Cuba

We have met on September 10th, 2008 in the Bolívar Hall in London, for the screening of The Battle of Chile - The Coup d'État, a documentary on the US-backed terrorism in Chile in 1973. The meeting voted in favour of sending a message of internationalist solidarity to Gerardo, Antionio, Ramón, Fernando and René, for the 10th anniversary of their arrest.

We have just heard the tragic news of the death in a traffic accident, of Celia Hart Santamaría, 45, and Abel Santamaría Hart, 48, the daughter and son of Armando Hart Davalos and Haydee Santamaría. Celia came from a family of veteran Cuban revolutionaries who fought against the Batista dictatorship together with Fidel Castro. She has been an outspoken defender of the political and revolutionary heritage of Leon Trotsky.

The International Marxist Tendency considers that the Cuban Five are in the front ranks of the fight for world socialism. They were fighting against the reactionary attacks of the extreme right against the Cuban Revolution. The struggle to bring about their release is the duty not only of the Cuban people, but of all those who believe in the socialist future of humanity.

Jordi Rosich, who recently took part in the Havana Book Fair, looks at the different pressures that Cuba is facing. He highlights the danger of capitalist restoration, particularly the so-called Chinese model,and what this would mean for the Cuban revolution. But the future of Cuba has not yet been decided. It also depends on the spread of the revolution internationally.

Last November 6 in the evening, on the eve of another anniversary of the October Revolution, around five hundred young Cubans gathered to celebrate the occasion. Still, those who find this piece of news unlikely or perplexing, regardless of what side they’re on, should make an extra reading for good measure: that’s right, Cuban youths hailed the Revolution.

This was the fourth time that the F. Engels Foundation was present on the Havana International Book Fair. The results could not have been better, with a marked increase in the sale of books and documents from last year.

This year, for the first time one of Trotsky's key works, the Revolution Betrayed, was presented by the Frederick Engels Foundation at the Havana Book Fair, stimulating big interest. A special edition of a theoretical magazine on China, including the analysis of the International Marxist Tendency on this subject was also being sold. It is clear that a layer of the most conscious workers and youth in Cuba are looking far a Marxist alternative to the prospect of "market economics" being reintroduced to the

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As the news came out about Castro not standing again for president, the comrades manning the Frederick Engels Foundation at the Havana Book Fair sent us their impressions of how people are reacting and what situation is opening up in Cuba.

On Tuesday, February 19, Fidel Castro announced he was no longer going to stand for the position as President of Cuba. All the talk in the bourgeois is of the need to remove the regime, but there is no mention of the real social gains of the Cuban Revolution. We do not stand with these vultures. We defend the Cuban Revolution by working for an all-Latin American and international revolution.