Rock Around the Monument! Cuba solidarity report on Tyneside, police harrassment

The meeting on Thursday will now be held upstairs at the Salsa Club.

As for the police: their harassment is not going to deter us. Thank you for all the solidarity shown by other activists at Monument. Solidarity is strength!

Let's hope the Cuban people are freed from communism soon, and that they are allowed to have free elections and hold demos like this one in Newcastle. Still no Cuban Indymedia site, and we all know why. Good to see some proper old-fashioned naivety from the youngsters at this Newcastle demo. It's very touching. We were all young and foolish once, though most of us weren't foolish enough to publically demonstrate our support for a totalitarian regime that has ruined millions of cuban lives over the decades.

...so you'd have preferred if Castro and his comrades had just left Cuba as it was - an impoverished island which US travellers used as a brothel/casino. Well if it ever gets 'liberated' I am sure you will have your wish - except that will be over the dead body of the vast majority of the Cuban population.

Cuba is an impoverished island which US people don't use as a brothel or a casino. It'd be better off if they did. Cuba also jails many political prisoners, doesn't allow free access to the internet, which is why there is no Cuban Indymedia site, and doesn't have free elections and doesn't tolerate opposition parties. Also its legal system is a complete joke, which is only to be expected given the nature of the regime. When some Cubans hijacked a ferry a few years ago to escape Castro's totalitarian regime ( natuarlly, free movement of Cubans abroad is banned), they were caught, 'tried' and executed in a matter of about nine days. You get longer in most countries to prepare your legal defence to a charge of illegal parking and its small fine.


Cuba will be revealed to you as the dump it is when the present regime ends. Those of us of a certain age remember how naive commies believed that communist eastern Europe was a good system right to the end. Then the Berlin wall came down and they found out the sorry, corrupt, poverty stricken truth, which every sensible westerner had known for decades.

Simon is as I've posted before, a racist and a Zionist, in other words a complete reactionary. He seems to take great 'pleasure' in rubbishing Cuba and regurgitating all the imperialist myths and lies about the country.
It is pointless 'debating' with him but his lies need to be exposed. The block on Cubans travelling to the US is imposed by the US not Cuba, they have an official agreement that the US will issue 20,000 visas per year for Cubans wishing to travel to there, the US has not honoured this agreement. The US also bans its own citizens from travelling to Cuba.
As to the internet, as anyone with any knowledge of it will know it is controlled by the US and because of the US imposed blockade of Cuba, access in Cuba is severly restricted. There are though internet access points in Havana which any Cuban can use.
Simon doesn't mention the blockade and its effects on Cuban society then he wouldn't because that doesn't fit his reactionary political agenda.
He also doesn't mention health care in Cuba, better than in Moston or Beswick for instance.
What about the free training of poor US citizens as doctors in Cuba.
In Cuba demonstrations against imperialism like the one attacked by the British police in Newcastle take place every day.

Dave, you are obviously one of the few people remaining who needs to feel that communist states are good things despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Just to clear up the internet access issue. In 2004 the BBC said this


 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3425425.stm

And why no Cuba Indymedia site from one of the Havana internet access site you tell us about? Because anyone who set one up and posted the type of anti-government stuff we routinely get on Indymedia sites would quickly end up in one of Cuba's notorious prisons, which cuba will not allow the Red Cross to visit. We all know why.


And Cubans are not allowed to travel freely abroad. The fact that the USA restricts access to Cubans is irrelevant. Cubans are like east Europeans before the Iron Curtain fell. They are kept at home by a government which doesn't like them to travel abroad.

Oh, and by the way, Cuba doesn't allow Amnesty Interantional to enter the country. I wonder why.

"In Cuba demonstrations against imperialism like the one attacked by the British police in Newcastle take place every day."

Thats because theyre organised by the state you idiot! Demo's against Castro are shut down, people put in prison, tortured....you think you suffer from police harrasment cause a few bobbies had a little word with you and your daft, middle class student mates? Go to Cuba and say things that go against the party line and then you'll see what police harrassment really is

I agree with Dave. It's hardly worth having a debate with 'Simon'. However, it is worth pointing out for the benefit of the passing indymedia reader that his politics are not theirs.

