By Ana Hurtado on November 20, 2024
Cuban flag in front of the Museum of the Revolution. foto: Abel Padrón Padilla
A few weeks ago, a Symposium organized by the Institute of Cuban History on the Cuban Revolution took place in Havana. For it, I took the liberty of writing and presenting some ideas based on historical facts.
I know why I defend this Revolution, to which my socialist and internationalist ideal brought me. But any sentiment, no matter how strong it may be, must have a theoretical and practical foundation that gives it meaning. Therefore, I turned to history in brief syntheses of why this defense is essential, whether or not you are Cuban.
The Cuban Revolution is a historical fact that is still in force, which becomes exclusive because it is the only experience of real socialism on the planet that is still alive. While the Soviet experience could not advance and the USSR fell, Cuba and its people have advanced and consolidated in time in spite of the dangers, threats and internal and external aggressions (which have not been a ;/12’few).
In order to make an ideological defense, it is necessary to be clear why.
In Cuba
The Revolution, already a reality since January 1, 1959, has been facing challenges and threats as it has been consolidating. All of them have been faced, sometimes in a better way and with more maturity, sometimes with less experience. But it has always overcome every danger that has been put in front of it. Always bearing in mind that these threats have been presented in all areas (military, economic, political, cultural, ideological, informative, scientific…) of the real life of a people and a country.
It is necessary to start from the idea that when we speak of defense, it is not only of a Revolution for the simple fact of having triumphed, but of the emancipation of the human being and his dignity. The defense of one’s own alternative which, by fate or destiny, is opposed to imperial hegemonic interests.
In Cuba, there is an established philosophy of defense of the Revolution.
As if this project in itself were not enough, in the case of the island, apart from the survival of its independence, sovereignty and population, there have been imperial interests in it for centuries. And it is no secret that one of the nations that represents these interests, such as the United States, is the most powerful in the last 70 years militarily and economically. Although in this last aspect, it has already been overtaken by the People’s Republic of China.
Throughout its history, the Revolution has been finding solutions to the threats that have been plaguing it, and it has been developing doctrines to face them, again in different fields: political, economic, ideological/cultural and military.
It can be affirmed with certainty that Cuba is the only country that since 1959 has experienced all the modalities of aggression:
– Military invasion
– State terrorism
– Internal subversion
– Psychological warfare
– Economic warfare
– Permanent and uninterrupted blockade for genocidal purposes.
This communion of factors does not occur in many peoples or anti-hegemonic projects. At least not with this totality.
Strengthening the people
From the first years it was necessary to strengthen the masses ideologically, with the affiliation, for example, to the Marxist-Leninist doctrine.
Fidel Castro teach a people the theoretical underpinnings of the revolution on top of the ideology of José Martí that had stood out from the very first moment, already at the time of the Moncada Barracks.
The great masses had to be stripped of religion as an opium, with the consequent removal of all influence of the Catholic Church, which influenced and interceded in the lives of the parishioners.
Currently Cuba is a secular state, and for the health of the nation, religious freedom prevails, and Cubans are free to profess the religion of their choice. But it was essential to strip the church as a hierarchical institution of power, since in the first years of the revolutionary triumph, it was used as a subversive instrument of counter revolution..
To strengthen the masses as a bastion of defense of this project, it was necessary to make them literate. – Fidel. photo: Bill Hackwell
To strengthen the masses as a bastion of defense of this project, it was necessary to make them literate, create infrastructures, industrialize the country, develop the hydraulic will, promote culture, sports and science as the basis for the future of the people.
All this progress, so that emancipated citizens could have freedom of thought, was not from indoctrination but from a pedagogy that teaches analysis and the ability to question everything (We do not tell the people to believe, we tell them to read, as Fidel would say).
An individual who thinks, with the dignified conditions created, is the best defense that any country or social process can have.
That is why Fidel, in every step he took with his executive, did not fail to show that he was putting at the center of the action the Marti’s maxim of “the full dignity of man”.
It is important to mention the relations between Fidel Castro and the people. They became increasingly solid, indestructible and holding total trust.
