Why we should back Tania Bruguera's presidential bid for a free Cuba

Why we should back Tania Bruguera's presidential bid for a free Cuba
Jonathan Jones

The Cuban artist exposes how anti-democracy feeling is still rife in the
one-party state. This is valuable 'artivism' in a less-than-rosy nation

Monday 17 October 2016 14.32 BST Last modified on Monday 17 October

Art is good at pointing out simple truths that otherwise get forgotten,
or conveniently ignored. Cuban artist Tania Bruguera has just announced
that she is running for president of Cuba when Raul Castro steps down –
as he has said he will – in 2018.

There's just one snag. You can't run for president of Cuba. The
socialist island is not a democracy but a one-party state. Bruguera's
"artivism", as she calls it, is a satirical performance that draws
attention to the embarrassing reality that Cuba's rulers are not freely
elected by the people. "Let's use the 2018 elections to build a
different Cuba," she says, "to build a Cuba where we are all in charge
and not just the few." She says she hopes "to change the culture of
fear" with her utopian bid for the presidency.

Wait a minute. Fear? The rule of the few? What can she be talking about?
This does not sound like the Cuba some people so love to sentimentalise
– the socialist paradise in the sun where rum is bountiful and the only
cloud on the horizon is evil Uncle Sam. Acknowledging that the US is
roundly criticised by the UN for its trade embargo, Cuba's undemocratic
way of running things gets a very soft ride in certain quarters. In July
the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, went to an event staged
by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, which defends "the Cuban people's right
to be free from foreign intervention" – meaning the spectre, no longer
very likely, of a US invasion. The Cuba Solidarity Campaign also says on
its website that it opposes the US economic blockade, but when it comes
to Cuba's own democratic deficit, it has nothing to say. Instead it
supports the one-party state that Bruguera accuses of instilling fear
and the rule of the few.

She may be Cuban, but does she really know anything at all about Cuba?
Doesn't she know its people are happy, and that the only thing
threatening their freedom is the US? Really, she needs to go to a Labour
party conference fringe meeting to be re-educated by the Cuban ambassador.

And by the way, isn't it a funny coincidence that Raul Castro has the
same surname as Fidel Castro, the revolutionary leader who shaped modern
Cuba ? Oh wait... Raul is Fidel's brother. Well, surely it's good to
keep things in the family. Wise, as well, that in addition to being
president of the council of state and president of the council of
ministers he is also commander in chief of the armed forces. I mean, why
bother separating those powers? Oh, and Raul Castro is also first
secretary of the central committee of the Communist party of Cuba. In
the eyes of Bruguera, this somehow smacks of an undemocratic, and even
frightening, one-party state. No wonder the secret police have had to
deal with her in the past.

Perhaps she is a CIA operative. Or perhaps she is a courageous dissident
using the freedom of art to tell some very basic truths about her
people's desire for democracy. Just for the record, Amnesty
International shares her scepticism about Castro's glorious utopia. It
reports that in Cuba in 2015/16, "severe restrictions on freedoms of
expression, association and movement continued. Thousands of cases of
harassment of government critics and arbitrary arrests and detentions
were reported." Vote Bruguera for a free Cuba.

Source: Why we should back Tania Bruguera's presidential bid for a free
Cuba | Art and design | The Guardian -
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2016/oct/17/tania-bruguera-cuba-president