Speech by Pablo Ginarte, First Secretary of Political Affairs for the Cuban Embassy in Britain, RCG Revolutionary Day School on 19 October
Comrades of the Revolutionary Communist Group, Dear friends,
On behalf of the government and people of Cuba, thank you for your solidarity. It is an honour to close this vital day school.
To hear you speak with such clarity on Venezuela, the Sahel, and Cuba is to be reminded of a fundamental truth: our struggles are one. We are connected by a common enemy: imperialism. This principle of internationalism is the very essence of the Cuban Revolution. It is a doctrine forged in our own long fight for sovereignty. Because, as Che Guevara taught us, the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love, and it is in this spirit that Cuba stands in solidarity with a world in resistance.
We look to Palestine and we have seen the most urgent cause of our time: a genocide, televised for the world to see, and enabled by the military backing and the Security Council veto of the United States. Cuba’s solidarity is not new. In 1947, we voted against the unjust partition of Palestine. In 1959, Che Guevara visited Gaza to offer our support. In 1973, we broke all relations with the state of Israel. Every year hundreds of Palestinians study for free in Cuban universities. Our position is unwavering: we demand an immediate long-term ceasefire, an end to the Zionist occupation, and a sovereign Palestinian state.
We look to our sister nation, Venezuela, and we see the same imperialist playbook of aggression: a brutal blockade designed to break the will of the people, and the increasing threats to the most peaceful people. But the Bolivarian Revolution has not been broken and won’t be. The strategic alliance between Cuba and Venezuela, forged by Fidel [Castro] and [Hugo] Chávez, is a model of true internationalism. Through ALBA, [The Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America], we have built an alternative to neoliberalism based on solidarity. We have exchanged solidarity, bringing free healthcare and education to millions and proving that a better world is possible. We reaffirm our absolute solidarity with President Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan people in their heroic defence of sovereignty against the threats of imperialist aggression.
And we look to Africa, the mother continent, and we see a new dawn of sovereignty breaking in the Sahel. The decision by the peoples of many countries rejecting the chains of neo-colonialism. The peoples of the Sahel are writing a new chapter in the history of African liberation, and the people of Cuba stand with them, without hesitation or condition, just as Cuba did to end the apartheid in South Africa and to help liberate Angola and the independence of Namibia.
In each of these struggles, we see the reflection of our own. For 65 years, the Cuban Revolution has faced the most prolonged campaign of economic warfare in history. The US blockade is an act of war. It is a criminal policy literally designed to create hunger and desperation to destroy our socialist project. This is intensified by Cuba’s cynical inclusion on the US list of ‘state sponsors of terrorism’, a monumental hypocrisy. A nation that sends doctors, not bombs, is accused of terrorism by the world’s foremost imperialist power, the main supporter of the terrorist state of Israel. Of course, this lie is a tool to persecute our economy and punish those who would trade with us. The blockade causes daily blackouts, shortages of food and medicine, migration and immense suffering. It is the greatest obstacle to our development. It is a massive violation of our human rights. It easily classifies as an act of genocide.
But like the people of Palestine, Venezuela and the Sahel, Cuba does not surrender. We resist by educating our children, by guaranteeing free health-care, by developing our own vaccines, and by sending doctors to the world. By simply existing, we prove that an alternative is possible.
The forces of imperialism are powerful, but they are not invincible. The future belongs to the peoples who fight for justice. The work you do here is of critical importance. Every act of solidarity is a blow against the blockade and a message of hope to our people.
Let us go forward, united, with the conviction that our cause is just and that victory is certain.
Thank you for your solidarity. Venceremos!
