President Barack Obama’s visit to Cuba
Cuba reaffirms its will to advance in relations with the United States, on the basis of respect for the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter and the principles of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace

Author: Granma | internet@granma.cu
march 9, 2016 14:03:18
The President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, will make an official visit to Cuban this coming March 20-22.

This will be the second time a U.S. President comes to our archipelago. Previously having done so was Calvin Coolidge, who landed in Havana in January of 1928. He arrived aboard a warship to attend the 6th Pan American Conference, which was held at that time under the sponsorship of a local figure recalled as infamous, Gerardo Machado.

This will be the first time a President of the United States comes to a Cuba in full possession of her sovereignty and with a Revolution in power, headed by its historic leadership.

This event is part of the process initiated December 17, 2014, when the President of Cuba’s Councils of State and Ministers, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, and President Barack Obama simultaneously announced the decision to reestablish diplomatic relations, broken by the United States almost 54 years ago. It is part of the complex process of normalization of bilateral ties, which has barely begun, and has advanced on the only grounds that are possible and just: respect, equality, reciprocity, and the recognition of our government’s legitimacy.

This point has been reached, in the very first place, as a result of the Cuban people’s heroic resistance and loyalty to principles, the defense of national independence and sovereignty. Such values, which have not been negotiable for 50 years, led the United States government to admit the severe damage the blockade has caused our population, and recognize the failure of the openly hostile policy toward the Revolution. Not with force, economic coercion, or isolation were they able to impose conditions on Cuba which were contrary to our aspirations, forged over almost 150 years of heroic struggle.

The current process undertaken with the United States has been possible also thanks to unwavering international solidarity, in particular from the governments and peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, who put the United States in an unsustainable position of isolation. Strongly united, “like silver in the bedrock of the Andes,” as our national hero José Martí said in his essay “Our America,” Latin America and the Caribbean demanded a change in policy toward Cuba. This regional demand was made unequivocally clear at the Summits of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in 2009, and in Cartagena, Colombia, in 2012, when all countries of the region unanimously and categorically demanded the lifting of the blockade, and our country’s participation in the 7th hemispheric meeting in Panama, in 2015, to which a Cuban delegation, led by Raúl, attended, for the first time.

Since the announcements of December, 2014, Cuba and the United States have taken steps toward improving the bilateral context.

On July 20, 2015, diplomatic relations were officially reestablished, along with the commitment to develop them on the basis of respect, cooperation, and observance of the principles of international law.

Two meetings between the Presidents of the countries have taken place, in addition to the exchange of visits by ministers and other contacts between high ranking officials. Cooperation in various areas of mutual benefit are advancing, and new opportunities for discussion have opened up, allowing for dialogue on issues of bilateral and multi-lateral interest, including those about which we have different conceptions.

The U.S. President will be welcomed by the government of Cuba and its people with the hospitality which distinguishes us, and will be treated with all consideration and respect, as befits a head of state.

This will be an opportunity for the President to directly observe a nation immersed in its economic and social development, and in improving its citizens’ wellbeing. This people enjoys rights, and can exhibit achievements which are only dreams for many of the world’s countries, despite the limitations derived from our condition as an underdeveloped, blockaded country - which has earned us international recognition and respect.

Figures of international renown such as Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill described this island, in their joint statement released in Havana in February, as “a symbol of hope of the New World.” French President François Hollande recently affirmed, “Cuba is respected and heard throughout Latin America,” and praised the country’s capacity for resistance in the face of the most difficult tests. South African leader Nelson Mandela always had words of profound gratitude for Cuba. In Matanzas, on July 26, 1991, he said, “Those of us in Africa are accustomed to being victims of other countries who want to seize our territory or subvert our sovereignty. In the history of Africa, there is no other example of a people (like the Cuban) who have come to the defense of one of us.”

Obama will find himself in a country which actively contributes to regional and world peace and stability, and which shares with other peoples not what we have left over, but the modest resources we possess, making solidarity an essential element of our identity, and humanity’s wellbeing - one of the fundamental objectives of our international policy, as Martí imparted to us.

He will also have the opportunity to meet a noble, friendly, dignified people with an elevated sense of patriotism and national unity, who have always struggled for a better future, despite the adversities we have been obliged to face.

The President of the United States will be received by a revolutionary people with a deeply-rooted political culture, which is the result of a long tradition of struggle for its true, definitive independence, first against Spanish colonialism and later against imperialist domination by the United States – a struggle in which our best sons and daughters have shed their blood and faced all manner of risks. A people who will never renounce the defense of their principles and the vast work of the Revolution, following without vacillation the examples of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, José Martí, Antonio Maceo, Julio Antonio Mella, Rubén Martínez Villena, Antonio Guiteras and Ernesto Che Guevara, among many others.

This is also a people united by historical, cultural and affective ties with that of the United States, whose emblematic figure, the writer Ernest Hemingway, received the Nobel Prize for literature for a novel set in Cuba. A people which shows its gratitude to those from the United States who, like Thomas Jordan [1], Henry Reeve, Winchester Osgood [2] and Frederick Funston [3], fought with the Liberation Army in our wars of independence against Spain; and those who in the more recent era have opposed aggression against Cuba, like Reverend Lucius Walker who defied the blockade to bring solidarity and help to our people, and supported the return to the homeland of the boy Elián González and the Cuban Five. We learned from Martí to admire the homeland of Lincoln and repudiate Cutting [4].

Worth recalling are the words of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, on September 11, 2001, when he affirmed, “Today is a day of tragedy for the United States. You know very well that hate for the U.S. people has never been sowed here. Perhaps, precisely because of its culture, and lack of complexes, feeling fully free, with a homeland and no master, Cuba is the country where U.S. citizens are treated with more respect. We have never preached any kind of national hate, or things that seem fanatical, that is why we are so strong, because we base our conduct on principles, on ideas, and treat every U.S. citizens who visits us with great respect – and they perceive this.”

This is the people who will receive President Obama, proud of their history, their roots, their national culture, and confident that a better future is possible. A nation that assumes with serenity and determination the current stage of relations with the United States, that recognizes the opportunities, as well as the unresolved problems between the two countries.

The President of the United States’ visit will be an important step in the process of normalization of bilateral relations. It must be remembered that Obama, as James Carter did previously, has decided to work toward normalization of ties with Cuba making use of his executive powers, and has consequently taken concrete action in this direction.

Nevertheless, a long, difficult road lies ahead to reach normalization, which will require the solution of key issues which have accumulated over more than five decades, and entrenched the confrontational character of relations between the two countries. Such problems are not resolved overnight, or with a Presidential visit.

To normalize relations with the United States, it is imperative that the economic, commercial, financial blockade - which causes the Cuba people hardship, and is the principal obstacle to our country’s development - be lifted.

Worthy of recognition are President Obama’s reiterated position that the blockade must be eliminated and his call on Congress to lift it. This is also a demand supported by a growing majority of the U.S. public, and almost unanimously by the international community, which on 24 occasions, in the United Nations General Assembly, has approved the Cuban resolution “The necessity of putting an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America on Cuba.”

The U.S. President has taken steps to modify the implementation of some aspects of the blockade, which is positive. High ranking officials of his administration have said that others are being studied. Nevertheless, it has not been possible to implement a good portion of these measures given their limited reach, and because of the continuing existence of other regulations, and the intimidating effect of the blockade as a whole, which has been strictly enforced for 50 years.

It is contradictory that, on the one hand, the government adopts these measures, and on the other, intensifies sanctions against Cuba which affect the daily life of our people.

Reality continues to show that the blockade is being maintained, and is rigorously enforced, with a notable extra-territorial reach, which has a chilling effect on companies and banks in the United States and other countries.

Exemplifying this are the multi-million dollar fines which continue to be levied on U.S. companies and banking institutions, and those of other nationalities, for having relations with Cuba; the denial of services and the blocking of financial operations of international banks with our country; and the freezing of legitimate transfers of funds to and from Cuba, including those in currencies other than the U.S dollar.

The Cuban people hope that the U.S. President’s visit will serve to consolidate his will to be actively involved in a thorough debate in Congress for the lifting of the blockade, and, in the meantime, that he continues to use his executive prerogatives to modify as much as possible its application, without the need for legislative action.

Other issues which are damaging Cuban sovereignty must also be resolved in order to achieve normal relations between the two countries. Territory occupied by the U.S. Naval base in Guantánamo, against the will of our government and people, must be returned to Cuba, to respect the unanimous wish of Cubans, expressed for more than 100 years. Interventionist programs, intended to provoke destabilizing situations and changes in our country’s political, economic, social order, must be eliminated. The “regime change” policy must be definitively interred.

At the same time, the pretension of fabricating a domestic political opposition, supported by money from U.S. contributors, must be abandoned. An end must be put to aggressive radio and television broadcasts directed toward Cuba in open violation of international law, and the illegitimate use of telecommunications for political purposes, recognizing that the goal is not to exercise a given influence on Cuban society, but to put technology at the service of development and knowledge.

The preferential migratory treatment our citizens receive, in accordance with the Cuban Adjustment Act and the “wet foot-dry foot” policy, causes the loss of human life, and encourages illegal emigration and trafficking in persons, in addition to generating problems for third countries. This situation must be changed, as must be canceled the “parole” program for Cuban medical professionals which deprives the country of human resources vital to the health of our people, and affects the intended beneficiaries of Cuban cooperation with nations which need our support. Likewise, policies which require Cuban athletes to break ties with their country, in order to play in U.S. leagues, must change.

These policies of the past are incongruent with the new stage which the United States government has initiated with our country. They were all established prior to the administration of President Obama, but he can modify some of them with executive decisions, and eliminate others entirely.

Cuba has assumed the construction of a new relationship with the United States, fully exercising its sovereignty and committed to its ideals of social justice and solidarity. No one can presume that to do so we must renounce a single one of our principles, concede an inch in their defense, or abandon what is declared in our Constitution: “Economic, diplomatic relations with any other state can never be negotiated under aggression, threats, or coercion by a foreign power.”

Not even the slightest doubt can be harbored with respect to Cuba’s unconditional commitment to its revolutionary and anti-imperialist ideals, and its foreign policy in favor of the world’s just causes, the defense of peoples’ self-determination, and traditional support to our sister countries.

As was expressed in the latest Revolutionary Government Declaration, our solidarity is, and will be, immutable, with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the government led by President Nicolás Maduro, and the Bolivarian, Chavista people, which are struggling to find their own path, and confront systematic destabilization attempts and unilateral sanctions established by an unfounded, unjust U.S. Executive Order, in March of 2015, which was condemned throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The announcement made this past March 3, extending the so-called “National Emergency” and the sanctions, is an unacceptable, direct intervention in the internal affairs of Venezuela and its sovereignty. The Order must be abolished, and this will be a firm, ongoing demand by Cuba.

As Army General Raúl Castro said, “We will not renounce our ideals of independence and social justice, or surrender even a single one of our principles, or concede a millimeter in the defense of our national sovereignty.

We will not allow ourselves to be pressured in regards to our internal affairs. We have won this sovereign right with great sacrifices and at the cost of great risks.”

We reiterate one more time, we have reached this point as a result of our convictions, and because we have reason and justice on our side.

Cuba reaffirms its will to advance in relations with the United States, on the basis of respect for the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter and the principles of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by the region’s heads of state and government, which include absolute respect for independence, sovereignty, and the inalienable right of every state to choose its own political, economic, social and cultural system without interference of any kind; in addition to equality, and reciprocity.

Cuba reiterates its full disposition to maintain respectful dialogue with the government of the United States, and develop relations of civilized coexistence.

Coexisting does not mean being obliged to renounce the ideas in which we believe and have brought us thus far, or our socialism, our history, our culture.

The profound conceptual differences between Cuba and the United States on political models, social justice, international relations, world peace and stability, among others, will persist.

Cuba defends the indivisibility, interdependence and universality of civil, political, economic, social and cultural human rights. We are convinced that it is an obligation of governments to defend and guarantee the right to health, education, social security, equal pay for equal work, the rights of children, as well as the right to food and development. We reject the political manipulation and double standards relating to human rights, which must end. Cuba, which has signed 44 international instruments on this subject, while the United States has only committed to 18, has much to share, to defend, and show.

What our ties with the United States should accomplish is that the two countries respect their differences, and create a relationship which is beneficial for both peoples.

Regardless of the progress which can be achieved in ties with the United States, the Cuban people will continue to move forward. With our own efforts and proven capacity and creativity, we will continue to work for the country’s development and the wellbeing of Cubans. We will not desist in the demand that the blockade, which has caused and causes so much harm, be lifted. We will persevere in the process of updating the socio-economic model we have chosen, and the construction of a prosperous, sustainable socialism to consolidate the gains to the Revolution.

A path sovereignly chosen, which will surely be reaffirmed by the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, with Fidel and Raúl victorious.

This is the Cuba which will respectfully welcome President Obama.

[1] Major General, head of the Liberation Army’s General Staff (1869).

[2] Comandante. Killed in combat during the siege of Guáimaro, October 28, 1896.

[3] Artillery Colonel, under the command of Calixto García.

[4] A figure who in 1886 promoted hate and aggression against Mexico.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2016-03-09/president-barack-obamas-visit-to-cuba

Hmm, well, could be awkward....

Cuban Revolutionary Government supports Venezuela
The President of the United States of America has decided to extend for another year the validity of the arbitrary and aggressive Executive Order 13692 signed on March 8, 2015, which declared a “national emergency” based on the assumption that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela constitutes an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States”

Author: Granma | internet@granma.cu
march 9, 2016 16:03:30
The President of the United States of America has decided to extend for another year the validity of the arbitrary and aggressive Executive Order 13692 signed on March 8, 2015, which declared a “national emergency” based on the assumption that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela constitutes an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

The pretext put forward for this decision is that “The situation in Venezuela described in Executive Order 13692 has not improved,” and the well-known allegations about alleged human rights violations, persecution and arbitrary arrests of political opponents, restrictions on the freedom of the press, among others, attributed to the Venezuelan government are reiterated.

This new, unjustified sanction against a peaceful and solidary sister nation of Our America, ignores the indignation and condemnation that the issuing of this unheard of order provoked at the 7th Summit of the Americas in Panama. This demonstrates that the intervention in the internal affairs of the Venezuelan people has not changed, and that the aim of overthrowing the Bolivarian Revolution remains in full force.

The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba demands the revocation of Executive Order 13692, and resolutely and loyally reiterates its unconditional support, and that of our people, to the sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the legitimate government of President Nicolás Maduro and the civic-military union of the Bolivarian people, who struggle to keep the peace, maintain constitutional order and the conquests of the Revolution, against the destabilizing attempts of the internal opposition, encouraged by the results of the legislative elections which belie the false arguments used to extend the executive order.

We call on the governments and peoples of our region to demand that the principles of the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by the heads of state and government at the Second CELAC Summit held in Havana in January 2014, are respected.

Havana, March 4, 2016

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2016-03-09/cuban-revolutionary-government-supports-venezuela

Man, the Cubans better keep one hand on their wallets. I wouldn't let the imperial killer set one foot on the island. Better keep a watch on EVERYTHING...

Man, the Cubans better keep one hand on their wallets. I wouldn't let the imperial killer set one foot on the island. Better keep a watch on EVERYTHING...

Well, they let'em open the embassy, small choice if they hope to get the embagro lifted, but it's like leaving a window unlocked for a vampire. Seems like they're wanting to finesse this, for that to work they are relying on the upcoming generation not to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Which is how it should be else we betray ourselves. We shall see if their dictatorship of the proletariat (in progress) has steeled their people to resist the shit train of tawdry blandishments coming their way. No easy thing, the enemy's propaganda is of the best, but somehow, somewhere the line must be drawn.

CPC: 'Cuba Will Never Give up Socialism'

http://icp.sol.org.tr/sites/default/files/cuba-partido.jpg

The Head of the International Relations Department of the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC) Jose Ramon Balaguer stated that Socialism is the only alternative for the Cuban Revolution.

ICP, 11th March 2016

According to the Prensa Latina in his speech at an international seminar in Mexico, the Head of the International Relations Department of the Communist Party of Cuba (CPC) Jose Ramon Balaguer, stressed their fidelity to socialism. Balaguer is reported to have said "Cuba will never give up Socialism".

At the start of his speech, after stating Cuba's support to the Bolivarian Revolution and the Government of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, he urged political and social forces to join hands to resist the adverse current situation and "march united in this emancipation effort." Balaguer denounced "the so-called free trade agreements, which constitute instruments of political domination and impose harmful conditions on Third World Countries".

Regarding the US blockade, which remains intact despite the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Balaguer stressed that Cuba will insist on "the end of the US blockade, the devolution of the territory usurped by the US naval base of Guantanamo and the compensation for damages caused by the US aggressive policy are Cuban people's claims".

http://icp.sol.org.tr/americasa/cpc-cuba-will-never-give-socialism

Declaration of the CoR on the visit to Cuba of President Barack Obama
The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, assume with respect and hospitality the visit to Cuba of US President Barack Obama

Author: National Executive Secretariat of the CDR | internet@granma.cu
March 19, 2016 2:03:02

http://www.granma.cu/file/img/2014/08/medium/f0015882.jpg

The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, born on September 28, 1960 as a response of the Cuban people to state terrorism promoted since then by the US government against Cuba, they assume with respect and hospitality the visit to Cuba of US President Barack Obama.

By grouping within it, voluntarily, to more than eight million compatriots, 91% of the population over 14 years, we are in Cuban civil society the most massive organization, the axis of solidarity, cooperation and mutual assistance between neighbors, ie encourage the unity of the neighborhood, women, men, seniors, students, workers, farmers, professionals, intellectuals, retired or housewives, without distinction of sex, race or religion.

We are structured around the country, and the CDRs are based on the place of residence, in cities or multifamily buildings and blocks in the field from dwellings (villages, bateyes). Today we have around 136,000 CDR, and grassroots leaders assume this responsibility completely voluntary.

Worth noting that as part of its strengthening today's youth participation in the work of the organization is prioritized, which will pervade freshness and innovative spirit how many missions they are entrusted. 42% of its grassroots leaders are under 40 years.

"If the Quixote, the most famous Spanish literary work, its author, Cervantes said he was begotten in a prison where every discomfort has its seat and all sad noise makes your room from the defense committees we can say that begot in the public square, amid the anti-imperialist struggle, the heat of battle and insolent noise of counter bombs, "said Fidel on 28 September 1977 at the close of the First Congress of the CDR.

Since its founding 56 years ago by the leader of the Revolution, there has been a single historical event that the Committees have not participated outstandingly to demonstrate unconditional support for the Communist Party of Cuba, Fidel and Raul.

In addition to mobilize the whole society in the tasks of defending the nation and the conquests of socialism, the CDR had as objectives participation in the National Literacy Campaign and vaccinations against polio and other diseases.

In the initial tasks of revolutionary vigilance against the enemies of this people, were adding other popular interest such as education, volunteer work, patriotic activities, the collection of raw materials, environmental protection and preventive work against indiscipline social and inappropriate behavior, according to the principles and values ​​espoused by the Revolution.
in this regard, encourage solidarity and welfare of the population have been priorities of the CoR since birth, with emphasis on the unity of the neighborhood to meet dissimilar challenges. This non - governmental organization finances itself through the listing of its eight million members.

Today their participation is crucial to eradicate disease vectors, clean and beautify neighborhoods, schools and local social. It provides care for children and the elderly, and it is vital support for electoral processes of People's Power, characterized by transparency, democracy and broad and conscious participation of the millions of compatriots with the right to elect and to be elected to represent the people themselves in the bodies of government.

In the popular mobilizations developed by the return of Elian Gonzalez and the release of the Cuban Five imprisoned in US jails, he had a fundamental weight the work of CDR members.

Also, in these more than five decades of existence Committees they have assumed the noble mission of voluntary blood donations, amounting to almost half a million annually.

Similarly, in the system of Civil Defense, which protects all the people to various natural events, the CDR become an essential element in safeguarding the population, with solidarity by providing shelter to the neighbors most affected gestures, and the popular mobilization to quickly compensate the damages of these destructive atmospheric phenomena.

"In our village CDR has a feisty, enthusiastic, versatile and irreplaceable instrument, which will always support the revolution for all their tasks," said Fidel in 1975, introducing the Central Report to the 1st.

Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba.

All this spirit of resistance is what has allowed us to reach today more confident and strengthened by what we fight and overcome the effects of the inhuman US blockade, the main obstacle to the development of the Cuban economy and improving quality of life population.

The cederista organization has sought to turn the neighborhood into space that unites, strengthens and calls the revolutionaries and neighbors, to continue building and defending socialism. Therefore we never give up our sovereignty, independence, history and identity.

As part of society receive the own hospitality of our people to President Barack Obama, who may determine the unity of the Cuban family, it fostered for over half a century by the CoR to continue to be useful to the Revolution. National Executive Secretariat of CDR

http://www.granma.cu/relaciones-diplomaticas-cuba-eeuu/2016-03-19/declaracion-de-los-cdr-sobre-la-visita-a-cuba-del-presidente-barack-obama-19-03-2016-02-03-02

Human Rights Hypocrisy: US Criticizes Cuba
by MARJORIE COHN


Email

In advance of President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba on March 20, there is speculation about whether he can pressure Cuba to improve its human rights. But a comparison of Cuba’s human rights record with that of the United States shows that the US should be taking lessons from Cuba.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights contains two different categories of human rights – civil and political rights on the one hand; and economic, social and cultural rights on the other.

Civil and political rights include the rights to life, free expression, freedom of religion, fair trial, self-determination; and to be free from torture, cruel treatment, and arbitrary detention.

Economic, social and cultural rights comprise the rights to education, healthcare, social security, unemployment insurance, paid maternity leave, equal pay for equal work, reduction of infant mortality; prevention, treatment and control of diseases; and to form and join unions and strike.

These human rights are enshrined in two treaties – the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The United States has ratified the ICCPR.

But the US refuses to ratify the ICESCR. Since the Reagan administration, it has been US policy to define human rights only as civil and political rights. Economic, social and cultural rights are dismissed as akin to social welfare, or socialism.

The US government criticizes civil and political rights in Cuba while disregarding Cubans’ superior access to universal housing, health care, education, and its guarantee of paid maternity leave and equal pay rates.

Meanwhile, the US government has committed serious human rights violations on Cuban soil, including torture, cruel treatment, and arbitrary detention at Guantanamo. And since 1960, the United States has expressly interfered with Cuba’s economic rights and its right to self-determination through the economic embargo.

The US embargo of Cuba, now a blockade, was initiated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower during the Cold War in response to a 1960 memo written by a senior State Department official. The memo proposed “a line of action that makes the greatest inroads in denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the [Castro] government.”

That goal has failed, but the punishing blockade has made life difficult in Cuba. In spite of that inhumane effort, however, Cuba guarantees its people a remarkable panoply of human rights.

Healthcare

Unlike in the United States, healthcare is considered a right in Cuba. Universal healthcare is free to all. Cuba has the highest ratio of doctors to patients in the world at 6.7 per 1,000 people. The 2014 infant mortality rate was 4.2 per 1,000 live births – one of the lowest in the world.

Healthcare in Cuba emphasizes prevention, rather than relying only on medicine, partly due to the limited access to medicines occasioned by the US blockade. In 2014, the Lancel Journal said, “If the accomplishments of Cuba could be reproduced across a broad range of poor and middle-income countries the health of the world’s population would be transformed.” Cuba has developed pioneering medicines to treat and prevent lung cancer, and prevent diabetic amputations. Because of the blockade, however, we in the United States cannot take advantage of them.

Education

Free education is a universal right up to and including higher education. Cuba spends a larger proportion of its GDP on education than any other country in the world. “Mobile teachers” are deployed to homes if children are unable to attend school. Many schools provide free morning and after-school care for working parents who have no extended family. It is free to train to be a doctor in Cuba. There are 22 medical schools in Cuba, up from only 3 in 1959 before the Cuban Revolution.

Elections

Elections to Cuba’s national parliament (the National Assembly) take place every five years and elections to regional Municipal Assemblies every 2.5 years. Delegates to the National Assembly then elect the Council of State, which in turn appoints the Council of Ministers from which the President is elected.

As of 2018 (the date of the next general election in Cuba), there will be a limit of no more than two five-year terms for all senior elected positions, including the President. Anyone can be nominated to be a candidate. It is not required that one be a member of the Communist Party (CP). No money can be spent promoting candidates and no political parties (including the CP) are permitted to campaign during elections. Military personnel are not on duty at polling stations; school children guard the ballot boxes.

Labor Rights

Cuban law guarantees the right to voluntarily form and join trade unions. Unions are legally independent and financially autonomous, independent of the CP and the state, funded by members’ subscriptions. Workers’ rights protected by unions include a written contract, a 40-44-hour week, and 30 days’ paid annual leave in the state sector.

Unions have the right to stop work they consider dangerous. They have the right to participate in company management, to receive management information, to office space and materials, and to facility time for representatives. Union agreement is required for lay-offs, changes in patterns of working hours, overtime, and the annual safety report. Unions also have a political role in Cuba and have a constitutional right to be consulted about employment law. They also have the right to propose new laws to the National Assembly.

Women

Women make up the majority of Cuban judges, attorneys, lawyers, scientists, technical workers, public health workers and professionals. Cuba is ranked first in Save the Children’s ‘Lesser Developed Countries’ Mother’s Index. With over 48% women MPs, Cuba has the third highest percentage of female parliamentarians in the world. Women receive 9 months of full salary during paid maternity leave, followed by 3 months at 75% of full salary. The government subsidizes abortion and family planning, places a high value on pre-natal care, and offers ‘maternity housing’ to women before giving birth.

Life Expectancy

In 2013, the World Health Organization listed life expectancy for women in Cuba at 80; the figure was 77 for men. The probability of dying between ages 15 and 60 years per 1,000 people in the population was 115 for men and 73 for women in Cuba.

During the same period, life expectancy for women in the United States was 81 for women and 76 for men. The probability of dying between 15 and 60 per 1,000 people was 128 for men and 76 for women in the United States.

Death Penalty

A study by Cornell Law School found no one under sentence of death in Cuba and no one on death row in October 2015. On December 28, 2010, Cuba’s Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of Cuba’s last remaining death row inmate, a Cuban-American convicted of a murder carried out during a 1994 terrorist invasion of the island. No new death sentences are known to have been imposed since that time.

By contrast, as of January 1, 2016, 2,949 people were on death row in state facilities in the United States. And 62 were on federal death row as of March 16, 2016, according to Death Penalty Information.

Sustainable Development

In 2016, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a leading global environmental organization, found that Cuba was the only country in the world to have achieved sustainable development. Jonathan Loh, one of the authors of the WWF report, said, “Cuba has reached a good level of development according to United Nations’ criteria, thanks to its high literacy level and a very high life expectancy, while the ecological footprint is not large since it is a country with low energy consumption.”

Stop Lecturing Cuba and Lift the Blockade

When Cuba and the US held talks about human rights a year ago, Pedro Luis Pedroso, head of the Cuban delegation, said, “We expressed our concerns regarding discrimination and racism patterns in US society, the worsening of police brutality, torture acts and extrajudicial executions in the fight on terror and the legal limbo of prisoners at the US prison camp in Guantanamo.”

The hypocrisy of the US government in lecturing Cuba about its human rights while denying many basic human rights to the American people is glaring. The United States should lift the blockade. Obama should close Guantanamo and return it to Cuba.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/18/human-rights-hypocrisy-us-criticizes-cuba/

Handy & useful

Cuba: No appreciation for patronising speech, visiting Obama told
by worker
Mar
2016
Saturday 19th
posted by Morning Star in World
https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-98ff-Cuba-No-appreciation-for-patronising-speech,-visiting-Obama-told#.Vu3lCeTmpaQ
by Our Foreign Desk

CUBANS look forward to greeting US President Barack Obama when he visits the island tomorrow, but efforts to patronise them will receive a frosty response.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez made that clear on Thursday after US officials insisted that Mr Obama would deliver a “pro-democracy” message to Cubans.

“Various US officials have declared in recent hours that the objective of Obama’s measures is empowering the Cuban people.

“The Cuban people empowered themselves decades ago,” he said bluntly of the 1959 revolution that reclaimed Cuban independence from its northern neighbour’s grip.

Mr Rodriguez stressed that Havana would not fall in line with economic changes sought by the US, offering only to drop a 10 per cent charge for exchanging US dollars in return for confirmation that Washington has ended its denial of Cuban access to the global banking system.

He also dismissed Mr Obama’s efforts to ease the US blockade as essentially meaningless, complaining that Cuban government accounts were barred from US banks and direct US investment in Cuba was prohibited.

Despite positive-sounding noises from Mr Obama, he has failed to persuade Congress to lift longstanding punitive sanctions against Cuba.

Mr Rodriguez surmised that “something must be going wrong with US democracy,” urging Mr Obama to focus on empowering his own people.

Mr Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice said that he had no plans to curtail his call for more freedoms for Cubans during his three-day trip to the island, emphasising that he would meet dissidents and “speak candidly” to President Raul Castro about areas of disagreement — particularly human rights.

“We believe the Cuban people, like people everywhere, are best served by genuine democracy,” she added.

Unable to get Congress to end the blockade, Mr Obama has used his regulatory powers to trim restrictions on US citizens travelling and doing business in Cuba.

He plans to deliver a major speech on the future of US-Cuba ties and how Cubans can pursue a better life.

Mr Rodriguez said that the speech would be carried live on Cuban television and Cubans would be able to draw their own conclusions.

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/cuba-no-appreciation-for-patronising-speech-visiting-obama-told/

Mr Rodriguez surmised that “something must be going wrong with US democracy,” urging Mr Obama to focus on empowering his own people.

In-your-face! Maybe Mr. Rodriguez should mention how many unarmed citizens are murdered every year by US policemen. Maybe he could mention the shamefully high rate of infant mortality in the US. The high US unemployment? The constant recurrence of mass killings in the US that you can almost set your watch by? How about the huge percentage of children in poverty in the US? Inequality of women, people of color, immigrants, Muslims, gays, and on and on and on?

Susan Rice is a useless sack of shit. She has no shame to speak of "human rights" - she is a paid-for mouth-piece, serving her masters. How does she sleep?

How does she sleep?

During the day, in a box of grave dirt.

And all ya hear about is those 'Women in White', who have been protesting for years in this dictatorship where no dissent is allowed...whining wanna be 'entrepeneurs'...not a supporter of the Revolution to be heard. And this is what Americans hear, such an outrageous lie. Seen a quote of old Sam Clemmons which is so true; "It is easier to convince a person of a lie than it is to convince them that they are being lied to." Don't we know?

This from the supposedly 'independent' Havana Times(online), supposedly written by Cubans in and out of the country where no dissent is allowed.

Cuban Opposition Reports 180 Arrests for Obama’s Visit
March 21, 2016

HAVANA TIMES — The Cuban opposition reported Monday on the arrest of 180 activists in recent days related to the visit to the island by US President Barack Obama.

The number of arrests “would be around 180,” said Elizardo Sanchez, spokesman for the banned but tolerated Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) told dpa news.

Most were arrested on Sunday during a protest of the Ladies in White in the neighborhood of Miramar, on the west side of Havana, a few hours before Obama initiated his historic visit to Cuba.

Dozens of women and other activists were arrested after their peaceful opposition march was met by a counter-demonstration of hundreds of supporters of the government of Raul Castro.

The leader of the Ladies in White, Berta Soler, accused the authorities of violently repressing the group. In total there were about 50 Ladies in White and twenty other activists arrested on Sunday, said Soler, who also alerted that the police have warned them not to organize protests.

http://www.havanatimes.org/sp/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Todos-Marchamos.jpg
A Ladies in White protest was dispersed and dozens arrested hours before Obama arrived to Cuba. Photo: Reuters/#TodosMarchamos

“They say they will not let us leave our homes,” Soler told dpa. The leader of the group of wives and relatives of former political prisoners said the activists would attempt to protest again on Monday in the same place, on the second day of Obama’s visit in Cuba.

The US president meets with his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro on Monday morning. Obama arrived Sunday in Havana as the first US president to visit Cuba after the 1959 revolution.

The US leader has said on several occasions that he would continue criticizing the situation of dissidents in Cuba, despite the new policy of dialogue with the Castro government. Obama’s visit is framed in the thaw that both countries began in December 2014, after over a half century of ideological enmity.

Obama is scheduled to meet Tuesday with a number of Cuban dissidents. Soler, who has been invited to the meeting at the US embassy, ??said she plans to attend, though she fears being detained en route to the meeting. Elizardo Sanchez also plans to attend the meeting if he can make it to the embassy.

http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=117524

Another day, another color revolution.....

the US delegation in Cuba 55 years ago.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CeFymsaWEAE3oJu.jpg

Op-ed: Political motives behind Obama’s Cuba trip
By Jia Xiudong (People's Daily Online) 17:12, March 22, 2016

http://en.people.cn/NMediaFile/2016/0322/FOREIGN201603221715000479150006427.jpg
Cuba's President Raul Castro (R) and U.S. President Barack Obama (L) attend a press conference at the Revolution Palace in Havana, capital of Cuba, on March 21, 2016.

U.S. president Barack Obama kicked off his visit to Cuba last Sunday. During the trip, he and his family plan to visit Havana, watch baseball games, stroll around the ancient city, and maybe taste authentic Cuban coffee. However, the seemingly relaxed atmosphere of the visit cannot hide the complicated political calculations behind it.

First of all, Obama is trying to build a diplomatic legacy. A visit to Cuba at this time is of historic significance. The U.S. has long pursued a blockade and isolation policy toward Cuba. Although the overwhelming majority of the U.N. General Assembly asks the U.S. to lift its ban almost every year, the U.S. has always turned a deaf ear to those requests.

Since Obama was sworn in, his administration has gradually adjusted its policies toward Cuba and achieved a thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations despite stiff resistance from within the U.S. This is another successful case of “Obama Doctrine” foreign policy.
The U.S. has now entered an election year. Since Republicans took dominant seats in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, it is difficult for Obama to promote liberal domestic agendas; diplomacy is one exception. For the sake of his legacy, Obama is making a real effort when it comes to U.S.-Cuba ties.

Besides concerns about his legacy, Obama is also facing impediments with regards to domestic politics. To achieve the normalization of U.S.-Cuba ties, Obama has claimed his constitutional rights as president, loosening restrictions on communication and flight access between U.S. and Cuba through executive orders.

According to the U.S. constitution, the president is entitled to great autonomy and discretion in foreign affairs, but that does not mean Obama can simply do as he pleases. The economic sanctions placed on Cuba were decided on by the U.S. Congress. To lift those sanctions also requires the approval of Congress. Meanwhile, it is not certain whether Obama’s successor will move forward with his policy.

Of course, it is likely not Obama’s intention to utilize too many political resources to end the embargo against Cuba. A few sanctions can be the leverage for future negotiations.

A third point to consider is that Obama has not changed his original intentions for policy toward Cuba. Recently, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said the president has made it very clear that the future of Cuba is for the Cuban people to decide; the U.S. is just trying to help any way it can.

Even so, a longstanding foreign policy strategy of the U.S. is to export American democracy and values in order to influence target countries’ policies toward the U.S. Moreover, since the introduction of the Monroe Doctrine, the U.S. has regarded Latin America as its own backyard. Any movement can be treated as a threat to the interests of the U.S.

Obama’s Cuba visit also acknowledged the failure of past U.S. policy toward Cuba. Like many countries, Cuba’s anti-U.S. sentiment was not always such a strong force. The U.S. must understand that most anti-U.S. sentiment is a result of its foreign policy. After all, as a global superpower, the U.S. must take responsibility for the significant role its actions play in the evolution of international relations.

(The author is a special commentator for People’s Daily and a distinguished research fellow with the China Institute of International Studies.)

http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0322/c98649-9033866.html

political prisoners (http://www.thebellforum.com/category/african-america/political-prisoners)

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A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen FordThe man who presides over the largest prison population in the world, a system that is still holding political dissidents captured a half century ago, has the nerve to demand – or have his flunkies in the corporate press demand – that Cuba account for who it puts in jail, and why. It would never even occur to the White House press corps to inquire on the status of U.S. political prisoners.
Raul Castro Should Ask Obama: What About U.S. Political Prisoners?A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford“The United States is holding scores of political prisoners, many of them captured in the 1960s and 70s.”
President Obama knew it was impolitic to play his hypocritical human rights game while in the presence of Cuban President Raul Castro, in Havana, this week. So Obama had one of his kiss-up White House reporters do the sneak attack for him. CNN’s Jim Acosta, the son of a Cuban exile, asked President Castro why his country kept political prisoners. Castro replied, “What political prisoners? (http://journal-isms.com/2016/03/what-political-prisoners-castro-asks-cnns-jim-acosta/)” and asked Acosta to provide a list of such people. It was an awkward moment – not diplomatic at all – but Obama was clearly enjoying it. And, well he might, because neither Jim Acosta nor any of the other corporate mouthpieces in the White House press corps would dare, or even think, to ask a U.S. president about the plight of American political prisoners.
The U.S. media traveling with Obama have easy access to all sorts of lists of Cubans who are supposedly in prison for opposition to the their government – although even Amnesty International says that the Cubans released their last political prisoner (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-dissident-idUSKCN0RT2O920150929), back in September.
The United States, on the other hand, is still holding scores of political prisoners, many of them captured in the 1960s and 70s. Their numbers are decreasing only because they are dying of old age – accelerated by the inhuman conditions and practices of the world’s largest prison system. If the corporate media were really concerned about political prisoners, they could go to the web site of the Jericho Movement and see the pictures of 50 of them (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/prisoners). Eighteen were members of the Black Panther Party (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/acoli-sundiata-squire), the Black Liberation Army (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/shoats-russell-maroon) or the Republic of New Africa (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/azania-zolo), including Mumia Abu Jamal (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/abu-jamal-mumia), whose life hangs by a thread because the State of Pennsylvania refuses to treat his Hepatitis C. Black Panther Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/fitzgerald-romaine-chip) has been incarcerated since 1969. There are men and women from the MOVE (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/africa-michael-davis) organization, all with the last name “Africa (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/africa-debbie-sims),” whose children were killed and their home bombed by the Philadelphia police. There are Native American (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/luis-v-rodriguez) activists from the First Nation (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/chubbuck-byron-shane-oso-blanco) group and American Indian Movement, including Leonard Peltier (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/peltier-leonard), who has been behind bars since 1976. There are white Class war (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/dunne-bill), Anti-imperialist (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/gilbert-david) and Anarchist Hacker (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/hammond-jeremy) political prisoners, and, Marie Mason (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/mason-mariusmarie), a white Earth Liberation Front woman and Black female community activist Rev. Joy Powell (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/powell-rev-joy).
No Truce in This War
There are prisoners who became political after they were imprisoned – which is why they are still there (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/lake-richard-mafundi). There are Chicano (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/hernandez-alvaro-luna) political prisoners and the great Puerto Rican independence fighter, Oscar Lopez Rivera (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/l%C3%B3pez-rivera-oscar). There is the former H. Rap Brown, who’s doing life without parole as Imam Jamil Al-Amin (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/al-amin-jamil-abdullah). There are members of the Portland 7 (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/ford-patrice-lumumba) and the Virgin Island 5 (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/hanif-shabazz-bey) and the Ohio 7 (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/laaman-jaan-karl). There is the brilliant Mutulu Shakur (http://www.thejerichomovement.com/profile/shakur-mutulu), father of Tupac Shakur, who the feds say masterminded the escape and exile to Cuba of Assata Shakur (https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvoiceofdetroit.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F05%2FAssata-Shakur.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvoiceofdetroit.net%2F2013%2F05%2F05%2Fassata-shakur-understanding-the-politics-behind-the-fbis-new-attack%2Fassata-shakur%2F&docid=s18j-7GTZ99H6M&tbnid=0-fsXC75KCE4YM%3A&w=639&h=481&ei=y_3xVpaLA8rVeITVmJAN). If Obama could somehow get her back behind bars in the U.S., he’d claim she wasn’t a political prisoner, either.
The Jericho Movement’s pictures do not include lots of other political prisoners, like Rev. Edward Pinkney, who’s serving up to ten years in prison for non-violently standing up (http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/08/13/why-is-rev-edward-pinkney-in-prison-another-case-of-political-persecution/) for the people of Benton Harbor, Michigan.
President Obama this week told the Cuban people, “I Have Come Here To Bury The Last Remnant Of The Cold War.”*But he won’t end the long war against Black people in the United States, a war that has sent millions to prison under a political policy of mass Black Incarceration. In that sense, they are all political prisoners.
For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.







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(http://www.thebellforum.com/)
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ba radio commentaries (http://www.thebellforum.com/category/other/ba-radio-commentaries)



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Every anti-Cuban statement made by the US government and its hired, "free" press, is much more aptly applied to the US. Political prisoners? Police brutality? Poverty? Infant mortality? Health? Education? Nutrition? Well being? Every category is bested by Cuba. Yet the "free" press continue to drone on and on with their government supplied and government mandated anti-communist drivel.

Obama was waxing on about 'the right to protest peacefully'. Cubans have always been free to protest peacefully - the "Ladies in white" are a good example. No country in the world (or historically) is, arguably, as anti-human, anti-humane as is the USA. Murderous settler state, indeed.

Castro to Obama: Relations Won’t Be Normal Until Guantanamo Returned

http://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/103669/40/1036694018.jpg

March 22, 2016 | 8:56 pm

U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro attend a news conference as part of President Obama's three-day visit to Cuba, in Havana March 21, 2016
Castro to Obama: Relations Won’t Be Normal Until Guantanamo Returned

© REUTERS/ Carlos Barria
21:43 21.03.2016(updated 00:16 22.03.2016) Get short URL

As US President Barack Obama makes a historic visit to Cuba following a thaw in relations, Cuban President Raul Castro has stressed that complete normalization cannot be achieved until Guantanamo Bay is returned to Havana.

Meeting with Obama in Havana, Castro stressed that the US must abandon its territory at Guantanamo and lift its embargo against Cuba.

“Much more can be done if the embargo is lifted,” he said. “We recognize the position President Obama is in, and the position his government holds against the blockade, and that they have called on Congress to lift it.”

http://cdn4.img.sputniknews.com/images/103668/15/1036681560.jpg
U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuba's President Raul Castro shake hands during their first meeting on the second day of Obama's visit to Cuba, in Havana March 21, 2016
© REUTERS/ Jonathan Ernst
Obama Begins Meeting With Cuba’s Castro to Review Normalization of Relations
The Cuban president added that there remain “profound differences that will not disappear over our political model, democracy, human rights, social justice, international relations, peace and stability,” and stressed that the Cuban people will not “relinquish what they have gained through great sacrifice.”

Castro denied accusations that Cuba holds political prisoners, saying “give me a list of those political prisoners and if the list exists they will be released before the night is through.”

Speaking to reporters, President Obama said he could not offer an exact timeframe for the end of the embargo, but stressed that Washington does not view Havana as a threat.

“What I have said to President Castro is that we are moving forward and not looking backwards, that we don’t view Cuba as a threat to the United Statesm,” he said. “The embargo’s going to end. When? I can’t be entirely sure. The fact that there has been strong support, not just inside of Congress, but also among the Cuban people, indicates that this is a process that should continue.”

“We’re moving ahead with more opportunities for Americans to travel to Cuba and interact with the Cuba people,” he added. “We are ready to pursue more commercial ties, which create jobs and opportunities for Cubans and Americans alike.”

Still, the US does have concerns.

“People are still concerned about [human rights] inside of Cuba,” Obama added. “We can’t force change on any particular country, ultimately it has to come from within.”

While recognizing these concerns, Castro said that no country on Earth can meet all international human rights standards. He hopes that all countries can work together to meet those standards.

According to a White House press release, the US and Cuba have already launched a joint effort to combat the Zika virus.

“The United States and Cuba have committed to deepen scientific and public health cooperation, focusing on communicable diseases including arboviruses such as Zika, dengue and chikungunya [and]…on the prevention and treatment of Chronic…diseases such as cancer,” the White House said in a fact sheet released on Monday.

“In the coming months, the United States and Cuba intend to work toward finalizing arrangements to strengthen our collaboration in these and other scientific and health areas.”

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/castro-to-obama-relations-wont-be-normal-until-guantanamo-returned/

Obama’s ‘Historic’ PR Sham in Cuba
March 22, 2016 | 8:53 pm

http://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/103664/39/1036643948.jpg
President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle exit Air Force One as they arrive at Havana's international airport for a three-day trip, in Havana March 20, 2016
Obama’s ‘Historic’ PR Sham in Cuba
© REUTERS/ Carlos Barria
12:05 21.03.2016(updated 12:25 21.03.2016) Get short URL
Finian Cunningham

When US President Obama touched down in Cuba at the weekend the visit was hailed as a “historic” occasion. Only in a crassly superficial sense can the official state visit be viewed as historic.

Yes, Obama is the first American leader to visit the island in nearly 90 years since President Calvin Coolidge in 1928.

But otherwise, fundamentally, the relationship between the US and Cuba has not changed and is unlikely to do so in the foreseeable future. It is still a relationship of unmitigated and criminal domination by Washington towards its southern Caribbean neighbor.

Washington continues to impose a crushing trade embargo on the island state and it continues to occupy Cuban territory at Guantanamo Bay — all in defiance of international norms and Cuban sovereignty. This is tantamount to an imperialist bully having its boot planted firmly on the neck of this impoverished nation of 11 million people. The boot grip may be easing just a little. But what is “historic” about that?

http://cdn3.img.sputniknews.com/images/103658/21/1036582174.jpg
Tourists pass by images of U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro in a banner that reads Welcome to Cuba at the entrance of a restaurant in downtown Havana, March 17, 2016.
© REUTERS/ Alexandre Meneghini

Obama’s ‘Landmark Visit’: Why US President Heads to Cuba

Obama and his family will spend three days in Cuba where he will dine with socialist President Raul Castro. The White House has ruled out meeting the elder Cuban statesman, Fidel, brother of Raul. It was Fidel who led the revolution to victory in January 1959 against the US-backed despot Fulgencio Batista.Posters of Obama sniffing a Cuban cigar are among the many fun images adorning the capital Havana. No doubt the American president will be given a rapturous reception by the long-suffering, but famously gracious, people of Cuba.

Obama first announced a thawing of relations with the Communist-run island more than a year ago. Since then there appears to be a quickening of Cuba’s access to the outside world. US Secretary of State John Kerry made a landmark visit last year when he oversaw the re-opening of the American embassy in Havana.

Earlier this month, the European Union signed an accord with Cuba heralding “normalized relations”. (Why the Europeans hadn’t the independence and courage to maintain normal relations with Cuba decades ago is a shameful admission of the EU’s subservience to the US, just as we see in the ongoing EU sanctions against Russia, evidently in compliance with Washington’s diktat.)

Last September, the Roman Catholic pontiff, Pope Francis, coupled a trip to Cuba with a visit to the United States in a symbolic gesture of urging reconciliation between the two Cold War foes.

This week, coinciding with Obama’s itinerary, the Rolling Stones are to give a free open-air concert in Havana. Is this Cuba beginning to rock and roll in a new era of freedom? Sadly, no. It is just more of the same media hype to feign that something “historic” is underway.

The White House has also over the past year eased restrictions on travel, cash transactions and postal mail. US media have made much hoopla about a personal letter Obama sent to a Cuban woman who had invited him to her house for a cup of coffee.

American Airlines is resuming a direct flight service to Cuba and a major US-owned chain just this week signed a multi-million-dollar deal to develop luxury hotels to tap the anticipated deluge of tourists to the island.

However, US media coverage of Obama’s visit is the usual weird triumph of hype over reality. All the supposed changes in bilateral relations do not alter the fact that the United States remains a reprehensible aggressor towards the nation of Cuba.

Obama has been talking about lifting the trade embargo against Cuba for the past eight since he was first elected in 2008. He also made closing of the US torture centre at its giant military base in Guantanamo Bay a preliminary promise. But neither of these developments are anywhere close to happening. The Republican-controlled Congress makes sure of that.

