[lbo-talk] Raúl on the 26th + Fidel on Cuba's Self Criticism

Tayssir John Gabbour tayssir.john at googlemail.com
Tue Jul 31 01:09:42 PDT 2007


On 7/31/07, J. Tyler <unspeakable.one at gmail.com> wrote:
> If Chuck were (1) living in Cuba and (2) speaking in Spanish (3) to Cubans,
> I would have a different view of what he said. Advocating to Cubans--as a
> Cuban resident--that they should not accept the conditions under which they
> are currently living and should rise up against Castro is consistent with
> anarchist principles. But under the circumstances here, I do not believe it
> to be in anybody's interest except the US government's. As an American,
> Chuck can enhance the Cuban people's chances of liberation most by
> abstaining from reinforcing anti-Castro US propaganda.

I think there could've been an interesting point on these themes:

* Decentralization. So Raul is the only one who can deal with

"insane" milk supply routes? He's one of the few who can fathom

the deep intricacies of cow juice logistics? Really?

* Leftists sometimes take on the same bias as the right, where

they hyperfocus on authority figures. Just with the loyalties

going in the other direction. I'd like to hear interesting

critique about our neighbors to the south (Venezuela, Cuba) from

someone who feels empowered enough to treat these leaders as

peers, and not just transmit underlying assumptions.

There exist people in those nations with every bit as much

intelligence as Chavez or Castro. What are they up to, or

hindered from doing? What do they think about how their society

should be better shaped?

* When I read through Raul's missive, I tried to read him as if he

were a top corporate manager. Surprisingly, it wasn't really

absurd. He was more direct than usual about emphasizing top-down

"discipline," though his desire to raise peoples' wages was

unusual (not unheard of though).

But hey, pro wrestling between self-identified "anarchists" and "statists" isn't bad either. ;)

Tayssir



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list