FRFI 179 June / July 2004
One year to go until Rock around the Blockade’s next brigade to Cuba. The plans of where the brigade will go and the visits and activities that the brigadistas will take part in are now being finalised. This gives us a year to fundraise for the sound system for the Union of Young Communists (UJC) that will be the main piece of material aid we will donate. The UJC recognises the importance of accessible recreational activities for their young people and uses the sound systems in the more disadvantaged or under-resourced areas. The sound systems previously taken to Cuba by Rock around the Blockade are used primarily for recreational purposes but also for political rallies and youth activities.
The brigade is a great opportunity for people to see at first hand how Cuban society works. Brigadistas, hosted by our comrades in the UJC, will have the chance to meet representatives from Cuba’s mass organisations and visit a wide variety of social, cultural and educational projects. The brigade will donate the sound system to the UJC in Caimanera, the town in eastern Cuba closest to the US naval base on illegally-occupied land in Guantanamo. The 5,000 residents of Caimanera are defiant in the intimidating shadow of the US military presence and acts of provocation. Rock around the Blockade’s 2000 brigade inaugurated our mobile disco in Caimanera with a noisy celebration of anti-imperialist resistance. We look forward to returning to celebrate with the revolutionaries there once again.
Here in Britain we are involved in regular activities in support of the Cuban Revolution, knowing that being part of building an anti-imperialist movement in our own countries is how we can best show solidarity with the Cubans.
In April, Rock around the Blockade in London held a meeting on the 60th anniversary of the IMF and World Bank. A speaker from the International League of People’s Struggles gave a stinging history of what the IMF and WB have done and continue to do, pursuing neoliberal policies that disadvantage already oppressed nations in the interests of richer nations. The RATB speaker talked about the resistance of revolutionary Cuba to such policies and highlighted the educational, cultural and health indices that put Cuba so far in advance of other Caribbean and Latin American nations. Honduras, with infant mortality and maternal mortality amongst the highest in Latin America and literacy rates and life expectancy amongst the lowest, is the country that was used by the US to put the motion against Cuba at the United Nations Human Rights Commission. The vote at the UNHRC was significant. Despite the threats and bribery of the US, Cuba only lost by one vote. Mexico and Peru voted against Cuba.
Rock around the Blockade was present at the million-strong May Day rally in Revolution Square in Havana to hear Fidel Castro’s scathing indictment of Mexico and Peru’s stance on human rights and feel the air of celebration in the streets. We also took part in the Second International Conference on Marxism in Havana in early May.
The Cuban people have shown time and time again that they will not bow to pressure or intimidation from the imperialists nor shirk their responsibility to put their heads above the parapet in defending human rights and social justice and denouncing those who treat the poor as expendable.
In May, RATB held two successful Rebel Music nights, in Manchester and in London, getting the forthcoming fundraising off to a good start and creating enjoyable evenings with an eclectic mix of live music, politics, poetry and other performances. Also in April, Rock around the Blockade members appeared in the BBC programme Outrageous Fortune: the Bacardi Family, helping to expose the links of the Bacardi rum family to the Miami mafia.
RATB’s next meeting in London is on Wednesday 16 June at 7pm in room H102 in Connaught Building at the London School of Economics, Aldwych WC2 (nearest tube Holborn). We will be discussing the interlinked issues of the terrorism emanating from the US towards Cuba, the role of the Bacardi corporation and the Boycott Bacardi campaign, the case of the Miami 5 – five Cubans in gaol in the US for trying to expose the US based counter-revolutionaries – and the treatment of prisoners by the US on the illegally occupied Cuban soil in Guantanamo Bay. All welcome at this meeting and entrance is free.
RATB will be busy over the summer with stalls at festivals, including people working at Glastonbury for the Workers’ Beer Company and raising money for the sound system, petitioning/ leafleting sessions on Saturdays and meetings. Friday 2 July in London is the next Rebel Music club night at Electrowerkz in Torrens Place, next to Angel tube station N1.
Get involved in the work of Rock around the Blockade. Contact us for further information about any of the above and about events in your area.
We neglect to defend the Revolution in Cuba at our peril.
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