Re: [OPE] Socialism in Cuba and Scandanavian social democracy

paulbullock@ebms-ltd.co.uk

Well said Jerry.

paul B.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: GERALD LEVY 
  To: Outline on Political Economy mailing list 
  Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2008 2:33 PM
  Subject: RE: [OPE] Socialism in Cuba and Scandanavian social democracy

    > This is a defence of the violent way to Socialism and the alleged 

    > extraordinary role of one man, Fidel Castro. Have we learnt something 

    > from the Soviet experience?

    Alejandro:

    What we should have learned, not just from the Soviet experience but

    from all of modern history, is that the capitalist class will not voluntarily 

    hand over power to workers without a fight. That was a lesson that Harnecker

    learned: after all, she lived through what happened along the

    path to the "peaceful road to socialism" in Chile. 

    There are many people which are "extraordinary". To think that a single 

    individual is incapable of affecting history is the worst kind of 

    mechanistic and deterministic Marxism.  

    > It is a pity that socialists have not arrived to a consensus on this matter.

    Agreed - reformism should have been rejected by socialists as

    far back as the 19th Century. The demise of the Meidner Plan in 

    Sweden is yet another example of what happens when a legislative path to

    socialism alone is followed. The capitalist class in Sweden did 

    exactly what Marx would have predicted  - they forced the withdrawal 

    of the plan.

    I guess in _your_ world the ruling class can be expected to give up 

    without a fight.  That's not the world _I_ live in or the world Castro 

    lives in.  Had the Cubans not been vigilant for sabotage, then the 

    Bay of Pigs and a counter-revolution might have been successful and there

    would have been another bloodbath - probably one that would have

    made what happened on and after September 11, 1973 in Chile look like

    a minor incident. Happily, the Bolivarian revolutionaries in Venezuela 

    have made it clear that they will, if necessary, fight to preserve and 

    extend their gains and prevent international imperialism and the 

    corrupt oligarchy that had owned and plundered the wealth of that nation 

    from derailing the revolution. A positive sign there is that workers

    and peasants in poor communities have been armed (and armed 

    intellectually as well with the creation of a much more extensive 

    college system that it open to all).  After the failed coup,

    and the continuing provocations by the US and the reactionary and

    privileged domestic elite, this was a necessary and logical step.

    In solidarity, Jerry

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  _______________________________________________
  ope mailing list
  ope@lists.csuchico.edu
  https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope

_______________________________________________
ope mailing list
ope@lists.csuchico.edu
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope