We Are Cuba Viva, The Country That Resists and Triumphs

UNDAUNTED CUBA

Miguel Díaz-Canel

Granma | December 30, 2020

President Díaz-Canel condemned U.S. insistence on attempting to destroy us, while we insist on living and winning, stating, “Cuba Viva rose above our own possibilities. Photo: Estudios Revolución

(Transcript: Presidency of the Republic/Translation: GI)

Dear Army General Raúl Castro Ruz and compañeros of the Historic Generation;

Compañero Esteban Lazo, President of the National Assembly of People’s Power and of the Council of State;

Deputies;

Compatriots:

Cuba is honored to have compañero Gerardo Hernández Nordelo as a member of our Council of State, today, six years since his return to the homeland. (Applause)

A year ago, from this same podium, we said: They threw us to our death and we are alive! We imagined, at the time, that nothing could be worse than that escalation of measures to tighten the imperialist blockade and attack the sources of our energy supply, our medical brigades and any option of financing.

Until 2020 arrived, a year that has been as hard and challenging as few others, a product of the startling COVID-19 pandemic that, suddenly, and for months, closed the doors on our economy and life itself.

Keeping the Revolution Alive

CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT

Federation of Cuban Workers National Secretar| December 30, 2020

Conceived a decade ago, and now underway, is the colossal task of re-ordering our dual currency and exchange rate; eliminating excessive subsidies and undue gratuities; and comprehensively reforming salaries, a longstanding demand of workers and retirees.

The process is based on the updating of our economic and social model approved and reiterated during the Sixth and Seventh Party Congresses, and in other documents guiding national life. The country’s highest leadership has explained that, given its far-reaching characteristics, this is one of the most complex tasks we have faced on the economic front.

A Sense of The Political

REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS IN CUBA

Karima Oliva Bello

Granma | December 30, 2020

The chants of “Down with imperialism! We need another world,” at the Trillo Park rally, make more sense now than ever. Photo: Juvenal Balán

Today millions of dollars are destined to propaganda of all kinds to make us believe that class is an obsolete category, that analysis of any social problem must be conducted with no such reference, following the concepts of liberal thought with the most careless, ahistorical relativism. Nevertheless, for the majority of persons in the world, the reality is not much different from that of the English proletariat described by Engels in The Condition of the Working Class in England. It makes more sense now than ever for us to shout “Down with imperialism! We need another world!”

So, why rule out class as a category for social analysis? Precisely because of its capacity to provide a reading of reality with exploitation as the most fundamental of social evils, and its power to convoke collective action against the very essence of the capitalist system and all that which attempts to reproduce it.

2020: Unprecedented Struggles, Renewed Hope for Victories

PEOPLE’S STRUGGLES  

Peoples Dispatch | December 31, 2020

2020 brought unexpected and unforeseen challenges. It tore away the fantasies of the capitalist regimes who amid the worst global healthcare crisis in history, still put profits over people. People’s movements and socialist governments showed that a different world is possible, and that we must fight for it.

The Year The Unions Kept Us Strong

WORKERS’ STRUGGLE

Pavan Kulkarni

People’s Dispatch | December 31, 2020

Community health workers in India blockade a road during the historic strike on November 26. Source Newsclick

[Peoples Dispatch brings you a series of articles and videos on 2020, a momentous year that saw humanity face unprecedented challenges. The beacon of hope remained the historic resistance mounted by people’s movements, and the care and solidarity they epitomized, proving yet again that our collective struggles alone can dismantle and end oppression. You can read the full series here]

From the over 1,100 strikes in the US, averaging over three a day, to history’s largest known general strike witnessed in India, labor actions across continents in 2020 demonstrated the firm refusal of the working class to passively accept on to its shoulders the burden of an unprecedented economic that has been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mass Media Propaganda is Enemy #1: Notes From The Edge of The Narrative Matrix

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Caitlin Johnstone

Though numerous, the pseudo diversity of content and opinion is one of the most egregious conceits of the tightly controlled Western media.

The most Orwellian tool of our rulers which does the most damage and affects the most lives is not surveillance, nor police militarization, nor government secrecy, but domestic mass media propaganda. It’s also the most overlooked. It’s good to protest the other mechanisms of authoritarian control, but propaganda is enemy number one.