Fidel Castro responds to U.S. gov't economic offensive  

BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
"Let our imperialist enemies and reactionaries not be mistaken and let them not underestimate us," said Cuban president Fidel Castro. "They are mistaken in whatever they come up with. Their Helms-Burton Act is miserable and even more miserable is the plan to implement it."

Castro made these remarks as part of an impromptu speech at a rally at the end of the March of the Torches in Havana on January 28. Thousands of students, workers, and others took part in the action celebrating the 144th anniversary of the birth of José Martí, Cuba's national hero. They were also commemorating the 30th anniversary of the death of Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the central leaders of the Cuban revolution. Castro was responding to the news that U.S. president William Clinton had just sent a report to the U.S. Congress that day titled "Support for a Democratic Transition in Cuba."

Clinton's report was part of the aggressive use by Washington of its misnamed Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act, also referred to as the Helms- Burton law. Clinton signed the legislation March 12, 1996, substantially escalating the U.S. economic war on the Cuban people and their revolutionary government.

Clinton's latest report was filed under Title II of the Act, which instructs the president to develop a plan for a "transition to democracy and market economy" in Cuba. It stipulates that a condition for such a transition would be the installation of a government that does not include Fidel Castro or Raúl Castro, the minister of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces. Clinton's report offered $4 - 8 billion in "aid" to Cuba if such a "transition government" is put in place.

"It really angers us that someone may think that liberty and dignity can be bought off... that, in exchange for all the gold in the world, we would be capable of accepting to become slaves again," Castro said.

"We will wait for the news and information on that Machiavellian policy, and we will reply accordingly. For the time being, we tell you that free men can die but no power or money in the world can convert them into slaves."

U.S. trade offensive against allies
Washington has also taken an aggressive stance against its imperialist allies, especially in Europe and Canada, who have objected to aspects of the Helms-Burton law, particularly Title III of the act. That provision permits Cuban-American and other U.S. businessman, whose property on the Caribbean island was confiscated by Cuban workers and peasants after the 1959 revolution, to sue companies abroad that invest in those properties.

On February 3, European Union (EU) trade commissioner Leon Brittan formally asked the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO) to appoint a panel to investigate its complaint that the Helms-Burton law violates international rules Washington agreed to under the Uruguay round of trade negotiations. The WTO director-general Renato Ruggiero had 10 days to name the panelists.

The U.S. government threatened to veto Ruggiero's nominees. The White House is arguing that the Helms-Burton law falls outside the WTO's jurisdiction because Washington can order unilateral trade sanctions for reasons of "national security," a claim the EU disputes.

The U.S. legislation "has been rightly condemned well beyond the EU for its attempt to impose politically-inspired U.S. laws on the rest of the world," said an editorial in the February 4 Financial Times of London. "It amounts to a blatant example of extraterritoriality, which would most probably be ruled out of court by any WTO dispute panel."

That's why Washington has been trying to block the formation of such a panel, flaunting its military and economic superiority in Europe against its imperialist allies, who are also competitors. "The Europeans would be wise to hold their fire," warned an editorial in the New York Times on February 17. "Skirmishing over Cuba is not worth the potential risk to the World Trade Organization."

In an attempt to gain time and avert a head-on collision, the EU asked the WTO on February 12 to postpone by one week, to February 20, the nomination of a dispute panel. Subsequent talks between EU's Brittan and Stuart Eizenstat, Clinton's special envoy on Cuba, have failed to produce a settlement. As we go to press, EU officials were insisting they would press for the nomination of the panel, which would have six months to rule.

Clinton administration officials have also gone on the propaganda offensive to peddle the idea that their aggressive use of the Libertad Act is working wonders in tightening the economic noose around Cuba by stifling foreign investment. At a February 10-11 conference in Washington, D.C., (see article below) Michael Rannenberger, the State Department coordinator for Cuban affairs, claimed that 12 companies "have either pulled out of Cuba as a direct result of Libertad, or refrained from investments they were planning to make."

While the Cuban government has admitted increased economic difficulties because of the intensifying U.S. embargo, including being forced to pay much higher interest rates on loans to finance imports, Washington may be exaggerating the impact (see appeal below).

Rannenberger also praised Clinton's January 28 report and tried to counter Castro's description of its $4-8 billion offer as a crude buy-off. "It is not a bribe, as the Cuban government has alleged," he said.

'U.S. capitalist garbage'
For its part, Cuba's communist leadership has continued its propaganda counterattack. Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba's National Assembly, said in an interview on Cuban TV that after Clinton's January 28 addition to the Helms-Burton law, "perhaps it can be called the Helms-Clinton law."

"No matter how hard they try to gild the lily, they cannot deceive anyone," stated Fidel Castro in a February 7 speech at an international conference on pedagogy in Havana. "This plan is about stripping our peasants and workers of the land given by the revolution. It is about stripping all the families of the houses given by the revolution to the families that lived in them. It is about snatching from the hands of the people all the enterprises that were so justly nationalized."

The Cuban president pointed to the catastrophic results for working people of the attempts to integrate Russia and the Eastern European workers states into the capitalist market. He added that in imperialist countries like the United States capitalism perpetuates a culture of violence and drug abuse and marginalizes the poor, elderly, and sick. "Who has told the U.S. government that it has the divine right to draft government programs for another country?" Castro asked. Cubans could also consider recommending a transition government, Castro said, "one that would eliminate the capitalist garbage" that exists in the United States.

"No, Mr. Clinton, there won't be a transition government in Cuba, nor a transition from socialism to capitalism in our country!"  
 
 
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