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Advice to the Reader:

First, read Philip Greenspan's review on Wayne Smith's book. Secondly, read Wayne Smith's book. Then, please read my book The Secret Fidel Castro: Deconstructing the Symbol. Reach your own conclusions.

Servando González.

Shortly after Castro came to power the U.S. took a hard line against Cuba. To support that position it portrayed Castro as a tyrannical dictator who subjected his people to a repressive regime. The media, endorsing the government's hard line, has given the public a picture of Cuba to justify that policy.

"The Closest of Enemies" by Wayne S. Smith-a former officer in the State Department-gives a different perspective to that view. He describes some of the internal disputes that occurred over that hard line policy and shows us a Cuba at variance with what has been presented in the media. His tours of duty brought him to Cuba in 1957-59, during the period when Battista was overthrown and again from 1977-81, when he was chief of the U.S. interests section in Havana.

The disagreements on foreign policy were not his alone. Many of the career foreign service officers felt that resolving differences through negotiation would be more productive. But both Democratic and Republican administrations-Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton--have followed the same uncompromising line.

Even before Castro came to power an arbitrary policy was followed. When it was apparent that the Cubans were opposed to Battista the U.S. continued to support him. They could have backed a more moderate candidate instead but waited until it was too late and Castro was victorious. Their excuse-it would not be right to intervene in a foreign country and it would draw unfavorable criticism. However, in 1954, it did intervene to effect the removal of Jacobo Arbenz from Guatamala.

The U.S. knew that Castro was not a communist. But he was opposed to the U.S. presence in Cuba, an attitude common among many Cubans. In spite of this, he was pragmatic and the differences that arose could have been resolved through negotiation. Instead, the U.S. was intransigent and drove him to the Soviets.

Many hostile activities followed. The Bay of Pigs invasion was attempted on the assumption that it would cause the Cubans to rebel against him. It failed. The planners did not seek the advice of those in the State Dept who correctly saw that he was popular with the people and he continued to have their support. It exploited the plight of those dissidents who escaped by boat; but many anti-communists who had languished in prison and were now allowed to leave Cuba were denied visas to enter the U.S. It lied about various supposedly hostile Cuban activities in Central America.

Smith returned to Havana in 1979 and described what he saw. There was no poverty and misery that exists in other Latin American countries. Everyone was provided with food, clothing, shelter, an education and medical care. I recently visited Cuba. It is over 20 years since he made that observation and an awful lot has happened in the interim. But I can attest that the same is true today.

This book was published in 1987 before the Soviet government, a prop for the Cuban economy, collapsed. With that collapse the Cuban economy went into a tail spin. Experts in government and the media predicted the immanent fall of Castro. But over a decade later, although the conditions in the country are quite onerous, he and his government survive.

It is ironic that with a hostile Goliath 90 miles away, he has survived for over four decades, while others whose military, economy and government were supported by the U.S. have been overthrown-the Shah of Iran, Marcos of the Philippines, Suharto of Indonesia, Mobutu of Zaire, Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, Somoza of Nicaragua, 'Baby Doc' of Haiti.

As a former Head of the US Interests Section (USIS) in Havana, Wayne Smith has not just lived the politics of Cuban - US relations, but has actually made some. After representing the US under President Carter in the tiny Caribbean dictatorship, a nation subject to tight US economic sanctions, Wayne Smith has come forward to speak about those sanctions. While he does not support the Cuban regime or its ideology in any way (neither do I), he believes that the embargo is strongly counter-productive, as it ends up helping Castro in his goal of resisting foreign influence and trends towards change. This is an argument most scholars agree with, and is surely not new. Yet, in this book Wayne Smith has been able to put forward the argument in a very particular light, from the point of view of someone who actually represented the embargo-enforcing nation for several years, and then had a sharp change in opinion. The book is extremely well written. As an academic study it is highly rigorous and extremely subjective: the author criticizes diverging views, but does not attack them just out of differences, and he manages to substantiate and argue his own views extremely well. The book is concise and clear, simple to read and even enjoyable. It is an absolute must for anyone approaching the delicate issue of Cuban - US relations in the current period.

