Word of the Left

On November 25, 1956, 82 revolutionaries including Fidel Castro, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, and many others boarded the Granma and set sail for Cuba ready and willing to give their lives for the cause of liberating Cuba from a few wealthy landowners and tyrants who had enslaved Cuba for so many years. Saturday, December 2nd is the 50th anniversary of the start of the Cuban Revolution.

On May 15th, 1955 Fidel Castro and his brother Raul went to Mexico City after being released from prison as political prisoners. In Mexico, they would met up with the Argentinian doctor, Ernesto Guevara. 17 months later, the trio would return to Cuba, and wage a sort of people's war to give Cuba back to the workers and farmers. By this time, Fidel and Raul had their mind set on revolution, and soon convinced Che. In order to wage the revolution, they needed ammo, food, water, a ship, weapons, gas for the boat, maps, compasses, and a variety of other items that would prove invaluable.

The Granma, a leisure yacht made for 12 people was acquired by a Mexican citizen acting on behalf of Fidel's guerilla group, The July 26th Movement. The yacht could float, but was seriously rundown. It was slow because of badly worn gears that weren't maintained, a radio that could not send messages to allies in Cuba, and a tank that was far too small to last the voyage to Cuba. On top of that 82 people and supplies to back a revolution needed to fit on the tiny vessel. miraculously the problems were solved, although conditions were less than comfortable.

They departed on November 25th from the port of Tuxpan, Mexico. They were quick and quiet about it as Mexican authorities already were on to them. The voyage passed well except on the last day, when one revolutionary fell overboard in the middle of the night. When they were just about to give up searching Fidel ordered them not to give up, and sure enough, minutes later the revolutionary would be spotted and rescued.



The Granma was supposed to land at a town called Niguero where trucks, ammo, food, and 50 more revolutionaries were waiting however, a helicopter spotted them and they were forced to land early in a swapmy area far from the DLZ. The marshy terrain prevented the rebels from unloading all their equipment. They were quickly nearly annihilaed, however they managed to regroup and create a stronghold in the Sierra Maestra mountains. Three years later in January, they would emerge victorious and march on Havana with parades of jubiliant people cheering.

Today, the anniversary is still honored in Cuba. every year on November 25th, a group of young Cubans in a replica of the Granma, retrace the footsteps of the freedom fighters.

Today Cuba faces as many problems as it did at the start of the revolution, but much progress has been made as I pointed out three posts back. Cuba is the last remaining socialist state in the world, and continues to resist US socio-economic imperialism 50 years later. Long live the Cuban Revolution!

After Ten years of a protracted People's War,

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has signed a 'permanent' truce which allowed them to join the government in exchange for locking up their arms and weapons. The Maoists took up arms to liberate Nepal; one of the poorest countries in the world, by ending the monarchy, establishing New Democracy, and bringing equal rights to Woman and better living standards to workers. After years of revolution, and popular uprisings; King Gyanendra was forced to restablished parliament. Now, a interim democratic government has been formed by a seven party alliance led by the CPN-M. All socialists and communists should support the CPN-M and their struggle even now.
For a while I've been hearing trash talk from Trots, Sparts, and Anarchists and all I can say is where is your solidarity? Weither or not choosing a path of peace was right or wrong, I trust the CPN-M and I think they know what they're doing. While on the topic, I'd like to bring up my recent change in ideology. I used to be a trotskyist but as of recent, I have found myself moving farther away from trotskyism, and towards Maoism. I had always liked Maoist theory, and have found more and more problems with Troskyism. For example, in every country, there are about 10 trot parties that all claim to be a vanguard and disagree only minimally. It is for this reason, that there has never been a trotskyist revolution, but there have been many Marxist-Leninist and Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Revolutions. Even today, Maoism is the the ideology of major revolutionary organizations in India, Peru, and of course, Nepal. In anycase, the situation in Nepal is an important one that we, socialists, must watch carefully, and support. Solidarity to the Workers, Students, and Peasants of Nepal. Here is an old interview with CPN-M Chairman, Prachanda, which I've dug
up for those interested.

This one will make you laugh; Starbucks baristas joining the Industrial Workers of the World union. November 24-25 is the "Global Day of Action Against Starbucks." Starbucks baristas unionized in New York City and Chicago in 2004, and since, have been a thorn in the side of the multi-national corporation. Union members have been harrased, threatened, and fired for their activities. Since December 12th 2005, Joseph Agins, Charles Fostrom, Evan Winterscheidt, Daniel Gross, and Isis Saenz have been illegally fired. The Global Day of Action hopes to raise wages and improve working conditions in Starbucks cafes as well as build solidarity with Ethiopian coffee farmers who are not recognized by Starbucks. A recognition from Starbucks would earn Ethiopian Coffe Farmers an additional 88 million dollars per year. More informaton about the Day of action can be found here. Very little info on any actual rallies being held have been posted but I'll post it here when/if they do.

