Exporting Revolution: Cuba's Global Solidarity by Margaret Randall

Explores the Cuban Revolution's impact on the outside world, tracing Cuba's international outreach in health care, disaster relief, education, arts, liberation struggles, and sports.

£22.99 inc p&p

| Check Basket |

Review of

Exporting Revolution: Cuba s Global Solidarity By Margaret Randall, Pub. Duke University Press, 2017

Hurricane Irma brought into sharp focus the astonishing reality of Cuba s internationalism. Even whilst nature’s horrific power pummelled the island, Cuba was dispatching 750 health workers to neighbouring countries to help them. As Randall says “In Cuba, we have a country that has given - and continues to give - more than its share of morality, expertise, talent, heavy lifting and concrete aid to peoples everywhere.” The lack of boundaries she feels as a poet and author let her tackle one of the biggest stories about Cuba with not just detailed history but personal interviews which deliver an insight into both why and what internationalism means for Cuba. It is both informative and incredibly moving to hear the feelings and experiences of individual participants.

Quick to nail the accusation levelled at Cuba for years by the US, Randall reclaims the title of her book to “free it from its cold war aura” and acknowledge its legitimate meaning. After Marti, it is Cuba s conception of the nation in its broadest sense as ‘humanity’ that underpins its internationalism.  Randall writes: “Unlike powerful nations occupying weaker ones at will for geopolitical gain or in order to take possession of their natural resources, Cuba s international outreach constituted a new and far-reaching model of solidarity. That solidarity continues to be seen in the Revolution s extraordinary humanitarian aid and disaster relief.” She details Cuba s extensive achievements abroad in a host of policy areas – healthcare, disaster relief, education, the arts, liberation struggles, and sport. She shows clearly how Cuban overseas personnel in every field are careful to respect local cultural customs and policies. In doing so, internationalism becomes a pillar of revolutionary identity: she then argues it has strengthened revolutionary solidarity at home when they return.

Looking at the meaning of internationalism when compared to nationalism, it is inevitable she makes comparisons with the US under Trump. “Fundamentalist bombast has taken the place of humanity and reason, and we have racist fear, unending war, an increased number of hate crimes, and mounting gun violence as a result … Perhaps the opportunity to experience difference – other people, other cultures and customs – and knowing that one must function within parameters of respect for that difference, makes Cuban internationalism the best antidote to the sort of extreme nationalism that hovers at the uneasy edge of most modern societies.”

Approaching a study of internationalism through poetry s door was a brave choice but in doing so she succeeds and shines a light on novels, short stories, poetry, and essays that she describes as the beginning of a genre of internationalist writing which is worthy of further study in itself.  Cubans who have used their writings and artistic expressions as a way of sharing experiences that others may not have been able to grasp has shed an important light on the Cuban revolutions motto “We give what we have, not what we have left over”.   

Bob Oram for CubaSi magazine Autumn 2017