AI: To what extent was the 1959 revolution willing to destroy the system of
domination and its protagonists determined to promote a Social Revolution? ----First of all, it is necessary to carefully examine who were the forces in
conflict in 1959; what were the motivations and; above all, the ideological
limitations of those involved. Of course, this is an exercise full of
difficulties for those who continue to be fascinated with the official mythology
1and; equally arduous, before those who -from different perspectives, even
dissidents- cling to the supposed tendencies raised by certain leading characters
(Camilo Cienfuegos, Hubert Matos, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Pastorita Núñez, for
example), as if they were trying to decipher (at a distance of six decades) what
would have been the attitude of this or that character in a specific situation
or, whether or not he was right at a certain moment and what would have been his
performance if he had a greater political weight in the process. In this vein,
the legends of Camilo "anarchist" arose; Matos "socialist"; Che Guevara
"Trotskyist" and; "Feminist" pastor. All dilettant speculations that do not help
to understand what those figures hypothetically opposed to the revolutionary
autocracy and bureaucratization represented. Regrettably, these digressions fail
to escape the legends that must be demolished. Neither Cienfuegos was an
"anarchist" nor Matos a "socialist" nor Che "Trotskyist" and, Pastorita, much
less "feminist". By the way, the latter came from the old core of Fidel Castro's
nationalist militancy2; as well as Huber Matos, Ñico López, Haydée Santamaría,
among other members of the "Orthodox Youth" of the Cuban People's Party
(Ortodoxos) 3 who would found the July 26 Revolutionary Movement (MR-26-7).
The opposition to the Batista dictatorship was made up of a coalition of
traditional nationalist parties (anti-imperialist) 4and; the so-called
"revolutionary movements" that - from various equally nationalist perspectives -
were articulated in the course of the struggle. Among the traditional parties,
the Cuban Revolutionary Party (Authentic) stood out, which emerged after the
nationalist revolution of 1933; the Cuban Orthodox People's Party, -constituted
in 1947 by Eduardo Chibás, after his break with the "authentic" -; the
Nationalist Revolutionary Party (PNR) of José Pardo Llada (co-founder of the
Orthodox Party) and; the Partido del Pueblo Libre, instituted by Márquez Sterling
and a group of assailants from the Moncada barracks who had broken with Castro
and precociously warned: "We come from the armed struggle, from exile and from
the underground. We have shed our blood[...]and we invite you to break the
hateful conspiracy of silence and fear. Against Batista. Against the
Dictatorship. Against the useless blood that serves as a pedestal for new
pernicious leaders "5 . Among the "revolutionary movements", the July 26
Revolutionary Movement (MR-26-J) led by Fidel Castro stood out; the Revolutionary
Directory (DR), created by José Antonio Echeverría - assassinated during the
ill-fated assault on the Palace - and led by Faure Chaumón; the Federation of
University Students (FEU) and; the Radical Liberation Movement, founded by Amalio
Fiallo and several "moncadistas" who also distanced themselves from Castro's
caudillismo.
It should be noted that nationalism was the hegemonic ideology of ALL the
political opposition (electoral and / or revolutionary) to the Batista
dictatorship; displaying very dissimilar nuances that oscillate between bourgeois
jingoism and National Socialism 6. Such despicable slogans as "Cuba for Cubans",
inherited from the failed Revolution of 33 and, the xenophobic laws of the
ultra-nationalist mandate of Grau-Guiteras, give an account of this. Nor can it
be forgotten -to have a clearer vision of the plot- that Fidel, in his university
days, was accompanied by Mussolini's "The Doctrine of Fascism" and Sorel's
"Reflections on Violence", books that he always carried under his belt. arm. Nor
that the first time he traveled outside of Cuba (1948), he was sponsored by
General Juan Domingo Perón, to visit Caracas, Panama City and Bogotá, as a
delegate to the Inter-American Student Conference that was held in the Colombian
capital in opposition to the IX Pan American Conference that would give rise to
the Organization of American States (OAS),7 . However, it is a proven fact that
the Cuban Revolution was a bourgeois democratic revolution, whose objective was
"the full restitution of the Constitution of 1940". The same aims were maintained
by the tropical Bolsheviks who then demanded "fair and democratic elections" 8;
while the anarcho-syndicalists invited "to return to the country, the subjugated
freedom" 9 , assuming that before March 10, 1952 it was fully enjoyed.
The middle class and the upper echelons of the oligarchy were the human, economic
and ideological quarry of the Revolution; being the "working class" -with few
exceptions- the great absentee 10 . In the same way, it is proven that they never
considered destroying the capitalist system (as demonstrated by the establishment
of State capitalism since 1961) and, much less, promoting a Social Revolution. In
fact, not even the remnants of anarcho-syndicalism that had joined the armed
struggle against Batista promoted such an outcome. The entire discourse around
the alleged "libertarian vocation" of the Cuban Revolution is framed in
mythology. Unfortunately, some "comrades" still echo the myth, masking the most
vulgar misrepresentations.
AI: What forces did Cuban anarchists face since the first days of the Revolution?
In 1959 there was no "anarchist movement" but rather an anti-authoritarian
tension, as I mentioned earlier. That tension embodied in the Cuban Libertarian
Association, which, according to the minutes of the II Libertarian Congress, in
February 1948 registered 153 delegates throughout the archipelago. By the end of
the 1950s, the decline was considerable. Revolutionary nationalism and reformist
unionism had wreaked havoc in anarcho-syndicalist ranks. However, the comrades
who survived all these attacks, the triumph of the Castro revolution, had to face
multiple adverse forces. Almost all known enemies and some to be known. In the
first place, they had to confront the bourgeoisie. Particularly, the sectors that
had dressed in olive green and were a "revolutionary government" but -as
expected-, were opposed to radical transformations. Faced with the eventuality of
workers' control, what was at stake was not only the ownership of the means of
production but the probability of conserving their privileges, now as
"specialists" and "technocrats", in positions that allowed them to have
decision-making power. . The happiness that the Creole bourgeoisie experienced
when verifying that the most radical measures of the Revolution were limited to
the nationalization of the means of production is well known. ensuring the
continuity of domination through state capitalism that left the subjection
scaffolding intact: leader-producer; guide-followers; rulers-ruled;
watchmen-guarded. Of course, There were also segments of that expropriated
bourgeoisie that felt betrayed and unleashed a bloody struggle to regain lost
property and privileges. Naturally, the majority of the middle class maintained
strong ties with the new ruling class with which they shared customs and culture,
which facilitated the automatic transition to the new building of domination
through "integration" (a very fashionable little word for those years). Thus,
they recovered their role as the ruling class, assuming their place in the new
administrative elite, not only in the production process but in all social
orders. In this way, they massively joined the party and occupied all the
positions of political leadership of the new state apparatus, glorifying the
caudillo's speeches and "the successful leadership of one man." They even came to
face weak attempts at workers 'management and timid proposals to put an end to
wage labor through the creation of workers' councils (Trotskos) and
collectivities (anarcho-syndicalists); denouncing them as "fifth columnists",
"demagogues" and "anarchists". Castro himself, in one of his speeches, accused
Manolo Fernández, his Minister of Labor, of "anarcoloco" for "promoting these
demagogic experiments", condemning him to exile.eleven
The second force to face was the Church. From the pages of El Libertario and
Solidaridad Gastronómica, the anarcho-syndicalists pointed out openly the
imminent penetration of the clergy in the "revolutionary government." The
participation in political-administrative positions of hundreds of prominent
"laity" and militants of Acción Católica Universitaria (graduates of the Real
Colegio de Belén, La Salle, Maristas and the University of Villanueva); as well
as the strong ties of some clergymen of the Catholic hierarchy with the ruling
elite, gave proof of this. Although it is true that this marriage was
short-lived, reaching its term once the government declared all religious cults
illegal 12-Which motivated some Creole Cristeros to assume a violent opposition
(being brutally repressed) -; very soon they had the opportunity to return to the
"revolutionary abode" through the back door. To that end, they endowed the
nascent Revolution with an "ideology", promoting the theses of "Humanism" in an
attempt to separate themselves from communism and the dominant capitalism. Thus,
they once again occupied managerial positions and even "integrated" into the
ranks of the party; demonstrating once again "the immortality of the Holy Mother"
and her ability to always play with the bases full (to put it in baseball lexicon).
The third force to confront would be an old acquaintance. The eternal arch enemy
of anarchic praxis: the Bolsheviks. With incredible shrewdness, the banana
Leninists - like the Church - showed their ability to always play with the bases
full and, they demonstrated "the immortality of the Party." Years later, they
would be even more explicit, evidencing their Machiavellian strategy under the
slogan "men die, the party is immortal" (or immoral?). Indeed, for the first six
months of 1959, they juggled to save their skin. At the beginning of January,
MR-26-7 takes over the leadership of the Cuban Workers Confederation, to which
they added the qualifier "Revolutionary" (CTC-R) and imposes a "Provisional
Coordinating Committee", led by David Salvador . By the 20th of that month, The
"restoration of union democracy" was regulated by the Council of Ministers,
through Law No. 22, and the "purification of the labor movement" was announced
with the expulsion of "all the split currents"; in clear allusion to the
anarcho-syndicalist, Trotskyist-Mujalist and Stalinist-Batista leaders of the
PSP. However, despite their stormy past and their proven complicity (and
servility) with Batista, the Stalinists managed to circumvent Fidel's
anti-communism and, above all, the firing squad. Castro had managed to carry out
the nationalist revolution (postponed), but he was late. Fascism and National
Socialism were the great losers of history: the losers of the Second World War.
