Expanding links between Cuba and the U.S.

[Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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EXPANDING LINKS BETWEEN CUBA AND THE U.S.
by Walter Lippmann, October 26, 2003

Developments related to Cuba are moving very quickly.

It's necessary to stand back a bit and see the broad
picture as several significant strands are happening which
are clearly related, though you wouldn't think that from
reading the media. They present all the events as being
separate, isolated and unrelated, but that's not how it is.

At the very center of world politics is the resistance of the
Iraqi people to Washington's occupation of their country.
As the old saying goes, people don't like "liberators" who
come bearing bayonets.

The debate in US ruling circles between "grant" or "loan"
is nothing but a bi-partisan fraud as the occupiers argue
over the as-yet-uncollected spoils. Should the victims of
US occupation have to pay for their own occupation by
Washington selling Iraqi oil to pay the US corporations
picked by the Bush administration for the "rebuilding" of
their country? Or should the people of the United States
pay the complete cost, as the Bush administration says.

The Bush plan, who knows, could sink he entire economy
of the US. Remember when so-called "conservatives"
were supposed to be AGAINST deficit spending and for
BALANCED BUDGETS? They want the US taxpayers now to
cover the cost of the theft of Iraqi natural resources while
the Democrats argue that the Iraqis should be forced to
pay for some of their own occupation. Both are wrong!

The troubled US occupation of Iraq is having repercussions
in domestic US politics, and they're not limited to Iraq.
-------------------------------------------------------------

More and more US corporations and the media and elected
officials responsive them are changing their tune on Cuba as
we've seen, for example, in yesterday's New York Times
editiorial against the travel ban. Today's La Opinion, the
larges Spanish-language newspaper in the United States
features a single editorial, advocating a change in US
Cuba policy. Like many others, it frames the call in terms
of hostility toward the Revolution, but it makes the call
strongly among the Latin communities of California and
similar voices are being raised more and more daily.

US travel executives just last week flew to Cuba on a
"fully hosted" basis and spoke out against the travel ban.
In these troubled economic times, they're ready for more
business, but the Bush administration resists this.

The US Senate's vote this week, unprecented in that
august chamber's history, shows that the Bush regime is
losing its grip, and not only on Cuba policy. Its inability
to crush the resistance of the Iraqi people is becoming
clearer with each passing day as the casualty figures
increase and the flow of body bags expands daily.
----------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday tens of thousands marched in San Francisco
and in Washington against the US occupation of Iraq.

Among the demonstrators were families of soldiers who
have been placed in harm's way. As occupiers of an Arab
country with giant natural petroleum resources and being
the seat of ancient civilization many of whose institutional
memories have been wiped out by US bombers and US-
encouraged looters, the US troops are beginning to see
there is something not right, not working in their mission.

This is very different from our experience during the days
of the Vietnam war and the anti-war movement as it was
then. Those who haven't read Fred Halstead's wonderful
OUT NOW, a history of those days, should do so to get
an idea of what that period and struggle were like. That
will help to undersand both the similiarities as well as
the differences between the two periods of struggle.

With modern technology, telephones and the internet, the
families at home are in touch with their loved ones and
have begun to bring their confusion and dismay out into
the public arena, such as through participation in protests
such as these. Congratulations to International ANSWER
and to United for Peace and Justice for pulling off events
which were large, peaceful and completely successful.

I'm not sure what the specific numbers were, but since
there were either no arrests, or none enough to even be
reported. Also, since the media reports were all objective
or even favorable, we know these protests achieved the
most important goal of all: a loud, clear and unmistakable
chorus from within the United States of America against
the invasion and occupation of Iraq by the US and its
small gaggle of allies.

And, the marches are an important stepping stone to
bigger, broader and even more militant protests which
will be necessary to force the withdrawal of US forces
and an end to the occupation. Nothing less than total
US withdrawal can bring a peaceful resolution to Iraq's
present troubles.
-------------------------------------------------------------

In Iraq, the resistance forces, which haven't been given
to making written declarations, have continued to march,
to protest and to express, by whatever means they feel
are available and appropriate to their circumstances in
an occupied country, to make the occupiers know they
are not welcome in their country. Today the hit the Al-
Rashid Hotel where Paul Wolfowitz and other officials of
the occupying power are housed. One of these people
was killed and others are being killed and wounded
in the daily resistance.
---------------------------------------------------------------

In Latin America, Washington's attempt to cram its
version of "free trade" on the Americas is likewise
evoking continent-wide resistance. Most striking is
collapse of the Sanchez de Lozada regime in Bolivia.

