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From: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Politics of Oxfam America
Message-ID: <291@gargoyle.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-Jan-86 14:36:04 EST
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.291
Posted: Fri Jan  3 14:36:04 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Jan-86 22:12:05 EST
References: <1657@bbncca.ARPA>
Reply-To: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Organization: U. of Chicago, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 37

Ron Rizzo writes:

>The regimes Larry admires for their progressive and enlightened
>social policies are precisely those that have frequently resorted to
>mass starvation, food discrimination, or whose ruinous & antihuman
>economic programs have destroyed or disabled entire economies,
>causing hunger and famines that were avoidable:
>
>1 In 1931-2, the Bolsheviks expropriated the harvest of the Ukraine,
>  sealed off its borders, letting none exit or enter, and proceeded to
>  deliberately starve 7-10 million Ukrainians in order to destroy
>  Ukrainian nationalism by destroying Ukrainians (I'll shortly post an
>  article on this, too).  It was genocide by planned famine.
>
>2 China's Great Leap Forward in 1958-1962, a piece of sheer folly
>  foisted on the country by Mao, resulted in mass starvation: estimates
>  place the dead at 50 million or more.
>
>3 Partial & gradual, or complete & quick, starvation, as well as
>  planned malnutrition designed to enervate, is a key component of the
>  USSR's gulag, or system of 1000s of concentration camps.  Similar
>  gulags exist in Cuba and other communist societies.

The first step in understanding any historical situation is to divide
the participants into Good Guys and Bad Guys.  Since the political
leaders of the above-mentioned communist countries are responsible
for these atrocities and economic disasters, it is beyond question
that they are Bad Guys.  Thus, if any policies of, say, the Cuban or
Chinese governments appear humane, enlightened, or constructive, this
is necessarily an illusion:  we know that these countries are run by
Bad Guys.

I am currently trying to determine whether the Sandinistas are the
Good Guys or the Bad Guys in Nicaragua.  Any assistance will be
appreciated.
-- 
Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes