THE FOLLOWING NOTE WAS POSTED TO PROGRESO WEEKLY'S WEBSITE BY ME TODAY
IN REACTION TO THE "TRIBUTE" POSTED THERE TODAY ABOUT CELIA HART:

This is the first detailed discussion of Celia Hart's life and ideas I've
seen outside the short obituary notice which appeared in Granma.

Not good!

While the author expresses a certain sympathy for Celia and her ideas,
unfortunately, it's got a number of political errors and one very annoying
translation error.

I knew Celia Hart who often called me her favorite editor. I never tried to
change her ideas, but only to see to it that they were faithfully translated
to English.

While I did not always agree with what she wrote, but thought hers was an
authentic Cuban revolutionary voice, whatever I personally thought.

It was my decision to begin to translate many of Celia Hart's articles into
English as part of my work with an online news service called CubaNews. You
can find links to many of her articles, in Spanish and English at the
web-page I've been maintaining about Celia Hart for some years.

Trotsky did NOT support the "workers opposition" inside the Soviet Union
during the early years of the Russian Revolution. Trotsky was part of the
revolutionary leadership at that time and did not go into opposition until
several years later.

The original Spanish uses the term "trotskista" to describe Celia Hart's
politics, but in English the pejorative "Trotskyite" is used when Trotskyist
would be a more accurate translation.

Celia described herself as a Trotskyist, and sometimes as a "Trotskyera"
which might loosely be translated as "Freelance Trotskyist" since she never
was part of any Trotskyist organization.

Whatever her critical ideas and distinctive ways of expressing them, Celia
supported the Cuban Revolution, and particularly the leadership of Fidel
Castro. This article completely omits any mention of such things.
Her record on such political matters is clear and well-documented.

I hope that Progreso Weekly can find a better way to give tribute to Celia
Hart. This article is clearly NOT that.

This article TRASHES Celia Hart!


Walter Lippmann
Los Angeles
=========================================================================

http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=
com_content&task=view&id=625&Itemid=1

Sep 18 - 24, 2008
Celia Hart: In memoriam
By Jorge Gómez Barata
Read Spanish Version

The immensity of the tragedy caused by the hurricanes that flogged Cuba
overshadowed the news: on Sunday, Sept. 7, a tragic traffic accident in
Havana took the lives of Celia and Abel Hart Santamaría, the children of
Armando Hart Dávalos and Haydée Santamaría.

I knew Celia a little, and late in her life. Through a mutual friend, she
contacted me because, she said, she liked my way of writing and she praised
what she called my ability to broach "difficult topics." At the same time,
she cautioned me about what seemed to her to be "ambiguities" that, in her
opinion, might lead to "theoretical inconsequences."

I did not argue with her because I never do so with people who read me; nor
did I allow that she was right because such interpretations are familiar to
me. I never criticized her because it is not my place to judge, because
I believe in the right to think differently, and because her political
bravery and intellectual honesty seemed to me respectable. In fact, we
shared philosophical and political points of view and, even though
I sought the center and she moved in the far end, we were comrades.

Most remarkable about Celia Hart's genuinely revolutionary thinking (and
paradoxically the axis of many of her contradictions) was her admiration for
Leon Trotsky, which went beyond a devotion for the most romantic figure of
the Bolshevik Revolution and the prototype of the political fugitive and
prompted her to make common cause with his ideas.

Celia was a Marxist of the type who took from Marx his most radical
anticapitalist conclusions, which she associated to the Bolshevik
experience, in particular to Trotsky, and viewed them in the context of the
Cuban Revolution, Che Guevara and Fidel, thus producing a focus not at all
orthodox that contained reasons and arguments of such radical theoretical
quality that to some people (not to me) seemed extremist.

Naturally, she was profoundly anti-Stalinist. I never asked her how her
thinking evolved. Perhaps she was at first critical of Stalin and down that
road she came to Trotsky -- or the other way around. One day, I told her
that one can criticize Stalin without necessarily being a Trotskyite.
After all, the Russian revolutionary and intellectual (so unfairly treated)
was more a man of his time than a scientist, and did most of his work while
being excluded from the revolutionary process. She did not dismiss that
argument, although she inevitably conditioned it.

Because she admired Trotsky, Celia could not completely evade (though she
tried) the allusions to Lenin, an icon whom the Marxists avoid confronting
because he represents a kind of frontier, which is an obstacle to a full
understanding of the deformations that led to the end of the Soviet
experience. To fully exonerate Lenin is as wrong as to fully blame Stalin.
Once again, truth is a mixture.

In fact, one can be both Marxist and Trotskyite, although it is more
difficult to be simultaneously a Trotskyite and a Leninist. Before arguing
with Stalin and succumbing to his power, Trotsky confronted Lenin on the
most sensitive of all topics related to the "construction of socialism" --
democracy, first in the party and later in society. Trotsky took the first
step in what from the beginning was considered heresy and later a
counterrevolutionary act -- he headed the "workers' opposition."

Not only because of those positions that Lenin criticized (although he
could coexist with them) but also for selfish ambitions of power, Stalin
relentlessly persecuted Trotsky, the true second-highest figure of the
Bolshevik Revolution and Lenin's alter ego. Stalin deprived Trotsky of his
posts and later of his nationality, expelled him from the country and
pursued him implacably.

Stalin's long hand did not respect the generosity of Mexican President
Lázaro Cárdenas, who granted exile to the fugitive. Stalin profaned the home
of Diego Rivera and Frida Khaló, infiltrating into its inner circle a
fanatic who did not hesitate to drive a pickaxe into Leon Trotsky's cranium.

I am not surprised that Celia -- whose family on both sides knew the
brutality of repression -- repudiated those crimes, all the more when they
were allegedly committed in defense of socialism and Marxism, something she
loved. In any case, the inevitable has happened: she left us in the fullness
of her youth and amid a fevered revolutionary activity, both creative and
political. She left us as hastily as she lived and left us when she was most
needed.

Comparisons are not an issue, and she was no "gold coin," but perhaps she
existed because she was needed. It is possible that revolutions need men
like Lenin and Trotsky, women like Rose Luxembourg and voices like Celia's,
whose timbres and accents added to the Cuban Revolution.

She had many merits and other comrades who knew her better can describe
other facets. I -- who had arranged with her a meeting that we now will
never hold -- want to remember her in her most rebellious, contradictory
and perhaps most legitimate tessitura. I don't ask that she rest in peace,
because she would have never wanted to rest -- at least not while there
were any windmills to tilt at.

Jorge Gómez Barata is a journalist and professor who lives and works in
Havana.

==========================================================================

Semana del 18 al 24 de Sept, 2008
Celia Hart: in memóriam PDF Print E-mail

Por Jorge Gómez Barata
Leer Versión en Inglés

La inmensidad de la tragedia originada por los huracanes que azotaron a
Cuba, opacaron la noticia: el pasado domingo siete de septiembre, en un
trágico accidente de tránsito ocurrido en La Habana, fallecieron los
hermanos Celia y Abel Hart Santamaría, hijos de Armando Hart Dávalos y de
Haydee Santamaría.

A Celia la conocí tarde y poco, fue ella quien por intermedio de un amigo
común me contactó, según me dijo, le gustaba mi manera de escribir y elogió
lo que llamó habilidad para abordar “temas difíciles”, a la vez me advirtió
por lo que a ella le parecieron “ambigüedades” que a su juicio podían
conducir a “inconsecuencias teóricas”.

No polemicé con ella porque nunca lo hago con quienes me leen y tampoco le
di la razón porque tales interpretaciones me son familiares. Yo nunca la
critique a ella porque no me toca juzgar, porque creo en el derecho a pensar
diferente y porque su valentía política y honestidad intelectual me parecían
respetables. En definitiva compartíamos puntos de vista filosóficos y
políticos y aunque yo buscaba el centro y ella se movía en un extremo,
éramos compañeros.

Lo más llamativo del pensamiento genuinamente revolucionario de Celia Hart y
paradójicamente el eje de muchas de sus contradicciones, era su admiración
por León Trotski que trascendía la devoción por la figura más romántica de
la Revolución Bolchevique y el prototipo del perseguido político para hacer
causa común con sus ideas.

Celia era marxista del tipo que toma de Marx sus conclusiones
anticapitalistas más radicales, las cuales asociaba a la experiencia
bolchevique, en particular a Trotski, aproximándolas a la Revolución Cubana,
al Che Guevara y a Fidel, produciendo un enfoque, aunque nada ortodoxo,
tampoco exento de razones y argumentos de calidad teórica, tan radicales que
para algunos -- no es mí caso -- parecían extremistas.

Naturalmente era profundamente anti estalinista. Nunca le pregunte cómo
evolucionó su pensamiento. Tal vez fue primero crítica de Stalin y por ese
camino llegó a Trotski o a la inversa. Un día le dije que se puede asumir
criticar a Stalin sin por ello ser trotskista. Al fin y al cabo el
revolucionario e intelectual ruso tan injustamente tratado fue más un hombre
de su tiempo que un científico y la mayor parte de su obra la realizó
estando excluido del proceso revolucionario; cosa que no la demeritó aunque
inevitablemente la condicionó.

Por admirar a Trotski, Celia, aunque lo intentaba, no podía evadir
completamente las alusiones a Lenin, un icono al que los marxista evitan
confrontar porque señala una especie de frontera, lo cual es un obstáculo
para comprender cabalmente las deformaciones que condujeron al fin de la
experiencia soviética. Exonerar completamente a Lenin es tan erróneo como
culpar exclusivamente a Stalin. Otra vez la verdad es mezcla.

De hecho se puede ser a la vez marxista y trotskista, aunque es más difícil,
ser al mismo tiempo trotskista y leninista. Antes de polemizar con Stalin y
sucumbir a su poder, Trotski confrontó a Lenin en el más sensible de todos
los temas relacionados con la “construcción del socialismo”: la democracia,
primero en el partido y luego en la sociedad. Trotski dio el primer paso en
lo que desde el primer momento sería considerado una herejía y más tarde un
acto contrarrevolucionario: encabezó la “oposición obrera”.

No sólo por aquellas posiciones que Lenin criticó aunque pudo convivir con
ellas, sino por mezquinas ambiciones de poder, Stalin persiguió
implacablemente a Trotski, verdadera segunda figura de la Revolución
Bolchevique y alter ego de Lenin, lo privó de sus cargos y luego de su
nacionalidad, lo expulsó de país y lo persiguió implacablemente.

La larga mano de Stalin no respeto la generosidad del presidente mexicano
Lázaro Cárdenas que concedió asilo al proscrito y profanó el hogar de Diego
Rivera y Frida Khalo, infiltrando en su círculo intimo a un fanático a quien
no le tembló el pulso para clavar en el cráneo de León Trotski un pico de
zapador.

No me extraña que Celia cuya familia por ambos padres conociera la
brutalidad de la represión, repudiara aquellos crímenes, con más razón
cuando fueron cometidos en nombre de la defensa del socialismo y del
marxismo, cosa que ella amaba. De todos modos lo inevitable ha ocurrido: se
fue en plena juventud y en medio de una febril actividad revolucionaria
creadora y política. Se fue con la misma prisa con que vivió y se fue cuando
hacía mucha falta.

Las comparaciones no vienen al caso y ella no era una “monedita de oro” pero
tal vez existió porque se le necesitaba. Es posible que las revoluciones
necesiten hombres como Lenin y como Trotski, mujeres como Rosa Luxemburgo y
voces como las de Celia, cuyos timbres y acentos le sumaban a la Revolución
Cubana.

Ella tenía muchos meritos y otros compañeros que la conocieron mejor podrán
contar otros ángulos. Yo que había pactado con ella un encuentro que ahora
nunca podremos celebrar, he querido recordarla en su tesitura más rebelde,
contradictoria y tal vez más legitima. No pido que descanse en paz porque
ella jamás hubiera querido descansar al menos mientras hubiera molinos que
derribar.

Jorge Gómez Barata es periodista y profesor cubano que vive y trabaja en La
Habana.

=========================================
WALTER LIPPMANN
Los Angeles, California
Editor-in-Chief, CubaNews
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
"Cuba - Un Paraíso bajo el bloqueo"
=========================================