Re: [Marxism] Adjustment Cuban Style
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Y. Plotz posted a link to an article from 2010 about Cuba today. I went to the linked website to obtain some additional information on this tendency's roots and perspectives. I have not, so far, been able to determine which wing of the world Trotskyist movement this current is from, and perhaps Y. Plotz can provide further details. Readers would would be grateful here. Y. Plotz stated that this article is relevant today, and so after a bit of site research: On the very front page of this interesting site I found a commentary on Cuba posted below which does provide some insight into the approach this tendency has toward Cuba. I believe it speaks for itself quite eloquently, so, for the time being, I shall make no additional comment. In the body of this statement, one paragraph: A Stalinist dictatorship rules in Cuba, with its known zand traditional single- party regime. CCP bureaucrats tried to hide this fact with their periodic and supposedly ‘democratic’ elections. If I can find the time, I'll try to make a few comments on the article ADJUSTMENT CUBAN STYLE at a later time. Walter Lippmann La Habana, Cuba http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ http://www.uit-ci.org/ The Cuban youth and people need freedom! March, 2010 A certain concern for the situation on Cuba is growing between antimperialist and democratic fighters. Hundreds of thousands in Latin America and worldwide have defended the Cuban revolution for more than fifty years, facing the imperialist blockade and its attacks, and the right-wing ‘gusaneria’ nesting in Miami. We address the vast avant-garde sympathizing with Cuba that has advocated for more than half a century to raise an issue: to the blockade repudiation, the claim to the Cuban Government to grant its people freedom of expression, organization and mobilization must be added. The death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the 42 years old construction worker who on February 23 died after a 83-day hunger strike demanding improvements in the imprisonment situation, turned on a red light. And today there is another strike: journalist Guillermo Fariñas, free but demanding the release of near twenty dissident prisoners. The Government keeps on rejecting all dialogue searching for a solution to this situation. This flag can not be left to the imperialist hands and its speakerpersons using these actual facts for their counterrevolutionary aims. Imperialism and its servile governments have no political or moral authority to talk about human rights when they invade countries -Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti-, loot, and repress the peoples of the world on behalf of their bourgeois democracy to save capitalists of the economic crisis. For the Cubans -and for the rest of the world-, the only official information that appeared on the death of Zapata Tamayo was on February 27, with a four-day delay, in a note in Granma, the official paper of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC). The note says Zapata Tamayo was an ordinary prisoner, a criminal, who had been ‘made-up’ as a political prisoner to be used by the ‘internal and external enemies of the revolution’. Either an ordinary prisoner or a political opponent, the governmental action, the ‘judiciary’, and the regime leaded by brothers Fidel and Raul Castro which let Zapata die in inhumane conditions, is condemnable. Unfortunately, we recall the case of the Irish wrestler Bobby Sands, left to die in 1981 by the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, after 66 days on hunger strike. It is then unusual that Fidel Castro repudiated this fact saying: ‘It is time to stop this disgusting atrocity through complaint and international pressure’. In 2008 the legendary singer Silvio Rodríguez (not suspected as ‘opposition’), who toured the country prisons together with other performers, declared that prisons are one of the most 'painful and uncomfortable' parts of the Cuban reality. It is also condemnable that the Cuban people cannot have access to complete and verifiable information on all the political circumstances and implications that led to this death, and that they can not discuss them freely. This taints the socialist cause which has been trodden in the island for decades by a Government and an authoritarian political regime which are the antithesis of workers democracy. So far, the Government response to the hunger strike of the journalist and dissident Guillermo Fariñas has been blunt: he is a ‘counterrevolutionary mercenary’. The fact that the latter is still alive makes the debate on the most serious problems more pressing and necessary: in Cuba there is no freedom for anyone, starting with its youth and its workers who want to defend
[Marxism] GLOBAL RESEARCH/UNAC: U.S. Citizens Must Say No to Economic and Military Intervention in Libya
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == U.S. Citizens Must Say No to Economic and Military Intervention in Libya [UNACpeace.org / Globalresearch.ca] Zuo Shou / 左手 | March 4, 2011 at 7:58 am | Categories: Bahrain, Egypt, International Action Center, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, US imperialism, USA | URL: http://wp.me/pUbj6-1qj AP News, March 2, has just announced “two U.S. warships entered the Suez Canal on their way to the Mediterranean, moving closer to the Libyan coast after orders from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.” It is of great importance that the United National Antiwar Committee, UNACpeace.org, a major broad-based antiwar coalition in the United States, in the midst of escalating preparations for U.S. military action in Libya, has issued a unified statement opposing all forms of U.S. intervention in Libya, including No-Fly Zones and Sanctions. This statement, drafted by well-known antiwar activist Kathy Kelly, was based on thorough discussions and unanimous decision of the UNAC Steering Committee. UNACpeace.org has more than 400 endorsing organizations and major bi-coastal antiwar demonstrations planned on April 9 in NYC and April 10 in San Francisco. To have such a clearly defined position against U.S. sanctions, intervention or military action of any form and major mass demonstrations planned for April 9 10 mobilizing during this time of escalating war preparation projects UNAC into the center of the debate. The statement of the United National Antiwar Committee is reproduced again below. As a member of the