Thursday, July 15, 2021

OMNI, CUBA NEWSLETTER #8, JULY 15, 2021

 

CUBA

 DEFENDING CUBA

Newsletter #8, July 15, 2021

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

Omnicenter.org/donate/

 

Links to Earlier Newsletters

#7 https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/07/omni-cuba-newsletter-7-july-3-2021.html

#6  https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/02/omni-cuba-newsletter-6.html see end for more

 

CONTENTS

Cuban President Diaz-Canel Describes What’s Covered Up by US Corporate
    Media

STOP THE US BLOCKADE/EMBARGO/SANCTIONS, NO
      ARMED INTERVENTION:

ANSWER

UNAC

IFCO

CODEPINK

Jacobin Magazine

De Los Santos.  US Leaders and Mainstream Media Blame Cuba’s  
    Economic System and Leaders, and Cover Up Its Medical Achievements
Examining the Looting Story.

CUBAN MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Vaccines

Phenomenal Health Care

RELATED

Canada’s Trade with Cuba Despite US Embargo.

US Accusation of Cuban Human Trafficking Called a Lie by Cuba.

LINKS TO PRECEDING 7 NEWSLETTERS

 

 

 

TEXTS

Cuban president Díaz-Canel: Revolutionaries to the streets!

Editor.  Mronline.org (7-14-21).

This speech provides crucial context and information being covered up by the corporate media in the United States.

July 13, 2021 | Newswire

share on Twitter 

 

 

TODAY! Online event: Let Cuba Live! End the U.S. Blockade Now!  7-14-21

ANSWER COALITION (ACT NOW TO STOP WAR AND END RACISM).

Trump added 243 new sanctions to tighten the 62-year long US economic blockade of Cuba. Imposed shortages of basic goods have created grave suffering throughout the island. Covid-19 too has severely damaged Cuba's tourism industry. The US wants to topple the Cuban revolution but supporters of the revolution are fighting back.

Join us for an online event TODAY, July 14 (5PM PT, 6PM MT, 7PM CT, 8PM ET) for an in-depth perspective of what's really happening in Cuba and a discussion of how we can build the movement to end the criminal blockade!

Tune into the online event from:

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/AnswerCoalition

Twitter: @answercoalition

YouTube: www.youtube.com/answercoalition

 

 

The United Anti-War Coalition/UNAC  7-14-21

click here to view this email in your browser

 

Hands off Cuba! End the Blockade!

During his press meeting on Monday, President Biden claimed to support the people of Cuba, some of whom have protested in recent days. But the U.S. maintains a blockade of the country that denies the people food, medicine, fuel and trade with other countries.  It is this economic hardship, imposed by U.S. policy which is the reason for the protest.  At the same time that Biden and the U.S. government cry crocodile tears for the Cuban people, they are strangling them to death with the blockade.  Yet, we did not hear a peep from Biden during the months of protest by the Haitian people demanding that the U.S puppet Jovenel Moise leave office when his term ended, or when the Colombian people flooded their streets demanding their democratic rights from the right-wing, U.S. supported government of Ivan Duque.

The following is a statement by UNAC on the situation in Cuba  Followed by a statement by the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez

Statement by UNAC on the Situation in Cuba.

U.S. Hands off Cuba! End the Blockade!

The United National Antiwar Coalition stands firmly with the Cuban people and their revolutionary government against any US intervention in Cuba’s affairs. We continue our calls to lift the punitive US blockade of Cuba that has caused humanitarian shortages and been tightened during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The recent disruptions inside Cuba have all the hallmarks of a coordinated campaign to lay groundwork for US intervention, following the regime change playbook used by the United States in nearby Venezuela and Nicaragua, as well as in countries like Libya and Syria to disastrous effect. They coincide with a massive social media offensive featuring hundreds of anonymous accounts that attack public figures who defend Cuba, and spread provocative disinformation like recycled footage from protests in other countries. The United States State Department has spent millions of dollars attempting to turn the masses of Cuban people against the revolution for years. Anti-government organizations such as the Cuban Human Rights Observatory and Cuban Institute for the Freedom of Expression and the Press have received millions from known CIA front groups, such as the National Endowment for Democracy and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  [read more]

