[Marxism] Sam Farber and other, better, things...

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Samuel Farber is a vulgar and repugnant punk. There are so many 
factual errors and downright fabrications in Farberâs essay one 
can only assume that its purpose is to justify the overthrow of 
the Cuban government. That is Farberâs actual political position, 
though he does not say so openly. His workâs publication in the 
journal Socialist Worker signifies his general agreement with the 
ISOâs position of relentless hostility toward the Cuban Revolution.

Thatâs really all I could think of this evening after watching the 
evening news broadcast here in Cuba. Iâd read and re-read his 
âcriticismâ of Cuban foreign policy, published in the International 
Socialist Organizationâs organ, SOCIALIST WORKER yesterday and again 
today. According to Farberâs interpretation, Cuban foreign policy is 
based on its own narrowly-conceived self-interest, except when it 
was subordinated to its role as a junior partner in what Farber 
refers to as the Soviet âempireâ.

Farber falsified Cubaâs record on Czechoslovakia and the 1968 
invasion by the Soviet Union, since Cubaâs âendorsementâ, which 
included statements that the action was both illegal and a violation 
of the national rights of Czechoslovakia was so strong that it could 
not be reproduced inside the Soviet Union. Anyone interested in more 
on that episode can read Joseph Hansenâs essay about it published in 
1968.
http://www.walterlippmann.com/hansen-castro-czechoslovakia-1968.html 

Farber concludes, as if this were some kind of crime,
â Cuban support for liberation movements has been based on the
interests of the Cuban state as defined by its leaders, and not on a
commitment to revolutionary doctrine.â

Who else, one wonders, should define what are the national interests of the
Cuban state, if not its leader???
http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/07/contradictions-of-cubas-foreign-policy 

Among the stories featured on Cuban television news tonight was a major 
rally held on the steps of the University of Havana today, called by the 
Federation of University Students. The rally included singing by grade-school 
children, as well as singing by adults in several different traditional and 
contemporary Cuban artistic form, from poetry performed by artists trading 
spontaneously-improvised lyrics, hip-hop, and straight narrative reading. 
No government officials spoke, but the Palestinian ambassador to Cuba, 
speaking in fluent Spanish (with a slight Castillian accent), was 
particularly moving. A chorus from the University even sang a U.S. Negro 
spiritual, âRide the Chariotâ in English. The song includes a line about 
the arrival of judgement day.

Also today President Raul Castro met with the president of Cape Verde, 
and First Vice-President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura met with the foreign 
minister of Kenya. The countries expressed their desire to further deepen 
friendship and mutual collaboration.

Another story tonight focused on a joint meeting by Brazilian President 
Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias in 
which they spoke about prospects for improved relations with Washington 
under the upcoming administration of Barack Obama and their own plans for 
deepened bi-lateral cooperation in the context of the deepening of Latin 
American integration.

None of this kind of thing is of any interest to the likes of Farber, 
an unrelenting enemy of the Cuban Revolution for many long decades.

Walter Lippmann
Havana, Cuba


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

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