Why the Cuban Revolution has Endured: A Marxist Assessment of Cuba’s Historic Break with Capitalist Rule and its Lessons for Today – Jeff Mackler
Sun, September 26, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm Pacific
A young Fidel Castro and his July 26 Movement cadre faced critical questions immediately following their defeat of the Fulgenco Batista Army and Batista’s U.S.-backed dictatorship in 1958-59. Initially, Fidel, previously an attorney from a wealthy family, was characterized as a moderate reformer and past member of one of Cuba’s two main bourgeois parties, the Orthodox Party. Pledged to restoring Cuba’s 1941 constitution that dictator Batista abrogated, the Castro team appointed two bourgeois politicians to the top posts. Manual Urrutia became President and José Miró Cardona became Prime Minister. Both were prominent anti-Batista politicians and both were deeply committed to Cuban business interests and capitalism. The events that transpired in the following six months fundamentally transformed Cuban society, abolished capitalism, and established a revolutionary government dedicated to socialism. Understanding the Cuban road is critical to an understanding of the flawed course followed for decades and to this day in Nicaragua and Venezuela.
We have invited Jeff Mackler of Socialist Action to speak Jeff was the National Secretary of Socialist Action and its presidential candidate in 2016 and 2020. He was the coordinator of the 1999 “Dialogue With Cuba Conference” at UC Berkeley. Two thousand participated in this first institutionally-sponsored conference including a Cuban delegation of 30. Mackler, who has visited Cuba at the invitation of the Cuban government, is the author of several books and pamphlets on Cuba. He is the director of the Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, a founder/coordinator of the Bay Area End the Wars Coalition; an Administrative Committee member of the United National Antiwar Coalition, and on the Steering Committee of AssangeDrefense.org
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