https://themilitant.com/2019/03/23/cuba-we-will-defend-our-revolution-no-matter-what/
Cuba: ‘We will defend our revolution, no matter what’
By Seth Galinsky
Vol. 83/No. 13
April 1, 2019
Members of Cuban delegation attending U.N. Women’s Month activities
speak at March 16 New York meeting. From left, Yenisey González,
president of National Union of Cuban Jurists in Granma province; Manuel
Vázquez, deputy director of Cenesex, the National Center for Sexual
Education; Teresa Amarelle, general secretary of Federation of Cuban
Women; Miguel Barnet, president of the Union of Writers and Artists; and
Luis Morlote, UNEAC vice president.
Militant/Mike Shur
Members of Cuban delegation attending U.N. Women’s Month activities
speak at March 16 New York meeting. From left, Yenisey González,
president of National Union of Cuban Jurists in Granma province; Manuel
Vázquez, deputy director of Cenesex, the National Center for Sexual
Education; Teresa Amarelle, general secretary of Federation of Cuban
Women; Miguel Barnet, president of the Union of Writers and Artists; and
Luis Morlote, UNEAC vice president.
NEW YORK — “We are living through a time of many threats because of the
aggressiveness of the U.S. government,” Teresa Amarelle, general
secretary of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), told a meeting of more
than 150 people here March 16. The event was sponsored by the New
York-New Jersey Cuba Sí! Coalition. Amarelle spoke along with other
members of a delegation from Cuba who are participating in International
Women’s Month activities at the United Nations.
“Every day they distort the reality of the Cuban people,” she said,
referring to the U.S. government’s stepped-up smear campaign against
Cuba and the role of Cuban volunteer doctors and others in Venezuela.
“They claim that we are responsible for aggression, misery and terrorism
directed at the Venezuelan people.”
Amarelle noted the long-standing Cuban policy of not interfering in the
internal affairs of other nations. “Revolutions are not exported,” she
said. “They are made by the peoples. We made our own revolution in Cuba
and we are going to defend it whatever the price. It’s up to the
Venezuelan people to defend theirs.”
One of the biggest slanders that U.S. officials have been promoting is
that Cuba is in control of Venezuelan intelligence and its military.
There are some 20,000 Cuban internationalist volunteers in Venezuela,
most of them heath care workers and teachers as well as some advisers to
the Venezuelan military.
“Yes, we send doctors to save lives and not just in Venezuela,” Amarelle
said. “We send them to more than 50 countries around the world. We have
restored eyesight to a million people.”
The Cuban volunteers, most of whom are women, she said, go to the most
isolated places in the countryside and working-class barrios in Caracas
to bring health care.
“This can only be done when there is a vocation for justice, when there
is solidarity,” she added. “If that is what they accuse us of, then
fine, we’re going to keep doing it.”
Amarelle noted that next year is the 60th anniversary of the founding of
the Federation of Cuban Women, which just held it’s 10th congress. “Our
strength is in our numbers,” she said, noting that “91.4 percent of
Cuban women above 14 years old are members.”
Meeting chair Gail Walker, a co-chair of the National Network on Cuba
and executive director of IFCO/Pastors for Peace, encouraged audience
members to go to Cuba and see the revolution for themselves. She pointed
to tables at the side of the room where they could get information and
sign up for the upcoming May Day International Volunteer Work Brigade in
Solidarity with Cuba, IFCO/Pastors for Peace Caravan and the Venceremos
Brigade.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •No to attacks on Muslims, mosques in New Zealand!
•Solidarity with victims of anti-Muslim killings
•Boeing bosses’ drive for profit leads to deadly plane crashes
•SWP takes campaign to small towns, rural areas
•New York protests demand gov’t give immigrants driver’s licenses
•Syrian gov’t, Moscow step up strikes on opposition forces in Idlib province
Feature Articles •Long view of history on display at Iraqi museum
Also In This Issue •Algerian protesters say, ‘We need to get rid of the
system’
•Cuba: ‘We will defend our revolution, no matter what’
•Kentucky teachers fight state moves against union, pensions
On the Picket Line •Locked out Quebec aluminum workers reject bosses’
ultimatum
•Chicago Symphony Orchestra players strike to defend pensions
Books of the Month •‘No imperialist regime can ever conduct a just war’
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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Carl Sagan
“ The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be
counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be
consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not
determine what's true. ”
― Carl Sagan
