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Cuban Revolution -A Critical Perspective

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Cuban Revolution -A Critical Perspective SAM DOLGOFF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION -A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE- P RINCIPLES, PROPOSITIONS & D ISCUSSIONS FOR L AND & FREEDOM AN INTRODUCTORY WORD TO THE ANARCHIVE Anarchy is Order! I must Create a System or be enslav d by another Man s. I will not Reason & Compare: my business is to Create (William Blake) During the 19th century, anarchism has develloped as a result of a social current which aims for freedom and happiness. A number of factors since World War I have made this movement, and its ideas, dissapear little by little under the dust of history. After the classical anarchism of which the Spanish Revolution was one of the last representatives a new kind of resistance was founded in the sixties which claimed to be based (at least partly) on this anarchism. However this resistance is often limited to a few (and even then partly misunderstood) slogans such as Anarchy is order , Property is theft ,... Information about anarchism is often hard to come by, monopolised and intellectual; and therefore visibly disapearing.The anarchive or anarchist archive Anarchy is Order ( in short A.O) is an attempt to make the principles, propositions and discussions of this tradition available again for anyone it concerns. We believe that these texts are part of our own heritage. They don t belong to publishers, institutes or specialists. These texts thus have to be available for all anarchists an other people interested. That is one of the conditions to give anarchism a new impulse, to let the new 2 anarchism outgrow the slogans. This is what makes this project relevant for us: we must find our roots to be able to renew ourselves. We have to learn from the mistakes of our socialist past. History has shown that a large number of the anarchist ideas remain standing, even during the most recent social-economic developments. Anarchy Is Order does not make profits, everything is spread at the price of printing- and papercosts. This of course creates some limitations for these archives. Everyone is invited to spread along the information we give . This can be done by copying our leaflets, printing from the CD that is available or copying it, e-mailing the texts ,...Become your own anarchive!!! (Be aware though of copyright restrictions. We also want to make sure that the anarchist or non-commercial printers, publishers and autors are not being harmed. Our priority on the other hand remains to spread the ideas, not the ownership of them.) The anarchive offers these texts hoping that values like freedom, solidarity and direct action get a new meaning and will be lived again; so that the struggle continues against the demons of flesh and blood, that sway scepters down here; and the dirty microbes that send us dark diseases and wish to squash us like horseflies; and the will- o-the-wisp of the saddest ignorance . (L-P. Boon) 3 The rest depends as much on you as it depends on us. Don t mourn, Organise! Comments, questions, criticism,cooperation can be send to [email protected] A complete list and updates are available on this address, new texts are always WELCOME!! 4 THE CUBAN REVOLUTION A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE SAM DOLGOFF CONTENTS AN INTRODUCTORY WORD TO THE ANARCHIVE ..................................................... 2 CONTENTS........................................................... 5 BIOGRAPHY ........................................................ 9 SAM DOLGOFF'S WORKS ............................. 10 BOOKS TRANSLATED BY SAM DOLGOFF10 THE CUBAN REVOLUTION: AN ANARCHIST PERSPECTIVE.......................... 11 (INTRODUCTION) ............................................ 11 CASTRO'S FRIENDLY CRITICS ...................16 From Waldo Frank to Rene Dumont................. 16 Dumont s Critique............................................. 29 Workers and Unions.......................................... 30 The Boss............................................................ 31 Censorship and Spying...................................... 32 Education .......................................................... 34 Cuba: A Military Dictatorship .......................... 35 Agriculture is Militarized.................................. 35 Dumont's Libertarian Socialist Proposals ......... 36 Dumont: Spurious Libertarian........................... 39 Wanted: A Libertarian Caudillo........................ 39 5 THE CHARACTER OF THE CUBAN REVOLUTION................................................... 44 A Non-Social Revolution ................................. 44 Nationalization Versus Socialism..................... 44 Russia and Cuba: Two Revolutions Compared 45 Revolution the Latin American Way................ 47 "Communism" a la Castro ................................ 52 The Real Revolution Is Yet To Come .............. 53 THE IDEOLOGY OF SPANISH ANARCHISM .............................................................................. 55 ANARCHISM IN CUBA: THE FORERUNNERS................................................ 63 Anarchism in the Colonial Period..................... 63 Struggle for Independence: 1868-1895 ............ 67 Anarchists in the Struggle for Independence.... 69 Cuban Independence: The Expansion of U.S. Imperialism....................................................... 69 Independence to the Outbreak of World War I: 1898-1914......................................................... 71 Russian Revolution to the Machado Dictatorship: 1917-1925......................................................... 75 The Dictatorship of Machado: 1925-1933:....... 79 Manifesto to the Cuban Workers and the People in General.......................................................... 81 THE BATISTA ERA.......................................... 84 The Communists and Batista............................ 86 The Crisis of the Labor Movement and the Anarchists: 1944-1952...................................... 88 The Role of the Libertarian Movement in the Anti-Batista Struggle ........................................ 97 6 THE REVOLUTION IN PERSPECTIVE: THE ECONOMIC BACKGROUND ....................... 101 ANONYMOUS HEROES OF THE REVOLUTION ................................................. 112 THE CUBAN REVOLUTION: ANARCHIST EYEWITNESS REPORTS .............................. 122 The Cuban Revolution: A Direct Report by Augustin Souchy ............................................. 122 Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Cuba, by Abelardo Iglesias............................................. 137 How the Communists Took Over the University of Havana by Andres Valdespino ................... 173 Interview With Cuban Libertarians by Roy Finch ......................................................................... 179 Other Reports .................................................. 183 Why the anarchists broke with Castro s regime ......................................................................... 188 THE POSITION OF THE CUBAN ANARCHISTS: SELECTED DOCUMENTS (1960-1974)......................................................... 211 Declaration Of Principles of the Libertarian Syndicalist Group of Cuba (Havana, 1960) .... 211 Miscellaneous Declarations 1961-1975 .......... 218 CUBA IN THE LATE 1960S AND THE 1970S ............................................................................. 238 Forming the New Man ................................. 238 Relations with Russia...................................... 240 Agriculture ...................................................... 243 Non-Agricultural Production .......................... 247 STRUCTURE OF POWER IN CUBA............ 249 7 Reorganization of the Governmental Structure ........................................................................ 249 The Judicial System........................................ 251 The Communist Party of Cuba (CPC)............ 252 People's Democracy and Decentralization...... 255 The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR)........................................... 256 Cuban Youth Rebels....................................... 258 Plight of the Workers...................................... 260 Union "Democracy"........................................ 262 Workers' Control and Self-Management ........ 263 Militarization of Labor ................................... 265 The Armed Forces .......................................... 267 Concluding Remarks ...................................... 270 NOTES ........................................................... 271 APPENDICES................................................... 273 On the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba . 273 Chronology 1959-1975................................... 275 GLOSSARY ...................................................... 284 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ....................... 285 Official Sources .............................................. 286 Other Background and Source Materials........ 286 Personal Accounts .......................................... 287 Critical Studies................................................ 288 8 BIOGRAPHY Sam Dolgoff (1902-1994) Sam Dolgoff played an important role in the anarchist movement since the early 1920s. He was a member of the Chicago Free Society Group in that decade, and co- founded the New York Libertarian League in 1954. He also was active in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). He was also the editor of the highly-acclaimed anthologies, Bakunin on Anarchy (1971; revised 1980) and The Anarchist Collectives: Workers' Self- Management in the Spanish Revolution, 1936-1939 (1974), Dolgoff also wrote Ethics and American Unionism (1958), The Labor Party Illusion (1961),
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