• AUSTRALIA $2.00 • BELGIUM BF60 • CANADA $2.00 • FRANCE FF10 ICELAND Kr150 NEW ZEALAND $2.50 • SWEDEN Kr12 • UK £1.00 • U.S. $1.50 INSIDE Introduction to new edition of Che’s 'Bolivian Diary’ International Socialist Review — PAGES 5-12

OC TO B ER 10, 1994VOL. 58/N0 35. OCTOBER 10, 1994VOL.

‘Release U.S. occupation force Curtis from tightens grip on Haiti lockup’ now BY JOHN STUDER BY BRIAN WILLIAMS “ I am writing to you as General Secre­ With a 18,000-strong occupation force tary of the National Union of Minework- in place in Haiti, Washington is increas­ ers, the largest trade union in South Africa ingly asserting its control over this and Africa,” states Kgalema Motlanthe in Caribbean nation. The invasion, which his letter to Sally Chandler Halford, direc­ purportedly was set in motion to pave the tor of the Iowa Department of Corrections. way for the return of exiled Haitian presi­ “ It is with deep regret and horror that we dent Jean-Bertrand Aristide by October 15, have learnt of the case of Mark Curtis in has been conducted in close cooperation Iowa State Penitentiary. We ask you to re­ with Haiti’s military rulers — the very lease him from lockup and to investigate same thugs responsible for the reign of ter­ the nature of this latest verdict and his pre­ ror directed against H aiti’s workers and vious sentencing. peasants over the past three years. “ As someone who has spent eleven Under an agreement announced by U.S. years in prison and as General Secretary of president B ill Clinton September 18, a union whose members have also experi­ Haiti’s military strongman, Gen. Raoul Ce- enced long prison sentences, life imprison­ dras, is to step down from government as ment, and time on death row in the struggle Aristide returns. to free South Africa,” Motlanthe said, “ I While seeking to work closely with know the destructive and inhumane nature Haiti’s military forces, Washington’s plan of similar conditions. has been complicated by the deep hatred “ Mark Curtis’s ‘crime’ was being an ac­ felt by masses of Haitian working people tive trade unionist, defending workers’ toward the army and police forces. rights, and marching against police racism In Cap-Haitien, the country’s second- and for women’s equality. The same bat­ largest city, U.S. Marines shot dead 10 tles we have been fighting here in South Haitian military men September 24. Ac­ Africa,” he concluded. cording to U.S. officials, the incident oc­ This letter is one of hundreds that have curred after Haitian police officers pulled U.S. troops on patrol in Port-au-Prince September 24. The country’s second largest Continued on page 14 out their pistols in front of a crowd of Aris­ city, Cap-Haitien, is effectively under U.S. martial law. “I ’d say we’re the govern­ tide supporters chanting anti-Cedras slo­ ment now,” stated Marine Lieut. Col. John McGyre. gans, and raised them in the direction of U.S. troops in the area. According to the September 27 New York Similarly, when U.S. forces landed in Cuban gov’t Times, “ Cap-Hai'tien is essentially under the southern Haitian town of Jacmel, resi­ Haitian military flee after killings American martial law.” dents there responded by surrounding a Some 400 Cap-Haitien military person­ When U.S. Marines first landed ashore Haitian soldier and taking away his rifle. blasts H aiti nel fled after the killings. Hundreds of in Cap-Haitien, they took the town with a U.S. troops intervened to return the Haitian working people then stormed the massive display of military force. Cobra weapon to the soldier. police stations and army barracks. They helicopter gunships bristling with high- “ I think there is general confusion,” occupation threw arrest records into the streets and explosive rockets and 20-millimeter can­ stated an unnamed U.S. soldier deployed BY MARTIN KOPPEL marched through town displaying the nons circled overhead as amphibious ar­ in Jacmel to the Wall Street Journal. “ We weapons they had seized. The demonstra­ mored vehicles came ashore. Their first ac­ are not doing anything to deconstruct their The Cuban government has vigorously tors then sought out U.S. Marines on the tion was to disarm the Haitian military offi­ [the Haitian army’s] position in the coun­ condemned the U.S. invasion of neighbor­ scene to return the weapons to them. cers they encountered on the city’s main try.” ing Haiti. In a September 21 statement, “ I ’d say we’re the government now,” dock — only to be instructed by their offi­ In Port-au-Prince, the country’s capital, Cuba’s foreign ministry denounced the in­ stated Marine Lieut. Col. John McGyre. cers to return the weapons. Continued on page 3 tervention as a case of “ gunboat diplomacy, under the auspices of the United Nations.” The statement added, “ We firmly oppose this kind of flagrant intervention in the do­ Auto workers strike GM fo r more jobs mestic affairs of a sovereign state and alert world opinion to the dangers that actions of BY HOLLY HARKNESS that make up G M ’s Buick City complex Strikers reported that no union mem­ this nature represent to international peace AND CINDY JAQUITH September 27. bers were crossing the picket lines. But and security.” FLINT, Michigan — Nearly 12,000 The strikers are protesting the com­ dozens of foremen attempted to drive Radio Havana reported that in a Septem­ members of United Auto Workers Local pany’s refusal to hire more workers while through the line at the West Leith gate the ber 20 interview, Cuban National Assembly 599, the largest General Motors local in they impose massive overtime and murder­ first day. They were turned away by calm president Ricardo Alarcon stated that North America, walked out of the 25 plants ous speedup that is resulting in increased but disciplined picketers who maintained Washington’s “ real goal” is to “ organize stress, exhaustion, and injuries. a tight line throughout the day. Haiti’s future in concert with [coup leader GM has cut its U.S. workforce in order Several foremen waited in front of the Raoul] Cedras.” In this way, Alarcon was to be more competitive with Ford and Continued on page 14 Continued on page 4 Chrysler. One recent study showed that it takes about four GM workers per day to build one car, but only about three at Ford or Chrysler. The Buick City complex plays a strate­ gic role in GM ’s international production. One plant in the complex makes the torque converter used in transmissions for more than 80 percent of all cars and trucks GM sells in the United States and Canada. Many workers on the picket line said they were working six to seven days a week and nine to 12 hours a day. They said the speed on one line increased recently from 65 to 77 cars per hour. “ You can’t even leave the line to get a drink of water,” said one UAW member. “ We have more than 1,000 workers on sick leave," Dave Yettaw, president of UAW Local 599 told the press. "At some point organized labor has got to get off its Militant/John Sarge knees. We haven’t learned the lessons of Unionists picket G M ’s Buick City com­ our forefathers, that an injury to one is an plex in Flint, Michigan, September 27. injury to all.” Curtis describes prison life in ‘the hole’ — page 15 IN BRIEF

General strike waged in Algeria 50 percent of Brazilian loans, could de­ Tens of thousands of Berbers staged a mand immediate repayment from the general strike in Algeria September 21 as a Brazilian government under a 1988 agree­ show of force against the military govern­ ment. They have refused to join in a $52 ment. A two-week school boycott demand­ billion bank debt restructuring agreement ing the teaching of the Berber language reached in April. preceded the strike. An estimated 9 million The Dart suit is seeking payment of in­ Algerians speak Berber, about one-third of terest arrears. Washington, for its part, says the population. Organizers are threatening that a successful claim by the Darts would an indefinite strike if their demands are not undermine the “ voluntary restructuring of met. sovereign debt.” The one-day walkout underlined the sharpening of the struggle against the gov­ Honduran cops attack protest ernment of President Liamine Zeroual. Honduran police assaulted a demonstra­ Five main opposition parties are taking tion of 400 people protesting food price in­ part in talks with the government now. creases September 21, injuring 10 people. However, leaders of the Berbers have re­ The melee lasted four hours as the fused to join in since the government has protesters drove back riot cops and armed not committed itself to relinquishing soldiers with rocks and bottles. power. Prices for basic goods such as corn, milk, coffee, and eggs have increased by Lagos purges military officers more than 300 percent in the past three weeks. Honduran economy minister Nigerian military leader Gen. Sani A mother with her son, who is suffering from a recent outbreak of pneumonic Abacha fired 15 top armed forces officers Delmer Urbizo said the government would plague in India. Some 300 people have died. Survivors blame government poli­ introduce price controls and regulate the in a purge of political opponents. Associ­ cies, which subject working people to overcrowding, pollution, and filth. ated Press reported September 21. The 15 cost of basic goods. military commanders, who included some generals, had argued for a civilian govern­ Rally against Klan in Missouri when the explosion occurred. It was the intended to lay off 800 workers by the end ment. Some 25 air force officers have also More than 300 people gathered to country’s worst mining disaster ever. of the year. Skoda states that the layoffs are been reassigned, according to the govern­ counter a Ku Klux Klan rally September Officials from the state-run Philippine needed to become more competitive in the ment newspaper. Abacha recently routed a 17 in Clayton, Missouri, a wealthy suburb National Oil Co. say the miners hit a world market. The Czech-Moravian coun­ nine-week prodemocracy strike led by oil of St. Louis. The mostly youthful crowd pocket of methane gas. Some miners dis­ cil of trade unions said it would support the workers. Opponents were jailed, newspa­ booed the 14 racists as they stood at atten­ agree, blaming the blast on dynamite. unions at Skoda if the workers at the com­ pers shut down, and draconian decrees is­ tion holding U.S. and Confederate flags. pany’s main plant voted to strike. sued setting the regime above all laws. Students from John Burroughs and St. Japan’s seniority system to end Louis University high schools participated Ukraine facing social explosion Indonesia labor leader faces trial Japanese companies plan to eliminate in the demonstration. workers’ seniority rights and introduce a Ukraine, with the highest level of unem­ Workers from the Hazelwood Ford plant Muchtar Pakpahan, the leader of the In­ merit-based system, according to a report ployment in Eastern and Central Europe, is and several plants organized by the United donesian Workers’ Welfare Union, went issued by the Labor Ministry. In the past, approaching economic collapse, according Steelworkers of America were among the on trial September 19 on charges of incit­ Japanese capitalists have been able to re­ to a report by the United Nations Interna­ trade unionists protesting against the Klan. ing violent riots. The Indonesian Workers’ main competitive against their imperialist tional Labor Organization (ILO). Attempts Jim Turner, financial secretary of the Steel­ Welfare Union, the country’s largest unof­ rivals and sustain economic growth by to bring Ukraine’s economy into the world workers local at Cerro Copper, said, “ It’s ficial labor organization, led a struggle last keeping labor costs down while minimiz­ capitalist market have led to more than a important that we show that racism doesn’t spring protesting low wages and benefits. ing unemployment. This, the report says, third of Ukrainian companies firing 12 per­ go hand in hand with unionism.” The Indonesian regime, which recognizes promoted enthusiasm about work and im­ cent of their workforce in the past year. — MAURICE WILLIAMS only a progovernment union, has refused to proved staff training. But now, according More than 25 percent of factory managers acknowledge the Workers’ Welfare Union. to the Labor Ministry, this system is weak­ expect their enterprises to flop within a Becky Ellis, a member o f the Amalgamated Pakpahan could be jailed for as long as six ening due to the prolonged recession, the year, the ILO said. Clothing and Textile Workers Union in St. years if convicted. number of older workers, and the gains Louis, contributed to this column. women have made on the job market. Immigrant attacked in Germany Philippines blast kills 81 miners A 25-year-old man from Ghana was A methane gas explosion on August 29 Strike looms at Czech auto plant stabbed, beaten, and kicked off a moving killed at least 81 coal miners in Malangas, Czech workers are threatening strike ac­ commuter train in Germany by six rightist WHEN WRITING FOR a town 500 miles south of Manila. About tion at the Skoda Automobilova plant after thugs September 17. This was the latest in THE ‘MILITANT'... 170 miners were working underground the company announced September 20 it a series of attacks on immigrant workers. Whenever possible articles to the More than 30 people have been killed in Militant should be sent by electronic rightist violence since 1990. mail. German cops, as well as right-wing The M ilitant can be reached via goons, have been involved in brutalizing CompuServe at: 73311,2720 or via immigrants. Twenty seven German cops Peacenet at: themilitant. Internet were suspended in mid-September after email can be sent to: 73311.2720- being accused of beating foreign detainees. @compuserve.com or: themiltant A complaint was filed by the Nigerian gov­ @igc.apc.org ernment over 24 unexplained deaths of Articles that come in by E-mail Nigerians in German custody since 1991. save valuable labor time because they don’t have to be typed or Suit filed on Brazilian debt scanned, also making it less likely The U.S. government has stepped in to that errors will be introduced. So if oppose a lawsuit filed by the Dart family, you don’t have a computer with a which seeks repayment of $1.4 billion in modem and E-mail, ask a friend or Brazilian bank loans. The Dart family, a coworker who does to help you out. major U.S. investor that owns more than

U.S. bank, to above address. By first-class The Militant (airmail), send $80. Asia: send $80 drawn on a Vol. 58/No. 35 U.S. bank to 410 West St., New York, NY Closing news date: September 28, 1994 10014. Canada: Send Canadian $75 for one- Editor GEORGE FYSON year subscription to Militant, 4581 St. Denis, Managing Editor: ARGIRIS MALAPANIS Montreal, Quebec H2J 2L4. Britain, Ireland: Business Manager NAOMI CRAINE £36 for one year by check or international Editorial Staff: Naomi Craine, Hilda Cuzco. money order made out to Militant Distribution, Martin Koppel, Sara Lobman, Paul Mailhot. 47 The Cut. London, SE1 8LL, England. Conti­ Greg Rosenberg. Pat Smith, Brian Williams, nental Europe, Africa, Middle East: £40 for and Maurice Williams. one year by check or international money order made out to Militant Distribution at above ad­ Published weekly except for one week in De­ dress. France: Send FF300 for one-year sub­ cember and biweekly from mid-June to mid- scription to Militant, 8 allee Berlioz, 94800 August by the Militant (ISSN 0026-3885), 410 V illejuif cheque postale: 25-465-01-S. Paris. West St.. New York, NY 10014. Telephone: Belgium: BF 1,900 for one year on account no. (212) 243-6392; Fax (212) 924-6040. 000-1543112-36 of 1Mei Fonds/Fonds du 1 The Militant can be reached via CompuServe mai, 2140 Antwerp. Iceland:Send 5,000 Ice­ at: 73311,2720 or via Peacenet at: themilitant landic kronur for one-year subscription to M ili­ Internet email: 733 I 1.2720@compu- tant. P.O. Box 233, 121 Reykjavik. Sweden, serve.com or: [email protected] Finland, Norway, Denmark: 500 Swedish Correspondence concerning subscriptions or kronor for one year. Pay to Militant Swedish changes of address should be addressed to The giro no. 451-32-09-9. New Zealand: Send Militant Business Office. 410 West St., New New Zealand $90 to P.O. Box 3025, Auckland, York, NY 10014. New Zealand. Australia: Send Australian $75 Second-class postage paid at New York. NY. to P.O. Box K879, Haymarket, NSW 2000, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMAS­ Australia. Pacific Islands: Send Australian TER: Send address changes to the Militant, 410 $75 or New Zealand $100 to P.O. Box 3025, West St.. New York. NY 10014. Subscriptions: Auckland, New Zealand. U.S.: for one-year subscription send $45 to Signed articles by contributors do not neces­ above address. Latin America, Caribbean: sarily represent the Militant’s views. These are for one-year subscription send $65, drawn on a expressed in editorials.

