Kubakännaren James D. Cockroft har i International Viewpoint skrivit intressant om Kubas övergång till socialism. Något som pågått i 50 år nu. Så här skriver han bland annat om de krav människor har på förändringar:
Public debates have become more widespread and nuanced ever since 2007 when the call went out for more candid criticisms and open debates. Based on interviews I have conducted with several party members and leaders, the PCC has different points of view within it. Part of the technocratic sector favors economic reforms resembling those of China or Vietnam. Some, though by no means all, old-timers and bureaucrats are resistant to change. But growing numbers of members, like civil society as a whole, look for ways to achieve a less “verticalist,” more decentralized and participatory Cuban socialism without jeopardizing national unity and sovereignty.
Judging from the Cuban media and countless personal conversations, Cubans of various generations, especially among those under 45, yearn for radical changes “within socialism” (since only socialism can conserve the Revolution and its social gains). Some want to attack problems of alienation and emphasize the ideas and example of Che Guevara. Most want to conquer poverty, reduce class differences, introduce more innovativeness with more direct workers’ or community control and less top-down politics, in brief, a transition to new forms of socialist democracy while oxygenating existing ones.(9)
Several economic reforms are already well underway. Two examples indicate the dynamism of the current transition. The limit on wages a worker can earn has been removed as part of the effort to increase production and reduce worker absenteeism. An agrarian reform has begun, permitting development of public lands by private farmers, usually cooperatives at the request of those participating, with price supports for farmers’ crops to reduce food imports and make productive unused tillable land that is to remain state-owned. Yet new complications loom on the horizon, including a potentially sizeable influx of money from families visiting from the United States, thus widening the gulf between the “new rich” and the rest of society.
So far Cuba, arguably the world’s only surviving socialist system but one with problems typical of small Caribbean island societies, has managed to escape the tragedies wracking its neighbors and accomplish revolutionary changes of considerable magnitude. Its sui generis socialism has generated a highly educated, creative populace that can boast of several internationally recognized gains in free housing, public education and health, as well as in science, sports, culture and environmentalism. This is a socialism that is always evolving and self-correcting, as in the 1980s rectification campaigns against Soviet-style Stalinist influences; the “Special Period” following the decline in trade with the Soviet bloc in the 1990s; or the successful “Energy Revolution.”(10)
Han menar att orsaken till att Kuba kunnat överleva som ett land där övergången till socialismen fortfarande är aktuell beror på att landet alltid tryckt på internationalismen:
Key to the Revolution’s successes has been its internationalism. Martí, Fidel, Raúl and Che, like Leon Trotsky, always insisted that no revolution could survive if limited to only one country. Cuba’s renowned internationalism is also historically embedded in popular culture, marked by names like Máximo Gómez and Che Guevara.(12) The poet-revolutionary soldier José Martí in the 1880s and 1890s proclaimed the struggle against imperialism and called for Latin American unity to confront it. Envisioning a utopia grounded on ethical principles, Martí insisted that “Patriotism is Humanity” and “Patriotism is nothing more than love.” Martí forged a single unified political party that he realized, together with armed struggle, was necessary for achieving revolutionary goals. It is this heritage that continues to guide Cuba’s transition today.
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Bloggat: Johannes,
Borgarmedia: Politiken, SVD, Guardian, Sydsvenskan,
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Tags: Kuba, Socialism, James D. Cockroft, Raul Castro, Trotskij, Internationalism
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