The JvL Bi-Weekly

James van Luik

Publisher & Editor

For Tuesday March 4th, 2003

Volume 2, No. 4

4 Articles

1. The Cuban Political and Electoral System

2."The Pentagon Connection"

3. Homeland Insecurity: Terror alerts manufactured?

4. Torture in Massachusetts' Prisons

1. The Cuban Political and Electoral System

Author and Translator Unknown

This article in Spanish originated in Cuba and came from a Cuban Website.

One of the fundamental pillars of the hostile campaign against our country, led by the United States, is to put in doubt the Cuban political and electoral system. The activity against Cuba regarding democracy and human rights is not only the principal tool of the United States in its efforts to legitimize its policy of hostility and aggression towards Cuba, but also furthers the interest of the principal industrialized capitalist countries seeking to impose upon the developing countries a model of political organization that would make it easiser to dominate them.

In its campaign against Cuba, Washington tries to demonstrate the incompatibility of the political system established by the Constituion of the country with the internationally accepted norms regarding democracy and human rights, and to create the image of an intolerant society that does not permit the least diversity of political plurality. To this end, it employs powerful tools of propaganda and enormous resources which it uses for the recruitment, organization, and financing of tiny counter-revolutionary groups which it portrays as a "political opposition" both inside and outside the country.

The manipulation of the concept of democracy by the principal western powers has recently reached very dangersous levels. Countries that move away from the democratic model to which the great powers pay tribute, or the pattersn and values they promote, are not only put in doubt and demonized though propaganda and the international institutions which control the so-called "defense of democracy," but are also converted into potential victims of the doctrine of intervention developed by the imperialist powers.

Cuba defends and aids the right of peoples to self-determination, recognized internationally as an inalienable right in the consensus reached in the World Conference oin Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993. In its own Declaration and Program of action of Vienna it was established that "democracy is founded in the will of the people, freely expressed, to choose its own political economic, social, and cultrual system, and in its full participation in all aspects of life," and the importance of "national and regional differences as well as diverse historical, cultural, and religious legacies" is recognized.

Upon these principles, openly rejected by those who would impose their own models as unique, is built the Cuban political system, a model chosen and defended by Cubans themselves, truly indigenous and authentic, founded upon equality and solidarity between men and women, in independence, sovereignty, and social justice.

Our country has already experienced the model they now wish to impose upon us. It has lived the sad experience of the "multi-party" and "representative" system prescribed for it by the United States, which brought it external depenedence, corruption, illiteracy, poverty for large sectors of the population, and racism; in sum, the complete denial of the most elemental individual and collective rights, including the right to truly free and democratic elections.

The system and the permanent interventionist policy of North America not only bred crooked and corrupt politicians, but brought tyrannical and murderous dictatorships, promoted and aided directly the the United States.

For all these reasons, the Cuban Revolution could not adopt this system if it truly wished to resolved the ills inherited from it. Thus the country set about to design its own model, for which it searched among its own roots and resorted to the social, humanist, and patriotic philosophies of the most illustrious and eminent Cuban thinkers.

The first thing to stress, then, to explain the Cuban political system, is that our model is not imported, and never was a copy of the Soviet model nor of that which existed in the socialist couintries at that time, as the enemies of the Revolution would have people believe. "The Cuban political system was born from and corresponds to the historical evolution of the cuban socio-political proocess, with its hits and its misses, its advances and its back-slides. The fact the the formation and development of the Cuban nation during its scarcely 130 years of existence has faced practically the same internal and external factors favored a coherent history, permitting the development of the idea of constructing a nation forged by the Cubans themselves.

The existence of a single party in the Cuban system is determined by historical and contemporary factors, among others. Our Party is the historical continuation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party founded by José Martí to unite the entire country with the object of achieving the absolute independence of Cuba. The factors that gave rise to that party, to liberate Cuba and impede its annexation by the United States, are the same which are present today as our people face an iron blockade, economic, commercial, and finanacial, as well as other hostile actions intended to depose the government and destroy the system installed in the country by the soverign decision of all Cubans.

Our Party works through persuasion, argument, and in close and permanent contact with the masses, and the decisions it adopts are binding solely upon its members. It is not an electoral party, and it is prohibited, not only from nominating candidates, but also from participating at any time in the electoral process. This conception and practice guarantees that in a system with only one party, there will be developed and will predominate the widest diversity of opinions.

