Glimpses of Cuba

By Lionel Edwards

Cuba Revolution Opens Gate
For A Bountiful Tomorrow

HE beautiful

this little Eden is some-

thing to behold. Iron and al-|! state

uminum oxide have given. it
a richness which mocks all the
legends of any fertile land. A
three crop year ‘is normal.
Commenting on its possibilit-
ies, a French economist re-
porting to the United Nations
said ‘Cuba can produce food
to feed eighty million people’.

The people say that the
blood of their forefathers was
the nutrient for the soil. Cer-
tainly hundreds of years of
tyranny, slavery and exterm-
ination, give credence to this
claim. :

But what of those who work
the soil, those forgotten men
and women, who in the tropi-
cal sun for’ centuries, have
raised the bountiful sugar,
the delicate tobacco, the rice,
the cereals and countless veg-
etables and fruit? A new day
has dawned for them. The rev-
olution. of the people has
swung. wide the gate to free-
dom’ and the beginning of a
bountiful tomorrow. Gone are
the foreign and absentee land-
lords. Gone is usury and the
bailiff’s writ. The land now
belongs to the people and no
one is big enough to ever take
it away from them again,

The great charter of change
is called the Agrarian Reform
Law. Enacted last year, al-
ready the results are stupen:
dous. Formerly 88% of the
cultivated land belonged to
the absentee wealthy. As few
as 1.5% of the owners had
46% of all the land. The rem-
nant was scratched at by a
few small holders, tenaciously
fighting to retain their tenure.
Now the provisions of the new
law are operative. For exam-
ple, no one can own more
than 990 acres and all are el-
igible for a minimum of 66
acres. In practice the average
new privately-owned farm is
about 100 acres.

Kulakism is ruled out. No
new owner is permitted to ac-
quire his neighbour’s land, nor
exploit his labor power. To-

growth of
farms, which before
long will negate private own-

‘ership itself,

Share cropping and its vic-
ious ground rent contract is
outlawed. Only a Cuban citi-
zen can own land and prefer-
ence in allocation is given to
rebel army peasants, head of
families and all others, who
suffered from the tyranny.

e

But what of the vanquish-
ed? Was and is there compen-
sation? Yes and more gener-
ously than some of them de-
serve. With the exception of
a few Batista criminals, for-
mer owners are paid off with
state guaranteed bonds matur-
ing in twenty years and in the
interim, yielding an interest
of not more than 442%. Does
this offer apply to former
United States owners, their
corporations and ; trusts?. It
certainly does. It is not true
that American property in
Cuba has.been stolen. The
compensation is there. If the
Americans are reluctant to ac-
cept, then let them reflect on
history. They .will never get
a better deal.

The highlight of agrarian
change is the rapid develop-
ment of the co-operative and
state farm. There are already
fifteen hundred of these in
operation and more are form-
ing every week. An amazing
awareness is already evident
in that the Cuban farmer
knows that collective farming
is more efficient, utilises mod-
ern machinery and gives a
greater yield. This fact was
slow in being appreciated in
some other lands. In Cuba,
there is mass understanding
of this most important fact.

We visited the co-operativ-
es of Hermanos Saiz in the
picturesque province of Pinar
del Rio. Our chartered bus
took us by the new workers
benches and hill top resorts.
Let me digress a moment and
tell you of fences that grow

into trees. We were told about

the base itself in Britain.

Great Britain.

Britain Endarigered
By U.S. Polaris Base

The. official Soviet news agency Tass warned last
Sunday that any incident touched off by. British-based
U.S. submarines might bring retaliatory blows against

The U.S. Polaris-armed submarine base at Holy
Loch in Scotland, has been widely protested against in
The Tass statement criticized Prime
Minister Macmillan for granting the U.S. base, which it
said was aimed at the Soviet Union.

red soil of; gether with this is the rapid this but would not believe it.
co-operatives and! Yet we saw with our own eyes

recently erected picket fences,
beginning to sprout branches.
Man! what a_ soil.

The co-operative is about
800 acres of tobacco planta-
tion and belonged formerly to
a criminal minister of Batis-
ta’s government. The whole
estate was expropriated by
the revolutionary government
and then given to one hundred
and twenty Negro families
who previously, had sweated
their lives out on this planta-
tion for a cruel and corrupt
master. This last year. the
harvest of the tobacco leaf
had been good. How did the
new owners do. Let me give
the facts in their words. “We
used to make $2.28 per day,
that is when we worked. Now
the government pays us $3.52
per day and we are steadily
employed.”

“Is this all you
year ” I asked.

“Oh no. We received from
the government after the crop
was marketed, $148,000.00 as
a surplus.”

“What did you do with it ’
I queried.

“We paid back to the gov-
ernment one third of the
money to retire the cost of
Our new homes and commun-
ity centre. Another third went
to help other co-operatives
get started. And the remaining
third was divided among our
own hundred and twenty fa-
milies.”’

We visited the centre with
its paved streets and electric
lighting., children’s school and
cafeteria. Around the centre,
laid out in pleasing design
were the new homes, furnish-
ed with modern comfortable
furniture. The whole com-
munity would vie favourably
with any new Canadian sub-
urban area. We were astonish-
ed. Was this oasis in a desert
of bohios or roofless huts a
mirage or was it the beckon-
ing countryside of tomorrow?
I could only murmur the
deathless lines of a great rev-
olutionary—

“Arise ye sons. The day of
glory has arrived.”

“The agrarian reform law |
is just and wise: Its implemen-
tation is a necessity in our
eountry. Its prompt © success
should be a matter of concern
to all Christians, who should
overcome | personal selfish-
ness. and pettiness in order to
contribute to the -best inter-
ests of all, with generosity
and. without resentment. as
good citizens of Cuba and true
followers of Christ.”

Next week: ‘The Cubans go
to school,” by Kay Edwards.

made this

on land formerly

government.

Farm workers of Cuba are howh hare esting Sugar cane
occupied by
Fruit Company which has been taken over by the Cuban
The second article by
this page describes the new Agrarian Reform Law whi ch
has revolutionized. agriculture.

the American United

Lionel Edwards on

MEXICO — On Nov. 20 the
Mexican government promoted
mass celebrations aeross the
country of the 50th anniver-
sary of the 1910-17 revolution.

Honors ‘were paid to the
martyrs of this struggle, be-
ginning with Francisco Madero!
and Pino Suarez, president and
vice-president of the liberal
regime that took office at the
end of 1911, who were mur-
dered during the Tragic Ten
Days of 1913. And every Mex-
ican school -child has heard

MEXICO MARKS |
20th ANNIVERSARY

in their murder by U.S.
| bassador Henry Lane Wilson, |
as well as of the unsuccessful }
attempt to save their lives

dor.

But the 50th
atmosphere of such uncertain-|
ty that a commentator in the|
weekly - “Politica” can
whether it is the birthday or
the funeral of the revolution|
that is being celebrated. And|
the people ask: where are the
gains of the revolution, who
is better off?

The Mexican revolution was!

pening. It was a fierce, largely |
spontaneous, struggle of feu-|
dal exploitation and. the .dom-
ination of outside capital; it)
cost over one million lives, the}
most -violent - and . protracted}
fighting ever to. have taken!
place in the Americas. |

The defenders of its achieve-|
ments can. point to the Con-|

reform, to the industrial de-
velopment, to the spread
education

electricity companies.

tion,

December 16,

something of the: role played|
Am-}

made by the Cuban. Ambassa- |

knows) is living i

subsistence level.
The celebration of the

versary saw

nis y

anni-
distinguished

fighters for the aims of the
revolution in jail on éhargeg

of sedition (the so-called crime
of social dissolution), charges
that clearly violate the consti«
tutional guarantees of free
speech contained in the Mex.
ican constitution.

No-one doubts that thera
was U.S. pressure behind the
action of the Mexican govern-
ment against militant union-
ists and progressives; that
taken for granted as I
of U.S. diplomatic behaviour,
Recently resigned U.S.-Ambas-
sador-to-Mexico Robert C. Hill,

| just elected to the state legis-

anniversary |
celebrations take place in an}

ask
| dicate to Mexicans

not in any sense.a minor hap-| Lopez Mateos,

| Their hopes remain in

and public health,| ment

and above all, to the expropri-} tricity
ation of .the railways and of! Light and Power, ete.) by tak
the oil companies and the pur-|ing over
chase of the foreign-owned | telephone

.—
lature of New Hampshire, hag
taken a job as director or pres-
ident (reports have varied) of

the United Fruit Company.
Nothing could more clearly in-

inter

the
ests for whom the State De-
partment and its
tives speak.

Many Mexican 1
| cling to the hope that the gov-

representa-~

progre

ernment of president Adolfo
now two years
in office, will carry out a

genuinely progressive policy,
spite of
government repression against
the militant left and in spite

of government vacillation in

foreign policy and towards
foreign capital.
In fact, the government

wobbling reflects the existence

‘stitution. of 1917, to. the land| within it of several currents
| of opinion:
of! would follow up the govern-

that of those whos

purchase of. the cleg

companies (Mexican

the foreign-owne a
company and by
| vigorous government act tiom

These are not unimportant) to develop national indu istry}
achievements, even if each one| as against the view o? those
of them is subject to qualifica- | who see risks in such a peli icy

but in spite of them a | and prefer to look fer profi
large part of. the population! from co-operation with om
Gust how larg no one really | capital.

1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page: 7