The Next "Peace" Protest Will Be Brought to You By a Castro Groupie

On February 15, many thousands of protesters will assemble within sight of the United Nations building in New York to express their opposition to a war in Iraq. Their efforts will be duplicated in some 300 additional cities throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. This will be the first such protest not organized by the Workers World Party (WWP), an energetic Marxist-Leninist organization that openly supports Kim Jong Il’s brutal dictatorship in North Korea. Instead, it will be run by a group called United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ), whose co-chair Leslie Cagan is an enthusiastic, longtime supporter of yet another Communist despot, Fidel Castro.

Given the manner in which the major media report the contemporary "peace" movement’s activities, the average American would never suspect that it is in fact a movement dominated the selfsame Communists that once marched in support of Stalin, Mao, the Vietcong, the Sandinista Marxists, and the Communist guerrillas in El Salvador; the same America-loathing radicals who, because they passionately deem America the root of all evil in the world, now support Kim and Castro.

A featured speaker at last month’s massive "peace" rally in Washington, for instance, angrily denounced the "American imperialism" supposedly underlying our country’s "war against the people of Iraq, and the people of Palestine, Colombia, and the world." And he had plenty of company; there was nary a word uttered about any threat posed by Saddam Hussein – let alone the Palestinian suicide bombers or the communist guerrillas in Colombia. In the eyes of such "anti-war" orators and their enthusiastic audiences, America is always the problem, regardless of the setting or the time.

The media, however, do not mention such things. They show only the surface of the movement, flashing images of spirited marchers with their placards and pithy slogans that decry America’s "cowboy" mentality. Citing the large numbers of such demonstrators, liberal defenders of the "peace" movement contend that it is "broadening" to include many who cannot be described as "hate-America" Leftists like Ramsey Clark or Noam Chomsky.

But in order to understand the mind of any movement, we must acquaint ourselves with its leaders, those individuals whose ideas animate the masses that follow them. Consider the aforementioned Leslie Cagan. She is a socialist and longtime activist who, during the past thirty years, has mobilized millions of demonstrators in rallies denouncing our nation’s foreign policies; its military-related spending; and its purportedly virulent racism, sexism, and homophobia. She is a die-hard, pro-Communist radical who proudly aligns her politics with those of Communist Cuba.

Yet a February 4 New York Times puff piece benignly heralded Cagan as "one of the grandes dames of the country’s progressive movement," a woman whose "organizational skills are prodigious." Predictably, there was no mention that Cagan has consistently lavished praise upon Castro’s Cuba, which she considers a far better place than the United States. During her seven years as director of the Cuba Information Project, she led numerous demonstrations demanding that the US end its economic embargo of, and travel ban to, Cuba. "In the winter of 1969-70," Cagan fondly recalls, "I spent over two months with the First Venceremos Brigade in Cuba. Just ten years into their revolution, the Cubans had taken control of their history. . . . While we were in Cuba, Fred Hampton and other Chicago Black Panthers were murdered. It was a shocking reminder of the brutality and power of the US government, and there we were in Cuba, a whole nation under attack from the US. As Brigadistas we were taking a risk traveling in defiance of Washington’s travel ban, but we knew the risk was small compared to what Cubans and so many others around the world faced every day."

In short, Cagan candidly sides with Castro’s Communist regime rather than with the United States, which she deems the world’s foremost terrorist nation. The Venceremos Brigades with which she proudly associated were in fact organized by Castro’s Cuban intelligence agency, which went so far as to train some "brigadistas" in guerrilla warfare techniques, including the use of arms and explosives. Cagan’s pro-Castro rallies were supported by such socialist organizations as Casa de las Americas, the Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Venceremos Brigades, the Workers World Party, and the Young Socialists. Cagan herself was an original founder of the Committees of Correspondence, a splinter group rooted in the Communist Party USA. Joining the chorus of her fellow leaders in the "peace" movement, she condemns what she calls America’s "daily assaults and attacks on poor and working people, on women, people of color, lesbians/gays and other sexual minorities, the disabled and so many others, [and] such foreign policy matters as . . . military actions and economic sanctions."

In February 1996 at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, the National Network on Cuba (NNOC), of which Cagan was a national co-chair, sponsored a public forum that featured an address by Angela Sanbrano of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), which was affiliated with the Communist guerrilla movement in that country. Another guest speaker was the Cuban revolutionary José Luis Ponce, who appeared on stage with an admiring Cagan. Ponce extolled the enormous social gains that Castro’s revolution had brought to Cuba. As the socialist publication The Militant paraphrased it, Ponce lauded the revolution for its opposition to "the legacy of US domination - a legacy of unemployment, absence of health care for millions especially in the countryside, illiteracy, racism and the super-exploitation of women." He further predicted, quite happily, that "a fight for socialism" would re-emerge in Russia. To all these assertions, Cagan nodded with approval.

Not surprisingly, Cagan firmly opposes our government’s contemplated war against Iraq, which she characterizes as nothing more than a thinly veiled oil grab. "Oil is not worth war!" screams Cagan’s UFPJ Website. "How much is the Bush administration’s push for war with Iraq motivated by its desire to gain control of Iraq’s oil fields?" On February 4 in Charlotte, North Carolina, UFPJ sponsored a "No War For Oil" protest held symbolically in front of a Texaco location.

In attributing nefarious motives to US military ventures, Cagan continues a long Leftist tradition. In the 1960s, for example, it was commonplace for the Left to assert that the US was sending troops to Southeast Asia merely to secure mineral rights in South Vietnam for American corporations. As Stokely Carmichael put it at the time, our 58,000 dead soldiers were sacrificed merely "to serve the economic interests of American businessmen who are in Vietnam solely to exploit the tungsten, tin, and oil."

Following President Bush’s recent State of the Union address, Cagan said, "George Bush again tried to make his case against Iraq and he failed." "Such a war [in Iraq]," she contends, "undoubtedly threatens to unleash an escalating and uncontrollable cycle of violence, death and destruction." Of course, she does not express the barest hint of concern that Saddam’s regime, which has blatantly defied the conditions of UN Resolution 1441, poses a threat to American security. In the eyes of Cagan and her ilk, the principal enemy of world peace is the United States.

But we ought not be surprised that the very people who opposed military action against the al Qaeda-harboring Taliban should now oppose military action against a monster that has yet to strike with its full measure of ferocity. Last summer, Cagan joined such notable critics of America as Noam Chomsky, Ed Asner, Medea Benjamin, Gloria Steinem, Ossie Davis, and Michael Ratner in signing the infamous "Not In Our Name" (NION) statement denouncing America’s declared war against terror, which began in Afghanistan.

"Let it not be said," read the NION document, "that people in the United States did nothing when their government declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of repression. The signers of this statement call on the people of the US to resist the policies and overall political direction that have emerged since September 11 and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world."

"We believe," added the NION signatories, "that peoples and nations have the right to determine their own destiny, free from military coercion by great powers." Given the context in which it was used, that may well be the most inane sentence ever put to paper. Asserting that the US possessed no moral authority to annihilate the Taliban, it implied that that privilege rested with the same Afghan people who lived powerlessly under the Taliban’s brutal oppression. By the same token, we are apparently expected to believe that the Iraqi people have it within their power to dethrone a dictator who, during his twenty-four-year reign, has imprisoned, maimed, and murdered hundreds of thousands of actual and suspected political opponents.

Perhaps the most noxious element of the "peace" crowd’s message is its pathetic lack of viable alternatives. Cagan, for instance, boasts that "while organizing against the Gulf War in 1990/1991 . . . I coordinated the National Campaign for Peace in the Middle East, [whose] primary focus . . . was trying to stop the mad rush to war by the US government." The historical record shows that more than five months elapsed between Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the start of the Gulf War, during which Saddam defied repeated ultimatums to withdraw his troops as a means of averting a coalition attack. Thus it is utterly obscene to depict America’s actions as a "mad rush to war." While Cagan and her cronies self-righteously stand around bleating for peaceful resolutions to international conflicts, the armies of dictators who haven’t the slightest desire for peace can swallow up entire nations.

Cagan is never at a loss for words when presented with an opportunity to denounce America and applaud Communist regimes and their support groups. Indeed she cheered last month’s "peace" rally in Washington, sponsored by International A.N.S.W.E.R., which is closely allied with the WWP, which in turn avidly backs Kim Jong Il’s regime in North Korea. "This is A.N.S.W.E.R.’s dance, and they get to call the tune," Cagan said. "We are at a point where it is really, really critical that many, many groups come out and voice their opposition to this war. Some in the hard-core Left have taken the lead on that, and I applaud those groups for that." Stalinist Communist parties have always had their own "peace" fronts, a tradition that the WWP, Leslie Cagan, and other prime movers of the anti-war movement now continue.

