NEWS

By Leni Villagomez Reeves

April 2022

Cuba finished writing and approving, by referendum, a new constitution in 2019. Now, Cuba is creating a legal code that details the rights set forth in the new constitution. The previous Cuban constitution was written in 1975. It was an advanced document for its time, especially regarding women’s rights, but it included prevalent assumptions about heteronormativity and patriarchal authoritarian family structure.
    
In the new constitution, the most controversial area was marriage rights for anyone other than heterosexual couples. This version was adopted: “All persons have the right to establish a family… Marriage is a social and juridical (legal) institution. It is one of the forms by which families can organize. It is founded in the free consent and the equality of rights, obligations, and legal capabilities of the two spouses.”

All the Rights for All the Families

The Families Code is the name of this set of laws. Codigo de Las Familias, in Spanish — a recognition of plurality —  families, rather than a single model. This proposed set of laws has over 400 articles, protecting the rights of all people to form a family without discrimination, updating the legal definitions with inclusive models, establishing the right to a family life free from violence, and centering values of love, affection, solidarity, and responsibility.

Yes, it will recognize same-sex marriage. “Marriage is the voluntary union of two people on the basis of affection, love, and mutual respect.” Now let’s consider other aspects of what is truly revolutionary in the proposed new Families Code of Cuba, currently in the process of consultation with the people.

Real Consultation with the People

That’s part of what’s revolutionary — a serious consultation process involving about 78,000 meetings in electoral precincts in every neighborhood. The new laws establish rights not recognized until now in the legal system. The process pushes the limits of the possible both in organization and in conception. People have to work through revolutionary changes. In May, Cuba’s Parliament, the Asamblea de Poder Popular, will approve a new version of the text with inputs from the public consultation. After that, the Families Code goes to a popular referendum.

Getting it Right

The process of consultation and referendum is true participatory democracy. A variety of opinions enriches the discussion. It works best when there is no manipulation of people’s fears and prejudices by those who either wish to promote their own beliefs or wish to destabilize Cuba. Some of those in opposition have attempted to pick out  sensitive issues and then pervert the dialogue by distorting these issues. A Cuban saying is “La mentira tiene patas cortas” — lies have short legs — but social media, especially when used by professional manipulators, has given some lies long strides. Here are some lies or distortions contrasted with reality:

Falsehood: Parental authority is replaced by parental responsibility, which means parents will lose control of their children or legal rights to them.
Reality: The Families Code replaces the term authority with the term responsibility, but this does not remove parental rights. Parents retain all rights and responsibilities, except in sharply defined circumstances where a parent is harming the child, as in physical or sexual abuse. The State does not take over any parental authority.

Falsehood: The State is going to take over the children. The slogan associated with this myth: Children belong to their parents, not the state.
Reality: Children belong with their family and in that sense of “belong to their family,” there is no dispute or change in the law, but they are not possessions in the sense of “I can do whatever I want with him - or more often her - because she’s mine.” Parents must care for and protect their children. Only if they fail to do so must the state intervene in the best interests of the child. 

Falsehood: Courts will be able to allow the marriage of minors without parental consent.
Reality: Just the opposite. The current set of laws allows parents and guardians to consent to marriage of girls at 14, boys at 16 under exceptional circumstances. The new Families Code prohibits the marriage of minors (under 18). Not with the consent of parents. Not by court order. Not at all.

Falsehood: The concept of progressive autonomy for children will allow children to make inappropriate decisions. (The religious right often focuses on fears of children making decisions about gender identity.) Reality: Sex change for minors isn’t allowed. Whether or not we disagree with this model, Cuba does not allow minors to make major decisions involving surgery or hormone treatment before legal adulthood at 18. And progressive autonomy means that children have rights and that they can exercise these rights according to their level of maturity, assuming new decision-making powers appropriate to their development. At the same time, parents continue to make decisions for the child in accord with the child’s highest interests, considering the child’s character and preferences, during the process of maturation.

Falsehood: Surrogate pregnancy legalization means women can carry a pregnancy for pay.
Reality: Surrogate pregnancy is legalized, but it must be done for love.