It lacked allies to confront Yankee imperialism from a "third position",
reaffirming its anti-communism. Perón, had been defeated three years before and
lived begging asylum among the related dictatorships (Paraguay, Nicaragua,
Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Spain). He had no choice but to turn to the
USSR. Although the North American hostilities left the Castroites no other
option, the ñángaras13they had paved the way for a while to survive the impending
fall of Batista. One of the first approaches of the Party was through
erotic-affective relationships with his brother Raúl, but Fidel's visceral
homophobia was the first impediment. Just eight months before Batista fled, the
PSP founded the guerrilla detachment "Máximo Gómez" under the orders of
"commander" Félix Torres González, in the mountains of Bamburanao and Gumuhaya,
in the Yaguajay region. They never fired a shot and according to testimonies, the
only thing they killed were pigs and cows, but as Camilo Cienfuegos passed
through Las Villas, they joined Column number 2, being forced to participate in
some combats. Thanks to previous contacts with Raúl, the communist leader Carlos
Rafael Rodríguez,
By November 1959, the tropical Bolsheviks managed to turn the tables and
establish themselves in the political leadership of the regime. From the 18th to
the 21st of that month, the X National Congress of the Cuban Workers
Confederation (Revolutionary) took place, under the leadership of Fidel, who
pointed out - in the face of the different currents - that "the worst are some
who simulate defend the Revolution "; concluding that the only spirit that can
prevail is "the party of us, the party of the fatherland" 14. At the end of the
Congress, David Salvador would be ratified in the general secretariat of the
CTC-R (the man proposed by Castro) but, in reality, Lázaro Peña, the historical
Stalinist leader of the CTC (the man imposed by Batista), regained control. In
1961, despite having been diluted in the so-called "Integrated Revolutionary
Organizations" (ORI), along with other organizations; the PSP Stalinists
continued to measure muscle and seize political control. In that same year, the
XI Congress of the CTC would be held. The Confederation would change its name to
the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba; abandoning the old anarcho-syndicalist
influences in the labor movement. Affiliation in federations was eliminated and
affiliation with state unions was imposed, consolidating corporatism. In this
way, it was constituted as the only representative of the Cuban workers under the
command of Lázaro Peña; its main objective being "the unification of the
interests of the working class", in both union and political terms, around the
new Party and its general secretary, Fidel Castro; that demanded the immediate
"purification of its members" and the overcoming of "the errors of sectarianism".
In that situation, on March 26, 1962, the United Party of the Socialist
Revolution of Cuba (PURSC) would be formed, with Fidel Castro being unanimously
elected as Secretary General of the Central Committee. Finally, on October 3,
1965, it was constituted as the "Communist Party of Cuba" (PCC), ratifying Fidel
as its "maximum leader" for life. By then, the Stalinists had not only
exterminated any vestige of anarchism or anarcho-syndicalism, but also eradicated
all traces of their passage and influence in the so-called "workers movement";
changing the history of their struggles at a stroke. Thus, notorious Creole
anarcho-syndicalists became, overnight,
AI: What's next after the riots?
Actually, I have never been given astral predictions. However, I can anticipate
the obvious; that is, the resurgence of repression, prohibitions, censorship,
surveillance, and convictions for "conduct contrary to socialist morality",
"contempt", "damage to property" and "public disorder". Tools that the
dictatorship has used over six decades and which it will not renounce at this
point in the party.
According to the comrades on the island, the main cities of the country are
militarized and the Black Wasps (a new repressive anti-riot body), carry out
frequent rounds in marginalized neighborhoods with the determined intention of
reestablishing the fear that had ensured the tranquility of the ruling class for
62 years. To that end, they have once again staged the "rapid reaction brigades
of the combatant people" to avoid any attempt to protest and; the atrocious
"repudiation rallies", using Young Communists and Party members to attack with
stones and graffiti with government slogans the houses of people who the regime
considers "disaffected".
