Raúl Castro Proposes Change from Within Cuba’s Socialist System

The following is from Upside Down World:

(IPS) – Accompanied unexpectedly by Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl brought the sixth congress of Cuba’s Communist Party (PCC) to a close Tuesday with a call to “change everything that should be changed,” but without abandoning the socialist path taken on Apr. 16, 1961.

“The congress is over; to work now,” was President Raúl Castro’s closing remark at the end of the four-day congress, in which some 1,000 delegates met in Havana and elected him first secretary of the PCC.

Fidel Castro: NATO’s plan is to occupy Libya

The following is from the Cuban paper, Granma International:

Oil became the principal wealth in the hands of the large yankee transnationals; with that source of energy, they had at their disposal an instrument that considerably increased their political power in the world. It was their principal weapon when they decided to simply liquidate the Cuban Revolution as soon as the first, just and sovereign laws were enacted in our homeland: by depriving it of oil.

Current civilization was developed on the basis of this source of energy. Of the nations in this hemisphere it was Venezuela which paid the highest price. The United States made itself the owner of the vast oilfields which nature endowed upon that sister nation.

Fidel Castro: Piedad Córdoba and Her Fight for Peace

The following is from Reflections by Comrade Fidel. Though The Marxist-Leninist does not agree with Fidel Castro’s criticisms of the FARC-EP, this is very helpful analysis of the developing situation in Colombia:

Three days ago, there was news printed that the Attorney General of Colombia, Alejandro Ordóñez Maldonado had removed the prestigious Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba from her post and disqualified her from carrying out political office for 18 years, because of her alleged promoting and collaborating with the FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).  Faced with such an unusual and drastic measure taken against an elected post in the highest legislative body of state, Piedad has no alternative other than appealing to the very Attorney General who produced the measures.

It was logical that such arbitrariness would cause a mighty rejection, expressed by a wide range of political personalities, among them former prisoners of the FARC and relatives of those who had been liberated, thanks to the senator, former presidential candidates, persons who had held that high office, others who were or still are senators or members of the legislative power. 

China and Cuba’s New Economic Reforms

Che Guevara and Mao Zedong

The following article by Heiko Khoo is from China.org.cn:

Cuban President Raul Castro and the Cuban Workers’ Federation have announced a plan to reduce the state workforce by up to a million workers in the near future, signaling the start of profound changes. Cuban society is undoubtedly in need of radical reform. At present the state employs around 80 percent of the workforce and planning is supposed to control the entire economic system.

Fidel Castro’s speech at the University of Havana

The following is the text of Fidel Castro’s speech this morning to a mass rally at the University of Havana:

My dear comrades:

I asked that we meet early, before the heat of our sun becomes too intense.

This stairway, to which I never imagined I would be returning, keeps some indelible memories of the years when I began to become aware of our era and our duty. One can acquire knowledge and awareness throughout one’s lifetime but never in any other stage of one’s existence will a person again have the purity and selflessness with which, being young, one faces up to life. At that age, I discovered my true destiny.

Fidel Castro: Self-criticism for Cuba’s past anti-LGBTQ oppression

The following is from Blabbeando. Also of interest is this article about the tremendous progress Socialist Cuba has made in terms of LGBTQ rights. Of course The Marxist-Leninist objects to the references to Comrade Fidel as a “dictator”:

A stunner of an interview with Fidel Castro was posted today on the site of the Mexican newspaper La Jornada. In it, journalist Carmen Lira Saade interviews to the former dictator at his home in Havana and discusses the US blockade, Cuba’s relationship with Mexico and LGBT rights. Here is my translation of the passage in which the Cuban dictator addresses LGBT rights when he was leading the country.

[NOTE: The reporter writes in the first person and uses dashes for some citations and quotation marks for others, making the interview difficult to follow at parts. Nevertheless I have tried to retain the punctuation used in the original Spanish-language article from La Jornada].

Even though there is nothing that shows he feels any discomfort, I do not think Fidel is going to like what I am about to say.

Nathalie Cardone: Hasta Siempre

To commemorate the 82nd anniversary of the birth of the heroic Marxist-Leninist guerrilla leader, Ernesto Che Guevara, here is Nathalie Cardone’s video for “Hasta Siempre”

Cubans march against homophobia

The following article is from the Associated Press:

HAVANA – Hundreds of gay and lesbian activists, some dressed in drag and others sporting multicolored flags representing sexual diversity, marched and danced through the streets of Havana on Saturday along with the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro as part of a celebration aimed at eliminating homophobia around the world.

How to Visit a Socialist Country

A woman waves a flag in Havana's Revolution Square during the May Day parade, May 1, 2010

The following article by Richard Levins is from Monthly Review:

Travelers from the United States to Cuba cross more than ninety miles of sea: they cross decades of history. They may be limited to one suitcase, but they carry trunks full of ideological baggage, including biases about Cuba, beliefs about communists, commitments as to what a good society should be like, and a collection of conventional poli-sci formulas about power, government, and human behavior.

One Cuban commentator notes:

Coming from North America or Europe to a typical Cuban urban neighborhood, the visitor’s first impression might be one of poverty: crumbling or poorly maintained buildings, pot-holed streets, ancient cars, homes where there are few “extras” etc. On the other hand, if you arrive from Latin America or another developing country, other aspects of Cuban life might get your attention: no street kids, no malnourished faces, no beggars, and people walking the streets at night with almost no fear.1

Or easily identified as foreign, visitors may be beset by scouts for private, tiny restaurants, offers of guides, ginateras (a Cuban euphemism for prostitutes, usually amateur).

Members of delegations usually have planned itineraries, visiting various institutions and cultural events. They will learn about health care, education, cultural and sport resources, commitment to an ecological pathway of development, urban agriculture, equitable distribution through the rationing system, full employment, formal aspects of the political and judicial systems, achievements in gender and racial equality. These are all real, and demonstrate how far a poor country can go with so little. But it is obviously not the full story. There is nothing sinister in this. These are the things in which Cuba has pioneered, and of which Cuba is most proud and eager to show the world

CP of Cuba: We will defend the truth with our ethics and our principles

The following article was the lead editorial in Granma on April 8th.  Granma is the official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba. It is being reposted here from ML Today.

The empire and its allies have launched a new crusade in an attempt to demonize Cuba. Its powerful political and media machinery has set in motion a colossal operation of deception with the object of discrediting the revolutionary process, destabilizing the country and provoking the conditions for the destruction of our social system.

In this heated campaign they are using their mercenaries at their whim. In order to obtain shameful political dividends they are tossing them to their deaths without the most minimal concern for those human beings; just as they have never cared about the death of more than 3,000 Cubans as a result of acts of terrorism organized and financed from the United States, or the fate of the 2,000-plus compatriots mutilated by those abominable acts, or citizens who have perished in the Strait of Florida having launched themselves on ill-fated adventures after the siren calls of the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act.