Discourse of Raúl Castro Ruz on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, in Santiago de Cuba.
January 1, 2014
Translated by Charles McKelvey
January 1, 2014
Translated by Charles McKelvey
People of Santiago de Cuba; Combatants of the Rebel Army, of the clandestine struggle, and of all the combats in defense of the Revolution during the course of these 55 years; countrymen and countrywomen:
Not even the biggest dreamer among those of us who accompanied Fidel in a celebration similar to this on January 1, 1959 was able to imagine that we would be here today. This long and turbulent road has not been easy. It has been possible, above all, thanks to the immense capacity of resistance and struggle of several generations of the noble and heroic Cuban people, who have been the true defenders of this, their Revolution, which represents the triumph of the same ideal of the rebels of 1868, who under the leadership of Céspedes, initiated the war of independence from the Spanish yoke; of Maceo and Gómez, with whom José Martí en 1895 took up again the heroic cause of freedom, which was frustrated by the U.S. intervention in 1898, which impeded the entrance into Santiago de Cuba of the Cuban Liberating Army.
It is also the cause that Baliño, Mella, Rubén Martínez Villena, Guiteras and Jesus Menéndez, to only mention a few, took up against the neocolonial and bourgeois republic. (1)
It was that desire that motivated the generation of centenarians (2), under the leadership of Fidel, to assault the Moncada Barracks, in this city, and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Barracks in Bayamo; to overcome the failure of those actions, to resist the severity of prison, to come in the Granma expedition; to withstand the hard setback in Alegría de Pío (3), and to head to the Sierra Maestra to begin the guerrilla struggle of the recently born Rebel Army, whose Commander in Chief, with his personal example of courage in combat, his tenacity and his insistent faith in the victory, along with his unifying vocation and his indisputable leadership, was able to forge the unity of all the revolutionary forces and lead them to the definitive triumph. Exactly 60 years after the U.S. intervention robbed the victory from the insurrectionist army, this time the rebels were able to enter the city of Santiago de Cuba.
We today pay deserved tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in the mountains, the countryside, and the cities, combatants in the Rebel Army and in the clandestine struggle, to those who after the triumph of the Revolution lost their lives in other honorable missions, to those who dedicated their youth and energy to construct socialism, guided by the Martían teaching that there is no satisfaction nor reward greater than the fulfillment of one’s duty.
We cannot avoid mentioning the decisive contribution of Cuban women throughout the revolutionary process, who followed the dignified example of Mariana Grajales, the mother of the Maceos, in the guerrilla struggle as well as the clandestine struggle, who were submitted to brutal persecution by the henchmen of the Batista dictatorship. On the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, Cuban television has been broadcasting the historic series Clandestinas as a just homage to those courageous young women that on so many occasions risked their lives. Some of them are present here, much to our happiness (Applause).
In this very place, on January 1, 1959, in the midst of popular jubilation that swept the entire county, Fidel with premonition warned: “The Revolution begins now; the Revolution will not be an easy task; the Revolution will be a hard enterprise, full of dangers.” From the very beginning, there were placed in operation an infinity of plans of destabilization, beginning with the refuge provided in the United States to the criminals and torturers of the Batista regime and also embezzlers of all sorts who appropriated from the public funds of the nation. The recently triumphant Revolution had to confront: the promotion and organization of State terrorism in the form of sabotage and armed bands, which on two occasions were operating in all six provinces that the country had at the time; the exclusion of Cuba from the Organization of American States and the breaking of diplomatic relations by all the Latin American countries, with the honorable exception of Mexico; the Bay of Pigs invasion; the economic, commercial, and financial blockade (4); the massive media campaign designed to slander the revolutionary process and its leaders, especially Fidel, who was the objective of more than 600 assassination plans; the Missile Crisis of October 1962; the hijacking of airplanes; the assassination of primary school and literacy teachers, workers, farmers, students, and diplomats, that up to now has left a trail of 3,478 deaths and 2,099 persons permanently disabled.
It has been 55 years of incessant struggle in the face of the designs of eleven U.S. administrations that, with greater or less hostility, have not ceased in their determination to change the economic and social system that has been the fruit of the Revolution, in order to eliminate its example and to reinstate imperial domination over our country.
The Cuban Revolution destroyed several myths, among them the myth that it was not possible to construct socialism in a small country 90 miles from the United States. The Cuban Revolution was not a consequence of an international confrontation, and it did not have massive foreign support. It was a Revolution that did not limit itself to the substitution of one power for another, but dissolved, in less than 24 hours, the repressive machinery of the dictatorial regime and established the bases for a new society. It was a Revolution that constructed an army of the uniformed people, and it developed, in order to defend itself, its own military doctrine.
The Cuban Revolution is a Revolution that has completed 55 years of work by and for the people, who were made the owners of the land and the industries. It is a Revolution that taught the people to read and write and that has been forming teachers and professors; constructing general and special schools for all the children as well as universities and schools of art and sport; building polyclinics and hospitals; and preparing doctors for Cuba and the world. It is a Revolution that has attained indices of education and health that today are recognized internationally. It is a Revolution that has established the basis for the democratization of space for the creation, diffusion, and access to culture. In summary, it is a Revolution that has made real and will continue to comply with the profound desire of José Martí that presides over the Constitution and that asserts: “I want that the first law of our Republic be the education and culture of Cubans and the full dignity of men and women.”
Relevant to these questions, I remember what Fidel proclaimed on July 26, 2003, during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks: “To educate the people in the truth, with irrefutable words and action, has been the fundamental factor in the magnificent feat that has been achieved.” The enormous capacity of resistance and of confidence in themselves that our people demonstrated to the world cannot be explained in any other manner, as the people knew how to stoically endure the extreme difficulties of the “Special Period” to which we were submitted as a consequence of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc, dramatic events that generated a wave of uncertainty and demoralization among a good part of the progressive forces of humanity.
The image of Cuba; famous before the Revolution as a paradise for gambling and prostitution, as a refuge for the mafia, and as a desirable location for illegitimate investments, facilitated by the general environment of corruption in the Batista dictatorship; was transformed through the revolutionary process into a symbol of dignity, independence, humanism, and intransigence in defense of moral principles. Following the maxim of Martí, the Cuban Revolution never has asked, what is the road to living better; rather, it has asked, what path is our duty? We have been consistent in our fidelity to the ethic of Martí.
During the course of 55 years, we received the generous and noble solidarity of many sister peoples, especially the Soviet Union during the first difficult years; and we also lent our support in solidarity in various regions of the planet, in glorious international combative missions as well as in programs of collaboration in medicine, education, sport, and other spheres, making a reality of the inherited principle that one’s nation is all of humanity.
We have never given in, nor will we ever give in, to aggression, blackmail, or threats. The foreign policy of the Revolution always has been a powerful arm in defense of the independence, self-determination, and sovereignty of nations, in support of world peace, development, social justice, and solidarity with the peoples of the Third World.
The planet that we inhabit has changed much since January 1, 1959. This small island, which US governments by means of brutal pressures has intended to separate from its geographical and cultural region, today exercises the Presidency pro tem of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and is preparing to host its Summit meeting in Havana at the end of this month, animated by the ideal of forging a new unity within the diversity of Our America. (4)
We do not forget the singular historic coincidence that on this date, the first of January, 210 years ago, the first revolution of the Latin American and Caribbean region triumphed; a Revolution that also was the first and only victory of a revolutionary movement directed by black slaves that struggled against that oppressive system and for national independence. Those dramatic events had repercussions in Cuba, as Haitian blood runs in the veins of more than a few Cubans in the eastern provinces. Both nations have paid a high price for the audacity of confronting the dominant empires. On addressing this theme, I wish to reiterate to our sister Haitian people and their government that we Cubans never will abandon you, and you always will be able to count on our collaboration (Applause).
. . . .
I will now address a question concerning which we have travelled a long distance. I refer to the challenge that is imposed on us by the permanent campaign of political-ideological subversion conceived and directed form the global centers of power in order to recolonize the minds of the peoples of the world and to annul their aspirations to construct a better world.
In his brilliant definition of “Revolution” formulated on May 1, 2000, in the Plaza of the Revolution in Havana, Fidel enunciated, among other ideas, the following: “Revolution is to challenge powerful dominant forces within and beyond the social and national sphere; it is to defend the values in which one believes at the cost of any sacrifice; it is the deep conviction that there does not exist any force in the world that is capable of crushing the force of the truth and ideas.”
In our case, as has occurred in various regions of the world, there have been efforts to subtly introduce platforms for neoliberal thought and for the restoration of neocolonial capitalism, taking aim against the essence of the Socialist Revolution on the basis of a premeditated manipulation of the history and present situation of the general crisis of the capitalist system, thus diminishing values, national identity, and national culture, while promoting individualism, egoism, and the placing of commercial interests above morality. In short, they are striving to deceitfully sell to youth the supposed advantages of doing without ideologies and social consciousness, pretending these precepts do not represent the interests of the dominant class in the capitalist world. They intend to induce a rupture between the historic direction of the Revolution and the new generations and to promote uncertainty and pessimism in facing the future, with the purpose of dismantling socialism in Cuba from within.
In the present circumstances, the challenge is growing, but we are sure that the forces that the Revolution has at its disposal will emerge victorious in this decisive field of battle, converting into reality the objectives in the ideological sphere that were approved by the First National Conference of the Party two years ago, the implementation of which has not advanced to a necessary degree. There remains much work to be done. Therefore we count on the strength and the patriotic commitment of the great mass of revolutionary intellectuals, artists, professors, and teachers as well as on the firmness of our centers of social research, the universities and their students, which still have not fully utilized their potential.
The efforts to disseminate ideas that deny the vitality of Marxist, Leninist, and Martían concepts ought to be counteracted, among other means, with a creative theoretical conceptualization of the socialism possible under the conditions of Cuba, as the only alternative for attaining equality and justice for all.
The new generations of leaders, that gradually and orderly are going to assume the principle responsibilities in the direction of the nation, never will be able to forget that this is the Socialist Revolution of the humble, by the humble, and for the humble (Applauses and exclamations), a necessary premise and effective antidote for not falling under the influence of the siren songs of the enemy, that will not renounce the objective of distancing the leaders from our people, with the purpose of undermining the unity of the people with the Communist Party, which is the only legitimate inheritor of the legacy and authority of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz (Applause and exclamations of “Viva”).
In this sense, it is worth remembering the importance of continuing to improve constantly the principle of consulting in a direct manner with the population with respect to the vital decisions for the development of the society, as was demonstrated during the process of the approval of the new Code of Work by our National Assembly, and as also was done with the project of the Guidelines for Social and Economic Policy, which after an ample and democratic popular examination were approved by the Sixth Congress of the Party and later referred to our Parliament, before which are rendered accounts twice a year with respect to their implementation, and in a similar manner proceed in the breast of the government and the party.
With this method it will be guaranteed that the program of the Revolution is revised each five years, in order that it will always respond to the true interests of the people in the fundamental affairs of the society and will correct any error in an opportune manner. This also will assure the permanent improvement and deepening of our socialist democracy. (6)
Closely related to these strategic concepts, truly strategic for the present and the future of the country, is the sentence pronounced by Fidel here, nearly at this same hour, from this same balcony, exactly 55 years ago today, with which, for its eternal validity, I wish to conclude my words. “The Revolution arrives to triumph without commitment to anyone, except the people, to whom it owes its victories” (Applause). Fifty-five years later, in the same place, we can repeat with pride: The Revolution continues the same, with commitment to absolutely no one, except the people!
Thank you very much.
(Exclamations of Viva la Revolución, Vivan Fidel y Raúl)
(Ovation)
Notes
1. For more on the Cuban revolutionary movement from 1868 to the 1950s, see “The Cuban revolutionary project and its development in historical and global context.”
2. Politically active youth after the Batista March 1952 coup d’état were called centenarians because they invoked the ideals formulated by José Martí during 1953, one hundred years after his birth.
3. In Alegría de Pío, the members of the Granma expedition were surprised and routed by the Batista army shortly after they disembarked from Mexico in order to initiate the guerrilla struggle.
