WORLD One Canadian’s feeling about socialist Cuba By BILL ROBERTS The U.S. government is mad ~because Cuba had a revolution without asking permission. But now that I think of it, the Ameri- cans had a revolution in 1776 without permission from London. In 1984, 42,000 Canadians vis- ited Cuba and, in 1987, I joined what may be a bigger total. It was fun and it was warm. We saw museums, jazz concerts, sym- phony concerts, ballet, baseball. We even saw Fidel — on TV. Cubans are wonderful, especially the children. Cuba is an example for all of Latin America. It's an example for Canadians, too, and I heard fellow-tourists who were not socialists say some very positive things. The Cuban government’s con- cern for workers is clear: 100 per cent employment; women make up 42 per cent of the legislature and nearly 40 per cent of the workforce. They have pensions, free museums, inexpensive books and magazines and 15 cents (Can.) bus fares in Havana. I talked with Canadians who had ~ been to Cuba five, 10 20 times. One said, “‘great climate, low prices, good food. Most of all, the people — friendly, openly affec- tionate.”’ There were afew Americans on our plane and this I was glad to see. If more could go (Washington prohibits Cuba travel — Ed.) it would be an eye-opener for them, especially if they are acquainted with the poverty, violence and homeless children in other Latin American nations. Cuba is a veritable garden is- land, with 8,000 varieties of plants, flowers and trees. It is great just rolling along in a bus, looking at goats, sheep and sugar cane waving in the wind. There’s lots of fun for tourists, and sun and sand. In Old Havana one can lunch at La Floridita or Bodequita del Medio, two favorites of Ernest Hemmingway’s before his death in 1962. Hemingway was a friend of Cuba and his house in San Francisco de Paula is now a museum. More seriously, we visited one of Cuba’s best farmworkers communities at Jibacoa with its Olympic-size swimming pool, new school, night school, daycare centres and stores. Also, the - Spanish fort El Morello, built in 1720 on the Matanzas shore, is now dedicated to two young Cu- bans (one born in the USA) who gave their lives in the 1930s fighting for Cuba’s freedom. Evidence of that freedom fight is everywhere, from the Museum of the Revolution in Havana, where you can see the bullet- marked truck used in a 1957 anti-Batista attack and Fidel’s “Bay of Pigs defence jeep’’, to the placard tacked on a hotel office door with stirring words from Fidel to Young Communists. - In the Education Museum, a display dedicated to the workers and martyrs of the 1960s literacy campaign shows young people who were murdered by the same kind of thugs we now call Reagan contras in Nicaragua. We also visited the Bay of Pigs on Cuba’s south shore where in 1961 U.S. and ex-Cuban mer- cenaries tried to topple the new government. They didn’t last long. In recent years, however, some interesting facts have emerged about the Bay of Pigs episode and the long years follow- ing when Washington continued its campaign of murder and- sabotage: e Poison pens and cigars were supplied by the CIA in efforts to kill Fidel; e Mercenaries from the U.S. continually landed on Cuba. The CIA base in Miami became the largest in the world with an annual budget of $500-million; : e In Germany, a ball-bearing manufacturer was persuaded to send off-centre bearings to Cuba. “Cubans are wondertul, especially the ch dren. ..it’san examp le for all of Latin America and for Canadians, too ...’”’ Photo: Demonstration in Guantanamo against U.S. military exercises. and in England Leyland busses were sabotaged; e Groups in the U.S. financed the shooting down of a Cuban civilian airliner over Barbados, bombed the Cuban mission at the United Nations (and Montreal, with one fatality — Ed.), killed Cuban officials in Argentina, and sank a Spanish ship trading with Cuba; ~ e The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee tried in 1975 to inter-: view mobster Charles Nicoletti about anti-Castro plots. Nicoletti was killed by the mob to prevent his testimony, but the committee concluded in 1979 that the mob was connected with both anti- Cuba plots and Kennedy’s assassination. These facts and more are contained in the excel- lent book ‘‘The Fish is Red’’ by former Ramparts editor, Warren Minckle and former FBI agent William Turner. In spite of all this trouble, Cuba has continued to build a socialist society. And now, people from many countries are seeing it ... although not always for that reason. As I said to a friendly Cu- ban, ‘‘Canada esta frio’’. In Cuba there’s a warm welcome waiting. TRI UNE PHOTO — MAXINE ORRAIS FRG Chancellor Helmut Kohl described the results of the Jan. 25 general election. Instead of an easy victory for his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), led by the far-right Franz Josef Strauss, the CDU/CSU received its lowest vote since 1949. Only the increase in votes for Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher’s Free Democratic Party (FDP) gave a bare majority to the governing coalition. _ The Social Democratic