Despite all the hullabaloo, what needs to be kept in focus here is the US policy of imposing vicious sanctions on Cuba. The embargo has been in place for 54 years, from around the time that Obama was born. The official US rationale for this blockade was never acceptable. So what if Cuba was socialist, revolutionary and an ally of the Soviet Union?

http://cdn5.img.sputniknews.com/images/102409/76/1024097641.jpg
© Flickr/ Iker Merodio
What 2016 Presidential Race Means for the Future of US-Cuban Relations

A quarter of a century after the Soviet Union dissolved and since the supposed end of the Cold War, Washington’s policy of embargoing Cuba can be seen for what it always was from the outset: blatant unilateral aggression, which under international law is a violation of the UN Charter and a war crime.

That any power appoints itself the right to use economic warfare against other countries is the real issue here.

Right now, the US not only slaps punitive economic measures on Cuba, it also entitles itself to do the same on several other countries, including Russia, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. The political claims that Washington invokes in each case to justify its sanctions are dubious if not outrightly fraudulent. In any case, it is completely unacceptable that Washington is able to arrogate to itself the self-declared right to embargo other nations.

Cuba is a particularly lamentable example of Washington’s bully-boy behavior in the world. It is this imperialist behavior that needs to be exposed, questioned, prosecuted and overturned. Washington’s rogue conduct is the primary source of world conflict and the relentless threat of war.

President Obama, his White House entourage and the fawning US mainstream media will of course hype up the “historic” visit this week. Obama has got his eye vainly on his “presidential legacy” when he quits the Oval Office at the end of this year after serving two terms.

But the only thing historic about Obama’s visit to Cuba is that it is a grotesque manipulation of public relations and reality. If the US was to remove its boot off the Cuban nation’s neck, then perhaps we could indulge in plaudits.

As things stand, Washington’s relations with Cuba — as with any other country that dares to defy its hegemony — is testimony to more despotic American business-as-usual.

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/obamas-historic-pr-sham-in-cuba/

Cuba Reflections: On Life and Death
by PAUL STREET


http://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/dropzone/2016/03/shutterstock_384810961.jpg
jakubtravelphoto | Shutterstock.com

A Nice Surprise

It’s not very often that you hear or see a salaried U.S. corporate media employee defend Fidel Castro and Che Guevara’s Cuban Revolution and its accomplishments. That’s why I did a double take when I read a recent opinion piece titled “Cuba’s Success Lost in Media Frenzy” in the Gannett-owned Iowa City Press-Citizen. The commentary was not written by some radical academic or graduate student at the local university (I’m not sure such a professor can be found at the University of Iowa anymore) or by an independent radical like me (I have a long record of publishing pieces in the Press-Citizen’s laudably open-minded Opinion page). No, it was penned in defense of President Barack Obama’s recent historic visit to Cuba by a clever young man named Ian Goodrum, who happens to be the paper’s “community content and engagement editor.”

Goodrum did a decent job. He rightly mocked “most media in the U.S. media” for using President Barack Obama’s recent historic visit to Cuba as “an opportunity to denounce the tiny island nation for daring to have an economic and political system different from our own.” He criticized that media for taking seriously the “increasingly absurd pronouncements from [Cuban] expatriates.” Goodrum justly criticized White House Press Secretary Earnest for absurdly claiming that the U.S. had been “ignoring” Cuba for “more than 50 years.” As Goodrum noted, Earnest’s comment is preposterous given dedicated U.S. efforts to punish and overthrow the Castro government, including a “crushing trade embargo and crippling sanctions” and the “the encirclement of isolation of Cuba by the United States” (Goodrum) for more than a half century.

Goodrum detailed some of Cuba’s remarkable “accomplishments since the [1959 Cuban] revolution,” all achieved despite the hostility of Uncle Sam. The triumphs Goodrum mentions are considerable:

“Keeping the aforementioned antagonisms in mind — and understanding that survival under the baleful eye of the world’s richest nation is a miracle in itself — [socialist Cuba’s] successes are nothing to sneeze at. Infant mortality has dropped while life expectancy and literacy rates have skyrocketed. Economic growth has stayed consistent with the exception of a few years during the “Special Period,” when the loss of 80 percent of Cuba’s trade led to a downturn. Yet the social safety net and housing, education and food guarantees from the government were able to continue even in this time of extreme privation. Media outlets like to talk about how the average monthly salary amounts to $20 or $30, but this is a dodge. Comparing Cuban economic indicators to those of the United States is a matter of apples — heh — and oranges. When weighed against countries like the Dominican Republic or Haiti, Cuba stands head and shoulders above its direct competitors.”

“What could be considered the crown jewel of Cuba’s economy, the health care sector, is perhaps the best example of what a system like Cuba’s can do. Transmission of HIV from mother to child was eliminated in Cuba and a vaccine for lung cancer has been developed there. Exporting medical professionals around the world to deal with threats like the Ebola outbreak show the country’s commitment to help those in need, and a disproportionate capability to do so. But this is what can happen when you prioritize public welfare over profits” (emphasis added).

I’m not sure I should say more about Goodrum’s column: I don’t wish to contribute any further to the possibility of him losing his job. At the same time – and maybe Gannett authorities can put this towards Goodrum’s favor – I should say that a better title for his essay would have been “Media Continues to Ignore Cuba’s Success” (the blockading of the U.S. public from good news about Cuban socialism is an old story). And I’d like to mention four key matters that did not make it into the young columnist’s welcome essay (things that, to be fair, require a bigger word count than what is available to Op Ed writers).

Ecological Triumph: Teeming With Life

The first thing missing is Cuba’s remarkable environmental achievement. Cuba stands out among all nations (rich and poor) in a critical way. The makers of the United Nations’ Human Development Index (UNHDI) have found that Cuba is the only country on the planet to combine a quality of life consistent with “high human development” with a globally sustainable carbon footprint. A report by the World Wildlife Foundation includes a graph that shows two features for the nations of the world: the UNHDI (including measures of life expectancy, poverty, literacy, health care, and the like) and “ecological footprint” – the energy and resources consumed per person in each country. Only Cuba received a passing grade in both areas. As the University of British Columbia has noted,

“The majority of food grown in Cuba is produced without chemicals. Good bugs fight bad bugs in the fields. Their soils – like their communities – are teeming with life…Today, Cuba’s agricultural cooperatives provide 80 percent of the food produced in Cuba and her system of urban agriculture is a model for the world. Building on the success of her agricultural cooperatives, Cuba is now taking bold new steps to build a more cooperative, just and people-centered economy.”

This noteworthy attainment is of no small significance in an age of ever more imminent environmental collapse rooted in (among other things) capitalism’s addiction to fossil fuels. It is no mere accident. Beyond a fuel and currency shortage, it reflects inspiring and instructive eco-socialist innovation in the use and development of alternative fuel sources, technologies, and practices on the part of the Cuban state. As Garry Leech noted on CounterPunch last year, Cuba “redefined socialism” in the wake of the decline of its former protector the Soviet Union. Over the past two decades, Leech shows, Cuba has moved towards a more participatory system that also happens to be an outstanding model of environmentally sustainable and healthy, permaculturalist economics:

“In the 1980s, Cuba more closely reflected the state socialist model that ultimately failed in the Soviet Union…But with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of the socialist trading bloc, Cuba had to become more creative if it was to survive both literally and figuratively as an island of socialism in an ocean of capitalism. And it was the creative survival strategies that emerged during the 1990s that have helped to redefine socialism in Cuba today…The collapse of the Soviet Union, in conjunction with a corresponding tightening of the five-decades-long US blockade, meant that Cuba could no longer import sufficient food or oil. The country responded to the shortage of petroleum-based pesticides and fertilizers by becoming the world’s leader in organic agriculture. It responded to the shortage of fuel by becoming a leader in urban agriculture to diminish the need to transport food great distances to markets. As a result, more than 80 percent of the country’s agricultural production is now organic… [and produced by] smaller worker-owned cooperatives. The new cooperatives not only increased production, they also constituted a shift away from state socialism by empowering workers who previously had little or no voice in the running of their workplaces….This emerging worker democracy through cooperatives not only existed in agricultural production, it also occurred in the selling of products…”

“The shift to a more ecologically sustainable agricultural production has resulted in healthy organic food being the most convenient and inexpensive food available to Cubans. Because of the US blockade, processed foods are more expensive and not readily available. This reality stands in stark contrast to that in wealthy capitalist nations such as the United States and Canada where heavily-subsidized agri-businesses flood the market with cheap, unhealthy processed foods while organic alternatives are expensive and more difficult to obtain. The consequence in the United States is high levels of obesity, diabetes and heart disease.”

Call it Earth Science-friendly socialism – or maybe even Earth-scientific socialism, some of its apparently and actually drawing strength from the U.S. blockade.

Socialism as the Basis of Sustainability

The second thing missing is the very basic fact that Cuba owes its success not merely to its prioritizing of public welfare over private profits but rather to its rejection and indeed overthrow of capitalism, the profits system, half a century ago. The Cuban permaculturalist Roberto Pérez tells Leech that Cuba laid the basis for an environmentally sustainable society “when the revolution gained sovereignty over the resources of the country, especially the land and the minerals…You cannot think about sustainability,” Perez explains, “if your resources are in the hands of a foreign country or in private hands. Even without knowing, we were creating the basis for sustainability.”

This is a very critical point. As the New York City-based Marxist writer Louis Proyect noted last year, “capitalism and capitalist politics have to be superseded if humanity and nature are to survive. Once we can eliminate the profit motive, the door is open to rational use of natural resources for the first time in human history. How we make use of such resources will naturally be informed by our understanding that reason governs the outcome and not quarterly earnings. The alternative,” Proyect reminds us, “to this is a descent into savagery, if not extinction.”

Misplaced Imperial Arrogance

The third thing missing from Goodrum’s commentary was any sense of the utter arrogant, idiotic, and imperial absurdity of Barack Obama going to Cuba to lecture the people on democracy, freedom, and how to achieve a good society. What, like the United States? Really? The U.S… the mass incarceration capital of the world, home to a quarter of the world’s prisoners, an “armed madhouse” (Greg Palast) of a nation where: the top 1 percent owns more wealth than the bottom 90 percent; 6 Wal-Mart heirs together possess as much wealth as the bottom 42 percent; politics and policy are in grip of an unelected and interrelated dictatorship of money and empire; an openly plutocratic oligarchy rules in total indifference to public opinion; world-capitalist ecocide finds its leading carbon-addicted financial and propagandistic centers; white median household wealth is 13 times higher than Black median household wealth; more than 16 million children (22 percent of all U.S. children, including 38 percent of Black children) live below the federal government’s notoriously inadequate poverty level; municipal water systems are rife with poisonous lead; infrastructure is crumbling; pollution is rampant; schools are under-funded and mind-numbing; civic discourse is hopelessly degraded; racial hyper-segregation and the harsh racialized concentration of poverty and joblessness (in Black ghettoes, Native American reservation, and Latino barrios) is predominant; one in three Black men is saddled with the crippling lifelong stigma of a felony record; politicians and not-so “public” policy are bought and sold like any other commodity; the current endless and populace-marginalizing presidential election is shaping as a contest between (in Diana Johnstone’s words) “the two most hated people in the country” (the mad-dog imperial war hawk Hillary Clinton and the quasi-fascist media buffoon and real estate mogul Donald Trump); much if not most of the populace is kept in a woeful and dangerous state of mass ignorance and stupidity about history, current events, and much more; violent death (fed by off-the-global-charts homicide and suicide rates) is rampant; purposefully mass-murderous assault weapons are widely available and ubiquitous; mental illness proliferates; natural resources are regularly stripped and destroyed; livable wage jobs have disappeared en masse; commercialized mass alienation and soulless anomie are endemic; substance abuse and obesity are epidemic; economic insecurity is pervasive; more than half the population is either poor or near-poor; food is systematically poisoned and adulterated in field, factory, corporate laboratory, box-car, tractor trailer, warehouse, restaurant, and grocery store; agriculture is criminally misdirected and absurdly extra-local; water supplies are gravely imperiled; more than half of federal discretionary spending pays for a giant war machine and global empire that accounts for half the world’s military spending; you can’t even watch the last three minutes of a college basketball tournament game without having to be bombarded with ten minutes of mindless mass-consumerist commercials.

This is a nation that thinks is has anything to tell Cubans, or anyone else, about how to experience and sustain democracy, freedom, and a decent society? Seriously?

Some Messenger of Freedom

And what about the messenger? Yes, Barack Obama, the slimy used car salesman who won Advertising Age’s 2008 “Marketer the Year” award as he rode into the White House on a tide of hope for progressive change and then proceeded to (as predicted by yours truly and a painfully small cadre of Left intellectuals and activists who were largely banned from so-called mainstream U.S. media and “higher education” for doctrinal reasons) give the nation what William Greider memorably called seven years ago “a blunt lesson about power, who has it and who doesn’t. They have watched,” Greider wrote, “Washington run to rescue the very financial interests who caused the catastrophe. They learned that government has plenty of money to spend – when the right people want it” And little to spend on the rest of us, the wrong people, soon to be known as “the 99%,” left to ask “where’s my bailout?”

Yes, Barack Obama, who in his nauseating 2006 campaign book The Audacity of Hope criticized the “left-leaning populist” Hugo Chavez for thinking that developing nations “should resist America’s efforts to expand its hegemony” and for further daring – imagine – to “follow their own path of development,” unforgivably “rejecting the ideals of free markets and democracy.” Obama showed how profound his commitment to democracy in Latin America was in the spring and summer of 2009 when he and his right-wing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backed a disastrous right-wing military and business coup that overthrew the democratically elected left-leaning populist Manuel Zelaya government in Honduras.

Obama’s seminar on ruling class power will conclude, the president hopes, with final Congressional approval of the arch-authoritarian, global-corporatist Trans Pacific Partnership – a monument to world capitalist unaccountability and a potentially fatal blow to humanity’s ability to avert environmental catastrophe.

(I don’t have time and energy to go into his Orwellian surveillance state policies and his expanded war on/or terror.)

That’s some champion of people’s democracy there that Raul Castro just watched baseball with: Barack Obama.

The Goal Remains the Same: If Obama Has His Way

The fourth thing missing from Ian Goodrum’s surprisingly progressive column is why the noxious neoliberal emperor Obama just went to Cuba. I can’t say it any better than the aforementioned Gary Leech did on CounterPunch yesterday so I’m just going to quote him:

“In his speech to the Cuban people in Havana, President Barack Obama declared, ‘I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas. … I’ve urged the people of the Americas to leave behind the ideological battles of the past.’ But Obama made clear that his desire to end the decades-long US economic blockade of the island is not based on the fact that it constitutes the bullying of a small country by the world’s most powerful capitalist nation, nor is it a response to the sheer inhumanity of the blockade, it is simply an acknowledgement that the policy has failed to bring down Cuba’s socialist system and return the country to capitalism. Obama then proceeded to spend much of his speech telling Cubans that they should live under a US-style democracy and a capitalist economy. In other words, he has no intention of leaving behind ‘the ideological battles of the past.’ He is simply shifting strategy” (emphasis added).

Make no mistake: it’s only the means, not the ends of U.S. Cuba policy that Obama has been working to change. The goal remains the same: collapse Cuban socialism and bring back U.S.-dominated capitalism 90 miles off the coast of Florida. As I noted on Facebook the other day, “If Obama has his way, Cuba will be a festering pit of commercialized alienation and eco-cidal pollution in a couple of decades.” Obesity, diabetes, and depression will spread like gangbusters along with the chemical poisoning of Cuban water, land, air, and food and spreading inequality and – who knows, if all goes to plan? – mass incarceration, the corporate takeover of health care, and endless commodity-hawking commercials on radio and television. Big Pharma could really make a killing.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to pass. I went to Cuba to speak on and against U.S. corporate and commercial media almost exactly one year ago and got to spend three days in Havana. I’ll never forget it. Cuba struck me as the healthiest, happiest, sexiest, most dis-alienated and sociable society I’d ever had the good fortune to visit. It is “teeming with life” on numerous levels. Coming back to the United States was like taking a cold bath of hostility and estrangement, an immersion in extreme disparity where material abundance for some is juxtaposed against material privation for many along with unbridled spiritual and social ruination for all. It struck me as almost teeming with death. That’s too strong, perhaps, but one thing is very clear: we U.S.-of-Americans and our imperial Wall Street president have little if anything to tell Cubans about how to live and how to organize their society.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/25/cuba-reflections-on-life-and-death/

Man, the Cubans better keep one hand on their wallets. I wouldn't let the imperial killer set one foot on the island. Better keep a watch on EVERYTHING...

Saw this morning on the 'net that airline prices to Cuba expected to be cut 50%. They are gearing up. I did try to address the Argentina situation (after the photos of a fumbling O trying to dance the tango) but there was little interest in talking about austerity - http://www.democraticunderground.com/102411742

Fidel Castro to Obama: We don't need your 'presents'
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Associated Press MARCH 28, 2016 — 8:15AM

http://stmedia.stimg.co/1459166761_10003141+Cuba+Fidel+Castro.JPG?w=525
ALEX CASTRO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cuba's leader Fidel Castro meets Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, left, in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016.

HAVANA — Fidel Castro responded Monday to President Barack Obama's historic trip to Cuba with a long, bristling letter recounting the history of U.S. aggression against Cuba, writing that "we don't need the empire to give us any presents."

The 1,500-word letter in state media titled "Brother Obama" was Castro's first response to the president's three-day visit last week, in which the American president said he had come to bury the two countries' history of Cold War hostility. Obama did not meet with the 89-year-old Fidel Castro on the trip but met several times with his 84-year-old brother Raul Castro, the current Cuban president.



Obama's visit was intended to build irreversible momentum behind his opening with Cuba and to convince the Cuban people and the Cuban government that a half-century of U.S. attempts to overthrow the Communist government had ended, allowing Cuban to reform its economy and political system without the threat of U.S. interference.

Fidel Castro writes of Obama: "My modest suggestion is that he reflects and doesn't try to develop theories about Cuban politics."

Castro, who led Cuba for decades before handing power to his brother in 2008, was legendary for his hours-long, all-encompassing speeches. His letter reflects that style, presenting a sharp contrast with Obama's tightly focused speech in Havana. Castro's letter opens with descriptions of environmental abuse under the Spaniards and reviews the historical roles of Cuban independence heroes Jose Marti, Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez.

Castro then goes over crucial sections of Obama's speech line by line, engaging in an ex-post-facto dialogue with the American president with pointed critiques of perceived slights and insults, including Obama's failure to give credit to indigenous Cubans and Castro's prohibition of racial segregation after coming to power in 1959.

Quoting Obama's declaration that "it is time, now, for us to leave the past behind," the man who shaped Cuba during the second half of the 20th century writes that "I imagine that any one of us ran the risk of having a heart attack on hearing these words from the President of the United States."

Castro then returns to a review of a half-century of U.S. aggression against Cuba. Those events include the decades-long U.S. trade embargo against the island; the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack and the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner backed by exiles who took refuge in the U.S.

He ends with a dig at the Obama administration's drive to increase business ties with Cuba. The Obama administration says re-establishing economic ties with the U.S. will be a boon for Cuba, whose centrally planned economy has struggled to escape from over-dependence on imports and a chronic shortage of hard currency.

The focus on U.S-Cuba business ties appears to have particularly rankled Castro, who nationalized U.S. companies after coming to power in 1959 and establishing the communist system into which his brother is now introducing gradual market-based reforms.

"No one should pretend that the people of this noble and selfless country will renounce its glory and its rights," Fidel Castro wrote. "We are capable of producing the food and material wealth that we need with with work and intelligence of our people."

http://www.startribune.com/fidel-castro-responds-to-obama-in-lengthy-bristling-essay/373705611/

Brother Obama
We don’t need the empire to give us anything. Our efforts will be legal and peaceful, because our commitment is to peace and fraternity among all human beings who live on this planet.

Author: Fidel Castro Ruz | internet@granma.cu
march 28, 2016 12:03:14
The kings of Spain brought us the conquistadores and masters, whose footprints remained in the circular land grants assigned to those searching for gold in the sands of rivers, an abusive and shameful form of exploitation, traces of which can be noted from the air in many places around the country.

Tourism today, in large part, consists of viewing the delights of our landscapes and tasting exquisite delicacies from our seas, and is always shared with the private capital of large foreign corporations, whose earnings, if they don’t reach billions of dollars, are not worthy of any attention whatsoever.

Since I find myself obliged to mention the issue, I must add - principally for the youth - that few people are aware of the importance of such a condition, in this singular moment of human history. I would not say that time has been lost, but I do not hesitate to affirm that we are not adequately informed, not you, nor us, of the knowledge and conscience that we must have to confront the realities which challenge us. The first to be taken into consideration is that our lives are but a fraction of a historical second, which must also be devoted in part to the vital necessities of every human being. One of the characteristics of this condition is the tendency to overvalue its role, in contrast, on the other hand, with the extraordinary number of persons who embody the loftiest dreams.

Nevertheless, no one is good or bad entirely on their own. None of us is designed for the role we must assume in a revolutionary society, although Cubans had the privilege of José Martí’s example. I even ask myself if he needed to die or not in Dos Ríos, when he said, “For me, it’s time,” and charged the Spanish forces entrenched in a solid line of firepower. He did not want to return to the United States, and there was no one who could make him. Someone ripped some pages from his diary. Who bears this treacherous responsibility, undoubtedly the work of an unscrupulous conspirator? Differences between the leaders were well known, but never indiscipline. “Whoever attempts to appropriate Cuba will reap only the dust of its soil drenched in blood, if he does not perish in the struggle,” stated the glorious Black leader Antonio Maceo. Máximo Gómez is likewise recognized as the most disciplined and discreet military chief in our history.

Looking at it from another angle, how can we not admire the indignation of Bonifacio Byrne when, from a distant boat returning him to Cuba, he saw another flag alongside that of the single star and declared, “My flag is that which has never been mercenary...” immediately adding one of the most beautiful phrases I have ever heard, “If it is torn to shreds, it will be my flag one day… our dead raising their arms will still be able to defend it!” Nor will I forget the blistering words of Camilo Cienfuegos that night, when, just some tens of meters away, bazookas and machine guns of U.S. origin in the hands of counterrevolutionaries were pointed toward that terrace on which we stood.

Obama was born in August of 1961, as he himself explained. More than half a century has transpired since that time.

Let us see, however, how our illustrious guest thinks today:

“I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas. I have come here to extend the hand of friendship to the Cuban people,” followed by a deluge of concepts entirely novel for the majority of us:

“We both live in a new world, colonized by Europeans,” the U.S. President continued, “Cuba, like the United States, was built in part by slaves brought here from Africa. Like the United States, the Cuban people can trace their heritage to both slaves and slave-owners.”

The native populations don’t exist at all in Obama’s mind. Nor does he say that the Revolution swept away racial discrimination, or that pensions and salaries for all Cubans were decreed by it before Mr. Barrack Obama was 10 years old. The hateful, racist bourgeois custom of hiring strongmen to expel Black citizens from recreational centers was swept away by the Cuban Revolution - that which would go down in history for the battle against apartheid that liberated Angola, putting an end to the presence of nuclear weapons on a continent of more than a billion inhabitants. This was not the objective of our solidarity, but rather to help the peoples of Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau and others under the fascist colonial domination of Portugal.

In 1961, just one year and three months after the triumph of the Revolution, a mercenary force with armored artillery and infantry, backed by aircraft, trained and accompanied by U.S. warships and aircraft carriers, attacked our country by surprise. Nothing can justify that perfidious attack which cost our country hundreds of losses, including deaths and injuries

As for the pro-yankee assault brigade, no evidence exists anywhere that it was possible to evacuate a single mercenary. Yankee combat planes were presented before the United Nations as the equipment of a Cuban uprising.

The military experience and power of this country is very well known. In Africa, they likewise believed that revolutionary Cuba would be easily taken out of the fight. The invasion via southern Angola by racist South African motorized brigades got close to Luanda, the capital in the eastern part of the country. There a struggle began which went on for no less than 15 years. I wouldn’t even talk about this, if I didn’t have the elemental duty to respond to Obama’s speech in Havana’s Alicia Alonso Grand Theater.

Nor will I attempt to give details, only emphasize that an honorable chapter in the struggle for human liberation was written there. In a certain way, I hoped Obama’s behavior would be correct. His humble origin and natural intelligence were evident. Mandela was imprisoned for life and had become a giant in the struggle for human dignity. One day, a copy of a book narrating part of Mandela’s life reached my hands, and - surprise! - the prologue was by Barack Obama. I rapidly skimmed the pages. The miniscule size of Mandela’s handwriting noting facts was incredible. Knowing men such as him was worthwhile.

Regarding the episode in South Africa I must point out another experience. I was really interested in learning more about how the South Africans had acquired nuclear weapons. I only had very precise information that there were no more than 10 or 12 bombs. A reliable source was the professor and researcher Piero Gleijeses, who had written the text Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976, an excellent piece. I knew he was the most reliable source on what had happened and I told him so; he responded that he had not spoken more about the matter as in the text he had responded to questions from compañero Jorge Risquet, who had been Cuban ambassador and collaborator in Angola, a very good friend of his. I located Risquet; already undertaking other important tasks he was finishing a course which would last several weeks longer. That task coincided with a fairly recent visit by Piero to our country; I had warned him that Risquet was getting on and his health was not great. A few days later what I had feared occurred. Risquet deteriorated and died. When Piero arrived there was nothing to do except make promises, but I had already received information related to the weapons and the assistance that racist South Africa had received from Reagan and Israel.

I do not know what Obama would have to say about this story now. I am unaware as to what he did or did not know, although it is very unlikely that he knew absolutely nothing. My modest suggestion is that he gives it thought and does not attempt now to elaborate theories on Cuban policy.

There is an important issue:

Obama made a speech in which he uses the most sweetened words to express: “It is time, now, to forget the past, leave the past behind, let us look to the future together, a future of hope. And it won’t be easy, there will be challenges and we must give it time; but my stay here gives me more hope in what we can do together as friends, as family, as neighbors, together.”

I suppose all of us were at risk of a heart attack upon hearing these words from the President of the United States. After a ruthless blockade that has lasted almost 60 years, and what about those who have died in the mercenary attacks on Cuban ships and ports, an airliner full of passengers blown up in midair, mercenary invasions, multiple acts of violence and coercion?

Nobody should be under the illusion that the people of this dignified and selfless country will renounce the glory, the rights, or the spiritual wealth they have gained with the development of education, science and culture.

I also warn that we are capable of producing the food and material riches we need with the efforts and intelligence of our people. We do not need the empire to give us anything. Our efforts will be legal and peaceful, as this is our commitment to peace and fraternity among all human beings who live on this planet.

Fidel Castro Ruz

March 27, 2016

10:25 p.m.

http://www.granma.cu/reflexiones-fidel/2016-03-28/el-hermano-obama-28-03-2016-01-03-16

(Originally posted google garble but Granma provided better translation, and so...)
In the original:

El hermano Obama
No necesitamos que el imperio nos regale nada. Nuestros esfuerzos serán legales y pacíficos, porque es nuestro compromiso con la paz y la fraternidad de todos los seres humanos que vivimos en este planeta

Autor: Fidel Castro Ruz | internet@granma.cu
28 de marzo de 2016 01:03:16
Los reyes de España nos trajeron a los conquistadores y dueños, cuyas huellas quedaron en los hatos circulares de tierra asignados a los buscadores de oro en las arenas de los ríos, una forma abusiva y bochornosa de explotación cuyos vestigios se pueden divisar desde el aire en muchos lugares del país.

El turismo hoy, en gran parte, consiste en mostrar las delicias de los paisajes y saborear las exquisiteces alimentarias de nuestros mares, y siempre que se comparta con el capital privado de las grandes corporaciones extranjeras, cuyas ganancias si no alcanzan los miles de millones de dólares per cápita no son dignas de atención alguna.

Ya que me vi obligado a mencionar el tema, debo añadir, principalmente para los jóvenes, que pocas personas se percatan de la importancia de tal condición en este momento singular de la historia humana. No diré que el tiempo se ha perdido, pero no vacilo en afirmar que no estamos suficientemente informados, ni ustedes ni nosotros, de los conocimientos y las conciencias que debiéramos tener para enfrentar las realidades que nos desafían. Lo primero a tomar en cuenta es que nuestras vidas son una fracción histórica de segundo, que hay que compartir además con las necesidades vitales de todo ser humano. Una de las características de este es la tendencia a la sobrevaloración de su papel, lo cual contrasta por otro lado con el número extraordinario de personas que encarnan los sueños más elevados.

Nadie, sin embargo, es bueno o es malo por sí mismo. Ninguno de nosotros está diseñado para el papel que debe asumir en la sociedad revolucionaria. En parte, los cubanos tuvimos el privilegio de contar con el ejemplo de José Martí. Me pregunto incluso si tenía que caer o no en Dos Ríos, cuando dijo “para mí es hora”, y cargó contra las fuerzas españolas atrincheradas en una sólida línea de fuego. No quería regresar a Estados Unidos y no había quién lo hiciera regresar. Alguien arrancó algunas hojas de su diario. ¿Quién cargó con esa pérfida culpa, que fue sin duda obra de algún intriganteinescrupuloso? Se conocen diferencias entre los Jefes, pero jamás indisciplinas. “Quien intente apropiarse de Cuba recogerá el polvo de su suelo anegado en sangre, si no perece en la lucha”, declaró el glorioso líder negro Antonio Maceo. Se reconoce igualmente en Máximo Gómez, el jefe militar más disciplinado y discreto de nuestra historia.

Mirándolo desde otro ángulo, cómo no admirarse de la indignación de Bonifacio Byrne cuando, desde la distante embarcación que lo traía de regreso a Cuba, al divisar otra bandera junto a la de la estrella solitaria, declaró: “Mi bandera es aquella que no ha sido jamás mercenaria…”, para añadir de inmediato una de las más bellas frases que escuché nunca: “Si deshecha en menudos pedazos llega a ser mi bandera algún día… ¡nuestros muertos alzando los brazos la sabrán defender todavía!...”. Tampoco olvidaré las encendidas palabras de Camilo Cienfuegos aquella noche, cuando a varias decenas de metros bazucas y ametralladoras de origen norteamericano, en manos contrarrevolucionarias, apuntaban hacia la terraza donde estábamos parados. Obama había nacido en agosto de 1961, como él mismo explicó. Más de medio siglo transcurriría desde aquel momento.

Veamos sin embargo cómo piensa hoy nuestro ilustre visitante:

“Vine aquí para dejar atrás los últimos vestigios de la guerra fría en las Américas. Vine aquí extendiendo la mano de amistad al pueblo cubano”.

De inmediato un diluvio de conceptos, enteramente novedosos para la mayoría de nosotros:

“Ambos vivimos en un nuevo mundo colonizado por europeos”. Prosiguió el Presidente norteamericano. “Cuba, al igual que Estados Unidos, fue constituida por esclavos traídos de África; al igual que Estados Unidos, el pueblo cubano tiene herencias en esclavos y esclavistas”.

Las poblaciones nativas no existen para nada en la mente de Obama. Tampoco dice que la discriminación racial fue barrida por la Revolución; que el retiro y el salario de todos los cubanos fueron decretados por esta antes de que el señor Barack Obama cumpliera 10 años. La odiosa costumbre burguesa y racista de contratar esbirros para que los ciudadanos negros fuesen expulsados de centros de recreación fue barrida por la Revolución Cubana. Esta pasaría a la historia por la batalla que libró en Angola contra el apartheid, poniendo fin a la presencia de armas nucleares en un continente de más de mil millones de habitantes. No era ese el objetivo de nuestra solidaridad, sino ayudar a los pueblos de Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau y otros del dominio colonial fascista de Portugal.

En 1961, apenas dos años y tres meses después del Triunfo de la Revolución, una fuerza mercenaria con cañones e infantería blindada, equipada con aviones, fue entrenada y acompañada por buques de guerra y portaviones de Estados Unidos, atacando por sorpresa a nuestro país. Nada podrá justificar aquel alevoso ataque que costó a nuestro país cientos de bajas entre muertos y heridos. De la brigada de asalto proyanki, en ninguna parte consta que se hubiese podido evacuar un solo mercenario. Aviones yankis de combate fueron presentados ante Naciones Unidas como equipos cubanos sublevados.

Es de sobra conocida la experiencia militar y el poderío de ese país. En África creyeron igualmente que la Cuba revolucionaria sería puesta fácilmente fuera de combate. El ataque por el Sur de Angola por parte de las brigadas motorizadas de Sudáfrica racista los lleva hasta las proximidades de Luanda, la capital de este país. Ahí se inicia una lucha que se prolongó no menos de 15 años. No hablaría siquiera de esto, a menos que tuviera el deber elemental de responder al discurso de Obama en el Gran Teatro de La Habana Alicia Alonso.

No intentaré tampoco dar detalles, solo enfatizar que allí se escribió una página honrosa de la lucha por la liberación del ser humano. De cierta forma yo deseaba que la conducta de Obama fuese correcta. Su origen humilde y su inteligencia natural eran evidentes. Mandela estaba preso de por vida y se había convertido en un gigante de la lucha por la dignidad humana. Un día llegó a mis manos una copia del libro en que se narra parte de la vida de Mandela y ¡oh, sorpresa!: estaba prologado por Barack Obama. Lo ojeé rápidamente. Era increíble el tamaño de la minúscula letra de Mandela precisando datos. Vale la pena haber conocido hombres como aquel.

Sobre el episodio de Sudáfrica debo señalar otra experiencia. Yo estaba realmente interesado en conocer más detalles sobre la forma en que los sudafricanos habían adquirido las armas nucleares. Solo tenía la información muy precisa de que no pasaban de 10 o 12 bombas. Una fuente segura sería el profesor e investigador Piero Gleijeses, quien había redactado el texto de “Misiones en conflicto: La Habana, Washington y África 1959-1976”; un trabajo excelente. Yo sabía que él era la fuente más segura de lo ocurrido y así se lo comuniqué; me respondió que él no había hablado más del asunto, porque en el texto había respondido a las preguntas del compañero Jorge Risquet, quien había sido embajador o colaborador cubano en Angola, muy amigo suyo. Localicé a Risquet; ya en otras importantes ocupaciones estaba terminando un curso del que le faltaban varias semanas. Esa tarea coincidió con un viaje bastante reciente de Piero a nuestro país; le había advertido a este que Risquet tenía ya algunos años y su salud no era óptima. A los pocos días ocurrió lo que yo temía. Risquet empeoró y falleció. Cuando Piero llegó no había nada que hacer excepto promesas, pero ya yo había logrado información sobre lo que se relacionaba con esa arma y la ayuda que Sudáfrica racista había recibido de Reagan e Israel.

No sé qué tendrá que decir ahora Obama sobre esta historia. Ignoro qué sabía o no, aunque es muy dudoso que no supiera absolutamente nada. Mi modesta sugerencia es que reflexione y no trate ahora de elaborar teorías sobre la política cubana.

Hay una cuestión importante:

Obama pronunció un discurso en el que utiliza las palabras más almibaradas para expresar: “Es hora ya de olvidarnos del pasado, dejemos el pasado, miremos el futuro, mirémoslo juntos, un futuro de esperanza. Y no va a ser fácil, va a haber retos, y a esos vamos a darle tiempo; pero mi estadía aquí me da más esperanzas de lo que podemos hacer juntos como amigos, como familia, como vecinos, juntos”.

Se supone que cada uno de nosotros corría el riesgo de un infarto al escuchar estas palabras del Presidente de Estados Unidos. Tras un bloqueo despiadado que ha durado ya casi 60 años, ¿y los que han muerto en los ataques mercenarios a barcos y puertos cubanos, un avión de línea repleto de pasajeros hecho estallar en pleno vuelo, invasiones mercenarias, múltiples actos de violencia y de fuerza?

Nadie se haga la ilusión de que el pueblo de este noble y abnegado país renunciará a la gloria y los derechos, y a la riqueza espiritual que ha ganado con el desarrollo de la educación, la ciencia y la cultura.

Advierto además que somos capaces de producir los alimentos y las riquezas materiales que necesitamos con el esfuerzo y la inteligencia de nuestro pueblo. No necesitamos que el imperio nos regale nada. Nuestros esfuerzos serán legales y pacíficos, porque es nuestro compromiso con la paz y la fraternidad de todos los seres humanos que vivimos en este planeta.

http://www.granma.cu/file/img/2016/03/medium/f0056865.jpg

Leave it to CPUSA to turn the issue into support for the Democratic Party and by extension the bloody-handed harpy Hilary Clinton.


.....

Whether the potential benefits opened up by this breakthrough can be realized depends entirely on the outcome of the elections on November 8.

Should any of the Republican candidates win the presidency, there is a high likelihood that the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba would be stopped or reversed.

<snip>

Therefore, it is also essential that the GOP be defeated in the Senate and House elections wherever possible. While we rightly pay attention to the very dramatic presidential election, we must also be ready to pitch in at the Congressional level, and create a Congress that will cooperate with the rapprochement that Presidents Obama and Castro have initiated.

more.....

http://www.solidnet.org/usa-communist-party-usa/cp-usa-obama-in-cuba-an-historic-opportunity-en

Shameful & nauseating. As though any of the ruling class or their toadies regard Cuba and Cubans as anything other than targets of their relentless exploitation. They will whore themselves for a promise.

What the Western Left Misses About Cuba

By Carlos Martinez and Prof. Tim Anderson
Global Research, March 30, 2016

The recent changes in Cuba are misunderstood by many western left commentators who, like other western pundits, are absorbed in the logic of western capital and pay little regard to Cuba’s history of resistance.

So we see alarm bells ringing over ‘the end of the Revolution’, because a flood of US tourists and investors are arriving in the island. This will corrupt and destroy Cuban socialism, they claim. Some even posit a ‘split’ between Fidel and Raúl Castro. After all, Raúl was head of government when relations with the US began to be normalised, and now Fidel has written critically on the Obama visit – ‘denounced’ it, as was misreported by much of the US media.

Clearly, the change in US policy is not a marker of some sort of new-found affection for Cuban socialism on the part of Washington; rather, it is a recognition that the strategy of sanctions and isolation has been utterly unsuccessful in its bid to starve the Cuban masses into counter-revolution. As Barack Obama put it at the start of the normalisation process in late 2014: “These 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked. It’s time for a new approach”. The ‘Plan B’, to bury Cuba in consumer envy and ‘American freedom’, has always been around.

US regime change by ‘isolation’ has been an abysmal failure, just like the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961; the string of assassination attempts on the Cuban leadership; the sponsorship of terrorist groups; and the pumping of anti-communist propaganda about and into the island. Now the western media misreports the US abandoning a blockade policy as Cuba ‘opening up’ to the world.

In fact, it was Cuba’s relentless diplomacy at the UN and its 2013 presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC: the 33 nation, 600 million person bloc which excludes the US and Canada), that catalysed Obama’s December 2014 shift. He found the tables had been turned; the US was now isolated in the Americas.

US moves toward normalisation and dismantling the economic blockade represent, above all, a historic victory for Cuba. The failure of the policy of isolation is a tribute to the resilience, heroism and creativity of the Cuban people, combined with their determined and astute political leadership.

Remember, this was a unilateral concession by Washington. Cuba did not change its internal policies. There is no change in Cuba’s 1995 Foreign Investment Law, created to facilitate joint ventures. Cuba’s more recent economic reforms were driven by internal need, and began several years before the recent US policy change. The US wants some quid pro quo, but Cuba does not see ‘normalisation’ that way.

The position expressed by Fidel many decades ago and maintained by Raul today is simply this: the blockade must go. We have to live with our neighbours and some form of co-existence based on international law is both desirable and necessary. Many western leftists have not understood this.

It’s a truism to say that imperialism never gives up its hostility to any socialist, progressive or independent country. There is an intractable conflict between an imperial power and any independent state. Cuban historians say this precedes the Revolution and that Washington has had its ‘annexationist’ eyes on Cuba for two centuries.

Despite this, Cuba never shut the door to relations with the US. It was Washington which imposed threats, sanctions, embargoes, destabilisation and aggression. Cuba owes the US nothing for abandoning these aggressions. Political normalisation and an end to the blockade (not to mention freedom for the Cuban Five) have been key demands of Cuba and its supporters for decades. It is foolish not to recognize the importance of this breakthrough.

Certainly, important questions remain: how will normalisation help the US to engage in counter-revolutionary activities? What will be the cultural impact? What controls must be maintained on foreign investors? These things are well known to a Cuban leadership which has been dealing with them for many years.

Nevertheless, Cuba is in need of capital, technology and management techniques from the more developed countries. For a relatively poor country with limited natural resources, the blockade makes meaningful economic development exceedingly difficult; it creates serious shortages of medicine, foodstuffs, raw materials, energy, industrial materials; it is a massive barrier to accessing modern technology and foreign capital. It also makes it difficult to develop foreign markets for Cuban produce, which in turn limits local industry (such as pharmaceuticals) and foreign exchange. Ending the blockade has always been a key Cuban objective. The country has never wanted isolation.

Havana is well placed to rise to the new challenges that ‘normalisation’ will bring. Its excellent relationships with Venezuela, Brazil, China and Russia help ensure that the US will not be able to dominate Cuba’s system of controlled, joint-venture foreign investment. Its revolutionary leadership is experienced, principled, honest, vigilant, and with deep roots among the masses. They are alert to US plans. As Fidel says in his recent commentary:

“Nobody should be under the illusion that the people of this noble and selfless country will surrender their rights and spiritual wealth that they have won with the development of education, science and culture.”

Cuba will survive the dangers of normalisation, using the same strengths with which it has been able to survive everything else its northern neighbour has thrown at it over the last 57 years. Normalisation with the US, far from capitulation, is a great victory. Cuba is not giving up a single principle. It is a testament to the endurance and heroism of the Cuban people. ¡Que viva Cuba!

http://www.globalresearch.ca/what-the-western-left-misses-about-cuba/5517493

Monroe Doctrine Ghosts: Why Washington’s Soft Power Does Not Work in Cuba

Cuban President Raul Castro, right, lifts up the arm of President Barack Obama at the conclusion of their joint news conference at the Palace of the Revolution, Monday, March 21, 2016, in Havana, Cuba

http://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/103687/26/1036872658.jpg
© AP Photo/ Ramon Espinosa

Although Washington currently “courts” Cuba, it is clear to Havana that the US’ intention is yet another Bay of Pigs invasion with a smile, Haitian-born journalist Dady Chery notes, commenting on US President Obama’s historic visit to Cuba.

Havana has had enough experience with the Monroe Doctrine to know that Washington’s goal will always be to gain the upper hand over Cuban policies and turn the country into yet another subservient state, Dady Chery, a Haitian-born journalist, author and scientist writes in her article for News Junkie Post.

“Even as the US courts Cuba, the US’ intention is clearly a Bay of Pigs invasion with a smile. The Cuban Revolution has enormous symbolic importance for people throughout the world who are fighting US domination, and the undoing of this revolution would be a major psychological blow,” Chery underscores.

http://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/103669/40/1036694048.jpg
© REUTERS/ Carlos Barria

“The US is already hinting that it wants popular elections that it can manipulate. In a March 22 speech, the US president stressed that ‘Cuba has a one-party system, [but] the United States is a multi-party democracy.’ This is quite laughable, given the subservience of both US parties to the same business concerns, and the charade that currently passes for an election in the US,” she notes.Barack Obama‘s historic visit to Cuba turned the spotlight on obstacles and hurdles in the way of a US-Cuban thaw. The visit was nothing of a “triumphant march.” Havana clearly signaled that it is not going to “surrender” to global hegemon.

During the meeting with Obama, Cuban President Raul Castro emphasized that Washington should abandon its base at Guantanamo and lift the embargo on Cuba.

http://cdn4.img.sputniknews.com/images/103702/65/1037026550.jpg
© Photo: Youtube/locopedro59’s channel
Che Guevara and Fidel Castro

Castro added that there are “profound differences that will not disappear over our political model, democracy, human rights, social justice, international relations, peace and stability.”

While Havana is ready to discuss opening Cuban markets to the US, it wants equal access to the US market, Chery notes.

“Currently, Cuba holds more than 30 patents in the area of biotechnology, which is its main export. It manufactures more than 800 products for the health needs of Cubans, for whom it provides universal medical coverage. Cuba would like to sell its biotech products in the US and conduct the requisite clinical trials of Cuban products with US patients,” she underscores.

The journalist calls attention to the fact that despite the US sanctions, Cuba has become largely self-sufficient over the past decades.

“Although Cuba has complained for decades about the harm from the embargo, it is no longer a country without its own toilet paper or medications, but one that has painfully built its own economy,” Chery points out.

http://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/103669/42/1036694223.jpg
Back dropped by a monument depicting Cuba's revolutionary hero Ernesto Che Guevara, U.S. President Barack Obama, Vice-President of Cuba's State Council Salvador Valdes Mesa, right, and other members of the U.S. delegation stand during a ceremony at the Jose Marti Monument in Havana, Cuba, Monday March 21, 2016 © AP Photo/ Dennis Rivera

Incredible as it may seem, Cuba has developed its own software products, including computer games, cell-phone platforms, and specialized software for the health sector.The country is also inclined to expand its tourism business.

Havana is ready to open its doors to Washington but only if the latter would treat Cuba as an equal partner, not yet another vassal state.

“The new wave of colonists wants to be in place now because they think that their work to undermine the Cuban Revolution will become easier after Cuba’s great hero Fidel Castro dies,” Chery notes, adding that US policymakers underestimate the importance of independence and sovereignty Cuba has gained through hardships and sacrifices.

“As ever, the Cuban revolution thrives while under attack; one can only hope that it will never imagine it is not,” the journalist concludes.

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/monroe-doctrine-ghosts-why-washingtons-soft-power-does-not-work-in-cuba/

Must be interesting over in Houston. The contradictions, obvious and implied, are great, huge. Good coverage on Cuba without a trace of irony, while the party at large(and who is to say where the rank and file stand?) tails the bloody, treacherous Democrats.

Why undermine a radical regime the "ole-fashioned" way by cutting them off from your orbit, when you could colonize them - with the help of some local Quislings to act as your stooges, naturally - and extract profits and resources.....hmm, that sounds eerily familiar.

Eat your heart out, William McKinley.

http://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/william-mckinley-cartoon-granger.jpg

Here. They. Come.

********************************************************

The woman trying to change Cuba's cultural landscape – and stay out of jail
Tania Bruguera raised more than $100,000 to open the Institute of Art Activism in Havana, where Pussy Riot are the first artists-in-residence


Tania Bruguera: ‘A one day performance doesn’t change anything – I want to do it all the time’ Photograph: Tim Knox for the Guardian

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d7b9c717abf5f2e0009eed82a3ade3304c8cca53/0_144_4500_2700/master/4500.jpg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&
Hannah Ellis-Petersen
Sunday 10 April 2016 10.09 EDT Last modified on Sunday 10 April 2016 17.00 EDT

In the past decade, few have been more of a thorn in the side of the Cuban government than Tania Bruguera. The Havana-born artist’s staging of provocative works condemning repression and championing freedom of expression in her troubled home country has repeatedly landed her in jail – including as recently as last year; in custody she has been the subject of both physical and psychological interrogation at the hands of the Cuban authorities.

But nothing, it seems, can keep Bruguera down. She is about to embark on her most politically agitative project yet – one which she hopes will change the cultural landscape of Cuba for ever.

Following an online fundraising campaign that raised more than $100,000 (£70,000), the artist is to open the Institute of Art Activism in Havana, the first “safe haven for freedom of expression” in Cuba. From September, the first artists-in-residence will be the Russian feminist punk collective Pussy Riot, who are no strangers to using art as a way to challenge government censorship.

With Cuba opening up to the world through restored diplomatic relations with the US and welcoming foreign corporations into the country, Bruguera said it was essential that Cubans had a place they could freely deliberate over the direction their country was heading.

“This is the moment of change in Cuba, when we have a moment as activists and artists in to challenge what is being proposed for our country,” she told the Guardian. “I do believe in the power of art to change society but I know this cannot be done alone, and it takes a long time. It is now or never, and that goes beyond my personal safety, my personal quality of life.”

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/772091216de81d84985eadfe1a1860643739c593/0_293_5454_3273/master/5454.jpg?w=620&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&
Pussy Riot’s video for the song Chaika. The Russian collective will be the first artists-in-residence at the institute. Photograph: Denis Sinyakov/AP

For security reasons Bruguera would not confirm any of the programme, but she said the projects would bring together art and politics to engage and provoke a Cuban audience who had become conditioned into political apathy – and self censorship – by 57 years of cultural and political repression. In practical terms, she also wants the institute to generate jobs and help eliminate systemic political violence.

