CANADIAN MAOISTS "ANALYZE" THE CUBAN REVOLUTION
By Phil Courneyeur
The Progressive Workers' Movement (PWM, Canada's Maoist group) have come out with the startling revelation that Cuba all this time has only been "masquerading" as a socialist revolution but is really only "a bourgeois democratic revolution."
Worse, "Castro aims at no more than a patching up of the capitalist system" and "Fidel and his colleagues...are not socialists and are only intrinsically [sic] anti-~imperialist." In short, Cuba is capitalist!
These choice slanders of the Cuban revolution stick out like bandaged thumbs in what purports to be a review of Debray's Revolution in the Revolution, published in the February issue of the Progressive Worker. According to the editors of this official PWM publication, the article represents "a systematic presentation of the Progressive Workers Movement's position" based on a "critical examination" of Debray's pamphlet.
The review has no merit aside from the light it casts upon the present attitude of Maoism towards the Cuban revolution. Summing up the whole experience of the insurrectional struggle against Batista by the July 26 Movement, the editors declare:
"Batista's. regime was on an extremely shaky foundation from the very moment he seized power and it grew rapid~ ly weaker with each passing day....Finally the U.S. imperialists refused any longer to subsidize Batista with loans and his regime staggered to its doom, to be replaced. by the Castro-led rebels in the mountains who enjoyed a wide measure of popular support for no other reason than that they opposed Batista with arms." [Emphasis added. ]
The next paragraph goes on to accuse Castro of declaring "the establishment of 'Socialism' by decree" -- implying that this was enacted only to get aid from the "revisionists" in the Soviet Union.
On top of this, the editors assert that "the Cuban revolution held few lessons for Marxist-Leninists but many illusions for the unwary.
This assertion is probably intended to help cover up the silence maintained by the Maoist leadership in China on the death of Che Guevara and the revolutionary positions stated by him in his message published in Tricontinental magazine. The Maoist leadership has main-
tained a similar silence on the historic
decisions taken by the conference of the
Organization of Latin-American Solidarity
insisting on the road of armed struggle
for the socialist revolution across Latin
America.
Following suit, Canada's Maoist
grouping, the PWM, have dummied up. They
failed even to carry commemorative men-
tion of Che in their press.
The growing hostility of the Mao-
ists towards the Cuban revolution can be
traced to a dispute around the 1965 rice
deal and Castro's charges of economic
pressure from China. The roots of the
disagreements, however, go much deeper
than trade problems. The most fundamental
questions of revolutionary strategy in
our epoch have come up between the Cuban
and Chinese leaders, just as they have
between the Cubans and the Russians. The
most immediate and pressing question is
the defense of Vietnam from the imperial-
ist aggression.
The Maoists were stung by Che's
moving appeal for real solidarity with
Vietnam and by his call for a genuine
united front at the state level between
China and the Soviet Union. His daring
to criticize the Chinese sectarian atti-
tude on this question placed him beyond
the Maoist pale and outside the ranks of
the faithful.
Also galling to the Maoists were
Che's conclusions on the socialist char-
acter of the Latin-American revolution
with his now famous statement: "either
a socialist revolution or a make-believe
revolution." The OLAS conference marked
a parting of ways with the old theory of
alliances with the so-called progressive
bourgeoisie.
Canadian Maoists -- like most of
their strain throughout the world -- are
arch nationalists and uphold the "bloc
of four classes" program. This policy,
enacted so tragically in Indonesia by
Aidit's pro-Peking Communist party, is
becoming more and more discredited among
revolutionary currents in the colonial
world.
Nevertheless, the whole program
of the PWM for Canada has been to graft
this nationalist program onto working—
class politics in this country. They ad-
vocate an all-inclusive, multiclass
"United Front" to drive out U.S. imperial-
ist investment, repatriate the economy and
free Canada from U.S. domination. Even
"independent Canadian capitalists" will
have a place in what PWM calls the "great
movement of national resurgence.": But we are assured that the resurgence would leave no place for "capitalism of the old style."
What the new style "national resurgence" has.in store for the workers is left to the imagination except for statements such as.the following: "We reject the contention that Canadians will not be prepared to make any initial sacrifices that may be necessary in the way of foregoing any unessential comforts and luxuries, so as to establish our national independence on a firm footing." (Quoted from March 1966 Progressive Worker, "U.S. yrontrol of Canada' s Economy ," p. 4.
It. seems ludicrous to even point to the abyss between the arrant nationalism of the PWM and the socialist internationalism of the Cuban revolution and the vanguard revolutionists in Latin America.
But the price for failing to ad-
LIFE IN EL
The imprisoned Peruvian revolutionist Hugo Blanco remains in great danger under the conditions prevailing in the island fortress of El Frontén.
The following items, taken from the March issue of Solidarité Pérou [Solidarity with Peru], the bulletin of the French Committee of Solidarity with the Victims of Repression in Peru, bears testimony both to the horrors practiced under the "parliamentary" regimeof President Belaunde Terry and to the venality of the Peruvian press.
The first item is the account given in Correo, a Lima newspaper, of an atrocity committed in El Fronton, where a number of political prisoners are held.
The second is.a letter from a correspondent of the committee in Lima reporting the truth about the incident.
* & *
‘Correo: "A-guard on the island penitentiary, El Frontén, machine-gunned the prisoner Alberto Gamarra Eyzaguirre, known as 'The Lunatic,' who jumped him armed with a stick. Gamarra was struck by five bullets and fell. dead in the main yard of El Frontén.
"Several prisoners present tried to stir up a riot but the guards kept the
here to Mao's thought is very severe.
Overnight you can be changed from a so-
cialist to a fascist, from a revolution-
ist to a reactionary. Overnight a work-
ers state can become capitalist. The
Cuban revolution can, by PWM decree,
cease to be socialist and become, as
they put it, a "bourgeois democratic
state masquerading as socialism." -
The criterion for determining the
class character of a given party, pro-
gram, or state is no longer rooted in .
the real world, but in the omniscient,
ommipresent and omnipotent thoughts of
Chairman Mao, as interpreted by. faith-
ful clerics like the