StarrNarrative

Stalinism Does Not Equal Socialism By David Starr Over the decades, Stalinism came to be associated with socialism. Stalin’s brutal rise to absolute power unfortunately set a precedent for how socialism, as well communism and Marxism, came to be identified. First of all, communism has not really existed because an epoch perhaps takes decades or centuries to be established and developed. The Soviet Union existed for about 74 years, which is not enough time for communism to exist. Besides, communism has not been mapped out and that makes sense. But there are clues to what a future communist society could be based on the writings of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: “an association of free producers” and the more well-known slogan, “from each according to his ability to each according to his needs.” (The latter does not mean that people will simply get free stuff, since they are earning through their ability, skills or labor.) Regarding Marxism, it is originally a dynamic ideology ...

  The U.S.’s Moral Bankruptcy With Its Embargo Against Cuba By David Starr “El Bloqueo” (The Blockade) is what Cubans call it. It is a 60-year-old abomination. It is the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Imposed by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1962, the embargo has and continues to be an utter failure in its objective. That is, trying to fuel a counter-revolution within the island nation; or more politely put, “regime change.” Contrary to U.S. media and government propaganda, the 1959 Cuban Revolution has achieved some accomplishments in its changing of pre-1959 Cuba, when it was virtually a neo-colony. An example of that propaganda came from the New York Times . Stansfield Smith, an anti-war activist, wrote that the newspaper “still asserted Cuba is a mismanaged anachronism, that the average Cuban has no say-so, that the government does not permit public dialogue on its policies. This is arrogant nonsense to anyone knowledgeable about Cuba.” (Stansfield Smith, Monthly Review...