Pussy Riot said they were not going to the institute to have their own voices heard, but “to see if we can assist others in making theirs heard”.


The Guardian Books Podcast Russian poetry and poison with Luke Harding and Pussy Riot - books podcast
Guardian journalist Luke Harding and filmmaker Peter Pomerantsev discuss the assassination of Aleksander Litvinenko, and Masha Aloykhina of Pussy Riot shares the poetry that helped her survive prison
Listen
“Artists around the world are increasingly waking up to their potentialities in terms influencing social change, and power centres can often be intimidated by that – both Tania and we have experienced what that looks like,” the group said.

The idea to open a permanent art institute in Cuba’s capital first came to Bruguera as she was staging a political artwork in her home in Havana in 2015, where she encouraged people from her neighbourhood to read pages from Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism – a book that spoke directly to Cuba’s own repressive regime.

“My neighbours were calling me crazy because the book was so clearly so critical of the Cuban government, but that moment I saw that they understood. I knew then that this was exactly what I should be doing in a sustainable and long term way. A one day performance doesn’t change anything – I want to do it all the time,” said Bruguera.

Bruguera’s staging of a collective reading of Hannah Arendt’s book The Origins of Totalitarianism. Photograph: Instituto de Artivismo Hannah Arendt
Yet Bruguera acknowledges it will not be an easy opening an institute in direct opposition to the government’s own agenda. The Cuban authorities retain strict control over the cultural landscape, banning all art and film that is “detrimental” to the image of Cuba. In the case of Bruguera, and Cuban graffiti artist El Sexto, breaking these cultural laws leads directly to prison. Obama’s first visit to the country in March prompted the arrest of about 60 pro-democracy protesters, many of whom were artists and musicians.

Bruguera said a smear campaign against her had already begun: days after she launched the online fundraiser an anonymous letter was sent to Havana’s artistic community that cast doubt on her motivations for the project.

The artist says she expects such intimidation tactics are “just the beginning.”

However, Bruguera believes the biggest challenge is to convince Cubans from all walks of life – not just artists and intellectuals – to come through the doors of the institute without fear of retribution from government or police.

She hopes she will be able to convince one person in particular: “I would like my interrogator to come to the institute, she will be welcome,” said Bruguera. “But as soon as she steps inside the institute, she is not entering as a repressor or an agent of the government or as an interrogator – she enters as a Cuban, and, just like us all, will have to respect the institute’s rules of respect, transparency and equality.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/10/the-woman-trying-to-change-cubas-cultural-landscape-and-stay-out-of-jail-tania-bruguera-pussy-riot

Why don't she just move to Miami?

There is, and will be, a single Party

With First Secretary Raúl Castro in attendance, another plenary session of the 7th Congress was held today, April 18, with Miguel Diaz-Canel presenting a resolution to approve the Central Report, approved unanimously

Author: Arlin Alberty Loforte | informacion@granma.cu
april 18, 2016 16:04:27

http://en.granma.cu/file/img/2016/04/medium/f0011691.jpg
Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, member of the Party Political Bureau today introduced a resolution to approve the Central Report, which was presented on Saturday, noting that the document is an expression of the historical continuity of the Revolution and Fidel’s teachings. The document critically and objectively reviews the work of the past five years, outlines the challenges to be faced, and expresses confidence in the future of a prosperous, sustainable socialism in Cuba, without sacrificing the nation’s sovereignty or the people’s wellbeing, he said.

He reiterated that there is, and will be, a single Party, that of Martí, Baliño, Mella and Fidel, to guarantee the unity of all Cubans, noting that, as expressed in the resolution, the exchange of opinions among members and the people is also a fundamental task of the Party.

Diaz-Canel said delegates agree that the struggle against ideological subversion, the formation of values, and attention to youth and children, as stated in the Central Report, are priorities.

The resolution on the Central Report was approved unanimously.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2016-04-18/there-is-and-will-be-a-single-party

Playa Giron: forbidden to forget
Tuesday, April 19, 2016, 7:02 | Make a comment


Playa Giron: forbidden to forget

http://www.tiempo21.cu/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/playa_giron.jpg
The victory at Playa Giron was the first major propinada defeat imperialism in Latin America.

On April they bring to mind the bitter moments when the attacks of the mercenary aviation occurred at Cuban airports of Ciudad Libertad, San Antonio de los Baños and Santiago de Cuba, a prelude to the mercenary invasion that occurred two days later .

The main objective of the attack on the airfields, the April 15, 1961, was to destroy ground the modest Cuban air force to prevent it from being used when the invasion occurred.

Inexperienced Cuban artillery grew to the threat posed to Cuba that aggression and the enemy managed to shoot down a device, in which two crew members died; another was hit by rebel artillery and was forced to land in Key West, and a third was forced to make an emergency landing in Grand Cayman Island.

Cuban troops suffered seven dead and 53 wounded. One of the fallen, the young fighter Eduardo Garcia Delgado, said the decision to fight the revolutionary people to write with his own blood on the wall next to it fell, the name of Fidel.

The next day, April 16, at the farewell of mourning for the victims and before an immense concentration of armed militants, the Commander in Chief Fidel Castro proclaimed the socialist character of the Revolution and declared a state of alert for an imminent invasion actually began at dawn on the 17th.

Children young soldiers almost some- militants, workers, joined Fidel to reject and destroy the enemy, mostly former military and henchmen of Fulgencio Batista murderer, landowners, landlords and merchants, industrial magnates, among other species, which sought restore the oligarchy in the country and recover their property.

The rapid response of the revolutionary command and unity of the people to defeat the mercenaries in less than 72 hours, with a balance for them 89 dead, 250 wounded and 197 thousand prisoners. Cuba suffered hundreds of injuries and 157 deaths.

Today we remember those young people with admiration and images of gestures of love and boundless, as the case of Sofiel Riverón Lopez, who married on April 15 and left the bride to join the police battalion occur shortly after he left for Girón. The explosion of a mortar troncharía 20 years Sofiel and love for his young wife.

Or Carini Rafael Angel Millan, whom everyone called the young Italian or Garibaldi and did not obey the order dismounting leading soldiers to defend the beloved land.

"I'll fight as my colleagues are doing ..." he said excitedly before leaving. On the morning of 19, a 50 caliber bullet shattered his stomach. Carini was only 20 years.

Would be countless examples of courage and patriotism Foolproof revolutionary fighters: young people with a whole life ahead, parents, children, siblings, friends who should not die in the fullness of a beautiful existence and gave their lives for the sake of a ideal.

But the people will not forget, never forget, despite Obama's call to "forget the past and look to the future," as if you could erase the memory of the blood spilled to defend the country.

The Bay of Pigs invasion was part of Operation Pluto CIA orchestrated in the United States, supported by their government and represented the first great defeat of Yankee imperialism in Latin America. It is the story that US President Barack Obama wants to erase.

Can anyone imagine that so betray our dead?

http://www.tiempo21.cu/2016/04/19/victoria-de-playa-giron-prohibido-olvidar/

Google Translator

I stayed in one of these cabanas. The lobby of the place had a huge mural of Fidel, Che and Sherman tank. Superimposed were various endemic Cuban critters, in keeping with the ecotourist thing. https://www.kayak.com/rimg/kimg/bb/74/16b08ac3-54c91c62.jpg?crop=true&height=242&width=509

Fidel Castro's emotional speech at the closing of VII Congress - "The Cuban People will Win"



http://youtu.be/WpAG5HLb4pQ
VIDEO: Parts of Fidel Castro's speech at the VII Congress of PCC
(in Spanish)

Source: Cuban News Agency.

We should tell our brothers in Latin America and the world that the Cuban people will win, asserted the historic leader of the Revolution, Fidel Castro, in a special address at the closing ceremony of the 7th Congress of the Cuban Communist Party, in session for four days at Havana’s Convention Center.


“I congratulate you all and firstly comrade Raul Castro for his wonderful effort,” pointed out Fidel, whose presence in the plenary session aroused prolonged applause from the nearly one thousand delegates and 280 guests present.
He considered that delegates chosen by the people to whom it delegated its authority “it’s the greatest honor they have received in life; added to this is the privilege of being revolutionaries.”
Why did I become a socialist? More clearly, why did I become a Communist?, he asked, and explained how he acquired his ideology, without a private tutor to help him in the study of Marxism-Leninism, and stressed that another 70 years should not elapse for an event like the Russian revolution to occur, for humanity to have another example of a great social revolution that represented a huge step in the fight against colonialism and its inseparable companion, imperialism.

However, he warned that the greatest danger now hovering over Earth derives from the destructive power of modern weaponry, because it could undermine peace in the world and make it impossible for human life on the surface of the earth to exist.
Future generations will know -he reflected- much more than us, but first they will have to solve a big problem: how to feed the billions of human beings whose realities collide against the limits of the natural resources they need.
“Let’s hope many humans worry about these realities and don’t continue like in the times of Adam and Eve, eating forbidden apples,” he commented, and expressed his concern about who will feed people without technology, or rain, or reservoirs or underground deposits. We must constantly insist on these issues, he stressed.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ig66_Unu37Y/VxayyhG3LBI/AAAAAAAAAmM/DmfDR3p3ywMcxe_es2GRkiZjHDv3NpUkwCLcB/s320/Comandante%2BFidel%2BVII%2BCongress%2BPCC.jpg
The historic leader of the Revolution recalled that soon he will turn 90 and that “everyone will eventually die, but the ideas of Cuban communists will prevail, as proof that on this planet, if you work with fervor and dignity, the material and cultural goods that humans need can be produced, and we must fight relentlessly to obtain them. ”
“We will set out and will improve what should be improved, with utmost loyalty and united force, like Marti, Maceo and Gomez, in unstoppable march,” he concluded.

Αναρτήθηκε από In Defense of Communism

http://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2016/04/fidel-castros-emotional-speech-at.html

Fidel Castro: Absolved by History!

Two days ago, compañero Fidel Castro made a rare appearance at the closing of the VII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. A great revolutionary, an incredible human being, Fidel, deserves the full respect of every communist, of everyone who believes in the ideals of Marxism-Leninism.

Fidel Castro: Absolved by History!*
By Nikos Mottas.

"Socialism is and will continue being the hope, the only hope, the only way for the People, the oppressed ones, the exploited ones, the looted ones. Socialism is the only choice!" - Fidel Castro Ruz.

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It was 26th of July 1953 when a group of around 160 rebels, under the leadership of 26 years-old lawyer Fidel Castro, tried an armed attack on the Moncada barracks, at Santiago de Cuba. The aim was to give a first message of resistance against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. The attack was not successful. Sixty-one rebels were killed while the rest -- including Castro -- were captured and imprisoned by the regime's authorities. However, the 26th of July 1953 remained in Cuban history as the day when the trigger of the following revolution was pulled. The revolutionary 'Movement of the 26thof July' (Movimiento 26 de Julio) took it's name from that day and a few years later led the army of Fidel, Che, Raul and Camilo to the thriumph against the corrupted, pro-imperialist regime of Batista.

This years anniversary of the 26th of July 1953 attack gives the opportunity of writing some thoughts, as well as evidence, regarding the revolution that took place at the island of Jose Marti. Especially in today's historical circumstances and given the targeted distortions and defamations which are unleashed against Cuba and Cuban people.

Historically, very few revolutions have been so deliberately distorted and misinterpreted as the 1959 Cuban Revolution has. The multiple enemies of Revolution and Castroism have invented hundreds of arguments in order to blemish the political, social and cultural values which, 53 year now, have been established in the island. That consists an effort which started just after the overthrow of the corrupted, and supported by Washington, dictatorship of Batista on January 1959. The confiscation of the property held by the monopolies and the Cuban bourgeoise, the agrarian reform and the socialization of the means of production which took place in the first half of the 1960s were an unexpected, big victory for the working class internationally.

Having the support of the Soviet Union, the government of Fidel managed to establish, for at least three consecutive decades, a functional economic system, upgrading significantly on the same time the sectors of Health and Education and, furthermore, eliminating the illiteration rates existing in the pro-revolutionary period. Of course, the accomplishments of the Revolution were -- and continue to be -- a "thorn in the eye" of the capitalist superpower as well as of the various anti-communists, including conservative, neoliberal, social-democrats, opportunists etc.

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As it is known, during the period of Batista's dictatorship, Cuba was a huge plant of sugar production and casino-tourism, mainly for upper-class americans. The authority established by the "July 26th Movement" not only sweeped the privileges of the greedy cuban bourgeoise but also cut the "umbilical cord" of the country's financial oligarchy with US imperialism. That had as a result the change of power in a class level, with the emergence of the country's daily people (workers, farmers, youth) as protagonists in the social reality of Cuba.

During the Revolution's first five years the consumption of meat and textile was doubled (the products became accessible to all the citizens), the housing prices were rapidly decreased, the abandoned luxurious mansions of those who left Cuba became home of about 80,000 students from the rural areas and the expensive cars of the self-exiled counter-revolutionaries were given to former servants in order to start working as taxi drivers.

In order to comment on the achievements of the Cuban Revolution we must see the conditions existed before 1959. The reality is that before the takeover of Havana by the rebel forces, the island was no more than a small colony of Washington. Almost all products were imported from the United States as an exchange for the opening of the US market to the sugar production. The "indigenous" population had to obtain the basic goods (including the meat market) from the external (imported) sources indicated by the colonial regime.

The notorious United Fruit Co, the US-based monopoly of fruit trade, was a powerful company which was bringing huge profits to it's owners by exploting the land of Cuban people. All -- without exceptions -- the suppliers of electricity and telephone were companies based in the United States, as well as the companies providing pharmaceutical material, clothing, automobiles and transportation (buses, ships, aircrafts). Cuban workers were forced to live a life by consuming imported american products which were provided in higher prices than in the US, being in fact slaves of a, tied by imperialism, oligarchy.

Today, 53 years after the Revolution, the (quality) level of public sectors including Health, Education and Housing is much higher than in many capitalist countries in Latin America. The literacy rate is almost 98%, education is accessible to all citizens without exceptions while the Cuban national health system (free for all) is justifiably regarded one of the best in the world. Some indicative data speak by themselves:
In 2007, the average life expectancy rate in Cuba was 78.26 years, having increasing trend. For the same year, the rate in the US was 77.99 years. (World Bank).
In 2010, infant mortality rate in the island was 4.7 for ever 1000 births, less than any country in the whole continent, including the US.
During the last years, 1,390,000 patients from 32 countries had their vision improved or fully restored in 59 ophalmology centers operating under the support of the Cuban and Venezuelan governments.
The centralized, state control of economy has let Cuba to constantly develop the national health system, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the hardening of the US economic blockade. From 1990 to 2003, the number of doctors in Cuba increased by 76%, of dentists by 46% and nurses by 16%. During the same period, the population coverage of the social institution of "family doctor" was increased by 52.2%, touching a rate of 99.2% in 2003.
In November 2008, Cuba had more than 70,000 doctors. From them, approximately 17,600 were sent to 75 different countries in order to offer their services there. In 27 countries (including African countries such as Ghana, Botswana, Namimbia etc.) Cuba has supplied medical personnel which offers high quality services. In Timor Leste, for example, it is estimated that between 2003 and 2008, the Cuban medical mission saved 11,400 people contributing significantly to the fall of birth mortality rate.
The high solidarity feeling among Cuban people is undoubted. The first Cuban medical team was sent in 1960 to the then devastated by an earthquake Chile. From 1960 to 1980 the Cuban government immediately sent medical aid to 16 countries which had been facing natural disasters or conflicts. On August 2005, after the disastrous hurricane Katrina in the United States, the Castro government volunteered to sent a team of doctors to the state of Louisianna. The proposal was turned down by the Bush administration. During the same year, on October 2005, Cuba sent the largest number of specialized medical personnel (2,500 men and women) to Pakistan, shortly after the earthquake. Moreover, the Cuban government offered 1,000 scholarships to Pakistani students from poor families who desired to study medicine.
Furthermore...
The 99.8% of Cubans over the age of 15 know how to read and write (UNESCO). That consists the highest rate of literacy in Latin America and one of the highest internationally.
During 2010, one million young Cubans were graduated from the country's universities.
The role of woman in society is upgraded. Fourty-three percent (43%) of the seats at the country's parliament are held by females, while 65% of the labor force in technical sectors are women.
Despite the relatively small size of the country (11 million), Cuba is a significant power in sports. For example, in the Pan-American Games of 2011 held in Mexico, the country was terminated second with 58 golden medals.
On the above we should add the fact that any citizen, indifferently of sex, race or ethnicity, can find a job, without facing the terrible situation of unemployment that bedevils many "developed" capitalist countries of the West.

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Undoubtely, nobody can say that the Revolution solved all the problems. There are existing problems which constantly changing and need new and more sophisticated solutions. It is also clear that by the standards of Cuba's northern neighbour (where approximately 50 million people have no social security), Fidel's country is indeed a relatively poor place. But here, we should ask the following: Under what conditions does Cuba and Cuban people try to live and develop for more than four decades?

The answer is straightforward. From the establishment of the Revolution and until today, the Cuban people are facing a multi-dimensional enmity which aims in the collapse of this small, but resistant, socialist nation, just a few miles south of Florida. The inhuman embargo (economic blockade) that has been imposed by the US government consisted -- and consists -- the forefront of a multi-dimensional, unethical war that Imperialism has declared to Castro's government. It is estimated that, in economic terms, 8 hours of economic blockade equals with 140 school buildings' renovations. Three days of blockade equals with 100 tones of pharmaceutical material.

The war against the Castro government and the Cuban people became more relentless after the Soviet Union's collapse in the beginning of 1990s. Someone could expect the gradual dissolution of socialism in the island. However, Cuba managed not only to stay firm, but also to progress under especially adverse circumstances. That consists the unambiguous and undoubted vindication of Fidel Castro. A leader who History herself (to which he pleaded in his famous speech) absolved many times in the past: When the revolutionary army of the July 26th Movement was thriumphantly entering Havana thus ousting Batista from the government. When the Cuban army fought successfully against the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion. When the revolutionary spirit of this small and proud country became a source of inspiration for class and independence-oriented movement of other nations (in Vietnam, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Angola, Algeria).

No matter what the fate of Socialism will be in Cuba after Fidel's biological death, one thing is sure: Fidel Castro has been undeniably and irreversibly absolved by History, as he himself had predicted. Nobody can know how the process would be if the attack on the Moncada Barracks, on the eve of the 26th July 1953, had never happened. The fact is that this action was enough in order to pull the triger of revolution. A Revolution which has factual evidence of success and which inspired, inspire and will continue to inspire all those who are "realists and ask for the impossible".

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Gracias, Fidel! Thank you for the Cuban Revolution.
Thank you for making us believe in a better world.
Thank you, most of all, for the Hope.

* This is an updated, translated version of an article written on July 2012, published in Greek blog "Sierra Maestra".

http://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2016/04/fidel-castro-absolved-by-history.html

The Cuban People Will Overcome
by FIDEL CASTRO


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It constitutes a superhuman effort to lead any people in times of crisis. Without them, the changes would be impossible. In a meeting such as this, which brings together more than a thousand representatives chosen by the revolutionary people themselves, who delegated their authority to them, for all it represents the greatest honor they have received in their lives, to which is added the privilege of being a revolutionary which is the product of our own consciousness

Why did I become a socialist, or more plainly, why did I become a communist? That word that expresses the most distorted and maligned concept in history by those who have the privilege of exploiting the poor, dispossessed ever since they were deprived of all the material wealth that work, talent and human energy provide. Since when does man live in this dilemma, throughout time without limit. I know you do not need this explanation but perhaps some listeners do.

I speak simply so it is better understood that I am not ignorant, extremist, or blind, nor did I acquire my ideology of my own accord studying economics.

I did not have a tutor when I was a law and political sciences student, subjects in which they have a great influence. Of course then I was around 20 years old and was fond of sports and mountain climbing. Without a tutor to help me in the study of Marxism-Leninism; I was no more than a theorist and, of course, had total confidence in the Soviet Union. Lenin’s work violated after 70 years of Revolution. What a history lesson! It can be affirmed that it should not take another 70 years before another event like the Russian Revolution occurs, in order that humanity have another example of a magnificent social revolution that marked a huge step in the struggle against colonialism and its inseparable companion, imperialism.

Perhaps, however, the greatest danger hanging over the earth today derives from the destructive power of modern weaponry which could undermine the peace of the planet and make human life on earth’s surface impossible.

The species would disappear like the dinosaurs disappeared, perhaps there will be time for new forms of intelligent life or maybe the sun’s heat will grow until it melts all the planets of the solar system and its satellites, as a large number of scientists recognize. If the theories of several of them are true, which we laypeople are not unaware of, the practical man must learn more and adapt to reality. If the species survives a much longer space of time the future generations will know much more than we do, but first they will have to solve a huge problem. How to feed the billions of human beings whose realities are inevitably at odds with the limited drinking water and natural resources they need?

Some or perhaps many of you are wondering where are the politics in this speech. Believe me I am sad to say it, but the politics are here in these moderate words. If only numerous human beings would concern ourselves with these realities and not continue as in the times of Adam and Eve eating forbidden apples. Who will feed the thirsty people of Africa with no technology at their disposal, no rain, no reservoirs, no more underground aquifers than those covered by sands? We will see what the governments, which almost all signed the climate commitments, say.

We must constantly hammer away at these issues and I do not want to elaborate beyond the essentials.

I shall soon turn 90, such an idea would never have occurred to me and it was never the result of an effort, it was sheer chance. I will soon be like everyone else. We all reach our turn, but the ideas of the Cuban communists will remain as proof that on this planet, working with fervor and dignity, can produce the material and cultural wealth that humans need, and we must fight relentlessly to obtain these. To our brothers in Latin America and the world we must convey that the Cuban people will overcome.

This may be one of the last times that I speak in this room. I voted for all the candidates submitted for election by Congress and I appreciate the invitation and the honor of your listening to me. I congratulate you all, and firstly, compañero Raúl Castro for his magnificent effort.

We will set forth on the march forward and we will perfect what we should perfect, with the utmost loyalty and united force, just as Martí, Maceo and Gómez, in an unstoppable march.

Remarks by the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, during the closing of the 7th Party Congress

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/25/the-cuban-people-will-overcome/

Cuba recognize advances in social and environmental spheres

Cuba shows indicators of social and environmental development that make it stand out globally recognized Mirta Kaulard, resident coordinator of the United Nations on the island, in the national event for the World Environment Day

Author: Darelia Borrero Diaz | internet@granma.cu
June 5, 2016 23:06:23

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Sierra Maestra National Park, one of the natural beauties of the environmental heritage of the province of Granma. photo: Osbel Sabiel Silva Licea Photo: Osbel Sabiel Silva Licea

BAYAMO, Granma.-Cuba shows indicators of social and environmental development that make it stand out globally recognized Mirta Kaulard, resident coordinator of the United Nations on the island, in the national event for the World Environment Day, which took place this Sunday, in the province of Granma.

Kaulard, who is also resident representative of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Cuba, said that the country produces and markets leading biotechnology products, and 15% of the national territory has been declared protected area.

Likewise, the World Health Organization validated the elimination in the Isle of mother to child transmission of HIV and the country has proven an effective epidemiological surveillance to prevent the spread of dengue and zika, meant.

The system of Nations and UNDP, reiterated the commitment to accompany Cuba in its efforts to achieve sustainable development, he said.
America Santos, vice minister of Science, Technology and Environment, recalled that the Cuban government recognizes as a priority of its political adaptation to climate change.

The draft Plan for Economic and Social Development until 2030, analyzed in the 7th. Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, it has a strategic axis based on natural resources and the environment, he said.

In his speech the leader of Citma praised the province of Granma, worthy of the core activities for World Environment Day.

Among the main results supporting the selection of the province as the most comprehensive in the last stage of work stress the rehabilitation treatment systems waste, the sustainable management of its ten protected areas, and the eradication of pollution sources as said Iris Betancourt, delegate Citma in Granma.

At the ceremony, the National Environment Award to the hotel Brisas Guardalavaca, Holguin was granted; Center of Environmental Education, belonging to the Pedagogical University Enrique Jose Varona, Havana; and the Center for Studies of Applied Chemistry, the Marta Abreu Central University of Villa Clara, and the lawyer Roger Eduardo Rivero, principal investigator of the Department of Applied Meteorology, belonging to Camagüey Meteorological Center.

Also received recognition delegations Citma in Sancti Spiritus and Granma, by the successes of 2015 on environmental matters.

A special moment of the ceremony was the recognition granted government policy and direction of Granma Commander of the Revolution Guillermo Garcia Frias, Hero of the Republic of Cuba, for his brilliant actions in favor of environmental protection, and the territorial delegation Citma winning national acts in 2007 and 2016.

As an initiative, the territory handed over to America Santos, deputy minister of CITMA, two photo albums, which reflect the natural beauty and environmental heritage of this region, and which will be circulated indiscriminately, the leader of the Revolution Cuba's Fidel Castro on the occasion of his 90th birthday, and Elba Rosa Pérez, Minister Citma.

http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2016-06-05/reconocen-avances-de-cuba-en-esferas-social-y-ambiental-05-06-2016-23-06-23

Google Translator

Yankee capitalists stay home!

Hyatt Bass: Lessons from Cuba’s Incarceration Model
March 21, 2016
A conversation between Executive Director of the Correctional Association of New York, Soffiyah Elijah, and writer Hyatt Bass.

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Image from Flickr user Jeldu

Last summer I traveled to Cuba for the first time, strangely enough to learn about its prisons. I say strangely because while my preconceived notions of Cuban prisons were based mostly on Reinaldo Arenas’s powerful memoir Before Night Falls and the film adaptation directed by Julian Schnabel, which both paint a very grim picture of Arenas’s experience of incarceration in Cuba’s famous El Morro prison during the mid-1970s, the purpose of my trip to Havana was to learn about potential solutions to our own very broken criminal justice system in the US.

I went with a group composed mostly of New Yorkers working in the field of criminal justice reform and led by Soffiyah Elijah, executive director of the Correctional Association (CA) of New York. The only private organization in the state with unrestricted access to prisons, the CA makes routine inspections throughout New York, reports its findings and recommendations to the public, and advocates for a more humane criminal justice system.

In Havana, our group met with Cuban lawyers, supreme court and provincial judges, social workers, educators, and government officials in order to learn about the Cuban policies and practices regarding criminal trials, treatment of incarcerated people, juvenile justice, rehabilitation, and re-integration into society. Recently, Soffiyah and I discussed what we’d learned on our trip and what she has learned from studying the Cuban system over the past three decades.

—Hyatt Bass for Guernica Daily

Guernica: How did you originally learn about the Cuban criminal justice system and decide it was something you wanted to study?

Soffiyah Elijah: Back in the late 1980s, I took a trip to Cuba with the National Lawyers Guild. I had never had an interest in going to Cuba. But on that first trip I had an opportunity to visit a men’s prison, and I was really struck by everything that was so very different from my experiences as a criminal defense lawyer in the United States visiting clients in prison.

When we drove up to the facility, I kept looking for what I was used to here: high stone walls, lots of barbed wire, guard towers, guards with assault weapons. And I didn’t see any of that. We pulled up to a building that looked similar to a large elementary school, and when we entered the building, there was no metal detector, which was something else I wasn’t used to. And no one was checking my bag to look for weapons or contraband, and there was no sign-in book; none of the things that I was used to experiencing when I entered a prison in the United States.

And then our guide announced that we would have, say, maybe two or three hours at the facility, and we could take a tour with him but we were not restricted to staying on the guided tour. So I wandered off with a couple of other people from the Guild, and we just went around the prison and sat in people’s rooms on their bunk beds and talked with them and literally went wherever we wanted, and that was totally different from any experience that I have had in the United States. Even as the executive director of the Correctional Association now, with legislative authority to monitor prison conditions and go inside the facilities in New York, we don’t take unguided tours of any facility. It’s very scripted where we go, and we are always accompanied by prison staff for the entire visit.

You don’t have this demonization and stereotyping that we have here, where incarcerated people are so ostracized they’re like the untouchables.

The following year, I went to a women’s prison in Cuba, and they put on a cabaret. I remember sitting in this huge auditorium with hundreds of people, and there were prison staff, people from the community, and people who were incarcerated all on the stage performing together in costumes. Nobody was in a uniform except the superintendent of the facility.

So what got my brain racing was that those two experiences—the physical layout of the prisons, the fact nobody was in uniform, the intersection between the people from the community, the staff, and the people who are doing time—spoke to what I ultimately learned was a completely different view about people who have been convicted of crimes. You don’t have this demonization and stereotyping that we have here, where incarcerated people are so ostracized they’re like the untouchables.

I’ll be the last one to say that the two Cuban prisons I went to speak for all the prisons in the country. I couldn’t possibly say that. But I can say very clearly what I did see and experience. And I’m not suggesting the US system could be shifted to something like what I saw in those two prisons. That just seems so farfetched. But it definitely created a completely different atmosphere than what I’m used to.

Guernica: What are some of the practices that impress you most about the Cuban system?

Soffiyah Elijah: The Cuban approach to youth justice is far more in keeping with an understanding of human brain development and the need to treat youth differently from adults. Youth are placed in a boarding school type setting there. Scientific research has proven that the section of the human brain that is responsible for impulse control is the frontal lobe. This is the last portion of the brain to fully develop and it does not do so until the mid to late twenties. Most criminal behavior is the result of impulsive actions. Therefore, a rational and enlightened approach to youth justice must take into account the reduced criminal responsibility that should be attributed to young people.

Also, people are given the option to work while they’re incarcerated and to be paid the same amount that they would be paid if they had that job in the free world. And when they are being released, there is an effort to place them in a job analogous to what they were doing when they were inside. There is a work release program, too, that can significantly shorten your sentence.

Another thing that struck me was furloughs. They didn’t have minimum, medium, and maximum-security prisons. The distinction of security level was manifested in how often you got a furlough to go home for the weekend. So, a minimum-security person might get three furloughs a month. A maximum-security person only gets one furlough a month. And that was something very, very different to what I was used to here. We have different facilities for different security levels, and furloughs are not common throughout the US prison system.

We don’t value humans in the same way in the United States. We’re willing to put people on a conveyor belt in criminal court, off to prison, off to reentry, back to recidivism, back inside, without thinking about the long-term damage that we’re doing.

Guernica: I remember we were told that the incarcerated person could dress in civilian clothes and go home to visit his or her family with a guard also dressed in civilian clothing. Additionally, while someone is imprisoned, there is a social worker who regularly visits the family to make sure the spouse, parents, and/or children are doing okay in that person’s absence.

Soffiyah Elijah: A total support system. And in Cuba, no matter where your crime was committed, if you’re going to be incarcerated, you will be incarcerated in the province where you live to facilitate close family communication, which is something that’s totally foreign here.

Guernica: What do you think would be the big obstacles to doing some of these things in the US?

Soffiyah Elijah: In order to really understand why the system is just so fundamentally different, we have to take a giant step backwards to look at what is the funneling source. Prisons in the US are tied to a profit margin. And in Cuba, prisons are tied to, and the society is focused on, valuing the human being. So everything that they do, from the education to the fact that the healthcare system is free, to the entire approach of incarcerating someone, is tied to how do we make the most out of each individual, because the view is that the human is the most precious resource that their country has.

We don’t value humans in the same way in the United States. We’re willing to put people on a conveyor belt in criminal court, off to prison, off to reentry, back to recidivism, back inside, without thinking about the long-term damage that we’re doing, not only to that person but also to their family, to their community, an ultimately, to our society. Only now is the dialogue starting to shift a little bit to think about those things, and sadly, in the US, what’s driving people to start thinking differently about it is they’re focused on how much it costs financially. Now some might say, well, I mean, the Cubans are focused on that too. But they never went down that path of bankrupting the economy on locking people up. Their whole system is geared towards if someone’s going to be incarcerated, what’s the shortest amount of time necessary, and what are all the things that we need to package around that person to help that experience give them the stepping stones so that they never come back.

Guernica: When you talk about valuing the human being in Cuba, I felt that so strongly when I was there. But it’s hard to speak about when you return, because people just look at you like you’ve lost your mind. They say, “You really drank the Kool-Aid.”

Soffiyah Elijah: Yeah. Far too often, once I say that I’ve seen this work in Cuba, people turn off. And I can’t say that, so it’s almost like a taboo. But the whole society cannot be staged. Right? It’s a different culture, a different outlook on life. One of the things that I find really interesting in Cuba, no matter what part of the country you’re in, whether people are living very, very poorly, or a better level of existence, Sunday evening, on a hot evening, after dinner, you see loads and loads and loads of families walking, just taking a stroll—the children, the parents—peacefully, but that is an activity, and it’s just very loving and nurturing. And I don’t mean like the land of milk and honey. The people are struggling, but they’re enjoying each other’s company. And having a peaceful coexistence.

Guernica: I don’t want to imply that Cuba is a total paradise, and I think we all carried a healthy balance of skepticism and openness into all of our meetings in Cuba just as we would do in similar meetings here.

Soffiyah Elijah: The thing that is most important about Cuba is it gives an opportunity for people to just go and see for themselves. It’s not all right. It’s not all wrong. It’s not all left. It’s not all right. It’s a different society, and my hope is that the embargo will end and then the travel restrictions will be totally eliminated, so that Americans are free to go and see and learn and experience friendships like they could do anyplace else.

Guernica: Why do you think your request for our group to visit a prison in Cuba was denied?

Soffiyah Elijah: We were not an official delegation and we were not requesting an inspection. I never received a denial, although of course, we could claim that if we did not get a yes we were denied. That fails to recognize the sensitive nature of the request in the first place in light of the long historical allegations of human rights violations by the US against Cuba that escalated in the 1990s, a few years AFTER I’d visited Cuban prisons. My recent request to visit a Cuban prison came in the midst of historical political negotiations to normalize relations between Cuba and the US. This important contextual framework is imperative in understanding the full significance of our trip at this historical moment.

Guernica: Something that really made an impression on me while we were there was the contrast between what we were hearing in our meetings about the treatment of people in prison there and what I was hearing from you whenever we got back on the bus in terms of the horrible abuses you’ve witnessed in New York prisons. Could you talk about that?

Soffiyah Elijah: So many horrific things happen here. One stark contrast is the routine use of solitary confinement in our prisons. The use of solitary confinement in the US is so abusive that it shocks the conscience. In February 2016 Albert Woodfox was finally released from prison after serving forty-three years in solitary confinement! Contrast this with the fact that they don’t use solitary confinement at all in Cuba. Another contrast is that in Cuba, if you’re sentenced to the death penalty, you have an automatic right of appeal all the way up to the National Assembly to decide on whether or not that sentence is going to be imposed, and the last time it was imposed was in 2003. Also, in Cuba, if someone is charged with murder, the very first thing that happens is a complete psychosocial evaluation, because there is an assumption that if someone’s behavior is so aberrant that they engaged in murder, there must have been something psychologically wrong with them. As opposed to the assumptions that are made here. Nothing, nothing like that happens here.

Guernica: My understanding is that in New York you have an established network of formerly incarcerated people and currently incarcerated people who let you in on what’s really going on inside the prisons so that if you visit and they try to present things as better than they are, you know it.

Soffiyah Elijah: Correct. Some of those people work here at the Correctional Association, and then we have a network of coalition members and advisory board people.

Guernica: What about Cuba? How do you know what’s really going on inside those prisons?

Soffiyah Elijah: I ask my friends there who know people who have been incarcerated there, “So tell me, what do people say was their experience?”
“What’s the real deal?” “This is what I heard at this lecture.” “This is what I heard here.” You know? “What do you see the police doing?” “What are people describing happened to them when they were incarcerated?” And they’re not describing these human rights abuses that are being reported in the United States. Now, obviously I haven’t been to every prison in Cuba. I haven’t talked to every person who’s ever been incarcerated. But I know that Cuba’s crackdown on corruption and violation of their public trust is very serious. So, I think that contributes to why they don’t have a police brutality problem and they don’t have an abuse problem inside the prisons.

Guernica: The Correctional Association of New York’s role in inspecting New York prisons and publicly condemning the abuses you yourself have seen and heard about firsthand are crucial to making the American system more humane. How do you reconcile what you like about the Cuban criminal justice system with the fact that an NGO like the Correctional Association could not exist there?

Soffiyah Elijah: First, your question presumes that an NGO like the CA could not exist. I do not feel equipped to make that assertion. It also, more subtly, presumes that only a CA-like structure can accomplish its goals and pursue its mission in Cuba. In light of the fact that the political infrastructure is vastly different in Cuba and the United States, such a presumption may be flawed.

The Correctional Association was founded over 170 years ago by very wealthy people who wielded tremendous influence in New York politics. It was headed by a socially conscious judge, John Edmonds, who was troubled by the conditions the people he sentenced to prison were forced to endure. He was disturbed so much by these conditions that he rallied his friends to join him in doing something about it. Using their political influence, they succeeded in getting the New York legislature to bestow upon them the authority to inspect all prisons and jails and report their findings. They were not given funding by the lawmakers. However, due to their own wealth, they were able to operate without it.

There is only one other private independent organization similar to the CA in the United States, The Pennsylvania Prison Society. Unlike the CA, it uses its access to advocate on behalf of individuals and does not pursue systemic change. It was founded in 1787. Many activists in the prison reform movement across the country have noted that it would be impossible today to replicate the CA in other states due to political resistance by lawmakers and policy wonks.

So, would it be financially feasible to create and sustain a CA-like organization in Cuba? The CA is almost totally funded by private donors and foundations. Philanthropic organizations do not exist in Cuba. Cuba is a very poor country and its resources are focused on feeding, housing, educating and caring for the health of the people. Similarly, very wealthy individuals do not exist in Cuba. Yes, some people are enjoying a somewhat higher quality of life, but the vast amounts of wealth that we see in the US are not the norm in Cuba.

In one of our meetings in Havana, we asked if they shackle women during childbirth, and they looked at us like we were accusing them of some kind of barbarism. We explained with embarrassment that we were only asking if they engaged in the same practice that we have here.

The political feasibility question is undoubtedly what most people will presume is answered with a resounding no. However, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution are designed to build in opportunities for popular input by the people on a block-by-block basis and thereby facilitate a participatory governance structure. Despite their many successes, the Committees are mechanisms of the State and therefore are at least potentially less objective than an NGO like the CA could be. It may be difficult to determine whether or not the committees are sufficient to address the sorts of concerns that the CA has struggled to expose in the US.

Guernica: One of the things you yourself have been really instrumental in putting an end to in New York state is the practice of shackling women during childbirth and pregnancy. But I understand from the Correctional Association’s recent report on reproductive health that the majority of pregnant women are still being shackled in violation of the law.

Soffiyah Elijah: It’s true. It’s true.

Guernica: In one of our meetings in Havana, we asked if they shackle women during childbirth, and they looked at us like we were accusing them of some kind of barbarism. We explained with embarrassment that we were only asking if they engaged in the same practice that we have here.

Soffiyah Elijah: That’s a good point. Yeah. They couldn’t fathom how any society could think of shackling a woman when she was giving birth. Just being able to be in a society and hear how bizarre it is to them that we would shackle a woman while she’s giving birth, or while she’s pregnant at all—so, that kind of supports and fuels your righteous indignation to push back and advocate even harder to say, “No, I’m not crazy. I know that this does not have to be the norm, and what’s being done here is barbaric.”

https://www.guernicamag.com/daily/hyatt-bass-lessons-from-cubas-incarceration-model/

Venceremos Brigade visit Guantanamo
US youth exchange with young Guantanamo residents of different sectors and labor for tasks of urban agriculture

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Author: Victor Hugo Fonseca Puron | internet@granma.cu
July 18, 2016 23:07:07
GUANTÁNAMO.-Young of the United States that make up the contingent 47 of the Venceremos Brigade volunteer work will labor in this province between 25 July and 6 August.

Ana Teresa Naples Disotuar, delegate of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) in the territory, reported to be the first time that such solidarity group will conduct its work outside the capital.

Visitors, he argued, - exchange with young Guantanamo residents of different sectors and labor for tasks of urban agriculture, sanitation city, construction and agricultural cooperative on September 21, located in the municipality of Manuel Tames.

The twenty brigade also celebrate the Day of National Rebellion with the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, in the neighborhood, and August 4 will participate in the traditional pilgrimage to the Day of the Political Song, organized by the Hermanos Saiz Association .

The program includes a visit to the Brigada de la Frontera, Antonio Maceo Order; the city of Baracoa, the Provincial Museum, the Ballet Folklorico Babul, the Community Children's Project The Beehive Guantanamo and the House of Changüí Chito Latamblet, among other sites of historical or cultural interest.

The attention that the elderly provided in this eastern province will also be known by young Americans, who also exchange with teachers of special school on June 14, journalists and bloggers and also reach attractions in the province of Santiago de Cuba.

According to the information provided, the contingent will arrive in Cuba on the 24th, for Holguin, where he will serve a program that includes a visit to the historic site of Biran, where the birthplace of Fidel and Raul Castro Ruz.

Venceremos Brigade for 46 years traveling to Cuba in defiance of the restrictions imposed on the country by the US blockade.

http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2016-07-18/visitara-guantanamo-la-brigada-venceremos-18-07-2016-23-07-07

Google Translator

I knew some folks who did this back around '71 but I was too much of a dumbass at the time. Did admire them for it, though.

Solidarity with Cuba is eternal
Gail Walker extended congratulations to the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro for his 90th birthday and said that in several US communities will be celebrations the coming August 13

Author: Gabriela Avila Gomez | internet@granma.cu
July 19, 2016 23:27:15

The Caravan of Pastors for Peace


http://www.granma.cu/file/img/2016/07/medium/f0064321.jpg
The Caravan of Pastors for Peace struggle for the elimination of the blockade imposed on Cuba Photo: Yaimí Ravelo
Samples of support for Cuba from all over the world are many, example is the recent arrival to the island of the 27th Caravan of Pastors for Peace, a project of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO for its acronym in English).

In a press conference held on Tuesday, Gail Walker, executive secretary of the IFCO said that the institution will continue its solidarity with the Caribbean nation.

The daughter of the Rev. Lucius Walker (creator of Pastors for Peace) said that the caravan visited about 45 cities in the United States to discuss the impact of economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the North American country to Cuba.

We focus on clarifying the changes that have occurred between the two nations since restored their relationships, and those who still do not happen, he said the executive secretary of the IFCO.
Walker extended congratulations to the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro for his 90th birthday and said that in several US communities will be celebrations the coming August 13.

Meanwhile, the Rev. Thomas Smith, a member of the board of IFCO, said that Cuba is a shining light to the world and we must continue the work of the caravan to make that light go on.

He also said that the blockade affects the lives of Cubans and harms innocent people.

The Rev. Raul Suarez, director of the Martin Luther King Memorial Center (CMLK) recalled that one of the principles of Lucius Walker remains in force is to practice love of neighbor Cuban should not ask permission from the US government.

Just before the press conference, the caravan placed a wreath at the plaque of Lucius Walker, located in the Anti-Imperialist Tribunal.

This 27 Caravan of Pastors for Peace, which will be on the Island until 29 July, is composed of 41 people: 29 Americans, nine Mexican, two Germans and a Swede.

http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2016-07-19/la-solidaridad-con-cuba-es-eterna-19-07-2016-23-07-15

Google Translator

Fidel Castro: Absolved by History!

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Two days ago, compañero Fidel Castro made a rare appearance at the closing of the VII Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba. A great revolutionary, an incredible human being, Fidel, deserves the full respect of every communist, of everyone who believes in the ideals of Marxism-Leninism.

Fidel Castro: Absolved by History!*
By Nikos Mottas.

"Socialism is and will continue being the hope, the only hope, the only way for the People, the oppressed ones, the exploited ones, the looted ones. Socialism is the only choice!" - Fidel Castro Ruz.

It was 26th of July 1953 when a group of around 160 rebels, under the leadership of 26 years-old lawyer Fidel Castro, tried an armed attack on the Moncada barracks, at Santiago de Cuba. The aim was to give a first message of resistance against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. The attack was not successful. Sixty-one rebels were killed while the rest -- including Castro -- were captured and imprisoned by the regime's authorities. However, the 26th of July 1953 remained in Cuban history as the day when the trigger of the following revolution was pulled. The revolutionary 'Movement of the 26thof July' (Movimiento 26 de Julio) took it's name from that day and a few years later led the army of Fidel, Che, Raul and Camilo to the thriumph against the corrupted, pro-imperialist regime of Batista.

This years anniversary of the 26th of July 1953 attack gives the opportunity of writing some thoughts, as well as evidence, regarding the revolution that took place at the island of Jose Marti. Especially in today's historical circumstances and given the targeted distortions and defamations which are unleashed against Cuba and Cuban people.

Historically, very few revolutions have been so deliberately distorted and misinterpreted as the 1959 Cuban Revolution has. The multiple enemies of Revolution and Castroism have invented hundreds of arguments in order to blemish the political, social and cultural values which, 53 year now, have been established in the island. That consists an effort which started just after the overthrow of the corrupted, and supported by Washington, dictatorship of Batista on January 1959. The confiscation of the property held by the monopolies and the Cuban bourgeoise, the agrarian reform and the socialization of the means of production which took place in the first half of the 1960s were an unexpected, big victory for the working class internationally.

Having the support of the Soviet Union, the government of Fidel managed to establish, for at least three consecutive decades, a functional economic system, upgrading significantly on the same time the sectors of Health and Education and, furthermore, eliminating the illiteration rates existing in the pro-revolutionary period. Of course, the accomplishments of the Revolution were -- and continue to be -- a "thorn in the eye" of the capitalist superpower as well as of the various anti-communists, including conservative, neoliberal, social-democrats, opportunists etc.

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As it is known, during the period of Batista's dictatorship, Cuba was a huge plant of sugar production and casino-tourism, mainly for upper-class americans. The authority established by the "July 26th Movement" not only sweeped the privileges of the greedy cuban bourgeoise but also cut the "umbilical cord" of the country's financial oligarchy with US imperialism. That had as a result the change of power in a class level, with the emergence of the country's daily people (workers, farmers, youth) as protagonists in the social reality of Cuba.

During the Revolution's first five years the consumption of meat and textile was doubled (the products became accessible to all the citizens), the housing prices were rapidly decreased, the abandoned luxurious mansions of those who left Cuba became home of about 80,000 students from the rural areas and the expensive cars of the self-exiled counter-revolutionaries were given to former servants in order to start working as taxi drivers.

In order to comment on the achievements of the Cuban Revolution we must see the conditions existed before 1959. The reality is that before the takeover of Havana by the rebel forces, the island was no more than a small colony of Washington. Almost all products were imported from the United States as an exchange for the opening of the US market to the sugar production. The "indigenous" population had to obtain the basic goods (including the meat market) from the external (imported) sources indicated by the colonial regime.

The notorious United Fruit Co, the US-based monopoly of fruit trade, was a powerful company which was bringing huge profits to it's owners by exploting the land of Cuban people. All -- without exceptions -- the suppliers of electricity and telephone were companies based in the United States, as well as the companies providing pharmaceutical material, clothing, automobiles and transportation (buses, ships, aircrafts). Cuban workers were forced to live a life by consuming imported american products which were provided in higher prices than in the US, being in fact slaves of a, tied by imperialism, oligarchy.

Today, 53 years after the Revolution, the (quality) level of public sectors including Health, Education and Housing is much higher than in many capitalist countries in Latin America. The literacy rate is almost 98%, education is accessible to all citizens without exceptions while the Cuban national health system (free for all) is justifiably regarded one of the best in the world. Some indicative data speak by themselves:
In 2007, the average life expectancy rate in Cuba was 78.26 years, having increasing trend. For the same year, the rate in the US was 77.99 years. (World Bank).
In 2010, infant mortality rate in the island was 4.7 for ever 1000 births, less than any country in the whole continent, including the US.
During the last years, 1,390,000 patients from 32 countries had their vision improved or fully restored in 59 ophalmology centers operating under the support of the Cuban and Venezuelan governments.
The centralized, state control of economy has let Cuba to constantly develop the national health system, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the hardening of the US economic blockade. From 1990 to 2003, the number of doctors in Cuba increased by 76%, of dentists by 46% and nurses by 16%. During the same period, the population coverage of the social institution of "family doctor" was increased by 52.2%, touching a rate of 99.2% in 2003.
In November 2008, Cuba had more than 70,000 doctors. From them, approximately 17,600 were sent to 75 different countries in order to offer their services there. In 27 countries (including African countries such as Ghana, Botswana, Namimbia etc.) Cuba has supplied medical personnel which offers high quality services. In Timor Leste, for example, it is estimated that between 2003 and 2008, the Cuban medical mission saved 11,400 people contributing significantly to the fall of birth mortality rate.
The high solidarity feeling among Cuban people is undoubted. The first Cuban medical team was sent in 1960 to the then devastated by an earthquake Chile. From 1960 to 1980 the Cuban government immediately sent medical aid to 16 countries which had been facing natural disasters or conflicts. On August 2005, after the disastrous hurricane Katrina in the United States, the Castro government volunteered to sent a team of doctors to the state of Louisianna. The proposal was turned down by the Bush administration. During the same year, on October 2005, Cuba sent the largest number of specialized medical personnel (2,500 men and women) to Pakistan, shortly after the earthquake. Moreover, the Cuban government offered 1,000 scholarships to Pakistani students from poor families who desired to study medicine.
Furthermore...
The 99.8% of Cubans over the age of 15 know how to read and write (UNESCO). That consists the highest rate of literacy in Latin America and one of the highest internationally.
During 2010, one million young Cubans were graduated from the country's universities.
The role of woman in society is upgraded. Fourty-three percent (43%) of the seats at the country's parliament are held by females, while 65% of the labor force in technical sectors are women.
Despite the relatively small size of the country (11 million), Cuba is a significant power in sports. For example, in the Pan-American Games of 2011 held in Mexico, the country was terminated second with 58 golden medals.
On the above we should add the fact that any citizen, indifferently of sex, race or ethnicity, can find a job, without facing the terrible situation of unemployment that bedevils many "developed" capitalist countries of the West.

Undoubtely, nobody can say that the Revolution solved all the problems. There are existing problems which constantly changing and need new and more sophisticated solutions. It is also clear that by the standards of Cuba's northern neighbour (where approximately 50 million people have no social security), Fidel's country is indeed a relatively poor place. But here, we should ask the following: Under what conditions does Cuba and Cuban people try to live and develop for more than four decades?

The answer is straightforward. From the establishment of the Revolution and until today, the Cuban people are facing a multi-dimensional enmity which aims in the collapse of this small, but resistant, socialist nation, just a few miles south of Florida. The inhuman embargo (economic blockade) that has been imposed by the US government consisted -- and consists -- the forefront of a multi-dimensional, unethical war that Imperialism has declared to Castro's government. It is estimated that, in economic terms, 8 hours of economic blockade equals with 140 school buildings' renovations. Three days of blockade equals with 100 tones of pharmaceutical material.

The war against the Castro government and the Cuban people became more relentless after the Soviet Union's collapse in the beginning of 1990s. Someone could expect the gradual dissolution of socialism in the island. However, Cuba managed not only to stay firm, but also to progress under especially adverse circumstances. That consists the unambiguous and undoubted vindication of Fidel Castro. A leader who History herself (to which he pleaded in his famous speech) absolved many times in the past: When the revolutionary army of the July 26th Movement was thriumphantly entering Havana thus ousting Batista from the government. When the Cuban army fought successfully against the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion. When the revolutionary spirit of this small and proud country became a source of inspiration for class and independence-oriented movement of other nations (in Vietnam, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Angola, Algeria).

No matter what the fate of Socialism will be in Cuba after Fidel's biological death, one thing is sure: Fidel Castro has been undeniably and irreversibly absolved by History, as he himself had predicted. Nobody can know how the process would be if the attack on the Moncada Barracks, on the eve of the 26th July 1953, had never happened. The fact is that this action was enough in order to pull the triger of revolution. A Revolution which has factual evidence of success and which inspired, inspire and will continue to inspire all those who are "realists and ask for the impossible".

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Gracias, Fidel! Thank you for the Cuban Revolution.
Thank you for making us believe in a better world.
Thank you, most of all, for the Hope.

* This is an updated, translated version of an article written on July 2012, published in Greek blog "Sierra Maestra".

http://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2016/04/fidel-castro-absolved-by-history.html

Castro is one of my few heroes. He is a great man and a common man. He did great things and inspired great things. We need an army of young Castros, but just one has proven to be enough.

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Fidel-300x113.jpg

Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz
Dear Comandante,

On the occasion of your 90th birthday the members of the Network of
Intellectuals, Artists, and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity want
to extend our most sincere congratulations and above all our deepest
gratitude for everything you have done for the peoples of Our America
and the rest of the world.

Your presence has been a permanent source of inspiration, not only when
the ascending tide of the popular struggles were making firm steps
towards socialism, but also in the recurrent moments when our advances
have been stopped due to the ferocity of the reaction of imperialism and
their local allies.

In the phases of uprising your example forced us to never be satisfied
and like good revolutionaries we pursued with renewed vigor our march
especially when we needed to confront adversities or the
counter-offensive of the enemy. The memory of your attitude after the
Moncada or the attack of imperialism in Playa Giron strengthened our
spirits and convinced us that the unyielding will to fight for our
ideals was the sure path to victory. You showed us that path on
countless occasions, and we can assure you that all that teaching
reiterated to us in your meeting with intellectuals on February 10,
2012, when you said that “Even if we heard that in a few weeks the world
will come to an end, our duty would be to fight, to continue fighting
until the end”, will never be forgotten. This thinking of yours has
ingrained a very deep and indelible brand in millions of people in Latin
America and the Caribbean who, like many others in other parts of the
world, know that this will be our destiny; fighting to the end knowing
that the dominant class and imperialism will never just give up.

These convictions that our ideas and the values we hold are infinitely
superior to those of the enemy and are an essential ingredient of our
revolutionary militancy. From you we learned that defending our values
demands from us the most absolute intransigency. We learned this again
when with virtuous obstinacy you opposed the herding of the flags of
socialism while the Soviet Union and the Socialist camp disappeared.
Thanks to your unwavering conviction the Cuban revolution could continue
on its march, and by your heroic example, you opened a path that a few
years later would start growing in numerous countries of our America
after the electoral victory of the presidency of Hugo Chávez in
Venezuela in December of 1998. If you had been convinced by those who
advised you to leave forever the Socialist project and throw Cuba into
the arms of capitalism that bright period that opened from the end of
the last century until now, with the defeat of the FTAA, the creation of
ALBA, of UNASUR, of CELAC, of Petrocaribe, of the Bank of the South, of
Telesur and of this Network in Defense of Humanity would never have
taken place. The powerful light that radiated in the lighthouse of the
Cuban Revolution was decisive in pushing our people to leave behind that
long neoliberal night of the 1990s and return to the path of our Second
and Definitive Independence.

That is why our debt, the debt of our people to you, Comandante, is
immeasurable and hence our deep gratitude for your revolutionary
integrity, for being faithful to that wonderful definition of
“revolution”. You expressed it so well in your speech on May 1, 2000,
when you pointed out that revolution “is to defend the values in which
we believe at the cost of any sacrifice; it is modesty, selflessness,
altruism, solidarity and heroism; it is fighting with audacity,
intelligence and realism.” Throughout your prolific life you have been
faithful to these ideas, that will live eternally in the soul of all the
revolutionaries around the world, in all of those who know that another
world is possible and necessary, and that if we continue to struggle
with constancy and consistency as you have shown for so many years, the
victory is inevitable.

Happy 90 years, Fidel! Thanks for your example. You can be sure that we
will be faithful to you teachings until the final victory.

On behalf of the Executive Secretariat of the Network in Defense of
Humanity, (REDH)

Carmen Bohórquez (REDH General coordinador)
Alicia Jrapko (REDH United States)
Ángel Guerra (REDH Cuba/México)
Ariana López (REDH Cuba)
Atilio Boron (REDH Argentina)
David Comissiong (REDH Caribbean)
Fredy Ñáñez (REDH Venezuela)
Hugo Moldiz (REDH Bolivia)
Juan Manuel Karg (REDH Argentina)
Katu Arkonada (REDH Basque Country/Bolivia)
Luciano Vasapollo (REDH Italy)
Marilia Guimaraes (REDH Brazil)
Nayar López Castellanos (REDH México)
Omar González (REDH Cuba)
Roger Landa (REDH Venezuela)

Email for other signature: redh.celebra90aniversariofidel@gmail.com

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/gracias-por-su-ejemplo-fidel-thanks-for-your-example-fidel/

From twitter:

‏@communick
When you build one of the greatest socialist states of all time and Trotskyists still say it isn't "real socialism"
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CpvVS76XgAEE03G.jpg

Happy birthday Commandante!

One of these days those idealists will be sorry...

and Trotskyists still say it isn't "real socialism"

Fuck all Trots, period.

Cuba: An Island of authenticity in a sea of illusion

By Daniel Margrain

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In my previous post, I examined how notions of authenticity play out in capitalist spaces and posited that authenticity and the subordination of people to profit are irreconcilable concepts.

In the eyes of much of both the Western corporate media and the governments who sing to their tune, the quasi-socialist state of Cuba is regarded as a formal authoritarian ‘dictatorship’. The informal elected dictatorship, the United States, on the other hand, is widely regarded to be a paragon of democratic values and freedom despite the fact that the world’s major imperial power continues to wage wars abroad and suppresses dissent at home. This has led at least one prominent dissenting voice to claim that the US displays many of the characteristics of a fascist state.

How can the apparent dichotomy between fascism and formal democracy be explained?

For the answer, it’s necessary to evaluate a countries credentials in terms of democratic outcomes. This relates, not to the particular form traditional-based democracies take as applied in theoretical and historically formal structures, but as they apply meaningfully, in practice. Let’s look at Cuba, Britain and the West in general as comparative examples.

In Cuba, the formal capitalist market plays no part in the organization of society. As the lifeblood of liberal capitalist democracies is consumerism, the conceptual understanding of democracy in Western society is tied to the notion of public relations and the passive consumer. The writer and film-maker Adam Curtis provides a historical analysis of this relationship in his impressive BBC series The Century of the Self.

In contrast to the British state-corporate conception of democracy in which populism and grass roots activism are frowned upon and passivity encouraged by the elites – as evidenced by the corporate-political classes reaction to Jeremy Corbyn – Cuban society is characterized by active political citizenship. Cuban politics, unlike its counterparts in the West has not, therefore, become susceptible to the distortions inherent to the market – the process of the buying and selling of things within what Marx calls the ‘sphere of circulation’.

The extent of the overriding corruption within the sphere of circulation is evident throughout all Western liberal democracies, where the lobbying interests of giant multinational corporations wield extraordinary power to the extent that they are able to influence democratic decision-making processes in their favour to the detriment of the general public good.

As I illustrated in my previous post, the subordination of people to profit can be witnessed daily by the extent to which the public sector continues to be debased and underfunded, predicated on the neoliberal ideology of austerity and welfare retrenchment. Meanwhile, Further and Higher education Research and Development Departments are increasingly under pressure not to be critical of the less than ethical practices of the giant corporations who are funding them, while many students are being priced out of higher education altogether.

The work of professionals like teachers and social workers are increasingly being nudged away from the classroom and face-to face interaction and communication with other human beings, towards productivity outputs, time-management and the seemingly overriding obsession of meeting financial targets.

Members of the general public who previously traveled on what was once integrated and unifying public transport systems funded directly from the public purses of governments, are now deemed to be customers who travel on largely fragmented and privately owned systems that have been funded through processes by which public tax-payers money subsidize the private capital of the giant corporations who now run them.

In Britain this method of funding is euphemistically termed Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The principle of public money underwriting private capital at great expense to the taxpayer, is a common practice throughout the democracies of the Western world. What used to be not-for-profit public services run in the interests of the general public who funded them directly from the public purse, are now increasingly being run for profit in the interests of giant multinational corporations whose tentacle like grip extends into virtually every aspect of our lives.

Even healthcare is not immune from this predatory practice. Recipients of healthcare in the US are deemed to be customers rather than patients, as if being wheeled around on a hospital trolley is akin to spending time in a car showroom or shopping for a refrigerator in a department store. Such is the distorting prioritizing logic of profit maximization that if one has the misfortune of needing urgent medical attention on the streets of the US, the healthcare worker is obliged in the first instance, to feel for the customer’s credit card before feeling for the patient’s pulse.

So the corrupted system of capitalism effectively reduces all human relations to the same profit-motivated logic as everything else. This is not the case in Cuba, where a different set of priorities have come to dominate social life. As Cuba is not a capitalist country, mass consumerism is not a distorting feature of the political process.

Therefore, the giant corporations whose life-blood the sphere of circulation represents, have no role to play in Cuban society. All things being equal, this means that collectively the Cuban people get to ensure that their basic needs are met as opposed to placing ‘democracy’ in the hands of unseen CEOs of major companies whose interests primarily lie with politicians, themselves and their shareholders.

This would suggest that Western liberal democracy is based on an economic system based on creating wants and desires aimed towards a passive consumer in order to sustain itself. Cuban society, on the other hand, is premised on the notion that people are active political subjects who have direct control over the running of their lives free from all the corrupting influences described.

Consequently, one of the poorest countries on the planet whose comparable nations are failed states like Somalia or Haiti, manages – unlike them – to provide its citizens with the necessities of life. This is despite the privations that underpin the continuing blockade and the punitive economic measures used against it by the worlds biggest superpower. Whether it’s Corbyn in Britain, or Castro in Cuba, the threat of good example is what the elites cannot tolerate.

In this respect, the fundamental ethos of Cuban society which runs contrary to the capitalist ethos, is a recognition that it is not the duty of society to provide favourable conditions in order for corporations to give the public what they think they ought to have, but to ensure that a genuinely responsive democratic government of the people, by the people, for the people, provides the public with what they need to ensure their fundamental well-being. This includes water, food, housing, education and healthcare which are all provided for free of charge or at minimal cost to all Cuban people irrespective of income and status.

In his book Tell Me No Lies, John Pilger cites the writer Simon Louvish recounting the story of a group of Soviets touring the United States before the age of glasnost. After reading the newspapers and watching TV, they were amazed to find that, on the big issues, all the opinions were the same. “In our country,” they said, “to get that result we have a dictatorship, we imprison people, we tear out their fingernails. Here you have none of that. So what’s your secret? How do you do it?”

The answer to the question is that the Western media provide an illusion of freedom, democracy and authenticity in which it appears that the entire nature of society is really about the buying and selling of things within the sphere of circulation. Under capitalism people seek solace from their oppression in consumerism. Hence, we often hear of the ‘feel good factor’ associated with shopping and the notion of ‘retail therapy’ that the activity related to shopping implies.

It is impossible in capitalist societies to escape this process. All the features of capitalism which the writer, Naomi Klein, describes in her book No Logo, such as advertising and branding, are all part of the process where the power of the commodity dominates. All capitalist-based societies, whatever their variation are, in reality, overt forms of dictatorship.

My fundamental argument is that Cuban socialism and the democratic values that underpin it, necessarily overlap by virtue of the fact that the former is a necessary precondition for the establishment of the latter. In my view, this explains the reason why Cuba – outside of the tourist enclaves – represents one of the few authentic forms of society on the planet.

https://cultureandpolitics.org/2016/08/25/cuba-an-island-of-authenticity-in-a-sea-of-capitalist-illusion/

While not particularly political this article a testimony to the socialist state's dedication to meeting all aspect of human need, including preserving biodiversity.


Rulings to protect the Cuban crocodile

August 27, 2016

http://www.cubadebate.cu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/cocodrilos-cienagazapata.jpg

Copies crocodile farm Boca de Guama in Cienaga de Zapata during the closing event of the tourist TURNAT 2009, September 17, 2009, in Matanzas.IPS PHOTO / Jorge Luis BATHS HERNANDEZ

Protection of natural habitat rhombifer crocodile, animal endemic endangered Cuba is one of the practices developed by the Company for the Protection of Flora and Fauna in the preservation of endangered species.

Irina Martínez Prado, specialist of the National Program Crocodiles, that entity of the Ministry of Agriculture, told the Cuban News Agency that the main objective is focused on the management of the species in areas of captivity and released .

As stated by the specialist, in the Cienaga de Zapata National Park, in the province of Matanzas, systematic monitoring it runs to meet existing populations of this species, whose existence dates back over 70 million years ago.

The studies performed include health status, number of members, size of the specimens and their reproduction, among other control parameters.

A task of particular importance is the transfer of eggs deposited in places prone to flooding at high points or breeding, in which care until the birth of the specimen.

Martínez Prado said that in the noble mission several collaborating research centers and national and international non-governmental organizations, with tasks aimed at safeguarding the genetic purity of the species, threatened by crossing the so-called American alligator.

Several breeding crocodiles in Cuba are currently used for tourism purposes and constitute an attraction for thousands of visitors who visit the Cuban geography.

Crocodiles can measure up to five meters and are well adapted to aquatic life as they have eyes and nose located in prominent places, which are able to see and breathe while keeping the body submerged.

The captive breeding and conservation and reintroduction of Cuban crocodile copies of protected areas are among the main functions of the crocodile farm specialists Laguna del Tesoro in the Zapata Swamp.

In the center, located on the Boca de Guama complex, there is a project aimed at preserving the Cocodrilus rhombifer program in which experts from various institutions.

Life studies performed by experts are a very complicated task, geographical characteristics of the largest wetland in the insular Caribbean and because the areas inhabited by the reptile are difficult to access.

http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2016/08/27/providencias-para-proteger-el-cocodrilo-cubano/#.V8G54vkrLZY

A very cool critter, known for being fleet of foot on land, running down prey on land, and it's aggressiveness in defense.

Even under the weight of the embargo Cuba has found the resources to preserve that which once lost can never be replaced.

While not particularly political this article a testimony to the socialist state's dedication to meeting all aspect of human need, including preserving biodiversity.



A very cool critter, known for being fleet of foot on land, running down prey on land, and it's aggressiveness in defense.

Even under the weight of the embargo Cuba has found the resources to preserve that which once lost can never be replaced.

Just as you said earlier, "Red is the true green." (Or words to that effect.)

The fertile exchange
So the discussion was described by the group of Granma newspaper on the document containing the conceptualization of the Cuban economic and social model of socialist development

Author: Karina Brown González | karina@granma.cu
Author: Jesús Curbelo Jank | jesus@granma.cu
September 9, 2016 22:09:23

Could be described as fruitful discussion that journalists, photographers, translators, designers, administrative staff and the rest of the group of Granma newspaper, conducted with respect to the document reflecting the conceptualization of the Cuban economic and social model of socialist development.

The meeting also discussed the present national economic and social development until 2030, documents, both approved in the 7th. Congress of the CCP.

Thus, Juvenal Balan, secretary of the Party Committee in the newspaper, suggested adding in paragraph 62 of conceptualization, which refers to the fair treatment of complaints of citizens, the answers to these should be agile, deep and transparent.

Also, the lawyer Armando Gutierrez asked to add in paragraph 104, the content of which addresses the issue of non-permission of the concentration of property and wealth, that this work will be done under the strict supervision of the supervisory bodies and their system, which inform the National Assembly or to the appropriate agency.

At another point, Gutierrez intervened to express their doubts about the mechanisms used to implement the wording of paragraph 176, which addresses the concentration of ownership will be regulated by legal standards.

Such concerns, it was said at the meeting is valid while the document provides a desired state of the country, but how to reach that vision depends on what we do in the present. This will be the result of actions of Cubans on the implementation of what is contained in the documents now being discussed and the Guidelines.

Other proposals made during the meeting were to include greater access to information in paragraph 109 of the conceptualization and 110 considering communication not as a resource, but as a system.

It was also proposed that paragraph 155, which speaks of the selection of company directors, must take into account the criterion of workers and political and mass organizations.

Put in its rightful place to communication, regarding the role for effective government (paragraph 64), it was one of the approaches of the meeting, on reaching the analysis of the strategic axes of the Plan ...

In terms of human development, equity and social justice, Juvenal Balan, who is also the head of the Department of Photography, proposed adding in paragraph 195 access to employment as a preserve of universal policies.

"Many university students are moving to the private sector, leaving the professional field in which they formed. This is because the remuneration that provide these spaces, which are much higher than those offered by the state sector, "he said, on the other hand, the young journalist Alejandra Garcia.

"Therefore, he added, it is important that the National Plan ... including the need to ensure young people for a life in Cuba that ensures the permanence within state institutions, where they can have not only professional satisfaction but also economic welfare. "

Meanwhile, journalist Pedro de la Hoz drew attention to the urgent need to avoid reductionist views regarding issues such as the need to prepare for critically face all harmful of hegemonic cultural industry, "because harmful not come only from the industry , it is also of populism, of banality. "

There are internal manifestations of banality that do not come from Hollywood, but part of us. I think you have to fight the ugly and the superficial, against the harmful, also argued in debate that ended with the approval of the documents.

http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2016-09-09/el-intercambio-fertil-09-09-2016-22-09-23

Google Translator

The Cuban Revolution ain't surrendering.

The consolation of winning a symbol
He died in the capital in Biological Sciences Dr. Leda Menéndez Carrera

http://www.granma.cu/file/img/2016/09/medium/f0067979.jpg

Author: Pelaez | orfilio@granma.cu
September 16, 2016 22:09:31

Dr. Leda Menendez was an enviable perseverance and infinite love of nature. Photo: Courtesy of the interviewee
On Monday 12 September and just 72 hours after suffering a sudden illness when he had just been interviewed for an audiovisual Mundo Latino, he died in the capital in Biological Sciences Dr. Leda Menéndez Carrera, at age 75.

Born in Camaguey province, was young in joining the first courses for the training of teachers in Minas del Frio, a profession he held until joining the University of Havana in the late 60s, where he received the BA in Biology in 1973.

Once you graduate started working at the then Institute of Botany. Soon he assumed the task of undertaking a research project on the ecology of tropical forests in the Sierra del Rosario.

The results of those studies developed over 15 years were collected in a book award from the Academy of Sciences of Cuba. This text led to the proposal to establish there one of the Biosphere Reserves adopted in the country.

But the great passion of this gifted scientist with an enviable perseverance and infinite love of nature, emerged from the first time as a child watched the scenic beauty of the Cangilones River Maximus, was constituted undoubtedly mangroves, to which he devoted most of its more than 40 years of uninterrupted research work.

He always defended as an urgent priority work on their recovery because they represent the first line of defense of the coast to protect it from erosion caused by the combined effect of wind and waves, besides being a natural barrier against the progressive increase in the average level sea ​​and the advance of saltwater intrusion.

Also highlighted were ideal for the conservation of biodiversity, to serve as a permanent or temporary habitat for numerous species of fish, crustaceans and molluscs, not to mention as contributing to the capture and storage of atmospheric carbon environment.

Leda Menendez toured countless times mangrove populations of the Cuban archipelago. Overcoming dissimilar objective and subjective difficulties, he was able to study in depth to become one of the most authoritative national and the entire Caribbean region in the knowledge level so valuable ecosystems voices.

lead author Bases work for the management of the mangrove ecosystem in the Cuban archipelago and its relation to climate change, which won the National Award of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba 2012, the results of this work showed the degree of involvement that presented in different areas of the country and causes related to their deterioration. Similarly they allowed to determine the likely impacts would suffer due to climate change and develop methodological guidelines designed to preserve them from further damage.

Researcher National Biodiversity Centre, attached to the Institute of Ecology and Systematics of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, and holder of the Order Carlos Finlay, the highest honor conferred by the State Council in the scientific sphere, integrated reduced group of women researchers participating in the expedition in Canoas Amazon to the Caribbean, headed by the late Dr. Antonio Nuñez Jimenez in 1987.

At the request of the family the body of Dr. Leda Menéndez was cremated and his ashes will be scattered in the mangroves of the southern coast of the province of Mayabeque, which had been working for more than two years ago in a scientific project rescue and conservation.

Beyond the pain and emptiness left by the unexpected physical disappearance of the "fairy" godmother of mangroves, it has the consolation that Cuban natural sciences have won a symbol.

http://www.granma.cu/ciencia/2016-09-16/el-consuelo-de-ganar-un-simbolo-16-09-2016-22-09-31

Google Translator

Goddamn commies...

Goddamn commies...

The only consolation is that Cuba is producing more, young commies for all the disciplines of science, education, and the advancement of humanity. They are damned near the only ray of sunlight in this whole goddamned mess of a world. If they can just hold and be there for when their learning disabled, brothers and sisters, trapped in the belly, finally get moving...

Raúl Castro: “Cuba will not cease defending its revolutionary and anti-imperialist ideals”
http://communismgr.blogspot.com/2016/09/raul-castro-cuba-will-not-cease.html

http://www.radiorebelde.cu/images/images/mundo/raul-castro-en-mnoal-venezuela.jpg
Source: Granma.
KEY REMARKS BY ARMY GENERAL RAUL CASTRO RUZ, PRESIDENT OF THE STATE COUNCIL AND THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, AT THE 17TH SUMMIT OF THE NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT
MARGARITA ISLAND, VENEZUELA, SEPTEMBER 17, 2016

Esteemed comrade Nicolás Maduro Moros, constitutional President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Heads of State and Government,
Esteemed ministers, delegates and guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
We are 120 Non-Aligned States which adhere not only to the Bandung Principles, but also to the Declaration of the Non Aligned Movement on Purposes, Principles and the its Role in the Current International Juncture approved at the 14th NAM Summit in Havana. Our enormous strength cannot be underestimated when we proceed in a concerted fashion.
In the 14th NAM Summit held in Havana in 2006, we rejected any attempt at ‘regime change’ and appealed to all countries to abstain from resorting to aggression or to the use of force.
Also in Havana, in January 2014, the heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) signed the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace thus reaffirming our commitment to the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter and International Law as well as to the peaceful settlement of disputes and full respect for the inalienable right of every State to choose its political, economic, social and cultural system, as an essential premise to ensure coexistence among nations.
However, we are witnessing increasing attacks on Venezuela’s sovereignty and self-determination. Cuba reaffirms its unconditional support to the Venezuelan Government and people, to the civic-military union and to constitutional President Nicolás Maduro Moros.
We strongly repudiate the judicial-parliamentary coup d’état engineered against President Dilma Rouseff, for it is an act of contempt against the sovereign will of the people who elected her with more than 53 million votes.
Our sister nation of Colombia may count on the full support of Cuba as it moves forward along the challenging path of the implementation of the Agreement, and the consolidation of the stable, fair and lasting peace that Colombians deserve.
We express our confidence in the people of the Arab Republic of Syria for we know that they are capable of resolving their differences by themselves without foreign interference aimed at promoting ‘regime change’.

Comrade President,
It is unacceptable that the Palestinian people are still victims of occupation and violence, and that the occupying power continues preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian State with its capital in East Jerusalem.
Every attempt to secure the self-determination of the abused Saharawi people has failed, thus the international community needs to apply itself to resolving this issue.
We affirm our solidarity with the historical demand of the Puerto Rican people for self-determination and independence.
We also uphold our solidarity with the claim of the Republic of Argentina over the Falklands, South Sandwich and South Georgia Islands.

Esteemed comrade Maduro,
To Cuba, non-alignment means to struggle for the radical modification of an international economic order imposed by the big powers, the same that has made possible for 360 persons to accumulate an annual wealth exceeding the income of 45% of the world population. The gap between the rich and the poor keeps widening. Technology transfer from the North to the South countries remains an elusive goal while globalization basically privileges a special group of industrial nations. Meanwhile, the debt of the South countries, which never ceases to multiply, now amounts to over 1.7 trillion dollars.
At the moment, 2.9 billion people are forced into unemployment and extreme poverty, and millions of children perish every year from hunger and preventable diseases; nearly 800 million people remain illiterate while more than 1.7 trillion dollars are destined to military expenses.
Non-alignment also means to struggle for the reduction of the knowledge gap, and for the possibility to use information and communication technologies for development and cooperation. We reject the growing militarization of these technologies and their aggressive use against other countries.
Climate change continues to aggravate while in the developed countries irrational production and consumption patterns persist that threaten the conditions required for the survival of our species.
On the other hand, the realization of human rights remains a dream for millions of people all over the world. The United States and Europe resort to manipulation, double standards, selective criteria and the politization of this issue while waves of refugees concentrate at European borders, waiting a for just, stable and permanent solution that can protect their lives and dignity.

Esteemed President Maduro,
Twenty-one months have passed since our simultaneous announcement with President Barack Obama of the decision to reestablish diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States.
There have been some progress, mostly in the diplomatic area and cooperation on issues of common interest, but the same cannot be said of the economic and commercial sectors due to the limited, albeit positive, scope of the measures so far adopted by the U.S. Administration.
Cuba will persevere on its demand to have the economic, commercial and financial blockade lifted, a blockade that brings so much damage and hardship to our people, and which also has a negative impact on many other countries due to its extraterritorial implementation. By the same token, Cuba will continue urging the return to our sovereignty of the territory illegally occupied by the United States Naval Base in Guantanamo.
There will not be normal relations before that issue is resolved and other policies harmful to Cuba’s sovereignty still in force are terminated, such as interventionist and subversive programs.
We reaffirm our disposition to engage the United States Government in a civilized relationship, but Cuba will neither renounce any of its principles nor compromise on its sovereignty and independence. Cuba will not cease defending its revolutionary and anti-imperialist ideals or supporting the self-determination of all peoples.
Comrade Maduro,
We wish our sister Republic of Venezuela full success in the leadership of the Non-Aligned countries. At the same time, we congratulate the Islamic Republic of Iran on its good work during this past term at the head of the Movement.
The only alternative to the enormous dangers and challenges lying ahead is unity and solidarity in defense of our common objectives and interests.
Thank you, very much.

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/raul-castro-cuba-will-not-cease-defending-its-revolutionary-and-anti-imperialist-ideals/

Cuba sends medical team to Haiti after the passage of Matthew

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1475903994086/sites/telesur/img/multimedia/2016/10/08/medicoscubanos-cibercuba.jpg_1718483346.jpg
The solidarity of the Cuban doctors again present in Haiti. | Photo: CiberCuba

Published October 8, 2016

The brigade is composed of 38 professionals with extensive experience and hygienic-epidemiological joins the more than 600 Cuban medical collaborators who live in Haiti.
Already in Haiti 38 health professionals from Cuba as part of the help of the Big Island of the West Indies to assist victims of Hurricane Matthew.

The government of Cuba decided to send a medical team member of the International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Confrontation and Serious Epidemics "Henry Reeve".

The decision is in line with the brotherly ties that bind the two nations and considering the serious damages caused in Haiti by Hurricane Matthew, which left more than 250 dead and 350 thousand people who need urgent help.

The brigade is composed of 38 professionals with extensive hygienic-epidemiological experience, including three medical specialists ten graduates Hygiene and Epidemiology and ten technicians Vector Control are those who will travel today to that country with the necessary means and resources to fulfill its mission.

This brigade will labor with specialists and graduates of Hygiene and Epidemiology as part of the more than 600 Cuban health collaborators who provide their services in Haiti.

In context

In August 2005 a medical brigade is formed to provide assistance to people affected by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. This offer of help the Cuban Government was rejected by the Government of the United States. This brigade was called Medical Force , "Henry Reeve" in memory of that exceptional young American combatant who died fighting for the independence of Cuba. A

few days later, on September 19, is formed by the leader of the Revolution Fidel Castro, organization until today is unprecedented in the world: the International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics "Henry Reeve".

This contingent that would consist initially by members of the brigade mobilized to assist the US population affected by Hurricane Katrina, would aim to cooperate immediately with specially trained personnel with any country that suffers a catastrophe, especially they face great scourges of hurricanes, floods or other natural phenomena of this severity in addition to epidemics that constitute real natural and social disasters; including our national territory.

Its main objectives of work aimed at achieving extensive territorial deployment in disaster areas, with the establishment of the Comprehensive hospitals, able to give comprehensive response to the healthcare needs of the affected population.

http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Cuba-envia-brigada-medica-a-Haiti-luego-del-paso-de-Matthew-20161008-0002.html

Google Translator

Ya wouldn't know that the storm marched over Cuba too...Some twit said that if any nation had the right to be a moral arbitrator it would be Cuba. Yep.

Day of the Heroic Guerilla
by worker
Today, October 8, the world recognizes the most famous and prominent revolutionary of the 20th century, Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna. In Cuba, the site of his final resting place, this day is known as "The Day of the Heroic Guerilla." Argentinean born, the doctor met Cuban revolutionaries in exile in Mexico. After meeting Dr. Fidel Castro, he signed up to be the 2nd member of Castro's revolutionary army (the 1st was Castro's brother, Raul Castro) and returned to Cuba in a poorly equipped ship called the Granma in 1956 to wage a guerilla war.



They set up a rebel base in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. At first, Che was the field unit's doctor but after volunteering for some of the more daring missions, he grew in prominence. Despite his severe asthma, Che grew from a soldier to a military commander. In the final stages of the revolutionary war, he captured the strategic city of Santa Clara which facilitated the fall of Havana to the rebel army. A true internationalist, he resigned from the Cuban government to go fight for revolution in first Africa and then Bolivia. On October 8, 1967, he was captured alive by Bolivian armed forces, who were trained in anti-guerilla warfare by the American CIA. Anyone who knows Guevaran history can conclude that he was not one to be taken alive. In fact, his rifle had become incapacitated and thus, he did not have the option to die fighting and was captured alive. He was executed the next day.



The Bolivian authorities buried his body in a secret location because they feared that people would build a shrine on his final resting place and that it would turn into a pilgrimage site. His martyrdom, nevertheless, survived and his revolutionary message grew to be bigger in death than in life, so much so, that they even made songs dedicated to him on the other side of the globe. After restoring diplomatic ties with one another, Cuba sent an excavation team to Bolivia in 1997 and retrieved Che's body and brought it back to Cuba and buried it in the city that he captured in the revolutionary war, Santa Clara. 38 years after his death, his tomb is Cuba's main tourist attraction and is an international pilgrimage site. Che certainly left behind a living legacy of resistance.



Farewell letter from Che to Fidel Castro



« Year of Agriculture »

Havana, April 1, 1965.



Fidel:



At this moment I remember many things: when I met you in Maria Antonia's house, when you proposed I come along, all the tensions involved in the preparations. One day they came by and asked who should be notified in case of death, and the real possibility of it struck us all. Later we knew it was true, that in a revolution one wins or dies (if it is a real one). Many comrades fell along the way to victory.



Today everything has a less dramatic tone, because we are more mature, but the event repeats itself. I feel that I have fulfilled the part of my duty that tied me to the Cuban revolution in its territory, and I say farewell to you, to the comrades, to your people, who now are mine.



I formally resign my positions in the leadership of the party, my post as minister, my rank of commander, and my Cuban citizenship. Nothing legal binds me to Cuba. The only ties are of another nature — those that cannot be broken as can appointments to posts.



Reviewing my past life, I believe I have worked with sufficient integrity and dedication to consolidate the revolutionary triumph. My only serious failing was not having had more confidence in you from the first moments in the Sierra Maestra, and not having understood quickly enough your qualities as a leader and a revolutionary.



I have lived magnificent days, and at your side I felt the pride of belonging to our people in the brilliant yet sad days of the Caribbean [Missile] crisis. Seldom has a statesman been more brilliant as you were in those days. I am also proud of having followed you without hesitation, of having identified with your way of thinking and of seeing and appraising dangers and principles.



Other nations of the world summon my modest efforts of assistance. I can do that which is denied you due to your responsibility as the head of Cuba, and the time has come for us to part.



You should know that I do so with a mixture of joy and sorrow. I leave here the purest of my hopes as a builder and the dearest of those I hold dear. And I leave a people who received me as a son. That wounds a part of my spirit. I carry to new battlefronts the faith that you taught me, the revolutionary spirit of my people, the feeling of fulfilling the most sacred of duties: to fight against imperialism wherever it may be. This is a source of strength, and more than heals the deepest of wounds.



I state once more that I free Cuba from all responsibility, except that which stems from its example. If my final hour finds me under other skies, my last thought will be of this people and especially of you. I am grateful for your teaching and your example, to which I shall try to be faithful up to the final consequences of my acts.



I have always been identified with the foreign policy of our revolution, and I continue to be. Wherever I am, I will feel the responsibility of being a Cuban revolutionary, and I shall behave as such. I am not sorry that I leave nothing material to my wife and children; I am happy it is that way. I ask nothing for them, as the state will provide them with enough to live on and receive an education.



I would have many things to say to you and to our people, but I feel they are unnecessary. Words cannot express what I would like them to, and there is no point in scribbling pages.



Written: April 1, 1965 *********************************************

On the Day of the Heroic Guerilla, we remember Che Guevara
Oct 09, 2012 http://pflp.ps/english/2012/10/09/on-the-day-of-the-heroic-guerilla-we-remember-che-guevara/

On October 8, 2012, the Day of the Heroic Guerilla, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine remembers Comandante Ernesto “Che” Guevara, revolutionary leader, fierce fighter, and principled struggler whose true commitment to internationalism and liberation lives on in the struggles of peoples around the world for freedom, justice and socialism.

Following the revolutionary victory in Cuba in 1959, Che’s commitment to international revolution did not diminish, and he joined Bolivian revolutionaries in 1966. On October 8, 1967, Che and his comrades were captured and surrounded by the US-backed Bolivian military, and executed.

Nine days later, Fidel Castro spoke, memorializing Che and commemorating October 8 as the Day of the Heroic Guerilla, saying “Che died defending no other interest, no other cause than the cause of the exploited and oppressed of this continent. Che died defending no other cause than the cause of the poor and humble of this earth … Before history, people who act as he did, people who do and give everything for the cause of the poor, grow in stature with each passing day and find a deeper place in the heart of the people with each passing day.”

In Palestine, Che’s spirit, his commitment to liberation, rises in the streets of our occupied homeland. We mourn and honor our Guevara Gaza, Mohammad al-Aswad, and the thousands of Palestinian Guevaras, the eternal martyrs, who have struggled, fought, sacrificed and died for the liberation of Palestine, and the thousands of Palestinian Guevaras still to come, to hold high the banner of the resistance until the day of victory is ours.

On the 45th anniversary of Che’s death, we remember him as one of the martyrs of Palestine, a great martyr for the freedom of the oppressed of the world. And we continue to live his words: “Let us sum up our hopes for victory: total destruction of imperialism by eliminating its firmest bulwark: the oppression exercised by the United States of America…And if we were all capable of uniting to make our blows stronger and infallible and so increase the effectiveness of all kinds of support given to the struggling people – how great and close would that future be!… Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this, our battle cry, may have reached some receptive ear and another hand may be extended to wield our weapons and other men be ready to intone the funeral dirge with the staccato singing of the machine-guns and new battle cries of war and victory.”

Che Guevara Presente! Viva viva Palestina!

-- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org

Ernesto Che Guevara- What a young Communist should be
by worker
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Ernesto Che Guevara- What a young Communist should be
http://communismgr.blogspot.com/2016/10/ernesto-che-guevara-what-young_9.html

What a young Communist should be.
Source: Guevaristas.org.

Below are excerpts of a speech given by Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the central leaders of the Cuban revolution, at a ceremony marking the second anniversary of the formation of the youth organization. It was first published in Obra Revolutionaria, Oct. 23, 1962.

The Union of Young Communists, with different names and organizational forms, is almost as old as the revolution. At the beginning it emerged out of the Rebel Army – perhaps that’s where it also got its initial name [Association of Young Rebels]. But it was an organization linked to the army in order to introduce Cuba’s youth to the massive tasks of national defense, the most urgent problem at the time and the one requiring the most rapid solution….

Later, as the revolution was consolidated and we could finally talk about the new tasks ahead, Compañero Fidel proposed changing the name of the organization, a change of name that fully expresses a principle. The Union of Young Communists [Applause] has its face to the future. It is organized with the bright future of socialist society in mind….
The Union of Young Communists should be defined by a single word: vanguard. You, compañeros, must be the vanguard of all movements, the first to be ready to make the sacrifices demanded by the revolution, whatever they might be…. And in order to do that, you have to set yourself real, concrete tasks, tasks in your daily work that won’t allow you the slightest letup.

The job of organizing must constantly be linked to all the work carried out by the Union of Young Communists. Organization is the key to grasping the initiatives presented by the revolution’s leaders, the many initiatives proposed by our prime minister, and the initiatives from the working class, which should also lead to precise directives and ideas for subsequent action.

Without organization, ideas, after an initial momentum, start losing their effect. They become routine, degenerate into conformity, and end up simply a memory. I make this warning because too often, in this short but rich period of our revolution, many great initiatives have failed. They have been forgotten because of the lack of the organizational apparatus needed to keep them going and accomplish something….

Now, two years later, we can look back and observe the results of our work. The Union of Young Communists has tremendous achievements, one of the most important and spectacular being in defense.

Study, work, and the rifle.

Those young people, or some of them, who first climbed the five peaks of Turquino,(1) others who were enrolled in a whole series of military organizations, all those who picked up their rifles at moments of danger – they were ready to defend the revolution each and every place where an invasion or enemy action was expected. The highest honor, that of being able to defend our revolution, fell to the young people at Playa Girón….(2)

At the moment when the country’s defense was our most important task, the youth were there. Today, defense is still at the top of our concerns. But we should not forget that the watchword that guides the Young Communists – study, work, and the rifle – is a unified whole. The country cannot be defended with arms alone. We must also defend the country by building it with our work and preparing the new technical cadres to speed up its development in the coming years.

This is enormously important now, just as important as armed defense. When these problems were raised, the youth once again were there. Youth brigades, responding to the call of the revolution, invaded every corner of the country, and so after a few months of hard battle in which there were also martyrs of our revolution – martyrs in education – we were able to announce something new in Latin America: Cuba was a territory free of illiteracy in the Americas….(3) [Applause]

This is the kind of education that best suits youth who are being educated for communism. It is a kind of education in which work stops being an obsession, as it is in the capitalist world, and becomes a pleasant social duty….



What a young communist should be


Now, compañeros, I wanted to share my opinion as a national leader of the ORI(4) on what a Young Communist should be, to see if we all agree. I believe that the first thing that must characterize a Young Communist is the honor he feels in being a Young Communist, an honor that moves him to let the world know he is a Young Communist….

In addition to that, he should have a great sense of duty, a sense of duty toward the society we are building, toward our fellow men as human beings and toward all men around the world. That is something that must characterize the Young Communist. And along with that: deep sensitivity to all problems, sensitivity to injustice; a spirit that rebels against every wrong, whoever commits it; [Applause] questioning anything not understood, discussing and asking for clarification on whatever is not clear; declaring war on formalism of all types; always being open to new experiences in order to apply the many years of experience of humanity’s advance along the road to socialism to our country’s concrete conditions, to the realities that exist in Cuba. Each and every one of you must think about how to change reality, how to make it better….

Developing to the utmost the sensitivity to feel anguished when a man is murdered in any corner of the world and to feel enthusiasm when a new banner of freedom is raised in any corner of the world. [Applause]

The Young Communist cannot be limited by national borders. The Young Communist must practice proletarian internationalism and feel it as his own, reminding himself and all of us – Young Communists and those aspiring to be communists here in Cuba – that we are a real and palpable example for all our America, and for more than our America, for the other countries of the world also fighting on other continents for freedom, against colonialism, against neocolonialism, against imperialism, against all forms of oppression by unjust systems.

He must always remember that we are a flaming torch, that just as we are all individually a model for the people of Cuba, we are also a model for the peoples of Latin America and the oppressed peoples of the world who are fighting for their freedom….

And if someone says we are just romantics, inveterate idealists, thinking the impossible, that the masses of people cannot be turned into almost perfect human beings, we will have to answer a thousand and one times: Yes, it can be done; we are right. The people as a whole can advance.

NOTES.

1. Located in the Sierra Maestra, Turquino is the highest mountain in Cuba.

2. On April 17, 1961, 1,500 Cuban-born mercenaries invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs on the southern coast in Las Villas Province. The action, organized directly by Washington, aimed to establish a «provisional government» to appeal for direct U.S. intervention. However, the invaders were first held at bay by the Cuban militias and defeated within 72 hours by the Revolutionary Armed Forces. On April 19, the last invaders surrendered at Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs), which has come to be the name Cubans use to designate the battle.

3. From late 1960 through 1961, the revolutionary government undertook a literacy campaign to teach 1 million Cubans to read and write. Central to this effort was the mobilization of 100,000 young people to go to the countryside, where they lived with peasants whom they were teaching. As a result of this drive, Cuba virtually eliminated illiteracy.

4. The Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI) was formed in 1961 from a fusion of forces from the July 26 Movement, Popular Socialist Party, and Revolutionary Directorate. It became the United Party of the Socialist Revolution in 1963 and the Communist Party of Cuba in 1965.

Thank Venezuela for help damaged by Hurricane Matthew (+ Video) territories
The ship AB Guajira (Tango-63), carrying 375 tons of machinery and building materials, was received at the port Guillermón Moncada, in Santiago de Cuba

Author: Eduardo Palomares Calderón | internet@granma.cu
October 13, 2016 23:10:04

http://www.granma.cu/file/img/2016/10/medium/f0069857.jpg
The means and materials received left immediately to Guantanamo. Photo: Miguel Rubiera Justiz / ACN

SANTIAGO DE Cuba.-The ship AB Guajira (Tango-63), carrying 375 tons of machinery and construction materials submitted jointly by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in support of the recovery from damage caused by Hurricane Matthew in Guantanamo province, was received at the port Guillermón Moncada, of this city.

officially announced by the president of the sister nation, Nicolas Maduro Moros, this first shipment is made by crane 20-ton trucks, dump trucks, trucks for concrete (spinning tops), truck cistern for water, wheel loaders, backhoes and forklifts, among other equipment.

Rounding out the valuable assistance towards a territory that suffered damages in thousands of homes, bridges and roads, one mortar plant wet cement silos, 20,000 square meters of covered for about 250 homes and welded mesh used in wall elements and covers.

To make the delivery on behalf of the president and the Venezuelan people, Milagro Rodriguez Silva, first secretary of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic in Cuba, said the hurricane destroyed homes, roads, agriculture and other fronts, but never solidarity and brotherhood indestructible between our two nations.

Meanwhile Nancy Acosta Hernandez, vice president of the Provincial Defense Council in Guantanamo, conveyed the gratitude of the authorities, the Cuban people, and especially Guantanamo, along with determining the effective use and as quickly as possible, resources and means received.

Together with a representation of the people of Santiago they attended the emotional welcome the members of the Central Committee of the Party Lazaro Exposito Canto and Jhonson Beatriz Urrutia, president and vice president of the Defense Council in the Santiago province, respectively; Minister of Construction of Cuba, René Mesa Villafane, and the naval attache at the Venezuelan Embassy, ​​Admiral Rivero Liloia Benemina.

As reported by Maria Luisa Well Onate, delegate of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Collaboration in the Santiago area, this own Thursday would arrive by air the first humanitarian aid from the World Food Programme, consisting mainly in department stores campaign and purification tablets of water.

In addition, for Saturday morning is expected the second contribution of Venezuela aboard the Navy ship Bolivarian Tango-62, which like the one received now from the port of La Guaira in Vargas state, has 104 meters in length ( long), sleeve 15 (width), and a load capacity of tons.

Well Oñate added that several nations and non-governmental organizations have also announced for the next days the delivery of humanitarian aid through this city, where they have taken all measures for their transportation to the areas most affected by Hurricane Matthew.

THE TANGO-63 IN ONE OF ITS MOST IMPORTANT MISSIONS

"For us it is a real honor the fulfillment of this humanitarian mission and solidarity towards Cuba, which is included among the most important that has met our ship AB Guajira (Tango-63) in the Bolivarian Navy, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ".


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Authorities in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo, and the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, warmly greeted the captain Leonardo Castellanos Medina. Photo: Miguel Rubiera Justiz / ACN

Who thus expressed is the captain and commander of that ship, Leonardo Castellanos Medina, while carefully observe every detail of the discharge of 375 tons in heavy building materials machinery, just move the boat to Cuba.

"It was at the graduation ceremony of a high number of Venezuelan doctors, he adds, that our president, Nicolas Maduro announced the decision to send Cuba a significant aid to areas most affected by Hurricane Matthew, and moments later we informed the task.

"The journey from the port of La Guaira in Vargas state, to Santiago de Cuba lasted about three days in the middle of a calm sea, and I swear we felt much longer confesses to Granma, for both the headquarter as crewmembers were eager to get to this sister.

"I do not really expect such a nice reception from the authorities, the representation of our embassy in Havana and Santiago de Cuba people, and now the most important thing is that all means and resources fall in perfect condition, as has happened up to this instantly, they can leave for Guantanamo. "

Taking advantage of his stay at the Hero City of the Republic of Cuba, the vessel's pay tribute to Cuban National Hero, José Martí, by placing a wreath at the mausoleum of Santa Ifigenia cemetery, visit the former Moncada barracks assaulted by Centennial generation command of Fidel, and meet other historical sites.

"The matter She points Castellanos Medina, is that this gesture of solidarity and brotherhood is not only beautiful, but also historical, because it also contains political and strategic vision of our Liberator Simon Bolivar, which is followed by the constitutional president of Venezuela, for our Bolivarian Navy, the Ministry of Defense and our brave people.

"Within two days he emphasized, another shipment will arrive in Tango-62, similar to this boat, while we go back to if necessary back here or where we are entrusted."


http://youtu.be/ZoRLHBAapXg

http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2016-10-13/agradecen-ayuda-de-venezuela-para-territorios-danados-por-el-huracan-matthew-13-10-2016-23-10-04

Solidarity! I suspect that the US has done nothing of the sort for it's thrall, Haiti.

That boat looks to be a WWII vintage US LST(landing ship tank) though the forward gun turret is either an add-on or late model, impressive to me as a Habana Edsel.

That boat looks to be a WWII vintage US LST(landing ship tank) though the forward gun turret is either an add-on or late model, impressive to me as a Habana Edsel.

I was thinking similarly. When I saw that gun I thought,. "Don't fuck with this boat."

Cuba's Sustainable Agro-Ecological Model Could Save the World
By: Marion Deschamps

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A Cuban flag hangs near pineapples and onions at a state market in Havana. | Photo: Reuters

Published 16 October 2016

On World Food Day, teleSUR spoke to Professor Raj Patel, an award-winning writer and defender of food security and sustainable models of agriculture.
In Cuba, where the external conditions—the U.S. blockade and the collapse of the USSR—along with internal socialist planning, have compelled Cuban farmers to adopt an independent model of agriculture to feed the population, without importing expensive chemicals, the model that has developed is a world leader in sustainability.

teleSUR: What do you think will happen to the future of the agro-ecological model in Cuba, as the normalization of diplomatic relations with the United States may prove to serve the U.S. agricultural sector pushing to grab its share of Cuban markets?

Patel: I am very worried, just as everyone in Cuba should be. The model that has flourished in Cuba is a model of sustainability, where scientists are directly accountable to farmers, where farmers are treated—not as idiots—but as partners in the field who experiment and innovate, and the real genius of the Cuban experiment has been the democratization of expertise, knowledge and power.

And my great worry about the U.S. is that we've had a lot of reports, and documents from Wikileaks, that every member of the administration is pushing for Monsanto and Genetically Modified Organisms. Cuban citizens need to know what's at stake—just like the rest of us—as the promise of this beautiful example could be extinguished soon, and I think we have to do everything we can to avoid that.

teleSUR: Because of the circumstances—the collapse of the USSR and the U.S. blockade—Cuban farmers had to adapt and produce food without the support of imported pesticides or fertilizers. Has the production been able to guarantee food security for all Cubans?

Patel: Cuba would not produce enough to feed the population if the population wanted to eat like Americans. That's to say the U.S. diet requires so much in terms of water, fuel, etc., because of the high level of meat consumption. But it's not a defect in Cuba's model of agriculture, rather in the U.S. model of consumption: we consume too much meat.

I think it's unfair to blame Cuba for not being able to sustain a U.S. diet. If everyone ate meat as much as the United States does, we would need seven planets to feed everyone. It's the U.S. diet that is unsustainable, rather than the model of agriculture in Cuba being under-productive.

teleSUR: Does Cuba still rely on food imports, like cereals?

Patel: They are importing rice I believe. But they are producing most of their fruits and vegetables. It's hard to assess the model fairly, because now with the Venezuelan oil coming (since Hugo Chavez' election in 1999), there's a lot more of industrial agriculture happening. That means a return to old kinds of models, and it's hard to know how much of the current situation in Cuba to attribute to a sustainable model as opposed to the unsustainable model because there's a big mix at the moment. It's not a pure case study.

But what we do know is that this kind of agro-ecology—where you are growing food very intensively, recycling nutrients through the land, not just growing a single crop but multiple crops, building soil fertility and managing well water resources, using less fertilizers and pesticides—well as far as we are concern, there is a lot more sustainability associated with that model, and a lot more food per unit of area, than if you are farming in the Midwest in the United States. That's backed up by dozens and dozens of peer-reviewed studies comparing agro-ecology with industrial agriculture.

teleSUR: And it's also more disaster-proof—a crucial quality with the incrementation of natural disasters because of global warming?

Patel: Absolutely, particularly now that we've had one hurricane pass through the Caribbean and there are more on the way. Yes, it's important to remember that if you have a diversified portfolio of crops, then if one crop bites the dust then you'll still have a range of options. We haven't had evidence yet but talking with farmers, agro-ecological soil is much better at resisting floods, because there's a lot more topsoil, so it does not get washed away as much.

teleSUR: Could the agro-ecological model implemented three decades ago in Cuba be transposed in other parts of the world today, as we face new challenges like climate change and urbanization?

Patel: Actually many countries are already adopting this model, in Latin America (check the work of SLOAS) but also in Laos, Malawi, where I have seen incredible results to fight malnutrition on very unpromising land thanks to the agro-ecological approach.

But people need to realize also that the story of agro-ecology is not just about “you must grow corn! And beans! And squash!” What defines agro-ecology is understanding the ecology that you are in, and then using that knowledge in order to develop appropriate systems that match where you are in the world. Agro-ecology is about principles, there's no recipe.

Not only can it work in other parts of the world, it is already working, because a lot of farmers are experiencing climate change. It does require a shift away from meat consumption, for instance, consuming less of it but of much better quality.

Of course, it is possible to have unsustainable production of—let's say—lettuce, you don't need animals to make agriculture unsustainable, for instance, if you grow only lettuce with tons of chemicals and a huge amount of water. But that's not a fair comparison, and actually many agro-ecological systems do include meat, but way less meat. It's not about meat-eaters vs. vegetarians, it's about sustainable vs. unsustainable.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Cubas-Sustainable-Agro-Ecological-Model-Could-Save-the-World-20161013-0023.html

Videos at link.

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Cuba's Innovative Biotechnology Attracts Global Attention

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The entrepreneur fair in Havana marks the first for dozens of U.S. businesses. | Photo: ‏@EmbaCubaUS

Published 3 November 2015

Cuba achieved food security without destroying its environment, and the rest of the world has taken notice.
Cuba is presenting several of its original biotechnologies at an international business fair this week, drawing further attention to a sector of the Cuban economy that’s been generating substantial interest abroad.

The Cuban Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology presented various biotechnological innovations at the fair: all eco-friendly and biodegrable alternatives to conventional technologies, which could help the transition toward a more sustainable model of agriculture.

Among them was, “Gavac,” an immunogen that provides for better control over ticks and tick-related infections in cattle, according to Doctor Hector Machado of Cuba’s Heber Biotec company.

Gavac's formula reduces the use of chemical insecticides, noted Machado, while diminishing the risk of diseases being transmitted by ticks, improving an animal’s natural capacity to respond to an infection without increasing their resistance to treatment.

Gavac has already been commercialized in Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. Its awaiting approval for use in Nicaragua, Panama and Costa Rica.

Other biotechnological products included Acuabio's range of nutritional complements used in aquaculture in order to boost the growth of larva and enhance their immune systems until they become adults, providing them better defenses against infections.

The HeberNem eco-friendly insecticide against roundworms, or nematodes, is also increasingly popular within Cuba, and will be presented in the fair this year.

The fair – one of the largest business events in the Caribbean – aims to attract investment in Cuba. This year, a few dozen U.S. firms are attending the fair, the first time U.S. companies have attended since the fair was launched 33 years ago.

Cuba has been attracting attention in recent years for its model of agriculture, as it has been able to develop cheap and eco-friendly technologies that have helped the country to reach a certain level of food security without damaging the environment. With the environmental and financial challenges the world is now facing, the Cuban model – built in a time of crisis, after the USSR collapsed – is seen as offering potential solutions to many countries in the world.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cubas-Innovative-Biotechnology-Attracts-Global-Attention-20151103-0018.html

Videos at link

Don't like the 'entrepreneur' but Cuba really needs the cash and spreading around this superior technology sure can't hurt....

As World Burns, Cuba Number 1 for Sustainable Development: WWF

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According to the report, if current levels of consumption continue then by 2050 the world's population will need the natural resources produced by two planet Earths. | Photo: EFE

Published 27 October 2016

Latin America in general was found to be the region with the highest levels of sustainability.
As the world's ecosystem continues to be destroyed at an "unprecedented speed," Cuba has the most sustainable model of development on the planet, the environmental group WWF said in its bi-annual "Living Planet Report 2016."

According to the report, if current levels of consumption continue by 2050 then the world's population will need the natural resources and energy produced by two planet Earths.

“Cuba, however, was found to have implemented a good — yet not perfect—combination of human development and environmental footprint, with a high level of alphabetization and a high level of life expectancy, while using little energy and natural resources,” Jonathan Loh, one of the leaders of the study, said during the presentation of the report in Beijing.

The combination of human development and the exploitation of natural resources has resulted in WWF creating an “environmental footprint” index, and Cuba was found to have the best rate in the world.

Latin America, in general, was found to be the region with the highest levels of sustainability according to the report, while Africa had low levels of energy consumption combined with lower levels of human development. The opposite was true for Europe.

“I am not sure which factor explains (Latin America's good scores in the report), but people living there seem happier, maybe because of this better balance between development and environment,” he added.

However, a separate report released by Oxfam Tuesday found that Latin America is also number one in the world for environmental activists being violently targeted and killed, a trend that has increased over recent years.

In 2015, 122 activists were killed. In 2015, between January and May, 58 were killed, according to Global Witness, including prominent Honduran environmentalists Berta Caceres, Jose Angel Flores and Silmer Dionisio Jorge.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/As-World-Burns-Cuba-Number-1-for-Sustainable-Development-WWF-20161027-0018.html

Videos at link.

This is what poor communists can do, imagine what we can do with rational use of the world's productive capability.

Socialism or barbarism

(This Google translation is sorry but reproduced anyway to give an idea of what's going on with the push for 'self employment'. Best I can gather these 'entrepreneurs' are being kept on a short leash)

Control and success, in that order?

Following the checks carried out recently by the Government of Havana in a group of private restaurants in the capital, Granma visited some of these to share about the experience and concerns. From October 24th licensing for this activity it had been suspended last September 16 resumed

Author: Yudy Castro Morales | yudy@granma.cu
November 11, 2016 00:11:44

http://www.granma.cu/file/img/2016/11/medium/f0071529.jpg
The Nip, of Guanabacoa, owes its "fame" to the abundance of dishes and reasonable prices, without forgetting the exquisiteness of their offers. Photo: Yaimí Ravelo

After 21 years in the restaurant business, Ernesto Blanco knows the requirements of that activity, what can or can not do, because respecting the limits is also a key to success.

Today, there are few tourist agencies with which it has signed contracts, so that the image of Cuba that many visitors keep has probably a reference in the food of La Fontana, a site located in the Havana municipality of Playa, whose services reflect the rise of ventures that revere the culinary culture.

Also Atelier, Revolution Square and La California, Centro Habana, are those restaurants renowned for their haute cuisine, and even the illustrious clients at this stage of "Cuban fashion" have chosen their properties to "taste" the reality of the island.

The Nip, however, more withdrawn in Guanabacoa, owes its "fame" to the abundance of dishes and reasonable prices, without forgetting the refinement of the French masses, presented as the specialty of the house.

With the owners of these businesses shared Granma recently, because they were part of the 32 restaurants self - employed that were inspected during the month of October by the Council of the Provincial Administration (CAP) in Havana, with the purpose of verifying its proper functioning.

In addition to participating in control, had also been present in the process of prior dialogue to actions, and as said the vice president in functions of the CAP of the capital, Isabel Hamze Ruiz, proposed to warn about some negative trends that had been identified in such establishments.

The tour included, similarly, the Farallon and Sarao, Plaza; Lair, in Centro Habana; Black Pearl, belonging to 10 October and grafter in Old Havana, sites, mostly because almost "iconic" in the capital's nightlife.

ROUTINE CONTROL WITH PLENTY OF INTENT

According to Isabel Hamze Ruiz, Havana has a service group self-employment (TCP) which is responsible for ensuring control and regulate all matters related to this form of management, in which more than 152 000 workers in the capital in 201 approved activities.

The organizational work of this team, recently explained in a report published by Granma , the measures since September have been implemented were derived and included: the temporary suspension of delivery of vendor 's license producer of food and beverages by service gourmet (palate), meetings with the owners of those businesses the capital of 15 municipalities and the subsequent actions of control.

However, in an interview with our newspaper, he said that since October 24 and the licensing of this activity was reopened, and accordingly already been granted 22 new permits, a figure that comes to swell the 502 restaurants and They exist in the capital.

He recapitulated the meetings, held between September and early October, were intended to warn about issues that misted the work of restaurants and constituted indiscipline.

They were told the owners about closing time (3:00 am), the procedure for hiring artists and workers, the parking of cars, noise, acquisition of illegal goods, smuggling and the crime of receiving , facts that are not justified by the absence of a wholesale market.

They are also called attention to the responsibility to prevent their establishments to become scenarios for selling drugs, pimping and prostitution, as well as investment capital of dubious origin, the risk of incurring money laundering .

They were warned, similarly, on breaches of planning regulations, false in housing sales procedures, the importation of goods for commercial purposes, and, on the scope of the activities for which they were granted the license. And she not overlooked the payment of taxes and the crime of tax evasion.

After completion of the exchanges, he said, they started control measures aimed at checking the same aspects analyzed before and whose procedures did not work away from the routine.

Generally, the results were positive, recognized, and look good feedback regarding compliance schedules, noise and respect the rules of coexistence, and especially in everything related to recruitment.

In Havana, he said, the Provincial Labour Directorate (TPD), in conjunction with the Workers' Central Union of Cuba, had done a study which revealed that 80% of owners had no written contracts with their employees, and already today that reality is different.

According to Arian Pinero, deputy director of the DPT, this procedure is essential in order to protect the rights of those benefiting from this source of employment, given that the total TCP in the capital, about 37,000 are workers hired.

However, Hamze Ruiz stressed that "we must continue working on issues related to the legality of the raw materials, in the absence of a wholesale market. The balance of the process has been favorable. He had a prophylactic intention and we believe that was fulfilled. Credibility is now doing systematic ".

Sinners and saints

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There are few tourist agencies with which it has signed contracts La Fontana. Photo: Anabel Diaz

"When I received the citation for exchange with government officials I sugestioné, but then, with the dialogue, I began to understand the alert, because warned war does not kill soldier, and I understood that we had to put more control to our business."

Thus began the conversation with Granma Niuris Ysabel Higueras, owner of Atelier restaurant which opened in December 2010 and has contracts with tourist agencies dissimilar.

He said that "control included everything said in the meeting. It started at 9:00 pm and ended at 3:00 am The schedule did not seem right, but I'm not against control because it happens anywhere in the world. "

Also Paul Charles Farigola, La California, acknowledged that "control is necessary because without such actions no country develops," but also drew attention to the time of day chosen to carry it out, a subject on which they were repeated concerns.

In that sense, the vice president in functions of the CAP clarified that "the inspection was to rule the analysis of the facts at the time they were happening. Why was performed while operating business and were chosen precisely nights because corresponded with the busiest schedule. However, it was not to disturb customers or paralyze the service ".

Another was repeated comments concerning the limit chairs. For this reason they were fined, they said to our newspaper, El Nip, Atelier and La California.

"Restricting the ability attentive to the proper conduct of business. Those who provide services to tourist agencies sometimes we are the empty whole day, but arrive at a specific time several groups and we are forced to break even with our contracts, "said Ernesto Blanco.

The approved capacity must be in line with the actual capacity of each place, suggested José Eduardo Alfonso, head of the pinch. "We are ready to pay the taxes established because many do not want to violate the rules, but we want successful businesses," he said.

Some, like the owners of La California and La Fontana, have two licenses (cafeteria and restaurant), because this way are entitled to 50 seats for each permit. But that, they say, does not always solve the bottlenecks.

According to Isabel Hamze, that is a matter that has been changing over time. "While not normamos those limits, we do know about that concern and we believe that should be studied by the competent bodies."

The absence of the wholesale market and the shortage of retail network was, as usual, the most debated dissatisfaction. All emphasized how this situation affects the quality and variety of service and high prices of their offers, while some exaggerate their costs.

In the words of Hamze Ruiz, "the situation with the wholesale market is not a problem of will, and it is known that the retail network to which we turn all depressed. Efforts have been made to provide some assorted shops in industrial formats, but that is insufficient. "

Alternatively, also prevalent among the claims, respondents stressed the possibility of importing entities linked to purchase inputs and equipment. Other ideas questioned the inability to import (holders) deficit products such as drinks, for example.

In this regard, Isabel Hamze said linking forms of non-state-run import companies, unable to enter the country articles with commercial, little has been achieved with non-Agricultural Cooperatives (CNA); but it has not been possible with self-employed, because it is a very diverse sector.

According to data provided by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, as of September they exercised self-employment across the country 522,855 people. And of that number, 58,993 were engaged in the manufacture and sale of food.

We understand, Hamze said Ruiz, who is a logical demand, but have not had the solution for it. With the CNA is beginning, but extend it to as wide as the private sector, and it is rising, it is still complex. Although I do not doubt that steps to make this mechanism also favors the TCP are given.

Around training holders California and La Fontana spoke. For Paul Charles, it is insufficient or no advice that is given to the TCP regarding tax and financial issues and questioned the inconsistencies between the bodies carrying out checks.

Meanwhile, Ernesto Blanco stressed the importance of self-preparation and have people trained in these issues, because today inspections are more rigorous and the owners have to have total control of their accounts.

They also requested to know more about the fate of the taxes that contribute to the budget of municipalities. And the vice president, for his part, considered that the involvement of these economic actors with the community should be urged closer and build bridges from government to the TCP and vice versa.

BARS YES, BUT ...

After control actions, much has been speculated about the scope of the license and if these ultimately, provide the service bar.

Isabel Hamze said that, in the license, since his name is recognized the existence of the bar. In fact, most palates have it, because it is a very attractive service for nightlife of Havana. Until the closing hours of these establishments points to such activities. And sometimes your name or business card includes the bar.

The signs we have done, he said, "have no relation to the services bar, except that they can not be imported beverages are not marketed in our country. There may sell any type of drink, wine; but the bar can not become a nightclub. For that there are no licenses today, and some distort the scope. Nor it is that the restaurant is absolutely a bar, because that is not contemplated. "

The issue of private clubs, said, "I do not think being assessed. There in the capital state nightclubs and cooperative management. They may be insufficient, so that it is necessary to increase the network. And that should be studying. "

In this regard, several interviewees alluded to the high demand for such services and quality fissures present state establishments today are engaged in that activity. What is relevant, they agreed, is not the kind of entrepreneurship but in control. They also acknowledged the responsibility of the owners with everything that happens within their business. Not surprisingly the right to refuse admission.

In total agreement, Hamze Ruiz reiterated that "indiscipline are not assets of a management model. Also they presented in state establishments, so that checks are made at all levels. "

What's done in these months, he concluded, it has allowed us to reflect. "We have been able to convey to the workers' own sector we appreciate that the service offered is important, that of its restaurants can not do without. Be controlled, and simultaneously add, because they are also part of the wonder that we are. "

http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2016-11-11/control-y-exito-en-ese-orden-11-11-2016-00-11-44

Best I can gather these 'entrepreneurs' are being kept on a short leash

I hope the leash is very short and very tight. There is no reason for this except greed and Yankee influence (that my be a redundant statement).

I hope the leash is very short and very tight. There is no reason for this except greed and Yankee influence (that my be a redundant statement).

It might be a good idea to let the 'mom&pops' continue to provide their services at the beginning of a revolution if only for continuity and allow the state to replace/substitute when it has the time. OTOH I can see where this would be a source of confusion. Well, it's still a new thing and local conditions dictate.

US Subversion Against Cuba Continues
Posted by WORLD REVOLUTIONARY FRONT IN DEFENSE OF LIFE AND HUMANITY on OCTOBER 24, 2016
Even while the ink of Barack Obama’s new Presidential Directive on Cuba is not yet dry, an announcement for new subversive projects against Cuba was published on the U.S. State Department website


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Funding announcement posted on U.S. State Department website. Photo: http://www.state.gov/j/drl/p/263310.htm
Sergio Alejandro Gómez | internet@granma.cu

If you mix the same ingredients an equal number of times, the result will always be the same. However, the United States is attempting to change its Cuba policy while maintaining the same subversive recipe.

Even while the ink of Barack Obama’s new Presidential Directive on Cuba is not yet dry, an announcement for new subversive projects against the island, containing all usual ingredients of the typical aggressive and interventionist policies of the past, was published on the U.S. State Department website on October 21.
The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, is offering funding opportunities for projects which supposedly promote “democratic changes” in the spheres of civil, political and labor rights in Cuba.

Washington has historically used the guise of assistance projects to hide their subversive plans, not only against Cuba, but also communities which do not respond to the geo-strategic interests of the U.S.; while the country maintains relations with some of the nations with the worst human rights records on this planet.

The Bureau is offering those interested in interfering in the internal affairs of the island, some 5.6 million dollars, subject to availability.

IN LIGHT OF THE NEW DIRECTIVE

We want to engage “openly and honestly with the Cuban people,” stated U.S. National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, on October 14, in regards to the new presidential policy directive; adding that in order to do so, the so-called “democracy assistance” programs in Cuba will be made more “transparent.”

The final part of the directive contains terms almost identical to those used by various government bodies, in particular the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which funnels billions of dollars into projects aimed at defending Washington’s interests around the world.

According to the directive, “The USAID will co-lead efforts with State to ensure that democracy programming is transparent and consistent with programming in other similarly situated societies,” as if the mere act of making these programs more transparent, without changing their subversive nature, would automatically make them acceptable for Cuba.

The new announcement helps to dispel doubts surrounding euphemisms by the U.S. government: “DRL’s programmatic emphasis aligns with the U.S. government policy to promote human rights in Cuba,” reads the announcement. It continues by noting that “DRL prefers creative approaches” to fulfilling its objectives and that approved activities “should have potential for short-term impact leading to long-term sustainable reforms.”

Among activities typically funded by the DRL the announcement highlights: “Capacity building on and off the island. Off-island activities sometimes include short-term fellowships.”

Cuba recently denounced the true intentions behind the World Learning program, offering surreptitious summer scholarships to Cuban youth and organized outside of the state apparatus, which aim to create an alternative leadership movement to promote regime change on the island.

“Access to software that would be easily accessible in an open society, or the adaptation of software for the Cuban technological environment,” is another priority area.
The most recent example of such projects was the case of ZunZuneo revealed by U.S. news agency AP, in 2014.

USAID financed the creation of an alternative cell-phone messaging service, which came to be known as the Cuban Twitter, targeting the island’s youth with apparently inoffensive messages on sports and culture. However, the app was really designed to create a platform among this sector of Cuban society, which could be used to launch future destabilization initiatives.

According to the DRL announcement, projects can be submitted by “a U.S.-based or foreign-based non-profit organization/non-governmental organization (NGO), or a public international organization,” among others.

However, the document clearly states that no project involving the participation of the island’s legitimate institutions will be accepted: “DRL does not fund programs for Cuba that are directed towards supporting Cuban government institutions, individuals employed by those institutions, or organizations controlled by government institutions.”

AN EXPLOSIVE MIX

The clearest demonstration of the masked interests of DRL funded programs lies in their supposed objectives on the island: “Programs should support the realization in Cuba of the rights and principles enshrined within the following Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” including “the prohibition of torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment…The right to a free and fair trial before an independent and impartial tribunal; the right to privacy; the freedom of movement within one’s country; the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;” in addition to “the right to work in conditions of dignity with fair remuneration and the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of the workers’ interests.”

The announcement also notes that the “DRL strives to ensure its projects inter alia advance the rights and uphold the dignity of the most vulnerable, marginalized or at-risk populations.”

Anyone who stays informed as to what’s happening in Cuba, and is aware of the negative propaganda continually published by the mass media, will know that the island’s recently approved Labor Code is at the vanguard of global labor rights.

In Cuba, men and women receive equal pay for equal work, while employee maternity, paternity, and social security rights, which private sector workers also enjoy, are achievements which are still only a dream in various other countries across the world.

The only acts of torture perpetrated in Cuba are carried out in the territory illegally occupied by the Naval Base in Guantánamo, under U.S. control, where 60 individuals are currently being held, all deprived of their most basic legal rights.

It seems like a waste of money, even for a power like the United States, to allocate 5.6 million dollars to helping supposedly excluded minorities in Cuba, when African Americans in the U.S. are being targeted by police and the unemployment rate among this sector is double that of the country’s Caucasian population.

Neither does the U.S. recognize the Convention of the Rights of Migratory Workers and their Families, employing degrading practices in blatant violation of human rights against those traveling to the country in order to improve their economic situation.

While the nation’s rich continue to amass more wealth, the U.S. maintains the highest child poverty rate among all industrialized countries, and continues to violate the rights of thousands of migrant minors; indiscriminately separated from their parents.

Washington should take care when using such explosive ingredients in its failed subversive recipe against Cuba, as it won’t be the first time the mix ends-up blowing up in their hands. One might think that Obama’s policy change toward Cuba would include abandoning “failed policies,” but everything seems to indicate that some powerful sectors of the U.S. refuse to “leave the past behind.”

Cuban Women Denounce US Blockade and Intervention


Teresa Amarelle, member of the Party Political Bureau and secretary general of the Federation of Cuban Women, leads event in the municipality of Imias condemning hostile U.S. policies
Jorge Luis Merencio | informacion@granma.cu
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IMIAS, Guantánamo.— Teresa Amarelle, member of the Party Political Bureau and secretary general of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), presided an event here during which the municipality’s women condemned the economic, commercial and financial blockade maintained by the government of the United States against Cuba for more than 50 years.

Beitelvis Cantillo, a local FMC leader, demanded that the hostile policy be ended and the Guantánamo Naval Base closed.

Eighth-grader Keila Labañino Verdecia, speaking for the organization’s youngest members, outlined the serious damage caused by the blockade, harming the Cuban people and inhibiting the country’s development. She called on Obama and the incoming U.S. President to respect the right of Cuban youth to choose their own future and construct a free homeland without interference.

Amarelle, in Imias after visiting the municipalities of Maisí and Baracoa, noted that Guantánamo’s men and women have witnessed the way imperialism and the servile press have distorted Cuba’s response to Hurricane Matthew, attempting to discredit government efforts and the presence of the country’s highest leaders in affected areas.

The FMC leader commented, “In these areas we saw the people immersed in recovery efforts, with absolute confidence in the Revolution,” noting that families whose homes were not damaged have opened their doors to others, and even provided space for students and teachers to continue the school year.

She likewise spoke with the press and commended work done to keep the population informed during and following the hurricane.

Also participating in the event were Zenia Lores Méndez and Vilmaida Machado Londres, acting president and vice president of the municipal Defense Council, respectively, as well as Daysi Véliz Bravo, FMC secretary general in the province.

Youth across the country insist: Cuba is ours

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October 24, youth across the country joined women and workers in denouncing the interventionist nature of President Obama’s recent policy directive and demanding an end to the blockade
ACN | informacion@granma.cu

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Photo: Yusleydis Socorro

SANTA CLARA.—With a combative march through the city’s streets, students from Santa Clara’s vocational-professional high schools denounced the interventionist nature of President Obama’s recent directive regarding U.S. policy toward Cuba.

Chavelys Díaz Rodríguez, president of the Federation of Secondary Students (FEEM) in the province’s capital city, emphasized the importance of understanding the limitations of this directive, and called for an immediate end to the blockade.

“We refuse to forget our history, from Céspedes to Fidel,” she added.

Attending the combative demonstration were students and teachers from the city’s General Lázaro Cárdenas, Ramón Pando Ferrer, Mirto Milián, and Raúl Suárez vocational-professional high schools.

In Holguín, students from the José Martí Pre-university Exact Sciences High School raised their banners in a resounding rejection of U.S. dreams of intervening in Cuba.

President Barack Obama announced his position and we will impose ours, since we are responsible for the homeland’s future, emphasized Cynthia Arjona, Talía Garlobo and Katerine Cruz, as they signed a petition denouncing recent U.S. maneuvers.

They reaffirmed their commitment to the Revolution and called for the return to Cuba of territory illegally occupied by the U.S. Naval Base in Guantánamo.

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Photo: Yusleydis Socorro

Marieles Tasis, provincial president provincial of FEEM, spoke with ACN and reported that the organization’s 24,000 members in Holguin would be participating in such activities on Monday across the province.

Youth in Matanzas likewise expressed their condemnation of the blockade and denounced the explicitly interventionist nature of the recent policy directive issued by Barack Obama.

René Fraga Moreno Park was the scene of a short but resounding demonstration by students from the nearby pedagogical high school, workers, and residents of the West

Matanzas People’s Council, denouncing the limited scope of changes implemented by Obama in U.S. policy toward Cuba.

Jesús García, worker at Radio 26, noted that the measures are well thought-out, not to benefit the Cuban people, but rather U.S. interests. The Presidential directive, he emphasized, continues to insist on regime change in Cuba, asking, “Who said that changes here are their business?”

Workers at the city’s Comandante Faustino Pérez Hospital, also expressed their condemnation of Obama’s directive and emphasized that the health sector has suffered damages estimated at 82,720,000 dollars this past year as a result of the blockade.

Also participating in the day of events calling for an end to the blockade were workers at Cupet and Bellotex, in the Guanábana People’s Council located in the outskirts of Matanzas, as well as workers at the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/10/24/us-subversion-against-cuba-continues/

“Fidel and Chávez set the goals, the ideas, and showed the way with their enduring example”
Remarks by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of the Councils of State and Ministers, during a national act in solidarity with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Author: Raul Castro Ruz | internet@granma.cu
december 15, 2016 10:12:25

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Photo: Estudio Revolución

Remarks by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee and President of the Councils of State and Ministers, during the act marking the 12th anniversary of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples’ Trade Agreement (ALBA-TCP), and the 22nd anniversary of the first encounter between Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. Havana International Conference Center, December 14, 2016, “Year 58 of the Revolution.”

(Council of State transcript – GI translation)

Dear compañero Nicolás Maduro, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela;

Venezuelan compañeros and compañeras;

Representatives of ALBA-TCP sister nations and all other Latin American and Caribbean States;

Compatriots:


I will be very brief, like the majority of my speeches tend to be, also in this case not to strain my voice which, as you will note, is slightly affected and, nonetheless, there still remains much to discuss (Applause). I was saying that there still remains much to discuss and fight for in this country (Applause), which could see my voice become permanently hoarse.

The recent history of Our America summons us here today to commemorate various events:

The 22nd anniversary of the first encounter between Comandante Hugo Chávez Frías and Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz; the starting point of an infinite friendship and loyalty between the Cuban Revolution and Bolivarian Revolution.

Sixteen years since the signing of the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement between Cuba and Venezuela, which established the bases of an economic, commercial and cooperation relationship, which has brought great benefits and human experiences to both peoples.

We are also celebrating the 12th anniversary of the creation, in Havana, of what was first the Alternative and later became the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples’ Trade Agreement; a new form of organization to coordinate and promote the cooperation and development of member states.

We can highlight significant and eloquent results from these experiences:

Four countries have been freed of illiteracy and have made progress in providing their people with education, which constitutes the starting point for all great revolutionary transformations in any society.

Millions of Latin Americans have received free health services and over one million seven hundred thousand have had their eyesight restored.

A new, just, and complementary type of trade, free of protectionisms, began to unfold.

In an act of altruism, Venezuela created solidary trade and cooperation mechanisms to share part of its oil wealth and promote integrationist socio-economic changes in the region, without which many countries would not have been able to withstand the international crisis.

It is imperative today, to call on the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean to stand in solidarity with this Bolivarian, anti-imperialist and immensely generous Venezuela – to whom we are so grateful – currently the victim of a great siege and unprecedented hostility by forces historically opposed to progress in our region.

Supporting Venezuela, at a time of attacks by the oligarchy, imperialism and neoliberalism, also means fighting for full Latin American and Caribbean emancipation and integration.

Working in solidarity with Venezuela means being aware of what could happen in this hemisphere if those looking to reconquer the immense riches of this country and promote hate and conflict, at the expense of free determination and peace, to which Heads of State of the region pledged, here in Havana in 2014, by signing the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace; were to prevail.

Solidarity, shared ideas and joint action are what the peoples of Our America need right now, in this time of difficulties and growing challenges.

Fidel and Chávez set the goals, the ideas, and showed the way with their enduring example. It is down to all of us to turn their legacy into the invincible trench from which to defend the American Homeland (Applause).

Martí said: “Let Venezuela call on me to serve her: I am her son.” On this memorable occasion we Cubans reaffirm: Venezuela, we are your children!

Thank you very much (Applause).

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2016-12-15/fidel-and-chavez-set-the-goals-the-ideas-and-showed-the-way-with-their-enduring-example

Better than a dozen polemics....


http://youtu.be/tozhe0yTAqo

Viva Cuba!

Raul Castro: "Cuba will not go towards Capitalism now or ever"

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Source: Telesur.

Cuban President Raul Castro said that the socialist country will not head towards capitalism, as the country prepares for the first anniversary of the Cuban Revolution after the death of his brother Fidel.

Raul spoke at the national assembly, after over a month since he announced to the world the death of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on November 25.

He spoke about the economy of the nation predicting that the economy will grow and the Gross Domestic Product will grow moderately at around 2 percent.

To achieve this, three decisive premises must be fulfilled: ensuring exports and their timely billing, increasing domestic production that replaces imports, and reducing all non-essential expenses, he added.

The president also said the country shouldn’t be afraid of foreign capital arriving on the island.

“We are not going towards capitalism, that is completely ruled out, as our Constitution states,” said Raul, "but we must not be afraid of it (foreign capital) and put obstacles in the way to what we can do within the framework of existing laws, which implies the preparation of cadre and specialists to negotiate, as well as analyzing the deficiencies and mistakes made in the past so as not to repeat them," said the army general.

The national assembly approved legislation that will carry out Fidel’s final dying wish that will forbid the use of his name and image on streets, statues, parks, government institutions and public places.

Raul will lead the celebrations in honor of the anniversary of the triumph of the revolution on January 1, 1959.

“His spirit of struggle will remain in the consciousness of revolutionaries of today, tomorrow and forever,” said Raul. “And we will demonstrate this in the military march of the people on Jan. 2, in tribute to the Commander in Chief and to our youth.”

The president said Cuba has fought against internal and external economic hardships and still come out strong, even with the ongoing blockade from the U.S. that forbids the island from doing any international transactions in U.S. dollars.

https://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2016/12/raul-castro-cuba-will-not-go-towards.html

Despite Economic Challenges, Cuba Prioratizes Human Development

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Cuban President Raul Castro. | Photo: Reuters

Published 30 December 2016

President Raul Castro has stressed that foreign capital must not be demonized, and that it can be still be employed to further the island's socialist goals.
Even as Cuba faces economic and financial challenges in the upcoming year, the island’s government has announced it will assign 51 percent of the budget towards health, education and social welfare.

Speaking at the closing session of the 8th Legislature of the National Assembly for 2016, Finance and Prices Minister Lina Pedraza said the new budget would contain an 11 percent increase in expenditures for social welfare programs. These would account for the increase of people in retirement age in the socialist nation, she explained.

Tax cuts for the use of labor force would also be implemented, she announced, to decrease the burden of expenses in the private and public entrepreneurial sectors in accordance with the nation’s Tax System Law. These measures would also allow local governments to retain 50 percent of revenue from local taxation to use towards economic and social development plans, Prensa Latina reported.

The 11 percent increase in the 2017 budget has been possible due to the growth of production that replaced imports and investments in 2016, Minister Pedraza explained, according to Prensa Latina.



Despite a 0.9 percent decline in the country’s Gross Domestic Product as 2016 ends, President Raul Castro pointed out that the GDP is expected to moderately grow 2 percent in 2017. For this to happen, however, Raul stressed the need to ensure exports and timely payment for them, to step up domestic production to further lower the need for imports, and to lower non-essential expenses by efficiently using available resources.

For all this, he added, foreign investment must be welcomed as a way to further the island’s socialism rather than abandoning it.

“We are not going towards capitalism, that is completely ruled out, as our Constitution states,” he said. “But we must not be afraid of it (foreign capital) and put obstacles in the way to what we can do within the framework of existing laws.”

Economic challenges will remain, however, as the 2017 budget expects a deficit of around 11.5 billion pesos, or 12 percent of the GDP. Still, Minister Pedraza is confident in the people’s support to make it through.

“We'll be starting a year full of challenges, but we feel reassured by the support of the people all across the island,” she told Prensa Latina.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Despite-Economic-Challenges-Cuba-Prioratizes-Human-Development-20161230-0001.html

Video at link.

Jennifer Bello: We will not give up our principles
By: Jennifer Bello Martínez
2 January 2017

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Replica of the yacht Granma. Photo: Roberto Garaycoa Martínez / Cubadebate
Intervention by Jennifer Bello Martínez, member of the Council of State and President of the University Student Federation, in the Plaza of the José Martí Revolution, on January 2, 2017, "Year 59 of the Revolution"

Compatriots,

Friends of the world who are with us today,

People of Cuba:

Summoned by history, the present and the future, we attended this historic Plaza just two days after arriving at the 58th Anniversary of the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the heroic uprising in Santiago de Cuba and the Arrival of The Granma expeditionaries, Revolutionary Armed Forces Day.

This commemoration has special motivations, which for every Cuban and Cuban represent commitment, will and security in the future of the Marti, Socialist and Fidelist revolution. In honor of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution and our youth, heiress and continuation of the struggles and victories of our people, we dedicate this anniversary.

What will happen this morning, is only possible when there is a united people, maximum expression of having a Revolution of workers, peasants, students, soldiers; Worthy men and women who are proud of this society.

Last December, two years of announcements about the decision of Cuba and the United States to restore diplomatic relations and to begin a process towards the normalization of bilateral ties were celebrated.

We would not have reached this moment without the heroic resistance of the Cuban people and their loyalty to the ideals and principles that have guided it throughout its history as a nation.

Much remains to be done to advance this process, which will be long and as part of which will have to solve the complex problems accumulated for more than 50 years. Cuba will not stop demanding the lifting of the blockade, which causes damage and deprivation to our people, nor cease to demand the return of the territory occupied by the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo, against the will of the Cuban government and people . Nor will it stop demanding the end of subversive and interventionist programs, aimed at bringing about changes in the political, economic and social order that our people chose sovereignly.

Sample of it, has been the mobilization and energetic participation of the students and all the society, that like a hornet, we proclaim before the world to defend every conquest. The avant-garde will remain avant-garde, always patriots and anti-imperialists.

As expressed by our Army General Raúl Castro Ruz in his speech on September 17, at the 17th Summit of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries held in Venezuela: "Cuba will not give up only one of its principles, nor To make concessions inherent to its sovereignty and independence. It will not give in to the defense of its revolutionary and anti-imperialist ideals, nor in the support to the self-determination of the towns ".

As part of the preparation of the country for defense, we developed the Bastion 2016 Strategic Exercise, with the objective of updating and exercising in the conduct of the actions foreseen in the defensive plans and in the confrontation of the different actions of the enemy. The Bastion as an essential element in the materialization of the doctrine of the War of the All People, demonstrated once more the unwavering will of the Cubans to defend our sovereignty and preserve the work of the Revolution.

Precisely, these have been the principles for which we have fought since the cry of independence, and we will demonstrate this in this Military Review and march of the fighting people, which bring together our history, our symbols, rebellion and heroism of this people . Around here the Cuban mambises, to whom the Homeland looks at you proudly, arrive on their horses with the liberating machete.

The replica of the Granma yacht, a feat of those courageous expeditionaries who made possible the dream of national liberation, this time will sail on a joyful sea of ​​pioneers, the new pines will wave their blue scarves, with the commitment to be the future and always be Ready to conquer the future.

In a tight picture, four columns of young men will depart representing those brave guerrillas who constituted the Rebel Army; From his blood emerged free, strong and invincible the new homeland.

The epic of Girón, decisive for the nascent revolution, will also be remembered. 90 combatants of this heroic battle will be paraded through this Square, representing the Rebel Army, the Police and the nascent Revolutionary National Militias. The decision to pay the price that is necessary for the cause of socialism continues to feed the millions of Cubans who inhabit this island.

Today we also remember the work that children and young people carried out with love and courage in the Literacy Campaign; 90 students from the University of Pedagogical Sciences Enrique Jose Varona wear the uniform that lit this square when the flag was raised with which our people proclaimed to the world that Cuba was already Territory Free of Illiteracy.

There will also be seven blocks of combatants who performed missions in more than 40 nations, where they exemplified respect for the dignity and sovereignty of the country. The confidence gained in the hearts of these peoples was the result of the unblemished conduct of our combatants.

Our children are hope, the purest essence of the work of the Revolution. The little members of La Colmenita, laborious bees who give their love, peace and wisdom with their honey come to represent all the country's children.

Under the eyes of the Apostle, our troops, composed of young people from the educational institutions of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, the members of our three valuable Armies, soldiers and militiamen will make their martial and emotional step pay homage to the thousands of Combatants who preserve the security and tranquility of the Cuban people.

Representing the popular character of the country's defense, will parade provincial, municipal and zone defense councils; The Production and Defense Brigades and our university militias, who, in response to the call of the Mother Country, respond: Present!

The people of Havana, representing all of Cuba, will fill the Plaza de la Revolución with the responsibility of continuing to fight for our sovereign, independent, socialist, democratic, prosperous and sustainable Nation.

The new generations as symbols of life, love, human justice and the Revolution, we show our commitment to our country, our Party, Fidel and Raúl, we will walk these streets with the enthusiasm and the impetus that characterizes the youth Cuban, with the conviction to defend this sky and our unique flag.

Since October 10, 1868, Cubans and Cubans have decided to live in Cuba free, sovereign and independent. No one can make us forget our history or the symbols of resistance of this people.

We make our own the ideas of the historic leader of the Revolution, in the plenary session of the 7th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba: To our brothers in Latin America and the world we must tell you that the Cuban people will overcome (...) We will start the march and perfect what We must perfect, with meridian loyalty and united force, like Martí, Maceo and Gómez, in an indescribable march.

Glory eternal to the fallen for the Fatherland!

Long live the Cuban Revolution!

Long live Fidel!

Viva Cuba Libre!

http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2017/01/02/jennifer-bello-no-renunciaremos-a-nuestros-principios/#.WGp3nVMrLIU

Google Translator

All hands, all ..
The cohesion of all Cubans is the most effective way of ensuring the continuity of the Revolution and perpetuating the benefits of our socialist social system ...

IRIS LEYDI WOOD CHURCHES

1/1/2017 EXCLUSIVE

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Many underestimate the power of a united nation that has also demonstrated its loyalty to the social project we stand for. (Fernando Medina Fernandez / Cubahora )

What a chorus of glory can be heard the laughter of the children, to the joy of Dad and Mom. A new year draws its curtains. What do we have in 2017? It is the million dollar question, and after some answers we are looking from the Chinese horoscope to scientific studies. In the end, it is a collective desire: Let the family have health and be always united.

United. It is easy to say, but it is the task of giants, like a colony of ants in the eagerness to move a grain of sugar into the den. These days we also ask the cohesion of all Cubans as the most effective way of ensuring the continuity of the Revolution and perpetuate the benefits of our socialist social system.

"The unity of thought, which in no way means the servitude of view, it is certainly an indispensable condition for the success of any political program , " said José Martí , because he had the foresight to know that there was another way to victory after having analyzed the factors that put paid to the Ten Years' War .

It was precisely the Apostle of our independence who understood that, if liberating Cuba was a political instrument capable of banishing the lags of regionalism and caudillismo, eliminating differences of creed or races, uniting generations, reuniting those within and outsiders, create a new force: the Cuban Revolutionary Party , whose creation was approved on January 5, 1892.

Months later, on April 10 of that same year, the organization was born. Its foundations already advanced the essential task: "The Cuban Revolutionary Party does not intend to perpetuate in the Cuban Republic, with new forms or alterations more apparent than essential, the authoritarian spirit and bureaucratic composition of the colony, but to base in the frank exercise And cordial of the legitimate capacities of man, a new and sincere democracy, capable of overcoming, through the order of real labor and the balance of social forces, the dangers of sudden freedom in a society composed for slavery. "

Similar interests also moved the Communist Party founded by Julio Antonio Mella and Carlos Balino in 1925, which was continued then with the work of the revolution, in the current Communist Party of Cuba . It is precisely this association that, today as yesterday, brings together the vanguard, the most honest workers and peasants, the most committed professionals, faithful to the ideals of those who fell fighting for a future of equity; And is, at the same time, much more than a selection of people, the Party is the whole people.

Two years after the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and the island, which has led to a series of negotiations with progress and setbacks, some international opinion leaders are looking for a return to capitalism in Cuba, based on internal contradictions that crumble the ideal Socialist, theories that gain followers after the physical loss of the endearing historical leader Fidel Castro, still recent.

However, they underestimate the power of a united nation that has also demonstrated its loyalty to the social project it defends. There was not a soul in the Plaza de la Revolución that night of vigil to dismiss the Commander in Chief, nor was space left on January 2 in the Military Magazine and March of the Combative People.

For this reason, now, when you barely count a few nights in 2017 and embrace your friend, your sister, your son, also think of the older family, the inhabitants of a whole country, Cubans of blood and heart. Feel the weight of the work that has been maintained by sacrifices, but with faith in progress and without succumbing to the game of the dishonest, this Revolution that every minute is reborn with goodness and evil, like all human activity, and alone Will be sustained with the unit made wall, like the poem of Guillén.

http://www.cubahora.cu/sociedad/todas-las-manos-todas

Google translator

Declaration of the Revolutionary Government (+ Video)
Cuba and the United States sign an agreement aimed at ensuring regular, safe and orderly migration. This agreement eliminates the policy "dry feet-wet feet" and the provisional admission program (parole) for Cuban health professionals

Author: Granma | Internet@granma.cu
January 12, 2017 19:01:54

An important step in the progress of bilateral relations has taken place on January 12 with the signing of an agreement between the governments of Cuba and the United States, which came into force that day, aimed at ensuring a regular, safe and secure migration. Ordered

This agreement removes the commonly known "dry feet-wet feet" policy and the provisional admission program (parole) for Cuban health professionals, which Washington applied in third countries.

For several years, it had been a permanent interest of the Cuban government to adopt a new immigration agreement with the United States to solve the serious problems that continued to affect migration relations, despite the existence of bilateral agreements in this area. For the first time, Cuba formalized this proposal in 2002, which was rejected by the then President George W. Bush. He resubmitted a new draft immigration agreement in 2009, which was updated in 2010 and most recently reiterated on 30 November 2015.

After nearly a year of negotiations and encouraged by the re-establishment of diplomatic relations on July 20, 2015, based on mutual respect and political will to strengthen those ties and establish new understandings on various issues of common interest, governments succeeded This commitment must contribute to the normalization of migratory relations, which have been marked since the Triumph of the Revolution by the application of aggressive policies in this area by successive US administrations that encouraged violence, irregular migration and trafficking Of people, causing numerous innocent deaths.

The agreement reached is part of the provision of Cuba, ratified by the President of the Councils of State and of Ministers, General of the Army Raul Castro Ruz, in his address on December 17, 2014, and reiterated on numerous occasions "to sustain with The government of the United States a respectful dialogue, based on sovereign equality, to deal with the most diverse issues in a reciprocal manner, without prejudice to national independence and self-determination of our people, (...) position that was expressed to the Government of States States, public and private, by Fidel at different times in our long struggle, with the approach to discuss and resolve differences through negotiations without giving up one of our principles. "

It is also consistent with the expressed willingness of the Cuban government, in the exercise of its sovereignty, to update the current migration policy and adjust it to the conditions of the present and the foreseeable future, as demonstrated by the implementation of an important group of measures from Of January 14, 2013.

