[report by leading Soviet theoretician Gleb Starushenko to…]

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report by leading Soviet theoretician Gleb Starushenko to the Second Soviet-African Conference of Peace, Cooperation and Social Progress held last year in Moscow.

The report, "Problems of struggle against racism, apartheid and colonialism in South Africa," spells out the political program advocated by the top Soviet leadership for the South African liberation movement.

A thorough assessment of this report is contained in an article titled, "From Moscow, a new slant on apartheid," which appeared in the Jan. 21, 1987, issue of the International Herald Tribune.

The author of the article, Collin Legum, writes the following:

"A leading Soviet theoretician has called for a peaceful solution of the conflict in South Africa and has said that the struggle against apartheid, in its present stage, is not irreversible. More remarkably he advocates far-reaching compromises to make it easier for the white minority to abandon apartheid and to reduce racial conflict...

"[Starushenko's] report contains five suggestions that, in some respects, come closer to the views of President Pieter Botha than to the African National Congress or the South African Communist Party.

"He endorses 'the program of the anti-racist forces' for not insisting on a 'broad nationalization of capitalist property,' and lauds the readiness of those forces 'to give 10 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 1987 And there exists in South Africa an important anticapitalist tradition among political currents that grew out of the "Black Consciousness" movement of the 1970s—such as AZAPO (the Azanian People's Organization) and the National Forum.

The powerful Black working class can be expected to strongly resist any and all attempts to perpetuate imperialist oppression and capitalist exploitation.

Why the Stalinists pursue this line Gorbachev's Feb. 16 speech spells out clearly the policy, first formulated by Joseph Stalin, of "building socialism in one country." This policy is a betrayal of the program and strategy of the Bolshevik Party under V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky.

In 1917, the Bolshevik Party led the Russian workers to power and charted a strategy for socialism on a world scale. Only the socialist revolution could lead humanity out of the deadlock created by imperialism and imperialist wars, the party's program affirmed.

The Bolsheviks considered that the revolution in Russia was the beginning, not the end, of the world revolution. As long as imperialism continued to exist, the victorious Russian Revolution was not safe, they argued.

From the very moment of the establishment of Soviet power, the leaders of the revolution looked to the Subscribe Now! A biweekly magazine published under the auspices of the Fourth International. We offer an introductory offer of three issues for $3. A six-month subscription is $25, and one year is available for $47. Write to: 3435 Army St. Rm. 308, San Francisco, CA 941

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With the recent clampdown on freedom