From 1 to 18 March, Kenia Serrano and Nancy Coro, two leading members of Cuba’s Union of Young Communists (UJC), travelled around England and Scotland on a speaking tour jointly organised by the UJC and Rock around the Blockade. It was the first time the UJC had been invited as an organisation to speak in Britain. They addressed packed meetings at community centres and universities in Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Manchester, Preston, Brighton, London, Leicester, Wolverhampton, Newcastle and Bath; visited a housing co-op and a women’s centre in Moss Side in Manchester, a youth and community centre in Leicester, the Sighthill estate in Glasgow where an asylum seeker was murdered last summer, the Kurdish and Turkish Halkevi centre and the Kemet Afro-Caribbean Youth Club, both in London. Alongside this, they fitted in trips to Marx’s grave in Highgate cemetery, schools, hospitals, a Sure Start project, the Houses of Parliament and museums and plenty of social events! The tour culminated in a final dayschool and rally in London on 16 March, addressed by Kenia and Nancy as well as Manuel Rubido, the First Secretary of the Cuban Embassy and members of Rock around the Blockade and the Revolutionary Communist Group. It was a magnificent end to an inspiring and informative two weeks.
It was politically significant that the tour took place in the context of a world at war, with the most powerful nation in the world, the USA, arming itself for a renewed assault on the poor of the world, with its loyal ally, the Labour government, at its side. Nothing could have made it clearer that Cuba’s enemies are the enemies of all humanity and that in making a consistent and courageous stand against imperialist terrorism and war, Cuba represents the interests of the vast majority. The defence of Cuban socialism is central to the fight against imperialism.
What the Cuban speakers also made clear, in response to the questions asked at meeting after meeting on Cuban democracy, the US blockade, tourism and the status of women, is that building a socialist society is a process, a constant battle to transform not only economic relations but relations between people, to improve the condition of the population step by step, to steadily eradicate the poisonous legacy of capitalist culture and ideas. The point was stressed by David Yaffe, speaking on behalf of the RCG, at the closing rally when he said: ‘What we learn from the Cubans is that socialism is a process, not a finished, dogmatic blueprint. The Cubans are involved in building that process and it will go on and on as the people want a better life, more justice, more freedom for all sections of society…practice is the real constituent of truth. That’s what the Cubans have taught us as they toured around the country.’
After all, he added, what democracy exists in a country like Britain for the 14 million people who live in poverty? What human rights are there for those — particularly immigrants and asylum seekers — bearing the brunt of Britain’s racist domestic ‘war on terrorism’? Unlike in Cuba, racism is deeply embedded in the capitalist system. Such democracy as exists is founded on the oppression of millions around the world. That is the reality of imperialism. Today the Cubans are engaged in a ‘battle of ideas’ to ensure access for all the population to culture, education and justice. It is time for us to engage in our own battle of ideas — the battle to build a movement for socialism, for freedom from oppression, against the racist and imperialist British state. Such a movement will stand in solidarity with the Cuban Revolution; it will stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and all those fighting imperialist war and terrorism, it will fight for justice for the working class internationally and against racism. That lesson is the legacy we must take away from the speaking tour and build on.
‘Revolutionaries change everything that needs to be changed’
Winning the battle of ideas
The impressive turnout at meetings around the country to hear Kenia and Nancy speak reflected a profound interest in the Cuban Revolution in the context of the current phase of imperialist warmongering and terror. Audiences were avid for information both about Cuba’s outstanding achievements and the problems it still faces. In lucid detail, what both Kenia and Nancy were at pains to explain was the nature of socialism as a process. In overthrowing capitalism, the foundations were laid for a fairer, more equal society. But achieving that goal is a constant process, the result of not only economic policy but a never-ending dialogue between the Cuban people and their vanguard, the Communist Party, to achieve a fairer, richer life for all. The new phase of that process is what the Cubans call ‘the battle of ideas’, bringing equality of access to culture and education to all, because, as they said ‘the concept from Jose Martí is that to be cultured is to be free. You cannot talk of freedom, democracy or social participation if people are illiterate.’
To this end, more than 70 social programmes have been launched in social work and education with the goal of ‘giving more people more access to culture’. A key step in education will be to slash primary class sizes to 20 students per teacher. Every school — even those in the most isolated and mountainous parts of Cuba which may have only one or two students — will now have a television, video and computer. In those pockets of Cuba (4% of the country) which still have no electricity, solar panels have been installed in schools because ‘new technology must be put in all the people’s hands.’ Computer youth clubs have been set up in every municipality. ‘If you don’t know more than your mother tongue, if you cannot use computers, in this day and age you are almost illiterate.’
