Free Cuba: January 2024

Gandhi King Payá Season for Nonviolence: January 30 - July 22

174 days to honor three icons of nonviolent resistance with the dates of their assassinations marking the start, midpoint and end of a series of events and exercises. Inspired by the 64 day Season for Nonviolence initiated by Dr. Arun Gandhi in 1998 and continued to the present day this event will focus on three icons of nonviolence who were martyred: Mohandas Gandhi on January 30, 1948, Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 and Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas on July 22, 2012. Each left behind a body of writings and a lifetime of activism that still inspire today. This effort falls within the guidelines of the 64 day Season for Nonviolence:

"The Season for Nonviolence represents a successful new model called, 'omni - local' conscious action: 'Engaging large numbers of self - empowered leaders and groups in a collective intention, supplied with strategic sharable tools, adding their own local resources to work globally with singular purpose.'"

Beginning on January 30, 2024 with this announcement we will focus on a number of actions that span the physical, the psychological and the spiritual. Dates that will involve concrete actions are the following:

January 30 - 76 year observance of the killing of Mohandas Gandhi

February 23 - 14 year observance of the death of Orlando Zapata Tamayo on Hunger Strike

February 24 - 28 year observance of the killings of four members of Brothers to the Rescue

April 4 - 56 year observance of the killing of Martin Luther King Jr.

May 10, - 22 year observance of the first Varela Project petitions delivered to the Cuban National Assembly.

May 8 - 13 year observance of the killing of Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia

May 25 - 52 year observance of the death of Pedro Luis Boitel on hunger strike

July 11 - Three year observance of 11J nationwide protests, and dictatorship’s crackdown

July 13 - 30 year observance of the "13 de Marzo" Tugboat sinking that killed 37

July 22 - 12 year observance of the killings of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, and Harold Cepero Escalante

The Objectives

Our objective is to create an awareness of nonviolent principles and practice as a powerful way to heal, transform and empower our lives and community. Through an educational and community action campaign, we will recognize those who have and are using nonviolence to build a community that honors the dignity and worth of every human being. By identifying “what works” in these new models for reconciliation and human harmony, this effort will demonstrate that every person can move the world in the direction of peace through their daily nonviolent choice and action.

The Vision

The Gandhi - King - Payá Season for Nonviolence

As a human family we are asking the question: “How can any act of violence be recognized as a solution to the consequences of violence that we face today?” Violent actions and reactions are t he scars of social, educational, and economic wounds... the voices of a spiritually inarticulate culture. The practice of nonviolence is initiated by choice and cultivated through agreement. The time has come to agree upon this as a global community as if our lives, and those of our children’s children, depended on it. Our vision is of a better world for all human beings. To this end, we undertake the “Gandhi - King Payá Season for Nonviolence” by applying our efforts and resources to identifying, then bringing focus to the spectrum of grassroots projects and programs by individuals and organizations who are pro - actualizing a peaceful social order.

Day 1 of the 174 Days of Gandhi King Payá

Watch the following videos related to Mohandas Gandhi. The first recorded in 1931 was the first interview given on camera to Mohandas Gandhi. The second video is a biography of the non-violent Indian icon. The final video is in Spanish and is by Sara Marta Fonseca, a recently exiled Cuban dissident and she speaks about the importance of Gandhi for activists in Cuba.