[lbo-talk] Cuba petition

[Nathan Newman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
>The Cuban state, however, is entitled to making
>it illegal to for Cuban "dissidents" to accept money from the USG
>secretly.  What may be appropriate the appropriate punishment for
>those who violate such prohibition?  Not sentencing the criminals to
>long terms in prison.  Appropriate punishment in this case appears to
>me to be to expose their funding sources publicly, confiscate their
>undeclared and untaxed incomes, and leave them otherwise unmolested,
>i.e. trust the Cuban people to make whatever judgments they may about
>US-funded "dissidents."

If Cuba was a country that did not punish those receiving foreign money, a
requirement that money be disclosed might be appropriate but I don't even
think that's reasonable.  And of course Cuba does threaten to punish open
acceptance of funds, so a punishment for being secret about it just creates
a ridiculous catch 22 justification for their punishment.

A key constitutional case was won by the NAACP that they did not have to
reveal their sources of funding or membership lists back at the beginning of
the civil rights movement.  Whether disclosure of your source of funding is
reasonable is a pretty hotly debated issue in all sorts of forums, from
human rights to campaign finance in the US.

Should the US force the WWP and RCP to be publicly audited for the source of
all their funding-- there have been accusations of both receiving foreign
funding.  I dislike the WWP intensely (as is obvious) by I would sign an
amicus brief tomorrow defending their right against such intrusive
government auditing of their sources of income.

-- Nathan Newman