PROPOSAL FOR PLAN OF NATIONAL CIVIC DEFIANCE
INDEX
Introduction
A Destiny and a Way
Present Situation
Possible Attitudes/Mechanisms that Affect the Change
Synthesis of the Strategy for the Nonviolent Struggle
Introduction
Power
Sources of Power
Pillars of Support
The Psychological Struggle. The Rupturing of
Bindings and Dependencies
The Autoaction. Organization and Solidarity-The
Parallel Civic Government
Resist Provocations to Act Violently or to Act
before the Right Time
The Danger of a New Dictatorship. Planning for
a Lasting Democracy
Benefits of the Nonviolent Struggle
Basic Elements and Methods of the Nonviolent Action
Phases of the Plan:
Introduction
First: Organization
Second: Disobedience and Defiance
Third: Protest and Autoaction
Fourth: Civic Abstention
Fifth: Direct Civic Action
Sixth: National Encounter
Outline of the Phases of the Plan
Priorities, Plans and Operations (To be sent under separate cover)
Attachments:
1. The Methods of Nonviolent Action
2. Examples of Campaigns
3. Agreement for Democracy in Cuba
PROPOSAL FOR PLAN FOR NATIONAL CIVIC DEFIANCE
INTRODUCTION
To create Cuba’s own future, we are determined to unify the efforts and resources available to us, as a people, in search of our national objectives of freedom, fraternity, popular representation, strong civil society, sovereignty and national reconciliation, among others.
Brothers to the Rescue (BTTR), in order to address the national Cuban interest, proposes the implementation of a strategic plan of struggle, belonging to the Cuban people and purely Cuban, that we have called: the Plan for National Civic Defiance (the Plan), of the Cuban People against the tyranny, having as its only priority the benefit of Cuba.
We propose the revitalization of our own means of struggle, within a strategy able to include and incorporate the efforts of all Cubans inside and outside the Island, publicly, systematically, responsibly and with the deserved protagonism of all its participants. We have to produce the conditions that will stimulate our brothers to stay in Cuba, discarding the suicidal exodus of past years.
This Plan contemplates the participation of all Cubans interested in making viable an internal struggle through nonviolent means of confrontation. This struggle is within the reach of our people and viable given our circumstances. When the following question is raised: Is the disintegration of a dictatorship and the implementation of a democracy using nonviolence really possible? The answer is: It has already happened in other places, it can be repeated in Cuba.
We recognize the advances achieved by our people in Cuba in its defiance of the tyranny, as well as the participation of our exile, up to the present. The Plan is a proposal; its adoption would be based on the recognition of its merits by the Cuban people.
The Plan herein described is a first working draft to be studied and revised within Cuba and later discussed with its originators, until a mutual agreement is reached. This Plan will become the intellectual property of the Cuban people.
A DESTINY AND A WAY
The internal mechanism of this Plan, as well as its possibilities for success, are based on the ability of all Cubans to use those resources within our reach as instruments, transcend by ourselves the present situation, and forge our own reality, which should be adequate for all Cubans inside and outside our homeland.
To accomplish this, the following is required:
The implementation of the Plan is divided in phases in order to gradually introduce risk and possible consequences to those who execute it, as well as the acquisition of power by them as the Plan is developed. The selection of the specific means of struggle considers the gradual increase in the number of participants and their commitment. There are three degrees of participation:
PRESENT SITUATION
We need to know in depth the problems and needs of the nation to determine the necessary changes, attitudes and conditions which can hinder or make viable a solution. This list is not comprehensive and should be revised by our brothers on the Island. In very broad terms, the problems are:
Certain specific problems are:
Artificial dependencies:
Manipulative Weapons of the Tyranny:
Scarcities. Deficiencies:
Fears:
International Situation:
POSSIBLE ATTITUDES/MECHANISMS THAT AFFECT THE CHANGE
Present Situation:
The Cuban People in Exile and in Cuba
Resources and Capacity for the Necessary Change:
SYNTHESIS OF THE STRATEGY FOR THE NONVIOLENT STRUGGLE
Introduction:
We present a brief synthesis of the strategy. To achieve its implementation it is necessary to study in depth this strategy. It is important to read books on this subject that can stimulate creativity and improvisation along the road to victory.
