Long live Fidel Castro!

Cuba has recently been subjected to considerably more attention than usual from the bourgeois press, following comrade Fidel Castro’s announcement that he no longer felt physically able to carry out his duties as President and Commander in Chief.

Immediately, various third-rate bourgeois ‘experts’ were wheeled out to predict street celebrations of happy Cubans freed from the oppressive rule of the cruel dictator, while a new Cuban president threw open the door to US imperialism, begging it to come in and save Cuba from the economic collapse brought about by years of revolutionary mismanagement.

The bourgeois press fell silent, however, when the Cuban people showed that they are the leaders and owners of their revolution, giving sincere thanks in many genuine and heartfelt words of affection to comrade Fidel for his years of loyal and steadfast service as President and Commander in Chief and moving smoothly on to elect comrade Raúl Castro in his place; no riots, no coups, no crisis and no collapse!

For those who only have access to the bourgeois media for information, it must now appear that nothing has happened at all, since Cuba is once again almost universally ignored.

In direct opposition to the hopes of the imperialists and their cronies, communist, anti-imperialist and progressive people and groups all over the world have been lining up to pay tribute to comrade Fidel, praising him for his steadfast leadership of the Cuban people, his tactical brilliance and his boundless proletarian internationalism, as well as congratulating the Cuban leadership on the democratic and open way in which Fidel’s retirement has been handled.

Congratulations have also been extended to comrade Raúl, a well-loved revolutionary and internationalist fighter in his own right, on being elected to serve the Cuban people as President. The Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) is proud to be numbered among this group, having sent messages of gratitude and support to both comrades.

Record of internationalism

This is not just a question of rhetoric or formal diplomacy; socialist Cuba has always laid great emphasis on its internationalist duty. Cuban soldiers battled the apartheid South African Defence Forces, while standing shoulder to shoulder with the Angolan revolution; Cuban building workers have served throughout the world helping states struggling against imperialist banditry, and even took up arms to defend their embassy and flag in tiny Grenada when the US marines invaded; Cuban doctors have served, and still are serving, humanity on every continent. The example of the Cuban revolution is one of the greatest inspirations in Latin America today.

Trotskyism: the left mouthpiece of imperialism

Unfortunately, there are voices that claim to be ‘left’, even ‘communist’, whose reports have far more in common with the imperialists than those opposed to them. The totally misnamed ‘Communist Party of Great Britain’ with its ‘left’ gossip rag, the Weekly Worker, is definitely the leader in this group, having penned an article entitled ‘Sunshine Stalinism ends?’ in which the longevity of Fidel, Mao and Ho Chi Minh is referred to as “the curious stamina of this type of dictator”.

The article proceeds to attack comrade Raúl, stating: “What is clear at this point is that Raúl is very likely to introduce some measure of economic reforms.” The writer doesn’t tell us why that is clear, but, by way of providing evidence that this will happen, continues; “It was Raúl who directed the various liberalising methods that created the tourist industry, which is now hegemonic over the economic life of the country (in a return of sorts to the Batista days, when Havana functioned as a brothel for visiting Americans).”

The article also runs an attack on present-day China, and finishes with a call (in true Trotskyite fashion) for workers to rise up and throw off the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba and to establish socialism!

“Only when the Cuban working class – unmentioned by the apologists, except as grateful and passive recipients of world-class healthcare – is in control of the whole machinery of the state, supplanting Raúl Castro and his military bureaucrats, will a lasting freedom from imperialist interference and capitalist exploitation be a reality. Genuine communists, in Cuba and elsewhere, must fight the paternalism of Stalinist bureaucrats and strive for the working class’s own self-liberation.” (28 February 2008)

US imperialism must be nodding enthusiastically at this point, since any such attempt (however unlikely in real life, since those living in a country that is trying to build socialism rarely interrupt the process with an uprising in order to try to build socialism) would give it the long-awaited excuse for an invasion – on humanitarian grounds, of course!

The childishly divisive aims of the Trotskyite group that runs the Weekly Worker are easily seen through, even in Britain, where class consciousness and revolutionary fervour are at a low ebb at the moment, thanks to the treachery of social democracy.

Viva Cuba

In the 50 years since its revolution, the tiny island state of Cuba has withstood non-stop blockades, both economic and military. It has been the victim of trade embargos, had its waters mined by the US military, fended off invasions, countless coup plots against the revolution, and hundreds of assassination attempts on its leaders, in particular on Comrade Fidel.

Unswayed, Cuba continues to build socialism and to provide for its people. Furthermore, Cuba stands in comradeship with the revolutions in the Peoples’ Republic of China and the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, as it does with the struggle of Zimbabwe led by ZANU-PF and comrade Robert Mugabe. Socialist Cuba will always stand on the side of anti-imperialists in their struggles to free themselves, and those who claim to support Cuba must, if their professed support for Cuba is to mean anything, do the same.

Victory to all the forces of anti-imperialist resistance!