(Council of State transcript / GI translation)

SANTIAGO women and men;

Compatriots of all Cuba:

We gather today to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the revolutionary triumph of January 1st, and we do so again in Santiago de Cuba, cradle of the Revolution, here in the Santa Ifigenia cemetery, where the immortal remains of many of the best children of the nation are venerated, very close to the tombs of the National Hero, of the Father and Mother of the Homeland, and of the Comandante en Jefe of the Cuban Revolution.

I do not come here to speak in a personal capacity; I do so in the name of the heroic sacrifices of our people, and of the thousands of fighters who gave their lives over more than 150 years of struggle.

It seems incredible that destiny has reserved us the privilege of being able to address our compatriots on a day like today, commemorating six decades of triumph, an occasion on which, under Fidel’s command, the Cuban people attained political power for the first time, and the Mambises were able to enter Santiago de Cuba victorious, coincidentally 60 years after the establishment of absolute U.S. imperialist domination of Cuba.

A few months ago, in La Demajagua, we gathered to remember the 150th anniversary of the beginning of Cuba’s independence wars, October 10, 1868; a date that marks the beginning of our Revolution, which survived moments of bitterness and disunity, like the Pact of Zanjón, and brilliant episodes like that carried out by Antonio Maceo in the Baraguá Protest.

The Revolution was revived, in 1895, thanks to the genius and ability of Martí to bring together the best and most experienced leaders of the Ten Years’ War, and prepare the “Necessary War” against Spanish colonialism.

When the colonial army was practically defeated, with little combative morale, besieged by the Mambises across almost all of the island and depleted by tropical diseases which, in 1897, to mention just one example, caused 201,000 losses among its troops; the victory was usurped by the U.S. intervention and the military occupation of the country, which gave way to a long period of oppression and corrupt governments, subservient to its hegemonic designs.

Not even in these difficult circumstances was the redemptive fire of the Cuban people extinguished, manifested in figures of the stature of Baliño, Mella, Villena, Guiteras and Jesús Menéndez, among many others who did not resign themselves to living in dishonor and ignominy.

Nor was the Centenary Generation, which under the leadership of Fidel assaulted the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks on July 26, 1953, willing to tolerate, 100 years after Martí’s birth, the crimes and abuses of a bloody tyranny, completely subordinated to the interests of the United States.

Moments of profound pain and sadness ensued, after the setback and the vile assassination of many of the revolutionary fighters participating in these actions, powerfully denounced by Fidel in his historic defence “History will absolve me,” which became the program of the Revolution. A few meters from here lay the remains of the fallen on that July 26, and other martyrs of the insurrectional feat, including also the brave young Santiago people of the clandestine struggle, and the children of this city who fell in glorious internationalist missions.

In the hard years of imprisonment and ill-treatment, the fervor and commitment to recommence the struggle did not falter; the prestige and authority of the revolutionary leader grew to join new forces against the dictatorship.

There was no rest during exile in Mexico; it served to prepare the next and decisive stage of battle that brought us on the Granma yacht to Las Coloradas on December 2, 1956. The delay in arriving to Cuban coasts, due to the hazardous voyage, prevented the scheduled synchronization with the Uprising of Santiago de Cuba, on November 30, organized by the bold and courageous young leader of the July 26 Movement, Frank País García, who had not yet turned 22, his age when brutally murdered by the henchmen of the tyranny, July 30, 1957.

Neither could the disaster of Alegría de Pío, which almost annihilated the expeditionaries, extinguish Fidel’s optimism and faith in victory, convictions that led him to exclaim on December 18 when we were reunited, with just seven rifles: Now we have won the war!

Photo: Estudios Revolución
From Santiago de Cuba, as a result of the tireless efforts of the clandestine movement led by Frank País, we received in the Sierra Maestra the first reinforcement of young combatants, weapons and ammunition, which was a crucial contribution to the fighting capacity of the nascent Rebel Army.

Months of incessant fighting ensued, first in the Sierra Maestra, and then the struggle spread to other regions with the opening of new fronts and columns, and with the defeat of the great offensive of the Batista troops against the First Front led by Fidel, which marked the beginning of the strategic counter-offensive and the radical turning point of the war that led to the defeat of the regime and the seizure of revolutionary power.

Already on January 8, 1959, upon his arrival in Havana, the Commander of the Revolution expressed, (I quote): “The tyranny has been overthrown, the joy is immense and yet there is still much to be done. We do not fool ourselves into believing that from now on everything will be easy, perhaps from now on everything will be more difficult.” (End of quote).

It did not take long for Fidel’s premonitory words to become a reality. A stage of struggle began that shook the foundations of Cuban society. On May 17, just four and a half months after the triumph, in the Comandancia de la Plata, in the heart of the Sierra Maestra, the first Agrarian Reform Law was promulgated in compliance with the Moncada Program, an event that upset the powerful economic interests of U.S. monopolies and the Creole bourgeoisie, which redoubled the conspiracies against the revolutionary process.

The nascent Revolution was subjected to all types of aggressions and threats, such as the actions of armed gangs financed by the U.S. government; assassination plans against Fidel and other leaders; the murder of young literacy teachers, many of them still adolescents; sabotage and terrorism throughout the country with the terrible toll of 3,478 dead and 2,099 disabled; the economic, commercial and financial blockade, and other political and diplomatic measures in order to isolate us; the campaigns of lies to defame the Revolution and its leaders; the mercenary invasion at Playa Girón in April 1961; the October Crisis in 1962, when the military invasion of Cuba was being prepared in the United States; and an endless list of hostile acts against our homeland.

No one can deny that the Revolution that was born that January 1st, has not had a minute’s calm over 60 years. We have seen twelve U.S. administrations that have not ceased in the effort to force a regime change in Cuba, one way or another, with varying degrees of aggressiveness.