2 The Militant October 10, 1994 London stalls on talks with Sinn Fein

BY RICH PALSER nity for a lasting peace,” he stated upon ar­ LONDON — British prime minister riving in Boston. He also plans to visit John Major visited Belfast September 16 New York; Washington, D.C.; Hartford, to promise a referendum in Northern Ire­ Connecticut; Detroit; Cleveland, Philadel­ land on any agreement reached in forth­ phia; and San Francisco. Adams, who vis­ coming talks between London, Dublin, and ited the United States on a two-day visa parties in Northern Ireland. In the same last February, had previously been barred speech, he announced that the British gov­ from the country for the previous 20 years. ernment was lifting the ban in the British media on direct transmissions of interviews Northern Ireland is artificial entity with republican leaders. Northern Ireland Responding to Major’s referendum an­ secretary Patrick Mayhew announced that nouncement, Adams stated, “ The six 10 border crossings to southern Ireland county statelet [of Northern Ireland] is an would be reopened. artificial and gerrymandered political en­ These moves come two weeks after the tity with an inbuilt and permanent Unionist Irish Republican Army (IRA) said it was majority. The British government’s im­ ending military operations. In a joint state­ posed veto based on this artificial majority ment known as the Downing Street decla­ is undemocratic and unacceptable.” He ar­ ration, London and Dublin said that Sinn gued that decisions on how to measure Fein would be allowed to participate in the popular agreement with the outcome of any three-way talks three months after the IRA talks should be part of those talks. committed itself to "democratic and peace­ “ The British government has enough to ful methods of resolving our political prob­ do governing Britain,” Adams said at his Boston press conference. “ The people of lems.” British soldiers in Northern Ireland. Slogan on wall was demand of thousands of Ireland have the intelligence, the w it, and In a speech seen as appealing over the demonstrators who marched in Belfast August 14 to call for end to troop presence. heads of rightist leaders, including Ian the right to govern themselves. But it is up Paisley of the Democratic Unionist Party, to the people of Ireland to decide, not the Major stated, “ Let me say clearly to all the umbrella group of rightist terror groups tion, Irish foreign minister Dick Spring people of Britain.” Adams also said that people of Northern Ireland — The referen­ that includes the Ulster Volunteer Force said that Sinn Fein, having committed it­ Sinn Fein is not interested in setting up a dum means that it w ill be your choice and the Ulster Freedom Fighters, ruled out self to “ democratic and peaceful methods,” Catholic state. “ We don’t want a situation whether to accept the outcome” of the a cease-fire until, among other things, they was “entitled in turn to respect for its where the Unionists leave,” he said. “They talks. He said the timing of the vote would had proof that no deals were being made democratic mandate, even if we don’t like have as much right to be on this island as I depend on when Sinn Fein renounced vio­ by London with the IRA, and assurance aspects of the politics they practice.” have.” Meanwhile, Irish prime minister A l­ lence permanently and on the rate of that Northern Ireland would remain within At the same time some senior Conserva­ bert Reynolds told reporters that moves to­ progress of the talks. Once the IRA assured the United Kingdom. tive Party politicians, including former wards a united Ireland could take 20 years the truce was “ in all circumstances, for all cabinet minister Norman Lamont, have or more. time,” the three-month clock would start. Rightist bomb attacks been campaigning for London to become He also advised Adams to cease sup­ The British government has maintained a A bomb planted by rightists was defused “ persuaders fo r the union.” Lamont threat­ porting direct action aimed at reopening military occupation of Northern Ireland for September 10 outside the home of Sinn ened a clash with Major at the forthcoming closed border crossings. Sinn Fein has the past 25 years. Fein councilor John Hurl. Three days later Tory conference. “'The problem has been been calling for civil disobedience to open Labour Party leader Tony Blair greeted two women were injured when a bomb par­ compounded by the British government’s the borders, and leading demonstrations Major’s announcement as a “ very sensible tially exploded in a railway station in cen­ portrayal of itself as a disinterested, honest demanding that British troops be with­ step.” Major's speech, made after consul­ tral Dublin. A statement issued by the Ul­ broker in the peace process," stated Lam­ drawn. “This is where we started from in tation with Ulster Unionist leader James ster Volunteer Force declared, “ This is a ont in an interview with the Wall Street 1961,” Reynolds said he told Adams. “ We Molyneaux, was generally welcomed by warning to the Dublin government that Journal. “This of course is impossible. No started from civil disobedience into vio­ Ulster Unionist politicians. However, Peter Northern Ireland is still British and will not government can be indifferent as to lence.” Robinson of the Democratic Unionist be coerced or persuaded into a United Ire­ whether a part of its country switches alle­ Party, said, "By lifting the broadcasting land.” giance.” Lamont, however, welcomed Ma­ Investment opportunities in Ireland ban, John Major de facto accepts the per­ Major faces increased pressure from jo r’s promise to hold a referendum. In another development, John Hume, a manency of the IRA cease-fire.” Dublin to accept the IRA cease-fire as per­ Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams began a leader of the Social Democratic and In a statement issued September 8, the manent and to involve Sinn Fein in the two-week tour of the United States on Labour Party, flew to Washington to meet Combined Loyalist Military Command, an talks. Speaking to the British Irish Associa- September 24. “ There is a unique opportu- with officials in the Clinton administration to encourage initiatives for investment in Northern Ireland. Irish foreign minister Dick Spring has already met with President U.S military tightens grip on Haiti Clinton and agreed that an international fund for Ireland should identify opportuni­ Continued from front page Washington projects its mission as one his followers. The Haitian president in turn ties for investment in the northern U.S. military police are stepping up their to aid Haiti’s downtrodden. In the Cite has been encouraging his supporters to ob­ provinces. road patrols throughout the city. At first, Soleil shantytown, U.S. troops delivered serve the occasion in a religious rather than Over the past 30 years, southern Ireland U.S. troops began accompanying Haitian leaflets saying that they were here to “ help political manner. However, a mass to be has attracted considerable foreign invest­ cops on "parallel patrols.” But increasingly you have democracy and to ease the suffer­ held in Port-au-Prince is expected to draw ment in manufacturing industry. By 1985 as Haitian military police are being met ing of all Haitians.” And after the first tens of thousands of people. foreign-owned firms employed two-fifths with jeers and protests by working people, week of occupation many Haitian workers Aristide stated that he would convene a of the work force in manufacturing and ac­ U.S. forces have assumed a more visible and peasants support the U.S. military session of the Haitian Parliament Septem­ counted for three-fifths of the output. military role. U.S. troops are even being presence. ber 28 to discuss granting amnesty to Geared towards the European Community, assigned to key police precincts in the city. Many Haitian working people have Haiti’s military rulers. they accounted for three-quarters of manu­ They’ve also begun offering from $50 to taken to the streets to welcome the U.S. While projecting U.S. military forces in facturing exports in 1988. These compa­ $300 for weapons turned in by October 25. troops while also raising political demands Haiti as fighters for democracy, the Pen­ nies are increasingly not only British but Washington’s plan is to restructure the in their fight for justice that they expect to tagon has detailed plans in place to put also U.S., German, and Japanese. They ex­ Haitian military force into one that can be promptly met. down what they term social unrest. port sophisticated products ranging from more effectively maintain order and defend A contractor for the State Department electronic equipment to pharmaceuticals. capitalist property relations. According to ‘Disarm the death squads’ recently told Nation magazine writer Allan Northern Ireland has attracted less for­ the New York Times, the leading candidate In the largest political demonstration Nairn that the naval task force now stand­ eign investment. In July, unemployment to conduct this retraining operation is for­ since the military seized power three years ing off Haiti has replaced its stocks of anti­ there stood at 13.1 percent, compared to mer New York City police commissioner ago, thousands of protesters marched armor weaponry with crowd-control gear, 9.2 percent in England, 9.3 percent in Raymond Kelly. September 24 in Port-au-Prince shouting, including shields, gas masks, and clubs. Wales, and 9.6 percent in Scotland. The U.S. military already trained large “It’s our time!” and “ Aristide has won.” sections of the current Haitian military Demonstrators carried signs saying, “ Dis­ Clinton gets Congress, UN support force, including Cedras and police chief arm the death squads.” Others chanted, Clinton’s military intervention in Haiti A note to our readers... Michel Francis. The CIA, for example, “ Handcuff Cedras” and “ Jail for the Ma- has won bipartisan support, despite some conducted courses in surveillance, interro­ coutes,” referring to the Tontons Ma- minor wrangling over how long U.S. This issue of the M ilita n t reprints gation, and weaponry for its "operatives” coutes, a thuggish paramilitary outfit set up troops should remain. the introduction to the soon-to-be- in Haiti. by the Duvalier family dictatorship, which Speaking before the United Nations released Pathfinder book. The B o li­ ruled Haiti from 1957 to 1986. September 26, the U.S. president an­ vian Diary o f Ernesto Che Guevara. Some in Haitian military worried The same day in the city of Gonaives, 60 nounced that Washington is lifting its eco­ In order to make it possible to run But today, many of the current members miles north of the capital, a group of about nomic sanctions against Haiti. He also this special feature by Mary-Alice of the Haitian military force are deeply 10,000 supporters of Aristide rallied out­ urged the UN to rapidly end its embargo. Waters, a number o f the columns worried about what the future holds for side army headquarters. The U.S. military says it has plans to that regularly appear in the paper them. “ You’ve been living on a block, ter­ In Le Borgne, a northern coastal town feed as many as 1.2 million Haitians a day. have been dropped for this issue. As rorizing the people, killing the people, and near Cap-Haitien, pro-Aristide demonstra­ According to the State Department’s well, several articles written by they know you," one such individual told tors seized control of the town on Septem­ Agency for International Development, worker correspondents for the M ili­ the London F in a n c ia l Times. “ Now, ber 27. Haitian military troops fled as various governments and other organiza­ tant on union struggles and other is­ you’ve got no power, no guns. They’re def­ protesters took control of police and army tions will provide Haiti with $1 billion sues that would have been in this is­ initely going to kill you." headquarters. The 20,000 people living in over the next five years. However, the sue w ill appear next week. Emanuel Constant, head of the right- Le Borgne, faced particularly heavy re­ biggest chunk of this — $375 million the With Washington’s stepped up wing paramilitary group Front for the Ad­ pression from the military after Aristide first year — is earmarked for debts in ar­ provocations against the Cuban rev­ vancement and Progress of Haiti w'as toppled in the September 1991 coup. rears, debt payments, and cash to meet the olution and the occupation of Haiti (FRAPH), now sees the U.S. military occu­ In Milot, another northern Haitian town, new government’s expenses. by U.S. military forces, readers of pation as a way to advance his own politi­ residents woke up September 26 to dis­ Taking a dismal view of Clinton’s ac­ the M ilita n t will appreciate reading cal career. He declared that 1994 would be cover the Haitian soldiers had abandoned tions in Haiti thus far, the London Finan­ the introduction to this new edition "the year of the ballot, not the bullet." their posts. cia l Times in a September 27 editorial of Che’s Bolivian Diary and gaining FRAPH as an adjunct of Haiti’s military Large demonstrations are expected wrote, “The administration is mired in a a greater understanding of the social­ rulers has tortured and killed countless September 30, the anniversary of the m ili­ foreign policy adventure in Haiti whose ist perspective he put forward in the workers, peasants, and youth who sup­ tary coup. The Clinton administration has outcome is at best uncertain and at worst fight against imperialist domination. ported Aristide. been urging Aristide to counsel restraint to disastrous."

October 10, 1994 The M ilitant 3 Pathfinder supporters organize to reach goals

BY PAUL MAILHOT the highest goal of any city for the drive, As we approach the half-way point of are beginning to organize for a Pathfinder the campaign to raise $125,000 for the Fund event at the end of October. In addi­ publishing program of Pathfinder Press, tion Kathryn Crowder from San Francisco supporters around the world are beginning reports that supporters of Pathfinder there to gear up to get the drive on track. Last are starting to make a broader effort to get week more than $6,000 came in bringing contributions from coworkers and friends. the total to $20,495. Already one member of the United Trans­ Supporters of Pathfinder are organizing portation Union has made a $50 pledge. a special push in a number of cities to One member of the United Auto Workers reach the goal of $50,000 on hand by Octo­ has also said he will make a pledge. ber 1. The scoreboard printed in next week’s issue of the M ilita n t will record Che’s writings in six languages how well we have done in this effort. Pathfinder’s newest book, The Bolivian “ We got started organizing right away,” Diary o f Ernesto Che Guevara, is generat­ explained Jon Teitelbaum from Philadel­ ing significant interest in advance of its phia. Supporters of the Pathfinder Fund in November 15 publication date. Advance that city are up at the top of the chart, hav­ orders for The Bolivian Diary have come ing already sent in 59 percent of their goal. from 21 campus bookstores in the United “ We first went to people who already un­ States, 6 bookstore chains, 14 independent derstand the importance of Pathfinder bookstores, and 7 U.S. book wholesalers. books for working-class fighters today. We Three inmates from one prison in Califor­ got everyone to make a pledge and started nia have sent in prepaid orders for the collecting on them. Now that we have book. The Bolivian Diary is one of more some momentum we can begin putting than a dozen collections of Guevara’s some energy into reaching out to workers works available from Pathfinder in En­ and students who aren’t as familiar with glish, Spanish, French, Swedish, Icelandic, Pathfinder, but would certainly help out and Farsi. with a contribution if they were asked.” A new printing of Labor’s Giant Step, Supporters of the Pathfinder Fund in by Art Preis, has just come off the press. Philadelphia make it a point to tell every­ Th is outstanding history of the rise of the one they meet at political events about the CIO ( Congress of Industrial Organiza­ fund. “ We made a pitch for contributions tions) brings to life the fight of the labor at a recent Militant Labor Forum and one movement to organize into powerful indus­ person who stopped by for the first time trial unions in the 1930s. It also takes the made a small contribution. We value that,” reader through the important debates of the Teitelbaum said. workers movement leading up to and after Supporters in Brooklyn are also doing World War II on independent working- quite well in getting in their pledges. class political action and labor’s attitude “ Every Saturday I call each person who has toward imperialist war. made a pledge to sec if they can make a A big push is needed now to get in payment,” said Amir Jamali. “ We have two $50,000 by the time the next scoreboard is goals now — to get $50,000 in by October printed. These funds will help meet the 1 and to go over the top of the $125,000 costs of Pathfinder’s extensive publishing goal by November 15. So we are trying to program of revolutionary and communist bring in the contributions that will help books. Please be sure to get in all contribu­ make those international goals.” tions to be reflected in the next scoreboard Supporters in San Francisco, who have by Tuesday, October 4, by 12 noon EDT. Cuba blasts intervention Continued from front page accord it reached September 9 with the reported as saying, the United States could Cuban government. In a September 21 in­ be getting involved in a process similar to terview with the New York Times, Alarcon that of the 1915 intervention, which lasted pointed out that the U.S. government had 20 years. agreed to grant residence visas to 20,000 Meanwhile, Washington is dragging its Cubans a year and that his government had feet on compliance with the immigration upheld its part of the agreement by ending the flow of Cubans departing for the United States by raft. “ The thing that is going to discourage people from leaving illegally is to give them a real chance to emigrate legally. And until now, I have not heard of one single visa that has been granted,” Alarcon said. Washington has for years severely re­ stricted legal emigration from Cuba while hailing all those leaving the island by raft. A rash of boat hijackings took place in Ha­ vana in July and early August. When the Cuban government announced August 12 it would no longer stop rafters, and thou­ sands of would-be emigrants took to the sea, the U.S. government began detaining Militant/Martin Koppel them at its base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Part of September 7 student rally of 70,000 at University of Havana in support of Washington also agreed to issue visas to revolution. U.S. government’s aim remains destruction of the Cuban revolution. some 19,000 Cubans it had already autho­ rized but who have been on a waiting list September 16 issued a scathing report on Guantanamo, discontent there has grown. for years. Few if any have received a visa. what they termed “ unacceptable" condi­ "We defied the ocean to leave Cuba and if “They have thousands of people who are tions: necessary, we will scale the fences to gain ready to travel now,” Alarcon said. “ All * The Cubans remain incommunicado, freedom, whether in Panama or the United they need is a stamp on their passports.” with no access to newspapers or television. States," said a spokesperson of the newly Cuban and U.S. officials are to meet U.S. authorities have refused to deliver formed Association of Cuban Rafters. again by October 24 to review the imple­ mail sent by relatives of detainees. Some of the detainees threatened to launch mentation of the accord. Some Cuban offi­ * About 300 Cubans have been put in a hunger strike. cials have indicated they are likely then to “ administrative segregation," punished for The Clinton administration is insisting formally challenge the sanctions imposed allegedly disturbing the peace or accused the Cubans will be kept at Guantanamo August 20 by the Clinton administration by authorities of having a prison record. Bay “ indefinitely” as part of its aggressive that restrict travel and cash remittances to * The hundreds of children detained in stance toward the Cuban government. U.S. Cuba. Miami-Havana flights are now down the camps — ranging from newborns to State Department official Richard Nuccio from about a dozen to only two a week. teenagers — are receiving poor treatment. clarified this position September 16, stat­ The situation at the Guantanamo deten­ They have lost weight due to inadequate ing, "Our goal of promoting a rapid and tion camps remains volatile. Over the past diet and suffer from diarrhea and fevers. peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba month a series of disturbances and clashes Some are traumatized, hiding in tents and should help us ensure that the safe havens with U.S. troops have erupted among many refusing to eat. The health of those suffer­ are temporary solutions to a real human of the approximately 30,000 Cubans held ing asthma and respiratory infections has problem.” there. Dozens have attempted to flee the deteriorated. “Transition to democracy” is Washing­ camps back to Cuban territory. Another 1,500 Cuban refugees arc being ton’s code phrase for its long-standing goal Four Cuban-American lawyers from M i­ detained at U.S. military bases in Panama. of overthrowing the revolutionary govern­ ami who visited the detention camps While conditions are not as bad as those at ment led by President Fidel Castro.

4 The M ilitant October 10, 1994 International Socialist Review SUPPLEMENT TO THE M I L I TANT/0 CTOBER 1994

New edition of 'Bolivian Diary' Socialist perspectives of Ernesto Che Guevara come alive for a new generation of fighters

Printed below is the introduction to the new English-language edition of The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara. The book will be available for distribution by its publisher, Pathfinder Press, on November 15. Copyright © Pathfinder Press, reprint­ ed by permission. Subheadings are by the Militant.

B Y MARY-ALICE WATERS Havana, Cuba. New Year’s Eve, 1958. Confronted by rapidly expanding popular support for the July 26 Movement and its advancing Rebel Army guerrilla columns, the military command directed by Washington-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista collapsed. The hated Batista, together with his govern­ ment ministers and henchmen hauling the last of their booty, scrambled aboard hastily prepared flights into ex­ ile. A general strike swept the island. As the new year broke, the first free territory of the Americas was born. Among the central leaders o f the new revolutionary government soon to be headed by Fidel Castro was Ernesto Guevara— a young Argentine doctor whose lead­ ership capacities, initiative and courage in combat, objec­ tivity in dealing with fellow fighters, and depth of politi­ cal understanding had won him the rank of commander in the rebel forces. Che, as he was called by his Cuban com­ rades, soon became one of the best known, most re­ spected, and most popular leaders of the Cuban revolu­ tion. He was hated and feared by the fleeing landlords, industrialists, and their Washington and Wall Street over­ lords. He was loved and emulated by the workers and peasants, who looked to him for leadership and in whose As Cuba's minister of industry Guevara visits factory in Pinar del Rio, 1962. Che challenged fellow fighters to capacities to remake the world and transform themselves stretch themselves to take on responsibilities they never dreamed they were capable of. in the process he had unshakable confidence. From the day in 1955 when he joined the July 26 Movement led by Fidel Castro until his death in Bolivia The overthrow of the Batista dictatorship in 1959 the landowners controlled 46 percent of the total area of twelve years later, Guevara’s life centered around one opened the door to the first socialist revolution in the the country. O f course, the proportion of hospital beds to single aim: to advance the fight of working people Americas. As the new government took initial steps to the number of inhabitants was ridiculously low com­ throughout the world to throw off the chains of imperial­ implement the revolutionary democratic program to pared with countries that have even halfway decent med­ ist oppression and colonial bondage, wrest political which it was committed— including rolling back rents, ical services. Public services, the electricity and telephone compa­ power from the propertied classes, and through the strug­ electricity and telephone rates; outlawing private beaches gle to eliminate capitalist exploitation and oppression be­ nies, all belonged to U.S. monopolies. A major portion and race discrimination in all forms; and organizing the o f banking, importing, and oil refining; the majority of gin the socialist transformation of society and of human­ peasants to carry through a land reform—the U.S. gov­ sugar production; the best land; and the most important ity itself. ernment began to retaliate. Acting on behalf of the industries in all fields in Cuba belonged to U.S. compa­ This book, Che’s Bolivian diary, records one chapter wealthy U.S. families who owned millions of acres of the nies. in that fight. best land in Cuba and virtually all major industry, Wash­ The balance of payments in the last ten years, from Long out of print in English, the diary tells the story, in ington sought to intimidate the new leaders into abandon­ 1950 to I960, has been favorable to the United States Guevara’s own words, of the effort he led to forge a fight- ing their program. When that proved unsuccessful, they vis-a-vis Cuba to the extent of $ 1 billion. This is without tried through accelerating political, economic, and m ili­ taking into account the hundreds of millions of dollars tary aggression to overthrow the new regime. extracted from the public treasury by the corrupt officials of the dictatorship and later deposited in U.S. or Euro­ Cuba demonstrated that a "When the revolution came to power, what did it pean banks. One billion dollars in ten years! This poor find?” asked Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro, address­ and underdeveloped Caribbean country with 600,000 profound, popular, socialist ing the General Assembly of the United Nations in New unemployed was contributing to the economic develop­ York in September 1960. ment o f the most economically developed country in the revolution could withstand world! First of all, the revolution found that 600,000 Cubans, This was the situation that confronted us. Yet it should able and ready to work, were unemployed— as many, not surprise many of the countries represented in this as­ U.S. im perialist pressures... proportionally, as were jobless in the United States dur­ sembly. For what we have said about Cuba is but an X- ing the Great Depression that shook this country, and ray view that could be applied to many of the countries which almost produced a catastrophe here. This is what represented here.2 we confronted in my country— permanent unemploy­ ing movement of workers and peasants that could win the ment. Three million out of a population of a little more battle for land and national sovereignty and begin the so­ than six million had no electricity, possessing none of its Course of revolutionary government cialist revolution on the South American continent. Pro­ advantages and comforts. Three and a half million out of The revolutionary government, Castro told the people viding a day-by-day chronicle of the eleven-month guer­ a total population of a little more than six million lived of the world as he addressed the General Assembly, had rilla campaign carried out in late 1966 and 1967 by some in huts, in shacks, and in slums, without the most mini­ forty men and one woman in a remote area of Bolivia, the mal sanitary facilities. In the cities, rents took almost diary is not only a powerful narrative of struggle against one-third o f family income. Electricity rates and rents 1. In 1958 the infant mortality rate in Cuba was 60 per 1,000 were among the highest in the world. great odds. More importantly, it offers an insight into the live births. By 1993 it had dropped to 9.4, the lowest in Latin practical activity, leadership capacities, and strategic Some 37.5 percent of our population were illiterate; 70 America, and lower than some urban areas of the United States. thinking of one of the outstanding communist leaders of percent of the rural children lacked teachers; 2 percent of In the same period average life expectancy in Cuba rose from the twentieth century. our population suffered from tuberculosis— that is to less than 55 to 74. say, 100,000 persons out of a little more than six million. Through the pages o f the Bolivian diary we also come Ninety-five percent of the children in rural areas suffered 2. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, To Speak the Truth: Why to understand more deeply the class character and weight from parasites. Infant mortality was astronomical.1 Life Washington’s 'Cold War' against Cuba Doesn't End (New of the Cuban revolution in the world today and the irrec­ expectancy was very low. On the other hand, 85 percent York: Pathfinder. 1992), pp. 39-40. This book is a collection of oncilable nature of its conflict with Washington and Wall of the small farmers were paying rent on their land of up speeches by Castro and Guevara given between 1960 and 1979 Street. to 30 percent of their gross income, while 1.5 percent of from the platform of the United Nations and its bodies.

October 10, 1994 The Militant 5 2/International Socialist Review O c t o b e r 1 9 9 4

was president of Cuba's National Bank during the crucial year 1960 when domestic- and foreign-owned banks were expropriated, along with most industries; and became head of the Ministry of Industry when it was established in February 1961. Guevara represented Cuba on many trips abroad, in front of the United Nations, and at numerous international conferences. He met often with revolutionists from other countries who were seeking to emu­ late the Cuban experience, dis­ cussing politics and helping them think out the practical tasks of preparing to advance along an anti­ imperialist and socialist path. In the thick of daily central lead­ ership responsibilities in the gov­ ernment, party, and army, Guevara also sought to lay a strategically ef­ fective and theoretically consistent programmatic foundation for the transition to socialism in Cuba. He collaborated with groups of Cuban workers and other revolutionary cadres to draw accurate lessons from the proletarian leadership’s initial efforts to reorganize indus­ trial production and administration and begin economic planning. He spoke and wrote extensively, and Workers carrying their union banners turn out for mass rally in Havana in October 1959 to support the revolution and condemn flights debated other currents in the work­ by counterrevolutionaries in U.S. planes. Cuba's revolutionary government earned Washington's hatred and fear because it remained ers movement inside and outside true to the working people of Cuba and around the world. Cuba who did not share his com­ munist views. The socialist road that Cuban one of two choices. It could remain true to the fighting than thirty-five years, Washington has used virtually ev­ working people set out on at the beginning of the 1960s workers and farmers of Cuba and their allies around the ery weapon in its arsenal—from diplomatic isolation to had been opened some four decades earlier by the Octo­ globe, thus incurring the enmity of the powerful neighbor sabotage, assassination attempts, economic embargo, ber 1917 revolution in Russia. Under the Bolshevik Party to the north. Or it could satisfy Washington, as all previ­ blockade, nuclear blackmail, and military invasion— to leadership headed by V.I. Lenin, for the first time in his- ous regimes had done, by protecting the prerogatives of try to destroy the revolutionary power of the imperialist-owned monopolies and their allied ex­ the workers and peasants ninety miles ploiters in Cuba. from its shores. To no avail. The new workers and farmers government had chosen the only course that could bring dignity and hope to mil­ lions of Cubans, begin to improve their conditions of life, Che Guevara was one of the most au­ and offer a beacon to toiling humanity throughout the thoritative representatives of the socialist world. revolution in Cuba. He was also one of its finest products. His understanding of the Workers and peasants mobilized in their millions world and his capacities as a working- Facing down the Yankee colossus, the workers, peas­ class leader were forged through the expe­ ants, and youth of Cuba mobilized in their millions under riences of the Cuban revolution. the leadership of the revolutionary government to carry ‘‘Wherever I am, I will feel the responsi­ out a program, elements of which had been proclaimed bility of being a Cuban revolutionary, and many times previously in Latin America, but which had I shall behave as such," he wrote in 1965 never before been carried through to the end. They imple­ in a letter addressed to Fidel Castro mented land reform and nationalized the banks and basic printed in this book. industry. They organized to eradicate illiteracy; to build During the first six years of the Cuban homes, clinics, hospitals, schools, and day-care centers revolution Guevara shouldered a broad throughout the island; to provide education and employ­ range of leadership tasks. “ Many were the ment for women; and to root out the institutionalized responsibilities assigned to him,” Castro racism that made prerevolutionary Cuba comparable to told a solemn meeting of hundreds of the Jim Crow South of the United States. They offered thousands in Havana in October 1967, one Members of Young Socialist Alliance hold a press conference in New solidarity and support to those fighting for national liber­ week after Guevara’s murder in Bolivia at York City on their return from a visit to Cuba in 1969. A new genera­ ation and socialism around the globe. the hands of a CIA-organized counterin­ tion of youth attracted by the power of Cuba's workers and farmers Along this line of march, the people of Cuba demon­ surgency unit. “ His versatile intelligence were won to communist movement in the United States and Canada. strated that a profound, popular, socialist revolution was able to undertake with maximum as­ could withstand U.S. imperialist pressures. Over more surance any task of any kind. Thus he brilliantly repre­ tory, the working class began to use its newly won state sented our country in numer­ power to start building socialism while fighting to ad­ ous international confer­ vance the world revolution. These efforts—from the ences, just as he brilliantly overthrow of the tsarist regime in February 1917 and the led soldiers in combat, just triumph of the Bolshevik-led workers and peasants gov­ as he was a model worker in ernment eight months later, through the end of Lenin’s charge of any of the institu­ active political life in March 1923— left an invaluable tions he was assigned to." legacy to revolutionists such as Guevara and Castro who Guevara was initially the later shouldered similar responsibilities as they continued troop doctor for the revolu­ and renewed the communist course. tionary forces of the July 26 The socialist revolution, as Guevara repeatedly ex­ Movement that opened a plained, marks the first time in history that expanding guerrilla front in Cuba's revolutionary consciousness and growing political domi­ Sierra Maestra mountains in nation by the working class becomes a necessity in order December 1956. By mid- to advance the economic organization o f society. The 1957 he was commanding a door is opened for working people to cease being the ob­ column of the Rebel Army jects of blind economic laws that determine their living as well as organizing Marx­ and working conditions and social relations, and instead ist education for its cadres. to begin placing the organization of productive forces un­ Following the victory in der their own conscious control. 1959 he served as head of the Department of Industry 4. The most complete selection of Guevara’s writings in En­ of the National Institute of glish translation are available in books and pamphlets pub­ Agrarian Reform (INRA); lished by Pathfinder Press, including Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution: Writings and Speeches o f Ernesto Che Gue­ 3. Fidel Castro’s speech of Oc­ vara: Che Guevara Speaks: Socialism and Man in Cuba: and tober 18, 1967, published as an Che Guevara: Economics and Politics in the Transition to So­ introduction to Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution: cialism by Carlos Tablada. Two other articles by Guevara, long Writings and Speeches o f out of print in English, are newly translated in issue no. 8 of the Ernesto Che Guevara (New Marxist magazine of politics and theory New International, a York: Pathfinder, 1987), pp. special issue on “ Che Guevara, Cuba, and the Road to Social­ 19-29. ism,” also available from Pathfinder.

