Walter Lippman's reports from Cuba

[John Paramo <albatrosrojo2000@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 07:23:57 -0700
> From: "Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxx>
> Subject: CubaNews notes from Havana, May 26, 2003

I found this, the latest of Walter's reports from Cuba
very interesting.  It seems as if he is now venturing
around and getting to know a little more about regular
Cuban folks and Cuban present day sociological make
up.

I found  of interest his description of non-political
friends, the fact of lack of icons in houses, the
daily occurrences he experience, his recognition of
private discussions of politics, not public that is,
the fact that he visited and talked to people who
seems not to connect reality around them with the
regime and his description of some events like going
to movies or encountering people visiting the Island
...

For some reason, I kind of figuring out if Walter is
getting through the aurea and getting closer to the
material substance of today's Cuba.

Some specific comments and questions for him:

> Last night Cuban television, all three channels,
> broadcast live, the speech given by the island's
> Commander-in-Chief, Fidel Castro, to a crowd of five
thousand gathered in the plaza outside the Law School
at the University of Buenos Aires last night. The
crowd was so much bigger than originally anticipated,
that it had to be moved outside to accommodate the
gigantic and VERY enthusiastic multitudes.

There were around 10,000 people, about one third of
them from the Communist Party of Argentina - who also
provided Fidel with guards during his stay (on top of
Cuban security agents)since the government told him
that he would be better off without Argentinean
security forces around him.

Another significant group at the gathering was Patria
Libre/Barrios de Pie, a self-identified nationalist
revolutionary organization.  They probably brought 20%
of the people there.  There were also groups of people
from Workers Party (PO) and other Trotskyist groups.


> [This completely normal delay by organizers not used
> to speeches by the Cuban leader caused a "reporter"
of the Knight-Ridder chain which publishes something
called the "Miami Herald" to prematurely brag to ITS
readers:
> 
> "CASTRO SPEECH CANCELED IN ARGENTINA"
> 
> I read this important announcement while taking a
> peek
> at my e-mail right watching Fidel's live speech here
> on
> Cuban television from the live feed on Argentine TV.

Miami Herald and dozens of other newspapers which
happily published the fake report.  The ""news" item
also said that the government of Argentina was
preparing a live TV broadcast for Fidel to address the
country which was a complete fabrication.

See article about this at:
http://www.sf-frontlines.com

> Kirchner was unanimously elected when the only other
> candidate, Menem, withdrew in the face of polls
> telling him
> he wouldn't lose, but he'd be vanquished.

Kirchner got 22% of the vote in the first round and
Menem 24%.  They were supposed to have the second
round on May 18 which did not happen because Menem
quit the race in order to avoid a 80-20 defeat as most
people who did not vote for him, hate him with a
vengeance.  But Kirchner was not "unanimously"
elected, was appointed by default. 

> 
> The United States sent an insignificant flunky to
> attend,
> Housing Secretary Mel Martinez, a
> counterrevolutionary Cuban
> exile. Perhaps Martinez' qualifications for such a
> junket
> were that he could probably speak Spanish and that
> he would
> certainly NOT shake hands with the leader of the
> Cuban
> Revolution. He'd have been one of a tiny handful of
> such
> rude individuals in any event.

His presence in Buenos Aires was very funny.  He was
detained twice by Argentinean police trying to get
into public offices; received no attention in congress
where, at one point a hord of reporters trampled on
him and his security guards to get closer to Fidel and
Chavez and two newspapers declined to interview him
when his assistants tried to get those interviews for
him.

> Their chant, "Cuba, Cuba, Cuba, el pueblo te saluda"
> (Cuba,
> Cuba, Cuba, the people salute you) could be heard
> over and
> over in the crowds both at the rally and elsewhere
> in the
> city during the visit.

A thirty-year old salute to the Cuban people from most
countries in latin America.  Castro do not have as
many followers as he used to have in the past in the
continent, probably 10% of that supports remains, but
the US is highly despised which makes solidarity with
Cuba almost an automatic thing.

Cuba both solidarizes with Kirchner, who
> needs all
> the help he can get, and wishes him well. Indeed,
> the Cuban
> delegation included not only Foreign Minister Felipe
> Perez
> Roque, but the president of Cuba's national bank and
> other
> top officials.

Castro visit was almost absolutely dedicated to two
things: one to advance the interests of the Cuban
state, which needs to breaks its isolation and thus
his support for Kirchner, a center-right President who
counts on the support from Washignton as well and his
personal desire to see Argentina - as he told a mutual
friend - probably for the last time.  Mexico and
Argentina are special for Fidel.

In addition, according to the "experts", the Middle
East and Argentina, folowed by South Korea, is where
"anti-American" sentiments run higher, thus an
appropriate place to get good pictures of support for
the international campaign.

That is why he thanked the Argentineans for the
expressions of support.  THey made a good show on TV
to confront the US provocations against Cuba at
present.


It's unlikely the Cubans will be
> offering to
> loan the cash-strapped new government of Argentina
> loans
> from the island's treasury. But they may well have
> all
> manner of other kinds of expertise they can share.

