Rene Gonzalez to be released - punishment to continue

Source: RATB.
by Helen Yaffe, 05 October 2011.

On Friday 7 October, Rene Gonzalez, one of the Cuban Five incarcerated in United States since 1998 for combating terrorism against Cuba, faces a ‘supervised release’ under life-threatening conditions. In 2001, Rene was sentenced to 15 years in prison charged with conspiracy to act as a non-registered foreign agent. He had already spent 33 months in ‘preventative custody’, including 17 months in isolation in ‘the hole’.



Rene’s real crime, like that of his co-defendants (Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerro, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez), was defending Cuba against acts of terrorism planned, financed and launched by Cuban exile groups in Miami; groups with well documented links to the US government agencies. The conditions imposed by Federal Court Judge Lenard on Friday 26 September 2011, force Rene to reside in Miami for three years, without returning to Cuba to be with his wife (who has been permitted to visit him just once by US authorities) and two children.

Rene was born in the United States in 1956, but returned to Cuba as a child just after the Cuban Revolution in 1961. He became a pilot and flight instructor. Between 1977 and 1979 he was among thousands of Cuban combatants who fought for the national liberation of Angola and against the racist apartheid regime of South Africa. In 1990, at the request of the Cuban government, Rene returned to the United States to gather information in order to prevent terrorist plots against Cuba.

The Cuban Five had no guns and no explosives. They were not after classified information or threatening US national security. They were gathering information and evidence from terrorist networks about actions planned and launched from US soil. In the 1990s more than 200 attacks were launched from Miami, many of them targeting Cuba’s expanding tourist industry. In 1998, Cuba handed the FBI a mountain of evidence compiled by the Cuban agents from the terrorist networks in Miami. That information made it possible to successfully prevent 170 attacks against Cuba, including a plan to blow up aeroplanes filled with Cuba-bound tourists from Europe and Canada. Instead of acting on the information to break the terror networks, the FBI arrested the Cuban agents.

The utter hypocrisy of the US judiciary is emphasised by the conditions established for Rene’s ‘supervised release’, which prohibit him ‘from associating with or visiting specific places where individuals or groups such as terrorists, members of organizations advocating violence, organized crime figures are known to be or frequent.’ In other words, the court can identify where terrorists and criminals hang out in Miami, but rather than arrest and put them on trial, it warns Rene, a US-citizen who has actively opposed terrorism, not to disturb them. So much for the war on terrorism!

Perversely, while warning Rene to stay away from these groups and individuals, the court will not permit him to do the only thing which would secure his safety – return to Cuba. The conditions force him to remain in the same city as the terrorists he was monitoring, where the ‘show trial’ took place, during which journalists were paid by the US government to secure a conviction, and which has a powerful right-wing Cuban exile population. Among Miami’s Cuban exile residents is Luis Posada Carriles, an ex-CIA agent, responsible for bombing a Cuban civilian aeroplane in 1976, killing all 73 persons aboard, and the bombing of hotels and restaurants in Havana in 1997. Carriles recently reaffirmed his support for further violence against Cuba.

‘Why is the Court putting Mr Gonzalez’s safety at risk by forcing him to live for the next three years side by side with the very terrorists that he tailed as an unregistered Cuban agent?’ demands José Pertierra, an attorney representing the Venezuelan government’s extradition case against Carriles.

Terrorism against Cuba has cost the lives of 3,478 Cubans and permanently maimed another 2,099. Rene’s life is at risk if he is forced to remain in Miami. Judge Lenard, who issued the ‘supervised release’ has justified her decision by stating that if Rene returns to Cuba she won’t be able to assess whether the US public ‘will be protected from further crimes of the defendant’. But as Pertierra responds: ‘His only “crime” was failing to register as a foreign agent.’ Absurdly, Judge Lenard also claims more time is needed to ‘provide the defendant with needed educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment in the most effective manner’. This is nonsense. Rene has declared his intention to renounce his US citizenship and return to live in Cuba with his family, he does not need to be ‘reintegrated’ into US society. Pertierra adds: ‘As for medical care, he will have access to the best medical care in Cuba and it will be available at no expense to the United States or to himself.’

Judge Lenard’s decision allows Rene to re-file his motion to return to Cuba at a later time ‘should circumstances warrant modification’. Pertierra asks: ‘What circumstances could she be waiting for? For a terrorist to take a potshot at Rene?’

However, for right-wing Cuban-exile community even this ‘supervised release’ is too generous. Miami Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman of the US Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee, condemned Rene’s release stating on 3 October that: ‘He has American blood on his hands and dedicated his life to harming our country on behalf of a regime that is a state sponsor of terrorism.’ This from a woman who just weeks ago called for Cuba to be attacked Libya-style; an attack which has so far cost the lives of 50,000 to 60,000 Libyans.

In early September, RATB activists participated in two anti-terrorism events in Havana. The first, on Saturday 10 September, commemorated the 14th anniversary of the murder of Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo, killed in the 1997 explosion at the Copacubana hotel in Havana. Guistino di Celmo, Fabio’s elderly father thanked the Cuban people for remembering his son and complained that, years after the terrorist act which took his son’s life, the US press continues to report the lie that Cuba supports terrorism, while the Cuban Five remain in US prisons for combating terrorism. Magalys Llort, mother of one of the Five, presented Guistino with a plaque in homage to his son made by Gerardo Gonzalez, another one of the Cuban Five.

Two days later, RATB joined thousands of representatives of Cuba’s grassroots organisations, cultural organisations, military, foreign diplomats, foreign students and Cuban workers in a cultural event to honour the Cuban Five, whose poems and letters were put to music. President of Cuba’s National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, condemned the conditions imposed on Rene Gonzalez’s ‘supervised release’ and pointed out that the case of the Cuban Five proves the US government is complicit with terrorist groups in Miami.

Rock around the Blockade joins international condemnation of this cruel and unusual punishment meted out to Rene and the Cuban people who are waiting to welcome him home. We demand the full, immediate and unconditional release of the Cuban Five and the trial of those terrorist plotters and supporters in the United States, including all those in US government agencies.

