The Struggle to free the Cuban Five

What Lies Across the Water - By Stephen Kimber

The Cuban Five, Who they are?  Why they were framed?  Why they should be free? – From the pages of the “Militant” newspaper.

“I will die the way I lived – 15 watercolors by Antonio Guerrero for the 15^th anniversary of the imprisonment of the Cuban Five

A review

Over the years I’ve written several letters to five political prisoners held in the dungeons of this country.  They are known as The Cuban Five and have been kind enough to reply to my notes.  Theses five prisoners include: Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerero, Ramón Labañino, and René González.  René and Fenando have been released from prison and now live at home in Cuba. 

Recently, Gerardo Hernández, one of the Cuban Five, replied to my note and recommended that I read the book, What Lies Across the Water by Stephen Kimber.  This book gives a documentary history of who the Cuban Five are, and why the U.S. government worked tirelessly to frame them up.  Before reading Kimber’s book I read the Pathfinder book about the Five that is also worth reading.

Since the Cuban Revolution that erupted in 1959 nearly 3,500 Cuban men, women, and children have been murdered in terrorist attacks.  These bombings or outright assassinations were organized by the U.S. government, or by people trained and supported by the U.S. government.  Any government interested in representing the interests of its people would carry out an investigation to make sure these murders did not continue. 

The Cuban government discovered that individuals travelling from Central America were the ones responsible for these bombings.  They also discovered that Cubans living in the United States were the ones who funded the bombings.  The specific organizations the Cubans linked to these bombings were, The Brothers to the Rescue and the Cuban American National Foundation.

The only way for Cuba to attain this information was to send agents to the United States for the purpose of infiltrating organizations that were hostile to Cuba.  This meant that these agents needed to leave their families in Cuba, move to the United States, and live in a hostile environment.    

The Cuban agents sent to the United States needed to live on an extremely limited budget.  They were only allowed to visit their families once per year.  They were well aware that their activities might lead to death or imprisonment.  Yet these patriots were willing to carry out this work for the sake of defending their country.

Mythology promoted by Hollywood

Hollywood has spent a considerable amount of money to portray the fictionalized stories of international secret agents.  The most famous of these films is about the so-called British agent James Bond or agent number 007.  Typically James Bond attempts to block the efforts of sinister villains who attempt to bring about worldwide destruction.

In his escapades agent Bond typically has access to unlimited funding as well as the latest weaponry to aid in his effort of saving the world.  The writers of these films make agent 007 even more alluring by portraying him as simply irresistible to women.

Ever since the bombings of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States government has claimed that it is on an international campaign against terrorism.  The justification used for the wars against the people of Afghanistan and Iraq was directly, or indirectly, about this so-called war against terrorism.

In order to place this absurd claim of a “war against terrorism” in context we need to look at a bit of history.  First, we might look at the over one-hundred years of genocidal warfare by the U.S. government against Native Americans.  Then, we might look at the chattel slavery sanctioned by the U.S. government.  Then, we might look at the fact that there were thousands of lynchings in this country, where the government made no effort to prosecute the murderers. 

In the world, the U.S. government has ordered the military to murder literally millions of people in their wars against the people of Korea and Vietnam.  They have also threatened to use atomic bombs against Cuba, as well as other nations.  So, when the United States government claims that it is in a war against terrorism, we might question their sincerity.     

The Cuban government felt that the U.S. Government would be interested in prosecuting those who carried out the hotel bombings in Cuba.  The Cubans had meetings with high level U.S. representatives where they discussed the evidence the Cubans collected.  This evidence clearly connected the hotel bombings to Cuban groups in the U.S. that are hostile to the present Cuban government.  The U.S. government responded by arresting five of the Cuban agents who collected this evidence.

The Art of Antonio Guerrero

Recently, I attended an exhibition of a collection of watercolors by Antonio Guerrero who is one of the Cuban 5 prisoners.  Several years ago Antonio responded to one of my notes by sending me his wonderful drawing of Martin Luther King Jr.  He is an excellent artist and this makes his story even more compelling.

From what I understand, Guerrero learned to become an artist while serving time in prison.  Several prisoners served as his instructors as he advanced from black and white drawings to watercolors.

The exhibition I viewed is contained in the Pathfinder book titled “I will die the way I lived.”  This book also contains poems and some of the writings of Guerrero.

This exhibition gives the viewer a stark look at what prison life is in the nation that claims to represent “liberty and justice for all.”  Today over two-million inmates in the United States live under these conditions.  These are some of the titles of those watercolors:

The Welcome, is of a towel and a role of toilet paper.  These were the only items given to Guerrero when he entered prison under solitary confinement.

Number, represents the numbers and not names that prisoners need to learn in order to be identified. 

The Shakedown, is of a jail cell where the iron bed is turned upside down.  Prison guards can raid a room at any time and literally turn everything upside down.

The Chains, represents chains shackled to prisoners when they are transported.  Guerrero said that this was an unforgettable experience. 

Slavery and the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution

Here we might look at the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution that supposedly outlaws slavery in the United States.  The Amendment states that:  “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

This Amendment simply states that there is a legal president for treating inmates in a similar way as slaves under the system of chattel slavery.  We might consider that the U.S. government continues to conduct itself in this manner in the year 2014, 149 years after the defeat of the Confederacy in the Civil War.

There are two sides in this confrontation.  On one side, are the Cuban people.  Although Cuba has limited resources, the Cuban government has done everything in its power to advance the interests of its people.  Today Cuba has more doctors and teachers per capita than any other nation in the world.  While Cuba has about twice as many doctors per capita as the United States, the infant mortality rate in Cuba is about half of what it is in Philadelphia.

On the other side of this controversy is the United States government.  Today this government is closing down schools, cutting back on health care for working people, and going to war against people all over the world.

Back in the days when Nelson Mandela was in prison, I argued that while he lives in prison, none of us can claim to be free.  We can say the same today about the three out of five Cuban prisoners who continue to live in the dungeons of the United States.     

12 Years a Slave

A review of the movie made from the book by Solomon Northup

Initially I wasn’t looking forward to seeing the film 12 Years a Slave.  I knew the film would be a gruesome depiction of the institution of chattel slavery that would be difficult to watch.  However, I also knew that within that film there would be a biography of someone who had a unique story to tell.

When we went to high school, we probably learned something about the Civil War.  We might have learned that about the 600,000 soldiers who perished in that war.  We might have learned that General William Tecumseh Sherman, in his march through the Confederate states, ordered most of the buildings he could find burned to the ground.  The question is: Why did all this happen?

The film 12 Years a Slave gives an excellent answer to that question.  In Solomon Northup’s book written in 1853, he summarized his years in slavery.  He said that when he was made a slave he had “reached the threshold of unutterable wrong, and sorrow, and despair.” 

Unlike most slaves Northup had not been raised as a slave.  He had a wife and three children.  He was a carpenter and also earned money playing the violin.  Although he never had a lot of money, Northup understood clearly that his life as a slave was totally different from his life as a paid worker.

The most compelling reasons for the Civil War will not be found in the thousands of history books written on this subject.  No, when we look at the biographies of people like Solomon Northup, this is where we learn the real reasons for that war. 

We can look at the book and film of Alex Haley’s family titled Roots.  We can also look at the biographies or autobiographies of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Nat Turner, and Denmark Vessey.  When we look at the world through the eyes of these heroes of our history, then we can understand why there was immense destruction during the Civil War.

The legacy of slavery in the United States

We also might consider that the same political party that ran the slave system, as well as the system of Jim Crow segregation, is the Democratic Party.  Given the enormous amount of destruction this party has been responsible for, it is amazing that it wasn’t abandoned a long time ago.

One of the most difficult horrors Solomon Northup experienced was his separation from his family.  Today, the United States government has a policy of separating people from their families through the so-called criminal justice system and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Michelle Alexander documented how the government targets Black people for imprisonment in her book, The New Jim Crow – Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.  The theme of Alexander’s book is to point out that Black people are grossly over-represented in the dungeons of this country.

We might consider that Solomon Northup was placed in solitary confinement for a few days in an attempt to break him of his will to be free.  Today there are entire Supermax prisons that confine inmates in solitary confinement for years as a time.

1,000 deportations per day

The Presidential Administration of Barrack Obama has been deporting people from the United States at a rate of about 1,000 per day.  This amounts to about 30,000 deportations per month, compared to the 20,000 per month under the administration of President George Bush. 

Thousands of those who were deported are the parents of children who were born in the United States.  When the I.N.S. sends these parents to other countries the children are sent to foster homes.  When the I.N.S. separates children from their parents, how are they different from the slave catchers of Solomon Northup’s day?  

We might also consider that today about 40% of the world’s population lives on about two dollars per day or less.  When someone is deported from this country there is a good likelihood that they will live in conditions where the salary is about two dollars per day.  Are these conditions significantly different from the conditions of slavery experienced by Solomon Northup?

Most immigrants come to this country from Mexico.  The facts are that the entire South-West of this country was stolen from Mexico through means of war.  The Mexican people are mostly of Native American descent.  This means that the ancestors of the Mexican people where the first ones to inhabit this part of the world.

What are the roles Hollywood gives to Black people?

The film 12 Years a Slave won the Oscar for the Best Picture of the Year.  Chiwetel Ejiofor should have won the award for best actor for his portrayal of Solomon Northup.  Lupita Nyong’o won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a slave who was viciously beaten and raped.

Certainly I’m glad that this film was made and should be seen by anyone who is interested in our history.  However, we might list the biographies of heroic Black people who have not received attention from Hollywood.  These biographies would include: Frederick Douglass, Martin Robinson Delany, Sojourner Truth, W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Ida Wells, Toussaint L’Overture, and Antonio Maceo.

On the other hand, Halle Berry did receive the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in the film Monster’s Ball.  Berry portrayed the wife of a Black man who was executed while in prison.  Berry’s character was also the mother of a son who died in a car accident because he needed to walk home in the rain.

