<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Today [June 27th] marks 25 years since the army of apartheid South Africa was forced to start withdrawing from Angola after 13 years\u2019 intervention in that country\u2019s civil war, having been defeated in battle by a joint Angolan-Cuban force. Over the course of 1975-88, nearly 400,000 Cubans volunteered in Angola, mostly as soldiers but also as doctors, nurses, teachers and advisers. This is one of the greatest historical examples of revolutionary internationalism. When Nelson Mandela visited Cuba a year after his release from prison, he made an emotional speech in Havana in recognition of Cuba\u2019s contribution to the liberation of southern Africa. That speech is sampled in this track.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u201cThis is revolutionary Cuba; internationalist Cuba; the country that has done so much for the peoples of Africa. The Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the people of Africa. The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom and justice unparalleled for its principled and selfless character. From its earliest days the Cuban Revolution has itself been a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people. We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of a vicious imperialist-orchestrated campaign to destroy the impressive gains made in the Cuban Revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">We too want to control our own destiny\u2026 Long live the Cuban revolution.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Read the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.themilitant.com\/2010\/7428\/742850.html\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">full speech<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Fidel was overcome with emotion on hearing Madiba\u2019s speech. In his own speech, he said:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u201cIt would not be right for us to emphasise Cuba\u2019s modest contribution to the cause of the South African people, but on hearing Mandela\u2019s speech, compa\u00f1eros, I believe that he paid the greatest and most profound tribute that has ever been paid to our internationalist fighters. I believe that his words will remain, as if they were written in gold letters, as a homage to our combatants. He was generous, very generous; he recalled the epic feat our people performed in Africa, where all the spirit of this revolution was manifested, all its heroism and steadfastness\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u201cWe knew \u2013 how could we not know! \u2013 that those events [in Angola] would have a profound effect on the life of South Africa itself, and this was one of the reasons, one of the motives, one of the great incentives that pushed us on. Because we knew that once the problem in Angola was resolved, the forces that were fighting against apartheid would also benefit from our struggles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u201cBut have we said it this way before? No, never, because we believe that above and beyond the enormous support from abroad \u2026 the decisive and determining factor behind the ANC\u2019s successes was the heroism, the spirit of sacrifice and struggle of the South African people led by the ANC.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u201cThis man, in these times of cowardice and so many things, has come to tell us what he told us this afternoon. It is something that can never be forgotten and it reveals the human, moral and revolutionary dimension of Nelson Mandela.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Please enjoy and share the track! Long live Cuba and long live free Africa! The legacy of Nelson Mandela lives forever!<\/span><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>>via:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beatknowledge.org\/2013\/06\/27\/new-hip-hop-madibas-message-celebrating-cuban-southern-african-solidarity\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.beatknowledge.org\/2013\/06\/27\/new-hip-hop-madibas-message-celebrating-cuban-southern-african-solidarity\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: large;\"><strong>__________________________<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2><strong><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: xx-large;\">Cuito Cuanavale 25 years on:<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2><strong><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: xx-large;\">celebrating revolutionary<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2><strong><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: xx-large;\">internationalism in the struggle<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<h2><strong><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: xx-large;\">against colonialism and apartheid<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/cuba-fidel-mandela.jpg\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"cuba fidel mandela\" src=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/cuba-fidel-mandela.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">27 June, 2013<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\"><strong>\u201cThe history of Africa will be written as before and after Cuito Cuanavale\u201d \u2013 Fidel Castro<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Twenty-five years ago, on 27 June 1988, the army of apartheid South Africa was forced to start withdrawing from Angola after 13 years\u2019 intervention in that country\u2019s civil war. The South Africans had been outmanoeuvred and outgunned by the Angolan defence forces (FAPLA \u2013 the People\u2019s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola), in combination with thousands of Cuban soldiers, and units from both the MK (uMkhonto weSizwe \u2013 the armed wing of the ANC) and PLAN (People\u2019s Liberation Army of Namibia \u2013 the armed wing of the South West African People\u2019s Organisation). The four-month battle between the SADF and the Cuban-Angolan force at Cuito Cuanavale was, to use the words of Nelson Mandela, \u201cthe turning point for the liberation of Africa from the scourge of apartheid.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Background<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Cuba\u2019s assistance to post-colonial Angola started in 1975, just a few days after the independence celebrations on 11 November (Angola won its independence from Portugal in the aftermath of the Portuguese Revolution of 1974). At the time, three different Angolan political-military movements were struggling for supremacy: the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) and the FNLA (National Front for the Liberation of Angola). The most radical, most popular and best organised of these groups was the MPLA, which had the support of most of the socialist countries. The FNLA was allied with the pro-imperialist Mobutu dictatorship in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), and UNITA was collaborating with the US, white-supremacist South Africa and the representatives of the old colonial order. As Fidel Castro noted at the time: \u201cThe Soviet Union and all the countries of Eastern Europe support the MPLA; the revolutionary movements of Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau support the MPLA; the majority of the nonaligned nations support the MPLA. In Angola, the MPLA represents the progressive cause of the world.\u201d (Speech given in Havana to the first contingent of military instructors leaving for Angola, 12 September 1975)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">South Africa, faced with the prospect of pro-socialist, anti-racist, anti-colonial, independent states in Angola and Mozambique (plus a rising independence movement in its colony of South West Africa \u2013 now Namibia), decided to intervene militarily in Angola on the side of UNITA. The SADF entered Angola from Namibia on 14 October 1975, and the MPLA\u2019s army, FAPLA, was in no position to stop its advance. It was, writes Piero Gleijeses, \u201ca poor man\u2019s war. South of Luanda there were only weak FAPLA units, badly armed and poorly trained. They were strong enough to defeat UNITA, but were no match for the South Africans\u201d (\u2018Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976\u2032).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">South Africa\u2019s invasion, along with the continued threat and provocations by Mobutu\u2019s Zaire, caused Fidel Castro and the leading commanders in Cuba to understand that Angola needed urgent help. In mid-November 1975, several hundred Cuban soldiers boarded two planes for Angola. Over the course of the next 13 years, nearly 400,000 Cubans volunteered in Angola, mostly as soldiers but also as doctors, nurses, teachers and advisers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">With Cuban assistance (and with the help of Soviet advisers and weaponry), the Angolans drove the SADF troops back across the border, and for the next decade or so South Africa focused its efforts in Angola around destabilisation, providing significant financial and logistical support for UNITA, thereby extending a brutal civil war that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Angolan civilians.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/angola-01.jpg\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"angola 01\" src=\"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/angola-01.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"494\" \/><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h2>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">As long as Angola was embroiled in bitter civil war, it was not a major threat to apartheid control of South Africa or Namibia. But in mid-1987, FAPLA \u2013 with the help of Soviet and Cuban forces \u2013 launched a major offensive against UNITA. This offensive had the potential to finally bring an end to the civil war \u2013 an outcome that neither South Africa nor the US could accept. Therefore the SADF intervened again. \u201cBy early November\u201d,<a href=\"http:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2007-07-11-cuito-cuanavale-revisited\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">writes Gleijeses<\/span><\/a>, \u201cthe SADF had cornered elite Angolan units in Cuito Cuanavale and was poised to destroy them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/world\/turning-point-at-cuito-cuanavale-1.393891#.Ucats_msh8E\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Ronnie Kasrils notes<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that the situation \u201ccould not have been graver. Cuito could have been overrun then and there by the SADF, changing the strategic situation overnight. The interior of the country would have been opened up to domination by UNITA, with Angola being split in half. This was something Pretoria and [UNITA leader Jonas] Savimbi had been aiming at for years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">The Cubans moved decisively in support of their African allies. Fidel decided that more Cuban troops must be sent immediately, boosting the total number in Angola to over 50,000.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Cuito Cuanavale was defended by 6,000 Cuban and Angolan troops, using sophisticated Soviet weaponry that had been rushed to the front. The SADF had been convinced that its 9,000 elite troops \u2013 in addition to several thousand UNITA fighters \u2013 would be able to conquer Cuito and thereby inflict a major defeat on MPLA, and indeed the progressive forces of the whole region. But Cuito held out over the course of four months, in what has been described as the biggest battle on African soil since World War II (Greg Mills and David Williams, Seven Battles that Shaped South Africa, 2006). Kasrils notes: \u201cAll the South African attempts to advance were pushed back. Their sophisticated long-range artillery kept bombing day and night. But it didn\u2019t frighten the Angolan-Cuban forces and turned out to be ineffective.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">With the South African stranglehold at Cuito Cuanavale broken by the end of March 1988, the Cuban-Angolan forces launched a major offensive in the south-west of the country. This offensive is what Castro had intended from the start: to tie South Africa down with pitched battles at Cuito (several hundred kilometres from its nearest bases in occupied Namibia) and then launch a ferocious, dynamic attack to drive South Africa out of Angola once and for all, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.granma.cu\/ingles\/international-i\/28marz-13cuitocuanavale.html\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">like a boxer who with his left hand blocks the blow and with his right \u2013 strikes<\/span><\/a>\u201c. Castro noted: \u201cWhile in Cuito Cuanavale the South African troops were bled, to the south-west 40,000 Cuban and 30,000 Angolan troops, supported by some 600 tanks, hundreds of pieces of artillery, a thousand anti-aircraft weapons and the daring MiG-23 units that secured air supremacy advanced towards the Namibian border, ready literally to sweep up the South African forces deployed along that main route.\u201d (Cited in Vladimir Shubin \u2018The Hot \u201cCold War\u201d\u2018)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Kasrils writes: \u201cThe end for the SADF was signaled on June 27 1988. A squadron of MiGs bombed the Ruacana and Calueque installations, cutting the water supply to Ovamboland and its military bases and killing 11 young South African conscripts. A MiG-23 executed a neat victory roll over the Ruacana dam. The war was effectively over.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">The supposedly invincible South African Defence Force had been forced out of Angola. The apartheid regime was left with no choice but to sue for peace.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Turning point for southern Africa<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Fidel stated that \u201cthe history of Africa will be written as before and after Cuito Cuanavale\u201d. Nelson Mandela is on record as saying that Cuito Cuanavale was \u201cthe turning point for the liberation of Africa from the scourge of apartheid\u201d. What made a battle in the Angolan war the major turning point for the wider southern African region?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Isaac Saney explains in his excellent book \u2018Cuba: A Revolution in Motion\u2019: \u201cThe defeat shattered the confidence of the South African military, and with the approach of Cuban forces toward Namibia, Pretoria sought a means by which to extricate their troops \u2018without humiliation and alive\u2019. Thus, the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was instrumental in paving the path to negotiations. In December 1988, an agreement was reached between Cuba and Angola on one side and South Africa on the other, which provided for the gradual withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola and the establishment of an independent Namibia\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">So, as part of the negotiation process resulting from the Cuban-Angolan victory, South Africa was forced to set a timetable for withdrawal from Namibia. Namibia became an independent state in March 1990. The victory in Angola also provided important impetus for the anti-apartheid forces within South Africa. In early 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 long years, the ANC and other liberation organisations were unbanned, and the negotiations towards a free South Africa were begun in earnest. UNITA suffered a series of major military reverses and Angola was able to start pursuing a course of peaceful progress. These were all extraordinary developments that nobody could have predicted a few years\u2019 earlier.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u201cCuito Cuanavale changed the military balance in Southern Africa on the side of liberation\u201d (Kasrils).<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Not a proxy cold war but an epic battle between the forces of imperialism and the forces of progress<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">It has been suggested by several western historians that the war in Angola was, at heart, an extension of the so-called Cold War between the two superpowers of the day (the USA and the USSR) with South Africa acting on behalf of the USA and Cuba acting on behalf of the USSR. Such an analysis is wholly refuted by the facts; its only purpose is to place a moral equivalency between imperialism and socialism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">For one thing, Cuba has tended to maintain a high degree of political independence in spite of close relations with the Soviet Union. In Angola, it is well documented that the Soviets were surprised by the sudden arrival \u2013 in both 1975 and 1987 \u2013 of large numbers of Cuban soldiers. Kasrils writes that the US security services were \u201csurprised to discover that the Soviet Union\u2019s so-called proxy had not even consulted Moscow over Havana\u2019s massive intervention. They were even more taken aback when sophisticated Soviet military equipment was rushed to Angola to supply the Cuban reinforcements.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Even the arch-reactionary Henry Kissinger, who was among the leading \u2018hawks\u2019 in relation to US Angola policy at the time, admitted: \u201cAt the time, we thought Castro was operating as a Soviet surrogate. We could not imagine that he would act so provocatively so far from home unless he was pressured by Moscow to repay the Soviet Union for its military and economic support. Evidence now available suggests that the opposite was the case.\u201d (Cited in \u2018Conflicting Missions\u2019)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">The Soviet Union did provide significant support for the MPLA, sending weapons, funding, training and military advisers to Angola (as documented in detail in Vladimir Shubin\u2019s book \u2018The Hot \u201cCold War\u201d\u2018). Furthermore, they provided much of the weaponry and planes used by the Cubans. Was this done in the pursuit of cynical geostrategic interests, for the sake of \u2018cold war\u2019 one-upmanship? Such a suggestion represents a vicious attack on the history of socialist internationalism. Shubin, former head of the Africa Section of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union\u2019s international department, writes:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u201cThe Soviets did not assist liberation movements and African frontline states only because of the \u2018Cold War\u2019. To put it in the language of the day: such actions were regarded as part of the world \u2018anti-imperialist struggle\u2019, which was waged by the \u2018socialist community\u2019, \u2018the national liberation movements\u2019, and the \u2018working class of the capitalist countries\u2019\u2026 In reality the \u2018Cold War\u2019 was not part of our political vocabulary; in fact the term was used in a strictly negative sense. It was considered to be the creation of the \u2018warmongers\u2019 and \u2018imperialist propaganda\u2019. For us the global struggle was not a battle between the two \u2018superpowers\u2019 assisted by their \u2018satellites\u2019 and \u2018proxies\u2019, but a united fight of the world\u2019s progressive forces against imperialism.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">One need only look at the succession of devastating, predatory wars of imperialist domination since the collapse of the Soviet Union \u2013 Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya \u2013 to see that, in spite of a period of intense confusion and political degeneration, the USSR played a fundamentally positive role in opposing imperialism and standing with the oppressed nations.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">The continuing relevance and necessity of revolutionary internationalism<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Why is it important to remember Cuito Cuanavale? Because it represents a pinnacle of revolutionary internationalism, of solidarity between peoples struggling for freedom. As Nelson Mandela said,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.greenleft.org.au\/node\/882\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">speaking at a huge rally in Havana<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in July 1991:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u201cThe Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom and justice unparalleled for its principled and selfless character\u2026 We in Africa are used to being victims of countries wanting to carve up our territory or subvert our sovereignty. It is unparalleled in African history to have another people rise to the defence of one of us.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Cuba\u2019s actions in Angola were driven by a deep sense of social justice and revolutionary duty. One of the historical forces driving its actions was the depth of African roots in Cuban society. Fidel, speaking shortly after the departure of the first few hundred troops to Angola, explained: \u201cAfrican blood flows freely through our veins. Many of our ancestors came as slaves from Africa to this land. As slaves they struggled a great deal. They fought as members of the Liberating Army of Cuba. We\u2019re brothers and sisters of the people of Africa and we\u2019re ready to fight on their behalf!