4. Raúl here refers to the U.S. embargo.
5. The phrase “Our America” was used by José Martí to refer to Latin America or Latin America and the Caribbean.
6. For more on the Cuban theory and practice of popular democracy, see “The Cuban revolutionary project and its development in historical and global context.”
Not even the biggest dreamer among those of us who accompanied Fidel in a celebration similar to this on January 1, 1959 was able to imagine that we would be here today. This long and turbulent road has not been easy. It has been possible, above all, thanks to the immense capacity of resistance and struggle of several generations of the noble and heroic Cuban people, who have been the true defenders of this, their Revolution, which represents the triumph of the same ideal of the rebels of 1868, who under the leadership of Céspedes, initiated the war of independence from the Spanish yoke; of Maceo and Gómez, with whom José Martí en 1895 took up again the heroic cause of freedom, which was frustrated by the U.S. intervention in 1898, which impeded the entrance into Santiago de Cuba of the Cuban Liberating Army.
It is also the cause that Baliño, Mella, Rubén Martínez Villena, Guiteras and Jesus Menéndez, to only mention a few, took up against the neocolonial and bourgeois republic. (1)
It was that desire that motivated the generation of centenarians (2), under the leadership of Fidel, to assault the Moncada Barracks, in this city, and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Barracks in Bayamo; to overcome the failure of those actions, to resist the severity of prison, to come in the Granma expedition; to withstand the hard setback in Alegría de Pío (3), and to head to the Sierra Maestra to begin the guerrilla struggle of the recently born Rebel Army, whose Commander in Chief, with his personal example of courage in combat, his tenacity and his insistent faith in the victory, along with his unifying vocation and his indisputable leadership, was able to forge the unity of all the revolutionary forces and lead them to the definitive triumph. Exactly 60 years after the U.S. intervention robbed the victory from the insurrectionist army, this time the rebels were able to enter the city of Santiago de Cuba.
We today pay deserved tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in the mountains, the countryside, and the cities, combatants in the Rebel Army and in the clandestine struggle, to those who after the triumph of the Revolution lost their lives in other honorable missions, to those who dedicated their youth and energy to construct socialism, guided by the Martían teaching that there is no satisfaction nor reward greater than the fulfillment of one’s duty.
We cannot avoid mentioning the decisive contribution of Cuban women throughout the revolutionary process, who followed the dignified example of Mariana Grajales, the mother of the Maceos, in the guerrilla struggle as well as the clandestine struggle, who were submitted to brutal persecution by the henchmen of the Batista dictatorship. On the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, Cuban television has been broadcasting the historic series Clandestinas as a just homage to those courageous young women that on so many occasions risked their lives. Some of them are present here, much to our happiness (Applause).
In this very place, on January 1, 1959, in the midst of popular jubilation that swept the entire county, Fidel with premonition warned: “The Revolution begins now; the Revolution will not be an easy task; the Revolution will be a hard enterprise, full of dangers.” From the very beginning, there were placed in operation an infinity of plans of destabilization, beginning with the refuge provided in the United States to the criminals and torturers of the Batista regime and also embezzlers of all sorts who appropriated from the public funds of the nation. The recently triumphant Revolution had to confront: the promotion and organization of State terrorism in the form of sabotage and armed bands, which on two occasions were operating in all six provinces that the country had at the time; the exclusion of Cuba from the Organization of American States and the breaking of diplomatic relations by all the Latin American countries, with the honorable exception of Mexico; the Bay of Pigs invasion; the economic, commercial, and financial blockade (4); the massive media campaign designed to slander the revolutionary process and its leaders, especially Fidel, who was the objective of more than 600 assassination plans; the Missile Crisis of October 1962; the hijacking of airplanes; the assassination of primary school and literacy teachers, workers, farmers, students, and diplomats, that up to now has left a trail of 3,478 deaths and 2,099 persons permanently disabled.
It has been 55 years of incessant struggle in the face of the designs of eleven U.S. administrations that, with greater or less hostility, have not ceased in their determination to change the economic and social system that has been the fruit of the Revolution, in order to eliminate its example and to reinstate imperial domination over our country.
The Cuban Revolution destroyed several myths, among them the myth that it was not possible to construct socialism in a small country 90 miles from the United States. The Cuban Revolution was not a consequence of an international confrontation, and it did not have massive foreign support. It was a Revolution that did not limit itself to the substitution of one power for another, but dissolved, in less than 24 hours, the repressive machinery of the dictatorial regime and established the bases for a new society. It was a Revolution that constructed an army of the uniformed people, and it developed, in order to defend itself, its own military doctrine.
The Cuban Revolution is a Revolution that has completed 55 years of work by and for the people, who were made the owners of the land and the industries. It is a Revolution that taught the people to read and write and that has been forming teachers and professors; constructing general and special schools for all the children as well as universities and schools of art and sport; building polyclinics and hospitals; and preparing doctors for Cuba and the world. It is a Revolution that has attained indices of education and health that today are recognized internationally. It is a Revolution that has established the basis for the democratization of space for the creation, diffusion, and access to culture. In summary, it is a Revolution that has made real and will continue to comply with the profound desire of José Martí that presides over the Constitution and that asserts: “I want that the first law of our Republic be the education and culture of Cubans and the full dignity of men and women.”
Relevant to these questions, I remember what Fidel proclaimed on July 26, 2003, during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks: “To educate the people in the truth, with irrefutable words and action, has been the fundamental factor in the magnificent feat that has been achieved.” The enormous capacity of resistance and of confidence in themselves that our people demonstrated to the world cannot be explained in any other manner, as the people knew how to stoically endure the extreme difficulties of the “Special Period” to which we were submitted as a consequence of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc, dramatic events that generated a wave of uncertainty and demoralization among a good part of the progressive forces of humanity.
The image of Cuba; famous before the Revolution as a paradise for gambling and prostitution, as a refuge for the mafia, and as a desirable location for illegitimate investments, facilitated by the general environment of corruption in the Batista dictatorship; was transformed through the revolutionary process into a symbol of dignity, independence, humanism, and intransigence in defense of moral principles. Following the maxim of Martí, the Cuban Revolution never has asked, what is the road to living better; rather, it has asked, what path is our duty? We have been consistent in our fidelity to the ethic of Martí.
During the course of 55 years, we received the generous and noble solidarity of many sister peoples, especially the Soviet Union during the first difficult years; and we also lent our support in solidarity in various regions of the planet, in glorious international combative missions as well as in programs of collaboration in medicine, education, sport, and other spheres, making a reality of the inherited principle that one’s nation is all of humanity.
We have never given in, nor will we ever give in, to aggression, blackmail, or threats. The foreign policy of the Revolution always has been a powerful arm in defense of the independence, self-determination, and sovereignty of nations, in support of world peace, development, social justice, and solidarity with the peoples of the Third World.
The planet that we inhabit has changed much since January 1, 1959. This small island, which US governments by means of brutal pressures has intended to separate from its geographical and cultural region, today exercises the Presidency pro tem of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and is preparing to host its Summit meeting in Havana at the end of this month, animated by the ideal of forging a new unity within the diversity of Our America. (4)
We do not forget the singular historic coincidence that on this date, the first of January, 210 years ago, the first revolution of the Latin American and Caribbean region triumphed; a Revolution that also was the first and only victory of a revolutionary movement directed by black slaves that struggled against that oppressive system and for national independence. Those dramatic events had repercussions in Cuba, as Haitian blood runs in the veins of more than a few Cubans in the eastern provinces. Both nations have paid a high price for the audacity of confronting the dominant empires. On addressing this theme, I wish to reiterate to our sister Haitian people and their government that we Cubans never will abandon you, and you always will be able to count on our collaboration (Applause).
. . . .
I will now address a question concerning which we have travelled a long distance. I refer to the challenge that is imposed on us by the permanent campaign of political-ideological subversion conceived and directed form the global centers of power in order to recolonize the minds of the peoples of the world and to annul their aspirations to construct a better world.
In his brilliant definition of “Revolution” formulated on May 1, 2000, in the Plaza of the Revolution in Havana, Fidel enunciated, among other ideas, the following: “Revolution is to challenge powerful dominant forces within and beyond the social and national sphere; it is to defend the values in which one believes at the cost of any sacrifice; it is the deep conviction that there does not exist any force in the world that is capable of crushing the force of the truth and ideas.”
In our case, as has occurred in various regions of the world, there have been efforts to subtly introduce platforms for neoliberal thought and for the restoration of neocolonial capitalism, taking aim against the essence of the Socialist Revolution on the basis of a premeditated manipulation of the history and present situation of the general crisis of the capitalist system, thus diminishing values, national identity, and national culture, while promoting individualism, egoism, and the placing of commercial interests above morality. In short, they are striving to deceitfully sell to youth the supposed advantages of doing without ideologies and social consciousness, pretending these precepts do not represent the interests of the dominant class in the capitalist world. They intend to induce a rupture between the historic direction of the Revolution and the new generations and to promote uncertainty and pessimism in facing the future, with the purpose of dismantling socialism in Cuba from within.
In the present circumstances, the challenge is growing, but we are sure that the forces that the Revolution has at its disposal will emerge victorious in this decisive field of battle, converting into reality the objectives in the ideological sphere that were approved by the First National Conference of the Party two years ago, the implementation of which has not advanced to a necessary degree. There remains much work to be done. Therefore we count on the strength and the patriotic commitment of the great mass of revolutionary intellectuals, artists, professors, and teachers as well as on the firmness of our centers of social research, the universities and their students, which still have not fully utilized their potential.
The efforts to disseminate ideas that deny the vitality of Marxist, Leninist, and Martían concepts ought to be counteracted, among other means, with a creative theoretical conceptualization of the socialism possible under the conditions of Cuba, as the only alternative for attaining equality and justice for all.
The new generations of leaders, that gradually and orderly are going to assume the principle responsibilities in the direction of the nation, never will be able to forget that this is the Socialist Revolution of the humble, by the humble, and for the humble (Applauses and exclamations), a necessary premise and effective antidote for not falling under the influence of the siren songs of the enemy, that will not renounce the objective of distancing the leaders from our people, with the purpose of undermining the unity of the people with the Communist Party, which is the only legitimate inheritor of the legacy and authority of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz (Applause and exclamations of “Viva”).
In this sense, it is worth remembering the importance of continuing to improve constantly the principle of consulting in a direct manner with the population with respect to the vital decisions for the development of the society, as was demonstrated during the process of the approval of the new Code of Work by our National Assembly, and as also was done with the project of the Guidelines for Social and Economic Policy, which after an ample and democratic popular examination were approved by the Sixth Congress of the Party and later referred to our Parliament, before which are rendered accounts twice a year with respect to their implementation, and in a similar manner proceed in the breast of the government and the party.
With this method it will be guaranteed that the program of the Revolution is revised each five years, in order that it will always respond to the true interests of the people in the fundamental affairs of the society and will correct any error in an opportune manner. This also will assure the permanent improvement and deepening of our socialist democracy. (6)
Closely related to these strategic concepts, truly strategic for the present and the future of the country, is the sentence pronounced by Fidel here, nearly at this same hour, from this same balcony, exactly 55 years ago today, with which, for its eternal validity, I wish to conclude my words. “The Revolution arrives to triumph without commitment to anyone, except the people, to whom it owes its victories” (Applause). Fifty-five years later, in the same place, we can repeat with pride: The Revolution continues the same, with commitment to absolutely no one, except the people!
Thank you very much.
(Exclamations of Viva la Revolución, Vivan Fidel y Raúl)
(Ovation)
Notes
1. For more on the Cuban revolutionary movement from 1868 to the 1950s, see “The Cuban revolutionary project and its development in historical and global context.”
2. Politically active youth after the Batista March 1952 coup d’état were called centenarians because they invoked the ideals formulated by José Martí during 1953, one hundred years after his birth.
3. In Alegría de Pío, the members of the Granma expedition were surprised and routed by the Batista army shortly after they disembarked from Mexico in order to initiate the guerrilla struggle.
4. Raúl here refers to the U.S. embargo.
5. The phrase “Our America” was used by José Martí to refer to Latin America or Latin America and the Caribbean.
6. For more on the Cuban theory and practice of popular democracy, see “The Cuban revolutionary project and its development in historical and global context.”