Culture and Life

by Rob Gowland

Freedom of Disinformation

No one knows the value of propaganda and subversion better than 
imperialism. For decades US imperialism has been hiring the best and 
brightest from the country's colleges, stuffing their heads with propaganda 
about America's manifest destiny to overthrow tyranny and protect 
democracy, and then turning them loose to subvert governments the US 
regarded as hostile.

These otherwise bright boys and girls, inspired by noble ideals, are told 
how important it is to promote freedom of information and how wicked it is 
to interfere with that.

Of course, in imperialism's lexicon, "freedom of information" means freedom 
to disseminate disinformation. But they are not told that.

So they add cunning techniques for promoting "freedom of information" to 
their other clever ideas for dealing with the "enemies of democracy": 
weakening a country's economy, destabilising its government, causing a run 
on its currency, setting up "independent" trade unions, fomenting dissent 
among intellectuals, etc.

Ironically, real tyrants usually get along well with imperialism. But if 
one of them, like Saddam Hussein for example, chooses to follow an 
independent line that does not accord with imperialism's wishes, then the 
full panoply of "anti-tyrant" techniques can be brought into play against 
the errant leader.

For the most part, however, the "anti-tyrant, pro-democracy" armoury is 
reserved for use against democratically elected regimes whose only offence 
is to take up an anti-imperialist position. One thinks of Slobodan 
Milosevic in Yugoslavia or Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

Or Fidel Castro in Cuba. It doesn't matter how many elections Fidel Castro 
wins, or by how much, nor how manifestly popular he is with the mass of the 
Cuban people. US imperialism will still label him a dictator and do 
everything possible to bring down his government.

Most Cubans voted in their last elections. Barely more than half the US 
electorate bothered to vote.

Most Cuban voters supported the alliance of Party and non-Party candidates 
led by the Communist Party. Bush had to resort to blatant and ill-concealed 
fraud to "win" his last election.

But it is Cuba that is called "undemocratic" and "a dictatorship". By the 
US leadership, that is.

Labelling Cuba (or Zimbabwe or Yugoslavia) with epithets like these is 
merely one of the techniques refined by the bright boys and girls we 
mentioned earlier. Say it loudly enough and often enough, and in the right 
context, and you will find plenty of people to believe you.

It's not a new technique, of course. Bright US college grads did not invent 
it. Hitler used it years before. He called it the "technique of the big 
lie".

These days, they are more sophisticated, using lies of every description. 
As on the question of democracy in Cuba, imperialist propagandists still 
call black white and white black whenever it suits them. And it suits them 
often.

But they also tell an awful lot of half-truths, creating totally erroneous 
impressions without being able to be accused of actually lying. It's 
dishonest, but hey, it's in a good cause: facing down Communism or 
defending democracy, so what are you beefing about?

One technique was to establish committees in target countries: committees 
to defend free speech, to oppose the "secret police", to form "free trade 
unions". These committees would usually involve a small number of 
disgruntled citizens who were not averse to currying favour with 
imperialist countries in return for publicity, finance and the sense of 
power that comes from having "powerful friends".

Another is to actually interfere in the political processes of the target 
country by supplying money, advice, material and even personnel to 
opposition political forces. This technique can sometimes go hand in hand 
with the one in the preceding paragraph.

In Cuba, imperialism is supporting not only "independent trade unions" but 
"independent libraries", "independent teachers" and even some type of 
"independent religious" organisation. (Watch for Baptists trying to smuggle 
Bibles into the country in future.)

The "independent libraries" are the creation of US-based Cuban imigri 
Robert Kent, who heads up a US outfit called "Friends of Cuban Libraries" 
(FOCL). The FOCL claims to have 21 "independent libraries" in Cuba. This 
compares unfavourably with the socialist Government's system of 400 public 
libraries and 6,000 school libraries.

Before the 1959 socialist revolution, the majority of Cubans were 
illiterate and there were only 32 libraries in the whole country. Today, 97 
percent of Cubans are literate, the highest rate in the Western hemisphere, 
higher than in the USA.

In a report to the American Library Association (ALA), Ann Sparanese, a New 
Jersey librarian, noted that "Cubanet openly brags of its 'independent 
libraries project' in Cuba headed by leaders and officers of dissident 
political parties whose declared aim is to overthrow the Cuban government".

Cubanet is a "non-profit" organisation "seeking to foster free press in 
Cuba". It has a website and claims to report from Cuba through an 
"independent journalist" on the island. It is funded by the US Congress's 
centre for subversion, the farcically-named National Endowment for 
Democracy. In addition it gets funds from the equally subversive US Agency 
for International Development and "anonymous" donors.

In July 2000, two bona fide librarians from the ALA visited over a dozen 
"independent" libraries in several Cuban cities including Havana and 
Santiago. On their return, they issued a 21-page report titled, Payment for 
Services Rendered: US-Funded Dissent and the Independent Libraries Project.

The pair arrived at one "library" when a meeting was being held of a group 
of "independent" librarians, trade unionists and so forth. The ten 
dissidents "described to us the interconnected nature of their work against 
the Cuban government using a variety of front groups they called 
'independent'."

By interviewing the owners of these "independent libraries" the ALA 
librarians discovered that they were in fact "carefully chosen drop-off and 
contact points for personnel from the US Interests Section [the US 
diplomatic presence in Cuba] . who dropped off packages on a monthly basis 
along with money".

The money, the dissidents happily said, was "for services rendered. . They 
give us money so we can do what we do here, be dissidents and build 
opposition to the Cuban government."