Harare, Zimbabwe

The United States is sponsoring a strategy to undermine Chinese investments in Zimbabwe by smearing the Asian giant’s companies as engaging in widespread labor malpractices, as well as violation of human, community and environmental rights, among other ills, The Herald has learnt.

The strategy is part of an intricate plan, also involving some European and Nordic countries, to discredit Chinese businesses through disinformation, lies and sensationalism in the independent media and social platforms.

It entails portraying Chinese businesses as unethical, reckless, without values, criminal and causing harm to communities, environment and workers.

The weaponization of anti-Chinese sentiment is intended to harm Chinese interests here, and is said to also have the political goal of giving fodder to local opposition ahead of the elections in 2023, by portraying the government and the ruling Zanu PF as condoning the alleged excesses of its ally, China.

Exclusive details obtained by this publication last week indicated that private media journalists are being trained by an outfit called Information for Development Trust (IDT), which poses as an independent investigative journalism center, with the funding of the U.S. Embassy in Harare.

A workshop drawing about a dozen private media journalists was held last week on September 14 to 15 and the journalists were allocated regional/geographical areas of focus with emphasis on areas where Chinese businesses are involved.

These include mining, construction, energy, infrastructure, loans and environment.

The trainers justified that they were focusing on Chinese businesses because China was now the biggest investor in the country.

Our source said: “The training of journalists by the U.S. Embassy is feeding into wider activities by Western countries to equip the media, civil society and legal fraternity to fight the influence and growth of China in Zimbabwe through weaponizing anti-Chinese sentiments as well as exploiting economic vulnerabilities of journalists.

“U.S. Embassy officials bragged during the workshop that they had extended funding to the project and had also previously sponsored media institutions on the so-called accountability issues. They also funded some journalists that are now strategically positioned within the independent media.

“The officials said they were availing resources to ‘people that matter’ to focus on resource governance and labor issues and providing the ‘right instruments’.”

It has been established that U.S. Embassy, as part of its so-called public diplomacy, will plan with beneficiaries, discuss work areas, sharpen skills and help journalists improve skills.

Our impeccable source said this is a strategy coming from Washington and implemented by State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Affairs (DRL) through the embassy.

One attendee at the workshop revealed that journalists involved in the workshop have already been given areas and topics to work on according to areas of interests as well as geographical areas that include Mashonaland East, Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland West, Manicaland and Matabeleland North.

The next stage is the production of content and publication of stories in various media, with journalists receiving payment from the U.S. Embassy through its proxy.

Each pitch was promised US$1 000.

The U.S. Embassy’s program coincides with the European Union and some Nordic countries also sponsoring similar workshops, which indicates a well-planned anti-Chinese crusade. Last week, the European Union sponsored a workshop in Masvingo under the theme, “Strengthening the role of the media in support of accountable governance and community development in Zimbabwe.”

The goals of the training are similar to the U.S. in seeking to undermine Chinese influence in Zimbabwe.

China — charmed by President Mnangagwa’s “Zimbabwe Is Open for Business” policy — is the biggest investor in Zimbabwe at the moment with major infrastructure construction projects underway.

The world’s second biggest economy has also extended financial aid to Zimbabwe.

Various Chinese companies have ventured into mining and construction industries, oiling the government’s developmental agenda, meant to midwife Zimbabwe’s attainment of a middle income economy status by 2030, as enunciated by President Mnangagwa.

Biden: Halt Your Racist Border Patrol

Stop the Whippings and Racist Deportations NOW!

Week of action, September 24 – October 2

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In September, 666 laws passed by Texas lawmakers went into effect — laws that are so repressive and restrictive that it’s mind-boggling.

Some background on this writer

I came to Texas from California in January 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and months before the U.S. presidential election. I needed proof of residency to check books out of the local library and a Texas ID to register to vote. I made an appointment online at the Texas Department of Public Safety and Health for a driver’s license and contacted the registrar of voters to find out how to register to vote.

When I called the registrar of voters, I was told to fill out the application online, print, sign and mail it directly to the county’s election office. I did not have a printer, so I asked if the application could be sent to me via postal mail. I received the application, signed it and returned it using the address listed. My voter registration card did not arrive until six months later, in September 2020.

I searched online for a summary of all the candidates and proposals on the ballot and did not find anything. I called the number on the registration card to ask when I would be receiving my sample ballot. I was told that the ballots for individual counties are normally posted about 3 to 4 weeks before the election. I said that in San Diego, registered voters get a sample ballot summarizing all the candidates and issues. She replied, “Wow, that may be why California has such a good voter turnout.”

I asked for a mail-in ballot and was told that it would require a “Ballot by Mail” application. Turned out that I did not qualify for a mail-in ballot. Using my voter registration number, I was able to gain online access to a sample ballot and my assigned polling place about three weeks before the election.

The restrictive laws

I wanted to share that story before discussing the restrictive laws passed in Texas. 

SB 8, “The Heartbeat Law,” bans abortion after five-and-a-half to six weeks of pregnancy, before most women are aware that they are pregnant. The law threatens any individual or entity who “knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets,” including paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion through insurance or otherwise, with a civil lawsuit. Any civilian who sues that person will be awarded $10,000 plus court costs and attorney fees.

HB 1925 prohibits camping in public places by homeless individuals, making it a criminal offense that carries a fine of up to $500, and threatens cities that discourage enforcing the law with legal action from the state attorney general and potentially loss of state grant money.

HB 1927, “Constitutional Carry,” grants anyone age 21 or older who legally owns a handgun the right to carry that handgun in public without a license or training. There are 16 additional laws related to possessing a gun, including laws stating how to store and carry it, and places where it is prohibited. People must read the laws closely before openly carrying a gun, especially if you are Black, Brown, or poor and white, because the consequences could be fatal if you carry a gun illegally.

‘Criminal justice’

HB 1900 relates to cities of 250,000 or more that adopt budgets that defund or reduce police budgets. Those cities are threatened financially with reductions in sales tax revenues and increased property taxes.

HB 929, “The Botham Jean Act,” requires that a police officer’s body-worn camera remain activated for the entirety of any investigation. A close look at the law reveals, however, that an “officer can activate a camera or stop a recording currently in progress, for privacy in certain situations and at certain locations.” It is not a crime to turn it off.

Will this bill prevent police from maliciously or recklessly entering someone’s home and killing them, as in the cases of Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson and Breonna Taylor?

Similarly, SB 69 reads, ‘A peace officer may not intentionally use a choke hold, carotid artery hold, or similar neck restraint in searching or arresting a person unless the restraint is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury to or the death of the officer or another person.” Isn’t that what they always claim?

People are demanding that the police stop the chokehold and all forms of neck restraints, disarm the police and stop brutalizing people. People, particularly in communities of color, are demanding community control over the police.

Education, history and social studies

HB 2497, “The Texas 1836 Project,” funds an advisory committee established to “promote patriotic education and increase awareness of the Texas values that continue to stimulate boundless prosperity across the state.” The true Texas 1836 history centers on the year Texas seceded from Mexico, led by settlers from the United States who legalized slavery and suppressed the Indigenous population from gaining independence. Mexico had officially abolished slavery in Texas in 1830, and restoring slavery in Texas was the major cause of secession.

The Texas 1836 Project contradicts HB 3979, which states: “For any social studies course in the required curriculum, a teacher may not be compelled to discuss a particular current event or widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs.”

The 1836 law includes the development and implementation of the Gubernatorial 1836 Award to recognize student knowledge of “Texas Independence,” in contrast to HB 3979, which instructs school districts, open enrollment charter schools and teachers not to require, make part of a course, or award students who participate in civic or political activities.

SB 4, “The Star Spangled Banner Protection Act,” requires that professional sports teams that require a financial commitment from the state of Texas or any government entity must have a written agreement that the team will play the national anthem at the beginning of each team sporting event. A default in this agreement threatens the team with debarment from contracting with the state. 

In summary

Is the purpose of the government to make people’s lives more miserable? Less secure? There are some who claim this is a Republican ploy, but we say this is capitalism at its worst.

SB 8 states in the text that Texas has compelling interests in protecting the health of women and the life of the unborn child; for women to make an informed choice about whether to continue pregnancy. Yet, aside from taking away programs women need to make that informed choice, Texas lawmakers refused to expand Medicaid health coverage at no cost to the state, a measure supported by 70% of Texas residents. 

Texas has over 29 million people; 154,000 are in prison; 199 on death row. Some 185 death-row inmates have been exonerated nationally, 16 in Texas. 

Former Texas death-row inmate Anthony Graves, who spent more than 18 years in prison before he was exonerated in 2010, said in an interview with the Texas Tribune: “I want to see the death penalty abolished. … The state was going to murder me for something I didn’t do. It would be naïve to think that I was the only one down there like that.”

Texas, one of only two states that put people to death in 2020 during the pandemic, has already had two executions in 2021 and five more pending.

In this period of uncertainty, everyone should have a primary care doctor or clinic to help decide when and where to get tested, how long to stay in isolation if positive, whether it is safe to get vaccinated, wear a mask or both, instead of having to search for answers on social media.

Free medical care and shelter for all, family planning programs, affordable housing, livable wages, guaranteed income, healthy food, fresh air and a plan for sustainable safe living conditions under growing climate change: These issues should be at the top of any new laws or proposals being introduced or discussed in Texas and nationwide.

What will it take to build a better world for everyone? What kind of world will that be? The world that a growing number of the billions of poor and working-class people worldwide want to see is a socialist one.

It’s up to us to fight for a better world — a world where the needs of humanity are the priority to us and the lawmakers that we choose to govern — a socialist world.

After five weeks on strike against snack company Nabisco and its parent monopoly, Mondelez International, workers represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union (BCTGM) voted to approve a new contract on Sept. 16-17. The union was able to partially derail the company’s aggressive takeback campaign, but the struggle will continue.

Like one of Nabisco’s ill-considered holiday-flavored Oreos, the strike tore off the company’s comforting cookie shell and exposed the nasty filling at the center of the snack profiteer.

During the pandemic, Nabisco forced workers to take 12-to-16-hour shifts to meet increased demand rather than hiring more workers. Nabisco then wanted to convert the pandemic situation into a permanent profit-grab by enshrining 12-hour, 3-day weekend shifts with no overtime pay in a new contract, while also cutting back healthcare benefits.

Nabisco bosses’ ultimatum pushed workers to take action, much like the July strike by Frito Lay workers against similar “suicide shifts.” Many industries are now pushing to adopt these kinds of anti-worker policies, pioneered by online giant Amazon.com.

Workers also demanded the restoration of their pensions, which the company had unilaterally replaced with a 401k plan, and guarantees that the company was not planning to close more factories beyond two that were shut down earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Nabisco’s parent company, based in Chicago, reported a 2.8 percent increase in revenue in 2020 and its CEO Dirk Van de Put made nearly $17 million last year. The corporation, which includes other subsidiaries like Barclays and Cadbury, reported $5.5 billion in profits in the second quarter of 2021.

Broad support for workers

The strike broke out in Portland, Ore., where 200 workers walked out on Aug. 10,  and quickly spread to bakeries and distribution centers in Chicago, Aurora, Colo., Richmond, Va., and Norcross, Ga.

The union called for a boycott of Nabisco products, including Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Ritz crackers, Fig Newtons, Triscuits and Wheat Thins: “No contract, no snacks!” 

The slogan was taken up by supporters across the country, including actor Danny DeVito, who tweeted his support and was punished by Twitter, which removed his “verified” status. DeVito was joined by members of the Portland Thorns, the champion National Women’s Soccer League team.

Union members and community groups across the U.S. plastered shelves in grocery stores with boycott stickers and donated to a fund to support strikers and their families.

Nabisco chose this moment to launch a major promotion with Oreo cookies featuring the popular Pokémon video game and anime characters to counter bad publicity generated by the strike. It backfired, as many gamers and gaming journalists came out in support of the strikers. 

“Pokémon or no, I can do without Oreos until the countless people who make them are finally treated with a modicum of respect for their labor,” wrote Ian Walker of Kotaku.