UNACpeace Steering Committee, I wholeheartedly support this statement. …For Unity and Solidarity, Sara Flounders, International Action Center Member of UNAC Steering Committee United National Antiwar Committee, UNACpeace.org Statement on Libya At great risks to their lives, activists organizing to oppose oppressive, dictatorial regimes in the Middle East and North Africa have inspired us by their courage and determination. We ruefully acknowledge past and continuing U.S. support for dictatorships and military rule in the region. We recognize that the U.S. has been directly involved in supplying weapons and other forms of support to regimes that have committed atrocious human rights abuses against civilians. Conscious of our responsibility to stop the United States from further manipulations that would interfere with movements on behalf of true democratic developments in other countries, UNAC calls for an immediate halt to U.S. intervention in regions and countries where mass mobilizations are challenging oppressive regimes. We have seen the horrific consequences of U.S./UN imposed economic sanctions against Iraq, as well as the consequences of U.S./UN operation of “no-fly zones” over northern and southern Iraq, prior to the U.S. Shock and Awe attacks and invasion. We therefore oppose any form of U.S. military or economic intervention in Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and other countries where movements are rising in opposition to dictatorships and military rule. = WALTER LIPPMANN Havana, Cuba Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo = Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] IMPORTANT: Official Cuban government statement on Libya
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Translated by Granma International, this statement also took up a full page in the Cuban daily media - all of the Cuban daily media. The attentive reader will note that this declaration does NOT endorse any particular action of the Libyan government. It views the situation in Libya right now within the current world situation broadly, and it calls for a peaceful resolution of the differences which are today being fought over in a civil war. As you would expect from any such Cuban statement, it absolutely and with no ambiguity, rejects any and all foreign intervention in Libya. Now that the UN General Assembly has kicked Libya off the UN Human Rights Council, while Washington, Saudi Arabia and so many other human rights violators remain, the double morality of the inspirers of these UN actions couldn't be clearer. I'm posting this in full as GRANMA INTERNATIONAL's translations don't always remain online for very long. There are also reports from the Havana-based blog, SOUTH JOURNAL, which I may combine in to one larger note as they survey Latin American reaction and the response by Gaddafi to US military actions in the area. Walter Lippmann La Habana, Cuba http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ = GRANMA INTERNATIONAL Havana. March 2, 2011 Cuba categorically rejects any attempt whatsoever to take advantage of the tragic situation created in order to occupy Libya and control its oil http://www.granma.cu/ingles/news-i/2marzo-Cuba%20categorically.html • Statement by Cuba's Minister of Foreign Affairs to the UN Human Rights Council, Geneva, March 1, 2011 Mr. President: Humanity’s conscience is repulsed by the deaths of innocent people under any circumstances, anyplace. Cuba fully shares the worldwide concern for the loss of civilian lives in Libya and hopes that its people are able to reach a peaceful and sovereign solution to the civil war occurring there, with no foreign interference, and can guarantee the integrity of that nation. Most certainly the Libyan people oppose any foreign military intervention, which would delay an agreement even further and cause thousands of deaths, displacement and enormous injury to the population. Cuba categorically rejects any attempt whatsoever to take advantage of the tragic situation created in order to occupy Libya and control its oil. It is noteworthy that the voracity for oil, not peace or the protection of Libyan lives, is the motivation inciting the political forces, primarily conservative, which today, in the United States and some European countries, are calling for a NATO military intervention in Libyan territory. Nor does it appear that objectivity, accuracy or a commitment to the truth are prevailing in part of the press, reports being used by media giants to fan the flames. Given the magnitude of what is taking place in Libya and the Arab world, in the context of a global economic crisis, responsibility and a long-term vision should prevail on the part of governments in the developed countries. Although the goodwill of some could be exploited, it is clear that a military intervention would lead to a war with serious consequences for human lives, especially the millions of poor who comprise four fifths of humanity. Despite the paucity of some facts and information, the reality is that the origins of the situation in North Africa and the Middle East are to be found within the crisis of the rapacious policy imposed by the United States and its NATO allies in the region. The price of food has tripled, water is scarce, the desert is growing, poverty is on the rise and with it, repugnant social inequality and exclusion in the distribution of the opulent wealth garnered from oil in the region. The fundamental human right is the right to life, which is not worth living without human dignity. The way in which the right to life is being violated should arouse concern. According to various sources, more than 111 million people have perished in armed conflicts during modern wars. It cannot be forgotten in this room that, if in World War I civilian deaths amounted to 5% of total casualties, in the subsequent wars of conquest after 1990, basically in Iraq, with more than one million, and Afghanistan with more than 70,000, the deaths of innocents stand at 90%. The proportion of children in these figures is horrific and unprecedented. The concept of collateral damage, an offense to human nature, has been accepted in the military doctrine of NATO and the very powerful nations. In the last decade, humanitarian international law has been trampled, as is occurring on the U.S. Guantánamo Naval Base, which usurps Cuban territory. As a consequence of those wars
[Marxism] NYT: Even a Weakened Qaddafi May Be Hard to Dislodge
