Freddie Kissoon – Freedom and hypocrisy

May 22, 2008 Freddie Kissoon

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On Labour Day, in the GAWU contingent, there was a banner in support of Cuba. Then the GAWU leader in addressing the FITUG section of May Day celebration spoke glowingly of Cuba and wished Cuba’s dictator, Fidel Castro a speedy recovery. Before we go into an analysis of who or what is GAWU and where GAWU comes from, just a brief word about Castro’s illness.

It appears that Mr. Castro is seriously ill. If he recovers, the healing period will take a long time effectively preventing him from running a country with insurmountable problems that Cuba is today. His brother has not been duly elected as President but anointed by Castro.

I once wrote in this newspaper that Castro, more than any other human being on earth, hates the date with destiny when our face, body and energy go and we become old and grey and have to make way for the younger folks. That is man’s fate. But Castro certainly wished that life could have gone on forever.

Absurdly, and unbelievably he has presided over a country for forty-nine years. Why would any human being want to govern a state for half of a century? Even more bizarre is the question as to why a country’s population allowed that?

Let’s return to GAWU. Mr. Komal Chand was emotional in his praise for Fidel Castro. As he spoke about Castro, his listeners frenetically applauded. It would be no exaggeration to say almost a hundred percent of them would have chosen to live in capitalist USA if American visas were freely distributed on the streets on May Day. But they applauded the plaudits for Castro.

Some of those who cheered on Mr. Chand probably would have got crushed in the rush to get the American ticket. If Forbes Burnham was as dictatorial as Castro, would there have ever been a union named GAWU, reputed to be the most financially resourceful trade union in the entire CARICOM region?
It was the Burnham Government that granted official recognition to GAWU in 1976 which at the time was headed by PPP Member of Parliament, Boysie Ramkarran. With a huge membership, GAWU became the financial fulcrum of the PPP. Across the Caribbean Sea at the same time (in 1976), Cuba had a one-party system and only allowed one newspaper and one trade union.

Three years before the recognition of GAWU, the PPP had fought against the rigged national election. What this meant was that while Guyana had a multiparty system, Cuba had one-party rule. Cuba, since that year, 1976 has concretized its one-party constitution while in Guyana, the opposition in 1976 has become the government, winning four national elections since 1992.

Against this dismal history of contemporary Cuba, the GAWU people chose to eulogize one of the 20th century’s most despicable autocrats, Fidel Castro, on May Day earlier this month. So while GAWU enjoys freedom in Guyana, the Cuban people are still yearning for theirs.

Now here is where freedom meets hypocrisy. If Burnham had proscribed other political parties, other trade unions, outlawed competitive elections by writing it in the constitution, would GAWU have come this far? The answer is no. So why should such a trade union support a dictator that represses his people. It is the story of the long existence of hypocrisy inside Freedom House.

Cheddi Jagan wrote his autobiography entitled the “West on Trial” in which he indicted the Americans and British for conspiring to bring down his government in the sixties. Yet that very Jagan saw absolutely nothing wrong with identical behaviour of the Soviet Union in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Since Castro came to power in 1959, the PPP has never, and I emphasize, NEVER, written a line of condemnation against this man’s horrible excesses. It is interesting to note what has happened during the final years of Fidel Castro’s presidency. He went back to capitalism. But read this: the very capitalism that he condemned Fulgencio Batista, the president he overthrew, of bringing to Cuba, he has reintroduced.

Castro condemned President Fulgencio Batista of turning Cuba into a playground for the American rich. But when the USSR collapsed and his Russian base disappeared, he brought back in the same rich tourists that he accused Batista of having, only this time from Europe. There are Italian, Spanish and French hotels that cater for the European aristocracy.

Now read this: Cubans are now allowed entry into these hotels but there was a time when they could not. Remember the furor that broke out two decades ago when Bajans couldn’t go to certain public beaches because foreign tourist resorts were located in these areas. No Caribbean country would prevent access to the beaches and hotels by their locals.

What is there about Castro that Mr. Chand finds so exciting that he offers a panegyric of him on May Day? What has Cuba achieved under Mr. Castro? The answer is nothing, but supporters of Castro worldwide point to the lack of development because of the 40-year-old American embargo. They never bother to reflect on the point that if progress in Cuba depended on trade with the Americans then the people of Cuba should have had the right to vote on that issue.

But even if the Americans are wrong to do that to Cuba (and they are), what has that got to do with forty-nine years of dictatorship in which no opposition, no dissent is tolerated and put down with brutal imprisonment and execution?

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