[lbo-talk] Re: Fidel

Yoshie Furuhashi critical.montages at gmail.com
Sun Dec 31 08:39:00 PST 2006


On 12/31/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On Dec 31, 2006, at 4:54 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> > It's all well and good that the Venceramos Brigades had a positive
> > impact on the Cuban government, but they haven't managed to change the
> > US government's policy toward Cuba and to lift the embargo, and _it's
> > the latter that is the more important task in "critical solidarity."_
> > The embargo diminishes the quality of life of gay Cubans as well as
> > straight Cubans.
>
> I'm confused. You keep harping on the powerlessness of the U.S. and
> the rest of the western left, which is true enough - and then
> conclude the only thing that left can do is support Islamists?

If we had power, we should do for populist Islamists what we should do for socialists, secular nationalists, etc., since US strategy and tactics toward them are the same: normalize US relations with them, rather than allow Washington to embargo their countries (Cuba), to put formal or informal international sanctions on their countries (Iran, North Korea, Palestine, etc.), to wage proxy wars on their countries (Somalia), to invade and occupy their countries (Afghanistan, Iraq), to provide support for the pro-Washington faction in their countries (Lebanon, Venezuela, and just about anywhere). Needless to say, US leftists are today powerless to do any of the above.

Even as it is now, though, it's in our power to refrain from spreading disinformation or hyperbole: e.g., the Cuban government massacred homosexuals. The least we can do is to do no harm. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>



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