Moncada: A call for change in the social and economic order

Marta Rojas

THE assault on the Moncada Garrison on July 26, 1953, and on the smaller Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Garrison in Bayamo, was not planned and carried out solely to overthrow a de facto government which had seized power via a military coup the previous year. It was not a “move aside to make way for me” project, or even seen as a just punishment for interrupting the mandate of a legally elected or constitutional government, even though this was characterized by the misappropriation of public funds and unimaginable acts of corruption at the center of power.

The heroic action led by the young lawyer, Fidel Castro, who at the time belonged to the most radical wing of the Partido del Pueblo Cubano (Ortodoxo) (Cuban People’s Orthodoxy Party), was indeed conceived with a will to reestablish constitutional order, but one consistent with a radical shift in social and economic life in Cuba.

Fidel himself referred to this urgent need during 1953, the year which marked the centenary of the birth of José Martí and the 50th anniversary of the Republic’s tempestuous advent, after defeating 400-plus years of Spanish colonialism.

Hence the first revolutionary law in the Moncada manifesto – among six fundamental ones – to be announced as soon as the Moncada was taken by the revolutionaries in the surprise attack (according to the plan), was to restore genuine sovereignty to Cuba. The 1940 Constitution, treacherously replaced by certain constitutional statutes decreed after the military coup staged by General Fulgencio Batista and other officers in the early hours of March 10, 1952, at Camp Colombia, then headquarters of the Army General Staff and, after the Revolution, the Ciudad Escolar educational complex.

The concept of the Moncada revolutionary program was to immediately reinstate in full the 1940 Constitution, one of the most advanced in the Americas. This was not just a matter of words alone, because its basic articles were formalities, given that the document detailed complementary laws which gave the articles value. Moreover, among the most notable of these was the eradication of the latifundia, an action which did not appear on the agenda of any political party represented in the House of Representatives or Senate of the Republic.

The Moncada program, for which dozens of young people fought and died or were brutally murdered, established as irrevocable initial premises: agrarian reform, comprehensive education reform, and nationalization of the electricity and telephone trusts.

Obviously, the first proposal was basic; the elimination of latifundia or privately owned large estates. The summary of Case No. 37 in the Emergency Court convened as a result of the events of July 26, 1953, recalls for history these laws and other basic aspects of the revolutionary program for which the assailants were fighting.

The land issue, industrialization, housing, unemployment; a definitive battle against the precarious health and education of the people, given the high incidence of illiteracy and other problems, were stated by Doctor Fidel Castro himself as both defendant and prosecutor in the Moncada trial. Obviously, given the dictatorship in place at the time and press censorship immediately after the July 26 assault, the people were unaware of these proposals.

Painting a verbal picture, Fidel condemned the fact that, “In Oriente, the widest province in Cuba, lands owned by the United Fruit and West India companies alone link the northern and southern coasts."

The Moncada assault and the continuous struggle afterward, with the organization of the Granma yacht expedition, the rebel landing and ascent into the Sierra Maestra, and the constitution of the July 26 Rebel Army, were all faithful to the principles of the Moncada social and economic program. None of these heroic steps was ever improvised, nor was it their sole intention to overthrow the dictatorship, although that was a necessary precursor. These were steps designed to fulfill the program. Today we would say, with Fidel, “Revolution means changing everything that must be changed.”

All the fundamental ideas required by a revolutionary government were stated. Fidel’s inspiring trial allegation, History will Absolve Me, a document published and distributed secretly a year later, confirms how nothing fundamental was omitted from the revolutionary program:

Not even the need for merchant ships, or the need to plan tourism as a source of income, for example. In the case of tourism, which might seem to younger generations a recent project, it is worth recalling that as soon as the Revolution triumphed, the Tourism Industry Institute (INIT) was established.

Fidel’s revolutionary program also included promoting agricultural cooperatives and sharing equipment such as tractors and refrigerators; professional management and skills in cultivation and other specifics; as well as workers’ participation in factories, and on the sugar plantations.

All of that required education and culture; hence, after the Agrarian Reform Acts, the educational program was given priority by the Revolution and the people, from adolescents to the most experienced teachers. The Literacy Program continued uninterrupted even during the Bay of Pigs mercenary invasion, accepted with rifles held high by the revolutionary militias before leaving to fight for the decisive victory which underlined the socialist nature of the Revolution.

GRANMA