Thank you for inviting us to take part in the 1st International Symposium, “Fidel: Legacy and Future”. We would like to take this opportunity to express the deep solidarity of the KKE and all the communists of Greece with the heroic Cuban people, who have been in the crosshairs of US imperialism for decades.
The great Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro dedicated his life to the struggle for social justice and the prosperity of the people of his country, and all nations rising up against imperialism. He devoted all his efforts to the victory and consolidation of the Cuban Socialist Revolution and its achievements. In this context, we wish to highlight in our brief speech an important aspect of his character and his unique personal contribution to the International Communist Movement at a critical moment for all of humanity. Such was perestroika, which proved to be a vehicle for counter-revolution in the USSR.
Fidel Castro was one of the few leaders of the socialist countries at that time who recognised the great achievements of the USSR, as well as the substantial aid it provided to Cuba and other countries seeking to build socialism. He also recognised the need for corrective measures within the framework of socialism, but expressed considerable reservations about the course being pursued by the CPSU. Indeed, he gradually shifted from a deeply cautious stance to a clearly critical one towards developments in the USSR. This stance clearly helped many revolutionaries and communists around the world to understand the developments of that period correctly.
What, however, was it that alienated Fidel from Gorbachev’s perestroika?
He clearly focused on the issue of the slanderous attack launched during the years of perestroika by ‘the media and those in power’ against communist ideas, against the Communist Party and against the country’s revolutionary history. As he noted in his speech at the 4th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, “I saw the Party’s prestige crumbling, I saw the state’s prestige crumbling, I saw the history of the USSR being slandered, and that this had nothing to do with historical criticism”[i].
At this Congress, which took place two months after Yeltsin had banned the CPSU and two months before the formal dissolution of the USSR, Fidel defended Cuba’s socialist path and the Revolution against the counter-revolution and the overwhelmingly negative global correlation of forces that was taking shape at the time. Indeed, he cites examples from his participation in 1987 in a meeting of the leaders of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), where, as he says, the problems concerning economic distortions were shared by all.
The KKE, in examining the causes of the collapse of socialism in the USSR, has focused its attention, amongst other things, on the so-called Kosygin economic reforms, and the erroneous decisions of the 20th and 22nd Congresses of the CPSU, which were, of course, also promoted in the other socialist countries. Fidel also refers to these in his opening speech at the 4th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba and notes, amongst other things, what he said at a “round table” with the other leaders of the socialist countries: «“Try in future to avoid this path, to avoid the alienation of the people and the negative consequences it brings”. They listened to me with great interest and, to tell the truth, many of them later told me: “You know, that’s exactly what happened to us too.” When I explained to them that many construction projects were left unfinished, when I explained that they were seeking to fulfil the plan on the basis of value-based production indicators rather than the necessary range of products, when I explained to them that the companies responsible for producing spare parts were manufacturing only the fifty most profitable parts for them and were not producing the rest, and so on, some of them told me with great candour: “You know, that’s exactly what happened to us too”»[ii].
Castro realised that the introduction of a series of market mechanisms and the weakening of central planning, which had begun in the USSR in the 1960s, could create distortions, even social inequalities, and ultimately undermine the revolutionary process. It is by no means a coincidence that, at the very same time that perestroika was being implemented in the USSR, Cuba (from 1986) was pursuing a policy of “Correcting Errors and Negative Tendencies”, certain measures of which moved in a completely different direction from that of perestroika, reversing certain market-oriented measures that had been introduced in Cuba in previous years.
In conclusion, Fidel’s foresight was rooted in a deep conviction he held at the time, which enabled him, 2½ years before the dissolution of the USSR, to deliver his historic speech on 26 July 1989 (Camagüey), to criticise perestroika and to predict the collapse of the USSR and a possible civil war, words that take on great significance when we see today, on the battlefields of the imperialist war in Ukraine waged in the interests of the capitalists, two brotherly peoples – who lived and flourished together during the years of socialism – being slaughtered.
Several years later, in 2005, in a speech to students at the University of Havana, Fidel focused on problems of low social responsibility and awareness, economic mismanagement, misguided government decisions, the individual and abusive appropriation of social wealth, corruption and so on – all of which he highlighted in his address to young people and students, beginning with the need to ensure that the developments seen in the USSR were not repeated in Cuba. He criticises “those who believed that socialism could be built using capitalist methods”, stating that this “is one of the great historical mistakes”[iii].
In summary, we can note that Fidel Castro’s stance towards perestroika and the triumph of the counter-revolution in the USSR highlights the importance of ideological consistency, as well as the timely political assessment of developments for communists. This historical experience continues to be a subject of study, reflection and the drawing of useful conclusions for the international communist movement.