[Marxism] Fidel on US elections and threats to Obama

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The developed capitalist system, epitomized by the country with a privileged
nature where the European white man brought his ideas, dreams and ambitions,
is today in a crisis. But, it is not the usual crisis happening once in a
number of years; not even the traumatic crisis of the 1930s but the worst of
all crises since the world started to pursue this growth and development
model.
An excerpt. Fidel's entire comment may be read here:
http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/reflexiones/2008/ing/f111008i.html

            The current crisis of the developed capitalist system is taking
place when the empire is about to change leadership in the elections to be
held in twenty-five days; it was all that was left to see.

            The candidate of the two main parties that will say the last
word in these elections are trying to persuade the bewildered voters --many
of whom have never cared to cast a vote- that as candidates to the
presidency they can secure the wellbeing and consumerism of what they
describe as a people of middle class only, even though they are not planning
to introduce any real changes to what they consider the most perfect
economic system the world has ever known. 

            The same world that, in their respective minds, is less
important than the happiness of over three hundred million people who
account for less than five percent of the world population. The fate of the
remaining ninety-five percent of human beings, peace and war, the fit or
unfit-for-breathing air, will highly depend on the decisions of the
administrative leader of the empire, whether or not that constitutional
position has any power at a time of nuclear weapons and space shields moved
by computers in circumstances where every second counts and when ethical
principles keep loosing their value.  Still, the more or less nefarious role
of the President of that country cannot be overlooked.

            Racism is deeply-rooted in the United States where the mind of
millions of people can hardly reconcile with the notion that a black man,
with his wife and children could live in the White House, which is precisely
called White.

            It's a miracle that the Democratic candidate has not met the
same destiny as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and others who only a few
decades ago dreamed of justice and equality. He is in the habit of looking
at his adversary with serenity and of smiling at the dialectic predicament
of an opponent gazing into space.

            The Republican candidate, on the other hand, who likes to
enhance his reputation as a belligerent man, was one of the worst students
in his class at West Point. He has confessed that he did not know any
Mathematics; it can thus be assumed that he knew less of the complicated
economic science.

            The truth is his adversary surpasses him in cleverness and
composure.

            Something McCain has aplenty is age, and his health condition is
not safe.

            I am bringing up these data to indicate that eventually -if
anything went wrong with the candidate's health, in case he is elected- the
lady of the riffle, the inexperienced former governor of Alaska could become
President of the United States. It can be noticed that she does not know a
thing.

            Meditating on the current US public debt -$10,266 trillions-
that President Bush is laying on the shoulders of the new generations in
that country, I took to calculating how long it would take a man to count
the debt that he has doubled in eight years.

            A man working eight hours a day, without missing a second, and
counting one hundred one-dollar bills per minute, during 300 days in the
year, would need 710 billion years to count that amount of money.

            I could not find a more graphic way to describe the volume of
money that is practically mentioned every day now.

            In order to avoid a general state of panic, the US
administration has declared that it will secure deposits that do not exceed
250 thousand dollars. It will be managing banks and such funds as Lenin
would never have thought of counting with an abacus.

            We might be wondering about the contribution of Bush's
administration to Socialism. But, let's not entertain any illusions. Once
the banking operations go back to normal, the imperialists will return the
banks to the private business as some other countries in this hemisphere
have already done. The peoples always foot the bill.

            Capitalism tends to reproduce itself under any social system
because it is based on selfishness and on man's instincts.

            The only choice left to human society is to overcome this
contradiction; otherwise it would not be able to survive.

            At this time, the ocean of money being poured into the world
finances by the central banks of the developed capitalist countries is
dealing a hard blow to the Stock Exchanges of the countries which resort to
these institutions in an effort to beat their economic underdevelopment.
Cuba has no Stock Exchange. We shall certainly find more rational and more
socialist ways of financing our development.

            The current crisis and the brutal measures of the US
administration to save itself will bring more inflation, more devaluation of
the national currencies, more painful losses in the markets, lower prices
for basic export commodities and more unequal exchange. But, they will also
bring to the peoples a better understanding of the truth, a greater
conscience, more rebelliousness and more revolutions.

            We shall see how the crisis develops and what happens in the
United States in twenty-five days.

 

            Fidel Castro Ruz

            October 11, 2008

            6:15 p.m.             


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