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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.resumen-english.org/2021/10/cuba-action-reflection-and-self-critique/">resumen-english.org</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Cuba: Action, Reflection, and Self-Critique</h1>
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<p lang="en-US">By Angel Guerra Cabrera on October 7, 2021</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_18404" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-18404" src="https://secureservercdn.net/166.62.110.60/1h7.7ad.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/c_9421-300x202.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="202"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-18404" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">‘The Changes in Cuba are for More Socialism’ photo: Bill Hackwell</p></div>
<p lang="en-US">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<span><span><span><span id="gmail-more-18710"></span></span></span></span>.</p>
<p lang="en-US">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: <a href="https://bit.ly/3mocMZq">https://bit.ly/3mocMZq</a>]
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.</p>
<p lang="en-US">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.</p>
<p lang="en-US">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.</p>
<p lang="en-US">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.</p>
<p lang="en-US">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.</p>
<p lang="en-US">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”.</p>
<p lang="en-US">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.</p>
<p><span lang="en-US">Source: </span><a href="https://www.jornada.com.mx/2021/10/07/opinion/030a1mun">La Jornada</a><span><span><span>, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English</span></span></span></p>
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