The brigade that marked the tenth anniversary of Rock around the Blockade’s work in solidarity with Cuba returned in August from two weeks in Havana and Guantanamo invigorated by the experience. Brigadistas who had taken part in our previous brigade to Cuba in 2003 reported sensing a sea change in the political climate, a society once again brimming over with revolutionary enthusiasm and consciousness at every level, a sense of a people – and particularly a youth – actively engaged in the building of socialist society. The Battle of Ideas is bearing fruit.
This was the main theme of all our discussions with communists in Guantanamo and Havana. The Battle of Ideas, launched in 2000, was born out of the upsurge of popular mobilisation in Cuba to demand the return of the child, Elian Gonzalez, held by relatives in Miami, to his father in Cuba. It is an ideological battle being fought on every front – the cultural, political, educational and social – to reclaim every Cuban for the Revolution.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, coupled with an ever-tightening US blockade, propelled Cuba into the devastating economic crisis known as the Special Period. As a small, isolated and underdeveloped socialist island suddenly exposed to the harsh realities of the world market, Cuba’s survival depended on making a number of concessions to capitalism. These included encouraging tourism via joint ventures with capitalist companies, legalising dollars and allowing the growth of small private enterprise. The Cuban Communist Party recognised that these steps were setbacks for socialism and would, inevitably, have social consequences as growing inequality and private enrichment led to the sapping of a collective spirit, growing materialist self-interest, individualism and alienation. The Battle of Ideas is all about combating those tendencies. Evaristo Sierra, a leading UJC [Union of Young Communists] member in Guantanamo, explained: ‘In the 1990s we had to open ourselves up to dollars…Foreign investment and tourism had negative consequences. We were looking for solutions. Prostitution and other evils emerged. We have had to work with young people to educate and re-educate’.
The Cubans know the ideological battle has to be fought, first and foremost, on a concrete terrain. In 2000, they set about assessing the scale of the problem, with 6,000 students, on a voluntary basis, visiting nearly 60,000 homes, particularly in the poor and overcrowded areas most affected by the rigours of the Special Period. As a result a whole raft of programmes was set up, the most important of which has been the training of thousands of social workers to work with the most disadvantaged and alienated sections of society, reintegrating them into the Revolution. Yasmin, the Provincial Director of the Social Work Programme in Guantanamo, told us: ‘The programme started after our community initiated door-to-door visits for all the population. They found some people and families who were isolated despite the Revolution, due to the Special Period, and the social work programme emerged’.
A crucial sector was what the Cubans refer to as the ‘lost youth’, young people neither studying nor in work, disaffected, drifting and drawn to petty crime and anti-social behaviour – a main target for the UJC, social workers and educationalists. In sharp contrast to the Labour government’s hostile and punitive attitude towards youth in Britain, the Cuban approach is marked by a real sense of empathy and support in resolving the problems that face young people and their families. On one level, there has been a major effort to increase enrolment in higher education, establishing local university study centres and introducing programmes for those who have failed entrance exams to enter higher education through more practically-based routes, working alongside teachers or social workers. At another, social workers work intensively with prisoners, particularly the young, with one social worker to every ten prisoners, ensuring they have the opportunity to attend university or technical schools and helping smooth their reintegration into the community at the end of their sentences. The Second Secretary of the UJC in Guantanamo, Enermis, stressed: ‘There will always be some who get confused and allow themselves to be misled, a minority. The UJC works with these people. We never reject anyone’. The sound system donated by the brigade to the UJC in the town of Caimanera – economically blighted by its proximity to the US base and concentration camp at Guantanamo – will allow the UJC to extend its work with young people in one of the poorest and most deprived areas of Cuba.
We also met social workers dedicated to work with the disabled, the elderly, the mentally ill and all those who could find themselves marginalised – again, with the aim of improving people’s lives and so giving them a real stake in the Revolution.
The spirit of internationalism still burns brightly in Cuba. During the 26 July street celebrations held by a local Committee for the Defence of the Revolution in Havana, we met by chance with a group of Cuban combatants who had fought in Angola in the 1970s and 1980s and made such a crucial contribution to the overthrow of the racist apartheid regime in South Africa. Such people play a vital role in maintaining revolutionary ideals by spreading their experiences and knowledge to a younger generation who have never known first-hand the barbarism of capitalism and imperialism.
This was borne out when we had the privilege of meeting Angel Arcos, comrade and close friend of Che Guevara in the early years of the Revolution. In 1959 Angel Arcos, an accountant, was offered huge sums of money by his US employers to defect to the US; instead he took the principled stand of staying in Cuba to work on the nationalisation of industry and was one of the pioneers behind developing the voluntary work programme that Che saw as key to changing human consciousness. He continues to this day to contribute to the building of socialism. We were honoured, too, to be able to spend time with Reinaldo Mancebo, formerly of the Cuban Embassy in London and long-time friend of Rock around the Blockade and the RCG.
As ever, it was inspiring to meet with Kenia Serrano, head of International Affairs at the UJC, who took part in the Rock around the Blockade speaking tour of Britain in 2002. Kenia described this generation’s involvement in Venezuela being the equivalent of the internationalism of those who fought in Angola. Throughout our stay we encountered large delegations of young people working flat out in preparation for the World Youth Festival in Venezuela.
Other highlights of the brigade included meeting relatives of the Cuban [Miami] 5 and hearing Fidel Castro speak on the anniversary of the 26 July Moncada attack at the Karl Marx theatre in Havana.
Cuba’s example, its ability to learn from the past and go forward, to fight to deepen and extend socialism through the Battle of Ideas, will continue to inspire our work here in Britain. We would like to thank the National UJC in Havana, and in particular our guide Yenielis, who accompanied us, translated for us and answered our questions 24 hours a day; the UJC in Guanatanamo; the staff of the Fine Art School in Guantanamo, where we stayed, and all those who made our many visits and meetings so interesting and inspiring. Rock around the Blockade would also like to thank all those who contributed in various ways over the last 18 months to the fundraising and political work that made the brigade, and the donation of a sound system to support the UJC’s work with the youth, possible.
FRFI 187 October / November 2005
