On 4/13/21 6:50 PM, Roger Kulp wrote:
So you might understand how someone like myself might question the stories coming out of Xinjiang, and might find them more believable if either a country like Cuba came out in support of the Uyghurs,
Roger, Cuba is desperately reliant on China for the provision of critically needed goods like buses, farming equipment, medicine, etc. It would be suicidal for the government to offer support for the Uyghurs.
Countries in the position of trying to build socialism against overwhelming odds often make decisions at odds with their socialist values. For example, the USSR wanted to cement ties to Turkey in the early 1920s. It even looked the other way when Mustafa Kemal killed the top leadership of the Turkish CP.
I've been following Cuban foreign policy ever since 1967 when I joined the SWP. In the late 80s, I used to meet with a diplomat, who might be described as an intelligence officer, from the Cuban Mission to begin sending computer programmers to Cuba. A month or two into this partnership, the FBI conducted a sweep of our returned volunteers from Nicaragua to build a case that we were involved with espionage. The outcry was so deep that the FBI was forced to drop its investigation.
One thing to keep in mind. Cuba must always be careful not to alienate powerful states that for their own reasons defy the imperialist blockade. Cuba never once denounced Franco when he ruled Spain. Because there is a large number of Spanish immigrant families in Cuba, including Fidel's father, commercial ties flourished through import-export channels run by these immigrants. No matter how much of an anti-Communist Franco was, he always maintained the status quo. If Fidel gave speeches about the fascist dictatorship in Spain, it would have the same kind of consequences as backing Uyghur rights.
Same thing with Mexico. Because of the PRI's long-standing nationalist legacy, it refused to join the Organization of American States in mounting economic and political pressure on Cuba. It traded with Cuba and even put down the red carpet for Fidel when he came to Mexico on state visits. Guess what. When the PRI slaughtered student protesters in 1968, Fidel did not say a thing.
Those are the compromises that Cuba has to make. If we make a revolution in the USA, there will be no need for such violation of socialist principles. We'll leave that to the anarchists and the worst of the "socialism from below" contingent that maintains such purity but with so little impact.
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