On the afternoon of March 22, 1943, the 1st company of the SS special unit Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger, together with forces from the Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118, invaded Khatyn. The Nazis brutally plundered the Belarusian village, located around 50 kilometers north of Minsk. Some soldiers raped a young woman; finally, the more than 150 residents were herded into a barn, which the perpetrators set on fire. People trying to escape the flames were gunned down. The massacre, carried out in retaliation for a partisan attack, left a total of 152 dead, including 75 children and youth; the other victims were mainly the elderly. Only two boys, two girls and the village blacksmith survived.

The Dirlewanger Brigade, one of the most bloodthirsty combat units of the Waffen-SS, is admired and revered in Ukraine – especially now, as the 80th anniversary of the Khatyn massacre is being marked. Their emblem of crossed stick hand grenades can be found time and again on the uniforms and helmets of National Guardsmen, but also on regular soldiers. As videos document, Kiev troops decorated themselves with it in the battle for Kherson in autumn 2022 – some even wear it tattooed on their skin. Even before the Russian army marched in, a Belarusian volunteer from the neo-Nazi Azov regiment posed on social media with a tattoo portrait of Commander Oskar Dirlewanger.

Oskar Dirlewanger’s SS brigade is celebrated by the fascist network Misanthropic Division, which maintains multiple connections to Azov and distributes photos of “Bolshevik safaris” with dead “subhumans.” Many militant Ukrainian right-wingers feel historically, ideologically and culturally connected to it. The 1st company of Dirlewanger’s unit was mainly recruited from fighters from the fascist organization of Ukrainian nationalists who were vassals of Hitler’s Germany. 

Like Dirlewanger’s troops, quite a few Ukrainian neo-Nazis today are characterized by a pronounced desire to pillage and an urge to destroy: For example, on the anniversaries of the Odessa pogrom on May 2, 2014, Misanthropic Division and associated groups published propaganda banners with pictures of Molotov cocktails and barbecues, on which Kolorads (potato beetles), as the Russian-speaking population call them, are roasted. Inscription: “We remember! We are proud!”

Another parallel: like Dirlewanger’s troops, various Ukrainian Nazi units today consist of right-wing criminals and act largely with impunity. This is the case, for example, for members of the Tornado battalion, notorious for the orgies of torture its fighters carried out, mostly for sheer amusement: They chopped off prisoners’ genitals and limbs; brutally raped civilians, including small children; many of the victims were subsequently massacred. Although the battalion was disbanded in 2015 and some members received prison sentences – unreasonably low – President Volodymyr Zelensky released the perpetrators in 2022 and reinstated them into the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The liberal West is correspondingly open to Dirlewanger’s political grandchildren: The glamor magazine Vanity Fair already presented in 2015 a colorful heroic story about women in the Ukrainian “freedom struggle.” In the accompanying photo series there is a picture of a volunteer named “Anaconda” in front of a vehicle with the Dirlewanger troop insignia and the addition of “1488” (“14” for the belief system of the white supremacy movement; “88” for “Heil Hitler”) – without a word about the meaning of the symbols. Nor about the fact that the woman belongs to a Nazi battalion which, according to a Polish journalist, unofficially maintained its own Dirlewanger unit (it is unknown whether this still exists). In 2020, Zelensky awarded the battalion, which has since been integrated into the regular Ukrainian army as an assault force “for special use,” by “awarding the honorary name” Aidar, as it was initially called after its foundation in 2014.

The incorporation of extremely criminal Nazi gangs into the Ukrainian security apparatus and the appreciation they receive from the head of state reveal something about the racket nature of post-Soviet society. As early as the late 1930s, Marxist researchers of fascism identified the tendency towards gang rule as a phenomenon of decay in bourgeois societies after the (self-)destructive dynamics of capital had been unleashed. However, since the fascist bands of robbers were empowered with the support of NATO, they also reveal a lot about the status of the brutality of “Western civilization.” 

It is revealing that the European and U.S. public pay homage to Azov and Co. as terminators of the old hated enemy. So far, the unpleasant past references of the new heroes have mostly been suppressed: Their weakness for Dirlewanger memorabilia means nothing, according to the growing Internet fan community of Nazi warriors. On the right-hand edge, however, some are picking up ideologically where Hitler’s beasts had to stop thanks to the Red Army in 1945, and long for revenge: Dirlewanger is used for psychological warfare against “the Russkies,” bragged one user recently. “They still have nightmares.”

Translated by Melinda Butterfield

Source: Junge Welt

The World Baseball Classic (WBC) between Cuba and the United States was hard to watch. We knew it would be a tough game to win, but for the first time in 17 years, the island was back in the semifinals, among the top four national teams in the world.

The whole island was expectant. Hundreds of Havana residents moved to various points of the city, despite the heavy rain, to watch the game on screens set up for that purpose. Seeing them take the field at LoanDepot Park, in Miami, United States, brought a lot of pride for everyone, for those who are passionate about the sport and for those who aren’t. But the joy was soon tarnished by an orchestrated charade of hate.

The action that was shown by some Cubans who went to the stadium only to humiliate and taunt their team; the team representing their homeland, caused more pain and anger than seeing the opposing team score run after run, inning after inning. There were not only offensive banners that were allowed behind home plate for all the world to see but also threw insults at the Cuban players in the dugout but also those in the outfield bullpen who were preparing to enter the game and provocative people and all of it was allowed by the security of the stadium.

There were assaults on ballplayers and family members who were watching the game, including women and children. There were also verbal offenses, threats, and other incidents meant to undermine the morale of the Cuban team and damage the image of the achievement of making it to one of the top 4 teams out of 16 who were in the WBC tournament.

We know that the players were subjected to extra pressure that had to have distracted the team from showing its full potential. Words are not enough to describe the sadness we felt as an entire country, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) summed up the feeling in a note released on Wednesday.

“We denounce that the Code of Conduct for Guests established for the stadium was repeatedly violated. The Cuban government alerted the U.S. authorities early on, through diplomatic channels, about the various public and open threats against the Cuba team’s game in Miami,” the report explained.

Cuba does not renounce the right to compete on equal terms in U.S. territory. “And we will continue to fulfill our commitments as host country of all international competitions held on the island, where respect for the participants, including the U.S. team, has always prevailed,” the Ministry added.

One consolation remains. Team Asere, the name given by the people, shined brightly despite the hatred. For days here, there was no other topic among Cubans than the pride we felt for them. “You made this country happy,” President Miguel Díaz-Canel said as he welcomed the team at José Martí International Airport, where there were tears and emotion.

“You faced a powerful opponent with dignity, and amid a tremendous hostility promoted by haters who wanted to overshadow the sporting spectacle grotesquely and indecently,” the president continued.

Team Asere made history, but the dream of being world number one is not over. “The dream started now, and you made it come true with this first step of having placed us among the final four,” Díaz-Canel concluded.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – US

Declaration by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

On March 19, 2023, during the semifinal between Cuba and the USA of the 5th World Baseball Classic at the LoanDepot Park stadium in Miami, Florida, there were regrettable and dangeroU.S. incidents targeting the Cuban team, which Cuba vigoroU.S.ly condemns.

It was a difficult game. The Cuban team was there to give a good account of itself, having reached the semifinal by virtue of well-merited results. It faced a team known for its technical superiority – and which won the game by a wide margin. The conduct of the American team and its management was respectful and consistent with the sporting spirit that should prevail at such events. Its victory was well deserved.

However, the Cuban team was also confronted by repugnant, organized hostility, in contrast with the messages of recognition, support and solidarity it received from a large number of people in the United States, mainly Cubans or persons of Cuban descent, a substantial proportion of these being residents of Miami itself.

With the clear intention of upsetting the team, there were repeated actions of varioU.S. kinds expressing hostility towards the players, the accompanying Cuban delegation and the team’s supporters in the stadium. The affronts included direct acts of aggression, threats, vulgar and offensive language, attacks aimed at undermining the team’s morale and other incidents intended to sap the Cuban players’ spirit and sully the occasion. These were occurrences inimical to any notion of a sporting event of this kind.

No attempt was made to enforce the stadium rules for maintaining order and good behavior, a situation marked by clear complicity on the part of certain of the stadium’s representatives and employees and of local authorities – in particular those responsible for maintaining order and security.

Objects were thrown at the players and their families – which included women, children and elderly persons – and at members of the delegation and the Cuban press corps, and at supporters of the Cuban team. On three occasions, “spectators” invaded the pitch during the game, interrupting play, which compromised the safety and concentration of the Cuban players. There were repeated affronts, and threats shouted at the players when their turn came to bat or when preparing to join the game, as happened to the Cuban pitcher Frank Abel Álvarez when he was warming up in the bullpen; such behavior flies in the face of MLB (major-league baseball) rules and any notion of clean sport. There was a constant display of placards with political slogans, as well as obscene language, disrespectful to players and spectators alike, which detracted from enjoyment of the game. Likewise, some of the crowd wore garments bearing offensive wording or images, of a political character, in breach of the stadium regulations.

The stadium’s code of conduct for guests was also repeatedly infringed by the excessive consumption of alcohol and failure to respect reserved seating.

Most of the times representatives of the Cuban delegation or of MBL approached police officers to report the above-described offenses, no action was taken against the offenders.

Each of the behaviors concerned was sufficient caU.S.e for immediate expulsion, summons, arrest or some other legal consequence, but none arose. These occurrences marred an event that has deep cultural roots for both countries.

The Ministry deplores the complicity demonstrated by the local authorities, which allowed and created the conditions for the flagrant commission of these acts with impunity. It also vigoroU.S.ly condemns the inciting by local politicians and other holders of public office to indiscipline, aggression towards and besieging of the players. The acquiescence of the forces of law and order, failing in their duty, encouraged the committing of a series of aggressive actions.