Commonly known as the "dry feet-wet feet" policy, a blatant violation of the letter and spirit of the migratory agreements reached between Cuba and the United States in 1994 and 1995, has hitherto been a stimulus to irregular migration, Trafficking of migrants and irregular entry into the United States from third countries of Cuban citizens legally traveling abroad, and by automatically admitting them to their territory, conferred preferential and unique treatment on them not received by citizens of other countries. Was an incitement to illegal departures. Its implementation and that of other policies led to migratory crises, kidnapping of ships and aircraft and the commission of crimes, such as trafficking in migrants, trafficking in persons, immigration fraud and the use of violence with a destabilizing extraterritorial impact on others Countries of the region, used as transit to arrive at American territory.

The decision to eliminate such a policy implies that "as of the date of this Joint Declaration, the United States of America, consistent with its laws and international norms, shall return to the Republic of Cuba, and the Republic of Cuba, consistent with its Laws and international norms, will receive all Cuban citizens, who after the signing of this agreement, are detected by the competent authorities of the United States of America when they tried to enter or stay irregularly in that country, "violating its laws .

The United States also undertook to apply to the Cuban citizens in the future that the same immigration procedures and rules will be detected in that situation as the rest of the migrants of other countries, without a criterion of selectivity, which is a positive signal in The purpose of eliminating exclusivity in the case of Cubans, who have a marked political nuance.

Likewise, the so-called Parole Program for Cuban Medical Professionals, which was part of the arsenal to deprive the country of doctors, nurses and other professionals of the sector, is removed in a virtual international operation of brain theft promoted by the United States since 2006 and an attack against Cuba's humanitarian and solidarity medical missions in Third World countries that need it so much. This policy prompted Cuban health personnel working in third countries to abandon their missions and emigrate to the United States, becoming a reprehensible practice that damaged Cuba's international medical cooperation programs.

These two hurdles have disappeared on January 12, but in order to be consistent with the letter and spirit of this Joint Declaration, to ensure regular, safe and orderly migration, effectively address the threats to the security of both countries arising from Irregular migration, and achieving normal migratory relations between Cuba and the United States, it will also be necessary for the US Congress to repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, the only one of its kind in the world that does not correspond to the current bilateral context.

Except as provided in this Joint Declaration, the other migratory agreements previously reached by Cuba and the United States remain in full force and effect: the Joint Communiqués of December 14, 1984 and September 9, 1994, and the Joint Declaration of May 2, 1995. Among other things, it confirms the decision of both parties to prevent illegal departures by sea and to return to Cuba all persons who are intercepted in those acts or who enter the Guantánamo Naval Base. The Government of the United States will continue to guarantee regular migration from Cuba with a minimum of 20 thousand people per year.

Both governments agreed to apply their migration laws in a non-selective manner and in accordance with their international obligations. They also undertook to prevent risky exits that endanger human life, to prevent irregular migration and to combat violence associated with such manifestations, such as trafficking and trafficking in persons.

In this regard, the parties will promote effective bilateral cooperation to prevent and prosecute those involved in trafficking in persons, as well as crimes associated with migratory movements, which endanger their national security, including the hijacking of aircraft and vessels . This is in line with the progress made in the short term in bilateral security cooperation.

The competent authorities of the two countries have undertaken the necessary coordination to ensure the effective implementation of this agreement, including corresponding operational procedures between law enforcement and enforcement bodies, with a view to preventing actions that are intended to cloud this effort Or try to jeopardize the security of both nations.

In keeping with its international obligations and its legislation, the Government of the Republic of Cuba ratifies its commitment to guarantee regular, safe and orderly migration, as well as to fully comply with this new agreement, for which the corresponding measures have been taken internally. It will continue to guarantee the right to travel and emigrate to Cuban citizens and to return to the country, in accordance with the requirements of immigration law. It will also gradually adopt other measures to update the current migration policy.

Havana, January 12, 2017.

http://youtu.be/Mw4bM9zSEqM

http://www.granma.cu/cuba/2017-01-12/declaracion-del-gobierno-revolucionario-12-01-2017-19-01-54

Google Translator

Of course Cuba must pretend that the incoming administration will not rescind this within a week in the hope that maybe, just maybe it doesn't. But with 'little Marco' in the mix this is especially unlikely. What Obomber is doing here making Trump piss off liberals & such even more than they already are, for the benefit of the Democratic Party. Cause they are the only 'realistic' hope of opposing this monster, don't ya see? Gonna be fat times for Skinner & Co, all over again. A least I guess that's the plan, cause they ain't got nothing else.

I think only a movement towards a genuine working class party can prevent a re-do of this sorry scenario.

Trump will overturn most if not all of these actually good things that Obomber is bequeathing us as his swine-song and I'm sure 'O' knows and even anticipates this, thus his abandon in doing so. But doing something that Trump couldn't negate, like commuting the sentences of political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal or Leonard Peltier, I wouldn't bet on it.

But with 'little Marco' in the mix this is especially unlikely.

Not sure about this only because Trump is a vindictive a-hole with an elephant memory. Trump hates "Little Mario" - hates him. Little Mario hates Trump, as well - he's an "Anybody but Trump"-ster. This week he really showed his ass in Tillerson's confirmation hearings and it was pissing Tillerson off, you could see it. No doubt that episode was filed away by Crazy Donald. So if Little Mario is against something, my bet is Trump will just automatically be for it, and if Tiny Ruby is for something, Crazy Donald will be against.

These mooks are hard to read. Right now, I think Trump could care less about Cuba - he owns no buildings there. That could make Cuba a throw-away for the King of the Americas (yeah, works on so many levels), but with Trump you never know.

One thing I've noticed is that the MSM continue to rave about Trump and his various billionaire-twit cabinet nominees not agreeing on issues and "things-of-importance". The "news" folks never explain why it is important for all of them to agree on anything. These fuck-wads are all either billionaires and/or recently generals in the military - why would any of them agree with anyone. All of these bourgeois thugs have made careers out of disagreeing with everybody - hell, that's Trump's MO. But it is breathlessly reported at every opportunity that "so-and-so" disagrees with POTUSE Trump!

Not sure about this only because Trump is a vindictive a-hole with an elephant memory. Trump hates "Little Mario" - hates him. Little Mario hates Trump, as well - he's an "Anybody but Trump"-ster. This week he really showed his ass in Tillerson's confirmation hearings and it was pissing Tillerson off, you could see it. No doubt that episode was filed away by Crazy Donald. So if Little Mario is against something, my bet is Trump will just automatically be for it, and if Tiny Ruby is for something, Crazy Donald will be against.

These mooks are hard to read. Right now, I think Trump could care less about Cuba - he owns no buildings there. That could make Cuba a throw-away for the King of the Americas (yeah, works on so many levels), but with Trump you never know.

One thing I've noticed is that the MSM continue to rave about Trump and his various billionaire-twit cabinet nominees not agreeing on issues and "things-of-importance". The "news" folks never explain why it is important for all of them to agree on anything. These fuck-wads are all either billionaires and/or recently generals in the military - why would any of them agree with anyone. All of these bourgeois thugs have made careers out of disagreeing with everybody - hell, that's Trump's MO. But it is breathlessly reported at every opportunity that "so-and-so" disagrees with POTUSE Trump!

Best I understand it Trump needs Marco's vote to get Tillerson in. I expect a quid pro quo, 'it's a great deal!' I think that badgering was before this announcement was made. I'd be happy to be wrong about this one.

The MSM is beside itself in anti-Trump frenzy, even if they are not politically motivated as I think, they are selling advertising. They sure seem to be trying to cast every aspersion upon the incoming administration and depict Trump as unfit for office. Now ya got the fuckin' idiot Rosie Odonell burning up twitter with a call for martial law to prevent the inauguration, if anything an indicator of the liberal state of mind. Which is funny, 'situational materialism', they're all for authoritarianism when it's theirs.

It would be a big, irrevocable step and seriously damaging to the US 'brand' if the ruling class goes for it or something like it and I think the odds are against it for just that reason. But it ain't impossible, the 'intelligence community' is burning bridges, a lot of careers on the line.

Best I understand it Trump needs Marco's vote to get Tillerson in. I expect a quid pro quo, 'it's a great deal!' I think that badgering was before this announcement was made. I'd be happy to be wrong about this one.

The MSM is beside itself in anti-Trump frenzy, even if they are not politically motivated as I think, they are selling advertising. They sure seem to be trying to cast every aspersion upon the incoming administration and depict Trump as unfit for office. Now ya got the fuckin' idiot Rosie Odonell burning up twitter with a call for martial law to prevent the inauguration, if anything an indicator of the liberal state of mind. Which is funny, 'situational materialism', they're all for authoritarianism when it's theirs.

It would be a big, irrevocable step and seriously damaging to the US 'brand' if the ruling class goes for it or something like it and I think the odds are against it for just that reason. But it ain't impossible, the 'intelligence community' is burning bridges, a lot of careers on the line.

These are interesting times, as the Chinese would say. We (the worldwide "we") are in uncharted waters. There hasn't been this amount or kind of disruption of US ruling class unity since the late 1850s.

But maybe I misspeak, here. Is the ruling class disrupted? There seems to be a rather large consensus within the RC that Trump has to go. Maybe the "disunity" is only in how to do it? PR and "face" mean a lot to the bourgeoisie, but power and dominance mean even more. The US RC controls almost all of the media, have almost all of the "pulpits" in the world, so any PR stumble should be reparable in short order. If federal marshals simply appeared and took Trump away and Pence was inaugurated, within a few months only "cranks" and CT weirdos would even care.
I don't know, this is all so bizarre and "out-there" that speculation is pointless. The RC is just too opaque right now, the confusion too rife.

Just as an observational aside: Hillary has certainly dropped off the face of the earth, eh? I guess 'Brand Clinton' is no longer marketable.

Cuba and Our Common Future
Submitted by Danny Haiphong on Tue, 01/24/2017 - 18:40

http://blackagendareport.com/sites/default/files/styles/image-400x300/public/HAIPHONG_Fidel.jpg?itok=LaxNdC0w

by Danny Haiphong

With the Left in the U.S. in such obvious disarray, it is more critical than even to examine the experience of the Cuban revolution. “It was power in the hands of the working class and oppressed that gave Cuba the ability to assist national liberation struggles in Angola, Mozambique, and Namibia against South African apartheid.” In the U.S., however, much of the Left is completely obsessed with on Donald Trump, which “ultimately distracts the movement from the need to organize a struggle against the entire state apparatus.”

Cuba and Our Common Future
by Danny Haiphong
“Trump and his cabinet have already bred significant opposition from both the establishment and the masses, but only ideological clarity can prevent opposition from getting behind figures like Corey Booker.”

These remarks were delivered by the author in the closing panel of Fidel: The Cuban Revolution and Our Common future, a conference held at the historic Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia on January 21st. For more information about the conference, visit http://www.fidelinrevolution.org/about-us.html

Hello everyone, my name is Danny Haiphong and it is an honor and a privilege to be here. I want to begin with a short narrative about who I am. I come from a working class background of so-called "mixed race" descent, my mother being Vietnamese on her side and my father Irish and German on his. There was never a day growing up where economic hardship and racism didn't shape my experience. I eventually attended a small liberal arts college. The student population was flooded with Wall Street-to-be technocrats who forever changed my worldview. Since 2010, I have been involved in a number of anti-war and socialist activities searching for the correct ideology and path to carry out the struggle to replace a system that trains the rich in elite universities and condemns the poor to lives of misery. By the end of my college experience, to paraphrase George Jackson, I was redeemed by the likes of Lenin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, and, of course, Fidel Castro. Black Agenda Report was a large component of this process and I began regularly contributing a little over three years ago. I was invited here to discuss my assessment of the current crisis of US imperialism and what we can learn from Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution in the process. The question is -- how should we proceed from the particular conditions that we find ourselves in?

“Our constant struggle, it seems, is to ensure that action is guided by diligent study of theory and history, and theory and history is tested and verified in practice.”

My experience in social movements in the US has taught me that this question cannot be answered without a solid theoretical analysis of the current period. I have been involved in many activist efforts that primarily focused on "doing something" about important campaigns and problems. I have also participated in many efforts that studied theory but did not apply it to practice. Our constant struggle, it seems, is to ensure that action is guided by diligent study of theory and history, and theory and history is tested and verified in practice. However, the contradiction between theory and practice, just like all contradictions, is not a static phenomenon. One aspect of the contradiction is more developed, and the other in a state of decay. When we are first born, the contradiction between life and death usually favors life. But no matter the circumstances, death eventually becomes the principle contradiction. The cause of death possesses an antagonistic relationship to life itself. Sometimes the cause occurs at birth, other times it occurs late in life. Regardless, the contradiction reaches completion and quantitative change become qualitative.

The same could be said about political economy. Political economies undergo similar processes of transformation, whether we are talking about the transformation from feudalism to capitalism in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries or from neo-colonialism to socialism as in Cuba. The US is no different in this regard. At this moment, US imperialism is on life support, but few who proclaim to be in "the movement" have said much about it. The crisis of US imperialism is understudied and under analyzed. Thus the actions taken against the ills of the crisis have made little impact on the lives of working class and oppressed people.

“The crisis of US imperialism is understudied and under analyzed.”

What do I mean by crisis? There are many aspects to the crisis. It begins at the economic base, where every new attempt at capitalist expansion brings more joblessness and a further decline in the rate of profit. The rising costs of technology, the instability of finance capital, and the misery of working people have brought about endless economic stagnation. The crisis then extends to the realm of the military, where the US is engaged in a dangerous program of endless war to resolve the economic crisis and has destabilized much of the planet as a result. Most recently, we saw the crisis of imperialism significantly impact the 2016 elections. Millions of people voted for two candidates in Sanders and Trump who spoke to the frustrations of working people with the economy, among other things.

Each of these elements of crisis could be spoken about at length, but really it is the material conditions that should interest us the most. For at the moment, unemployment sits at 23 percent if we count those who have stopped looking for work and that number can be safely doubled for the Black community. The 1 percent has never been richer. Eight individuals own more wealth than half of the world's population. Our political prisoners Sundiata Acoli, Mumia-Abu Jamal and countless others remain behind bars within the largest prison state in the world. The Obama Administration has placed us at the precipice of World War with Russia and China and has used Russia as a scapegoat to intensify surveillance and repression at home. Yet all we can hear at this moment is the danger of Donald J. Trump. It was estimated that hundreds of thousands would descend on Washington this weekend to protest the Donald. Such a scene should be exciting, and could be an opportunity, but there are problematic aspects to this development that must be addressed first.

“The rising costs of technology, the instability of finance capital, and the misery of working people have brought about endless economic stagnation.”

I want to quote at length a speech by Fidel Castro that illuminates not just the achievements of the socialist revolution, but the potential pitfalls of a US-based movement focused solely on opposition to the orange billionaire. The speech contains a historical narrative of the Revolution, which begins with Fidel and his comrades analyzing where they would take the struggle during its embryonic stage. At first, the enthusiasm to be rid of the Batista dictatorship was evident among various members of the ruling class. But rather than ending the misery of the masses, such opposition only sought to replace Batista with another variation of the neo-colonial order.

Fidel warns that "in the final analysis, neither imperialism nor the ruling classes give a hoot who the President is, who is a representative, who is a senator. Naturally, imperialism would like to have for President, if possible, a man who is not a complete crook, that he be honest, that he spend money to advance the interests of the ruling classes. . . What is imperialism interested in? It is interested in, naturally, in a government that looks after the interests of the monopolies." In other words, a complete analysis of the function of the state is imperative and we can see this clearly in the current period.

From this assessment, Fidel and his comrades chose to wage guerrilla warfare as the means to win over the peasants to socialism. The Cuban Revolutionaries rejected collaboration with the state. This development was critical in the progression of the revolution because it represented a complete break from the existing establishment. However, the decision to base the struggle to liberate Cuba in the peasants and workers did not drop from the sky. It derived from a leadership that was guided by socialist thought and committed to bringing about its realization in the material world.

“The Obama Administration has placed us at the precipice of World War with Russia and China and has used Russia as a scapegoat to intensify surveillance and repression at home.”

Fidel gave this speech on December 2nd 1961 on the fifth anniversary of the landing of the Granma. In this speech, Fidel declares that he would be a Marxist-Lennist until the end of his life. He goes on further to say:

"Do I have any doubt about Marxism . . .? No, I do not have the slightest doubt! What occurs to me is precisely the opposite: the more experience we gain from life, the more we learn what imperialism is -- and not by word, but in the flesh and blood of our people -- the more we have to face up to that imperialism; the more we learn about imperialist policies throughout the world, in South Vietnam, in the Congo . . . everywhere in the world; the more we dig deeper and uncover the bloody claws of imperialism, the miserable exploitation . . . the more, in the first place, we feel sentimentally Marxist, emotionally Marxist, and the more we see and discover all the truths contained in the doctrine of Marxism. The more we have to race to the reality of a revolution and the class struggle, and we see what the class struggle really is, the more convinced we become . . . of the ingenious interpretations of scientific socialism Lenin made."

This is important because it is from these ideas that the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro took power and transformed the state from neo-colonial to socialist in character. The revolution's achievements in healthcare, education, and racial and gender equality should be seen as products of a state that is owned and administered by the masses, otherwise known as the dictatorship of the proletariat. Without the National Assembly of People's Power, the Committees to Defend the Revolution, or the Federation of Cuban Women, things like a one hundred percent literacy rate or the fact that tens of thousands of Cuban doctors administer free healthcare abroad would be impossible. It was power in the hands of the working class and oppressed that gave Cuba the ability to assist national liberation struggles in Angola, Mozambique, and Namibia against South African apartheid. The dictatorship of the Cuban proletariat has protected a number of Black revolutionaries, from temporary asylum for Robert Williams and Huey P. Newton to the decades-long protection of Assata Shakur. Marxism was the road map that guided each and every one of these actions.

“The decision to base the struggle to liberate Cuba in the peasants and workers did not drop from the sky.”

The various movements in the United States remain without a road map. On this inauguration weekend, where thousands will protest Donald Trump, what can the words of Fidel and their actualization in the Cuban Revolution teach us? First, none of Cuba's achievements would have been possible if the movement that brought it about settled for a mere replacement of the Batista dictatorship with another political party or politician within the pre-revolutionary state. The Cuban Revolution's historic achievements are the result of the complete dissolution of the neo-colonial military, the police, and the organs of state power that sold Cuba's assets to the United States. A complete focus on Donald Trump ultimately distracts the movement from the need to organize a struggle against the entire state apparatus.

This becomes all the more important given the current state of US imperialism. The Democratic Party and many leading Republicans are currently trying to push Trump into a world war with Russia. They did not get their candidate in Hillary Clinton and are doing everything possible to ensure that Trump either toes the line or is ousted for a more savory ruling class politician. The current movement in the streets against Trump has not yet condemned the New Cold War against Russia now being used to delegitimize Trump. But the danger of a nuclear war is very real. The stop Trump movement's limited analysis only benefits an imperialist system that millions of people have expressed utter contempt for, whether through their vote for Sanders, Trump, or no one at all.

Second, and related to the first, the Cuban experience teaches us that without the working class and oppressed, revolution is impossible. It teaches us that without a theoretical road map from which to base our revolutionary movement, victory is remote. The movement within the United States right now is in possession of neither of these things. We must work to correct these errors. We must let imperialism die and take advantage of its vulnerable state under Trump. We must not caste a gaze of fear over his rule, but develop the leadership and the courage to present demands to the Trump Administration that can win over young people, workers, the unemployed, and those living under racist, neo-colonial hell in the US. And when the inevitable moment comes that neither Trump nor the Democrats can achieve such demands, we intensify the struggle and educate the masses as to why. This is how revolutions are born.

“The current movement in the streets against Trump has not yet condemned the New Cold War against Russia now being used to delegitimize Trump.”

Third, we need a road map like the Cuban Revolution had a road map. We need to develop ideology and intellectual, political debate and discussion with the oppressed. Only a higher level of political development among the people can purge Democratic Party influence over the working class and oppressed masses. Trump and his cabinet have already bred significant opposition from both the establishment and the masses, but only ideological clarity can prevent opposition from getting behind figures like Corey Booker. There is no neutrality in the course of history. Either the anti-Trump opposition will develop to reject the entire state apparatus or it will enter into the Democratic Party graveyard and dissolve into irrelevancy once a Democrat or an establishment Republican replaces Trump.

So we must be like Fidel and the Cubans and have a clear understanding that socialist revolutions are not mere copies of each other. We live inside of an empire in crisis. Our immediate task is to fight the forces of reaction wherever they are, from the ruling class all the way down to those within our ranks who are merely looking to replace Trump with a Pentagon and Wall Street Democrat. Our long-term task is to develop a party and a program of the working class and oppressed and to find the road map that will lead us to victory. The Cuban experience indicates that the road map is Marxism and the application of scientific socialism.

“The discontent of masses of people has forced the two-party system into a crisis of legitimacy that opens up the possibility for genuine social transformation.”

The road map we choose to advance the cause of workers and oppressed people in the United States will be determined in debate and in struggle. What we can conclude in this moment is that we live both in a time of peril and a time of opportunity. A time of peril because Cuba and much of the world’s people have been deemed threats to “national security” while the US wages ceaseless war and acquires no such label. It is a time of opportunity because the discontent of masses of people has forced the two-party system into a crisis of legitimacy that opens up the possibility for genuine social transformation. So I leave you with one last quote from Fidel's speech that we must unite upon before going forward, "Anyone who analyzes the state of affairs in the world will find that it is the imperialists and capitalists, who subject the word to the worst poverty, the worst backwardness, and they are simply the scourge of mankind." My dear comrades and friends, it is past time we take heed to these words and prepare for a class war that arrived far before Trump emerged onto the scene. Long live Fidel and Long Live the Cuban Revolution! Thank you.

http://blackagendareport.com/cuba_and_our_common_future

bolding added.

Eyewitness: The ‘indomitable strength’ of Cuba’s Revolution
By Nathaniel Peters posted on February 14, 2017

http://www.workers.org/wp-content/uploads/CubaMarchofTorches-678x381.jpg
March of the Torches, Havana, Jan. 27.

On Jan. 1, 1959, the Cuban people, with the leadership of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and others, overthrew the U.S.-backed regime of Fulgencio Batista and established a socialist state 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

The accomplishments of the Cuban Revolution are many, including free education and health care for all Cubans, a long record of support for anti-imperialist struggles around the world, and enormous relief efforts in response to humanitarian crises, such as the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak.

The Revolution has also overcome enormous obstacles, including the U.S.-orchestrated invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961, the U.S. blockade (in place since 1960), numerous terrorist attacks by Cuban exile militias based in Florida and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In spite of this extraordinary endurance, U.S. journalists and politicians constantly declare impending collapse of the Revolution. After 58 years of incorrect predictions, they’re still at it. These voices have only grown louder since the 2011 changes in Cuban economic policy, the 2014 thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations and the death of Fidel Castro last year.

So are the naysayers right this time? How strong is the Cuban Revolution? Will it endure?

The people are the revolution

Last month, this writer had the opportunity to visit Cuba and witness the indomitable strength of the Revolution firsthand. On Jan. 27, thousands of students marched through the streets of Havana in the annual “March of the Torches” to commemorate Jose Martí, the Cuban national hero. The march was first organized at the University of Havana in 1953 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Martí’s birth. This year’s march was the first since the passing of Fidel Castro and was dedicated to him.

When asked about the recent developments in Cuba, Alejandro, an electrical engineering student at the José Antonio Echeverría Higher Polytechnic Institute who attended the march, put it this way:

“A lot of people think that when Fidel died the Revolution was going to fall apart, but that is not going to happen. The young Cubans are going to strengthen the Revolution and carry it forward. A big change is the change in U.S.-Cuba relations, which should benefit both countries … but that doesn’t mean we will give up any of the principles we have struggled for, or that we will let ourselves be defeated.”

Richael, who is studying biochemistry and Chinese at the University of Havana, made it clear what those principles are: “Fidel took [Martí’s] ideas and values, the ideas of anti-imperialism, patriotism and Latin-Americanism and put them into practice… . Some things are never going to change: free health care and education.”

Given Fidel’s enormous significance to the Cuban people, one might expect to find his face painted on every surface since his passing. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth: Fidel’s image is almost nowhere to be seen.

Raúl Castro announced at a tribute to Fidel before his burial, “Faithful to Martí’s philosophy that ‘all the glory in the world fits into a kernel of corn,’ the leader of the Revolution rejected any manifestation of a cult of personality, and remained true to this position until the last hours of his life, insisting that, after his death, his name and likeness never be used to designate institutions, plazas, parks, avenues, streets or other public spaces, nor monuments, busts, statues and other such tributes be erected.” (en.granma.cu)

Alejandro explained this decision, “Fidel wanted to make it clear that he wasn’t the Revolution, that the people were the Revolution. Don’t think the Revolution is over because Fidel has died. We are strong and will continue with his ideas.”

http://www.workers.org/2017/02/14/eyewitness-the-indomitable-strength-of-cubas-revolution/?utm_content=buffer81ed6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer#.WKWytG_yvIU

Here's Why Cuba Denied Entry to OAS Head Luis Almagro

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1487822797660/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/02/23/luis.png_1718483346.png
OAS head Luis Almagro. | Photo: Reuters

Published 23 February 2017 (9 hours 40 minutes ago)

"Cuba will never return to the OAS," Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in a statement.
Cuba on Wednesday denied entry to Organization of American States, OAS, head Luis Almagro, who was scheduled to accept an award from a dissident group in Havana.

RELATED:
The World Must Learn From Cuba

The socialist government also denied entry to former Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Mariana Aylwin, the daughter of former Chilean President Patricio Aylwin. Calderon and Aylwin were travelling to the same event.

Mainstream media quickly painted Cuba’s decision to block their entry as another example of the country’s so-called “totalitarianism.” But shortly after they released these reports, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned a statement clearing up these accusations.

“The plan, plotted on several trips between Washington and other capitals of the region, was to mount in Havana an open and serious provocation against the Cuban government, generate internal instability, and damage the international image of the country,” the statement reads.

“Upon learning of these plans and enforcing the laws that underpin the nation's sovereignty, the Cuban government decided to deny foreign nationals associated with the events described above to the national territory.”

According to the statement, Cuba refused entry to Almagro for three main reasons.

First, because of his connections to illegal right-wing groups operating in Cuba that are trying to destabilize the nation. Latin American Network of Youths for Democracy, the group that was awarding him, is connected to the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy and the Inter-American Institute for Democracy, which frequently call for the overthrow of Cuba’s government.

Second, because of his attacks on progressive and leftist governments in Latin America and the Caribbean. Almagro has been a staunch advocate of regime change in Venezuela and is also closely connected with opposition activists like Henrique Capriles and Leopoldo Lopez. Almagro has also called for "regime change" against the administrations of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Bolivian President Evo Morales.

Third, because the Washington-led OAS has isolated and attacked Cuba since the 1959 revolution that brought the Cuban Communist Party to power.

“They’re trying to sell to the Cubans 'the values and principles of the inter-American system’ against the hard and undemocratic reality generated by the same system,” Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said in the statement.

“Over fifty years later and with the company of peoples and governments around the world, it is necessary to reiterate, as President Raul Castro assured, that Cuba will never return to the OAS.”

RELATED:
Cuba's Ongoing Resistance to US Ideological War

Calderon and Aylwin’s travel bans were issued for similar reasons.

Mariana Aylwin is seen as an ideological leader of the most conservative segment of Chile's center-left ruling coalition. Aylwin was traveling to the island to receive a prize on behalf of her father, Chile’s first president after the end of the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Calderon, from Mexico's right-wing National Action Party, was president from 2006 to 2012 and oversaw the country’s war on drugs with the help of the United States.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Heres-Why-Cuba-Denied-Entry-to-OAS-Head-Luis-Almagro--20170223-0001.html

Khrushchev was a dope, a traitor, or both. There can be no 'peaceful co-existence', it is a death-match.

Being a revolutionary in Cuba today
Socialist democracy, essentially superior, still has a long way to go. Being revolutionary is participating with a perspective of committed criticism. Criticizing is not reporting a known fact; it is acting on it, pushing toward its solution

Author: Enrique Ubieta Gómez | informacion@granma.cu
september 27, 2016 17:09:20

http://en.granma.cu/file/img/2016/09/medium/f0014061.jpg
Photo: Granma

What does being a revolutionary mean? Students of Marxism know that the Social Democratic Party broke from its roots. The reformists, who from then on increasingly moved away from Marxist concepts, were left with the name, and revolutionaries created the Communist Party. The "reform or revolution" controversy has a long history.

There are the texts of Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, among others.

But the definition, the revolutionary option, its practical reflection, is not exclusive to one party or social class, although, yes, it is exclusive to an era. The bourgeoisie was revolutionary in its time, and the anti-colonial movement in the era of imperialism, in general, took on a revolutionary character. José Martí created the Revolutionary Party to win the independence of Cuba, and he talked about the necessary revolution that would need to be initiated once power was achieved.

I would therefore like to refer to the Cuban tradition of the term. Cintio Vitier, for example, assuming the reductionist risks, establishes two "spiritualist" tendencies to define any grouping in the last third of the 19th century: the revolutionary (Independentism, literary modernism, anti-evolutionism) and the reformist (Autonomism, literary preceptism, positivist evolutionism.)

Certainly, Revolution is Creation, a leap into the abyss, or over the wall of apparent impossibility - "Let us be realists, let us do the impossible," the Paris students of 68 said - the view of a condor, but above all, taking sides with the "poor of the earth." If we take José Martí as our model of a revolutionary, we observe in him three characteristics that are repeated in Fidel Castro.

1. The ethical choice before the theoretical: a theory is adopted in order to struggle against exploitation and not the reverse. It is a vocation for social justice. Martí wrote, "Every true man must feel on his own cheek a blow to the cheek of any other man." Ernesto Che Guevara asserted, "The true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love." Fidel has said, "It is precisely man, fellow man, the liberation of one's fellows that is the goal of revolutionaries." The revolutionary Salvadorian poet Roque Dalton mocked the snobbish positions of "café latte Marxists" in these verses, "Those who/in the best of cases/want to make the revolution/for History/ for logic/for science and nature/for next year's book or those of the future/to win the debate and even/ to finally appear in the papers/and not simply/to eliminate hunger/to eliminate the exploitation of the exploited."

There are revolutionaries who do not know Marxist theory. And there are Marxist academics who are very knowledgeable of every text, every phrase of Marx, but have never gone out onto the streets, who are incapable of feeling, of trembling, with the pain or joy of others, who do not take sides. These academic "Marxists" are not revolutionaries. Nor are they the continuators of Marx. One of the springboards and agents of a Revolution is solidarity.

2. Radicalism in understanding and in action; the revolutionary seeks the root of a problem, even when it cannot be extirpated immediately, even when one errs in pointing it out and moves rapidly into action. Unlike the reformist, the revolutionary makes no effort to mitigate or cover up the pain, but rather to eliminate the illness.

3. The revolutionary is a person of faith. Not in the religious sense. There is no better statement on this than the one Martí (once again) made to his son, in the dedication of Ismaelillo: I have, he wrote, "Faith in human improvement, in future life, in the utility of virtue, and in you" - faith in people, in their capacities. The revolutionary understands the apparent limits of the possible, and breaks through them, because of faith in the people. In this, a revolutionary differs from a reformist, who for reasons of class does not trust the people, or underestimates them. Believing is not eliminating doubt. We revolutionaries live anguished by doubt, which is that of knowledge. The cynic, however, is counterrevolutionary, although he may not know it.

Some ideologues of the counterrevolution reduce a revolutionary attitude to violent action, the taking up of arms. As if armed revolutions do not occur in response to the violence of bourgeois power. Being radical - going to the root - is not choosing violence. In their rush to depoliticize even the most minimal concept of revolution, these types attempt to pass off as revolutionary actions violent revolts by politicos of the pseudo-republic, who wanted to assert their personal power. Not even all those who opposed Machado or Batista were necessarily revolutionaries.

And they counterpoise revolutionary socialism to that which they call "democratic" (social democratic), because the first does not respect bourgeois order. Socialism can not only be, but must be democratic, although not in the sense which the capitalist system gives the term. It must, and can be more participative, more inclusive, more representative, and show more solidarity. It must and can defend individuality, but not individualism, because socialism is the only route which can transform the masses into a collective of individuals.

Several qualities or ethical virtues constitute the foundation or base upon which a revolutionary stands. But it is an essentially political, social ethic, not private or one that is useless, or like those ethical virtues that serve to empty oneself, to remove oneself from the fundamental contradictions of the era. It is not revolutionary in terms of personal interests, but with regards to society.

There are people who are conservative - for biographical reasons, maybe even for genetic reasons - who avoid abrupt changes, the uncertainty of the new, who enjoy order and routine.

They are not counterrevolutionaries. In his "Words to intellectuals" (1961), Fidel Castro said, "No one has ever assumed that … all honest men must be revolutionaries, just because they are honest. Being a revolutionary is also an attitude toward life, being a revolutionary is an attitude toward existing reality…" And he added later on, "It is possible that men and women who have a truly revolutionary attitude toward reality may not constitute a majority of the population; revolutionaries are the vanguard of the people, but revolutionaries must aspire to having all the people march along with them … the Revolution must never renounce having the majority of the people; of having not only revolutionaries, but all honest citizens with the Revolution, although they may not be revolutionaries, that is, although they may not have a revolutionary attitude toward life. The Revolution must only renounce those who are incorrigibly reactionary, who are incorrigibly counterrevolutionary."

Where a Revolution has triumphed, the adjective - which in the globalized world of bourgeois officialdom is used as an insult - becomes a compliment. A person is hard-working, "good people," and revolutionary. The everyday use of the term may de-contextualize the rebellious substrate and its political meaning, reducing the characteristics of a revolutionary to honesty and decency.

At times, given that the Revolution has taken power, the term is identified with good or correct behavior. We say, "Deep down, he/she is a revolutionary," as if we were saying, "Beyond appearances, he/she is a good person." And we believe that the "most revolutionary" child or youth is the one who behaves. In a certain way, the adjective has become bourgeois. This appears almost inevitable, but it is not: a revolution in power needs to establish its "new normal," its ability to govern.

Defending one's political power is a basic premise of any political power, more so when it is a counter-power encircled by a world power, which not only harasses it on the physical plane (materially, militarily), but also spiritually, in the arena of passing on values, and its normality is an "anomaly" beyond its geographic borders.

Being revolutionary is participating in the consolidation of the revolutionary government, establishing a common front with this government, to defend every conquest and establish new goals, even when the degree of participation in the determination of these objectives is not as yet sufficient, or is exercised in a formal manner.

Socialist democracy, essentially superior, still has a long way to go. Being revolutionary is participating with a perspective of committed criticism. Criticizing is not reporting a known fact; it is acting on it, pushing toward its solution. What gives a criticism veracity and fairness is not that it is vocalized; but rather its meaning. If criticism is depoliticized, it is gutted, and its content is falsified.

Imperceptibly a slow process of separation occurs, the removal of the "rebel" content which a revolutionary attitude always presupposes. This is not good. Rebellion is then taken up and counterpoised to being revolutionary - a longstanding aspiration of imperialist subversion: promote anti-revolutionary rebellion, which is to say, the rebels are anti-rebels, who aspire to be "normal," opposed to rebellion, and in agreement with global alienation - or in an antithesis, there are those who believe that the rebel is the true revolutionary.

These latter can lose their sense of direction, because rebellion alone, regularly manipulated by the capitalist market, has a long history of coexistence, and at times collusion, with capitalism. Youthful rebellion is not, and cannot be, the enemy of a revolutionary spirit. Being revolutionary is the highest form of rebellion. Without the nonconformity that rebellion produces, and its propensity for breaking the mold, norms, and frameworks, it is difficult to be a revolutionary.

Cuban universities cannot be "of and for revolutionaries;" they are training centers and, yes, they must train revolutionaries. From their classrooms, Mella and Fidel emerged. Capitalism (the culture of having) attempts to tame rebellion by promoting its primary expressions: contempt, irreverence. It attempts to isolate the rebel, encouraging self-absorption, exploiting individualism to the maximum, transforming the rebel into a cynic. Socialism (the culture of being) attempts to channel this rebellion toward transformative action, giving it capital letters, making it part of the era's most just causes.

I lived in the Central Havana neighborhood of Colón, and I know that many people in that area must confront more concrete, close-at-hand enemies than U.S. imperialism, at least this appears to be the case, when corruption, bureaucracy, double standards, insensitivity, the "save yourself if you can" attitude, hold sway. I believe, as they do, that this is the principal enemy.

But we cannot be confused as to its name: this is about capitalism, of its capacity to regenerate within socialism, which is nothing more than a route (not a point of arrival) to another place, to another hope or assurance of a better life. If we detach this name from these manifestations, or we erroneously link them to the socialist road we have taken, we could lose our way. We cannot be revolutionaries today, in this globalized world, if we are not anti-capitalist; if we are not anti-imperialist; if we do not feel the conquests, the dangers, the humiliations of other peoples as our own; if we do not defend the unity of Cuban revolutionaries and that of the peoples of Latin America in the face of imperialism.

We cannot be revolutionaries if we think that the world has the breadth or length of a street, of a neighborhood, or a country; if we accept the consensus others have constructed, and do not construct our own; if we empty every word from our texts of struggle, because they will be immediately filled with other content by those fighting us.

Martí, Mella, Guiteras, Che, Fidel, are too much alike for us to invent the issue of generational rifts. They have not ceased to be young. Tasks change, the coordinates change, but not the attitudes, the principles, the horizon toward which we always advance without arriving.

On the other hand, no one becomes a revolutionary once and for all.

One must be reborn as a revolutionary every morning, every day. Roles are not predetermined or immutable: the hero of 1868 could became a traitor 20 years later; the person who was indecisive at that time, perhaps took up arms with dignity in 1895; the valiant independence fighter may have allowed himself to be seduced by corrupting neocolonial politics; the energetic opponent of Machado could become disillusioned with the ideals of his youth or become an instrument of violence; the revolutionary of the Sierra or the city could accommodate or be caught up in the web of bureaucratism; the skeptic of those days could become a fervent militia member, an everyday, invisible hero; the student leader trapped in good behavior and applause, could become a repeater of empty slogans; and the perennial rebel can continue growing to become truly revolutionary.

Disguised among one or another of these are the opportunists, the “pragmatic” cynics of all times. History is besieging them, and of their multiple actions, all that will last is the instant of fundamental morality which sustains the homeland: “this sun of the moral world,” which illuminates and defines human beings, according to the phrase Cintio recovered from José de la Luz y Caballero. A homeland which is humanity, which is not the “grass upon which our feet tred,” or in some always-evolving customs, but rather a collective project of justice. A homeland which aspires to merge with humanity, and which in the meantime defends its space to forge, to create, to protect the full dignity of its men and women.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2016-09-27/being-a-revolutionary-in-cuba-today#pq=U2XEmX

This is outstanding, makes my day.

Cuba ain't gonna be a walk in the park for the capitalists, it could be something else entirely.

Trump Spokesperson: 'Cuba Hasn't Made Any Concessions'

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1489029006438/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/03/08/47723534.cached.jpg_1718483346.jpg
A man walks by a mural of the Cuban flag. | Photo: Reuters

Published 8 March 2017

The Trump administration has made it clear it will be reviewing all agreements with Cuba.
U.S. President Donald Trump believes that Cuba, “with all the things it has been given,” has not made any “concessions” within the process of normalization of bilateral relations, according to Trump's adviser Helen Aguirre Ferre in an interview with EFE Wednesday.

“President (Trump) has been very clear about the fact that all the agreements reached during the previous administration with Cuba will be re-assessed,” said Ferre, the White House director of media affairs.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had already warned during his confirmation hearing that "there will be a comprehensive review of current policies and (Obama's) executive orders regarding Cuba to determine how best to pressure Cuba to respect human rights and promote democratic changes," even adding that he will commit to “reverse” them.


Beside the pretext of “human rights,” Tillerson highlighted how he will pressure Cuba to serve U.S. economic and political interests.

He promised to work with the Treasury Department to ensure that no revenue from U.S. firms goes directly toward supporting the Cuban government, and to use trade to pressure Cuba to have Black Panther activist Assata Shakur extradited to the United States. Shakur was accused of killing a U.S. police officer during a shootout in New Jersey in 1977.

Tillerson added that the U.S. will continue to actively support Cuba's counter-revolutionary forces, including the funding of Miami-based programs like Radio and TV Marti.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Trump-Spokesperson-Cuba-Hasnt-Made-Any-Concessions-20170308-0025.html

Key remarks by Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, President of the State Council and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, at the ALBA Summit, Venezuela, March 5, 2017 [En]



Comrade Nicolas Maduro Moros, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,

Esteemed Heads of State and Government of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America,

Esteemed Heads of delegations and guests,

Dear people of Venezuela,

I would dare say that we are at a crucial time in our history, where a backward step at a regional level could have very negative repercussions for our peoples.

From Fidel we learned to be mindful of history, to be audacious but also realistic, and to think that what may seem impossible we can attain if we set out to do it, and work for it steadily and consistently.

The member countries of ALBA-TCP feel that integration with solidarity is an indispensable premise to move forward, and achieve development, vis-à-vis the perceived advance in the establishment of large blocs controlling the global economy. We believe it takes political will to give greater opportunities to commerce, investment and intra-regional cooperation, without which our progress will remain insufficient. We have also proven our capacity for concerted action.

ALBA would not have been possible when the Cuban Revolution triumphed. It was the civic-military rebellion of February 4, 1992, and the victory of the Bolivarian Revolution headed by the unforgettable Commander Hugo Chávez Frías, that made possible for such an initiative like this to come to fruition.

It was also important that Fidel and Lula’s ideas converged at the Sao Paulo Forum to receive and support Chávez.

Today, the sustained connection of the ALBA and the Sao Paulo Forum remains decisive to relations between revolutionary and progressive governments and popular movements, and with trade union, peasant, student and academic organizations as well as with the local intelligentsia.

Chávez always explained the complexity of trying to make a revolution in an oil-producing country, which depends on just one market, and where a corrupt financial oligarchy prevails; a nation whose people was imposed unsustainable habits of consumerism, and a neoliberal rentier economy that led the country to bankruptcy.

Chávez realized that to undertake the necessary transformations he should focus his efforts on the construction of a far-reaching civic-military unity, the same headed today by President Nicolás Maduro with the support of the followers of Bolívar and Chávez.

The construction of unity is the most important challenge faced by any true revolution.

As revolutionaries, we have many ideas and a vision of what path to pursue and how to do that successfully. However, the consolidation of unity demands acting with modesty, and putting aside everything that may divide or separate us.

It is thanks to unity that the Bolivarian Revolution has survived the constant pressure and harassment of its enemies.

Thanks to that unity, the revolution has survived the OAS despicable actions, the irritating and unjust American sanctions, and the recent accusations against its executive vice-president comrade Tareck El Aissami. All of these actions intend to deflect attention from the real problems and to discredit those committed to saving, developing and defending their homeland.

The agenda of the new U.S. Administration risks giving free reign to an extreme and selfish commercial protectionism that will have an impact on the competitiveness of our foreign trade. It will hurt environmental agreements to privilege the revenues of transnational companies, and persecute and deport migrants generated by the uneven distribution of wealth. As it will also increase poverty caused by the imposed international order.

The wall whose construction is intended along Mexico’s northern border is an expression of such irrationality not only against that sister nation but against our entire region. We state the solidarity of Cuba with the Mexican people and government. Poverty, catastrophes, and migrants cannot be contained with walls but rather through cooperation, understanding and peace.

Venezuela has made a great contribution to regional integration with its solidarity and generosity, especially with the peoples of Latin America, and particularly with those of the Caribbean, as it called on us all to join PETROCARIB, UNASUR and CELAC.

You are not alone. I reiterate the commitment made in our Declaration to accompany the defense of Venezuela and the brave, constructive and dignified stance held by President Nicolás Maduro.

Comrades all,

Venezuela is today the decisive battlefield where sovereignty, emancipation, integration and development in Our America are at stake.

Such is the aspiration that we laid down in the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace adopted by CELAC in its Havana Summit of January 2014. It is essential to abide by that declaration. There, we committed to honor “our obligation to not interfere, directly or indirectly, in the internal affairs of any other State, and to observe the principles of national sovereignty, equality of rights and the self-determination of the peoples.” Also, to resolve our differences peacefully and to respect “the principles and norms of International Law and the principles and objectives of the United Nations Charter.” Moreover, to respect “the inalienable right of all States to choose their political, economic, social and cultural system as a fundamental premise to ensure peaceful coexistence between nations.”

That historic document urges “all member States of the International Community to fully respect that Proclamation in their relations with the member States of CELAC.”

The defense of justice in the Greater Homeland concerns us all. We will never fail our beloved Caribbean brothers and sisters.

We reaffirm our support for their legitimate claim to reparation for the horror of slavery and slave trade as well as their demand to receive cooperation according to their necessities, and not based on indicators that rate them as middle-income countries. We support their demand for special and differentiated treatment concerning access to commerce and investments, and funds to help them adjust to the effects of climate change and to natural disasters, since they are small and vulnerable island states. At the same time, we condemn the unfair persecution brought against them by the centers of financial capital.

We reaffirm our solidarity with Dilma Rousseff, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, three deservedly recognized leaders of Our America.

We shall continue supporting Correa and his comrade Lenín Moreno in Ecuador. We will never abandon Evo, for he is the true leader of Bolivia and of all native peoples. In addition, we shall keep accompanying Daniel and the Sandinista people of Nicaragua.

Thank you.

http://solidnet.org/cuba-communist-party-of-cuba/cp-of-cuba-key-remarks-by-army-general-raul-castro-ruz-president-of-the-state-council-and-the-council-of-ministers-of-the-republic-of-cuba-at-the-alba-summit-venezuela-march-5-2017-en

Most Important Battle Is Beating Demoralization: Cuban Minister
worker | March 19, 2017 | 8:56 pm

By: teleSUR

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1489461193836/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/03/13/abel-prieto1.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Cuban Minister of Culture Abel Prieto Jimenez. | Photo: Reuters

Published 13 March 2017


A conversation with the Cuban minister of culture reminds us, “The battle of consciousness and ideas must be won.”
The great battle underway today on a global level is taking place in the minds of each and every one of us, rather than in specific physical locations. Revolutionaries, warriors of ideas, are not lacking; but the forces are dispersed in the face of a powerful, compact bloc of mass media which looks to turn human beings into captives of their emotions, disconnected from their ability to think.

It is no coincidence that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called for a communication revolution in November 2016, one that includes traditional media, social networks, streets, and walls, inviting us to assume the intense, necessary task of progressive thinking.

It was precisely this urgent work which was discussed by the Network of Intellectuals, Artists, and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity during its 15th summit held March 6-7 in Caracas, with more than 60 thinkers from Venezuela and other countries in attendance titled, “Emancipatory Communication or Colonized homelands.”

Just minutes prior to the meeting’s second day, Cuban Minister of Culture Abel Prieto Jimenez dedicated a few minutes to a dialogue, speaking of the times in which we live, insisting on the importance of the fight for critical, revolutionary thinking, saying, “The battle of consciousness and ideas must be won.”

Alina Perera Robbio: You have commented during this meeting that the left has not constructed a paradigm, in terms of communication, which could provide an alternative in the face of right-wing media hegemony. Would you share some reflections on this issue?

Abel Prieto Jimenez: Intellectuals from Venezuela and other countries have spoken here about this traditional weak point of the left, in the sense of being able to create a kind of paradigm, in terms of communication, that could be effective in the face of the lying, defamatory machine — to which we could add any number of adjectives — but which is undoubtedly effective in domesticating consciousness, dampening critical thinking, imposing on the people, for example, candidates who offer villas and castles, but later betray them.

That’s why we see everyday people voting against their own interests, everyday people voting against their country’s future, against conquests won. These are chilling things that are related to the world in which we live today, in which a few media corporations control everything.

There has been talk during this workshop of the role of social networks, of how even in electoral processes, those targeted for messages are very clearly defined, based on the great database these social networks provide, from which psychological profiles are created and different messages crafted for each one of these persons. That is to say, this is where the machinery of manipulation and trickery is, an issue that has been constantly raised in discussions within the Network in Defense of Humanity.

