「台灣古巴後援會籌備中」，第144期通訊，2009年1月12日。
一、古巴何以重要如昔。（2009.1，每月評論）
Why Cuba
Diana Raby
Monthly Review-January
2009
Diana Raby is senior fellow at the Research Institute
of Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool (UK) and is also professor
emeritus of history at the University
of Toronto Latin America and is also
active in solidarity movements such as the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and the
Venezuela Information Centre (UK). Her latest book, Democracy and Revolution:
Latin America and Socialism Today (London : Pluto
Press, 2006), argues for the crucial importance of Venezuela ,
along with Cuba
In the early 1990s there was near unanimity in the media, in Western
political circles, and even among academics that the collapse of the Cuban
revolution was imminent. Even today, many observers regard it as only a matter
of time for Cuba
But the fact that Cuban socialism has survived the extraordinary
rigors of the "Special Period" and is still functioning nearly twenty
years after the fall of the Berlin Wall should give pause for thought. Even the
prolonged incapacity of Fidel Castro and his subsequent resignation as
president has not led to chaos or upheaval, as many predicted. Why then has Cuba
The simple answer is that, for all its problems and deficiencies,
the revolutionary order is still viable. Many Cubans still believe in socialist
principles; they naturally grumble about shortages and restrictions, but have
few illusions about the alternative on offer across the Florida Straits.
But why is this so? What makes Cuba
different from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe ?
To understand this it is necessary to go back to the origins of the revolution
and the remarkable transformation that occurred from 1959 to 1963. Before the
revolution, Cuba was a U.S. U.S.
"backyard" of the Caribbean and Central America —was
unthinkable. So on January 1, 1959, when the dictator Batista fled and the
bearded guerrillas entered Havana and Santiago
The Cuban transition to socialism was one of the most rapid and
thorough anywhere in the world: the first and second Agrarian Reform Laws, the
nationalization of virtually all large industries and services, the
extraordinary literacy campaign and the establishment of free public education
at all levels, free universal health care, and the organization of a popular
militia and disciplined mass organizations from neighborhood level upwards, all
in the space of four years or so.
Yet in the first six months of 1959 all the rhetoric was about
democracy and humanism; socialism was scarcely even mentioned until mid-1960,
and was not officially adopted as the goal until April 1961, two years and four
months after the initial victory (during the Bay of Pigs
invasion). The 26th of July Movement (M-26-7) which had led the armed struggle
and seized power was a broad and heterogeneous movement that had serious
differences with what was then Cuba
The tremendous euphoria generated by the revolution in Cuba and elsewhere in Latin
America , and its initial ideological flexibility, are fundamental
for understanding its significance. Taking place in a region and at a time when
U.S. hegemony was undisputed, where the great Mexican revolution had been
neutralized and progressive movements like those of Sandino in Nicaragua, Grau
San Martín in Cuba in 1933, Gaitán in Colombia, and Arbenz in Guatemala had
been crushed by overt or covert U.S. intervention, the Cuban triumph had an
immediate symbolic impact. On his first trip abroad after victory, to Venezuela Mexico , Lázaro Cárdenas, author of the 1938 oil
nationalization in that country, also gave enthusiastic support to Cuba
The most obvious distinctive feature of the Cuban revolution—and the
essential reason for its ability to avoid the fate of Guatemala, defeating the
counter-revolutionary Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961—was the unprecedented
military victory of the guerrillas of the Rebel Army over the forces of the
dictator Batista. It was also this which would make it possible for Marxists
subsequently to present the process as a textbook case of the Leninist thesis
of armed workers' revolution. But the force that seized power was not a
Communist or Marxist party, it was a broad democratic movement with an eclectic
ideology derived from Cuban and Latin American popular revolutionary traditions
and vague notions of social justice and national liberation. The old Communists
of the PSP, which did have some roots in the labor movement and among
intellectuals but had been compromised by its earlier support for Batista, had
initially condemned Fidel Castro and the guerrillas as "petty-bourgeois
adventurers" and only started supporting the movement on the eve of
victory, late in 1958.
