The Thirtieth Anniversary Essay by Roger Burbach ["Socialism is Dead, Long Live Socialism," Nov/Dec 1997] presents some provocative argu- ments, and is a welcome opening of debate on the future of socialist movements in Latin America. I strongly disagree, however, with the fundamentals of Burbach's analysis and conclusions. While the article considers several causes for the failure of "socialism as we knew it" in Cuba, Chile and Nicaragua, it never mentions the fundamental one, namely, that it occurred in the context of underde- velopment. In these countries, social- ism was destined to fail, as it was in the Soviet Union when the revolu- tion did not expand to Germany in 1919. It is not news that it is impos- sible to build a successful socialist regime in an underdeveloped coun- try while capitalism remains fully entrenched in the developed world. This key omission becomes the basis Readers are invited to address letters to The Editors, NACLA Report on the Americas, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 454, New York, NY 10115. Letters can be sent by e-mail to: editor@nacla. org. of Burbach's proposed utopian solu- tion-"postmodern socialisms." According to Burbach, "postmod- ern socialisms" encompass local and regional struggles of groups that live off the leftovers of the globalization feast (street vendors, garbage scav- engers), as well as current peasant struggles, like those in Chiapas and Brazil. Burbach's analysis elevates some of the most desperate struggles for survival, which arise from the profound underdevelopment of Latin America, to paradigmatic building blocks of future "socialisms." Even if it were possible to infuse these survival strategies with a socialist orientation-a doubtful proposition- local and regional "socialisms" would be doomed to failure. Not only would it be extremely difficult to convince people to forgo the ben- efits of modern technology, but external actors-governments as well as transnational entities-would do everything possible to defeat such "socialist experiments." Burbach's solution for the reconstruction of socialist movements in Latin America is utopian in its vision, and most likely very cruel in its consequences. Burbach mentions, but then fails to analyze, one possibility for the reconstruction of socialism in Latin America. For the first time, global- ization objectively favors coopera- tion among workers of different countries, including cooperation between workers in underdeveloped and developed countries. This coop- eration, moreover, may also bring important civil rights, child labor, gender equality and environmental issues to the forefront of trans- national struggles. Contrary to Burbach's proposal, which limits the range of socialist goals to the crumbs left over by the globalization process, reconstruction of the social- ist movements in Latin America necessitates broadening their scope to include the struggle for the uni- versalization of the rights to work, education, nutrition, health care, social security, access to modern technology and communication, a clean environment, democracy and racial and gender equality. Ultimately, only socialism can accomplish these goals. Thus, "Long Live Socialism."