Fue necesario unir los campesinos y trabajadores -los víctimas del capitalismo- para llevar a cabo la revolución democrática en el país de Sudáfrica, en contra de los mismos capitalistas. Y no sólo fue una clase capitalista en su país, sino un imperialismo que extraía ganancias de muchos países del sur y centro de su continente.

Parece irónico, pero así es el dilema del capitalismo en su fase imperialista actual. Sudáfrica era uno de los últimos ejemplos de lo que Lenín explicaba a principios del siglo XX en relación de los países sometidos al capitalismo (Imperialismo: la fase superior del capitalismo). Habiendo consumido su período revolucionario con la Guerra Civil de los Estados Unidos, de 1865 en adelante la burguesía ya no es capaz de ofrecer el liderazgo para ninguna revolución democrática en ningún rincón del mundo. Únicamente los campesinos y trabajadores pueden instalar las leyes de igualdad, con la burguesía esperando impaciente de regresar del margen para tomar el poder una vez consumidas las necesidades democráticas.

Con Nelson Mandela de frente, el Congreso Nacional Africano impuso los mínimos de igualdad, y así acabó con un imperio pequeño pero tan brutal como el de Israel hoy en día. Sudáfrica sigue capitalista, pero ya no tiene segregación para extraer súper-ganancias.

The main article in this collection, "The Coming Revolution in South Africa," by Jack Barnes, came out in the mid-1980s. The analysis presented was important as a guide to action for all those involved in the struggle to rid the world of the hated apartheid system in South Africa.

Apartheid was a system that strangled normal capitalist development. A regime that resembled fascism, it treated the mass of the workers and farmers almost as slaves. Instead of a ruling capitalist class pitted against a working class (which is to be expected as a result of normal capitalist development), the apartheid system divided society into a white caste and a non-white caste, with Blacks, the majority of the population, stripped of nearly all democratic rights. The wealthy white elite fought to preserve apartheid because it secured their control over the Black majority, and thus magnified profit rates. But this form of control created explosive social pressures.

In order to advance toward socialism, the working people in South Africa first had to destroy the apartheid structure and allow the pressures of capitalist development to emerge into the open. With the chains of apartheid broken, the masses of working people could then come to grips with a real capitalist system as such.

The 1994 election which brought the African National Congress to power culminated a process of revolutionary change that was critical to all further development in South Africa and its neighboring countries. It opened the door to a new period of class struggle, preparing the workers in South Africa to participate, on an equal footing with workers in all countries, to build a new world free of capitalist war and depression.

Though published in 1985, nine years before the victory of the African National Congress against Apartheid, the main article in this book-length magazine Jack Barnes's "The Coming Revolution in South Africa," forecasts the way forward for the democratic revolution in South Africa and shows how the roots of a future socialist revolution in South Africa flow out of that struggle. Barnes, the national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, explains why the democratic tasks of national liberation and unification advanced by the ANC and its allies were the correct way forward for the peoples of South Africa. With examples from the policies of Lenin and the Russian Bolsheviks and the Cuba and Nicaraguan revolutions, Barnes takes on sectarians who attacked the ANC because it did not have an explicitly anticapitalist program. Along with Barnes' speech, this issue contains "The Freedom Charter"--the political program the ANC advanced in the antiapartheid struggle -- "The Future Belongs to US" a Speech by ANC leader Oliver Tambo, a speech by Fidel Castro explaining why and how Cuba supported the freedom struggle in Angola, and a summary of the then latest stages in the South African struggle by Ernest Harsch.

I am new to homeopathy and I have found this book to be so simple and easy to understand. It has helped me to understand why the Hyland's Teething Tablets aren't working for my son.

He needs a more defined and "classical" approach.

This is my 2nd Miranda Castro book (1st being Homeopathy for Mother and Child) she continues her common sense, practical approach in this book. Homeopathy has worked amazingly well in our family for everything so far - and each time I have referred to Ms. Castro's books; particularly good for my little boy from new-born to now 3½. For those looking for safe, non-drug alternatives this will be welcome help and support.

an excellent introduction to and explination of homeopathy. This is a wonderful tool for those wishing to learn more anout treating themselves with homeopathic remadies. The only consern I have is that a reader my feel overly confident and not feel the need to discuss illness with a health professional.

