6. Revolutionary struggle: From Dual Power to a Workers’ and Peasants’ Government¶
Core Argument¶
After seizing power on 1 January 1959, Fidel Castro initially presented a moderate public face, declaring in the United States that Cuba was not Communist and welcoming private foreign investment. A coalition government was formed under the 1940 constitution, with anti-Communist figures President Manuel Urrutia and Prime Minister José Miró Cardona at its head; only three of twenty-five cabinet members came from the guerrilla army. Yet this government failed to enact the revolutionary laws demanded by the insurgent masses, who expected land reform and an end to hunger. This contradiction between the moderate state apparatus and the radicalised popular movement set the stage for a profound political transformation.
In February 1959, Fidel became prime minister on a reformist twenty-point programme, enacting rent reductions, minimum wages, and utility price cuts. The Agrarian Reform Law of May 1959 abolished latifundia, expropriating holdings over 400 hectares to be run as co-operatives or distributed to peasants. This directly clashed with US imperialist interests, particularly those of the United Fruit Company. The revolutionary leadership chose to pursue these radical demands despite the threat of rupture with the United States, dispatching Che Guevara to secure Soviet oil-for-sugar deals. Conflict within the coalition forced Urrutia’s resignation in July 1959; Osvaldo Dorticós became president, and the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA), headed by Fidel with Guevara and Raúl Castro in charge, took effective control of the economy. By late 1959, with Che heading the National Bank and the cabinet purged of moderates, the coalition government had ended. Cuba now possessed a Workers’ and Peasants’ Government, shifting power from the middle class to peasants, workers, and soldiers, and proceeding with expropriations, arming the people, and meeting mass needs.
The petty-bourgeois origins of Cuba’s revolutionary leaders did not prevent them from nationalising land and industry, introducing a planned economy, and taking measures for workers and peasants. The explanation lies in how they came to power, the tasks they faced, and the constraints imperialism imposes on neo-colonial countries. The leadership could only fulfil promises of a better life by moving beyond original economic goals toward socialism. Step by step, they carried out the first tasks of socialist revolution because basic reforms for workers and peasants challenged imperialism and its ally, the national bourgeoisie. The government’s vitality came from responsiveness to mass needs and reliance on mass mobilisations, operating by popular consensus. Between 1960 and 1962, following the militia’s launch in October 1959, mass organisations mobilised hundreds of thousands: the militia, Revolutionary Defence Committees, National Federation of Cuban Women, University Students Federation, and the Federation of Cuban Workers under new leadership. At every critical stage, massive turnouts supported revolutionary actions, and the masses became deeply loyal to a government that had transformed their lives.