Comments on: With Venezuela…in My Heart http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=21265 open-minded writing from Cuba Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:30:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=9666 By: sam from calihttp://www.havanatimes.org/?p=21265&cpage=1#comment-6187 sam from cali Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:46:32 +0000 http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=21265#comment-6187 You seem to really like that coop model :P I agree it's a good idea, but it's not a universal response for all of our problems. It seems to me that Communism should allow many different types of ownership if it wants to be efficient. State ownership in itself isn't bad, it's lack of transparency and public decision making that doesn't work. State socialism is also only meant to be a median step towards a more democratic, open economy. I don't think Marx ever had Stalinism in mind. You seem to really like that coop model :P I agree it’s a good idea, but it’s not a universal response for all of our problems. It seems to me that Communism should allow many different types of ownership if it wants to be efficient. State ownership in itself isn’t bad, it’s lack of transparency and public decision making that doesn’t work. State socialism is also only meant to be a median step towards a more democratic, open economy. I don’t think Marx ever had Stalinism in mind.

]]> By: Grady Ross Daughertyhttp://www.havanatimes.org/?p=21265&cpage=1#comment-6120 Grady Ross Daugherty Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:59:20 +0000 http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=21265#comment-6120 The problem in Venezuela is not the authoritarianism of which you speak. It's that the means of production are remaining mainly in the hands of the bourgeoisie--or so it appears. If this is the case, then Hugo's Socialism is merely a South American version of European Social Democracy.Bourgeois thinkers asserted long ago that the institution of private property was the only power in society capable of withstanding the raw power of the state, to keep it from becoming tyrannical. PJ Proudhon, as he matured and gained experience with actual revolution, came to agree. He went a critical step further however and argued that this property must be owned by those who do society's work: the industrial workers in the cities and the peasants in the countryside.Socialism for the 21st Century should become mainly employee-owned cooperative corporations on the Monndragon model, w/ partial state ownership to avoid tax-based government. This would be workable socialism. The problem in Venezuela is not the authoritarianism of which you speak. It’s that the means of production are remaining mainly in the hands of the bourgeoisie–or so it appears. If this is the case, then Hugo’s Socialism is merely a South American version of European Social Democracy.

Bourgeois thinkers asserted long ago that the institution of private property was the only power in society capable of withstanding the raw power of the state, to keep it from becoming tyrannical. PJ Proudhon, as he matured and gained experience with actual revolution, came to agree. He went a critical step further however and argued that this property must be owned by those who do society’s work: the industrial workers in the cities and the peasants in the countryside.

Socialism for the 21st Century should become mainly employee-owned cooperative corporations on the Monndragon model, w/ partial state ownership to avoid tax-based government. This would be workable socialism.

]]> By: Cort Greenehttp://www.havanatimes.org/?p=21265&cpage=1#comment-6118 Cort Greene Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:27:04 +0000 http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=21265#comment-6118 While there is some truth to this and I have done a lot of solidarity work in 10 years also in the US, at a great cost in lost of jobs, time,friends and my health I am not willing to give up on the revolution either in Cuba nor in Venezuela where the battle against a corrupt and inept bureaucracy is not lost. The masses are still moving and fighting and to para-phrase comrade Trotsky "As long as there is Life there is Hope."All of us have to re-double our efforts and fight for real socialism, from the grassroots and workers control, to give up means death for the planet, humankind and socialism.Fight till your last breath! We have a World to Win!Rojo Rojito Cort While there is some truth to this and I have done a lot of solidarity work in 10 years also in the US, at a great cost in lost of jobs, time,friends and my health I am not willing to give up on the revolution either in Cuba nor in Venezuela where the battle against a corrupt and inept bureaucracy is not lost. The masses are still moving and fighting and to para-phrase comrade Trotsky “As long as there is Life there is Hope.”

All of us have to re-double our efforts and fight for real socialism, from the grassroots and workers control, to give up means death for the planet, humankind and socialism.

Fight till your last breath! We have a World to Win!

Rojo Rojito
Cort

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