The nonviolent struggle is a civilizing proposition and a method for action that transfers power from the tyranny to the people and that is within reach of our people and viable given our circumstances. It is a proposal involving struggle, power and effective means for the struggle. The struggle utilizes political, social, economic and psychological weapons and abstains from using violence.
The Plan is a strategic concept based on the active popular participation and the cumulative effect of the massive action of successive or simultaneous acts that target the vulnerable points of the tyranny. The nonviolent struggle creates an asymmetric situation with the tyranny as it does not confront it at its strongest points: violence and repression. Victory is obtained after a process of increasing the intensity and complexity of the nonviolent actions which unify the people in purpose against the government and transfer power from the government to the people. There is a point when the population and the groups and institutions under the control of the fighters for democracy reach a level of power so high that repression becomes impotent and the tyranny loses control, becomes paralyzed and disintegrates.
Power:
Political power is the capacity to determine the conduct, and, if possible, the thinking of a human group. It is essential in all social and political systems.
Dictators are never as powerful as they want you to believe.
Dictatorships have important internal weaknesses, problems and conflicts that they usually hide from the public in general.
All dictatorships, in essence all governments, depend on the constant supply of several sources of power.
It is very important to understand that political power is not intrinsic in those who govern. The power comes from the society that they govern and there are specific sources of this power. The nonviolent struggle attacks the weak points of the government. Basically, it systematically undermines and severs the supply of the sources of power to the tyranny to provoke its disintegration.
Sources of power:
Some sources of power are:
These sources of power are provided to the regime by several pillars of support in society.
Pillars of support:
Religious and moral leaders and important public persons (writers, authors, artists, sportsmen, etc.). Source: legitimacy/authority.
All sectors of the population-individuals who cooperate, obey and assist the regime. Examples: workers, employed and unemployed, bureaucrats, etc. Source: human resources.
Specialists with specific abilities and capabilities who maintain the social structure in working condition. Examples: Technicians, professionals, etc. Source: skills and knowledge.
Acceptance of the pattern of submission and beliefs which lead to obedience. Lack of their own alternatives or the possibility to resolve the national problem. Source: intangible factors.
Cooperation in the functioning of the financial, economic, transportation and communication systems. Support from relatives outside Cuba. Source: material resources.
Fear and submission in confronting threats of punishment by the regime (source: repression) and obedience by the police and military forces to orders to infringe suffering and punishment on those who disobey or refuse to cooperate.
These sources of power are not automatically available because the pillars of support can choose not to provide them. These sources of power can be restricted, its supply delayed, or completely refused, through acts of noncooperation.
It is important to frequently emphasize to the members of government and the armed forces that they have been betrayed by the tyranny, of which they are also victims, and that they should reconsider and refuse to cooperate with it. It is important to remind the members of the armed forces that they owe loyalty to the Cuban people, of which they are part, and that the national sovereignty resides in the citizen, not in the government. One of the factors that will ensure victory is that the armed forces join the civic defiance and implement it within and outside their own groups.
If the acceptance of, cooperation with, and obedience to the regime end, the regime will weaken and crumble. This explains the phenomenon of the "power of the people" or the nonviolent struggle and the downfall of the dictatorships which we will mention in this document.
The Psychological Struggle. The Rupturing of Bindings and Dependencies.
The communist regime in Cuba has been based on repression-the terrorism of the state, the abolition of the division between society and state, the "caudillismo", and the dependence on the Soviet Union (while it existed). Mental torture, institutionalized since the inception of the tyranny, has attempted to convert the citizen into a submissive robot, to control his mind and spirit and to condition his behavior to act within the official doctrine and the pseudo-cult to Castro. The tyranny has based itself on: (a) the fear internalized by the individual as an instrument for control and social manipulation, (b) the mistrust among citizens, and (c) total hopelessness. The objective of this repression is to make the individual a prisoner within himself, a victim of the hostage syndrome who believes that he totally depends on the oppressor and that, therefore, he owes the tyrant respect, obedience and even gratitude as long as he can preserve his own life. A plan for liberation must, out of necessity, break from the very beginning with this siege, these psychological bindings. One of the first and most important objectives of the Plan is to eradicate fear, placing it in a rational perspective, mistrust and hopelessness. Citizens must feel free within themselves and capable of producing a change by acting accordingly (I am free internally and consequently I act free externally) in order to be able to direct their future and fight for their political freedom. The people must break their sense of dependence on "caudillismo" and on foreign countries and interests. We must achieve our political maturity and fight for a Cuban Cuba.
