Over 1,200 dead as IDF rampage through Gaza: Business as usual for Israel

 

Jot Brar speaks following the London demonstration to oppose the latest atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. More contributions from the CPGB-ML international solidarity meeting will follow.

 

Arguably there are no civilians in Israel. It is such a militarised armed camp for the oppression of the Palestinians and facilitating the looting of the Middle East by US, EU, NATO and UK imperialism. Israel has become integral to a colonial system in which the world is dominated by a handful of superrich countries, which have become wealthy by looting resources and exploiting people all over the world.

Britain, the first country to develop capitalism was also the first to grab a modern empire. In the early 20th century, vast oil deposits were discovered under the desert. Suddenly, the rush to secure plentiful and cheap supplies of ‘black gold’ became a key strategic imperative for all imperialists, leading to a cut-throat competition for control of the region.

Zionism and Palestine

Seeing their chance, the early zionists asked Britain’s rulers to let them set up a jewish state in Palestine in exchange for helping to keep the region under British domination.

With Arab nationalism on the rise, the imperialists accepted the offer, looking forward to the creation of a “loyal jewish Ulster in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism”.

And, although British masters were later pushed aside by American ones, a ‘loyal jewish Ulster’ is exactly what Israel has remained to this day.

The zionist stooges who destroy Palestinian homes, drop bombs on Palestinian schools, plough up Palestinian crops and poison Palestinian water are bribed by US and British governments and corporations to do imperialism’s dirty work.

In return for helping corporations like BP and Texaco to carry on looting the oil and dominating the people of the whole Middle East, the zionists are given military support and hardware, financial aid, diplomatic immunity, and a campaign of lies and disinformation in the imperialist-controlled media.

Israel was established in an orgy of ethnic cleansing, and has been illegally occupying further Palestinian lands and displacing and wiping out Palestinian families ever since.

War crimes are a daily event in this, the most militarised state in the world. In fact, rather than viewing Israel as a state with a huge military, it is more helpful to realise that Israel is in fact a massive army base that also happens to have some schools. Israeli children are brought up to be Nazi-like stormtroopers, their heads filled with supremacist hatred of all Arab peoples.

The imperialists made one serious miscalculation, though. It was assumed that in the face of Israel’s might, Palestinians would accept underclass status or leave, but the days when colonialists could evict a people from their land and get away with it were over.

In a century of socialist revolution and national liberation, the racist dismissal of local peoples as ‘uncivilised barbarians’ or merely ‘irrelevant’ was no longer possible.

Instead of politely disappearing, the Palestinians stood their ground – refusing to submit no matter how barbarous their oppressors became. Instead of passively joining the long list of imperialist victims, the Palestinians became a beacon of resistance and an inspiration to oppressed people globally.

Gradually, the wellspring of sympathy that Israel shamelessly exploited following the Nazis’ mass extermination of jews in WW2 has run dry. It is now clear to all that it is the zionists, and not the Palestinians, who stand in the way of peace.

So brazen has its war machine become that, today, Israel is the number one creator of anti-jewish feeling in the world.

So what has all this got to do with workers in Britain?

We need to recognise that the same ruling class that is waging war on our living standards (trying to force us to pay the price of the economic crisis of capitalism) gains much of its power from looting the world. Since oil is such a vital resource, the British state is still one of Israel’s main backers.

It’s in our interest to support the Palestinians against imperialism and zionism. But if we want to give effective solidarity to their struggle, we need to learn from past experience.

A consumer boycott may embarrass to Israel, but British workers can do a lot more, if we are prepared to use our collective power over the country’s economy. British workers need to join this axis of resistance and give full support to all parts of it, taking their place in the unifying and indivisible struggle against imperialism.

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Video – Great October Socialist Revolution

Thursday 7th November 2013 marked the 96th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, and this little introductory video is just to give you a flavour of the celebration that was held by the CPGB-ML at a packed meeting in Saklatvala hall, Southall on Saturday 9th November 2013.

Great speeches from the representatives of Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea, as well a Katt Cremer from the Party and Angela and Dan from Red Youth.

This video explains why we celebrate, what we are trying to achieve and why we have every reason to be optimistic about the future.

 

Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 – US threatening Nuclear war in Korea 2013: what's the connection?

Slide150 years on from the Cuban Missile crisis, and the US is once again threatening the world with nuclear war – this time by staging ‘Exercises’ to practise dropping nuclear bombs on North Korea.

Its never been more relevant to reflect on the aggressive wars and propaganda of the US imperial goliath – and how best to wipe their bloodthirsty crimes from the face of the earth.

Imperialism strives for domination, not democracy: this is the profound truth, and also the practical political lesson we must all learn when trying to understand and make sense of world events.

Giles Shorter gives this pithy and profound analysis of the events and meaning of the two weeks in October 1962 that are known as the Cuban Missile Crisis in the west, or the October Crisis in Cuba.

Part 1 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrT9fhcRPTU
Part 2 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IokewOgCar8
Part 3 –

Read Giles’ article on the Crisis, published in LALKAR here:
http://www.lalkar.org/issues/contents/jan2013/octobercrisis.html

This presentation was made, at the Stalin Society in October 2012, to mark the 50th anniversary of the crisis — days remembered clearly by those who witnessed them from afar, as Students and young adults, as seeming to threaten the “End of the World”: nuclear holocaust.

The key ideas put forward by US propagandists at the time of the Crisis – that the Socialist camp, the oppressed nations and all who resist imperialism bear responsibility for the frenzied, blood thirsty murderous and often outright genocidal acts of US, British EU and NATO imperialism – are still a mainstay of British and US propaganda.

Much of the ‘left’ and student movement failed utterly to come to terms with these arguments and tactics at the time, and have failed to answer these and similar accusations resolutely and clearly to this day — as they have either not understood the nature of imperialism, or have capitulated before what they perceive as its overriding strength.

It is particularly useful, on the 50th anniversary of the Crisis, and as US aggression against Korea reaches a crescendo, to look back and ask: “So is the world a safer place today than in 1962, as Kennedy and the imperialists claimed it would be in the absence of a strong USSR and socialist camp?”

How should we oppose imperialism — in Palestine, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Libya, in Mali, in the Ivory coast, Congo, South America, Nepal, Korea, the Phillipines… by ‘appealing to its better nature’, by begging? Or by an uncompromising and resolute no holds barred struggle — by any means necessary?

Who is responsible for the decisive diplomatic victory, and shift in military power that has taken place as a result of this incident and subsequent events?

Clearly imperialism bears the brunt of the responsibility – but it cannot be reproached, in a sense, for acting according to its nature – it must simply be recognised and overthrown. Khruschevite revisionism, however, by splitting the socialist camp, by light-mindedly playing at confrontation with so dangerous an enemy, and by its cowardice in backing down so humiliatingly, and deserting its Cuban ally must be exposed.

It is the disastrous path of Capitalist restoration in the USSR, and the incompetence in management at every level of soviet society that ensued, that must be identified and explicitly disavowed as the force that brought our movement, from the perspective of victory, and constructing a peaceful and prosperous world, to the brink of defeat — a divided socialist camp and people’s liberation movement, an economically and socially devastated world, dominated by imperialism and imperialist poverty, disease, famine, capitalist crisis, environmental devastation and war.

It is lamentable to reflect upon the decline of the Socialist camp since the capitalist roaders dismantled the once great and glorious Soviet Union and the Eastern European people’s democracies from the top downwards, but it also points the finger of blame, and indicates how we can rebuild our socialist movement and liberation struggle, from the bottom up.

Hasta la victoria – siempre!

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Red Salute from the Cuban 5!

Image

Red Youth and the CPGB-ML send our militant greetings to the Cuban 5, their families and fellow Cubans, and to progressive humanity world-wide fighting this unjust and barbaric system of capitalist imperialism, led by the bloodthirsty united States.

The USA proclaims itself to be the ‘land of the free’, but on closer inspection it is the most gross prison state and the universal violator of the rights of mankind, of all nations, and the working classes and oppressed masses of the world in particular.

 

The Cuban 5 speak for themselves:

“Today humanity is focused in that battle for its own survival. Our continent is awakening from a long nightmare imposed by the blood and fire of imperialism. The contradictions of capitalism are everyday more evident and acute…

“In any trench that we are we will honor your solidarity and trust.”

We re-produce the CPGB-ML’s invaluable leaflet on US human rights abuses, and an article explaining the background of the Cuban/Miami 5’s unjust incarceration and fight for liberty and repatriation here:

 

Land of the free is a prison of nations

The Miami Five: defiant victims of US injustice

 

 
New Years Greeting reproduced, with thanks, via the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5:

Dear friends of the Cuban 5,

Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio and Fernando, send these holiday messages of solidarity to the Cuban people and to their friends around the world from their prisons and Rene from his unjust supervised probation.
———————————————————————————————————
Dear sisters and brothers,

This year 2012 is reaching an end and we want to use this special opportunity to express how proud and grateful we are for counting on your support, love and brotherhood.