\u201d This dynamic is reflected in the name that was given to the operation: \u2018Carlota\u2019 \u2013 in honour of the heroic Afro-Cuban female slave who led an uprising near Matanzas in 1843 and who, upon her capture, was drawn and quartered by Spanish colonial troops.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Ra\u00fal Castro pointed out that Cuba had itself benefitted massively from revolutionary international solidarity and thus felt morally compelled to extend the same type of solidarity to others. \u201cWe must not forget another deep motivation. Cuba itself had already lived through the beautiful experience of the solidarity of other peoples, especially the people of the Soviet Union, who extended a friendly hand at crucial moments for the survival of the Cuban Revolution. The solidarity, support, and fraternal collaboration that the consistent practice of internationalism brought us at decisive moments created a sincere feeling, a consciousness of our debt to other peoples who might find themselves in similar circumstances.\u201d Fidel emphasises this point: \u201cAs we have said before, being internationalists is paying our debt to humanity. Those who are incapable of fighting for others will never be capable of fighting for themselves. And the heroism shown by our forces, by our people in other lands, faraway lands, must also serve to let the imperialists know what awaits them if one day they force us to fight on this land here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">This type of solidarity, sacrifice, sense of duty and revolutionary morality is a model, a benchmark. This level of unity of the oppressed is exactly what we need in an era when imperialism \u2013 desperate to slow its historic decline and to cut down all potential challenges to its hegemony \u2013 is projecting its military power around the world, ably assisted by its media dominance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Today, Syria is under attack from imperialism. Libya has been set back decades. The Democratic Republic of Congo has been put through a disastrous war, motivated by foreign greed for raw materials. Iraq is a shadow of its former self, as are the states of the old Yugoslavia. Iran is under permanent threat from the imperialists, as is the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea, as is Zimbabwe, as are other countries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">The point is not that Cuba or any other country should send a massive military force to Syria, Iran or elsewhere (actually, a little-known episode of Cuban internationalism is that Cuba sent a thousand troops to assist Syria in the war against Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights, 1973-74). Today\u2019s global political and military context simply doesn\u2019t support that type of action. In the 60s, 70s and 80s, Cuba could send troops far and wide with the confidence that the USSR was there to back it up. Today there is only one military superpower: the United States. China and other countries may be rising fast, but the US is still the largest military power by a massive margin (its per-capita military spending is 30 times that of China).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">But there are other important ways of expressing international solidarity. Thankfully, the level of unity and confidence within the progressive family of nations seems to be rising again, after the years of confusion following the collapse of the Soviet bloc. The simple fact that Britain, France and the US have not thus far been able to force direct military action against Syria is an indication of that change. Progressive regional and international blocs such as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), CELAC (Economic Community of Latin America and the Caribbean), ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas) and SADC (Southern African Development Community) offer a glimpse of a new future for unity and solidarity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Until imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism have been finally eradicated from our planet; until there is no longer the oppression and domination of the \u2018third world\u2019 by a handful of rich countries; until a world order built on friendship, cooperation and equality has been established, the history of Cuba\u2019s solidarity with Angola is a story that must continue to be told.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Cuba continues to uphold the banner of socialism<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Another important reason to recall Cuba\u2019s internationalist mission in southern Africa is to remind people that Cuba is one of the world\u2019s shining lights of socialism, internationalism and progress. Although it has suffered immensely as a result of the collapse of the USSR and the Eastern European people\u2019s democracies, and although it remains under permanent threat from imperialism, facing a cruel and illegal economic blockade, it continues to build a dignified, independent, socialist society. Operation Carlota has been one of its greatest contributions to the global freedom struggle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">At a ceremony for those Cubans (over 2,000) who lost their lives fighting for Angola\u2019s freedom, Fidel spoke passionately in their honour:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u201cThese men and women whom we are laying to rest today in the land of their birth gave their lives for the most treasured values of our history and our revolution. They died fighting against colonialism and neo-colonialism. They died fighting against racism and apartheid. They died fighting against the plunder and exploitation of the third world. They died fighting for the right of all peoples to ensure their wellbeing and development. They died fighting so there would be no hungry people or beggars, sick people without doctors, children without schools; human beings without work, shelter and food. They died so there would be no oppressors or oppressed, no exploiters or exploited. They died fighting for the dignity and freedom of all men and women. They died fighting for true peace and security of all nations. They died defending the ideals of [Cuban independence heroes] C\u00e9spedes and M\u00e1ximo G\u00f3mez. They died defending the ideals of Mart\u00ed and Maceo. They died defending the ideals and example of Marx, Engels and Lenin. They died defending the ideals and example that the October Revolution extended throughout the world. They died for socialism. They died for internationalism. They died for the proud, revolutionary homeland that Cuba is today. We will follow their example. Eternal glory to them.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Cuba still lives by those same principles. Fidel\u2019s mention of the October Revolution here \u2013 in a speech made in December 1989, in the context of the obvious decline of the Soviet Union \u2013 is clearly a way of declaring that Cuba would not be participating in Gorbachev\u2019s attack on socialism and working class power; that Cuba would not follow the \u2018trend\u2019 of capitulation to capitalism. In the same speech, he says: \u201cWe have never aspired to receiving custody of the banners and the principles the revolutionary movement has defended throughout its heroic and inspiring history. However, if some day fate were to assign to us the role of being among the last defenders of socialism, in a world in which US imperialism has realised Hitler\u2019s dreams of world domination, we would defend this bulwark to the last drop of our blood\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Long live socialist Cuba! Victory to Africa in its continuing struggle for freedom! Towards ever greater unity and solidarity against imperialism!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">Further study<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">ARTICLE: Ronnie Kasrils:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/world\/turning-point-at-cuito-cuanavale-1.393891#.Ucats_msh8E\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Turning point at Cuito Cuanavale<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">ARTICLE: Piero Gleijeses:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2007-07-11-cuito-cuanavale-revisited\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Cuito Cuanavale revisited<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">ARTICLE: Cuban Five member Fernando Gonz\u00e1lez: \u2018<a href=\"http:\/\/www.themilitant.com\/2012\/7644\/764450.html\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Angola was milestone in my life<\/span><\/a>\u2018<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">ARTICLE:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.greenleft.org.au\/node\/882\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Mandela thanks Cuba for its solidarity<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">BOOK: Cuba and Angola: Fighting for Africa\u2019s Freedom and Our Own. Pathfinder Press, 2013<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">BOOK: Piero Gleijeses \u2013 Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, Pretoria. Galago Publishing, 2003<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">BOOK: Vladimir Shubin \u2013 The Hot \u2018Cold War\u2019: The USSR in Southern Africa. Pluto Press, 2008<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">FILM: Sisters\u2019 and Brothers\u2019 Keeper (produced by Isaac Saney and Mark Rushton)<\/span><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>>via:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.invent-the-future.org\/2013\/06\/cuito-cuanavale-25-years-on\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.invent-the-future.org\/2013\/06\/cuito-cuanavale-25-years-on\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> New hip-hop: Madiba\u2019s Message (celebrating Cuban-Southern African solidarity Today [June 27th] marks 25 years since the army of apartheid South Africa was forced to start withdrawing from Angola after 13 years\u2019 intervention in that country\u2019s civil war, having been defeated in battle by a joint Angolan-Cuban force. Over the course of 1975-88, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[6],"tags":[4,12,11],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176429200"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176429200"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176429200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176429201,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176429200\/revisions\/176429201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176429200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176429200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176429200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}