The
death of Fidel Castro last November unfolded, both
in Greece as well as internationally, an orchestrated attack against
the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution and socialist Cuba.
A patchwork of anticommunism, from the far-right to the edge of social democracy, didn't lose the opportunity to slander the cuban revolutionary, either by attributing to him various characterizations (e.g dictator, controversial personality, etc) or by reproducing proven lies about his supposed fabulous wealth and personal life.
A patchwork of anticommunism, from the far-right to the edge of social democracy, didn't lose the opportunity to slander the cuban revolutionary, either by attributing to him various characterizations (e.g dictator, controversial personality, etc) or by reproducing proven lies about his supposed fabulous wealth and personal life.
They
tried to vilify Fidel with numerous slanders.... That he was a
dictator who installed a repressing establishment, that socialism was
proved- as some claimed- a 'chimera' which gave birth to
authoritarianism, lack of democracy and freedom.
Of
course, the slanderers of Fidel got their response from the people of
Cuba who, by hundreds of thousands filled the squares and
the streets throughout the country, from Havana to Santiago, with
tears in their eyes in order to pay their respects to the
revolutionary and communist leader.
However,
a question arises: What was the reason behind this attack
against Castro and why did they consume so much ink in order to
vilify Cuba?
The
answer is simple. What disturbs the slanderers of Fidel Castro- and
thats why they attack so fiercely- is what the Cuban Revolution
herself symbolizes: This is the capability of the people, of the
working class, to fight for a society free from the capitalist
shackles and man's exploitation by man.
Behind
any slander against “dictator Castro” hides the agonizing effort
of the bourgeoisie and her praetorians to obscure and distort the
achievements of Socialism in Cuba, so that no conclusions can be
drawn from the struggle of the Cuban people.
The
example of the Cuban Revolution shows that the people who will walk
towards Socialism, even beginning from a very low level of productive
forces development, can achieve great things regarding the working
people-popular needs.
It
is evident that the great achievements of the Cuban Revolution in a
series of social life's sectors annoy the apologists of capitalist
barbarity. It annoys them, for example, the fact that Fidel's
revolutionary government took over a country- colony of the USA- with
a very low level of productive forces and steadily transformed her,
with the invaluable and crucial economic contribution of the Soviet
Union, in a state with very high quality, accessible to all people,
public services of Healthcare, Social Welfare, Education, Culture,
Sports.
They
(apologists of capitalism) are annoyed by the fact that the socialist
construction in this small island of the Caribbean, managed in a very
short time to almost completely eradicate illiteracy which was
dominant in pre-revolutionary Cuba. They are annoyed, of course,
because the small Cuba of 11 million inhabitants became a protagonist
in internationalist aid and solidarity towards people who were
fighting and fight against imperialist barbarity- from south America
to Angola.
Exactly
because the example of Cuba disturbs them, they decided to turn white
into black, to vilify Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution.
However,
they silence the truth.
They
deliberately silence the fact that in Cuba the right to
Social Security is for all the people, for the entire population,
while on the same time, in the neighboring superpower- the capitalist
“paradise” of the USA- dozens of millions of people have no
Social Security coverage.
They
deliberately silence the fact that in Cuba there is not even
one homeless man or woman, while on the same time the large cities of
the European Union and the United States have been transformed into
“camps” of homeless people.
They
deliberately silence the fact that the Cuban National Health
System- free and accessible for the entire population- has been
characterized by UNESCO as an “example” for the whole world. You
see, contrary to the capitalist world where Healthcare has become a
commodity and issue to speculation, in small Cuba it remains public
good.
They
deliberately silence the fact that Fidel's Cuba managed to
decrease child mortality from 42% to 4%, while it is the only Latin
American country without child malnutrition.
They
deliberately silence that Cuba has one of the lowest
illiteracy rates in the world, with the 13% of the annual state
budget allocated for the improvement of the public Education System;
a number which is double and triple from the respective of the
governments in the USA and the EU.
While
they silence all the above, Fidel's slanderers and the anticommunists
of every nature have the audacity to speak about “lack of democracy
in Cuba”. Of course, we know very well about the kind of
“democracy” and “freedom” the apologists of capitalism care.
It
is the “freedom” in exploitation, the “freedom” of a minority
to exploit the work of the majority, the “freedom” in the frantic
race of capitalist profit and competitiveness that flattens lives,
rights and needs for the majority of the people. It is the “freedom”
that limits in capitalist ownership in the means of production which
is the regarded as “sacred” and the bourgeois states protect in
every possible way. The same “freedom” which leads the struggle
for the share of markets and territories that creates military
conflicts and imperialist interventions. It is the “freedom” and
“democracy” which stop before the entrance of industries and
corporations.
Indeed,
this kind of “freedom” was trampled by Fidel's socialist Cuba-
like in the other socialist countries of the 20th century-
because that consists a prerequisite for the working people, for
those who produce the wealth, to take the power in their hands and to
free themselves from the shackes of exploitation.
One
thing is therefore evident: The fact that just a few
kilometres south of the shores of the imperialist superpower, with a
genocidal, criminal blockade that lasts for 55 years, the small
island of socialist Cuba has managed not only to stand upright but to
progress and achieve great conquests for the workers-people's needs.
These are conquests which in capitalism are unthinkable.
The
apologists of capitalism will never forgive Comandante Fidel Castro
and Cuba the fact that they didn't bend, they didn't make a
step backwards, even when the counterrevolutionary overthrows in the
beginning of the 1990s in the USSR and the socialist countries of
eastern Europe were dramatically changing the correlation of forces
worldwide.
In
spite of the various apologists of the capitalist system, Fidel
Castro and the Cuban revolutionaries have been vindicated by
History.
Comandante
Fidel's historic legacy, the capability of the people to assert their
liberation from the shackles of the exploitative system haunts - and
will haunt forever- the praetorians of bourgeois ideology.
[...]
Indeed,
being a Revolutionary in practice and not in words, Fidel, alongside
his comrades, along with the Cuban people, proved that the
only superpower are the people who resist, who fight against
capitalist barbarity, who pave the way to socialist perspective, for
a society without exploitation of man by man.
* Translated abstract of a speech given in honor of Comandante Fidel Castro Ruz in a Political event in honor of Fidel Castro Ruz in Thessaloniki, Greece, organised by the Greek-Cuban Association of Friendship and Solidarity and the Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace on 28.4.2017.
