Obama’s problem -- and capitalism’s crisis-- is that people no longer
believe the fake “news” and bogus narratives issued by the ruling class
and its corporate and military misinformation specialists. “If we are
not serious about facts and what’s true and what’s not, and particularly
in an age of social media when so many people are getting their
information in sound bites and off their phones, if we can’t
discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have
problems,” said Obama.
This is the man that told the nation’s assembled bankers, a year
after the Greet Meltdown of 2008, “My administration is the only thing
between you and the pitchforks." When the people come to believe that
the president and the corporate media’s narrative -- that the system can
be fixed with a little tinkering -- is a bunch of “propaganda,” rather
than “serious argument,” then future Obamas will no longer be able to
protect the Lords of Capital from the pitchforkers.
Losing control of the narrative is what happened after Michael
Brown’s murder in Ferguson, Missouri, when Black youth stopped listening
to Obama’s fictitious sermon that racism is not endemic in America, a
fake history that candidate Obama had successfully dispensed in his “A
More Perfect Union” speech in Philadelphia, in 2008.
Obama’s targeted handful of phony social media articles generally
favored Donald Trump. But the biggest “fake news” of the recent
campaign, promulgated by virtually the entirety of the ruling class
ensconced in Hillary Clinton’s Supersized Tent, was that the Russians
were scheming to despoil and disrupt the U.S. elections -- crimes
Americans commit all by themselves every cycle through massive voter
purges and other racist conspiracies. To Clinton and Obama’s horror,
this McCarthyite deluge of fake anti-Russian news failed to sway the
very “Middle Americans” that were thought to be the most belligerent,
warlike constituency of all.
-- Glen Ford, "Obama’s Musings on False Narratives and Fake Stories" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).
Monday, November 28, 2016
Truest statement of the week II
They say they are concerned about the rights of undocumented people
but they didn’t say much when Obama acted as the Deporter-in-Chief. The
so-called Muslim registry of men from 25 countries under the auspices of
the NSEERS program lasted from 2002 to 2011. That is to say during two
years of the Obama administration. They may be concerned about climate
change and Trump’s promise to end America’s participation in the most
recent climate agreement. But that agreement allows for a rise in carbon
production and thus in world temperatures. They would have been smarter
to challenge the phony climate change process itself.
They say they are afraid that Trump will muzzle the press. His shouting match with network executives should not be a cause for alarm. Eventually they’ll start saying good things about him so he was foolish to be so hostile. But he is no more hostile to the rights of the press than Obama was. When he used the Espionage Act to punish leakers and whistle blowers many of the now distraught progressives didn’t say much.
-- Margaret Kimberley, "Freedom Rider: How Not to Protest Trump" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).
They say they are afraid that Trump will muzzle the press. His shouting match with network executives should not be a cause for alarm. Eventually they’ll start saying good things about him so he was foolish to be so hostile. But he is no more hostile to the rights of the press than Obama was. When he used the Espionage Act to punish leakers and whistle blowers many of the now distraught progressives didn’t say much.
-- Margaret Kimberley, "Freedom Rider: How Not to Protest Trump" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).
A note to our readers
Hey --
Sunday.
Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
Let's thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
What did we come up with:
Glen Ford gets another truest.
As does Margaret Kimberley.
After eight years in the White House, Barack leaves having done damn little.
Ava and C.I. examine THE GREAT INDOORS.
Why we don't think it means a damn.
A parody of Gloria Steinem.
Is there a reason with all the unrest in the world that Roth has time to pimp ObamaCare?
It says it all.
What we listened to while writing.
Repost of UK Socialist Worker.
An important issue.
EDITORIAL: Saint Barack and the cult he rode in on
If you ever fail to grasp what a wasteland the last 8 years have been for the left, take a moment to register -- not just read -- this Tweet.
The Democrats did nothing.
Grasp that.
If you're a non-recovering Cult of St Barack-er, that won't bother you in the least.
Nothing does.
But if you're a thinking person, grasp that Barack road to fame on his supposed objection to the Iraq War (face to face with Elaine and C.I. while he was running for the US Senate, Barack declared that opposition to the war no longer mattered after the war started), you should grasp that Barack did nothing.
He didn't end the Iraq War -- it continues.
And he sure as hell didn't investigate it.
Or hold people accountable.
Those who supported the Iraq War were welcomed into his administration: Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Samantha Power, Michele Flournoy, Chris Hill . . .
And the lies were never investigated, let alone prosecuted.
His cult seemed to realize there was a problem -- a problem without a name?
They began whining about Benghazi.
They whined that there were X number of investigations into Benghazi and none into Iraq.
That whine was meant to attack and embarrass Republicans.
But why?
The greatest crime of this century remains the Iraq War.
How is it embarrassing Republicans (who overwhelmingly supported the war) that there was no investigation into the lies that led to the Iraq War?
It's not.
It's embarrassing to the Democratic Party.
In the 2006 mid-terms, they insisted that if voters gave them control of just one house of Congress, they'd use their powers as committee chairs to investigate and subpoena and bring the war to an end.
Americans responded by giving them control of both houses of Congress in that election.
And the Democrats did nothing.
They certainly didn't end the war.
Then-minority leader Nancy Pelosi had publicly taken impeachment off the table in the lead up to the 2006 elections.
Turns out, she also took accountability for the Iraq War off the table -- she just failed to tell the American people.
Bully Boy Bush is not in office.
Nor is Tony Blair.
In England, they're more than willing to demand answers from Blair.
In the US, Barack spent 8 years encouraging America to just . . . let . . . it . . . go.
Search results
- Am working with cross party group of MPs to launch new attempt to interrogate Tony Blair over #Iraq
Caroline LucasThe Democrats did nothing.
Grasp that.
If you're a non-recovering Cult of St Barack-er, that won't bother you in the least.
Nothing does.
But if you're a thinking person, grasp that Barack road to fame on his supposed objection to the Iraq War (face to face with Elaine and C.I. while he was running for the US Senate, Barack declared that opposition to the war no longer mattered after the war started), you should grasp that Barack did nothing.
He didn't end the Iraq War -- it continues.
And he sure as hell didn't investigate it.
Or hold people accountable.
Those who supported the Iraq War were welcomed into his administration: Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Samantha Power, Michele Flournoy, Chris Hill . . .
And the lies were never investigated, let alone prosecuted.
His cult seemed to realize there was a problem -- a problem without a name?
They began whining about Benghazi.
They whined that there were X number of investigations into Benghazi and none into Iraq.
That whine was meant to attack and embarrass Republicans.
But why?
The greatest crime of this century remains the Iraq War.
How is it embarrassing Republicans (who overwhelmingly supported the war) that there was no investigation into the lies that led to the Iraq War?
It's not.
It's embarrassing to the Democratic Party.
In the 2006 mid-terms, they insisted that if voters gave them control of just one house of Congress, they'd use their powers as committee chairs to investigate and subpoena and bring the war to an end.
Americans responded by giving them control of both houses of Congress in that election.
And the Democrats did nothing.
They certainly didn't end the war.
Then-minority leader Nancy Pelosi had publicly taken impeachment off the table in the lead up to the 2006 elections.
Turns out, she also took accountability for the Iraq War off the table -- she just failed to tell the American people.
Bully Boy Bush is not in office.
Nor is Tony Blair.
In England, they're more than willing to demand answers from Blair.
In the US, Barack spent 8 years encouraging America to just . . . let . . . it . . . go.
TV: The weekly best laugh bet
Last summer, if you'd asked us what would likely be the best new sitcom of this season, we would have guessed two or three shows. THE GREAT INDOORS would not have made our list.
But the CBS sitcom is the season's best new entry.
When we started making that observation to various friends -- including some working on the show -- they asked us what we were drinking?
We were especially surprised by that response coming from TGI workers.
But it wasn't that they didn't think their show was funny, it was that they felt their show had been slammed by one critic after another.
The show revolves around 'outdoor' icon Jack (Joel McHale) forced by changing times and trends to stop his silly (our opinion) treks around the world.
Silly?
They sometimes resulted in cover stories for the monthly magazine OUTDOOR LIMITS.
The magazine is doing poorly -- obviously.
It's hard times for all print publications -- especially niche ones revolving around the travels of an 'outdoor man' like Jack.
Roland (Stephen Fry) decides to revamp the magazine as an online publication and hires people he hopes are good at click bait: Clark (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Emma (Christine Ko) and Mason (Shaun Brown).