Free the Cuban Five! - Defend the socialist revolution in Cuba

Source: Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI) no. 222, August/September 2011.

by Ali Erkaslan

12 September 2011 will mark 13 years since the arrest in Miami, Florida of five Cuban intelligence agents who had infiltrated right-wing terrorist organisations in the United States to help foil terrorist attacks against the Cuban people. They remain incarcerated in US prisons. The campaign for their release is an essential part of the struggle to defend Cuban socialism. In September, Rock around the Blockade will join activists from around the world demanding the release of the Cuban Five.

RATB Report: Happy 85th birthday Fidel!!!!

On Saturday 13 August 2011, Manchester RATB held a birthday stall in Piccadilly Gardens, to celebrate Fidel's 85th birthday. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born in Biran, Mayari, in the former province of Oriente (now Holguin), on his father's farm on 13 August 1926. Some of the ideas of this great leader of the Cuban Revolution include the Latin American Medical School (ELAM) founded in November 1999 in Cuba, to train physicians from many countries, with the ability to offer their services anywhere in the world, the 500 scholarships offered to US medical students to study medicine in Cuba, and the over 700 Haitian doctors trained at the Caribbean School of Medical Sciences in Santiago de Cuba, one of the biggest contributions to Haiti's long-neglected health system.

Activists highlighted the injustice of the continued incarceration of the Cuban 5 anti-terrorist fighters for the past 13 years in US prisons, and the achievements of the Cuban Revolution in social care, health care and education, comparing these to the growing attacks on working class living standards in Manchester. The city centre itself was unusually quiet following the recent uprisings in Manchester and Salford, of sections of the working class on 9 August 2011, against decades of poverty, unemployment, marginalisation and police racism and harassment.

A large birthday card was signed by members of the public. Blue, yellow and red balloons, a large, bright birthday banner, the Cuban and Che Guevara flags along with revolutionary music Inventos which celebrates Cuban hip hop added to and improved the atmosphere.

Happy birthday comrade Fidel! 85 years more! Our card is on its way to you!
Viva Cuba!
Long live socialism!

RATB Reports: 26 July 2011 celebrations

Over the weekend of 30-31 July 2011, Manchester Rock around the Blockade (RATB) held events to celebrate the anniversary of the storming of the Moncada Barracks in 1953, the birth of the 26 July Movement (M-26-7) and the Cuban Revolution.

On Saturday 30 July, we held a vibrant street stall in Piccadilly Gardens in the centre of the city. With Cuban music blaring out from our sound system we petitioned against the genocidal US blockade, distributed leaflets explaining the plight of the Cuban 5 and contrasted the achievements of the Cuban Revolution in health care and education to the growing attacks on working class living conditions in Manchester.

On Sunday 31 July, 20 people gathered to watch the RATB 2009 film, ‘Cuba: Defending Socialism – Resisting Imperialism’ and had a lively, informative discussion on the gains of the Cuban Revolution and its relevance for building a socialist movement here in imperialist Britain.

Viva Cuba!
End the blockade of Cuba!

RATB Reports: Celebrating the Cuban Revolution

by RATB North East, 23 July 2011.

On Saturday 23 July Rock Around the Blockade (RATB) North East held a lively street celebration for the anniversary of the 26 July attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953, which marked the beginning of the Cuban Revolution.

Grey’s Monument in the city centre of Newcastle was adorned with Che Guevara banners and Latin American flags. A sound system played Cuban, Venezuelan and British revolutionary music in between rousing speeches documenting the outstanding achievements of the Cuban revolution over the past 50 years.

Activists spoke against the illegal US blockade that has been in place since 1961 and others showed how Cuba is a beacon of hope, an anti-imperialist struggle that is driving movements across Latin America and beyond.

'The people united will never be defeated!' was the rallying call when 2 English Defence League (EDL) members attempted to sabotage the celebration by holding an English flag on the Monument.

The speakers pointed out how the EDL were playing the game of the ruling class, defending it’s wars abroad, dividing the working class to make us fight for the scraps from the table and backing the bank bail outs by attacking anti cuts protestors.

'The people united will never be defeated!' has been put into practice in socialist Cuba where for over 50 years the working class has been in power, driving out first the Batista dictatorship, then US imperialism to build a society which meets the needs of the whole population and, with health and education brigades, provides vital support to poor and oppressed people across the globe.

Socialist Cuba provides essential lessons and inspiration for anyone active in Britain today fighting racism and fighting the cuts.

Viva Cuba!
Viva Venezuela!
Hasta La Victoria Siempre!
Venceremos!

RATB Reports: Fernando Jacomino in Newcastle, UK

On Tuesday 17 May 2011, Fernando León Jacomino gave a public meeting for Rock Around the Blockade (RATB) in Newcastle upon Tyne. Fernando Leon Jacomino is the former Vice-President (and interim President in 2010) of the Instituto Cubano del Libro (Cuban Book institute). For a good part of the 2000s, Jacomino was involved as a cultural policymaker and worked closely with the Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas (UJC, Union of Young Communists) the Asociación Hermanos Saíz and, more generally, the Ministerio de Cultura (Ministry of Culture). However, he is also a published poet and a researcher, specialising in Cuban theatre, especially street theatre and film adaptations of theatre. Although Fernando was in the UK when the 6^th

Congress of the Communist Party took place in April 2011, he has been involved in the debates and discussions leading up to the congress and gave an insight into the principle debates of the congress and the economic and political situation in Cuba currently. Below is a transcript of his translated speech and questions he answered at the meeting.

Álvaro Uribe Velez in London

Photo: RATB, 21 May 2011 anti-Uribe picket, London, UK.

Source: Polo Democratico Alternativo, 20 May 2011.

Álvaro Uribe VÉLEZ: WANTED FOR MURDER, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, CORRUPTION, HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS.

On Saturday 21 May, former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Velez, will be in London at the invitation of the London Business School .

