The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.19           May 13, 1996 
 
 
Campus Meetings Defend Cuba, Build July Youth Exchange  

BY JOSHUA CARROLL
NEW YORK - "What the U.S. Government Doesn't Want You To Know" was the subtitle of a conference on Cuba that took place April 19-20 at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC). Seventy young people attended.

Reggie Mason, a student senator and one of the main organizers of the conference, said, "Students here at BMCC and others in New York and throughout the country hold a wide range of opinions about the Cuban government and U.S. policy toward Cuba. But we agree on one principle: the necessity for a climate of intellectual freedom where an open exchange of ideas can take place."

The flyer for the conference featured pictures of two Cuban youth leaders, Iroel Sánchez and Maika Guerrero, who had been invited to be the keynote speakers at the event. Across each of their pictures was a stamp reading "VISA DENIED." This referred to the fact that the U.S. State Department had refused to allow Sánchez and Guerrero to enter the country to participate on a scheduled speaking tour of U.S. campuses, including BMCC.

Mason stated, "The denial of the visas underlines the importance of this event and what we intended to discuss in the first place: the truth about the Cuban revolution and why U.S. policy must change."

The conference included panels and discussions on the U.S. embargo against Cuba and the situation in Cuba today; traveling to Cuba on the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange; Cuba's internationalism; women in Cuba; gays and lesbians in Cuba; revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevara and the early years of the Cuban revolution; and many other topics.

Panelists came from a broad spectrum of backgrounds and political perspectives. They included Mario Medina from the Cuban Mission to the United Nations; Leslie Cagan from the Cuba Information Project; Ray LaForest, a representative of the Haiti Anti-Intervention Society; Teresa Gutiérrez from the National People's Campaign; Sally O'Brien, host of "Cuba In Focus" on WBAI radio; Rosemari Mealy, author of Fidel and Malcolm; Mary-Alice Waters, editor of Ernesto Che Guevara's Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War: 1956-1958; and Lorena Gaibor, the coordinator of the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange.

All the panelists encouraged participants in the program to visit Cuba and ask Cubans all the questions on their mind. Francisco Amador, another student senator and a member of the conference organizing committee, read greetings sent to the conference from the two Cuban youth who were denied visas. The participants decided to send greetings back proclaiming solidarity with the Cuban people and to send a letter of protest to the U.S. State Department.

In their message, Sánchez and Guerrero encouraged everyone to visit them in Cuba as part of the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange from July 24 to August 6. The delegation, open to people aged 15-35, is organized by the National Network on Cuba. Participants will spend time in the provinces of Santiago and Guantánamo, as well as Havana, where they will meet, work, and exchange experiences with young Cubans.

Conference organizers are actively publicizing and recruiting others to go on the Youth Exchange. They are holding meetings every Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. at BMCC for those interested in going to Cuba. These meetings discuss raising money for the trip, outreach to other campuses, and how to make the New York delegation as large as possible.

There are already some 20 young people in the area who have expressed serious interest in going to Cuba. Those who want more information on the New York delegation can call Reggie Mason at (212) 406-3980.

BY ALIYAH SABBAZ AND STEFANIE TRICE

NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey - Students planning to visit Cuba in July as part of the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange organized an event here titled "Cuba: A Case for Solidarity" here at Rutgers University on April 25. Thirty-five people, mostly university students, turned out.

What is the status of women in Cuba? What is the situation for Blacks? Are there elections there? What will happen when Cuban president Fidel Castro dies? Those were among the questions the mainly Latino audience asked. Student groups sponsoring the event included the Livingston College Government Association, Student Action Union, and Latinos Unidos En Poder (Latinos United in Power) and a Mexican student group. Those attending heard brief presentations by Jane Franklin, an author on Cuba; Bob Guild, a coordinator of the New Jersey Network on Cuba; Laura Garza, Socialist Workers candidate for vice president of the United States; and Lorena Gaibor, a coordinator of the U.S.-Cuban Youth Exchange.

Panelists described the conditions that sparked change throughout the years leading up to the 1959 revolution and the role of the U.S. government in dominating and exploiting the island. They discussed the impact of Washington's hostility, including the recent law passed tightening the U.S. government's embargo. Gaibor spoke about the importance of seeing Cuba firsthand and experiencing the Cuban revolution.

One youth expressed concern that the Cuban people no longer were following a vow made by Fidel Castro that "Cuba will never adopt capitalist methods."

"I see Cuba looking too much abroad for survival, rather than developing its own self-sufficiency," he said, pointing to joint ventures in tourism and other measures. Guild noted that the Cuban president said in recent speeches that Cuba was forced to introduce measures they would rather not have to rely on, like tourism.

