[Marxism] (no subject)

[Scotlive@xxxxxxx]

Gorbachev gave away his country and his people, and look at the result. Are
the Russian people better off today under a capitalist system, that's reduced
the lives of the majority to a bare existence, than they were with social
services, housing, jobs, education and, most important of all, some semblance of
dignity?

That the Soviet Union had become overly laden with bureacracy, inefficiency
and centralized govt is correct. However, rather than give his nation away and
abandon altogether the struggle for socialism, Gorbachev should have gone out
to improve it, to attack the bureaucracy, the careerism, etc. He should have
attempted to politicize the people, let them know what was happening and why
they had to get involved in order to save their socialist system.

This is what the Cuban govt did during the special period, when most
so-called 'experts' were convinced it would collapse along with the Soviet 
Union. It
didn't.

Ultimately, you simply cannot compare one socialist country to another. Each
develops according to unique objective and material conditions which each is
faced with. Cuba is a nation under siege. The huge external pressures brought
to bear against it by the US have largely determined its development. It shall
never develop past the stage of a deformed workers state until that pressure
is removed. And this is the job of socialist and socialist groups within the
US, I believe. To work to try work to remove this pressure, which is economic,
political and military.

However, that said, Cuba in its present stage of development as a socialist
country, is a far more humane, just and healthy society than that of any of its
neighbours. Haiti, Dominican Republic...look at the state of any of them
compared to Cuba and you will see the difference between socialist planning and
independence and capitalist servitude and chaos.

solidarity


J
_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism