BY MARY-ALICE WATERS
HAVANA, Cuba - "In 1995 Cuba is commemorating not only
the 100th anniversary of the death of our national hero
José Martí, but also the death of Frederick Engels," who
together with Karl Marx laid the foundations of the modern
working-class movement. With that timely reminder, Rubén
Zardoya, dean of the School of Philosophy at the University
of Havana, opened the Seventh Conference of North American
and Cuban Philosophers and Social Scientists here June 13.
The conference is cosponsored in Cuba by the Philosophy Institute, and the Cuban Society of Philosophical Investigation. Sponsors of the North American delegation, which is coordinated by Cliff DuRand of Morgan State University in Baltimore, include the Radical Philosophy Association and the Society for the Philosophical Study of Marxism.
In recent years the size of the gathering has been increasing, but this year's conference was substantially smaller than the last one due to increased travel restrictions imposed by the U.S. government in August 1994. Many who wanted to participate did not apply because of the difficulty of obtaining a special license from the Treasury Department authorizing travel for academic research. Among those who did apply, some half dozen graduate students who expected to participate were denied licenses by the U.S. Treasury Department. One journalist with the group was not allowed to board the plane in Miami despite the letters of assignment she had from editors of several publications.
The North American delegation of 33 included three from Canada and one from Puerto Rico.
Over four days, working commissions on topics such as the "Renewal of Marxism," "Democracy, Politics, and Social Justice," "Race, Class, Sex, and Gender," and "Economy and Global Capitalism," discussed more than 90 papers presented by the 200 conference participants. Among the highlights of the conference were the opening plenary session on Engels's contribution to Marxism and a roundtable on U.S.-Cuba relations that closed the working sessions of the gathering.
The conference schedule also allowed time for visits to the José Angel Varela farm cooperative in San José, Havana province, and the biotechnology center. The North American delegation considered one of the best events of the week to be the opportunity to talk with those working at the agricultural cooperative - one of more than 2,700 Basic Units of Cooperative Production, or UBPCs, established through a reorganization of state farms since early 1994.
In Defense of Marxism
Isabel Monal, chair of Marxist Studies at the Philosophy
Institute, initiated the conference debate by joining the
issue with the various political tendencies that throughout
the 20th century have tried to separate Engels from Marx
and, under cover of attacking Engels only, have abandoned
Marxism.
Referring to Marx, Engels, and V.I. Lenin, the central leader of the October revolution in Russia, Monal said that among the three greatest figures in the history of the communist movement, none is more frequently attacked, from more different directions, than Engels. "He is accused of not understanding Marx, of distorting his work, of vulgarizing their ideas and giving a simplistic presentation of their work." The goal, she said, is always to divide him from Marx.
The publication of virtually all the correspondence between Marx and Engels has made such a position "completely untenable," she noted, although no objective reading of previously available works by Marx and Engels ever supported it. But that does not mean the argument will disappear, because "behind the anti-Engels tendency within Marxism there has always been a hidden alternative to Marxism," she explained, an attempt to substitute a different political perspective for the scientific world outlook and proletarian line of march of communism.
Monal noted that anti-Engels tendencies have had influence in Cuba as elsewhere. She pointed to those who attempt to turn Marxism into an ethical doctrine, a "love- sick true socialism of the kind Marx and Engels rejected" at the very beginning of their political lives, as well as those who in the guise of defending scientific socialism turned it into dogma devoid of science.
"We must reread Marx and Engels," Monal insisted.
U.S.-Cuba relations
The closing roundtable on U.S.-Cuba relations was one of the liveliest sessions, with several hours of discussion following the initial presentations. Much of the debate centered around the legislation being presented in the U.S. Congress by Sen. Jesse Helms and Rep. Daniel Burton that aims to once again tighten the economic embargo that has been imposed on Cuba by successive Democratic and Republican administrations for 35 years.
There was general agreement that the legislation tightening the embargo would be adopted in some form and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. But divergent points of view were expressed on the motivations for U.S. government policies. "Clinton will not veto the legislation," argued panelist Dan Hellinger, of Webster College in St. Louis, "because he has no backbone" and is guided by electoral expediency.
Esteban Morales, director of the Center for Study of the United States at the University of Havana, who was another of the panelists, offered a different assessment. "Whatever Washington decides is determined by what happens in Cuba and not what happens in the United States," he noted. Morales rejected the idea that right-wing elements in the Cuban community in the United States dictate government policy.
Washington hopes to make Cuba "face a large enough number of challenges that are complex enough not to make things difficult for Cuba," Morales said, "but to be able to drive the last nail" into the coffin of the revolution. That is why what is done in Cuba is decisive, he stated. "Any U.S. administration will have to judge the price they must pay" to achieve their goals.
In the closing session of the conference, the North American delegation read a statement that said, in part, "We express our solidarity with the socialist revolution, the anti-imperialist struggle, and the self-determination of the Cuban people, particularly during the present difficulties of the Special Period.-In the face of intensive U.S. aggression, the Cuban people have exhibited remarkable courage, unity, ingenuity, and determination to defend their national sovereignty."
The resolution also noted the "long record of internationalism," of the Cuban people that continues today despite the economic pressures.
Many of the North American participants in the conference will be spending another week in Cuba taking part in similar gatherings in the provinces of Cienfuegos, Camaguey, Holguín, and Matanzas.