Broad Condemnation of Bush Anti-Cuba Policies

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LOS ANGELES:
BROAD CONDEMNATION OF BUSH'S ANTI-CUBA POLICIES

by Jon Hillson

LOS ANGELES, May 21 (NY Transfer)--A diverse panel of 13 speakers
from civil liberties and peace organizations, trade unions and
Cuba solidarity groups blasted U.S. President George W. Bush's
reaffirmation of Washington's sanctions against Cuba at a widely
covered press conference here today.

The Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity hosted the event, timed to
respond to speeches by the president in Washington and Miami on 
May 20, where the commander in chief announced his "Initiative
for a New Cuba" to mark the 100th anniversary of the annexation by
the United States of the newly independent Caribbean island.

The event demanded an immediate end to the U.S. embargo, lifting the
travel ban and normalized relations between Washington and Havana.
The press conference was covered by Los Angeles affiliates of ABC and
FOX television, the city's three main news radio stations and its
Pacifica outlet. Comments by a leader of the coalition concluded a
front-page article on local reaction to Bush's speech in 'La
Opinion,' the most widely read Spanish language daily in the United
States.

Alberto Valdivia, treasurer-elect of the 43,000 member United
Teachers of Los Angeles told the media he learned in a recent visit
to Cuba that the country's educational system is "a model for Latin
America and the world."

"It is outrageous that President Bush announces his supposed concern
for Cuban workers," Valdivia said, "as the U.S. government attacks
unions, the right to organize, and the right to strike at home."

Cuba's unions represent 98 percent of the country's working people.
"They join voluntarily. Meanwhile, in the United States, 13.5 percent
of working people are in the AFL-CIO. Who is Bush to talk about
workers' rights anywhere?"

Jose Estevez, a retired lawyer who left Cuba in opposition to the
revolutionary government in 1960, told reporters he had "fought
against Castro for a few years until I figured out what was going
on."

He described the corrupt and undemocratic character of Cuban
elections under the Batista dictatorship, and previous pro-U.S.
regimes. "I witnessed Cuban elections myself when I returned to my
country," he said. "They are free and fair, based on a secret ballot.
No money changes hands. They are uncorrupted."

"When I first went to Cuba in 1981, I expected a drab, gray,
communist society," Jan Goodman, president of the southern California
Americans for Democratic Action. "What I saw was the opposite of what
the U.S. media had prepared me for, a vibrant society, full of life."
Goodman said.

"Does anybody believe [Bush's speech] is about democracy?" asked Jim
Lafferty, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the
National Lawyers Guild. "Where was U.S. concern during the Batista
dictatorship? Where is the U.S. commitment to democracy in Saudi
Arabia, where women can't vote? In Colombia? During the Marcos regime
in the Philippines?"

Christie Sanchez, a student at Cal State Long Beach, who recently
participated in a Los Angeles area May Day delegation to Cuba, said
her trip enabled her to catch "a glimpse of why the U.S. does not
want us to see Cuba. [Washington is not] simply trying to restrict
travel to stifle what it calls an oppressive regime. It knows that as
the U.S. experiences an unavoidable economic downturn, the workers of
this country will look and see a system that is working, that
represents the working people, and deserves to be its own sovereign
state."

"As those of nine previous U.S. administrations, President Bush's
anti-Cuba sanctions policy will fail to remove Cuba's revolutionary
government. More than ever, the White House represents the views of a
shrinking minority," stated the representative of the Coalition in
Solidarity with Cuba. "Despite his thuggish rhetoric, something was
missing in the president's speech. He made no mention whatsoever of
Cuba's supposed 'offensive biological weapons' capacity. Why? The
charge was a big slander, a frame-up that could not face the light of
day. Washington had no proof because there is none. Every other claim
in President Bush's speech is made of the same tissue of lies.

"We likewise reject the claims of ex-President Carter, Senator
Christopher Dodd, the editorialists of the Los Angeles Times, and
others who state that lifting the embargo and flooding Cuba with U.S.
goods, investments, and tourists will bring 'democracy' to the island
and end the 'totalitarian Castro regime.' Washington's economic model
is exploding in Latin America, and the Cuban people reject it. They
will not surrender 43 years of principles and indisputable
achievements in health, education, science and culture for Nikes,
Levis, Coca-Cola and Botox," the coalition spokesperson noted.

Carlos Ugalde, a professor at Glendale College, told the gathering
that Cuba "will never surrender to the United States. Its people are
united." The U.S. economic model "offers them nothing," he said.

Japanese-American community activist Mark Masaoka, representing the
Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress Cuba Committee explained his
organization's efforts to build bridges to Cubans of Japanese origin.
This included a tour last year of representatives of three
generations of Japanese-Americans to Cuba. "Everyone should have this
right," he said.

Celia Simmonds-Hidalgo, of Cal State Los Angeles Latin American
Society detailed the university's exchange program with the
University of Havana. More than 120 students have visited Cuba
through this project in the last three years, a "privilege," she
said. "But this travel should be a right for all."

Scott Scheffer of the International Action Center termed it "an
outrage that Bush called for 'freeing political prisoners' in Cuba
while Washington holds five Cubans in U.S. prisons for monitoring the
activities of U.S.-based terrorists in Miami."

That outrage was compounded, added Don White, a national leader of
the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES),
"by the State Department's announcement today that Cuba remains on
the list of nations it says sponsors 'terrorism.' Cuba, in fact, has
been a victim of terrorism and has always opposed such actions."

Sally Marr, a representative of the Green Party, and Peter Dudar,
from the Coalition for World Peace, described Washington's fears of
Cuba's example in the world. "It is a just society," Dudar said. That
is why Bush does not want people from the United States to see it."

The press conference occurred five days after the completion of a
three-day tour of Los Angeles by two leaders of the Federation of
Cuban Women (FMC). Their stay concluded a packed two-week U.S. visit
that brought the women to meetings in Texas, Seattle, and the San
Francisco Bay Area. The tour was sponsored by the Women and Cuba
Collaboration, a project initiated by the Women's International
League for Peace & Freedom. The women received their visas to come to
the United States 13 hours before their plane was scheduled to leave,
confronting tour organizers with significant organizational and
financial problems. Nonetheless, the event unfolded successfully, and
without incident or provocation.

More than 200 people in Los Angeles heard Arelys Santana, a member of
the national secretariat of the FMC, and Alicia Gonzalez, a member of
the Foreign Relations Department of the organization's national
leadership body. The duo spoke at UCLA, Cal State Northridge, and
Glendale College, to a city-wide meeting at the UNITE union hall, and
an informal meeting of activists. Gonzalez was also featured on the
popular Morning Show on KPFK radio. The two Cubans fielded scores of
questions at their meetings and on the air. Some of these dealt with
the unfolding visit of former US President Jimmy Carter in Cuba, and
its agenda.

"We are alert to everything," Gonzalez told the crowd at the union
hall the day after Carter extolled the so-called Varela Project,
which calls for the return of capitalism, in the guise of
"democracy," to the island.

"We are more secure than ever," Santana added. "Don't worry about
what will happen next in Cuba. Worry about Argentina, worry about
Mexico."

"And the United States," someone in the audience shouted out.

"Si," the FMC leader agreed, "and the United States."


Copyright (c) 2002 by Jon Hillson, NY Transfer News.
 
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