On August 8, Cuban human rights activist
Gustavo Arcos Bergnes succumbed to respiratory and kidney ailments.
Suffering years in jail and bad health for peacefully opposing
Fidel Castro's dictatorship, Arcos was a tireless, patient crusader
for democracy and civil liberties in Cuba. Oddly, Fidel Castro
considers himself a hero for holding onto power while neighboring
democratic leaders meekly leave office at the end of their elected
terms. Unlike Castro, Arcos was the real thing-a courageous figure
worthy to stand beside the island's revered poet and 19th century
independence fighter José Martí.
Arcos's advocacy is well known among
Cuban dissidents, and the labor principles named after him survive
in the minds of human rights activists across the globe. The United
States, other democracies, and international civil society
organizations should encourage the Cuban people and post-Castro
successors to adopt them as law to ensure a freer, more prosperous
Cuba.
Disaffected Rebel
Gustavo Arcos met Fidel Castro at the
University of Havana and eagerly took part in his failed coup
against the Batista government in 1953. Upon his release from jail,
he raised money and obtained arms for his small band of
revolutionaries. After Fidel triumphed in 1959, Arcos served as his
ambassador in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark. However, he
fretted over Castro's embrace of communism.
In 1965, Arcos refused a posting as
ambassador to the Soviet Union and was imprisoned as a
counterrevolutionary. In 1981, police arrested him again for trying
to leave the country. While in jail, he worked with other inmates
to establish the Cuban Committee for Human Rights (CCPDH). Acting
on the group's smuggled reports on prison conditions, international
human rights organizations compelled the regime to allow limited
scrutiny and release some of its political prisoners.
Alliance Against Slave Labor
After Cuba's main benefactor, the Soviet
Union, collapsed in 1991, Fidel and his defense minister brother
Raúl Castro began enlisting the help of foreign investors to
make up for lost subsidies by exploiting the island's captive labor
force. Foreign partners would provide the infrastructure, and the
state would supply workers for as much as $1,400 per month apiece.
Barred from working for anyone besides the state, the employees
would receive about $20 to $30 a month in pesos. In 1994,
Inter-American Development Bank officials Rolando Castañeda
and George Plinio Montalvan decided it was time to act and sought
out Arcos, then Executive Secretary of the CCPDH.
The three collaborated to develop
guidelines for principled commercial relations using the Arcos
family name-by then synonymous with human rights advocacy, thanks
to the work of Gustavo and his brother Sebastian. The Sullivan
Principles-a corporate code of conduct written by an
African-American clergyman and business executive to combat racial
discrimination in apartheid South Africa-served as a
model.
Today's Arcos Principles urge all
foreign businesses in Cuba to:
-
Press the state to replace arbitrary
justice with institutional rule of law;
-
Counter economic discrimination by
allowing ordinary Cubans access to areas and facilities reserved
for foreign visitors;
-
Permit all Cubans access to the same
services and goods available to tourists;
-
Hire Cubans directly, not through a
government agency;
-
Keep politics out of hiring decisions;
and
-
Allow employees to establish independent
unions.
While longstanding U.S. trade sanctions
prevent American businesses from entering joint ventures with Cuba,
foreign corporations, mainly from Spain, Canada, and Mexico, have
shoved principles aside to make money under the dictatorship's
rules. In doing so, they reportedly helped the regime violate such
International Labor Organization (ILO) workplace conventions as
non-discriminatory access to employment (Convention 111), direct
payment of wages (Convention 95), freedom of workplace association
(Convention 87), the right to organize and bargain collectively
(Convention 98), and protection against arbitrary dismissal
(Convention 158).
Steps for the U.S. and Its
Allies
In 2002, the Northcote-Parkinson Fund, a
private U.S. foundation, honored Arcos and Cuban human rights
activist Vladimiro Roca with its Civil Courage Prize. To build on
that award, the international community should promote the Arcos
Principles, now that Fidel Castro's power seems to be fading with
age and illness and Cubans are pondering their future.
The United States should condition
lifting its restrictions against American participation in joint
ventures and access to U.S. government credit on Cuba adopting the
Arcos Principles, complying with the ILO conventions to which it
subscribes, and permitting Cubans to own and operate private
businesses. That message, and those urging other freedoms, should
be communicated frequently to the regime and the Cuban people. For
their part, international human rights monitors and
non-governmental organizations should urge the directors of foreign
companies partnering with the Cuban state to press for the adoption
of workers' rights.
Conclusion
Gustavo Arcos may be gone, but Cuba has
plenty of heroes still very much alive, such as Dr. Oscar Elias
Biscet, who was jailed for 25 years for staging a peaceful hunger
strike against the Cuban police state. In his Varela Project,
Oswaldo Payá has collected more than 25,000 citizens'
signatures on petitions urging the regime to allow a referendum so
ordinary Cubans can decide the type of government they want. As
long as democrats outside the island stand in solidarity with such
brave figures, Cubans have a shot at gaining their
freedom.
Stephen
Johnson is Senior Policy Analyst in the Douglas and Sarah
Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at The Heritage
Foundation.