The Revolution Betrayed?
Notes
[1] K R Bolton, “Socialism, Revolution, and Capitalist Dialectics,” Foreign Policy Journal, May 4, 2010, http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/05/04/socialism-revolution-and-capitalist-dialectics/
[2] Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975), ‘Bourgeois and Proletarians,’ p. 71. Also: Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, “Speech on the question of free trade delivered to the Democratic Association of Brussels at it public meeting of January 9, 1848”, Collected Works, Volume 6 (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1976).
[3] Bolton, FPJ, May 4, 2010, op.cit.
[4] Which can also be equated with the so-called Austrian and Chicago schools.
[5] H G Wells, Russia in the Shadows, Chapter VII, ‘The Envoy’, 1920. http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0602371h.html
[6] Bolton, “Has Vietnam lost the struggle for freedom?,” FPJ, June 10, 2010. http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/06/10/has-vietnam-lost-the-struggle-for-freedom/all/1
[7] Reuters, “Castro says Soviet-style communism unworkable,” The Dominion Post, September 10, 2010, B5, Wellington, New Zealand.
[8] Al Kamen, “Has Fidel Castro become a capitalist?, The Washington Post, September 9, 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/09/AR2010090906407.html
[9] Jeffrey Goldberg, “Fidel: ‘Cuban Model Doesn’t Even Work For Us Anymore’,” The Atlantic, September 8, 2010, http://www.theatlantic.com/jeffrey-goldberg/
[10] Bolton, “Sino-Soviet-US Relations, and the 1969 Nuclear Threat,” FPJ, May 17, 2010, http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/05/17/sino-soviet-us-relations-and-the-1969-nuclear-threat/all/1
[11] Julia E Sweig, Inside the Cuban Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2002),“Overview,” Council on Foreign Relations, http://www.cfr.org/publication/4591/inside_the_cuban_revolution.html
[12] Jorge Domínguez, Omar Everleny Pérez Villanueva and Lorena Barberia (editors) The Cuban Economy at the Start of the Twenty-First Century (Harvard University Press, 2005).
[13] David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University, “Cuban Studies Program,” http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/cuba/faculty/public_policy
[14] “About DRCVLAS: Overview,” http://www.drclas.harvard.edu/about/drclas
[15] “David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies”, Source Watch, http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_Rockefeller_Center_for_Latin_American_Studies
[16] Dr Miguel A. Faria Jr., “Cuba and the Council on Foreign Relations, “ Newsmax, February 15, 2001, http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/2/15/224945.shtml
[17] The Inter-American Dialogue, A Second Chance: US Policy in the Americas, March 2009, p. 3. http://www.thedialogue.org/uploads/2008_Sol_M__Linowitz_Forum/A_Second_Chance,_FINAL_to_post.pdf
[18] Don Bohning, “Will Obama be influenced by the Latest Big Task force on Latin America?,” LA Progressive, Match 25, 2009, http://www.laprogressive.com/political-issues/will-obama-be-influenced-by-the-latest-big-task-force-on-latin-america/
[19] A Second Chance: US Policy in the Americas, op.cit., p. 7.
[20] Ibid., p. 9.
[21] Ibid., p. 10.
[22] Officially called “The Bolivarian Alternative for the People of Our America’ (ALBA) formed in 2004 by Venezuela and Cuba as an alternative to the U.S.- backed “Free Trade Area of the Americas.” By June 2009, ALBA had grown to nine member states, and the name was changed to the ‘Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America,” and looks to Russia as an ally.
The question is when the USA will allow Cuba to fully join the world economy by ending the far reaching financial and economic blockade. How can we fully judge Cuba’s economic system when the USA policy is precisely to thwart it? Considering the economic handicap Cuba has to carry it has done remarkably well for its population. It covers their health care, has a highly educated population, has continued to excel in music, film, art and sports, as demonstrated by international prizes, it has very little crime, has an advanced biological industry and has developed other major industries. It has taken electricity to the most remote areas of the country and has made it affordable to the population. Cuba has no homeless, and one does not find the misery prevalent in many so identified as capitalist countries. Cuba continues to explore alternative sources of energy while developing its own petroleum industry. Cuba’s tourist industry is developing in well controlled growth environment. Cuba in the past 50 years has changed its economy from a mono agricultural economy dependent fully on the USA to a multi-economy with diversified trading partners. Perhaps when the USA finally allows Cuba to freely join the world economic system the question economist may ask is how the world could implement Cuba’s system.
Agreed on most points, but when Cuba joins the world economic system it might gain in GDP but destroy its soul. With “the world economy” comes the moral rot of globalisation and Americanisation, and the undermining of sovereignty. The stringpullers of the world economic system are not about to learn from Cuba but will be seeking ways to integrate it into the global financial structure. The article is not written in condemnation of Cuba, but in the hope that it will continue to resist the unipolar world, and keep pursuing a Bolivarian bloc that can help in containing the American World Hoodlum.
Dr K R Bolton’s point is well taken, will Cuba destroy its soul and undermine its sovereignty by joining the world economy? Hopefully its leaders seasoned on world affairs will take heed and plan accordingly. I am not sure luxury golf courses are a good start.