Richard Feldman

Last month, I traveled to Cuba with 18 other folks from Detroit, California, New Jersey, & Toronto. We were part of a two week Learning Journey with Leading Edge Seminars of Toronto.

Now it is an historic time for Cuba. It’s also an important point in my life’s journey as my commitment to Detroit, the Next American Revolution and the need to understand a rapidly changing world evolves.

As a young student radical in SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) in 1969-1970, I did not have the courage to join the thousands of young people going to Cuba to cut Sugar Cane with the Venceremos Brigade.

After traveling to Nicaragua (Sandinista Revolution) in the 1980s, Haiti, Oaxaca, Mexico, Chiapas, Mexico (Zapatistas) and most recently Vietnam, it was time to go to Cuba. Janice (my friend, wife and lover) wanted to go because of her deep respect for Michael Kerman’s of Leading Edge Seminars, decades of work, and relationship building with Cuban caring communities.

I do not travel or visit other places in the world to evaluate or criticize their journey but to reflect and learn for our journey at home. I am always amazed at the ability of Americans and progressives to criticize other nations with so little understanding of our own. The world is filled with horrific acts of war and torture and I often think we forget that our nation was founded on land theft, the massacre of indigenous people, and the sale of slaves for one hundred years after the Declaration of Independence. We have yet to host our truth and reconciliation and reparations movement. I believe each nation creates its own history.

Early in our tour we met with documentarian, Estela Bravo, who talked about her work, and then we watched her film “Operation Peter Pan,”I knew nothing of this story and was filled with pain and anger for days to follow. In 1961, a CIA scare campaign with the support of the Catholic Church convinced Cubans that their children would be “nationalized.” Subsequently, more than 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children left their homes and were sent to the US. This was a story about stealing children, breaking up families and creating chaos, a mantra repeated way too often in our nation’s history. It was all too similar to sending Native American children to boarding schools in the US and to the 15,000 First Nation Children in Canada who were sent away to boarding schools. I was filled with tears and anger at my country and the viciousness of its foreign policy. It was a moving moment for my soul. At the screening, Estela Bravo shared her deep respect for Danny Glover as a strong supporter of the Cuban Five and the Cuban Revolution.

We visited a 35-acre organic, urban farm near Havana called Organoponico Vivero Alamar. It was run as a co-op and a few of the members and leaders have met with Will Allen of Growing Power, and others have visited D-Town Farm in Detroit. I often looked, listened and remarked that the commitment to community, the land, urban farming, and culture is so similar to our work in Detroit . We may not have 35-acre organic farms in Detroit (yet), but we do have Earthworks, Feedom Freedom Growers, D-Town Farm, Georgia Street and hundreds and hundreds of community gardens and farms across our city. The resilience and the acknowledgment that we need sustainability was inspiring.

We walked throughout Havana, Old Havana, and along the sea coast wall. We visited Muraleando, a neighborhood art project, similar to Detroit’s Heidelberg Project, started by community artists in an area away from tourist spots. It features installations and murals reflecting Cuba's culture and history where a band played and we danced.

And we rarely saw police and never saw the military. People on the streets were totally friendly and engaging. There are thousands upon thousands of US made cars from the 50’s with engines from Toyota, Kia, and parts from what seemed like every auto company in the world. The body of the vehicles are GM, Ford or Chrysler but the engines and insides are hybrids from across the globe. The long-standing embargo/boycott prevented new parts from making it to the island, but the Cuban’s resilience and creativity made the cars run.

We attended community children’s plays and dance programs, met with leaders and founders of social service and education centers, initiatives that provided dance and music programs for young people with disabilities, attended a ballet of Cuba at the Gran Teatro de la Habana. A great highlight was The Children’s Theatre of Cuba, La Comenita [The Little Beehive]. 4 year-old Setti, the son of Detroiter Monique and grandson of Myrtle, was totally engaged with the young people and brought a special touch of love and spirit to all the adults on the tour. At one point he went on stage with the other performing children and at other times he posed for pictures with the presenters. We often presented gifts from Detroit ( Feedom freedom T-Shirts, Boggs Center R(E)volution -shirts and Grace’s book, The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism in the 21 Century. One time, Setti raised his fist and said: “Power to the People”. We met with the theater’s founder, Alberto Creamata, the child actors and staff. The group started as a neighborhood project 22 years ago. It reminded us of Matrix Theatre and Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit.
As the trip progressed, I realized that the commitment to grassroots initiatives, the resilience and love for creating spaces of dignity began to become more important to my Cuba learning than the reminder of the barbarism and violence that our country placed upon the Cuban People.

In many ways, the US Government did to Cuba what corporations, the movement to the suburbs (first white and then blacks), technological displacement, and the changing global economy did to our cities. Just as Cuba was an ideological threat to US Control and corporate domination and also an inspiration, the movement of blacks to our cities, the rebellions of the late 1960’s were seen as a threat to the fundamentals of race-capitalism and white control of America. The rising Trump voice and anger represents the fear of white working class and middle class folks who are losing their American dream in a changing world.

Cuba had a revolution. Detroit had a rebellion, a war on drugs, a war on welfare, the leaving behind an underclass, and unemployment among young people of color reaching 40-50%.

We went back to the old city and attended a very moving performance of The Psycho-Ballet, a dance performance featuring cognitively challenged young people who gained self-esteem and confidence by participating. We attended a number of lectures at the Federation of Women that focused on the economy, the history of the revolution and Hayee Santa Maria by Mata Rojas who was a young woman at Moncada in 1953.

While we were introduced to lots of history, community initiatives, journalists, artists, community activists, it was our two guides who made it a special time, Roberto and Rita.

Roberto Rivera Perezworked with the Foundation for Nature and Humanity in Cuba, 2013. He shared a love for his country, his people, his history, the planet and an authentic acknowledgment that Cuba and the world live in an epoch changing moment. Every question was welcomed and his energy and voice never stopped sharing as we traveled by bus, ate dinner or lunch or just toured the Museum of the Revolution.

Rita has been a long time leader and pioneer within the Women’s Federation who traveled internationally representing Cuba at the Women’s conferences in Kenya & China. She brought to the tour a love of language, of sensitivity and contradiction showing that the revolutionary journey to inclusion continues. She has been a strong advocate for lesbian, gay, transgender, rights and voices in Cuba. She introduced us to the community groups that gave individuals an opportunity to express their dignity and human potential. Resilience and love blossomed from her words.

They both spoke of the 4 fundamental initiatives, programs and values that guide Cuba and are fundamental to Cuba as a nation. Health Care, Literacy and Education, Subsidizing the Arts & Recreation/Sports. Cubans pay very little to go to a ballet but charge tourists an appropriate fee.

We Americans are often confused on ways to discuss poverty and progress. We often forget that we are 5% of the world’s population and utilize 24-26% of the world’s resources. While the Cubans believe everyone should have health care and community doctors responsible for particular geographic neighborhoods, we believe in privatizing health care, education and making baseball tickets outrageously high. We displace people from their homes in downtown Detroit so a hockey stadium can be built for returning white suburban folks.

Resilience and love will be held inside me along with the anger towards my country and the recognition that it is the American Wealth, Consumerism and Materialism that drove the militarism and racism across our country and the globe. As MLK said in 1967: We need to struggle against the evil triplets of racism, militarism and materialism as we create a radical revolution in values. I know that our Nation can be better and thus I will work to Love America: Enough to Change it.

Che said “that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.” The understanding of love which is so similar to MLK’s beloved community and Agapic Energy and Love was not born with Che and the revolution but is deep in the soul of Cuba in the words of their founding father, poet, independence fighter and intellectual, Jose Marti.

A Sincere Man Am I
A sincere man am I
From the land where palm trees grow,
And I want before I die
My soul's verses to bestow.

