Arthur Scargill answers a question on Cuba

[alanheath3]

So what has Scargill got against Poland? He thought it was great in 1980 although he attacked the Polish working class who were trying to overthrow the socialism he thinks so much of. Now clearly he does not like it.

We can hear how perverted his mentality is. He talks of free trade when it suits him and is dead against when it does not. Typical socialist!

[alanheath3]

I like Cuba too! I am a big fan of the Gibson Brothers!!

[Daisy12630]

Check out CNN report on "Cuban doctors work in a hospital in Haiti" on youtube.

Real solidarity. Arthur's spot on again.

[vivascargill]

@Daisy12630 and as the us medical system rots Cubas medical system is terrific!

[MINERSSTRIKE]

An open invitation to Mr. Scargill to come to our Question Time debate to discuss the national legacy of The Miners' Strike 1984-1985 on Wed March 3rd. Why is there no interest from Scargill or The NUM? Do they have no case?

[flute4hire]

well said Arthur, stop the export of British jobs.

[Yorki1965]

I Hope that all of you who support The Castro regime have had a merry Christmas. Fidel Castro banned Christmas in Cuba in 1969.I also wonder how many of you have actually been and seen at first hand what is happening there. 'I have'.

[Daisy12630]

Like vivascargill says below - watch "Fidel in Harlem" and make up your own mind.

Fidel is a world leader of massive stature. A real hero.

[southsieed]

I know Cuba very well and as soon as that fucking beardy cunt and his commie henchmen all die, the better everyone will be. Scargill is a fucking loser

[vivascargill]

you are a fascist loser--go hang out with cheney or maybe you can dig up uncle adolf and suck on his mustache

[southsieed]

oh dear.Like all leftie morons you assume that anyone who disagrees with you is a fascist...

[vivascargill]

tell you what why don;t you go up to Arthur and tell him he's a moron or a fuckin loser --tell it to the folks in SLP you piece of crap digital SCAB!

[southsieed]

What! Me speak to these smelly types....Not bloody likely.

[vivascargill]

to the comrades in SLP and everyone else--watch the videos of Fidel in Harlem !

[southsieed]

Socialist Losers Party?

[The86416]

Go and live there you old twat. You and Thatcher destroyed the NCB.

[deathtotheunions]

Any chance that the ordinary people of Cuba will be allowed any say on their future or is that banned under socialist law. Death to the beard.

[rayyyyyy1]

I for one hopes Cuba can survive. But there are real problems with an avowedly Socialist society and the inequality in wealth and power that exists there.

[weemagicstane]

Recent reports suggest Cuba has discovered massive oil fields in its offshore waters that will put it in the top ten of oil producing nations in the world.

Considering Cuba's huge developments in a whole range of areas including medicine, just imagine what they will be able to do with the new wealth available to them now with their socialist society.

The future looks bright for the Cuban people.

Viva Cuba.

[NextArminius]

@weemagicstane So you are one of those people who live with the comforts and freedoms of the western, democratic world, and at the same time praises socialist dictatorships. Shame on you! You spit on everyone in Cuban prisons, and the rest of the Cuban people. Yes, I think they have a bright future - without that dictatorship, without Castro! What will you do then? Praise the North Korean regime, perhaps?

[alanheath3]

@NextArminius If Scargill thinks Cuba is so great, why doesn't he go and live there? Maybe some Cubans could come here in exchange?

[dragonlee90]

Cuba survived for so long because it was propped up by the Soviet Union. Don't any of you remember the crash it experienced in the 90's when the Soviet Empire fell.

Cubans don't have basic fundamental rights.  It is an island fortress of poverty and currency apartheid. People who stand against the regime are murdered. The people don't have voting rights, they have no internet. The average wage of Cuba is $17 a MONTH. They survive on rations. Go visit the country.

[weemagicstane]

Pish. It was the right wing regimes that thankfully are on the way out in Central and South America that "murdered" people fighting simply for better rights and decent living standards.

Do you know that Cuba offered to send hundreds of medical staff to New Orleans, USA after Katrina? All the yanks send to other countries are helicopter gunships, bombs and missiles to destroy.

Viva Cuba.

[dragonlee90]

I have. You haven't countered any of my points about their fundamental rights, or their wages. They were propped up by the Soviets.

Dictators are not exponents of right wing policies. Right wing policies are about small government. THe further right you go, the less government you have. Anarchy is far right. Dictators are far left.

[selzln]

Yes, dragon is right. Hasn't anyone ever wondered why so many of their people are willing to risk their lives just to make it out of that place? Does anyone here know what they are talking about?

Without Soviet aid, Cuba would have been a disastrous mess, just like North Korea is now. And weemagic, have you ever seen how much the US contributes to the world in development aid? And as far as 'helicopter gunships, bombs, and missiles,' if you're referring to Iraq, who was the US's #1 partner?

[Lisbon1906]

what i wonder is if they are so eager to move and seek freedom why don't they move to Jamaica or even to Haiti which is a closer country.

aren't those market paradise free enough?

[482c]

Daisy are you by chance in SLP--can a yankee join?

