The Supreme Mistake of Imposing Communism on Cuba
By Vicente Morin Aguado
HAVANA TIMES — Fidel Castro laid the institutional foundations of Cuban socialism when he announced a constitutional reform during the first congress of the Cuban Communist Party in 1975. The chief decision behind this declared the Party the sole “higher and guiding force of society and the State,” and it was founded on the alleged “infallibility of Marxist-Leninist doctrine, the basis of scientific communism.”
It is not my intention to minimize the contributions made by Marxism to universal thought (as anyone may do in a society where the kind of freedom that is constitutionally outlawed in our country exists). I aim at something different.
Can the scientific nature of a political doctrine actually be proven? The evident contradiction here takes us back to the classics, as both Marx (in his Thesis on Feuerbach) and Lenin (in Materialism and Empirocriticism) regarded practice as the highest criterion for truth.
If we could be certain a philosophical system could lead humanity to an earthly paradise, it would be sensible to accept such a conception of the world and the deceitful and demagogic proposal advanced by the communist leadership regarding the need to have a single Party (the Marxist-Leninist) guide society. However, as Lenin himself wrote in Statistics and Sociology, “facts are stubborn things.”
It’s important to recall the context Cuban communists lived in, 61 years after Lenin published those words:
“The constant growth of the power and influence of the world socialist system, the progress made by the communist and international workers’ movement in other parts of the world, the successes of national liberation movements, the changes favorable to international entente and the general weakening of imperialism around the globe, this makes the fundamental contradiction of our time, that between socialism and capitalism, develop in favor of revolutionary forces.” (First Congress of the Cuban Communisty Party, Thesis and Resolutions).
The world today looks nothing like those predictions. I do not judge the authors of that paragraph for having believed what they wrote, I condemn them for having imposed on us the stupidity of considering one system of thought infallible (and mandatory).
Since then, we have been living under a peculiar form of secular theocracy, engendered by leaders who publicly declare themselves atheists. It is a foul affront on the ethical bases of human experience.
The collapse of world socialism and the generalized crisis of the Cuban experiment refute the claim that the doctrine in question is “scientific.” To avoid any sectarianism, one of the ills of Marx’s successors, we could say the exact same thing of any other political or religious creed.
Even in physics, a predictive science known for its concrete experiments and mathematical deductions, the uncertainty principle, which immortalized Werner Heisenberg in 1932, as well as an eternal dispute with determinist Albert Einstein, reign supreme.
The ambiguous and laconic socialist constitution of 1976, its ominous Article 5 and its timid and hypocritical amendments paves the road to a 5th Republic (if we count the one denied Cuban independence fighters in 1868 as the first).
Not even those in power today take the constitutional phrases prepared years ago seriously. Suffice it to note what they, their children and grandchildren actually do and say, and where they are. The facts, it seems, do tend to be stubborn.
We have lost half a century, and Jose Marti Marti still comes in our aid, without the need to ask Fidel Castro, Marx or Lenin permission to do so:
“Cuba’s Revolutionary Party has no intentions of delivering Cuba to a victorious group that regards the island as its prey and its property. Rather, it seeks to prepare whatever means are necessary to secure freedom from foreign domination, a war that is to be fought for the dignity and good of all Cubans, to present the entire country with a free homeland.” (from the Cuban Revolutionary Party, Article 5, 1892).
Is the number 5 a pure coincidence? The above statement couldn’t be clearer.
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Vicente Morín Aguado: [email protected]
While it is still called the communist party, the economic system is evolving away from the failed Soviet Block command and control model. Experience has taught two things; 1. do not depend on just one partner country for trade 2. what is not produced, can not be redistributed. The fundamental flaw in communism is weak production. Innovation and productivity gains requires incentive. A system that at it’s core lacks discretionary incentive fails against one that is based in incentive. It is thus that Cuba is evolving towards a mixed economy with a regulated market and social programs paid for by it’s market system.
I think the Castros implementation of Communism / Castroism can best be described as the banality of evil.
Interesting that while you continue to embrace communism Cuba is doing everything it can to get away from it while still keeping the repressive octogenarian crowd in power.
By the way, can you point to any other nation where your “infallible” Marxist doctrine had actually worked? ….just one?
The media does indeed mention the CPUSA and you can freely search up hundreds of articles about it. So much for your glib & empty dismissal of freedom of speech in America.
Here’s an image of voter ballot from the 2000 election, showing candidates of the Republican, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, Socialist Workers, Natural Law, Reform, Socialist, Constitution and Workers World parties.
http://www.florida2000election.com/images/butterflyballot.jpg
The Cuban revolution has shown the world that there is another path to development beside the Capitalist, Exploitative system. If the Cubans were left alone to develop their system without the hostile aggression waged by their Northern neighbour, the infallibility of the Marxist doctrine as espoused by Marx, Lenin and the Castro brothers would have been realized. Why is it that the Great America with its Capitalist systems is so afraid whenever a country takes the Socialist path for its development? Why does America spend billions of dollars attempting to discredit that country? Why is it that, under the capitalist system there are so many homeless people on the streets without access to humane medical attention? Why is it that in America, the so-called richest country in the world there are so many vicious crimes? Why is it that America has the largest prison population in the world? how come there are so many people living in slums in the richest country in the world under a capitalist system? How come that, in America, the ordinary man and woman cannot access health care cheaply? How come that, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, the ordinary people have no say in the way their country is governed? They vote and, having voted for their President or Congress man or woman, they have absolutely no say until another election comes around? Freedom of speech when you dont talk, but, if you dare open your mouth and criticize, you are deemed a commuist. There is a Communist Party in America but the media dare not mention it; so much for freedom of Speech. The Communist Paty fields candidates for Elections but the media dare not mention this. So much for freedom of the press and for freedom of speech.