Granma 299
The Strength of Women with the Revolution
The Strength of Women with the Revolution (+Video)
Teresa Amarelle Boué, a member of the Political Bureau and general secretary of the FMC, told Granma that in the midst of the media misrepresentation campaign against Cuba, fighting her is among the priorities of the Federation, which will reach its 61st anniversary.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Photo: Taken from the Internet
Cuban women will always be at the side of the Revolution, in defense of the principles and rights conquered for more than six decades. This was emphasized by Teresa Amarelle Boué, member of the Political Bureau and secretary-general of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), an organization that, with that conviction, as part of its essence, will reach its 61st anniversary.
In the midst of the media misrepresentation campaign against Cuba, she referred to Granma that fighting it is among the Federation’s priorities: “We are an organization that has legal authority, a non-governmental organization, but that does not mean that we are against the Government or the leadership of the Revolution, because it was the Revolution that dignified Cuban women and that is what we defend.
“We defend the Revolution because we want that in Cuba women have the right to employment, that there are schools, free education and that our women can be more than 62% of university graduates,” she said.
In another moment of her statements, during a meeting held with the press, she highlighted the importance of the National Program for the Advancement of Women. “Women have to know what the Program proposes; this work we are doing in the communities, the laundromats we are increasing, the strategy itself on violence, which should come out in the next few days with a legal norm; the work we are doing in the Women and Family Guidance Houses.
“We must start in the communities a workshop on gender violence, and we are also working on training the Police and legal personnel on everything that has to do with women’s rights so that they are in a position to exercise a better role in this regard.”
She said that next August 23 the FMC will reach its 61st anniversary with the motivations left by the 8th Party Congress. She pointed out that they will organize dialogues among women in each of the municipalities, and the Fidel and the Revolution of Women workshops, on the occasion of the 95th birthday of the Commander in Chief, always respecting the epidemiological norms.
Among the actions to be carried out in the coming days are a process of deep community intervention to stimulate citizen participation in the communities, as well as volunteer work, special matinees and recognitions to artists, founders and outstanding women in the fight against the pandemic.
The tribute to Vilma Espín Guillois will take place on August 23 at the Second Front, in the mausoleum where her remains rest. The commemorative day will also include the presentation of the Mariana Grajales and Ana Betancourt orders, the August 23 distinction and the 60th Anniversary stamp.
U.S. people send syringes to save lives
The U.S. people send syringes to save lives, while their government promotes chaos in Cuba
Yisell Rodríguez Milán | internet@granma.cu
July 29, 2021
The paradoxes of imperialism are beyond absurd. Just as the U.S. movement in solidarity with Cuba announces the shipment of six million syringes for vaccination against COVID-19, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) reports that, in order to access the latest two million dollars allocated for subversion in Cuba, counter-revolutionary mercenaries must adapt their “proposals” to reflect the events that occurred here July 11.
The U.S. government seeks to fuel confrontation, division among Cubans, and promote the many lies about Cuba circulating on the world’s principal media platforms, especially social networks.
Now, a little more than a week after that Sunday of disturbances, the USAID – the public face of the CIA – discloses that it will not change its objectives with respect to the island, and that, in addition, those requesting funding must design their proposals taking into account the current political situation, the Cuba Money Project reported.
Last June 30, USAID announced that it would allocate two million dollars to projects that “encourage” democracy and human rights in Cuba, one of the most obvious U.S. interventionist strategies around the world, and historically used against the Cuban Revolution.
In the meantime, as of July 17, some two million syringes have reached the port of Mariel, just west of Havana, from the Cuba solidarity movement in the United States – an act of love organized by Global Health Partners, with the participation of Cuban-Americans and several solidarity groups, who are continuing to collect funds to send medications, including antibiotics, painkillers, contraceptives and vitamins.
Revolutionaries
Revolutionaries
We revolutionaries are much more like those who sacrificed themselves for the Revolution than those who gave up in the effort.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
The Cuban Revolution is a political and cultural act of support for the Cuban Revolution.
The unity of Cubans is their greatest strength. Photo: Ismael Batista Ramírez
To suppose that we revolutionaries are satisfied with the situation of the country, that we have resigned ourselves and lost our dreams, is a blunder. We are not addicted to shortages, we do not applaud the shortages, we do not ignore the empty shelves or the crowded lines of which we are also part. We long for the bonanza, the good food, the well-stocked market, the full pantry; but we do not shoot at the target with our problems nor do we stay on the random surface of the crisis.
