“Whatever the provocations that may take place, the island is overwhelmingly united behind the revolution.”
By Bernard Regan, Cuba Solidarity Campaign
The United States’ military budget is ten times the size of the Cuban domestic budget. Washington’s annual military spending is 500 times that of Havana, with more than one and a quarter million troops – twenty times greater than Cuba’s equivalent. The USA has a stockpile of over 5,000 nuclear weapons – Cuba has none.
Despite this, President Donald Trump stated on 1st May this year that Cuba is an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the United States. On 20th July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio produced a report accusing Cuba of orchestrating a worldwide anti-USA strategy.
Designated by Trump a “State Sponsor of Terrorism”, Cuba is denied access to international financial systems to conduct trade. He has ramped up the draconian blockade, adding some 49 new sanctions targeting more than 200 individuals and enterprises. Foreign companies working with Cuba face huge fines and disruption to their own trade with US companies. Products containing 10% or more USA produced components or materials are prohibited from being sold by anyone to Cuba. Shipping companies are threatened with fines impacting oil deliveries. Thriving sectors of the Cuban economy, like tourism, have been damaged, with three Spanish holiday companies operating joint venture hotels having withdrawn from the island. A Canadian mining company working in Cuba on mineral extraction has withdrawn its collaboration.
Cuba is facing a medieval siege. Cuba cannot obtain oil easily, causing drastic cuts to the electricity supply, starving homes and hospitals of power, and preventing vital lifesaving operations. Over 100,000 urgent cases have been postponed, and the blockade is impacting the lives of the whole country. The infant mortality rate, once the best in Latin America and surpassing even parts of the United States itself, has nearly doubled from 4.8 per 1,000 live births in 2015 to nearly 7. The survival rates for child cancer sufferers have fallen. All of this is due to Washington’s blockade of medical supplies, medicines, equipment and fuel.
Outages occur regularly and can last more than a day, and the power to homes, schools, hospitals and factories and to pump water are gravely affected. Refrigeration is hit, impacting food preservation and hospital supplies. Power shortages can last more than a day. The Cuban government and the Cuban people, however, have not stood still. Solar farms are being installed with the collaboration of China, which, together with the contribution of the island’s own limited oil resources, is providing power, but it still remains less than half that needed.
However, Trump’s views are not shared widely. Since 1992, the United Nations General Assembly has passed 33 motions backed by more than 180 countries, including both Tory and Labour Governments, condemning the blockade of the island. The time has come for these countries, including Britain, to turn these votes into actions. Over 100 MPs, including Labour, Independent, Liberal Democrat, and Greens, signed an Early Day Motion expressing opposition to the Trump vindictive campaign. Leading trade unionists from the TUC General Council have asked the Labour Government to act to send oil, food and medical equipment to Cuba. The TUC will undoubtedly endorse this and welcome Cuban trade unionists to address Congress. It is time to turn votes into action and break the inhuman blockade of the island.
Over the years, Cuba has sent more than 605,000 medical personnel abroad, treating more than 1.99 billion patients, conducting 4 million operations to save eyesight and 14.5 million surgeries saving an estimated 8.7 million lives. These figures are staggering and put countries like Britain to shame. Cuba’s internationalism is legendary. As Nelson Mandela testified on numerous occasions, it was the help of Cubans fighting alongside the Angolan army and the South West African Peoples’ Organisation of Namibia that defeated the racist Apartheid army of South Africa. As he said in Matanzas in 1991, “The Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the people of Africa”.
When the USA invaded Venezuela and abducted President Maduro and Cilia Flores, 32 Cuban soldiers gave their lives defending them. As Abel Prieto, former Minister of Culture, said, that sacrifice was made because there is one flag for Cuba and Venezuela. International solidarity is at the heart of Cuba’s socialism.
The Cuban people are fully aware of what is happening. Cuba is not passive – over six and a half million Cubans of a population of more than nine million have signed a declaration of resistance to any assault on the island’s sovereignty. On May Day, mass demonstrations across the country rejected Trump and Rubio’s bellicosity. Whatever the provocations that may take place, the island is overwhelmingly united behind the revolution.
Solidarity is being mobilised globally with real efforts to send food and medical equipment to the island. The Cuba Solidarity Campaign in Britain, working with many trade unionists, has raised over half a million pounds, sending around 11 containers with food and vital medical equipment. Jeremy Corbyn MP and Richard Burgon MP accompanied the delivery of some of this deeply appreciated equipment. The Cuba Solidarity Campaign is encouraging everyone to show their solidarity with the Cuban people in this campaign for solidarity. Please give your support to the campaign.
On 20th July, Secretary of State Marco Rubio produced a report which described Cuba as the “Capital of Twenty first Century Communism”. It accuses Cuba of orchestrating a worldwide anti-USA strategy. This report has gained no traction on the global stage because, in its desire to impress, it stretches the bounds of credibility way beyond any sane limits. Cuba, according to the deluded authors of this White House – Pentagon fantasy, is articulating a global programme manipulated by “hundreds of front groups, activist organisations, solidarity centres, and ideological NGO and nonprofit networks” targeting the USA.
In a prolonged rant, the document alleges that every single anti-American, by which they mean anti-Trump, voice is actually directed from Havana. However, we should not be surprised by the rantings of Marco Rubio, the Grand Guignol of the US regime. Rubio tries to portray himself as a “victim” of the Cuban revolution of 1959. In fact, he was not born in Cuba and has never been there. His parents, who “fled” the island, did so in 1958 before the revolution happened and were, in fact, fleeing the island of Fulgencio Batista, the US backed neo-fascist dictator, who was evicted by the forces of the revolution. Rubio himself, once a vehement critic of Trump, has some murky connections. His brother-in-law, Orlando Cicilia, is a convicted drug trafficker who, according to the Washington Post, moved between 1976 and 1986 half a million pounds of marijuana and 200 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated value of $75 million. It was this business that Rubio worked for, although he himself was never charged. Nevertheless, the association earned him the sobriquet of “Narco Rubio”. His anti-Cuban tirades, however, must lead some to question if he has been involved in any sort of substance abuse.
The document he is promoting is a McCarthyite harangue designed, amongst other objectives, to target anyone in the United States itself who opposes the malicious anti-Cuban actions of the President. Undoubtedly, the hyped-up rhetoric is, in part, linked to the growing concern in the MAGA movement about the evaporation of support being experienced by Trump in the run-up to the midterm elections. Over 64% of USA citizens disapprove of the President whilst his approval rating is the lowest of his Presidency. This is of course due to numerous policies: the Iran war, oil price inflation at the pump, increasing inflation and an increase in the number of critical voices who are gaining a hearing.
If the Democrats were to win those elections, they would have the power to end the legislative phase of his Presidency and even to consider impeachment. It would be unlikely that this would lead to major changes with respect to the aggressive policies towards Cuba, of course. President Biden implemented the same policies that he inherited from his predecessor, Donald Trump. It was not until a week before he stood down that Biden took Cuba off the list of “State Sponsors of Terrorism”, only for Trump to reinstate the designation within 48 hours of his assumption of office.
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