Preface and Introduction

We are grateful to present this special issue of Monthly Review, carrying forward a tradition established six decades ago. The stance of the magazine reflects Castro’s assertion that criticism should be from within the revolution, mirroring the view of C. Wright Mills. In his Listen, Yankee, Mills wrote that we don’t worry about the Cuban Revolution, we worry with it. This volume is put together in that spirit.

The Blockade as a Double-Edged Sword

Not a day has gone by that the United States has not tried to overturn the Cuban Revolution, through the assassination of its leaders, invasions by proxy forces, preventing it from normal commercial and diplomatic relations, and encouraging social distress in the island to become a counterrevolutionary force.

Socialism Against the Siege

Despite Cuba's advantages—due to its free, universal public health system and its capacity for rapid scientific development, which put us at the forefront in research and vaccine production globally—we were unable to escape the pandemic's blows.

Socialism Cannot Postpone Its Promise of Democracy: Young Cuban Voices on the July 11 Events

On Sunday, July 11, 2021, demonstrations occurred in various parts of Cuba. Many of the demonstrators went onto the streets to protest the frequent prolonged power outages in various locations, shortages of food and medicine, and the general precariousness of daily life. A variety of different perspectives are putting their own spin on these events.

We Must Return to the Future

The Cuban Revolution cannot disintegrate because it was never made of meringue. Not because it has not been sweet, but because the revolution has also tasted bitter fruits that, to date, we have known how to turn into strengths.

The Communist Party of Cuba and Present Challenges: Reflections on the Eighth Party Congress

The Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba—held from April 16 to 19, 2021—offers salient questions, issues, and other themes of the current reality of Cuba from the view of revolutionary militants. Let us take heed.

Notes from the Editors, January 2022

buy this issue This number of Monthly Review is a special issue guest edited by Manolo De Los Santos and Vijay Prashad on The Cuban Revolution Today: Experiments in the Grip of Challenges. Although it covers the major internal struggles of the ongoing Cuban Revolution, along with the external attacks on it by Washington, one unaddressed area of critical importance, which deserves mention, is Cuba’s world leadership in sustainable human development.

'El Patojo'

A few days ago, a cable brought the news of the death of some Guatemalan patriots, among them Julio Roberto Cáceres Valle. In this difficult job of a revolutionary, in the midst of class wars which are convulsing the entire continent, death is a frequent accident. But the death of a friend, a comrade during difficult hours and a sharer in dreams of better times, is always painful for the person who receives the news, and Julio Roberto was a great friend.

The Eyes of Texas and the Nays

A new poem by Marge Piercy.

Notes from the Editors, December 2021

buy this issue With the rapidly worsening capitalist demolition of the planetary environment and the expansion of ecosocialist movements in response, leading establishment think tanks, like the corporate-supported Breakthrough Institute, dedicated to promoting the ideology of "green capitalism" at any cost, have found themselves in a difficult place.