In regard to the discussion about "Castro's insurrectionary model", for the mainstream media and most of the left the success of the Cuban revolution was initially seen as exemplary evidence of the effectiveness of 'rural guerrilla warfare' strategy. This was certainly the view of Che Guevara who tried to replicate the Cuban revolution's success in the Congo and in Bolivia. A key factor in the successful Cuban revolution was that the U.S. government decided not to directly militarily intervene and misjudged that Fidel Castro could be 'housebroken' by U.S. imperialism.
The July 26 Movement's insurrectionary guerrilla war organization was supported by an urban infrastructure of members and supporters supplying materiel and recruiting more guerrilla warriors. The July 26 Movement also had anti-Batista allies in the university student based Revolutionary Directorate, left-wing elements of the 'liberal' political parties and belatedly from the communist party (the PSP, Popular Socialist Party). This urban infrastructure of anti-Batista radical supporters and liberal sympathizers was largely middle class. Some elements of the U.S. establishment who have favored normalizing relations with the Cuban government have argued that the urban middle class was more crucial to the revolution's success than the guerrilla army. See: Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground by Julia E. Sweig Harvard University Press, 2002 Recently Stephen Cushion, a retired working class socialist, has been able to do intensive research in Cuban archives on the role of the organized labor movement in the revolution. Cushion argues that support from Cuban workers in the civilian economy was key to the success of the revolution. The July 26 Movement organized a successful national general strike that facilitated the final insurrectionary victory. See: A Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution: How the Working Class Shaped the Guerillas’ Victory by Stephen Cushion Monthly Review Press, 2016 Responding to your statement, fkalosar, that "Castro shot a lot of people" i haven't seen any evidence that that is literally true outside the warfare with Batista's army. When the guerrillas in the mountains first had to deal with a traitor none of the Cubans was eager to deliver 'justice'. Che stepped forward and executed him. On Tue, Mar 2, 2021 at 4:02 PM Ken Hiebert <[email protected]> wrote: > > Under the subject heading Create a Mass Party! - COSMONAUT fkalosar wrote; > > fkalosar101@... > Feb 25 #6729 > > Castro shot a lot of people. He said they were murderers and probably most > of them were. Then again "mistakes were [inevitably] made." But this is the > third rail of revolution--you can't live with insurrection and you can't live > without it and you can't have insurrection without firing squads and prison > camps, especially when you are confronted by state violence, which utterly > dwarfs the violence of the NRA and the rest of the sinister creeps on display > in DC on 1/6and > > I really like the legacy of the Cuban revolution, though it may be about to > vanish--but Castro's insurrectionary model was suited to objective conditions > in Cuba and would fail abjectly here, though perhaps not some other > insurrectionary model. > > If I could I'd like to travel to Cuba and talk to some revolutionaries and > find out what they think we should do in the US. Of course, any serious > conversation about this would be deemed sedition by Merrick Garland. > > > Ken Hiebert replies: > I think the question of the executions following the Cuban Revolution is more > often a talking point for the anti-Castro right than it is for the Cuba > solidarity movement. Also, the casual and careless references to firing > squads and prison camps appeared to be an attempt to discredit this list. > And so I reacted against this message from fkalosar. > But maybe I should be thankful for his message, because it prompted me to do > research that I have not previously done. . . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7105): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7105 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81039318/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
