The deep, historical roots of Cuban anti-imperialism

Abstract

Colonialism, imperialism and anti-imperialism have been decisive in shaping Cuban political identity for 150 years. US determination to control Cuba, consistent with the Monroe Doctrine, had a strong economic rationale even before Spain was defeated in the War of Independence in 1898. Debate raged between Cubans who aspired to true independence and an annexationalist minority, who favoured union with the US. The Platt Amendment imposed on Cuba by the US in 1903 ‘reduced the independence and sovereignty of the Cuban republic to a myth’. Between then and the Revolution of 1959 Cuba was effectively first a protectorate and then neo-colony of the US, which dominated the Cuban economy, politics and foreign policy. Tackling the terrible socioeconomic and political effects of Cuba’s subjugation under the Spanish empire and then US imperialism necessitated a radical transformation of the Cuban economy, political institutions and power structures. The transition to socialism inevitably meant confronting US imperialism – and vice versa. Since 1959, US imperialism, with its powerful allies in the right-wing exile community based in Miami, have relentlessly tried to destroy the Revolution and Cuban socialism. The issue of imperialism remains key today, in the post-Fidel, President Trump era.

Keywords:

• Caribbean
• dependency and anti-imperialism
• capitalism and centre-periphery
• decolonisation and colonisation
• Central America
• IPE

Notes

1. Lenin, Imperialism. Lenin goes on to discuss: ‘the relation between imperialism and the two main trends in the working-class movement’.

2. Anderson, Lineages of the Absolutist State; Parker, The Thirty Years’ War.

3. Bailyn and Denault, Soundings in Atlantic History; McCusker, Essays in the Economic History; Morgan, Slavery, Atlantic Trade.

4. We apply to the Cuban case concepts and theoretical tools taken from Hopkins and Wallerstein, World-Systems Analysis; Chase-Dunn, Global Formation.

5. Perez, Cuba en el imaginario.

6. Le Riverend, Historia Económica de Cuba, 151–291.

7. Perez, Cuba and the United States, 12–28.

8. Ibid., 55–65.

9. Arrighi and Silver, Chaos and Governance, 121–150.

10. Prieto Rozos, Visión Íntegra de América.

11. Perkins, Creation of a Republican Empire; LaFeber, American Search for Opportunity.

12. Williams, Roots of Modern American Empire, 41; Arrighi and Silver, Chaos and Governance, 185.

13. Elliot, Empires of the Atlantic World, 255–402.

14. Torres-Cuevas, En busca de la cubanidad; Ibarra Cuesta, Patria, etnia y nación; Instituto de Historia de Cuba, La colonia; Instituto de Historia de Cuba, Las luchas por la independencia.

15. Perez, Cuba and the United States, 83–84.

16. Bevans, “The Platt Amendment,” 116–117.

17. Ibid., 1, 117.

18. Instituto de Historia de Cuba, La neocolonia.

19. Williams, Roots of Modern American Empire, 5.

20. Lieuwen, US Policy in Latin America, 33.

21. US Department of Commerce, Investment in Cuba, 10.

22. Instituto de Historia de Cuba, La neocolonia.

23. A pattern repeated by Washington in several countries in Latin America; encouraging a coup and quickly accepting the status of the new regime.

24. Cushion, A Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution.

25. Castro, History Will Absolve Me.

26. The best example of this kind of reaction to processes of social transformations in Latin America prior to the Cuban revolution was the overthrowing of the nationalist government led by Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954. Ayerbe, Los Estados Unidos y la Am’erica Latina, 113–125.

27. Companies and nationals from other countries accepted compensation, avoiding future conflict over the issue.

28. Boorstein, Economic Transformation of Cuba; Yaffe, Che Guevara.

29. Domínguez López, Machado Cajide and Gonzalez Delgado, “Nueva inmigración y comunidad cubana en Estados Unidos.”

30. Cannell, 638 Ways to Kill Castro.

31. LeoGrande and Kornbluh, Back Channel to Cuba.

32. According to the Cuban government, 3478 Cubans have been killed and 2099 people left permanently disabled as a result of terrorism originating in the US.

33. Martí, “Nuestra America.”

34. Martí, “Carta inconclusa a Manuel Mercado.”

35. Castro, History Will Absolve Me.

36. Construction on the famous monument to José Martí in Havana took place under the Batista dictatorship, 1953–1958, demonstrating how Martí could be appropriated as a national symbol devoid of his anti-imperialist aspects.

37. Chase-Dunn, Global Formation, 282–285.

38. Amin et al., Transforming the Revolution.

39. Organization of American States, “Acta Final Septima Reunion.”

40. Partido Comunista de Cuba, “Primera Declaracion de La Habana.”

41. The synthesis of Cuban, Latin American and Marxist ideas is one of the signature marks of the Cuban Revolution.

42. Partido Comunista de Cuba, “Segunda Declaracion de La Habana.”

43. OSPAAL, “Declaracion General.”

44. Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions. In the 1970s and 1980s some 350,000 Cubans fought to defend Angola from apartheid South Africa’s invading army.

45. Guevara, Message to the Tricontinental. Arguably, Guevara’s anti-imperialism reinforced, rather than decisively shaped, the deep, historically rooted anti-imperialism expressed through Fidel Castro’s leadership.

46. The Helms-Burton Act created a unique situation by depriving the US President of his constitutional competence to determine policy toward a foreign country through the introduction of legal limits and conditions that can only be changed by Congress.

47. Campbell, Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy.

48. Dominguez, “La politica cubana antes y despues del congreso del Partido.”

49. Rodriguez, ”Fifty Years of Revolution,” 36.

50. Yaffe, “Cuban Socialism.”

51. Smith, “Estados Unidos y Cuba posterior a la guerra fria.”

52. Kirk and Erisman, Cuban Medical Internationalism, 97–189.

53. Bacevich, American Empire.

54. President of the United States, National Security Strategy 2002; President of the United States, National Security Strategy 2006

55. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, Report to the President 2004; Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, Report to the President 2006.

56. Campbell, Cuban Economists on the Cuban Economy, offers a Cuban political economy perspective of how this survival was achieved and at what cost for the socialist development project.

57. Nye, The Powers to Lead; Armitage and Nye, CSIS Commission on Smart Power; Mundow, “Wielding ‘Smart Power’ in World Affairs.”

58. President of the United States, National Security Strategy 2010; President of the United States, National Security Strategy 2015.

59. Domínguez López, “Factors Determining Dialogue.”

60. Domínguez López, Machado Cajide, and Gonzalez Delgado, “Nueva inmigración y comunidad cubana en Estados Unidos.”

61. Dominguez Lopez and Gonzalez Delgado, “Rupturas y persistencias entre los cubanos del norte.”

62. Barrera Rodriguez and Dominguez Lopez, “L’entreprise d’État à Cuba.”

63. Trump, “National Security Presidential Memorandum.”

64. Pérez Ávila, Interview.

65. Obama, “Statement by the President.”

66. Eaton, “Democracy Spending Down.” Eaton, “Cuba Spending Hovers” calculates that nearly US$1 billion has been spent by US institutions on Cuba-related ‘democracy programmes’ since 1996.