Cuba is the one country in the world with a government that mobilizes the power of its working people to combat the effects of hurricanes and other natural disasters. In sharp contrast to Washington, it uses all the resources of society and a culture of working-class solidarity to ensure no one is left to fend for themselves. Casualties and destruction are kept to a minimum. The Cuban people are led to prepare, withstand and then rebuild when storms hit the island.
No other country has a government that is capable of preventing natural disasters from turning into social catastrophes. That’s because working people there made a socialist revolution. Led by Fidel Castro, they overthrew the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship in 1959 and took political power. They uprooted capitalist exploitation, organized a thorough-going land reform, mobilized thousands of young volunteers and wiped out illiteracy, nationalized industry, and, in so doing, transformed the population, who discovered their own capacities in the process.
When Hurricane Matthew hit Cuba in 2016, more than a million people were gotten out of harms way and provided with shelter. Workers pulled together to do what is necessary, backed at every step by their government. No one died.
Brigades of electrical workers and soldiers were sent to the threatened region before the storm hit, so repairs could begin immediately afterward. Supplies to people rebuilding their homes were provided at half price and long-term loans at low interest were made available. Those most in need were given materials free of charge.
In contrast, the profit-driven priorities of the U.S. capitalist rulers and the conditions they impose on working people here ensure everyone is left on their own when storms hit. And despite heroic acts of solidarity displayed by workers helping one another, our class bears havoc and misery when natural disasters strike. That will remain the case until workers establish a government of our own.
With crops destroyed by Hurricane Helene, many working farmers are closer to ruin. Officials say water systems in parts of North Carolina will take weeks or more to repair. As we go to press, 1.5 million people are still without power.
The U.S. capitalist rulers’ lack of preparation and slow response to the storm shines a spotlight on their callous attitude toward workers’ lives. In Wakulla County, Florida, residents were under mandatory evacuation orders. But the county sheriff’s office made no effort to evacuate prisoners at the Wakulla Correctional Institution.
Only by taking political power into our own hands can working people establish a government based on a different class outlook. The Cuban Revolution shows what workers power makes possible. Studying how that revolution was made is vital preparation for organizing a vanguard in the U.S. to lead tens of millions of working people here to conquer power, reconstruct society in the interest of the vast majority and join the struggle for a socialist world.