AN OPEN LETTER TO FIDEL CASTRO by MICHEL PABLO
Dear Comrade Fidel Castro Dear Comrades of the 26th July movement
I am writing to you from the cell of my prison where I have been held already for thirteen months, the verdict of the Tribunal which is just considering the of Comrade Santen and accused of "criminal" activities in favour of the FLN and the Al. gerian Revolution.
hart the immense pleasure recently %. Wright
one after the other, two admirable books, ' Mills' "Listen Yankee" and L. Huberman and P.M. Sweezy's "Cuba, Anatomy of a Revolution".
It is significant that the best books so far written on
Revolution have been written by Americans.
It is in my opinion a supplementary proof of the hist. oric meaning of the Cuban Revolution, already grasped very clearly by some intellectuals of the liberal or socialist left in the United States; that the Cuban Revolution is not only the of the Latin-American Socialist Revolution, but historically speaking of the North American Socialist Revolution, in short of the great Pan American Socialist Revolution.
This already gives the measure of the immense sign. ificance and dynamics of the Cuban Revolution.
The IVth International was among the first to grasp the dynamics of the struggle and the victory achieved by the heroic 26th July movement over Batista, to follow, understand, and welcome each successive stage of the Cuban permanent socialist Revolution.
To make known and to defend the Cuban Revolution among the toiling masses of the whole world, particularly among the Latin American and North American workers, was and remains for the IVth International a primordial task to which our militants have applied themselres with all their ardent revolutionary energy.
That is why I address you frankly, being a member of an organisation historically prepared by its ideas and experiences to understand easily and completely the Cuban Revolution, and devoted totally, and unconditionally to defend it, arms in hand against reaction and Imperialism.
From everything that I have known before my arrest, about yourself and the 26th July movement, about the manner in which you have led the heroic struggle against the bloody dictatorship of Batista, about the first achiev. ements of the revolution, and in all that I have followed about the course of the revolution since my arrest, 1 am convinced that we are in presence of a revolutionary socialist leadership of a high intellectual and practical quality. In everything, that you have done until now and that you are doing at the present time, you belong in fact to the line of great revolutionaries who have known how to discover, assimilate, and develop marxism in a creative and profoundly revolutionary manner, such as Rosa Luxembourg, Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and as in certain fields, the revolutionary Yugoslavs and Chinese.
For Marxism is not the dry, schematic codification of dogmas and citations from the classics, interpreted in an opportunist or simply stupid fashion by those who once in power, institutionalize marxism in order to justify all the practices of the state and the interests of the bureau. cratic caste which they represent, as was the case with Stalin and Stalinism.
Marxism is the flexible and open method of real socia nowledge and revolutionary action oriented towards social ism and communism, which excludes no truth acquired in whatever domain and which is nourished constantly from the creative experience of revolutionary practice, eternally new and unique.
Personally I have admired and appreciated a great deal the revolutionary and anti-dogmatic manner, often of a very original order, with which you have embarked upon and resolved important, fundamental questions in the struggle for power. That is the road of true creative Marxism.
The manner in which you engaged in armed struggle against Batista by basing yourselj on the poor peasantry, the profound comprehension which you have shown in the formation of the partisan army, its intimate liason, and fusion with the revolutionary peasant masses is of capital importance for the whole of Latin America.
This path will be sure to overcome the schematic and sectarian prejudices still existing in the ranks of revolutionary marxists who in practice underestimate the capital im portance of the organisation of the guerillas based on the revolutionary peasantry in order to initiate armed struggle against pro-Imperialist reaction, to strengthen at each step this struggle, to stimulate, and to activate the proletariat of the towns and to weld them closer to the revolutionary peasantry.
It is in the extreme audacity which you have demon. strated in this sphere by leaning on the support and the energy of the revolutionary peasantry that there is to be found one of the fundamental lessons of the Cuban Revolution for the whole of Latin America.
This example might reorientate the revolutionary forces in Latin America, some of which at least having fallen under the influence of the communist parties, have lost themselves in endless opportunist manoeuvers in the search for a hypothetical "national bourgeoisie" supposedly "revolutionary" in character and have counted upon its alliance and even on its leadership. Instead they should discover the immense revolutionary force of the peasantry or land. less peasantry, base themselves upon it and rejecting re. solutely bourgeois hesitancy, hurl themselves ardently with extreme audacity into real organisation and revolutionary action involving armed guerilla warfare.
The victorious march from the Sierra Maestra to the Havana of the Cuban Revolution is particularly significant.
As for the general march of the Socialist Revolution in our epoch, the classical marxist diagrams have been reversed, the Kevolution progressing from the periphery composed of the colonial and semi colonial peoples towards the centre occupied by the advanced capitalist countries and the Imperialist citadel of the United States last of all. Thus in a number of countries the proletarian and socialist revolution can begin and progress leaning for a whole period essentially on that wing of the peasantry which stimulates and supports the struggle of the proletariat in the towns where are to be found the principal and better equipped forces of the enemy.
Certainly the peculiarities of each country influence the development of the revolution and impress on it a unique mould, affecting amongst other things the method of uniting the towns and the country in a common struggle.
But the specific character of the process can only be understood against the general background of the Cuban revolution, at least for a whole series of countries controll. ed by Imperialism with analogous class structure and geographical features.
Personally I have equally admired the method you
36 have adopted to meet the problems of the economic social reconstruction of the country after
I am referring to the orientation which you have given to the economy and the solution applied to the agrarian question.
If it is true as W. Mills has affirmed among others, that you are not thinking at all of an autarchic. Cuban economy, unilaterally based for a long period on the prior and almost absolute development of heavy industry, but of an economy largely open to the possibilities of the world market and based on the equable and harmonious relations between heavy industry, light industry, agriculture, you are without doubt on the right path. This question is of capital importance, particularly for the political evolution of the
Such an orientation signifies first that Socialism immediately benefit the peasant and worker masses of Cuba, raising modestly it is true but constanly their standard of life, in place of sacrificing the present active generation to a future generation.
It means equally that an harmonious economy can be built which will avoid the enormous discrepancy still exist. ing in the USSR between industry, heavy industry in particular, and agriculture.
Equilibrium in the relations between heavy industry, light industry and agriculture means not only the healthy political development of the country by the constant elevation of the standard of living of the masses, but also the healthy economic development of the country, by avoiding "bottlenecks" in one or other branches of the economy at a later stage and their multiple politico-economic consequences.
The fact that you seem to have understood completely the importance of such an economic development for Cuba, can prove itself to be of vital importance for the evolution of the regime which has emerged from the Revolution.
No less important is the solution given to the agrarian question, particularly with the creation and functioning of the cooperatives.
I have noted the fact. very significant in my opinion, that the agricultural workers of the cooperatives consider themselves to be members of the latter, who participate effectively in its organisation and management and are able to share among themselves a part of the surplus created by the enterprise.
To see that everywhere the workers and direct producers have more and more scope in the organisation and management of the nationalised and planified economy of the country, and do not consider themselves to be simply workers in the service of an abstract and bureaucratic state, is a politico-economic question of capital importance for the future evolution of the regime.
I have also taken careful note of further problems affirmed by W. Mills in his book concerning your pre. occupations and conceptions for the structure and functioning of the state and of Socialist Democracy, for the freedom and development of culture, the struggle against illiteracy, the education of children, etc.
All this, in bold outline appears quite excellent and conforms to the best traditions of the enlightened thought of authentic revolutionary marxism.
One can naturally assume from what has been outlined at the present as conception and first realisation, that the Cuban Revolution will not be row in discovering the right balance between the necessities of family and private life and the necessary integration in active social collective life, in freeing women from harsh domestic burdens, in encouraging birth control. in improving even the quality of the human material by an intelligent eugenics more and more voluntarily accepted, in liberating artistic and scien-
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL tific research from all bureaucratic interferance and all
All this will happen in stages with hesitancy and even mistakes, with detours and retreats — for the construction of socialism is not given, is not codified in any book -according to the material and cultural level attained by the masses and provided that the state is not atrophied by bureaucracy.
It is this last aspect that I wish to emphasise. the state a truly democratic structure and to avoid bureaucratic deformations inevitable up to a certain point ‹luring a long period of transition - becoming preponderant is the crucial problem which faces every Revolution limited to a single country, power and the fundamental social changes effected upon the former social and economic structure of the courtry.
The Cuban Revolution is still directed from above by the leaders of the revolutionary army who conquered power.
This is a situation until nou unique in History, the seizure of power and the beginning of a Revolution in essence proletarian and socialist has been accomplished in the absence of a Revolutionary Marxist Party and soviet institutions (councils).
It is possible to see in this the manifestation of a new dynamics of the world socialist revolution in our epoch, the result of the new balance of forces established in the world.
The role of the party been substituted by that of the Revolutionary Army and that of the councils, by different organs resulting from the struggle and events since.
But now it is a question of codifying in some sense the structure of the new apparatus of the revolutionary state.
A party is certainly necessary and a state structure based on the councils, that is to say on organs elected by the masses who wield a real executive and legislative power.
The form of these organisms will be dictated by the specific experience of each revolution and the particular features of each situation.
It seems that you are already engaged in the creation of a Single Party whose framework is naturally founded upon the historic movement of the 26th July and the Rev. olutionary Army which has achieved victory.
Here indeed is a major step in the consolidation and functioning of the revolutionary regime.
What will this party be and what will be its role? I assume that it will act decisively as a great, profoundly democratic revolutionary marxist party as was that of the Bolsheviks in the time of Lenin.
To the degree that this party fulfills that condition, and permits within itself the free confrontation of ideologas in the time of Lenin, this party will enjoy the limitless confidence of the great majority of the people and it can act de facto, in practice as the only viable party, the Single Party.
In this case the eventual conflict of the democratic tendencies within it will be clearly the reflection of the interests and aspirations of the different layers of the toil.
But so that this actual political monopoly is justified by the confidence alone of the masses party and not by the bureaucratic control of the state, it will be necessary soon to proclaim the right of existence of every party which places itself within the framework of the Socialist constitution of the country and adheres to the economic, social and political conquests of the Rev. olution.
This right to exist for other parties so defined is the key for the development of a real Socialist Democracy.
For this right not only justifies the spontaneous confidence accorded the single party, but also the truly democratic character of the organs elected by the masses which will constitute the structure of the new state apparatus.
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In such organs: councils, National Assembly, etc. etc. there can be only a real socialist democracy if the free play of different political tendencies is allowed not only locally but also with the right to organise on the national tical Party nor Solte politica torre can be neither a
Political Party
Free political life means the free confrontation of diverse political tendencies.
The greatest danger which lies in wait for the Revolution after the seizure of power, above all in the coun tries with a low material and cultural level, is that of the rapid bureaucratisation of the revolutionary party and of
In some cases of extreme danger when the Revolution is assailed on all sides by its enemies, one conceive that the revolutionary regime resulting from the seizure of power not yet consolidated may be forced to suspend for as short a time as possible the normal functioning of the socialist democracy and to reduce it in practice to the dictatorship of the party over the masses even of the leadership of the party over the party and the masses. for the practical alternative in this case would be to see the revolution perish.
It is in this sense that what happened in the Soviet Union since the civil war and the Imperialist intervention
It is in this sense that Lenin and Trotsky justified to themselves certain measures which they had always considered exceptional, abnormal and ephemeral.
this reason that I cannot agree with certain conclusions which Isaac Deutscher comes to in his
Trotsky, which is in other respects a work of great value that I have studied with all the attention which
Neither Lenin or Trotsky ever generalised those antidemocratic practices to which the regime was forced to being placed in especially exceptional conditions - and never repudiated their conception of democracy in the party and the proletarian and socialist state expressed in their works.
Lenin and Trotsky far from theorising a posteriori certain practices of the state, openly said that it was a question of provisional, exceptional measures and even of retreats, certainly necessary but no less contrary in a profound sense to the dictatorship of the proletariat, to social. ist democracy, to socialism.
And it was Lenin again, one should not forget, who was the first to point out the extreme danger of bureau. cratisation and who embarked early on a struggle against this danger and the men who represented it in the party, Stalin at their head.
Without doubt, substantial raising of the material and cultural level of the masses run an effective remedy against the scelerosis and even the bureaucratic degeneration of the state resulting from the
Hence the extreme importance of a reasonable economic orientated from the beginning towards the constant improvement of the standard of living of the masses which avoids throwing the peasantry into obstinate opposition against the regime. Such was the case in the USSR with the disproportion between heavy industry and light industry and the brutal and forced collectivisation of agriculture for 30 years, all in the absence of a market capable of with low prices the needs of the peasants. was equally the case in the other European "People's" Democracies ... with the exception of Yugoslavia — who retarded far too much the development of light industry and proceeded on the path of experiments born to failure, with forced collectivisation of agriculture without the existof a sufficient technical and economic base.
Naturally the destruction and disorganisation which result from civil war, the economic blockade decreed by Imperial. ism, and the military • burdens help towards an uneven development of the economy and impose a heavy burden on the worker and peasant masses for the industrialisation and the equipment of the country.
But what should not happen is the aggravation of the objective unfavourable conditions for the reconstruction of socialism by the errors and the enormous waste of a bureaucracy which tends to develop inevitably in a climate of material shortage and in the absence of effective control by the masses of the state apparatus, which become more and more distinct from the masses.
