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IN DEFENSE OF REVOLUTIONARY CUBA
By Ernest Mandel
[Ernest Mandel is editor of the Belgian socialist weekly La Gauche and author of Traité d'Economie Marxiste. He recently returned from an-.extensive trip in Cuba,
Cuban industry is undergoing rapid growth. In relation to the situation before the revolution, the annual increase in m®ustrial production is much above 10%, without doubt conime'ct Loser to 15% than 10% -- if the sugar industry is left out of account. In 19638, the rate of growth in relation to 1961 was 27%, and it was even higher in light industry (30%) than in heavy industry (21%). In L961, the increase in industrial production (the sugar industry still left aside) was 30% in relation to 1959,
Gertain completely new industrial branches were created or were developed from embryonic beginnings. Some branches like naval
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construction, the manufacture of agricultural equipment, electrical equipment and leather goods have experienced the most spectacular development, The textile industry itself doubled production in relation to the situation before the Revolution, but this development is due to the existence of a big nonutilized capacity before the Revolution,
Cuban industry had to undertake an immense technical effort to substitute national production for the importation from the United States of certain key elements for the country's economy: thus spare parts for machines of the sugar industry are beginning to be made in Cuba, An effort of the same kind was required on the technical level, The Amerioans had built the most modern nickel plant in the world at Moa, It was just about to go into production when the Revolution broke out. The American technicians left, taking with them all the paper work for putting the plant into operation, Today it is running nevertheless,
Clearly, a rather large number of foreign technicians -above all from countries of what is termed the “socialist camp" -had to replace the technicians who left the country. But the government sought to replace them as quickly as possible with Cuban technicians, That is why it proclaimed the technical revolution that transformed the Cuban plants into a vast school, The formation of. Cuban technicians was particularly accelerated by the method of apprenticeship at half-time in schools attached’ to the enterprises, or in special institutes created in order to train tens of thousands of young and adult workers, When the harvest from this impressive educational effort is ripe, the productivity of industrial labor will take a leap forward,
Difficulties in the Agricultural Domain
The situation in agriculture is less brilliant -- and it has had an effect on industrial production insofar as sugar production clearly remains the key industrial branch of the country. That is why sugar is excepted in all the preceding data referring to industry.
But in speaktkhe of the difficulties of Cuban agriculture, it is necessary to carefully specify the conditions, The economic difficulties there are in large part related to the solution of Social problems. Two examples will illustrate this statement, At present, there is a great shortage of labor for the zafra, the harvest of sugar cane. This is accomplished in great part with the aid of voluntary labor, by workers, office employes and functionaries mobilized in other industries or in the public administration, The origin of this difficulty is precisely the liquidation of underemployment in the countryside, Formerly the zafra was undertaken largely by seasonal workers who had no other employment, To the degree that unemployment and underemployment have disappeared, the agricultural workers are not inclined to turn to the heaviest work,
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and cutting sugar.cane in the full sun is certainly exhausting labor...
Another example: agriculture is not profitable; but the losses are evidently due to the fact that the mass of laborers in the countryside are now paid twelve months out of the year on the people's farms instead of three or four months as was the case before the Revolution. Since production has not increased in the same proportion as wage costs, large losses occur. ..
