Cuban Revolution points road forward for working people
https://themilitant.com/2020/12/26/cuban-revolution-points-road-forward-for-working-people/
January 4, 2021
Millions of working people in the U.S. — and throughout the capitalist
world — are being thrown out of work. The bosses and their government
are intensifying layoffs and shutdowns of small businesses that isolate
workers.
The for-profit hospital industry turns away those needing life-saving
treatment, and nursing home residents are crammed into conditions that
ensure rapid spread of the virus. Pharmaceutical bosses insist on the
inviolability of their patents, motivated only by profit, guaranteeing
large swaths of the semicolonial world won’t see vaccination for months,
maybe years. Pfizer says its doses won’t reach millions in the U.S.
until June or later, while other plants capable of producing the vaccine
have been shut down.
This disregard for the lives of working people is an integral part of
social relations built on dog-eat-dog capitalist morality.
The ruling families, the meritocratic middle-class layers who serve
them, and their Democratic and Republican parties all consider working
people “deplorable.” This is true even of workers the capitalists claim
are “essential,” while cutting staff and ignoring safety in search of
profit off their labor.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
Workers and farmers in Cuba proved that our class is capable of
organizing and fighting to replace capitalist rule with something better
— our own government.
Led by Fidel Castro and the July 26 Movement, millions of workers and
peasants overturned the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship on Jan. 1,
1959. The Militant joins in celebrating the 62nd anniversary of Cuba’s
living revolution — a conquest for working people the world over!
Working people in Cuba used their state power to take over the
factories, land and the banks; turned the land over to all who wanted to
till it; mobilized 100,000 young volunteers to eradicate illiteracy;
enforced an end to racial segregation; and, virtually from scratch,
built a health care system truly worthy of humanity — a source of pride
and admiration around the world.
Through making a revolution, working people discovered their own worth,
coming to recognize themselves as the makers of history, determined to
put their revolution at the service of others fighting oppression.
They responded to the request of the government of Angola for support in
defeating an invasion by South Africa’s apartheid rulers — backed by
Washington — in the 1970s. Over 400,000 Cuban soldiers and other
volunteers fought for 17 years, and the South African invasions were
decisively defeated, paving the way for the independence of Namibia and
the overturn of apartheid.
Today Cuban volunteer medical workers treat those infected with
coronavirus in dozens of countries. Cuba has one of the lowest death
rates anywhere in the world.
The U.S. capitalist rulers have never forgiven Cuban working people for
taking power into their own hands. For over six decades they have waged
an unrelenting economic war aimed at strangling their revolution and the
powerful example it sets.
Defending the revolution from Washington’s attacks, and telling the
truth about it to fellow workers worldwide, is indispensable for
advancing working-class interests in the U.S.
In 1961 Fidel Castro said, “There will be a victorious revolution in the
United States before a victorious counterrevolution in Cuba.” The
Socialist Workers Party acts on the capacities of workers and farmers
here to emulate the example of Cuba — to make our own revolution. Its
members explain workers’ interests are irreconcilable with those who
exploit us and point to what we can do today to build a party that will
lead millions in the struggles that lie ahead.
And we will take political power into our own hands and build a new world.
Protest actions demand, ‘End US gov’t economic war against Cuba!’
With Jan. 1 marking the 62nd anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban
Revolution, the National Network on Cuba and local coalitions have laid
out a program of solidarity actions over the next several months
demanding: End the U.S. embargo…
Prieto: ‘US gov’t is unable to grasp deep links between culture,
revolution in Cuba’
This article by Abel Prieto appeared in the Dec. 4 issue of the Cuban
daily Granma, with the headline “Culture and Revolution.” Prieto is
director of Casa de las Américas, a renowned Cuban cultural institution.
Prieto, an author, was the…
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Prieto: ‘US gov’t is unable to grasp deep links between culture,
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Carl Sagan “Why do we put up with it? Do we like to be criticized? No,
no scientist enjoys it. Every scientist feels a proprietary affection
for his or her ideas and findings. Even so, you don’t reply to critics,
Wait a minute; this is a really good idea; I’m very fond of it; it’s
done you no harm; please leave it alone. Instead, the hard but just rule
is that if the ideas don’t work, you must throw them away.” ― Carl
Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark