The entire article is very good and gives a solid reasoning (for baby leftists, not anyone here) of why we need to support Cuba. It also highlights the weakness of both the DSA and the DSA IC from within that allowed this to happen + the steps they need to take. Give it a read. (The more I read stuff like this plus the history of real movements I realize why things like DemCent and other hardline ML things are needed but that’s not a discussion for here).
I’m highlighting just the parts relevant to the title.
Multiple delegates chose to skip out on parts of the programming, including declining to meet with the president of Cuba, who held a frank conversation with the delegates who did attend for more than two hours.
Throughout the trip, members of the delegation from the Reform & Revolution Caucus (R&R) and the Socialist Majority Caucus (SMC) criticized the Cuban government both to our Cuban hosts and other DSA members, and skipped out on multiple delegation events. Most shamefully, both Maria (representing R&R) and Renée (representing SMC, and a member of the current NPC) skipped out on meeting with President Díaz-Canel, who spent more than 2 hours in a frank discussion specifically addressing the critiques these very same DSA members brought up to their Cuban hosts earlier on the trip. This means that the Cuban hosts were listening thoughtfully to the critiques and relayed them back to the President. That our Cuban comrades would care this deeply and thoroughly about our critiques is a sign that they honor us as equals and truly want to make ties with U.S. socialists, as relatively powerless as we are.
Maria in particular met with anti-government opposition groups while on delegation, which when taken together with the fact of her skipping the meeting with the comrade President suggests a goal of undermining the Cuban socialist state, not defending it against U.S. imperialism. Furthermore, R&R declined to follow what few guidelines the International Committee offered around discussion of the trip after returning. Delegates were instructed to keep news of the conversation with President Díaz-Canel private until an official reportback; R&R decided instead to discuss this at their caucus panel, pre-empting the official reportback.
Maria in particular met with anti-government opposition groups…
Imagine going all the way to Cuba just to talk to the CIA… smdh
skipped out on meeting with President Díaz-Canel, who spent more than 2 hours in a frank discussion specifically addressing the critiques these very same DSA members brought up to their Cuban hosts earlier on the trip.
Admire Canel’s patience to put up with the kind of freak that takes the opportunity of going to Cuba to backseat actual socialists. Same energy as the Weather Underground being petitioned by the Viet Minh to build a broad movement and focus on bringing along the masses, but our audacious white saviours know better than that: we must build a perfect party of 14 people instead.
Raúl Castro managed to find literally the gentlest person in the entirety of Cuba to succeed him.
Or, more likely, after decades of dealing with the US, they know what to expect, even from the “socialists”.
A recently stumbled upon some article (Wikipedia?) that listed some of the things WU did and I thought they sounded cool as hell.
I didn’t look into it further and now I’m sad
Don’t let that one misguided decision dissuade you, things aren’t so black and white. They were mostly pretty cool, I’d recommend you watch this doc if you’re interested in the history of that sort of group.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Why do these anarcho-bidenists get to go to Cuba and not me.
It really is amazing that they’re given any time at all. Shit, even the Japanese Communist Party would result in more than this.
Honestly this has been a huge push in the “join an org” direction for me. If Cuba is willing to meet with these people there’s an actual chance I could too
You’d be surprised where you could go if you work in a communist party.
Folks I know have been sent to every AES state in existence, a few of the axis of resistance countries, and even states not recognized by the U.N because of western fuckery. Not only that but through communist connections you can even pursue free educations in some countries for a few years and be granted financial backing into learning languages while immersed in their countries.
Like honestly if I wasn’t tied down with my own life responsibilities I’d use my own connections to try and get some communist degrees and learn the language in the PRC right now.
As far as international destinations go it seems Cuba is relatively cheap (if you’re privileged enough to have any time or money to travel) to get to from the US. I’m planning on going later this year if I can swing it to celebrate actually seriously learning Spanish for more than a year.
MAYBE THE THIRD WORLDIST HAVE A POINT
To all those people screaming “Read Settlers!” at me: you may have had a point.
Lmao, why bother going to a country that you don’t support at all? You would think that Cuba is one of the litmus tests for leftists aside from palestine which i’m sure they fail on that part too.
The DSA doesn’t even ideologically alligned with global south countries, just go to a EU organized liberal socialist conferences in some nordic petrol-state instead. Or better, go to the Rosa Luxemberg center in Germany.
Yeah the fact that this happened is Cuba is deeply disappointing and embarassing
The fact that there are no vetting processes within the organization is embarrassing. funny enough, i don’t see organizations in the global south initiate lecturing western organizations the way they should do organization