[Daisy12630]

Yes, I am. "Don't know" is the short answer. You can contact the SLP via the website and ask.

[482c]

Daisy Joe--maybe you are BOTH Arthur! Anyway Up with Arthur Scargill!

[pdk38]

How this man can say he's been to Cuba and "seen at first hand what can be done" and keep a straight face beggers belief. I've seen what has been done. Destruction to what was once one of the most prosperous countries in the Caribbean. It's citizens stripped of their freedom and dignity.

[Daisy12630]

Are you referring to the pre 1959 mafia-run brothel and gambling economy that was Cuba? Don't need to look at any particularly progessive material - just watch "The Godfather II" movie.

The revolution gave people a dignity they'd never had. The dignity of an education and healthcare for instance.

Anyone that didn't like it could leave. The Florida jails were full of those Cuban "freedom fighters" that left to go to the USA. The US begged Fidel to stop! Another movie to watch - "Scarface".

[JoeWPratt]

Daisy you have kept quiet, I reckon you are really Arthur Scargill, you can't fool a lad from Wakefield!

[AngelNavarroMunoz]

Sorry, English is not my first language are you trying to say there are no deprived starved millions in Cuba, my parents and sisters would not agree with you.

[weemagicstane]

The USA has illegally blockaded Cuba for 50 years. It has tried dozens upon dozens of times to kill Fidel Castro, launched military attacks, supported those committing terrorist actions like placing bombs and bringing down civil airliners killing innocent people and used biological warfare to attack Cuban agriculture and livestock.

And still little Cuba survives as an example to the deprived millions of Latin America and the rest of the world.

Viva Cuba.

[AngelNavarroMunoz]

It's alright him speaking from afar, he has not seen the real Cuba, I escaped from. Though I will say Castro has made the island

plastic carrier bag free for the past 30 years

and chicken breasts, the ordinary people only get the legs with cabbage leaves because there

is no lettuce and there's no milk to drink with it.

[JoeWPratt]

Daisy,

I give up, I now agree with everything you have ever said or thought in the whole of your

life.

[Daisy12630]

más profundo agradecimiento por que amigo.

[JoeWPratt]

Este hombre es un chiripolla, no sabia el nombre de un aspirador.

[Daisy12630]

Una aspiradora? Tal vez, como jefe de Estado, vacío de alguien más limpia su casa. Kiss mi culo!

[carol2334]

"Socialism and socialist institutions are incompatible with freedom and dignity. Reject the failed economics of planned states and embrace total freedom, including an economic freedom, directed towards the truth." (Pope John Paul 11).

In 1969 President Castro abolished Christmas.

[Daisy12630]

The freedom to starve (among riches and opulence for a few) as experienced by millions around the world? The dignity of a mother helplessly watching her child die from a preventable disease due to poverty? Your comment seems more attuned to the worship of Mammon and that doesn't appear too christian-like.

[carol2334]

As you could clearly see it was a quote (in inverted commas). They were the comments of Pope John Paul 11 who had first hand experience of what is was like to live under a socialist system. Definition of Mammon: (a personification of wealth and avarice as an evil spirit) Is this your description of Pope John Paul 11? If it is then I can fully understand why he publicly condemned your system. Please don't tell me that I'm not a Christian, even as a socialist you have no right to do that.

[Daisy12630]

A certain young Polish priest by the name of Father Karol Wojtyla once wrote the following: "The Catholic social ethic agrees that in many cases a struggle is the way to accomplish the common good", ..."today a class struggle is the undeniable responsibility of the proletariat".

I can subscribe to that.

Also, I respect all who have a religious ethic to their life - I therefore imply no slight toward you. The question here surely is - what is best for people in this world?

[482c]

Daisy--with respect- that Polish priest supported Solidarity which "union" scabbed" on the British Miners. I speak as a Roman Catholic but you would do better with Dietrich Bonnhoeffer.

I admire your comments but JohnPaul well like most of us he is often mistaken--anyway--cheers!

[Daisy12630]

482C

My reply was to someone quoting JP2 as a basis for opposing Cuban socialism. You've picked up the salient point and I agree with your view re-solidarnosc.

I'm watching BBC News 24 live online at the moment. Excellent discussion re-the impending economic implosion. Several capitalist commentators/economists/US Congressmen etc tearing each others eyes out.

[482c]

where did you get the DVD of Arthur--I have one sent me from Women against Pit Closure--with Brenda Arthur Dennis Skinner--and a memorial to Davy and Joe. I don't think it is the same one--or is it.

[Daisy12630]

I've left a message with details on your page.

[482c]

May I interject as one who is a Roman Catholic? Would you argue that supporting an anti-semitic organization like solidarity (I have the attestations) which scabbed on the British Miners is a Christian act?--read rarum Novarum again. Was it a Christian act for JPII to insult the Sandinista priests? Graham Greene has some things to say about that. JPII was not mammon by any means and his description of the "culture of death" is remarkable and accurate. He was a flawed man like the rest of us.

[Daisy12630]

I take it that you are directing the questions to Carol2334 above?

[482c]

Indeed Daisy that is exactly to whom I was responding.

[JoeWPratt]

Well if you have read the book, tell us where the money is.

