Dayan Jayatilleka, Fidel's Ethics of Violence: The Moral Dimension of the Political Thought of Fidel Castro (London: Pluto Press, 2007)

摘要

This is a welcome and important book at a time when the question of the ethical dimension of politics-both the politics of those in power and the political struggles of those resisting neoliberal domination-is of acute relevance and human significance. Jayatilleka's provocative central argument is that the moral dimension of Fidel Castro's political thought and practice has been at the core of his and Cuba's astounding military, political and social-cultural success against the odds. Jayatilleka contends that Castro thereby overcomes the theoretical impasse in radical thought in relation to ethics and violent political struggle as exemplified in the polemic between Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. In his insistence on the morally correct use of violence, Castro breaks the mould of all radical and revolutionary thought and practice to forge a 'unique synthesis' (p. 159) between the realist and idealist/ romantic political traditions (p. 194). Castro also overcomes the dichotomy between absolute non-violence and the unrestrained use of violence for political ends and, so Jayatilleka argues, provides a model for a 'leftist political ethos' and a military-political ethics for both states and anti-state organisations (p. 115).