This made it all the more surprising to many observers when the
revolutionary leadership, represented above all by Fidel Castro, pushed ahead
regardless of all obstacles in the initial three years from early 1959 to 1962,
sweeping aside the wealthy Cuban elite and landlord class and defying
Washington to expropriate sugar estates and ranches, nationalize industries,
purge the state apparatus of Batista supporters, sign trade agreements with the
Soviet bloc, and then declare themselves socialist. Was this premeditated
sleight-of-hand by a covert Communist leadership, as alleged by many right-wing
commentators in the United
States U.S.
The truth is more complex and more interesting. Having failed to
achieve independence in the early nineteenth century along with most of Spain 's American colonies, Cuba
This anti-imperialist spirit was expressed again in the struggle
against the dictator Gerardo Machado (1925–33) and the abortive 1933
revolution, which was in many ways a precursor of 1959. Brutal repression
combined with a desperate economic situation caused by the world depression led
to a popular upheaval in which workers seized sugar mills and raised the red
flag, students occupied the presidential palace, and the lower ranks of the
army mutinied and overthrew the officer corps. A provisional government under a
popular medical professor, Dr. Ramón Grau San Martín, decreed many progressive
measures including an agrarian reform, intervention (government control) of the
U.S.-owned Cuban Electric Company, a minimum wage, the eight-hour day, and
female suffrage. But this revolutionary government had no organized political
backing, and it soon became clear that the leader of the rebellious troops,
Sergeant Fulgencio Batista, was an opportunist who was willing to work with the
U.S. Embassy.
Under the new administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Washington
had just proclaimed the Good Neighbor Policy and was reluctant to send in the
marines. But with U.S.
warships just off the coast, pressure was exerted on Havana
Although the young revolutionaries who coalesced around the activist
lawyer Fidel Castro Ruz in the early 1950s had some familiarity with socialist
ideas, their intellectual and political background was quite varied and
eclectic. Fidel himself was a member of the Partido Ortodoxo which had broken
away from the Auténticosa few years earlier in protest of their corruption and
abandonment of the principles of 1933. The Ortodoxoleader Eduardo Chibás was a
wealthy maverick who had been a student leader in 1933 and gained a mass
following from 1949 to 1951 with passionate rhetoric against corruption in his
weekly radio broadcasts. With his slogan "Vergüenza contra dinero"
("Honor against money"), Chibás revived the moral idealism which had
been a keynote of Cuban radicalism ever since Martí. Chibás shot himself during
his radio program in August 1951. There were mass demonstrations of mourning at
his funeral, and his populist appeal was the inspiration of the ortodoxos, many
of whom would join the M-26-7 a few
years later.
Another key figure in the ideological origins of the new
revolutionary movement was Antonio Guiteras, a young man who while still a
graduate student at the University
of Havana Cuba
Guiteras was a representative of the autonomous Latin American
Marxist tradition associated with the Peruvian José Carlos Mariátegui, and this
would be an important influence on several prominent members of the M-26-7 such
as Armando Hart. It was also the main ideological influence on the young
Argentine revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara who would meet Fidel
Castro and his comrades in Mexico
But in many ways the fundamental inspiration of the M-26-7
insurgents was the Cuban popular revolutionary tradition of the mambíses, of
José Martí and Antonio Maceo, the mulatto general of the liberation forces in
the wars against Spanish rule; an ideology of radical egalitarianism,
anti-imperialism, and agrarian self-sufficiency. It had much in common with
broader Latin American traditions going back to Simón Bolívar with his ideal of
continental unity and his distrust of gringo expansionism.
This is not to say that the Cuban revolutionaries of the 1950s were
anticommunist or unaffected by European and international Marxist and socialist
theories. But most of them were independent from the international Communist
movement and also from other organized international tendencies such as the
Trotskyists. This independence, and the ideological and tactical flexibility
which went with it, was crucial to their success.
By drawing on national popular traditions combined with the sense of
frustration and indignation against corruption, repression, and U.S.
In other words, without any reference to Marx, socialism, or class
struggle, there was an unequivocal commitment to radical change and to serving
the popular interest. Explicit ideological references were to the national
revolutionary heritage: defending the agrarian reform in June 1959, Fidel
declared that "what we are doing, you gentlemen who defend powerful
interests, what we are doing is to fulfill the declarations and the doctrine of
our Apostle [Martí], who said that the fatherland belonged to all and was for
the good of all";7 and in July 1959 he quoted Antonio Maceo: "The
Revolution will continue as long as there remains an injustice which has not
been remedied."8
That these declarations were not mere rhetoric swiftly became clear
as decisive action was taken in all areas of policy, and these actions served
to increase the overwhelming popular support for the revolutionary leadership.
With such massive support and with a monopoly of armed force, the new authorities
in Havana
In these circumstances an a priori socialist program would only have
been a hindrance: the strength of the revolution derived from its consensual
and inclusive character. When socialism was declared, it was more a reflection
of the new reality, an unexpected state of affairs which had come about as a
result of a dialectical process. The strength of the popular demand for
self-determination and social justice combined with the monopolistic structure
of the Cuban plantation economy and the direct and inevitable confrontation
with U.S.
The validity of this analysis was confirmed by interviews I
conducted in Cuba
This is to my mind more than just a peculiarity of the Cuban
process: it confirms the implications of Gramsci's argument that for
proletarian ideology—Marxist theory—to triumph, it must win the battle for
hegemony and become "common sense." Or to put it another way, the
abstractions of Marxist theory must gel with the popular democratic traditions
of a specific country before they can become hegemonic. This is perhaps the
crucial error of most Communist (and also Trotskyist) parties: the idea that by
preaching abstract Marxist-Leninist doctrine they can build an effective mass
revolutionary movement.
The revolutionary euphoria of 1959–61 in Cuba Cuba Africa
(in contradiction to the Soviet aim of "peaceful coexistence").
After 1970 the apparent failure of the idealistic development
strategy associated with "moral incentives" and the defeat of
insurgent movements in many countries obliged Cuba la
Economía (Economic Management and Planning System).10
It was this which led to the launching of the "Rectification
Campaign" in 1986 and to Fidel's rejection of the Soviet policies of
glasnost and perestroika. Seen by many as "Stalinist" or
"conservative," this rejection of Gorbachev's policies was in fact
anything but: it reflected the Cuban leader's prescient understanding that this
type of top-down liberalization would necessarily lead in a capitalist direction.
It also reflected the belief that in Cuba ,
where—unlike the Soviet Union —grassroots
participation and revolutionary idealism had not yet been totally crushed by
decades of authoritarianism and sometimes brutal repression, socialism could be
reinvigorated by a combination of visionary leadership and popular
mobilization.
A crucial factor in Cuba Nicaragua ,
which under severe pressure in the late eighties adopted IMF recommendations,
liberating prices of basic commodities, and marketizing social services, Cuba
Despite the conventional notion of Cuba Eastern Europe , skepticism
about this is understandable. But one of the great errors of progressive
thought in recent decades has been the unquestioning acceptance of liberal
polyarchy as the only valid form of democracy; rejection of Stalinist
authoritarianism should not mean abandoning the Marxist critique of bourgeois
liberalism.
Democracy in the true sense—rule by the people—necessarily begins in
local communities, with people in neighborhoods and workplaces running their
own affairs. In this respect Cuba
It is true that at a higher level there are limitations, with
provincial and national delegates being presented on lists with only one
candidate for each post, so that the electorate's only option is to accept or
reject each candidate. Policy debates involve extensive popular input through
such instruments as workers' parliaments and consultations by commissions of
the National Assembly, but such debates clearly operate within centrally
designed parameters. Ultimately, it is undeniable that so long as the United
States is actively committed to the overthrow of the revolution, the full and
free expression of socialist democracy will be impossible in Cuba; but given
the way in which bourgeois elites manipulate liberal polyarchy to prevent any
serious challenge to the capitalist system, it is arguable that electorates in
Western countries have less influence than Cubans on policy decisions in
crucial areas such as finance, defense, and foreign policy.
But to argue the relevance of Cuba
The answer is that there are at least two areas in which Cuba
The second vital contribution to the emergence of a new alternative
lies in Cuba 's support for Venezuela , Bolivia Venezuela 's
aid to Cuba Bolivia
But also in broader political terms, without Cuba, Chávez (and
hence, at one remove, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and
Fernando Lugo in Paraguay) would have had much greater difficulty in gaining
credibility for projects of popular political empowerment implemented through
the appropriation and transformation of the state. The political disorientation
of the global left was such that only a totally unexpected movement like that
of Chávez could offer a way forward; and without Cuba Cuba , then, no Venezuela ;
and without Venezuela , no Bolivia , no Ecuador ,
and no Paraguay , and no
revival (however imperfect) of Sandinista Nicaragua
It is not, of course, that nothing would have occurred in these
countries; but it is all too likely that without the Venezuelan example and
without Cuba Venezuela or the other countries are simply
copying Cuba
Furthermore, the Cubans have been explicit in saying that they do
not regard their own socialism as a blueprint to be copied. What Cuba
As the new project of "twenty-first century socialism" and
the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) develops, Cuba
In this context the current Cuban reforms should not be seen as
leading in a capitalist direction (at least not necessarily), but as adapting
to the more flexible and dynamic project of "twenty-first century
socialism" which will eventually find similar (but not identical) expression
in Venezuela , Bolivia
Of course, over the years Cuba
The Western media have been eager to interpret recent reforms in
agriculture, in wage and incentive scales, and in the availability of consumer
electronics as evidence that Cuba is embarking on a capitalist transition.15
But there is no indication that large-scale private employment of labor or a
private capital market with a stock exchange and similar capitalist
institutions are being contemplated. The government has reiterated its
commitment to free universal education and health care and other social
services. Cuba has recently
signed important new agreements with several countries, notably Brazil and the European Union, which improve its
capacity to resist the U.S.
Finally, the extraordinary generosity and commitment of thousands of
Cuban internationalists providing medical and other services in conditions few
others would accept is living testimony to the reality of the country's
socialist project. The veteran British journalist Hugh O'Shaughnessy recently
offered a moving account of the Cuban missions in Bolivia Cuba Cuba
cannot be separated from the inspiring new developments in Venezuela , Bolivia ,
and elsewhere: Latin America today demonstrates that another world really is
possible, and Cuba
Notes
1. Revolución (Havana
2. Revolución, April 24, 1959.
3. José Martí, Inside the Monster, Philip