It is up to us revolutionaries to go deeper, to discover the root of the evils, to understand that it is necessary to act against those that are truly ours (the evils) in order to put a stop to them, without necessary self-criticism rising up, like a dense smokescreen, to play the game of those who have become skilled in placing all the evils in the bag of their own inefficiency.
We revolutionaries must have a greater quota of analysis, which will allow us to put the faults in the right place, without forgetting that the tactic of our enemies will always be to knock down our bush and then hold us responsible for not having the fruits. In the human instinct to find the guilty, it is not always easy to discover the real ones.
It is up to us revolutionaries to proclaim that there will be a better future, with the enormous difficulty of doing so from a stormy present. This includes the imperial harassment of our Island; and in that difficult mission, we cannot allow the waters of discouragement to sink our ship, so that others may appropriate our destiny.
We revolutionaries must resemble much more those who sacrificed themselves for the Revolution than those who gave up in the effort. There are many people in our history who overcame more complex moments than those of today without losing hope and optimism.
No one forces us, revolutionaries, to be so, and if we have assumed it, we must understand that it is not a cyclical conviction or a ship that only sails with the wind in our favor. If we are, it must always be with the same face and ready to face more than one storm.
New Worlds
New Worlds
Author: Victor Fowler | internet@granma.cuTranslated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
A few days ago, on Tuesday 27th and for a couple of hours, more than a hundred people (most of them young) exchanged ideas about the events of July 11th in the country. In a panel -organized by the La Manigua collective and transmitted in its voice chat under the leadership of psychologist and activist Karima Oliva Bello- we listened to the remarks of Verónica Medina (actress and vice-coordinator of La Madriguera), Iramís Rosique (member of the Editorial Board of La Tizza and specialist of the Network in Defense of Humanity) and José Ernesto Nováez (journalist and writer, coordinator of the Cuban Chapter of the Network in Defense of Humanity). I don’t know if they have participated in a voice chat on Telegram, a messaging application that (like the popular WhatsApp or the Cuban Todus) which allows the gathering of communities in a virtual “living room” in which they “converse” in real-time, thanks to the exchange of audio messages.
After the initial comments by the panelists, the exchange was open to the participation of more than a hundred listeners who gathered for the occasion. Then a range of ideas flowed that covered, among many other issues, aspects as diverse as the pointing out of errors in the political and/or cultural work within disadvantaged populations; assessments of the relevance or error of having eliminated spaces for collective development such as the scholarship system or the pioneer camps; the substitution of political work (discursive, explanatory, dialogic, pedagogical) for superficial administrative vision (which stops at the management of figures, flows and operations); the need to undertake a profound renovation of structures of popular power such as the CDRs, the FMC and the Poder Popular itself; the obligation for the state and political apparatuses to continuously revive their interactions with the citizens. This is needed so that, in the midst of a relentless economic, political, ideological and cultural war against Cuban socialism, any sign of estrangement, distance or alienation between the population and these directive bodies is prevented.
In addition, there is the need to reinvent the discourses and ways of communicating; the request to eliminate any demand for an active revolutionary policy that continuously rectifies problems of vulnerability, poverty, marginality and their cultural, behavioral, social and educational consequences, social integration and personal fulfillment; the need to increase the participation and, in general, the leading role of young people in society, whether in concrete actions or in the reflection and dissemination of new ideas; the demands on the mass media regarding the importance of showing a more active role, as well as greater immediacy and depth in the analysis and dissemination of the country’s problems, the continuous presence of such problems/demands in the various party instances, the efforts bu State agencies to solve or mitigate them and, most importantly, the placement in the foreground of the communities’ responses; the need to change models of action and/or communication to make the fight against corruption, state bureaucracy, “campaigning” and the weaknesses of the media itself more transparent.
A day earlier, on July 25, this same voice chat had connected us live with the arrival at the Capitol in Washington of the members of Puentes de Amor, a project of solidarity with Cuba and the fight against the blockade, coordinated by Carlos Lazo in the United States. Weeks before, in another transmission, also made from the space of social networks, the collectives of Bufa Subversiva, Brújula Sur, Cimarronas, Horizontes Blog and La Tizza met to create the “collaborative broadcasting channel” Malas compañías. There they developed another very interesting discussion, which they titled Comunidad lgtbiq+ en Cuba. Where are we and where are we going?
