For the third consecutive year the Frederick Engels
Foundation is participating in the Havana International Book Fair and once
again we have confirmation of the enormous interest in books and culture among
the Cuban people. From the early hours of the morning thousands of people,
whole families, queue up to get into the Fair site in La Cabaña that is transformed
into a real people's festival.
As we write this short report we can say without a shadow of a doubt that the publications of the Frederick Engels Foundation have stimulated a lot of interest. Once again the books of the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky have proved to be the main attraction. Our stand is the only one in the Fair that has a wide selection of his books on sale. But also the books by the British Marxist Alan Woods, documents on contemporary issues and books by Marx, Lenin, Engels, Rosa Luxemburg and other classical authors attracted people's attention.
Another aspect of the Foundation that attracts people are
its books presentations, of which two of the three that were planned have
already been held. In the first, on Friday 9th, we presented two works of the
Polish revolutionary, Rosa Luxemburg, "Reform or Revolution" and "The Crisis of
Social Democracy". Jordi Martorell, in the name of the Foundation, underlined
how important it was that these works were being presented on the island for
the first time and added that the Frederick Engels Foundation was keen to see
Cuban editions of these books published shortly. "Reform or Revolution", 
added
Jordi, is as relevant today as when it was first published. The arguments that
today's reformists use are the same as those developed by Bernstein over 100
years ago and which Rosa Luxemburg so skilfully demolished at the time. The
reformist ideas of Bernstein and the German Social Democracy led them to
support imperialism during the First World War, something which is implacably
denounced by Rosa in her work, "The Crisis of Social Democracy". The book
includes an appendix, which is also very relevant to today's world, in which
Rosa explained how the only way of combating imperialist war is through the
class struggle, and in which she also removes any illusion in the ability of
supranational organisms and agreements between countries to guarantee peace.
The second presentation of three Marxist works on the
Marxist Theory of the Sate by Jordi Rosich took place on Sunday 11th. These
were "The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" and "The Civil War in France" by
Marx, and "The State and Revolution" by Lenin. Jordi Rosich explained how the
experience of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela demonstrates once again
what Marx had explained, i.e. that it is not possible to carry out a revolution
by basing oneself on the old bourgeois state apparatus. Lenin, basing himself
on the studies of Marx and Engels on the Paris Commune, outlined the
fundamental characteristics of what a workers' state should have after the
taking of power. These included the election with right of recall of all public
officials, the participation of the whole population in the administrative
tasks of the state and the economy, no standing army but an armed people, and
that state officials should not receive wages higher than those of a skilled
worker. These conditions, explained Jordi, are the only guarantees against the
emergence of a bureaucracy within a planned economy. In the debate that
followed, the Cuban Communist Celia Hart was among those that took part. She
pointed out how apt the presentations organised by the Frederick Engels
Foundation were and she underlined "The 18th Brumaire" was a model
of historical analysis.
This year's Book Fair also saw the National Social Sciences
Prize being presented to Fernando Martínez Heredia. Martínez Heredia was editor
in the 1960s of the Pensamiento Crítico [Critical Thought] magazine and dean of
the Faculty of Philosophy in the University of Havana, a veritable hive of
ideas, where Marxism was looked at in a creative and critical manner, where
there was discussion of the ideas of many authors that had been slandered by
the Stalinists. In 1971 both the magazine and the Faculty of Philosophy were
closed down. 
This marked the beginning of what was described as the "grey 15
years" of Stalinist censorship in the arts, culture and thought, which came
about as a result of the greater weight of Soviet aid to the Cuban economy.
Recognition of the work of Martínez Heredia comes just a few weeks after the
polemic that erupted among Cuban intellectual circles sparked off by the
appearance on TV of well-known censors from the period of the "grey fifteen
years" and by the reaction against the National Union of Artists and Writers of
Cuba.
Lastly, we were able to express to Ricardo Alarcón, chairman of the National Assembly of People's Power, and also coordinator of the campaign to free the Five Heroes in the USA, the support of the Foundation for this campaign and a report of the activities we have organised over the past year.
February 11, 2007
See also:
- Great interest in Trotsky at the Havana Book Fair (February 23, 2006)
- Keen interest and enthusiasm at launch of Reason in Revolt at Havana Book Fair (February 9, 2006)