Simon's opposition to Cuba is that of an apologist, even fan, of the US state (and I don't say the US uses Cuba as a brothel/casino NOW, cretin, but that it did before the Revolution). He isn't even trying the 'workers are not in charge' anarcho-Trotskyist critique, but purely complaiing that Cubans do not have the same wonderful free, fair elections that those of us who live under capitalism enjoy. The 'no Cuban indymedia' is just a diversion as with his political views he would oppose most of what is on indymedia. He is a right-wing reactionary troll.

you are a fucking idiot. cuba has no elections, no free internet use, no free speech. People are imprisoned, tortured, even executed for being gay, for dissenting, for trying to escape Castro. Its not a workers state, its a one party dictatorship. Its stalinism with sunny weather.
i'm not a US apologist, reactionary, imperialist, whatever daft little label you want to call me.
Take the blindfold from your eyes, Cuba hasn't worked. And no matter what statistics you try to fling at me you cant escape the fact that Castro has had an iron grip on the civil liberties of the Cuban people for nearly 50 years. Fuck America and Fuck Cuba.

Gays locked up - yes in the 1970s (and in Britain up until the 1960s)

Torture - who? where?

Internet access? - yes its a bit ropey due to a number of factors but there are plenty of places you can email from in Cuba

Elections - yes there are but individuals stand in them, not parties (including the Communist Party)

Health Service - amazing

Education system - unbelievable

etc etc

Fantastic health service? Why did Castro need to get a doctor from Spain when he fell ill?

We've heard all about the wonderful systems in communist countries before. All lies. The reality was suppression, poverty, no proper legal system, no meaningful elections, no free trade unions, restrictions on travel abroad, no free press etc. In fact, they were just like Cuba is now.

Dave, there always have been a few people who need to delude themselves about communist countries, and you are beyond reason and help as facts don't matter to you, only what you need to believe. Anyone who wants to know about Cuba can do a bit of research - look at the Amnesty site, find out about the ferry hijackers who were executed days after their crime. There is plenty of information out there for anyone who cares to look. You don't need to take the word of the strange people who seem to think that Indymedia needs regular updtaes on how wonderful Cuba is.

Why is there no Cuban Indymedia site? Look at the list of sites around that region. Why do they have them but Cuba doesn't? Dave, is it that there is no need for one as the people live in a Castro inspired paradise and have nothing to complain or protest about? I expect you think so because you live voluntarily in cloud-cuckoo land.

Just to give a more rounded view than 'sad Simon' on the effects of the US blockade on internet use in Cuba have a look at,  http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/10620/1/360/
Internet connection is via a phone line, the international cables running under the sea to Cuba are old and do not have the capacity to carry the traffic modern telecommunications demand. The reason these cables have not been renewed, upgraded and expanded is a direct result of the US blockade.
For those who view the world through the prism of imperialism with their reactionary middle class predudices, the reality of life for most people in the world is not the same as for those of us posting messages on indymedia. The majority of people in Africa, Asia and Latin America do not even have access to phone lines never mind the internet.

Dave you demonstrate your lack of knowledge by reference to a US blockade of Cuba. There is no blockade. The US people have decided, through their governments appointed by free elections, to impose a embargo that imposes severe restrictions on US citizens trading with Cuba. That is not a blockade. A blockade would mean that the US prevented everyone in every country from trading with Cuba, and that is not the case. Cuba is free to get new telephone wires from anywhere it likes except the USA. Even the USA allows some trade with Cuba, usually of a charitable kind, because Cuba, in the normal way of communist states, is so poor that humanitarian help is sometimes needed and allowed for under the terms of the embargo.

Cuba is a totalitarian, failed state that needs, among other things,UN aid to provide clean drinking water in rual areas. There is no Cuban Indymedia site because Castro doesn't like free speech. This is also the reason that Cuba does not allow political parties to operate freely, bans free trade unions, imprisons political prisoners, doesn't allow the Red Cross or Amnesty International to operate on the island, doesn't allow its citizens to travel freely abroad, and executes people in double quick time with its joke of a legal system. All standard communist state behaviour. Cuba's government banned home use of the internet in 2004. It was working OK before that, even on those supposedly tired old wires.



Just how naive do you have to be to believe that Cuba is anything but a run of the mill communist dictatorship, with all that entails? Apart from the sunshine it could be East Germany.

Ohh, my God, how bad are Cuba and cubans! exclaim the pathetic chorus of our daily oldies and neoliberalistics trolls.
But, Cuba and cubans follows their revolutionnary way of living in dignity & freedom expanding their solidarity with every suffering people all over the planet, that's the reality "our" trolls are trying to denigrate. This are the facts.
And it's very simple to anyone to search and found the truth about the cuban revolution... of course, if you have the will and the freedom to know the truth about the little island. You can even go directly to Cuba, or inform yourself in the differents medias that allows the expression of Cuba's reality, like this one. In every country there are also many local solidarity groups working on it.


