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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 2, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Something to celebrate

When the New Year rolls around, so do memories of the youthful rebels of the July 26^th movement riding triumphantly into Havana on Jan. 1, 1959. As the guerrilla fighters were greeted by rapturous crowds, the dictator Batista and his murderous crew fled with their loot, many to the United States.

Cuba then was still dominated by U.S. sugar companies and mob-controlled hotels and casinos. Outside Havana and a few glitzy tourist areas, rural workers lived in utter squalor, cutting cane for pennies a day when there was work.

The revolution has transformed Cuba, bringing free, universal health care, schools, culture, and new industries like biotechnology. What were once the poorest areas have benefited the most from new housing and public facilities. Cuban workers are fiercely loyal to the new system, as witnessed in the 1.3-million-strong turnout at last year's May Day parade.

Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. ruling establishment has been predicting a similar fate for Cuba.

On Feb. 5, 1992, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney told reporters that "Castro's days in office are numbered."

Rep. Dante Fascell, chair of House Foreign Affairs, told the same press conference: "[Cuba is] an economic basket case without hard dollars. ... The time is come to bring him in."

Rep. Robert G. Torricelli added his two cents: "We are witnesses to the twilight of the last Caribbean tyrant. ... I hope that in the coming months I can count on the support of all of you in the final chapter of the struggle against Fidel Castro."

On Oct. 3, 1992, President George Bush signed the Torricelli Law that made the economic blockade of Cuba even more onerous. "I'm very happy," exulted right-wing Cuban exile leader Jorge Mas Canosa. "I think the countdown for the end of Castro's days in power has really begun."

Also in 1992, Simon & Schuster rushed to get out the book "Castro's Final Hour-The Secret Story Behind the Coming Downfall of Communist Cuba."

On Nov. 18, 1993, Alexander F. Watson, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, testified before Congress: "Cuba is a country at a dead end."

Torricelli was still hoping on Jan. 5, 1994: "The final period of President Castro's dictatorship is here."

It is now 1997. The "final hours" have stretched into days, the days into weeks and months, the months into years. The Cuban revolutionary government still stands, intact and true to its principles. The economy, so damaged by the loss of the socialist bloc, has made a turnaround. This fall, the U.S. could muster only two other votes in the UN for the blockade, against a record 138 opposed.

The Cuban Revolution carved out in this hemisphere a territory free of capitalist exploitation and national oppression. With all their money and guns, the imperialists still can't take it back.

Que viva Cuba y Fidel!

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