The Left Chapter: Havana

Showing posts with label Havana. Show all posts

Saturday, March 7, 2020

Che sketched by Soviet artist C. Ivanova, Havana 1960 -- Daily LIFT #144

Che sketched by Soviet artist C. Ivanova, Havana 1960 -- Daily LIFT #144

See our post: 32 Photos of Che Guevara from 1943 - 1967

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Che addresses the UN General Assembly, December, 1964 -- Che Photo #19

Che addresses the UN General Assembly, December, 1964 -- Che Photo #19

A photo from when Che gave his famous speech to the 19th General Assembly in New York. Che denounced American imperialism and lies and length and quoted from the anti-imperialist Second Declaration of Havana.

It is also remembered for such trenchant moments as when Che said:

The United States intervenes in Latin America invoking the defense of free institutions. The time will come when this Assembly will acquire greater maturity and demand of the U.S. Government guarantees for the life of the blacks and Latin Americans who live in that country, most of them U.S. citizens by origin or adoption.
Those who kill their own children and discriminate daily against them because of the color of their skin; those who let the murderers of blacks remain free, protecting them, and furthermore punishing the black population because they demand their legitimate rights as free men — how can those who do this consider themselves guardians of freedom? We understand that today the Assembly is not in a position to ask for explanations of these acts. It must be clearly established, however, that the government of the United States is not the champion of freedom, but rather the perpetrator of exploitation and oppression against the peoples of the world and against a large part of its own population.

From a collection of Soviet archival photos of Che. The Left Chapter will be doing a daily series of these often unusual Che photos from this archive over the month of February -- some with quotes and history.

Thursday, February 13, 2020

Che with a Portrait of José Martí in Havana after the Revolution -- Che Photo #13

Che with a Portrait of José Martí in Havana after the Revolution -- Che Photo #13

Monday, February 10, 2020

Che surrounded by children in Revolution Square, Havana, 1960 -- Che Photo #10

Che surrounded by children in Revolution Square, Havana, 1960 -- Che Photo #10

Sunday, February 9, 2020

Fidel and Che visit the art show at the Soviet Exhibition in Havana, 1960 -- Che Photo #9

Fidel and Che visit the art show at the Soviet Exhibition in Havana, 1960 -- Che Photo #9

Saturday, February 8, 2020

Mural against the American imperialist blockade in Havana -- Daily LIFT #123

Mural against the American imperialist blockade in Havana -- Daily LIFT #123

February 7 marked the anniversary of the imposition of the illegal and criminal, imperialist economic blockade of Cuba by the United States in 1962. It was announced by President Kennedy February 3, 1962. Since its imposition it has cost the Cuban economy at least $130 billion US according to the United Nations.

Despite this Cuban socialism has made remarkable strides forward for the Cuban people. Read more at: "The miracle we are performing...could not be performed in a capitalist society" -- Cuban socialism's remarkable accomplishments despite the criminal, imperialist blockade

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Che with his parents in Havana after the triumph of the revolution, 1959 -- Che Photo #6

Che with his parents in Havana after the triumph of the revolution, 1959 -- Che Photo #6

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Trade Unions and the Challenges of the 1980s, 10th World Trade Union Congress, WFTU Havana, 1982

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: Trade Unions and the Challenges of the 1980s, 10th World Trade Union Congress, WFTU Havana, 1982

This leaflet consists of the main document adopted by the 10th World Trade Union Congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) in Havana, February 1982. The WFTU was founded in 1945 and exists to this day. It is now headquartered in Athens and its website can be found at www.wftucentral.org

The WFTU consisted of trade unions that were often affiliated with or sympathetic to communist parties, the Socialist Bloc and non-aligned, anti-imperialist movements during the Cold War.

The document deals with the various threats and dangers confronting workers and their movements globally at the time. Despite the at times mitigating influence of the Socialist Bloc and a stronger anti-imperialist movement, many of these issues are very familiar, such as the concentration of corporate wealth and power, attacks on the gains of workers and the terrible disparities between the developed and underdeveloped world.

Notable quotes include:

Half the world's population suffers from malnutrition and many people suffer from hunger. But capitalism regularly destroys millions of tons of foodstuffs, closes down or restricts the activity of factories just to maintain high profits; capitalism also sterilises productive forces, and mutilates, twists or diverts material or human resources for the profit of national or international monopolies.

and:

Nowadays it is possible to use the resources of our planet rationally, economically and with the future generations in mind.But this cannot be solved by imperialism and its transnational corporations, which have provided wealth for a minority but misfortune for workers and people. This can be solved only by a working class alliance with all anti-imperialist forces.

(click on scans to enlarge)

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource.

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com

Monday, July 16, 2018

Revolutionary Cuba 1975: Sixteen Years of Socialist Construction Part III -- Photographs and History

Today is the third and final part of our look at a remarkable English language book published in Havana in 1975 that celebrated 16 years of Communist rule. Part I can be found here and Part II here.

With 140 photographs of industry, education, rallies, farms, the military and construction, among other things, Cubans of all walks of life are shown. These photos are accompanied by text that chronicles and describes the history of the revolution and its accomplishments to that point.

These accomplishments are all the more impressive given the American embargo of the island.

This final installment has 44 photographs that include many devoted to education (including institutions like the National Art School and the School of Dance), sports (the shot of the rodeo in Lenin Park is pretty wild), the Cuban military and anti-imperialist resistance. I found those of the new nursery school in the former barracks and the beaming children they call "The Future of the Country" especially moving.

There is also more of the text relating the history and evolution of the revolution's first 16 years. These are sections on education, health, sports, trade unions, people's power and several covering other areas. When speaking of the revolutionary armed forces Fidel Castro noted: "The need to possess a powerful defense is not a whim of the revolution, it is a necessity imposed upon us by the imperialist enemy", something always worth remembering when socialist revolutions face immediate capitalist encirclement and relentless attack.

(Click on images to enlarge)