Bush on Cuba
Would anyone buy a used blockade from this man?
By Deirdre Griswold
It was impossible when listening to George W. Bush's speech
on Cuba not to think of those weird characters that comment on
old films on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Every sentence cried
out for a sarcastic rebuttal. So here goes.
Welcome to the White House for the 100th
anniversary of Cuban independence.
Come on, George. You wouldn't catch Cuba's early leaders
celebrating their independence in the White House. They had
just endured four years of U.S. military occupation and the
imposition of the Platt Amendment into Cuba's Constitution. The
Platt Amendment of 1901 legalized U.S. military intervention at
any time, forced Cuba to turn over Guantánamo to the
U.S., and put Washington in charge of Cuba's foreign policy. No
wonder the great independence leader, Gen. Máximo
Gómez, had written in his campaign diary during the war
for independence: "The Americans' military occupation is too
high a price to pay for their spontaneous intervention in the
war we waged against Spain for freedom and independence. The
American government's attitude toward the heroic Cuban people
at this history making time is, in my opinion, one of big
business. This situation is dangerous for the country. ..."
Cuba's independence ... was the result of determination
and talent on the part of great statesmen such as José
Martí, and great soldiers such as Antonio Maceo and
Máximo Gómez.
Martí, like Maceo and Gómez, wouldn't be moved
by your flattery. He said that, though fighting Spain, he also
sought "to prevent the United States, with the independence of
Cuba, extending itself through the West Indies and falling with
added weight upon our lands of America."
The United States has no designs on Cuban
sovereignty.
Let's see--43 years of economic blockade, an invasion
organized by the CIA, nuclear threats, more than 100 attempts
to assassinate Fidel Castro, harboring and abetting numerous
anti-Cuba terrorist groups, harassing U.S. citizens who go
there, putting Cuba on the "terrorist" list. Just good, clean
fun. No harm intended.
In fact, the United States has been a strong and
consistent supporter of freedom for the Cuban people.
Like the period 1917 to 1923, when U.S. Marines occupied
Cuba and put down strikes and demonstrations? Or maybe the
years 1925 to 1933, when dictator Gerardo Machado, nicknamed
"The Butcher," looked after the interests of U.S. sugar
companies? Or what about the 25 years, from 1934 to 1959, when
dictator Fulgencio Batista, a friend of U.S. organized crime,
stuffed his own pockets while letting the Yankee casino and
plantation owners get the lion's share?
All elections in Castro's Cuba have been a fraud. The
voices of the Cuban people have been suppressed, and their
votes have been meaningless.
Ah, the poor Cubans. They don't have multi-million-dollar
political campaigns. And they don't have a Supreme Court to
choose the winner. They actually vote for people from their
jobs and neighborhoods instead of creations of Madison Avenue.
How they must yearn to be like ... Florida?
All political prisoners must be released and
allowed to participate in the election process.
Great. Let's start with Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard
Peltier.
The 2003 elections should be monitored by objective
outside observers.
You are talking about Dade County, right?
If Cuba wants to create more good-paying jobs, private
employers have to be able to negotiate with and pay workers of
their own choosing, without the government telling who they can
hire and who they must fire.
Now we're gettin' down to it. Bosses can't hire and fire
without pesky interference? That's downright unAmerican! As bad
as affirmative action and union contracts and environmental
regulations that are crippling our economy and stealing our
precious bodily fluids!
If Cuba wants to attract badly needed investment from
abroad, property rights must be respected.
The cat's out of the bag. Property rights. The right to
profit off someone else's labor just because you own property
and they don't. It's the curse of capitalism that gets handed
down generation after generation. It has doomed humanity to an
agonizingly polarized world--until more and bigger Cuban
revolutions wipe the slate clean and allow everyone to share
equitably in the wealth we have created collectively.
Today I'm announcing a series of actions that will
directly benefit the Cuban people. ... The United States will
continue to enforce economic sanctions on Cuba, and the ban on
travel to Cuba, until Cuba's government proves that it is
committed to real reform. We will continue to prohibit U.S.
financing for Cuban purchases of U.S. agricultural goods,
because this would just be a foreign aid program in disguise,
which would benefit the current regime.
Let's see. Continued economic sanctions. Ditto with the
travel ban. Preventing U.S. farmers from selling their food
there. And all for the benefit of the Cuban people. Did that
pretzel do some brain damage?
Today, there is only one national leader in our
hemisphere whose position of power owes more to bullets than
ballots.
By George, we thought you'd never admit it.
Reprinted from the May 30, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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