I have a sense that the only way we will see an end to the Cuban
Embargo and the return of ownership of Guantánamo to Cuba will be when
we first end the control the Elite Ruling Class has over the American
People.
I understand that there are those who will point out to me that many
working class White Americans believe Cuba to be a real threat to
their "Freedom"...you know, Right to Work(for less) and Return America
to her Greatness(when we had no child labor laws and the right to work
6 12 hour days). But these cries come from brain damaged,
disenfranchised Working Poor Whites. Reasoning with these folk is
like trying to talk sense to an angry Hippopotamus.
And of course, so is attempting to reason with the Corporate
Capitalists who currently rule this Land of the Free and the Brave.
These Elite folk respond to only two forces, Money and Force. This is
why they make certain that our money flows up into their off-shore
banks, and they control the heavy duty weapons of mass destruction and
the bodies needed to protect themselves. So since to match them
dollar for dollar is out of the question, and to arm ourselves and
attempt a violent overthrow, would only end in disaster, and even if
we pulled it off we would only be replacing one violent ruling class
with another, we need to work toward a peaceful coup. While that may
not be possible, it must be our goal. If not, why fuss? Just join
the existing Monsters and try to carve your own little safe corner.
But if we truly care for All People of the World, we will keep
scratching away at an answer.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/2/17, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2017/8114/811405.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 14 April 10, 2017
(front page)
http://themilitant.com/2017/8114/811405.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 14 April 10, 2017
(front page)
NY meeting: ‘End US embargo of Cuba! Get out of Guantánamo!’
Militant/Paul Mailhot
“Solidarity with Cuba is very important at this moment,” Sandra Ramírez,
above, from Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, told over
200 people at March 25 Harlem rally.
BY SARA LOBMAN
NEW YORK — “Solidarity with Cuba is very important at this moment,” said
Sandra Ramírez, director of the North American division of the Cuban
Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).
“Cuba and the United States have established diplomatic relations,” she
said. “But the U.S. government still maintains a blockade against our
country, still illegally occupies Guantánamo, and still has policies
aimed at ‘regime change’ in Cuba.
“We will never renounce the construction of a socialist Cuba,” Ramírez
concluded to applause.
The ICAP leader was speaking to more than 200 people from New York and
across the U.S. and Canada at a public meeting at the Malcolm X and Dr.
Betty Shabazz center in Harlem. The March 25 event was part of a two-day
conference organized to advance the fight to demand Washington end its
55-year-old embargo of Cuba; get out of Guantánamo, Cuban territory that
Washington has illegally occupied since 1903; and end all efforts aimed
at “regime change” in Cuba. An article on the conference discussion,
debate and decisions will appear next week.
The meeting opened with a dinner, to the sounds of drumming by
Afro-Boricua Bomba Yo.
The program was co-chaired by Estela Vasquez, an executive vice
president of 1199SEIU healthcare workers union, and August Nimtz of the
Minnesota Cuba Committee. In opening the program, Vasquez recognized
several special guests, including Anayansi Rodríguez, Cuba’s ambassador
to the United Nations; Miguel Barnet, president of the Union of Writers
and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC); and members of a leadership delegation of
the Federation of Cuban Women to the U.N. Commission on the Status of
Women.
In addition to Ramírez, speakers included Rafael Cancel Miranda, a
longtime Puerto Rican independence leader imprisoned for more than 25
years by the U.S. colonial rulers; Andrés Gómez, a coordinator of the
Antonio Maceo Brigade, a Cuban-American organization based in Miami that
has organized support of the Cuban Revolution for four decades; and
Juanita Young, whose son Malcolm Ferguson was killed by New York police
in 2000.
Ramírez reminded participants that in 1960 when Fidel Castro came to New
York to address the U.N. General Assembly on behalf of the newly
victorious revolution, downtown hotels insulted and evicted the Cuban
delegation. At Malcolm X’s initiative, the Cubans were invited to stay
at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. Thousands poured into the streets to
welcome the Cuban revolutionaries.
Turning to the evening’s honored guest, Rafael Cancel Miranda, the ICAP
leader underlined revolutionary Cuba’s support “for a free and
independent Puerto Rican nation.”
In his remarks, Cancel Miranda said that although the United States
“invaded Puerto Rico and still occupies my country, we are going to
fight back until we have ended the colonial slavery of my people.
“And when I say ‘my people,’ I’m also Cuban. I’m Venezuelan. I’m from
Bolivia. I’m from the Caribbean. I’m Puerto Rican from top to bottom,
but I’m all of that too.” He paid tribute to American Indian Movement
leader Leonard Peltier and Black Panther Herman Bell, with whom he
served time in federal prison and who are still behind bars.
“Anybody that stands up and fights is my people,” he said. “You’re not
wasting your time. Fighting for others make all of us more human. Anyone
who has dignity supports the Cuban Revolution,” the Puerto Rican leader
said. “Anyone who cares.”
Responding to the presentation of a bouquet, Ambassador Rodríguez
thanked participants for the “selfless solidarity we have received all
these years. What Cuba has achieved,” she said, “has been done by the
revolution itself, by the Cuban people, a heroic people, a resilient
people who’ve resisted under the most difficult circumstances.
“But we couldn’t have done it without the help, the support, the love of
all of you,” she said. “Particularly here in the United States,” whose
government “has imposed an unjust, illegal, and unfair blockade against
us, which is still there” despite the establishment of diplomatic
relations.
U.S. policy has failed for more than five decades, said Andrés Gómez,
“because of the determination of the Cuban people to defend their
socialist revolution and to continue to fight for a just society.”
Describing the work in Miami by the Antonio Maceo Brigade, which marks
its 40th anniversary this year, Gómez said it was an honor to be at the
conference. “Our job here,” he said, “is to fight to end the U.S. policy
of permanent aggression against Cuba.”
