!Cliff DuRand Presente!

I knew Cliff briefly, in two early San Miguel conferences and in giving a recent webinar on degrowth in his series. I don't know much about the other capacities that others are remembering here (teacher, author, mentor, leader of revolutionary tours, political activist) but I want to remember one thing that others may not highlight: his subversive sense of humor.

I introduced the game Race to the Bottom to the Global Justice Center in one of the early conferences. I have played it elsewhere too, including regularly in my classes (I am doing it this week for the last time before retirement). Players divide into teams representing country policy makers trying to attract foreign capital, and decide how low they are willing to go in screwing their workers, families and poor people to produce conditions more favorable to capital. It is a fun game with enough realism that players have to think about tradeoffs and recognize the harm that capitalist penetration does to the poor of a country.

But it is fun, and playing it with Cliff was even more fun because he was always thinking of ways to stretch the rules and produce some surprises. I remember that he suggested that the teams representing the different countries could collude with each other and undercut the most rapacious features of export-led capitalism. In no other playing of the game has anyone suggested that.

He also injected a dose of role-playing realism that infected the other players. The more people ham it up, the more fun the game will be, but also the more likely it is to inspire them to think about the meaning.

Cliff was great at hamming it up. That is my final tribute to Cliff Durand, ¡presente!

Jack Hammond

Cliff did a terrific job instigating, encouraging, and organizing progressive discussion and activity in San Miguel. Covid has kept us away from SMA for most of the time since 2019. It is difficult to contemplate returning without Cliff there ... such a hole in the community. I hope the activities that he supported will continue, even without his animating force.

Cliff was a very thoughtful man, a progressive and logical Socialist thinker, a person who understood the destructive tyranny of racism and dysfunction of capitalism. He was never complacent, always constructive in his approaches, forever organizing, using pedagogical tools, preparing films and discussion groups where all those in the group had an equal voice. I first met Cliff around 2006 or 2007, when I attended one of the weekly conference programs which he had thoughtfully prepared. And over the years, I thoroughly enjoyed the many conferences and educational programs he always organized. So many of the topics were off limits back in the US and elsewhere. And always after the documentary or the lecture, a discussion was organized, and everyone was encouraged to participate. He put his thinking and ideals into resourceful action. I enjoyed collaborating with Cliff, volunteers, and other NGO groups here in San Miguel on the Climate Strike protest, march and then organized rally in Juarez Park back in September of 2019. Rest assured, he has earned his place in Heaven and may his Spirit never stop marching on here on Earth.

It is so sad to hear the news of Cliff passing away...
I met him (and Bob & Betsy) as when I was a graduate student at UMass, through their summer internship. We were bunch of rookies and Cliff and the Center folks helped us, nurtured us, put us in touch with communities, and supported us every possible way...
Years went by, I became an assistant professor, had a tiny bit of funding. I heard about the famous Cuba trips of Cliff. I joined one. It was incredible! Next year, we were able to organize a trip for my students to Cuba. It was a life changing experience for those kids! We wanted to do it again, but the window of opportunity to travel to Cuba closed down very fast.
Then, Cliff and the CGJ folks helped us put together another student trip to San Miguel. Again, an incredibly thoughtful, informative experience. Cliff himself being from the Midwest, was so kind, gentle and nurturing towards my students -most of them leaving the country for the very first time. He would lead our group with his hat and steady, long steps, and I would stay at the back of the group...
Like many people who had the privilege of meeting him, Cliff was a role model to me. I will miss him immensely.

CLIFF DURAND AND A “THEORY OF NETWORKING”

Harry Targ

Many activists among us worked to end the system of Jim Crow in the South and the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s with some success. However, we often questioned whether our work was impactful. We did not recognize that “impactfulness” was not just about “revolution”: it was about educating people, developing friendships, building communities of activism, and planting the seeds for bigger and bigger changes to come. Central to impactfulness was networking; that is building a community of shared values, a common language, and similar political work in a variety of spaces and places.

