No power can stop march of

Cuban people, says eyewitness

By MYRTLE BERGREN
ur plane was not able to
‘land in Havana on schedule
due to a heavy rainstorm there,
and we spent our first night in
Cuba at Camaguey airport. Next
morning we flew over the dis-
persing clouds, looking down on
the green fields, palm trees, and
the blue Caribbean shores ofthat
gentle and vulnerable little
island. Little paradise might in-
deed be more accurate, words
‘that some of the Cuban workers
-were to use to us in the weeks
to come.

From the time we landed we
were surrounded with hospitality
and kindness of a different kind
from any we had seen since war-
time. For these people there was
no commercialism, no pro-
fessional catering to our wants
for the profit motive involved,
but instead a warm humanism.

In their eagerness and pride
to share with us all the good things
of their country, and in their
desire to show us what was left
of the pain and misery their little
isiand had risen from, they took
us to their hearts. That night we
were taken to a New Year’s
Eve party that will be unforget-
table, with 200 delegates from the
far flung countries of Asia,
Africa, Europe and all the Amer-
icas, many of them in robes and
costumes of their native land.

On January 2nd, the fifth nat-
ional celebrations of the Cuban
revolution took place, when a
million and a half people surged
into Havana’s Revolution Square
to climax the address of Fidel
Castro, and thundered their 26th
of July national anthem. A sea
of people linked armsand swayed
to the singing of the International
in most of the languages of earth,
and from the speakers stand,
looking down upon us all, were the
huge pictures of Karl Marx, NS
I. Lenin, and Jose Marti, the
great Cuban martyr.

eo
We travelled from Pinar del

Rio province in the west to Ori-
ente province in the east where
the Sierra Maestra gave birth to
the revolution. There we saw
rivers red with mud, and flats
of cracked earth left over from
the hurricane disaster, but the
earth and the climate had covered
almost all the land with new
growth. We found this symbolic
of all Cuba, for the revolution is
quickly covering the scars of
the old corrupt and poverty-
ridden life of the people withnew,
and everywhere the old is falling
away, but signs of it can still
be seen.

In the land of banana trees
and orchids and bougainvillea,
the new houses and schools and
factories are blossoming every-
where. We visited some of the
new homes on three different
occasions, in separate cities.
Each one we saw was of granite
and stucco construction, with 3
bedrooms, a living room, kitchen
with modern sink, and gas stove,

Photo taken at Havana, Cuba shows Dean Hewlett
Johnson with Canadian delegates at recent fifth an-
niversary celebrations. Left to right are: Mrs. Hewlett

plus bathroom, Each housing unit
contained from 500 to 6000
families, andhad its own shopping
centre, schools, kindergarten,
poli- clinic, automatic laundry
facilities, transportation, and so
on.

There are still many people
living in bohios in the country-
side and poor housing in the
cities, and the people are facing
up to this with all the determina-
tion at their command. They are

‘doing so much, so fast, that it

is impossible for them to have
moved everyone into new houses
yet.

All the men of Cuba are work-
ing now, and a high percentage
of the women, The government
provides facilities for women
to work, such as kindergartens,
community dining rooms, and so
on. ;

A tremendous program of con-
struction and expansion is going
on, with housing, factories,
school cities, road building,

Johnson, Mrs. Carl Erickson of North Burnaby (her

husband took the photo), the Dean, Mrs. Helen Claus
of Toronto, and Mrs. Myrtle Bergren of Lake Cowi-
chan, the author of this article.

mining, fishing, ship building,
and a thousand other projects.
We visited a thermo- electric
plant at Santiago de Cuba in two
different constructions, one lying
in a maze of pipes and refrac-
tory brick, etc., all over the
ground, which will be ready in
December, 1964, and the other
almost completely built, to be
in production by the endof March
this year. Each will generate
50,000 kw., and will provide the
basis of a grid which will gen-
erate 500,000 kw., sufficient for
all the industries in Cuba. _
Along with this the government
has already begun work on three
hydro dams as part of a flood
control, irrigation, and power
project that will play a large part
in raising living standards, There
is a great water shortage in Cuba.
Being a small country the rivers
are small, and the twice- yearly
rains run quickly to the sea.
Up to now there has been too
great a reliance on subterranean

waters from wells, but the pro-
blem is that much of the well
water has escaped through por-
ous rock, and the sea water has
encroached into the wells. This
has been used for irrigation and
has ruined some of the soil. 4
series: of small dams will be
erected to conserve fresh water;

fight the sea water, reclaim the

land, help prevent such disasters
as the loss of life and property
caused by Hurricane Flora, and
in addition, provide 200,000 kw
of power for industrial use. Al-
ready the crocodile-infested Za-
pata~ swamps are being drained
into fresh water canals and 2
start is being made on reclaiming
the land for agricultural use

A big campaign is going of
right now to get the sugar cane
harvest in, since this is the
underlying resource of Cuba. All
the world wants Cuban sugary
and though she is producing 4
million tons per year now, they
plan on ten million tons annually
by 1970. With this Cuba will be
able to buy all the industrial
machinery and raw materials she
needs for basic and manufactur-
ing industries.

Already most of the machinery
they have has come from the
Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia,
along with the technicians to teach
them how to install and run it.
They are importing bulk metals
and manufacturing it. :

At one small screwand cutlery
metallurgical combine we viS-
ited, employing 300 men and
women who had previously lived
in slums and hardly ever worked,
the young engineer in charge told
us, **The government built new
homes for these people, but just

' moving them into new homes was

not the solution to their problem:

i; They have the right to work, and@-

right to education. So we made
these factories. We import the
raw material. If we bought the
screws and cutlery in some other
country we would be using our

See CUBA, pg. 11

‘Whith
By JOHN HOPE
urther to the discussion on
nk: the NDP?’ and
my contribution of Jan. 10, your
correspondent ‘‘Jacques’”’ (in the
issue of Feb. 7) uses one of the
oldest tricks in the world. That
is, by slightly altering another
writer’s statements, by ‘‘reading
into’? them meanings that are
not there, by carrying them be-
yond their obvious intention, he
then proceeds to‘‘prove’’ that the
other writer . ‘is ignorant
of what is happening . . .”’ and
6. «6is a disgruntled petty
bourgeois."’

For example, Jacques says that
throughout my article ‘*. .. there
is . .. a fine thread of contempt
for any idea of organized leader-
ship.’’ (Memories of the typical
company statement that because
the union won’t accept the com-
pany’s proposals the union is
holding a pistol to its head!)

In fact, I questioned the value
of one particular leadership—
that of the Socialist Caucus—just
the one that Jacques goes for. In
addition, Jacques would be more
convincing if he stuck to the
point under discussion, which is
the NDP’s future—not mine!

His somewhat abusive remarks
that I **. . . should align (myself)
with the Right Wing leadership’’,
that I am ‘, . . obviously not

NDP in B.C.? ’ debate continues

going anywhere politically’ and :

that I am ‘*. . . on unfamiliar
ground among militant workers"
read rather strangely.

Snide, personally - aimed con-
clusions are a poor and revealing
substitute for genuine argument.

As I understand it, the main
discussion should revolve
around: In what way can. the
NDP be mobilized to carry out
a correct program? Few people
will disagree with the Caucus’
8-point program as given in
Jacques’ article. However, the
problem is, how to make it a
reality?

The ‘‘fine thread’’ I attempted
to make run through my article
was to answer this question by
saying that until we got the basic
units of the NDP working within
the framework of the needs of the
people in their localities, there
will be no real NDP—or real
leadership, for that matter.

Real leaders in our movement
have never been imposed from
the top but have developed, with-
out fail, out ofthe people’s strug-
gles,

So-called ‘‘struggles” that are
limited to the convention floor
and born of some isolated group,
that are not the reflection of
real activity in ‘‘the streets and
the factories,’’ are of little value.

By JACQUES
previous letter I addressed
to- you dealt mainly with

questions raised by previous con-
tributors and never really got
around to discussing the actual
question under debate—‘‘ Whither
the NDP?’’

I am, therefore, taking the
liberty of addressing to you this
second contribution in the hope
that you may find it possible to
publish it in some future issue
of the paper.

As it appears-to me, the an-
swer to the question ‘‘Whither
the NDP?’’depends, in the main,
on how we answer the question
‘¢Whither the LEFT inthe NDP?”’
Believing, as we do, that the

ABOUT THE
DEBATE

In recent issues the PT carried
two articles by NDPers dealing
with the debate: ‘Whither the
NDP in B.C.?” On this page we
print their rebutal to each other.

The PT has no desire to shut
off this debate but we cannot
continue to give it the amount of
space we gave it before. We ask
our readers to write in their
opinions which will be carried in
our Letters-to-the Editor space.

Of necessity, letters should be
brief and signed by the author. If
a non-de-plume is desired please
state so.

Right represents stagnation, de-
cline and decay and that the
Left represents a forward look-
ing policy, the latter approach
would seem to be the positive
way of looking at it.

For the purposes of this dis-
cussion I propose to take as my
starting point the last provincial
convention of the NDP.

An important feature of the
convention was the appearance—

and tacit recognition—of the Left

as a distinct, organized trend
in the movement. A_ trend,
furthermore, that had consider-
able support in the convention and
enjoys wide influence and support
in the basic party organization.

This is not to say, of course,
that there are no shortcomings
in the Left—for indeed there are—
but the vital fact of the existence
of a recognized Left group must
not be lost sight of.

The outcome of the convention
was, to say the least, somewhat
of a contradiction.

The Socialist Caucus suc-
ceeded in making an alliance
with the non-socialist Left and
Centre which resulted in the en-
dorsation of a program which was
basically Left and progressive.

We did not, however, succeed in
maintaining that alliance in the

elections for office in the party,
The end result of this develop-

ment is; we have an essentially
progressive program, which thé
Left was pledged to carry oub
and a party leadership dedicaté
to a program virtually the exa¢
Opposite of what was endorse®™
_ This situation is bound to play
an important part in shaping the
tactics of the Left during thé
next period. I view the chi€
tasks and tactics as follow?

(1) The Left must carry on 4
concerted and all-out struggle
for the implementation of the
convention decisions. This, I D&
lieve, means—at this stage—the
fight for the program, even wit
its existing weaknesses. phe
shortcomings can betaken care of
as the campaign develops.

(2) It will be necessary for us
to undertake the difficult task
of building, strengthening 4?
consolidating the basic organ
zations of the party. This wil
have to be carried through
opposition to the leadershiPs
which is carrying out-a policy
calculated to bring about the
rapid dissolution ofthese orgal”
zations,

(3) The fight must be carried
forward—and won—for the affili-

~ ation of labor, socialist and pr”

gressive groups, organization®
and unions which are at pres?

denied rights of affiliation, th¥? |

See NDP, pg. 10

February 21, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page &