Democratic Socialists Commemorate Fidel Castro's 100th Birthday

As you may have seen, August 13, 2026 would have been the 100th birthday of Fidel Castro. Fidel had retired as Dictator of Cuba all the way back in 2006 at age 80, and then died ten years ago in 2016.

Commemorations of people who have been dead for ten years should be reserved for those who did something worthwhile in their lives. In Fidel’s case, during his more than half-century of absolute rule over Cuba, he brought poverty and ruin to the island’s economy and people. Yet somehow he remains a hero to the Left.

If you don’t believe me, check out this post from the website of the Democratic Socialists of America on August 13. You would think it must be a parody, but the url is dsausa.org, and the site has tabs for all the other DSA claptrap. So I’m quite sure it’s real. Here are a few excerpts:

DSA Commemorates 100 Years of Fidel and Denounces Rubio’s Genocide Against the Cuban People

Today is the centenary of Fidel Castro, and the Democratic Socialists of America recognize the historic significance of both this day and the man. Fidel was an organizer, a fighter, and endures as a stalwart symbol of anti-imperialist struggle and self-determination for the Global South. DSA has a long history of solidarity with the Cuban people, their revolution, and their self-determination. We choose this historic day to recommit ourselves to acting in solidarity with the Cuban people and to starkly opposing Marco Rubio’s genocidal war against the Cuban people and US imperialism writ large.

So it’s not just that Fidel is a hero — “a fighter” and “a stalwart symbol of anti-imperialist struggle” — but there’s also a new theme here that the long-running economic disaster in Cuba is now being branded as “Marco Rubio’s genocide.” They go on and on with that one:

The Trump Administration, under the leadership of Marco Rubio, is waging an indiscriminate war against the Cuban people and killing women, children, and babies by illegally blockading critical resources from the Caribbean nation. By intentionally imposing conditions calculated to kill a civilian population, Marco Rubio is leading a genocide.

OK, we knew that the DSA were ignorant morons. But can anybody be so poorly informed as to think that the economic disaster in Cuba only began when Marco Rubio became Secretary of State in early 2025? It happens that I wrote a post about Cuba on October 10, 2024, headlined “What The Hell Is Going On In Cuba?” That was several weeks before Donald Trump got re-elected President, and several months before Rubio took charge at State. The post provided an update on Cuba’s economic situation, substantially based on pieces that had just appeared in Reuters, in the Wall Street Journal, and in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

So let us remind the DSA what the situation was in Cuba toward the end of the Biden administration. According to the Reuters piece, Cuba’s economy was “devastated” and “bankrupt.” Here is a key excerpt:

Cuba is suffering an unprecedented economic crisis. In the last month, the government has said more than one million people - around 10% of its population - are without running water. The majority of the population endures several hours of blackouts each day. Food, fuel and medicine shortages are nearly universal. . . . More than one million Cubans have left the Caribbean island since 2020, a record-breaking exodus that has contributed to a crisis at the U.S. border.

Thanks, Fidel! In the Wall Street Journal piece, Mary Anastasia O’Grady echoed most of the same themes:

Cuba is in a full-fledged meltdown, starting with its public infrastructure. Millions are without running water. Food rations are shrinking. Electricity blackout and brownouts are routine. The tourism industry, which was never robust, hasn’t recovered since the Covid-19 pandemic despite the construction of luxury hotels.

Plus this as to the exodus of population, sourced from El Pais:

Cuban emigration in recent years has been huge. . . . In July Cuban demographer and economist Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos released data showing that Cuba’s population shrank by 18% between 2022 and 2023. He calculates that some 8.62 million remain on the island.

In my October 2024 post, I noted that Cuba’s official position at the time (articulated in an April 2024 CBS interview with Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister, among many other places) was that the island’s economic problems were the result of the long-running U.S. economic embargo. But that argument was always completely lame. After all the U.S. is just one country out of nearly 200 in the world, constituting around 25% of the world economy. That leaves the other 190+ countries and 75% of the world economy that have never boycotted Cuba. Europe has not boycotted Cuba. China has not boycotted Cuba. Brazil and Mexico have not boycotted Cuba. Canada has not boycotted Cuba. With their supposedly superior economic system, and full ability to trade with 75% of the world, why shouldn’t Cuba have been prospering? Cuba’s electricity system was failing in 2024 due to complete lack of investment since the 1980s. How can you blame that on the U.S.? Its water system was equally failing due to complete lack of investment. How did the U.S. cause that? As a tropical country with plenty of rain, growing food should be the least of Cuba’s problems, and yet it has had food shortages and rationing for the entire period of the Castro regime.

The one thing that Trump and Rubio have added to the mix in the last year has been a blockade of oil shipments to Cuba. To be fair, this is a blockade rather than a mere boycott, so it is actually preventing Cuba from accessing oil on the world market. This must be what the DSA is referring to with the line “illegally blockading critical resources from the Caribbean nation.” But here’s the problem: Elsewhere the DSA has advocated for the end of use of fossil fuels, at least for countries other than Cuba. Here is the DSA Statement of Green New Deal Principles, from February 2019. Excerpt:

Humankind has reached a moment of existential crisis. Human activity is causing disastrous climate disruption and Earth’s sixth mass extinction event, triggering critical losses of biodiversity. We are already locked in for global warming that will have catastrophic effects, and we are on a slippery path to our own extinction. . . . We need a Green New Deal. . . . Decarbonize the economy fully by 2030. . . . Nationalize fossil fuel producers to phase them out as quickly as necessary—no new fossil fuel projects can be authorized or built. . . .

(Emphasis in original.). In other words, for Cuba oil is a “critical resource,” and depriving Cuba of the oil constitutes a “genocide” and “killing women, children and babies.” But for the U.S., using oil is causing “disastrous climate disruption,” and we must cease all use immediately. Completely ridiculous.

I don’t understand how it is possible to look at Cuba and not see an inevitable failure of socialism. Without proper incentives for economic production, it has never been able to satisfy even the basic needs of its people. And of course the economic failure has been accompanied by brutal political repression, as always in socialist systems.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed today (title: “The Young MAGA Socialists Are Here”) a guy named Emil Barr reports:

In a 2025 survey of young likely voters, 42% of conservatives said they would like to see a democratic socialist win the presidency in 2028. Among 2024 Trump voters, the figure was 35% in another poll.

I don’t know how it is possible to be this ignorant.

For Jane Menton’s take on Castro and Cuba, see her recent Instagram post here.