Learning from Cuba's Footprint

by Robyn Francis

Target ONE EARTH – Living Within Our Footprint and What we can Learn from Cuba

Robyn Francis reports on her visit to Cuba to experience 'first hand' the only nation on earth living within its ecological footprint. Cuba provides important food for thought for everyone enjoying 'western' affluence to meet the challenge of radical and rapid reduction of consumption and waste--as this is ultimately what drives climate change and resource depletion. Cuba's capacity to survive collapse gives hope and inspiration as we grapple with the need to embrace radical changes for the great transition to a low-consumption conserver society.

We can live better with less - Cuba shows us how...

Learning from Cuba's Footprint by Robyn Francis

This is an edited transcript of Robyn Francis’ Key Note presentation at the Climate Emergency Conference, Adelaide, October 2008. The article contains a selection of slides from the accompanying visual presentation.

Preamble

This presentation shares observations from a 40-day exchange visit to Cuba, Apr 28-Jun 6, 2008, visiting 40 permaculture and related projects throughout Cuba. The visit was funded by the Cuba-Australia Permaculture Exchange) CAPE, a project of Erda Institute in Australia and my Cuban host organisation was the Foundation for Nature & humanity, based in Havana.

The 2007 State of the Planet report from the World Wildlife Fund identified Cuba as the only nation on earth living within its ecological footprint and at the same time achieving a high standard in the United Nations Human Development Index. I was curious to see and experience ‘first hand’ a society living within its ecological footprint . Hence this presentation is titled Target One Earth – living within our footprint, what we can learn from Cuba.

What does an ecological footprint mean?

To explain what living within our footprint means is best demonstrated by example: If everyone—all 6.7 billion people on earth-- lived like the average Cuban we could sustain our current global population with the resources of one planet earth, whereas If everyone lived like an Australian we’d need 3.7 planets, or like an American we’d need more than 5 planets – this is clearly not sustainable.

We are living well beyond our planetary means and facing planetary bankruptcy.

Read the rest of this article at the Djanbung Gardens website

Cuba Undertakes Reforms in Midst of Economic Crisis

Cuba Undertakes Reforms in Midst of Economic Crisis

By Roger Burbach

September 20, 2009

Carlos picks me up with his dated Soviet-made Lada at the Jose Marti International Airport on a hot sweltering day in Havana. It’s been eight months since I’ve seen him, last January to be precise, when I came to the island on the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. “How’s it been?” I ask him as we begin the 20 minute drive to central Havana. With a scowl, he replies: “Not so good, nothing seems to get easier.” He goes on to say that foodstuffs are as difficult as ever to come by, necessitating long waits in line for rationed commodities.

I am not surprised, as I had been reading in the international press that Cuba has been compelled to curtail its food imports. Hit by the global economic crisis, spending by tourists dropped off while the price of nickel, Cuba’s main mineral export, fell by more than half. This meant that Cuba has no choice but to cut agricultural imports from its main supplier, the United States. Credit purchases are not an option, as the U.S. legislation in 2000, opening up agricultural sales to Cuba, requires immediate payment in hard currency.

To add to its woes, devastating hurricanes hit Cuba in 2008, decimating some of the country’s sugar plantations, as well as its production of vegetables and staple foods. The only bright light in the midst of this food crisis is the implementation of reforms in the agricultural sector under Raul Castro, who became acting president in July 2006. He officially assumed the presidency from his brother Fidel after a vote by the Cuban National Assembly in February 2008.

I am particularly interested in knowing how the distribution of 690,000 hectares of idle lands to 82,000 rural families, in process when I left Cuba in January, has affected the domestic supply of fresh produce. On my second day, I go to one of the open markets in Havana where I talk to Margarita, who is selling undersized tomatoes. She says they come from her father’s new farm. “We started cultivating tomatoes, as well as other vegetables,” she says. “We even hired workers, which is now allowed. But then, as the crops began to mature, we got very little water from the state-owned irrigation system.” Fearing the worst, I ask her if the state is discriminating against the new producers. “No” she says, “the wells and the irrigation system simply didn’t have any gas for the pumps.”

Later in the day, I meet with Armando Nova, an agricultural economist at the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy. I had also talked with him in January and he had then been optimistic about the coming year. I ask him what’s gone wrong and he says, “We’re caught between the effects of the global economic crisis and the difficulties of implementing the reforms.” He goes on to say that there has actually been an increase in fresh produce since the beginning of the year, but it is hardly noticeable in the markets because of the increased demand, a result of the drop in international imports.

As to the economic reforms, Nova says: “The top leadership around Raul is committed to a fundamental shake up of the economy, but change is slow because of bureaucratic obstacles.” The very process of distributing idle lands requires 13 steps of paper work submitted to different agencies. And while the government is committed to providing the new farmers with the inputs needed to start up production, many of them are not delivered because they are simply not available due to the economic crisis.

Nova’s view that reforms are inevitable is reinforced in a special report on the economy released by Inter Press Service (IPS), which is affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Relations: “There is an ever broadening consensus about the necessity of a profound transformation of the Cuban economic model. … It is recognized that the future strategy should include non-state forms of property — not only in agriculture, but also in manufacturing and services.” The publication asserts, “Fifty years of socialism in Cuba have to be re-evaluated,” particularly the role of the state and the need to use market mechanisms.

To facilitate this transformation, the government is opening up a 45-day public discussion that includes union centers, schools, universities, community organizations and the base of the Cuban Communist party. According to materials sent out to orientate the discussions, the participants should “not only identify problems, but also suggest solutions…The analysis ought to be objective, sincere, valiant, creative, … carried out in absolute liberty with respect for discrepant opinions.”

According to Orlando Cruz of the Institute of Philosophy, whom I met at a conference in Havana on social movements, “socialism is to be re-founded in Cuba. We have to totally discard the Soviet model that so badly served us.” I ask whether Cuba will now move towards the Chinese model. Like others in Cuba in the party and the government I have asked the same question. He responds somewhat curtly: “We respect the Chinese model, but we have to follow our own process and history. China is a totally different country.” Cruz makes clear that there will be meaningful democratic participation in the new Cuba: “We will not allow the formation of a petit-bourgeoisie to control or distort the process. We want to construct an authentic democratic socialism. It will be deeper and more participatory than that of the social democracies of Europe.”

