Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland
30 December 2018
The Communist Party of Ireland sends revolutionary greetings to the Cuban people and to the Communist Party of Cuba on the sixtieth anniversary of their revolution.
The Cuban Revolution has inspired millions of oppressed people around the world and in particular in Latin America. It was the first country and people in the western hemisphere to embark on the difficult road of building a new society free from exploitation, where the working class and peasants would control all economic and political power, to construct a state that is an instrument of their class power.
In sixty years they have transformed a country that was once dominated and controlled by imperialism. It had little if any national sovereignty or national democracy but was in effect a colony of the United States.
Today Cuba is a beacon of hope and an example to tens of millions of oppressed people around the world. It is a shining light in the provision of free health services and free education to all levels, free from domination by imperialism. It has laid the basis for full and true equality between women and men, between all the different races within Cuba.
For decades socialist Cuba was a beneficiary of the selfless solidarity of the Soviet Union, as a result of which it has continued to exist long after the victory of the counter-revolution in the Soviet Union itself.
The Cuban people have also been selfless in their international solidarity, sending hundreds of doctors and other medical personnel to all corners of the globe, to bring medical services to millions of poor people long denied access to medical care. At scenes of natural disasters around the world Cuban medical personnel are some of the first to arrive and the last to leave.
Cuba has also been a principled force in the struggle against imperialism. It played an outstanding role in the defeat of the South African apartheid army, leading to the eventual defeat of that regime.
Despite the decades-long blockade by the United States it has refused to bend the knee to its aggressive northern neighbour.
The Cuban people have overcome many hardships, and they continue to face new and difficult challenges, but face them they will, with revolutionary optimism and steadfastness.
All of humanity owe a great debt to the Cuban people and their revolution, not least because they continue to expose the lie peddled by western apologists that there is no alternative to capitalism. The Cuban people demonstrate daily that there is an alternative, and that is socialism.
The Cuban Revolution left its mark on the political thinking and actions of such inspiring heroes as Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and Camilo Cienfuegos. Cuba will continue to write new pages in the history of the struggles of the oppressed, struggles of the international working class and anti-imperialist forces.
It is the duty of the working class internationally to offer the maximum solidarity to the Cuban people. Victories for the Cuban working class are victories for the international working class and for all oppressed peoples.
