The Cuban Revolution according to Dr. Thalia
A Leninist revolution from the South that has much to teach the world
Today, January 1, 2024, marks the sixty-fifth anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. On this day on January 1, 1959, the Cuban dictator Batista fled the country, and the revolutionary Rebel Army took control of the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, with no resistance from what remained of Batista’s army.
I have in two previous posts reviewed the life and work of Dr. Thalía Fung, founder of the Cuban Society for Philosophical Investigation and of the Cuban school of Political Science from the South.
“Dr. Thalía Muklan Fung Riverón: Science and revolution from Cuba and from the Global South,” December 1, 2023
“The philosophical testament of Thalía Fung: A call for political philosophy from the Global South,” December 29, 2023
Today, in commemoration of the sixty-fifth anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, I endeavor to express Dr. Thalia’s understanding of the Cuban Revolution, using her seminal 2014 book, La ciencia política enfoque Sur.1 In writing the commentary that follows, I tried to be faithful to Thalía’s understanding. What follows, therefore, is an English-language formulation of Thalía’s understanding of the meaning of the Cuban Revolution, formulated from a Cuban political, cultural, and linguistic context. As is clear from the commentary of December 1, Dr. Fung was an important participant in the revolutionary process in its pivotal moments during the 1950s and 1960s in the early years of her academic career.
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Colonial Cuba and the Cuban struggle for independence
In the case of colonial Cuba, the bourgeois revolution expressed itself in the Revolution of 1868, a revolution for independence led by the Cuban bourgeoisie, which possessed a strong sense of Patria [nation], forged as a reaction to Spanish colonial domination. During the course of the nineteenth century, there had emerged a Creole identity that carried with it the mark of inclusion, regardless of race or class. Accordingly, the nineteenth century Cuban revolution gave emphasis to this Cuban sense of inclusion. However, the Ten Years’ War of 1868 to 1878 failed to achieve its two fundamental goals of political independence from Spain and the abolition of slavery.
José Martí, who spent fourteen years in exile in the United States, revitalized the Cuban revolution in the 1880s and 1890s. Martí founded a political culture that united nationalities into a national identity, combining it with a spirit of resistance. To this day, the Cuban Revolution possesses a resistance that would prefer to deny its own material needs rather than surrender.
Martí’s central concept was the attainment of social liberation through liberation from Spanish colonial domination. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Martí understood the economic dimension of the colonial relation, and therefore he was able to recognize the colonial projection of the USA toward Cuba, even during the earliest stages of its manifestation.
But Martí was killed in battle during the first year of the revolutionary war of 1895 to 1898, and Martí’s anti-neocolonial consciousness was not internalized in the leadership of the Cuban revolution in the aftermath of the U.S. military occupation that began in 1898. What emerged was a neocolonial republic, characterized by the replacement of Spanish and Cuban capital with U.S. capital. As a result of de facto U.S. domination, the Cuban political process lacked legitimacy in the eyes of the people from the outset of the Republic, which today is clearly seen as a neocolonial republic.
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The struggle continues in the neocolonial republic
The introduction of Marxist thought in the 1920s was an intellectual and political milestone in Cuba. The first Communist Party of Cuba was established in 1925, founded by Julio Antonio Mella. Subsequently, the Revolution of 1933 emerged in reaction to the dictatorship of Machado. The unforgettable Antonio Guiteras Holmes, who synthesized various Marxist and anti-imperialist tendencies, was among its leaders. The political culture was advanced, capable of organizing urban workers, students, and agricultural workers into a formidable force of resistance. Holmes played a central role in a short-lived independent government of 100 days, the only government in the history of the neocolonial republic to be formed without the blessings of the United States.
The Constitution of 1940 was created in response to popular demand and the systematic mobilizations of the people. With ample participation of representatives of the popular sectors, the Constitution was possibly the most progressive political constitution of its time. However, it was never implemented with the necessary complementary laws.
The unresponsiveness of the political system to the needs of the people gave rise to the erosion of confidence in the existing political society, such that the idea grew among the people that the solution to the problems of the majority would not be found through the traditional political parties. Accordingly, the Orthodox Party of the Cuban People emerged with an ample popular base and with the possibility of reforming the political system through the participation of young new figures, such as the young lawyer Fidel Castro, who was one of its candidates to the House of Representatives. Its central theme was the struggle against corruption, and its slogan was “shame on money.”
“The option proposed by the Communist Party of Cuba was anticipated negatively by the North American government and its allies, which put into effect the strategy of the coup d’état.”2 The March 12, 1952, coup brought the tyrant Batista to power, which changed the form but not the essence of the Cuban political system.
