The Soviet Involvement in Afghanistan

DSU Notes

On December 25th an undisclosed number of Soviet military personnel, together with armoured vehicles and air support crossed the border into Afghanistan and overthrew the existing Government and installed a new government under Babrak Karmal. Sicne the initial invasion the intensity of the conflict has increased and today an estimated 80000 Soviet trops are in Afghanistan involved in maintaining military law and suppressing tribal insurgency.

DSU Believes

1. That the Soviet Union has infringed the sovereign rights of the state of Afghanistan.
2. That the actions of the Soviet troops while conducting war against Afghan rebels appear to be, according to some reports, in direct violation of the Geneva Convention.
3. The actions of the Soviet Union have introduced instability to an area of the world.
4. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is reflection of a general policy of the Soviet Union aimed at increasing the Soviet Union's sphere of influence through military action.

DSU Resolves

1. To condemn the Soviet Union for infringing the sovereign rights of the state of Afghanistan.
2. To call for the immediate removal of Soviet personnel from Afghanistan.

DSU Condemns

1. The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
2. The Governments of Britain and the USA for their hypocritical attitude given their involvement in Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, Chile, south Africa and many more.
3. The abuse of human rights and national sovereignity wherever it occurs.
4. The hypocrisy of the media and the government in differentiating between Afghanistan and Chile, Vietnam or South Africa.
5. The attempt by the media to use the invasion of Afghanistan to whip up cold war and anti-socialist hysteria.
6. The hypocrisy of those who condemn the Soviet Union's conduct in Afghanistan but condone similar behaviour in their own government.
7. Those who are vigorous in their activities in support of the peoples of Southern Africa or Chile, but are strangely silent in their defence of the people of Afghanistan.

DSU Further Believes

1. That the current world situation is extremely dangerous.
2. That in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the British and US Governments have been busy leading the world down a path that could well result in war.
3. That it is in the clear interests of students and young people that there be no resurgence of the Cold War and international tension.
4. That imperialisation in any shape or form is an affront to a State's right to self determination.
5. That the principle of the sovereignity of nations and self determination should be upheld.
6. That the continued military presence of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan is a threat to world peace and the policy of detente.
7. That the Soviet Union's intervention in the internal affairs of Afghanistan is a violation of the principles of national sovereignity and self determination.
8. That the Soviet troops should be withdrawn from Afghanistan
9. That policy on human rights must be universally applied and not dependent on idealogical criteria.
10. That there should be greater moves to de-escalate tension and increase and strengthen the process of detente.
11. That the Olympics, rather than being used as a weapon in the Cold War, should be used to further peace and international understanding.
12. That the present government is playing a dangerous war-mongering game which can only be detrimental to world peace and our national interest through its policies of:
    1. implementing a dramatic increase in arms expenditure
    2. allowing the deployment of NATO medium range cruise missiles on British soil:
    3. cold war tactics over recent events in Afghanistan and hypocrisy over participation in the Olympics while turning a blind eye to sporting links with the apartheid regime in South Africa and restoring diplomatic recognition to the Junta in Chile.

13. That the majority of the media in this country has played a crucial role in stirring up a climate of "Cold War".

    DSU Further Believes

14. In the need for progress towards nuclear and conventional arms reduction.
15. That there is no issue so important to all humanity as that of preserving peace, halting the arms race and securing meaningful disarmament.
16. Everybody suffers from the Arms Trade. Increased employment would result from "Alternative Production" in socially useful products, as has been shown by the Lucas Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards Committee
17. International relations must be conducted on the principle of peaceful co-existence between states with differing social systems.
18. That nuclear disarmament is a priority.
19. That respect for the rights of all peoples to sovereignity and independence is essential for a lasting peace.
20. That the Helsinki Final Act must be strictly implemented.
21. That international conflicts is not the appropriate means of resolving differences between social systems of different countries.

DSU Resolves to Campaign

1. For simultaneous ending by all countries of the production and deployment of all nuclear weapons.
2. For an international agreement banning the development, manufacture and deployment of new types and systems of mass destruction.
3. For a multi-lateral treaty banning the Neutron bomb
4. For a treaty of No First Use of Nuclear Weapons to be signed by the state signatories of the Helsinki Final Act.
5. For the simultaneous and controlled destruction of all nuclear stockpiles, an ending of all nuclear tests and for further progress in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks.
6. For banning the development and production of chemical weapons and for an international agreement on the simultaneous and controlled destruction of existing stockpiles.
7. For the creation of a nuclear free zone in Europe.
8. For the simultaneous dissolution of all military blocs, including the Warsaw pact.
9. For the dismantling of all foreign bases, fixed or floating.
10. For mutual arms inspection, as originally proposed under the Helsinki discussions.
11. For the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order and its Programme of action based on equality, sovereignity, independence and co-operation among all states.
12. For a dramatic reduction in Britain's military spending, switching to alternative production, a closure of Britain's nuclear bases.

DSU Instructs the Executive

1. To implement the spirit of the above motion.
2. To raise sufficient money to affiliate to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Youth for Peace and to send telegrams to the Soviet Embassy and the Afghan embassy calling for the withdrawal of Soviet troops and condemning the invasion.

More archives