDY in Algiers (April 25-29, 1963) to discuss "Youth in the fight against colonialism and neocolonialism, for independence and national construction," delegates, particularly Africans, expressed disappointment and disgust over the way African problems were ignored. The Moroccan delegate called it a waste of time. This was a conference on African soil, he said, and he and his colleagues had expected something pertinent to African problems to emerge from the discussions; but no positive work had been done.

I.I.Y.A.