Re: [OPE] Che Guevara Economics of Revolution

Dear A. Mariñas-Flores:   It is important to distinguish two realms on which our discussions move on. I don’t know exactly how to define these realms, but one of them concerns what’s going on in those socialist regimes in progress. Focusing on this realm, you can’t support the systematic reduction of political and civil liberties without incurring in an open contradiction–if you consider yourself a socialist.   But my post on Yaffe’s abstract rests in the other realm. It should not awake on you such a ferocious answer, unless you are those kinds of socialists that wallow in wearing a Che T-shirt without any appreciation for open discussion. Since you are in OPE-L, I’ll assume that you are not these kind closed militant-minded socialists.   But you seem to be confusing both realms indeed. Since Yaffe announces to face “the caricature of Guevara as a romantic guerrilla fighter� and I read the papers of the Cuban controversy, ending convinced of that caricature, I’m just manifesting my expectative.   As I wrote, IF (a conditional sentence) the contribution of the Cuban economic experience is gathered in the papers of the Cuban controversy, the stylized theory that Marxists are desperately needing is definitely missing.   Do you have expertise on this controversy or the other one concerning Austrian school of Economics? If you do, I’ll be delighted to discuss some chapters with you. But remember, we are not in a communist party where you can open a disciplinary proceedingto punish me because of my dissidence.   Regards,A. Agafonow ________________________________ De: Abelardo Mariña Flores <abmf@prodigy.net.mx> Para: Outline on Political Economy mailing list <ope@lists.csuchico.edu> Enviado: viernes, 20 de febrero, 2009 10:15:15 Asunto: Re: [OPE] Che Guevara Economics of Revolution Dear Agafonow, Who I am supposed to address, in response, to your last message? You? Helen Yaffe? Your interpretation of H.  Yaffe's book, that you have not yet read (¡¡¡)? Awesome¡ You derive, implicitly-explicitly (it's hard to know), HARD hypothesis from a book before reading it (¡¡) (Congratulations!!). You "don't want to rush to make a judgement" (I'm citing you); but that's exactly what you do. Why would you have to read the book? You already know the conclusions (I guess, it's only a guess, that you read that part; maybe before buying the book. Shame one you.) In my opinion, humble, your analytical "method" is essentially flawed. Sorry¡; about my humble opinion.  I have learned to know, from your prior responses to people that DARE  to comment ANY of your posts, that, probably, your response to me (if any) will lead to state that : a) I am a complete ignorant about anything related with what you state; b) I am a Stalinist. It would be fruitful not to receive this type of response. Maybe we could start to communicate. Maybe. Regards, Abelardo Mariña-Flores    El 19/02/2009, a las 01:55 p.m., Alejandro Agafonow escribió: 1) Helen Yaffe: ** The caricature of Guevara as a romantic guerrilla fighter… It censors the complexity of economic decisions and debates within the Cuban Revolution, as if the revolutionaries who seized power on 1 January 1959 were chaotic adventurers whose economic policies were based on a naïve ideological agenda and not reflecting concrete conditions and constraints in the process of development.**   I read the Cuban papers on this controversy and after writing a PhD dissertation on the controversy of the impossibility of economic calculation, my impression of the Cuban controversy is pretty much that Che Guevara and his comrades were chaotic adventurers.   But this is not a problem of Cuban Marxists economists only. The Marxist thought–before Cottrell and Cockshott–suffered from an utopianism that impeded them to comprehend basic economic problems, and it keeps being the case indeed, as C&C’s work has not been assimilated and still is unknown by many Marxists.     2) Helen Yaffe: **The research carried out for this book involves interviews with 50 of Guevara's colleagues during his work as President of the National Bank of  Cuba (1959-1960)… Their ideas, values and capacities evolved with their experience of working at his side.**   One thing is the economic pragmatism that Cubans were forced to adopt at the heat of Cold War, and other thing is the capability to synthesize these pragmatic decisions in the form of a stylized theory able to offer a distinct contribution to economic theory, providing an instrument to guide the chaotic adventure of other communists (e.g. Chávez in Venezuela).   If the contribution of the Cuban economic experience is gathered in the papers of the Cuban controversy, this stylized theory is definitely missing. I have not read yet the book of H. Yaffe, but I hope to find a clear differentiation between both realms. If not, it is unlikely to find any good insight into the feasibility of a socialist economy. But I don’t want to rush to make a judgement. I’ll buy and read it soon.   