[Marxism] : xxxx re ISO, SWP, and Cuba (a ketter to xxx)

[Joaquin Bustelo]

Fred writes about me: "The issue really was his typically sectarian
insistence that any group is worthless unless it has his position -- that
nobody outside of Cuba should have an opinion about which way forward in
Cuba or anywhere else. Shouldn't that mean that Joaquin should stop
denouncing what he and many others consider capitalist restoration in China?
Or pro-imperialist governments in various countries?"

I see my good friend and comrade Fred completely misses the distinction I
made, or was trying to make, between issues of immediate practical political
significance, on the one hand, and matters of history, theory, method,
analysis, political line for other countries not your own, and so on.

I think the program of a POLITICAL organization in the U.S. (and not only)
should be focused on those things the group can ACT on. A group in the U.S.
can't act, and really shouldn't see its role as that of acting, in support
of or against Fidel's government, and as a political organization I don't
think it should see its role as upholding or propagating a specific analysis
or characterization of the Cuban leadership, the revolution and so on. 

There are three basic reasons for this. The first is simply anti-racism/self
determination. What kind of government Cuba will have is for Cubans to sort
out. Adding "but we think they should get rid of Fidel," or "they should
keep Fidel" tends to subtly undermine the point, and especially because in
this country it is necessary to combat the imperialist arrogance that makes
people in the U.S. think that they are entitled and qualified to judge
everyone else's government.

Second, there is no way a group can act on, for example, whether the Cuban
Government before July 1959 can properly be called a workers and farmers
government, or whether the wave of nationalizations from August through
October 1960 marked the consolidation of a workers state (a "socialist
country" as the term is popularly used).

So there is no way the membership of the group can through its own
collective practice verify, refine or correct those positions.

As a result, what happens is that they become the province of a few experts,
and the bulk of the membership simply takes their word for it. This is a
hierarchical relationship that very, very, very often serves to reproduce
and reinforce the patterns of power, privilege and protagonism that prevail
in broader society, instead of combating them.

Third, scientific knowledge is an individual acquisition (even when a
collective, like a study group is involved, the ultimate result is
individual) and the advance of individual understanding as well as that of
the most advanced specialists in a field tend to be the result of a
dialectical process of interaction between different and even contrary ideas
and insights. 

I believe the study of history, of theory, developing one's capacity for
analysis and understanding, having a coherent view of the Cuban revolution,
etc. etc. etc. are all very important things, I am in no way advocating that
people not take this up, not "have an opinion about which way forward in
Cuba or anywhere else." But that is precisely a question of "opinion," not
of the political line of a party.

In relation to Cuba specifically, I think what is appropriate, in addition
to what everyone on the left says (opposition to the blockade, free the five
and so on) is a political stance (tone) of solidarity with the struggle of
the Cuban people and their conquests (throwing the imperialists out of their
country and as a result having made great strides in fields like education
and health care). In know, on this latter point, it would be very hard for
the ISO comrades to swallow, but such is life. However, I would not go any
further than that.

Basically, my views on this general subject are no different than when I was
in Solidarity, and are no different from those of Soli as a whole, I
believe, and played no role in my decision to resign from Solidarity and
play no role in my decision not to rejoin at this time.

Joaquín