Thanks to your presence, we never feel alone, we are strong and optimistic, you give us the reasons to believe in justice and freedom. You give us the certainty that one day we will get together to celebrate this victory, and together we will go on fighting for just causes all over the world!!

Thanks so much for your solidarity and love!

On behalf of the Cuban 5, our five families, and the Cuban people:
Marry Christmas!
Best wishes in the New Year!
Happiest 2013!!!!
Love and Peace!

Ramón Labañino
Dec. 12th, 2012
FCI Jesup, Georgia. 8:21 A.M.

Cartoon by Gerardo Hernández for the weekly newspaper Trabajadores

Dear friends,

Another year of intense solidarity with the cause of our liberation comes to an end. There have been countless actions, demonstrations, and tangible results from the work of all of you in different parts of the world.

We feel the strength of your solidarity. A few years ago our situation was almost unknown but today, thanks to you, and to your tireless work on this initiative, the information about the case of the Five has reached almost all corners of politics and society and has virtually reached the entire universe.

Much remains to be done. Not for lack of effort on your part, but because of the stubborn opposition and the obstacle that represents the powerful forces that collude to keep reality in the most absolute silence.

However, we are confident in the human quality of you, in your wisdom and commitment as activists, and in your inexhaustible spirit of solidarity. We know that we can count on you and that you will accompany us until together we will achieve our goal; our freedom and our return to the Homeland and our families.

Please accept in every city or town of the universe from which you give us your solidarity our most profound gratitude. Thank you very much for your support, many successes in 2013, and congratulations on the New Year.

Fernando González Llort
December 24, 2012

To our dear people and friends around the world,

Yesterday evening, while many here were watching television, I sat down to write a poem in my cell and that is how these verses were born. As this year ends, when people are accustomed to receiving special gifts, I want to give them to all of you, and especially my four brothers.

SIMPLE FREEDOM

Simple freedom, nourishment of dreams,
love of a single face visible in the surface of the moon.
Simple freedom, without bridle, without owners,
free likes no one.

Simple freedom, of the unnamed peak,
where night falls buried in his lance
Simple freedom, in which man cultivates
the magic hope.

Simple freedom, as a swallow
that insists to fly until it loses its winds.
Simple freedom, under the sky and the ruins,
surrounded by bullets.

Simple freedom, as springtime
singing to life, challenging death.
Simple freedom, fiction of a frontier
against bad luck.

Simple freedom, giving birth and repeating
streets, cities, houses, books, songs, struggles.
Simple freedom, with which you learn
that you have many weapons.

Simple freedom, oh, face of love!,
it seems that I saw you in the skin of the moon.
Simple freedom, sentiment and honor
that no one can take from you.

In the year of the 54th Anniversary of the Revolution and also the year we will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the assault on the Moncada and Carlos Manuel de Céspedes barracks, we move forward with indestructible unity and with full confidence in our revolution under the guidance and example of Fidel and Raul.

Congratulations, wishing you health, peace and success in your goals in 2013.

Five embraces.
¡Venceremos!

Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez
US Federal Prison, Marianna
December 25 , 2012

Dear friends,

Once again we are at the end of another year, forced to write to you from the punishment that paradoxically has brought us the support that today motivate these grateful words. It has been 14 years of unjust vengeance during which time the most powerful country on earth, with their usual arrogance, has made deaf ears to the outcry of you all.

For us it has been another year of this long and tiring struggle, but it also provides a reason to reaffirm ourselves. The future of humanity cannot stay in the hands of people with so much hatred. We either rise up over those who pretend to be the last human product of history, so as to put the future in the hands of the people; or not many generations will go on until stupidity and barbarism will manage to end it all.

Today humanity is focused in that battle for its own survival. Our continent is awakening from a long nightmare imposed by the blood and fire of imperialism. The contradictions of capitalism are everyday more evident and acute. Our people are working to do everything possible to build itself into such a more humane alternative, one that is truly democratic and sustainable, which has been a kind of utopia for humankind since it started its fight for justice. Our place is there with our people and also with all of you, who from your respective places work every day to build a better world that we all need, including for those who are trying to ignore it.

To all of you that during these years have supported us, giving us your encouragement and making us feel that we are not alone; we send our best wishes of happiness and success in the New Year.

We will continue counting on you. In any trench that we are we will honor your solidarity and trust.

A fraternal embrace.

