Havana Cuba. – In days gone by, the current meeting of the “National Assembly of People’s Power” (ANPP) culminated in Havana, without sorrow or glory. One of his inconsequential agreements was to assign the official name that the year that will begin in less than two weeks will have in Cuba. There were no surprises on this point either: the deputies agreed—unanimously, no more!—to give it the name “Year 65 of the Revolution.”
But it should be remembered that this practice of limiting oneself, on the occasion of those official baptisms, to counting the time elapsed since the rise to power of the Castroites or any other event, did not always prevail. Especially in the initial years of the “Process”, these names allow us to make an inventory of the illusions sown from power and frustrated, the deceptions and the resounding failures of what “These People” insist on continuing to call “Revolution”.
The custom was implanted in the same year of 1959, which was baptized as the “Liberation”. Following the fall of the authoritarian government of Fulgencio BatistaAt first, the denomination seemed correct and fair. Today, seeing the totalitarian drift that Castroism immediately began to adopt, the name seems to us to be a clear deception and even a mockery of the Cuban people.
1960 was named as “Year of the Agrarian reform”. Radio Rebelde comments: “In that year Cuba promulgated the Agrarian Reform Law that handed over the land to the peasants who worked it.” It is incredible that, after more than half a century, they still repeat that blatant lie! To verify the gross deception that the communist propaganda makes in this regard, it is enough to read the statistics on agrarian property that the Cuban regime itself prepares. According to them, the lion’s share of arable land belongs to the Government, and not to the farmers!
1961 was the “Year of Education”. It is true that, thanks to the efforts made by hundreds of thousands of young literacy teachers from that time when illusions still existed, the percentage of Cubans who knew how to read and write rose remarkably, although it is false that illiteracy has been completely eliminated. . It should be remembered here that, due to the proliferation of executions perpetrated by the regime against those who opposed it, that year it received another more macabre nickname: “Year of the Wall.”
Beginning on January 1 of the following year, and until 1966, the founder of Castroism gave free rein to his fanciful imagination, and the different years were baptized with the problems that were supposed to be faced and resolved during each of them: “Planning”, “Organization”, “Economy”, “Agriculture” and “Solidarity” were those topics.
Here it is appropriate to make a few comments about these pretentious titles. Of the so-called “socialist planning”, the only thing that should be noted is the elaboration, one after another, of ambitious plans whose predominant destiny is to be unfulfilled. That was exactly what was verified a few days ago during the recent ordinary session of the ANPP. Although this did not prevent another new plan from being approved by 2023, whose only foreseeable destination is the same as the one that preceded it…
Regarding the “Year of Organization” (1963), it is worth mentioning that they had already completed four years of the regime de facto (duration that was that of the elected governments in democratic Cuba). Changed the initial promise of the “Commander in Chief” to hold elections in a short time, the citizenry would have to wait almost a decade and a half to participate in a kind of election, but still without organization.
With respect to the years of “the Economy” (1964) and “Agriculture” (1965), it is not necessary to extend too much. Expanding on the subject would be a wasteful exercise in light of the frankly catastrophic situation that right now, more than half a century later!, these two facets of national life present. What to say then about what was supposedly going to be achieved in those already distant periods!
After five years of giving those pretentious and unjustified names to the years, a little sanity prevailed. As I already said, for 1966 the nickname “Year of Solidarity” was chosen. In this way, the international links of Castroism were alluded to, a less specific topic, less appropriate to give rise to possible complaints about non-compliance or deceit.
Continuing with this practice of using less ambitious denominations, he turned to the subject of the hypothetical heroics of the criollo communists or their allies. Thus, 1967 remained as the “Year of the Heroic Viet-Nam”; and 1968, as that of the “Heroic Guerrilla”. The latter in allusion to the elimination of Ernesto Guevara from Rosario, a leading participant in the execution of a large number of Cubans and in the disarticulation of the national economy.
In anticipation of what the feverish brain of the “Maximum Leader” had designed as the supposed productive feat that would “remove Cuba from underdevelopment”, the following two years were baptized as those of the “Decisive Effort” (1969, which some funny anti-communists, in view of the rampant famine, they called “of the Effort of If I Live”) and “of the Ten million” (1970).
Here it should be clarified that although the last mentioned would be when the supposed supreme harvest would take place, in reality it began in the middle of the previous year. The imaginative “Maximum Leader”, to ensure reaching that magic number of tons of sugar, ordered to start grinding cane in the summer of 1969, regardless of the derisory recoveries (sugar percentages) that were reached in those months of tropical heatwave .
We already know that, despite these “linings” and having put the entire country in function of achieving the happy “Ten Million” tons of sugar, the crazy plan (one more!) ended in a resounding failure. As usual, an easy way out was sought in communist blablabla: It was then that the idea of ”turning setbacks into victory” arose…
Despite the resounding failure, for the following two years they turned to pretentious and unrealizable slogans. It was thus that 1971 remained as the “Year of Productivity”; and 1972, as that of “Socialist Emulation.” More communist rhetoric. Productivity is at rock bottom (it cannot be otherwise when the same reports on official television show workers filling boxes by hand!) and “socialist emulation” has not led anywhere.
And you stop counting. Since 1973, the name of each year has used the number of years completed since an event of importance to the regime. Or the celebration, during it, of some relevant event. The only exception would be 2006 (“Year of the Energy Revolution in Cuba”). It was another Castroist idea that seemed very promising to its author, but it ended in a new fiasco.
In summary: this matter of the nicknames assigned to the different years on the Island shows —I think— that Castroism has been in the doldrums for many years now.
OPINION ARTICLE
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