<< part 2

WORLD SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE

Cuba hosts world gatherings of all kinds. Political meetings of solidarity activists, as well medical, commercial and diplomatic gatherings occur constantly. I attended one, but others are held and reported all the time. More than 4,000 people from over 100 countries around the world came to express their direct solidarity with and support for the Cuban Revolution in November, 2000 at the Second World Solidarity Conference. They included members of left-wing political parties, trade unionists, students. Participants attended workshops and heard from top Cuban leaders, including economics chief and Vice President Carlos Lage, national assembly president Ricardo Alarcon, and president Fidel Castro.

Comprehensive reports were given on Cuba's diplomatic standing, US efforts to reverse the 40-year-old revolution, and Cuba's vigorous efforts to revive its economy. Their reports were published in Cuba, They were precise and objective, giving detailed and specific explanations, relying on facts and logic, not rhetoric. You can read Alarcon's speech here.

Carlos Lage and Fidel Castro took questions from the audience on a wide range of topics. Fidel, amazingly, took questions and answered for hours without interruption! While those on the platform sat and listened, and some in the audience (including myself) got up, walked around and came in and out of the hall, Fidel Castro stood there, without sitting down or taking a break, for the entire time, 5½ hours!

CUBAN DIPLOMACY

Cuba has broken out of diplomatic isolation. When the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies returned to capitalism, Cuba was shocked and isolated. It quickly recognized the new republics created after the USSR's dissolution. In the 1960s, the US pressured all Latin American countries (except Mexico) to break relations with Cuba. Today every country in Latin America except El Salvador has relations with the island. These are expanding daily. (Even El Salvador has welcomed Cuban doctors, who are providing free medical aid after a recent disastrous earthquake.) Cuba now participates in Latin American summit conferences from which it had previously been excluded.

At the United Nations, Cuba has sponsored General Assembly resolutions opposed to the US blockade for many years. In the past many US allies, especially in Europe, voted with the US, but this has changed. In recent years even prominent US allies such as Britain have voted against the blockade, or have begun to abstain on these matters.

In the fall of 2000, only two countries voted with the US: Israel and the Marshall Islands (population: 68,000), a former US possession only independent since 1986.

At the 10th Ibero-American Summit in hosted by Panama in November, 2000, Fidel revealed that a band of Cuban terrorists, using false Salvadoran passports, were in Panama. They were plotting yet another attempt to assassinate the Cuban leader who was scheduled to speak at the university. Cuba provided the Panamanian authorities with needed documentation. Within two hours, the gang was rounded up.

The group's leader, Luis Posada Carriles, has a well-documented history as a terrorist working for the overthrow of the Cuban government. He was charged for his role in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana airlines plane over Barbados. Seventy-three people, including the young members of Cuba's Olympic fencing team, were killed. No one survived. Though arrested in Venezuela for his role in this atrocity, he mysteriously walked out of prison with the help of his counter-revolutionary Cuban associates. Cuba has requested the extradition of Posada Carriles and his associates from Panama. The Panamanian government sent mixed signals as to whether or not it will grant Cuba's request. Although Cuba retains the death penalty and Panama does not, Cuba has publicly declared it would not apply the death penalty in Posada's case. As of May, 2001 Panama has announced it will not extradict any of the gang.

Venezuela's growing friendship with Cuba under President Hugo Chavez, a left-wing nationalist, is very significant. An entire section of the Jose Marti museum at the Plaza of the Revolution in Havana is devoted to Fidel's fall 2000 visit to Venezuela.

Cuban doctors have been caring for patients in Venezuela, and Venezuelans with unusual medical problems have been brought to Cuba for specialized care. Fidel addressed a special session of the Venezuelan legislature. When a few right-wingers complained, Fidel took up the points they raised and answered them. He made a detailed and eloquent presentation. You can read Fidel's speech here.

