Charley struck Havana, the largest city in Cuba, the same day it cut through a swath of Florida that included many rural areas. Four people died in Cuba, while 25 lost their lives in Florida.

The measures taken to prepare for the storm and to deal with the damage in Charley’s aftermath also show vastly different class priorities. The revolutionary government in Havana was unsparing in its efforts to save lives and quick in using all available resources to restore normalcy to the lives of working people after the storm. The measures by the imperialist government in Washington were penny-pinching and callous.

Supported by the mobilization of working people, the Cuban government organized to evacuate hundreds of thousands before Charley hit. Extra effort was made to ensure that people in the most vulnerable areas reached shelter in a timely manner. After the storm, trade unions, neighborhood committees, and other mass organizations mobilized hundreds of thousands of volunteers to clean up and repair the damage to homes, schools, and hospitals. The Union of Young Communists organized house-to-house visits to ensure that every individual and family affected would not be cut off from necessities such as water and electricity.

In Florida, a state in the wealthiest imperialist country in the world, many of the two dozen victims were among the thousands living in trailer parks, people trying to get by on meager pensions, or agricultural workers, mostly immigrants. Charlotte County, one of the hardest hit in the state, had no hurricane shelters, road system inadequate for evacuation, and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. Yet the Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided just 350 trailers so far to temporarily house about 120 families. Most of those who lost homes will have to rely for compensation on insurance companies that exact sky-high premiums. Undocumented workers, whose labor is exploited by agricultural and other bosses, have been discouraged from seeking government relief for fear of arrest and deportation.

What a contrast between Cuba’s concern for working people and reliance on the capacities of the toilers and human solidarity, and the U.S. rulers’ callous disregard for anything but their profits!

The Cuban people and their revolutionary leadership are able to set such an example—where the mightiest capitalist power in the world cannot—because of what a socialist revolution makes possible.
 
 
Related articles:
Cubans mobilize to confront impact of Hurricane Charley
Charley hits Florida, devastating workers’ lives  
 
 
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