No friends of democracy: Cuban strongman Batista feted by US President Roosevelt on an official visit to the USA in 1942
"Why was it forbidden for so many vears to put Leon Trotsky in relation to the Cuban Revolution?" (p21).
Celia insists that she has "not managed to find out": but the answer is not too difficult to uncover.
July Movement, which had fought and defeated Batista in the teeth of opposition from the Stalinists of the "Popular Socialist Party", was strong
oust the old regime, but was not based in the working class and did not have enough links or expertise in the trade unions to secure stable control over the whole economy.
And Castro's new regime, immediately under pressure from the USA, felt that it needed international economic and military support.
For its part the relatively new Soviet bureaucracy under Khruschev was looking to strengthen its hand against the USA: deals were done in which the July 26 Movement merged with the Stalinist with the Castro brothers in overall control, OUT considerable political influence handed to the Stalinists. In exchange the USSR extended military and economic support Cuba.
Moscow was prepared to allow Castro a degree of leeway in nationalizing the Cuban economy, and for some vears ignored Cuban efforts to export its model of revolutionary change by endorsing guerrilla struggles and left currents in Latin American countries.
But the new Kremlin regime under Brezhnev took a harder line - and from the late 1960s until the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s Castro's Cuba was required to operate within the boundaries of Soviet foreign policy.
The fact that Celia can now write freely about Trotsky and Trotskyism, and discuss many of the historical crimes of Stalinism appears to reflect auce more rede dace from the Cuban CP leadership which is now freed from the shackles of Moscow conTrOl.
However there are stil constraints, and it is not accurate to claim that the Cuban leadership were Trotskyists in pracuice
Che may have been the one to free the imprisoned Cuban Trotskyists on his return from Africa, and may well nave read Permaneni Revolution and had Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution in his knapsack in Bolivia (p25), but his guerrilla exploits in Latin America, however heroically inspired, never set out to lead a process of permanent revolution in which the working class would take the lead.
But as a treasure trove of ideas and neglected facts past and present, and a reminder of the historic legacy that helped give us the Cuban Revolution, Celia Hart's writings are very important.
We also need to see how these ideas can be further developed in the context of the Cuban political situation in the closing years of Fidel's rule. Chris Jones THE BRAZILIAN population will give their verdict on Lula's four years in office in a Presidential in October. They will also go to the polls to elect a third of the upper house of Congress, the whole lower house, as well as state parliaments and the very powerful state governors.
The main story will be the Presidential election and the apparent certainty of Lula's re-election, possibly with a better vote than four years ago. Socialists around the
will be watching closely to see how well revolutionary socialist and Fourth noteranona member Heloisa Helena does.
Heloisa represents the most militant opposition to ine neo-noeral agenda lal Lula has Taken together Lula and Heloisa are running at almost 60 per cent oI the vote - wnich means that the traditional oligarchic and populist parties and the social democrats are on about 40 per cent between them.
Whether these quite astounding figures reflect a shift in the SLIUCLUIC of Brazilian politics or just reflect the individual popupoliticians will be a key question for the future.
In 2002 Lula's party (The workers Party - PT) gained about 18 per cent of the Congressional vote against Lula's Presidential vote of 46 per cent.
rous result Dosed une DroDlem of how Lula could rule when Congress, particularly the upper house (Senate), was dominated by oligarchs from the undemocratically over represented small states. The left at the time advised that he should adopt radical measures and rule at the head of mobilisations for social change.
Instead Lula adopted a strategy of creating a national concensus, negotiated with the state governors and built a very dubious congressional bloc of support. This bloc later emerged as a centre of corruption and bribery, the ensuing scandal resulted in the departure of several central PT leaders.
Heloisa, currently running at 12 per cent in the polls (compared with far left votes of 1 per cent in the past), represents Those WnO have rejected Lula's right wing agenda and demand social changes which benefit the poor and rural and urban workers.
Lula's national concensus amounted to a deferment of social programmes, severe cuts in many ministry budgets and, most controversially privatisation of workers pensions and a very small programme of agrarian reform.
Expelled trom Une PT, Heloisa and others founded the Party of Socialism and Liberation (PSoL) and her candidacy has put PSol on the political map. The polls put her at 30 per cent in a straight fight with Lula and she claims to be the only candidate who can defeat him.
However the electoral structure does not hold out much chance for PSol gaining many ocals even if Heloise's presidential vote can be transfered to other PSol candidates. Many better off and better educated Brazilians support Heloisa as the clean candidate and she has accumulated some support from establishment politicians.
Why Lula winning, given his record? The bottom line is that he has maintained a strong base amongst the poorest, particularly in the North eastern states.
He is still seen as one of their own against a system that has always excluded the poor and uneducated. The trade Unlon confederation CUT has recently elected a strong pro-Lula leader to maintain their close support for him.
Lula has also consolidated a middle class vote based on financial management, paying off the IMF and raising Brazil's global presence. Ironically the failure to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas, vigorously opposed by the left, has probably counted in Lula's favour electorally. The congressional corruption scandal appears to have affected the PT more than Lula.