The basic content of Blaa B-oa's article in the May 1 isaue of Politics merely recehoes the central theme of Ceatro's attack: Irotekyiac is “a vulgar instrument of imperialiaz and reaction” - which itself wae on echo of the Standard Stalinist slanders. He repeate the very phrausa insistently, 2s if mera repetition a number of tines by somecne as authoritative «a Blas: Acca weuld gake up for Castro's unaccountable failure to make 14 stick.
There arc, however, 3cme lnstructire differcnogs tbetwoen the two -atiacke- While, in Castre's speech, the terget wis the’ Fourth Internctionsl, you would never know thet the references ware to « fake “Fourth Internsticnsl"” set up by one J. Possdss. Osstre did net eyen mention tha name -f Peaadaas ‘The eonmnection of membera of thia group with the MA-13 guerrilla movement in Guatemala
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was used te brand that movement as "Anfiltrated" by "Crotakyites" whom Castro dubbed “sgenta cf imperialism” under the general aslandernus charge levyalled againeat Trotskyiam os such. Then independent journals, or the journals sf argendaations having no connection with Trotakyiem, were omolgamated with the fake Posadas "Fourth International" either because they raisad questions cut Guevara's leaving the Cuban political scene or because they published articles by Adelfs Gilly, a revolutionary-scolalist journalist, whose views on some prints demonstrably coincide with those -f Pesadas. In brief, Castro's attack read a ereat deal like similar attacks mada by Blas Eooa himself ag far back 35 1961. fabs, for instance, Blas Hrca's beck Tha Cuban Reyelution or the pamphlet I wete in 1962, Trotskyism and the Ouban Revolution - An Anawer to Hoy}
In contrast te Castre's original presentation of "Trotakyiam" as a singles nerement, the nature cf which oould be judged from statementa judiciously selected from the writings of thea unnamed Prsadas, cr-the atatements of a creature of the UPI like Pelips Alhaguante, who was exposed in 1963 by the United Secretariat of thea Feurth International, Blas Reca now presenta "“Imtakyia" as "a medley cf such confusion, cf groups and sub-groups, that some Trotskyiste deny that other Tretakyiata ore Trotskyists." As a result, for tha firat tine to my knowledgs, Blas Enca deigns to identify Posadeas as the author of seme cf the quotations which he finds sc usoful. He refers to a genuinely Trotskyist newspaper, The Militant, for the first time, although in a very peculisr manner, ae we ehall see. And, ranging far and wide, he brings in The Newaletter, the newspaper of the Socialist Labour League in Britain.
The purpose rf thia procedure acon becomes chvicus. Hespending to the emergency, Blas. Roca is picking up the pieses cf Castro's Jamary 15 attack on Trotekyism and trying to build a better structure by using more beards, atronger glue, aturdier mortar te plaster the cracks anda thick coat -f domagnay to paint things up and dazzle the eye.
This is a small-scale replica of the pattern Stalin follewad in his notericus series cf frame-up trials from 1936 te 1938. When glaring contradietions exposed the falsifications cf hia politiesl police in a given frame=-up, Etalin made up for it by staging a bigger ani acre imposing shew trial. To use such mathods in an effert tc forestall Castro from rectifying a sericua error duc, We fay suppose, tr bad advice - really injures the prestige and authority eof the fuban Revolution; that is, if Bles “oca can set away with it-