nuclear war, after all, is a family matter. oo
A LETTER FROM CUBA
{The following is a translation of part of a letter from a European Trotskyist who has lived in Cuba a number of years. It is of special interest, we believe, because of its references to the speech made January 15 by Fidel Castro attacking "Trotskyism."}
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As you can imagine, the January 15 Tricontinental speech was a bad blow for me because of the effect I know it will have on the revolutionary groups throughout America and the world. The real splitters and betrayers who have never really supported the Cuban Revolution will take advantage of this sad mistake to attack.the very line which the Cuban Revolution puts forth. The only groupings | that honestly support this line are the independents and the real | Marxists. By real Marxists I mean what Fidel said in the Second — Declaration of Havana ~-. those who are making the revolution and not waiting for the corpse of imperialism-to be carted past their door.
Doesn't Fidel know the difference between the real Trotskyists and the Posadas group? No, he doesn't. He is. not interested because the information he receives is not of the kind to awaken his interest or to indicate that the subject is important.
How has the revolutionary government reacted to the defeats in Brazil and in Indonesia and the failure to help Vietnam on the scale needed? I don't think they've been fooled. They see what has been happening. But the tendency against theory has been — strength- ened. Everywhere they see a huge gap between theory and practice.
While it's true that Fidel has attacked the theory of peaceful coexistence various times; he does it because he can see that it doesn't work. But there's no interest in investigating how and why it arose or if it's really a Leninist doctrine or its effects where it has been applied in past years. No, Fidel looks at the policy as it stands today, sees that it doesn' t work and denounces it.
- To Fidel the most important thing is the advance of the revolution and his particular interest is in the three economically — underdeveloped continents, Asia, Africa and Latin America. He | denounces anything that he-sees holds up the process. In the case of Vietnam this became very clear. Fidel's call for unity between the Chinese and the Soviets is not at all like the Stalinist appeals. He doesn't attack them because they have differences but because they allow them to interfere in their support.
But on "theory," there are just too many practical problems to worry about it. We'll leave that to the students and teachers of materialism. .So. that in Cuba, theory continues to occupy the same position as in bourgeois society --.as something separate and apart
from reality, as another. course in which people become specialists.
., Given these conditions, when Fidel is told about people who call ‘themselves "Trotskyists, "and they have consciously or uncon— sciously done damage to the Latin-American revolution, hes reacts . without. going any deeper into the question.
The dangers of such a method are apparent but few in Cuba are aware of it. That is why it was possible for the doctrine that is closest to the. :Aine of the Cuban Revolution to be attacked.
On’ ‘BPidel! s attack on Mao. I don't think it is appreciated outside of. Cuba how heroic this was. It's not only a question of rice. If that was all,.we could get by because there's a great in~ crease in vegetable production and eggs are again in good supply. ° But things like cloth, medical supplies like gauze and bandages, cotton thread, needles, pins, safety pins, some canned foods, pencils, razors, cosmetics, office supplies, etc., etc. -- there are so,many of these things that have been coming from China that to be cut off cold, as Cuba now has been, will cause a crisis worse than the Yankee blockade.
“The most criminal of all is the medical supplies. As of the moment , all operations except for emergencies, have been: postponed for lack of bandages and above all gauze.
As to the repercussions inside Cuba to Fidel's attack against Trotskyism, nothing has changed. There is no witch-hunt atmosphere. No one is disturbed about the question since the majority of people here were never interested in it or knew anything about it. In this respect, in Cuba, things continue as usual.
_ ONE-DAY GENERAL STRIKE IN ADEN
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