--Fidel Castro at University of Tehran, May 9, 2001

These words by Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro are accurate. They are just as accurate as his statement 40 years ago that "there will be a victorious revolution in the United States before a victorious counterrevolution in Cuba." Castro pointed out that imperialism, whose main headquarters is in Washington, is the number one enemy of humanity.

This enemy--the superrich handful of ruling U.S. families who live off the exploitation of the world--is one that working people in the United States and around the globe have in common. This reality is underscored by Washington's moves today to reinforce its domination in Europe and the Pacific. The U.S. government is seeking to wield the club of its military superiority, pressing to develop a missile system--threatening China and other nations it comes into conflict with--that would give it a nuclear first-strike capability. Washington must increasingly resort to military means, from the permanent presence of U.S. troops in the Balkans to the U.S. Navy's use of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, for war practices in the face of overwhelming opposition.

Castro pointed out in his speech to Iranian students that the U.S. empire, while brutal, is getting weaker. This too is accurate. Capitalism's built-in contradictions are leading to increased economic rivalry and divisions among the imperialist powers--Washington, Berlin, Paris, London, Tokyo, Ottawa, and others. Their economic system is volatile. And their increasingly brutal methods of exploitation and rule are generating resistance and pushing working people toward each other. Producing its own gravediggers, the U.S. employers are drawing to this country millions of working people from around the world, changing the face of the working class and U.S. politics forever--as heard in the confident voice of immigrant workers today demanding to be treated like equal human beings.

In this world, revolutionary Cuba is a living example to working people that we can overthrow the exploiters, take political power, and chart a course in the interests of the majority of humanity. Cuba's example becomes attractive to increasing numbers of working people, from Panama to Argentina to south Korea--where capitalist regimes offer tear gas, rubber bullets, layoffs, and social cutbacks as their "solutions" to the crisis. And resistance here--from striking garment workers in California and Pennsylvania to protesters against police brutalization in Cincinnati--is leading a growing number of workers and farmers to becoming open to considering a working-class, communist political alternative.

The new Pathfinder book Cuba and the Coming American Revolution makes a powerful case for working people and youth who are repelled by capitalism's dog-eat-dog system to join in the struggle to bring down the final empire, and build a society to meet the needs of the vast majority. It argues convincingly that if we work together to build a disciplined, centralized workers party, with a program and strategy that advances the line of march of our class worldwide, we'll be prepared to forge a mass working-class party that can take on the billionaire minority and defeat them.

Part of that job--and an enjoyable one for revolutionaries--is to get this book into the hands of as many workers, farmers, and youth as possible who are open to this prospect, and to discuss it together with them.  
 
 
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