Fidel Castro is dead
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Fidel Castro is dead
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-38114953
So given that Cuba wasn't socialist, were living standards higher under Castro than Batista? And was it substantially different to other Caribbean countries?
Here's some of the things we've said about Castro and Cuba over the years:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1960s/1961/no-677-january-1961/cuban-background http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1960s/1961/no-680-april-1961/cuban-cockpit-and-castro http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1960s/1968/no-772-december-1968/abolition-wages-system-cuban-stylehttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1980s/1984/no-956-april-1984/cuba-under-castrohttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2003/no-1190-october-2003/cuba-no-workers-paradisehttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2008/no-1250-october-2008/cooking-books-1-cuba%E2%80%99s-wage-systemNaturally, there will be a major article on him in the January Socialist Standard.
ALB wrote:Here's some of the things we've said about Castro and Cuba over the years:http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1960s/1961/no-677-january-1961/cuban-background http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1960s/1961/no-680-april-1961/cuban-cockpit-and-castro http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1960s/1968/no-772-december-1968/abolition-wages-system-cuban-stylehttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1980s/1984/no-956-april-1984/cuba-under-castrohttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2003/no-1190-october-2003/cuba-no-workers-paradisehttp://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2008/no-1250-october-2008/cooking-books-1-cuba%E2%80%99s-wage-systemNaturally, there will be a major article on him in the January Socialist Standard.That is what the Latin American bourgeois tried to do, they wanted to liberate themselves from the domination of the US bourgeoisie too, and that was the main purpose of Hugo Chavez and the so called Bolivarian revolution tried to do, including Brazil and Argentina. Instead of the US giving military coup like in the old days, they are giving parliamentary coups like they did in Brazil. As one of the SPGB article said that Fidel Castro was not a mere puppet of the Soviets or Eastern EuropeThey created the Bank of South America, the Mercosur ( South America Trade Cartel ) and their version of the EU, all those cartels and trust were financed and controlled by the Latin American bourgeois calling itself socialist. In the name of socialism they are carrying their own agenda, at the beginning they were using Marx name until they discovered the letter that Marx wrote against Simon Bolivar The Russia were able to do in Latin America what they never did when they were the Soviet Union and during the cold war period, they performed military exercise with the Russian navy and the Venezuelan military forces, and instead of buying weapons from the US, they purchased them from Russia, and they launched their own satellite, and their own television .The Iran and Spanish capitalists and Israel have also large investrment in Latin America including factory to produce weaponsThe Soviets did not support all the guerrillas groups of Latin America, because they did not support the Che Guevara when he went to Bolivia, and the Communist Party of Bolivia did not support him either, and Cuba did not support the guerrillas of Alberto Caamano, and Castro knew that it was going to be a failure, even more, Caamano guerrillas group was infiltrated by CIA agents.The FARC from Colombia is supported by Cuba, but originally they were formed by Maoists, and most Maoist groups in Latin America they did not support the so called Cuban revolution, and they did not support the government of Salvador Allende, and in the Dominican Republic Castroism was rejected completely and it wa replaced by Maoism, or a hybridThe Socialist Party has described all those situations in a few articles, much better than the thousands of articles written in others newspapers and journals. It also shows Why we are different to others groups
