Cuba, Media, The Other Enemies of the Revolution by Jimmy Roque Martínez

(en) Cuba, Media, The Other Enemies of the Revolution by
Jimmy Roque Martínez

HAVANA TIMES – Elio Delgado’s post, “The Enemies of the Revolution,” left me surprised at 
the ingenuousness and blindness of the content. I know that it’s not much different from 
other writing by that author, but this time it’s worth the trouble of offering some simple 
rejoinders. ---- I’m an anarchist and I don’t feel any desire to save the Cuban Revolution 
as I’ve known it. But I’m not a counterrevolutionary either. ---- The example that Elio 
offers of the May 1st parades is almost offensive to the Cuban workers who – as everyone 
knows – are not interested in marching to the Plaza. They do so because their workplaces 
require them to. ---- It’s absurd to believe that the workers don’t display signs 
demanding an increase in their salaries because they trust the Cuban government. The 
salaries in Cuba have been insufficient for more than 20 years and the government hasn’t 
solved the matter.

The island’s leadership has adopted measures such as raising the retirement age, raising 
the prices of all products, especially of food, and introducing a tax for workers to pay.

In addition, they’ve imposed a Labor Code that leaves a large segment of Cubans 
unprotected. The Code doesn’t include any right to strike, and in addition legalizes the 
government’s theft of a part of the low salaries that foreign firms pay Cuban workers on 
the island.

These are the measures that the revolutionary state has approved for the workers, who in 
addition are not allowed to carry signs that call for their rights- not in the May Day 
parade, or in any other.

They are kept from doing so by the State Security forces and by the fear that has been 
instilled in them.

Elio refers to anarchy as “the position that argues for the disappearance of the State and 
all other power and the free association of individuals.” Yes, that’s close to what 
anarchy is. The free association of individuals is equivalent to liberty and human rights. 
Who can be against these values?

The author states in astonishment: “Yes, anarchist positions in the 21st century itself.” 
Doesn’t he know that anarchist organizations have played a decisive role in the foundation 
of the world anti-capitalist movement; in the events of the 15M protests in Spain and the 
neighborhood assemblies that were formed afterwards; in the Occupy Wall Street movement in 
the US; and in the gigantic demonstrations in Brazil in 2013?

People should be free to express their ideas without facing consequences for their lives. 
That ideal isn’t possible in many parts of the world; it’s true, much less in Cuba.

Finally, Elio, a multi-party system isn’t necessarily more democratic, but the history of 
the 20th century has shown us that a one-party system is definitely much less so.

You have to converse with people, go out onto the street and observe. You have to love the 
people and desire their well-being. It pains me to watch the elderly going through the 
trash. That shouldn’t be happening in a country that allows itself to be called socialist 
and revolutionary.

Definitely, it’s neither socialist nor revolutionary and every day it moves farther away 
from being so.

Cuba, More on the 2nd Havana Libertarian Spring Conference

Hi, comarades from Cuba are inviting people or stort-video contribution for their upcoming 
a-gathering. ---- Taller Libertario Alfredo López, Cristo Salvador, and Guardabosques, 
invite you to the II Libertarian Spring Conference in Havana, that will take place between 
May 29 and June 7 2015. A space open to antiauthoritarian and anticapitalist processes 
and dynamics, that contribute to forms of socialization and consciousness based on 
horizontal relations, mutual learning and responsibility. ---- We are looking forward to a 
gathering that evokes, as its name suggests, libertarian ideals whose roots seek the key 
components towards new beginnings and follow new routes towards explorations and the 
possibilities of struggle and transformation. ---- We invite you to participate right away 
with inspirations and ideas that help generate the thematic frame of the event. Ideas will 
be welcomed with all the love that is awakened by honest gestures against oppression.

We will wait for your response, and we thank beforehand your help in the promotion of this 
meeting:
Information and Contact: primaveralibre@riseup.net

One of the lines of discussions will be to identify the opportunities and the risks of the 
new approach between Cuba and US governments, but from workers and common people 
perspective. Your considerations about this topic could be a great contribution to our 
debate. We need to know how anarchists, libertarians, or revolutionary people have 
received this news at US.

In case you decide to come, maybe we can find a cheaper place for you to stay. We also 
recommend you to bring a sleeping bag or a tent, since one of our activities will be 
staying in a natural space next to a river, for one night. We don’t have tents, so if you 
bring one, you could help sharing your space with some other fellow. One of our lines of 
interest is to promote a different relationship with Nature.