Garza said Havana is importing almost 75 percent less of what it was able to purchase since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Stalinist regimes in the former Soviet bloc countries. The Cuban government had to adopt some measures to get the economy going, including allowing greater foreign investment. But the working class remains in charge and sets the rules. She cited the refusal of Cuba's workers to allow investors to hire only people under 35, or to exclude Blacks, as some investors have tried. "The Cuban working class sets the terms and they remain in charge," the vice presidential candidate stated. "The resources gained from these investments are used to provide the social gains of the revolution, like medical care and education for all."

One person asked if it was true that most of the Cubans who fought in Angola were Black, and what is being done today in order to fight racism. Franklin said that in Cuba the phrase "African blood is in our veins" is used to signify the fact that the majority of Cubans see themselves as descendants of Africans, and noted the pride with which Cubans view their role in defeating the apartheid regime when it invaded Angola. Garza noted that all Cubans who went to Angola volunteered to do so. The measures Cuba took outlawing racist practices also mean Afro-Cubans are among those with the greatest stake in the victory of socialism, she said.

The question of whether or not new leadership in Cuba had developed to a point where the revolution could still survive in the event of Castro's death was met with a resounding "yes" by people who had been to Cuba and spoken with youth there.

Gaibor explained that in going to Cuba participants will have the opportunity to speak with many of these youth and learn for themselves the reality of Cuba. "Part of what we'll be doing when we get back is publishing articles and doing speaking events to tell people what we learned through our discussions there," she said. Eight youth signed up at the meeting to participate in the July trip to Cuba.

BY RONI MCCANN

CINCINNATI, Ohio - Nearly 100 people, many of them young, filled a hall at the University of Cincinnati April 28 to hear José Ponce, first secretary at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C. Ponce has also served as first secretary of the Cuban embassy in Angola.

"This was the first time I've had the chance to hear a representative from Cuba, which I have always wanted to do, and I really liked what he had to say," said Chris Wilson, a member of the United African Organization on campus.

After a brief presentation highlighting conditions in Cuba both prior to the 1959 revolution and now, as well as recent U.S. government aggressions toward Cuba, the meeting was open to questions and comments. Many hands were raised during the entire period and several people prefaced their questions by thanking Ponce for his visit. Some commented on the shooting down of two planes by the Cuban government in February. One supporter of the revolution asked if there wasn't another way the Cuban government could have forced the planes down without killing anyone, arguing that the shootdown "guaranteed the passage of the Helms-Burton act," which tightens Washington's embargo against revolutionary Cuba.

"The ideal situation would have been for them to heed the warning and simply turn around without further risk," Ponce said. "They chose not to and now the rest is history." He pointed out that "civilian planes with military usage" such as those downed by Havana have been used many times in the past against Cuba, including in the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.

Several people in the audience were openly hostile to the Cuban revolution. All were given an opportunity to speak and each question was answered. In response to one comment accusing the Cuban government of repression, Ponce reviewed the facts. "There are no disappeared persons, no missing persons, none of the torture and murder that is carried out by the governments of many of this country's best allies. So why the accusations against us? Because we are independent, sovereign, and we say no to the U.S. government.

"Well, if that is the price, we'll pay it!" the Cuban official said to applause.

Ponce's visit was sponsored by the People in Solidarity with Cuba and the Central America Task Force. "This has been the best, most informative, and most orderly discussion I've had the privilege of attending on this subject," said Bruce Levine in his closing remarks following the two-hour meeting. Levine, professor of history at the university, moderated the event.

In addition to the campus meeting, Ponce was the guest of honor at a private reception April 27; had a breakfast meeting with Dan Radford, head of the Cincinnati AFL-CIO Central Labor Council; and addressed students in a classroom at the university April 29.

Ponce's visit here coincided with a campaign launched by opponents of the Cuban revolution to demand that Cuban diplomats be restricted from traveling to address public meetings. An April 25 letter signed by right-wing Cuban-American Jorge Mas Canosa specifically cited the Ponce meeting scheduled in Cincinnati as the kind of event Washington should bar Cubans from attending.

A State Department official told the Associated Press that a blanket denial of travel requests by Cuban diplomats would be met with reciprocal restrictions on U.S. diplomats in Cuba, implying that the Clinton administration did not favor such a move. The U.S. government did deny a request by Fernando Remírez, Cuba's chief diplomat in Washington, to travel to Columbus, Ohio, for a meeting with that city's mayor.

Following Ponce's meeting many people collected information on activities in defense of Cuba. One young woman who works at a homeless shelter here was surprised when Ponce said there were no homeless in Cuba. "Our government doesn't want anyone to think there could be a society like that," she said. Later she picked up materials on the U.S.-Cuba Youth Exchange trip planned for July so she could see Cuba for herself.  
 
 
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