The Poverty of Philosophy

The Poverty of Philosophy
By Immortal technique

Viva Technique - this is the true meaning of hip-hop.

Chavez Smells the Dogs of War

Chavez Smells the Dogs of War
T.D McDonough

The war drums can be faintly heard across Latin America with the arch nations of Columbia and Venezuela flexing their might. The U.S. sponsored Colombian President Alvaro Uribe recently betrayed Chavez during his negotiations with the left wing FARC rebels, before making allegations against the Venezuelan premier. There is some lingering suspicion which suggests that Uribe, whispered to from Washington, is playing the aggressor in the hope of sparking a conflict that could justify U.S. intervention against Venezuela. In response, Chavez has signed a deal with China to purchase K-8 fighter jets.

“The government of Colombia is capable of provoking a war with Venezuela to justify a US intervention in Venezuela,” said President Chavez, earlier this week.

Of course, Venezuela is a threat to the spread of global Yankee capitalism and a further testament, like Cuba, to the effectiveness of Socialism in the modern world. In early 2002, the U.S. attempted to include Chavez and Venezuela in it’s misguided ‘Axis of Evil’ in the hope of drawing Chavez’s nation into the ‘War on Terror’. The move received global condemnation.

Viva Chavez!

The Left Wing Resurgence

The Left Wing Resurgence

 

The left has seen quite a large resurgence over the weekend. Not only has Cuba successfully held elections, positioning Raul Castro as President, but the Mediterranean island of Cyprus has voted, with a 70% majority, for Demetris Christofias’s Communist Party.

The Cypriot nation has voted in favour of the left wing party which seeks to reunite the island and move away from the current Greek/Turkish divide. This is surely a favourable conclusion to the strife that Cyprus has faced over the past few decades.

The picture for Cuba can only get brighter as the rolls onward. The US must face the fact that sanctions, terrorism and propaganda have had little effect on the resolve of the Cuban people. If anything, the US has only strengthened the unity and comradery alive on the little isle of Cuba. Castro’s legacy may be fading, Che may be gone, but the revolution still lives.

Viva la Revolucion!

Socialism and Man in Cuba

Socialism and Man in Cuba
By Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara de la Serna (1965)

 

Though belatedly, I am completing these notes in the course of my trip through Africa,^[30] hoping in this way to keep my promise. I would like to do so by dealing with the theme set forth in the title above. I think it may be of interest to Uruguayan readers.

A common argument from the mouths of capitalist spokespeople, in the ideological struggle against socialism, is that socialism, or the period of building socialism into which we have entered, is characterized by the abolition of the individual for the sake of the state. I will not try to refute this argument solely on theoretical grounds but rather to establish the facts as they exist in Cuba and then add comments of a general nature. Let me begin by broadly sketching the history of our revolutionary struggle before and after the taking of power.

As is well known, the exact date of the beginning of the revolutionary struggle — which would culminate in January 1959 — was July 26, 1953. A group led by Fidel Castro attacked the Moncada barracks in Oriente Province on the morning of that day. The attack was a failure; the failure became a disaster; and the survivors ended up in prison, beginning the revolutionary struggle again after they were freed by an amnesty. In this process, in which there was only the germ of socialism, the individual was a fundamental factor. We put our trust in him — individual, specific, with a first and last name — and the triumph or failure of the mission entrusted to him depended on that individual’s capacity for action. Then came the stage of guerrilla struggle. It developed in two distinct environments: the people, the still sleeping mass that had to be mobilized; and its vanguard, the guerrillas, the motor force of the mobilization, the generator of revolutionary consciousness and militant enthusiasm. This vanguard was the catalyzing agent that created the subjective conditions necessary for victory.

Here again, in the framework of the proletarianization of our thinking, of this revolution that took place in our habits and our minds, the individual was the basic factor. Every one of the combatants of the Sierra Maestra who reached an upper rank in the revolutionary forces has a record of outstanding deeds to his or her credit. They attained their rank on this basis.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara Documentary

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara Documentary

(46mins) Produced by the Discovery Channel. Hosted at Google Video.

In the recent years, there have been many new documentaries and books that have attempted to re-evaluate the history of the Cuban revolution and demonize its most charismatic proponent - Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. One such documentary ‘The True Story of Che Guevara‘ should be avoided at all costs.

The documentary film above is a more balanced affair (as far as Anglo-American documentaries go). There are several inaccuracies, such the myth of ‘Che as Executioner’, but the overall narrative remains fairly objective. There is no substitute for the writings of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, but a documentary such as this is a good start for anyone wishing to learn more about the man behind the myth.