Company violence

BCTGM Local 364 in Portland was in the thick of it. This militant local led the initial walkout and built considerable community support, with weekly mass rallies and daily pickets confronting scabs hired by Nabisco/Mondelez.

The pickets were effective — so much so that Portland cops were enlisted by the bosses to ban strikers and supporters from company parking lots where they were blocking bused-in scabs and managers. They also kicked workers off railroad tracks where supply trains were unloaded.

Taking another page from the Amazon playbook, Mondelez hired Huffmaster, a “private security company” that specializes in union busting, to protect scabs and attack picketers. Huffmaster’s goons repeatedly threatened, pushed, shoved, jabbed and stomped on the feet of picketers.

Jesse Dreyer, a Teamster who came out to support the Portland picket, was badly beaten for several minutes by the anti-union goons. The attack was captured on video. Dreyer is suing Huffmaster for damages in federal court.

“It felt really personal, because I’ve been out there every single day,” Dreyer told the Portland Mercury. “They know my face, and I yell at them, ‘Shame on you,’ every single morning. It felt like they targeted me … and got out a little bit of what they wanted to.”

On Sept. 12, Willamette Week reported that Huffmaster had posted ads to hire more goons in other cities where Nabisco workers were on strike.

Contract signed, struggle continues

The BCTGM national negotiating team reached a tentative agreement with Nabisco/Mondelez International management on Sept. 15. 

Although not all details have been released, we know the company withdrew its plan to cut workers’ healthcare, including for new hires, and added a cash bonus. The union, in turn, agreed to allow the company to introduce its sought-after 12-hour, 3-day weekend shifts, with the company promising not to force any current workers to take those shifts.

On Sept. 16, the Portland local voted overwhelmingly against the proposal, urging workers in other cities to do the same. However, the following day, the contract was approved nationally by a 3 to 1 margin.

Local 364 Vice President Mike Burlingham explained: “This is a way for the company to remove premium pay for weekend work… This will create a divide between lower and senior employees within the bakery as junior people will be forced into this [weekend shift] should nobody volunteer. It’s still the intentional divide the company is creating, just structured in a different way.”

Nevertheless, he told the Portland Mercury, the fact that Mondelez had to sit down and negotiate with the union showed how powerful the strike was. “In the nine years we’ve been under Mondelez, this is the very first time they have actually sat down and negotiated in good faith with our negotiating team. It took them five weeks to do it.

“We always knew that Portland is a different climate than the rest of the country,” Burlingham said. “We knew that there was fight in us here, and we had a lot of backing from supporters in the community to help us. I can’t speak for the other locations, but if I had to guess, they might not have had that same kind of boost that we did here.”

Local 364 President Jesus Martinez added, “It’s still going to be a fight for four years. Even though the company says they want it to be harmonious, that’s if they respect the contract. But they never have and they never will.”

While the Nabisco strike ended in a mixed result, it was an important step in exposing and combating the strategy of U.S. bosses to take back workers’ rights in the Amazon era. 

As Burlingham said: “This is the working class fight. Between Frito Lay, the Alabama coal miners’ strike and us, there’s a lot of people paying attention — and not just in the United States.”

U.S. President Joe Biden did it again. This Tuesday, he took the podium at the United Nations General Assembly to label Cuba and other progressive nations as authoritarian and inconsequential to the needs of their people in an attempt to justify the onslaught of sanctions that Washington maintains against the island.

In his speech, he did not mention the economic and social repercussions that the blockade is having on Cuba. Nor did he say anything about the food insecurity faced by the Cuban people due to the obstacles imposed by the White House, which hinder the Caribbean country’s access to basic goods.

But the island did not remain silent. “With what morals does Biden stand up in front of everyone to humiliate Cuba? The U.S. ran away from the swamp that its military created in Afghanistan for 20 years. And now its president pretends to get rid of the thorn of defeat by threatening Cuba and Venezuela in his cynical speech,” Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel wrote on Twitter.

The attack on Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran, and other countries which Biden is hostile to, is another attempt to score points in his favor, while his people are losing hope in any gain of popularity. This trend continues downward especially after the horrific scene this past weekend of federal agents on horses viciously attacked desperate Haitian immigrants on the Texas border; a scene reminiscent of the racist brutality that took place on slave plantations of the U.S. South.

“What should we call his attempt to establish a single universal political model? And what should we call the blockade, which was strengthened amid the coronavirus pandemic?” questioned the Cuban head of state.

“Biden is making a serious mistake by trying to separate the world from those who do not submit to his hegemony and defend with dignity their sovereign right to self-determination,” Cuba’s Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez reaffirmed.

After spouting these blasphemies in New York, the White House occupant flew to Washington to attend the summit he called to create a global strategy to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Local human rights organizations, experts, and countries friendly to Cuba question how could such cynicism be possible.

How can he call for a global meeting to halt the pandemic while the U.S. is economically suffocating other nations that are struggling alone against the disease’s upsurge?

We have to go big, the president said during the opening of the virtual event while assuring that Washington will donate 500 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to low-income countries starting in January 2022. Going big? 500 million doses might seem like a lot but in the real scope of this pandemic, according to the journal Nature, is that it will take 11 billion doses to vaccinate 70% of the world’s population.

However, Biden cynically failed to mention that he will send only 300 million injections out of the total of 1.1 billion doses he promised to donate to low-income countries before next December, The New York Times explained. This revelation occurred amid world wide criticism against his administration for its weak commitment to global vaccination.

The Biden administration’s attitude reaffirms what Díaz-Canel expressed during the High-Level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

“Six years ago, almost all the world leaders committed ourselves to leave no one behind, in the common purpose of complying by 2030 with the so-called Sustainable Development Goals. But let the truth be told: millions of human beings are still unprotected,” the Cuban leader said.

Washington does not care about the underprivileged people nor the low-income countries. We are facing a more camouflaged version of former President Donald Trump and his America First policy. For Biden, defending the policy and keeping his administration afloat in the crossfire caused by his erratic steps is stronger than logic.

In the face of this reality, Cuba does not relent in its fundamental purpose of helping the world achieve full social justice.

“We the revolutionaries are optimists and seek to find ways out of even in the worst scenarios because we believe in the human being. Building the World we dream of is a mammoth task, but it is possible if we renounce selfishness. Let’s work together to transform the current unjust international order into a more just, democratic, and equitable one, in which, finally, no one is left behind,” Díaz-Canel concluded.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – English

Statement by H.E. Mr. Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and president of the Republic, at the General Debate of the Seventy-Sixth Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly. September 23rd, 2021.

Mr. Secretary General;

Mr. President;

We are living uncertain times. Under the demolishing impact of a pandemic that has worsened structural inequities and the global crisis, the role of multilateralism and the United Nations becomes ever more important. And international cooperation has been insufficient.

The implementation of neo-liberal formulas for decades has been reducing States’ capabilities to meet the needs of their populations.

The most vulnerable have been left unprotected, while rich nations, the elites and the pharmaceutical transnational corporations have continued to profit.

Not only it is urgent that we unite our wills and pool our efforts for the wellbeing of humanity. It is morally imperative

More than 4.5 million people have died because of the pandemic, which has worsened the living conditions in this planet. Its sequels and impact on societies today are incalculable, but it is already known that they will not be ephemeral.

It has been so pointed out by the “2021 Sustainable Development Goals Report”, while according to the International Labor Organization forecasts, there will be 205 million people unemployed in the world by 2022.

It is widely believed that the sustainable development goal of eradicating poverty by 2030, by which date the global poverty rate is projected to be 7 per cent, or around 600 million people, is already seriously compromised.

In the midst of this bleak prospect, Covid-19 vaccines have emerged as a hope. In August of 2021, more than 5 billion doses had been administered globally;  however, more than 80 per cent of them were applied in middle or high income countries, even when they account for much less than one half of the world’s population.

Hundreds of millions of persons in low-income countries are still waiting to receive their first dose and cannot even estimate when or if they will ever receive it.

At the same time, it is hard to believe that the world’s military budget in the year 2020 amounted to almost 2 trillion USD.

How many lives would have been saved should those resources had been invested in health or the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines?

The possible answers to this question involve changing the paradigm and transforming the unequal and antidemocratic international order that subordinates the legitimate aspirations of millions of persons to the selfish attitudes and narrow interests of a minority becomes an imperative.

We will never tire of repeating that the squandering of natural resources and the irrational capitalist patterns of production and consumption, which depredate the environment and cause the climate change that jeopardizes the existence of the human species should cease.

There must be a collective effort; but developed countries, the main responsible for the current situation, which own all the resources that are needed, have the moral obligation to take responsibility.

It is necessary to struggle so that solidarity, cooperation and mutual respect prevail if we are to provide an effective response to the needs and aspirations of all peoples and preserve what is most valuable: human life and dignity.

Our peoples have the right to live in peace and security; they have the right to development, wellbeing and social justice. A revitalized, democratized and strengthened United Nations is called to play a key role in this effort.

Mr. President;

A dangerous international schism, permanently headed and instigated by the United States, is being promoted.

Through the pernicious use and abuse of economic coercive measures, which have become the instrument defining the foreign policy of the United States, the government of that country threatens, extorts and pressure sovereign States so that they speak and act against those it has identified as adversaries.

It forces its allies to create coalitions to overthrow legitimate governments; break trade agreements; abandon and prohibit certain technologies and adopt unjustified judicial measures against citizens from the countries that refuse to submit.

It often uses the term “international community” to refer to the small group of governments that tend to irretrievably follow Washington’s dictates. The rest of the countries, which account for the overwhelming majority of this Organization, seem to have no place in the “international community” definition advocated by the United States.

It is a kind of behavior associated to ideological and cultural intolerance, with a remarkable racist influence and hegemonic ambition purposes. It is neither possible nor acceptable to identify the right of a nation to economic and technological development as a threat; nor is it possible to question the right of every State to develop the political, economic, social and cultural system that has been sovereignly chosen by its people.

In short, today we are witnessing the implementation of unacceptable political practices in the international context that go against the universal commitment to uphold the Charter of the United Nations, including the sovereign right to self-determination. Independent and sovereign states are being driven under multiple pressures to force them to subordinate to the will of Washington and to an order based on its capricious rules.

Mr. President;

For more than 60 years, the US government has not ceased for a single minute in its attacks against Cuba. However, at this crucial and challenging moment for all nations, its aggressiveness exceeds all limits.

The most cruel and longest-lasting economic, commercial and financial blockade ever applied against any nation, has been opportunistically and criminally tightened during the pandemic; and the current democratic administration maintains unchanged the 243 coercive measures adopted by the Donald Trump administration, including Cuba’s inclusion in the spurious and immoral list of countries allegedly sponsoring terrorism

It is in this context that an Unconventional War is launched against our country, to which the US Government has allocated, in a public and notorious manner, millions through manipulation campaigns and lies, with the use of the new information technologies and other digital platforms, in order to portray, internally and externally, an absolutely false image of the Cuban reality, sow confusion, destabilize and discredit the country and vindicate the ‘change of regime’ doctrine.

They have done everything to erase the Cuban Revolution from the political map to the world. They accept no alternatives to the model they conceive for their own backyard.

Their plan is perverse and incompatible (as) with the democracy and freedom they advocate.

But our enemies must be clear that we will not give away the Homeland and the Revolution that several generations of patriots bequeathed to us by standing their ground. Today I would like to reiterate before the respectable and real community of nations that every year votes almost unanimously against the blockade, what Army General Raúl Castro expressed some years ago: “…Cuba is not afraid of lies, nor does it give in to pressures, conditions or impositions, wherever these may come from…”

Mr. President;

We are not daunted by the colossal challenges. We will continue to create for Cuba.

We offer selfless solidarity to those who need our support and we also gratefully receive it from friendly governments and peoples and the Cuban community abroad. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your support at this juncture, which dignifies humanity values and unconditional international cooperation without any interference.

