Cuba, Crowdfunding campaign aims to raise funds to create Libertarian Social Center in Cuba (ca, fr, pt)

Cuba, Crowdfunding campaign aims to raise funds to create
Libertarian Social Center in Cuba (ca, fr, pt) (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

Comunicado: ---- The borders are opening up after many years, and the changes in Cuba 
augur new possibilities and dangers for the Cuban society. It becomes imperative, 
therefore, strengthen the work of people from Cuba defends a critical eye, anti-capitalist 
and anti-authoritarian to the world-system, so that each day is expressed more clearly in 
the national life. ---- After more than a decade of social and political activism in the 
Observatory Cuban critic, and five years of work as part of Taller Libertario Alfredo 
Lopez (TLAL), we could identify as the main difficulty for our performance and expand our 
social impact, lack a permanent seat, enabling us to build community and set our identity 
more solid and lasting way.

Who we are?

The TLAL is a specifically anarchist collective, which has maintained a systematic 
activity in recent years, radicalizing their proposals and maintaining a firm foothold in 
Cuban society and their communities. We have achieved in a short time each year to 
establish the Libertarian Spring Conference of Havana, where we seek to converge thought 
and anarchist or libertarian action on the island. In addition, we issued a modest 
periodical in print, ¡Tierra Nueva! With what we are trying not without difficulty to 
reach our eyes contesting the common people, the one that is most and have no access to 
the Internet in Cuba, as well as promote the ideal libertarian, anarcho-syndicalist, and 
naturist, present in the history of the country before the insurrectional triumph of 1959 
and the impact pulses hidden in the interstices of Cuba today.

On the other hand, a major organizational endeavors in which we are engaged has been the
foundation in March of this year, together with other compas of the region, the Anarchist 
Federation of Central America and the Caribbean, a network that contains a great potential 
for expansion and development.

Keep this going projects and actions requires a physical space where power converge, 
rehearsing in practice show solidarity, cooperatives, horizontality, self-organization and 
autonomy.

What we seek?

Given the impossibility in Cuba to rent a place, the option we propose is to buy a 
property, house or apartment, to found our Social Center and Libertarian Library.

Besides being permanent headquarters of the Taller Libertario Alfredo López, to celebrate 
business meetings and other activities, the site will host a Libertarian Library. This 
will be formed with materials that have accumulated over the years, product donations 
national, international, or personal shopping. Will include all sorts of physical or 
digital publications, both periodic as single, compact discs (CD-ROM) and DVD, movies, 
audio, etc. If you will favor those concerned directly or indirectly with anarchism, but 
also will be present other topics related to the social struggles throughout history, from 
any political perspective or breeding area.

On the other hand, space is develop own shares of a Social Center: lectures, events, 
meetings, collective meals, presentations of texts, festivals, video-debates, meetings 
with foreign visitors or nationals of other provinces, concerts, readings, exhibitions, 
productive activities, among others.

How much do we need?

For the purchase of the local need in total 12,000 euros. However, in our recent visit to 
France and Spain, thanks to the solidarity of libertarian compas, collect something over 
1,000 euros. That's why, for the crowdfunding present, we are soliciting contributions to 
reach € 11,000 (eleven thousand euros).

Why ask?

We have not received funding from any state official institution or NGO. Nor do we wish to 
receive it in order to ensure our complete independence and not subordination to some 
external agenda. Sometimes we have received donations of collective and like-minded people 
to our principles, selflessly and unconditionally. Nor our practices generate income of 
any kind, quite the contrary. It is known, moreover, that with the average salary of 
Cubans (USD 20 monthly), it is impossible to cover the high cost of housing in Cuba, that 
no honest worker, without exploiting the work of others, can afford.

Who will receive the direct benefit of the work of the Social Center and Libertarian Library?

First, all of which make up the TLAL, and working without any remuneration in this space, 
including the people who live there directly and take care of the place.

Out of TLAL is the community who first notice the benefits, as we intend to establish 
links with this and put our space at your disposal. We can not understand such a project 
off its most immediate neighborhood, and the people around you.

Also the projects linked to the Cuban Critical Observatory, where we keep participating, 
will have a safe space in this office, to further consolidate their work.

On the other hand, students and Cuban and international researchers will especially in the 
Library a unique and invaluable source of information.

The more it can be said that both libertarians and anti-capitalist visitors arriving to 
the island, like other people in need of solidarity, will take place in our center.

What will give in return to taxpayers?

We do not have much material to give in return but our gratitude and good vibe. Of course,
and donors (as) will have a space on our site in Cuba and access to all the center services.

Furthermore, if you allow, we will include your e-mails on our mailing list, so that they 
can receive the Cuban libertarian journal ¡Tierra Nueva!

For those who want to publish their names, we have a list of thanks in our web with those 
people who collaborated on this commitment materialize.

We will reach every taxpayer a detailed report of the use that was given to the collected 
funds.

Your cooperation is crucial if we are to promote the anti-capitalist and libertarian ideal 
in Cuba and the Caribbean.

