[News] US Policy Towards Cuba Being Challenged this Week in the Streets of Over 30 Cities

[Anti-Imperialist News]

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US Policy Towards Cuba Being Challenged this Week in the Streets of Over 30
Cities
June 23, 2023
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By Bill Hackwell in Washington DC on June 23, 2023

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photo: Ford F.

In a growing mosaic of solidarity across the US, people are taking to the
streets to say no to the way their government is punishing Cuba for their
example of humanity in these precarious times. This weekend in over 30
cities there will be protests to visibly express it.

In Washington DC there will be a national focus with a march on the White
House to bring attention to a callous foreign policy that has endured
through democratic and republican administrations generating an ever
turning multi-million dollar industry based on hatred guided by greedy
corrupt politicians with no regard to the consequences for the Cuban people.

*Cuban Solidarity Activists Occupy Right Wing Cuba Hater Bob Menendez’s
office – 3 arrested*

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photo: Bill hackwell

Today one of those politicians, Senator Bob Menendez from New Jersey, a man
of Cuban descent who lurks in the shadows as chair of the Senate Foreign
Affairs Committee, while capitalizing on his heritage and bludgeoning to
death any steps on Capitol Hill to improve relations with the island, was
called out in his office by a team of 13 Cuban solidarity activists from
the National Network on Cuba, Pastors for Peace and Code Pink who insisted
on talking to Menendez about his positions and pending corruption charges
against him. After they were refused a meeting by his staff the group
decided to sit in until he came. For the next hour the team read letters
from small business owners in Cuba, who Menendez is fond of speaking for,
singing popular Cuban songs and talking to his less than interested staff
about the lethal impact that the policy of the blockade is having on the
Cuban family. At one point, with people filling the halls with interest
about what was going on, the Capitol Police were summoned in force with
over 20 officers showing up – 3 of the team were arrested, after 3 hours in
jail they were released with a citation for a July 12 court date.

(see arrests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSK8QQYEmUM)

*Resolutions Reflect Deep Support for Improving Relations with Cuba*

Over the past several years, in a slow but steady campaign, people who
support Cuba and their right to exist on their own terms have been passing
resolutions in City Councils, County Boards, State Legislatures, School
Boards, Labor Councils, Labor Unions and other organizations, have passed
resolutions, from coast to coast, which have addressed:

   - Ending the blockade
   - Saving Lives through scientific collaboration
   - Urging that Cuba be removed from the US List of State Sponsors of
   Terrorism (SSOT)

In a moment of coincidence we learned today that the New York City Council
passed Resolution 0285 that calls for the end of the Blockade, that Cuba be
removed from the SSOT and the freedom to travel to the island. What this
resolution marks is that these 93 popular resolutions represent over 50
million people that are part of their represented populations.

The US government is at odds with the growing sentiment of the American
people when it comes to the cruel and criminal blockade of Cuba that has
gone on now for 61 years bringing unnecessary hardship to the Cuban people.
The island’s original crime was to struggle for its independence and to
choose a path of sovereignty not aligned with the pre-ordained Monroe
Doctrine of 1823 that claimed all of Latin America was under the tutelage
of the US.

Since the 1959 Revolution the US has thrown everything at Cuba to try and
bring down their impressive list of social achievements under the longest
blockade in modern history that has stolen $144 billion from the Cuban
economy and now has an additional 243 harsh sanctions on top of that
(levied by Trump and dutifully continued by Biden despite his campaign
promises to the contrary) that affects every aspect of the lives of the
Cuban people.
Cuba has never invaded or threatened the US or any other country for that
matter but was added to the State Sponsors of Terrorism (SSOT) by Reagan in
1982 which has made it impossible for Cuba to conduct normal international
trade. Obama took Cuba off in 2015 but Trump reinstated it for no reason
connected to reality and Biden doubled down on it despite no evidence and
with no one in the US thinking Cuba is a threat of any kind.
For the last 20 years with nearly every country in the United Nations has
voted, year after year, to condemn the unilateral blockade. They have stood
with Cuba because of the injustice of it all and how Cuba shows the
possibility of a better world that isn’t based on the obscene accumulation
of wealth of a few with the downward spiraling of the ability of many to
stay housed and fed.

The people of the US are saying no to the draconian policies its government
has towards the island and meanwhile we are deprived of normal people to
people interaction that we have with just about any other country; along
with gaining access to many health treatments not available here, or
cultural and educational exchange and trade opportunities. But all of that
is starting to change and with conditions deteriorating here the way they
are and confidence in the government at an all-time low; why should we
believe what they tell us about Cuba? You can’t fool the people forever and
the time is up on the lies about Cuba.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English
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