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Anything which could make the foreign would-be occupiers hesitate to take more forceful military action would be helpful to the Libyan resistance to intervention. Divisions among the forces today arrayed against Libya's government would also make it harder to seek local allies of Libya's foreign opponents. From these dispatches and analyses, if they are at all accurate, the situation is quite fluid on the ground, and Washington and NATO could well find itself on the verge of yet another quagmire. Let's hope this is the case as a foreign intervention would not do ANYTHING to help the Libyans solve their problems. And, it seems from this that some people are now starting to worry that they may not be able today to sustain yet another Vietnam war, and another failed US occupation as is happening today in Afghanistan. Check the final paragraphs here. Walter Lippmann La Habana, Cuba http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ === THE NEW YORK TIMES March 1, 2011 Even a Weakened Qaddafi May Be Hard to Dislodge By STEVEN ERLANGER PARIS — The regime of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, has been badly undermined, but he retains enough support among critical tribes and institutions, including parts of the army and the air force, that he might be able to retain power in the capital, Tripoli, for some time to come, say experts on Libya and its military. They caution that the situation on the ground is both fluid and confusing. But they emphasize that tribal loyalties remain an important indicator, and that there is no clear geographical dividing line between the opponents to Colonel Qaddafi and his supporters. They suggest that eastern Libya, which was first to fall to the opposition, was always considered the most rebellious part of the country and had been starved of funds and equipment by Colonel Qaddafi. The region, known as Cyrenaica, was an Italian colony and the heartland of the Senussi tribe that produced the monarch, King Idris I, who was overthrown by Colonel Qaddafi and his army colleagues in 1969. But they suggest that tribes in the other important areas of Libya — Tripolitania and Fezzan — remain nominally loyal to the regime. The revolutionaries of 1969 came largely from three tribes — the Qadhadhfa (the colonel’s own ), the Maghraha and the Warfalla — which had been subservient to the Senussis. The Warfalla are now wavering, with its leaders supporting the opposition, having been implicated in coup attempts in the 1990’s, but its other members split. The other two tribes “still seem loyal so far to the regime, in which they have vested interests,” said George Joffé, a scholar of North Africa at Cambridge University in England. Other tribes in the areas of Fezzan and Tripolitania are “watching and waiting,” Mr. Joffé said. Another source of potential opposition might be the old Free Officers Movement, he added, an Arab nationalist group that carried out the 1969 coup but was subsequently marginalized by the Qaddafi regime. “It’s quite clear that the army, some 45,000 strong, has split, but in exactly what proportions we don’t know,” Mr. Joffé said. Colonel Qaddafi mistrusted the army and monitored its behavior carefully. He paid particular attention to the units in the rebellious east of the country, starving them of the best equipment and training, which he reserved to more loyal tribes and paramilitary units, said Shashank Joshi, an Associate Fellow at London’s Royal United Services Institute, which specializes in the military. “The situation is more fluid than we imagine, with Qaddafi capable of launching military operations outside Tripoli,” including air force sorties, “and retaining his grip on Sirte,” Mr. Joshi said. “Qaddafi has retained significant elements of the army and lost the elements he was always afraid he could lose, those affiliated with tribes he had targeted.” The discovery of large deposits of oil changed the old bargain among tribes and areas in Libya, and both required and enabled Colonel Qaddafi to build more of a centralized state to fully exploit the resource, said Jean-Yves Moisseron, editor in chief of the French-based magazine “Maghreb-Machrek,” which concentrates on the Arab world. Oil revenues also enabled Colonel Qaddafi to spread the wealth among tribes, reducing traditional conflicts, Mr. Moisseron said, and to build up a well equipped paramilitary system loyal to the regime. Colonel Qaddafi at the same time established other military and paramilitary units, like the 32d Brigade, based in Tripoli and commanded by one of his sons, Khamis. That brigade, which is known as the “deterrent brigade,” is used for internal repression and is backed up
[Marxism] NYT: Even a Weakened Qaddafi May Be Hard to Dislodge
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == DAVE X asked this hypothetical question: Lets say that instead of sticking with their boy Batista in Havana, the US imperialists had had a more enlightened approach and sent a couple teams of green Berets to help out Fidel and Che. Would you have supported Batista? WALTER LIPPMANN responds: Looking at history with the 20-20 clarity hindsight provides, I'm not so sure that I could tell you what I might have thought in the days before I became a politically conscious individual. US intervention in Cuba was an active part of the situation. I find it rather doubtful that the US would have been trying to take the sides of the revolutionaries rather than the forces it had backed for the preceding seven years. It's certain that the US had to have sent feelers of some sort to the revolutionaries. Louis has had some comments to make about this before. Fidel raised funds in the United States, but he never sought US intervention in the Cuban struggle. Jose Marti's legacy would have prevented even the thought of that... But I am sure that, in the years preceding my birth, I would have favored Morocco's independence during the Spanish civil war. Looking back in it now, I probably would have opposed Washington's refusal to sell arms and other military supplies to Spain's Republican government, too. But working in the virtual world is so much easier than in the messy world of actual reality... Walter Lippmann La Habana, Cuba = WALTER LIPPMANN Havana, Cuba Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo = Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] *important* - REUTERS/Marc Frank: Fidel Castro expected to resign as Cuba party chief
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Marc Frank is wrong to write that Fidel resigned as President of Cuba. He declined to stand for election to another term, but he did complete his final term. Marc Frank is well-informed and has lived and worked here in Cuba for well over a decade. Fidel also shouldn't be expected to resign from this post either. Though I have zero inside information, who knows: maybe they'll create some kind of an emeritus position for him? Obviously, as long as Fidel Castro has his marbles, which anyone who had a chance to see him live at the book fair two weeks ago, and then broadcast on Cuban TV in front of many others, can see, he still has all of his marbles. And as long as he has his marbles, and continues to read, to write and to explain what he sees going on in the broader world, Cubans will want to read what he has to say, as will others who respect his long experience and great analytic skills in politics. Fidel and Raul have immense political authority which they have earned by keeping the island of Cuba as independent as anyone could in a world we know remains dominated by capitalism. But at the same time, they also know, and have stated clearly, that their days are numbered, and a new generation is going to have to take the reins. That's why we are seeing so much emphasis on the institution of the Cuban Communist Party, the PCC, in the runup to the April congress of the PCC. That's why the daily GRANMA keeps presenting those little squibs from Fidel on the top of the front page of the paper each day it is published. Walter Lippmann La Habana, Cuba http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ === Fidel Castro expected to resign as Cuba party chief Mon Feb 28, 2011 3:04pm EST By Marc Frank HOLGUIN, Cuba (Reuters) - The Cuban Communist Party has moved forward the election of new leadership to a congress in April where longtime party leader Fidel Castro is expected to step down, sources close to the party said over the weekend. Castro, 84, previously handed over most of the responsibilities as first secretary but kept the title. His official departure from his last leadership position would be a symbolically important step toward a new era for the island he ruled for 49 years. President Raul Castro, as second secretary of the Communist Party, is in line to succeed his older brother as its top leader, just as he did when Fidel Castro resigned the presidency in February 2008. But because there are currently no other Castro family members in leading positions, the second secretary spot likely will be filled by someone without Castro as a last name for the first time since the party was created in 1965. As first and second secretaries, the Castro brothers lead the party's guiding Central Committee, for which elections originally were expected to be held at a party conference at the end of this year. But the vote has been moved to April because party statutes say it must be done at a formal congress, sources said. The Central Committee chooses the party's powerful Political Bureau and its executive Secretariat, where numerous changes are also expected, sources said. Governments, Cuba watchers and the local population hope changes in the top party ranks will shed light on who might replace the Castro brothers and other aging leaders who first came to power in the 1959 revolution in which Fidel Castro took over the Caribbean island. At stake is the future leadership of the country as it undergoes important economic reforms that President Castro, 79, says are necessary to keep the communist system alive. MODERNIZE THE ECONOMY He has said that the primary task of the April congress, the first since 1997, is to officially adopt reforms that modernize Cuba's Soviet-style economy. The Communist Party is the only legal political party in Cuba and the country's constitution says it is the highest directing force of the society and state. Despite widespread expectation that he will resign, Fidel Castro, who has been in the background since he was stricken with an intestinal disorder in July 2006, still has supporters who think he should stay as party leader. Both he and Raul Castro are among those who have been nominated in the local party elections. There are many people in the party who want Fidel to continue on, but I think in the end some sort of new position will be created for him, one party insider said, asking his name not be used. The 2006 illness required emergency surgery and led to complications that Castro has said nearly killed him. When he resigned as president, Fidel Castro said he was no longer in condition to run the daily affairs of the country. But he regularly writes columns for local media and the Internet
[Marxism] EFE/SOUTH JOURNAL: Benicio del Toro debuts as director with film shot in Cuba
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == BENICIO DEL TORO IS IN CUBA TO SHOOT A FILM lchirino | February 28, 2011 at 5:53 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/pLgvg-eG South Journal—Puerto Rican actor Benicio del Toro is in Havana, Cuba, to coordinate the shooting of the film Siete dias en La Habana (Seven Days in Havana). Del Toro, 44, is part of a group of seven film directors that will make the Hispanic-French film, whose plot is made up of seven stories as well. Cuban writer and journalist Leonardo Padura will coordinate the screewrite. The list of directors includes Spanish Julio Medem, Cuban Juan Carlos Tabio, Argentineans Gaspar Noe and Pablo Trapero, Palestinian Elia Suleiman and French Laurent Cantet. Benicio del Toro visited Cuba in 2009, when he was awarded the Tomas Gutierrez Alea International Prize, granted by the Cuban Writers and Artists Association. On that occasion, the Puerto Rican actor was accompanied by Robert Duvall, James Caan and Bill Murray. He received a prize for his main role in the Film Che, directed by Steven Soderbergh. In December 2008, del Toro presented the two parts of the film Che at the 30th International Festival of the New Latin American Cinema. Benicio, who won an Oscar for the best actor in the film Traffic, will possibly play Pancho Villa, along Mexican Gael Garcia Bernal, in a film by Emir Kusturica. Based on the book Los amigos de Pancho Villa (Pancho Villa´s friends) by US novelist of Mexican origin James Carlos Blake, the full-length film will be titled Los siete amigos de Pancho Villa y la mujer de los seis dedos (Pancho Villa´s Seven Friends and the Woman with Six Fingers). The film deals with the life of the Mexican revolutionary leader, while its music was made by the No Smoking Orchestra rock band, led by