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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 39 November 2, 2015
(feature article)
End 55-year US embargo
against Cuban Revolution!
Fidel Castro: ‘Imperialists worry about our example’
BY SETH GALINSKY
Oct. 19 marked the 55th anniversary of the imposition of Washington’s
embargo against Cuba and full-fledged economic war aimed at overturning
the revolution.
Totally misreading the revolutionary mettle of Fidel Castro and the
cadres of the July 26 Movement who led the Jan. 1, 1959, revolution that
overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, the U.S.
rulers hoped that with a little pressure and financial inducement,
Castro and company would see the light. New faces would be in power, but
the island would remain under U.S. imperialist domination.
Washington’s hopes were dashed as Cuban revolutionaries implemented the
revolutionary program they had promised during the fight against Batista
and continued to mobilize and lead Cuban workers and farmers in taking
control of their country. In May 1959 the first agrarian reform law was
passed, expropriating large plantations, including many owned by U.S.
capitalists, eliminating the system of rents and mortgages and granting
land to those who worked it.
By the end of 1959 Washington was not-so-secretly backing armed
counterrevolutionaries seeking to overthrow the new government.
At the beginning of June 1960, three companies that dominated the
importing, refining and distribution of oil in Cuba — U.S.-based Esso
and Texaco and British-Dutch Shell — refused to refine oil that Cuba
obtained from the Soviet Union. Large working-class mobilizations
accompanied the revolutionary government’s seizure of the refineries.
In retaliation, President Dwight Eisenhower canceled that year’s quota
for Cuban sugar exports to the U.S.
A month later Castro announced the expropriation of 26 U.S.-owned
companies at a rally of thousands of cheering workers. Early in the
morning of Aug. 17, large numbers of workers gathered in front of the
Cuban Telephone Company and the Cuban Electric Company, both U.S.-owned,
tore down the old signs and took over.
An article in the Oct. 15 Granma notes that the first steps taken by the
revolutionary government to expropriate U.S.- and other foreign-owned
companies “had little impact on private industrial interests” owned by
Cuban capitalists.
But by the end of 1959 and the beginning of 1960 “the majority of large
proprietors increasingly sabotaged production,” Granma said. “After
withdrawing huge sums of cash from operating funds, many left the
country, abandoning their businesses … other proprietors made common
cause with enemies of the Revolution, financing subversive groups which
proliferated in support of U.S. plans to attack Cuba.”
On Oct. 13, 1960, the Cuban Council of Ministers approved laws that
nationalized 382 Cuban-owned companies, including 105 sugar mills, 60
textile and garment companies, 18 distilleries, 16 rice processors, 13
department stores and eight rail companies, as well as most banks.
These measures were popular with working people in Cuba, but not with
Washington, which tried to weaken support for the revolutionary
mobilizations by calling the Cuban leaders communists.
Castro took on the red-baiting charge during a “Meet the Press”-style
nationwide TV program Oct. 15. He described having talked with a group
of people who had been put on trial after joining counterrevolutionary
actions in Santa Clara, saying they had been disoriented by Washington’s
propaganda.
“I said to them, ‘Do you want the land to be taken away from the
peasants and given once again to the big landowners?’ ‘No, No!’ ‘Then do
you want us to take the teachers away from you?’ ‘No.’ ‘Do you want us
to raise rents back up again?’ ‘No.’ ‘Do you want us to close the
beaches and return them to private ownership?’ And so they agreed with
everything.” To the laughter of the TV audience, Castro told them, “If
you say we are communists, then you are communists too.”
Imperialist governments “are not so much interested in the amount they
lost because of the revolutionary measures,” Castro noted. “They are
much more worried about the significance of this example to the other
peoples” of Latin America and the world.
On Oct. 19, 1960, Eisenhower officially imposed a punishing trade
embargo, prohibiting all exports to Cuba except food, medicine and
medical supplies.
That embargo remains in place today, despite the re-establishment of
diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba. But it has failed to
bring revolutionary Cuba to its knees and the example of working people
in power and their internationalist solidarity inspire working people
around the world.
On Oct. 27 the United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to vote on a
motion demanding Washington end the embargo. The motion will pass
overwhelmingly as it has for the past 23 years. Washington has said it
hasn’t yet decided how it will vote.
Related articles:
‘To be a revolutionary doctor, there must first be a revolution’
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