250,000 Cubans sign Declaration of the 20th Century Independence Fighters  
Below is the Declaration of the 20th Century Independence Fighters, which was signed by 250,000 officers of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), the reserves, and the Ministry of the Interior in the several weeks leading up to its March 15 presentation. The declaration is the revolutionary response to a report released by the White House January 28 as part of the cynically named Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, often called the Helms-Burton law, which rachets up Washington's economic war against the Cuban revolution. The report suggested that Havana could receive up to $8 billion in loans and aid if a "transition government" were established that did not include President Fidel Castro or Raúl Castro, head of the FAR, and was willing to bow to Uncle Sam's dictates. This translation of the declaration appeared in the March 26 issue of the Cuban weekly Granma International. Footnotes are by the Militant.

As long ago as 1889, José Martí(1) warned us that the United States planned to frustrate our Cuban Independence Revolution through "another, more tenebrous plan than any we have ever known." They wanted to provoke a conflict on the island "to have a pretext to intervene, and with the authority of being mediator and guarantor, to keep Cuba. Such an arrogant thing has never been encountered in the annals of free people; nor has there been such cold malevolence."

The scheme suffered changes and postponements, but its strategic aims remained intact: in 1898, the United States intervened in Cuba when Spain was at the point of being defeated by our heroic Mambí independence fighters. The United States managed to divide our patriotic forces, disarm the Liberation Army, and impose the Platt Amendment and neocolonial domination.(2)

Now, 100 years after that first U.S. invasion, once again the government of that country, which maintains a criminal blockade against our nation, has elaborated a plan that attempts to convert Cuba into its colony, with the substantial difference that now it would exercise an even more merciless control than before.

Twenty pages of slander against the Cuban Revolution. It is filled with hypocrisy, cynicism and deceitful propositions. In a gross and disrespectful manner, they propose that we capitulate, in order to be deserving of their pardon and assistance.

They offer us U.S. society as a model, about which Jose Martí told us over a century ago: "In the United States, instead of the forces of unity being tightened, they are loosened; instead of the problems of humanity being solved, they are multiplied; instead of local communities being integrated into national politics, they are divided and inflamed; instead of democracy being strengthened and the people ridding themselves of hatred and the misery of monarchies, democracy is corrupted and lessened, and hatred and misery are menacingly reborn."

They are now offering us that society, rotted away by drug addiction, violence, gangsters, pornography, child prostitution, criminality, alienation, discrimination, selfishness and greed.

They want to appropriate homes, land, factories, hospitals, schools, and numerous social installations that the Revolution turned over to our people. They want us to resign ourselves to the massive privatization of all of our riches.

They suggest to us that we put the destiny of our children, our women, parents and grandparents and that of our country in their hands.

They urge us to renounce our glorious history and the eternal respect that we have for those who died for the independence and sovereignty of our homeland and in defense of the Socialist Revolution.

They encourage us to blemish our own honor and dignity as free people and instead accept betrayal, cowardice and disgrace.

They ask us, in short, to hand over our homeland to the United States and to the counterrevolutionary and annexationist mafia in Miami, so they can break it into pieces. "Such an arrogant thing has never been encountered in the annals of free people; nor has there been such cold malevolence, "Martí could have repeated in the face of this repulsive imperial plan.

They want to meddle in our internal affairs, when they are not even capable of solving the grave problems that afflict their society.

They offer us a return to the past: cheap politicking, administrative corruption, organized crime, children living in the streets who have no schools, campesino [peasant] evictions, police who torture and repress workers and students, racial and sexual discrimination, sick people who cannot get treatment. They want us to renounce everything that we have fought for, and most importantly, to give up our hopes and those of hundreds of millions of human beings who hope to live in a better world.

What kind of men and women do they think they are dealing with?

As our president stated: "It is infuriating that someone could imagine that the freedom and dignity of a people could be bought."

For the members of the uniformed population, the U.S. government's plan makes us particularly angry, by stating that the Armed Forces could undertake a potentially positive role in Cuba's transition to capitalism and by proposing the disintegration of the Ministry of the Interior.

Every honorable man and woman who is a patriot of our people, of which we form a part, rejects that insult, because it is unacceptable that they should dictate orders to our country as if it were a colonial appendage of the United States. We do not accept and will never accept orders from Washington or anybody else because, in our country, since January 1, 1959, only the sovereign decision of our people is exercised.

We, the fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, whom nobody can divide, together with all other Cubans:

Ratify our unconditional loyalty to the Commander in Chief and to the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, our undisputed leaders. We reiterate to them, in the words of Comandante Camilo Cienfuegos,(3) that "it would be easier for us to stop breathing than to stop being faithful to your trust."

Reiterate to the U.S. government that in order to apply the projected plan, it would first have to send in its armies and be prepared to receive the well-deserved, prolonged and invincible response from an entire armed and trained people.

Proclaim that there is no gold nor force in the world capable of making us lay down the sword we have inherited from our forebears and which has been wielded with such dignity by 300,000 internationalist fighters in other parts of the world, which demonstrates what we are capable of doing to defend our own country. As Comrade Fidel recently noted, the mere fact that they think these heroic soldiers could serve U.S. imperialism for even one day is offensive to us.

Resolutely support the Reaffirmation of Cuban Dignity and Solidarity Law.(4)

Affirm that together with the people and under the direction of the Party, we are and always will be an indestructible pillar against which all the plans, legislation and maneuvers of U.S. imperialism and its allies will shatter.

Demand the unconditional return of the territory occupied illegally by the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo. Our sovereignty is not negotiable.

Affirm that we will continue to be the Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior of the Socialist State, of the working people, and under the leadership of the only Party of the Cuban nation: the Communist Party of Cuba, the faithful continuation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party that José Martí founded to the Necessary War for our national independence.

Declare that we are the independence fighters of the 20th century and that we shall continue to be those of the 21st century, because in the same way that the Cuban Revolution has been one and the same since 1868, it has also had a single army - initially called the Liberation Army in the war of independence; then named the Rebel Army at the time of our national liberation. And now, with socialism, we are the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and will continue to defend the same anti-imperialist ideas that we have defended up until now. We will continue to give irrefutable proof of our unfailing loyalty to the people from whom we have emerged.

This time, the Liberation Army will not be disarmed. Nobody will be able to disarm our people, or divide it, or impose on it a new Platt Amendment to nullify our sovereignty.

Every honorable Cuban will reject this offensive recolonization plan.

Today we pay tribute to José Martí, the apostle of our independence and our dignity, and assure him that we will never betray his example and his teachings.

In the face of this new maneuver, we heed the ever-present warning of General Antonio Maceo:(5)

"Whosoever attempts to appropriate Cuba will gather up the dust of its earth drenched in blood, if he does not perish in the battle!"

Notes
1. José Martí is Cuba's national hero. He launched the 1895- 98 war for independence from Spain, and was killed in combat in 1895.

2. Mambí is a Cuban term referring to the 19th century independence fighters against Spanish colonial rule. The Platt Amendment was a provision forced into the Cuban constitution by Washington at the turn of the century stipulating conditions for U.S. intervention in Cuban affairs and permitting the U.S. government to lease land for a naval base at Guantánamo. After interventions in 1906, 1912, 1917, and 1920, the treaty was abrogated in 1934, but Washington retains the Guantánamo base to this day, against the wishes of the Cuban people.

3. Camilo Cienfuegos was a commander in the Rebel Army that led the fight to overthrow the Batista dictatorship. He was killed in a plane crash in October 1959, soon after the triumph of the revolution.

4. The Reaffirmation of Cuban Dignity and Solidarity Law was adopted by Cuba's National Assembly on Dec. 25, 1996, in response to provisions in the Helms-Burton law allowing U.S. citizens who had owned property in Cuba that was expropriated by the workers and farmers there to sue companies that now do business in Cuba. The Dignity and Solidarity Law allows Cubans to sue Washington if they have been "victims of physical harm or property damage caused by actions supported by the United States," including "murder, injury, and economic damage suffered under torturers and assassins of the Batista dictatorship or criminals on the payroll of North American imperialism."

5. Antonio Maceo was a leader of the Cuban wars for independence in 1868-78 and 1895-98.

Beginning next week the Militant will feature eyewitness coverage from Cuba from our reporting team that includes Martín Koppel editor of Perspectiva Mundial, Militant staff writer Argiris Malapanis, and Pathfinder editors Mary-Alice Waters and Mike Taber.  
 
 
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