August 13, 2021 marks the 95th anniversary of the birth of Fidel Castro, the legendary leader of the Cuban people and hero to oppressed peoples the world over. On this occasion, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) sends warmest greetings to the Cuban people and their leadership who live out the call Somos Fidel! (We Are Fidel!) and carry forward the revolutionary struggle embodied by Fidel. Although Fidel died nearly five years ago, the strength of the all-sided socialist nation-building project that he founded and led can be seen in Cuba today as a new generation of Cubans heroically defend the Revolution from the stepped-up criminal and inhumane economic blockade and attempts at counterrevolution by the U.S. imperialists, in the midst of a global pandemic. Cuba today, which has withstood so much yet contributes so much to the well-being of humanity, is a testament to the flourishing of the human person and human rights when the people are able to exercise control over their destiny.

CPC(M-L) is posting below a biography of Fidel that can be found on the Cuban website, Fidel, Soldado de las Ideas (www.fidelcastro.cu), which houses a compendium of his articles, speeches and statements in several languages, as well as representations of Fidel’s life and work in art, photographs and video.

Fidel Castro: A Revolutionary Soldier

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926 in Birán, in what was then the Cuban province of Oriente. His father, Ángel Castro Argiz, the son of poor farmers from Galicia was a landholder and sugar cane tenant farmer. His mother, Lina Ruz Gonzalez, came from a peasant’s family in Pinar del Rio province.

He learned to read and write at Birán rural public school and continued elementary school at the private schools La Salle and Dolores in Santiago de Cuba. He started secondary school at the Dolores school and finished at Colegio de Belen, a Jesuit-run institution in Havana, where he graduated in Arts and Letters in June 1945.

Fidel at ages three and 14 in Bíran.

The Jesuits from Belen said, “Fidel distinguished himself in all subjects related to the arts … He was a true athlete, He has earned the admiration and affection of all. He is going to study law and no doubt will fill the book of his life with brilliant pages. Fidel has the makings, and will not be lacking artistically.”

In September 1945, he enrolled in degrees for Law, Social Sciences and Diplomatic Law at the University of Havana. There he immediately got involved in the political struggle as part of the students movements and held different positions at the Cuban University Students Federation (FEU). He was an outstanding member of several progressive and anti-imperialist students’ organizations such as the Committee for the Independence of Puerto Rico, founder of the September 30th Committee and the Committee for the Independence of the Dominican Republic, where he acted as President.

He organized and engaged in countless acts of protest and demonstrations against the country’s political situation as part of his political activities during those years. He was beaten up and jailed several times by repressive forces.

Between July and September 1947, while taking the third year at Law School, he enrolled in the expedition organized to fight the regime of Dominican dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. The expedition trained at Cayo Confites in Oriente province. He was promoted to Lieutenant, Head of Platoon and later Head of Battalion Company. The Dominican Republic-bound expedition was intercepted by a Cuban frigate after it set sail. Fidel jumped overboard with his gun to prevent being captured. He considered it a disgrace that the expedition was seized without a fight.

He came in contact with Marxist ideas while he was a university student.

A sympathizer of the progressive Cuban People’s Party (Orthodox) he actively participated in the Party’s political campaigns from 1948 on, specially in those promoted by its main leader Eduardo Chibas. He fostered the most radical and combative stands among the young membership of the Party. After Chibas’ death, Fidel intensified his efforts to uncover the Carlos Prio government’s corruption.

After his participation in the anti-Trujillo expedition he travelled to Venezuela, Panama and Colombia as a student leader to organize the Latin American Students Congress to be held in Colombia. Fidel was in Colombia when the popular uprising [Bogatazo] caused by the assassination of Colombian leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán took place in April 1948. He joined that struggle with resolve and survived just by chance.

Fidel (far left) during the Bogotazo.

In March 1949 he led a protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Havana to show the popular outrage for the desecration and disrespectful acts committed on the Monument of Cuban National Hero by U.S. Marines.