My last post recieved a comment from someone who brought up Cuba and the state which it is in. I responded to his comment, and realized that I hadn't yet addressed the situation in Cuba in my blog yet. I used to think that Cuba was a horrible place as well. I thought it was an evil dictatorship where everyone was starving, afterall, that's what they tell you in school, in the newspapers, in books, on TV and every where you look for information on Cuba. Is all the hype real?

President Carter one said something along the lines of; the real threat that comes from Cuba is that it is a example for other oppressed peoples to follow. He was right. in the 47 years socialism has exsisted in Cuba, massive improvements have been made. A once impoverished country has become a huge constuction site, making massive improvements in almost every field.

The Improvements...

Cuba was devastatingly impoverished before the revolution. The vast majority of people in Cuba lived in houses made out of twigs and had no sanitation, most of the wealth and land was held by a few rich families, most cubans were not educated, and healthcare was non-exsistant. Today in Cuba, all of that has changed. Cuba has one of the lowest poverty indexes in the Carribean and Latin America surpassing Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica. Cuba also has an astonishingly low ratio of people-to-doctors, almost 10 times lower than it's capitalist counterpart; Haiti! As well as at least twice as low as America's. Cuba's free education system has allowed average working class people to become doctors, an opportunity that few capitalist countries give its' peoples. Unemployment in Cuba is also incredibly low as it is less than 2%. Cuba's illiteracy problems have disappeared and literacy is the highest in the world!. People in Cuba also have widespread access to sanitation, a problem that people in Cuba's capitalist counterparts face.



Contrary to popular belief, Cuba is a well planned Republic. Just google "Cuban Democracy" or "Democracy in Cuba" and if you look closely, you'll find articles by both socialists and non-socialists who explain Cuba's grassroot democracy that has been in place since the begining of the revolution.

Of course Cuba is not without problems, and has a long way to go but considering the embargo and all the capitalist aggression it faces, Cuba has done very well. Now with Castro's health ailing, and the US claiming he won't live through 2007, Cuba's Republic is in danger. We must wait and see what will happen but I'm truly hope that Cuba will not take the path of other Latin America countries getting rid of their universal healthcare and education and renewing mass poverty. We shall see, but I think the Cuban people will stand strong even after the death of Fidel.

Yesterday was election day here in the US, and the results have confirmed that an increasingly large amount of Americans are unhappy with current conservative policies, and the Republican party's increasingly costly and chaotic war in Iraq.

As the Democrats took the house and look as if they are going to take the senate, we must think. What difference will a democrat controlled legislative branch make? The answer? none whatsoever. I do not see the democrats making any changes to the War in Iraq. It's almost naive to think that they'll get us out of the mess most of them voted for. They have put forward no plan of action and no ideas other than, the idea that they oppose the Republicans. They claim that they'll set up deadlines and timetables, but have not elaborated in any way how they're going to stabilize Iraq, actually pull out our troops, and when they would pull us out. So in reality, there will be little change, if any with this new Democratic controlled house. As Emma Goldman once said,

If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal

On another note, in Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista leader, was re-elected to his post as the president of Nicargua, 16 years after being voted out. Sadly, as I soon learned, this isn't the same Daniel Ortega as we saw in the 80's. He has become a social democrat and a catholic who embraces CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, which is quite sad of a former Revolutionary Socialist who liberated Nicaragua and brought democracy and freedom to it despite America's attempts to prevent him. In anycase, this is as a good a result as leftists could hope for as it means another leftist President joining the 'axis of evil' in Latin America consisting of Chavez, Castro, and Morales. Still, I can't stop from keeping my finger crossed that we see nationalizations and a working class movement emerge in Nicaragua as a result of this. Anything else would be just painful to watch.

Last week I posted that the Town Center, which was the headquarters for the APPO in Oaxaca fell. That was true however, all is not lost. The commune continues as the protestors pulled back to Oaxaca state's university. On thursday, the police attempted to attack the university, but the protestors forced them into retreat. Here is a collection of photographs taken on the frontline of the battle for Oaxaca. They're minimized but if you click on them you can see them in full size. Enjoy.































The cause and effect of molotov cocktails...



David vs. Goliath...



Pig seeking missiles...



Victory to the Workers!