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November 25, 2020 - No. 10
The Legacy of Fidel Castro
• Cubans
United in Safeguarding the Revolution and
Making Invaluable Contributions Abroad
• Global Campaign to
Award Cuban Health Care Workers 2021 Nobel
Peace Prize
• The Scientific
Research Project of Commander Fidel Castro Ruz
- Geovanis Alcides Orellana Meneses and
Jenny Domínguez Nieto
The Legacy of Fidel Castro
November 25, 2019. Commemoration in Havana of
3rd anniversary of the death of
Fidel Castro Ruz.
On November 25, with deepest respect and
emotion, the Communist Party of Canada
(Marxist-Leninist) participates in
commemorations to honour the legacy of Comrade
Fidel Castro Ruz, historic leader of the Cuban
Revolution. The commemorations this year, on the
fourth anniversary of his death, show that Fidel
Castro's achievements and contributions take on
ever greater significance as the Cuban people
close ranks as never before to confront the
coronavirus pandemic and the ever more brutal
and vicious measures of the U.S. Trump
administration to tighten the all-sided blockade
of Cuba. While the achievements of the
Cuban Revolution contribute to everything
humankind stands for, the blockade is clearly an
act of war which goes against everything
humankind stands for.
Despite the difficulties the Cuban people face,
they are living life to the fullest according to
the principles Fidel Castro imbued in them,
always finding in these principles ever greater
strength to unite in their fight to defend their
independence and sovereignty and inspire the
same in their fellow human beings
everywhere.
Facing the coronavirus pandemic, the Cuban
people have not only applied all the precautions
for their own population, but their health care
workers are supplying invaluable help abroad,
while the researchers find a vaccine. All the
while, the Cuban people also face the
consequences of loss of income as a result of
travel restrictions due to the coronavirus
pandemic and consequences of natural phenomena
including the effects of recent hurricanes that
have caused great destruction in Central America
and the Caribbean.
Fidel's revolutionary spirit and profound
generosity live on in the Cuban workers, youth
and students, health professionals,
intellectuals and teachers and their government.
Time and time again they have proven that they
are ready to make any sacrifice and overcome any
difficulty to continue building the socialist
economy so no one is left behind. Their
international solidarity shows how humanity can
contribute to solving problems on a peaceful
basis internationally. This solidarity, based on
the highest achievements human beings have
brought into being is Fidel Castro's greatest
legacy.
Fidel's example and fidelity to principle
continue to inspire the peoples everywhere on
the merits of taking up the path of
independence, self-determination and human
dignity. The oath millions of Cubans took in
tribute to Fidel when he died concludes:
"Revolution means unity; it is independence, it
is fighting for our dreams of justice for Cuba
and for the world, which is the foundation of
our patriotism, our socialism and our
internationalism."
The life and work of Fidel Castro live on in
the hearts and minds of millions of Cubans and
millions more throughout the world who are
fighting for justice, dignity and freedom.
"The permanent teaching of Fidel is that yes,
we can; that man is able to overcome the
harshest conditions if his will to win does not
yield, he makes an evaluation of each situation
and does not renounce his noble and just
principles," said Raúl Castro at the mass
tribute to Fidel in Santiago de Cuba after Fidel
passed away.
In the face of the brutal counterrevolution of
the reactionary forces which are pushing
neo-liberalism and imperialist wars and
deprivation around the world, this revolutionary
spirit is uplifting and guides the Cuban people
on the road which can provide their sovereignty
and independence with a guarantee.
¡Hasta la Victoria Siempre,
Comandante! ¡Venceremos!
The contributions of Cuba's health care
workers at home and abroad are one of the
outstanding achievements of the Cuban
Revolution, and a testament to the leadership
and ongoing legacy of Fidel Castro. At the time
when the COVID-19 pandemic has struck peoples
and countries worldwide, Cuba and its health
care workers have risen to the occasion. As of
mid-November this year, Cuba has sent 53 health
teams to 39 countries on four continents,
despite the difficulties it faces keeping the
pandemic in check at home, while the U.S.
tightens its criminal sanctions aimed at
overthrowing the Revolution.
