Hiero
11th December 2005, 04:11
I started a new thread rather then post it in the Maoist internationalism thread. Please don't move this to the Che forum as i think the significance of this will be lost.
The development of countries now starting out on the road to liberation should be paid for by the socialist countries. We state it this way without any intention whatsoever of blackmail or dramatics, nor of currying favor with the Afro- Asian peoples, but as a profound conviction. Socialism cannot exist without a change in conscience to a new fraternal attitude toward humanity, not only within the societies which are building or have built socialism, but also on a world scale toward all peoples suffering from imperialist oppression.
We believe the duty of aiding dependent countries should be approached in such a spirit. There should not be any more talk about developing mutually beneficial trade based on prices rigged against underdeveloped countries by the law of value and the inequitable relations of international trade brought about by that law.
How can one apply the term "mutual benefit" to the selling at world-market prices of raw materials costing limitless sweat and suffering in the underdeveloped countries and the buying of machinery produced in today's big, automated factories?
If we establish that kind of relation between the two groups of nations, we must agree that the socialist countries are, in a way, accomplices of imperialist exploitation. It can be argued that the amount of exchange with underdeveloped countries is an insignificant part of the foreign trade of the socialist countries. That is a great truth, but it does not eliminate the immoral character of the exchange.
Today, 80 per cent of Cuba's trade is with that area; all her vital supplies come from the socialist camp, and in fact she has joined that camp. We cannot say that this was brought about solely by the increase in trade, nor that the increase in trade was brought about by the destruction of the old order and the adoption of the socialist form of development; both extremes touch and are interrelated.
We have to prepare conditions so that our brothers can directly and consciously take the path of the complete abolition of exploitation, but we cannot ask them to take that path if we ourselves are accomplices of that exploitation. If we were asked what the methods were for establishing just prices, we could not answer because we do not know concretely the full scope of the problems involved. All we know is that, after political discussions, the Soviet Union and Cuba signed agreements advantageous to us, in accordance with which we will sell five million tons of sugar at prices fixed above those of the so-called Free World Sugar Market. The People's Republic of China also pays those prices in buying from us.
This is only a beginning; the real task consists of fixing prices that will permit development. A great ideological change is needed to change the character of international relations; foreign trade should not determine politics, but should on the contrary be subordinated to the politics of fraternity toward peoples.
The method for financing the local expenses incurred by the investor country in such projects also deserves study. The supplying of marketable goods on long-term credits to the governments of underdeveloped countries could be one form of aid not requiring the expenditure of freely convertible funds.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1965/02/25.htm
This shows that Che Guevara did not just accept the current relations with other socialist countries. We see that Che just didn't think that good prices was the way to liberate a country, as Severian said he was supportive of that method. I have only looked at that article so far ill look at more later.
But from this article i see some errors in Che's analysis. He belived that the creation of new relations and the destruction of the old order is based on changing foriegn policies. He did not comment on the change in the economic base of the USSR after Stalin as a problem to creating new relations and destroying the old relations.
The development of countries now starting out on the road to liberation should be paid for by the socialist countries. We state it this way without any intention whatsoever of blackmail or dramatics, nor of currying favor with the Afro- Asian peoples, but as a profound conviction. Socialism cannot exist without a change in conscience to a new fraternal attitude toward humanity, not only within the societies which are building or have built socialism, but also on a world scale toward all peoples suffering from imperialist oppression.
We believe the duty of aiding dependent countries should be approached in such a spirit. There should not be any more talk about developing mutually beneficial trade based on prices rigged against underdeveloped countries by the law of value and the inequitable relations of international trade brought about by that law.
How can one apply the term "mutual benefit" to the selling at world-market prices of raw materials costing limitless sweat and suffering in the underdeveloped countries and the buying of machinery produced in today's big, automated factories?
If we establish that kind of relation between the two groups of nations, we must agree that the socialist countries are, in a way, accomplices of imperialist exploitation. It can be argued that the amount of exchange with underdeveloped countries is an insignificant part of the foreign trade of the socialist countries. That is a great truth, but it does not eliminate the immoral character of the exchange.
Today, 80 per cent of Cuba's trade is with that area; all her vital supplies come from the socialist camp, and in fact she has joined that camp. We cannot say that this was brought about solely by the increase in trade, nor that the increase in trade was brought about by the destruction of the old order and the adoption of the socialist form of development; both extremes touch and are interrelated.
We have to prepare conditions so that our brothers can directly and consciously take the path of the complete abolition of exploitation, but we cannot ask them to take that path if we ourselves are accomplices of that exploitation. If we were asked what the methods were for establishing just prices, we could not answer because we do not know concretely the full scope of the problems involved. All we know is that, after political discussions, the Soviet Union and Cuba signed agreements advantageous to us, in accordance with which we will sell five million tons of sugar at prices fixed above those of the so-called Free World Sugar Market. The People's Republic of China also pays those prices in buying from us.
This is only a beginning; the real task consists of fixing prices that will permit development. A great ideological change is needed to change the character of international relations; foreign trade should not determine politics, but should on the contrary be subordinated to the politics of fraternity toward peoples.
The method for financing the local expenses incurred by the investor country in such projects also deserves study. The supplying of marketable goods on long-term credits to the governments of underdeveloped countries could be one form of aid not requiring the expenditure of freely convertible funds.
http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1965/02/25.htm
This shows that Che Guevara did not just accept the current relations with other socialist countries. We see that Che just didn't think that good prices was the way to liberate a country, as Severian said he was supportive of that method. I have only looked at that article so far ill look at more later.
But from this article i see some errors in Che's analysis. He belived that the creation of new relations and the destruction of the old order is based on changing foriegn policies. He did not comment on the change in the economic base of the USSR after Stalin as a problem to creating new relations and destroying the old relations.