In Defense of Socialism: Four Speeches on the 30th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. Speeches, Vol. 4, '01/01/1988-89

By Fidel Castro

Book Overview

Economic and social progress is not only possible without the dog-eat-dog competition of capitalism, but socialism remains the only way forward for humanity. He describes the decisive place of Cuban... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873485394
• ISBN13: 9780873485395
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Pathfinder
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.2" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

an unflinching partisan

This book gives you a chance to hear Fidel Castro as he rejects the "new thinking" in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In four 1988-89 speeches he champions Cuba's socialist revolution and critiques the failures of the bureaucratic regimes in the USSR and Eastern Europe. He also reviews how these countries' examples had introduced weaknesses in Cuba's system and announces a campaign to correct these errors and reassert the principles of socialism. This collection gives you insight, not only into Cuba, but also into capitalism and socialism in general.

What future for humanity?

These are four speeches by Cuban leader Fidel Castro, given to mass rallies and meetings in 1989. Castro gives a reasoned, factual defense of socialism as the way forward for humanity with a rich analysis of some of the sharpest conflicts in the world at that time, from the economic and social crisis in Third World countries to the U.S. war against Nicaragua and El Salvador. Especially interesting is the detailed account of the South African invasion of Angola, Cuba's response of sending tens of thousands of volunteers to fight along with the Angolans, and of the death-blow dealt to apartheid in the battle at Cuito Cuanavale. Castro also explains some of the early history of the Cuban revolution, such as how workers and peasants, led by the Rebel Army, actually took power in 1959. He takes up some of the big questions posed to anyone interested in building a new society, based on efforts the Cubans were then making to overcome bureaucratism, corruption and inefficiency. What is the relation between the individual and society, material wages versus moral and political consciousness, the use of technology and its impact on workers lives? Don't miss this one!