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» Can the Working Class Change the
World? A Turn for the Worse in the United
States: Criminalizing Dissent Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on the Failure of the Peace Talks in Nepal Remembering W.E.B. Du Bois Fidel Castro: May Day Rally
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September 2004, Volume 56 — Number 4 c o n t
e n t s The nations of the Caribbean have the
world's second highest HIV infection rates, after sub-Saharan Africa. One
Caribbean nation, Cuba, however, has largely escaped the disease with only a
0.07 percent infection rate, one of the lowest infection rates in the world. On
July 15 Cuba announced at a meeting with its counterparts from the 15-nation
Caribbean Community (Caricom) that it was launching an initiative to help the
other Caribbean nations fight HIV/AIDS by providing them with antiretroviral
drugs at below market prices, as well as doctors and instruction in public
health methods for combating the AIDS pandemic. Cuba's offer to help is viewed
as nothing less than "spectacular" by the other Caribbean
nations. REVIEW
OF THE MONTH On June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered a commencement address at American University in Washington, D.C., in which he declared that the peace that the United States sought was "not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war." His remarks were a response to criticisms of the United States advanced in a recently published Soviet text on military strategy. Kennedy dismissed the charge that "American imperialist circles" were "preparing to unleash different kinds of wars" including "preventative war." The Soviet text, he pointed out, had stated, "The political aims of American imperialists were and still are to enslave economically and politically the European and other capitalist countries and, after the latter are transformed into obedient tools, to unify them in various military-political blocs and groups directed against the socialist countries. The main aim of all this is to achieve world domination." In Kennedy's words, these were "wholly baseless and incredible claims," the work of Marxist "propagandists." "The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war."* Referendum and Revolution in
Venezuela The following interview of Michael Lebowitz, a long-time friend of MR now residing in Venezuela where he has been a close observer and commentator on that country’s Bolivarian Revolution, originally appeared in shorter form on the Seven Oaks Web site, www.SevenOaksMag.com. It was conducted prior to the August 15 referendum-election on the presidency of Hugo Chavez. Our printing schedule makes it impossible to provide in this issue any discussion of the outcome of the election, which has not yet taken place as we go to press. But we wanted to offer MR readers this interview, which provides the context in which to judge the election results. We will be providing a full assessment of the Venezuelan election in an upcoming issue.—The Editors. Argentina: Program
for a Popular Economic Recovery In 1976, a military dictatorship seized control of Argentina. A period of terror swept the land as 30,000 people were “disappeared.” The dictatorship, with the support of the United States, opened the doors to neoliberal policies, undermining the import substitution programs that had supported an industrial base in the 1960s. The external debt reached $35.7 billion by 1981, primarily as a result of borrowing by the private sector. In these pages in April 2002 (http://www.monthlyreview.org /0402halevi.htm) Joseph Halevi explained that in an attempt to attract more capital from abroad the military dictatorship absorbed the external private debt into the public debt, placing the burden on the lives of the poor. This action was eagerly supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and deepened the relationship between multinationals, financial capital, and local business elites. The socialization of the debt continued even after the end of the dictatorship. The debt burden became a permanent problem, and inflation plagued the country. Haiti
Matters! Arriving at the Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince on the eve of the new year, 2004, the bicentennial of Haiti’s independence, tension was thick in the air. Street violence was mounting but still mostly under control. Clashes took place between opposition demonstrators and police or between anti- and pro-Aristide forces. Since the hotel is near the university and its hospital, we witnessed several groups of 100 to 200 anti-Aristide student demonstrators jogging in cadence toward police with signs and banners shouting slogans—A bas Aristide! Down with Aristide! Since my previous trip in June, anti-Aristide slogans had blossomed in some areas of Port-au- Prince, while pro-Aristide graffiti retained its hold in the poorest districts, smaller towns, and rural areas. Our visit to the towns of Fondwa and Jacmel in the south was eventful in the normal Haitian way, but peaceful. Back in the capital, at the end of our five-day trip up-country, cars were being torched, boulders rolled on roads, and gas stations and banks closed in antigovernment actions. Encounters with
Che We think the following letter, written to the daughter of long-time friends, will be of interest to our readers.—The Editors. Dear Camila, I hope you won't mind that Mike sent me a copy of your e-mail. I write for two purposes. First, to express my appreciation for your comments on my recent article. Second, to avoid misconceptions about my contacts with Che Guevara. My wife, Beadie, and I grabbed our first opportunity to breathe the revolution … On the Role of Mao
Zedong In 1995 a foreign reporter interviewed me about Mao. She sought me out as someone who had met the man in person and openly admired him over the years. She asked, “What about all the people he killed? What about all those famine deaths? And what about all the suffering and destruction of people in the Cultural Revolution?” With these questions she lined herself up with the current media line on Mao, the line of conventional wisdom, which is to present him as a monster—Mao, the monster. The usually more enlightened BBC reached a new low that week with their Mao centenary program. It made him out to be not only a monster but also a monstrous lecher far gone into orgies with teenage girls. Such a low level of attack! It cheapened the BBC and should have backfired, but you never can tell these days. POETRY In your name, we have invaded BOOK
REVIEW A review of Into the Fire: American Women in the Spanish Civil War, a documentary directed and produced by Judith Newman. |
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Paul M. Sweezy (1910-2004) ·
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