René González Sehwerert
December 25, 2012

Cuban revolution still strong as it faces new challenges

From the latest edition of Proletarian

This report from Cuba by our party’s recent delegation will bring fresh inspiration to all those struggling against imperialism. Not only can we win, but a bright and dignified future awaits us on the other side of the revolution.

At the end of June¬¬, the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) hosted a delegation of CPGB-ML comrades, led by our chairman Harpal Brar and vice-chairman and international secretary Ella Rule.

The exchange was characterised by a spirit of sincere friendship between the working people of Britain and Cuba and true comradeship between CPGB-ML delegates and our Cuban hosts, borne of a remarkable harmony of outlook and realisation of our common interests and destinies.

We were privileged to meet members of the PCC’s central committee and delegates of the National Assembly of People’s Power (the Cuban people’s parliament), including Ramon Pez Ferro, who was the youngest member of Fidel Castro’s company when it stormed the Moncada barracks on 26 July 1953.

Meeting with cde Ramon Pez Ferro, President of the Commission of International Relations for the People’s Power National Assembly.
Cde Ramon was also the youngest member of the rebels that stormed the Moncada Barracks on 26 July 1953 alongside Fidel and Raul Castro, marking the begining of the Cuban Revolution

It was this attack on the Moncada barracks, challenging the corrupt rule of US puppet Fulgencio Batista, that served as a call to arms to Cuba’s finest revolutionary youth and gave rise to the July 26 Movement (M 26-7). That movement went on to overthrew the brutal Batista dictatorship on 1 January 1959 and laid the foundations of the modern socialist state of Cuba.

We met leaders of the youth movement (CJC), women’s federation and trade unions, as well as health workers and cooperative farmers. All told us of their current struggle to build a productive and efficient socialist economy, to improve the material conditions of the Cuban people and to safeguard the gains of the revolution.

The delegates presented our Cuban hosts with literature – issues of Lalkar and Proletarian, pamphlets, and books – which was warmly received and has been placed in the national libraries of the Cuban parliament, as well as in the libraries of the PCC central committee, the Federation of Trade Unions, and the women’s and youth organisations.

Much has been written recently of Raul Castro’s introduction of market reforms to Cuba; the ‘deregulation’ of the Cuban labour market and the hundreds of thousands of workers who are consequently entering the private sector. Many commentators tell us to expect the impending collapse of Cuban socialism.

It was therefore of special value to visit Cuba at this crucial time, following the sixth party congress of the PCC in 2011, while its decisions are in the process of implementation.

Che Guevara famously wrote that “the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality … Our vanguard revolutionaries must idealise this love of the people, of the most sacred causes, and make it one and indivisible.” (‘Socialism and man in Cuba’, Marcha, 12 March 1965)

We found both the historic leadership and Cuba’s new generation of leaders to be talented and hard-working, self-disciplined and incorruptible people, who lead by example and common consent, in the spirit of Che’s precept.

Meeting with the central committee of the PCC

Comrade Oscar Martínez Cordovés, deputy head of the department of international relations of the CC, welcomed the CPGB-ML’s visit enthusiastically, and noted that “You are visiting Cuba at a very interesting time … This year we commemorated, among other things, the fiftieth anniversary of the missile crisis, which as you know brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. This event is closely linked with US imperialism’s ongoing attempts to strangle Cuba.

“Today the danger of war is far greater than in 1962. The international situation is extremely complex and unstable. The economic crisis in the eurozone typifies this instability. The EU project was designed to merge and safeguard the interests of European finance capital …

“In Europe, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are overturning national sovereignty and determining the policies to be followed.

“You are visiting Cuba at a time when we have been outlining the main problems on which we need to focus: how to build our economy in the current international and national situation.

“Cuba is a small island of 12 million people and limited national resources, which has been subjected to a strict economic blockade by the most powerful country on earth, sitting just 90 miles from our shores. Under these circumstances, how do we strengthen socialism?

“There is a lot of talk about Cuba at present: whether Cuba is going in a Vietnamese way or a Chinese way? In fact, we are following our own method of development along an untrodden path …

“In the lead-up to the sixth party congress we held extensive discussion among the masses to ascertain their needs and aspirations, and it became clear to us that above all we needed to strengthen our economy. This is our most basic requirement to fulfil all our needs and internationalist duties.

“We seek to develop a socialist economic model that is efficient, sustainable and gives us the real possibility of safeguarding our social programmes and the gains of our people. The PCC seeks to undertake the political and ideological work necessary to achieve this goal.

