FRFI 195 February/March 2007

SWP: mired in sectarianism

For some time, the SWP leadership has been struggling to maintain its increasingly reactionary stance on Cuba. However, on 13 January 2007, Socialist Worker published a debate article by Diana Raby of the Institute of Latin American Studies at Liverpool University. Raby is also the author of Democracy and Revolution: Latin America and socialism (Pluto Press 2006). Possibly for the first time ever, the pages of Socialist Worker entertained the idea that Cuba might be a leading revolutionary force and, as Raby says in her book, ‘a beacon of hope’.

The article examines the role played by Cuba as a model for Venezuela and Bolivia, with a government based on the working class and popular movements, constructing an ‘alternative social and economic order’. Raby clearly understands the role of the 26 July Movement grouped around Fidel Castro and the dynamic between the pressure of the mass movement and Castro’s own revolutionary leadership. Like Chavez, she writes, he ‘gives voice’ to the ‘aspirations of the masses’. She ends her article with a call to ‘overcome yesterday’s sectarian divisions and sterile debates and unite to support it’ [revolutionary Latin America]’.

If only. The immediate response in Socialist Worker was a spate of opportunist SWP apparatchiks clumsily parroting the leadership line: ‘Cuba is not a socialist country. It is a dictatorship run by Castro and his party’ writes one. Far from inspiring Bolivia and Venezuela, Cuba is ‘restraining other struggles in the region’. ‘Raby is wrong to imply that socialism exists or is being created in Cuba’, another tells us. Raby is accused of promoting charismatic leaders and ‘socialism from above’ at the expense of the ‘mass activity of working people in transforming their daily lives’. A week later, the heavy artillery weighed in with a full-page article by Chris Harman, trashing the idea of Cuba as a revolutionary model for Latin America.

‘Today, despite talk of socialism, Cuba is marked by enormous disparities of wealth and income...supporters of the Cuban model might try to use the movement from below to establish state control of industry and control of the state by a single party. But they would stop the movement in its tracks if the mass of the people took decisions into their own hands’ (Socialist Worker, 27 January 2007). As the people of Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia get on with the real business of creating revolutionary change, the SWP remains mired in sectarianism.

FRFI 195 February/March 2007

Solidarity brigade to Cuba

On 21 April, Rock around the Blockade’s seventh brigade will depart for Cuba for two weeks, taking with us money raised throughout the year to provide a sound system for the Union of Young Communists, which plays a vital role in organising and raising the consciousness of young people in Cuba.

We will divide our time between the City of Havana and visiting projects in rural areas, have opportunities to meet with representatives from the Communist Party, Federation of Cuban Women, students, trade unionists and health and education workers, and see some of the vital work being carried out by Cuba’s social workers as part of consolidating the Battle of Ideas. We will also be in Cuba to join the millions who take to the streets to celebrate 1 May. The brigade will be an opportunity to witness the process of a socialist society being built and sustained on a daily basis, and the brigadistas will be speaking at meetings around Britain to share their experiences on their return.

Rock around the Blockade campaigns actively in solidarity with socialist Cuba on the streets of Britain. We need your support! Get involved, help build the campaign, raise more funds to support Cuba and oppose the illegal US blockade.

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