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class=859594613-06052005>Extremely interesting report from Cuba, by Steve Ludlam
of Sheffield Cuba Solidarity Campaign and the U of Sheffield's Politics Dept. It
includes an account of May 1st celebrations and of Hugo Chavez and Fidel at a
gathering of opponents of ALCA/NAFTA.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
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class=859594613-06052005>cheers</SPAN></SPAN></P>
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class=859594613-06052005>JS</SPAN></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">A
week as Foresto Gumpero<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">Seems
like an age since I wrote anything to you, not least because so much has
happened in the last week. It’s hard to summarise but I need to make the attempt
if only for my own sake. To be honest I’d been getting a bit frustrated with the
pace of progress of my work with the CTC, until I realised that the people in
the International Relations Department who help me were up to their ears
organising incoming delegations to the 4th Hemispheric Meeting Against ALCA,
ALCA being the Free Trade Agreement for the Americas or thereabouts. It is the
<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
/><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s masterplan for imposing
neo-liberal free trade on the whole of the western hemisphere and they make no
bones about it. The papers here quoted Colin Powell’s remark that it’s purpose
was to open every market to US corporations or else. The massive struggles that
you’ll know about against water and gas privatisation in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bolivia</st1:place></st1:country-region> and
Equador and elsewhere have been storm warnings in this respect. I’d been invited
to attend the conference but had initially declined thinking I had more pressing
work to do. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">But
fate intervened. I rang Eddy my main contact in the CTC on Monday night last
week to try to speed up a meeting with the ministry of labour I’m anxious to try
to sort and he said he was taking a party of Americans from the US-Cuba Labour
Exchange program, here for the anti-ALCA conference, to meet National Assembly
members so did I want to tag along, which of course I did. So drove into Centro
to their CTC hotel, having dropped Teresa at the her Faculty – a regular drive
for me esp as the Faculty is five mins from the CTC and a rush hour experience
best avoided by the faint-hearted! I was a bit rushed and redesignated a couple
of one-way back streets on route but made it and leapt on their battered bus.
But, as ever, there was a change of plan. The Assembly members had all been
called away for another Fidel special so they were proposing to visit the Museum
of the Revolution or the Hemingway Marina. I didn’t fancy either<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>as I’ve done the museum before and the
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Marina</st1:place></st1:City> is a
foreign millionaire’s playground and miles away. AS luck would have it the
American’s leader, a Mexican immigrant with 27 years service at GM in <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Michigan</st1:place></st1:State>, was fretting
about getting their credentials from the Palacio de Conferencias so I said come
on I’ll drive you up and we can meet the others after their sightseeing with
Eddy. As we were about to set off he apologised and rushed back into the hotel
for his paperwork. And, three-quarters of the way to the Palacio he realised he
hadn’t got the registration money with him and hadn’t got enough but I declined
to turn back and lent him what he needed. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">While
we were queuing we got chatting about the conference and he mentioned that Fidel
AND Hugo Chavez were going to speak. That did it, 20 dollares and a bit of sweet
talking got me registered as a <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> delegate, a small price to pay,
and three lunches and a dinner thrown in. Best 20 dollares I ever spent. 1000 or
so delegates from all over the Americas, from social movements, parties and
unions and activist groups, in the hall Fidel uses for his big speeches and he
was there for the opening ceremonies the next afternoon but did not address,
probably on doctor’s orders as he had done a dozen 3-4 hour specials in a
fortnight and was to do 4 and half later that evening – and standing up by the
way. But the place erupted when he came on stage anyway. It’s hard to grasp just
how important Fidel and the Cuban Revolution is to radicals in <st1:place
w:st="on">latin America</st1:place>. That just one country has defied the
‘imperio’, achieved so much, and refuses to compromise, is a colossal
inspiration that crashes through the ramparts of lying propaganda and commercial
exclusion that the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> and its puppet regimes have
erected, and at least helps overcome the misery of defeat and mass murder of
activists that has been the experience elsewhere. Just the day before the papers
had reported that Cuban literacy teams in Equador had accomplished the first
illiteracy-free town in the country, having freed 1.4 million (!!) Venezuelans
from this curse in little over a year, in very tense conditions given the
incipient civil war there and their depiction (and this also applies to the
medical brigades) by the anti-Chavez media as agents of a Cuban military build
up.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">So,
what were the highlights of the conference for me? Well, as, apparently, the
only English gringo there, meeting English-speaking activists from the
Caribbean, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region> and the
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> (including several pals of John W)
and talking about their solidarity campaigns was a bonus. The official free the
five stall was delighted to see our pamphlet and gave me some books and posters
to bring back for the cause. On the first day CTC Eddy was talking to someone
and grabbed me and asked what I thought of<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>the US ALCA plan. Since Eddy is a joker with normally perfect English I
said I thought it should be extended to conquer the whole world, obviously. He
then translated this unhelpful thought into Spanish for his mate, who, it
transpired, was from Radio Reloj and scribbling down my pearls of stupidity to
broadcast. I protested that he couldn’t possibly quote what I said and insisted
he write down that Latin America was now at the centre of the struggle for
social justice and that it was crucial for the whole world that ALCA was
scuppered. I thought no more about it until the next morning I heard my words on
the radio. Fortunately the original joke had turned into ALCA is a problem for
the whole world, etc. Thank heavens for interpretive news journalism!
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">Just
being among the Latin Americans and managing to converse with them was
inspiring, and they are generally upbeat anyway at the moment because
three-quarters of south Americans now live in states with leftists presidents,
however reformist and IMF-ed they may be. ALCA has run into the sand and the
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> attempts to impose their candidate
for president of the Organisation of American States (a Mexican) were deadlocked
(and since defeated for the first time in history with the election after a
series of tied votes of a Chilean social democrat). So for many the prospect of
sewing up some of the ‘open veins of <st1:place w:st="on">Latin
America</st1:place>’ is a real one. The presence of some of the heroes of the
liberation movements and anti-imperialism, like Daniel Ortega from Nicaragua,
Schafik from El Salvador, and many others well known here but not to me, made
the event special. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">But
what made the conference explode was the presence of Chavez. He was in <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Havana</st1:place></st1:City> for two days, one
with a massive trade delegation and one with the conference. On the Friday
morning we all had to get to the Teatro Karl Marx, where Juan’s little Citroen
AX looked hilarious parked among dozens of buses from the delegation hotels.
It’s a very grand modern theatre of the traditional kind. Three tiers of
audience and a massive stage behind a great curtain. The night before Fidel had
done his 4.5 hour report on the Cuba-Venezuela trade talks, which were to be the
first formal agreements under the banner of ALBA – the Bolivarian Alternative
for the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Americas</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the Cuba-Venezuela
response to ALCA. He had announced 49 trade deals which, among other things,
would bring boatloads of new supplies of foodstuffs and domestic kit to
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s long-suffering households, not
least, chocolate which had old Tio clapping the telly again. Chavez was on the
platform but didn’t get a word in edgeways. But the expectation that this
alliance was entering a new phase of economic and political offensive was really
raising the temperature.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>By 9.30am the place was heaving and with
twenty minutes to go to the 10 o’clock kick-off<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>the Venezuelan delegations, by now
boosted by the trade delegations and all in ‘First Cuba-Venezuela Trade Fair’
red t-shirts, were getting restless. So they started a phenomenal series of
chants, different groups around the theatre responding to each other until the
whole place was rocking and singing and jumping and cheering and laughing. When
the curtain went up to reveal Fidel and Chavez, with Eva Morales from
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Bolivia</st1:country-region> also in the platform
party, beneath a giant double portrait of Marti and Bolivar, there was a roar
that almost matched the one that greeted the Wednesday team when they ran onto
the pitch at Wembley in the great <st1:place w:st="on">Sheffield</st1:place>
semi-final in 1993. After the anthems and the traditional musical and dance
prelude, which actually was stunningly brilliant, it was clear that Chavez was