The Militant October 10,1994 OCTOBER 1994 ISR/3

This is not just one way among others that might be economic questions and decisions during the transition to ble of. The library of 300-400 books the guerrillas ro­ used following a successful popular revolution to ad­ socialism was central to everything Guevara did as a tated among themselves for reading and discussion; the vance the transition to socialism. The most committed leader of the Cuban revolution. His experience had given study classes on political economy, history, mathematics, and self-sacrificing vanguard of the working people, or­ him infinite confidence in the capacities of ordinary Quechua, Aymara, and French; Che’s study of The ganized in a communist party, must lead growing layers working people to understand these questions in the pro­ Young Hegel and C apital— all are described in vivid de­ of their class in taking more and more control over the cess of taking control over their labor and their lives, and, tail here in the accounts by Inti Peredo and by Pombo, political direction and administration of the state and in fact, to become different human beings. both members of the general staff.* “ The objective Che economy. In carrying out whatever leadership task he To this end, Guevara set the example of consistent was pursuing was to raise our cultural level," Pombo was assigned, Che organized along a course that made it study and disciplined reading. He did so at the same time notes. possible for workers to transform themselves and their that he carried an immense political workload— including At the same time, he always made us see clearly that social and political consciousness as they collectively international travel, meetings with assemblies of factory even though war presented difficult circumstances, in transformed the social relations under which they workers, and frequent participation on days off in volun­ which one had to live under constant tension, neverthe­ less we could not let ourselves take an easy-going and conformist attitude that would have us put o ff study until later. We had to study right there in the guerrilla camp, he said, with an enthusiasm and determination equal to the way we confronted the vicissitudes and difficulties we faced. And one of the biggest such difficulties to overcome was precisely the one he sought to instill; the habit of study. The guerrilla unit was a leadership school in another way as well. As shown by many examples in his diary, Guevara considered the battle to develop proletarian norms of conduct and leadership relations among the

With the socialist revolution, expanding revolutionary consciousness and political domination by the working class becomes a necessity...

cadres of the unit to be a life-and-death question. The M ILITANT/JOSEPH HANSEN ability to work objectively and impartially with all and Delegates from revolutionary organizations throughout the Americas hear Fidel Castro address the Organization encourage the leadership potential of each man and of Latin American Solidarity (OLAS) conference in Havana, held in August 1967 while the guerrilla struggle in woman; civil discussion among those who held different Bolivia was taking place. The slogan, taken from the Second Declaration of Havana, reads, "The duty of every points of view; intolerance of any abuse of authority; in­ revolutionary is to make the revolution." tegrity in personal relations— these were indispensable characteristics of revolutionary leadership that Che worked, produced, and lived. He explained that this is the tary work mobilizations on priority social projects. He sought to instill. only way working people carrying out the revolutionary immersed himself in the literature discussing the most Rolando, another member of the general staff, a por­ process can make the new social relations more transpar­ technologically advanced industrial processes and au­ tion of whose diary is reprinted here, describes a political ent and direct and, at the same time, base these relations tomation in use in other countries. He learned the princi­ talk given by Che to the combatants. In it Che rebuked on human solidarity. It is the only way to tear away the ples of accounting and took classes in higher mathemat­ two of the Cuban volunteers for unacceptable behavior veils and fetishes behind which the capitalist system ics so he could help advance the application of computer­ but was especially hard on Marcos, who had previously hides the brutal consequences of its exploitation of work­ ization to economic planning and financial control in held important leadership responsibilities in Cuba. ing people and obscures the unique contribution labor Cuba. "Seven years of revolution had left their mark on certain makes to all social and cultural progress. He organized a weekly study group that systematically comrades,” Rolando quotes Che as saying. "He spoke of worked through the pages of Capital by Karl Marx. As how having chauffeurs, secretaries, and others working Key is political consciousness the references throughout his writings attest, he fre­ under them had made them accustomed to giving orders By the time the Cuban revolution conquered, the bal­ quently went back to the works of Lenin, Marx, and Fred­ and having things done for them.” Che insisted that Mar­ ance sheet of twentieth-century experience had demon­ erick Engels to deepen his knowledge and understanding cos change the “ insulting manner he employs," which strated beyond any doubt that society will not— and can­ of the history of the modern working-class movement and "undermines his authority.” not— advance toward socialism and communism along draw upon that experience to help chart the way forward There was no special status in Bolivia for the Cuban any other course. If it is directed down any other road, it for the socialist revolution in Cuba. volunteers, Che insisted, even though many had proven will become mired in bureaucratic planning and manage­ The example of Gue­ ment, fostering growing demoralization and alienation of vara’s seemingly inex­ working people from their labor. New privileged social haustible work to deepen his understanding of Marxism, and to combine that knowledge with con­ The road Cuban working crete experience to ad­ vance the fight for na­ people set out on had been tional liberation and so­ opened by the October 1917 cialism worldwide, was one of the attributes Cas­ revolution in Russia... tro pointed to in his 1967 speech commemorating Guevara’s life: layers will be spawned that ape the values and attitudes of the capitalist classes still dominant on a world scale. If we looked through W illy-nilly, revolutionists w ill be turned into accom­ the windows of his of­ plices of the law of value and its corrosive social conse­ fices. he had the lights on quences. They will begin, at first even unconsciously, to until all hours of the seek support and collaboration from petty-bourgeois lay­ night, studying, or rather working or studying. For ers at home and from bourgeois forces internationally, as he was a student of all they turn their faces away from the toilers of the world, problems; he was a tire­ who are humanity’s only salvation. Along this road, a less reader. His thirst for workers state will not only regress toward restoration of learning was practically capitalism but, as Fidel Castro put it in 1986, “ to a system insatiable, and the hours worse than capitalism.” he stole from sleep he de­ Recognizing the fundamentally p o litic a l character of voted to study.6 In the pages of Gue­ 5. Fidel Castro, “ Important Problems for the Whole of Interna­ vara’s Bolivian diary that tional Revolutionary Thought,” speech of December 2, 1986, in follow, as well as in the New International no. 6, p. 2 17. memoirs of his fellow 6. Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution, p. 26. combatants, this Che 7. In the early I960s some 75 percent of Bolivians were clas­ comes alive— the leader sified as indigenous peoples. Sixty percent spoke only Aymara of men and women who or Quechua dialects. Study of these languages, with classes taught by Bolivian combatants, was obligatory. French was a challenged all of them to voluntary course, taught by Che. expand their cultural hori­ 8. Extensive biographical information on all members of the zons and stretch them­ guerrilla column is provided in the book’s glossary, along with selves to take on responsi­ information on other individuals mentioned throughout the bilities they never book. dreamed they were capa­

October 10, 1994 The Militant 7 4/International Socialist Review O c t o b e r 1 9 9 4

Above: Guevara reading in guerrilla camp. Che sought to in­ still among fellow revolutionary fighters the habit of disci­ plined study. Top right: Part of guerrilla unit, including Guevara (second from right) and Inti Peredo (second from left). Inset: Bolivian guerrilla leader Inti Peredo, whose account of the struggle is included in the new Pathfinder edition. Right: Guevara (bottom right) with residents of a Bolivian farming village. themselves in combat and in various leadership assign­ of the Latin American revolution... . Fear that the plun­ demands for justice, of claims for rights trampled under­ ments and had been asked by Che to volunteer for the dered people of the continent will seize the arms from foot, which is beginning to sweep the lands o f Latin America, w ill not stop. That wave w ill swell with every Bolivian campaign. “ What I had in [Cuba] were not their oppressors and, like Cuba declare themselves free people of the Americas.9 passing day. For that wave is composed of the greatest friends, but comrades,” he said. “ Whenever I defended number, the majorities in every respect, those whose la­ someone in difficulty, I did so because it was correct, and Disavowing decades of subordination by the official bor amasses the wealth and turns the wheels of history. not out of friendship. Whoever is deserving here can have Communist and Socialist parties of the continent to vari­ Now they are awakening from the long, brutalizing sleep responsibilities and the opportunity to set an example.” ous bourgeois political parties and currents, the Second to which they had been subjected. Declaration of Havana boldly proclaimed the necessary For this great mass of humanity has said, “ Enough!” proletarian leadership and socialist character of the revo­ and has begun to march. As Fidel Castro pointed out in his 1960 address to the lution on the agenda throughout the region: United Nations General Assembly, the economic, social, ‘Cuba si, yanqui no!’ In the actual historic conditions of Latin America, the and political conditions that made possible the first so­ national bourgeoisie cannot lead the antifeudal and anti­ From the throats of revolutionary-minded youth and cialist country in the Americas were not unique to Cuba. imperialist struggle. Experience shows that in our na­ class-conscious workers, the cry of “Cuba si, yanqui The Cuban revolution was only the crest of the rising tide tions that class, even when its interests are in contradic­ n o !" resounded from Mexico City to Buenos Aires, and of mass struggles across the continent, which, in turn, tion to those of Yankee imperialism, has been incapable into the Yankee metropolis itself. registered a new level of energy and cxplosiveness in the o f confronting it, for the national bourgeoisie is para­ Within the United States and Canada a new generation wake of the Cuban victory. lyzed by fear of social revolution and frightened by the of youth, attracted by the power of Cuba’s workers and Fear that the example of Cuba would spread and that cry of the exploited masses. peasants taking their destiny in hand, was won to the other proimperialist regimes would be overthrown by In ringing terms the fighting people of Cuba explained communist movement. Responding to the growing mass mass revolutionary struggle underlay Washington’s de­ what was already unfolding across the continent: movement for Black rights and the powerful example of termination to crush the workers and farmers government the victorious Cuban revolution, they brought new life to in Cuba. At Wall Street’s bidding, bourgeois govern­ a working-class movement battered by more than a ments throughout the hemisphere rushed to try to isolate decade of postwar prosperity and anticommunist witch­ the revolutionary regime. Guevara organized a weekly hunts. A similar admiration and effect spread worldwide, The counterrevolutionary war drive orchestrated by as growing numbers of working people and youth were the U.S. government included everything from the CIA- study group that worked drawn toward the revolution in Cuba. sponsored invasion of Cuba in April 1961 (the “ Bay of Young rebels from across the Americas made their Pigs” landing, which was wiped out in less than seventy- through the pages of way to Cuba to see the revolution with their own eyes. two hours), to the orchestrated expulsion of Cuba from They hoped to learn from its successes and return home the Organization of American States in January 1962, to 'Capital' by Karl Marx... to emulate the “ Cuban road.” Frequently, in their inexpe­ the imposition of a brutal embargo on trade with Cuba by rience and determination, they saw or understood only a the United States a few days later. one-sided piece of that reality. They saw in bold relief the On February 4, 1962, at a mass rally of more than a audacious military victories registered by the guerrillas of Now history will have to take the poor of the Americas million in Havana’s Plaza of the Revolution, Fidel Castro the Rebel Army. They often missed the years of party- read the response of the Cuban people, known as the Sec­ into account, the exploited and spumed of the Americas, who have decided to begin writing their history for them­ building work that preceded the landing of the Granma; ond Declaration of Havana. selves for all time. Already they can be seen on the roads, the stature of the July 26 Movement and the mass support What is it that is hidden behind the Yankees’ hatred of on foot, day after day, in endless march of hundreds of it had won even before beginning the struggle in the the Cuban revolution? What is it that rationally explains kilometers to the governmental “ eminences,” there to Sierra Maestra; the caliber of the leadership team care­ the conspiracy— uniting for the same aggressive purpose obtain their rights. fully put together by Fidel Castro; the profound roots the the richest and most powerful imperialist power in the Already they can be seen armed with stones, sticks, movement had among the Cuban toilers and the political contemporary world and the oligarchies of an entire con­ machetes, in one direction and another, each day, occu­ astuteness the leadership demonstrated in its feel for the tinent, which together are supposed to represent a popu­ pying lands, sinking hooks into the land which belongs tactical ups and downs of the struggle— in short, the fac­ lation o f 350 million human beings— against a small to them and defending it with their lives. They can be tors that registered almost a decade of work forging and country of only seven million inhabitants, economically seen carrying signs, slogans, flags; letting them flap in tempering a revolutionary movement that drew on the underdeveloped, without financial or military means to the mountain or prairie winds. And the wave of anger, of threaten the security or economy of any other country? lessons of a century of struggle, and thus the factors that What unites them and stirs them up is fear. What ex­ 9. The Second Declaration o f Havana is available as a pam­ made possible the victory of the Cuban revolution. plains it is fear. Not fear of the Cuban revolution but fear phlet published by Pathfinder. During the first years after the triumph in Cuba, nuclei

The Militant October 10, 1994 OCTOBER 1994 ISR/5

1964 Washington began bombing North Vietnam, and the war increasingly spread to neighboring Laos and Cambodia. The buildup of U.S. combat forces in Vietnam that eventually exceeded half a million was well under way. One unintended by-product of Wash­ ington’s growing difficulties and preoccu­ pation with attempts to crush the tenacious resistance of the Vietnamese people was a relatively larger breathing space for Cuba. Alone among all the governments allied with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, however, it was the Cuban leadership that fought to close ranks in support of Viet­ nam. Cuban revolutionists pointed a finger at the criminal refusal of the governments of the Soviet Union and China to provide the level of political, financial, and m ili­ tary aid necessary to win and to lessen the enormous sacrifice of lives and economic devastation being imposed on the people of Vietnam. Nowhere was this more eloquently stated than in the article by Che Guevara referred to several times in the pages of his diary, his famous message to the Organi­ zation of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America better known as OSPAAAL, or, at the time, the Tricontinental. Published under the title “ Create Two, Three . .. Many Vietnams, That Is the Watchword.” " Guevara’s mes­ sage was written in 1966 on the eve of his departure for Bolivia, and printed in the magazine Tricontinental in April 1967, soon after the launching of the guerrilla front and Guevara’s presence in Bolivia had become public knowledge. In this "Message to the Tricontinental,” as it became known, the last major article written by Guevara, Che surveyed the world political situation and explained the of guerrilla fighters went into action in the countryside of decision to open a guerrilla front in Latin America. It was Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, Nicaragua, A r­ justified not only as a response to the economic and polit­ gentina, and elsewhere. Coming from many different po­ ical conditions and deepening social struggles across the litical origins, they adopted the banner of the Second continent, he stated. It was also the responsibility of revo­ Declaration of Havana as their own, challenging the long- lutionists everywhere to come to the aid of the embattled established Communist and Socialist parties for leader­ Vietnamese people. ship of the workers and peasants struggles. Although the When we analyze the isolation of the Vietnamese we majority of these efforts were soon defeated, in a number arc overcome by anguish at this illogical moment in the of countries they had significant and growing political history of humanity. U.S. imperialism is guilty of aggres­ impact. sion. Its crimes are immense, extending over the whole In hopes of stemming the rising revolutionary tide, the world. We know this, gentlemen! But also guilty are U.S. administration of John Kennedy proclaimed the A l­ those who at the decisive moment hesitated to make liance for Progress with complicit regimes throughout the Vietnam an inviolable part of socialist territory—yes, at hemisphere. Along with plentiful bribes to fill the per­ the risk of a war of global scale, but also compelling the sonal coffers of accommodating bourgeois forces, Wash­ U.S. imperialists to make a decision. And also guilty are those who persist in a war of insults and tripping each ington promised $20 billion in development loans over other up, begun quite some time ago by the representa­ the span of a decade. As Che Guevara explained with sci­ tives of the two biggest powers in the socialist camp. entific precision to a United Nations-sponsored trade Defensive weapons, and not in sufficient number, are conference in March 1964, the Alliance for Progress was all these marvelous Vietnamese soldiers have besides a program that served above all to accelerate, through in­ love for their country, for their society, and a courage terest charges and loan repayments, the transfer of bil­ that stands up to all tests. But imperialism is bogged lions of dollars of capital to the coffers of the imperialist- down in Vietnam. It sees no way out and is searching owned banks of North America. desperately for one that w ill permit it to emerge with dig­ nity from the dangerous situation in which it finds itself. Kennedy tries to counter popular struggles Under these conditions, “ what is the role that we, the More importantly, Kennedy responded to the growing exploited of the world, must play?” Guevara asked. popular struggles throughout Latin America by support­ “ Since the imperialists are using the threat of war to ing murderous dictatorships; expanding operations by the blackmail humanity, the correct response is not to fear Central Intelligence Agency, army special forces units, war. Attack hard and without letup at every point of con­ and others; and employing direct military action. He frontation— that must be the general tactic of the peo­ demonstratively maintained U.S. imperialism’s insulting ples.” and provocative military occupation of the area around Examining the struggles unfolding in Asia, Africa, and Guantanamo Bay in eastern Cuba, a usurpation of Cuba’s the Americas, Guevara concluded that only in Latin sovereignty dating back almost sixty years. The adminis­ America did the conditions prevail to open the kind of tration of Lyndon Johnson continued the same course. anti-imperialist front he envisioned. In Brazil the CIA engineered the overthrow of the gov­ ernment of Joao Goulart in 1964, installing one of the In Latin America, the struggle is going on arms in hand most brutal military dictatorships yet seen in Latin Amer­ in Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, and Bolivia, and the first outbreaks are already beginning in Brazil. Other ica. The fierce repression unleashed against workers, centers o f resistance have appeared and been extin­ peasants, and students— much of it carried out by death guished. But almost all the countries of this continent arc squads organized by the Brazilian army officer corps and ripe for a struggle of the kind that, to be triumphant, can­ police— became the infamous prototype for fascist- not settle for anything less than the establishment of a minded military regimes that would follow in other coun­ government of a socialist nature. tries. In Latin America, Guevara pointed out, it was “ either In the Dominican Republic a mass popular rebellion a socialist revolution or a caricature of revolution." And against a U.S.-backed dictatorship in 1965 was crushed the Americas would have the historic responsibility of by 20,000 U.S. troops. creating "the world’s second or third Vietnam, or second Despite such defeats, mass struggles by workers and and third Vietnam.” peasants against their exploitation and oppression deep­ ened in many countries. The specter of revolution hung How close and bright would the future appear if two, over the moneyed interests of the Americas. three, many Vietnams flowered on the face of the globe, At the same time, the attention and resources of the with their quota of death and their immense tragedies, U.S. rulers were more and more concentrated on their with their daily heroism, with their repeated blows against imperialism, forcing it to disperse its forces un­ rapidly escalating war against the people of Vietnam. By der the lash of the growing hatred of the peoples of the late 1963 the Kennedy administration had increased U.S. world! troop strength in Vietnam to more than 16,000. In August 11. Published in Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution, pp. 10. To Speak the Truth, pp. 106-7. 347-60.