Anyway, if you couldn’t come, it would be nice to receive a very brief greeting video from 
you or your collective (15-20 sec). We intend to present these greetings from comrades 
from other countries during the opening day.

You can also propose any other way you want to participate in the event.
So, thank you again for your contact. It will be great if we could start a strong 
relationship.

Greetings from La Habana
Isbel Díaz Torres
Friendship Committee of 2nd Havana Libertarian Spring

(en) Cuba, WORKERS PARADISE LOST: MAY DAY IN HAVANA

A member of Manchester Anarchist Federation visited Cuba earlier this month and reports on 
the events and background to this years International Workers Day celebrations. ---- More 
than 100,000 attended this years May Day demonstration in Revolution Square to mark 
International Workers Day and the Cuban revolutions 56th year. Among them an 
?international brigade? of young British trade unionists and assorted socialists and 
solidarity wishers from across the globe. ---- Whilst undoubtedly a popular public holiday 
here, most Cubans are encouraged, and many compelled (school students for example) to 
celebrate the achievements of ?socialism? ? I say most, as unlike other May Day 
demonstrations around the world, embattled workers and those seeking solidarity in their 
struggles are explicitly discouraged from making their existence known.

The ever present green uniformed political police of the ?revolution? busied themselves in 
the days before making house calls to dissidents with interrogations and threats to 
prevent the spectacle of unity of ?tropical Stalinism? being stained by protests against 
it?s ugly reality.

This May Day while Raul Castro lectured on the ?people?s unity as the sole guaranty?? in 
front of sincere internationalists (alongside uniformed VIP?s from that other great 
socialist democracy North Korea), some Cuban workers brought that spectacle to a halt in 
Cuba?s second city of Santiago de Cuba on the Islands east coast.Four men and a woman were 
beaten and arrested and summary trials held 5-7th of May before a closed political court.

Their crime? Carrying placards complaining of poor (slum) housing, low wages and high 
prices of non rationed foodstuffs. Additionally they publicised the increasing number of 
?political? sackings and consequent impoverishment of their comrades and co-workers for 
daring to complain about their living and working conditions.

Few here in Cuba know about this, not least because the nationally live televising of the 
Islands ?socialist? celebrations came to an abrupt halt from Santiago when the protesters 
paused in front of the cameras to broadcast their slogans and refused to move.

Charged with ?Public Disorder? and ?Enemy Propaganda? they were threatened with exemplary 
sentences of up to 5 years but were released a week after arrest with a reprimand. These 
are not, as the state argued, the bribed conspiratorial agents of capital and US 
imperialism, but poor, ordinary Cuban workers living on 10 Cuc (?6) a month, while 
Communist Party officials enrich themselves in Cuba?s state managed ?opening? of the 
market, attempting to copy the Chinese road to ?socialism?, moving from state to mixed 
capitalist economy.

The arrest of these Cuban workers was a certainty. Just a month ago they succeeded a 
gaining a public meeting forum once a week on a Tuesday morning in the City?s square under 
the Cuban constitution ? thanks to a human rights activist and former law teacher from the 
university ? himself sacked (and since unable to work) five years ago for defending the 
rights of lesbians and gay men.

After 3 successful public meetings on the hardships and grievances of Cuban workers, they 
too were visited by the political police. The May Day arrests followed two days later.

Cuba?s survival and the achievements in health and education despite the half century of 
punitive and criminal blockade by its giant US neighbour are not in doubt and Cubans are 
justly proud of their innate sense of social solidarity. Their solidarity demands ours in 
place of the rose tinted romantic fantasy of a socialist paradise that continues to 
beguile many British workers and trade unionists, whose own struggles at home have more in 
common with these Cuban workers than with the Stalinist dictatorship.

(en) Cuba, Havana?s Libertarian Spring

HAVANA TIMES ? The Alfredo Lopez Libertarian Workshop, one of the autonomous collectives 
that make up the Observatorio Critico network in Cuba, along with the Cristo Salvador 
Gallery, has just announced that the first Primavera Libertaria (?Libertarian Spring?) 
will be held in Havana from May 11 to June 7 this year. ---- The program of activities 
prepared by the young members of the workshop is headed with a quote from Chile?s Salud 
Antiautoritaria (?Anti-Authoritarian Health?) collective, which defines anarchism as ?a 
conception of life in which individuals realize themselves on the basis of freedom, 
attained through awareness, education, reflection and collective learning.? --- Anarchist 
organizations have suffered bad press in the official media of both left-wing and 
right-wing governments. A dictionary of philosophical terms published in Cuba defines 
anarchism as a ?petite-bourgeois? current.

Conversing with an Anarchist

Historian and anarchist activist Mario Castillo, one of the promoters of this initiative, 
spoke of some of the ideas and aims that have impelled this group of Cubans to promote the 
event.

?We want to recover a view of life which has been lost in Cuba, a way of relating to 
others, of organizing ourselves, which had a fair degree ofsignificance in the first 
decades of the 20th century, within the workers? movement and in other social sectors.?

?In addition, and this may be the most important thing, we are trying to offer a practical 
existential alternative to the cultural desert we are faced with today, and in response to 
the State?s constant process of expansion within the sphere of culture and human relations.?

?I believe it is a proposed alternative for socio-cultural practices which operates 
outside of the official, institutional networks which have taken root in the country, and 
whose nefarious consequences we are seeing today.?

?Lastly, we want to acknowledge the existence of individuals who share these libertarian 
notions in today?s Cuba, give new impetus to the work we do in the workshop and 
materialize our way of organizing social and cultural life.?

When asked about the last known date in which individuals or actions moved by these ideas 
were seen on the island, before the Workshop came into existence, Castillo, also an 
anthropologist, mentioned only two dates, both over fifty years ago.

?In 1960, the Trade Union Federation of Cuba published its last declaration, a text that, 
in my view, made a clarion call about the direction the revolution was heading in. In 
January of the following year, the last major libertarian lunch organized by the Food 
Industry Union was held in the venue of this organization. A month later, it was shut down.?

Libertarian Spring Activities

Under the slogan ?My Anarchism and My Friends? Anarchism,? libertarian activists hope to 
hold an exchange that will explain why they have chosen to study and adopt anarchist 
practices.

A compilation of digital texts entitled ?Anarchism in Cuba: Traces and Recovery? will be 
launched at this gathering.
On Sunday, May 18, participants will gather to share ideas on the issue of ?nutrition and 
responsibility? and to encourage others to consider alternative viewpoints on Cuba?s 
prevailing culinary traditions.

Myriam Cabrera will be a guest of honor and present her book ?Permacultural Food,? 
published by the Libertarian Workshop. Cabrera has been an active promoter of alternative 
culinary practices, sustainable agriculture and permaculture in the community.

A session in which participants will prepare and taste some permacultural dishes proposed 
by Cabrera will be one of the highlights of the workshop.

The third activity, to be held on May 23, is the art-related debate titled ?What Has 
Anarchy Done for Art and What Has Art Done for Anarchy?? Libertarian participants will ask 
this and other questions and present a compilation of digital texts titled ?Poetic 
Terrorism and Other Sublime Arts.?

The filming of what workshop members have call ?an exquisite video-corpse? will have the 
phrase ?I am also an oppressor? as its leitmotif and will conclude with an entertaining 
session in which participants will improvise music using instruments and other objects and 
question artistic cannons by giving everyone the possibility of being creators.

On May 31, debates will focus on the issue of anarcho-syndicalism. During the debate, the 
documentary ?Another Cuban Trade Union Memory? will be screened and the historic anarchist 
newspaper Tierra (?Land?), as well as its successor, Tierra Nueva (?New Land?), published 
by the organizers, will be presented to participants.

The day will close with a fair in which music, books, clothing and other objects will be 
traded among participants.

The Spring activities will close on June 7 with a tour titled ?Down the Anarchist Route in 
Havana.? The tour will take participants to historical sites, many of which have suffered 
government neglect, which mark important episodes of Cuban workers? and popular struggles.

Resurgence in Cuba

Many active Cuban anarchists were imprisoned and some even executed following the triumph 
of the revolution in 1959. After many were forcefully driven to exile, the anarchist 
movement did not recover its strength until recently.

Since its creation five years ago, the Alfredo Lopez Libertarian Workshop has organized a 
series of community initiatives in Havana, most of which have been aimed at rescuing local 
historical memory.

Debates on diverse issues have also been organized by the organization. These have 
included the student movement in Chile and 15-M in Spain, unemployment in Cuba, the 
Tiananmen Square massacre in China, the pathologization of labor at health institutions, 
the life and work of anarchist Frank Fernandez, the Spanish Civil War, the situation in 
Greece and Venezuela and others.

Worker, libertarian, trade union, socialist and different social movements currently 
maintain fraternal links with this incipient movement on the island, particularly from 
countries such as Spain, Venezuela, France, Germany, Colombia, the United States, the 
Dominican Republic, Italy and Brazil.