socialism

Cuba and the American wingnut

socialism, US foreign policy, wingnuts
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Chris Bertram was a bit naughty on Crooked Timber last Tuesday, putting up a post celebrating Cuba under Castro, or rather acknowledging that Castro was not quite the mad dictator of American propaganda. The result? A thread of over 300 comments filled with decent leftists and wingnuts denouncing him for his soft stance on tyranny. Ironically in the process they showed why Chris was right in saying that anti-Castro fanatics hate Castro less for his human rights abuses than for the simple fact that he hasn’t knuckled under, that half a century of US pressure has not been able to make Cuba get in line.

It also shows how dangerous it can be to look at human rights issues without taking into account the context in which they are reported. The best example of which has been the War on Iraq, in the runup to which claims about Saddam’s awful regime were plastered all over the media, some true, others not, all of which in the end served not to end those abuses and bring the perpetrators to justice. Instead it helped to justify the invasion and subsequent occupation, which has so far has already killed a million Iraqis.

It’s not hard to see that American concerns about Cuban human rights abuses serve the same goal. It’s also not hard to see that undemocratic as it might be, Cuba would be much worse off under any US-led attempt to “democratise” it, as the example of Haiti should make clear. Democracies can commit massive crimes as well and worse, US/EU-approved and imposed “liberal democracies” usually shaft their own populations. Would you rather have Cuban or US style healthcare?

If we denounce Cuban abuses we might feel good about ourselves, but this will not end them and worse may help create a worse situation. Only the Cuban people can liberate themselves.

Germany’s tax scandal: an opportunity for the left

Life under Capitalism, socialism
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Germany is currently in the grip of a tax scandal, after it became known that hundreds of wealthy Germans, including Deutsche Post CEO Klaus Zumwinkel have been using Liechtenstein as a tax haven:

It is rapidly becoming one of the largest economic scandals ever in Germany’s post-World War II history. As many as 900 wealthy Germans — many of them well-known — might be involved. Berlin may have been shorted up to 4 billion euros in taxes. And the accusatory finger is pointing increasingly at what many feel is rampant greed among of many of Germany’s top earners — and at a handful of banks and foundations in the tiny principality of Liechtenstein that help the affluent hide their assets.

With dissatisfaction at Germany’s current righwing government already high, The International Herald Tribune sees the tax scandal as a chance for the left to gain ground in local elections:

The jury is still out on how the scandal will unfold politically. Just two weeks ago, the Left Party, an amalgam of former East German and radical Westerners that sharply criticizes the unchecked power of big business, made a strong showing in two state elections. Next week, German voters in the city-state of Hamburg go to the polls, and conservatives fear a blowout if the public seizes on it as a chance to vent frustrations about tax evasion and what it seems to symbolize. Hamburg could end up as another victory for the left.

In a good leftist tradition the Left Party immediately shot itself in the foot when a representative in the parliament of Lower Saxony put forth her views on former East Germany, saying the Stasi had been necessary to protect the country from “reactionary forces” and that the Berlin Wall had been built to keep West Germans from crossing into the East. Which did use to be the official DDR explenation for these things, but it seems a bit silly to still believe this almost twenty years after the fall of the wall…

Is the SWP used to attack Galloway?

socialism
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That’s what Splintered Sunrise thinks, because since the split in Respect the SWP side of the story has gotten a much more sympathetic airing in the media than the Galloway side:

George Galloway, on the other hand, is quite a different kettle of fish. I have my own serious reservations about George, but there’s no gainsaying the fact that the media are out to get George, and for reasons that have nothing to do with my reservations. Indeed, they’re after him for his good points. Let’s be honest, George, whether we like it or not, is just about the most recognisable face of the antiwar movement. He’s one of the most articulate critics of New Labour. He has that extremely important connection with the working-class Asian population in the East End. Lord help us, he’s a serious asset to our side as well as being an incorrigible loose cannon.

All this should be fairly obvious. If the SWP side in the split is getting puff jobs in the media, not to mention acquiring the critical support of Harry’s Place and the Alliance for Workers Liberty, that’s not an accident. These guys have a clear sense of priorities. There are of course other factors – Private Eye’s repeated snarky references to the Asian element of Respect gel with the sort of casual racism one expects from the Eye – but in the end it comes down to priorities. Using the SWP as a cat’s paw against Galloway is using a sprat to catch a whale.

The point here is not who was at fault in the acrinomious split of Respect last year, but whether the SWP is letting itself used to attack a former ally who they might now have issues with, but who is still far preferable to the people trying to bring him down, still nominally socialist. This split has not been easy to either of the parties involved, so I can understand the temptation to lash out, but it’s a good rule of thumb for any socialist not to give your real opponents ammunition to bring down fellow leftists. Not that the SWP is the only one to have given in to this temptation, as a casual perusal of Socialist Unity shows. there are plenty of people on the left who hate the SWP as well and they have not always been discreet. Of course, that doesn’t mean you should never speak ill of fellow lefties, genuine political differences or real cases of abuse should not be hidden, but the sort of gloating you sometimes find about the SWP’s (or other organisations) troubles isn’t helpful.

Don’t blog, organise

politics, socialism
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Hamas knows how to organise

Avedon:

One reason why a lot of Democratic Party insiders have a lot of contempt for bloggers is that we are sitting in front of our computers getting fat rather than getting out where it becomes a public affair. It’s all very well to phone and mail legislatures (and you should), but you need to be out there where people can see you.

Yes, I know people are still shy about being associated with the circus, but visibility matters. It’s a lot harder for the talking heads to pretend that Bush is still popular and people don’t mind the destruction of the Constitution if they’re being deafened by protests.

And 2007 is not 1968. The public isn’t freaked out by hippies anymore, it’s freaked out by losing a major American city, and being known as a nation of torturers, and having our money sucked away by an illegal war and assorted con-men in expensive suits.

Thom Hartmann often points out that neither of the Roosevelts ran as progressives, and Lyndon Johnson certainly didn’t run on civil rights. When progressives came to FDR with their program he let them know that he was convinced, but he needed one more thing: “Make me.”

They did it because we made them. It wasn’t done just by people sitting at home and writing.

Avedon is right. Blogging is a great way to write away your frustrations about politics, but in itself it has a limited capability to change things for the better. Blogs are good at getting you informed about things not covered much in the mainstream media or helping likeminded people discover each other, not to mention help people realise that they’re not alone. But becoming aware and informed is only the first stage of becoming political active. After that, you need to act. Unfortunately, blogging is seductive and you do get the feeling of having achieved something from just having written about something, so it’s easy to keep blogging instead of taking that next step.

For the rightwing this doesn’t matter, as to them blogs are just another part of the noise machine, but us lefties have to be aware that blogs are just one tool we need to use if we want to change things.

Top 5 socialist blogs — that are not updated enough

Meta, socialism
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After the Socialist Unity list of the top 101 leftwing blogs and Histomat’s Top Ten International Socialist Blogs, I thought it was time to prepare my own top five socialist blogs –that haven’t updated in yonks or don’t update enough.

Honorable non-socialist mention: Vaara.