[Marxism] Fidel Castro 1926-2016: A combatant to the end

2016-11-26 Thread Stuart Munckton via Marxism
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https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/fidel-castro-1926-2016-combatant-end
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Re: [Marxism] The true Fidel Castro

2016-11-26 Thread Tristan Sloughter via Marxism
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It isn't about Castro himself or the revolution, but I found Visions of
Freedom (http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=3458)
to be an amazing book.

And ones I can't yet vouch for myself:

A Hidden History of the Cuban Revolution: How the Working Class Shaped
the Guerrillas’ Victory by Steve Cushion
A History of the Cuban Revolution by Aviva Chomsky
The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics Edited by Aviva Chomsky,
Barry Carr and Pamela Maria Smorkaloff

-- 
  Tristan Sloughter
  t...@crashfast.com

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[Marxism] The true Fidel Castro

2016-11-26 Thread Joaquim Gibson via Marxism
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I have been following this list for at least a year. I continue to learn
from the great information posted here. But now it's time for me to post. I
hope this post is appropriate.

I grew in Florida during the 1970s and 80s. Fidel was a pariah. I would
like to be able to say I challenged this thinking, but I didn't. However I
did think even then that Miami had serious anger management issues and they
just spouted the same tired angry cliches. The Cuba I learned about via my
radio was vastly different from what I was told was fact.

In college, around 1990, I took a course on the Cuban Revolution. It
greatly changed my views not only on Cuba, but about the US's disastrous
history of imperialism. What I learned and remembered dove tails with what
Louis Proyect posted yesterday. <
http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/state_and_revolution/cuba.htm>

All of this brings me to my question. What books do you recommend about
Fidel and the Cuban Revolution in general? I see many available, but it
seems more than not, they're just anti-Castro pablum.

BTW, Louis, I have now found this page of yours <
http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mypage.htm> which I plan to reference as I
continue my journey left.
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[Marxism] Fwd: Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) | manuelgarciajr

2016-11-26 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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https://manuelgarciajr.com/2016/11/27/fidel-alejandro-castro-ruz-13-august-1926-25-november-2016/
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Re: [Marxism] 'Tomorrow is too late' -- When Fidel Castro urged urgent climate action at Rio in 1992

2016-11-26 Thread Patrick Bond via Marxism

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A big thanks to//GLW and Links. As I circulate the kinds of 
accomplishments Castro led in the climate and energy spheres here in 
South Africa, it's always the Australian socialists who have provided 
the english-speaking left's best information on Cuba. Another example is 
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/cubas-green-revolution-%C3%A2%C2%80%C2%94-achieving-sustainability 





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[Marxism] Fwd: Fidel Castro obituary: revolutionary icon finally defeated by infirmity of old age | World news | The Guardian

2016-11-26 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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By Richard Gott

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/26/fidel-castro-obituary
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[Marxism] Fwd: Fidel Castro's anti-colonialist legacy - Al Jazeera English

2016-11-26 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/03/fidel-castro-anti-colonialist-legacy-201433103015396232.html
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[Marxism] Fidel Castro's revolutionary legacy

2016-11-26 Thread Stuart Munckton via Marxism
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https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/fidel-castros-revolutionary-legacy
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[Marxism] Fwd: Fidel Castro, 1926-2016 | The Nation

2016-11-26 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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By Greg Grandin, not the typical liberal Nation Magazine bullshit artist.

https://www.thenation.com/article/fidel-castro-1926-2016/
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[Marxism] 'Tomorrow is too late' -- When Fidel Castro urged urgent climate action at Rio in 1992

2016-11-26 Thread Stuart Munckton via Marxism
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"Pay the ecological debt. Eradicate hunger and not humanity."

https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/tomorrow-too-late-when-fidel-castro-urged-urgent-climate-action-1992-rio-summit
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[Marxism] Fwd: New York African Diaspora International Film Festival 2016 | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

2016-11-26 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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As it happens, you can still see a biopic about the man whose feats CLR 
James celebrated in “The Black Jacobins” as part of the NYADIFF. Made 
for French TV in a two-part series in 2012 and directed by Phillipe 
Niang, a Frenchman of Senegalese heritage, this is a tightly paced 
historical drama with excellent performances that should be on the “must 
see” list of anybody trying to understand the difficulties of the 
colonial revolution. In many ways, the struggle led by Toussaint 
Louverture prefigured the chaos in Syria today with its intractable 
divisions and meddling by outside powers.


