Re: [A-List] Progressive Cuba-Bashing

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_http://www.cjonline.org/rLevinsCubaBashing.cfm_ 
(http://www.cjonline.org/rLevinsCubaBashing.cfm) 
Progressive  Cuba-Bashing
By Richard Levins <
 
Comment
 
Extremely informative and in my opinion, an excellent article.  The  authors 
description of the difference between democracy (bourgeois democracy)  and 
consensus of political socialism (socialist democracy) was breath taking and  
insightful. His explanation of how socialist economic policy is combined with  
communist economic policy in Cuba, and the barriers to advancement was  also 
instructive. Below is his take on socialist consensus. 
 
Thanks.
 
Melvin P. 
 
 
 
 
Most Cubans believe that they are inventing a new kind of democracy,  
superior both to what Cuba had before the revolution and to what they see today  in 
the United States and other capitalist countries. In these liberal  democracies 
public office is a marketable commodity and the end result of all  the 
political excitement at election-time is that the same group of people who  own the 
economy continue to own the government. Cubans describe their own system  as a 
way of getting as many people as possible to help run the country through a  
mixture of participatory and representative processes. Cubans are very aware 
of  the history of defeats in the early struggles for national independence and 
 workers' rights, defeats caused in large measure by divisions in the 
movements.  This has given Cubans a strong sense of the importance of unity as a 
political  goal. Their system is designed to reach consensus rather than promote  
adversarial conflict. Consensus is sought through extensive discussion at  
countless meetings in the workplace, the neighborhood, and the 2,200  
non-governmental organizations. In fact, when I once asked a meeting of  ecologists how 
aliens on a spaceship flying over Cuba would know there was  socialism down 
below, the answer was, "Everybody is at meetings." The purpose of  the meetings 
is to reach a consensus strong enough to mobilize the active  participation of 
the membership, their enthusiasm, energy, and ideas. The  premium placed on 
consensus is a source of strength for the revolution, but also  can at times 
lead to intolerance of deviant opinion.
 
 
 
At these meetings the major issues of concern to Cuban society are  
discussed. The Federation of Cuban Women led the discussions on the Family Code  and 
regularly examines the status of women in order to identify obstacles to  full 
equality and make proposals for removing them. The farmers' association  leads 
on questions of agriculture, and so on. In 2004 the new farmers'  cooperatives 
initiated discussions on their relations with the state, the degree  of 
autonomy, how to reconcile their need for an adequate income with the need of  the 
urban population for inexpensive food. In 1993, at the height of the  economic 
crisis of the Special Period, workers' parliaments were convened at  
thousands of workplaces to discuss which of the revolutionary achievements had  to be 
retained at all cost, what compromises could be made, which of the  emergency 
measures that the National Assembly was proposing were acceptable.  They 
rejected a tax on wages. Every six months the union leadership meets with  the 
heads of government departments to examine issues of wages, bonuses,  compliance 
with the regulations of labor protection, the grievance system, and  other 
issues of concern to the unions and to the country.