Page 4-Tuesday, September 18,1979--The Michigan Daily ~bc tcipjgan vatI Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom Vol. LXXXX, No, 11 News Phone: 764-0552 Cuba still defending developing nation Edited andmanaged by students at the University of Michigan Round three: The Regents vs. Divestment 4FOR THE THIRD time in seven months, it is more than likely that a campus group will disrupt a meeting of the governing body of the Univer- sity. That group - the Washtenaw County Coalition Against Apartheid (WCCAA) - met this week to map ut its strategy for this week's Regents' meetings on Thursday and Friday. Arid while they reserved the right to keep their plans open, to change, coalition members advocated a con- tinuation of the tactics employed at the Regents' meetings in March and April. Those disruptions should be con- ti ued by the WCCAA despite the fact that, in general, disruptions of Regen- ts' meetings. cannot be condoned. In- terrupting the business of the gover- nng body of the University is a serious offense unless the issue in question is of saJch magnitude that it can determine whether a group lives in a free society 0i one dominated by racism. In this c se, it has a large impact on the backs in South Africa. It was during last March's meeting that nearly 250 students disrupted the Board's session, advocating total djvestment of University funds in banks and corporations doing business in South Africa. After nearly an hour of confusion, the Regents finally could take no more, and left the Ad- ministration Building. They met later in another room after obtaining a tem- porary injunction forbidding any pr'testers from attending the heeting, Though not forcing the Regents to divest from South Africa, the.coalition succeeded in garnering sorely needed publicity and some more broadly b sed support for its cause. WCCAA d not ke the Regents yield but it: certainly gave them something to think about. At the April meeting, the coalition adopted a much more peaceful policy. Instead of a vocal and often disruptive protest, the group's members par- tiipated in a dramatic and symbolic display of the events now occurring in South Africa. The message was the same: By keeping some of its money in vested in that country's apartheid regime, the University is tacitly sup- porting that system. But again, the Regents did not listen. They just conducted their normal business, conceding that a more exten- sive review of the situation by the Senate Assembly Advisory Committee of Financial Affairs (SAACFA) might give new light to the .divestiture question. Ordering the report to be finished as soon as possible, the Regen- ts said they had taken a significant step to resolve the controversy. It was a step in the right direction, but it was not nearly enough. For although that recently-released SAC- FA report calls for further divestment than allowed under the University's current policy, it stops short of total divestment - the only proper and responsible step the University can take. The SACFA report is encouraging because it shows that some members of the University community believe indirect assistance to the Bothea regime reflects irresponsible invest- ment practices and contradicts the University's endless search for moral truths in society. That hypocrisy has so far been pointed out only by the coalition and a small minority of the school's faculty. Now that SACFA fin- ds some truth to that argument, perhaps the further gains may come easier. The WCCAA disagrees that any positive results will come from the SACFA report, scheduled to be given to the Regents at this week's meetings. Coalition members say the report is only one more small concession on the University's part to modify their demands for total divestment. This so- called step-by-step approach must be taken seriously. Since the Regents' meeting in March, 1978, the Board has divested only from two companies - Black & Decker and J.D. Searle. And those two withdrawals came only after the Regents had felt much pressure from others in the University community. At its meeting last week, the coalition vowed to disrupt the Regents' meeting if the goals of total divestment are not met The grp also Wants to be able to present its revisions to the SACFA and discuss the'issue with the Regents. It's not likely, however, that the Regents will concede to any of those demands, so a disruption can be expec- ted, and rightfully so.- The WCCAA has tried in numerous ways to persuade the University to change its anti-divestment stance. It has called on the support of students and faculty members to plead its case before the Board. Since all other possible tactics were exhausted, the coalition had no alter- native but to disrupt last March's meeting, and are totally justified in repeating that scene this week. It may not achieve its aims, but the Regents must be harassed until they face the facts on the apartheid system in South Africa, and what the only responsibly course of action is: divestment. There is a very strong correlation between the current efforts of the U.S. military to reestablish the -Araft and recent U.S. gover- nment attacks onCuba, including the debate over the presence of Soviet troqps in Cuba, and Cuban military power. At the opening speech of the conference of nonaligned nations, Fidel Castro presented the exact reason why Cuba is a target of U.S. imperialism: "Cuba isn't exactly a country that is inconsistent toward the imperialists. Cuba has never ceased to practice'a policy of close solidarity with the national liberation movements and all other just causes of our times. Cuba has never hesitated to defend its political prin- ciples ... nor, in over twenty years, has it ever stopped fighting against the aggression and the blockade imposed by the most powerful imperialist country in the world simply because Cuba carried out a genuine political