Chickens, Baldness, Gays, Native Peoples & Left Destinies (Part II)

Dmitri Prieto

Havana balcony. photo: Caridad

But what I found more worrisome was when I heard Hugo Chavez a few days later saying that socialism had existed in Latin America before the arrival of the European conquistadors.  The Venezuelan leader said native peoples had experienced a socialist system and that such a reality was frustrated by the capitalist system brought over by the settlers.

To my understanding, the Aztec and Inca empires conquered a series of native peoples and exploited their respecting farming communities through tributes that ended up as sumptuous amounts enjoyed by the elites.  Moreover, the dissatisfaction against those elites was masterfully utilized by the Spanish conquerors who were often welcomed as liberators of peoples oppressed by the indigenous monarchies.

I ask: Can a state be called socialist if it conquers, oppresses and exploits?  Some will say that these erstwhile empires knew how to live in harmony with nature, but this —which is also debatable in many instances— refers more to communities “at the grassroots level” than to the large Amerindian empires.

I remember that Stalin called for the censoring of research into the “Asiatic mode of production,” a type of social organization described by Marx that existed in the Chinese, Babylonian and Egyptian empires (and probably in the Aztec and the Inca ones) in which a despotic state became the common people’s principal exploiter.  Why this censoring?  Simple: What was built in the Stalinist USSR looked too much like the “Asiatic mode of production”…

For me, socialism is not statism, and statism is not socialism. This is taught to us by the history of the 20th century.  Socialism is the radicalization of democracy.

Beyond the academic debates, the recent speeches by presidents Morales and Chavez have made me begin to think about the direction in which the social models of the left governments of Our America are heading.  Will these be models based on diversity, dialogue and autonomy, or will they be something similar to the Aztec Empire?

Dimitri Prieto-Samsonov

Dmitri Prieto-Samsonov: I define myself as being either Cuban-Russian or Russian-Cuban, indiscriminately. I was born in Moscow in 1972 of a Russian mother and a Cuban father. I lived in the USSR until I was 13, although I was already familiar with Cuba-- where we would take our vacation almost every year. I currently live on the fifth floor of an apartment building in Santa Cruz del Norte, near the sea. I’ve studied biochemistry and law in Havana and anthropology in London. I’ve written about molecular biology, philosophy and anarchism, although I enjoy reading more than writing. I am currently teaching in the Agrarian University of Havana. I believe in God and in the possibility of a free society. Together with other people, that’s what we’re into: breaking down walls and routines.