Faced with the return of repressive control - under the slogan "the streets for
revolutionaries" - and, despite the imposition of terror; thousands of young
people remain determined to exercise the "constitutional right to demonstrate
peacefully". In this sense, they defend "the legitimacy of social activism", with
the intention of "promoting respectful debate" and "promoting the collective
construction of a better country". Proposals that are not only inscribed in the
democratic discourse of "rights and duties" - alien to our anarchic objectives -
but are also candidly noted in a letter to Santa Claus, assuming that the fox
will renounce its nature and will share, in peace and harmony, the henhouse with
the chickens. In this context, I consider that our place, as anarchists, It is
not in the streets with bare faces and in broad daylight, but in the darkness of
the night, just as we do in all latitudes where we have a presence.
Expropriations, sabotage, the relentless attack on the structures of capital and
the State, reprisals against the police, all these tasks characterize our
anarchic actions and, in Cuba, it does not have to be different. The enemy is the
same in any part of the planet and also represses, imprisons and shoots in all
confines. it doesn't have to be different. The enemy is the same in any part of
the planet and also represses, imprisons and shoots in all confines. it doesn't
have to be different. The enemy is the same in any part of the planet and also
represses, imprisons and shoots in all confines.
AI: ¿ What is the situation of the revolt presxs particular and presxs in Cuba in
general?
So far there is little information on the judicial processes of those imprisoned
in the revolt. As I mentioned at the beginning of the interview, it is known that
around 500 people continue to be imprisoned and that many of those who have been
released are in home confinement, which in Cuba is classified as "correctional
work without internment." It is also known that they have carried out summary
trials and that most of the defendants are accused of "public disorder",
"contempt" and "damage to property"; but the convictions are still unknown.
As for the situation of the prisoners in general, for all Cubans it is an open
secret that the archipelago is a great prison. That has been the true social
record of Castroism and not the vaunted education or the "achievements" in
health. Between 1960 and 1980, the prison population was made up mostly of
"political prisoners" (more than 10,000), accused of counter-revolution although,
paradoxically, a very high percentage had been "revolutionaries". Their sentences
ranged from 10 to 30 years in prison. The cruelty against the so-called "critical
revolutionaries" or "traitors" - former comrades of the dictator Fidel Castro in
the fight against Batista - was of rogue proportions. Highlighting the sentences
of Commander Hubert Matos (20 years / 1959-1979); Pedro Luis Boitiel (10 years /
1961-1972) 15; Mario Chanes de Armas (30 years / 1961-1991) 16; Commander Eloy
Gutiérrez Menoyo (30 years old, turned 22 / 1964-1986) 17; Gustavo Arcos Bergnes
(10 and; 8 years old) 18; among others. They also showed great fury against the
revolutionary dissent of my generation -the so-called children of the
Revolution-, imprisoning young anarchists, Trotskyists, communists, conscientious
objectors, artists and critical and gay intellectuals; sentenced for "ideological
divisiveness", "counterrevolution", "improper conduct", "not having a labor
relationship", "attempted illegal departure from the country" and, "refusing to
render Compulsory Military Service". One of the most notorious cases was that of
Ariel Hidalgo, award-winning historian and pre-university professor of Marxist
Philosophy; sentenced to eight years in prison for writing a critical manuscript
entitled "Cuba, the Marxist State and the New Class." 19
In a note from the official newspaper Granma (propaganda organ of the PCC) from
2012, the government acknowledged having a prison population of 57 thousand
people. With all the makeup of the figures, the Cuban State was then in sixth
place in the international ranking of prisoners per capita. Despite the secrecy
of the General Directorate of Prisons of Cuba, which considers these data a
"state secret", as well as the number of prisons and "rehabilitation centers"
(around 300); In mid-January 2020, some Human Rights NGOs reported 794 prisoners
for every 100,000 inhabitants; placing itself above the United States and El
Salvador. According to the same report, the number of convicts and convicts per
year exceeded 127,000 people; 90,000 of them were in prison (of which 38,000 had
no criminal record); the rest were in "situations of judicial and police
control". The report highlights the category of "prisoners for antisocial
behavior" or "behavior contrary to socialist morality", among the trans women
(incarcerated in prisons for men), sex workers, political dissidents and young
rebels, mostly Afro-Cuban; that, in general, they have not committed any crime
but the dictatorship considers them "potential criminals" and they are sentenced
to 1 to 4 years in prison. political dissidents and rebellious youth, mostly
Afro-Cubans; that, in general, they have not committed any crime but the
dictatorship considers them "potential criminals" and they are sentenced to 1 to
4 years in prison. political dissidents and rebellious youth, mostly Afro-Cubans;
that, in general, they have not committed any crime but the dictatorship
considers them "potential criminals" and they are sentenced to 1 to 4 years in
prison.
