Cuba - Commemorating 70 Years of The Moncada Attack

Richard S. Dunn – July 13, 2023

This July 26 (Day of National Rebellion) 2023, will mark another milestone in the glorious annals of social history regarding the people’s republic of revolutionary Cuba. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Barracks in Santiago de Cuba; the citadel of the despotic regime of Fulgencio Battista. That attack by a courageous group of revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro in the early morning of July 26 1953, signaled the end of despotism and oppression of the Cuban people, by United States imperialism and their local agents, the military and oligarchy of Cuba. The attack also announced the laying of the foundation for an egalitarian and just society, based on the public ownership of the means of production. The attack also signaled the opening of the road to Nation building based on self-determination, and a foreign policy of international solidarity with all oppressed people.

Internationalism

TeleSur has reported that: “Since 1963, Cuban health workers have treated 3 million people and performed over 16 million surgeries in 165 countries.” The first Cuban medical brigade was sent to Algeria on May 23, 1963 after the defeat of French colonialism, led by Ahmed Ben Bella and at his request. To-date, Cuban health professionals have been working in Ghana for at least 40 years. In January of this year, 51 Cuban doctors arrived in Italy to provide their services as part of an Agreement signed by president of the Calabria region and the Cuban Medical Services (SMC), to fill the lack of medical personnel in this territory. According to Jorge Delgado Bustillo a doctor who has participated in a lot of health brigade missions: “ With his humanist philosophical vision, Fidel Castro, the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, considered solidarity with other peoples as a duty.”

Revolutionary Cuba has also opened its doors of higher learning to college students wishing to study medicine, technology, economics, and agronomy in Cuba; year after year hundreds of young people, beneficiaries of Cuban-offered scholarships arrive on the island for training, who then return home to contribute to their respective country’s social development. Cuba’s most celebrated contribution to international solidarity with oppressed people is in the material and personnel support, it has given to the National Liberation struggles in Latin America and especially on the continent of Africa. Thousands of Cuban troops have given their lives on foreign soil, fighting alongside their compatriots against colonialist and imperialist occupation and oppression.

Time To Lift The Embargo – It Has Failed ! !

Despite United States’ imperialism attempt to crush, derail and turn back the Cuban Revolution by: armed invasion by CIA trained Cuban dissidents at the Bay of Pigs; numerous assassination attempts against the late President Fidel Castro (637 – Monthly Review, January 2022); internal destabilizations of which the most notable are the so-called “Freedom Flotilla” of 1981; the unrest of Summer 2021; the erroneous listing of Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism; and the unilateral, immoral and illegal embargo, which was escalated during the Trump Administration and supported and maintained by the Biden Administration. For 63 years, successive United States Administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have pursued this obscene obsession with Cuba, to destroy its sovereignty and return the country to a neocolonial dependency.

As recent as November 3, 2022 the United Nations (UN) General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in support of ending the ridiculous embargo against Cuba; 185 countries out of the 193 members, voted in the affirmative to end it. For 30 years the UN has been voting similarly, but the United States contrary to world opinion holds on to this self-serving ridiculous Foreign Policy. What is even more telling is that despite the embargo and the United States’ belligerent position, numerous countries still do business and have diplomatic relations with Cuba. On June 22, 2023 the New York City Council, unanimously passed a Resolution (Res #0285) introduced by Councilman Charles Barron, to lift the embargo against Cuba and remove Cuba from the US’s list of “state sponsors of terrorism.” On Thursday July 6, 2023 at the 45th Meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the leaders of the Caribbean demanded that the United States lift the blockade against Cuba and Venezuela. These are further examples of a failed Policy, one that has failed miserably.

Legacy of The 26th of July Movement

The decision and courage to attack the Moncada and the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks, in the early morning of July 26, 1953, set Cuba and the Cuban people on a socio-economic, ideological, and political trajectory, which has proved sustainable for 64 years. This sustainability is firmly rooted in a peoples economy, socialism, self-determination, cultural and national pride, and internationalist solidarity with the oppressed peoples of the world.

For 70 years, the 26th of July Movement has been the impetus and ideological motive force that keeps propelling the Cuban Revolution to provide for its people. Numerous challenges internally, including the Covid-19 Pandemic, and externally have challenged the longevity and continued success of the Cuban society. According to the Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriquez, the economy suffered $6.3 billion in damages within the first 14 months of the Biden Administration. Despite these challenges, the Cuban biopharmaceutical industry have been able to ship over 100,000 covid-19 vaccines and other pharmaceutical products.

Recently the Cuban Telecommunications Company SA (ETECSA) and the French company Orange SA, signed an Agreement to deploy a submarine fiber optic cable by ORANGE, through its subsidiary Orange Marine. The Agreement will allow the Cuban company to expand and diversify "its international capabilities in response to the growing demand for Internet and broadband services," said ETECSA. This project will connect the Caribbean island of Martinique with the southern Cuban province of Cienfuegos. The physical structure of the cable will be ready in 2023, ETECSA said, noting that this will provide Cuba with a new route for international services, geographically diversifying current connectivity.  

In the areas of sports and culture, the civic pride and support from a humanist society that  have made Cuban athletes among the most competitive in the world, even among those countries with a larger population and more material and financial resources. Whether it is the Pan American Games or the Olympics, Cuban athletes have demonstrated prowess, dignified sportsmanship, and a commitment to their country, that although faced with serious challenges, have given them the opportunity to compete globally. They have made their country proud. Last year October, the Moncada group, a set of Cuban musicians commemorated their 50th anniversary of formation; as writer Guille Vilar said in Granma: “In the context of contemporary popular music, in which the overwhelming power of the market seeks to choose as winners those who bow to vulgarity and bad taste, having skillfully avoided such inclemency’s for such a long space of time is a merit that the Moncada group has been able to endorse with refined elegance.”  

That 26 of July 1953 event, and the ensuing Movement, have generated a resilience, “national energy” and continuity in building a society that is not oppressed and devastated by the rule of capital, and the enrichment of its attendant privileged oligarchy. Cuba has built and will continue to build a socialist society. “The commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks constitutes a milestone for the historical continuity of the Cuban Revolution. In paying tribute to the Centennial Generation and the deed of July 26, we reaffirm the unwavering decision to continue forging unity in the ideas of Martí and Fidel, to face and overcome all obstacles.”  Granma July 7, 2023.

The main event of this year’s celebration will be held in the Province of Santiago de Cuba, site of the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Cespedes barracks.

 Richard Dunn be contacted at: contact@makingitplain.net