Nathan says:
>So what if dissident groups in Cuba get money from a foreign power.
>So did the CPUSA. Did that justify McCarthyism?
-Receiving money from a foreign power makes you subordinate to the -said foreign power.
That may be true, although not receiving the money or help often makes you subordinate to your own government. It's often a bad set of options and I have little criticism of the ANC for accepting help from any foreign governments in their struggle against Apartheid. When you are fighting your own government, even non-violently, getting the resources to do so is often very hard since the local elite has most resources. "Outside money" is often needed-- whether its unions helping out local unions, "outside agitators" being sent into the civil rights movement, and so on.
>To repeat, any "democratic left" petition critical of the Cuban
>government's harsh sentencing of Cuban "dissidents" should criticize
>US funding of the said dissidents, as it is not good for Cuba, the
>"dissidents" in question, and the USA.
I'll happily condemn it generally in regards to US funding but not in this petition, since it would imply that the repression against the activists was somehow justified because they received outside money. They are two different issues and one has little to do with the other.
-- Nathan Newman