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Vol. 4 No. 4 January 1961

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Vol. 4 No. 4 January 1961 f KEEP LEFT CONFAB: Can Kennedy Defeat The Cubans? — Page 4 BLP Youth Vow to YOUNG SOCIALIST ht Right Wing's Ten Cents Voice of America's Future Expulsion Moves Vol. 4, No. 4 January, 1961 by Our British Correspondent "We do not recognize Gaitskell as leader of the Labour Party—we only recognize as leaders those who carry out con- ference decisions," said Dennis Gilligan, member of Barking Young- Socialists, at the opening of Keep Left's national con- ference. Applause echoed 'round the hall. Nearly 200 dele- gates from 47 Young Socialist branches and several Youth Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament branches gathered in Manchester to hammer out plans to implement the Scar- borough decision and to build a strong socialist youth move- ment in Britain. 'Stop publishing this paper' is® the directive issued by British strategy," stated Dennis Gilligan Labour leaders to Hendon and at the conference. Wembley Young Socialist branch- He went on, "Keep Left has al- es—the joint publishers of Keep ways supported young people in Left. Following the defeat of their industrial disputes but we also nuclear weapon policies at the think it necessary to bring politics Scarbrough annual Labor Party into industrial struggles and show conference, the Right Wing lead- that the fight can only really be ers have now decided to open fire won when industry is nationalized on that section of the Party which and out o'f the hands of 'prol.it most militantly campaigned seekers'. The fight against the against the H-bomb. The National bomb and the fight for better Executive Committee decided at conditions are one and the same its November meeting that Keep fight to weaken employers and Left—the rank and file Labour eventually put them out of busi- youth paper—must cease publica- ness by taking over industry. The tion. decisions reached at Scarborough both on the H-bomb and on The paper,is well known for its FAIR PLAY PICKETS: Several hundred friends and members of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in Left Wing views. During its ten Clause 4 can be the means to- wards recruiting thousands of New York staged a picket line at the United Nations building last month protesting U.S. foreign years of existence it has led many policy in Cuba. The enthusiastic demonstrators were anxious to show that some Yankees defend Cuba, campaigns against the Party lead- young people into the Party. ers on behalf of the youth. It has There is one thing holding us campaigned against conscription back—the right wing who would YSA RUNS PICKET: for democracy in the Labor youth rather split the Party than fight organization, against witchhunts the Tories." of Left Wingers, for the with- To this conference came greet- Boston Protests Venezuelan Tyranny drawal of troops f row the colonies" ings from the Maltese Labor I and has given support to young youth, the Canadian Young So- by Steve Levine to the people who had brought it ises and 'organized the movement trade unionists in industrial strug- cialist Alliance, the American into power in 1958. When the dic- of the Revolutionary Left as their -' Young Socialist, and the Japanese BOSTON—In a demonstration gles. of sympathy and support for the tatorship of Perez Jiminez was political vehicle. Demonstrations Socialist Students League (Left overthrown in that year by work- and street fighting broke out in 'KEEP LEFT' IN FRONT Opposition). They were read by embattled students of Caracas, Recently it has opposed at- the Boston branch of the YSA ers, peasant and student forces, Caracas and Betancourt summon- Elizabeth Thompson from the the people were looking forward ed the army, equipped with tempts by Hugh Gaitskell to re- Chair. called for the end of American move Clause 4, the nationaliza- military aid to the Venezuelan to a change in their conditions. American weapons. The students tion clause, from the constitution ROOTS OF STRUGGLE government headed by Betan- were forced to surrender after A member of North Kensington All the parties contesting the several of them had been killed. It has been in the front of the court. YSA members, their friends, election ran under the necessary campaign to stop the manufac- Young Socialists, Mark Jenkins, and other sympathizers number- The YSA announced its solidar- took up the question of interna- cover of socialist names. Betan- ity with the students and its sup- ture of the H-bomb by Britain ing about 20, marched in the busy court promised a program of land and fully supports the policies tionalism. He explained that the Harvard Square section of Cam- port for the Movement of the struggle in the Party was not just reform, of industrial development, Revolutionary