Kusturica himself. Benicio del Toro debuts as director with film shot in Cuba Published February 28, 2011 | EFE Havana – Oscar-winning actor Benicio del Toro is in Cuba to film one of the stories making up the movie Siete dias en La Havana (Seven days in Havana), in which he will make his debut as a director, a source with the production confirmed to Efe. Del Toro is one of the seven directors involved in the Spanish-French co-production that was begun this month by French director Laurent Cantet and will also include Spain's Julio Medem, Cuba's Juan Carlos Tabio, Argentines Gaspar Noe and Pablo Trapero and Palestinian Elia Suleiman. The project will offer a multiplicity of visions of Havana and the script coordination is being handled by Cuban writer Leonardo Padura. It is being co-produced by Spain's Morena Films and France's Full House with a budget of about 3 million euros ($4.1 million) and is scheduled to be screened for the first time next October. The cast includes Cubans Jorge Perugorria, Mirta Ibarra, Ana de Armas and Vladimir Cruz. Del Toro, who won Spain's Goya for best actor for his starring role in Steven Soderbergh's pair of films about Che Guevara, has visited Cuba on several occasions, one of them in 2009. On that trip, the Puerto Rican actor received the first Tomas Gutierrez Alea international award bearing the name of the late Cuban movie director, a prize bestowed by the Writers and Artists Union of Cuba. Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/entertainment/2011/02/28/benicio-del-toro-debut\ s-director-film-shot-cuba/#ixzz1FHi0WqOo = WALTER LIPPMANN Havana, Cuba Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo = Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] Ex-leftists campaign to use Egypt and Libya against Cuba
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Marxmail readers should get a chuckle out of how these latter day Cuban exile equivalents of Ronald Radosh, Christopher Hitchens and David Horowitz try to use the uprisings in the Middle East to strike ideo-illogical blows against the Cuban Revolution. Here are two examples, prefaced by my intro to the one by Achy Obejas. Unlike the Egyptian dictatorship, propped up by billions of dollars of US military assistance, Cuba, a relatively poor country is the target of millions of US taxpayer dollars which aim to orchestrate and fabricate an opposition political movement inside the island. This has been going on for decades and is still supported by the Obama administration, just as has been done for decades before. Achy Obejas, who visits Cuba from time to time and presents hersef as a liberal, is in fact a hard-line opponent of the revolution which led her parents to take her to the promised land in Miami. She writes about how much control the Cuban government has over the Internet, but she knows perfectly well that the government here has recently ENDED its blocking of dissident websites like those of Yoani Sanchez, her husband, and presumably many others. Fernando Ravsberg of the BBC's Spanish-language service, who actually lives and works here in Cuba from where I write these lines, has a much more objective and less disenchanted explanation for why the Egyptian uprising hasn't, to the disappointment of the Miami exiles and their friends, been replicated here on the island. Check it out: http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=38014 Because of Washington's half-century campaign to isolate, strangle and turn the Cuban people against the Cuban government, the Cuban revolution has actually never had the chance to develop according to its own desires and capacities. I has had to be in a reactive mode for fifty years. This doesn't make for open-minded political discussions. Today, as Ravsberg points out, many here are focusing on trying to make a better living through self-employment. Such elements aren't likely to get involved in political organizing against the Cuban government. Walter Lippmann Havana, Cuba http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ === BELLINGHAM HERALD Feb, 18, 2011 Egypt will be difficult to replicate in Cuba By ACHY OBEJAS The old regime has in Egypt has gone up in flames, but unfortunately not in Cuba, my home country - the nation with the longest dictatorship in the world. It remains draped in a political Pyromex shield: Cuba will not burn. Oh, there was much hope and excitement at first. On the island and in the Diaspora, we looked at the hypnotizing images of Egypt in revolt and forgot our own situation. Facebook pages were launched to provoke uprisings in Syria, in Libya and, yes, in Cuba. For about a week, I too fell under the spell and lent my name to a page that sought to inspire Cubans to take to the streets. Then, slowly, the veil lifted. The smoke cleared in Tahrir Square and reality began to set in for us watching and yearning all over the globe. I quietly took my name off the Facebook page, realizing it was a scheme concocted under Egyptian intoxication. The truth is, I knew better. I knew better all along. Cuba will not rise up. Cuba cannot rise up, at least not this time. The country that thrilled the 20th century with its youthful revolution is dead set on keeping the 21st century at bay. This is why: Nobody but nobody gets the power of media better than the old rebels in Havana, who took over less because of their military prowess than their sensationally efficient propaganda. Whether it was manipulating the New York Times or creating battle newsreels after their victory, they incorporated media a priori into their strategies from the very beginning. So while young Egyptians mastered the technology of social networks to evade censorship and misinformation, the Internet in Cuba today is a vague horizon to most of its citizenry. Only 1.5 million out of 11 million can log in - just 14 percent of the population. There are no private accounts except for the most extraordinarily privileged. There is no public access without a state job or the equivalent of a month's wages for three hours of networking at a hotel cybercafe. For Cubans on the island, there's no leisurely surfing, just panicked paddling: Their Internet connection is a memory stick filled with whatever they can download in a handful of minutes. The Cuban government keeps much stricter access - and control - of the Internet and communication technology than Egypt, with its pretense of democracy, ever did. In fact, cell phones weren't legalized for Cubans until 2008. In this way, the Cuban government takes pains to make sure there will be no strategic exchanges
