National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression denounces U.S.  criminal interference in Cuba

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following July 26 statement from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

What the U.S. is doing in Cuba is criminal. The U.S. blockade of the small island nation of eleven million is meant to put a stranglehold on the people. The economic disruption caused by the U.S. embargo causes shortages and difficulties across the island. Not only does the U.S. embargo stop U.S. businesses from trading with Cuba, it punishes companies in other countries that trade with Cuba.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of offering economic and medical cooperation, the U.S. attempted to cause trouble in Cuba by funding and provoking small groups of reactionaries. This came just as Cuba was rolling out a vaccine program to benefit every person on the island and reopen the tourist economy.

The response of Cuba’s leaders to the U.S. provocation was to mobilize large rallies with tens and hundreds of thousands of people from unions, community groups, and other sectors of society. These massive rallies for the defense of the Cuban revolution go largely unreported in U.S. media, but social media allows us to see them. We will not be fooled.

Of course, if one wishes to find political repression in Cuba, the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay detention camp is the place to look. The U.S. tortured and held under “indefinite detention without trial” hundreds of prisoners from U.S. wars in the Middle East. Prisoners are still held there today. The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base needs to be closed and returned to its rightful owners, the Cuban people.

The U.S. government, under the thumb of Wall Street financiers, has a long history of violent intervention in Cuba, from the Bay of Pigs invasion, to repeated assassination attempts on Fidel Castro, to organizing Florida based terrorists blowing up planes and physically attacking those who disagree with them. It is no surprise that masses of people across Cuba would mobilize against U.S. backed reactionaries and demand respect for Cuban independence, democracy and sovereignty.

We call for an immediate end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba. We call to restore diplomatic, trade, travel and cultural ties between the U.S. and Cuba. We call for an end to U.S. backed assassination attempts against Cuba’s leaders, as recently happened in Haiti. We call for solidarity with the Cuban people and their government. The Cuban people are in charge of their own destiny and have been ever since their revolution began on this day, July 26, in 1953.

#Chicago #Cuba #FidelCastro #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #blockadeOfCuba #Americas

In honor of Fidel Castro’s birthday, Fight Back! is circulating a speech he delivered on May 1, 2003. Castro was born on August 13, 1926. Enjoy.

Cuba's achievements and America's wars

Distinguished guests;

Dear fellow Cubans:

Our heroic people have struggled for 44 years from this small Caribbean island just a few miles away from the most formidable imperial power ever known by mankind. In so doing, they have written an unprecedented chapter in history. Never has the world witnessed such an unequal fight.

Some may have believed that the rise of the empire to the status of the sole superpower, with a military and technological might with no balancing pole anywhere in the world, would frighten or dishearten the Cuban people. Yet, today they have no choice but to watch in amazement the enhanced courage of this valiant people. On a day like today, this glorious international workers’ day, which commemorates the death of the five martyrs of Chicago, I declare, on behalf of the one million Cubans gathered here, that we will face up to any threats, we will not yield to any pressures, and that we are prepared to defend our homeland and our Revolution with ideas and with weapons to our last drop of blood.

What is Cuba’s sin? What honest person has any reason to attack her?

With their own blood and the weapons seized from the enemy, the Cuban people overthrew a cruel tyranny with 80,000 men under arms, imposed by the U.S. government.

Cuba was the first territory free from imperialist domination in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the only country in the hemisphere, throughout post-colonial history, where the torturers, murderers and war criminals that took the lives of tens of thousands of people were exemplarily punished.

All of the country’s land was recovered and turned over to the peasants and agricultural workers. The natural resources, industries and basic services were placed in the hands of their only true owner: the Cuban nation.

In less than 72 hours, fighting ceaselessly, day and night, Cuba crushed the Bay of Pigs mercenary invasion organized by a U.S. administration, thereby preventing a direct military intervention by this country and a war of incalculable consequences. The Revolution already had the Rebel Army, over 400,000 weapons and hundreds of thousands of militia members.

In 1962, Cuba confronted with honor, and without a single concession, the risk of being attacked with dozens of nuclear weapons.

It defeated the dirty war that spread throughout the entire country, at a cost in human lives even greater than that of the war of liberation.

It stoically endured thousands of acts of sabotage and terrorist attacks organized by the U.S. government.

It thwarted hundreds of assassination plots against the leaders of the Revolution.

While under a rigorous blockade and economic warfare that have lasted for almost half a century, Cuba was able to eradicate in just one year the illiteracy that has still not been overcome in the course of more than four decades by the rest of the countries of Latin America, or the United States itself.

It has brought free education to 100% of the country’s children.

It has the highest school retention rate –over 99% between kindergarten and ninth grade– of all of the nations in the hemisphere.

Its elementary school students rank first worldwide in the knowledge of their mother language and mathematics.

The country also ranks first worldwide with the highest number of teachers per capita and the lowest number of students per classroom.

All children with physical or mental challenges are enrolled in special schools.

Computer education and the use of audiovisual methods now extend to all of the country’s children, adolescents and youth, in both the cities and the countryside.

For the first time in the world, all young people between the ages of 17 and 30, who were previously neither in school nor employed, have been given the opportunity to resume their studies while receiving an allowance.

All citizens have the possibility of undertaking studies that will take them from kindergarten to a doctoral degree without spending a penny.

Today, the country has 30 university graduates, intellectuals and professional artists for every one there was before the Revolution.

The average Cuban citizen today has at the very least a ninth-grade level of education.

Not even functional illiteracy exists in Cuba.

There are schools for the training of artists and art instructors throughout all of the country’s provinces, where over 20,000 young people are currently studying and developing their talent and vocation. Tens of thousands more are doing the same at vocational schools, and many of these then go on to undertake professional studies.

University campuses are progressively spreading to all of the country’s municipalities. Never in any other part of the world has such a colossal educational and cultural revolution taken place as this that will turn Cuba, by far, into the country with the highest degree of knowledge and culture in the world, faithful to Martí’s profound conviction that “no freedom is possible without culture.”

Infant mortality has been reduced from 60 per 1000 live births to a rate that fluctuates between 6 and 6.5, which is the lowest in the hemisphere, from the United States to Patagonia.

Life expectancy has increased by 15 years.

Infectious and contagious diseases like polio, malaria, neonatal tetanus, diphtheria, measles, rubella, mumps, whooping cough and dengue have been eradicated; others like tetanus, meningococcal meningitis, hepatitis B, leprosy, haemophilus meningitis and tuberculosis are fully controlled.

Today, in our country, people die of the same causes as in the most highly developed countries: cardiovascular diseases, cancer, accidents, and others, but with a much lower incidence.

A profound revolution is underway to bring medical services closer to the population, in order to facilitate access to health care centers, save lives and alleviate suffering.

In-depth research is being carried out to break the chain, mitigate or reduce to a minimum the problems that result from genetic, prenatal or childbirth-related causes.

