[Marxism] Why do we criticize?

[Ruthless Critic of All that Exists]

On Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 5:22 PM, Eli Stephens <elishastephens at hotmail.com> wrote:

> So why *do* we "criticize" things? Well, we criticize our *own* imperialist governments because we want to overthrow them, and we need to rouse and/or educate those who will effectuate that overthrow. But why would we criticize an *anti-imperialist movement* in *another* country

Who are the "we" here?

Why are you assuming that all those who post on Marxmail are from
imperialist countries?

> perceive as unacceptable about, e.g., FARC, Cuba, Hamas, etc. Far easier to join in the criticism (as if >there isn't already enough).

Notice that even Raul Castro is encouraging debate inside Cuba. Why?
Because it is healthy.



    BY MIAMI HERALD STAFF
    cuba at MiamiHerald.com

    Dec 8, 2007

    HAVANA -- Voices that once whispered are rising to a crescendo.

    Call it the law of unintended consequences: Since Cuba's interim
president, Raúl Castro, called for public meetings to debate the
country's innumerable problems, more and more people are speaking out
-- and not just about empty store and pharmacy shelves and lousy
public transportation but topics long off-limits like democracy and
freedom.

   [...]

    While no one is suggesting that the Cuban government has knocked
down the door to freedom of expression, experts say that little by
little, the entrance has widened. The fact that Cubans, invited by
Raúl to speak up in workplace and community meetings, now also feel
more comfortable doing so in other settings represents a significant
shift and underscores the subtle changes slowly taking place in the
nearly 1 ½ years since Fidel Castro fell ill.

    Some experts wonder whether the move to allow more open criticism
will backfire and, instead of allowing Cubans to let out steam, will
make them boil over.

   [...]

    Cubans agree that some are becoming more vocal in their complaints.

    ''People can't take it anymore. This revolution was supposed to be
one thing, and now we realize it is something else,'' said a laborer
who asked that his name not be published. ``People want change. The
government held meetings to hear what we had to say, and let me tell
you, people went for it.''

    TAKING ACTION

    Last month, several youth were arrested for protesting Cuba's
municipal elections, calling it a sham. Weeks later, an organization
of rural women presented the national legislature with a petition
allegedly signed by thousands of women demanding an end to Cuba's dual
currency system. A few days after that, a youth group said it
collected 5,000 signatures from students demanding independent
universities.

    In a rare move, the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma alluded
this week to the petition drives in its pages -- coverage that
dissidents said was both new and surprising.

    One of the most unexpected displays of debate came last month,
when several intellectuals who spoke out earlier this year against a
government official who in the 1970s led a crackdown on artists were
invited on a state-run television show called Open Dialogue.

    ''We accustomed ourselves to not debating,'' filmmaker Alfredo
Guevara, a longtime Fidel Castro ally, said on the show, Mexico's La
Jornada newspaper reported. ''We answered Fidel with silence'' and
later ''Raúl had to come'' to begin a dialogue.

    The television appearance was thought to be the first time the
government-controlled media openly discussed the 1970s crackdown on
intellectuals. It was also the first time the Cuban press mentioned
the massive nationwide grievance meetings held in October at Raúl
Castro's request.

    Cuba-based blogger Yoani Sánchez dismissed the importance of the
TV appearance, calling the show a one-sided ``debate among
revolutionaries.''

    But the head of the Communist Party's culture committee recently
cast the debate in much broader terms, telling a Cuban magazine that
the revolution is considering a profound transformation.

    ''The party itself is rethinking its relationship with society to
seek a more direct, more efficient dialogue and greater participation
of the people in decisions,'' Elíades Acosta told the website Cubarte.
``We aspire to have a society that speaks aloud about its problems,
without fear . . . in which mistakes are publicly aired to seek
solutions, in which the people can express themselves honestly.''

    He called for an end of the ``the abuse of institutional practices
to limit criticism.''

    Opposition journalist Rodríguez noted that government media seem
to have responded to Raúl Castro's call for openness: Cuban television
recently broadcast a speech by President Bush, and then aired the King
of Spain telling Cuba's No. 1 ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez,
to shut up.

    ''There it was, clear as day, on Cubavisión, the king telling
Chávez to shut up,'' he said. ``In the past, we would never have been
allowed to see that.''

    He cautioned, however, that the Cuban government is still
controlling the news and rounding up activists at will. Three youth
leaders who presented the university petitions were detained for a
week. Washington's anti-Castro television programming, TV Martí, is
continuously jammed, and Cubans are largely kept off the Internet.

    So while more and more people are feeling free to speak out, a
50-year legacy of repression against free speech is hard to overcome,
Cubans say. Raúl Castro has been described as both a consensus-driven
reformer and a tough security enforcer.

    ''You know in the universities they are now offering a course
called `Reflections'?'' said Felipe, the carpenter.

    Fidel Castro 'writes little essays, calls them `reflections,' and
now students have to study it,'' he said. ``The students will read
those essays and study them, but they will not really debate them.
Maybe people are speaking up more, but they don't do it where it
counts, so in the end, it's all bull.''

    A POLICY SHIFT?

    Dissidents in Cuba say the change is not only indicative of a
policy shift pushed by Raúl Castro, but also of a fed-up society.

    ''It's been more than 40 years of this crap already,'' said a
Havana cleaning lady, who admits she voted ''no'' for all the
candidates listed on a recent municipal election ballot. ``Now they
want us to tell them what's wrong.

    ``We'll tell them a thing or two. We're going to unleash our tongues.''

    [The Miami Herald withheld the name of the correspondent who
prepared this report and the surnames of the people quoted, because
the reporter did not have the journalist visa required by the Cuban
government to report from the island.]