The heroic people of yesterday and today, proud of their national history and culture, committed to the ideals and the work of the Revolution, which four generations of Cubans have already joined, have managed to resist and win over the six decades of uninterrupted struggle in defense of socialism, always based on the closest unity around the Party and Fidel.

Only thus can we understand the feat of having withstood the tough years of the Special Period, when we were left alone in the middle of the West, 90 miles from the United States. Then, nobody in the world would have bet a penny on the survival of the Revolution. However, the challenge was endured and overcome without violating a single one of the ethical and humanist principles of the revolutionary process, and was worthy of the invaluable support of the solidarity movements that never stopped believing in Cuba.

Now once again, the U.S. government seems to be taking the course of confrontation with Cuba, and presenting our peaceful and solidary country as a threat to the region. It resorts to the sinister Monroe Doctrine to try to roll back history to the shameful era in which subjugated governments and military dictatorships joined it in isolating Cuba.

Increasingly, senior officials of the current administration, with the complicity of certain lackeys, disseminate new falsehoods and again try to blame Cuba for all the ills of the region, as if these were not the result of ruthless neoliberal policies that cause poverty, hunger, inequality, organized crime, drug trafficking, political corruption, abuse and deprivation of workers’ rights, displaced people, the eviction of campesinos, the repression of students, and precarious health, education and housing conditions for the vast majority.

They are the same who declare the intention to continue forcing the deterioration of bilateral relations, and promote new measures of economic, commercial and financial blockade to restrict the performance of the national economy, cause additional constraints on the consumption and welfare of the people, hinder even further foreign trade, and curb the flow of foreign investment. They say they are willing to challenge International Law, to contravene the rules of international trade and economic relations, and aggressively apply extraterritorial measures and laws against the sovereignty of other states.

I reiterate our willingness to coexist in a civilized manner, despite the differences, in a relationship of peace, respect and mutual benefit with the United States. We have also clearly indicated that Cubans are prepared to resist a confrontational scenario, which we do not want, and we hope that the levelest heads in the U.S. government can avoid.

Cuba is accused again, when it has been demonstrated that external debt, uncontrolled migratory flows, the plundering of natural resources, are the result of the domination of transnational corporations in the continent.

The force of truth has thwarted the lies, and history has put the events and protagonists in their places.

All that can be attributed to the Cuban Revolution and the epic written by this heroic people is the responsibility that emanates from their example, as a symbol of full independence, victorious resistance, social justice, altruismand internationalism.

As part of Our America, our respect and solidarity with sister nations has, and will be, invariable; in which more than 347,700 Cuban doctors and health workers have offered their services, many of them in remote and difficult places, and more than 27,200 young people have been professionally trained. This shows confidence in Cuba.

A few weeks ago, thousands of Cuban doctors who offered their services in Brazil returned, with dignity, with the recognition and affection of millions of patients, especially from rural areas and indigenous populations, whom the new President slandered and condemned, in order to destroy that social program and with it fulfill the directions of the extreme right in Florida, which has hijacked United States policy toward Cuba, to the pleasure of the most reactionary forces of the current U.S. government.

Sixty years after the triumph, we can affirm that we have seen it all before; we are not intimidated by the language of force or threats, they did not intimidate us when the revolutionary process was not yet consolidated, they will not even remotely achieve it now that the unity of the people is an indestructible reality; because if yesterday we were few, today we are an entire people defending their Revolution (Applause).

On July 26, here in Santiago, I explained that an adverse scenario had formed, and again the euphoria of our enemies had resurfaced, and the haste to materialize their dreams of destroying the example of Cuba. I also pointed out the conviction that the imperialist blockade of Venezuela, Nicaragua and our country was tightening. Events have confirmed that assessment.

After almost a decade of practicing unconventional warfare to prevent the continuity, or impede the return of progressive governments, Washington power circles sponsored coups – first a military coup to overthrow President Zelaya in Honduras, and later they resorted to parliamentary-judicial coups against Lugo in Paraguay, and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil.

Photo: Juvenal Balán
They promoted rigged and politically motivated judicial proceedings, as well as campaigns of manipulation and discredit against leftist leaders and organizations, making use of monopoly control over mass media.

In this way, they succeeded in imprisoning compañero Lula da Silva, and deprived him of the right to be the Workers’ Party presidential candidate, to avoid his certain victory in the recent elections. I take this opportunity to appeal to all the honest political forces of the planet to demand his release, and an end to the attacks and judicial persecution against former presidents Dilma Rousseff, and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Those who entertained the illusion of the restoration of imperialist domination in our region should understand that Latin America and the Caribbean have changed, and so has the world.

For our part, we will continue to actively contribute to the processes of consensus and integration in the region, based on the concept of unity in diversity.

We have contributed to the peace process in Colombia, at the express request of its government, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, and the National Liberation Army, and we will continue to do so, above all risks, grievances and difficulties.

The political and moral authority of Cuba is based on the history, conduct and united, conscious and organized support of the people.

Therefore, no threat will make us withdraw our solidarity with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

The aggressive actions against this sister nation must cease. As we warned some time ago, the repeated declaration of Venezuela as a threat to the national security of the United States, the open calls for a military coup against its constitutional government, the military training exercises undertaken in the vicinity of Venezuelan borders, as well as tensions and incidents in the area, can only lead to serious instability and unpredictable consequences.

The region resembles a large prairie in times of drought. A single spark could cause an uncontrollable fire that would damage the national interests of all.

It is equally dangerous and unacceptable that the United States government unilaterally sanctions and also proclaims the Republic of Nicaragua a threat to its national security. We reject the attempts of the discredited OAS, Organization of American States, to interfere in the affairs of this sister nation.

