Platform of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP)
(1969)
l. Conventional War Is the War of the Bourgeoisie.
Revolutionary War Is People's War
The Arab bourgeoisie has developed armies which are not prepared to sacrifice
their own interests or to risk their privileges. Arab militarism has
become an apparatus for oppressing revolutionary socialist movements
within the Arab states, while at the same time it claims to be staunchly
anti-imperialist. Under the guise of the national question, the bourgeoisie
has used its armies to strengthen its bureaucratic power over the masses.
and to prevent the workers and peasants from acquiring political power.
So far it has demanded the help of the workers and peasants without
organising them or without developing a proletarian ideology. The national
bourgeoisie usually comes to power through military coups and without
any activity on the part of the masses, as soon as it has captured power
it reinforces its bureaucratic position. Through widespread application
of terror it is able to talk about revolution while at the same time
it suppresses all the revolutionary movements and arrests everyone who
tries to advocate revolutionary action. The Arab bourgeoisie has used
the question of Palestine to divert the Arab masses from realising their
own interests and their own domestic problems. The bourgeoisie always
concentrated hopes on a victory outside the state's boundaries, in Palestine,
and in this way they were able to preserve their class interests and
their bureaucratic positions.
The war of June
1967 disproved the bourgeois theory of conventional war. The best
strategy for Israel is to strike
rapidly. The enemy is not able to mobilise its armies for a long period
of time because this would intensify its economic crisis. It gets complete
support from U.S. imperialism and
for these reasons it needs quick wars. Therefore for our poor people
the best strategy in the long run is a people's war. Our people must
overcome their weaknesses and exploit the weaknesses of the enemy by
mobilising the Palestinian and Arab peoples. The weakening of imperialism
and Zionism in the Arab world demands revolutionary war as the means
to confront them.
2. Guerrilla Struggle as a Form of Pressure for
the "Peaceful Solution"
The Palestinian struggle is a part of the whole Arab
liberation movement and of the world liberation movement. The Arab bourgeoisie
and world imperialism are trying to impose a peaceful solution on this
Palestinian problem but this suggestion merely promotes the interests
of imperialism and of Zionism,
doubt in the efficacy of people's war as a means of liberation and the
preservation of the relations of the Arab bourgeoisie with the imperialist
world market. The Arab bourgeoisie is afraid of being isolated from
this market and of losing its role as a mediator of world capitalism.
That is why the Arab oil producing countries broke off the boycott against
the West (instituted during the June war) and for this reason McNamara,
as head of the World Bank, was ready to offer credits to them.
When the Arab bourgeoisie strive far a peaceful solution,
they are in fact striving for the profit which they can get from their
role as mediator between the imperialist market and the internal market.
The Arab bourgeoisie are not yet opposed to the activity of the guerrillas,
and sometimes they even help them; but this is because the presence
of the guerrillas is a means of pressure for a peaceful solution. As
long as the guerrillas don't have a clear class affiliation and a clear
political stand they are unable to resist the implication of such a
peaceful solution; but the conflict between the guerrillas and those
whose strive for a peaceful solution is unavoidable. Therefore the guerrillas
must take steps to transform their actions into a people's war with
clear goals.
3. No Revolutionary War Without a Revolutionary
Theory
The basic weakness of the guerrilla movement is the
absence of a revolutionary ideology, which could illuminate the horizons
of the Palestinian fighters and would incarnate the stages of a militant
political programme. Without a revolutionary ideology the national struggle
will remain imprisoned within its immediate practical and material needs.
The Arab bourgeoisie is quite prepared for a limited satisfaction of
the needs of the national struggle, as long as it respects the limits
that the bourgeoisie sets. A clear illustration of this is the material
help that Saudi Arabia offers Fatah while Fatah declares that she will
not interfere in the internal affairs of any Arab countries. Since most
of the guerrilla movements have no ideological weapons, the Arab bourgeoisie
can decide their fate. Therefore, the struggle of the Palestinian people
must be supported by the workers and peasants, who will fight against
any form of domination by imperialism, Zionism or the Arab bourgeoisie.
4. The War of Liberation Is a Class War Guided
by a Revolutionary Ideology
We must not be satisfied with ignoring the problems
of our struggle. saying that our struggle is a national one and not
a class struggle. The national struggle reflects the class struggle.
The national struggle is a struggle for land and those who struggle
for it are the peasants who were driven away from their land. The bourgeoisie
is always ready to lead such a movement, hoping to gain control of the
internal market. If the bourgeoisie succeeds in bringing the national
movement under its control, which strengthens its position, it can lead
the movement under the guise of a peaceful solution into compromises
with imperialism and Zionism. Therefore, the fact that the liberation
struggle is mainly a class struggle emphasises the necessity for the
workers and peasants to play a leading role in the national liberation
movement. if the small bourgeoisie take the leading role, the national
revolution will fall as a victim of the class interests of this leadership.
It is a great mistake to start by saying that the Zionist challenge
demands national unity for this shows that one does not understand the
real class structure of Zionism. The struggle against Israel is first
of all a class struggle. Therefore the oppressed class is the only class
which is able to face a confrontation with Zionism.
5. The Main Field of Our Revolution Struggle is
Palestine
The decisive battle must he in Palestine. The armed
people's struggle to Palestine can help itself with the simplest weapons
in order to ruin the economies and the war machinery of their Zionist
enemy. The moving of the peoples struggles into Palestine depends upon
agitating and oranising the masses, more than depending upon border
actions in the Jordan valley, although these actions are of importance
for the struggle in Palestine.
When guerrilla organisations began their actions in
the occupied areas, they were faced with a brutal military repression
by the armed forces of Zionism. Because these organisations had no revolutionary
ideology and so no programme, they gave in to demands of self-preservation
and retreated into eastern Jordan. All their activity turned into border
actions. This presence of the guerrilla organisations in Jordan enables
the Jordanian bourgeoisie and their secret agents to crush these organisations
when they are no longer useful as pressure for a peaceful solution.
6. Revolution in Both Regions of Jordan
We must not neglect the struggle in east Jordan for this land is connected with Palestine more than with the other Arab
countries. The problem of the revolution in Palestine is dialectically
connected with the problem of the revolution in Jordan. A chain of plots
between the Jordanian monarchy, imperialism and Zionism have proved
this connection.
The struggle in east Jordan must take the correct
path, that of class struggle. The Palestinian struggle must not be used
as a means of propping up the Jordanian monarchy. Under the mask of
national unity, and the main problem in Jordan is the creation of a
Marxist-Leninist party with a clear action programme according to which
it can organise the masses and enable them to carry out the national
and class struggle. The harmony of the struggle in the two region, must
be realised through co-ordinating organs whose tasks will be to guarantee
reserves inside Palestine and to mobilise the peasants and soldiers
in the border-territories.
This is the only way in which Amman can become
an Arab Hanoi:-a base for the revolutionaries fighting inside Palestine.
Sources: Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin, ed, The
Israel-Arab Reader, (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2001) |