- Elections: Of course there are elections in Cuba, much more free and participative that anywhere:

 http://www.cubainformacion.tv/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=195&Itemid=86

 http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/secciones/elecciones/index.html


And it's impossible to understand why our trolls cries that in Cuba nobody can freely speak or dissent: those that travel to Cuba are impacted by the fact that cubans are really a people that expresses anything they believe... and anywhere; it's really impossible to silence a cuban!... they speak and dissent all day long, jajaja. But another thing is respect the mercennaries (the so called "dissidents" in "free and democratics" medias) that are rejected not by the government but the cuban people.

- Indymedia: Not only Cuba doesn't have Indymedia, a lot of "free and democratic" countries around the world also doesn't have it. In Cuba people is informed and participate in the everyday construction of their revolutionnary society without entering in contradiction with his government; they don't need alternative medias: they are the people in power expressing their ideas in Unity, that's the most secret and strategic weapon cubans have.

- Internet... you know very well the limitations that the US impose Cuba in this area, and to solve this problem there is a submarine fiber optic cable under construction between Cuba and Venezuela (ohh my God another one!!) that will allow fast and cheap comunnications with all over the world: So our "Simon" can sit down and wait for this moment... what will you say Simon about "Internet in Cuba" then? Nevertheless, at this moment there are millions of cubans of different age that acces to Internet or the other forms these informatic era offers, gratis!

Facts: Thousands and thousands students of every "dark corner" of these world are living in permanent interaction with the cuban people, knowing cuban reality and learning Solidarity, Dignity, Humanity. Thousands of internationalists cubans are practicing these Solidarity all over the world.
More than two millions tourists visits Cuba every year, walking among the people, talking with them, dancing and laughing and of course knowing directly "on live" about the "terrible and brutal" cuban repression (please, we are waiting for Simon to show us a single photo about the so called "Cuban repression"!!)


Everyone that knows Cuba "become younger by the minute"

Really, Simon, you have to be kidding.

I was going to ask you to clarify, given you hate communism and socialism so much, what sort of system you favour instead. But you have answered already. Earlier you said you were not an apologist for the US and threw in a 'fuck America' for a bit of convincing stuff, but clearly you do think that the USA is a democratic state.

So, where shall we start? Perhaps a good place would be Guantanamo Bay prison camp - a US internment facility in an illegally occupied part of Cuba... presumably you think this is something the population of the US democratically chose to happen...

If Cuba becomes younger by the minute perhaps that's why there are no free elections. Everyone is under the age of consent.

Spinoza, list the results of the Cuban elections for the last 40 odd years so we can all have a good laugh. Your photographes of flag waving, happy Cubans are just what we'd expect from a regime that tolerates no dissent. We were familiar with such happy images from the old eastern European communist states.

No free elections.
No free trade unions.
No freedom to travel abroad.
No access to the internet.
No independent judiciary.
No free association such as the right to form political groups and parties.
No access to the country by Amnesty International, the Red Cross or any other such groups.


Anyone who supports such a regime has to be either deluded or evil, or both.

See  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Cuba for a list of reasons why Cuba is not a nice place at all, except perhaps for western tourists who want a couple of weeks in the sun. The tourists are free to leave, and to take their childrn with them, something Castro doesn't allow his felow Cubans to do.

Unsurprisingly, you've not responded to my question about Guantanamo Bay. ICan I assume you think its an ok place then? Better in your book than the rest of the island of Cuba?

I want to know what system you favour as you think communism is so shit. Tell me what it is that can meet the needs of all the people, not just the rich section, better and I will give serious consideration to changing my allegiances, as I assume this ranting at communists is supposed to achieve this aim. But without this better alternative, why should I give up on Cuba? Even if all your criticisms were true, which they are not, they would not be sufficient to counter the massive positive achievements both domestic and international made by the Cuban Revolution over the last 40 years.

Did you know that Cuban hospitals are providing free eye operations for poor people from all over Latin America and the Caribbean?

Don't take my word about Cuba. Instead, go to Cuba, go on the internet and start an Indymedia site. Hire a hall in Havana and hold a public meeting at which the locals are invited to give their views on their government, and video the whole thing so you can show it to us when you get home and so you can post it on your new Havans Indymedia site. Stay in Cuba for a while after the meeting. Come back and tell us all about it.

You're not going to do it are you? No westerner ever does, even those westerners who can convince themselves that Cuba is a great place. hat's for two reasons. Firstly, western fans of Cuba are mainly naive, middle-class revolutionary dreamers who don't want to know the truth. Secondly, nobody wants to end up in a Cuban jail, with no legal rights and no visits from the Red Cross, which is banned from Cuba and a few other dodgy places. The only prison in Cuba that does allow the Red Cross to visit is the US run one at Guantanamo Bay! When was the last time you heard ordinary Cuban people speaking freely about anything? All we get here is laughable propaganda from Spinoza.

You DO think Guantanamo Bay US torture prison camp is ok.

