Fidel again on the nuclear war nobody is talking about

Knowing the Truth in Time - CubaDebate (español)

Fidel Castro Ruz

Translation: Machetera

When writing each one of my previous Reflections, while a catastrophe for humanity is rapidly approaching, my greatest concern has been to perform the basic duty of informing our people.

Today I’m calmer than I’ve been for 26 days.  As things continue to happen at short notice, I can reiterate and add to the reports presented to Cuban and international opinion.

Obama has promised to attend the World Cup quarter-finals on July 2^nd, if his country advances from the second round.  He should know better than anyone that these quarter-finals may not take place since very serious events will take place before then, or at least he ought to know that.

On Friday, June 25^th, an international news agency known for its close attention to detail in its reports, published the declarations of the “…commander of the elite Navy corps of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, General Ali Fadavi…” warning “…that if the United States and its allies inspect Iranian ships in international waters, ‘they will receive a response in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.’”

Fidel sketches the rapidly approaching world war

The English translation of Fidel’s reflection released by Granma International today  contains an unfortunate error.  The Spanish original says:

El Sha de Irán había sido derrocado por el Ayatollah Ruhollah Jomeini en 1979 sin emplear un arma. Estados Unidos le impuso después la guerra a aquella nación con el empleo de armas químicas, cuyos componentes suministró a Irak junto a la información requerida por sus unidades de combate y que fueron empleadas por estas contra los Guardianes de la Revolución.

This was translated as:

The Shah of Iran had been defeated by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 without using a single weapon. The United States imposed the Shah after the war on that nation with the use of chemical weapons, whose components it supplied to Iraq together with the information needed by its combat units and which were deployed by them against the Revolutionary Guards.

What was imposed on Iran as punishment for tossing out the Shah was not the Shah again, but a chemical war.  In addition to correcting this error, I have taken the opportunity to edit the rest of the piece for the sake of readability.

The Battle of Copenhagen

An alternate English translation of President Hugo Chávez’s speech about the climate summit in Copenhagen, by the wonderfully talented translator & Tlaxcala member, David Brookbank.

“The Battle of Copenhagen” - Español

Copenhagen was the scene of a historic battle in the context of the 15^th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.  Better said: In the beautiful and snow-covered capital of Denmark, a battle began which did not end on December 18, 2009.  I want to reiterate: Copenhagen was only the beginning of the decisive battle for the salvation of the planet.  A battle on the field of ideas and of praxis.

The Brazilian Leonardo Boff, the great liberation theologian and one of the most authoritative voices on the subject of ecology, in an essential article entitled, What is at stake in Copenhagen, penned these insightful and courageous words:  “What can we hope for from Copenhagen?  Perhaps just this simple confession: We cannot continue the way we are going.  And this simple proposition:  We are going to change course.”

Proof positive

“The Russian Revolution was the tangible proof needed by the earth’s damned, to be sure that Marx’s dream was not an illusion” - Español

An interview with Spanish writer Manuel Talens on the 92nd anniversary of the October Revolution

By Salvador López Arnal

English translation: Machetera

From its first day, the October Revolution was a reference point for the international and internationalist labor movement as well as the socialist organizations that hadn’t surrendered in the face of the militarism and longings for conquest demonstrated by the powerful of the earth. It was also a celebrated reference point. The acts that were organized in homage to that glorious date, November 7th, are still remembered by many revolutionary fighters. Since the disintegration of the USSR, since the savage capitalist counterrevolution’s victory in the land of Gorky and Mayakovsky, even here, at this red website, forgetfulness lives, an unjust and suicidal forgetfulness. To remember this date, to speak about the meaning of that socialist revolution, we conversed with Spanish writer, scientist, translator and militant Manuel Talens.

Allan McDonald on Obama’s prize

For more about Wendy Elizabeth Ávila, see Avi Lewis’s report for Faultlines, embedded at the end of this post.

