EMPIRES IN DECLINE

Reading the enemy's language

By Ricardo Alarcón

Taken from Cubadebate

(Address by the president of Cuba's National Assembly of the People's Power during the panel 'Democracy and 21st-Century Socialism,' at the Sixth Social Summit for Latin American and Caribbean Unity, Aug. 1, 2007, in Caracas, Venezuela.)

In an analysis published by the Agency, titled "Global Trends 2010" (which in 2000 the CIA updated to 2015, or "Global Trends 2015") the Agency projected four scenarios of the world's likely evolution,

These four scenarios, with different possibilities of development of a worldwide neoliberal capitalism, lead to the same conclusion: the influence of the United States of America will continue to decline.

In the opinion of the CIA analysts, who took into account the information from very diverse scientific sources worldwide, before the famous attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,

I am sure that the report was read by U.S. conservatives, the same who drew up the policies of an administration that sometimes is judged rather rudely of being irresponsible, adventurous, etc. No, they are accomplishing a mission: to try to halt that decline they know to be irreversible, and revert -- -- "the march of time.

Francis Fukuyama...studies he wrote after his celebrated "The End of History"? ... but it didn't take long before he made a serious self-criticism and criticized neoconservative thinking by pointing out that the world could not be governed.

... He then admitted that, despite the fact that it emerged victorious and as the only superpower, the United States cannot govern itself, as he himself believed in the early 1990s.

Mr. Joseph Schumpeter, ..."Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy," ..."One form of socialism will inevitably emerge from the also-inevitable decomposition of capitalism."

My only disagreement with Schumpeter's ... I tend to believe that not one but many forms of socialism will emerge.

We need a theory for the current phase of worldwide neoliberal capitalism, which is trying to halt its fall and regain its control of the world.

Why does the United States today spend more on military resources than all the countries on earth combined, more so than during the Cold War? Why the incessant production of new and newer instruments of death and war?

..it is a reflection of a sick economy in a sick society. ...irrational arms race would hasten the (it's) destruction ..., while bringing more profits to the monopolies and weapons industries in the United States and Britain.

...the reason for these violent offensives that copy from fascism ... is that the two countries are on the defensive, surrounded by the advancing peoples.

Undoubtedly, we need a theory for the phase of neoliberal capitalism that attempts to halt its fall. We live in a world that offers us many possibilities but that also poses major risks, as illustrated by infinite evidences in the case of the current U.S. regime.

WHERE IS LUIS POSADA CARRILES?

Latin America is witness of how these people are capable of resorting to anything in order to avoid a fall. Whenever journalists ask me the usual questions -- "how is Fidel?" "when will he return to power?" -- I ask in turn, "where is Luis Posada Carriles?"

What does that mean in practice? Simply to tell Cuba, to Venezuela and the other countries in the region that the man who tortured, murdered and ordered the slaughter of so many innocent people will continue to enjoy the favor of the United States.

What is the message for our people? A regime has been imposed in the United States that is capable of resorting to anything. They are not all-powerful but are strong enough to destroy the earth and all of us on it.

That is why, as revolutionary aspirations blossom in Latin America, at a moment of great possibilities and enormous challenges, we need to engage in much thinking, much reflection and -- above all -- much unity.