Fidel Castro has died

[spireite]

'A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad the good' - Stannis Baratheon

 

[Ian_Wrexham]

Yes, there are some things that one can applaud - good healthcare, an education system that produces high rates of literacy, the stance on apartheid - but these achievements are all somewhat undermined by the authoritarian nature of the regime. Personally, I find all the whataboutery (bad stuff happens in the West too - no shit!) really rather risible; a feeble attempt to deflect discussion away from the brutality and repression that was such a feature of Castro's regime (and can hardly be said to be mirrored in any Western democracy). By all means let's condemn injustice in the West, but I find it really quite mind-boggling that the sort of people who regard a Blair or a Thatcher as the devil incarnate seemingly view the complete contempt for basic freedoms and human rights in Cuba as little more than a trifling irrelevance. Interesting though it is to assess his time in power I rather suspect his achievements don't much matter - people have romanticised him to such a degree that what he symbolises is more important that what he actually did. And whilst some of those things were positive, others were objectively awful. I think what I'm saying ought to be relatively uncontroversial. I'm not trying to paint him as some sort of uniquely monstrous figure - he may even have had rather nobler aims than many other dictators the West was complicit in installing - but he was also all the things I've described him as and as such doesn't deserve to be held up by anyone as some great leftie beacon.

It's not whataboutery though because it's massively important to any context in which we appraise Castro. The alternative to brutal repressive communist Cuba isn't neither brutal nor repressive communist Cuba: it's brutal and repressive fascist Cuba.

In the early 1950s, Guatemala's liberal capitalist revolutionary government introduced such dangerous communist policies as a minimum wage, and the elimination of debt slavery. United Fruit, whose profits depended on brutal labour practices, put pressure on the US to overthrow the moderate democratic government of Jacobo Arbenz. Which they did, installing a brutal and genocidal military junta in 1954 that caused the country to slide into civil war.

In 1961, the CIA murdered DR Congo's first democratic prime minister and installed kleptocratic dictator Joseph Desire Mobutu.

In 1964, moderate nationalist Brazilian President João Goulert, again pursued the dangerous communist policies of introducing laws to stop companies headquartered abroad from avoiding corporation tax, breaking up large rural landholdings and extending the franchise. He was overthrown in favour of a CIA backed military junta.

In 1965, the US invaded the Dominican Republic to stop the restoration of the democratically elected president - social democrat Juan Bosch.

In 1970, socialist Salvador Allende, was elected in Chile. In 1973, he was overthrown and murdered by CIA-backed fascists and the brutal military ruler Augusto Pinochet was installed.

In 1979, the Sandanistas overthrew corrupt and brutal US-backed Somoza government. Between 1981 and 1987 the US armed and funded far-right paramilitary groups to fight an insurgency against the FSLN's land reforms, introduction of public services and education programmes. They killed tens of thousands.

In 1983, the US invaded Grenada to overthrow its leftist government.

This is the background to Castro's repressions. A neighbour who violently opposed to any rolling back of the status quo - where any attempt to restore dignity to, especially the rural poor in Latin America and the Carribean - to stop debt slavery, to install employment rights, to provide public services - came under intense economic, diplomatic and eventually military pressure. Where the CIA would arm any gangs of murderous fascists that asked for assistance.

Castro was fighting an enemy that 600 times tried to have him killed and more than once to have him deposed. The Cuban Revolution needed to be brutal to survive.

I find the strain of leftism that celebrates left-wing failures who played by the rules (like Allende) yet disowns the people who genuinely improve life for millions more hypocritical (or possibly naive) than those who celebrate Castro. As Brecht put it "we who wished to lay the foundations for gentleness could not ourselves be gentle".

 

[Abertawe]

Can't imagine she'll be invited back anytime soon

 

[JimJams]

Why not? 'Cos she says "fink" instead of "think"? I'm with ya.

 

[Abertawe]

I'm so fed up off these douches who add nothing to the forum.

 

[JimJams]

Me too.

 

[Dirk]

Can't imagine she'll be invited back anytime soon

Why not? 'Cos she says "fink" instead of "think"? I'm with ya.

I'm so fed up off these douches who add nothing to the forum.

Me too.

OK, I'll ask: What is that supposed to mean (in the Fidel Castro thread)?

 

[Abertawe]

OK, I'll ask: What is that supposed to mean (in the Fidel Castro thread)?

Please excuse my fellow Brit. He's what is known as a WUM. He thrives off derailing threads with silly out of context posts.

 

[JimJams]

Not really. I just don't see why they wouldn't have her back on. I was expecting that clip to be a confrontational interview with your headline. Seemed pretty civil to me. She was allowed to get her view across without objection, I was expecting her to get shut down or go mad or something.

 

[Abertawe]

Not really. I just don't see why they wouldn't have her back on. I was expecting that clip to be a confrontational interview with your headline. Seemed pretty civil to me. She was allowed to get her view across without objection, I was expecting her to get shut down or go mad or something.

There's a lot of I's in that paragraph. Says a lot about you.

 

[JimJams]

I'm so fed up off these douches who add nothing to the forum.