Wendy and Obama - Español

Peace as a medal rather than a principle

By Allan McDonald

English translation: Machetera

Wendy Elizabeth Ávila was born in Tegucigalpa on June 28, 1985, under a rain of melancholy ashes.

Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961, under a carnival of Asiatic colors.

Wendy went to a public school, poor, like her comrades, and in her arms she always carried notebooks with the word “hope” written in upper case.

Obama went to the prestigious Harvard Law School with its hors d’oeuvres enriched by the protein of the judiciary.

Wendy grew up with an open smile, fresh with dreams.

Obama grew up in the mists of greed and public lies.

Atilio Boron on Obama’s prize

Consolation Prize (Amended)*- Español

By Atilio A. Boron

English translation: Machetera

In an astonishing decision, the Norwegian Nobel Committee put an end to seven months of searching among the 205 nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize and conferred it upon Barack Obama.   Piedad Córdoba, the brave Colombian senator whose efforts in search of peace for her violence-ridden country largely deserved to be rewarded with the Nobel Prize was tossed to the wayside so that it might be granted to the American president. It is not a minor surprise to know that Obama’s nomination was submitted to the Norwegian Committee two months after his inauguration. What did he do in such a short period of time on behalf of the world peace? He delivered gentle speeches and made rather nebulous exhortations to end violent confrontations. The Colombian senator, on the other hand, has spent the last ten years in a tireless effort to put an end to armed struggle and to pacify her country. She put her own body and her actions on the line. But the Norwegian Committee did not share this appreciation and Piedad was once again passed over. A woman, black, leftist, and Latin American: too many flaws and defects for the cautious members of the Committee, always politically correct, forever sanctimonious, who only by mistake would it confer the prize upon a public figure whose struggles for peace were unacceptable to the empire. The Dalai Lama is acceptable; Piedad Córdoba is not. For him, the Prize; for her, the cold shoulder.

Evo Morales rocks Leganés

Evo Morales Closes an Old Wound – The Bolivian President’s Speech at Leganés, Spain

Introduction by Manuel Talens – English translation by Machetera

In chapter XVII of the Historia General de las Indias (1554) [General History of the Indies], the cleric Francisco López de Gómara described how when Christopher Columbus returned from the continent that years later would be named America, he went from Palos to Barcelona, where the Catholic Kings could be found. “Although the road was long and filled with obstacles, he was very honored and well-known, because they came to see him for having discovered another world and having brought great wealth from there as well as new kinds and colors of differently dressed men.” Just six of those men, strangers to old Europe, had survived the voyage. “The six Indians were baptized, since the others didn’t make it to the court; and the king, the queen and the prince, don Juan, their son, were the godparents, personally authorizing Christ’s sanctified baptism for those first Christians from the Indies and the New World.”

These events took place in March, 1493, exactly 516 years and five months ago, the same period of time it took for a descendant of those unhappy human beings to repeat the same voyage, this time to undo the damage, and this time not as a voiceless captive, but as an articulate president of a republic that at last, has broken the last bonds of colonialism. Evo Morales, an indigenous Bolivian Aymaran, has returned the blow to the stepmother homeland, in the name of all his brothers who suffered and continue to suffer the latest consequences of that enterprise. That is, he has returned it without rancor, with arms extended, yet speaking the truth loudly and clearly before five thousand Latin Americans from practically all the republics and a good handful of Spanish enthusiasts as well. The place chosen for the speech was clearly symbolic: Leganés is not the court of aristocrats giving cover to the rancid monarchy which still rules in Spain, but a crowded working class city of 200,000, situated within Madrid’s industrial belt. Last Sunday, September 13^th, the municipality of Leganés made its modern bullring– La Cubierta – available to the Aymaran leader, so that he might speak as he wished. And speak he did; in a tone that was always respectful, but firm.