I first went to Cuba in 1969 and have visited the country every decade since then. There have been many challenging moments in the revolution’s history, and now we are witnessing another one, as the country embarks on an endeavor to free the economy from the shackles of its bureaucracy. The fate of this move depends on the ability of society at the grass roots to exert a greater role in the country’s economic and political institutions. If this effort succeeds, the Cuban revolution will be opening a new path for socialism in the 21st century.

*Roger Burbach is the author of “The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice,” and the Director of the Center for the Study of the Americas based in Berkeley, CA. He is working on a new book with Gregory Wilpert, “The Renaissance of Socialism in Latin America.”

Cuba - Gardening Its Way Out Of Crisis

From COHA - Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Sunlight brightens the paved streets and historic buildings of Havana, Cuba, bouncing off the tents of vendors and the tin drums of a street band. Once stricken by poverty and inequality, the city has slowly blossomed as a result of the bustling enterprise of urban agriculture. Between buildings and behind street walls, in every green space available, locals have cultivated crops, utilizing the techniques of sustainable urban farming. After years of isolation from the United States and the former Soviet Union, Cuba has independently fostered development of urban agriculture and now provides an environment of growth and structure for its economic, social and political policies.

Cuba is the only country in the world that has developed an extensive state-supported infrastructure to support urban food production. Functionally, this system was established in response to acute food shortages in the early 1990s, which occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the island was forced to find an alternative manner of cultivating crops. Havana has established and expanded on this innovative model since this time, and it continues to lead the island nation in its quest for self-sufficiency. The increasing prevalence of urban agriculture benefits the economy, environment, community and health of Cuban citizens.

Crisis to Bounty
Cuba turned to urban agriculture out of necessity. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 and the termination of trade with the Soviet-based Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), the industrial agriculture on which Cuba had relied since the 1970s disappeared. Almost overnight, diesel fuel, gasoline, trucks, agricultural machinery, spare parts for trucks and machinery, as well as petrochemical-based fertilizers and pesticides, became very scarce commodities. Like many large metropolitan centers, Havana was a food consumer city, completely dependent upon comestible imports from the Cuban countryside and abroad. Havana had no food production sector or infrastructure, and had little land dedicated to cultivate this vital industry.

In light of the severe agricultural crisis, a shift to urban agriculture seemed an obvious and necessary solution. Urban production minimized transportation costs and smaller-scale operation decreased the need for machinery. Urban agriculture necessitated production sites near highly populated areas, and at the same time avoided the use of toxic petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides, which were no longer available.

Roots of Growth
Although Castro began installing organoponicos (rectangular-walled constructions containing a mixture of soil and compost) in military facilities in 1987, it was not until the end of 1991 that the first “civilian” organoponico began operation. This governmental experiment prepared at least some parts of the Cuban institutional structure for the impending food crisis. By 1994, an organization was created to oversee the systematic introduction of organoponicos along with intensive gardens into urban agriculture.

Since the development of urban agriculture in Havana, production has increased exponentially, with the harvest of fresh herbs and vegetables jumping a thousand fold from 4,000 tons to 4.2 million tons between 1994 to 2005. The introduction of locally grown, organic agricultural products has significantly benefitted the typical Cuban diet. The environment of Cuba’s cities has immensely profited in terms of both climate change and aesthetics. Plots that were previously eyesores and de facto garbage dumps have been transformed into productive land. The social and economic environment has enjoyed the creation of sizeable sources of urban employment as well as the robust incorporation of women and youth into the workforce.

Although Havana constitutes only 0.67 percent of the total area of the island, 20 percent of Cuba’s population is concentrated in the capital. The immense agricultural production capable in this small area could be considerable. This production rate is largely due to the overarching organizational structure of Havana’s urban agricultural model. Clearly fundamental to the success of this paradigm is the coherent, central direction that the socialist government provides. In spite of this collective approach, a certain amount of decentralization exists allowing citizens wide pathways to guide marketing and production. The central government offers support and an organizational backbone, while the decentralized arms furnished by the planning model permit decision-making to be made by producers and encourage local solutions to local problems. Thus, urban agriculture in Havana is a model of urban self-sufficiency worthy of imitation.

Havana and the Outside World
By incorporating modern farming methods into its economy, Cuba has experienced considerable advancements that have allowed the country to address many of its structural as well as life-style shortcomings, particularly the security of its people, the environment and the economy. The former food-supply problem plunged the Cuban economy into a downward spiral of hunger and despair. However, by fostering agricultural awareness, the country was able to attain enhanced levels of food sovereignty and security. This increased allocation of edibles has contributed enormously to the opening of society. Resources are now accessible and affordable to the general public and the creation of infrastructure accommodates more labor and increased wages. Thus, the changes Cuba has made have generated a positive interaction between the community and economy.

Many worry whether Cuba’s budget and planning services will be able to maintain its commitment to urban agriculture and sustainable methods, as the country enters the global economy and faces pressures to restructure its economic and political system, especially as Washington nears a decision to lift the U.S.- Cuba trade embargo. As the economy opens, the tourism industry and multinational food corporations will compete for urban land and attempt to flood the Cuban market with cheap imported food products that could undermine the urban agricultural system. Havana must develop policies that will protect their growing agricultural sector, but also allow for international influence and trade to flourish.

Although the opening of trade relations threatens local food production, Cuba’s success in the agriculture industry makes it a substantial contender in the global market. Its products are competitively priced and thus, have the ability to generate a considerable profit for the island nation. Not only will increased participation in international trade boost revenue, but it could also promote social reform in the country. Cuba’s urban centers, once underdeveloped and filthy, are now encouraging progressive goals, targeting rising living standards and sanitation concerns, while promoting national initiatives that will support future improvements in the urban landscapes.

Agriculture for the Future
Cuba’s successful implementation of urban agriculture should serve as a model for other developing countries, particularly in Latin America. By embracing more modern and effective methods of farming, countries theoretically have the opportunity to transform their local markets, augmenting the labor force and cultivating capital and infrastructure. Introduction to the global market would allow a country like Cuba to become an important economic actor, ultimately expanding its profits through competitive transactions and trade. Considering the increasingly overbearing nature of contemporary power-house economies, as well as the improvements that would address many of the social and economic issues that plague struggling nations, Latin America, as well as other regions, should acknowledge the practicality of a low intensity urban approach to agriculture, if only as a supplement to other major approaches.

