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The Cuban Communists in the Early Stages of the Cuban Revolution: Revolutionaries or Reformists?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Samuel Farber
Samuel Farber*
Affiliation:
Brooklyn College
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Although the first Communist state in the Western Hemisphere was established in Cuba, scholars have paid relatively little attention to the old Cuban Communist party, which for many years was the only significant political organization on the island that claimed to speak in the name of Marxism. An analysis of the old Cuban Communist program, strategy, and tactics is significant for understanding social and political processes not only in Cuba, but elsewhere in the world. The growth of so-called Eurocommunism and the questioning of the revolutionary credentials of traditional Communist parties by others within the Left have led to voluminous polemics, but have failed to clarify the nature and role of traditional Communist parties throughout the world.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , 1983 , pp. 59 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

I want to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of several librarians at Brooklyn College, the New York Public Library, and the Lehman Library at Columbia University. The comments and suggestions of three anonymous referees and of LARR Editor Gilbert W. Merkx were also very useful. Last but not least, I also want to express my gratitude to several friends who helped me in this endeavor including: Robert Brenner, David Finkel, Milton Fisk, Samuel Friedman, Selma Marks, David Unger, Nelson R Valdés, and especially Robert Fitch, whose editorial judgment was truly indispensable.

References

Notes

1. I use the term Communist for the sake of simplicity and convenience. However, as should be apparent from the following discussion, I do not link present-day Communism with the “classical” communism of Marx, Engels, and many other revolutionaries who predate the rise of Stalinism. Furthermore, I also use Communism in a generic sense to describe a socioeconomic system even though, of course, each Communist state has its own peculiarities and individual history. Marxists use the term capitalism similarly, despite the fact that capitalist states like the United States, Japan, and Sweden are not identical.

2. For an explicit characterization of Communist parties in various parts of the world as reformist, see the informative works by Ian Birchall, Workers Against the Monolith: The Communist Parties since 1943 (London: Pluto Press, 1974), and James Petras, “Revolution and Guerrilla Movements in Latin America: Venezuela, Colombia, Guatemala, and Peru” in Latin America. Reform or Revolution?, edited by James Petras and Maurice Zeitlin (New York: Fawcett, 1968). The works of other authors such as André Gunder Frank and Régis Debray also tend to suggest that the traditional Communist parties are not revolutionary.

3. See the 1945 letter signed by French Communist leader Jacques Duclos, who acted as a spokesman for Stalin and conveyed to the world Communist movement the new Soviet cold–war policy. Under Browder's leadership during World War II, the CPUSA changed its name to the Communist Political Association and stressed its “Americanism.” It should be noted in passing that, unlike the case of the CPUSA and the unfortunate Browder, the Cuban PSP leadership managed to reverse itself completely without any major purges.

4. Breaks, of course, occurred between PSP leaders such as Aníbal Escalante and Fidel Castro; however, they were not due to these PSP members being opposed to Castro's moving Cuba towards Communism.

5. This statement does not mean to imply that all those who broke with Castro were reformists. The postrevolutionary exiles included many conservatives opposed to any significant social changes in Cuba, as well as a relatively small number of dissident leftists and socialists.

6. For a more extensive treatment of the history of the Cuban Communists, see my work, Revolution and Counterrevolution in Cuba, 1933–1960: A Political Sociology from Machado to Castro (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1976).

7. See, for example, the unsigned article “1879—J. V. Stalin—1959” in the Sunday supplement (Hoy Domingo) of the PSP's daily, Noticias de Hoy, of 27 December 1959. While lamenting some of Stalin's “mistakes” toward the end of his life, the article fully endorsed his social and political legacy. See also the article by Y. Zhilin entitled “Los comunistas” that attacks Yugoslav “revisionism” in Noticias de Hoy of 19 June 1959. (Henceforward Noticias de Hoy will be referred to as Hoy, according to common usage in Cuba.)

8. Movimiento Revolucionario 26 de Julio, Nuestra razón: manifiesto-programa del movimiento 26 de julio. Reprinted in Enrique González Pedrero, La Revolución cubana (México: Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, 1959), p. 124. (Emphasis as in the original.)

9. Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, “Reflexiones ante un aniversario,” Hoy, 29 July 1959, p. 1.

10. For analyses of the political role of intellectuals in prerevolutionary Cuba, see Roberto Fernández Retamar, “Hacia una intelectualidad revolucionaria en Cuba,” and Ambrosio Fornet, “Revaluaciones del movimiento cultural del 30,” in Casa de las Américas 7, no. 40(Jan.–Feb. 1967).

