The Development Of Revolutionary Myths In The Political Education Of The Cuban Rebel Army 1953 1963 Microform

Social scientists and professional revolutionaries agree that revolutionary consciousness plays a crucial role in the making of revolution. A useful concept for the study of cons ciousness is provided by Georges Sorel: the revolutionary myth. Attempting to integrate the concepts of consciousness, myth and political education, the thesis traces the political education of the Cuban Rebel Army in the years 1953-1963. Political education is seen to be both an existential and a pedagogical experience in the Rebel Army, the effective core of the movement against Batista and for radical change in Cuba. Thus, political education of the militants is a pro cess of living the realities of struggle, while also a pro cess of study and reflection. Revolutionary myths, from the earliest days of the struggle, form an integral part of such study, while the experiences of struggle themselves become myths; indeed, many of the leaders and fighters become the materials of myths which mobilize the guerrillas and sustain revolutionary consciousness after the overthrow of Batista. The sources of revolutionary myths employed in the Rebel Army to raise political consciousness and create high morale in what was conceived to be an armed political vanguard are found in Cuban history. Appropriated by every Cuban political figure in the twentieth century for varying purposes, the figures and exploits of Cuba*s struggle for independence in the nineteenth century form the basis of revolutionary myths in the Rebel Army. The guerrillas also felt themselves the direct descendants of the martyrs of struggles in the 1920s and 1930s, seeing themselves in generational terms. They were the "Generation of the Centenary", marking the birth of the national hero Jose Marti; their struggle was to cumplir el deber cubano , to fulfill the Cuban duty posed by Marti. The thesis describes and analyses the development of political education in the Rebel Army by following the mili tants through the years of struggle. The assault on the Moncada Barracks in 1953, the subseguent atrocities suffered, trial, imprisonment and exile in Mexico are seen as the funda mental early experiences; later these experiences themselves were incorporated into the body of revolutionary myths. The guerrilla struggle is examined in some detail, as it too is both political education and created myth-material° Finally, the first several years of the revolution are seen as a period of formalized political education for an enlarged Rebel Army, while struggle continues to supply experience. The development of a system of political instructors and materials, the con tinuing existential sources of new myths, and the merging of Marxism-Leninism with the body of Cuban myths are themes in the last parts of the thesis. An analysis is made of the grow ing importance of anti-imperialism in the myth system, and the early materials of political education in the post-1959 period are examined. It is concluded that the original myth of national redemption merged with the myth of the Rebel Army itself, created in struggle, and with the overall Marxist vision of socialist revolution to form the basis of political education in the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces in the 1960s.