By Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour Party member
A BBC production called Castro vs The World gives a reasonably good account of the Cuban Revolution and the attempt of the revolutionaries to spread socialism throughout the world. The Cuban Revolution can also be described as one revolution that the US were unable to defeat.
The first programme begins with the overthrow of Batista, a cruel dictator who acted for the interests US big business and a playground for wealthy Americans and the mafia bosses. Initially, Castro attempted to seek support from the US Government and his programme was anything but ‘socialist’. It was the refusal of the US owners to properly deal with the Cuban government over the management and running of oil refineries and sugar refineries that forced Castro along a path he hadn’t originally intended – the seizure of the refineries.
The then US President, Eisenhower, had refused to even meet Castro and, following the seizure of American owned industry, a blockade was imposed on Cuba, which remains to this very day, sixty years later.
CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion
Alongside the trade embargo, the CIA actively supported a somewhat ramshackle invasion of Cuba by around 1,300 anti-communists who had fled to the US. The attack, which became known as the Bay of Pigs invasion, was easily defeated, but a campaign of sabotage, terrorism and arson continued long afterwards.
Aircraft attacks were launched, again funded by the US state, with the aim of toppling Castro. It is worth noting that there were also 500 attempts to assassinate Castro. All of this was at the height of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union and economic assistance was offered by Khrushchev, then leader in the USSR. The Soviets were convinced that the US would attack Cuba and in retaliation sent missile launchers that could attack the US mainland. Cuban intelligence doubted it, but thought it would change the balance of forces between the two super-powers.
USSR backed down over missiles
The Cuba Missile Crisis was the closest since 1945 that the world came to an outright war and Armageddon between the two super-powers, but the USSR backed down and the missiles were withdrawn, without even consulting the Cubans.
Part of the programme deals with one of the Cuban revolutionary leaders, and perhaps the best-known outside of the island: Che Guevara. He had been involved in the talks with the USSR about the missiles and opposed the idea of peaceful co-existence with the US and their allies. He believed that there could be no co-existence between oppressors and the oppressed.
In their adoption, at least in words, of ‘Marxism’, the Cuban leaders sought to sponsor revolutions in other parts of the world, particularly in Latin America. It was in his role leading guerrilla forces in Bolivia that Guevara met his death, killed by the Bolivian Army. These attempts to create revolutionary movements based on peasant-guerrilla armies were a catastrophic failure. Cuba also sent troops to Algeria and the Congo but these adventures also led to diplomatic failure.
Cubans fought in Africa
But these setbacks didn’t deter Castro or the Cubans. Guevara became a symbol of resistance to Imperialism everywhere in the world and the idea of having three, four or five ‘Vietnams’ was central to Castro’s thinking. Success came in Angola, where around 20,000 Cubans fought alongside liberation forces after the collapse of the Portuguese colonial regime. Against the well-armed forces of the racist South African state, which was also backed by the US, the Cubans achieved a complete military victory, leading to the withdrawal of South Africa from Angola.
But this success proved to be short lived. The collapse of the Soviet Union caused serious economic problems for Cuba and Castro was forced to find new alliances. He found a new alliance with Chavez and the Socialist movement in Venezuela.
Castro reading Jaws
An amusing moment in the programme came when US President Nixon and his Secretary of State, Kissinger, made an attempt to normalize relations with Cuba. Two journalists were about to visit Cuba and Castro. Kissinger asked them to slip an unsigned letter to Castro when they visited him. During the interview, they asked Castro what books he was reading. Castro replied that he had just read Jaws. He said it was a good example of capitalism, because a local mayor refused to close the town beach because of the economic impact on the town. Profit before the welfare of the bathers was his main consideration. The journalists admitted that hadn’t thought of Jaws in this light before.
Castro died a few years ago, aged 90, and it would have been interesting to have known his thinking regarding the current pandemic. The pandemic isn’t a fictional book about a small seaside town, but a global crisis in which the likes of Trump have valued the stock market ahead of the lives of ordinary Americans.
Millions languish in poverty
The Cuban Revolution acted as a catalyst at that time for struggles for socialism, primarily in what are called, third world nations. Cuba ‘punched above its weight’ for decades on the world stage. This relatively small Island of around ten million people gave a glimpse of the possibilities that socialism could offer for those who languish in poverty.
After the Cuban revolution, there were many on the left who developed illusions in ‘guerrillaism’ and it lingered for a long time, particularly in Latin America, although it has not been successful anywhere; Cuba was the one exception.
It is important to note two things, however. The first is that the original Cuban revolution did not have ‘socialist’ aims. The model society they aimed for was the USA! It was the reaction of US-owned businesses, and the obstruction of the US administration of even modest reforms in Cuba that forced the new government along the path of socialising the economy. The second point is that there has never been a government of workers’ democracy and openness in Cuba. For all their massive popularity (and the popularity was genuine) the government of Castro and Guevara was based on Russia of 1960, not Russia of 1917. Socialism can only be achieved when there is a conscious movement of the working class.
Government still popular
But despite all the difficulties, and the shortcomings of the regime itself, the government to this day is extremely popular. Despite the crippling economic sanctions that hinder all aspects of economic development, the life expectancy of the average Cuban is greater than that of the average American; they have better health care; they have a better education system. Cuba may no longer ‘export revolution’ but it sends teams of medics to disaster zones around the globe. When the Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa, Cuba provided more doctors and nurses than any other country.
Even in a distorted way, the developments in Cuba have shown the advantages of a planned, nationalised economy over the chaos of the so-called free market. The current pandemic has exposed all the rottenness of capitalism and only socialism provide a meaningful solution to poverty and disease.
The two-part series, Castro vs The World, is available on BBC i-Player, here
October 26, 2020
