BY GEOFF MIRELOWITZ
SEATTLE - Rev. Oden Marichal, president of the Cuban
Council of Churches, spoke to a crowd of more than 50 people at
St. Marks Church here, November 3. His talk took the form of a
wide-ranging question-answer session in which he defended the
Cuban revolution and its record on many fronts while condemning
efforts by the Washington and other capitalist governments to
force Cuba to change its socialist course.
An early question concerned the upcoming visit to Cuba by Pope John Paul. Marichal, an Episcopal minister, described some of the negotiations still going on between the Catholic Church and the Cuban government concerning details of the trip. Whatever the outcome of this discussion, "The Pope is not going to have more influence than Fidel," among Cuba's population, he asserted. Pointing to the crowds of 1 million or more who have turned out for events at which Castro has spoken, he explained, "Those in the plaza are not there by obligation," but because of their support for the Cuban revolution and its leadership.
In reply to a question about the state of Cuba's economy today, Marichal explained Cuba is trying to address the consequences of three problems which he listed as, "the blockade, our own mistakes, and the collapse of the socialist camp." He returned to this theme in answering a question about the 30th anniversary of the death of Ernesto Che Guevara in Bolivia and the recent events organized in Cuba to mark Che's death and the return of his body and those of other combatants to Cuba.
Like many other ordinary Cubans, Marichal explained, he left his house one morning to watch the procession that brought the bodies from Havana to Santa Clara. What was striking, he remarked, was the absolute silence among the enormous crowd, as a sign of respect as the bodies passed by. Although neither the government nor any mass organizations had called for this particular form of commemorating Che, almost everyone, Marichal said, had brought a flower to the procession.
In speaking of Guevara's political influence, Marichal explained that a time came in Cuba in the 1960s when Cuba found itself at a "crossroads" between what he described as "an economic road or an ethical road." The choice made at that time, he asserted, was the "economic road" that led, in Marichal's view "toward Soviet dogmatism." Marichal explained that Che's views were the opposite and that in 1986 the Cuban government and Communist Party led a "rectification process" in which Che's ideas once again became prominent as the revolution addressed its mistakes. Che's ideas and example, said Marichal, remain vital in Cuba today.
More than one comment raised the ongoing U.S. hostility and trade embargo as well as the impact of the Helms-Burton Act on Cuba. Some contrasted Washington's policy to the fact that other capitalist governments, in Europe and Canada for example, do trade with Cuba. Marichal said that many countries voted against U.S. policy when the issue has come up in the United Nations General Assembly. But even among these, he noted, "Germany provides no aid to Cuba and doesn't allow its companies to trade," with the island. "Everybody wants Cuba to change," said Marichal, referring to the capitalist governments, "sometimes just the methods are different." Some use the blockade "to force Cuba to change." Others, "say end the blockade to force Cuba to change." Neither policy, he suggested, would succeed in pressuring Cuba's people to change the revolution's socialist course.
The meeting was sponsored by the Seattle Cuba Friendshipment Committee and St. Marks Church. Marichal is part of a special delegation of Cuban religious leaders touring the United States to educate about the effects of the U.S. embargo on the Cuban people. The tour is nationally coordinated through Pastors for Peace, a project of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organizing (IFCO).