Unusual dissent erupts inside Cuban Communist Party

[Zorro]

Source: AP

Days after President Barack Obama's historic visit, the leaders of Cuba's Communist Party are under highly unusual public criticism from their own ranks for imposing new levels of secrecy on the future of social and economic reforms.
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After months of simmering discontent, complaints among party members have become so heated that its official newspaper, Granma, addressed them in a lengthy front-page article Monday. It said the public dissatisfaction over the lack of open discussion before the upcoming Communist Party congress next month is "a sign of the democracy and public participation that are intrinsic characteristics of the socialism that we're constructing."

The article did little to calm many party members, some of whom are calling for the gathering to be postponed to allow public debate about the government's plans to continue market-oriented reforms for Cuba's centrally controlled economy.

"The base of the party is angry, and rightly so," party member and noted intellectual Esteban Morales wrote in a blog post published before Obama's visit. "We've gone backward in terms of democracy in the party, because we've forgotten about the base, those who are fighting and confronting our problems on a daily basis."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/unusual-dissent-erupts-inside-cuban-communist-party-045721166.html

[jaysunb]

1. Another, Obama contribution. n/t

[Throd]

2. I give the commies 5 years at most before they collapse.

I just hope the transition is peaceful.

[SDjack]

3. The two Castro brothers will die, there will be a struggle for a new leader, fractures will

occur, and Cuba will have the revolution that they were robbed of by the communists.

[jtuck004]

4. I think they got the revolution they wanted when they told us to fuck off. Held us

off all these years, while they pissed on our memory.

Of the couple I have met from there, they were pretty happy with it all, and still were the last time we talked.

It's the arrogant americans that seem to have the most problem, that we didn't fuck them up like we have, say, Iraq and the Ukraine

[Throd]

5. Their goal was to stay poor and stuck in 1959 for 50+ years under authoritarian rule?

Telling the evil Yanquis to go fuck themselves may be satisfying at first, but after a while people are gonna want more.

The Cuban people deserved better than under Bautista and deserve better than under Castro. I hope they get it.

[Javaman]

7. Hopefully they will get something in the middle.

I have a very sad feeling that I doubt that will happen.

the Cuba the people of Cuba want will be a distant echo in about 10 years. (after the corporations get their claws into it.)

I have this really sad feeling that Cuba will quickly revert to the land of a Mafia-like state that is corporate controlled and treat the population as their own sweatshop slaves to give us cheap manufactured crap.

this will cut down on shipping fees and take the power of China out of the equation.

you know what they say about good intentions, right?

[Bad Dog]

6. I have nothing but admiration for the Cuban people.

Standing up to imperialism for over fifty years. They are an inspiration. They will do things at their own pace, no matter what the empire says.