released from prison. Posadas claims to be the head of the world Trotskyist movement, although in reality he split from the Fourth International several years ago; and his followers in Cuba have frequently been described as "the Cuban Trotskyists" because that is how they designate themselves.
While Posadas takes the entire front page of Voz Obrera to hail the release of his followers, he unfortunately provides few details about the circumstances of their arrest and imprisonment,
He states that his organization had "forecast" that its members would be freed "long before completing their infamous sentences of nine, six, five and three years..." The prediction was borne out, he notes, by the fact that they served only somewhat more than a year and a half.
As for the reasons for the sentences, Posadas says merely that "The Trotskyists were imprisoned in Cuba for reasons of political interest to the bureaucrats and the reactionary interests." ["Los trotskistas fueron presos en Cuba por razones de interés polftico de los burécratas y de intereses reaccionarios."]
Posadas offers high praise for the conduct of his followers in prison, "In the jails our comrades dedicated themselves to giving an impulse to the revolution, to raising the fighting capacity of the prisoners in defense of the Cuban workers state. They were in charge of courses on Marxism, Our comrades dedicated themselves to this activity with complete revolutionary passion, responsibility and objectivity to give an impulse to the revolution. They were fighting within the jail in defense of the worker's state and the world revolution. And they were prisoners of the leaders of the Cuban worker's state, Their conduct, their dignity and resolution, objective responsible activity (placed above personal concern and their struggle for freedom) in defense of the revolution, in defense of the Cuban worker's state, were factors of fundamental importance that won their freedom."
For some unknown reason, however, Posadas fails to mention their names and it is not even clear from his letter how many were involved.
The rest of the letter, which is a lengthy one, deals with © the significance of the event. As Posadas sees it, "The freeing of our Cuban comrades is a historic event, comparable to the great
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advanoes in the revolutionary struggles of humanity," ["La libertad de nuestros camaradas cubanos es un acontecimiento histérico, comparable a los grandes avances de las luchas revolucionarias de> ‘la humanidad,'] 7
‘The credit for correotly predicting the early release of the group goes to the head of the organization. Posadas himself makes this absolutely clear: "In the December 1964 letter from Comrade Posadas to the Cuban comrades, he said that soon the rise, the development of the world revolution would bring the release of the comrades from jail. The confirmation of these forecasts must serve the whole International to raise its spirits, its functioning, to harmonize and dynamically organize its activity and its objectives, "
In view of the importance of his April 235 letter, Posadas declares that "meetings. must.be immediately organized to explain and discuss this letter and its conclusions" and that it "must be published in the newspapers" of his grouping; and "a dynamic political offensive of activity by our parties in all parts of the world must be carried out,
: A more specific account of the arrests appeared in the January-February issue of the Spartacist, published in New York by James Robertson, who appears to have succeeded in establishing fraternal relations with Posadas or at least to have won ‘the confidence of some of his ‘followers,
The author of the article, who is not named, "was one of several supporters of the SPARTACIST who participated in the trip to Cuba last summer of eighty-four American students, in defiance of a_ State Department ban on travel to Cuba." This group spent two months in Cuba "making an extensive tour of the country, investigating the results of five years of the Cuban Revolution. During this time the author had lengthy interviews with Leon Ferrera, son of the imprisoned leader of the Cuban Trotskyists."
It is to be noted that the author of the article was able to travel freely and extensively in Cuba and to investigate what is listed as "repressive acts" undertaken "by the Cuban government," The atmosphere in Cuba, clearly, is less repressive than in the United States where the editor of the Spartacist correctly deemed it wise to hide the identity of the author of the article, ;
The arrests began in November 1963, according to the Spa tacist, when Andrés Alfonso was "arbitrarily ordered arrested" pas “the adm Tnistrator of the shop in which he worked. The arrest came after he distributed copies of Voz Proletaria "among his fellow worker's." Voz Proletaria is the paper published by the Posadas group in Cuba. The contents of the particular ; issue involved is not reported by. the Spartacist. .
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"Ploridia Fraga, the companion of Andrés, was arrested without charges at her home the night of December 1, 1965, after returning from a meeting of her CDR where she had denounced the arrest of Andrés and asked the Committee to solicit his immediate release...."
