Mohsen al Attar-Defender of the Single Party State

I’ve posted on Auckland University’s Marxist Islamic Law lecturer Mohsen al Attar, here and here.

Seems that al Attar, despite living off its wealth, is no admirer of Western democracy

In fact al Attar is an avid defender of the “Single Party” state-in particular Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

He believes that the West has a lot to learn from the Cuban system.

Here’s what Mohsen al Attar has to say about Cuba’s “one party” system;

From radical Canadian website The Warehouse

Cubans won their independence in 1959. Without wasting a breath, they began the arduous task of rebuilding their society under the banners of social equality and human solidarity. One of their first acts was to launch a national literacy campaign. Over 100,000 Cubans, mostly high school students, volunteered to relocate to the countryside to teach peasants and labourers to read and write. In just one year, illiteracy was reduced from 42% to 4% as over a million people were taught to read.

The literacy campaign quickly morphed into a public education campaign. The state has fully subsidised all levels of education since the Revolution – a policy maintained even today.

Next, Cubans tackled the corrupt political institutions established during the colonial era to disenfranchise the masses. To avoid the divisive power of party politics, they developed a single-party system. Slammed as a sham of democracy by Western officials, this framework focuses not on party power but on Poder Popular or People’s Power.

Poder Popular transformed the system of representative government by giving each citizen the right to select, elect, and be elected to the municipal, provincial, and national assemblies. By vesting authority to nominate and elect representatives with the people, the reformed political system empowered all citizens to identify and support candidates of their choosing.

This system means that most Cuban officials are not career politicians but genuine representatives of the people. In fact, almost half of the representatives in Cuba’s national assembly are not even members of the Communist Party (the only party) but independents, a proportion that appears to mimic the national climate. This staggering number of independents is possible for Cuban candidates, unlike in Western democracies, need neither party support nor donor largesse to run for office.

The single-party system had the immediate effect of stamping out petty and fictitious party rivalries. In Canada for instance, the Liberal party has been instrumental in keeping its rival, the Conservative party, in power, repeatedly voting in favour of Conservative sponsored bills. Stephane Dion may wax poetically about the repugnancy of Stephen Harper’s policies but his party’s support of its opponent’s agenda speaks volumes about the affinity between the supposed rivals. Similar politics exist in the US and the UK where the illusion of rivalry may boil our blood but, ultimately, disempowers us through manufactured division and diversion.

Another benefit of the single-party system was the curtailment of the power of oligopolies and corporations in the political process. No longer could the corporate class lavish wealth upon candidates for electoral campaigns, effectively undermining their ability to shape public policy in their favour. Indeed, being members of either the same party or no party at all means that officials are not bound by party diktat – drafted by corporate lobbies – and can thus vote for their constituents and with their consciences.

Though Westerners casually describe the Cuban system as dictatorial, Cubans have created a democracy with more popular participation, wider social representation, and greater institutional accountability than what many Westerners experience. Voter turnout figures confirm this. As voter turnout in Canada and the US hovers at 60% and 50% respectively, since 1976, 95% of registered Cuban voters have gone to the ballots. Combined with Poder Popular, this level of participation helps explain the diversity of elected officials, who range from lawyers and economists to nurses and engineers, and are comprised of 42% women and 36% of black or mixed ethnicities.

Following political reform, Cubans implemented land reform to break up the oligopolistic power of wealthy landlords. A limit was placed on the amount of land any one person could own and compensation provided to the few affected (including the Castro family!). Land recovered was distributed to landless peasants or parcelled into a series of community-controlled cooperatives. In three years, the number of land-owning peasants quintupled from 40,000 to 200,000.

By distributing land and nurturing feelings of ownership and belonging, Cubans were able to increase food production to unprecedented levels and strengthen communal solidarity. Until today, these measures ensure that every citizen has adequate shelter, nourishment, and healthcare. We may criticise Cuba for its civil rights record – sometimes justifiably – but we must applaud the nation’s commitment to social equity.

Cuba’s commitment to social and economic justice extends far beyond its borders. During the American war against Vietnam, Cuba sent food and blood supplies and trained workers to assist the suffering Vietnamese. In 1988, Cuban troops in Angola helped to defeat the colonial forces of the US and South Africa. This was a catalyst for the collapse of apartheid, a fact recognised by Nelson Mandela who thanked Cubans declaring “you made this possible.” Finally, with more doctors per capita than any other country (in the world), Cuba sends tens of thousands of doctors every year to the poorest barrios in Latin America, Africa, and Asia to provide free medical care.

