Defend revolutionary Cuba!

Dozens of people attended an event, held at New Canaan Baptist Church in Brooklyn on July 27, to celebrate the 71st anniversary of the assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago de Cuba. 

On July 26, 1953, about 100 rebels led by Fidel Castro stormed the garrison with the goal of obtaining weapons and launching an uprising against the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. While the attack failed, it marked the beginning of the Cuban revolution.

Speakers at the event praised the accomplishments of Cuba and emphasized the need to intensify efforts to end the United States economic blockade of the country. New York State Senator Jabari Brisport spoke about the resolution passed by the New York City Council last year, calling on the U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden to end the embargo, the Cuban travel ban and to remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

Yuri Gala López, Deputy Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, noted that in passing the resolution, the New York City Council had joined with the UN General Assembly, which for 30 years has adopted an annual resolution calling for an end to the embargo of Cuba. Last year, 187 countries voted in favor of the resolution with two countries, the U.S. and Israel, voting against it and one country, Ukraine, abstaining.

Gala López said that in a single year the damages from the blockade amount to close to $5 billion, and over 60 years the cumulative effect has been $160 billion in damages. “What would Cuba be like today if we had those resources?” he asked.

The blockade has been tightened since 2017, and in 1982 Cuba was added to the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism as a pretense for imposing sanctions, Gala López said. Cuba does not commit terrorism, he stated, but has been the victim of terrorist actions, many perpetrated by the U.S. government.

Larry Holmes, First Secretary of Workers World Party, likened Cuba’s fight against imperialism to the Palestinian struggle. “In Palestine’s occupied territories you see pictures of Fidel and Che,” he said. “They might not be dropping 5,000 pound bombs on Havana, but they are dropping a bomb that’s the blockade. They’ve been dropping it for six decades to starve the people of Cuba, to starve the revolution.”

Holmes noted the importance of the worldwide solidarity with Cuba. But, he said: “The responsibility for stopping the starvation is on our shoulders. So whatever we have to do to expand this struggle against the blockade, against the terrorist list, we’ve got to do it. Defend revolutionary Cuba!”

The event was organized by the NY-NJ Cuba Sí Coalition and the December 12 Movement.