Comments on: More from Samuel Farber on Cuba http://theactivist.org/blog/more-from-samuel-farber-on-cuba // Culture. Consciousness. Critical Thought. // Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:43:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Adrian Bleifuss Prados http://theactivist.org/blog/more-from-samuel-farber-on-cuba/comment-page-1#comment-48032 Adrian Bleifuss Prados Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:26:19 +0000 http://theactivist.org/blog/?p=1619#comment-48032 God, I love Merle Haggard. God, I love Merle Haggard.

]]> By: Bhaskar Sunkara http://theactivist.org/blog/more-from-samuel-farber-on-cuba/comment-page-1#comment-47940 Bhaskar Sunkara Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:46:49 +0000 http://theactivist.org/blog/?p=1619#comment-47940 It does sound a bit glib. I'll write something on the subject in a longer form one day. It does sound a bit glib. I’ll write something on the subject in a longer form one day.

]]> By: Louis Proyect http://theactivist.org/blog/more-from-samuel-farber-on-cuba/comment-page-1#comment-47936 Louis Proyect Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:12:42 +0000 http://theactivist.org/blog/?p=1619#comment-47936 Fascist ethos? Sounds like what I used to hear in the 1960s when SDS called Nixon a fascist. In fact everything and everybody was a fascist back then, including people who had short hair and listened to Merle Haggard records. In terms of Marxism, I think you have to do better, Bhaskar. Fascist ethos? Sounds like what I used to hear in the 1960s when SDS called Nixon a fascist. In fact everything and everybody was a fascist back then, including people who had short hair and listened to Merle Haggard records. In terms of Marxism, I think you have to do better, Bhaskar.

]]> By: Bhaskar Sunkara http://theactivist.org/blog/more-from-samuel-farber-on-cuba/comment-page-1#comment-47903 Bhaskar Sunkara Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:13:15 +0000 http://theactivist.org/blog/?p=1619#comment-47903 Cuba's undeniable internationalist efforts (including its sheltering of members of the US left in the 1960s), its successes in health and education, the rapid expropriation of its bourgeoisie and its recent support for the global justice movement have all won over large segments of the US left. The main problem is that these people have totally abandoned any sort of analysis on the basis of class. In the odd "progressive-or-not" dichotomy it's easy to see why people would be in Cuba's camp. In reality, the Cuban state and society is fundamentally a class one and conservative. It relies largely on depoliticization, on imagery that shrouds itself and earns its legitimacy from the past (revolutionary icons, Marti) and it uses repressive mechanisms to prevent any struggle, polticization and evolution. When the Castro clique came to power it shrouded itself in a hyper-masculine, psuedo-fascist veneer. (I might actually be understating the fascist ethos of the Cuban Revolution). That being said if I have to lend my voice to criticizing Cuba from afar it'll a critique of the class nature of Cuban society and a criticism along the same lines as Pedro Camps Santos. Cuba’s undeniable internationalist efforts (including its sheltering of members of the US left in the 1960s), its successes in health and education, the rapid expropriation of its bourgeoisie and its recent support for the global justice movement have all won over large segments of the US left.

The main problem is that these people have totally abandoned any sort of analysis on the basis of class. In the odd “progressive-or-not” dichotomy it’s easy to see why people would be in Cuba’s camp. In reality, the Cuban state and society is fundamentally a class one and conservative. It relies largely on depoliticization, on imagery that shrouds itself and earns its legitimacy from the past (revolutionary icons, Marti) and it uses repressive mechanisms to prevent any struggle, polticization and evolution.

When the Castro clique came to power it shrouded itself in a hyper-masculine, psuedo-fascist veneer. (I might actually be understating the fascist ethos of the Cuban Revolution).

That being said if I have to lend my voice to criticizing Cuba from afar it’ll a critique of the class nature of Cuban society and a criticism along the same lines as Pedro Camps Santos.

]]> By: Jason Schulman http://theactivist.org/blog/more-from-samuel-farber-on-cuba/comment-page-1#comment-47888 Jason Schulman Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:27:58 +0000 http://theactivist.org/blog/?p=1619#comment-47888 Sam -- a serious scholar with friends in Cuba -- wouldn't have to "write the same piece over and over again" if so much of the U.S. radical left didn't look at the Fidelista party-state through rose-colored glasses. Sam — a serious scholar with friends in Cuba — wouldn’t have to “write the same piece over and over again” if so much of the U.S. radical left didn’t look at the Fidelista party-state through rose-colored glasses.

]]> By: Bhaskar Sunkara http://theactivist.org/blog/more-from-samuel-farber-on-cuba/comment-page-1#comment-47843 Bhaskar Sunkara Mon, 13 Jul 2009 05:26:13 +0000 http://theactivist.org/blog/?p=1619#comment-47843 A retort from Louis Proyect that I myself don't subscribe to. http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/samuel-farbers-latest-folly/ Maybe it's just me, but Farber seems to write the same piece over and over again. It's easy to rip to shreds those that think that Cuba is a "workers state"; it's clearly not by any stretch of the imagination. I am however a big fan of Pedro Campos Santos, who Farber mentions at the end of this piece. A retort from Louis Proyect that I myself don’t subscribe to. http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2009/07/11/samuel-farbers-latest-folly/

Maybe it’s just me, but Farber seems to write the same piece over and over again.

It’s easy to rip to shreds those that think that Cuba is a “workers state”; it’s clearly not by any stretch of the imagination.

I am however a big fan of Pedro Campos Santos, who Farber mentions at the end of this piece.

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