The Cubans pointed out that in 1958, there were just three universities in Cuba, all private; today, there are 46 state universities. 700,000 people have graduated from university since the Revolution. 144 new municipal ‘micro-universities’ are planned, with the aim of encouraging workers as well as students to study, making lifelong learning a real possibility for the whole population. A new television programme — University for All — brings learning right into people’s homes. More opportunity for informed cultural and political debate is seen as essential for deepening people’s understanding of the Revolution: for example, a round-table discussion, televised nightly, debates issues ranging from imperialist war to biotechnological developments.
The link between education and democracy is self-evident to the Cubans. ‘Culture is very important. Freedom for us is culture. What is freedom if you can’t read or write?’ Meanwhile, thousands of new social workers are now being trained to go into communities and homes to offer help and support to families on a practical and emotional level. ‘We are developing the spiritual conditions of people since the revolution. There is the political will of the government to build socialism in Cuba. You can’t impose socialism, you need to change people’s minds.’
Democracy in practice
In the context of a whole people educated and mobilised in revolutionary ideology, the perennial old chestnut ‘What will happen when Fidel dies?’ becomes an irrelevance. The Cuban Revolution is about more than one man, inspiring and committed leader though he may be. As the Cubans said:
‘His personal qualities are undoubted, but the system will maintain the revolution and socialism. The great strength of the revolution is the structure of the system we have. At the Pioneers’ conference [conference of children aged 7-14] last year, there were 1,200 delegates and Fidel was invited to close the session. After he had spoken, the Pioneers asked “Fidel, what do you have that imperialism cannot defeat you?” And Fidel replied “I have you all”.’
To illustrate the political strength of the rising generation of young leaders, they quoted a representative from the US Interests Section in Havana who was invited to speak with Otto Rivero of the UJC and Hassan Perez of the Federation of University Students and who came away saying he’d rather negotiate with Fidel than with this new generation!
Cuban democracy is about more than a formal vote every four years: it is a way of life. However — despite imperialism’s favoured depiction of Cuba as a ‘dictatorship’ — the system of government is elective and participative. There is only one party, the Communist Party, but it does not stand in elections. ‘We believe in multi-participation.’ 50% of the Cuban National Assembly is elected from the community and the other 50% from representative organisations; for example, eight university students have seats in parliament. All can be recalled if they fail to represent their constituency adequately. Cuba is currently working to increase the numbers of women and students in parliament — women currently make up 30% of delegates. Kenia stressed: ‘We call ourselves revolutionaries. We want to change things. If there is a problem we want to solve it…Inside Cuba, people are addressing concrete problems. This is the philosophy that animates the revolution.’
In this spirit, the Cubans are addressing the problems that still confront women within society, such as domestic violence, where the women’s organisation, the FMC, is working with communities on this issue. Prostitution, which was eradicated by the Revolution but has been a growing problem mirroring the growth of tourism, is being addressed in a compassionate way. Again, culture provides the key: ‘Prostitutes were evident at the beginning of the special period and we studied that also…many of the women involved were university educated and were attempting to obtain a better standard of life, not money just to survive. So we looked for jobs for them and wanted to make them feel useful in society. There are more honest ways of looking for happiness than selling your body. It is our challenge.’
Access to culture and a decent life for all is also being applied to prisoners in a new programme to provide televisions, videos and books particularly for young prisoners in gaol for the first time. ‘Fidel said: “We should build a society with no jobless and no prisoners”. No one should be insignificant, all people are useful.’ Prisoners’ rights are safeguarded and the Cubans investigate reports of human rights abuses within gaols. Crime prevention programmes are in place too, recognising that criminal behaviour is usually linked to poverty and a sense of marginalisation. Social workers work alongside families and young people to prevent feelings of alienation and ‘encourage future aspirations’. The young unemployed are to be offered a salary in return for studying for university and pre-university courses.
Against imperialist terror and war
At the heart of Cuba’s understanding of socialism is internationalism, standing at the head of the struggle of the oppressed the whole world over. ‘The battle of ideas is not to do with renewing our ideas but enriching the revolutionary ideas in the current phase. In 1961 there was a literacy campaign. In 2002, the new literacy campaign is about guaranteeing more culture for the people. We sent young people to fight in Angola, Nicaragua, to fight forces stopping their independence. Today we are sending doctors, technicians — it is a new way to be internationalists. To be internationalists is to share what you have.’
To be internationalist is also to denounce oppression on the international stage, which Cuba has always been prepared to do. While condemning the terrorist attack on New York’s Twin Towers, it also stands uncompromisingly against imperialist war and terrorism.
‘Cuba was the first country to send a message of condolence to the USA [after 11 September]. Fidel gave a speech a few days later to the people. We don’t agree with the US about how to fight this problem. We have suffered terrorism for over 40 years and we are against it and we are against the war. To fight terrorism with terrorism is not the way.’ 11 September, the Cubans argue, ‘was an excellent excuse for the US to do whatever it wanted with justification.’
Cuba stands in solidarity with the oppressed. ‘We have suffered more than two centuries of aggression from the US government. So we have solidarity with those around the world who suffer at the hands of US imperialism. 100,000 people came to the US Interest Section in Havana to condemn the war on Palestine. Last summer, 700 Cubans presented motions against the war at the International Youth Seminar. Israel and the US have identical positions on the US blockade of Cuba. To be in solidarity with the Palestinian people is part of our heritage and political internationalism …at the beginning of the revolution we had to take up arms and fight. Now, 43 years on, we can wage the battle of ideas. So we support those who must take up arms.’
Cuba’s own experience of terrorism funded and supported by the US, not least the crippling economic blockade, makes it all too aware of the hypocrisy surrounding the case of the Miami 5, Cubans arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in the US for infiltrating and exposing the activities of Miami-based terrorist groups (see article page 16). ‘This shows the double standard with which Cuba is treated. We will fight for their liberation as their trial was unjust and their cause is just.’
Fighting for socialism
The imperialists like to accuse Cuba of trying to ‘export socialism’. As Kenia pointed out, capitalism can only conceive of socialism as just another commodity, to be bought and sold! The reality is that socialist ideas offer the poor and oppressed of the world a way out of their condition. The Cubans say: ‘Socialism cultivates human values and expresses solidarity and internationalism. Dialectical materialism indicates that people should receive what they give to society…The revolution has achieved more in 43 years than in the previous 200 years. Look at what we have achieved in 43 years in Cuba. Compare it to, for example, Haiti. We want the same for all the people of Haiti.’ Socialism is not just ideas — it is the practical expression of those ideas. The Cubans expressed it thus: ‘Practice is the real constituent of truth.’ Put another way, they refer back to Castro, before the Revolution, asking the people if they wanted socialism. They said no. ‘He asked if they wanted land in their hands, free education and health care. They said yes. He said: “That is socialism”.’
The solution to the problems of the world is socialism. Yet the Cubans are the first to accept that they still have a long way to go, working in the most difficult conditions: ‘Socialism is not completed. We are in a process. Today we are saving the gains of the revolution…we must show that it is possible to change society.’
Though cowards flee…
The left and the speaking tour
Year after year, comrades from RATB and the RCG have challenged claims from the British Trotskyist left that Cuba is ‘state capitalist’. Noticeably absent from the speaking tour events was the entire anti-Cuban left, including the SWP’s Latin America ‘expert’ Mike Gonzalez, who earns his keep by attacking the Cuban revolution, claiming that homosexuals and AIDS victims are imprisoned in Cuba, that Castro has secret bank accounts with money from cocaine trafficking and that the army runs prostitution in Cuba. Gonzalez is echoed by the rest of the British ‘left’ almost without exception. Astonishing then, that these champions of equality and justice (who repeatedly call for a vote for the racist Labour Party) did not turn up ‘to put the Cubans straight’, as Keir McCechnie of the SSP/SWP threatened. Typical cowards.
Now please shut up with your reactionary nonsense!!
Thank you…
The Speaking Tour was made possible because of the kindness and hospitality of those who provided accommodation and who organised extra visits and welcome parties. In particular we would like to thank: Ann in London, Silvia in Liverpool, Shelagh, Lou and all at Homes for Change in Manchester, supporters in Leicester, Paul and flatmates in Newcastle, Paul, Marie, Alan, Laura, Andrea and Alan in Glasgow, Cluny in Dundee, and Richard, Paul and Rob in London. Finally, thanks to all members and supporters of RATB and RCG whose hard work made this tour so successful.
FRFI 166 April / May 2002
