FRFI 176 December 2003 / January 2004
September and October have been busy months for Rock around the Blockade, with regular street stalls, petitioning and leafleting, monthly meetings to discuss the issues of Cuba and their relevance to the current state of the world, a commemorative evening for Che Guevara to mark the 36th anniversary of his death in combat and the production of the latest Viva Cuba! newsletter.
The night for Che Guevara was an evening with music, poetry, readings and speeches. Many people crowded into the packed room to hear political singer/songwriters from the Chagos Islands who have been dumped in Britain and now face homelessness despite their British passports; music and dance from a Kurdish troupe from the Halkevi Centre; a string quartet, a revolutionary Spanish guitarist and a duo guitar and vocals who stunned the crowd with a magnificent song about Che Guevara and the struggle against imperialism. A raffle and generous donations raised money for the work of Rock around the Blockade. RATB hopes to hold a similar evening in January to mark the 45th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution.
The September meeting was about human rights in Cuba versus the USA/Britain with discussion about Guantanamo Bay. The speakers gave a history of the US illegal occupation of Guantanamo Bay as part of the US war on Cuba; they contrasted the revolutionary nature of Cuba’s province of Guantanamo with the barbarity of the US concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay where prisoners are held without trial or charge, interrogated and tortured in flagrant breach of international law. The crimes carried out in Guantanamo as part of the US’s so-called War on Terrorism against the inmates of Guantanamo Bay has met with barely a bleat of protest from Britain in defence of its own citizens held there. Hardly surprising, while Britain carries out its own racist war via the Terrorism Act and the Asylum and Immigration laws.
Our October meeting, ‘Who are the terrorists?’, focused on the Miami 5 with a video showing. Over the last two months the US has been intensifying the blockade, with speeches by US president George Bush condemning Cuba and announcing more stringent measures against the island. The Bush administration is more and more overtly linked to the Miami anti-Cuban counter-revolutionary community. At the same time, the EU has begun to operate its own blockade of Cuba. This is an attack on socialism. This is part of the war on terrorism with British and US imperialist hypocrisy able on the one hand to condemn Cuba, which is delivering education, healthcare, culture and a safe future to all its people, and on the other hand to undertake a brutal, violent war on oppressed nations which ensures that people have no access to health care, education, cultural facilities and have as their future a world of uncertainty, poverty, disease and early death.
In this context the annual vote at the United Nations yielded the biggest ever vote against the US blockade of Cuba. However, as usual, the US used its veto on the Security Council, which allowed the three countries who voted for the blockade (USA, Israel and the Marshall Islands) to overturn the vote.
Rock around the Blockade will be taking a brigade to Cuba in 2005, offering a further sound system to the Union of Young Communists for their use in rural areas for political and recreational purposes. The brigade will visit one of the less well off provinces and allow brigadistas the opportunity of seeing Cuban society at first hand and discussing with people from all walks of life. Those on the brigade will be chosen from amongst the activists in RATB – so get involved now! Defending the Cuban Revolution is part and parcel of the fight against capitalism and imperialism and for a better world for all of us. Their struggle is our struggle and our struggle is necessary for their survival. Let’s make Cuba relevant to people in the anti-war movement by showing that in order to be effective, the anti-war movement must be anti-imperialist and must begin to build a socialist movement in Britain.
Join RATB by sending a cheque or postal order for £10 (waged), £4 (low waged) or £2 (unwaged, student, pensioner) – you will receive a newsletter regularly and be kept up to date with all events. We will send you information about the Miami 5 and Boycott Bacardi campaign.
Join our e-group (writeto [email protected]) and be part of receiving regular bulletins and contributing to a discussion of recent articles about and from Cuba.
Come to our events and meetings! Get involved! Get active!