Cuba is today the country with the highest number of doctors per capita in the world, with almost twice as many as those that follow closer.

Our scientific centers are working relentlessly to find preventive or therapeutic solutions for the most serious diseases.

Cubans will have the best healthcare system in the world, and will continue to receive all services absolutely free of charge.

Social security covers 100% of the country’s citizens.

In Cuba, 85% of the people own their homes and they pay no property taxes on them whatsoever. The remaining 15% pay a wholly symbolic rent, which is only 10% of their salary.

Illegal drug use involves a negligible percentage of the population, and is being resolutely combated.

Lottery and other forms of gambling have been banned since the first years of the Revolution to ensure that no one pins their hopes of progress on luck.

There is no commercial advertising on Cuban television and radio or in our printed publications. Instead, these feature public service announcements concerning health, education, culture, physical education, sports, recreation, environmental protection, and the fight against drugs, accidents and other social problems. Our media educate, they do not poison or alienate. They do not worship or exalt the values of decadent consumer societies.

Discrimination against women was eradicated, and today women make up 64% of the country’s technical and scientific workforce.

From the earliest months of the Revolution, not a single one of the forms of racial discrimination copied from the south of the United States was left intact. In recent years, the Revolution has been particularly striving to eliminate any lingering traces of the poverty and lack of access to education that afflicted the descendants of those who were enslaved for centuries, creating objective differences that tended to be perpetuated. Soon, not even a shadow of the consequences of that terrible injustice will remain.

There is no cult of personality around any living revolutionary, in the form of statues, official photographs, or the names of streets or institutions. The leaders of this country are human beings, not gods.

In our country there are no paramilitary forces or death squads, nor has violence ever been used against the people. There are no executions without due process and no torture. The people have always massively supported the activities of the Revolution. This rally today is proof of that.

Light years separate our society from what has prevailed until today in the rest of the world. We cultivate brotherhood and solidarity among individuals and peoples both in the country and abroad.

The new generations and the entire people are being educated about the need to protect the environment. The media are used to build environmental awareness.

Our country steadfastly defends its cultural identity, assimilating the best of other cultures while resolutely combating everything that distorts, alienates and degrades.

The development of wholesome, non-professional sports has raised our people to the highest ranks worldwide in medals and honors.

Scientific research, at the service of our people and all humanity, has increased several-hundredfold. As a result of these efforts, important medications are saving lives in Cuba and other countries.

Cuba has never undertaken research or development of a single biological weapon, because this would be in total contradiction with the principles and philosophy underlying the education of our scientific personnel, past and present.

In no other people has the spirit of international solidarity become so deeply rooted.

Our country supported the Algerian patriots in their struggle against French colonialism, at the cost of damaging political and economic relations with such an important European country as France.

We sent weapons and troops to defend Algeria from Moroccan expansionism, when the king of this country sought to take control of the iron mines of Gara Djebilet, near the city of Tindouf, in southwest Algeria.

At the request of the Arab nation of Syria, a full tank brigade stood guard between 1973 and 1975 alongside the Golan Heights, when this territory was unjustly seized from that country.

The leader of the Republic of Congo when it first achieved independence, Patrice Lumumba, who was harassed from abroad, received our political support. When he was assassinated by the colonial powers in January of 1961, we lent assistance to his followers.

Four years later, in 1965, Cuban blood was shed in the western region of Lake Tanganyika, where Che Guevara and more than 100 Cuban instructors supported the Congolese rebels who were fighting against white mercenaries in the service of the man supported by the West, that is, Mobutu whose 40 billion dollars, the same that he stole, nobody knows what European banks they are kept in, or in whose power.

The blood of Cuban instructors was shed while training and supporting the combatants of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, who fought under the command of Amilcar Cabral for the liberation of these former Portuguese colonies.

The same was true during the ten years that Cuba supported Agostinho Neto’s MPLA in the struggle for the independence of Angola. After independence was achieved, and over the course of 15 years, hundreds of thousands of Cuban volunteers participated in defending Angola from the attacks of racist South African troops that in complicity with the United States, and using dirty war tactics, planted millions of mines, wiped out entire villages, and murdered more than half a million Angolan men, women and children.

In Cuito Cuanavale and on the Namibian border, to the southwest of Angola, Angolan and Namibian forces together with 40,000 Cuban troops dealt the final blow to the South African troops. This resulted in the immediate liberation of Namibia and speeded up the end of apartheid by perhaps 20 to 25 years. At the time, the South Africans had seven nuclear warheads that Israel had supplied to them or helped them to produce, with the full knowledge and complicity of the U.S. government.

Throughout the course of almost 15 years, Cuba had a place of honor in its solidarity with the heroic people of Viet Nam, caught up in a barbaric and brutal war with the United States. That war killed four million Vietnamese, in addition to all those left wounded and mutilated, not to mention the fact that the country was inundated with chemical compounds that continue to cause incalculable damage. The pretext: Viet Nam, a poor and underdeveloped country located 20,000 kilometers away, constituted a threat to the national security of the United States.

Cuban blood was shed together with that of citizens of numerous Latin American countries, and together with the Cuban and Latin American blood of Che Guevara, murdered on instructions from U.S. agents in Bolivia, when he was wounded and being held prisoner after his weapon had been rendered useless by a shot received in battle.

The blood of Cuban construction workers, that were nearing completion of an international airport vital for the economy of a tiny island fully dependent on tourism, was shed fighting in defense of Grenada, invaded by the United States under cynical pretexts.

Cuban blood was shed in Nicaragua, when instructors from our Armed Forces were training the brave Nicaraguan soldiers confronting the dirty war organized and armed by the United States against the Sandinista revolution.

And there are even more examples.

Over 2000 heroic Cuban internationalist combatants gave their lives fulfilling the sacred duty of supporting the liberation struggles for the independence of other sister nations. However, there is not one single Cuban property in any of those countries. No other country in our era has exhibited such sincere and selfless solidarity.

Cuba has always preached by example. It has never given in. It has never sold out the cause of another people. It has never made concessions. It has never betrayed its principles. There must be some reason why, just 48 hours ago, it was reelected by acclamation in the United Nations Economic and Social Council to another three years in the Commission on Human Rights, of which it has now been a member for 15 straight years.

More than half a million Cubans have carried out internationalist missions as combatants, as teachers, as technicians or as doctors and health care workers. Tens of thousands of the latter have provided their services and saved millions of lives over the course of more than 40 years. There are currently 3000 specialists in Comprehensive General Medicine and other healthcare personnel working in the most isolated regions of 18 Third World countries. Through preventive and therapeutic methods they save hundreds of thousands of lives every year, and maintain or restore the health of millions of people, without charging a penny for their services.

