Jeffrey Goldberg:
Fidel: 'Cuban Model Doesn't Even Work For Us Anymore'
Jeffrey Goldberg has gotten a lot of mileage out of his Atlantic article on Israel, Iran, and the Bomb. It not only received a lot of attention in its own right, but it apparently also got Goldberg an invitation to Cuba for an extended interview with Castro -- who may no longer be the maximal leader himself on the island, but who can still get aquariums open for dolphin shows on days when it's normally closed. The visit was supposed to be about the article, which had Castro worried, and was supposedly part of a larger plan to project Castro's image onto an international stage. But the short admission that has raised eyebrows all over was his response to Goldberg's question whether he thought the "Cuban model" was still something that could be exported: "'The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore,' he said."
Goldberg's Latin American expert, Julia Sweig, expanded and interpreted this a little to mean: "'He wasn't rejecting the ideas of the Revolution. I took it to be an acknowledgment that under 'the Cuban model' the state has much too big a role in the economic life of the country.'" Which sounds a bit face-saving -- if the "ideas of the Revolution" involve socialism, then it's at least odd to hear a socialist say that "the state has much too big a role in the economic life of the country", doesn't it? But maybe it's just a matter of labelling -- could we call it "capitalist socialism"? "Socialist free enterprise"? Maybe not "social democracy", yet. But however you slice it, this sounds like progress. Before long, hopefully, there'll be just one remaining instance of "actually existing socialism" in the world, and that's that exemplar of cultural psychopathy, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
By the way -- Goldberg asked Castro if his recent serious illness had caused him to rethink his atheism, and Castro apparently replied, "Sorry, I'm still a dialectical materialist." Says Goldberg, "This is funnier if you are, like me, an ex-self-defined socialist", and he's right.
UPDATE: And now he takes it back: "My idea, as the whole world knows, is that the capitalist system now doesn't work either for the United States or the world, driving it from crisis to crisis, which are each time more serious.'' Can you see how that could have been misinterpreted? Me neither. Too bad Castro never ran for office -- he's a natural. Ah well, he'll soon be out of there anyway.
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ReplyDeleteAs with many of your assertions, the claim regarding the alleged failure of the "Cuban model" of socialism would require a great deal of legwork and scholarship to substantiate. I have no doubt mistakes were made and that some heinous acts occurred (but hardly on the scale of Mao...or the nazis for that matter).
ReplyDeleteYet...the Cuban education system has produced many competent technicians, nurses, and doctors. And as with most of this type of armchair politicizing, your assertions lack context--like considering what proceeded Castro, ie the Batista regime, which appears to have been sort of a puppet govt. controlled by the CIA and/or various US mobsters. And I'm sure Fidel Castro winces when American business types speak of reintroducing capitalism to Cuba--you mean...more casinos, resorts for touristas, more bars...whorehouses? That's usually what the frat-boy libertarian/GOPer means.
that's preceded. Anyway, given the Iraqi war, BushCo atrocities and the near-state police state hysteria of PatAct and FISA (bipartisan supported), Cuban socialism and Fidel Castro seem fairly democratic.
ReplyDeleteAs with many of your assertions, the claim regarding the alleged failure of the "Cuban model" of socialism would require a great deal of legwork and scholarship to substantiate.
ReplyDeleteAre you talking about my assertions or Castro's?
Yet...the Cuban education system has produced many competent technicians, nurses, and doctors.
Right, and the fascists got the trains running on time, the Nazis built some nice highways, and the Maoists reformed agriculture. The Castro state is no better than those in terms of providing a model for a free and thriving people.
It's the remnants of capitalist wealth, actually, and the on-going market economy (see this post), that provides most of what remains of the Cuban economy. Castro certainly has reason to wince, but more over his own past responsibilities than over any concern over tourist resorts. I think, despite the fact that he's walked back on his startling admission, that he (and certainly his brother) now recognize, however belatedly, that capitalism provides the only real hope for the Cuban people's future.
Fidel's not saying that. I've read a few of his recent essays. He may no longer be a doctrinaire marxist but still holds global capital to blame. Corporations and capital will be powerful, anywhere they are permitted. That doesn't mean that's sound economics. Globalism usually means mega-corps from USA, Japan, a few EU set up sweatshops or resorts or Walmart comes to town--so they get a blue vest, instead of working in sugar plants, or cigar shops, etc. IT doesn't mean cute suburbs and malls blossom.
ReplyDeleteThe point re substantiation was merely that an objective assessment of the "Cuban model" would require a few dozen pages of analysis and data, not just Goldberg-like generalizations (are Jeff and Jonah related? oy vey). That said, what got people buzzing was Fidel's slight diss of the muslim-leftist connections in a few L.A. countries and his opposition to anti-semitism . He may deserve some credit for that, perhaps, but then..that's a fairly standard Trotskyite view.
I've no doubt he still "holds global capital to blame", for whatever -- after 50 years of communism, he's not likely to have an epiphany now. Nevertheless, he doesn't deny saying what he said to Goldberg, which I think indicates a seed of doubt growing amidst his dogma, and for that alone I'll give him some credit. Also for, as you point out, his remarks re: anti-semitism, which may have penetrated the remarkably thick skull of his Venezuelan acolyte, Chavez.
ReplyDeleteMy bet, btw, is that the Cuban people themselves, if given half a chance, would embrace "globalism" with great eagerness, including all the mega-corps, Walmarts, even sweatshops. It's only the Western elites, lolling in the midst of globalist wealth and choice, that affect to disdain it, even as their lifestyles depend upon it.