Protest actions demand, ‘End US gov’t economic war against Cuba!’
https://themilitant.com/2020/12/26/protest-actions-demand-end-us-govt-economic-war-against-cuba/
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
Vol. 85/No. 1
January 4, 2021
Dec. 17 Minneapolis picket was one of several in U.S. as part of day of
protest against U.S. economic war on Cuba. For over 60 years, Washington
has tried to overturn Cuban Revolution.
EMILIANO SILVA IZQUIERDO
Dec. 17 Minneapolis picket was one of several in U.S. as part of day of
protest against U.S. economic war on Cuba. For over 60 years, Washington
has tried to overturn Cuban Revolution.
With Jan. 1 marking the 62nd anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban
Revolution, the National Network on Cuba and local coalitions have laid
out a program of solidarity actions over the next several months
demanding: End the U.S. embargo against Cuba! U.S. out of Guantánamo
now! and End U.S. travel restrictions against Cuba!
As part of this schedule, street actions, meetings and press conferences
were held in several cities Dec. 17 marking the sixth anniversary of the
agreement reached between the U.S. and Cuban governments to reestablish
diplomatic relations, which Washington had cut off in January 1961.
The actions also marked the freedom of the last three of the Cuban Five
the same day. The Cuban Five had been framed up in the U.S. for their
actions to defend Cuba from counterrevolutionary attacks launched from
the U.S. They were imprisoned for up to 16 years.
Holding signs against the U.S. economic war against Cuba, 30 people
picketed and rallied with signs alongside Interstate 94 in Minneapolis.
“Cars passing by honked in solidarity,” reported participant Helen
Meyers. The action was called by the Minnesota Cuba Committee.
“The U.S. uses its economic and political power to undermine Cuba’s
right to national self-determination, and that goes against everything
that I stand for,” Nick Neeser, 22, a woodworker, told the Militant.
This was his first protest in support of the Cuban Revolution.
“The Cuban Revolution has inspired all of us,” said David Rosenfeld of
the Socialist Workers Party, who spoke at the rally, “by its
internationalism, medical care and education system. Above all, Cuba has
something to teach us: It is possible to make a revolution.”
A picket was organized at a busy intersection in Chicago on the same day
by the Chicago Cuba Coalition. Participants reached out to passersby
with informational flyers about the Cuban Revolution and the need to
oppose Washington’s economic war against it.
In Washington, D.C., a news conference was held at Busboys and Poets
featuring greetings from José Ramón Cabañas, Cuban ambassador to the
U.S.; Sandra Ramírez, North American director of the Cuban Institute for
Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP); and Gail Walker from the National
Network on Cuba. Busboys and Poets is a restaurant, bookstore and
frequent venue for political and artistic meetings.
The NNOC plans to organize similar public solidarity activities on the
17th of each month.
A resolution passed at the recently concluded meeting of the NNOC
projects a series of actions in 2021 for member groups to participate
in. They include a “Solidarity Caravan Against the U.S. Anti-Cuba
Blockade” for Dec. 27, with plans to organize these on the last Sunday
of every month.
A successful such action took place in Miami Nov. 29, with over 100
people in more than 80 cars and on bikes participating in a caravan
around the city, including in Little Havana.
Bay of Pigs, literacy brigades
In April, activities will be organized to mark the 60th anniversaries of
two important developments in the Cuban Revolution — Cuba’s decisive
defeat of the U.S.-backed mercenary invasion at Playa Gíron (Bay of
Pigs) April 19, 1961, and the launching of the national literacy
campaign. In what Cuba’s revolutionary government declared the “Year of
Education,” hundreds of thousands of Cubans, overwhelmingly youths, were
mobilized from cities into rural areas to wipe out illiteracy on the
island. This involved millions more fully in strengthening the revolution.
The NNOC will also be building the May Day brigade to Cuba, where
participants can learn firsthand what the revolution is all about. ICAP
has issued an invitation for people in the U.S. and around the world to
join in the brigade. This annual brigade, had been put off in 2020
because of the pandemic.
Cuba’s community-based health care system — a product of the revolution
— has meant everyone on the island is visited and aided in beating back
the coronavirus. And the Cuban government plans to vaccinate everyone in
the next few months.
Also being projected are brigades organized by IFCO/Pastors for Peace,
the Venceremos Brigade and the Che Guevara Brigade, a project of the
Canadian Network on Cuba.
On May 21 the United Nations General Assembly is scheduled to hear
debate and vote on a resolution demanding the U.S. government end its
brutal economic embargo of Cuba. The NNOC is projecting organizing
protests at the U.N. in New York, in front of the White House in
Washington, D.C., and in other cities.
For more information contact the National Network on Cuba at
NNOC20012002@xxxxxxxxx.
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