Without the Cuban doctors offered to the United Nations in the event that the necessary funds are obtained –without which entire nations and even whole regions of sub-Saharan Africa face the risk of perishing– the crucial programs urgently needed to fight AIDS would be impossible to carry out.

The developed capitalist world has created abundant financial capital, but it has not in any way created the human capital that the Third World desperately needs.

Cuba has developed techniques to teach reading and writing by radio, with accompanying texts now available in five languages –Haitian Creole, Portuguese, French, English and Spanish– that are already being used in numerous countries. It is nearing completion of a similar program in Spanish, of exceptionally high quality, to teach literacy by television. These are programs that were developed in Cuba and are genuinely Cuban. We are not interested in patents and exclusive copyrights. We are willing to offer them to all of the countries of the Third World, where most of the world’s illiterates are concentrated, without charging a penny. In five years, the 800 million illiterate people in the world could be reduced by 80%, at a minimal cost.

After the demise of the USSR and the socialist bloc, nobody would have bet a dime on the survival of the Cuban Revolution. The United States tightened the blockade. The Torricelli and Helms-Burton Acts were adopted, both extraterritorial in nature. We abruptly lost our main markets and supplies sources. The population’s average calorie and protein consumption was reduced by almost half. But our country withstood the pressures and even advanced considerably in the social field.

Today, it has largely recovered with regard to nutritional requirements and is rapidly progressing in other fields. Even in these conditions, the work undertaken and the consciousness built throughout the years succeeded in working miracles. Why have we endured? Because the Revolution has always had, as it still does and always will to an ever-greater degree, the support of the people, an intelligent people, increasingly united, educated and combative.

Cuba was the first country to extend its solidarity to the people of the United States on September 11, 2001. It was also the first to warn of the neo-fascist nature of the policy that the extreme right in the United States, which fraudulently came to power in November of 2000, was planning to impose on the rest of the world. This policy did not emerge as a response to the atrocious terrorist attack perpetrated against the people of the United States by members of a fanatical organization that had served other U.S. administrations in the past. It was coldly and carefully conceived and developed, which explains the country’s military build-up and enormous spending on weapons at a time when the Cold War was already over, and long before September 11, 2001. The fateful events of that day served as an ideal pretext for the implementation of such policy.

On September 20 of that year, President Bush openly expressed this before a Congress shaken by the tragic events of nine days earlier. Using bizarre terminology, he spoke of “infinite justice” as the goal of a war that would apparently be infinite as well.

“Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen.”

“We will use every necessary weapon of war.”

“Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”

“I've called the Armed Forces to alert, and there is a reason. The hour is coming when America will act.”

“This is civilization's fight.”

“…the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time —now depends on us.”

“The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain … and we know that God is not neutral.”

Did a statesman or an unbridled fanatic speak these words?

Two days later, on September 22, Cuba denounced this speech as the blueprint for the idea of a global military dictatorship imposed through brute force, without international laws or institutions of any kind.

“The United Nations Organization, simply ignored in the present crisis, would fail to have any authority or prerogative whatsoever. There would be only one boss, only one judge, and only one law.”

Several months later, on the 200th anniversary of West Point Military Academy, at the graduation exercise for 958 cadets on June 3, 2002, President Bush further elaborated on this line of thinking in a fiery harangue to the young soldiers graduating that day, in which he put forward his fundamental fixed ideas:

“Our security will require transforming the military you will lead — a military that must be ready to strike at a moment's notice in any dark corner of the world. And our security will require all Americans to be forward-looking and resolute, to be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives.”

“We must uncover terror cells in 60 or more countries…”

“…we will send you, our soldiers, where you're needed.”

“We will not leave the safety of America and the peace of the planet at the mercy of a few mad terrorists and tyrants. We will lift this dark threat from our country and from the world.”

“Some worry that it is somehow undiplomatic or impolite to speak the language of right and wrong. I disagree. … We are in a conflict between good and evil, and America will call evil by its name. By confronting evil and lawless regimes, we do not create a problem, we reveal a problem. And we will lead the world in opposing it.”

In the speech I delivered at a rally held in General Antonio Maceo Square in Santiago de Cuba, on June 8, 2002, before half a million people of Santiago, I said:

“As you can see, he doesn’t mention once in his speech (at West Point) the United Nations Organization. Nor is there a phrase about every people’s right to safety and peace, or about the need for a world ruled by principles and norms.”

“Hardly two thirds of a century has passed since humanity went through the bitter experience of Nazism. Fear was Hitler’s inseparable ally against his adversaries… Later, his fearful military force [led to] the outbreak of a war that would inflame the whole world. The lack of vision and the cowardice of the statesmen in the strongest European powers of the time opened the way to a great tragedy.

“I don’t think that a fascist regime can be established in the United States. Serious mistakes have been made and injustices committed in the framework of its political system —many of them still persist— but the American people still have a number of institutions and traditions, as well as educational, cultural and ethical values that would hardly allow that to happen. The risk exists in the international arena. The power and prerogatives of that country’s president are so extensive, and the economic, technological and military power network in that nation is so pervasive that due to circumstances that fully escape the will of the American people, the world is coming under the rule of Nazi concepts and methods.”

“The miserable insects that live in 60 or more countries of the world chosen by him and his closest assistants —and in the case of Cuba by his Miami friends— are completely irrelevant. They are the ‘dark corners of the world’ that may become the targets of their unannounced and ‘preemptive’ attacks. Not only is Cuba one of those countries, but it has also been included among those that sponsor terror.”

I mentioned the idea of a world tyranny for the first time exactly one year, three months and 19 days before the attack on Iraq.

In the days prior to the beginning of the war, President Bush repeated once again that the United States would use, if necessary, any means within its arsenal, in other words, nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and biological weapons.

The attack on and occupation of Afghanistan had already taken place.

Today the so-called “dissidents”, actually mercenaries on the payroll of the Bush’s Hitler-like government, are betraying not only their homeland, but all of humanity as well.

In the face of the sinister plans against our country on the part of the neo-fascist extreme right and its allies in the Miami terrorist mob that ensured its victory through electoral fraud, I wonder how many of those individuals with supposedly leftist and humanistic stances who have attacked our people over the legal measures we were forced to adopt as a legitimate defense against the aggressive plans of the superpower, located just a few miles off our coasts and with a military base on our own territory, have been able to read these words. We wonder how many have recognized, denounced and condemned the policy announced in the speeches by Mr. Bush that I have quoted, which reveal a sinister Nazi-fascist international policy on the part of the leader of the country with the most powerful military force ever imagined, whose weapons could destroy the defenseless humanity ten times over.

The entire world has been mobilized by the terrifying images of cities destroyed and burned by brutal bombing, images of maimed children and the shattered corpses of innocent people.

