" h n you wal down th
treet, you don't eel. .. you don't
h ve to 41 with your pocketboo
li e thi . There are human r 1 tions
here. In m it' very, very
positive and just being aware that
when you're looking at kids, you're
looking at someone 'with a future.
You're looking at someone that has
a real chance of maybe achieving
their dream whether it's to study
what they want to study, to work at
what they want to work at.
While there are many problems,
I think that a society like Cuba's­
logically over a long period of time
-systematically moves toward a
constant, toward a more progres-
ive direction, to solving some of
the problems.
We're living in a world where ,
things for the majority of people all
over the world are getting worse.
And Cuba can't help but be affected
by that. It can't escape living in this
world, being in this world. And so
Cuba has had to really try to urvive
and flourish and build in a, very
hostile world and the world is get­
ting more hostile. But I think that
what is deadly in other places i just
a difficulty in Cuba. You don't see
the tremendous amount of violence,
the tremendous amount of naked
human sufrering that you ee in 0
many other places, 0 it different
in that respect. You don't ee the
. bodies, you don't see the blood you
don"t. ee the victims just falling
down left and right.
Q: Are some of the things you
were struggling for in the U.S. a
reality in Cuba?
A: Yes ab olutely. There are. '0
many good thing about what th'
revolution has been able to accom­
plish. I think one of the mo t mov­
ing things for me 1 to see children
who are ree to be children, to ee
children who don't have to w rry
about living in a ciety with vio­
lence from morning to rught. They
don't have to worry about going to
chool and getting tabbed. Th y
don't have to worry ab ut a on­
stant barrage of violence, 0 ho t11-
ity. It' very encoura ing t ee
children who really believe that
they can corppli h their dreams.
If they want �o tudy to be a carpen­
ter or doctor or whatever, it i abso­
lut ly within their rea h.
.. .In my whole entire life I lived
in a ociety that was totally ho tile
to my people, to all oppre d peo­
ple. And obviously that affect d
me. It shaped my life, haped my
. '
"
Cuba has also been beautiful in
that ense of internationalism. You
can go into someone' house and
they will show you a picture of
I said, my god,
this Is the first
time I've b en
in ,a country
where the
President said
something that
I said. Right on.
I agree with
wh t you're
saying. And
that was an
Incredible'
exp r/ence.
when they were 10 Angola or when
they were teaching in Nicaragua.
It' been very beautiful in that
e�e. I remember the only time
I've ever een Mandela. Mandela"
W . 0 lear about what Cuba's in­
ternationalism ha meant to the
people 'of South Africa, to the peo­
ple Of 'Namibia, to the people of
Angola, and he carried that love for
uba 0 much in his heart you could
ee it. It was so tangible you could
touch it. ..
That' another aspect of that I
have learned to love and has helped
m develop my own sense of inter­
nationali m, harpened my own
ability to eel what other peopl
eel- to upport othe ' truggle
to get incensed about the indignities
that are perpetuated against people.
B au e of thei r truggle I've
learned to feel m re intensely h re
in Cuba. It' been a good thing.
Another aspect of living in Cuba
1 've learned what the third world i
about. I've learned what goes on in
th third world in a way that would
have been difficult for me to feel in
the US. Becau e you take so many
things for granted there, you have a
an
u ,.
code-word-
racism, peg/al
Interest racism
- convenient
kind of slimy
thin-veneer
racism, 'cover
up what the
n 10 ail'.
looking at the' potential of people
working together to solve their
problems. You're looking at ways,
avenues. Not saying that Cuba's
perfect, heaven, fantasy land or
anything else. But to say that Cuba
has shown by practice that you can
take your own life, your own de -
tiny into your hand and build and
overthow the chains that are weigh­
ing you down. People all over have
gotten that message and now are
trying- not to copy the Cuban ex­
perience because I don't think that
you can take one experience and
mechanically put it into practice in
any other place- but learn the les­
sons that are taught. Certainly these
lessons are still very much impor­
tant to struggling people all over the
world, to oppre ed people all over
the world.
Q: New book?
