: : 7) Castro has killed an absolute MAXIMUM of 12,000 people in 40 years, while his right-wing predecessor killed 20,000 in seven years. : I remmeber that figure I've employed it myself but then murder is murder it might be excusable during a wrestling match for power but afterwards executes are just the same as capital punishment anywhere.
Actually I'm not a Troskyist at all, no offence taken. I essentially know very little about eastern Europe or Russian history, howevre from what I know Trotsky was a virulent anti-religious bigot which certainly lessens him in my opinion. Don't ask me about my 'ideological persuasion" because I don't have a consistent one, I'm actually a walking mass of contradictions. Nevertheless, I do feel that in some vague but indubitable way the ideals of the left are immensely superior to thsoe of teh right. basically i think the most important thing that needs to be done right now is for the capitalist class to stop forcing other countries to kowtow to US power, and for America to take at least a neutralist attitude towards socialism. EG if America pulled its arms and moeny out of Colombia and just let the best amn win in the struggle down tehre (which would probably be the communists by the way.)
If nicaragua was still communist they woud be my model, the only reason I defend Cuba is because I don't want to see it wiped off the map, because I think that would be a big setback for us all.
In the US I don't think taht communsim is anywhjere aroudnthe cpountry, and to be very honest i think that although communsim amy be good for some countries and socialism for others, they will not work in America for teh near future because of a whole lot of cultural factors. The sense I get is taht most Americans don't want communism. However, there is considerable support in America for a lot of reform measures, the kind of thing that tehy sued to call "creeping socialism". for example, the AFL-CIO is pushing for a reform that would prohibit company heads from making more than 50 times the wage of their lowest-paid employee. While a far cry from socialism, thsi si actually a reform taht seems to have mainstream support, so i think it's the type of refrom that we should all be supporting in teh western countries. Because after a while, maybe tehy'll decdie that a fo-fold differential is too much, and they'll make it 40, then 30, then 20....
