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In Defense of Socialism: Four Speeches on the 30th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution (Fidel Castro Speeches, Vol. 4, 1988-89)

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This book gives you a chance to hear Fidel Castro as he rejects the "new thinking" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In four 1988-89 speeches he champions Cuba's socialist revolution and critiques the failures of the bureaucratic regimes in the USSR and Eastern Europe.

He also reviews how these countries' examples had introduced weaknesses in Cuba's system and announces a campaign to correct these errors and reassert the principles of socialism. This collection gives you insight, not only into Cuba, but also into capitalism and socialism in general.

These are four speeches by Cuban leader Fidel Castro, given to mass rallies and meetings in 1989. Castro gives a reasoned, factual defense of socialism as the way forward for humanity with a rich analysis of some of the sharpest conflicts in the world at that time, from the economic and social crisis in Third World countries to the U.S. war against Nicaragua and El Salvador. Especially interesting is the detailed account of the South African invasion of Angola, Cuba's response of sending tens of thousands of volunteers to fight along with the Angolans, and of the death-blow dealt to apartheid in the battle at Cuito Cuanavale.

Castro also explains some of the early history of the Cuban revolution, such as how workers and peasants, led by the Rebel Army, actually took power in 1959. He takes up some of the big questions posed to anyone interested in building a new society, based on efforts the Cubans were then making to overcome bureaucratism, corruption and inefficiency. What is the relation between the individual and society, material wages versus moral and political consciousness, the use of technology and its impact on workers lives?

Don't miss this one!

Even the US government admits that Cuba has survived the "special period," the disaster brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the other Stalinist governments at the hands of their own working people. Castro made these speeches at the start of the special period, speaking from the strength of Cuba's victories in Africa against South African Apartheid imperialism, from its successful defeat of those who took the bribes of Washington and the drug Cartel. These speeches show the confidence of Fidel and the Cuban revoloutionists in working people in Cuba and around the world. Though they are 11 and 12 years old as I write, when you read these speeches you will understand why they speak to the socialist future of working people, not to the past.

While this book is not always available on Amazon, it is always available from BooksfromPathfinder, an Amazon Z store that you can get to by clicking on New and Used further up this page!

Fidel Castro is known for public speeches that last 6, 7, 8 hours or longer. These four translated speeches are mercifully shorter (because they have been edited). They represent the explanaiton of the start of the "special period" when Cuba, now stripped of Soviet aid, had to justify to his people the coming years of suffering. An important historical document for understanding Castro's view of history and Cuban life.

"In defense of socialism" is a collection of four speeches given by Fidel Castro in 1988-89, during the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the Cuban revolution.

The speeches are relatively uninteresting in and of themselves. They mostly deal with two subjects. First, the Cuban-MPLA-SWAPO military victory in southern Angola (one of the few redeeming features of Castro's regime - the apartheid regime of South AfriKKKa had it coming). Second, the so-called rectification in Cuba itself, a kind of "anti-perestroika" in which Castro attempted to bring back the early, "heroic" period of the Cuban revolution. The rectification emphasized voluntary labour in the form of "microbrigades" and special building workers' brigades, and took its cue from the economic ideas of Che Guevara, largely scrapped during the 1970's.

Both topics covered in this book seems to have been dealt with more extensively elsewhere, and it's not clear why anyone should buy this particular volume, except perhaps for nostalgic reasons.

"In defense of socialism" was published in 1989 by Pathfinder, the publishing arm of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party (SWP), an ex-Trotskyist organization which acted as a virtual propaganda arm of the Cuban regime during this period. The book therefore has a foreword written by a leading member of this party, Mary-Alice Waters. It deals almost exclusively with the rectification campaign, emphasizing the differences between the Cuban and Soviet models (the SWP, somewhat idiosyncratically, was anti-Soviet while being pro-Cuban).

I was actually present at the public launch meeting of this book in Sweden, at which the Cuban ambassador spoke for several hours (almost like Castro himself). I don't remember the exact month, but 1989 was the year when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and socialism collapsed in Eastern Europe. This and the collapse of the USSR two years later forced the Cuban leadership to change course once again, scrapping rectification and the economic thought of Che Guevara in favour of "the special period" and eventually, market reforms. This made "In defense of socialism" seem very dated almost from start.

But yes, Cuba is still broadly socialist, and the SWP still support it...

For how long, remains to be seen.