By Belarmino Sarna
Betrayed, not failed
Today socialism betrayed is presented to us as a failure. From the outset it was constantly under external pressure. Yet we cannot doubt the efficiency of a great experiment, an attempt to build a fairer society in place of greedy and unplanned capitalism — which, as Marx said, was born dripping with blood; which colonised vast continents for centuries, and in our time alone has caused two horrific world wars; which for the first time in history used the atom bomb; capitalism and imperialism also practically destroyed Vietnam, invaded Central American and Caribbean countries, and strangled Salvador Allende's democratic, socialist and popular experiment in Chile.
It can be said that socialist countries have also committed crimes. Yes, but not on the same massive scale; and such crimes were committed so that the new experiment might survive, while imperialist brutalities were due to greed for consolidating power and exploitation.
Based on Marxism and socialist ideals, tremendous political and social changes have been carried out during this century; through their unions workers have won their rights, and their important role in capitalist-run industry has been recognised. Through Marxism and socialism victory against European colonisation has been achieved; part of Asia and all of Africa have been freed from foreign rule.
And defending socialism, the USSR played an enormously important part in freeing Europe from Nazism and fascism in World War II.
In Latin America, Marxism meant the end of Batista's brutal dictatorship in Cuba, and the birth of the first socialist government in the New World. The winds of change also led to the demise of US-controlled dictators in Santo Domingo, Nicaragua and Haiti.
Simone de Beauvoir's theories about women's liberation were also based on socialism, as was Brazilian Paolo Freyre's liberating and revolutionary work in education, now widely recognised and practised in the Third World.
Marxists also were some of the finest artists and writers of our century: Picasso, Diego Rivera, Bertolt Brecht, Jean-Paul Sartre, Garcia Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Garcia Marquez and Eduardo Galeano, who taught us our real history. Paul Robeson began the movement which later became the New Movement in song, whose greatest pioneers in Latin America were Violeta Parra and Victor Jara.
Socialism in science led to humankind's first conquest of space.
Marxism, with its emphasis on practical reality and social conditions, also had a strong influence on the Catholic Church, leading to liberation theology, among whose leaders we find men like Camilo Torres of Colombia, Ernesto Cardenal of Nicaragua and the murdered Archbishop Romero of El Salvador.
So, despite setbacks, are we to be ashamed of being Marxists? No. It is a pride and a privilege to be faithful to its principles, because they are rational, revolutionary and, above all, human.
[Abridged from El Español. Translated by Rosemary Evans.]