By Arnoldo Mora Rodriguez, January 2021
Marti. Photo: Bill Hackwell
This is another article in a series we are bringing you on the significance of the Cuban Revolution written by members of the Network in Defense of Humanity. – Resumen editorial
To speak from the vantage point of a new epoch concerning what occurred in a previous epoch, and what it means, is much more than an exercise, not just of memory but, above all, of commitment in the present to the goal of constructing and foreseeing the future. Memory is also a kind of courtroom that allows us to judge and weigh the meaning, the validity, and the presence in the present of the most significant and relevant facts/deeds of the past. Because of this, getting an overview of what has occurred and been meaningful for our peoples over the past century, we can do none other than focus on what I call the validity and the presence of the greatest of the revolutions that people on the periphery of the empire have achieved. It is there that the Cuban Revolution stands out – if there has been an occurrence in the 20th Century that will have an impact forever on the history of our peoples, and, even more, on the history of humanity, this achievement is the Revolution that the land of Martí and Maceo accomplished, and which Fidel Castro led.
An event is not only a fact; it is an action carried out by human beings, in this case not only by individuals but, above all, by an entire people. It is an event that leaves an impression on history and points the way to the destined future. It is an event with value that we can be measured by its current validity, since it does not leave us indifferent as if it were a distant fact in space and time. Today time and space are diminished, thanks to the surprising advances of the scientific and technological revolutions in the field of communications, which increases the importance and the validity of certain facts and deeds that are converted into a kind of personal heritage for great multitudes of people in all corners of the planet. Because there are facts of actions – those that continue to be current are those that form part of our most fundamental values, the values that rule our lives. They are like the air we breathe, like the beating of our heart, and the justification of our dearest convictions, and we feel identified with and by them due to what they represent in the meaning of our individual lives and those of peoples everywhere, regardless of where they may be geographically located, of their cultures, their political regimes, and their ways of life.
The Cuban Revolution was made with the specific goal of overthrowing the bloodiest tyranny that had arisen in this heroic people, birthplace of Jose Martí and Fidel Castro, but it soon transcended these limits to declare itself as belonging to all of Latin America, and as faithful to the ideals of our distinguished ancestors, particularly Martí, who saw Cuban independence from the colonial Spanish yoke as the first step in achieving its second, and full, independence – breaking the chains of imperialist U.S. dominance.
On January 1, 1959, this heroic deed began. It occurred in the midst of the Cold War, and at only 150 miles from the imperialist center, in an island located in one of the traditionally hottest geopolitical zones on the planet, dominated by the U.S. and by the Mafia of that country; it occurred on the borders of the greatest empire in history, the last Western empire. The Cuban Revolution overthrew the dictatorship of Sergeant Fulgencio Batista, imposed by the US embassy. It was the first defeat of the Monroe Doctrine, which even today is the controlling force of the strategies and policies of the Empire in the whole American continent, which the US considers its backyard. In the case of Cuba, the humiliation was even greater because the infamous Platt Amendment was in force, making Cuba a colony. The importance of this policy can be measured by the fact of the geopolitical location of Cuba.
The Caribbean, for our Americas, is the equivalent of the Mediterranean Sea for Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Whoever controls these seas is the owner of the surrounding environment: who rules the Mediterranean owns all Europe, and who rules the Caribbean owns the American continent. This is because control of the seas is key for measuring the power of an empire. On land, raw materials can be extracted to supply the material part of wealth, which is measured by what Marx called “use value” which corresponds to the utility in satisfying needs and wants of a living being. But when shipped, these raw materials become merchandise, which is to say that they become part of world commerce, because their value is determined by the law of the market – by supply and demand, which implies the exchange value. Thus to fail to control the channels of world commerce is to fail to be in control of the world economy. Currently, 80% of the world’s economy is shipped via the two most important oceans of the world, the Atlantic and Pacific. The Atlantic Ocean was the most important from this point of view, from the time of Columbus until the 1980s, but since then, the Pacific Ocean has become the most important, at first due to the rise of the Japanese economy and that of the Pacific coast of the US. However, now it is China, due to the uncontainable surge of its economy that has converted it into the leading commercial power in the world. This explains why the Panama Canal is considered the most important inter-ocean connection for world trade. On the other side, due to its geographic location, the Caribbean Sea unites the two continental landmasses that make up the geography of the New World.
The capitalist market is ruled by the stock markets, the most important of which is located in New York’s Wall Street, where 80% of the raw materials (commodities) of the world are traded in what is called the “Casino Economy.” Since some 31% of these raw materials come from Latin America, control of the Caribbean is of supreme importance for capitalism in its current and final imperial phase, as Lenin called it, which has its headquarters in the U.S. All this explains why, in a country with a Caribbean coast like Honduras, historically considered the epitome of a “banana republic,” the largest military base outside of U.S territory – Palmerola – is located, though in reality, this is two bases, one directed against Cuba and the other whose objective is to protect the Panama Canal. It was in the Caribbean Sea where the history of the peoples of our Americas began to be subsumed into the “Western world”; Columbus never went beyond the Caribbean, nor even suspected that he was near a continent. He believed that he was in a sea of islands, enchanted by the beauties of the landscapes before his enraptured eyes, to the point where one of the priests who accompanied him on his second voyage considered this the Eden referred to in the first pages of the Bible. It was in the land of the Caribbean, precisely in Haiti where the emancipation struggle of our peoples began. In 1815 Bolivar sailed from Jamaica to begin his campaign of the war of independence on the continent, and it was there that he wrote his famous letter, a true philosophy of the history of our peoples. The first great revolution of the 20th Century, of Villa and Zapata in Mexico, occurred in a country with broad Caribbean coasts. But it would not be until the second half of the 20th Century that the most important revolution of the peoples of our Americas would take place, the revolution of Fidel and Che, and from that beginning, the echoes of the Cuban Revolution have extended to include the entire planet, as Nelson Mandel recognized when he said to Fidel that he – Fidel – was the “Bolivar of Sub-Saharan Africa” since the defeat of racist South Africa had the same meaning for the people of Africa as the defeat of the empire in the Bay of Pigs invasion had for the peoples of our America. Since then, no transformative change has occurred, at multiple levels and in diverse circumstances and different geographic regions, in which we do not find the stamp of the Cuban Revolution. There is nowhere where the striving toward freedom of our peoples has not been inspired by the example of the Cuban Revolution, and the cry of rebellion raised by a handful of heroes in the Sierra Maestra has resounded as a hymn of liberation and sovereignty sung in many corners of the world. Even more, the message of the leaders of the Cuban Revolution has been heard everywhere and has been an inspiration to women and men in the whole world.
But, and not to any lesser extent, the Cuban Revolution has also been an example of humanitarian and humanist solidarity, regardless of distances of any kind, whether it be geography, ideology, or culture. Cuba has not trafficked drugs nor carried out military invasions, but on the contrary, Cuba has sent legions of doctors and teachers, scientists and artists, in spite of the largest and cruelest blockade, a true state of siege carried out by the empire in violation of international law, against this heroic people. They have achieved this in spite of the blockade’s strangulation of their economy, which has not prevented them from having the best education and health system for all the people, combined with enviable scientific advancements. Nothing has impeded the development of a policy of solidarity with all people who request this, without intervention in the internal affairs of others, nor seeking commercial advantages. These policies make the ideals of the Revolution from its beginnings into reality and are inspired by the purest and most authentic humanistic and humanitarian ideals – an example for our times. And the hatred of the empire and its hacks stems from this: Cuba teaches, preaches with its example, with its heroic defiance of the empire, demonstrating that the plans of the empire are not manifest destiny, but rather the expression of a greedy imperial will, which the people are defeating with their just patriotic struggles.
The Cuban Revolution has more validity now than ever; the message of liberation, the cry of rebellion face to face with imperial oppression and savage capitalist exploitation – this cry is heard wherever there is a man or woman whose heart beats seeking fuller and greater human dignity. Cuba, today just as in 1959, continues to be a lighthouse that illuminates all peoples with rays of hope and dignity, even for those who live within imperial regimes, and experience capitalism’s terminal crisis in their own flesh. This is why the validity of the Cuban Revolution is now more alive than ever.
Dr. Arnoldo Mora Rodríguez is a philosopher, Former Costa Rican Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports
Source: La Jiribilla, translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau