CUBAN STUDENTS WITHDRAWN FROM RUMANIA
By Joseph Hansen
The withdrawal of 130 Cuban students from Rumania, news of which was carried on the press wires January 15, was accompanied by no immediate official explanation from either the Cuban or Rumanian governments, According to travelers from Bucharest, the action was taken by Havana when the Rumanian government banned the Cuban students, most of whom were studying at the University of Bucharest, from staging a rally in commemoration of the victory of the Cuban Revolution, The students were then called home,
The Vienna correspondent of the New York Times offered the following speculation as to the reasons for this rift in.the relations between Rumania and Cuba:
", . . the Rumanians, with much at stake in a rapprochement with United States, regarded the proposed demonstration as a potential
threat of violence against Americans or the United States Embassy....
"Rumania is seeking economic assistance from the United States in the form of increased trade, while some American manufacturing concerns have been considering setting up shop in Rumania for production under Rumanian license,
"The improvement of Rumanian-American relations lay in such delicate balance that the Bucharest regime, as it was outlined here, could not risk Cuban student disorder of an anti-American character,
"It is recognized even among Conmunists that tho repetitious violence against American missions in Moscow and elsewhere usually is based on the passive consent of the, police authorities,
"Restraint by the Rumanian police already had been seen in December in the Rumanian-African student demonstrations arising from the American~Belgian airborne intervention in the Congo,"
While too much should not be read into this development, several things nevertheless stand out.
First of all, it was shown once again how remote from reality is the thesis advanced by certain ultraleft currents, such as the one represented by the London Newsletter, that Castro has been signalling to Washington to give him an opportunity to sell out the Cuban Revolution. What better opportunity could Castro ask for to prove his readiness to line up than to go along with the Rumanians in softpedaling protests against the bloody intervention of U.S. imperialism in the Congo?
Instead, the Rumanians, by ostentatiously dissociating themselves from the Cubans -- following a criminal decision not to join with the Cubans and others in demonstrations of international solidarity in behalf of the Congolese people -- utilized the well-known firm stand of the Cuban revolutionists against American imperialism as a foil in order to emphasize their own softness toward Wall Street and their readiness to be hac. The move will be read perfectly by the experts in the State Department, as Bucharest intended,
The Rumanians grossly insulted the Cuban students by implying that they would not act in a disciplined way if they were permitted to hold a rally in celebration of their own Revolution. More importantly, however, the Bucharest bureaucrats indicated their readiness to stab the Cuban Revolution in the back in return for economic aid such as Washington has given to Yugoslavia. They revealed how utterly unprincipled their calculations are and how ready they are, in the final analysis, to betray the interests of socialism in their own country in response to the blandishments of the State Department and the Manhattan banks.
The reactions in Peking will bear watching. In the Sino-Soviet conflict, the Rumanian bureaucracy has been utilizing the differences
in order to advance its own interests. This has been deftly encouraged by Peking while Moscow has watched with ill-concealed anger.
It is in the interests of world socialism for Rumania to gain a voice and a role that is independent from the Moscow bureaucracy. However, for Rumania to fall into dependency to American. imperialism would be an utter disaster. The indication that the Rumanian bureaucrats are thinking of taking this road is what is most ominous in the incident over the Cuban students, If they were moving in the direction of genuine independence, then their course would be to follow in the footsteps of the Cubans =-- not the Yugoslavs -- and to display this with special acts of solidarity with Havana in its heroic struggle against the Northern goliath.
Will: Peking, which has been talking magnificently about Leninism, now remind the Rumanians of the need to adhere to basic principles? Will Mao and his team choose to draw the attention of the Rumanians to the dangers of Titoism? Or will they choose to remain silent, thereby implying their own readiness to bargain with American imperialism: at the expense of others?
- NEW _GIVE AWAY