For countless leftists who came of age politically sometime between the late 1950s and the early 1990s, the Cuban Revolution represented a beacon of hope. Cuba symbolized so many inspirational qualities: a serious commitment to economic and social egalitarianism; a fierce opposition to the decadence and inequality of capitalism; and a principled, anti-imperialist solidarity with the Third World. But while the… return to article
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Reader Comments (9)Page 1 of 1 pagesM aturing of today’s left? Not hardly. What failed support for the revolutions of Cuba and Venezuela signifies is today’s lack of class consciouslness.
Too many in today’s left expect paradise to exist when right wing tyrants are overthrown. This is both naive and ludicrous. Until a left led government is fully in place, there will always be the threat of counter revolution such as the CIA led overthrowing of the elected government of Chile’s Salvador Allende.
I would urge today’s leftists to carefully research human rights violations by U.S. supported regimes such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Pakistan, S. Korea., etc
I would also urge for today’s leftists to stop playing into the hands of U.S. propagandists and become fully aware of the so-called human rights violations in Cuba and Venezuela and ask themselves: What about human rights violations here in the U.S.?
Posted by Chicano Wobbly on May 2, 2009 at 4:55 PM “What failed support for the revolutions of Cuba and Venezuela signifies is today’s lack of class consciouslness.”— “so-called human rights violations in Cuba”—is this a joke?
Here’s a little story, when my brother was 8 years old, still living in that hell-hole known as Cuba, one day at school, because he would not salute the flag over religious principles, the powers that be took him in the office and threatened to put my parents in jail if he didn’t salute the flag again.
Here’s another one for you, after my mom had me, the doctors inserted a ring inside of her vagina, obviously against her will, so that she couldn’t have any more kids.
Gay people used to be placed in concentration camps just for the simple fact that they were gay, you can’t say anything negative about the government without risking inprisonment, and you’re not even allowed to simply leave the country if you don’t agree with the ideals.
I don’t know what your interpretation of what human rights violations are, exactly, but you have to admit, these come pretty close, right?
Oh, and by the way, Cubans aren’t allowed inside of any of the hotels where tourists stay at… in their very own country!
Hooray for the revolution, social equality, and as you so naively and irresponsibly wrote “class consciousness”.
Posted by dennis velazquez on May 6, 2009 at 9:07 PM In my hometown of San Antonio, TX most of us are discourage from going into hotels that only well to do tourists can afford to stay at. If we go in to use the rest room we are asked to leave!
In the U.S. not long ago people were arrested and never charged for criticizing Bush’s lies regarding 9/11 and Al Qaeda.
Forced sterilization was prominent up until about 35-40 years ago especially in the south.
In 1969 I was suspended and lectured to because I refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I informed the principal that I owed no allegiance to the flag, only to the Constitution! Apparently right wing extremists have no use for the Constitution, prefering to use the flag as their symbol of so-called freedom!
In the U.S. workers are spied on, harassed and fired for attempting to organize unions on the job!
So please do not attempt to lecture me about so-called human rights violations in Cuba when I have seen the same here in this country, the so-called land of the free!
Posted by Chicano Wobbly on May 7, 2009 at 9:20 PM There’s a big difference between “discouraged” and not being allowed/catching a beat-down.
Look, maybe I went about my response the wrong way. I know I came off a bit condecsending but it’s just that you have to understand that when you write something like “so-called human rights violations” about something I’ve seen, first hand, it automatically brings the absolute worst out of me.
Listen, I’m not some right-winger trolling around this website. Just like you, I do not belong to any party, and actually never have voted in my life. And I certainly don’t come from some formerly rich family that was forced out of Cuba by the revolution. On the contrary, my father was born in 1955 after Fidel’s first failed attempt to overthrow Batista; now, take a wild guess at what my father’s name is….you got it: Fidel. My grandfather, a farmer, was a supporter of the revolution. So was my grandmother, on my mother’s side. Fortunately, though, at some point, common sense started to out-weight naively flawed romanticism.
Hey, look, I’m not gonna sit here and, as you put it, try to lecture you on human rights. And I certainly can not tell you that those things you wrote about didn’t happen or weren’t happening back then. But what I could matter-of-factually say to you is this: I left Cuba at the age of six and by then I had already experienced the constant fear that is always present in that God-forsaken hell-hole, as I playfully like to call it. I’ve lived here, in the states for twenty years now, and have never—I repeat—never-ever had to deal with having my basic rights, as a human being, tampered with in any level that is even worth mentioning.
