Friday, January 18, 2019

International Crowd Celebrates Cuban Revolution’s 60th Anniversary

By Nadrat Siddique

January 18, 2019
Washington, DC

In St. Stephen's Church’s welcoming milieu, Cuba supporters, including Latinos, Blacks, Arabs, Pakistanis, and others, celebrated the anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. The event was organized by the DC Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba. The room was filled to capacity, and a majority of the attendees had visited Cuba. The evening began with a vibrant performance by the Malcolm X Drummers and Dancers.

Speakers included Miguel Fraga, the First Secretary of the Embassy of Cuba; Patricio Zamorano, a supporter of the Cuban Revolution; Omari Musa, member, DC Coalition in Solidarity with Cuba, and Socialist Workers Party leader; and Detroit-based labor leader Cheryl LaBash.

Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin (dressed, not surprisingly in pink!) was in the audience, as was jazz legend and anti-racism activist Luci Murphy (formerly of Sweet Honey in the Rock; and later of the Rock Creek Trio). The event was moderated by WPFW radio host Mimi Machado. (WPFW is an independent radio station heard on 89.3 FM in the DC listening area.)

Patricio Zamorano spoke eloquently about the U.S. role in destabilizing Latin America. He gave the example of Honduras, where the U.S. supported the 2009 coup forcibly removing the country's elected president, Jose Manuel Zelaya. Honduras boasts one of the largest deployments of U.S. Special Forces outside of the Middle East, with the corresponding deleterious impact on human rights there.

Omari Musa had visited Cuba, among many other Latin American and African countries. He described life in Cuba, detailing the nation’s many social welfare programs. These, he said, were available to all Cubans, and membership in the Communist Party was not a requirement [unlike in China, and other self-described communist countries –editor]. He encouraged the audience, particularly youth, to visit Cuba.

During Q&A, a Caucasian audience member, sharply dressed in suit and tie, asked the panel whether or when Cuba would take steps to democratize, following models, e.g., of Scanandavian or other First World countries. Zamorano replied that the European model was not necessarily the most effective, or the best model for the rest of the world to follow.

A Palestinian member of the audience drew parallels between the struggles of Latin American peoples, and those of the Palestinians. Urging the audience to open their eyes to the similarities of the situations of the two peoples, she said the struggles of the people of Latin America, and those of the Palestinian people were against a common oppressor.

Participants at the 60th Anniversary celebration were offered the opportunity to visit Cuba, with the May Day Brigade. Literature describing the Brigade differentiated it from a mere site-seeing or vacation trip to Cuba. Here, participants would be expected to volunteer their time to various projects delineated by their Cuban government hosts.

Background

In December 1958, the Cuban people overthrew U.S.-supported Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Under the leadership of Fidel Castro, they nationalized many industries, and drove out large U.S. corporations. The new government instated equal pay for everyone (so that doctors made as much as trash collectors!), racial discrimination was outlawed, milk was free for infants and babies, and high quality healthcare and education was free to all Cubans. The infant mortality rate fell, becoming on par with the United States.

The Cuban Medical School, free to all Cubans, enlarged its enrollment to those outside of Cuba, initially inviting only Blacks. Later on, enrollment was opened to all people. Doctors from the Cuban Medical School volunteered their services in Africa, and many other places, including New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

As a result of its egalitarian message uplifting the impoverished, driving out multinational corporations, and the consequent challenge to the World Order, the Cuban Revolution and Cuba itself, soon came under attack. In 1960, the U.S. imposed an embargo on the tiny island nation. That embargo was all-inclusive, except for food and medicine, and was in retaliation for Cuba's nationalization of American-owned Cuban oil refineries. In 1962, the embargo was extended to include nearly all imports to Cuba, including food and medicine. As a result, there was a significant deterioration in the quality of life of many Cubans, despite the Cuban government's efforts to counter this. Every year since 1992, the United Nations has passed a resolution condemning the embargo and its effects, and declaring it in violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law. In 2014, nearly the entire U.N. General Assembly voted for the resolution. Tellingly, only the U.S. and Israel voted against the resolution supporting Cuba against embargo.

But the U.S. efforts to destroy the Cuban Revolution did not stop at economic warfare. In 1961, the Bay of Pigs Invasion was launched, with the U.S. sending 1,500 Cuban exiles into Cuba. Thousands of assassination plans of Cuban leaders were instrumented by U.S. intelligence agencies, many of them targeting Castro, who miraculously survived.

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Why such hatred and fear of a revolution, one might ask? It seemed to me that, like the Haitian Revolution, it was not merely the actions—however heroic—of the Cuban people between 1953 - 1958, which posed a threat to the World Order. Rather, it was what the Cuban Revolution symbolized. Similarly, in Haiti, it was not merely the successful revolt by Black slaves and the killing of the slave masters which instilled fear and loathing among American planters; rather, it was the example put into the public sphere by the Haitian Revolution. That revolution planted in the minds of Black slaves in the continental U.S. a different reality, one in which they were not being raped, tortured, separated from their families, or treated like chattel, and the way forward to that reality. But—the mere thought of this was terrifying to the slave owners. Almost immediately, Haiti was slapped with an embargo by France and the U.S.  Haiti was also forced to pay reparations to France, the very nation which had occupied it! (The forced reparation payments continue to this day, contributing heavily to the impoverishment of Haiti.) The example of Cuba provides a similar model of liberation for Latin American countries. And- like Saul Landau said, The "Latin Americans never disobeyed the United States before the Cuban revolution."

© 2019 Nadrat Siddique