More Info:

http://www.gofundme.com/gg2wrcac

Translation> Sun April

Related Content:

http://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2015/07/10/culmina-encontro-de-anarquistas-em-cuba/

http://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2015/09/03/campanha-de-crowdfunding-visa-arrecadar-fundos-para-criar-centro-social-libertario-em-cuba/

Cuba Sasmadrid: 18, 19, 20 and June 21, 2015 Local Libertarian Days Break the Circle Móstoles. (ca, pt)

 (en) Sasmadrid: 18, 19, 20 and June 21, 2015 Local
Libertarian Days Break the Circle Móstoles. (ca, pt) [machine
translation]

The next few days 18, 19, 20 and June 21, 2015 will take place in a local Libertarian Days 
Break the Circle, Plaza del Turia, 2 Local 7 Metro-South Hospital of Mostoles, Móstoles. 
---- On Thursday June 18 at 19 pm: Lecture and discussion, "Past, present and future of 
the Cuban Revolution from a libertarian perspective", by Cuban anti-capitalist and 
libertarian. ---- On Friday June 19 at 19 pm: Presentation of the book "The straight bet. 
Libertarian debate and political cycle, "by Jose Luis Carretero Miramar and Juan Antonio 
Gomez Liebana. ---- This book appears to trigger a process of horizontal reflection on 
social and political transformations under way and their possible developments. It is 
proposed as a "facilitator" tool approach, a libertarian activities in the heat of the 
"democratic" drifts in progress, they are striving to draw maps of what happens, assuming 
that this is a bet entirely subject to discussion and error. The contributions of 
different groups and individuals to this common reflection rather than develop a consensus 
agreement of social organizations to curb capitalist devastation, attempt to provide 
rigorous diagnosis to make visible hidden mechanisms, and not just the obvious (injustice, 
cruelty, inequality ...) domination.

Its urgency comes from a militant and open attitude that does not stop to consider how to 
experience and extend the practices of self-organization and self-management outside the 
current dimensions of representative and institutional policy in the scenario that is 
emerging.

The purpose is to rethink anarchism in the context of today, an anarchism willing to put 
in discussion, who can direct towards itself the most demanding of critical views, while 
it is fully aware of its powerful presence in the imaginary and the struggles of very 
broad strata of the population that yearns for a radically different society. A 
libertarian thought in lifelong learning, evolving with the social and cultural reality, 
capable of enriching and modified in touch with the world in which it is inserted through 
the experiences that develops, thanks to the struggles in which it participates and It 
absorbs knowledge and develops.
"The least that can be expected of a proposal that deserves our attention and support is 
that shuns such petty realism that smells everywhere obscene defense, often embarrassing, 
existing misery. Versus realism that mean we can not help but remember that those who 
believe in the self-organization and self-management in the autonomy we are here, and we 
are not few. "
Carlos Taibo.

Contributions: Jtxo Estebaranz, Octavio Alberola, Carlos Taibo, José Luis Carretero 
Miramar, Reflection Group for Autonomy, Cul de Sac, Jose Maria Olaizola, Encina Javier and 
Maria Angeles Avila, Rafael Cid, Caries Socorro Sanchez and Perez, Alfonso Alvarez and 
Paco, Libertarian Students Federation. Epilogue Mario Dominguez.
On Saturday June 20 at 19 pm: Presentation of the book "Let us learn, reflections from the 
libertarian pedagogy" by Manuel Rodriguez Txelu.

Let us learn. Reflections from the libertarian pedagogy is a modern and pragmatic analysis 
of the role you have and can have school, state or private, faculty, educational projects 
... antiauthoritarian shelled the problems affecting the education system, which are few, 
seeking solutions under a libertarian perspective. Collect the concerns of the author, 
which is dedicated to teaching, and other made collectively for their involvement in 
groups and assemblies by an anti-authoritarian teaching about the subtle formation of the 
individual sought by the system, molded by the prevailing values ​​of consumerism , 
individualism, competition, submission ...
Let us learn with the debate, always present, about teaching in the libertarian field, 
providing new approaches and unpublished address at the libertarian literature as in the 
case of disability.
The picture book, songs and a selection filmmaking and literature on the subject exposed 
is completed.

Manuel Rodriguez Gonzalez, "Txelu" (Madrid, 1980). Diploma in Teaching Special Education 
(Autonomous University of Madrid) and expert in Autism Spectrum Disorders (University of 
Alcalá de Henares). Member of the group teaching "in the back row" and a Collaborative 
Learning Group antiauthoritarian Pedagogy. Professional experience in different services 
in the field of functional diversity: special education centers, occupational centers, 
supervised apartments, job coach ...
Sunday, June 21 at 19 pm: Presentation of the Mutual Support Initiative, run by its members.

http://www.sasmadrid.org/index.php/convocatorias/347-el-18-19-20-y-21-de-junio-de-2015-jornadas-libertarias-en-local-rompe-el-circulo-mostoles
-
SAS-Union Health asambleario
http://www.sasmadrid.org
Facebook: asambleario Union of Health
Twitter:SASmadrid
sasmadrid@nodo50.org
TFO .: 91.390.99.90

Cuba, PROGRAM of 2ND JORNADA PRIMAVERA LIBERTARIA HAVANA trans (ca)

Cuba, PROGRAM of 2ND JORNADA PRIMAVERA LIBERTARIA HAVANA
trans (ca) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)

