http://themilitant.com/2016/8047/804702.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 47 December 19, 2016
(front page)
Millions line streets across Cuba for Freedom Caravan
BY MAGGIE TROWE
Through his example, Fidel Castro showed the Cuban people — and by
extension working people worldwide — “that yes we could, yes we can, and
yes we will overcome any obstacle, threat or turmoil in our determined
efforts to build socialism,” Raúl Castro, first secretary of the
Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and president of the Councils
of State and Ministers, told a massive crowd in Santiago de Cuba Dec. 3.
The event was organized to honor the life and work of Cuban
revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, who died Nov. 25 at the age of 90.
(See speech alongside this article.)
The event marked the culmination of a week during which workers and
youth turned out by the millions to reaffirm their commitment to the
revolution and discuss how to maintain its values of internationalism,
solidarity and uncompromising opposition to U.S. imperialism.
Leaders of the mass organizations of the Cuban people addressed the
flag-waving and determined crowd. The heads of state of Bolivia,
Nicaragua, Venezuela and South Africa were among international guests
seated on the platform. The Barack Obama administration, the 11th U.S.
administration to try to overthrow the Cuban Revolution, sent no one.
“Fidel unconditionally defended revolutionary ideas and principles,”
Ulises Guilarte, secretary general of the Central Organization of Cuban
Workers, told the gathering.
“The Cuban working class not only found a solution to their demands as
labor” through the revolution led by Fidel, he said, “but became a
protagonist in the transformation demanded by the construction of
socialism.”
“Young Cubans accept responsibility for one overriding order — to always
take care of this revolution,” said Susely Morfa, first secretary of the
Union of Young Communists. “We vow to fight as long as imperialism
exists and, with the sound guidance of our party, we will not fail!”
“You encouraged us to unite and organize,” said Teresa Amarelle Boué,
general secretary of the Federation of Cuban Women. “‘A revolution
within the revolution’ — that’s what you called the participation of
women.”
The revolution gave Cuban women “the possibility to become full human
beings,” she said, by pulling up by the root “the legacy of
discrimination, exclusion and humiliation.”
Fidel “defended the independence of Algeria, fought the unjust war in
Vietnam and combated apartheid in Africa,” said Miguel Barnet, president
of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba. “His
anti-imperialism made no truces and was hostage to no concessions.”
“The Association of Combatants will forge the unity of the generations,”
said Maj. Gen. José Antonio Carrillo, the association’s president, “with
the new pines and the old pines making a formidable beam.” The
organization brings together 300,000 Cuban veterans of revolutionary
struggles in Cuba and internationally.
“Cuba is ours to take care of and defend,” said Jennifer Bello,
president of the Federation of University Students. “Each university
classroom will be our Moncada.”
Rafael Ramón Santiesteban Pozo, president of the National Association of
Small Farmers, and Carlos Rafael Miranda, national coordinator of the
Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, also spoke.
“Before Fidel’s remains,” Raúl Castro said in closing, “we pledge to
defend the homeland and socialism!” The plaza resounded with shouts of
“We pledge!”
“And together we all reaffirm,” Castro continued, what Antonio Maceo,
hero of the 19th century independence fight, said: “Whoever attempts to
conquer Cuba will gain nothing but the dust of her blood-soaked soil —
if they do not perish in the struggle!”
The Santiago tribute came at the end of a four-day Freedom Caravan that
bore Fidel’s ashes from Havana, retracing in reverse the march taken in
January 1959 by victorious Rebel Army units led by Fidel Castro after
the U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista fled in defeat.
The revolutionary struggle began when Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro and
dozens of other fighters stormed the Moncada barracks in Santiago on
July 26, 1953, aiming to mobilize working people in revolutionary
struggle against the dictatorship. Dozens were killed and Fidel was
captured and put on trial. His testimony, smuggled out and widely
disseminated under the title, “History Will Absolve Me,” was used by
revolutionaries to build the July 26 Movement, which led the fight for
power to victory.
Millions turned out to greet the caravan, with thousands lining the
streets of Santa Clara, Camagüey and other cities, and people standing
at attention along the highway in rural areas, some on horseback.
“There was palpable excitement in Santiago and in the small towns along
the Central Highway where throngs lined up to greet the caravan,” the
Miami Herald was forced to admit Dec. 3.
The Cuban Revolution sets an example for workers, peasants and youth
around the world. Members of the Socialist Workers Party in the U.S. and
Communist Leagues in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New
Zealand, who focus their activity on going door to door in working-class
areas introducing their parties and making contacts, are discussing this
example.
They make good use of books on the Cuban Revolution published by
Pathfinder Press and last week’s Militant, which contains Raúl Castro’s
Nov. 29 speech in Havana, a revolutionary pledge signed by millions of
Cubans and a letter to Raúl Castro from SWP National Secretary Jack
Barnes. The letter concludes, “With unshakable confidence in the working
class and its allies, we will continue to organize and act on the course
Fidel uncompromisingly presented to the world in 1961, a month before
the victorious battle of Playa Girón: ‘There will be a victorious
revolution in the United States before a victorious counterrevolution in
Cuba.’”
Related articles:
‘Cuba will overcome any threat to building socialism’
Mass tribute to Fidel strengthens revolution
Raúl Castro: Fidel showed us, ‘Yes we can, yes we will’
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