These are names of new spaces for the presentation and discussion of ideas, as well as actors to postulate them. In communicational terms, the transformation leads to the obligation to assimilate and produce for a world in which greater speed, diversity and integration between text, audio, still images and video messages are imposed. In addition to the above, a world where exchanges become more challenging, captivating and interactive the greater the dialogicity.
On the one hand, I am interested in listening, and I confess to having enjoyed these exchanges of opinion in territories that require me to abandon my clumsiness in the handling of digital communication technologies, and to quickly incorporate myself into the many options offered by the universe of social networks, blogs, websites, podcasts, voice chats and other alternatives for establishing contact. I believe that there is an enormous potential that political and mass organizations, state entities, neighborhood structures and the most diverse projects of social transformation need to assume, integrate into their work and daily practices, and make the critical analysis of problems, communicative transparency, participation and social dialogue in the country increasingly diverse, extensive, deep and significant in its transformative character.
JCOVID-19 in Cuba, July 2021
July, the most critical month for COVID-19 in Cuba
In the 31 days of the last month, the nation counted 200,398 positive cases of COVID-19, which represents 149,776 cases more than in June, which had been the worst period until then.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Risk perception in the population is fundamental to contain the dangerous wave of COVID-19 that the country is facing. Photo: Ariel Cecilio Lemus
The spread of more contagious and virulent genetic variants of SARS-COV-2, together with other factors related to the non-compliance with sanitary protocols and the loss of risk perception, caused in the month of July an epidemiological scenario unprecedented in the entire stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Cuba.
In the 31 days of the finalized month, the nation counted 200,398 positive cases of COVID-19, which represents 149,776 cases more than in June, which had been the worst period until then.
On average, 6,464 positive patients were registered per day, with a peak of 9,747 confirmed cases on July 31 and figures exceeding 8,000 cases for several days, which strained the health system in some parts of the country, with the consequent shortage of medical supplies.
In July, 1,553 people died of the disease (1,216 more than in the previous month), also the highest number reported, including the unfortunate deaths of pregnant women, postpartum women and a 12-year-old girl.
At the end of July 31, the island had a high incidence rate of 1,056.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The province with the highest incidence rate was Matanzas (2,861.4), a territory that went through the worst health crisis of the period, with over 3,000 cases, but which, with the efforts that have been made, has already begun to control the situation.
It is followed by Ciego de Avila (2 500.1), Cienfuegos (2 423.4) and Guantanamo (1 625.7). The rest of the provinces, although they have an index below 1,000, report high numbers of transmission, with the exception of the special municipality Isla de la Juventud, which maintains control of the disease.
Induced “spontaneity” (+Video)
Induced “spontaneity” (+Video)
If the media attack under which Cuba is living these days is unprecedented in its scope, due to the technological potential of the adversaries and their growing concerted actions from various geographical points, it is not strange either, because the country has always been in the trenches of a psychological warfare.
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Photo: Osval
Leaflets in which the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, with suitcases and gold in his hands, escaped from Cuba in a sinking ship, were prepared and printed in 1962 by specialists in psychological warfare of the United States Army. Although they were not used in the end, because other experts considered them counterproductive at the time, they were part of the arsenal of propaganda resources planned to support the military invasion that the government of the North American nation included in the response options during the so-called Missile Crisis.
A few hours after the recent riots, which were undoubtedly orchestrated from abroad, a Twitter “user” posted that Raul Castro had fled to Venezuela, and the note went “viral”. It did not matter that the photo of the tweet was taken in 2015, when the then-Cuban President arrived in San José, Costa Rica, to attend a Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
Its purpose was to contribute to fix the opinion matrix around a chaos originated by a “legitimate national uprising” against the Cuban government, due to the mismanagement of the pandemic and the lack of medicines, food and electricity.
If the media attack under which Cuba is living these days is unprecedented in its scope, due to the technological potential of the adversaries and their growing concerted actions from various geographical points, it is not strange either, because the country has always been in the trenches of a psychological war.
The example of the drawings that had Fidel as a target of disinformation appears in the book De la octavilla a la sicotecnología, by Emiliano Lima Mesa and Mercedes Cardoso, scholars of the psychological warfare procedures used by the United States in the preparation and development of armed conflicts.
