Fidel Castro Handbook

Dear John, believe it or not, Mr Castro is a brave man who will be in the history books forever. He's not an ordinary man and he made something happen. He's fighting against the U.S. empire, an admirable act in itself. On the other hand, Bush will be remembered but because of the bad decisions he made, both as president and as a person. Heck, Mr Hussein was better than Bush and will always be remembered, now as a martyr. Another person that comes to mind is President Hugo Chavez. Lastly, dictators? How do you call a "president" that goes against his own congress and imposes his will on his people? Perhaps you'd check the latest polls.

In a bibliographical note at the end of his life in pictures of the `Maximum Leader' the controversial MP for London's Bethnal Green & Bow constituency notes the wealth of material on Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. As to why a further contribution to the already vast literature should be thought necessary, George Galloway states openly in his preface that he is `a partisan for Cuba, for its revolution, for its leadership, for its role in the world'. So in proclaiming his partisanship Galloway makes it clear that in this case there will be none of the biographer's customary distancing and objectivity. He describes briefly his own youthful political awakening and lifelong commitment to the socialist cause, and admits that his is no dispassionate `either-or' account of the Great Revolutionary's life. Fidel - the familiar first name is used throughout - is the living embodiment, his policies the practical realisation, of what the author holds sacred. By foregoing objectivity Galloway attempts to portray the man of flesh and blood, his human qualities, something on which he presumably feels previous biographers have laid insufficient emphasis. The book's magazine-supplement style of layout and presentation distinguishes it from other more detailed accounts. Several quotations from Castro and other leading figures are highlighted in bold print, sometimes filling entire pages, while the many photographs, some previously unpublished, complement the various phases of a life of heroics and high drama told with a nice sense of pacing and proportion. The main points of an extraordinary epic are sketched from his childhood and family background through the first stirrings of revolutionary zeal, the assault on the Moncada Barracks, the meeting with Guevara and the consolidation of the 26th of July Movement before the final taking of power, the restructuring of Cuba against a background of US-instigated terror and assassination plots, the Missile Crisis, and Castro's role on the international stage as a champion of the Third World's cause. Aside from the main narrative are the contributions of six interviewees who are summoned, effectively, as witnesses for the defence. Leader of the Cuban Parliament Ricardo Alarcon notes how under Batista's rule the population as a whole had little trust in politicians, and the success of the revolution was down to Fidel's `uniting the people'. It was also down to his formidable skills as a military commander which Galloway prompts Ramiro Valdes, former Minister of the Interior, to elaborate on, while in the sphere of the arts Culture Minister Abel Prieto insists that their leader has no prejudices, not even against `decadent' western popular music! Some observations on the ever-present threat from the colossus of the north are made by Washington-based immigration lawyer Jose Pertierra and former US diplomat Wayne S Smith, the latter of whom resigned his post in protest at Reagan's deranged anti-Cuba policy. Perti