By John Riddell
Latin America at the Crossroads. By Roberto Regalado. Translation by Peter
Gellert. Ocean Press (www.oceanbooks.com.au),
2007, US$17.95; America latina entre siglos. Ocean Press, 2007, US$17.95.
This compact book by Roberto Regalado, a veteran member of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, strongly reaffirms the need for
revolution in Latin America and beyond.
Regalado, a section chief in the Cuban CP's Department of International
Relations, is anything but dogmatic. He is attentive to recent new trends in
Latin American economics and politics, and respectful toward the diverse
currents of socialist opinion. He stresses the importance of the new features
of Latin American social struggles: the role of peasants, the landless, indigenous
peoples, women, environmentalists and others.
But his careful and unpretentious analysis leads toward a striking
conclusion: only a revolutionary seizure of political power by the masses can
open the road to social progress south of the Rio Bravo and even within the
imperialist countries.
Advent of neoliberalism
In just 232 pages Regalado provides a handbook of Marxist politics,
outlining Marxism's basic anti-capitalist premise and examining closely the
evolution of revolutionary and reformist schools of thought through the 20th century.