 

Cuban President Díaz-Canel to the people of Cuba: “The order to fight is given, the revolutionaries to the streets”

We have been honest, we have been transparent, we have been clear and at every moment we have been explaining to our people the complexities of the current moments. I remind you that more than a year and a half ago, when the second semester of 2019 began, we had to explain that we were going to a difficult situation. This was taken as part of popular humor and we have remained part of that conjuncture from all the signs that the United States government was giving, led by the Trump administration in relation to Cuba.

They began to intensify a series of restrictive measures, a tightening of the blockade, of financial persecution against the energy sector with the aim of suffocating our economy and that this would provoke the desired massive social outbreak, which sows the possibilities for the entire ideological campaign that It has been done, to be able to call for humanitarian intervention that ends in military interventions and interference, and that affects the rights, sovereignty and independence of all peoples.  [read more]

Read the UNAC Blog
https://unac.notowar.net/

 

 

 

[VFP-all] IFCO STANDS WITH CUBA

Gerry Condon projectsafehaven@hotmail.com via uark.onmicrosoft.com 

1:41 PM (7 hours ago)

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif

to Gerry  7-13-21

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif

From: Gail Walker <ifco@ifconews.ccsend.com> on behalf of Gail Walker <ifco@ifconews.org>

Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2021, 11:25 AM
To: gerrycondon@veteransforpeace.org
Subject: IFCO STANDS WITH CUBA

 

 

 

 

IFCO/Pastors for Peace unapologetically stands in solidarity with our Cuban family during this difficult time. We recognize that the combined impact of the devastating pandemic and an economic crisis fueled by the 60-year old U.S. blockade gripping the country is creating tremendous hardship for our Cuban brothers and sisters.

 

 

 

While the mainstream media is painting a picture of severe unrest in Cuba, we know that there have been far more expressions of support by the Cuban people for their revolution and their government all across the island including Guantanamo, Cienfuegos, Las Tunas, and others. It’s not lost on us, that U.S. corporate media covered the recent protests in Cuba involving a few hundred people with the sympathy not afforded the millions of multiracial protesters against lethal police brutality in the U.S.

 

Immediately, President Diaz-Canel took to the streets to talk directly with the Cuban people. This is not the course of action of a defeated government. Nor is it the action of an unconcerned government. The Cuban president denounced misinformation efforts and foreign interference. He called on all Cuban citizens to take to the streets to defend the Cuban revolution.

 

Meanwhile, U.S. President Joseph Biden, who promised to ease restrictions on Cuba when he was running for President, issued a statement saying he “stands with the Cuban people”. The truth is, if the President truly supported the Cuban people, he would end the cruel, immoral, and illegal blockade that is causing the suffering that the Cuban people are being forced to endure. Both Republicans and Democrats routinely shed crocodile tears for Cubans, even as they dig the knife deeper in their backs by strengthening the longest running military siege in modern history.

 

It is curious that this undermining of Cuba is happening just after the majority of the members of the UN General Assembly voted again, for the 29th year in a row, to condemn the U.S. for its economic blockade…once again isolating the U.S.

 

It’s hard to believe that this recent unrest is not a result of outside agitation aimed at fomenting regime change in Cuba. The countless attempts to undermine Cuba since 1959 are continuing. 

 USAID is currently offering grants up to a million dollars to groups who will ‘bring democracy to Cuba’. 

Secretary of State Blinken has continued Trump’s ‘policy’ of accusing Cuba of “human trafficking”; claiming that Cuban doctors are subjected to "forced labor" and equated as slaves. A special immigration parole was developed to entice them to defect. This is an obvious attempt to counter the goodwill Cuba has gained by its health internationalism.  