Juanita Young spoke about the trip she and other family members of
victims of cop killings and brutality took to Cuba last year. They
joined the massive May Day demonstration in Havana, met with a member of
the Cuban Five and took part in other activities.
“If I’d been living in Cuba,” Young said, “I wouldn’t be standing here
talking about the death of my son.”
Pointing to the human solidarity she and others had experienced, Young
concluded, “Cuba, I’ll take you any time. You all need to visit Cuba,
I’m telling you!”
Cultural performances by Bomba Yo and Cuban Latin jazz pianist Marcello
Casagrandi closed the evening.
Related articles:
Workers, youth from 23 countries to join Cuba Brigade
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
Militant/Paul Mailhot
“Solidarity with Cuba is very important at this moment,” Sandra Ramírez,
above, from Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, told over
200 people at March 25 Harlem rally.
BY SARA LOBMAN
NEW YORK — “Solidarity with Cuba is very important at this moment,” said
Sandra Ramírez, director of the North American division of the Cuban
Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).
“Cuba and the United States have established diplomatic relations,” she
said. “But the U.S. government still maintains a blockade against our
country, still illegally occupies Guantánamo, and still has policies
aimed at ‘regime change’ in Cuba.
“We will never renounce the construction of a socialist Cuba,” Ramírez
concluded to applause.
The ICAP leader was speaking to more than 200 people from New York and
across the U.S. and Canada at a public meeting at the Malcolm X and Dr.
Betty Shabazz center in Harlem. The March 25 event was part of a two-day
conference organized to advance the fight to demand Washington end its
55-year-old embargo of Cuba; get out of Guantánamo, Cuban territory that
Washington has illegally occupied since 1903; and end all efforts aimed
at “regime change” in Cuba. An article on the conference discussion,
debate and decisions will appear next week.
The meeting opened with a dinner, to the sounds of drumming by
Afro-Boricua Bomba Yo.
The program was co-chaired by Estela Vasquez, an executive vice
president of 1199SEIU healthcare workers union, and August Nimtz of the
Minnesota Cuba Committee. In opening the program, Vasquez recognized
several special guests, including Anayansi Rodríguez, Cuba’s ambassador
to the United Nations; Miguel Barnet, president of the Union of Writers
and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC); and members of a leadership delegation of
the Federation of Cuban Women to the U.N. Commission on the Status of
Women.
In addition to Ramírez, speakers included Rafael Cancel Miranda, a
longtime Puerto Rican independence leader imprisoned for more than 25
years by the U.S. colonial rulers; Andrés Gómez, a coordinator of the
Antonio Maceo Brigade, a Cuban-American organization based in Miami that
has organized support of the Cuban Revolution for four decades; and
Juanita Young, whose son Malcolm Ferguson was killed by New York police
in 2000.
Ramírez reminded participants that in 1960 when Fidel Castro came to New
York to address the U.N. General Assembly on behalf of the newly
victorious revolution, downtown hotels insulted and evicted the Cuban
delegation. At Malcolm X’s initiative, the Cubans were invited to stay
at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. Thousands poured into the streets to
welcome the Cuban revolutionaries.
Turning to the evening’s honored guest, Rafael Cancel Miranda, the ICAP
leader underlined revolutionary Cuba’s support “for a free and
independent Puerto Rican nation.”
In his remarks, Cancel Miranda said that although the United States
“invaded Puerto Rico and still occupies my country, we are going to
fight back until we have ended the colonial slavery of my people.
“And when I say ‘my people,’ I’m also Cuban. I’m Venezuelan. I’m from
Bolivia. I’m from the Caribbean. I’m Puerto Rican from top to bottom,
but I’m all of that too.” He paid tribute to American Indian Movement
leader Leonard Peltier and Black Panther Herman Bell, with whom he
served time in federal prison and who are still behind bars.
“Anybody that stands up and fights is my people,” he said. “You’re not
wasting your time. Fighting for others make all of us more human. Anyone
who has dignity supports the Cuban Revolution,” the Puerto Rican leader
said. “Anyone who cares.”
Responding to the presentation of a bouquet, Ambassador Rodríguez
thanked participants for the “selfless solidarity we have received all
these years. What Cuba has achieved,” she said, “has been done by the
revolution itself, by the Cuban people, a heroic people, a resilient
people who’ve resisted under the most difficult circumstances.
“But we couldn’t have done it without the help, the support, the love of
all of you,” she said. “Particularly here in the United States,” whose
government “has imposed an unjust, illegal, and unfair blockade against
us, which is still there” despite the establishment of diplomatic
relations.
U.S. policy has failed for more than five decades, said Andrés Gómez,
“because of the determination of the Cuban people to defend their
socialist revolution and to continue to fight for a just society.”
Describing the work in Miami by the Antonio Maceo Brigade, which marks
its 40th anniversary this year, Gómez said it was an honor to be at the
conference. “Our job here,” he said, “is to fight to end the U.S. policy
of permanent aggression against Cuba.”
Juanita Young spoke about the trip she and other family members of
victims of cop killings and brutality took to Cuba last year. They
joined the massive May Day demonstration in Havana, met with a member of
the Cuban Five and took part in other activities.
“If I’d been living in Cuba,” Young said, “I wouldn’t be standing here
talking about the death of my son.”
Pointing to the human solidarity she and others had experienced, Young
concluded, “Cuba, I’ll take you any time. You all need to visit Cuba,
I’m telling you!”
Cultural performances by Bomba Yo and Cuban Latin jazz pianist Marcello
Casagrandi closed the evening.
Related articles:
Workers, youth from 23 countries to join Cuba Brigade
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