‘In addition to these structural difficulties, inevitable consequences of the social progress registered by the Revolution, there are. difficulties due to errors committed in the agricultural domain, These errors are of two kinds: errors in orientation and errors in organization, uo
Following the revolutionary victory, all the leaders were convinced of the necessity of freeing Cuba from the burden of monoculture, with its: dual consequence of strict dependence on the United States and permanent economic instability. But there are two ways of winning freedom from monoculture «=~ either developing other crops along with sugar cane, or substituting such crops for cane, In part, they took the second road and this was clearly an error, It was all the more-an error inasmuch as the rise in the price of sugar on the world market opened the possibility of gaining considerable acoumulation funds for the country thanks to large exports of sugar, ‘The correct idea of developing an entire chemical industry.on the basis of sugar likewise implied an increase.and not a reduction in sugar production,
In addition, the new organization of Cuban agriculture proved to be too rigid, too bureaucratic, too badly directed, and this led to unfortunate results, Crops perished for lack of labor while in a neighboring-fdrm labor was not productively occupied full time, Workers were often called on for exhausting labor which proved fruitless or inconsequential. Their enthusiasm dropped and they became indifferent about production,
Associating Workers in Direction of Enterprises
These errors are now being corrected, The agricultural leadership is being reorganized on the basis of some eighty districts (agrupaciones) within which more rational employment of labor will be possible and provided with a more effective leadership, The workers are likewise interested in a good market for production, because a part of the profits, in excess of those envisaged in the plan, realized in each district (or. each farm) can be divided among them,
At the same time, Fidel himself has given vigorous: backing to extending the growing of sugar cane instead of reducing it, ‘The aim is to produce 10,000,000 tons of sugar a year by 1970, partisu-
larly through rather general mechanization of the fields. At the same time an increase in the cultivation of new crops (like cotton), already begun, is sought; and caution is being exercised against any drop in the production of coffee, vegetables and fruits, which are important in current consumption by the people. As for’ tobasco growing, this is in good condition, oo
The fundamental problem posed by the mishaps in agriculture is at bottom the association of the producers, the workers, in the leadership and in the conscious impulsion of the economy, It is above all the leaders in industry who understood that socialist oonsciousness constitutes the essential motor for progress in production following the Revolution, That is why they accord such importance to the problem of education and likewise expect that it will be necessary to associate the workers directly in the management of the plants. This question will without doubt be resolved in the near future, but the solution requires a radical reform of the unions, the prestige of which has been considerably lowered in the eyes of the workers, many of the union leaders being neither competent nor representative,
The battle. for profitability in agriculture is the battle for a more rapid increase in the Cuban national income, Today, paradox=— ically, it is industry that is financing the deficit in agriculture; tomorrow it will be necessary for agriculture to finance a more rapid growth of industry and of the standard of living of the working population, At the same time, the deficit in the balance of payments must be rapidly erased, At present, it is covered by Soviet aid; but this is an unhealthy situation which will without doubt be surmounted in a few years, New Threats of Aggression Weigh on Cuba
Since the defeat of the mass movement in Brazil -- a temporary defeat, no doubt, but not less heavy in immediate consequences -- Cuba's international situation has rapidly become aggravated, At , the time of his speech commemorating the third anniversary of the battle of Playa Girdédn on April 19, Fidel Castro solemnly drew the attention of the Cuban people and’ international public opinion to the new threats of aggression weighing on Cuba, We do not believe that the international workers movement has really become aware of this danger. Thus it is necessary to recall the essential facts in the problem,
Sineoe the consolidation of the socialist Revolution in Cuba; that is, since the counterrevolutionary defeat at Playa Girdn, American imperialism has. stubbornly pursued the immediate aim of isolating Cuba in Latin America, In accordance with this objective, it has systematically contributed to overthrowing all the “liberal" bourgeois: governments “guilty” of maintaining friendly relations with the Cuban Revolution, This was the fate of Frondizi. This was the-fate of the president of Ecuador, This was the fate of President
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Bosch in the Dominican Republic. This anti-Cuban policy rapidly transformed into a farce the aims of the “Alliance for Progress" which were to. support "reformist" governments, the only kind capable, according to Kennedy, of avoiding revolutions, The most striking. case was that of Venezuela, where the struggle against "Castroism" transformed the Betancourt regime from a "reformist" government into an ultrareactionary dictatorship,
Last March at a meeting in Washington of all the U.S. ambas~ sadors in Latin America, the new Under Secretary of State, Thomas Mann, officially buried the corpse of the "Alliance for Progress," He proclaimed that from now on Washington will not distinguish -between "constitutional" governments and dictatorial governments (provided they.are anti-Cuban). This gave the green light for the military coup d'état in Brazil, which broke out a few. days later, toppling the constitutional president, Govlart, who wanted to intro duce reforms called for in the late "Alliance for Progress" in order "to arrest the mounting waves of Communism," Bleckade and Isolation of Guba. ee
Brazil will break diplomatic relations with Cuba, no doubt to be followed by Uruguay and Bolivia, Washington has made sure to have in Mexico a new ultrareactionary candidate for the presidency . of the Republic who will no doubt rapidly become anti-Cuban, Chile’ is left; there everything hinges on the result of the next elections. But the effects of the reactionary victory in Brazil strongly limits the chances in Chile for a legal victory of the Socialist candidate Allende, above all if the Socialist-Communist Front continues- to place. "Gonfidence" in the "loyalty. of the army with regard to the Constitution, .."
The blockade of Cuba has failed, it is true. But the diplomatic isolation of the Cuban Revolution on the Latin-American continent will have many harmful consequences for the Revolution,’ Above all it can prove to be the prelude to open counterrevolutionary intervention,
Venezuela has already placed a motion before the Organization of American States condemning Cuba as an “ageressor" and demanding the application of all kinds of sanctions, including "military sanctions," in case of a new “aggression, At present the Venezuelan government is trying to get enough votes to adopt this motion at the next meeting of the OAS. In case this motion is actually adopted, the reactionary governments of Latin America could well assemble a task force in the. Caribbean to try to isolate the island comnercially, beginning with raids of harassiment and diversion against Cuban territory in order to support eventual attempts at landing counterrevolutionaries, even organizing provocations (bombing counterrevolutionary bases in Nicaragua or the Dominican Republic and claiming it was done by "Cuban" planes), with the aim of unleashing against Cuba military operations of greater scope,
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. Such raids would place the Cuban government in a very touchy situation, If. they reply, an opening is provided for reaction to “yunish the aggressor," If they do not reply, they must stand by passively while plants.are systematically destroyed, crops set on fire, and militiamen murdered, Passivity would finally (this is the least Fidelts adversaries hope for) provoke apathy and even demor-= alization in the ranks of the Revolution,
»-« e to.the Threat of Intervention by the U.S.
These counterrevolutionary projects based on the reactionary regimes of Latin America overlap with projects based on the Cuban counterrevolutionaries and on the United States itself,
Thus although Fidel denounced them in his speech of April 19, the Cuban government denounced :-them in a letter to the United Nations and will doubtlessly denounce them soon in a complaint before the _. International Court at the Hague; the government of the United States has relentlessly continued since the crisis of October 1962 its daily flights over Cuban territory with U-2 or more modern planes,
These overflights are completely illegal, The assertion that they are “indispensable to the seourity of the United States" does not hold at all, The rockets remaining in Cuba are all of a completely defensive nature, It is also known that it is not Cuba that "threatens" to bomb the United States, but the United States that actually and openly threatens to attack Cuba, In addition, important international documents, to which the American government adheres, precisely denounce the illegality: of violating the sovereignty. of small nations under pretext that such violations are “indispensable to the security" of a big neighbor, Doesn't Cuba have’ much more right, in this respect, to engage in overflights of the United States to.assure her soourity?
The U.S. policy toward Cuba is founded exclusively on the "right" of the strongest. This cynical attitude which defies international law, constitutes a permanent provocation toward Cuba, The Cuban Revolution has decided not to tolerate indefinitely such provocations, It is obliged to act in this way, above all insofar as flights over Cuban territory provide information for military enterprises openly prepared by the counterrevolutionaries from territory of the United States (Puerto Ricel) or from the territory of govern-= ments: allied to the United States,
But any Cuban reply in this-area risks touching off a rabid reaction in the Pentagon which, without taking the open form of an invasion -- in: order to avoid Soviet intervention -- could be not less bloody and charged with consequences, Certain U.S. circles are toying with the idea of sending 500 American bombers against bases and gities in Cuba...
The Cuban people. are ready to meet all alone the shock of
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these aggressions, They are ready to lay down their lives. in order to defend their Revolution, But it is the duty of the international workers movement to break all the attempts to isolate the Cuban Revo- Lution!
The. struggle between Washington and Havana is not a struggle for or against “representative democracy"; anyone who might still be uncertain about this should at least draw the obvious conclusion from what happened in Brazil! It is a struggle between the economic and social status quo, which involves semislavery for millions of inhabitants in the countryside, which involves intense poverty in. slums at the side of shameful waste of wealth by billionaires .in Hollywood palaces, and a social revolution which in itself bears the hope for well-being and progress for the most oppressed of the oppressed, for millions of the hungry, Negroes without rights, | Indians hold down for four centuries, In this struggle, the duty of every.socialist, of every person in favor of progress, is to take up the cause of the Cuban Revolution without any hesitation, to defend the Cuban socialist Revolution against any foreign intervention, to display toward this Revolution the same solidarity. which everyone showed with regard to the Spanish people during-the Civil War,
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WHAT THE SOCCER GAME IN LIMA