Remembering José Martí and his legacy on his 173rd birth anniversary both in Cuba and in exile

 "Freedom can not be fruitful for the peoples who have their forehead stained in blood." - José Martí*

José Martí, 28 January 1853 – 19 May 1895

 
He re-launched an independence struggle, but he did so without inciting hatred or dehumanizing his opponents. He was a fervent supporter of civil liberties, particularly the freedom of thought and expression. 

Additionally, he worked as a journalist and poet, having previously been imprisoned by the Spanish monarchy for his political views. 

 On this day in 1853 José Julián Martí Pérez was born.
 
Cubans of all ideological stripes claim him as their own, but objectively who has maintained the spirit of his words and ideas?

Not the Cuban dictatorship.

Falsifying Martí 

Sadly, the Castro brothers over the past 67 years has been misrepresenting his writings with the assistance of international institutions such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). They have re-written the real Jose Marti in an Orwellian fashion to advance their totalitarian narrative.

This is not unique to the Marxist-Leninist regime in Cuba but a common practice among other totalitarian regimes to legitimize their rule.

Carlos Ripoll, an expert on the life and thought of Jose Marti in 1994 wrote in the journal Cuban Studies published by the University of Pittsburgh Press the article titled, "The Falsification of José Martí in Cuba" and provided an abstract of his argument:

"Marxist-Leninist governments have traditionally falsified history to justify their rise to power and the political systems they have imposed. In response to the worldwide collapse of Communism, Cuban authorities have intensified their adulteration of history so as to offer a nationalistic rationale for their continuation in power. The highest exponent of the revolutionary tradition in Cuba is José Marti and, therefore, the falsification of his thought and doctrines is the first priority of many historians and critics. They concentrate, in particular, on the Cuban Revolutionary party founded by Marti, which they misrepresent as a forerunner of the Cuban Communist party, the basic institution that holds the monopoly of power and consequently is responsible for all the misfortunes and injustices that afflict the country. This study shows some of the forms this falsification takes in Cuba, its objectives, and attempts to disprove the inconsistent and false arguments of those who purport to find similarities or coincidences between the free, democratic republic that Marti wished for his country and the totalitarian state there in existence." 

In a letter in 1988 to The New York Review of Books, Professor Ripoll revealed how José Martí in a letter to his friend, Valdes Dominguez, written just a year before Martí’s death, criticized the “arrogance and hidden rage” of “socialist ideology” whose adherents, “in order to climb up in the world, pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless.”

Seven months after the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Cuban independence leader, in 1953, a failed armed attack on the Moncada barracks by Fidel Castro and a group of revolutionaries, led the future Cuban dictator,  during his trial to declare José Martí the "intellectual author" of the attack.

Castro was lying.

In 1972, the Cuban dictatorship created the "Order of Jose Marti" and over the next  54 years awarded it to dictators and war criminals such as: Alexander Lukashenko, Jiang Zemin, Xi Jinping, Kim Il-sung, Nicolae Ceaușescu, Hugo Chávez, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Robert Mugabe, Erich Honecker, Vladimir Putin, Saddam Hussein, and Nicolas Maduro.

 

The modern counterparts of Martí 

There is a movement in Cuba that seeks to restore human rights and liberties using nonviolent means. 

There are courageous Cubans who risk everything standing up to dictatorship and some of them have been assassinated in the process and their families targeted for reprisals, and forced into exile.

They embrace the principle expressed by José Martí that "There is no forgiveness for acts of hatred. Daggers thrust in the name of liberty are thrust into liberty's heart." 

Following this statement to its logical conclusion leads us over a century later to new generations carrying on his legacy.

"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together.’" - Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, December 17, 2002

"Those who steal the rights of others steal from themselves. Those who remove and crush freedom are the true slaves." -  Harold Cepero Escalante, November 3, 2002  

In their writings and in their lives, Oswaldo and Harold exemplified the best qualities of José Martí, rejecting hatred and continuing to defy injustice while pursuing liberation and national reconciliation. 

Cuban Martyrs: Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante,

 Oswaldo and Harold were leaders in the Christian Liberation Movement. They sought freedom for their fellow Cubans.

One of their most important efforts was the Varela  Project. 

The Varela Project, named after the Cuban Catholic Priest Felix Varela, sought to reform the Cuban legal system to bring it in line with international human rights standards. They had followed the letter of the law in organizing the campaign and yet the dictatorship's response to a nonviolent citizen's initiative was to first coerce Cubans into signing another petition declaring the Constitution unchangeable and quickly passed it through the rubber stamp legislature without debating the Varela Project, which according to the Cuban law drafted by the dictatorship meant that it should have been debated by the National Assembly. 

 

The Economist in its December 14, 2005 issue published a conversation with Oswaldo Paya titled "An unsilenced voice for change" that outlined what the Christian Liberation Movement had accomplished.

Between 2001 and 2004, Mr Payá's movement gathered 25,000 signatures in a vain attempt to persuade Cuba's National Assembly to change the constitution to allow multi-party democracy. Activists of his Christian Liberation Movement made up more than two-thirds of the 75 dissidents and journalists rounded up and jailed for long terms in April 2003. [...] Spain is “complaisant” with Mr Castro's regime, Mr Payá says. “We need a campaign of support and solidarity with peaceful change in Cuba” of the kind that brought an end to apartheid in South Africa and to the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile.

 Oswaldo and Harold were assassinated by Cuban government agents on July 22, 2012.

Today in Cuba over a thousand Cubans are jailed for calling for freedom, and an end to dictatorship. 

This tradition also exists in exile, and was best reflected by Brothers to the Rescue.

How and why Brothers to the Rescue formed
In February of 1991 news accounts of the death by dehydration of 15-year-old Gregorio Perez Ricardo, a rafter fleeing Cuba, as U.S. Coast Guard officials tried to save his life shocked the moral imagination of several pilots. 

This was not an isolated event. Academics Holly Ackerman and Juan Clark, in the 1995 monograph The Cuban Balseros: Voyage of Uncertainty reported that “as many as 100,000 Cuban rafters may have perished trying to leave Cuba.” Anecdotal evidence documents that some of them were victims of the Cuban border patrol using sand bags and snipers against defenseless rafters.

Gregorio Perez Ricardo

It was within this context that on May 13, 1991 Brothers to the Rescue was founded with the aim of searching for rafters in the Florida Straits, getting them water, food, and rescued. In December of 1993 Brothers to the Rescue inaugurated their permanent hangar naming it after Gregorio.

Brothers to the Rescue by November of 1995 was collaborating with the Florida Martin Luther King Institute for Non-violence and took part in the King Day parade in 1996. On February 8, 1996 The Miami Times reported “that this group has come around to the belief that change can be brought about in Cuba in the same way that it was brought about by Dr. King in the United States.” The Miami Times concluded in the editorial “Spreading King’s Message” that “In throwing Dr. King's principle into the volatile mix of Cuban exile politics, Brothers to the Rescue is showing a willingness to be creative.” 

Brothers to the Rescue logo

 

They risked their lives in the Florida Straits to rescue Cuban rafters and at the same time Brothers to the Rescue challenged the Cuban exile community to abandon both the failed violent resistance and appeasement approaches in order to embrace strategic nonviolence.  This path followed the way of Martin Luther King Jr. with both civil disobedience and a constructive program. What was the end result? Brothers to the Rescue saved more than 4,200 men, women, and children ranging from a five-day old infant to a 79 year old man, and rescued thousands more during the 1994 refugee crisis.

One year after the July 13, 1994 tugboat massacre in which 37 men, women and children were killed Cuban exiles organized a flotilla to travel in a civic non-violent manner to the spot six miles off the Havana coastline where the "13 de Marzo" tugboat had been attacked and sunk to hold a religious service for the victims. The Brothers to the Rescue overflight of Havana, where they dropped bumper stickers in Spanish that read "Comrades No. Brothers" was in response to Cuban gunboats ramming the lead boat of the flotilla.

Brothers to the Rescue also served as a bridge between a nonviolent civic movement inside of Cuba and an exile community seeking a different approach. Cuban dissidents announced on October 10, 1995 the intention to hold a national gathering of the opposition in Cuba on February 24, 1996. The coalition of over a 160 groups named themselves the Cuban Council. Brothers to the Rescue in an open and transparent manner sent $2,000 of privately raised assistance to this coalition on February 13, 1996. In the days leading up to February 24 over a 180 dissidents were imprisoned in a nationwide crackdown. 

 

Coretta Scott King and Jose Basulto of Brothers to the Rescue

 

They risked their lives to serve a great idea, and paid the ultimate price thirty years ago on February 24, 1996.

 

 

On February 24, 1996 at 3:21pm and 3:27pm two Brothers to the Rescue planes were shot down by two Cuban MiGs over international airspace killing four. Two more MIG’s chased a third plane to within three minutes of downtown Key West, but that plane made it back and provided critical information on what had occurred.

 

  

The four men who were killed represented all aspects of the Cuban diaspora: Armando Alejandre Jr, a child who arrived with his parents from Cuba in 1960, Carlos Costa, born in Miami Beach in 1966 and Mario Manuel de la Peña, born in New Jersey in 1971 the children of Cuban exiles. Pablo Morales was born in Cuba in 1966, raised there and was saved by Brothers to the Rescue when he was 26 years old while fleeing the island on a raft. Two were from Havana, one was from New Jersey and the other from Miami Beach. 

These four men, and many other members of Brothers to the Rescue who volunteered their time to save lives, were living out the values and example of Jose Marti in exile. 

"Just as he who gives his life to serve a great idea is admirable, he who avails himself of a great idea to serve his personal hopes of glory and power is abominable, even if he too risks his life, observed Marti." 

 They, both inside and outside of Cuba, are the direct heirs of José Martí. Let us continue to honor and remember them, and Cuba's apostle in campaigning for their freedom, and for the liberation of Cuba from the present communist dictatorship.

*"La libertad no puede ser fecunda para los pueblos que tienen la frente manchada de sangre." - Jose Marti  

Rescuing José Martí 125 years after he was shot and killed in the second war of Cuban independence

"I think they kill my child every time they deprive a person of their right to think." - José Martí 
 

Writings of José Martí twisted and distorted by Castroism since 1953.

José Julián Martí Pérez was shot and killed 125 years ago shortly after landing in Cuba at Dos Rios in the early days of the second war of Cuban independence on May 19, 1895. Both his writings and actions taking in life point to a man who prized liberty, independence based in popular sovereignty, and freedom of speech, thought and association as fundamental to his sense of being.

Martí rejected hatred as a animating emotion in the struggle for independence writing, "There is no forgiveness for acts of hatred. Daggers thrust in the name of liberty are thrust into liberty's heart." He also criticized the writings of Karl Marx, and with reason, they were antithetical to his own values. Marx in 1849 had written, "We are ruthless and ask no quarter from you. When our turn comes we shall not disguise our terrorism."

It is not a surprise that Martí saw the dangers inherent in Socialism and its doctrine of envy observing: "Socialist ideology, like so many others, has two main dangers. One stems from confused and incomplete readings of foreign texts, and the other from the arrogance and hidden rage of those who, in order to climb up in the world, pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless so as to have shoulders on which to stand." 

José Julián Martí Pérez: 1853-1895

Sadly, the Castro regime over the past 67 years has been slowly murdering his legacy with the assistance of international institutions such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). They have re-written the real Jose Marti in an Orwellian fashion to advance the communist narrative.

This is not unique to the Marxist-Leninist regime in Cuba but a common practice among communist regimes to legitimize their rule. Carlos Ripoll, an expert on the life and thought of Jose Marti in 1994 wrote in the journal Cuban Studies published by the University of Pittsburgh Press the article titled, "The Falsification of José Martí in Cuba" and provided an abstract of his argument:

"Marxist-Leninist governments have traditionally falsified history to justify their rise to power and the political systems they have imposed. In response to the worldwide collapse of Communism, Cuban authorities have intensified their adulteration of history so as to offer a nationalistic rationale for their continuation in power. The highest exponent of the revolutionary tradition in Cuba is José Marti and, therefore, the falsification of his thought and doctrines is the first priority of many historians and critics. They concentrate, in particular, on the Cuban Revolutionary party founded by Marti, which they misrepresent as a forerunner of the Cuban Communist party, the basic institution that holds the monopoly of power and consequently is responsible for all the misfortunes and injustices that afflict the country. This study shows some of the forms this falsification takes in Cuba, its objectives, and attempts to disprove the inconsistent and false arguments of those who purport to find similarities or coincidences between the free, democratic republic that Marti wished for his country and the totalitarian state there in existence." 

In a letter in 1988 to The New York Review of Books, Professor Ripoll revealed how José Martí in a letter to his friend, Valdes Dominguez, written just a year before Martí’s death, criticized the “arrogance and hidden rage” of “socialist ideology” whose adherents, “in order to climb up in the world, pretend to be frantic defenders of the helpless.”

Seven months after the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Cuban independence leader, in 1953, a failed armed attack on the Moncada barracks by Fidel Castro and a group of revolutionaries, led the future Cuban dictator,  during his trial to declare José Martí the "intellectual author" of the attack.

In 1972, the Castro regime created the "Order of Jose Marti" and over the next  48 years awarded it to dictators and war criminals such as: Alexander Lukashenko, Jiang Zemin, Xi Jinping, Kim Il-sung, Nicolae Ceaușescu, Hugo Chávez, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Robert Mugabe, Erich Honecker, Vladimir Putin, and Saddam Hussein.

The International UNESCO/José Martí Prize was instituted in November 1994 under the claim that it sought "to promote and reward an activity of outstanding merit in accordance with the ideals and spirit of José Martí." This was done with the active support of the Castro regime, and turned upside down the values of Martí.

Roberto Fernández Retamar, signed death warrant for 3 young black men in 2003.

Consider that the 2019 winner of the José Martí Prize was Roberto Fernández Retamar, Cuban poet, essayist, literary critic and President of the Castro regime's Casa de las Américas.  Mr. Fernández Retamar was also a member of the Council of State, and in 2003 he signed the death sentence that led to the execution by firing squad of three men, who had hijacked a ferry to flee Cuba.

Lorenzo Enrique Copello, Bárbaro Leodán Sevilla and Jorge Luis Martínez

The three men, Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Bárbaro Leodán Sevilla García and Jorge Luis Martínez Isaac, were part of a group that hijacked a Cuban ferry with passengers on board on April 2, 2003 and tried to force it to the United States. The incident ended without bloodshed, after a standoff with Cuban security forces. They were executed nine days later, following a summary trial, by firing squad.

They did not have a political agenda. Their only goal was fleeing Cuba to the United States.  Questions were raised at the time that if they had been white and not black they would not have been executed.

Retamar also served the agenda of the regime to distort the views of the Cuban independence leader who advocated freedom of speech and conscience, trying to turn him into a censor to fit Castroism's repressive communist ideology. An ideology that is incompatible with Martí.

Standing, left to right: Manuel de la Cruz, Jose Maceo, Guillermo Moncada.

Seated: Juan Gualberto Gomez, Jose Marti, Jose D. Poyo. Key West, Florida.

José Martí not only proclaimed racial equality but practiced it, and would have been horrified to see three young black men executed, who had not physically harmed anyone, through a summary trial and rushed execution.

Ironically, Fidel Castro, although claiming José Martí as an intellectual author of his communist revolution, is not a descendant of those who fought for Cuban independence. Castro's father, Ángel María Bautista Castro Argiz, fought for the Spanish crown and against José Martí in Cuba to preserve the empire. This reality is reflected in how he acted in Cuba once achieving power, along with his strange friendship with Francisco Franco. Both Franco, and Castro's father had fought in Cuba for Spain, and Angel, according to a 2016 Spanish documentary, had a photo of Francisco Franco on his nightstand.

Ángel Castro Argiz

Raymond Carr, one of Britain's greatest historians, found that Castroism had more in common with Francisco Franco and Primo de Rivera than with José Martí, in a 1988 letter to The New York Review of Books exposed the source of Castro's approach to the "public square."

"Having witnessed Castro’s performance at the Second Declaration of Havana I compared Castro’s use of mass meetings as a source of democratic legitimacy with the manipulation of “the constant plebiscite of public opinion” by the Spanish dictator Primo de Rivera. In the 1970s I argued that Castro, like Franco, believed in “the democracy of the public square—the endorsement of mass audiences felt directly by the dictator.” In both these cases the “democracy of the public square” was a bogus democracy since it was a rejection of any form of representative government, of the freedoms of which Martí was a passionate advocate."

 On Franco's death in 1975, Fidel Castro decreed three days of mourning in Cuba, although he made sure that it went unnoticed by the press, it was an official decree signed by Cuban president Oswaldo Dorticós. This ideological flexibility with non-communist dictatorships and their agents should not have been a surprise, Castro in the 1960s had contracted former high ranking Nazis to train his repressive forces.

Fidel Castro and Francisco Franco were close allies.

Many claims can be made about the Castro regime, but one that does not past muster is that it, in any way, embodies the values and spirit of José Julián Martí Pérez. The man who died at Dos Rios on May 19, 1895 was guided by a profound love of freedom that included the right to think, speak and associate freely.

Things that have been denied Cubans for 68 years.

These ideas expressed below by José Martí are in conflict with Castroism and cannot be reconciled. However they are in accord with the democratic Cuba that helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and struggled for a more just and democratic order, but was overthrown by Fulgencio Batista on March 10, 1952 then destroyed systematically by Fidel and Raul Castro beginning on January 1, 1959. 

"Man loves liberty, even if he does not know that he loves it. He is driven by it and flees from where it does not exist."

"Freedoms, like privileges, prevail or are imperiled together You cannot harm or strive to achieve one without harming or furthering all."

"Liberty is the right of every man to be honest, to think and to speak without hypocrisy."

"It is the duty of man to raise up man. One is guilty of all abjection that one does not help to relieve. Only those who spread treachery, fire, and death out of hatred for the prosperity of others are undeserving of pity."  

These views exist today in Cuba, but not in the regime oppressing Cubans, but among the dissidents and the resistance defying the communist regime and embracing freedom of speech, thought and association, while rejecting hatred.

Oswaldo Paya on December 17, 2002, addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, declared:

"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together.’" 

Less than ten years later, Oswaldo was extrajudicially executed by the Castro regime. Nevertheless this sentiment embodies the living legacy of José Martí that endures in Cuba today in the actions of the non-violent Cuban civic movement.

Venezuelans gather in Washington, DC today in an activity for the Liberty of Venezuela

Independent Venezuelan-American Citizens invite the Venezuelan community to join this activity for the Liberty of Venezuela on March 7, 2019. They will be meeting at 9:00 am at 423 Dirksen Senate Office Building, SD-419 in Washington DC. They are calling for stronger sanctions against the Maduro regime. Venezuela is in the midst of a profound crisis and needs the help of the free world.

Activity for Liberty of Venezuela, 
March 7th, Meeting time: 9:00 am 
Meeting point: 423 Dirksen Senate Office Building, SD-419. Washington DC. 
-Stronger sanctions against the Maduro regime will be requested.

Shouldn't Maduro be photographed with a Colombian passport?

#FreeYon: 2008 Milton Friedman Prize Laureate kidnapped in Venezuela

#FreeYon

Venezuelan classical liberal Yon Goicoechea disappeared in Venezuela

 Yesterday morning Yon Goicoechea, a young political leader and family man, was forcibly taken by men in unmarked vehicles.  Later that same aftenoon, Diosdado Cabello at a pro-regime rally called Yon an assassin and accused him of transporting explosives. Cabello has no official role in law enforcement and is also suspected by U.S. prosecutors of being in charge of the infamous drug-trafficking organization, "Cartel de los Soles." The rule of law has not existed in Venezuela for many years and the Leopoldo Lopez show trial in 2015 was but one of many examples of its absence. Where does one find an honest man in Venezuela today who defends the rule of law and liberty? Either protesting on the streets, in prison, dead or exiled.  Yon, who is a classical liberal in the tradition of Milton Friedman, is a nonviolent advocate for liberty, free markets and the rule of law. These are ideas despised by the Chavista regime in Caracas.

Yon is the 2008 laureate of The Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty

Today marks six years since the death of Franklin Brito, a man who died on hunger strike on August 30, 2010 defending the rule of law and property rights in Venezuela.  Today the judge who followed the instructions of the regime that contributed to Brito's death is seeking political asylum in Miami. Franklin Brito's daughter took to social media to denounce the outrage. Unfortunately, once again Cubans will recognize this practice having seen it themselves with Cuban human rights violators granted "asylum" by the Obama administration.  The problem is not the Cuban Adjustment Act but the State Department, the U.S. Embassy in Cuba and the Obama administration that reward these criminals with visas and residency in the United States. Hopefully, the outcry  Ángela Brito will cause them to back off in this instance.

Following the downward spiral of Venezuelan democracy over the past 15 years and the efforts by young Venezuelans to stand up to the criminal and totalitarian onslaught first by Chavez and now by Maduro (with their Cuban handlers) is often a case of deja vu in the methods of defamation, repression, and terror used against them. Experience in the Cuba case is that remaining silent is deadly for the victims of repression. One must speak out in solidarity with them quickly to save them.

This is why there must also be an outcry now for Yon Goicoechea before it is too late. The alert republished below was passed on to me by social media and apparently originated by Ana Collado.


International Alert:
Political Activist Yon Goicoechea Forcibly Disappeared by Venezuelan Political Police

Yon Goicoechea, kidnapped and missing since yesterday

 Caracas, August 30, 2016. 2:00.p.m.

Yon Goicoechea, political leader and member of the Volutad Popular political party, was taken into custody by presumed agents of SEBIN, the Venezuelan political police, with no arrest warrant, no explanation and no information as to his whereabouts.

Around 9:30 am on Monday, August 29, Goicoechea was in his car, along with driver Peter Salas, on his way to pick up furniture in Caracas. He was intercepted on the highway by two unmarked vehicles. Both Goicoechea and Salas were forcibly removed from their car and taken away to an unknown location. The car was seized.

Diosdado Cabello, a highly influential figure in the government, alleged on Monday afternoon that Goicochea was transporting “detonators for explosive devices,” and referred to Goicoechea as an assassin. The allegation was made in the context of a pro-government political rally. No documentation has been made available to support these claims, and Cabello plays no formal role in law enforcement.

It has been more than 30 hours since Goicoechea and Salas were last seen. They have not been given access to council, their families have not had any contact with them. No official information has been produced as to their whereabouts, the charges levied against them, or the evidence to support them. Under the Venezuelan constitution, Goicoechea has the right to contact with his family and lawyers immediately upon detention.

Goicoechea, a 31 year old lawyer and political activist, especially focused on non-violent activism, won the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty in 2008. He was a key leader during the 2007 student movement. He founded Futuro Presente, an NGO dedicated to the advancement of leadership and democratic values among Venezuelan youths.

Yon had recently moved back with his wife and children to Venezuela, after having spent four years abroad studying and working, in order to continue his political activism in favor of democracy. He is the fourth member of Voluntad Popular to be either detained or issued an arrest warrant in the past week.

Goicoechea is the father of two young children, Salas is the father of a baby girl.

Yon Goicoechea and Peter Salas are two more victims of an unscrupulous and repressive regime. Any evidence of wrongdoing is fabricated. The Venezuelan authorities must ensure their physical safety. We urge you to denounce these obscene and systematic violations of human rights in Venezuela so that repression and persecution of dissidence come to an end once and for all.

Stand with Aung San Suu Kyi and the People of Burma

Wishing Aung San Suu Kyi a Happy 65th Birthday and hoping that her next one will be in a free Burma. Not like the past 15 years serving an unjust prison sentence. Also extending this wish to the freeing of more than 2,100 Burmese political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. If you want wishes to come true, then you need to back them up with action (no matter how small). Take action here for her to demand her immediate and unconditional freedom and for ten other prisoners of conscience highlighted by Amnesty International.



Even small but concrete steps sustained over time have been shown to work. Please stand in solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi and the nonviolent struggle for a free Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi is a disciple of Mohandas Gandhi , an advocate and practitioner of nonviolent civic resistance, and has been described as the voice of her people. Unlike Gandhi she has been recognized by the international community both with the Sakharov Prize in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Her biography is available online, but an excerpt of her views below should be useful there is much she can teach the world and especially pro-democracy activists. In the video she offers a concrete case for the nonviolent approach and why it is the best.

On nonviolence

Ours is a nonviolent movement that depends on faith in the human predilection for fair play and compassion. Some would insist that man is primarily an economic animal interested only in his material well-being. This is too narrow a view of a species which has produced numberless brave men and women who are prepared to undergo relentless persecution to uphold deeply held beliefs and principles. It is my pride and inspiration that such men and women exist in my country today.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Please Use Your Liberty to Promote Ours (1997)

On a just peace

Where there is no justice there can be no secure peace. ...That just laws which uphold human rights are the necessary foundations of peace and security would be denied only by closed minds which interpret peace as the silence of all opposition and security as the assurance of their own power.

Aung San Suu Kyi, In Quest of Democracy

Relationship between fear, power and corruption

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear (Acceptance message for the 1990 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, July 1991)

It would be difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered by fear. With so close a relationship between fear and corruption it is little wonder that in any society where fear is rife corruption in all forms becomes deeply entrenched.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear (Acceptance message for the 1990 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, July 1991)

Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear (Acceptance message for the 1990 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, July 1991)

A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear (Acceptance message for the 1990 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, July 1991)

It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear (Acceptance message for the 1990 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, July 1991)

On Investments and Sanctions

Investment that only goes to enrich an already wealthy elite bent on monopolizing both economic and political power cannot contribute toward égalité and justice — the foundation stones for a sound democracy. I would therefore like to call upon those who have an interest in expanding their capacity for promoting intellectual freedom and humanitarian ideals to take a principled stand against companies that are doing business with the Burmese military regime. Please use your liberty to promote ours.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Please Use Your Liberty to Promote Ours (1997)