History demonstrates that individuals who are psychologically isolated by a repressive state can be induced and motivated to act. The human solidarity resulting from the strengthening of the nonviolent struggle permits the individual to gradually control his initial fear when he realizes, together with the other participants, the existence of a common purpose and the means to achieve it. This individual can become a brave fighter in the nonviolent struggle. This new soldier is now empowered by his new psychology of membership in a group and by his acquired sense of purpose and mission.
The Autoaction. Organization and Solidarity-The Parallel Civic Government
Autoaction is the association of individuals for the common good, without the participation of the government, and the formation of civic groups and organizations to find their own solutions to local and national problems. It can be the base to establish a government that emerges from and has its roots in the people.
Simultaneously with the weakening of the power of the regime by noncooperation and civil disobedience, is the mobilization of the capacity for power of the people in general. This people previously considered themselves weak and helpless when faced with the capacity for organization and repression of the regime. On this foundation of the "power of the people" the Civic Parallel Government will be built. This government, of national character, will be one of the keys of our success. It must have the greatest possible participation and massive support of the population in order to achieve the disintegration of the tyranny and the democratization of the country.
A strategy of the nonviolent struggle is to form and operate through associations, institutions and groups (religious, blue collar, students, professional, politicians, etc.), because these have more power than isolated individuals. If these groups did not exist, they should be created as part of the Plan. The following, among others, should be formed: (1) groups with something in common which will provide its members a source of new contacts and that can also in time exert political influence and (2) Associations to Aid Neighbors to unite citizens in common causes. These associations could, among other functions, distribute humanitarian assistance from abroad. Please refer to the Third Phase of the Plan. These associations could have cells in neighborhoods and could be grouped by cities, municipalities, provinces, etc. They would be composed by citizens and groups of the opposition, and would constitute one of the foundations of the Civic Parallel Government.
Resist Provocations to Act Violently or to Act before the Right Time
The key is to avoid being dragged into provocations to violence by the tyranny, that fears a nonviolent movement more than a violent action where it knows it has the advantage. Rushing into action and acting before the conditions are "ripe" should also be avoided to prevent the risk that the tyranny could crush the movement or inflict a serious drawback. The determination of the type of action must be based on the degree of power that the nonviolent movement has achieved. That is why planning and the continuous evaluation of the situation by the leaders in Cuba and in exile are crucial.
The Danger of a New Dictatorship. Planning for a Lasting Democracy
With the fall of the dictatorship there is the risk of the emergence of a new oppressive regime, such as a new dictatorship, a coup d’etat or a foreign intervention. The leaders of the democratic forces must prepare in anticipation for an orderly transition to democracy and the dismantling of the dictatorial structures. The constitutional and legal foundations, the public institutions and the patterns of behavior for a lasting democracy must be built to avoid a new dictatorship or a coup d’etat.
It is necessary to adopt a political plan. We attach for your consideration the "Accord for Democracy in Cuba", signed by several opposition groups in Cuba and in exile (Attachment 3). We adhere to the pronouncements in the "Fatherland Is for All", published in Havana on June 17, 1997 by René Gómez Manzano, Marta Beatriz Roque Cabello, Vladimiro Roca Antúnez and Félix Antonio Bonne Carcassés, and to the "Arcos Principles", joint project by Gustavo Arcos Bergnes, in the name of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, of the International Society for Human Rights and the Solidarity of Cuban Workers.
Benefits of the Nonviolent Struggle:
BASIC ELEMENTS AND METHODS OF THE NONVIOLENT ACTION
The basic elements of the nonviolent struggle are:
The several specific methods for the nonviolent intervention are classified in the following groups. Attachment 1 contains a list of the specific methods in each category.