Workshop Libertarian Alfredo Lopez, Location Christ the Savior, and the Rangers celebrate 
2nd Day of Spring Libertarian Havana from May 29 to June 7, 2015. ---- An open and dynamic 
processes anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist space taxing forms of sociability and 
conscience based on horizontality, mutual learning and accountability. ---- We expect that 
the day is, as its name implies, the evocation of a spring shoot of libertarian ideals, 
whose roots, despite all historical adversity, always looking for the keys just for a new 
breath, new exploration routes and possibilities of struggle and transformation. ---- The 
meetings will take place at 1104 19th Street, 2nd Floor, e / 14 and 16, Vedado. Thank you 
confirm your participation through 7833-9606 or ele-mail: primaveralibre@riseup.net

PROGRAM

FRIDAY 29 MAY / antiauthoritarian Creation

2:00 pm

Presentation of the Day

The practice of an artist in Amsterdam Cleaners Union. [Matthijs De Bruijne, Netherlands]

An anarchist in Cuban theater: Marcelo Salinas. [Mario Castillo, Cuba]

Film and digital book presentation Anarchy [Osvaldo Hernandez, Cuba]

Anti-authoritarianism and collective creation on the horizon Film Liberation. [Otari 
Oliva, Cuba]

The Stable: An antiauthoritarian space 80 [Carlos Alberto Aguiar, Cuba]

6:00 pm

Toast

SATURDAY 30 MAY / Practices: resistance, autonomy, self-organization, solidarity, 
horizontality, mutuality and networks

10:00 am

Darwin and Kropotkin ¿Competition or solidarity? (Short) [Anarchist Federation, France]

Self-organization and autonomy in Cuba. Panel presentation transcript Mutual Help People 
in Cuba today. [Tato Quiñones and Mario Castillo, Cuba

3:00 pm

The Dutch student movement in 2015. [Matthijs De Bruijne, Netherlands]

Squats and self-managed social centers in Europe. An experience in Marseille. [Jerome 
Antonio Kinzel, France]

Presentation text: "Writings of a labor activist" [Oscar Daniel Campilongo, Argentina] and 
"Freedom? Where? "[Diego Jimenez de la Cuesta, Mexico].

Cibao Libertarian experiment, coexistence and decision making. [Rosa Milagros Rojas, 
Dominican R.].



TUESDAY 2 JUNE / Environmentalism, technology and activism

3:00 pm

The Pro-Life magazine and the naturist movement in Cuba. [Mario Castillo, Cuba]

Presentation CD "Technological advances and social barbarism" [Dmitri Prieto, Cuba]

Forecasts of environmental impact after Cuba-US rapprochement. [Isbel Diaz, Cuba]

The collection presentation online newsletters Ranger. [Isbel Diaz, Cuba]

Granma recycling.

Bar and poetry and anarchy. Meeting at Bar-Cafeteria Line and 18

------------------
FRIDAY JUNE 5 / The new scene of interstate relations Cuba and the United States

2:00 pm

Conflict between authoritarian positions and postures of autonomous social movements. The 
danger of statism [Dmitri Prieto, Cuba]

Libertarian position Alfredo Lopez Workshop on the restoration of diplomatic relations by 
the governments of Cuba and the US

Libertarian movement today in the United States [Video-exhibition]

Presentation Guangara Libertarian: a Cuban experience in Miami journalism anarchist 
(1980-1992). [Yenisel Rodriguez, Cuba]

Presentation fanzine Black Meat: digital publishing independent Cuban art [Jasmine Valdes 
and Otari Oliva, Cuba]

Presentation of New Earth-space periodic Cuba inter-action of libertarian ideas and people 
[Isbel Diaz, Cuba]


SUNDAY 7 JUNE / Diversities and antiautoritarismos

Metropolitan Park of Havana Forest, entrance 26 and Bikeway (behind the Clinical 26). 
Bringing a ovolácteo-vegetarian dish.

10:00 am

Presentation Project Rainbow, independent and anti-capitalist group LGBTIQ. [Isbel Diaz, Cuba]

"Comelata to Queer": Mainstreaming race, gender, and sexuality through food. 
[LogbonaOlukonee, Cuba]

Farewell to Arms, brave, run!

Cuba, Contribution to the pre-congress debate from the Tlal by Committee of Correspondence for first congress FACC (ca)

Cuba, Contribution to the pre-congress debate from the Tlal
by Committee of Correspondence for first congress FACC (ca)
[machine translation]

From Workshop Libertarian Alfredo Lopez - On her current anarchist movement in Cuba - 
"unexpected associations ..." or the Libertarian Workshop Alfredo L?pez ---- On April 25, 
2010 there was the first activity that would lead to the emergence of Libertarian Workshop 
Alfredo L?pez. A meeting that was organized to commemorate the anarchist roots of 1 May 
and early contribution of the anarchists in Cuba this commemoration, being of the first 
places in America where a tribute was organized to colleagues killed in Chicago. ---- That 
meeting of 2010 also did the preliminary coordination for intervention as an autonomous 
group in the official celebration organized by the Cuban state. Of that activity and some 
photos taken in it, has fueled much of the iconography of our site:
observatoriocriticocuba.org .

