Hart was a central organizer of the urban underground and is one of the historic leaders of the Cuban Revolution.

This account of the struggle to overthrow the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship led by the July 26 Movement and the Rebel Army, headed by Fidel Castro, is now accessible for the first time ever to English-speaking readers. It recounts the events from the perspective of revolutionary cadres organizing in the cities.

The Militant is publishing a series of selections from the book. Reprinted below is Circular no. 1, an internal document issued by the July 26 Movement in late 1957. It establishes the norms of membership that were necessary in order for the movement to lead working people in getting the Yankee boot off their necks and to carry forward a revolutionary transformation of all of Cuban society. It also discusses the stance and orientation of the July 26 Movement in relation to other groups opposed to the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

The revolutionary war culminated in a popular insurrection leading to the overthrow of the dictatorship on Jan. 1, 1959. Workers and farmers took political power and opened the door to the first socialist revolution in the Americas. Copyright © 2004 by Pathfinder Press, reprinted by permission.
 

Compañero:

This circular is addressed to you, as one who is giving all your efforts to the redemption of Cuba. Read it over several times. Analyze carefully all the matters raised in it. The success of the Movement depends to a great degree on how well each of us interprets and complies with it.  
 
1. Member and sympathizer
The first thing to be settled is what defines membership in the July 26 Movement. This is necessary because the enormous sympathy for the Movement has at times caused us to lose sight of the dividing line between member and sympathizer. We must learn to situate ourselves with regard to everyone around us, in order to better take advantage of our energies and most effectively channel the sympathy that exists for the July 26 Movement.

A member is one who abides by the discipline of the organization, belongs to one of its bodies, and is willing to make the greatest sacrifices to achieve the revolutionary objectives, i.e., who feels deeply the revolutionary ideals for which he’s sworn “Freedom or death” to achieve. A sympathizer is one who generally does what’s right, but for one reason or another does not belong to a unit of the Movement and has not sworn “Freedom or death.” Nevertheless he collaborates with the revolution through the July 26 Movement, without being tied to its discipline. This circular is addressed to the Movement’s members.  
 
2. Your responsibility
The July 26 Movement already has an enormous responsibility toward the people. For that reason the responsibility of each member has increased enormously and will increase even more to the degree that our strength grows. It will increase in the coming months when the tyranny is overthrown by the weight of our actions.

The responsibility of the national, provincial, and municipal leaders is therefore also immense. Precisely for that reason we are addressing you, a member of the July 26 Movement, to jointly face the situation and confront the events. We will be able to lead these events to Cuba’s benefit only if we are successful in creating a revolutionary membership firmly disciplined in democratic ideals. That is our first concern. This should therefore be the framework with which you analyze this letter, and we would like it to be the primary guideline you keep in mind.  
 
3. Relations with other organizations
All of us confront daily the much discussed question of the unity of the opposition. The Movement has always been willing to agree to any formula of unity that starts with the people as the basic element of a strategy of struggle. But a more concrete answer must be given as to what formula of unity we wish to see. Nobody has analyzed this with such precision as the July 26 Movement, and in this regard each member should refer to the [June 1957] Manifesto of the Sierra Maestra, published in newspapers and magazines, and to the article “Our Formula for Unity” that appeared in Revolución. These documents go over the Movement’s definitive stance regarding other opposition organizations. Our position is summarized as follows:

a) We will respect any formula for unity that takes the civic institutions as its axis. These must assume the main responsibility for such unity and for the future provisional government.

b) We are willing to work jointly with any revolutionary sector on the basis of a specific action considered useful to the process.

We are willing to cooperate with any effort, but always based on the specific actions to be carried out.

c) We call on workers belonging to all parties, as well as those belonging to none, to create strike committees in their workplaces or industrial sectors with a specific objective: to prepare the strike. We call on shopkeepers, industrialists, professionals, etc., belonging to all parties or none to work in the Civic Resistance Movement.Workers who are members of the Movement should await specific instructions in order to form strike committees.  
 
