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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 30 August 15, 2016
Events in New York, Chicago celebrate
Cuban Revolution
BY SARA LOBMAN
NEW YORK—“For us, Moncada laid the foundations for the final struggle
for real independence, which we won on Jan. 1, 1959,” said Ana Silvia
Rodríguez Abascal, Cuba’s deputy permanent representative to the United
Nations.
Rodríguez was speaking to more than 100 people at an event here to
celebrate the July 26, 1953, attack on the Moncada army garrison in
Santiago de Cuba. That action, led by Fidel Castro, began the
revolutionary struggle by workers and peasants to bring down the
U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista that ended in victory less
than six years later, opening the first socialist revolution in the
Americas.
“Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States were
re-established a year ago due to the self-sacrificing and heroic
resistance of our people for more than half a century,” Rodríguez said
at the July 22 program. But for there to be normal relations, the U.S.
government must end “the economic, commercial, and financial blockade,”
return the Guantánamo naval base, end “destabilizing” television and
radio broadcasts to the island, and compensate “our people for the human
and economic harm we have suffered and continue to suffer.”
Such relations, she said, will never be achieved by telling the Cuban
people “to forget our past” of U.S. imperialist exploitation and
oppression, referring to the message President Barack Obama presented in
a public speech in Cuba earlier this year.
Juanita Young, a longtime activist against police brutality and mother
of Malcolm Ferguson, killed by a New York police officer in 2000, spoke
about the trip to Cuba that she and other family members of people
killed by the cops made this past spring.
One Cuban leader told the delegation, “Obama’s demand that Cuba ‘forget
the past’ is like asking you to forget your sons,” Young said. “If we
lived in Cuba, our sons would still be alive.”
Young said she saw a “different way of living” in Cuba. She noted the
lack of police intimidation at the massive May Day demonstration, the
11- and 12-year-olds who volunteered to help younger students at the
primary school the delegation visited, and the treatment she received at
the local hospital when she was ill. “People don’t compete as much. They
try to help each other,” she said.
Rosemari Mealy gave a historical overview of the conditions in Cuba
under the Batista dictatorship and Fidel Castro’s courtroom speech at
his trial following the 1953 attack, “History Will Absolve Me.” She
described the Cuban Revolution’s record of “solidarity with countries
around the world suffering from imperialism,” calling attention to the
hundreds of thousands of Cuban volunteers who, over 15 years, helped
defeat South Africa’s apartheid army after it invaded Angola in 1975,
and the place of Cuban medical personnel in responding to the Ebola
epidemic in Africa.
The program was organized by the New York Cuba Solidarity Committee, and
held at the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational
Center.
Ben Ramos presented a message on behalf of Pro Libertad, which campaigns
to free Puerto Rican political prisoners. Participants also enjoyed
musical performances by Bomba Yo and Circa ’95.
❖
BY ILONA GERSH
CHICAGO — “We had a victory in winning freedom for the Cuban Five,” said
José López, executive director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, at
an event here celebrating the July 26 anniversary of the opening battle
of the Cuban Revolution.
Fernando González, one of the Cuban revolutionaries who was framed up
and imprisoned in the U.S. for many years, “was a cellmate of my
brother,” López said. Oscar López Rivera is a Puerto Rican independence
fighter imprisoned by Washington for more than 35 years.
“The U.S. ultimately had to recognize Cuba, and my brother will be
freed,” López said. He announced that the Puerto Rican Cultural Center
is organizing buses to Washington, D.C. for an Oct. 9 national protest
outside the White House demanding freedom for Oscar López.
More than 60 people took part in the celebration, held July 28 and
sponsored by the Chicago Cuba Coalition. Other speakers included Tom
Hansen, director of El Centro Autónomo, where the event took place;
Rixio Barrios, deputy from the Consulate of Venezuela in Chicago; and
Mary Johnson, a long-time fighter against police brutality and
co-founder of Families of the Wrongfully Convicted, who is fighting to
win freedom for her son who was railroaded to prison.
Related articles:
Cuban leader: ‘It’s up to US to dismantle its hostile policies’
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