S. Foner, ed. (New York: Monthly Review, 1975), 3.
4. Revolución, January 4, 1959.
5. Revolución, February 25, 1959.
6. Revolución, March 14, 1959.
7. Revolución, June 8, 1959.
8. La Calle (Havana
9. See James O'Connor, The Origins of
Socialism in Cuba
10. One of the best discussions of this is
to be found in Ken Cole, Cuba
11. On this issue, see Arnold
August, Democracy in Cuba
and the 1997–98 Elections (Havana: Editorial José Martí, 1999), and Peter
Roman, People's Power (Lanham ,
MD
12. Simon Butler, "Cuba
13. "Cuban agriculture"
(interview with Roberto Pèrez), Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (UK
14. See Michael A. Lebowitz, Build It Now (New York : Monthly Review Press, 2006), and D. L. Raby,
Democracy and Revolution (London
15. See for example "Cuban workers to
get bonuses for extra effort," The Guardian (UK), June 13, 2008, and
"Cuba
16. Hugh O'Shaughnessy, Misiones cubanas en
Bolivia
二、It's Time to Address Racism in Cuba 以上兩則沒有中文，sorry
三、邁阿密的古巴人2與3放在一個檔案
一、It’s Time to Address Racism in Cuba
（在後）
二、邁阿密的古巴人
最近，古巴政府慶祝古巴革命50周年。自從菲德爾﹒卡斯特羅成為古巴統治者以來，有近兩百萬古巴人逃離共產黨統治，幾乎有一半在美國邁阿密地區安家落戶。
BBC記者艾米利奧﹒聖佩特羅回顧過去，發現這個古巴流亡者社區對於他的成長以及邁阿密的發展產生了巨大影響：
所有在美國邁阿密出生的古巴兒童都和我一樣，從小就被教導，我們來到這裡完全是偶然的。
我們是流亡者，不是移民。我們到這裡只是暫時過一段流亡生活。
我們還被告知，在美國的幫助下，古巴最高領導人菲德爾﹒卡斯特羅將會被趕下台，一切都將很快恢復正常，不管這對於古巴動蕩的政治現實意味著什麼。
作為新一代正在成長的古巴流亡者，我們有必要把學習西班牙和維護父輩的文化傳統和習俗作為頭等大事來抓。對於我們來說，美國的熔爐概念是不存在的。
我們在美國的中心地帶，但是卻過著一種與世隔絕，整天與古巴人打交道的生活。
所謂的美國人只不過是我們在街上偶爾遇到的人：他們是學校的老師、銀行裡的職員、或者是電視上那些多姿多彩的明星。
我還清楚地記得小時候在一個古巴人管理的幼兒園裡，我們每天都要唱古巴國歌，我們談論最多的是古巴獨立運動之父何塞﹒馬蒂，而不是美國國父喬治?華盛頓。我們每年舉行聖誕節聚會時，就連聖誕老人都滿口西班牙語。
學會提出問題
我的整個生活被古巴和我父親的宿敵菲德爾﹒卡斯特羅所統治著。
父親和他的朋友會連續忙上幾天時間，組織抗議以及其他政治活動，要求結束古巴共產黨的統治。
我還記得父親如何為他在家裡編輯出版的政治報紙"國民報"版面做最後修改。我想，你也可以說，他類似於當今網上異見博客作者，只是那個年頭還沒有互聯網。
幾十年過去了，我終於得出結論，我父親與親戚之間就如何促進古巴變革所舉行的激烈緊張辯論以及他們之間存在巨大分歧，為我後來從事新聞記者事業打下了堅實的基礎。
從很小的時候，我就開始聽不同觀點的辯論，然後提出許多問題。
我父親一直在為結束"共產黨統治"的那一天而努力工作。每一個像我父親這樣的人，身邊就有五、六個人像我母親一樣，整天為養家糊口而不知疲倦地忙碌著。
如果沒有人去打工掙錢，維持一家人的生活，那是沒法去追求崇高理想的。
戰鬥精神
母親名叫亞美莉亞。我曾與她談過他們老一代流亡者這種吃苦耐勞的精神。母親對我說，她最初也感到極難適應這樣的生活，因為她過去在古巴的生活還是很舒適的。
她與許多上私校的女孩一樣，學會了縫紉和編制並把這些技巧作為一種嗜好。但是她萬萬沒有想到兒童時代的嗜好竟然成為我們流亡美國第一個10年維持生活的手段。
母親還給我講述了她和父親、哥哥、姐姐在1960年抵達邁阿密時，身上只有三四百美元，隨身只帶了幾個箱子，裡面裝的都是衣服和生活必需品。
幾個月後，形勢明朗了，看來推翻卡斯特羅並不是一個晚上就能做到的。
由於家裡帶過來的錢快用光了，母親不得不到一家服裝廠去打工。她的女工生活就是這樣開始的。
今天，母親已經81歲高齡，但是她仍然整天在工作，好像身上有使不完的力氣。
母親逃離祖國，在一個陌生的土地上舉目無親，不得不面對殘酷的現實。這一打擊激發了她的戰鬥精神，而這種精神一直保持到今天。
驕傲的社區
在美國的古巴流亡者社區政治色彩強烈以及邁阿密居住的古巴人在過去50年一直堅持反對卡斯特羅的強硬路線，引起許多評論，其中大多數是負面的。
實際上，流亡者社區中有一些人士採取的行動是很有問題的，其中包括暴力行動。
這就更加深了人們的印象，感到這些古巴流亡者是一群頑固不化的強硬分子。
但是如果從一個特別的、更宏觀的角度來觀察這座複雜的城市，我發現，在這些古巴人引發的強烈政治色彩和國際媒體大字標題的下面，隱藏著一個驕傲移民社區傳奇故事。
在過去50年裡，這個社區不但取得了巨大的進步，而且在美國為自己創造了新的生活。
在這個過程中，古巴人也為邁阿密變成一個國際化大都市發揮了積極的作用。
|
It’s Time to Address Racism in Cuba
By PATRICIA GROGG
A slice of the racial mix that is Cuba
The first
documentary on racial discrimination in this Caribbean island nation was filmed
here in 2008, incorporating opinions from
well-known artists and intellectuals that go to the heart of the controversy. “Raza” (Race), by young filmmaker Eric Corvalan,
could serve as a starting-point to launch the long-delayed debate.
