Marxist on Cuba

...Karol's criticism of Castro's economic performance matches that of many East Europeans, as I learned on my most recent visit to Cuba last summer...

...He can expect a highly partisan book written, as Karol says, "in a spirit of solidarity with the Cuban Revolution...

...It will likely remain so for years to come...

...His footnotes provide incisive background on a variety of diverse issues and are suggestive of more reading and thought...

...His book, now available in an excellent English translation, is certainly the most serious study yet written on the Cuban Revolution...

...With the support for Moscow in its dealings with Czechoslovakia, signals were reversed, and Karol appears to have lost heart in some aspects of Castro's Revolution...

...Much of KaroFs commentary on these changes suggests his own enthusiasm for the basic idealism of Castro's revolution, but his criticism of its performance is often trenchant...

...For Karol, China under Mao Tse-tung is more to his liking than the Soviet Union under Stalin, Khrushchev, or today's leadership...

...Much of Karol's commentary boils down to a two-pronged critique of the Castro Revolution: for being involved and caught up in what Karol calls Castro's "sugar obsession" and for becoming so much a part of the Soviet bloc, for which Karol has utter contempt...

...And while he does not say so, one suspects that Karol believes it possible that Castro may bring about a change in course sometime in the future...

...Noting the ten million ton goal and writing before the final tally of eight and a half million tons was in, Karol writes: "To win his gigantic sugar wager, Fidel has had to pay so high a political price that one begins to wonder if he has not mortgaged the entire future of the Revolution...

...It may not be the definitive book on the Cuban Revolution—and one suspects that such a book will be long in coming— but it is a significant and vital contribution to understanding Fidel Castro's Cuba...

...Yet, in reading Guerrillas in Power with this in mind, the reader is forewarned...

...Indeed, in reading these pages, it becomes obvious that Karol would have considerably less criticism for Cuba and the Cuban Revolution if the Castro government were not so tied to Moscow...

...However, in point of fact, there is no evidence that such a change has taken place in the year since Karol's book was first issued in France...

...Karol is obviously sincere in his criticism...

...It combines a wealth of research with a great deal of personal observation...

...In the years from the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 until 1968, Cuba had tended to stray away from the Soviet partnership, and Karol suggests that this was the proper course...

...It is at once scholarly and reportorial...

...Karol is staunchly anti-Stalinist, a position which springs from his years in the Soviet Union when he was a student and later served in the Soviet army...

...This point needs emphasis...

...But he writes with a sharpness of criticism which one would hardly expect from a Marxist...

...If Castro feels that Karol has betrayed his confidence, that betrayal is not intentional...

...Other work was either stopped or sharply cut back to provide workers and material for the sugar harvest and thus, in Karol's estimate, the 1969-70 harvest damaged the rest of the Cuban economy...

...For Karol, the situation is not irreparable...

...He has strong admiration for Castro and his ability not only to lead the Cuban nation, but also to alter course and bring innovation into Cuban experience...

...Reviewed by James Nelson Goodsell S. Karol's Guerrillas in Power stunned Cuban Premier Fidel Castro when excerpts of the author's critical comments on Castro's Revolution reached the island a little more than a year ago...

...And since its full publication in French, the book has become the focus of controversy among students of the Cuban Revolution...

...While he notes that "there are no signs" Castro "intends to carry out any repairs," he leaves the issue open...

...The overemphasis on sugar, at the expense of virtually every other aspect of the economy, has led many to argue that such a harvest was more harmful than helpful to the development of a viable economy...

...But it is Karol's text which is most attractive...

...Guerrillas in Power is nothing short of a fascinating, ably researched, and exciting look at one of the most interesting political phenomenons of our times—the Castro Revolution...

...As Karol points out, one of his own gravest disappointments in the Cuban Revolution was Castro's unexpected support for the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in August, 1968...

...Its one big flaw is Karol's passionate dislike of the Soviet system and its role in Cuba, which in some degree colors his otherwise penetrating view of Cuba and Castro...

...Karol, a Polish-born Marxist who lives in Paris and regularly writes political commentary for a variety of French and English journals, looks at Cuba with the eyes of one who has been a longtime intimate of Fidel Castro...

...He refers to Cuba's 1969-70 sugar harvest goal of ten million tons as an example of "economic pipedreams" and he is critical of Castro's inability to "use bureaucracy" for his own ends...

...It traces the Revolution's changes in course during its twelve years of existence...

...He spent time in Russian jails and regards the Marxism of the Soviet Union as a pallid imitation of what true Marxism should be...

...Karol is an able chronicler of the Cuban story...

...His own enthusiasm for Cuba's revolutionary idealism springs from a feeling that this idealism is of a purer sort than that practiced in the Soviet Union...

...He is also confident that the Cuban Revolution will eventually prosper—because of Castro and because of the Cuban people...

...Guerrillas in Power has already become essential reading for those interested in Latin America and in Cuba...