Regards,A. Agafonow ________________________________ De: Gerald Levy <jerry_levy@verizon.net> Para: Outline on Political Economy mailing list <ope@lists.csuchico.edu> Enviado: jueves, 19 de febrero, 2009 15:41:43 Asunto: Re: [OPE] Che Guevara Economics of Revolution Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution by Helen Yaffe 'I didn't know Che had any economic ideas' has been a frequent reply I've received when telling people about the topic of my research and my book Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution.   It reflects the caricature of Guevara as a romantic guerrilla fighter with idealist notions of how human beings are motivated and how social change is brought about.  The consequence is to overlook his contribution to Cuba's economic development and socialist political economy debates and hence to lose any lessons that can be drawn from his endeavours. It censors the complexity of economic decisions and debates within the Cuban Revolution, as if the revolutionaries who seized power on 1 January 1959 were chaotic adventurers whose economic policies were based on a naïve ideological agenda and not reflecting concrete conditions and constraints in the process of development.  For example, Cuba's incorporation into the socialist bloc's trade relations, its continued dependence on sugar as a principal export and the importation of 'backward' technology from the socialist countries are viewed as political preferences -- with little recognition made of the limits placed on Cuba's development path by the imposition of the US blockade or the denial of credit from the Western countries.  It also plays into the interpretation that sees Fidel Castro as synonymous with the Revolution, so that all policies were generated by this one omnipresent individual according to his whims, psychological traits and struggle
 for domination. The research carried out for this book involves interviews with 50 of Guevara's colleagues during his work as President of the National Bank of Cuba (1959-1960), head of the Department of Industrialisation (1959-1961) and Minister of Industries (1961-1965).  These individuals were not passive or homogenous.  They were as varied and complicated as the rest of us.  Their ideas, values and capacities evolved with their experience of working at his side.  From their recollections springs a dynamic and rich history of grappling with problems, searching for solutions and experimenting with policies, structures and techniques.  Guevara's own voice emerges through them -- giving us an insight into the development of his own work and ideas.  It is also recorded in the internal meeting transcripts, reports, speeches, articles and letters consulted during the research for this book. In late September 2008, George W Bush, perhaps the most neo-liberal, anti-regulation, aggressively imperialist US president in history, declared: 'The market is not functioning properly.'  What did he mean?  The market is failing to secure the continued accumulation and expansion of capital -- threatening a crisis of the entire capitalist system and throwing into question the most basic premises of bourgeois economics.  For decades it has been hammered into us that only the free market ensures efficiency, productivity and growth -- the profit motive via cutthroat competition, deregulation and removing all constraints to 'rational economic man'.  But what form of rationality justifies the fact that 200 individuals have more wealth than over 40% of the world's population?  What logic leaves 12 million children under the age of five to die every year from malnutrition, diarrhoea and easily preventable diseases?  Is this a rational way for humanity to
 organise production and distribution -- making hundreds of species extinct each day and leading the world towards an ecological disaster? If the market isn't functioning what alternatives are there?  There have been few such poignant moments in history to talk about the economics of revolution.  In rescuing Guevara's work as a member of the Cuban government, this book hopes to place his economic ideas firmly on the table for consideration in the search for alternatives. Helen Yaffe, a Teaching Fellow in Latin American history at University College London, is the author of Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution.   She has an article in the March 2009 issue of the journal Latin American Perspectives, a special issue commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.  This article first appeared as an entry in her blog on 12 December 2008 under a creative commons 2.5 license. URL: <http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/yaffe180209.html>  _______________________________________________ ope mailing list ope@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope

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Received on Fri Feb 20 13:57:10 2009