Denzel Washington won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the film Training Day.  Washington’s role in this film was of a corrupt LAPD narcotics officer.  Washington should have also won an Oscar for his role of Ruben “Hurricane” Carter, who served twenty years in prison on framed-up murder charges.  I also felt that Washington gave a wonderful performance in one of my favorite films, The Great Debaters.    

Danny Glover is attempting to make a movie about the Haitian revolutionary leader Toussaint L’Overture, but he has had difficulty in getting funding for the project.  Indeed, Spike Lee needed independent funding to make his film about the life of Malcolm X, titled X.

Today we can all be glad that the conditions Solomon Northup experienced as a slave no longer exist for most people in this country.  However, when we understand the naked reality in the world today, it is clear that we don’t experience freedom.

My opinion is that the reason why the films 12 Years a Slave, and Roots have been so popular, is because working people today can identify with slaves who yearn to be free.  Genuine freedom is something we are all still struggling to achieve.     

      

A Community Meeting Protesting Budget Cuts in Education

Recently, I attended a community meeting in Philadelphia aimed at protesting the enormous budget cuts in public school funding the government is implementing.  This meeting, unlike other community meetings I’ve attended, gave the participants a real feel for the fact that the legitimate fight against cutbacks in public education will continue.

I’ve attended several other community meetings that claimed to ask for recommendations from citizens as to what improvements might be made in the city government.  The Philadelphia Inquirer and university professors were the ones who organized these meetings. 

Community meetings of the past

One of the earlier meetings that I attended was titled, “Great Expectations,” because the organizers felt that citizens had a legitimate right to expect great things from the city government.  Another community meeting asked the participants to come up with ways to cut the city budget. 

At this meeting participants were asked to eliminate entire departments that might be considered “low hanging fruit.”  The “low hanging fruit” supposedly signified the least desired departments.  I always thought that a good place to start would be in eliminating the so-called “ethics department.”  Since nothing the managers of the city government do is in any way ethical, I feel that the existence of this department isn’t necessary.

At these meetings I attempted to impart a different perspective.  I argued that working people in Philadelphia deserve an improved standard of living.   However, the city government is on an all-out drive to make sure our standard of living continues to deteriorate.  Understanding this reality, I argued that instead of making suggestions to city hall, we need to organize a movement to fight against all cutbacks in social services.  While some people respected this point of view, most participants viewed this perspective as inappropriate.

The response to the cutbacks

The recent community meeting started with a film documenting the cutbacks in public education in Philadelphia.  About 23 schools have already been closed and over 2,000 school employees have seen their jobs eliminated.  The film estimates that by the year 2017 a total of 64 schools will be closed.  Clearly, this would only happen if the city meets no opposition to its budget cuts.  The panelists made a strong argument that the city government’s hopes of driving through these cuts will be challenged. 

Looking at the fight against these cutbacks, we might also look at a few facts.  First, we can look at the 1954 Supreme Court ruling of Brown vs. The Board of Education.  In this ruling the Supreme Court decided that segregation in public education is illegal. 

The city of Philadelphia borders on the Lower Merion School District.  When someone walks across the street on City Line Avenue this person walks into a school district where per student funding is double of what it is in Philadelphia.  The large majority of students in the public schools of Philadelphia are Black or Latino.  The large majority of students in the Lower Merion School District are Caucasian.

Other facts that might be considered are that Philadelphia has the largest tax abatement program in the nation.  This means that corporations don’t need to pay taxes on new construction for ten years.  The amount of money not paid in taxes due to tax abatements amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars.

The city has also spent hundreds of millions of dollars on sports stadiums and the convention center.  Hundreds of millions more has been spent on interest payments on municipal bonds. 

The result of these economic policies has been that today Philadelphia and Detroit are the two poorest of the large cities in the United States.

No Child Left Behind

Current school policy follows a government mandated plan called “No Child Left Behind.”  This program claims to teach students to pass tests in reading, writing, and arithmetic.  Requiring students to dedicate themselves to passing these tests undermines any effort to inspire students to learn the subjects they are studying.

The Labor Department has estimated that most jobs in the future will not require a college education.  These jobs include: nurses aids, waiters, security guards, housekeepers, and truck drivers.  Understanding these facts we can see that the program of “No Child Left Behind” is aimed at meeting future corporate interests.

The fight against school cutbacks in 1971

I graduated from Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey in 1971.  During the years I attended Arts, Newark had the longest teachers strike in United States history.  This situation prompted the students to teach our own classes and to put forward our own demands.

Listening to those teachers, parents, and students who are fighting against public school cutbacks today reminded me of my high school years 43 years ago.  The biggest difference between then and now is the economy.  Back in the 1970’s jobs were relatively easy to get.  Clearly these weren’t good jobs, but people had a chance to pay their bills and raise a family.

Today, unemployment has reached the highest levels since the depression of the 1930’s.  Even working people who have jobs find it much more difficult to make ends meet.  Most of the better paying jobs require a college education, and the cost of that education is astronomical.

All of these facts point to a new reality where the fight against all cutbacks will become more and more determined.  Mass movements promoting the rights of labor, civil rights, and the movement against war were the primary way progressive change came about in this country.  Judging from the meeting I attended against cutbacks, young people are beginning to learn this invaluable lesson.