At the same time, in response to the requests received and guided by its profound fraternal and humanistic vocation, Cuba has sent more than 4 900 cooperation workers, organized into 57 medical brigades, to 40 countries and territories affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our dedicated health workers have not had a minute of rest in the struggle against the pandemic inside and outside Cuba.

They are the same who took to the streets to assist the brother people of Haiti after the devastating earthquake that shook that country hardly a few weeks ago. Those who travel from the most remote places to a Cuban province go, without dusting off the dust of the road, to deliver their expertise and knowledge to the mission of saving lives.

They are much more than everyday heroes; they are the pride of our nation and a symbol of its vocation for justice. Dozens of personalities and thousands of people have signed their candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize.

We also take pride in the Cuban scientific community which, despite huge scarcities, created three vaccines and two candidate vaccines against the COVID-19 pandemic. They represent the realization of the idea expressed by Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution in 1960, who asserted that the future of our homeland must necessarily be a future of men and women of science.

Thanks to the support of our men and women of science and the health staff, during the first 10 days of this month, more than 15.8 million doses of the vaccines Abdala, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus have been administered; and 37.8 per cent of the Cuban population is fully vaccinated.

We expect to achieve full immunization by the end of 2021, which will make it possible for us to advance in the struggle against the new outbreak of the pandemic.

Mr. President;

We ratify our aspiration to achieve the full independence of Our America and a socially and economically integrated Latin American and Caribbean region, capable of living up to the commitment established in the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, in the face of the attempts to re-impose the Monroe Doctrine and neo-colonial domination.

We are opposed to every attempt to destabilize and subvert the constitutional order and the civic and military unity and destroy the work that was initiated by Commander Hugo Chávez Frías and continued by President Nicolás Maduro Moros in favor of the Venezuelan people.

We reiterate that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela will always be able to count on Cuba’s solidarity.

We ratify our firm support to the brother people of Nicaragua and its National Reconciliation and Unity Government, led by Commander Daniel Ortega, who are courageously and proudly defending the achievements attained against the threats and interventionist actions of the US government.

We support the Caribbean nations’ claim for fair reparations for the horrors caused by slavery and slave trade.  We likewise support their right to a just, special and differentiated treatment, which is indispensable to meet the challenges resulting from climate change, natural disasters, the unjust international financial system and the difficult conditions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

We reaffirm that the brother people of Puerto Rico should be free and independent after more than a century of submission to colonial dominance.

We stand in solidarity with the Republic of Argentina in its just claim for its sovereign rights over the Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas.

We reiterate our commitment to peace in Colombia.  We are convinced that a political solution and a dialogue between the parties is the appropriate way to achieve it.

We also call for an end to foreign interference in Syria and full respect for its sovereignty and territorial integrity, while we support the search for a peaceful and negotiated solution to the situation imposed on that sister nation.

We call for a just, comprehensive, all-encompassing and lasting solution to the Middle East conflict, which includes the end of the Israeli occupation of the usurped Palestinian territories and the exercise of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to build its own State within the pre-1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

We condemn the unilateral coercive measures imposed against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

We reaffirm our unswerving solidarity with the Saharan people.

We strongly condemn the unilateral and unjust sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

We reiterate our unshakable support to the “one China” principle and oppose any attempt to harm the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the People’s Republic of China, as well as any interference in its internal affairs.

We reject the attempts to expand NATO’s presence up to the Russian borders; the interference in Russia’s affairs with regard to its sovereignty and the imposition of unilateral and unjust sanctions against that country.

We call for an end to foreign interference in the internal affairs of the Republic of Belarus and reiterate our solidarity with President Alexander Lukashenko and the brother people of Belarus.

The United Nations cannot ignore the lessons learned in Afghanistan. It took two decades of occupation, a toll of thousands of deadly casualties, 10 million displaced and billions of dollars in costs – which turn into profits for the military-industrial complex – to reach the conclusion that terrorism cannot be prevented or fought with bombs; that occupation only leads to destruction and that no country has the right to impose its will on sovereign nations. Afghanistan is not an isolated case.

It became obvious that wherever the United States intervenes, instability, death and hardships increase, leaving behind long-lasting scars.

Mr. President;

We ratify Cuba’s determination to continue speaking the truth in a transparent way, however much this might be upsetting to some; defending the principles and values we believe in; supporting just causes; confronting violations as much as we have confronted foreign aggressions, colonialism, racism and apartheid and struggling ceaselessly for the greatest possible justice, prosperity and development of our peoples, who deserve a better world.

Thank you, very much.

Source: Granma

Intervención de Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, Primer Secretario del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba y Presidente de la República, en el Debate General del 76 Periodo Ordinario de Sesiones de la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas, desde el Palacio de la Revolución, 23 de septiembre de 2021

Intervención de Miguel Mario Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, Primer Secretario del Comité Central del Partido Comunista de Cuba y Presidente de la República, en el Debate General del 76 Periodo Ordinario de Sesiones de la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas, desde el Palacio de la Revolución, 23 de septiembre de 2021, “Año 63 de la Revolución”.

(Versiones Taquigráficas – Presidencia de la República)

Señor Secretario General;

Señor Presidente:

Vivimos tiempos inciertos.  Bajo el impacto demoledor de una pandemia que ha agudizado las inequidades estructurales y la crisis global, el papel del multilateralismo y el de las Naciones Unidas resultan cada vez más importantes.  Y la cooperación internacional ha sido insuficiente.

La aplicación de recetas neoliberales durante décadas ha reducido las capacidades de los Estados para atender las necesidades de sus poblaciones.

Los más vulnerables han quedado desprotegidos, mientras las naciones ricas, las élites y las transnacionales farmacéuticas incrementan sus beneficios.

Unir esfuerzos y voluntades por el bien de la humanidad, hoy no solo resulta urgente, es moralmente impostergable.

Más de 4,5 millones de personas han muerto por causa de la pandemia que ha empeorado las condiciones de vida en el planeta.  Sus secuelas e impacto en todas las sociedades hoy resultan incalculables, pero ya se sabe que no serán efímeros.

Lo afirma el Informe sobre los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible 2021, en tanto la Organización Internacional del Trabajo prevé que en 2022 existan en el mundo 205 millones de personas desempleadas.

A la vista de todos, ya está seriamente comprometido el Objetivo de Desarrollo Sostenible de erradicar la pobreza para 2030, fecha para la que se proyecta una tasa de pobreza mundial del 7 %, es decir, alrededor de 600 millones de personas.

En este desolador contexto, las vacunas contra la COVID-19 fueron la esperanza.  Más de 5 000 millones de dosis habían sido administradas globalmente en agosto de 2021; sin embargo, más del 80 % de ellas se aplicó en países de ingresos medios o altos, cuyas poblaciones representan mucho menos de la mitad de los habitantes del planeta.

Cientos de millones de personas en países de bajos ingresos aún esperan su primera dosis y no pueden estimar siquiera si alguna vez la recibirán.

Mientras esto sucede, resulta inconcebible que en 2020 el gasto militar mundial fue de casi 2 billones de dólares estadounidenses.

¿Cuántas vidas se habrían salvado si esos recursos se hubieran destinado a la salud o a la producción y distribución de vacunas?

Las posibles respuestas a esa pregunta pasan por un cambio de paradigma y por transformar un orden internacional profundamente desigual y antidemocrático, que antepone el egoísmo y los intereses mezquinos de una minoría a las legítimas aspiraciones de millones de seres humanos.

No nos cansaremos de repetir que deben cesar el despilfarro de los recursos naturales y los irracionales patrones de producción y consumo del capitalismo, depredadores del medio ambiente y causantes del cambio climático que amenaza la existencia de la especie humana.

El esfuerzo debe ser colectivo, pero los países desarrollados tienen la obligación moral de asumir la más alta responsabilidad por ser los principales causantes de la situación actual y disponer de los recursos para ello.

Hay que luchar porque prevalezcan la solidaridad, la cooperación y el respeto mutuo si se quiere dar una respuesta efectiva a las necesidades y anhelos de todos los pueblos, y preservar lo más valioso: la vida y la dignidad humanas.

Nuestros pueblos tienen derecho a vivir en paz y seguridad, al desarrollo, al bienestar y la justicia social.  Una Organización de Naciones Unidas revitalizada, democratizada y fortalecida está llamada a desempeñar un papel central en este esfuerzo.

Señor Presidente:

Bajo el liderazgo y con la instigación permanente de los Estados Unidos se está promoviendo un peligroso cisma internacional.

Con el pernicioso uso y abuso de las medidas de coerción económica, devenido en instrumento central de la política exterior de los Estados Unidos, el Gobierno de ese país amenaza, extorsiona y presiona a Estados soberanos para que se pronuncien y actúen contra aquellos que identifica como adversarios.

Exige a sus aliados construir coaliciones para derrocar gobiernos legítimos, incumplir compromisos comerciales, abandonar y prohibir determinadas tecnologías, y aplicar medidas judiciales injustificadas contra ciudadanos de los países que no se les someten.

Suele usar el término “comunidad internacional” para definir al pequeño grupo de gobiernos que acompaña, sin cuestionar jamás, la voluntad de Washington.  El resto de los países, la inmensa mayoría de esta organización, parece que no tenemos cabida en la definición de “comunidad internacional” que preconiza Estados Unidos.

Es un comportamiento asociado a la intolerancia ideológica y cultural, con una marcada influencia racista y propósitos hegemónicos.  No es posible ni aceptable que se identifique el derecho al desarrollo económico y tecnológico de una nación como una amenaza; como no es posible cuestionar el derecho de todo Estado a desarrollar el sistema político, económico, social y cultural soberanamente elegido por su pueblo.

En pocas palabras: hoy estamos asistiendo a prácticas políticas inaceptables en el contexto internacional, que van contra el compromiso universal de defender la Carta de las Naciones Unidas, incluido el derecho soberano a la autodeterminación.  Estados independientes y soberanos están siendo conducidos bajo múltiples presiones para subordinarse a la voluntad de Washington y a un orden basado en sus reglas caprichosas.

Señor Presidente:

Durante más de 60 años el Gobierno de Estados Unidos no ha cesado, ni un minuto, en sus ataques contra Cuba; pero en este momento crucial y desafiante para todas las naciones, su agresividad supera los límites.

El más cruel y prolongado bloqueo económico, comercial y financiero que se haya aplicado contra nación alguna se ha recrudecido de modo oportunista y criminal en medio de la pandemia, y la actual administración demócrata mantiene vigentes, sin cambios, las 243 medidas de coerción adoptadas por el gobierno de Donald Trump, incluyendo la incorporación de Cuba a la espuria e inmoral lista de países que supuestamente patrocinan el terrorismo

Es en ese contexto que se lanza contra nuestro país una Guerra No Convencional, a la que el Gobierno estadounidense dedica, de manera pública y notoria, fondos multimillonarios, mediante campañas de manipulación y mentiras, que emplean las nuevas tecnologías de la información y otras plataformas digitales para proyectar interna y externamente una imagen absolutamente falsa de la realidad cubana, sembrar confusión, desestabilizar, desacreditar al país y justificar la doctrina de cambio de régimen.

Todo lo han hecho para borrar a la Revolución Cubana del mapa político del mundo.  No aceptan alternativas al modelo que conciben para su patio trasero.

Su plan es perverso e incompatible con la democracia y la libertad que preconizan.

Pero nuestros enemigos deben tener claro que no entregaremos la Patria y la Revolución que varias generaciones de patriotas nos legaron de pie.  Hoy quiero reiterar, ante la respetable y real comunidad de naciones que cada año vota de forma casi unánime contra el bloqueo, lo que expresara hace unos años el General de Ejército Raúl Castro: Cuba no le teme a la mentira ni se arrodilla ante presiones, condicionamientos o imposiciones, vengan de donde vengan.

Señor Presidente:

Los colosales desafíos no nos amilanan. Seguimos creando para Cuba.

Practicamos la solidaridad desinteresada con los que necesitan de nuestro apoyo y también la recibimos agradecidos de gobiernos, pueblos, amigos y de la comunidad cubana en el exterior.  Aprovecho para agradecer a todos su respaldo en esta coyuntura, que enaltece los valores de humanidad y la cooperación internacional incondicional y sin injerencia.

Al propio tiempo, en respuesta a solicitudes recibidas y guiada por su profunda vocación solidaria y humanista, Cuba ha enviado más de 4 900 colaboradores, organizados en 57 brigadas médicas, a 40 países y territorios afectados por la COVID-19.

Los consagrados trabajadores de la Salud no han descansado ni un minuto en el combate a la pandemia, fuera y dentro de Cuba.

Son los mismos que salieron a las calles a asistir al pueblo haitiano tras el devastador terremoto de hace apenas unas semanas.  Los que viajan del lugar más remoto a una provincia cubana y, sin quitarse el polvo del camino, van a entregar su experticia y sus saberes a la misión de salvar vidas.

Son mucho más que héroes cotidianos, orgullo de nuestra nación y símbolo de su vocación de justicia.  Decenas de personalidades y miles de personas han firmado su candidatura para el Premio Nobel de la Paz.

Igualmente, nos enorgullece la comunidad científica cubana que, en medio de enormes carencias, creó tres vacunas y dos candidatos vacunales contra la COVID-19.  Ellos representan la concreción de la idea del Comandante en Jefe de la Revolución Cubana, quien afirmó en 1960 que el futuro de nuestra patria tiene que ser necesariamente un futuro de hombres de ciencia.

Gracias al apoyo de nuestras mujeres y hombres de ciencia y del personal de la Salud, en los primeros 10 días del presente mes se habían administrado más de 15,8 millones de dosis de las vacunas Abdala, Soberana 02 y Soberana Plus, y un 37,8 % de la población cubana tenían completado el esquema de vacunación.

Aspiramos a la inmunización total de la población a finales de 2021, lo que nos permitirá avanzar en la lucha contra el rebrote de la pandemia.

Señor Presidente:

Ratificamos la aspiración de total independencia para Nuestra América y de ser parte de una región latinoamericana y caribeña económica y socialmente integrada, capaz de defender el compromiso de la Proclama de América Latina y el Caribe como Zona de Paz frente a las pretensiones de reimponer la Doctrina Monroe y la dominación neocolonial.

Nos oponemos a los intentos de desestabilizar y subvertir el orden constitucional y la unión cívico-militar y destruir la obra iniciada por el Comandante Hugo Chávez Frías y continuada por el presidente Nicolás Maduro Moros a favor del pueblo venezolano.

Ratificamos que la República Bolivariana de Venezuela contará siempre con la solidaridad de Cuba.

Reiteramos nuestro firme respaldo al hermano pueblo nicaragüense y a su Gobierno de Reconciliación y Unidad Nacional, dirigido por el Comandante Daniel Ortega, que defiende valiente y dignamente sus logros frente a las amenazas y acciones injerencistas del Gobierno de Estados Unidos.

Acompañamos a las naciones del Caribe en su reclamo de justas reparaciones por los horrores de la esclavitud y la trata de esclavos.  Apoyamos su derecho a un trato justo, especial y diferenciado, indispensable para enfrentar los retos derivados del cambio climático, los desastres naturales, el injusto sistema financiero internacional y las difíciles condiciones que impone la pandemia de la COVID-19.

Reafirmamos que el hermano pueblo de Puerto Rico debe ser libre e independiente luego de más de un siglo sometido a la dominación colonial.

Nos solidarizamos con la República Argentina en su legítimo reclamo de soberanía sobre las islas Malvinas, Georgias del Sur y Sandwich del Sur y los espacios marítimos circundantes.

Reiteramos el compromiso con la paz en Colombia.  Estamos convencidos de que la solución política y el diálogo entre las partes es la vía para alcanzarla.

También demandamos el cese de la injerencia externa en Siria y el pleno respeto a su soberanía e integridad territorial, al tiempo que apoyamos la búsqueda de una solución pacífica y negociada a la situación impuesta a esa hermana nación.

Reclamamos una solución justa, amplia, integral y duradera al conflicto en el Oriente Medio, que pasa por el fin de la ocupación israelí de los territorios palestinos usurpados y el ejercicio del derecho inalienable del pueblo palestino a construir su propio Estado dentro de las fronteras anteriores a 1967, con su capital en Jerusalén Oriental.

Condenamos las medidas coercitivas unilaterales impuestas a la República Islámica de Irán.

Reafirmamos nuestra invariable solidaridad con el pueblo saharaui.

Condenamos enérgicamente las sanciones unilaterales e injustas contra la República Popular Democrática de Corea.

Reiteramos el inquebrantable respaldo al principio de Una Sola China, y nos oponemos a cualquier intento de lesionar la integridad territorial y soberanía de la República Popular China, así como a la injerencia en sus asuntos internos.

Rechazamos la intención de extender la presencia de la OTAN hasta las fronteras de Rusia, la interferencia en sus asuntos inherentes a su soberanía y la imposición de sanciones unilaterales e injustas en su contra.

Demandamos el fin de la intromisión extranjera en los asuntos internos de la República de Belarús y reiteramos la solidaridad con el presidente Alexander Lukashenko y el hermano pueblo bielorruso.

Naciones Unidas no puede ignorar la lección en Afganistán. Tuvieron que pasar dos décadas de ocupación, con un saldo de miles de muertos, 10 millones de personas desplazadas y billones de dólares en gastos, que se convierten en ganancias del complejo militar-industrial, para llegar a la conclusión de que no se puede prevenir ni combatir al terrorismo con bombas, que la ocupación solo deja destrucción, y que a ningún país le asiste el derecho de imponer su voluntad a naciones soberanas. Afganistán no es un caso aislado.

Ha quedado evidenciado que donde los Estados Unidos interviene se incrementan la inestabilidad, las muertes, el sufrimiento y quedan cicatrices perdurables.

