[Marxism] Cuba Becoming Technologized (Juventud Rebelde)

[Joaquin Bustelo]

	I *cringed* reading this article that Walter forwarded about, as he
describes it, the "need" to use technology "in line with the social
priorities this country has set for itself," not (in the words of the
article) "misuse" them for "for amusement=and entertainment - activities
that are secondary to work or study."

	The article denounces that "The amount of time spent online on
personal e-mails, playing games, chatting and downloading music, films, and
TV series often eclipses the time spent searching for information and
conducting research. This happens both in schools and in work places, where
it is common to find someone in the middle of the day playing the latest
card game over the Internet."

	What does this tell us? That the priorities of young people and
sermonizing columnists in an official organ that calls itself "Rebel Youth"
are quite evidently different. Does this show that young people are
irresponsible, or does it show once again a government bureaucracy has its
head stuck up its ass so far it is coming out of its throat?

	The insistence that computers and the Internet be used only for
serious, worthy activities like work and study, not for frivolities like
chatting or --even worse!-- downloading music, movies and games, this shows,
quite frankly, that at least a lot of official Cuba just plain doesn't get
it. 

	Computers and the Internet aren't simply powerful and flexible tools
for study or work, they are media, means of communication which are, in
principle, radically democratic and empowering of ordinary people. They are
conduits of social relations and create a new virtual world where ALL facets
of the human personality find expression. To decree that this must be used
exclusively or preferentially for "serious" work and study, and not for
"play," means trying to turn the end users of computers into robots.

	And if people do this so much at work or school, it is because the
possibility to do it outside those environments does not exist for them. It
is *useless* to argue that computers are much too valuable to be used simply
for social interaction, acquiring cultural "content" and games. The
interaction between the multifaceted human personality and the technology's
capacities have created the cyberspace that we know. You can issue all the
appeals in the world, have all the smarmy preaching editorials you want, but
the ONLY way you can change this is through repression. It's not just
information that "wants to be free," what drives that is that people want to
be free.

	If you want to minimize people using "official" computers and
connections for unofficial --free-- purposes, the way to do it is to let
them use computers and the Internet freely outside the work context. The
(maximum) program that realizes this is that each person have (at least) one
CPU with a fast internet connection. The immediate, and more realistic goal
is to get a computer with a fast internet connection into a growing number
of households, and, over a period of a FEW years, into the majority of
households -- and as close to virtually all households as possible.

	And that's not just, and not primarily to enhance work discipline. 

	Computers and the Internet also represent the most potent weapons
yet devised for struggle on the plane of ideas against bourgeois
political-ideological hegemony and its closely allied capitalist monopoly
over publishing. The undermining of that monopoly has two closely
interrelated facets: one is that on the Internet, anyone can be a
"publisher," in the sense of a provider of content. The other is that the
publisher's copyright monopoly cannot stand because the monopoly of owners
of capital over the means of making copies no longer exists. Insofar as it
has been digitized, content of all kinds, whether books, music, video,
articles, magazines and so on, tends to be freed from the commodity forms
and the restrictions that come with being a commodity. 
	
	It means, among other things, an end to the stranglehold over
culture of gatekeepers, the editors, publishers, distributors and reviewers.
Even the ones from "our" side.

	From each according to his or her ability, to each according to his
or her needs -- the Internet is making possible a first approximation to
communist production and distribution in the cultural field, albeit with
extreme distortion because it is only true among a minority. In the advanced
countries, the imperialist countries, this may encompass the majority of the
population, but in the Third World, it is another story.

	I think countries that are trying to follow a non-capitalist path of
development need to figure out how to push to get the majority of their
households -- and eventually all of them -- into the Internet age. This
means at least one computer in most homes and with it a fast internet
connection. It is becoming as vital a precondition for democracy as basic
literacy. 

	That Cuba's national network lacks the robust peering links with the
rest of the Internet (at least until the fiber connecting it to Venezuela
gets finished) is no excuse and really not an impossible obstacle. There is
no need for 1,000 different end users in Cuba to be downloading the latest
song, movie or TV show. Developing and operating cache servers for p2p
traffic, both island-wide and locally will reduce this load tremendously, as
will operation of more traditional cache servers for web pages in higher
demand.

	Ideally, the computers would be designed and optimized for use in
Cuba and other third world countries, building on the technologies developed
for the $100 laptop and other non-proprietary technology projects. This to
reduce the immediate cost of the equipment, make it as durable as
reasonable, and keep energy requirements to a minimum. 

	The use of non-proprietary technologies is very important. And it is
not only a question of costs. Every project developed for monopolistic
proprietary platforms, like the wintel monopoly, re-enforces that monopoly,
which is like a giant vacuum cleaner that sucks up surplus value from the
world over and dumps it in the United States. And in the case of Latin
American countries, 
the use of free (libre) technology will develop horizontal links between
countries rather than hierarchical dependence on the United States, reducing
the ability of imperialism to deny technological progress to countries that
it wants to strangle.

Joaquin