Cliff DuRand created networks of progressives far and wide. He was a co-founder of the Radical Philosophy Association. He and his comrades began a conversation with Cuban scholars in the 1980s that led to the first Radical Philosophy Association academic conference in Cuba in 1990. Every year thereafter 20 to 50 academics and other activists met in Havana to share knowledge and comradeship with each other and our Cuban hosts. Participants in these conferences became friends, invited each other to work together, and generally developed a national and cross-national group of scholar/activists.

In addition, many of us developed deep friendships with our colleagues and comrades from Cuba. Often, before the imposition of new draconian US policies, Cuban scholars attended conferences in the United States, visited some of our universities, helped establish study abroad programs for US students, and collaborated to oppose United States policy toward Cuba. And the networking about Cuba was replicated in a variety of activities that Cliff and his friends initiated at the Center for Global Justice in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico: conferences, webinars, and tours.

On hearing of Cliff’s death I reflected on what Cliff Durand’s “networking” meant to me. If I had not attended that first and subsequent conferences in Cuba I would not have begun serious study of US/Cuban relations, would not have taught a course on the subject, and would not have taken a group of students to a study abroad in Cuba. I would not have made lasting friendships with Cuban scholars or have published articles with them. I would not have attended conferences of the Radical Philosophy Association or attended conferences on globalization at the Center of Global Justice. Finally, I would not have developed deep friendships with people I met in Cuba, Mexico, and at RPA conferences.

When one thinks in this way about networking, comrades like Cliff Durand have had an enormous effect, not only on me but on hundreds, maybe thousands of others. And therefore we owe him a debt of gratitude for his impact on our lives.

He will be missed.

Cliff Durand and the Center for Global Justice have been a major influence on my issue-oriented life here in Kent, Ohio. My wife, Kathy, and I winter vacationed in San Miguel for 7 years after I retired from Kent State University as an emeritus professor of teacher education. We attended Global Justice and Occupy SM sessions 3-5 days a week because all the speakers, discussions, panels, debates, films, etc. were so informative and thoughtful. Because of my regular attendance, Cliff encouraged me to become active when returning home. I started becoming involved with 2 key issues – Move to Amend and climate change, and I am still active with these issues today, 5 years after our last 3- month stay in SMA. I formed a team to get an election year public hearing approved by Kent City Council. It is called Democracy Day and the focus is on advocating eliminating personhood from corporations and getting the money out of politics, which are issues related to Move to Amend. I am also more heavily involved in the issue of climate change here in Kent and we have before Kent City Council a climate action plan designed by a global sustainability business which will be voted on next month. I was part of the original CAP committee. I also chaired a solar committee at our Unitarian Universalist Church and we recently signed a contract to install solar panels as our alternative electric energy source for the new fellowship hall addition built last year.
THANK YOU, CLIFF. You have made my retired life so much more meaningful and satisfying. May the GLOBAL JUSTICE CENTER continue the fight for our democratic values! Bill Wilen, Kent, Ohio

Remembering Cliff

In 2001, I joined Cliff on an academic trip to Cuba. Our friendship took root as we planned ways to bring Cuban speakers to the Berea College campus. Cliff had a remarkable talent for weaving people into programs that benefit the community. When Cliff joined Betsy and Bob at the Center for Global Justice, he invited me to serve as director of the summer internship program. During those summers in SMA, I grew in friendship with Julie and Cliff. We shared comida at their various homes and planned events with international speakers like Mexico’s Gustavo Esteva and Cuba’s Miguel Limia. While Cliff was a creative force for academic activism, he was also a consummate intellectual. His charlas at the Unitarian Church were the best presentations on Cuba I have ever heard. Moreover, Cliff could keep a calm and steady voice in the midst a group’s leftist passionate discourse. He kept us all on track. Cliff Durand gave his life to help others grow in their understanding of a world that needs to make room for everyone.

recordando un amigo…..Cliff Durand

En 2001, acompañé a Cliff en un viaje académico a Cuba. Nuestra amistad se arraigo cuando planeamos formas de traer hablantes cubanos al campus de Berea College. Cliff tenía un talento extraordinario para integrar a las personas en programas que benefician a la comunidad.

