I went down to Cuba about 7 or 8 years ago with a buddy of mine from the YCL. He kept warning me about the Trots, how they always go down to Cuba and ask the same question at the forums "How can we bring Cuban style Socialism to the United States?" upon which the government official or whatever would always reply "The US situation is unique, not the same as it was here. You have to find your own path" or a variation of that. He also told me to be wary of anybody who said that they slaughter pigs for a living.
Ok whatever. I never met a Trot before. I've met people from the SP-USA, some varous green factions and various CP people for sure. But never a Trot.
So sure enough, the first night we got there, I sat down at a table with three other folks. Greetings were exchanged, one mentioned they worked at a slaughter house. Another of which had a backback full of CLR James books. The one with the books started spouting on about how the Soviet Union was deformed, and how the Solidarnosk movement in Poland was really about the people fighting the Communist Government for more socialism. The third person at the table was there to pretend he was interested in the other two's conversation. "Who is the author you speak of?" "Oh this is CLR James!" After a few minutes of CLR James history, I was offered a copy of a book, for a nominal fee of course.
A few nights after, there was a conference. And sure enough, someone posed the question: "How can we bring Cuban style Socialism to the United States?"
Kevin R Dean
SA wrote:
> Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>> But, not that I can speak for Lou, Cuba is a case of a rather
>> successful revolution. I'm sure we could all make a list of its
>> shortcomings, but there's a lot to admire there, and making lists of
>> shortcomings is easy for us.
>
> Sure, there are lots of people, at various points on the left
> spectrum, who feel that way. But the impression I get - I may be wrong
> about this - is that there's a certain strand of Marxism that goes
> further. They believe something like - after all the failings and
> disappointments of the Second and Third Internationals, and China and
> Yugoslavia - finally Castro, for the first time, managed to "get
> socialism right." I recall reading somewhere that there was a big
> split among Trotskyists about Cuba in the 60's or 70's, and then I
> noticed that Proyect puts a lot of emphasis on Cuba too. So wonder if
> there's a more elaborate theory to this (knowing Leninists, how could
> there not be?) and if so, what it is.
>
> SA
>
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