Faced with the Monroe Doctrine, the principles of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed in Havana by Heads of State and Government, which some allies of the United States now seek to disregard, must be applied and defended, for the good of all.

The greatest lesson that revolutionaries and progressive movements can draw from the situation that has shaped is that of never neglecting unity with the people, and not desisting in the struggle in defense of the interests of the oppressed, however difficult the circumstances.

For us, in the complex international situation, the words of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution remain entirely valid, on presenting his central report to the First Party Congress, in 1975, when he said: “As long as there is imperialism, the Party, the State and the people, will pay maximum attention to defense services. The revolutionary guard will never be neglected. History teaches all too eloquently that those who forget this principle do not survive the mistake.” (End of quote).

Correspondingly, we will continue to prioritize defense training tasks, at all levels, in the interests of safeguarding independence, territorial integrity, sovereignty and peace, based on the strategic concept of the War of the Entire People, as is reflected in the recently approved Constitution of the Republic.

It is our duty to meticulously prepare ourselves for all scenarios in advance, including the worst, not only on the military level; so that we leave no room for the bewilderment and improvisation that flourishes in those with scarce will when the time to act arrives, but with the optimism and confidence in victory that Fidel bequeathed to us, and in close contact with the people, we can find the best solution to any challenge that may arise.

Specifically, one challenge that we will face in the year that begins today is the economic situation, hard-pressed by the external finance strains, due to the losses of export revenues, and the tightening of the U.S. blockade and its extraterritorial effects.

As expressed by our Minister of Economy and Planning at the last session of the National Assembly, the cost to Cuba of this arbitrary measure, calculated according to internationally approved methodology, amounted to 4.321 billion dollars last year, equivalent to almost 12 million in damages every day, a fact that is overlooked by analysts who tend to question national economic performance.

Regardless of the blockade and its reinforcement, we Cubans have enormous internal reserves to exploit, without increasing the external debt. For this it is necessary, in the first place, to reduce all non-essential expenses and save more; increase and diversify exports; raise the efficiency of the investment process and enhance the participation of foreign investment, which, as stated in the guiding Party documents, is not a complement, but a fundamental element for development.

In that same scenario, in the National Assembly on December 22, the President of the Councils of State and Ministers, compañero Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, took stock of the state of the economy during 2018, and the plan for this year, where he stressed that the economic battle remains the fundamental and the most complex task, and added that it is that which today demands the most from all of us, because it is the task most anticipated by our people.

With this purpose, he explained that a more proactive, intelligent and concrete attitude is required of leaders, promoting – not hindering or delaying – reliable and specific solutions to problems, with the continuous and intense search for flexible and efficient responses. At the same time, he called for more coherence with the Conceptualization of the Economic and Social Model, and to be more systematic and precise in the implementation of the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Party and the Revolution.

It is opportune to state that the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba firmly supports the pronouncements and actions undertaken by compañero Díaz-Canel since he took office at the helm of the state and the government, including his work system, based on visits to territories and communities; the link with collectives and direct exchanges with the people; the promotion of the accountability of leaders through the press and on social media; as well as the systematic control of the main development programs and the promotion of a collective leadership and management style in state and government bodies.

Without wishing to make a hasty assessment, I can say that the process of transferring the main responsibilities to new generations is going well. I’d go further – it’s going very well, without setbacks or surprises, and we are confident that thus we will continue. (Applause)

Those of us young people who then had the privilege of fighting under Fidel’s command, more than 65 years ago, from the Moncada, the Granma, the Rebel Army, the clandestine struggle, Girón, the confrontation with counterrevolutionary gangs, the internationalist missions and up to the present, together with the heroic Cuban people, are deeply satisfied, happy and confident to see, with our own eyes, how the new generations assume the mission of continuing the construction of socialism, the only guarantee of national independence and sovereignty.

It is 60 years since January 1, 1959. However, the Revolution has not aged, it is still young, and this is not merely rhetoric, it is historic confirmation, since from the very first moments its protagonists were young people, and this has been the case throughout these first six decades.

The revolutionary process is not circumscribed to the biological lifetime of those who initiated it, but to the will and commitment of the young people who ensure its continuity. The new generations have the duty to ensure that the Cuban Revolution is forever a Revolution of young people, and at the same time, a Socialist Revolution of the humble, by the humble, and for the humble. (Applause)

On this significant date, the fitting tribute to Cuban women can not be absent, from Mariana to today, always present in our struggles for the emancipation of the homeland and in the construction of the society we are building today. (Applause)

Compañeras and compañeros:

The Second Ordinary Session of the current legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power approved the new Constitution of the Republic, which will be submitted to a referendum February 24.

Previously, for a period of almost three months, a broad popular consultation process was undertaken, in which citizens freely expressed their opinions on the content of the draft, leading to the modification of 60% of the articles, in a clear demonstration of the profoundly democratic nature of the Revolution, where the major decisions that define the life of the nation are devised with the contribution of all Cubans. Our media provided detailed coverage of the process, which frees me from elaborating on the subject. In a few days, a tabloid of the definitive text of the new Constitution will begin to be distributed.

I only wish to add the confidence that once again our noble and courageous people will demonstrate at the polls on February 24, the majority support for their Revolution and Socialism, ratifying the Constitution in the year in which we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first Magna Carta of Cuba, approved in Guáimaro by the initiators of the war for independence.

After 60 years of struggle, sacrifices, efforts and victories, we see a free, independent country, the master of its own destiny. On imagining tomorrow, the work done allows us to glimpse a dignified and prosperous future for the Homeland.

Bearing in mind Cubans’ heroic history of struggle, on behalf of our people, with total optimism and confidence in the future, I can exclaim:

May the Cuban Revolution live on forever!

Thank you.