Cuando Cliff se unió a Betsy y Bob en el Centro para la Justicia Global, me invitó a servir como director del programa de “internships de verano.” Durante esos veranos en SMA, crecí en amistad con Julie y Cliff. Compartimos comida en sus diversas casas y planeamos eventos con oradores internacionales como Gustavo Esteva de México y Miguel Limia de Cuba. Si bien Cliff fue una fuerza creativa para el activismo académico, también fue un intelectual consumado. Sus charlas en la Iglesia Unitaria fueron las mejores presentaciones sobre Cuba que he escuchado. Además, Cliff podía mantener una voz tranquila y firme en medio del apasionado discurso izquierdista de un grupo. Nos mantuvo a todos en el buen camino. Cliff Durand dio su vida para ayudar a otros a crecer en su comprensión de un mundo que necesita hacer espacio para todos.

Remembering Cliff

In 2001, I joined Cliff on an academic trip to Cuba. Our friendship took root as we planned ways to bring Cuban speakers to the Berea College campus. Cliff had a remarkable talent for weaving people into programs that benefit the community. When Cliff joined Betsy and Bob at the Center for Global Justice, he invited me to serve as director of the summer internship program. During those summers in SMA, I grew in friendship with Julie and Cliff. We shared comida at their various homes and planned events with international speakers like Mexico’s Gustavo Esteva and Cuba’s Miguel Limia. While Cliff was a creative force for academic activism, he was also a consummate intellectual. His charlas at the Unitarian Church were the best presentations on Cuba I have ever heard. Moreover, Cliff could keep a calm and steady voice in the midst a group’s leftist passionate discourse. He kept us all on track. Cliff Durand gave his life to help others grow in their understanding of a world that needs to make room for everyone.

recordando un amigo…..Cliff Durand

En 2001, acompañé a Cliff en un viaje académico a Cuba. Nuestra amistad se arraigo cuando planeamos formas de traer hablantes cubanos al campus de Berea College. Cliff tenía un talento extraordinario para integrar a las personas en programas que benefician a la comunidad.

Cuando Cliff se unió a Betsy y Bob en el Centro para la Justicia Global, me invitó a servir como director del programa de “internships de verano.” Durante esos veranos en SMA, crecí en amistad con Julie y Cliff. Compartimos comida en sus diversas casas y planeamos eventos con oradores internacionales como Gustavo Esteva de México y Miguel Limia de Cuba. Si bien Cliff fue una fuerza creativa para el activismo académico, también fue un intelectual consumado. Sus charlas en la Iglesia Unitaria fueron las mejores presentaciones sobre Cuba que he escuchado. Además, Cliff podía mantener una voz tranquila y firme en medio del apasionado discurso izquierdista de un grupo. Nos mantuvo a todos en el buen camino. Cliff Durand dio su vida para ayudar a otros a crecer en su comprensión de un mundo que necesita hacer espacio para todos.

To better the world people need to know what the world is like.

But for decades in the United States, the time Television spent on the outside world every day was two minutes.

In classrooms American teachers could educate their students, but who would educate the educators?

Cliff Durand and Bob Stone founded the Radical Philosophy Association to coordinate the activities of American academics in the service of the people. The Association organized junkets of United States philosophers to Third World countries in order to acquaint them with the living conditions of underclasses in the downtrodden and oppressed countries of the earth.

One of those countries was Cuba. Down to 1959 Cuba was under the thumb of the American mafia and its drug lords, Cuba was the playground where the American ruling class went to have fun on vacations with drugs, gambling and prostitution. Cuba was an economic colony of U.S. sugar monopolies--they paid black canecutters beggar wages and took away the white gold. Starvation stalked the land.

The Cuban Revolution aimed to change that.

For more than half a century Washington has tried to strangle revolutionary Cuba with an economic blockade that violates international law. To violate law is criminal. For decades the 200 countries of the world have backed the United Nations' condemnation of the United States as an international criminal. The UN condemnation occurs every year.

