Lessons of the Cuban Revolution

Hey!

All right.

Um, thanks everyone so much for coming. Okay, so the Cuban Revolution is one of the most inspiring events in human history.

Prior to the revolution, Cuba was effectively a colony of the United States with essentially every key industry on the island being owned and operated in the interests of US imperialism.

To give you a picture of the conditions in Cuba in the 1950s, just before the revolution, there was a chronic unemployment rate of 15 to 20%, thousands of women and children were trapped working in prostitution.

A Cuban peasants lived in huts with that palm roofs and bare dirt floors, um, and the island was ruled by US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, who exercised monstrous repression against the working class.

The Cuban Revolution of 1959 completely transformed the situation.

It brought changes that were unprecedented and simply would have never happened under capitalism.

Land was given to landless peasants, illiteracy, racial segregation and brothels were all abolished.

Abortion was legalized decades before it was ever legalized in the US or Canada.

So I'll quote some facts and figures from today just to give you an idea of what the revolution has done for people.

So in education, Cuba's literacy rate is at 99.8%, uh, which is one of the highest in the world and education is free at every level.

Um, in healthcare, there's a life a life expectancy of 78, which is 10 years higher than the world average.

Um, and Cuba has the lowest HIV prevalence rate in the Americas.

Uh, and in terms of general living standards, before 1959, only 35.2% of Cubans had running water.

And 82.6% had no bathtub or shower.

Now, 91% of the population has access to drinking water and 98% have access to improved sanitation.

Uh, before 1959, just 7% of homes had electricity.

And now that figure is at 95.5%.

So maybe you've never heard of any of this before.

Maybe you've only heard that the revolution was violent, that Castro was a dictator.

And that poor, honest businessmen had everything taken away from them.

Uh, and there's a reason we constantly hear these slanders.

The revolution is living proof that there is an alternative to capitalism and it serves as a constant embarrassment for US imperialism.

This was a tiny island that succeeded in kicking out the most powerful capitalist country that has ever existed.

It nationalized all the key industries and established a planned economy to take control of its own destiny.

As Marxist and as revolutionary socialists, we wholeheartedly defend the Cuban Revolution.

We defend all the extraordinary gains it made for Cuban workers and in particular for women, peasants and black Cubans.

Which were some of the most oppressed layers of Cuban society.

The purpose of this presentation is to learn the lessons of the Cuban Revolution.

Uh, in order to point the way forward for today.

How and why did they win?

What is the state of the revolution today?

It's vital to understand these lessons both for our movement and for the future of Cuba itself.

So in order to understand the Cuban Revolution, we first need to learn some history.

The history of modern Cuba begins in the early 16th century when Spanish colonialists uh, invaded the island.

And drove the native population to near extinction.

Through a series of events culminating in a war between the US and Spain in 1898, Cuba was eventually freed from Spanish rule.

But this was only to be placed under the control of its neighbor and rising imperialist giant, the United States of America.

So up until the 19th century, uh, the Cuban economy consisted mostly of small-scale village-style farms.

Uh, but this all changed when French settlers from Haiti, uh, came to the island following the Haitian Revolution of 1804.

These settlers brought their knowledge of advanced uh, sugar and tobacco production techniques.

Um, and this transformed the farms into large-scale agribusinesses.

And these innovations also led to the use of slave labor on a massive scale.

Uh, Cuba was the last colony in the Americas to end slavery.

And heavy reliance on slave labor, uh, meant that the Cuban economy was extremely underdeveloped.

There was no industrialization, no factories, just sugar and coffee plantations.

The tiny Cuban bourgeoisie that did exist were extremely weak and heavily dependent on foreign capital.

At the time, thanks to the wealth produced by industry and slave labor, the US was also rising as a power.

They emerged as Cuba's largest trading partner, taking sugar, tobacco, and coffee in exchange for manufactured products.

By 1894, most Cuban sugar mills were owned by American companies.

Less than one in five mill owners were Cubans and more than 90% of all sugar exports went to the US.

Most of the other key sectors of the economy such as electricity and telephone services were also US-owned.

Um, and the economic domination that the US had over Cuba is quite obvious.

Um, and this would later translate into political domination as I'll explain.

So in 1898, the Spanish Empire fell and the US gained uh, gained control of the Philippines.

Guam, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.

