63 years. I was a 23 year old just setting out on life's long path.
I remember cheering when Batista
slunk out of town. If that man represented what we defined as
successful, then I would rather have been born a horse.
If the American Corporate Empire truly supported democracy, then we
should have been declaring a world-wide holiday in honor of that great
accomplishment. And just think of it, all the effort put in by those
who wanted to squelch a People's Revolution, sixty-three
years of trashing and embargos by the world's most powerful
government, the Cuban People have persevered.
Carl Jarvis
On 12/25/21, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Celebrate 63rd anniversary of the revolution in Cuba
https://themilitant.com/2021/12/24/celebrate-63rd-anniversary-of-the-revolution-in-cuba/
Fidel Castro addresses crowd in Havana in January 1959, after triumph
over U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship. “Before January, a vanguard was
the main protagonist in events” in Cuba, Castro said 20 years later, but
“since that January, the main protagonist has been the people.”
AP/HAROLD VALENTINE
Fidel Castro addresses crowd in Havana in January 1959, after triumph
over U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship. “Before January, a vanguard was
the main protagonist in events” in Cuba, Castro said 20 years later, but
“since that January, the main protagonist has been the people.”
Below are excerpts from a speech given by Fidel Castro in Havana, Jan.
1, 1979, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the defeat of the
U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista dictatorship and the opening of the first
socialist revolution in the Americas. Castro describes the momentous
events that placed power in the hands of the workers and farmers. Today,
on its 63rd anniversary, Cuba’s revolution stands as an example for
working people everywhere to emulate. The entire talk appears in
Education for Socialists: Selected Speeches of Fidel Castro. Copyright
©1979 by Pathfinder Press. Reprinted by permission.
Perhaps not even we ourselves were fully aware of how great a step
January 1, 1959, was to be in the history of our homeland and of the
Americas — that January 1 that was also a tremendous event in the
development of the world revolutionary movement.
Forty-one years and two months after the glorious October Revolution [in
Russia], the first socialist revolution in the western hemisphere began.
Four and a half centuries after the discovery of America, a society that
was the fruit of that conquest; of the extermination of the aboriginal
population; and of colonization, slavery, capitalism, neocolonialism and
imperialism was to know its first truly deep and irreversible change.
This change took place at the very doors of the most powerful
imperialist country in the world. …
Cuba was, without a doubt, after Puerto Rico, the nation most tied to
U.S. domination in the Americas. The large landowners and bourgeoisie,
trusting to the power of the empire and to the well-armed and
well-trained repressive forces, never thought seriously about the
possibility of a socialist revolution in our homeland. …
The people needed leaders. The leaders were among the people. The people
always produced its leaders in every stage of our revolutionary
struggles. Leaders do not shape peoples; it is the peoples that shape
their leaders.
None of the men who later were to lead the victorious ranks of the Rebel
Army on January 1, 1959, had gone to a military academy or had ever been
lionized by the press. And, with but few exceptions, none of the ones
who later were to figure in the Political Bureau and the Central
Committee of the Party or in the leadership of the Government were known
then.
The bourgeois press, the bourgeois parties and imperialism had hammered
out other names, other figures, other leaders. Today, millions of our
young people and children have never even heard of them, and many of our
adults have forgotten them.
But we had to fight. I repeat that there is no revolution without a
struggle. No social changes are possible without the tenacious,
consistent struggle of the peoples and their revolutionary vanguard.
Marxism-Leninism gives us theory; the struggle gives us victory. …
In Cuba, it may be categorically stated that revolutionary power was won
exclusively by our people. At that stage we couldn’t receive any kind of
foreign aid, and the arms with which we fought were supplied exclusively
to the Batista army, from which we took them in one battle after another.
It is impossible to forget the days that led up to January 1, 1959. Hard
fighting was going on all over the country. While the underground
fighters in the cities risked their lives, defying death with
incomparable courage up to the very last, the Rebel Army, with 3,000
veterans … fought tirelessly and inflicted one defeat after another on
an adversary whose total forces ran to 80,000 men. Alongside the
revolutionary army marched all the people.
That was an unforgettable, history-making day that we are celebrating
today, one on which our workers unanimously went over the heads of their
official “leaders” and carried out the Rebel Army’s instructions to take
a decisive part in the battle, throwing themselves into the general
strike that paralyzed the country completely, helped to destroy
imperialism’s coup maneuver and facilitated controlling and disarming
the rest of the enemy units in less than 72 hours. All the people took
part in the final battle — a beautiful and exemplary revolutionary event
that changed forever the history of our homeland. …
Up until January 1, imperialism was our indirect adversary; our direct
adversary was Batista. After January, imperialism was our adversary
directly. Before January, we fought to become the masters of our
destiny; after January, we fought to defend this right and to carry out
the socialist revolution.
Before January, we waged a patriotic battle; after January, our battle
was also internationalist. (Applause)
Before January, we were part of a national revolution; since that
January, we have been part of the world revolution. (Applause) Before
January, a vanguard was the main protagonist in events; since that
January, the main protagonist has been the people. (Applause)
Los Angeles meeting marks Cuba’s solidarity with Africa
LOS ANGELES — “We have medical brigades in more than 10 African
countries, just one example of the Cuban Revolution’s solidarity with
the peoples of Africa,” Alejandro García, of the Cuban Embassy in
Washington, D.C., told a meeting here Dec.…
US rulers’ drive to isolate Cuba dealt blow by Colombia award
The U.S. rulers’ drive to isolate Cuba was dealt a setback Dec. 8 when
the Congress of Colombia gave an award to the Cuban government for
facilitating talks that led to a peace agreement between the Colombian
government and the…
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I sent him a card saying, "I am sure you believe that I will go to hell
when I die, and that once there I will suffer all the pains and tortures
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will continue forever. Isn't that enough for you? Do you have to call me
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