jondwhite wrote:Fidel Castro is deadhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-38114953So given that Cuba wasn't socialist, were living standards higher under Castro than Batista? And was it substantially different to other Caribbean countries?Rafael L Trujillo also expropriated the landlords, and some sugar factories and sugar cane plantations were transferred toward the hands of the state, and he also entered into contradictions with the Catholic church, and he expropriated some of their assets, the whole educational system was controlled by the state including private schools had the same curriculum, and he implemented a national health plan controlled by the state. It was pure state capitalism like in Cuba. Before his assassination by the CIA he was planning to do the same thing as Fidel Castro which was to reject the US domination and enter in relationship with the Soviets, and he was a champion of anti-communism and during WW2 he was flirting with the Allied and with the Nazis
I was always absurdly pleased that this article had been picked up by Cuban Social Democrat dissidents:https://web.archive.org/web/20080102151255/http://www.psrdc.org/archivo/notas75.htm
Young Master Smeet wrote:I was always absurdly pleased that this article had been picked up by Cuban Social Democrat dissidents:https://web.archive.org/web/20080102151255/http://www.psrdc.org/archivo/notas75.htm
You would be surprised of the websites where some of our publications have been published.This is a Cuban anarchist group. http://movimientolibertariocubano.blogspot.com
Some so called Communists are celebrating catholic masses for Fidel Castro, and the secretary of one Communist Party is going to read one versicle of the Bible in the mass for Saint Fidel Castro They are lighting candles for him, and they expect miraclesIn front of one of the Cuban Embassy in the Caribbean they have a picture of Fidel Castro with candles, and rosary on the sides. He went to heaven to join Saint Ernesto Che Guevara.There is a temple dedicated to Saint Ernesto Guevarahttp://www.lanacion.com.ar/950576-san-ernesto-la-ultima-leyenda-del-che-guevara
There is a significant possible argument that this could be Castro's real legacy:http://theconversation.com/fidel-in-africa-how-the-cuban-leader-played-a-key-role-in-taking-on-apartheid-69665
Quote:So, although Fidel has a mixed record at home – one of authoritarian, sometimes brutal rule, tempered by huge cultural investment and immense strides in health care – his African reputation is as a man who changed history.Our position of course is to oppose all wars of capitalism (and, indeed, lets not forget, even as that article shows, Cuba was objectively the catspaw of Moscow using 'anti-imperialism'; but just as objectively, Castro's government ended apartheid by demonstrable force. Just as Abraham Lincoln was quite objectionable and had a dubious human rights record, we can grant him the ending of slavery, so too can Castro claim a luarel for his role against the physical oppression of African states and peoples.
The Cuban elite sent troops to Africa to defend the expansionist interests of the Soviet elite and to stay as member of the Russian. Comecon It is based on the Che's Blanquist concep of creating several. Vietnam.After the collapse of the Soviet Union and after the incursion of Cuba in Africa, a group of General considered as heroes of the revolution they were acused of drug trafficking with Colombia, and they were shot.They never said that they were dealing with diamonds and ivory from Africa as the Soviets were also doing tooOthers sources as the MLPUSA indicated many years ago that those Generals and specially Ochoa, they were followers of the Russian Perestroika and Glasnot, and that was the main reason why they were shot
Young Master Smeet wrote:There is a significant possible argument that this could be Castro's real legacy:http://theconversation.com/fidel-in-africa-how-the-cuban-leader-played-a-key-role-in-taking-on-apartheid-69665Quote:So, although Fidel has a mixed record at home – one of authoritarian, sometimes brutal rule, tempered by huge cultural investment and immense strides in health care – his African reputation is as a man who changed history.Our position of course is to oppose all wars of capitalism (and, indeed, lets not forget, even as that article shows, Cuba was objectively the catspaw of Moscow using 'anti-imperialism'; but just as objectively, Castro's government ended apartheid by demonstrable force. Just as Abraham Lincoln was quite objectionable and had a dubious human rights record, we can grant him the ending of slavery, so too can Castro claim a luarel for his role against the physical oppression of African states and peoples.