For the next three years, Cuba was militarily occupied and ruled by the United States.

This direct military occupation over Cuba, uh, came to an end in 1901 with the Platt Amendment.

Um, and the Platt Amendment contained seven conditions for the withdrawal of US troops in Cuba.

So I'll name just a few of them here.

There was the the right of the US military to intervene in Cuba at any time.

Uh, Cuba was disallowed from entering into any treaties with a foreign power that the US didn't approve of.

Um, and Cuba also had to surrender three important uh, bases as or three important base as military bases for the US.

Um, the US had complete domination over Cuban politics.

Um, invading Cuba four times over the next 30 years to install a government of its choice.

The US also had the ability to veto or overturn any decision made by the Cuban government.

And the only benefit offered to Cuba was a virtual sugar monopoly in the US market.

But this also had a uh, consequences for the development of the Cuban economy.

US imperialism maintained sugar as Cuba's dominant export, as well as US manufactured goods as the dominant import.

Um, this was all well and good for you uh, US and Cuban capitalists.

But for the actual Cuban workers, it meant that domestic industry and society in general were highly underdeveloped.

The entire island was essentially reduced to a sugar plantation.

Cuban state officials may have literally stopped swearing an oath of loyalty to the US after 1901.

But functionally, in practice, the Cuban state was a subsidiary of US capitalism.

And this is what the Cuban ruling class and the Cuban government were loyal to.

This dynamic between foreign imperialism and the local ruling class is important for understanding the theory of permanent revolution.

Which I'll talk about more later.

So the United States parasitic rule over Cuba only deepened the exploitation and oppression faced by the Cuban masses.

Illiteracy was over 90% in many rural areas.

And houses with running water and electricity were in the minority.

Black migrant workers from Jamaica, Barbados, and Haiti were paid less than Cuban workers and deliberately kept in separate villages to divide the working class.

And of course, US sugar tycoons profited immensely from this cheap plantation labor.

So the exploitation faced by the Cuban workers at the hands of US imperialism was brutal.

And the 1910s and 20s were characterized by ongoing resistance.

Mainly from sugar workers.

So in this situation of growing class struggle, uh, the uh, workers began to organize themselves.

An important development in the Cuban labor movement was the founding of the Cuban Communist Party in August 1925.

So at this time, the Cuban Communist Party played a leading role in fighting for better working conditions.

And began to gain authority in the trade unions.

However, this healthy role of the party would change in the 1930s as I'll explain.

So in the early 1930s, Cuba witnessed a strike wave.

Uh, due to the Great Depression's impact on the US economy, Cuban exports fell drastically.

For example, sugar exports fell by 75% from 1929 to 1934.

And this obviously had a massive impact on the workers.

And forced them into struggle.

The Communist Party led and supported many of these strikes, including one in 1933 that started with uh, Havana truck drivers.

And eventually joined by the tram drivers, dock workers, teachers, and later the sugar workers.

This strike grew to be quite powerful, so President Machado responded by attempting to make a deal with the Communist Party to sell out the strike.

Essentially, give the workers a few concessions so they shut up and go home.

The Communist Party actually accepted this deal, which is obviously a total betrayal.

Although the workers rejected their leaders' agreement and remained on strike.

This decision by the Communist Party to betray the workers would be a good indicator of their role for the next 20 years.

So later that year, Havana workers would eventually end their strike.

Uh, however, workers on the sugar plantations continue their strike with an extremely interesting development.

By August 1933, 36 Cuban sugar mills were operating under workers' control.

Uh, led by newly formed revolutionary councils.

These were basically a proto version of the Russian workers' councils or Soviets that overthrew capitalism.

And brought the workers to power in the Russian Revolution of 1917.

So in addition to these proto-Soviets, the uh, workers also organized patrols and relief committees to protect and maintain their strike.

And this showed the true revolutionary potential of the Cuban working class.

Um, so this begs the question, why couldn't the Cuban Communist Party see the progressive and even revolutionary nature of this strike?

Why did they betray the workers?

Well, this has to do with the party's connection to the Soviet Union and the Communist International.

So after the 1917 Revolution that brought the workers to power, the Soviet Union was seen as an example and leader in the fight for socialism.

The revolution gave inspiration to workers and oppressed people all over the world.

But by the 1930s, the Soviet Union had undergone a bureaucratic degeneration led by Joseph Stalin.

While the planned economy was maintained, the workers had their political power stripped from them and unelected bureaucrats began to run the country.

These bureaucrats received salaries much higher than that of the average worker and they had an interest in maintaining their privileges.

Um, and so to do so, they promoted certain ideas and theories.

Among the international Communist parties that would ultimately prevent revolution abroad.

One of these ideas was the two-stage theory.

This is the idea that an underdeveloped country like Cuba first needs to go through a stage of capitalist democratic revolution.

And only later can it go through a socialist revolution.

And so for the Communist Party, it was too early for a socialist revolution.

It was the job of the progressive national bourgeoisie, in this case, the local Cuban bourgeoisie.

First to kick out the imperialists and then the workers had to support them in this.

Um, and only later could the workers fight for socialism.

But when exactly that is is never explained.

But hold on, where was this so-called progressive national bourgeoisie during the strike?

You know, these people that were supposed to be leading the revolution according to the Communist Party.

So while the Cuban workers were seizing American-owned sugar mills and running their own workplaces.

The Cuban bourgeoisie, fearing US intervention, promised the US, and I quote, strict respect of the debts and obligations of the Republic.

The Cuban bourgeoisie were weak, they came into being quite late.

And were tied to US imperialism at every level.

Cuban capitalism was not a native endeavor, but an American one.

There was no room for the Cuban bourgeoisie to play an independent role.

One of the founding members of the Communist Party, the Cuban Communist Party, Julio Antonio Mella, uh, was totally against this arbitrary two-stage line of thinking.

Mella was a revolutionary activist, uh, who played a leading role in labor and student movements.

Um, and in one writing, he gives a definition of the role of the national bourgeoisie.

Which actually mirrors Leon Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution.

So I'll quote him here.

In their struggle against imperialism, the foreign thief, the bourgeois, the national thief, unite with the proletariat.

The good old cannon fodder.

But they end up realizing that it is better to form an alliance with imperialism.

Which at the end of the day pursues similar interests.

So at the very same time that this strike was going on, uh, a coup was being prepared.

By future US-backed military dictator Fulgencio Batista.

After the coup, Batista ran the country from the background.

Uh, using a series of puppet presidents until 1952 when he launched another coup and took power as president.

Uh, so while Batista's coup marked a turn to the right, it could not fully extinguish the revolutionary mood.

More than 100 strikes took place over the next year, with the largest being a general strike.

Uh, sparked by the teachers and students in February 1935.

What started as demands for increased education funding eventually grew to a general strike of 500,000 workers.

And this paralyzed banks, newspapers, telephone services, manufacturing industries, and government departments.

Batista's puppet regime responded with brutality and terror.

The constitution was suspended, martial law was declared in Havana, prohibiting public meetings.

Uh, striking unions were dissolved.

Strike leaders were abducted and assassinated.

And for the first time, citizens were rounded up and executed by firing squad.

Public service workers were put back to work by the military and literally forced to work at gunpoint.

The strike was crushed and all political opposition was forced underground.

Now, what lessons did the Cuban Communist Party draw from this affair?

Was it that Batista was an utterly reactionary tyrant and an obvious enemy of the working class?

Uh, you would hope so, but actually no.

So in 1938, the party resolved to, quote, adopt a more positive attitude towards Colonel Batista.

In hopes that he would adopt positively democratic attitudes.

Uh, this was never hope.

After that massacre.

So if this sounds utterly ridiculous, uh, ridiculous, it's because it is.

But the party did not embrace this position for no reason.

This was an expression of popular frontism.

Which was just the latest theory of the Stalinist bureaucracy in Russia.

This promoted a strategy of teaming up with local capitalists in an anti-fascist alliance.

Uh, which obviously lines right up with two-stage theory.

So as I've explained, these theories did not correspond at all to the real situation in Cuba.

In the strike of 1933, Cuban capitalists were not gearing up to kick out US imperialism.

They were literally scared of US invasion and pledged their loyalty instead.

This meant crushing the workers and therefore crushing any potential revolution.

This is just one example, but the same phenomenon can be seen in all countries dominated by imperialism.

The local bourgeoisie refused to play an independent role because, like Mella wrote, they end up realizing that it is better to form an alliance with imperialism.

Which at the end of the day pursues similar interests.

Those interests being profit at the expense of the working class.