A: I really don t want to talk
about it right now. I'm working on
it. It's in process. When you see it,
I hope people' like it, I hope it'
helpful to our movement but I don t­
really want to get into all the things
I'm writing about. I haven't de­
cided every avenue I am going to
deal with. I have my outline and it'
pretty much more than halfway
done.
Q: Yenceremo Brigade com
.and we find you here. Why do you
come to the camp?
: First of all I come for the
face . I come for the Ian ua e. I
come for the hu and a little bi t of
home brew. I come because my
people come 0 I come. I hay n't
made all 0 them, but I've mad
many I have been able to. It's
been great. I feel uplifted by the
spirit that I ee people carry, that
'let' get it on,' that upport for
Cuba, that energy, that tension. I
find it inspiring I find i warm. I
find it good and I find it important,
because I don't think that p te in
the U.S. are aware of how important
it is to support Cuba; how much
Cuba has supported progre sive
struggle within the U.S. They've
always taken a principled po ition
in solidarity with oppressed people
in the U.S .. And we nave a duty to
return that and to take' a view to­
ward Cuba in a very principled
way, not in any kind of chauvinistic
• �t 'n t . , t r
people to upport Cuba, for people
to support Cuba's elf determina­
tion. Because I think that more and
more as revolutionary struggle de­
velops, the issu of self determina­
tion becomes more important. I
don't think that anyone can deter­
mine another peoples way of build­
ing a system, another people way
of celebrating their culture, of
struggling. I think that each proce s
will have its own idiosyncracies, its
own national heroes, its own flavor
and its own spirit that needs to be
re pected.
how Cuba should exercise democ­
racy and certainly not any George
Bush/Willie Horton type democ­
racy that the U.S. government is
trying to push as its co metic type
democracy. Th U.S. is trying to
paint on tm face of the earth all
form, no ub tance.
I think that upporting Cuba is a
strong statement, a neces ary state­
ment. By supporting Cuba we are
upporting all oppressed people
and the struggle against oppression
world wide.
Q: What is your analy is of 1M
Rodney King verdict?
A: My analysis can be summa­
rized by the word racism. Racism
and a growing racism. When I saw
the video of Rodney King, so many
names carne into my mind. J erN
the face of Emmett Till in his' cof­
fin. I aw so many bodies hanging
from ropes. I aw lavery. I aw the
arne patterns being repeated year
after year after year after year.
I heard someone say that we
period
pon e real tru t
curr d in communitie , t t 0
the overnment to m e cer in
10 ; but
they rt d to e th con
io , they tarted to cut b on
th m . I th verdict of not guilty
of four police men who are cle rty
-unl myey playingtric
on m and I have been hallucin t­
ing. While they play thi long brutal
beating on television, I ee it an
old tyle, good-old boy, cr cker
verdict of not guilty b ed on hi
up cy, white power that i be-
ing pushed by th media co t to
co t, being endorsed by the Re­
publican and Democr ti arty.
And I ee it indicative
reality African people, third world
people living in the U.S. are ub­
jected to on a daily b i in a con­
text 0 the U.S.
One of the thing that I remem­
ber reading, I did orne tudies on
fasci m. I realized that many peo­
ple who did not live in Jewish com­
munities in Germany or in Poland
or wherever were not aware of the
violence that was going on in those
communitie . Everything w fine.
The police were nice little people
that you said hello to in the morn­
ing. I think that no body is aware of
the ystematic and constant repres­
sion that happens every day in third'
world communities morning to
night. And it is like somethlng that
is taken as a given. So what! We
[ust beat another nigger's head in
weJust beat another spick. It's nor­
mal. The TV shows it more and
more as normal. You don't see the
policeman reading the rights, you'
see punching, knocking, torturing.
It's a given. It's a pattern that has
been set.
T�e level 9f ra�ism in the !J �. is
increasing and I think that level of
raci m increasing is indicative of
not just what is going on in the U.S.
but what is going on in the world.
Because in the world, it is people of
color fro Africa, Asia and Latin
America who are being the most
exploited, the most oppressed. I
hate whatever racism is being
pushed, but there is an undercover,
a code-word racism, special inter­
est racism- convenient kind of
slimy thin-veneer racism, cover up
I what the real deal is.
