At Cuba’s National Assembly: what Castro said about China Following are excerpts from the address of Fidel Castro then still Prime Minister of the Revolutio- nary Government of Cuba, trans- ferring the state power to the newly elected National Assembly. The address opened the inaugral ses- sion of the Assembly, which later elected Castro President of the Council of State'and of the Council of Ministers. : Marxism-Leninism is really deeply international and, at the same time, deeply patriotic. The liberation, progress and peace of the homeland are indissolubly joined, in our view, to the libera- tion, progress and peace of all humanity. Anarchy, wars, unequal de- velopment, the fabulous re- sources invested in weapons and the risks awaiting humanity today are the natural fruits of capitalism. Along with its great scientific and technical achievements and the tremendous development of productive forces, capitalism — which came into the world, as Marx said, ‘dripping from head to foot from every pore, with blood and dirt’’ — will go down in history as-one-of the most cruel, predatory, shameful and deadly dangers in the evolution of human society, because today it repre- sents the most reactionary ideas, the most inconceivable waste of wealth, improvisation, irrespon- sibility and weapons more de- structive than human genius has ever before conceived. - Only the power, resources and prestige of the Soviet Union, heading the progressive forces of the entire world with a wise, vig- orous and persevering peace poli- cy, have been able to curb the threats and dangers that capitalism still represents for the world. That the most absurd things can. happen, even within the bosom of the socialist family and in countries that were among the The banking monopolies Ea first to take that glorious and re- volutionary road, when principles are neglected, when ideas are lost, when men become gods, when internationalism is aban- doned, is evident in the recent his- tory of China. That country, whose heroic and selfless revolutionary victory represented — next to the glori- ous October Revolution — one of the greatest and most inspiring hopes for all the peoples of the earth, has been the scene of the most brutal betrayal of the world revolutionary movement. It is not fair to blame those noble and de- dicated people, or the Chinese Communists, who have given so many proofs of their heroic vir- tnes and their revolutionary spirit. How then can the events that took place there be explained? How can the fact that China’s in- ternational policy has wound up associated with imperialism’s most backward forces all over the world be explained: its defense of NATO, its friendship with Pinochet, its criminal complicity with South Africa against the MPLA, its hatred of and its re- pugnant campaign against the Soviet Union, its cowardly attack on Cuba — to the extreme of join- ing with Yankee imperialism’s worst spokesmen in. presenting Cuba as a threat to the peoples of Latin America, which is like be- coming an accomplice in the blockade and infamous policy. of imperialist aggression against our homeland? All that can happen when a cor- rupt and arrogant clique is able to take over the Party, destroy, humiliate and crush the best members and impose its willon an entire nation, based on the strength and prestige that ema- nates from a deep social revolu- tion. I have always believed that the founders of a socialist revolutio- nary process acquire such author- ity and prestige among their fel- low citizens, such far-reaching power, that the unrestricted use of that authority, that prestige and that power can lead to serious er- ror and incredible abuses. And so I think and have always thought that, whatever the individual merits of any man, any evidence of the cult of the personality must be radically avoided; that no man, whatever aptitudes he may be said to have, will ever be superior to the capacity of the collective; that group leadership, unlimited respect for the application of criticism and self-criticism, socialist legality, Party and state democracy and discipline and the inviolability of the Marxist- Leninist and socialist standards and basic ideas are the only val- ues which can sustain a truly re- volutionary leadership. Once — to be precise, during the celebration of the 20th an- niversary. of the attack on the Moncada — I said: men die, the Party is immortal. Today I wish to add: no man can be above the Par- ty; no citizen’s will must ever prevail over that of millions of his compatriots; no revolutionary is more important than the Revolu- tion. The exercise of power must be the constant practice of self- limitation and modesty. Today there is a new political leadership in China. There has not been enough time yet to judge what is happening there. Incredi- ble things come out about the way a group of adventurers virtually seized leadership of the Party. What is not yet clear in the official explanations from China is how that group was arbitrarily able to direct China’s policy for many years and how Mao Tse-tung’s widow was able, during Mao Tse-tung’s lifetime, within the ranks of a Communist Party and within a socialist state, to