4. The great question asked of us
Every member of the July 26 Movement is obliged today to answer the following question: What is the Movement aiming for? Two years ago this question was discussed by only a relatively small number of Cubans. Now it has become a national issue. Even internationally, quite a few commentators on the Cuban situation have posed this question.

It would be absurd for us to answer this in detail in an internal circular, but it is essential to have a common idea of how to respond to this question. Besides, as with every basic theoretical question, it takes us directly to the question of what each one of us should do. Plus things are done better when we know why we are doing them. We will come to that, but we have to start from an analysis of what we have done and achieved. Only by doing this will we be able to know what the July 26 Movement is really aiming at.

a) Prior to November 30 and the landing of the Granma, we were a sector made up of a goodly number of Cubans who set for themselves the task of initiating the revolution in order to help bring about the fall of Batista and penetrate all layers of the population in an organized way. Although we always enjoyed general sympathy, it was not until the Sierra Maestra, as well as the sabotage and agitation, that cadres of an organization began to emerge on the national scene capable of channeling all the disparate efforts, beginning to create the necessary conditions for the complete development of the revolution. After eight months we constitute the opposition to the regime. The power of the July 26 Movement’s actions has been such that today it appears on the Cuban scene as the only instrument capable of conquering freedom. It’s not that we consider ourselves the only organization, but we have the enormous historical responsibility of guiding revolutionary action with an appropriate strategy to channel all sincere impulses and efforts.

Would we have fulfilled our objective had our actions and the amount of blood spilled served only to turn us into an anti-Batista movement? No, the moment demands of us something more than agitation and sabotage. We are committed to bringing about the fall of the tyranny.

Such a thing can be achieved only with a more and more firmly disciplined organization in terms of its final aims, and with an appropriate strategy for the immediate objective of a general work stoppage and armed insurrection.

And what does the revolutionary organization known as the July 26 Movement seek after the fall of the tyrant? It seeks to set the Cuban people in motion behind a program of political cleansing, economic demands, and social justice to make democracy possible. To make the Cuban people an organized and disciplined force capable of assuring its own rights and its own democracy. In short, to consolidate the Cuban nation’s revolutionary instrument, which is what the July 26 Movement is and aspires to continue being.

b) The only reason for Cuba’s grave historical crisis is precisely that we always lacked a revolutionary instrument capable of facing up to events decisively once the immediate obstacle—first the existence of Cuba as a colony and then the Machado tyranny—had been eliminated....

In summary, the July 26 Movement has two immediate objectives:

a) To overthrow Batista through popular action. This is not the same as just overthrowing him.

b) To consolidate the revolutionary instrument to ensure the fulfillment of the revolution’s program, also through popular action. This is not the same as simply creating a new party.  
 
5. Our practical work with a view to that noble immediate objective
a) To achieve the first objective we must put into practice a plan that, under current conditions, leads us to a general work stoppage. Every member, through the responsible persons and committees, will receive instructions on their particular tasks.

b) To achieve the second objective we must act as follows:

1st. Determine precisely the general aspects of our program, which have already been put forward several times.

2nd. Ensure the discipline of all cadres and leaders of the organization.

3rd. Study beforehand how we are going to react to each and every development.

Every member must remain firmly disciplined in fulfilling their functions. Today more than ever, members must carefully follow instructions. Each body must plan what it should do with regard to them.

The signs of the regime’s final collapse are already visible. Its death sentence has already been dictated. We will know how to take advantage, for the benefit of Cuba, of the formidable popular movement born of the rebelliousness of our youth. Once more the country is faced with a great opportunity. All the merits of the old politics are gone. Will we be capable of fulfilling the role destiny is placing in our hands? In order to do so we require organization and discipline.

The members of the July 26 Movement will understand this truth.

The municipal, provincial, and national leaders must understand it even better. We are all marching toward victory, which will be nothing other than completing the cycle begun by Agramonte and Martí in colonial times: to create the great nation we all have dreamed of.

Freedom or death!

National Directorate

No sugar harvest with Batista!  
 
 
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