But the White House laughs at international law.

Uncle Sam thumbs his nose at the United Nations.

Washington does not recognize the International Court of justice in the Hague.

For the majority of the American people the outside world is a mystery. They can't find other countries on the world map. Half the Americans not only do not know anything about other countries, they cannot even find the United States on the world map.

In a black college Cliff Durand spent his life telling American blacks what is going on in the world. He also explained their racist oppression in the United States.

Cliff was a master of the "one by one" principle of propaganda. The "one by one" principle was proclaimed by Saint Paul who said to his disciple Timothy, "The things that you have heard from me commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Paul taught Timothy, Timothy taught others, they converted evermore others One by one the Christians converted the Roman Empire.

How did Cliff apply this principle?

For decades, every year Cliff arranged for different US Organizations and Individuals to go on a trip to Cuba in order to inform themselves on conditions there. They went back to the country to inform their communities, who in turn talked to others. Washington tried to keep Americans from visiting Cuba. A trip to Cuba was a trip to forbidden fruit and people talked about their trip with many. They spread information far and wide.

Cliff's trips were so successful and the Cubans were so grateful that they gave Cliff the highest award the Revolution had to offer. They proclaimed him "A hero of socialist Cuba."

Cliff's achievement is remarkable since he had trouble talking Spanish. But his tremendous energy and organizational ability made up for this difficulty. And year by year he took to Cuba Americans who had a platform to speak from.

Cliff was a skilled scholar on the American Left. Some of us on the American Left supported the Soviet Union because it offered "cradle-to-the-grave" economic security to its working people. But in the 1980s Cliff warned the American Left that the centralized planning system in the Soviet Union was strangling its economy. The essence of science is prediction, and Cliff predicted that the Soviet economy would finally collapse. Cliff also explained the collapse of Maoism in China.

With the passing of Cliff we have all lost a comrade whose life was a struggle to know the truth and to serve the people. He is not gone as long as his name is still spoken. He will live on to keep us on the path to Truth and to inspire us to work for the down-and-out.

El 17 de marzo nuestro amigo Cliff Durand dejó su cuerpo material en San Miguel de Allende, en México, lugar en el que decidió residir desde 2004, donde fundó junto con otros amigos el Centro para la Justicia Global desde donde se realizan acciones para la reflexión crítica frente al capital, y de promoción solidaria con causas sociales y pueblos en México y el resto del mundo. Las y los compañeros CJG jugaron un papel fundamental al posibilitar el contacto con el Programa de Facultad Abierta de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina desde 2007, en el inicio de la Red La Economía de los Trabajadores, presentes siempre en las actividades que venimos desarrollando. Desde la CDMX enviamos un abrazo cariñoso para su familia y a nuestros queridos amigos Betsy Bowman, Bob Stone, Liz Mestres, Yolanda Millán y el resto de los miembros del Centro para la Justicia Global.

¡Hasta la Victoria Siempre!

Celia Pacheco, María Lucero Jiménez, Andrés Ruggueri, Marco Gómez

Gary and I met Cliff the first time we arrived in San Miguel. We were thrilled to find a group of people who were socio-political activists like us and so glad that Cliff invited us to join the Global Justice group. Later, I served on the UU Social Justice committee for three years with Cliff and always appreciated and respected Cliff's input. Our first trip to Cuba was also with Global Justice due to Cliff's inspirational teachings about Cuba. We will miss him greatly!

Gary and I met Cliff when we first moved to San Miguel in 2011. When Cliff invited us to support the Global Justice group we were thrilled to find a group of people who shared our social activist views, and who wanted to work to make the world a more just and peaceful place for all. I served on the UU Social Justice Committee for three years with Cliff. and always appreciated his input and views during our discussions. We will greatly miss Cliff when we come down to San Miguel. We honor his memory!!

Cliff será recordado por muchos cubanos y cubanas como yo por su solidaridad y capacidad de análisis de la realidad, logros y grandes desafíos de la revolución cubana, de forma crítica y comprometida.Gracias a Cliff y al equipo de GJC, incontables personas de EE.UU. visitaron Cuba y conocieron la tan "temible" realidad cubana que los centros de poder capitalista no quieren que se conozca porque demuestra lo tanto que se puede hacer con tan pocos recursos cuando la sociedad esta organizada no al servicio del capital sino de las necesidades de las mayorías. Muchos cubanos pudimos compartir los resultados de nuestras investigaciones en eventos y publicaciones internacionales gracias a Uds. también. Les estaremos eternamente agradecidos y sabemos que el ejemplo de Cliff ya está vivo y renovado en otr@s miembros del equipo CGJ. Reciban un fuerte abrazo colectivo para todo el equipo,
Camila

I join many many others with a heavy heart in remembering Cliff. Cliff was such an unusual person with such strong sympathy with others along with strong commitment to principles of justice, freedom, equality, and solidarity. Since I first knew Cliff in the RPA in the late sixties, I saw him as a leader, cooperant, guide, follower, and friend. He inspired many, gave guidance widely, and joined in the battle for a new world. We can honour him by continuing on the paths that he and his friends long followed. His examples will be with us always. Cliff will never be forgotten and always honoured with gratitude.

I met Cliff in 1993 on a trip to the philosophy conference in Havana. The trip was informative, eye-opening, helped me understand history, and gave me a chance to make friends. I am thankful for Cliff’s dedication and jovial spirit. Sending my condolences to his family and friends. Peter Sakura, Newton Massachusetts.

I went one of Cliff’s many trips to Cuba and had my eyes opened to the inhumanity of the Cuban situation. Without a doubt, Cliff has made a huge contribution to peace in our world. Farewell dear teacher and friend. Julie, my condolences to you and your family. From a friend near your Asheville, NC home.

This a sad occasion, marking the end of one committed socialist outlook regarding the Southern Tier countries and Cuba. Cliff was a learned, genial and open-minded leader and organizer of several trips I joined, the latest on worker cooperatives in 2017. These were very productive engagements with the Cuban economy and society which deeply enhanced my understanding and approach to Cuba. I will always be grateful to Cliff for giving us/me such an opportunity to understand the Cuban Revolution and its development over the years. Thanks Cliff! and my condolences to his family and many friends in San Miguel Allende.

Cliff leaves us a vibrantr, multi-faceted model of vision, composure and uncompromised commitment to and effection action toward a better world. A meticulous student and consummate teacher for us all. I will miss his warmth, understanding and twinkle in his eyes and am so grateful to have known him. Adelante companeros.

Mary Rushfield, MA, MA, MLIS
Technical Liaison, “Technical Economic Analysis of Cuban Hospital Services”
Instituto Nacional de Higiene, Epidemiología y Microbiología (La Habana, Cuba)

Cliff leaves us a vibrant multi-faceted model of vision, composure and uncompromised commitment to and effective action toward a better world. A meticulous student and consummate teacher for us all. I will miss his warmth, understanding and twinkle in his eyes and am profoundly grateful to have known him. Adelante companeros.

Mary Rushfield, MA, MA, MLIS
Technical Liaison, “Technical Economic Analysis of Cuban Hospital Services”
Instituto Nacional de Higiene, Epidemiología y Microbiología (La Habana, Cuba)

Tuve el honor de conocer a Cliff hace varios años, más allá de las capacidades intelectuales que siempre le reconoceré, quiero recordar a la persona, esa persona apasionada en temas de justicia social, de búsqueda de caminos diferentes para lograr los cambios que requiere el mundo actual, cambios que ayuden a disminuir la brecha entre riqueza y pobreza, cuando abordaba los temas de la crisis climática, los temas de la igualdad de género, cuando nos compartía sus experiencias sobre los viajes a Cuba, sobre el cooperativismo, verlo hablar de esos temas, ver en su cara esa luz, ese enorme deseo de alcanzar tantas metas de paz social, de colaboración entre pares para lograr un mejor mundo. Todas esas vivencias se quedan en mi memoria con mucho cariño y admiración.
Un abrazo para Julie y su familia, de todo corazón.
Cliff, ¡Hasta la victoria siempre!

