New Left Review I/7, January-February 1961

NLR Editorials

The Siege of Cuba

the most important events in the international socialist movement in 1960 took place in Cuba. And it may be that the most important event of 1961 will be the consolidation or overthrow of Cuba’s socialist revolution.

If the revolution is consolidated, then the kind of socialist society which emerges will be significantly affected by the response of socialists in the rest of the world. Can the revolution remain Cuban and “olive-green”—as Castro hoped in 1959—or must it become Comintern red? Will Castro become a be-medalled institution, like Tito, or will the leadership of the Fidelistas continue to be marked by the zest and the expansive shirt-sleeve informality which made all the other Heads of State at Lake Success look like waxworks? Can Cuba hold to a position of active neutrality—while accepting the economic and technical aid which Communist countries are willing to provide—or must she become a Communist “Formosa” off the shore of the USA? Must the libertarian and humanist values which have distinguished the Cuban revolution wilt and die in the arctic climate of Cold War realism?

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