We were moving towards the regeneration of what had been the Cuban libertarian movement, 
carrying half a century of absence in this country, after the powerful hegemony that the 
July 26 Movement and the Cuban Stalinists in control minds labored, spaces and intimate 
lives of several generations of Cubans.

In 1960 the last statement of the Trade Association of Cuba, who published a text that was 
a clarion where would the revolution took place. In January the following year the last 
great libertarian lunch organized by the Culinary Union took place at its headquarters. A 
month later it was closed. Great historical and great daily pleasure responsibility has 
meant to us in these five years be protagonists of this fact the small group of 
companions, we launched into this outdated madness in which we lived, word for word, the 
same spiritual state which led to Gustav Landauer, a hundred years before and thousands of 
miles, to write that words:

"Revolution is a microcosm, is an amazingly short time with an extraordinary 
concentration, when it is come true the world as possible, as a candle, sends its signals 
over time. In the revolution everything happens quickly amazing, as in dreams, which seem 
released from the Earth's gravity, to establish unexpected even for the dreamer associations."

These "unexpected associations" have led us to redo a small new map of people, places, 
energy, emotions, desires, that have enabled us to installing the world we want, here and 
now, where some, full of honesty and disenchantment, said it was not worth it, and others 
installed in the established rationality, said it was impossible. And is that dreams have 
allowed us to be more awake and watch our time, not as an empty run fleeting minutes, but 
as a boreal station latent fecundity, eager to be on time for each invitation, to every 
encounter.

The workshop Libertarian Alfredo Lopez was born from that desire to poetic militancy and 
recall of an individual whose life could not enjoy those privileges soul now named. 
Alfredo Lopez, son without a father, mother sick of misery, became himself a typographer 
and good man with telluric energy assuming the ideal libertarian union, it became a way of 
life. He was killed with less than 30 years, on the afternoon of July 20, 1926, with the 
intended blow a huge stone on the head, near which he was buried, to inoculate the 
necessary terror wage slaves who swarmed in absentia by the burgeoning Havana at that time.

His name and his aura of martyrdom have been looted by local businesses and Stalinists to 
dignify economic modernization efforts of the Cuban state capitalism, which have been so 
oppressive as those which once met Alfredo. One of the largest polygraphic industrial 
centers built by the Cuban State by 70, to control and prevent the movement of libertarian 
ideas and any body of ideas that did not have its stamp of control, was named "Combined 
Poligr?fico Alfredo L?pez" .

Such inconsistency and moral breakdown should be answered. And there we are. The 
Libertarian Workshop Alfredo L?pez has been the endeavor of the few anarchists who inhabit 
Havana, because it is a specifically anarchist space, after giving life to the plural 
Critical Observatory Network. It has been a meeting point for dialogue, mutual learning, 
production of knowledge, rescue popular historical memories and forgotten names and 
coordination of public actions, which came to condense most visibly in the Days Spring 
Libertarian of Havana in fraternal collaboration with the animators of Christ the Savior Area.

The Workshop has promoted actions with community impact in the Cuban capital, especially 
focused on the recovery of the local historical memory; addition to discussions on various 
topics such as the student movement in Chile and 15-M in Spain, unemployment in Cuba, the 
slaughter of Tiananmen in China, pathologizing delivery in health institutions, life and 
work of anarchist Frank Fern?ndez The Spanish revolution, the situation in Greece and 
Venezuela, among others.

Due to the interruption of libertarian explicit activity in 50 years in Cuba and the low 
level of anti-authoritarian social unrest and even less anticapitalist in Cuban society, 
hitherto we had need to define anarchist tendencies in our context; although we must say 
that the initial projection of anarcho-syndicalist, shaded invoking Alfredo Lopez has not 
had a particular development beyond spice up the anarchist perspective without adjectives, 
which has taken shape discreetly, and we have I moved closer without nombrarlo- to 
projections by the end of the nineteenth century developed a Spanish-Cuban anarchist as 
Fernando Marble T?rrida.

Riddled with inefficiencies, inadequacies, surrounded by the tyranny of apathy and 
nonsense, which also permeates our bodies carry with us a deposit of projects is always 
someone in the group is responsible for removing them and turn them into embarrassment the 
fact not them. Determined to grow and contaminate the greatest number of patients 
authority, here we are, making bridges, overcoming dissociation, to advance, free of 
Earth's gravity, our dreams, which have been the dreams of many others in this same land: 
Enrique Roig Enrique Crecci, Abelardo Saavedra, Adrian del Valle, Antonio Penichet, Rafael 
Serra, Marcelo Salinas, Abelardo Iglesias, Zulia Linsua?n, Casto Moscow Bretau Francisco, 
Luis Dulzaides, Frank Fernandez and many other colleagues who from the other side of 
reality We look accomplices and hopeful that his weary labors reborn in our bodies.

Havana, January 2015 - Committee of Correspondence for first congress FACC- (from Dominican)

http://i-f-a.org/index.php/fr/article-2/643-aporte-al-debate-pre-congresual-desde-el-tlal-cuba

Cuba to abandon salary equality

Cuba is to abolish its system of equal pay for all and allow workers and managers to earn performance bonuses, a senior official has announced.
Vice-Minister for Labour Carlos Mateu said the current system - in place since the communist revolution in 1959 - was no longer "convenient".