[Marxism] WSJ: Bahrain Frees Political Prisoners as Opposition Outlines Demands
was freed Wednesday following six months in prison; he had been accused of trying to topple the regime, but wasn't tried. The people need to decide if they want the royal family out of this country or not, and quickly….If we manage these different opinions in our opposition we can get what we want, he said. Some of the freed prisoners alleged they had been mistreated or tortured by Bahraini security services while in custody. Bahrain's government, in a statement, said it took all claims of torture very seriously and would launch an investigation. Despite the differences among the opposition groups, the protest movement appeared to have kept its momentum. In central Manama, thousands of demonstrators joined freed prisoners, many of whom paraded in pickup trucks, as they headed for the Pearl roundabout, focal point of the antigovernment demonstrations. Loudspeakers led the crowds in choruses of no negotiation with the government, and down, down Hamad, in reference to Bahrain's ruler. On Tuesday, more than 100,000 antigovernment protesters massed for the largest rally since clashes erupted here last week. Underlining the potential regional fallout from Bahrain's crisis, King Hamad on Wednesday traveled to Saudi Arabia to greet Saudi King Abdullah, who returned to Riyadh Wednesday after an extended period of medical treatment outside the country. Write to Joe Parkinson at joe.parkin...@dowjones.com = WALTER LIPPMANN Havana, Cuba Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo = Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] WSJ: Political Parties Rise From Egypt's Revolution
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Andrew Pollack challenged my assertion that socialist revolution was not on the political agenda in Egypt today. He was only willing to admit that there might not be any significant left political party organization in Egypt. This report from the well-informed WALL STREET JOURNAL would tend to confirm my initial view of the situation. What is unfolding today in Egypt is a democratic revolution. Perhaps one day it will go further. I would hesitate to predict, given how little I know about Egypt. It would, of course, be completely contrary to the spirit of the Egyptian process for any political party trying to establish its presence to be denied on strictly ideological ground. Let's look at the process in Egypt in an open-minded spirit. Andrew: You didn't respond previously, but the floor remains open to you. Walter Lippmann La Habana, Cuba = WALL STREET JOURNAL * MIDDLE EAST NEWS * FEBRUARY 24, 2011 Political Parties Rise From Egypt's Revolution By MATT BRADLEY CAIRO—As hopes rise for Egypt's first elections, political parties are sprouting like weeds. Activists, businessmen and community leaders are all forming new parties they hope will widen Egypt's limited menu of political options. View Full Image EGPOLS European Pressphoto Agency Egyptians surround a car carrying former ministers before their trial. EGPOLS EGPOLS The nascent parties are both secular and Islamist, but for the most part they agree on one thing: more time than the target for elections—in less than six months—may be needed for these groups to have a real impact. Some also worry that elections too soon would greatly favor the Muslim Brotherhood, which already has a large-scale social organization in place. It's too short, said Hossam Badrawi, a former member of parliament for the former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) and a onetime secretary-general for the party during the nearly three weeks of protests. Parliamentary elections are divisive by nature. In the absence of parties representing the new era and the weakness of the traditional parties, we are going to have a very individualized kind of parliament. Opposition activists worry that a campaign field dominated by underdeveloped political parties will yield a weak legislature made up mostly of independent personalities and established political parties. Such a fractured parliament could once again leave Egypt with a powerful president and without diverse political pluralism Egyptians seem to crave. The military council is unlikely to issue a new law on forming political parties before parliamentary elections, which could be called as early as four months from now, said Sobhi Saleh, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and one of eight judges and lawyers the military council appointed to a committee to reform the constitution. Mr. Saleh said there was no need for strong and potentially divisive political parties at such an early stage of Egypt's new governance system. Independent members of parliament will instead be able to form their own strong blocs within parliament, creating a possible breeding ground for viable new parties, he said. The Brotherhood announced on Monday that it will launch its new Freedom and Justice Party in the following days. To ease concerns that Egypt's revolution might lead to an Islamist putsch, Brotherhood leaders said they will run in parliamentary elections but not in presidential elections expected after six months. For the first time, the Brotherhood will have political competition from among its Islamist base. Egypt's government finally recognized the moderate Islamist Al Wasat (Center) Party on Saturday, 15 years after the group first sought official sanction.The voice of Egypt's Islamists—long dominated by the Brotherhood—may franchise even further. Moderate members of the Brotherhood youth who helped to lead the protest movement say they are organizing as well. Ultra-conservative Salafi Muslims are reportedly considering forming their own parties. The new Islamist parties will join a political pell-mell rushing to fill the massive power void left by the regime of Mr. Mubarak, who resigned on Feb. 11 after nearly three weeks of protests. But with only a few months before parliamentary polls, activists are worried that many of the most promising new party entrants—particularly the weak but politically competitive secular parties—won't be ready in time. Protesters and politicians alike are urging Egypt's new military rulers to extend the deadline for elections for at least one year. In a nod to protesters' continuing demands for a more inclusive transitional government, Egypt's new military leaders invited several opposition
[Marxism] Barbara Dane: Wisconsin's courageous state senators deserve our thanks.
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == (Barbara Dane made the recording called I HATE THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM. Her son Pablo Menendez lives here in Cuba where his band is quite popular. They travel abroad and also have been to the United States. Jane Franklin from whom this note came is the author of CUBA AND THE UNITED STATES, A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY (Ocean Press) (I studied at the University of Wisconsin in Madison from 1961-1967. We had some terrific activities, but nothing like this in those days. On Wisconsin! Walter Lippmann La Habana, Cuba http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ == From: Jane Franklin janefrank...@hotmail.com To: walter lippmann walte...@earthlink.net Cc: Barbara Dane bda...@sbcglobal.net Subject: from Barbara Dane: Wisconsin's courageous state senators deserve our thanks. Date: Feb 21, 2011 12:46 PM Dear Walter, First, a personal note: If you haven't received this petition and posted, please consider posting. If I were well right now, I would be trying to get to Madison. Crucial battle. I hope you are feeling good and enjoying Cuba. un fuerte abrazo, Jane From: bda...@sbcglobal.net Subject: Wisconsin's courageous state senators deserve our thanks. Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 02:05:19 -0800 To: Dear Friend, Democratic state senators in Wisconsin have been forced to flee the state in order to stop Governor Walker's radical attack on worker's rights. Now, Gov. Walker has ordered state police to hunt them down, and force their return to Madison for a vote on his bill. The fight in Wisconsin affects all of us. And this is a crucial moment to show solidarity with the state senators as they continue their courageous stand to protect workers. I just signed a petition telling Wisconsin's Democratic state senators they have my support. You should sign it to. Click below to say thanks. http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/we_support_wisconsin/letter2.html?id=-2025154-5RgY7dx = WALTER LIPPMANN Havana, Cuba Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo = Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] London, UK: Visiting scholar, Gerald Horne, needs housing
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Gerald Horne is an indefatigable scholar, that means he puts out an immense amount of valuable work. He stayed in my home when I was away in Cuba a few years ago and I was pleased to help him, even though we didn't meet since I was out of the country at the time. I can and thus am happy to vouch for him. We HAVE met, but not at that particular time. If you can help him out, that would be much appreciated, especially by him. Here's a sample of his scholarship: http://www.walterlippmann.com/horne-cuba-si-yanqui-no.html Walter Lippmann La Habana, Cuba === From: Gerald Horne gcho...@email.unc.edu To: walte...@earthlink.net Subject: NYC/London? Date: Nov 13, 2010 12:08 PM Hope all goes well.I'm seeking reasonably priced lodging in London for a few weeks beginning 28 April ---any ideas? Could you forward to your contacts with recommendation?? = WALTER LIPPMANN Los Angeles, California Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo = Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] SOUTH JOURNAL: Mumia Abu-Jamal: The Wikileaks Effect
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == Mumia's take on these events won't be news to readers of Marxmail. But they're certainly on the mark politically. Washington and the U.S. media are trying to distance themselves from the Mubarak regime now that it's final days approach. That may work for those who rely on the US media and who have short memory spans, as most people in the US certainly do. We're residents of the country where Henry Ford famously said, History is bunk. Washington and its allies in the media, and on the ground in Egypt are doing whatever they can to encourage memory loss. Not only that, they're furthermore trying to influence events on the ground in the interests of maintaining as much stability as can be maintained. In Israel the ruling class must be shaking in their boots as they observe the tottering of reactionary regimes throughout the Middle East. We are living in interesting and inspiring times! I'm off to Havana tomorrow and plan to send out some reports on the changes which are going on there. Walter Lippmann Los Angeles, California == THE WIKILEAKS EFFECT by Mumia Abu-Jamal lchirino | February 4, 2011 at 4:32 pm URL: http://wp.me/pLgvg-do As these words are being scribbled, U.S. 'allies' in the Middle East are trembling. From the streets of Tunis, to Alexandria, to Cairo, tens of thousands are demanding not only democracy, but an end to their dictatorships --dictatorships, by the way, armed and supported by the U.S. Empire. What drove these people into the streets were the sickening revelations of the puppetry, corruption and abject servility of their leaders to U.S. and Western interests. Many of these leaders, who've led for lifetimes, have amassed enormous fortunes while generations of youth pass through their lives jobless, unfulfilled and brutally bullied by the dictator's internal police forces, usually composed of people trained, equipped (or both) by U.S. agencies. Wikileaks revealed American diplomatic cables reflecting U.S. knowledge of and acquiescence to their puppet states corruption, torture and brutality. They didn't care how cruel nor corrupt these countries were, as long as they served U.S. interests -- i.e., stability' -- or quiet in the face of U.S., Western or Israeli aggression in the region. Egypt receives billions of U.S bucks every year, to buttress its dictatorship. This spate of rebellions in Muslim states is especially important given the recent news that many leaders were privately urging the U.S. to attack Iran, for this shows well that few spoke for their people. They spoke for a narrow, parasitical ruling clique. If change comes to the region it won't be because of U.S. efforts, but in spite of them. --(c) '11 maj = WALTER LIPPMANN Los Angeles, California Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo = Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