While the US tries to pressurize the successor govern-
ment to toe Washington's line, President Mesa has to
watch his back at every moment. The same forces which
gave Sanchez de Lozada the boot are fully capable of
giving him (Mesa) the boot if he tries to impose those
policies of privatization on Bolivia. For the moment, the
forces of the Bolivian opposition, led by Evo Morales
and Felipe Quispe, are watching and waiting to see
what Mesa does. But they're not sitting on their hands.

They've got the power of the organized majority of
indiginous peoples behind them, and are the leaders
of their people who have moved successfully in their
own self interest. This situation is unstable and fluid
as the majority, for the first time in decades, flexes
its muscles and sees its own power working well.

Latin American nations are reaching out to build links
to the Bolivian majority and in support of them.

Week before last Cuba issued a declaration against
US intervention in Bolivia, which has been both crude
and obvious. Now Brazil is coming forth with pledges
of assistance to the people of Bolivia at a time when
development aid is strongly needed. Washington is
offering nothing to President Jorge Mesa. Why would
they? He only became president when their chosen
president's regime collapsed under the pressure of
the mobilized indiginous majority.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, back in the US, the debate over Cuba
policy intensifies and the Bush administration is
more and more losing its grip. It can be expected
to try to avoid an open debate on the travel ban in
the Congress, but it may not succeed in this.

With the 2004 presidential campaign going ahead at
full speed, the role of the ultrarightist Miami exiles is
very important. As a small and often cohesive block,
they once could be counted to back and retrograde
policies, toward Cuba and other matters. That's now
changing with the passage of time.

While the righist exile leaderships have now begun to
fall out among themselves (The dis-named "Liberty"
council vs. the Foundation, for example), most Cubans
in the US, regardless of their attitude toward the Cuba
Revolution, favor an end to the travel ban.

Per capita, they go to Cuba more than any other sector
of the US population. And while they never face official
harassment as non-Cubans do, their actions show that
the rightist exiles don't speak for most Cubans in this
country, at least not on this issue.

Think about this: How many non-Cuban-Americans
would travel to the island if they had the same rights
("equality before the law") as Cuban-Americans have?

This is why the exiled rightists and the administration
in Washington is going apoplectic. They see the sands
slipping out from under them with each passing day.

The special rights and special privileges Washington
has graced these exiles with over the forty-four years
since the Revolution's triumph have bought a lot of
political loyalty. But now, following the collapse of the
Soviet Union, and in light of intensified competition for
trade, these very special privileges have now put the
exiled rightists in opposition to important corporate
interests in the United States. This truth is becoming
more and more obvious now and so the righist exiles
are more and more thrown on the defensive politically.

They used to have all the advantages but now they're
on the defensive. Now they picket and protest outside
of anti-blockade meetings, and they are forced to build
counter-meetings to anti-blockade meetings. But who
do they have to match the voice of people like Mikhail
Gorbachev, a former Communist and former head of
the former Soviet Union calling for an end to the US
blockade and respect for Cuban sovereignty?

It's really true: "The times they are a-changing!"
-----------------------------------------------------

Think about this: Cuba is, by any stretch of imagination,
the best customer any US company could have: 100%
of sales to Cuba are paid for in cash. There's no billing,
no financing, no debts. While this puts the island at quite
a disadvantage economically, at the same time Cuba now
becomes an extremely desirous prospective customer
for US companies anxious to sell their products abroad.

These companies are now starting to realize that they
could make even more money if Washingon would just
get out of the way. Washington's ideologists and pundits
prattle ceaselessly about "free trade" but they don't want
to allow US business to have free trade with Cuba.

And just six months ago Cuba took tough measures it
felt necessary in self defense. Braying voices howled
against Cuba in the corporate and political offices, but
today US businesses and politicians are falling all over
themselves to open up travel and trade with the island.

Think about it: Bush is sinking the US economy and he
may sink the US dollar in a giant sea of red ink while
Cuba provides a steady flow of US dollars directly to
the coffers of US corporations! Hundreds of millions of
US dollars are flowing FROM Cuba TO the United States.

Cuba, poor, underdeveloped Cuba is today providing free
medical education to some US students whose are  only
required, as a condition of getting this free education, to
return to the US and practice medicine in underserved
communities. With 40 MILLION people in the US lacking
health coverage, they won't lack for work. Why it looks
almost as if Cuba is providing foreign aid to the US!
Who'd a thunk it?

End the travel ban!

Free trade with Cuba!

Free the people of the United States!

FOR MORE NEWS AND INFORMATION ON CUBA AND
ISSUES RELATED TO CUBA AND THE US GO HERE:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/messages










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