Agricultural urbanization is not only inevitable, but also may be the best available option in ensuring food sovereignty and security for increasing populations, and facilitating economic opportunities for the poor. The prospect of growth and development, as well as increased global cooperation and communication, should serve as incentive for industrializing countries to integrate and harmonize urban agriculture into their local communities.

Green Left Weekly fundraising dinner, this Saturday!

A Green Left Weekly Fundraiser

FIESTA REVOLUTION

Special event to celebrate 50 years of the Cuban Revolution with

Abelardo Curbelo
Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba

Also featuring guest speaker Juan Campos of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) committee in Sydney, recently returned from observing the historic victory of the FMLN in the El Salvadoran elections
Plus an eyewitness report from Venezuela's Bolivarian revolution.

LIVE SALSA BAND & EXQUISITE URUGUAYAN FEAST
7pm

Saturday 9th May
Ukranian Association Hall

59 Joseph St, Lidcome
(near the Lidcome train station)

Join us in celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution, the 10th anniversary of the Venezuelan revolution
and the growth of the left movements across Latin America.

Raul Castro at the ALBA Summit

Cuba reaffirms vocation of solidarity with the people of the Americas
• Speech by President Raúl Castro Ruz, in the public segment of the 5th Extraordinary ALBA Summit, Cumaná, Venezuela, April 16, 2009

Compañero Chávez;

Dear Presidents and heads of delegations from sister ALBA nations;

Distinguished guests

The economic and social crisis now is global in nature and is not only limited to the financial sector. It’s a world disaster with profound structural roots. It includes a sharp fall in stock market value and productive activity; the freezing of and higher cost of credit and the economic recession in the principal powers of the First World. It is accompanied by the withdrawal of world trade and an increase in unemployment and poverty. It is affecting and will considerably damage the lives and well-being of billions of human beings. The countries of the South with be, as always, the ones that suffer the most.

These are the consequences of irresponsible practices tied to deregulation, financial speculation, and the imposition of neoliberalism. Also present is the United States’ abusive use of the privileges bestowed on them in the current international economic order which allows them to finance a culture of war and unbridled consumerism, unsustainable no matter how you look at it, by printing money without backing.

But deep down, the crisis is a foreseeable result of the capitalist system of production and distribution. The neoliberal policies of the last three decades have increased its magnitude for the worse. In the search for solutions, those who are primarily responsible end up concentrating power and wealth even further, while the poorest and most exploited assume the majority of the costs.

The response cannot be a solution negotiated behind the back of the United Nations by the Presidents of the most powerful countries.

The crisis will not be resolved with either administrative or technical measures because they are by nature structural, have systematic reach and increasingly affect the economy of the globalized and interdependent planet. The role and the functions of financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund, whose disastrous policies have decisively contributed to the origin and reach of the current crisis, should be strengthened even less.

Nor does the G-20’s solution resolve the inequality, injustices, and unsustainability of the capitalist system. It is the same rhetoric of those solemn declarations by the Northern countries that they will not apply protectionist measures and that they will not allocate new aid, which does not change the foundations of the underdevelopment that condemns us.

The World Bank – which is not exactly a defender of socialist principals – already spoke about this six months ago at the previous G-20 meeting in Washington. It counted 73 protectionist actions applied by members of the G-20 itself. An increase in the Official Development Assistance has also not been visible.

Dear colleagues

The ALBA countries have the privilege of having a modest plan for integration, constructed on the foundations and principles of equality, whose very nature doesn’t allow for the practices that started this crisis. Our countries do not have the capacity, by ourselves, to structurally transform the international economic order, but we do have the power to establish new foundations and construct our own economic relations.

Our most important programs are not subject to the whims of financial speculation or the uncontrolled fluctuation of markets. The damage that we are suffering is undeniable. This is a crisis that nobody can escape from but today we have the instruments to partly counteract its effects.

In these efforts, the work that we have been carrying out in ALBA member countries and Ecuador (since November, 2008) is particularly significant; in order to create the Unique Regional Compensation Payment System (SUCRE) that will be a fundamental factor for boosting the trade and economic integration between us.

Today we can verify the advances achieved in the development of this initiative that is a first step toward the goal of having a common currency.

Cuba reaffirms the vocation of solidarity that has characterized its links with the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. The crisis presents us with enormous challenges, of incalculable and unpredictable dimensions. We have no other option than to unite with each other to face it.

Thank you very much.

If you tolerate this...? The BNP are tools.

This is, I guess, a "Guest Post" of sorts. Actually, it's simply a reprinting (with permission, for once) of a comment made on the Green Left discussion list, but we Wombats thought it worth reproducing here and too good an opportunity to miss. (We're in the process of beefing up the posting quality, content and style - less reproductions, more comment. This is just the start...)

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by Duroyan Fertl

Britain's political answer to Homo neanderthalis - the BNP - have proved once again that fascism feeds on the dust left behind by the passage of evolution.

Apparently they can only understand eight words at a time. According to NME:

"The far-right political party were hosting a video on their website, and on a youTube account, under the heading 'The Cesspit Called London' which was soundtracked by the band's 1998 Number One single 'If You Tolerate This, Your Children Will Be Next'.

Ironically, the lyrics to that song concern the International Brigade – the group of volunteers, including Welsh farmers, who went to Spain to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War."

IRONICALLY!?!? If the knuckle dragging morons actually had the cerebral skill to understand English (now *that's* irony), they might have heard that the song in question is not only dedicated to the struggle against fascism, taking its name from a slogan on an anti-fascist poster from the Spanish Civil War, it also contains one of the best lines ever written in pop music: "So if I can shoot rabbits/ Then I can shoot fascists". YouTube link.

Of course, the Manics - who grew up in Thatcher-loathing working class Wales, living (well the lead singer, anyway) on the same street in Blackwood as Neil Kinnock, played in Cuba in 2001, met Fidel Castro, dedicated an award to the National Union of Mineworkers' Arthur Scargill (and later donated money to his Socialist Labour Party), and knocked the musical shit out of Blair's Nu Labour ("Change your name to New/ Forget the fucking Labour") - demanded that the offending material be taken down, which it was.

While we're on the topic of political commentary in music (viz Stuart's Lily Allen post), the Manics remain - in my opinion - simply the best in that field, over two long decades now... While the sharpest political commentary might not always make the Top of the Pops, sometimes it does:

Suffering a long love-hate relationship with the British music media (which loved to hate them because of their social comentary, their call for revolution, and their criticism of the truly shit noise that passed for the musical output of most of their contemporaries), the Manics released a deliberately "secret" stand-alone single in November 1999.

