(The following exchange of letters appears in
two recent issues of the Green Left Weekly.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/index.htm As I've
mentioned recently, after the Havana Book Fair
which I attended a few weeks ago, there's now
a raft of new Cuban books which clearly show
that previously anti-gay policies have long
since been completely ended. It's obvious.

(Though the anti-gay activities which took
place in the late 1960s and early 1970s have
been thrown in the face of supporters of the
Cuban Revolution for decades, such policies
were dropped ages ago. Homophobia continues
to exist among the Cuban population, as it
does all over the world. It's good that the
Green Left Weekly continues to cover this as
it is a topic of ongoing, general interest.)
===========================================

Che anti-queer

I was glad to see the Socialist Alliance attend this year's
Queer Pride March. It is important that the left continue
to have a presence at the event. However, I was not
impressed with your choice of banner. Taking a banner
featuring Che Guevara to a queer march is like turning up
to a Hungarian national day with a poster of Joe Stalin.

The history of the Cuban revolution and queers is abysmal.
Post-revolution queers have suffered from state sponsored
oppression. Some claim that in recent years attitudes have
changed in Cuba. But at best it seems that queers "are no
worse off" than in other countries. This isn't much of a
boast from a country that claims to be socialist and the
liberators of humanity.

What is beyond question is that Che Guevara stands squarely
in a deeply homophobic tradition. So rub the stardust from
your eyes, burn that Che banner; this guy can't be
rehabilitated.

Darryl Croke

Thornbury Vic

BELOW FROM GREEN LEFT WEEKLY #575

Che and gays I

Darryl Croke (Write On, GLW #570) criticises the presence
of a Che Guevara banner at Melbourne's Pride march. He
claims that Che was homophobic. Croke does not cite any
specific actions by Che that harmed gays, but says: "The
history of the Cuban revolution and queers is abysmal.
Post-revolution queers have suffered from state-sponsored
oppression".

It is true that there was discrimination against gays in
the early years of the Cuban Revolution. Many Cuban
revolutionaries shared the homophobic prejudices of the
broader society. These prejudices did not disappear
overnight when the revolution was victorious.

There was a period between 1965 and 1967 during which many
gay men were sent to so-called Military Units to Aid
Production (UMAP), which were in effect labour camps. These
began as a civilian alternative to military service for
those deemed unsuitable to be soldiers (including gays),
but some gays not of military age were also sent to UMAP.

According to Jose Yglesias, who spent several months in
Cuba in 1967, the initiative for the creation of UMAP seems
to have come from within the Cuban army. Fidel Castro
initially acquiesced, but became increasingly opposed to
UMAP and eventually insisted on its abolition. (Yglesias,
In the Fist of the Revolution, Penguin 1968, pp. 13-14,
268-9, 273-4, 286.)

I am not aware of Che's attitude to UMAP. He was out of
Cuba for much of the 1965-67 period, leading guerrilla
struggles in Congo and Bolivia.

In subsequent decades, the position of gays in Cuba has
improved markedly. The Cuban government has recognised and
corrected its past errors. Today the government consciously
combats anti-gay prejudice through education, the media
etc.

To get a feel for both the legacy of prejudice and the
struggle to overcome it, it is worth seeing the Cuban film
Strawberry and Chocolate if you get a chance. The two main
characters are a gay man and a Communist Party member who
is vehemently anti-gay. The film ends with the CP member
overcoming his prejudice and embracing the gay man. In real
life, the struggle against prejudice is far from over. But
the fact that the film was made and shown in Cuba shows the
progress that has been made.

Incidentally, the Che banner at the Melbourne Pride march
was a Resistance banner. (Croke gives the impression it was
a Socialist Alliance banner).

Chris Slee

Melbourne

=

Che and gays II

In his condemnation of Che Guevara and the Cuban
revolution, Darryl Croke (Write On, GLW #570) makes a
number of superficial generalisations, which are not only
ahistorical but also disingenuous.

Croke is wrong in asserting that while queers "are no worse
off" in Cuba "than in other countries", this "isn't much of
a boast from a country that claims to be socialist and
liberators of humanity".

While state-sanctioned homophobia has existed in the past
in Cuba, the social advances made as part of the revolution
have ensured that the lives of gays, lesbians and queers
are in fact far better than those of their counterparts in
many places around the world, particularly compared to
other Latin American and Third world countries. This is
because ordinary, working, people are better off in Cuba
than in these other countries.

Queers, like everyone else in Cuba, have access to free
healthcare and education, subsidised housing and food as a
result of the revolution. Without the revolution, the lives
of homosexuals would have continued to be determined by all
the socioeconomic and political limitations which constrain
the majority of the population in capitalist countries.

In other parts of Latin America and the capitalist world,
queers are still hounded by the press, subject to
criminalisation, city-wide arrests, witch hunts and
assassinations.

In Cuba, as writer Erika Bjorklund points out, while
homophobia may exist on the part of individuals, it is no
longer state-sanctioned and as a result "it is not the kind
that makes homosexuals risk being assaulted, battered and
murdered because of their orientation".

Kim Bullimore

Lakemba NSW [Abridged]