Fidel started from José Martí’s teachings that emphasize truth, sincerity, honesty and ethical principles indispensable for the triumph and establishment of popular movements. For the maximum leader of the Revolution, the exercise of power is a popular mandate. He always speaks and listens. Being a reference for other revolutionary movements as an ethical and moral bastion, among others.
The basis of the doctrine of the Defense of the Revolution has a military pillar that extends its reach in all areas of the life of the people, and it is even endorsed in the Cuban Constitution that was approved in 2019.
It should be noted that in his defense plea when he is condemned for the assault on the Moncada Barracks, better known as “History will absolve me”, Fidel already sentences:
“No weapon, no force is capable of defeating a people who decide to fight for their rights (…) The second reasons on which our chances of success were based… was the security of counting on the people”.
Once the Revolution had triumphed, Fidel continued to follow the same ideological path, with the following ideas according to Jorge Lezcano Pérez, university professor and member of the PCC, in which he has held various positions:
“We are interested in the people meditating, we are interested in the people thinking.”
“I believe in the people as something alive, as something capable of making history, because it is the people who have made history, not men.”
It is therefore the training of the people in the ability to think, which makes the identity of the Cuban Revolution different from other popular and social movements.
From the first days of the revolutionary triumph, it began to educate the popular masses, to make them literate and to make them participants in popular democracy. The best example of this was the creation of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.
Fidel would add in 1970 at the Provincial Plenary of the CTC:
“If we put millions of people to think, there will be no problems that we do not solve.”
The trust between him and the people was reciprocal.
The Constitution
Title X of the same deals with defense and national security.
Cuba, like any other country in the world, is in its sovereign right to defend itself against any kind of attack or threat.
The constitution states:
“The Cuban State bases its national defense and security policy on the safeguarding of independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty and peace on the basis of the prevention and permanent confrontation of risks, threats and aggressions that affect its interests.
Its strategic conception of defense is based on the war of all the people.
For those of us who are not Cubans, this last term may seem unfamiliar: The war of all the people.
Concept that synthesizes the concept, and it is worth the redundancy, in that from the first moment of life, the revolution has triumphed, survived and subsisted thanks to the popular support of the majority of its people. Hence the “authenticity of its popular character”.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, was the main creator and ideologist of the doctrine of the defense of the Revolution, based on the aforementioned concept.
The war of all the people
Every Cuban has a place, a way and a means for the defense of the country. This is intertwined with Marti’s maxim “let each one do his share of duty and nothing can defeat us”.
According to Law 75 of 1994 on National Defense, it literally states:
“The National Defense is based on the strategic concept of the War of the Whole People, which summarizes the historical experience accumulated by the Cuban nation regarding the defense of the homeland and synthesizes the decision to provide a mass solution to the problem of the defense of the country, ensuring each revolutionary patriotic citizen, a place, a means and a way to fight the aggressor.
The essence of the War of the Whole People is that the strength of the Cuban Revolution lies in the unity of the people and all its forces led by the PCC based on the Marxist-Leninist principle, Marti’s ideology and the revolutionary ethical thinking of the leader of the Revolution, comrade Fidel Castro”.
This doctrine progresses from the beginning of its application reaching its total consolidation in the decade of the eighties of the twentieth century after a process of maturity as a country.
The defense is prepared and carried out under the leadership of the PCC, as the superior leading force of society and the state.
The enemies of the Revolution know and are aware that in the event of a military aggression against the country, the people en masse would take to the streets to defend it, thanks to the military doctrine that has been developing and updating for years.
And in other aspects of aggression of different violence, but no less hostile, such as informative and cultural, the people make use of Fidel’s phrase “the truth as a shield” to defend the country with the necessary tools.
Not to lose sight of
And it is very important, although sometimes it is not seen as an enemy: the fight against bureaucracy. The same that dismembered the USSR, the same that is the cancer lurking in every social and human project. The same one that slows down situations and does not allow the flow of things to move forward, indeed, it hinders and degrades: processes and people.
In short, all the above mentioned:
The defense of the Revolution is not in the barracks, but in its people, (Cubans and others), who, being clear about history, must adapt to the present moment to put into practice all the tools of defense and above all, to have a clear thinking, that which is not blocked.
That which makes us invincible.
Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English