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REVOLUCIÓN BOLCHEVIQUE Historia de la URSS y Cuba Análisis crítico socialista Desde el siglo XXI |
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A CubaNews
translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
“ANTONIO
GRAMSCI” DEPARTMENT
January 2009
marks the 50th anniversary of the triumph of revolutionary power, which
intended to implement a program for social justice in Cuba. It was
deemed utopian by many people at the time but nevertheless was witnessed
by those of us who receive this message today.
Frustrations, accomplishments and hopes teem inside all Cubans when they
think about the meaning of a lifetime based on their individual
commitments to the Revolution.
On the occasion of this celebration and in order to make our
experiences, knowledge and emotions concur -in a single space-time
continuum and to coordinate our sensitivity and efforts with our
political ideas and actions within the Revolution, the Antonio
Gramsci Department of the ICIC Juan Marinello hereby
announces a cycle of open conferences under the Workshop LIVING
THE REVOLUTION 50 YEARS AFTER ITS VICTORY.
This Cycle will provide a framework for discussion and presentation of
conscious, critical proposals focused on everything we can do at this
juncture.
It is our intention to:
- Recognize experiences of work, projects and sensitivities
centered with an approach to the socialist transformation of the Cuban
realities.
- Legitimate the experiences lived by individuals and groups as
an expression of the revolutionary process and the socialist transition.
- Conceive the Cuban Revolution as a process and socialism as a
project.
- Contribute to empower individual and groups in their daily
life.
The first workshop will be held on Friday, January 30, 2009 at
the ICIC Juan Marinello from 9:00am to 1:00pm.
Topic: Sense and meaning of the Revolution to our life.
Coordinators:
Alexander Correa Gleydis Martínez
Ariel Dacal Ernesto Morejón
Julio Antonio Fernández Diosnara Ortega
Julio César Guanche Ailynn Torres
Hiram Hernández Llanisca Lugo
Previous announcements:
PERMANENT WORKSHOP
«The Bolshevik
revolution and the history of the USSR and Cuba:
a critical socialist analysis from the 21st century»
Basis for this project:
I.- The Cuban
Revolution’s authenticity is not only in its origin and revolutionary
nationalism, but also in its process and the path it chose to follow in
the 1960s taking into account the USSR’s experience and then in the
mid-1980s, as shown by the
standstills during the Process of Rectification of Mistakes and
Negative Trends (1986), the debate aroused by the Call to the IV
Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (1990-1991) and, of course, the
policy adopted after the demise of the «real socialism» (1989-1991) that
made it possible for our national revolutionary project to survive.
However, its authenticity does not stem from autarchy, as it was by no
means of a «self-sufficient» nature cut off from its past or set on a
fail-safe course for the future. It has been a process of creation,
survival and struggle, targeted by U.S. hostility and systematic
attacks, geopolitics and its own disadvantages given Cuba’s position in
face of worldwide capitalism.
For these reasons, even if the Revolution’s program has been affected by
various currents and determinations, it has also managed to find and
defend its own qualities in this context.
One of the greatest impacts on the Cuban process and project came from
the links it kept with the Soviet regime for over three decades. After a
close relationship with the former USSR –followed by the collapse of
socialism in eastern Europe– Cuba’s political speech has seen various
stages, ranging from an appeal to study what had happened so as to avoid
a repeat of the same «mistakes and deviations» suffered by that process
to the decision to stop such effort, seemingly intended to make it clear
that, as proved by the record of its own survival, the Cuban model bore
no relation whatsoever with the system put into practice in that
political geography.
In the end, a rather ambiguous assessment has been made about the Soviet
experience which either provides a superficial illustration of «how
badly things went for them and how many wrong things they did» or merely
highlights what positive results they truly or apparently achieved.
Criticizing the «rekll socialism» entails not only denouncing the
«mistakes and deviations» that took place in the USSR since the 1920s,
but also probing into the Soviet, European and world history in
connection with that experience and its effects on the Cuba-USSR
relationship. It also involves a debate on the concepts of socialism
–both those that existed simultaneously and others that came later– and
the ideas that survived the fall of the «real socialism», which must be
challenged by practical and theoretical thoughts aimed at re-creating
socialism on a revolutionary basis.
Therefore, the reaffirmation of the Cuban Revolution’s true nature needs
not to disregard the impact of the Soviet legacy on our country. On the
contrary, by admitting to its existence we are prompted to either take
it on as is or challenge its essence, but never to put up with its
influence for lack of knowledge.
The thesis that «the Soviet influence on Cuba will fade in time» as
something that belongs in the past reveals, among other things,
intellectual ignorance, political conservatism, poor understanding of
the need for unity, and little interest in knowledge.
On a different level, we would have to define how those thoughts sprang
from the same matrix of Soviet Marxism and its ideas on «evolutionism»
and «progress». Time heals no wounds: only revolutionary politics can
work such miracles.
II.- Started
between January and February 2007, the ongoing debate about Cuba’s
cultural policy revolves around two major, generally accepted theories:
1) the need to review socialism’s experience in the 20th century and,
along with it, what Soviet socialism bequeathed to and still survives in
the island, and 2) the role that the new generations in Cuba can and
must play in the construction of a new future-oriented revolutionary
policy.
Whereas the former issue imposes an appraisal of the USSR’s socialist
experience rather than just the history of its relations with Cuba, the
Workshop «The Bolshevik Revolution. History of the USSR and Cuba: a
critical socialist approach from the 21st century» stems from the
following fact: an in-depth evaluation of the Soviet influence on Cuba
is yet to be made, if we keep in mind that such task would entail,
first, a study of the Soviet experience, and second, the intellectual
and political goal of making a distinction between the Soviet
regime and the concept of revolutionary socialism. For that reason, and
belated though it may seem, this debate remains valid today. Such is the
goal that this Workshop is intended to accomplish as a horizontal
gathering that will make the most of the intellectual wealth available
in many Cuban institutions and provide a channel to share and spread the
analytical results thus achieved.
The Workshop is organized by the “Antonio Gramsci” Department of the
“Juan Marinello” Center for Cuban Culture Research and Development (ICIC)
with support of the Ministry of Culture.
Objectives:
a) study and discuss the overall experience of the Bolshevik Revolution
and the history of the USSR through its facts, ideas and influences;
b) reconstruct the essential features of the Cuba-USSR relationship at
certain stages before 1959 and, above all, during the revolutionary
process;
c) contribute to dissect and evaluate the outcome of such relationship
and the Soviet influence on Cuba;
d) link Cuba to the current theoretical reflections on and contributions
to socialism.
Structure and vision of the
Project:
1- In addition to its crucial importance as an example of socialist
application and ideas of liberation and the fact that its impact as a
paradigm of internationalism is paramount to the ongoing struggle for
liberation and socialism, the Cuban Revolution must be a source of
reflection about the «21st century socialism».
2- The Workshop is intended to put the analytical competence of a number
of researchers and intellectuals from various fields of knowledge to the
service of the revolutionary project in order to contribute as best it
can to counteract all the politically tutored concepts designed to harm
the socialist and revolutionary ideology as well as any attitude that
spreads ignorance and avoids these topics.
3- It’s a multi- and inter-generation and -disciplinary effort aimed at
designing a global discourse on society, with no watertight compartments
and based on a wide diversity of views, its premise the vindication of
completeness that must prevail in any Marxist analysis.
4- Taking into account its specific possibilities, the Workshop will be
an attempt to identify, build and develop
intellectual weapons to
help the Cuban society resist capitalism and fight for a revolutionary
socialism.
5- This Workshop comes on top of what the Revolution has been trying to
achieve in terms of an effective development of criticism, as evidenced
by the recent program Palabras a los intelectuales (Words to the
intellectuals) in the “José Martí” National Library and the Workshop
El Quinquenio gris: revisitando un término (The Gray Quinquennium:
revisiting a term) organized by the Theoretical-Cultural Center “Criterios”,
just to mention two examples.
Methodology:
The Workshop is mostly based on two methodologies: one is supported by
40 people who will try to build on collective knowledge using popular
education methods, while the other provides a way to socialize and
discuss the analytical results achieved by the former in open-door
sessions. Both will meet once a month and pave the way for a public
debate on the topics proposed for each session.
