Who wants to politicize the discontent?
Enrique Ubieta Gómez, Granma, Cuba, OThey are determined to destroy what saves us: the unity of the people and their institutions.
They will not confuse me. They will not be able to confuse the people of Cuba, who know how to distinguish between an affected person without the necessary information, overwhelmed by the long blackout (heat, food gone bad, small children in the houses) from those who try to take advantage of their moods to turn them against themselves, which is to say, against the social project that protects them.
I was at Línea Street and F Street on Saturday. It seemed to be a spontaneous concentration of citizens demanding action – it is true that there are bureaucrats who hinder communication and do not move according to the needs of the people, but by signed and stamped indications (an official of a company, for example, refused to lend the crane parked in his yard to move some logs in the block where he lives) – but I found something different.
Some foreign press reporters, who are busy building the image that imperialism needs, was present too. It was something that aroused suspicion because they do not usually attend genuine acts of protest against imperial aggressions or against wrongdoing.
At the edges of the gathering, dialogue was possible: needs or disagreements were expressed. But others refused and threw garbage tanks into the street. The cameras focused on them. There, without delay, the true motivation of this group appeared: we are against the system, against the government.
When they began to shout the word “freedom,” in accordance with the code of procedures of the soft war, the concentration was physically divided: the most, those who came to demand the prompt restoration of electricity, stay behind, bewildered and immobile. The manipulators badly fulfilled their task: to politicize the discontent in front of the cameras.
DON’T TALK ME TO BOREDOM, RESTORE ELECTRICITY
Miami manages the already intentionally thoughtless and superficial social networks, and those who echoed their messages in Cuba) to cut off communication: they fill the cyberspace with lies and absurd explanations, and intoxicate the less informed. “Don’t let them give you any reason, demand them to restore electricity!” they order; that is, don’t listen to explanations, don’t admit rational arguments.
If communication and dialogue are broken, popular participation is limited and the solution, hindered. Many people wrongly believe that the way to solve their problems is by making a fuss.
I recall one case: in a neighborhood of the capital, from the early hours of Saturday morning, the brigades of Green Areas pruned the fallen trees and the branches blocking the way, and together with the Garbage Collection Company, they sent trucks, cranes and bulldozers to collect the debris.
There were Party and Government officials on site, as it should be. Some of them had neither electricity nor water, and even children or bedridden people in their homes.
This work was essential for the linemen to enter later. It was finished late. Some neighbors helped, others distributed coffee and water. But a small group stayed apart, watching over.
When the workers and the officials were leaving, the people who remained apart asked when exactly the power would restored. The electricians were already connecting the electricity in blocks nearby, but it was neither prudent nor honest to say an exact time: they knew they were working non-stop. They ignored the explanation and the effort and threatened to take to the streets to protest. Some of those people were later in Línea Street and F Street. But that night, as it had been planned and explained, the power was restored.
THIS DID NOT HAPPEN WHEN FIDEL WAS HERE…
Each message has a specific addressee. The figure of the Historic Leader Fidel Castro is sacred for the men and women who gave their years of life to the Revolution. But that statement is a laboratory construction made to confuse, divide and hinder the continuity of the revolutionary process.
I remember how Lenin’s figure was extolled in the first years of Perestroika, and how they stopped mentioning him afterwards to later demolish his statues. Or how Chávez’s enemies began to praise him and compare him with the new leaders shortly after his death.
Although some non-conformist revolutionaries have naively adopted the phrase, its real purpose is to disqualify the current leadership of the Revolution and deny the possibility of a continuity. This textbook technique is called “personality assassination” and it is applied to the main leaders, to prevent them from connecting with the masses.
Not only is Fidel one of a kind (as friends and enemies know, he was a genius), but so are the historical circumstances. However, this new leadership, formed together with Fidel and Raúl Castro, is profoundly nurtured by Martí’s and Fidel’s teachings and ideas.
A REPRESSIVE GOVERNMENT, A FAILED STATE
Demonstrating is not a crime; obstructing public roads and knocking down garbage tanks is. The police go to the scene, but it is the people who argue face to face with those who try to politicize the discontent to use it for their own agendas.
Yes, it is the people who go to the Revolution Square to take part in rallies to support and defend the Revolution with more legitimacy than those who denigrate it, because they represent the majority of Cubans, whether they hold public office or not.
Most of the revolutionaries who accompanied me were among the last to have water and electricity back, which in their case took almost a week. Are those who receive money from counterrevolutionary groups, the people? Can they perhaps present themselves as defenders of the people?
The government and the institutions are not on one side and the people on the other. This scheme only tries to disguise the real contradiction: on one side, those who live at the expense of the people and manipulate them for personal ends, and on the other, those who defend the system of social justice that will always prioritize the collective welfare.
Repression? Those who surf social networks, can’t they see the meaning of that word in the United States, in Europe, in Latin America? “I am not interested in what happens in other countries, I am only interested in my own,” replied an irate young man who was talking about freedom but did not know how to explain it when I asked him about its meaning.
It is not admissible to ignore one’s own deficiencies to talk about other people’s ills, but it is good to remind those who want a change of “system” what is happening in the mecca of capitalism.
They want us to believe that Cuba is a failed state, when it was the only Latin American country that created its own vaccines against HIV/AIDS and immunized its entire population with booster cycles included, despite the blockade. The only country in history that has managed to resist for more than 60 years a criminal blockade that intends, precisely, to make people get tired and prefer the return of the dominators. A country that has just been hit by a destructive hurricane and it only suffered the lost of three citizens because its Civil Defense always manages to evacuate those in a vulnerable, risky situation.
Compared this to the number of deaths that same hurricane caused in Florida, number that keeps going up even if this hurricane, Ian, hit the country more than a week ago. The number of deaths already exceeds 100. Joe Biden, the president of the richest country in the world has stated it would take years to reverse the damage caused by the hurricane.
An article published in The New York Times on September 23, refers to Puerto Rico -a colony of the United States- in these terms: “In the last year, blackouts, which can sometimes last for days, have become part of our daily life (…) However, despite the lousy service, electricity bills have doubled”.
That is why they are determined to destroy what saves us: the unity of the people and their institutions, which was evidenced during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the Saratoga hotel, or in the fire of the oil tanks in Matanzas.
And that unity is possible because they are not opposing parties, because the institutions of the Revolution belong to the people and exist for the people.