The airtight safety net Cubans enjoy and their solidarity with the world’s poorest is evidence of the strength of a collaborationist culture. Though Western political discourse surrounding Cuba ignores these advantages, a different picture exists outside the West as Third World nations – Venezuela, Bolivia, Paraguay, Angola, and Tanzania – see this equitable model as a goal to strive for.

First World countries, too, have much to learn from Cuba. Despite scarce resources, principles of social equality and human solidarity have helped propel the tiny island to the front of the Human Development Index where the compassion of community trumps the self-interest of the market. Such are the benefits of single-party democracy when practiced by a highly educated and politically active populace.

Regrettably, in the West, these values only elicit condemnation and this despite the catastrophes – human and financial – that advanced capitalism has produced globally (lest we disregard the banking, insurance, and financial meltdowns of 2008).

Neoliberalism has failed. Best we accept this and look for alternatives. Cuba is a good place to start.

Congratulations Kiwis-you’re paying this man’s salary.

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6 thoughts on “Mohsen al Attar-Defender of the Single Party State

  1. "http://www.chiropracticmarketingsecret.com" Illiteracy means inability to read and write. It is the root cause of ignorance which frustrates all development efforts of the government and the community. Eradication of illiteracy in a country like Bangladesh with so vast a population is undoubtedly a gigantic task. It is the social responsibility of all the literate people. men and women.To make some concerted efforts to remove illiteracy from society. The government of Bangladesh has already undertaken some important Programs in this regard. To provide primary education for at least 70 percent of children of six to ten years of age by the end of 1990. The government has launched a pro gramme called the Universal Primary Education (UPE) Project. There is another education program in which each primary school in a community is to be regarded as a Community Learning Center (CLC). The objective is to involve increasingly the parents and the members of the community in the educational activities of the school. The adults and the out-of-school youths will come to the school in the afternoon or in the evening after their work. Here they will receive not only basic education but also practical training in their vocations. The mass media, especially radio TV and newspapers can play a vital role in marking the people more conscious of the importance of literacy in the life of a nation. They can broadcast and publish regular features on various aspects of basic education. adult education and mass literacy.

  2. To be totally fair he makes some exellent points…sadly those points are at best only half of the truth. I just had a friend get back from Cuba. They have over 100 photos pasted up on Facebook. I WAS SHOCKED AT THE POVERTY THOSE PICTURES SHOW! I knew that the socialists gloss over the poverty, but I had no idea it was so bleak.

  3. continued from previous post:

    'Before I was nine I had learned the basic canon of Arab life. It was me against my brother; me and my brother against our father; my family against my cousins and the clan; the clan against the tribe; the tribe against the world, and all of us against the infidel. — Leon Uris, 'The Haj'

    It is important to understand that in some countries, with well under 100% Muslim populations, such as France, the minority Muslim populations live in ghettos, within which they are 100% Mus lim, and within which they liveby Sharia Law. The national police do not even enter these ghettos. There are no national courts, nor schools, nor non-Muslim religious facilities. In such situations, Muslims do not integrate into the community at large. The children attend madrasses. They learn only the Koran. To even associate with an infidel is a crime punishable with death. Therefore, in some areas of certain nations, Muslim Imams and extremists exercise more power than the national average would indicate.

    Today's 1.5 billion Muslims make up 22% of the world's population. But their birth rates dwarf the birth rates of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and all other believers. Muslims will exceed 50% of the world's population by the end of this century.

    Adapted from Dr. Peter Hammond's book: Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat.

    Well, boys and girls, today we are letting the fox guard the hen house. The wolves will be herding the sheep!

    Obama appoints two devout Muslims to Homeland Security posts. Doesn't this make you feel safer already?

    Obama and Janet Napolitano appoint Arif Alikhan, a devout Muslim, as Assistant Secretary for Policy Development.

    DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano swore in Kareem Shora, a devout Muslim who was born in Damascus, Syria, as ADC National Executive Director as a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC).

    NOTE: Has anyone ever heard a new govern ment official being identified as a devout Catholic, a devout Jew or a devout Protestant…? Just wondering.

    Devout Muslims being appointed to critical Homeland Security positions?

    Doesn't this make you feel safer already??

    Was it not "Devout Muslim men" who flew planes into U.S. buildings 8 years ago?

    Was it not a Devout Muslim who killed 13 at Fort Hood ?

  4. continued from previous post:

    At this point, they will work to get the ruling government to allow them to rule themselves (within their ghettos) under Sharia, the Islamic Law. The ultimate goal of Islamists is to establish Sharia law over the entire world.

    When Muslims approach 10% of the population, they tend to increase lawlessness as a means of complaint about their conditions. In Paris ,we are already seeing car-burnings. Any non-Muslim action off ends Islam and results in uprisings and threats, such as in Amsterdam , with opposition to Mohammed cartoons and films about Islam. Such tensions are seen daily, particularly in Muslim sections in:

    Guyana — Muslim 10%
    India — Muslim 13.4%
    Israel — Muslim 16%
    Kenya — Muslim 10%
    Russia — Muslim 15%

    After reaching 20%, nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, such as in:

    Ethiopia — Muslim 32.8%

    At 40%, nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare, such as in:

    Bosnia — Muslim 40%
    Chad — Muslim 53.1%
    Lebanon — Muslim 59.7%

    From 60%, nations experience unfettered persecution of non-believers of all other religions (including non-conforming Muslims), sporadic ethnic cleansing (genocide), use of Sharia Law as a weapon, and Jizya, the tax placed on infidels, such as in:

    Albania — Muslim 70%
    Malaysia — Muslim 60.4%
    Qatar — Muslim 77..5%
    Sudan — Muslim 70%

    After 80%, expect daily intimidation and violent jihad, some State-run ethnic cleansing, and even some genocide, as these nations drive out the infidels, and move toward 100% Muslim, such as has been experienced and in some ways is on-going in:

    Bangladesh — Muslim 83%
    Egypt — Muslim 90%
    Gaza — Muslim 98.7%
    Indonesia — Muslim 86.1%
    Iran — Muslim 98%
    Iraq — Muslim 97%
    Jordan — Muslim 92%
    Morocco — Muslim 98.7%
    Pakistan — Muslim 97%
    Palestine — Muslim 99%
    Syria — Muslim 90%
    Tajikistan — Muslim 90%
    Turkey — Muslim 99.8%
    United Arab Emirates — Muslim 96%

    100% will usher in the peace of 'Dar-es-Salaam' — the Islamic House of Peace. Here there's supposed to be peace, because everybody is a Muslim, the Madrasses are the only schools, and the Koran is the only word, such as in:

    Afghanistan — Muslim 100%
    Saudi Arabia — Muslim 100%
    Somalia — Muslim 100%
    Yemen — Muslim 100%

    Unfortunately, peace is never achieved, as in these 100% states the most radical Muslims intimidate and spew hatred, and satisfy their blood lust by killing less radical Muslims, for a variety of reasons.

  5. Islam Explained in Layman's Terms

    Adapted from Dr. Peter Hammond's book:
    Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat.

    Islam is not a religion, nor is it a cult. In its fullest form, it is a complete, total, 100% system of life. Islam has religious, legal, political, economic, social, and military components. The religious component is a beard for all of the other components.

    Islamization begins when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their religious privileges. When politically correct, tolerant, and culturally diverse societies agree to Muslim demands for their religious privileges, some of the other components tend to creep in as well.

    Here's how it works:

    As long as the Muslim population remains around or under 2% in any given country, they will be for the most part be regarded as a peace-loving minority, and not as a threat to other citizens. This is the case in:

    United States — Muslim 0.6%
    Australia — Muslim 1.5%
    Canada — Muslim 1.9%
    China — Muslim 1.8%
    Italy — Muslim 1.5%
    Norway — Muslim 1.8%

    At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs. This is happening in:

    Denmark — Muslim 2%
    Germany — Muslim 3.7%
    United Kingdom — Muslim 2.7%
    Spain — Muslim 4%
    Thailand — Muslim 4.6%

    From 5% on, they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population. For example, they will push for the introduction of halal (clean by Islamic standards) food, thereby securing food preparation jobs for Muslims. They will increase pressure on supermarket chains to feature halal on their shelves — along with threats for failure to comply. This is occurring in:

    France — Muslim 8%
    Philippines — 5%
    Sweden — Muslim 5%
    Switzerland — Muslim 4.3%
    The Netherlands — Muslim 5.5%
    Trinidad & Tobago — Muslim 5.8%

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