Every available means will be used to disseminate as much as possible
all the material resulting from each Workshop in line with the very
principle by which they are governed: help foster the hegemony of
socialist ideas in the Cuban society.
We suggest the following method for the presentations:
a) One or more speakers who will present accurate information and views
about the relevant topic and bring out concrete ideas for discussion.
b) Wide-ranging discussions, where different groups will present
opposing views on a given problem, if applicable, to make debate more
fruitful.
c) Previous analyses of and group discussions about the topics at hand.
d) Study and discussion of texts about the issues in question.
e) Development of documents with a summary of the results.
The Workshop will defray the publication and updating of a website and
disseminate information by any means within its reach. To do that it
will request material support from the Ministry of Culture, as well as
facilities to have its site hosted and linked to Cubarte’s web page.
Designed with a horizontal structure, the project counts only on
secretaries who coordinate the Workshop’s activity, elected by general
consent and revocable at any time, and submit in every session a brief
report of their performance.
Topics suggested for the first
Workshops:
1ª Session: Discussion of objectives and contents: Fernando
Rojas, Fernando Martínez and Julio César Guanche will talk about the
history of the USSR, Cuba, and its relation with the former, and about
current problems this Workshop will try to approach (10-minute
presentations), followed by the first paper for discussion:
«The Bolshevik Revolution: victory, consolidation and demise»
Speaker: Fernando Rojas
2ª Session: «Post-revolutionary regime in the USSR: main features
and historic process of the so-called Stalinism»
Speaker: Ariel Dacal
3ª Session: «Universalization of communism: the Communist
International, anti-fascism alliance and the Cold War. Latin America and
Cuba»
Speaker: Juan Valdez Paz
4ª Session: «Cuba and socialism during the Republic until 1953».
Speaker: Fernando Martínez Heredia
5ª Session: «The Moncada garrison: rebellion, socialist ideas and
the communist movement»
Speaker: Julio César Guanche
6ª Session: «The USSR after Stalin. The 20th Congress of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the Khrushchev government, the
‘thaw’ and the beginning of economic reform»
Speaker: Aurelio Alonso
7ª Session: «1959-1961: The new revolutionary power, relations
with the USSR and ideology»
Speaker: Hiram Hernández Castro
8ª Session: «1959-1962: Socialism and the Cuban Revolution.
Facts, ideas, differences, comparisons and influences»
Speaker: Alexander Correa
9ª Session: «Which socialism? Conceptions, contradictions and
discussions»
Speaker: Alfredo Guevara
---ooOoo---
ORIGINAL:
http://www.cuba-urss.cult.cu/index.php?opcion=mostrar_seccion&seccion=1
Who believes in a downhearted Revolution?
Who believes in a do-nothing type of Socialism?
Laziness, however, is not idleness; at least not necessarily.
We must know all about the value of working before we can call ourselves
revolutionaries, let alone Marxists. But it’s also true that we must
revere Laziness, at least when it’s red, for it’s a state of our body
and soul that we can keep at all times, even while we work.
Working or doing any other revolutionary activity beyond the boundaries
of this principle is almost as good as enslaving our senses and
alienating our imagination.
Red humor is as much inherent to the right of being lazy as, for
instance, the gourmet culture of the need to deprive the tycoons from
their money and power.
We must not think of socialism without thinking of happiness and
enjoyment and putting an end to the destruction of nature and so much
inhuman squandering.
The right to laziness is the right to love and have many chances to make
and give love. It’s the right to eat and drink, laugh, talk, dance,
paint, sing or se others dance or paint or hear them sing.
We also need a revolution of and with laziness, where work is a Grace
with a capital G and life is joy. It is, well, in the right to laziness
where we will find all signs of human enjoyment conducive to a
revolutionary environment or capable of existing in it. This right will
try to be the guiding light to the kind of active laziness we need so
much wherever people dream of and fight for and with socialism.
ORIGINAL:
http://www.cuba-urss.cult.cu/index.php?opcion=mostrar_seccion&seccion=6
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REVOLUCIÓN BOLCHEVIQUE Historia de la URSS y Cuba Análisis crítico socialista Desde el siglo XXI |
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REVOLUCIÓN BOLCHEVIQUE Historia de la URSS y Cuba Análisis crítico socialista Desde el siglo XXI |
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