Workers World Feb. 10, 2000: Miami protest defies Cuban right wing<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../../ui/styles/top.css" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="../../ui/script/ie5.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.workers.org/ui/script/DropDownMenuX.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> window.onload = function() { var ddmx = new DropDownMenuX("menu1"); ddmx.type = "horizontal"; ddmx.delay.show = 0; ddmx.delay.hide = 400; ddmx.position.level1.top = 0; ddmx.position.level1.left = 0; ddmx.position.levelX.top = 0; ddmx.position.levelX.left = 0; ddmx.fixIeSelectBoxBug = true; ddmx.zIndex.visible = 500; ddmx.zIndex.hidden = -1; ddmx.init(); } </script> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#483d8b" vlink="#2f4f4f" alink="#a52a2a">  <table width="65%" border="0" cellpadding="10" align="center"> <tr> <td height="911" align="left" valign="top"><table width="100%" border="0"> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <a href="http://www.workers.org/"><img src="../../images/wwlogo.png" alt="Workers.org" width="600" height="58" border="0" /></a></td> </tr> </table> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="menu1" class="ddmx"> <tr> <td> <a class="item1" href="http://www.workers.org/">Home</a></td> <td> <a class="item1" href="javascript:void(0)">Books</a> <div class="section"> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/index.html">Selected works of Sam Marcy</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/sambol/index.htm">Bolsheviks and War</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samtech/index.htm">High Tech, Low Pay</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/marcy/cd/samsoc/index.htm">Soviet Socialism: Utopian or Scientific</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/indonesia/index.html">Indonesia 1965</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/cm/empire.html">Expanding Empire</a> </div></td> <td><a class="item1" href="javascript:void(0)">Subscribe</a> <div class="section"><a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/email.php">Email list</a> <a class="item2" href="http://www.workers.org/orders/index.php">Print edition</a> </div></td> <td> <a class="item1" href="http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php">Donate </a></td> <td> <a class="item3" href="http://www.workers.org/mo/index.html">Noticias en Español</a> </td> </tr> </table> <print> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="3"><tr> <td width="19%" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#E2E2E2"> <p class="caption">Support<br /> anti-war,<br /> anti-racist<br /> news </p> <p class="caption"><a href="http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php">:: Donate now ::</a></p> <hr /> <p class="caption"><print><a href="http://www.workers.org/cgi-bin/mailww/mailww.cgi"><img src="http://www.workers.org/graphics/email.gif" width="21" height="20" border="0" alt="Email this article" />Email this article</a> </print></p> <p class="caption"><print><a href="/print.php"><img src="http://www.workers.org/graphics/printer.gif" width="21" height="20" border="0" alt="Print this page" />Printable page</a></print></p> <hr /> <p class="caption"><a href="mailto:letters@workers.org">Email the editor</a></p> <form method="get" action="http://www.workers.org/cgi-bin/search/search.pl"> <input name="Terms" id="fdse_TermsEx" size="12" maxlength="255" class="email" /> <input type="submit" value="Search" style="align: center; padding: 1px 2px 1px 2px; background: #DCDCDC; color: darkslategray; font-size: 9px; border: solid #696969 1px;" /> </form> <p class="caption"> </p></td> <td width="81%"> <blockquote> <div align="right" class="translate"><a href="http://www.faganfinder.com/translate/ref.php?from=en" title="click here to translate this page into any language, using the Fagan Finder Translation Wizard" target="new" hreflang="en">Translate this page</a></div>  <h4><u>'Send Elián home' </u></h4> <h1>Miami protest defies Cuban right wing</h1> <P><B>Special to Workers World</B><BR> </P><B>Miami, Fla.</B></P> <P>For two months Miami--where right-wing Cubans with the complicity of the Clinton administration are holding 6-year-old Elián González hostage--has been at the center of media attention.</P> <P>Despite the reactionary climate that dominates the city, organizers in Miami and around the country agreed it was time to take the struggle to free Elián to the scene of the crime.</P><P>So members of the National Committee to Demand the Return of Elián to His Father in Cuba came to Miami for a national protest on Jan. 29. They found many local people eager for the chance to show their disgust at the kidnapping of this child. </P><P>In a historic first, some 300 protesters picketed in front of the INS building, in the heart of the Haitian community.</P><P>The committee, composed of many individuals and organizations throughout the country, includes many Cuban Americans. Pastors for Peace, the International Action Center/Peace for Cuba Appeal, Casa de las Americas and the Antonio Maceo Brigade spearhead it. </P><P>The committee's call for protests triggered actions in 15 U.S. cities including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Cleveland, San Diego and New Paltz, N.Y. Demonstrations have also been held in Europe and Canada.</P><P>In all, thousands took to the streets on Jan. 29 to demand that the U.S. government immediately return Elián González to his father in Cuba. This demand is not only just but represents the overwhelming sentiment of the people in this country.</P><P>The Miami protest was seen by friend and foe as the most significant. People came to Miami from as far away as Seattle, San Diego, New York, Washington and Chicago. Other parts of Florida were also represented.</P><P>It was also important because right-wing Cuban organizations have a powerful hold over the city. They have a rabid hatred of the Cuban Revolution and President Fidel Castro. Many are filthy rich and have political connections. All this makes them a powerful force indeed.</P><P>Miami has been seen as their town, a hotbed of venomous anti-Cuba hatred.