Leaving aside the blatantly opportunistic, demagogic and petty political groups we know all too well, I am now going to refer fundamentally to those who were friends of Cuba and respected fighters in the struggle. We would not want those who have, in our opinion, attacked Cuba unjustly, due to disinformation or a lack of careful and profound analysis, to have to suffer the infinite sorrow they will feel if one day our cities are destroyed and our children and mothers, women and men, young and old, are torn apart by the bombs of Nazi-fascism, and they realize that their declarations were shamelessly manipulated by the aggressors to justify a military attack on Cuba.

Solely the numbers of children murdered and mutilated cannot be the measure of the human damage but also the millions of children and mothers, women and men, young and old, who remain traumatized for the rest of their lives.

We fully respect the opinions of those who oppose capital punishment for religious, philosophical and humanitarian reasons. We Cuban revolutionaries also abhor capital punishment, for much more profound reasons than those addressed by the social sciences with regard to crime, currently under study in our country. The day will come when we can accede to the wishes, so nobly expressed here in his brilliant speech by our beloved brother Reverend Lucius Walker, to abolish such penalty. The special concern over this issue is easily understood when you know that the majority of the people executed in the United States are African American and Hispanic, and not infrequently they are innocent, especially in Texas, the champion of death penalties, where President Bush was formerly the governor, and not a single life has ever been pardoned.

The Cuban Revolution was placed in the dilemma of either protecting the lives of millions of Cubans by using the legally established death penalty to punish the three main hijackers of a passenger ferry or sitting back and doing nothing. The U.S. government, which incites common criminals to assault boats or airplanes with passengers on board, encourages these people gravely endangering the lives of innocents and creating the ideal conditions for an attack on Cuba. A wave of hijackings had been unleashed and was already in full development; it had to be stopped.

We cannot ever hesitate when it is a question of protecting the lives of the sons and daughters of a people determined to fight until the end, arresting the mercenaries who serve the aggressors and applying the most severe sanctions, no matter how unpleasant it is for us, against terrorists who hijack passenger boats or planes or commit similarly serious acts, who will be punished by the courts in accordance with the laws in force.

Not even Jesus Christ, who drove the traders out of the temple with a whip, would fail to opt for the defense of the people.

I feel sincere and profound respect for His Holiness Pope John Paul II. I understand and admire his noble struggle for life and peace. Nobody opposed the war in Iraq as much and as tenaciously as he did. I am absolutely certain that he would have never counseled the Shiites and Sunni Muslims to let them be killed without defending themselves. He would not counsel the Cubans to do such a thing, either. He knows perfectly well that this is not a problem between Cubans. This is a problem between the people of Cuba and the government of the United States.

The policy of the U.S. government is so brazenly provocative that on April 25, Mr. Kevin Whitaker, chief of the Cuban Bureau at the State Department, informed the head of our Interests Section in Washington that the National Security Council’s Department of Homeland Security considered the continued hijackings from Cuba a serious threat to the national security of the United States, and requested that the Cuban government adopt all of the necessary measures to prevent such acts.

He said this as if they were not the ones who provoke and encourage these hijackings, and as if we were not the ones who adopt drastic measures to prevent them, in order to protect the lives and safety of passengers, and being fully aware for some time now of the criminal plans of the fascist extreme right against Cuba. When news of this contact on the 25 was leaked, it stirred up the Miami terrorist mob. They still do not understand that their direct or indirect threats against Cuba do not frighten anyone in this country.

The hypocrisy of Western politicians and a large group of mediocre leaders is so huge that it would not fit in the Atlantic Ocean. Any measure that Cuba adopts for the purposes of its legitimate defense is reported among the top stories in almost all of the media. On the other hand, when we pointed out that during the term in office of a Spanish head of government, dozens of ETA members were executed without trial, without anyone protesting or denouncing it before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, or that another Spanish head of government, at a difficult moment in the war in Kosovo, advised the U.S. president to step up the war, increase the bombing and attack civilian targets, thus causing the deaths of hundreds of innocent people and tremendous suffering for millions of people, the headlines merely stated, “Castro attacks Felipe and Aznar”. Not a word was said about the real content.

In Miami and Washington they are now discussing where, how and when Cuba will be attacked or the problem of the Revolution will be solved.

For the moment, there is talk of economic measures that will further intensify the brutal blockade, but they still do not know which to choose, who they will resign themselves to alienating, and how effective these measures may be. There are very few left for them to choose from. They have already used up almost all of them.

A shameless scoundrel with the poorly chosen first name Lincoln, and the last name Díaz-Balart, an intimate friend and advisor of President Bush, has made this enigmatic statement to a Miami TV station: “I can’t go into details, but we’re trying to break this vicious cycle.”

What methods are they considering to deal with this vicious cycle? Physically eliminating me with the sophisticated modern means they have developed, as Mr. Bush promised them in Texas before the elections? Or attacking Cuba the way they attacked Iraq?

If it were the former, it does not worry me in the least. The ideas for which I have fought all my life will not die, and they will live on for a long time.

If the solution were to attack Cuba like Iraq, I would suffer greatly because of the cost in lives and the enormous destruction it would bring on Cuba. But, it might turn out to be the last of this Administration’s fascist attacks, because the struggle would last a very long time.

The aggressors would not merely be facing an army, but rather thousands of armies that would constantly reproduce themselves and make the enemy pay such a high cost in casualties that it would far exceed the cost in lives of its sons and daughters that the American people would be willing to pay for the adventures and ideas of President Bush. Today, he enjoys majority support, but it is dropping, and tomorrow it could be reduced to zero.

The American people, the millions of highly cultivated individuals who reason and think, their basic ethical principles, the tens of millions of computers with which to communicate, hundreds of times more than at the end of the Viet Nam war, will show that you cannot fool all of the people, and perhaps not even part of the people, all of the time. One day they will put a straightjacket on those who need it before they manage to annihilate life on the planet.

On behalf of the one million people gathered here this May Day, I want to convey a message to the world and the American people:

We do not want the blood of Cubans and Americans to be shed in a war. We do not want a countless number of lives of people who could be friends to be lost in an armed conflict. But never has a people had such sacred things to defend, or such profound convictions to fight for, to such a degree that they would rather be obliterated from the face of the Earth than abandon the noble and generous work for which so many generations of Cubans have paid the high cost of the lives of many of their finest sons and daughters.

We are sustained by the deepest conviction that ideas are worth more than weapons, no matter how sophisticated and powerful those weapons may be.

Let us say like Che Guevara when he bid us farewell:

Ever onward to victory!

#Cuba #FidelCastro #CubanRevolution #antiimperialism #Americas

Brad Sigal of FRSO told the crowd, “The fact that Cubans made a revolution at all would have been notable enough, even if it didn’t last a week. But remarkably it continues to this day. The Cuban revolutionaries have beaten all odds and the revolution has survived for 59 years. They continue to build socialism on a small island in the shadow of the empire. This world-historic accomplishment has meant everything to the Cuban people and the people of the world.”

Sigal also noted, “Cuba projects solidarity around the world, way beyond what most would have thought possible for a small, island nation. Cuba sends literacy brigades and doctors to all kinds of poor and oppressed nations out of a spirit of solidarity and internationalism, asking nothing in return. Cuba has supported liberation movements around the world for decades, again, asking nothing in return. It was Cuban troops who helped the South African liberation movement turn the tide to end apartheid.”

#MinneapolisMN #FidelCastro #Movie

San José, Costa Rica – Con motivo de la celebración de los 91 años del nacimiento del Comandante Fidel Castro Ruz un grupo de organizaciones costarricenses se reunieron por la tarde el pasado 12 de agosto, en la sede del sindicato UNDECA, en el centro de la capital, San José. La actividad fue convocada por la Embajada de Cuba en Costa Rica y por el Comité Costarricense de Solidaridad con Cuba.

Se contó con una participación de 100 personas, entre los que se encontraban miembros de organizaciones amigas de Cuba, residentes cubanos y diplomáticos de las embajadas de Cuba, Venezuela y Bolivia.

La actividad contó con diferentes momentos, inicio con las palabras del coordinador del Comité Costarricense de Solidaridad con Cuba, compañero Bruno Coto, el cual dirigido un saludo a la revolución Cubana y su principal dirigente Fidel Castro Ruz. Posteriormente, el exdiputado Sergio Erick Ardón, en el discurso central de la actividad, se refirió a su experiencia y amistad con la revolución cubana. También dirigió unas palabras el señor Michel Ravelo, como representante de la Embajada de Cuba en Costa Rica, agradeciendo las muestras de solidaridad y compromiso con la revolución Cubana y contra el bloqueo económico a su país.

Como parte central de este acto, las compañeras Magda Solís y Ana Robles, ambas del Comité Costarricense de Solidaridad con Cuba, hicieron entrega de una placa que identificará a la Biblioteca Fidel Castro Ruz del Liceo de Poas, una institución pública rural de segunda enseñanza, que logró gracias a la iniciativa de su bibliotecario, Vladimir Murillo, que la biblioteca lleve el nombre del Comandante en Jefe de la Revolución Cubana.

Finalmente, la actividad concluyó como toda una fiesta, donde el pastel con velitas y el canto de “feliz cumpleaños Fidel”, unieron a todas y a todos los participantes compartiendo diferentes muestras de cariño y solidaridad entre los pueblos de América Latina.

#SanJoséCostaRica #SanJosé #Cuba #FidelCastro #CostaRica #Americas

San José, Costa Rica – A group of organizations gathered at the office of the UNDECA union in the center of the capital San José on the evening of August 12 to celebrate Fidel Castro Ruz’s 91st birthday. The Cuban Embassy in Costa Rica and the Costa Rican Committee in Solidarity with Cuba organized the event.

100 people participated in the celebration. Among them were members of pro-Cuba organizations, Cubans who live in Costa Rica, and diplomats from Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia.

The activity began with words from Bruno Coto, the coordinator of the Costa Rican Committee in Solidarity with Cuba, who saluted the Cuban revolution and its principal leader Fidel Castro Ruz. Then former Deputy Sergio Erick Ardón spoke, referring to his experiences and friendship with the Cuban revolution. Michel Ravelo also shared some words as representative of the Cuban embassy in Costa Rica, thanking people for their solidarity and commitment to the Cuban revolution and against the economic blockade of his country.

As part of the celebration, Magda Solís and Ana Robles, both members of the Costa Rican Committee in Solidarity with Cuba, presented a plaque for the Fidel Castro Ruz Library at the Liceo de Poas rural public secondary school. Due to the initiative of its librarian Vladimir Murillo, the library there will now be named after the commander in chief of the Cuban revolution.

Finally the activity ended with a party with cake and candles and singing “Happy birthday Fidel”, bringing together all the participants in showing affection and solidarity among all the peoples of Latin America.

#SanJoséCostaRica #SanJosé #Cuba #FidelCastro #CostaRica #Americas

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Dec. 4 statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine commemorated the life and struggle of Cuban leader and international socialist and anti-imperialist figure Fidel Castro on November 28, as part of the demonstration in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) headquarters in Gaza.

With a wide participation of leaders, cadres and members of the Front, the Prisoners’ Commission, representatives of Palestinian political organizations and freed prisoners, participants raised posters of the late revolutionary leader and the slogans that embodied his position and principles. They expressed that his departure was a loss for the Palestinian people and all progressive movements.

Comrade Ali Al-Sarafiti, a former prisoner and a leader in the Front in Gaza, spoke at the event saluting “a leading international supporter of the Palestinian people and all oppressed peoples and a primary enemy of imperialism, the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, who departed on Friday evening after having spent his life as a leader of the socialist revolution in Latin America and a symbol of the revolutionaries of the world, especially the Palestinian cause.” Al-Sarafiti noted that the rich experience of Castro and the Cuban people in defeating imperialism and liberating Cuba had been an inspiration for many nations and revolutionary leaders who continue to form the spearhead of the struggle against imperialism. He also recalled Cuba’s involvement in the Non-Aligned Movement and its support for Palestine in all international forums and global organizations. “He always considered the struggle of the Palestinian people against Zionism to be an integral part of the struggle of the oppressed nations and peoples against imperialism and its lackeys.”

In conclusion, he emphasized that Fidel Castro would continue to be an inspiration in the struggle to “save humanity from the clutches of imperialism and Zionism and continue the revolution against injustice, tyranny and oppression and the resistance to colonization and occupation…..We will win the battle not only for our lives, but for the lives of all the children of the world.”

Yasser Saleh of the Mohja Al-Quds Foundation spoke at the event as well, highlighting the urgent situation of Palestinian hunger-striking prisoners, Anas Shadid and Ahmad Abu Fara, who have refused food since September 25 to demand their freedom from administrative detention. He emphasized that they were committed to continue their struggle until victory, declaring the full responsibility of the Israeli occupation for their lives and health.

The PFLP also established a mourning house for Fidel Castro at the Haidar Abdel Shafi Red Crescent Hall in Gaza City. Comrade Kayed al-Ghoul, member of the Political Bureau of the Front, delivered a speech in memory of Castro. He noted that Cuba refused to surrender to imperialism, despite a vast gap in the balance of power, but that the Cuban revolution continued to achieve the goals of the people and confront imperialism, no matter how big the power imbalance that existed. He also noted that the Cuban revolution was empowered by its “great faith in the ability of the people to meet the challenges and overcome obstacles,” rather than placing faith in external powers. He noted that the departure of a historical leader like Castro was a loss to popular movements around the world, but that “the Cuban revolution will protect its gains, as Cuba remains a beacon for liberation movements and struggles to bring an end to capitalist exploitation.”

#Palestine #AntiwarMovement #Cuba #Socialism #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #FidelCastro

El 25 de noviembre del 2016 los trabajadores y pueblos oprimidos de todo el mundo perdieron a un gigante con el fallecimiento de Fidel Castro Ruz. La vida de Fidel debe ser honrada, estudiada y emulada. Fidel fue un líder crucial tanto para la Revolución Cubana de 1959, como para la construcción del socialismo en Cuba en las últimas cinco décadas y sus ejemplares actos de solidaridad internacional.

La Organización Socialista Camino de la Libertad (FRSO) expresa sus condolencias a la familia, amigos y camaradas de Fidel Castro, como por igual a todo el pueblo cubano frente a esta gigantesca perdida.

Fidel Castro fue un revolucionario que luchó y venció las probabilidades más adversas. Lideró un movimiento de guerrillas contra la despiadada dictadura de Fulgencio Batista, que gobernaba a favor de los intereses imperialistas de los EE.UU., oprimiendo brutalmente a los trabajadores y campesinos cubanos. A pesar de algunas derrotas iniciales, el movimiento revolucionario aprendió de sus errores y pudo conquistar la liberación nacional. Fidel desempeño el liderazgo que llevó al movimiento revolucionario a la victoria.

La victoria de la revolución cubana en 1959 inspiró a los pueblos de América y del mundo a luchar por la liberación de sus países. A pesar de ser un país pobre, la revolución cubana creo las condiciones para que el pueblo cubano alcanzara increíbles conquistas sociales. La revolución cubana pudo resolver problemas que el capitalismo no puede. Cuba eliminó el analfabetismo y la hambruna, creando los mejores sistemas de educación y salud de toda América. Estas conquistas de la Cuba socialista aún continúan y se pueden contrastar abiertamente contra los otros países de la región dominados por el imperialismo.

La revolución cubana, bajo el liderazgo de Fidel Castro y sus camaradas, también desencadenó un inagotable internacionalismo y sacrificio en apoyo a los movimientos revolucionarios y necesidades humanitarias a través de África, Asia, América Latina y el Medio Oriente. El ejemplar y desinteresado internacionalismo que ha demostrado por décadas el pueblo cubano, hace que el mundo admire apasionadamente a la Cuba socialista y a sus líderes como Fidel Castro y Che Guevara.

El imperialismo de los EE.UU. no tenía intenciones de permanecer pasivo y permitir que una revolución sobreviviera en una isla que había tenido como colonia a tan solo 90 millas de sus costas. Apenas en su infancia, la revolución cubana se enfrentó a las fuerzas imperialistas de los EE.UU. en la invasión de Playa Girón de 1961. Bajo el liderazgo de Fidel, esta invasión militar fue derrotada, y la reacción del gobierno de los EE.UU. fue la imposición de un brutal embargo económico que continua vigente hasta el día de hoy. Aunque el imperialismo estadounidense ha llevado a cabo incontables actos de sabotaje contra la revolución cubana y cientos de atentados contra la persona de Fidel Castro, no han podido vencer a la revolución.

Han fracasado debido al liderazgo colectivo del Partido Comunista de Cuba, del cual Fidel fue uno de sus más importantes líderes. Fidel Castro fue un comunista que adoptó la ideología del Marxismo-Leninismo a través de las enseñanzas y experiencias del proceso revolucionario. A medida que el proceso de la revolución cubana se enfrentaba con problemas concretos, Fidel pudo ver que solo el socialismo podría solucionar los problemas del pueblo cubano, y que el Marxismo-Leninismo proporcionaba la teoría y práctica para guiar el proceso revolucionario hacia adelante. Una vez que adoptó el Marxismo-Leninismo, Fidel nunca vaciló.

En la década de los noventa, después de haber quedado política y económicamente aislada, la revolución cubana se enfrentó al periodo más difícil de su historia. A pesar de las inmensas dificultades a las que se enfrentaría el pueblo cubano, Fidel Castro señaló el camino para continuar defendiendo el Marxismo-Leninismo, el anti-imperialismo e internacionalismo proletario. El pueblo cubano supo cómo afrontar y superar las dificultades, a pesar de que muchos lo creían imposible. Durante esta época, Cuba se encontraba aislada tanto en América como en el escenario mundial. El gobierno de los EE.UU. intensificó el bloqueo intentando de esta forma acabar con la revolución cubana. Sin embargo, aferrados a sus principios y a la digna causa de su lucha, Cuba pudo derrotar el aislamiento.

Para el 2014 la situación ya había cambiado. Cuba había restablecido relaciones en la región y los EE.UU. se encontraban aislados en América. En la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas, casi todos los países del mundo votaron repetidamente en contra del bloqueo económico de EE.UU. contra Cuba. Finalmente, frente a este aislamiento, los EE.UU. tuvo que admitir que sus esfuerzos para derrotar a la revolución cubana habían fracasado e iniciaron un proceso de normalización de las relaciones con Cuba. Sin embargo, el injusto embargo todavía permanece y la lucha contra este continua.

El líder de la revolución China Mao Zedong dijo “Todos los hombres han de morir, pero la muerte puede tener distintos significados… puede tener más peso que la montaña Tai o menos que una pluma. Morir por los intereses del pueblo tiene más peso que la montaña Tai, pero servir a los fascistas y morir por los que explotan y oprimen al pueblo tiene, menos peso que una pluma”.

Está claro que la muerte del camarada Fidel Castro pesa más que la montaña Tai. Fidel vivió y murió por el pueblo cubano, por la clase trabajadora y por los pueblos oprimidos de todo el mundo. Fue un revolucionario, un comunista y un Marxista-Leninista.

Debido al ejemplo de Fidel Castro y la revolución cubana hoy sabemos que un mundo socialista es posible. El ejemplo de Fidel nos inspira a continuar apoyando la revolución socialista cubana y seguir luchando contra el imperialismo y por el socialismo en nuestro país.

#EstadosUnidos #Cuba #Socialism #Remembrances #FidelCastro #frso

On Nov. 25, 2016 workers and oppressed peoples of the entire world lost a giant with the passing of Fidel Castro Ruz. Fidel lived a life worth honoring, studying and emulating. He was a key leader in the 1959 Cuban revolution, in building socialism in Cuba for more than five decades to the present day, and in exemplary acts of international solidarity.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) extends our condolences to the family, friends and comrades of Fidel Castro, and to the Cuban people as a whole for this tremendous loss.

Fidel Castro was a revolutionary who fought against seemingly impossible odds and won. He led a guerrilla movement against the vicious U.S.-backed Batista regime which governed Cuba in the interests of U.S. imperialism while Cuban workers and peasants suffered harshly. Despite experiencing defeats in its early days, the revolutionary movement learned lessons, rebounded and won national liberation. Fidel played a key role in leading the revolutionary movement to victory.

The 1959 revolutionary victory in Cuba inspired people throughout the Americas and the world to fight for liberation in their own countries. The Cuban revolution created the conditions for incredible gains for the Cuban people, despite it being a poor country. The revolution swiftly solved problems that capitalism can’t solve. Illiteracy and starvation were wiped out in Cuba and the best education and health care systems in the Americas were created. This continues to this day in socialist Cuba and stands in stark contrast to Cuba’s neighboring countries which are dominated by imperialism.

The Cuban revolution, under the guidance of Fidel Castro and his comrades, also unleashed a boundless internationalism and sacrifice in support of revolutionary movements and attending to human needs throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The exemplary internationalism displayed by Cuba over decades – providing whatever they could and asking nothing in return – leads to the enthusiastic embrace of socialist Cuba and its leaders such as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara throughout the world.

U.S. imperialism had no intention to stand by idly and let a revolution survive on the small island nation which the U.S. had held as a colony just 90 miles off its coast. Barely in its infancy, the Cuban revolution faced invasion from U.S. imperialism at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Under Fidel’s leadership, the U.S.-led military invasion was repelled. The U.S. government lashed out, imposing a barbaric economic embargo which continues to this day. U.S. imperialism has engaged in countless acts of sabotage against the Cuban revolution and hundreds of assassination attempts against Fidel Castro personally. But they failed to stop the revolution.

They failed because of the collective leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba, of which Fidel was a key leader. Fidel Castro became a communist and adopted the ideology of Marxism-Leninism through learning from experience in making revolution. As the Cuban revolution confronted concrete problems about how to move forward, Fidel saw that only socialism could solve the problems of the Cuban people, and that Marxism-Leninism provided the theory and practice that could guide the revolutionary process forward. Once he adopted Marxism-Leninism, Fidel never wavered.

The Cuban revolution faced its most trying period in the 1990s when it was left politically and economically isolated. Fidel Castro led the way in Cuba’s difficult decision to hold firm to Marxism-Leninism, anti-imperialism and proletarian internationalism despite the incredible difficulties they knew they would face. They confronted those difficulties and overcame them when very few thought it would be possible. At that time Cuba was isolated on the world stage and in the Americas. The U.S. government tightened the noose by making its blockade more severe, hoping to end the Cuban revolution once and for all. But through staying true to principle and continuing to struggle ahead with dignity, Cuba was able to turn isolation into its opposite.

By 2014 it was U.S. imperialism that was isolated in the Americas while Cuba had many friends, and in the U.N. General Assembly nearly the entire world had voted repeatedly for the U.S. to end the unjust blockade of Cuba. In the face of this isolation, the U.S. finally admitted its decades-long efforts to defeat the Cuban revolution had failed, and took initial steps to normalize relations with socialist Cuba. But the unjust U.S. blockade remains in place and the struggle continues to end it.

As the leader of the Chinese revolution Mao Zedong said, “All people must die, but death can vary in its significance...it may be weightier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather. To die for the people is weightier than Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and die for the exploiters and oppressors is lighter than a feather.”

It is clear that comrade Fidel Castro’s death is weightier than Mount Tai. He lived and died for the Cuban people and for the working class and oppressed peoples around the world. He was a revolutionary, a communist, a Marxist-Leninist.

Because of the example of Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution, we know another world – a socialist world – is possible. Fidel’s example inspires us to continue to support the socialist revolution in Cuba, and carry forward the struggle against imperialism and for socialism in our country.

#Cuba #Socialism #Remembrances #FidelCastro #revolution

Distressed to learn of the passing away of Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, I, in the name of the CPC, the Chinese government and people and in my own name, express my deepest condolences to you and through you to the Communist Party of Cuba, the Cuban government and people, and my sincerest sympathy to Fidel Castro's family.

Fidel Castro, founder of the Communist Party of Cuba and Cuba's socialist cause, is a great leader of the Cuban people. He has devoted all his life to Cuban people's great cause of struggling for national liberation, safeguarding state sovereignty and building socialism.

He has made immortal historic contributions to the Cuban people and to the world socialism development. Comrade Fidel Castro is a great figure of our times and will be remembered by history and people.

I met with Comrade Fidel Castro many times and held in-depth conversations with him. His real knowledge and deep insight inspired me as his voice and expression live in my memory. Both I and the Chinese people miss him deeply.

Comrade Fidel Castro, who dedicated his life to the friendship between China and Cuba, paid close attention to and spoke highly of China's development.

As a result of his care and support, Cuba became the first Latin American country to establish diplomatic ties with China in 1960. Since then, the two countries have witnessed profound development of bilateral ties, fruitful results of cooperation in a wide range of areas and deepening friendship between the two peoples, thanks to Comrade Fidel Castro's solicitude and painstaking efforts.

The death of Comrade Fidel Castro is a great loss to the Cuban and Latin American people. The Cuban and Latin American people lost an excellent son, and the Chinese people lost a close comrade and sincere friend. His glorious image and great achievements will go down in history.

I believe that under the strong leadership of Comrade Raul Castro, the Communist Party of Cuba, the Cuban government and its people will carry on the unfinished lifework of Comrade Fidel Castro, turn sorrow into strength and keep making new achievements in the cause of socialist construction.

The friendship between two parties, the two countries and the two peoples will definitely be consolidated and further developed.

The great Comrade Fidel Castro will be forever remembered.

#China #Cuba #FidelCastro #XiJinping #Americas

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine extends its condolences to the Cuban people, the Palestinian people and the revolutionary movements of the world upon the loss of the former prime minister and president of Cuba and the historic international revolutionary leader, Comrade Fidel Castro Ruz, on Friday, November 25, 2016.

Castro’s internationalist revolutionary commitment to fighting imperialism and capitalism – manifest in the revolutionary victory against US imperialism and its puppet Batista regime in the 1959 Cuban revolution – conistently stood with the oppressed peoples of the world in their confrontation of imperialism, Zionism, racism and capitalism. Throughout his life, Fidel was a supporter and an example of revolutionary struggle in Latin America, in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, El Salvador and throughout the continent. From Angola to South Africa, Palestine to Mozambique, Bolivia to El Salvador, Castro’s legacy of international revolutionary solidarity and struggle continues to serve as an example in practice that transcends borders toward revolution, democracy and socialism.

At a time when the world is witnessing the massive domination of imperialist powers, it is particularly critical at this time to cherish and learn from the legacy and reality of the Cuban revolution and its persistent defeat of US imperialism. The victory of the Cuban revolution was one that came through armed struggle, a victory that belonged to the entire people. Fidel and his comrades mobilized workers and peasants to fight together to ensure the victory of their revolution, not only at the moment of their triumph in 1959, but over the decades to come. Despite all contradictions, the Cuban revolution has remained an example of the nationalization of production, the division of wealth, and the construction of exceptional free education and health care systems.

