I do think the Cubans have to change some of the political structures there and allow critical voices, for their own sakes, because unless there is accountability the revolution will totally atrophy. Tariq Ali More Quotes by Tariq Ali More Quotes From Tariq Ali What we are seeing in Turkey is a non-uniformed authoritarian regime led by a politician, Tayyip Erdogan, who has allowed power to go to his head and is behaving more and more like a despot. Sooner or later this will provoke political uprisings throughout the country as happened after Gezi. Tariq Ali politician political country Proximity to power has an unsurprising ability to mutate a politician's spinal cord into bright yellow jelly. Tariq Ali jelly politician yellow I think the big tragedy of the Cuban Revolution was that it became dependent on the Soviet Union, and it became dependent on the Soviet Union under a very reactionary bureaucratic regime led by Leonid Brezhnev. Tariq Ali unions tragedy thinking It was civil disobedience that won them their civil rights. Tariq Ali civil-disobedience civil-rights rights If you go to former Yugoslav states, the Balkan states, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, the situation is dire. Not to mention Bosnia, which is just run like a colony. The way they used to stand up and sing hymns to President Tito, they now salute the EU flag. It's a very strange transition that we're witnessing in most of Europe, and I don't think it's going to work. Tariq Ali running europe thinking The whole history of the 20th century is a history of resistance groups which are either nationalist or, in large parts of the Muslim word, religious groups. Tariq Ali resistance groups religious I think the United States and its British attack dog are not taken seriously anywhere in the world and can play no role in helping a political solution. Tariq Ali taken dog thinking In many parts of the world, including the Arab world, the Latin American world, and even parts of the Western world, there is a tradition of writers being quite engaged. Particularly in the Arab world you have had very, very strong traditions of literature and poetry and most of the writers have been deeply committed to the cause of the Arab nation. Tariq Ali strong literature latin That natural disasters are required to provide Americans with a glimpse of reality in their own country is an indication of the deep rot infecting the official political culture. Tariq Ali political country reality I think another crisis, which is being predicted now and which will be worse than what we saw in 2008, could bring the European Union down unless there are huge reforms from within to democratize, to give more power to the regions, etc. If this doesn't happen, the European Union will fall. Tariq Ali giving fall thinking I think to compare Germany to the Third Reich is utterly ludicrous. Tariq Ali compare germany thinking Germany is a capitalist state nurtured carefully and brought back to prosperity by the United States, and it is very loyal to the United States. I don't even think the Germans enjoy full sovereignty. There are some things which they cannot do if the United States doesn't wish them to do it. Tariq Ali germany wish thinking One cannot discuss Europe without understanding US imperial hegemony, both globally and certainly in Europe as it stands. Tariq Ali hegemony understanding europe The EU is an alliance that the Americans control, in which the EU of course has a great deal of autonomy, but in which it still is very dependent on the United States, especially militarily, but not only in that respect. So to blame the Germans for everything is an easy way out for some of those suffering in Europe today. Tariq Ali alliances suffering europe There are huge political problems in Germany, but German economic power is something which was bound to happen. The way out of this situation is through the further democratization of the European Union and a changing of its structures. Tariq Ali unions political way The current Eurozone is obviously dysfunctional. And serious people within Germany and elsewhere know this to be the case and know things cannot function this way forever. Tariq Ali forever people way If there is a Greek exit from the Eurozone, I think the German elite will be quite pleased that they can then use that to restructure the Eurozone and make it a zone where only strong countries are allowed in. There would then be two tiers within the European Union, which is in fact already happening. But you cannot simply get rid of German control by raising the specter of the Third Reich. That's ahistorical. Tariq Ali strong country thinking Effectively, the EU is a very powerful bureaucracy, dominated now by the German elite, which is backed by the rest of the European Union members. Tariq Ali members unions powerful The European Union has lost virtually all of its credibility amongst large swaths of the European population. Tariq Ali unions population lost The European Union is effectively a union dominated by the German political and economic elite. Its main function is to serve as a nucleus for financial capitalism and to ease the road for that capitalism. The other functions just irritate everyone: it's undemocratic; decisions are not made by parliament; the European Parliament is not sovereign. Tariq Ali political decision ease
