From: ez007856@hamlet.ucdavis.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Re: Cuban-Cubans speak on Cuba
Date: 24 Jul 92 17:17:25 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, UC Davis

In 1473800092@igc.org> Dr. Arnold Matlin writes:


>Sounds like another look at the symptoms rather than the disease.
>Any small country under economic attack by the U.S. will be out of light
          ^^^^^^^^^
>bulbs and toilet paper.

>Nicaragua was in the same dismal economic shape in the late 880's
  ^^^^^^^^
>and early 90's.  It takes a certain amount of chutzpah for our govern-
                                                               ^^^^^^^^
>ment to use economic warfare to bring a country to its knees and then
^^^^^
>proclaim that its leaders are making economic mistakes.
                   ^^^^^^^^

>Cuba today is a besieged nation and mtaking the same steps that
                         ^^^^^^
>most nqations take when they are under attack.
     ^^^^^^^^

>If and when the U.S. can reestablish control over Cuba, we will                                                 
>see the same return of the "Miami Boys" that we saw in Nicaragua.  There
>will be plqenty of light bulbs and toilet paper on the shelves of the
>stores, but the average person won't be able to afford them.
        
>LLLet's keep up the struggle for a normalization of relations
>with Cuba and the watch what happens.
     ^^^^
        In Solidarity
        Arnie Matlin

Dear Dr. Matlin:

I note that in your letter responding to the opinions of the Cuban people on 
their government you fail to distinguish between the people of  Cuba and the 
rulers of Cuba, in the same manner that you distinguished between the citizens 
of the U.S. and the government of the U.S..  Your argument implies that there 
is a monolithic block in Cuba, where classes have ceased to exist and where a 
Russeau-type democracy is place.  I also note thay you have assumed that Mr. 
Castro and his cohorts are "leaders" of Cuba, in spite of the opinions of the 
Cubans in the posting, and also leave behind the comments on the "facist" 
practices of el comandante.   

I can only assume that you are clinging to the myth that the world is a 
manicchean cell in  which "Miami boys" are pitted against Cuban "leaders"; in  
which Nicaraguan toilet paper and light bulb consumers are faced  before 
pauperized masses which could previously enjoy these luxuries of industrial 
capitalism  when the Sandinistas were in Power.  

Well, I'm sorry to say that things aren't so clear cut.  The Ortega brothers, 
"leaders" of the proletarian vanguard and peseant masses in Nicaragua could 
readily enjoy toilet paper, light bulbs, and designer glasses unavailable to 
"their people".  Likewise, in Cuba the ruling class has access to all these 
commodities "on the shelves of the stores, but the average person won't be 
able to afford them", nor will he even be able to enter such stores without 
being taken away by the "Cuban people's" government and treated as a hooker, 
hoodlum, or counterrevolutionary. So, as you may see, there is no need for the 
"Miami boys" to return to Cuba to see that class exploitation on the part of 
ruling "leaders" continues in Cuba for the sole purpose of assuring their 
permanence in power and the privileges of these postions. 

So, all I ask of you, Dr. Matlin, is that in further comments about Cuba you 
simply specify which Cuban people you are reffering to when you talk about 
"normalizations".  The poor (generally black) Cubans who spoke symptomatically 
about where their county should head and differ from you as to where their 
fellow Cubans should move?  Or are you talking about the last real stalinists 
on earth that are entrenched in power and want to remain true to their promise 
of "socialism or death"?  As far as I'm concerned it will be the Cuban people 
themselves who will decide their own future when finally excercising universal 
sufferage and not some gringo(a) who believes that the vanguard of the 
proletariat should make them endure further hardships in order to prove a 
point to yanqui imperialists and assure the survival of something which has 
been labeled "socialism" by cold blooded despots who wish to cleanse their 
hand under a veil of ideology, as did their predecesors when attempting to 
build "socialism in one country".

Edelmiro Salas