Cuba - Dialogue 1
Tim Wohlforth:
I find these comments on Cuba, while I suspect typical of that section of the left with nostalgia for the days when there were many "socialist" states around, somewhat strange. Did the authors run across newspapers and books expressing conflicting points of view? Did they even look? I know I saw none on a visit to Cuba in the 80s. When I was there the place was pleasantly bereft of commercial billboards. However, political ones exhorting the population were everywhere.
Such lapses have a long tradition among "radical tourists" going all the way back to the early days of the USSR.
The strange portion of the comments rest with the authors' fearful view of the growth of the tourist industry as well as the attraction Cuban youth appear to have for consumer goods they receive from relatives living in Miami. It is as if they favor the construction of some sort of impoverished Spartan society hermetically sealed from the rest of the world. Luckily Castro, who has flirted with such a notion, has realized, at least to some extent, its utopian nature.
I also noted the more equalitarian nature of Cuban society and particularly its marvelous health care system when visiting there. This was particularly striking as I came directly from Mexico City to Havana. These are to its credit. However, consumer goods -- Nikes, DVDs, nice clothes, cars -- are not evil in and of themselves. It is their uneven distribution under capitalism that is evil. The road to socialism is not through withdrawal from world capitalist society and abstinence from consuming. It is rather engaging in that society and fighting for those denied access to its riches.
I think it would be helpful for those who consider themselves friends of the Cuban people, as I do, to encourage, rather than discourage, tourism there. Also to press Castro to open up more of the Cuban economy to non-statist activity. Maybe even a suggestion or two about democracy (those "mass organizations" referred to act also as big brother spying upon the Cuban people). Of course our main contribution as Americans is to favor an ending of the embargo and a renewal of friendly relations.
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Bogdan Denitch:
I am glad you made these points, Tim. If there is one place where nostalgia for nice one party "socialist" regimes hits the top it is in comments about Cuba. It remains the last sacred cow on the left. It is not even possible to remark that Cuba was a "middle range" country before the revolution and that it is quite possible to imagine schools, hospitals and other infra-structural developments without the horrendous cost Cuba paid, e.g. the not all that inspiring example of Costa Rica. Opposing the stupid US blockade, as I assume we all do, does not require apologies for the Cuban regime. Loving the Cuban people does not require loving its maximum leader. Alas there are too many who believe that victimization makers people nobler, I do not share that Christian belief. Kosovo Albanians are not better for their suffering. lack of access to consumer goods does not improve people's souls. It may make them mean and unhappy.The people of Sarajevo have not become more tolerant after three and a half years of bombing by the Serbs, to the contrary. The Us blockade has not improved Cuban political culture.
Bogdan
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David McReynolds:
Having read Bogdan Denitch's and Tim Wohlforth's posts I have a suggestion to make. I just got in the mail the other day a post from CCDS about a May Day tour to Cuba and I half thought of going - if I don't hurry, either Castro or I will be dead and I'll never have "seen for myself".
I think, judging from Tim Wohlforth's note, that he, and I think Bogdan, oppose the virtual US blockade and favor tourism.
During the last year's campaign I had meant to go to Cuba to demonstrate my (and the SP's) opposition to the trade sanctions - time didn't permit. But what would happen if some of us who so rarely agree with each other made up a delegation to Cuba, representing people (not necessarily official representatives) from the Socialist Party, Democratic Socialists of America, Committees of Correspondence, Solidarity - possibly even "hard line pacifist groups" such as War Resisters League which have always opposed the lack of full political and religious freedom in Communist countries.
We might not agree on a final report - but we could try. If we went, not to provoke a fight, but as an honest effort to see for ourselves, and as a serious effort to make public our opposition to the sanctions by actually going there despite our public reservations about aspects of the Cuban government, I think it would be a damn good thing.
It is worth thinking about. It provides a possible joint action. I suspect that this May Day event (I'll send the CCDS material along in an email immediately following this) is too soon for anything joint.
But is there interest in something like this? My personal guess - and I haven't checked this with anyone - is that the Cubans would welcome such a group.
Fraternally,
David McReynolds
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Greg Pason:
Yes, but could you organize a trade union, an oppositional political party, join the church of your choice, hold open political meetings (for non-military right & left groups)? There are many who defend Cuba and then see the above things (which I, as a democratic socialist, see as basic rights) as counter- revolutionary.
Issues like this tend to polarize people, but there is also a knee- jerk 'anti- imperialist' reaction on what is known as the 'left' to defend Cuba, China, etc.
The same knee jerk reactions which have made some of the 'left' support 'anti- terrorist' laws against right-wing groups, while denouncing such laws which target the left (why would we oppose both)?
It was strange, to say the least, to hear on the NY- CCDS answering machine a talk they were sponsoring, by a Cuban representative on how Cuba has remained 'socialist' and 'Marxist'(?), a reminder that there are some pretty drastic differences remain between some groups but not ones that would prevent dialogue on this or other topics. (And we're all marching together against sweatshops this Saturday- except for NY DSA who haven't returned our phone calls.)
I would recommend to all to visit the web site of Partido Social Revolucionario Democratico de Cuba <http://psrdc.org/> for another side of the story from a democratic socialist viewpoint.
Yes, many of us oppose the embargo on Cuba, but as a socialist, of a very anti- Leninist (of any sort) variety, I see very little good in looking toward Cuba as an example of anything other than an oppressed country which might be doing better than the US would while being under siege, but with little proof that it would end it's 'special period' even if all the embargoes ended.
As a person who has spent much of my life in Northern New Jersey (and particularly when I ran against Robert Torricelli in 1994) has seen the worst side of the right-wing Cuban fascists, I still don't buy the lesser evil argument.
Greg Pason