The Cuban Revolution Changes the World

The Party, Volume 1, The Sixties, a Political Memoir, Chapter 5
by Barry Sheppard. Resistance Books, Australia

This is the raw scanned version. not yet proof-read.

The international context in which the Cuban revolution developed was very different than today's. The USSR and the Soviet bloc still existed. As workers' states. these countries were capable of coming to Cuba's aid as the revolution deepened and the conflict with Washington escalated. But the ruling bureaucratic castes in these workers' states also exerted Stalinist pressure on the revolution in the distorted model of socialism they provided, and in a readiness to sacrifice the interests of Cuba to the Kremlin's search for accommodation with the imperialist West.

The Chinese revolution was only ten years old in 1959, when the overthrow of the Batista dictatorship in Cuba took place. In 1954 Vietnamese independence fighters had defeated the French colonial rulers at Dien Bien Phu and established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north of the country. In the 14 years since the end of World War II, the colonial revolution had swept forward. India had won independence from Britain, and Indonesia from the Netherlands. Algeria was in the midst of a great struggle against France. Independence fighters in sub-Saharan Africa were battling Belgium, France, Britain and Portugal. The Movement of Non-Aligned Countries, led by former colonies which rejected alignment with Washington in the Cold War, had emerged in its first form at the Bandung, Indonesia conference in 1955. The Cuban revolution was part of this vast uprising of the majority of the world's peoples.

Throughout 1959, the Cuban revolution had radicalized, much to Washington's dismay. When they were fighting in the mountains, Castro and the other leaders of the July 26 Movement championed the cause of the peasantry and the agricultural laborers. They had promised to carry out a radical land reform to give all the peasants land and end desperate poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy in the countryside. The July 26 urban underground fought in the name of winning better conditions for the working people and the youth. Unlike many other Latin American leaders who promised such.ind then failed to deliver once in power, the July 26 Movement meant what

§ % Mtt I ,rrge estates were broken up. Peasants were given land. Agricultural workers n .l r lie lead in establishing nationalized or cooperative sugar plantations on many of for 1,1}' lori/ündia. This led to a split in the new government between the Castro team end o capitalist elements who were for land reform on paper but recoiled from its

Waist~

`i une of the expropriated land belonged to the United Fruit Company, a major US t,snlmury. Alarm bells sounded in Washington. The SWP had the opposite response.

ere heartened by the revolution in the countryside and realized something out of thr ordinary was afoot in Cuba. But, as readers of 1959 issues of The Militant will tr ;iti ly note, we still had a lot to learn about the revolutionary character and leadership § opacities of this new leadership that was emerging on the world scene. Farrell Dobbs, isq n'ther with Militant editor Joe Hansen, visited Cuba in the spring of 1960. They {flute hack highly enthusiastic, not only that a deep-going revolution was taking place but that Fidel and others were genuine revolutionaries seeking to lead the masses in a paopressive transformation of their country.

Farrell, the party's candidate for President, toured the US, speaking in defense of the revolution. When he came to Boston, we advertised his talk on campuses and ,unt )ng the many young people we met while picketing Woolworth's. During the worst d,rvs of the witch-hunt, the Boston SWP branch held fewer public meetings than twtore, and saw attendance shrink to a handful. But on the night of Farrell's talk we %%ere pleasantly surprised by the turnout of 80 to 100 young people who packed our small meeting room. As they squeezed in, Larry had us dusting off chairs that were in storage and hadn't been used in years. After the meeting, Larry excitedly said to me, 'Barry, we're on the move!"

In July, in retaliation for the expropriation of land owned by US companies, President Eisenhower banned the import of sugar from Cuba. Sugar was Cuba's main export crop, and until then the US had agreed to allow a sizable amount of Cuban sugar to be imported into the US at a subsidized price. Cuba responded by offering the sugar to the Soviet Union. A deal was struck, with sugar bartered for oil. US companies owned the oil refineries in Cuba. Washington barred these companies from refining the Soviet oil. The revolutionary government struck back, taking over the management of the refineries, although at first the ownership (and profits) remained with Texaco and the other oil giants operating in Cuba.

Each US blow to the revolution was met with a counter-blow by the Castro government. The Cuban masses were galvanized by the dawning realization that the tS domination of their country and economy was being challenged and could be

50 THE PARTY A Political Memoir The Cuban Revolution Changes the World! 51

ended. Cuba was becoming free!

As happens in every deep-going popular revolution, the mobilization of workers soon went beyond what the government had proposed. I remember seeing a television news broadcast of telephone workers marching through the streets of Havana calling on the government to "intervene" — to take over the telephone company, which was owned by International Telephone and Telegraph, a US firm. The workers, who were smiling and shouting and singing, carried a coffin painted with the letters "ITT" and ceremoniously buried it. Such scenes were typical that summer, as the government "intervened" in more and more foreign-owned (mainly US-owned) enterprises — a step which led to nationalization in the context of the growing hostility of Washington toward the revolution. The revolutionary leadership and the mobilized masses were leading and responding to each other in a profound revolutionary process.

US-organized guerrilla fronts made up of counter-revolutionaries and mercenaries sponsored terrorist bombings and killings in an effort to overthrow the revolutionary government. I remember watching a live television report on a demonstration in Havana. Suddenly there was the sound of gunfire. The camera showed a car speeding past while passengers fired on the gathering. Then it became apparent that many in the crowd were also armed, because they began shooting back. The car sped away.

The Cuban government armed the people in a nationwide militia, using the July 26 Movement's armed contingents as its core. In every town and city block-by-block Committees for the Defense of the Revolution were formed. These CDRs became the eyes and ears of the revolution and gave the masses a direct hand in improving conditions in their neighborhoods.

Reflecting our own growing confidence in the revolutionary leadership, The Militant began to carry speeches by Castro and other Cuban leaders, which were among the best popular explanations of what the revolution was doing. In one of the first speeches we published, Fidel explained that the US-inspired counter-revolutionary fronts would fail because, unlike the guerrillas of the July 26 Movement, they could never build a base in the peasantry with their program of returning the land to the exploiters. Over the next years others on the US left also came to support the Cuban revolution, but The Militant was always the best and most consistent US source providing truthful news about Cuba and publishing the ideas of the Cuban revolutionaries in their own words.

In the summer of 1960, a profound debate developed among the leaders of the revolution. Castro, Che Guevara and the rest of the July 26 Movement that had fought the US-backed dictator had to do so initially in opposition to the policies of the Popular Socialist Party of Cuba, a typical Stalinist-type Communist party. Moscow had opposedfighting for revolutionary change in countries like Cuba. Moscow, seeking to ease Cold War tensions, had accepted the idea that Cuba remain part of the US back yard and didn't want to be seen as making trouble for Washington in the US sphere of influence. The pro-Moscow Communist parties in Latin America followed suit.

The PSP had initially denounced the Fidel's group as ultra-left at the time of the beginning of Castro's struggle with the attack on the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953. But as it became clear that the struggle had a strong popular base, the PSP changed and supported it. In early 1958, Carlos Rafael Rodriguez, a top PSP leader, joined the guerrilla movement in the countryside. The July 26 Movement was not sectarian towards the PSP or to other forces in the anti-Batista movement. Instead, it brought them into the leadership.

Blas Roca, another old-time PSP leader, clung to the Stalinist dogma that in backward countries such as Cuba, a revolution had to be exclusively bourgeois-democratic and should not develop into a socialist revolution. This was really another manifestation of Moscow's conservative world view, that in order to build an alliance with the "patriotic bourgeoisie," the revolution had to be limited to what these "patriotic" capitalists could accept. This meant, of course, that capitalist business enterprises should not be expropriated. As late as the summer of 1960, Roca was still speaking and writing to this effect.

But it was becoming difficult to find Cuban capitalists who would be loyal to the revolution and willing to defend it against the colossus to the north. Most were looking to the US to force a halt to the revolution. A growing number were fleeing to the United States, and many more would soon follow.

In August, a Latin American Congress of Youth was held in Havana. Many different tendencies that supported the revolution sent delegates, including Stalinists, Trotskyists and others. The YSA sent a delegation which included Peter Camejo, Eva Chertov, Peter Buch and Suzanne Weiss. A heated debate took place over whether the revolution would have to expropriate the Cuban as well as the foreign capitalists. The Stalinists, preferring not to criticize the Castro government directly, singled out the Trotskyists for attack.

Castro spoke to the Congress, and put to a vote the proposition that all imperialist-owned property would he nationalized. The proposition was approved unanimously in a thundering standing ovation. The revolution was moving rapidly to the left. The Congress, under the influence of the Cubans, ended on a positive note, calling for the unity of all tendencies present in defense of Cuba.

In September a Cuban leadership delegation, including Castro, came to New York to attend a session of the United Nations. The US government put pressure on hotels not to provide lodging for the Cubans. This petty act of harassment backfired. Cash, declared that the delegation would camp out in Central Park. Berta Green, a memh, of the SWP who was also the Executive Secretary of the Fair Play for Cuba Commie(.,

(FPCC), got in touch with the Hotel Theresa in Harlem, which agreed the Cuban could stay there.

The Daily News reported that Castro was seen at a dinner at the hotel with a "red haired call girl." The so-called call girl was actually FPCC activist and SWP memhc1 Sylvia Weinstein, who worked in The Militant's circulation department.y

Outside the hotel, there were daily demonstrations, of up to 4,000 people, in support of the revolution.

We came to be part of the leadership of the FPCC partly as the result of a crisis in the organization. The original FPCC leadership was somewhat timid, and shied aw from forthright defense of the revolution as it radicalized. In response, Cuban members of the July 26 Movement living in the US blocked with the SWP and some other militants, and took over the leadership of the Committee. It was while he was staying at the Theresa that Castro met Malcolm X. Afew years later, I would interview Malcolm for the Young Socialist in his office at the Theresa. The revolutionary Black nationalist

was attracted to the Cuban Revolution from the start and supported it until he was murdered in 1965.

In October, the Cubans smashed a US-sponsored counter-revolutionary guerrilla front. Castro then spoke before a huge crowd of cheering workers and peasants, and said that the revolution would proceed to nationalize the Cuban and foreign capitalists, who had become completely hostile to the revolution. Capitalist properties would he

confiscated "down to the nails in their boots!" The debate with Blas Roca on the revolution's course was over.

When this speech was reported on the nightly TV news, I was so excited that I immediately telephoned Peter Camejo, and told him that I thought by this action Cuba had become a workers' state. Peter and I had been discussing the revolution's course since he attended the Youth Congress. I was right. This was a revolutionary workers' state based on the mobilization of the workers and peasants, not a degenerated

one like the Soviet Union, which was characterized by bureaucratic dictatorship over the masses and rejection of the revolutionary program of Marxism.

The July 26 Movement was so named to express its continuity with the unsuccessful attempt by Castro and a band of rebels to take over the army base at Moncada on July 26, 1953 in order to launch an insurrection against the Batista dictatorship. Many of the rebels were summarily shot. Castro managed to avoid that fate, but was arrested, tried and sent to prison with a number of his followers. At his trial he gave a speech

Castro outlined six immediate problems that a revolutionary government would have to address: a land reform to give land to those who work it, industrialization, employment, housing, education, and health. Along with these were the restoration of public liberties, political democracy and true independence.

What distinguished Fidel Castro and his team was that they meant what they said. They carried out their program in action, even though it meant breaking with the traditional ruling classes and the powerful imperialist bastion in Washington. As a result, the revolution in power evolved into a socialist revolution as it mobilized the working people and youth to confront their enemies.

The Cuban example was burned into my brain, and it had a profound impact on the entire SWP and YSA memberships. The revolutionary example of the revolution and its leaders came to inspire a generation of youth around the world. The leaders of the Cuban revolution were young! Castro was only ten years older than I was, and many of the other leaders were younger than he. They didn't wear suits and ties, but beards and guerrilla fatigues. Among the revolutionary leaders were young women. Some were Black. They pledged to outlaw official racism against Afro-Cubans; and they did so, while our government had to be forced into confronting the Jim Crow bigots of the South. The Cuban Revolution brimmed with spontaneity, honesty, enthusiasm, and a willingness to think new thoughts and defy the powers that be. As we entered the turbulent '60s, the Cuban Revolution's leadership became heroes and role models to radicalizing youth in the US and throughout the world.

that turned the tables by indicting the dictatorship. In it he outlined the revolutionary program of the movement. This speech is known by its last sentence: "History will Absolve me!"

In this remarkable speech, Castro defended the.right of revolution against tyranny, quoting many writers and historic documents, including the American Declaration of Independence and the Cuban Constitution itself. The goal of the movement was to overthrow Batista by revolutionary means. Castro listed those he looked to for support: the unemployed, the farm laborers who worked only four months a year, the industrial workers, the small farmers who worked like feudal serfs on land that was not theirs, the teachers, professors and other professionals, and the small business owners burdened with debt and hounded by venal officials. "The future of the country," he said, "and the solution of its problems cannot continue to depend on the cold calculations of profits that ten or twelve magnates draw up in their air-conditioned

offices "