So the Communist Party publicly supported Batista as an anti-imperialist and man of the people.

In exchange for legal party status and control over the trade union movement.

All while Cubans who opposed opposed his regime were being taken into custody, tortured, and disappeared.

So repulsed by the Communist Party's support for Batista.

A number of groups began planning for his overthrow independently of the party.

Fidel Castro and his brother Raul were part of one such group.

Fidel uh, Fidel had been involved in the Cuban People's Party.

But after Batista's coup, he include uh, he concluded that the only way to gain political power.

Was not through an election, but by overthrowing the government through a revolution.

So with an armed group of about 130 men and two women, he launched an attack on the Moncada Army Barracks.

On July 26, 1953.

The aim of the attack was to act as a spark for a nationwide uprising that would overthrow Batista's regime.

The plan ended in disaster with 100 radicals, leftists, and socialists.

Uh, being arrested and charged with organizing an armed uprising.

Uh, and most of them actually had nothing to do with the attack.

Um, and Fidel and his brother both received 15-year prison sentences.

And Fidel actually used his trial as an opportunity to make his famous history will absolve me speech.

Which would become the manifesto of the 26th July movement.

Um, and I'll quote part of it here.

I do not fear prison, as I do not fear the fury of the miserable tyrant who took the lives of 70 of my comrades.

Condemn me, it does not matter.

History will absolve me.

So obviously, this is the type of fearless attitude that made Fidel a hero.

Um, but I also have to say, while Fidel and Raul were no doubt heroic.

Their first attempt to spark a revolution was a failure.

And we have to understand why.

Looking at this from a Marxist perspective, this was a group of petty bourgeois with no mass base.

Or connection to any mass organization.

Uh, they had no links to the workers or the peasants.

And they were trying to artificially create a movement with a heroic deed.

And while every strike, every movement, every revolution has needed a spark.

This happens with the conscious intervention of the masses after an accumulation of suffering that suddenly can't be bared any longer.

Fidel's group made no attempt to connect with the masses in order to mobilize them.

It simply assumed that all the oppressed people of Cuba were angry enough with Batista.

And would magically follow their lead.

No political or tactical direction needed.

So the 26th July Movement or M26J, formulated their program in 1956.

The program was actually not socialist, but bourgeois democratic.

Its demands included agrarian reform, profit sharing, and quote, a state of solidarity between capital and workers to raise the country's productivity.

The program even defined itself as guided by the ideals of Jeffersonian democracy.

However, it was radical in that it demanded the revolutionary overthrow of Batista's regime.

And their refusal to compromise on this would gain the movement massive support in the future.

So just a few years earlier, following the post-World War II boom, the price of sugar dropped massively.

In order to avoid losing profits, the bosses attacked the workers' wages.

With total wages dropping by almost 40% in one year alone.

Almost 20 years after the repression of the 1935 strike.

This sparked a revival of the Cuban labor movement.

Uh, and by December 1954, 500,000 sugar workers were on strike.

And typical of Batista's regime, this was, sorry.

Typical of Batista's regime, there was intense violence against the workers from the police and the army.

Along with hatred for Batista, the strike also had a strong anti-US character.

Many militant workers believed that they needed to go beyond traditional trade union methods.

In order to uh, fight this regime and to fight US imperialism.

Um, and they were willing to support any movement that was against Batista.

And against US imperialism.

And this led to increased popularity of the M26J among the working class.

Um, and so in another unorganized attempt to spark the revolution.

The M26J made plans for a general strike while keeping the day of the strike a secret from the workers.

Uh, the strike call was issued after 10:00 AM on April 9th.

Uh, when most workers were already at work.

Again, there was no attempt to go to the workers' organizations and win their support.

And the strike was a failure.

So after this, the M26J leaders didn't fully discount the importance of the working class.

But now they were clearly subordinated to the role armed struggle.

Rather than the workers leading the peasants.

Activity in the cities was limited to providing supplies, food, and and personnel for the guerrillas.

So this whole event touches on a fundamental question.

What is the main force that can lead the revolution?

So for Che and Fidel, it was the peasant army, the guerrillas.

However, as a Marxist, I would say that this perspective was mistaken.

Marx explained that only the working class can paralyze society and lead the revolution.

This isn't necessarily because they're the biggest class or the most oppressed class.