Posted by dennis velazquez on May 7, 2009 at 10:45 PM Oh, and one last thing, I’m sorry but you HAVE NOT seen the same. If you did, you would have had to migrate via shark-infested waters in a raft made of wood and tires to a foreign country with a completely different language to be able to write the two comments you’ve written in this page.
Posted by dennis velazquez on May 7, 2009 at 10:52 PM Bueno hermano, no hard feelings! You have your opinions based on experiences and I have mine!
I will continue to support the revolution because not to would only give support to the imperialist, corporate controlled U.S. government! I love the United States, I despise the government!
Que Sigue La Lucha Por La Justicia!
Posted by Chicano Wobbly on May 8, 2009 at 4:15 PM Tranquilo, broder, todo bien. Maybe we’ll have a few more discussions in the near future. Take care of yourself.
Posted by dennis velazquez on May 8, 2009 at 8:52 PM I really don’t pay much attention to In These Times nowadays but a link to Brociner’s article in Bookforum prompted me to pay a visit. His confusion is over the term “left”. The radical left (Counterpunch, Znet, MRZine, et al) will continue to identify with Chavez, Castro and other radical leaders while the liberal left (Brociner, Todd Gitlin, Michael Berube, et al) will continue to oppose them. I must add that in reviewing Brociner’s past articles, I came across his spin doctoring for the IDF which induced projectile vomiting. It is one thing to bad mouth Cuba. It is another to defend ethnic cleansing and war crimes. Shame on him.
Posted by lproyect on Jun 4, 2009 at 3:11 PM “This widespread disillusionment with the Cuban Revolution signifies a maturing of the American Left.”
I’m not so sure there is this “widespread disillusionment” with the Cuban revolution that Brociner refers to in the United States; however, there is widespread misunderstanding on the left as to what Barack Obama stands for and perhaps this pathetic support by so many “leftists” for Barack Obama who is nothing but Wall Street’s new mouthpiece for U.S. imperialism has something to do with all of this.
It seems there is no end to the number of leftist writers who fail to understand that the Cuban revolution offers more hope for humanity than does Barack Obama with his wars in three countries, undermining the struggles for single-payer universal health care (the Cubans have one of the best health care systems in the world) and as far as housing goes how many Cubans do you see being foreclosed on and evicted from their homes because they can’t pay medical bills?
While the United States finances 800 military bases dotting the globe, the Cubans are helping people all over the planet establish health care centers.
And talk about a “green economy,” we could learn a lot from the Cubans.
As for education, the Cubans have a system of public education second to none while U.S. education is crumbling faster than capitalism itself.
I would suggest that the left should push for ending the U.S. embargo against Cuba so the American people can learn more about how socialism benefits the people.
It is a dirty shame that any “leftist” would support Barack Obama rather than the Cuban revolution. But then again, when one puts down Marxism and takes up the imperialist ideology of “pragmatism” this is what happens.
Perhaps if the Communist Party in the United States was as strong as the Communist Party in Cuba we would have a chance of winning many of the advanced social programs the Cuban people have come to take for granted.
As for this so-called Cuban repression which we have been led to believe involves thousands of Cuban political prisoners languishing in decrepit jail cells like the dog cages hundreds are forced to live in at Guantanamo, Cuba courtesy of Bush and Obama… I asked Guy Ryder of the International Trade Union Confederation which is always harping about political prisoners in Cuba exactly how many Cuban political prisoners there actually are, and he told me: “seventy-seven.” Yes, all of this talk about political prisoners and Cuba and they have only seventy-seven people behind bars and most of these people have engaged in acts of terrorism where people have been severely injured or killed.
Now, I’ll tell you what Mr. Brociner; if you will get your fellow “leftists” together to bring the needed pressure to bear on Barack Obama to end the U.S. embargo against Cuba including an end to all restrictions on trade and allow Americans full access in traveling to Cuba like the Canadians have (kind of like how the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights says we should all live)... I will personally go to Cuba and arrange for all seventy-seven of these Cuban political prisoners to be transferred to the U.S. maintained dog cages at Guantanamo… but then again, what is with this U.S. military base on Cuban soil… shouldn’t these dog cages be moved to the United States where these hundreds of political prisoners that George Bush called “terrorists” and Barack Obama calls “militants” be transferred to the United States—- perhaps Miami Beach where they can suck up the sun along with a good strong dose of American “democracy? “
Mr. Brociner, it is your political understanding which needs to “mature;” have you ever considered studying Marxism?
Alan L. Maki
Warroad, Minnesota
Posted by alanmaki on Jun 6, 2009 at 12:45 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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