We are women and men of the democratic left, united by our commitment to human rights, democratic government and social justice, in our own nations and around the world. In solidarity with the people of Cuba, we condemn the Cuban state’s current repression of independent thinkers and writers, human rights activists and democrats. For “crimes” such as the authorship of essays critical of the government and meeting with delegations of foreign political leaders, some 80 nonviolent political dissidents have been arrested, summarily tried in a closed court without adequate notice or counsel, convicted and given cruel, harsh sentences of decades of imprisonment. These are violations of the most elementary norms of due process of law, reminiscent of the Moscow trials of the Soviet Union under the rule of Stalin.
The democratic left worldwide has opposed the US embargo on Cuba as counterproductive, more harmful to the interests of the Cuban people than helpful to political democratization. The Cuban state’s current repression of political dissidents amounts to collaboration with the most reactionary elements of the US Administration in their efforts to maintain sanctions and to institute even more punitive measures against Cuba.
The only conclusion that we can draw from this brute repression is that the Cuban government does not trust the Cuban people to distinguish truth from falsehood, fact from disinformation. A government of the left must have the support of the people: It must guarantee human rights and champion the widest possible democracy, including the right to dissent, as well as promote social justice. By its actions, the Cuban state declares that it is not a government of the left, despite its claims of social progress in education and health care, but just one more dictatorship, concerned with maintaining its monopoly of power above all else.
Theresa Alt
Eric Alterman
Ayaz Ahmed
David Anderson
Kevin Anderson
Stanley Aronowitz
Tony Avirgan
Margot Backus
Sanda Balaban
Ike Balbus
Ivan Baxter
David Bensman
Marshall Berman
Michael Bérubé
Asatar Bair
Ken Brociner
Dan Brook
Ricardo Brown
Wendy Brown
Wayles Browne
Chaz Bufe
Eamonn Callan
Lorenzo Canizares
Roane Carey
Leo Casey
Aaron Cohen
Marc Cooper
Francesco D’Alessandro
Lennard Davis
Bogdan Denitch
Bill Dixon
Mark Dow
Mel Dubofsky
Christopher Rhoades Dykema
Taner Edis
Itzhak Epstein
Stuart Elliot
Victoria Elliott
Andy English
Miriam Erlich
Gertrude Ezorsky
Hampton Fancher
Michelle Fine
Barry Finger
Joyce Fitzgerald
Nancy Fraser
Adil Hajjoubi
David Garrow
Joyce Gelb
Todd Gitlin
Peter Goodman
Andrew Hagen
Andrew Hammer
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Richard Healey
Michael Hirsch
Peter Hudis
James Hughes
Maurice Isserman
Doug Ireland
David Jacobs
Alan Johnson
Ira Katznelson
Michael Kazin
Harvey Kaye
Gary Kent
Michael Kircher
Eric Kirk
Gary Kinsman
Peter Kosenko
Magali Sarfatti Larson
Lee Levin
Jeffrey Levine
Mark Levinson
Ernie Lieberman
Ann Lieberman
Melvin Little
Chris Lowe
Josh Lukin
Anora Mahmudova
John G. Mason
Marvin and Betty Mandellv Shannon McLeodv R. Miles Mendenhall
Mark Crispin Miller
Cary Nathenson
Nathan Newman
Rafael PiRoman
Maxine Phillips
David Plotke
Stephen Plowden
Katha Pollitt
Danny Postel
Samantha Power
Adam Przeworski
Michael Pugliese
Peter Reardon
Matthew Rothschild
Joel Rogers
Michele L. Rossi
John Sanbonmatsu
Anders Schneiderman
Joseph M. Schwartz
Jason Schulman
Michael H. Shuman
Timothy Sears
Mark Seddon
David Norman Smith
John Soldini
Clifford Staples
Judith Stein
Paul Thomas
Daniel Walkowitz
David Walls
Bert Wand
Peter Watermanv Luke Weiger
D. Langlois Williams
Ian Williams
Ellen Willis
Reginald Wilson
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl
Robert H. Zieger
Leo Casey