commit those crimes. The experience gained from this must inevitably prove useful to the world re- volutionary movement. Corvalan in Moscow Top photo: Luis Corvalan General Secretary of the Communist Party of Chile an outstanding personality of the Chilean and international communist and working class movement w ith his wife Lili at Moscow airport. Centre photo: Enthusiastic crowds greet Corvalan on his arrival. Bottom photo: Leader of the CPSU, L.I. Brezhnev and Luis Corvalan during discussions in Moscow. Banks are monopolies, whether they be international or domestic. The bank- ing system, like industry, breeds monopolies. The commodity they mar- ket is money capital, which they bor- row at the lowest possible interest and Joan out for the highest interest at- tainable. For instance, a report published by Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. of New York shows that Canada’s external debt in 1975 stood at $34.7 billion and rose higher with borrowing on the international money market by an addi- tional $4 billion in 1976. This is exclu- sive of short-term, non-bank trade cre- dit liabilities. It is bank credit only. * * * What it means is that Canada is in hock to the international banks (mainly U.S.) to the tune of some $38 billion, and will go deeper into debt to the inter- national money lenders as the crisis hangs on. Try and imagine our collec- tive interest payments to the interna- tional banking fraternity on this debt alone. And, mark you, paid before fam- ily allowances, welfare commitments, old age and disability pensions. The principle feature of monopoly is its domination over a large part of pro- duction in any particular branch of in- dustry or business turnover. The part dominated, necessarily varies with PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 21, 1977—Page 10 Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World existing conditions. However, it must always be big enough to establish the company’s economic superiority over the small and medium firms, and to guarantee monopoly superprofits. The banking monopolies meet this qualification. *..** Banking monopolies, however, do not confine themselves to simply pro- viding credit. The banks buy shares in industrial companies, lend money against company securities and partici- pate in the development of new indust- rial enterprises. On the other hand, in- dustrial monopolies buy up shares in big banks, and in some cases open up their own banks. This brings about close ties between industrial and banking monopolies. Their interests are closely interlocked: In addition, strong personal links are established. Bank directors sit on the boards of industrial companies and company directors sit on the boards of the banks. What comes about is a merg- ing or coalescing of banking and indust- rial capital. * *K * In this manner a new type of mono- poly, a new type of capital — finance capital came into being. Lenin de- scribed finance capital as ‘‘particularly mobile and flexible, particularly inter- knit at home and internationally, and particularly impersonal and divorced from production proper (my emphasis); it lends itself to concentration with par- ticular ease, and has been concentrated to an unusual degree already’. It is important to always keep in mind that the big banks are part and parcel of finance capital. Their role grows steadi- ly, and their scope increases con- tinuously. In recent years monopolization has made rapid headway in banking and credit. In most capitalist countries the leading positions in the banking system are held by groups of three, four or five big bank monopolies. In Canada there are five major banks with thousands of branches across the country. Nine banks, each with assets over one billion dollars, control more than one-third of the banking resources in the capitalist world. * * Prior to the First World War only a relatively small group of industrialists could get credit from the banks. But today credit is widespread. The banks . surance companies, is to serve as ac- take their ‘pound of flesh’’ from the broadest layers of capitalist society. The banks make property mortgages ~ and consumer loans. They finance in- stallment purchases, either directly or indirectly, which yield vast profits, in” some instances earning up to 20 per cent. The system of specialized credit and varied financial institutions is typical of the recent development of the banking and credit system in the capitalist coun- tries. Mutual savings banks, loan and saving societies, pension funds and in- vestment groupings are commonplace today. Their main function, as with in- cumulators of the people’s savings at relatively low rates, and to pass them — on to the banking monopolies to extend capitalist accumulation and for making superprofits. This is the deadweight of capital and — lives off the labor of the working people — the creators of all wealth. Capital is a social product. It is high time that it was socially owned. This can be accomplished by nationalizing the banking financial and credit institu- tions and placing them under demo- cratic control. And, in this manner, transforming capital into social property.