Author: Armando Chaguaceda

This pronouncement was not from the socialist voices of Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn, nor from those like Johns Rawls or Richard Rorty of the liberal stripe. It was US President Barack Obama.

To maintain both forms of partisanship (official and dissident) outside the electoral process and to prevent police interference in the community would be examples of respect for civic will and for the legitimacy of perhaps the only level in the nation where popular participation still plays a leading role (and not mere ornamentation).

We lack the necessary “international safeguards” capable of protecting and assisting countries at risk of being destroyed by climate change or confronting emergency situations in cases of disaster. At the summit we witnessed only rhetoric, an absence of vision and flimsy commitments to the future.

In my mind -trained by the rigors of academia, contemplative art and traditional Party activism- they seemed half-crazy…these “black hippies” dressed in tunics, skirts and sometimes turbans or construction helmets.

In this period marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall -filled with such grief, silence and commemoration- it’s worth re-visiting other, more personal storylines of communist utopia.

I’ve spent the last several days itinerantly following the development of debates and actions around two recent events in Cuba’s public sphere: the “Último Jueves” (“Last Thursday of the Month”) forum on the Internet, sponsored by “Temas” magazine, and the March for Nonviolence held on November 6.

Soon we will mark 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event that signaled the global-scale ideological victory of neo-liberalism in politics and daily life. It is quite conceivable that Cuban media coverage-the same press that ignored the events in Eastern Europe until the final and incontrovertible moment-will focus on highlighting the social costs of the transition to capitalism.

Recently, I’ve been hearing an increasing number of heard Cuban leaders, journalists and citizens referring to the need to reduce state expenditures on the country’s social programs. The debate is centered on the long-serving, meager and (in my opinion) now irreplaceable ration book.