Celebrate the 51st Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution!‏

Who said “When first in the dim light of early morning, I saw the shores of Cuba rise and define themselves from the dark blue horizons, I felt as if I sailed with Captain Silver when first he gazed on Treasure Island. Here was a place where real things were going on. Here was a scene of vital action. Here was a place where anything might happen. Here was a place where something would certainly happen. Here I might leave my bones”?

Che Guevara?
Nelson Mandela?
Hugo Chavez?
No.

It was actually Winston Spencer Churchill in My Early Life, Thornton Butterworth, pp 74-87 - a different time for sure when he visited Cuba, but in many ways the quote still makes sense today.

Why? Well the island is still incredibly beautiful but it is the people and their overwhelming, special humanity that now makes all the difference.

As Fidel Castro said in 1995 at the commemorative meeting of the General Assembly on the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in New York http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/136.html:

“We lay claim to a world without hegemony, without nuclear weapons, without interventionism, without racism, without national or religious hatred, without outrageous acts against the sovereignty of peoples, without universal models that totally disregard the traditions and culture of all the elements of mankind”.

Cubans have Cubania, a full, heartfelt, conscious, and responsible understanding of what it is to be Cuban. It is based on the values and virtues articulated by their national hero Jose Marti and can only be understood by the idea of independence, by the capacity of the country to forge its own path in the world – even against the will of its mighty neighbour – and to strive for culture, equality and justice with the virtues of faith, hope and love.

As Cuba celebrates 51 years since the triumph of its revolution must it be made to return to the global capitalist casino? Should its future be determined by Cuban émigrés and terrorists in Miami and by the US congress? Or should the 11 million Cuban citizens be allowed to choose their future as a sovereign nation? To even have to ask these questions tells us that something is seriously wrong with US foreign policy.

Today on this historic anniversary we should not see the Cuban revolution as a static ‘once and for all achievement’. It is a revolution in motion, continually evolving and trying to make progress with humanistic ethics while daily enduring the USA blockade and being surrounded by a financially, spiritually and ecologically self destructing world. The Cuban people’s own social cohesion and solidarity, embedded in a socialist ethic, continues to inspire them to keep faith with their revolution.

Socialismo o Muerte ( Socialism or death) is no empty slogan but expresses the will of the people never to give up their right to self determination.

UNISON members can learn so much from Cuba and do so much in solidarity with the Cuba Solidarity Campaign >http://www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk/. That is why union links, especially ours with health and local government workers is so important.

The revolution will surely survive but the battle of ideas goes on.