Niang could have easily made a film that was 1800 minutes long rather 
than 180 and it still would have only scratched the surface of the 
Haitian revolution—or more properly speaking the one that occurred on 
the western half of the island called Hispaniola that was divided 
between Spanish and French rule. Known as Saint-Domingue, it was the 
Pearl of the Antilles to the French and just as key to the mother 
country’s prosperity as Jamaica was to the British.


When the rebellion began in 1791, Louverture made tactical alliances 
first with the Spanish and then with the French but only in the 
interests of the underlying principle of abolishing slavery. Jimmy 
Jean-Louis, a Haitian actor who turns in a tour de force performance of 
Louverture, is adept at portraying the complex relationship between his 
character and all the elites he is forced to compromise with in order to 
achieve his ultimate goal. Not only does he have to deal with outside 
powers, he has to balance clashing interests in Saint-Domingue, 
including those of the slaves, the Mulattos (the term used by the 
characters in the film as was the case historically) and the white 
plantation owners—some of whom were British.


full: 
https://louisproyect.org/2016/11/26/new-york-african-diaspora-international-film-festival-2016/

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[Marxism] Clinton Hops on the Recount Bandwagon

2016-11-26 Thread Greg McDonald via Marxism
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http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/26/politics/clinton-campaign-recount/index.html?adkey=bn
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Re: [Marxism] Paul Farmer on Cuba

2016-11-26 Thread Brian McKenna via Marxism
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Here's a Marxist critique of Farmer.  Anyone who wants the full piece,
please email me.

http://coa.sagepub.com/content/33/4/447.abstract

Here is a snippet:

*A Rigorous Detour through Marx is Essential*

Dr. Farmer has vigorously renounced Marxist approaches for diagnosing and
transforming the world. In a text from the bestselling *New York Times*
book, *Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who
Would Cure the World*,” Kidder writes of Dr. Farmer, “He had studied the
world’s ideologies. . . . .But years ago he’d concluded that Marxism
wouldn’t answer the questions posed by the suffering he encountered in
Haiti. And he had quarrels with the Marxists he’d read: ‘What I don’t like
about Marxist literature is what I don’t like about academic pursuits–and
isn’t that what Marxism is, now? In general, the arrogance, the petty
infighting, the dishonesty, the desire for self-promotion, the orthodoxy: I
can’t stand the orthodoxy, and I’ll bet that’s one reason that science did
not flourish in the former Soviet Union.’”

Like Kim, Farmer’s assertions distort Freire’s essential message. In
Freire’s final publication, a posthumous collection of letters titled,
*“Pedagogy
of Indignation*, published in 2004, Freire’s colleague Donaldo Macedo puts
the issue succinctly,

“. . . . one cannot understand Freire’s theories without taking a rigorous
detour through a Marxist analysis, and [any] offhand dismissal of Marx is
nothing more than a vain attempt to remove the sociohistorical context that
grounds *Pedagogy of the Oppressed*” (Freire 2004:xiv-xv). Macedo
underscores that “the misunderstanding, even by those who claim to be
Freirean, is not innocent. It allows many liberal educators to appropriate
selective aspects of Freire’s theory and practice it as a badge of
progressiveness while conveniently dismissing or ignoring the ‘Marxist
perspectives’ that would question their complicity with the very structures
that created human misery in the first place” (Freire 2004:xvi).

*Naming the Pathologies of Power*

For some time Farmer himself has been reluctant to critique capitalism per
se, instead tending to cite “structural violence” as the source of the
problems of many of the world’s poor. Still, in his recent book *Haiti
After the Earthquake* he does acknowledge that “growing inequality, both
within countries and between them, is the linchpin of modern servitude”
(Farmer 2011:117).

