IMGpapers 1968–75

Newspapers of the International Marxist Group and its forerunners, 1968–75

PALESTINE THE FUTURE OF THE RESISTANCE

· The Red Mole Vol. 2, No. 5, 22 March 1971 · pp. 12-13 of the scan · 1,022 words

The scan: v02n05-mar-22-1971.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive, opens at this page)

Uncorrected machine reading. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from a scan of a newspaper page, and the page was cut into articles by machine, at the headlines found by their type size. Nothing has been corrected: expect misread words, text from a neighbouring article, and titles that are the machine reading of the headline, some of them only fragments. Quote from the scan, not from this page.
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page 12 of the scan

The clashes in Jordan of a few weeks ago are an additional proof of the deterioration of the relationship of forces at the expense of the Palestinian resistance. During the previous crises before September 1970 the resistance was able. to ride the rising tide of mobilisation. Now, however, it is suffering the direct political and military consequences which follow from the putting in practice of the Cairo agreements. Today the resistance is isolated, it is outside the camps and towns, and that means outside the protection of the Jordanian and Palestinian masses. It is concentrated in places which have been agreed on in Cairo and is therefore exposed to the attacks of the Jordanian army. For four months the army has been hunting down the resistance. or what is laft of it.

The "strengthening" of the Throne Wasfi Tall's nomination as Prime Minister is Hussein's way of strengthening and to some extent even reconstructing the state apparatus, which had been damaged by the development of the resistance. He had to eliminate every possibility which could lead back to the "dual power" situation which developed in the course of '69 and '70. The first acts of the Government were the purging of the administration and the police (the arry having been already quite thoroughly purged after the June 70 crisis). During his international tour last month, Hussein obtained financial and military aid from Great Britain and the United States Kuwait and Saudi Arabia having restarted their financial aid). An airlift between West Germany and Zarka Airport (ex-Revolution Airport of the Popular Front) provided modern material to rearm the Royal Army. Thus Hussain receives The Rod Mole 8-22 March 1971 Paan 12 the reward from his imperialist masters, who thank him for his loyalty.

The role and political consequences of the clashes The elimination of the resistance in the townsthe direct result of the Cairo agreementsexplains the nature of the recent clashes, which have taken place in outlying argas (Bakaa 20 kilometres from Amman) and the total lack of mass mobilisation. Today the army controls the towns. It does not tolerate the presence of the popular militia and it even intervenes against small demonstrations which take place in the refugee camps. Thus even inside the Palestinian camps the resistance is hunted down. Thos: people who thought that they could make a provisional truce based on Hussein's word and control by the Arab states are now paying for their naivety and their total lack of political and military preparedness. A great part of the Palestinian resistance was blinded by the reactionary mythology of "brother Arab" through a lack of understanding of the international nature of imperialism in its different forms (Zionism, Arab reaction).

On the other hand, the intervention of the any in the heart of the camps tends to develop an attitude in favour of the unification of Transjordan and occupied Cisjordan (West Bank). Appeals launched by prominent Palestinians from the occupied territories has encouraged this situation.

Hussein seems more and more reticent towards the American imperialist plant to try to create a Palestinian state in the framework of a federation including Transjordan, While liquidating the Palestinian resistance, he wants to prove that he is a valuable intermediary in the framework of a global solution. The future of the Palestinian resistance also depends more than ever on the outcome of the plan leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.

This plan, with which the Arab petit bougeoisie is in agreement, fits in well in its pan-Arab politics since it is trying to liquidate the resuite of the June 1967 war, When Sadat declares bluntly and more sharply than Nasser that he will not tolerate the total crushing of the Palestinian resistance, he means that the Palestinian resistance, or at least a part of it, must be integrated in an overall solution, If he feels free to make such staterpents, it is only because Hussein has deeply undermined the resistance and its total crushing would remove a weighty argument from the petit bourgeois regimes in their negotiations with imperialism.

On the other hand one can see beyond Hussein's initiatives the incapecity of the UAR Libya Syria bloc to bring effective pressure to bear on the Jordan regime. Nasser's death has released centrifugal tendencies from behind the united facade of the Arab chiefs.

In Cisjordan too, an attempt has been made to construct a neutral third force, not linked to Hussein ("the butcher of the people") or to the porting the Palestinian state. The moverent of refugees towards occupied Cisordan reinforces such a perspective.

The future of the resistance The Left of the resistance alone can bring forward the political answers required, faced with local and international initiatives and with the deterioration of the political and military situation. After the fallure of the CCRP ICoordinating Committee for the Palestinian Resistance)'s unity attempt, the left wing of the resistance has put forward a number of perspec tives, notably the clandestine rebuilding of the resistance. Various executions by Jordanian or Lebenese torturers seem to indicate that a part of the Palestinian resistance has taken this road In a self critical text on the crisis of September 1970, the Democratic Front (FPDLP) has affirmed the necessity of consistent political work aimed at the Jondanian peasants the slogan of agrarian reforms is put forward) and workers funity at the lavel of the Unions and organisational links with the resistance). It is only by this mole-like work in Jordan and Lebanon and not by the old fantasias that the resistance linked with other new revolutionary foroes, notably Lebanese, will succeed in bresking the stranglehold of Hussein's troops and in outwitting the maneuvres of the petit bourgeois regimes.

At a time when throughout the world Zionist forces are feeding on Stalinism (the Leningrad trial) to consolidate their unity Iquasi-fascist groups to "left" Zionists), revolutionary militants must intensify their support to the Palestinian people and to the resistance, its only spokesman.

A. Yoldachs

page 13 of the scan

(TCP) explains the absence of a revolutionary

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"terrorists" (the organisations of the resistance This would be the social force capable of sup-

← N OF WOMEN MONARY TASKdelutiotic or socialist →

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