I'm a traveller to all parts,
And a newcomer to none:
I am art among the arts,
With the mountains I am one.

I know how to name and class
All the strange flowers that grow;
I know every blade of grass,
Fatal lie and sublime woe.

I have seen through dead of night
Upon my head softly fall,
Rays formed of the purest light
From beauty celestial.

I have seen wings that were surging
From beautiful women's shoulders,
And seen butterflies emerging
From the refuse heap that moulders.

I have known a man to live
With a dagger at his side,
And never once the name give
Of she by whose hand he died.

Twice, for an instant, did I
My soul's reflection espy:
Twice: when my poor father died
And when she bade me good-bye.

I trembled once, when I flung
The vineyard gate, and to my dread,
The wicked hornet had stung
My little girl on the forehead.

I rejoiced once and felt lucky
The day that my jailer came
To read the death warrant to me
That bore his tears and my name.

I hear a sigh across the earth,
I hear a sigh over the deep:
It is no sign reaching my hearth,
But my son waking from sleep.

If they say I have obtained
The pick of the jeweller's trove,
A good friend is what I've gained
And I have put aside love.

I have seen across the skies
A wounded eagle still flying;
I know the cubby where lies
The snake of its venom dying.

I know that the world is weak
And must soon fall to the ground,
Then the gentle brook will speak
Above the quiet profound.

While trembling with joy and dread,
I have touched with hand so bold
A once-bright star that fell dead
From heaven at my threshold.

On my brave heart is engraved
The sorrow hidden from all eyes:
The son of a land enslaved,
Lives for it, suffers and dies.

All is beautiful and right,
All is as music and reason;
And all, like diamonds, is light
That was coal before its season.

I know when fools are laid to rest
Honor and tears will abound,
And that of all fruits, the best
Is left to rot in holy ground.

Without a word, the pompous muse
I've set aside, and understood:
From a withered branch, I choose
To hang my doctoral hood.

A Once in a Lifetime Opportunity

Myrtle Curtis

I recently traveled to Cuba on a learning journey. I went to experience a place I only read about or heard about in the news. I was there to engage as best I could despite limited Spanish. At home on my bookshelves are many books on Cuba, Che, Fidel Castro, Haydee Santamaria, and others.

These books and my life have taken me a long way from the images of Cuba I grew up with. As a child I heard that socialism and communism are anti American and will destroy life as we know it. Cuba was a place to flee from. It was not a place you would want to visit, let alone live there. I heard poverty is rampant, with a lack of shopping and basic freedoms. I had been told people deserved to be cut off, punished, and left to their own devices. After all, they rejected U.S. rules and money.

I have come to learn how much many people in our country see Cuba through fear and uncertainty. But through this journey I have been first hand schooled on how being revolutionary in principle creates strong folks filled with dignity and love.

My partner and I are lovers of justice, peace, the power of self-determination, all of the qualities that I read about in the books lining our shelves. As I spoke with folks in Cuba despite my limited Espanola, I never heard the words communism or any anti American rhetoric. Quite the opposite, I was taught how much the people there want to be able to travel to the states. The people were warm and welcoming, curious and excited about the possible lift of the blockade and look forward to an economic boost from tourism.

After all, the country of Cuba is beautiful. Yes some of its buildings are in need of repair and the citizens work hard for little pay, and there is much needed infrastructure work. Sound familiar? The fact that there is health care for all its people, no cost education for all, a food subsidy for everyone regardless of economic status and all social, cultural amenities are free or affordable to its people makes me think we have something to learn from this country.

As our tour guides, Rita Periera and Roberto Perez, spoke to us with a deep and genuine revolutionary love for the country and its people. They want Cuba to remain principled, with focuses on the cultural aspects of the country. The people are proud of their accomplishments in health, education, and arts, despite being cut off from trade with the U.S. and other countries. The only counties that maintained relations were Mexico and Canada. There is not an overburdened prison population, no part of this beautiful country is off limits to its people, and its health care is available to all, despite income.