In recognition of the heroism and selflessness
of Cuba and its health care workers, a campaign
is underway to award Cuba's Henry Reeve
International Cuban Medical Brigade the 2021
Nobel Peace Prize. The petition to award the
Brigade the Nobel Peace Prize explains that it
is named after Henry Reeve, a 19-year-old U.S.
youth "who left his home in Brooklyn, New York
to join the Cuban struggle for liberation
against the Spanish in the late 1800s. The
Brigade named after him was formed by the late
Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 2005 after the U.S.
rejected an offer to send 1,500 Cuban doctors to
provide assistance in the wake of Hurricane
Katrina."
March 22, 2020. Cuban doctors prepare to leave
for Italy to help in treating COVID-19.
The petition also notes, "Since its formation,
the medical personnel of the Brigade, now
composed of 7,400 voluntary healthcare workers,
have been on the front lines providing disaster
relief. Before COVID-19, it had treated more
than 3.5 million people in 21 countries ravaged
by the world's worst natural disasters and
epidemics. An estimated 80,000 lives have been
saved as a direct result of the Brigade's
front-line emergency medical treatments."
Dr. John Kirk, an expert on Cuba's humanitarian
efforts and its medical internationalism and a
professor at Dalhousie University's Department
of Spanish and Latin American Studies, was among
those who officially nominated the Henry Reeve
Brigade for the Nobel Peace Prize. "For decades
Cuba has provided medical cooperation to scores
of countries -- and the support of some 4,000
medics working in 39 countries in the fight
against COVID-19 is just the latest example. The
nomination for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize --
which the Henry Reeve Brigade thoroughly
deserves -- means that this is no longer one of
the world's best-kept secrets," said Dr. Kirk.
June 27, 2020. Minrex map of locations of
Cuban medical brigades. (Click to enlarge)
The campaign has been taken up with great gusto
around the world by notable political and
cultural personalities, artists, intellectuals,
unions, religious organizations, organizations
involved in international solidarity work and
those that fight for the right to health care,
among many others.
 As specified in
the will of Alfred Nobel, the Peace Prize is to
be awarded to the person or organization that in
the prior year has "done the most or best to
advance fellowship among nations, the abolition
or reduction of standing armies, and the
establishment and promotion of peace congresses"
as determined by a committee of five people
selected by the Norwegian Parliament. The 2020
Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the United
Nations' World Food Program on October 9 (for
which nominations closed at the beginning of
February).
The campaign for the Henry Reeve Brigade to
receive next year's Nobel Peace Prize has been
underway since June 16. The petition has
received 36,194 signatures from people
worldwide, with a goal of reaching 40,000. It
can be signed on the website www.cubanobel.org,
which also has extensive information about the
work of the Henry Reeve Brigade.
TML Daily is also publishing a document
here from the Cuban
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recounting the work
of the brigade over the past 15 years.
- Geovanis Alcides Orellana
Meneses and Jenny Domínguez Nieto -
Fidel with scientists at the Center for Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology which was
inaugurated on July 1, 1986.
Analyzing, characterizing or simply describing
the relationship between Fidel and science is an
action that can be developed from different
perspectives, from his university education
profile and his contributions to the legal field
and the social sciences, to his actions as a
leader in the promotion of policies aimed at
scientific development in Cuba and the world.
However, little has been discussed about Fidel's
contributions to science, specifically to
Medical Sciences, from the perspective of the
researcher, transformer and scientist Fidel.
This analysis can start from the conceptual,
when analyzing the participation of the
Commander as an actor-transformer within the
inexhaustible conglomerate of knowledge that
humanity treasures.
The scientific method, which allows the search
for new knowledge, cannot be separated from
Fidel's leading attitude in the development of
Health Sciences. Tracing a logical order, rather
than a chronological one, we can describe,
through documentary analysis of the Commander's
speeches, his role as a researcher and
scientist.
1981. Commander in Chief Fidel
Castro receives presentation of
advanced results in medical sciences.
