Joe Higgins speaks on 'Che and fight against capitalism today'

by cropbeye Tue Apr 07, 2009 20:02 cropbeye at yahoo dot com

Was glad to see that he didn't bottle criticism o f Cuba.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics: Dignity Wed Apr 08, 2009 19:11

Very interesting commentary Joe and nicely time the day before our budget.

Personally I wonder if the FF contingent did any research, for the depression promised, based on successes in Cuba.

One TV programme comes to mind. I can't recall the specifics but it was about Health and the exceptional system it has (okay infrastructure may be heywire) but values clearly rest with the importance of the Human Being.

As a daughter of 2 doctors who worked for the Dispensary system of medicine from the 1950's to the 1990's in a rural practice near Dublin, I recall the long hours, the weekend work, the number of calls done by both each day. There were the OAP's and their monthly visit and then there were the daily calls that came in at any time of the day......crisis invariably meant a call out.

Back to the programme.......calls are out of fashion in Ireland, the patient no matter how ill have to face out to the allocated surgery time table.........Personally, I believe the GP loses out considerably in this regard. However, the time has come for our medical profession to start reviewing their social history and learning some lessons from the experience of the forebearers.....medical and of course Hippocrates......

In Cuba, there is a universality of health but there is a core of wisdom used, the doctors visit the homes of their patients at least three times p.a. because, it enables them to gain a more holistic view, to guide their patient through illness.......

World Eminent, Cardiac Surgeon, wrote an interesting piece in the Irish Times Health Supplement yesterday. He spoke of the importance of house calls and their possible increase, given change in policies.

Here is a man who is retired, yet involves himself in writing for the Health supplement in the Times, possibly lectures and a man with experience.

Why are we paying people who are far removed from the Hippocratic pledge and the credo that if you cannot do anything, then at least do no harm.

The salary scale is off record based in historic work carried out by the medical profession, in the years of hardship, of TB, Whooping Cough, the Mother and Baby scheme so shamefully neglected not so many decades ago.

Why.......it must be greed!!!

Mr. Higgins - you must stress more so how successful the Cuba system is.....the value of life.... the fact that inspite of sanctions by America on medically equipment, certain exceptional people including certain Irish consultants who ensure that any out of date, spare, whatever medicines, equipment etc. are sent to Cuba.

Health is core......you lose it and it is gone.....you are a potential for nothing other than a rubbish heep unless somebody cares. Advocates are rare to find and particularly those with stamina to withstand the vargaries of a Health System that is a monolith of bureaucracy misdirected and overpaid.

Today we have had the Budget from hell ......... the Emergency Budget........to deal with what I would call negligent lending procedures by certain banks.

The Examiner sums it up nicely.

If you earn Euros 50,000 (Doctors, Nurses, Consultants) are paid more surely and quite a lot.

The Examiner refer to 'The Pain'

Income Levy up E41.75

Health Levy up E83.67

Diesel up Euros 10.00

Childcare relief down Euros 41.00

Mortgage Relief down Euros 170.00

Fags up Euros 7.50

The cost a month is £533.92 (approx. the same as Invalidity benefit from the UK

The cost is Euros4,247.04

WE NEED SOME SERIOUS THINKING HERE......WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE ERNST AND YOUNG TOP EARNERS FOR THE PREVIOUS YEAR..........

(Based on single income family, a child under 6, with a Euros 300,000 mortgage for more than years......

Can anyone say how the Health Levy can be increased!!!!

Then we await Mary Harney's proposed elderly divestiture of property and assets for long term care............

Michelle Clarke

by Bill O'Brien Thu Apr 09, 2009 12:05

It was with great sadness and disgust that those of us in the Cuban Solitary Campaign Ireland viewed last week’s TG4 program “Ché”. The way Cuba was portrayed by this so called Irish Socialist Joe Higgins was misleading and abusive of the Cuban People.

Higgins was intent on drawing a wedge between Ché and Fidel for his own silly little political aims. He went to Cuba with pre conceived ideas and walked around Havana for a couple of days in order to confirm them.

He found Cuba to be bureaucratically run, with the people living in slums, with no modern cars. He believes Cuba to be dependent on tourism, he found prostitution in the tourist areas - all of this was very disillusioning for poor Joe, being brought up as he was in a holy place like Dingle.

Joe missed out on the great achievements on the Cuban Revolution. How a school teacher like Joe totally ignored the Cuban education system is beyond belief. Children in Cuba have a special position in society. The resources of the state are directed towards them. Anyone who has seen these children going to school will have been stunned at their joyfulness, their attire and their enthusiasm for education. Children in Cuba are educated for their own self-development. Education is seen as being integral to the advancement of human beings and the objective of true freedom. Was it not Jose Martí, in echoing the great Thomas Davis, who pronounced that ‘to be cultured is to be free’? Education and other social services in Cuba are not for the benefit multinationals, as they are in Ireland and other neo-liberal societies. You would think that Joe could have mentioned this.

This brings me to the health service in Cuba, something else Joe Higgins ignored. The Cubans produce thousands of doctors each year not only for Cuba but also for working in 70 ‘third world’ countries around the globe. Cuban doctors have preformed over one million cataract eye operations in South America, Africa and Asia. They even had thousands of doctors ready to go to the USA after the Hurricane Katrina. The USA refused this offer. Very few of these doctors defect to the “first world”, which shows that Cuban socialism produces a very different kind of person. Yes there are prostitutes in Cuba. Yes there are people who want McDonalds & Nike. But there also exist in Cuba people who have struggled without stop to bring about the birth of a new world order. They have done so 90 miles from the greatest empire ever known to humankind. They have never wavered. They fought through the social nightmare of the ‘special period’, and have never been stronger than they are now. The existence of such people is clearly beyond the comprehension of Joe Higgins.

Higgins had to admit that the US Blockade of Cuba held back the revolution. What resources the Cubans have go into Health, Education and Housing. The fact that a lot of Havana might need a coat of paint does not mean that the people live in squalor, all have water, all have electricity and cleanliness is of the utmost importance to these people. Higgins pointed out that they live on rations. These rations are the essentials needed for good health. They also get wages on top of that for recreation and fun. Sport is a major part in Cuban life. Higgins ignored this also. Music is the real god in Cuba. Higgins also missed that one. Cuba has been attacked by outside forces from US agents to the Mafia to disgruntle ex property owners now living in Miami. And now it is attacked by Joe Higgins and his unpractical, idealistic form of Socialism.

How would you build socialism under the conditions of Cuba Joe? Your focus on the ‘bureaucracy’, and there is such a thing in Cuba, would seek to deny the very deep democracy that exists in that country. You had nothing to say about that because you believe Cuba to be a dictatorship. Maybe you felt that the type of programme you were making wouldn’t really permit you to say it. It is what you believe all the same isn’t it?? How mistaken you are in that belief ‘comrade’.

Finally. The most disgusting thing of all was the flashing of the photographs of the Cuban Heroes (the Miami Five) across the television screen without giving and explanation of who they were or even naming them. This was done at a point in the show when Joe was talking about the lack of ‘freedom of the press’. The implication being that this is all propaganda. These men are in jail now 12 years they are true international socialists. Higgins and his infantile friends could learn a lot from them.

Bill O’Brien

by Mark P - scrawledincrayon@yahoo.com Thu Apr 09, 2009 15:16

The fact that Joe Higgins' honest portrayal of Cuba upset a few ageing Stalinists is a good advert for its accuracy.

In fact, Joe Higgins spoke in some detail about the advances brought by the Cuban revolution, including its health system and other social services and he also was scathing about the US blockade. No doubt Bill would have been happy if he had left it at that and had omitted any mention of the other serious problems in the country - the crushing bureaucracy and the near complete lack of democracy and all of the consequences those things bring. Unfortunately pleasing Bill would have meant misleading the Irish public and covering up the problems of Stalinism.

The fact that Bill confuses bureaucratic dictatorship with "very deep democracy" tells you all you need to know about his political views. The fact that he puts "freedom of the press" in scare quotes tells us all we need to know about his views on free speech. The best advocates of the gains brought by the Cuban revolution, believe it or not Bill, are not Stalinist liars who seek to paint dictatorship as democracy and smear critics of the bureaucracy.

by Bill OBrien Sat Apr 11, 2009 14:15

The fact that Joe Higgins' honest portrayal of Cuba upset a few ageing Stalinists is a good advert for its accuracy. I was born the same year as Joe Higgins' ,is he an ageing trot.? Lets deal with the subject and leave the ageism out. If your up to it.

by senior Sat Apr 11, 2009 15:34

Yes please leave the ageism out of the debate ,Mark . Cuba is not utopia of course ,but the government there does take a proactive role in combating prejudices against the elderly .The life expectancy figures speak for themselves : compare the life expectancy for the Cuban population which stands at 77, to that of the Caribbean as a whole , 68 .

" Grandparents Circles practicing Tai Chi in parks have become a typical part of the early morning scenery in cities around the country. By the end of 2006, there were 14,738 Grandparents Circles with 782,065 participants representing approximately 43% of the elderly population........

Seniors University Program, created in 2000, provides an opportunity for personal development, updating and upgrading knowledge, plus social involvement. In 2006, there were 927 year-long courses throughout the country and 43,000 participants had graduated. Havana University Professor and President of the Seniors University,Teresa Orosa explains, “there are many seniors who, after they graduate [from the year-long course], take a ‘post-graduate course’ and become leaders or facilitators in their own communities. And some continue to work on a thesis project related to an aging issue of their choosing.”

see http://www.medicc.org/cubahealthreports/chr-article.php...=1031

The report I have quoted from above does come from the Cuban authorities , but from what I have heard from people who have visited Cuba ,it doesn't seem like such a bad country to grow old in .

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics: Dignity Sat Apr 11, 2009 16:23

Senior

I really enjoyed our highly enlighten view on Cuba and the link. Yes, the topic became a little political and lost sight of the human beings that make up society.

Tai Chi for the elderly sounds good. A government that recognises their prior contributions and is prepared to reward them for their efforts, is also rather appealing.

The scandals we have here in Ireland about being vulnerable and elderly ought to be a reminder as why people need to alert themselves to the needs that must be provided for in society, in a moral and ethical way possible.

Health is the penultimate I believe. ABI followed by Bipolar, Anxiety and recently admitted to Tallaght Hospital A and E with Lithium poisoning, I decided to check out your link. I entered Lithium poisoning and what a professeional wealth of information is provided......the link being to the Renal i.e. Kidneys.......in my case for over two years I was getting infections almost every 3-4 weekls........

Our health systems needs to learn a lesson from CUBA.......

I appreciate the politics and the mention of Stalin and the massive atrocities caused by him (some 27 m. people died and deaths are linked to his rule)

However, I am asking for people to hone in on the vulnerable psycghiatric patients, to those with neurologtical conditions, to those with brain injuries and all other illnesses.

Less focus on money is required and more dedication and motivation by medicall people ought to be the otrder of the day. There is a need to share research at every level including the contribution of the patient.