[Marxism] *important* - NYT: In a Shift, Cubans Savor Working for Themselves
== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. == This is more important for the fact that it's in the NEW YORK TIMES today than for its specific content. I'll be traveling to Cuba in a few days and will be in a better position to observe and report on these changes than is possible from my outpost here in California. It's an important moment as the island is facing very specific challenges today, keeping the world economic crisis very much in our minds. For the context, I suggest reading or re-reading Raul Castro's discussion of the challenges facing Cuba today given at Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power on December 18, 2010. Posted here: http://www.walterlippmann.com/rc-12-18-2010.html More broadly, I urge readers to keep in mind what Fidel Castro said in 2005 at the University of Havana, and which he repeated at the University once again in September 2010: Here is a conclusion I’ve come to after many years: among all the errors we may have committed, the greatest of them all was that we believed that someone really knew something about socialism, or that someone actually knew how to build socialism. It seemed to be a sure fact, as well-known as the electrical system conceived by those who thought they were experts in electrical systems. Whenever they said: “That’s the formula”, we thought they knew. All sense of dialectics is lost when someone believes that today’s economy is identical to the economy 50 or 100 or 150 years ago, or that it is identical to the one in Lenin’s day or to the time when Karl Marx lived. Revisionism is a thousand miles away from my mind and I truly revere Marx, Engels and Lenin. Walter Lippmann http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/ THE NEW YORK TIMES February 3, 2011 In a Shift, Cubans Savor Working for Themselves By VICTORIA BURNETT BAUTA, Cuba — Marisela Álvarez spends much of the day bent over a single electric burner in her small outdoor kitchen. Her knees are killing her. Her red hair smells of cooking oil. She hasn’t felt this fortunate in years. “I feel useful; I’m independent,” said Ms. Álvarez, who opened a small cafe in November at her home in this scruffy town 25 miles from the capital, Havana. “When you sit down at the end of the day and look at how much you have made, you feel satisfied.” Eagerly, warily, Cubans are taking up the government’s offer to work for themselves, selling coffee in their front yards, renting out houses, making rattan furniture and hawking everything from bootleg DVDs to Silly Bandz and homemade wine. Hoping to resuscitate Cuba’s crippled economy, President Raúl Castro opened the door to a new, if limited, generation of entrepreneurs last year, after warning that the state’s “inflated” payrolls could end up “jeopardizing the very survival of the Revolution.” The Cuban labor federation said the government would lay off half a million of about 4.3 million state workers by March and issue hundreds of thousands of new licenses to people wanting to join Cuba’s tiny private sector, in what could be the biggest remodeling of the state-run economy since Fidel Castro nationalized all enterprise in 1968. By the end of 2010, the government had awarded 75,000 new licenses, according to Granma, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, swelling the official ranks of the self-employed by 50 percent. That is still a long way from the amount needed to create alternatives for all the workers who will eventually be laid off, and there is no guarantee that the market will support hundreds of thousands of freelancers. But licenses have been granted quickly, and the government has been encouraging the bureaucracy to keep them flowing. Streets once devoid of commerce in towns like this and in Havana are gradually coming to life as people hang painted signs and bright awnings outside their houses and mount roadside stalls. An electronics engineer, who for years operated in the shadows, now publishes leaflets that claim he can mend every appliance under the sun. A practitioner of Santería sells beaded necklaces, ground sardines and toasted corn used in ceremonies at the tin-roofed shop in her yard. Ms. Álvarez and her husband, Ivan Barroso, took out a license for the cafe and another to sell meat and fish. Now the couple does a brisk business serving soft white rolls filled with garlicky pork and fresh tuna for 60 cents at a wooden counter in the gateway of their house. Ms. Álvarez, a former school librarian who gave up work several years ago, runs the cafe with her stepson. Mr. Barroso goes fishing, culls pigs and delivers produce to clients in Havana. “If you have the ability, the dedication to achieve something, you should enjoy it,” said Mr. Barroso, who until November sold fish and pork without