,,/
� lin that you can 0 to the tore
n buy it. You come Cub and
you ee that people inthe third
world h ve to build tep by tep by
tep th whole time th y d aling
with an international economy,
international milit ry tructure th t
i ho tile to their velopment, ho -
til to their go 0 tile to their
urvival, thin like j t w ter. It
n in country didn't d n n me really that there
whe th p ident th product are people who alk mil every
of IBM and Gulf Oil nd obil and day just to get bucket of water;
whoever and w alway tool of that there re people who have no
the people who were rich and white ac wha oever to electricity. I
and powerful. But t t president mean these thin are real. I came
h ver had any meaning for me, to Cuba and I aid my goodnes thi
never aid anything I've eve . a derdevelopcd country. Then
agreed with. If al ays been R1J�__'Clmet eople from other countri
tile voice talking rubbish. In that who It Cuba w the most devel-
ense, being in Cuba 1 0 been 0 place in the world, who appre-
b utiful experienc . c ated every ingle pect of a
ho pitat. Children come here for
operations who have never been in
a hospital.
You can see the great gains the
revolution h been able \0 make
-and able to make inspite of the
moi t intense kind of attac by the
U.S., by other European powers.
And that only by the sheer w 11, the
heer commitment to struggle ·have
the Cuban people been able to sur­
vive. It's been a lesson, because the
Cubans have really been able to do
what no other country in Latin
America and the Caribbean has
been able to do. They built an infra-
trueture. They built schools. They
built a whole system-Of technology
- 0 manythings.
When you look at Cuba, you're
not just looking at Cuba' you're
'You're"just
supposed
to look at
televi ion
andmas ah
will tell you,
you f(i
,
•
So they don"t want to put it in its
� naked tate,butjustinasemi-you
� know with a little grease on it with
I a little makeup on kind of ra ism.
What we're dealing with now i a
situation where the ideological un­
derpinning to justify exploitation
8 of third world peop e is being sy -
z tematically fine tuned. Where you
(/) have a system that tells you Bill
� Cosby is Okay and he i what you
z
z are supposed to look at to see that
� you're movin' on up. And things
are getting better. You're not sup­
posed to look in your community.
have to fight to maintain the gains, You're qbt suppo ed to look at
and I a ked my elf what gains are yourself. You're not suppo ed to
we maintaining now? What gain look at the fact that you 'can't even
exi t? And myself answered, no fathom h?w you are going to end.
gains, I looked at tati tic, at the you,r chl�dren to cO,I!ege, how
new pape , and I asked myself, ' you,re go�ng to get ch�ldcare, h�w
what gains just to ay that gains you re going to get a Job. You re
exi t. There .are tati tic that a not s uppo ed to look at tho e
Black man in Harlem has le s of a thing. You're ju t upposed to
chance of arriving at the age 40 than lo?k at the televi ion and m ah
a man in Bangladesh, I that a gain? Will tell you you fr e. And you ar
asked myself about the thou ands up�osed t� believe t?at. And ify�u
of our y uth who are dying left and don t,. yo� re some kind of comm!e
right from ra k or AIDS. I that a terron t pinko crazy p rson. That
gain? Where are the gains? They're �,hat's ,happening in th U.,S. and
not in colleges. They're not in jobs. �t s getting more and more fnghten­
They're not in health. They're not 109 every year.
in nyth' t I can put my hand
n that I don"t ee any gains. I Continued Next W ek
To 0 ten people hav ' id their
i only one model for liberation
th r i only one m d I r building
ocial i m, there" onl y one model
for creating revel utionary hange
and I don't think that i tru . Part of
Cuba' .strength ha b en that it has
been re pectful f difference in
other people rt\ vement and
given it principled upport v heth r
they agreed with anything or did
not agree with ev rything; but up­
ported the right 0 other peoples
If-determination. And those of us
who have b en born in the United
Stat have to understand that part
or upportin Cu a i upporting
Cuba' right to elf determin tion.
That no on h the ri ht to, dictat
.,