Today in the Daily Mail, there is a stunning young woman in a white tee-shirt......it ssimply says 'We are fighting a war inb Ireland against policitial negligence'

Yes, Cystic Fibrosis. We know these young people are disadvantaged from the many radio programmes that speak out against their blight and un-necessary early death.

It might be worth looking at the treatment regime in Cuba.....we might learn respect for people who are ill from birth or who become ill during their lives.

Michelle clarke

by Celia S Sun Apr 12, 2009 14:59

The article below should go some way to show that the Cuban 'bureaucracy' can be something more than a 'dead weight'. The Trotskyite (and in using the term I do apologise to the memory of Trotsky) implication is always that the 'state' is at variance with the needs of society and the people. When it comes to Cuba the refrain is always the same from some so-called 'socialists'.... 'Cuba would be a much better place if only it was different'. Well done Sherlock. There is usually some deference to the impact of the blockade, and then we are straight on to how it is all really the fault of 'Stalinists'. What about the nature of the world? What about the fact that Cuba was, until very very recently, the only country in the world that was trying to actually develop a socialist system? Cuba is a country that has tried to defend what it has secured. Mark P. Do you forget the idea of socialism not being possible in one country? Is it Cuba's fault that the rest of the world has viewed it as an enemy (in diplomatic and trade terms at the very least)? What do you propose it should have done? Given up and waited until the world caught up?? If it was not for this 'bureaucracy' the advances outlined in the article below would not have been possible. Sheo me where else the types of advances have been achieved under similar conditions? Ah go on....

For a member of an ostensibly Leninist party you are extremely naive about the role Cuba has played in the struggle to build a better world. You and your party leader are also extremely naive about what real struggle to bring about a better, socialist world consists of. Do you remember Lenin's condemnation of the notion of a pure' social revolution?

What Cuba has achieved should be celebrated and defended. That is not for one instance to deny that it has manifold faults. How could it be otherwise? For Joe Higgins to suggest that he or the theory he espouses could have done a better job of it is patently ridiculous.

As to Cuba being a dictatorship and 'anti-democratic', well, again, you do the job of the counter-revolution better than they could. I will give you but one example. At the beginning of the 'special period' when the system was imploding and radical changes needed to be made to restructure the economy (and save the country in many regards these measures did), a series of 80,000 workplace meetings took place as part of the formulation of the plan. Riddle me this Mark P. - How is this anything other than an exercise in the 'deep democracy' that you so easily ridicule? Maybe your concept of democracy is bourgeois after all?? Maybe you don't understand what 'worker democracy' is under conditions of war and extreme material want (again - the blockade and overwhelmingly hostile 'outside' capitalist world). Is your conception of 'worker control' under these conditions an idealised form? If so, I admire our idealism but quite justifiably condemn your ignorance as to how the real world works.

The same might be said for your conception of 'freedom of the press'. I suppose freedom of the press in Cuba must be juxtaposed with the freedom of the press that we have in the 'West' . Ah yes, 'necessary illusions' indeed. See the article below for an indication of how Cuban media plays a very valuable role in the propagation of positive values. The 'freedom of the press' that comes in by illegal satellite broadcast provides is a very interesting juxtaposition to the 'state controlled' media. Sure the world would be far better if we could read and be polluted by all kind of crap. Is this your conception of freedom?? It strikes me as a very bourgeois notion of freedom.

Finally Mark P. I would ask you to consider the proposition (if it was not for the revolutionary forces in Cuba -and this is most certainly what they are), that the country would be nothing more than a society like Haiti next door, or a giant playground for North Americans to exploit (human and natural resources). We'd know all about the extent of prostitution in Cuba then, believe you me.

I have lived and worked in Cuba. I wonder if you have? I certainly know Uncle Joe hasn't. All he managed was a couple of weeks there to confirm his view that it isn't perfect. Sorry Cuba isn't perfect Joe. Maybe when it's your turn you'll do better.

Ádh mor

CS

La revolucion energetica: Cuba's energy revolution

By Laurie Guevara-Stone, photos by Mario Alberto Arrastia Avila

April 2, 2009 -- A new revolution is sweeping the island of Cuba, which is making massive progress on energy efficiency and renewable generation. Indeed, such is the success of the two-year old program on this small island of 11 million people, that many other countries could learn from its efforts to be energy independent and curb climate change.

Just a few years ago Cuba's energy situation was bleak. The country had 11 large, and quite inefficient, thermoelectric plants generating electricity for the entire island. Most of the plants were 25 years old and only functioning 60% of the time. There were frequent blackouts, especially during peak demand periods. There was also a high percentage of transmission losses along the electrical distribution grid. To add to the energy crisis, most Cuban households had inefficient appliances, 75% of the population was cooking with kerosene, and the residential electricity charges did not encourage conservation. In 2004 the eastern side of Cuba was hit by two hurricanes in a short period of time, affecting transmission lines and leaving 1 million people without electricity for 10 days. All of this in the face of the overarching drivers of peak oil and climate change, made Cubans realise they had to make energy more of a priority. Thus, in 2006, began what Cubans call la revolución energética -– the energy revolution .

Cuba’s recent energy revolution has helped it become a true model of sustainable development. The 2006 Living Planet report assesses sustainable development by using the United Nation’s Development Program’s (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI) and the ecological footprint. The HDI is calculated from life expectancy, literacy and education, and per capita GDP. The UNDP considers an HDI value of more than 0.8 to be high human development. An ecological footprint, which is a measure of demand on the biosphere, lower than 1.8 global hectares per head denotes sustainability. The only country in the world that meets both of the above criteria is Cuba. ``Cuba has reached a good level of development according to United Nations’ criteria, thanks to its high literacy level and very high life expectancy'', explains Jonathan Loh, one of the authors of the report, adding: ``While the ecological footprint is not large since it is a country with low energy consumption.''

The statistics are impressive, the country is currently consuming 34% of the kerosene, 40% of the liquefied petroleum gas(LPG) and 80% of the petroluem (gasoline) it used to consume before the implementation of the energy revolution a mere two years earlier. Cuba's per capita energy consumption is now at a level one-eighth of that in the US, while access to health services, education levels, and life expectancy are still some of the top ranking in the world, as Table 1 below shows.

Small budget, big results

How does a country with a per capita GDP one-tenth that of the US, have the resources to carry out such a radical change in energy consumption, without sacrificing their high social indicators in health and education?

To understand Cuba's energy revolution one must understand some of the history of energy production and consumption in Cuba. Prior to the 1959 Cuban Revolution, 56% of the country was electrified. With the socialist revolution came a push to electrify even the remotest communities. By 1989, 95% of the country was electrified –- mostly with cheap oil traded for sugar with the Soviet Union. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 caused the bottom to fall out of the Cuban economy. Having to buy oil on the world market meant that cheap electricity was a thing of the past. Food, petrol and oil all became scarce as the US made matters worse by tightening its economic blockade. Both the 1992 Cuba Democracy Act and Helms-Burton law passed in 1996, target foreign investment in Cuba, seeking to undermine Cuba's international access to capital, and making much needed resources hard to come by.

The years following the Soviet collapse and the intensifying of the blockade were known as the ``Special Period'' because Cubans had to tighten their belts and learn how to produce basic requirements such as food, medicines and energy, both locally and sustainably.

In 1993, a National Energy Sources Development Program (Programa de desarrollo de las Fuentes Nacionales de Energia) was implemented to reduce Cuba's energy imports and obtain maximum benefits from domestic energy sources. The document proposed that the first national source of energy should be efficiency.

After the National Energy Sources Development Program was adopted, Cuba embarked on a drive to save energy and use more renewable sources of energy. All rural schools, health clinics and social centres in the country, not previously connected to the grid, were electrified with solar energy, and today 2364 of the solar electric systems on the island are on rural schools. Making lights, computers and educational television programs accessible to every schoolchild in the country; this program won Cuba the Global 500 award from the United Nations in 2001.

However, despite all their efforts, 10 years after the program was implemented, Cuba still had an energy crisis on its hands. So in 2006 the energy revolution took some of the most drastic steps any country has taken to date.

A five-point plan

Cuba's energy revolution has five main aspects: energy efficiency and conservation; increasing the availability and reliability of the national electric grid; incorporating more renewable energy technologies into their energy portfolio; increasing the exploration and production of local oil and gas; and international co-operation.

Understanding that the first step in an energy revolution is not to look for more ways of generating energy, but to decrease energy demand, Cuba began a program to change over to energy efficient appliances. As then-President Fidel Castro explained in a May 2006 address to the Cuban Electric Utility company (UNE): ``We are not waiting for fuel to fall from the sky, because we have discovered, fortunately, something much more important –- energy conservation, which is like finding a great oil deposit.''

The program to allow people to switch their incandescent bulbs to more efficient compact fluorescents, free of charge, was met with complete success. In six months more than 9 million incandescent light bulbs. As there were already many compact fluorescents installed, this meant that close to 100% of the bulbs used in the whole country had been changed to compact fluorescents –- making Cuba the first country in the world to completely eliminate inefficient tungsten filament lighting. Furthermore, millions of energy efficient appliances were sold to Cuban consumers, including almost 2 million refrigerators, over 1 million fans, 182,000 air conditioners and 260,000 water pumps.

At the same time, efficient electrical cooking appliances were introduced. Almost 3.5 million rice cookers and more than 3 million pressure cookers were sold to families in the push to have people switch from kerosene to cooking with electricity.

And one of the best ways Cuba managed to encourage conservation was its new residential electrical tariff structure. Prior to 2006, Cuba's highly subsidised electricity was sold very cheaply, which did not encourage conservation. The new tariff structure allows people consuming less than 100 kWh per month to stay at the current extremely low rate of only 0.09 pesos/kWh (0.38 US cents/kWh). But for every increase of 50 kWh per month the rate skyrockets. And consumers using over 300 kWh per month must pay 1.30 pesos/kWh (5.4 US cents/kWh). In terms of US dollars, this is still significantly less than consumers pay in the United States, but it is over four times what large energy users were paying previously.

Cuba also embarked on energy savings measures in the state sector. All water pumps in tall buildings and aqueducts were changed to efficient pumps. The 40 W fluorescent tubes used in many government offices will be changed to 32 W bulbs with electronic ballasts, and inefficient refrigerators and air conditioners have been replaced with more efficient models.

Power to the people

A revolution cannot truly be called revolutionary without the support of the masses. Cuba's energy revolution is no exception. In order to involve the general populace in the effort to save energy, an ambitious energy education initiative was put into place. The Programa de Ahorro de Energia por la Ministro de Educacion (PAEME) is a national energy program implemented by the ministry of education in 1997. Its objective is to teach students, workers, families and communities about energy-saving measures and renewable sources of energy.

In schools, the energy theme is present in many different disciplines. Students learn about energy issues not just in physics but in economic classes, environmental courses and health curricula as well. (See also http://www.solarenergy.org/resources/docs/SolarToday_Ed...n.pdf.)