These were the same elements that in 2018 sabotaged the agreement between the Cuban Baseball Federation and MLB, which would have benefited all concerned and contributed to ending the discriminatory treatment suffered by the Cuban sportsmen and women.

The Cuban government alerted the U.S. administration in good time, through diplomatic channels, to the open, public threats that were planned to tarnish the Cuban team’s participation in the Miami leg of the championship and the corrupt and irresponsible conduct of the Miami authorities.

The Cuban team did not participate in the event on an equal footing. Long before the start of the championship, our team was subjected to a complex and discriminatory process whereby MLB was required to apply far in advance for approval of the relevant licenses by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. This process included a special permit for Cuba’s participation in the event, followed by another for incorporating the Cuban MLB players and, later, yet another to confirm their early incorporation with the rest of the team. The permits issued expressly prohibited several of the team members from traveling to Cuba with their teammates after the championship. All this clouded Cuban participation in the World Baseball Classic and implied exceptional disadvantages.

Cuban sportsmen and women have participated in sporting events in numerous American cities and in other countries without being faced with the climate of hostility that is apparently peculiar to Miami. Cuba has no intention of giving up its right to compete on equal terms on U.S. soil. By contrast, Cuba will continue to honor its commitments as host in all the international competitions held in our country, at which sportsmen and women from all over the world, including the U.S., have always been enthU.S.iastically welcomed and treated with respect.

The above-described occurrences demonstrate yet again that Miami does not comply with the minimum requirements for hosting international events and that its authorities bear the responsibility for that shameful fact.

Cuba is appreciative of the many fans and all those in the Miami stadium and elsewhere who welcomed gladly and in a sporting spirit the Cuban team’s participation in the Classic and that it reached the semifinal with a mixed team of Cubans resident in Cuba and abroad. Many approached the team to offer their support and solidarity.

The Cuban people experienced exciting days as they followed their team from the first games and were themselves hurt by the affront orchestrated by the extremist elements that assailed the team and persecuted those who, through Team Asere, realized the dream of a Cuban team incorporating Cuban players in MLB and in the leagues of other countries. Cuba remains ready to repeat the experience. Love of Cuba and love of sport will always prevail over hate.

Havana, March 22, 2023

Source: Granma

Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals
March 19, 2023

NATO’s 1999 Aggression Against Yugoslavia: Turning Point

(Edited by RR)

This March 24th, the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals, Generals and Admirals Association of Serbia, Veterans Association SUBNOR of Serbia and some other independent associations and think tanks, will mark the 24th anniversary of NATO’s aggression against Serbia and Montenegro (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), honoring heroes fallen in the defense of the country as well as all the victims of this illegal and criminal act.

As it is widely recognized, this aggression was undertaken in violation of the basic principles of international law, including a violation of the United Nations Charter, and without authorization of the UN Security Council (UNSC). Having determined that Yugoslavia was not a threat to any NATO member country, NATO leadership nevertheless violated even its own founding act, while NATO member countries violated their own constitutions insofar as they acted without the authorization of their respective parliaments.

At the NATO high-level conference held April 2000 from April 20-30 in Bratislava, Slovakia, U.S. representatives confirmed explicitly to their allies and then-candidate allies three important motives for the “war against Yugoslavia”: first, to take away Kosovo (and Metohija) from Serbia and make it a separate, independent state; second, to turn it into the Balkans base for U.S. troops; and, third, to establish a precedent for military interventions all around the world without seeking a UNSC mandate.

While it was falsely presented by NATOized mass media as “humanitarian intervention,” in fact, it was a war of NATO/U.S. geopolitical expansion towards the East, towards Russian borders, also setting the precedent for other aggression which followed – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria….The immediate establishment of the major U.S. military base Fort Bondsteel, near Urosevac, Kosovo, and Metohija, was only the first in a long chain of new U.S. military bases established in Central and Eastern Europe in the interim – Bulgaria (3), Romania (3), Poland (several and more in the offing). [There are currently U.S. and NATO air, missile defense, infantry, naval, cyber warfare, training, and other bases and facilities in Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia among new NATO member and candidate nations – RR.]

Thus NATO did not only wage the first war on European soil [since World War II] but at the same time gave an extraordinary impetus to the process of intensive militarization of the Old Continent, the entire European continent. All member countries are obliged to spend at least 2% of their GDP on military spending, to adapt civilian infrastructure to the new military requirements, to limit the sale of major companies to prospective investors only from EU and NATO member states (“for security reasons”), not to import new technologies from “unreliable suppliers” (e.g., 5G), not to buy gas and oil from those who use them “to undermine security of Europe.”

Missiles, including those with depleted uranium, and cluster bombs fell on Serbia and Montenegro, killing their citizens and destroying their economies. Serbia is still attempting to recover from immense economic and social losses. Belgrade and other major cities, even in their very centers, still continue to live with ruins and debris of government and other buildings bombed by NATO. And at the same time, NATO 1999’s aggression against Serbia and Montenegro (FRY) had destroyed the whole security and cooperation architecture of Europe and the world, annulling Tehran, Yalta, Potsdam, Helsinki, and other agreements and pillars of the post-Second World War order, thus ushering in disorder, insecurity, even chaos.

The NATO aggression ended with UNSC Resolution 1244 (1999), guaranteeing the sovereignty and territorial integrity of FRY (Serbia) and substantial autonomy for the province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia. The aggression, however, has continued ever since by other means. The objective to take away the autonomous province of Kosovo from Serbia is now being conducted within a new framework. While the province had been under UN mandate and Kosovo Force (KFOR) occupation, mostly composed of NATO troops empowered to guarantee equal security for all, about 250,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians were purged, their homes burnt, and lands and properties confiscated and usurped. In 2008, the former leadership of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) proclaimed unilateral secession. NATO and European Union countries, with the exception of Spain, Romania, Slovakia, Greece, and Cyprus, were among the first to recognize the secession, fully aware that it was contrary to international law, to UNSC Resolution 1244, and Serbia`s constitution.

Lately, Serbia is under unprecedented pressure from the U.S./NATO/EU not to oppose Kosovo`s membership in international organizations, including the UN, to establish good-neighborly relations based on equality and mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, to mutually recognize state and national symbols and to establish quasi-diplomatic relations. Under the guise of “normalization of relations,” the West, led by the U.S., seeks in fact to oblige Serbia to de facto recognize a new state of Kosovo resulting from the NATO aggression of 1999. Promises of membership in the EU as well as promises of investments and donations, are being exploited to lure Serbia into recognizing the secession of a part of its own state territory, thus renouncing all rights based on international law, the UN Charter, and UNSC guarantees as well as our own constitution. All these demands are contained in the so-called “Agreement on the path of normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia” presented to Serbia on February 27th, 2023 and confirmed on March 18, 2023, in Ohrid, Northern Macedonia, in the form of an, more or less, open ultimatum. Interestingly, this ultimatum, accompanied with the threats of economic, financial and other measures and restrictions in the case of non-compliance, will be confirmed by the European Council on March 24th, 2023, the date when exactly twenty-four years ago NATO started bombing Belgrade, Pristina and other cities all over Serbia.

What are real reasons for all this? To make Kosovo eligible to join NATO and even unite with Albania; to establish complete NATOization of the Balkans, encompassing Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina; to eliminate Russian and Chinese influence in the Balkans; to remove the objection of five EU member states (four of them also NATO members, all but Cyprus) to the recognition of the unilateral secession of Kosovo, thus reestablishing unity within those alliances.

The NATO aggression against Serbia and Montenegro (FRY) in 1999, was the turning point in the transformation of the North Atlantic Alliance from a defensive to an aggressive one, of Europe partially autonomous to one in complete submission to the U.S. in pursuit of the globalization of interventionism and global confrontation with Russia and China. As it did appear at the time the summit of unipolar arrogance and U.S./NATO hegemony, it was a wake-up call to everybody who believes in a new democratic world order.

Zivadin Jovanovic,
Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals,
March 19th, 2023

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Source: Anti-Bellum

Revolutionary Havana youth describe the process of building legislation in direct dialogue with the people.

On September 25, 2022, Cuba passed one of the world’s most progressive codes on families. All in one go, the small island nation legalized same-sex marriage, defined and upheld the rights of children, the disabled, caregivers, and the elderly, and redefined “family” along ties of affinity rather than blood. This opens the concept of “family” to include nontraditional forms of familial relations, which exist outside the model of the heterosexual nuclear family.

Hailed as “revolutionary” by many in Cuba, the code will help provide protections to people who would have otherwise faced discrimination in society while ensuring that Cubans in same-sex relationships who wish to marry now have the legal right to do so.

According to young Cubans and social movement leaders, whom I spoke to about the Family Code while attending a conference titled “Building Our Future” in Havana in November 2022, the code is a reflection of a dialogue between the Cuban people and their government.

In the time since the code was passed, the Cuban government remains in dialogue with the people. The Ministry of Justice is still holding seminars in provinces throughout Cuba for people seeking answers to questions that have come up during the implementation process. The Family Code has been influencing everything from sports to property relations. Notably, in just the first two months of the law being passed, 112 same-sex marriages were registered.

A revolutionary code

“It’s a revolutionary code that will change the thinking and the vision that Cubans have regarding… discriminations that can happen in society,” said Jose Luiz, a third-year international relations student at the Higher Institute of International Relations Raul Roa García. The Family Code legalizes and broadens the definition of a “family” far beyond the traditional definition. The code “will bring new protections to people who have, in one way or another, been discriminated against,” Luiz told me.

