On the Centenary of Fidel Castro’s Birth

“We simply have to apply scientific socialism. That is why I began by saying with complete frankness that we believe in Marxism, that we believe it is the most correct, the most scientific theory, the only truly revolutionary theory. I say that here with complete satisfaction and with complete confidence: I am a Marxist-Leninist, and I shall be a Marxist-Leninist to the end of my life.”
Fidel Castro, December 2, 1961 

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born in Birán, in the former province of Oriente, on August 13, 1926. One hundred years have passed since that date, and across that time, his achievements stand out with remarkable intensity. On July 26th 1953, he led an attack on the Moncada Barracks against the Batista dictatorship, with the battle cry: “Freedom or Death!” Although the attack was not militarily successful and Fidel was arrested, his defence speech, which struck at the contradictions of capitalism and imperialist domination that gripped Cuban society at the time, sparked a mass movement. After being released in 1955, he left for Mexico to organize a new offensive. He returned to Cuba in 1956 on the cabin cruiser Granma with 81 other fighters and fought a guerrilla war against the dictatorship for two years across the Sierra Maestra mountains. Finally, on January 1, 1959, the rebels won the Battle of Santa Clara, causing Batista to flee and ensuring the triumph of the revolution. 

As Fidel carried out the 26 of July Movement’s revolutionary programme, it quickly became clear to the United States that he would not be another puppet for them to control, leading them in 1960 to begin their economic blockade of Cuba that lasts till today, and in 1961 to launch the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Yet the invasion only led to a humiliating defeat for the imperialists, and soon afterwards, on International Workers’ Day, Fidel declared the socialist nature of the revolution. . “The workers now are not subject to the domination of any exploiting class; the workers no longer live in a country run by men serving exploiting interests. The workers know now that everything the revolution does, everything the government does or can do, has one goal: helping the workers, helping the people.”

The following year, as the Cuban revolution pressed onward, the island came under increased economic pressure from the United States and was threatened by the possibility of imperialist aggression. Through negotiations with the Soviets,  Cuba accepted nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union to deter further U.S aggression. Despite this, Washington continued threatening the revolution and nearly brought the world to nuclear armageddon because of the audacity of Cuba to assert its independence. The path forward for Cuba was that of opposing imperialism wherever it may be found. Thus, Fidel played a founding role in the formation of the non-aligned movement. His 1979 Havana Declaration reaffirmed his, and the Cuban people’s, commitment to respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the non-aligned nations, comprising principally recently decolonized nations shedding the yoke of colonialism at the hand of imperialism. 

Cuban support for the nations of the world ranged from its direct intervention, in the case of the Angolan civil war, to its broader demonstrations of internationalism. Cuba’s revolution has, since the 1960s, been grounded in international solidarity and material support for the peoples of the world. Cuban doctors have travelled the world, helping lift thousands out of illness and training people on the ground to care for their own. To this day Cuba continues to welcome the peoples of the world to its universities to train the proletariat of the world in Cuban medicine and science. In October 1962, greeting the Cuban people after, Fidel emphasized that doctors were the strength of the revolution. Cuba’s staunch commitment to international solidarity and aid through its medical interventions is a legacy of Fidel’s commitment to the peoples of the world.

In 1989, when bourgeois intellectuals were declaring the end of history as counter-revolutions were occurring in the socialist bloc and opportunist leaders such as Gorbachev were facilitating all of this, Fidel declared that Cuba owed everything to socialism and that “if fate were to decree that one day we would be among the last defenders of socialism in a world in which US imperialism had realized Hitler’s dreams of world domination, we would defend this bulwark to the last drop of our blood.” And so it was that Cuba managed to endure the hardship of the Special Period, with the absence of the Soviet Union and entered the 2000s revitalized with the Battle of Ideas. 

Throughout his life, Fidel had a personal connection with the people of Canada. On two occasions, in 1959 and in 2000, Fidel visited Canada. In 1959, to greet the peoples of Montreal and in 2000 for the funeral of former Prime Minister Pierre-Elliot Trudeau. On this trip, Fidel served as pallbearer for his longtime friend. The friendship between Fidel and Trudeau Sr. is no secret, and represents the connection between the Canadian and the Cuban people. Despite the imperialist aggression of the United States, Cuba and Canada have had a special rapprochement, some of the closest in this hemisphere. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians made up the majority of visitors to the island, and to this day Canadians are welcomed in open arms by the Cubans. Organizations like the Canadian Network on Cuba continue to work closely with Cuba, continuing the work of friendship that Fidel fostered during his life. When the World Festival of Youth and Students was held in Havana in 1978, Fidel greeted the youth delegates, of which a thousand Canadian youth and students. Fidel’s legacy is one interwoven with a dedicated friendship to Canadians, and one which is returned every year when Canadians visit Cuba on work brigades, delegations, or visits. 

At the age of ninety,  Fidel died peacefully of natural causes in his sleep, despite hundreds of assassination attempts by the United States. As Lenin said of Engels’ death: “What a torch of reason ceased to burn, What a heart has ceased to beat!” And yet Fidel’s last wish was to prohibit any personality cult around himself; Cuba thus prohibits the use of his name in the names of institutions, parks, streets and other public places, as well as any honorary titles or medals. Therefore, what must be honoured on the anniversary of Fidel’s birth is not so much the particular individual who has passed away, but the achievements that his efforts, in conjunction with those of the whole Cuban people, brought forth.

Even under economic strangulation and constant siege, Cuba is not a failed state, but is instead a beacon of hope to the oppressed peoples of the world. Because in Cuba, it is the workers who are in charge, not the bourgeoisie, domestic or foreign. And that is why Cuba is a “threat” to the United States, why the U.S has stopped at nothing to try and overthrow the Cuban government and reverse the gains of the revolution. Because as long as Cuba endures, it proves to the workers of all countries that they can rule themselves, that socialism is possible, that it is superior to capitalism. And it will endure as long as the masses of Cubans chant “Yo Soy Fidel!” He lives on in the spirit of all those who dedicate their lives to the highest calling there is: the liberation of humanity. The revolution he launched in 1953 continues until the last trace of exploitation and injustice is wiped from this earth. And not in a hundred years nor in a thousand will capitalism be able to stop the march of mankind to its inevitable future of communism; it can only delay it. So we as young communists in Canada honour the birth of Fidel by struggling in our country for the birth of the society he believed in, and by doing our utmost to support the Cuban people with whom we have a common cause.

¡VIVA CUBA!

¡VIVA FIDEL!

¡VIVA LA REVOLUCIÓN!

¡HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!