Re: [Marxism] re Cubans believe....

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

michael a. lebowitz wrote:
>         The question is-- what do you do with that information? Lots of
> possibilities. You can engage in denial, you can dismiss the Cubans as
> mistaken (what do they know?), you can say, I'm not following no party
> line, you can take it under advisement and worry about what Bush's
> victory will mean in the short run for Cuba, you can decide that what is
> most relevant (and supportive in the long run for Cuba) is building a
> movement against capitalism and imperialism within the US.

It depends on how you interpret their preference for Kerry. If you
interpret that in Tariq Ali fashion as an imperative to stump for Kerry,
 then you are mistaken. It is very easy to pose this as a false
question. For example, the Trotskyists were accused in 1941 of favoring
Hitler because they described the war between the allies and the axis as
a fight over booty. The CPUSA actually congratulated FDR for having the
SWP leaders thrown in prison for articles in the Militant that went
against the patriotic consensus. In reality, the Trotskyists *were*
opposed to Hitler. They just advocated different tactics than the CP and
the liberals in how to fight Hitler and Hitlerism. During the 1960s, the
New Left came around to the perspective of the SWP. Scholars such as Gar
Alperovitz and Howard Zinn explained how WWII was not a "people's war",
but a rumble between rival imperialist gangs. Unfortunately, the lessons
of the New Left seem largely lost on the current set of ABB'ers who are
essentially reframing the Bush-Kerry election in the same terms as the
CP framed WWII. If you are not for a Kerry election, you are for
neo-Hitlerism or something like that.

>         Let me suggest, though, that you take it as a given that the
> Cubans will view a Bush victory as a disaster. If that is creating a
> problem for you, deal with it.

If there is anything you can say about the Cuban leadership, it is that
they *never* dictate strategy and tactics to radicals in other
countries. Trotskyists always viewed this as a weakness for obvious
reasons. I believe it is one of the great legacies of the revolution. I
would be astonished if the Cubans advised American radicals how to
operate in the electoral arena, even if this was not a risky business
diplomatically. That's not how they operate. It was a subtle form of
pressure for Walter to remind us for the hundredth time that they prefer
Kerry, but he is not a Cuban.

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