Of course, the politicians of Black Live Matter ignore these data and celebrate
the continuity of the dictatorship. Similarly, no section of the Anarchist Black
Cross has ever been interested in this situation and, I understand it: "it is not
politically correct to point to progressive governments." Instead, they have
defended spies of the Castro dictatorship "kidnapped in the belly of the Empire."
Abolition has priorities!
AI: How can we support the struggle of our kindred in Cuba, the insurrectionary
anarchists of the world?
In recent years, informal and insurrectionary anarchists have accumulated a long
list of fellow prisoners around the world; undoubtedly, the party of order has
been strengthened in all confines. However, they have not been able to control
our creativity. Much less have they been able to stifle our passions or
annihilate our insurrectionary desires. They put out a fire but there is always a
spark that is reignited, there is always a loophole for insurrection. Anarchic
warfare is permanent and conflict is present at all times and in any place.
Anarchists cannot prop up authoritarian regimes in the name of a hypothetical
unity of "revolutionary struggles". To link our aspirations to the prospects of a
State project, associating anarchic passions with their claims of domination, is
to pave the way to the gallows and cooperate with our executioners, putting the
rope around our necks. We have to build our own route, fueling the rupture and
daily conflict, confronting power and Capital on a world scale; aware that our
struggle does not recognize borders. Our only commitment is with Anarchy, not
with other currents, not with those who govern or intend to govern tomorrow in
the name of the Revolution, Socialism or Communism. We must get in touch with
those comrades who are experiencing forms of attacks on power, to act in
solidarity with them, without distinction with the regimes that prevail today or
those that may succeed them.
In this sense, I am reminded of the arson attack carried out recently
(03-24-2021) by a group of comrades in Malmo, Sweden, against a commercial center
of the transnational IKEA, in solidarity with our comrades who were retaliated in
Belarus; considering that this capitalist company cooperates with the Lukashenko
dictatorship. And I wonder how many capitalist trusts trade with impunity with
the Cuban dictatorship and swell up with dollars doing business with Cuban
generals, taking advantage of the advantages offered by the revolutionary
paradise that does not allow independent unions and the strike has been banned
for six decades? Don't they have their headquarters and / or branches in other
latitudes where we have a wide presence? Just for these days I read in related
pages about an arson attack against the embassy of the dictatorship in Paris.
Definitely, solidarity is much more than words and is expressed in a thousand
practical ways.
AI: Would you like to add something else?
It is inadmissible to add something after this historiographic soap opera, to
which I have also added extensive Notes. They were concise questions but required
lengthy answers. As much as I tried to summarize, it was impossible. Answering
these questions requires a much more in-depth analysis than what can be
contributed in the framework of an interview. However, any loose end would
facilitate the distortion of my words, feeding the official grammar. In fact, I
am convinced that the everlasting attacks and slander will not be lacking,
because it is not that the defenders of the dictatorship are unaware of the
facts, but rather that they do not want their ignominy to be disclosed. They
aspire to continue channeling all the rebellious and insurrectional energies
around the hypothetical "unity of the struggles", to impose on us for the
umpteenth occasion, the "Law and Order" in the name of the Social Revolution or
the Workers' State, consolidating the domination of the left of Capital. It only
remains for me to thankAnarchy Info for this space and congratulations on the
questionnaire.
Planet Earth, July 25, 2021.
1 . All the historical accommodation that the dictatorship has made has been
"certified" since 1987 by the Institute of History of Cuba. Institution
established after the fusion of different political-ideological organizations
that preceded it: the Department of History of Cuba of the Institute of History
of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba (1962); the Institute for the History of the
Communist Movement and the Socialist Revolution (1972) and the Center for the
Study of Military History.
2 . "... I have been a member of only one Cuban political party, and it is the
one founded by Eduardo Chibás. On the other hand, what morals does Mr. Batista
have to talk about communism if he was Presidential candidate of the Communist
Party in the 1940 elections, if his pasquines Electoral members took shelter
under the hammer and sickle, if their photos are out there with Blas Roca and
Lázaro Peña, if half a dozen of their current Ministers and trusted collaborators
were prominent members of the Communist Party? "; Castro, Fidel, "Enough of
lies!", In Bohemia Magazine, Year 48-Num. 29, July 15, 1956, Havana, pp. 63-84
Available at https://dloc.com/UF00029010/02676 Years later, Che Guevara would
describe Fidel in a letter to Ernesto Sábato, as "an aspiring deputy for a
bourgeois party, as bourgeois and as respectable as the Radical party in
Argentina could be; who was following in the footsteps of a disappeared leader,
Eduardo Chibás, with characteristics that we could find similar to those of
Yrigoyen himself[...]above all else, he is the binder par excellence, the
undisputed conductor that suppresses all divergences and destroys with his
disapproval. Using many times, challenging others, for money or ambition, he is
always feared by his adversaries. " In: Constenla, Julia, Sábato, the man. The
definitive biography, Editorial Sudamérica, Buenos Aires, 2011.
3 . In June 1952, Fidel Castro ran as a candidate for the House of
Representatives of the Congress of Cuba, for a constituency of the province of
Havana, but the Batista coup d'état overthrew the government of Carlos Prío
Socarrás and annulled the elections. The coup - recognized by the US government -
provoked the dismay of Castro, who would use his contacts with the Youth of the
Orthodox Party to unite a group of young people to attack the Moncada Barracks.
4 . Showing their opportunistic spirit, the Leninists of the Popular Socialist
Party (PSP) celebrated the creation of what they called a "united front" against
Batista - his former presidential candidate and patron - and gave their "full
support" to a "government of national unity ", where they tried to participate in
the debacle of the dictatorship, despite their sad past, alongside the
dictatorship of Machado (the" error of August 1933 ") and his alliance with
Batista (1934-1944). Just in that period, with the support of the paramilitary
batons (of Machado first and Batista later) they dedicated themselves to
assassinating anarchists, anarcho-syndicalists and Trotskyists.
5 . "Manifesto to Public Opinion", Free People's Party, June 30, 1958.
6 .After the failed nationalist revolution of 1933 and the coming to power of the
ultra-nationalist government of Grau-Guiteras (the "hundred-day government" in
1934), fascist ideas from Europe began to gain strength. The roots of the
Nazi-fascist ideology would be even more prominent during the presidency of
Colonel Federico Laredo Brú (1936-1940), with the implementation of corporatism,
the creation of the Civic-Military Institute, and the imposition of Decree 55
(January 1939 ) and Decree 937 (May of the same year) that prohibited the entry
of immigrants. Laredo Brú, would be given the task of organizing a constituent
assembly for a new Magna Carta that openly defended "a Cuba for Cubans"
(Constitution of 1940), flaunting its xenophobic ideals. In the late 1930s, He
would without remorse award the Order of Merit to the Nazi ministers Joaquín von
Ribbentrop and V. von Bulow Schwant. In this context, several organizations and
parties of National Socialist affiliation would be created, highlighting the Nazi
Party of Cuba (October 1938) and the National Fascist Party (founded that same
year). At that time, the National Revolutionary Trade Union Legion would be
registered; the Cuban Student Legion; the Cuban Falange (Spanish Falange Party of
Cuba, founded in June 1936) and; the Winter Campaign Fund. In this vein,
countless pamphlets and "broadcasting organs" were published. Nazi propaganda and
anti-Semitic campaigns -for "Cubanization" and in "defense of native interests"
against the invasion of "human garbage", "merchants thrown out of the temple" and
of "the Yankee-Jewish entity", that heralded a future where "then we will suffer
the consequences of a new-breed capitalism that does not speak our language,
believe in our God, or feel our concerns" - was broadcast on radio programs and
newspapers with wide circulation (Diario de la Marina , La Discusión newspaper,
Alert newspaper, El Avance criollo newspaper and Sí magazine). The Catholic
Church would also play a decisive role in supporting the Spanish fascists,
defending the Francoist uprising from the pulpit and through teaching in Catholic
schools, whose teachers were mostly Spanish nuns and priests of Francoist
affiliation who had migrated to Cuba fleeing " of anarchist terror ". A large
part of the Cuban and Spanish bourgeoisie residing on the island, sent their
children to "train" in those centers of religious education, which is why many of
them identified with this ideological aspect. Such would be the story of Fidel
Castro Ruz, whom his father (a Galician landowner sympathetic to Franco),
enrolled in 1943, at the age of 16, at the Real Colegio de Belén (a Jesuit
institution, founded in 1854 by Queen Isabel. II), after having completed his
primary studies at La Salle (1935) and Dolores (1938). Despite such coincidences,
perhaps it was the product of causality that Fidel, in his plea ("History will
absolve me") after the ill-fated assault on the Moncada barracks, delivered a
speech very similar to the one Hitler issued in his defense, for the failed coup
d'état of November 1923 (Beer Putsch Hall): "Pronounce us guilty a thousand
times, that the goddess of the eternal court of history will smile and tear into
pieces the decisions of the state attorney and the verdict of the court, because
she will absolve us. " Undoubtedly, it was also chance that motivated him to call
his opponents "worms" (würmer), just as Hitler did a couple of decades earlier.
Or hiring former Waffen-SS soldiers and former Nazi paracidists in 1962 (in the
midst of the "Missile Crisis"), as advisers and military instructors for their
newly created Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR). As it was by chance that he was
in contact with a network of Nazi arms traffickers headed by Otto Ernst Remer,
whom he ordered the purchase of thousands of Belgian-made machine guns. Or, that
he agreed with Franco to purchase Pegaso buses for public transport to replace
the Yankee General Motors.
7 . Of course, there are those who speculate dilettantly that Perón's National
Socialism was (and is) of the "left". Of course, the need to ask what the hell
the "left" is is becoming more and more evident.
8 . Manifesto of the National Committee of the Popular Socialist Party , June 28,
1958; signed by Juan Marinello and Blas Roca.
9 . Report of the National Libertarian Conference, National Council of the Cuban
Libertarian Association, Campo Florido, April 24, 1955.
10 . The resounding failure of the "general strike" of April 1958 called by
MR-26-7, is a reliable demonstration of the distancing of this political-military
organization from the "labor movement." The unions had been under Stalinist
control since August 1933 (with the assault on the CNOC in collusion with
Machado). His power was reinforced in 1939 with the gift of General Batista of
the Cuban Workers Confederation (CTC), imposing Lázaro Peña as general secretary
and, he would continue his interference in the "labor movement" until 1947. Date
in which the unstoppable would begin decline of the Popular Socialist Party(PSP),
losing the leadership of most of the unions. During those years they would also
lose more than half of their membership. Later, the Trotskos would take the baton
through the Workers' Commission of the Cuban-Authentic Revolutionary Party ,
reaching positions in the main unions under the guidance of Eusebio Mujal and,
after the new military coup (on March 10, 1952) they would pass with Batista. It
is worth noting that the PSP (Stalinists), in its Manifesto of April 12, 1958,
strongly condemned the "unilateral call" to strike called by MR-26-7 for April 6,
1958.
11 . "One day I made a criticism - and I think it was a well done criticism -
against that demagogue gentleman that I described as anarcoloco, because in
reality it was nothing else, that one fine day, due to politicking, in those days
when there were a series of currents, that there were people who adopted measures
of a purely demagogic type, who unthinkable and without consulting anyone,
decided a problem as was the problem of the equalization of salaries of the
construction of the interior with those of the capital, without taking into
account the tremendous repercussion that this would have on agriculture and on
the displacement of the workforce from agriculture to construction . And
precisely, those days when the Revolution had started a series of works to give
employment, as one of the many means to end unemployment before agriculture
acquired a greater development. " Speech by the dictator Fidel Castro, June 30,
1963. Available at:http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/1963/esp/f300663e.html
12 . When Fidel Castro promulgated the Marxist-Leninist character of his
government, numerous pastors, priests and nuns were expelled from the country, in
the same way that Franco had done with the sector of the Church that he
considered "opposition". In 1963, all religious schools (Catholic, Protestant and
Jewish) were nationalized, religious education being prohibited. In 1965, the
Communist Party of Cuba was consolidatedas a hegemonic political force, forcing
"integration"of all the currents that had intervened in the insurrectionary
struggle against Batista in the only political institution allowed, under the
Leninist conception of the construction of socialism as the central objective. In
such a way, it imposed in its Statutes the priority of eradicating "religious
obscurantism" , which was immediately translated as the exclusion of "believers"
in all political-social activities. Such measures not only impeded their
membership in the Party but also demanded their expulsion from certain state
functions (teaching, for example) and access to university studies, among others.
This institutional regulation against "the believers", included all the
"cults",what included the Afro-Cuban religions, which were fought with particular
fury (highlighting the persecution and infiltration in the Abakuá plants). It was
then that the Military Units for Production Aid were implemented; better known by
its acronym UMAP (1965-1968), a euphemism that disguised the forced labor camps,
where religious, lumpen proletarians and homosexuals, among others, were
confined. In 1991, in the midst of a severe economic crisis, which was called a
"special period" -after the collapse of the Soviet Union-, the dictatorship
reduced the coercion of religions and the (sole) Party backed down, accepting the
militancy of "believers " In their ranks. In an attempt to beat the crisis, they
then promoted the"Religious reactivation", allowing a greater presence of
religions in Cuban society and "social assistance" through donations of
humanitarian aid for schools, hospitals, asylums for the elderly and social
works; in addition to participating in social and economic development projects;
displaying historical Bolshevik opportunism.
