Lights Out This Christmas: The Taste of Bitter Sugar – Folha de São Paulo, December 13, 1970

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

On the 9th of this month, Folha de S. Paulo published a brief AFP dispatch from Havana that included several noteworthy details.

This information is important because it is unquestionably true. It all comes from a speech by Fidel Castro at the Cuban Workers’ Plenary Assembly a few days ago.

First of all, the length of the bearded dictator’s harangue is worth noting: three and a half hours! Imagine being in the shoes of one of the listeners. How tedious such an endless rant would be?

The question is even more urgent because Fidel Castro spoke only on one topic throughout. A subject endless and somber by nature: the island’s internal issues.

Other questions naturally arise regarding a speech of such remarkable length. For instance, did the speaker succeed in maintaining the large audience’s attention until the end, and what techniques did he employ to achieve this?

Did he demonstrate exceptional oratory skills? If he had, communist propaganda would have already proclaimed them worldwide. Furthermore, Fidel has already appeared on international television without inspiring viewers to stay glued to the screen for three and a half hours, watching his gestures and listening to his roars.

So, how did he keep his many listeners, probably a large crowd, as a “plenary assembly of workers,” gathered on an island where everyone is a worker whether they like it or not? Was it through hypnosis? That’s a far-fetched and hardly believable hypothesis, so let’s ignore it.

Coercion is all that’s left. Police surveillance relentlessly targets anyone who dares to leave by brazenly recording their name, residence, and profession to inform their superior. “Bad citizens” unwilling to listen to the speech until the end can face arbitrary transfers, difficult and unhealthy tasks, salary cuts, and even longer stays in La Cabaña’s prison cells if they, in addition to leaving, dare to make frank comments about the “boss’s” rhetoric. This is why most people find it easiest to understand why Fidel’s audience listens to his endless “show.”

* * *

Judging by what the dictator told his forced listeners, his ambitions as head of state have dropped significantly from last year to this year. As everyone remembers, his previous goal was 10 million tons of sugar. Having failed miserably, he lowered the goal and modestly limited himself to dreaming of only seven million tons for the next harvest.

What is this production for? Is it to advance along the development path? No. He admitted that Cuba has a large trade deficit, mainly with the Soviet Union, and these seven million tons are the minimum needed to prevent this deficit from growing.

* * *

Cuba’s deficit with Russia makes sense. The artificial communist regime on the small island is kept alive only by the “liberality” of its powerful northern “ally.”

Therefore, much of the sugar harvest is used to pay the Kremlin. The situation of Cuban workers in relation to the Russian government closely resembles the false portrayal by communist propaganda of South American workers’ relationship with Yankee banks. However, it is far worse than that.

What options does Cuba have to challenge a bill imposed by the Kremlin, dispute a calculation, or negotiate the terms of successive loans? With only the military support from Russia that keeps him in power, Fidel Castro will inevitably face a power vacuum once he becomes a nuisance to the Soviets. His own allies will overthrow him at the slightest sign from Moscow.

Oh, how badly these seven million tons of sugar are spent! The tyrant himself relies on slave labor to pay for the weapons that keep workers enslaved!

* * *

Fidel Castro sees only one solution to sustain this harsh situation for everyone except himself and his cronies: squeezing the working class even harder. In his lengthy speech, he did not mention wage increases even once, but demanded more work.

In fact, according to him, the new harvest must be achieved without decreasing efforts made in recent months to boost the production of other exportable goods or slowing down the progress of other investment plans. To accomplish this, he plans to cut the labor force involved in sugar production by an unknown amount. Since last year’s harvest was about 8 million tons, and if workers are redirected to other sectors, someone else will need to work harder to reach almost the same harvest. Who else but the poor workers?

* * *

All of this is unfortunate. It exposes a suffering people reduced to an exhausted herd, robbed of their dignity, freedom, and most basic rights.

But it also highlights something even more important for us. I stop focusing on poor Cuba and turn my attention to Latin America.

Except through a conspiracy filled with the darkest predictions, how can we understand that a leader like Allende, who promises his people a future full of abundance and freedom, has just reestablished diplomatic relations with Cuba? Not satisfied with that, he presents himself as the defender of Fidel Castro’s cause across the continent and is doing everything possible to bring the communist republic back into the OAS! Is Allende unaware that restoring Latin America’s ties with Cuba would inevitably strengthen that country’s dictatorship? How, then, can we take seriously the new Chilean president’s speeches in favor of his people when he is complicit with those who oppress sister nations?

* * *

Only Allende?

Let us now examine our domestic situation and the array of ambiguous and suspicious political-ideological groups that surround local communism like a safety belt. I am referring to Christian Democrats, Socialists, Progressives, or whatever other label they use. How can they, who are so outraged by any flaw in the current Brazilian political and social structure, remain completely silent about the situation in Cuba?

Last year, I asked them the same question in this column about the failed ten-million-ton sugar harvest that Fidel predicted but did not deliver. If all these useful innocents of communism (doubtfully innocent but undeniably useful) are motivated by concern for the poor, why don’t they fight for the poor in Cuba?

A heavy silence followed my question. This time, let’s see if those questioned will respond.

* * *

I now ask the reader to pay attention to these lines from the aforementioned Folha de S. Paulo news report: “He [Fidel Castro] also stated that the current harvest … began somewhat late and proposed that the traditional Christmas and New Year celebrations be postponed to another time as in the previous year.”

“While declaring himself ‘respectful of traditions,’ Fidel Castro nonetheless pointed out that ‘they are very Christian, very beautiful, and very poetic, but they are a subjective phenomenon that was brought to us from Europe.’”

Thus, for Fidel Castro, Christmas is nothing more than “a subjective phenomenon that was brought to us from Europe.” This is the man who came down from the Sierra Maestra wearing a big rosary around his neck to deceive his country’s Catholics. Be careful, reader, be careful. Do not give credit to someone just because they say they are Catholic. We are in an age of hypocrisy, in which Satan sometimes dresses as a sacristan, sometimes as a priest, and… I prefer not to continue.

* * *

May I ask you for something this Christmas, dear reader? May I request the gift of your prayer?

When you pray at the foot of the nativity scene or sit down happily for Christmas dinner, remember the dark Christmas without parties or lights of a brother people who, on that same night and at that same hour, are in darkness and going to sleep exhausted to resume in the morning the production of bitter sugar, a product of slave labor. Remember Cuba and also the anguish-filled Christmas of many clear-sighted Chileans who see Allende as their country’s Fidel. Pray for all these unfortunate people.

And pray for Brazil, dear reader, that such a misfortune never happens to it.