Falsehood: People of the same sex can marry, and that’s a bad idea.  
Reality: People can marry whom they choose, and that’s a great idea.

The Opposition

On one side of the discussion is an organized conservative political force centered around evangelical churches, many of them with strong ties to the conservative evangelical churches and political movements in the US, which help finance them.  They insist on their presumed biblical mandates on marriage, but it’s far more than that; there’s a marked authoritarian and patriarchal attitude regarding all family structures.  They want to have “custody over” rather than “responsibility for” children, with children regarded as possessions within the family structure. They want to keep the option of physical and psychological violence within the family. 

The Coalition of Those For Inclusivity and Justice

It’s important to note that this is “not all churches.”  A liberation theology ecumenical religious movement in Cuba is also represented in this discussion, part of the coalition  advocating for diversity, rights, and dignity, upholding this Families Code as a document consistent with a biblical message of full dignity and rights for all.

They are part of a broad coalition of organizations and activists for diversity, inclusiveness, feminism, a dismantling of patriarchy, and a redefinition of family, with  the widening of the concept of family beyond consanguinity to open it to relationships that are built on love, affection, and solidarity. This view promotes equity and justice as root values and extends additional legal rights and autonomy to the elderly, to children, and people with incapacities and disabilities. 

The Cuban Revolution, acting with integrity, cannot bargain away the rights of any sector of the people to conform to popular or religious prejudice.  Back when the California Fair Housing Act was being considered in 1959, some white people used to  think and say that a good argument against laws prohibiting discrimination was  “You can’t legislate how people feel.”  The answer is that you certainly can legislate how they act. Cuba is uniquely trying to educate in the process of legislating, but All The Rights for All The Families is ultimately not negotiable.
 

By Emily Keel
WILPF liaison to the PPC

March 2022

On February 16, our solidarity committee for the WILPF Poor People's Campaign rally hosted a virtual meeting well attended by WILPF and featuring Rev Liz Theoharis, co-chair of the PPC, and Noam Back, our liaison from the campaign. Branch members from across the nation gathered, eager to hear the logistics of getting to Washington DC on June 18. We will represent WILPF in this campaign to unite people to challenge the evils of systemic racism, poverty, the war economy, ecological devastation, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism.

Rev Liz told us that June 18 in DC is “not a day but a declaration of the power that poor and low-income people are building to be able to shift priorities and structures to be around the needs and demands of the 140 million poor and low wealth people–people whose lives and livelihoods are at stake and do not need to be.”  “We must come forward with power and shine a light on what is possible and what is necessary.”  

In order to support this moral agenda and campaign for justice, we ask that you make plans to attend the June 18 rally and march on DC and to the polls. We will give you more information about securing a ride with a bus near you, reducing the capacity for this event to be safer from COVID. The campaign is addressing safety issues with public health advisors. We will gather all WILPF members in one location outside and march in unity with our banners and signs because, as Rev Liz said, “If we truly want peace, we do have to work for justice.” See this 3-minute video of WILPF branches' participation with the PPC from the past. Let's make it a momentous gathering for all of us on June 18.

Please visit the PPC website and RSVP for the June 18 event. On the website, you can find your state committee. Sign up to learn more about what your state is doing, support them with a donation, and attend an event in person or virtually. Make sure to follow the campaign on Facebook. There are abundant resources to meet the needs of the poor, and we march to summon the political will to do so!

You may contact Emily Keel for more information at ekkeel@protonmail.com

Credit: Image is from taken from the WILPF International Toolkit for their “In Solidarity with Ukraine No More Wars” campaign.

By Cherrill Spencer and Ellen Thomas
DISARM Issue Committee co-chairs

March 2022    

As we write this eNews article on February 25, the invading Russian army is attacking Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine, with missiles, tanks, and cyber disruptions. We cannot predict the situation by the time this eNews article is published, but, whatever has happened, we are sure WILPF members must continue to speak out against military actions to solve conflicts. 

We urge all members to take nonviolent action to promote peace, disarmament, and diplomacy as solutions to this crisis. We embrace the recent call from WILPF International:  

“The most sensible thing we can do at this juncture is to build international solidarities – to come together and channel all our individual voices into one collective, loud and decisive voice that calls for an end to militarization and war-mongering.” 

Take a look at WILPF International’s “Call to Action,” published on February 14. The campaign toolkit they have prepared for our use includes a brief call for action, key messages, social media posts, stories, and banner designs.

Sunday, March 6, has been identified by an international coalition of peace groups as the day for activists all over the world to get out on their hometown’s streets to protest against war and militarism, using the illegal Russian invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine as the common theme. We urge WILPF members to join with your local anti-war  and anti-nuclear weapons groups to hold non-violent demonstrations in visible places where you live.

WILPF is a partner organization with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and we join them and many other anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons organizations in condemning the invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces. The ICAN statement, issued on February 24, can be read here.

Here is an extract from ICAN’s statement: “This is a direct violation of international law and puts civilians at incredible risk. In addition to an illegal invasion, Putin threatened this morning to respond to any interference with ‘consequences that you never have had before in your history,’ which really means that he’s threatening to use nuclear weapons.”

We appreciate these sentiments from “The Campaign for Peace Disarmament and Common Security” as they condemn Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine:

“There are no military solutions to either the Ukraine or European-wide crises, only a political solution based on the common security principle that security cannot be achieved against one’s rival, but only with that rival. Nations must not seek to strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other states.  Work for peace and justice.”

The actions you can personally take to raise your voice against any further escalation of the war that is happening in Ukraine on February 25 were listed in our February 1 eAlert and are still valid actions to take.

We expect that an official WILPF US public statement on the situation in Ukraine will be issued by the time this eNews is distributed; please read it for an analysis of the root causes of this war and how it will disproportionately affect the women and children of Ukraine.

Please submit your questions about this article to disarmchair@wilpfus.org.
 

By Candace Perry
Cape Cod Branch

March 2022

The Cape Cod Branch invites everyone to attend an International Women’s Day program, Racial Reckonings. The Zoom program is on March 8 from 7:30 - 9 p.m. (EST). To attend, please register in advance by clicking here. There will be three short plays and discussions. Two of the plays, “No Surrender” and “Kinfolk,” were written by WILPF member Candace Perry, who has written several plays dealing with white privilege and the impacts of historical racial prejudice, especially in the southern United States, where she was raised. Her fellow playwright, John Dennis Anderson, is the author of “Writing Wrongs,” and also grew up in the South.

"We bring our Southern roots and a concern for our white privilege to our work. As a longtime member of the Cape Cod Branch of WILPF, I’ve learned how racism and white supremacy have impacted every part of our lives." Candace says of the plays she and John have written. The three plays were produced via Zoom. “Writing Wrongs” by Anderson, features Dorothy Mains Prince with Anderson, as himself, and deals with a 1952 allegedly racist novel. Perry’s play, “No Surrender,” about the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, was filmed live with actors John Shuman, Patrick Riviere, and Anderson. Perry’s other play, “Kinfolk,” deals with family connections and costars Sallie Tighe, Cynthia Harrington, and Patrick Riviere.

In addition to the plays, a pre-recorded discussion led by Charles Everett Pace will be shown. Pace, a scholar and historical interpreter who portrayed Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, and Malcolm X, brought his insights as an anthropologist of performance and a social justice activist to the discussion. Following the pre-recorded portion, the playwrights will be joined by two of the actors, Dorothy Mains Prince and Sallie Tighe, for a live discussion. Prince and Tighe will bring their experiences as African-American women, actors, and activists to the conversation.  WILPF members will be able to participate, and we look forward to a dynamic exchange.

The pre-recorded program was originally presented on Zoom in December with funding from the Joan Patchen Fund of WILPF. The fund supports the work of WILPF branches in the use of the arts to promote social change and create a more peaceable world.  

The Cape Cod Branch is pleased to be able to extend the viewership of the plays to all of WILPF with a new virtual program on International Women’s Day. You can view the flyer for the program here.