Despite the fall of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Despite the tightened blockade by US imperialism, the Cuban Revolution and the leadership of of the Cuban Communist Party are standing strong and and determined to resist any return toward capitalism. That was the main message of the fifth Congress of the Cuban Communist Party in Havana in early October.

This is a welcome message for partisans of socialism worldwide--at a time when world imperialism is trying to sow despair among the ranks of those who believe in working-class revolution.

The party's first secretary, Cuban president Fidel Castro, took on Washington and the entire capitalist system in his talk to Congress. He pulled no points of fact and painted no rosy pictures. The openings to the market in Cuba's economy, he said, have brought inequalities. But, he affirmed strongly, no steps will be taken that threaten the existance of socialism. Castro said capitalism has no future-- that it belongs to "pre-history." It has no moral future, no political future and not even an economic future," the revolutionary said. After the congress ended, the Cuban population spent the following days honoring revolutionary hero Che Guevera on the 30th anniversary of his death at the hands of the Bolivian military and the CIA. The people of Cuba buried Che's remains. And they extolled his example as a Communist human being-- a worker and fighter who gave all for the revolution and humanity. On Oct. 15, there were municipal elections throughout Cuba. And then it was back to the daily tasks.

Meanwhile, asked about his Cuba policy while in Brazil, US President Bill Clinton had to admit that Cuba has one of the best health and education systems, which he said "the Cubans think they might lose" if they turn toward "democracy" read capitalism. You are wrong Mr. President. The Cuban leaders are revolutionary Marxists. They--and the Cuban people-don't just think capitalism is a loser, they KNOW it. Thats why they're sticking on the road to socialism. It's the duty of working class partisans--and in the United States above all-- to stand with socialist Cuba in the battle to defend it from the ongoing US war against the revolution and the soveregnity of Cuba as a nation and a people. Workers World Oct.1997

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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 20, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
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U.S. offers $8 billion

"We won't be bribed," says Cuba's Fidel Castro

By Pat Chin

The Clinton White House is offering Cuba billions of dollars in aid-but only if a few modest conditions are met. These include the overturn of its socialist system and the ouster of Cuban President Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro, who heads the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Saying that liberty and dignity cannot be bought, Castro roundly denounced the Clinton proposal. "What most angers us," he said at a Havana rally to mark the 154^th anniversary of the birth of Cuban independence hero Jose Marti, "is that they are trying to buy us. ...

"There is not strength or money in the world capable of turning us into slaves again."

Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina used the Clinton offer to demand reparations for the billions of dollars lost due to the imperialist blockade and the numerous bloody acts of CIA terror and sabotage executed against that socialist country and its leaders.

"What Clinton must pay Cuba," said Robaina, "is a figure many times over what he offers, to repay the damage caused to its people by the economic and trade embargo and the dirty war of 35 years."

Robaina pointed out that the proposal was nothing new in the decades-long campaign to destroy the Cuban revolution. He exposed the White House scheme as one aspect of the anti-communist Helms-Burton Act that Clinton signed into law last year.

The law aims to topple the Cuban government by strangling the economy, with provisions that discourage and punish foreign investors in Cuba. But most of the world has condemned and defied the Helms-Burton Act by continuing to trade with and invest in that country.

Clinton's phony offer comes in a document called "Support for a Democratic Transition in Cuba." It promises humanitarian assistance, business investment and "maybe" turning over the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay to the Cuban people. The U.S. Navy has occupied the base since 1903.

The document mentions the sum of $4 billion to $8 billion to set up a "modern" judiciary and a "democratic" legislature, rebuild infrastructure and reestablish trade.

But first certain conditions must be met. The Cuban people must not only get rid of their leaders, but "democratic market reforms" must also be made.

In other words, socialism and equality out, capitalism and racism in.

The collapse of socialism in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe caused a near-catastrophic contraction of the Cuban economy between 1990 and 1993. Cuba lost most of its trade and economic aid. But the Cuban people rallied around their leaders in the Communist Party, laying the foundation for today's recovery in an era being called the "special period."

Some aspects of capitalism have been introduced in Cuba, but not for the enrichment of a small elite. Instead, these steps have been taken to save the socialist gains of the country. What are these gains? They include free health care, child care and education; unemployment and retirement benefits; and affordable housing.

Cuba is raising development capital through joint ventures with foreign investors. This type of business partnership is taking place, for example, in the tourist, oil and mining industries. But U.S. investors are excluded from the new openings in Cuba by the U.S. blockade.

U.S. and Britain vs. Cuban independence

Washington has a long history of trying to annex Cuba. In 1896, toward the end of the independence struggle against Spain, which was intimately linked to the fight to end slavery, a young Winston Churchill cautioned:

"A grave danger represents itself. Two-fifths of the insurgents in the field are negroes. These men ... would, in the event of success, demand a predominant share in the government of the country ... the result being, after years of fighting, another black republic." (Saturday Review, quoted in "People's History of the United States," Howard Zinn)

The first Black republic, of course, was Haiti, where African slaves had made the first successful slave rebellion in history, leading to independence in 1804.

Brandishing the big stick hasn't worked with Cuba. Why? Because the people, who overthrew slavery, racism and economic exploitation are united and armed-both ideologically and with weapons.

So now Clinton and the class of parasites he represents are trying to implement the "carrot" aspect of the Helms-Burton Act, with the latest proposal emanating from the White House.

Fortunately for the world, the Cubans remain staunchly tied to their long tradition of heroic resistance and struggle.

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