Characteristics of the Cuban political and electoral system:

1. Universal, automatic and free voter registration for all citizens with the right to vote, from 16 years of age.

2. Direct nomination of candidates by the voters themselves in public assemblies (in many countries the political parties nominate the candidates).

3. Non-existence of discriminatory, expensive, offensive, defamatory, and manipulated electoral campaigns.

4. Absolutely clean and transparent elections. The ballot boxes are guarded by children and young pioneers [like our boy scouts] are sealed in the presence of the population, and the votes are counted in public, open to national and foreign press, diplomats, tourists, and everyone who wishes.

5. The requirement that election be by majority. A candidate is elected only upon receiving more than 50% of valid votes cast. If this result is not acieved in the first round, the top two vote-getters will go to a second round.

6.The voting is free, equal, and secret. All Cuban citizens have the right to vote and to be elected. As there is no party list, votes are cast directly for the desired candidate.

7. All representative bodies of state power are elected and replaceable.

8. All elected officials must account for their actions.

9.All elected officials can be recalled at any time during their term.

10. Legislators are not professionals, and as such do not receive a salary.

11. A high rate of public participation in elections. In every election since 1976, more than 95% of those eligible have voted. In the last election for Deputies in 1998, 98.35% voted. 94.98% of the ballosts cast were valid, 1.66% were annulled, and only 3.36% were blank. [Blank ballots are considered to be votes against the system, and invalid ballots are widely viewed in a similar manner, though as we saw in Florida they may also result from voter error.]

12. Deputies to the National Assembly (Parliament) are elected for a term of 5 years.

13. The make-up of the Parliament is representative of the most diverse sectors of Cuban society.

14. One deputy is elected for every 20,000 inhabitants or fraction over 10,00(?). All municipal territories are represented in the National Assembly, and the nuclear base of the system, the electoral circumscription, actively participates in its composition. Every municipality will elect at least two deputies, and beyond that a number in proportion to the population. 50% of the deputies must be delegates of the electoral circumscriptions, and those delegates must live in the territory of that circumscription. [The electoral circumscription is the lowest-level (i.e. local) elected body.]

15. The National Assembly elects the Council of Stateand its president, who in turn is both Head of State and Head of Government. This means that the Head of Government must be elected twice: first by popular vote as a deputy, in free, direct, and secret vote, and then by the deputies, also in a free, direct, and secret vote.

16.As the National Assembly is the supreme organ of state power, and the legislative, executive, and judicial functions are subordinate to it, the Head of State and Government cannot dissolve it.

17. Legislative initiative is the privilege of multiple actors of the society, not just the deputies, the Supreme Court, and Fiscalía, [This word can mean either Tresury or Prosecutor's Office. It is unclear in which sense the author is using it.]

18. Laws are submitted to a majority of the deputies. What is specific to the Cuban method is that a law is not brought to a discussion of the plenum uintil such time, by means of repeated consultations with the deputies, and takeing into account the proposals they have made, as has been clearly demonstrated that there is majority consent for its discussion and approval. The application of this consent acquires greater relevance when it involves the participation fo the population, together with the deputies, in the analysis and discussion of strategic issues. In these occasions the Parliament moves to centers of labor, of students, and of campesinos, giving life to direct and participative democracy.

The above manifests the essence of Cuban democracy, of the system instituted, endorsed, and supported by the immense majority of Cubans.

However, we do not claim to have reached the development of a perfect democracy. The principal quality of the Cuban political system is its capacity for constant improvement with regard to the needs that arise for the realization of the full, true, and systematic particpation of the people in the direction and control of the society, which is the essence of every democracy.

2. "The Pentagon Connection"

by

Ralph Nader

I wonder how Seymour Melman feels these days. For over half a century, this Columbia University industrial engineering professor (now emeritus) has been researching, writing and speaking about the massive overspending on the military portion of the federal budget and how this waste is de-industrializing America, costing millions of jobs and starving the investment in public works -- repairing the crucial physical capital of America.

Recently, he prepared a memorandum called "The Pentagon Connection" where he recounted the massive redundancy and costliness of various weapons systems -- such as the next wave of fighter planes, missiles, submarines and aircraft carriers -- and the opportunity cost so adverse to the domestic needs of our country. Remember, the U.S. no longer has a major opponent that used to justify huge military budgets. Both Russia and china are converting quickly to the state capitalistic-oligarchic model and the Soviet Union is no more.

First, Professor Melman citges the Report Card for America's Infrastructure that was issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers. (asce.org/reportcard). One and a third trillion dollars are estimated for the repair of twelve categories of public works, including schools, drinking water systems, sewage systgems, ariports, public transit, bridges and roads.

The Engineering society found what any person who observes -- great needs coming from great disrepair and decay. Adding $618 billion for repair of U.S. housing and railroads brings the capital improvement needs to a $2.0 trillion market, he notes.

Mr. Melman, whose knowledge of U.S. industry is legendary, adds: "Every manufacturing industry whose products are required for repairing and modernizing America's infrastructure is left out by the federal government's military plans." And expenditures.

The military economy drains the civilian economy and this trend has been accelerating into what Melman called a "huge change" in the American economy. He writes: "This deindustrialization has happened so quickly that "America's capacity to produce anything is serioulsly undermined. For example, last year the New York City government announced its plans to buy a new fleet of subway cars. Though this contract is worth $3-4 billion, not one U.S. firm responded. Of 100 products offered in this fall's L.L. Bean catalogue, 92 are imprted and only 8 are made in the U.S.A."

"Closing U.S. factories has not only left millions without work, but has also diminished the U.S. production capability required for repairing our broken infrastructure," Melman says. Melman doesn't mention it in his memo, but previous studies have demonstrated that a million dollars in civilian investment creates more jobs than a million dollars in military weapons systems.

The states and cities are reporting deeper deficits. This year, the states will be over $60 billion in the red. Taxes and tolls are going up. Necessities are being cut -- outlays, Melman points out, for schools, librareis, fire and police departments, sanitation department, child welfare, health care and services for elderly people. But there are hudnreds of billion for Soviet-era type weapons driven by the weapons corporations and their campaign cash for key members of Congress who decide the distortion of your tax dollars.

Recently, Bob Herbert, a columnist for the New York Times, interviewed the well known financier Felix Rohatyn, who was involved in the response to the City's fiscal crisis in the 1970s. The current fiscal crisis of the states and cities is, to Mr. Rohatyn very serious.

Mr. Rohatyn told Mr. Herbert that he believes that a $75 billion-a-year program of federal assistance to state and local governments combined with a $75-billion-a-year tax cut for working people would provide a substantial boost to the economy, and over time would result in the creation of several million jobs.

But, in spite of polls (as well as opinions expressed by military experts, like retired General Anthony Zinni) showing that a large majority of the American people do not believe that President Bush has made the case that Iraq threatens the U.S. nor do they want him to commit our troops unilaterally, the White House chief is willing to spend at least $150 billion and incur casualities pursuing this obsession while ignoring life-sving needs in our country.

(For a copy of the entire Melman memorandum, send a self addressed, large stamped envelope to professor Seymour lMelman, Department of Industrial Engineering, Columbia University, 500 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027.)

3. Homeland Insecurity

Terror alerts manufacutrued?

FBI agents say White House scripting 'hystgerics' for political effect

by

Jon Dougherty

Intelligence pros say the White House is manufacturing terrorist alerts to keep the issue alive in the minds of the voters to keep President Bush's approval rating high, Capitol Hill Blue (CHB) reports.

The Thursday report said that the administrtion is engaging in "hysterics" in issuing numermous terror alerts that have little to no basis in fact.

"Unfortunately, we haven't made a lot of progress against al-Qaida or the war on terrorism," one FBI agent familiear with terrorism operations told CHB. "We've been spinning our wheels for severl weeks now."

Other sources within the bureau and the Central Intelligence Agency said the administration is pressuring intelligence agencies to develop "something, anything" to support an array of non-specific terrorism alerts issued by the White house and the Department of Homeland Security.

Most of the time, we have little to go on, only unconfirmed snippets of information," a second FBI agent, who also was not named in the report, said. "Most alerts are issued without any concrete data to back up the assumptions."

Indeed, the most recent terrorism alerts ahve been issued absent specific threat information. Each of the accompanying warnings comes without any shift in the nation's new color-coded alert system; the current warning level of yellow, or "elevated," has been in place since late September.

