Sisters and Brothers:
I salute the magnificent courage of the Cuban Communist Party and its leadership, headed by Fidel, its uncomprising steadfastness to principle, as so many Communist Parties outside Eastern Europe as well as inside are becoming uprooted before the intense gales of world reaction.
I trust you received my prior letter in which I urged the Cuban Party to raise its voice still more forcefully against the abandonment of socialism, which by now has become quite obvious in Eastern Europe and seems to be developing in the Soviet Union as well. In that letter I pointed out that while it was impermissible to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries or try to impose one’s views, one could not maintain a neutral position in the name of the right of each nation to find their own way, since the cause of socialism in any country was of vital interest to the cause of the working and oppressed peoples worldwide.
I am delighted that Fidel has spoken with increasing forthrightness on these issues. Cuba is providing a political and ideological oasis for all progressive people who are fighting to find their way through the sandstorms of ideological confusion.
I would express only one reservation, if I may.
The thought has been put forward that while the security interests of the peoples of Europe, the Soviet Union and the United States may be in the process of being met, those of the Third World are not.
In my opinion, it is wrong to counterpose these interests in that way. For the fact is that the crumbling of socialism in Europe and the capitulation of the socialist states to imperialism, despite all the talk of the ending of the Cold War, despite all the plans to reduce armies and arms, presents the peoples of East Europe and the Soviet Union with grave new security risks. The looming menace of the colossus of a united Germany under the control of those same interests who financed Hitler and whom Hitler served, is but one example. The euphoria of the masses in East Europe in overturning socialist rule will not last long, as the realities of life as vassals of the transnationals and the IMF come, home to them. The military power of NATO will certainly be available to put down any attempt at socialist restoration. And the Soviet Union’s own security position is deteriorating dramatically.
The point is that the struggle for peace, for the principles of peaceful coexistence against imperialist diktat, whether in the Third World or Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, is one.” And while the imperialists will work hard to persuade the peoples of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union that their interests lie with the Western banks and major corporations and not the peoples of the Third World, it is our duty to assist in convincing them that the contrary is the case.