11. For a fuller discussion of this matter, see my Revolution and Counterrevolution in Cuba, 1933–1960, chapters 7 and 8.

12. Traditional, union-oriented social democracy was never a significant force in Cuba. Anarchism had been important until the twenties, but sharply declined thereafter. Trotskyism had some influence in Cuba during the 1930s, but most of its adherents eventually merged and disappeared into the populist Auténticos in the late thirties. By the time of the 1959 Revolution, Cuban Trotskyism had been reduced to a little-known, tiny sect. See Robert Alexander, Trotskyism in Latin America (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1973), pp. 215–35.

13. For a good rendition of this mood, see C. Wright Mills, Listen, Yankee (New York: Ballantine, 1960). See also the “Granma” column in Revolución, 16 May 1959, entitled “Hechos, no palabras,” and the article by César Leante entitled “Tiene la revolución cubana una ideología” in Revolución of 2 September 1959.

14. Partido Socialista Popular, La solución que conviene a Cuba (Havana?: n.p., 10 December 1958). This fifteen-page mimeographed pamphlet was produced clandestinely and may be seen in the New York Public Library.

15. Blas Roca, “¿Qué clase de revolución es ésta?,” Hoy, 11 April 1959, p. 1.

16. Blas Roca, continuation of report to PSP January Plenum, printed in Hoy, 28 January 1959, p. 1.

17. Cited by Andrés Suárez in Cuba: Castroism and Communism, 1959–1966 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1967), p. 38.

18. “Tésis sobre la situación actual,” Hoy, 11 January 1959, p. 2.

19. Hoy, of 27 January 1959, quoted Blas Roca as saying at a PSP meeting, “La revolución, para defenderse, debe hacerse más revolucionaria,” p. 1.

20. Ibid.

21. “El programa del Partido Socialista Popular,” Hoy, 8 February 1959, p. 3.

22. Lázaro Peña, “Problemas del movimiento obrero. Debemos combatir practicamente la discriminación racial desde los sindicatos,” Hoy, 29 March 1959, p. 1.

23. I am using the word “Left” here in the limited sense of anticapitalism and not in the broadest sense of opposition to exploitation and oppression whether under capitalism or any other socioeconomic system.

24. “Declaraciones del PSP. El PSP pide a los campesinos que impidan por si mismos las ocupaciones de tierras. Considera innecesaria y peligrosa la Ley 87.” Hoy, 22 February 1959, p. 1.

25. In my book, Revolution and Counterrevolution in Cuba, 1933–1960, I considered the possibility that the PSP may have encouraged squatting (pp. 230–31). After analyzing the PSP's attitude towards the Castro government in 1959 in detail, I now think this stance was unlikely, although some individual PSP members may have encouraged squatting on their own.

26. James O'Connor, “On Cuban Political Economy,” Political Science Quarterly 79(June 1964). Juan and Verena Martínez Alier have argued, on the basis of a study they conducted in the archives of the INRA (National Institute of Agrarian Reform), that the rural working class demanded land or work (“tierra o trabajo”), thus creating heavy class pressure on the revolutionary government and aiding in its radicalization. This study and its conclusions pose several problems. While it can be plausibly maintained that the rural workers demanded “land or work,” it is impossible to determine how representative the cited cases are of the total rural labor force. Conceivably, these cases may not have been representative, especially if one reasonably assumes that only the most discontented and needy would write, petition, or complain to the INRA. Furthermore, these authors seem to underestimate peasant and rural working-class support for the revolutionary government in 1959–60. The government's overwhelming credibility and prestige at that time would have diminished the impact of any class or political pressures. However, the most serious objection is that the Aliers failed to refute O'Connor's claim that in any comparison with the Chinese, Mexican, Bolivian, or Russian revolutions, Cuba experienced remarkably little rural turmoil during 1959–60. I would bracket the frustrated Cuban revolution of 1933, which took place with considerably more popular upheaval than the 1959 revolution, with the four foreign revolutions mentioned.

27. Blas Roca, “¿Qué clase de revolución es ésta?,” Hoy, 11 April 1959, p. 1.

28. “Informa Blas Roca ante el Pleno del Comité Nacional del Partido Socialista Popular sobre el programa del PSP,” Hoy, 7 October 1959, p. 1. Whether Andrés Suárez's argument that Roca's report was partly a polemic against other views within the party is accurate or not in no way affects my thesis that the party was able to “keep up” with Fidel Castro. Andrés Suárez, Cuba: Castroism and Communism, 1959–1966, pp. 73–74.

