Posted with permission from Green Left Weekly
by Chris Slee
Green Left
24 July 2009
July 26 also marks the anniversary of the attack on the Moncada military barracks by revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro in 1953, viewed by Cubans as the start of the revolution.
Chris Slee looks at how the revolution was made and defended by Cuba’s oppressed working people.
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Workers, peasants and students played an active role before, during and after the insurrection that destroyed the brutal and corrupt Fulgencio Batista dictatorship in January 1959.
Batista seized power in a coup in March 1952. The coup initially met little resistance. The Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC) called a general strike in protest at the coup, but the corrupt CTC leadership soon called it off.
CTC leader Eusebio Mujal became one of Batista’s closest collaborators, helping to suppress opposition to the dictatorship within the unions.
Dandelion Salad 