[Daisy12630]

Check out the website at the end of the video. The "Enemy Within" is available p&p for a tenner. You can find out the full details yourself if your genuinely interested. That can't be done with a 500 character comment restriction.

[JoeWPratt]

Did we ever get to know, what this man did with the Russian miners money, that he sent

to Paris during the strike. As he says in this

video he is totally opposed to the movement of capital. Com'n Arthur give us your answer.

[Daisy12630]

Read "The Enemy Within" by Guardian journalist Seumas Milne. You'll find all the details of the secret campaign by the British state against the NUM and it's President, Arthur Scargill including the smears + slurs like the one you've just made. Every single one completely discredited by the way.

The book is readily available to all interested in the truth of what happened before, during and after the miners' dispute/strike.

[AndyCptlst]

Socialism can only survive if it has an enemy and if it doesn't have an enemy then it creates one. Socialists are bitter covetous individuals who love arguing. That's a fact

[482c]

I tell everyone to read Milne's book! I am trying to put together a course on the great strike of 84--besides David Douglas do you know any really good history--esp one that does not denigrate Arthur?

[Daisy12630]

Ive got a DVD of Arthur Scargill speaking about the strike on the 20th anniversary. Apparently there was a Canadian film/TV broadcast (CBC?) produced about the same time. I haven't seen it myself but it is recommended as worth viewing by people I know. It's not available in Britain apparently. As far as written texts are concerned I don't know of any real genuine ones. There have been localised recollection type books. I think Arthur himself, or someone authorised, may produce one someday.

[Daisy12630]

"The Enemy Within" is an excellent expose of what went on before, during and after the 84/85 strike and the role of Britain's secret services in their attempt to undermine Arthur Scargill and the NUM.

[dragonlee90]

A supposed supporter of democracy are you Mr Scargill? Yet you support Castro, who didn't even offer his people an election to elect an alternative to Raul. Democracy my arse

[Daisy12630]

The US first "pointed" nuclear weapons (and used them too).

A free health service available to all in Cuba - I bet millions of US citizens wished they had that!

Cuba offers the underprivileged of the world an alternative to a globe run by and for the super rich.

[PaulDeLaWare]

Yes it's true the US did use the nuclear weapon first, "to stop a war not start it", Thank God it wasn't Adolph Hitler(a socialist)who had his hands on the weapon or the Japanese. As for the health care for the ordinary people in Cuba, go take a look like I did, then tell us how wonderful it is and I will call you a liar to your face.

[Daisy12630]

With all due respect your clearly a crackpot. Hitler was a Nazi - ie fascist and as such was the last line of defence of big business and capitalism. Don't bother quoting any absurd references to what NSDAP was an abbreviation of or whatever. Hitler was in the pocket of the big German industrial and financial interests of the day and as such an implacable enemy of Socialism. That's why he put all the Communists, Social democrats and Trades Unionists in concentration camps first.

[PaulDeLaWare]

"With all due respect your clearly a crackpot" What kind of intelligent statement is that

Hitler was a socialist "all means of production to come under common ownership" (HIS) just like Fidel Castro Your silence on the injustices to the Cuban people at the hands of a tyrant speaks volumes or is it that you don't care about the suffering and humiliation of your fellow human beings as long as your socialist appetite has been sated Read 'Before Night Falls' Renaldo Arenas

[jeanpaulfelix]

typical paul typical. you are a conservative fox news watching fool.

[jeanpaulfelix]

pauldelaware, u are a typical brainwashed mimion of capital, no offense and the mighty argument that you have actually been there(every american righty seems to say this lol), which parts were you visiting exactly.Don't even get me going on the Adolf hitler socialist part. Typical rightwing propaganda,The iggest anticommunist the world has ever seen and u call him a socialist coz oh he himself called hi that. ever heard of the dachau concentration camp and belsen and treblinka.

[PaulDeLaWare]

I see you're Canadian if you go to Havana it won't be the smell of griddle cakes maple syrup and blueberry muffins you'll be waking up to it will be the smell of shit. After that you'll have the time of your life wandering aimlessly through a City that's crumbling around you. You can then go home and revel in everything you condemn

[PaulDeLaWare]

I'm not American, I've never seen Fox News I also think the Capitalist system, with more than its fair share of greedy selfish people needs to get its house in order But the Socialist system which reeks of hypocrisy strips away Democracy Freedom and Liberty and above all HOPE and without that we may as well all pack it in now and press the self destruct button

[dragonlee90]

You're calling someone a brainwashed minion of capital... yet you have a computer (made by big business, and you pay a big business for it). You also are using the internet, which is also available because of business.

[PaulDeLaWare]

Let's not forget: It was Fidel Castro (rubbing his hands with glee) who had atomic bombs pointing at the US. I've visited Cuba and I wouldn't wish that system on my worst enemy. Arthur Scargill should go to Cuba on a one way ticket and after six months send us an email to let us know how he's surviving on fifteen dollars a month. He pissed in the miners' soup and they drank it.

[majorMcpharter]

Lets build a world without artificial borders and frontiers.Its time to put capitalisms flags bombs and money into a museum.