this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2026
57 points (100.0% liked)
TankieJerk
243 readers
38 users here now
Dunking on Tankies from a leftist, anti-capitalist perspective.
Rules:
- No bigotry of any kind.
- No tankies or right-wingers. Liberals are allowed so long as they are aware of this
- No genocide or atrocity denial
We allow posts about tankie behavior, shitposts, and rational, leftist discussion. Please redirect any Fediverse tankie-posts to !MeanwhileOnGrad@sh.itjust.works to avoid bringing drama to Piefed.social
Curious about non-tankie leftism? If you've got a little patience for 19th century academic style, let a little Marx and Kropotkin be your primer!
Marx's Communist Manifesto, short and accessible! Highly recommended if you haven't read it
founded 6 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I mean, considering how international the Cold War was, and how active Cuba was in foreign affairs, I think it's fair to say focus at home and isolation were not major factors in Castro's policies. I think he was legitimately an idealist, just one who went down a dark path.
But an idealist going down a dark path is still preferable to a shithead going down the same. At a time in the Cold War when people starved while their dictators - Soviet or Western aligned - celebrated in style, Cuba maintained a reasonable standard of living instead of wasting its immense aid on rampant corruption.
On the downside, he made Cuba reliant on that aid, and when it dried up with the fall of the Soviet Union, so did Cuba's fortunes.
So we are largely agreed. I have a bad habit of favoring entandre to the point that I become cryptic.
About the last paragraph, being under american sanction makes it hard to trade with neighbours or occidental nations so quite a hard situation.
That's a common misconception. During the Cold War, Cuba could trade with the entirety of the Eastern Bloc and nonaligned countries; after the Cold War, nearly everyone, including the very valuable markets in Europe, repudiated America's ongoing embargo. The EU even has laws forbidding companies in the EU from cooperating with US sanctions. Even allies as close as Canada trade massive amounts with Cuba.
The ongoing sanctions primarily affect Cuban access to American markets - which are legitimately important, but should not be the difference between economic ruin and prosperity in a functioning economy.
TIL Thank you