Castro-mouthpiece of Kremlin diplomacy

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Castro has over the last two weeks been giving a virtuoso display of Stalinist foreign policy.

First of all he made a series of gestures of peaceful coexistence towards the United States.

A number of US citizens detained in Cuba have been allowed to return home.

1,000 right wing politica! prisoners are to be released and allowed to go to the US.

And a bunch of what the Cuban press used to call (but has stopped calling) "worms" -counter-revolutionary voluntary exiles from Cuba-have been welcomed back.

Reconciliation with enemies across the Mexican gulf was NEW 1 Will the Chinese Communist Party rewrite its In parallel with the signs of a "rightist' shift in economic policy-towards differentials and incentives for bureaucrats in industry, and emphasising the 'material interests' of peasants in farming their own land-the Chinese press has carried explosive political hints in the last ten days.

All point to a probable purge of figures most directly associated with Mao Tse-tung, and to a major assault on the cult of Mao.

Most important is " the exoneration of a play attacked in 1974 by the 'gang of four' for allegedly defending Liu-Shao; chi.

Liu, veteran Party member and head of state, was the Cultural Revolution's top victim when he was disgraced in 1967.

Survivor

Along with him Mao also drove out Teng Hsiao-ping, the most resilient survivor among the 'right' of the top leadership, and now the number two man after Hua Kuo-feng.

The rehabilitation of Liu will swiftly followed by an exceptionally warm welcome for Spain's "reformed" Francoist premier, Adolfo Suarez.

The two men, it was reported, were from the start on first name terms.

And Castro scandalously wooed the Francoist regime by offering to step up Cuba's previous offer of compensation for Spanish property expropriated after the revolution.

Oil deal

The two men also signed a deal with Venezuela and the USSR under which Soviet oil now going to Cuba will be diverted to Spain while an equal amount of Venezuelan oil now going to Spain will be diverted to Cuba.

Castro then flew off to Ethiopia. Before leaving he did make a token call for the overURN IN PI mean a great strengthening of Teng's position.

But it would be (almost) impossible to restore 'China's Kruschev' (i.e. Liu) to respectability without axing the legend of Mao's infallibility.

Other signs include: poster attacks on Wu Teh, the Mayor of Peking and an opportunist convert to the 'left' in the Cultural Revolution, linked with the 'gang of four'; the public 'rehabilitation' of those who demonstrated in Tien An Mien Square after Chou En Lai's death, in April 1976; and rumours of the death of Mao's widow, Chiang Ching, leader of the gang of four and of the Maoist 'left' in the Cultural These attacks on Teng's old foes undoubtedly also threaten Hua, who arrived where he is by the tactics of the Vicar of Bray, supporting the 'gang of four' when they appeared in the ascendant.

The political thrusts implicit in press artiçles go beyond the rivalries of individual leaders and their clients.

Chinese Stalinism's 'socialism in one country' is hemmed in by fundamental problems, created by their nationalist roots. throw of Somoza in Nicaragua.

But he dismissed Somoza's claims of a "threat of communism" as "nonsense"

He should know, since he has in recent years groomed the Sandinist Liberation Front to look to class collaboration as their route to the overthrow of the Nicaraguan dictatorship.

In Addis Ababa, Castro embraced his old genocidal friend President Mengistu and reaffirmed his support for the "territorial integrity of Ethiopia"-a euphemism for the physical destruction of the people of Eritrea, in which Cuban and Soviet soldiers are taking part.

All these events show the importance of Castro's enthusiastically adopted role as the left face of Stalinist world policy under the complete direction of the Soviet Union.

For economic growth. they must have closer links with the industrialised states.

And politically in their pursuit of reactionary "allies' against the Soviet Union, they have sabotaged a huge part of the support for China among the masses in the imperialist worid.

It may be that the split with the Soviet Union is up for reconsideration.

Another of the purged leaders whose rehabilitation was subtly hinted at was defence minister Peng Teh-huai, ousted in 1959 when he opposed Mao within the leadership over the 'great leap forward' and the growing • military split with Moscow.

Kruschev is known to have supported Peng against Mao. : One of the charges against Liu Shao-chi was his oppositión to Mao's despotic handling of Peng.

And it was against the play containing a covert defence of reng against Mao's persecution (Hai Jui Dismissed from Office, to launch his Cultural Revolution attack on Party leaders. Castro behind butcher Mengistu

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by the luckless vice-mayor of Peking, Wu Han) that Mao chose