</P><P>Throughout this crisis, it has become quite clear to the vast majority of people in this country that Elián's caretakers are more driven by their hatred of Cuba than by concern for the 6-year-old. </P><P>This is the first time in the 40-year history of relations between the Cuban Revolution and the United States that the exile Cuban community has been so discredited. </P><P>But it took the national demonstration to break the silence in Miami--so that a strong "Send Elián Home" message could be heard over the propaganda of the right.</P><P>Andres Gomez, a leader of the Antonio Maceo Brigade in Miami and one of the local organizers of the event, told Workers World, "This demonstration came at a time when the Miami press had been silent in a self-imposed censorship."</P><P>Speaking of the most notorious of the right-wing groups, Gomez said: "This censorship favored the Cuban American National Foundation. In order to break this silence, it was necessary for supporters to come in from around the country. </P><P>"This brought the attention of national media. It was a tremendous success."</P><P>Gomez pointed out that the right-wing Cuban Americans in Miami have been unable to mobilize more than 300 people at any action. Despite the fact that Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen called for the largest Cuban American demonstration ever two weeks ago, only 300 came out. In the past they have been able to pull out thousands.</P><P>Gomez continued, "This is an example of CANF's isolation on this issue."</P><P><B>Overcoming fear of right</B></P><P>Many Miami residents told the organizers that they support Elián going home, but are afraid to say so. This message was repeated everywhere that volunteers passed out leaflets, copied fliers for the event, or ate their meals.</P><P>The Miamians are afraid not only of physical attack from the right wing but of economic retaliation as well. People feared they could lose their jobs if they spoke out. </P><P>Two Cuban women, business owners, said they desperately wanted to come but were afraid. They finally arranged to meet organizers in the morning so they wouldn't have to come to the rally alone or in their car.</P><P>This repression is not just against Cubans. Activists in the Haitian and African American community said the same thing.</P><P>Organizers wondered the day before the protest if people from Miami would come out. Would the media publicize the coalition's news conference announcing the rally?</P><P>But after the 6 p.m. news, the phones began to ring off the wall--calls especially from Cubans jubilant that the demonstration had indeed been announced on the news.</P><P>Pastors for Peace leader the Rev. Lucius Walker, a main organizer of the demonstration as well as of the national committee, had answered the media bias at the news conference after one journalist asked in a combative tone why Elián's father "had not bothered to come to the U.S. to pick up his child." </P><P>Walker answered passionately, "What more does this man have to do to prove that he wants his son back?"</P><P>Majority sentiment in the United States supports returning Elián to his family in Cuba. That's why fear did not stop Floridians from demonstrating in Miami, even after CANF head Jorge Mas Santos attacked the organizers as provocateurs right after the news conference.</P><P>Gloria La Riva of the International Peace for Cuba Appeal had said that organizers came to Miami because this is where the child was kidnapped. Mas Canosa characterized this as inflammatory and provocative.</P><P><B>Cubans, Haitians and whites</B></P><P>As the sun shone bright on Jan. 29, a Saturday, it was clear the threats would not keep Miami residents from attending the rally. </P><P>People were exuberant. Cubans, Haitians, whites, Latinos were all there to demand that Elián be sent home.</P><P>Two Latinos told organizers they had thought at first it was a rally to keep Elián in Miami. They said they were so sick of this charade that they were ready to stop and take on the participants, two against hundreds.</P><P>When they discovered it was a "Send Elián Home" rally, they couldn't believe it. They picked up placards and joined the picket for two hours.</P><P>A highlight came when a plane flew over the demonstration with a banner that read "Send Elián home to Cuba!"</P><P>Speakers at the rally criticized President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno for allowing the case to drag on and on. Walker pointed out that Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, at whose home Elián had met with his grandmothers, violated the vow of neutrality by saying she wants Elián to stay in Miami.</P><P>The committee is already making plans for the next phase of the struggle, which will be a mass rally in Washington. </P><P>Teresa Gutierrez, a national organizer for the Committee, told the rally that the committee would not stop its work until Elián sets foot on Cuban soil.</P><P>Rep. Dan Burton, who was in Miami the same day, and other right-wing politicians are moving ahead with plans to make Elián a U.S. citizen. According to news reports, however, this has little support. Even Republican elected officials have said they would not support a citizenship process.</P><P>Federal Judge William M. Hoeveler will hear an appeal by Elián's Miami relatives on Feb. 14 in U.S. District Court in Florida. The hearing is to determine whether the Immigration and Naturalization Service ruling that granted Elián's father in Cuba custody will prevail over any state court.</P>  <p>This article is copyright under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">Creative Commons License</a>.   <br /> Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011<br> Email: <a href="MAILTO:ww@workers.org">ww@workers.org</a><br> Subscribe <a href="MAILTO:wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net">wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net</a><br> Support independent news <a href="http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php">http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php</a>)  </p> <p class="caption"><a href="http://www.workers.org/">HOME</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/us/">U.S. NEWS</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/world/">WORLD NEWS</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/editorials/">EDITORIALS</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/orders/">SUBSCRIBE</a> :: <a href="http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php">DONATE</a></p> </blockquote> </body> </html>