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RESPONSE TO THE CUBAN PEOPLE
By Cuban Democratic Directorate

Miami, July 25, 2006, Cuban Democratic Directorate. In a press conference earlier today, exile organizations MAR for Cuba, Plantados until Liberty and Democracy in Cuba, and the Cuban Democratic Directorate announced the launch of the “I do not cooperate with the dictatorship” campaign.

“This campaign is a response to the Cuban people in their struggle for democracy, and we want to echo their sentiments through the promotion of non-cooperation with the regime. This campaign is a call to all Cubans, inside and outside of Cuba, to join the campaign in accordance with their circumstances and possibilities”, expressed Sylvia Iriondo, President of MAR for Cuba.

The campaign contains various slogans that express the desire of the Cuban people to cease cooperating with the repression and the mass organizations of the regime. “When citizens become conscious of their power and cease their support of the structures that repress their rights, the totalitarian regime loses strength. The pillars which uphold it deteriorate slowly until they collapse”, explained Javier De Céspedes, president of the Cuban Democratic Directorate.

“When we were in prison and joined together and said no, we would achieve our objectives. This is a serious and fundamental campaign for the Cuban people to face the repression in a systematic and conscious way. This campaign is already in motion in Cuba. It already exists on the island, we are simply echoing the sentiments of the Cuban people”, declared Angel de Fana, director of Plantados until Liberty and Democracy in Cuba.

Below is the full text of today’s declaration:

In spite of the repression in Cuba, the Cuban people have continued their struggle for freedom, entering a new stage of civic resistance that consists of non-cooperation with the dictatorship. This call of the Cuban people for non-cooperation is seen from inside the island in the numerous calls of Cuban political prisoners from different prisons to non-cooperation with the dictatorship; in the neighbors who refuse to participate in the acts of repudiation against the opposition; in the non-cooperation of Cuban workers with the production goals imposed by the dictatorship, as the government media admits; and in the growing appearance of signs calling for non-cooperation with the dictatorship.

In response to this call from the Cuban people, our organizations have taken this first step in supporting non-cooperation with the dictatorship.

What does the first stage of this non-cooperation campaign consist of?

Inside of Cuba:

Makes a call for all Cubans to seek, in accordance with their reality and their conditions, a way to cease cooperation with the dictatorship. The cooperation with a totalitarian dictatorship, even unconscious cooperation, strengthens the repressive pillars of control on the citizenship. As the citizens cease cooperating, those pillars will collapse.

In the context of the reality and the possibilities of each Cuban, the campaign calls to establish patterns of non-cooperation with the dictatorship through concrete actions and behaviors aimed at achieving democratic change for Cuba.

With the sentiments of the Cuban people in mind, we have elaborated a series of slogans incorporated into signs which are:

I do not follow (I do not belong to the Communist Party, Committees for Defense of the Revolution (CDRs) and the Union of Young Communists (UJC))

I do not repress (I am not a part of the repressive government apparatus)

I do not attend (the mass acts summoned by the regime)

I do not snitch (I do not betray my countrymen)

I do not cooperate (with the economic production activities of the regime)

I do not repudiate (I do not participate in the acts of repudiation)

In reestablishing this pattern of conduct, the Cuban people show that they want change. This is why the last slogan is: Yes, I do want change.

Outside of Cuba:

First: we want to extend this campaign with the participation of the Cuban people in exile and their organizations incorporating themselves within their means. We want to ask all Cubans in exile to adopt and promote this non-cooperation slogan.

Second: Today, based on the Report of the Commission of Assistance for a Free Cuba, we are sending a letter to the pertinent United States government authorities with a partial list of people who have been denounced by victims of repression, such as organizers and participants in acts of repudiation and repressive actions of the dictatorship. We ask that this partial list be investigated. We emphasize that the people in Cuba who participate in the repression will not remain anonymous. Their harmful actions against innocent people will not go unpunished.

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