Ecological Lessons from Cuba

“If any of us came to Cuba with doubts in our mind about the solidity, strength, maturity and vitality of the Cuban Revolution, these doubts have been removed by what we have been able to see. Our hearts are now warmed by an unshakeable certainty which gives us courage in the difficult but glorious struggle against the common enemy: no power in the world will be able to destroy this Cuban Revolution, which is creating in the countryside and in the towns not only a new life but also — and even more important — a New Man, fully conscious of his national, continental and international rights and duties. In every field of activity the Cuban people have made major progress during the last seven years, particularly in 1965, Year of Agriculture.” – Cabral The Weapon of Theory, 1966

“‘The evolution of new African cultural technologies in the sense of better serving the progress of black African people cannot ignore the fact that they have a profound knowledge about the environment and its possibilities.” – Cabral 1954

In the context of environmental degradation it is imperative to seek solutions that reshape our relationship with the earth. Traveling to Cuba for the annual May Day Brigade, organized by the National Network on Cuba, revealed new ways to collaborate with and protect our environment. While our “brigade” did not have a militaristic purpose, our collective effort and organizing in Cuba was an act of resistance against ecological and economic warfare imposed on Cubans through the United States embargo and therefore political. Our purpose was to support the Cuban people, expressing solidarity with their struggles to live freely and protect their futures. We learned of several initiatives by the Cuban people to make their country more resilient in the face of climate catastrophe.

An example of this is Cubasolar, a program funded by the Cuban government,  to train technical brigades and install hybrid wind-diesel systems, hybrid photovoltaic (solar) wind technologies, wind farms, and hydropower infrastructure in remote communities. Cubasolar has installed solar power for over 500 medical clinics, rural hospitals, and farmers' homes to build resilience against power and electricity outages around the country as a socialist and anti-imperialist tool. Cocreating resistance with natural sources of power challenges the capitalist logic of domination because "the Sun cannot be blockaded, it cannot be dominated, it cannot be destroyed."

Microinstitutional, or local and community based,  forms of resilience are also widespread: urban gardens allow local communities to collaborate to grow food for themselves in rural and urban areas and for farmers to share equipment to increase access and sustainability; bicycles have become a primary means of daily transportation as a direct form of resistance to US imperialist restrictions on fuel accessibility; clothes are dried outside in the sun to avoid overuse of limited energy reserves; and rainwater is collected to be reused during water outages. 

The combination of macroinstitutional, government-subsidized, programs for universal power accessibility and an interpersonal, socio-cultural prioritization of equitable resource accessibility reveals the inefficiencies and violence of capitalism. Capitalist economic systems necessitate waste, misery, hyper-individualism, and prioritize profit over collaboration with the natural world that we are accountable to. In Cuba, through social, cultural, economic, and political reorientations towards collectivism, the responsibility of each worker is to further progress towards their greater societal goals of ensuring that human rights such as water, electricity, food and fresh air are accessible to all of those who inhabit the island. Cocreating life and resistance with the earth, the Cuban people are no longer alienated from the fruits of their labor or from accountability to preserving our fragile ecological systems for future generations. Experiences such as this one are intrinsically valuable as they force those of us who live and breathe within the imperial core to radically reimagine our responsibilities to the earth and how we may begin to challenge the dogmas of consumption, violence and disregard in collaboration with our environment.