People's Democracy

We Will Always Turn To His Arsenal Of Ideas

Lazaro Barredo Medina

THERE are not many times that this world has seen such ethical stature and political transparency as that just demonstrated by President Fidel Castro in his message, and he has done it with the verticality of always or, as an outstanding combatant qualified it a long time ago: "It's a fact that, even in politics, Fidel is a gentleman."

Many of us supposed that that decision to communicate to us that he was not aspiring to, and nor would he accept the post of President of the Council of State was the prior announcement in that little paragraph contained in the profound political, economic and military analysis of the United States that he gave in his Reflections of last Friday, February 15.

But, while anticipated, the communication of the Commander in Chief of the Revolution has not failed to have a profound impact on us, not only on account of his decision, but because of the spirit of combat with which he has made it, its generosity and the call to meditate on the great significance of the responsibility that we all have in the in the struggle to keep aloft the banners of independence and socialism.

Fidel has not resigned, he has not bid us farewell, but on account of his physical limitations he has communicated to us a decision on which he has meditated a lot: "I only wish to fight as a soldier of ideas." That is the consequence of what he has always said to us and which he is now proclaiming with his example, that a communist has to dedicate one hundred percent of his or her energies, work and life to revolutionary undertakings.

Far from being distressed, we should support his decision and take up the challenge with firmness and a disposition to do things much better in order to attain the total invulnerability of our homeland, as he has asked us time and time again in the last few years.

The enemies of the Revolution, in conjunction with a gross manipulation by a notable section of the press, have been running their mouths off in the last few hours in a vain attempt to turn their desires into reality, and a handful of night owls have called for transitions - as if Cuba had not made its profound and total transformation from January 1, 1959 - and other deluded persons have even demanded armed uprisings. In their mediocrity, they fail to understand that in Cuba there will never again be a Zanjón Pact, but a permanent Baraguá and an unyielding Cry of Baire. There will be no return to petty dictatorships here, for unity and consensus around the Party will be maintained as an indestructible forge of the Cuban nation.

In this world where politics is a caricature, they are unable to understand that, in its thinking and action, this Revolution is a process of continuity; that compañero Fidel will continue being the leader of the Revolution of today and tomorrow, to whose ideas we will always have to turn. They cannot understand that Fidel has managed to transcend political life to insert himself as an intimate in the family life of the overwhelming majority of Cubans.

We shall continue awaiting the "Reflections of Comrade Fidel," which will be a powerful arsenal of ideas, direction and education, and we shall do so with the pride that we feel today on seeing that we have until his last breath a Comandante who roars, or, as an old worker emotionally said at one of the Party Congresses, in a loud voice full of sentiment and which has become the heritage of all revolutionaries: "The homeland once again contemplates with pride our Jefe, Fidel."

(Courtesy: Granma International)