April 19, 2008
Since the first meeting held on Monday April 14 the week-long tour in northern and southern California continued with a series of other successes. A total of seven events were held in five days, with hundreds of people participating. Three radio interviews were aired reaching thousands of people not only in California, but in other parts of the USA.
The tour is organized by the International Committee for the Freedom of the Five. The key-note speaker at all events was Arnold August. In addition to being a member of the recently formed International Commission for the Rights of Family Visits, that is demanding the right of members of the Cuban Five families to visit them in US prisons, the Canadian author and journalist specializes on the issue of democracy and elections in Cuba.
At all of the conferences and university lectures, based on his on the spot investigation and case studies in Cuba, he used his popular Power Point Presentation to flesh out and show in detail how the electoral process in Cuba works. He also explained based on personal experience, study and observations how the state operates between elections. He elaborated on the functioning of People’s Power from the grass-roots Districts, Peoples Councils and Municipal Assembly levels to the National Assembly and its State Council.
Each of the lectures and meetings without any exception resulted in lively question and answer periods that lasted longer than normal for these types of meetings. The Cuban reality regarding this issue of participatory democracy and elections was there for everyone to see for their own eyes thanks to the images shown to the audience. The nature of democracy in Cuba and the USA invariably came up in the discussion.
On another issue of disinformation, the meetings terminated with an explication and announcement by Alicia Jrapko of the International Committee on the issue of the Cuban Five. The beautiful post cards printed by the Committee to be mailed out to the State Department demanding family visitation was always a highlight of the evenings, with everyone taking the post cards in order to be mailed out.
Arnold August also analysed on many occasions this situation as another blatant example of disinformation regarding the Cuban reality, calling on the people to support the campaign for family visitation rights and for liberating the Five Cubans.
The first meeting was held at San Francisco State University on Monday, April 14 with students from two different classes.
The second meeting was held on Tuesday April 15 at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The meeting was attended mainly by students but also some members of the community joined in. It was sponsored by the University Multi-Cultural Center and co-sponsored by the Latin American Networking and Information Committee and the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five.
The third event took place on Wednesday April 16 at noon. It consisted of a most lively meeting with a class at the Port of Los Angeles High School students in San Pedro. A large number of students from two classes participated. The students exhibited a very high political level and interest. They asked questions such as whether or not Cuba has gerrymandering as in the USA. Another student wanted to know what the speaker had to suggest to the US in order to make the American system democratic. These and other questions in that meeting and others will be dealt later on with in a series of articles by Arnold August.
From the high school the speakers went across town to hold the fourth event, a seminar type of conference with the Latin American Studies Department of California State in Los Angeles, headed by the prestigious professors Marjorie Bray and Donald Bray. Both of these Latin American experts who also are the guiding lights behind Latin American Perspectives found the talk and Power Point most helpful and mentioned that they are anxiously awaiting the publication of the forthcoming book in 2009 on participatory democracy and elections.
On the very same evening a public community meeting, the fifth, was held in Los Angeles. The event was organized by the Los Angeles Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba.
On Thursday April 17, people gathered to hear the presentation at a church in Palo Alto, a city in the San Francisco Peninsula. This sixth activity was sponsored by the Peninsula Peace and Justice Center.
The last and seventh meeting took place on Friday April 18 in San Rafael. Sponsored by the Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas, it attracted a great number of people.
In addition Alicia Jrapko held a radio interview on KPFK on Tuesday April 16 on the Cuban Five, whose web page reaches thousands of people across not only California but the USA.
Arnold August held two radio interviews, one on Tuesday April 15 with KPFK on the issue of democracy and elections in Cuba and the political system in the USA. Another interview was held on Friday April 18 with KPFA on the same subject.
In several of the conferences, the presentations on democracy and the Cuban Five were filmed by local alternative media so that people can use the recording for web site broadcasting and educational purposes in their respective organizations.
