Introducing “Views on Cuba”

— David Finkel

ON THE OCCASION of the 50^th year of the Cuban revolution, the editors of Against the Current asked several contributors for brief contributions on how they view Cuban society, politics and culture today. Each statement represents the views of its author. Just as we published a set of diverse perspectives on the imprisonment of dissidents in Cuba six years ago (ATC 105, July-August 2003), the positions taken here cover a wide spectrum of attitudes toward the Cuban regime. We remain committed to opposing all forms of U.S. imperialist intervention against Cuba’s self-determination — the economic embargo, the travel restrictions, the occupation of Guantanamo and any military threats — while we also uphold the importance of open and critical dialogue on the left about the Cuban reality.

For space reasons we have had to defer some contributions to this collection, which will be posted online at our website www.solidarity-us.org. These, as well as additional statements received too late for the current issue, will also appear in our next issue.

CONTENT (from ACT n° 141 & 142):

Janette Habel, Cuba in Search of Renovation

Frank Thompson, Cuba – The Economy After A Half Century

James D. Cockcroft, Cuba – The Transition to Socialism

Samuel Farber, Cuba – Political Controls from Above

Katherine Gordy, Cuba Today

Antonio Carmona Báez, Cuba: A Fifty-year Old Process

Michael Löwy, Che Guevara in Search of a New Socialism

The Cuban Five—Injustice Prolonged

— The Editors

THE U.S. SUPREME Court has refused to hear the final appeal of the “Cuban Five,” who were convicted in 2001 and are serving prison terms ranging from 15 years to life for “espionage conspiracy” and acting as illegal agents for the Cuban government. Their appeal had received widespread international support, including 10 Nobel laureates Indeed, according to their lawyer Leonard Weinglass in an interview broadcast May 14 on Radio Havana, the Cuban Five “probably have more support internationally than any case that has come before the court.”

The Cuban Five — Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Rene González and Gerardo Hernández — were intelligence operatives who reported to Havana on activities of Cuban exile groups, including those plotting acts of violence and sabotage.

The June 16 Miami Herald noted that “Gerardo Hernández also was convicted of conspiring to commit murder for his supporting role in the Cuban government’s highly controversial shoot-down in 1996 of two Miami-based planes over international waters — killing four members of the Brothers to the Rescue exile group.”

Given the history of U.S.-sponsored activity by exile organizations, is this “conspiracy to murder”? The Brothers to the Rescue incident enraged Miami’s Cuban exile community and profoundly affected the Cuban Five’s ability to receive a fair trial. That was the basis of the appeal that the Supreme Court refused to hear — prolonging an injustice already a decade old.