They forbade their music company from publicising it, allowing it's existence to be known only through their fan base. The record was deleted on the day of release and the song - The Masses Against The Classes - went straight to number one, and stayed there for 16 weeks. 'Nuff said, really.

The Manics have a new album - Journal for Plague Lovers - coming out in May, including left-over lyrics from their former rhythm guitarist, Richey Edwards, who disappeared 14 years ago.

Oh, and this:

Int'l Speakers at "World At A Crossroads" conference

Below are just some of the international speakers at the forthcoming World At A Crossroads socialist conference, to be held this Easter at Sydney Girls High School. Visit http://www.worldatacrossroads.org for more information or to register...

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Michael Lebowitz, Venezuela & Canada

* Centro Internacional Miranda, Caracas
* Renowned Marxist economist
* Director of the program "Transformative Practice and Human Development" at the Centro Internacional Miranda, Caracas, Venezuela
* Author of "Build it Now: 21st Century Socialism" and "Beyond Capital: Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class", winner of the Isaac Deutscher memorial prize (2004)
* Professor Emeritus of economics, Simon Fraser University, Canada

• Socialism
• Marxism
• Latin America
• Venezuela
• Canada
• Bolivarian revolution
• International speaker

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Reihana Mohideen, Philippines

* Power of the Masses Party (PLM)
* Long-term activist in the women's and labour movements in the Philippines
* Vice chair, International Department, Power of the Masses Party (PLM)
* Chairperson of Transform Asia, a gender and labour institute in South East Asia
* Editor of "Socialist Dialogue", a bulletin which carries debates and discussions of the international socialist movement
* Formerly vice-chair for international affairs of the socialist labor centre, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (Solidarity of Filipino Workers)

• Philipines
• Workers' rights
• Women's rights
• Asia-Pacific
• International speaker

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Ian Angus, Canada

* Eco-Socialist Network
* One of the founders of the Ecosocialist International Network
* Editor of Climate and Capitalism and associate editor of Socialist Voice
* Director of the Socialist History Project
* Author of: "Canadian Bolsheviks: The Early Years of the Communist Party of Canada"; "Food Crisis: World Hunger, Agribusiness&the Food Sovereignty Alternative"; "How to Avoid Action on Climate Change: The fine art of greenwash in Canadian politics"; and "Confronting the Climate Change Crisis".

• Socialism
• Canada
• Environment
• Eco-socialism
• Global warming
• Climate justice
• International speaker

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Luis Bilbao, Venezuela & Argentina

* Long time activist on the Latin American left
* Participant in the construction of the mass United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and the formation of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)
* Founding editor of the Latin American wide monthly magazine "América XXI"
* Author of 16 books, most recently "Venezuela in Revolution: the Rebirth of Socialism"
* Marxist professor of Political Economy and International Politics at TEA, School of Journalism, Argentina
* Member of Union of Militants for Socialism, Argentina.
Read Luis Bilbao's article 'Venezuela: Reasons to be alert'

• Socialism
• Latin America
• Venezuela
• Argentina
• Bolivarian revolution
• International speaker

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Kavita Krishnan, India

* Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist), All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA)
* A long-time leader of India’s student movement, including as President of the All India Students' Association from 1999 to 2006
* Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) and an editor of the party’s magazine in English, Liberation
* National Secretary of the All India Progressive Women's Association (AIPWA)

• Socialism
• India
• Women's rights
• International speaker

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Salim Vally, South Africa

* Spokesperson of the Palestine Solidarity Committee
* Leading activist in the Palestine solidarity campaign in South Africa where dock workers recently boycotted Israeli ships. The PSC is directly working with the Council of South African Trade Unions on further solidarity and boycott actions
* Social justice and anti-apatheid activist since high school where he was a regional executive member of the South African Students’ Movement (SASM) until its banning in 1977
* Former member of COSATU’s National Education Committee
* Lecturer and senior researcher at the Education Policy Unit and the School of Education at Wits University, Johannesburg

• South Africa
• Palestine solidarity
• International speaker

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M.Saraswathy, Malaysia

* Socialist Party of Malaysia
* A founding member and currently Deputy Chairperson of the Socialist Party of Malaysia, and Chairperson of the PSM's Jelapang branch
* A long-term organiser of plantation workers, urban settlers and women workers in Malaysia, and founder of the Textile Union at Imperial Garment

• Socialism
• Malaysia
• Women's rights
• Asia-Pacific
• International speaker

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Abelardo Curbelo, Cuba

* Cuban Communist Party
* Veteran of the Cuban revolution
* Central committee member of the Cuban Communist Party
* Currently Cuban ambassador to Australia

• Socialism
• Latin America
• Cuba
• International speaker

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Daphne Lawless, Aotearoa (New Zealand)

* Socialist Worker - New Zealand
* Central committee member of SW-NZ
* Editor of the journal "Unity"
* Editorial board of Workers Charter newspaper
* Co-founder of Campus Left at Victoria University 2004
* Foundation member of NewLabour Party in 1989

• Socialism
• Aotearoa (New Zealand)
• Workers' rights
• International speaker

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Nelson Davila, Venezuela

* Venezuelan Charge D'Affaires in Australia
* Founding member of Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement (MBR-200), the revolutionary group formed inside the armed forces
* Member of the ideological commission of the Maisanto Command, the coordinating body for the mass campaign to defeat the opposition’s attempts to recall Chavez in the August 2004 referendum
* Former instructor for the Centres for Ideological Formation
* Currently head of Venezuela's diplomatic mission to Australia

• Socialism
• Latin America
• Venezuela
• Bolivarian revolution
• International speaker

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Roger Annis, Canada

* Socialist Voice
* Editor of "Socialist Voice"
* Aerospace worker and member of the International Association of Machinists in Vancouver, Canada
* A coordinator of the Canada Haiti Action Network
* Travelled to Haiti in August 2007 as part of a human rights investigative delegation

• Socialism
• Canada
• Workers' rights
• International speaker

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Ammar Ali Jan, Pakistan

* Labour Party Pakistan
* Youth secretary, Labour Party Pakistan
* Member of various progressive student and youth groups in Lahore including National Student Federation and Progressive Youth Front.
* Previously involved in the Campus Anti-war Network at the University of Texas, Austin, USA.
* Regular contributor for the most widely circulated English magazine in Pakistan including the News International of Jang Goup, the largest chain of newspapers in Pakistan.

• Socialism
• International speaker
• Pakistan
• Anti-war
• Youth

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Soubhi Iskander, Sudan

* Sudanese Communist Party
* Active in the Sudanese Human Rights Committee
* Editor of "The Flame", monthly Arabic insert in Green Left Weekly
* Socialist Alliance member

• Socialism
• International speaker
• Sudan
• Africa

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Mericio Juvinal Dos Reis (Akara)

* Luta Hamutuk Institute
* Executive Director of the Luta Hamutuk Institute
* From 2002-2005 he was a researcher at La’o Hamutuk, The East Timor Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Analysis.
* From 1999-2002, Mericio Akara was a Vice President of Timor Socialist Party, but he resigned from the position and from party membership in 2003.
* Prior to 1999, he spent 8 years in Jakarta-Indonesia as a student and as a pro independent activist.

• Socialism
• Timor Leste
• Asia-Pacific
• International speaker

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Ecuador's Correa extols the Cuban revolution

From Granma.cu

"This marvelous people, the Cuban people, a heroic people, has taught the world that Revolution has a destiny"

Speech by His Excellency Mr. Rafael Correa Delgado, president of the Republic of Ecuador, at the commemoration event for the 50th anniversary of the entry of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro into Havana, at Ciudad Libertad, January 8, 2009

Dear Comandante,

President Raúl Castro Ruz, I expect that compañero Fidel is watching us and so an immense Latin American and solidarity-filled embrace for him (Applause)

Dear commanders, combatants of this heroic gesture: the Cuban Revolution, the liberation of Cuba, the most significant milestone in the history of Latin America in the 20th century and an example for the entire world;

Dear officials of the Cuban government;

Ministers and officials from the Ecuadorian government who are accompanying me on this visit;

Representatives of the media;

Dear sisters and brothers from Cuba, Ecuador, Latin America and the rest of the world, for each and every one of you, a warm embrace (Applause):

Today, January 8, 2009, when – at the invitation of the Cuban Revolution – we are here representing the Ecuadorian people and their Citizen’s Revolution, it is worth asking the question: When did the Cuban Revolution begin?

Perhaps on July 26, 1953, when Fidel, leading the Centenary Generation, etched the name of the Moncada Garrison into history?

Maybe it was on November 25, 1956 when the Granma set sail from Veracruz carrying 82 guerrillas?

Or perhaps it was long before that, in the early hours of April 11, 1895, when José Martí and his group of compatriots disembarked at Playitas de Cajobabo in order to begin the Necessary War and bring the yoke of Spanish colonialism to an end?

Perhaps it would be better to think that this Revolution, the hope and fate of Our America, began in the struggles against colonialism, alongside the major reference of our emancipatory vocation, symbolized by the Liberator Simón Bolívar.

Because Manuela Sáenz and Antonio José de Sucre; José Martí and Emiliano Zapata; Eloy Alfaro and Augusto César Sandino; Manuel Rodríguez and José Carlos Mariátegui; Antonio Maceo and Máximo Gómez, and all the compatriots of the continent devoted their lives to the liberation of our Great Homeland harbored by the image and flag of Bolívar.

We should acknowledge then, that the Revolution began when Fidel…Raúl, Che, Haydée, Camilo, and the Cuban revolutionaries followed the path and the profound footprints of a historic struggle.

Following in these footprints meant and continues to mean, at whatever moment in time, being honest, being transparent and always telling the truth, just as the Liberator did when he said:

"Blessed is he who, running between the obstacles of war, politics and public misfortunes, preserves his honor intact."

Fifty years ago, in this very same place, Fidel said:

"I believe that this is a decisive moment in our history: the dictatorship has been defeated. The joy is immense. But there is still much to be done. Let us not deceive ourselves by believing that everything will be much easier from now on; the future will perhaps be much more difficult."

"Telling the truth is the first duty of every revolutionary," stated Fidel. "Deceiving the people, stirring up deceptive illusions will always bring the worst consequences, and I believe that we have to warn people against excessive optimism.

"How did the Rebel Army win the war? By speaking the truth. How did the dictatorship lose it? By lying to the soldiers.

(…) "And for this reason, I want to begin – or rather, continue – with the same system: always telling the truth to the people," stated Fidel, in this very same place, exactly fifty years ago.

This ethical torch, and the greatest devotion to the legitimate aspirations of the peoples of Cuba and Latin America has permitted this Revolution to remain in force, with pride and dignity, in the defense of the most prized assets pursued by the people: freedom and sovereignty.

This marvelous people, the Cuban people, a heroic people, has taught the world that Revolution has a destiny. That it is a process of the spirit, that it is forged by human spirit and that, once underway, there is no power that is capable of stopping it, however powerful it believes itself to be.

Today, fifty years later, that distant January 1, 1959, or that January 8 half a century ago, are already glorious dates for every revolutionary movement around the world. But they would not be if the movement that culminated in it had been conceived simply as the climax of the insurrection against injustice, despotism and corruption.

The fight against that injustice, that despotism and against corruption is an eternal one, and will never end.

It is for this reason that the January 1st and 8th of 50 years ago are glorious…And they are majestic, because from that moment onward, the Cuban people have taught the world that a revolution is constructed from the dawn of every day, and also, based on the teaching left to us by every error made.

This process is exemplary because it was capable of achieving real national independence, freedom, sovereignty and the self-determination of the Cuban people.

This process is extraordinary because it secured the reestablishment of human rights for all Cuban men and women. It is the recognition that the first constitutional right of all human beings is their full dignity. The Cuban Revolution made real the declaration of its leaders: the Cuban people know that no compatriot will be left to his or her own fate under any circumstance whatsoever.

The Cuban Revolution has no skeletons hidden in the closet of its history, and has never practiced torture or "disappearances."

The Cuban Revolution has eliminated racial and gender discrimination, and at the same time has defended the rights of children and the widespread protection of the rights of the Cuban family.

Cuba’s declaration in 1961 as the First Illiteracy-Free Territory in America continues to be an example for our peoples, and that same conviction transformed garrisons into schools, and told the Cuban people: "Read, don’t just believe", thus democratizing access to the world of the written word and its phantoms.

Cuba increased by more than eleven times the number of doctors it possessed. From the 6,286 doctors in 1958, the country came to have 72,416 in 2007; in other words, one for every 155 inhabitants. Cuba is the country with the highest number of doctors per capita in the world, and Latin America has been the beneficiary of a responsible policy, deeply-rooted in humanism and solidarity.

We have witnessed, with Latin American pride, the practice of a principled foreign policy, based on the pillars of international law: equality among nations, self-determination and mutual respect, as well as on the defense of social justice and the dignity of all human beings on the planet, particularly with respect to the rights of the peoples of the Third World.

From this Latin American territory, we come to express our most profound solidarity with the Cuban revolutionary process.

From the Equator, from this territory that harbored the Bolivarian struggles, we have come to the Ciudad Libertad to express our jubilation at these past fifty years. And we do so with the same conviction that led us to establish, in our own land, one of the most advanced constitutions in Latin America.

We have come from this continent reinforced and revived by the social memory that is permitting us to settle the scores of history.

This settling of scores begins with the genuine vindication of the indigenous population, pillaged, exploited, humiliated, offended and, paradoxically, also used and manipulated. For that reason, today, the Ecuadorian state is pluri-national, it is intercultural, and pursues equality in its diversity; in other words, the most authentic execution of true democracy…In the same way, with the African-Ecuadorian people which, like the Cuban people, are the drum and the flag of our homeland.

Many years ago, two of my people’s democrats, Eloy Alfaro and Federico Proaño, were the subject of a tribute by José Martí.

Alfaro, according to the Cuban national hero, was one of the few Americans by creation and, his combatants from the coast, the guerrillas, brothers of the Mambises, founded this Ecuadorian land which today is emerging and rising up.

With respect to our insurgent fighter Federico Proaño, Martí said:

"For the enemies of human’s free will, and for his clear occupation in America, Proaño had nothing more than tooth and nail. And his pen, refined and fierce, outlined with one stroke, illuminated from an uproar, hammered from a pillory,

opened up like two wings, before the majesties of humans and nature."

And history continues. The Cuban Revolution had an Ecuadorian martyr, journalist and patriot Carlos Bastidas Argüello, murdered in May 1958 by Batista’s henchmen…

We pay tribute to Carlos Bastidas today, for being the dignified representative of the pride and sacrifice of our peoples (Applause).

And, in tribute to this Revolution, cemented in the most noble principles deposited throughout the history of humanity: solidarity, universality, unity, independence and, above all, dignity, today we are calling for and demanding…an end to the criminal blockade, premeditated ethnocide by the same powers as always (Applause); those same powers which have subjected to the most perverse injustice René González, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando González, patriots who, perhaps as a form of consolation, and as Silvio Rodríguez has said: "We must understand what they are suffering, they are the cruel swipes of a beast against an unbearable light" (Applause).

Fortunately, today Latin America does not belong to any empire. We, the heirs of José Artigas, José de San Martín, Rosa Campuzano, Miguel de Hidalgo, and also Rigoberta Menchú, Camilo Torres, Leonidas Proaño, Hebe de Bonafini and Chico Mendes, do not believe in one sole form of thinking, because our identity has the face of each and every one of us.

We honor the essence of the Cuban Revolution, considering it transcendental to the evolution of humanity.

Because we believe that its principles are fundamental in order to secure the well-being of our peoples.

On honoring this Revolution, we reiterate the words spoken fifty years ago by Comandante Fidel Castro, words that, today, we make our own:

"From this moment, the lavish receptions and ovations are over; from now on…it’s work. Tomorrow will be a day the same as any other, and every other one like it, and we will become used to freedom."

We, from our Andean Ecuador, from Guayas to Chimborazo, from the homeland of Alfaro and Manuelita, join these festivities for justice and dignity.

We, in the greatest execution of sovereignty, denounce as you do, an illegitimate, illegal and immoral foreign debt (Applause).

For us…socialists of both the mind and the heart, revolution will never be sorrowful, it will always be a fiesta, because it will be a celebration of equality between men and women; because it will be an exercise of solidarity between human beings and the earth.

And so, we will celebrate the Cuban Revolution with the words of poet Fayad Jamís:

"For this freedom

of song in the rain,

we will have to give everything,

until our shadows

and it will never be enough."

With the protective shadow of Bolívar and Martí…

With this renascent entry of Fidel into the Ciudad Libertad…

And with the memory of Che, we say, with dignity and with all our heart…

¡Hasta la victoria siempre!

¡Viva Cuba! (Cries of: "¡Viva!")

¡Viva Ecuador! (Cries of: "¡Viva!")

¡Viva América Latina! (Cries of: "¡Viva!")

(Applause.)

Cuba, 50 years on ... and the same challenge of making a revolution

By Lázaro Barredo Medina

Granma International -- October 30, 2008 -- "The dictatorship has been defeated. The joy is immense. And yet, there still remains much to do. We won’t deceive ourselves by believing that everything will be much easier from now on; perhaps it will be much more difficult." This is what Commander in Chief Fidel Castro told the people on January 8, 1959, the day of his entry into Havana. Many people could never imagine the immense challenge that they would live to experience.

Suffice it to say that just a few days later, Fidel proclaimed the right to self-determination in terms of relations with the United States and immediately, the aggressions, attempts on his life and anger on the part of US politicians began, evidence of which can be seen in speeches and articles of the time, as in an editorial of Time magazine, the mouthpiece of the most conservative sectors, entitled: "Fidel Castro’s neutralism is a challenge for the United States."

But the Cuban people could not be neutral in the face of the United States. The triumph of the Revolution that January 1959 signified for the Cuban nation, for the first time in its history, the real possibility of exercising the right to self-determination. From that moment on, neither the US president, Congress nor its ambassadors could continue making decisions on what could or could not be done in Cuba. The bitter dependence had been brought to an end; a dependence that saw US governors and ambassadors enjoying a degree of power in Cuba that was far greater than the actual power that they had – with respect to decision-making – within the US federal government or in relation to any of the 50 states that make up the USA.

When full national independence was achieved, the Revolution began to exercise that right by immediately applying the program that Fidel had announced during the Moncada trial of 1953 and which is contained in his historic self-defence speech History Will Absolve Me.

