The cuban exceptionalism
Liaison Committee for the Fourth International - LCFI
The Cuban revolution marked a turn in the history of the
twentieth century in Latin America. In addition to defeating a pro-US
dictatorship in Uncle Sam’s backyard, for the first time in the Western
Hemisphere capitalism was expropriated.
This allowed a small island with less
than a dozen million people to escape the fate of an agricultural colony
subservient to the US to proudly show to its population and the world its
unprecedented achievements like the elimination of hunger and poverty, an
educational system. Its excellent health and medical advances are exported to
the rest of oppressed humanity.
Cuba became a workers state after the overthrow of the
dictator Fulgencio Batista and the seizure of power by the movement’s guerrilla
army on July 26 in 1959. The revolutionary process at first did not have a
socialist strategy. Its aims was only the achievement of democratic capitalist
tasks such as the end of the dictatorial regime and agrarian reform.
But amid the cold war against the USSR the revolutionary
process threw a spotlight on the contradictions between the tiny island and
imperialism. It was only when imperialism tried to invade the island in the Bay
of Pigs in April 1960 to defeat the new regime that the direction of the
revolutionary movement of Castro and Che was finally to complete the
expropriation of the multinationals. Then the entire capitalist class departed
in droves for Florida. From that time on the ‘worms’ (rats), as they came to be
known, have integrated themselves organically with imperialism and had been
determining US policy on Cuba up to mow.
Exported.;
Fidel Castro in a Tank in 1961, the year of the Bay of Pigs
invasion.
This type of overthrow was a definite theoretical
possibility recognized by Trotsky in the Transition Program of 1938:
“However, one cannot categorically deny in advance the
theoretical possibility that, under the influence of completely exceptional
circumstances (war, defeat, financial crash, mass revolutionary pressure,
etc.), the petty-bourgeois parties, including the Stalinists, may go further
than they themselves wish to a break with the bourgeoisie. In any case, one
thing is not to be doubted: even if this highly improbable variant somewhere,
at some time, becomes a reality and the workers’ and farmers’ government in the
above-mentioned sense is established in fact, it would represent merely a short
episode on the road to the actual dictatorship of the proletariat.”
In the Cuban case, the “short episode” lasted between 1959
and 1961. The direction of that Castro’s M-26-7 took involved empirically
revolutionary measures, but almost always under imperialist pressure. Che
himself, who historically represented the internationalist wing of the Cuban
Government, recognizes that the radicalization of the revolution was more
conditioned by the imperialist pressure than the socialist convictions of its
leaders:
“What lies ahead depends greatly on the United States. With
the exception of the agrarian reform, which the people of Cuba desired and
initiated themselves, all of our radical measures have been a direct response
to direct aggressions by powerful monopolists of which your country is the
chief exponent. US pressure on Cuba has made necessary the ‘radicalisation’ of
the revolution. To know how much further Cuba will go, it will be easier to ask
the US government how far it plans to go.” La Nación, 6/9/1961).
The Cuban revolution, which was never directed by a
revolutionary party, was bureaucratised by its own internal limitations. This
process of bureaucratization worsened when the fragile island needed material
assistance and appeal to the workers’ state of the Stalinist bureaucracy in the
USSR. But soon the principle and the policy of “peaceful coexistence” of
Stalinism showed young direction of Cuban State how their Russian allies were
unreliable. Che was disillusioned with the USSR government during the Cuban
missile crisis in 1962, because he felt ‘ betrayed ‘ by Moscow who withdrew
their armament from Cuba without warning to the Cuban Government, capitulating
US pressure.
THE BLOCKADE AND THE END OF THE USSR
FORCED THE BUREAUCRACY TO PRESERVE THE
CUBAN WORKERS STATE FOR THEIR OWN SURVIVAL
The policy of isolation and blockade imposed by imperialism
from 1962 exercised a powerful counter revolutionary pressure for decades under
exceptional condition and that forced Castro to take an oppositional stance in
order to defend the new forms of property relations established by the
expropriation of the bourgeoisie and imperialism.
For us only the dialectic of these special circumstances
explains how being a workers’ state that was weaker than the USSR and China,
for example, and as for a long time depending on these “mega workers’ states”,
Cuba managed to survive the demise of its sponsors.
These are the elements of these contradictions demonstrated
by the following features:
1) Cuba is a workers’ state that didn’t arise from the
actions of industrial workers;
2) It is the workers’ state which is geographically closest
to the hard core of world imperialism;
3) It is economically the most fragile and when the USSR
collapsed and abandoned it it was at its weakest;
4) In proportion to its fragility Cuba made the biggest effort
in the international arena in Africa and in Latin America, without getting any
immediate strategic profit for their efforts, but using it as element of
resistance against the pressure of imperialism;
6) To influence mass movements in Latin America the Castro
bureaucracy needed to abandon part of the Stalinist bureaucracy’s nationalism;
7) The role of the Cuban bourgeois ‘worms’, as an organic
component of imperialism, it is disproportionate to its economic weight
fraction as a bourgeois class;
8) Thus, among all workers’ states the Castroite
bureaucratic was forced to confront imperialism far more than any other and had
to rely on the masses far more because of the threat of imperialism.
