It may not help, but, most likely, it won't rise to the notice of anyone, much less Bush. Let's not flatter the self-styled "democratic left" too much. :->
At 2:54 PM -0400 4/14/03, Nathan Newman wrote:
>The letter itself says the embargo is bad.
It doesn't say, though, that US funding of Cuban dissidents is bad (nor does it, unlike Amnesty International, condemn the execution of the three Cuban hijackers after the three-year moratorium on death penalty -- Amnesty International says that at least 50 are currently on death row in Cuba -- <http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/2003/cuba04142003.html>). Instead, it "condemns the Cuban state's current repression of _independent_ thinkers and writers" (emphasis added). :-0 The petition is less than infromative about the facts of the case, in fact less candid than the following AP dispatch:
***** Debate over funding for Cuban opposition revived during dissident crackdown ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer Sunday, April 13, 2003 (04-13) 22:20 PDT HAVANA (AP) --
Cuba's accusations about dissidents in the pay of Washington have revived a long-standing debate over whether using U.S. government funds to support the Cuban opposition does more harm than good.
Some $20 million has been paid by the U.S. Agency for International Development to U.S.-based groups working to end communist rule in the island. They run Web sites, distribute pro-democracy books and pamphlets, and even provide food and medicine to the families of political prisoners.
But some veteran activists say the money only gives Fidel Castro's government ammunition to persecute dissidents, like the 75 sentenced in recent days for allegedly conspiring with the United States.
Among prosecutors' evidence was a list found by Cuban agents in the home of independent journalist Oscar Espinosa Chepe. It allegedly detailed $7,000 in payments over a year, apparently for Espinosa Chepe's articles criticizing the Cuban economy.
It was unclear who the payments were from, but Espinosa Chepe sent articles to various publications and Web sites, including the Miami-based CubaNet, which received USAID funding. He was sentenced this week to 20 years in prison.
"These people receive money and live off it while in the service of a power that harms their people," Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said this week.
Dissidents and officials at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, the main diplomatic office, vigorously deny [:-$] that the American government has dissidents on its payroll....
Still, USAID has actively funded U.S.-based groups. As of last year, it had given a total of $1.4 million to groups that publish the works of Cuban independent reporters on Miami-based Web pages, including more than $800,000 to CubaNet.
It is unclear how much of that money, or the materials they have purchased or produced, have actually made their way to individuals or groups on the island.
"This funding gives exactly the wrong impression," said Cuba specialist Wayne Smith, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for International Policy. "First, not much of it gets to people in need. Secondly, it just gives ammunition to the Cuban government to say these people are paid agents of the United States -- which of course they are not."
Among the biggest recipients of USAID's Cuba program money since 1997 has been Freedom House. With $1.3 million in USAID grants, the New York-based human rights group has distributed about 40,000 books, pamphlets and other materials on human rights, democracy and free market economics....
USAID's Cuba effort is reminiscent of former President Ronald Reagan's program supporting dissidents in Poland, where the opposition rallied around the Solidarity labor union. That effort helped bring down decades of communist rule in 1989.
"It worked in Poland because the adversary of Poland nationalism was the Soviet Union," Smith said. "But in Cuba the adversary of Cuban nationalism is the United States."
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/04/13/international1319EDT0543.DTL> *****
At 2:54 PM -0400 4/14/03, Nathan Newman wrote:
>The issue is having the left develop a political and moral position
>that clearly identifies with resistance to authoritarianism and
>argues for non-violent alternatives.
If so, the petition should include a condemnation of US funding of Cuban dissidents, on the grounds that it makes them less than "independent" voices to put them on the US payroll, counteracts the development of democracy in Cuba, and hurts the credibility of actually independent Cuban advocates of democracy.
Alternatively, as friends of the Cuban people, the petition signers may condemn lack of due process and harsh sentences while urging the Cuban government to study The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995:
***** D. What, If Anything, Must Be Disclosed When Making A Lobbying Contact?
Just as Government officials are obligated to reveal their "covered" status under the Act if asked, persons making an "oral lobbying contact" must disclose certain information, but only upon request.23 This obligation involves declaring whether they are registered under the Act, the name of their "client," and whether or not that client is a "foreign entity."24 Additional disclosures are required if any other foreign entity has a "direct interest in the outcome" of the lobbying effort. If that it is the case, the person making the oral contact must identify all such foreign entities which have at least one of the following relationships with either the client itself or with an organization which substantially funds,25 and "in whole or in major part" plans, supervises, or controls, the client's lobbying activities: (i) at least a 20% equitable ownership in the client or supporting organization, (ii) direct or indirect supervision, planning, control, financing, or subsidization of the activities of the client or supporting organization, or (iii) being an "affiliate" of the client or of the supporting organization and directly interested in the outcome of the lobbying activity.
Registrants making written (or electronic) "lobbying contacts" may also be required to include various disclosures in their communications.26 First, the communication must identify any foreign entities directly interested in the lobbying activity with which the client or supporting organization has one of the relationships enumerated above. Second, if and only if the client is itself a "foreign entity," the communication must also identify the client, disclose its status as a foreign entity under the Act, and state whether the person making the contact is registered under the Act as lobbyist for that client.
("The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995: 'What, Me Lobby?' <http://www.ffhsj.com/cmemos/0071719.htm>) *****
The Cuban state may make a comparable law and register Cuban dissidents who receive money from the USG as "foreign lobbyists," rather than imprisoning them. It may, in addition, make them wear a T-shirt that says, "I prayed for free enterprise, but all I got is this lousy T-shirt." -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>