Fidel graduated as an Attorney of Civil Law and with a Bachelor of Diplomatic Law in 1950. He devoted his efforts to the defence of the poorest and most humble sectors of the people in his law office.

When Fulgencio Batista led a coup d’état on March 10, 1952 he was among the first to denounce the reactionary and illegitimate de facto regime and called for its overthrow.

He organized and trained a contingent of over 1,000 youth, mostly workers, employees, and students, mainly from the ranks of the Orthodox Party. On July 26, 1953, he led a group of 160 of them in the attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Barracks in Bayamo in an action meant to start the armed struggle against Batista’s regime.

Fidel at the Vivac Prison in Santiago de Cuba, shortly after being detained following the attack on the Moncada Barracks. (E. Ocaña/Diario de Cuba)

They could not achieve their goal as the element of surprise was lost. Fidel was taken prisoner by the dictatorship’s repressive forces days after the military setback and was kept in solitary confinement for 76 days. He was later tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In a court room full of regime forces and no access to the public he assumed his own legal representation, and gave his speech known as “History Will Absolve Me,” where he outlined the program for the future Cuban Revolution.

“No weapon, no force can ever defeat a people determined to fight for its rights. There are countless historic examples, both past and present. The case of Bolivia is very recent, where by the use of dynamite sticks mining workers overthrew and crushed regular army regiments,” he said.

He continued to denounce the oppressive regime from jail while developing his revolutionary plans and perfecting his comrades’ theoretical and ideological preparedness.

As a result of strong pressure and popular campaigns, he was released in May 1955. During the weeks that followed, he engaged in vigorous work of agitation and denunciation. He founded the July 26 Movement to pursue the revolutionary struggle.

In July 1955, after it was clear that the anti-Batista struggle could not be undertaken by legal means, Fidel left for Mexico to organize the armed insurrection in exile. Under very difficult economic conditions and subject to close surveillance and persecution by Batista’s agents he carried out intense organization and preparation activities. He kept up an active campaign to raise awareness about the purposes of the revolutionary movement and the ideas supporting it. He travelled to the United States where he established, together with his comrades in exile, “patriotic clubs” to provide political and economic support for the revolutionary struggle. He was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York City, New York; Union City, New Jersey; Bridgeport Connecticut; and Miami, Florida.

With the motto “In 1956 we will be free or we will be martyrs,” Fidel, Raúl, Juan Manuel Márquez, Ernesto Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos and other outstanding revolutionaries trained by taking long walks through the streets of Mexico City, climbing mountains and learning about hand-to-hand combat, guerrilla warfare and how to shoot.

On June 20, 1956, the head of the July 26 Movement, Che Guevara and other members of the group were detained by the Mexican police, and the “casas campamento” (safe houses) were discovered and a considerable quantity of weapons were seized.

After being released from detention, the revolutionary conspiracy stepped up. They bought the Granma yacht in which they sailed off to Cuba in the early hours of November 25, 1956 from Tuxpan River, with 82 combatants on board, whose average age was 27 years.

In the Sierra Maestra, 1957.

After a seven-day journey they landed on December 2, 1956 in Las Coloradas, on the southwest coast of Oriente province. The Batista forces located the landing and sent troops to attack the expedition members. On December 5, the dictatorship’s army caught Fidel and his men by surprise in Alegria de Pio. The revolutionaries were decimated, several of them were captured and many were executed on the spot.

With the valuable cooperation of peasants, Fidel was joined by Raúl in Cinco Palmas and regrouped the revolutionary forces. He then went to Sierra Maestra mountain range to continue the revolutionary struggle.

On January 17, 1956, he led the first armed assault against Batista’s army in La Plata where he emerged victorious. The Rebel Army started to grow and strengthen itself.

As Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary forces, he led the military actions as well as the July 26 Movement during the 25 months of struggle. He had Column Number 1 “José Martí” under his direct command and he personally participated in almost all important operations, combats and battles that took place during the war in the territory covered by the Rebel Army First Front.

After severe blows were dealt to the dictatorship’s elite troops, they acknowledged the rebel victory through their main commanders in the theatre of operations in Oriente province on December 28. At dawn on January 1, 1959, Fidel defeated a coup attempt promoted by the government of the United States, backed by a revolutionary general strike observed by all the workers across the country. That same day, he entered Santiago de Cuba victorious and arrived in Havana on January 8.

Fidel Castro and the victorious rebel forces are welcomed in Havana, January 8, 1959.

He remained Commander in Chief of the revolutionary forces when the struggle ended. On February 13, 1959 he was appointed Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Government.

He led and participated in all actions undertaken to defend Cuba and its Revolution against foreign aggression and counterrevolutionary activities in Cuba, in particular the defeat of the United States CIA-organized Bay of Pigs invasion which ended in victory at Playa Girón in April 1961.

On behalf of the Revolutionary power he proclaimed the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution on April 16, 1961.

He led the Cuban people during the dramatic days of the Missile Crisis in October 1962.

He was the Secretary General of the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations and later Secretary General of the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution. After the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party was established in October 1965, he became its First Secretary General and member of the Politburo, and was reelected to this post during the five subsequent Congresses. During the Sixth Congress, April 16-19, 2011, he declined the possibility of reelection due to health reasons.

He was elected a member of the National Assembly of Peoples Power, representing Santiago de Cuba municipality in successive terms following the establishment of the Assembly in 1976, and also from then until 2008 held the post of President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers.

He presided over 50 Cuban official missions to 50 different countries.

He received over 100 decorations, both foreign and Cuban, as well as numerous honorary academic degrees, from institutions of higher education in Cuba, Latin America and Europe.

He masterfully led the participation of hundreds of thousands of Cuban combatants in internationalist missions in Algeria, Syria, Angola, and Ethiopia and other countries. He promoted and organized the contribution of thousands of Cuban doctors, teachers and technicians who have rendered their services in over 40 Third World countries. He also arranged and promoted scholarships for tens of thousands of students from these countries in Cuba. He was central to the establishment of comprehensive programs for Cuban collaboration in different Latin American, African and Caribbean countries as well as the founding in Cuba of Schools for Medicine, Sports and Physical Education and other degrees for students from Third World countries.

Fidel promoted the worldwide battle of Third World countries against the existing international world order, especially the externalization of debt, the squander of resources as a result of military spending and neo-liberal globalization, and also fostered unity and integration in Latin America and the Caribbean.

He was the leader in the determined action of the Cuban people to face the blockade imposed by the United States for more than 40 years and the economic consequences of the collapse of the Eastern European socialist block. He encouraged the tenacious efforts by the Cubans to overcome the severe difficulties resulting from these factors, its resilience during the so-called Special Period and the resumption of Cuba’s economic growth and development.

For many years of the Cuban Revolution he encouraged and led the Cuban people in the endeavour to consolidate their Revolution, its path towards socialism, the unity of the revolutionary forces and the people at large. He was also essential to the country’s economic and social transformations, progress in education, health care, sports, culture and science, defence from foreign aggression, and in displaying his great leadership in an active foreign policy which defends principles and actions of solidarity with the peoples fighting for independence and progress. He was key in the building of the strong revolutionary, internationalist and communist conscience of the Cuban people.

On July 31, 2006, he relinquished all his posts due to health problems. He wrote numerous reflections and articles during his convalescence. He devoted great efforts during his last years of life to projects related to agriculture as well as human and animal food. Due to his moral authority he was consulted and influential in major and strategic decisions of the Revolution.

Fidel’s life cannot be contained in a few lines. His permanent and unbreakable link with the people, his brilliant oratory, his constant exhortations and his absolute commitment to the cause of the Revolution have left an indelible mark on the Cuban people and have been a source of inspiration to millions of men and women on all continents. Future generations of Cubans will have in him, as they did in Martí, an example, a paradigm and motivation to continue his work.

He died on November 25, 2016 in Havana, Cuba at 10:29 pm at the age of 90. At his request his remains were cremated. His ashes were laid to rest at Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in a solemn ceremony on December 4, 2016.

(Edited for style and grammar by TML.)

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