and social revolution just ninety miles from the country's coast. " REVOLUTIONARY CUBA carries out a theory in practice that runs totally against U.S. foreign policy. Whereas Cuba defends and aids just liberation movements such as Vietnam, Angola and now victorious Nicaragua, the U.S. is either the direct aggressor or supporter of these racist, un- democratic regimes that Cuba and its allies fight. The U.S. government and army was and still is the aggressor in Southeast Asia; the U.S. government supported apartheid South Africa's invasion of Angola after the Angolan people overthrew Portuguese colonialism; and the U.5. imposed and fully armed the Somoza regime that tried to bomb its own people into oblivion with U.S. weapons. Tiny Cuba, with under ten million people and a much poorer nation than the rich U.S., makes incredible sacrifices to rebuild these nations devastated, by U.S.-backed aggression. Cuba sends 1000's of doctors, teachers and construction workers to coun- tries like Vietnam, that are at one time promised reparations by the U.S government for war damages, but instead receives a criminal economic blockade. THE CARTER ADMINISTRATION refuses to send the millions of dollars worth of aid it promised Nicaragua which needs 300 tons of By Bob Warren food per day to feed over one million hungry people. The U.S. state department replies, "If you complain, you won't receive any aid." Yet, Cuba, drawing on its experience of eliminating diptheria and polio and raising its average age from under 55 to over 70, sends medical brigades to Nicaragua. The latter has an infant army mortality rate of between 120 and 150 per 1000 live births, but has only two hospital beds per 1000 people. uba's minister of public health Dr. Jose A. Gutierrez Muniz said, "Our doctors will remain here (Nicaragua) as long as they are needed, even in those places where the dif- ficulties are the greatest, and we will continue to send more doctors wherever they are needed, in answer to the Nicaraguan authorities' request." As a recent visitor to Cuba, I learned first hand about the educational process in Cuba which teaches all of its youth about solidarity and support for all of the oppressed people in the world, especially those in the under- developed nations. Cuba, which completely wiped out its high illiteracy rate with literacy campaigns just after its own revolution, has volunteered to help lead the literacy campaigns set for 1980 in Nicaragua with teachers and aids. The U.S. government has not promised comparable aid. THE YOUTH OF CUBA learn about the role imperialism, especially that of the U.S., has played in the aforementioned nations and many others. They learn that the security of the Cuban revolution and that of all colonial or neo-colonial peoples lies with the struggle against imperialist domination. Many Cubans told me they are not ordered to serve in the army in Angola or Ethiopia or sent on medical, education or construction brigades to Africa, Asia or Latin America. Rather they volunteer for service. When a nation seeks Cuban aid, the Cuban people respond by volunteering. I met several people who were disappointed when they were refused an opporuntity to serve abroad due to the drain on the Cuban economy their added service would cause. Cuba does not receive any economic benefit from defending and extending its own revolution abroad. Its people are fulfilling the highest expression of proletarian inter- nationalism. Furthermore, Cuba is invited to these nations, while not forcing itself in nations or installing dictators like Somoza ofe the Shah'as does the CIA. Cognizant of Cuba's attitude towards aiding and defegding the people of developing' nations, the U.S.' war drive, manifested in a draft, is threatened. The recent attack on the presence of Soviet troops in Cuba is one example of this apprehension. HOW OUTRAGEOUS of the U.S. to con demn Soviet presence in Cuba, when the U.S~' maintains a naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba with over 3,000 armed servicepeoplefl of its own. This base is the result of the Platt" amendment of 1901, that the present ^ revolutionary government and people rnust" unwillingly accept. It remains absurd to believe the Cuban- people want U.S. military presence on theiie island, the same U.S. military that organized. the defeated Bay of Pigs invasion and numerous attempts on Castro's life. Any presence of the Soviet Union in Cuba is by the' will of the Cuban leadership, not forced upon' it be sellout treaties and an intimidating "Monroe Doctrine" from previous epochs. 1 People in the U.S. have a tendency to forget that the Cuban revolution was not led by a. communist party under orders from the Kremlin, rather by an independent national movement. For Senator Henry Jacksoi to alert the' people of the U.S. to the threat by Cuba to U.S. oil tankers is pure cold warism. CUBA IS A VERY poor nation, that is one, of the rare nations on earth that spends much: mode money on education than on the, military. The U.S. spends $136 billion per year on its "defense." Why would tiny Cuba attack the U.S. when the result would by the island: being blown by nuclear bombs out of the Carribean Sea? Finally, the U.S. government is afraid of a people that has a love for the people of the United States. Dozens of Cubans told me, " have nothing but love for the Americauj people. It is the U.S. government I don't sup- port because of its treatment of Cuba andq its own people." This perspective is dangerous to U.S. policy. because it presents a foreign influence th4 cares more about the people of the U.S. than does the U.S. government itself. Bob Warren, a member of the Young Socialist Alliance, visited Cuba this sumt- mer. Weasel A EEXC USE t+ : SCny~, N (a71. 1 C,1e 1N My SEAT r - / To~~c ew, Yo 3 By Robert Lance p GbtABIT1. 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