The rest of your views are therefore meaningless. You're not some liberal critic of Cuba. You're a plain oldfashioned defender of imperialism's worst and most violent excesses.

End of discussion

its sad how some people have their heads so far up their arses that they cant see the facts. Cuba is a totalitarian regime, just because its in the tropics, the leaders wear cool army uniforms and smoke fat cigars doesnt make it any different from some other pathetic stalinist regime. People try and tell you this and all you can do is claim they're 'US apologists' or 'imperialists', which i doubt that you poncy student, middle class, wannabe revolutionarys even know the meaning of. You are Cuba apologists, your defending a regime that is fascistic, that carries out executions for dissent, that until the late 70's deemed gay people to be evil, had them imprisoned, tortured and executed. What the fuck are you doing? Please, just grow up and realise that wearing che t-shirts, waving a cuban flag and defending a dictorship does NOT make you a revolutionary, it just makes you a daft bunch of twats.

All these posts from Spinoza and others showing happy flag waving Cubans having a wonderful time in a land with no free press, no free elections and no free trade unions don't do Indymedia much good. They make it seem like a place for cranks and their silly theories, which is a pity because there's some good stuff on here.

My dear Simon, I'm only named "Espinoza"... not Spinoza, as the famous philosopher was.

I invite you and all of you to visit Cuba without the fear of being kidnapped, tortured, raped, killed, disappeared... as you describe to us the daily situation there is. Of course I understand that you think that this is a common reality in Cuba as it is in other places of this planet, but this is not the case. And I suppose you are intelligent enough to take in consideration that millions tourists or thousands international students are not masochists persons that opts to travel or live in a country where their lives will be in danger.
It seems that the cuban people has been very effective in the detection and neutralisation of the US government sponsored terrorists that were active a decade ago: today there are no bombs exploding in hotels, schools or other places killing or blessing innocent tourists, international students and cubans. It remains only a little amount of patethic and opportunists persons that works as low cost mercenaries trying to convince some ingenuous the same way as you try to do with us in this Indy space.
These mercenaries, that of course are presented by "free and democratics" medias and governments as "dissidents"... are easily and promptly denuded even by some of the journalists of the numerous international agencies that are represented in Cuba (more than 100 differents international medias...!), even the BBC has changed a little it's opinion on this topic. This is only a example of the veritable "Battle of Ideas" that takes place to defend the truth about the Cuban Revolution.
And if you go to Cuba, you can testify "the way cubans deliberate" their opinions about religion, politics, history, philosophy, economy, sports, culture... every topic concerning life in the "Parque Central", placed in the center of La Habana city...


A last thing: some cuban prisons have been visited this year by a official delegation of european parlamentaries, where they directly knew the reality of the imprisonned autonamed "dissidents", and as it seems their official opinion is very different to the "official" propaganda the US government told us.
Of course AI committees will follow with their reports about Cuba, anyway not very severe taking under consideration that they are based in the manipulated information they obtain. Personally I haven't heard about some AI committee visiting some prison anywhere, so I don't imagine them in this context visiting the cuban prisons: Cuba will never agree with a discriminatory treatment by any government or organisation.

Anyway AI reports also that:

"AI raised concern with the US government about its refusal to allow the Cuban wives of René Gonzáles and Gerardo Hernández, Cuban nationals serving long prison sentences in the USA, visas to travel to the USA to visit them in prison."

 http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Americas/United-States-of-America

See also:

 http://www.antiterroristas.cu

 http://www.freethefive.org


Respect the CICR/ICRC, I understand that "The ICRC's mandate and mission" is:

"A permanent mandate founded in international law, a worldwide mission to help victims of conflicts and internal violence, whoever they are. The ICRC’s mandate in the Geneva Conventions and in its Statutes; articles on the mission, status and objectives of the ICRC."

 http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/section_mandate?OpenDocument

... and in Cuba there is any "victim of conflict and internal violence"...


As a popular cuban singer (Silvio Rodríguez) told us, Cuba is: "Lo que brilla con luz propia nada lo puede apagar"... approximately translated as: "There is no way to extingish, what shines with it's own light". That's why the cubans wawes "happy flags".

With my respect to all the Indymedia visitors that defends Cuba as a hope.

For reports of Rock Around the Blockade's most recent brigade to Cuba, where we spoke to Cubans throughout society about their struggle to build socialism, see:  http://www.ratb.org.uk/vc/VivaCuba44.pdf

For a lot of information on gay rights in Cuba, including the in-depth discussions of sexuality which have taken place nationwide in recent years around a popular television drama, see:
 http://www.walterlippmann.com/lgbt-cuba.html

How ironic that people claiming to defend the right to independent media should make the argument that anywhere without 'Indymedia'(C)(TM) must therefore be a repressive hell-hole! I think Indymedia provides a really important service, but surely exactly what it is NOT about is lecturing people that they must do things a certain way?

