Cuban Revolution

che fidel500The Cuban revolution of 1959 marks the first time ever that capitalism has been abolished in the Western Hemisphere. Cuba gained independence from Spain in 1898 only to fall under the domination of US imperialism. For decades the struggle for national independence and against imperialism was closely linked to the struggle against class oppression, with the Cuban bourgeoisie intimately linked to the US ruling class. Figures like Julio Antonio Mella, the founder of the Cuban Communist Party and Antonio Guiteras argued that national liberation could only be achieved through the struggle for socialism.

The Stalinist degeneration of the Communist International led the Cuban party to adopt the two-stage theory and give support to Batista on the argument that he was on the side of "democracy against fascism" during WWII. The young revolutionaries who wanted to overthrow Batista's regime were therefore not attracted by the Communist Party. In 1953 they attempted a daring assault on the Moncada barracks which had the aim of sparking a national insurrection. They failed, but gained nationwide recognition. Fidel Castro and his comrades eventually went into exile in Mexico from where they planned a landing in Cuba in 1956 which led to a short guerrilla war.

Having come to power on a program of national and democratic progressive reforms, they soon came into conflict with US imperialism and its lackeys in the local bourgeoisie. By consistently pushing for their national democratic program they ended up abolishing capitalism, though that had not been their original intention. All the gains of the Cuban revolution can be attributed to the expropriation of the capitalist class. Having failed in their attempts to spread the revolution to other countries (including Che Guevara's tragic death in Bolivia in 1967), the Cuban leadership became closely aligned with the Soviet Union, which also set its bureaucratic stamp in the island.

The collapse of Stalinism in 1989 left the small country completely at the mercy of the world market. The danger is that market friendly measures taken in order to address the economic problems facing the Cuban revolution can end up in the restoration of capitalism. The country still faces a fierce assault by US imperialism, renewed and strengthened under the Trump administration. Ultimately, the fate of the Cuban revolution depends on the struggle for genuine workers' democracy and the spreading of socialist revolution to other countries in the region and beyond. 

In this video from the LSE Marxist society, Jorge Martin - editor of the Marxist magazine, America Socialista - discusses the life and legacy of Fidel Castro and the perspectives for the Cuban Revolution today.

At 10.29 pm on Friday, November 25, the Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro died at the age of 90. His brother Raul Castro announced the news to the Cuban population and the world around midnight in a televised speech. His death was not unexpected, as he had been ill for a number of years and had already stepped down from his formal political responsibilities, but still it came as a shock to both friends and enemies.

The Workers' International League held its first National Marxist School over the weekend of June 13th and 14th. As part of the School, a public event was organized jointly with Hands Off Venezuela, to discuss the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and the lessons for Latin America. Jorge Martin spoke on the Revolution and the lessons that revolutionaries can draw from it.

The Cuban Revolution is one of the great events of human history. The small island was completely dominated by US imperialism until the revolution of 1959 shattered the Batista dictatorship and introduced a nationalised planned economy in the years following the revolution. Since then impressive achievements in health care and education have been met with loud shouts of "dictatorship" from the bourgeois press. What was the background to the revolution and why did it develop in the way that it did? Where is Cuba going today?

In this article Jorge Martin looks at how the Cuban revolution, starting out as a bourgeois democratic revolution, was forced to move against capitalism in order to achieve its aims, a brilliant confirmation of Trotsky’s theory of the Permanent Revolution. He also looks at the contradictory tendencies within Cuba in the early years after the revolution. He goes on to discuss how Cuba resisted the pressures to follow the capitalist road as happened in the Soviet Union and China, undergoing a serious crisis in the process. Now, however, there are growing pressures also inside Cuba to adopt the so-called “Chinese model”, i.e. changes that would eventually lead to the re-establishment of

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The Cuban Revolution of 1959 is one of the most significant events of the last 50 years. The elimination of capitalism and landlordism and the introduction of a nationalised, planned economy allowed collosal advances to be made. But the disappearance of the USSR has had catastrophic consequences for the Cuban economy. David Rey looks at the current perspectives and the tasks of revolutionaries.

Forty years ago, on January 1st 1959 a general strike paralysed Cuba and forced dictator Batista to flee the country. In a few days the July 26 Movement guerrillas, led by Fidel Castro and Ernesto Che Guevara entered the capital Havana and were received as heroes by the masses. The Cuban revolution had succeeded. What was the programme of that movement? What was the social basis of that revolution? In order to understand these and other questions we must look back a few years.