EDITORIAL
Congress & Cuba
The Senate didn't vote 59 to 38 to ease the
ban on people from the United States traveling to Cuba because
the wealthy patricians on Capitol Hill are any great friends of
that workers' revolution. But the move was welcomed in the
Caribbean nation, where the economic warfare of the illegal
U.S.-led blockade takes a deep toll.
Weeks earlier, the House had also voted, 227 to 188, to
refuse to appropriate funds to enforce the travel restrictions,
as part of its $90 billion bill to fund U.S. Transportation and
Treasury Department programs.
President George W. Bush's aides vowed that he would veto
the entire appropriation to fund Treasury and Transportation if
the amendment loosening the travel ban were part of the
bill.
The Bush administration, of all the groupings in the
capitalist political establishment, has lied the loudest about
how dreadful the Cuban Revolution is and how terrible life is
there. Of course, when Bush and his neo-con cronies talk about
how hard life is in Cuba, they don't mean because the United
States is using an economic cudgel to bludgeon the population
of the island nation.
In early October, Bush used a Rose Garden ceremony to
announce that his administration was tightening restrictions on
people from the United States traveling to Cuba. And he said
he'd use the Department of Homeland Security to target and
punish any U.S. citizens who defied his edict.
Therein lies the contradiction: If Cuba is so bad, why can't
people from this country go there and see for themselves?
In truth, for 40 years U.S. administrations have tried to
keep a barricade around the Cuba to prevent much-needed aid and
trade from traveling in and to prevent the revolution from
traveling out. The Cuban Revolution is very impressive. Those
from the United States who have challenged the travel
ban--labor unionists, health-care workers, teachers and
others--have returned inspired by the successes of the planned
economy there and the human relations it produces.
People in the United States, fed on the pablum that this is
the freest country on earth, don't want to be told where they
can or can't travel and what they can or can't see. And two
years ago the struggle of a virtually united Cuban population
standing shoulder to shoulder with Juan Miguel Gonzalez seeking
the return of young Elian--held captive by anti-Cuban forces in
the United States--moved many in this country.
The imperialist establishment is united in its goal of
overturning the Cuban Revolution. But they aren't of one mind
about how to achieve that objective. After 40 years of frontal
assault, they're looking for other ways to undermine the
revolutionary process there. Still, this doesn't rule out
hostile moves toward Cuba by sectors of the U.S. ruling
class.
On the other hand, Bush needs the support of farm-state
legislators, many of them from his own party, who are clamoring
to ease travel and trade restrictions on Cuba. Since the ban on
farm sales to Cuba was loosened in 2000, U.S. agribusiness has
sold $282 million in agricultural goods to the island.
Cuban officials hailed the Senate vote as confirmation that
the majority of people in the United States want to improve
relations with Cuba.
The best way to build that solidarity is to strengthen the
demand here in the belly of the beast to lift the brutal
U.S.-led embargo against Cuba--now!
Reprinted from the Nov. 6, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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