developments in the movement seeking Angolan independence.
"Since the summer of 1963, radical changes have occurred in the national revolutionary movement of the Angolan people against Portuguese imperialism.
"On the one hand the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has become badly split and weakened, the majority of its members, under the initiative of Viriato Da Cruz, leader of the radical left wing, having broken with Dr. Agostinho Neto who united with dissident neo-colonialist and feudal organizations.
"On the other hand the Angolan National Liberation Front (FLNA) has been officially recognized by the organization of African Unity (QUA) as the only really combat organization and it has been reinforced by the entrance of numerous former members of the MPLA. The Revolutionary Government of Angola in exile (GRAE) set up by the FLNA has been given "de jure" recognition by nine independent states of Africa including Algeria.
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"At present the MPLA forces remaining in emigration are virtually cut off from the Angolan underground; whereas the guerilla forces under the leadership of the FLNA are undertaking, after a lull, increasingly broad military action against colonialism, not only in the bokongo region, but also in other districts of Angola. strengthening the position of the Revolutionary Government among the Angolan Tashokwes, Luenas, Umbundus, Bailundos and Kimbundus, thereby overcoming in practice the drawback of Bokongo preponderance within the Union of the People of Angola (UPA) out of which the present movement evolved. This national expansion has been accompanied by a vigorous campaign of the FLNA against tribalism.
"The promise of help from the African states has not materialized on the necessary scale due to pressure from neo-colonialist and openly imperialist forces. Thus the FLNA leadership is being forced to turn more more and more towards revolutionary sources for aid, including, the workers states, above all China. That this leadership has given indications of being willing to turn in this direction is an encouraging sign.
"On the programmatic level, the FLNA is, of course, far from the perspective of revolutionary socialism and its leadership is not immune to neo-colonialism and the pressure of imperialism. However, a dynamic mass movement is launched, it cannot remain static. In the very process of the struggle, the great programmatic question will inevitably come to the fore. These include the necessity for constructing a revolutionary-socialist party, the need for a revolutionary land reform, nationalisation of the major means of production, a clear break with world imperialism and the establishment of fraternal relations with workers' states.
'The most effective way in which revolutionary marxists can help the Angolan freedom fighters find their way to the programme of socialism is to participate actively in the struggles led by the FLNA, to help them obtain material support in fighting against Portuguese imperialism, and to back them in resisting every neo-colonialist maneuver, above all those emanating from American imperialism."
17th February 1964