ABSTRACT: Since the war the ideological, political and military rivalry between East and West has been at the expense of the interests of eastern and central European people and then the peoples of the the South of the world. The arms race has swallowed up huge amounts of resources that should have gone to the Third World. At the same time, to extend political influence, a myriad of dictators have been armed and supported, often then using the same arms on their own people. What is worse is that both East and the industrialised West have exported models and values that have had devestating effects. The myth of national independence, coupled with the creation of a state bureaucracy and popular armies has been an explosive mixture leading to massacres. Meanwhile in the west the liberal myth was invoked to justify indifference. This is the situation that causes underdevelopment, poverty, famine and illiteracy. A new transnational, democratic, non-violent and international organisation is needed to counter this

state of affairs. This movement must be one which extends over national borders, does not yield to the impotence of international organisations and does not retreat when faced with ethnic conflicts.

(The Party New, n.1, June 1991)

For half a century the ideological, political and military conflict between East and West has been waged to the detriment of the populations that live in the southern hemisphere of the world, in Asia, in Africa and in Latin America. The tragedy is reflected in the enormous drain on resources that the ever more costly arms race has provoked, resources that could have alternatively been directed towards development projects. As if this was not enough, the superpowers used these less developed parts of the world as their chess board where they played out their game of intrigue and pervaded their influence. As a consequence, arms or finance, sometimes both, have been exported to dictators, who showed allegiance, but often used the "aid" against their own people. Worse still, both East and West have exported models and values whose effect has been devastating in the countries unlucky enough to receive them. Leaders of countries who have fought for independence from their colonial masters have remained culturally

and ideologically dependent on the same master. This dependency nurtures the myth of national independence, which until a few decades before, had been the sacred totem pole of the bourgoisie and the national leaders in both East and West, when they formulated the principles of self-determination for peoples at the end of the first world war. Intrinsic to the myth is the notion that violent and bloody revolutions can liberate the people and yet the examples seen in the last two centuries have invariably ended up with a state controlled by special courts, secret police and popular armies.

The most recent example was based on the principles of aninternational proletariat and put forward as the shining example for Third World states seeking independence. It bred a type of bureaucratic state capitalism which became known as socialism in one country and later as "real socialism". This model eventually produced the downfall of the regimes in Eastern Europe, but is still responsible for genocide carried out in the Third World. The concept of national independence, in reality means little more than economic bureaucracy and the free market ideal. In this way lack of committment and detachment can be justified by the ex-colonial countries, but "self-determination of the people" and "non-interference in the internal affairs" of each country soon prove to be a deadly potion. On the basis of these principles the civilised peoples of the West and East have allowed terrible crimes and wrongdoings to be carried out against whole populations, unhindered generally, but sometimes even directly supported. Almos

t nowhere have these independence and "liberation" movements resulted in freedom, rather they have become one-party states run by so-called peoples armies or by ruthless dictators. Many of these countries were transformed into a concentration camp enviroment where "national liberation" resulted in genocide being practiced on one section of the population. With a population explosion exasperating an already difficult situation in the Third World, it is hardly surprising that they suffer from underdevelopment, poverty, drought, desertification, deforestation and the famine, disease, malnutrition and illiteracy that are a natural consequence. Poverty and desperation is driving ever increasing numbers of people towards the megalopolises that are developing in Africa, Asia and Latin America in search of employment and food. Everyday existence in these countries is a living hell for people who die, or live without hope, while the United Nations and its various agencies remain impotent and the powerful nations look

on indifferently. "A new political will and new organisations to exploit the will"; a transnational party needs to be formed for direct membership and non-violent action.