Cuba is one thing but how is it relevant to current solidarity to stake out a position on whether or not a political system that has not even nominally existed for nearly three decades was or was not true socialism? The decisions of the various actors over the course of Soviet history were products of the material conditions of a time and place that no longer exists, conditions that in most respects are entirely unlike those of the present-day United States. I don't understand why people feel the need to have endless struggle sessions about people and events and decisions that bear such little resemblance to the situations they actually face.
Whether you like it or not, the USSR is the face of socialism. You can deal with this by trying to detach the USSR from socialism, or by defending the USSR from the propaganda and smears that have shaped western perceptions of it. You don’t have the luxury of ignoring it, although every ultra and radlib wishes they could.
Cuba is one thing but how is it relevant to current solidarity to stake out a position on whether or not a political system that has not even nominally existed for nearly three decades was or was not true socialism? The decisions of the various actors over the course of Soviet history were products of the material conditions of a time and place that no longer exists, conditions that in most respects are entirely unlike those of the present-day United States. I don't understand why people feel the need to have endless struggle sessions about people and events and decisions that bear such little resemblance to the situations they actually face.
Whether you like it or not, the USSR is the face of socialism. You can deal with this by trying to detach the USSR from socialism, or by defending the USSR from the propaganda and smears that have shaped western perceptions of it. You don’t have the luxury of ignoring it, although every ultra and radlib wishes they could.