Defend the Cuban Revolution! the Overthrow of the Corrupt and Brutal Neo-Colonial 1991 Coup in the USSR Severed Cuba’S Economic Lifeline
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1 Smash Yankee Imperialism! Defend the Cuban Revolution! The overthrow of the corrupt and brutal neo-colonial 1991 coup in the USSR severed Cuba’s economic lifeline. regime of Fulgencio Batista in January 1959, and the The Yeltsinites lost no time announcing the cancellation subsequent expropriation of the Cuban bourgeoisie, was of the sugar subsidy and the withdrawal of Soviet mili- a victory for working people everywhere. With Soviet tary personnel from Cuba. By October 1991 Castro re- aid, Cuba consolidated a functional and relatively egali- ported that less than 40 percent of scheduled imports tarian economic system, and for three decades Fidel from the former Soviet bloc were arriving in Cuban Castro could thumb his nose at the U.S. colossus. After ports. The Cuban daily Granma noted bitterly that Mos- the ignominious collapse of the USSR, the rulers of a cow’s abandonment of the Cuban revolution gave the declining American empire are no longer compelled to ‘‘green light’’ for U.S. aggression. tolerate the continued existence of a collectivized econ- The Batistianos hailed the announcement of the Sov- omy 90 miles from Florida. The U.S. imperialists are iet pullout. The ‘‘Cuban American National Founda- cranking up a ‘‘democratic’’ propaganda offensive, tion’’ (CANF), an organization of Florida millionaires while simultaneously tightening their eco-nomic em- and veterans of the CIA’s Bay of Pigs fiasco, set up a bargo and leaning on their Latin American neo-colonies commission to plan the counterrevolution. Included in to isolate Cuba. The defense of the Cuban revolution has the CANF commission are Jeane Kirkpatrick and Ronald never been more acutely posed than it is today. Reagan (Guardian Weekly, 15 September 1991). Another Cuba under Batista was a gigantic sugar plantation CANF connection is George Bush’s son, Jeb, a million- and fun house for wealthy Americans. By breaking the aire Miami property speculator. So far the CANF claims social power of the Cuban bourgeoisie, the Castro re- to have found buyers for 60 percent of Cuba’s land and gime cut the connection with world imperialism, thus industry (New York Times, 6 September 1991). dramatically transforming life for ordinary working people. In the first five years of the revolution consump- Cuba’s ‘Option Zero’ tion of meat and textiles doubled, the new regime slashed With poor sugar harvests and little hard currency to rents, deserted Havana mansions were converted into buy oil and other vital imports, Havana has launched a residences for 80,000 students from peasant families, drive for self-sufficiency in foodstuffs. It is attempting to and abandoned luxury automobiles were handed over lure workers made redundant by drastic cutbacks in to former servants so they could start working as taxi industrial production onto state farms. But the self-suf- drivers. ficiency campaign is hampered by a shortage of animal Today Cuban standards of health, education and feed and fertilizers. Cuba still needs to buy wheat on the housing are far above those of other Latin American international market. The Cuban leadership is trying to countries. Rents are subsidized, medical care is free and prepare for a complete cessation of oil imports. In this education is available to everyone. The level of literacy ‘‘option-zero’’ scenario, oxen, horses and hundreds of is 98 percent. Everyone has a job. Cuba remains poor by thousands of Chinese bicycles are to be substituted for the standards of the imperialist colossus to the north, but trucks and cars. there is none of the endemic disease and desperate pov- Castro adamantly opposed Gorbachev’s pro-capital- erty so common throughout the rest of the region. ist market ‘‘reforms’’ from the beginning. In the late Soviet Connection Severed 1980s the Cuban government banned Soviet newspa- pers considered too enthusiastic about perestroika. In- Aid and trade from the Soviet bloc enabled Cuba to stead of ‘‘market socialism’’ the Cuban bureaucracy’s survive American attempts to strangle the revolution slogan is ‘‘Socialismo o muerte’’ (socialism or death). Yet through an economic embargo. The Kremlin bureau- despite the socialism-or-bust rhetoric, the regime is now crats maintained Cuba as a bargaining chip in their desperately seeking foreign investment to offset the eco- search for global ‘‘peaceful coexistence’’ with imperial- nomic pressure of capitalist encirclement and reduce the ism. The USSR bought Cuban sugar and other exports country’s dependency on sugar. The Cuban government above the world market price, while selling oil to Cuba wants to boost tourism and, to this end, is promoting below the going rate. This amounted to a subsidy of joint ventures with Spanish and Brazilian capitalists. billions of dollars a year. By the late 1980s, 85 percent of The burgeoning of the tourism industry has planted Cuban trade was with the Comecon count-ries. a dollar economy side by side with that of the peso. In 1990, as perestroika disorganized the Soviet econ- Cubans are now waiting on tables and driving taxis for omy, shortfalls and delays in deliveries to Cuba made it foreigners with hard currency. The British Independent (2 necessary to ration basic foods and fuel tightly. Indus- November 1991) described how this is eroding the anti- trial oil consumption fell by 50 percent. In December imperialist sentiment that has helped maintain the re- 1990, the Soviets halved the subsidy on sugar, and im- gime: posed world market prices for everything else. ‘‘Cuba’s best beaches, her choicest foods, her scarce The counterrevolutionary victory over the August consumer goods, are available only for dollars----which 2 Cubans cannot legally possess....Many Cubans com- women. ment on the contrast between rhetoric of national sover- The encouragement of the family goes hand in hand eignty and the daily humiliation of the peso shopper.’’ with the persecution of homosexuals. In 1965 the regime As tourism has increased, prostitution, bureaucratic set up special ‘‘Military Units to Aid Production’’ which corruption and the black market have all kept pace. The were really prison camps, mostly for homosexuals. The austerity measures adopted by the regime compel ordi- First National Culture and Education Conference in nary Cubans to look to their socios, (black market con- 1971 virulently denounced the ‘‘pathological character’’ nections) for many consumer items. The Guardian Weekly of homosexuality, and resolved that ‘‘all manifestations (17 March 1991) reported that an acerbic parody of the of homosexual deviations are to be firmly rejected and official slogan, ‘‘Sociolismo o muerte,’’ has gained wide- prevented from spreading.’’ spread popularity. Of the 100,000 people who left Cuba via the harbor at The Mechanics of Stalinist Rule Mariel in 1980, roughly 10,000 were lesbians and gays. These people were forced into exile through a state- For 30 years Castro has tolerated no organized politi- sponsored campaign of homophobia directed through cal opposition. In 1976 the regime unveiled a new con- the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution. In the stitution that formalized the Cuban Communist Party’s age of the AIDS pandemic, and the growth of homopho- (PCC) monopoly on politics and proclaimed it ‘‘the high- bia, Cuba has the unpleasant distinction of being the est leading force of the society and of the state.’’ The new only country in the world that forcibly confines people constitution established local, regional and national ‘‘As- who test positive for the HIV antibody. semblies of People’s Power.’’ These bodies only exist to provide a facade of popular legitimacy for decisions Castroism and Workers Democracy made by the PCC. Nominations to the municipal assemblies at public The July 26th Movement that took power on New meetings are subject to approval by PCC commissions, Years Day 1959 was an insurrectionary rural-based guerrilla movement. It was based in the Sierra Maestra while the party itself makes the nominations to the mountains and was committed to a program of radical higher assemblies. The National Assembly normally liberalism. After two years of guerrilla war, the rotten only meets twice a year, in July and December, usually and corrupt Batista state apparatus collapsed, with the for two days each time. Half the National Assembly bulk of the officer caste fleeing to Miami. The July 26th members are nominated by the party from among dele- Movement filled the power vacuum by forming a short- gates to the lower bodies. The other half are nominated lived coalition with a few liberal politicians. directly from the PCC or government bureaucracies. When a section of the bourgeoisie, backed by the Over 90 percent of delegates to the 1981-86 National American government, opposed some of the Castroites’ Assembly were party members or candidate members. radical nationalist measures, the July 26th Movement Like every other Stalinist party, there is no internal split. A majority, headed by Fidel and his brother Raul, democracy within the Cuban Communist Party itself. opted for the expropriation of the Cuban capitalists. In The PCC held its first congress in late 1975----seventeen July 1961 the Castroites fused with the Partido Socialista years after the ‘‘July 26 Movement’’ came to power! Popular, a traditional Moscow-line Stalinist formation Castro saw no problem with this, and blithely com- that had earlier had a minister in Batista’s government. mented: ‘‘We are fortunate to be holding it now. Fortu- The fused organization went on to form the Cuban nate indeed! This way the quality of the Congress is Communist Party. endorsed by 17 years of experience’’ (Granma, 25 January In the minds of New Leftists of the 1960s, the Castroi- 1976; quoted in Workers Vanguard, 12 March 1976). The tes were light-years away from the colorless appa- congress itself was a carefully managed affair that con- ratchiks of Eastern Europe.