Fidel Castro, after his provisional resignation last July, announced on 19 February that he will not stand for election as President of the State Council and Commander in Chief...

Castro leaves office, and the US's dream of Cuban collapse fails to materialise

WORKERS, APR 2008 ISSUE

Photo: Workers

Fidel Castro will not stand for election again. Announcing his decision in February, he wrote, "This is not my farewell to you. My only wish is to fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas. I shall continue to write under the heading Reflections by Comrade Fidel. It will be just another weapon you can count on."

Far from the collapse predicted by Cuba's arch enemy, the USA, Cuba is stronger than ever, with many more friends in Latin America and around the world. Fidel Castro has left office with his country in good heart and counting its achievements.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the demise of the socialist bloc, the USA tightened its blockade of Cuba confident that this outpost of socialism would go the same way. As most of Cuba's trade with the former socialist block vanished, the prospect of hunger and shortages was real.

The Cuban Communist Party held a special Congress to devise a strategy for national survival, and Cuban Socialism did not collapse.

Successive US administrations had tended to believe that the Cuban revolution depended on one man – Fidel Castro – and it followed therefore that if Cuba was not going the way of the Soviet Union, they would simply have to play the biological card, and wait for him to die. After all they had made numerous attempts to assassinate him, and they could still have another go.

Assassination attempt
By 1996, Castro was 70 years old and showed no signs of dying. So in November 2000, they made another attempt to kill him. Luis Posada Carrilles, a CIA operative wanted by both the Cuban and Venezuelan authorities for blowing up a Cuban airliner in 1976 killing 73 people, tried to blow up the lecture hall of the University of Panama where Fidel Castro was due to address a Cuba solidarity meeting. Once again the attempt failed.

The Bush Administration then drew up a plan effectively to annex Cuba on the death of Fidel Castro and appoint a colonial governor. This, of course, made it impossible for Fidel to retire as Bush would use it as his excuse to implement the plan.

And yet Fidel is only human and cannot live forever. In July 2006, Fidel announced that he was to hand over much of his responsibility to a collection of members of the Council of State while he was being treated for an intestinal illness.

While some in the US announced that Fidel was actually dead and Cuba declared his condition to be a state secret, a planned process began that will see an eventual transfer of leadership to a new generation of revolutionaries.

So why has Fidel Castro been so important that the US government wants him dead before they try to annex Cuba?

The answer to that question lies in his commitment to the working class and to the Cuban revolution, his internationalism and patriotism, his leadership skills, his humility, and his defiance.

Although he was one of many revolutionaries taking part in the struggle against the dictatorship of Batista, the Cuban general who came to power in a coup in 1952, his commitment and leadership was apparent during the attack on the Moncada barracks in 1953, his landing in Eastern Cuba in 1956 with the nucleus of the rebel army, and the successful guerrilla war against Batista's powerful US-backed army.

He coordinated the armed struggle with the efforts of the trade unions, students and the urban and rural resistance of the July 26th Movement.

After the revolution, he led Cuba through the difficult times of the October missile crisis and committed Cuba to supporting African liberation movements – after all, Cuba was a nation built on slavery.

Cuban schoolchildren: the future of the country now lies with its youth. Photo: Workers

Liberation
Perhaps one of the best kept secrets of the time was Cuban military and civil support for the fighters in Guinea Bissau who eventually defeated the Portuguese colonialists, bringing down the Portuguese dictatorship and leading to the liberation of Mozambique and Angola.

More well known was Castro's decision to recommend to the Congress of the Communist Party in 1975, that Cuba provide immediate military and civil support to the MPLA Government in Angola after that country was invaded by South Africa and US-backed military forces from Zaire.

That eventually led to the defeat of the South African Defence Force at Cuito Cuanavale and the Southern Africa Accords which saw the mighty USA having to negotiate with Cuba over independence for Namibia. This is recognised as having played a major part in the subsequent downfall of the South African apartheid regime.

His models were great Cuban anti-colonial fighters such as José Martí, Maceo and Céspedes, and his commitment to national sovereignty and patriotism is well known. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc, Fidel's patriotism and defiance of US attempts to re-annex Cuba saw provided the only leadership that could ensure the country's survival.

Given that the US had personalised around Fidel their intention to destroy Cuban socialism, it was inevitable that the Cuban people should look to him for leadership. During the 1990s, Cuba lived through hardships that no other country could have survived, but then went on to show solidarity with the rest of the world. Cuba sent 35,000 doctors to over 70 countries and successfully led the fight against the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Last year, 184 countries voted at the UN General Assembly for an end to the US blockade of Cuba while the US could only muster Israel and two US Pacific protectorates in its own defence. These things don't happen by accident and are widely attributed to Fidel's leadership.

Now Cuba is moving on. While the leadership of the country is still in the hands of the old revolutionaries, this is simply to thwart the US plan to take over Cuba and enslave its people.

A new generation of revolutionaries are waiting in the wings, showing that Cuba is operating from a position of strength and the US from a position of weakness.

What an example to the rest of the world and especially our working class in Britain! A working class with the right leadership can successfully stand up to the most powerful forces of imperialism in the world. What a contrast to Blair and Brown and to some of our own institutions, particularly our trade unions!

Some may be sad at losing such an inspirational leader, but his legacy is there for all the world to see, and the struggle goes on.

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