High noon at the socialist corral

Governmental Reorganization in Cuba and the Solidarity Shootout

By Ángeles Diez (and Eduardo Hernández)

English translation by Ana Atienza, revised by Machetera

The ministerial reorganization in the Cuban government, Fidel Castro’s letter explaining the reasons for such changes, and the publication of self-inculpatory letters from two significant officials belonging to the political leadership of the country have triggered a blind shootout within the Cuba solidarity movement which should be analyzed in order to avoid what has come to be usual practice in the European left: permanent atomization around superficial issues and the rejection of reflection and debate.

In this article we have summarized the general opinions taken from multiple published articles and opinion pieces from different sectors: What had happened? What was behind those changes? Why was nothing reported? These questions were not made solely by groups close to the Revolution, but also by those clearly against it. Surprisingly enough, such confusion has placed all of us in the same space: the void which, as we all know, relentlessly tends to be filled with value judgments. And that’s where we’ve engaged, some for the better, some for the worse.

Cuban institutions have not tackled this confusion, nor did they take the time to fill that void. But, should they have? The only certainty is that accomplished facts have been the only available explanation, thus leading to proliferation of the most surprising and contradictory hypotheses, thus resulting in a new fragmentation of solidarity.

Where do we go from here?

This paper presented by Atilio Borón in Havana in early March of this year caught Fidel’s attention and he both referenced it in his reflection, “A meeting that was worth it” and invited Borón to meet with him to discuss these ideas further (more on that, later).  Tlaxcala has prepared the first English translation of Borón’s paper in its entirety – this is the updated and expanded version.

From Infinite War to Infinite Crisis

Some thoughts on the current capitalist crisis, its probable “solutions” and the role that a socialist option might play in the present juncture

Author: Atilio Borón*

Translated by Machetera, Scott Campbell, Christine Lewis Carroll and Manuel Talens

After September 11, 2001, George W. Bush declared “Infinite War” against terrorism, a war without end and one that would not be constrained by geography or time limits of any kind.  This policy is not only wrong, but immoral, and failed: upon leaving the White House, his legacy was a world more violent and insecure than before.  His administration also left as an inheritance a true economic and financial tsunami on a global scale: an “infinite crisis” whose reach defies our imagination. In the following pages, we would like to share some ideas about the current capitalist crisis, its probable “solutions” and the role that a renewed socialist option might play in the present juncture. Given time restrictions we’ll avoid unnecessary technical jargon and will try to express things plainly, yet without resorting to oversimplifications.

1. Let’s begin by characterizing this crisis in the negative form by saying what this crisis is not. This matters because the media bombardment to which our societies are subjected presents economists and establishment publicists talking about a “financial crisis” or a “banking crisis.” Shortly before, it was not even that. It was said that we were experiencing a “sub-prime” mortgage crisis. This was a way of minimizing the crisis, of underestimating it, presenting it to the public as a relatively minor incident in the dynamics of the markets, and that in no way did it question the health and viability of capitalism as a supposed “natural way” of organizing economic life. The passing of time has demolished all these fallacies.

Terrorists and the terrorized

Paid Solidarity

Santiago Alba Rico

Translation: Manuel Talens – Revised by Machetera

Is it possible to show interest in the pain of a man who is not a relative, of a boy we did not raise, of a woman we never loved? Is it possible to choose as equal an unequal distant human being or to choose as a kindred a remote foreigner? There is a sociological explanation for both hostility and indifference but perhaps there is none for this glowing crystallization of uncontainable sympathies that through their very chemical composition precipitate an intervention in the world.

We usually call “solidarity” – or maybe we should call it – the armed hand of compassion, the solidification of commitment: the act of freely choosing other people’s needs, of voluntarily suppressing the very conditions that allow this act of freedom once one has been shaken by the pain or been contaminated by the idea of a stranger. The active compassion Todorov identifies with the “morality of sympathy” finds its highest expression in the absurd and luminous decision of solidarity suicides who – not being able to bear the suffering of the Jews – jumped with them into the livestock wagons which were driven to the concentration camps.