October 10. 1994 The Militant 6/International Socialist Review OCTOBER 1994

its deadly consequences for the guerrilla unit. * * *

In the aftermath of Che’s death and the defeat of the guerrilla nucleus in Bolivia, a wide-ranging debate in­ evitably erupted. Was it simply a political adventure doomed from the start? Not only Guevara’s enemies in both Washington and La Paz, but also those political opponents who Castro refers to in his introduction as “ the pseudorevolutionar­ ies, opportunists, and charlatans of every stripe”— were quick to proclaim that revolutionary struggle, especially arms in hand, had been proven to be a romantic death wish at best, a dangerous provocation at worst. "These people call themselves Marxists, Communists, and other such titles,” Castro continues. They have not hesitated, however, to call Che a mis­ taken adventurer or, when they speak more benignly, an idealist whose death marked the swan song of revolu­ tionary armed struggle in Latin America. “ If Che him­ self,” they exclaim, “ the greatest exponent of these ideas and an experienced guerrilla fighter, died in the guerrilla struggle and his movement failed to liberate Bolivia, it only shows how mistaken he was!” . . . That is how they justify themselves. That is how they justify their treacherous leaders who, at a given moment, did not hesitate to play at armed struggle, with the true aim— as could be seen later— of destroying the guerrilla detachments, putting the brakes on revolutionary action, Part of a mass working-class demonstration in Chile in early 1970s. Events in the years immediately following and imposing their own shameful and ridiculous politi­ the defeat of the guerrilla campaign in Bolivia confirmed many of Che's objective premises about the approach cal schemes.. . . of revolutionary struggles in the Southern Cone region. That is how they justify those who have made a carica­ ture of revolutionary ideas, turning them into an opium­ like dogma with neither content nor message for the “ Other nations of the world summon my modest efforts change the relationship of class forces internationally and masses; those who have convened the organizations of of assistance,” Guevara wrote to Fidel Castro before break the isolation that weighed so heavily on Cuba. popular struggle into instruments o f conciliation with leaving Cuba in 1965. "I can do that which is denied you As Guevara explained to Bolivian leader Inti Peredo, domestic and foreign exploiters; and those who advocate owing to your responsibility at the head of Cuba.” whose memoirs are printed here in English for the first policies that have nothing to do with the genuine inter­ While preparations for opening the guerrilla front in time, the Bolivian front was chosen because “ Bolivia is ests of the exploited peoples of this continent. . . . Bolivia were under way, Guevara spent six months in the located in the heart of the Southern Cone of our conti­ Those who see the outcome of his struggle in Bolivia Congo (today Zaire) fighting alongside the forces that nent, bordering five countries, each with a political and as marking the failure of his ideas can, with the same oversimplification, deny the validity of the ideas and had been led by murdered independence leader Patrice economic situation becoming increasingly critical. Bo­ struggles of all the great revolutionary precursors and Lumumba. He then returned secretly to Cuba to continue livia’s geographic position thus makes it a strategic re­ thinkers. This includes the founders o f Marxism, who training the volunteers who would accompany him to Bo­ gion for extending the revolutionary struggle to neighbor­ were themselves unable to complete the task and to view livia. ing countries.” The struggle would be long and hard, pro­ in life the fruits of their noble efforts. tracted over many years. ‘Turn Andes into Sierra Maestra of the Americas’ “ Turn the Andes into the Sierra Maestra of the Ameri­ Noting how many times the small band of Rebel Army In putting himself on the front lines of a guerrilla strug­ cas" became the often-voiced rallying cry of revolution­ fighters in the Sierra Maestra had been close to annihila­ gle in Bolivia, Guevara was carrying out an even broader ary forces that sought to emulate the Cuban road toward tion, Castro emphasized, “ In all epochs and under all cir­ revolutionary perspective he had long anticipated and socialism. cumstances, there will always be an abundance of pre­ prepared for. "This was an old idea of his,” Fidel Castro Bolivia had its own recent history of sharp class strug­ texts for not fighting; but not fighting is the surest way to told Italian journalist Gianni Mina in 1987. gle and growing impoverishment. In 1964 a military dic­ never attain freedom.” tatorship headed by Gen. Rene Barrientos had over­ The plan for the Bolivian campaign, Castro stressed in When he joined us in Mexico— and it’s not that he his 1987 interview with Gianni Mina, was entirely Gue­ made it a condition— he did ask one thing: “The only thrown the presidency of Victor Paz Estenssoro, ending twelve years of rule by the increasingly corrupt and frac­ vara’s. Che selected the territory and supervised the de­ thing I want after the victory o f the revolution is to go tailed preparations. “ The importance of the area he fight in Argentina”— his country— “ that you don’t keep tured regime of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement picked seems to have been its proximity to the Argentine me from doing so, that no reasons of state w ill stand in (MNR). the way.” And I promised him that. It was a long way off, The MNR, a bourgeois party with strong support from border,” Castro noted. But "in essence, he made no mis­ after all. No one knew, first of all, if we’d win the war or Bolivia’s superexploited tin miners, had been thrust into take in his choice.” who was going to be alive at the end — and he surely, control of the national government in the wake of a revo­ From his days in the Sierra Maestra on, "because of because of his impetuousness, had little chance of com­ lutionary upsurge in 1952. That powerful upheaval re­ Che’s courage, his qualities, his importance, in our war ing out alive— but this is what he asked. Once in a while, sulted in nationalization of the largest mines, legalization we gave him the most important missions,” Castro re­ in the Sierra and afterward, he would remind me of this of the trade unions, initiation of land reform, and elimina­ marked. But “ this mission we didn’t give him. The idea, idea and promise.12 tion of the literacy requirement that had effectively disen­ the plan, everything was his.” The political perspective Che thought and acted as an internationalist. He knew franchised the majority of Bolivia’s people, the Aymara- was shared by the entire revolutionary leadership of that the future of the Cuban revolution did not ultimately and Quechua-speaking population. But Bolivia remained Cuba, however. "We believed in what [Che] was doing, depend on the efforts and capacities of the communist one of the poorest countries in the Americas; only Para­ and we believed he could carry out what he proposed.” leadership in Cuba of which he was part, however deep- guay and Haiti had lower per capita incomes. By the early What we did was help him. We helped something we going that revolution might be, however capable the lead­ 1960s average life expectancy was still only forty-three thought was possible. We would not have been able to ership. Only new revolutionary victories elsewhere, espe­ years (compared to sixty-six years in the United States help something we thought was impossible, something cially new socialist advances in the Americas, would and Canada). With tin prices falling and inflation soaring, in which we did not believe, because it would have been the economy was in a shambles. The leadership of the our duty to tell him: It’s not possible, we can’t do that, 12. Un encuentro con Fidel (Havana: Oficina de publicaciones powerful Central Organization of Bolivian Workers we can’t sacrifice comrades on this mission. del Consejo de Estado, 1987), p.318. (COB), once a supporter of the government, had gone As Guevara’s diary and the additional accounts make into political opposition. clear, neither Che nor other leaders of the guerrilla unit In 1965 the Barrientos dictatorship ever intended for their base of operations to be the area in provoked a confrontation with the trade which they moved and fought for what became eleven union movement by arresting Juan months. They had planned, after a preliminary training Lechin, the central leader of the COB. period, to move to a nearby region with a larger popula­ When workers responded with a general tion and conditions more favorable for launching opera­ strike and seizure of the country’s tin tions. The early detection of the guerrilla unit by the mines, the regime unleashed a wave of armed forces, however, and the accidental separation of repression, arresting union leaders and the rear guard from the rest of the unit, kept them from sending in troops to occupy the mining carrying out their plan. camps, killing many. After the strike was Castro also points out that Cuban leaders strongly dis­ defeated, a 40 percent wage cut was im­ agreed with Guevara’s decision to himself join the group posed on large sections of the working in Bolivia at the beginning. The fact that some comrades class. had already given their lives in an effort to establish a By then, preparations for the guerrilla guerrilla front in northern Argentina was “ a factor that front were already under way. As Castro greatly influenced his impatience to carry out his ideas,” recounts here in “ A Necessary Introduc­ Castro told Mina. Nevertheless, Che “ should have tion," however, these efforts were under­ waited until a stronger movement developed,” Castro mined by the general secretary of the said. The initial stage “ is the most difficult and the most Communist Party of Bolivia, Mario dangerous phase, as the facts showed, and it resulted in Monje, who "devoted his energies to his death.” sabotaging the movement.” The ac­ The leadership of the Cuban revolution knew that Gue­ counts by Guevara and Peredo amply vara’s role in the guerrilla struggle in Bolivia would be detail the extent of this treachery by used by enemies of the revolution to try to escalate at­ Monje and those who followed him and tacks on Cuba. But “ U.S. imperialism has never needed a

l3.Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, and 14. Published in Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution, pp. Peru. 347-60.

10 The Militant October 10,1994 OCTOBER 1994 ISR/ 7

pretext to carry out its crimes anywhere in the world,” bulent years of struggle are an integral part of the history shattered, its first response was to claim that the Cuban Castro writes in “ A Necessary Introduction.” revolutionists must critically absorb. There could be no edition was a fraud. President Barrientos called it “ a ficti­ better reason to make broadly available once more The tious diary, falsified and conveniently presented.. . . I am Its efforts to crush the Cuban revolution began as soon Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara sure that the whole thing is part of a scheme by the Castro as our country passed its first revolutionary law. This course stems from the obvious and well-known fact that * * * hierarchy.” imperialism is the policeman of world reaction, the sys­ Castro responded to these charges in a televised ad­ tematic promoter of counterrevolution, and the protector The history of Che Guevara’s Bolivian diary is itself a dress on July 3, 1968. “ The publication of the diary has of the most backward and inhuman social structures that political saga. At its heart has been the ongoing battle pit­ upset a few applecarts,” Castro explained. “ In the first remain in the world. ting those who have sought to accurately present Che’s place the imperialists and the Bolivian militarists were Cuba’s solidarity with the revolutionary movement political legacy against those seeking to discredit him and most interested in keeping the contents of the document may be the pretext, but it w ill never be the real cause of distort his place, as well as the place of the Cuban revolu­ a secret. In the second place, its publication ruined a U.S. aggression. To refuse solidarity in order to avoid tion, in the history of the twentieth century. number of shady and grossly mercenary business deals in providing a pretext is a ridiculous, ostrich-like policy connection with the document.” He announced that to that has nothing to do with the internationalist character Carried in his knapsack, the diary was among the items of the social revolutions of today. that fell into the hands of the Bolivian military when Gue­ eliminate any shadow of a doubt, the Cuban government vara was wounded and captured on October 8, 1967. The would make photocopies of the diary available to any in­ “ Grave dangers have threatened our country since the document was immediately relayed to the army high ternational journalist accredited in Cuba. triumph of the revolution,” Castro noted. “ But imperial­ command, with copies to Washington. On July 10 the La Paz periodical Presencia published ism will never make us give in for these reasons, because The existence of the diary became public knowledge the diary. Military chief of staff Alfredo Ovando ac­ the difficulties that flow from a consistently revolutionary within days of the murder of Guevara. In November 1967 knowledged its authenticity and announced the formation line of action are of no importance to us.” passages were read by the Bolivian military prosecutor in of a military tribunal to determine who was responsible * * * the trial of French journalist Regis Debray. Debray, as for handing it over to the Cuban government. The source Guevara recounts in the diary, had been captured by the of the leak was rapidly traced to Arguedas, since the edi­ Events in the years immediately following the defeat of Bolivian military following a visit to the guerrilla camp. tion published in Cuba was missing thirteen entries. the guerrilla nucleus in Bolivia amply confirmed what Sentenced to a thirty-year prison term, he was released in These were precisely the thirteen entries deleted by Che had described as the "increasingly critical” economic 1970. Ovando from the version given to the intelligence min­ and political situation throughout Latin America’s South­ ern Cone that had been the objective basis underlying his revolutionary course.