Throughout Castro’s life, and throughout the history of the Cuban revolution, support for the Palestinian people’s national liberation movement and the Palestinian revolution has been central to its anti-imperialist approach that centered the construction of revolutionary alliances between the progressive forces and struggling peoples of the world. The Palestinian people and the Cuban people have stood fidel22together at all levels, in confronting imperialism and its forces, from Latin America to Africa to the Arab world. In the Tricontinental alliance and the Non-Aligned Movement, Cuba stood with the Palestinian people and their liberation movement in all facets of international struggle, building a revolutionary alliance for collective movement against imperialism, colonialism and its particular manifestation in Palestine, Zionism. Zionism has been a key weapon of racist oppression, a fact recognized by Fidel Castro and the Cuban people and state. This popular unity has not faded over the years; as Zionist weaponry pounded Gaza in 2014, Castro slammed this “repugnant fascism” against the Palestinian people. Dozens of Palestinian students continue to study in Cuba today through its long-running scholarship program.

As we mark the passing of Fidel Castro, we also remember his comrades: Che Guevara, Celia Sanchez, Camilo Cienfuegos, Haydee Santamaria, and many more who fought to create a new Cuba and build a revolutionary society. This is a moment not only for mourning and for memory, but also a time to revive our revolutionary ideas, for victory for Palestine, towards democracy and socialism.

“A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past,” said Fidel Castro. Throughout his life, he fought endlessly to bring that future into being. This moment calls on us to intensify, examine, and develop our Palestinian, Arab and international revolution to defeat Zionism and imperialism and fight for a future of liberation, justice, democracy and socialism.

#Palestine #Cuba #FidelCastro #PFLP #Americas

The 70th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War will be commemorated the day after tomorrow, May 9. Given the time difference, while I write these lines, the soldiers and officials of the Army of the Russian Federation, full of pride, will be parading through Moscow’s Red Square with their characteristic quick, military steps.

Lenin was a brilliant revolutionary strategist who did not hesitate in assuming the ideas of Marx and implementing them in an immense and only partly industrialized country, whose proletariat party became the most radical and courageous on the planet in the wake of the greatest slaughter that capitalism had caused in the world, where for the first time tanks, automatic weapons, aviation and poison gases made an appearance in wars, and even a legendary cannon capable of launching a heavy projectile more than 100 kilometers made its presence felt in the bloody conflict.

From that carnage emerged the League of Nations, an institution that should have preserved peace but which did not even manage to stop the rapid advance of colonialism in Africa, a great part of Asia, Oceana, the Caribbean, Canada and a contemptuous neo-colonialism in Latin America. Barely 20 years later, another atrocious world war broke out in Europe, the preamble to which was the Spanish Civil War, beginning in 1936.

After the crushing defeat of the Nazis, world nations placed their hopes in the United Nations, which strives to generate cooperation in order to put an end to aggressions and wars, such that countries can preserve the peace, development and peaceful cooperation of the big and small, rich or poor States of the world. Millions of scientists could, among other tasks, increase the chances of the survival of the human species, with billions of people already threatened by food and water shortages within a short period of time. We are already 7.3 billion people on the planet. In 1800 there were only 978 million; this figure rose to 6.07 billion in 2000; and according to conservative estimates by the year 2050 there will be 10 billion.

Of course, scarcely is the arrival to Western Europe of boats full of migrants mentioned, traveling in any object that floats; a river of African migrants, from the continent colonized by the Europeans over hundreds of years. 23 years ago, in a United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development I stated: “An important biological species is in danger of disappearing given the rapid and progressive destruction of its natural life-sustaining conditions¬: man.” I did not know at that time, how close we were to this.

In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War, I wish to put on record our profound admiration for the heroic Soviet people, who provided humankind an enormous service. Today we are seeing the solid alliance between the people of the Russian Federation and the State with the fastest growing economy in the world: The People’s Republic of China; both countries, with their close cooperation, modern science and powerful armies and brave soldiers constitute a powerful shield of world peace and security, so that the life of our species may be preserved.

Physical and mental health, and the spirit of solidarity are norms which must prevail, or the future of humankind, as we know it, will be lost forever. The 27 million Soviets who died in the Great Patriotic War, also did so for humanity and the right to think and be socialists, to be Marxist-Leninists, communists, and leave the dark ages behind.

#Cuba #Socialism #PeoplesStruggles #FidelCastro #MarxismLeninism #Americas

Cuban President Fidel Castro presided over this year’s celebration in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba. The event took place at the historic plaza located in front of the former Moncada garrison and was broadcast to the entire island. 130 members of the Pastors for Peace Caravan from the U.S. were among the 10,000 guests wearing red t-shirts and waving Cuban flags.

“The excitement was electric all over Cuba”, says Carol Cross, a member of the delegation. In the streets, with small paper flags decorating the fronts of the houses, neighborhood parties were held with dancing and food. Cross continued, “Cuba is such an inspirational place, showing what a country can achieve when both government and people are committed to social change.”

Also present at the festival were Elian Gonzalez and his father, Juan Miguel, as well as the mothers and spouses of the five Cuban nationals imprisoned in the U.S. on charges of espionage. In fact, the five were working in the U.S. to prevent more terrorist attacks on Cuba. Since their arrest in 1998, the case of the five Cuban nationals has been widely covered by the foreign press, but has been surrounded by a wall of silence in the U.S. Their liberation is a top priority of the Cuban people.

The July 26 celebration commemorates Fidel Castro’s 1953 attack against the garrison. Joined by a highly disciplined organization of young people and inspired by the works of Jose Marti and Karl Marx, they were honest and determined people with patriotic and progressive ideas who were willing to give their lives to end the injustices which prevailed in Cuba at that time. Their struggle culminated with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in January of 1959.

During the 1950’s, Cuba had 600,000 unemployed and 500,000 workers employed for only four months per year. 85% of small farmers paid rent to landowners and more than half of the best land for cultivation was in foreign hands. Half of school age children in rural areas did not attend school. From 1953 to 2002, the population doubled (from 5.5 up to 11.2 million people); now 85% of the people own their own homes, with the remaining 15% paying only symbolic rent. Cuba ranks number one in the world in student to teacher ratio, with a 20 to 1 ratio in its elementary schools.

In his memoirs, My Early Years, the Cuban President wrote that he “had worked out a revolutionary strategy for carrying out a deep social change,” in response to people’s suffering from poverty, injustice, humiliation and inequality. The victory of the 26th of July Movement represents a victory for the Cuban people, who have endured with dignity decades of hostilities and blockade from the U.S. without renouncing their revolutionary principles.

For more information about the Friendship Caravans to Cuba please contact the National Network on Cuba, PO Box 225303, San Francisco, CA 94122, (415) 566-8560, nnoc20012002@yahoo.com

#News #Cuba #FidelCastro #CubanRevolution #July26thMovement #Americas