In response to the latest US government interference in Cuba’s internal affairs – by trying to foment counter-revolutionary protests – the Communist Party of Canada has issued a statement strongly condemning the 64-year-old US economic blockade of Cuba which is a major contributor to the current economic difficulties in Cuba including a shortage of food and electricity.
The Party notes that the entire purpose of the blockade is to strangle the Cuban Revolution, as stated in a 1960 US State Department memo:
“Every possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba…to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and the overthrow of government.”
US efforts to overthrow the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende in Chile used the same methods to “make the economy scream” and to turn the people against the government. In Chile, a fascist coup d’état engineered, in the US, led to a bloodbath.
In Cuba, however, the people and their government have resisted and prevailed for 64 years.
“The Cuban people have every reason to protest and object to the US blockade that has created such hardship for the people and the government of Cuba whose socialist society has been under relentless attack since the defeat of the gangster Batista government – supported by the US – in 1959,” said the Communist Party statement.
Party leader Liz Rowley criticized the US Embassy in Cuba for saying that the Cuban government should “respect human rights” and “attend to the needs of the people.”
“These statements are ludicrous in the cold light of history and the reality of the last 64 years of US attempts to overthrow the Cuban government, assassinate its leaders, invade the country, sicken its people with chemical and biological warfare, threaten its trading partners, and starve the Cuban people into submission to US imperialism’s diktat.”
Rowley said that people in Canada are unlikely to be surprised by these latest US actions, in light of daily news reports about US support for Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.
“Cuba’s foreign policy – in contrast – is for peace, sovereignty and independence,” said Rowley. “It is known around the world for exporting teachers and educators, doctors, nurses and vaccines to countries and peoples suffering from lack of healthcare and education services. Cuba, its government and its people stand as a bright light of humanism, equality, democracy, national liberation and sovereignty, and socialism in the Americas and around the world.”
Unlike the US government, which has worked since 1959 to destabilize and overthrow the Cuban government and the path to socialism chosen by the people, the Canadian government has followed a general path of friendship, cooperation, tourism and trade with Cuba.
Under the UN Charter, every country and people have the right to national self-determination and to peace, free of external interference. The Communist Party says that this view is supported by the vast majority of people in Canada.
The Party is calling on all those who value democracy, sovereignty, peace and Cuba’s selfless contributions to universal healthcare and education to speak up now for an end to the six-decade US blockade against Cuba, for an end to US interference and provocations against Cuba, and for Cuba’s removal from the US list of State Sponsors of Terrorism.
[Photo: Communist Party Leader Liz Rowley speaks at Cuba solidarity rally in July 2021]
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