Upsurge in the region In Bolivia itself a profound working-class upsurge oc­ curred. After several years of deepening instability and a rapid succession of military regimes, in 1970 growing mass mobilizations of workers and students led to an up­ rising in La Paz. The army split wide open as armed workers took control of the streets, and detachments of peasants and students joined them. The workers estab­ lished a united “ Political Command” to coordinate their struggle. That body soon transformed itself into a Peo­ ple’s Assembly, whose delegates set up operations in the chambers previously used by the Bolivian congress. Neither the workers nor the bourgeoisie were strong enough to decisively gain the upper hand, however. Only after ten months of posturing and wasted opportunities by the officialdom of the workers movement did the counter­ revolutionary forces have the strength and cohesion to make their move. They ousted the latest military regime headed by “ left-wing” Gen. Juan Jose Torres, and re­ placed it with a ferocious dictatorship headed by Gen. Hugo Banzer. In Argentina a 1966 military coup had installed a regime headed by Gen. Juan Carlos Ongania. By 1969 the class struggle was again on the rise, however, with increasing strike actions and student protests. In May of that year, anger over price increases at a university cafe­ teria triggered a series of events that rapidly led to a gen­ eral strike in Rosario, Argentina’s second-largest city, and a semi-insurrection in Cordoba, the third-largest city and center of Argentina’s auto and aviation industry. Cuban president Fidel Castro displays photograph of Bolivian generals celebrating Che's murder. In a July 1968 The Cordobazo, as it became known, ushered in a pe­ televised broadcast, he answered charges that the Cuban publication of Che's diary was a fabrication. "The riod of intense class struggle that lasted for more than half imperialists and the Bolivian militarists were most interested in keeping the contents of the document a secret," a decade, with inevitable ups and downs, and several Castro said. The Cuban government produced and distributed thousands of copies of the book. sharp shifts by the Argentine bourgeoisie as it desperately sought to regain its balance. In 1976 the military installed Gen. Jorge Videla to preside over a dictatorship so The military regime and its backers in Washington istry in order to trace unauthorized duplication. Copies bloody that it stood out for its brutality, even in the Latin used carefully selected quotations— as well as fabrica­ turned over to the CIA had also been marked in an identi­ America of the 1960s and 1970s. tions and rumors about the diary’s contents—to justify fiable manner. Arguedas skipped across the border to In Chile rising working-class and peasant militancy widespread arrests, incriminate prisoners, and attempt to Chile. carried Socialist Party leader Salvador Allende into the discredit Guevara and Cuba. The first English-language edition was published July presidency in 1970. For the next three years, the increas­ 2, 1968, in a special issue of Ramparts magazine in the ingly organized popular movement pressed forward the Rulers attempt to profit from diary United States, under rights granted by the Cuban govern- fight for economic and social measures that threatened At the same time, Bolivia’s dictators instinctively saw the prerogatives of capital, both foreign and Chilean. The the diary as an opportunity for personal financial gain. Communist and Socialist parties that dominated the gov­ Although his murderers had no moral or legal basis to ernment, however, refused to prepare to win the ap- exercise literary rights belonging to Guevara’s widow, Aleida March, Bolivian government leaders entered into negotiations with major U.S. and French publishers to 'U.S. imperialism has never sell the rights. Figures as high as $400,000 were floated in negotiations. needed a pretext to carry As condemnation of the Bolivian dictatorship’s cold­ blooded murder of Che mounted world-wide, however, out its crimes anywhere in divisions appeared within the inner circles of the regime. Antonio Arguedas, the country’s interior minister and the w orld/ Castro said... chief of intelligence throughout Che’s Bolivian cam­ paign, grew increasingly resentful of CIA pressure on him and growing U.S. dictates. He decided to provide mi­ crofilms of the diary to the Cuban government. Support­ proaching showdown, and the U.S.-backed military coup ers of the Cuban revolution organized a clandestine oper­ organized by Gen. Augusto Pinochet imposed a crushing ation that succeeded in delivering the microfilms to Ha­ defeat on the workers movement in September 1973. vana in mid-March 1968. Today, more than a quarter century after the events re­ Working with accelerated speed and great secrecy, a counted in these pages new economic and social crises team of Cubans including Aleida March verified the au­ are looming, and a new generation of young fighters is thenticity of the diary and arranged for its virtually simul­ coming onto the stage of history, not only in the Americas taneous translation and publication inside and outside but throughout the world. It is a generation that does not Cuba in eight different editions. carry the scars of past defeats; nor is it doomed to justify On July 1, 1968, the Cuban government published the and repeat the same mistakes. As new class battles erupt, diary, distributing hundreds of thousands of copies free Che’s socialist perspectives and the lessons for those of charge to the Cuban people. News of its publication striving to build a revolutionary party capable of leading made front pages around the world. the workers and farmers to take political power acquire The Bolivian regime was stunned by this unexpected an ever more immediate weight. The lessons of these tur­ move. With political machinations and financial hopes

October 10, 1994 The Militant 11 8/International Socialist Review OCTOBER 1994

ment on behalf of Aleida March. This version was re­ livia, most of which are referred to in the pages of the trapped in the unfavorable terrain most were unable to leased a week later as a paperback book by Bantam. diary, as well as several messages and letters. escape from, and on the political character of the nucleus Almost simultaneously a different English version was Of particular interest are the additional accounts by of combatants. Taken from interviews that have appeared issued by U.S. publishers Stein and Day, under the title other combatants, a number of which are published here in the Cuban press over the years, these eyewitness ac­ The Complete Bolivian Diaries of Che Guevara and for the first time in English. counts are part of the living political continuity of the Other Captured Documents. Stein and Day claimed they “ My Campaign with Che” by Inti Peredo is of special Cuban revolution. The bulk of the material in this section had been granted “exclusive literary rights" by Bolivia’s note, offering an extensive account of events paralleling appears here in English for the first time. military dictatorship. The Stein and Day edition con­ Che’s diary. Peredo was a member of the general staff of Numerous explanatory notes, an extensive glossary, tained the thirteen entries missing from the Cuban edi­ the guerrilla unit and one of the five surviving veterans. chronology, list of combatants, and index have been pre­ tion, as well as the captured diaries of three other Cuban He had joined the Communist Party of Bolivia in 1951 at pared by translator Michael Taber. The aim has been to combatants. It featured a lengthy introduction attacking the age of fourteen and was secretary of the La Paz region help readers follow the story more easily, especially Guevara and the Cuban revolution and praising Barrien­ of the party prior to joining Che’s group. In addition to given the passage of time and the nature of the diary it­ tos and the Bolivian regime. Publisher Sol Stein told the providing a narrative framework for the events referred self, which was written under difficult conditions and in­ press he had undertaken the project “ as an act of con­ to in Guevara’s diary, Peredo’s memoir adds substantial tended by Guevara as notes for his own use. science," because the Cuban edition was “ a clear attempt information on relations with the Bolivian Communist Fifteen maps, charting the month-by-month progress to build Guevara as the Robin Hood of the 20th century.” Party, the guerrillas’ political functioning, Che’s methods of the events recounted, were created for this volume by Both editions have been out of print for many years. of leadership, and events following his capture and death. Eric Simpson, who also designed the book’s cover, lay­ This Pathfinder edition of the Bolivian diary has been Excerpts from the diaries and accounts of Rolando, out, typography, and photo insert. Virtually every river, newly translated by Michael Taber and Michael Bau- Pombo, and Benigno record the political talks by Gue- mountain range, village, and town mentioned in the diary can be located, along with the route taken by the guerril­ las. This edition of The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara would not have been possible without the help and collaboration of numerous individuals in Cuba. Spe­ cial thanks go to Hugo Chinea, director of Editora Politica; Iraida Aguirrechu who edited El Diario del Che en B o livia for Editora Politica in 1987; and Ana Rosa Gort, also o f Editora Politica. Gen. Harry Villegas (Pombo) and Col. Leonardo Tamayo (Urbano), Guevara’s co-combatants in Bolivia, provided firsthand information and recollections that helped in translating a number of obscure phrases and in preparing the explanatory notes, glossary, maps, and in identifying photos. Matilde Lara, widow of Inti Peredo, gave permission to publish “ My Campaign with Che." Pedro Alvarez Tabio of the Council of State Office of Publications helped obtain photos. The research conducted over a number of years by Adys Cupull and Froilan Gonzalez, who annotated and supplied photographs for the 1987 edition of the diary published in Cuba and have authored several other books on the Bolivian campaign, was an ir­ replaceable aid. The interest and encouragement of Aleida March was greatly appreciated.

Bring to life work of communist leader In preparing Pathfinder’s new edition of the Bolivian diary, the fundamental aim has been to bring to life for a MILITANT/NANCY COLE new generation of revolutionary-minded fighters world­ Youth defend Philadelphia abortion clinic, July 1993. The new generation of fighters coming into politics in the wide this work by one of the great communist leaders of Americas and throughout the world does not carry the scars of past defeats. As new class battles erupt, Che's our time. Guevara was not only the revolutionist of ac­ socialist perspective and the lessons for those striving to build a revolutionary party capable of leading the tion, the great student and practitioner of guerrilla war­ workers and farmers to take power acquire even greater weight. fare revealed through these pages. He was also the com­ munist leader capable of heading up the reorganization of mann, and contains materials not available in any of the vara to the guerrilla unit. They expand on Guevara’s own industry and banking in Cuba; representing the socialist previous editions, in any language. The entries missing one- or two-sentence descriptions of some of these meet­ revolution worldwide; promoting the development of from the first Cuban and Ramparts editions have been re­ ings in the camp and convey the impact these talks had on volunteer labor as a political necessity for the transition stored. This has been made possible by the careful work the combatants. to socialism; and writing some of the most important con­ of Editora Politica in Cuba, which in 1987 published the The accounts of Pombo and Benigno, two of the tributions to Marxism in the twentieth century. A ll these complete text of the diary in the Spanish original. Also Cuban veterans of the campaign, shed additional light on facets of Che are revealed in other collections of his writ­ included are other documents written by Guevara in Bo- Guevara’s thinking, on how and why the fighters got ings and speeches available in English translation from Pathfinder Press. But without the Che of the Bolivian diary, the rounded communist is missing. IF YOU LIKE THIS PAPER, LOOK US UP Today, growing numbers of workers and youth throughout the world are seeing with their own eyes what capitalism holds in store for humanity as we enter the twenty-first century. Th ey are repelled by the social consequences of the deepening world capitalist crisis: growing economic conflict and interimperialist competition, trade wars that foretell military confronta­ tions, sharpening inequality and social po­ larization, unemployment, racism, attacks on women’s rights, murders of immigrant workers, growing rightist and fascist movements, famine, disease, devastation, and war. Through their own observations and ex­ periences, this new generation of rebels will come to the conclusion that the heart of the revolutionary perspective presented by Ernesto Che Guevara some three decades ago remains a burning reality for today— that only working people, through conscious organization and disciplined ac­ tion, can build a communist organization and lead a fighting humanity out of the abyss and degradation of capitalism to­ ward a socialist future of free men and women. It is to these fighters above all that this edition is directed, to those who will read the Bolivian diary in the spirit Che wrote it— not as a book about the past, nor as a “ manual” of revolution, but as an irre­ placeable set of working notes helping us to understand the present and prepare to meet the future.

12 The Militant October 10, 1994 WHERE WE STAND end of week three

Target week to boost sales 25% SOLD SHOULD BE 30%

BY SARA LOBMAN troit that the M ilita n t As we go to press, got a friendly recep­ socialist workers and tion at a meeting of young socialists are nearly 1,000 people gearing up for a spe­ who came to hear cial target week in the Gerry Adams speak international drive to about the situation in win new readers to the Northern Ireland. One M ilitant, Perspectiva man bought a single M undial, and New In ­ copy of the paper and ternational. went inside. Twenty The intensive Oc­ minutes later he was tober 1 -9 effort can be back. “ Can I get a an important boost to subscription and a help get all three com­ copy of this book ponents of the cam­ right now?” he asked, paign on schedule. pointing to the ad for Most importantly, To Speak the Truth on however, every copy the front page of the and every subscrip­ paper. tion of the socialist A team of M ilita n t periodicals that gets supporters attending a into the hands of a trade union confer­ fighting worker or Militant/Frank Gorton ence in solidarity with youth tells the truth Striking worker at Fibre Die garment shop in Brooklyn, Cuba in Windsor, On­ about Washington’s New York, reading Perspectiva Mundial. Workers are tario, September 23- military occupation of demanding a union contract. 25 sold 6 subscrip­ Haiti, its 35-year war tions to the M ilitant, against the socialist revolution in bought subscriptions to the M ili­ 34 single copies of the paper, 3 Cuba, and the strikes and struggles tant," Honts said. copies of New International, and 8 of working people around the Supporters of the M ilita n t in copies of To Speak the Truth. world. Houston are organizing four re­ “ Cuba is a ray of hope for our Supporters in Los Angeles will gional teams during the target hemisphere,” a member of the In­ be setting up all-day campus tables week. A two-day team is going to ternational Brotherhood of Electri­ during the target week, said Craig Shreveport, Louisiana, to sell at a cal Workers in northern Michigan Honts. Since many distributors college campus and a large plant said before buying a subscription. work or go to school, they have organized by the United Auto Another conference participant, figured out a relay system where Workers there. A one-day team to who had just picked up a copy of volunteers take shifts at the tables Dallas will include showing “The the M ilitant, suggested that union­ during their time off. Schools on Frame-up of Mark Curtis” video to ists who support the Cuban revolu­ the target-week agenda include the some young people who were first tion put out a newsletter drawing Long Beach and Dominguez cam­ introduced to the M ilita n t at the on articles in major U.S. periodi­ puses of California State Univer­ Southern Christian Leadership cals, the Cuban newspaper Gra- sity, Los Angeles Community Col­ Conference last month. nma, and the M ilitant. lege, Santa Monica Community Houston distributors haven’t We urge readers to send in short College, and the University of Cal­ been neglecting their hometown, stories on sales during the target ifornia at Los Angeles. either. Nine copies of New In te r­ week. And if you haven’t taken a In the week leading up to the national were sold at a recent M il­ goal yet, it’s not too late to join the target week, supporters w ill be itant Labor Forum, eight to a international effort. Just contact participating in activities to build young person who has been work­ the Militant to order a bundle of the October 16 immigrant rights ing through the reading suggested papers and get your city on the protest. “ Four young people at a by the Young Socialists in the chart. Subscriptions that arrive by recent meeting to organize student pages of the M ilita n t. Tuesday at noon EDT will be actions to build for the protest Gary Boyers reports from De­ counted on next week’s chart. Cuba book gets good response

BY MAURICE WILLIAMS against Cuba Doesn't End is get­ defense of the Cuban revolu­ The campaign to sell more ting an excellent response. With tion," Fowler added.“ A member than 500 copies of the Pathfinder the international effort just past of the Teamsters union who we book To Speak the Truth: Why the midway point, 247 copies met during the nationwide strike Washington's 'Cold War' have been sold. earlier this year came by the Supporters of the campaign in Pathfinder bookstore and. after Auckland, New Zealand, and several hours of discussion, re­ Brooklyn, New York, have led newed his M ilita n t subscription the way in this effort. The cam­ and bought a copy of the book.” paign in Auckland has reached Mike Italic, an auto worker at its goal of selling 10 copies of the the Ford plant in Walton Hills, book. Ohio, sold a copy of To Speak With less than two weeks re­ the Truth along with another maining to the campaign, social­ Pathfinder book — How F ar We ist workers in Brooklyn have Slaves Have Come, by Fidel Cas­ sold 29 out of a goal of 40 tro and Nelson Mandela. “ This books — almost 75 percent. coworker wears a button every­ They are reaching out to factory day in the plant expressing soli­ workers, students, activists at po­ darity with the Caterpillar strike litical events, and have set up nu­ and other labor battles in Illi­ merous street tables, Frank Gor­ nois,” Italie said. “ He is espe­ ton, a laid-off auto worker, said. cially interested in the role of Pattie Sanchez reports she sold Cuban troops in Africa and the a copy of To Speak the Truth and warm welcome Fidel Castro re­ a subscription to the M ilita n t to a ceived at the presidential inaugu­ student at Pratt Institute in ration of Nelson Mandela in Brooklyn. "The student who May.” bought the book said, 'This is Reports from local areas on great! I love this stuff!’ He was the campaign to sell To Speak the all smiles from ear to ear.” Truth should be sent in to the Sanchez reports. M ilita n t every week so that the “ We sold 10 copies of To experiences of using this impor­ Speak the Truth in combination tant political weapon against with the special offer of a sub­ Washington’s aggression can be scription to the M ilita n t," Floyd shared with others around the Fowler, a garment worker at world. In order to get your totals Kuppenheimer in Atlanta, said. reflected on the scoreboard “ Seven of these were sold di­ please have them in by Tuesday rectly as a result of our work in at 12 noon, EDT.

