[Diggers350] Common sense solution is taboo! - Cuba shows way out of financial crisis

Julie Jordan jjordan at kern.com.au
Fri Feb 24 00:29:54 GMT 2012


I agree that there is much to admire in Cuba¹s health and community
initiatives in the face of great adversity, but while the repression of
people who attempt to speak out for tolerance of diversity & direct
democracy continues, it¹s not a system I believe that should be held in such
reverence as is often the case by the Marxist left, cheers from Oz :)


On 24/02/12 4:29 AM, "david bangs" <dave.bangs at virgin.net> wrote:

>  
>  
>  
>    
> 
> The cuban revolution has indeed many huge achievements that we must
> defend...but its achilles heel is that the leadership does not test that
> popularity through a free democracy...and I don't mean a bourgeois
> parliamentary democracy but a thoroughgoing democracy of self management at
> all levels of society...with freedom to form parties and factions and an
> uncensored domocratically owned media (as opposed to media controlled by the
> party or owned by private capital).
>  
> As long as this remains a one party bureaucratic dictatorship the revolution's
> security is undermined...
>  
> Dave Bangs
>  
>  
>  
>>  
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>  
>> From:  Tony  Gosling <mailto:tony at cultureshop.org.uk>
>>  
>> To: Massimo <mailto:diggers350 at yahoogroups.com>
>>  
>> Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2012 5:08  PM
>>  
>> Subject: [Diggers350] Common sense  solution is taboo! - Cuba shows way out
>> of financial crisis
>>  
>> 
>>    
>>  
>> 
>> Cuba Sets a Global Example for the Achievements of  Socialism
>>  
>> By Peter Phillips
>>  
>> In an all day  conference, February 10, 2012, some 120 authors, professors,
>> and journalists,  from dozens of Caribbean, American and African countries,
>> met with Fidel  Castro. Those attending were invited participants for the
>> Intellectual  Encounters for Peace and the Preservation of the Environment
>> event at the  Havana Convention Center. Topics discussed in the nine-hour
>> session were world  peace, environmentalism, neo-liberal capitalism, and the
>> continuing importance  of socialism.
>>  
>> Fidel Castro (age 85) urged those assembled to a  moral duty to prevent the
>> extinction of humankind and challenge the expanding  predations of
>> neo-liberal global capitalism. He expressed concern for the  inevitable
>> collapse of Wall Street and the international monetary system.  Paper money
>> is worthless without backing from gold or other assets, Castro  asserted.
>> Environmental destruction is classless in that eventually all will
>> suffer‹both the rich and the poor‹if neo-liberal capitalism continues on its
>> rampart global destruction, he professed.
>>  
>> Castro¹s main message  was clear. Cuban socialism is an international example
>> of a humanitarian  economy in the world.  ³We have over 80,000 doctors,² he
>> said, and ³we  are currently training 830 Pakistani medical students and many
>> others from  around the world.²
>>  
>> Fidel Castro, reverently referred to as  ³Commandante² by many of those
>> present, was flanked by the Cuban Minister of  Culture, Abel Prieto, and the
>> president of the Cuban Book Institute, Zuleika  Romay.  The participants in
>> the encounter were invited guests to the 2012  International Cuban Book Fair
>> that ran from February 10 to 19 in Havana.
>>  
>> The nine-hour session went from 1:00 PM until after 10:00 PM,  with only two
>> short coffee breaks. Fidel gave extended responses during the  event,
>> commenting on the presentations, asking questions, and recalling the  history
>> of the Cuban revolution and Cuba¹s humanitarian efforts over the past  fifty
>> plus years.  Some 40 people presented briefings on their  concerns.  The lies
>> and propaganda of the corporate/capitalist media were  important themes for
>> the day. One participant remarked how the global  corporate media seeks to
>> create a monoculture of the mind inside the  capitalist countries.
>>  
>> As an invited author for the  International Cuban Book Fair, I was honored to
>> participate in the discussions  held with the ³Commandante.² His energy is
>> inspiring and his command of  history and contemporary issues is phenomenal.
>> Castro had serious health  issues a few years back, but remains mentally
>> alert. He walked with assistance  from his bodyguards, but remained fully
>> participatory in the nine-hour  session.
>>  
>> Cuba is an international example of the potentialities  of socialism, and an
>> ongoing symbolic challenge to marketplace capitalism. In  the United States
>> there is a continuing propaganda drumbeat against the Cuban  revolution.
>> Castro is often described as a military dictator repressing his  people and
>> blocking freedoms in Cuba. But this description ignores some  undisputed
>> social advances under his leadership that could serve as an example  of what
>> a society can do when it turns its resources to humanitarian purposes.
>>  
>> Contemporary neo-liberal capitalism undercuts wages, unions and  social
>> welfare, which results in the expansion of poverty, hunger, and extreme
>> inequality. Cuba is a demonstration that humanitarian socialism can work for
>> the masses. Cuba is the number one organic farming country in the world. Cuba
>> has full employment, zero starvation, and some of the best health care in the
>> world.  Cuba¹s life expectancy is equal to the United States and  education
>> up through university is paid for by the state for all students.
>>  
>> As a media-reform advocate, participant and observer, I watched  tens of
>> thousands of young people arrive at the International Book Fair in the  old
>> Spanish fort overlooking downtown Havana. These are multi-generations of
>> people who have never suffered media advertisements. Three University of
>> Havana literature majors, with whom I spent a full day, laughed hysterically
>> when I asked them if they wanted a McDonald¹s Happy Meal. They represent a
>> people who accept the equality of socialism and collective growth of human
>> betterment, and will strongly defend their way of life if necessary. As
>> literature majors they have completed three years of Latin, and are starting
>> classical Greek. They have had courses in historical and modern Latin
>> American  and European literature, and art. Their university education costs
>> them  nothing, and the government provides all textbooks and living expenses.
>>  
>> After the collapse of the USSR, Cuba lost most of it subsidies  from the
>> socialist block of nations. The early 1990s were a difficult  transition.
>> This was when Cuba opened it doors to those who wanted to leave.  Some 30,000
>> people choose to move to the United States. Yet, ten million  people choose
>> to stay and build the independent socialist country that Cuba is  today.
>> Several other South American countries, notably Venezuela and Ecuador,  have
>> taken note of Cuba¹s successes and are moving in a similar direction  seeking
>> socialist equality.
>>  
>> Some in the US believe that when the  senior Cuban leadership from the 1959
>> revolution passes away, US corporations  and displaced Cubans abroad will
>> waltz back into Havana to return capitalism  to the island. It is very clear
>> to me, and many contemporary observers, that  multiple generations of
>> socialist Cubans will never allow this to  happen.
>>  
>> _______________________________________________________________________
>> Peter  Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and
>> President  of Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored. He co-edited with
>> Mickey Huff  Censored 2011, which was published in Spanish for the
>> International  Book Fair in Cuba. Mickey Huff is the director of Project
>> Censored and editor  of the recently published Censored 2012, which was
>> presented to Fidel  Castro February 10, 2012.
>> On Feb 22, 2012, at 4:58 AM, Tony Gosling  wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>  
>>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Diggers350/
>>> http://www.reinvestigate911.org/
>>> http://www.thisweek.org.uk/
>>> http://www.911forum.org.uk/
>>> "Capitalism is  institutionalised bribery."
>>> _________________
>>> www.abolishwar.org.uk <http://www.abolishwar.org.uk>
>>> <  http://www.elementary.org.uk <http://www.elementary.org.uk>  >
>>> www.elementary.org.uk <http://www.elementary.org.uk>
>>> www.public-interest.co.uk <http://www.public-interest.co.uk>
>>> www.radio4all.net/index.php/series/Bristol+Broadband+Co-operative
>>> <http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/series/Bristol+Broadband+Co-operative>
>>> www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1407615751783.2051663.1274106225&l=90330c0
>>> ba5&type=1 
>>> <http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1407615751783.2051663.1274106225&a
>>> mp;l=90330c0ba5&type=1>
>>> <http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1407615751783.2051663.1274106225&a
>>> mp;amp;l=90330c0ba5&amp;type=1>
>>> < http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
>>> <http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf>  >
>>> http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf
>>> <http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf>
>>> "The maintenance of  secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the
>>> possessor from the  community" Carl Jung
>>> <  https://217.72.179.7/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/
>>> <https://217.72.179.7/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/>  >
>>> https://217.72.179.7/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/
>>> <https://217.72.179.7/members/www.bilderberg.org/phpBB2/>
>>> 
>>> Fear not  therefore: for there is nothing covered that shall not be
>>> revealed; and  nothing hid that shall not be made known. What I tell you in
>>> darkness, that  speak ye in the light and what ye hear in the ear, that
>>> preach ye upon the  housetops. Matthew 10:26-27
>>> 
>>> Die Pride and Envie; Flesh, take the  poor's advice.
>>> Covetousnesse be gon: Come, Truth and Love  arise.
>>> Patience take the Crown; throw Anger out of dores:
>>> Cast out  Hypocrisie and Lust, which follows whores:
>>> Then England sit in rest; Thy  sorrows will have end;
>>> Thy Sons will live in peace, and each will be a  friend.
>>> http://tinyurl.com/6ct7zh6
>>> 
>>>  
>>> 
>>>  
>>>    
>>> 
>>>>> 

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