LEADING ROLE AT HAVANA CONFERENCE = 255
In seeking a motive for tne kidnapping (and most likely murder) of Mehdi Ben Barka in Paris October 29, the bourgeois press has persistently advanced the hypothesis: that the revolu- =: tionary leader. was preparing to.make his peace with Morocco's.- ... tyrant King Hassan II and that ultraright political forces, such as those represented by Interior Minister Mohammed Oufkir.,. Sought | to block this. The press is completely silent about a different possible ‘motive... we
Ben Barka was president of the International Preparatory Committee for the Tricontinental Conference recently held in Havana. With Boumedienne's seizure of powex in’? Algeria through. ae a coup dtetat last June, the imprisonment of Ben Bella and the © resulting. shift of the government to the right, Ben Barka's posi-. tion as a leading North African revoluttionist assumed new impor—) tance. He would undoubtedly have played a big role at the Tricontinental Conference. To remove Ben Barka from the scene thus signified a blow against the Havana meeting, a blow which a nunber of reactionary forces, including | the cla, would most certainly favor.
| . Ben Barka visited Cuba during the preparations for the conference. While there he spoke strongly for an overall ~ strategy among revolutiodnists on a tricontinental scale.
"We must achieve. greater coordination in the. ‘struggle of all the peoples, as the problems in Vietnam, the Congo and the Dominican Republic stem from the same source: U.S. imperialism," he said. :
The International Preparatory Committee selected the vari-.ous organizations entitled to have accreditéd delegates at the. conference. Where various organizations existed,.a National’. :. Front was set up. "This will lead to a greater unity among the anti-imperialist forces of each country, initiating a positive process among organizations in which at--times there are secondary differences, in the face of an enemy ‘that wants to be‘ an:interna- | tional-gendarme. This is the spirit in which the conference will. meet in Havana." oe oY 2G gee, :
Ben Barka was optimistic about -the-‘-outcome of the conference. "We are certain that this conference will be a success and that its repercussions-will. be felt. in the three continents, especially in Latin America. At the same time, it will-be an opportunity to honor the heroic Cuban people, and the clearsightedness and courage of its leaders, headed by Major Pidel Castro, First Secretary of the Communist party of Cuba."
He visualized "the two great currents of world revolution" attending the conference -- the one "born in 1917 with the great
October -Revolution, and that which Tepresents: the anti-imperialist and national liberation movements. C8 7
Ben Barka added: "It is historic that this conference will take. place in Cuba, because the Cuban Revolution is the realiza— é tion of these two currents." :
SCANDAL