By Randy Alonso Falcón on February 27, 2024 from Havana
Fidel, photo: Roberto Chile
“From Martí I learned ethics”, Fidel would tell us again and again, in permanent confirmation of one of the most expensive essences of his revolutionary thinking and acting. It was the basis on which he erected the moral shield that accompanied him in life; it was the force that earned him the admiration of our people and reserved for him the respect of his adversaries.
He nourished his spirit of that tremendous decorum of our patricians, of those who went to the manigua to conquer justice, freedom and equality that sustain the preaching, ethics and revolutionary practice.
Martí made us appreciate “the usefulness of virtue”, and he taught it not only from his fiery rhetoric, but also from the shabby suit where he kept in his pockets the donations of the revolutionary clubs of New York and the tobacco growers of Tampa.
Maceo, the great one with as much strength in his arm as in his mind, convinced us of the value of convictions and instilled in us the strength of the coincidence between being and thinking: “… I will never waver because my actions are the result, the living fact of my thinking, and I have the value of what I think, if what I think is part of the moral doctrine of my life (…). The conformity of the deed with the thought: this is the basis of my conduct, the norm of my thought, the fulfillment of my duty. In this way it is fitting that I should be the first judge of my actions”.
The Cuban Revolution drank from these powerful roots to shape its framework of values, to sustain the ideal of a new and more humane society, where the Homeland is “an altar and not a pedestal, to be served, but not taken to be served”.
“We live according to our ideals and our principles, our ethics. That has been our life,” Fidel would summarize his more than 60 decades of consecrated revolutionary struggle.
If the Revolution has come this far, in addition to its immense work, it has been because of the ethics, honesty, morality and principles on which it has been built.
The more difficult the times are, the more powerful and indispensable becomes the practice of the highest and most recognized revolutionary values.
Hence the enormous value of the moral exercise of the signing of the Code of Ethics by all revolutionary cadres. It is the commitment with all that civic and dignified sap of those who forged us as a people. It is the confirmation that the salvation and durability of the work is in the dignity of that people and in the honesty, honesty and honor of its leaders.
Patriotism, anti-imperialism, fidelity, honesty, honor, discipline, altruism, humanism, solidarity, professionalism, collaboration, probity, responsibility, transparency and austerity, are erected in the columns of ethics to which the Revolution summons from this Code.
“… to assume the authority granted as an honor and a commitment, never as a personal advantage; to reject privileges and accommodation, aware that the exercise of leadership does not confer any right or preference over others; to be an example and promote honesty, simplicity and modesty, both in the
labor and social sphere and in personal life, in the physical and digital space; to motivate and demand equal behavior from their family and co-workers”, is the vital call made to those who lead a space of Revolution from the most modest of positions to the highest responsibilities.
Ché, who identified in the cadres the backbone of the Revolution, warned us in his Critical Notes: “Economic socialism without communist morality does not interest me. We fight against misery, but at the same time we fight against alienation….
“[…]Marx was concerned both with economic facts and with their translation into the mind. He called that a “fact of consciousness.” If communism neglects the facts of conscience it may be a method of repartition, but it ceases to be a revolutionary morality.”
Fidel, in that memorable and sobering speech at the University of Havana, in November 2005, left us a very similar call: “(…) ethical values are essential, without ethical values there are no revolutionary values”.
That continues to be the utopia that moves us: a prosperous and just society with a high revolutionary conscience and morality. We still have such a great task ahead of us; now, perhaps, in the worst conditions.
In that battle, the cadres and their ethics are decisive.
Randy Alonso is a Cuban journalist, General Director of IDEAS Multimedios and the web portal Cubadebate, the site Fidel Soldado de las Ideas and the Cuban Television program “Mesa Redonda”.
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English