[van-discuss] Re: [van-announce] Help a youth go to Cuba

[Marcel Hatch]

At 23:52 -0500 11/3/02, Geordie Birch wrote:
>said Marcel Hatch (on 2002-11-01),
>
>> fluent in Spanish, "There is no other country whose people enjoy free
>> education and healthcare, where no one goes hungry, homeless or
>> without jobs or the possibility to contribute to their community."
>
>Gimme a break.  No one goes hungry or homeless?  Gee, sounds like BC under
>the NDP.

Hello Geordie,

Cuba is very different than BC under the NDP.

The NDP in government only ever aims to mitigate the worst effects of 
capitalism which means they accept as inevitable massive homeless, 
hardship and even hunger. NDP bureaucrats view capitalism as a 
permanent feature of human existence and see themselves merely as 
better managers and administrators of capitalism than direct 
representatives of capitalism, i.e Campbell and company. The NDP 
calls for an equalization of wealth, but because it embraces 
capitalism this "program" constitutes transferring pennies instead of 
property.

Cuba in contrast is a workers' collectivist system which views its 
people as its objective. The government's role is twofold, to raise 
the standard of living of the bottom element to that of the highest, 
and at the same time defend it socialist aspiring project against 
external and internal capitalist encroachment -- politically and 
materially.

Homelessness does not exist in Cuba. Hunger too is absent. To be 
certain, more housing IS needed and many Cubans would like and could 
use more food. The difference is that no one falls through the cracks 
because they've gotten rid of capitalism. An NDP couldn't exist in 
Cuba because social democracy exists in relation to capitalism. 
Social democracy's function is to parcel out crumbs remaining on the 
capitalists banquet table.

Let me give you an example. Earlier this year hurricanes Lili and 
Isidore hammered the western part of Cuba and 35,000 houses were lost 
and the tobacco industry nearly wiped out.

Immediately the government set out to rebuild the houses and the 
tobacco industry and the project will soon be complete -- at no cost 
to the homeowners or the tobacco workers. If that happened here under 
let's say the last three NDP governments, they'd still be studying 
the situation and negotiating with private industry, insurance 
companies and the federal government while the victims starved and 
froze their butts off.

That's the difference between socialism and social democracy.

Yours in solidarity,

Marcel Hatch
Former candidate for NDP leader