Re: [Marxism] "Russia on the road again" (JuventudRebeldeinterviewsRussian ambassador to Cuba)

[David PicÃn Ãlvarez <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

From: "NÃstor Gorojovsky" <nmgoro@xxxxxxxxx>
> Dear David, there is an old joke about a workingman from Lugo in the
> early 1950s who wants to  migrate from Spain in order to get some job.
[...]

Very funny. Apt too, me being Galician :-)

> Certainly not. But this is the core, European, point of view. In the
> end, and sorry if I sound too hard, we are still paying for the
> failure of Western European workers to arise when the Russian
> Revolution summoned them to do so. From that point of view, the
> writing on the wall spells "Do your own revolutions if you want
> socialism in Russia".

Well, while I'm not much of a believer in inherited guilt, I do see what you 
mean. I'd say it was rather a success of capital to intervene than a failure 
of workers to act, but it comes to the same.

> From the point of view of semicolonial countries, or those which -like
> Cuba- imperialism is bent to return to that fold, the most admirable
> thing with that revolution was that, instead of disappearing in a few
> couples of years and their leaders be shot (this was what Lenin and
> Trotsky expected if the Germans failed to do their own Revolution),
> after almost a century the capitalist Russia that is its
> grand-grandchild has not been completely colonized by the Great
> Powers, and on the contrary sometimes challenges them. This gives us
> some breathing space, you know.

Maybe it does, but I wouldn't cheer for a country which is in effect joining 
the imperialist club. And all that stuff about RF defending its traditional 
sphere of influence? Well, IMO it's just another grounding for imperialism.

> Well, sorry, GonzÃlez did not lie. His regime, which in fact was a
> follower of the policies of the King and SuÃrez, produced such a Spain
> that "la madre que la pariÃ" (that is, FRANCOISM), could not recognize
> it -though not the way "Leftists" (that "Left" of "Solos en la
> madrugada"...) would have liked.

I didn't mean GonzÃlez was a liar. Precisely my point was that whereas the 
party of GonzÃlez engaged in meaningful reform, the party of Zapatero is at 
best doing small tweaks on the edges. Keynesian policy, promotion of private 
enterprise developing public functions, etc. While the PSOE is still a lot 
better than the PP, I wouldn't call it a progressive party except in very 
narrow areas of concern such as gay rights. Economically they're clearly 
supporting the status quo.

> The key to the whole thing lies in the speech by Juan Carlos at Santo
> Domingo, 1974, where he offers Spain as the necessary bridge between
> Western Europe and Latin America -to the West European bourgeoisie!

I think I hadn't heard of this before. That is often how Spain is framed 
though, as a bridge between Europe and LatAm.

> With his Latin American deals, GonzÃlez managed to turn Spain into
> just another imperialist country. Almost a full member of the club.
> And we Argentineans under Menem had a great "merit" in boosting this
> Spain.

Repsol, TelefÃnica, BSCH, etc, have big operations in LatAm. Sometimes they 
try to sell this in the news as though that foreign investment were doing 
LatAm favours, which looking at the profit statements I find rather 
laughable.

> I have almost got to the fists at Rio de Janeiro airport with a
> Laborist Spanish official of AerolÃneas Argentinas on this issue, BTW.
> The guy not only wanted to suck the blood out of my country, he also
> wanted us Argentineans to love him because that is what he was doing,
> by saving us from ourselves, I guess. One of his arguments (all were
> of the same ilk, but this one is particularly spicy) was "Well, don't
> you see I married an Argentinean" and I replied "Yes, colonialists
> always love the female subjects in hot lands". Since my wife and his
> wife (a beautiful girl who had evidently hit the pot) were present, we
> did not end the thing the way it had to end.

I find it very discouraging when people here in .es make negative comments 
about LatAm immigrants in particular, as though the economic situation which 
impelled them to come here had nothing to do with us. Unfortunately it is 
all too common.

--David.


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu