On July 11 there were protests in San Antonio de los Baños that reportedly responded to
discontent over prolonged and constant power outages, but to add to the
shortage of commodities, the fall of purchasing power of salary and the
aggravation of pandemic in the last days.
Clearly there was a genuine component to that protest that was born of real difficulties the people face. But besides that there was another element. A few days ago there has been a campaign orchestrated under the slogan #SOSCuba that has two goals, one of trying to create a situation of social bursting, protests in the streets, etc. and two, empower the idea of the need for a ′′ humanitarian intervention ′′ to ′′ help Cuba ′′ deal with such a complex situation (a situation that the same campaign is responsible for magnifying).
The hypocrisy of the personalities who launched the campaign is incredible. When was the campaign for an international intervention in Brazil, or Peru, or Ecuador, all countries that have suffered mortality rates 10, 20 or 50 times higher than those in Cuba? This hypocritical campaign is a clear attempt to justify a foreign intervention against the revolution.
Some threw the slogan that has grouped the counter-revolution in recent months: ′′ Homeland and Life ", but were not the majority at the San Antonio de los Baños protest, according to reports from fellow men there.
Social media has spread information about the protest in San Antonio. Counter-revolutionary elements have been calling for similar protests in other parts of the country. There are many rumors, and as often happens, many of them are false, but it appears there have been protests in other cities. In this case the counter-revolutionary component (on the slogans, the people who encouraged them, etc) was much more dominant than in San Antonio de los Baños. Apart from ′′ Homeland and Life ′′ was shouted ′′ Down with the dictatorship ", ′′ freedom ", etc.
Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, one of the most remarkable figures of the counter-revolution, has called to be joined in the Malecón in Havana. The appeal has been replicated by all reactionary media in Miami and its social media. So far a group of less than 100 people have focused on Malecon. Later, more people have joined together, forming a group of several hundred, in which it was difficult to distinguish who were protesting and who were just watching to see what happened. Some dispatches of international agencies (which have rushed to give wide publicity to protests) speak of hundreds of people, and even AP talks about thousands, but none of the photos or videos I've seen on the network shows anything similar, nor does it , so far, AP has presented graphic proof of their claims. AP's note tells how one of the protesters has deployed a U.S. flag.
President Diaz-Canel has been in San Antonio de los Baños, from where he has given statements and later turned to the country in televised address, calling on revolutionaries to take the streets. There has been a response to the appeal in several parts of the country, including Havana. The photos and videos I've been able to see don't show a very large presence, hundreds of people in Havana.
My appreciation of anti-government protests and pro-revolution may be incorrect for lack of information. Obviously I'm talking about the information I've been able to collect so far, things can go more.
What do these events represent?
First, they combine a series of historic problems, with others more united. Amongst the first: the blockade, the isolation of revolution in a backward country, red tape. Between Seconds: Trump's steps to increase economic chokeholding of the revolution (which have not been reversed by Biden), but above all the impact of the pandemic (and its impact on tourism one of the main sources of currency entry ). Added to this is the impact of measures taken by the Cuban government to respond to this strong economic crisis and also, for a few days, the strong uptick of Covid-19 cases due to the entry of new variants.
Problems are serious. Very serious. What are the causes? 1, lockdown, 2, pandemic and its economic and health impact, 3, bureaucratic management of the economy.
Given this situation, what should the revolutionaries take? Firstly, it must be clearly stated that protests called by LMAA and other related elements are openly counter-revolutionary, although they try to capitalize on an upset that arises from very difficult objective conditions. The upset is real and genuine. But the protests under the slogan of ′′ Homeland and Life ′′ and ′′ Down with the Dictatorship ′′ are counter-revolutionary. You have to oppose them and defend the revolution. Because, we must explain clearly, if those who encourage those protests (and their mentors in Washington) win, Cuba's health and economic problems will not be solved, but on the contrary. All we need is to look at Bolsonaro's Brazil.
Second, it must be said, also clearly, that the methods that red tape uses to try to deal with the problems faced by the revolution are not adequate and in many cases counterproductive (see for example Economic Ordination).
The methods that red tape uses to respond to counter-revolutionary provocations are also in many cases counter-productive. Censorship, bureaucratic restrictions, arbitrariness do not serve to defend the revolution, when what is needed is political discussion, revolutionary ideological rearmament, accountability and worker democracy.
In the fight that opens up in Cuba, we find ourselves unconditionally in the field of defense of the Cuban revolution. Unconditional doesn't mean non-critically.
Our slogans should be:
Defend the Cuban Revolution!
Down with the imperialist blockade - hands off Cuba!
No to capitalist restoration - more socialism!
No to red tape - worker democracy and worker control!
>> The essay above was written by Jorge Martin and is reprinted from his facebook page.
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