La lucha continua!
Thanks for all you did to make the world better.
You are missed!

La lucha continua
Thanks for all you did, Cliff!
Joan and Bill

I had the pleasure to meet Cliff on one of his many trips to Cuba. Mine was in 2012. Cliff was a supporter of the Cuban Revolution which needs our solidarity more than ever. Cliff DuRand Presente!
Roger Harris, Task Force on the Americas

A wonderful comrade, true to the end. His spirit will live on.

Thank you Cliff for your irrepressible pursuit of justice and search for a better world. Thanks to his family for sharing so much of his time. His work will live on in the thoughts and work of people whom he touched. We never ca be sure we will create a better world but it is the work of people like Cliff and our work together that is the foundation of progress.
Thanks Cliff!

As a philosopher, I traveled many times with Cliff to Cuba from ~1998-2005 and helped organize the conference at University of Havana on several of those occasions. I learned a lot about Cuban history and politics, the sordid history of US foreign intervention in the region, and made life long friends along the way. All of us will continue along the path that Cliff blazed for us: to end the embargo, improve US-Cuba relations using education and face-to-face encounters with our Cuban brothers and sisters, and to make a better world for all future generations. Venceremos!

Mark and I met Cliff when we attended the 2014 Global Justice conference in San Miguel, and first became acquainted with all that he and the Center were doing. Previously we had met Bob in New York, and he had arranged to screen our film Argentina - Hope in Hard Times in San Miguel. At the 2014 conference we screened it again, and also our film Shift Change about worker coops in Mondragon and the U.S. As you can see we have commitments to many of the same causes as Cliff. We next worked with him on a trip to Cuba in 2017 that was focused on Cuban coops. That was a difficult trip since Trump made his anti-Cuba speech the day we arrived, and some of the coop visits were cancelled. Cliff and others did their best to make the most of the time there for all of us participants, and we appreciated that. More recently during Covid and after we have enjoyed the forums on-line that Cliff helped host. So,THANK YOU, CLIFF, FOR ALL OF YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS THAT HAVE BENEFITTED US AND SO MANY OTHERS. And thanks to you at the Center who are continuing this important work.
Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin, Moving Images, Whidbey Island WA

San Miguel won't be the same without Cliff. Knowing he is gone I am realizing how much I depended on his dedication to analysis, action, and education. I talk about the problems and attempt to analyze them but usually fall short on organizing the necessary action whereas Cliff never gave up on it. Along with Bob and Betsy, organizing the seminars, films, discussions and later the webinars he reached out to hundreds, if not thousands of people who needed an honest source of uncensored information in their lives. And he gave them an opportunity to engage in discussion about it. His contribution to the Center was enormous. To honor Cliff and continue his legacy we need to turn his "Venceremos" promise into a reality!

San Miguel won't be the same without Cliff. Knowing he is gone I am realizing how much I depended on his dedication to analysis, action, and education. I talk about the problems and attempt to analyze them but usually fall short on organizing the necessary action whereas Cliff never gave up on it. Along with Bob and Betsy, organizing the seminars, films, discussions and later the webinars he reached out to hundreds, if not thousands of people who needed an honest source of uncensored information in their lives. And he gave them an opportunity to engage in discussion about it. His contribution to the Center was enormous. To honor Cliff and continue his legacy we need to turn his "Venceremos" promise into a reality!

Me gustaría expresar un reconocimiento a la capacidad de solidaridad inquebrantable de Cliff, que como compañero de trabajo, conocí durante 3 años. He admirado durante todo este tiempo la infatigable capacidad de trabajo de investigación, difusión y debate. Quiero dejar constancia de los trabajos de Cliff, para liderar los webinars vía Zoom, que surgieron ante las restricciones propias de la pandemia del Covid. Todas las sesiones fueron organizadas de manera semanal a partir de junio del año 2020, hasta la fecha de su deceso. Venceremos Cliff.