Honestly its rude to be invited by a country to meet their president who decided to respond to your criticisms of their administration only to not show up and go meet the opposition.
Being invided and then no showing shows complete disregard to basic diplomatic Etiquette since it was a mission to show solidarity against the embargo
Bonus socdems being cringe part 4.5: about another member that didnt show up to the presidential meeting
Deeply unserious people
Cool, why skip out on a meeting with the President of Cuba’s government to discuss it in a constructive way then?
“To indulge in irresponsible criticism in private instead of actively putting forward one’s suggestions to the organization. To say nothing to people to their faces but to gossip behind their backs, or to say nothing at a meeting but to gossip afterwards. To show no regard at all for the principles of collective life but to follow one’s own inclination. This is a second type.”
Maria has been working non stop for as long as I’ve known her. She’s one of the best comrades I’ve had the pleasure of working with. She is a machine that turns liberals into communists. She has tirelessly organized for trans rights in Florida of all places. She is an anti-imperialist through and through.
“To regard oneself as having rendered great service to the revolution, to pride oneself on being a veteran, to disdain minor assignments while being quite unequal to major tasks, to be slipshod in work and slack in study. This is a tenth type.”
To your first point, it seems as though her main complaint was there wasn’t much of a way to dialogue with both party officials and the critical left she talks about.
To your second, no one likes when someone they know and respect is being fed-jacketed.
How useful her critiques are when even the non-government critical-voice she talked to (Maykel Vivero) said:
the most systemic change must happen through a change of policy in the United States. Absent that, the most likely possibilities for Cuba’s future would be 1.) a Chinese-style mixed economy, which would significantly increase inequality and leave workers without a democratic voice, or 2.) a full capitalist restoration, which would be a world-historic disaster for the working-class.
I think even she doesn’t really see the realities, considering she thinks Cuba’s standard of living can be raised and there can be less discontent if more voices are heard.
She wants the support to be more critical, but considering how bad the embargo is (and everyone in her group and the Cubans she talk to agree about), it seems as if this is largely a pointless exercise. No government is perfect, but what can you do from America where more people are pushing for an overthrow than an embargo lift. Weird not to mention Allende in this whole discussion too.
Her criticisms come from an incredibly idealist perspective and are divorced from any understanding of power or how a communist party functions. Even lauding Fidel, but ignoring him: “within the revolution, everything; against the revolution, nothing”. introducing “alternative leftist voices” for its own sake accomplishes nothing but sating the unending liberal tendency to act indecisively and fight amongst each other, even when facing an existential threat. Constantly railing against the “bureaucracy” and constantly trying to create a distinction between the communist party from the masses, from the perspective of an outsider… from the imperial core… from the US no less, the primary enemy of the Cuban revolution… It is incredibly telling that that is what she spends her time on. If she is such an incredible organizer and ardent communist then she should focus on revolution within the US
Organizing is about building capacity to engage in action. Recruiting, educating, and getting other people involved and connected.
If you’re really good at doing that for the purposes of chauvinism, ignorance, and toeing the line of the NED constellation of bullshit, you are not doing a good thing and are doing something that is actually very easy in the context of an the American supremacist liberal environment in which everyone has been raised.
You’re arguing in extremely bad faith. Deliberately skipping out on the discussion session (refusing to actually engage in critique) and then posting a giant screed (literally being the online left, infiltrated in about 1000 ways) is absolutely not constructive and absolutely should be called out. Disengage now.
I will leave your post up only because the receipts you provided are actually arguing the opposite of your awful point.
Maria’s post: https://reformandrevolution.org/2024/02/17/cuba-between-imperialism-and-socialism/
DSA international committee defending Maria for this chauvinist shit, which should be seen as proof that it is western chauvinism: https://twitter.com/cearaos/status/1780785735055868107?s=46
Bullshit she skipped a meeting with the president. You can jabber all you want but actions speak louder than words. She has no grounds to criticize the Cuban government as an American she needs to shut the fuck up and get her priorities in order. It is pathetic chauvinism and you should relay to her how pathetic this was. She’s incapable of turning herself into a comrade and acts like a Liberal so I doubt your words
Oh another chauvinist part of the DSA “stepped forward to defend her criticisms” of Cuba? Who cares? Libs defending libs doesn’t make it less lib
I agree. The US government has levied untold suffering onto the Cuban people and the Cuban President was still willing to sit down with them. The US is Cuba’s oppressor and despite that there are people in the DSA who would like to waste their breath pretending that they have a principled Marxist critique rather than combat their own governments cruelty. Imperial Chauvinism. I am sure that Maria thinks that she has a better understanding of Cuba’s conditions than Cubans themselves, but she is just wasting people’s time and hurting the movement she pretends to espouse.
Diaz Canel was a fierce supporter of LGBT+ rights, he send doctor missions during the covid pandemic to help other countries like Mexico and Italy, continue support of palestine, he is not Biden, he responded to their criticism and hosted the DSA in Cuba, at least they should have meet the guy
you cannot in the same breath levy criticisms and refuse to entertain the head of state specifically trying to meet with you to discuss said criticisms. it is petty and chauvinistic and betrays an idea that your aim of criticism is destructive rather than constructive–an attempt to jettison ideologically from the project rather than contribute to it. if they truly wanted to see the communist experiment in Cuba succeed, they would jump at the chance to communicate their ideas with the people currently running it.
In prior decades the party could rely on the gains of the revolution and the formidable leadership of Fidel Castro as a source of legitimacy. But as the economic crisis threatens the country’s social programs and leadership has passed to the less-popular Miguel Díaz-Canel, Cubans increasingly show dissatisfaction with life on the island. We see this in the mass protests of 2021, smaller localized demonstrations against shortages, and nearly 5% of the population emigrating away in the past two years.
of course a fucking loser like this would cry about cuba suppressing an attempted queerphobic color revolution. she’s lucky diaz-canel didnt throw her off a cliff
Meanwhile, a notably large “No” campaign against the Family Code was led by the churches and right-wing dissident groups through social media. While the referendum passed, “No” received 33% of the vote, which is remarkably high for a government initiative in a one-party state.
Meanwhile that loser was bloviating about the 33% “No” vote while defending their political movement and whining about the Cuban government not being able to magically fix something that is the result of her country’s blockade, absolute definition of an opportunist snake just looking for wrecking angle
Amazing, managed to sneak in a jab at totalitarianism 1984 when discussing a vote with vocal opposition.
Anyway, why didn’t Diaz-Canel press the button that magically eliminates all reactionary opinions? Is it because he’s secretly Hitler?
While the referendum passed, “No” received 33% of the vote, which is remarkably high for a government initiative in a one-party state.
Lol. LMao, even. Based on what? As someone who lives in the west, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a government initiative pass without just meeting the majority threshold.
She may do good work elsewhere. She may have some valid criticisms (I cannot speak to this as I have not evaluated them).
However, when you’re sent as a delegate of an ostensibly Socialist organization to one of very few actually existing Socialist countries and you get the immense privelege and oppurtunity to meet with the President of the country and First Secretary of the Communist Party YOU MEET WITH THEM.
To do so otherwise - again as a delegate of a supposedly Socialist org trying to make international connections - is so far beyond a faux-paux I’m not sure what to call it.
To do so otherwise - again as a delegate of a supposedly Socialist org trying to make international connections - is so far beyond a faux-paux I’m not sure what to call it.
It’s called sabotage. She skipped out on the meeting to deal with people who participated in the abortive color revolution from a few years back. She’s an op.
I want the list of the 15 people who upvoted their comment so I can add them to my block list
It’s probably people you’ve already got on there, the radlibs on here show their whole ass constantly. For instance I had completely forgotten about zifnab having had them blocked for months. I’d even considered clearing my block list but then I discovered through this thread that he’s still on his bullshit.
I love it when I, a communist who actively does not (or at least should not) subscribe to liberalism and its thought-terminating cliches, gives a speech which is 90% undiscernable from a United States government statement on Cuba
I genuinely don’t think I can take a single person who unironically uses the term “Stalinism” seriously at this point. Maybe there’s some extremely specific usage revolving around the leadership of the Josef Stalin (and not every single slightly “authoritarian” leader) where it could still have some value, but I doubt it. For non-leftists, it’s just another thought-terminating word that liberals fling around to refer to anybody they don’t like, like “tankie”. For people who purport to be leftists, it’s a way of preserving anti-communist brainworms in situations where Stalin is viewed positively - sure, Stalin might have been a generally good, even great, figure, but Stalinism implicitly invokes the American propaganda about gulags and clapping for hours during his speeches and execution for saying even the slightest thing wrong.
I genuinely don’t think I can take a single person who unironically uses the term “Stalinism” seriously at this point.
Like my PFP, they’re not meant to be taken seriously. This person was in Cuba. Did they seriously not bother to have a conversation with a single Cuban person?
Maria is my friend and comrade. This is bullshit. She had done nothing but act in good faith
Did she or did she not snub the president of Cuba to bloviate about some contradictory criticisms of the Cuban government that had already been addressed by said Cuban officials?
That is not good faith argumentation let alone good faith organizing, it is the definition of wrecking and undiplomatic behavior, and is made all the more egregious by the fact it is her country whose polices act as the Janus key to answer her idealist arguments as to why Cuba isn’t where SHE thinks it needs to be
And putting a bunch of weasel sentences like “are state actors above criticism” or “she organizes for trans right in Florida” deliberately ignores the main point of contention and is ironically in itself a common tactic of anti-communist infiltrators who usually seek to turn debates into arguments over character and not political substance and motivation, it’s dishonest
This is bullshit. She had done nothing but act in good faith and provided factual, well considered criticism
Maybe she should have then attended the meeting with the President of Cuba who offered to address her criticism then instead of declining the meeting and running off to speak to the opposition while giving credence to Miami gusanos
Anti-imperialist while meeting with people working with NED. Fuck out of here. Hope she never shows her ass south of the border again. Stay the fuck out of Latin America and let us continue to make gains while people like her keep getting cucked by the Democrats and their geriatric leadership.
The level of disrespect is absolutely disgusting and it’s clear she views Americans as being above Cubans and Latin Americans. She apparently doesn’t support Cuba’s trans rights by stupidly opposing how they managed to make it happen.
Does she want the Cuban left to be more like the Guatemalan left who despise trans people and regard them as subhuman? After all, they’re being more “Democratic” by taking in the opinions of Evangelical chuds and incorporating them into the party as a “bottoms-up” approach.
Miss me with that “parroting the online left” bullshit. This childish nonsense is why the American left will never be taken seriously if they keep doing this shit.
Maria has been working non stop for as long as I’ve known her.
So what? That’s only slightly above the minimum bar for being a political activist. She could have shown up to the meeting, or is her critique worth so little that she can’t even back it up with a little eye contact?
Maria is an embarrassment and an idiot and defending her makes you culpable in the chauvinism she displays.
Edit: PS I should mention that she’s a Trot and “making liberals into communists” really means, “make liberals into counterproductive ultras”. Literally an entryist caucus.
