Broadcast on Cuban television, September 27, was the final episode of the second season of the series LCB: La otra Guerra (The Other War) and many social media posts celebrated the fact that the program had returned, with such care, to these moments in our history, when anonymous heroes of the revolutionary people defended the sovereignty we had conquered, facing the aggression of groups armed by the United States, eager to restore a past of domination and moved by gang loyalties and a desire for personal prominence.
Today, in light of these events, I would like to share my concern about other more contemporary happenings.
Among those who continue to be encouraged from the North and advocate a change of political system in Cuba, a common fallacy is repeated on social media - one that could confuse those who do not have a clear vision of what the current media war against our country is all about. The false assertion is that there is no difference between those who have historically attacked the Revolution and those who defend it; they are two identical extremes.
This lie equates officials of the Cuban state and those who, without being so, assume a position in favor of the continuity of socialism, with media figures of the worse kind, linked to the most conservative and reactionary of the anti-Cuban mafia, and is meant to manipulate public opinion to discredit the Revolution and our political system. The history of our country must be ignored, or cynically dismissed, to place those who defend the continuity of a historical process in which our dreams of independence and social justice were crystallized, which has shaped our national identity since 1868, and made freedom possible for the first time, alongside those who have systematically attacked Cuba in every conceivable way, including acts of terrorism which have caused the death of thousands of Cubans and an unjust economic blockade for more than 60 years.
Other lies serve to contribute to this line of thinking: The January 1959 victory seems to have only cut the wings of a promising bourgeois republic, sugarcoated in this version, when we know that poverty, illiteracy, discrimination, the lack of effective rights and freedoms for a vast number of Cubans, political corruption, servility to the United States, and the backwardness of a dependent economy (without a blockade) were basic features of the neo-colony. For these naysayers, defending the Revolution and socialism are synonymous with everything that is obsolete and dogmatic, but only those who are disinterested in history, and in the fate of the country's humble people, could support theses such as these.
Looking more to the South, to the America that Martí loved so dearly, understanding the moment that the region is experiencing and seeking less tutelage from the "chaotic and brutal North that despises us," would perhaps make the position of those who defend the continuity of the Revolution and socialism in Cuba more understandable to those who insist on accusing us of creating division and equating us with the counter-revolutionary mafia.
The idea of the existence of two extremes that are exactly the same conveniently creates an opportunity for those who wish to be recognized, on the fringe of the fundamental conflict over the nation's destiny, as false standard-bearers of the unity of all Cubans.
Unity, however, as Fidel would say, "means sharing the fight, the risks, the sacrifices, the objectives, ideas, concepts and strategies, which are developed through debates and analysis. Unity means the common struggle against annexationists, traitors and the corrupt, who have nothing in common with revolutionary militants. This unity around the idea of independence and against the empire, which is advancing on the peoples of America, is the unity to which I have always referred.”
No process has done more for the unity of Cubans than the Revolution when it united us in the struggle for the country's liberation from the foreign yoke and the vindication of all previous battles, radically transforming a class system to which the most debilitating division was inherent: the barbaric exploitation of some Cubans by others.
Never before was the cry of unity of Cubans as strong as when it was raised to challenge the model of a subjugated nation.
Much unity was needed for the construction of the different country that would follow. And if the effort is still advancing, it is precisely because of the unity achieved.
It is obvious that then and now, painful fissures and division have always existed, between the majority defending the Revolution and a minority aligned with the empire. The LCB series has given us a beautiful lesson in history and class struggle, with tears.
To ignore it would be untenable. What would we be obliged to forego to avoid this reality? The defense of national sovereignty? Are not those who seek alliances with the North, to change our system, undermining the national project most Cubans have chosen? Does this not constitute an affront to the kind of unity we seek? Those who today make false calls for unity do not tire of repeating insults in the absence of arguments, venting hatred and resentment, promising bloody futures to those who do not share their views. They call revolutionaries "left-wing extremists," as U.S. officials called Antonio Guiteras. They insult Fidel with the worst epithets. The imprint of his ideas within Cubans is as deep as Marti's. They speak of lifting the blockade on the same terms as the empire: on the condition that Cuba make political concessions. Their comments bring to mind the position of Miami groups that have attacked our country in every way possible. With different means, they pursue the same ends. But their lies will only serve to continue clearing the way and strengthening convictions. The more fallacies are fabricated, the more revolutionary we will be.
And this is not about personal battles, although there are those who would like to reduce the conflict to that level, because victimization is a tool they can use. This is, and always has been, a debate between two different projects for the nation, one that, subordinated to the interests of the North, retreats to capitalism and the other that must continue to clear its own path, facing changes, assuming criticism and challenges, but from a deep sense of independence and conscious of the moment the world is living.
Although it is more comfortable not to confront this debate for what it is, in which this current uses theoretical juggling acts, presenting no program other than that of destroying the Revolution, many Cubans assume their commitment to defending the homeland’s sovereignty and, with all their strength, work for a better future, on many different physical and symbolic battlegrounds. Many are today, in different ways, giving their best so that the country can overcome the pandemic and continue to move forward by changing everything that must be changed. We believe in this unity. These Cubans are, as in 1960, the heroes and heroines of the day.
Let us not allow them steal our dreams. We face a road ahead full of difficult challenges, and formidable unity will be required to overcome fallacies, efforts to erase our memory and aggression, in order to continue building a better country than the one we have now, standing tall and looking forward, with our heads held high, proud of the beauty of our history and its heroes, defending the greatest rebellion of all: our right to a free nation, seeking more and greater justice. And in this rebellion, we run the risk that some, who do not understand the complexity of the moment we are living, will accuse us of being radical, but we know, there is no way to be halfway revolutionary!