(Ovation)

‘We will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution with Fidel, Marti, Cespedes and Mariana Grajales’, the presidential office wrote in its @PresidenciaCuba Twitter account.

In its message on the social network, the Presidency released statements made on the eve by the first secretary of the Communist Party in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, Lazaro Exposito, with details about the celebration.

Exposito pointed out in the radio and television program ‘En Línea contigo’ (In line with your) that the event will be attended by a thousand people from Santiago, while another two thousand will be able to see it on a giant screen that will be placed in the Heredia theatre.

It also meant the symbolism that represents celebrating the triumph of the Revolution in the patrimonial cemetery that houses the remains of the historical leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, the apostle of independence and national hero, Jose Marti, the mother of the homeland, Mariana Grajales, and other heroes.

(Prensa Latina)

After a January 1 when all of Cuba danced, the Ministry of Culture and local institutions announced the continuation of performances by children’s choirs and concert bands.

The National Ballet of Cuba presented its customary Gala performance of Don Quixote, on New Year’s Day, in Havana’s Alicia Alonso Gran Teatro, while the presentation scheduled January 5 is dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the Federation of University Students (FEU).

Performances by the National Circus in Havana, La Colmenita children’s theater company in Artemisa, and movie premieres will likewise continue, along with celebrations in one of the country’s youngest provinces, Mayabeque, in honor of its 8th anniversary.

(Granma)

I recently revisited my photos from the 80s, when just graduated from the university, we brandished our youthful swords with enthusiasm, convinced that we were destined to establish, once and for all, revolutionary truth, reason, and justice, and I have drawn conclusions; our parents, back then, were younger than we are today. There were some who were never young, who did not attempt to change the world in their first years of life, even considering themselves self-sufficient. On the other hand, those who, as years and decades pass, never cease their efforts to change things, can never be considered old.

Little by little we discovered that the revolutionary vanguard is timeless, although it is very much a product of its time, connecting under the ground – where its roots grow – with previous vanguards, and is composed of men and women of all ages. If any doubts remain, Gómez and Martí, Baliño and Mella, can dispel them, but also the historic bridge that unites Martí and Fidel. If this were not the case, how can we explain the need revolutionary Latin Americans feel to call themselves Martianos, Sandinistas, Zapatistas, Bolivarianos, Fidelistas? The heroes of the past encourage those of the present, arguing with them like the passionate youth they are. They cannot be buried, they are comrades in the struggle. I am still moved remembering the magical instant when a million youth of all ages honored the Comandante en Jefe of the second half of the 20th century with the most stunning farewell a hero could receive: “I am Fidel,” shouted the people with fists raised, which simply meant, “We will not let you die.” Fidel had said the same of Martí, in the year of his centenary, but the times are different: Marti was abandoned, and Fidel is not.

We must learn how to identify a youth. Obviously, it’s not about how smooth your skin is or how black your hair, nor is it of any use to ask someone their age. These are confusing facts. Those who assaulted the Moncada were apparently just like their peers, but while they attacked the garrison, many others danced in the Carnival. We must not trust those who insist on going along with the majority view established by fashion and the corporate media, or the fatigue they have caused. On the other hand, the phrase, “what young people think” lends itself to manipulation, an over-used trick employed by older people to justify their desertion. Consensus is constructed – this is the job of revolutionaries – and to the degree that it responds to the needs of the majority, of the humble, it approaches the truth or not. The vanguard of young revolutionaries is intergenerational. There is no Party of the under-aged – they have dissimilar interests like the rest of society. There is rather a Party of youth of any age, that upholds the Communist ideal.

It is true that every generation contributes a different point of view, and that this perspective reveals aspects overlooked and sensibilities not previously perceived. However, the moral axis of revolutionaries is justice, regardless of the century in which they live – the justice that is possible and that which appears not to be. Thus, the inequalities of the day – the inevitable ones, those that are or appear to be “fair” – must be temporary. The revolutionary does not accept them. This is the horizon, the hazy image in the fog, toward which we are rowing: all the justice. No one who has disappeared rows, if he or she is not called upon. And the relief rowers are indispensable; it is imperative that we all play a role in this colossal effort.

The event that motivates this reflection is clear: the 60th year of the Revolution just begun. And we, its first children, are coming of age. The Cuban Revolution has now existed longer than the European socialist states. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is no longer. We have been the reference for other, more recent Latin American revolutions, without any one attempting to copy our methods.

Very close to our coasts, lying in wait, with claws at the ready, are the predators of big capital. Some friends argue for surrender. They say, empathically: We cannot ask the Cuban people to make more sacrifices. I ask myself if the surrender of our conquests is a minor sacrifice; if the dependent capitalism that awaits us in the stagnant water at the bottom of the cliff, toward which they push us, would not increase the people’s suffering and rob us of the possibility of fighting for a better future. All the shortcomings that revolutionaries know well, the dissatisfaction, can be resolved if, and only if, we are capable of preserving the Revolution.

As the 60th year progresses, the adolescents of today will imagine us to be very old; it is only natural. We will commemorate other important dates: the 150th anniversary, for example, of the beginning of the War of Independence. Once, Fidel said that in Cuba there had been but one Revolution, that begun by Céspedes at La Demajagua. He made this statement half a century ago, when we were very young and did not know that our parents were, too. On that occasion, Fidel said, “We, as revolutionaries, must find a way – when we say our duty is to defend this land, defend this homeland, defend this Revolution – to remember that we are not defending the work of ten years, we must remember we are not defending the revolution of one generation: We must remember that we are defending the work of a hundred years!”

This also explains why the Cuban Revolution of 1959 did not go down the drain when the others collapsed. It explains the link between generations in a war that in order to be anti-colonial in the 19th century, and anti-imperialist in the 20th, needed to be anti-capitalist.

