Cuba USA

“Invisible” war on Cuba: culture

By Enrique Ubieta Gómez
source Juventud Rebelde
translation Cuba-Network in Defense of Humanity

The final objective of a programmed intervention is the overthrow of the socialist system – not simply a change of government – because capitalism does not recognize the possibility that there is another form of social organization that is not theirs” the basis of the culture of having. In this sense, we are strong in the legacy of the work of José Martí.

It is a complex war but we have an enormous strength that is our cultural tradition that based on Martí who led us in the Revolution.

The perception of the problem of subversion is a complex issue and must be understood from the dimension of a cultural war. First is identifying the enemy that we mistakenly reduced to a country.

Capitalism is a system in constant expansion of its territories and markets. The first and second world wars were caused by disputes among the imperialists regarding the distribution of the world. U.S. capitalism, as it expanded, conquered the territories to the West laying waste native cultures followed by usurping more than half of the Mexican territory. The historical conflict of Cuba with imperialism is not a pathological obsession of that country against ours, or that we have the most beautiful lands or oil that we don’t even neither envy nor have worldly ambition that responds to the

intrinsic character of capitalism.

The enemy of the Cuba we are building is capitalism and, in a specific historical sense, imperialism. The war we are waging includes the perception, a construction of a different way of life, of models of life, of concepts of joy that oppose and denies capitalism. And those of capitalism, those of the culture of having, are the dominants of the world. That is why we speak of international capitalism and insist in this concept because we could understand how subversion should be analyzed from two perspectives: the first goes unnoticed and it is the process itself of reproducing values of the system by the so called cultural industries, those that create and reproduce an imaginary around the culture of having. Social pages or of the dear heart sections in printed dailies and television shows, for example, fulfill an ideological function by placing social heroes among the millionaires (entrepreneurs, princes, rich artists, etc.). It is this imaginary that is renewed once and again. We are referring to the construction of images that spreads out everywhere, reaches many places; exerts a large influence on the people. This is what we call reproduction of capitalist values; the imagery of capitalism:

Hollywood, Grammy awards, Large Leagues, NBA, all is a scaffolding that reproduces the criteria of the culture of having, through a system of stars in which emphasis is placed on the money the earn and not their essential qualities. It is a system subjected to the market and through it, its ideology. All this reaches Cuba, it is in Cuban Television, in the packets distributed, in Internet but is not only made for Cuba, more to prevent another Cuba from existing.

A second perspective that we usually consider is the concept of subversion that is morally more serious: it is the one we could call “Programmed Intervention”. It is no longer a simple reproduction of capitalist values but an intervention employing thousands of dollars specially aimed at overthrowing an opposing system already established like ours, in a specific country: what passes by granting scholarships, the introduction of suspicions, disenchantments, divisions, of programs that stultifies because capitalism sells images, illusions but never explanations. It avoids them and works comfortably with the functional illiterates; on the other hand socialism needs people that study, prepares, and knows how to evaluate; have a critical view of all that they see.

This programmed intervention intends, as a final objective, the overthrow of the socialist system – it is not a simple change of government – because capitalism does not recognize the possibility of another form of social organization that is not theirs: that which is based on the culture of having. In this sense, we have a strength that is the legacy of José Martí. How does that connect to the work of our current reality in our intent to construct an alternative to capitalism? In the first place is the definition of the political praxis of Martí “With the poor people of this earth, I want to share my lot. Martí chooses the most humble and this is a Revolution with the poor, by the poor and for the poor. To be revolutionary we need to be absolutely committed to the poor of the earth, not to the discourse but political activity itself. A person who has never been a militant in favor or social justice – and I don’t refer to a militant of the Party or not – but of one who does not participate actively in the political and social life of the country and is consistent neither with Marxism or Martí cannot be considered revolutionary.

In second place Martí is in favor of the culture of being and against the culture of having; he is a man who writes a famous letter to María Mantilla in which he says that the beauty of a human being does not rely on what he wears but what he has in him. Martí decides also in favor if this socialist Project; we don’t have to make Martí a Marxist which he was not, defending socialism as what we understand today; but

his perception on the culture of being on the bases of an anti-capitalist ideology. To be a socialist must receive some contribution, according to public use because it is not about rejecting the having but of inverting the equation. He makes use of what is not by what one has. Martí wrote of the utility of virtue, making use of the term utility to express bourgeois thought, to an ethical plane, of virtue.

We can add other features of Martian thought that accompanies us today, such as anti-imperialism and the necessary perception of Latin American unity; his idea of unity in the diversity of sources and roots, the aborigine, the African, the European; he demand us to be creative. It is a complex war but we have the enormous strength of our cultural tradition, that which is upheld in Martí, that which led us to the Revolution.

- Obamas Weak Trip To Cuba
by Ángel Guerra CabreraCuba - Network in Defense of Humanity The trip that took Obama first to Cuba and later to Argentina demonstrated the desire of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples to wage battle for independence, social justice and unity....

- Obama In Cuba: Will The Visit Advance The Us Cultural War Against Cubans?
by Arnold August source Global Research There are several aspects to this cultural war, in its broadest sense, which is presently being waged against Cuban socialist culture. One of these themes is the massive US media war and political disinformation...

- Ethics And Social Justice Continue To Be The Most Important Principles For Cuba
by Armando Hart Dávalossource Juventud Rebeldetranslation Cuba - Network in Defense of Humanity Ethics and social justice continue to be the most important principles for Cuba, America and the world today; they were objectives of the heroic men and women...

- The Cuban Cultural Challenge In The New Scenario Of Relations With The Us
by Elier Ramirez Cañerdotranslation Cuba-Network in Defense of Humanity Intervention at the plenary session of the Tenth Congress of the Young Communists of Cuba UJC. To a lesser or larger degree Cuba has been impacted by the influence of US culture...

- Translation: Revolution Or Reform (1)
Cuba exemplifies the interdependence of the struggles for national liberation and socialism in the imperialist epoch. The Spanish-American war for control over Spain's colonial possessions at the close of the 19th century, including Cuba and the...

Cuba USA