Word: castros
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...both translated from French, Guerrillas in Power by K. S. Karol and Cuba: Socialism and Development by Rene Dumont, provide seriously interested readers with the most thorough studies of Cuba's revolutionary problems. Although sympathetic to the ideals of the Cuban revolution, both Dumont and Karol remain pessimistic about Castro's leadership...
These books raise significant questions: What was the relationship of Castro's non-communist July 26th Movement to the Socialist Party, PSP, and why was the Marxist orthodoxy in a back-seat position? Because Cuba's soil is so fertile, the island must have faced serious economic difficulty to make rationing a continuous part of revolutionary existence there. One must also examine present Russo-Cuban relations and its connections with the Cuban's attempt to export their revolution to Latin America...
Karol persuasively discusses these political problems and other decisions the Cubans have faced. Although the depth of his analysis cannot be disputed, his book gives no clear picture of the people's daily lives. While Karol criticizes Castro for not restructuring the social relationships, Karol, himself, neglects to delve into the nature of these problems. He only hints, for example, that education and male-female roles are still very backward. That these relationships have survived the revolution indicates some serious misjudgment in priorities...
Because of Castro's gangster connections, the middle-class democrats of Havana (lawyers, doctors and merchants) consistently underrated him, believing that nobody would flock to such a banner. When their own children did just that, they at least half believed Castro's protestations in his mountain redoubt that he was just another liberal like themselves. Castro cleverly avoided tests of arms with Batista, correctly perceiving, as Thomas puts it, that he was conducting not primarily guerrilla warfare but rather "a political campaign in a tyranny, with the campaigner being defended by armed...
Socialist Shoe Heels. By 1959, the Cuban worker had attained a standard of living equal to that of the U.S. worker in 1941-42. But Cuba's position as a U.S. partner, however profitable, was becoming emotionally intolerable not only to Castro but to masses of Cubans. "To choose to be free meant for many Cubans," says Thomas, "and above all for Castro, to act in a way most calculated to anger the U.S." Thomas agrees with those observers who say that it was no fondness for Communism but a galloping hatred of American power that led Castro toward...