Party (SPD) also suffered los- ses, although not as much as the polls seemed to imply. The big winner's were clearly the Greens. The vote distribution was as follows: (1983- results shown in brackets): CDU/CSU 44.2 per cent (48.8); SPD 37.2 per cent (38.2); FDP 9.1 per cent (7.0); Greens 8.3 per cent (5.6); Others 1.3 per cent (0.4). New seat distribution: CDU/CSU 222 (244); SPD 190 (193); FDP 45 (34); Greens 42 (27). In the FRG’s system __ of proportional representation, a party is not entitled to seats unless it wins at least five per cent of the popular vote. What surprises many commentators in Europe was that fact that the CDU/CSU lost votes despite heading the strongest economy in capitalist Europe. West Ger- mans usually vote for or against the government in Kohl campaigning. The CDU/CSU coalition vote was the lowest since 1949 as West Germans reacted to right wing message. 7 8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 4, 1987 From Berlin EE Gerry van Houten accordance with the state of the economy. With the SPD in deep trouble electorally because of its failure to offer a concrete progressive alternative to the government, Kohl believed his coalition would return to power with no losses. But he made a number of tactical blunders based on his serious underestimation of peace sentiment among the voters. Convinced that the SDP was going nowhere but down, Kohl turned to the right for support. He compared Soviet leader Gorbachev to Goebbels despite the fact that Gor- bachev is more popular than Kohl because of the USSR’s concrete and constructive arms control ini- tiatives. He attacked the GDR on several occasions, at one point describing the GDR as one, huge concen- tration camp — ignoring the fact that hundreds of thou- sands of FRG citizens visit the GDR each year and know the truth to be quite different. : Kohl allowed Strauss to openly demand a sharp turn ‘to the right in both domestic and foreign policy, including all-out support for Reagan’s Star Wars program, despite the fact that the vast majority of West Germans want arms control and an end to cutbacks in social programs. Days before the vote, Strauss upset many when he called on West Germans to forget their nazi past. Kohl even encouraged conflict between Strauss and Genscher in the belief that the voters, disturbed by Strauss’ far-right comments, would continue to support the coalition by voting for the FDP. The strategy backfired. The CDU/CSU lost twice as many votes as the FDP gained. Strauss’ ambitions to . become the next Foreign Minister have been completely dashed. In fact, his strident right-wing speeches caused the CSU to lose a greater proportion of votes in Bavaria than did the CDU in the rest of the country. The losses for CDU/CSU, combined with the gains for the FDP means the forces supporting arms control and not only outside the governing coalition, but also inside. The SDP has nothing much to be happy about. Al- though it didn’t lose as much as was predicted, the voter pattern indicated a continuing loss of support. Only in the North-Rhine Westphalia did the SDP register a substantial gain. The SDP’s candidate for chancellor, Johnnes Rau, is first minister of this state and personally popular there. Otherwise, the picture for the SDP was bleak. In view of the results, Rau has declared he will not run for chanchellor in the next general election. The Greens are clearly the most satisfied with the outcome. Ofall major parties, they were the most consis- tent in demanding an active policy in favor of disarma- ment and cleaning up the environment. The Greens have from the beginning called for the withdrawal of Cruise and Pershing-2 missiles, ending participation in Star Wars and withdrawal from NATO. A recent series of chemical spills into the Rhine river helped them as well. The day after the election the Greens openly expres- sed their satisfaction that Rau has withdrawn his name as _a future candidate for chancellor, and Petra Kelly said her party would support the SDP on specific issues if it is headed by someone on the left such as the SDP’s first — minister in the Saarland, Oscar Lafontaine. Future prospects for the Kohl government are not bright. It will take Kohl a long time to repair the damage — his tirades caused in the FRG’s relations with the USSR and GDR. And he may have a trade war on his hands. Relations with France have deteriorated because Bonn has stub- bornly refused to devalue the mark substantially against the franc and other West European currencies. The FRG?s Common Market partners are envious and annoyed that the FRG economy has grown while most of theirs are stagnating. The U.S. is also putting pressure of Kohl to open up the FRG’s economy to U.S. business — while‘ closing the U.S. market to the FRG. Washington wants a substantial increase in arms expenditures despite the loud and clear opinion of the vast majority of West Germans for disarmament. With economic slowdown around the corner, Kohl is — heading into some very rough waters. Although he prom- © ised more of the same, the future holds something quite different. —_