Some readers may find it difficult to believe that the WWP does, in fact, support the murderous North Korean government which has not only exterminated hundreds of thousands in concentration camps, but has poured all available resources into a military buildup while some two million people died of starvation. Yet on July 9, 1994, WWP chairman Sam Marcy wrote to "Dear Comrade Kim Jong Il," extending the organization’s "deepest condolences" on the death of Kim’s father, "the great leader of the Korean people, Comrade President Kim Il Sung." Marcy eulogized the elder Kim for having "devoted his whole life to the Korean people’s struggle for national self-determination and the international working-class struggle for socialist emancipation. With his leadership, the Korean people . . . brought about the first defeat of the US imperialist military machine. . . . Comrade Kim Il Sung worked tirelessly to bring about the peaceful reunification of Korea and to forge a lasting peace on the peninsula. . . . It is Kim Il Sung’s remarkable achievement that in his own lifetime he became a symbol of national liberation and reunification for the Korean people, and a symbol of the anti-imperialist and socialist struggles of all the world’s peoples. Although US imperialism tried at every opportunity to blockade, threaten and sabotage the construction of socialism in the north, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea stands strong. . . . Workers World Party [is] proud to have known Kim Il Sung as a great leader and a comrade in the international communist movement."

Obviously, it isn’t really the concept of "war" that Leslie Cagan and her fellow Communists oppose, but only war that seeks to protect the interests of the United States. As National Review Online recently reported, the WWP has in the past "supported the Soviet interventions in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Chinese government’s crackdown in Tiananmen Square," and today "devotes much of its energy to supporting the regimes in Iraq and North Korea."

At the aforementioned Washington demonstration, virtually every featured speaker invoked standard Communist rhetoric glorifying the "struggle" of their "comrades" to mount a "revolution" to "liberate" the "oppressed peoples" suffering under American "imperialism." They displayed placards bearing slogans like, "Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld: The Real Axis of Evil." Such is the mindset of Leslie Cagan and her fellow leaders of the "peace" movement. Their devotion to genuine peace is much like Yasser Arafat’s; they exploit the rhetoric of peace while working feverishly toward a very different agenda.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Perazzo is the author of The Myths That Divide Us: How Lies Have Poisoned American Race Relations. For more information on his book, click here. E-mail him at wsbooks25@hotmail.com

The people fronting the organization of the Feb 15th anti-war protests (United For Peace and Justice) are STILL just a bunch of America hating commies.

It’s Leslie Cagan, who’s been around under a lot of other group names like Cuba Information Project, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (a split from the Communist Party USA), and is a board member of Pacifica Radio (think WBAI).

She has organized trips to Cuba to celebrate “May Day” for “international youth” and to Vietnam to celebrate the 25th anniversary of North Vietnam’s victory.

There were more South Vietnamese killed by the North AFTER the war, than died during the war. I wonder how Cagan reconciles that with her conscience?

Put the following into a www.google.com search box and you’ll get 10 pages of hits. Below is mined from just the first three.

[ +”Leslie Cagan” +communist ]

A War Protester's Red Roots

By John Perazzo

FrontPageMagazine.com | February 11, 2003

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=6024

EXCERPT:

“When you look at the national picture, we are not able to stop the daily assaults and attacks on poor and working people, on women, people of color, lesbians/gays and other sexual minorities, the disabled and so many others, never mind such foreign policy matters as . . . military actions and economic sanctions.”

Those are the words of Leslie Cagan, the socialist and longtime activist who, during the past thirty years, has mobilized millions of anti-American demonstrators in rallies denouncing our nation’s foreign policies; its military-related spending; and its purportedly virulent racism, sexism, and homophobia. It is clear that Cagan, who currently heads an organization called United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ), deems the U.S. not only a miserable place in which to live, but also the most dangerous member of the community of nations. By contrast, Cagan has consistently lavished praise upon Fidel Castro’s Cuba, which she considers a virtual paradise in comparison to the United States.

During her seven years as director of the Cuba Information Project, she led numerous demonstrations demanding that the U.S. end its economic blockade of, and travel ban to, the Caribbean nation. “In the winter of 1969-70,” Cagan fondly recalls, “I spent over two months with the First Venceremos Brigade in Cuba. Just ten years into their revolution, the Cubans had taken control of their history. For years I had thought change was necessary. Now, I began to believe that radical change in every arena of life was possible. While we were in Cuba, Fred Hampton and other Chicago Black Panthers were murdered. It was a shocking reminder of the brutality and power of the U.S. government, and there we were in Cuba, a whole nation under attack from the U.S. As Brigadistas we were taking a risk traveling in defiance of Washington’s travel ban, but we knew the risk was small compared to what Cubans and so many others around the world faced every day.”

In short, Cagan candidly sides with Castro’s Communist regime rather than with the United States, which she deems the world’s foremost terrorist nation. Her pro-Castro rallies were supported by such socialist organizations as the Communist Party, the Socialist Workers Party, the Venceremos Brigade, Casa de las Americas, the Workers World Party, and the Young Socialists. Cagan herself was an original founder of the Committees of Correspondence, a splinter group rooted in the Communist Party USA.

Reds Still

The story no one wants to hear about the antiwar movement.

January 23, 2003, 9:00 a.m.

Byron York, National Review Online

http://www.nationalreview.com/10feb03/york021003.asp

EXCERPT:

But it is not at all clear that other Left groups are truly distressed by the WWP's tactics. In interviews with several representatives of peace-movement groups, most declined to condemn the politics of Brian Becker and his associates. "Good for them for having the wherewithal to call the demonstrations," says Scott Lynch, a spokesman for Peace Action, considered the largest antiwar group in the country. "This is ANSWER's dance, and they get to call the tune." Leslie Cagan, a long-time antiwar activist with the group United for Peace, adds, "We are at a point where it is really, really critical that many, many groups come out and voice their opposition to this war. Some in the hard-core Left have taken the lead on that, and I applaud those groups for that."

COMMENT: Notice that Cagan forgets to mention she’s a commie herself.

The Problems with Pacifica (part 1)

By Paul DeRienzo

Friday, December 13, 2002

http://pdr.autono.net/2002_12_08_pdrblog

EXCERPT

In the spring of 2002 Pacifica announced it had signed 5-year contract with Goodman giving her ownership of DN and unprecedented rights to Pacifica’s resources, enshrining DN as the networks premier program. This has caused some consternation within the dissident’s own ranks since the Pacifica civil war was launched over an non-existent threat by the old Board to sell one of the 5 stations. Pacifica’s contract with Goodman, signed by interim Pacifica National Board chair Leslie Cagan as well as Executive Director Dan Coughlin, is the only time in the Foundation’s history that Pacifica leadership has surrendered a significant piece of Foundation property. Some say the DN agreement shows the Foundation’s present leaders are following their own political agenda to the detriment of the Foundation they’re supposed to be managing.

The role of leftists and other organizations in the Pacifica civil war is a source of concern for a network that has been historically controlled by radio professionals. Current interim Pacifica National Board chair Leslie Cagan was one of the original founders of the Committees of Correspondence (CoC), a group that split from the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) over he CoC’s support of the reforms begun by Gorbachev in the late 1980s. After a decade of trying to form a Communist Party “lite” Cagan’s organization grew close to Democratic Socialist and left wing Democratic Party groups and factions of Ralph Nader’s Green party. The lack of transparency in the organizational leanings of Pacifica’s new rulers is a great potential threat to the Foundation potentially alienating listener donors and inviting attack by conservatives.

Leslie Cagan Is One of the “Not In Our Name” Endorsers of NYC Oct. 6 Central Park event

http://www.notinourname.net/oct6_02_nyc.html

Notice she doesn’t use her Communist/Socialist titles here.

EXCERPT:

Leslie Cagan, Chair, Interim Pacifica Network National Board

Committees of Correspondence Meet in Chicago

By Jim Williams

September - October, 2000

http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng36.html

EXCERPT:

Over 500 delegates and observers (including 140 from Chicago) attended the founding convention of the Committees of Correspondence (CoC) held here in Chicago in July. The CoC was sparked at a conference in Berkeley in 1992, in large part by former members of the Communist Party, USA. However, from its outset, the CoC has included persons who were not formerly Communists in its ranks and in its leadership.

The Convention adopted a constitutional structure, expanded its statement of goals, which is based on democratic socialism, and elected a new leadership. The five co-chairs are: Manning Marable, Charlene Mitchell, Rafael Pizarro, Leslie Cagan and Sushawn Robb. Only Mitchell and Pizarro were former Communists. Marable and Mitchell are African-Americans, Pizarro is Puerto Rican. Cagan is a well-known peace activist. Robb and Cagan are outspoken feminists and lesbians.

COMMENT: Note the LIE that Cagan is NOT a communist.

Evidence of needed listener education about Pacifica

12-6-02 (BLACK MAN CLAIMS CAGAN MADE RACIST STATEMENTS)

http://www.wbai.net/ipnb/ipnb_dc_mtg_doc_dc_artcl12-6-02.html

EXCERPT:

Last March for example, Leslie Cagan, the interim Chairman of the Pacifica National Board referred to Washington's less progressive (read Black majority) political culture as "very, very dangerous," and said the city is a "cesspool," according minutes of that board meeting in a published report. "This is not just a parochial issue about WPFW or even just about African people in Pacifica," Mr. Zakiya continued in his message to the B-PAC Yahoo e-mail group. "It is the notion that a small group of people--primarily white Berkeleyites in this case--have a divisive ideology which is being seriously played out in the Bylaws, the Foundation restructuring vote, and the 'Democracy Now!' productions contract."

Both Mesdames Cagan and Spooner are white activists from Berkeley where Pacifica's flagship station, KPFA was founded in 1949. They were both instrumental in a recent vote by the interim board to move the foundation's headquarters from Washington, back to Berkeley. Ironically, Mr. Zakiya is the African American who marched into station offices last year when the new interim board first took charge, supporting...actually proclaiming the "Berkeleyite" mantra: "we're going to get rid of all the Jazz programming around here, and replace it with hard-hitting, progressive public affairs and talk programs," Mr. Zakiyasaid on several occasions to staff and volunteers, and at Local Advisory Board (LAB) meetings.

ZEO Present & Future Faculty

Biography for instructor of “ORGANIZING: THE LOST ART”

http://www.zmag.org/ZSustainers/ZEO/zeo_staff.htm

EXCERPT:

Leslie Cagan has been the central figure in nearly every major national campaign for the past quarter century--from mass marches and rallies, to sustained campaigns, to electoral victories. No one in the U.S. has more experience in more diverse organizing venues than Leslie.

COMMENT: Notice Leslie forgets she’s a communist/socialist.

American Red Groups

GOOGLE.COM Cache: http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:Nic0dQSqvNAC:www.red-encyclopedia.org/groups.html+%2B%22leslie+cagan%22+%2Bcommunist&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

EXCERPT:

Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism: This group was formed after the Soviet coup of 1991 by Manning Marable, Carl Boice, Leslie Cagan, Charlene Mitchell, Angela Davis, Pete Seeger and numerous others who were expelled from (or left) the Communist Party for supporting Mikhail Gorbachev and the pro-democracy faction of the Russian government. Free of the CPUSA, the CCDS founders hoped to unite the divided American Left, and received support from a number of well-known leftists, including Noam Chomsky. However, this dream soon ran into the classic problem of sectarianism, and CCDS floundered. Over the years, the political alignment of CCDS shifted dramatically, from its infancy in Reform Communism to become a democratic socialist organization, not very different from DSA or the Socialist Party USA. However, without a clear vision of where the organization was going (i.e., merge with another group or strengthen their own) CCDS's originally strong organization has begun to disintegrate within the last few years. Some of their members, inspired by the CP's new leader, Sam Webb, returned to the CP. Others joined Nader and the Green Party and forgot about CCDS. Further, CCDS's main office in New York was damaged in the September 11th attack. CCDS will be holding its tenth anniversary convention in July, 2002, in San Francisco. Hopefully, CCDS will be able to re-establish itself as an active left group in America.

Leadership of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy & Socialism

http://www.cofc.org/htm/leadersh.htm

EXCERPT:

Co-Chairs

Leslie Cagan

James Campbell

Charlene Mitchell

Mark Solomon

Advisory Board

Dr. Herbert Aptheker Historian

Timuel D. Black Professor (emeritus) City Colleges of Chicago

Noam Chomsky Professor, MIT

Angela Davis Author, professor, activist

Ossie Davis African American Actor, writer

Ruby Dee African American Actress, poet, playwright

Donna DeWitt President, South Carolina State AFL-CIO

Elaine Hagopian Professor of Sociology, Simmons College

Connie Hogarth Cofounder, former Executive Director of WESPAC, C. Hogarth Center for Social Action, Manhattanville College

Ray Markey President, New York Public Library Guild, Local 1930, AFSCME

Elizabeth (Betita) Martinez Director, Institute for MultiRacial Justice

Jack O'Dell Movement organizer, journalist, foreign policy specialist

Pete Seeger Musician, writer, environmentalist

Toshi Seeger Environmentalist, grandmother

Don White CISPES - L.A.

Dessima Williams, Ph. D. Professor, development specialist

Sabina Virgo Activist, speaker, union president

From the “about us” section of the website:

We are people of all races and national backgrounds who are committed to the struggle for democracy and socialism. Our name is taken from the history of the U.S. revolutionary war against British colonialism. In the 1770s, Committees of Correspondence were formed in all 13 colonies and became the catalyst for united action against British oppression.

We, too, seek united action among all who feel the brunt of oppression in the U.S. And we believe that our Committees of Correspondence will, as before, be a catalyst for change.

Our members are activists in all the social movements of our country - of labor, civil rights, immigrant rights, women, peace, international solidarity, gay and lesbian rights, environment, youth and students, seniors, and religion. We have come together to help shape a clear cut alternative to the destructive, mean-spirited corporate drive for profit above all else. We seek constructive solutions to the problems of poverty and unemployment, racism, sexism, health, education, and housing. Join us.

Committees of Correspondence

for Democracy and Socialism

545 Eight Avenue, 14th Floor NE

New York, NY 10018

phone number: (212) 868-3733/3334

Fax: (212) 663-3650

COMMENT: Is the same number and office they’re using to organize Feb 18th?

This webpage also has links to:



Cuba-Visit Jan., 2001 

Black Radical Congress 

150 Years after the Communist Manifesto

Havana on My Mind

by David McReynolds

http://www.warresisters.org/nva0901-5.htm

EXCERPT:

My life has taken me to Vietnam, East Berlin behind the Wall, Iraq, Libya and the Soviet Union, but not to Cuba. What about this “already existing socialism” so close to us? In retirement, I thought to make up for lost time. I got an announcement from the Committees of Correspondence for Socialism and Democracy (of which I’m a nominal member—my main political allegiance is to the Socialist Party). It said “Celebrate May Day in Havana.” I thought, “What the hell, why not go now, before Fidel dies or I do.”

So on April 27 I took off from New York’s JFK airport on TACA Airlines with CCSD Co-Chair Leslie Cagan, her mother and several other CCSD members. (Study groups—the CCSD group had academic credentials—can fly direct from the United States to Havana.)

Cuba prepares for World Youth Festival

By Gloria La Riva

Via Workers World News Service

Reprinted from the March 20, 1997

issue of Workers World newspaper

http://www.workers.org/ww/wyfest.html

EXCERPT:

Cuba is carrying out an impressive national campaign to host upwards of 5,000 youths from around the world at the 14th World Youth and Student Festival.

In the United States, building for a U.S. contingent is under way. The second national organizing meeting will be held in New York the weekend of March 15. Leslie Cagan, an organizer of the U.S. Organizing Committee for the festival, said, "We've sent out over 500 of the application forms and my sense is that there's a tremendous amount of interest."

Cagan attended the international preparatory meeting in Havana, where 135 people from 55 countries met to plan the festival. She said: "It is very exciting and interesting. Seeing people from so many countries brought the whole thing to life."

Rama said: "We want to rescue the movement of the festivals which were celebrated for 50 years, the last one being 1989 in Pyongyang [Democratic People's Republic of Korea].

For more information readers can call the U.S. Organizing Committee at 212-866-7270 or IPCA at 212-633-6646.

Looking Forward. By Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel

http://www.parecon.org/lookingforward/lfPrologue_2.htm

EXCERPT:

For those readers interested in our critique of Marxist theory, see our Unorthodox Marxism and Marxism and Socialist Theory (both published by South End Press, 1978, 1981). For a more detailed critique of the Soviet, Chinese, and Cuban experiences, see our Socialism Today and Tomorrow (South End Press, 198 1). For a more detailed description of our alternative approach to understanding history and society, an approach emphasizing economics, gender, culture, and politics on an equal, interactive footing, see Liberating Theory, coauthored with Noam Chomsky, Leslie Cagan, Mel King, Lydia Sargent, and Holly Sklar (South End Press, 1986). Finally, for those interested in a more mathematical presentation of arguments regarding the inherent deficiencies of coordinator and capitalist economies, see our Quiet Revolution in Welfare Economics (Princeton University Press, 1990).

