: A "strong" state can protect nothing, states can be overthrown or repressed it is a socialist people that is required not a socialist government.
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A state can be 'repressed' ??? I suppose that's possible, but not likely.
In the wake of a successful revolution, it is utopian (at best) to believe that overnight and spontaneously, all the people, including all the monied interests which the revolution has just overthrown, will become socialist.
In Nicaragua, the Sandanistas led a popular uprising which had the support of fully 80% of the people (according to the election returns in 1979) and their platform was genuinely socialist. That didn't keep the US from funding a 15 year terror campaign in the form of the Contra insurgency comprised mainly of former members of Somoza's National Guard. Eventually, after thousands were killed by the Contras and Nicaragua's only harbor was mined and all trade was cut off, the Sandanistas were defeated at the polls... no more socialism.
On the other hand, Cuba has had a strong central government and the revolution has survived invasion, terrorism, assasination attempts, sabotage, and a 38 year economic embargo by the most powerful nation in the world. The Cubans have sent troops to Namibia to fight for socialism there and against apartheid in South Africa. They treated more children - victims of the Chernobyl disaster [15,000] than all other countries combined. They have the highest literacy rates, longest life expectancy, highest doctors per capita ratios, highest teachers per capita ratios in all of Latin America - many exceeding even the US in spite of the embargo. Now you and I can debate the degree to which Cuba is a genuinely socialist country... but at least we can have that debate. --K
Krasnaya's Critical Mass
None.
