Cuba’s ‘battle of ideas’

Ignacio Meneses WW photo

In what the Cubans call the “battle of ideas,” it is clearer for working people that U.S. imperialism can only offer war, destruction and exploitation—from the extermination of Native people to taking 40 percent of Mexico, move the border, then call Mexicans living there suddenly immigrants.

And what was the Iraq War but a destruction of the whole country? For anyone that still has illusions about U.S. imperialism, we see Katrina.

In the richest country of the world, they want to cut the wages of [Delphi] workers from $27 to $12.50 per hour. I worked for 28 years on the floor. I am an auto worker. My co-workers don’t know if they’ll have a pension or health care for them and their families.

Cuba calls the other side “another world is possible.” Cuba deepened the roots of the workers’ state. In the veins and blood of the revolution are workers. Everything is for the workers. Eighty percent of the population owns their house. There is free health care, free education, sports and culture. There is no malnutrition in Cuba. Cuba has the highest life expectancy in Latin America and the highest literacy rate. In 2000, the U.S. had 270 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants; Cuba had 582.

Another characteristic of Cuba is the international role Cuba plays. In Angola [after helping] defeat the racist South African Army Cuba asked for nothing in return, took not one diamond.

Three Points about Cuba:

* Cuban workers explained the neoliberal policy: everything for corporations, for workers nothing.

* After the collapse of the Soviet Union: Cuba kept improving education and health care—in the worst times

* Cuba works with the social movements. The answer to the FTAA is ALBA—the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin Amer ica, integration of Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia based on solidarity and cooperation for literacy, health care and education.

We have a revolutionary obligation to defend Cuba and Venezuela.

—Ignacio Meneses, National Network on Cuba; U.S. Cuba Labor Exchange