1. Nonviolent protest and persuasion
2. Noncooperation
a. Social
b. Economic
(i) Economic boycotts
(ii) The strike
c. Political
3. Nonviolent intervention
The execution of the nonviolent struggle is complex, perhaps more complex than conventional warfare or guerrilla warfare, and demands the existence of a leadership that understands and directs the action. The essential is: (a) act in a planned, controlled, disciplined, systematic, enthusiastic and united manner; (b) have clear objectives; (c) carefully select the instruments for the struggle, the targets to attack and the right moment; (d) exercise intelligence over the tyrant; (e) inculcate in the people the idea of noncooperation and break with the psychological siege imposed on the individual by the tyranny; and (f) the courage of the nonviolent fighters. It is very important to extensively disseminate information on the struggle, "educate" the people and obtain their massive support, and create a structure and organization that the tyrant cannot "behead". The struggle should not assume heroic characteristics on the part of a few. The effort should be based on the simultaneous and continuous participation of the population. Strategic planning and tenacity are among the most important requirements for an effective struggle. We must always keep the flame lit and retain the initiative.
In theory, the nonviolent struggle is open and public, in order to deactivate an important mechanism of the repressive state: the fear and mistrust on the part of the opposition that their plans may be uncovered. In our case of violent repression it is necessary to very carefully determine which knowledge and activities must be maintained secret and which can be known openly. Certain specific actions could require confidentiality.
The communications within Cuba and between Cuba and the exile community are of extreme importance in the implementation of these phases. It is very important to publicize deeds, themes and arguments announced by the nonviolent group. The means of communication available may include: short wave radio, manuals, computer diskettes, mail, videos, audio cassettes, telephone, faxes, internet, travelers, newspapers abroad and interpersonal. The exile community will provide several of these resources.
PHASES OF THE PLAN
Introduction
The implementation of the nonviolent strategy in our situation can be divided in six main phases, detailed below. We must always remember that this is a fluid process, always changing and interactive, where it is imperative to take advantage of the opportune moments and to adapt to a never static reality, within a framework of violent repression by the tyranny. The organization by phases is to facilitate planning, but it is not rigid. Tactical plans for nonviolent action will be implemented in each phase of the Plan, targeting the carefully chosen objectives.
These actions will be aimed at reducing and finally eliminating the power available to the dictatorship as well as creating a power base for the democratic forces. As the association and power of the people increase, noncooperation to the government and nonviolent intervention will be incremented. This will result in an increase in the risk of the nonviolent actions.
The phases are:
1. Organization. Preparation of the Plan. Consultations, changes and ratification by the participants. Initiate the basic organization in Cuba and the support organization in exile. Formation of instructors and directors. Divulgation inside and outside Cuba of the Plan, approved internally, and of the chosen method of struggle.
First acts of public association to initiate contact among the future activists.
Begin to forge the National Cuban Project in response to the aspirations of the people. Start to define and agree on the foundations of this Project.
The exile community begins to provide resources and becomes a "resonance box".
Start to emphasize adding the armed forces and other government infrastructures to the struggle or neutralizing them. These efforts will continue during the entire execution of the Plan.
2. Disobedience and Defiance. Acts of defiance by abstention (noncooperation) of an individual and civic character, and of low risk to the activists. Calls for action approved by the internal resisters and information about the internal resistance will be disseminated by the exile community.
3. Protest and autoaction. Acts of defiance involving association and cooperation (the start of acts by groups in the open). Emphasis on the continuation of the formation of associations which constitute the foundation of the movement. Begin the exposure of political motives. Continue to forge the Cuban National Project. The autoaction becomes a political instrument for expression. The internal leadership is IN CONTROL.
4. Civic Abstention. The organized internal leadership convokes major acts of civic abstention, of a clear political nature. International support and recognition is sought.
5. Direct Civic Action. The Civic Parallel Government functions at the national level. The final offensive of the coordinated and massive civic action. Street demonstrations and interference to the government functions and services which still remain active. Emphasis on adding the armed forces and other government infrastructures to the struggle or neutralizing them.
6. National Encounter. Disintegration of the tyranny. The Civic Parallel Government assumes power as the provisional government and takes the first necessary steps for a formal transition to a democratic system, with an electoral process that includes all Cubans, inside and outside the Island.
Brothers to the Rescue will support the Cuban people in each phase of the struggle. There will exist a close coordination between Brothers to the Rescue and the leadership of the nonviolent struggle in Cuba, especially in the first and second phases. This support will include, among others:
FIRST: ORGANIZATION
1. Organize the leadership. (Please refer to the section "The Autoaction. Organization and Solidarity-The Parallel Civic Government".) Focus the organizing efforts on:
a. The people in general, with particular emphasis on uniting and winning over the "indifferents". At the beginning the objective is to "see and be seen".
b. Established associations like religious groups, workers, church choirs, students and professionals serve the purpose of creating the awareness of the need to associate. Initially without calling for specific actions against the regime.
c. Create organizations and groups. Initially the objective is to promote cooperation among the citizens, to unite them in a common cause, such as useful projects of a nonpolitical nature. Develop the capacity to work together. Examples:
(i) Associations to Aid Neighbors.
