The Declarations Of Havana

In response to the American administration's attempt to isolate Cuba, Fidel Castro delivered a series of speeches designed to radicalize Latin American society. As Latin America experiences more revolutions in Venezuela and Bolivia, and continues to upset America's plans for neo-liberal imperialism, renowned radical writer and activist Tariq Ali provides a searing analysis of the relevance of Castro's message for today.

Nowhere are the questions of revolutionary strategy that today confront men and women on the front lines of struggles in the Americas addressed with greater truthfulness and clarity than in these two documents, adopted by million-strong assemblies of the Cuban people in 1960 and 1962. These uncompromising indictments of imperialist plunder and the exploitation of man by man continue to stand as manifestos of revolutionary struggle by working people the world over.

Nowhere are the questions of revolutionary strategy that today confront men and women on the front lines of struggles in the Americas addressed with greater truthfulness and clarity than in these two documents, adopted by million-strong assemblies of the Cuban people in 1960 and 1962. These uncompromising indictments of imperialist plunder and the exploitation of man by man continue to stand as manifestos of revolutionary struggle by working people the world over.

Two manifestos of the Cuban people to the oppressed and exploited throughout the Americas. The first declaration, proclaimed September 1960, calls for "the right of the peasants to the land; the right of the workers to the fruit of their labor; and the right of nations to nationalize the imperialist monopolies." The second declaration, February 1962, calls for continent-wide revolutionary struggle. "What does the Cuban revolution teach?" it asks. "That revolution is possible."