Center for Cuban Studies

Center for Cuban Studies

Origins

A number of pro-communist support groups were formed to act as both fundraising and propaganda operations for Communist Cuba and its dictator Fidel Castro. The earliest was the mixed CPUSA/Trotskyite and Castroite Fair Play For Cuba Committee FPFFC in the early 1960s. Hearings on the covert U.S. and Cuban communist roles in creating and funding the FPFCC were held by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee SISS, entitled "The Fair Play For Cuba Committee"..

Among the later ones were the Tricontinental Information Center and the Center for Cuban Studies, CCS, 220 East 23rd Street, New York City, New York, 10010. They CCS claimed that it functioned as a "resource center" though its own materials showed that one of its' purposes was to act as a propaganda operation to break the U.S. embargo against Communist Cuba.

In fact, in former Red Diaper baby Ronald Radosh's book Commies: A Journey Through the Old Left, the New Left and the Leftover Left", Encounter Books, 2001, he wrote about the CCS thusly, in the context of his being included in a group of communists and radicals going on a trip to Cuba (about 1970):

" ...Sandra Levinson, who had come to New York City as a radical superstar, put the trip together. Sandy was part of the "Ramparts" editorial group associated with Robert Scheer and Warren Hinckle, and was also regarded as a hot number, known as much for her miniskirts and boots as for her radical ideology. A new group that Sandy created with Cuban help, called the Center for Cuban Studies, sponsored this trip. Its neutral-sounding name hid the reality that the center functioned as the semi-official propaganda agency for Castro in the United States..." p. 123

A donation form enclosed in a February, 1979 CCS mailing had the following information on it:

"Your contribution of only $15 or more brings you all benefits of membership in the Center for Cuban Studies, including the "Center" magazines ("Cuba in Focus", "Cuba Update", and the quarterly bilingual "Canto Libre"), plus other special publications."

"In addition, you will receive free the beautiful Cuban Calendar for 1979 reproducing in full color 12 paintings by leading Cuban artists (regular price $10.00)."

"Enclosed is my tax deductible contribution to help keep the Center open to End the Embargo in 1979 on information, trade and friendship."

"Your contribution to the Center for Cuban Studies is tax-deductible. The Center is a non-profit, tax-exempt education organization."

The CPUSA's "educational" American Institute for Marxist Studies AIMS in the May-June, 1970 AIMS Newsletter, p. 1, described the CCS this way:

"The Center for Cuban Studies was established in New York City for the purpose of compiling and maintaining a comprehensive collection of documents and studies about revolutionary Cuba.".

Dollar amounts listed.

Members of the Center for Cuban Studies

• Lee Lockwood- "is a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Cuban Studies (CCS) in New York City. Found in the "Newsletter", May-June, 1970, p. 1, published by the American Institute for Marxist Studies (AIMS). Cited op. cit, "The Theory and Practice of Communism, Part 3, (EXPOCUBA), hearings, HISC, Oct. 17 and 18, 1973, p. 2248. More information about his communist activities is also found on p. 2248.

• Sandra Levinson - also describe in the EXPOCUBA hearing re the CCS as: "Sandra Levinson, of New York, was listed as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (NECLC). (Letterhead dates 1/15/75). THE NECLC has been cited by Congress as a CPUSA legal front. Also, it wrote: "Sandra Levinson, director of the Center for Cuban Studies, was the only one present at the time of the bombing of the center in New York City on March 29, 1973. (Guardian, 4/11/73, p. 8).

National Conference on Cuba 1979

The CCS advertised a "National Conference on Cuba" to be held on Saturday, November 3, 1979, 8:00 PM, at the Marxist-led Riverside Church, New York, New York. A notice of this event appeared in the Daily World (DW) of October 30, 1979, p. 11. The full text of this notice is as follows:

"National Conference on Cuba", Saturday, November 3, 1979, 8:00 PM: Speakers:

• Ramon Sanchez Parodi - Head of the Cuban Interests Section, Washington D.C.. A secret DGI operative
• The Honorable Ron Dellums , U.S. House of Representatives, (D-Calif)
• Lourdes Casal - professor, Rutgers University, member of Committee 75
• Cora Weiss - Director of Disarmament Program, Riverside Church
• and others

Representatives of the U.S. State Department have been invited to participate

Riverside Church Nave, 122nd St. and Riverside Drive, New York City

Admission: $5.00, Discount ticket: $2.50 (for students senior citizens, unemployed) There will be no tickets sold at the door. All tickets must be ordered by mail or picked up in advance from the Center for Cuban Studies. For further information: 685-8086

Center For Cuban Studies, 220 East 23rd Street, New York, New York, 10010