But fundamentally, it's because of their role in production.

So think back to the general strike of 1935.

By going on strike, the workers shut society down, proving that nothing gets done without the working class.

The workers are the ones with the true power.

In the case of the sugar workers in 1933.

They were seizing the sugar mills and running their own workplaces.

This is the revolutionary potential of the working class.

And with the uh, with the right leadership, this kind of workers' control could have been generalized.

In terms of building socialism, it's also important impossible to build workers' democracy.

Without the workers themselves being the force that leads the revolution.

And this would become obvious later on.

So gaining confidence from the failed general strike, Batista launched an all-out assault on the guerrillas.

Batista bombed and burned uh, entire villages to the ground.

Notably with napalm supplied by the US.

Regardless of whether these villages contained rebel troops.

Wholesale massacres of men, women, and children took place.

Ironically, this barbarism actually turned many peasant soldiers away from Batista.

And towards Castro's guerrillas.

On top of this, the Cuban economy was collapsing.

And not even basic commercial activity could be maintained.

The roads and railways had been lost to guerrilla roadblocks and blown up bridges.

The revolution was gaining momentum and peasant as more peasants joined.

And there was more support from the working class in the cities.

The rebel army was making rapid progress.

With the guerrillas led by Che Guevara, capturing the city of Santa Clara on December 31st, 1958.

Batista saw the writing on the wall.

And fled the country to the Dominican Republic.

The US responded extremely quickly, installing a new provisional president to take Batista's place the next day.

The M26J replied by calling a nationwide general strike to paralyze the country.

With Fidel Castro broadcasting on the radio, Revolution yes, military coup no.

This week-long strike was decisive in stopping the maneuvers of US imperialism.

And guaranteeing the victory of the revolution.

Leadership is always key in determining the direction of a mass struggle.

And the Cuban Revolution was no exception to this.

The M26J were uncompromising in their determined to kick out Batista.

And carry out the struggle to the end.

However, they did have their weaknesses.

Overall, Castro and the M26J had a limited perspective for the revolution.

From history will absolve me up until the seizure of power, there was no suggestion that the guerrillas would take steps in a socialist direction.

On May 21st, 1959, Castro said.

Our revolution is neither capitalist nor communist.

Our revolution is not red, but olive green, the color of the rebel army.

So he's essentially trying to take social class out of the equation.

Um, which as a Marxist, I would argue that you can never do.

Class, meaning who owns what, who controls production.

That is always the fundamental question and the leadership would later learn this from experience.

So the M26J had come to power as a result of a revolutionary mass insurrection.

That had destroyed the political power of the ruling class and smashed the state apparatus.

Their primary slogans were for agrarian reform and an end to hunger.

Reflecting the demands of the peasantry.

The initial government following the revolution was actually a coalition government.

Containing liberals and capitalists.

AKA people who were openly hostile to the M26J's program.

With these supposedly progressive capitalists in power, it was impossible to get anything done.

Land reform was seen as full-blown communism.

Castro was later made Prime Minister in February and this is when the reforms began to be implemented.

So just to name some of the most immediate reforms put in place by the revolution.

Um, there was a reduction in rents and mortgage rates.

Uh, landlords were forbidden to evict tenants.

Uh, there were there were wage increases for sugar workers and low-paid civil servants.

Um, electricity costs were reduced by 30%.

Dozens of new bridges were built to connect previously isolated villages to the rest of the country.

And racist laws that barred black Cubans from entering skilled work.

As well as whites-only facilities were abolished.

There was free medical care, free dental care.

Free meals in schools, inexpensive workplace lunches.

Socialized care for the elderly and free amateur sports programs.

And the first major revolutionary legislation to be introduced was the agrarian reform law.

Which restricted the land ownership of big capitalists and landlords.

Expropriations were still limited, but it was at this point when the uh, revolution began to clash head-on with US imperialism.

When American sugar company United Fruit, uh, backed by the US administration, refused Cuba's offer for compensation of the land.

They went ahead and expropriated them anyway.

This triggered the US to pull the plug on the sugar quota and officially begin the embargo that same year.

But no matter how many times they were provoked, the revolutionary government responded the exact same way every time.

With expropriation and nationalization.

The masses also mobilized in support of these expropriations, showing the popular character of the revolution.

So confronted by imperialism, it's at this point when most petty bourgeois leaders of national revolutions backed down.