PIH is becoming more and more closely tied to corporate capital. In 2011
PIH generated revenues of $88 million. There were more than 15,000 new
donors the last fiscal year. Among its corporate and foundation donors are
Abbot Laboratories, Aetna Foundation, Inc. American Express, the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, General Electric, Co, Goldman, Sachs Co., Google,
Home Depot, HSBC Philanthropic Programs, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.,
Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Novartis, Pfizer, UPS, U.S.  Bancorp, Wells
Fargo and Weyerhaeuser Family Foundation (PIH Annual Report  2011).

In a February 23, 2013 article by Henry Giroux titled *The Politics of
Disimagination and the Pathologies of Power*, Giroux charged that “American
Society is awash in a culture of civic illiteracy, cruelty andcorruption.
For example, major banks such as Barclays and HSBC swindle billions from
clients and increase their profit margins by laundering money for terrorist
organizations, and no one goes to jail” (Giroux 2013). Dr. Farmer, who
receives support from HSBC, among other financial institutions, has chosen
not to make these kinds of linkages in his public pedagogy.

Drs. Farmer and Kim work closely with Presidents Obama and former President
Clinton. When he was president, Clinton forced Haiti to drop tariffs on
imported subsidized U.S. rice. This neoliberal policy destroyed Haitian
rice farming and seriously undercut Haiti’s ability to become a
self-sufficient country. It is widely viewed as contributing to Haiti’s
forced urbanization, an event that increased the earthquake toll. Clinton,
of course, also passed NAFTA which significantly hurt the US working class.
He destroyed welfare and in 1999 was responsible for tearing down the
firewalls between investment and commercial banking which opened the
banking system to speculators and contributed to much human misery
associated with the 2008 financial meltdown. Obama raised more than $600
million for his 2008 election and over $715 million for the 2012 election,
most from corporations, and has served those same corporations as well as
his Republican predecessor. He has stood by while those same corporations
looted the treasury and has done little to help the millions of Americans
who 

[Marxism] Fwd: Fidel Castro Biography - YouTube

2016-11-26 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC4hNWzyCzU
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[Marxism] Fwd: David Runciman · Is this how democracy ends?: A Failed State? · LRB 1 December 2016

2016-11-26 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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Meanwhile, the real long-term threats faced by American society will 
continue unaddressed. By fixing on the risks of direct political 
violence, we set a low bar that Trump will be able to clear with 
relative ease. The truly destructive violence of American society takes 
place under the surface and often passes unnoticed by all except its 
victims. It is the violence of a prison system that incarcerates and 
disenfranchises significant segments of the adult population, especially 
young African-American men. It is the epidemic of white-on-white 
violence that is estimated to have cost the lives of nearly a hundred 
thousand Americans since 1999 and yet has remained more or less 
invisible, until noticed by the economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton in 
a paper published in 2015. These deaths are the result of self-inflicted 
violence, either suicides or drug and alcohol overdoses (‘poisonings’ in 
the language of the report), particularly affecting white Americans 
living in the parts of the country that voted overwhelmingly for Trump – 
the South, the Appalachians, the Rust Belt. People in these communities 
are far more likely to kill themselves than they are to kill others, and 
they are dying younger than their parents did, a trend that is unique in 
a developed society. Trump’s victory might provide the victims of this 
epidemic with superficial respite – including the chance to direct some 
of their self-loathing outwards – but it will do little to address the 
causes of their underlying hopelessness. America is a society where many 
working-age people have given up and others have had their chance for a 
decent life taken from them by a violently punitive criminal justice 
system. If it is failing, it is failing here. When the Trump bubble 
bursts, there won’t have been a reckoning with this reality. But there 
will be an ever greater sense of betrayal.


full: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n23/david-runciman/is-this-how-democracy-ends
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[Marxism] Paul Farmer on Cuba

2016-11-26 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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From a New Yorker Magazine profile on Paul Farmer:

Leaving Haiti, Farmer didn’t stare down through the airplane window at
that brown and barren third of an island. "It bothers me even to look at
it," he explained, glancing out. "It can’t support eight million people,
and there they are. There they are, kidnapped from West Africa."

