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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CW alcohol mention, criticising my own food choices
hi Megathread! longtime no see
a trip to the local cornerstore freaked me out recently. on duty was a relative of the lad who is usually at the counter, the whole family being immigrants from Pakistan as is common in New England’s convenience shops. brief tangent, but while i’m glad the Pakistani community has found a place here in my little corner of the world, it has led to the dying out of an old New England slang term: we used to called cornerstores ‘packies’ (short for package shop) but for obvious reasons that’s now off the table.
anyways, i bring my beer and candy up to the counter like the slob that I am, and the clerk gives me a strange look— i’m a trans woman, so i’m used to people studying me to find out why there’s something so uncanny about this weird woman in front of them. but as i’m swiping my card, she asks me “not that it matters to me, but are you one of those people from (random address down the street)?” I don’t recognise the address so I answer in the negative. she tells me “okay, sure, i guess you aren’t. but i just want to make sure you know…people talk about that kind of thing. when they hear it happen in their neighborhood, i mean. people talk about what is going on there,” as she hits me with a look somewhere between suspicion and disapproval.
i grab my bag and say goodbye, eager to get away from this stranger’s judging eyes. i have absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but she clearly thought i was lying when i told her just as much. now i’m just thinking about it nonstop— my therapist would be annoyed with me for thinking so much about what a stranger thinks about me, but it’s…the mystery of it. not knowing what on earth this woman thinks i’m up to. i almost want to go back and ask her for more info, to set my mind at ease. assess the scale of the damage, yknow? its probably best for me to drop it, but i don’t like the idea of people in my community thinking i’m anything less than an upstanding citizen and a friendly neighbor.
anyways, we need a new cool slang term for cornerstores here in New England. something snappy to compete with NYC’s ‘bodegas’.