I recalled a panel that was held at the Cuartel de la Montaña, in December 2004, when Chavez called on us to take the offensive, and he called on us to create a breach in the media wall. From that discussion, the idea emerged for teleSUR, which has had so much success and been so important. Since that era, we have been talking about the machinery of manipulation. But I would say that today, the concentration of the media, the use of people’s unconscious reflexes, has grown to an almost Orwellian level — thinking about that famous book of George Orwell, “1984,” in which he talks of a policed world. We are facing a tremendous challenge and most important are trying to create this new paradigm, which must be participatory, because it must be the revolutionary people, using social networks, who resist being hypnotized, being driven like a herd from one place to another. And at the same time, we must be able to generate content. We must be critical with respect to the system, and at the same time proactive.
Perera Robbio: Circumstances have changed dramatically since 2004. The difficulties, as you say, have increased.

Prieto Jimenez: Fidel, Chavez founded so many extraordinary things. Then Evo (Morales), (Rafael) Correa, Daniel (Ortega), ALBA joined in. The Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) was defeated in Mar del Plata (Argentina) — a truly glorious moment for the left in our America. Nestor Kirchner participated in the defeat of the FTAA and later so did Cristina (Fernandez). It was a significant moment. In Brazil, the Workers’ Party was in power; it was a time that really awakened many hopes, that made Latin America a pole.

We see now how there is talk of a pendulum. One of the most sinister things one can do is accept the idea that there was a pendulum swing toward the left, and now a swing to the reactionary right is coming. It’s crazy because history does not move by way of pendulum swings. History is made by men, women, the people, and I think what is most important is to put an end to the demoralization, the discouragement, the worry among progressive forces — stop the idea that what is happening now is fate, that neoliberal ideas can survive another ten years, instead of going to the ideas of Bolivar, Jose Martí, of Fidel, Chavez, of the Cuban Revolution and the Latin American Revolution.

Everything that happens is inevitably affected by our ability to communicate in an effective manner, in a serious, profound manner.

Perera Robbio: How can the left meet this challenge, continue the struggle, not be discouraged?

Prieto Jimenez: Participants in this 15th Network meeting unanimously concur on the need to leave here with an agreement on concrete steps, an action plan.

One of the tasks the Network could undertake is linking the nuclei of cultural resistance, the alternative media, radio, the work of digital guerillas in social networks. There are many people who have not allowed themselves to be defeated and are fighting for liberation, against the neoliberal offensive, but they are not linked up.

I think the Network must take on the task of attempting to link these forces, so that people understand we are facing a global struggle, and that the little wars at a local level are not going to resolve the problem, even though victories may be won at this local level.

The idea of ethical monitoring of the media is important. During this workshop, one participant spoke about the slander of Fidel that appeared in Forbes magazine, according to which the leader of the Cuban Revolution had amassed a huge fortune, and was among the richest leaders in the world. I told this speaker that Fidel said something tremendous on Cuban television, in front of many compañeros, saying that if they showed him just one scrap of evidence, he would resign immediately. This reply was never published by Forbes.

The mass media lies, and if there is a reply, they never accept the fact that they lied, and the lie continues floating about. It’s Goebbels’ theory: repeat and repeat a lie until it becomes true. This is the philosophy of all the mass media at this time.

There has been talk in this forum about what Venezuela (mass media) did with the guarimbas (violent street protests), of how they circulated pictures of acts of violence, of throat slashings, of beatings which never occurred and were attributed to the police and the Bolivarian government, supposedly taking place during confrontations with opposition demonstrators. That is to say, they are constantly disseminating slanderous lies. Well, there is talk of post-truth politics, of totally invented events meant to create destabilization, which suddenly go viral on social networks, so people believe them.

The situation is terrible. The mass media has trained a massive group of people, mostly young who are very aware of what is going on, of what is moving around the web, and who are very credulous. That is why I believe that the other thing we need to do is to promote the critical study of these communications phenomena, especially among adolescents.

The use of intelligence must be promoted. Let us recall what Fidel said many times: They want to dismantle our ability to think. This is the great project: that the people don’t think; that the people don’t critically examine the lies that are everywhere.

Something else which has been discussed during these hours is that which is customarily referred to as the training of young cadres, revolutionary cadres. In this regard, the issue of new technologies must be included, the necessity of knowing how to use them, the issue of the battle of ideas on social networks.

During these times, we can ask a question: Are we going to allow the thinking of Fidel, allow generations in Cuba and Latin America, to be seen as something archaeological, something of the past? Are Venezuelans going to let the thinking of Chavez be put away in a museum, as something that happened but has no relevance? I think this depends a great deal on us.

First published in Juventud Rebelde on March 7, 2017. Translated by Granma International.

Alina Perera Robbio is a writer for Juventud Rebelde.

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/most-important-battle-is-beating-demoralization-cuban-minister/

Drought and Agriculture: Water Management for Food Security
By: Theodor Friedrich

March 24, 2017 | +

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Climate is only one factor that determines the availability of water. Photo: Agriculturers.

We all know the importance of water for life on earth, and how, faced with the prospect of its scarcity, as is happening in many parts of the world, wars are foreseen for access to it .

It is also known of the destructive power of water, something that our comrades in eastern Cuba have experienced last year after Hurricane Matthew in Guantanamo province and the phenomena that are currently plaguing Peru.

In fact, in many parts of Cuba, this force of water can be noticed in the landscapes; Especially in agricultural areas are signs of water erosion in soils. These waters are lost without being used, like other "sewage", the motto of World Water Day 2017. But wastewater is not only those that do not take advantage, but also those that are wasted and that can contribute to the pollution of Water resources and therefore affect other waters in their utility.

Curiously, signs of water erosion are noticeable in dry areas of the world. And so, at the opening of the event Cubagua the Chief Engineer of the Chinese Ministry of Water, Wang Hong, mentioned drought, flood, pollution and the environment as factors that coincide in the theme water.

This brings me to the current issue of concern to Cuba: drought . No Cuban has failed to realize that we are having a drought. And the drought is largely blamed on climate change, or it is most often said. This almost absolves us of our part of the problem. But is it really so?

Returning to the United Nations that proclaimed World Water Day in 1993 - one year after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro - we can expand the vision of the complexity of the issue a little more: last year the world with leadership Of the UN approved a new agenda of sustainable development with 17 objectives, all interconnected. Two of these goals - 6 and 14 - are dedicated to water and its ecosystems; But the water problem and its management relates to other sustainable development goals directly or indirectly.

Therefore, climate change , climate, it is only one factor that determines water availability. There are many other factors, which are under our direct control . And since the sustainable development agenda can not be fulfilled by focusing on isolated objectives, the water problem does not resolve by looking at water alone.

While it is true that the rains in recent years have decreased and we have spent less than average time in terms of rainfall, we still have significant levels: a national average above one thousand millimeters per year . The reduction of precipitation was so gradual that it can not explain the current crisis that the country is experiencing, with many of the over-exploited aquifers under critical conditions, with danger of salinization due to the intrusion of marine waters and with the catchment dams With historically low levels. This situation has dragged us for many years in which the exploitation of the terrestrial waters exceeded the use of rainfall.

We still have many areas where we can improve water management and care; We all know of the waste of the water, the losses in the conductive lines and the low efficiency in the use. One sector that is particularly committed in this regard is agriculture, which uses almost 70% of the water consumed and suffers from drought . Many irrigation systems used, such as irrigation by flooding in rice fields or irrigation by spraying, cause in the tropical climate significant losses of water, without contributing to the production.

But there is an even more serious problem: we take only part of the rain. When a downpour falls on Cuba, only in the wooded areas of the Island this water is captured in the water table. But Cuba only has 30% of its area with forest. In the rest of the country up to 90% of the water drains to the surface, causing the erosion traces that I mentioned, ending without utility, as "residual water" and seeking its direct exit to the sea, without contributing to the filling of the terrestrial aquifers . Where we have dams, we can retain perhaps 40% of this water, but with the sedimentation in the reservoirs this quota also decreases with time, and a good part evaporates in the same dams. In short, if we only take less than half of the rainwater that falls, it is not surprising the drought we are going through.

That is why we have to understand the relationships between land management and water resources. We have to ensure that the largest possible surface area of ​​the island is able to infiltrate all the falling water and to fill the aquifers, to make the most of it without loss. If we also reduce the waste and increase the presence of trees in our landscapes, I am sure, there will be no drought despite climate change.

But we have to learn, that nature is something complex and "obvious" or "easy" solutions do not solve the big problems: nature is not fooled.

Thus, the construction of dams solved the problem of flooding, but not that of drought, particularly the management of underground aquifers. Nor will the drilling of infiltration wells solve it, which in addition brings a danger of contamination of the water table.

The sustainable solution will be to provide all the lands of Cuba with the natural water infiltration capacity of our forests, starting from the fact that this forest infiltration capacity does not result from trees, but from the fact that in The soil is tilled, the natural structure of the soil is not broken. Thus, this land opens with biological tillage and allows the water cycle to function naturally.

We have technologies, such as Conservation Agriculture, that allow us to convert all land areas, particularly agricultural productive areas, into "water creators" . Let us help nature to function again, with soils as a key element, so that it can bring the services of the ecosystem itself, above all, enough clean water. We have to learn to live with nature instead of trying to dominate it, so that it provides us with a safe and pleasant environment to live.

http://www.cubadebate.cu/especiales/2017/03/24/sequia-y-agricultura-gestion-del-agua-para-la-seguridad-alimentaria/#.WNUgYG_yvIU

Google Translator

Our socialism is scientific and as a matter of course understands that preservation and repair of 'ecosystem services' is meeting human need. Implicit in this is the maintenance of biodiversity which is both a functional part and outcome of a well functioning ecosystem.

Compare this to classism, immaterial sentimentalism, barely disguised cupidity and chronic despair of 'environmentalism' in capitalist society.

Committed to agro-ecological models
The scientific center was founded on March 8, 1962, by Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, in response to work being undertaken in the agricultural and livestock sectors, regarding animal nutrition

Author: Nuria Barbosa León | internet@granma.cu
march 24, 2017 14:03:20

http://en.granma.cu/file/img/2017/03/medium/f0016665.jpg
Giraldo Jesús Martín Martín PhD, director of the center, highlights the staff’s commitment to contributing to sustainable local development through the use of ecological agricultural methods. Photo: Nuria Barbosa

Current challenges at a national and international level are leading the Indio Hatuey Experimental Pasture and Forage Station to constantly develop innovative institutional strategies toward achieving sustainable local development through the use of productive agro-ecological models.

Located in the municipality of Perico, Matanzas province, and affiliated with the Camilo Cienfuegos University, the scientific center was founded on March 8, 1962, by Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, in response to work being undertaken in the agricultural and livestock sectors, regarding animal nutrition.

The facility is named after the Indigenous cacique (chief) Hatuey, also considered to be Cuba’s first hero, after he was burned at the stake on February 2, 1512, for resisting Spanish colonization and inciting others to rebel.

Since the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959, the institution has undertaken important work, such as research into developing agricultural and livestock systems able to meet the population’s food needs, and in accordance with the island’s social and economic strategies.

In this sense, Cuba’s agricultural model from 1976 through 1990 was characterized by the use of new technologies, influenced by the ideas of the so called Green Revolution promoted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); the sharing of experiences with countries which formed part of the then socialist camp, and reliable suppliers, established through agreements with the former Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA).

The fall of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the 1990s and the tightening of the criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on the island, forced the country to think of solutions to resolve problems within the institution, the nation, the agricultural and livestock sector, and those linked to climate change and environmental damage.

http://en.granma.cu/file/img/2017/03/medium/f0016667.jpg
The Indio Hatuey Experimental Pasture and Forage Station conducts research into agro-ecological techniques toward ensuring human wellbeing and improving ecosystems. Photo: Nuria Barbosa

For this reason, the Experimental Station’s research agenda has moved from studies into different varieties of grass and herbaceous plants, to important woody species to feed livestock. As such a silvopastoral system was developed, based on planting these species in the same area, in order to meet animals’ nutritional needs.

The way these scientific processes were managed evolved from a geocentric model, where pasture and forage varieties were the principle focus of studies; to a system-centric one, with the production system representing the fundamental aspect of scientific strategy.

Therefore, research areas are now focused on forage genetic resources such as nutrition, reproduction and animal health; diversified agricultural production; agro-energy; and sustainable local and rural development; combined with thorough professional training.

The Station’s 340 employees are currently working on four research programs, and undertaking 22 nationally financed projects, as well as another three benefiting from international collaboration (while six more are in the preliminary stages of development). As such the facility has 22 PhD and 40 Masters graduates, while 31% of technical staff hold a university degree across a wide range of disciplines.

This, according to the center’s Director, Giraldo Jesús Martín Martín PhD, speaking with Granma International; who praised the commitment and efforts of staff working to support the country’s agricultural development; interaction between the facility, community and local government; the promotion and adoption of technologies; as well as the management of technologies and innovation initiatives by state enterprises and the agricultural cooperative sector.

Important to this work, noted the Director, are the links the center maintains with the FAO, UN Development Program, World Food Program, Environmental Fund and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (COSUDE), which direct and implement collaborative projects and finance different stages of research.

“Over 30 results and technologies are being applied in the productive sector, across more than 530 areas nationwide,” stated Martín Martín, also a deputy to the Cuban Parliament, noting that agro-energy and bio-fuels are priority areas for research undertaken at the Indio Hatuey Experimental Station.

Proof of this is the study - ongoing for over 50 years - into more than 2,000 pasture and forage species, above all different varieties of grass (1,921) and legumes (881), and herbaceous and tree species (285), in order to develop a new kind of pastoral system known as silvopasture.

Extensive investigations are being carried out into three species (Morera, Moringa and Tithonia) which contain proteins and other important nutrients for animals, while local food production plants are being renovated, where by-products of industrial production, conventional forages and protein rich species are used.

A tangible result of research efforts has been the creation of biodiesel from non-edible oilseed plants. Experiments revealed the existence of a group of shrubs whose seeds or fruits produce useful oil, which can be used as an alternative to liquid bio-fuels made from crops like soya, corn or sugar cane.

The center is also working on building biodigesters on farms dedicated to cattle or pig rearing, used to produce gas and clean energy from animal excrement. The fuel obtained is used to power local homes, while rural families were provided with equipment designed especially for methane gas as part of an international collaboration initiative.

The center is also promoting sericulture (the rearing of silkworms) through the development of technologies to aid white mulberry tree cultivation. The worms live off the leaves of these trees, and spin a cocoon of silk threads which are then collected and processed to make silk cloth, used by artisans to create decorative items and homewares.

The director of the entity added that “We are also conducting research into the grassy areas of hotel and sporting facilities. We also take care of embellishing different types of gardens.”

As such the Station offers scientific-technical services to national and international entities related to the use, conservation and production of pasture grass and forage seeds; the promotion and utilization of silvopasture systems; turfed areas; bio-products made with native microorganisms; the rearing and exploitation of silkworms; agricultural production using agro-ecological methods; designing diversified agroenergy farms; developing strategic plans with rural entities and municipalities; and the installation of different types and sizes of biodigestors.

For Fernando Funes Aguilar PhD, who has been working at the Station since 1966, the institution will provide coherent responses as the process toward finding a balance between intensive or basic science, and science linked to production, the economy and society, advances.

According to Aguilar, to date efforts have been based on making investments to obtain knowledge, which, with a more innovative approach, involves “investing in knowledge for economic gain;” a proposal in which the Indio Hatuey Experimental Pasture and Forage Station is currently immersed, 55 years after its founding.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-03-24/committed-to-agro-ecological-models

Cuba sending medical brigade to Peru in the wake of severe flooding
Cuba is preparing to send a contingent of health professionals to Peru, to help address the emergency facing the population in the wake of heavy rain

Author: TELESUR | internet@granma.cu
march 27, 2017 09:03:00

Cuba is preparing to send a medical brigade to Peru to help address the emergency facing the population, in the wake of heavy rain in several of the country's regions over the last few weeks.

The Cuban embassy in Lima offered the Peruvian Foreign Ministry the services of a contingent from the Henry Reeve Medical Brigade specialized in disasters and epidemics. The group, including 11 doctors, ten healthcare professionals, an administrator, and lead doctor, will stay for one month, and is equipped with sufficient medicine and supplies to treat thousands of people.

The embassy released a statement, reported by teleSUR, that the professionals are ready to travel as soon as Peruvian authorities indicate that they are ready to receive the contingent.

This is not the first time Cuba has supported Peru in responding to natural disasters, having participated in recovery efforts following earthquakes in 1970 and in 2007.

Last week, President Raúl Castro sent his Peruvian counterpart, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a message expressing condolences given the human and material losses suffered by the country as a result of heavy rain and flooding.

Since last December, Peru has faced severe weather, which has caused 90 deaths and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings. Some 120,890 persons have been affected.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-03-27/cuba-sending-medical-brigade-to-peru-in-the-wake-of-severe-flooding

meanwhile the US is sending..........

Who can doubt the superiority of socialism other than the misanthrope?

Some Challenges of Economic Development
After a five-year implementation of the mechanisms for updating, the non-state sector of the economy has made an exponential jump

Author: Katheryn Felipe | Internet@granma.cu
March 30, 2017 22:03:28


When in April 2011 the 6th Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) approved the Guidelines for the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution, the process of economic updating initiated in the country was taking new steps.

Recall that, without waiting for obstacles and contradictions in their concreteness, the Guidelines defined that the prevailing economic system would continue to be based on the socialist ownership of the whole people over the fundamental means of production, governed by the (also socialist) Each according to his ability, each according to his labor. "

From understanding that only socialism is capable of overcoming difficulties and preserving the revolutionary ideals of equality and justice, the national economy would continue to be driven by planning, which would at the same time respond to market trends and give more autonomy to State enterprises and new forms of management.

In the words of the Cuban Minister of Economy from 1995 to 2009, José Luis Rodríguez, it is a question of maintaining social property over the means of production that are determinant for the country's development, establishing limits to the development of non-state property, Reducing their capacity for accumulation, and ensuring the provision of basic social services, in a universal and free way.

In addition to retaining the socialist state enterprise, updating, we know, recognizes and promotes "the modalities of foreign investment, cooperatives, small farmers, usufructuaries, tenants, self-employed workers and other forms" .

According to Rodríguez, an adviser to the World Economic Research Center, opening up small private property (self-employment or self-employment), the agricultural and non-agricultural cooperative, and joint ventures with foreign capital is a way to give them participation In the advance of the country "without being predominant and if they are properly channeled, that is to say, without becoming preponderant".

From the point of view of the Psychologist Maria del Carmen Zabala, specialist in social equity issues and adviser to the Cuba Program of the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, the Guidelines are committed to equity and involve the implementation of measures that are important alternatives Employment and income for the benefit of families.

That is why the strategic document states that "in non-state forms of management, ownership will not be allowed in legal or natural persons" and the tax system will impose higher taxes on higher incomes in order to "reduce inequalities Among citizens'.

As Cuban President Raul Castro Ruz made clear during the 7th. Congress of the PCC in April 2016 in Havana "neoliberal formulas that advocate accelerated privatization of state assets and social services, such as health, education and social security, will never be applied to Cuban socialism."

The first secretary of the Central Committee of the PCC has expressed that "a Revolution of the humble, for the humble and for the humble", as defined by Fidel, with an undeniable social work built "will never find a solution to his problems with his back to the people , Nor with the restoration of capitalism, which would lead to the application of shock therapies to the population with less resources and would destroy the unity and trust of the majority of our citizens around the Revolution and the Party. In Cuba, he has reiterated on more than one occasion "no one will be left homeless".

MEDIUM, SMALL AND MICRO

After a five-year implementation of the mechanisms for updating, the non-state sector of the economy has taken an exponential step. While state employment was 81.2% in 2010, it reached 70.8 in 2015.

While there were 157 371 account holders in September 2010, there were just over half a million at the end of 2016.

Although "the increase in self-employment and the authorization of the hiring of labor force has in practice led to the existence of medium-sized, small and private micro-enterprises which today operate without due legal personality and are governed by the law by a Regulatory framework designed for natural persons dedicated to small businesses that are carried out by the worker and his family ", in correspondence with comrade Raúl, an atmosphere is formed that does not discriminate or stigmatize non-state work.

In addition, in socialist and sovereign Cuba, the property of the people over the basic means of production constitutes the basis of the real power of the workers, has also explained the President of the Councils of State and Ministers that favors the success of non- State management, on the basis, in all cases, of strict compliance with current legislation and with well-defined limits.

In this regard, he said that "we are not naive nor ignore the aspirations of powerful external forces that bet on what they call the" empowerment "of non-state forms of management, in order to generate agents of change in the hope of ending The Revolution and socialism in Cuba by other means. "

He also argued that "cooperatives, self-employment and the medium, small and micro-private enterprises are not essentially anti-socialist or counterrevolutionary" and the vast majority of those who work there are patriots.

With economic development, the struggle for peace and ideological firmness as the main missions of the CCP, the operation of non-agricultural production cooperatives, especially trade, gastronomy, technical services, small industry and construction, is an experimental process.

A PROCESS ORDERED AND PAULATINO

It is worth reviewing more closely the guidelines governing the gradual and orderly process of separation of state and business functions, and whose fundamental obstacle has been the burden of an outdated mentality. The President of the Greater Antilles has warned that it is necessary to ensure more explanation to the people, more discipline and demand and a greater and more close follow-up to the change process. "We must have, as we have already said, ears and feet on the ground."

Empowering enterprises, reshaping employment and wages to eliminate inflated staff in all spheres of the economy, and ensuring that work is the main form of income for the population will facilitate the freeing of the state. Small business administration.

On the other hand, progress has been made in the development of procurement markets that sell at wholesale prices and provide media rental and equipment services, without subsidy, to the business system, budgeted and non-state management forms.

The Guidelines also include the possibility of making the corporate purpose of companies more flexible so that they can maximize their potential and the need for companies to manage their working capital and investments up to an expected limit.

Another point of evolution is in what is known as "pay by results". As easy as the income of workers in both state and non-state facilities, they are tied to the results they get.

The conceptualization of the economic model, proposed during the 7th. Congress of the PCC, states that "the consolidation and sustainable development of socialism is possible only from preserving values ​​and increase labor productivity, so that wealth grows for its fair distribution and with it the level and quality of life, As well as the realization of the collective and individual aspirations of the people.

At the same time, the National Economic and Social Development Plan until 2030 defines strategic axes that are pillars and driving forces of Cuban development, which focus on: effective and socialist government, social integration, productive transformation and international insertion, Infrastructure development, human potential, science, technology, innovation, natural resources and the environment, human development, equity and justice.

Let us not forget that all these changes occur in a reality defined by the slow population growth of the population, low fertility and mortality rates, a negative migration balance and the sustained process of urbanization and population aging, which imposes great social and economic challenges to the country.

http://www.granma.cu/economia-con-tinta/2017-03-30/algunos-desafios-del-desarrollo-economico-30-03-2017-22-03-28

Google Translator

After a five-year implementation of the mechanisms for updating, the non-state sector of the economy has taken an exponential step. While state employment was 81.2% in 2010, it reached 70.8 in 2015.

While there were 157 371 account holders in September 2010, there were just over half a million at the end of 2016.


I am going to trust the Cubans, they've earned it (like they care what I think), but that slope is slippery as owl shit.

Cuban doctors head to Peru in the wake of severe flooding

Cuban doctors departed for Peru early this Friday, March 31, to provide services in areas of the country affected by the recent heavy rains. On leaving, they dedicated their solidarity efforts to the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro

Author: Lissy Rodríguez Guerrero | informacion@granma.cu
march 31, 2017 10:03:11

http://en.granma.cu/file/img/2017/03/medium/f0016731.jpg
Photo: Jose M. Correa
Cuban health personnel departed for Peru early this Friday, March 31, tasked with providing services in areas of the country affected by the recent heavy rains.

Gathered at the Central Medical Cooperation Unit for a farewell ceremony yesterday evening, they dedicated their solidarity efforts to the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro.

They were joined by Public Health Minister Roberto Morales Ojeda, who presented this 23rd Brigade of the Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors Specializing in Disasters and Serious Epidemics, with the customary Cuban flag.

The 23-strong brigade is made up 12 physicians and 11 health professionals, with more than ten years experience and having fulfilled other international missions.

Morales Ojeda, who is also a member of the Party Political Bureau, noted that the Henry Reeve Contingent was formed as part of the solidarity initiatives led by Fidel, and that today 50,000 Cuban collaborators are offering their services across 62 countries.

The Minister also told reporters that the brigade is armed with 7.2 tons of medicines and expendable supplies, which will allow these professionals to provide health care services to some 20,000 people.

Dr. Rolando Piloto, leading the medical mission, noted that Cuba has provided solidarity of this kind on two previous occasions to the people of Peru, flowing earthquakes in May, 1970, and August, 2007.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-03-31/cuban-doctors-head-to-peru-in-the-wake-of-severe-flooding

Perhaps they can work with the American doctors...oh, wait.

Perhaps they can work with the American doctors...oh, wait.

Yeah, the only thing the US sends is military - when all you got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail...

Cuban youth, the continuators of the Revolution
The Young Communist League (UJC), founded on April 4, 1962, has seen its membership increase. The organization currently has 300,752 affiliates and over 33,000 grassroots committees. It continues to respond to today’s challenges by calling for increased participation in its aim to represent all Cuban youth

Author: Alejandra García | internet@granma.cu
april 6, 2017 10:04:38

http://en.granma.cu/file/img/2017/04/medium/f0016829.jpg
Young people account for 65% of the workforce in the sugarcane sector. Photo: Juvenal Balán

As part of activities to mark the 55th anniversary of the Young Communist League (UJC) this April 4, schools across the country held special assemblies, while membership cards were presented to new affiliates of the organization and outstanding students and young workers were also recognized.

Speaking during a press conference in Havana held prior to celebrations, Susely Morfa González, first secretary of the UJC National Committee, stated that “Every activity will have the color, joy and optimism which have characterized this organization for over half a century.”

Fifty five years after its founding, the UJC is proud to be composed of the vanguard of Cuba’s youth, and of the work it continues to do in support of children across the island.

The organization, created on April 4, 1962, has 300,752 members and more than 33,000 grassroots committees. Not only has the UJC’s membership increased, but the organization has made and continues to make concerted efforts to listen and respond to proposals by young people across all sectors.

“Despite the high figures, we want to keep adding more young people and ideas. What is more, we continue to strengthen the organization and its political processes, encouraging and motivating new generations to learn more about Cuba’s history in a more inclusive, humane and creative way,” stated Morfa.

Throughout its existence the UJC has worked to foster the value of making a useful contribution to society in Cuban youth. “There are those who question whether younger generations are conscious of their social role. I believe that they are,” noted the organization’s first secretary, who is also a member of the Communist Party of Cuba Central Committee.

Of the almost three million young Cubans living on the island, “I dare say that the immense majority are revolutionary,” Morfa added.

Many continually put their intellect and interests toward supporting the development of Cuban society something which “the organization attests to on a daily basis, every time we interact with them. There is broad representation of young people across all sectors of our economy, from where they contribute to our country’s development.”

One example, she noted, is the sugarcane sector, where young people represent 65% of the workforce. Similar levels of participation can be found in spheres such as public health and agriculture. “We recently met with young tobacco growers in Pinar del Río, whose efforts not only contribute to boosting the economy, but also preserving a tradition,” stated the first secretary.

Over the last 55 years, the UJC has also been consolidating the way in which institutions and ministries respond to the needs of the island’s youth, who are represented and participate on governing boards and commissions responsible for making decisions which will impact the new generations.

SUPPORTING YOUNG WORKERS


Susely Morfa described as exemplary the relationship between the UJC and National Association of Small Farmers, where the organization has over 8,000 members, as well as its efforts to protect and motivate young Cubans once they enter the workplace, whether it be in the state or private sector.

In 2016, the UJC organized various activities with young non-state sector workers, “where we saw many positive results, shared, exchanged, and listened to these young people. We were accompanied by representatives from the Party, government and relevant institutions in order to respond to queries by those starting out in this form of management,” she added.

This year the UJC has proposed “to continue supporting them (young private sector workers) to combat illegalities, fortify our patriotic symbols, explain to them their rights in this sector, and which ministries and organizations to approach with their queries.”

Among its priorities, the UJC is also proposing to intensify work with secretary generals of grassroots committees. “We cannot forget that although we are an organization that represents the youth, we are also a political organization, home to the vanguard. Therefore, we must continue to strengthen the functioning of our grassroots committees and to encourage youths to take on leadership roles.”

As long as young leaders love the organization, and search for something to do to improve their surroundings every day, consolidate the UJC’s ideological work, and bring together more ideas to continue building the Revolution, members and youths will want to be like them, and will accompany them in this integrationist work, commented the first secretary.

INCREASING PARTICIPATION


The UJC will continue promoting historic tours, summer camps, workshops, and forum-debates, among other important activities for Cuban youth, where they will also have the opportunity to learn more about the island’s history and culture.

“We are working with the Ministry of Culture so that our youth can enjoy recreational offers which feature both our best values and are affordable,” she added.

Cuba’s youth is the continuation of the generation that founded the Revolution, not its substitute, stated Susely, who went on to note that the new generations, strongly committed to the legacy of historic leader Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro, and the support of the Communist Party of Cuba, will continue to defend socialism and participate in the economic and social transformations that the country needs.

“Those of us who wish to defend, transform, create and preserve everything that has been achieved over these last 55 years will always be with the UJC. Our aim is to increase participation in order to be an organization for all, so that every young person feels a greater attachment to it,” she concluded.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-04-06/cuban-youth-the-continuators-of-the-revolution

Cuba’s ‘Leftists’ and Annexationists: Why I Do Not Name Them

By: Arnold August

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1492229044930/sites/telesur/img/opinion/2017/04/15/download_x11x.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Members of the Ladies in White dissident group shout anti-communism slogans during a protest on International Human Rights Day, in Havana December 10, 2013. | Photo: Reuters

Published 14 April 2017

Are Cuban “leftists” and annexationists working together to undermine the socialist island’s sovereignty?
On Jan. 6, 2017, I wrote “The End of Ideology in Cuba?” One of the main conclusions was: “I have always maintained that the most dangerous opposition to the Cuban Revolution comes from the so-called left, and not from the openly right Plattists [Annexationists].” This was followed up by a sequel, published on Jan.20, 2017, titled “Cuban ‘Left’ Opposition and Annexationists: Two Wings of the Same Eagle.”

These two pieces found a highly receptive audience and were reproduced and widely circulated in both English and Spanish in many parts of the world, including, of course, Cuba. Nevertheless, they provoked a backlash in Havana/Miami among some “leftist” dissident websites and social media accounts. Several articles were published by them, while other self-proclaimed “Cuban experts” in Havana and the U.S. hid behind their social media by merely recommending the “leftist” articles, perhaps fearful of publicly and explicitly joining the fray. Their common main complaint has been that my articles do not name individuals. Some of their social media accounts even try to dictate to me in referring to the dissidents’ posts. They “are asking for names”; “Name names!” they demand. They are oblivious to the fact that by so doing they name themselves and that they do not and cannot in any way shame me into citing names.

In fact, from January to today, there has been no need to “name names,” as individual “leftist” counter-revolutionaries and their media named themselves in a series of website posts and social media. As the saying goes, if the shoe fits, wear it. If they feel targeted, this is their problem, not mine. They explicitly cite and oppose the two pieces while relying on their faithful readers through their online comments to elaborate these views and add personal attacks, all of which only serves to expose the fact that there is nothing “leftist” about them at all. Thus, they inadvertently provide more depth to my analysis. Even in this third installment today, I still do not name them. The idea is to concentrate on their ideological and political positions for polemical and educational purposes in defense of Cuba’s socialist culture.

Their other objection, in addition to not naming names, is the so-called lack of evidence. In striving to characterize the ideological and political orientation, the “left” counter-revolutionary positions are actually quoted in my articles. If they recognize themselves in these brief citations and paraphrasing, they come out of the woodwork and thus they themselves provide the evidence. Their frustration stems from the fact that these positions are finally out in public in the context of an analysis, and thus they can no longer conceal being fraudulent “leftists.” Notably, colleagues who are writers and bloggers in Cuba are also admirably providing similar writings.

Perhaps the most remarkable proof that there is no need to name names, as worms will surface after the rain, comes from Miami. On Feb. 2, 2017, the U.S.-financed CUBANET wrote a front-page article on the controversy provoked by my two columns: “The annexationist left: Arnold August is the new agent (alabardero) of castroism.” CUBANET is financed, through its own admission, as can be seen on its website, by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). As everybody knows, this is a CIA front for funneling funds into countries such as Cuba with the goal of regime change. CUBANET is openly right-wing and based on an annexationist policy. In this article, they actually come to the rescue and defense of the “leftists” in their campaign against my views. Thus, once again, this serves as ample evidence that, as the title proclaims, “Cuban ‘Left’ Opposition and Annexationists” are indeed “Two Wings of the Same Eagle.” Thank you, CUBANET! It is not at all surprising that the “leftists” are ignoring this CUBANET article – and trying desperately to divert attention to what they believe is the “exposure” in my articles to keep their supporters reined in, should any of them harbour doubts about the “leftist” nature of their websites and social media.

The “leftists” claim that my writings lack “theoretical knowledge.” However, if this is so, how can one explain that, even by omitting names, my pieces not only force the “leftists” to emerge from the shadows but also confirm without a doubt that the “leftists” and annexationists are two wings of the same American Eagle? This requires a certain amount of theoretical clarity, seeing that the basis of a political and ideological analysis has proven to be correct. The first article (“The End of Ideology in Cuba?”) especially is an example of writing based on revolutionary theory. Its publication resulted in what some commented on as being an original contribution to the current debate by pushing the counter-revolution into an ideological corner, thus explaining their desperate and ongoing outbursts.

Nevertheless, this approach always needs improving and updating as the situation evolves. It is imperative, however, to increase and broaden the deconstruction of the “leftist” dissident ideology and politics that challenge the Cuban socialist culture. I am determined, as are many Cuban colleagues, to unmask their farce. The latest somersaults of the “leftists” and their openly pro-U.S. annexationist apologists seem to indicate that our work is bearing fruit, which leads me to believe that this piece is very likely not the last in this series.

Arnold August, a Montreal-based author and journalist, is the author of Democracy in Cuba and the 1997-98 Elections (1999), Cuba and Its Neighbours: Democracy in Motion (2013) and a forthcoming book to be published this month. As a journalist he regularly contributes in English, Spanish and French to more than a dozen websites in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and Europe. Twitter: Arnold_August FaceBook: Arnold August.

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/cubas-leftists-and-annexationists-why-i-do-not-name-them/

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Youth Are Joining Cuba’s Communist Party in Droves — Here’s Why
Published 6 April 2017
Comments

The Young Communist League of Cuba currently has 300,752 members and over 33,000 grassroots committees.
When former U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro began normalizing relations in 2014, many claimed the move signaled the death of communism on the Caribbean Island.

But for Communist Party official Susely Morfa Gonzalez, the shift in diplomatic relations actually signaled a growing interest in communism among the nation's youth.

Since 2014, membership in the Young Communist League, UJC, has been steadily increasing, Gonzalez told Granma on Thursday. The UJC, founded in 1965, is the youth wing of Cuba’s Communist Party. It currently has 300,752 members and over 33,000 grassroots committees.

“Despite the high figures, we want to keep recruiting more young people and ideas,” Gonzalez said.

“What is more, we continue to strengthen the organization and its political processes, encouraging and motivating new generations to learn more about Cuba’s history in a more inclusive, humane and creative way.”


The UJC, like most youth wings of communist parties, serves to teach young people about socialism while involving them in community organizing projects. Despite declining membership in young communist leagues around the world, the UJC is finding new ways to recruit youth and grow its base.

Not only has the UJC held historic tours, summer camps, workshops, and political debates for high school and college students across the country. The organization has also teamed up with Cuba’s National Association of Small Farmers to educate and financially support young campesinos living in the country’s rural areas.

Youth represent 65 percent of Cuba’s sugarcane and tobacco industries, Granma reported, making those fields of work optimal organizing spaces for the UJC. A growing number of young workers from Cuba’s growing private sector are also joining the organization.

Gonzalez claimed these diverse recruitment tactics, coupled with ongoing political education, are helping the UJC grow in numbers. She also said those who move onto joining the Communist Party continue to help the UJC recruit more young people.

“Those of us who wish to defend, transform, create and preserve everything that has been achieved over these last 55 years will always be with the UJC,” Gonzalez told Granma.

“Our aim is to increase participation in order to be an organization for all, so that every young person feels a greater attachment to it.”

Gonzalez serves as first secretary of the UJC National Committee for the Communist Party.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Youth-Are-Joining-Cubas-Communist-Party-in-Droves--Heres-Why-20170406-0033.html

Video at link

The pride of having served Cuba
At the Havana cinema located on the corner of 23rd and 12th streets, almost half a block from where Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro proclaimed the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution on April 16, 1961, the 56th anniversary of this historic date was celebrated

Author: Jesús Jank Curbelo | informacion@granma.cu
april 17, 2017 09:04:38

http://en.granma.cu/file/img/2017/04/medium/f0016919.jpg
Combatants of the victory at Playa Girón were recognized by younger generations for their role in defending the Cuban Revolution. Photo: Jose M. Correa
At the Havana cinema located on the corner of 23rd and 12th streets, almost half a block from where Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro proclaimed the socialist character of the Cuban Revolution on April 16, 1961, the 56th anniversary of this historic date was celebrated. The declaration by Fidel came during the funeral acts for those who had been killed during the aerial bombardment against the air bases of Ciudad Libertad, San Antonio de los Baños and Santiago de Cuba, which served as a prelude to the invasion of Playa Girón.

According to Yuniasky Crespo, a member of the Executive Bureau of the provincial Party committee in Havana, the victory of Playa Girón demonstrated to the world what the Cuban people were capable of.

Speaking during the event held on April 16, Crespo stressed that the anniversary marked a day of honor and glory, of respect, sacrifice and commitment. The event was attended by the highest representatives of the Party and the government in the capital: Mercedes López Acea, member of the Party Political Bureau and a vice president of the Council of State; and Reinaldo García Zapata, respectively.

The 60th Anniversary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces medal was also presented to representatives of the combatants of Playa Girón, in recognition of their revolutionary efforts.

Upon receiving this distinction, we pay tribute to all those heroes who have given their lives for our independence, and in fulfillment of internationalist missions, expressed Reserves Colonel Alfonso Núñez Legué, on behalf of those presented with the medal.

We receive this medal, he added, with the pride of having served Cuba, and with the determination to defend her dignity and sovereignty.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-04-17/the-pride-of-having-served-cuba

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Cuba Remembers Bay of Pigs Invasion

http://www.plenglish.com/images/2017/abril/17/playa-giron.jpg

Havana, April 17 (Prensa Latina) Cuba is remembering today the beginning of the mercenary invasion in Playa Giron (Bay of Pigs), an event that marked the new Cuban Socialist Revolution, 56 years ago.

Three days and two nights of intense fighting were enough to defeat in 1961 the aggression orchestrated by Washington and executed by the CIA to reverse the process of change begun on January 1st, 1959.

More than 1,500 mercenaries trained, armed and equipped by the CIA and the Pentagon were involved in the military adventure. They were grouped into seven battalions -five infantry, one paratrooper and one heavy weapon- directly supported by the U.S. Army.

The objective was to occupy a beachfront to establish a provisional government that would immediately request the recognition and intervention of the United States and the Organization of American States.

Before landing in the south-central region of the island, about eight B-26 planes camouflaged with fake insignia of the Revolutionary Air Force simultaneously attacked the air base in San Antonio de los Baños (southeast of Havana), the airport in Ciudad Libertad (in the capital), and the airport in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.

On April 16th, 1961, during the funeral of the victims of that air raid carried out the day before, Fidel Castro proclaimed the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution, that 'of the humble, by the humble and for the humble'.

Fightings began on April 17th, culminating two days later with the first great defeat of U.S. imperialism in Latin America.

In commemoration of that event, representatives of youth organizations along with veteran Cuban fighters met yesterday at 23 and 12 cinema, near the place where the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, made that proclamation in front of thousands of people.

http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=11781&SEO=cuba-remembers-bay-of-pigs-invasion

Why an American went to Cuba for cancer care
20 April 2017

Judy Ingels

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Cuba has faced more than 50 years of US sanctions. Now, for the first time, a unique drug developed on the communist island is being tested in New York state. But some American cancer patients are already taking it - by defying the embargo and flying to Havana for treatment.
Judy Ingels and her family are in Cuba for just six days. They have time to go sightseeing and try out the local cuisine. Judy, a keen photographer, enjoys capturing the colonial architecture of Old Havana.
And while she is in the country, Ingels, 74, will have her first injections of Cimavax, a drug shown in Cuban trials to extend the lives of lung cancer patients by months, and sometimes years.
By travelling to Havana from her home in California, she is breaking the law.
The US embargo against Cuba has been in place for more than five decades, and though relations thawed under President Obama, seeking medical treatment in Cuba is still not allowed for US citizens.
"I'm not worried," Ingels says. "For the first time I have real hope."
She has stage four lung cancer and was diagnosed in December 2015. "My oncologist in the United States says I'm his best patient, but I have this deadly disease."
He does not know she is in Cuba. When she asked him about Cimavax, he had not heard of it.
"But we've done a lot of research - I've read good things," Ingels says. Since January, Cimavax has been tested on patients in Buffalo, New York state, but it isn't yet available in the US.

Ingels, her husband Bill and daughter Cindy are staying at the La Pradera International Health Centre, west of Havana. It treats mostly foreign, paying patients like Ingels, and with its pool complex, palm trees and open walkways, La Pradera feels more like a tropical hotel than a hospital.

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Judy Ingels (centre) with husband Bill and daughter Cindy

This trip from their home in California, together with a supply of Cimavax to take back to the US, will cost the Ingels family more than $15,000 (£12,000).
Cimavax fights cancer by stimulating an immune response against a protein in the blood that triggers the growth of lung cancer. After an induction period, patients receive a monthly dose by injection.
It's a product of Cuba's biotechnology industry, nurtured by former President Fidel Castro since the early 1980s.
Ironically, Cuba's biotech innovations can partly be explained by the US embargo - something Castro continually railed against. It meant Cuba had to produce the drugs it could not access or afford. And medications like Cimavax - low-tech products that could be administered in a rural setting - were developed to fit the Cuban context.
Now the industry employs around 22,000 scientists, technicians and engineers, and sells drugs in many parts of the world - but not in the US.
And although the Cubans will not reveal the cost of producing Cimavax, it is cheaper than other treatments.
For Cuba's residents, all health care is free. One beneficiary is Lucrecia de Jesus Rubillo, 65, who lives on the fifth floor of a block of flats in the east of Havana
Last September she was given two or three months to live. What began as pain in Lucrecia's leg, was diagnosed as stage-four lung cancer that had spread.
She had chemotherapy. "That was really very hard," she says. "It gave me nausea, and it hurt. But my kids asked me to fight, so I did."

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After radiotherapy, Lucrecia began Cimavax injections. Now she is strong enough to walk up the five flights of stairs to her home, and her persistent cough has diminished. She feels better, more hopeful, and is thinking about what to do next.
"Perhaps I'll go to Spain to visit my kid," she says. "I feel happy, and I'm still dreaming of the future, but I also feel sadness. I've had a lot of friends who've died of cancer, and they never had the chance I'm having with these injections. I feel privileged."
Her doctor is Elia Neninger, an oncologist at the Hermanos Ameijeiras Hospital in Havana. Neninger is one of the principal clinicians to trial Cimavax on patients since the 1990s.

"Lucrecia arrived incapacitated by her disease in a wheelchair," Neninger remembers. "Now the tumour on her lung has disappeared, and the lesions on her liver aren't there either. With Cimavax, she's in a maintenance phase."
Dr Elia Neninger
In Cuba, specialists like Neninger do not talk about curing cancer - they talk about controlling it and transforming it into a chronic disease. She has treated hundreds of patients with Cimavax.
"I never thought I'd work on something that would improve the lives of so many people," she says. "I have stage-four lung cancer patients who are still alive 10 years after their diagnosis."
But mostly Cimavax is proven to extend life for months, not years. And it does not help everyone. In trials, around 20% of patients haven't responded, Neninger says, often because the disease is very advanced, or they have associated illnesses that make treatment more difficult.
Nonetheless, Dr Kelvin Lee is impressed. He is the Chair of Immunology at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, where the American trials of Cimavax are taking place.


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It is the first time a Cuban medication has been trialled in the US, and required special permission because the embargo prohibits most collaboration and trade.
Cancer immunotherapy is getting more expensive in the US, Lee says. A cheap vaccine that can be administered at primary care level is very attractive. And he thinks it is possible that Cimavax could be used to prevent lung cancer, too.
"If we could vaccinate the high-risk smokers to prevent them from developing lung cancer, that would have an enormous public health impact both in the United States and worldwide."
This has not been proven, however, and the initial US trials of Cimavax only began in January.
There is political uncertainty, too. On the campaign trail before his election, President Trump said he would reverse the thaw with Cuba that began under the Obama administration, unless there was change on the island, which is governed as a one-party state.
"Our demands will include religious and political freedom for the Cuban people, and the freeing of political prisoners," Trump said on the campaign trail in Miami.
So far, Cuba has not made it to the top of his in-tray. There is a large constituency of Americans who believe that Cuba does not deserve the kind of recognition and status the association with the Roswell Park Cancer Institute brings.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39640165

Havana's May Day March to Be Led by 50,000 Cuban Youths

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Students of Havana University carry a large Cuban flag as they march in tribute to Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba, Nov. 28, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 26 April 2017

This year's May Day march aims to mobilize the masses of Cuban people and workers to express their strength in unity and commitment for the Revolution.
First Secretary of the Cuban Young Communist League National Committee Susely Morfa Gonzalez said Tuesday that this year's May Day march will be led by 50,000 Cuban youths who will march for "Fidel, for Raul, for the historic leadership of the Revolution, and for the youths that gave their lives during the process, for our combatants and for the history of Cuba."

Speaking from the Cuban Workers' Federation Lazaro Pena Theater Morfa Gonzalez, a member of the Council of State added, "Cubans have many reasons to continue defending what we have achieved and if we wish to honor the Commander in Chief, the best way to be faithful to his legacy is to do something good every day. We youths will participate in the march alongside all trade union sectors, but above all we will march with the Cuban people committed to these times and the future of our homeland.”

This year's May Day march, apart from reaffirming workers' rights, aims to mobilize the masses of Cuban people and workers to express their strength in unity and commitment to the revolution. The Federation of Cuban Workers and a host of national trade unions have called upon the Cuban people to unite in a joyful celebration of unity and commitment in the defense of socialism.

The youth bloc will lead the May Day demonstrations through Havana's Plaza de la Revolucion and will be followed by 50,000 health workers, 40,000 education workers, 30,000 cultural sector workers, 30,000 scientists, 10,000 tourism sector workers, and a host of other professional unions and civil society.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Havanas-May-Day-March-to-Be-Led-by-50000-Cuban-Youths-20170426-0041.html?utm_content=buffer3542c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Minute by minute
Follow Cuba's celebration of International Workers Day

Author: Granma | internet@granma.cu
may 1, 2017 07:05:08
07:30-.In Havana, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, President of the Councils of State and Minister, arrives to the city's José Martí Plaza de la Revolución.



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07:20-.Santiago's people advance toward Antonio Maceo Grajales Plaza.



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07:15-.María de los Ángeles Tamayo: "We retirn to this plaza to demonstate with this massive march that we continue to defend our prosperous, sustainable socialist system."

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07:10-.María de los Ángeles Cordero Tamayo, secretary general of the Cuban Workers Federation in the province, noted that this is the first May Day celebrated without Fidel's presence, but that his concept of Revolution wil always be upheld.

ia General de la Central de Trabajadores en la provincia de Santiago de Cuba, aseguró que esta es la «primera marcha del pueblo socialista en la que no contamos con la presencia física del invicto Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro Ruz», pero que cumpliremos con su magistral concepto de Revolución.

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07:10-.Leading the parade in Santiago is José Ramón Machado Ventura, second secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba's Central Committee.

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07:05-. Being heard in the city's Antonio Maceo Plaza de la Revolucion is the speech Raúl presented here December 3, 2016, during the commemoration of Fidel's life.

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07:05-.The country's first march of the day begins in Santiago de Cuba.

