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>From new Cuba blog "Cuba's Socialist Renewal" http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above As noted previously, there is a rich discussion and debate taking place among Cuba's revolutionary intelligentsia about how to "change everything that must be changed". Most of this debate is inaccessible to English-speaking audiences. Temas is a highly respected Cuban journal edited by Cuban political scientist Rafael Hernandez. Launched in 2005 as "a space for critical reflection and debate", it also publishes contributions from progressive intellectuals outside Cuba. The following essay appeared in the October-December 2009 edition. Carlos Alzugaray Treto is a Cuban writer, diplomat and professor, lecturing at Havana University and the Raul Roa Garcia Higher Institute of International Relations. With degrees in history and diplomacy, a master's degree in contemporary history and a doctorate in historical sciences, Alzugaray Treto is considered an expert on US-Cuba relations. He has had a long and impressive diplomatic career, serving as Cuba's ambassador to the European Union from 1994-6. "Cuba fifty years on: continuity and political change" is a superb summary of the political and economic challenges facing the Cuban Revolution today, a panorama that demands nothing less than an integral transformation of Cuba's socialist model. Taking in the broad sweep of the past half-century of revolution, Alzugaray Treto's grounded analysis and sober optimism is an antidote to the shrill catastrophism emanating from some quarters of the international left who fear that the reform process will lead to capitalist restoration. This essay is representative of the best analysis contributed by what could be called the critical renovationist current within the Cuban Revolution, one pole in the national debate initiated by Raul Castro. This current is led by the PCC leadership. At the other pole are those who are wary of debate and fearful of change, some because they cling to erroneous or obsolete ideas about socialism, others because they defend administrative prerogatives and, in some cases, illicit privileges due to corruption. Within the critical renovationist current there is a spectrum of opinion on what must be changed and how these changes should be carried out. The PCC leadership strives for consensus on the most important changes while urging a break with the harmful practice of false unanimity. It's well worth reading and absorbing this insightful essay in full. Given its length, some 10 pages in Temas, I'm going to translate and post it in instalments. Access to the journal's online archives requires a subscription, so email me if you'd like me to send you a PDF version of the Spanish original. For those who read Spanish and are interested, I've included the author's footnotes in the translation. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/01/translation-cuba-continuity-and.html ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
