Pedro Campos

HAVANA TIMES — The Cuban revolution has always relied on the solidarity of the international Left in its confrontation with imperialist aggression and the criminal US blockade. Those who, in Cuba, continue to struggle for the development of socialism, for a society without exploiters or exploited people, should continue to enjoy this support.

It seems, however, that part of this international Left, the Old Left that never managed to get in step with the times, hasn’t realized that this revolutionary process has stagnated economically and politically, and not because of the blockade or imperialist aggression, but as a result of the government-Party-State’s resistance to the democratization of politics and the socialization of the country’s economy.

They are the ones who do not see, do not want to see or find it inconvenient to see that the revolutionary leadership – which has been in power for over fifty years – continues to try and perpetuate a failed political system borrowed from the Soviet Union, a neo-Stalinist model with some superficial pro-capitalist reforms.

These reforms are aimed at creating the conditions that will allow Cuba’s bureaucratic elite and its descendants to become the owners of major profitable State companies (in the tourism, biotechnology and trade sectors), on the basis of a new compromise with the island’s nascent small and mid-sized capitalist businesses and international Capital – something not unlike what happened in the former Soviet Union.

Their lust for power, their insistence on maintaining the salaried exploitation of workers and their current push towards and connivance with Cuba’s incipient capitalist class and foreign Capital have transformed the Cuban leadership into a new Right.

Of course, this Right is made up of people who are different from those of the traditional Cuban right, based chiefly in Miami. Their objectives, however, are not that different: giving more and more power to national and international private capitalists through such familiar methods as the reduction of funds destined to variable capital (labor), shutting down companies, lay-offs and lowered salaries, the curtailment of worker rights (to the benefit of employers) and others that have been clearly outlined in the so-called reform process.

What we are seeing is a struggle between two capitalist classes, between the capitalists of old and a leadership that aspires to become a new capitalist class (and, in fact, currently lives like the bourgeoisie), between those who were expropriated and those who did the expropriating and never handed the means of production over to the workers.

In between, we have the great majority of Cubans, who do not want to return to that odious past when the traditional Right was in power, and also do not want to continue to be exploited by this new Right which declares itself the rightful heir of a revolution that all of us have fought for.

The attitude of the old-school, international Left may stem from its ideological affinity to neo-Stalinism, from the desire to continue receiving favors from the Cuban government, from a lack of information or, quite simply, from a misguided notion of revolutionary solidarity.

Whatever the reason, it has yet to understand that much of the opposition faced by the Cuban government isn’t prompted by imperialism or the Miami-based Right (as the Cuban government, its media and international spokespeople want us to believe), but, rather, by its own economic and political measures, its abusive exploitation of Cuban workers and professionals, its restrictions on individual liberties, its anti-democratic model of government, the lack of freedom of expression and association it has brought about and the unnecessarily violent actions it has taken against all dissenting thought, be it at the right, center or left of the political spectrum.

Of course, the traditional Right, with the support of imperialism, advertises all of the mistakes and civil rights violations that the new Right is responsible for. The fact that the traditional Right and imperialist powers use such facts in their campaigns against the Cuban government (controlled by the new Cuban Right) does not make these violations of the rights of Cubans any less real.

I am not asking for this sector of the international Left to deny Cuba’s revolutionary process its solidarity. The Cuban revolution is much more than what its current leaders, who have become the country’s new Right, are doing. Those of us who continue to struggle for socialism need the Left to continue to support us, and even to increase its support.

What this Left ought to do (if it still considers itself the Left) is reconsider its distorted perception of the human rights situation in Cuba and direct its support towards the criticisms coming from Cuba’s Left, socialist and democratic movement, which opposes the economic and political drift to the right brought about by the country’s current government. This Left ought to support true and profound changes aimed at the socialization and democratization of the Cuban system and against the repression of dissenting political thought by State powers.

Otherwise, this solidarity will continue to be enjoyed by a State that continues to distance itself from the libertarian and democratic ideals that inspired the Cuban revolution of 1959 and, as such, from the genuine interests of the Cuban people.

What’s become of the solidarity towards the Cuban people, towards the workers, the exploited, those who are not part of the government, the Party or the State?

Everyone is free to think and act as they wish, but no one who considers themselves a member of the Left should ignore the violation of civil rights practiced by governments, even when these call themselves revolutionary, socialist or left-wing, particularly when they actually implement right-wing policies. No one in the Left has any right to try and discredit those who do criticize such violations.

To dispel any doubts about Cuba’s current situation, suffice is to review the draft Labor Bill which the government wants to impose on Cuban workers through the Cuban Workers Federation (CTC), an organization which, today, in no way resembles what it was in the times of Lazaro, Jesus and Arcelio, working-class, communist black men who sincerely defended the interests of workers against those of Capital before the triumph of the revolution in 59.

The bill clearly defends the rights of employers, State or private exploiters of salaried labor, that is, at the cost of undermining the rights of workers, and makes absolutely no mention of a society in which workers are the ones that administer, own or control the means of production or services.

The traditional and new Right represents the past for Cuba, the times of the Cold War, the confrontation between the two great superpowers, the United States and Soviet Union. The future does not belong to them. New waves of young and veteran activists who struggle for socialism, for the democratization of the system, for the liberation of the productive forces, for individual freedom, for freedom of expression and association, are confronting this new Right, a class that, not unlike the traditional Right, would take Cuba to the brink of real or virtual annexation by its northern neighbor.

Human rights are precisely that: human. They are not the exclusive domain of the Right or Left and their violation must be condemned by the Left wherever it takes place. Otherwise, the Left would be guilty of the same double standards that imperialism is criticized for.

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pedrocampos313@yahoo.es