DAVID Cook says he cannot think of any socialist country that has been a success and he cites Cuba and China as examples.

To describe Cuba, China and the Soviet Union, for example, as socialist states simply because they say they are, is highly inaccurate.

They are and were not socialists but fascists.

If we take a definition of fascism, “the totalitarian principles and organisation of the extreme right-wing nationalist movement” we will see that the definition applies to those countries.

They were and are totalitarian, with an elite group group running the countries in question, and ruling with an iron fist.

Indeed in 1928 when Stalin began to rule the Soviet Union he was also an extreme nationalist as well.

Cuba under Fidel Castro and China under the thumb of the ruling class were both ruled with vicious totalitarianism, filling the prisons with those who disagreed with them and must be described as fascists not socialists.

Whereas a definition of socialism, ‘the community as a whole should own and control the means of production, distribution and exchange’ shows that the whole nation in any socialist country should be deeply involved in the country’s economic development.

I hope he will now consider the definitions of the two theories above and no longer talk about socialist countries failing.

We have not yet had a socialist country anywhere.

Brian Oosthuysen

Kingscourt