Why the US-Cuba Deal Really Is a Victory for the Cuban Revolution

[Starry Messenger]

A thoughtful piece by Tom Hayden.

https://www.thenation.com/article/193273/why-us-cuba-deal-really-victory-cuban-revolution

It is quite legitimate for American progressives to criticize various flaws and failures of the Cuban Revolution. But the media and the right are overflowing with such commentary. Only the left can recall, narrate and applaud the long resistance of tiny Cuba to the northern Goliath.

For those actually supportive of participatory democracy in Cuba, as opposed to those who support regime change by secret programs, the way to greater openness on the island lies in a relaxation of the external threat.

Despite the US embargo and relentless US subversion, Cuba remains in the upper tier of the United Nations Human Development Index because of its educational and healthcare achievements. Cuba even leads the international community in the dispatch of medical workers to fight Ebola. Cuba is celebrated globally because of its military contribution to the defeat of colonialism and apartheid in Angola and southern Africa. Now a new generation of Cuban leaders who fought in Angola is coming to power in the Havana and its diplomatic corps. For example, Rodolfo Reyes Rodríguez, Cuba’s representative to the United Nations, today walks on an artificial limb as a result of his combat in Angola.

When few thought it possible, Cuba has achieved the return of all five prisoners held for spying on right-wing Cubans who trained at Florida bases and flew harassment missions through Cuban air space. The last three to be released served hard time in American prisons, and are being welcomed as triumphant heroes on the streets of Havana. Three of the Cuban Five served in Angola as well.

[msongs]

1. cuban "revolution" = brutal dictatorship that will die with the castros, especially now that the

people of cuba will have options thanks to the establishment of relations with the US

[Starry Messenger]

2. Bye Felicia.

[Demeter]

3. As compared to the brutal dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista?

Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar ( January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was the elected President of Cuba from 1940 to 1944, and dictator from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution.

Batista initially rose to power as part of the 1933 "Revolt of the Sergeants" that overthrew the authoritarian rule of Gerardo Machado. Batista then appointed himself chief of the armed forces, with the rank of colonel, and effectively controlled the five-member Presidency. He maintained this control through a string of puppet presidents until 1940, when he was himself elected President of Cuba on a populist platform. He then instated the 1940 Constitution of Cuba, considered progressive for its time, and served until 1944. After finishing his term he lived in the United States, returning to Cuba to run for president in 1952. Facing certain electoral defeat, he led a military coup that preempted the election.

Back in power, Batista suspended the 1940 Constitution and revoked most political liberties, including the right to strike. He then aligned with the wealthiest landowners who owned the largest sugar plantations, and presided over a stagnating economy that widened the gap between rich and poor Cubans. Batista's increasingly corrupt and repressive government then began to systematically profit from the exploitation of Cuba's commercial interests, by negotiating lucrative relationships with the American mafia, who controlled the drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses in Havana, and with large multinational American corporations that had invested considerable amounts of money in Cuba. To quell the growing discontent amongst the populace—which was subsequently displayed through frequent student riots and demonstrations—Batista established tighter censorship of the media, while also utilizing his anti-Communist secret police to carry out wide-scale violence, torture and public executions; ultimately killing anywhere from 1,000 to 20,000 people. For several years until 1959, the Batista government received financial, military, and logistical support from the United States.

Catalyzing the resistance to such tactics, for two years (December 1956 – December 1958) Fidel Castro's July 26 Movement and other nationalist rebelling elements led an urban and rural-based guerrilla uprising against Batista's government, which culminated in his eventual defeat by rebels under the command of Che Guevara at the Battle of Santa Clara on New Year's Day 1959. Batista immediately fled the island with an amassed personal fortune to the Dominican Republic, where strongman and previous military ally Rafael Trujillo held power. Batista eventually found political asylum in Oliveira Salazar's Portugal, where he lived until dying of a heart attack on August 6, 1973, near Marbella, Spain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista

[Turbineguy]

4. Now our oligarchs can put

another Batista in charge.

[Starry Messenger]

5. Call me an optimist.

I'm hoping some influences from Cuba's more successful programs will flow toward us instead.

[Turbineguy]

6. That would be nice.

It would make the U.S. be more like it used to be.

[Starry Messenger]

7. Bingo.

Education and health services a priority for US society? Wouldn't that be something.

[joshcryer]

8. Not as long as they keep giving out 99 year land leases.

Allowing rent, privitizing businesses.

They need to use this new opportunity to 1) segregate the foreign tourist industry from the population economically (not everyone can benefit from it, only those in the big cities; redistribute any wealth from it to the rural areas) and 2) tax the shit out of the tourist industry.

This means, gasp, actually opening state run casinos. The tourist industry wants it, the cruise ships have casinos on board, just regulate it, OK, no harm no foul. The American people want to throw their money away, let them.

This means regulating the land leases so they don't turn into dynasty trusts that allow corporations a century to profit off of the land, put in strict regulations about the operation of the many golf courses that are going to be built. Tax the ever living crap out of these corporations so that their break even time is at minimum 10 years (that way they'll have proved that they want to provide a service as opposed to profit off of the Cuban people).

I could go on forever, but it seems as if they are on a precipice, and I think they have just as much a potential to embrace western capitalism because of it. This is, after all, the anti-embargo argument from the capitalist libertarian viewpoint.

Here's to hoping they manage it correctly.

[salimbag]

9. Cuba will regret this

While the relaxing of the embargo may be a good thing, I doubt the general population will benefit. This is mainly a business deal, with banks, import export, and access to Cuban oil at the heart of it. There will be immense pressure on the Cuban govt to provide fresh opportunities for the wealthy to make even more money. The welfare of the people is not a priority.