...usted necesita a este libro.Mientras el imperialismo yanqui hace una guerra criminal ( marzo 2003 ) en el Medio Oriente que achicará a la Guerra del Golfo de 1991, este libro es tan necesario hoy como fue durante la guerra previa. Los dirigentes de la revolución cubana, dentro de la Organización de Naciones Unidas y afuera, plantearon entonces y plantean hoy que los objetivos verdaderas en la guerra anterior son los mismos que en la guerra de hoy: una conquista colonial de uno de los países de mayores recursos petroleros de la Tierra. Escucha a estas voces y no a las de los políticos, sobre todo las estadounidenses, que sirven los capitalistas petroleros, ni Bush ni sus aliados del Partido Demócrata. Lea y entienda que es la tarea del pueblo irakí derrocar a la dictadura de Saddam Hussein y sus generales; y aprenda que la lucha del pueblo irakí en contra el imperialismo yanqui y forma parte de la lucha unida de los pueblos de Asia, África y América Latina echar el dominio de los países imperialistas de Europa, Norteamérica y Japón. ¡Lea estas palabras y únase a la lucha en contra las guerras imperialistas y a la lucha por la autodeterminación de los oprimidos del mundo!

With US Imperialism preparing a war in the Middle East that will dwarf the Gulf War discussed here, this book is needed just as much as it was needed during the Gulf War. The leaders of the Cuban revolution in the UN and beyond pointed out then, and point out today that the real objectives of imperialism in this war are nothing less than a colonial conquest of the one of the richest oil countries on Earth. Listen to these voices, not the lies of Emron-paid-for-my-campaign Bush when you consider what the coming war is all about. Listen to these voices and understand that no matter how bad the regime in Iraq is, the struggle of the Iraqi people is part of the struggle of all the peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America to throw off the economic and political domination of the imperialist countries of Europe, North America, and Japan. Read these words and join the struggle against imperialist war and for the self-determination of the oppressed of the Earth!

En sus propias palabras --el enfrentamiento entre el gobierno revolucionario de Cuba y los imperialistas de EEUU y sus aliados en plena carrera guerrerista. Documentos de augusto, septiembre y octubre de 1990, mientras EEUU preparaba la guerra sangrienta contra Iraq.

En 9 capítulos, el libro presenta textos de las resoluciones del Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas y declaraciones hechas por el representante cubano, Ricardo Alarcón, y el presidente cubano Fidel Castro. Explican con datos y argumentos detallados porque Cuba se opuso a los planes de EEUU y sus aliados.

¿Quiere entender las razones por las guerras libradas por EEUU en todos los rincones del mundo?
¿Quiere entender el papel de la ONU en el mundo de hoy?
¿Quiere saber más de la crisis económica y social del mundo hoy en día --y cómo luchar para cambiarlo?

Entonces, ¡lea este libro y compártelo con sus amigas y amigos!

A lovely yet disturbing record of endangered wildlife and habitats from Madagascar to Hawai'i. DePonte opted to shoot in black and white to starkly depict the fragility of these lands, toning the prints cappuccino to further suggest these worlds are disappearing into memory. Her pictures are accompanied by haunting poetic narratives by Berry, who joined DePonte on the trip.
There are images of great beauty - a tiny lemur, head in sharp focus, body blurred, depicting nature's fierce will to survive. A young woman floating in water through a track of sunlight, the reflection of a cottony cloud wafting towards her. But there are also photos that echo the ecological alarms of the text, such as a rancher marching skinny-haunched cattle across a burned-out Amazon landscape. Then there's DePonte's stylistic innovation - nudes who "are posed to blend into environment to show how small and vulnerable we are compared to Mother Nature, who will lash back at us." Women crouch in submission or emerge from the rocks. A male nude grasps a huge tree like a newborn clinging to its mother, to the words "Embrace this miracle, grow strong within earth." Image and verse suggest we are one with nature and in losing nature we destroy ourselves.

One of the most insightful, beautiful books I have ever seen. The photographs are haunting and captivating at the same time. This is a wonderful gift to help educate on the demise of the rainforest. Looking through this book, one journeys to places where scientist warn that civilized man may first comprehend the most tragic loss of living creatures since the demise of the dinosaurs. Images and verse strengthen our connection to Gaia, Earth's natural mantle, while the fate of that living fabric remains uncertain.

Global Art In Action, Inc. published this book to increase public-awareness of the current ecological crisis, to help re-establish human ties to the Earth, and to raise funds needed for Conservation International's "Campaign to save the Hotspots".

I'm glad that I bought this book and highly recommend it.

Although unpaginated, the book contains over 100 beautiful photographs from Brazil, Hawaii, and Madagascar.

Catches the feeling for the "primitive" peoples still existant in the world.

La revolución granadina de 1979 1983 fue una experiencia política de inmensa importancia, tanto por los pueblos del Caribe como trabajadores y campesinos del mundo entero. Un país pequeño, con apenas 100 mil habitantes, pero con una rica lucha revolucionaria estableció un gobierno de los trabajadores y campesinos. Junto con Cuba y Nicaragua sandinista, Granada fue uno de los "tres gigantes" de aquellos años. Granada enfrentó todos los problemas del mundo actual: la dominación del imperialismo, el subdesarrollo, el racismo. Y tomó pasos gigantes en el camino para construir una nueva sociedad, basada en la solidaridad humana e el internacionalismo.

Este folleto -- realmente un libro-- publica el discurso de Maurice Bishop, el dirigente central de la revolución, ante una multitud de personas reunidas en la universidad Hunter College en Nueva York en junio de 1983; el discurso de Fidel Castro en al acto de mases conmemorando los trabajadores cubanos muertos en combate contra la invasión norteamericana de la isla en octubre de 1983; y un largo análisis de los logros y la caída de la revolución escrito por Steve Clark como introducción al libro Maurice Bishop Speaks.

Entre las cuestiones más importantes para la humanidad es la tarea de la construcción de una vanguardia revolucionaria capaz de encabezar la lucha de masas en el mundo de hoy -- y evitar lo que al fin pasó en Granada, un levantamiento contrarrevolucionario desde dentro de la misma dirigencia revolucionaria. Los hechos documentados en este folleto bien vale ser estudiado, tanto para conocer nuestra historia verdadera y para preparar mejor las luchas obreras que se avecinen.

The revolution in Grenada was the first socialist revolution in the English-speaking world, the first socialist revolution in a country of Africa descended people,and sadly the first revolution smashed by the combination of Stalinist counterrevolution and imperialist invasion. As the world in general, and the West Indies, Africa, and Black people in America are already facing conditions as bad as those of the great depression, working people will return to this battle, and seize not just the spirit and courage of this small island fighting against the imperialist monster, but of the concrete lessons, bad and good, won in their blood. This small pamphlet recounts that history, those lessons, and that spirit, not in the style of some history teacher, or in the style of sentimentalist wanting you to cry over Grenada's past. It is written so the blood and struggle of the Grenadian people can teach today's fighting workers and farmers, across the globe to win their triumphs and avoid their defeats.

Este folleto cuenta la historia de una gran revolución en una isla pequeñita; en 1979 el movimiento encabezado por Maurice Bishop derrocó el dictador de Granada, Eric Gairy, acto que también derrocó el dominio imperialismo de este país caribeño. Las nuevas políticas: la reforma agraria, la educación y el seguro social -ambos ya gratuitos-, las nuevas formas del poder popular obrero y campesino en lugar de la "democracia parlamentaria" anterior, el desarrollo de la agricultura y el turismo como industrias nacionales en beneficio de los obreros y campesinos en lugar que los superricos patrones extranjeros, todas ellas enfurecieron a los imperialistas y su gobierno en Washington, pero sobre todo los imperialistas odiaron y temieron el hecho de que Granada marchó al lado de las otras revoluciones anticapitalistas en la región: las revoluciones sandinista y cubana. Lee este folleto y aprenda porque Fidel Castro calificó a Cuba, Nicaragua y Granada como tres gigantes que alzan en el umbral del imperialismo. Esta obra también explica por un lado el golpe del estado estalinista que asesinó a Bishop y así dio paso a la invasión brutal, y por otro la complicidad de los políticos del Partido Demócrata estadounidense en esa invasión.

