HUNGARIAN SOCIALIST WORKERS’ PARTY
Central Committee
Department of Foreign Affairs
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL!
Prepared in 2 copies
Budapest, September 9, 1970
[…]
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1./ About our party and government delegation's trip to Cuba
/Report of the delegation/
At the invitation of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and the Cuban Revolutionary Government, a Hungarian party and government delegation traveled to Havana for the July 26 national holiday.
We informed the Cuban comrades in advance that Comrade Hullai, based on the authority of our Central Committee and with Cuban agreement, would be happy to continue negotiations on Hungarian-Cuban inter-party relations and is ready to inform the Cuban party in detail about the progress of the preparations for the anti-imperialist world conference so far.
The Cuban comrades agreed with the proposal and our delegation was received by Major Jesus Montané Orpaesa, temporary organizing secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Central Committee member Secundino Guerra, and Rafael Polanco, an employee of the Foreign Affairs Department, for the purpose of conducting official negotiations.
Later, Osvaldo Dorticós, member of the Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and President of the Republic, received Comrade Pullai on an official visit.
Our group of delegates had the opportunity to have a conversation with Blas Roca, Carlos Rafael Rodríguez and Fauré Chomon with Central Committee secretaries and others.
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Hungarian-Cuban party relations.
Montané agreed that our lagging-behind party relations should be changed and organized. Based on the authorization received from the Central Committee we agreed that
- Starting in 1971, we send a delegation of party workers each year to exchange experiences and
- also from 1971, we set the limit for inter-party vacations at four people each.
We suggested to the Cuban comrades that we would find it useful if our parties occasionally met to discuss timely issues of mutual interest. Higher-level meetings and shorter work visits would also take place. Comrade Montané did not have the authority to make such an agreement, so he forwarded our proposal to the relevant party organs.
Dorticós also addressed the issue of party relations and stated that their ambassador in Budapest has specific instructions in this area as well. He did not explain the content of the instructions. He suggested that we should examine what has hindered our relations so far and how we promote our relations in the future. He also applied this to our interstate and primarily economic relations.
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The World Anti-Imperialist Congress.
We informed Comrade Montané and then Comrade Dorticós in detail about the progress of the preparations for the anti-imperialist world congress, who received our information with great interest and gratitude. Montané stated that the Cuban party agrees with the meeting in principle: they asked us for the information in order to be able to appoint and prepare the comrade who will deal with the issue on their behalf: the relevant party bodies have not yet made a decision regarding participation.
[several paragraphs crossed out]
- The Cuban comrades / Dorticós, Blas Roca and Polanco / explained that the Cuban Party is satisfied with the level of our delegation and appreciates it sufficiently. [Two sentences crossed out.]
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[several paragraphs crossed out]
We can be satisfied with the reception of our delegation. [one sentence crossed out] More than expected, there were many opportunities to talk with Cuban leaders.
About the situation in Cuba.
Our experiences in Cuba, and primarily Fidel Castro's celebratory speech, convinced us that changes are indeed taking place in the Cuban concept. The main direction of the changes is that the Cuban revolution increasingly wants to set an example to the peoples of Latin America with its economic results. We have been fighting for this goal for years,
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with great sacrifices and a waste of financial resources, but with increasing success. Their problems in terms of economic policy and production, as well as party organization and leadership, are still great. The recognition of the need for a conceptual change took place in unbalanced, abnormal circumstances.
On the economic front, they see one of the most serious problems in the fact that only 32% of the population does productive work. At the same time, health, social security, education and defense expenses place a huge and growing burden on the public finances. /1.2 billion pesos per year /. According to the signs, the Cuban leadership is sticking to the slogan announced a few years ago, according to which they are building socialism and communism at the same time. In addition to the enormous social benefits, water, gas, electricity and telephone services are now free in Cuba; transportation is almost completely free; rent - a very small one - is paid only in the capital, but this year it will also be abolished; cultural and sports events, etc. are free. Cuba was significantly ahead of other socialist countries in a number of respects. At the same time, however, basic food and clothing are still available - and the rations are quite low.
The organizational, campaign-like management of the national economy is causing great problems. Almost all the workforce was mobilized to achieve a sugar production of 10 million tons. However, due to the lack of adequate industrial capacity and the decrease in cane sugar content caused by the weather, this amounted to only 8.5 million tons. This exceeds last year's production by 4 million tons and surpasses the previous record of 7.3 million tons set in 1952. Yet Cuban leaders speak of
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this as the first setback the revolution has suffered, despite - as Castro has declared - his conduct in this battle of production. The positive thing about the relative failure is that Castro and the Cuban leadership realized that it is not possible to work like a campaign and it is not possible to fight a "simultaneous battle". [one sentence crossed out]
The other positive thing is that Fidel Castro self-critically took responsibility and even indirectly offered his resignation and that of the leadership. However, the crowd of hundreds of thousands responded shouting "No"! and "Fidel!". Castro - not free from all demagogy - published "Forging success from failure!" slogan. [several sentences crossed out]
Castro also admitted that it was a wrong measure to close the bars and entertainment venues, that there is dissatisfaction and irritation in the country due to supply difficulties, but he declared that the Cuban people, seeing even greater difficulties, will choose the path of counter-revolution.
[one paragraph crossed out]
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He also outlined the solution more specifically. First of all, he put the separation of the tasks of the party and the state leadership on the agenda. They currently work based on the Chinese system. He took a position in favor of changing the outdated management system. He correctly defined the leading role of the party in political and organizational terms. He recommended that more space be given to local initiatives, e.g. housing issues should not be decided administratively, but left to the collective of plants and factories. [several sentences crossed out in paragraph]
In one sentence, he also mentioned that the work of mass organizations should be revived, Castro himself did not mention it, but a few days after his speech, Minister of Labor Risquet spoke at length on TV about increasing the role of trade unions / It is noteworthy that one of the "accusations" of the "micro-faction" that emerged in January 1968 against the Castro leadership was that it was withering away the trade unions!/ and the need to introduce work standards, and even mentioned that in addition to moral incentives, financial incentives can also be used in some cases. [Last sentence crossed out]
One of the most remarkable parts of Castro's speech was when he spoke of the working class with unusually high praise. He stated that during his recent factory visits, he received "real practical Marxist-
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Leninist lessons" from the workers, when he became convinced that the workers are not troubled by poor supplies but by disruptions in production. He declared that this is the true revolutionary spirit and that the working class is the most revolutionary class. [Last sentence crossed out]
Despite the many positive statements, the situation in Cuba remains complicated and unclear. It remains a question mark as to how the top management will develop and whether it will be able to work consistently on recognized economic and political issues. There are a lot of rumors about this. It is not ruled out that Fidel Castro will part with the post of prime minister in the spirit of what he said about the separation of party and state leadership. In recent weeks, there have been changes at the head of four ministries. The most important personal change so far was that Armando Hart, the organizational secretary of the Central Committee, who also dealt a lot with foreign affairs and who we knew as an extreme representative of petty-bourgeois revolutionism, left his post and became municipal secretary.
It is still unclear how the party organization is progressing. The Party's governing bodies do not meet at the national or provincial levels. Power and leadership are in the hands of a narrow secretariat in the provinces, over which there is actually no control from below. In the national leadership, everything is concentrated in the hands of Fidel Castro. No one
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mentioned that the Party was preparing for a major event, a Central Committee meeting, or a congress. In the ideological education work of the Party, the situation is that education and political education consists exclusively of studying the leaders' speeches. They do not study the classics. [several sentences crossed out in paragraph]
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