BY SARA LOBMAN
One good way to follow the Cuban revolution is to subscribe to Granma International, the weekly international newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party.

Over the last few months, issues of the paper have printed the full text of resolutions, documents, and speeches discussed by millions of Cubans as they fight to revive the economy, defend the socialist revolution, and confront and overcome new problems that develop in the process-from inequalities resulting from legalization of the dollar to the reappearance of prostitution.

The Oct. 30, 1996, issue, for example, included the text of a document on "Party work in the current circumstances" that was discussed and debated in local units of the Communist Party and Union of Young Communists (UJC) at the end of 1995. Beginning with the failure in 1970 to harvest 10 million tons of sugar and the subsequent errors made in imitating the bureaucratic methods of planning and management of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the document evaluates the progress that has been made in "putting men and women back as the center of attention."

While the majority of Cubans do not see a return to capitalism as the solution to the country's problems, the document says, "significant numbers of persons doubt the efficiency of socialism" and social planning. Members of the party must lead the effort to explain that there is no "form of capitalism with a human face; capitalism with social justice; capitalism with advantages for all," it emphasizes.

Noting favorably the efforts of many in the Cuban community in the United States to normalize relations between the two countries, the document stresses that "there has been no variation in the objective of U.S. policy toward Cuba, which continues to be the disappearance of the Cuban Revolution."

The discussions held by members of the Communist Party and UJC helped prepare a series of detailed discussions held in virtually every workplace in Cuba in the first half of this year. These culminated in the 17th Congress of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers. Granma International published the full text of the speech given by Cuban president Fidel Castro to the closing session of that meeting in April 1996, as well as the report presented a month earlier to a meeting of the national committee of the Cuban Communist Party by Raúl Castro on behalf of the party's Political Bureau.

Cuba defends its sovereignty
When the Cuban government shot down two pirate aircraft that had invaded Cuban territory from the United States in February 1996, Granma International published statements each week by Fidel Castro, Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina, and Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba's National Assembly, answering the imperialist propaganda campaign point for point.

The Cuban leaders explained the long history of violence against the Cuban revolution carried out by so-called civilian aircraft. "It was the government of the United States, from whose territory the aggressions originated," that had the power to prevent the violations of international law, Robaina explained in a presentation to the United Nations General Assembly published in the paper. Granma International also reprinted the full text of the comments made by U.S. ambassador Madeleine Albright to the United Nations.

Subscriptions to Granma International are available for US$40 a year through Pathfinder, 410 West Street, New York, NY 10014, or at any Pathfinder bookstore listed on page 12.

Pathfinder sells well at rally in Puerto Rico
GUANYNABO, Puerto Rico - This supporter of the Militant and Pathfinder Press sold 10 copies of the Spanish-language magazine Perspectiva Mundial and 23 books and pamphlets at a December 22 rally to oppose the U.S. military presence here. (See article on page 3.)

The best-selling books were by and about Che Guevara. Women's Evolution by Evelyn Reed sold in both English and Spanish. Books about women's liberation are steady sellers in Puerto Rico because this type of information is not widely available here. Participants also bought several issues of the Spanish-language edition of New International magazine.

Other sales included Spanish-language editions of In Defense of Marxism by Leon Trotsky, Maurice Bishop Speaks, and Understanding History by George Novack.

- RON RICHARDS  
 
 
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