They reassessed their programs, dropped their radical demands, and betray.

So why did Fidel and Co make the choice that they did?

I think this is where we have to consider the subjective role of leadership.

Fidel witnessed the use of US napalm against Cuban civilians, uh, along with a bunch of other atrocities.

Um, and this deeply disgusted and enraged him.

So it's no wonder he had the guts to stand up to US imperialism.

While Fidel made uh, many mistakes, I think we can draw a lesson here as revolutionaries.

We must be willing to carry out the struggle to the end.

It's these make-or-break moments that truly define the character of a leadership.

So the M26J had originally aspired to liberal bourgeois democracy.

After the revolution, Castro even said to President Nixon, we are not communists.

The doors are open for private investment that could contribute to the development of Cuba.

But the revolution showed in practice that this was not possible.

A whole 90% of the economy was owned and controlled by the US.

So in order to guarantee uh, not only basic reforms, but functional independence.

Capitalism had to be undermined.

This is what Trotsky meant when he wrote that the demo the democratic revolution grows directly over into the socialist revolution.

And thereby becomes a permanent revolution.

So by August, all US-owned properties were nationalized.

Effectively abolishing capitalism on the island.

In 1960, uh, with the leadership of Che Guevara, Cuba created a department for economic planning.

So now the American capitalists obviously didn't like this.

They just had their little sugar island ripped out of their hands.

So in April 1961, the CIA launched the invasion of the Bay of Pigs.

With the intention of overthrowing the revolutionary government.

The CIA-backed army was composed of Cuban exiles.

AKA those who had their property and their land expropriated by the revolution.

So the day before the invasion, Fidel announced the socialist character of the revolution.

Which inspired the masses to come out and defend all of its gains.

The Bay of Pigs ended up being a complete failure.

It was defeated by the organized people determined to keep US imperialism out for good.

By the end of 1961, Fidel came out openly as a Marxist.

And later admitted that the revolution, the way that the revolution developed, forced him in this direction.

So we see in practice, uh, you can't stop the revolution halfway.

You have to carry it out to the end.

And this is something that Fidel learned from experience.

Uh, regardless of what his ideals were.

So Cuba's turn towards nationalization and a planned economy did not happen in isolation.

With moving away from capitalism, Cuba was naturally propelled in the direction of the USSR.

There were positive and negative sides to Cuba's relationship with the USSR.

So when the US began their embargo and refused trade with Cuba.

Uh, the Soviet Union, as well as the People's Republic of China, bought up the excess sugar.

Going forward, the Soviet Union would buy Cuban sugar for above market prices.

Uh, and provide crude oil for below market prices to allow Cuba to finance programs like healthcare, education, uh, etcetera.

However, the steel actually interfered with one of the main aims of the revolution.

Which was to move away from this single crop economy and industrialize.

Industry was put on the back burner and Cuba rapidly increased sugar production.

When Cuba failed to meet their sugar quota in 1968, the Soviet bureaucracy used this as leverage to politically and economically intervene further.

So speaking uh, purely on economic growth.

Cuba benefited from this uh, with a growth of about 4% per year.

However, the Soviet bureaucrats also imposed social and cultural backwardness.

Uh, discrimination against gay men became institutionalized.

Uh, social sciences were banned in universities.

And arts and culture became heavily censored.

And this uh, censorship of social sciences and arts was to prevent criticism of the Soviet Union essentially.

So economic planning became even more bureaucratized.

And those at the top gained special privileges that the workers did not enjoy.

So this was clearly not genuine socialist internationalism.

This was a self-seeking bureaucracy imposing its will on a much smaller, more underdeveloped country.

But why is internationalism even important in the first place?

So a socialist revolution begins on the national scale.

But it can only be completed by spreading to other countries.

Under capitalism, no national economy exists in isolation.

It wouldn't be able to survive if it did.

Just think of poor countries that are impacted by sanctions.

The entire point of socialism is to raise the productive level, uh, far beyond what it currently exists under capitalism in order to end scarcity.

This is why a socialist federation for combined economic planning is absolutely necessary.

Just like a capitalist state can't survive in isolation, a workers' state can't either.

And this is all especially true for a small island like Cuba.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Cuba was left even more isolated than it already was.

Uh, and has since relied on tourism as its main industry.

