SEVERAL MILLION Cubans will be bused and marched and otherwise dragged to the center of Havana and other cities today for the annual state-directed
commemoration of May 1. This year's event will have a particularly ugly tone: The official theme is condemnation of the "treasonous sycophants" -- otherwise known
as the democratic governments of Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile and Guatemala -- which joined in supporting a resolution on Cuba at the
United Nations Human Rights Commission last month. The Latin American-sponsored resolution called on Fidel Castro's government to grant his people human, civil
and political rights. Naturally, the suggestion that Cuba join the post-Cold War, post-Communist world enraged the 75-year-old dictator. Only "servile" American
agents, his spokesmen claimed, would press such an agenda.

And yet, thousands of brave Cubans are about to publicly prove Mr. Castro wrong. Within weeks, say dissident activists, Mr. Castro's rubber-stamp National
Assembly will be presented with a petition signed by more than 10,000 citizens, demanding that a national referendum be held on the introduction of freedom of
expression, free elections, the right to private enterprise and an amnesty for political prisoners. The initiative is designed to put Mr. Castro on the spot: According to
Cuba's constitution, the assembly is obliged to consider and vote on any measure put before it by 10,000 registered voters.

Most Cuba-watchers expect Mr. Castro will find a way to avoid following his own law. But the successful petition drive, called the Varela Project, nevertheless
represents a far more impressive public demonstration than those orchestrated by his regime. Despite the considerable risk of official reprisal, 10,000 Cubans -- in a
country with a population of only 11 million -- were willing to step out and affix their names to an initiative that essentially seeks to replace Mr. Castro's stale
totalitarianism with the political and economic freedom that now prevails everywhere else in the Western Hemisphere. That Cuban dissidents from some 140 groups
were able to gather the signatures over the course of a year, despite having no access to the media and plenty of harassment from security services, is itself a triumph
for human rights -- and a sure sign that Mr. Castro's system is crumbling. "In a culture of fear, change begins when people overcome their fear," organizer Oswaldo
Paya told The Post's Kevin Sullivan.

Though the Cuban government predictably claims the referendum movement is a creation of the United States, it is not -- in fact, some hard-line Cuban exile groups
have perversely opposed it. Debate about Cuba in the United States remains centered on the economic embargo and whether or not it should be further eased or
lifted. Former president Jimmy Carter is due to travel to Havana this month, invited by Mr. Castro precisely because of his anti-embargo position. The Varela Project
ought to move to the center of this discussion, and to Mr. Carter's agenda. Mr. Castro should be told that the United States stands with the Cubans who signed that
grass-roots petition. Until it is granted, no further easing of the embargo should be considered.

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