From: GERALD LEVY (gerald_a_levy@msn.com)
Date: Mon Jun 30 2008 - 12:43:42 EDT
> It has nothing to do with the response of the masses, Hi Paul C; Even in a society with one-party rule, different sections of the leadership can be empowered - or not - by the masses. The types of market socialist reforms under Deng were only possible because of the grievances by the people concerning the previous period (the same could be said about the market socialist reforms introduced by Gorbachev in the USSR). > but> of sections within the leadership of a socialist country who> end up favoring the widening use of market mechanisms.> In a hierarchical state with a president or head of state> the person in that position holds great influence. Even> individuals of personal revolutionary heroism can end up> favoring, and enforcing, the restoration of market relations> as the experience of Deng, an old Long Marcher shows.> So long as Cuba has in effect a centralized decision making> body whose social composition is unrepresentative by > background and current situation with that of the population > as a whole, a similar situation can occur. One can't look at this question so abstractly. You have to look at the different tendencies within the Cuban Communist Party and their relative strength. Put in that context, the factions which might favor market socialism (or capitalist restoration) are relatively weak and don't have mass support. The Cuban Communist Party is also organized internally in different ways than the Chinese Communist Party was and has different traditions for conflict resolution. The kind of 'show trial' that we saw, for instance, against the so-called "Gang of 4" could not happen in Cuba, imo. Furthermore, there is more of a tradition in Cuba of allowing for and encouraging public debate and the government does not have the same record as the Chinese government did in terms of suppression of dissent. In solidarity, Jerry _______________________________________________ ope mailing list ope@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
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