In categorically rejecting Fidel Castro's endorsement of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet and other troops, the United Secretariat of the Fourth International undoubtedly expressed the opinion not only of the international Trotskyist movement but also of the very great majority of militants who have defended socialist Cuba most resolutely.
In his statement, Fidel Castro argues for his position essentially as follows: (a) There was a danger of capitalist restoration in Czechoslovakia. (b) This danger was produced and fostered by the erroneous policies not only of the Czechs but of the Soviets themselves. (c) The appeal made by Czechoslovak "top personalities" for help cannot be advanced as a valid basic reason for intervening; "the sole justification can only be the simple political fact that Czechoslovakia was moving toward a counterrevolutionary situation and that this seriously affected the entire socialist community." (d) Castro raised the question whether this intervention marked the beginning of a rectification in Soviet policy which would be expressed in its defense of Vietnam and Cuba, etc.
The United Secretariat of the Fourth International has shown in other documents that there was no danger of capitalist restoration in Czechoslovakia. A right-wing course, even a reactionary international policy, as for example Yugoslavia's policy toward several countries in Latin America, cannot be equated with the danger of capitalist restoration. Such a danger can only arise from social forces having the capacity to organize themselves sufficiently to impose the reestablishment of capitalist private ownership by force -- which was not at all the case in Czechoslovakia.
To the contrary, the Czechoslovak masses as a whole are dedicated to maintaining and developing the forms of collective ownership. These masses mobilized to transform the "liberalizing" course introduced after the elimination of Novotny into a course culminating in real socialist democracy.
Defense of the "socialist camp" was not what made the Soviet government act but its fear that the antibureaucratic upsurge in Czechoslovakia would be echoed in the other workers states, including, most importantly, the Soviet Union itself.
There was no rectification of the Soviet policy toward American imperialism in this intervention. It was carried out with the assurance that the American government would regard it as the expression of the policy of a great power striving to maintain "order" in its sphere, and would limit itself to propagandistic condemnations -- that it would do nothing to increase international tension and would continue seeking partial agreements with Moscow, for example in regard to nuclear armaments.
Washington exploited the invasion of Czechoslovakia to "justify" its own aggressions; and the Soviet intervention dealt a blow to the movements throughout the world against the imperialist aggression in Vietnam.
The United Secretariat of the Fourth International draws attention to the fact that among the few Communist parties supporting the Soviet invasion are the Latin-American parties which, as Fidel Castro well knows, are sabotaging the revolutionary struggle on that continent. It is the Escalantes of all these countries who endorsed their Kremlin bosses.
The Soviet government's propaganda about an appeal from a group of Czechoslovak party and state leaders cannot be minimized. One can be certain that in case of a real threat of capitalist restoration in a workers state, the great majority of workers and especially the Communists would be mobilized to counter this danger and would, if they thought it necessary, openly call for military aid. Cuba's example is eloquent in this regard. But in no case can it be accepted that the government of a workers state has the right to decide on a military intervention in another workers state behind the backs and against the wishes of the great majority, if not all the workers, in that country.
Furthermore, this "justification" advanced by the Kremlin shows how much the Soviet leaders are abusing the Soviet masses themselves in the first instance.
While rejecting the position Fidel Castro has taken on the Czechoslovak events, the United Secretariat of the Fourth International reminds the international Trotskyist movement, all revolutionary militants, and the working masses that their tasks of solidarity toward the workers of Czechoslovakia must in no way lead them to slacken in defending socialist Cuba against the blockade, the machinations, and the threats of American imperialism; in advancing the OLAS line in Latin America, and in defending the Vietnamese revolution more vigorously than ever against American aggression.