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The great work developed by the Commander and
from which he is, above all, the author and
fundamental actor, is that transcendental
investigation that could be entitled: "Strategy
for the implementation of a Social Revolution in
Cuba," from which innumerable theoretical and
practical contributions have emanated. After
years of study, review and direct immersion in
the field of action, the written document that
supported this investigation and constituted his
most finished research project, saw its first
version in what we all know as his self-defence
plea: "History Will Absolve Me," delivered on
October 16, 1953 in the nursing school of the
Civil Hospital of Santiago de Cuba.
In that document, Fidel, as a good scientist,
described the context in which Cuba was
developing in those years and defined the
problem situation that led him to reason what
would be the best (scientific, from the present
perspective) hypothesis for the Cuban people to
overthrow the dictatorship, take power and
achieve the social gains yearned for, for years.
From that analysis, the armed struggle was
defined as the principal method for realizing
the main actions, objectives and strategic tasks
that were projected in that statement, among
which was the problem of health for the majority
of the population.
It should be noted that the historical leader
of the Cuban Revolution always assumed the
strategic task of developing, improving and
perfecting the Cuban health system, not as
someone external to it, but as one more member
of the contingent in white coats. He, without
any academic training in the field of health
sciences, always demonstrated his direct link
with that branch of science, like when he stated
in his speech to the third graduating class of
Havana's Institute of Medical Sciences on August
27, 1990, "This year the largest graduation in
the history of our country has taken place: more
than 4,000 doctors. Look at what a tremendous
and impressive force we doctors are with around
40,000 of us in this country. And I include
myself on the list, because I have worked on
this as well. I am not a doctor, but I am a
promoter of the health program. Sometimes I have
used other words when I have been asked, "Are
you a doctor?" And I, with great immodesty, have
replied, "I am not a doctor, but I am a health
strategist."
The adaptation of Fidel's thought to the
scientific development of Medical Sciences can
be analyzed from the epistemological evolution
of the definition of health, in its different
stages:
1st -- Absence of
disease
2nd -- Complete
state of physical, mental and social well-being
3rd --
Health-disease process
4th -- Health as a
social product, in which the preventive approach
prevails over the curative.
In the middle of the 19th century, medicine was
considered a social science, however this trend
was still underdeveloped at the end of the 50s
of the 20th century; nevertheless, during his
stay in the Sierra Maestra, Fidel not only had
definite ideas to improve the structure of the
Cuban health system, as he explained in "History
Will Absolve Me," but he began to define changes
that should occur in the health process that
would allow improving the integration of the
components of that system and, therefore,
improve medical attention to the population
groups who had been most unprotected throughout
the Cuban colonial and republican history.
In this sense, Fidel stated, "It is not
possible for this peasant population, the pure
soul of our land, to continue abandoned, hungry,
without medical assistance, without education,
their organisms destroyed by parasites or
malaria. We must bring health to the
countryside. These mountains, like all rural
areas, must be cleaned up (...) We must not wait
for diseases to arrive with their grim threat,
we must prevent them, we must avoid them. From
now on it is necessary to develop health plans,
just like economic, social and educational plans
and coordinate them all with urgent, functional
efficiency."
About this preventive approach, he would say a
few years later, "... we will fight, disease by
disease, and in that way decrease the number of
epidemics, the number of deaths, the number of
victims. And so that great purpose will be
fulfilled: go from therapeutic to preventive
medicine, that is, prevent citizens from getting
sick."
With the revolutionary triumph, on January 1,
1959, another stage of the research project
developed by Fidel was completed. After that
stage, the scientist Fidel developed, as a good
strategist, the aspects that would define his
vision of future scenarios to which the Cuban
government and people should aspire and have to
work for.
It was from that moment that a process of
transformations began in the field of
revolutionary Cuban Public Health, which had as
fundamental aspects:
- The development of
human capital.
- Coverage of the
population with services equipped with the most
modern technologies.
- Solidarity as an
ethical principle in health services.
- Scientific
research as the basis of health actions.
- Internationalism
practiced without political conditions.
