| As Cuba celebrates half a century since the uprising that brought freedom, it finds itself at the head of the movement against the American version of the European Union... |
Cuba: independent, and proud of it
WORKERS, JAN 2007 ISSUE
The days from 2 December to 10 December this year were a significant time for the working class of Cuba. The first date was the 50th anniversary of the landing of the Granma, the launch containing around one hundred Cuban revolutionaries, to start the armed struggle against the Batista regime. It effectively marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) and it was appropriate therefore that the event was marked by military parades and flypasts.
Earlier in the week was the 50th anniversary of the uprising in Santiago de Cuba, intended to coincide with the landing. This year, the celebrations were shared with the delayed 80th birthday celebrations for Cuban President and Commander in Chief of the FAR, Fidel Castro. Meanwhile, 3 December also marked the Latin American Day of Medicine, and 9 and 10 December were National Days of Defence. So the period was full of significance, and some events were attended by world leaders and friends of Cuba.
Today Cuba finds itself at the head of the movement against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the US equivalent of the European Union, a fact lost on the many who cheer what is happening in the Americas because it is easier than facing our own problems in Britain, the EU and NATO.
Six more years for Chavez
President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela secured six more years in the recent presidential election, when he won around 62 per cent of the vote on a 75 per cent turnout. This despite the opposition's control of most of the media, its funding by the US government, threats of armed counter-revolution and death threats to Cuban doctors and teachers in the country. (Compare this election result to the Labour Party's 35 per cent on a 60 per cent turnout – with Murdoch on their side.)
At the same time, new presidents in Ecuador and Nicaragua add to the growing list of opponents to the FTAA, from Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Brazil to Haiti and Jamaica. Meanwhile, Mexico is in turmoil after rigged elections denied power to those opposed to the FTAA.
But despite being stuck in the quagmire of its own creation in Iraq, the US is laying plans to stem the loss of its "empire" in Latin America and the Caribbean. It tried to influence the outcomes of elections in Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Mexico, and now plans to take advantage of the ill health of Cuba's President Fidel Castro. It has poured £50 million into Cuban counterrevolutionary groups inside and outside the country, and has plans to overthrow the Cuban government in the event of Fidel's death, by any means including military action.
This is an open secret. But the US plans fail to take account of many factors. The first is the unity of the Cuban working class, the party and the army. This was the theme that was emphasised in speeches by the new leadership at the military parades and at the Latin American Day of Medicine centred on Cienfuegos Province.
The second factor is that Cuba is no longer isolated. A record 184 nations voted against the US blockade of Cuba at the UN General Assembly, while only Israel and a couple of US Pacific dependencies voted with the US. And each new anti-FTAA president elected in Latin America first visits Cuba to strengthen its relationship with the island. President Chavez of Venezuela has dedicated the electoral victory of the Venezuelan working class to Cuban workers and their leadership, knowing full well what is planned by the US against both Cuba and Venezuela.
Cuban Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer spoke to thousands of health workers in Cienfuegos on Latin American Day of Medicine on on 3 December. He told them that their revolutionary and professional commitment in both providing free health care to the poor of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, (there are now over 30,000 volunteer Cuban doctors in 66 countries), while finding ways to maintain the existing high level of health care to the Cuban population, was an example to the world, but especially to the US, that the entire Cuban working class is one. Only by the combined effort of the whole population could these successes have been achieved.
3 December, Cienfuegos, Cuba: Minister of Health Jose Ramon Balaguer speaking to health workers on Latin American Medicine Day.
In Britain, this would have been an issue of "productivity" and outsourcing to the private sector. But in Cuba it's an issue of "organisation and love", said one speaker. Agreeing with this comment, the minister said, "It is all a question of class".
Meanwhile, the EU, our equivalent to the FTAA with an added ingredient – NATO – is turning its attention to Belarus by threatening sanctions. Belarus is a country that has not complied with the wishes of the EU and the US, and wants to maintain its sovereignty and independence, and does not want to go down the road of rampant free market capitalism by opening up its industries and services to foreign capitalists. Its president and government were elected overwhelmingly earlier this year on a platform of continuing its economic policies, and not joining NATO or the EU.
Will all those in Britain who sing and dance about a new dawn in Latin America now turn their attention to the EU and its coming attacks on Belarus? It is, after all, simply a question of class.