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rfmcdonaldA recent post over at Global Voices by one Ellery Biddle--WikiLeaks-related of course--suggested that Cuba's dissident movement is fundamentally stuck, and that it's only the young--particularly the bloggers--who can move beyond the impasse.
Patricia Grogg's Inter Press Service article goes into further detail about the criticisms, suggesting that the dissident groups are prone to infighting, and that their leaders and members are as much concerned with the mechanics of survival as with propagating their movement.
Chief among the prominent dissident bloggers is Yoani Sánchez, whose blog Generation Y (Spanish, English) has gotten her a high profile domestically and internationally despite the difficulties she and others Cubans have with getting access to the Internet. It's interesting reading, with a mission statement of note: "Generation Y is a Blog inspired by people like me, with names that start with or contain a "Y". Born in Cuba in the '70s and '80s, marked by schools in the countryside, Russian cartoons, illegal emigration and frustration. So I invite, especially, Yanisleidi, Yoandri, Yusimí, Yuniesky and others who carry their "Y's" to read me and to write to me."
Profile's one thing, but does profile necessarily translate into political leadership, especially in circumstances where access to writings of people like Ms. Sánchez is so limited? One of the dissidents quoted by Grogg doesn't think so: "[Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesperson for the moderate opposition group Arco Progresista] pointed out that the bloggers 'are only trying to be the critical conscience of Cuban society. They do not move in the political sphere, they do not claim to represent the people, nor do they pose themselves as a political alternative,' he said, noting that of course 'they can have a political position just like any citizen, but that is something else.'" Generation Y's mission statement certainly doesn't challenge Cuba's state ideology, only complicating and contradicting the narrative of Cuba's official dynamism and progressivism. Sánchez, pointing out that despite official support Cuba supported any number of homophobic countries in opposing a United Nations resolution condemning state homophobia, may have contributed to Cuba's withdrawal from the anti-gay coalition. Unsanctioned and/or uncontrolled methods of cultural expression can create interesting spaces, Cuban hip-hop's origin as an imported musical genre used (just as it was first used in the United States) to express criticism of the established order (and not only by Afro-Cubans!) also coming to mind.
The import of all this? The phenomenon of dissidence--in authoritarian regimes like Cuba's, and under other political regimes and in other circumstances--reminds me yet again of the rhizome of Deleuze and Guattari, of the creation of alternative and perhaps unexpected connections between people and organizations and cultural forms, something that's capable of subverting more self-contained and internally solid regimes like--say--the Cuban state. It's sad that they're not stronger, but I don't think it's not realistic to expect that dissidents will be capable of doing anything but that; the only example of a dissident movement successfully undermining an authoritarian state by its own initiative that I can think of is Poland's Solidarity, and that succeeded only because of a particular combination of circumstances (the weakness and lack of legitimacy of the Polish state, Poland's relative invulnerability to Soviet intervention circa 1980, et cetera). Creating spaces allowing for alternative discourses, preparing for future changes in Cuban governance which might let these discourses become more influential, eventually leading to a more pluralistic society, is all that Cuba's dissidents can realistically expect.
Cables sent from the US Interest Section[1] (USINT) in Havana in 2009 (the most explicit of which can be found at El País) indicate that, in the eyes of USINT, the Cuban government does not see the traditional dissident community as a serious threat to political stability on the island, and that the movement has limited resonance within the general population.
An April 15 cable described the dissident movement in Cuba as, “as old and as out of touch with the lives of ordinary Cubans as the regime itself.” The dissidents mentioned here include leaders and groups such as Oswaldo Payá and Agenda para la Transición, who represent part of the island’s small, decades-old dissident community that receives considerable support from USINT and struggles to evade repression by the Cuban government.
On April 15, 2009, Jonathan Farrar of USINT wrote:…we see very little evidence that the mainline dissident organizations have much resonance among ordinary Cubans. Informal polls we have carried out among visa and refugee applicants have shown virtually no awareness of dissident personalities or agendas.
Given that USINT surveyed visa and refugee applicants, a group that opposes the Raúl Castro government in greater proportions than the general population, this information should be particularly disconcerting to dissident leaders. Ironically, Farrar also wrote that “…dissidents have, and will continue to perform, a key role in acting as the conscience of Cuba and deserve our support in that role.” He did not elaborate on how these groups could represent the “conscience of Cuba” if they were, as mentioned earlier, “out of touch with the lives of ordinary Cubans.”
A cable sent on December 20, 2009 indicated that the Cuban government sees bloggers as “its most serious challenge” within the realm of civil society.
Another cable also described “[y]ounger individuals, including bloggers, musicians, and performing and plastic artists” as being “much better [than traditional dissidents] at taking “rebellious” stands with greater popular appeal.”
Patricia Grogg's Inter Press Service article goes into further detail about the criticisms, suggesting that the dissident groups are prone to infighting, and that their leaders and members are as much concerned with the mechanics of survival as with propagating their movement.
Chief among the prominent dissident bloggers is Yoani Sánchez, whose blog Generation Y (Spanish, English) has gotten her a high profile domestically and internationally despite the difficulties she and others Cubans have with getting access to the Internet. It's interesting reading, with a mission statement of note: "Generation Y is a Blog inspired by people like me, with names that start with or contain a "Y". Born in Cuba in the '70s and '80s, marked by schools in the countryside, Russian cartoons, illegal emigration and frustration. So I invite, especially, Yanisleidi, Yoandri, Yusimí, Yuniesky and others who carry their "Y's" to read me and to write to me."
Profile's one thing, but does profile necessarily translate into political leadership, especially in circumstances where access to writings of people like Ms. Sánchez is so limited? One of the dissidents quoted by Grogg doesn't think so: "[Manuel Cuesta Morúa, spokesperson for the moderate opposition group Arco Progresista] pointed out that the bloggers 'are only trying to be the critical conscience of Cuban society. They do not move in the political sphere, they do not claim to represent the people, nor do they pose themselves as a political alternative,' he said, noting that of course 'they can have a political position just like any citizen, but that is something else.'" Generation Y's mission statement certainly doesn't challenge Cuba's state ideology, only complicating and contradicting the narrative of Cuba's official dynamism and progressivism. Sánchez, pointing out that despite official support Cuba supported any number of homophobic countries in opposing a United Nations resolution condemning state homophobia, may have contributed to Cuba's withdrawal from the anti-gay coalition. Unsanctioned and/or uncontrolled methods of cultural expression can create interesting spaces, Cuban hip-hop's origin as an imported musical genre used (just as it was first used in the United States) to express criticism of the established order (and not only by Afro-Cubans!) also coming to mind.
The import of all this? The phenomenon of dissidence--in authoritarian regimes like Cuba's, and under other political regimes and in other circumstances--reminds me yet again of the rhizome of Deleuze and Guattari, of the creation of alternative and perhaps unexpected connections between people and organizations and cultural forms, something that's capable of subverting more self-contained and internally solid regimes like--say--the Cuban state. It's sad that they're not stronger, but I don't think it's not realistic to expect that dissidents will be capable of doing anything but that; the only example of a dissident movement successfully undermining an authoritarian state by its own initiative that I can think of is Poland's Solidarity, and that succeeded only because of a particular combination of circumstances (the weakness and lack of legitimacy of the Polish state, Poland's relative invulnerability to Soviet intervention circa 1980, et cetera). Creating spaces allowing for alternative discourses, preparing for future changes in Cuban governance which might let these discourses become more influential, eventually leading to a more pluralistic society, is all that Cuba's dissidents can realistically expect.
