The birth of a revolution

The birth of a revolution
Jul 2014 Saturday 26th

posted by Morning Star in Features

STEVEN WALKER offers a potted history of how Fidel Castro’s July 26 Movement came into being


The Cuban revolution began on on this day 61 years ago and was completed in January 1959 following the final victory led by Che Guevara over government troops in Santa Clara.

This year’s anniversary offers a chance to consider where Fidel Castro drew inspiration from and the ideas which prompted his band of guerillas to mount an audacious attack on the Moncado barracks — headquarters of the Cuban military dictator Fulgencio Batista, who had seized power in an army coup in 1952.

Fidel studied Law at the University of Havana in 1945 on the advice of those who noted his passion for argument.

A world divided ideologically between capitalism and communism stimulated a febrile political atmosphere at the university.

Castro was aligned with two main political groupings at university — the Movimiento Socialista Revolucionario (MSR) led by Rolando Masferrer and the Union Insurreccional Revolucionaria (UIR) led by Emilio Trio.

This was where his revolutionary apprenticeship was refined.

The two groups jostled for prominence on campus, while outside the corrupt president Ramon Grau San Martin, installed as a US puppet in 1944, was running Cuba.

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http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-e91a-The-birth-of-a-revolution#.U9Sa5Wcg_mI