Regarding human capital in the scientific
field, Fidel expressed as early as January 15,
1960: "Today, in the new homeland... scientists,
researchers... have the satisfaction of knowing
that there is a revolutionary government that
seeks truth, it needs scientists ... thus, the
scientist ... today has the ideal scenario where
his intelligence and talent can find full
development in search of truth and good, because
the Homeland has taken the path where
intelligence is not persecuted but rather is
stimulated and rewarded: the Homeland has taken
the path in which it is necessary for all of us
to study and investigate ... The future of our
Homeland must necessarily be a future of men of
science, it must be a future of men of thought,
because it is precisely what we are cultivating
the most; what we are cultivating the most are
opportunities for intelligence ...."
Fidel, in his concept of human capital outlines
its socialist dimension: "Human capital implies
not only knowledge, but also -- and very
essentially -- conscience, ethics, solidarity,
truly human feelings, a spirit of sacrifice,
heroism, and the ability to do a lot with very
little."
In this sense, and defining the characteristics
of human capital, specifically in the health
sector, on October 17, 1962, the
Commander-in-Chief explained at the opening of
the Victoria de Girón Institute of Basic and
Pre-clinical Sciences, "... we are going to
create, to train doctors, in massive quantities,
and much better - much better! And we understand
that this is a duty that the Revolution has
toward the people. Looking to the future, the
only, the true, the definitive solution is the
massive training of doctors. And the Revolution
today has strength and resources and
organization and has men -- men! which is the
most important thing -- to begin a plan to train
doctors in the numbers that are necessary. And
not only many, but above all good doctors; and
not only good as doctors, but good as men and as
women, as patriots and as revolutionaries!"
Together with its human resources, the Cuban
Revolution, as a great strategic project, has
allowed the development of a health
infrastructure that provides universal and free
medical coverage to the entire Cuban population,
directing its actions to the reorganization of
the system and the training of the human
resource in health through:
- The introduction
of the family doctor and nurse program.
- Full coverage with
the family doctor and nurse in the urban and
rural community, as well as in schools, day care
centres and work centres.
- The design and
development of the comprehensive family care
program.
- The achievement of
organizational and conceptual changes.
- The consolidation
of institutional and home care.
-Attention to the
hospital network.
- Community and
intersectoral participation in the comprehensive
health care model, developed jointly with
political and mass, governmental and social
organizations.
- Empowering
individuals and families to become agents of
their own health and that of the community.
When evaluating the results of a scientific
investigation, they must meet, among other
things, the criterion of being reproducible. In
accordance with that criterion, Fidel conceived
of solidarity among the pillars of the health
system, not with the objective of reproducing
ideological aspects of the Cuban Socialist
Revolution in other countries, but with the
objective of sharing the effectiveness of the
training of professionals with high levels of
humanism, solidarity, academic training and with
a profound social orientation.
In this regard, he stated in the Constitution
of the 1st Class of the Carlos J. Finlay Medical
Sciences Detachment, on January 6, 1982: "... we
must defend the principle of having a doctor
with solid basic knowledge and a doctor who does
not have a profile so narrow, that afterwards he
cannot face many problems that he has to face in
life, especially when he travels abroad and has
to go to a country like Angola, Nicaragua, Iraq,
Libya and many others."
That idea materialized to a superlative degree
in the act of constituting the "Henry Reeve"
Brigade, on September 19, 2005, where he
expressed, "... this glorious organization, the
first of its kind in the history of a humanity
that more and more requires cooperation and
solidarity [...] We will show that there is an
answer to many of the planet's tragedies. We
show that human beings can and must be better.
We demonstrate the value of conscience and
ethics. We offer lives. [...] We must train the
doctors required in the fields, the villages,
the marginalized and poor neighbourhoods of the
third world cities... We offer to train
professionals willing to fight against death."
September 19, 2005. Fidel Castro speaks before
the first 1,586 doctors of the Henry Reeve
Brigade.
Fidel, as a man of thought and action, in his
conception of how the Cuban doctor's training
model should be, stated that "at no time should
theory be contrasted with practice," that the
doctor "should have a solid training in theory
and a solid training in practice too:" elements
that identify not only the doctor, but all
health workers in Cuba and that constitute one
of the main foundations of the educational
system in Medical Sciences.
