THE 47TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIDEL'S ATTACK ON MONCADA

Saul Landau        

July 26, 1953. Fidel Castro leads 158 men to attack Fort Moncada, in Santiago de Cuba, the island's second largest military installation. Flashback. 1860. John Brown's raiders hit Harper's Ferry. Brown, like Castro, lost the battle. Both of these visionaries or madmen planned to distribute arms to their collaborators. Both Brown and Castro believed that a dramatic military victory would inspire partisans to rise up and overthrow slavery or, in Castro's case, the Batista dictatorship.  

Brown achieved his goal posthumously when, three years later, Lincoln emancipated the slaves. In 1954, Castro, on trial for rebellion, declared: "Sentence me. It doesn't matter. History Will Absolve Me." On July 26, as Cubans celebrate the 47th anniversary of the attack on Moncada, has history absolved Fidel? I would say the Cuban Revolution was a success. Note the past tense. Why?

Fidel achieved the primary goal of the Cuban Revolution, which really began in 1868 when Cubans fought their first war for independence against Spain. In 1895, Cubans tried again, but the United States intervened before they could defeat the Spaniards. In 1932, yet another Cuban revolt fizzled. Finally, in January 1959, five and a half years after the Moncada fiasco, Fidel's guerrillas overthrew the US-backed military dictatorship, and then, with serendipitous aid from the Soviet Union, they built a nation. Fidel led Cubans into the mainstream of modern history. For three decades, Cubans danced on the world stage. They made their mark in world art, literature, and science. Cubans won more Olympic gold medals than major European powers and regularly beat the US baseball team in the Pan American games. Cuba boasts health and literacy rates that should make third world leaders drool. And Cuban troops altered the destiny of Namibia, Angola, and South Africa when they defeated of South African troops in Angola in the 1987-88 battles of Cuito Cuanavale. Nelson Mandela himself acknowledged the South African majority's debt to Cuba when he embraced Fidel at his presidential inauguration.

On July 26th Cubans who understand the meaning of that initial attack on Moncada will pay tribute to Fidel's ruthless determination, a will and a vision that has allowed him and the Cuban revolution to survive nine US presidents over almost 42 years of unrelenting US hostility.    

Even without her Soviet benefactor Cuba has endured in the corporate global world. But Cuba no longer stands as a model. Foreign investors don't flock to Cuba, because Cuba refuses to allow corporations to control its labor force and environment and because US laws place obstacles in investors' paths. But Cuba continues to maintain its health and education systems -- in a precarious holding pattern, with no clear economic plan. Yes, the word socialism still resonates there and the consumer society has not taken hold.

In the year 2000, US imperial hostility serves Cuban leaders as a justification to deny political freedom. The US government, which has stated that its goal is to destroy the Cuban revolution and its leaders, fosters the dissidents in Cuba, pays for their telephones (including cels), faxes, Xerox machines and email, and then blithely accuses Cuba of infringing on free speech when it periodically arrests these dissidents. Some of them are indeed brave people and have legitimate concerns about State restrictions on liberties.

As the United States continues to pursue its irrational aggression into the 21st Century, Cubans are, for the first time, truly independent -- and quite alone. They still win Olympic Golds and excel in the arts and sciences, a tribute to their disobedient leader and the resolve of the Cuban people who will not easily give up the rights and dignity they have won. On July 26, 2000, unlike John Brown, Fidel Castro's body does not lie a "moldering in his grave." He's still making speeches. Saludos companero!

Hugh O. La Bounty Chair of Applied Interdisciplinary Knowledge, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Pomona, CA 91768 tel:909-869-3115 fax:909-869-4751 mailto:slandau@csupomona.edu http://www.csupomona.edu/~slandau