"Ladies in White": A pacific fight against the Cuban government
The Cuban dissident group “Ladies in White” is an opposition movement against the Communist government in Cuba formed by wives and daughters of jailed dissidents. This pacific movement expresses their confrontation with the government by attending Mass every Sunday wearing all white outfits, as a symbol of peace, and walking through the streets. The “Ladies in White” had planned to march to church on the Day of Our Lady of Mercy, September 24th (patron saint of prisoners), but they were not aware of the controversy that this march was going to make. Insults and slogans against this march all over the place was the reaction they found from government supporters in the capital, Havana, in front of Laura Pollan’s family house (leader of the group). But this is just a small frequent incident. The dissident group, “Ladies in White”, have been facing this kind of harassment from groups of government supporters since the creation of the movement. The communist authorities say that all these demonstrations are simple reaction from ordinary Cubans but, are we really talking about spontaneous reactions or is the all-powerful hand of the government behind this “spontaneity”? The Catholic Church affirms that the authorities may have launched this low-level dissident’s harassment campaign in secrecy. Another important statement about this new is the fact that the government describes all the different groups of dissidents as mercenaries paid by the US to destabilize the community system.
I personally believe that Cuba is in a frozen situation. As the world and society in general in the developed countries are running forward, the Cuban government is making its society to run backwards. Their isolation and massive control of the political, economic and social situations is preventing the country to develop. Even pacific actions of innocent citizens, whose only crime is to be against the government and their penal policies within the dissidents, are persecuted but always in a hidden way. The government cannot openly attack these movements but they create themselves a supposed “government’s supporters group” that plays their role with “spontaneous” reactions. Nowadays, none believes in the Cuban government. They try to lie to citizens; Cubans that see themselves fighting for the concept of communism; a communism that is against all rights and freedom. The fact that there are still many dissident groups against the government is also a sign of progress and hope for the Cuban society.
Marta, do you really think that developed countries are running forward? And that therefore the Cuban society and developing countries are running backwards? Isn't the global economic crisis a direct consequence of how "developed countries" are actually ruled? You seem to be oversimplifying the issue.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that Cuba's situation is in stalemate, and I believe that it unfortunately remain that way unless the US changes its self-righteous position.
As for the Ladies in White, I think it is extremely positive that such a movement has arisen and continues to gain strength over time. The Cuban regime will hopefully change towards a fair, democratic government that respects economic and political human rights.
I do think that, at least in terms of human and social rights society is developing every day as a consequence of a simple adaptation to the changes in the world and the situations so that leads to the statement that if a country´s society is not moving forward, that means that by standing the same way, is moving backwards. The economic crisis is affecting in a terrible way the ¨developed countries¨ but our situation compared to the one that we see in Cuba is way better, that´s what I mean here.
ReplyDeleteI must say I totally agree with you with the fact that the situation is not willing to get any better unless the US changes its position.
I think there is still hope for Cuba, these ¨Ladies in White¨are the prove of what Cuba must move forward to.
Unfortunately, I don't think (and I hate saying it) that human and social rights are advancing in developed countries. The rise of neoliberalism in international political economy is imposing in every dimension of political and social analysis. Economic and political human rights might even be illegally narrowed by the monopoly of markets and greed. I'm not pretending to be a soothsayer or anything, but the future of communist regimes across the world is not at all bright.
ReplyDeleteDeep reforms should be carried out... The problem is how.