Dependence on US ends

Cuba established the economic and social regime that it believed was most just and established a socialist state with participatory democracy, equality and social justice. The country’s economy was characterised by limited industrial development, essentially depending on sugar production and a latifundia agricultural economy, where landowners controlled 75% of the total arable land.

Most of the country’s economic activity and its mineral resources were managed by US capital, which controlled 1.2 million hectares of land (a quarter of the productive territory) and most of the sugar industry, nickel production, oil refineries, the electricity and telephone services and the majority of bank credits. Likewise, the US market controlled approximately 70% of Cuban imports and exports, within a system of highly dependent volumes of exchange: in 1958, Cuba exported products worth 733 million pesos and imported 777 million pesos worth of goods.

The prevailing social picture was characterised by a high unemployment and illiteracy, a precarious healthcare, social welfare and housing system for the vast majority of the population, as well as abysmal differences in living conditions between urban and rural populations. There was a high degree of polarisation and unequal distribution of income; in 1958, 50% of the population earned just 11% of total income, while a 5% minority controlled 26%. Racial and gender discrimination, begging, prostitution and social and administrative corruption were widespread.

Addressing the social and economic problems in Cuban society could no longer be put off and could only be resolved if the Cuban people had control of their own wealth and natural resources. Thus, using the 1940 constitution and in line with international law, Cuba exercised its right to take control of these resources and assumed total responsibility for this action. The island paid compensation to all nationals from third countries (Canada, Spain, Britain, etc.) with the exception of US nationals, given that that government rejected the provisions outright and transformed the Cuban government’s decision into a pretext for unleashing a war unprecedented in the history of bilateral relations between the two nations.

Not only did the Revolution hand over land to campesinos who, up until then, had been subjected to semi-feudal conditions of production and forced to live in extreme poverty, but it also determined that that all the country’s resources should be allocated to national economic development and improving the material and living conditions of the population. To give just one example, in the 1980s alone, approximately 60 billion pesos were allocated to the construction of productive and social facilities.

Industrialisation

The process of industrialisation underway paved the way for economic and productive diversification. Under the Revolution and up until the economic crisis which began with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European socialist bloc between 1989 and 1991 – what we in Cuba call the ``Special Period'' – the country’s capacity for producing steel grew 14-fold, fertiliser increased six-fold, the oil-refining industry quadrupled (not counting the new refinery in Cienfuegos), the textile industry grew seven-fold, tourism three-fold, to mention but a few. The state also created complete new industries such as machinery, mechanics, electronics, the production of medical equipment, a pharmaceutical industry, construction materials, a glass industry and ceramics, as well as making investments to increase and upgrade the sugar, food and light industries. In addition to these endeavours, we have the development of biotechnology, genetic engineering and other branches of science.

The country has also made great efforts in terms of improving its infrastructure. Electricity generation has risen eight-fold and water storage capacity has increased 310 times, from 29 million cubic metres in 1958 to nine billion-plus cubic metres today. There has been diversification with respect to roads and freeways and modernisation of ports and other areas. Social needs have been covered fairly well, except for housing, which has been Cuba’s biggest problem.

Social progress

The progressive growth and diversification of productive potential and the application of a widespread social program has allowed the nation to confront the problem of unemployment. In 1958, with a population of 6 million inhabitants, approximately one third of the economically active population was unemployed. Of this figure, 45% of the unemployed lived in rural areas while, out of 200,000 women in work, 70% were employed as domestic servants. Today, with 11 million inhabitants, the number of people in work is in excess of 4.5 million. More than 40% of workers are women and today they represent more than 60% of the nation’s technical and professional sectors.

In 1958, the number of illiterate and semi-illiterate people in Cuba stood at 2 million. The average academic level of 15-plus-year-olds was third grade, more than 600,000 children did not attend school and 58% of teachers were unemployed. Just 45.9% of school-age children were enrolled and half of them did not attend classes. Only 6% of those enrolled finished elementary education. Universities were available to just 20,000 students.

The education sector received immediate attention from the revolutionary government. Its first task was to develop a mass literacy campaign with the participation of the population. An extensive network of schools was constructed throughout the country and more than 300,000 teachers and professors were in full-time employment in this sector. The average academic level for 15-plus-year-olds rose to ninth grade. One-hundred per cent of school-age children are enrolled in schools, some 98% complete elementary education and 91% complete junior high. One in every 11 citizens is a university graduate and one in eight has technical-professional qualifications. There are 650,000 students in the country’s universities today and all education is free of charge. Education and vocational skills are also guaranteed for 100% of children with physical or mental disabilities, who attend special schools.

The precarious situation in 1958 with respect to public health was characterised by an infant mortality rate of 60 per 1000 live births and a maternal mortality rate of 118 per 10,000. The mortality rate for those suffering from gastroenteritis was 41.2 per 100,000, and from tuberculosis, 15.9 per 100,000. In rural areas, 36% of the population suffered from intestinal parasites, 31% from malaria, 14% from tuberculosis and 13% from typhoid. Life expectancy at birth was estimated at 58.8 years.

Around 61% of hospital beds and 65% of the nation’s 6500 doctors were concentrated in the capital. In the other provinces, medical coverage was one doctor for every 2378 inhabitants and there was just one hospital for all the country’s rural areas.

Today, healthcare is free of charge and Cuba has more than 70,000 doctors, providing coverage of one for every 194 inhabitants. Almost 30,000 of them are providing services in more than 60 different countries. A national network of more than 700 hospitals and polyclinics has been created. Thanks to a widespread vaccination campaign (every child currently receives vaccines against 13 different illnesses) diseases such as polio, diphtheria, measles, whooping cough, tetanus, rubella, mumps and hepatitis B have been almost entirely eradicated. The infant mortality rate is now 5.3 for every 1000 live births and life expectancy exceeds 77 years.

There is also a series of advanced medical services that are not considered as "basic" in the international arena, and are provided completely free of charge, such as intensive care units in pediatric and general hospitals, cardiovascular surgery, transplant services, special perinatal care, treatment for chronic renal failure, and special services for occupational and physical rehabilitation.

Democracy

The revolutionary state did not focus its attention solely on economic and social measures. It also embarked on efforts to establish an internal legal system to facilitate the right to self-determination via the population’s direct participation in discussions, analyses and the passing of the country’s principal laws. The most notable of these was the 1976 constitution, supported by 97% of Cubans aged 16 and over through a referendum, as well as other momentous laws like the Penal Code, the Civil Code, the Family Code, the Children and Young People’s Code, the Labour and Social Security Code and many others.

Likewise, the self-determination of the Cuban people is expressed through the right to defend the nation against foreign aggression. Today, more than four million Cubans – workers, campesinos and university students – are organised in militia groups have access to weapons in their campuses, factories and in rural areas.

US aggression

However, since 1959, Cuba has had to confront the hostility of ten US administrations that have attempted to limit its right to national self-determination through the use of aggression and the unilateral imposition of a criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade.

One of the universally accepted principles of international law is that state cannot be allowed to coerce another in order to deny it the right to exercise its sovereign rights. Article 24 of the UN Charter states that, in the context of international relations, nations must refrain from using threats or force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.

Over the past 45 years, the United States has prohibited any trade with Cuba, including foodstuffs and medicines; it cancelled the Cuban sugar quota; prohibited its citizens from travelling to Cuba via the imposition of heavy sanctions; prohibited the re-export of US products or items containing US components or technology to Cuba from third countries; prescribed that banks in third countries should maintain Cuban bank accounts in US dollars or use that currency in their transactions with Cuba; has systematically intervened to prevent or hinder trade with or financial assistance to Cuba on the part of governments, institutions and citizens from other countries and international organisations.

In the 1960s these reprisals forced Cuba to structurally reconstitute its economic relations and establish its essential markets in countries in the former East European bloc – specifically in the Soviet Union – which meant that the country had to embark on an almost total re-conversion of its industrial technology, means of transport, and provisions, etc.

When Cuba lost its natural markets in Eastern Europe, the US government intensified its blockade via the 1992 Torricelli Act, which used the pretext of "democracy and human rights" to prohibit US subsidiaries located in third countries and subject to the laws of those nations from engaging in commercial or financial operations with Cuba (particularly in respect to food and medicines), and punishing these by prohibiting the entry into US ports for 180 days of vessels transporting goods to or from Cuba or on behalf of Cuba, measures that – given their extraterritorial nature – do not just prejudice Cuba but also harm the sovereignty of other nations and the international freedom of transportation.

On March 12, 1996, the US government passed the Helms-Burton Act, further aggravating relations between the two countries and assuming the right to sanction citizens of third countries in US courts, as well as determining their expulsion or denying them and their families entry visas into the United States, with the aim of hindering Cuba’s efforts to recover its economy and hampering its possibilities of securing a greater insertion in the international market. That was also a way of attempting to pressure the Cuban people into relinquishing their efforts of self-determination.

More recently, it has adopted the Bush Plan, an attempt to transform Cuba into a colony through an annexationist program and the intention to intervene via a pretext of "transition", a scenario in which the US State Department would entrust one of its leaders as "governor", when the Cuban revolutionary state disappears. This plan, with which US President George W. Bush decided "to precipitate the day when Cuba becomes a free country", has intensified the blockade and pressure on the Cuban people by repressing family relations between Cubans resident in the United States and their families on the island; grants million-dollar resources to terrorist groups in Miami, as well as to mercenary subordinates in the US Interests Sections in Havana; and promotes formulas to destabilise the country and redouble international pressure on the island.

US terrorism

That hostility on the part of the US has included other notorious manifestations of aggression, ranging from the military aggression through the Bay of Pigs in 1961, the dirty war carried out by counterrevolutionary gangs heavily supplied by the US CIA, bacteriological warfare on agricultural crops (sugar, tobacco and citric fruits), animals (swine fever) and humans (hemorrhagic dengue), to sabotage plans, bombings using pirate planes and assassination attempts on the country’s principal leaders.

The actions of terrorist organisations executing military attacks on Cuba from US territory are notorious, and are publicised and fomented by the Miami media. Groups are constantly recruiting adventurers who are willing to head off to Cuba as agents and saboteurs, who openly declare that they have no fear whatsoever of being brought to justice in US courts.

That is why Cuban patriots have had to leave aside their personal interests to serve those of the nation, even sacrificing their family relationships, in order to infiltrate the ranks of those terrorist groups in order to discover their activities and, with this information, prevent the bloodshed of Cuban and US people. They are willing to pay the price of the political irrationality of the US government, as is the case of the five Cuban heroes unjustly incarcerated in US jails for combating terrorism.

The above is compounded by the heavy military mechanism created by the United States around Cuba and its constant tension-generating activities, as well as the illegal occupation of the Guantánamo Naval Base on Cuban territory (today converted into a horrific prison camp), a part of Cuba rented out by force to the United States in the early 20th century and which the US government refuses to return.

In the early 1990s, with the disappearance of the Soviet Union, isolated and reviled by the international reaction, Cuba absorbed the terrible blow of losing the bulk of its markets in a matter of months and an abrupt descent in its gross domestic product. But the island confirmed that it shone with its own light and that it had never been a satellite of anyone, given that it was able to face that juncture on account of the extraordinary resistance of the majority of Cubans, who have acted on the basis of authentic motivations, values and ethical principles.

Challenges of the revolution

The Cuban people have made a conscious decision to support the country’s leadership, not only because they identify the system with their own interests, but also because of the responsible manner in which the state took on the crisis, reorganised its forces and designed a recovery strategy, despite the US blockade and conditions imposed by its European allies.

The sacrifices provoked by that situation have been hard, but it has been possible to endure them because of the undisputed social advances attained, because of the confidence deposited in the country’s leading institutions and because of people’s appreciation that their government is not a decadent one or one that is in management crisis or lacking in strategies, but has confirmed that the population has remained at the centre of all its work, even in the most difficult circumstances.

Fifty years have gone by and the liberation process has reached this point following the same direction indicated that night, 50 years ago, when Fidel, speaking to the huge crowd awaiting him in what was the dictatorship’s headquarters, affirmed that everything could be more difficult in the future, because we would have to fight to make the Revolution.

That is the challenge of the struggle currently underway to eradicate vices and exalt virtues, with Fidel as a soldier of ideas serving as a compass in the fight for freedom and independence.

Cuba’s enemies are backing their all on the opposite of that. In this world, where politics is a caricature, they cannot comprehend that, in its thinking and action, this revolution is a process of continuity, and that Fidel will continue to be the leader of the Revolution of today and tomorrow, because, beyond responsibilities and titles, he will continue to be the counsellor of ideas to which we will always have recourse.