A socialist planned economy is the chosen model of the Cuban people

“After extensive consideration of several models, the sixth party congress reaffirmed that our economic model of development should be a socialist model characterised by planning, and not by the market. We are clear that social property should remain the principal element of production. In addition, we have cooperative production undertaken by individuals who lease social property, and individual workers who work on their own account …

“The 1976 constitution guarantees the right of every citizen to employment, and we wish to preserve that right. But we have created too many unnecessary and unproductive roles, which has inflated the state payroll burden. We need to reduce unproductive expenditure on unnecessary salaries and reallocate workers in order to increase productivity and strengthen our economy.

“The IMF would solve this problem immediately with ‘shock therapy’ – by turning workers out into the street. That is capitalism. Under socialism we cannot do this. We must reorientate and redeploy unproductive workers into productive sectors where our economy really needs them. The principal sector where we need more workers is in agriculture, in order to produce more of our food requirements domestically and reduce imports.

“We also want to reduce our expenditure on the service sector and stop providing all services, some of which can better be provided by individual workers – such as barber shops and beauty parlours.

Increasing productivity is the focus of the sixth congress of the PCC

“Our principle problem consists of low labour-productivity …

“Although we are a small island, we have enough land to produce all our food needs. However, we are producing just 30-40 percent of our food requirements at present. Since making these decisions, we are already seeing improvements in our economy, and have been able to reduce some imports.”

Comrade Harpal Brar, in discussion with Comrade Oscar, said: “We completely agree with you that socialism cannot be built unless there is a high productivity of labour. If we cannot produce more productively than capitalism then socialism has no future. That is clear from the days of Marx and I think everybody is clear about that.

“But again, production has a purpose. Under socialism, production is to satisfy the needs of the people. If productivity rises but it ceases to have any connection with the needs of the people, then there is no point having production. American capitalism is able to produce, although this may seem unbelievable, more productively than the Chinese and many others, but their production is not for ordinary people, which is why there are 40 million people in the USA who have no health cover and 15-20 percent of the US population go hungry. There is no reason for America to go hungry.

“You have told us that you need to increase productivity, but in increasing productivity, you’re not forgetting the needs of the Cuban people … I’d like to thank the Communist Party of Cuba for inviting us and giving us the opportunity to listen to you face to face …

“We support Cuba. But we don’t do it as a favour to you. It is our proletarian internationalist duty. If Cuba is successful – to the same extent we are successful as well. If we are successful in building a strong movement in our country, this is of some help to Cuban communists and other socialist countries. So we really very much hope that you are able to combine Bolshevik zeal with American efficiency!

Cuban socialism a beacon of hope

“We hope you make tremendous progress. Cuba has surprised the whole world by holding on to its socialism … As soon as the Soviet Union collapsed, imperialists were waiting like vultures, asking ‘When is Cuba going to collapse?’, ‘When are China, Vietnam and north Korea going to fall down?’ They have been waiting for a very long time – and I hope they will wait forever!

“Cuba exercises on the world stage an influence disproportionate to its size, its population or resources. This is because of its selfless help to other people, both in the fields of medicine and education, as well as in armed combat.

“You have sent soldiers to defend liberation movements in Africa, and you have given all kinds of help, and Cubans are known in those areas. Even muslim fundamentalists in Pakistan actually appreciate what Cuba does. When the earthquake hit Kashmir, Cuban doctors provided immediate unconditional help. That is the kind of help that needs to be given – not what the Americans gave to Haiti, where they come to loot the people, conduct espionage, and sabotage any progressive movement.

“Cuba is doing exceptionally well and we want to thank you.”

Achievements in health in Cuba; defying the US blockade

Visiting Hermanos Ameijerias hospital in Havana, the delegation toured the modern facility and discussed Cuba’s health system with Dr Gonzalo Estévez Torra, epidemiologist and medical director. He explained that the Cuban model of health is based on our own NHS primary-care system, but with an emphasis, like the Soviet Union, on preventative as well as curative medicine. “At the primary and polyclinic level in the provinces, 80 percent of Cuba’s health needs are met,” he said.

Hermanos Ameijerias Hospital, Havana

“Health care is free of charge to the population. The government also offers a great deal of medical aid abroad. This is very expensive for the Cuban state. The American blockade denies us access to medicine and equipment we could otherwise buy cheaply locally. Because of this, Cuba has been forced to develop its own medical technology and pharmaceuticals industries.

“Cuba now produces 70 percent of the drugs we consume. When we need a medicine, we often have to source it in Europe or Asia, but if equipment has an American component then the US applies its sanctions, preventing us from buying it …

“Today, we are vaccinating our children against 18 diseases. Eleven of these vaccines are produced in Cuba. This is our response to the blockade. We have become more self-sufficient and even export some of our medicines – for example a uniquely chemically-synthesised vaccine against haemophilus influenza.

“Life expectancy of Cuban men is 76 years and of Cuban women is 80. We have an infant mortality of fewer than 5 per 1,000 live births. These figures are better than those of the USA. Free public health is for all Cubans regardless of race, gender, religion or economic status.”

The achievements of the Cuban health system are inspirational, especially when one remembers the position of pre-revolutionary Cuba, where only a handful of doctors practiced, and almost all of them resided in Havana, tending exclusively to the tiny parasitical class of US businessmen and their local stooges.

Comparing Cuba’s healthcare indices to the vast majority of Caribbean, Latin-American or oppressed countries today tells an even more stark story. Even in comparison to the health systems of the richest imperialist nations, Cuba’s achievements are enviable.

Comrade Ranjeet, a delegate and also a healthcare worker in Britain, commented that “In our country we have a national health system which was introduced in the 1940s, but for the last 30 years there has been a growing pressure to divide it up and privatise it, to turn it into something much like the US health system.

“For a long time the NHS was considered the envy of the western world. Our health indices are similar to Cuba’s, but it costs 5-6 times as much to produce them. The NHS costs about £100-110bn per year to run – although funding is currently being cut [by some 20 percent]. But much of that finance ends up in the hands of private pharmaceutical multinationals, medical technology companies and now also PFI contractors and financial consortia. Private companies make a huge amount from that ‘public’ money.

“Cuba shows that through rational planning, and with nationalisation of pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, it is possible to provide very good health care for all, efficiently and cheaply… In Britain, at the current rate of ‘reform’, our NHS system will not exist for very many decades longer.”

People’s Power National Assembly

Meeting Comrade Ramon Pez Ferro, president of the commission of international relations at the People’s Power National Assembly (PPNA), Comrade Harpal told him that:

“We are here to express solidarity with the Cuban people, and to say that there are two Britains; the Britain of the working class and progressive people and the Britain of the ruling class … We represent the finest elements of the British working class in coming to be with you. We wish to state unequivocally that the hostile propaganda levelled at you is the work not of the working people of Britain, but of the British ruling class.”

Comrade Ferro replied, saying: “I agree with you when you say there are two Britains – of the workers and capitalists. In that regard, I think we can achieve something. We have [held parliamentary exchanges with] Britain. British parliamentary groups have expressed solidarity with Cuba on issues such as the Miami Five. All of this has achieved some results – although limited.

“In Britain there are important non-parliamentary solidarity movements and organisations, and these and British trade unions have expressed their solidarity with Cuba. For us it is very important to receive groups such as yours and those I have mentioned.

“Cuba is a victim of the US propaganda campaign that slanders the reality of our daily life. This type of campaign is also very much alive in Europe and Great Britain. The US state department has approved an additional twenty million dollars of funding for mobile-phone propaganda and misinformation campaigns, as well as financing dissident groups to wage campaigns of destabilisation and subversion in our country.

“This is a direct continuation of the war of destabilisation that the US has never ceased waging against Cuba since the revolution of 1959. It is part of the general and comprehensive policy of US imperialism – and not only against Cuba. It is aimed against all progressive movements. The methods change, but the objectives remain the same.

“They used to threaten Cuba with force. Today they use direct force against the peoples of the world, as well as all their other methods of economic and political destabilisation. They have absolutely no moral or ethical standards.

“For several years we have seen a change of the political situation in our continent. The previous subservient governments, subordinate to the USA, have been replaced in many cases by independent governments that pursue the interests of the Latin-American people. Anti-imperialist resistance has strengthened.

“These governments are all facing the same treatment that Cuba is facing. This was the same policy used against Honduras, and in Venezuela. There also, president Chávez faced a military coup d’état, and was kidnapped by airborne US forces. It was only the courageous actions of the people that prevented its success and obliged imperialism and its local agents to turn their helicopters around, to spare Chávez and return him to the presidency.

“In Ecuador, there was an uprising of the police, putting in danger the life of president Rafael Correa. In Bolivia now there is a very difficult situation, using the same methods – an uprising of a group within the police force, on a spurious pretext.

“Around the world, similar situations can be found: the US-sponsored ‘free army’ in Syria; the US-sponsored ‘colour revolutions’ in Iran and other places; the overthrow of Gaddafi; Afghanistan; Iraq: the USA is seeking, through its policy of force, to control the world in order to dominate its economy and monopolise its wealth.

“That is why it is so important the world’s progressive forces, our movements, identify more and more and get closer and closer. It is only through unity of our peoples that we can oppose imperialism, and prevent it from dominating the peoples of the world.

“Blockade and sanctions are the greatest violations of human rights that it is possible to commit; for these modern-day acts of siege warfare impose privations on the whole population – the elderly, children, pregnant women, the sick and disabled.

“Even in the USA, the overwhelming majority of public opinion is against the blockade, but they pay no attention to the will of their people. Every year at the UN general assembly, a resolution is passed demanding the lifting of the blockade against Cuba. They do so because it is unilateral and illegal, and cannot be accepted even from the purely economic or trading perspective of bourgeois countries.

“Today, Cuba gives exemplary solidarity to the peoples of the world; it is a shining example of how to give security and protection to one’s people. We have experienced difficult and complex circumstances, but there is no family without food, clothing, shelter, culture, education, health care. Despite difficulties resulting form being a poor nation without great wealth of natural resources, and being subjected to 50 years of blockade, our policy of equity and justice has demonstrated that we can give an improved life to the people under socialism.”

No material privilege for leaders of the revolution

In stark contrast to the British parliamentary system, which systematically divorces our MPs from workers, Comrade Ferro told us “I am an MP, and my standard of living as such is the same as the Cuban workers. I give this example because we are here in the PPNA. The same applies to a minister or any other political leader in the country; they enjoy no privilege due to the position they occupy.”

Growing the rural economy

As Cuba’s current economic plan is designed to promote agricultural production, the delegation went to the municipality of Guira de Melena, in Artemisa provence, to visit the ‘1st May’ cooperative farm.

The cooperative has a total area of 774 hectares, of which 602 are under cultivation. Thirty-eight of the participating farms, totalling 236 hectares, are newly cultivated.

The 1 May cooperative is divided into 92 farms with some communal areas. The leading body of the cooperative is the assembly, which has 246 members (187 men and 59 women at present). The assembly elects a managing board of nine people to conduct day-to-day affairs of the cooperative, two of whom are currently women. The board elects a president, to lead the affairs of the cooperative between assemblies, and must present accounts at these meetings.

Bright green crops of sugarcane, banana, yam and cereals sprout from the farm’s deep red, ferrous-rich soil, nourished by the plentiful and often tempestuous rains, under the tropical embrace of the Caribbean sun. Pigs, chickens and rabbits were penned near the farmers’ cottage where we ate. We were treated to a sumptuous lunch of beef and salad sandwiches, tropical fruits and juices, mixed (on occasion) with a little Havana Club rum.

All of the food in our meal was produced by the cooperative, and most on the farm itself. The organically-farmed feast was deliciously fresh, naturally sweet and healthy. Shared with the farm workers, at the farmhouse of the principal leaseholder’s family, the meal became an occasion of real social enjoyment, and conversation was animated.

The rural and agricultural workers were visibly healthy, well fed, well clothed, socially engaged, and concerned with their work. Production targets are not some abstract notion to them, but represent real problems to be solved, real challenges to be met, in cooperation and with the benefit of help from state scientific and technical agencies, academics and advisors, who truly work synergistically to achieve the same broad goals: increased but sustainable production, efficiency, self-reliance, dignity.

While 70 percent of Cuba’s land is owned and run by state farms, the new soils being brought under cultivation are for the most part being leased to individuals, who enter into legal agreements with the Cuban state, and must ensure that the land is put to productive use – on penalty of termination of the agreement.

And new farmers are indeed coming back to the countryside from the towns. Despite the individual nature of the lease agreement, this is far from ‘capitalist farming’. All farmhands enjoy similar working conditions and have an input at weekly meetings into planning and overseeing production.

A proportion of the harvest is sold at pre-arranged prices to the state. On the 1st May cooperative, 25 percent of production was disposed of in this way. Beyond this, the cooperative is allowed to sell its remaining crop. Much of it goes in bulk contracts to other enterprises – schools, hospitals, hotels, or offices – and the rest is sold in open markets in local towns and cities.

School for the disabled

Another memorable visit was to the Solidaridad con Panama special school, a school for the disabled where, at no cost to their families, physically and/or mentally disabled children are trained to be able to work independently if at all possible when they reach adulthood.

