Editorial

Shadow ofa collossus

There hasn’t been a single day since the triumph of the Cuban revolution 31
years ago that the shadow of the Yankee colossus did not hang over the island
like the sword of Damocles, affecting every aspect of that huge, promising and
courageous social experiment.

Few Canadians today remember pre-revolutionary Cuba — a mafia-run
playground for filthy rich Americans, a cesspool of corruption, disease and
squalor — where Washington-backed dictators went about their appointed
rounds of keeping Cuba safe for pillage under the usual twin marquees of
freedom and democracy.

Before 1959, Cuban infants died in their thousands, as do millions of children
today through the so-called third world, from the scourges of poverty and
exploitation. Sugar was both the economy’s lifeblood and its terminal illness,
creating a U.S.-dependent junkie.

In short, Cuba differed little from its neighbours, most of whom have still
barely moved from this savage grip of imperialism, many of whom are worse off
today, further in debt, facing ever more desperate choices.

For 31 years, under eight U.S. administrations, the Cuban people have been
subjected to relentless hatred, blockade, economic sabotage, political aggression
and military intervention. United States imperialism has never forgiven the
Cuban people for winning their freedom and embarking on the road to
self-determination and social emancipation.

Hostility and active interference has been constant policy — and remains so
today as the Bush administration reviews its options in a rapidly-changing
world. U.S. policy was and is to defeat the Cuban revolution, to return Cuba to
the fold, to re-establish the Caribbean as an American lake and to teach the
region the price of independence and genuine sovereignty in face of U.S. anger.

And today Washington is again stepping up its pressure on Cuba. As part of
it overall policy of targeting states like Cuba and Nicaragua under the term of
the Sante Fe II, Strategy for Latin America in the 1990s document, it is turning
the screws.

Cuba’s sovereignty and the right to self-determination of her people must be
defended against escalating U.S. psychological warfare which is but one com-
ponent of a total aggressive policy. Canadians, as do all peoples, reject the
“might is right” concept or the U.S. notion of itself as a hemispheric godfather.

Unless the sovereignty of all states in this hemisphere is guaranteed and
respected, Canadians had better not ask for whom the bell tolls should the day

arrive when we are required to defend our interests from Washington’s benevo-
lent embrace.

ees

Mc

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RIBUNE

EDITOR

Sean Griffin
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Dan Keeton

BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER
Mike Proniuk

GRAPHICS
Angela Kenyon

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The world according to Socred Omnivision

Like a colour version of a black and
white Bogart classic, current events in B.C.
politics are making the most of a new
release of a movie we have seen before.

The gangster is under investigation, and
decides to turn on the charm for the

benefit of the innocent girl-next-door. She
is confused and unwittingly provides a
cover for his deceit, while his underworld
agenda proceeds unabated...

. The plot line, of course, is being re-run
for the umpteenth time on B.C.’s theatre

row as the Socreds prepare for the provin-
cial election that we can anticipate in the
short term.

The arch-conservative, extreme right
wing fundamentalists that form the
government of B.C. are now about to
present an election program we would
normally expect from a Peterson Liberal
government in Ontario, or even from a
Pawley, ‘Schreyer or Blakeney NDP
government of past years.

The conclusion will be as profoundly
reactionary as before, but for 30 days the
province will be lost in a fantasy world
where Premier Bill Vander Zalm has posi-
tioned himself to the left of the NDP who
are left as supporting characters with all
the dull lines.

The government, as fat and rich with its
$1 billion-plus “BS” fund as the province
is starved and impoverished by its res-
traint, will spend enough to provide 3-D
. viewing glasses to the entire theatre

audience. When they look up at the big
wrap-around screen, the premier and all
his ministers will radiate fluorescent green
as they establish Crown corporations to
deal with hazardous waste, issue reports
on oil spills, make noises about recycling,
and create new parks. With the effect of a
subliminal message, 30 second clips of the
premier’s speech to Globe 90 keep recur-
ring.

Booming out and down in Dolby sound
the words “pay equity” will be blasted into
the psyche of moviegoers. It’s the decibel
level that is decisive, for the words are still
resonating and echoing through the brain,
while women and public sector unions
reject totally the program.

By the time the Socred’s Steven Spiel-
berg has finished dazzling with special
effects, the gangster Bogie looks like
Warren Beatty in Reds, promising
amendments to the Industrial Relations
Act to reward the labour movement for

three years of labour peace, and action to
safeguard the Agricultural Land Reserve.
The impact of special effects is in inverse
ratio to believability.

Not even Spielberg could find a way to
make any of these characters sexually
exciting, but that lack is offset by a pro-
tracted action scene involving a show-
down touched off by the imposition of
provincial bargaining for teachers and a
new form of public sector wage controls.

The new world-class cinema leaves
nothing to chance. If for any reason the
viewers lose interest in the show, they can
play Nintendo referendums. Choose your
own movie, have your own romance,
solve the mystery and win the war on
taxes, abortion, or land claims. The
cinema becomes a political arcade with an
endless supply of quarters to extend the
escapism a little longer.

Near the end of the movie, the inexpe-
rienced victim of Bogie’s acting begins to

size up the real world. This is a version of
Roger Rabbit, and if the gangster gets con-
trol of Toon Town, the real agenda of
economic restructuring, privatization and
religious fundamentalism will not only
continue but be strengthened immeasura-
bly by his victory.

Luckily, our girl-next-door has just seen
Roger and Me and hasa sense of what the
future holds. Even the late revelation is not
too late for the heroine who battles back
and thwarts the evil scenario that the mob
had planned for the good people of the
town.

Now wait a minute. That isn’t how that
movie ended. What really happened was
that the heroine turned out to be like
Diane Keaton in a Woody Allen film,
ordinary as hell, and proud of proclaiming
how she represents all other ordinary peo-
ple. As it turned out, the people were look-
ing for something extraordinary. It was
strictly a one-star movie, but a box office
hit in °86 and °83.

It is hard to believe that there is a major-
ity that really want to see that movie again.
But the only way to avoid it, however, is to
stay out of the cinema altogether. The
throne speech and the coming budget are
enough of a sneak preview to know that
the pressing task is to involve a lot of
people very quickly into real life activity
that can be the alternative to the Academy
Award performance about to explode
onto the silver screen of B.C. politics.

4 Pacific Tribune, April 23, 1990

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