PAEME has also held energy festivals for the past three years, educating thousands of Cubans about efficiency and conservation. The festivals are targeted towards students and are filled with young children expressing their thoughts on energy savings through songs, poetry and theatre. It starts in each Cuban school where the children with the best energy efficiency projects go on to the festival at the municipality level. Then the best move on to the provincial level, and from there on to the national level. ``UNE decided that the festival is not a typical competition, but something like an energy efficiency carnival, with the most outstanding students of the country'', explains Teresa Palenzuela, a specialist with UNE. In the national festival, where the public lines up for blocks to enter, the students exchange experiences and share knowledge without declaring any winners.

In order to get the word out to even more of the population, the mass media was employed. For instance, you never see advertising for commercial products on Cuban highways, instead scattered across the country are dozens of billboards promoting energy conservation. There is also a weekly television show dedicated to energy issues, and articles appear weekly in national newspapers espousing renewable energy, efficiency and conservation. In 2007 alone there were more than 8000 articles and TV spots dedicated to energy efficiency issues.

Fair distribution

Despite these efforts, saving energy was not enough, and in 2005 blackouts were still common. Furthermore, Cuba had a very old and inefficient electrical distribution grid to deal with. The Cuban government realised that one of the best ways to provide for energy security was to move towards decentralised energy, and thus it began the move towards distributed generation. Employing this concept means less vulnerability to natural disasters or foreign invasions which might affect electricity to a whole section of the country. The strategy also diversifies energy sources, while making it easier to ultimately change to alternative sources of energy in the future, such as those produced more locally and sustainably.

In 2006, Cuba installed 1854 diesel and fuel oil micro-electrical plants across the country, representing more than 3000 MW of decentralised power in 110 municipalities. This virtually eliminated the blackouts that plagued Cuba in 2004. In fact, in the years 2004 and 2005 there were more than 400 days of blackouts greater than 100 MW that lasted at least an hour. In 2006 and 2007, there were three, all of which were in 2006. This is a better rate than in most industrialised countries.

In addition to the new plants, they also installed more than 4000 emergency back-up systems in critical areas like hospitals, food production centres, schools and other sites key to Cuba's economy. This represents 500 MW of emergency back-up power.

Furthermore, Cuba embarked on an impressive plan to fix its existing electrical transmission network. It upgraded more than 120,000 electrical posts, over 1 million utility service entrances, almost 3000 kilometres of cable and half a million electrical meters. The overall effect of this program meant that in 2005, while the country needed an average of 280 grams of oil to generate one kWh of electricity, in 2007 this figure had fallen to 271 grams of oil per kWh. While this might seem like a small saving, it translates to thousands of tonnes of imported oil annually. In 2006–2007 Cuba saved over 961,000 tonnes of imported oil through its energy saving measures.

Incorporating more renewables

Although incorporating renewable sources of energy into the energy mix has been a priority since the early 1990s, the past two years have seen even more growth. Currently 100 wind measuring stations are being installed in 11 different provinces of the country and two new wind farms have been built, bringing the total wind energy installed in the country to 7.23 MW. Also in development is the country’s first grid-connected 100 kW solar electric plant.

Furthermore, 180 micro-hydro systems, harnessing energy from water in streams and rivers, are installed around Cuba, 31 of which are grid connected. And the number of independent solar electric systems in rural areas of the country has risen to more than 8000, with a plan in place to use solar panels and other renewable technologies to electrify the remaining 100,000 houses that don't yet have access to electricity. This year will also see the addition of 300 biogas plants, which are using animal waste to create cooking fuel.

Sugar, Cuba's main export crop, also produces electricity. In sugarcane factories around the country the bagasse, which is the residue left over after the cane is processed, is burned and turned into useable energy to power the plant and to feed the electrical grid. Sugarcane biomass facilities currently have an installed capacity of 478.5 MW.

Cuba is also making progress on liquid biofuels such as ethanol. Usually involving the use of food crops like corn, the official stance on biofuels is that ``Cuba does not support the idea of converting food into fuels, while more than 800 million people suffer hunger''. Nevertheless, there are some liquid biofuel pilot projects. The best example is the cultivation of Jatropha Carcus, which produces a non-edible oil, and which thus does not compete with human food production.

In 2007 a national group aimed at supporting and promoting the accelerated development and penetration of renewable sources of energy and energy efficiency was created. The 14 commissions of this group, covering all types of renewable sources of energy and efficiency, have a government mandate to study better ways to introduce renewable energies into the country.

`Doctors of the Soul' help the energy revolution

The island has exported its energy revolution to other countries as well, in the framework of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), an alternative to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). ALBA emphasises the fight against poverty and social exclusion. For instance, after Cuba worked with Venezuela on an energy-conservation campaign, Venezuela reported savings of 2000 MW of power. Cuban scientists and technicians have also provided and installed over 1 MW of solar electric panels in Venezuela, Bolivia, Honduras, South Africa, Mali and Lesotho.

To carry out their ambitious energy conservation plan, Cuba relied on its small army of trabajadores sociales or social workers. Formed in 2000, Cuba's social workers are made up of youths who have the task of bringing social justice to the island in many different spheres, including labour, education, culture, sports and the environment. Along with working with people with disabilities, the elderly and people convicted of crimes, the latest job of the social workers is to help carry out the energy revolution. Since 2006, 13,000 social workers have visited homes, businesses and factories around the island replacing light bulbs, teaching people how to use their new electric cooking appliances and spreading information on saving energy. The social workers also worked with the ministry of agriculture to help save energy in the sugarcane harvest, and work in the transportation sector to achieve more efficiency in the national bus system.

The social workers attend a school where they receive classes in politics, social communication, energy and sustainable development, with the objective of creating values and convictions which should characterise a social worker. They are also taught to replace light bulbs and to explain the need for saving energy.

Furthermore, under ALBA, the social workers also travel to other countries to help implement energy saving programs –- such as in Haiti where they visited over 93,000 houses and installed more than 2 million energy efficient light bulbs. Similar to Cuba’s medical program, which has more than 20,000 doctors working abroad to help with health crises, the social workers are travelling around the world to help in the energy crisis. Fidel Castro, who founded the program, refers to the social workers as ``Doctors of the Soul''.

``We need a global energy revolution '', says Mario Alberto Arrastia Avila, an energy expert with Cubaenergia, an energy information centre in Cuba. ``But in order for this to happen we also need a revolution in consciousness. Cuba has undertaken its own path towards a new energy paradigm, applying concepts like distributed generation, efficiency, education, energy solidarity and the gradual solarisation of the country.’

The rest of the world should follow Cuba's lead, for only a true global energy revolution will allow us to seriously confront the dire environmental problems that the world now faces.

[Laurie Guevara-Stone is the international program manager at Solar Energy International, based in Colorado, USA. Email: laurie [at] solarenergy.org. This article first appeared in the March-April 2009 issue of Renewable Energy World and has been posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with the author's permission.]

by Simon McGuinness - Cuba Support Group Ireland Mon Apr 13, 2009 13:11

Joe Higgins is entitled to his beliefs. He is welcome to visit Cuba anytime he likes. What he is not entitled to do, as a political scientist, is to ignore evidence in favour of a theory, any theory. Or to distort evidence to support any political theory.

Cuba Support Group was consulted by the TG4 filmmakers before Joe Higgins visited Latin America and we predicted precisely the result that was eventually broadcast. We were able to do this weeks before he even set foot on a plane for Latin America, which suggests that Joe's script was written without the benefit of investigation, let alone tainted by the experience of his travels. It is difficult to know how long he spent in Cuba or if he even bothered to go much beyond the handful of streets around his downtown hotel. But then, a true believer doesn't need to search for truth, he creates his own.

Cuba Support Group suggested to the film makers ways in which Joe's political beliefs could be challenged. We even put them in contact with a member of Ché's immediate family who could expose the weakness of his argument and his fundamental misunderstanding of Che Guevara’s political program. We believed then, and still do now, that this would make for fascinating and educational filmmaking. They apparently chose not to do this - perhaps Joe can advise if he exercised a veto on facing such a challenge to his beliefs?

We still challenge Joe Higgins to debate his beliefs with a representative of the Cuban people live on camera. We pledge ourselves to facilitate such a debate at the earliest possible opportunity. Our view is that the world is divided between supporters of the Cuban challenge to capitalism and those who have cause to fear it. We see no reason why any socialist should fear the Cuban Revolution.

Joe has never, to our knowledge, attended any public meeting organised by Cuba Support Group and has never attended any Dáil committee meeting addressed by Cuba Support Group. He has never spoken in the Dáil against Ireland's support for sanctions on Cuba. He has even failed to meet with the family or lawyers of the Miami Five (five Cuban political prisoners victims of a miscarriage of justice in the USA and the subject of an Amnesty International campaign) when they have visited Dáil Éireann.

Members of Joe’s party have helped CSGI to organise public events in Ireland but only on the basis that their assistance would never be publically acknowledged as it would compromise their position within the Socialist Party. This raises the question in our minds of just who is the Stalinist?

More broadly, the "Che" program broadcast on TG4 fits into a growing body of coverage of Cuba in Ireland. The Cuban Revolution continues to fascinate the Irish media and this fascination is growing, not diminishing. These days they are slightly less inclined to echo propaganda from the US State Department. Joe, perhaps unwittingly, provided a unique opportunity to do just that.

The media predictions of a post-Castro collapse, which proved false, coupled with the influence of citizen journalism has had a profound, but little understood, effect on the global print media’s coverage of Cuba. This has been amplified by a change in the rhetorical climate since Obama took over from Bush in the Whitehouse. The change is subtle and faltering, but perceptible. Mostly, this change leaves the Irish media “message multipliers” unsure of what political line to take on Cuba (the Irish Independent being the only one untouched).

As the Irish economic crisis bites, Cuba Support Group hopes that there will be more confusion among the old media (print/broadcast) gatekeepers and more opportunity for the Cuban example to be revealed to a mass audience.

Globally, the old media is on a collision course with collapsing advertising revenues and with on-line news taking up the slack, there is now much more information available on Cuba than ever before and less and less of it inspired by the chequebook of capitalism. Cuba Support Group, for example, will launch a free on-line news service later this year specifically targeting an Irish readership at www.CubaSupport.com.

It appears that the only place where the old anti-Castro propaganda still finds fertile ground now is in the unreconstructed fringes of the Irish ultra-left and in pockets of heavily-baggaged anti-communists in a handful of former eastern European countries. It may come as news to Joe Higgins that the works of Leon Trotsky are widely read and debated in Cuba and his modern supporters are regular visitors. Some even chose to launch their books at the Havana Book Fair. But not our Joe.

Elsewhere, the Cuban Revolution has rarely had greater and fairer global media coverage than it enjoys today. In the Spanish-speaking world its revolutionary influence is preeminent. Readers of media forever impaled on a 1940's ice pick might like to examine their own capacity for change and the lessons that the continuously evolving Cuban live experiment in revolution holds for them.