He said wage differentiation should improve production and services.
President Raul Castro has introduced a series of reforms since succeeding his ailing brother Fidel in February.
Writing in the communist party newspaper Granma Mr Mateu said workers would receive a minimum 5% bonus for meeting targets but with no ceiling on salaries.
Managers could earn a 30% bonus if the team working under them increased production, he said.
The minister pointed out that the current wage system sapped employees' incentives to excel since everyone earned the same regardless of performance.
"It's harmful to give a worker less than he deserves, it's also harmful to give him what he doesn't deserve," the newspaper article said.
Challenging Marxist orthodoxy
But the impact in terms of purchasing power will be limited, the BBC's Michael Voss in Havana says.

Raul Castro has brought in a series of gradual social reforms
The average wage in Cuba for everyone - from doctors to farm labourers - is about $20 (£10) a month.
Even before the recent sharp rise in oil and food prices Cuba was spending billions of dollars on imports, and that bill is likely to rise sharply, our correspondent says.
So far most of the reforms announced since Raul Castro took over the presidency have involved lifting restrictions such as the bans on mobile phones and computers.
The latest change is a more fundamental challenge to Marxist economic orthodoxy, our correspondent adds.

Bron : BBC News

In de ganse wereld zijn maar twee landen waar u geen Coca-Cola kan kopen. Weet u welke?

Cuba en Noord-Korea zijn de enige twee landen in de wereld waar Coca-Cola niet officieel verkrijgbaar is. Dat meldt BBC News. Tot voor kort was ook in Myanmar (Birma) geen Coca-Cola te krijgen,  maar daar kwam in juni dit jaar verandering in toen de Amerikaanse regering de sancties op investeringen in dat land ophief.
Sinds de dood van Kim Jong-il gaan er geruchten de ronde dat Coca-Cola ook snel te verkrijgen zijn in Noord-Korea. Zijn opvolger, Kim Jong-Un zou immers niet vies zijn van wat buitenlandse invloeden. De meeste experts hechten er weinig geloof aan. Coca-Cola is in de ogen van het regime nog steeds een symbool van de gehate Amerikaanse kapitalisten en ook Amerikaanse reguleringen staan commerciële expansie naar deze landen in de weg.
Een recente YouTube video wekt nochtans de indruk dat Coca-Cola nu al vrij verkrijgbaar was in het land. Het filmpje toont buitenlandse toeristen in ‘Corital’, een Italiaans-Koreaans pizzarestaurant in de hoofdstad Pyongyang. Er wordt “Italiaanse Cola” geserveerd, maar het blikje is overduidelijk Coca-Cola.
Een woordvoerder van Coca-Cola licht toe dat het bedrijf geen zaken doet met de communistische dictatuur: “Producten die in Noord-Korea verschijnen zijn geïmporteerd door ongeautoriseerde derde partijen. Ons bedrijf is niet actief op die markt. Dat kunnen we ook niet zijn, want dat zou in strijd zijn met de Amerikaanse wetten en reguleringen die de relaties met Noord-Korea regelen.”
Die reguleringen houden natuurlijk noch in Noord-Korea, noch in Cuba ‘ongeautoriseerde derde partijen’ tegen om bij te verdienen door op eigen initiatief (en risico) Coca-Cola te verkopen.

Bron : BBC / Express.be

(en) Britain, Anarchist Federation Organise! #78 - Statement of international solidarity with those in Cuba: You Are Not Alone

The following statement was issued following the April 2011 Cuban Com munist Party
Congress and so is over a year old. Nevertheless, the sentiments expressed should be
supported, whilst we have no illusions in the possibility of censors or policemen changing
their minds, as might be implied in the statement. Even today there is still illusion, and
even among some libertarians, in the Cuban regime. Thus whilst the International
Solidarity Commission of the Industrial Workers of the World signed the statement, an
article appeared in the July 2011 issue of the IWW paper Industrial Worker denouncing the
statement and the attempt to set up an IWW branch in Cuba, defending
the regime and calling on the IWW to support the creation of workers? states!!

Statement of international
solidarity with those in Cuba

The Communist Party of Cuba's VI
Congress has just closed with an en-
dorsement of the liberal reforms (?to
each according to his labors?) prom-
ised in the realm of the economy:
but along with these come cuts in
social services and an increased pres-
ence for military and for technocrats
in the machinery of government,
with a reduction in the presence of
intellectuals and workers.

In terms of rhetoric and deeds alike,
efficiency, control and discipline re-
place equality, solidarity and partner-
ship. Against this backdrop we have
indications of a crackdown in the
cultural realm, heralding yet another
set-back to Cubans' exercise of their
fundamental freedoms. Performing
artists find their names blackened
by cultural officials-turned-censors
engaged in frantic campaigns, the
length and breadth of the country
peddling false rumors and spurious
accusations.

A prestigious Cultural Theory Center
finds its facilities and equipment
being sabotaged again by ?thieves?
who forget to take anything and
whom the authorities cannot seem
to identify and punish. Poets and
community activists are visited
by police personnel who threaten
to haul them before the courts as
?counter-revolutionaries? and to
leave them to the mercy of the ?peo-
ple's wrath?, thereby demonstrating
that said wrath is not ?of the people?
nor independent of the powers that
be who direct it.

