By Alejandro Pedregal on September 19, 2024
Indian historian, editor and journalist Vijay Prahsad writes in collaboration with Noam Chomsky the book On Cuba, an attempt to remind younger generations of the achievements of the Cuban revolutionary process, which began 70 years ago.
The new book by Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad starts with a visit to Silvio Rodríguez to give him the previous one. “I went to give him the book that Chomsky and I had done, The Retreat, which had come out in Spanish with Captain Swing,” Vijay says. “He told me he was a great admirer of Chomsky and gave me a voluminous book in which he had collected materials and writings on Cuban music. When I gave that book to Noam, he was very happy.”
They started talking about Cuba and “the suggestion to do the book came spontaneously from that conversation”. They then recorded several hours of dialogue, from which they produced a couple of manuscripts, and Sobre Cuba: 70 años de Revolución y lucha was born, now also published by Capitán Swing with translation by Lidia Pelayo Alonso, foreword by the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and introduction by Manolo de los Santos, executive director of The People’s Forum and researcher at the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, which Vijay himself directs.
Vijay Prashad
Sobre Cuba offers an agile but profound analysis of the political history of revolutionary Cuba since the 1950s. In its form, the book is faithful to the intimate conversation between these two intellectuals. It explores both the impact of the Cuban Revolution internationally and the impact of the U.S. blockade on the island. Chomsky and Prashad thus highlight, in the face of the economic challenges imposed by the Goliath of the North, the relevance of Cuba’s efforts to advance socialist reforms and its internationalist solidarity through a history of medical and military missions in the Global South. The book offers a balanced and engaged discussion of the complexity of a political and economic landscape, yielding significant lessons for any socialist project. On the occasion of its publication in Spanish, we spoke with Vijay.
The subtitle of the book highlights the 70 years of the revolutionary process, instead of focusing on the 65 years since its triumph. Why did you want to emphasize this?
The revolutionary process goes back a long time, even before the Moncada Assault on July 26, 1953. With the 70 years we wanted to indicate at least the situation in Cuba since that date. Revolutions are a process, not an event. The process does not have a fixed starting point. We can point to the Moncada, as I said, but also to the moment when the Granma made landfall in Cuba on December 2, 1956.
Throughout the book you present a whole series of arguments against the U.S. blockade of Cuba. What have been its most significant consequences? What could and should be done about it in the near future?
Noam Chomsky
The blockade, which has lasted for more than six decades now, is illegal and cruel. It prevents a small island nation from freely conducting basic commercial activities with other countries. Third party sanctions prevent non-U.S. companies from easily shipping and receiving goods to and from Cuba. Shipping companies do not dock in Cuban waters and Cuba is denied access to basic commodities. This is a very harsh situation that should not be accepted as normal. Every year, the majority of the world votes to end this blockade and it must end now.
With the passing of Fidel Castro and the change of era, what challenges and opportunities does Cuba face for its future?
Fidel Castro was truly an extraordinary man. I met with him several times and bathed in his optimism and intelligence. During his leadership, he prepared the country for these challenges. Especially through his Battle of Ideas. Cuba’s current leaders are heirs to his example. Of course, it is difficult to follow in the footsteps of someone like Fidel. But Fidel is not just one person. He is all Cubans. And so are we.
As the United States continues its geopolitical meddling in Latin America, how do you see Cuba’s role in the region? Can it maintain its revolutionary ideals in the face of growing pressure to impose neoliberal models and serve other beleaguered anti-imperialist projects (Venezuela, for example) to resist regime change policies?
The situation throughout Latin America is complicated. The social base of radicalism has been undermined by labor precariousness, inflation and the lack of a vibrant left-wing political project. The rise of a special kind of extreme right, from Milei to Bolsonaro, has shaken the possibility of a socialist or even progressive future. Cuba lives in that context. It has to negotiate that balance of forces. The attack on Venezuela and other ALBA-TCP countries seriously threatens the Cuban Revolution. Cuba can do its part, but it cannot do everything. It is important that we strengthen solidarity with Cuba around the world and build the foundations of sovereignty in Latin America in the face of U.S. imperialism.
The mainstream media often present Cuba in a one-dimensional way. How do they misrepresent Cuba’s political reality?
The U.S. is furious that Cuba is “disobedient” because its example would be “contagious” throughout the world. And that is true. Cuba is disobedient. It wants to establish its sovereignty and that example is contagious. It is true. To prevent it, the US argues that Cuba is a totalitarian country, which is convenient for it. That way it does not have to face the facts. The corporate media repeat it. They are stenographers for the US government. For them, neither the facts nor the context matter. And if there is no context, there is nothing. It’s a disgrace to human knowledge.
How do you assess the international impact of the Cuban Revolution in the current context, especially in the Global South, where Cuban solidarity has historically been so active?
There are already several generations of those who lived through 1959 and its impact that have left us. The immense achievement of the Cuban Revolution is not so clear to the younger ones. Hopefully, a book like On Cuba will help people understand both the great advance it was for the Cuban people to expel the United States and establish their sovereignty, as well as the importance of that struggle to maintain the Revolution. Our hope is that this book will in some way revitalize the significance of that spirit of solidarity.
The Cuban Revolution has always been praised for its internationalism, and recently it has been seen during the covid-19 crisis. How do you see the role of Cuban internationalism in fostering global solidarity?
The United States says that Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism. In reality it is a state sponsor of health. That is clear to the whole world. Cuba was the only country that intervened militarily in Africa to promote national liberation and then sought nothing in return. That is how Nelson Mandela himself expressed it, almost verbatim. This is how the world sees Cuba. The United States is out of step and has to end the blockade.
You describe Cuba as a socialist model for the rest of the world, and most especially for the Global South. What are the main lessons that other nations can learn from Cuba’s experience with socialism? What are the prospects for its development? What ideas can it offer today, particularly for resisting the dangerous lethality of a declining empire (as we are witnessing in Palestine)?
The best way to understand Cuba is to compare it with Haiti, which had a tormented history and a counter-revolution in 1957. If Cuba had followed Haiti’s path, the situation of the Cuban people would be infinitely worse than that of its neighboring island. Cuba maintains its dignity and fights for its sovereignty, while Haiti struggles to survive. That is the achievement. Cuba teaches us that spending money on health and education is better than spending it on war. The United States spends $1.53 trillion on its war machine. I wish that money was spent on infrastructure, on education, on health care, on social workers. But no. A war economy is much uglier than a peace economy
Source: El Salto, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English