Che Guevara, l'auteur, touche les grandes questions que se posent ceux qui cherchent à comprendre l'expérience cubaine - ceux qui cherchent à la comprendre parce qu'on veut que ce soit possible de construire une société meilleure. Le rapport entre Fidel Castro et le peuple, entre l'individu et la communauté, entre le présent et sa transformation. Très concret, honnête et poétique. J'ai apprécié son à-côté, qui n'en est réellement pas un, qui traite des artistes cubains : comment ils ne seront jamais de bons artistes tant et aussi longtemps qu'ils vont se voir à l'extérieur de l'activité la plus créatrice - la lutte pour le socialisme. Mais, en même temps, en quoi leur imposer un style serait tuer ce que la révolution lutte pour accomplir. Le discours de Fidel lors du 20e anniversaire pour commémorer la mort du Che, inclus dans cette brochure, nous convainc que la révolution cubaine vit et évolue toujours.

Why did Cuba survive the 'collapse of communism' ? Che Guevara explained that without a communist party, a genuine one which means led by the most politically conscious and self-sacrificing workers and farmers, leading a constant battle for workers' control and a higher level of consciousness and solidarity among the whole population, any revolution would slide back toward capitalism. The Cuban Communist Party is such a party: the only one in power anywhere since the 1920s.Thus, he predicted the collapse of Stalinism ( as opposed to communism).Cuba put his ideas into practice in the middle to late 1980s for the first time on a nationwide basis.It was this battle against bureaucracy and for workers' democracy that made Cuba strong enough to survive its severest economic crisis since the revolutionary triumph.Cuba is ready to aid as always any revolutionary movements that develop as a result of the present crisis of capitalism, and the revolutions to come : its internationalism is intact. The basic line of march ,the ideas as a guide to action that make Cuba capable of mobilizing millions for socialism and the revolution in 2002 are outlined in this pamphlet.Workers and farmers everywhere who fight back against capital NEED THIS BOOKLET.

This pamphlet ranks with the communist manifesto, with State and the Revolution, with Trotsky's great writings against stalin, as one of the texts the encapsulates why and how we fight for a world of working people in power, why revolutionists like Che gave their lives for the cause of socialism, why humanity has a future out of the muck and mire and filth, why we fight. Che admits revolutionists fight for the love of the world. Che who brought books of poetry and of languages and of higher math with him to Bolivia, not for his own enjoyment, but to truly educate the other fighters, Che in simple direct but almost poetic words, explains why we fight, why we will win.

At the beginning of this book, Fidel Castro exclaims to a multitude of cheering Cuban workers and peasants near the beginning of the revolution, " This is democracy !" The democracy of workers power in the factories, shops, and sugar mills and plantations. The democracy of the peasants owning the land they work. The democracy of almost two million Cubans armed and trained by their government to use modern weapons in a people's militia. The democracy that means the workers and farmers not empowered, but IN power. Cuban workers and farmers vote for their representatives, but this book shows that even before those revolutionary institutions were set up, Cubans had more democracy than ever existed here since Radical Reconstruction (from 1865-1877) ! This book also potrays the battle between the geniuine communist leaders around Fidel Castro, Raúl Castro, Che Guevara,et. al. and the pro-Moscow wannabe--capitalist Stalinist bureaucrats. Read the rest in the New International Marxist review # 8 : "Che Guevara, Cuba, and the Road to Socialism" and # 11 " Imperialism's March Toward Fascism and War."

More than twenty speeches and articles, spread out over more than two decades, describe the socialist system Cuba?s workers and farmers are creating. The fight against bureaucracy, the role of labor unions, and Cuba?s electoral system all illustrate the point that the Cuban revolution has produced a power that is deeply democratic.

In the first speech in this book, "This is Democracy!," given to a mass rally on May Day 1960, Cuban leader Fidel Castro discusses the new society that was beginning to be built in revolutionary Cuba after the 1950 overthrow of the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship. The more than twenty speeches printed here detail the revolutionary course charted by leaders of the Cuban revolution and their response to big challenges along the way, from U.S. and Cuban capitalist attacks, lies and slanders to bureaucratic misleaders that developed within Cuba itself.

Many of the speeches are from the 1970s, difficult years for Cuba given the failure of revolutionary movements elsewhere in Latin America and strong pressure to adapt to the bureaucratic methods and practices of the Soviet Union. I'd recommend reading this along with another book of Fidel's speeches, "Cuba's Internationalist Foreign Policy,"-- that details the worldwide perspective of solidarity and the selfless assistance Cuba gave to others fighting for their freedom at this time.