As a journalist for Telesur, the progressive television station being pioneered by Cuba and Venezuela across Latin America, pointed out in conversation with RATB's recent brigade, media is always about power. In Cuba state power is in the hands of the mass of the people, the industrial and service workers, farmers, students, doctors, teachers, etc, and as such the media - state media - is in their hands and defends their interests.

So whose interests exactly would a Cuban Indymedia site serve? Who is not represented in the national, provincial and municipal assemblies which govern Cuba and which are made up of elected representatives - subject to recall at any time by a simple majority and kept on the same wage as before they were elected - from the mass organisations (women's federation, small farmers' association, unions, student bodies, artists' organisations, disabled organisations, etc, etc), and from elections held at the level of every few streets?

In capitalist countries where the majority of the media is in the hands of a minority of the people, Indymedia sites can play a very progressive role - in socialist Cuba it would be at best meaningless and a waste of resources, and at worst a tool for US-backed counterrevolution, which seems to be exactly what some of the posters here are baying for.

A gullible communist writes

'In capitalist countries where the majority of the media is in the hands of a minority of the people, Indymedia sites can play a very progressive role - in socialist Cuba it would be at best meaningless and a waste of resources'


Oh I see! No Cuban has toddled off to his local internet cafe in Havana, of which we are assured there are plenty to make up for the ban on home internet access, and decided to set up a Cuban Indymedia site, which of course he would be totally free to do without any government interference at all. Not one Cuban has decided to do this, because every single one of them realises what a waste of resources it would be. Not one Cuban dissents from this view that a Cuban Indymedia site is not needed. What a sick joke.


I suppose there are similar reasons for the lack of a free press, free elections, free association, free trade unions and freedom to travel abroad and no independent judiciary. All these things ''would be at best meaningless and a waste of resources' in Cuba where Mr Castro makes things so wonderful to render them superflous and uncalled for by a happy flag waving population led by Espinoza.

Give us more pictures of happy smiling flag waving Cubans Espinoza. They are really creepy and tell us more about Castro's totalitarian regime than all your eulogies. A picture tells a thousand words.

Here we go, Sad Simon repeating his meaningless mantras about Cuba; sitting there like a nodding dog mascot on the back of an anarchistic bandwagon – even more sad when one considers that Anarchist are by-and-large nothing more than posturing clowns. Let me summarize some of the factual points already mentioned and use other independent sources along with some of my own in order to tackle and drown with derision each one of Sad Simons’ reactionary middle class myths about the working class revolution in Cuba - which he dribbles in some sort of un-holy duplicity along with the usual anti-communist “Anarchist” oaf’s – who no doubt were amongst the Florida Mafia in joining their grotesque dance-of-death upon hearing of Fidel’s illness and the imminent collapse of Cuban socialism – neither of which happened.

• Simple Simon Says, “No free elections!”
ANSWER - Yes there are - but individuals stand in them, not parties, (including the Communist Party [see below]).

• Simple Simon says, “No free trade unions!”
ANSWER - The basic system of democracy in Cuba is from the 'grass roots' up. The leadership needs to be strong in its battle against the US. But this is to defend what the people see as a preferable system to corrupt and exploitative US dependent, so called 'democratic', Latin American states. People are involved at all levels of society but principally at the community level through CDR's (neighbourhood committees) and at the workplace through the trade unions. They are also involved through the Communist Party and Federation of Cuban Women.

The Unions fought through the 1959 Revolution to remove Batista and his puppet union leaders. They now have an established and independent union structure under the CTC (the equivalent of our TUC) with unions covering 18 different trades or sectors of work, e.g. construction, agriculture and tourism. These operate at branch, regional and national level with high levels of participation compared to British workplaces. Most people are members of trade unions (some 97 per cent overall although this varies by trade).

Representatives are elected by regular ballot. At a workplace level the managers, trade unions, communist party and Cuban women's organization work together to solve the problems within any particular enterprise. Union officials are keen to point out that although membership levels are high there is no compulsion to join or pay levies to the union. People are members because they choose to be, the levies are low and they see the advantages of participation.

The trade unions have been very involved in the changes that have taken place in the economy since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Changes were required as Cuba was heavily dependent on the favorable terms of trade it had with the Soviet Union for its economic survival. Without this support the country faced economic collapse. There were proposals to tax salaries, close down commercially unprofitable enterprises and create widespread unemployment. After an extended period of consultation across all trades and areas of the country taking almost a year, these proposals were rejected by a majority of workers. The government did not implement them.
However, due to the harshness of their economic situation, new measures were found to try to maintain the maximum employment while securing economic stability and growth. This involved adapting the use of factories. As there was no fuel, tractor factories were closed and the workers transferred to other tasks, e.g. assembling Chinese bicycles, where labour was needed.