We have also made this very important notation: "Communist support for Castro's guerrilla struggle came late but, like Russia's entry into the war against Japan, in time. At this stage, however, it would be a mistake to regard Castro as a Caribbean Kadar, a mere puppet of the Eastern bloc. Like many a Nationalist before him he is attempting to play off one great power against another in the hope that advantages will accrue to the would-be elite he represents. It is the universal demand of the Latin American bourgeoisie to free their respective national economies from the preponderance of Anglo-American capital.[/quote]In part the US has tried to enter into diplomatic and commercial agreement with Cuba to stop the economical independent expansion of the Latin American bourgeois which has also tried to incline themselves toward China and Russia. It is one of the mayor reasons why Donald Trump and his cabinet will not be able to reverse many of the executives orders of Barrack Obama. It was a campaign rhetoric to obtain the votes of the Cubans who live in Miami, but 75% of the American and Cubans in the USA, and 59% of the Republican support the lifting of the embargo, and during the last meeting of the UN regarding the embargo the USA and Israel did not vote against the embargo either. Our world is not controlled by the MarketIt is capitalist hypocrisy only because Israel have had business dealing with Cuba and the US government tried to impose fine on them for breaking the laws of the embargo, and the US has also approved millions of dollars of exportation to Cuba from the American farmershttp://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/18/world/us-penalizes-israeli-owned-company-for-dealing-with-cuba.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2016/10/26/politics/un-resolution-cuba-embargo-us-abstains/http://www.people-press.org/2015/07/21/growing-public-support-for-u-s-ties-with-cuba-and-an-end-to-the-trade-embargo/
Yes, although in many ways Zimbabwe and SOuth Africa Struggles were classical nationalist ones, tehre was also a real democratic issue, and, of course, the Southern African workers played an immense part in their own liberation, but the military rule of the colonialists would have been much harder to break without the Cuban assistance. I don't for a second think this exonerates Castro, or means he was worthy of support, but in strict historical assesment, it is somethign worth mentioning.
https://theconversation.com/cuba-is-poor-but-who-is-to-blame-castro-or-50-years-of-us-blockade-69528A canny article:
Quote:We have to consider these real circumstances at every juncture. For example, when the US embargo was first implemented, 95% of Cuba’s capital goods and 100% of its spare parts were imported from the US – and the US was overwhelmingly the main recipient of Cuban exports. When the Soviet bloc disintegrated, Cuba lost 85% of its trade and investment, leading GDP to plummet 35%. These events produced serious economic constraints on Cuba’s room for manoeuvre.Basically, Cuba swa[pped dependence on the US for dependence on USSR. As the author notes@
Quote:Where can medium and low-income countries get the capital to invest in infrastructure and welfare provision? How can foreign capital be obtained under conditions which do not obstruct such development, and how can a late-developing country such as Cuba use international trade to produce a surplus in a global economy which – many claim – tends to “unequal terms of trade”?At a basic level, it is a demonstration that capitalism must be replaced globally, and how taxing the rich won't work (they'll just bugger off to whatever enclave they can find).
Did anyone see this one:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WApT5wYHSCg
Leftist suffer of historical amnesia, and have created a mythology named Fidel Castro who is a product of the cold war, and the struggle for world domination between two capitalist blocs, like the existence of two Korea is also a product of the cold warWhen Castro ascended to power he said that he was not a communist, the Russian turned him into what they used to called communism, or communist, and their original purpose was to implement a Green revolution, like the Palms trees, or a bourgeois revolution. Many leftists groups in Latin America rejected Castroism and they adopted Maoism instead, and the first rejection took place in the Dominican RepublicHe came to power because the Cuban elite and the Church stopped supporting the government of Fulgencio Batista, and shifted toward Fidel Castro, and the US capitalist did not want to support him any longer, they do not want to sell weapons to him in order to fight the guerrillas fighter of the Sierra Maestra, Rafael L Trujillo sold weapons to the government of Cuba when he had an arm factory in San Cristobal, and in 1960 Trujillo was looking for the protection of the Soviet Union, that action will turn him into an anti-imperialist like CastroThe Anarchists had more incidence within the working class than the Stalinists and the Trotskyists in Cuba, which were persecuted after the revolution, and many were forced to leave The Cuban Communist Party was supporting the government of Fulgencio Batista, but they did not support the guerrillasThe genuine nationalist and anti-imperialist in Latin America was Domingo Peron who was the president of Argentina, his