Re: [Marxism] Cuba is not a country for capitalists

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a public response to private note which came to 
me from a subscriber to the Greenleft_discussion list.) 
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Hi, Micheal -

I'm going to take the liberty of responding to you publicly
because, well, it's better that way. We don't know each other
beyond in this electronic format, and these are subjects we
are all thinking about these days. 

Two of the key paragraphs you asked about are these:

Working is seen as crucial. Those out of work for three months are regarded
as "dangerous citizens" likely to stray into criminal or anti-social
behaviour. They are dispatched to special prisons for a year or two where
they are "educated" in the value of work and helped to find gainful
employment.

The order and discipline one sees in Cuba is, I think, not primarily the
result of bludgeoning bureaucracy and authoritarian rule although one would
be best advised not to transgress. Rather, it is because Cubans have an
innate and old-fashioned belief that with rights come responsibilities.
Indeed, they put their responsibilities to others before any rights they
might demand. If only that were so in this decaying country where too many
ignorant people blithely demand their rights and reject their
responsibilities.

FULL: CUBA IS NOT A COUNTRY FOR CAPITALISTS:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/82160
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COMMENTS: This was news to me, and it's not in accord with what I know
about Cuba today. There are lots of people who live and work in Cuba but
make no contribution to society. Some live off of hustling foreigners,
others through various forms of informal sector actity (we supporters
of the Cuban revolution from abroad don't normally use the term which
Cubans use to describe such activity: "bolsa negra" or "black market".

Little is publicly reported in Cuba about their prison system, so I've
nothing which I can meaningfully say about that. Perhaps now under Raul
we'll learn more than we have in the past. Just the fact that the Cubans
recently came up with some economic figures about the informal sector is
a further sign of a more informative public media on the island.

They do put people in prison for really anti-social activity such as
vandalism and robbery, not to speak of murder (normally murders are
not reported in the Cuban media), but Cuba is a country which has both
stood up to and stood down Washington's blockade, but it's also got a
great number of social problems, not all of which can be completely
attributed to the blockade, as some people like to do. 

It is far easier for people to live without employment in Cuba since
it has such a substantial social safety net. Probably it's far more
than in other Third World, not to speak of advanced capitalist
countries. Free housing (often in poor repair, but a roof over their
heads), free education, free medical care (sometimes medicines aren't
available, or have to be purchased in the black market, and sometimes
you have to go and help take care of your family members when they are
hospitalized). But when people leave the hospital, there's no bill and
doctors in Cuba DO make house calls. It's not a perfect society, no
matter how many favorable articles are written and send out.

Hope this is a useful response to your question, Micheal.


Walter Lippmann
Visiting New York City
========================================================================
From: Michael Berrell <dennyben@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Mar 22, 2008 10:49 PM
To: Walter  Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: re: CUBA NOT A COUNTRY FOR CAPITALISTS 

Hi Walter,

Just a comment about this article you posted on the GreenLeftdiscussionList.

I was going to post it on my Facebook site until I saw that paragraph about 
unemployed
people being sent to "re education centres". This is an aspect of Cuba
I definitely don't like and is the type of thing that extreme right wing 
politicians
in this country would love to impose in this country if they could get away with
it. 

What are your thoughts on this and do you know much about the way this system 
runs
in Cuba. 

I generally like to post articles that present Cuba in a positive light but this
doesn't in my view. 

Cheers Michael 

ps I agree wholeheartedly with you about Tibet. In my view the Dalai Lama and 
the
exile community are not all that different from the Cuban exile community and 
are
awaiting either the collapse of the People's Republic of China or are waiting
for some power to restore them to the privileged position they lost after the 
Communist
Revolution in that country. I also think that many in the west would like to see
a dismemberded China under Western domination and hiving off Tibet in the name 
of
"self-determination" would be the first step in achieving this aim 

Cheers Michael 


=========================================
     WALTER LIPPMANN
     Los Angeles, California
     Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
     "Cuba - Un ParaÃso bajo el bloqueo"
=========================================

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