Jack's at odds with the three and confused about reporting to Roland's daughter Brooke (Susannah Fielding) who also happens to be Jack's ex-girfriend.
Why do critics hate this show?
They feel Jack is so mean to the millennials.
They don't know enough to speak, they should sit their tired asses down.
Joel McHale hales most recently from COMMUNITY which frequently suffered from an outlook that his Jeff Winger was the most amazing person not just on the show but in the entire world.
We never suffered from that deception.
But apparently a lot of critics did and still do.
Apparently, a lot of male critics get hard ons while watching Joel.
Well good for them.
But they're confusing their lust for McHale with what he's actually playing.
He's not the good guy.
He's not the sweetheart.
McHale's Jack is an asshole.
The millennials are not mocked anymore than Jack is.
What world does a fool like Jack live in that, in the year 2016, he finds it shocking that a monthly print magazine could struggle?
How could anyone not know about this struggle?
NATIONAL LAMPOON and INSIDE SPORTS died in 1998, MUSICIAN in 1999, MELODY MAKER, RAY GUN, SPORT and MIRABELLA in 2000, MADEMOISELLE, OUTDOOR EXPLORER, WORKING WOMAN and BRILL'S CONTENT MAGAZINE in 2001 and TALK, MCCALL'S, RADICAL SOCIETY, SOCIALIST REVIEW and THE LESBIAN REVIEW OF BOOKS in 2002, PARTISAN REVIEW and WHOLE EARTH REVIEW in 2003, YM (YOUNG MISS) stopped published in 2004, CLAMOR, THE NEW LEADER and GIRLFRIENDS died at the end of 2006 while CRACKED, BLACK ISSUES BOOK REVIEW, LiP, PRACTICAL ANARCHY and JANE came to an end in 2007, GOURMET , RADAR, OFF OUR BACKS, HARP and MEN'S VOGUE in 2008, VIBE, PC MAGAZINE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ADVENTURE, NICKELODEON MAGAZINE, MOVIELINE and BLENDER in 2009, PREMIERE in 2010, LEFT TURN in 2011, SPORTING NEWS in 2012, PRO FOOTBALL WEEKLY in 2013, DETAILS and FITNESS MAGAZINE in 2015 . . .
That's not a full list of magazines that ceased print publication.
And even NEWSWEEK, which stopped print publication at the end of 2012 only to return two years later, is struggling to move the print copies each week.
That Jack is caught surprised by the state of print goes to what a self-involved ass he is.
And that's not a complaint from a viewing stand point.
Watching Joel McHale's Jack get worked up and frustrated repeatedly each episode is very funny.
So is seeing Christopher Mintz-Plasse in a weekly format.
ROLE MODELS, KICK ASS (and the sequel), PITCH PERFECT and NEIGHBORS (and the sequel) have been major comic scores for Mintz-Plasse. As Clark, his worship of Jack is both endearing and hilarious.
Emma and Mason are far less idealistic than Clark and, for example, when they're scheming together against Brooke, they bring a whole devious spin to it.
THE GREAT INDOORS is a work place comedy.
And no one -- not even Brooke -- is sane.
Everyone's working their own angle.
And it's hilarious.
Unless you're watching with a chip on your shoulder.
The review most cited by people with the show -- the review that got it so wrong -- is David Sims' piece for THE ATLANTIC which reads like a COMMUNITY fan boi unable to move forward in life.
If you're also stuck in the past, you might want to avoid THE GREAT INDOORS.
It makes sport of everything, after all, including current trends.
But if you're looking for a genuinely funny show and can accept the fact that Joel McHale can't spend his whole life playing Jeff Winger, CBS has just the sitcom for you.
But the CBS sitcom is the season's best new entry.
When we started making that observation to various friends -- including some working on the show -- they asked us what we were drinking?
We were especially surprised by that response coming from TGI workers.
But it wasn't that they didn't think their show was funny, it was that they felt their show had been slammed by one critic after another.
The show revolves around 'outdoor' icon Jack (Joel McHale) forced by changing times and trends to stop his silly (our opinion) treks around the world.
Silly?
They sometimes resulted in cover stories for the monthly magazine OUTDOOR LIMITS.
The magazine is doing poorly -- obviously.
It's hard times for all print publications -- especially niche ones revolving around the travels of an 'outdoor man' like Jack.
Roland (Stephen Fry) decides to revamp the magazine as an online publication and hires people he hopes are good at click bait: Clark (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Emma (Christine Ko) and Mason (Shaun Brown).
Jack's at odds with the three and confused about reporting to Roland's daughter Brooke (Susannah Fielding) who also happens to be Jack's ex-girfriend.
Why do critics hate this show?
They feel Jack is so mean to the millennials.
They don't know enough to speak, they should sit their tired asses down.
Joel McHale hales most recently from COMMUNITY which frequently suffered from an outlook that his Jeff Winger was the most amazing person not just on the show but in the entire world.
We never suffered from that deception.
But apparently a lot of critics did and still do.
Apparently, a lot of male critics get hard ons while watching Joel.
Well good for them.
But they're confusing their lust for McHale with what he's actually playing.
He's not the good guy.
He's not the sweetheart.
McHale's Jack is an asshole.
The millennials are not mocked anymore than Jack is.
What world does a fool like Jack live in that, in the year 2016, he finds it shocking that a monthly print magazine could struggle?
How could anyone not know about this struggle?
NATIONAL LAMPOON and INSIDE SPORTS died in 1998, MUSICIAN in 1999, MELODY MAKER, RAY GUN, SPORT and MIRABELLA in 2000, MADEMOISELLE, OUTDOOR EXPLORER, WORKING WOMAN and BRILL'S CONTENT MAGAZINE in 2001 and TALK, MCCALL'S, RADICAL SOCIETY, SOCIALIST REVIEW and THE LESBIAN REVIEW OF BOOKS in 2002, PARTISAN REVIEW and WHOLE EARTH REVIEW in 2003, YM (YOUNG MISS) stopped published in 2004, CLAMOR, THE NEW LEADER and GIRLFRIENDS died at the end of 2006 while CRACKED, BLACK ISSUES BOOK REVIEW, LiP, PRACTICAL ANARCHY and JANE came to an end in 2007, GOURMET , RADAR, OFF OUR BACKS, HARP and MEN'S VOGUE in 2008, VIBE, PC MAGAZINE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ADVENTURE, NICKELODEON MAGAZINE, MOVIELINE and BLENDER in 2009, PREMIERE in 2010, LEFT TURN in 2011, SPORTING NEWS in 2012, PRO FOOTBALL WEEKLY in 2013, DETAILS and FITNESS MAGAZINE in 2015 . . .
That's not a full list of magazines that ceased print publication.
And even NEWSWEEK, which stopped print publication at the end of 2012 only to return two years later, is struggling to move the print copies each week.
That Jack is caught surprised by the state of print goes to what a self-involved ass he is.
And that's not a complaint from a viewing stand point.
Watching Joel McHale's Jack get worked up and frustrated repeatedly each episode is very funny.
So is seeing Christopher Mintz-Plasse in a weekly format.
ROLE MODELS, KICK ASS (and the sequel), PITCH PERFECT and NEIGHBORS (and the sequel) have been major comic scores for Mintz-Plasse. As Clark, his worship of Jack is both endearing and hilarious.
Emma and Mason are far less idealistic than Clark and, for example, when they're scheming together against Brooke, they bring a whole devious spin to it.
THE GREAT INDOORS is a work place comedy.
And no one -- not even Brooke -- is sane.
Everyone's working their own angle.
And it's hilarious.
Unless you're watching with a chip on your shoulder.
The review most cited by people with the show -- the review that got it so wrong -- is David Sims' piece for THE ATLANTIC which reads like a COMMUNITY fan boi unable to move forward in life.
If you're also stuck in the past, you might want to avoid THE GREAT INDOORS.
It makes sport of everything, after all, including current trends.
But if you're looking for a genuinely funny show and can accept the fact that Joel McHale can't spend his whole life playing Jeff Winger, CBS has just the sitcom for you.
About a possible recount or two or three
Wouldn't change a thing.
Yes, the Debra Messings insist otherwise but they're idiots.
Why would Barack Obama, a Democrat, say that?
Because he's an elected Democrat.
There will be no fraud found.
None of serious consequence.
And that will be true even if there was massive fraud in the 2016 election.
Why?
The press called it for Donald Trump already.
Do you really see the press doing re-writes?
Did you miss how they buried the 2000 recount results?
(And how they hid behind the excuse of 9-11 to do it?)
They system protects itself.
To allow that serious fraud took place in 2016 . . .
. . . would mean opening a can of worms that the establishment does not want opened.
Do you really think anyone wants the 2004 elections results being questioned?
No.
This is an easy to waste money and pretend to make a difference.
That's all the recount is.
Yes, the Debra Messings insist otherwise but they're idiots.
Michael Tracey
Obama admin reiterates: no evidence of hacking. "Results... accurately reflect the will of the American people"
Why would Barack Obama, a Democrat, say that?
Because he's an elected Democrat.
There will be no fraud found.
None of serious consequence.
And that will be true even if there was massive fraud in the 2016 election.
Why?
The press called it for Donald Trump already.
Do you really see the press doing re-writes?
Did you miss how they buried the 2000 recount results?
(And how they hid behind the excuse of 9-11 to do it?)
They system protects itself.
To allow that serious fraud took place in 2016 . . .
. . . would mean opening a can of worms that the establishment does not want opened.
Do you really think anyone wants the 2004 elections results being questioned?
No.
This is an easy to waste money and pretend to make a difference.
That's all the recount is.
Go Go Hillary by Glo-Glo Steinem
GO GO HILLARY
by Glo-Glo Steinem
Hillary Clinton, president of my vagina if not my country, has joined the recount efforts led by someone named Stein something. This Stein person doesn't matter.
If he did, I would've written about him, right?
And besides, we are a country recovering from the domestic abuse of earlier this month.
Nothing in this country's entire history has ever been as violent as the 2016 election.
And I'll spit on any Black, Brown, Yellow, Red or Purple person who says otherwise.
Like Hillary Clinton, our nation is hurting.
But she rises, like a phoenix.
I think Maya Angelou wrote a poem about that -- or maybe it was Jewel.
I can't keep up with pop culture.
I mean, the last TV show I watched was THAT GIRL.
And to me, Judy Collins is cutting edge when it comes to music.
When you're four months from turning 83-years-old, like I am, you can't keep up with much of anything that's happened in the world since Jimmy Carter was president.
I'm so accomplished.
It's my job to educate young women.
Girls can be so dumb and hormonal, after all.
Girls are just so dumb, they're always thinking "where are the boys?" -- even the lesbians.
That's why they need me to straighten them out.
Appointing myself the leader of feminism is probably the smartest thing I ever did.
It certainly shut up that old Betty Friedan and her talk about my days with the CIA.
My past matters to me.
The CIA was very, very good to me.
Sometimes, I admit just how much I love them.
Sometimes, I remember that my CIA involvement hurts my credibility.
When that happens, I lie about it and, most recently, slam THE NEW YORK TIMES for noting I started out as "a CIA operative."
I'm just a tired old batty idiot.
I will continue to embarrass myself in public just as surely as I will continue to soil myself in public.
I am the self-imposed face of feminism because I will destroy anyone who tries to take my place.
I will be the self-declared leader until the day I die.
And it's that desperation factor that really allows me to relate to Hillary Clinton.
Go, Hillary, you go go girl!
by Glo-Glo Steinem
Hillary Clinton, president of my vagina if not my country, has joined the recount efforts led by someone named Stein something. This Stein person doesn't matter.
If he did, I would've written about him, right?
And besides, we are a country recovering from the domestic abuse of earlier this month.
Nothing in this country's entire history has ever been as violent as the 2016 election.
And I'll spit on any Black, Brown, Yellow, Red or Purple person who says otherwise.
Like Hillary Clinton, our nation is hurting.
But she rises, like a phoenix.
I think Maya Angelou wrote a poem about that -- or maybe it was Jewel.
I can't keep up with pop culture.
I mean, the last TV show I watched was THAT GIRL.
And to me, Judy Collins is cutting edge when it comes to music.
When you're four months from turning 83-years-old, like I am, you can't keep up with much of anything that's happened in the world since Jimmy Carter was president.
I'm so accomplished.
It's my job to educate young women.
Girls can be so dumb and hormonal, after all.
Girls are just so dumb, they're always thinking "where are the boys?" -- even the lesbians.
That's why they need me to straighten them out.
Appointing myself the leader of feminism is probably the smartest thing I ever did.
It certainly shut up that old Betty Friedan and her talk about my days with the CIA.
My past matters to me.
The CIA was very, very good to me.
Sometimes, I admit just how much I love them.
Sometimes, I remember that my CIA involvement hurts my credibility.
When that happens, I lie about it and, most recently, slam THE NEW YORK TIMES for noting I started out as "a CIA operative."
I'm just a tired old batty idiot.
I will continue to embarrass myself in public just as surely as I will continue to soil myself in public.
I am the self-imposed face of feminism because I will destroy anyone who tries to take my place.
I will be the self-declared leader until the day I die.
And it's that desperation factor that really allows me to relate to Hillary Clinton.
Go, Hillary, you go go girl!
Miss Priss Kenneth Roth
Kenneth Roth is supposed to be running Human Rights Watch.
You'd never know it from his weekend Tweets.
When he was interfering in a now closed US election, he was trashing Fidel Castro.
Best of all, he was offering his 'expertise' on healthcare.
ObamaCare is not a gift to anyone but the insurance companies -- delivering them a group of people forced to buy insurance.
If Kenneth Roth is concerned about healthcare, truly concerned, he'll stop justifying and propping up ObamaCare and instead insist upon Medicare for all.
You'd never know it from his weekend Tweets.
When he was interfering in a now closed US election, he was trashing Fidel Castro.
Best of all, he was offering his 'expertise' on healthcare.
Kenneth Roth
Rising mortality rate among Trump's core white working-class constituency will only mount if he guts Obamacare.
ObamaCare is not a gift to anyone but the insurance companies -- delivering them a group of people forced to buy insurance.
If Kenneth Roth is concerned about healthcare, truly concerned, he'll stop justifying and propping up ObamaCare and instead insist upon Medicare for all.
This edition's playlist
1) Alicia Keys' HERE.
2) Pretenders' ALONE.
3) Sam Smith's IN THE LONELY HOUR DROWNING SHADOW EDITION.
5) Janet Jackson's UNBREAKABLE.
6) Nick Jonas' LAST YEAR WAS COMPLICATED.
7) Ben Harper's CALL IT WHAT IT IS.
8) Carly Simon's ANOTHER PASSENGER.
9) Stevie Nick's 24 KARAT GOLD.
10) Animal Collective's CENTIPEDE HZ.
Fidel Castro (1926-2016)
This is a repost from Great Britain's SOCIALIST WORKER:
Fidel Castro 1926-2016
Fidel Castro (Pic: Marcelo Montecino/Creative Commons)
Six years later he was Cuba’s prime minister, and led its government for 49 years before formally standing down 2008.
History must judge him both as the freedom fighter whose defiance humiliated US imperialism and as the ruler of a repressive, unequal society.
Born in 1926, Castro grew up in a Cuba that was essentially a colony. Spanish rule had ended only in 1898, partly through the involvement of US troops who picked up where it left off.
The new Cuban constitution allowed the US to intervene whenever its interests were threatened. Guantanamo Bay was “leased” for a US base that still houses the world’s most notorious prison.
US firms bought up the bulk of Cuba’s land and underdeveloped its economy as a sugar plantation.
Cuba was part of a chain of US domination across Latin America. US firms pillaged its resources—from United Fruit turning Guatemala into a “Banana Republic” to the copper giants gouging the Chilean countryside and working thousands of miners to death.
Violence
That was backed up by the violence of US forces and the dictators they propped up, in what president Theodore Roosevelt had called the “Big Stick” policy.
Castro was part of a broad milieu of middle class student nationalists who resented this imperialism and fought it bravely. He focused on armed actions by necessarily small and conspiratorial groups.
His trial for the Moncada attack helped catapult him to the head of Cuba’s opposition. He named his organisation the 26 July movement after the attack’s date.
But it had involved just 140 people—and failed, leaving half of them dead and Castro in jail until an amnesty two years later.
The failures of other opposition forces helped make Castro’s methods seem the only game in town.
President Fulgencio Batista shut down the electoral process and parliamentary opposition in a 1951 coup.
Massive strikes and protests in 1933 had proved the power of Cuba’s working class. But the Communist Party had joined Batista’s first government, demobilised workers and discredited themselves for a generation of radicals.
Fidel Castro under arrest after the Moncada attack
There were other armed groups. But as Batista’s repression killed their leaders, Castro skilfully manoeuvred himself and the 26 July movement to their head.
Along with a boatload of Cuban exiles—and the Argentinian Ernesto “Che” Guevara—he launched an invasion from Mexico in November 1956, hoping that a mass uprising would greet them.
It didn’t, and most were killed. But the survivors began a long guerrilla war in Cuba’s mountains.
The support of the peasant population helped them win battles—and new recruits.
Opposition to Batista grew in Cuba’s cities, including general strikes and an election boycott. The increasingly hated regime also began to rot from within, and its US backers wavered.
Castro used the guerrillas’ prestige to secure his leadership of the opposition—and ensure that his army was the only organisation fit to take power when the regime fell.
This was a heroic fight. But it was nothing like a communist revolution as envisaged by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. They made it a central principle that “the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves”.
In Cuba’s revolution, Castro and his allies did all they could to limit workers’ role to supporting the guerrillas. In the jubilation after Batista’s fall in January 1959, workers did begin to radicalise—and Castro considered this a threat.
In February he complained that, “In working class rallies, banners and demands are put forward in the same tone that was used when there was a non-revolutionary government.
“The masses don’t realise this is their government. One gets the sensation that they still have in mind the idea that government and people are different things.”
Clamped
In little over a year he had clamped down on a reviving democracy inside the trade unions and seized the opposition press.
The new government enacted the land reforms it had promised peasants, while seeking a compromise with the US and the Cuban rich. Their intransigence forced it to radicalise.
The US armed right wing rebels, and threatened to stop buying Cuban sugar. US allies stopped selling Cuba arms and other vital supplies, leading it to buy from Russia. US-owned refineries refused to process Russian oil, so Castro nationalised them.
The trade embargo the US imposed created hardship for ordinary Cubans for decades. US agents carried out terror attacks that killed Cuban civilians.
The CIA under US president John F Kennedy even launched the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by right wing rebels.
Their raid in 1961 failed as spectacularly as Castro’s had five years earlier. But where he had galvanised opposition to Batista, the US’ outrageous moves galvanised support for Castro.
Castro will be condemned by ruling class hypocrites who hate him for exposing their weakness and refusing to be crushedThe world had already seen the brutal results of US-backed coups across Latin America, notably in Guatemala in 1954. To topple the reformer Jacobo Arbenz it bombed the capital and sent in troops.
A successful coup in Cuba might have looked more like what was to happen in Chile in 1973, when US-backed General Augusto Pinochet slaughtered thousands. Instead Cuba proved that the US could be beaten, just 50 miles off the US coast.
This was the context for Castro declaring socialism in December 1961—three years after taking power. There were two sides to his defiance.
On one hand Castro was taking a more strident anti-imperialist tone. He appealed to the poor across the Americas, and encouraged Guevara to “spread the revolution”.
He was later to send support and soldiers to the states in southern Africa fighting apartheid.
Fidel Castro on a visit to Washington in 1959
But in a world polarised by the Cold War, what Castro meant by socialism was more about aligning with one superpower to resist the other. An initially reluctant alliance with Soviet Russia became central to his rule.
This beat the CIA at the cost of becoming a pawn in the nuclear arms race. Cuba survived the US embargo by becoming a captive market for shoddy Eastern Bloc goods—and continuing its dependence on sugar exports.
The new Communist Party that Castro created in 1965 was a tool not of workers’ rebellion from below but of state control from above.
Many of the old Cuban rich had fled, but a new ruling class was forming based on state property—not workers’ power. This left the fundamentals of capitalist society untouched. Exploitation continued, as did the oppression that grew out of it.
Despite major gains in literacy, many Cubans still have bad housing conditions and low wages. This is especially true of the black Cubans who still face institutional racism and were hit hardest by the 1990s “special period” of economic crisis after the Soviet Union’s collapse.
The state’s success in developing health care is rightly celebrated. But it is used more for foreign policy—sending doctors to Venezuela in exchange for oil, for example—than provision for the poor.
Abortion wasn’t fully decriminalised until 1979. Domestic violence remained tacitly accepted. Even today, lack of opportunities drives many women to the sex work that is a major part of Cuba’s tourism industry.
