During the first week of May, I had the honor of visiting Cuba as part of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five delegation. During our stay, in addition to attending the May Day rally in Havana to march in solidarity with the Cuban revolution, we also visited historic sites and museums such as the Museo De La Revolución with a lot of interesting displays and information about the history of the Cuban revolution and the Museo De La Alfabetización dedicated to the 1961 literacy campaign after the revolution when tens of thousands of youth aged 8 to 18 went to all corners of Cuba to teach reading and writing to peasants, workers and the elderly.
We talked to many Cuban people, from all walks of life, workers, youth organizers and senior revolutionary leaders. We had the chance to ask them questions. We listened to their experiences, their opinions on the recent developments in Cuba and the rest of the world. By listening to their answers, we were able to deepen our understanding of the Cuban revolution and the ongoing revolutionary process, sharpen our own ideology and raise higher our revolutionary consciousness and increase our determination to keep fighting to not only defend Cuba’s Revolution and end the U.S. blockade but to have a socialist revolution in the U.S. itself.
We also had the great honor and pleasure to meet the recently released Cuban 5, the heroes who were unjustly imprisoned in the United States for 16 years for trying to stop U.S.-supported terrorist attacks on their country. We met many activists and revolutionaries from all over the world who were in Cuba, like us, to stand in solidarity with the Cuban revolution.
Massive celebration on May Day in Havana
And then we had the amazing experience of the May Day march in Havana which had as the main theme: “Unity in the construction of socialism.” From the early hours of the morning, people of all ages started filling the streets, an incredibly festive and joyful atmosphere, a sea of flags, banners, signs, posters of Fidel, Raul, Che, Chavez and Maduro, a sea of people, a million strong, celebrating the victory of the socialist revolution, also standing in solidarity with all the exploited workers of the rest of the world.
The march was also marked with an additional sense of jubilation and excitement as the people had another huge reason to celebrate: the victory of the struggle for the return of the Cuban Five heroes. The members of the Cuban Five, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez and their families were the ones to lead the march as they were cheered and applauded by the hundreds of thousands. The Cuban healthcare workers were next, led by the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade who, in true internationalist solidarity, valiantly fought against the recent Ebola outbreak in Africa.
A never ending flood of workers, students, all reaffirming their commitment to the revolution, thousands of international delegates from more than sixty countries marching alongside their Cuban sisters and brothers, in solidarity with the Cuban revolution. As the Party for Socialism and Liberation delegation, we marched between a large group from Venezuela and a group from Uruguay.
After over an hour of marching, we reached the Plaza de la Revolución and as we passed by the tribunal overlooking the giant Plaza, we had the honor of saluting President Raúl Castro and President Nicolás Maduro, standing side by side, a clear testament to the fraternal and unbreakable bond between the people of Cuba and Venezuela as they stand up to U.S. imperialism together.
A million people marching and yet, no barricades, no police in riot gear, no water-cannons, no tear gas, no pepper-spray, no plastic bullets. The few police we saw were either helping direct the people, along with civilian volunteers and a few others were actually marching with the people, celebrating May Day! Imagine that.
Walking back to our hotel after this amazing event: a celebration of socialism, people’s power and dignity, my mind wandered off back to the U.S., the images from Baltimore, the Black people being brutalized by the police of the capitalist state as they were rising up in rightful rage and rebellion against the racist police terror they face on a daily basis.
I was also anxious to hear the news from my home country, Turkey as I knew many thousands would be out on the streets for May Day despite facing the ever increasing fascist repression of any protest, small or large, by the ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) dictatorship.
Before May Day, AKP issued a dictatorial order, banning demonstrations in Taksim Square in İstanbul. Taksim Square is of historic significance for the working class and revolutionary organizations in Turkey as it is the site of the May 1 1977 massacre where more than 30 workers were murdered by the Turkish state. The CIA was involved in the planning of the operation which was carried out as more than 500 thousand people were out marching to celebrate the workers’ day. Taksim Square is also the initial site of the massive Gezi uprising in 2013 which challenged not only AKP’s rule but the whole system itself.
May Day marked with police violence in Turkey
To enforce the ban, AKP deployed 20 thousand riot police, 60 water cannons and 5500 barricades around Taksim Square, while also shutting down all main streets leading to the square. Despite all these repressive measures by AKP and its police, thousands of workers and students, members of the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK), the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK), the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) and the Turkish Medical Association (TBB), members of revolutionary parties and organizations defied the ban and took to the streets in an attempt to get to Taksim Square. The police violently attacked the people with tear gas, plastic bullets, water cannons to disperse the protesters, wounding more than 90 and detaining over 240.
Despite the massive police presence and violence, about thirty members of the Communist Party, Turkey, thanks to a creative and well planned action which can be watched here, were able to get through the police barricades and reach the square, waving their red banners: a grim reminder to AKP that people will not succumb to their fascism. This action, while surely incredibly valiant, should not be taken as an act of individual heroism, obstinacy or the fetishization of a historically important but banned site such as Taksim Square. This action, however, was a great way to remind the masses of their own power against the oppressor, of how thousands of police can be defeated when the people are organized and act with discipline and coordination while backed by the collective and creative mind of a revolutionary organization such as the CP.
The role of the police in capitalist vs. socialist society
In the light of these three recent events, namely, May Day in Cuba and in Turkey and the Baltimore uprising in the U.S., let us try to identify why the role played by the police in a socialist state such as Cuba is so different from that played by the police in capitalist countries like Turkey and U.S.
In each of these states, the simple assertion that the police exist to serve and to protect the interests of the ruling class in power stays the same. The variable in that assertion however is: which class is in power.
In Turkey and U.S., the capitalist class is in power, a minority whose wealth is founded on the exploitation of the majority: the working class. So whenever poor and working people organize and take to the streets against any form of oppression at the hands of the ruling class, the police are ready to repress them with brutal violence, as in İstanbul, Ferguson or Baltimore. Ultimately, there is no other way to maintain the unjust rule of a minority over a majority other than using brute force. It is also worth noting that for U.S. capitalism, which has its roots in genocide and slavery, racism has always been an indispensable tool for the capitalist class to normalize the genocide of millions of indigenous people and the enslavement of millions of Africans. Yesterday’s genocide and slavery is today’s police terror and mass incarceration and racism is still at work today to justify all that oppression and injustice in the eyes of the white working people.
In Cuba, on the other hand, the working class is in power, in control of a centrally planned, rational socialist economy, prioritizing the needs of the whole society which is also free of racism. In Cuba, everyone has access to health care, education, housing, and a job and the police there exist to protect and serve the interest of the workers, the students, the elderly, in essence the whole society. That is also why the police in Havana march alongside the people, instead of brutalizing them as in İstanbul.
The struggle against police brutality is integrally linked to the struggle for socialism
We need to realize that the struggle for a society where the working people no longer suffer at the hands of the police is integrally connected to the revolutionary struggle to bring the working class to power, for a society free of all forms of oppression, racism and exploitation as in Cuba.
With that in mind and as revolutionaries and progressives in the U.S., let us also remember the words of one the greatest revolutionaries, Ernesto “Che” Guevara: “I envy you. You North Americans are very lucky. You are fighting the most important fight of all – you live in the belly of the beast.”
The Party for Socialism and Liberation is dedicated to building a mass, militant people’s movement to fight that kind of fight for a socialist revolution in the belly of the beast. If you agree, join us.
Long live the Cuban Revolution!
Long live Socialism!
