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COMMITTEE EXHIBIT No. 5-Continued

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cenderos would pay 4 pesos a day anyway.

These sacadas live in typical
quarters. Six familier, ranging
in size from 5 to 12 people,
sleep in a wooden barracks
about 15 feet by 40.

There is nothing but the bare
walls and floor. There are no
partitions for privacy. There is
no toilet-the people simply go
into the fields. One water tap
Several hundred feet away is
used by all the workers. There
is no school for the children.

Children Earn 30c Each
On a nearby hacienda, a man,
his pregnant wife and three
children aged 10, 12 and 15
worked cutting cane in a small
field. It was a special contract,
with the man and woman get
ung 60 cents a lay and the chil
drea 30 cents.

"It is not work for women
and children, that is true," said
the man, "but we must eat and
I cannot earn enough by my
Self."

The children had never been
to school, seen a movie or
tasted ice cream. Even the 10-
year-old never has time to
play. When the children are
not cutting cane they take care
of the hacerriero's carabao for
25 cents a day.

"There is no way things will
get better," the man said. "If
the Communists come here,
will go back with them to the
hills. if they gave me a gun 1
would kill the incenderos.

The Communists are already
in the hills of Negros, which is
in the Sulu Sea northwest of
Mindanao and some 300 miles
south of Manila. Last August
insurgents of the "New People's
Anny" of the outlawed Philip-
pine Communist party began
operations in Negros by killing
several policemen and officials.

in contrast to the poverty of
the workers, many of the big
planters live in a luxurious
style that is talked of and en-
vied throughout the Philippines.

Negros land, for example,
reportedly has a higher number
cf imported automobiles per
capita than any other province
and even the Leen-age children
of the hacenderos drive around
in what a local government of-
ficcial called "big, flashy Amer.
ican cars."

Photos: Philippine Association

The planters have also been
publicly criticized for the cus-
tom many of them follow of
taking their families on tours
of Europe and America and of
spending their dollar export
earnings outside the country.

Some Filipinos who are con
cerned about the plight of the
Negros sugar workers hope that
the rising tide of student ac-
tivism will force the Govern
ment and the planters to make
reforms before there is violence.

Investigation by Manila

The students have already
prodded the Government of
President Ferdinand E. Marcos
Into sending out a team to in-
vestigate conditions on the ha-
ciendas. Students are represent-
ed on the teams to make sure
they do not whitewash abuses
and to keep the Government's
promise that offenders against
labor laws will be punished.

The students are also going
into the fields and barrios to
help union leaders to organize
the workers into units capable
of forcing the planters into col-
lective bargaining.

The hacenderos are still dis-
charging workers who join un-
ions as well as threatening the
lives of organizers and workers.
But lack of money is even more
of a problem for the unions
than threats.

"Give us a few thousand dol
lars to sustain a strike of 100
haciendas and we will break
the planters backs," said Tino
Bascog, an organizer for the
Federation of Free Farmers.
"But without money we can do
nothing. We must be able to
feed our people. Otherwise they
would starve after a few days
on strike."

There are signs that the ha-
cenderos are starting to feel the
heat. The Federation of Sugar
Planters is inviting students to
its annual convention next
month, the theme of which is
"social justice."

A planter encountered in the
city of Bacolod, Augustin Ki-
layta, said that he supported
the student demands for reform
because "a few of my fellow
planters are real rascals." He
said he considered himself one
of the radicals among the plant-
ers because he pays the mini.
mum wage.

"We should have a dialogue. with the students-anything, as long as there is no violence," he added.

Mr. Kilayta, whose radical-
ism does not go so far as to
support child-labor laws, said:
"If the children don't work they
would just get into trouble and
we would have a problem with
juvenile delinquency."

"My biggest problem right
now is the fact that there is
only one mass a year held for
the workers on my plantation
he said. "I am trying to sce
that they can have mass once
a week.'

There are many students,
labor men, priests who doubt
that there can be any genuine
reform by the Government and
the planters. The sugar bloc
is too strong, they say. Its
members include the first fami
lies of the Philippines, the old
oligarchs who, the critics as
sert, have the wealth to buy
whatever they want from tha
Government and invariably do
so. They also are said to be
able to deliver the votes of the
workers to any candidate they
support.

Moreover, sugar is the Phil
ippines' most important expor
crop. The United States buys
the entire crop, giving the coun
try a special high quota and
paying a premium price. The
Government would be loath to
compromise the export earn-
ings.

The United States agreed to
take 1.4 million tons of Philip
pine sugar last year, the largest
quota given by Washington to
any nation. The United Statesi
also pays 4 to 5 cents a pound
more than the nominal world.
market price for Philippina
sugar.

The planters were unable to
fill the American quota last
year, but the powerful sugar
lobby has blocked attempts to
open new cane fields on other
islands.

But new forces seem to be
at work both on Negros and
in Manila.

"The times are changing," a labor organizer said. "If the planters don't recognize it they may be awakened by bullets bar Fore too long."

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RESEARCH YOUR COMMUNITY

100 years of struggle
What can you do?

--

and

ITS TIES WITH CUBA, AND ITS SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT CUBA

1. What sources of information about Cuba are readily available? What media coverage is there of Cuban affairs; U.S. policies toward Cuba? What role do people who have recently been to Cuba play as sources of community information on Cuba? What is the role of Cuban exiles as sources of information? Are there distortions in the information presented about Cuba? How can you challenge the coverage if it is biased? Where are decisions made regarding what news is broadcast? How can you touch these power centers?

2.

3.

4.

What corporations, families, legal or accounting concerns in your area had interests In Cuba before the Revolution?

What position does your Congressman hold on the following issues: extending diplomatic recognition to Cuba; lifting the blockade; assistance to Cuban refugees in the U.S.; the status and importance of the U.S. military installation at Guantanamo?

How does your school curriculum deal with the Cuban Revolution; with the role of the U.S. in Cuban history? What books on Cuba (historical and contemporary) are in your public libraries; written by whom? How can you introduce additional literature?

The following materials may help you in researching your community:

"How to Research Your Own Hometown, "Radical Education Project,
Box 561-A, Detroit, Michigan 48232. 15¢

"The Care and Feeding of the Power Structure,"

Jack Minus, SCEF,

3210 West Broadway, Louisville, Kentucky. 15¢

"Where's It's At, A Guide to Community Organizing," New England
Free Press, 245 Roxbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02119. $1.00
"NACLA Research Methodology Guide," North American Congress on

Latin America, P.O. Box 57, Cathedral Station, New York, N.Y. 10025.
25¢

"The University-Military Complex: A Directory and Related Documents,"
NACIA, see above. $1.25

BRING ATTENTION TO CUBA IN YOUR COMMUNITY / CHURCH / PLACE OF WORK OR STUDY

1.

Encourage study about Cuba. Make contact with persons who have been to Cuba (see CEOPLE list), and invite them to speak in your community. Often they can bring with Chem slides and other resource materials. Arrange for showings of films and other media (see MEDIA 11st). Read more about Cuba, past, present and future (see PAINTINGS list).

...

2.

COMMITTEE EXHIBIT NO. 5-Continued

Become acquainted with and distribute in your community current materials on Cuba. Several organization have available useful resource materials on U.S./Cuba (and U.S./Latin America) relations:

NACLA

North American Congress on Latin America, P.O. Box 57, New York, N.Y. 10025.
Publishes a monthly newsletter of political and economic conditions in
Latin America. Subscriptions $5.00 per year.

NINOLA - National Information Network on Latin America, Box 548, Cathedral Station, New York, N.Y. 10025. Makes available information on happenings within the U.S. in relation to U.S./Latin America relations. Subscriptions $3.00 per year.

3. Take advantage of special days to organize a program or teach-in on Cuba:

4.

July 26th

January 1st
April 17th

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date of the abortive attack led by Fidel in 1953 on the Moncada
Fortress in Santiago de Cuba.

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date of the coming into power in 1959 of the revolutionary forces.
date of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion by metcenaries supported by
the CIA.

Organize actions of solidarity with the Cuban people. The economic embargo is one of the major pressures exercised by the U.S. government on the Cuban people. This embargo prohibits importation by the Cuban government of any U.S. manufacture, or any material containing a U.S. patent. Efforts to break the embargo include:

CUBAN HEALTH EXCHANGE

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seeks to promote an understanding of the Cuban health care system and to break the blockade on medical information and supplies imposed by the U.S. government. Activities include: collecting books and journal subscriptions to be sent to Cuba; providing speakers on medical care in Cuba; reprinting and circulating articles about Cuban health care; encouraging interested medical groups or scientific meetings to invite Cuban colleagues to speak through lectureships, fellowships. Contact: Cuban Health Exchange, c/o Committee of Returned Volunteers, P.O. Box 380, Cooper Station, New York, N.Y. 10003.

NEW UNIVERSITY CONFERENCE

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sponsoring a campaign to send U.S. scientific books to Cuba. For further information and a list of books needed in various fields, write to: Ruth Misheloff, 32 West 71st Street, New York, N.Y. 10023.

VISIT CUBA

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It is possible to arrange to visit Cuba. Such a trip can give you a chance to see first-hand the achievements and difficulties of the Revolution. Although the State Department asks that you clear travel plans with them, according to a Supreme Court ruling, this is not legally necessary. (Travel without State Department "permission" may, however, subsequently subject you to FBI harassment.) You might go on a "Brigade to help with the harvest (for further information, write Venceremos Brigade, P.O. Box 245, Cathedral Station, New York, N.Y. 10025.); or perhaps you could arrange a group visit with others from your community. For information about obtaining a Cuban visa, write to the Consulate of Czechoslovakia, Washington, D.C.

COMMITTEE EXHIBIT No. 5-Continued

Printings

The best way to understand contemporary Cuba is to read the accounts of those central in bringing the revolutionary forces to power. Therefore, suggested first priority is reading materials from Cuban sources, particularly Castro and Guevara. Other materials are supp ementary to these accounts.

Castro, Fidel.
Fidel Cast

Speaks, edited by Martin Kenner and James Petras (New York:
A selection of 16 of Fidel's major speeches during the
1958.

Grove Press, 1969).
period from 1959 to

Castro's Cuba, i

23

Fidel, Lee Lockwood (New York: Macmillan, 1967). The bulk of this text is a long interview with Fidel; a good vicarious trip for someone who has not been to revolutionary Cuba. Also includes substantial section of photographs.

Guevara, Ernesto "Che".

Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War (New York:: Grove Press, 1968). Composed of articles taken from Che's field rotes kept in the Sierra Maestra Curing 1957 and 1958. Critical for understanding the period and Che.

Diary of Che Guevara (New York: Bantar, 1968). Covers the period from November 1966 til his death in October 1967 when he was fighting with the guerrillas Dolivia.

Che: Selected Works of 3rnesto Guevara, edited by R. E. Bonachea and N. P. Valdes (Boston: M. I.T. Press, 1969). Rather expensive hardback, but the most recent and comprehensive version of his writings.

Venceremos: The Speeches and Writings of Ernesto Che Guevara, edited by John Gerassi (New York: Macmillan, 1968). Co prehensive 450 page paperback selection. Only Guerrilla Warfare (1961) and Bolivian Diary (1968) are omitted.

CUBAN FICTION

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An an

The

Cohen, J. M. ed Writers in the New Cuba (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1967). thology of revolutionary stories, poems, and a play. Desnoes, Edmundo, Incoasoluble Memories (New York: New American Library, 1957). ozigian Spanish title, Memorias des Subdesarrollo or Memories of Underdevelopment, is much more descripte of the book's theme. A sensitive brief characterization of the difficult: encountered by a middle class intellectual sympathetic to the Revolution but finding it hard to live out day by day.

OTHER CUBAN PUBLICATIONS

Chain, Cuba's daily newspaper (available in weekly English edition) can be obtained rep the New Yorker Book Shop, Inc., 250 W. 89th St., New York City 10024, and 1 T gier, House of Paperonek Books, 2915 Broadway, New York City 10025. Additional materials, particularly for use by university and other libraries, may

COMMITTEE EXHIBIT NO. 5- Continued

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be requested --- with permission of the Cuban government from Senor Nestor García, Departamento de Relaciones Internacionales, Universidad de Habana, Vedado, Habana, Cuba. These materials include Pensamiento Critico (periodical of philoophical and critical essays), Cuba Internacional (Cuba s monthly pictorial magazine), and Tricontinental (political publications on Third World revolutionary movements).

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL BOOKS

Alvarez Dias, Jose R., and others, Estudio Sobre Cuba (Miami: University of Miami Press, 1963). This was subsequently published in an English version entitled A Study on Cuba. A 1700 page work by a group of Cubans in exile, it is brim. full of data, starting with the 19th century. Very caustic interpretation of the Castro period presented.

Alvarez Dias, Jose R., and others, Labor Conditions in Communist Cuba (Miami: University of Miami Press, 1963). Cubans in exile doing a study of their homeland. Very polemical conclusions, but useful references and some useful analysis.

Boorstein, Edward, The Economic Transformation of Cuba (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1963). The best single volume on the economics of the revolution from 1959 until 1963. Offers important insights on how the priorities within the economy changed.

Lara-Braud, Jorge (ed.), Our Claim on the Future (New York: Friendship Press, 1970). Six writers speak about the Latin American situation its social and economic revolutions and the role of the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches.

--

Nelson, Loury, Rural Cuba (inneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1950). A standard work on pre-revolutionary Cuba.

Lucas, Jires, and Zeitlin, Maurice, eds., Latin America: Reform or Revolution? (New York: Fawcett Premier Books, 1968). A reader on why the Latin American poor get poorer, and the rich get richer, and what some authors sea to be the alternatives to this situation.

Roberts, Paul, Statistical Abstract Supplement:

Cuba 1968 (U.C.L.A. Latin American

Center, Los Angeles, 1969). A compilation of official Cuban statistics, covering the pre-revolutionary years, the years of transition, and the socialist years.

Saith, Earl E. T., The Fourth Floor: An Account of the Castro Communist Revolution (New York: Random House, 1962). Former U.S. Ambassador to the Batista governcort blames all but himself for "losing" Cuba. Useful window into the thinking of an important part of U.S. elite opinion.

vicheriand, Elizabeth, The Youngest Revolution (New York: Dial Press, 1969). In*ightful comments on race relations, Cuban women, and youth. A refreshing concost to scademic social and economic analyses.

Sulice, Revolutionery Politics and the Cuban Working Class (Princeton:
? Earveralty Press, 1917). A study of attitudes among the working
in the early years of the revolution. Seeks to determine who
the revolution and how strongly.

4

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