On 17-18 July supporters of Rock around the Blockade attended the People’s Summit in Brussels which united over 100 organisations to promote solidarity between Europe and Cuba and oppose the US blockade. The People’s Summit took place alongside the official summit between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU). The official summit marked the first meeting in eight years between the two bodies. The Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez attended, enraging right-wing Members of European Parliament (MEPs). These MEPs had managed to pass a non-binding resolution ahead of the official summit condemning Cuba’s human rights record and calling for new sanctions against Cuba; they also accused the EU of being soft on Latin American states over their stance on the war in Ukraine.
CELAC states stood their ground against such political attacks. A final declaration by heads of state at the official summit included a paragraph opposing the US blockade of Cuba and its extraterritorial sanctions, acknowledging that Cuba’s inclusion on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism ‘has introduced obstacles to international financial transactions with the island’. A draft section on the war in Ukraine originally condemned ‘in the strongest possible terms Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine’, but references to Russia were totally removed from the final declaration in response to fierce objections from states including Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. This was a reality check for Western imperialism, further exposing its isolation from the world’s poorer nations on the question of the war in Ukraine.
At the People’s Summit, RATB supporters joined discussions on Cuba’s inclusion on the US’s list of state sponsors of terrorism and the impacts of the 61-year US blockade. In a session on the ecological crisis and how Cuba is fighting back through socialist planning, the Governor of the Cuban state Matanzas, Mario Sabines, described his country’s 100-year state plan to combat climate change, Tarea Vida. He stressed that socialism is the only solution to the climate crisis.
The People’s Summit also included a festival of solidarity with contributions from representatives of Latin American states including Diaz-Canel and Rodriguez, as well as Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Bolivian President Luis Arce. ‘Capitalism has created a Frankenstein: the climate crisis’, said Petro. Diaz-Canel rejected imperialist aggression against progressive movements in Latin America and the Caribbean. He pointed out that denunciation does not go far enough and that supporters of Cuba must resist the blockade in all ways possible.
The summit closed with a solidarity demonstration with musical performances followed by speeches from social activists from both continents including Lourdes Huanca from the National Federation of Peasant, Artisan, Indigenous, Native and Salaried Women of Peru who expressed the need for an anti-imperialist struggle. During this demonstration, we promoted the 1 Cent 4 Cuba campaign (www.1c4cuba.eu) which offers a practical way for European Cuba solidarity groups to challenge the US blockade. Fernando Gonzalez, president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), and Huanca joined with RATB activists to support the 1c4Cuba campaign.
Destinie Sanchez
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 295 August/September 2023