I am four months older than the Revolution that educated me, and as young as it is. A Revolution that renews itself, and to repeat, that re-founds itself. With the new year come an end and a beginning, that grant us the opportunity for mediation. I could find no better rallying cry than that of the young José Martí: “The legend has not died. Indomitable and strong, our sons prepare themselves, without fear, to repeat, and finish this time, once and for all, the feats of those brave, magnificent men who were nurtured by their roots. Those men who snatched their enemies’ weapons from their belts, who with sticks from trees began a campaign that lasted ten years, who broke the horses in the morning to ride into battle that afternoon.”

(Granma)

This potential is evident today in various projects currently underway, as Vice President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez noted during a visit here, which included a stop at the children’s theater La Toronjita Dorada, where he emphasized the quality of restoration work done and the young actors’ enthusiasm.

At the Santa Fe Heath Center, Díaz-Canel noted the impact of recent construction on the quality of life and services for the older adults living here, highlighting the state’s commitment to supporting this sector of the population.

He likewise visited Nueva Gerona’s renovated central boulevard and the new Computer Palace, where construction is complete and equipment being installed, as well as a location being rehabilitated to provide 44 homes. He called on authorities to take better advantage of local production of building materials to improve the island’s housing stock.

Díaz-Canel wished the population a happy New Year, congratulating them for the notable development underway, and recalled that to be celebrated in 2018 is the 40th anniversary of the internationalist schools project designed by Fidel, that began here, validating the values of a place that was given new life by the Revolution.

(Granma)

“Fidel! Fidel! Que tiene Fidel que los americanos no pueden con él!” (Fidel! Fidel! What is it that he has that the U.S. imperialists can’t defeat him!). Cuban Revolutionary chant

On August 13th Fidel Castro, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, turns 90. Progressive, anti-war and social justice forces across the world will join in the celebration of the life of the one of the world’s most influential and significant leaders. It is especially worthwhile and necessary to mark and valorize the life and times of a man whose heart, without missing a beat, has withstood more than 600 assassination attempts by U.S imperialism.

Fidel’s life and legacy loom large in world history and development. Fidel is part and parcel of the wave of anti-colonial and national liberation struggles that swept Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean in the second half of the 20th century. Fidel is integral to the Cuban-born and international revolutionary and anti-imperialist tradition, theory and practice, stretching from, among others, the Taino cacique, Hatuey, Toussaint L’Overture, Simon Bolivar, José Martí, Karl Marx, Vladmir Lenin, Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh.

Fidel does not transcend, Cuba and history, as some have opined, but, instead, is ineluctably and organically bound to the deepest aspirations of the Cuban people and the demands of the times. Fidel belongs to the world. He does not stand above or outside life, but flesh and blood, brain and bone, embodies the finest traditions of humanity.

His life encapsulates the struggle of the exploited and oppressed, epitomizing (as U.S. political prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal articulated) “their historic power to transform our dull realities.”

The significance of Fidel extends beyond the geographical boundaries of Cuba. Since its inception, the Cuban Revolution has made an invaluable contribution to the global struggle for justice, social development and human dignity. Under Fidel’s leadership Cuba has established an unparalleled legacy of internationalism and humanitarianism, embodying the immortal words of José Martí: “Homeland is Humanity. Humanity is Homeland.” In southern Africa, for example, more than 2,000 Cubans gave their lives to defeat the racist apartheid regime in South Africa. Nelson Mandela never forgot. After he was released from prison, one of the first countries outside of Africa and the first country in Latin America that he chose to visit was Cuba.

Today this commitment to humanity is mirrored in the tens of thousands of Cuban medical personnel and educators who have served and continue to serve across the world, battling in the trenches against disease and illiteracy, running the gamut from combatting the Ebola outbreaks in west Africa, to beating back other challenges to public health in southern Africa, to training in Cuba of medical cadres from North America (including African-American communities from the largest US cities) as well as Central and South America.

Fidel was only 26, when on July 26th, 1953 he led a group of courageous young men and women in the attack on the Moncada Barracks in the city of Santiago de Cuba, and the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes Barracks in Bayamo, an unsuccessful but valiant effort to overthrow the U.S. supported puppet dictator Fulgencio Batista. Moncada was a crucial catalyst for the revolutionary struggle to free Cuba from U.S. tutelage and establish authentic independence. Fidel has epitomized the unbending commitment to Justice, Dignity and Independence that has characterized Cuba since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution on January 1st, 1959, leading Cuban resistance against the unjust and genocidal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on the island by Washington.

No words can adequately convey the singular meaning of Fidel. By holding aloft the banners of Socialism, Justice, Peace, Internationalism and Human Dignity, the Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel, demonstrates that a better world is possible. On October 16th, 1953 at his trial following the Moncada attack, Fidel laid our his vision of national independence and social justice, declaring, “Condemn me, it does not matter, history will absolve me.” Since those historic words and the subsequent unfolding of events, in a world fraught with intense challenges and dangers, history has not only absolved Fidel but also vindicated the meaning and legacy of his life.

¡Viva Fidel!

¡ Fidel 90 y más!

(Isaac Saney, National Spokesperson, Canadian Network On Cuba)

There are obstacles along the way that, from the point of view of pragmatic
thinking, may seem unconquerable. But Cuba’s very existence as a
sovereign and independent nation is the fruit of its revolutionary vanguard at
the end of the 19th century having carried out something that pragmatic
thinking of the time would regard as unrealizable, specifically, to win the
country’s independence from Spanish colonialism and U. S. imperialism.

The thinking was that the latter, having been checked, might not end up stronger
through the expansion that was underway. It was necessary to block it so
that all of Our America could be free of that threat and world equilibrium,
already endangered, might be preserved.

