[Marxism] Celia Hart: "We are always living the Revolution in Cuba"

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here Celia Hart takes up some of the issues 
which are discussed widely outside of Cuba and
not directly discussed in the Cuban media, but
readers here will, I hope, find them of great
interest, including issues such as the role of 
foreign investment [joint ventures] and their 
influence in Cuba, and the perennial "what will 
happen when Fidel dies" and more...


Walter Lippmann, CubaNews
http://www.walterlippmann.com 
===============================================

"We are always living the Revolution in Cuba."
Interview with Celia Hart Santamaria 

>From the weekly publication 
NUESTRA PROPUESTA(Our Proposal)
Translated by Maria Montelibre
Edited by Walter Lippmann
Web-Posted, with Spanish December 5, 2004: 
http://www.walterlippmann.com/ch-11-27-2004.html
-------------------------------------------------

The compañera analyzes the current situation in the island,
the challenges facing her every day, and current Socialist
and revolutionary ideas.

Daughter of two Cuban revolutionaries, Armando Hart and
Haydee Santamaría, soon after receiving her Ph.D. in
Physics, Celia Hart Santamaría decided that she wanted to
work doing something else. "I involved myself entirely in
my passion: the Revolution, from an international
perspective," the compañera states as an introduction.

Passing through our country, Celia was part of the event on
Che Guevara on the steps of Congress, and we talked with
her in the editorial of Nuestra Propuesta. "God punished me
for being born in the only country in the entire world
where you cannot belong to the opposition, because the
government itself is the opposition, that always
disconcerted me a little bit. I am in Cuba, which is the
opposition in the world, and that consoles me," she
explains. She remembers her mother, one of the two women
who participated in the Moncada attack in 1953, as a person
with an "overwhelming passion."

Celia currently works in the Museo Santamaría, located in
the same apartment where her uncle Abel and her mother left
one day to become the main figures in the Moncada attack. A
a similar episode took place over there, "My uncle Abel had
gotten together a group of Juventud Ortodoxa (Youth from
the Orthodox Party), later he was introduced to Fidel, then
my uncle told my mom that he knew already who the leader of
the revolution was going to be, she told him `you,' but he
was already thinking about Fidel. And my mother, mad with
Fidel, because he was getting the floor dirty with
tobacco...," she recalls smiling.

-How is the relationship between the new Cuban generations
and the Revolution? -The Revolution is won mainly by
winning the youth over. Youth is intrinsically
authentically socialist, but sometimes, because of our
limitations, we do something and youth loses that spirit.
As a member of the Cuban Communist Party, I am concerned
about some of the issues that Cuban and World Communists
must resolve. Besides being in power and in the government,
the Cuban Revolution must always continue being a
revolution, in spite of the fact that every state,
including the dictatorship of the proletariat, has a
tendency to become conservative. Fortunately, Fidel is
always revolutionizing things.

Starting with the case of Elian Gonzalez, there was a clue
that we are still alive, because it would be very sad that
the Moncadistas were the only heroes. Now we have our five
heroes locked up in the United States, who are renewing us.
Now we do not have to appeal only to my uncle Abel, or to
Che, or to so many dead comrades, but we have five heroes
to fight for. The most important challenge for us,
communists, besides freeing our comrades, is giving that to
our youth, so they feel that there are five heroes, five
comrades our age, struggling against Yankee imperialism,
because they, from inside prison, are struggling.

Besides anti-terrorist fighters, taking into account that
the Miami mafia is an accomplice of the U.S. Government,
they fight against imperialism, therefore, they are
internationalists.

Our greatest challenge is to give our flag to our youth, so
they take it as their own, those heroes belong to them.

-Then, what is the message for youth?

-The youth must be told that the revolution is an arguer.
Sometimes we, the older generation, do not want to be
contradicted, we want things to be set and we do not
practice the typical revolutionary arguments. The
revolution is an arguer, critical and thought-provoking.
That is coming up in some youngsters: love for the
revolution, even in a socialist country. There are ways to
tell them that we are still living the revolution, giving
them that happiness, there is no better way to be happy
than in the revolution. Being a revolutionary is the nicest
and hardest thing, it is the greatest duty, but there is no
cheaper way to be happy.

