From: ez000281@hamlet.ucdavis.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Re: Human Rights in Cuba
Date: 4 Jan 93 04:26:26 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Computing Services, UC Davis

Tanya Louise Daum writes:

>        If you wish to be dogmatic and insist on ideological purity, sure.
>However, you must realize that Marx himself was a jew, although he never
>practiced the jewish religion.  I don't think you can stereotype all
>self-professed Marxists this way, considering that it is a flexible and wide
>ranging philosophy.

Tanya,  if  you are a Marxist, specifically if you believe in the ideology 
expressed by Karl Marx in his writings from 1848 until his death, you will have 
to abide by the PRINCIPLE of philosophical materialism (see Engels, "Ludwig 
Feuerbach..."), in which god does not exist and religion (including judaism) is 
the opium of the masses.  If you are flexible on this one, you are certainly 
NOT a Marxist since the two pilar of marxisms are 1) philosophical materialism 
2) hegelian dialectics.  However in these days in which low grade communists 
ideologies are bankrupt, and people like Castro are trying to cling to anything 
that will generate support for his government, it it to now surprise that we 
will find "marxists" who say they believe in God.  Needless to say that Marxism 
is not to be equated with socialism, for socialist utopias have been created 
for a gamut of ideologies.

>        I don't believe that you can call call Castro a nationalist in the
>sense that he puts interests of the national state above the working class.
>Remember, this is the Cuba that sent troops to Angola and supported the
>Sandinistas, Allende's Chile, and other movements that claimed to be working
>class.  

Sure, but these movements represented no working class.  They represented the 
radicalized middle class and Castro's "support" was grounded on superpower 
politics, particularly the interest of the Soviet Union in expanding their 
communist empire (simply read Pravda on all of these topics).  So, Fidel was 
acting in the interest of his nation-state, since futher Soviet colonies in 
this hemispheres would free his dictatorship from isolation and sovietize Latin 
America and Africa in the process.  This is but one of the reasons we will not 
negotiate with Castro.

>For any part of the American continents excluding the U.S.
>nationalism means the autonomity of a certain cultural group, which does not
>conflict with the idea of an international working class.

I think its much more than that.  It is the belief in the existence of the 
nation-myth, an organism stemming from the "people" (not particular classes) 
which somehow agglutinates the ethos of different classes and populations into 
one single entity.  When Castro plays the nationalist card he is operating just 
like Stalin by resorting to the sentiments of all sectors of Cuban society as 
if they were only one, united by the Comandante.

>        But Castro is not a Stalinist -- I think in many ways his ideology
>cannot be compared to any of the European leaders.

Of course he can.  He believes that the Communist Party is the vanguard of the 
proletariat and the peseants. He believes the CP is to implement the 
dictatorship of the proletariat.  He believes in autoritarian rule.  He denies 
political competition and silences dissent.  The only difference with Stalin is 
that Fidel plays the Third World tune of Mao, and that he hasn't murdered as 
many humans as Stalin, only because he is in check by U.S. power.

>        I've heard the opposite, actually.  I don't think you could get away
>with outright racism in Cuba considering the division of the population into
>so many ethnic groups.

Sure, racism isn't "outright" its covert, which makes matters worse, since 
there is no disctinct group which can be singled out as culprit.  In spite of 
such below the radar racism, the CP copula is white (especially foreign 
ambassadors).  At least the Dominican socialdemocrats have done a better job 
with  Pen~a Gomez.

>        Again, I have heard that this is no worse than in most western
>nations ... Don't talk to me about homophobia in Cuba when all you have to
>do is step outside your front door and it's staring you in the face!

In my face?  We just happened to pass civil rights legislation to protect 
homosexuals (which by the way are the most affluent minority in the nation) 
from discrimination in California, while in Cuba they are blatantly denied 
privileges or are place in concentration camps so that they don't contaminate 
the local population of whores that serve Canadian tourists who wish to fuck 
jineteras for a pack of cigarettes. 

>>this is precisely the card that Fidel is playing right now.  Instead of
>>"Socialismo o Muerte" we will be hearing more of "Cuba jamas sera una colonia
>>yanqui".

>        You sound so definite about this!  How can you say that me claiming
>that I want American dominance of my country (Canada) and me being a
>socialist and believing that all workers must unite are incompatible.
>Remember that the purpose of nationalism in Cuba was and is to keep the
>American power bloc from controlling it -- I don't think Castro would have
>anything against American workers coming and living in or sharing space with
>Cuban workers.

Of course non-marxian "socialism" and nationalism are compatible.  Hitler 
proved it in 1939 and Stalin did so a few years later.  However, if one takes a 
close look at the "socialist" component of these models one  quickly sees that 
they hide an opressive system of class domination in which the national 
borgeoise submits workers and peaseants to the worst forms of opression under 
the guise of helping the "motherland".  As to Castro's friendship with U.S. 
workers, as long as its a small group of tourist, he has no problems with 
hosting Venceremos Brigade jerks who cut cane at 1/10 the pace of Cuban slave 
labor.  Once thousands of U.S. workers come and visit in some sick turn of 
events (without bringing in their $$$$) Castro will soon realize they will 
bankrupt his economy even further, unless he enslaves them as well.

Edelmiro