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CUBAN QUESTION BOND

in "thinking like producers" instead of as consumers.

But above all, it is in a deep faith in the ability to solve their problems, a hope for the future of Cuba and of humanity in general (in sharp contrast to the malaise of pessimism and despair which so pervades the U.S. currently) that one feels the courage, vitality and creativity of the Cuban people-and their greatness.

As for the huge "March of the People" in Havana and other cities on May 17 which the media here called a "staged" anti-American ritual, it struck us as being well organized as are most mass demonstrations whether mounted by our own civil rights activists and Bible enthusiasts or by ayatollah supporters. Anti-American? More precisely, it was anti-U.S. government policies which have kept Cuba under siege for years (regarding the current situation, we saw and heard evidence that agents of the U.S. government have had a hand in inciting Cuban nationals to emigrate, a highly provocative pursuit that is reaping a decidedly mixed harvest in the U.S.). Cubans, we observed, are proud folk who don't like having their revolution messed with, especially by the fire-breathing, tinsel-laden northern dragon in whose backyard they had the marvelous audacity to launch it. Doubtless, very little help from Fidel was required to bring them into the streets a million-plus strong since all Cubans experience daily, in a host of ways, the consequences of U.S. assaults on their economy and sovereignty-that is to say, on their dignity.

This same matter of dignity, which the U.S. establishment seems to have great difficulty comprehending, put thousands in the streets behind Martin Luther King in the 1960's, sparked the uprisings in Harlem and Watts when he was killed and was the core of the recent race riots that welcomed the Cuban freedom-worshippers to Miami. The message communicated by U.S. government agencies and institutions in their bankrupt and near-genocidal policies towards the black community in particular, and other minority and poor U.S. citizens in general, is "We can only deal with you when we own you." That's the same message, the same affront to human dignity, that is delivered to the Cuban people by the Bay of Pigs operation, the continued U.S. occupation of Guantanamo and the blockade.

Just as the Cuban emigrants are impressed with life in these United States (or were before they actually got here), so were we impressed with Cuba. Notwithstanding the mistakes and miscalculations, the sugar and tobacco blights, the current exodus and the ongoing railings of the U.S. government against the Castro regime, history will absolve the Cuban revolution. The bulk of the people-everywhere-salute Fidel.