Antoni Kapcia

Educational revolution and revolutionary morality in Cuba: the ‘New Man’, youth and the new ‘Battle of Ideas’

Education and morality have been essential codes of the Cuban ideological apparatus since the victory of the Revolution in 1959. Rooted deep in the political traditions that created that ideology, drove the rebellion and shaped the Revolution, but reinforced by the following radicalisation and mobilisations, these interrelated codes also informed the seminal experiences of the 1960s educational revolution and underpinned the ethos of the ‘New Man’. The same codes, somewhat downplayed in the late 1970s and 1980s, re‐emerged out of the 1990s crisis and the Elián González campaign, to drive the post‐2001 nationwide programme of educational reform, with its explicit goal to reinforce the ideological (and therefore moral) impulse of the revolutionary process and to reinvigorate Cubas youth as part of the current ‘Battle of Ideas’. This article analyses this latest campaign within the historical context of Cubas ideological development, the perceived moral crisis of the 1990s and the underlying principles guiding the notions of participation, responsibility and character formation.

Does Cuba Fit Yet or Is It Still ‘Exceptional’?

Much of the external literature on the Cuban Revolution has been characterised by two dichotomies between ‘exceptionalism’ on the hand and the application of non-Cuban paradigms on the other, and that between Fidel-focussed interpretations and more systemic perspectives. This article examines the evolution of these dichotomies, from initial enthusiasm or condemnation, through an emerging awareness of a historical dimension, a focus on the social revolution, and new disenchantments, to the emergence of a less polemical attention to detail before the post-1991 return to type. In the light of this trajectory, new approaches are suggested to break with these patterns, while acknowledging the challenges for exogenous research.

Martí, Marxism and morality: The evolution of an ideology of revolution

Ideology, now relatively neglected, is clearly a dimension basic to the whole process of revolutionary change in Cuba. Developing from traditions of radical nationalism and a political culture of dissidence, cubanismo became an ideological alternative sufficient to contribute fundamentally to the popular support for both insurrection and radicalization. With institutional instruments for political socialization lacking in the 1960s, it was able to fuse with newer inputs to become itself a powerful means of mass politicization, leading to both the ‘New Man’ ethos and, later, the current ‘rectification’ process.

The Siege of the Hotel Nacional, Cuba, 1933: A Reassessment

The Hotel Nacional battle occurred during the decisive 1933 revolution, when the siege of the deposed military reached its bloody finale. Overall, historians have downplayed the incident or disagreed about the details and its significance. Such neglect and disagreement can be explained by contemporary confusion and the urge of those subsequently seeking to legitimise the revolution to hide the unpalatable and rewrite history. However, the siege may in fact have decisively changed moderate left political opinion, thus shaping the character of post-1934 politics by contributing to Batistas subsequent rise to power.

Book review: The Cuban Revolution in the 21st Century, by George Lambie

Author biography Franklin Obeng-Odoom is a Ph.D. candidate and a graduate teaching assistant at the Department of Political Economy, University of Sydney. His research interest is in economic development, focusing on the political economy of urbanisation and debates in economic development. His research has appeared in journals such as Review of African Political Economy, The Review of Black Political Economy, Regional Studies, Cities, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Housing Studies, Habitat International, Development, and Journal of Developing Societies. He is the book reviews editor of Journal of International Real Estate and Construction Studies, and serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Sustainable Development and African Review of Economics and Finance.

Defying Expectations: The External Profile and Activism of the Cuban Revolution

While one might expect ideology in foreign policy to be the preserve of the stronger developed countries and pragmatism to be the lot of smaller developing countries, Cuba’s external profile, since 1961, appears to have often been more obviously ideologically driven than most. Cuban foreign policy between 1962 (the Second Declaration of Havana) and 1968 (when the erstwhile “heretical” Fidel Castro endorsed the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia) was seemingly based on an active commitment to continental revolution, regardless of U.S. hostility, Soviet exasperation, and regional isolation. Later, between 1975 and 1989, a policy of active “internationalism,” including active support for Angola, while initially seen as following Soviet dictates, actually seemed to demonstrate a continuing commitment to revolutionary principles. In the 1990s, as Latin America moved to the left, this stance seemed to be maintained despite economic weakness.

Burning Cane. Sugar Communities, Class, and State Formation in Cuba, 1868–1959

matters for evaluating Kennedy’s foreign policy as a whole. While a ‘rounded, complete view’ would have benefitted from deeper engagement with the more traditional focus-points of Kennedy’s foreign policies, Rabe does therefore make good on his aim to truly ‘consider his global impact’ (p. 11), and by doing so anchors his textbook firmly in the cutting-edge context of the globalising of cold-war historiography.

Lucha and Cubanía : The (Re)Construction of a Cuban Historical Identity Through the Idea of (Revolutionary) Struggle

While all political systems, especially at moments of crisis, trauma or threat, need to create and have recourse to historical—political myths, it is during any process of nation building that this need is clearest, since this is precisely when a consensus is needed on what constitutes the “nation” (to be defended or created), relying on a collective “imagining” of the community from which that nation is emerging and which, in turn, the nation is creating.1

Thirty years of Cuban socialism

To Make a World Safe for Revolution: Cubas Foreign Policy by Jorge I. Dominguez. Cambridge, MA, and London: Harvard University Press, 1989. Pp.ix + 365; index; appendices. £27.95. ISBN 0 674 8932 5. Che Guevara and the Cuban Revolution: Writings and Speeches of Ernesto Che Guevara edited by David Deutschman. Sydney: Pathfinder/Pacific and Asia, 1987. Pp.413; index; bibliography, glossary. £7.25 (paperback). ISBN 0 947083 014. In Defense of Socialism: Four Speeches on the 30th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution by Fidel Castro; edited by Mary‐Alice Waters. New York: Pathfinder 1989. Pp.xii + 142; index. £4.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 87348 539 4. Che Guevara: Economics and Politics in the Transition to Socialism by Carlos Tablada. Sydney: Pathfinder/Pacific and Asia, 1989. Pp.286; index; bibliography. £7.45 (paperback). ISBN 0 947083 06 5.