I’m a Communist and I Back This Protest
By Erasmo Calzadilla
HAVANA TIMES – Well, the headline was just to catch your attention a little bit. I’m not really a Communist in the popular macabre sense of the word, although I am a little Marxist. Why? Because just like the black man from Trier, it fascinates me. I am also concerned about this social phenomenon known as concentration of capital. A monster that has come with greed, growing without restraint or balance, converting us all into zombies at its service. It’s incredible to see so many blind people in the face of the destruction of our environment, culture and society, that its growth leads to. Marxists call it ideology; nowadays, people call it living in the Matrix.
I’m also a little bit of an anarchist for the same reason. In the face of an atomized society, the Leviathan, joined to Capital at the hip by the way, has become another great unchallenged power. An institution which we give the function of administrating public affairs, with ballots, but it has ended up administrating and controlling us instead. The worst thing is that we have already accepted this as something natural; are we turning into ants?
It’s the same reason why I’m anti-patriarchal to my core amongst patriotic patriarchs, and the same reason why I’m turning against a feminism that is attacking our most basic human rights, such as the presumption of innocence and the right to honor.
I’m sure you’ve caught on by now. I see human society as a kind of fragile ecosystem. Any key player (government, party, market, institution, ideology, religion, brotherhood) that manages to wipe out the competition, every other player that might act as a modulator for its excess, ends up like any other monopoly sooner or later, producing perverse effects: deteriorating in its original social service, subjugating and feeding off its willing customers, and becoming a deeply embedded sclerotic carcass in the long-term, that can’t react to change and challenges with anything but violence.
Do you remember Aristoteles’ three political systems, with their three respective differences? Monarchy to tyranny, aristocracy to oligarchy, from a republic to democracy (which we call populism today), and from a healthy socialism to a totalitarian, dictatorial and demagogic “communism” is walking down the road called the end of the power ecosystem.
Every country has the right to try out what best suits them; what’s important is not to burn bridges, to hold onto the ability to rethink the path that’s been taken and correct this course by looking at mistakes. In my humble opinion, the only way to stop the sclerosis that those in power inevitably end up gestating is with the existence of an open, active, powerful opposition, that is always one step from taking back the helm.
In the world I live in, companies are always bothering you with surveys. People aren’t normally up for filling them out, but they prefer to bother them a little bit, or even pay, in exchange for the mega-valuable opportunity to find out what their customers think and to make changes to draw them in.
However, instead of going over the moon for this great and unexpected opinion survey that was July 11th, and will be on November 15th, the Cuban government has decided to practice its favorite sport: demonize, discredit, and repress those who don’t applaud their performance, and they say ithis publicly. The longer they take to listen and rectify the situation, the worse it will be later when the tectonic plates collide, with worse consequences for almost everyone except for those unprincipled opportunists who are willing to fish in murky waters.
So, can you be a Marxist, revolutionary, left-wing and in favor of a peaceful protest in Cuba all at the same time? Of course, you can. You just need to:
- Be concerned about the power created by human beings: read here Capital, State, Clergy, Artificial Intelligence, Armed Forces… (and in the worst of cases all of their allies)…separating and rising against themselves.
- Be wary that any uncontested power degenerates into an incompetent and repressive governing caste.
- Defend basic human rights, such as those stipulated in the UN Charter, which includes the right of free speech and the public expression of your political ideas.
- Have enough blood in your veins to be revolted by the violence at the hands of professional and paramilitary thugs, all of whom are armed, against peaceful protests
Nick may be correct in assessing the views expressed by Erasmo Calzadillo as “refreshing”. For clearly Calzadillo even as an avowed communist, has recognized that the Castro Junta has in pursuit of communism consistently endeavored to: “demonize, discredit and repress”
Such is the reality of communism, demonstrated repeatedly! It is however as Nick says, refreshing to have even one of its followers recognize the folly of the system.
Either this article makes no sense at all or it cleverly sums up the lack of sense prevalent on either side.
Whichever it is, it’s refreshing.
Written with your usual flare and style!
Marxism, communism and tyranny are all hand in hand blocking freedom.
It’s an immoral system that imposes on the entire society.
All the communist countries are brutal, unelected tyrannies it’s just a fact of life.
A slight degree of confusion is evident.