In a way, and to a certain extent, and these exceptional
circumstances, above all by the blockade imposed for more than half a century,
prevented the capitalist restoration processes developing gradually and
peacefully in Cuba and North Korea (as in China and Viet Nam). This is due to
the fragility of these workers’ states who have to fight against imperialism
and their respective bourgeois “worms” in Miami or South Korea. In these
circumstances the restoration of capitalism could only occur through a civil
war.
THE END OF THE LOCKOUT,
THE RESTORATIONIST ROLE OF RELIGION
AND
THE REPEAL OF THE SPECIAL MEASURES
We believe that a progressive workers’ sate has to take
advantage of the new cold war to end all reprisals taken against them for
daring to have expropriated the multinationals and their bourgeoisie vassal. We
argue that the blockade should be abandoned unconditionally. However, we also
believe that the bureaucracy seeks to convert Cuba into a sort of Caribbean
Viet Nam, as the imperialist blockade is suspended, or earlier if possible,
i.e. the bureaucracy is taking advantage of the situation to favour the
restorationist a religion outlook and not socialism.
The tragicomic blockade did not result in the end of the
workers’ state. We denounce all secret diplomacy between the bureaucracy and US
imperialism or any other capitalist nation. We fight for the progressive
withdrawal of all measures implemented during the “special period” which were
taken as special measure because of the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 and the
increase of the embargo by the United States in 1992, as well as all subsequent
measures that have weakened the planning of the economy, the monopoly of
foreign trade and the nationalization of the means of production.
For a start we demand the return of full employment scheme
and the repeal of all layoffs; the foreign investment law of 1995, the
re-establishment of the monopoly of foreign trade, the full nationalization of
all joint enterprises and production. In other words, if things are getting
better is necessary to repeal the measures that have put the workers’ state
under pressure since 1990. This program must be combined with combating the
ambitions and privileges of the bureaucracy, namely, the struggle for political
revolution and the establishment of proletarian democracy in Cuba. A political
revolution in Cuba would be only be possible if there is a revolution on the
continent. Without this, any attempt at political revolution in Cuba would not
survive.
FOR POLITICAL REVOLUTION AGAINST CAPITALIST RESTORATION
The struggle for political revolution on the island assumes
a permanent character, fighting the measures of the Castro government that
conspire against the property relations and forms created by expropriation of
imperialism and the Cuban bourgeoisie. At the same time we advocate the
construction of popular committees of workers, peasants and cooperative
members. We must fight against the secret dialogue agreements with Democrats,
Republicans or ‘worms’ as well as with the European imperialism and the Latin American
bourgeoisie, everything must be submitted to the debate, rectification and
ratification by the organized population.
No return of the property to the ‘worms’. What was
expropriated must remain state-owned and under the control of the democratic
workers ‘ councils, producers and consumers. The first priority of the state is
to ensure health and food for the people. No privilege for bureaucracy and for
tourists to the detriment to the working masses. Down with tourist separatism,
for the free access of all Cubans to all hotels, beaches and spas used
exclusively by tourists. Everything must paid for in Cuban pesos. We must
defeat the bureaucracy in the struggle for proletarian democracy and in the
struggle for equality against the privileges.
It is necessary to institute a workers’ court of inquiry to
investigate and condemn corruption in the black market and amongst the new
rich. We defend the right to strike and to organize as part of the struggle for
political independence against the Castro bureaucracy, imperialism, its NGO
counter revolutionaries and the Vatican. We are for proletarian control of
industry and the economy as a whole as well as on trade agreements and foreign
trade with Europe, with China and the entire Eurasian block and the Latin American
capitalist countries. We demand accounting control by the working class
delegates with executive powers to inspect the books of all enterprises. These
delegates must hold mandates which are subject to recall and they must be
elected in the workplace by the workforce.
Only workers must decide how much and what should be
produced and distributed, as well as the wages and the pace of production. They
must combat the mass layoffs, privatization of state enterprises and cuts in
social services in the state. We oppose the creation of any party or
organization that opposes the workers’ state and the dictatorship of the
proletariat and defended the creation of a revolutionary Trotskyist party in
Cuba and the establishment of proletarian democracy on the island. Capitalist
restoration is not a fait accompli in Cuba; only the revolutionary struggle of
the Latin American masses against any internal or external restorationist
religious offensive can defeat this.
