Long Live Cuba!!

Richard S. Dunn –  July 26, 2021

“ Socialism is and will continue to be the hope, the only hope, the only road for the peoples, the oppressed, the exploited, the plundered. Socialism is the only alternative! And today, when our enemies want to question it, we must defend it more than ever.” Late President Fidel Castro, from the Introduction to: “In Defense of Socialism” edited by Mary-Alice Waters.

Today marks the 68th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada garrison, by a group of revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro. The attack on the Moncada was the precursor to the triumphant Cuban Revolution; a revolution that put an end to tyranny, exploitation, and plundering of its natural resources. The Fulgencio Batista regime welcomed with open arms the multinationals and the local exploiters. The critical branches of the Cuban economy were owned by the minority; and the wealth created by the majority the workers, was appropriated by the multinationals and the local oligarchy. The farmers had to pay unreasonable rent and turn over a significant amount of what was produced to the landowners. The revolution, the first in Latin America, signaled the beginning of an exemplary process of nation-building that would positively impact the developing countries especially.

Building a nation based on self-determination and pursuing a non-capitalist path of socio-economic development, is no easy task. It calls for tremendous sacrifice, creativity, patience, and constant vigilance, to maintain and protect the gains of the revolution. Enemies of the revolution are without and within; those that seek to crush the peoples power are always planning and active. Those that do not understand the role of the revolution, and the creation of a new society are problematic also, because of their narrow sightedness.

The recent demonstrations in Cuba are not unique to the island nation alone; antigovernment protests are frequent occurrences around the world. There were demonstrations all over the United States in 2020, against State and Federal inaction, in effectively addressing racism and police murder of unarmed Black men and women. Who can forget the Occupy Wall Street Movement some years ago? Agree with it or not, the siege on the Capitol was a demonstration against “bad government,” as they perceived it.

The Corporate Media and reactionary politicians, use the incident in Cuba as another way to attack, undermine, and demonize the Cuban government, and the revolutionary people of Cuba. Those who opportunistically and hypocritically criticize the government for the protests, have conveniently omitted to mention that the majority of the protesters are the younger generation. When the struggle for working-class independence and national sovereignty was in progress, these folks were not around; when the revolution triumphed, they were not around also. Despite these objective facts, the younger generation are beneficiaries of the struggle and fruits of the revolution.

The enemies of the Cuban Revolution led by the United States on both Federal and local levels, along with the reactionary Cuban exiles, have assiduously worked to undermine and overturn the Cuban Revolution. The age-old tactic of divide and conquer have been at work ever since the triumph of the revolution. The CIA trained and supported reactionary exiles in Miami, have always played upon the contradictions among those residing in Cuba, with the intent and aim to topple the revolution from within.

 Despite an illegal and immoral embargo, Cuba have provided for its people what the US have not done, after 245 years of independence. The people of Cuba have free quality education from kindergarten to university; the people of Cuba have free quality and comprehensive medical services; the people of Cuba are not burdened with exorbitant rent for inadequate housing. The means of production, transportation, communication, and exchange are publicly owned; that is the basis of the socio-economic structure of Cuba. The socio-economic benefits that all people in Cuba receive including the younger generation, are as a result of that socio-economic structure.

In one of his speeches celebrating the 30th anniversary of the revolution, then President Fidel Castro said: “There are many tasks that the present generation no longer have to tackle. The present generation must wage ideological battles but of a different type, not to create a socialist consciousness but to defend that socialist consciousness. They do not have to wage a battle to change property ownership but to defend the system of socialist ownership. They must develop and improve that consciousness…The revolution brought forth new ideas, a new ideology. The task of the current generation is developing those ideas, developing that ideology, and resolutely defending that ideology” ( bold and italics mine).

Ever since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution its enemies mainly here in the United States, governmental and non-governmental, have insidiously worked overtly and covertly to destroy the revolution through destabilization, the bombing of a Cuban passenger aircraft, and several assassination attempts against the late President Fidel Castro. This current incident is fueled by those same reactionary governmental and non-governmental forces in the hope, that the revolutionary Cuban people will abandon the continued building and expanding of their socialist society.

Building a society of REAL equal opportunity, non-exploitation, self-determination, and public ownership of the economy is filled with challenges, not the least of them being a 62-year illegal and immoral embargo compounded by a pandemic. Cuba has always solved its problems with patience and creativity; there is no doubt, that they will do the same this time also.

Long live the revolutionary people of Cuba; long live the Cuban Revolution! Venceremos!!

 Richard Dunn be contacted at: contact@makingitplain.net