The presence of the former Colombian president in cities across the United States and Europe has been strongly denounced by protestors who reject attempts to impose an academic label on a man who does not merit it and who’s name, and that of his family, are so closely linked to criminal activities in Colombia . This is not only an insult to the intelligence; it is an affront to the peoples’ dignity.

The existence of direct links between the former president, and many members of this family, with the Colombian narco-paramilitary organisations is an open secret. His cousin and political mentor Mario Uribe has been sentenced to prison by Colombian justice system for involvement with paramilitary activities. His brother Santiago Uribe is being investigated for the same crimes while hundreds of Congressional representatives from his party are in prison or under investigation for drug-trafficking and for assisting paramilitary organisations. Recently many high ranking members of his government have been sent to prison on charges of corruption. Some media have even declared that no more Uribista politicians will fit in Colombian goals, which are full of his followers.

Uribe was the broker in a perverse political strategy which, during his eight years in government, resulted in thousands of forced disappearances, thousands of torture victims, hundreds of massacres, thousands of political murders (including hundreds of trade unionists), millions forcefully displaced, thousands exiled and disgraceful impunity for all of these crimes.

Uribe was behind huge corruption scandals that have involved his officials and even his own sons. During his terms he imposed open and illegal repression, institutionalising the most abhorrent crime, including the so-called ‘false positives’ (extrajudicial killings of civilians attributed to the Colombian Army); he violated the principles of international law by ordering military incursions, bombings and kidnappings in neighbouring countries. He was the only Latin American president who gave complete support to the US/British invasion of Iraq . During his term as president, and even now that he has stood down, his criticisms of dozens of human rights defenders has led them to receive death threats signed by paramilitary groups called 'Black Eagles'.

In economic terms, Uribe left the country with 68% of the population living in poverty or destitution (indigence). More than 8 million people live in indigence and 20 million live in poverty. Acute malnutrition kills 20,000 children under the age of 5 years old every year. Today Colombia has the 11th highest social inequality in the world, and is more unequal than any other country in the Americas . It has the second highest number of displaced people in the world.

'We reject the attempts to turn Uribe into a respectable academic figure. This will not wipe clean his blood stained record. Join us to tell the London Business School not to give a platform to the perpetrators of state terror'.

Join us to make sure that Uribe knows he is not welcome in London!!

Photo: RATB, 21 May 2011 anti-Uribe picket, London, UK.

The first picket is from 4pm to 7pm on Saturday 21 May at the Latin American Business Forum at the RCOG, 27 Sussex Place, Regent's Park, London NW1, nearest tube: Baker Street.


The second picket is from 5pm to 8pm, Monday 23 May at the LSE Campus, Houghton Street, London WC2. Nearest tubes: Covent Garden, Holborn, Temple


Convened by: Polo Democratico Alternativo.
Supported by: ASLADOPEA, Todas las Voces Todas, Movimiento 22, Rock Around the Blockade (RATB), Movimiento Ecuador en el Reino Unido (MERU).

RATB Reports: An apt celebration

by RATB, 08 May 2011.

RATB commemorates the 50th anniversary of Cuba's victory at the Bay of Pigs and the declaration of socialism

On Friday 6 May Rock Around the Blockade (RATB) packed Bolivar Hall in London for an event to commemorate the Cuban victory against the US-backed invasion at Bay of Pigs (Playa Giron) in April 1961 and the declaration by Fidel Castro of the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution.

The event opened with live music from Peruvian singer Betty Rhaza and Chilean guitarist Fernando Vergara playing revolutionary songs dedicated to Camilo Torres and Che Guevara. They were followed by an impressive range of speakers covering many different aspects of the anniversary.

The first two speakers were Henry Suarez, First Secretary of the Venezuelan Embassy and Alex Von Tunzelman, author of a new book Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder and the Cold War in the Caribbean, which deals with the US covert war in the Caribbean from 1957 to 1967. Tony Kapcia, Director of the Cuba Research Forum at Nottingham University, described why 1961 – which saw the victory at Playa Giron, the declaration of socialism, the launch of the literacy campaign, and the founding of the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution - was such a significant year for the Cuba Revolution and how it gave the people the confidence to stand together against subsequent threats and hardships.

Helen Yaffe, author of Che Guevara: the Economics of Revolution, spoke about the continuation of the US’ war against the Revolution, Cuba’s phenomenal achievements in health and education and how Cuba survived the austerity of the Special Period, whilst increasing spending on health and education – contrasting this to both the experience of neo-liberalism in Latin America and to the current cuts directed against the working class in imperialist countries. She also spoke about the importance of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) in which Cuba plays a leading role.

The final speaker was the Cuban ambassador Esther Armanteros who spoke about her personal experience of 1961, from the point when, aged 13, she saw US propaganda leaflets dropped on the beaches, warning against ‘Marxist dictatorship’ and had to ask her uncle what Marxist meant. She then joined the militia formed to protect the Revolution against invasion and later participated in the literacy campaign, and explained to the audience how this meant that when the socialist character of the Revolution was proclaimed, the people welcomed it as they had come to understand in practice what socialism actually meant for those who previously had nothing.

The speakers were followed by questions and comments taken from the floor. RATB thanks all those who helped to make this event a resounding success: the comrades at the Venezuelan and Cuban embassies, all the speakers, the musicians, Diego who translated and everyone who turned up on the night.

In addition to the monthly RATB film showings in London, we have initiated a 2011 educational programme which begins on Sunday 22 May with a discussion about the recent Cuban Communist Party Congress and the economic changes underway.

RATB Reports: 50th Anniversary of the Bay of Pigs victory, Manchester, UK

written for RATB by Charles Chinweizu, 23 April 2011.

Over 50 people gathered in Manchester, UK on 17 April 2011, for a meeting about the 50th anniversary of the victory over the US-backed Bay of Pigs aggression against and invasion of Cuba. The first shot in this invasion was fired by a CIA operative and one-third of the invaders were ex-Batista soldiers.