going to do the talking this day, and Fidel the listening. He talked for an hour
and a half about the history of the struggle in <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:country-region>, and across the continent for
sovereignty and social justice, the role of Bolivar, the inspiration of
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>, the role of the
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> in the attempted coup and the role
of the people in defeating it. Almost at once he had paid a moving tribute to
Cuba’s medical brigades, at which point the top tier erupted and it became
apparent from my seat for the first time (Foresto Gumpero note, I’d got plumb
centre and nine rows back in the front seats, which by the way got me briefly on
the telly to the amazement and delight of my friends here) that the whole top
tier were medics and nurses and medical students. As soon as they were on their
feet the whole conference was up and cheering them with their backs to the VIP
party on the stage, who also now had to get up again and join in. Suddenly he
said, to gales of laughter, oh, I haven’t talked about ALBA.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">And
now we began to see some of the flesh on the bones. Venezuela would open credit
banks in Cuba elsewhere to fund purchases of Venezuelan oil and other produce by
governments and even municipalities (in Nicaragua and El Salvador, not to
mention Mexico City for those who have followed the attempts to stop the leftist
mayor running for President, the left is winning mayoralties by the shed-load).
And there would be credit for development projects too, irrespective of whether
they involved Venezeulan goods. Venezuela would barter trade too, oil and goods
for, for example, livestock (and of course in Cuba’s case already, medical and
educational and scientific expertise for what by now is half of Cuba’s oil
requirements etc). Instead of gangster capitalism and privatisation of public
services, ALBA would help programmes aimed at regaining economic sovereignty and
securing social justice. Fidel couldn’t resist a couple of interruptions and
they had a very unforced and humorous double act going about Fidel’s complaints
that Chavez is imprudent and rash, and Chavez joshing him about his age (‘I was
only 11 when that happened, Fidel of course was 12’). But after Chavez finished,
and got his standing ovation, Fidel declined to sit down and delivered an
impromptu 2 hours worth, with officials holding up the desk mike and trying to
avoid him knocking it out of their hands with his expansive gestures. In the
course of his remarks he announced that, as part of the ALBA programme, Cuba
would expand its 20,000 cataract operations a year programme for Venezuelans
(which, by the way has produced some personal stories of sight recovery that
have even hardened Cuban Angola veterans weeping openly, as one confessed to me
happily the other day; and I think I mentioned before that the U3A graduates
here are organising hospital visiting and classes for them) to 100,000 a year,
free to the poor of the Americas. <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:country-region> would provide free transport to
<st1:City w:st="on">Caracas</st1:City>, and <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region> would fly
them on, feed them and treat them, all free. Surely, Fidel said, even the most
craven <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> puppets can’t stop us restoring
people’s sight? And, even more dramatically, he announced a programme to
eradicate illiteracy from the <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Americas</st1:country-region> – and that means at least 40 million
people in <st1:place w:st="on">Latin America</st1:place> alone. And I think I
caught a plan to open another <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Medical</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">School</st1:PlaceType> of the Latin Americas in
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Caracas</st1:place></st1:City>, like
the one here that trains poor students for nothing, on the promise that they
will go back to their own communities for at least two years.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">So
this seems to be the strategy, Venezuelan oil and financial capital combined
with Cuban human capital to fulfil the ambitions of Marti and Bolivar to
liberate the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Americas</st1:country-region> from
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> domination and free its people
from social injustice. If <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:place></st1:country-region> can survive US plots and
hostility, then the slogan that another world is possible might come to pass
here. I had to catch the last hour or so of all this on telly later, as I’d
promised to take Tete to the polyclinico for physio. So another mad dash across
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Havana</st1:place></st1:City> and back
in a car with no fan, let alone air con, on a stinking hot day, only to find the
physios had all been taken on an excursion. And it occurs to me as I write that