In Mexico, Fidel was an honored visitor during the inauguration of Vicente Fox, Mexico's first post-PRI president. Mexico is revitalizing relations with Cuba. The capitol's first female mayor, Rosario Robles, a member of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, presented the Cuban leader with the keys to the city. He also met with leaders of the Roman Catholic hierarchy who publicly spoke out against the blockade, something their Cuban counterparts have never done.

Fox appointed Jorge Castaneda his foreign minister. Castaneda wrote an unsympathetic biography of Che Guevara. Mexico's new ambassador to Cuba, on the other hand, is Ricardo Pascoe, a long-time left-winger. Read a report from Granma on Pascoe's appointment here.

I met Pascoe many years ago when he was a member of a small revolutionary left-wing political party. I was a member of a similar party in the US. (That's how we came to meet.) Like many others on the left, Pascoe joined the PRD, established by Cauhetemoc Cardenas after he left the Institutional Revolutionary Party, Mexico's former ruling party. So deep is Mexican opposition to the US blockade that even Vicente Fox's right-of-center National Action Party (PAN) participates in the Mexican movement of solidarity with Cuba!

After the fall of the Soviet Union, during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, Cuba's relations with Russia soured. At the end of 2000, Cuba welcomed visiting Russian president Vladimir Putin. Both sides stressed their historic ties dating back to the days of the Soviet Union. Expended economic and other activities were publicized, but few details were released.

Cuba also announced during the Putin visit that it would not complete the Juragua nuclear power plant in Cienfuegos, which the USSR helped to construct. The Juragua plant was something the United States had made a big stink about. (This from the nation which gave us Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Three Mile Island.) For its own reasons, Cuba refused for years to publicly declare the nuclear plant project dead. So it became a big US media flap, and US used it as an excuse to install "radiation sniffing" devices aimed at Cuba. More likely, they were devices to eavesdrop on Cuban communications. The US, which had complained so bitterly about the nuke plant when it was announced, was oddly silent about the decision to abandon it. However, this decision was in line with many other environmentally sensible things Cuba has initiated since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

A REMARKABLE FAMILY GATHERING

One day while at the Havana Libre Hotel (formerly the Havana Hilton), I heard people speaking English. I joined their conversation and made the most remarkable discovery: the group was headed by a 72-year-old Cuban-American physician returning to Cuba for the first time since the early 1950s. He had left during the second Batista dictatorship. They told me they were having a great time and would certainly be returning to Cuba in the future.

He was accompanied by his two sons, young men in their early forties who both support the Cuban revolution. They were having a grand time and making plans for future visits. We were joined by the doctor's cousin, whom he was meeting for the first time. The cousin introduced his Russian wife and proudly showed pictures of their lovely daughter. The couple run a travel agency that specializes in bringing Russians to the island.

GETTING AROUND

There are many ways Habaneros get around their sprawling city. The largest and most inexpensive of these are monster buses assembled in Cuba and nicknamed "camello" (the camel) because of their distinctive shape. The fare is extremely cheap, 20 Cuban centavos (remember: that equals one US penny!) and they're often very crowded. Pickpockets are also known to "work" them, so I was told to put my wallet in my front pocket or in a briefcase for security. I was also continually amazed to see military officers taking their places on line for the bus, just like everyone else. They don't have special privileges because they're in uniform.

Taxis fill in where buses can't. Metered taxis with fares in dollars are the most expensive, but many are air conditioned and extremely comfortable. There are companies which respond to phone calls. The best known is PanaTaxi, which you reach by calling 55555. They were not always reliable, a big change from the previous year when I recall such cabs responding quickly.

Cabs can also be found by standing at the curb and hailing one or just looking as if you need a ride until one of them stops and the driver asks where you're headed. A third cab system has been created, the "coco cabs." These are small, round open-air vehicles, seating two or at most three behind the driver. You don't want to use one of these on a cold (by Cuban standards!) day. Fares are negotiable, in dollars, before departing. More women serve as drivers of these than of traditional taxis.

