[Marxism] NY Cuba Solidarity activist and leader sizes up May20 actions for Venezuela

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

ke Nahem's sober but positive assessment of the actions seems totally
credible to me, although I did not attend. The introductory comments
below are by Walter Lippmann of the Cuba News list, with whom I very
often find myself in agreement. I get a sense that Ike Nahem was  mildly
disappointed by the fact that the demonstration for Venezuela didn't get
past the thousand mark, but I was pleasantly surpised thatt they broke
200, and not only  200 but 500;  Very important to keep in mind that
anything resembling overt war threats or evenh attempted economic
strangulation of Venezuela is barely visible (to impose an embargo, the
rulers would have to accomplish much more in Iraq and Iran than they
have shown any  capacit y to do so far.  When you compare the pressure
on Venezuela and Bolivia today, to the pressure on Chile (not to mention
Cuba) in  the '60s and'70s,  you can see why it migh  be hard tro
convince US activists  tpday that Venezuela and Bolivia (and Cuba as
always, are war zones although they  are suchj in fact.
Fred Feldman

ke Nahem has made a good start at assessing the May 20th actions.

About a hundred came to the one held in Los Angeles. I hope that we
will have some discussion on these mobilizations so that we can learn
from what took place on May 20th. While we cannot say that the Bush
administration pulled back from making the announcements of what
else it is going to do against both Cuba and the people of the United
States on this historically important date, there are aspects which we
need to look at carefully. I agree with Ike that this was a modest
success. There will be plenty more to be done, and some cooprative
discussion among those who were involved can prove useful since we
all know that the need for more actions will only grow larger in the
future. Readers are welcomed to submit comments to CubaNews and
please send me a copy at walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx if you are not on the
CubaNews list so your views can be shared. Thanks.


Walter Lippmann
CubaNews
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From: Ike Nahem <ikenahem@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: May 26, 2006 5:33 PM
To: Walter  Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Thoughts on May 20 in DC and where do we go from here

Thoughts On May 20 in DC and Where Do We Go From Here

I thought the May 20 action in DC was a modest success in terms of
turnout, a big step forward in terms of building a united
solidarity/anti-sanctions/anti-intervention movement, and a smooth,
well-done job in terms of the logistics and organizations of the day
from the gathering at Malcolm X Park to the wonderful event at the Cuban
Interests Section to the March and the Rally at Lafayette Park.

The big question for all of us is how do we move forward now given the
existing structures and national organizations in the solidarity
movement and, as always, in the framework of the growing confrontation
between Washington-and its Latin American lackeys-OTOH, and Venezuela,
Cuba, and, and we must now permanently add IMO, Bolivia, OTO.


Turnout

During the march we reached a peak of around 700 people, which was
somewhat smaller than I hoped for/expected, but was wholly respectable.
The march was very spirited and enthusiastic and got a good response
from people on the street.

Many of the endorsements we received from important national
organizations were obviously only on paper and did not involve widely
publicizing or mobilizing the action. Furthermore, we were unable,
despite significant effort, to get important anti-war groups like UFPJ
on board in any way, even on paper. Although it is certainly true that
the May 20 Coalition put together the broadest unity we have ever
achieved nationally around Cuba and the first national action around
Venezuela, it is also true that we were still much narrower than we have
to become. What we got out-more or less-reflects where things actually
are. Solidarity and conscious support for the Cuban revolution and the
unfolding revolution in Bolivarian Venezuela was predominant and the
main support came from organizations who present themselves as
revolutionary, socialist, or Marxist. This is not a criticism-I'm also
in that category-but just a statement of objective fact.

It should also be stressed that the May 20 date basically cut out the
possibility of  mobilizing on the campuses. This was a real weakness,
but one that we were all conscious of when we chose to change the date
following the request from our bothers and sisters from 1199SEIU. In the
future we will not face such a choice.

The reality, of course, is that we are unlikely to broaden our forces
"to the right," so to speak, unless and until Washington ups the ante
with more direct and serious confrontation and intervention and
qualitatively broader layers of the US population see the actuality or
imminent threat of direct aggression, intervention, or war. That is not
the case today. But, unfortunately, we can count on Washington-whether
through bush or the Democrats-to do everything within their political
power to create the minimum conditions for direct intervention and
aggression.


Unity

It was an impressive victory that the main organizations building the
May 20 actions were able to work together in a serious and, more or
less, fraternal manner despite strong ideological/political differences
and lots of historical baggage and even animosities. This shows that the
cause of defending Cuba and Venezuela creates an objective pressure on
all of us to unite on what we agree on and build the struggle in the US.
We should all act to "exploit" this reality and build a national
movement, based on action and mobilization, in a non-sectarian manner,
which was the big accomplishment of May 20.


Organization

The point about unity in action was illustrated in the way groups and
individuals pitched in to make May 20 a smooth operation logistically
and organizationally. Most groups fulfilled their financial pledges
allowing us to meet our costs.

Special thanks to Sarah Sloan for all her work on logistics
coordination; to Hillel Cohen for transporting and setting up the sound
at Lafayette Park; to Bob Brown and Banbose Shango and the ALD crew for
all their work, including sound and stage, at Malcolm X Park and in the
DC area; to Fabricio and Jaime Mendieta for coordinating security
throughout the day; to Olga Rodriguez and Cheryl Labash for stage
management at Malcolm X and Lafayette respectively; and to Chuck Kaufman
for organizing the successful collections at the rallies.

We managed to strictly keep to the times schedules projected throughout
the day which was also no small accomplishment. Basically the whole day
went off without any significant hitch.


What next?

Without setting up a new, permanent organization out of May 20, I think
it would be useful to maintain and build upon the unity we did achieve
as the basis for future actions.

The form that this would take should be discussed and debated. I would
propose that we have a Conference Call on the weekend following the
Memorial Day holiday to assess the May 20 actions in DC, LA, and the
other cities where actions took place and discuss where we go from here.
One thing we know is that these issues are not going away and will only
intensify in the very near future, as they are in fact doing right now.
We have broken the ice with this first mobilization. We should be proud
of what we accomplished in this first step.

Finally I would say that the stop at the Cuban Interests Section was a
beautiful act of solidarity which came off very nicely.

In solidarity and struggle,





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