That goal, which José Martí embraced as the essence of the revolutionary
project he envisioned for liberating the country, gave rise to the
emancipating will that led to the victory of January 1959. In turn, that
determination early on accounted for the reversal of frustration imposed on
Cuba through U. S. intervention, which in 1898 snatched away Cuba’s
victory over Spanish colonialism. It was a mindset rooted in identification
with the poor, who were decisive in the independence struggle. That was
something the very rich, with exceptions, pretended not to understand.

After 1959, and especially after April 15, 1961, when the country’s socialist
project became explicit, Cuba would have to confront great obstacles to keep
the flags of social justice flying. The worldwide context then was of
domination by crisis-ridden but still vigorous imperialism. Facing up to
obstacles like these with hope of success always requires the greatest
possible clarity in order to understand, explain, and above all confront the
realities.

The intellectual resources employed in this undertaking must serve to
generate light rather than add to confusion between realities and goals. By
themselves these don’t make for miracles nor substitute for thinking. Of all
such resources, the DAFO scheme (initials in Spanish for weaknesses,
threats, facilities, and opportunities) has gained favor in the world. Its
origins date from the 1970s in the United States where DAFO served
entrepreneurial and commercial competition. Like the others, it can be a
useful tool, but isn’t a magic wand.

The texts provide a good guide when they set forth precise ideas and don’t
try to replace reality with them. A voracious reader, Martí asserted that, “The
book that interests me most is life, which is always the most difficult one to
read, and which has to be consulted most often when it comes to politics -
which ultimately is the art of assuring people the enjoyment of their natural
powers for thriving.”

Cuba, where the teaching of the legacies of José Martí and Karl Marx is well
established as part of its history, is rich in extraordinary documents. With no
extra zeal and considering only the supposedly preeminent stage of the
Cuban revolution – its unleashing on July 26, 1953 –History Will Absolve Me,
and the First and Second Declarations of Havana can be cited, and likewise
the Main Report and the Programmatic Platform approved by the First
Congress of the Cuban Communist Party. They provided the basis for the
new Constitution of the Republic of Cuba.

After a broad, productive consultation with the people, the Sixth Congress of
that organization approved the Guidelines for Economic and Social Policies of
the Party and the Revolution. That document led to the recent Project of
Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Model for Socialist
Development. Both documents respond to the necessity for putting the
economic model into practice.

Although the second document was approved in the Seventh Congress as an actual project, the leaders are presently
looking to perfect it through necessary collective, democratic discussion
within the ranks of the Party and in mass organizations.

As regards changes or transformations in the model of socialist
development, ideally it should be possible to find a happier verb than “to
update,” which is associated with chronologic order. Yet in the world of today
the Greenwich meridian of the economy passes though capitalism, which is
not Cuba’s compass, nor should it be. But what’s certain is that the country
needs to re-structure its economic functioning. And speaking of economic
matters brings us to other spheres inseparable from the economy but which
don’t end there.

We must rely on objective, calculated possibilities, and with the force of will
that concentrates thinking, a force that is indispensable for guiding a people,
inasmuch as the extremes of volunteerism can end up harmful and show up
even as euphemistic formulations. Hence the need emerges of realizing
that the most recent Congress of the Party recognized the necessity of
calling things by their name. Although the concept of private property
evokes apprehensions and annoyance, a private business doesn’t stop being
just that merely because it takes on another name. Words and good
intentions don’t suffice for channeling the changes that are coming within
the class structure of the country.

Regarding specific prohibitions against concentration of property and wealth
by individuals or by legal non-state organizations, there are now trustworthy
indications that legislation is being zealously applied that go along with our
socialist principles. One example is legislation specifying, formally at least,
that concentration of property can be legally blocked, but it doesn’t happen
that way with wealth gained within the realm of private property, not to
speak of wealth resulting from plunder regardless of where it takes place.

Our assumption that Cuba’s Second Law of Agrarian Reform eradicated large
land holdings may have reinforced confusion stemming from common
practice that puts landholder and the owner of a large land holding in the
same category. According to the etymology, a landholder is one who
possesses land, and today in Cuba a property owner can earn enormous
amounts of money through the productivity of relatively small parcels of
land, and also through the paltry competition they face from products
marketed from lands administered by the state.

They tell of places where, in reaction to attempts to investigate cases of
enrichment, voices are heard warning, “Be careful, this producer is making it
so that people can be fed.” At times it’s not even a question of basic foods,
but of condiments that, raised under conditions of doubtful healthfulness,
are sold strictly for use in centers where food for health institutions is
produced. The concern shouldn’t be disregarded, because these are
situations where middlemen are enriching themselves exorbitantly and also
because commissions they earn often end up sky-high. And who even knows
who these people are?

A brief look here and there suggests that property owners gaining new
wealth actually exceed many of their predecessors in access even to
technological resources: trucks, tractors and other machinery, and also
passenger cars and motorcycles. Will this have to be stopped? Surely not,
but there must be less obvious examples we know nothing about. In regards
to income and possessions on hand, we must look at complaints about
inadequate controls imposed on state-sector functionaries.

Although information provided the public regretfully doesn’t cover criminal
activities very well, the conclusion is quite obvious: there is a need to
prevent and eradicate growing corruption. And those whose responsibility it
is to watch over social order and monetary contributions shouldn’t make the
mistake of overlooking what’s happening. To minimize the danger of survival
often being bound to forms of corruption can lead to tremendous
deformations and prepare the ground for measurably worse corruption. And
if this seriously disrupts socialist property, how can there be any doubt about
its capacity to interfere with the social benefits anticipated from private
property becoming a full reality?

