“Men do not shape destiny, destiny produces the men of the hour.” Imbued with revolutionary fervour and a strong sense of both history and purpose Fidel Castro wrote these words about his old comrade Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Throughout the nineteen fifties and sixties revolutionary passion ran high across Latin America and the third world. It seemed that history had chosen its moment and in return destiny had chosen the men for the hour. Che, the name has become synonymous with youthful rebellion, a syllable for revolution. His face is guaranteed to appear, like a modern messiah, at most left wing protests since he became martyred to the cause in the Bolivian jungle. Of course if you don’t see his face on a placard or poster its advisable to look at hats, wallets, handbags, T-shirts, calendars, clocks or just about anything else in the ever growing “revolutionary industry”, where you can buy off the shelf ideals and a revolutionary image for a couple of dollars.  There are times when you cannot help but be impressed with how capitalism has taken a man who spent years of his life locked in the bitter struggle of jungle warfare against imperialism, a man who paid the ultimate price for his ideas, how capitalism can take such a man and turn everything he stood for on its head by selling his image to an lethargic mass who largely know nothing of his struggle. Whilst Che may have this cult status, his comrade and commander Fidel Castro, who is largely responsible for nurturing this image, has not enjoyed such iconic status even though his mark upon history has, for better or worse, been far more significant.

This week Castro, who at the time of writing is the longest serving ruler of a nation, has formally resigned from his position of chair of the Cuban Communist party, relinquishing power to his brother Raul Castro. Raul is Fidel’s long serving second in command and it is widely believed that he will be ratified by party election on Sunday the 24^th February. Fidel Castro has been a controversial figure on the international stage ever since his small force landed in Cuba in 1956 to begin the guerrilla war which would end with the fall of the corrupt, and American backed, Batista regime in 1959. There has always been an inescapable romanticism associated with the Cuban revolution, forgetting for a moment the fact that they became the poster boys of radicalism, the Cuban revolutionaries carved for themselves one of the defining moments of the twentieth century.  After the revolution and the American government’s swift excommunication Cuba became allied with the Soviet Union and the small Caribbean island played a pivotal role in the Cold War, both in terms of strategic position and by exporting the revolution to African and Latin America.

When considering how Cuba has developed since the revolution it is crucial to remember that the Island does not exist in a vacuum, like everything else it is affected by the factors that surround it, namely a hostile superpower to the north and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 Cuba has suffered a full embargo by the USA meaning that nothing can be imported, or exported between Cuba and the USA, which until recently included US Dollars. This embargo, when linked to the 638 assassination attempts on Castro and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion has resulted in Cuba existing in a perpetual state of war in true siege mentality for the past fifty years. The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the subsequent collapse of the USSR the Cuban economy was effectively propped up by sugar exports to Russia, the lack of which resulted in a further slump into poverty for the people.  From adversity comes ingenuity, to prevent the people from starvation the Castro regime has embraced the ideas of perma-culture, turning every garden and every ex- colonial estate into allotments, Havana is now the only self reliant city, which can entirely feed itself.  This of course may be more due to necessity then leading by green example, but it’s impressive none the less.

Now that he has stepped down the question remains, how will history judge Fidel Castro? His exiled opponents in Miami denounce him as a tyrant pointing to the one party state of Cuba, the lack of full democratic rights and the number of political prisoners. His allies, namely on the international left but who have included Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the writer Ernest Hemmingway, and film maker Oliver stone  will argue that he is a solider of ideals, a much needed dissenting voice in a world of western hubris. Whilst the revolution and the Cold war past of Cuba may be lionised by the left even Castro has acknowledged that times have changed. Castro is a personified image of the Cold War; he heralds from an era of rival superpowers and an epoch of espionage, indeed he survived 638 assassination attempts by the CIA. However, he also represented an age of hope and it is vital for the people of Cuba, and indeed Latin America as a whole that whatever the future may hold the hope that Castro and his comrades inspired is not extinguished.

As an aside: Good luck to all candidates standing in the UPSU elections this year! If your not standing make sure you vote, its your Union and its your time to choose who and how its run!