"The following day, December 2, 1963, when Ricardo Ferrara went to inquire about Floridia at the Fifth Unit of the CDR, he himself was seized and illegally ordered arrested."
These three “were held incommunicado for five months without any accusations or charges being placed against them..."
Finally in the spring of 1964 "they were taken from their prisons to a trial that was closed to the public."
The author of the article in the Spartacist, however, was able to ascertain the charges. These were: “"(1) distributing an illegal paper, (2) advocating the overthrow of the Cuban government, and (3) being critical of Fidel Castro." The sentences were two years each for Floridia Fraga and Ricardo Ferrara and five years for Andrés Alfonso, [Posadas lists only four sentences as indicated above, and says that the lowest sentence was three years, not two.]
‘Two more followers of Posadas were then arrested the same month. "Roberto Tejera was taken into custody when he went to inquire about his three comrades. Later, the police came to the apartment of Idalberto Ferrera, the General Secretary of the POR and editor of Voz Proletaria, and arrested him, again with no explanation."' They were brought to trial and found guilty "on the same charges as the others." "Roberto was sentenced to six years; comrade Ferrera was sentenced to nine years!" —
The author of the article in the Spartacist reported other items about the persecution of the Posadas tendency collected during the extensive investigation, For example: "While in Cuba some of the students spoke with another comrade from Guantanamo City, who had been fired from his job by the factory administration because he was a Trotskyist." .
During the investigation, according to the S artacist reporter, the students met with Che Guevara and one of them asked the Cuban leader "concerning the jailed Trotskyists, if it would not be better if political criticism in the framework of unconditional support and defense of the Revolution, should be handled politically, rather than. by suppression of views." In the ensuing discussion, Guevara is quoted as raising the question of the loyalty of "the Cuban Trot-" skyists" and their record in the revolution.
. The students also took up the question with Blas Roca, an old-time leader of the Cuban Communist party, and apparently had a lengthy discussion with him on points related to the position of the”
Cuban Trotskyists during the past thirty years. Blas Roca, of course, gave a Stalinist version. |
The. author of the article was very favorably impressed by Leon Ferrera, "son of the imprisoned Genéral Secretary and editor of Voz Proletaria..."
"we spoke with Leon and other comrades of POR in his small apartment in a workers! district of old Havana. His father had received his nine year sentence only about three weeks before we had arrived in.Cuba and he was not sure just when he and the rest | of his. comrades would also be arrested. Sitting there in his Militia uniform he looked very much tinside! the Revolution. When questioned about the repressive actions taking [sic] against his father and the other comrades, he was primarily concerned that, aside from the discredit to the Cuban Revolution by these Stalinist tactics, the arrests represented a very serious threat to. the advance of the Revolution, He explained that all of the Trotskyists! criti- .cism had only one purpose -- to strengthen the Revolution and correct its weaknesses already manifesting themselves."
The author of the article holds that a kind of "cat and mouse’ game was played with the followers of Posadas. "Some of the Trotskyists were detained and released several times before their final arrests; while three were being held for months without charges or any sign of release, their modest press was permitted to continue publication." This is an “indication of the variety of powerful forces acting on the Cuban leadership and elements within it, that prevent it from acting as a unified and free agent."
. It appears that during the investigation, the author inter-— viewed Robert Williams, who went into exile in Cuba after he was framed up on kidnap charges by racists in North Carolina and the FBI launched a nation-wide manhunt for him. Williams apparently talked quite freely with the Spartacist reporter and said that at | one time his "Radio Free Dixie™ program had been stopped for several weeks due to pressure from "a group of expatriate American Stalinists residing in Cuba." ©
In the opinion of the author of the Spartacist article, “These repressions are a manifestation of a distinct shift to the right by the, Cuban leadership, adopting the 'peaceful coexistence! line, with the corresponding strengthening of the most conservative, conciliatory trends and forces within the Government, represented generally by the sector made up of the leaders of the old PSP (Cuban Communist party) and a whole layer of new elements in the adminis-~ tration. Poo
. "Tt is a rule in the class struggle that a shift to the right by an organization or a government is generally accompanied by an attack on its left...."
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"The suppression of the Cuban Trotskyists marks a dangerous milestone in the development of the Cuban Revolution."
Since the logic here is strikingly close to that of Posadas himself, it is reasonable to assume that the Spartacist would now agree with him that the release of the prisoners constitutes a "historic event, comparable to the great advances in the revolutionary struggles of humanity." In other words, it is an immense milestone in the progress of the Cuban Revolution,
Is it possible to arrive at a more balanced judgment?
_ However solidly "Trotskyist" the author of the article in the Spartacist considers the ideas of Posadas to be, their main characteristic is a strange imbalance fortified with a megalomania that has increased in proportion to the decline of the group in Latin America since it split from the Fourth International. The axis of the Posadas position is that Moscow should engage in a preemptive nuclear strike against imperialism in order to clear the ground for "socialism." It is a position not well calculated to win a sympa~ thetic hearing in the besieged fortress of Cuba where the main source of material aid is the USSR. It obviously lends itself singularly well to the frame-up methods of alumni from the school of Stalinism, Precisely because Posadas presents his views as "Trotskyist" and his cult as the "Fourth International," he has provided a most convenient straw dummy for the use of the Cuban Stalinists in their attacks on the Trotskyist movement. That they find it necessary to engage in such attacks testifies to the influence of genuine Trotskyism in Cuba and the attractiveness of its program to the sincerely revolutionary Cuban vanguard,
There is thus a grain of truth in the contention of the author of the Spartacist article that the ups and downs of the Posadas group offer a certain reflection of the play of some big contending forces in Cuba, But these forces do not follow the lines visualized by the Spartacist. Particularly mistaken is the Spartacist view that Castro would like to sell out the Cuban Revolution to the White House. (The Spartacist has the temerity to cite as "evidence," an interview in the New York Times in which Castro's views were either garbled or deliberately distorted, as was proved at the time.) [See the article in the July 31, 1964, World Outlook, "What Castro Really Said in that Interview with the New York Times.”
The main flaw in the Spartacist'!s. line of reasoning is not difficult to. locate. If the arrests of the Posadas group began “Naround the time of Castro's trip to the Soviet Union, where he agreed to support the Russians in the Sino-Soviet dispute in. exchange for the vital stable sugar price," thus making "a shift to the right" that was accompanied by an attack on the left, in the view of the Spartacist, how is the freeing of the group to be explained? Some new trip? This year's huge success in sugar pro#
duction? A reversal.of position in the Sino-Soviet dispute? Or perhaps Castro was converted to the views of Posadas or Robertson?
The question is less involved. It would seem that the struggle conducted in many fields by the Fidelista leadership against the growth of bureaucratism in Cuba has yielded at least some results, Among other things, a miscarriage of justice in relation to the Posadas group was rectified and the Cuban Revolution became that much the stronger.
It is unfortunate that in fulfilling the need to celebrate the prophetic prowess displayed in "the December 1964 letter from Comrade Posadas," Posadas failed to see any need to indicate the circumstances of the release of his followers. Apparently he regards even their names as unimportant or irrelevant. A few facts would have helped clear up the case and would have provided a welcome check as to the accuracy of the Spartacist. Thus it still remains difficult for those genuinely interested in the case, and not in using it as a factional football, to determine how much the Stalinist or bureaucratic factor was involved, how much was due to possible errors committed by the followers of Posadas, how much might be ascribed to blanket security measures in which the Cubans openly admit that injustices have occurred, as at the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion,
Posadas, we repeat, says not a word about this in his historic April 25 letter. However, the Spartacist may be able to make up for the lapse through a follow-up article. Robertson obviously enjoys the confidence of the people who organized the student tour to Cuba last year. Perhaps he can manage a repeat trip. And there is no question, as the Spartacist itself proves, that once in the free territory of revolutionary Cuba, quite stern critics of the government are granted considerable opportunity to carry out investigations in what would be a highly sensitive area in all the other workers states.
Even in the absence of fuller and possibly more accurate details, however, it is clear that despite the pressure of imperialism, despite the strain of the blockade, despite the immense and continuous danger of military invasion, despite the weight of the bureau-~ cratic elements, acknowledged by Castro himself, the democratic tendency runs very deep in the Cuban Revolution.