Our guides were so insightful as we went through Old Havana. We strolled the Prado Promenade, visiting shops and Museums and amazing restaurants. Roberto was amazing in his knowledge of anything to do with the environment and its protection. His love of all things bio was so energetic. We visited the Jovo urban agriculture farm, and the farm theater where actors live off of the land and perform there. There was art everywhere. Complete neighborhoods are dedicated to tile art and the work of Jose Fuster called Muraleando. His work is so vast we could not see it all in one visit. La Tanque was another neighborhood with recycled and reclaimed materials. It was a wonderful place to have lunch. Murals and creativity are prevalent along the roadways and neighborhoods.

There is so much to say about this wonderful learning journey, the music that told of Jose Marti and the revolutionary heroes. I purchased cd’s from local musicians and singers. I dined at neighborhood eateries as well as the DuPont Mansion. We visited a barely used, but swanky Marina, saw a 700 yr old cactus tree, and even ventured inside caves.

I have many lasting memories of this journey to Cuba traveling with an engaging group of folks. Some I barely knew, some were complete strangers. By the end of our travels I had made beautiful connections and will share this experience always. I also had the added bonus of traveling with my 30yr old daughter and her son Seti who is four years old. The Cuban people and our travel companions lavished him with love. Seti learned the word abuelo (grandparent) because he was treated as one of their own.

My greatest take away will be how welcome I felt and the smiles and hugs of the Cuban people. Oh yeah while I was there the weather was great until President Obama got there and brought storm clouds and high waves.

Baba/Professor Charles Omowale Simmons

>Racism in Cuba

As one who has been and continues to be a strong supporter of the Cuban Revolution, and places it in the distinguished historical category of the great revolt in Haiti which liberated the enslaved Africans, I agree with most of the ideas put forward by Cuban former Premier Fidel Castro’s very important statement on 28 March 2016, but I do not agree that the revolution of 1959 eliminated racism on the island. I believe the revolutionary leadership honestly tried very hard in the early years of the revolution to wipe out racism and they had some major success eliminating legal segregation and overt discrimination. But they didn't realize the intractability and depth of white supremacy. That fact combined with the reality of significant economic benefits continuing to go to an elite of white or lighter skinned Cubans following the white flight to Florida. That white flight was financed by the U.S. government and special status was given to those who opposed the revolution including economic and political support in Florida which Haitians and other Black immigrants never received.

Those Cubans in Florida would send home money to their families while most Black Cubans had no such resources and also had a lower economic status in the society that had been segregated with U.S. support that had existed since the U.S. occupation in the late 1800s . That made a tremendous difference in a country besieged by the horrendous international economic blockade that was an attempt to strangle the life from the Cuban people. So over a period of over 50 years the Cuban economy was crippled by the white supremacist government in Washington and Wall Street interests. And in spite of the failure to make a breakthrough against local racism, Cuba’s success was much better in its international policy. It is crucial that Americans know that Cuba was the single military force that went to Africa on behalf of oppressed Africans in Angola, Namibia, the Union of South Africa and others. Those nations would probably still be fighting white supremacist/capitalist powers today had it not been for Cuba. The elimination of racism is a continuous global battle and goes hand in hand with the fight against capitalism which has its roots in slavery and colonialism.

We also need to study the deep roots of racism in Cuba and throughout the American hemisphere. It was imposed on peoples of these continents since the time of Columbus and reinforced by Western slave traders and bankers including most of Western Europe and subsequently the U.S. Which sent troops there in the Spanish American Cuban war of 1898. The U.S. stole Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines from Imperialist Spain and maintained troops in Cuba over the next 20 years with a militarized Ku Klux Klan style colonialism that suppressed and assassinated Black Cuban militants just as they did and continue to do in The U.S. and wherever Washington sends soldiers or buys local soldiers and politicians to do its racist work. So although astonishing progress has been made in Cuban health, education, and overall raise in the value of life, the economic oppression of Cuba continues today just as the oppression of Haiti continues because of the defiance of revolutionary leaders such as General Antonio Maceo, Fidel and Toussaint.

