Jacksonville, FL rally in solidary with Cuba and Venezuela
Jacksonville, FL – On March 3, around 30 community members and organizers rallied in front of the Federal Courthouse that once housed the office of Florida Senator-turned Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
The action was called by the Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network (JPSN) to stand in solidarity with Cuba and Venezuela, as well as Iran, Lebanon and Palestine as the Trump administration rapidly escalates its wars across the globe.
“Some of you may be asking: ‘Why is a Palestine organization calling an action for Cuba?’” said JPSN organizer Ryan Delaney. “Because when the U.S. kidnaps the president of Venezuela, cuts off critical oil to the country with the longest standing recognition of a Palestinian state in the Western hemisphere, and starts redirecting that oil to Israel instead, it becomes impossible to ignore that the struggle of every nation under the thumb of imperialism is bound together.”
JPSN organizers spoke to the crowd about the developments in Iran and Lebanon, as well as the longstanding solidarity between Palestine, Cuba and Venezuela, and what the oil blockages mean for the Cuban people before tying it back to JPSN’s campaign to end collaboration between Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT) and the war profiteers that have been fueling the genocide in Palestine such as Maersk, ZIM, and Mediterranean Shipping Company.
Jacksonville-based Navy ships and helicopters were photographed participating in the U.S.– Israeli attack on Iran, and the USS Iwo Jima that President Nicolás Maduro was transported on during his kidnapping was subsequently docked in Jacksonville’s Mayport. Many of the weapons and munitions used in the genocide in Palestine that are produced by war profiteering factories in the Black Belt South are in turn shipped through Jacksonville.
The crowd left with a clear call to action – JPSN is organizing to end JAXPORT’s deadliest contracts with war profiteers in order to end Jacksonville’s complicity in war and genocide. JPSN called on all people of conscience to join them in order to get involved in the Genocide Out of Jaxport campaign.