[From Granma, Feb. 26, 1967]

International

news

The duty of

every

REVOLUTIONARY

is to make REVOLUTION

(Call to the First Conference of Solidarity of the Peoples of Latin America)

"It is our duty to carry out the resolutions of the Tricontinental Conference, which proclaim the right of the peoples to pppose the violence of imperialism and reaction with revolutionary violence."

Full text of this agenda follows:

DRAFT AGENDA

1. The Anti-Imperialist Revolutionary Struggle in Latin America.

(a) The experiences of the different forms of revolutionary struggle. Armed insurrection in the process of Latin American national liberation.

(b) Consideration of the specific struggles of the working class, peasants, students, intellectuals and all other progressive sectors of society as regards the process of national liberation.

(c) The eradication of all forms of colonialism in Latin America.

2. Common Position and Action in the Face of Political-Military Intervention and the Economic and Ideological Penetration of Imperialism in Latin America.

(a) The political-military intervention of Yankee imperialism in the internal affairs of Latin American countries. Imperialist policy of coordinated repression against the liberation movements: The Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Peace Force, the Central American Defense Council, bases, missions and all other military pacts.

(b) The imperialist economic policy of penetration, subjugation and exploitation of the nations of Latin America. Its methods of control: financial resources and foreign commerce.

(c) Imperialism's policy of ideological_penetration in the socio-cultural field as part of its continental strategy. The struggle against all forms of discrimination in Latin America.

(d) The policy of reformism as a means of curtailing social conflicts and diverting the peoples from their true objective: economic and political independence.

(e) The policy of open repression against national liberation movements, and the maintenance of exploitation of the peoples of Latin America pursued by the oligarchies and those who seek power through coups d'etat.

(f) The need of all Latin American revolutionary movements to achieve a common strategy to defeat the continental strategy that imperialism has drawn for the purpose of maintaining its control over the peoples of Latin America.

3. Solidarity of the Latin American Peoples with the National Liberation Struggles. (a) Anti-imperialist solidarity in Latin America.

(b) Most effective supports for the peoples who are waging the armed struggle against imperialism and colonialism.

(c) Support of the Negro people of the United States in their struggle against racial discrimination and in defense of their civil rights and liberty. (d) Defense of the Cuban Revolution: the struggle against the economic blockade, isolation and other forms of Yankee imperialist aggression against the Cuban Revolution.

4. The Statutes of the Latin American Organization of Solidarity (OLAS).

The similar past history, common enemy and common destiny of the peoples of Latin America oblige them to join forces in an analysis of their current struggle to strengthen the bonds of militant solidarity and outline a global strategy that will make social redemption, on which the entire continent's hopes are poised, a reality.

The peoples of Latin America must study the experiences of their common struggle, the hopes that these experiences engender, and the organization of their inexorable battle against imperialism. Hunger, poverty, disease, unemployment and death by starvation are the common lot millions of Latin Americans who, when they refuse to resign themselves to this fate, must confront a monstrously implacable wave of terror, that leaves its wake of blood and death throughout our America.

The generator of this reality is U.S. imperialism, which is joined by its indefatigable and bloody henchmen, the native oligarchies. The enemy is united on all fronts-military, political, cultural, and financial. It elaborates joint programs, marshals the action of is mercenary armies, of its repressive forces, schooling them in crime and abuse in the new Washington-sponsored "scientific" academies, thus consolidating and making even more intolerable the chains that oppress our countries.

Despite widespread popular protest and the vacillation of its own irresolute allies, the U.S. government, in collaboration with the native oligarchies, attempts to enforce the Permanent Inter-American Force program, or plans new plunder of our riches and prepares broad "common" markets to facilitate new monopoly capital investments through the treacherous Alliance for Progress and Latin America Economic Integration Programs. Washington also plans to wield its complete control in the OAS in order to organize a conclave of Latin American governments that will permit it to carry out its policy of absolute domination, backed up by continent-wide repression.

We, the peoples of Latin America, are the heirs and standard-bearers of an heroic legacy. From the original natives, from Tupac Amaru, and later, Bolívar, Martí, Tiradentes, Artigas, Juárez, San Martín and Sandino, flow the combative spirit that spurs us on to struggle for the total independence of our countries. By their example, numerous martyrs such as Luis de la Puente Uceda, Camilo Torres, Fabricio Ojeda, Luis Augusto Turcio Lima, have shown us the way. The

recent history of Latin America is the life of its liberators. Always present, as a reminder of our duty to unite ourselves in struggle, is the persistent violation by imperialism of our sovereignty. Although imperialism is unable, in the end, to thwart our decision to fight for our rights, for the inevitable rich future that is ours, it will never give up the struggle except in defeat-to impose upon us its program of supremacy and death. But it is necessary for the Latin American peoples' representatives to come together, not simply for a formal conclave where we verbally express our collective disagreement with the status quo, but this time to oppose the enemy's global strategy with the daring strategy of the peoples.

There are struggles today in many parts of our America, and much valuable experience for mutual interchange arises from these struggles. It is our duty to carry out the resolutions of the Tricontinental Conference, which proclaimed the peoples' right to oppose the violence of imperialism and reaction with revolutionary violence. It is necessary to unite, to coordinate and stimulate the battle of all the exploited peoples of Latin America.

Today, in Venezuela, Guatemala and Colombia, the peoples have taken up arms, and in other countries we see the awakening of great forces ready to win their liberty. The call to the hour of struggle against imperialism resounds throughout the world. The example of Cuba, a short distance from the monster, sustains the banners of dignity, inspiring all anti-imperialist men and women of this continent. The glorious people of Viet Nam, who are battling the Yankee imperialists, deserve our active, militant and material support. Solidarity with all the struggling peoples, brotherhood among all revolutionaries, a stimulus to that which unites and binds us, must be developed to defeat imperialism and its lackeys.

As the Second Declaration of Havana states, "each year that the Latin American revolution is hastened will mean the lives of millions of children saved, millions of minds will be saved for culture; the people will be saved from infinite suffering." It is therefore urgent to speed up this process. The Second Declaration of Havana, source of revolutionary teachings, speaks also of the importance of the present for us, the Latin Americans, stating: "The epic of Latin America's independence struggles was great, and that fight was an heroic one. But today's generation of Latin Americans is summoned to write a greater epic, one even more decisive for humanity."

To better fulfill this historic destiny, which falls to the present generation, the Latin American Organization of Solidarity (OLAS) resolves to call for the holding of the First Conference of Solidarity of the Peoples of Latin America to begin next July 28, under the slogan: “The Duty of all Revolutionaries is to Make Revolution."

This great assembly of our peoples will be the best response to the maneuvers of the enemy. This assembly will permit us to know each other better. This meeting will unite efforts and channel energies onto the path of revolutionary unity of all the peoples of Latin America.

We expect great battles in 1967. Yankee imperialism, savage enemy of all mankind, is growing fat on Latin America. Military dictatorships and reformist governments join to impoverish and massacre the people. In the face of all this, our anti-imperialist unity is a duty and an urgent need.

We call on all the national committees of OLAS, and on the Latin American revolutionary movement in general, to offer their broad and vigorous support to the First Conference of Solidarity of the Peoples of Latin America, to meet in Havana, Cuba, Free Territory of America, from July 28 to August 5.

"The duty of all revolutionaries is to make revolution."

THE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE OF OLAS.

FEBRUARY 15, 1967.

HISTORY

The following was chosen as slogan of the Congress:

"The duty of every revolutionary is to make revolution."

The Latin American Solidarity Organization (LASO) (abbreviated OLAS in Spanish) was founded in Havana on January 16, 1966, by the "anti-imperialist" delegates of the 27 Latin American countries attending the first Tricontinental Conference.

It was practically at the same moment that the Afro-Asian-Latin American Peoples Solidarity Organization (AALAPSO) was also founded, voted into existence by the same delegates together with those from Africa and Asia.

The two organizations were born with interlocking membership on the national committee level because the only delegates from Latin America were those attending the Tricontinental Conference. This is most notable in the Cuban National Committee of LASO which is composed of the same individuals (or of individuals who replaced them in their national offices) who formed the Cuban delegation at the Tricontinental Conference.

These facts substantially contradict the claim which Cuban propaganda media forcefully maintain, that the two organizations are completely different and autonomous with no functional or organizational subordination between them.

This can be true in the narrowest technical sense. It would be naive even to assume that the ideological and tactical objectives of the two organizations could be different and separate, especially when both are under the direct control of the Cuban Politburo.