29. Blas Roca, “El programa del partido y la revolución cubana,” Hoy, 13 March 1960, p. 1.

30. Aníbal Escalante, “El marxismo-leninismo y la revolución cubana,” Hoy Domingo (Sunday supplement), 10 April 1959.

31. Quoted in Andrés Suárez, Cuba: Castroism and Communism, 1959–1966, p. 101. (Emphasis mine.)

32. This observation is true of even the PSP's most elaborate theoretical documents. See, for example, Blas Roca on “Socialismo” in his Fundamentos del socialismo en Cuba, revised edition (Havana: Imprenta Nacional de Cuba, 1961).

33. See, for example, Raúl Valdés Vivó's class analysis in “En el frente de las ideas,” Hoy, 19 April 1959, p. 1.

34. Columnist “Argos,” in his essay entitled “Con cien ojos,” criticized Minister of Labor Manuel Fernández for saying that the class struggle had been laid off (“cesante”). Hoy, 19 June 1959, p. 1. A couple of weeks later, “Argos” criticized Nasser for saying that classes could coexist even as nations could coexist. Hoy, 5 July 1959, p. 2.

35. Raúl Valdés Vivó, “En el frente de las ideas,” Hoy, 19 April 1959, p. 1.

36. Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, “Los industriales, los obreros y la revolución,” Hoy, 10 December 1959, p. 1.

37. Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, “Unidad revolucionaria, unidad popular y lucha de clases,” Hoy, 24 May 1959, p. 1.

38. Ibid. See also Blas Roca, “Consideraciones sobre lo dicho por Aguilar León,” Hoy, 8 July 1959, p. 1; and Blas Roca, “Informa Blas Roca ante el Pleno del Comité Nacional del Partido Socialista Popular sobre el programa del PSP,” Hoy, 7 October 1959, p. 1.

39. Blas Roca, “Consideraciones sobre lo dicho por Aguilar León,” Hoy, 8 July 1959, p. 1.

40. See, for example, “Llamamiento del Partido Socialista Popular al lero de mayo,” Hoy, 28 April 1960, p. 1; and Blas Roca, “Bases y fundamentos de la Alianza Obrero-Campesina,” Hoy, 26 June 1960, p. 1.

41. For example, Lázaro Peña, “Los sindicatos y las tareas de la Revolución,” Hoy, 28 March 1959, p. 1.

42. For a discussion of this issue, see my Revolution and Counterrevolution in Cuba, 1933–1960, pp. 136–44.

43. “Los trabajadores de todas las ideologías tienen que estar en desacuerdo con la Ley No. 22,” 7 February 1959, p. 2.

44. See, for example, Ursinio Rojas, “Cuota sindical obligatoria, ¿Para qué?” Hoy, 6 June 1959, p. 1; Lázaro Peña, “Discutamos la cuota,” Hoy, 9 June 1959, p. 1; and Lázaro Peña, “La cuota sindical obligatoria. Otros aspectos del mismo tema,” Hoy, 11 June 1959, p. 1.

45. “Condenan el terrorismo los obreros tabacaleros. Rechazarón la cuota sindical obligatoria y acuerdan se cobre en las fabricas por los delegados del Sindicato,” Hoy, 23 June 1959, p. 6.

46. Thus, the leader of the PSP sugar workers supported Castro's call for a temporary suspension of strikes in the sugar industry. Ursinio Rojas S., “Cómo defender las demandas de los obreros azucareros,” Hoy, 28 February 1959, p. 1.

47. Blas Roca, “Huelgas o ‘no huelgas,‘” Hoy, 10 February 1959, p. 1.

48. Carlos Fernández R., “¿Independencia de qué?” in “Sindicales de Hoy,” Hoy, 5 November 1959, p. 3.

49. See, for example, the speech by PSP trade-union leader Juan Taquechel in Hoy, 21 November 1959, p. 7.

50. Ursinio Rojas, “La asamblea plenaria de la FNTA,” Hoy, 19 December 1959, p. 1.

51. Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, “Sobre el programa de ‘La Marina’. Inflación, salarios y sacrificios,” Hoy, 16 April 1960, p. 1.

52. E.g., “Argos” column entitled “Con cien ojos,” Hoy, 12 May 1959, p. 2.

53. See, for example, Pelegrín Torras, “Panorama mundial. ¿Qué ocurre en el Tibet?” Hoy, 2 April 1959, p. 2; and the unsigned article entitled “La verdad de los sucesos del Tibet,” Hoy, 4 April 1959, p. 1.

54. Ladislao G. Carbajal, “Desde Budapest. La contrarrevolución húngara,” Hoy, 1 January 1960, p. 2.

55. Hoy, 31 January 1959, p. 1.

56. Pelegrín Torras, “Respuesta al Dr. Portell Vilá. La neutralidad posible y patriótica,” Hoy, 14 and 15 April 1959, p. 1.

57. Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, “Industria y nación,” Hoy, 8 March 1959, p. 1.

58. For example, Aníbal Escalante, “En Cuba o en el Tibet la propaganda imperialista tiene iguales perfiles,” Hoy, 6 November 1959, p. 1.

59. “Comunistas … ¿Para qué?” Unsigned article, Hoy, 22 March 1959, p. 1.

60. “Informe de Ramón Calcines al IV Congreso Nacional de la JS,” Hoy, 10 April 1960, p. 10.

61. “Reunión nacional de la JS. 50,000 nuevos militantes y 50,000 magazines Mella semanales en el año de la libertad,” Hoy, 25 January 1959, p. 1.

62. “Realiza grandes actividades la Juventud Socialista,” Hoy, 15 April 1959, p. 1.

63. “Cuatro mil nuevos miembros del PSP y tres mil jóvenes socialistas más,” Hoy, 24 May 1959, p. 1.

64. “Manuel Luzardo sobre la organización del PSP,” Hoy, 10 October 1959, p. 1.

65. Continuation of Ramón Calcines's report to the Fourth National Congress of the Socialist Youth, printed in Hoy, 12 April 1960, p. 6.

66. “Llama la Habana-Interior a vender 10 mil ‘Hoy’ el día 3,” Hoy, 29 April 1959, p. 1.

67. “Inaugura el ‘Mella’ sus talleres el próximo viernes,” Hoy, 27 August 1959, p. 1.

68. Continuation of Ramón Calcines's report to the Fourth National Congress of the Socialist Youth, printed in Hoy, 12 April 1960, p. 6.

69. Hoy, 6 May 1959, p. 1.

70. “Inauguran locales del PSP de la Habana en Carlos III,” Hoy, 9 June 1959, p. 1. “Inaugurados los nuevos locales de la Juventud Socialista en emotivo acto,” Hoy, 10 July 1959, p. 5.

71. See, for example, the report of a televised interview with Blas Roca, Hoy, 8 May 1959, p. 8.

72. See, for example, Lázaro Peña's comments on Ursinio Rojas's report on “La lucha por la unión obrera y la democracia sindical,” at the May 1959 Plenum of the PSP in “Terminó la reunión del Comité Ejecutivo Nacional del PSP,” Hoy, 27 May 1959, p. 1.

73. This ambitiousness was the context of the first major dispute between PSP leader Aníbal Escalante and Fidel Castro in 1962. See Maurice Halperin, The Rise and Decline of Fidel Castro: An Essay in Contemporary History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), pp. 149–59.

74. Interestingly, Carlos Rafael Rodríguez once revealed that Major Guillermo Jiménez of the Directorio Revolucionario used to consult him for political orientation and that Major Fauré Chomón, also from the Directorio, used to study Marxist texts with PSP leader Raúl Valdés Vivó. Cited in Maurice Halperin, The Taming of Fidel Castro (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), p. 53.

75. The “exceptionalist thesis” was elaborated by Aníbal Escalante, who maintained that the Cuban Revolution had not taken the classical road, but had developed first in the countryside and ultimately surrounded the cities. Escalante claimed that the PSP had assisted this process and helped open the way for the “Chinese road.” He concluded that the party should recruit aggressively and even usher these recruits toward positions of leadership. Edward González, “The Cuban Revolution and the Soviet Union 1959–1960,” (Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA, 1966), pp. 343–46.

76. Edward González, “Castro's Revolution, Cuban Communist Appeals and the Soviet Response,” World Politics 21(Oct. 1968).

77. See Felipe Pazos, “Comentarios a dos artículos sobre la revolución cubana,” El Trimestre Económico 29(Jan.–Mar. 1962). Mexico City.

78. Estimates of the proportion of PSP delegates at the Tenth Congress of the Cuban Confederation of Workers in November of 1959 range from 5 to 10 percent. For the low estimate, see Andrés Suárez, Cuba: Castroism and Communism, 1959–1966, p. 7. For the high estimate, see James O'Connor, The Origins of Socialism in Cuba (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1970), p. 192. It is generally estimated that at the time Batista fell, Cuban unions contained approximately half of the labor force of two million, or one-sixth of the entire population.

79. For a listing of some of the unions under “unity” leadership, see the account of the labor rally at Parque Trillo in Havana during the summer of 1959 in “Denunció Jesús Soto el mujalismo que aún perdura en el movimiento obrero. Mitin en Parque Trillo,” Hoy, 16 July 1959, p. 1.

80. For accounts of the labor movement under Castro written from different political perspectives, see Robert Alexander, Organized Labor in Latin America (New York: Free Press, 1965), pp. 153–72; and Hobart A. Spalding, Jr., Organized Labor in Latin America (New York: Harper, 1977), pp. 226–50.

81. “Manifiesto de la Juventud Cívica Unida de la Habana a las juventudes cubanas,” Hoy, 9 May 1959, p. 1.

82. “La juventud santiaguera unida en frente cívico,” Hoy, 14 April 1959, p. 1.

83. “Unidad monolítica entre los sectores revolucionarios de Sancti Spiritus,” Hoy, 6 May 1959, p. 1.

84. “Constituye en Marianao un comité de unidad, para defender la revolución,” Hoy, 20 November 1959, p. 6.

85. See, for example, the report of May Day celebrations entitled “La unidad fue el centro de los discursos del Primero de Mayo” in Hoy, 3 May 1959. Majors Montseny and Gálvez gave “pro-unity” speeches in Santa Clara, and on the same day, Majors Raúl Castro and Ché Guevara gave pro-unity speeches in Havana and Santiago de Cuba.

86. Thus, Carlos Rafael Rodríguez warned Auténtico leader Tony Varona that the latter was moving from an antirevolutionary to a counterrevolutionary position. Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, “En pie la nación,” Hoy, 16 June 1959, p. 1.

87. Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, “Punto y aparte,” Hoy, 15 September 1959, p. 1.

88. Carlos Rafael Rodríguez, “En torno a un discurso de Huber Matos,” Hoy, 12 June 1959, p. 1.

89. See Hoy, and the Twenty-sixth-of-July–movement's newspaper Revolución for the periods of 24–30 October (immediately after Matos's arrest) and 12–17 December (the trial of Matos). Citing this incident in no way implies agreement with or approval of Matos's views, then or now.

90. See the attack on President Urrutia by Aníbal Escalante in “Divagaciones sobre la justicia y defensa propia,” Hoy, 30 June 1959, p. 1. The Castro-Urrutia split became public on 17 July 1959.

91. Note, for example, the indirect and strange polemic between Raúl Castro and Ché Guevara with various Twenty-sixth-of-July-movement leaders in the days subsequent to 1 May 1959. After Raúl and Ché called for “unity” and attacked those opposed to “unity” at the May Day rallies, all of the Twenty-sixth-of-July provincial coordinators (except for Oriente's) published statements in Revolución arguing for “unity from below” and against “unity from above.” Neither side identified those being criticized. See Revolución's coverage of 4, 6, 7, 8, and 12 May 1959.

92. Euclides Vázquez Candela, “Saldo de una polémica,” Revolución, 14 September 1959.

93. For numerous examples of this cautiousness, see Andrés Suárez, Cuba: Castroism and Communism, 1959–1966.

94. For an important discussion of the various roads to capitalism, see Barrington Moore, Jr., Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1966). Of course, the choice and implementation of Communist approach will be affected by such decisive factors as whether we are dealing with a mass Communist party or a sect, or with a party oriented to the working class, peasants, or intellectuals. Also, my analysis applies only to the leadership of these parties because under so-called democratic centralism, the leadership effectively governs while the rank and file may come and go. Finally, I am not necessarily questioning the sincerity of leaders who may think they are building socialism and sometimes engage in heroic acts in pursuit of this ideal, just as the capitalist Puritans sincerely thought of themselves as doing God's work on earth.

95. For a suggestive and penetrating analysis of some ideological corporatist tendencies within capitalism, see Hal Draper, “Neo-Corporatists and Neo-Reformers,” New Politics 1(1961):87–106.