What's interesting about the Cuban petitions (the Casey letter and the Campaign for Peace and Democracy petition) is that, unlike most petitions, neither is meant to directly petition any government or political entity -- the Cuban government, the US government, Latin American governments, European governments, or any other relevant political power. They are intended to generate debate within liberal and left-wing circles, which they did. They have been debated at such listservs as LBO-talk, Marxmail, Solidarity, Socialist Register, etc. Among confirmed leftists, the petitions probably have not changed anyone's mind. We'll see how readers respond when the Campaign for Peace and Democracy petition gets published in "The New York Times, The Nation, and The Progressive, as well as on the ZNet, Progressive, Nation, and Boston Review websites and on numerous listserves in this country and abroad" (@ <http://www.cpdweb.org/>). I'm betting that the petitions won't affect "the turn of events" at all. -- 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/>