When I read the American Empire's attacks on Cuba, I am filled with a
sense of shame. Sure, I'm an American by birth, through no fault of
my own, but nonetheless, I am embarrassed by this nation's
misbehavior.
Is there such a thing as a perfect government? Is such a thing possible?
Well, I suppose when we raise up some perfect people, we might have a
shot at putting together a perfect government.
Some governments already have set their feet on the path toward a
perfect government. But many governments are still worshiping Profit
over People.
It's like a giant tug of war. As the current World's Darling,
Corporate Capitalism crumbles under the forces of Greed and Lust, a
better way of life may be possible. But it will take informed,
enlightened people. Cuba offers us an example from which we might
learn.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/27/20, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://themilitant.com/2020/04/25/revolution-in-cuba-opened-door-to-todays-intl-solidarity/
Revolution in Cuba opened door to today’s int’l solidarity
article
BY TERRY EVANS
Vol. 84/No. 17
May 4, 2020
“I will always say yes,” Cuban nurse Hugo César González López told
Juventud Rebelde, “for whatever, whenever, wherever” our medical
missions are needed.
González is one of the country’s volunteers fighting the outbreak of
coronavirus in Italy. Cuba’s government has mobilized over 1,000 health
care workers
to 18 countries worldwide since the outbreak of COVID-19.
González pointed with pride to the experience he gained previously as
part of Cuba’s volunteer medical mission to eradicate the spread of
Ebola in Sierra
Leone, West Africa. Earlier this month the Cuban government sent 473
doctors and nurses to eight Caribbean countries — one of the largest and
fastest deployments
of health care workers it has ever organized.
GRETEL DÍAZ MONTALVO Work brigade initiated by trade union leaders in
Camagüey province. With May Day parade called off, volunteers seeking to
defend their
revolution named contingent May 1st Brigade. figure
Work brigade initiated by trade union leaders in Camagüey province. With
May Day parade called off, volunteers seeking to defend their revolution
named
contingent May 1st Brigade.
GRETEL DÍAZ MONTALVO Work brigade initiated by trade union leaders in
Camagüey province. With May Day parade called off, volunteers seeking to
defend their
revolution named contingent May 1st Brigade. figure end
“Even facing the challenge of containing COVID-19 in national territory,
Cuba considers it essential to contribute to the necessary increase in
solidarity,”
José Carlos Rodríguez Ruiz, Cuban ambassador to Italy, said as a second
contingent of Cuban volunteers arrived there April 13. “We provide what
we can
and have, not what we have left over.”
These volunteers build on decades of internationalist work by Cuba’s
medical missions. “They are going to a place where they will enrich that
history,”
Jorge Juan Delgado, director of the Central Unit for Medical
Cooperation, said at a farewell for 20 volunteers heading to Honduras
April 19.
The 30,000 Cuban medical workers on missions in 65 countries are a
source of confidence and pride for the country’s working people.
Unlike anywhere else in the world, the Cuban government and people are
the product of a socialist revolution, carried out by millions of
workers and peasants
in 1959. That struggle transformed Cuba’s people — the moral values and
class needs of the country’s toiling majority shape the government’s
priorities.
Led by Fidel Castro and the July 26 Movement, working people ousted the
U.S.-backed Fulgencio Batista dictatorship and went on to overturn
capitalist rule.
Working people shouldered the responsibility of running society
themselves — something we are lectured is “impossible” by capitalist
rulers everywhere
— deepening their self-confidence, and defending themselves, arms in
hand, from Washington’s unceasing efforts to restore capitalist rule.
Workers, students mobilized
The government mobilizes medical students and members of the
neighborhood-based Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and of
other mass organizations
to systematically knock on people’s doors across the island to check if
they have symptoms of coronavirus or need any help. As of April 19 they
have visited
9 million of the country’s 11.2 million people. Many are visited daily.
If they have symptoms, they are referred to a doctor.
“It is the duty of young people to assume responsibilities, as Cuban
revolutionaries and citizens,” Indira Guevara told Juventud Rebelde. She
is one of
the members of the Union of Young Communists who have volunteered to
prevent overcrowding in stores and markets in the Abel Santamaría
neighborhood of
Nueva Gerona, on the Isle of Youth. All generations in Cuba continue to
be marked by the “we never leave anyone on their own” social relations
established
by the revolution. Young volunteers today act in line with the long
record of such efforts organized by the revolution’s leadership.
Like in Nueva Gerona, the government set up a quarantine in Camilo
Cienfuegos, a small town in Pinar del Rio, after cases of coronavirus
were confirmed.
Initiatives to support people there include building-by-building
delivery of the basic subsidized food basket provided by the government,
and taking prepared
meals to elderly residents. The work of regularly sanitizing the town’s
streets and squares that was being carried out by workers who came from
outside
the area is now taken on by volunteers in the town. Laborers from nearby
are covering the work of the town’s farmworkers to ensure food
production continues.
In face of the spreading worldwide capitalist social crisis — met by
capitalist rulers everywhere with shutdowns and mass layoffs — the
revolutionary government
has turned to working people to prevent an increase in shortages of
basic necessities. As the planting season approaches in Camagüey
province, trade union
leaders initiated a voluntary work brigade for sowing cassava. With the
government decision to suspend this year’s May Day parade, where
hundreds of thousands
march to express their determination to defend their revolution, the
Camagüey unionists named their contingent the May 1st Brigade.
The U.S. rulers’ ongoing economic war against Cuba continues to
challenge the government’s ability to import much-needed supplies. In
March a shipment,
including coronavirus testing kits and ventilators donated by Chinese
businessman Jack Ma, was blocked from reaching Cuba. The Colombian
airline that transported
the shipment refused to deliver it, citing fear of retaliatory action
from Washington.
The U.S. capitalist rulers will never stop their efforts to overthrow
the revolutionary government. Cuba provides a mighty example to working
people worldwide
of the unlimited capacities of our class to meet whatever challenges we
face — when we chart a course to take political power.
article end
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