[Marxism] Re: Cuba

[Chris Brady <cdbrady@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gee willickers, paul diener, but your diatribe about focismo seemed a
trifle naïve.
I will address your points.

I suggest you watch the movie "Fidel: The Untold Story" and pay
particular attention to the later moments when he discusses the need for
tactics and strategies that suit the times.

The Cuban Revolution did not fail.  Actually, that is why it is called a
revolution and not a rebellion.  I have made the argument, as I am sure
have many on this list, too many times to reiterate here, of all places.

Fidel and Ernesto were educated, intelligent young men who led a
successful revolution.  Education and intelligence augment leadership
potential, and that is how it works in revolutions, too.  Of course
class plays a role in leadership.  That is Marxist doctrine, i.e., the
importance of class.  Marx was not a peasant, not even a factory loom
mechanic.  Lenin was not a serf.  Mao was a teacher, not a coolie.
Ultimately, though, the masses must choose their leaders, and when the
moment is right to move.

You seem to be grieving still for the poor people who were slaughtered
in Guatemala.  I sympathize.  They were not killed by focists, though;
they were slain by reactionary capitalism. They were, in the long
analysis, killed by the imperialist United States that overturned the
democratic government of Jacobo Arbenz and ushered in decades of rabid
militarism that shored up a cannibalistic comprador elite.

Do us all a favor, yourself included: please do not conflate Castro with
Mussolini.  That is a serious error, and it is anti-revolutionary.   I
hope I misinterpreted you.  When you say that socialist Cuba is likely
to go the way of Eastern Europe when Castro dies, is that your hope?
What else are you saying?  That Castro is the dictator and without him
the dictatorship will have no center and fall?  You do not think that
the Revolution has benefitted enough Cubans that they have not
anticipated a Cuba without Fidel?  Furthermore, do you really think that
the Cuban Revolution would let the captialists and everyone else know
who the administrative and operational leadership is on that island?
There are some obvious targets (get it?), but there are also dynamic
people, young and old, working among the people. And they take their
orders from, and are legitimized by the people.

I do understand your frustration, however.  We do need a world
revolution.  And the sooner the better.  The way the environment is
being ravaged by capitalism, we are rapidly approaching the point of no
return for our species, let alone the stupid class system!



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