Fernando León Jacomino, Rafael Sardiña Gonzalez and Robert Claridge from RATB, spoke from the platform. Jacomino, a poet and theatre critic was prominent in the Union of Young Communists (UJC), and is now a member of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) and was for six years the vice-president of the Cuban Book Institute. Gonzalez is a Counsellor at the Cuban Embassy in London. Dr. Par Kumaraswami, a co-director of the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at the University of Manchester translated for Jacomino.

Claridge representing RATB, put the meeting in the appropriate context of what Cuban socialism means for us today, here in Britain, where we face a massive assault on working class conditions, by the British ruling class who, unable to resolve their financial and economic crisis, are making the working class pay.

l-r: Par Kumaraswami, Fernando León Jacomino, Louis, Rafael Sardiña Gonzalez and Robert Claridge

For a more detailed report see below...

Edited version of a speech given at the Manchester RATB commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the victory at the Bay of Pigs 17 April 2011

Our celebrations today coincide with the 6th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. So-called ‘Cubanologists’ and spokespersons for the mass media will be examining its proceedings in minute detail: will it be a rubber-stamping exercise proving once again the dictatorial nature of the Castro brothers, or a milestone in Cuba’s inevitable progress towards market socialism and thence to capitalism? Of course we should not expect the facts to stand in the way of shallow prejudice, and we may expect all sorts of nonsense in the days to come.

For our part, we will take what Raul Castro says as the most authoritative view, and even the BBC has to concede that ‘he insisted the socialist character of Cuba would be "irreversible" and accumulation of property would not be allowed.’ In other words, there would be no change to Fidel’s declaration 50 years ago. And in truth, the position of the Cuban revolution, despite serious problems, despite the illegal US economic blockade, is stronger now than it has been in the past. Consider its international position: its principal enemy, US imperialism, is engaged in three wars in the Middle East and north Africa. It has been unable to resolve its financial and economic crisis. It faces challenges from other imperialist powers, and from the rise of China as a major industrial power. Its position in Latin America has been significantly undermined, in part through European competition, in part through the rise of Brazil as a regional power, but most significantly of all, through the development of the ALBA alliance.

However, what I want to discuss is what Cuban socialism means for us today, here in Britain, where we face a massive assault on working class conditions. Let us take a few examples of what is happening now:

• New limits on housing benefit paid to the poor mean that hundreds of thousands of people face losing their accommodation;
• Disability tests run by the French multinational Atos are forcing hundreds of thousands of people on Disability Benefit from the higher level of Employment and Support Allowance on to basic Jobseekers’ Allowance despite the fact they are clearly not fit for work;
• Essential local council services for the elderly, the disabled and children are being slashed up and down the country because of a 26% cut in central government support;
• Working class youth will be unable to complete secondary education because of cuts in Education Maintenance Allowance worth £30 a week if they continue in full-time education;
• Even if they do complete their secondary education, they will be unable to go to University because they will have to pay £9,000 tuition fees each year plus their living costs. This will also rule out many middle class students;
• The Health and Social Services Bill currently before parliament will end central government responsibility for delivering universal health care free at the point of use. That responsibility will pass to health care multinationals running commissioning consortia which will have powers to decide what health services to buy, and whether to charge patients for them, and if so, how much.

British police thugs attack student protesters

What we are seeing is the wholesale dismantling of what is called by many the Welfare State. I say ‘by many’ because in reality we do not have a welfare state in this, one of the richest countries in the world. We do have a system of state welfare, to be sure: but that is something quite different. A welfare state is a state committed to the welfare of its entire people, where access to adequate housing, access to free and universal education, to free and universal health care are treated as basic human rights. Such a state cannot be a capitalist state, which exists to defend the rights to private ownership and exploitation. A welfare state can in fact be only a socialist state. What is happening today in Britain demonstrates this point conclusively, especially if you look at how the Cuban state managed an economic crisis far more severe in the 1990s.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist countries in 1991, Cuban GDP fell by 35%. Seizing the chance, the US ratcheted up its illegal economic blockade with the Torricelli and Helms Burton Acts. But despite this, there were no moves by the Cubans to privatise health or education. Far from it: the share of Cuban GDP on social programmes rose by 34%; between 1990 and 2003, the number of Cuban doctors increased by 76%, dentists by 46%, nurses by 16%. The number of maternity homes rose by 86%, day care centres for older people by 107%. Infant mortality fell from 11.1 per thousand in 1989 to 6.4 per thousand in 1999. Education spending rose from 8.5% of GDP in 1990 to 11.7% in 1999.

In other words, amidst the devastation of that economic crisis and the terrible privations it caused, the Cuban people and the Cuban state made a choice: to preserve and extend essential welfare. Such a response is only possible with different social relations, ones based on collective ownership of property: a socialist system, a genuine welfare state.

In contrast to Cuba, the wealth of Britain is vast. Its overseas assets are a staggering £10,000bn, seven times its annual output. Through the City of London, the largest financial centre in the world, British imperialism loots the world, impoverishing billions. Yet we are being told by the government and the millionaire press that we are living beyond our means, that the public sector debt is unsustainable, that the NHS has to be reformed, that we cannot afford the current level of state university investment, or to educate working class youth or to give the disabled and elderly a decent healthy life.

This in a country where there are 500,000 millionaires, each with their own tax avoidance scheme, gigantic multinationals – two of the largest oil companies in the world, the largest arms manufacturer – also with their own tax avoidance schemes, vast banks and financial companies to whom tax avoidance is just a standard way of doing business. £120bn is the estimated loss each year to the British state as a result of all this personal and corporate tax avoidance, more than enough to cover the £81bn state spending cuts demanded by the City of London and its ConDem government.

Yet what is at issue is not the degree of national wealth, but its social form: that of private property with the social relations that follow. In conditions of economic and social crisis, the defence of the interests of private property are not compatible with systems of state welfare even in a country as wealthy as Britain. It reminds us that the systems of state welfare established in most European countries proved possible because of the exceptional conditions of the post-war boom from 1945 to the 1970s, and necessary to prevent the working class fighting for a real welfare state like that which existed in the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc.

What this tells us as we face up to the political problems presented by the imperialist crisis, is that what takes place in Cuba matters to us. It matters to us because it is the alternative, the alternative that we must constantly put before the working class here as it takes a stand against the impact of the crisis. What we have to show is that we don’t have a welfare state in Britain, but we need one – and that means changing the social form of wealth from one based on private property to one based on collective ownership. Such is socialism: and Cuba shows on a daily basis that this is possible.

Robert Claridge,
Rock around the Blockade (RATB)

50 Years since the defeat of the Bay of Pigs invasion

RATB Public Meeting - Friday 6 May 2011, Bolivar Hall , 54 Grafton Way, London, W1.

50th anniversary of the victory at the Bay of Pigs; The original flyer listed Steve Ludlam as a speaker but unfortunately he has been persuaded by members of the Executive Committee of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC) that appearing on the RATB platform is incompatible with his role in the CSC. Sadly this is not the first time that RATB events have been undermined in this way. However, we are delighted to announce the participation of historian Alex von Tunzelmann, author of the Indian Summer and the new book, Red Heat (pub. 14 April 2011) which discusses the Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Cuban Missile crisis.


More details here.

RATB Reports: 50th Anniversary of the Bay of Pigs victory, Glasgow, Scotland

written for RATB by Michael MacGregor, 14 April 2011.

On Sunday 10 April, 50 people gathered in Glasgow’s city centre to discuss, debate and educate each other about Cuba’s decisive defeat of US-backed counterrevolution at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961. While the majority of the audience were born well after that historic moment, the vitality and solid achievements of Cuba’s socialist revolution were upheld and applauded as central to today’s unfolding battle against the cuts. Speaker after speaker, from the platform and the floor, made the real connections between Cuba’s socialism and internationalism and the struggles of the here and now. Helen Yaffe, author of 'Che Guevara: the Economics of Revolution', laid out the scale and continuity of the attacks on Cuba since the Revolution of 1959. She demonstrated that the form but not the purpose of these attacks have changed. The United States government first employed a method well tested and effective in Latin America and the rest of the world – right up to today!

This ‘Track One’ strategy of direct military intervention led to the attempted invasion of Cuba on 15 April 1961. Crushingly repelled by the Cuban people, it marked the point at which socialism was openly declared. What the Revolution then has had to face for nearly 50 years was the United States ‘Track Two’ plan which continues and has been strengthened in recent years. This is based on the illegal blockade of Cuba which has crippled Cuba’s economic development, costing billions of dollars and which is annually condemned by the overwhelming majority of countries at the United Nations, leaving the US and Israel in ignominious isolation.

'Track Two' also involves the financing of so-called opposition groups in Cuba whereby the multinational media and imperialist diplomats promote a picture of Cuba as some sort of undemocratic failed state just ripe for western intervention and a regime of free market neo-liberalism. This approach, which is fully endorsed by the Obama regime in the US, is as doomed to failure as the Bay of Pigs invasion. Because, as US secret intelligence files from the last five decades and including the latest WikiLeaks, show, there has never been any significant opposition to the Cuban Revolution amongst its people.

The Socialist Revolution declared in 1961 at the Bay of Pigs - what the Cubans call Playa Girón - has delivered. It has delivered what 30 years of neo-liberalism in Latin America and throughout the world has itself failed to deliver. The results of neo-liberalism was to increase the number of Latin Americans living in poverty from 136 million to 200 million during the 1980s alone, and to transfer $100 billion of assets from state into private (mainly foreign) hands in the 1990s. Over these two decades, GDP per capita growth was just 0.45% per year, demonstrating that privatisation, austerity measures and the rolling back of the state led to stagnation and poverty, not growth and prosperity. The rule of the market, of the banks and multinationals, of imperialism, has only further impoverished millions and the Cubans know this and will not accept the arguments or guns and bombs of its ghoulish protagonists.

Despite the US blockade and without neo-liberalist economics, Cuban socialism has fed, cared for, educated and raised its people to a level of cultural and sporting achievement that is an example to the oppressed of this world and its progressive peoples.

This is an example which must be upheld by socialists and anti-imperialists and made known and popular in the present battles. The US has never stopped fearing that Cuba’s example is being followed and it is the all-powerful US that has singularly failed to prevent this development. Latin America, from Venezuela to the Caribbean, is burying the failed and bloody experiment of naked national and class exploitation known as neo-liberalism.

People spoke too of Cuba’s major role in the defeat of colonial regimes in Africa - from Algeria to Angola - and of how the 300,000 Cubans who fought there contributed to the eventual defeat of racist apartheid in South Africa. From internationalist soldiers fighting real humanitarian wars then to the tens of thousands of Cuban doctors and medical staff working in poor countries around the world now, Cuba’s successful struggle for survival in the context of the United States brutal blockade was recognised over and over as an incredible but inarguable reality. Statistics, accounts and powerful comparisons evidenced what is being gained under socialism in Cuba.

The present reality of the cuts in developed, imperialist Britain made a stark and shocking contrast. During the difficulties of Cuba’s Special Period from 1991, which meant an effective collapse of its economy, Fidel Castro made the point that not one school, day centre, old peoples home or hospital had closed and that the unemployed had not been abandoned. This is precisely the opposite of what is going on right now in Scotland, England and Wales and in capitalist countries around the world. Contributors cited the new Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI) pamphlet - No Cuts -Full Stop! as an essential tool in arming the new anti-cuts movement with the arguments to defend the working class and point out the way to socialism. The hall erupted in applause to approve the warning made that we cannot allow this movement to be led by a Labour party which was carrying out those savage, inhuman cuts in local councils.

On the platform was Dominic O’Hara from the Glasgow Defence Campaign (GDC) and a supporter of FRFI. O’Hara is on trial after participating in student demonstrations in Glasgow against education cuts, and the GDC has been established to oppose political policing and defend democratic rights in Glasgow. O’Hara directly linked Cuba's social welfare provision to the current cuts in capitalist Britain. O’Hara challenged the criticisms made of Cuba’s human rights record as false and hypocritical. Democratic rights to organise and protest were seriously under attack from the state and its thuggish police, and we needed to go out onto the streets, go out to the people and organise, he declared.

Fidel’s condemnation of the brutal and repressive apparatus of capitalist states in defending injustice and privilege was raised and the complete absence of such measures in socialist Cuba proudly asserted. The working people and peasantry of this small island defeated - wiped out in 72 hours! - the sons of millionaire land owners, sugar barons and bankers armed by US multinationals, at the Bay of Pigs 50 years ago. Fidel Castro called this victory the first defeat of imperialism in the Western Hemisphere. The declaration of socialist revolution made by Cuba at that critical life or death moment brought about its welfare state of free education, health care and human solidarity. That declaration echoes through the decades to those organising to fight today’s battles here.

Venceremos! We Shall Win!
Long Live Socialist Cuba! No Cuts - Full Stop!

RATB Film show: Listen to Venezuela

Deirdre O’Neill and Mike Wayne will attend and take part in a Q&A at an RATB screening of Listen To Venezuela on 27 February 2011 at 2pm in the Cross Street Unitarian Chapel, Manchester, UK, M2.

RATB reviews: Julia Sweig's Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know

Julia Sweig, Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, USA: Oxford University Press, 2009, (ISBN 13: 978-0-19-538380-5, ISBN 10: 0-19-538380X), pp304, $16.95 pbk, $74 hbk.

reviewed by Helen Yaffe.

Here’s is my review of Julia Sweig’s latest book, Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, written for the January 2011 issue (87:1) of International Affairs.
Source: RealCuba blog, 13 January 2011.


Written as part of the Oxford University Press ‘what everyone needs to know’ series, this book is organised as a set of questions and answers and divided into four broad periods: pre-1959, the Cold War 1959-1991, post Cold War 1991 to 2006, and post-Fidel to 2009. In order to cover this broad sweep of history in 250 pages the author adopts a succinct and authoritative narrative style. The text is accessible and directed towards a non-academic audience; there are no notes or references, and the story is told more through assertion than evidence. This locates the book in a different category from Sweig’s 2002 Inside the Cuban Revolution which, based on groundbreaking research, examined the role of the 1950s urban underground movement with scholarly rigour. Nonetheless, because of the range of topics in Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know even Cuba scholars are likely to learn something new. The format of the book makes repetition inevitable.

In her introduction the author states that: ‘The emphasis in this book [is] on the US-Cuba relationship’ and that it is written: ‘Especially (though not exclusively) for the benefit of an American audience’. This is both a strength and a weakness and reflects Sweig’s commendable objective to challenge ‘the nearly genetic American belief that Washington should and can somehow manage Cuba’s transition’ and to discredit a US foreign policy promoting regime change (pxxii). Nonetheless, the author apparently shares the notion that a transition to capitalist democracy is desirable. She adopts terms like ‘democracy’, ‘human-rights’ and ‘repression’ within the same ideological paradigm as her audience. The philosophical flexibility necessary to appreciate a revolutionary society, the attempt to escape underdevelopment with different institutions, objectives, values and relationships, is lacking.

So for example, Sweig skilfully navigates the fascinating story of how the Cuban exile community has had a disproportionate (and undemocratic) impact on US elections and domestic politics and explains divisions within that community, but she does not mention the grassroots institutions through which the Cuban people are organised. Known as ‘organisations of the masses’, these are based on voluntary participation in work, study, gender, cultural and residence-based groups and integrate almost 100% of Cubans. Readers will not learn how these operate, their role within the National Assembly, Cuba’s highest legislative body, or that forum’s relationship with the Cuban Communist Party. These are key aspects of Cuban society about which everyone needs to know. There is one nod towards ‘Cuba and Venezuela’s own approach to “participatory democracy”’ (p201), but what this means or how it works is not discussed.

Consequently, while Sweig states that ‘the most fundamental question this book answers is why the revolution has endured beyond the Cold War and, now, beyond the half-century tenure of Fidel Castro’ (pxxii), little effort is made to explain how Cuban society is organised or to account for individual commitment to Cuba’s social project. Support for the Revolution is accounted for by sweeping references to nationalism or admiration for Fidel Castro. As a consequence the Cuban people are consigned to a set of minorities: those who migrate with visas or on rafts, artists, ‘dissidents’ on the island and the exile community in the US.

Among the exciting post Cold-War developments in Cuba has been the emergence of organic farming and urban gardens. In 2006, the WWF’s Living Planet Report named Cuba as the only country in the world to have achieved ‘sustainable development’ and Cuba initiated the Energy Revolution. Such developments are not examined.

The strong political narrative is undermined by the lack of economic history or understanding of the political economy of socialism. For example: 1) referring to Che Guevara’s work as a member of the post-1959 government, Sweig states that he ‘did little to solve the practical economic problems of the day’ (p46). In fact, Guevara’s management of industry helped avoid paralysis of the economy during the rapid transition from a free-enterprise to a planned economy. 2) Sweig says the 1990s economic crisis saw the ‘introduction of the notion, virtually an anathema until then, that the market – the free market, the capitalist market – might actually be a tool Cuba could somehow harness in the interests of socialism and social welfare’ (p131). However, the extent to which market mechanisms should be adopted in socialist development was already being debated in Cuba in the early 1960s.

As the introduction concedes, ‘this book may not cover all the ground that every reader might wish’ (pxxii). It does, however, challenge many perceptions and demystify Cuba. Most important, it demonstrates the scale of Cuba’s achievement in surviving a half-century campaign by the US administration (and international allies) and a powerful exile community to destroy the Revolution using every means from terrorism and economic blockade, to generous funding of an internal opposition. For this, and many other reasons, this book is well worth reading.



Helen Yaffe is a member of RATB.

RATB Reviews: Fidel & Che by Simon Reid-Henry

A review of Fidel and Che: A Revolutionary Friendship, by Simon Reid-Henry, Hodder & Stoughton, 2009, Hardback, pp467, £20/Paperback pp480, £8.99p.

by Helen Yaffe, written for RATB, June 2009.


Simon Reid-Henry’s book provides a plot that is brimming with adventure, intrigue and sensation, understandably so, given that it is about two of the 20th century’s most iconic characters; Fidel Castro and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. Fidel was born in 1926, to a Spanish migrant who made good and became a landowner in eastern Cuba. Che was born two years later to a liberal middle-class family in Argentina. As the author points out ‘it was not inevitable that they should meet’ (p19), but the story of their different childhoods, the circumstances leading to their encounter, the revolutionary project which they shared and the tragedy in which their partnership ended serve as a metaphor for a tumultuous period of world history.

The Cold War was close to boiling over, independence struggles were sweeping through the colonies, newly independent states pursued their own coalitions and interests, and animosity between the Soviets and the Chinese was deepening into a split which drew a wedge between communist parties around the world. The Cuban Revolution brought socialism to the western hemisphere, triggering guerrilla movements throughout Latin America while the United States was increasingly bogged down in Vietnam. The narrative weaves the lives of Fidel and Che through this minefield of international history. A lot of background information is presumed.

Reid-Henry pulls together the best myths and anecdotes from the plethora of published material on Fidel and Che, including biographies, interviews and the memoirs of those who have basked in the reflected glory of their association with these revolutionary icons. He also uses archive material from Cuba, Russia, the US and Germany. The author does not discriminate between these sources, leaning equally on the recollections of their soldiers-in-arms and the hearsay of their fervent opponents. In Fidel’s case this includes wealthy school peers who were later dispossessed by the redistribution measures of the Revolution. It is not until one-third into the book that our two protagonists meet, in Mexico in 1955, and their friendship, which is the main plot of the story, begins.

The fast-paced narrative reads more like a novel than a historical account. This makes it exciting and eminently digestible, but it is also its weakness. Having created their characters, novelists have the luxury of dissecting their psyche and asserting their motives. An historian uses different skills, balancing objectivity with empathy, to analyse their protagonists, not impose their own reason upon them. Reid-Henry echoes the stereotypes of many commentators from outside Cuba who do not share the political or ideological commitments of the revolutionaries themselves; they explain developments, decisions and policies as expressions of psychological impulses or character traits. Che is a restless idealist or dogmatist, who left Cuba because he rejected the direction the revolution had taken, while Fidel is a control freak whose ‘principal objective [was] to maintain power, to stay in control no matter what.’ (p379). Fidel appears utterly irrational – if it was power and influence he wanted, his ‘political ambitions’ (p55) could have been better served by the graft and patronage in pre-revolutionary Cuba, than by risking his life and sacrificing all his comforts, turning the country upside down and building socialism in the heat of the Cold War.

Reid-Henry’s narrative twists to fit the history into this schema – throughout the book we are told that the two are ‘falling out’ but a few lines later they are an intimate double-act; radicalising the revolution, adopting socialism, asserting Cuba’s independence from the USSR and China, rejecting ‘peaceful co-existence’ and advocating armed rebellion against imperialism throughout the world. It is no easy task to tell the history of a revolutionary project through the spectrum of a friendship. It leads Reid-Henry to lose perspective and claim, for example, that after January 1959 when the revolutionaries seized power ‘a war of some sorts had to continue if they were to sustain that partnership they had established in the mountains.’ (p208), and that their decision for Che to participate in guerrilla struggle abroad ‘was a solution that held out promise of salvaging their personal relations despite their growing personal differences.’ (p303) As an historian of the Cuban revolution and ‘student’ of Guevara’s political and economic ideas, I am not convinced by the suggestion that preserving their friendship took precedence over the revolutionary project. It is the two-man view of history.

Despite the tendency to sensationalise, this is a gripping and animated introduction to the making and shaping of the Cuban Revolution from the perspective of its two most famous leaders. It provides an insight into the impact and significance which this small Caribbean island has had on the real world in which we all live.


Dr. Helen Yaffe is the author of Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Dr. Simon Reid-Henry is a lecturer in Geography at Queen Mary, London and his new book is The Cuban Cure: Reason and Resistance in Global Science, ISBN-10: 0226709175.

Response to The Economist's attack on Cuban socialism

Sir,

Your front cover headline ‘Cuban communism: beginning of the end?’ and article, (‘Raul the pragmatist’- 13-19 November 2010), are further examples of how current media speculation seems to gleefully relish the idea that Cuban socialism is failing. Yet the same media seems to overlook, or rather ignore, certain facts.

Firstly any analysis of the Cuban economy cannot be undertaken without seriously taking into account the reality of half a century of a US blockade plus the sustained series of terrorist attacks which have severely impacted upon all sectors of the Cuban economy and society since the time of the Revolution. Despite this, various measures have been implemented by the Cuban government to improve efficiency within the socialist system since the mid-2000s. The intention to set Cuba on the path of what Fidel Castro referred to as, 'The dream of everyone being able to live on their salary or on their adequate pension', was a long-term plan. Any current changes to the Cuban employment structure have been instigated to provide an eventual infrastructure enabling all Cubans to contribute towards an evolving socialism and are not in any way an indication of Cuba compromising with capitalism nor a deviation from the Cuban revolutionary goals. As Raul Castro has stated himself: 'I was not elected President to restore capitalism in Cuba, nor to betray the Revolution. I was elected to defend and maintain the process of perfecting Socialism, not destroying it.'

Rather, instead of asking if Cuban communism is the beginning of the end, we should be asking ourselves if it is indeed global capitalism which is at the beginning of the end, as we witness the current student protests and the economic crisis in Britain alone, a country which has far more wealth and resources at its disposal than Cuba. Medical health care and educational services remain free in Cuba while in our own capitalist society we look toward massive cuts in health and education services which aim to marginalise the poorer sections of our society even further.

Julie
Manchester, UK.


This letter was not published by the Economist, a ruling class publication owned by the Pearson group (a leading British-owned industrial holding company with interests in publishing, financial services, fine china, and oil services) who also own the Financial Times (FT), Penguin books and Edexcel. - RATB.

RATB reports: 12th Anniversary - We demand Freedom for the Cuban 5!

by Sam McGill, written for RATB
11 September 2010.

On 11 September 2010, activists from Rock Around the Blockade (RATB) held lively protests in London, Manchester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne to demand freedom for the Cuban 5 as part of the international day of action planned by the National Committee To Free The Five to mark the 12^th Anniversary of their imprisonment.

In Newcastle in the north of England, activists collected petitions against the illegal imprisonment of the 5 Cuban heroes and asked passers by to sign cards of solidarity which will be sent to Gerardo, Antonio, Fernando, Rene and Ramon individually

In Manchester, despite heavy rain, activists handed out hundreds of leaflets explaining the Five's case and struggle for freedom, during a colourful stall, with flags and revolutionary Cuban hip-hop blasting out onto the streets. 

In Trafalgar Square, central London, RATB members worked with representatives from Hands Off Venezuela, The Free Mumia Abu Jamal Campaign (Free Mumia), George Jackson Socialist League and the Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG). They held a lively protest with constant speeches and statements, highlighting the hypocrisy of US double standards in its “War on Terrorism” and the countless victims and political prisoners of imperialism worldwide.

RATB Reports: Happy 84th Birthday Fidel!

Source: Rock Around the Blockade (RATB)

On Saturday 14 August 2010, RATB (Manchester Branch), held a public information stall in Piccadilly Gardens, to celebrate Fidel's 84th birthday. With this in mind, we put a framed photo of Fidel in his prime on our stall along with a large poster-size birthday card on display, and invited members of the public to add their signatures to it.

It was amazing how many people came up to the stall wanting to sign his card and send greetings to this great warrior including many young people. Red, blue and white balloons in the colours of the Cuban flag along with special revolutionary music and recorded speeches by Fidel added to the occasion. Educational and enlightening speeches on a megaphone from another comrade were excellent and many people just sat in the sun nearby listening to what we had to say.

Viva Fidel!

Julie

RATB has not forgotten Haiti either

In July, Rock Around the Blockade (RATB) representatives handed over 1,000 Cuban convertible pesos (just over $1,000) raised during public meetings and other activities, to the Ministry of Public Health in Havana to support the work of Cuban medical teams in Haiti.

Thanks to all our supporters.

Viva Cuba!

Solidarity Statement: Stop the Threat Against Venezuela Now!

Joint Solidarity Statement:
Stop the Threat Against Venezuela Now!

3 August 2010

We, the undersigned organizations, view with serious concern the possibility of military aggression towards the people of Venezuela by the Colombian Government, which could be supported by the United State of America using its seven military bases recently installed in Colombia.

This matter has arisen from the recent events when the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was accused on 22 July 2010 at the Extraordinary Session of the Organization of American States in Washington by the Colombian Government of promoting, supporting and maintaining a relationship with armed organizations from Colombia, such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and National Liberation Army (ELN). The accusations were only based on images which have never been substantiated or subjected to verification.

These current moves by the right-wing Colombian government are clearly an attempt backed by the US to justify a pre-emptive attack on Venezuela and its people. There has been a pattern of false allegations against Hugo Chavez’s government in recent years as part of US-backed campaign to dismantle the revolutionary process taking place in Venezuela.

Since the election of President Hugo Chavez in 1998 and the beginning of Bolivarian revolutionary process, Venezuela has posed a great challenge to the US imperialist domination in Latin America as well as capitalist establishment in the region. The revolutionary process - with a popular democratic participation in Venezuela carrying the banner of “Socialism in the 21st Century” - has been an inspiration to people around the world seeking alternatives to neoliberal capitalist world order.

Considering the historical interference of the United States in internal matters of other countries and regions, such as in Iran and the Korean Peninsula, we are fearful that the US may exploit the current Venezuela-Colombia crisis as an entry point to carry out military aggression against Venezuela as it has done many times elsewhere in the past. The attack on Venezuela has the aim to crush the revolutionary process taking place in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, and to re-enact US imperial doctrine in the region. We are very aware of the potential impact that these negative actions could have on the Venezuelan people and its ongoing revolutionary process and on the international community.

As these apprehensions are very real, we would like to expresses our continuous support to the democratic and peaceful revolutionary process in Venezuela and we would like to extent our solidarity to the people of Venezuela who are striving to build a better world.

We call upon:
-          the Colombian government to stop its constant lies, malicious allegations and threats against Venezuela and engage with Venezuela to resolve the crisis with peaceful diplomatic means in order to rebuild its relations with the rest of the region;
-          the US government to shut down all its military bases and installations in Latin America as well as other parts of the world;
-          all governments with conscience to fully support the Venezuelan government’s insistence on its right to sovereignty and strongly denounce any US-backed military action against the people of Venezuela.
-          all people and organizations that support social justice and genuine democracy to support any solidarity action that may needed to defend Venezuela and the revolution in Venezuela against constant military threats.


Signed by: 

Australia:
Socialist Alliance

Indonesia:
Political Committee of the Poor People's Democratic Party (KPRM-PRD)
Women Mahardhika
Working People’s Association (PRP)

Malaysia:
Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM)

New Zealand :
Socialist Worker

Pakistan:
Labour Party Pakistan (LPP)
National Trade Union Federation

Philippines:
Party of the Labouring Masses (PLM)
Philippines-Venezuela Solidarity Network
Labor Party (Partido ng Manggagawa)

Britain:
Rock Around the Blockade (RATB)
The Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG)




[This joint statement is initiated by Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), Working People’s Association (PRP), Indonesia and Socialist Alliance, Australia. Any organization wishing to endorse this statement, please contact us at int.psm[at]gmail.com ]