Cuba: Two new publications

The July 11 protests put Cuba in the spotlight. Capitalist politicians and their media enablers were salivating at the thought that the end of the revolution might finally be in sight.

There is no doubt that Cuba is facing a severe challenge. A tightening of the criminal US blockade combined with COVID-19 and the related collapse of the tourist industry have meant that Cuba lacks the foreign currency to pay for essential imports. A Washington-backed social media campaign, the activation of local US agents plus desperation due to acute shortages produced the unprecedented street protests. Many pro-revolution voices are calling for major reforms in the way the government operates.

Two new free PDF publications by Resistance Books provide some essential background, both to the Cuban Revolution and Washington’s implacable hostility to it: Cuba: Revolution Under Attack by Ian Ellis-Jones (46pp) and Building Socialism in Cuba: Seven Speeches by Fidel Castro (168pp).

Cuba: Revolution Under Attack shows the absolutely malign pressure of the United States on Cuba’s development. After the 1898 Spanish-American War, the US took over from Spain as Cuba’s imperial master. It totally dominated the island until the January 1959 revolution. And ever since then Washington has tried to crush the revolution. Trump tightened the long US blockade of the island and Biden has continued it. Now the imperialists scent blood.

Building Socialism in Cuba: Seven Speeches provides an insight into the revolution through some classic speeches by Fidel — the historic leader of the revolution and a speaker of tremendous power and rapport with the people. They take up the question of US imperialism’s terrible grip on Latin America, building a united revolutionary party that can mobilise the Cuban people, and various questions that arise in building a new Cuba (workplace discipline and trade union democracty, women’s liberation, and creating a socialist consciousness in people).

Those interested in the Cuban Revolution will find a lot to consider in these two publications.