How to Visit a Socialist Country, by Richard Levins

[GPDP]

http://www.monthlyreview.org/100401levins.php

It's way too long an article for me to post here, but it's basically an attempt to give the reader and potential visitor to a socialist country (Cuba, to be exact) a bit of perspective and context as to why things are the way they are there, so as to avoid making unfair judgments from a liberal perspective about a supposed lack of political rights, democracy, freedom of the press, and other perceived deficiencies. In the end, he encourages us to support the revolution, but with room for constructive criticism.

I'm almost tempted to translate this behemoth of an article into Spanish so I can show it to my surprisingly anti-Cuba parents. It's actually pretty damn good, and goes onto great lengths to describe the Cuban political system and why it's unfair to brand it "unsocialist."

[KurtFF8]

This article is indeed excellent, I've been showing it to quite a few people. On the cover of the actual MR issue it's titled "How to See Socialism" and in my opinion the "How to See" can be taken in two different ways: how to physically travel to Cuba (which the article doesn't really go into at all) and of course the "perspective" version of the word "see"

The article does an awesome job at debunking some of the most common myths about Cuba (the explanation of the National Assembly is quite valuable)

Anyone interested in Cuba should read this article (Especially some of the Leftists who claim that Cuba is just "state capitalist" or something like that)

[chegitz guevara]

Step 1, find a socialist country,

Step 2, if you can't do step 1, make your own.

;)

[Barry Lyndon]

I like. Iv'e met a few reactionaries or even leftists who brandish their credentials that they have "been to" Cuba/Venezuela/Bolivia in order to justify trashing the socialist transformations there, or in there view lack therof. This article is a great rebuttal to that conceit.