CASTRO CASTRATED HIS PROGRAMME TO PLEASE THE STATE DEPARTMENT

The Batista exodus began in the early hours of New Year's Day. Soon after midnight the Cadillacs began to convoy the generals, the politicians and their racketeering friends out of Havana.

By hired ship, plane and schooner the scuttle went on.

It was the end for Fulgencio Batista. Ever since he led the 'sergeants' revolt' in 1933 this ex-farm hand, former barber's assistant and one-time NCO had bossed Cuba's six million inhabitants.

Twice as president, at other times as the real power behind the throne, he had ruled the Caribbean island on behalf of foreign capital and the most reactionary section of the native capitalist class.

With Batista went his henchmen and hangers-on. Men like Pilar Garcia, boss of Cuba's graft-ridden police force.

Built up huge fortune

It was Garcia's thugs who had tortured opponents of the régime and shipped their mutilated and dismembered bodies to their relatives.

Garcia had built up a huge fortune from prostitution, gambling and fiddling the street parking meters.

Another man who left in a hurry was Meyer Lansky. It was he who ran the gambling in Havana's casinos, as a result of a deal with Batista himself. An American citizen, he was formerly one the top mobsters in 'Murder Incorporated'.

As the thugs left the crowds came on to the streets. Hundreds of slot machines were smashed. One casino was looted. The notorious Principo prison was forced to open its doors and release its political prisoners.

People's hatred of Batista

As in Hungary in 1956—as in all popular revolutions—the victims of persecution began to revenge themselves. Many of the police were shot.

It was in November 1956 that rebel leader Castro landed on the island from Mexico with a task force of eighty men. Warned in advance, Batista wiped out all but twelve of the invaders within a matter of hours.

Castro fled to the Oriente province and began guerilla warfare against the government.

Bit by bit he built up his forces. What helped him was the people's hatred of Batista. To win their support he advanced a quite radical programme.

It included the nationalization of the electric and telephone trusts and the return to the public treasury of all taxes owed by the firms operating those services.

American firms have invested more than 316 million dollars in public utilities. Biggest finger in the pie is that of the American and Foreign Power Co., which in the past twelve months alone has invested 220 million dollars.

Under Batista such foreign investors enjoyed lush profits. By bribing officials they could evade payment of both taxes and rates. So Castro demanded the return of all the income obtained by tax-evasion.

He said he would give land to all tenant farmers with less than 170 acres.

He promised the workers 30 per cent. of the profits of all industrial enterprises.

To appease State Department

Last February, however, he discarded this programme. Obviously he wanted to appease the American State Department. After all, American firms have a total of 1,000 million dollars invested in Cuba, and the USA takes 70 per cent. of the island's exports.

In an interview given to Look magazine Castro said nationalization could never be as rewarding as 'the right kind of private investment, domestic or foreign, aimed at diversifying our economy'.

He added: 'Our movement has never called for the nationalization of foreign investments.'

At the same time he rejected a proposal from the 20,000-strong Cuban Communist Party for a united front and a coalition government.

Castro's watering-down of his demands led to a poor response to his call for a general strike last April. Just before the strike Homer Bigart, New York Times correspondent, wrote:

'A drive through the poorer districts along the waterfront was uneventful. It is in these districts that Senor Castro has need for much missionary work to convince the labourers that his revolt is not solely a middle-class affair.'

Their national pride offended

Castro does in fact get large support from the middle class. The police régime stifled the young middle-class intellectuals, and gave them little chance to pursue their careers.

Frustrated, hating the dictatorship, their national pride offended by the way the government sold out to British and American firms, the middle-class youth rallied behind Castro.

A section of the capitalist class also swung over to him, first of all because they felt he offered them a chance to negotiate better bargains with the Americans.

They had become convinced, too, that unless Batista was removed his excesses would lead to a revolt that would not only sweep him away, but themselves too.

Castro's final threat to burn the sugar crop made their minds up for them.

Once the middle class and sections of the capitalist class began to withdraw their support, Batista was doomed. His armies started to crumble. Thousands of his troops went over to Castro.

Won't appease plantation workers

Towards the end the workers and peasants, too, began to move. But it is not likely that they are going to be satisfied with the limited aims of Castro and President Urrutia. Castro has said:

'Ours is a special kind of revolution. It is political, not social. It is not a revolution of class against class, but of all social classes against the government—against a small army group.'

This is hardly likely to satisfy the 361,000 unemployed—equivalent to over three million unemployed in Britain.

Nor is it likely to appease the plantation workers, who are being exploited by semi-feudal bosses and American combines like the United Fruit Company.

Only by attacking foreign investments, by nationalizing the plantations and the nickel mines—the real source of Cuba's wealth—will it be possible to answer the needs of the island's poor.

The overthrow of Batista makes this advance possible. But it requires the leadership of a working-class party, which can unite the revolutionary youth, the workers and the peasants. Castro cannot give leadership of this kind.