Che Guevara, Cuba, and the Road to Socialism (New International)

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Summary: Why Cuba Survives The Collapse Of " Communism"
Review: Ernesto Che Guevara explained that without a genuine communist party , that is , a party made up of the most politically conscious and self-sacrificing workers and farmers, a party that leads a struggle for a higher political consciousness in the population as a whole, even on a daily basis on the job, in the factories and on the farms, any revolutionary process will slide back towards capitalism. To this degree he predicted the inevitable collapse of Stalinism - the opposite of communism - decades before the events of 1989-90. In the "rectification campaign" of 1985-90, Cuba tried to put Che's ideas as a guide to action about economics and politics in the transition from capitalism to socialism into practice for the first time on a national level. This campaign and the internationalism , the international solidarity and worldview of the Cuban revolution, that has never faltered from 1959 on, guaranteed the survival of the Cuban revolution as an example of hope for millions who live under the crisis of capitalism of today. The debate in Cuba and around the world about this process is covered in this book ; the northamerican contributions, by leaders of a revoutionary workers party in the Belly of the Imperial Beast, based in the industrial unions, put forward the need to follow this example, applied to the conditions of the U.S.A., in our time.

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Summary: Che's Road to Socialism, a debate
Review: People who do not think there are no politics or political debates in Cuba, or that Che Guevera was just a romantic adventurer, need to read this book. This book contains a debate on Che Guevera's strategy for building a socialist society defended by Waters and Clark, two leaders of the US Socialist Workers party, and by Carlos Tablada, a Cuban Communist Economist whose book, Che Guevara : Economics & Politics in the Transition to Socialism, has won international acclaim and the support of Fidel Castro. Veteran Cuban CP leader Carlos R. Rodriguez defends the more Soviet influenced ideas against Che's ideas. Read this discussion and you will understand why Stalinism in the USSR collapsed and why the Cuban revolutionists who are still intent on following Che's vision are showing the way to world Socialism.

Rating:
Summary: Che's Road to Socialism, a debate
Review: People who do not think there are no politics or political debates in Cuba, or that Che Guevera was just a romantic adventurer, need to read this book. This book contains a debate on Che Guevera's strategy for building a socialist society defended by Waters and Clark, two leaders of the US Socialist Workers party, and by Carlos Tablada, a Cuban Communist Economist whose book, Che Guevara : Economics & Politics in the Transition to Socialism, has won international acclaim and the support of Fidel Castro. Veteran Cuban CP leader Carlos R. Rodriguez defends the more Soviet influenced ideas against Che's ideas. Read this discussion and you will understand why Stalinism in the USSR collapsed and why the Cuban revolutionists who are still intent on following Che's vision are showing the way to world Socialism.

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Summary: How can workers remake society?
Review: This volume records a debate that reached back to the earliest years of the Cuban revolution. After taking the economic resources of society out of the hands of the capitalists, how can toilers use their power to refashion their world? Some advocated basing themselves on the model of the Soviet Union, with its emphasis on material incentives and administration. Others, including Che Guevara, said socialism can only be built by raising the participation, and political consciousness of workers and farmers, with planning straining to be based on creating new values of human need, and fighting the individualism and greed inherited from capitalism. The importance of this debate, which continues in Cuba today, can be seen in the corruption and collapse of the Soviet model in the USSR and Eastern Europe, and the continuing vitality of the Cuban workers state.

Rating:
Summary: How can workers remake society?
Review: This volume records a debate that reached back to the earliest years of the Cuban revolution. After taking the economic resources of society out of the hands of the capitalists, how can toilers use their power to refashion their world? Some advocated basing themselves on the model of the Soviet Union, with its emphasis on material incentives and administration. Others, including Che Guevara, said socialism can only be built by raising the participation, and political consciousness of workers and farmers, with planning straining to be based on creating new values of human need, and fighting the individualism and greed inherited from capitalism. The importance of this debate, which continues in Cuba today, can be seen in the corruption and collapse of the Soviet model in the USSR and Eastern Europe, and the continuing vitality of the Cuban workers state.