Vol. 72/No. 8      February 25, 2008

The above description is from the website of the book’s publisher, Pathfinder Press, which recently issued a new edition of the book with an attractive new cover.

The book tells the story of the Cuban Revolution’s political impact on a generation of young people in the United States in the early 1960s, the place of the revolution in building the communist movement in the United States, and its weight in the U.S. class struggle today.

A month before the Cuban people dealt Washington its first military defeat in the Americas in April 1961 at the Bay of Pigs, Fidel Castro said, “There will be a victorious revolution in the United States before a victorious counterrevolution in Cuba.” The quote is printed on the book’s back cover and sets the tone for its message: a revolution in the United States is not only necessary, but possible. The coming revolutionary struggles in the imperialist heartland will be intertwined with defense of the Cuban Revolution and struggles of oppressed and exploited worldwide. This view is presented throughout the pages of the book.

Published in English, Spanish, and French, Cuba and the Coming American Revolution has become one of Pathfinder’s most widely read titles. Readers have found it an invaluable tool for workers and youth who want to emulate the example of Cuba, and who find themselves, by whatever circumstance, in the United States.  
 
Using the new edition
Cuba and the Coming American Revolution was originally published in 2001. Last November it was redone with additional photos and a new foreword by the publisher’s president, Mary-Alice Waters. In early February, the book came out with a new cover.

The impetus for the new edition came from Venezuelan publishing house Monte Avila, which published its own edition of the book last fall. The two publishers released the new editions jointly at the November 2007 Venezuela International Book Fair in Caracas.

Cuba and the Coming American Revolution directly addressed the theme of the fair itself: “The United States: A possible revolution.” The theme was discussed in a five-day running forum at the fair. Waters took part in the debate as part of a diverse panel of speakers.

Cuba and the Coming American Revolution was the best-selling book at the Pathfinder stand there, with 150 copies sold. Many more were sold by Monte Avila.

The book will next be promoted at a panel presentation during the February 13-24 Havana International Book Fair in Cuba, and the publisher expects to find interest in the updated and improved version there.

The new edition is dedicated to Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, and René González, “who today, even if against their will, serve with honor on the front lines of the class struggle in the United States.”

The Cuban Five, as they are known, have been locked up in U.S. prisons since 1998 on frame-up conspiracy charges. They had been tracking the activities of counterrevolutionary organizations in the United States that have a history of carrying out acts of murder and sabotage against the Cuban people. Cuba and the Coming American Revolution helps shed light on their incarceration as but one more way Washington seeks to punish the Cuban people for making and defending their socialist revolution.

In the words of Labañino printed in the book’s introduction, the book gives a unique insight on “the direct influence of the Cuban Revolution, its example and impact, on the people of the U.S., and on the education of the revolutionary left movement and the movement in solidarity with our country.” It gives evidence once again, Labañino adds “that our people are fraternal and invincible.”  
 
 
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