Articles by Georges Kristoffel Lieten

Progressive State Governments An Assessment of First Communist Ministry in Kerala Georges Kristoffel Lieten The debate on the possibilities and desirability of leftist state governments is on again since the spectacular victory of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal and Tripura, The assess- ment of leftist state governments is usually based on ideological predispositions and not on a careful analysis of its acts of commission and omission.

The latter, organised as ZIPA, based in Mozambique and fully supported by Samora Machel, declared themselves independent of the "politicians''. Not only that, there were reports on October 9 from Salisbury that ZIPA guerillas had raised and burnt down a farm belonging to Samuel Monoda- wafa, the national chairman of ZAPU. To all appearances, the US and the USSR seem to be openly colluding, given their support of ZAPU. But the appearance conceals a serious contention between the two. While both support ZAPU, the US would like Nkomo to come to power keeping intact the repressive state apparatus that Smith has built up over the previous 13 years. The Russians, on the other hand, would like Nkomo to dismantle that same apparatus, especially Smith's army. To displace it, they are widely believed to be training inside Angola, with Cuban assistance, a future ZAPU army some 18-20,000 strong.