What fuel allows the Cuban Revolution to keep going, sixty years after its triumph? How does its emancipatory aura continue to spread throughout the world, calling out to those who dream of building a more just world order?
There’s still much to do. Revolutionizing is a dialectical process. Generations and contexts change, but the essence remains intact. Each of the precepts enunciated by Fidel in his historic speech, on May 1, 2000 in the Plaza de la Revolución, remain unchanged:
“REVOLUTION IS A SENSE OF THE HISTORICAL MOMENT; IT IS TO CHANGE EVERYTHING THAT MUST BE CHANGED; IT IS FULL EQUALITY AND FREEDOM; IT IS BEING TREATED AND TREATING OTHERS AS HUMAN BEINGS; IT IS TO EMANCIPATE OURSELVES BY OURSELVES AND WITH OUR OWN EFFORTS; IT IS TO CHALLENGE POWERFUL DOMINANT FORCES INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE SOCIAL AND NATIONAL SPHERE; IT IS TO DEFEND VALUES IN WHICH ONE BELIEVES AT THE PRICE OF ANY SACRIFICE; IT IS MODESTY, SELFLESSNESS, ALTRUISM, SOLIDARITY AND HEROISM; IT IS TO FIGHT WITH AUDACITY, INTELLIGENCE AND REALISM; IT IS TO NEVER LIE OR VIOLATE ETHICAL PRINCIPLES; IT IS A DEEP CONVICTION THAT THERE IS NO FORCE IN THE WORLD CAPABLE OF CRUSHING THE FORCE OF TRUTH AND IDEAS. REVOLUTION IS UNITY, IT IS INDEPENDENCE, IT IS FIGHTING FOR OUR DREAMS OF JUSTICE FOR CUBA AND FOR THE WORLD, WHICH IS THE BASIS OF OUR PATRIOTISM,
Revolution today is transforming, defending the sovereignty of Cuba in all trenches, from industry, agriculture, production, but also from society. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez called this July 26 to make a better country for ourselves. “History gives us strength, inspires us, drives us and encourages us” , he added facing the sea of a Cienfuegos town. The echo of the Commander in Chief seems to be heard again when he called for “emancipating ourselves by ourselves and with our own efforts.”
The discourse of the Revolution has marked a line in time. Fidel, Raúl and Díaz-Canel carry within themselves the same emancipatory ideology of respect for human dignity, a desire for justice and resistance. The current First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, in an approach to the meaning of the Antillean libertarian ideal, pointed out some essential terms. It is “democracy and popular participation, humanism, the will to transform, creativity, innovation, commitment, ideals and revolutionary passion” , he stated.
Words are not lost in the air, nor are they thrown into the void. They shine in the continuity of the historical line, from Céspedes to today, in the permanent construction of the fairest social system that the world has ever known.
What does the Revolution mean today, one might ask at this point? These humble pages would not be enough to cover such a social work. We could say, perhaps, that it is the will to fight for a dream, the certainty of getting closer to it in the midst of turbulent waves of a merciless, cruel sea that insists on dragging us into the depths. They have tried everything to sink us, but the ship continues its journey, propelled by the arm of all good Cubans, faithful to the determination to build a better world.
Perfection will always be a chimera. We will have as much as we can build with our own hands. Cuba is not alone, but the future lies in the endogenous capacity to resist and develop. We have the privilege, the freedom and the duty to know that we are responsible for our fate. “It is up to our generation to storm the fortress of economic inefficiency, bureaucracy, callousness, hate. On their remains we will build the possible prosperity” , said Díaz-Canel, and there are no more precise words. The goal is clear, but we have to pave the way. Let’s do it.
By Alejandra Brito White
source: Razones de Cuba (Cuban reasons)