Fidel Castro was capable of formulating and leading a struggle against the Batista dictatorship, uniting the various insurrectional currents. Fidel’s formulation was the response of a neocolonized country of the Third World, under conditions of economic domination by the largest empire of the modern era, occurring in the international context of the Cold War. It was a proposal that was antagonistic to the Cuban political system that had been implanted and implemented since its founding as a republic in 1902.
At the beginning, the July 26 Movement of Fidel did not integrate existing elements of Cuban political society. Its proposal was inconsistent with the parameters of the bourgeois parties as well as the parties of the working class, which were not capable of forging the multiple and necessary tasks of the revolutionary process, involving a guerrilla struggle in the countryside and a clandestine struggle in the cities. The July 26 Movement proposal was put forth in the context of a popular political culture with awareness of the need for radical change. It was a creative response rooted in Martí, and its leadership was focused on strategies for overthrowing the dictatorship.
The July 26 Movement proposal did not invoke Marxist-Leninist theory, as a result of the influence of anti-communism in Cuban political culture. This strategy reflected Fidel’s mastery of analysis of the political situation. Fidel found the special logic that corresponded to the Cuban situation. The comportment of Fidel at that historic moment provides a lesson for the political science of the South, which emphasizes study of political actors in the elaboration of strategies and tactics.
The July 26 Movement was neither a liberal bourgeois party nor a Leninist party. It was appropriate for a country with a combative but small working class, with limited industrial development, and with a high level of unemployment and underemployment in the cities and in the countryside. It was a structure that was anticipated by Lenin, who projected that in the colonized and neocolonized countries, the popular masses will be the new historical agents of change. Yet in its Cuban manifestation, it developed strategies that were unique to Cuba.
Of decisive importance in the taking of political power in Cuba was “History Will Absolve Me,” Fidel’s self-defense before the court for his leadership of the attack on Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953. It accurately identified the leading political subjects, and it proposed an ample program that appealed to a wide political base, based in sound assessment of the needs that were being demanded by the civil society.
As the struggle unfolded during 1957 and 1958, there was excellent communication through clandestine means between the July 26 Movement and the people. The appropriate structure and functioning of the July 26 Movement enabled it to expand its influence and its values to the immense majority in Cuban society.
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The triumph of the Cuban Revolution and the construction of a new state
Batista fled in the early morning hours of January 1, 1959. Fidel and the Rebel Army took control of the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba on January 1, and it carried out a triumphant “caravan of freedom” across the island, culminating in the celebratory entrance of Fidel and the Rebel Army in the capital city of Havana on January 8. In response to the enormous happiness of the people, Fidel’s central message was that the Revolution begins today; the greatest challenges lie ahead.
During the course of the insurrection, the Rebel Army had constructed a state in embryo. It emitted laws of social and economic content in the territory it controlled. It provided medical attention to the injured, and it provided health and education to the population, including literacy classes for children offered by members of the Rebel Army. It imposed taxes on companies that conducted their business activities in its territory. It developed foreign relations with other states and with international organizations.
By January 1, 1959, the system of bourgeois thought had been destroyed, and the neocolonial state was in a situation of disintegration. No one suggested the restitution of the government of the political parties that had existed prior to the Batista dictatorship. Not only the dictatorship but the neocolonial republic had been delegitimated in the popular consciousness. What was now intended was the substitution of a state controlled by the estate bourgeoisie with a government that represented the popular masses.
The construction of a sovereign state was the key to responding to the growing popular sovereignty and the quest for economic sovereignty, breaking dependency on the foreign monopolies and enabling the capacity to provide for the basic needs of the people. The Provisional Revolutionary Government, formed in the days following the triumph of the Revolution, was the fundamental element in the creation of a new political system that was national, democratic, and anti-imperialist; and that proposed the formation of a just and equal society on the basis of ample revolutionary popular participation, responding to the interests of the people, workers, peasants, and revolutionary intellectuals.
For the leadership of the July 26 Movement, it was clear that a process of change of state structures had been initiated, and not merely a change in who occupies the high positions of government. Many analysts did not discern this in the first moments, because of the composition of the Provisional Revolutionary Government, which included representatives of the bourgeoisie. However, the scope of the measures that were announced, such as the Agrarian Reform Law—which had been included as a principle in the Constitution of 1940—made enemies of the landholders, the big bourgeoisie, and their allies.