Damage to social property, defama-
tion and physical and psychological
bullying (and violence) are not only
offenses punishable under legal
codes the world over ? Cuba includ-
ed ? they are also considered acts
of State Terrorism. For decades, the
Cuban people gave their best efforts
to their children and to the world
in order to build up a fairer country
with universal and high quality cul-
ture, health and education despite
the irrational and begrudging bu-
reaucracy that always depicted the
people's gains as its own creations.
Are the repressiveness and lying of
such ?apprentice Stalins? to go down
in History as the features by which
the Cuban process is to be remem-
bered, rather than the day to day
heroism of the Cuban people? This is
not justice.

But if we are to ensure that this is
not the case, then, from below and
from the left, we must banish the
silence and the self-censorship that
underpin the impunity of the cen-
sors, that we should never open our-
selves up to the charge that we are
allegedly ?playing into the enemy's
hands.? The people who today are
finding their integrity and their jobs
threatened by these actions of the
Cuban authorities are deserving of
our utter respect, for we have seen
them at close quarters in a range of
different times and circumstances.
They are not, as the official propa-
ganda line has it, hirelings of the
CIA, as they just about subsist on
the same dismal income as the vast
majority of the Cuban people. When
they go on trips, they spend their
meager savings on publicizing their
humanistic creations and on the
purchase of the materials they need
in order to carry on with their efforts
on behalf of a more cultivated coun-
try with greater freedom. Whatever
help they get from us (in the shape
of some DVD, art equipment or the
proceeds of some modest fund-
raiser) represents solidarity from us
male and female workers, artists and
students who, in our own countries,
resist the neo-liberal, authoritarian
policies of the capitalists and their
gendarmes in Seattle, Mexico City,
Paris, Caracas, San Francisco and
Buenos Aires.

What a contrast between our com-
rades and the bureaucrats comfort-
ably traveling the world in Solidarity
Drives, paid for with the Cuban peo-
ple's money, bureaucrats who defect
to Miami at the earliest opportunity
and parade their repentance on TV
as ?freedom fighters?! What a con-
trast with certain ?friends of Cuba?
intellectuals who, naively or for hire,
mistake the ideals of the Revolution
for the policies of the Cuban state
and deny to our Cuban comrades the
very rights that they demand (and in-
deed, sometimes, enjoy) under their
own bourgeois democratic regimes!
The difference in quality, in terms
of handiwork and spirit, from those
?licensed reformists? who are ready
to treat every wheel and turn of the
Cuban regime with a fresh coat of
theoretical gloss and to indulge in
abstract (pseudo) critiques, as long
as this suits the powers that be.
Our Cuban comrades' only sin is that
they have the effrontery to con-
template (and change) their reality
without waiting for promises from
the Nanny State or Capital's siren
songs. They believe in a fuller life, in
a community where the unhindered
growth of each is the precondition
and measure of the unhindered
growth of all. Dialogue with and les-
sons learned from our other worldly
struggles, from piqueteros and from
zapatistas have broadened their
horizons and also allowed us to learn
from their historical record of mis-
takes and popular resistance. They
represent the liveliest, most splendid
bequest of the Cuban Revolution
which refuses to perish despite the
canker of bureaucracy. They are (in
body and soul) young marxists, anar-
chists, libertarian socialists, followers
of Marti, humanists, feminists, ecolo-
gists, communitarians but, above
and beyond any such labels and de-
scriptions, they are decent folk who
have risked their lives in the service
of others. For which reason we shall
not not allow them to stand alone.
We know that the forces of domina-
tion are mighty, that they control the
billy-clubs and cyberspace, punish-
ment and reward, the intimidated
and the paid retainers. But we pos-
sess the sense of shame and hope
against which ? as popular anti-im-
perialist rebellions around the globe
can testify ? despotic power cannot
stand. Hopefully there may, in the
minds of the censor and the police-
man, be some lingering memory of
the original commitment given to
the Cuban people that hoisted them
into power: but, if not, we are ready
to launch the mightiest solidarity
campaign using every resource avail-
able to the law and to progressive
public opinion worldwide.

_______________________________________________________________
We know our enemies are on the alert : but let them have no
doubt of this: SO ARE WE.
Signatures of supporting groups:
?
Confederation National du Travail - C.N.T. Le Havre (France)
?
Internationaler Arbeitkreis e.V. (Germany)
?
iz3w ? informationszentrum 3. welt, Freiburg i. Br (Germa-
ny)
?
Colectivo Editor de El Libertario (Venezuela)
?
GALSIC ? Grupo de Apoyo a los Libertarios y Sindicalistas
Independientes en Cuba (France)
?
Federation Anarchiste ? FA (France)
?
Le libertaire (newspaper, France)
?
Colectivo Actores Sociales (Mexico)
?
Colectivo Passapalavra (Brasil)
?
Movimiento Libertario Cubano
?
Frente Anarquista Organizado (Chile)
?
Colectivo Feminista Josefa Camejo (Venezuela)
?
Equipo Editorial de Insurrectasypunto (Argentina)
?
Biblioteca Popular Libertaria "Mauro Mejiaz" (Venezuela)
?
Secci?n sindical de la Confederaci? General del Treball (CGT)
de la Universidad de Barcelona
?
Secretar?a de Relaciones Exteriores de la Federaci?n Anar-
quista Uruguaya
?
AK Internationalismus der IG Metall Berlin (section interna-
tionaliste du syndicat, Berlin) ? Germany
?
Asemblea Libertaria del Vall?s Oriental ? Catalonia
?
Ateneo Arte y Cultura de l?Escale de l?Alt Empord? ? Catalo-
nia
?
El Bloque Anarquista ? F.L.L. ? Mexico
?
Colectivo A les Trinxeres ? Catalonia
?
Coordinaci?n anarquista de Le Havre ? France
?
Forschungs- und Dokumentationszentrum Chile-Latein-
amerika e.V. ?Germany
?
Red libertaria Apoyo mutuo ? Spain
?
FALCLC (Federaci? Anarquista ? Comunista llibert?ria Cata-
lana) ? Catalonia

