In 1991, in the context of the destruction of the Soviet Union (Cuba’s largest trading partner), with neighbors salivating at the prospect of capitalist restoration, a Mexican journalist asked Fidel Castro, “why do you not allow the organization of people who think differently, or open up space for political freedom?” He answers frankly:
We’ve endured over thirty years of hostility, over thirty years of war in all its forms — among them the brutal economic blockade that stops us from purchasing a single aspirin in the United States. It’s incredible that when there’s talk of human rights, not a single word is said about the brutal violation this constitutes for the human rights of an entire people, the economic blockade of the United States to impede Cuba’s development. The revolution polarized forces: those who were for it and those who, along with the United States, were against it. And really, I say this with the utmost sincerity, and I believe it’s consistent with the facts on the ground, but while such realities persist, we cannot give the enemy any quarter for them to carry out their historical task of destroying the revolution.
(This implies, for example, that political dissidence will not have a space in Cuba?)
If it’s a pro-Yankee dissidence, it will have no space. But there are many people who think differently in Cuba and are respected. Now, the creation of all the conditions for a party of imperialism? That does not exist, and we will never allow it. [8]
As far as I can tell, on this score, there’s only two main differences between Fidel Castro and Western leadership. The first is that he stands for anti-imperialism and socialism, and they for imperialism and capitalism. And the other is that he’s honest about what Cuba does and why, whereas capitalist states brutally crush communist organization with mass-murder and imprisonment — COINTELPRO, Operation Cóndor, Operation Gladio, etc. — then simply lie about embracing plurality. Just think here about the notion of white North Americans celebrating “Thanksgiving.”
And I tend to think that this is, in the final analysis, the crux of the matter. The question of “free press” and “free speech” is not separable from the question of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie versus the dictatorship of the proletariat. The idea of “political plurality” as such turns out to be the negation of the possibility of achieving any kind of truth in the realm of politics, it reduces all historical and value claims to the rank of mere opinion. And of course, so long as someone’s political convictions are mere opinion, they won’t rise to defend them. And so the liberal state remains the dictatorial organ of the bourgeoisie, with roads being built or legislation being passed only as commanded by the interests of capital, completely disregarding the interests of workers. Under regimes where political plurality is falsely upheld as a supreme virtue, the very notion of asserting oneself as possessing a truth appears aggressive and “authoritarian.”
Every socialist government that has been unable or unwilling to silence the opposition has been brutally crushed. It is no surprise that the opposition in these countries is always sponsored by the United States.
This was another very difficult question I had to ask my interview subjects,
especially the leftists from Southeast Asia and Latin America. When we
would get to discussing the old debates between peaceful and armed
revolution; between hardline Marxism and democratic socialism, I would
ask: “Who was right?”
In Guatemala, was it Árbenz or Che who had the right approach? Or in
Indonesia, when Mao warned Aidit that the PKI should arm themselves,
and they did not? In Chile, was it the young revolutionaries in the MIR
who were right in those college debates, or the more disciplined,
moderate Chilean Communist Party?
Most of the people I spoke with who were politically involved back
then believed fervently in a nonviolent approach, in gradual, peaceful,
democratic change. They often had no love for the systems set up by
people like Mao. But they knew that their side had lost the debate,
because so many of their friends were dead. They often admitted, without
hesitation or pleasure, that the hardliners had been right. Aidit’s
unarmed party didn’t survive. Allende’s democratic socialism was not
allowed, regardless of the détente between the Soviets and Washington.
Looking at it this way, the major losers of the twentieth century
were those who believed too sincerely in the existence of a liberal
international order, those who trusted too much in democracy, or too
much in what the United States said it supported, rather than what it
really supported – what the rich countries said, rather than what they
did.
from https://redsails.org/brainwashing/
Every socialist government that has been unable or unwilling to silence the opposition has been brutally crushed. It is no surprise that the opposition in these countries is always sponsored by the United States.
—Vincent Bevins, The Jakarta Method