Vol. 79/No. 23      June 22, 2015

More than 5,000 professors, students, publishers, and others from across the Americas, as well as Asia and Europe, joined panels on a wide range of issues.

Among the participants was a delegation from Cuba of about 160 — the largest so far at a LASA congress. At the same time, the U.S. government — which maintains colonial domination over Puerto Rico — denied visas to more than 50 Cuban academics, including some who have previously traveled to the United States.

Dozens of the nearly 1,200 panels took up topics related to Cuba, including the ongoing talks with Washington on restoring diplomatic relations, which the U.S. government broke off more than 50 years ago. A number of U.S. panelists and some from Cuba argued that Washington has now softened its policy of hostility toward the Cuban Revolution, and that the Cuban government should move to allow freer rein to the influence of the capitalist market.

Several Cuban participants responded to these arguments. Speaking on one panel, Elier Ramírez, a historian at Cuba’s Council of State, noted that Washington has changed tactics but not its goal of overturning Cuba’s socialist revolution, and that is because “the Cuban Revolution represents a challenge to the U.S. empire.” He reiterated statements by Cuban President Raúl Castro that Washington continues its brutal trade embargo against Cuba, and that Cuba’s sovereignty and socialist course are not negotiable.

At another panel, Concepción Nieves Ayús of the Institute of Philosophy in Havana was asked, if Cuba has foreign investments, why can’t Cubans own private property beyond small family-run operations. Nieves said Cuba needs foreign investment, under strict government control, to generate income to meet social needs. But, she added, the last thing Cuba needs is a concentration of property in a few hands. She said we need to learn from V.I. Lenin, and from the example of the Russian Revolution under his leadership, that socialism is only possible with mass participation in management.

At a panel on Cuban economic policy, María de los Angeles Arias, from the University of Holguín in eastern Cuba, said, “We have had to carry out certain economic measures that have led to greater social inequalities. But we must take steps to combat these inequalities, both in the city and the countryside.”

Discussion on the Cuban Revolution was constant in the book exhibit hall, including at the Pathfinder Press booth. Books on that subject, including on the five Cuban revolutionaries who successfully resisted years in U.S. prisons, were among the top-selling Pathfinder titles.

One of the programs held at the exhibit hall featured Pathfinder’s Cuba and Angola: Fighting for Africa’s Freedom and Our Own. The presenter was Carlos Alzugaray, a member of the editorial board of the Cuban magazine Temas who spent many years in Cuba’s diplomatic service. He described Cuba’s 1975-91 internationalist effort in Angola, where 425,000 volunteers helped defend Angola’s independence against invasions by apartheid South Africa, also hastening Namibia’s independence and the overthrow of the white supremacist regime in South Africa.

Alzugaray said the book highlights the decisive role of Fidel Castro and Raúl Castro in leading the Cuban forces in Angola. Despite the fact that the Cuban government “staked everything in Angola,” seemingly weakening its defenses at home, the revolution “became strengthened” by its internationalist actions in southern Africa, he said.

The economic crisis gripping Puerto Rico and the effects of U.S. colonial rule here were discussed in numerous panels and informally. A young Puerto Rican woman who visited the Pathfinder booth described protests against deep cuts in government funding for health care, schools and social programs. She didn’t think it was possible for Puerto Ricans to assert control over the island’s natural resources, land and factories, but decided to read about the perspective argued by independentista leader Rafael Cancel Miranda in Puerto Rico: Independence is a Necessity.

The growing place of Chinese investment and trade in Latin America was taken up in many panels. Heightened interest in the history of Jews and the fight against anti-Semitism was registered in several panels and at the Pathfinder booth, where participants bought copies of The Jewish Question by Abram Leon and issues of the New International magazine taking up the class struggle in the Middle East. Other publishers offered several new books on Jews in Latin America.

The Cuba Solidarity Committee in Puerto Rico and pro-independence organizations here hosted a well-attended evening reception in honor of the Cuban delegation. They paid tribute to Cuba’s revolutionary leadership and its unwavering support to the Puerto Rican independence struggle.
 
 
Related articles:
‘We have history of winning,’ one of Cuban 5 tells meeting
Cuban 5’s example and art speak to today’s fighters
 
 
 
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