After all, one real-life experiment is better than a thousand unchallenged theories.

by TG4 viewer Mon Apr 13, 2009 20:19

I found the Ché series presented by Joe Higgins as one of the best documentary style programmes of the year on Irish TV. It was very good. Joe spoke about modern day problems and issues in Latin America with the background of past events and of course the experiences of Ché Guevara. I read with amusement about your approaches to TG4. You were probably dismissed as a Stalinist crank with a fetish for undemocratic bureaucratic regimes headed by the 'dear leaders'.

I find Simon's attack on Joe as completely wrong. Do you think Cuba is a socialist paradise? It's not. There is not the freedom that socialists would want for a socialist society. There is state oppression of opposition. Joe also pointed out the great benefits of the planned nature of the economy. There have been great advances in health and education for example. People in Europe often point this out when comparing the deminished public services in Europe. If it was not for the Cuban revolution the life of Cubans would be far worse. Joe stated all this.

Do you think that Cuba is a model for us all to follow? Do you no think there is a need for great reforms in Cuba? Why is Castro not trying to forment international socialist revolution around the world? Do you, Simon, belief in 'socialism in one country'? I'm a socialist and don't think Cuba is socialist. It has a planned economy and those benefits. It's not capitalist, but it's no model democracy. There is still poverty and disadvantage. (not at same level as if capitalism would have been retained).

I did agree with Joe Higgins about the Ché monument. It was excessive and quiet distasteful. Why are the Cuban government making Ché into some god-like revolutionary with massive statues, etc. at his grave. It smells of stalinism. Joe was correct to point it out. That was his view, he was doing the documentary and they were his observations. As a socialist I would agree with Joe and probably would have had the similar view on his grave. Ché was a great revolutionary leader, he was not a god. And he did have differences with Castro and the growth of a bureaucracy.

PS: why should Ché's relatives be a source of authority in political arguments? Do you hold some mythical dynastic outlook on politics?

by senior Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:46

"Ageing" seems to be a legitimate term of abuse in SP circles . When that doesn't work supporters of the Cuban revolution get dismissed as cranks and fetishists .

Once again , nobody is saying that Cuba is "a socialist paradise ", but in terms of health care , education , and treatment of the elderly it is far in advance of other countries in the region. Not only for the Latin American region though . It is entirely possible that given the present financial crisis ,working people in Ireland may at some time in the future see something in the Cuban model . TG4 viewer really shouldn’t dismiss the notion so flippantly .

Joe could hardly deny the advances that the Cuban revolution brought to the people of the country without losing the left credibility that he needed to make the series , but a rough summation of the Socialist Party’s attitude towards Cuba can probably be found in TG4 viewer’s statement :

“You were probably dismissed as a Stalinist crank with a fetish for undemocratic bureaucratic regimes headed by the 'dear leaders'.”

Cuba is an undemocratic bureaucratic regime headed by the "dear leaders" in other words . That's the message that Joe put across on the program , and it certainly worked for one TG4 viewer at least . Although I suspect that , as with Joe, that viewer's mind may already have been made up before the program was ever made.

by Mark P - Socialist Party (personal capacity) Tue Apr 14, 2009 16:41

I make no apologies for referring to "ageing Stalinists". I've never met an Irish Stalinist under 50. It's a dying political movement, or perhaps more accurately its an occasionally twitching corpse of a political movement, and good riddance.

This programme seems to have brought the last remaining Stalinist cranks out of the attic to whine and complain about any attempt to reach a balanced verdict on Cuba. The fact is that this programme featured a well reasoned analysis of Cuban society and the regime there. It drew attention to the undoubted achievements of the Cuban revolution but it also dealt with the country's serious problems: Both the externally inflicted problem of the blockade and the problems created by the regime itself, the crushing bureaucracy, the lack of democracy, the lack of basic political freedoms.

Just as honestly talking about the gains made in the Cuban revolution is unacceptable to many right wingers, honestly talking about the problems of the country is completely unacceptable to our little band of Stalinist cranks. It seems that they would only be happy if TG4 was to crank out some modern day version of the paeans of praise to the Soviet Union that a certain breed of foreign idiot used to produce after a guided tour of some model factories back in the 1930s. Something along the lines of Sydney and Beatrice Webb's "Soviet Russia: A new Civilisation" would no doubt be more to their taste.

I particularly enjoyed the comments dismissing my "bourgeois" interest in such trifles as the freedom to organise politically, to contest elections, to disseminate ideas and the like. Golden stuff. Even better were the complaints that a handful of Stalinists were ignored when they went complaining to TG4 that they could "predict" that their documentary wouldn't gloss over Cuba's problems. Here's a clue for some of my hard of thinking friends: Perhaps you could predict in advance that an honest filmmaker wouldn't take an entirely rosy view of the bureaucratic dictatorship in Cuba because honesty precludes doing so.

Please feel free to provide the rest of us with some much needed amusement by responding with further cut and paste oddyseys expounding the wonders of the Cuban approach to some unrelated issue.

by es - sp Tue Apr 14, 2009 16:58

The term 'ageing' is used quiet correctly. Its used to describe the dying and dead school of Stalinism. The Cuban Revolution has achieved some marvelous accomplishments. But it is the duty of every socialist to point out its faults. This is the best way to defend the Cuba Revolution, to argue for the extension of the revolution. The uncritical cheer leaders of Castro do a dis-service to the Cuba Revolution by ignoring the problems. To argue on the other hand that Cuba is merely state capitalism (lik some on the left do) is also incorrect. The survival of the Cuban Revolution depends on its extension.
Us real socialist are still trying to deal with damage Stalinism has done to struggle for socialism. Its has set the movement back decades. So I thinks its a bit hypocritical for these gray old Stalinists to shrilly denounce a balanced view on Cuba. I know their probably so used to swallowing the party line from Moscow that they are incapable of independent analysis. But there is no party line from Moscow any more, and it wasn't criticisms from Joe that brought down the Soviet Union, it was the fact that it was straggled by bureaucracy. Socialism needs democracy like a body needs oxygen!

by Celia S Tue Apr 14, 2009 18:14

Talk about a selective response to a post. It was legitimate enough to ask if perhaps your views re: democracy etc. are 'bourgeois' given your ignoring of the (but one - see above) example I gave of 80,000 workplace meetings, and your insistence on referring to Cuba as a 'bureaucratic' dictatorship where democracy does not exist. Are you saying this country is more democratic than Cuba?? Really? Perhaps this indeed is reflective of a bourgeois notion of democracy.

And Mark. The 'cut and paste' that you also so easily dismiss as irrelevant to the discussion, is in fact a critical piece of reportage on the outcome of a process that you so readily dismiss as 'crushing'.

I could go on but I won't.

Two final points Mark. I am 31, not a 58 year old Stalinist. It is interesting that you should feel you have the right to lump me and my ideas (when I defend Cuba), in with those of a mass murderer. That is why people like you are enemies of the people of Cuba. As 'Stalinists', I have an idea as to the type of fate you believe the Cuban 'bureaucracy' should face. When it comes to Cuba, you most certainly stand on the side of the counter-revolution

And finally. Have you ever lived/worked/been to Cuba for more than a few weeks??

CS

by TG4 viewer Tue Apr 14, 2009 19:28

Celia S, you say that Mark P is on the side of counter revolution. This is despite his clear support for the gains made in that revolution and his call for it to be extended.

Celia S, could you let us know if you have any criticism of the Cuban government.

In my view socialists should always be critical. The supporters of Castroism on this page are uncritical of Cuba.

Finally, I agree with others here that Stalinism is ageing. Yes, I've only met one CP member under 30. But it's not about a person's age, it's about the age of the political ideology. It's a thing of the past. It's over. Who seriously advocates that there should be state planning but no democracy!!! What socialists serious advocate 'socialism in one country' and a quasi-nationalism? What socialist beatifies political leaders (let's face it Ché's grave is like some kind of theme park).

PS: the CP are among the most liberal people I've come across. During the Iraq war they advocated that the UN intervene!! Sorry boys, USSR not on Security Council anymore!! They are a liberal soft left party with a strange past.

by Mark P - Socialist Party (personal capacity) Tue Apr 14, 2009 19:37

Miracles apparently happen. A youngish Stalinist! Unfortunately that jut means that you don't even have the usual excuses of disappointed nostalgia or encroaching senility.

I think you'll find that most sane people on the left react with amusement or horror when someone starts announcing that basic political rights, the right to organise independently of the ruling party for example or the right to publish political opinions contradicting those of the ruling party, are "bourgeois".

The fact is that Cuba is run by a dictator, a President for life who inherited the position in true dynastic style from his brother, the previous President for life. The Castros preside over an unelected and unaccountable privileged bureaucracy. Cuban workers are denied the ability to organise themselves politically, to argue for different political views, to spread those views or to do all of the things that basic socialist democracy requires. No amount of slinging around the term "bourgeois" or of making facile comments about the limits of capitalist democracy or the ownership of the press in Ireland (as if most people reading weren't already well aware of these limits) can distract from that.

People who are actually interested in defending the gains of the Cuban revolution - and those gains have been significant - should not make the mistake of prettifying the regime's problems. Still less should they be telling fairy stories about how democratic Cuba is. You do neither the Cuban revolution nor your own credibility any favours by peddling obvious gibberish.

by Celia S Tue Apr 14, 2009 21:31

Thanks Mark P. You have cleared up a lot for me as regards what the Socialist Party represents. All the best. You'll need it

CS

by linker Tue Apr 14, 2009 22:32

info about the show
http://www.tg4.ie/bearla/clar/che/index.asp
and here for the archive
http://www.tg4.ie/bearla/clar/che/index.asp

by Meirena Wed Apr 15, 2009 09:49

Celia S, when Raul and his fellow bureaucrats start in earnest to restore capitalism we will see what you and your like have to say then.
Defend the Cuban revolution, for a political revolution to remove the cancer of the Stalinist dictatorship!

by Frank - none Wed Apr 15, 2009 10:19

Mark P. Apparently the Socialist Party would do things differently from Fidel and Raul Castro. I applaud you for that. I am no supporter of the current regime under the Castros. But the question is, how would the SP guarantee that the “basic political rights, the right to organise independently of the ruling party for example or the right to publish political opinions contradicting those of the ruling party,” are upheld in a post-revolutionary situation? The SP are a Leninist party who adhere to the “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” where the needs of the class are inevitably on a lower rung of the ladder than the needs of the Party.
Not much different there, comrade!

Dála an scéil, shíl mé go raibh an sraith cláracha an-mhaith ar fad. Fair play do Joe!

by Bill OBrien Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:14

Those of us who know about Cuba have done a good job,on this thread so far, but its now time to move away from the Socialist Party. They seam to have only three things to talk on, ageism, Stalinist dictatorship, bureaucrats. The rest of us spoke on, Education, Health, Grandparents, The Cuban Revolution’s accomplishments and more. If we keep talking to these people it would be like listing to,a one string, one tune,fiddler, it becomes very sore on the ears. Thank you to,Celia S,Senior,Simon McGuinness - Cuba Support Group Ireland,Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics: Dignity

by senior Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:32

“The term 'ageing' is used quiet correctly. Its used to describe the dying and dead school of Stalinism.” ……… E. S

“A youngish Stalinist! Unfortunately that jut means that you don't even have the usual excuses of disappointed nostalgia or encroaching senility.”………………… Mark P

E S ,it was ageism , a form of personal abuse directed against political opponents on the basis of their age and not their politics . I had hoped that Mark would apologize and move on . To be clear , I’m not a Stalinist ,but I don’t feel that I should have to apologize for the crime of getting on in years or for having grey hair .
I've just spoken to a friend who has recently returned from Cuba who told me that young people in that country show great respect for the elderly . Don't forget that the old people living in Cuba today were the ones who made the revolution. We all have to grow old someday .

by senior Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:32

“The term 'ageing' is used quiet correctly. Its used to describe the dying and dead school of Stalinism.” ……… E. S

“A youngish Stalinist! Unfortunately that jut means that you don't even have the usual excuses of disappointed nostalgia or encroaching senility.”………………… Mark P

E S ,it was ageism , a form of personal abuse directed against political opponents on the basis of their age and not their politics . I had hoped that Mark would apologize and move on . To be clear , I’m not a Stalinist ,but I don’t feel that I should have to apologize for the crime of getting on in years or for having grey hair .
I've just spoken to a friend who has recently returned from Cuba who told me that young people in that country show great respect for the elderly . Don't forget that the old people living in Cuba today were the ones who made the revolution. We all have to grow old someday .

by Simon McGuinness - Cuba Support Group Ireland Wed Apr 15, 2009 12:37

Can any of his disciples advise us if Joe Higgins is ever going to reply to the two challenges issued to him:
.

1) DID HE veto a debate on camera with any Cuban government spokesperson?

2) WILL HE ever risk debating his beliefs in public with any representative of the Cuban people?

.
Perhaps the TG4 commissioning editors can persuade the filmmakers to reveal their correspondence on the first question? They were made aware in advance of a likely political bias in the program in relation to Cuba and failed to balance it.

That, after all, is contrary to the terms of their broadcasting licence.

.
.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I do not propose to engage in a dialogue of the deaf by responding to the disinformation and abuse peddled by some contributors which merely reveals an inexcusable level of ignorance. I will just list some free learning opportunities on:
- Democracy in Cuba: http://www.cubasupport.com/moreinfo.htm
- Human rights in Cuba: http://www.cubasupport.com/moreinfo.htm
- Cuba and Climate Change: http://www.cubasupport.com/moreinfo.htm

by Mark P Wed Apr 15, 2009 13:39

Frank:

This is getting a little off the point of this discussion, but the Socialist Party does not use the term "dictatorship of the proletariat", largely because the experience of Stalinism and of 20th Century dictatorship have irrevocably changed how such a phrase would be understood. It's 19th Century terminology and entirely inappropriate today. We do however support wholeheartedly the idea of rule by the working class as opposed to the rule of a tiny minority, the capitalists.

In a socialist Ireland we are of the view that democracy would be much more thoroughgoing than it can ever be under capitalism, and far from favouring restricting democratic rights we are in favour of all political currents having the right to organise and publish their views. This isn't just a moral stance, an abstract argument for democracy, it stems from our understanding that democracy is the lifeblood of socialism. Without democratic decision making, crushing and inefficient bureaucracy will be a central result of an attempt to introduce a socialised economy.

Senior:

I have no problem at all with people being elderly and indeed some fine activists and political thinkers are, well, getting on in years. However, when a political movement consists of nothing but the elderly, unless you are talking about a pensioners campaign, you are talking about a dead movement.

Celia S:

I'm always glad to be of assistance.

Simon:

Your conspiratorial thinking is laughable. It is rather more likely that your little band of apologists for Stalinism weren't taken seriously in the first place than that anyone "vetoed" you, particularly when you take into account that the programme on Cuba was probably about 22 minutes long (when you exclude advertising breaks, credits and so on). If you want to debate the Socialist Party, feel free to send an invitation to the Socialist Party office. Unfortunately we don't have our own television station, but if you can interest one in covering such a debate I'm sure that it will make the prospect of debating a dismal little collection of Stalinists a little more attractive than it would ordinarily be.

by senior Wed Apr 15, 2009 14:43

If young people want to organize to campaign on issues they think important such as war , the environment , social justice , no problem for Mark . But the elderly are only allowed to campaign about pensions . Well Mark , you may start seeing things differently when you get a bit older , and old age , as has been said , is the most unexpected of all things that happen to a man . But Mark shouldn’t wait for fifty years to cop on .

If I wanted to form a group called “Seniors Cuba Solidarity" that wouldn’t be a “dead movement” just because Mark says so . Cuban seniors aren’t afraid of asserting themselves , why should we allow ageists to dictate to us what issues we can or cannot campaign on in Ireland? The elderly in Ireland have every right to campaign on whatever issues they choose , and what’s more , plenty of young people wouldn’t agree with the Socialist Party attitudes towards the elderly , and would actually see them as being old-fashioned .

by Jolly Red Giant - Socialist Party / CWI Wed Apr 15, 2009 16:25

Firstly I want to state that the SP fully supports any efforts by older people anywhere in the world to fight for their rights and the SP and it's sister organisations will stand shoulder to shoulder with them in that fight.

The comments by Mark were not directed against elderly people - but against a now dimishing group of people who hark back to the nostalgia of the Soviet Union and the CP. It is very unusal to find anyone without grey hair (and I have more than a few myself) who still defends Stalinist regimes. Indeed after decades of defending the Soviet Union and it's satellites the only regime still in existance to be defended is Cuba. This is not ment as a slight against elderly people - but a statement of fact.

On to Cuba.
Since the Cuban revolution the country has made great strides forward in terms of improvements in health, education, etc. The SP would argue that there improvements have been as a result of the implementation of the planned economy rather that the emergence of the Stalinist one party state of Castro. Much of the funding for these reforms came in the form of donations/loans/subsidies from the former Soviet Union. But in terms of improvements - these developments have pretty much dried up since the collapse of Stalinism twenty years ago.

The blockade has had a profound effect on the Cuban economy depriving it of much needed income - but it is not the key factor. Emerging from the dictatorship of Batista - Castro's regime had widespread support among the Cuban masses - a support that the blockade has actually helped to re-inforce (something the US administration up to now have been too stupid to recognise). However, the reality is that the generations that have supported Castro's regime over the past fifty odd years are dying out and newer generations who (despite having to live with the blockade) have no memory fo the previous regime and, as a result are less willing to have blind faith in the bureaucracy.

Obama has already begun a change in direction for the US administration. Members of the House of Representatives have already visited Cuba and met with Raul Castro. Question here for Bill O'Brien and the others supporting the Cuban regime, what do you think the purpose of this change in policy by Obama and do you see a strengthening or weakening of the Cuban Revolution as a result?

Similarly - Raul Castro has indicated a significant shift towards accomodation with the US administration. To quote 'If the new United States authorities were to finally desist from their arrogance and decide to talk in a civilized manner, it would be a welcome change'.

Indeed Raul Castro is more critical of the Cuban Bureaucracy than the regimes supporters on this thread. Quoting Raul '...with a clear conscience about our problems, our inefficiencies, our errors and our bureaucratic and/or slack attitudes, some of which gained ground in the circumstances deriving from the Special Period...efforts do not always bring the results hoped for. Efficiency largely depends on perseverance and good organization, especially of systematic controls and discipline, and in particular on where we have succeeded in incorporating the masses to the struggle for efficiency. We need to bring everyone to the daily battle against the very errors which aggravate objective difficulties derived from external causes,'

Raul's criticism of the bureaucracy is strikingly similar to the same criticisms by the leadership of the Soviet Union in the decade before the collapse of Stalinism. Indeed some of the measures being implemented by Raul and the Cuban regime are carboncopies of similar measures implemented in the Soviet Union twenty five or thirty years ago. Raul has opened up the privitisation of farmland because bureaucratic mismanagement has led to widespread food shortage - not my words but Raul's. To quote ' For various reasons there is a considerable percentage of state land sitting vacant, so it must be handed over to individuals or groups as owners or users'. Similarly, in an effort to improve productivity (also stifled by bureaucracy) he has announced that workers can earn productivity bonuses, doing away with the egalitarian concept that was the cornerstone of the Cuban regime for decades that everyone must earn the same - something of course that only existed outside to the circle of the Cuban CP.

So another few questions for Bill - what kind of process is underway in Cuba? Will the regime continue to implement economic reforms (i.e. reforms to strengthen private enterprise and the market)? Will the regime attempt to implement democratic reforms (and by this I mean real democratic reforms to strengthen the possibility of workers democracy) or will the regime move to an accomodation with the US administration and US imperialism that will see the Cuban economy further opened up to foreign investment (again something the Raul had indicated)?

Final question for Bill and the others who support the Cuban regime - did you support the Stalinist Regimes of Eastern Europe?

Cuba has reached a crossroads (actually a fork in the road is a better analogy) - it can go in one of two directions - the Cuban working class can move to a political revolution, overthrow the bureaucracy and implement genuine workers democracy - or Raul and the Cuban Regime can move (in exactly the same way as the Chinese Stalinists have done) to open up the economy to imperialism while attempting to maintain their position as a ruling elite.

The SP supports the Cuban working class and all the gains that have accrued from the abolition of capitalism on the island. But that does not mean that we support (or feel compelled to support) the Cuban bureaucracy. The SP does not agree with the notion of 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' - it is such idiotic notions that have led some on the left to supporting Hamas - and in the past some diehard Stalinists supporting Saddam Hussein. The Cuban working class have a right to live free from the exploitation of the market system and have a right to live in a genuine workers democracy free from the bureaucratic oppression of the Castro regime. The power to defend the Cuban revolution lies in the hands of the Cuban working class - not, as Bill O'Brien and others on here believe, in supporting the parasitic regime of the Castro brothers.

by senior Thu Apr 16, 2009 13:09

Thanks for your reassurances on seniors JRG . The SP needs to loosen up a little about allowing criticism of Joe’s program . If Raoul Castro can criticize Cuba ,what’s wrong with allowing the Cuban Support group time to answer Joe ? Cuba isn’t the type of Stalinist dictatorship portrayed by Joe in the TG4 program , if only because Stalinism and salsa aren’t compatible at the end of the day. A few salsa sessions might do Joe and Mark a bit of good perhaps . lol.

by Mark P - Socialist Party (personal capacity) Thu Apr 16, 2009 18:18

Actually, senior, a bit of sunshine and an local dance style might confuse our dwindling band of Castro apologists on this thread, but I think most people are capable of understanding that they are no substitute for democracy, freedom of expression, freedom of organisation or any of the other things that the bureaucratic dictatorship in Cuba denies to Cuban workers.