Economic pragmatism is useless for nurturing those ethical values
personified by Fidel Castro. Following Martí, he warned – I am paraphrasing
here – that, “Being around big money generates corruption.” Rich people, or
the aspiring rich, regularly take on admirers, imitators, servants,
accomplices. They exert political influence which extends to political
organizations and society, although they aren’t always interested in
dedicating themselves to political tasks, since their businesses provide more
income. As they move into varied roles and functions, the empire, by no
means coincidently, saves a place for them in its plans for Cuba.

Fallout from the wealthy gaining influence doesn’t disappear or ratchet down
just because getting rich is legal. Even that land for which long-term usage
was granted by the state will be put into production with practices that turn
out to be money laundering. After all, those producers operate with
resources removed from state entities.

To suppose that citizens laboring in various non-state forms of property
share characteristics with the owners very likely will lead to conceptual and
practical errors. To begin with, that idea detracts from the clarity we need for
discussions on the way about the class structure of the nation. Furthermore,
that notion obscures the fact that in the non-state sector there are
proprietors and employees, owners and wage workers, and thereby, in our
view, exploiters and exploited. That’s because of surplus value.

Some will think themselves happy to be exploited in exchange for salary
totals far superior to those received by persons working in the preeminent
and essential sector associated with social property of all the people. But
they would be forgetting reality or sugar coating it, or convincing themselves
that the wage worker is well-defended in a labor union section with an owner
close by. He or she will be there extracting surplus value and imposing
particular working conditions.

There is the situation of social property owned by the entire people who
must not be replaced by the state, whose purpose is merely to represent the
people. There is another one of owning in common through cooperatives in
which all members have similar roles in the productive process and share
profits. But cooperatives may not all be alike. In any case, they are forms of
collective but also private property. That’s frequently ignored.

Objectively, surplus value and exploitation do exist. But they go against the
grain of the best intentions associated with a socialist project. To deal with
them, laws and labor codes must be perfected overall. Private owners,
latching on to general assumptions, believed labor relations posed little
problem, or none at all. They accepted that some of their earnings were
destined for big public services and national defense, except for some being
siphoned off by corruption or flawed administration.

In the present circumstances, the state and especially the unions must
broaden and deepen their attention to those who, situated outside areas of
state purview, may be on the verge of suffering – or are already suffering –
from no longer benefiting from that which workers gained historically
through long and often bloody struggle against capital. It’s not enough just
to assume that the existence of non-state forms is automatically in sync with
the objectives of socialist development.

There’s no magic in any of this. We must attend even to the apparently most
insignificant details and thus to facts and the conclusions that follow.
Perhaps that time from 1968 to the present that’s been dedicated to
reducing private property to a minimum did sow prejudices, difficulties, or
confusions interfering with its revitalization now and causing problems.
People think we must honor the little, or now not so little, manifestations of
private property. They presume that the revolutionary prestige of social
property automatically transfers to workers in that sector.

Reality has shown that in the public’s view economic solvency brings prestige
to workplaces. There’s a joke that illustrates the abominable and painful
result of such thinking: a highly qualified professional was drunk and
expressing delusions of grandeur; he thought he was a hotel baggage
handler collecting tips in hard money.

Idealization can expand through persuasion that paints private property not
just as a particular means of production but also as a contribution to
employment, an efficient economy, and overall well-being. Although there
may need to be forms of private property in a context dominated by
socialist relations, putting a good face on things will come about mainly
through putting essential, and as yet unspecified, mechanisms in place for
holding off excesses like egotism, everyman for himself, corrupting
influences, and even racism.

The most resolute and responsible participatory democracy will serve as the
most effective antidote for such excesses, and for others like bossism,
enthronement of bureaucracy, and nepotism. And all of these can infect
social property. It would be an unnecessary redundancy to speak of
democratic socialism except for the fact that an openly socialist project can
take on profound deformations. It can end up like royalty, even perpetuating
the dynastic tendencies peculiar to feudal modes of social organization. The
world’s experience confirms this.

These evils must not be considered as separate from particular cultural
formulations. These would be the human tendencies reflected in Karl Marx’s
words saying that, “the tradition of all dead generations weighs like a
nightmare on the brains of the living.” José Martí knew that the “interests of
the oppressors and their habits of command” were linked to and reinforced
the weight of tradition. It’s not enough merely to expound upon a more or
less abstract democracy.

In order that the socialism to which Cuba aspires not be confused with state
capitalism, democracy is vital and indispensable. It will be differentiated
through its participatory character. There must be active, responsible
intervention by the people in debates, in arriving at decisions, in discussions
about administering resources in areas of work situated within social
property. As for the latter, discussion must exert a fruitful influence and
move beyond debates over criteria and beyond achieving catharsis. Socialist
democracy must have function and power that distinguishes it from the
bourgeois variety, so exalted by capitalist propaganda.

Fully-formed facts serve to counter such unbounded praise. One example is
the trick played on the Greek people through the referendum benefiting the
European Union. Another is the coup against the French people through the
government’s labor reform that privileged private companies. That action
tarnished the label “socialist” through obedience to neo-liberalism and
turning the worst kind of social democracy into a reality.

We must now give the lie to traps devised through manipulation by the
capitalist media. As the existence of civil society in Cuba is being recognized,
other fundamental revelations are emerging that facilitate the functioning of
democracy. The least of them would be non-recognition in the past of
interrelations between civil society with its rights and duties and reason of
state, and also the differences between the two.

Civil society can be appreciated as being fundamentally identified with the
state, which takes charge of administering the property of all the people,
and that – with the participation of all the people – assures national defense
and the quality of international relations. But the state has to be guaranteed
space and necessary resources in order to express repudiation, merited, we
say, by actions occurring in other countries with whose governments Cuba
has relations. Otherwise, a rule of silence could prevail, with harmful
implications in regard to ethics.