Activists Build For October Cuba Actions

The Militant, Vol.59/No.37

October 9, 1995

By Maceo Dixon

http://www.themilitant.com/1995/5937/5937_17.html

EXCERPT:

NEW YORK - Some 35 political activists met at Casa de las Americas here September 17 to make final preparations for the October 21 march and rally in New York City in opposition to U.S. policy toward Cuba. The meeting included representatives of political organizations and local Cuba coalitions in the Northeast affiliated to the National Network on Cuba (NNOC).

Earlier this year, the Network called actions in October demanding an end to the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba, lifting Washington's travel ban to the Caribbean nation, normalizing relations between the two countries, and respect for Cuba's right to self-determination.

Leslie Cagan of the Cuba Information Project announced that organizers in New York had obtained permits from the police for the route of the demonstration.

Activities Planned In Defense Of Cuba

The Militant, Vol.59/No.19

May 15, 1995

By Sam Manuel

http://www.themilitant.com/1995/5919/5919_16.html

EXCERPT:

NEW YORK - Participants in the April 30 northeast regional conference hosted by the National Network on Cuba (NNOC) set plans for an October 14 march and rally in opposition to the U.S. government's aggressive policies against Cuba.

Leslie Cagan, one of the four national coordinators of the NNOC, said organizing the four regional actions in a coordinated manner, including working on a common leaflet for all of them, would be the best way to tap this growing interest and maximize the effectiveness of the protests.

For more information on plans for the October 14 protests and for the U.S. delegation to the "Cuba Lives" festival, contact the Cuba Information Project, 198 Broadway, Suite 800, New York, N.Y. 10038, or call: (212) 227-3422.

Fidel gets hero's welcome in Bronx and Harlem

By Deirdre Griswold

People's Weekly World,

2 Novembe, 1995

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43b/019.html

CHEERED IN HARLEM AND THE BRONX

The oppressed greeted him passionately. They packed the Abyssinian Baptist Church and cheered until they were hoarse on the historic occasion of Fidel's return to Harlem.

They mobbed him when he dined in the Bronx at the invitation of the Puerto Rican representative there, Jose Serrano.

Starting with a march of several thousand people on Oct. 21, there were strong demonstrations of support for Cuba and Fidel during every one of the four full days he spent in New York.

Leslie Cagan of the Cuba Information Project introduced a string of notables at the closing rally and pledged that the solidarity movement would continue its work with renewed vigor.

The antiwar movement: A great beginning

International Socialist Review (The Journal of Revolutionary Marxism) Issue 26, November–December 2002

http://www.isreview.org/issues/26/antiwar_movement.shtml

EXCERPT:

THE OCTOBER 26 protests in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. against war with Iraq, called by International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), marked a major step forward for the antiwar movement.

Organizationally, the antiwar movement is still in formation. None of the existing national antiwar organizations, whether ANSWER, NION, or the various pacifist groupings yet has the legs to carry a truly national movement. Various liberal and left-liberal forces have begun to organize an alternative national coalition to ANSWER, which they criticize as an undemocratic front for the Workers World Party. Leslie Cagan, an activist during the Vietnam antiwar movement and spokesperson for the National Campaign for Peace in the Middle East, the main liberal coalition formed during the 1991 Gulf War, has already taken “the very initial steps toward bringing greater coordination and cohesion to this antiwar movement. Representatives from NOW, the National Council of Churches, Global Exchange, and a who’s who of progressive Beltway advocates were present at the launch of a new national antiwar network. A broader effort,’ Cagan called it, that could finally tap into churches, trade unions, and campuses—where we could really get the numbers,’” the Village Voice reported. Cagan seems not to have noticed—though October 26 made it abundantly clear—that campuses, trade unions, and churches are already mobilizing. In fact, more than 300 students from 40 campuses gathered after the march at George Washington University to take the initial steps to pull together a network of campus-based antiwar groups.

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