Over the past year alone, Cuba has sent 3,700 health workers, in 52 international medical brigades, to 39 countries overwhelmed by the pandemic. Cuba’s international medical brigades have treated patients and saved lives for the past 15 years in 53 countries confronting natural disasters and serious epidemics, such as COVID-19 and the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

 

The U.S. has discredited Cuba's international cooperation in the field of health even though its international medical program has been recognized by dozens of governments, the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and other international organizations.

In fact, access to healthcare is a human right in Cuba but a daily struggle for 29 million people in the U.S. who live without health insurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

At least 40 different resolutions have been passed by churches, city councils, labor unions, state legislators and school boards calling for an end to the U.S. blockade against Cuba. These resolutions represent the will of more than 30 million people in the United States.

As the National Network on Cuba has reported, these 30 million people join:

* Cuban Americans whose families are suffering and have initiated car and bike caravans in Miami and other cities across the U.S. and around the world.

* Generous people who in a few short weeks donated more than $500,000 to send syringes to Cuba so the five COVID-19 vaccine candidates developed by Cuban scientists could be administered

* A group of dedicated Cuban Americans walking in a peace pilgrimage from Miami to Washington DC to call on President Biden to end the blockade.

 

It’s time to Let Cuba Live…and the end the economic stranglehold of the Cuban people. U.S. out of Cuba!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Phone: 212-926-5757] [Fax: 212-926-5842] 

[E-mail: ifco@ifconews.org]  [Website: www.ifconews.org]

[418 West 145th Street, New York, NY 10031]

 

 

 

Lift The Embargo On Cuba Webinar‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Sent from Marcy, CODEPINKinfo@codepink.org   ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 

Dear Friend,

You Are Invited To Join Tuesday CODEPINK CONGRESS Calling Parties To Mobilize Peace Legislation! Chat with Peacemakers and Experts on Tuesday, July 13th at 5:00 PM (PT) - 8:00 PM (ET)

Join CODEPINK Congress for talk and action to lift the US embargo on Cuba and express solidarity with the pink tide sweeping Latin America. We will take a look at the left in Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador.

Featuring

Special guest co-host Michelle Ellner, a CODEPINK Latin America campaign coordinator.

Guests:

Angelica Salazar, steering committee member, Alliance for Cuba Engagement and Respect; organizer with Cuba Nobel Campaign to award Cuba's Henry Reeve Brigade the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.

Leonardo Flores, CODEPINK's Latin America campaign coordinator who recently returned from Venezuela for the Bicentennial Congress of the Peoples, a global summit of movement organizers.

Dr. Steve Ellner, a retired professor who taught history at Universidad de Oriente, Venezuela, and author of the books Latin America Extractivism and Populism in Latin America.

Take Action!

Contact your senators and ask them to co-sponsor S.1694, the Freedom to Export to Cuba Act. Plus, sign our petition to President Biden telling him to get with the times and lift the blockade on Cuba! 


Google Group & Local Leaders

Join our CODEPINK Congress Google Group, a space for sharing events and actions. Request to be added here!

Become a CODEPINK Congress liaison in your district to mobilize support for demilitarization and progressive foreign policy! Sign up here as a volunteer organizer.


Finally, if you missed last week's meeting, you can view it here on YouTube. View the entire CODEPINK Congress archives here.

Onward Toward Peace and Justice,
Medea, Marcy, Hanieh, Mary & the Entire CODEPINK Team

 

 

 

 

 

“The US must end its brutal sanctions against Cuba. Not Intervene There” BY BEN BURGIS.        Jacobin Magazine. 
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/07/us-embargo-cuba-protests-sanctions-intervention?mc_cid=c0c556b470&mc_eid=a6b87ab035

 

 

On Sunday, the largest anti-government protests in at least twenty-seven years broke out in Cuba. Thousands of people marched in the streets chanting slogans. Others overturned police cars or looted stores.

Quite likely, the people in the streets represent a mixture of factions with very different complaints and long-term agendas.

One thing that is clear is that shortages in food, medicine, electricity, and other basic goods were the immediate spark for the protests. (The stores that have been looted are controversial because they sell expensive products to foreigners who can pay in currency that most Cubans don’t possess.) American politicians who long to topple the Cuban government have been pointing to these conditions as they call for intervention.

But anyone who thinks US intervention would lead to better outcomes and not vastly worse ones has lost touch with reality...

 

 

 

CUBAN MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Cuba’s vaccine shield and the five monopolies that structure the World: The Twenty-Sixth Newsletter (2021)

Vijay Prashad.  Mronline.org (7-3-21).

In 1869, at the age of fifteen, José Martí and his young friends published a magazine in Cuba called La Patria Libre (‘The Free Homeland’), which adopted a strong position against Spanish imperialism. The first and only issue of the magazine carried Martí’s poem, ‘Abdala’.

July 2, 2021 | Newswire.    share on Twitter Like Cuba’s vaccine shield and the five monopolies that structure the World: The Twenty-Sixth Newsletter (2021) on Facebook

 

Cuban Health Care: The Ongoing Revolution by Don Fitz.  Monthly Review P, 2020.

Quiet as it’s kept inside the United States, the Cuban revolution has achieved some phenomenal goals, reclaiming Cuba’s agriculture, advancing its literacy rate to nearly 100 percent—and remaking its medical system. Cuba has transformed its health care to the extent that this “third-world” country has been able to maintain a first-world medical system, whose health indicators surpass those of the United States at a fraction of the cost. Don Fitz combines his broad knowledge of Cuban history with his decades of on-the-ground experience in Cuba to bring us the story of how Cuba’s health care system evolved and how Cuba is tackling the daunting challenges to its revolution in this century.

Fitz weaves together complex themes in Cuban history, moving the reader from one fascinating story to another. He describes how Cuba was able to create a unified system of clinics, and evolved the family doctor-nurse teams that became a model for poor countries throughout the world. How, in the 1980s and ‘90s, Cuba survived the encroachment of AIDS and increasing suffering that came with the collapse of the Soviet Union, and then went on to establish the Latin American School of Medicine, which still brings thousands of international students to the island. Deeply researched, recounted with compassion, Cuban Health Care tells a story you won’t find anywhere else, of how, in terms of caring for everyday people, Cuba’s revolution continues.

 

This is the best written and most accurate work published in years about the history and recent achievements of Cuban health care. The book gives inspiration for people around the world concerned about the future of health care and health itself.   —Howard Waitzkin, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of New Mexico; coordinator, Health Care Under the Knife: Moving Beyond Capitalism for Our Health

An extraordinary book about an extraordinary health care system.   —Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, Distinguished Professor of Public Health, City University of New York; co-founder, Physicians for a National Health Program

This book offers an outstanding overview of many aspects of Cuba’s multifaceted approach to healthcare, at home and abroad. Well researched and insightful, with solid data and extensive research, this is essential reading for any seeking to understand how this small country has such an enviable record at home (better in many aspects than the US system, and at a fraction of the cost), while leading the world in medical internationalism.  —John M. Kirk, Professor of Latin American Studies at Dalhousie University, Canada

I have never visited Cuba, but I learned so much by serving as the medical reviewer for Don Fitz’s book! Since 1959, Cuba has done a remarkable job rebuilding and improving their health care system. Cuba now deploys a just system of primary care down to the neighborhood level across the entire island. American and Cuban medical leaders could learn from each other, if they spent the time to speak and truly listen to each other. Don Fitz has written a well-referenced book, and his words deserve a broad audience!  —Gary M. Gaddis, MD, PhD; Fellow of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine; Professor of Emergency Medicine, Washington University, Saint Louis School of Medicine

This text offers a thorough examination of the history of Cuba’s public health system. It is an important read for anyone interested in understanding how and why Cuba built a world renown health care system based on preventative care. Fitz puts Cuba’s commitment to medical internationalism into context by outlining the history of the small island nation where poverty and disease were once rampant and telling the story of how, against all odds, it built a world class health care system and made it available to some of the poorest nations of the world.  —Gail Walker, Executive Director, IFCO/Pastors for Peace

How can a small island nation, subjected to six decades of US antagonism, provide universal health care, fund a world-class biotech industry, educate thousands of doctors from around the world, and collaborate in global staffing, disaster relief and epidemic control? For the curious (and dubious), Cuban Health Care answers that question. In today’s context, where climate change, pandemics, and rampant chronic disease threaten human and planetary health, Don Fitz’s new book serves as a road map for how to shift the paradigm towards a more equitable, humanistic health care approach. Based on extensive interviews and exhaustive, evidence-based research, this should be required reading for anyone interested in building a healthier future for all. If Cuba can do it, other countries can, too.  —Conner Gorry, Senior Editor, MEDICC Review; founder, Cuba Libro

Underscored by the disastrous American medical and political response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Cuban Health Care: The Ongoing Revolution should receive as wide a readership as possible. Expertly written, effectively organized, and thoroughly ‘reader friendly’ in presentation, Cuban Health Care is extraordinarily informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking.  Midwest Book Review

Cuban Health Care examines the transformation of Cuba’s medical system following the 1959 revolution. Fitz posits that the change in medical education and the creation of a new health-care system centered on expanding care beyond the most privileged sectors of Cuban society illustrate innovative solutions to poverty and disease. Among the book’s most important themes are the development and evolution of a system of policlinics across the island; the role of Cuban medical personnel in delivering anti-imperialist military and humanitarian aid to other developing countries, particularly in Africa and Latin America; and a critical comparison between Cuba’s more egalitarian approach to medicine and the more corporatized US model. Fitz certainly makes a strong case for the material and moral triumphs of Cuba’s medical revolution, but he does not shy away from critiquing its shortcomings, e.g., when he points out how homophobia negatively impacted patient care during the AIDS crisis. This well-written study of Cuban health care is a timely and important read for students, faculty, and practitioners in a wide range of fields, from medicine and medical humanities to history, sociology, political science, and even business.

—B. A. Lucero, University of Houston-Downtown, CHOICE

Don Fitz is a member of the editorial board of Green Social Thought and newsletter editor for the Green Party of St. Louis. He contributes frequently to Monthly Review magazine.

FacebookTwitterPrintFriendlyRedditEmailShare

 

 

RELATED

 

 

Cuba thanks Canadian entrepreneurs´ trust despite U.S. blockade

Prensa Latina.  Mronline.org (7-8-21)

Cuba thanked Canadian entrepreneurs who do business with the country despite the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment (MINCEX) reported.

July 7, 2021 | Newswire   share on Twitter Like Cuba thanks Canadian entrepreneurs´ trust despite U.S. blockade on Facebook

 

Washington’s accusation in its report that Cuba engages in people trafficking is a lie

Editor.  Mronline.org (7-8-21)

Declaration by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

July 7, 2021 | Newswire   share on Twitter Like Washington’s accusation in its report that Cuba engages in people trafficking is a lie on Facebook

 

LINKS to Earlier Newsletters

#7 https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/07/omni-cuba-newsletter-7-july-3-2021.html

#6  https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2021/02/omni-cuba-newsletter-6.html

#5  https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2020/03/omni-cuba-newsletter-5-march-8-2020.html

#4  http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2015/01/cuba-newsletter-4.html

#3  http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2014/11/cuba-newsletter-3.html

#2 Oct. 21, 2012

#1 Feb. 4, 2011

 

DEFENDING THE CUBAN REVOLUTION

END CUBA NEWSLETTER #8, JULY 15, 2021


No comments: