Date: Sat, 24 Aug 1996 10:13:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: Rum do's in the beast's back yard


On Sat, 24 Aug 1996, Hugh Rodwell wrote:

> Let's look at Cuba, point by point:
> 
> 
> * Economic situation in Cuba: up shit creek without a paddle (cf 1a).
> 


Louis: This is a bald assertion without any supporting data. Do you
have figures on Cuba's economic growth in this general period? "Up shit
creek without a paddle?" Did Trotsky ever write this way? (Trotsky, you
know, the deceased goateed Russian revolutionary.)


> * Voluntaristically (non)planned,
> 


Louis: I posted a lengthy article on Che Guevara's approach to planning.
What exactly was missing in his approach that can be found in the
Bolshevik Age of Titans whose temple you worship at.


> * non-centralized objectives rule,
> 


Louis: Yes, you have to watch out for those "non-centalized objectives".
Is this something like "problematized hermeneutics"?


> * reinforced by non-statistics.


Louis: "Non-statistics"? Hmmm, love to hear more about this. Did you read
this somewhere or just decide to type it, thinking it would sound
impressive.


> 
> * 'Micro-faction' expulsions of 1967 get up Moscow's nose,
> 


Louis: Notice Hugh's probing analysis of the politics of the expulsion.
Notice his careful attention to Castro's speech explaining the expulsion.
Such Marxist scholarship would turn Isaac Deutscher green with envy.


> * this spring has come to be known as the Prague spring,
> 
> * things were happening everywhere
> 
> * Poor Che [he was a wonderful bloke, and how!] was dead in Bolivia,
> 


Louis: These three points are staggering in their emptyheadedness. Did you
get trained to speak such banalities in an cadre training school in the
Pampas or did you always have it in you?


> * voluntaristically trying to create a hundred new Vietnams
> 


Louis: Actually, he was trying to create one new Vietnam in Bolivia. It
was the worst mistake of his life.

> 
> * 'Shaft the workers of the world, Fidel me old sugarlump, [= Comandante
> Castro,
>   help us crush this worldwide revolutionary upsurge]
> 


Louis: This certainly does explain the Cuban army's willingness to assist
the imperialist project in Southern Africa. There must have been something
that was fiendishly complicated from dialectistical standpoint to explain
the Cuba-Afrikaner conflict. Must have been a subtle Stalinist ruse.
Anti-imperialism on the face of it; class-collaboration underneath the
service. Of course, since Rodwell thinks the ANC is Stalinoid as well, who
knows. I would love to engage the miscreant Rodwell in a discussion of
African politics as well. His knowledge in this area is probably scantier
than his knowledge of Central and Latin America.

Recommendation: If you want to learn how to utter unsubstantiated
rhetorical hot-air balloons, just get in touch with Hugh Rodwell. This is
what Trotskyism has come to: Rodwell's sterile phrase-mongering and
Malecki's ritual incantations for Trotskyist parties everywhere or else.



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