FIDEL CASTRO SPEAKS

. . . and who shall answer? Certainly no one here, for editor Kenner, who provides the introduction and notes on the speeches, displays a disciple's devotion to Fidelian doctrine. Dedicated to the Cuban and Vietnamese people and the young North-American revolutionaries (at whom it is expressly aimed), the book is a collection of excerpts from some of his major speeches (October '59--July '68), so disarming to Americans by reason of length as well as content. Selections deemed ""most relevant to a North American audience"" stress two main themes: the necessity for revolutionaries to create conditions for struggle themselves (""the role of Job doesn't suit a revolutionary""); and a vision of communist society (with a definite Small c) and the new ""socialist man."" Castro's talks are addressed to the mass of the Cuban people and constitute consummate lessons in political thinking ""revolutionary"" style. Most characteristic is the emphasis on education, moral obligation, sacrifice, and abandonment of materialist values and consumer goals. The delivery is effective--as attested to by the frequent ""(APPLAUSE)"" indications and responsive audience shouts--and the curriculum includes economic problems confronting Cuba and the undeveloped world, Castro's agrarian reform and the turn toward socialism, the Sino-Soviet split and the Latin American Communist parties, the role of armed straggle, the forging of a communist conscience, and of course a eulogy for Che.