For a genuine revolutionary Harsist, it is not sufficient to determine that a position is "opportunist", ar "ultraleft", or "seotarian". The reason why sincera and intelligent revolutionaries can sometimes be found in any of the various blind alleys leading away from tha road
1h to socialism must be elucidated. Seoiological reasons may be found, such as ties to thea middle class or the preasure of 4a bureaucracy or caste. :
Even if the anslysis ia carried far enough to reveal these underlying sourced, & grain of truth may nevertheless be found lurking in their political positions. That is one reason why a figure of the stature of Lenin did not brugh aside sincere revolutionists who argued for a position he disagreed With. His len guage could be forceful - very forceful - of course, but he nevertheless engaged in a ressoned discussion and he did not hesitate to appropriate something of value in an opponent's position. In the hands of Lenin, proletarian democracy was a genuine revolutionary tool.
It was injurious to the Cuban Revolution to muzzle the Fosadas eroup. Blas Roca quotes from the "mimecersphed newepa er which was printed in Cuba by an organised Trotakyist group after the triumph of the of the Revolution with the assistance of Posadas and Adolfo Gilly." Ha does not mention that the newspaper was mimeogrspned because they were denied the use of a preaa. He does not add that even the mimeorraphed newspaper was put out of business through the arrest and imprisonment of those who produced and distributed it- Was the Suban Revolution so woak ideqlogisally that it was incapable of answering the arruments of even a Posadas?
it may have seemed troublesome to pay attention ta the"long, extrenely confused and at times incomprehensible" articles or reports ty J. Posadas which sonatitute tha san grist of hia small propaganda mill. Ko deubt there are youth in Guba, however, who might have liked to areus it-out with the followers of Posadas as & way of sharpening their own thought and advancing their revolutionary education. The overhead cost of suppressing the group waa rather high, for it gave substance to the false charge that the Cuban Revolution ia going the way of the Bussian Revolution;i-e. ie becoming Stalinized-
Particularly in the United States where Stalinism haa done untold damage to the revolutionary socialist cause, the suppression of the Fosadaa group did injury to Cubs. There were few campuses where the violation of the democratic rights of the Posadas group was not thrown at defendera of the Cuban Revyolution-
It is all the more brutally unfair of Blas Roca to tax the Fosadas group with unwarranted oriticisma of Fidel Castro in view of the unwarranted violation of democratic rights of thet groun- From their own experiance they r came to the conclusion that they had been civen 4 raw deal and there ara others who would agree on this, despite tha deepest repugnance for their political positions. The treatment of the Fosadas group demonetreted that as yet the Cuban Revolution has not aevrolwss institutional forma providing for the free expression of dissident oponion within thes fremework of loyalty ta the Revolution. This ia a greve weakness.
The mistake of the Socialist Labour League arises from the incapacity of ite insular-minded leadership to rectenise a revolution when they aee one. This ia quite a condemnation of their theoretical and political sapacitias and signifies their doom 4s 2 vieble.moevanant- But there ia ene kind of
revolution they would deign to recognize (we hope) if they saw it- That isa revolution that organised workera power through sovietsa (or councils) and followed the norms of projetarian democracy laid down by Lenin in State and Revolution» Since the Cuban Revolution hes not yet achieved soviets, the SLL denies that a proletarian power exists in Cubs. From this they deduce that capitalism gust still be in power, no matter what measuraa have been undertaken and mo matter what anybody says. They are, of wursa, mistaken. Their insistence on converting democratic nores into oriteria marks them as sectarians; and their opposition to Cuba's revolutionary government, despite its obviously tremendous achievements, shows thet they are ultreleftists like Poseadas» They are even lesa serious than Posades, however. Tha entire ecolonial world remains largely a closed book to them. They sre not really interested in it. They are quite content to vagetate in their placid little island where not even the cops carry guns- Periodically they announce grandjose plans atowt "reorganizing" the Fourth International and asving it fron the"degenersation"” Yrought about by such things as ita aupoort for the Cuban Revolution and the Castro team:
Nevertheless there is « kernel of truth in thair stiticism which must be recognised. Cuba dogs not yet have a soviet form of government- And this, too, 18 & grave weakness.
The sainstresm of the world Trotskyist movement has held since the beginning that the Cubm Revolution is inherently the most democratic sinoa the Getober 1917 Revolution in Russia. Hvidenoe for this abounded in the early Fears. The blockade and armed agerassion mounted ty imperialism cut seross thie tendeney and prevented it from flowering. For instance, the humanist Cuban leaders abolished the death penalty but had to reinstate it in face of the murderous forays and bombings organized by the Ouwban counter= revolutionaries Pinanced, armed and instigated by the CIA. Under the tightening grip of the imperialist blockade Cuba necesanrily took some of tha characteristics of a beleaguered fortress - mich is not exactly a greenhouge for the development and observance of the norna of proletarian demooracy- And still the Gubm Revolution remained remarks ly free of the buresusratic sickneas that wreeked auch havoc in the Joviet Union. When the buresucratic danger became acute in 1962, the fancua move ageinat Anibal Escalante and his cohorts was undertaken.
The Cuban leaders have indiested their awareness of the weakness in the Revolution on the side of political institutions and have expressed their intention pay times of moving shead in this field. They kara nade tentative experiments and haye registered real progress in the sonstruotion of the Communist party ef Cuba. But they still have a oonsiderable diatapve ta travel before it need no longer be said thet every important polioy hinges on the decisions and the life of a aingle leader. The slownesa of the process cf setting up demooratic institutions of proletarian rule in Cuba ia of concern to many supporters of the Cuban Revolution besides the world Trotskyist movenent.