The "ten-peso cab" system also works quite well, especially if you're Spanish-speaking. These cabs are ancient but fully serviceable cars; they go extremely long distances, but only in one direction. The driver will pick up as many passengers as possible, so you can find yourself riding with five or even six other people. Friends told me not to speak as the drivers could get in trouble for transporting a foreigner, for which they were not licensed. I never had problems getting rides.

Some Cubans are licensed to transport people in the old luxurious classic cars for which Cuba is so famous. I heard that the licenses are expensive, and that the government stopped issuing them some time ago, despite a demand for the services.

One day while seeking a taxi, I was approached by what was the most comfortable ride I had in Cuba: a late-model Mercedes-Benz. The driver (who already had another passenger) said his regular job was as chauffeur for a high government official. He had the day off, and used his boss's car to pick up some dollars moonlighting as a jitney.

Also there are the "bicitaxis." These are powered by one person in front, on a bicycle frame, with two elevated seats and a sunshade in the rear. They're slow and not easy on the body due to the deferred maintenance on many streets.

Parenthetically, the Cuban military is REQUIRED by regulation to give people rides if their vehicles have room, and they actually do this. And there are also people who drive people around for money but who aren't licensed for this. I used all these modes of getting around, except for military vehicles, which I almost never saw.

Cuban streets are rarely crowded and I never saw what I would call a genuine traffic jam as in Los Angeles. Perhaps a better comparison with Cuba would be Mexico City. There, the streets are strangling with cars (and their attendant pollution), including an inordinate number of Volkswagen beetles. These aren't the new kind we've seen in the US in recent years, but the traditional beetle, painted green and white. In Mexico, where the VW is still built, it's the most widely used vehicle for taxis. The front passenger seat is removed so there's only room for two riders in the rear.

Women of all ages hitchhike in Cuba with no fear for their safety! Cuba is absolutely different from the United States, Mexico or many other countries in this. I know a journalist at Radio Havana Cuba who lives thirty miles the city and has no car. She hitches to work and has no worries about her safety. This would be INCONCEIVABLE in any US city.

You can walk around the city without fear. Havana is rather dark at night because there aren't enough street lights. The biggest safety problem I saw was how much the sidewalks need repair. As one who loves to take long early morning walks in Los Angeles, losing myself in thought, I learned quickly in Cuba to literally watch my step! In general, it was the SAFENESS of Cuba which for me was most palpable. I felt far safer there than in Los Angeles.

JOHN LENNON IN HAVANA

Popular music from the US is big on Cuban radio and there is also a thriving informal market for bootleg US music on tape and CD. On December 8, 2000 Cuba unveiled a statue to John Lennon as part of the observance for the 20th anniversary of Lennon's death. Leading members of the government, including Fidel, attended the event. National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon gave an eloquent address placing Lennon's life and music in historical and political perspective. Alarcon's remarks and my photo of the statue can be found here.

The US media has been working overtime for 3 decades to counteract the political radicalism of the Sixties. It's all the more significant that Cuba does what it can to keep the values of that period alive in the minds its people. (Ironically, during the Sixties Cuba was not so enthusiastic about such cultural forms of protest.)

The evening of the statue's unveiling, a large outdoor concert of Lennon's music attracted thousands of young Cubans who often sang along with the songs, in English. A pair of on-stage disc jockeys announced the various groups and songs. A massive video projection system with 16 screens displayed images of Lennon performing on film while the Cuban singers and musicians played. Security was present, but it wasn't heavy-handed. Mainly it directed audience members to where they should sit or stand. None wore uniforms or guns. Taking pictures I walked up within fifteen feet of the performers on stage and no effort was made to stop me.

At a similar event in the United States, you'd find the sweet smell of marijuana, but not in Cuba, and almost no one was drinking alcohol. Everyone was having a good time and no one was drunk, loaded or otherwise out of control.

Word had apparently gone out that people in the audience shouldn't smoke or drink. It seemed significant that this should even be mentioned since Cuba's so firmly anti-drug. This must be what a Christian rock concert feels like. Lennon's music represented a cultural-political protest against injustice in US society in its time, but it could hardly have that significance in a place like Cuba where a revolutionary government is in power. Yet Lennon's music clearly resonated deeply for this audience.

ADVERTISING
The lack of billboards in Cuba is striking. There are some political signs, though not many. One, announcing the November, 2000 International Solidarity gathering, simply said "Solidarity Can Never Be Blockaded." And there are virtually no commercial signs of any kind. Businesses have signs on their buildings, but overall the lack of advertising, which shrieks at you in the US and Mexico, was amazing and pleasing.

Brand name products are more popular than generics, even though generics can be much cheaper. I thought I'd kid my Cuban friends about how they had swallowed capitalist advertising when I discovered they preferred Close-Up ("the sex-appeal toothpaste") to the generic, which comes in an unmarked tube. The generic costs literally pennies on the Cuban ration book (the libreta). The Cubans, however, handed me the Close-Up tube with these words at the bottom: "Hecho en Cuba por Suchel Levar, Havana, Cuba por acuerdo con los propietarios de la marca." ("Made in Cuba by Suchel Levar [a Cuban state enterprise] by agreement with the owners of the trademark.")

CUBAN TELEVISION

As in the US, Cubans often turn on their TV sets and walk away, leaving the sound on as a kind of background noise in their lives. TV seems the main place where people get news and entertainment. As one who rarely watches at home, I found Cuban TV fascinating. I watched also to help learn Spanish.

Cuba only has two television channels, Cubavision and Tele-Rebelde. It's not on 24 hours a day. The formats are similar to what we might see in the US, but there are striking differences. Imagine television without any commercials at all!?!? There are NO commercials of any kind. They had a few public service announcements (don't waste water, conserve electricity, smoking is bad for your health, don't abuse alcohol, and so on). These were short, under a minute each, and not heavy-handed.

Movies from all over the world are broadcast, some in their native languages with subtitles, some dubbed. "Murder, She Wrote" (dubbed) is very popular. I enjoyed the sweet and sentimental "Stuart Little" (dubbed) followed by a documentary on the making of the movie "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," (subtitled). A German mystery series called "Decker" is also popular.

One evening in a beautiful, completely refurbished old hotel in Central Havana they were watching (I kid you not!!) "The Brady Bunch" (dubbed in Spanish). Telenovelas are big, including one taking place in Cuba during slavery. Others from Brazil, Argentina and other Latin American countries are popular. Cuban music of all styles, from son to salsa to bolero and hip-hop, is also broadcast.

News programs cover basic topics: Cuban diplomatic activity, international meetings, and so on. We would recognize familiar formats. The content however, is quite different. The evening newscast begins with references to that day in history, from the 19th century to the present. Every day some historical or political event was being marked, either on TV or in public gatherings. I also saw an extended PBS documentary about the mistreatment of immigrants by the INS on Cuban TV.

During the struggle to recover Elian Gonzalez from the US, a nightly feature was the "roundtable," a program of news analysis by Cuban journalists and academics taking up current events. Activists and scholars from outside Cuba are called for their opinions. Since Elian's return, the roundtable has become a staple. It has an in-studio audience, but they are observers, not participants in discussions. Once in a while Fidel appears on the show, but not while I was in Cuba.

Cuba promised that once Elian was repatriated, the voyeuristic US television coverage would be ended. This pledge has been kept. The child and his family are rarely seen on TV, except for the birthday party at his school on December 6th. Fidel spoke briefly, as did Juan Miguel. Otherwise, the entertainment was children singing, clowns performing and a monster birthday cake.

Interviews with Cuban-Americans such as Francisco Aruca, a Miami businessman and radio personality who favors normalization of relations, are regularly featured in the Cuban media. Aruca, who had opposed the revolution years ago, now runs a travel agency that brings Cuban-Americans to the island for family visits. During Fidel's trip to Mexico, the roundtable featured an interview with Peter Gellert, a key organizer of Cuba solidarity activity in Mexico. Gellert, an old friend, was born in the US and was an activist in the 1960s. We met as members of the US Socialist Workers Party then.
 

continued in part 4... >>