Even recent reports regarding five Arab men who may have slipped into the country via Canada using phony identification could be politically motivated, one expert said.

"We have very, very little to support the notion that these five represent any more of a threat than any of the other thousands of people who enter this nation every day," terrorism expert Ronald Blacksone said. "It's a fishing expedition."

On Wednesday, one of the five, a Pakistani jeweler, Mohammed Asghar, was tracked down in Pakistan by The Associated Press. He told reporters there he'd never been to the U.S., though he said he tried once -- two months ago - to use false documents to get into Britain to find work.

"I imagine the finger pointing has started at the White House," Blackstone said.

On Thursday, President Bush said of the Asghar case: "We need to follow up on forged passports and people tryng to come into our country illegally."

"Don't misunderstand, there is a real terrorist threat to this country," another FBI agent told CHB. But, the agent continued, "every time we go public with one of these phony 'heightened state of alerts,' it just numbs the public against the day when we have another real alert."

Last year, the FBI issued alerts that terrorists may attack stadium, nuclear power plants, shopping centers, synagogues, apartment houses, subways, and the Liberty Bell, the Brooklyn Bridge and other New York City landmarks, reported Knight-Ridder newspapaers. The bureau also advised Americans to be wary of small airplanes, fuel tankers and scuba divers.

CHB reported that FBI and CIA sources said a recent White House memo listing the war on terrorism as a definitive political advantage and fund-raising tool is just one of many docuements discussing how to best utilize the trterrorist threat.

"Of course the White House is going to exploit the terrorism threat to the fullest political advantage," said Democratic strategist Russ Barksdale. "They would be fools not to. We'd do the same thing."

The White House did not return phone calls from kWorldNetDaily seeking comment.

Knight-Ridder Newspapers, meanwhile, reported the FBI has never meant for all its warning and advisories to be made public.

"Everything is being described as a terror alert, and that's now what this stuff is," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, in a July interview.

But, he added, "if information is becoming public, then we naturally cannot work in a vacuum and pretend like all this information is not becoming public."

"We live in a world of threats; not all of them necessitate a warning," says FBI terrorist warning chief Kevin Giblin, a 27-year veteran of the bureau. He told Knight-Ridder there should be a generally increased level of vigilance, and he looks to the color-coded advisory system - not the alerts intended for police - to signal it.

The threat of terrorism may also be helping the White House manage the sagging economy. Officials at home finance giant Freddie Mac said yesterday that the threat of terrorism may have played a role in bringing 30-year mortgage rates down to 5.85 percent, their lowest since an average 5.83 percent in 1965.

"Current issues such as the possibility of military actions abroad, heightened terrorism alersts and an unexpected drop in consumer confidence contributed to the decline in mortgage rates this week," Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac chief economist, told Reuters.

4. Torture in Massachusetts' Prisons

by

Critical Resistance of Western Mass

American Friends Service Committee

Arise for Social Justice

OutNow of Springfield, MA

Food for Thought Books of Amherst, MA

Control Units, also known as segregation units, DDUs (Departmental Disciplinary Unites), SDUs (Sensory Deprivation Units) or CCUs (Closed Custody Units) are often described as "prisons within prisons." Humans are locked down in their bathroom sized cells for 23-24 hoiurs per day. When allowed out of the cells prisoners are forced to wear shackles and handcuffs. Phone calls and on-contact visits are severely limited if allowed at all. Meals are eaten inside the cell and educational and rehabilitative services are not made available to those living in these units. It is widely known that prisons hold a disproportionate number of people of color, however the disparity between white people and people of color in control units is even greater.

The United Nations confirms that the Untied States control units constitute torture. Sensory deprivation leads to psychological damage including severe depression, paranoia, hallucinations, confused psychotic episodes and even suicide.

MCI Cedar Junction, a maximum security prison in Walpole, MA holds 120 people in its DDUs. In the Billion dollar Souza-Baranowski "Super Max" prison in Shirley, MA, all prisoners are held in control unit conditions. All Massachusetts prisons contain a variation of the control unit. For instance, at MCI Framingham, women prisoners are sentenced to the CCU for anything form non-violent disciplinary infractions to being suspected threats to security including speaking a language other than English. Currently in Massachusetts there are no written guidelines for control unit sentence lengths. One prisoner at Walpole was sentenced to the DDUs for 25 years.