====================================================================== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. ======================================================================
How does one define "New Cuban Left" ? Thanks, Mike G. El pueblo armado jamas sera aplastado! ________________________________ From: Ken Hiebert <knhieb...@shaw.ca> To: Mr. Goodman <godisamethod...@yahoo.com> Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2012 10:59 AM Subject: [Marxism] What are Cubans thinking? ====================================================================== Rule #1: YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. ====================================================================== I sent a message titled New Cuban Left Position on Syria and it has provoked a number of responses. Among them - Daniel Rocha: Whenever I see criticism of Cuba, it's a criticism to the right, to reform capitalism. And nowadays, the discourse of reform of capitalism is of great importance to the capitalists, given that there is a growing world wide wave of the workers, given the intensification of the crisis. Cuba is a great escape goat/sacrificial lamb for these people. Can I trust that website? Is it really not a Trojan horse? Stansfield Smith: This is not some left position, nor some Cuban position. This is right-wing BS emanating from where all right-wing BS originates about Cuba. Suresh: The Havana Times is an anti-revolutionary right-wing news site, so it's no surprise that they should promote the counter-revolutionary critical observatory group that is promoting the pro-Israeli, Islamic fundamentalist Free Syria Army. As it happens, most left-wingers not under the sway of Zionism and neo-conservatism are not transfixed by the eminent overthrow of the Assad regime. To be blunt, the fate of the Cuban revolution is infinitely more important than a civil war in Syria from a Marxist perspective. Stansfield Smith: Again, this is not some left position, nor some Cuban position. All these Kautskyite ISO/ State Department socialist types on this list like to dig up all this garbage to throw at Cuba. Cuba's views are represented on granma.cu website. michael a. lebowitz: If you want to get a sense of what the Havana Times communicates, go to their site and search 'Dilla'. Ken Hiebert responds: While the website is based outside Cuba (in Nicaragua I think) the writers are genuinely Cuban and are giving their real names, as far as I can tell. Are they guided and paid by the U. S. government? From a distance I cannot say. Presumably the Cuban government would be watching that and would charge them if there were evidence that they were receiving money from abroad. I have only a little Spanish and I have never set foot in Cuba, so I must defer to those who have been there. Whoever on this list has been to Cuba, your reports would be much appreciated. I must rely on what little information comes my way. A friend of mine has been to Cuba four or five times now. On her first trips she was sent by her teachers federation to work in Cuba with teachers of English. She has formed same connections and has returned to Cuba to spend time with her friends. I sent her the link to Havana Times and she told me that it represents the thinking of some Cubans she has met. She tells me her closest friend in simply not interested in politics. Another friend of mine had contact with a Cuban band touring on the west coast in Canada. He described the band as being representative of Cuban society, some supporters of the revolution, some hostile to the revolution (or at least to the government) and some not interested in politics. The Cuban authorities have not moved to suppress participation in the website. I applaud their decision. This could indicate self confidence on their part or simply the realization that views that are suppressed over a long period have a way of exploding in civil strife. Or maybe they want to take energy of those on the website and use it to push reforms in Cuba. As I have been following the website I have seen the writers becoming bolder in criticism of the government, seemingly testing the limits of what can be said. I won't be surprised to read articles showing illusions in American democracy or other mistaken views. Some of the material I have read strikes me as naive. We don't have to agree with what we see in Havana Times. But I think we can agree that suppressing participation in that site would not help the Cuban Revolution. If you can, get a copy of La Vida es Silbar, which told me a lot about the Cuban experience. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plEGS7aOacI ken h ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/godisamethodist%40yahoo.com ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
