[News] Cuba: Action, Reflection, and Self-Critique

[Anti-Imperialist News]

resumen-english.org
<https://www.resumen-english.org/2021/10/cuba-action-reflection-and-self-critique/>
Cuba:
Action, Reflection, and Self-Critique
------------------------------

By Angel Guerra Cabrera on October 7, 2021

‘The Changes in Cuba are for More Socialism’ photo: Bill Hackwell

Roughly three months ago, on July 11th, the hegemonic media predicted the
end of the Cuban Revolution, supposedly overwhelmed by “peaceful” popular
protests. In truth, what really happened that day was the withering defeat
by the Cuban people of a counterrevolutionary plan that took the United
States years of preparation.

Yes, there were peaceful protests with legitimate demands, compatible with
the broad freedoms guaranteed by the socialist rule of law. However, at
lightning speed, the stateless counterrevolution, which for months had been
using sophisticated mechanisms of poison [see: https://bit.ly/3mocMZq] in
the so-called social media to call for protests in the streets, launched
its mercenaries. Oiled with millions of Yankee dollars, they engaged in
blinding brutal attacks on unarmed police and civilians while groups of
criminals looted and vandalized public and private property. Had it not
been for the revolutionary mobilization to the streets called by President
Miguel Diaz-Canel, chaos and a spiral of bloodshed would have been
enthroned. But the revolutionaries, civilians or unarmed members, I insist,
of the public force, dissolved the enemy’s attempt while the popular
offensive began an upward trend which crosses horizontally and
transversally more and more sectors and territories of the country.

Where were there demonstrations of discontent? In vulnerable neighborhoods,
terribly hit by the decades-long blockade, tightened by Trump during his
term in office and which Biden keeps intact, to cut off the island from any
source of foreign currency and cruelly aggravate the suffering caused by
the pandemic. These are populations that are insufficiently served or
neglected by the government – for the Revolution is a human effort with its
imperfections. This was aggravated by the prolonged quarantine, which
reduced to a minimum the political work in the communities, with all the
revolutionary forces directed to confront the spread of the virus and
attend to the sick. In the midst of that, a wave of blackouts as a result
of the difficulties in acquiring spare parts for the electrical industry.

That is why Díaz-Canel is so right when he states: if the perversity of the
genocidal policy of the U.S. government has been manifested in anything, it
is in having maintained the blockade, intensified by the Trump
administration in pandemic conditions, asphyxiating, suffocating a people,
condemning them to die.

The current complex situation requires – as Diaz-Canel added in a recent
meeting with all the municipal presidents of People’s Power – great
sensitivity, differentiated work from person-to-person, better attention to
the problems of the population, to their proposals, of which the current
work of revitalization of the neighborhoods is an example. But he also
reflected: “and why didn’t we do what we are doing now, years ago?… Because
we were being lethargic”. The fact is that revolutionary Cuba has never had
it easy. That is why the president and party leader recalled, as a lesson
from Raul Castro’s, his “yes we can” which shook off the lethargy in the
midst of the monumental economic crisis following the disappearance of the
USSR aggravated by an intensification by Washington of the economic
asphyxiation – one of the many extreme situations that the Cuban people
have had to face.

>From the 11th (of July) onwards, revolutionary actions have multiplied.
Despite the enormous sacrifices and difficulties imposed by the US siege
and the economic paralysis caused by covid, Cuba is promoting the reopening
of the economy, including vital tourism, through vaccination, with its own
drugs, which already covers 97 percent of the population over two years of
age with one dose and 55.7 percent with a complete scheme; at the same
time, it maintains preventive measures. At the same time, Cuba is
strengthening popular power and participatory democracy from the community,
promotingfood production with measures such as stimulating small and medium
enterprises, and encouraging national debate on the very advanced draft of
the Family Code, which recognizes and protects the diversity and
heterogeneity of today’s society and the rights of girls, boys,
grandmothers and grandfathers.

At the aforementioned meeting, Díaz-Canel warned that the blockade will
continue and that while denouncing it “we must continue to be capable, with
a blockade, to advance further, and advance with our own efforts and with
our own talent”.

The president reflected openly that the enemies of the revolution are
embittered by the stability and governability that exists in the country
and will continue their campaign to discredit Cuba in search of another
11th in which they hope to succeed. That is why today it is transcendental
to maintain revolutionary vigilance.

Source: La Jornada <https://www.jornada.com.mx/2021/10/07/opinion/030a1mun>,
translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English
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