Well, one of the most important businesses Fidel
conducted in Buenos Aires was to exchange his presence
in support of Kirchner for a re-negotiating of Cuban's
foreign debt with Argentina.

Cuba owes $1.5-Billion dollars to Argentina and Castro
promised to make all efforts in the near future to
repay at least partly that debt.  That is the reason
of the presence of the head of the Cuban National
Bank.

> The truth is that there's very little political
> debate in
> public in Cuba. People here argue vigorously in
> private.

And why does Walter think this happens? Is it some
peculiar characteristics of the Cuban people or is it
that political debate is stiffled by the regime?

In fact, in my many trips to the Island I saw the
opposite picture from both political activists and
regular folks.  They would argue about politics
publicly as long as other Cubans they do not know are
not around.

> I hear about debates within the Cuban Communist
> Party,
> or rather, I hear that they take place, but don't
> hear the
> terms of such debates, only that they occur.

They exist and they are known to an small layer of hte
population, the upper cadre of the party, the area
supervisors, the regional committees... it is no
secret that three factions exist in the party (one of
them opposed strongly to the recent executions and
jail terms).  Some of the recent changes in the Cuban
State Council - the real power in Cuba, which is not
the CP anymore - reflected this harsh discussion at
the top.


They exist around two basic issues: what to do with
the economy and who is going to run the shop once
Fidel - the only indisputable leader with charisma and
mass influence.

Two of those factions are opposed to Fidel's
appoitment as a heir of his brother Raul.  Combined,
those two factions constitute the majority of the
upper echelons of the party and probably half of the
State Council.  Once Fidel is gone, a real open
factional struggle will occur.

> The writer confuses joint ventures in Cuba, which
> are
> widespread, with privatization which does not happen
> in
> Cuba.

Well, is a little more complicated than that.  There
are private business (not just small ones) and Walter
can get a glimpse of that if he visit some of the
existing "malls" in Havana, including I believe the
Museo de Artesanias (an old building converted in a
mall) -- not sure about the name, though; joint
ventures which could be state-state, state-private or
private-private or foreign state-private and so on and
"concessions" meaning - for example - that foreign
hotel chains can build the buildings and keep them as
their own and profit from them for fixed periods of
time - from 40 to 75 years or whatever deal is made. 
After that, the property of the building goes to the
state. 

There ARE small and private businesses here.

Some of them no longer "small" businesses.

> The AP writer refers to the "privatized" phone
> company, but
> it's not privatized at all. I admit I don't know the
> exact
> legal arrangements, but it's a joint venture and,
> after all
> these years, you can rest assured that Cuba is not
> going to
> give control over so vital a resource as telephones
> to a
> foreign capitalist enterprise.

Why not? Bugging can be done easily if you are in
charge of state power, even if you're not. Most Cubans
do not use or not have private telephone lines, so
what's the worry.  Actually, the Italians enjoy a
"concession" as I understand it.
 
> 
> The only evidence I saw of politics in these
> peoples' homes
> were the stamps on their doors indicating that the
> mosquito
> sprayers and the census takers had visited.

This is usual in many countries in Latin America. It
is not considered evidence of political activity.

I don't
> really
> have an acute sense of how such people relate to the
> revolution. Unlike you who are reading this long
> essay in
> electronic mail, who receives lots of news and
> information
> on such topics, most people in Cuba, like most
> people in the
> world, I think, don't have the kind of burning
> interest in
> politics which readers of these lists have.

Uhmmmm... in countries where there is acute class
struggle or big movements you'll find the opposite. 
The "burning interest" you see in these lists is not
actually such, but in many cases a sedentary refuge
from reality, mostly in countries where politics is
not acutely expressed or where there are reactionary
conjunctures.  The lack of politization in Cuba is the
result of the political regime control, not the
absence of political interest.

> (By the way, most people I know who strongly SUPPORT
> the revolution also don't have posters or portraits
> of
> Fidel, or Che up in their homes, either. That's
> something
> which activists in other countries are more likely
> to have
> than Cuban are, though of course those who do.)

There are plenty of icons around teh country,
billboards and images - not as many as in some other
countries, though, but plenty.  Posters and images are
expensive in Cuba.  But if you visit the homes of
people in or closely to the CP, you'll find plenty of
them have plenty of iconography.  

Support for the revolution in Cuba has many meanings. 
There are of course and firm layer of support for the
revolution and the regime as its expression.  But
there are also many who would defend the revolution in
view of the catasthrophe they anticipate if the regime
collapses.  The fact that they witnessed the horrors
that cpaitalism brought to Russia and Eastern Europe
is enoug for them to understand what the return of
gusanos and capitalism will mean for many people. 
Still there is a growing layer of society in dispair,
who see no future in Cuba and this, I imagine, is the
layer the US is cultivating.


By the way Walter: Argentina is not the second largest
state in Latin America as you indicated, but the third
and in some aspects, the fourth.

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