The super-revolutionaries

Reflections
by the Commander in Chief                       Read Spanish Version

Every
day I carefully read the opinions about Cuba in the traditional press
agency releases, including those from the peoples which were part of
the USSR, those from the People’s Republic of China and others.
News reaches me from the Latin America press, from Spain and the rest
of Europe.

The
picture is increasingly uncertain as we face the fear of a prolonged
recession like that of the 1930s. On July 22, 1944, the United States
government received the privileges granted in Bretton Woods to the
most powerful military power, that of minting the dollar as the
international exchange currency. After the war, in 1945, with its
economy intact, that country had at its disposal almost 70 percent of
the world gold reserves. On August 15, 1971, Nixon unilaterally
decided to suspend the gold backing for each dollar minted. With this
he financed the slaughter in Vietnam in a war that cost more than 20
times the real value of its remaining gold reserves. Since then, the
United States economy is sustained by natural resources and the
savings of the rest of the world.

The
theory of continuous growth from investment and consumption, applied
by the most developed to the countries where the vast majority is
poor, surrounded by luxuries and the wastefulness of a tiny minority
of wealthy individuals, is not only humiliating but destructive, too.
That pillage, and its disastrous consequences, is the cause of
peoples’ growing rebelliousness, even though very few are aware of
the history behind the events.

The
most gifted and cultivated intellects are included on the list of
natural resources and they have their price tags on the world market
of goods and services.

What
is happening with the super-revolutionaries of the so-called far
left? Some simply lack realism while others enjoy the pleasure of
dreaming sweet dreams. Others still are far from being dreamers and
are experts in the subject; they know what they are saying and why
they are saying it. It is a well conceived trap that should be
avoided. They recognize our breakthroughs as if it were a favor to
us. Are they really short of information? That is not how it is. I
can assure you that they are absolutely well informed. In certain
cases, the alleged friendship with Cuba allows them to attend
numerous international meetings and chat with as many people from
abroad or from the country as they want, without any objection from
our imperial neighbor just 90 miles away from the Cuban shores.

What
is their advice to the Revolution? It’s pure poison; the most
typical of the neoliberal formulae.

The
blockade does not exist; it would appear to be a Cuban invention.

They
underestimate the Revolution’s most colossal achievement, its work
in education, the massive cultivation of peoples’ talents. They
sustain that some must live doing simple and rough work. They
underestimate the results and exaggerate the costs of scientific
investments. Even worse: they overlook the value of the healthcare
services that Cuba provides to the world; actually, with modest
resources the Revolution is stripping bare the system imposed by
imperialism which is lacking the human personnel to carry it out.
They advise investments which are ruinous, and the services they
provide, such as rent, are practically free. If foreign investments
in housing had not been stopped in time, they would have constructed
tens of thousands without any more resources than the prior sales of
that same housing to foreign residents in Cuba or abroad.
Furthermore, they were joint enterprises governed by a legislation
intended for productive companies. There were no limits for the
authority of the buyers as owners. The country would supply services
to those residents or clients, without the need of being
knowledgeable in science or computers. Many of the dwellings could be
acquired by the enemy intelligence agencies or their allies.

We
need some of the joint enterprises since they control very necessary
markets. But you can hardly flood the country with money and not sell
our sovereignty.

The
super-revolutionaries who prescribe such medication deliberately
ignore other resources which are truly decisive for the economy, such
as the growing production of gas which, when purified, becomes an
invaluable source of electricity without affecting the environment
and brings with it hundreds of millions of dollars each year. About
the Energy Revolution promoted by Cuba, of vital and decisive
importance for the world, not one word is spoken. They go even
further: they see an energy advantage for the island in the
production of sugarcane –a crop that was grown in Cuba with
semi-slave labor– to counter the high cost of diesel being guzzled
by the automobiles of the United States, Western Europe and other
developed countries. The egotistical instinct is being fostered in
human beings while the price of food is doubling and tripling.

Nobody
has been more critical of our own revolutionary work than I have, but
they shall never see me hoping for favors or apologies from the worst
of the empires.

Fidel
Castro Ruz

September
3, 2007.