PLEASE JOIN Michael Albert, Stanley Aronowitz, Mel Bienenfeld, Eileen Boris, Robert Brenner, Stephen Bronner, Noam Chomsky, Joshua Cohen, Mike Davis, Richard Deats, Haroldo Dilla, Manuela Dobos, Ariel Dorfman, Melinda Downey, Mark Dow, Barry Finger, Barbara Ehrenreich, Gertrude Ezorsky, Samuel Farber, Janeane Garofalo, Barbara Garson, Susan Griffin, Thomas Harrison, Michael Hirsch, Adam Hochschild, Doug Ireland, Alan Johnson, Joanne Landy, Jesse Lemisch, John Leonard, Sue Leonard, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Nelson Lichtenstein, Arthur Lipow, Gretchen Lipow, Michael Lowy, Betty Reid Mandell, Marvin Mandell, Grace Paley, Christopher Phelps, Katha Pollitt, Matthew Rothschild, Edward Said, Jennifer Scarlott, Carl Schorske, Juliet Schor, Ellen Schrecker, Stephen Shalom, Adam Shatz, Alan Sokal, Chris Toensing, Immanuel Wallerstein, Liz Walsack, James Weinstein, Naomi Weisstein, Cora Weiss, Peter Weiss, Cornel West, Reginald Wilson, Kent Worcester, Howard Zinn and others in signing this statement against repression in Cuba from the Campaign for Peace and Democracy.
CPD's statement "We Oppose both Saddam Hussein and the U.S, War on Iraq: A call for a new, democratic U.S. foreign policy" appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, and The Progressive, as well as on the ZNet, Progressive, Nation, and Boston Review websites and on numerous listserves in this country and abroad. With your help we will also aim to publicize this statement as broadly as possible.
Thank you,
Joanne Landy, Thomas Harrison, Jennifer Scarlott, Co-Directors, CPD
Anti-War, Social Justice and Human Rights Advocates Oppose Repression in Cuba
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, strongly protest the current wave of repression in Cuba. We condemn the arrests of scores of opponents of the Cuban government for their nonviolent political activities, and the shockingly long prison sentences -- some as high as 28 years -- imposed after unfair trials. According to Amnesty International, the arrestees include journalists, owners of private libraries and members of illegal opposition parties. We condemn as well the trial and execution of three alleged hijackers in a week's time, both for the lack of due process and because we oppose capital punishment on principle.
As anti-war,
social justice and human rights advocates, we condemned the brutal Saddam Hussein regime, and
we oppose the United States occupation of Iraq. We support civil liberties and democratic rights
everywhere, regardless of the country's economic, political or social system. We believe it is
imperative to be consistent in opposing repression wherever it takes place, whether in Iraq or
Saudi Arabia, Israel or Cuba, Turkey or the United States. Democratic change in Cuba needs to
be achieved by the Cuban people themselves. The Cuban government's violations of democratic
rights do not justify sanctions or any other form of intervention by the United States in Cuba. The
government of the United States -- which employs the rhetoric of human rights when doing so
promotes its imperial goals, but maintains a discreet silence or makes only token protests when
U.S. allies are involved, and which fully supports the barbaric practice of capital punishment,
routinely inflicted in the U.S. -- is hardly in a position to preach democracy and human rights.
And we recall
too the long, criminal record of U.S. interventions in Latin America. This record has included six
decades of exploitation and imperial control of Cuba, followed by an attempted invasion and a
campaign of international terrorism and economic warfare, that is by now well-documented. Only
a government that repudiated this record, renounced any intention of restoring its economic or
political domination over Cuba, either directly or through rightwing Cuban-American proxies, and
promised to respect the democratic will of the Cuban people themselves would have the moral
legitimacy to call for democratic change in Cuba.
As the Bush
administration, further emboldened by its military victory in Iraq, threatens to wage "preemptive"
wars around the globe we reaffirm our support for the right of self-determination in Cuba and our
strong opposition to the U.S. policy of economic sanctions that has brought such suffering to the
Cuban people.
At the same
time, we support democracy in Cuba. The imprisonment of people for attempting to exercise their
rights of free expression is outrageous and unacceptable. We call on the Castro government to
release all political prisoners and let the Cuban people speak, write and organize freely.
MARCH 2003
Comment from the
Campaign for Peace and Democracy
The text below is not part of the statement to be signed, but a comment from the Campaign for Peace and Democracy on some issues that often arise in discussion about democracy in Cuba. People who agree with the statement itself need not agree with this comment in order to sign the statement.
All the
information available to us indicates that, apart from the individuals accused of hijacking, none of
the prisoners were charged with violent actions; rather, they have been accused of collaborating
with U.S. diplomats to undermine the state, and/or receiving American government funds. Many
of them, as well as other Cuban dissidents, have met with James Cason, head of the U.S. Interests
Section in Cuba, and some have received duplicating materials, funding or other resources directly
from the U.S. government or from NGOs funded by Washington.
One reason
dissidents turn to the U.S. for help is that Cubans are not consistently allowed access to the tools
necessary to disseminate their views to the public: computers, copying machines, printers, etc.
Obviously they would not be as likely to accept U.S. aid, and the political influence that generally
accompanies it, if Cuban citizens, whatever their views, were free to acquire these items
themselves, without obstacles.
Many dissidents
(and non-dissidents) in Cuba look to the United States, some because they actually favor an
unbridled U.S.-style capitalist system, others because they sincerely believe that the U.S. is
interested in promoting genuine political and social democracy in Cuba. The latter are terribly
mistaken, because Washington's interest is in reconstructing a society of private wealth and
privilege and in promoting a conservative, and probably repressive, pro-U.S. government in
Havana.
But this is a
political problem that in no way justifies repression. Rightwing politics and support for the U.S. in
Cuba cannot be countered by censorship and imprisonment. Neither the Cuban government nor
any other government has the right to stifle or obstruct the free expression of opinions, no matter
how repellent or misguided we think they might be. Instead, progressives should try to influence
Cubans by simultaneously protesting the Castro government's repression and U.S.
interventionism, and exposing Washington's reactionary agenda for their country.
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