Greater access to (medical) universities and
the strengthening of the teaching and learning
process in those institutions after the
revolutionary triumph was an element that
comrade Fidel always considered essential in the
development of the country, giving priority to
the need to incorporate, generate and generalize
knowledge. In this regard, he expressed at the
Closing of the First Congress of the Communist
Party of Cuba, on December 22, 1975:
"[...] With the Revolution itself, universities
are open to everyone... and there comes a moment
when knowledge is the patrimony not only of a
few individuals but of the masses.
[...] And our Revolution... marches on that
path in which knowledge gradually becomes the
heritage of the masses. Then there will be no
such colossal differences between the knowledge
of a few and the knowledge of the masses. And
the time will come when these differences are
minimal ...
[...] And in humanity itself there are no
geniuses. There are brilliant men. You will have
read that they have given somebody such and such
an award; but the genius is not in the
individuals: the genius is in the masses. When
someone has excelled in mathematics it is
because hundreds of thousands could not study
mathematics. And someone has excelled in
economics or in history or in any branch of
human knowledge, it is because others did not
have the opportunity to study. But when the
masses have access to culture, they have access
to study, they have access to knowledge, then
the differences disappear, because instead of
one genius there are 1,000, there are 10,000
geniuses. And where there are 10,000 geniuses
there is no genius, there is a collective
genius."
Furthermore, Fidel did not base the development
of human capital in Medical Sciences only on
national experiences, but rather promulgated the
idea of seeking updates in the international
arena, which reinforces his thinking as a
constant researcher. For this reason he
expressed on March 12, 1982, in constituting the
"Carlos J. Finlay" Medical Sciences Detachment,
"Medical science is constantly developing. As a
result of experience and research, new methods
and new techniques emerge; we have to integrate
those techniques. This requires a great effort
in international relations and exchanges, for us
to say ‘which country is more advanced in this,
which country is more advanced in the other, and
in the other, and in the other,' and carry out
continuous exchanges, simply so that we can
occupy the vanguard positions in each of the
medical branches. [...] because the doctor has
to deal with human life, human health. On the
doctor falls the immense, the infinite
responsibility of taking care of the life of
human beings: of a child, an old man, a young
man, an adult, a woman, a man, who places
himself in his hands to alleviate pain, to
alleviate a disease or to preserve life."
He was consistent with the ideas he defended,
he always conceived as key strategic actions, in
his project, the activity of training and
teaching the new generations, fundamentally in
relation to study and the acquisition of
knowledge. In this regard, Fidel spoke to the
university students at the Closing Ceremony of
the First Congress of the University Student
Federation, on March 13, 1979, "... really one
of the noblest ways of serving the country, of
serving the people, of making revolution, to
build the future is to dedicate oneself to
study. [...] What and how should our
contribution be to the effort and struggle of
the other peoples of the world? How can we make
our contribution and how much contribution is
necessary in solving the future problems of our
people and humanity? And what do we need? We
need two things: we need conscience and we need
knowledge."
With the same objective of achieving the
improvement of the new generations, but analyzed
from another angle, Fidel also demanded
responsibility from the teachers in the
formation of the medical model that the Cuban
Revolution and people need, which was reflected
in his speech at the closing of the Fourth
Congress of Higher Education, on February 6,
2004, "... because a doctor who graduates today
and does not study any more, in ten years time
will be a dangerous practical doctor, an
ignorant practical doctor...; therefore, both
study and work with the doctor, you have to
educate him ... We only have to look at
contemporary technology and science to ask
ourselves if it is possible to live and know
that world of the future without an enormous
amount of preparation and knowledge."
Two years later, on February 3, 2006, at the
presentation of the UNESCO "José Martí"
International Prize to Hugo Chávez Frías, he
stated, "Creating human capital that is not
exhausted ... they will know much more and will
have multiplied this when they receive their
degrees; they will have multiplied it again when
they master a specialty; they will have
multiplied it when they have completed one, two
or as many internationalist missions as
necessary; and they will have multiplied it when
they have a master's degree or a doctorate as,
in the not-too-distant future, our doctors will
have massively."