-Has this been internalized by the Cuban Youth?

-When the Socialist bloc fell, people thought that I
changed and went to the right. I said, "this is marvelous,"
and they thought, "Celia is crazy." I always thought that
the ideals of the October Revolution had been betrayed in
the USSR, and when it fell I thought, "Cuba is stronger
now, because this socialist revolution has not been
betrayed, and Lenin is still well and alive over here, and
we must take advantage of the life he still has. We have to
pinch him, stimulate his energy, telling him that there is
a big group of Cubans, Latin Americans, and people all over
the world, who are still with him. If we have the courage
to give that flag to our youth, they will fall in love with
it. This is growing, and it is shown by the Five Heroes,
not in a leaflet, but in real life. We must face the risks
of being bold, because youth is bold, the revolution is
there. A few days ago I was asked over here about critical
thought, how it is being manifested in Cuba...

- And what did you answer?

-There are channels in the Party and in the State, but all
those things are done in reality, by men. The Party is not
something abstract, it is formed by many comrades.
Sometimes some people think that politics must be left for
someone else, that it is better to go and have a beer. But
it is not like that. Politics must be played with
criticism, the struggle must be constant. Fidel is the
first one about that. When there are criticisms about the
revolution, we have the example of what happened with the
power cuts now, Fidel is impressive, in those situations he
goes and speaks directly with the people, in a direct
dialogue. But we know that not everything can be resolved
that way. The way to do it is to struggle for ideas to
manifest themselves.

-What is the effect of the economic changes on Cubans?

- At the Cuban Communist Party we still have a lot to
learn, we must struggle to understand youth's new
realities. Lenin lived through something similar in
relation to the NEP, with joint ventures, although Cuba has
most of the stocks and has the power to close the
corporation whenever it wants. Of course, those related to
these corporations live reality in a set way. It is funny,
but although the money is not for them, the dynamics when
working as a director of a joint venture or a business
changes your mentality, it changes you into a globalized
being. Cuba is not exempt from this new phenomena. Our
challenge is telling them that there is another life, much
more funny, committed, something to give your life for.
There are many communists thinking like me. This is a good
time. Fidel knows very well what to target. And youth must
fill those spaces where we, those with white hair, are.
That space is theirs, belongs to them. Proletariat
internationalism is an interesting subject, and people
should not relate to that only because of solidarity or
good will. Internationalism is not that, it is the center
of the revolution. I am in Cuba because we must struggle in
Cuba, but I am going to be the same way in Argentina,
Scotland or the U.S. The advantage of socialist ideas is
that they are international, compared to any other
important social movement, which are always geographically
grouped. "Proletariats of the world, unite," is a watchword
without competition. A broadly humanist idea. The most
humanist of them all. Communism is the only way humanity
can be happy.

-The right wing is always talking about "the transition
without Fidel."

-And I ask them, what happened when Che died? Che is over
there, as alive as always, he came back before Christ did.
If Fidel dies, the world will lose a person whom perhaps
they did not know how to make good use of as they should
have. But there is a lot to be done yet, and the enemy is
so ignorant and so clumsy that they do not realize that
Fidel will hurt them much more when he's not around,
because he is going to grow. The small criticisms he has
now, which he gets as a statesman, will disappear, and only
the immensity of a man will remain. Communist ideas
transcend Fidel Castro, such as they transcended Lenin. The
Revolution is endless in Cuba, and we are prepared for
that. They asked me in Barcelona, in the International
Conference, whether Socialism is possible in just one
country. Socialism in one country does not work. It did not
work in the USSR, but, what is critical is that neither
Socialism nor the country remained. Socialism is
international. Socialist revolutions exist, they work, and
I am proud to having grown up in one of them. The most
authentic revolution in the West is in Cuba, no doubt about
it, and now, of course, Chavez's, which must continue in
the way to radicalization, and from there, as Che said,
"many Vietnams, " that is the solution for Latin America
and the world. That is the attitude, permanent revolution,
the revolution in Latin America intended by Che Guevara.

(Published in the weekly Nuestra Propuesta (Our Proposal)



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