Northampton, MA stands in solidarity with Cuba
Northampton, MA – On July 26, the River Valley Anti-War Committee (RAWC) called a rally to stand in solidarity with Cuba. The rally was held in Pulaski Park in downtown Northampton to demand the U.S. lift the blockade and for the Trump administration to cease its drive toward war with Cuba.
The rally was attended by over 30 community members holding signs reading “Cuba is not a threat” and “Stop the embargo.” A trio of teenage activists held a hand painted banner that proclaimed “Hands off Cuba! Break the blockade!” In between speakers, the attendees chanted, “Biggest threat in the world today? Donald Trump and the USA!” and “We want justice, you say how! Lift the blockade on Cuba now!” earning applause and cheers of encouragement from community members passing by the park on several occasions.
Aidan Mastroianni of RAWC opened the rally, “July 26 is widely considered the spark that began the Cuban revolution that would go on to topple the U.S.-backed dictatorship,” he said, detailing the importance of July 26 to the history of Cuba.
Mastroianni continued by denouncing the 100-page document recently published by the U.S. State Department titled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism,” stating that this is “an attempt to fool the people of this country into supporting yet another illegal military intervention against a sovereign nation” and that it contains “mostly fantastical lies and outright projection.”
Sadie Ryan, a member of Mass Cuba Solidarity, talked about the declassified federal documents that clearly lay out the reasoning and tactics employed by the U.S. government when the blockade was first enacted.
“The most effective means of undermining the popular revolution was to isolate and suffocate the country,” said Ryan, quoting one of the many similar documents available to the public. “The strategy was clear: to tighten the noose around the Cuban people to deliberately produce hunger, desperation and overthrow of the government.”
“Why do we demonize the country that has uplifted and helped so many nations when inside the belly of the beast we are told to support only destruction?” asked Roman Handlen of the River Valley district of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, as he spoke about the tradition of internationalism upheld for generations by the people of Cuba. “Why was our government spending so much time, money and energy trying to destroy the Cuban people when America’s own people struggled in poverty?”
Handlen continued, contrasting how by 1960 the Cuban government had outlawed discrimination and institutional racism with the fact that Black Americans in the Black Belt south continued to suffer under Jim Crow laws.
Several speakers ended their speeches with calls to visit Cuba on one of the many solidarity brigades that make the trip yearly and to continue their solidarity work.
“The experience and perspective gained from traveling to Cuba is essential for us to continue to expand our advocacy and solidarity work here,” said Jaiden O’Kane of the River Valley Democratic Socialists of America. “Every conversation we start, every voice we amplify strengthens our solidarity and builds our movement.”
Aidan Mastroianni closed out the rally by echoing this call to visit Cuba stating, “See for yourself that they are not our enemy, see what kind of society they have built and how much of a lie the mainstream narrative we have been fed for decades is.”