The Hungarian Student, 1961
COEXISTENCE On the struggle for the repartition of the world According to Leninist ideology, the imperialists continuously divide and redivide the world amongst themselves. As a result of the constant change in the balance of power, the frontiers of imperialistic empires are repeatedly redrawn and the fight for new borders, whether on an economic or military plane, keep the world in a state of unrelieved anxiety. Naturally, even the most stubborn imperialist do not like to risk wars. Armies are easily put on the march when the objective is the occupation or subjugation of small nations who possess neither good technical equipment nor modern armiaments in adequate quantities. But when the borders of two great colonialist powers welt, when cannon is ritted against cannon, bomber against bomber, and tank against tank, both the politicians and the generals are more cautious, and take their places more easily around the conference table than on the battlefield. The Leninist thesis on the repartition of the world without bloodshed, could be stated in the language of present-day international policy as follows: The The 4th Congress of the UFHS states that it considers the most important role of all national and international student movements to be the furthering of international understanding, to struggle for people’s right of self-determination and to fight against the oppression of such rights. The International Student forums have concerned themselves with international cooperation and peaceful coexistence. During the 1956 Hungarian Revolution all revolutionary forums repeatedly voiced the sincere wish of the entire nation in declaring that the Hungarian people desired to live in peace and mutual respect with all its neighbours including the Soviet Union and all other countries of the world. The Government of the Soviet Union, disregarding the desire for peace of the Hungarian people and even that of the people of the Soviet Union, rejected, by its armed intervention in Hungary, the very same principles of peaceful imperialist powers' attempt to live side by side in peace. Who, at the end of the last century, would have imagined that this form of living side by side in peace, based on the recognition of each State's military might, could be called the “peaceful coexistence of peoples” ? In their day, peaceful coexistence, could have meant only their agreement to divide the world in the political and economic interests of the great powers, independently of the will of the people under the colonial yoke. It seems that the second world war put an end to the coexistence of colonial powers. For the first time, a new voice is heard at the negotiation table for the partition of the world, the voice of protest against partition. This voice has since become so powerful that it has rendered the agreements of imperialistic colonial powers meaningless and even has brought about their disintegration. That is to say that the imperialist powers can exist only while they can settle their frontiers by mutual agreement. The moment they acknowledge, even if only partially, the right of colonized countries coexistence which it did not cease to advocate in its policy statement. Nevertheless, the Hungarian student community, in spite of tragic experience, remains loyal to the world opinion in rejecting all incitement to war from whatever part of the world it may come. The Hungarian Students in exile hereby emphatically condemn the propagandist exploitation of people’s sincere desire for peace by the use of slogans for coexistence as a means to conceal and divert attention from the arbitrary oppression of nations, including the case of Hungary. The 5th Congress of the UFHS requests all national and international student organizations throughout the world, when examining the problems of international cooperation and peaceful coexistence, to consider the difficulties of all those nations including Hungary which live under artificially sustained oppression within the present “statu quo” of world powers. to have a voice, they sign the death warrant of imperialism. Although progress might be slow, especially in the eyes of people living under the colonial yoke, there is no doubt that after the second world war this death warrant was not only signed but has been partly implemented in the western world. The last negotiations, the purpose of which was the partition of the world according to imperialist mentality, that is, with no regard for people’s right of self-determination, were held in Yalta immediately before the end of the Second World War. It is perhaps not irrelevant to identify the only great power who since 1945 has persisted in conforming to the imperialistic partition of the world, the “statu quo”, as laid down in Yalta. Which great power demanded again and again summit meetings with the intention, perhaps, of redividing the world according to the interests of great powers ? Which great power proclaims the peaceful coexistence of social and economic systems, but not that of peoples ? Its interpretation of coexistence is therefore nothing else than an appeal to Western Powers: “let’s avoid wars, let’s peacefully divide the world.” We feel that the death agony of Western imperialism began when the Western Powers recognised people’s right of self determination for the first time. Undoubtedly, there are countries which cling to their remaining colonies, even today, but only against the weight of world opinion and against the stand of most Western politicians (which stand, unfortunately, does not always prevent them from closing their eyes to still prevailing imperialist , endeavours). There is only one power today which still demands, both in theory and in practice, the imperialistic portion of the world. The Soviet Union calls this goal “peaceful coexistence”. This type of coexistence, as all imperialist endeavours for dividing the world, is the opposite stand to recognizing the right of self-determination, witness the uprising of the workers in East Berlin, Poznan, Hungary and Tibet. Do we want coexistence ? Most certainly we do. But we stand for the peaceful coexistence of peoples, and not the coexistence of either old, or new, imperialist powers. We want the coexistence of peoples, without any attempt to redivide the world. We want coexistence as defined in the five points of the Bandung Conference. We want the people of the world to be able to live side by side, in peace, through self-determination. RESOLUTION ON COEXISTENCE passed by fhe V-th UFHS International Congress II