As for allowing our handful of Stalinists the opportunity to answer our views, they have done so at tedious, if less than informative, length here. I'm a bit baffled as to why you think it's our responsibility to provide an additional platform for a tiny group to spew out apologetics for Stalinism. They already have their website, pamphlets and newsletters, full of hilarious propaganda incidentally, and they apparently have encountered no difficulty in publishing their turgid defenses of the indefensible here. The amusing thing about this exchange is of course that there is no prospect of socialist opponents of Stalinism being allowed such outlets under the regime these people idolise.

by Turlough Kelly - None Fri Apr 17, 2009 13:31 turloughkelly at gmail dot com

I find the views of the Castro apologists on here utterly depressing. I'm a socialist, though not a member of the Socialist Party (which in any case doesn't stand candidates in my constituency) nor of any other political grouping. To me, socialism has always meant compassion and justice abstracted to the realm of economics and politics.

Where is the compassion in a system which deprives its citizens of the rights of free speech, free assembly, free movement and the right to vote? Where is the justice in a country which arbitrarily detains dissidents and retains the barbaric death penalty (moratorium or no, it remains on the statute books)?

Those defending the Cuban regime on this website would not be able to do so in Cuba itself, as its government has seen fit to restrict access to the greatest educational and cultural learning tool in the history of humanity (although doubtless some of them would have wormed their way into the privileged caste of bureaucrats.)

The inhumane and indefensible economic blockade by the USA may have been one of the decisive factors in the ultimate failure of the revolution, but it has been betrayed as effectively from within as from without. Some of its achievements, such as the exemplary healthcare system, have survived intact, and go a long towards proving that our own third world medical care is a result of an ideological rejection of the principle itself on behalf of the government here and those who elected them, rather than a matter of funding or logistics.

Finally, I'd like to correct Mark P on something. Neither Joe nor the Socialist Party uses the term "working class" anymore, preferring "working people." What nuance is implied here? I would have thought that Ireland was one of the few countries in Europe in which class struggle qua class struggle was still relevant.

by Mark P - Socialist Party (Personal Capacity) Fri Apr 17, 2009 15:08

While I agree with the bulk of your comment, Turlough, I do have to correct your correction.

While the Socialist Party does sometimes use terms like "working people" or "PAYE workers", as a way of making sure that people understood that we are talking to all wage workers and not simply the subset of the working class referred to as working class by the mainstream media, we also use the term working class. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a Socialist Party election leaflet that doesn't use the term and if you search our website for instance you will find nearly a thousand articles using it. We are firmly of the opinion that the idea of class struggle is relevant in Ireland, and indeed across the world.

I hope that clears up any misunderstandings.

by Turlough Kelly - None Fri Apr 17, 2009 15:42 turloughkelly at gmail dot com

Thanks for the clarification, Mark. I do bristle when I hear "working people" in lieu of "working class" as it smacks of watering down the message to avoid frightening the horses (something of which Joe could seldom be accused, in fairness) but I'm glad to hear the alternative explanation. Although working class myself, I don't believe in class chauvinism in the slightest; however, in a society in which wealth and opportunity are still to a large degree inherited, any corrective struggle must necessarily involve class struggle.

Just watched a couple of episodes of this online and found Joe's experiences in Argentina particularly enlightening.

by Berliner Sat Apr 18, 2009 08:43

"Any corrective struggle must necessarily involve class struggle."

The analysis of history in terms of "Class Strugggle" was one of the silliest and most poisonous myths ever perpetuated on Western Civilisation.

The LEAST class divided countries are the most advanced capitalist countries.

Scandinavian countries are a case in point.

Capitalist Denmark was described by National Geographic Magazine as:

"A clean and prosperous land with virtually no crime or poverty, the smallest country in Scandinavia is, according to American humorist Garrison Keillor, “the World’s Most Nearly Perfect Nation”.
and,

"A country where few have too much and even fewer have too little."

( http://www.nationalgeographic.com/media/ngm/9807/hiligh...tml#c )

If I want to study class division I'll go to North Korea..there I will find a starving working-class ruled by an enclosed order of Nuclear Bomb and Rocket totting tyrants..

When Marxists rule, people run:

http://www.die-berliner-mauer.de/en/geschichte.html

.

by Turlough Kelly Sat Apr 18, 2009 11:20 turloughkelly at gmail dot com

That's some nice incoherent ranting there, Berliner, have you ever considered joining Sinn Féin? I particularly enjoyed your holding Denmark up as a model of capitalism when such progressive aspects as exist in Danish society are precisely those which are antithetical to capitalism.

But I guess taking one's cues from a Nazi-infested, grudgingly post-fascist plutocracy such as the FRG would have that effect on one.

Anyway, this has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics: Dignity Sat Apr 18, 2009 18:48

The Saturday Financial Times always makes diverse and interesting reading.

Enclosed is the FT Weekend magazine and inside this week is an article about a man who fought with Che in the Cuban Revolutiion.

Luis Martinez says 'we were just a handful, but what a great and convinced group - not many weapons, but A LOT OF REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT".

Martinez came from a Matanzas - from a humble family and he enjoyed studying. He read history and languages at University under the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, and then when he was part of the Revolutionary Regime. He states that he hated Batista and was detained and tortured on the island of Pinos because he had started a resistance movement in his home town in the 1956.

Martineqz erscaped and dedicated himself to Resistance. He was asked to become a member of Fidel Castro's 26th July Movement. He was the head of the Guerillas in Havana, and involved in planning to topple Batista. He recalls Janaury 1st 1959 when rumour spread to say Batista had left Cuba...for the Dominican Republic....gradually people came out from being undercover - they were exhausted but they knew they had mustered up the necessary courage.

Martinez further says:-

'and it was true about Batista, it wasn't just a rumour. We managed to immobilise some of the military and police outposts and government buildings - some people were still with their machine guns. We wre just a handful, but what a great and convinced group - not many weapons but a lot of revolutionary spirit. AND OF COURSE WE WERE CONVINCED THAT THINGS HAD TO CHANGE'

This man worked with Che Guevara and La Cabana putting organisation into the Revolution.....he was put in charge of the new revolutionary police.

'We fought for our people to be fully happy. And we stayed alive to keep an eye on that marvellous victory'.

Martinez admits to being old now and suffering from Parkinson's Disease. He goes on to say that the Cuban Health system that they fought for - free and universal health for everybody is supporting and taking care of him. He admits that much can be criticised.

The man admits to being a fan of another Revolutionary, Hugo Chavez........'but I can criticise him too for being in power too long'.

Martinez concludes that 'he sees a bright future for Cuba. He says that the revolution was a necessary deed. And it is still necessary in today's world. I feel I fought for the right thing'

Some food for thought.........we have not yet achieved universality of health system.........

Michelle

by sp member Wed Apr 22, 2009 16:50

Celia S and others you just don't seem to get the basic point that is being made. When we say that Cuba is a Stalinist dictatorship this is a statement of fact.

By the use of any criteria there is no democracy in Cuba, especially if you use the highest possible standard of democracy - workers democracy in a socialist society.

What exists in Cuba bears no resemblance to this at all. There is simply no democracy at all for the working class, no free and independent trade unions, no right to organise a working class party of opposition to the dictatorship, no soviets, no independent workers control of industry or agriculture, no free and independent working class media (papers, radio, television etc).

Anything that exists is a front and a sham under the control of the bureaucracy.

Obama has begun his charm offensive of the Cuban bureaucracy. You wait and see. Over the next few years it is most likely that Raul and his associates will begin to "flirt" with the Obama regime and most likely try to take Cuban down the road towards the restoration of capitalism.

Will you still be defending the bureaucracy then or will you finally stand up and defend the Cuban working class and the gains of the revolution?

by Celia S Wed Apr 22, 2009 17:39

I suppose you didn't read the article/book either??

All you can do is parrot the usual line that I/we/'Stalinists' "just don't seem to get the basic point that is being made. When we say that Cuba is a Stalinist dictatorship this is a statement of fact."

No shit Sherlock. Maybe we don't agree with you because what you state is incorrect, and an insult to those Cubans who struggle on a daily basis to defend the revolution from those intent on counterrevolution.

Go read the article instead of posting inanities and infantile slogans

You go on to say that "By the use of any criteria there is no democracy in Cuba, especially if you use the highest possible standard of democracy - workers democracy in a socialist society."

Once again read the article and respond to it. It outlines an argument that Cuba employs a very different model of 'democracy' to that which we are familiar with. One that in its practice is very democratic indeed.

Why should Cuba be judged by the highest possible standards of democracy? Anything less necessitates that it be equated with 'Stalinist dictatorship'. Are you so politically immature as to be able to make this statement? Really? Like Joe, you condemn Cuba for not having created a socialist paradise, and take no heed of the context within which the Cuban revolution has developed and been forced to exist.

Read the article/book and debunk the assertion made there that a deep form of democracy exists in Cuba. If you can't, and feel compelled to parrot 'Trotskyist' slogans about Cuba being a 'deformed workers' state', then please, don't bother. We've heard it before.

The few contributions made by 'Trotskyists' on this site have shown me very clearly (where others couldn't, and I personally never saw it), where the term's pejorative connotations derive from

Your position on Cuba, and that which asserts that "British soldiers are merely 'workers in uniform", are enough for me.

I'll not waste any more time here, with you, Mark P or Uncle Joe et al

Chao pescao

CS

by sp member Wed Apr 22, 2009 18:04

Precisely the opposite Celia S, you are the one parroting the propaganda of the Castroists. You should hold your head in shame. It was exactly people like you in this country who for decades said the same things about the USSR and defended Stalinism and its murderous crimes against the working class, people like you who have and are damaging the name of socialism.

Once again you ignore the issue of Raul Castro and the shift towards capitalism - these people will lead the counter-revolution and you will be their cheerleader!

by sp member Wed Apr 22, 2009 22:14

It is a waste of time saying anything to you Celia S but at least your last post brought out the most important point of all and exposed you.

You said, "I don't believe it will happen because I believe in Raúl's and the elected leadership's integrity, and that of the Cuban people they represent. I believe inn their commitment to defending and developing socialism. They have demonstrated it and proved it time and time again. What have you, achieved, demonstrated or proven??"

From your own "mouth" you have uttered the words that condemn you.

You believe in Raul's and the elected leadership's integrity!
You believe in their commitment to defending and developing socialism! They have proved this time and time again!

It would be funny it it wasn't so tragic.

I would say that the majority of people who read that will have a good laugh and the people who would laugh loudest would be the Cuban working class who live in poverty under the yoke of the Castro family dictatorship.

Raul who inherited power from his brother; who is next in the family to take over the reins of power, what would this be called democratic socialist nepotism!

by Celia S Thu Apr 23, 2009 00:03

"I would say that the majority of people who read that will have a good laugh and the people who would laugh loudest would be the Cuban working class who live in poverty under the yoke of the Castro family dictatorship."