“So far,
racism has only been talked about in academia, among intellectuals. I think
there should be an open, public discussion, even in
parliament,” the 36-year-old Corvalan told
IPS.
“In 50 years (since the revolution),
women’s issues and homosexuality have been debated: why hasn’t racism?” asked
the filmmaker. “It’s a revolutionary topic that concerns everyone, because
there are black women, black homosexuals and black men.”
“I think silence is worse. The longer
nothing is said, the more the racism fermenting underground is rotting the
entire nation,” singer/songwriter Gerardo Alfonso says in the documentary.
According to Roberto Zurbano, head of the
Casa de las Americas publishing house, to carry on “hiding” the issue would
lead black people to think that “they belong to another country, and that there
are two Cuba’s as there were in the 19th century, a black Cuba and a white
one.” Another possible implication is that “the issue could become a political
football, outside and inside the country.”
In the debate on race in Cuba
“The media must help to create a balanced
portrait of black people, which is lacking, so a racist stereotype is
constructed by society,” Corvalan said. “Why can’t we make films starring
blacks, whether as lawyers, doctors or engineers?”
According to Irene Ester,
who holds a degree in audiovisual communications, television will never
contribute to demythologizing race as long as it only emphasizes the high
proportion of black people in prison, working as prostitutes, or unemployed,
instead of the “heroism” and special characteristics of black families.
There is also an absence of models in the
education system, especially in the teaching of national history. The first
Africans arrived in Cuba
“In primary education, skin color is not
mentioned,” academic Esteban Morales says in the film. “If we are still living
in a society where white people have the power, and we don’t mention color in
education, we are in practice educating children to be white.
“Cuban history as we teach it is a
disgrace, because it is predominantly white history, and explaining the role of black people and mulattos in building this society
and its culture is not given its due importance,” says Morales, of the University of Havana
Blacks and
people of mixed-race heritage officially make up 34.9 percent of Cuba
However, most Cuban
academics estimate that between 60 and 70 percent of the population is black or
“mulatto”
Article 42 of the Cuban constitution
states: “Discrimination because of race, skin color, sex, national origin,
religious beliefs and any other form of discrimination harmful to human dignity
is forbidden and punishable by law.” In May 1961, the government eliminated
racial segregation by nationalizing all clubs and associations.
But equality before the law has not
succeeded in closing the socioeconomic gaps between different racial groups.
The Cuban cultural journal Temas published
studies by the governmental Anthropology Centre in 2006 that showed that on average, the black population has worse housing, receives
less money in remittances from abroad and has less access to jobs in emerging
economic sectors like tourism, in which blacks represent barely five percent of managers and professionals,
than the white population.
“Equal rights does not mean social
equality,” Morales says. “We do not have the same social standing, or the same
opportunities. This is what has generally happened to non-white and black
people in Cuba
“If, 50 years after the revolution, there
are still visible signs of racism in society, it means that equality of rights
hasn’t been sufficient,” says Alfonso.
The issue of racism remains “taboo, a
complicated and thorny” question, as Corvalan was told by some institutions
where he showed his documentary, made with support from the non-governmental
Martin Luther King Memorial Centre (CMMLK), the Higher Institute of Art (ISA)
and Delfin, an independent producer.
“We made a revolution in this country,
which is what sets us apart from other nations,” Zurbano said. “It’s a
tremendous opportunity that revolutionaries of any color cannot let slip away,
in the sense that we can create a strategy, and it can evolve.”
After the
documentary’s premiere at the recent Latin American Film Festival in Havana
“I don’t think of myself as white or black
or mixed-race, I’m just Cuban,” said Corvalan, who has French and Chilean
ancestry.
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