In the context of the turbulent and dizzying character of events, not only in Cuba but for the world, the political culture of the people advanced, with rapidly increasing awareness of colonialism, imperialist interference, racial and ethnic discrimination, gender discrimination, and environmental questions. Organizations were rapidly created, in which the immense majority of Cuban society was grouped, such as the Union of Young Communists, the Association of Combatants of the Cuban Revolution, the Confederation of Workers of Cuba, the National Association of Small Agriculturalists, the Federation of Cuban Women, Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the National Union of Writers and Artists, and professional and scientific organizations, including those dedicated to the defense of nature.
In addition to the contradiction between the project of the Provisional Revolutionary Government and the interests of the Cuban estate bourgeoisie, the second great contradiction was between the Cuban government and the systemic aggressive policy of the government of the United Sates, which had been maintained for more than fifty years. This contradiction was legally settled through the nationalization of Cuban national big industry during a period of twenty-two months, followed shortly afterward with the declaration of the socialist character of the Revolution, made before the popular masses that had assembled to defend the Revolution on the eve of the Bay of Pigs invasion. And it was settled by the unification of the three revolutionary parties into the Communist Party of Cuba, which would assume responsibility for the leadership of the Cuban political system.
In the context of the delegitimation of the traditional political parties, the only political parties that remained were the Popular Socialist Party (the first Communist Party of Cuba, founded by Mella in 1925), the March 13 Revolutionary Directorate (initially developed as a student organization), and the July 26 Movement (headed by Fidel). Of the three, the July 26 Movement had the highest level of popular support by far. Fidel initiated the unification of the three political formations, a process that culminated in the creation of the Communist Party of Cuba, which is the highest moral authority guiding the Cuban Revolution to this day.
In addition, there was the creation of direct democracy through mass assemblies of the people, which was possible, inasmuch as the entire population of Cuba was less than six million persons in 1959. Approximately one million people assembled in the Plaza of the Revolution in response to convocations by the leadership of the Revolution. The first and second declarations of Havana, formulating the basic principles of the Revolution, were the results of this process.
The Cuban Revolution did not adopt the structures of representative democracy because, in the first place, it had to adopt its own economic policies on a foundation of a political culture constituted by its political actors. And secondly, because the system of representative democracy of the period 1902 to 1959 had been completely discredited in the popular consciousness.
The Provisional Revolutionary Government was able to attain political stability as a result of various factors. (1) The wide recognition of the historical and political legitimacy of the revolutionary government in Cuban society. (2) The incorporation of the masses in the taking of decisions. (3) The identification of the interests of the popular masses. (4) The de-mythification of socialism as a totalitarian and dehumanizing regimen. (5) The systematic attacks on Cuba and its revolution by the government of the United Sates. (6) The political pedagogy exercised by Fidel Castro. (7) The taking of measures in support of the subjects that were the carriers of the Cuban Revolution. (8) The unification of the different generations in support of the same political objectives. (9) The mobilizations of the masses for epoch tasks in defense, education, and agriculture.
An important factor in the process was the political mastery of Fidel Castro in managing a complex situation, which required: (1) destroying the armed intervention of the United States; (2) immobilizing possible U.S. allies in Cuba; (3) incorporating all the people in active participation in defense and in economic production, including retired persons and homemakers; (4) maintaining literacy programs, even in zones of war; (5) developing a political struggle in the international arena, especially in the United Nations, where Cuba would be represented by Raúl Roa García, known to Cuban history as the “Chancellor of Dignity;” (6) increasing the political culture of the people, orienting it toward socialism; and (7) combatting in the Bay of Pigs not only for independence but also for socialism. Fidel’s declaration of the socialist character of the Revolution on the eve of the Bay of Pigs invasion demonstrated his sense of political timing, of awareness of the opportune moment. Fidel was a master of communication, capable of mobilizing the masses in the face of any challenge, no matter how daunting.
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The Construction of Socialism
What Cuba had undertaken in practice during the first years following the triumph of the Revolution was the task of a transition to socialism in the context of a capitalist world-system. The new system enjoyed a very high level of legitimacy, but it was overly dependent on the exceptional qualities of one person, as everyone understood.
During the 1970s, important steps were taken in the institutionalization of the Cuban Revolution. The Cuban Constitution of 1976 established People’s Power, which has structures of government that are alternatives to representative democracy. People’s Power was conceived as a structure that decentralizes power and distributes power to the local level. It seeks to foster a participatory political culture.3
In the middle of the 1980s, Fidel initiated the process called “rectification of errors and negative tendencies.” This began prior to the perestroika of the Soviet Union. The rectification or reform processes in the two socialist projects were essentially different. In Cuba, the rectification did not attempt to deconstruct socialist values or deny the history and continuity of the traditional way of the country. It was in Cuba a question of reevaluating some values with negative consequences, but the Soviet perestroika tried to improve an indurated socialism by throwing dirty water on the creature.
The debacle led to the incorporation of the former Soviet Union and the ex-socialist countries of Eastern Europe into the orbit of unipolar hegemonic capitalism headed by the United States. It resulted in the loss of the socialist commitment to international solidarity in Europe and to the abrupt cancellation of mutually beneficial commercial relations between Cuba and Eastern European countries, which created an especially grave situation in Cuba.
The Cuban Revolution confronted the most profound crisis in its history. The governability of Cuba and the legitimacy of the Cuban revolutionary process and political system were not questioned. What was at stake was the economic and physical survival of the men and women of the country. The Cuban economy lost importations valued at five billion dollars, and as a result, 80% of the nation’s industrial capacity was paralyzed for lack of machinery and fuel. Hoping to take advantage of the situation, the U.S. government declared an economic war against Cuba, enacting extraterritorial laws against commerce with Cuba. But the stability and governability of the Cuban political system was maintained.
Cuba entered its “special period.” The Cuban government adopted a policy of giving priority to defense as well as to the preservation of the gains of the Revolution with respect to health and education, which were understood and shared by the immense majority of the Cuban people. It adopted an economic strategy of reviving and establishing new forms of property: state-private capital joint ventures in services and cooperatives in agriculture. This implied a move toward a greater role for the market and the recognition of diverse forms of property.4
Western political scientists did not discern that these economic policies were the solution, enabling the survival of the socialist project in Cuba. They believed that Cuban socialism would fall, as socialism had fallen in Eastern Europe. They did not know of the New Economic Policy of Lenin, implemented in response to Western conventional and unconventional war against the Bolshevik revolution, and they therefore were not able to appreciate that sometimes revolutions need to make tactical retreats in order to save the revolution.
An important element in the survival of Cuban socialism has been identification in the political culture of independence and socialism as inseparable, in other words, the widespread belief that Cuba must be socialist in order to be independent. In addition, Fidel played an important role, forming the popular political culture toward greater respect for economic efficiency. He put forth the notion that the State provides for the immediate needs of all, but the State can no longer be the benefactor of everything, as it had been in previous decades.
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The importance of Cuban socialism
The Cuban Revolution perceives the world from the point of view of the majority of the world’s peoples, who have not accepted the role that elites have assigned to them.
The world situation is today without precedent. An all-powerful elite, managers of fictitious capital, is effectively tied to the information revolution. And the world confronts the environmental problem, caused principally by the neoliberal policies of the utilitarian and hedonistic summits of world economic and political power. The circles of economic power prefer to avoid the environmental problem, without taking into account the catastrophic consequences, while the timid general agreements of summits have lacked effectiveness.
In this world situation, science is needed, as Fidel always taught. The Cuban Revolution, forged by the exceptional leadership of José Martí and Fidel Castro, has much to teach a political science created from the struggles and cumulative experiences of the Global South. The Cuban Revolution is an important source for a political science from below, which is a necessary response to the unresponsiveness of Western political science.
Postscript
I have tried in this commentary to describe the meaning and importance of the Cuban Revolution according to Dr. Thalía. Thank you, Thalía. We miss you. Rest in peace. We continue the struggle.
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Fung Riverón, Thalía M. 2014. La ciencia política enfoque Sur [Political Science from the South]. Havana: Editora Politica.
Ibid., Pp. 302-3.
I have written previously in various commentaries of the Cuban political system, the foundation of which was established during the 1960s and 1970s, as the most significant and important achievement of the Cuban Revolution, even though it is less visible than its achievements in health, education, science, sport, culture, and international diplomacy. It is characterized by a system of direct and indirect elections by the people, which establish the National Assembly of Peoples’ Power, the highest political and legal authority of the nation, guiding the nation alongside the Communist Party of Cuba, the highest moral authority of the nation. (See “Cuban people’s democracy in practice,” July 25, 2023).
A new Constitution was approved by the National Assembly and in popular referendum in 2019. It introduced new concepts with respect to the economy, the family, and the rights of persons with particular needs, among others, in accordance with national and international changes in Cuba and the world since 1976. It preserved, in essence, the political system established by the Constitution of 1976, giving it a twist toward further decentralization and local political authority. (See “Participatory democracy in Cuba: The 2018 constitutional assembly formed by an entire people,” September 10, 2021).
These tendencies in Cuban economic policies have been intensified in the context of the current “unconventional war” of the United States against Cuba and other anti-imperialist states. The economic tendencies were given constitutional recognition in the new Cuban Constitution of 2019.