https://themilitant.com/2019/11/09/dc-meeting-us-hands-off-cuba-and-venezuela/
DC meeting: ‘US hands off Cuba and Venezuela’
By Omari Musa
Vol. 83/No. 42
November 18, 2019
“We fought revolutionary struggles to overthrow slavery in Cuba and here
in the U.S.,” José Ramón Cabañas, inset, Cuba’s ambassador to the U.S.,
told event in soldiarity with Cuba and Venezuela in Washington, D.C.,
Oct. 19. “Our solidarity has strong historic roots.”
Photos by Prensa Latina/Diony Sanabia
“We fought revolutionary struggles to overthrow slavery in Cuba and here
in the U.S.,” José Ramón Cabañas, inset, Cuba’s ambassador to the U.S.,
told event in soldiarity with Cuba and Venezuela in Washington, D.C.,
Oct. 19. “Our solidarity has strong historic roots.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — More than 100 participants gathered at the African
American Civil War Museum for a “U.S. Imperialist Hands Off Cuba and
Venezuela” forum here Oct. 19.
The museum is an important institution in D.C. Its mission “is to
correct a great wrong in history that largely ignored the enormous
contributions of the 209,145 members of the United States Colored
Troops. It tells the stories and preserves for posterity the historic
roles these brave men of African, European, and Hispanic descent played
in ending slavery and keeping America united under one flag.”
The forum was part of the annual meeting of the National Network on
Cuba. It was hosted by the D.C. Metro Coalition in Solidarity with the
Cuban Revolution and the NNOC.
Nubia Kai, a leader of the D.C. Metro Coalition and a participant in
this year’s May Day International Volunteer Work Brigade in Solidarity
with Cuba, opened the event with a powerful poem dedicated to the Cuban
Revolution and the country’s fight for sovereignty in the face of
attacks by the U.S. government.
Pointing to the murals depicting African American soldiers fighting the
slavocracy, José Ramón Cabañas, Cuba’s ambassador to the U.S., said,
“This is part of our common culture. We came from the same place, in the
same ships — and if you changed the uniforms, we were fighting the same
wars for our freedom and independence.”
“We are family,” he continued. “We fought revolutionary struggles to
overthrow slavery in Cuba and here in the U.S. Our solidarity has strong
historic roots.”
Turning to the U.S. war against the island, Cabañas said, “The purpose
of the blockade is to kill our revolution. That has been U.S. policy
from the beginning. Our sin, in the eyes of the U.S. government, is we
made a revolution and our example and steadfastness in the face of 60
years of hostility by the U.S. government.”
The theme of solidarity was also part of the talk by James Harris, who
recently returned from the 6th African Continental Conference in
Solidarity with Cuba. Harris is active in the D.C. Metro Coalition and a
leader of the Socialist Workers Party. He noted that many at the
conference of 300 held in Abuja, Nigeria, asked if activists in the U.S.
could organize support for Cuba.
“I explained that the U.S. is a class-divided society. Ordinary working
people are interested in learning about the Cuban Revolution,” said
Harris. “Our responsibility is to explain that class reality at these
conferences. It gives those we meet confidence in their capacities as
well as ours.” He thanked the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the
Peoples (ICAP) for organizing regional conferences that bring activists
with different views together in support of the Cuban Revolution.
“The U.S. economic blockade of Cuba has cost $138 billion since it was
instituted,” Dr. Jourdy James Heredia told the gathering. James is
deputy director and lead researcher of the Center for the Study and
Research of the World Economy in Havana. She pointed to the
reinforcement of the blockade by the Trump administration. “Title III of
the Helms Burton Act,” which was implemented for the first time this
year, “impedes needed foreign investment in Cuba. It allows former
capitalists and landowners whose property was nationalized by the
revolutionary government to file suits in the U.S. courts to reclaim
their property.”
She explained that similar property claims had been settled with every
other capitalist country in the world in the 1960s, but the U.S.
government has always refused to negotiate them.
“The purpose of this and other measures is to impose suffering on the
Cuban people,” she concluded.
Longtime activist and musician Patricio Zamorano brought solidarity to
the meeting from the metro-area Foro de Sao Paulo group. Zamorano and
the Foro were energetic builders of the meeting from the beginning.
Netfa Freeman, a leader of Pan-African Community Action, spoke about the
current sanctions and attacks on Venezuela. Freeman pointed out it was
the Barack Obama administration that first imposed sanctions against the
Venezuelan regime. He urged solidarity with individuals who in the
spring tried to prevent the Venezuelan Embassy here from being seized by
the U.S. government. They face up to one year in jail.
Howard County Friends of Latin America leader Leslie Salgado read
excerpts from a report by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs outlining
the economic and political crisis in Ecuador.
The NNOC meeting continued the following day with reports from
solidarity groups around the country on their activities. Major upcoming
activities include support for a resolution that will be presented Nov.
7 by the Cuban delegation to the United Nations calling for an end to
the U.S. embargo. Participants were also urged to endorse and help build
a National Conference for the Normalization of U.S.-Cuba Relations to
take place in New York City March 21-22, 2020.
Dan Fein from Chicago, and Arlene Rubinstein from Washington, D.C.,
contributed to this article.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •Asarco strike deserves support of all workers
•US-Chinese rulers’ rivalry grows despite new trade deal
•‘Break from bosses 2-party system, build a labor party’
•New book ‘The Turn to Industry’ boosts fall ‘Militant,’ book drive
•Why working people shouldn’t join the liberals’ impeachment crusade
•California blackout, fire show need for workers control of power companies
Feature Articles •Iraqi protests grow, demand halt to Tehran’s interference
•Socialist Workers Party 2020 campaign program
Also In This Issue •As competition heats up, retail bosses tell workers,
‘Speed up’
•DC meeting: ‘US hands off Cuba and Venezuela’
•UK election: ‘Workers need our own political party’
•Fight continues to keep last abortion clinic in Missouri
•Israel protest: ‘Don’t deport Filipino classmates’
•Courts back two capitalist parties’ ballot monopoly
•After GM workers settle, workers at Ford debate, vote on new contract
•Fall Campaign to sell Militant subscriptions and books (week 4)
•Socialist Workers Party Fund Drive (week 4)
Books of the Month •‘Communism is not a doctrine, but a movement’
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Letters
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David Hume
“ In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees
of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral
evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence. ”
― David Hume,
