Cuba’s Revolutionary Defense Committees Are On The Way Out
HAVANA TIMES – On September 28, 1960, the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) were founded, and they have just marked another anniversary. The activities of this were once a major event. Money was collected, syrups were purchased to make refreshments for the children, along with meat and vegetables for the caldosa (which was prepared right in the middle of the street with the entire neighborhood). The purchase of bottles of rum and wine was also authorized…
And all the streets (we can recall the classic song performed by Leo Brouwer and Sara Gonzalez, “On every block a committee”) were decorated with many little colored flags accompanying the Cuban one, strung on both sides of the streets or hung right on the fences.
These dates were never overlooked in any way, because this was one of the most important mass organizations, founded by the energetic leader Fidel Castro Ruz in 1960, for the surveillance (“watch over”) of the very people themselves. Which, of course, also meant a mechanism of control and repression over those same people, especially the “less revolutionary”, because the organization had the duty to denounce crimes committed by the population. And bearing in mind that in Cuba under the Castro regime practically everything is a crime by law, the organization could become truly feared and despised by many.
The CDRs also had other social tasks besides those mentioned, such as instructing the people on how to defend themselves in the event of a surprise attack by Yankee imperialism: preparing people to run to shelters, for example, or mobilizing us to a firing range to learn to shoot pellet shotguns.
Other functions included welcoming back someone who had returned home after serving a prison sentence, with a revolutionary activity as a sign that they were being reintegrated into society; or if a baby was born in the community, that too was a reason for a neighborhood celebration.
Although it was said that belonging to the CDR was optional, it was not advisable not to join. Many jobs and educational centers (almost all) required letters of recommendation from this Organization. Just as it wasn’t advisable for women not to belong to the FMC (Federation of Cuban Women), for the same reasons: when applying for work or school enrollment, these letters were required. For instance, in jobs at the Ministry of Tourism, if one didn’t have them, one simply could not be considered.
And that date—year after year, September 28—used to be celebrated loudly across the island. Now, in the most recent phone conversation between my aunt in Santiago de Cuba (the cradle of the Revolution) and my aunt here in Holguín, they asked each other about the CDRs. How were things going over there? The one in Santiago replied that she hadn’t heard anything at all, and the one in Holguín said: same here. I imagine that nowhere on the Island could anything be celebrated these days—and if something were, it certainly wouldn’t be the anniversary of the CDRs.
The decline is palpable. Just like the buildings that collapse in Havana and elsewhere on the Island, the mass organizations are increasingly nothing but ghosts. In lived reality, and in memory itself.