From: Isaac Saney <isaney@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sep 10, 2007 4:13 PM
To: walterlx@earthlink.net
Subject: : More On Cuban Political System
 

Just a brief note. Arnold August raises very correctly a very important point that we should all delve into much more deeply: the Eurocentrism that permeates so much of the thinking and conceptualization of democracy, development and political philosophy etc.

As I argued in my book (and will expand on in the second edition) the Cuban Revolution represents a process developed on its own basis. Whatever mistakes have been made ( which Fidel and others have talked about), the Revolution has stood on its own terms and utilized and generated its own thought and intellectual material. Europe and the Anglo-American world are not the fountainhead and sole source of ideas of liberty and emancipation.

One of the key contributions of the Cuban Revolution - a contribution amplified today by the Bolivarian Revolution- is the enriching and deepening of the concept of self-determination. There are many on the "left" in the "North" who, while appearing to condemn imperialism, attack those who have been resisiting and fighting imperialism for not fighting imperialism or organizing their struggles in the ways that confirm to their Eurocentric dogma's and doctrines.

In short, they support the right of self-determination of the peoples of the "South" as long as those selfsame peoples self-determine in the way that the "left" determines and approves. The Cuban Revolution has demonstrated that the right of self-determination MUST encompass the right of peoples to use their own thought material and historical intellectual traditions.

This is one of the reasons that the Cuban Revolution was able to survive the collapse of the USSR and the East Bloc. There was no ideological or political crisis (challenges yes!) because the roots of the Cuban Revolution - including the intellectual foundations - are endogenous.

This is not to dismiss the role of Marxism-Leninism. As Marx and Engels enivisioned it has acted (and continues to act) as a guide that has enriched the thought material embodied in the work of Marti, Maceo, Mella and Che etc. Fidel and the leadership are exemplars.

The issue of Eurocentrism has been a major focus of mine. I have an article coming out in a journal on the role of Africans in the abolition of the slavetrade and slavery (Emanicipation Now! Africans, Rebellions and the End of Slavery). One of the arguments (the only really novel one) it makes is that the Haitian revolutionaries did not have to depend on the ideas of the French Revolution ( even though they played an important role) in order to launch THEIR Revolution in 1791.

I have stressed this point re:Cuba in my speaking engagements. It is a vital point.

very best regards,

Isaac

Isaac Saney
Dalhousie University
(902) 494 - 1531 (tel)
(902) 494 - 2135 (fax)

best regards,

Isaac