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Castro Challenges
Moscow Line
at OLAS
At Havana Press Conference
@ e The Wuhan “Kidnapping” e Mexican Witch-Hunt Case e Evolution of the China Crisis
New York, N. Y. 10010. 1
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CASTRO CHALLENGES MOSCOW LINE ON LATIN-AMERICAN REVOLUTION
By George Novack
Standing under a gigantic portrait of Che Guevara in the Chaplin Theater in Havana, August 10, Fidel Castro upheld the revolutionary line of armed struggle for power in Latin America in opposition to the conciliatory course predicated on "peaceful coexistence" pursued by the pro-Moscow Communist parties. His momentous address climaxed the historic sessions of the First Conference of the Latin American Organization of Solidarity (OLAS) held July 41 to August 11.
The conference adopted a general resolution holding that armed struggle is the main means of combatting imperialism and making the revolution. It was submitted by Comandante Nestor Valle of the Rebel Armed Forces of Guatemala.
Castro declared on this point that although some revolutionary movements had erred through impatience or inadequate preparations, "armed struggle is fundamental. This does not mean that a rifle has to be taken up immediately regardless of place and circumstance. We are convinced that armed struggle is inevitable, even in countries where it is not now possible. It is only a question of order in time."
Castro ruled out the possibility of a peaceful, parliamentary road to power in the Americas. "We have heard a lot of discussion on the value of peaceful and non-peaceful means," he said. "I say this is a Byzantine argument. It is a dialogue between deaf people. We believe that power in Latin America cannot be peacefully conquered. How could that be possible when the possessing classes control the entire apparatus of power?"
According to Marcel Niedergang, correspondent for the French newspaper Le Monde in Havana, Castro was reported in private conversation to have compared the right-wing Communist parties to Olympic teams which were trained for the 1924 games but have to enter the competition in 1967.
The Cuban Premier appealed for a "living Marxism." He remarked, "It must be said that even Marxist literature will have to be renovated. There is a 'Marxist' phraseology which can barely be distinguished from the rosary and catechism of the Church."
Castro castigated those so-called revolutionists who continue to prate about an allegedly revolutionary role of the national bourgeoisie.
He also criticized the agreements on economic and technical aid recently concluded by the Soviet Union and other East European governments with certain counterrevolutionary anti-Cuban oligarchic regimes in Latin America. "We are not opposed to commercial relations between socialist and capitalist countries. But if solidarity is not an empty word, the least that we can ask the countries of the socialist camp is that they do not give assistance to those nations which are accomplices to the American blockade of Cuba.
"Me Venezuelan CP would like to provoke a rupture between the Cuban revolution and the countries of the socialist bloc. We will not submit to blackmail. We will go forward prudently, without abandoning our revolutionary integrity, for, confronted by a powerful enemy, interdependence is important."
With Stokely Carmichael by his side, the Cuban leader asserted that the uprising of the black victims of oppression betokened the revival of the revolutionary movement in the United States. A coming together of the revolutionary currents among the blacks and the Cuban revolutionists was wholly "logical and natural," he said. The conference set aside August 18 as "a day of solidarity with the black people of America" to commemorate the 1965 uprising in Watts.
In speeches at the conference, delegates from the Democratic Republic of North Vietnam gave wholehearted support to the Cuban positions and particularly hailed their decision to make armed struggle the axis of revolutionary strategy for Latin America.
A structure was set up for more efficient coordination of the antiimperialist struggle on a continental scale.
The OLAS resolutions and the Cuban Premier's uncompromising declarations stand out in sharp contrast with the less consistent positions taken eighteen months ago at the Tricontinental congress and with the unwarranted attack on Trotskyism Castro made at that time.
The explicit and decisive demarcation of the Cuban leadership from the opportunist policies championed by the Kremlin and its followers opens up bright new prospects for the more vigorous promotion of the struggle against imperialist domination and capitalist-landlordgorilla rule in the Western Hemisphere. It should accelerate the regroupment of revolutionary forces throughout Latin America.