Libertarian Socialists

By Esteban Diaz

I have gotten to know several Cubans who participate in theoretical-political activities in Havana.

These functions are filled with people who have adopted neo-anarchist political positions that employ a “pluralistic” and “liberal” dialect, albeit merely discursive and purely literary – and unaccompanied by the latter in some cases.

These individual tendencies have little in common with the “anarchist” working class comrades who led the classic rebellions in Argentina’s Patagonia in the 1920s or in Spain in the 1930s, to cite only a couple examples.

These political positions have been widening as a form of struggle against the Cuban bureaucracy, but taking refuge in the seemingly uncontaminated atmosphere of the solitary and individual realm.

They advocate the struggle for “self-management,” “libertarianism” and “participative democracy,” though they are often unable to explain the meanings of these words or to concretize their practice.

If you listen to the critiques they make of Cuba’s bureaucratic strata, you may come to agree with their points, but when involved in any mass actions that allow input from these ideologues, they keep their mouths shut.

They refuse to outline a concrete plan of action with other workers at the local level, plans which would direct actions that could transcend to the national level. Like little kids, they throw their tantrums, while experiencing a political schizophrenia in which they fail to maintain a firm position that can advance workers in the fight against bureaucratic management in each workplace.

Although it is true that this group has great importance as a point of departure – given that not many people now participate in such open and objective discussions – constructive criticism is necessary for their greater effectiveness as transformers of society.

Only with a joint struggle of all Cuban workers will it be possible to advance a movement to eradicate the parasitic bureaucracy that is blocking socialist development in Cuba.