Brian Green:
>Louis, you entirely miss my point - lifting the blockade is not going the
>be the death-knell of socialism in Cuba, because any meaningful socialism is
>already dead!
Either dead or alive... Either black or white... Either good or bad...
Learn to think dialectically, Brian.
The point is, debates over the blockade's impact on
>socialism in Cuba are moot - socialism in Cuba is fast being reduced to
>Communist Party rule. And if that is the case, then the issue to discuss is
>how to best offer solidarity to Cuban workers -- and, yes, I do distinguish
>working class interests from Communist Party interests, if that is your
>point of contention...Otherwise, you just missed the entire point of my post
>entirely --
I have no idea what plans you have to offer solidarity to Cuban workers.
Are you going to collect money door-to-door in Berkeley and distribute in
Havana personally? Or were you just striking a pose? Cuba has a government.
Solidarity organizations in the USA work with the government, just as they
did during the days when the FSLN was the government in Nicaragua. I simply
don't know what other meaningful framework there is outside of the myriad
of organizations--including Pastors for Peace--that maintain fraternal
relations with the Cuban government. You really haven't provided a class
analysis of the Cuban regime, so I don't have much idea what to make of
your proposal, which strikes me as a moralistic call for standing apart
from the living struggle to aid the only socialist state in the western
hemisphere.
>Sorry. For I minute there I thought this list was actually a forum for
>critical debate. It is possible to criticize actually-existing socialism
>from within Marxism, and it is possible to carry on discussion of these
>issues without resorting to elementary-school name-calling.
I wasn't calling you a name. I was simply commenting on your "on one hand,
and the other hand" posture. This sort of punditry rather turns my stomach
and I didn't know how to put it into diplomatic language. Sorry for the
bluntness, but its nothing personal.
Louis Proyect
