FRFI 168 August / September 2002
Mike Gonzalez of the Socialist Worker’s Party opened his mid-July talk on Cuba at the SWP’s annual Marxism by saying ‘It should go without saying that I am opposed to US imperialism’. It was just as well he mentioned it, however. Otherwise the relentless attack on Cuba that followed might have given his audience the impression that he was a fully paid-up member of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF). Rock around the Blockade was there, as in previous years, to confront the reactionary propaganda of the SWP and defend Cuban socialism. DALTON HILLIARD reports.
Once again, Gonzalez made use of the many fantasies of the ever-fertile anti-Cuban mind, trotting out the tired old lies about the oppression of homosexuals and penal colonies for HIV patients. Every challenge facing Cuban society as a direct result of the illegal US blockade was dredged up as evidence of just how un-socialist Cuba really is.
Gonzalez cited, for example, food shortages and rationing.
‘Is that our idea of socialism?’, asked this well-fed and self-styled ‘socialist worker’. He mentioned prostitution – but not the reliance on tourism forced on Cuba by its isolation, nor the Cuban Communist Party’s programme to combat the underlying reasons for the growth of prostitution. As Gonzalez warmed to his theme, he seemed to revel in Cuba’s material deprivation. For Gonzalez ‘just by walking down a boulevard in Havana, one can see that Cuba is not socialist.’ For the smug and privileged cadre of the SWP, Planet Socialism is clearly supposed to be a world free of challenges. In Cuba, there are challenges. Ergo, Cuba is not socialist. The travel brochure lied and Gonzales wants a refund.
Gonzales concluded by denouncing the Cuban state for permitting foreign capital investment – again, without mentioning the severe political and economic challenges that make such investment necessary. He then stated that foreign investors in Cuba enjoy conditions ‘more favourable than those found by capital in virtu- ally any other country’. We challenged him from the floor, pointing out that the Cuban government, as he well knows, maintains majority control over every foreign investment venture in the country, enabling it to determine the conditions of production and invest the surplus in human development. ‘Yes’, replied Gonzales, pausing momentarily to find a way to fit this inconvenient fact into his thesis, ‘It is true that the state maintains majority ownership control… but only to oppress workers directly in the interests of foreign capital’ [our emphasis]!
Gonzales dismissed Cuba’s outstanding achievements, particularly in the spheres of health and education as ‘un-socialist’ on the spurious grounds that Sweden – one of the richest and most developed nations in the world – also has good hospitals!
During the discussion, an SWP hack invited the audience to look at a website to discover the truth about Cuba. When Rock around the Blockade members checked out the address he gave, it was the CANF website! Challenged to distinguish himself from Mas Canosa and CANF, Gonzalez blustered and then said ‘But we support workers’ rights!’ Rock around the Blockade supporters’ response was immediate: ‘That’s exactly what CANF say!’
It is now evident that the SWP is little more than CANF’s mouthpiece on the British left.
If you want to defend the Cuban Revolution, get active with Rock around the Blockade!
www.ratb.org.uk
