On this day in 1959, U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista fled the country following the victory of Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement (M-26-7) at the Battle of Santa Clara, marking the successful conclusion of the Cuban Revolution.
The 26th of July Movement takes its name from the date of with a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953, however, the movement bearing this name was not formally organized until the attackers were released from prison in 1955. Public resistance continued sporadically until November 1956, when 80 members of the M-26-7 returned from exile.
Soon after landing on the island, a separate revolutionary group, the "Directorio Revoluncionari Estudiantil" (DRE), unsuccessfully attempted an attack on the Presidential Palace in Havana.
Throughout 1957, armed resistance from groups such as the DRE and M-26-7 would escalate. After a failed offensive by the government against rebels in the summer of 1958, the rebels launched a major counter-offensive.
On December 28th, 1958, after a fraudulent election in favor of Batista, revolutionary forces reached the city of Santa Clara. Seizing equipment from an armored train intended to transport government reinforcements, the rebels quickly captured the city, prompting Batista to panic and flee to the Dominican Republic with a personal fortune of more than $300 million.
In the following days, revolutionary forces entered Havana with no resistance, and Castro established a provisional government. The 26th of July Movement later reformed along Marxist–Leninist lines, becoming the Communist Party of Cuba in October 1965.
Batista later settled in fascist Spain, dying there in 1973 at the age of 72.
The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto "Ché" Guevara
Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War by Ernesto "Ché" Guevara
History Will Absolve Me by Fidel Castro
To the U.N. General Assembly, The Problem of Cuba and its Revolutionary Policy by Fidel Castro
r/Communism Cuba and Fidel Castro Megathread
r/Communism Another Cuba and Fidel Megathread
lecture from Michael Parenti about Cuba
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Theory:
man why is it so fucking difficult to find real-life friends who share your interests? like there's just too much media to be consumed these days. Like I can find people who are into movies, books or music no problem, but there are so many niches in each of those that it's impossible to find anyone to actually talk to about these things in any kind of depth. Last year I was in a kind of movie club with four other people who are also fairly deep into movies, and I basically had to give up on having any influence on what movies we'd watch because they'd basically always be too "out there" for me to get the majority of them invested in actually watching them. With music its probably easiest because you can just put whatever your talking about on, but even then everyone seems to have their own niche of whatever they listen to, and if you can ever get them to listen to anything it's at most one or two tracks of something. It's probably worst with books, where the investment is just so high. Like sure you'll get someone to go "oh i always meant to read that" but then they have their own list of books to read which is feet long and you'll both die before you ever read the same things.
I guess this is why so many people are so deep into pop culture. If you like harry potter or star wars, you'll always find someone to talk about it at every party, no problem.
You should join a book club. It's a great way to make new friends who share an interest.
But I think about this a lot, the idea that the ease of access to hyperniche art draws people further apart. I think a lot of it is that we tend to experience art as individuals as opposed to collectively now, like in our earbuds instead of on the stereo together, or on our laptop instead of at the movie theatre.
There's also a dopamine treadmill aspect, that the consequence of having access to whatever art is so perfectly titrated to give us a 10/10 experience that a randomly selected group or artist or film someone else might like it's just way more likely to feel boring.
I try to fight against this by listening to coop and college radio when driving to fight against this algorithmic titration of music I listen to, and go watch films in repertory theatres with friends more than at home on a laptop. I also try to say yes more when someone invites me to something that might not be my thing, and try to have simpler expectations.
This is the rationale i get when i talk about how it's strange that every single guy i talk to will be into some kind of sports but I'm just not.
"I can strike up a conversation with any guy at the bar and we'll have something to talk about" which i actually totally understand but I manage just fine without