I know people who have been to Cuba and the people are very poor and oppressed. The tax police come around and if you cannot justify the ownership of simple luxuries you are in big trouble.
The West is going the way of Cuba and China.

The problem is that commentators in this thread view liberal rights as inviolable - but they seem to think social rights are 'inconsequential'. IN the West we should also be subject to criticism for common double standards ; and neglect of social rights.

BUT It always was a mistake for self-avowed Communists to separate liberal rights from economic rights - as began under Lenin - and as was taken to shocking lengths under Stalin. As left-social-democratic (Marxist) critics of Lenin argued - it was a strategy which was fatal for social democratic Marxism... Suddenly all the liberal and democratic rights that Marxists had fought for for decades were to be 'dispensed with', and the rights we on the Left had demanded for ourselves - would be denied to those who thought differently. Including other Leftists. This discredited us in the eyes of millions for decades.

Yes there were mitigating circumstances in Russia (and indeed in Cuba). Foreign intervention, destabilisation and war. Assassination attempts also. That warranted some short term compromise. But as Rosa Luxemburg argued - suppressing democracy and liberal rights was BAD FOR COMMUNISM. (that is communism as imagined by Marx, and not as pursued under Lenin and Trotsky - which actually was 'the dictatorship of the proletariat' corrupted into 'the dictatorship of the Party')

Remember 'Dictatorship of the Proletariat' for MARX 'was a means of applying democracy' ; ie: in the form of the self-government of the working class... Which yes did mean overcoming resistance to the revolution - But through democratic practices and structures.

This may challenge some peoples' preconceptions. But a bit of research should confirm the truth of the matter.

though yes Marx also consider at times Terror may be necessary - as with the French revolution - but Rosa Luxemburg still disagreed with Lenin's tactics very strongly - as did many other democratic communists and Marxist social democrats.

... but Rosa Luxemburg (living in the West) still disagreed with Lenin's tactics very strongly - as did many other democratic communists (living in the West) and Marxist social democrats (also living in the Western non-communist societies).

I almost didn't bother to read this, thinking it would be another brutal-tyrant-evil-communism-poverty-under-socialism rant. I'm glad that curiosity got the better of me. Good analysis. Well done.

Cuba has been operating under a state of siege for 60 years - from economic, diplomatic and violent terrorism, driven by Washington, the CIA and the Cuban right-wing exile community.

Much of Cuba's poverty and repression is the direct and indirect result of this US terrorism. Any government faced with such a protracted assault would understandably crack down on dissent. How jolly to then hold it up to the world as yet another example of socialism equals slavery.

The irony in all this is that Castro was not a communist at heart. But he needed the communists to succeed in overthrowing the corrupt US puppet Batista - whose main priority was to maintain Cuba as a giant casino for rich Americans.

You care about Cuban poverty and repression? Have a look at poverty and repression under Batista. At least, the 11 million Cuban population has not had to pay a cent for medical expenses in 60 years, or for education. Something that is out of reach for the 43 million Americans living below the poverty line. Something that shaves at least a third off the salaries earned by middle class Americans and most Western citizens.

Tristan Ewins

The problem with your comments is that the original Marx vision was simply unworkable, a dream by someone who could not understand the capitalist system, misread all the social trends of his time and was unaware of basic human nature. He bequeathed a new way at looking at the world, including new terminology, but his philosophy has been abandoned almost everywhere it has been tried and no matter what form it has been tried. The only time the prols get a say is in capitalist democracies. Time to move on.