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Filmmakers capture scene of Sharon Lockwood of the San Francisco Mime Troupe meeting a former steelworker backstage in "Troupers, a feature film about the Mime Troupe directed by Glenn Silber. The film is now available for booking from Icarus Films, 200 Park Ave. So, WHERE TO FIND US

Bewildered

Dear editor, Your article "Fidel Castro and the Latin American Debt" I thought involved a fair amount of distortion of the Cuban position on this question.

You quote Cuban CP leader Ruiz-Soto saying, "It is a historical reality that sectors of the national bourgeoisie in Latin America, due to their contradictions with imperialism, are adopting positions which converge with those of the proletariat, the peasantry, and other non-capitalist sectors in the anti-imperialist struggle and for the conquest of economic independence and complete national sovereignty."

You then jump to the conclusion that this means unity with the national bourgeoisie and «These formations necessarily subordinate the interests of the workers and peasants to the needs of the national capitalists." I find that a rather peculiar conclusion to derive from Ruiz-Soto's statement.

Later you mention Castro's call for a debtors 'cartel of Latin American nations. Then you say, "But for the call to cancel the debt to genuinely serve as a lever to move the workers and peasants forward on a revolutionary course, it must break out of the "two-stage" framework" that you infer Castro puts on it (as part of his reformist course?)

I am really quite bewildered how you reason that a debtor's cartel is reformist, and particularly how you pulled out of a hat the idea that Castro supports a two-stage theory of revolution.

It is hard not to regard this as deliberate distortions of Cuba's positions.

Stansfield Smith, Chicago Dear Stansfield Smith, In the September articleand in other articles on Cuba published in the February 1985 and July 1985 issues of Socialist Action-Fidel's views on Latin America are quoted extensively. Fidel states explicitly that socialist revolution is not on the agenda in the continent and that what is needed is a democratic revolution that can bring about the development of these underdeveloped nations. Is this not a "two-stage" theory of revolution?

The article highlighted the progressive and revolutionary character of Fidel's initiatives Boston Socialist Action P.O. Box 1046 GMF Boston, MA 02205 (617) 389-4075 Chicago Socialist Action Box 80 B, 2520 N. Lincoln Chicago, IL 60614 Cincinnati Socialist Action P.O. Box 27053 Cincinnati, OH 45227 (513) 242-9043 Cleveland Socialist Action P.O. Box 6151 Cleveland, OH 44101 (216) 429-2167 on the debt question, while pointing to the dangers of linking the call to cancel the debt to the call for a "new international economic order" based on the 1974 United Nations resolution. Why this danger?

The 1974 U.N. resolution, which has been endorsed by the majority of capitalist governments in the underdeveloped world, seeks to improve the terms of trade between "rich" and "poor" nations. It also seeks to secure a more "just, equitable, and rational" use of the resources of the underdeveloped nations.

But it attempts to do all this while safeguarding the right of capitalist expansion in the Third World and the right of the multinational corporations to continue plundering the resources of these nations.

Is it possible for there to be a "new international economic order" as long as the imperialist banks, corporations, and states can continue to accumulate capital in these countries? In the age of imperialism, as Lenin clearly pointed out, this is impossible.

The various capitalist governments in Latin America have demonstrated their unwillingness and inability to sever their ties with U.S. imperialism. They will attempt to put pressure on the imperialists for better terms of trade, or for a renegotiation or even a moratorium on the foreign debt. At the same time, though, they will demand austerity and "social pacts" from the workers to help them weather the crisis.

The workers and oppressed in Latin America cannot settle for anything less than the non-payment of the imperialist debt and a total break with the International Monetary Fund.

The workers and oppressed of Latin America need to strengthen their unity to advance their struggle against imperialist domination. The Oct. 23 Continental Day of Protest Against the Debt launched by the trade-union conference in Havana is an opportunity to mobilize millions of people in the streets not only against the debt, but against the austerity policies imposed by the IMF.

But to satisfy the demands put forward on Oct. 23, the workers and oppressed need their own independent political organizations. They cannot count on any wing of the capitalist class in their fight against the imperialist debt. They can only count on their own strength.

The call to cancel the debt Grand Rapids Socialist Action P.O. Box 3505 Grand Rapids, MI 49501 Los Angeles Socialist Action P.O. Box 60605 Terminal Annex Los Angeles, CA 90060 (213) 250-4608 Minneapolis Socialist Action P.O. Box 14087 Dinkytown Station Minneapolis, MN 55414 Rm. 319, New York, N. Y. 10003.

must therefore be linked to demands that mobilize the workers and peasants in defense of their own interests— not those of the national capitalists.

Such demands include the defense of the Nicaraguan revolution, the expropriation of imperialist industries, the distribution of land to the peasants, and an end to the austerity measures imposed by the IMF and the various capitalist governments of Latin America— The editor.

Donation

Dear editor, • I am enclosing a donation to the Socialist Action fund drive in memory of my grandfather, Jack Lesser, who died on Oct. 2 at the age of 95.

Jack Lesser was a socialist from the generation of working-class fighters directly inspired by the Russian revolution. He escaped from Russia before the revolution and settled in Philadelphia.

During the 1930s Lesser was active as a trade unionist and shop steward at R.C.A. Victor and was fired from his job for helping to lead a strike there. He remained a fighter to the end of his life.

San Francisco Excluded Dear editor, Enclosed is a copy of a letter that I sent to the forum director of the Philadelphia branch of the SWP after I received a request for suggestions and comments about the party's forum series.

As a former party member and an active participant in the Philadelphia April Actions Coalition, 1 am concerned New York Socialist Action P.O. Box 20209, Ca. Finance 693 Columbus Ave New York, NY 10025 Phoenix Socialist Action P.O. Box 5161 Phoenix, AZ 85010 (602) 263-5190 San Francisco Socialist Action 3435 Army Street, Rm. 3( San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 821-0458 about the party's exclusionary policy concerning attendance at their events, feeling that such methods work against the SWP's own intentions to build a revolutionary party in the United States.

I have also enclosed a check for a subscription to Socialist Action. Please credit my friends in the Boston branch for the sub sale.

Mike Pearlman, Philadelphia Dear Mike, All expelled members of the SWP, including those of us in Socialist Action, have been excluded from the SWP forums and bookstores on the baseless charge that we have disrupted forums and that we have "claimed to speak in the name of the SWP in public." ing on revolutionary strategy..

retical plane. in his article.

regimes in the so-called Third World. tor.

These charges are outright slanders and are totally false. We repudiate the methods of disruption that have been used against the SWP. We have defended and will continue to defend the SWP against all forms of disruption.

Nor do we claim to be the SWP. We claim to represent the political continuity of the old SWP, which the SWP leadership today has thrown overboard. We seek to defend this continuity in our press and in our activity in the class struggle.

We are heartened to know that former party members are reading our paper. Please send us letters with your comments or criticisms of our articles. Or, better still, send us articles about the working-class struggles in Philadelphia-The editor.

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