13 . A derogatory qualifier with which they called the Bolsheviks - since the
beginning of the 20th century - the ekobios Abakuá; as a result of the influences
and proximity to Creole anarchism.
14 . Speech delivered by the dictator at the opening of the X Congress of the
CTC, on November 18, 1959. Available at:
http://www.fidelcastro.cu/es/discursos/discurso-en-la-apertura-del-x
-congress-of-the-ctc
15 . Leader of the student movement, militant of MR-26-7 and head of the
clandestine radio station of this organization. Arrested and tortured twice
during the fight against the Batista dictatorship, he was forced into exile in
Venezuela until the triumph of the revolutionaries. In 1961, he was accused by
the new regime of "conspiracy against the State" and sentenced to 10 years in
prison; once incarcerated, his sentence was extended with two additional charges.
He died on May 25, 1972, at 41 years of age, after a prolonged hunger strike (53
days) in the Príncipe Castle prison in Havana.
16 . Assailant of the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953, taken prisoner together
with Fidel, with whom he shared a prison in the Model Prison of Isla de Pinos.
Founding member of the MR-26-7 and organizer and participant of the Granma yacht
expedition (along with Fidel, Raúl and Che). At the triumph of the Revolution, he
was imprisoned in Batista prisons, for being responsible for "action and
sabotage" in the province of Havana. Once released, he collaborates in the
revolutionary high command. He was arrested at the end of 1960 by direct orders
from Fidel and sentenced to the charge of "conspiring by word" against the
dictator, being sentenced to 30 years in prison.
17 . Son of doctor Carlos Gutiérrez Zabaleta, major of the Republican People's
Army during the Spanish Civil War. He was an urban guerrilla of the Revolutionary
Directorate (DR) since he was 21 years old. He participated with his brothers in
the failed assault on the presidential palace on March 13, 1957, where his
brother Carlos was killed. He was head of "action and sabotage" for the DR in the
province of Havana. In November 1957, he accepted the command of the National
Front(Escambray) and the rural guerrilla against Batista began in Banao, Las
Villas province. After Batista's flight, his troops are the first to arrive in
Havana, recognizing Fidel's triumph. When noting the Stalinist turn of the
RevolutionAt the end of 1959, he confronted Che and Raúl and immediately
afterwards tried to reorganize his guerrilla group in Escambray, this time to
overthrow Castro. In 1961 he fled to the United States, being detained in Texas
for six months. By 1963, he established a base on one of the islands of the
Bahamas from where he began to operate against the Cuban government, being
arrested again by the North American authorities. In December 1964, he led a
landing in Baracoa, Cuba; After a month of resistance in the region, he was
captured by the army and sentenced to death in a summary trial that lasted 30
minutes. His sentence was commuted to 30 years in prison in exchange for a
televised "mea culpa" . In 1970, he received an additional 25-year sentence for
"conspiring from prison.". On December 20, 1986, he was released under
international pressure, after 22 years in prison, and deported to Spain. In
mid-1995 he traveled to Havana to meet with Fidel in search of "reconciliation
and a peaceful transition of the regime"; for which he was branded a traitor by
the Cuban exile. He died in Havana, on October 26, 2012, after his unsuccessful
attempt at "political opening" .
18 .In July 1953, he participated in the assault on the Moncada barracks with
Fidel, with whom he served his sentence on the Isle of Pines; after being
seriously wounded in combat. Once released, he went into exile in Mexico, where
he would participate in the preparations for the yacht Granma. He was number 83
on the expeditionary list but he could not embark due to his precarious state of
health. At the end of 1957, he would return clandestinely to Cuba and join the
fight against Batista. After the revolutionary triumph, he was appointed
ambassador of Cuba in Brussels until 1966. His critical positions of the
dictatorship cost him the diplomatic post, being tried and sentenced to 10 years
in prison, of which he served 3, after a long hunger strike that put him on the
brink of death. Years later, he would be imprisoned again for attempting
to"Illegal departure from the country" and sentenced to 8 years in prison. He
served the full sentence despite his deteriorating health and being the oldest
prisoner in Cuban prisons. He died in Havana on August 8, 2006, at the age of 79.
19 . In an Addendum to his sentence, he orders "as for your work, destroy
yourself by fire."
https://anarquia.info/tercera-parte-que-pasa-en-cuba-una-mirada-anarquica-de-las-protestas-del-11-j/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten