Che: ‘Moncada attack was beginning of Cuba’s revolution’
https://themilitant.com/2020/07/18/che-moncada-attack-was-beginning-of-cubas-revolution/
July 27, 2020
Fidel Castro is greeted by thousands of jubilant Cubans as his Freedom
Caravan enters Santa Clara, Jan. 6, 1959, on the way to Havana after the
revolution led by the July 26 Movement overthrew the U.S.-backed
Fulgencio Batista dictatorship.
Fidel Castro is greeted by thousands of jubilant Cubans as his Freedom
Caravan enters Santa Clara, Jan. 6, 1959, on the way to Havana after the
revolution led by the July 26 Movement overthrew the U.S.-backed
Fulgencio Batista dictatorship.
Che Guevara Speaks by Ernesto Che Guevara is one of Pathfinder’s Books
of the Month for July. Che, born in Argentina, became a central leader
of the Cuban Revolution and one of the outstanding communists of the
20th century. The excerpt is from “Socialism and Man in Cuba,” his
famous presentation of the tasks and challenges of the working class in
transforming itself in struggle to lead the transition to socialism.
After its publication in 1965, Che left Cuba to advance new
revolutionary battles abroad, leading Cuban and other fighters on
internationalist missions in the Congo and then Bolivia. Che Guevara
Speaks has been kept continuously in print since Che was wounded,
captured by CIA-trained Bolivian army forces on Oct. 8, 1967, and then
murdered the following day. Copyright © 2000 by Pathfinder Press.
Reprinted by permission.
BY ERNESTO CHE GUEVARA
[T]he exact date of the beginning of the revolutionary struggle — which
would culminate in January 1959 — was July 26, 1953. A group of men led
by Fidel Castro attacked the Moncada garrison in Oriente province on the
morning of that day. The attack was a failure; the failure became a
disaster; and the survivors ended up in prison, beginning the
revolutionary struggle again after they were freed by an amnesty.
In this process, in which there was only the germ of socialism, man was
a fundamental factor. We put our trust in him — individual, specific,
with a first and last name — and the triumph or failure of the mission
entrusted to him depended on his capacity for action.
Then came the stage of guerrilla struggle. It developed in two distinct
environments: the people, the still sleeping mass that had to be
mobilized; and its vanguard, the guerrillas, the motor force of the
mobilization, the generator of revolutionary consciousness and militant
enthusiasm. This vanguard was the catalyzing agent that created the
subjective conditions necessary for victory.
Here again, in the framework of the proletarianization of our thinking,
of this revolution that took place in our habits and our minds, the
individual was the basic factor. Every one of the fighters of the Sierra
Maestra who reached an upper rank in the revolutionary forces has a
record of outstanding deeds to his credit. They attained their rank on
this basis. It was the first heroic period, and in it they competed for
the heaviest responsibilities, for the greatest dangers, with no other
satisfaction than fulfilling a duty.
In our work of revolutionary education we frequently return to this
instructive theme. In the attitude of our fighters could be glimpsed the
man of the future.
On other occasions in our history the act of total dedication to the
revolutionary cause was repeated. During the October [1962 missile]
crisis and in the days of Hurricane Flora we saw exceptional deeds of
valor and sacrifice performed by an entire people. Finding the method to
perpetuate this heroic attitude in daily life is, from the ideological
standpoint, one of our fundamental tasks.
In January 1959 the revolutionary government was established with the
participation of various members of the treacherous bourgeoisie. The
presence of the Rebel Army as the basic element of strength constituted
the guarantee of power.
Serious contradictions developed right away. In the first instance, in
February 1959, these were resolved when Fidel Castro assumed leadership
of the government, taking the post of prime minister. This process
culminated in July of the same year with the resignation under mass
pressure of President Urrutia.
In the history of the Cuban revolution there now appeared a character,
well-defined in its features, who would systematically reappear: the mass.
This multifaceted being is not, as is claimed, the sum of elements of
the same type (reduced, moreover, to that same type by the reigning
system), which acts like a flock of sheep. It is true that it follows
its leaders, basically Fidel Castro, without hesitation. But the degree
to which he won this trust results precisely from having interpreted the
people’s desires and aspirations in their full meaning, and from the
sincere struggle to fulfill the promises he made.
The mass participated in the agrarian reform and in the difficult task
of the administration of state enterprises; it went through the heroic
experience of Playa Girón; it was hardened in the battles against
various bands of bandits armed by the CIA; it lived through one of the
most important decisions of modern times during the October crisis; and
today it continues to work for the building of socialism.
Viewed superficially, it might appear that those who speak of the
subordination of the individual to the state are right. The mass carries
out with matchless enthusiasm and discipline the tasks set by the
government, whether in the field of the economy, culture, defense,
sports, etc.
The initiative generally comes from Fidel or from the revolutionary high
command and is explained to the people, who make it their own. In some
cases the party and government take a local experience and generalize
it, following the same procedure.
Nevertheless, the state sometimes makes mistakes. When one of these
mistakes occurs, one notes a decline in collective enthusiasm due to the
effect of a quantitative decrease in each of the elements that make up
the mass. Work is paralyzed until it is reduced to insignificant
amounts. It is time to make a correction. …
In this Fidel is a master. His own special way of fusing himself with
the people can be appreciated only by seeing him in action. At the great
public mass meetings one can observe something like the dialogue of two
tuning forks whose vibrations interact, producing new sounds. Fidel and
the mass begin to vibrate together in a dialogue of growing intensity
until they reach the climax in an abrupt conclusion crowned by our cry
of struggle and victory.
The difficult thing to understand for someone not living through the
experience of the revolution is this close dialectical unity between the
individual and the mass in which both are interrelated and, at the same
time, in which the mass, as an aggregate of individuals, interacts with
its leaders.
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Richard Dawkins
“The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all
decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this
sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running
for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from
within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation,
thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this
very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the
natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In a universe of electrons
and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people
are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find
any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has
precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no
purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”
― Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life
