[van-discuss] free the Cuban 5

[Eric R.]

Hi,

Barb Waldern wrote (at May 15, 2003 11:33 AM):



> I prefer to study life and peoples' words and deeds
> more than books. Your description doesn't match the
> reality. Your argument academic. good luck!

The only reason I made the argument I did was because you said things in
your post such as describing the Republic of Cuba as "socialist", that Bush
has called for "... the reconversion of Cuban society to capitalism" (I
don't care whether or not Bush thinks Cuba is or is not capitalist, but you
seemed to imply that you thought it isn't), "... delegation after delegation
from around the world expressed solidarity and pledged to defend Cuban
socialist society ...", "... we saw great advantages over other poor
tropical societies and a free socialist society that honours work and
workers". Why did you feel the need to make these extremely bold claims
about Cuba? Why use the old, "ideological", "academic" term "socialism" to
characterize the current Cuban regime/order, when you could have just spoken
about "social justice" -- to which I would have no objection -- as is the
current dominant trend among the left? Did you really expect that no one
would call you on that? And your claim that "... there is no homelessness
..." in Cuba is surely preposterous, as Geordie has aptly pointed out (and
factually substantiated). Do you really think that anyone beyond the
true-believers in the word of Castro believes that there are no homeless
people in Cuba today? It is claims like that, parrotting the official Party
line, that keep most working class people cynical about the intentions of
(much of) the left. If you defend the regime in Cuba, then -- many people
would infer --  you must be trying to bring about a similar sort of regime
and social order here in B.C.

So, then, based on your study of "... life and peoples' words and deeds ..."
what is your understanding/definition of socialism? of capitalism? You are
the one, after all, who brought these terms into the discussion here (and
this is supposed to be discussion list). Let us know what you mean by them,
so we can understand what you are really saying about the Republic of Cuba.
Perhaps you don't have time for that, since that would be "academic". But
that's a big part of the problem, in my view. Too many leftist activists are
too busy trying to change the world immediately, while throwing around big
ideological, "academic" terms like "socialism" and "capitalism" (this one
especially, when what is really meant is the neo-liberal version of
capitalism), without having a very deep understanding of them. Along with a
very large part of the working class today, I am very sceptical of what the
activity of these activists is likely to lead to (regardless of their
intentions). Their track record does not inspire much confidence.

In an effort to make to it seem like you were not just another mindless
robot parrotting the official Party line, you wrote: " We had some concerns
about the growing inequality that the dependence on tourism and the influx
of US dollars are creating. We also grumbled about bureacratic
inconveniences and hierarchies." Grumbled about bureaucratic inconveniences
and hierarchies?! Are you serious? And then you don't explain what you mean
by "... the growing inequality that the dependence on tourism and the influx
of US dollars are creating." Which group of people are becoming unequal, and
how is it that this is occurring?

Finally, you started your original post ("free the Cuban 5") by stating
"Here is another perspective on the sentencing of Cuban dissidents by the
state of the socialist Republic of Cuba." But you were presumably replying
to the posts from ron and Calvin Woida concerning the "Cuban revolutionary
imprisoned by Cuban state", that is, concerning the report from
redlibertaria about the imprisonment of the Cuban syndicalist Miguel Galvan
Gutierrez by the Castro regime. And yet your lengthy post had absolutely
nothing to say about the case of Miguel Galvan Gutierrez. Are we supposed to
infer from your retort that Gutierrez -- who presumably was "... allowed
legal representation of [his] choice and free to give [his] own evidence in
front of a jury" -- must have been, as the regime judged him to be, a
"mercenary", "terrorist", "counter-revolutionary", or whatever it is they
accused him of being?

And you (not just you, Barb, but any others who might be reading this)
wonder why so few people trust the left?

Good luck to you.

Wage Slave X

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

> On Tue, 13 May 2003 23:35:03 -0700 ericr at zoolink.com wrote:
> > Barb,
> >
> > If you think that Cuba today is a "free socialist society", then you
> should
> > go back to the library, and re-read your Marx. Cuba is obviously a state
> > capitalist dictatorship. The workers are wage slaves without power,
> > commodity relations and the law of value dominate the entire economy,
> while
> > all political and economic power is in the hands of the elite of the
> > party-state bureaucracy, an elite which forms the ruling class of the
> > country. All of these facts are completely antithetical to real
socialism.
>
> > Socialism is only possible on a global scale. The idea of "socialism in
> one
> > country" is a Stalinist one.
> >
> > For anti-capitalist revolution in EVERY country of the world!
> >
> > Fraternally,
> >
> > Eric R.
> >
> >
>
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> >
> >
> > A revolutionary anti-capitalist website: www.geocities.com/wageslavex/ .
> >
> >
>
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