[illegible] peasants and youth in country after country, and has raised the red flag of revolution at last in [illegible] European society [illegible] compared to 1917. [illegible] change are turning in [illegible] from the orthodox social democratic and communist [illegible] and are following new prophets: Che, Fanon, [illegible] X, Debray; [illegible].
[illegible] has been extraordinarily rapid and deepgoing it has taken a simple democratic national revolution, under a leadership which understood only the need to overthrow the Batista dictatorship, and directed it toward the overthrow of capitalism in Cuba and encouragement and aid to other third world countries to do likewise - most strikingly exampled by the sacrifice of Che Guevara.
That such would be the development of the Cuban revolution was, perhaps, the last thing that European revolutionaries expected ten years ago. The friendly attitude of the US Government to the new regime seemed to indicate that it was little different from the other liberal petit-bourgeois governments that had been taking over in various sectors of the third world, and subsequently selling their nations to imperialism.
Thus when the revolution rapidly deepened, when reactionary elements were thrown out of the government [illegible].
It is possible to question whether [illegible] because the Cuban leaders started with this [illegible], and were prepared to take up an unrelenting armed struggle against imperialism, that they were impelled along the road of socialist revolution. Their determination and ability to learn rapidly from [illegible] brought them face to face with imperialism; without hesitation they took up the challenge and changed Cuba - and thus the world.
They have changed the world through the power of the living example of the Cuban revolution, through their contribution toward aiding the revolution in the third world, and by smashing many of the stalinist shibboleths which have held back that revolution in the past - myths like that of the "progressive bourgeoisie". As Fidel said to the OLAS conference: "And we ask ourselves if there is anybody, at this [illegible]".
In a recent speech commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the struggle for Cuban independence Fidel Castro made a very important statement. Discussing the evolution of the struggle, from the [illegible] of Cespedes and Jose Marti until his own victory, he stressed the fact that the whole hundred years of struggle had been part of [illegible] revolution, and these early struggles had been the necessary preliminary to the victory of the socialist revolution in Cuba; and that their significance lay in the extent to which they had fought for the most revolutionary programme of the epoch.
[illegible]
The message of the Cuban revolution is clear: [illegible] national liberation without revolutionary internationalism.
[illegible] the contrast between Cuba ten years after her revolution and the Soviet Union, where Stalin had consolidated his power ten years after 1917, is a great [illegible].