Left. Much of the adopted at Scarborough to close bridge in December. and a reexamination of Venezue- rocket bases, cease manufacture a case of Gaitskell versus Cous- Later a street meeting was or- | crowd which gathered was sym- ins, but one which had its roots la's pro-U.S. foreign policy. Now, pathetic to the cause of the Vene- of nuclear weapons and to with- ganized and more than a hundred two years later. Little has changed draw from NATO. in the international situation as people gathered to hear speeches zuelans. The Boston YSA, whose The real reason for the attack expressed in Japan, Africa, an in Venezuela. United States own- members have played an active attacking the present Venezuelan ed oil companies still exploit the on Keep Left is its growing in- Korea. "The fight for peace Is regime. In line with the YSA's part in the Fair Play for Cuba the fight for socialism," he said rich wealth of the country in al- fluence amongst Labor youth. The policy of free speech, time was liance with the government, while committees, believes that only by national conference which the pa- and that is why the Tories were given to a member of the audi- such revolutionary measures as so disturbed about the situation the masses of the population live per held recently scared the of- ence, a Venezuelan student, who in conditions of poverty and dis- have occurred in Cuban can the ficials at Transport House, Labor's in the Labor Party. "They look peoples of Latin America free disagreed" with the YSA position, ease. H. Q. "The H-bomb decision was upon Gaitskell as a sort of lion to state his views. I themselves from U.S. imperial- an historic one because the Labor tamer—keeping the workers in In a handbill distributed to in- Not satisfied with a govern- ism. Observers of the demonstra- Party drew a line between the in- their place—who had suddenly terested passers-by, and in the ment which promised everything | tion commented that it has been terests of the working' class and discovered that the workers were impromptu speeches, YSA speak- and delivered nothing, Venezue- ' a long time since anyone has those of capitalism by once and not so tame after all." ers charged that the Betancourt lan students and workers called I marched through Cambridge and for all breaking with Tory defense (Continued on Page 3) regime had betrayed its promises for the fulfillment of all prom- called for socialism. 'WE HEAR YOU' CUBA: Mills Tells U. S. About Cuba's 'Great Moment of Truth' by Alice Pelkey " own strength. Within two years, ly free ..." (The writer just returned from a one-month stay in Cuba.) the Cuban people have leaped CUBAN POLITICS (Listen, Yankee, by C. Wright Mills, published by Ballantine Books; 192 pages, 50c.) from an almost animal existence Perhaps one of the most dif- C. Wright Mills spent a month in Cuba traveling and intervewing Rebel soldiers, intellectuals to what will prove to be a new ficult subjects for North Amer- and officials. He has written Listen, Yankee in the form of 8 letters to the American people ex- Renaissance. icans that Listen, Yankee deals pressing what the Cuban Revolutionaries would like to say. Prom this point of view, Prof- with is the question of Cuban pol- "The revolution in Cuba is a essor Mills' section on "Culture tical and economic program, dis- great moment of truth." Mills has ism don't show up yet inside the tion," is due to the "superior" in Cuba" is in many ways the cussed in letters 4 and 6, difficult captured this moment of truth be- United States. They show up capitalist system. Mills' Cuban most exiciting in the book. His because the Cubans do not have cause the truth is not about Cuba, down here, and you're not down presents a new image—in which Cuban says, "We are going to what is thought of as a "political it is a "great moment of truth" here. Down here is where it's the "American way of life" rests gather up all the young children program." They follow no poli- about the United States. After brutal — just as all imperialism on the tyrannical rule of men like from the impoverished and illite- tical ideology. As they say, "you the insurrection succeeded, and is brutal out on its own frontiers: Batista. And that is the "great rate corners of Cuba—all that name it what you wish. We're too the mask was ripped away, it was it can afford to be gentle and nice moment of truth," for the Amer- hitherto wasted talent — and busy building it." So their political not a corrupt Cuba that was re- in its home base, at least for a ican people. with them we're going to estab- and economic education is being vealed, but rather the United Sta- while." There is also a great moment lish in Cuba an intellectual and a developed with every new co- tes—all over the world—wallow- SHOCKS AMERICA of truth for the world.
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