Your own words condemn you. And you and advocate of the theory that 'socialism ca not exist in one country alone'. Yet you condemn Cuba for not having achieved a socialist utopia on its own. You can't have it both ways. But then again, you aren't really interested in a reality that doesn't fit neatly with some text book notion of social revolution

Your condemnation of the "Castro family dictatorship" as having caused the poverty of the working class in Cuba shows you ignorance on multiple counts. Numerous times I have implored you to read the article, which puts the Cuban revolution and its 'poverty' in context, yet you refuse to do this. You resort to the default position that the 'Castro regime' is to blame for this.

I think those who read what you have just said will see your ignorance and naivety for what they are. First it was denial of democracy. Now it is the 'poverty' of Cuba that you condemn the 'Castros' for. By the way, your catch-all notion that Cuba is poor belies your ignorance further.

And pray tell, what is it about what you have said in all this that distinguishes you from the counterrevolution?? You spout nothing but nonsense about a 'pure' social revolution? Grow up. If you can't stomach 'Castro', then go an read Lenin

And a final point. For all your decontextualised lies about poverty and a lack of democracy, your attention must once again be brought to the fact that the vast majority of Cubans support their revolution. That doesn't fit neatly with your theory either. It is a 'deformed workers' state' after all.

Go read the article. Maybe you'll learn something about the task of trying to build a new society in the ruins of the old whilst surrounded by a hostile world. Maybe you'll learn something about revolution and struggle.

CS

by senior Thu Apr 23, 2009 15:34

To supporters of the Cuban revolution , Joe's visit just seemed like a continuation of the Anachronistic Procession of Freedom and Democracy from well-heeled countries that has visited Cuba down the years in order to tell the people there how to run their affairs.

"With Castro and other senior Cuban officials in the front row at a mid-morning Mass, the pope delivered a ringing call for pluralism in Cuba. He rejected the materialist, one-party ideology of the Cuban state. And he said that true liberation "cannot be reduced to its social and political aspects," but must also include "the exercise of freedom of conscience — the basis and foundation of all other human rights."……..

see : http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/26/world/the-pope-in-cub...d=all

by Cian - SP Thu Apr 30, 2009 02:01

Here is avideo of the speech, courtesy of Limerickblogger.ie

For more on Joe check out link below

by Patriot Thu Apr 30, 2009 06:25

You conveniently neglect to mention how castro personally took up arms and put his life totally on the line to fight for cuban freedom. (so did raul) His rule was a continuation of his leadership in the fight for cuban freedom from the yoke of capitalist rule. He truly EARNED his place at the head of the revolutionary government. Unlike many dodgy leaders today who just steal power by duping their populace with lies in elections then steal all their countries wealth and give them fuck all in return. At least all cubans get the basics in as fair a manner as is practical. The fact that there is little to go around and there is too much bureaucracy says more about failings of human nature itself both inside and outside cuba than castro's efforts to try to be fair to the cuban people.

It is notable that castro wore his simple uniform and lived on the same basic income as anyone else for the most part of his time in office. All of these things point to an integrity and patriotism you would be hard pushed to find in any country other than venezuela or bolivia today. Certainly not here or in the US.

Hard decisions had to be made to maintain the border integrity and economy of cuba in the face of hostile economic political and military forces, but I personally believe that castro acted in what he believed was the best interests of cuba over the years.Yes it meant life was far from perfect and there were restrictions, but those decisions were made out of necessity and a genuine patriotism not for personal greed or gain. I'll be sorry to see any erosion of this country because of the lack of awareness of a younger generation who know no better and are fickly influenced by the shiny but poisonous baubles of capitalism.

Long live castro and the revolution. A beacon in the dark, if somewhat flawed. But personally, I don't know how it could have happened and lasted so long any other way in practice. It seems to take a strong individual leader to keep any country from succumbing to the evils of capitalism. It's a pity that , in the case of stalin et al, that quite often such strong leaders are frequently psycopathic or deeply flawed power mad murdering egoists. Not so in the case of castro though. He was hard certainly, and no doubt some of his decisions resulted in a few people's deaths (but the same probably applies to the seemingly innocuous mary harney when it comes down to it) Hopefully chavez and morales will turn out ok too.

Wish we had a castro instead of the corrupt buffoons we currently have.

by Jolly Red Giant - Socialist Party / CWI Thu Apr 30, 2009 09:32

Patriot said
'You conveniently neglect to mention how castro personally took up arms and put his life totally on the line to fight for cuban freedom. (so did raul)'

So did Stalin and most of the other Stalinist leaders around the world

Patriot said
'His rule was a continuation of his leadership in the fight for cuban freedom from the yoke of capitalist rule. He truly EARNED his place at the head of the revolutionary government.'

To start with Castro wasn't a Marxist - he was a petty bourgeios nationalist who would happily have done a deal with the Americans after the overthrow of Batista if they were willing.

Patriot said
' Unlike many dodgy leaders today who just steal power by duping their populace with lies in elections then steal all their countries wealth and give them fuck all in return. At least all cubans get the basics in as fair a manner as is practical.'

The do have some basics - but the also have no democracy - hardly something that any socialist would aspire to.

Patriot said
'The fact that there is little to go around and there is too much bureaucracy says more about failings of human nature itself both inside and outside cuba than castro's efforts to try to be fair to the cuban people.'

This is abject nonsense (and indeed an insult to the Cuban working class) - it's like a capitalist claiming that greed is part of human nature - you are claiming that it's the fault of the cuban working class that they have no democracy and that Castro is the one trying to bring socialist democracy to the people - if Castro wanted to do as you say all he would ahve to do would be to lift the ban on political parties and initiate democratic elections (not the most difficult thing in the world).

Patriot said
'It is notable that castro wore his simple uniform and lived on the same basic income as anyone else for the most part of his time in office. '

Speaking as someone who has actually met Raul Castro I can assure you that you are being sucked in by a public appearance rather than the reality of the situation.

Patriot said
'It seems to take a strong individual leader to keep any country from succumbing to the evils of capitalism.'

Just what we need a 'strong' leader - forget about having any confidence in the ability of the working class to play a revolutionary role - all we need is a 'strong' leader. Do you not realise the misguided nature of your comment.

Patriot said
'Wish we had a castro instead of the corrupt buffoons we currently have.'

The Stalinists can keep Castro - I want genuine workers democracy (without a strong leader).

by Patriot Thu Apr 30, 2009 20:30

Patriot said
'You conveniently neglect to mention how castro personally took up arms and put his life totally on the line to fight for cuban freedom. (so did raul)'
JRG said
So did Stalin and most of the other Stalinist leaders around the world

well I did point out that stalin was a murdering madman. That says nothing whatsoever about castro. completely different people. Stalin was a shit therefore all strong leaders are shits is a fallacious argument

Patriot said
'His rule was a continuation of his leadership in the fight for cuban freedom from the yoke of capitalist rule. He truly EARNED his place at the head of the revolutionary government.'
JRG said:
To start with Castro wasn't a Marxist - he was a petty bourgeios nationalist who would happily have done a deal with the Americans after the overthrow of Batista if they were willing.

erm...what has his rigid marxism or lack thereof got do do with refuting my opinion that his bravery and leadership putting his own life on the line to help liberate cuba earned him the right to help lead cuba politically afterwards? Can you produce evidence to show that he would "certainly" have done a deal with the US after Batista was overthrown? while you are at it, can you "certainly" tell me this weeks lottery numbers perchance? Nothing in this world is certain.

Only dyed in the wool academic socialists / marxists seem to think that way. Castro was more flexibly minded and took the temperature as he went and felt his way. His leadership has proved stable and maintained some semblance of an alternative to the capitalist way in the face of overwhelming opposition. Some idealised marxist state would not have lasted IMHO. Look at our own little revolution and how that panned out. Most other attempts to overthrow capitalism have tried and failed.

Patriot said
' Unlike many dodgy leaders today who just steal power by duping their populace with lies in elections then steal all their countries wealth and give them fuck all in return. At least all cubans get the basics in as fair a manner as is practical.'
JRG said:
The do have some basics - but the also have no democracy - hardly something that any socialist would aspire to.

NO democracy? Hmm not totally convinced by your "proof by authority" blanket statement. Castro does not encourage direct dissent against the ruling party, but if you are interested in being constructive within society and furthering the revolution for the good of cuba and aren't just taking cheap shots at the party trying to undermine it publically then constructive ideas will likely percolate up and be heard. It's not fake democracy as we are used to it but what's important is good ideas that benefit society can enter common consciousness and bring changes that improve daily life while not destabilising the structure itself.
Cuba is not paralysed and new ideas are adopted like anywhere else. Castro realises the important point that capitalism works on breaking down unity by erosion / divide and conquer and that unity is really important in standing up to capitalism. Look at mayo for a good argument for the importance of unity in the face of capitalism and how it operates to erode resistance, one greedy person at a time. Capitalism is correct to see that people are weak and greedy. They can be so much more but often they aren't. Only the foolish would ignore this fact. Capitalism exploits it but castro respected it and put in strong safeguards. I think he was wise


Patriot said
'The fact that there is little to go around and there is too much bureaucracy says more about failings of human nature itself both inside and outside cuba than castro's efforts to try to be fair to the cuban people.'
JRG said:
This is abject nonsense (and indeed an insult to the Cuban working class) - it's like a capitalist claiming that greed is part of human nature - you are claiming that it's the fault of the cuban working class that they have no democracy and that Castro is the one trying to bring socialist democracy to the people - if Castro wanted to do as you say all he would ahve to do would be to lift the ban on political parties and initiate democratic elections (not the most difficult thing in the world).

Human failings lead to dishonesty, taking more than your share etc. and in order to be fair with limited resources, bureaucracy develops. Bureaucracy also gives some people a little power over others which is something monkeys naturally like having. Those two aspects of humanity's failings contribute to bureaucracy appearing then becoming part of the problem itself. Thats not an unreasonable observation. well it's certainly not "abject nonsense". Thats pure ad hominem argument and rather disappointing. It's no insult to the cuban working class to say they are human just like everyone else. In fact I think they've risen above these basic human weaknesses better than most for the greater good. Thats a compliment BTW. I'm saying they are better than us!!

Patriot said
'It is notable that castro wore his simple uniform and lived on the same basic income as anyone else for the most part of his time in office. '
JRG said:
Speaking as someone who has actually met Raul Castro I can assure you that you are being sucked in by a public appearance rather than the reality of the situation.

I was talking about Fidel Castro not Raul!
Did raul offer you a cigar and a fine wine or what? Did he have slaves and a big screen tv? please elaborate rather than making unspoken "knowing" implications without offering evidence. It makes for a poor argument. I (and others) are probably quite interested in hearing about the details of this meeting. I beg you please elaborate.

Patriot said
'It seems to take a strong individual leader to keep any country from succumbing to the evils of capitalism.'
JRG said:
Just what we need a 'strong' leader - forget about having any confidence in the ability of the working class to play a revolutionary role - all we need is a 'strong' leader. Do you not realise the misguided nature of your comment.

A strong leader inspires and brings out the best in the people he leads. Castro has done this in Cuba and Chavez is doing this in Venezuela. The greatness was there in the cubans and in the venezuelans. All the leader does is bring out those great qualities, focus and amplify them. I'm not saying the people aren't great, just that history shows that this positive energy often becomes diffused and lost without the lens of an honest and patriotic leader.

My comment is not misguided (more patronising ad hominem...sigh!!). I'm not totally Naive. Obviously a clumsy disorganised but well meaning peoples revolution is probably much better than a nasty dictator.
A leader has to be benign and patriotic and care about his country and his people to be worth anything.
Unfortunately many strong leaders have turned out to be mad bastards who try to further their own ends.
But a more genuine leader like castro / chavez / morales is an asset to the people and should be supported
We are monkeys and groups of monkeys work better with a leader. It's deeply ingrained in our nature. Only an idealist marxist would try to factor out human nature from it's social philosophy. Luckily Castro did not. Nor does chavez. Nor do I

Patriot said
'Wish we had a castro instead of the corrupt buffoons we currently have.'
JRG said:
The Stalinists can keep Castro - I want genuine workers democracy (without a strong leader).

Best of luck to you. You'll need it if you are not factoring in human frailty / stupidity and the wide variations of intelligence in any given population.
For instance, there will always be people you think are stupid like me in your socialist utopia. How do you propose to deal with us? Won't we cause problems by misunderstanding what is best for us and how will you deal with that? What if a significant proportion of your socialist population has the intelligence of a soap character and sees a never ending stream of capitalist propaganda about how our socialist organisers, are all corrupt mad fools and we could have all these nice things if we embrace capitalism? How can idiots like me possibly see through such propaganda when we are just not clever enough or stoic enough like you to see the long term picture and resist? And what can you do about a destabilising influence like that in your marxist utopia? Perhaps a little media supression? maybe a eugenics program? Your apparent intolerance even at this early stage of just talking about things with a "lesser mortal than yourself" incapable of processing such obvious ideas at your exalted level does not bode well for us stupid people in your socialist utopia. !! Think I'd prefer an austere but vibrant life in cuba!

by Jolly Red Giant - Socialist Party / CWI Thu Apr 30, 2009 22:57

Patriot said
Stalin was a shit therefore all strong leaders are shits is a fallacious argument

You miss the point Patriot – Castro openly supported the Stalinist dictatorships that existed in Eastern Europe – in 1968 fro example he supported the suppression of the Prague Spring.
To quote directly from Castro -
“But from fair slogans there had been a move towards an openly reactionary policy. And we – bitterly, sadly – had to approve that military intervention”

Patriot said
Can you produce evidence to show that he would "certainly" have done a deal with the US after Batista was overthrown?

To quote Castro himself when he travelled to New York after the overthrow of Batista –
"I know the world thinks of us, we are Communists, and of course I have said very clear that we are not Communists; very clear."[

Castro also announced that Cuba would not confiscate foreign-owned private property (which meant mainly American-owned concerns), and indeed would seek additional investments to provide new jobs.

Again to quote Castro –
"Let me say for the record that we have no plans for the expropriation or nationalisation of foreign investments. True, the extension of government ownership to certain public utilities – some of them, such as the power companies, US-owned – was a point of our earliest programmes; but we have currently suspended all planning on this matter. I personally have come to feel that nationalisation is, at best, a cumbersome instrument. It does not seem to make the State any stronger, yet it enfeebles private enterprise. Even more important, any attempt at wholesale nationalisation would obviously hamper the principal point of our economic platform – industrialisation at the fastest possible rate. For this purpose, foreign investment will always be welcome and secure here."

Patriot said
‘Castro does not encourage direct dissent against the ruling party’

The Cuban bureaucracy do not allow any opposition parties – there may be a case for this during a period of revolution but not 50 years later.

Patriot said
‘but if you are interested in being constructive within society and furthering the revolution for the good of cuba and aren't just taking cheap shots at the party trying to undermine it publically then constructive ideas will likely percolate up and be heard.’

Really – so we have to be supportive – be constructive and then constructive ideas will ‘likely’ (your word) percolate to the top. Why should the Cuban working class be reliant on some bureaucrat making a decision about whether an idea is constructive – that decision, in a genuine workers democracy, should be the remit of working class people themselves (not someone who ‘knows’ better).

Patriot said
‘Capitalism is correct to see that people are weak and greed… Human failings lead to dishonesty, taking more than your share etc’

No it is not – the greed of capitalism is driven by fear and the need to accumulate. People are not weak and greedy – they are exploited and abused by an economic system that treats them worse the cattle to the slaughter. Making such comments about people betrays your own insecure petty-bourgeois attitudes. Your attitude towards working class people is indicative of someone who has a conscience but does not believe that others do – someone who tries to claim the high moral ground without realising that they are standing on quicksand.

Patriot said
‘I was talking about Fidel Castro not Raul!’

Politically, at the time of the Cuban revolution Raul was significantly more to the left than Fidel. But very quickly they both became part and parcel of a bureaucracy that lived far beyond the lifestyles of ordinary Cubans. You ask me how I know about Raul. I worked in Shannon Airport during the 1980’s when Raul made regular stopovers during his Aeroflot fights to and from the Soviet Union. He never dressed in a ‘simple uniform’, was known for spending more than a pretty penny in the Duty Free (he had a liking for Waterford Crystal) and was more than happy to portray himself as something more than an ordinary joe soap.

Patriot said
‘A leader has to be benign and patriotic and care about his country and his people to be worth anything.’

To be honest - bullsh*t – If he was a genuine workers leader he wouldn’t give a fiddlers about being ‘patriotic’ – he would only be interested in furthering the interests of the people he represented and ‘his country’ would be irrelevant. The ‘patriotic’ nationalism you display here is an idea based in the past – it an idea used by Stalinism (socialism in one country) and it is a petty bourgeois notion that has no place in the workers movement.

Patriot said
‘We are monkeys’

No we are not – working class people are intelligent, considerate, strong, supportive – they instinctively understand the collective strength of the working class – they strive to improve the lot of themselves, their children and their fellow workers – they deride anyone who suggests that they need to be pulled by the nose in the direction of salvation like groups of monkeys who work better with a leader.

Patriot said
‘You'll need it if you are not factoring in human frailty / stupidity and the wide variations of intelligence in any given population.’

You need to accept the fact that you have little or no understanding of the class nature of society, little or no understanding of class consciousness, little or no understanding of the processes of revolution, little or no understanding of how (or even why) to implement genuine workers democracy.

Your notions are based on the idea of a ‘strong leader’ who can lead his poor, frail and stupid followers to a better life. You should really question your own political beliefs and whether they actually lay on the left or the right of the political spectrum.

by Patriot Sun May 03, 2009 09:52

is not due to being totally swept away by your persuasive argument or anything. I'm quite busy at the mo.
But promise I'll get back to you when I have more time.
cheers
P.

by senior Wed Jun 03, 2009 19:36

'If the new United States authorities were to finally desist from their arrogance and decide to talk in a civilized manner, it would be a welcome change'

JRG takes the above words of Raoul Castro as indicating “a significant shift in reaching an accommodation with the US”.

In fact colonized people have always found the language employed by the representatives of imperialism insulting and humiliating. The election of Obama last year represented recognition by one section of the US ruling class that new tones and “quiet diplomacy” should replace the aggressive rhetoric of the previous administration wherever possible . This was to mollify anti-war sentiment at home and hopefully bring on board the rulers of oppressed countries so as to advance US global strategic interests. The Cuban government would know that: ageing they may be but they are not stupid.
The SP seems to think that ,as poster Meriena above put it: “Raoul and his fellow bureaucrats” are just itching “to start in earnest to restore capitalism” in Cuba . It doesn’t make sense ;it goes against everything the Castros have lived and fought for all their adult lives . Either of the Castro brothers could have personally enriched themselves at any time over the past fifty years by selling out the revolution to US interests. Instead they have led relatively modest lives in a country that maintains levels of economic and social equality to which poor people in other countries in the region have looked to as a model and an inspiration

The reality the US has to deal with is that there has in fact been an extension of the revolution to other countries in Central and South America over the last decade and there isn’t a single country where it has spread to that hasn’t recognized the contribution made by Cuba. The Cuban leadership has not deliberately set out to stifle revolutionary movements abroad so as to enhance their own privileged existence as a bureaucracy at home -which was the charge made by left critics against the soviet bureaucracy.

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton accepted yesterday that the Organization of American States (OAS) annual general assembly which is currently meeting in Honduras would be unable to reach consensus towards re-admitting Cuba to membership. Clinton said that while the US looked forward to Cuba rejoining the group, "membership in the OAS must come with responsibilities".

Last month Venezuelan's President Chavez protested at the OAS' subordination to Washington and called for its “transformation” threatening that Venezuela could eventually withdraw to create an alternative group. Last month in his first act as president, El Salvador’s Mauricio Funes restored his country’s diplomatic relations with Havana, leaving Washington the only country in the region with no formal ties to Cuba

Latin American countries at the conference led by Nicaragua and Venezuela called for Cuba to be readmitted to the OAS without preconditions. The US proposed a “compromise” formula under which the organization would rescind its 1962 suspension of Cuba but tie its return to reform to the country’s acceptance of "democratic principles" and "respect for human rights".
Not referring to his own country’s torture facility in Guantanamo, US State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly told reporters before the two day conference "They (Cuba) have to make more moves towards democratic pluralism. They have to release political prisoners and respect fundamental freedoms."
Ms Clinton acknowledged that the US was “pretty much by itself” in making its demands adding that "if there is no action that is fine with us." Her comments to the conference were said to have been met by “stony silence” from the foreign ministers in attendance .

by Jolly Red Giant - Socialist Party / CWI Wed Jun 03, 2009 23:29

And it is in anyway relevent to the discussion on the thread how?

Clinton was met in silence so Raul Castro must be a democratic socialist. Sorry senior - you'll have to do better.

by senior Thu Jun 04, 2009 15:25

You asked a reasonable question above about a meeting between Raoul Castro and members of the US House of Representatives which you said represented a change of policy by the Obama government which Raoul Castro was accomodating to . I was trying to reply to that by questioning how much of a change of policy lay behind the diplomatic language .

The response by members of the OAS to Clinton’s speech on Tuesday suggested to me that the representatives of leftist Latin American countries present at the conference saw the essential continuity of Obama’s policies with those of previous US administrations. Fidel Castro himself described Clinton’s insistence on democratic reforms in Cuba before it can join the OAS as insulting and humiliating. He could have added that they were deliberately insulting.

by senior Mon Jan 18, 2010 19:49

An article in Global Research from Simon McGuinness of Cuba Support Group Ireland about Cuban medics working in Haiti .

« There are 344 Cuban medics working in Haiti today, they have two improvised hospitals where they are providing services to the earthquake victims. Only two of them were injured in the earthquake, both of whom have received treatment for minor injuries and remain there to assist the disaster victims.

Cuban doctors are working in all 10 "departments" (administrative regions) of Haiti. They are assisted by approximately 400 Haitian medical interns who have completed medical degrees on full scholarships in Cuba. «

see:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17001