You can imagine that the economic impact that the pandemic had on Cuba when tourism was almost at a complete stop.

So where is the Cuban Revolution today?

The Cuban bureaucracy have been slowly opening up to the market.

And making concessions to capitalism since the late 80s.

Among these measures have been opening up to foreign investment, promotion of tourism as a source of hard currency.

Uh, legalization of the dollar, decentralization of foreign trade and introduction of self-employment and small businesses.

This has led to quite a few social inequalities.

As, you know, the free market naturally does.

Those with access to the US dollar, uh, such as those who work in tourism or live abroad.

Um, have been able to obtain a level of privilege above other workers.

The introduction of self-employment and small businesses in particular have led to a thin layer of petty bourgeois in Cuban society.

Uh, creating a social basis for the protests we saw last year.

Uh, SOS Cuba.

And of course, we can't forget the Cuban bureaucracy.

Who use their status in government to gain material rewards.

Uh, and higher paid than the workers.

Of course, our capitalist governments aren't any better than this.

Uh, but our goal is to build a society free from social inequality.

Social inequality was the material basis for the rise of the bureaucracy in the USSR.

And these contradictions piled up, uh, until eventually the planned economy collapsed.

So going in this direction, Cuba is faced with the very real threat of subversion of the workers' state.

And a restoration of capitalism.

Uh, there is currently a debate within the Cuban bureaucracy, uh, on the way forward.

Um, with many arguing that opening up to capitalism could lead Cuba in the direction of the Chinese model.

However, I would argue that this could never be the case.

The Chinese Revolution established a planned economy.

However, the Chinese bureaucracy later up uh, opened up to foreign investment.

Gradually leading to the restoration of capitalism.

China is a resource-rich country with over a billion inhabitants.

Uh, and today contains the largest industrial working class on Earth.

Opening up to foreign investment allowed the Chinese bureaucracy to build up the local economy.

Um, and become the second largest imperialist power.

Cuba does not have the land or resources to do anything like this.

Instead, uh, with the direction of opening up to capitalism, Cuba would be reduced to some, I'm sorry.

Cuba would be reduced to semi-colonial backwardness and imperialist domination.

Similar to the conditions pre-1959.

So what is the way forward?

First and foremost, we stand in defense of all of the gains of the revolution.

In order to protect these gains, it's necessary that the key sectors of the economy remain state-owned.

This includes things like banks, uh, tourism, mining, and airlines.

The state must also retain control of foreign trade and the country's national economic plan.

Must be uh, continued to be based on social need rather than profit.

But how can we actually defend and maintain all of these gains?

The answer is through workers' democracy and socialist internationalism.

As I've explained, real workers' democracy has always been missing from the revolution.

This is one of its key weaknesses.

Time and time again, the Cuban working class has shown its determination to defend the gains of the revolution.

These mobilizations must be extended to real democratic control over the economy.

Workers already know how society functions and how everything operates.

Production must be planned through elected and recallable representatives from the working class itself.

This will ensure that the interests of the entire working class are upheld.

As well as prevent bureaucratic privileges and mismanagement.

But even with uh, workers' democracy, Cuba cannot build socialism in isolation.

The future of the Cuban Revolution is bound to the revolutions in the rest of Latin America and the world.

Imperialism continues to dominate the entirety of Central and South America.

The only way to defeat imperialism is with an international revolutionary mass movement of all the peoples of Latin America.

In a struggle for United Socialist Federation.

And this idea of international revolution, it's not a fantasy or an abstraction.

In the 70s, we saw the Nicaraguan and Chilean Revolutions.

In the 90s, the Venezuelan Revolution.

And just in the past five years, we've seen mass movements in Ecuador, Haiti, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia.

And outside of Latin America, we've seen countless movements of the working class.

Uh, from the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 to the incredibly inspiring movement happening right now in Iran.

Capitalism is in crisis and revolution is on the agenda all over the world.

What's lacking is a revolutionary leadership that can lead these struggles to victory.

Canadian imperialism, along with other imperialist powers, uh, is attempting to return Cuba to a state of semi-colonial dependency.

In Canada, the best solidarity that we can offer the Cuban workers is to struggle against our own ruling class.

This means building a revolutionary party in the here and now to fight for international socialism.

Because only the spread of the Cuban Revolution can guarantee its survival.

Thank you.