[Marxism] "Russia on the road again" (Juventud RebeldeinterviewsRussian ambassador to Cuba)

[Néstor Gorojovsky]

Dear David, there is an old joke about a workingman from Lugo in the
early 1950s who wants to  migrate from Spain in order to get some job.

"Try London", a friend tells him.

"But I don't know a word of English".

 "Don't worry, just speak slowly, gesticulate, and someone will
understand you in the end".

"Think so?"

"Yes, do it".

Desperation is a good propeller. Our man from Lugo hits the road, gets
to La Coruña, takes the boat, gets to London, and the first thing he
wants to do is to have a lunch.

He gets into a fish-n-chips, and delicately calls the waiter (who
happens to be another Spanish born migrant, like him).  Very slowly,
he commands in Spanish while gesticulating as a Neapolitan dancing the
Tarantella:

"Ple ase, bring me a dish of fri ed chips, thank yo u"

And the waiter, also very slowly

"Of co urse, sir. I will bring it im me dia te ly"

Our man from Lugo is delighted at how easy it was to make himself
understood. Then he asks the waiter

"Where are yo u from, mis ter wai ter?"

"I am from Spa in, I am Spa nish"

"Oh, so I am, too. Then, could you tell me why are we speak ing in Eng lish?"

Well, this is the way I feel when talking with some speaker of Spanish
on this list. But this was just for fun.

You say:

>
>  > More interesting, indeed, than still another Requiem for the First
>  > Great Experiment in the Struggle of Humankind from Barbarity to
>  > Socialism. Because it is not this kind of contributions that will help
>  > us ahead.
>
>  An ode to the capitalist Russian Federation isn't much use either, IMHO.

Certainly not. But this is the core, European, point of view. In the
end, and sorry if I sound too hard, we are still paying for the
failure of Western European workers to arise when the Russian
Revolution summoned them to do so. From that point of view, the
writing on the wall spells "Do your own revolutions if you want
socialism in Russia".

From the point of view of semicolonial countries, or those which -like
Cuba- imperialism is bent to return to that fold, the most admirable
thing with that revolution was that, instead of disappearing in a few
couples of years and their leaders be shot (this was what Lenin and
Trotsky expected if the Germans failed to do their own Revolution),
after almost a century the capitalist Russia that is its
grand-grandchild has not been completely colonized by the Great
Powers, and on the contrary sometimes challenges them. This gives us
some breathing space, you know.

The fSU was ambivalent in this respect.

>
>  > I think that the consequences of the death of the fSU on each and
>  > every scenario the globe over are today the most important reflection
>  > for a socialist.
>
>  Speaking from Spain in my corner of southern Europe, I think the fall of the
>  fSU completely demoralized the left. It's true that our social democrats
>  renounced Marxism in the mid 80s, but even then they were committed to
>  certain levels of meaningful reform, unlike in the mid 90s when they engaged
>  in wholesale privatizations of state enterprises (electricity, telephone and
>  communications, etc). Felipe González, head of the PSOE until 1996 when they
>  lost the elections, could say sometime in the 80s "a España no la va a
>  reconocer ni la madre que la parió" (Spain won't even be recognizable to the
>  mother who brought her to the world), whereas now all we get from the very
>  same party is keynesianism.

Well, sorry, González did not lie. His regime, which in fact was a
follower of the policies of the King and Suárez, produced such a Spain
that "la madre que la parió" (that is, FRANCOISM), could not recognize
it -though not the way "Leftists" (that "Left" of "Solos en la
madrugada"...) would have liked.

The key to the whole thing lies in the speech by Juan Carlos at Santo
Domingo, 1974, where he offers Spain as the necessary bridge between
Western Europe and Latin America -to the West European bourgeoisie!
With his Latin American deals, González managed to turn Spain into
just another imperialist country. Almost a full member of the club.
And we Argentineans under Menem had a great "merit" in boosting this
Spain.

I have almost got to the fists at Rio de Janeiro airport with a
Laborist Spanish official of Aerolíneas Argentinas on this issue, BTW.
The guy not only wanted to suck the blood out of my country, he also
wanted us Argentineans to love him because that is what he was doing,
by saving us from ourselves, I guess. One of his arguments (all were
of the same ilk, but this one is particularly spicy) was "Well, don't
you see I married an Argentinean" and I replied "Yes, colonialists
always love the female subjects in hot lands". Since my wife and his
wife (a beautiful girl who had evidently hit the pot) were present, we
did not end the thing the way it had to end.

>
>  --David.
>
>
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-- 

Néstor Gorojovsky
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