Some unemployment was accepted but this was in return for a continuation of wages at 60 per cent of the level while working. The working hours were increased from 40 to 44 hours and wages across the whole economy were lowered. The collective state farms were broken down into smaller co-operatives, new sectors such as Tourism were rapidly expanded to give access to hard currency and small scale private enterprises were allowed. People were for the first time allowed to hold dollars legally and dollar shops were opened.

The above changes in the economy have had an effect on union membership. The current union structure was established to support workers in state enterprises. While they have had some success in recruiting in the tourist sector, and other joint enterprises, they have not been successful in maintaining union support amongst the 'freelancers' or self employed.
We would find this unsurprising and the lure of cash is a growing problem. The dual dollar and peso economy is creating distortions in wealth in what was a system geared to equality and fair pay dependent on the job. Now low skill workers in, or hustlers around, the tourist trade can earn more in dollar tips per month than a college professor or advanced scientist can earn in their peso salary per year. There is an urgent need to tackle the inequalities caused by the dual economy and reward the more loyal workforce.

The unions try to resolve problems at the workplace level. This is generally in an informal and collaborative manner. There are not the adversarial strains found in capitalist countries as most workers trusted their government and employer. They work together to overcome the many problems caused by the US blockade. These are witnessed in major shortages of almost every raw material needed in the production process, from building blocks to chemicals and electricity. This requires great resilience, but most workers feel that the defence of the Cuban revolution is a common struggle for all exploited workers and such sacrifices are necessary. The unions are able to play a role in informing and consulting with workers and conveying their feelings to the government.

The unions retain the right to strike and feel this is essential for them to have strength and ensure the government responds to their interests. They rarely use this action and seek to balance their independence from the government with their general support for the revolutionary cause.

The US funds, supports and promotes what it calls 'independent' trade unions in opposition to the official unions. These do not hold elections and appear to return to the days of puppet unions manipulated by, and in favour of, US interests rather than those of the workers. Anyone who doubts the independence and democracy of the official trade unions should visit Cuba as part of a study group or delegation and see and talk to workers first hand. As the Brigadista’s from the Revolutionary Group’s (RCG) “Rock Around The Blockade” (RATB) did in the summer of 2007; it is clear that any visitor would be amazed by the warmth of their reception and the dedication and commitment of the workers in this brave country.


• Simple Simon says, “No freedom to travel abroad!”
ANSWER - The block on Cubans traveling to the US is imposed by the US not Cuba, they have an official agreement that the US will issue 20,000 visas per year for Cubans wishing to travel there, however, the US has not honoured this agreement. The US also bans its own citizens from traveling to Cuba.

• Simple Simon says, “No access to the internet!”
ANSWER - As to the internet, as anyone with any knowledge of it will know it is controlled by the US and because of the US imposed blockade of Cuba, access in Cuba is severely restricted. There are though internet access points in Havana which any Cuban can use. Internet connection is via a phone line, the international cables running under the sea to Cuba are old and do not have the capacity to carry the traffic modern telecommunications demand. The reason these cables have not been renewed, upgraded and expanded is a direct result of the US blockade. These are some of the limitations that the US impose on Cuba in this area, and to solve this problem there is a submarine fiber optic cable under construction between Cuba and Venezuela that will allow fast and cheap communication with all over the world. Nevertheless, at this moment there are millions of Cubans of different age that access the internet or the other forms this information era offers. As a journalist for Telesur, the progressive television station being pioneered by Cuba and Venezuela across Latin America, pointed out in conversation with the RCG’s RATB brigade, the media is always about power. In Cuba state power is in the hands of the mass of the people, the industrial and service workers, farmers, students, doctors, teachers, etc, and as such the media - state media - is in their hands and defends their interests. It is not only that Cuba doesn't have Indymedia; a lot of "free and democratic" countries around the world also don't have it. In Cuba people are informed and participate in the everyday construction of their revolutionary society without needing to enter into a contradiction with their government; they don't need alternative media's: they are the people in power expressing their ideas in Unity, that's the most secret and strategic weapon Cuba has.

So whose interests exactly would a Cuban Indymedia site serve? Who is not represented in the national, provincial and municipal assemblies which govern Cuba and which are made up of elected representatives - subject to recall at any time by a simple majority and kept on the same wage as before they were elected - from the mass organizations (women's federation, small farmers' association, unions, student bodies, artists' organizations, disabled organizations, etc, etc), and from elections held at the level of every few streets?

