http://home.igc.org/~jlandy/cpd/antiwar/cuba_stmt.html

Campaign for Peace and Democracy Statement Protesting Repression in Cuba

Please join Michael Albert, Stanley Aronowitz, Eileen Boris, Robert
Brenner, Noam Chomsky, Joshua Cohen, Mike Davis, Haroldo Dilla, Manuela
Dobos, Ariel Dorfman, Barbara Ehrenreich, Samuel Farber, Janeane Garofalo,
Barbara Garson, Adam Hochschild, Doug Ireland, Naomi Klein, Jesse Lemisch,
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Nelson Lichtenstein, Grace Paley, Katha Pollitt,
Edward Said, Ellen Schrecker, Stephen Shalom, Adam Shatz, Immanuel
Wallerstein, James Weinstein, Naomi Weisstein, Cornel West, Reginald
Wilson, Howard Zinn and others in signing this statement against repression
in Cuba from the Campaign for Peace and Democracy (how to add your name,
how to contribute to publicize the statement, and the list of signers).

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.

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 American 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. Â

--
Michael Pugliese

"Without knowing that we knew nothing, we went on talking without listening
to each other. Sometimes we flattered and praised each other, understanding
that we would be flattered and praised in return. Other times we abused and
shouted at each other, as if we were in a madhouse."
-Tolstoy