The objectives set by the Commander in the
strategic planning of the development of the
Revolutionary Health System in Cuba always
included tasks that were immediately completed
and tasks that, with future projections, taught
to think and dream of achieving superior
results, always supported by sacrifice, and
individual and collective improvement. For this
reason, already 35 years ago, on June 11, 1982,
he stated, "... we must get used to thinking
about comparisons, not with third world
countries... but with developed countries. [...]
Becoming a medical power is not only a matter of
prestige... firstly, the benefit that our people
would receive... secondly, our collaboration
with the Third World, for the extraordinary
services that we can provide to other countries.
[...] There is a need to delve into all
disciplines, in all specialties... in each of
the branches, and simply adopt the disposition
and the will to put ourselves at the
forefront...."
The development of scientific activity in the
branches of health in Cuba, according to Fidel,
also had to have a system of institutions where
research could be carried out more and more in
line with technological advances worldwide and
where human capital could be developed. In
accordance with this strategy, the biotechnology
sector emerged as of 1981, when biotechnology
itself was just being invented in the countries
with the greatest technological advancement.
This constituted a transcendental organizational
innovation, which became the embryo of the
Socialist Enterprise of High Technology, called
on today to fulfill major tasks within our
economic model.
1986. Fidel with a group of Cuban scientists at
the Inauguration of the Center for Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana.
As in the years of the guerrilla struggle,
before 1959, the Commander-in-Chief considered
the development of science as a priority in the
most difficult moments of the Revolution: for
example, in 1991, when the crisis of the
socialist camp was already unfolding and the
gigantic task of defending our sovereignty was
posed, he expressed, "Independence is not a
flag, or an anthem, or a shield. Independence is
not a question of symbols. Independence depends
on development, independence depends on
technology, it depends on science in today's
world."
1989. Fidel visits the Juan Manuel
Márquez hospital in Marianao.
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Also in 1993, when the economic crisis of the
special period hit the bottom, Fidel returned to
the idea of the functions of science in the
economy when he stated, "Science, and
productions of science must one day occupy first
place in the national economy. But starting from
scarce resources, especially the energy
resources that we have in our country, we have
to develop the production of intelligence, and
that is our place in the world, there will be no
other."
The results of the research carried out by the
unforgettable Commander in Chief have crossed
the borders of Cuba and also constitute
theoretical and practical contributions of
global scope. Fidel himself declared as early as
July 26, 1984, in the main event for the XXXI
Anniversary of the Assault on the Moncada
Barracks in Cienfuegos that the experience of
Cuba, the Cuban Revolution, has made
contributions to the solution of the problems of
(global) health; I think the most important are
the following: first the rural medical service;
second, rigorous selection of medical personnel;
third, extension of teaching to all hospitals in
the country; fourth, participation of all the
people in health tasks; fifth, I believe that
the concept of comprehensive general medicine as
a specialty will triumph; sixth, the programmed
development of all specialties and, seventh, the
family doctor.
To those mentioned by Fidel, we can add the
theoretical contributions made regarding laws,
norms, and rules that allowed the entire
population to access free health services with a
high scientific quality, as well as the design
of the system and model of the Cuban National
Health System, which would allow the structuring
and interrelation of each of its components in
order to provide a high level of medical care.
Fidel's investigative work has not concluded
nor is it going to conclude, because as a good
researcher, at each stage he knew how to
reinforce his strategy, both with the results
that were achieved and with the constant review
of international literature and the use of
observational and experimental methods. As a
consequence, he supported the enrichment of the
results of his research, keeping science in a
privileged place and leaving to future
generations, as a recommendation for a thesis
for later studies, his last advice, presented
during his speech at the Closing Ceremony of the
Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba,
on February 19, 2016, when he described as the
main challenge, of current and future
generations, the urgent need of the human being
to "know more and adapt to reality," with the
aim that "the species survives for a much longer
period of time" and "know much more than we do."
That is the same Fidel that we all know, the
guerrilla, the leader, the great man, but also,
the intellectual, the researcher, ... the
scientist who contributed an enormous wealth of
knowledge to Cubans and to all humanity and who,
even in the last days of his physical existence,
was faithful to his research project.
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