Castro persecuted LGBT people horrifically, with mass arrests, forced labour camps for “deviants” and special education for boys judged effeminate. It culminated in the expulsion of up to 10,000 gays and lesbians from 1980.
Thaw
Castro’s retirement—and a thaw in relations with the US—was an opportunity for his successors to further his retreat from Cold War state capitalism towards a market-based model.
They hope to follow China in opening up to big profits while continuing to repress opposition. If they succeed, like China’s rulers they may find that economic growth brings a bigger and potentially bolder working class.
It is with those workers that any hope for real socialism in Cuba lies.
Castro will be condemned by ruling class hypocrites who hate him for exposing their weakness and refusing to be crushed.
He will be called a murderous tyrant by those who backed Pinochet’s fascist coup and prop up the brutal Saudi regime today.
He made them tremble, and gave encouragement to rebels and anti-imperialists across the world. It was right to support his resistance to the US’ attempts at revenge.
But he cannot be absolved of abusing the idea of communism to rule over a capitalist society.
The socialism he claimed to represent is as important as ever—but making it a reality means workers’ self-activity, not state control from above.
Standing Rock Tweets
- Please sign petition and call President Obama. Stand With Standing Rock concert | Sunday 11.27.16 at 7PM ET
- Anyone who thinks capitalism is not enforced by the gun need look no further than Standing Rock #NoDAPL
- Just noting that the Army's eviction date for Standing Rock--Dec. 5--happens to be Custer's birthday. The more things change... #NoDAPL
- Feds 2 push Standing Rock protesters into "free speech zones": not free & not speech when no media there 2 hear them
- Thousands of veterans are traveling to North Dakota to support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
- Tonight I acknowledge all the beautiful brave young mothers at #OcetiSakowin #StandingRock & #StandInSolidarity with #NoDAPL. #MniWiconi
- Please share: Where is the Environmental Impact Statement on the #DAPL ? Explain Nationwide Permit 12? #NoDapl #StandingRock #WaterIsLife
- Canadians to start blockades of Pipelines and railways in support of #NoDAPL http://globalnews.ca/news/3090998/dakota-access-protest-may-get-canadian-boost-with-pipeline-blockades-manitoba-chief/ … #DAPL #StandingRock @ShaileneWoodley
- There is a reason why cops at #StandingRock don't wear bodycams Join Us & Help Police The Police
- Total silence as water protectors pray on the bridge illegally blockaded by militarized police. #NoDAPL #standingrock
- Right now. Water protectors sitting in on bridge in front of militarized police. #standingrock #nodapl #Peace
- On the front lines of Standing Rock 2day my phone's video/cam capabilities was obv getting interfered w by a 3rd party (yet again).
- 'We’re Not Going to Go to War': The Chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Preaches Peace and Patience http://www.vice.com/read/interview-standing-rock-sioux-chairman … via @vice
- Your support for #StandingRock and #NoDAPL is greatly appreciated. If you plan to go to #SacredStone or #OcetiSakowin camps... Please read:
- Nurses to @LorettaLynch: Protect the rights & health of #StandingRock Sioux, water protectors http://bit.ly/2fopeai #NoDAPL #sundayfunday
- People From All Over The World Raised Almost A Half A Million Dollars To Help 1500 Veterans Get To Standing Rock! #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife
- All Power to the People! #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #IStandWithStandingRock DC Rally at Washington Monument #standingrock
- Just arrived back in DC from #standingrock and what a wonderful sight at the National Monument for #NoDAPL rally
- .@LaurenJauregui is raising awareness for #StandingRock. Here's why you should too #NoDAPL http://www.maximumpop.co.uk/lauren-jauregui-standing-rock/ …
- "We are the wardens of the land.The treaties need to be respected" yesterday's defiant press conference. #Standingrock not leaving main camp
- Out here in Standing rock serving as a street medic, and I want to share some tips w/folks a/b prepping/dealing with chemical warfare...
- Some estimates say there are now 10,000 people in & around #StandingRock, joining in support. #KeepFighting #NoDAPL
- Arrests of journalists at Standing Rock test the boundaries of the First Amendment https://interc.pt/2gzb3ht by @AlleenBrown
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