But when we descended toward Havana he gazed out the window intently,
making exclamations: "Only ninety miles from Haiti, and look! Trees!
Crops! It’s all so verdant. At the height of the dry season! The same
ecology as Haiti’s, and look!"

An American who finds anything good to say about Cuba under Castro runs
the risk of being labelled a Communist stooge, and Farmer is fond of
Cuba. But not for ideological reasons. He says he distrusts all
ideologies, including his own. "It’s an ‘ology,’ after all," he wrote to
me once, about liberation theology. "And all ologies fail us at some
point." Cuba was a great relief to me. Paved roads and old American
cars, instead of litters on the 'gwo wout ia'. Cuba had food rationing
and allotments of coffee adulterated with ground peas, but no
starvation, no enforced malnutrition. I noticed groups of prostitutes on
one main road, and housing projects in need of repair and paint, like
most buildings in the city. But I still had in mind the howling slums of
Port-au-Prince, and Cuba looked lovely to me. What looked loveliest to
Farmer was its public-health statistics.

Many things affect a public’s health, of course—nutrition and
transportation, crime and housing, pest control and sanitation, as well
as medicine. In Cuba, life expectancies are among the highest in the
world. Diseases endemic to Haiti, such as malaria, dengue fever, T.B.,
and AIDS, are rare. Cuba was training medical students gratis from all
over Latin America, and exporting doctors gratis— nearly a thousand to
Haiti, two en route just now to Zanmi Lasante. In the midst of the hard
times that came when the Soviet Union dissolved, the government actually
increased its spending on health care. By American standards, Cuban
doctors lack equipment, and are very poorly paid, but they are generally
well trained. At the moment, Cuba has more doctors per capita than any
other country in the world—more than twice as many as the United States.
"I can sleep here," Farmer said when we got to our hotel. "Everyone here
has a doctor."

Farmer gave two talks at the conference, one on Haiti, the other on "the
noxious synergy" between H.I.V. and T.B.—an active case of one often
makes a latent case of the other active, too. He worked on a grant
proposal to get anti-retroviral medicines for Cange, and at the
conference met a woman who could help. She was in charge of the United
Nations’ project on AIDS in the Caribbean. He lobbied her over several
days. Finally, she said, "O.K., let’s make it happen." ("Can I give you
a kiss?" Farmer asked. "Can I give you two?") And an old friend, Dr.
Jorge Perez, arranged a private meeting between Farmer and the Secretary
of Cuba’s Council of State, Dr. José Miyar Barruecos. Farmer asked him
if he could send two youths from Cange to Cuban medical school. "Of
course," the Secretary replied.

Again and again during our stay, Farmer marvelled at the warmth with
which the Cubans received him. What did I think accounted for this?

I said I imagined they liked his connection to Harvard, his published
attacks on American foreign policy in Latin America, his admiration of
Cuban medicine.

I looked up and found his pale-blue eyes fixed on me. "I think it’s
because of Haiti," he declared. "I think it’s because I serve the poor."

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[Marxism] question re Cuba

2016-11-26 Thread Andrew Pollack via Marxism
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re Louis's piece:
http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/state_and_revolution/cuba.htm
Not surprisingly I love the parts about centralized accounting and control.
But - and maybe I missed it - what would have been the role of workers' and
peasants' councils at each level (local to national) in developing,
implementing and checking the planning made possible by such use of data?
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Re: [Marxism] We have lost Fidel.

2016-11-26 Thread Louis Proyect via Marxism

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I will be writing an assessment of Fidel Castro's career in a couple of 
days but in the meantime, this is something I wrote about Cuba about 20 
years ago in response to the attacks on him by a member of either the 
ISO or the British SWP on Marxmail (can't exactly remember.)


http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/state_and_revolution/cuba.htm
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