That doesn’t concern just the international arena. When it becomes urgent
to get rid of corruption, it’s necessary to strengthen the ethical sense of
existence. Corruption is a force that undermines the social entity and stands
out among others that could bring down the project of revolutionary
transformation from inside. There are these forces demanding that an
ethical way of being be consciously nurtured: the political, economicfinancial,
social, demographic, territorial, scientific-technical, and formativecultural
dimensions of protecting and conserving resources and the
environment. There are also the politics of communication, so necessary for
true change; politics itself; and generally all factors influencing the forward
march of the nation.

These aspirations depend in large measure on the quality of education. We
now point out something that may not be explicitly or even prominently
included among those aspects of education seen as strategic for the
development of the country. We are thinking about the undesirable influence
of economism, something that ought to be done away with. That’s a term
alluding to crude economic ideas. It comes to mind because education has
fostered scientific development which, among other good results, is one of
Cuba’s main sources of income. And yet, originally, education was one of the
main battlefields of revolutionary work in Cuba.

Education does not end with strictly an economic purpose. In order that its
usefulness may be fully fledged, the role of education in the ideological and
cultural formation of the people, necessary so that the nation can protect all
of its gains, must be maintained and perfected. The process requires the
greatest possible outreach and depth based on scientific rigor and cultivation
of spiritual values.

Consolidation of socialist principles and achieving a high economic and social
development are two goals indispensable for safeguarding and strengthening
the independence and sovereignty that Cuba gained with the victory of the
revolution in 1959. At that time there was no imperial force capable of
staving off the victory of the rebel army, the mambises of that era, although
that may only have been so because, at that beginning stage, the empire
underestimated the reach of the victory on the way.

Now the empire admits that more than a half century of policies openly
hostile to Cuba hasn’t worked for realizing its plans. The character and scope
of its purposes can be measured in juxtaposition to severe damage caused
by armed and terrorist actions and by the blockade against the Cuban
people, still in force. Its aim was to asphyxiate the population through
hunger so that responsibility for it would fall on the state and the people
would rise up against it.

But even the achievement of a truly prosperous, democratic, and sustainable
socialism will end up with a disabled socialism unless it bestows upon the
population a free existence and an environment that, being free of
bureaucratic hobbles and based on social discipline and living together
decently, assures the dynamics and atmosphere of a livable country. It’s not
enough that that the country is wished for and is possible; the need is
urgent to make it real and true and on a daily basis.

(By Luis Toledo Sande, Translated by Tom Whitney)

Beyond the program of activities, the tribute will speak to the very essence of those members of the Directorate who, as Martí would say, carried within them the shame of many, facing the beast in its own lair and attacking one of the most important and wide reaching radio stations, Radio Reloj.

Scheduled to take place are moments of silence and reflection, announcements, and the playing of the National Anthem. Cuban classrooms will be the perfect space to recall an unforgettable moment in the island’s history. The function rooms of the Museum of the Revolution (former Presidential Palace), will receive those who participated in the assault, who instead of weapons will bring ideas, dreams, concrete plans for the nation and much respect for José Antonio Echeverría, martyr, leader and a man who, together with so many others, never feared retribution and embodied the maxim: “To die for the homeland is to live.”

In the early days of January 1959, following the triumph of the Revolution, Fidel spoke from the balcony of the Presidential Palace, which from that moment ceased to be a space for evil and became the site of many positive actions, benefiting the Cuban people. This was a promise encompassing the essence of Martí’s thought, made reality. March 13 is the day that the grateful Cuban people pay tribute to these martyrs. A white rose symbolizing purity and appreciation will be placed at the statue of the brave José Antonio Echeverría.

(Granma)

Begdadi spoke during the celebratory event held in the community of Oscar Lucero, once the headquarters of the Batista dictatorship’s Seventh Regiment, known for its brutal attacks on the revolutionary forces and the population which supported them. He emphasized that the Holguín of today, with its many health care centers and schools, is nothing like the region the victorious rebels saw in 1959, as they advanced toward Havana.

Joining Begdadi were revolutionary combatants Idinio Macías Samé, Ramiro Rodríguez Arias and José Amado Árias who were pleased to be surrounded by representatives of younger generations committed to defending the nation’s independence and dignity conquered on January 1, 1959

Elizabet Cuenca Peña, a student at Enrique José Varona High School, was one of the 57 youth which earlier in the morning had met a contingent from Granma in Cacocum, to continue the reenactment of the Victory Caravan’s 1959 march to the capital.

The 17-year-old expressed her amazement that Idinio Macías was only a few years older than her when he was chosen to join Fidel as part of the Caravan, a recognition of his role on the Frank País Second Eastern Front during the insurrection.

Also attending the dialogue between generations in Holguín were Ernesto Santies te ban, member of the Party Provincial Political Bureau and Julio César Es tupiñán Ro dríguez, president of the People’s Power Provincial Assembly.

(Granma)

Participating in the two day event, at Havana’s Convention Center, are 70 researchers, historians, educators and university students from Asia, Europe and the Americas, with the objective of promoting debate of historical ideas and knowledge to contribute to a better understanding of the country’s revolutionary process, in all of its complexity.

González Barrios, who headed the conference organizing committee, said that the Revolution is the logical result of the radicalization of a people tired of the corruption and poverty which reigned prior to 1959 in Cuba. Noting that the Revolution served as an example to other peoples struggling for their emancipation, he said, “As the Cuban Revolution emerged victorious in the face of imperialist attack, many peoples wanted to imitate it.”

Eduardo Torres Cuevas, president of the Cuban Academy of History, commented that an event of this kind had been needed for some time, adding that he expected the discussion to be enriching for all, allowing for a review of over 50 years of recent history.

History is made, he emphasized, but in many cases it is not written down, and we run the risk of losing it to oblivion. It is imperative, he said, that we recuperate historical memory, take advantage of this great wealth of knowledge which participants in the event possess.

(Granma)