In a socialist society, if disability means that one worker is somewhat slower than others this is not a fundamental factor, since production is not for profit, and every little bit that each person can contribute by his or her work to society as a whole is valued as a contribution to the common cause.

Despite the overwhelmingly inspiring nature of our visit to the school, it was distressing to note that the happy little children there were in many cases being deprived of equipment they needed to further enrich their lives because of the blockade. It is surely the grossest infringement of human rights to deny a little child with cerebral palsy an electric wheelchair just because some small part is manufactured in the US or by a US company!

However, neither the staff nor the students at the school we visited were prepared to allow these setbacks to daunt their firm determination that all the children should grow up to lead satisfying and fulfilling lives in their socialist society.

Why the blockade – what do they fear?

Speaking at the CPGB-ML’s summer barbecue last year, Comrade Ranjeet asked why it is that small countries like Cuba, with its 11 million population, and north Korea with its 23 million are perceived as such a threat by mighty US imperialism, with its population of 350 million and a greater military arsenal than the rest of the world combined. The answer that he gave has been strikingly confirmed by our delegation’s visit to Cuba: it is the example that Cuba and other socialist countries set to the oppressed of the world, currently suffering under the jackboot of imperialist domination.

These socialist countries are the living proof that nothing is more precious than independence and freedom, and that it is possible to build a bright and dignified future for workers in which they share the fruits of their common labour without being exploited, and without exploiting the labour-power of others.

This is anathema to the US imperialists’ system of domestic wage slavery and its international network of vassal states and puppet dictatorships designed to help America’s corporate elite plunder and pillage the resources of the entire world.

We wish the Cuban people well in their endeavours to strengthen their economy in line with the plans adopted by the PCC’s sixth party congress. If Cuba is successful – to the same extent we are successful as well: may they indeed combine Bolshevik zeal with American efficiency!

End the blockade!

Free the Miami Five!

Long live the Cuban revolution!

Jose Marti statue in Plaza de la Dignidad (Plaza of Dignity) on the Malecon

BBQ and social: International celebration of anti-imperialist resistance and solidarity!

Barbecue and social

Saturday 28 July, 1.00pm
Saklatvala Hall, Dominion Road, off Featherstone Road, Southall, UB2 5AA

Join party members and friends from around the world in celebrating two important anniversaries in the revolutionary calendar:
— the Korean victory in the Fatherland Liberation War
— the storming of the Moncada Barracks in Cuba

Honoured guests and speakers will include:
— representatives from the north Korean, Cuban and Venezuelan embassies
— delegates recently returned from both Korea and Cuba

Come and be inspired as we celebrate two historic achievements of the international working-class movement, and learn about the reality of building socialism under imperialist blockade today. In June 2012 our comrades, at the invitation of the Communist Party of Cuba toured the island, visiting Co=operative farms and hospitals, speaking with those who are leading the Party in its daily struggle against imperialism. Come along and here what they saw,

Touring a newly created Co-op farm in Cuba, June 2012
Mural at a school for the disabled in Havana, Cuba – June 2012

Plus cultural performances, tasty barbecue and a decent curry too – all in the company of good comrades.

– Day school on Marxism and Scottish nationalism –

Sunday 29 July, 10.30am-4.30pm
Saklatvala Hall, Dominion Road, off Featherstone Road, Southall, UB2 5AA

CPGB-ML comrades and supporters will be meeting for a day school focusing on the Marxist definition of a nation and how Marxists apply this understanding to arrive at a correct policy on any particular national struggle. This understanding is vital if we are to make sense of the various liberation struggles going on around the world, and should also help comrades formulate their attitude towards the question of Scottish independence.

The day will be held in two parts, with an introduction to the question given by Harpal Brar during the morning session followed by workshop discussion groups in the afternoon.

Please contact us if you are planning to attend both events and need accommodation over the weekend:
— rango@cpgb-ml.org

Summer BBQ this Saturday: International celebration of anti-imperialist resistance and solidarity!

Saturday 28 July, Saklatvala Hall, Southall, UB2 5AA. 1pm start

Come and hear speeches and contributions from the Venezuelan, Cuban and Korean embassies – and a report back from the CPGB-ML delegation to Havana where Party-to-Party talks were held with the Cuban Communist Party.

This is a social event to celebrate the anniversary of the victory of the Fatherland Liberation War in Korea and the anniversary of the storming of the Moncada Barracks in Cuba.

Followed by cultural performances along with a tasty barbecue and Indian curry!

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