Both researchers say that Cuba has suffered the largest and most prolonged psychological warfare ever carried out by the United States against any country. “It has involved both psychological and propaganda actions and has manifested itself in the economic blockade, support for mercenary gangs, biological warfare, military aggressions, sabotage and assassination attempts on the main leaders, to cite just a few examples,” they write.
In making specifics on the propagandistic level, they state that it has manifested itself in newspapers, books, posters, flyers, rumors and radio and television broadcasts to spread lies and slander against the Revolution.
The referenced book is indispensable to learn the details of the persistent and sinister behavior of the U.S. intelligence apparatus, whose purpose is subverting the social order in our country. Perhaps, in a new edition, in the chapter Against Cuba, the media misdeeds of the social networks in the Internet era should be included. The work was published in 2003 and, since then, the adversarial struggle against the Cuban Revolution has had the Internet as one of its main scenarios.
It is fair to recall that, in this same newspaper, colleague Raúl Antonio Capote wrote that as of 2007, the CIA considered it a matter of prime importance to guarantee access to the Internet in Cuba. The nefarious agency’s idea was to use the illegal networks created on the island at that time, for which they evaluated the possibility of connecting them to digital television, which would be the possible means of access to the network of networks.
The promoters of the program, Capote pointed out, ordered to put in Cuban territory ten BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network) equipments. “One was given to a CIA agent in Havana to send daily, in a secure way, information on the capacity of MININT and Mincom to detect illegal satellite TV connection antennas. They also required information on movements of FAR troops in certain regions of the country, and characterization of leaders and cadres of the Revolution”.
In the route that led to the riots of last July 11, there are many other traces of U.S. intelligence agencies and entities created by them to act against Cuba. Thus, among the most recent are the events of San Isidro and the concentration of young people in front of the Ministry of Culture headquarters in Havana.
Both cases were portrayed as an internal issue, due, among other things, to new currents of thought and dissatisfaction of young intellectuals and artists unable to give free rein to their creative spirit. But when analyzing the causes, if the nonconformity to certain regulations and the superficiality with which some officials act is real, it is impossible to ignore that in the period 2008-2012 the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sponsored the non-governmental organization (NGO) Creative Associates, which set out to recruit young people belonging to what is identified as Cuban counterculture.
In January 2012, in one of the reports justifying the expenditures, the NGO cited several achievements of its work, including a network of more than 30 independent leaders in all Cuban provinces and the solid establishment of youth and countercultural groups.
Faced with the failure of the immediate objectives they intended with the recent unrest, USAID has responded with a call for more subversion projects in Cuba. The new sum amounts to $2 million dollars, and is being offered for democracy promotion activities. After all, for identical purposes, the agency, along with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), was a channeling mechanism for much of the $250 million that in the last two decades the U.S. government devoted to undermining socialism in Cuba.
By the way, Samantha Power, the new director of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), is a character to keep an eye on. A former U.S. ambassador in the Obama administration and an expert in diplomacy and climate change issues, she has also stood out for promoting her country’s active intervention in other nations for supposedly humanitarian reasons.
That position is confirmed in an article published by The New York Times, on April 15 of this year, when Lara Jakes exposed details of Samantha Power’s confirmation hearing in the Senate. On that occasion, writes the author, Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, asked the official, “Are you willing to admit that the interventions in Libya and Syria that you advocated were a mistake?”
“Power did not,” the journalist said, transcribing her words: “When these situations arise, it’s almost a question of lesser evils; the options are very difficult”.
Could the requests for humanitarian intervention for Cuba made by the same promoters of the vandalism riots be the result of coincidence; the same ones who, in desperation, want to make people believe that chaos reigns in the country?
It is time to save the Revolution
It is time to save the Revolution, not to turn our backs
Cuban artists and intellectuals express their rejection of aggression against Cuba promoted, organized and financed by the U.S. government
BAJANTE | internet@granma.cu
July 29, 2021
Cuban artists and intellectuals continue to express their support for the Revolution and reaffirm their rejection of continuous aggression against Cuba promoted, organized and financed by the United States government.
In his blog Segunda cita, the singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, noted: “Regarding police excesses… I received some images of the demonstration in front of the Capitol moving toward the Malecón. It is a panoramic shot taken from a balcony of the Hotel Inglaterra. You can see police marching along the flanks of the demonstration, but there is no physical aggression on either side. I have the impression that much of what we have seen has been edited very precisely, to show what they wanted to highlight.”
Regarding the unconventional war that the nation is experiencing today, Camagüeyan poet Alejandro González Bermúdez, told Granma: “Social networks have become, in the case of Cuba, a manipulated and meticulously programmed platform to stimulate or discourage, as desired. The origin of this manipulation is obvious. At the same time, the Cuban government reiterates its commitment to dialogue, peace and consensus…”
Mercy Ruiz, winner of the National Award for Editing, expressed her “indignation with this new war for which Cubans must be prepared and defend the Revolution with all weapons, non-conventional and conventional,” and emphasized, “At this moment we must have firm convictions. The people must be systematically informed. This allows us to have weapons we need to fight. Young people need more historical education, to be aware of the background of relations between Cuba and the United States, so they understand that Homeland or Death is not a slogan, but a conscious, firm way of living.”
“The period we are living today in Cuba and beyond, is not one of slogans, but of convictions,” insisted Ulises Mora, founder of the Timbalaye rumba project. “These are moments in which we must together contribute to create solutions based on our experience and protect our conquests, in order to live together in an inclusive environment of broad social participation. We know and are fully aware of the consequences of the inhuman blockade imposed by the United States and its constant persecution. Despite this, we were able to develop vaccines against covid-19, making tangible the most evident form of the human essence. This is one more reason to reaffirm our conviction to defend Cuba from any corner of the world. No one has said that our revolutionary work is perfect, we all know that there is much to be done and to rectify, but only in an atmosphere of peace, fraternity and love among all Cubans will we advance, with and without a blockade. Cuba is the result of our struggle for independence, our hope for a better world, and the dignity of a people that will not give in to imperialist pressure, not even the most ruthless and inhuman of its aggressions.”
Legitimate protest does not include attacks
Legitimate protest does not include attacks
The first thing the Revolution did was to teach the people to read, so we could think. And thinking means reflecting on the world around us, as well as contributing to improving it through creative suggestions and constructive criticism, in order to correct mistakes. Long before social networks, Cubans were a very opinionated people. We have our own points of view about everything: sports, movies, medicine, politics…..
“Hot corners” are where baseball is discussed, plays and decisions challenged, which says as much about the exercise of expressing an opinion as attending a neighborhood government accountability assembly.
In these block meetings of residents in every Cuban community emit their evaluation of the human and the divine: from the hole in the middle of the street to the bread baked yesterday that did not weigh was what it was supposed to. These assemblies, mechanisms of democratic expression unparalleled in the world, have trained Cubans in the art of defending their judgments with arguments, valid or not, but expressed with civility and decency.
It is also the norm in matters of such broad interest as the debates on Constitutional questions, policy guidelines and other issues of significant social importance, in which the people have been summoned to establish consensus in a collective manner. Such was the debate on the draft Constitution, held from August 13 to November 15, 2018.
Aware that their assessment mattered and counted, our people understood that they were participating in establishing the legal, economic, political and social order that would govern society through a Magna Carta that would later be approved by 86.85% of the votes, with over 90% of eligible voters participating, that is, the majority of the population.
Defending an opinion is not alien to Cuban social praxis; but that was not what the July 11 disturbances were about.
Legitimate protest will never entail committing crimes, theft, violence, attacks, vandalism. There is no civility possible when one takes such action to create chaos, ignoring all social responsibility.
Those who smashed store windows and stole products, not even food, are vandals, in reality criminals. Those who assume such deplorable attitudes, those who think they are tough and attack the police, do not deserve respect.
Shaken by these events, to which we are not accustomed, we, good Cubans, who are the absolute majority, have already stated that, despite preferring to come to an understanding, will not allow anyone to violate our sacred public tranquility, a conquest and legacy of the Revolution.
There will be no room for such aggression, no chance that a handful of mercenaries can impose an agenda of lies and violence.
Not even the U.S. can block love for Cuba
Not even the U.S. will be able to block love for Cuba
According to the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, in addition to caravans, events and rallies, statements and videos were circulated on digital platforms, and two virtual events took place
July 25, 2021 22:07:35 pm
After a month of walking, the Cuban Americans of the Bridges of Love project arrived this Sunday in Washington. Photo: Taken from Facebook
In around 40 cities in 28 countries, Cubans and people in solidarity with the Cuban cause marched this weekend, in the context of the world days of denunciation of the destabilizing actions promoted by the United States with the purpose of subverting the revolutionary process on the island and against Washington’s sanctions.
According to the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, in addition to caravans, actions and rallies, statements and videos were circulated on digital platforms, and two virtual events took place.
Among the Latin American countries where activities were reported are the Dominican Republic, Barbados, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, El Salvador and Uruguay, while in Europe, those carried out in France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain stand out.
After almost a month of walking, Cuban-Americans from the Bridges of Love project arrived this Sunday in Washington DC for a sit-in in Lafayette Park, in front of the White House, where they demanded the end of US sanctions against the Cuban people, reported Prensa Latina news agency.
The group, coordinated by professor Carlos Lazo, demands the opening of consular services at the embassy in Havana, the resumption of flights to all Cuban provinces from the United States, and the reestablishment of the family reunification plan, among other demands.
As confirmed by Carlos Lazo, through Facebook, during the trip they spoke with many Americans of different creeds and ideologies.
He also pointed out that during the journey there was no lack of threats, but “here we are, gentlemen”, said Lazo, who pointed out: “we do not respond to provocations”.
In addition to the rally in front of the executive mansion, other actions were carried out from east to west of the country, in support of the Bridges of Love effort and the just demand to eliminate the economic, commercial and financial siege that has weighed on the Cuban people for more than 60 years, according to the Latin American news agency.
A petition signed by more than 27,000 people will also be delivered, demanding that President Joe Biden fulfill his campaign promise to bring about a change in policy towards the largest of the Antilles.
Thinking About Cuba Today
Thinking About Cuba Today (+Video)
Some concepts are fundamental to understand the new socio-political context we are living in and that we will most probably continue to see in the coming times. We talk a lot these days about cultural, communicational and media warfare. But what do these terms really mean?
Translated and edited by Walter Lippmann for CubaNews.
Photo: Boligán Illustration
Some concepts are fundamental to understanding the new socio-political context we are living in and that we will most probably continue to see in the times to come. We talk a lot these days about cultural, communicational and media warfare. But what do these terms really mean?
THE CONTROL OF WILLS AND HEARTS
The concept of cultural war points to a very broad and complex phenomenon that is not limited to Cuban society. It is the global strategy of the centers of capitalist power aimed at the production of alienated subjectivities, functional to the logic of capital.
People are induced to embrace a way of thinking and feeling based on the cult of individualism, meritocracy, competition, consumption as a measure of status and welfare, the search for individual solutions to systemic crises, uncritical attitudes towards capitalism, indifference to the precarious situation of most of the world’s population and the deterioration of nature.
This way of perceiving the world and one’s place in it is presented as obvious, or natural and inevitable. Any opinion that does not fit in or that questions this perspective will be rejected, not because it will be criticized, but because it will be inconceivable.
I will share a testimony. In a foreign university where I was teaching, I conducted an exercise in a social psychology course. I asked the students, between 19 and 25 years old, to bring me information on any topic that caught their attention in the cultural and social life of the country. They could choose topics related to art, science, politics, sports, environment, among others. My surprise was that they all brought commercials about certain products: Coca-Cola, Levi’s Jeans, Lancôme, etc. The discussion revolved around which advertisements they found most interesting and best done.
The reduction of people’s world of interests to the realm of advertising and consumption, at a stage of life which, in theory, should be characterized precisely by the fullest development of the conception of the world, in a society, moreover, of great cultural richness and a very complex social fabric,. This occurs in the midst of a process of formation in the field of social sciences, indicating how the mechanisms of cultural domination can be effective in controlling the spectrum of human desires and motivations. Attitudes towards life are depoliticized and subjectivities are accommodated to the dynamics of the market, while countless fundamental questions remain outside of what the individual is even capable of seeing.
Baudrillard will point out what is even worse: the person lives the illusion of being free because they choose what to consume, when that choice is totally pre-designed, communicatively produced and destined to fulfill a very specific function within the system of capitalist production and accumulation.
The ultimate aim of the culture war is to induce the idea that there is no better alternative to capitalism as we know it. In this sense, various agents of socialization on a global and local scale play a key role, such as educational institutions, the cultural and entertainment industry, certain churches (we cannot generalize), for example, and all those social actors that fulfill the function of socializing values.
Within the culture war, communication is fundamental, and although it is not reduced to the media, because communication occurs through various channels, such as face-to-face communication. For example, media devices play a key role, which in recent times has gained prominence given the weight acquired by digital media and social networks. That is why we are talking about a war that is also communicational and that also has a media dimension.
Digital algorithms to keep people’s minds “connected” all the time in virtual platforms crowded with advertising and busy seeing how and what to buy, are brutally effective. For Naomi Klein today, people even advertise themselves, as if they were a brand, coupling and reducing themselves to the logic of the market, the function and content of many links.
More important than experiencing, meeting, knowing and sharing, is to exhibit oneself in the “market” of human relationships, reducing these to transactions of likes mediated by electronic devices, without questioning anything else that happens around, making the meaning of life revolve around these marketing dynamics of the self.
We have to understand that this communications system, which works as an alternative pedagogical path, to the extent that it forms certain motivations and values without being a school. It is one which responds to the interests of the market and not to the project of society we want to build. It will become increasingly present among the younger generations in Cuba, to the same extent that they have greater connectivity to the Internet. This is a problem that must be assumed and solved creatively.
LET’S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE OPINION MATRIXES
However, the communications war may have more specific objectives than the naturalization of the cult of capitalism. It is also used to attack political systems that oppose the interests of the centers of capitalist power. In this case, matrices are fabricated to influence public opinion in one direction or another, to intervene in the course of certain political processes in a manner convenient to the interests of the United States or other powers, to overthrow governments, to deploy soft coups… Both forms of expression of the culture war complement each other, since the more alienated people are, the easier it is to manipulate states of opinion on specific political issues.
An opinion matrix is a partial representation of reality with an ideological imprint that responds to the interests of a certain power group and is manufactured with the intention of producing or maintaining hegemony and dominating public opinion on an issue. Opinion matrices try to create subjective conditions favorable to intervene or manage political processes. They are managed by taking into account the characteristics of the target audiences.
Let us look at an example. The opinion matrix that most strongly bombards the national media scenario is aimed at inducing hopelessness and resentment towards the Revolution and socialism. It cannot be understood without the existence of the blockade, they are a strategic pair. The blockade generates the objective conditions of shortages and frustrations which are then amplified through the discourse of hatred and boredom around the political system, in its dissimilar tonalities. The blockade produces the objective floor on which the matrices of opinion against the system are settled. This is not to say that the problems we face do not also have endogenous causes, which produce discontent that can be capitalized on.
What do the fundamental matrices of opinion that operate in our reality say? Cuban socialism failed, the government’s management and institutionality are overwhelmed (there is a crisis of governability) and the Cuban state has collapsed: there must be intervention in Cuba. These opinion matrixes try to create the ideal subjective conditions for a regime change.
In media content of various kinds from media with a counterrevolutionary agenda. The economic crisis Cuba is going through and its social impact is analyzed, the legacy of underdevelopment from before January 1959, the existence of the blockade, as well as the achievements made, are ignored. The endogenous causes of the problems are hyperbolized. Cuban society is uncritically and ahistorically equated with other societies. This is done in order to import liberal and/or anti-state narratives and forms of struggle. The category of class struggle is eliminated as a fundamental north to think about the future of the nation. At the same time the routes of analysis and proposals for solutions to the problems we are experiencing are de-ideologized.
A CHANGE OF EPOCH
The victory in this new scenario will be, in the first instance, to understand that the time is different and the mechanisms of domination we are facing are not the same. The virtual world has its own dynamics and laws of operation. It is not a matter of bringing the same narratives now to a virtual scenario. It is about completely transforming the methods of work, the forms of resistance and struggle.
In spite of considering that we must assume and defeat the communicational war that is being waged against us, our country has a strength in that sense that is not in the virtual territory. Although it may seem paradoxical: we can revitalize our organizations and institutions to transform the devices for participation and political debate at the grassroots. We need to promote effective spaces for meaningful dialogue about our reality, for coexistence in the midst of the life circumstances we are going through, for collaboration and for the collective search for solutions to the difficulties that arise.
Politicizing the analysis of Cuba’s future will make a difference: the greater the politicization, the lesser the manipulation of subjectivities through the devices used in this cultural war.
Articulate an educational-communicational strategy on a large scale, in extension and depth, to promote our perspectives and the right to build, in conditions of peace, our own, collective and sovereign path towards more prosperity, democracy and social justice.
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