they were probably on the top tier in the Teatro Karl Marx getting sore
throats.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">So
even more optimism in the air here. A palpable sense of improvement as the
prospect of a qualitative shift in breaking Cuba’s isolation looks realistic
adds to the material gains announced in the tripling of the lowest pensions,
more than doubling the minimum wage also from May Day and with consequential
salary increases for everyone else expected this year, the mass importation of
Chinese domestic goods, etc etc. It must seem a lifetime even from last autumn
when the catastrophic balls-up at the big power station brought the misery of
extensive power cuts, and that doesn’t just mean light and telly here, it means
food rotting in fridges and freezers and no fans or air con. A nightmare. And
now the big launch of ALBA programmes. May Day is always big here, but now it
was going to be very special. And all this in the context of a continuing series
of ‘special interventions’ by Fidel on the arrival in April in the US of Luis
Posada Carilles. This monster, hated here more than I can describe, masterminded
the bombing of the Cubana airliner in 1976 that killed all 73 people on board,
and has defended the action on US TV. He has also admitted on TV that he
masterminded the bombings in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Havana</st1:place></st1:City> hotels in 1997 that killed an Italian
tourist. He has been an adviser to Pinochet, active in operation Condor that
murdered leftists all over Latin America, and was at the heart of the Irangate
Contra operations in <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Nicaragua</st1:country-region> and the programme of death squads in
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">El
Salvador</st1:place></st1:country-region>. He was trained and run by the CIA. He
jumped bail in Venezuela while awaiting retrial on the airline bombing, and went
back to work for the CIA and the death squads, and then got arrested in Panama
for trying to plant a massive bomb in the University assembly hall in which
Fidel was due to address 1500 people in 2002 I think. An outgoing President
released him, allowed him to fly out on a false passport, and he disappeared.
Last month the <st1:City w:st="on">Miami</st1:City> mafia smuggled him back into
the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region> where he applied for asylum, on
the grounds, his lawyer said, that he had always been a direct and indirect
agent of the CIA. So you can imagine the fury here that a self-confessed
mass-murdering terrorist was being protected in the land of the war on terrorism
where the 5 Cuban anti-terrorist agents remain in jail on trumped up espionage
charges. As Ricardo Alarcon, the National Assembly President pointed out, the
Bush administration pressed the UN resolution after 9/11 that declared
harbouring or helping terrorists to be tantamount to carrying out terrorist
acts, and was now defying its own resolution on a daily basis, refusing to
arrest Carilles, let alone charge him or extradite him to <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:place></st1:country-region>. So
this is the all-consuming political issue of the day and quickly became the
theme for the May Day rallies.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">Time
is against me as ever but I have to say something about May Day, though I have a
heap of good photos that will do a better job eventually. I’d got CTC
credentials either to go on the platform (THE Foresto Gumpero moment beckoned)
with the VIPs, and a conference credential to join the international delegations
in the crowd. I took the latter option. The rally in Revolution Square under the
Marti memorial and opposite the great Che image on the office building, would
begin at 8 at the latest and end by 12 before too many people collapsed in the
heat. So at 4.30, already warm and humid, I was on the way to the CTC college
where I worked for a couple of weeks, to join the delegation buses from the
attached hostal where some of the Trinidadians and a lot of Mexicans were
staying. By five-thirty we were off, two buses and a police outrider. In the
pre-dawn darkness we went through La Lisa, a vast suburb of mostly block housing
and some massive hospitals – John W knows it well.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">Everywhere
I looked there were lines of buses and truck lined up. Some people go in work
groups, others in neighbourhood groups. We had about fifteen miles to go in all
and it was like this all the way and as we approached the centre we were snaking
past vast columns of people marching from their assembly points a couple of
miles out, along the great avenues of Vedado and Centro.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">Nurses,
students, soldiers, all in uniform and just great columns of families, as far as
the eye could see and many in the red t-shirts bearing one of Fidel’s slogans
‘The people of the Americas are yearning for justice’. Tio went from here at 4am
of course and was out there somewhere, 85 and no doubt still complaining he that
prefers the big marches to standing around in rallies! At this point I need to
make a confession. I was issued with a red t-shirt but they only had the small
size left. Tete insisted I had to go in red so I had a choice of two shirts of
Juans that Cristian brought him out: both red <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region> football
items sporting the cross of St George and the three lions. I chose the polo
shirt rather than the t-shirt – thicker but with a collar to protect my neck
and, crucially, a much smaller flag and that on the sleeve not the
chest.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">So
a first for me, and a first for May Day in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Havana</st1:place></st1:City> I imagine. The point of the wear red
injunction became obvious as we finally walked into the square. We were in the
front section, and they like a sea of red there. Plumb centre again and this
time only four people back with a grandstand view of the platform! And behind us
the vast square, every great building decked out in a vast slogan or montage,
and the surrounding avenues were filling until 1.3 million Habaneros had
assembled and the TV helicopter started circling. Chants and cheers began to
erupt from all corners and everyone was waving their little paper Cuban flags
and me with my own cloth one and home-whittled stick. Here they tend to express
approval by waving a flag rather than clapping. And of course immediately around
me flew the flags of <st1:place w:st="on">Latin America</st1:place> and beyond
among the international conference delegations for whom this is part of the
programme (the conference declaration was read from the platform by an exiled
Chilean woman who chairs the anti-ALCA conf committee). <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">So
eventually, to a roar that was, I have to admit, bigger than Wembley 93, 1.3
million Cubans (dupes and slaves of the communist dictator!!) erupted as Fidel
appeared on the raised ground beneath the great Marti statue and monument where
the VIP parties had assembled, in his olive uniform which I am told is believed
to be air conditioned! Most of the speeches were quite brief and disciplined,
the form established by the CTC gen sec Pedro Ross, in blue jeans and black polo
shirt, who spoke first as the leader of the Cuban labour movement and of the
organising group. No histrionics, just a reminder of the 5000-odd<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>victims of terrorism against
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> and demanding the arrest
of Posada in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Miami</st1:place></st1:City>, and recalling the meaning of may day as
international workers day. Then other main platform speakers, remorselessly
building up the theme of anti-terrorism in general and US state terrorism in
particular. First Giustino de Celmo, whose son died in the hotel bombings in
1997, and who moved here from Italy to be by his son – he says a parent never
abandons their children – whose grave he visits every day, and to join the
anti-terrorism campaign. He is much loved and admired here for his dignity and
unaffected commitment. He seems frail physically, and at one point at the
rostrum he seemed to falter and Pedro Ross and Fidel (a mere 78) leapt to his
aid. Robert Marsh, whose fiancé died in the <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Twin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Towers</st1:PlaceType>,
spoke equally movingly of his loss at the hands of terrorists, and like Giustino
lambasted the hypocrisy of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> government’s duplicitous
‘anti-terrorism’. Schafik of the El Salvadorean FMLN, so many of whom became
victims of Posada’s death squads, and Ortega from the Sandinistas who suffered
so much at the hands of the Contras. And a few others. And all interspersed with
musical and dance performances of exceptional quality, on the stage in front of
the platform, but for me the best was the band whose name I can never remember.
They made a best-selling rap anti-war protest record ‘Di que
no’<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">which
is roughly if not grammatically, ‘we say no’. It’s the chorus. All the Latin
Americans knew it too. Actually, 1.3m people knew it by heart, even the
bleeped-out bit which everyone knows is cojones – bollocks, or as my dictionary
would have it ‘testicles (vulgar)’. So although the kids usually sing the bleep,
and band did the bleep, at least a million roared ‘bollocks’ when the moment
came. The video of this song is an antiwar masterpiece by the way and I’m trying
to get a copy. While they played, columns of school kids and young soldiers
marched along the path behind the band and turned and marched on the spot facing
the crowd. So finally to Fidel, who was quite sombre and delivered a carefully
argued and detailed assault on the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> refusal to arrest
Posada.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">After
an hour he concluded with a reminder of the anti-imperialist victory
in<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">1975
in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Vietnam</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and with a Patria o Muerte.
Venceremos! And everyone shouted Venceremos back at him and the crowd started
chanting Fidel, Fidel, Fidel.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">And
then a choir of 1.3 million sang the Internationale as loud as they could and
waved 1.3 million flags. Few of them red by the way. Bit of a culture shock
carry the symbol of a state on may day. I don’t imagine anyone reading this
would consider carrying a union jack on may day, or anywhere else much for that
matter. <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s nationalism runs very deep.
Marti is everywhere but you don’t see a lot of Lenin. But then I don’t suppose
the Red Square May Day parade was ever entertained by a rap band or anything
remotely similar. Then the square cleared very quickly and a legion of cleaners
arrived to clear up the droppings of 1.3 million inveterate litter bugs. I
gather a couple of spare flags for the boys. On the journey back the streets
were still awash with cheering crowds and open lorries returning delegations to
who knows where. Back at the house where the Cuban and Chilean flags were
flying, and straight out of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region> shirt and into the shower.
Tio (85) swore his legs didn’t ache but mine certainly did. Deprived of my
cycling my legs muscles have reverted to a gentle high temperature strolling
condition. The media were triumphant at the turn out, up<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">.3
million on last year (unusually for <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place></st1:country-region> the figures issued were
approximations, as a rule all statistics are reported to the last decimal point
available). I watched the telly reports until I saw my own flag waving. The rest
I’d seen! The size of the turnout was a reflection, I’m sure, of the wave of
optimism I’ve mentioned before. I seem to have managed to be here during some of
the most dramatic weeks of political and economic progress for a long time, and
Foresto Gumpero’d my way to the front row of some of the more historic events of
this period of growing self-confidence and pride. AND I have the tiny t-shirt to
prove it even if I look like a poor (very poor!) imitation of that Marlon Brando
poster when I force it on. Mind I’ve a got a better tan.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">And
on Monday 2nd<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>there was a final
session of the conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary victory over
fascism. I went prepared to do battle over the abuse of the term in Cuban
political discourse but the debate was a series of speeches thanking the Cubans
for their hospitality, which of course was splendid. But in a final
contribution<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Culture Minister Abel
Prieto referred to the different European perceptions of the definition of
fascism and criticism of <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region>’s use of the term to describe the
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>. He listed various concepts
(racism, expansionism) and methods (systematic lying, illegal prison camps etc).
So I collared him afterwards and pointed out that these characterised
imperialism as well as fascism, and that if the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> was fascist
there wouldn’t be any American socialists at the conference, they’d be dead, and
so would the lawyers and judges who secured or ordered the release of Elian,
etc. He said he was aware that there were local perceptions in Europe and I
pointed out that these local perceptions were based on terrible historical
experience, mass murder and 10’s of millions dead, and a history of communists
and socialists making horrendous errors in characterising fascism and how to
fight it above all in Germany (third period social fascism etc) and then again
in Spain. We agreed to differ but I told him I thought a blanket abuse of the
term would open <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cuba</st1:country-region> to
ridicule among its supporters in <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> and
elsewhere, whatever the temptation to use any stick to beat a dog. Turns out
he’s an old friend of Juan and Tete and so one day I may get the chance to have
another go.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">Since
May Day the weather has returned to stinking hot, as it was when I arrived.
There have been some very heavy showers, and one cracking thunder storm, with
the result that the mozzies are back on form and finishing off some of the
join-the-dots pictures they started on me some weeks back. I’ve got fed up with
bothering about them and blocking my pores with repellent, and settled for the
occasional blood donation. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">Anyway,
running out of time and steam. Just seen the news of the closing of the polling
stations and a 70-seat majority. Wish I’d put a bet on this outcome back in 1997
when I predicted it. It might even be bigger next time with Blair out of the
way. I honestly have not missed it. When I explain the effects of the
majoritarian electoral system over here they are astonished, but not as
astonished as when I tell them we don’t have a written constitution.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">Will
be glad to get back but I’ve booked my flight back for
June!<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">So
hasta pronto. Steve</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Sylfaen"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
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