It is this danger which must be combated from the beginning with extreme vigour to prevent the regime which emerged from the Revolution degenerating into the Bonapartist dictatorship of the bureaucracy over the masses through the dictatorship of the Single Party. dictatorship of the leadership of the party over the party
Such a process is not inevitable and to assert that it is so is an offence against socialist thinking which asserts the
It is necessary then to think about and be concerned now with all those measures democratic character of the revolutionary party and of the state resulting from the revolution.
Bureaucratic distortions are inevitable during the whole period of transition, of material shortage and of the lou cultural level of the masses.
combat effectively against these distortions, to prevent their invading and dominating the state by means of a real Socialist democracy.
Personally I have arrived at the conclusion for a long time, that if during the crucial period which follows the taking of power, it is almost inevitable that the Revolution-
Party assumes directly power in close collaboration elected by the masses, it is necessary very seriously to work towards the moment when the party as such can distinguish itself sharply from the state apparatus and the government, as soon as the power is consolidated and the danger on the other hand of bureaucratisation becomes evident and strong.
should place before everything its care to remain the political and ideological conscience of the masses and of the revolution, adhering inexorably to its final object, tracing the path to follow, intransigeant in relation to principles, always telling the whole truth to the masses.
In such a way the Party will not involve itself with bureaucratically deformed state, although in the last analysis latter still remains a workers' revolution and defending the economic and social bases of
The policy of the state by its very nature can only be empirical, compromising with the problems of the day, full of compromises and retreats, using a conventional language in its relations for example with other states, following a policy often basically opportunist.
The party should not subordinate itself to this policy or support it completely without reserve or criticism. should not theoretically portray it in particular as the practical authentic example of socialist theory and of Social. ism. By following that path, as did Stalin in the USSR, the party is absorbed in the state, Marxism is vulgarised to the point of being unrecognisable, and the masses are grossly deceived. It is possible and salutary to envisage that the party establish its relations with the workers' state as also with the trade unions, by remaining in close
38 contact with the masses and their democratically elected organs on which the state is based, to control precisely with the aid of the masses, this state more efficiently.
In such a case the separation of the government from the principal leaders of the party who constitute its supreme moral capital and that of the entire country, can enormously encourage the masses in their apprenticeship in the control and the management of the workers' state.
As for the mass organs on which the new state ap. paratus must base itself, these cannot be arbitrarily defined. They are formed according to the peculiarities of each revolution and country. But in their essence they can only be democratically elected, as a kind of council or assembly or a combination of the two forms open to all citizens and if possible with office in rotation, so that the greatest possible number of citizens acquire an apprenticeship in the control and management of the state.
I have been personally struck by the Constitution of Athens by Aristotle which I read in prison and which bears many profoundly democratic traits, characterising the Athenian Democracy in the Fourth century BC.
Certainly this democracy was based on slavery and was limited to a number of free citizens. But what is important is hou it functioned for this number, though our epoch being such that which could replace slaves by the machine. Particularly distinctive in this arrangement was the institution of the Peoples Assembly, the very large number of citizens participating in the City Council and the Tribunals, and the allocation of most of the administrative functions among the citizens by the drawing of lots.
Without copying these ancient institutions, the example of Athenian democracy not being unique in history, Socialist democracy can only justify itself if it identifies itself not with an abstract bureaucratic state, remote from the producers and citizens, but only with the mass citizen organisation.
The achievements so far of the Cuban Revolution, the quality and the critical spirit of its leadership permit a more than reasonable optimism on the plane of the strug. gle against bureaucracy and bureaucratisation.
The national framework of the Cuban Revolution is that of a little country still insufficiently developed.
But its effect is worldwide and particularly decisive for the future of Latin America and even of North America.
The Cuban Revolution benefits from many advantages. It has triumphed without knowing at least on a comparable scale — the devastations and destructions caused by the Imperialist War which marked the October Revolution and other revolutions since.
By the very fact of the existence and the power of the USSR and of the other workers' states and of the whole block of countries freed from Imperialism in Africa and Asia in particular, the economic blockade of Imperialism cannot have its former rigidity.
The economic aid coming from these countries, the aid including military assistance from the USSR and China rave already proved of capital importance for the consolidation and survival of the Cuban Revolution.
The latter also benefits on the other hand from the proximity of countries with the high level of technique and technological culture such as the United States which are important factors for the general culture of the Cuban masses.
Thus already in the first stages of the Cuban Revolution the material possibilities and cultural dispositions take place on a high and promising level.
Upon the leadership of this revolution rests the im. mense historical task of making the wisest use of these opportunities, for the benefit both of the Cuban and the world masses.
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You are perfectly conscious -- this can be seen ftom more than one event -- of the immense educative value of your words, your policies, and your deeds.
You are right in this.
In questions such as the orientation of the economy, the solution of the agrarian problem, the new state institut. ions, the functioning of Socialist democracy, the manner of conceiving freedom of culture, the architecture of houses and towns, the treatment of prisoners and many lesser matters, your deeds and policies are passionately watched not only by the masses of Cuba, but by millions in the American continents and throughout the entire world.
It is in this also that your supreme responsibility lies before history.
Each new step in the Cuban Revolution in whatever domain resounds throughout the entire world.
I mentioned at the beginning of this letter that historically speaking, the Cuban Revolution signifies in my opinion the beginning not only of the Latin American Revolution but also of the North American Revolution.
I believe strongly that the revolutionary effects provok. ed by the victory, existence and consolidation of the Cuban Revolution especially among the masses of the black minority in the United States, the Puerto Rican workers and other Latin-American emigres in the United States, the poorly paid workers and large sections of the youth and of the intelligentsia in the United States, are already profound and will increase.
Cuba has been in some sense a peripheral territory of the United States but can prove to be its Achilles heel.
The Cuban Revolution is already very popular among the black minority in the United States, which is the principal ferment and the most radical force of the future Socialist Revolution in this country.
Certainly it is the US which is and will continue to be the principal danger for the Cuban Revolution. The abortive revolution of last May showed this conclusively.
Yankee Imperialism has already realised with its Feen instinct for self preservation the immense revolutionary effect of the Cuban revolution on Latin America, No. reservoir of the present power of this Imperialism, and even in the long run, for its own country.
On the other hand it has understood that the instal. lation in its immediate neighbourhood, in the "tigers mouth" so to speak, of the first workers' state in its hemi. sphere, is at once an insupportable affront to its arrogant hegemony, and a striking manifestation of the new balance of forces established in the world arena. Hence its determination to do everything to stop the inevitable progress of the Cuban revolution and if possible to destroy it.
The consolidation and the survival of the Cuban revolution will be the most eloquent sign of the definite decline of Yankee Imperialism and of its open powerlessness before the new balance of world forces. For this reason it is necessary to expect tireless attempts on its part to weaken and defeat by every possible means the Cuban Revolution.
It will be possible in this domain to see how real are the promises given by the present leaders of the Kremlin to give Cuba military aid if attacked by Imperialism.
In the past, in Stalin's time, the Kremlin did not hesitate to encourage a number of revolutions, to use them for the momentary interests of soviet diplomacy and the bureaucratic caste in power in the USSR, and to ruthlessly betray them.
This was the case in particular with the Spanish Rev olution of 1936-39, the Greek Revolution and Yugoslav and Chinese Revolutions during and after the last war.
As you know the Yugoslav and Chinese only succeeded in reality in so far as their leaderships fortunately ignored the advice and directives of Stalin.
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL l'or a certain time now the Kremlin has adopted a more militant attitude towards Imperialism, a more positive atti. tude towards the colonial peoples and their struggles for freedom.
This is an event of historic importance which should be welcomed with open hands if this tendency is consolidated.
Whether this is the reflection of the mounting power of the USSR, of the new balance of world forces, or of the antagonism between the Kremlin and Peking, and of the pressure on the Kremlin from the Chinese Revolution or an world arena.
Thus the Cuban Revolution can maintain and develop itself protected amongst other things by the formidable pow. er of the USSR and at any event by that of China.
But the support of the international masses and particu. larly of the American and even North American popular forces is no less vital for the future of the Cuban
* a me it con tea to raise the standard of
39 life of the Cuban masses, to industrialise the country, to abolish unemployment, to conquer illiteracy, to develop a free culture, to promote the participation of the masses in the political life of a genuine Socialist democracy cannot help but have a tremendous revolutionary effect from one end to the other of the American continents.
You are the pioneers of the Great Pan American Revolut-
Be conscious of the profound significance of this immensh usands without number of Workers will be ready t roo At the least of your acts or words out the world to fight and die in defense of the Cuban
Thousands of revolutionaries particularly to the fore those in the Fourth International - in North America, South America and throughout the entire world will make known the achievements and the importance of the Cuban Revolution, prepare its defence against reaction and Imperialism and extend it by revolution in their own countries.
Long Live the Cuban Revolution, vanguard of the Great