The last speeches come from the early 1980s, after the worker and peasant revolutions in Nicaragua and Grenada gave new impetus to Cuban revolutionaries. You can see the seeds of the deep-going changes Fidel and the Cuban leadership led forward in the mid-1980s in the campaign known as "rectification." You can also read more about this in the book "In Defense of Socialism," a collection of Fidel's speeches from the late 1980s.

En este pequeño libro se ve el internacionalismo en acción. Nelson Mandela y Fidel Castro explica en discursos dieron conjuntos en Cuba ( en 1991 ) como la ayuda militar, incluye combatientes voluntarios que Cuba dió a Angola combatir las invasiones de las tropas de sudafrica racista ayudó a la lucha independentista de Namibia y también a la revolución democratica sudafricana.. Más que todo, en este libro dos soldados de la revolución mundial plantean un punto de vista cientifica acerca del imperialismo, el capitalismo hoy día llamada " globalizado"que Fidel describe como la esclavitud de hoy en día, y - más importante que todo - ,la capacidad que la gente " común", los trabajadores y campesinos tomar el poder, hacer revolución, y empezar la historia humana. Como Mandela dijo en estas paginas, es el pueblo que hacen la historia - no los reyes ni los príncipes ni los generales.Es una lección indispensible por nosotros los obreros y campesinos en lucha en contra de la clase de superricos hoy y mañana.

Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela together in Cuba, not simply celebrating the victory of the South African Freedom struggle, not simply celebrating the continued life of the Cuban revolution, but speaking the truth about how the oppressed of the world can fight,can struggle, can win. Just the idea that this little book exists, let alone its stirring, intelligent words, reminds me that though the battles have been tough, working people fighting like these two fighters can win.

Aquí hay dos discursos magníficos por destacados dirigentes revolucionarios: Nelson Mandela de Sudáfrica y Fidel Castro de Cuba, en ocasión de la visita de Mandela a Cuba en 1991.

Mandela acaba de haber salido de la cárcel en Sudáfrica, después de cumplir 28 años de una condena perpetua por su lucha contra el sistema racista del apartheid. Su visita a Cuba tuvo una importancia especial, dado en papel imprescindible de cientos de miles de voluntarios cubanos en la lucha militar contra la invasión de Angola por el ejército sudafricano. La derrota de los invasores en la histórica batalla de Cuito Cuanavale en 1988 abrió una nueva y exitosa etapa en la lucha contra el apartheid. También fue una experiencia importante que fortaleció la conciencia revolucionaria en Cuba, haciendo posible avances contra la presión del capitalismo y el burocratismo.

El título del libro "¡Que lejos hemos llegado los esclavos!" viene del discurso de Fidel, hablando de los raíces africanos de los pueblos de Cuba y de todo el Caribe. Una perspectiva internacionalista incomparable de la unidad de los intereses y las luchas de los pueblos explotados y oprimidos en todo el mundo!

If you ask the average person to name as many sharks as they can, they might come up with about 15. This book has a lot more. It has an entry for every shark that can be found off the shores of North America, and because sharks are wide ranging animals, this means most of the sharks in the world. Castro, a scientist for the National Marine Fisheries Department, starts off with a very well done introduction to sharks in general. Then there is a dichotomous key to family and to species for all species covered. The write up on each species has a line drawing in profile and of the teeth. Aside from ID information there is a plethora of useful biological info that is hard to find in any one source for all species. This includes litter size, pup size and frequently age and size at maturity. If you have an interest in the natural history of marine animals, this book is a must have.

I found this to be an excellent reference book. It is an easy read and presents taxonomic information in a way that everyone can grasp. Information provided for each shark species includes facts about the species biology and relation to man - information most field guides gloss over. As a marine biologist, I have found this book invauable.

If you love your sharks, this is the book you need to get. It has a well-written introduction, a very nice classification system to help you identify that shark you saw last week while diving, and in-depth descriptions of just about every shark prevalent in these waters. I would have liked to see more color photos of the sharks, but that's just picking at nits. This book will be a well-read part of your reference library for years to come.