Bron : a-infos-en@ainfos.ca

RIO+20: KAN EEN KLEIN LAND ALS CUBA HET VERSCHIL MAKEN?

Na het mislukken van de voorbije milieutops zijn de verwachtingen voor Rio+20 hoog gespannen, maar de eerste voortekenen voorspellen weinig goeds. Misschien is wat inspiratie te halen in het énige land ter wereld dat een hoge sociale ontwikkeling combineert met een lage ecologische voetafdruk: Cuba.


Tussen 20 en 22 juni vindt de VN-conferentie inzake Milieu en Ontwikkeling (Rio+20) plaats. Exact twintig jaar na de historische ontmoeting in 1992, de Top van de Aarde, komen wereldleiders in diezelfde stad Rio de Janeiro samen om na te denken over 'duurzame ontwikkeling'.

Misschien kan Cuba inspiratie leveren voor de top. Op de Rio-conferentie twintig jaar geleden hield Fidel Castro een opmerkelijke speech. Hij waarschuwde als eerste staatshoofd voor de uitroeiing van de menselijke soort. Hij brak een lans voor een radicale ommekeer op ecologisch gebied.

Een belangrijke biologische soort loopt risico op uitsterven omwille van de snelle en progressieve vernietiging van zijn natuuurlijke levensvoorwaarden: De Mens (...) Als men de mensheid van deze zelfdestructie wil redden moeten de rijkdom van deze planeet en de beschikbare technologie beter verdeeld worden. Minder luxe en vespilling in enkele landen, opdat er minder honger en armoede zou ziujn in het overgrote deel van de wereld (... )  Morgen zal het te laat zijn om te doen wat we al veel langer hadden moeten doen.
(Fidel Castro op de Top van de Aarde, Rio de Janeiro, 2 juni 1992)

Cuba geeft daarbij zelf het voorbeeld. Vanaf de jaren negentig zette Cuba, ondanks een ernstige economische crisis volledig in op milieubescherming. In 1959 bestond amper 14% van Cuba's territorium uit bosbestanden. Vandaag is dat al ongeveer 27%. Het is één van de weinige landen ter wereld dat zijn bosbestand heeft verdubbeld in 50 jaar tijd. Daarbovenop is Cuba in Latijns-Amerika koploper wat betreft 'beschermd' bosgebied. Cuba laat Chile en Ecuador ver achter zich. 22% van Cuba's grondgebied is beschermd. Ter vergelijking: slechts 2.5 % van Vlaanderens grondgebied is beschermd (cijfers 2007)1

Het is dan ook geen toeval dat in 2006 , WWF en het Global Footprint Network in hun Living Planet Rapport tot een merkwaardige conclusie kwamen. Cuba bleek het enige land ter wereld dat een niveau van 'duurzame ontwikkeling' bereikte. Het Caribische eiland krijgt als enige land ter wereld die stempel doordat het een hoog niveau van sociale ontwikkeling combineert met een relatief kleine voetadruk. Op nagenoeg alle indicatoren die sociale ontwikkeling meten, zoals kindersterfte, levensverwachting, alfabetisering, moedersterfte, enz. kan het eiland zich meten met de rijkste landen en scoort het beduidend beter dan andere ontwikkelingslanden. Tegelijkertijd heeft een voetafdruk die vier keer lager is dan België.

Dat is geen evidentie, want Cuba bevindt zich in een moeilijke en kwetsbare positie. Tegen 2100 wordt een stijging van het zeewater met ongeveer 30 cm verwacht. Voor een eiland kan dat tellen. Ook de economische basis is zwak. Cuba is een ontwikkelingsland dat lijdt onder de langstdurende economische blokkade uit de geschiedenis De belangrijke ecologische uitdagingen moeten dus aangepakt worden met heel beperkte technologische en financiële middelen.

Duurzame landbouw op Cuba

Een voorbeeld hiervan is de Cubaanse landbouw. Het land komt van ver. Na de revolutionaire overwinning zat Cuba met een zware koloniale erfenis opgescheept. Het land werd eeuwenlang uitgeput door boskap en monocultuur van rietsuiker. Intensief gebruik van chemische meststoffen en bestrijdingsmiddelen zorgde voor ernstige milieuverontreiniging. Vanaf het begin van de jaren '80 werd het roer omgegooid. Heel wat Cubaanse universitairen in die jaren waren beïnvloed door het wereldwijde groeiende ecologische bewustzijn. De overheid volgde en liet heel wat onderzoek uitvoeren naar duurzame landbouwmethodes. De zware economische crisis van de jaren negentig als gevolg van de val van de Sovjet-Unie bracht alles in een stroomversnelling.

De resultaten mogen er zijn. De Cubaanse omschakeling van conventionele landbouw naar biolandbouw is de grootste in de menselijke geschiedenis. Enkele voorbeelden: Vóór 1990 gebruikte Cuba meer dan een miljoen ton synthetische meststoffen per jaar, vandaag is dat 90.000 ton. Een ander voorbeeld is Cuba's goed uitgebouwde stadslandbouw. In Havana alleen zijn er ongeveer 200 tuinen , met een totale oppervlakte van ongeveer 35000 hectare, die de inwoners van de stad in 90% van haar behoefte aan groenten en fruit voorziet.

De stadstuinen in Havana

Hoe kon het dat de ecologische stroming het debat in Cuba won? Dat heeft alles te maken met de prioriteiten van het Cubaanse maatschappijproject. Het debat wordt niet gedomineerd door winstlogica en daardoor kon het 'clean' gevoerd worden. Wetenschappers en politici waren het soms oneens met elkaar, maar er waren geen tegenstrijdige belangen. Er was geen enkele speler die chemicaliën wou binnen brengen met als doel winst te maken. Er waren geen lobby’s die chantage pleegden op de besluitvorming of de publieke opinie konden bewerken via reclame of de media. Het was ook enkel door een planning van de – schaarse – middelen dat een snelle en efficiënte implementatie van nieuwe agro-ecologische research mogelijk is geweest. Tenslotte was dit succesvol beleid onmogelijk zonder een hoge mate van maatschappelijke gelijkheid, een stevig participatief beleid en het werken aan een bewustzijn bij elk individu van het belang van duurzame ontwikkeling.

Dat wil niet zeggen dat er in Cuba geen ecologische problemen zijn. Zo moet het eiland bijvoorbeeld nog steeds een aanzienlijk deel van zijn voedsel importeren en verouderde technologie veroorzaakt te veel vervuiling en verbruikt te veel energie. Er zijn dus nog belangrijke uitdagingen. Maar het eiland kan wel beschouwd worden als een belangrijk en hoopvol laboratoriumexperiment voor duurzame ontwikkeling . Voor de toekomst van de mensheid is het een hele geruststelling te weten dat een hoge sociale ontwikkeling te combineren valt met een lage voetafdruk.

1: gegevens INBO

Bron :

Meer weten over Cuba? Ga dan naar de website van Initiatief Cuba Socialista

'Mariela Castro: seksualiteit en sociale verandering in Cuba'

Zaterdag 22 september 2012 zal Mariela Castro aanwezig zijn op
Manifiesta om deel te nemen aan het debat over seksualiteit en sociale
verandering dat de nadruk legt op controversiële thema’s zoals
homofobie, seksuele revolutie en emancipatie en (gratis)
geslachtsveranderingsoperaties. Ze is voorzitter van het Nationaal
Centrum voor Seksuele Opvoeding van Cuba (CENESEX). Ze komt actief op
voor de rechten van holebi’s (homoseksuelen, lesbiennes en
biseksuelen) en van transseksuelen in Cuba. Tegenwoordig geniet ze
internationale bekendheid.

Intal.be / Alexiaf

Geneeskunde voor de 3de Wereld - nieuwsbrief

www.g3w.be - info@g3w.be - volg ons op Facebook

PAASCAMPAGNE VOOR CUBA GROOT SUCCES Meer dan 5000 zakjes paaseitjes vlogen de deur uit. De voorlopige opbrengst wordt geschat op meer dan € 13.000 voor onze Cubaanse partner.Dank aan iedereen die meewerkte en meesmulde! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ AAN ALLES KOMT EEN EIND ... Het leven is geboren worden, groeien, feesten, ... Regelmatig krijgen we aanvragen van mensen die een feestje willen geven ten voordele van onze partners. Maar ook als je er niet meer bent, kan je nog veel betekenen. G3W werd recent lid van de groepscampagnewww.testament.be. De voordelen van het duo-legaat zijn nog onvoldoende gekend bij het grote publiek en daar wil deze campagne verandering in brengen. Interesse? Lees dan onze info-brochure over legaten. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 KM DOOR BRUSSEL: VANUIT ECUADOR! Op zondag 27 mei staan een team van G3W met 94 lopers aan de start van de 20km door Brussel. Sportievelingen die zich laten sponsoren en zo het werk van onze partners mee mogelijk maken. De goesting en de ambitie zijn er zeker en vast, zelfs tot bij onze partners in Ecuador. Bekijk de video-boodschap. De verwachtingen zijn ook dit jaar weer hooggespannen want we willen met zijn allen € 20.000 sponsorgeld vinden. Alle giften klein en groot zijn welkom!

Uitschrijven uit deze nieuwsbrief. Haachtsesteenweg 53 Brussel 1210 Belgium 02/209.23.65 Uitschrijven uit ALLE mailings van G3W