Fidel Castro, architect of U.S. foreign policy
Fidel Castro died yesterday, on my late sister's 71st birthday. He dominated the second half of the 20th century, and my entire adult life, as a world figure.
I'll state here something that will rile some and is at least debatable: during my adult life, Fidel shaped the foreign policy of the United States Empire more than any other person; more than Nixon, more than Hillary Clinton's new best friend, Henry Kissinger, more than Reaganbush; more than Gorbachev, more than Krushchev, more than Mao. Possibly more than all others combined, Fidel exposed the hubristic and predatory nature of the American Empire. More than anyone else, Fidel gave lie to the lies in the history texts of American schools.
He accomplished this because for more than a half century he spurred constant reaction from the reactionary leaders of the capitalist plutocracy, both Republicrat and Depublican. Possibly more than any other of the Empire's enemies, he was targeted for CIA assassination. And he beat them all.
In the spirit of liberation for all in the Americas — in the name of Jacobo Arbenz, Salvator Allende, Mohammad Mossedegh, and the countless others assassinated by the CIA — and in the name of dead Black Panthers and political prisoners such as Leonard Peltier: Viva Fidel!
Comments
One challenge the Cuban revolution met was the health care
crisis. 3000 of the nation's 6000 medical doctors decided they could make more money elsewhere and left the country rather than met the needs of the citizens. Health services, particularly in the rural areas, was already inadequate and having half the doctors leave turned the situation into a crisis.
It took years, but Cubans now have a good health care system in spite of economic war waged against the country from capitalist nations.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
You know, that's actually a good question to raise
to people who argue against the US adopting a universal healthcare system: why is it that the US should care less about the health and well being of its own citizens than dictatorships and fascist governments do?
I think the "logic" of unrestrained capitalism reduces human
interactions to profit opportunities and the Big Pharm profits, in part, by selling drugs that are unneeded by the patient; and insurance companies profit by denying coverage to those who have bought their policies.
Doctors profit by having their lobby be effective in passing restrictive immigration policies for foreign doctors which has been done. USA doctors make approx. 2ce what European doctor earn.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Over the years nearly 200,000 Cuban doctors have worked
around the worlds poorest countries.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrist/2015/06/08/cubas-most-valuable-exp...
It is interesting to note
The differences in our two countries at this moment of Castro's passing. Cuba educated everyone and provided free healthcare to everyone. They have fresh food.
We have many many things to buy and many of us are in debt, but a crappy healthcare system ( invisible to many of us) and an expensive ( very!) education system. We rely more and more on manufactured foodlike substances.
Tough choice, don't you think? Which would you choose now?
Cuba, always in the cross hairs
https://chomsky.info/hegemony02/
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
highly recommended documentary
The Fidel Castro Tapes. http://www.pbs.org/program/fidel-castro-tapes/
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
I hope Obama sends a high-level dignitary to the funeral.
Clinton sent his SoS to Syria when al-Assad died. Obama sent himself to Saudi Arabia for King Abdullah.
Fidel Castro sparked my political awareness.
In Puerto Rico my father and I were rooting for him and his men in Sierra Maestra. We were jubilant when they marched into Havana. Then overnight it seemed, I was supposed to repudiate him. My father swallowed all the bad press hook, like and sinker and his answer to all my questions was "he's a communist." I was just turning 10 but I refused to believe that my hero had transformed into a monster and I never forgot Fulgencio Batista's deeds. I had yet to learn about US involvement in Cuba, Latin America and the rest of the world, always supporting murderous despots. That came a little bit later with the US intervention in the Dominican Republic in 65.
In a related note, that was around the time we learned about white supremacists and the KKK. My classmates and I could not believe it. We just looked at our teacher expecting him to say he was pulling our legs. Then we started hearing bits and pieces about the South and the Civil Rights Movement. End of innocence.
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
Lessons from my grandmother
When I was a child in the 1950's, my parents both worked in factories and I never saw them until 4:30 in the afternoon. So, it was my Irish grandmother who raised me during the day. What she believed in, I believe in, and she taught me by way of the Today Show on NBC.
She believed in, and told me about, the Land and Freedom Army, the FLN, and the Cuban Revolution. On January 1, 1959, I remember running through the house telling everyone that Fidel was in Havana and no one knowing what I was talking about, but my grandmother was not there to hear me because she had died the previous summer.
She did not live to see a free Kenya, or a free Algeria, or a Cuba where the common people had a chance, but I did.
"People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases."
from "One Thousand Fearful Words for Fidel Castro"
"...They're coming to pick you up and stretch you on their Stretcher. That's what happens, Fidel, when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the bonds of International Tel & Tel and United Fruit."
Lawrence Ferlinghetti recited the whole poem at a rally in San Francisco during the last week of the Eisenhower administration.
(There weren't 1000 words: Ferl left room for a hopeful ending and Fidel succeeded.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"