revolution.
its choice.
ple, military action seemed imminent.
of Cuban foreign policy.
'Tension has slackened off since,' he adds, 'but we would be irresponsible if we did not our entire people mobilised and in military train. ing to repel any aggressor.
L CitOr tation. But it is not our choice.' Imperialist aal cosil. mobilisation, revolutionary rise negotiation: These are the key words around which the Cuban leadership's foreign policy now developing.
First, a popular mobilisation, deper and more widespread than we have been used to during this revolution. An internationalist MODusa. tion, solidarisinge struggle Central American revolutionaries, Cuba is living through the daily experiences of Guatemala. There is not a workplace assembly nor a meeting of the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution where the situation there is not discussed. Combat 'Our future is at stake here as in plained Cuban Minister recently. "Their struesie ours, the placards and posters, often clumsily designed, which can be seen on the walls of the workshops and offices. It is an internauonaisi mobilisation, but it is also in defence of the revolution: the workers' state and its gains.
The decision to constitute "territorial militias' taken at the end of 1980 and ratified by the Communist Party's 2nd Congress, has received wide supTens of thousands DULL. workers have 'detachments' In workowces. devoted much of their holidays to military training and collected money ior their own arms.
In Havana. each CDR has set up 'evacuation committees' house by house, street by street. Exercises are held regularly and everyone knows what to do in case of attack. Those who have lived through dramatic moments of 'missile crisis' of 1962 seem unanimous in thinking that this mobilisation is at least as big.
twenty Washington's aggressive attitude to us has never slackened. From the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, to the economic blockade, the list of attempts to isolate or destroy us is long. Imperialism has never accepted the Cuban people's decision to adopt the social system of But, with the triumph of the Nicaraguan revolution and the successes of the Salvadorean peothis hostility has surpassed itself. Last October, The speaker was still adolescent when Fidel Castro entered Havana in 1959. A cadre of the Cuban Communist Party and a member of its Central Committee, he is one of those today contributing to the elaboration But it is more structured and more confident.
Now that the revolution has celebrated its twenty-third anniversary, such facts many others — are proof of the the of politicisation and of large sections of the people, ana or me lnks wnieh involve the Castroist leadership with the masses. are of confrontation awaits Rafael the recently told French agency. The Cuban leaders are convinced the military aggression tneir islana ls greater inan al any time since the 1960s They fear this not only as a response to the revolution in Leilra deep down, an adventure by the Reagal dumnst anion. m tnel most eyes this is 'the most consermost reactionary and the most SCELOI American bourgeoisie.
sector which reacts to problems and events fashion, WIELM seem to have prepared in advance by pseudo. ideologues blinded anu-communism.
'problems' right now. Internal problems which leaders follow from close up -and international problems.
Particularly
them Tne economic crisis parent solution. accelerated re. armament and - regionally LITC military Salvador and Central America In their view this escalation, if it continues, can only lead to a geographical escalation.
nat entalt maared ey national (ClileAl among numerous explosive local situations - from Southern Africa Fidel Castro and Mexico's President Lopez Portillo enthusiasm calm and wellRodriguez press risk against They ical.
the ll ls a 'in a mechanical they think reponses perialist been with their is meeting shows this fear justitied. the Cuban The fears and disturbing for combination without ap- blems' openly, EI informal' escalanivl the Soviet marked of the Raul Castro and Kosygin in Mexico to the Middle East, for example that any imadventure Ialvinas/ raiklanas years, unCuban leadership's worries cannot be dissociated from their growing concern with the 'accumulation SoCsL cainD :
This is a subject whict no Cuban official will discus:
but from 'friendly and exchanges and 'small phrases' the indications are principles The chronic difficulties of economy, the massive indebtedness of most tlon 'socialist countries' disturbs the Cubans: what will the long term effects be on the put out by against high Fidel's, military wards. ai C divergence Union aid — still vital — which Russia gives the Cuban economy?
Moscow's entrenchment in Afganistan worries them too *The Russian losses are heavy: they will have to fight there for Conac heard delivered in critical tonBut above all it is Poland that concerns them On this there is an official position. It is a position whict of nas cen one watce dru re mains very discreet. It insists on the fact that the present situa tion is 'above all the product of the incorrect application of the of MarxismLeninism' but, in essence, it re mains - without any equivoca- a position of support for Jaruzelski.
But many questions are bethrough their jobs, hase access asked those who, to olner inrormanon Wall Wlal the Russian Tass reproduced areny. liberally by Prensa Latina and the whole Cuban press.
'One cannot build socialism with the majority of the people you, commented functionary in the Ministry of Foreign Relations.
old friend recalled convinced that if the Soviet had intervened the Yankees would have intervened directly afterIn spite of everything, Jaruzelski is the lesser evil.
Around these questions there is, obviously, a discussion at the heart OI Ine Cuban leadership. This is a strictly internal discussion and its limits obvious: any major the Soviet whose massive aid Telephone 01 226 0571 Open 10-6 Mon Tues Sat; 12-7 Wed; 11-7 Thurs Fri Sandino's Daughters Margaret Randall £4.95 pb Zed Press Your Job in the Eighties: a woman's guide to new technology Ursula Huws £2.50 pb Pluto Under the Eagle Jenny Pearce £3.50 pb LAB Mail Order Service - add 20 per cent for p&p Orders to: The Other Bookshop PO Box 50 London NI and military support have been determining factors in the sur vival of the revolution in the face of imperialist aggression — is a priori excluded.
'To the extent that we are pursuing the same historical objectives... there is and will be a broad coincidence betweer Soviet foreign policy and Cuba's, ' writes Carlos Rafael Rodriguez in an important arti. cle buonsnea in tne mrst carlol Cuba Socialista, the new theoretical review of the Cubar These limits having been established, a further point can affirmed which commented on as soon as international questions are discussed: the Cuban revolution 'must not only have an independent foreign policy, it must have its own policy to use Rodriguez's formula in the article already quoted This is the first time that this theme has occupied such a position and the first time it has been so clearly enunciated since the 1970s, that is, since Soviet influence began to weigh so heavily on the revolution.
'Although Cuba is disposed to subordinate its national in terests permanently to those of socialism as a universal aspiration, this does not and canno!
nean that our foreign polic win us owi oo ecuves. culki subordinated to the policies of SOCIESY Sulc, writes Rodriguez It would be wrong to see only rhetoric in these arguments.
Ón such vital questions as Cen tral America or relations with and on many others, Cuban desire to develop "its own policy' is more and more perceptible Nicaragua: The San. dinista Revolution Henri Weber f2.95 pb Verso The Triple Struggle Audrey Bronstein £3.00 pb WOW Women at Work A Workers Educational Ass'n Book Chris Aldred £1.75 pb Pan Socialist Challenge 28 May 1982 page 11
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