Preface to Cuba-Nonviolent Resistance III

 

The entire Castro period, that between the first of January 1959 and July 31, 2006, was represented in the figure of the commander in chief, the maximum leader of the "revolution", of Fidel Castro, a charismatic orator and expert political agitator, who knew how to capture the almost religious enthusiasm of the crowds. Energetic, virile, he was the champion of all campaigns. His government was made in his image, in his likeness it was made. Fidel Castro was the revolution; it was the party, it was the very embodiment of the homeland, and even "Martian offspring", because what Martí promised, "Fidel fulfilled it for you". His power resided, not only in his rebel army, but in the power of the masses.

The masses fervently acclaimed him to the cry of Fidel, Fidel! that resounded like the Nazi salute of Sieg Heil or the spontaneous cry of "Fidel, tell us what else we have to do!"; but time is relentless, and myths, for being what they are, lie fade with the passing of the years. Aged and sick, he ceased to be the manly image of the revolution, and the enthusiasm cooled... Then came the brother, Raul Castro, without the characters that adorned the older brother. He could mobilize crowds, but only under peremptory compromises, but he did not drag masses... Castroism is dead, now there is only what Fidel left in his path through life, an intolerant regime, unable to achieve progress, stuck in the past, retrograde and repressive, a totalitarian state.

The new figures do not have the magic of the precursor. They lack the fascinating charm of the charismatic gift. There is no longer emotion among the masses, only reluctance, tiredness and apathy. The regime that controls the Communist Party today is just the fossil of what it once was. It only takes one bolt for his skeleton to disarm; and that push can only be made possible when the internal opposition generates a nonviolent resistance movement capable of shaking what may remain of Castroism.

In order to develop a resistance movement using the methods of nonviolent struggle, it is necessary to form, previously, an organized operational body adjusted to the principles of the decentralization of tasks and horizontal leadership. This topic I deal with in Block IX in an attempt to lay out a theory about the organization of the nonviolent resistance movement.

The strategic nonviolent struggle requires organization, systematic work of proselytism, commitment, conviction; a deep analysis is required on which are the weak points of the opponent, which are those of the resistance movement; to, on the basis of these conditions, elaborate a draft strategy of flexible and readjustable action at each stage of the confrontation, an issue that I deal with in blocks XI and XII; it is required that there be a horizontal leadership, based on the creation of special structures or sections with broad autonomy of decision, so that the repressive organs of the dictatorship cannot have a clear idea of who are the drivers of nonviolent resistance,

An important issue within all the paraphernalia of nonviolent civil resistance is the role that the Cuban exile should assume in terms of supporting internal resistance. I develop this theme in block VI; in this highlighting as a priority requirement, the disengagement, of the exile and its organizations, from the internal politics of the United States. To break definitively with all kinds of Platista manifestation, that is, to believe that all the great solutions for Cuba must necessarily come from the hand of a US government, Republican or Democrat. The exile, the entire Cuban diaspora of emigrants and political exiles, must reach a political and democratic culture so as not to allow itself to be manipulated by opportunist leaders.

A detail that must be taken into consideration: the methods for the realization of the nonviolent struggle are not precisely recipes that can or should be taken, without considerations about the particularities of each country. You cannot fall into the mechanics of manuals; one must be objective and conditioned to factual reality; or as some authors have proposed, rationality, originality and creativity.

It should be noted that gene Sharp's scientific contributions on the nonviolent struggle are based on the experiences of civic struggles without the use of violence carried out since the last twentieth century, in both democratic societies (United States, struggle for Civil Rights), as well as authoritarian, autocratic regimes (Serbia, the opposition movement promoted by Otpor) and military dictatorships,  where there is a civil society with a certain degree of political action, opposition parties and news media, although they are often subjected to official censorship. In Cuba, a totalitarian dictatorship rules. There is little experience of nonviolent civil resistance struggle in regimes of totalitarian dictatorships. The fall of the camp of real socialism was due more to specific political conditions, such as the thawing of criticism of Stalinism, after the Twentieth Congress of CPSU, and the emergence of the policy of perestroika and glasnost in the now defunct Soviet Union.

In the Cuban case, the opposition movement must face a closed and intransigent totalitarian regime, which, with the imposition of a single ideology, destroys the limits that, as Hannah Arendt believes, separate the space of the private from that of the public, and before any hint of dissent immediately resorts to repressive practices. For this reason, I have adapted, as far as possible, the considerations and proposals of Gene Sharp to the characteristics of the bureaucratic-militarist regime that, under the dictates of the only recognized political party, the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) prevails in Cuba.

Civil resistance based on the principles of strategic nonviolent struggle can bring about the downfall of both a government and a political system; provided that the appropriate methodology of this form of struggle is put into practice. First, organization, leaving nothing to spontaneity. The apparent spontaneity that, at any given moment, may occur within a protest demonstration, with positive results, is due to a meticulous prior preparation. More than enthusiasm, it requires careful calculation, training, discipline and clarity of objectives to achieve. The mobilizations of protests initiated in Nicaragua, on April 18 and 19, 2018, in rejection of the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship, leaving a trail of 481 dead, 3,962 injured and 1,215 arbitrary detentions, constitute a clear experience of the non-observance of the guidelines listed above of careful calculation, training, discipline and clarity of objectives to be achieved. 

Cuba is subject to the power of a totalitarian state, based on the hegemony of a single legal political party, and on the prohibition and criminalization of any dissenting opinion or that might seem so. When launching a movement of nonviolent struggle aimed at the rescue of democracy, it is necessary to consider the reality of totalitarianism and thus be able to adapt the methods proposed for the impulse of a nonviolent struggle movement, without falling into manualism. It is required to apply all the scientifically proven methodology of nonviolence to these conditions.

The enemy that must be defeated is not an incompetent and dictatorial government, but the system, the political regime imposed by the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).

When considering the sources of power of a Totalitarian State, along with the six defined by Gener Sharp, Authority, Human Resources, Intangible Factors, Skills and Knowledge, Material Resources, and Sanctions, the source of power that determines the fundamental characteristic of the monolithic power of totalitarianism, the Political Hegemony, should be included. ; that is, the predominance of a political party placed above the State and Society, such as the Italian Fascist Party, the National Socialist Party of Germany and, in Cuba, the Communist Party (PCC) In block XIII I make a brief analysis by which I try to define this concept.

This monograph is not intended to set standards in opposition work in Cuba; its purpose is to provide criteria that, in some way, could serve as a basis for organizing a true nonviolent resistance movement in Cuba.

The Author