slogan was: No Yankees, no Russian,( The third way ) and Fidel Castro admired Peron and Benito Mussolini. Domingo Peron implemented many reforms in a country where capitalism was the prevailing mode of production, and the economical production was very diversified, he was so popular that he was elected 3 times by the Argentinean workers, and he had the supports of the workers union, and the leftists. The US placed an embargo against Argentina, before placing an embargo against Cuba, and the US Congress thought that he was a communist, and they did not want Argentina to become an independent economical super power . Peron sold grains and others commodities to the Soviet Union and established diplomatic relationship with them, and he challenged the pressures of the US capitalist class, and he did not want Argentina to participate in WWIIErnesto Cardenas was another bourgeois nationalist who was the president of Mexico, and during his government many reforms were implemented including the nationalization of oil industry and a large land reform for the peasants, and he was also very popular within the Mexican working class, and during his government Leon Trotsky was given asylum, and all those reforms were implemented before the emerge of the Cuban revolution.Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez is the culmination of the long history of the Latin American bourgeois trying to liberate itself from the domination of the US capitalist class, and in two occasion they have dressed themselves as Marxists, or Communists to attract and obtain the support of the Latin American working class.The genuine anti-slavery and anti-colonialist movement was not Simon Bolivar, it was Toussaint Louverture from Haiti, and its capitalist development has been stopped by the US capitalist since the first day that they emerged as an independent bourgeois republic, even more their ideas were taken from the French jacobin
I went there several years ago on holiday, flight only finding our accommodation whilst we were out there, and did travel around a bit. In fact it was in march 2011 as the Fukushimathing happened whilst we were out there we were out there. I think I can agree with much of the comments of that youtube; it didn’t appear to be in anyway a police state and in fact the police seemed to be as rare as hen’s teeth. We actually met a rabid anti Castro guy in a bar who seemed to be in no fear of ranting on against the regime. He said he had a son who was abroad and he ran an anti Castro webb site; that did checkout as we looked at it when we got back. They had internet café’s etc that didn’t seem to have any obvious restrictions then but I believe that kind of thing was opened up quite recently then. I logged onto various sites that I suspected would be a problem if there was any restrictions and there wasn’t. They were very nice people and seem chilled out enough and I felt unusually safe wandering about like you do in downtown Havana. I have travelled around quite a bit and am a bit of a nervous Nelly when it comes to the ‘thieving Johnny foreigners’ prejudices. Not to say there weren’t plenty of street entrepreneurs looking for the opportunity to lighten the load of conspicuously rich tourists, which we weren’t as in an ‘honest’ deal. There was a nice touch I thought which encapsulated the whole thing. They have a dual currency system in operation or a hard currency that circulates called CUC’s for the tourists but it also circulates amongst the Cubans themselves in the cities and towns etc. But the other stuff is used elsewhere etc. We got on the Matanzas to Havana train as below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hershey_Electric_Railway Except that it doesn’t look anything like that; it is was a real bone shaking heap of crap that rattles along at 10 miles an hour. But it is mostly single line and had to pull in and wait for the train going the other way to pass. So one of us gets out to buy some station food from a local vendor peddling his wares form a bicycle with tow truck. It was biscuits with some kind of jam on them; quite OK really as it turned out. And offers up a 20 Cuc note, it wasn’t me, which produced guffaws of laughter from the locals. I suppose it was bit like trying to buy a hotdog with an American Express Platinum card or something. Anyway another local bod on the train bought a big bag of the stuff for us, in sympathy, with his peso money and left us to it. We found a one Cuc note and found him again which he protested was too much ;we are talking about 1$ I think. Anyway we got off the train to pick up the pleb non CUC, peso ticket only, ferry across the bay to Havana. He bailed us out again and paid for our tickets; and probably made $0.50 out of the end transaction and no doubt considered it a happy day. On economic sanctions I got attacked by midges whilst staying in a bit of a cheap flea pit and needed anti histamines, which is a pretty bog standard medication. The pharmacies didn’t have that due to the sanctions and recommended going to one of the swanky hotels that have there own in house pharmacies for dealing with those kind of ‘difficulties’. What I was left with is if everything goes belly-up these guys in a ‘self sustaining’ economy would weather the storm and just carry on. I liked the horse and cart taxis.
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