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07:00-.Cuba's parks and plazas are ready for May Day marches.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-05-01/minute-by-minute

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A date with the homeland
All of Cuba is coming out this morning, filling plazas and parks to reaffirm our commitment to the Revolution

Author: Karina Marrón González | karina@granma.cu
may 1, 2017 06:05:10

Photo: Yaciel Peña
Cuban workers and the entire people are coming out to celebrate the proletariat's international day and our many conquests, committed to continue constructing a more just society for all.

The date is one of commitment to the future, since the Cuba that in 1959 decided to make a revolution - of, by, and for the humble - requires the intelligence, effort, and love of each and every citizen.

This May Day is dedicated to youth, the 55th anniversary of the Young Communists League, and will recall the heroic guerilla Ernesto Che Guevara, an exemplary revolutionary, 50 years after he fell in combat.

This is the first May Day without Fidel, who will be present in every Cuban who takes to the streets, in all who reaffirm their commitment to his concept of Revolution, and in those around the world who remain loyal to the ideas of human liberation he always defended.

http://en.granma.cu/file/img/2017/05/medium/f0017099.jpg

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-05-01/a-date-with-the-homeland

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Cuba’s First Convention on Commerce begins in Havana
The First Convention on Commerce, Cuba-2017, began this Monday in Havana’s International Conference Center

Author: ACN | informacion@granma.cu
may 15, 2017 09:05:44

HAVANA.– The First Convention on Commerce, Cuba-2017, began this Monday, May 15, in Havana’s International Conference Center.

Odalys Escandell García, deputy minister of Domestic Trade, told reporters that the event will conclude this May 19, and will see the participation of more than 500 delegates and guests from ten countries.

Researchers, executives, specialists and technical staff in general will exchange and discuss the importance of trade and services to the country’s economic development, including as regards to new management models, she noted.

The deputy minister added that the Convention includes an important scientific component and aims, based on academic studies, to discuss the challenges and prospects for achieving sustainable trade.

She also referred to the significant number of activities running alongside the main event, mainly relating to exhibitions and presentations of Cuban cuisine, as well as fairs, catwalks and book presentations.

The Convention will see the signing of a collaboration agreement between the ministries of Higher Education and Domestic Trade, on the training of specialists and skilled workers in the service and commerce sectors, and in the new forms of management that are being implemented in the country.

Escandell García also announced that as part of the event there will be presentations of services and new products to be sold through the Cimex and TRD retail store chains.

Meanwhile, Mirelys González Batista, coordinator of the event organizing committee, explained that a series of keynote speeches by important national and foreign personalities will be held May 16-18.

The First Convention on Commerce, Cuba-2017, is organized by the Ministry of Domestic Trade and its Research and Development Center.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-05-15/cubas-first-convention-on-commerce-begins-in-havana

Well, this will be 'interesting'.....

Raúl: We will not go to capitalism, that is totally ruled out
Wednesday, December 28, 2016


http://youtu.be/i3LEUeD_dzE
Granma - Video: TV Cubana.- The historical leader of the Cuban Revolution bequeathed us his imperishable example, sick of his unremitting optimism and faith in victory. The best monument to his ideals and work is to make every day the postulates contained in his brilliant definition of the concept of Revolution, which made public the 1st. Of May 2000 and that millions of Cubans subscribe.

Raúl Castro Ruz, President of the Councils of State and Ministers, said at the conclusion of the eighth regular session of the eighth legislature of the National Assembly of People's Power.

Raúl recalled his words on December 3 in Santiago de Cuba, when he announced Fidel's will that his name and his figure never be used to name institutions, squares, parks, avenues, streets or other public places, or erect in his Memory monuments, statues or other similar forms. Our parliament has enshrined in law the will expressed by Comrade Fidel, he said.

His spirit of struggle will remain in the consciousness of the revolutionaries of today, tomorrow and always, and we will demonstrate this in the military magazine and march of the fighting people on January 2, in tribute to the Commander in Chief and our youth, he said.

In an analysis of the economy, the Army General recalled his words in the ordinary session of December 2015, when he warned that the performance of this sector in 2016 would face financial constraints, due to the fall in export earnings and Of the prices of the main items, among other factors, projections that were confirmed in the middle of this year.

Limitations on fuel supplies and financial strains were aggravated in the second half leading to a 0.9% decrease in Gross Domestic Product. Despite this, free education and health services were preserved, Raúl stressed, and ratified that there was no economic collapse or the return of blackouts, as augured not a few malicious international media.

The negative effects of the blockade can not be forgotten, he said, adding that Cuba is still unable to conduct international transactions in US dollars.

Another impact on the Cuban economy caused this year the effects that caused Mathew, with a significant balance of destruction of housing, educational and health centers, among others, as he said in his words Raúl.

Thanks to the measures taken to protect the population, we did not have to regret the loss of human life, as unfortunately with other States, he said.

He also thanked the solidarity and material support received from many countries and international organizations of the United Nations system for the recovery, and a special mention made to the sister Republic of Venezuela, on the initiative of its president Nicolás Maduro.

As for the plan of the economy for 2017 warned that there will be financial tensions, however we predict that the economy is growing and the Gross Domestic Product grow moderately at around 2%.

To achieve this, three decisive premises must be fulfilled: guaranteeing exports and their timely collection, increasing domestic production that replaces imports, and reducing all non-essential expenses, he predicted.

We will continue to implement investment programs in the light of the sustainable development of the national economy, for which it will be imperative, he said, to boost foreign investment, "an area in which we are not satisfied and have been frequent excessive delays in the procesonegociador." The obsolete, prejudiced mentality against foreign investment must be overcome once and for all.

It is abundant that we must rid ourselves of false fears towards external capital. We will not go or go to capitalism, that is totally ruled out, as our Constitution states, but we must not frighten it and put obstacles to what we can do within the framework of existing laws, which implies the preparation of the cadres and specialists who negotiate, as well Such as deepening the deficiencies and mistakes made in the past not to repeat them, said the army general.

Raul added that Cuba does not produce all the fuel it needs; Which has been the sword of Damocles since the triumph of the Revolution, and without renouncing the increase of national oil production, we must accelerate the development of renewable energy sources, which means 4.65% of the generation of Electricity in the country.

On the experiment applied in Artemisa and Mayabeque, and the approval to continue working until the current legislature ends, he emphasized, among other advantages, that it has allowed to put in practice a set of organizational principles, that increase the attention to the popular councils, delegates Of circumscription and the population in general.

However, there were shortcomings that prevented the consolidation of the management model, he said, pointing to difficulties such as the high level of cadre fluctuation in these bodies, insufficient attention and supervision by national agencies and entities, In conjunction with the structures of the Party in the different instances overcome the errors and advance without retractions in its culmination in the new term granted, he said.

When in a few hours we will remember one more anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution and the advent of the new year, Raúl concluded by sending a congratulatory message to the people of Cuba.



Speech delivered by General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Councils of State and Ministers, at the close of the Eighth Regular Session of the National Assembly of People's Power in VIII Legislature, in the Palace of Conventions, on December 27, 2016, "Year 58 of the Revolution".

Cubadebate

(Shorthand versions-Council of State)

Companions and companions:

The final days of the year, as usual, have been characterized by intense activity. Last Saturday we held the meeting of the Council of Ministers that approved to present to this Assembly the Plan of the Economy and the draft Budget for the year 2017, which we analyze today.

Contrary to previous sessions, the evaluation of the progress of the updating of the Economic and Social Model was not carried out on this occasion, taking into account that it continues to work on the proposal of its Conceptualization, as well as on the bases of the Development Plan Economic and Social Development until the year 2030, after concluding, by mandate of the Seventh Congress of the Party, the profound and democratic debate carried out with the organizations of the Party and Youth, representatives of mass organizations and broad sectors of society .

We hope that in the course of the first half of next year, the Plenum of the Central Committee will approve both programmatic documents.

In the ordinary session of December 2015, I warned that our economy's performance in 2016 would face financial constraints due to the fall in export earnings due to the fall in the prices of the main items, as well as affectations in relations Cooperation with other countries.

Already in July of this year the events confirmed those projections, about which I informed our people from this Parliament. Certainly, fuel supply constraints and financial tensions worsened in the second half of the year, leading to a 0.9% decrease in Gross Domestic Product. In spite of this, free social services, such as education and public health, were preserved for the entire population. There was no collapse of our economy or the return of the blackouts we suffered in the most difficult times of the special period, as augured not a few malicious international media.

Likewise, in the middle of this unfavorable scenario, strict compliance with the obligations contracted as a result of the reorganization of the Cuban foreign debt was maintained. However, it has not been possible to overcome the transitory situation that we are experiencing in the arrears of current payments to suppliers, with the purpose of implementing and carrying out a set of steps that will alleviate the scenario described.

I thank once again the business partners for their understanding and confidence in Cuba and reiterate the government's willingness to gradually restore normalcy in this important area and lay the foundations to avoid its recurrence in the future.

When referring to the performance of the Cuban economy, we can not forget the negative effects of the US economic, commercial and financial blockade that, as you know, is still in force. An example of this is that Cuba is still unable to make international transactions in US dollars , which prevents many important prospective businesses from moving forward.

Nor should we omit the heavy damages caused by the dangerous Hurricane Matthew that struck with unusual virulence over six municipalities in the extreme east of the country, on October 4 and 5, with a significant balance of destruction of homes, educational centers and Health, warehouses, industrial and hotel facilities, as well as severe damages to the road, electrical, hydraulic and telecommunications infrastructure.

Fortunately, thanks to the measures taken to protect the population, we did not have to regret any loss of human life, as unfortunately happened in the other States located along the route of this meteorological phenomenon, including several dozens in the territory of States United.

To memory I have a much weaker hurricane than that, category two, a day like that, but in 1963, about 53 years ago, Flora, caused us more than 1,200 human casualties. From there came a number of issues, including all the dams we have, which before there were scarcely four or five dams in the country, and in this last hurricane, as I said, we had not one single casualty, not even one seriously injured. Work continues and we will continue.

I take this opportunity to express our appreciation for the signs of solidarity and the material support we have received from many countries and from the international organizations of the United Nations system to contribute to the recovery of those territories. Special mention deserves the help provided by the sister Venezuelan Republic on the initiative of its president, comrade Nicolás Maduro Moros.

With regard to the plan and budget for 2017, I must warn that financial tensions and challenges will persist that may even increase in certain circumstances; However, we expect the Cuban economy to resume the upward trend and that the Gross Domestic Product grow moderately at around 2%.

To this end, three decisive premises must be fulfilled, namely: ensuring exports and timely collection; Increase domestic production that replaces imports; And not least, reduce all non-essential expenditure and use the resources available rationally and efficiently. At the same time, in the midst of difficulties, we will continue to implement investment programs in the light of the sustainable development of the national economy.

We attach great importance to the need to stimulate foreign investment in Cuba, in accordance with Line 78 of the Economic and Social Policy of the Party and the Revolution, approved at the Seventh Congress.

I acknowledge that we are not satisfied in this area and that excessive delays in the negotiating process have been frequent. It is necessary to overcome once and for all the obsolete mentality full of prejudices against foreign investment.

To move resolutely in this direction we must shed false fears of external capital; We will not go and we will not go to capitalism, that is totally ruled out, so our Constitution and will keep it, but we must not frighten and put obstacles to what we can do within the framework of existing laws. This requires, first of all, ensuring the systematic preparation and training of the negotiating cadres and specialists, as well as deepening the deficiencies and mistakes made in the past to never repeat them again.

As it is known, this small island does not produce all the fuel it needs, having to import considerable volumes, whose cost hangs like a sword of Damocles on our economy. Without renouncing the increase in national oil production, for which investment is also needed, we must accelerate the development of Renewable Energy Sources, which currently account for only 4.65% of electricity generation.

Conditions for this we have more than enough in solar or photovoltaic, wind and biomass energies. This is one of the strategic sectors where we must strongly promote foreign investment.

Precisely the last two issues that I am touching, were topics that we also discussed at the last meeting of the Council of Ministers a few days ago, and maintain - he said - the figure of 24% to which is aspired, according to the Plan until the year 2030; But, really, work to overcome it by that date.

Moving on to another subject. This morning, the Assembly agreed to continue working until the conclusion of the current Legislature in 2018, in the experiment that applies in the provinces of Artemisa and Mayabeque, in the interest of separating the direction of the councils of the administration of The provincial and municipal assemblies of People's Power.

This experiment, which has been carried out for a five-year period, coinciding with the creation of both provinces, has allowed the implementation of a set of organizational principles and functioning of the governing bodies, allowing local assemblies of People's Power to increase attention To the popular councils, the delegates of circumscription and the population in general.

Likewise, it was possible to separate the state functions of the enterprises in the local area, conforming at the level of those provinces a system of companies to provide services to the town. All this has facilitated a significant reduction of staff and cadres of management structures in provinces and municipalities.

However, a number of shortcomings emerged which, without invalidating the essential concepts of the experiment, prevented the consolidation of the management model put into practice, so that its further generalization to the rest of the country would be a success.

One of the main factors detected is the high level of fluctuation of the cadres in these instances, as well as the insufficient completion of the staff, as a result of underestimating the selection, preparation and control of staff. In addition, insufficient attention and supervision by the national agencies and entities to the experimentation process, delaying the implementation of the decisions adopted.

I believe that the errors have been identified and that the decision to extend the experiment is adequate. Now it is up to all of us and especially the Permanent Commission for Implementation and Development, together with the structures of the Party in the different instances, to overcome them and to advance, without setbacks, in its culmination in the new term granted.

It was really considered from the beginning that it was an easy task, and life is showing us that there is no easy task in this field and that all the agreements for perfection are filled with difficult tasks. Nothing is easy, everything has to devote the time it requires and none of these tasks can be successfully accomplished with superficialities and much less attending them from time to time.

Companions and companions:

In my words, on December 3, at the General Antonio Maceo Grajales General Revolution Square in Santiago de Cuba, I announced the will of the Cuban Revolution's historical leader, Fidel Castro Ruz, that his name and figure were never used To name institutions, squares, parks, avenues, streets or other public places, nor to erect monuments, busts, statues and other similar forms of tribute in his memory.

Today our Parliament has consecrated in Law the will expressed by Comrade Fidel until the last hours of life.

The historic leader of the Cuban Revolution bequeathed us his imperishable example, his unremitting optimism and faith in victory.

In my opinion, and similarly to what Lazo said at the opening of this session, the best monument to his ideals and work is to make every day the postulates contained in his brilliant definition of the concept of Revolution, which he made public The 1st. Of May of 2000, and that millions of Cubans subscribe in the framework of the activities organized to render the well-deserved tribute to who never disappointed his people, and as he expressed in the premonitory speech that he pronounced on January 8, 1959 - when he arrived To the capital, in the military camp known as Columbia, now Ciudad Libertad -, it is almost 58 years ago, when the Freedom Caravan entered Havana in triumph - as it left me in the eastern province of Santiago, Cuba, as then capital of the five eastern provinces,

But of this other that I will read to you I did not remember it with that clarity, and before expressing it here I looked for the recording, besides what was written, and it is textually like this. He says at the time, I quote:

"I know that we will never again witness such a crowd in our lives" -he is referring to the reception here in Havana and throughout the tour-, "except on another occasion - in which I am sure that they will be reunited The crowds, and it is the day we die, because we, when they have to take us to the grave, on that day, will gather so many people as today, because we will never disappoint our people! " (Applause).

Fidel left unbeaten, but his spirit of struggle will remain in the conscience of all Cuban revolutionaries, today, tomorrow and forever, and we will demonstrate this in the Military Magazine and march of the fighting people on January 2, on occasion The 60th anniversary of the heroic uprising in Santiago de Cuba and the landing of the Granma expeditionaries, Day of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, in honor of the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution and our youth.

I can only say that in a few days we will celebrate one more anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution and the advent of the new year. Arrive to the beloved town of Cuba our warm congratulations.

That is all (Applause).



Raul Castro: The best monument to Fidel is to realize the concept Revolution

Cubadebate .- The president of the Councils of State and of Ministers General of the Army Raúl Castro Ruz to intervene in the National Assembly of the Popular Power made a balance of the performance of the Cuban economy during the present year.

Raúl recalled that as he announced last June the national economy faces financial constraints due to the fall in export earnings and the prices of exportable items.

"Certainly fuel and financial supply constraints worsened in the second half of the year, causing GDP to decrease by 0.9%; In spite of it, the free services enjoyed by our population are preserved, contrary to the predictions that the Cuban economy would collapse and that the annoying blackouts would return. "

In spite of this scenario, Raúl emphasized that the fulfillment of the obligations of the payment for the reorganization of the Cuban external debt was maintained, however, the arrears of current payments to the suppliers have not been surpassed

"I thank the trading partners for their understanding and their confidence in Cuba"

During his speech, Raúl said that one can not forget the negative effects of the blockade against Cuba by which the Greater Antilles can not carry out international transactions in US dollars.

"Nor can we omit the substantial damages caused by Hurricane Mathew on 4 and 5 October of this year."

There will be financial tensions and challenges that could arise in certain circumstances, but we expect GDP to grow moderately at around 2 percent.

- Ensure exports and their timely collection

-Increase domestic production that replaces imports

-Reduce all non-essential expenses

At the same time, we will continue to implement investment programs based on the sustainable development of the national economy. He also called for boosting foreign investment in Cuba.

We are not satisfied in this area and excessive delays have been frequent in the negotiating process. Overcome the obsolete mentality, full of prejudices against foreign investment. He asked to divest us of the false fears of external capital.

We are not going to capitalism, but we must not frighten it or put obstacles to what we can do within the framework of existing laws.

Deepen the mistakes of the past, never to repeat them.

The fuel has been, since the Triumph of the Revolution, has been the sword of Damocles we have had on our neck, sometimes rubbing it, said Raul. This is one of the strategic sectors where foreign investment must be invigorated.

The experiment of Artemisa and Mayabeque, the advances and delays in the process of experimentation in these provinces. It was estimated from the beginning that this is not an easy task and life is proving it. "Of difficult tasks is filled all the agreement for the improvement ... None can be realized with superficialities".

The historic leader of the Cuban Revolution bequeathed us his imperishable example, Raúl said, and emphasized that "the best monument to his ideals is to make every day the postulates contained in his brilliant definition of the concept Revolution, which he made public on May 1, 2000 ".

Fidel "never deceived his people," and recalled the premonitory speech of January 8, 1959, today makes almost 58 years:

"I know, furthermore, that we shall never again witness such a crowd in our lives, except on another occasion-in which I am sure that the crowds will be gathered again-and it is the day when we die, When they have to take us to the tomb, that day, so many people will gather again as today, because we will never disappoint our people! "

Fidel left uncontested, Raul said, "but his fighting spirit will remain in the conscience of all Cuban revolutionaries, today, tomorrow, and forever, and we will demonstrate this in the military magazine of January 2, on the anniversary Of the heroic uprising of Santiago de Cuba, of the landing of the Granma, in homanje to the Commander-in-Chief of the Cuban Revolution and our youth. "

In conclusion, Raul sent an emotional congratulation to the people of Cuba on the new anniversary of his Revolution.

http://www.cubainformacion.tv/index.php/en-portada/72629-raul-no-vamos-ni-iremos-al-capitalismo-eso-esta-totalmente-descartado

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Cuban Assembly Analyzes, Advances Economic and Social Model

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A Cuban flag flies attached to a vintage car in Havana. | Photo: Reuters


Published 1 June 2017 (15 hours 20 minutes ago)

A total of 1.6 million Cubans participated in some 47,000 meetings in the furtherance of the island's social economic model.
Cuban President Raul Castro spoke at the National Assembly Extraordinary Session, expressing his support for updating the Economic and Social Policy Guidelines of the Party and the Revolution for the period 2016-2021, approved by the seventh Cuban Communist Party Congress.

The National Assembly session reviewed modifications to the Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Model of Socialist Development, as it did in June 2016.

On Wednesday, assembly members discussed the progress made within the socialist economic system. Jennifer Bello Martinez, president of the University Student Federation and a participant in the debate, explained that "young people have also been the protagonists of this discussion and progress.” She added that the formative process of the Cuban Revolution continues to be “a permanent work of the youth.”

The head of state also recalled that these documents were the continuation of resolutions approved by the sixth Congress, the newer version of which were presented during the seventh Congress, after being reviewed by the Party Political Bureau.


Subsequently, a popular consultation process was undertaken in every province, with the participation of over 700 delegates and 3,000 guests invited to attend the Congress, during which over 1,000 proposals were made, noted the army general.

After approving the documents at that time, the seventh Congress agreed to launch a broad, democratic debate to discuss the Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Model of Socialist Development and foundations for the National Social and Economic Development Plan through 2030, which saw the participation of all PCC members, the Young Communist League, representatives of mass organizations, and diverse sectors of society.

In this regard, he noted that a total 47,000 meetings took place as part of the process, with the participation of some 1.6 million Cubans, demonstrating a genuinely democratic and participatory exercise made possible by the Cuban Revolution.

This process contributed to perfecting the documents and represented a genuinely democratic, participatory exercise which not only served as an effective social communication tool but also demonstrated support for the PCC’s social and economic policy.

"This enables us to continue advancing on the conceptualization of our model and to change everything that must be changed, at the speed which discussion and our ability to show that we can do things well, allow, thus stopping us from making serious mistakes which could jeopardize the success of this noble task," noted the Cuban president.

In the same session, the assembly approved a declaration in support of the government of Venezuela, "because it is vital to denounce and bring an end to the aggression being suffered by the sister nation. Imperialist interests want to prevent this country from exercising their right to self-determination; while the gross manipulation of the country’s reality by right-wing forces is aimed at overthrowing the government constitutionally elected by Venezuelans," he stressed.

The Cuban head of state also described the call for foreign intervention on the premise of helping the Venezuelan people as hypocritical. "The only way to help the people of Venezuela is to show, through action, full respect for the country’s sovereignty and support constructive and respectful dialogue as the only way to resolve differences," he stated.

"If they are really concerned about human rights, their integrity as people should compel them to condemn the coup violence which has resulted in deaths and injuries. Images of youths stabbed and burned alive are reminiscent of the worst acts of fascism. I reiterate our solidarity with the Bolivarian Chavista Revolution, with the civil-military union, and the government led by President Nicolás Maduro," the socialist leader continued.

He also expressed Cuba’s concern over events occurring in Brazil following the impeachment of President Dilma Rouseff, as well as attacks against the Workers’ Party and its historic leader Luis Ignacio Lula Da Silva.

"We are convinced that only way to restore the legitimacy of this sister nation’s political system is by respecting the sovereign will and authority of the people. The people of Brazil have, and will continue to have, Cuba’s solidarity in this struggle," he said.

He concluded by announcing to deputies and the Cuban people that the National Assembly will reconvene this July to address other important national and international matters.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cuban-Assembly-Analyzes-Advances-Economic-and-Social-Model-20170601-0029.html

Videos at link.

The Cuban head of state also described the call for foreign intervention on the premise of helping the Venezuelan people as hypocritical. "The only way to help the people of Venezuela is to show, through action, full respect for the country’s sovereignty and support constructive and respectful dialogue as the only way to resolve differences," he stated.

I know that Cuba is in no position to say anything else, but the Venezuelan government has got to put down these bourgeois terrorist motherfuckers, once and for all. No dialog with the traitorous bastards until they cease all criminal and violent activities. Only then can "talks" be had...in a revolutionary courtroom.

I know that Cuba is in no position to say anything else, but the Venezuelan government has got to put down these bourgeois terrorist motherfuckers, once and for all. No dialog with the traitorous bastards until they cease all criminal and violent activities. Only then can "talks" be had...in a revolutionary courtroom.

This recurring problem of the 'left' in Latin America is the inability or lack of inclination to pull the trigger and expropriate the capitalist, freeze their accounts, draw their fangs. The results are obvious. Two things I think, one is weak/incorrect theory, the other is the vampiric Uncle Sam breathing down their necks. The first only they can correct, the second we in the imperial core might help with if we ever get our shit together.

Cuba’s sustained forest growth
Cuba’s forest area grew by 57,000 hectares in 2016. As such, the island reached a total of 3,241,000 hectares of land covered by forests, representing 31.15% of its total land area

Author: Jesús Jank Curbelo | informacion@granma.cu
june 6, 2017 10:06:54

http://en.granma.cu/file/img/2017/06/medium/f0017613.jpg
Photo: Wendy Pedroso Martínez

Cuba’s forest area grew by 57,000 hectares in 2016. As such, the island reached a total of 3,241,000 hectares of land covered by forests, representing 31.15% of its total land area.

According to Luis Manuel Gómez Pérez, specialist at the forestry department of the Ministry of Agriculture (Minag), areas covered by forests currently represent 79.1% of the island’s historic woodland coverage (4,093,000 hectares).

The rest, he explained, is occupied by new plantations (95,000 hectares), deforested areas (244,000 hectares) and 514,000 hectares with no woodland.

Among the achievements of the island in this regard, Gómez Pérez noted that today, 78.4 million tons of carbon dioxide are removed from the atmosphere each year, thanks to this forest cover.

Speaking during a press conference, Gómez Pérez explained that in addition, through Decree 300/2012, land has been provided in usufruct for forestry development to 1,076 individuals and 14 legal entities, representing a total area of 12,829 hectares.

Regarding the reforestation of watersheds of national interest, he stated that these areas now have a forest area of 31.5%.

As for the volumes of wood extracted through logging, treatments, forest reconstruction and thinning, he noted that a total of 132,972 cubic meters of sawn timber were obtained, in addition to 146,604 cubic meters of roundwood, and more than eight million sticks used for curing tobacco.

Meanwhile, Oscar Labrador Llanes, Minag director of forestry, flora and fauna, explained that the sector priorities are directed toward the reforestation of the 11 watersheds which, given their importance, have been declared of national interest; while paying attention to the more than 600 of these areas in the country that are greater than one square kilometer.

Major efforts are also focused on the protection of mangroves, which occupy 5% of the national territory, he highlighted.

Also announced during the press conference was the decision to host this year’s activities to mark Forestry Workers’ Day (June 21) at the Sancti Spíritus Agroforestry Enterprise; while the final event will be held at the UEB Agroforestal Silvícola in the municipality of Trinidad.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-06-06/cubas-sustained-forest-growth

Peruvian MPs pay homage to Cuban medical brigade

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Lima, Jun 9 (Prensa Latina) The Peruvian parliament paid tribute to the Cuban medical brigade that has been assisting the victims of the torrential rains that have devastated the northern region of Piura for more than two months.

Legislators cheered the delegation of Cuban solidarity, when they appeared last night in the guest box, during a plenary session, after a ceremony in which they received diplomas of honor from the Congress and the Peru-Cuba Parliamentary League.

The group of four doctors, led by the brigade leader, Rolando Piloto, thanked the warm reception received by legislators of various trends that recognize the solidarity of the Antillians, members of the Henry Coneve International Contingent, trained to act in disaster situations .

Previously, the president of the Congress, Luz Salgado, and the president of the Peru-Cuba League, Zacarias Lapa, The first awarded a diploma of recognition to the brigade and the second diploma of honor for each of the 23 members of the brigade, at a ceremony attended by Cuban ambassador Sergio Gonzalez and members of the diplomatic mission.

Both expressed their appreciation for the hard work of Cuban professionals in Cuba and their solidarity, and Salgado emphasized the quality of the work they performed and emphasized collaboration and mutual respect as a characteristic of Peruvian-Cuban relations.

'I had the opportunity to see the work that health specialists in Cuba have done especially in Piura. Lately I was in that area and I could see them and what I received was the best words of the Piurans themselves, Who expressed the support and help they have given to our brothers from the north, "he said.

Other legislators also participated, such as Marco Arana and Alberto Quintanilla, among others, who agreed to highlight the principles of solidarity and Latin American integration that envelops the Cuban revolution.

Among other points, the Cuban ambassador referred to the history of solidarity between the two countries and recalled the formation of the Henry Reeve International Contingent in September 2005, by the decision of then-President Fidel Castro.

Like several of the parliamentarians present, he recalled that Cuban medical solidarity with Peru was expressed in 1970, when brigades of doctors and builders came to assist the victims of the serious earthquake that year, Despite the fact that there were no diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In appreciation of the tribute, the head of the brigade, Rolando Piloto, said that it is also a tribute to the more than 350 thousand Cuban public health workers who have fulfilled internationalist missions and the people of Cuba.

He also considered it a tribute "to the man who taught us to believe in the strength of ideas and in which a better world is possible, as well as to defend the values ​​in which one believes, at the price of any sacrifice."

He made a detailed report of the work carried out, highlighting about 23 thousand medical consultations and the attention to 972 dengue patients confirmed or with signs of alarm, with zero mortality in the midst of an epidemic that has already caused 31 deaths.

Agp / mrs In appreciation of the tribute, the head of the brigade, Rolando Piloto, said that it is also a tribute to the more than 350 thousand Cuban public health workers who have fulfilled internationalist missions and the people of Cuba. He also considered it a tribute "to the man who taught us to believe in the strength of ideas and in which a better world is possible, as well as to defend the values ​​in which one believes, at the price of any sacrifice." He made a detailed report of the work carried out, highlighting about 23 thousand medical consultations and the attention to 972 dengue patients confirmed or with signs of alarm, with zero mortality in the midst of an epidemic that has already caused 31 deaths

http://prensa-latina.cu/index.php?o=rn&id=92012&SEO=parlamentarios-peruanos-rinden-homenaje-a-brigada-medica-cubana&utm_content=buffera12a0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

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goddamn commies

goddamn commies

Bringing their godless medicine and health care to those in need at no charge? Where the hell do they get off! They didn't even send one soldier to pistol-whip the ne'er do wells...pussies...

Trump Revises Cuba Travel and Trade Policies

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U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to deliver a speech on U.S.-Cuba relations at the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami, Florida, U.S., on June 16, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Published 16 June 2017

The U.S. president announces the changes to an invited audience in Miami, Florida.
Fulfilling his campaign promise to reverse the previous Obama administration's re-engagement with Havana, U.S. President Donald Trump has outlined his revised Cuba policy.

In a speech at the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami, Trump said he will cancel his predecessor's "completely one-sided deal with Cuba."

“Our policy will seek a much better deal for the Cuban people and for the United States of America,” Trump said. “We don’t want U.S. dollars to prop up a military monopoly that exploits and abuses the citizens of Cuba.”

Under the changes, Washington will tighten rules on individual U.S. citizens travelling to Cuba.

Travellers going there for non-academic educational purposes will again be required to visit with organized tour groups run by U.S. companies.


Self-directed, individual travel will be prohibited.

“The previous administration’s easing of restriction on travel and trade does not help the Cuban people, they only enrich the Cuban regime,” Trump said.

There will be no change to current regulations on which items can be brought back from Cuba, including the rum and cigars produced by state-run enterprises.

The new policy also bans most U.S. business deals with the military-linked Armed Forces Business Enterprises Group, GAESA, while still allowing airlines and cruise ships to continue services.

Despite the changes, the U.S. will maintain diplomatic relations with the Cuban government.

The U.S. Embassy in Havana, which reopened in August 2015, will remain open in the hope that the two countries can forge “a much stronger and better path.”

“We will respect Cuban sovereignty, but we will never turn our backs on the Cuban people. That will not happen,” Trump said.

Washington's policy reversal has been pushed by right-wing Republicans including the Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, who appeared with Trump during Friday's announcement.

None of the changes will be effective until the the Treasury and Commerce Departments issue new regulations, which could take months.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Trump-Revises-Cuba-Travel-and-Trade-Policies--20170616-0016.html

videos at link

Damn straight, free the political prisoners, stop human rights abuses

Close Gitmo.

"The United States is not in a position to give us lessons": Cuba responds to Trump's provocations

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Declaration of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba.
Havana, June 16, 2017.

On June 16th, 2017, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, in a speech full of hostile rhetoric, which recalled the times of the open confrontation with our country, pronounced in a Miami theater, announced the policy of his Government to Cuba that reverses progress achieved in the last two years, after the presidents Raul Castro Ruz and Barack Obama on December 17th, 2014 announced the decision to reestablish diplomatic relations and begin a process towards the normalization of bilateral ties.

In what constitutes a setback in relations between the two countries, Trump made a speech and signed a directive policy called "Presidential Memorandum of National Security on Strengthening US Policy towards Cuba", stating the elimination of individual "people-to-people" educational exchanges and greater oversight of US travelers to Cuba, as well as the prohibition of the economic, commercial and financial transactions of US companies with Cuban companies linked to the Revolutionary Armed Forces and Intelligence and security services, all with the aim of depriving us of income.

The US president justified this policy with alleged concerns about the human rights situation in Cuba and the need to rigorously apply the laws of the blockade, conditioning its lifting, as well as any improvement in bilateral relations, for our country to make changes inherent in its constitutional order.

Trump also repealed the Presidential Policy Directive "Normalization of US-Cuba Relations," issued by President Obama on October 14th, 2016, which, while not obscuring the intrusive nature of US policy, nor the goal of advancing its interests in the pursuit of changes in the economic, political and social order of our country, had recognized the independence, sovereignty and self-determination of Cuba and the Cuban government as a legitimate and equal interlocutor, as well as the benefits it would bring to both countries and peoples a relationship of civilized coexistence within the great differences that exist between the two governments. He also admitted that the blockade was an obsolete policy and should be eliminated.

Again, the United States Government resorted to coercive methods of the past, adopting measures to intensify the blockade, in force since February 1962, which not only causes damage and deprivation to the Cuban people and constitutes an undeniable obstacle to the development of our economy, but also affects the sovereignty and interests of other countries, inciting international rejection.

The announced measures impose additional obstacles to the very restricted opportunities that the US business sector had to trade and invest in Cuba.

In turn, they further restrict the right of US citizens to visit our country, already limited by the obligation to use discriminatory licenses, at a time when the United States Congress, as a reflection of the broad sectors of that society, calls not only for an end to the travel ban, but also for the lifting of restrictions on trade with Cuba.

President Trump's announcements contradict the majority support of American public opinion, including that of Cuban emigration in that country, about the total lifting of the blockade and the normal relations between Cuba and the United States.

Instead, the US president, again badly advised, makes decisions that favor the political interests of an extremist minority of Cuban origin in the state of Florida, who for petty reasons does not give up his claim to punish Cuba and its people, to exercise the legitimate and sovereign right to be free and to have taken the reins of his own destiny.

Later we will do a more thorough analysis of the scope and implications of this announcement.

The Cuban Government denounces the new measures to tighten the blockade, which are destined to fail as has been shown repeatedly in the past, and which will not achieve its purpose to weaken the Revolution or to defeat the Cuban people, whose resistance to the aggressions of any type and origin has been proven over almost six decades.

The Government of Cuba rejects manipulation for political purposes and double standards in the treatment of human rights. The Cuban people enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms, and exhibit achievements of which they are proud and are a chimera for many countries in the world, including the United States itself, such as the right to health, education, social security, equal pay for equal work, children's rights, and the right to food, peace and development. With its modest resources, Cuba has also contributed to the improvement of human rights in many parts of the world, despite the limitations imposed by its status as a blockaded country.

The United States is not in a position to give us lessons. We have serious concerns about the respect and guarantees of human rights in that country, where there are numerous cases of murders, brutality and police abuses, particularly against the African American population; the right to life is violated as a result of gun deaths; child labor is being exploited and there are serious manifestations of racial discrimination; threatening to impose more restrictions on health services, which would leave 23 million people without health insurance; there is wage inequality between men and women; migrants and refugees are marginalized, particularly those from Islamic countries; is intended to erect walls that denigrate neighbors; and abandon international commitments to preserve the environment and address climate change.

Human rights violations committed by the United States in other countries, such as the arbitrary detention of dozens of prisoners in the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo Navy Base in Cuba, where they have even been tortured, are also a matter of concern; extrajudicial executions and the deaths of civilians caused by bombs and the use of drones; and the wars unleashed against various countries like Iraq, based on lies about the possession of weapons of mass destruction, with dire consequences for the peace, security and stability of the Middle East region.

We recall that Cuba is a state signatory of 44 international instruments on human rights, while the United States is only 18, so we have much to show, speak up, and defend.

In confirming the decision to reestablish diplomatic relations, Cuba and the United States ratified their intention to develop respectful and cooperative ties between the two peoples and governments, based on the principles and purposes enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. In its Declaration, issued on July 1st, 2015, the Cuban Revolutionary Government reaffirmed that these relations must be based on absolute respect for our independence and sovereignty; the inalienable right of every state to choose the political, economic, social and cultural system, without interference in any way; and sovereign equality and reciprocity, which are inalienable principles of international law, as endorsed by the Latin American and Caribbean Proclamation as a Zone of Peace, signed by the Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States ( CELAC), at its II Summit, in Havana. Cuba has not renounced these principles and will never give up.


The Government of Cuba reiterates its willingness to continue a respectful dialogue and cooperation on issues of mutual interest, as well as the negotiation of pending bilateral issues with the United States Government. In the last two years, it has been demonstrated that the two countries can coexist, as the President of the Councils of State and Ministers, General of the Army Raul Castro Ruz, have repeatedly expressed, can cooperate and coexist civilly, by respecting our differences and promoting everything that benefits both nations and peoples, but it should not be expected that Cuba will make concessions inherent to its sovereignty and independence, nor will accept any kind of conditionality.

Any strategy aimed at changing the political, economic and social system in Cuba, whether it seeks to achieve this through pressures and impositions, or by using more subtle methods, will be doomed to failure.

The changes that are necessary in Cuba, such as those made since 1959 and those that we are undertaking now as part of the process of updating our economic and social model, will continue to be decided sovereignly by the Cuban people.

As we have done since the triumph on January 1st, 1959, we will assume any risk and continue to be firm and secure in building a sovereign, independent, socialist, democratic, prosperous and sustainable nation.

https://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2017/06/the-united-states-is-not-in-position-to.html

The United States is not in a position to give us lessons. We have serious concerns about the respect and guarantees of human rights in that country, where there are numerous cases of murders, brutality and police abuses, particularly against the African American population; the right to life is violated as a result of gun deaths; child labor is being exploited and there are serious manifestations of racial discrimination; threatening to impose more restrictions on health services, which would leave 23 million people without health insurance; there is wage inequality between men and women; migrants and refugees are marginalized, particularly those from Islamic countries; is intended to erect walls that denigrate neighbors; and abandon international commitments to preserve the environment and address climate change.

Human rights violations committed by the United States in other countries, such as the arbitrary detention of dozens of prisoners in the territory illegally occupied by the Guantanamo Navy Base in Cuba, where they have even been tortured, are also a matter of concern; extrajudicial executions and the deaths of civilians caused by bombs and the use of drones; and the wars unleashed against various countries like Iraq, based on lies about the possession of weapons of mass destruction, with dire consequences for the peace, security and stability of the Middle East region.

We recall that Cuba is a state signatory of 44 international instruments on human rights, while the United States is only 18, so we have much to show, speak up, and defend.

Trump is just the latest, though ham-handed, version of the same old Ugly Yankee Dictator. US imperialism can only be stopped by force - and that force is the working class of the US.

Any Strategy Directed Toward Changing Cuba’s Constitutional Order is Condemned to Failure
Posted by ALEXANDRA VALIENTE on JUNE 19, 2017

Revolutionary Government statement released June 16, in response to new Presidential Directive on U.S. policy toward Cuba, denounces Donald Trump’s intention to halt progress in normalization of relations.

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Granma | internet@granma.cu
June 16, 2017, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, in a speech replete with hostile rhetoric which recalled the era of open confrontation with our country, announced in a Miami theater his administration’s policy toward Cuba which reverses advances made these last two years, after December 17, 2014, when Presidents Raúl Castro Ruz and Barack Obama made public the decision to reestablish diplomatic relations and initiate a process toward normalization of bilateral ties.
In what constitutes a setback in relations between the two countries, Trump delivered a speech and during the same event signed a policy directive entitled, ” National Security Presidential Memorandum on Strengthening U.S. Policy toward Cuba,” mandating the elimination of educational “people-to-people” exchanges undertaken by individuals, and greater control of U.S. travelers to Cuba, as well as the prohibition of economic, commercial, or financial transactions on the part of U.S. companies with Cuban enterprises linked to the Revolutionary Armed Forces, intelligence or security services – all of this with the intentional objective of denying us income. The U.S. President justified this policy with alleged concerns about the human rights situation in Cuba and the need to rigorously enforce blockade laws, conditioning its lifting, as well as any improvement in bilateral relations, on our country making changes elemental to our constitutional order.
Trump likewise vacated the Presidential Policy Directive, “Normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba,” issued by President Obama on October 14, 2016, which, although it did not attempt to hide the interventionist character of U.S. policy or the objective of advancing its interest in changes in our country’s economic, political and social order, the directive recognized Cuba’s independence, sovereignty, and self-determination, and the Cuban government as a legitimate, equal interlocutor, as well as the benefits that both countries and people could gain in a relationship of civilized coexistence, within the context of the great differences which exist between our two governments. It also recognized that the blockade was an obsolete policy that should be eliminated.
Once again, the U.S. government resorts to the coercive methods of the past, adopting measures to tighten the blockade, in effect since February of 1962, which not only causes harm and depravation to the Cuban people and constitutes an undeniable obstacle to our economy’s development, but also impacts the sovereignty and interests of other countries, generating international condemnation.
The measures announced create additional obstacles to already restricted opportunities available to U.S. businesses to trade with and invest in Cuba.
At the same time, they further restrict the rights of U.S. citizens to visit our country, already limited given the obligation to employ discriminatory licenses, at a time when the U.S. Congress – as a reflection of the opinion of broad sectors of this society – demands not only an end to the travel ban, but also that restrictions on commerce with Cuba be eliminated.
President Trump’s announcements contradict the majority support of the U.S. public, including the Cuban émigré community in that country, for the lifting of the blockade and normal relations between Cuba and the United States.
For his part, the U.S. President, once again poorly advised, makes decisions that favor political interests of an extremist minority of Cuban origin in the state of Florida, which for small-minded reasons do not desist in their pretensions to punish Cuba and its people, for exercising the legitimate, sovereign right to be free and take control of their own destiny.
At a later time, we will more thoroughly analyze the scope and implications of this announcement.
The government of Cuba denounces the new measures to tighten the blockade, which are destined to failure, as has been repeatedly demonstrated in the past, and which will not achieve their purpose of weakening the Revolution, or breaking the Cuban people, whose resistance to aggression of any kind or origin has been proven over almost six decades.
The government of Cuba rejects the manipulation of the issue of human rights for political purposes, and double standards in addressing it. The Cuban people enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms, and have achieved accomplishments of which they are proud, and which are only a dream for many of the world’s countries, including the United States itself, such as the right to health, education, social security, equal pay for equal work, the rights of children, the right to food, peace and development. With its modest resources, Cuba has contributed, as well, to the expansion of human rights in many places around the world, despite the limitations imposed given its condition as a blockaded country.
The United States is in no position to teach us a lesson. We have serious concerns about respect for and protection of human rights in this country, where there have been numerous cases of police murder, brutality, and abuse, in particular against the African-American population; the right to life is violated as a result of deaths caused by firearms; child labor is exploited; and serious manifestations of racial discrimination exist; threats are being made to impose more restrictions on health care services, which would leave 23 million persons without coverage; women do not receive equal pay for equal work; emigrants and refugees are marginalized, in particular those from Islamic countries; the building of walls that belittle neighbors is proposed; and international commitments to protect the environment and confront climate change are abandoned.
Likewise, also of concern are violations of human rights committed by the United States in other countries, such as the arbitrary detentions of dozens of prisoners in territory illegally occupied by the Guantánamo Naval Base in Cuba, where torture has taken place; the extrajudicial executions and deaths of civilians caused by bombs and the use of drones; and wars unleashed against different countries like Iraq, justified with lies about the possession of weapons of mass destruction, with disastrous consequences for the security and stability of the Middle East region.
We recall that Cuba is a state party to 44 human rights international covenants, while the United States is so to only 18. Thus we have much to show, to say, and defend.
Upon confirming the decision to reestablish diplomatic relations, Cuba and the United States affirmed the intention to develop respectful, cooperative ties between the two people and governments, based on the principles and purposes enshrined in the United Nations Charter.
In the declaration issued July 1, 2015, the revolutionary government of Cuba reaffirmed, “These relations must be founded on absolute respect for our independence and sovereignty; the inalienable right of every state to choose its own political, economic, social, and cultural system, without interference of any kind; and on equality and reciprocity, which constitute irrevocable principles of international law,” as stated in the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, signed by heads of state and government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), during its 2nd Summit, in Havana. Cuba has not renounced these principles, and never will.
The government of Cuba reiterates its willingness to continue the respectful dialogue and cooperation in areas of mutual interest, as well as the negotiation of pending bilateral issues with the government of the United States. Over the last two years, it has been demonstrated that, as President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, has repeatedly stated, the two countries can cooperate and coexist in a civilized manner, respecting differences and promoting all that benefits both nations and peoples, but it cannot be expected that, in order to do so, Cuba will make concessions which compromise our independence or sovereignty, nor accept conditions of any type.
Any strategy directed toward changing the political, economic and social system in Cuba, be it one that seeks to do so through pressure and dictates, or with the use of more subtle methods, is condemned to failure.
The changes which may be needed in Cuba, like those made since 1959 and those we are undertaking now as part of the updating of our socio-economic model, will continue to be decided independently by the Cuban people.
As we have since the triumph of the Revolution, January 1, 1959, we will assume any risk, and continue firm and sure in the construction of a sovereign, independent, socialist, democratic, prosperous and sustainable nation.
Havana, June 16, 2017.
We will never sacrifice our right to build an independent and socialist nation

The Cuban Workers’ Federation and its member unions expressed support for the Statement by the Revolutionary Government following the latest hostility from U.S. President Donald Trump.

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Granma | internet@granma.cu

The Cuban Workers’ Federation and its unions support the Revolutionary Government Statement, in the face of the aggressive speech by the President of the United States Donald Trump, regarding relations between that country and Cuba, and ratify the conviction to stand firm in defense of this genuine Revolution, built with and for the workers, under the leadership of Fidel and Raúl.
Having chosen to address relations with Cuba in a setting linked to the invasion of Playa Girón, and treating mercenaries like heroes, constitutes an offense for all those from the most humble ranks of our nation, many of them workers, who defended their socialist homeland until they were forced to bite the dust of defeat.
As the text issued by the Cuban government expresses, Trump’s words constitute a setback in relations between the two countries, given the threat of rigorously enforcing the blockade laws, conditioning its lifting, as well as any improvement in bilateral relations, on our country making changes inherent to its constitutional order.
But this backward step does not intimidate us. From our trench in production and services, Cuban workers, with their intelligence, ingenuity and creativity, will continue to break down the barriers imposed by the blockade, as has happened for almost 60 years in which they have not been able to defeat us with this criminal siege.
As always we will continue to find solutions to the limitations, we will remain faithful to the Communist Party of Cuba, guiding the work we construct, which is strengthened by the updating of the Cuban economic model that has the workers as its fundamental protagonists.
In these circumstances we must maximize productive reserves and the rational use of all material and financial resources, including labor and technological discipline.
We make our own the rejection expressed in the Statement by the Revolutionary Government of the manipulation of the issue of human rights for political purposes, and the double standards in addressing it. We are outraged to hear Trump talk about human rights for Cubans, when on the triumph of January 1959 the Revolution guaranteed the right to work and equal pay for women and men, social security, universal and free health and education, to a dignified life and to civil order. Perhaps Trump intends to prevent, with the restriction on visits by his fellow citizens to Cuba, that they may verify the enjoyment here of those rights that are disrespected in their own country?
We have a history of revolutionary intransigence, resistance and rebellion, guided by the teachings of José Martí, who knew the beast as he had lived in its belly, and faced with the aspirations of the giant ratified that his sling was that of David, that which we have wielded for decades and against which the hopes of returning us to the neocolonial past have failed.
Our rich tradition of struggle provides us with motivations that inspire us to defend the achievements made and continue to move forward. We have demonstrated this with our unwavering position of principles before the aggressiveness of successive U.S. administrations.
Each labor collective will be a stronghold against imperialist ambitions. Once again the U.S. government is wrong about Cuba and its workers, who will not give up our independence or our solid unity.
We will never sacrifice our right to build a sovereign, independent, socialist, democratic, prosperous and sustainable nation.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2017/06/19/any-strategy-directed-toward-changing-cubas-constitutional-order-is-condemned-to-failure/