From: NY Transfer News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 19:53:08 -0400 (EDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [CubaNews] Celebrating July 26th in Havana
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
Havana Journal:
CELEBRATING CUBA'S NATIONAL DAY OF REBELLION
by Bill Koehnlein
Member, National Writers Union UAW Local 1981
Havana, July 26 (NY Transfer)--Today, July 26, 2001, is the 48th anniversary
of the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, when Fidel and a few companeros
attacked the Moncada garrison in 1953. The National Day of the Rebellion is
Cuba's main and most important holiday. Each year, it is celebrated in one
of the 14 provinces; this year, the celebration was in Havana, which was
fortuitous for us, but also had a larger, and more urgent, political
importance. At the moment, 5 Cubans are being held in the US prison system,
convicted of espionage and sentenced to extremely long terms. They are all
being held in solitary confinement. The charges are a fabrication. They were
not spying on the United States; rather, they were gathering information
about the various right-wing Miami anti-Castro groups, which is in no way a
violation of US law. In fact, much of the information they gathered was
turned over to the FBI by the Cuban government, since some of these
organizations have violated US and international law, or have substantive
plans to do so.
The activities of these groups are of great concern to Cuba. In the last 40
years, there have been over 400 documented serious assassination attempts
against Fidel Castro, and probably many more that have either been less
fully documented, or not as "serious."� Groups like the Cuban-American
National Foundation and Brothers to the Rescue have a long history of
violent activity against Cuba, including within the island itself. Orlando
Bosch, for example, one of right-wing Miami's "heroes," has publically
bragged about his involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Airlines
plane, in which civilians -- including Cuba's entire national fencing team
-- were killed. The US government has never investigated Bosch's role in
this. Bosch was an advisor to Pinochet, and was also active with the
Nicaraguan Contras; in the United States too, he has a history of violent
activities.
George W. Bush owes his seizure of state power, in good measure, to this
Miami mafia. For him and the right-wing Miami community it's payback time,
and he is moving US policy toward a much tougher and aggressive stance
against Cuba. Against this background, Cuba is naturally very concerned, so
it was politically significant that this year's July 26 celebration was held
here in Havana, where the largest number of people could attend.
The celebration began early this morning, as people assembled along the
Malecon to parade past the US Interests Section. (The Malecon is Havana's
waterfront drive; the view of this drive, looking west from Morro Castle, is
one of the more famed images, seen in countless movies about Havana.) What
was most conspicuous about the march, and, indeed, is a conspicuous aspect
of Cuban society in general, is the amount and degree of unity and
solidarity shown by the Cuban people. Today's demonstration was not some
false display of robotic unity, staged to appease the island's leaders or to
earn brownie points with the local CDR; it was a very real show of more than
a million people working together with a common purpose. Cubans are adamant:
the direction and future of the island is to be determined by Cuba and its
people, and not by the United States or anyone else. The revolutionary
euphoria, the sense of commonality, the spirit of collectivity were at a
level and fervor I have not seen since our movements in the 1960s, when we
knew we could move mountains. I sometimes think that radicals in the US have
forgotten our power to shape history. The Cuban people have not, and this is
precisely the beauty of this revolutionary moment.
The apartment where we are staying is right on the Malecon, overlooking
Morro Castle and the entrance to Havana harbor. The hustle and bustle began
before 6 this morning, and stopped momentarily only when the national
anthem-the Bayamo Song-was played. This was followed a few minutes later by
the playing of The Internationale. Cuba is one of the few places where this
anthem of the working class is still played publicly and regularly, and
Cubans know the words to all the verses, not just the first.
From our apartment, it is about 5 kilometers to the US Interests Section, a
walk that takes us past the old Hotel Nacional, the elegant and luxurious
hangout of yore for Hollywood stars, international robber barons,
high-finance tycoons, and US mafiosi, who turned pre-Revolution Havana into
one gigantic brothel and gambling casino. That Havana had become a
playground for the fabulously rich and famous, that its residents had become
mere maids and butlers placed here as bits of local color to delight, amuse
and serve the glamorous hordes, that the country was offered for sale to the
highest bidder (or the highest briber) by its own President-these were some
of the material factors that propelled a small group of revolutionaries to
take to the hills of Oriente and fight to reclaim the country, to take it
back from the Yanquis who owned and dominated it ever since Spain lost its
last major imperial domain in the Americas more than half a century before.
The Hotel Nacional has been restored to its former grandeur, but now,
instead of being a symbol of decadence and imperialism it has become one of
the symbols of Cuba's rebirth, its recovery from the cruel hardships endured
by the Cuban people during the Special Period. Walk a bit further down the
block, to the US Interests Section, the monolith that is today both the
ideological symbol and the practical reality behind Cuba's challenge to
neoliberal hegemony, and of the island's assertion of its right to develop
on its own terms. Here is a fortress-like structure; a detachment of US
Marines dwells inside and their purpose is to guard the advanced espionage
equipment housed within. On the roof, rotating in all directions, are
high-powered surveillance cameras, strong and sensitive enough to identify a
specific face, even in a crowd of one million people. It is here that the
march commemorating the July 26 attack on Moncada ends. This end-point is
symbolic. It is a statement to the world that affirms Cuba's defiance, for
over 40 years, of the power of the United States. It is a statement to the
world of the unity of the Cuban people.
Patria o muerte!
We talk to people on the march. They are all animated. They are all proud.
They all have a sense of belonging. They all understand that they are makers
of history. They know that this is their struggle, and they know that the
struggles of other people in other places are also their own. Cuba is a
nation committed to internationalism, and the Cuban people on the march are
pleased and grateful to see people from other countries marching in
solidarity.
No speeches this time. Fidel was at the head of the march, but did not speak
today. Instead, there was music and poetry. It was a parade of festivity and
defiance, of national pride and self-assertion.
For me, personally and politically, being here was a small act of festive
defiance: Festive, because I felt proud to be part of this movement, and
elated to be with one million other people who see eye to eye on the
necessity for a more just and equitable world. Defiant because my government
says I am not allowed to be here. When the march finished, after we had
explored a few of the streets at that end of the Malecon and then rested a
bit in one of the few spots of precious shade to be found in Havana, we
headed back home by a route that took us past the front entrance of the US
Interests Section. After shooting a few pictures of it, I faced the cameras
on the roof and thumbed my nose. My own small, symbolic act. I am here. I am
in Cuba. You cannot stop me.
La luche sigue!
(c) Copyright 2001 by Bill Koehnlein and NY Transfer News.
May be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes.
=================================================================
NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems
Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us
339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012
http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
=================================================================
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Small business owners...
Tell us what you think!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/vO1FAB/txzCAA/ySSFAA/xYTolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
_________________________________________________
KOMINFORM
P.O. Box 66
00841 Helsinki
Phone +358-40-7177941
Fax +358-9-7591081
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
General class struggle news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Geopolitical news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________________________
