French Revolution, who was condemned to the guil- ‘lotine in 1797. The Turkish prosecuting attorney demanded sentences of from seven to fifteen years in prison. The judge will hand down his verdict next month.
CASTRO'S REBUTTAL TO PRESIDENT FREI
[Two developments «in the Cuban political scene continue to trouble sincere defenders of the Cuban Revolution -- Che Guevara's disappearance from public life together with the continued silence | about him, and the Stalinist-type attack made by Fidel Castro last’ January 15 against "Trotskyism." What is feared among these partisans of the Cuban Revolution is that the two happenings might. prove explainable only in the light of a great shift by Fidel Castro away from a revolutionary course.
[Other disquieting facts are noted indicating the strengthening of bureaucratic tendencies in Cuba due to multiple causes extending © from the imperialist. blockade, the reign of scarcity and resulting scramble for special privileges, to the Stalinist influence of Moscow and the capitals of Eastern Europe. In Latin America a series of defeats of revolutionary movements have occurred, particularly the..one in Brazil in April 1964, which must affect morale. Two. questions therefore, arise: (1) Ts not a rightward drift occurring in Cuba internally? (2) ‘Isn't this reflected in the field of foreign policy?. hia ot,
[The ultralefts donot ‘stop. here. The theoreticians of the | Socialist Labour . League in England, for. ‘instance, . maintain that their view has been confirmed that a workers ‘state was never established in Cuba, that Castro heads a "capitalist" state and is seeking ways and means of "betraying" to tre State Department. The Latin-American Posadas group argues that.Castro has gone over, lock, stock and barrel, to the line of . “peaceful coexistence," that he has reduced Cuba to ‘being little more than a satellite of Moscow, and that Cuba is not far from being as undemocratic as the East European countries. As hard evidence, these-ultralefts | point. to the Tricontinental Conference. Adolfo Gilly, who reflects the views of Posadas on some questions, contends that it was "a conference without glory and without program." Michael Banda of the SLL claims that its "main purpose" was "to provide a safety-valve for middle-class charlatans like Cheddi Jagan and upper-class demagogues like Allende to blow off steam against imperialism, neocolonialism and what—have-you.'
[World Qutlook has published the well-reasoned answer of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International to Castro's slanderous attack against Trotskyism as well as the strong statement of the editors. of the Monthly Review on this subject. World. Qutlook has also indicated its agreement with the. editors of the Monthly” Review on the injury done. the cause of the Cuban Revolution by the. continued’ silence concerning Guevara. However, World Outlook has° ‘at the same_ time insisted on.the need for more. substantial evidence . before | coming: to such sweeping conclusions concerning Castro's major policies as. those deduced by the ultralefts from their long-held concepts of the character of the state in Cuba and the political outlook of its principal figure.
. [In seéking conelusive proof as to whether or not Castro has made amajor shift, one of the areas to watch is Chile, as World Outlook pointed: out. ‘during the strike of the copper miners there. See our March 25 issue.) Castro's March 14 remarks on the Chilean revolution, which we published in our: last issue, were thus of considerable interest from this point of view. There was no indication in this: speech of any major change in foreign policy as compared, for instance, with the line expressed in the Second Declaration of Havana. Castro specifically spoke of the need for socialist revolutions:in. Latin América as against the concept of revolution by stages. (This con¢ept;. promulgated by Stalin, : holds that first:comes a bourgeois- -democratic. revolution.in which the bourgeoisie. play a progressive. role in’ the underdeveloped areas of the world, and only after that...The "after that" turns out to.be a catastrophe as in the recent éase of Indonesia.) Castro also attacked the concept that "peaceful coexistence"; i.e., giving up the class struggle, offers — any road to a socialist victory.
{This particular speech by Castro, in which he expressed solidarity with the striking copper miners, was at once attacked by President: Frei of Chile (March 14). The American bourgeois press gave front-page publicity to Frei's attack, although they did not provide the complete text. When Castro offered a