Our task today as people of conscience is to organize and fight simultaneously for change in U.S. foreign policy while we fight for a humane domestic policy. U.S. and Western foreign policies since the time of Columbus, have been to maintain the exploitation of darker peoples and workers through slavery, colonialism, and now a high tech exploitation on crack. Modern high tech imperialism is done with marketing and public relations, but also with drones; chemical-biological warfare; the World Bank; International Monetary Fund; cultural imperialism in the form of misinformation in the corporate mass news media; Hollywood entertainment and education systems; and of course, continuous war.

Baba/Professor Charles Omowale Simmons at the Hush House International, Detroit.

Check out our AirB&B when visiting Detroit!

thehushhouse@gmail.com;3130896-2521.

Brother Obama

Fidel Castro Ruz
courtesy of Voltairenet

The kings of Spain brought us the conquistadors and masters, whose footprints remained in the circular land grants assigned to those searching for gold in the sands of rivers, an abusive and shameful form of exploitation, traces of which can be noted from the air in many places around the country.

Tourism today, in large part, consists of viewing the delights of our landscapes and tasting exquisite delicacies from our seas, and is always shared with the private capital of large foreign corporations, whose earnings, if they don’t reach billions of dollars, are not worthy of any attention whatsoever.

Since I find myself obliged to mention the issue, I must add - principally for the youth - that few people are aware of the importance of such a condition, in this singular moment of human history. I would not say that time has been lost, but I do not hesitate to affirm that we are not adequately informed, not you, nor us, of the knowledge and conscience that we must have to confront the realities which challenge us. The first to be taken into consideration is that our lives are but a fraction of a historical second, which must also be devoted in part to the vital necessities of every human being. One of the characteristics of this condition is the tendency to overvalue its role, in contrast, on the other hand, with the extraordinary number of persons who embody the loftiest dreams.

Nevertheless, no one is good or bad entirely on their own. None of us is designed for the role we must assume in a revolutionary society, although Cubans had the privilege of José Martí’s example. I even asked myself if he needed to die or not in Dos Ríos, when he said, “For me, it’s time,” and charged the Spanish forces entrenched in a solid line of firepower. He did not want to return to the United States, and there was no one who could make him. Someone ripped some pages from his diary. Who bears this treacherous responsibility, undoubtedly the work of an unscrupulous conspirator? Differences between the leaders were well known, but never indiscipline. “Whoever attempts to appropriate Cuba will reap only the dust of its soil drenched in blood, if he does not perish in the struggle,” stated the glorious Black leader Antonio Maceo. Máximo Gómez is likewise recognized as the most disciplined and discreet military chief in our history.

Looking at it from another angle, how can we not admire the indignation of Bonifacio Byrne when, from a distant boat returning him to Cuba, he saw another flag alongside that of the single star and declared, “My flag is that which has never been mercenary...” immediately adding one of the most beautiful phrases I have ever heard, “If it is torn to shreds, it will be my flag one day… our dead raising their arms will still be able to defend it!” Nor will I forget the blistering words of Camilo Cienfuegos that night, when, just some tens of meters away, bazookas and machine guns of U.S. origin in the hands of counterrevolutionaries were pointed toward that terrace on which we stood.

Obama was born in August of 1961, as he himself explained. More than half a century has transpired since that time.

Let us see, however, how our illustrious guest thinks today:

“I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas. I have come here to extend the hand of friendship to the Cuban people,” followed by a deluge of concepts entirely novel for the majority of us:

“We both live in a new world, colonized by Europeans,” the U.S. President continued, “Cuba, like the United States, was built in part by slaves brought here from Africa. Like the United States, the Cuban people can trace their heritage to both slaves and slave-owners.”

