The Republic of Cuba
The Republic of Cuba
The politics of this blog doesn’t take a romantic approach towards the Cuban Revolution;
a group of nationalist idealists who decided to take on the most powerful Imperialist power at the time – and won;
whose alliance with the Soviet Union was more a ‘marriage of convenience’ than an ideological decision based upon a Marxist-Leninist analysis of the situation. And anyway, by the time of the victory of the Revolution in 1959 the Soviet Union was well and truly under the control of the Revisionists. Nonetheless there were those in the July 27th Nationalist Movement who would have called themselves Communists;
the idea that committed revolutionaries can be parachuted into any country and be able to foment popular revolution – the ‘foco’ idea which prompted Che Guevara to go, and die, in Bolivia;
the role that Fidel Castro played during the time of his leadership of the country that there was another way, other than that of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism for the exploited and the oppressed of the world to free themselves from capitalist and imperialist domination; the promotion of the (now defunct) Non-aligned Movement (NAM) as an alternative to international solidarity of socialist countries and revolutionary Communist Parties.
However, we have to accept (and respect) that the people of the small island of Cuba have stood up against the world’s most vicious and vindictive imperialist power (to date) in a way that is unprecedented.
Ever since the Munroe Doctrine of the early 19th century (when the young imperialist pretender of the United States of America declared that it, and it alone, had the right to exploit the peoples of the continent of America) the forces of reaction of the USA had been involved, directly or indirectly, in the internal affairs of all the countries of Central and Latin America. Most succumbed to that external pressure – often at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and overwhelming economic disruption and destruction which effects millions.
Cuba has to be respected as the country, and people, which has resisted such extreme pressure for more than 60 years – without giving in.
Recently additional problems caused by the pandemic have placed an even greater pressure upon the regime in Havana – and the opportunist imperialist forces and their local lackeys have taken advantage of a not unexpected development of frustration and discontent amongst the general population.
However, even in the most ‘ideal’ of societies there will always be those who will not be content with what is provided and will want more for themselves.
This article (analysing the present situation in Haiti) allows us to pose a very simple question; what would the people of the all the other Central and Latin American countries prefer – what they, as the Haitians, have now (and have had to live under for all their lives) or what has been the fate of the working people of Cuba since 1959, with all its problems? (Hopefully, not pandering to the ‘lesser of two evils’ concept here when the only long term solution is the establishment of a Socialist State following the guidelines of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.)
This page will aim to provide links to documents in order to provide a bit of historical background to the situation in Cuba, some of this information not being readily available on the internet.
For those who want a short and basic introduction to the situation in Cuba at the moment, from someone who takes a reasonably favourable approach to the country and its past, you can watch ‘What is the story of Cuba?’
Writings of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara
Documents by the Government and Communist Party of Cuba
Cuba – Hell, Purgatory and Paradise
Cuba’s vaccine could end up saving millions of lives
Cuba: five years after Fidel Castro’s death, how fares the revolution?
Protest in Cuba: why it failed
Cuba defeats covid-19 with learning, science, and unity.
Blockade Against Cuba Turns 60 (4th February 2022)
On fails to understand how it has been possible for the US to act against millions of people for so long and with so much hatred, a hatred without limits or rational explanation.
The legacy of Lester Mallory: Brief statement against the U.S. economic war against Cuba (10th February 2022)
It has now been 60 years since this U.S. enacted its “embargo” on Cuba. The term embargo is however, a gross understatement of the measures designed to undermine and overthrow the Cuban government, in the words of U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Interamerican Affairs, Lester Mallory (1960) “through disenchantment and disaffection based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship”. The concept of ‘economic war’ is a much more accurate depiction.
Can those prosecuted for acts of violence and recklessly endangering the public order, with no program, no proposals for positive change, be considered political prisoners? (16th February 2022)
A few days after the March 10, 1952 coup in Cuba, the young attorney Fidel Castro, “with a law office at Tejadillo, No. 57,” filed a complaint in court charging Fulgencio Batista with the crime of sedition. Motivated by personal interest or cowardice, the legal team of jurists, defending Batista’s coup against the 1940 Constitution, alleged that his actions did not constitute a coup, but rather a revolution, which was acceptable under the law.
CIA discussed assassination of Fidel Castro with UK officials (12th April 2022)
A Foreign Office document, classified for six decades and only recently released at the National Archives, reveals British diplomats discussed the “disappearance” of Castro with the CIA.
How the United States uses and abuses migration from Cuba and elsewhere (14th April 2022)
Presently 3.6% of the world’s people live in a country other than their own. They move to escape wars, oppression, poverty, hunger, climate-change effects, or to find new work, or because they were forced to move. The story is also about nations weaponizing or exploiting migration.
Mexico leads in opposing the Cuba Blockade and US Imperialism. (19th May 2022)
Andrés Manuel López Obrador included Diaz-Canel in a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Mexican independence. Praising Cuba’s dignity in resisting U.S. aggression, he called for an end to the blockade.
Crisis in Cuba requires end of US blockade now (7th July 2022)
Friends of socialist Cuba like good news about that country. Now bad news has its use. Grief and hardship currently are such that, clearly, the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba must end at once. The harsh details, appearing below, testify to potential destabilization in Cuba, danger to Cuba’s socialist project, and the nefarious role of the blockade. A major mobilization against the blockade is due. The need for action is obvious.
How Cuba is eradicating child mortality and banishing the diseases of the poor. (7th July 2022)
Biden should remove Cuba from the infamous State Sponsors of Terrorism List (28th July 2022)
As the Cuban government celebrates the July 26 Day of the National Rebellion–a public holiday commemorating the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks that is considered the precursor to the 1959 revolution–U.S. groups are calling on the Biden administration to stop its cruel sanctions that are creating such hardship for the Cuban people.
Cuba in the eye of Washington’s hurricane. (19th October 2022)
Hurricane Ian lashed at western Cuba on September 27, 2022. I waited desperately for a phone call from my friends in Puerto Esperanza, a small fishing village on the northern coast of Pinar del Río. Over a crackling phone line, my friends told me that the hurricane had ripped off the roofs of their houses and had cut their electricity supply. But they were safe. What comes next for them and their recovery from the loss and devastation caused by the hurricane is uncertain under the weight of a U.S. blockade that is now being overseen by U.S. President Joe Biden.
The endgame of the Cuban Missile Crisis – Part 1 (18th February 2023)
Most of the documents in this posting are never-before-published records discovered at the U.S. National Archives among the State Department’s central files and the records of the U.S. Embassy in Rome.
European Parliament approves vicious anti-Cuba resolution. (19th July 2023)
Signs were evident. Touring Spain in May, the Cuban musical duo Buena Fe (Good Faith) had their concerts disrupted by thugs; some were canceled. A month later in Paris, protests orchestrated by a Cuban émigré university professor forced a prestigious poetry festival to withdraw the honorary presidency it was going to award Cuban poet Nancy Morejón.
US terror attacks against Cuba return. (17th January 2024)
When the U.S. government launched its so-called global war on terror after the al Qaeda attack on September 11, 2001, terror attacks against Cuba had been ongoing for over 40 years.
In her father’s footsteps: an interview with Che’s daughter, Aleida Guevara. (17th October 2024)
Aleida, how did your father’s revolutionary ideals shape your personal values and outlook on life?