In capitalist countries where the majority of the media is in the hands of a minority of the people, Indymedia sites can play a very progressive role - in socialist Cuba it would be at best meaningless and a waste of resources, and at worst a tool for US-backed counter-revolution, which seems to be exactly what some of the posters here are baying for. The majority of people in Africa, Asia and Latin America do not even have access to phone lines never mind the internet.

• Simple Simon says, “No independent judiciary!”
ANSWER – Here sad Simon may find an… ahem… “legal loop hole”. The 1976 constitution established the People's Supreme Court, consisting of a president, vice president, and other judges, as the highest judicial tribunal. All members of the court are elected by the National Assembly, as are the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General. Through its Governing Council, the court proposes laws, issues regulations, and makes decisions that must be implemented by the people's courts, whose judges are elected by the municipal assemblies. There are also seven regional courts of appeal, as well as district courts with civil and criminal jurisdiction. Military tribunals assume jurisdiction for certain counterrevolutionary cases.

Although the constitution provides for an independent judiciary, the courts are subordinate to the National Assembly and the Council of State.

There are no jury trials. Most trials are public. The legal system is based on Spanish and American law influenced with communist legal theory.


• Simple Simon Says, “No free association such as the right to form political groups and parties!”
ANSWER - See answers provided to the “No free elections”” & “No free trade unions!” rants.

• Simple Simon says, “No access to the country by Amnesty International, the Red Cross or any other such groups!”
ANSWER - Torture - who? where? You DO think Guantanamo Bay US torture prison camp is ok, then? Also, some Cuban prisons have been visited this year by an official delegation of European parliamentarians, where they directly knew the reality of the imprisoned "dissidents", and as it seems their official opinion is very different to the "official" propaganda the US government told us.
Of course AI committees will follow with their reports about Cuba, anyway not very severe taking into consideration that they are based in the manipulated information they obtain. Cuba will never agree with discriminatory treatment by any government or organization. Gay people locked up - yes - in the 1970s (and in Britain up until the late 1960s).

Cuba has valiantly defied US imperialism for over 47 years and has withstood attacks over a 40 year period which include:
 Invasion: The 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion which was an unsuccessful United States planned and funded operation by armed Cuban crooks and gangster exiles in southwest Cuba, in an attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro.
 Terrorism : Violent terrorist acts directed against Cuba, such as:
March 1960 – US agents blew up a French armaments ship in Havana harbour killing 101 people; October 1962 – US President Kennedy risked a nuclear war when he imposed a naval blockade on Cuba in order to try and get Soviet missiles removed from the island; October 1976 - A Cuban airliner was blown-up in mid-flight, all 73 people on board were killed; 1997 – An Italian tourist was killed when bombs were planted in Havana hotels.
Biological warfare : 1971 swine fever - which decimated Cuban pig farms; 1980 – Fungal diseases attacked tobacco and sugar crops; May 1981 – an epidemic of Dengue fever killed 158 people including 101 children, a CIA agent later admitted bringing the virus to Cuba; 1998 – A plague of Thryps Palmiae, an insect which devastates crops was spread across Cuba by a US plane.
 Economic blockade : There are far more indirect consequences of the blockade too but a brief overview to the economic blockade means that: No US company or foreign subsidiary can trade with Cuba; no items with US-made components can be sold to Cuba; No Cuban goods or items with any components of Cuban origin can be sold in the United States; No US bank or financial institution can give credit to Cuba or support any foreign transactions with Cuba; Any ship that docks in Cuba cannot enter a US port for a period of at least 6 months; Any foreign company that trades with Cuba is open to retaliation by the US, which may include the banning of company directors and their families from entering the US and US trade with any company which uses Cuban sugar products is specifically forbidden; The President must report to congress on (and hence presumably spy upon) countries, companies and individuals that trade with Cuba.

Still, isolated individuals like Sad Simon (and their allied anarchist chums) will repeat their truth-by-repetition mantra’s like the SKY/BBC/FOX propaganda parrot’s that these popinjay’s clearly are.

Cuba has

no free elections,
no free speech,
no free association,
no free trade unions,
no freedom to travel abroad,

and a joke of a legal system that executed those ferry hijackers days after the event, with no proper trial, and no appeal at all when nobody was even slightly injured in the 'crime' of attempting to leave Cuba.

I started reading your ramblings about Cuba having free elections, and that it was just that individuals stand, not parties. What a load of utter rubbish. Only a moron would believe such rot. Cuba does have political parties, but they are all illegal except one, so they can't stand in elections. Woggle, can you guess what the legal party is called? No? Well I'll tell you. The only legal political party in Cuba is the Cuban Communist Party. Anyone attempting to stand for election in a Cuban election has to agree to uphold the constitution, which demands that you act as a socialist, which is totalitarian speak for communist. Anyone brave or foolish enough to attempt to stand on an anti-communist stance would find themselves out of work, harrassed, imprisoned or possibly all three. That's how communist states operate Woggle. Hadn't you noticed?

Article 1 of the Cuban constitution states

'Cuba is an independent and sovereign socialist state of workers, organized with all and for the good of all as a united and democratic republic, for the enjoyment of political freedom, social justice, individual and collective well-being and human solidarity.'

It's a socialist state, just like the good old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was. Or the laughably named German Democratic Republic. The political freedom enshrined in Article 1 of the Cuban constitution unfortunately doesn't include the freedom to form political parties. Or trade unions. Or a free press. What does it include? The message is clear - be a commie, or else it's the squalid prison, psychiatric hospital, gulag, salt mine etc...! The constitution, like all commie constitutions makes all elections a total joke.


And why no Cuban Indymedia site? As if we don't know the answer to that one!

Here's some more of the Cuban constitution -

'Article 5: The Communist Party of Cuba, a follower of Martí’s ideas and of Marxism-Leninism, and the organized vanguard of the Cuban nation, is the highest leading force of society and of the state, which organizes and guides the common effort toward the goals of the construction of socialism and the progress toward a communist society.

Article 6: The Young Communist League, the organization of Cuba’s vanguard youth, has the recognition and encouragement of the state in its main duty of promoting the active participation of young people in the tasks of building socialism and adequately preparing the youth to be conscientious citizens capable of assuming ever greater responsibilities for the benefit of our society.'

Sort of get the feeling that trying standing as or voting for a non-communist might not be a good idea, don't you?

Simple Simon yet again repeats his meaningless mantras –

Truth-by-repetition # 1 “no free elections”
Truth-by-repetition # 2 “no free speech”
Truth-by-repetition # 3 “no free association”
Truth-by-repetition # 4 “no free trade unions”
Truth-by-repetition # 5 “no freedom to travel abroad”

It is difficult to no where to begin with the kind of robotic responses that Simple Simon regurgitates. He could always parrot the ‘news’ for SKY/ITV/BBC/CNN/FOX - I suppose.

However, I am glad that Simple Simon took the time to expose himself, again. The thing that some people who have taken the time to read this toe-curlingly embarrassing expose of himself will probably have realized by now is that Simple Simon is neither an Anarchist or any other form of anti-imperial activist and/or intellectual – he is an ‘anti communist’ dressed up as an anti-imperialist, (although he tried to cover up for it earlier by qualifying himself as an ‘anti-imperialist’ by screaming “FUCK AMERICA!” [After he’d viciously shouted, “FUCK CUBA!”]. Eloquent).

Simple Simon is a fraud. He does not represent all Anarchists (if that is what he claims to be) or any one else that could genuinely describe themselves as ‘left-wing’. However, the tragic truth is that Simple Simon probably does describe himself as ‘left-wing; though he represents an opportunistic (often middle class) trend within the left that despises Cuba and protects its masters within the Labour Party.

Simple Simon’s not so simple then, I suppose. His scheming connivance and obsessive hatred of Communists (he refers to us a “Commie’s) is proof of that.

Sad Simon goes on to dribble…

Article 1 of the Cuban constitution states

'Cuba is an independent and sovereign socialist state of workers, organized with all and for the good of all as a united and democratic republic, for the enjoyment of political freedom, social justice, individual and collective well-being and human solidarity.'

• Yes. That sounds like a good idea to me.

'Article 5: The Communist Party of Cuba, a follower of Martí’s ideas and of Marxism-Leninism, and the organized vanguard of the Cuban nation, is the highest leading force of society and of the state, which organizes and guides the common effort toward the goals of the construction of socialism and the progress toward a communist society.

• Yes. There, open and for all to see. However, THE COMMUNIST PARTY DOES NOT STAND IN ANY ELECTIONS.
Article 6: The Young Communist League, the organization of Cuba’s vanguard youth, has the recognition and encouragement of the state in its main duty of promoting the active participation of young people in the tasks of building socialism and adequately preparing the youth to be conscientious citizens capable of assuming ever greater responsibilities for the benefit of our society.'

• Hmmmm... Yet again, sounds like a pretty good idea to me. Better than the Young Conservatives, no? Or is it only Capitalist states that are allowed to encourage university educated middle class young people to do their bidding for them?

Sad Simon the opportunist, the fraud, the anti communist and squalid Miami Mafia cheer leader can barely disguise his visceral, blood curdling banshee like anti-Cuban screams. It is grotesque.