October 10, 1994 The Militant 13 —EDITORIALS ‘Release Curtis’ Continued from front page been sent in the last couple of weeks to Chandler Halford at the Department of Corrections and to Paul Hedgepath, U.S. hands off Haiti and Cuba! acting warden of the Iowa State Penitentiary. Curtis, a union and political activist framed up by Des As U.S. military forces tighten their hold over Haiti, testify — not to mention their tanks and weaponry on Moines police in 1988, was thrown into segregation in Washington’s aims become clearer every day. The shore — Washington is prepared to take further steps to the maximum security prison at the end of August. On invasion — launched under the pretext of restoring Presi­ crack down on struggles for social justice. September 12, he was taken, shackled hand and foot, be­ dent Jean-Bertrand Aristide — has nothing to do with de­ The U.S. invasion of Haiti is also a grave threat to rev­ fore Administrative Law Judge Charles Harper. He was fending the rights of Haiti’s workers and farmers. It has olutionary Cuba. In August the Clinton administration denied an attorney, the right to cross-examine the evi­ everything to do with protecting capitalist stability and took a series of aggressive moves against Cuba, from dence against him, and the right to confront his accusers, profits. tightening its trade embargo on the island to provoca­ including one anonymous witness who was identified The U.S. military is now running Haiti in collaboration tively detaining Cuban emigrants on its military base at only as a “confidential informant,” and whose written with the very thugs who have terrorized the country for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Cuban government quickly statement Curtis was not even allowed to see. years. The U.S. rulers’ goal is to restructure the govern­ moved to counter these threatening moves, speaking out Even though the law judge found the evidence pre­ ment and police apparatus to keep H aiti’s ruling class in public and negotiating an immigration accord with sented against Curtis “ not the best,” he upheld charges firmly in the saddle as Washington’s junior partners in Washington. But the continuing explosive situation in the leveled against him by prison guards and ruled that Curtis their exploitation of that Caribbean nation. Guantanamo detention camps and the massive deploy­ was guilty of assaulting another inmate. Harper sentenced The Haitian military is too weak and despised to be ment of U.S. troops in Haiti create a dangerous atmos­ him to the harshest punishment permitted under prison effective rulers of the country. The U.S. rulers aren’t very phere that the U.S. government may try to use to take fur­ regulations — 30 days in the “ hole” and one year in confident about Aristide either, because he has not ther hostile action against Cuba. lockup. Curtis has appealed. proved reliable in keeping a lid on workers and farmers, While the wealthy U.S. rulers have no fundamental Before being thrown in lockup, Curtis and his support­ who toppled the Duvalier dictatorship in 1986 and con­ problem with Haiti’s military dictatorship, aside from the ers were organizing a campaign to press for his release on tinue to fight for social and political rights. But Washing­ fact that it is no longer very effective as an instrument for parole. Given the six years Curtis has served behind bars, ton has no alternative on hand, so it is drawing in both to capitalist rule, Washington continues to have a giant his excellent conduct evaluations, and the strong support cobble together a capitalist regime. problem with revolutionary Cuba because it is a bastion for him, state officials were finding it increasingly diffi­ Washington invaded Haiti, not to strike a blow for of workers and farmers power in the Caribbean and an cult to justify keeping Curtis behind bars. democracy, but because, despite the repression, the fight­ example to working-class fighters worldwide. Haitian ing capacity of Haiti’s workers and peasants has not been workers and peasants will need to draw on that example ‘This man needs to be freed’ crushed. In addition, the U.S. rulers also want to reassert in order to free themselves from imperialist domination “ I do not think that Mr. Curtis’s rights were respected what they consider their right to intervene in the internal and capitalist exploitation. in the prison hearing that sentenced him to one year in affairs of other countries, especially in what they consider The Clinton administration — like eight administra­ solitary confinement for assaulting a prisoner,” writes their own “ backyard.” tions before it — remains determined to destroy the Richard Levac, chairperson of the Chrysler section of The U.S. intervention, carried out with bipartisan sup­ Cuban revolution. Thus, as the marines invade and oc­ Canadian Auto Workers Local 1900 in St. Laurent, Que­ port at home, is a blow to the Haitian people’s fight to cupy Haiti, working people should also keep our eyes on bec. “ With all that I have seen and read of Mark Curtis, I take control over their country and their lives. So far, the Cuba and protest every aggressive U.S. move against it. think this man needs to be freed from jail.” occupation forces have avoided a direct confrontation Broad protest actions are needed to demand that Wash­ “ The Saint Ouen GEC-Alsthom General Labor Con­ with working people, who, while supporting the U.S. mil­ ington get its troops out of Haiti now, open its borders to federation (CGT) demands that the September 12 deci­ itary presence, continue to seek opportunities to get the Haitian refugees, release all detained Haitians and sion condemning Mark Curtis be overturned and that local thugs off their backs. But as the U.S. Navy’s stock­ Cubans, get out of Guantanamo, and lift all its sanctions Mark be released from lockup,” Alain Barbier writes on piles of clubs, gas masks, and other riot gear against Cuba. behalf of the union from Saint Ouen, France. “ Workers in France consider it important that the rights and freedoms of workers in the United States be respected.” "Once again Mark Curtis has been convicted on a trumped-up charge designed to keep him in jail,” BJ. Support auto workers at GM Edgeler, Branch Secretary of the Canterbury Meat Workers Union in Christchurch, New Zealand, faxed to The battle being fought by members of the United Auto many other unionists have been forced to accept, the the warden and the Department of Corrections. Workers (UAW) at the Buick City complex in Flint, bosses have failed to quell the fighting spirit of the U.S. Lyle Bogges, a rank-and-file member of United Food Michigan, is one that all unionists and other working peo­ working class. This is the fifth walkout by UAW mem­ and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1149 in Mar­ ple should rally to support. bers this year against a GM plant. In August, UAW mem­ shalltown, Iowa, wrote, "This is obviously a phony The walkout by nearly 12,000 auto workers against bers in Anderson, Indiana, won a victory in their fight for charge. No real evidence was presented, and I believe General Motors shows the tremendous economic clout jobs after striking for three days. That work stoppage that this whole thing is just an attempt to keep Mark from and social power that working people acting in unity can quickly idled 14 assembly plants across the country, forc­ getting a fair hearing from the parole board in October." bring to bear in the fight against attacks by the bosses and ing GM management to cave in and agree to maintain cur­ At the time he was arrested and framed in 1988, Curtis their government on our rights and living standard. rent employment levels at the plant through 1997. was a member of the UFCW. He was singled out by po­ The stakes in this fight are important for all working The auto workers on strike against GM bring valuable lice because of his participation in a public campaign to people. The UAW is fighting to force GM to hire more reinforcements to the side of fighting unionists involved win freedom for 17 of his coworkers from Mexico and El workers, and to reduce forced overtime and speedup, in other labor battles taking place in the United States to­ Salvador who had been seized in an immigration raid on which have led to a soaring rate of on-the-job injuries. day. These include the 14,000 UAW members on strike their plant. In a drive to boost its sagging rate of profit, GM aims against Caterpillar, United Rubber Workers on the picket The Mark Curtis Defense Committee in Des Moines is to increase productivity by turning out more cars with lines against Bridgestone/Firestone, and members of the asking all supporters of political and union rights to fax fewer workers. Since 1986, it has slashed its U.S. hourly United Paper Workers International Union locked out by or mail letters to Iowa authorities urging that the convic­ workforce from 402,000 to 247,000, with further reduc­ the A.E. Staley Manufacturing Co. in Decatur, Illinois. tion of Curtis be overturned and he be released from tions planned. The bosses have employed temporary Unionists involved in these fights will be attending an lockup. workers and put in place two-tier contracts in an effort to important labor solidarity rally in Decatur on October 15. Letters should be sent to Sally Chandler Halford, Di­ divide working people and weaken the unions. By utiliz­ This event can send a powerful message to the bosses and rector, Department of Corrections, Capitol Annex, 523 ing union power to lead a fight for jobs, the striking work­ help forge a deeper bond of unity among all those en­ East 12th Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50309, fax (515) ers at GM are providing a good example of how to answer gaged in strike actions. Linking up with fighters involved 281-7345, and Paul Hedgepath, Acting Warden, Iowa the employers’ assault. in other labor battles can help strengthen each and every State Penitentiary, Box 316, Fort Madison, Iowa 52627, Despite concession contracts that auto workers and one of them. fax (319) 372-6967. Copies of protest message, and needed financial con­ tributions, should be mailed to the Mark Curtis Defense Committee, Box 1048, Des Moines, Iowa 50311, or The ‘M ilitant’ tells the truth faxed to (515)243-9869.

"The time to speak the truth has come,” Fidel Castro of the socialist press is to use the October 1-9 interna­ told the United Nations General Assembly in 1960. The tional target week to step up this effort and get each com­ Auto workers strike U.S. government cannot be on the side of workers and ponent of the sales campaign back on schedule. Continued from front page farmers anywhere in the world, the Cuban leader ex­ This will require a serious and organized effort on the picket line for several minutes in apparent disbelief that plained, because it is on the side of the ruling rich who part of partisans of the socialist press in every city. We they were being denied entry into the plant. One picketer oppress and exploit them. Castro’s words ring as true to­ urge our readers to make this campaign to tell the truth asked a foreman to sing “ Solidarity Forever” along with day as they did 34 years ago. While government officials, one of their central priorities over the coming week, the strikers while he sat in his car. Another foreman at­ the major media, and even self-proclaimed progressives thinking out how to use every available hour and take ad­ tempted to provoke the strikers by calling to the one fe­ are working overtime to spew out lies about Cuba’s so­ vantage of every opportunity to win new subscribers. male picketer, “ Come over here so I can hit you first!” cialist revolution, the U.S. military occupation of Haiti, This will include arranging to take time off work to par­ The Buick City complex isn’t the only GM facility and the struggles of working people around the world, the ticipate in special sales teams and organizing local sales where overtime is angering workers. On September 18, Militant, Perspectiva Mundial, and New International on high school and college campuses, in working-class workers at G M ’s Hydra-Matic plant in Warren, Michi­ are on the front lines of answering these slanders. neighborhoods, at picket lines and plant gates, and at po­ gan, voted unanimously to authorize a strike, after 70 M ilita n t staff writers and worker-correspondents have litical events. Readers who are members of industrial temporary workers were laid off and the remaining work­ gone to the scene of events to provide accurate reports of unions can make a special push to introduce the paper to ers forced to work harder. A strike authorization vote what working people in Cuba and South Africa have to coworkers and fellow unionists. was also taken at G M ’s rear-wheel drive transmission say about their struggles. Feature articles have exposed Socialist workers and young socialists in many cities plant in Toledo, Ohio. the real history of U.S. troops in Haiti and explained how report brisk sales of the book To Speak the Truth sold Meanwhile, 130 temporary workers were laid off Washington set up the Guantanamo naval base on terri­ together with a subscription to the M ilita n t for a special September 16 at the GM assembly plant in Linden, New tory stolen from the Cuban people. The M ilita n t and its offer of $20. We should build on this success, pointing Jersey. To maintain production the company is making sister publications tell the truth about the strikes, skir­ out this offer to every potential new reader and striving to high seniority workers, some of whom have not worked mishes, and resistance of fighting workers — from increase the number of these “combination” truth kits that on the line in more that 10 years, replace the temporaries. United Auto Workers members at General Motors and get into the hands of interested readers. The company’s action angered workers, many of whom Caterpillar in the United States to gold miners in South Each subscription to the M ilita n t or Perspectiva believe that the temporaries should be made permanent Africa. M undial, or copy of New International or To Speak the and get the same wages and benefits as others. Currently The experiences of the first three weeks of the interna­ Truth, is a precious tool in the hands of workers or youth the temporaries get only 70 percent of the wages earned tional campaign to sell the socialist press is proof positive trying to understand what is happening in the world and by permanent workers and receive no benefits. that many fighting workers and youth arc looking for the how they can act to change it. With an all-out push during One group of workers at the Linden plant took up a answers the M ilita n t provides. Already more than 800 the target week, we can head into the second half of the collection and organized a going-away party for the tem­ people have purchased introductory subscriptions to the international drive on course and help arm a new genera­ poraries, including a cake decorated with the words, paper. The challenge now facing every single supporter tion of fighters for the battles ahead. “ Good-bye for now — Future GM employees."

14 The Militant October 10,1994 GREAT SOCIETY Coming up next? — Respond­ Haitian mob lynches unpopular speculators gambling on the open­ today’s crop of seniors. Currently, denial was persuasive. “ I don’t ing to skeptical media questions, president. U.S. Marines invade ing of a free market in Cuba. One half the people over 65 have in­ even know how to use a parking Madeleine Albright, U.S. rep to Haiti to restore order and enforce broker judiciously observed: comes less than $10,200. meter, let alone a phone box,” she the United Nations, said, “ The the country’s financial obligations “ People are inventing places to in­ declared. president has more facts than you to American creditors.” vest.” Give that man another prize all have.... If Haiti were threat - — At that Boston confab, Frank First prize, a seat on the stock They rate — While Cuban Friendly gesture — According Modigliani, a Nobel Prize winner exchange — Celebrating the 45th rafters were being shipped to to the Los Angeles Times, the in economics, suggested scrapping anniversary of the People’s Re­ Guantanamo, the dogs and other Haitian army “ is equipped with the Social Security system and let­ public of China, there w ill be a pets that accompanied some of Israeli-made assault rifles and ting folks make their own invest­ revolutionary song contest with them were taken to the Key West other lesser weapons.” ments for the future. Which is re­ entries judged by a committee of animal shelter. Several of the dogs ally a neat idea, when you consider top government officials and have already been turned over to A needless problem------A how well-heeled everyone is, and “ veteran revolutionaries.” the owners’ relatives in Florida. Boston College parley on financial how stable the market is. markets heard a warning that the Sounds like a healthy plan — One born every minute — Social Security system will be Now there’s an alibi — We Prez Clinton promised to make ened by communism, none of you Buying worthless stock with the worth “ little more than food didn’t keep up on the allegation the government “ user friendly,” would be raising these questions.” hope of reselling it at a profit has stamps when the baby boomers re­ that Britain’s Princess Diana made with phone calls and mail an­ been dubbed the “ greater fool” ap­ tire.” One broker responded that some 300 crank calls, some from swered more quickly, improved Which was the “mob” — One proach to speculating. Currently the problem is people don’t save pay phones, to the chap acting as postal service, shorter waits at vet­ newspaper chronicle of U.S.-Haiti two mutual funds are enjoying a enough and don’t invest wisely. go-between for her and her es­ erans hospitals, and more helpful relations opened: “ 1915 — brisk turnover in stocks among This must have also been true for tranged spouse. But we think her people at federal agencies. Curtis describes prison conditions in ‘the hole’

BY MARK CURTIS until I ’d had a chance to FORT MADISON, Iowa, Saturday, September meet with him. This too 17 — Thirty days in the hole and one year in lockup. was denied. That’s the punishment the prison judge handed me on Secret “ evidence” Monday when he found me in violation of Rule no. against me, in the form 2 — assault. of a “ confidential infor­ Last night my appeal came back, denied, and I started mant” statement, was serving my hole time. Two guards handcuffed me, locked determined to be me in the shower, and searched my cell. They removed “ reliable.” The judge re­ the items I’m not allowed to have, radio and headphones, fused to let me know a nd put me back in my cell. They exchanged my boots for what it said or who said it, but he claimed it was an inmate eyewitness who saw me assault a BEHIND guy who was awaiting an examination in the PRISON hospital outpatient area. The other evidence was WALLS a transcript of a re­ corded interview with a nurse who says she ob­ a pair of canvas slippers. If I ’d had canteen food or to­ served the alleged as­ bacco, that would’ve had to go, too. Under prison rules, sault. no one can be in the hole more than 10 days in a row, so I denied assaulting I will serve 10 days in, then one day out, then 10 days in, anyone and pointed out one out, etc., until 30 days are up. that the nurse did not Thirty days in “ the hole” (Disciplinary Detention) is identify me at the time- the maximum that can be legally handed out under prison and that the transcript rules. I also lost 365 days of the good time I had earned itself is mainly a state­ over the last six years, time that had shortened my release ment from two guards, Defense committee supporters John Studer, Natalie Bombaro, and Kate Kaku visit date. On Monday I w ill file a “ supplementary appeal.” with one or two word Mark Curtis in Ft. Madison, Iowa, in September. “I ’m kept company by the campaign Like my first appeal, it gets heard by a prison administra­ responses by the nurse. fighting for my release,” Curtis said. tor here. A final appeal is heard by a Department of Cor­ It wasn’t signed or ini­ rections official in Des Moines. Anything further would tialed by anyone, and had a coached character to it. The “ White Power,” “ God Rules,” and, on the most recent have to be taken to state or federal court. judge admitted that the transcript was “ not the best evi­ one, “ Hands O ff Cuba Viva Fidel!” The bars are thick dence,” but that it would be used because it with uncounted coats of paint, and the cracked plaster on Prisoners don’t stand a chance “ corroborated" the confidential information. the ceiling and walls crumbles a little each day. Near the As my situation shows, a prisoner doesn’t stand a A witness statement by my coworker and a report by wall across from my cell is a hole in the floor through chance when the prison accuses him of a rule violation. a guard both proved I never admitted to assaulting any­ which an electrical conduit passes. Early in the morning, The hearing itself is a true kangaroo court. I had been in one. Even the judge had to agree to that fact. The prison when not a creature is stirring, I ’ve seen a rat also using lockup for almost three weeks before going before Ad­ Internal Affairs officer who conducted the investigation that tunnel to visit C range. ministrative Law Judge Charles Harper. The judge is ap­ wrote the lie in the disciplinary report — that I admitted I ’ve been able to keep some of my books, soap, tooth­ pointed by the Department of Corrections. to the assault. paste and deodorant, my files and my radio and head­ The hearing was held in the lockup cell house. I was phone, except for while I ’m in the hole. My typewriter, handcuffed behind my back and couldn’t take notes or Half-hour hearing which I sorely miss, tape player, personal clothes, and turn the pages of the written material they placed in front The hearing lasted a half hour and less than two hours other items will be kept in storage until I finish my one of me except with a not-very-successful contortionist ma­ later the judge came by my cell and handed me his deci­ year of lockup or overturn the report. neuver. When I asked to at least be called in front, my sion: Guilty of assault; not guilty of threats and intimida­ request was denied even though I already had leg shackles tion, damage to property, and obstructive/disruptive con­ Conditions meant to isolate prisoners on and two guards were present. I also requested that my duct. The purpose and effect of these conditions is isolating. lawyer be present or at least that the hearing be postponed I’m doing my hole time in the same cell I ’ve been in Especially in the hole, with no TV or radio, no phone since August 23 when the cops brought me straight here calls, and on weekends no exercise or mail — all you from my job at the hospital. Its in cell block 319, the have is the other guys on the range. A good bit of cama­ main lockup unit, which contains about 100 cells. raderie exists on our range and I suspect it does every­ There are 26 “ ranges,” or rows, of seven or eight sin­ where. Even if you can’t see the other men on the range, gle cells to a range. The first cell in “ C” range, which is you can be heard. “ You doing all right down there in the my range, has been converted into a shower. My cell is hole, Curtis?” a guy asks me. “ Let me know if you need next to that, with six more cells down from me. The cells anything.” measure about five and a half by eight feet. An L-shaped I already knew a couple guys on my range from doing piece of steel, bolted to the wall and floor, with a foam time together at the medium-security unit. Most have been rubber mattress on top, makes the bed. We get sheets, very surprised to hear what happened to me, how much two blankets, and a pillow. There is a sink and toilet but punishment the judge threw at me, and that criminal pros­ no mirror. Two shelves, a small stool, and a foot locker ecution was a possibility. “ You know why they’re doing hold my things, and I have a table where right now I’m all that to you," said one. “ Its because of your political writing this as I sit on my bed. stuff, they don’t like that, Mark.” We exercise outdoors for one hour a day, Monday to Political discussions like anywhere else take place in Friday, in chain-link and barbwire pens. This is the high the exercise pens. Last week we were talking about Haiti point of the day, seeing the sun, other prisoners in the and someone mentioned that he’d just seen some program pens and those in the yard, standing just beyond off- on TV that showed how the U.S. had invaded Haiti earlier limits boundary. All other time is spent in your cell, in­ this century. cluding for meals. Any time out of the cell you will be Fortunately, quite a few people have gone out of their handcuffed — walking to exercise, to a visit, or to a way recently to pay me a visit. Close friends like Kate shower. We shower three times a week and argue for ev­ Kaku, Natalie Bombaro, and John Studer spent their La­ ery second of the 10 minutes we get to shave and bor Day weekend with me. Stu Singer, a founder of my cleanup. defense committee surprised me by coming to see me dur­ ing his vacation. I’ve seen copies of the messages sent to 100-year-old cell house the prison and the Department of Corrections protesting Cell house 319 is more than 100 years old and I won­ this frame-up. der how many men have been locked in this cell. A bul­ These conditions, although no picnic, lend themselves letin board on the wall carries the graffiti slogans of past to reading and writing and I’m doing both, inspired and occupants: “ Gangsta,” “ Harley-Davidson," “ 5 Deuce,” kept company by the campaign fighting for my release.”

October 10, 1994 The Militant 15 Political conflicts in S. Africa sharpen

BY GREG ROSENBERG 20 that he had originally planned to attend informally dubbed Inhlalakahle, which money to compensate for what we’ve spent PIETERMARITZBURG, South Af­ the ceremonies to transform them “ from a means “ staying well,” in Zulu. here.” rica— King Goodwill Zwelithini, a tradi­ tribal event, which it has been, into a na­ “ We began occupying this land on April There is no running water or electricity tional Zulu leader, broke off ties with Man- tional event.” 22,” said Hadebe, a supporter of the ANC. in the informal settlement. Residents ob­ gosuthu Buthelezi, head of the rightist Working people in KwaZulu-Natal “ I came here because I have a bigger fam­ tain water from the home of a local ANC Inkatha Freedom Party, September 20. province, like other parts of South Africa, ily. We were living in another camp and leader further up the hill. “ We want reason­ This development marks the further disin­ are expanding their fight to wipe out our place was too small for everyone.” In able houses with water and electricity," tegration of the united front projected by apartheid-induced racist discrimination response to a question about whether there said Hadebe. “ We can create jobs with Inkatha against the African National this. I could paint cars. But without elec­ Congress-led government. The split is a re­ tricity, I can’t do it." sult of the advances of South Africa’s democratic revolution and the course Growing space for political activity charted by the ANC toward its goal of a This province has long been the political nonracial, nonsexist South African nation. base of Inkatha. A Bantustan system of pa­ Buthelezi, who is also Minister for tronage for land use was backed up by the Home Affairs in the South African govern­ KwaZulu police and hit squads armed and ment, finds himself increasingly isolated trained by the South African government. and fighting for political survival. On The democratic elections in April and the September 25, in an action viewed by political fight waged by the ANC leader­ many as bizarre, he and his bodyguards ship to lessen the tensions have resulted in charged onto the set of a live television growing space for political activity and a show and physically accosted Prince Sifiso sharp drop in violence. This enables work­ Zulu, who had said that the Inkatha leader ing people to unify and fight for their de­ was no longer principal adviser to the king. mands on a class basis, weakening tribal divisions and arguments over political af­ Rift widens among Zulu leaders filiation. The rift between Buthelezi and tradi­ In nearby Happy Valley, formerly a tional Zulu leaders, who had been allied to township for so-called Coloreds, resident. c him earlier, sharpened at the beginning of have fought to share services and cooper­ September when South African and ANC ate with the growing squatter camp next president Nelson Mandela announced he door, which is populated by Africans. "The would be attending the annual Shaka Day so-called Colored people here speak celebration with the support of the king. Zulu,” said Mervyn Dirks, chair of the Buthelezi strongly protested. On Septem­ ANC branch in Happy Valley. “ I ’m not a ber 19, Mandela met with Buthelezi and Colored,” remarked Victor Santorius. “ I’m Zwelithini at the royal residence in Non- a South African.” Militant/Greg Rosenberg goma. Following the meeting, Mandela re­ Nurses at King Edward Hospital rally in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, Septem­ “ When poor whites come here, to drink ported that both had advised him not to at­ ber 16. Working people are expanding fight for their interests across South Africa. in the shebeens (township bars), there’s no tend the Shaka Day events and that he problems. But there are problems with rich would not participate. whites,” said Dirks. “ It’s moving from a As Mandela was waiting to depart, and win land, housing, jobs, services, and have been many changes since the elec­ race thing to a class thing.” Inkatha supporters, angered by the meet­ health care. tions in April, he said, “ Little changes. But ing, shouted anti-ANC slogans and stoned Land occupations to demand housing now we’re not forced off the land by the Debate over housing policy the ANC president’s helicopter. Zwelithini are sweeping through this area. More than KwaZulu police,” who were formerly un­ A growing debate on government hous­ announced the cancellation of Shaka Day 7 million people in South Africa live in der the control of Buthelezi as chief minis­ ing policy is also emerging around the suc­ shortly after the gathering, citing the intim­ squatter camps. ter of the Bantustan. cessful protests by residents of Johannes­ idating actions of Buthelezi’s supporters. Hundreds of houses sit on the steep hills burg’s southwestern townships for a flat- The Inkatha leader, however, organized his ‘Now we are not forced off the land’ in view of Inhlalakahle. “ If someone tries rate municipal services fee and the write­ backers to make sure the Shaka Day events On a hillside next to what was formerly to move us, we will tell them we can only o ff of back debts owed for the substandard took place. An estimated 10,000 people at­ an Indian township here, Rafael Hadebe, a move under certain conditions,” Hadebe housing in which they currently live. tended the commemorations on September 32-year-old automobile painter, explained said in response to rumors that the govern­ National Housing Minister Joe Slovo re­ 24 in KwaMashu, bearing spears, shields, why he was busy building a house of wood ment was going to pressure squatters to cently joined in this debate. Slovo, a mem­ and clubs. and mud. Dozens of primitive dwellings leave. “ We must be able to build houses as ber of the ANC national executive commit­ Mandela told SABC TV on September are springing up on the hill, in a settlement good as these here. And we have to get tee and chairman o f the South African Communist Party, denounced regional ANC officials for promising that the cen­ tral government would foot the bill. Gun pulled on Caterpillar strikers; Pretoria-Witswatersrand-Vereeniging (PWV) housing minister Dan Mofokeng’s call for wholesale cancellation of personal rent and service charge debts was “ fiscally company tries to create racial stir unsustainable,” and has “ no basis in law,” Slovo argued. BY KATHY RETTIG around. Our wives and kids were there. A breach of safety precautions and the victim National housing ministry spokesperson AND JOHN STAGGS man was going to shoot our wives and was an experienced employee,” said Cater­ Stephen Laufter said, “ To help those peo­ YORK, Pennsylvania — An individual kids.” Both he and Orndorff said they pillar spokesman Jeff Hulfish. ple who already have houses by scrapping got out of his vehicle while leaving the shouted scab at the people in the car, but “ The whole place is a nightmare,” Barry their arrears is to harm those who do not Caterpillar plant here August 30 and bran­ did not yell racial slurs. Koicuba, president of UAW Local 786, have houses.” dished a gun at the 100 strikers and their said. He pointed out that the company will An editorial in the September 23 C iti­ supporters who were on the picket line that Company tries to smear union not even allow officials from the Occupa­ zen, which reflects the views of the Na­ evening. Those walking the line included a John Williams, a striker who is Black, tional Safety and Health Administration tional Party, stated, “ Billions of rands are delegation of strikers from Caterpillar was picketing that night on the line across into the plant. This “ means they have seri­ simply not available for the asking.... Mr. plants in Illinois, who had just addressed the street. “ Ray Charles can see through ous problems," he said. Slovo talks good sense.” the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local this,” he said at the press conference. During an interview in a local coffee 769 weekly information meeting in York. “ Caterpillar plans to cause a racial stir shop, one replacement worker explained UAW bargaining chairman Terry Orn­ among the membership.” that the company had allowed her a special dorff reports that Darryl Doleman, who is “ Caterpillar is trying to turn this into a schedule to accommodate her child-care racial situation and that’s not true at all,” Black, pulled the gun on the pickets. Dole­ arrangements. She said that meals are pro­ man was driving out of the plant after drop­ Orndorff later told the York Dispatch. vided free on the weekend to induce people "Racial issues have never been an issue in ping off his wife, who is employed by to work. Recently the company held a ban­ Caterpillar as a “ temporary replacement this local.” quet for all the workers to tell them that worker.” When Orndorff went to the police The police have taken other steps to in­ production was excellent and they did not timidate the strikers. On September 6, they to report the incident, he was charged with need to worry about their jobs since the filed charges of harassment and criminal harassment and ethnic intimidation. Later, company was not going to give an inch on Caterpillar suspended him for five days. mischief against 10 UAW members in con­ the union’s demands. Strike supporter Duane Burlingame was nection with the August 1 solidarity rally also charged with harassment and ethnic outside the Caterpillar plant. The mass Caterpillar continues to hire scabs. The intimidation. Doleman was charged with picket line of more than 500 people was September 18 Philadelphia Inquirer ad­ simple assault. successful in preventing most of the scabs vertised for job openings at Caterpillar “ I am innocent,” Orndorff said at a press from entering the plant that day. plants in Illinois. “ 85 needed.... $23 to $32 conference called by the union to refute the O.T.... W ill be working during a labor dis­ charges. “There is no way they can prove Plant is ‘a nightmare’ pute.... Immediate openings. A ll shifts,” the ad said. it, because it didn’t happen.” On September 8, a UAW member who Striker Kenneth Hite, who was also on crossed the picket line was seriously in­ the line during the incident, said, “ This jured when steel coils weighing thousands John Staggs is a member of UAW Local man was recklessly pointing his gun all of pounds fell on his leg. There was “ no 1695 in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

16 The Militant October 10, 1994