Señor Presidente:

Ratificamos la determinación de Cuba de continuar exponiendo con claridad sus verdades, por mucho que molesten a algunos; de defender principios y valores en los que creemos, de acompañar las causas justas, de enfrentar los atropellos, como hemos enfrentado a la agresión extranjera, al colonialismo, al racismo y al apartheid, y de luchar sin descanso por la mayor justicia, prosperidad y desarrollo de nuestros pueblos, que merecen un mundo mejor.

Muchas gracias.

Granma

Biden: Halt your racist Border Patrol and stop the whippings and racist deportations now!

When: September 24 – October 2

Who/What: Progressive organizations and activists in solidarity with Haitian refugees facing life-threatening conditions and brutal racist terror by U.S. policies and Klan-like border patrol agents will be holding protests around the country demanding the Biden Administration end those policies and State terror at the border.

Under the direction of the Biden Administration, Border Patrol agents – as if playing in a movie scene from Roots or 12-Years-A-Slave, and bringing to life some of the worst atrocities during the Antebellum South – have been caught on video whipping Haitian refugees while invoking Donald Trump’s words about their country being a “sh..hole country.”

You would think that this shocking display of white supremacy and criminal racism would bring at least a defensive reaction from the Biden Administration – but no serious condemnation nor prosecution, nor firings have occurred. And, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris maintain a deafening silence. This means that the horror the world has witnessed will continue, and possibly escalate, if no response is felt from the people of this country and the world condemning such actions.

What we’ve witnessed is part of the racist immigration policies from both the Democratic and Republican Administrations and in this particular case reflects the rarely used public health law, Title 42, enacted by former President Donald Trump. Trump attempted to use the law to justify his administration’s desire to end the basic international human right of seeking legal asylum under the cover of the pandemic. Biden, who pledged a more humane immigration policy during his election campaign is now fighting to keep the policy alive, also using the excuse of the pandemic while many physicians and immigrant organizations have countered this argument. Creating safety protocols and vaccinations at the border would be far easier and cheaper than further militarizing the border and flying hundreds of Haitians back to Haiti on a daily basis, which is being done today.

As with all refugees and migrants coming from the Americas to the U.S., they are escaping conditions in their countries created by the economic and militarized warfare of the U.S. — ensuring agricultural and political dominance to maintain the profits of multinational corporations here. And, in the case of Haiti, the colonial relationship of economic sabotage and denial of any real democratic process continues from 1915 — when the first US occupation and massacre of Haitians began — to now. In fact, the Haitian refugees coming today are escaping the devastation of an earthquake in a country with little emergency safety and health infrastructure and political turmoil from a recent presidential assassination that, either indirectly or directly, resulted from U.S. influence.

The Haitian people have a proud history of helping to bring about an ending to colonialism in Latin America with their military and political assistance to liberators like Simon Bolivar. Their first constitution, after inspiring slaves all over the world in 1804 by defeating Napoleon and becoming the first successful slave revolution, was copied throughout Latin America as an exemplary example of democracy. And, the Haitian war of liberation against the French helped secure vital territory for the ruling class of the U.S. in the 1800s. So, the Haitians are owed.

Instead of deportations and denial of their humanity, the U.S. should immediately end its violations of international human rights and end the selectively brutal racism in regards to African peoples, including the treatment of Haitian people with the denial of their history of great political and economic contributions to the Americas.

The following signers demand:

• Immediate firing and prosecution of all those responsible for the whipping and hate speech used against Haitian refugees witnessed by the documented videos of various news organizations including Al Jazeera
• Provide permanent shelter and health care, including access to Covid-19 vaccinations to all arrivals at the border.
• Extend Temporary Protection Status indefinitely for those facing deportations
• Provide asylum to all arrivals
• End the use of Title 42 to deny humane immigration policies and its racist and selective use of justifying the denial for the majority of non-European peoples

*All actions are encouraged to adhere to safety protocols of masks and social distancing.

Initial endorsers include:

Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, Union del Barrio, Puerto Rican Alliance, National Young Lords Organization, BAYAN-Socal, AIM – SoCal, OCCUPY ICE – LA, Socialist Unity Party, F Christophe Silvera – Nat’l Secretary Treasurer Local 808 Teamsters; Clarence Thomas, author Organizing In Our Own Name: Million Worker March; Peoples Power Assembly – Baltimore; Moratorium Now and MECAWI of Detroit, MI.; Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2021 AT 4 PM CDT
March for Real Hurricane Relief!
New Orleans City Hall

Join us to march for *real* and *accessible* hurricane relief!

We demand:
–> Public-run utilities. That means the government manages the power grid, and the people get to be on a board that oversees them.
–> A fast and focused evacuation plan. For 4 days after the storm, we had no evacuation. That whole time she was out with NOPD Chief Ferguson talking about “looting.” All the money going into the police budget to protect Walmarts could’ve gone to helping people leave.
–> Real FEMA aid. FEMA needs to hire more staff, stop discriminating, and give us more help with no strings attached.

Real relief now!

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 AT 4 PM PDT – 6 PM PDT
Salute Attica Uprising: Prisoners’ Paris Commune – 50th Anniv
7825 S Western Ave, Los Angeles

Discussion & Eyewitness Video with LA activists Yamone Fukiansi, Harold Welton of Black August Los Angeles & John Parker with filmmaker Rebecka Jackson-Moeser
Saturday Sept 25, from 4pm to 6 pm

At: KRST Unity Center – 7825 S. Western Ave, Los Angeles

On Attica Uprising:
On September 9, 1971, the prisoners of Attica heroically rose up in response to inhuman conditions of torture in one of the largest prison rebellions in U.S. history. It took place during a growing period of ferment inside of prisons and jails and the growing struggle for Black, Brown and Indigenous liberation taking place outside the prison. Prisoners put forward a list of 27 remarkable demands.
After 4 short days, Gov. Rockefeller ordered the storming of Attica prison. With helicopters flying overhead, close to 1,000 state troopers, national guard troops and prison guards fired into the yard, killing 39 people and wounding 85 in what can only be described as a massacre.

The press screamed that the 10 captive guards who died had their throats slit. But autopsies showed that all 10 had been shot to death by Rockefeller’s storm troopers.

FOR ALL OF OUR SAFETY:
Masks required and the event is outside with social distancing.