Classic false dichotomy. The options are not just red dictatorship or colonial dictatorship
Go ahead and name the options that Cubans had for dismantling capitalism. Not imaginary theories, REAL options for immediate liberation.
Not gonna engage in alternate history theoryjerking for you, mate
60 years of single family rule is totally normal, amirite?
The Castros rule Cuba in the same sense that the Windsors rule the UK. The role is effectively only ceremonial, with a minimum of formal powers.
So they do have formal power above the average citizen?
Why make excuses for it at all. Accept the L and push for better.
I am simply explaining the situation. No one is making excuses. The situation is not ideal in Cuba, the same as everywhere around the world, but it is much less severe than you represent.
Raul is now retired. He had served as the head of the Party, which is a position elected from within the Party, and as the president, which is elected by the National Assembly, itself elected popularly. All of his political power was through such formal positions, which others were free to seek as his replacement.
Also, union participation is nearly universal. As such, an unpopular government is obviously unlikely to remain in power except by capitulating to worker demands. Moreover, workers wield more power, relative to the state, than mostly everywhere in the world, including the states that style themselves as the most free. Thus, even high-ranking offices carry limited power in practice.
Real democracy is when you get to choose a new capitalist pedophile every 4 years!
Real democracy is neither of these things.
Hilarious that you immediately jump to "America bad" with absolutely no indication of where the poster is from.
Yes, America bad, but that's a huge whataboutism
I’m not some starry eyed naif who thinks Castro was a saint, but he and Che were 10000% better for the average Cuban than Batista and the gangsters who propped him up.
Correct, the US government is made out of gangsters /srs
Yep, I was including the US government, there’s documentation of them colluding with the mafia in their attempts to regain control of Cuba. Remember that Smedley Butler described his career in the Marines as being a gangster for capitalism.
You claim to support liberation and yet you dont support the god given right by capitalists to own humans and genocide whomever they please?
Curious
The butcher Batista was friends with the beacon of freedom (USA), so he must have been good !!!1!1!!1
I love the smell of freshly posted memes <3
are you guys just trying to post the most obtuse image formats? just let me at a thumbnail to click, instead of making me think you're purposefully trying to insert bizarre exploits into my computer
Is that a wyrm or a snake?
An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of "ML" (read: Dengist) influence. This is a place for undogmatic shitposting and memes from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.
Serious posts, news, discussion and agitprop/stuff that's better fit for a poster than a meme go in c/Socialism.
If you are new to socialism, you can ask questions and find resources over on c/Socialism101.
Please don't forget to help keep this community clean by reporting rule violations, updooting good contributions and downdooting those of low quality!
0. Only post socialist memes
That refers to funny image macros and means that generally videos and screenshots are not allowed. Exceptions include explicitly humorous and short videos, as well as (social media) screenshots depicting a funny situation, joke, or joke picture relating to socialist movements, theory, societal issues, or political opponents. Examples would be the classic case of humorous Tumblr or Twitter posts/threads. (and no, agitprop text does not count as a meme. Please post agitprop here)
0.5 [Provisional Rule] Use alt text or image descriptions to allow greater accessibility
(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)
We require alternative text (from now referred to as "alt text") to be added to all posts/comments containing media, such as images, animated GIFs, videos, audio files, and custom emojis.
EDIT: For files you share in the comments, a simple summary should be enough if they’re too complex.
We are committed to social equity and to reducing barriers of entry, including (digital) communication and culture. It takes each of us only a few moments to make a whole world of content (more) accessible to a bunch of folks.
When alt text is absent, a reminder will be issued. If you don't add the missing alt text within 48 hours, the post will be removed. No hard feelings.
0.5.1 Style tip about abbreviations and short forms
When writing stuff like "lol" and "iirc", it's a good idea to try and replace those with their all caps counterpart
Why? Because otherwise (AFAIK), screen readers will try to read them out as actually words instead of spelling them
1. Socialist Unity in the form of mutual respect and good faith interactions is enforced here
Try to keep an open mind, other schools of thought may offer points of view and analyses you haven't considered yet. Also: This is not a place for the Idealism vs. Materialism or rather Anarchism vs. Marxism debate(s), for that please visit c/AnarchismVsMarxism.
2. Anti-Imperialism means recognizing capitalist states like Russia and China as such
That means condemning (their) imperialism, even if it is of the "anti-USA" flavor.
3. No liberalism, (right-wing) revisionism or reactionaries.
That includes so called: Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, Dengism, Market Socialism, Patriotic Socialism, National Bolshevism, Anarcho-Capitalism etc. . Anti-Socialist people and content have no place here, as well as the variety of "Marxist"-"Leninists" (read: Dengists) (actual ML's are welcome as long as they agree to the rules and don't just copy paste/larp about stuff from a hundred years ago).
4. No Bigotry.
The only dangerous minority is the rich.
5. Don't demonize previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
We must constructively learn from their mistakes, while acknowledging their achievements and recognizing when they have strayed away from socialist principles.
(if you are reading the rules to apply for modding this community, mention "Mantic Minotaur" when answering question 2)
6. Don't irrationally idolize/glorify previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
Notable achievements in all spheres of society were made by various socialist/people's/democratic republics around the world. Mistakes, however, were made as well: bureaucratic castes of parasitic elites - as well as reactionary cults of personality - were established, many things were mismanaged and prejudice and bigotry sometimes replaced internationalism and progressiveness.