(ii) Groups with something in common to give each member a source of new contacts, examples : study, bible, musical, literary, etc.
2. Campaign of monthly religious services on a specific date where citizens can begin to unite and demonstrate their solidarity. Please refer to Attachment 2 for an example of a convocation to religious services.
3. Evaluate the internal situation and the significant external factors. Begin formulating the National Cuban Project. Analyze the perceptions and realities. Detect the needs, aspirations, beliefs and motivations of the people. This knowledge will enable us to break the psychological bindings and convince the indifferents to join the nonviolent struggle. This is one of the main goals, as these "indifferents" will start to unite and acquire power. Please refer to the sections "Present Situations" and "Possible Attitudes/Mechanisms that Affect the Change".
4. Formulate the grand strategy, the specific strategy and the tactics (Section: "Basic Elements and Methods of the Nonviolent Action"). Attachment 1 includes a list of the tactics classified according to the different phases of the struggle. Analyze the vulnerable points of the tyranny. Please refer to the sections "Power", "Sources of Power" and "Pillars of Support".
5. Evaluate, as much as possible, (i) the degree of brutality that the regime will reach in its repression and (ii) the capacity to resist punishment, the courage and the power acquired by the nonviolent fighters. It is very important that the democracy fighters resist the provocations of the tyranny to drag them to commit violent acts.
6. Formulate the plan for promotion, publicity and communication. Establish a system of communication within and outside Cuba and between Cuba and Brothers to the Rescue. The promotion and publicity should, from the start of the movement, confront the lies and propaganda of the regime and present the truth. Please, refer to sections "Present Situation" and "Possible Attitudes/Mechanisms that Affect the Change".
7. Determine which are the necessary and the available resources to carry out the Plan.
8. Define, select and accomplish the objectives within our immediate reach.
9. Promote the autoaction throughout the Plan.
10. Plan the structure of the Civic Parallel Government.
11. Take careful precautions to avoid the emergence of a new oppressive regime that usurps the power by taking advantage of the confusion that may follow the collapse of the tyranny-as a new dictatorship or a coup d’etat.
12. Adopt a political plan. We attach for your consideration the Accord for Democracy in Cuba, that has been signed by several opposition groups in Cuba and in exile (Attachment 3).
13. Establish the objectives for the transition period of the Civil Parallel Government to build the foundations for a lasting democracy.
Criteria to start the next phase:
Subject to evaluation.
SECOND: DISOBEDIENCE AND DEFIANCE
Criteria to start the next phase:
A large number of participants who confirm the aforementioned.
THIRD: PROTEST AND AUTOACTION
1. Form working groups by block.
2. Visit neighbors and ask about problems of a public or neighborhood nature. Take these complaints to the local neighborhood committee (government informants) demanding solutions. If these are not resolved, organize a working group from the neighborhood to find a solution to the problem. Beginning of the autoaction. Examples: clean the neighborhood, transport drinking water, etc.
3. Organize silent protests in front of the neighborhood committees. Example: neighbors gather with their hands on their heads.
4. Promote solutions by the community to individual problems. Promote the association of citizens and interpersonal communication. Undertake individual civic actions to clearly imply that the problem resides with the government, that does not resolve anything!
5. Continue the creation and execution of slogans and symbolic acts.
Criteria to start the next phase:
Civic action is underway.
FOURTH: CIVIC ABSTENTION
Examples:
Boycott public acts of the dictatorship.
Abstain from participating in elections to ratify the government.
Continue the community and symbolic acts.
There is a new future in the horizon. The Cuban National Project is feasible.
Little by little power is changing hands. The people start to become aware of their power.
We have the initiative, we will be victorious.
Criteria to start the next phase:
Large numbers of participants who are active in the movement.
FIFTH: DIRECT CIVIC ACTION
Take advantage of the incipient decomposition of the tyranny. Nonviolent confrontation. Go beyond a selective resistance; go to key political or economic targets. Launch a massive campaign of noncooperation and defiance destined to disintegrate the dictatorship. Demonstrations of a clear political nature. Press conferences with international journalists. Probable confrontation with violent repressive forces. Acceptance on the part of the activists to suffer imprisonment or lose their lives, in certain situations, in confrontations with the repressive forces. The price of liberty is high; the price of submission is even higher.
At the end of this phase the number and effectiveness of the nonviolent fighters is so considerable that the government becomes paralyzed and its repression becomes impotent. Confronted with a population whose power is increasing and with the growth of independent democratic groups and institutions-that the dictator cannot control-the dictator will find that his whole venture is unraveling.
1. Demonstrations before embassies.
2. Marches in cities in public places and in front of the centers of government, claiming rights.
3. Nonviolent obstruction of order (maintaining discipline), sit-downs, etc.
4. Graffiti, fliers from buildings.
5. Banging on cooking pans.
6. Blackouts and turning on of all lights.
7. Massive demonstrations claiming change from the government, brandishing brooms, symbolic sweeping of the streets, etc.
8. General strike.
This moment must be carefully evaluated. This is the final moment, probably the most important and difficult. A setback at this point can be very costly.
There must be awareness of the risk of the emergence of a new dictatorship or a coup d’etat and the democratic forces must be prepared to eliminate any such attempts. This should have been carefully planned with anticipation.
The tyranny will disintegrate before the defiant population when these actions occur:
When the religious and moral leaders in the society denounce the regime as illegitimate,
When the masses of the people are disobeying orders and not cooperating with the tyranny (and instead obeying the democratic leadership),
When journalists and broadcasters are defying censorship and issuing their own publications and programs,
When the transportation system operates only according to the needs of the democratic forces,
When the civil servants are ignoring the dictatorhip’s policies and orders,
When the police refuse to arrest democratic resisters,
When the army has gone on strike, has joined the people, or has been neutralized.
SIXTH: NATIONAL ENCOUNTER
Disintegration of the tyranny.
The people and the armed forces join ranks and support the National Administrator of the Cuban Civic Parallel Government.
The Cuban Civic Parallel Government reaches a public commitment, of national character, which includes, as a minimum, points that guaranty the democratic transition to a representative government and the development of a democratic system. We include for your consideration, as a minimum, the measures in the Accord for Democracy in Cuba, Attachment 3. We adhere to the pronouncements in the "Fatherland Is for All" and the "Arcos Principles" (please refer to the section "The Danger of a New Dictatorship. Planning for a Lasting Democracy"). The following measures should also be adopted:
PROPOSAL FOR PLAN FOR NATIONAL CIVIC DEFIANCE
OUTLINE OF THE PHASES OF THE PLAN
I. Organization
a. Initiate the basic organization in Cuba and the support
organization in exile.
b. Formulate the Global Plan and Detailed Plans for each phase. The Global Plan should
include, as a minimum:
1. Organize the leadership and groups. Formulate plan to promote autoaction throughout the Plan. The popular participation should have its roots in the people "from the bottom up".
2. Plan the people’s participation by phases. First association, later cooperation and finally direct civil action.
3. Organize and promote the campaign for religious services.
4. Evaluate the internal and external situation.
5. Formulate the grand strategy, the specific strategy and the tactics.
6. Formulate the National Cuban Project. The people will formulate this project during the duration of the Plan.
7. Evaluate the level of brutality of the tyranny and the democratic group’s capacity to resist.
8. Formulate the promotion, publicity and communications plans.
9. Determine which resources are required and which are available.
10. Define, select and undertake objectives.
11. Plan the structure of the Civic Parallel Government.
12. Plan the blocking of attempts to establish future dictatorships.
13. Adopt a political plan.
14. Establish the objectives for the transition period of the Civic Parallel Government.
c. Divulge the Plan inside and outside Cuba.
d. The exile community starts to provide resources and becomes a resonance box.
e. Educate and motivate potential participants. Break the psychological Bindings. Train
instructors and directors.
f. First acts of public association to initiate contact among the future activists.
g. Start the campaign to the members of the government and armed forces.
h. Start the promotion and publicity campaign.
i. Publicize deeds, themes, arguments, etc.
II. Disobedience and Defiance
Acts of defiance by abstention (civil disobedience) of an individual character, civic and of low risk to the activists.
a. Promote autoaction.
b. Emphasize social participation and solidarity on an individual basis.
c. The exile community disseminates information from inside Cuba.
d. Continue the campaign to members of the government and the armed forces.
e. Create slogans, symbols and symbolic acts.
f. Continue to forge the National Cuban Project.
III. Protest and autoaction.
Internal leadership IN CONTROL. Acts of defiance involving association and cooperation. Autoaction becomes a political instrument for expression.
a. Start the operation of groups in the open.
b. Start to expose political motives.
c. Continue autoaction and formation of base groups-associations
d. Continue the campaign to members of the government and the armed forces.
e. Continue to forge the Cuban National Project.
IV. Civic abstention
The organized internal leadership convokes major acts of civic abstention, of a clear political nature. International support and recognition is sought.
a. Continue the integration and organization of the Civic Parallel Government.
b. Continue the campaign to members of the government and the armed forces.
c. Repeat the actions in the third phase, elevating the protests to the government. Deny participation and cooperation with the government in important issues.
d. Formulate the perception of change.
V. Direct Civic Action
The parallel government functions at the national level. The final offensive of the coordinated and massive civic action.
a. Take advantage of the incipient decomposition of the tyranny.
b. Nonviolent confrontation.
c. Go beyond a selective resistance; go to key political or economic targets. Launch massive campaign of noncooperation and defiance to disintegrate the tyranny.
d. Continue the organization of the Civic Parallel Government. Select the National Administrator of the Cuban Civic Parallel Government.
e. Add the armed forces and other gvt. infrastructures to the struggle or neutralize them.
f. Block any attempt to establish a new dictatorship.
g. Evaluate the moment. Probably the most important and difficult. At the end of this phase the number and effectiveness of the nonviolent fighters is so considerable that the government becomes paralyzed and its repression impotent.
VI. National encounter
Disintegration of the tyranny. The people and the armed forces join ranks. The Civic Parallel Gvt. assumes power and takes the necessary steps for a formal transition to a democratic system. Convokes free elections within maximum period of 18 months, including all Cubans, inside and outside the Island.
a. Dismantle the repressive machinery.
b. Maintain order and avoid bloodshed.
PROPOSAL FOR PLAN FOR NATIONAL CIVIC DEFIANCE
ATTACHMENT 1
THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT ACTION
The 108 methods on this list were taken from The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Second Part, The Methods of Nonviolent Actions, by Gene Sharp.
THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT PROTEST AND PERSUASION
They are principally symbolic acts of peaceful opposition or an intent to persuade. They go beyond verbal expressions, but do not reach the stage of noncooperation or nonviolent intervention. The use of these methods is a form of demonstrating that those who resist are against or in favor of something, the degree of opposition or support, and the number of those involved.
The message may have the purpose of influencing the adversary, the public, the discontented group, or a combination of the three.
All these actions are symbolic. More power can be exerted through the methods of noncooperation and nonviolent intervention.
Formal Statements
Communications with a wider audience
Group representations
Symbolic public acts
Pressures on individuals
Drama and music
Processions
Honoring the dead
Public assemblies
Withdrawals and renunciation
THE METHODS OF SOCIAL NONCOOPERATION
Ostracism of persons
Noncooperation with social events, customs, and institutions
Withdrawal from the social system
THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION
1. ECONOMIC BOYCOTT
Action by consumers
Action by workers and producers
Action by middlemen
Action by owners and management
Action by holders of financial resources
Action by governments
THE METHODS OF ECONOMIC NONCOOPERATION
(2) THE STRIKE
Symbolic strikes
Agricultural strikes
Strikes by special groups
Ordinary industrial strikes
Restricted strikes
Multi-industry strikes
Combinations of strikes and economic closures
THE METHODS OF POLITICAL NONCOOPERATION
Rejection of authority
Citizens’ noncooperation with government
Citizens’ alternatives to obedience
Action by government personnel
Domestic governmental action
International governmental action
THE METHODS OF NONVIOLENT INTERVENTION
Psychological intervention
Physical intervention
Social intervention
Economic intervention
Political interventions
PROPOSAL FOR PLAN FOR NATIONAL CIVIC DEFIANCE
Example of a Campaign for the Celebration of Religious Services
Attachment 2
Monthly Reunions on the 24th Day of Each Month
Brothers to the Rescue suggests to the opposition groups that they gather on the 24th day of each month in churches or temples in Cuba to celebrate masses or religious services to pray with respect and devotion for:
Prisoners, the discriminated against , and all those deprived of freedom in Cuba
We should ask the clergy to emphatically express this intention during the celebration of the mass or the religious services.
Our objective is that the opposition members and those who have not openly declared themselves as members of the opposition, fill the Catholic churches, the temples and the Protestant churches as a sign of solidarity with all those who want the freedom of eleven million Cubans. Let’s tell the whole world that in Cuba, on the 24th day of each month, prayers are raised in all churches and temples for the liberty of those who are deprived of liberty.
We are certain that the parish priests of the Catholic churches and the pastors and ministers of the Protestant churches will agree to pray for Cubans who are deprived of freedom, particularly when they remember the words of the Pope in Cuba:
"I am confident that Cubans will attain in the future a civilization of justice and solidarity, of liberty and truth, a civilization of love and peace. True liberty includes the recognition of human rights and social justice".
Let’s fill churches and temples close to our homes and try to increase the number of people who on every 24th day of each month attend services to ask for freedom for Cubans.
The people who attend these services in solidarity with the opposition groups will be able to claim that they are doing something to obtain freedom in Cuba. This will help to break the psychological bindings that may prevent them from courageously demonstrating their dissatisfaction with the present regime in Cuba. It is necessary that all of us do a little to achieve a change in our country. These gatherings in churches and temples afford us a legal means of so doing.
Filling all churches and temples will give the government a clear signal that the majority of the people is asking for freedom and a nonviolent fundamental change for our homeland.
We would be telling the world that Cubans want to sweep 40 years of useless sacrifice, crimes, prisons, hatred, fear, lines, hunger, privileges for the government elite and foreigners and the absurd and totally inefficient economic and government systems.
The development of the National Civic Defiance using a nonviolent struggle strategy that Brothers to the Rescue has proposed to free Cuba depends to a large extent on the association and cooperation reached by our brothers. The success of these gatherings in churches and temples is an important part of this process.
Example of a Campaign for the Symbol of the Broom
The Broom
The broom is the symbol of the campaign for Civic National Defiance in Cuba.
It is our purpose to achieve a much needed national cleansing in our country.
We should join the many who now sweep with their neighbors in front of their houses and the sidewalks. In this way, we can demonstrate our solidarity with our neighbors and affirm that Cubans demand political changes. Let’s sweep in front of our house every day at designated hours. Also, let’s sweep at other times on designated days.
Let’s use the instrument of the broom, adequate even under the present repression, to show our union and the strength of our purpose.
Let’s all united express our will to Cuba and the world. The foreign press is watching you. Use it!
Brothers, we must achieve fundamental changes in our homeland:
We can and should rescue our Homeland forever.
Attachment 3
We, Cubans conscious of the need for transcendental change in the political, social and economic structures of our country, gather, beyond our diverse strategies for liberation, to affirm before our people and the international community the essential postulates that substantiate the democratic alternative to the despotism that currently prevails in our homeland.
We affirm that the Cuban nation is one, within the national territory and in diaspora. We believe that all Cubans have the right to be equal before the law and the nation, with full dignity that cannot be subject to any discrimination. We, likewise, understand that the present regime has shown itself incapable of assuring liberty and justice and of promoting well-being and human solidarity in our homeland. Due to this, from this point forward, we establish, through a great national consensus and as a clear alternative to the current oppression, this:
Agreement for Democracy
We recognize as the fundamental principle of the new Republic that Cuba is one and independent, whose sovereignty resides in the people and functions through the effective exercise of representative multiparty democracy, which is the government of the majority with absolute respect for the minority.
All governments must respect the sovereignty of the people, therefore, at the end of the current tyrannical regime, the provisional or transition government shall be obligated to return sovereignty to the people by way of the following measures:Cuba shall resurrect from its own ashes, but it is the sacred obligation of all Cubans-both within the oppressed island and in diaspora-to place our hands on the plough without looking backwards but rather into the deepest part of our hearts, convert those ashes into fertile seeds of love and creation. Now, as 100 years ago, our national aspiration remains the reconstruction of a republic based on the formula of triumphant love:
WITH ALL AND FOR THE GOOD OF ALL