The native populations don’t exist at all in Obama’s mind. Nor does he say that the Revolution swept away racial discrimination, or that pensions and salaries for all Cubans were decreed by it before Mr. Barack Obama was 10 years old. The hateful, racist bourgeois custom of hiring strongmen to expel Black citizens from recreational centers was swept away by the Cuban Revolution - that which would go down in history for the battle against apartheid that liberated Angola, putting an end to the presence of nuclear weapons on a continent of more than a billion inhabitants. This was not the objective of our solidarity, but rather to help the peoples of Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau and others under the fascist colonial domination of Portugal.

In 1961, just one year and three months after the triumph of the Revolution, a

a mercenary force with armored artillery and infantry, backed by aircraft, trained and accompanied by U.S. warships and aircraft carriers, attacked our country by surprise. Nothing can justify that perfidious attack which cost our country hundreds of losses, including deaths and injuries

As for the pro-yankee assault brigade, no evidence exists anywhere that it was possible to evacuate a single mercenary. Yankee combat planes were presented before the United Nations as the equipment of a Cuban uprising.

The military experience and power of this country is very well known. In Africa, they likewise believed that revolutionary Cuba would be easily taken out of the fight. The invasion via southern Angola by racist South African motorized brigades got close to Luanda, the capital in the eastern part of the country. There a struggle began which went on for no less than 15 years. I wouldn’t even talk about this, if I didn’t have the elemental duty to respond to Obama’s speech in Havana’s Alicia Alonso Grand Theater.

Nor will I attempt to give details, only emphasize that an honorable chapter in the struggle for human liberation was written there. In a certain way, I hoped Obama’s behavior would be correct. His humble origin and natural intelligence were evident. Mandela was imprisoned for life and had become a giant in the struggle for human dignity. One day, a copy of a book narrating part of Mandela’s life reached my hands, and - surprise! - the prologue was by Barack Obama. I rapidly skimmed the pages. The miniscule size of Mandela’s handwriting noting facts was incredible. Knowing men such as him was worthwhile.

Regarding the episode in South Africa I must point out another experience. I was really interested in learning more about how the South Africans had acquired nuclear weapons. I only had very precise information that there were no more than 10 or 12 bombs. A reliable source was the professor and researcher Piero Gleijeses, who had written the text Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976, an excellent piece. I knew he was the most reliable source on what had happened and I told him so; he responded that he had not spoken more about the matter as in the text he had responded to questions from compañero Jorge Risquet, who had been Cuban ambassador and collaborator in Angola, a very good friend of his. I located Risquet; already undertaking other important tasks he was finishing a course which would last several weeks longer. That task coincided with a fairly recent visit by Piero to our country; I had warned him that Risquet was getting on and his health was not great. A few days later what I had feared occurred. Risquet deteriorated and died. When Piero arrived there was nothing to do except make promises, but I had already received information related to the weapons and the assistance that racist South Africa had received from Reagan and Israel.

I do not know what Obama would have to say about this story now. I am unaware as to what he did or did not know, although it is very unlikely that he knew absolutely nothing. My modest suggestion is that he gives it thought and does not attempt now to elaborate theories on Cuban policy.

There is an important issue: Obama made a speech in which he uses the most sweetened words to express: “It is time, now, to forget the past, leave the past behind, let us look to the future together, a future of hope. And it won’t be easy, there will be challenges and we must give it time; but my stay here gives me more hope in what we can do together as friends, as family, as neighbors, together.”

I suppose all of us were at risk of a heart attack upon hearing these words from the President of the United States. After a ruthless blockade that has lasted almost 60 years, and what about those who have died in the mercenary attacks on Cuban ships and ports, an airliner full of passengers blown up in midair, mercenary invasions, multiple acts of violence and coercion?

Nobody should be under the illusion that the people of this dignified and selfless country will renounce the glory, the rights, or the spiritual wealth they have gained with the development of education, science and culture.

I also warn that we are capable of producing the food and material riches we need with the efforts and intelligence of our people. We do not need the empire to give us anything. Our efforts will be legal and peaceful, as this is our commitment to peace and fraternity among all human beings who live on this planet.