Marx Conference in Havana just completed

["michael a. lebowitz" <mlebowit@xxxxxx>]

Dear Friends and Comrades,

        

Here's a
brief (clearly personal) report on the Marx Conference in Havana (Karl
Marx and the Challenges of the 21st Century) that ran from 4-8 May; this
particularly may interest those who attended last year and/or thought
about coming this year.

        

In
general, in my opinion this conference was far more successful than last
year's (which was the first of these)--- despite a number of people who
didn't show (eg., David Harvey, Samir Amin) or who couldn't come at the
last minute because of health reasons (including Istvan Meszaros, Heinz
Holz and Pablo Gonzalez Casanova). What marked this conference was the
high participation of both Latin American intellectuals and activists and
also Cubans (whose interventions showed signs of considerable internal
debate). Ie., the pattern last time in which Cuban contributions were
limited at the outset and then restricted entirely as the conference
shifted to the new site which only permitted a plenary (which meant only
foreign visitors... and not all of them) did not reoccur.

        

The
conference was organised to have 4 commissions (with simultaneous
translation) every morning from 9 to 12:30 and then a plenary session
from 2-6:30. (The large majority of the Cuban papers were in the
commissions; the ones I attended were well-attended and involved good
discussion.) For me, the highlights of the plenary discussions (which had
up to about 400 people in the best-attended ones) were the first
afternoon discussion of imperialism (which involved a very strong
presentation by Leo Panitch and an interesting one on the working class
by Ricardo Antunes of Brazil); the second day's slashing critique of the
ANC and then the South African Communist Party by Trevor Ngwane, a leader
in the anti-privatisation struggles in SA; an electrifying panel on day 3
on problems of socialist transitions involving 3 Cubans (Miguel Limia in
particular), myself and Han Deqiang of Beijing (who very strongly put the
Chinese counter-revolution on the table-- which was very important for
the Cubans to hear and which was the main source of excitement); and, the
strong statements in particular of the indigenous activists from Ecuador
and Bolivia in day 4's panel on class struggle and political
representation in Latin America.

        

The last
day, Saturday, was all plenary and was the highlight. It opened with a
panel on state and revolutionary power with Atilio Boron of Argentina,
Olga Fernandez and Jesus Garcia Brigos of Cuba and Gabriel Vargas of
Mexico and involved an animated discussion from panelists and audience on
the concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The afternoon was
devoted to a session on the originality of the Venezuelan revolution,
organised by Marta Harnecker. This began with a showing of the video,
'With the Poor of the Earth', which traces that revolution (beginning
with Chavez's underground military movement) up to last April 's
solidarity conference. This was followed by a panel from Venezuela of
Marta Harnecker, Roberto Viciano (a Spanish lawyer who has been advising
the government on constitutional and legal matters), Jorge Perez Mancebo
(a Marxist economist who advises the president of PDVSA, the oil company,
and who talked about the oil economy), the minister of science and
technology (whose name I forget-- a last minute substitute for the
Minister of Labour, who had to stay because of a steel strike and a visit
from the ILO) and, finally, a very powerful presentation from Rudolfo
Sanz, a Marxist theorist-- the main theorist of the PPT, one of the
Chavist parties. The final session before the closing was a tribute to
Paul Sweezy with the participation of Leo Panitch and Juan Valdes (who
met with Sweezy on several occasions when he visited Cuba) and me.

        

Missing
(to the surprise of many) from the conference this year was Fidel---
although it was expected until the last moment that he would be present
all day on saturday and would speak at the closing (as he did in this
year's Globalisation conference). (Daily reports on discussions were
provided to Fidel to prepare him for this eventuality.) One explanation
that I heard from Cubans involved in the conference organisation is that
Fidel had not appeared anywhere since the new Bush offensive was
announced... and that if he spoke anywhere, he would have to address the
question (which then would have been viewed as the official government
response). Sunday night, though, another explanation presented itself---
that was the extraordinary announcement of the temporary closure of the
dollar stores in Cuba to permit the increase in prices in order to cope
with the anticipated effect of reduced dollar remittances and US tourist
revenues as the result of the Bush measures. Discussion of these measures
and the nature of a response clearly took priority over attendance at the
Marx Conference (which, as I've proposed above, did quite well on its
own).

        

Finally,
let me note that the day before the conference there was a pre-conference
on Cuba itself (at the same site--- the Palace of Conventions): a morning
on the economy and afternoon on politics and society. I found it
excellent and could have benefited much from a week of this! Here, as
with the conference itself, there was lots of discussion but never enough
time. So, while I'm certain other people would pick out different
highlights, I think that--- in terms of the quality, the relevance and
the extent of participation--- this was the best conference I've been to
in Cuba. (My comparison is to the Globalisation conferences, the
'Philosophers' conferences and one organised in February 2000.) In fact,
it is one of the best I've ever been to. My understanding is that the
organisers were very happy, too. The next conference is planned for May
2006--- two years from now, and the hope is to use the website
(www.nodo50.org/cubasigloXXI/
) for discussions in the meantime.

        

in
solidarity,

        

michael

        

Michael A. Lebowitz

Professor Emeritus

Economics Department

Simon Fraser University

Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at

Residencias Anauco Suites

Departamento 601

Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1

Caracas, Venezuela

(58-212) 573-4111

fax: (58-212) 573-7724