Actually there is a remarkable parallel between the heads of the two organizations. Both Osmani Cienfuegos Gorriarán, executive secretary of AALAPSO, and Haydee Santamaria Cuadrado de Hart, secretary general of LASO, are members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and were part of the Cuban delegation to the Tricontinental Conference.

Osmani Cienfuegos' brother, Camilo (by some reports a Castro victim) and Haydee Santamaria's brother, Abel, a young Marxist killed by Batista police after the abortive attack on the Moncada barracks July 26, 1953, are considered to be two of Cuba's greatest heroes.

Although Osmani Cienfuegos' official position in the Cuban Government is that of Minister of Public Works, he has had extensive contacts with African and Asian leftists, such as the late Moroccan Communist, Ben Barka, Egypt's Nasser, and Algeria's Ben Bella.

On the other hand, Haydee Santamaria, as director of the Casa de las Americas, has been responsible, together with her husband Armando Hart Davalos (until a year ago Minister of Education), for granting scholarships at Havana University to Latin Americans. She has also traveled widely as a member of the Cuban UNESCO delegation and had accompanied her husband on missions to the U.S.S.R., Eastern Europe, and China.

On April 16, 1967, Haydee Santamaria was at Osmani Cienfuegos' side when the latter made public an article allegedly written by Ernesto "Che" Guevara for the forthcoming first issue of AALAPSO's monthly publication "Tricontinental" scheduled to begin publication next July. The text of this document appears in appendix II, page 67. (Close scrutiny of the article reveals glaring chronological inconsistencies which cast grave doubts as to its authenticity. Also, the photographs accompanying the document do not permit close comparison with previous known Guevara photographs to afford a positive identification of the disappeared guerrilla leader.)

The press conference took place at the AALAPSO headquarters located on the fourth floor of the Habana Hilton now the Habana Libre Hotel.

The main difference between LASO and AALAPSO is that dictated by geographical necessity; the former directs the subversive efforts of Cuba in Latin America exclusively, while the latter coordinates similar efforts on all three continents. For this reason, the relations between the two organizations, according to the Communist propaganda, "will have to be, essentially, of support and fraternal cooperation."

As a token gesture of tricontinental cooperation, a few of the positions in the executive secretariat of AALAPSO are held by Latin Americans. Actually most of them are skilled organizers, long at the service of international communism, and for this reason more valuable for their experience than their nationality.

One of these is Nacciso Rabell Martinez, called by Castro "chief of the Puerto Rican mission to Cuba," who has spent long years in various offices of the Prague-based International Union of Students. Rabell Martinez is a frequent visitor to African countries and, at present, is again on a tour of several African countries as head of a three-man AALAPSO delegation.

Rabell, a member of the AALAPSO executive secretariat, left Havana on February 18, 1967, accompanied by Domingo Amuschastegui of Cuba and Hussein Ras Masud of Pakistan. The announced objective of their tour was to "give more impetus and to intensify the revolutionary struggle on that continent."

The Latin American Solidarity Organization's main objectives were outlined in a communique issued by the organizing committee on the fifth anniversay of the "II Declaration of Havana." (The Second Declaration of Havana is a manifesto of defiance against the United States and the other Latin American Republics, launched by Fidel Castro on February 4, 1962, shortly after Cuba was expelled from the Organization of American States.)

The communique, based on Castro's speech, calls for the "hungry Indians, the landless peasants, the exploited workers and students, the brilliant and honest intellectuals who abound in our suffering countries of Latin America, to rise to the call for the struggle of liberation against the world's most powerful imperialist parent-state."

"The peoples of our continent will strengthen their ties of militant and belligerent solidarity and will adopt a common strategy against a common enemy: North American imperialism."

"For the liberation and progress of our Nations!"

"The duty of every revolutionary is to make revolution."

The General Secretariat of LAŠO undertook in January 1967, a clever propaganda ploy in the guise of a gigantic task of conducting a political, economic, and sociological survey of the American continent.

This circulation of "loaded" questions for the ostensible purpose of gathering highly specialized intelligence data kept busy a task force of nearly 1,000 specialists for over 4 months. The data was compiled in a voluminous report which was submitted for final approval on May 4, 1967.

Due to the importance of the survey, more detailed information will be found in the questionnaire chapter beginning at page 21.