Re: [Marxism] Cuba: the litmus test?

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

p.s. PROGRESSIVE CUBA-BASHING by Richard Levins:

Why are so many progressives and liberals taken in by even the most outrageous 
falsehoods
about Cuba? Why do they often accept uncritically the line of the Miami and 
Washington
reactionaries about Cuba when they doubt almost everything else from these 
sources?
Possibly some are tired of nay-saying all the conventional wisdoms. They do not 
want to appear âhard-lineâ or âideological,â and rejecting Cuba is a 
cheap and easy
way of being a little more mainstream. Cuba may be relegated by some to the list
of youthful enthusiasms from the time when âwe thought we could change the 
world.â
This stance is reinforced by the accumulated cynicism of many defeats that says 
that no place can be all that good, that all dreams come to naught. Or, perhaps 
since Cubaâs socialism is one of the few to have survived, it has become 
harder 
to romanticize it.

But, mostly, this vulnerability of the left to rightist propaganda is derived 
from
the discouraging experience of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe and the 
unwarranted
assumption that Cuba has a similar regime. As well, too many progressives have 
accepted
cold-war anti-communism assumptions: that all Reds are the same and that any 
accusation
against any of them is probably an understatement, that they support good causes
only to serve their own noxious ends, that revolutionaries once in power are all
cynical manipulators and monopolizers of privilege, and that their public 
statements
are merely propaganda. The burdens of internalized cold war anti-communism and 
conventional
political science allow for careless judgments and casual denunciations.

SNIP

The campaign against Cuba is an integral part of the United Statesâ new 
imperial
stance in the world, its claim to the right to intervene in other countries and 
âtake outâ leaders they donât like or force âregime change.â We 
should be demanding
that Congress reverse the laws aimed at strangling or coercing Cuba, laws that 
violate
international law. If the US escalates its aggression against Cuba, no matter 
what
the excuse, we should be ready to go out in protest immediately, to defend one 
of
the very few societies in which equity, the satisfaction of basic human needs, 
participatory
democracy, and international solidarity are first principles.

We need to free our movement from cold war ideology. Only then can we begin to 
challenge
the disinformation war against Cuba. We have to be ready to reject new excuses 
for
the blockade and other coercive measures and to correct the dismissal of Cuban 
achievements.
SNIP
=================
What we can learn from Cuba is that there are living alternatives to the way we 
do things here and that the Canadian national health system is not the only 
model
for providing healthcare for everyone. In healthcare, education, and 
environmental
protection, catching up with Cuba can be a worthy national goal.

We would then be in a position to offer Cuba real criticism, well informed and 
respectful.
Foreign progressive critics have had their impact in the past, in the struggle 
against
homophobia, for example, and for ecological agriculture. The rich American 
traditions
of peopleâs struggles can be a source of valuable insight for the Cubans, 
while 
their creative solutions to enormous problems can be a source of hope for us.

Cuba warrants the respect, appreciation, and solidarity of progressives in the 
United
States and throughout the world. 

FULL:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs238.html

====================================
Walter Lippmann
Havana, Cuba
"Un paraÃso bajo el bloqueo"
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
====================================

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