Cuba ratified a new constitution in 2019. The constitution was written through “popular consultations” with the Cuban people. Through this process, Cubans participated in community discussions with government officials to both discuss and amend the constitution. Article 68, which called for defining marriage as a union between two people, thus legalizing same-sex marriage, was mentioned in 66 percent of popular consultation meetings. A majority of the Cuban people involved in these processes supported maintaining the definition of marriage as being a union between a man and a woman. This is partly due to historic prejudices against LGBTQ+ people that are prevalent across the Americas, and partly due to Cuba’s growing conservative evangelical movement, which opposes progressive social reforms such as same-sex marriage.

After intense debate regarding Article 68 among the Cuban people, the constitutional commission decided not to include the proposed language in favor of same-sex marriage and instead pushed the decision of addressing the matter through a future “family code” legislation. This legislation became the 2022 Family Code.

‘Popular consultation’: A government in dialogue with its people

In order to overcome social conservatism to pass one of the most progressive Family Codes in the world, Cuba underwent a meticulous process of popular consultation, from February 1, 2022, to April 30, 2022. The National Assembly of People’s Power stressed the importance of Cubans familiarizing themselves with the code, in order to prevent feelings of uncertainty. Through this process, the Cuban people made more than 400,000 proposals, many of which were included in the finalized code. Minister of Justice Oscar Manuel Silvera Martínez said that the 25th version of the code, presented to and approved by the National Assembly, “was more solid because it was imbued with the wisdom of the people.”

Young people played a central role in the process leading up to the approval of the Family Code. “The Cuban youth… are involved in all tasks that are deployed by the Cuban revolution,” said Luiz. “We also participated in our referendum for our constitution in 2019. We were in popular committees, discussing the constitution and we contributed to that.”

In 2019, Cuba held a referendum on a new constitution. The referendum passed with a majority vote of 86.85 percent, which is about 73.3 percent of the total electorate. The referendum was preceded by a popular consultation process, in which a draft constitution was discussed in 133,000 public meetings nationwide, where the people of Cuba submitted 783,000 proposals for changes. Cuban officials stated that almost 60 percent of the draft constitution was modified based on the proposals submitted by the public during the popular consultation process.

“I remember at my college, we had meetings to explain the [Family Code], and for us as students to give our perspective of the code and propose something for the code,” Neisser Liban Calderón García, also a Cuban international relations student, told me. “But after we did that at college, we had the same thing in our community, with a different perspective because at college we are with our friends, with [other] students; but in the community, we are with people from all ages and from different families.” García, who has a boyfriend, told me that he is glad that he will now have the opportunity to marry in the future.

The results of this popular process speak for themselves: With 74.01 percent of eligible voters participating, the Family Code passed in a landslide victory with 66.87 percent of votes in favor.

“The day that… [the Cuban people] voted for the Family Code in the popular referendum, I also participated directly in the polling station,” said Luiz. “I could see the high participation of the people in the process, and the high acceptance and eagerness for the approval of the code.”

As Luiz mentioned, some young people had the opportunity to participate in an even more direct way. “Through the University Student Federation [FEU], we have meetings with the leadership of the country. For example, my institute had a meeting with the president. And in that meeting, we described the vision we have as revolutionary and communist youths, the vision we have of the change that needs to happen regarding the base and the leaders of the country,” Luiz said. “We have a voice [as youth] in every space that we have, including the president of FEU [who at the time was law student Karla Santana]. She is part of the National Assembly of People’s Power in Cuba. And she shares her perspective with the Cuban government regarding the thinking of the youth and its tradition in the Cuban revolution.”

Gretel Marante Roset, international relations officer for the Federation of Cuban Women, told me that the women of Cuba played a special role in the process of creating the Family Code. “Our commander in chief [Fidel Castro] said that the Federation of Cuban Women is a revolution within another revolution. Women in Cuba are beneficiaries and protagonists of our own development.” Women hold half of all national parliamentary seats in Cuba.

“The Federation of Cuban Women was part of the commission writing the draft of the Family Code to propose the text and interpretation of gender equality,” Marante Roset told me.

“About the Family Code, I think that the document is for the future. It is based on love… recognizing other types of families, joint human rights… I think that this is the future for Cuba,” Marante Roset said.

This article was produced in partnership by Peoples Dispatch and Globetrotter. Natalia Marques is a writer at Peoples Dispatch, an organizer, and a graphic designer based in New York City.

The San Diego Coalition to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal hosted a meeting on March 11 at the Malcolm X Library to follow up on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. 

We are answering the call to show full support for Mumia Abu-Jamal, including educating people about Mumia. Many do not know what is happening with Mumia or practically any cases of political prisoners. 

We understand that the United States continues to claim there are no Political Prisoners, and their job is to push this lie. However, the truth is U.S. jails and prisons are full of political prisoners because private prisons are money-making industries, and to make money, they must keep prisons full.

Look at the number of exonerations in the past 30 years and the overflow of people waiting to have their cases heard by the Innocence Project. The National Registry of Exonerations reported 3,290 known exonerations since 1989, prisoners who spent collectively 29,100 years locked up for crimes they did not commit. 

The U.S. government has paid over $2.9 billion in compensation, but over half of those exonerated received nothing. Black people make up 50% of those exonerated and have the highest number of years lost per exoneration. Mumia will be one of those exonerated, and he deserves to be compensated for being unjustly imprisoned for over 40 years.

Mumia needs our help more than ever. We need to show the world that millions in the United States are fighting for justice for Mumia. We understand that the outcome of this campaign to free Mumia will reflect on what happens to many of our loved ones who find themselves detained or imprisoned in this corrupt criminal justice system. We must understand that an injustice to one of us is an injustice to all.

‘Bearing Witness in the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal’

While watching the webinar “Bearing Witness in the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal,” those in the room were shaken by the blatant miscarriage of the law that the speakers laid out in words we all understood. When Johanna Fernandez came to the mic with Mumia’s voice on her cell phone, everyone was in awe listening to Mumia’s voice, LIVE. Mumia thanked everyone who came, and he spoke with a voice vibrant and full of life.

The webinar ended with recently retired Arkansas state Judge Rev. Wendell Griffin’s answer to a simple question, “Can the judge just outright release Mumia?” His response was, “Yes! The judge has the power to declare that his conviction and sentence must be overturned.” View the full webinar on YouTube.

After the video, San Diego Black Panther Party members joined us as we gathered to take a picture in front of the beautiful FREE MUMIA portrait painted by local artivist Mario Torero. Everyone was reminded that it was still time to write a letter to Judge Lucretia Clemons encouraging her to do the right thing – grant Mumia a new trial or release him NOW.

A student from San Diego State University, Roberto Zepeda, who had recently read Mumia’s book “All Things Censored” said he was going to write a letter. We exchanged cell phone numbers, and later that evening, I received a text message with his letter. I emailed his letter to Love Not Phear and received an email response, “Roberto’s letter will be in a package of letters going overnight to Judge Clemons on Monday March 13, 2023.”

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Roberto Zepeda’s letter

3/11/23

Dear Judge Clemons,

I have followed the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal for some time now and it didn’t take me long to understand his fight.

From a single book I have read of his and an experience of being on the other side. Mumia has been able to articulate a lived reality for many of those that have been impacted by the carceral system.

It took me a while to get acquainted with his case and I can see how he got railroaded. I have lost all faith in the criminal legal system as it exists in the United States, and it is no wonder that the entire world is keeping a close eye on the case because the country that champions itself as being democratic has truly lost its way.

I have been adamant to follow too many cases in which D.A.s all across the nation disregard the law and violate the same laws they swore to uphold. It is not surprising then that this country incarcerates more people than any other place in the world. At best, justice in the U.S. is performative. It exists in name only.

But it is never too late to do what is right. Precisely because I still believe that Mumia Abu-Jamal can be released. I implore you by way of this letter to grant Mumia Abu-Jamal his release and take a bold stance on what is right.

Presently, I am a university student, advocate, activist, and organizer. I cannot remain silent in the face of injustice and because of so much injustice all around I do not think it’s in me to remain silent any longer.

Stand on the right side of history, uphold the law, and do not waver. Because the law has completely been disregarded when it comes to Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case, you can restore some semblance of respect to the Constitution.

The entire world is watching, and our voices will not be silenced. We support you, Judge Clemons, only because we have faith that you will do what is right.

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a human being that deserves to be treated fairly. Even though for four decades he has been denied justice, we know that it is never too late to do justice. You have the opportunity to do that. Seek Justice Judge Clemons, for humanity’s sake.

Release Mumia Abu-Jamal!!!!!!!

Sincerely,
Roberto Zepeda San Diego State University (SDSU) Student

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Your voice could be the voice of many that makes a difference.

We are all waiting Judge Clemons’s final decision.

We want Justice! Release Mumia, now! Bring him Home!

El reciente acuerdo de 368.000 millones de dólares entre Australia, los Estados Unidos y el Reino Unido para la compra de submarinos nucleares ha sido calificado por Paul Keating, ex primer ministro australiano, como el “peor acuerdo de toda la historia”. Compromete a Australia a comprar submarinos de propulsión nuclear y armamento convencional que se entregarán a principios de la década de 2040 y estarán basados en nuevos diseños de reactores nucleares que el Reino Unido desarrollará. Mientras tanto, a partir de la década de 2030, “pendiente de la aprobación del Congreso estadounidense, los Estados Unidos tienen la intención de vender a Australia tres submarinos de la clase Virginia, con la posibilidad de vender hasta dos más si fuera necesario” (Asociación trilateral Australia-Reino Unido-Estados Unidos sobre submarinos de propulsión nuclear, 13 de marzo de 2023) (el subrayado es mío). Según los detalles, parece que este acuerdo compromete a Australia a comprar a los Estados Unidos ocho nuevos submarinos nucleares, que se entregarán entre la década de 2040 hasta finales de la década de 2050. Si los submarinos nucleares eran tan cruciales para la seguridad de Australia, por lo que rompió su actual acuerdo de submarinos diésel con Francia, este acuerdo no ofrece ninguna respuesta creíble.

Para quienes han seguido de cerca las cuestiones de proliferación nuclear, el acuerdo levanta otra bandera roja. Si la tecnología de los reactores nucleares submarinos y el uranio (altamente enriquecido) se comparten con Australia, se estaría incumpliendo el Tratado de No Proliferación Nuclear (TNP), del que Australia es signataria como potencia no nuclear. Incluso, el suministro de dichos reactores nucleares por parte de los Estados Unidos y el Reino Unido constituiría una violación del TNP. Y ello aún si dichos submarinos no transportan armas nucleares sino convencionales, como se establece en este acuerdo.

Entonces, ¿por qué Australia renegó de su contrato con Francia, que consistía en comprarle 12 submarinos diésel por un coste de 67.000 millones de dólares (una pequeña fracción de su gigantesco acuerdo de 368.000 millones de dólares con los Estados Unidos)? ¿Qué gana, y qué ganan los Estados Unidos molestando a Francia, uno de sus estrechos aliados en la OTAN?

Para entenderlo, tenemos que ver cómo ven los Estados Unidos la geoestrategia, y cómo encajan los Cinco Ojos (Estados Unidos, Reino Unido, Canadá, Australia y Nueva Zelanda) en este panorama más amplio. Está claro que los Estados Unidos consideran que el núcleo de la alianza de la OTAN lo constituyen los Estados Unidos, Reino Unido y Canadá para el Atlántico, y Estados Unidos, Reino Unido y Australia para el Indo-Pacífico. El resto de sus aliados, los aliados de la OTAN en Europa y Japón y Corea del Sur en Asia Oriental y Meridional, están alrededor de este núcleo de los Cinco Ojos. Por eso los Estados Unidos estaban dispuestos a ofender a Francia para negociar un acuerdo con Australia.

¿Qué obtienen los Estados Unidos de este acuerdo? Con la promesa de ocho submarinos nucleares que se entregarán a Australia en un plazo de dos a cuatro décadas, los Estados Unidos obtienen acceso a Australia para utilizarla como base de apoyo a su flota naval, su fuerza aérea e incluso sus soldados. Las palabras utilizadas por la Casa Blanca fueron: “Ya en 2027, el Reino Unido y los Estados Unidos planean establecer una presencia rotativa de un submarino británico de la clase Astute y hasta cuatro submarinos estadounidenses de la clase Virginia en HMAS Stirling, cerca de Perth, Australia Occidental”. El uso de la expresión “presencia rotativa” es para aparentar que Australia no está ofreciendo a EE. UU. una base naval, ya que eso violaría la posición que este Estado mantiene desde hace tiempo de no establecer bases extranjeras en su suelo. Evidentemente, todas las estructuras de apoyo necesarias para tales rotaciones son las que tiene una base militar extranjera, por lo que funcionarán como bases estadounidenses.

¿Cuál es el objetivo de la alianza AUKUS? Está explícito en todos los escritos sobre el tema y en lo que han dicho todos los líderes de AUKUS: es China. En otras palabras, se trata de una política de contención de China con el Mar de China Meridional y el Estrecho de Taiwán como regiones oceánicas clave en disputa. El posicionamiento de buques de guerra estadounidenses, incluidos sus submarinos nucleares armados con armas nucleares, convierte a Australia en un Estado de primera línea en los actuales planes estadounidenses de contención de China. Además, crea presión sobre la mayoría de los países del sudeste asiático que desearían mantenerse al margen de la contienda entre los Estados Unidos y China que se está llevando a cabo en el mar de la China Meridional.

Aunque la motivación de los Estados Unidos para reclutar a Australia como Estado de primera línea contra China es comprensible, lo que resulta difícil de entender es el beneficio que obtendría Australia de tal alineamiento. China no sólo es el mayor importador de productos australianos, sino también su mayor proveedor. En otras palabras, si Australia está preocupada por la seguridad de su comercio a través del Mar de China Meridional frente a los ataques chinos, falta considerar que la mayor parte de este comercio es con China. ¿Por qué China estaría tan loca como para atacar su propio comercio con Australia? Para EE. UU. tiene un sentido urgente conseguir que todo un continente – Australia – albergue sus fuerzas (mucho más cerca de China que a las 8.000-9.000 millas de distancia en EE. UU.). Aunque ya tiene bases en Hawai y Guam en el Océano Pacífico, Australia y Japón proporcionan dos puntos de anclaje, uno al norte y otro al sur, en la región oriental del Océano Pacífico. Se trata de un juego de contención a la antigua usanza, el mismo que los Estados Unidos jugó con sus alianzas militares de la OTAN, la Organización del Tratado Central (CENTO) y la Organización del Tratado del Sudeste Asiático (SEATO) tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

El problema que los Estados Unidos tienen hoy es que incluso países como India (aún teniendo problemas con China) no se alían con ellos en una alianza militar. Sobre todo ahora que los Estados Unidos está en guerra económica con varios países, no sólo con Rusia y China, sino también con Cuba, Irán, Venezuela, Irak, Afganistán, Siria y Somalia. Aunque India estaba dispuesta a unirse a la Cuádruple (Estados Unidos, Australia, Japón e India) y participar en maniobras militares, se echó atrás en el momento en el que la Cuádruple se convirtió en una alianza militar. Esto explica la presión ejercida sobre Australia para que se asocie militarmente con los Estados Unidos, sobre todo en el Sudeste Asiático.

Pero todo esto sigue sin explicar qué beneficios obtiene Australia del acuerdo. Incluso los cinco submarinos nucleares de la clase Virginia que Australia puede obtener de segunda mano están sujetos a la aprobación del Congreso estadounidense. Quienes siguen la política estadounidense saben que los Estados Unidos es actualmente incapaz de firmar tratados; en los últimos años no ha ratificado ni uno solo sobre cuestiones que van desde el calentamiento global hasta el derecho del mar. Para los otros ocho faltan entre 20 y 40 años… y quién sabe cómo será el mundo en un futuro tan lejano.

¿Por qué, si su objetivo era la seguridad naval, Australia eligió un dudoso acuerdo sobre submarinos nucleares con los Estados Unidos en lugar de un suministro seguro de submarinos franceses? Es una pregunta que se hicieron Malcolm Turnbull y Paul Keating, ex primeros ministros del Partido Laborista australiano. Sólo tiene sentido si entendemos que Australia se ve ahora a sí misma como una pieza del engranaje estadounidense para esta región. Y es una visión de la proyección del poder naval estadounidense en la región que hoy Australia comparte. La visión es que las potencias coloniales y ex coloniales – el G7-AUKUS – deben ser las que establezcan las reglas del actual orden internacional. Y detrás del discurso sobre el orden internacional está el puño cerrado de los Estados Unidos, la OTAN y AUKUS. Esto es lo que realmente significa el acuerdo sobre el submarino nuclear de Australia.

Este artículo ha sido producido en colaboración con Newsclick y Globetrotter. Prabir Purkayastha es el editor fundador de Newsclick.in, una plataforma de medios digitales. Es un activista de la ciencia y del movimiento del software libre.

In an exclusive interview for Al Mayadeen, the Cuban President talks about Cuba’s stance on the war in Ukraine and his country’s relationship with Russia, China, and other countries.

• Part I: Cuban Revolution, U.S. embargo: Al Mayadeen interviews the Cuban President

During the second part of Al Mayadeen Media Network Chairman Ghassan Ben Jeddou’s interview with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the president discusses Cuba’s assessment of current alliances, in addition to its position on the war in Ukraine.

The Cuban president discussed the solid relationship that consolidates his country with Russia, China, and Iran, as well as his country’s relationship with Latin American leaders and what he aspires for in the Arab region. He also expressed his admiration for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and his desire to visit Damascus this year.

The world that Cuba aspires to

During his interview with Al Mayadeen, Diaz-Canel said that “the assessment of alliances in today’s world must be on the current context, and on an analysis of the current situation,” noting that this is related to what happened in the world, as the world is going through a multidimensional crisis.

He stresses that the situation has also been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has plunged the world into a state of uncertainty.

Diaz-Canel added, “Instead of enforcing the language of cooperation and respect for one another, the world has resorted to imposing new sanctions and resolving conflicts using the language of war.” “This is not the world we want and I think it is not the world that the majority of people on Earth want.”

“Today,” the Cuban president said, “we need a world capable of globalizing solidarity, peace, and friendship, a world that has a system of relations that defends pluralism,” noting that “this world is being built in accordance with common values ​​based on peace, solidarity, friendship, and pluralism, which are capable of preserving, first and foremost, the human race.”

He added that this issue was former Cuban President Fidel Castro’s concern from an early age, and it was mentioned in many of his messages to the world on various international occasions and that Cuba aims to resolve conflicts through dialogue and for the world to become more democratic.

The Cuban president asserted to Al Mayadeen the need to change the “current global economic system, because it is based on exploitation and inequality, serves the rich at the expense of the majority of the world’s poor, and does not offer developing countries any alternatives, as it is subject to the interests of military-industrial complexes and great Western powers.”

If “we are able to achieve alliances that contribute to achieving pluralism, understanding, respect for others, and the struggle for peace… these alliances will then be valid and supportive.”

In the same context, he refers to the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (ALBA), the alternative adopted by Latin America to confront the ALCA Free Trade Agreement, which represents an imperialist project.

One of the most important reasons for the success of these alliances is, according to Diaz-Canel, that they are based on cooperation, solidarity, and sincere stances and not on concepts that prioritize money and the economy.

The president stressed that the Cuban revolution is based on sharing what it has with others, and that this is what the future of the world should be like.

Blame for Russia-Ukraine war lies with Washington

Regarding Cuba’s position on the Russian-Ukrainian war, Diaz-Canel stressed that this conflict has serious consequences for the world, not just the parties involved.

The president accused Washington of using its power of influence through the media to spread Russophobia and disinformation on the origin of the conflict, labeling Russia as a culprit while concealing the real reasons behind the war.

He stressed that “the culprit in this conflict is the United States itself, which resorts to wars to solve its problems and overcome its crises,” adding that “Washington puts the interests of the military-industrial complex at the forefront, as it needs the war to sell weapons and to solve the internal problems it suffers from.”

The Cuban president indicated that the US has always sought to encircle Russia by promoting NATO expansionism on its borders, which he says Russia is aware of. The countries that are accomplices in the war will lose the most, he added, as they began to suffer from food shortages and an energy crisis, while those directly involved in the conflict are losing human lives.

The biggest beneficiary of the war, he said, is the US administration, and there need to be initiatives at the international level that facilitate the process of dialogue between the concerned parties to put an end to the war.

Diaz-Canel reiterated his country’s disapproval of the continued use of the language of war and the imposition of sanctions against Russia instead of dialogue, as these measures do not solve crises, but rather exacerbate the state of war. He added that the way Western nations are dealing with the crisis may drag the world into a possible world war.

He further wondered how Europe, which was the theater of two previous world wars, and the theater for Fascism and Nazism, is incapable of extracting the necessary lessons from history to play an effective role in avoiding a third world war.

Cuba’s relationship with China 

Speaking about Cuban-Chinese relations, the president stressed that his country and China enjoy historical and friendly relations based on common principles that bring the two countries together.

He added that his country shares convictions with China regarding a structured socialist path in both countries that takes into account the specificities of each; both countries also share strong relations at the levels of their governments, peoples, and parties (the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of Cuba).

Diaz-Canel praised the Chinese model of socialism and reform and its establishment of a firm economic base, which transformed it into one of the world’s great powers. He added that China adopted a distinguished position in terms of cooperation and solidarity, as is the case in Cuba, referring in this context to the initiatives and proposals presented by Chinese President Xi Jinping to achieve more harmony on the global level.

The Cuban president said that during his visit to China at the end of last year, he felt assured by the clear Chinese desire to support Cuba out of its crisis. He pointed out that during the visit, decisions were taken regarding the development of bilateral relations.

He said that China is one of Cuba’s main economic partners and that it is directly involved with Cuban energy, transportation, and telecommunication projects, referring also to the wide exchange between the two countries in terms of education, culture, science, technologies, and innovation, calling China “a friend of Cuba.”

Cuba’s relationship with Russia

Regarding Cuban-Russian relations, Diaz-Canel affirmed the high level of political, economic, and commercial relations between Moscow and Havana.

He added that Russia is present in the most strategic sectors that were developed within the national plan for economic and social development in Cuba until 2030: the energy sector, transportation and communications, cybersecurity, the mineral sector, the industrial sector, and in food production.

“There is a whole range of projects under development jointly with Russia.”

Diaz-Canel discussed how Russia sent a plane to assist his country during the Covid-19 pandemic and placed it at the disposal of Havana to transport oxygen cylinders imported from various places in Latin America and the Caribbean. He added that while Cuba was in a crisis, Russia donated factories to help it produce oxygen, and many concentrators, as did China.

The Cuban president touched on his recent visit to Russia, pointing out that he saw that Russian President Vladimir Putin understood Cuba’s problems and Moscow’s political and governmental will to help alleviate the problems his country suffers from. He added that since that visit, Cuba has constantly been updated with regard to the agreements with Moscow, especially concerning energy and food.

He stressed that China and Russia are friendly states and that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have demonstrated the will to embody a true friendship with Cuba.

During the interview with Al Mayadeen, the Cuban president did not hide his admiration for his Russian counterpart, pointing out that Putin’s speeches are rich in historical references. He added that Putin is constantly referring to lessons from history in order to reaffirm what is happening today, and what needs to be done in the future.

He added that “I don’t think it was Putin who caused the conflict with Ukraine, they were about to impose a siege on the Russian Federation,” pointing out that the Russian president is defending Russia’s interests and security.

“Dialogue with the Russian president is not impossible, but rather possible, provided that it is linked to a sincere will and without the imposition of preconditions.”

Cuba’s relationship with Iran

Speaking about Cuban-Iranian relations, the Cuban president described Iran as Cuba’s sister nation. He said that the foundations of the relationship between the two countries are based on history and mutual respect, as well as the great resistance that the two people waged in the face of imperial blockades and sanctions.

According to the Cuban president, “the Cuban and Iranian people share an understanding of resistance, courage, heroism, dignity, and defiance to the plans of imperialist power.”

He also expressed his appreciation for the Iranian leader, Sayyed Ali Khamenei, as a politician and as the leader of the Iranian Revolution, admiring his “tremendous capability for logical thinking and analysis,” also describing him as a wise leader.

The Cuban president indicated that the two countries are working on joint projects that serve the economic development of both, especially in the fields of energy and food. He pointed out that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi might visit his country while also expressing his desire to visit Tehran this year.

Diaz-Canel stressed to Al Mayadeen that this year will witness a deepening of relations between the two countries, and the adoption of projects that are of mutual benefit. He specified both nations share mutual projects that include scientific research, technology, and energy.

The Cuban president expressed his admiration for Iran’s culture, civilization, and resistance against aggression, and said that the technological development that Iran has achieved despite the embargo and sanctions is very important, and multifaceted, pointing out that being familiar with Iran’s development can benefit Havana.

Cuba’s relationship with Latin American leaders

Regarding Cuba’s relationship with Latin American leaders, the Cuban president said that his country has deep ties with four Latin American leaders.

Cuba and Venezuela 

Diaz-Canel pointed out that the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sowed hope in Venezuela, shining throughout Latin America, and that Venezuela has always been an important country and played a key role in Latin America, especially during Chavez’s leadership of the Bolivarian Revolution.

He added that many values ​​have come together in Chavez, as he was Bolivarian in thought par excellence, was well versed in the history of Latin America and the Caribbean, and was an exceptional defender of Simon Bolivar’s thought and of the pioneers of liberation in Latin America.

The Cuban president noted that “Chavez was able, as an exemplary leader, to understand the concerns and aspirations of the Venezuelan people,” adding that the friendship between former Cuban President Fidel Castro and Chavez, “was like a father-son relationship.”

In this context, he referred to the achievements made by the two countries during the Chavez and Fidel eras, especially with regard to the ALBA.

He added that when Chavez was head of the Bolivarian Revolution, he was preparing cadres who were distinguished by their true commitment to the revolution’s path, to the Venezuelan people, and their loyalty to the revolution, referring in this context to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The Cuban president described Maduro as a brother to Cuba, and admired how he defended the Bolivarian Revolution against all destabilization attempts planned by the US government. He pointed out that “Maduro, with his efforts and persistence, was able to achieve civil-military unity, preserve the Bolivarian Revolution, and move it forward on the path of victory.”

Cuba and Colombia

Speaking about Colombia, the Cuban president said that there is now a government in Colombia that prioritizes dialogue with Venezuela, adding that Nicolas Maduro and Gustavo Petro have agreed on a whole set of measures that also aim to ensure peace in one of Latin America’s most important regions.

Cuba and Brazil 

The Cuban president also described his Brazilian counterpart, Lula da Silva, as an exceptional leader, pointing to his prominent role in extracting Brazil from its economic crisis, which turned it into a reference for what can be achieved in the policy of social justice, adding that “Lula doesn’t suit US interests, so the administration worked to discredit him by fabricating legal cases against him.”

He added that Lula did not surrender and did not accept any conditions to be imposed on him, despite his imprisonment and the pressure exerted on him to subdue him. He complimented the Brazilian president, stressing that his new projects help develop programs and investments in the country.

Cuba and Nicaragua

The Cuban president also expressed his admiration for the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, noting that it was a success the United States could not bear, and against which it launched a fierce campaign of destabilization, backed by a fierce media campaign to discredit Nicaragua.

“Therefore, I believe that whenever we want to assess the situation in Nicaragua, we must start from where we proceed in our analysis of what the Sandinista revolution contributed to in the areas of economic and social development for the Nicaraguan people, and what the Sandinista revolution means in terms of building a state with national security, and remove everything related to imperialist distortion and tampering.”

Cuba’s relationship with the Arab world

Regarding the island’s relationship with the Arab world, Diaz-Canel affirmed that Havana has good relations with Arab countries based on respect and mutual understanding of the historical and cultural specifics of each country.

He pointed out that there was space for cooperation, for the defense of common struggles, and coordination of efforts in international forums, adding that Cuba has always felt the solidarity and support of the Arab communities.

Diaz-Canel stressed that there is room to deepen the already strong ties on the economic and commercial level, as the historical foundations laid out for these relations are strong and Cuba looks to strengthen this relationship with the Arab world.

The Cuban president expressed his admiration for Syria’s courage, steadfastness, and self-confidence in the face of an aggressive campaign aimed at destroying it, noting that Syria, after many years of the unjust war against it, remained a strong and united nation.

In this context, he praised the role of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, “The Syrian president has shown sincerity to his people and has remained at the forefront without giving up… I have always seen a great deal of steadfastness and composure in him.”

Before concluding the interview with Al Mayadeen, the Cuban President renewed his support for Syria, saying that Havana will remain with the Syrian people, and condemned the ongoing Israeli aggression against it, as well as the sanctions imposed on the Syrian people.

The Cuban president expressed his desire to visit Damascus this year and admired the nation’s steadfastness and the solidity and dignity of the Syrian people.

Source: Al Mayadeen English

In an exclusive interview for Al Mayadeen, the Cuban President touches on the Cuban Revolution, its challenges, and achievements, as well as U.S. manipulations.

• Part II: Havana and the world: Al Mayadeen interviews the Cuban President

Part I

Al Mayadeen

Media Network Chairman Ghassan Ben Jeddou conducted an exclusive interview with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, during which the latter discussed the Cuban Revolution and its challenges, international relations, the situation in Latin America, and the blockade imposed on Cuba.

In the first part of the 3 hour interview, the Cuban President touched on the concepts on which the Cuban Revolution was based and Cuba’s position on the progressive, revolutionary, and resistance currents in the world, as well as the protests that the country witnessed in 2021 and Cuba’s policies toward the new generations.

The Moncada and the Revolution

Speaking about the pre-revolutionary period in the country, Diaz-Canel told Al Mayadeen that the 50s was a terrible decade for Cuba and the Cuban people, as it came after years of imperial domination of Cuba where the country had turned into an American colony.

He pointed out that whatever strategies were put in to camouflage this situation and its essence, the situation stemmed from the frustration of the struggle for Cuban independence in 1895.

He specified that at the last moment of the war for independence, when Cuba had practically defeated Spain, the first imperialist war occurred, referring to the U.S. interference in the Spanish-Cuban War, which was later called the Spanish-Cuban-American war.

Diaz-Canel continued that “far from achieving its real independence, Cuba became a colony of the United States government,” and since then, the country has been ruled by a number of submissive governments and agents of the empire, administrative corruption prevailed, and an oligarchy — that did not defend the interests of the country or the Cuban people, but rather was defending the interests of the United States — became more enrooted.

Back then, according to the Cuban President, the United States seized practically all of the country’s natural resources and started investing in Cuba. Thus, the Cuban people reached a very complicated situation where illiteracy increased and no one practically owned a home.

The situation back then was described by Fidel Castro in his self-defense document titled “History Will Absolve Me,” thus, the Moncada was the program that Castro developed for launching the Revolution, Diaz-Canel said.

Revolution achievements

The Cuban leader considered that in the case of Cuba in particular and the complex situation that it was living in, the Revolution was necessary with no other solution available, and therefore, it was very acceptable — a revolution that completes the true independence of Cuba.

Diaz-Canel explained that for this reason, the Revolution, which meant primarily making profound changes in Cuban society, was accepted by the majority of the Cuban people and was a completely dynamic and liberating process that gave Cuba true independence, sovereignty, and self-determination.

Thus, the revolutionary process began to advance along a set of social achievements, which gave the right to free education, free health, and sports for everyone, as well as the spread of world and Cuban culture, he indicated.

“It was a process of reaffirming the cultural values ​​on which the Cuban nation was built, throughout its years, basing all its actions on the law, that is, always defending what is just,” he added.

He pointed out that one of the basic concepts of the Revolution has always been achieving the greatest possible amount of social justice, taking into account culture in its broadest sense, and not referring only to artistic and literary creativity, but rather taking into account the values ​​that have formed in the Cuban nation over many years, and highlighting the best of those values ​​enjoyed by its people in the revolutionary process.

Likewise, Diaz-Canel asserted that the Revolution never deceived the people. In fact, the Revolution asked the people to read in order to believe and granted them the right to learn, he said.

All of this was linked to the thought of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro and his legacy and the continuity that General Raul Castro later attributed to the revolutionary process, Diaz-Canel added.

The Revolution renewing itself

The Cuban President said the Revolution was in a state of continuous boiling and was constantly transforming and changing, adapting to all the complex historical moments that it had to pass through.

According to Diaz-Canel, one must ask how this Revolution, which was born besieged and encircled since its inception, by the main imperialist power and the most powerful superpower in the world, could resist all the sieges, sanctions, aggressions, and currently the tightened siege and widespread media attacks that seek to discredit the Revolution and undermine its authority and model.

He said that when one thinks about the attitude the U.S. adopted in its dealing with the Revolution that only wants the well-being of the Cuban people, there is only one answer for that: It did so out of hatred and malice because it was disturbed by the model of this Revolution.

The Cuban President stressed: “I believe that we are continuing the Revolution, and the Revolution will continue to advance despite the difficulties,” highlighting that “the majority of the Cuban people will continue to support this Revolution, and for that, we must continue in a state of revolution within the Revolution.”

On the other hand, the Cuban President explained that the world is witnessing a very difficult situation and is full of uncertainty. “We have just suffered from an epidemic that destroyed the models of neoliberalism,” he considered.

He said that despite the many years of neoliberalism and the promotion of a lot of propaganda that supports it – when a complex moment has come – the world found that neoliberalism is unable to solve all the problems of the epidemic with equality and inclusion of all people.

Diaz-Canel pointed out that health systems in the most advanced capitalist countries had collapsed, and a question was raised about how to explain the neoliberal world’s failure to provide alternatives to the majority.

“Since the world has just gone through a pandemic, I think we still cannot talk about the post-pandemic stage, as there are still more than 20 countries in the world that have not even been able to vaccinate 10% of their population, and we see that there is a lot of inequality,” the Cuban leader explained.

He noted that amid the pandemic, there was a very selfish attitude on the part of the oligarchy, and the rich became richer while the poor became poorer.

“This is why we see this inequality that arises in the capitalist societies themselves, and then this inequality leads to rebellion and leads above all to the rebellion of the youths, and the new generations as well,” he added.

Diaz-Canel stressed that regardless of the way it is implemented, the Revolution will continue to be an alternative and will remain an aspiration for the youth.

However, he underlined that it will inevitably be necessary to take into account the historical stages and to conduct a critical analysis of revolutionary experiences, not to see revolutions from an idealistic point of view, but from all their contradictions and the situations they overcame.

The Cuban President highlighted that in today’s world, there is a deep revolutionary feeling and an embrace of Marxist ideas, and one sees that there is much hope for these generations to build a better world.

He noted that he felt that because he had the opportunity to talk to many young people who visit Cuba from different parts of the world.

Diaz-Canel pointed out the need to preserve the environment as an indispensable condition for preserving the human race, pointing out that all these trials and deep reflections on the multidimensional crisis that the world is going through today give an answer that revolution is still an alternative.

Cuba and the revolutionary progressive currents

When asked about the new progressive left in Latin America and the world, the Cuban President said that in the region, there is a historical reference that indicates the need to delve deeper into these ideas and provides the basis for the continuity of these progressive leftist ideas.

Diaz-Canel believes that a huge part of the people of Latin America has embraced these ideas, noting that in recent years “we have witnessed stages that express this historical continuity in the independence experiences of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

He explained that the situation that the U.S., with its neoliberal practices, led the region to saw an increase in inequality in Latin America and subjected the population of most Latin American countries to a very complicated situation.

The Cuban President considered that it has become necessary for revolutionary experiences to take place, just as a decade passed in which a whole group of revolutionary experiences arose in response and as an alternative to this situation.

According to Diaz-Canel, the exemplary experience in this sense was the Venezuelan experience, where Hugo Chavez, who was a well-established Bolivarian and well-versed in Latin American history, carried out a Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela.

He continued that, at that time, the experience of the Bolivarian Revolution coincided with the Nicaraguan Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, the Cultural Revolution in Bolivia, and the Citizenship Revolution in Ecuador, as well as the experience of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil and that of Cristina Kirchner in Argentina, among others.

Diaz-Canel noted that there was also a progressive president in Paraguay and Uruguay, which allowed the consolidation of a whole set of integration measures in Latin America and the Caribbean where millions of Latin Americans no longer suffered from hunger and were able to change their social status after all these progressive governments initiated measures of a social and economic nature in the interest of the majority.

However, the Cuban President pointed out that imperialism did not stand idly by and tried to undermine those movements that were an expression of those progressive and leftist ideas, pointing to the countless vicious, divisive acts that the U.S. government, with the support of its huge media, applied to bury these experiences.

“We all know how they carried out a parliamentary coup in Paraguay, how they caused the impeachment of the President of Brazil, Dilma [Rousseff], and how they also prosecuted a group of Latin American leaders politically,” Diaz-Canel said.

“We are still witnessing judicial persecution against [former Argentine Vice President] Cristina Kirchner, and how they tried to carry out a coup under the auspices of the Organization of American States against the Bolivian experiment led by Evo Morales,” he noted.

But the Cuban leader indicated that Latin America is witnessing a cycle in which the defense of those leftist ideas and work to strengthen them began again.

He said that in the decade in which all the aforementioned experiences converged, an integration mechanism for Latin America was achieved, highlighting that through this mechanism of integration in less than ten years, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Ecuador were able to win the battle of eradicating illiteracy.

First illiteracy-free region in Latin America and the Caribbean

According to the Cuban President, this achievement holds much significance for Cuba, which declared itself the first illiteracy-free region in Latin America and the Caribbean, pointing out that it took more than 50 years with authentic and real complementary experiences in Latin America and with human, revolutionary, and progressive ideas, for other countries to realize what previously seemed like a figment of the imagination.

Diaz-Canel said that for many people in other parts of the world, this is still a dream and an out-of-the-reach matter.

He recalled that with this process of integration between Latin American countries, what was known as Operation Miracle was achieved, restoring sight to millions in Latin America who would not have had it in the circumstances that they were living in countries implementing neoliberal projects and programs.

The Cuban leader explained that Petro-Caribbean projects became consolidated on the basis of sharing energy resources in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Diaz-Canel also highlighted that other consultation mechanisms were established, such as the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), where for the first time, 33 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean sat down to discuss their problems together without the U.S. presence or participation.

He also pointed out that Latin America and the Caribbean have now decided for themselves freely, on the basis of the concept of unity within diversity, to announce the document declaring Latin America and the Caribbean a region of peace.

This was specifically approved during the summit held by the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Havana, which also guarantees or proposes the full political will of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace, according to Diaz-Canel.

He underlined that Cuba supports and respects these experiences, stressing that his country will continue to defend, understand, and respect everything that can be done in order to achieve a better world based on the most humane, revolutionary, liberating, and comprehensive stances.

The new generations

In the same context, the Cuban President pointed out that the new generations today that lead leftist courses have learned lessons from history, having analyzed the historical watersheds of the left in the world, thus understanding the need to unite while accounting for diversity, in order to establish a robust framework for the revolutionary struggle.

According to the Cuban President, valuable lessons have been drawn on why socialism has failed in Eastern Europe, and lessons have been drawn from revolutionary endeavors in the world.

He added that the claims and intentions of imperialism at this time have also been analyzed, confirming that it is not possible to talk about a new left or a renewed left or a left that gives continuity to historical milestones if this left is uncertain of its course, what it seeks, or its origin.

“We must bear in mind that imperialism today is developing a whole concept of world domination, and therefore it is ideologically based on an integrated program to restore the momentum of capitalism, neoliberalism, and cultural colonialism,” he said.

“The only means that imperialism employs to abolish identity and destroy nations, culture, and the roots and essence of our peoples is precisely through cultural penetration [ideological subversion] that lures people into skepticism and dismisses all their ideas as obsolete,” Diaz-Canel said.

“Understanding these attitudes is what unites us all to defend our essence, in a common defense of culture and identity, to avoid cultural colonialism and the domination of only one thought that prevails in the world, which is why it is also important to analyze the problems of the left, which, in itself, is lost in problems of neoliberal globalization,” he added.

The Cuban President added, “If we ask what has been globalized? Selfishness has been globalized; it is the language of war. Aggression has also been globalized, leaving social inequality in its wake. It is the imperialist logic, and in the face of this imperialist logic, the logic of the left, or progressive logic, must prevail.”

“In our case, we have a socialist logic, however, we never turn down criticism of our ideology, but I believe it is fundamental to eliminate human exploitation of man to have equality among all the inhabitants of the planet and to distribute wealth in a better manner,” Diaz-Canel said.

“It is very difficult to understand today that in this world of inequality, where so many are impoverished, millions and millions of dollars are being employed in war budgets or spent on armaments,” he said.

“How much more can the world do for the benefit of all its people if these funds are used for other purposes? How much more can be accomplished if there is more integration, if there is mutual respect, and if there are genuine decolonization programs and programs that actually create opportunities for all,” he wondered.

Challenges the Revolution faced

The Cuban President said, “When I was elected President of the Republic, I said that before anything else, we stand as the generation of continuity; [historical] continuity in the dialectical sense of the word, the kind that stands up for the essence of the Revolution that shall lead the Revolution to perfection as well.”

He further explained, “In other words, it was not a generation that wanted to maintain a rigid pace in the development of the Revolution, so in this concept of continuity, a set of values from the historical legacy of the Revolution is also adopted.”

Diaz-Canel believed that “among those values stands out the courage that Fidel and Raul engraved in us; courage that extends throughout our wars for independence and our decision to firmly defend sovereignty and independence and defend the right to self-determination of the Cuban people. In the same sense, the concept of broader communication with the people stands out.” According to Cuba’s leader, the aforementioned constitute elements that shall always distinguish the stance that “we, the revolutionary cadres and fighters, will take in our lives, especially in the most difficult moments.”

“We will always stand up against adversity, we will always stand up against the most difficult, most complex moments, with courage yet calmly because they are moments that we should consider deeply and analyze thoroughly. Such moments cannot be handled in an indecisive spontaneous, disorderly, or arrogant manner,” the Cuban President stressed.

He went on to say that “such are moments in which you must study the reasons and contradictions that are inflicted on the facts, before anything else, followed by looking for the best solutions with the participation of everyone.”

He added, “I always say that none of us can know more than what we all, combined, know, and I believe that the Cuban people have proven throughout their history that they enjoy the talent, strong will, and valor…  that they are heroes who regard their dignity highly.”

Diaz-Canel pointed out that the Cuban people have been under siege for more than sixty years, and continued that his generation, which was born after the Revolution, is “a besieged generation since then. We have lived under siege, but this is something that we shared with our children and grandchildren.”

Furthermore, the Cuban President indicated that “the generations that were born after the Revolution are generations that lived their entire lives under the pressure of the blockade, under the aggression of the blockade, under the repercussions of the blockade, but still, the Revolution did not stop, and it stood in the face of the blockade and was able to develop its programs and projects, although the blockade stood out as the main obstacle in the face of achieving all the aforementioned.”

It goes without saying that “the blockade is a fait accompli that slows down our aspirations and the realization of our projects and dreams,” he tersely stated.

Diaz-Canel added that, starting from the second half of 2019, a very delicate situation prevails, whereby the Trump administration announces more than 243 measures against the Cuban Revolution, which intensified the blockade.

He continued, “Therefore, we are not talking here about the blockade imposed in the sixties or the seventies, nor about the blockade in the ‘delicate period (the nineties).’”

“We are talking about a very intense siege that the world is still experiencing, and based on scrutiny and analysis that we conducted within the leadership of the Revolution at the time, we explained to the people, within a long notice, the problems that we will face,” he added.

The Cuban President stressed that “we have prepared our people in a way that makes it clear to them that we are stepping into a stage full of complications, in which we will face a shortage of food, medical supplies, fuel, spare parts, and foreign currency that enables us to obtain the necessary supplies for our basic productions, as well as providing food and solving the people’s basic problems.”

With Trump’s 243 measures, all sources of the country’s foreign financing were suddenly cut off, and at the same time, the United States initiated up-close monitoring at the level of finances and energy resources against the country with the U.S. government making every effort to prevent, by all means, the entry of fuel into Cuba or that Cuba obtain credit or any sort of financing regardless of how scarce it may be, according to the Cuban President.

Diaz-Canel recalled how, in January 2020, Trump placed Cuba, just a few days before the end of his term as President, on the U.S. list of “state sponsors of terrorism,” which is a made-up, fake list. The reason is that, according to the Cuban President, when a country is arbitrarily included in that list, all banks and financial institutions agencies start to sever ties with the relevant country, thus weakening most of the sources of foreign financing, which are already affected by Trump’s other measures.

He explained how up to this very day, a lot of effort is required if any Cuban tries to conduct business dealings or settle certain payments “because almost no bank wants to be involved in that ever since the sanctions were imposed.”

According to the Cuban President, Trump’s sanctions included activating  Chapter Three of the Helms-Burton Act, which imposes the internationalization of the blockade and punishing countries across the world, meaning that the “Great Empire” even imposes restrictions on the rest of the world [in their dealing with Cuba].

He further explained how the insistence on applying these sanctions over time, as pursued by Biden’s administration, without any change is causing a more severe shortage in supplies of medicines, fuel, and raw materials necessary for Cuba’s main production operations and electricity generation, not to mention hindering the rest of the production and service processes in the country.

Attempts to fail the Revolution

The Cuban President pointed out that alongside these intense problems, which have social repercussions, leading people to develop a sense of resentment and misunderstanding of the situation that started to occupy their lives, the Corona pandemic hit in March 2020.

Therefore, almost all the conditions for a perfect storm were in place, paving the way for a social explosion that the U.S. government longed for in order to fail and put an end to the Cuban Revolution, he further explained, revealing that all this was accompanied by a large-scale U.S. intel operation.

Diaz-Canel stressed that Cuba has evidence and information which clearly show how they led an intense campaign aimed at discrediting the Cuban Revolution on social networks seeking to spread frustration and create estrangement and misunderstanding, knowing that the campaign was directed particularly at the youth category.

“It must be noted that at the beginning of the pandemic which was indeed exacerbating in light of this whole situation, we still dispatched medical teams to countries with pandemic hotspots, as we learned a lot about the disease and were immediately able to develop a plan to combat it, which allowed us primarily by the end of 2020 to reduce the number of infected cases so as to curb a major outbreak,” he further detailed.

The Cuban leader pointed out that they decided to open the borders in 2020, and when they actually did, the Delta strain took over, and since they had not obtained their vaccines at the time, the result was a Delta-instigated pandemic that lasted for about a year.

“All this happened amid the [dire] situation we were in,” he said.

Shedding light on the effect of U.S. sanctions, Diaz-Canel went on to say, “We pursued our program to confront the pandemic, and when we decided to open new intensive care units that we were in dire need of, the United States government prevented companies that manufacture ventilators which are extremely necessary in intensive care rooms or units from selling them to Cuba. Thus, we came across an oxygen-supply crisis, because consumption was higher due to the high number of patients and because our factories faced major setbacks.”

During his interview for Al Mayadeen, the Cuban President stressed that the United States government pressured companies in Latin America not to sell us the medical oxygen that Cuba desperately needed and prevented the arrival of medications and vaccines as well.

He went on to say that amid this entire dire situation, they launched a hypocrisy, disinformation, and slander campaign under the title of “SOSCUBA” at the level of international networks.

U.S. manipulation in the Cuban scene

The Cuban President assessed that all the aforementioned factors, coupled with the dire situation of the Cuban population, have conditioned the Cuban scene for cooptation.

According to Diaz-Canel, Cuba tolerates criticism of the government and provides citizens with suitable mechanisms and platforms for doing so, but what happened in 2021 was something else.

The protests were far from peaceful, and this became clear very soon. After the authorities began their investigations, they uncovered the underpinnings of these protests, revealing the monetary incentives for rioting and vandalizing.

This was what happened on July 11, 2021, the Cuban President said, adding that some had gone out to protest oblivious of the underpinnings, while others were paid to riot and vandalize. “These were not peaceful protesters; they attacked shops and public security forces, trying to disrupt social stability. They were trying to destroy the most significant element of Cuban society that the Cuban citizens are largely fond of: tranquility and reassurance,” he added.

He pointed out that “these were unpleasant times, but lessons were learned, because here, unlike other places in the world, the security forces or the armed forces did not go down to the streets to crack down on the rioters. Instead, they were the revolutionary Cuban people who came out to defend the Revolution.”

“We were the first to arrive at one of the outposts from where the protests broke out, and we explained to the people the situation we were living in,” he said, stressing that “in one day, practically all the nodes of subversive protests were contained and eventually dissipated.”

He added that on the second day, in a neighborhood in Havana, another subversive stunt was pulled but it was short-lived.

“There was a whole scenario prepared by the ’empire’, which was to manufacture an inflated scene of social unrest that would serve as the necessary pretext for the United States to intervene by ‘providing humanitarian assistance’. And we have already seen how the United States ‘provided humanitarian assistance’ for other countries of the world,” the Cuban leader highlighted.

“There are many examples in the Arab world and in Africa, when the United States came with its humanitarian aid in brackets, the conditions of the recipient people and governments deteriorated if anything. It was not humanitarian aid; it was effectively invasions, aggressions, and military interventions – that was the case in Libya and Iraq and other places, and we also have the dirty war that they waged against the Syrian people and nation,” he said.

“These events unfolded like a scenario whereby if Cuba calls on the population to defend the Revolution, then they would have called for a civil war,” Diaz-Canel said, explaining, “Never ever has anyone come out here with weapons to suppress anyone. Had the armed institutions intervened, it would have been possible to say that there was police and armed repression.”

“The second part of the scenario was that when people were to be tried before the law as any country in the world would do in cases of rioting, they would be advertised as political prisoners of the ‘regime’ as they like to portray us. No one has been arrested here, and no one has been subjected to judicial proceedings for simply protesting the situation in Cuba,” he said.

Diaz-Canel stressed that in Cuba, there has never been police repression, unlike the situation in the United States, adding that “they also tried to manipulate the situation, claiming that we were harsher with Blacks than with whites, when, in Cuba, we have programs contending all form of discrimination, especially racial discrimination.”

“It was all just manipulation and fake news; they broadcast these lies to discredit our achievements that are not subject to their purposes and objectives, he said, explaining that had there been supposedly a case of large-scale social unrest in Cuba, the United States would have capitalized on any chance to prove the failure of the Revolution.”

“Despite this, what did they do on social media? They posted pictures of a supposed demonstration that was actually a football festivity in Argentina, and they took pictures of the people demonstrating in support of the Revolution, claiming that they were against it. It was unbelievable: Gerardo Hernández, one of our iconic five heroes, was at a pro-Revolution demonstration, and they still presented it as anti-revolutionary,” he added.

“Does the truthful use such cheap tools to discredit an enemy? Only the U.S. government does it, and it does it out of hatred and insolence,” Diaz-Canel said, stressing that this is the reality of the manipulated events.

Evaluation and social transformation

“What happened next? We learned a lot, made our assessments, went to a debate, and the same palace halls we visited today were spaces for exchanging ideas with representatives of various sectors of Cuban society, including young people,’ the Cuban President highlighted.

“We have also gone on a process of social transformation in Cuban neighborhoods where inequalities have accumulated. We also have people and families in vulnerable situations, regardless of all the social actions of the Revolution, but this is the case because we have lived for years with many needs, even with a lot of deprivation as a result of the tightening of the blockade.”

According to Díaz-Canel, “All the proposals of the population are transmitted to their municipal councils, where citizens are represented on the grass-root level. Then the things that have been approved go back to those neighborhoods, and the residents of the neighborhoods participate in the transformation that they have themselves proposed, and they also exercise popular control we increasingly seek to improve our democracy, and here we have provided essential participation to our youth.”

“How does the story continue? I had to ask our scientists if the production of a Cuban vaccine would be sufficient to be sovereign in the fight against Covid, which was one of the catalysts for this whole situation. I did it in March 2021, and also in July, just three months later,” he said.

The Cuban President added, “A few weeks later, Cuban scientists had already obtained the first vaccine bulb, and then we had five vaccine candidates, today there are three vaccines with tremendous efficacy, so we started a huge vaccination campaign, after conducting clinical trials, emergency studies on vulnerable groups.”

He went on to say, “When we got the vaccines, we had achieved this amid all this crisis. Despite the pressure and the tight blockade, we achieved the highest vaccination rates in the world, and today, we rank second among countries that have provided the largest number of vaccine doses per patient, we are among twenty countries with more than 90% of the population fully vaccinated, and with the reinforcement, we were the first in the world to vaccinate children over the age of two.”

“What are the results? Today we have 0.67% deaths, knowing that the mortality ratio is the ratio of deaths to the number of COVID cases. The average mortality ratio in the world is 1.05%; in Latin America and the Caribbean, it is 1.45%.”

He stressed that Cuba had more competently handled the pandemic and had a more successful strategy in the face of the pandemic than the government of the United States and many developed countries in the world that adopted a neoliberal line. Cuba outperformed all these developed countries in a difficult position and under a tight blockade.

The Cuban president added, “Who was caring for the most vulnerable people in neighborhoods during the pandemic? They’re the young Cubans, no one else.”

Development of public policies

“We have never stopped [engaging in] dialogue with the Cuban youth, as we constantly engage with them and visit universities, and they participate in the basic tasks of the Revolution. We take part in discussions and conferences held by the youth and youth organizations, and the Cuban youth groups are represented in parliament by their peers,” Cuba’s President said in his interview for Al Mayadeen.

He further explained that young Cubans participate in temporary action groups that work on developing public policies, which later lead to the emergence of laws approved by the National Assembly.

“We are currently in an endeavor with the participation of young people, as we set a general policy for youth and childhood, which allows us to reach a law in which we provide more guarantees for the youth and children,” Diaz-Canel added.

He also pointed out that “the main issue is how to continue to work with our youth on the basis of the Revolution-founded values so that the generational difference between those who launched the Revolution and those who defend it today and the new generations does not turn into an ideological difference and a rift.”

The Cuban leader stressed that this matter is “a challenge ahead of us and herein lies its beauty, but I believe that we will achieve it because we are already doing it today and the majority of our youth are with the Revolution, regardless of whether they live today in a society whose capabilities are limited in a way that does not allow the full realization of the aspirations of their projects in life.”

He further told Al Mayadeen, “All of this has led me to wonder: How can a country living under such dire circumstances, in which chaos would have prevailed had the schemes plotted against it succeeded, defeat Covid? The country has now reached a post-pandemic stage, and we started to revitalize our economic and social life, and still, the measures meant to tighten the blockade are still in place.

According to the Cuban President, the Cuban people have developed the capacity for resistance, which is not only to resist and endure the blockade; rather, it is the resistance that prevailed in the past year and shall move forward, overcoming the current adversities by relying on the talent and efforts of the Cubans.

“This is how Covid was defeated. Armed with the notion of everyone works for everyone, we focused on saving the lives of Cuban men and women, and we achieved that,” Diaz-Canel emphasized.

He went on to say, “And just as we succeeded in the case of Covid, we will continue to succeed, and we will continue to make achievements with the participation of our youth.”

Source: Al Mayadeen English

San Diego — Sunday morning, March 12, started a little overcast, but that didn’t keep people from coming out for the 10 a.m. kick-off rally for the March for Black Womxn (M4BW) 2023.

The rally was held on University Avenue outside Fatuma’s, an African restaurant in City Heights, a culturally rich neighborhood in San Diego.

Rally co-chair Nyisha Geedoubleu welcomed everyone present in person and those watching live on Facebook before introducing the march security team leader, who welcomed representatives from the Kumeyaay Nation to deliver a message of support and solidarity.

It was important to organizers to acknowledge, recognize, and show respect to the Indigenous people who have lived on this “land we are standing on” since the beginning of time.

This will be the fourth annual M4BW in San Diego. The organizers — Nyisha and Christina Griffin — spoke about the challenges encountered in making the final decision to have the women’s march in the midst of the ongoing pandemic that continues to plague our communities. It’s been three years since the last M4BW march, and we mourn those who are not physically with us and are grateful for everyone who came out to join us in person and those joining virtually.

Nyisha reminded us that the march was originally held on March 10, Harriet Tubman day. The 2018 and 2019 marches were held on March 10, Saturday, and Sunday, respectively. This year March 10 was on a Friday, which was not a good day to have a march, but then again, this march, as with previous marches, continues to honor the legacy of Harriet Tubman.

The rally speakers addressed a multitude of issues related to racism, women and incarceration, medical neglect, police brutality, and domestic violence, with an emphasis on Trans Womxn and racist migrant detention centers that house Womxn and separate children from their families.

The family of Muma Kuri, a Somali woman found dead in her City Heights apartment on March 7, 2019, reported that justice was served. After three years of fighting, the killer, her husband, was convicted of first-degree murder in November of 2022 and sentenced to 26 years to life in prison.

On the issue of migrant detention, Christina spoke of CCA San Diego Detention Facility. This privately owned corporation works under contract with ICE to house immigrant detainees in downtown San Diego. ICE officers decide the bond amounts for the release of detainees who are fighting their cases in immigration court. Bails for Black migrants are excessively higher than for non-Black migrants. The non-profits that raise money will bail out migrants with lower bonds, which means that many Black migrants could be detained indefinitely and then deported. The conditions in these detention centers are unbearably inhumane.

Why we march without a permit

Christina explained why we are marching in the streets without a permit or police escorts: “Our first M4BW was in March of 2018. The city of San Diego approached the 2018 San Diego Women’s March organizers and gave them a permit and protection for free. When Nyisha went downtown to apply for a permit for our M4BW, they told her it would be $5,000. The $5,000 was to pay for police who would protect us.” The San Diego Women’s march was predominately white, so essentially white women were given a permit and protection by the police. Black Womxn were not given permission and must pay for police protection.

The M4BW is an anti-police march. We do not need or want police protection, nor do we need permission to march in our streets. The San Diego Black Panther Party and the Brown Berets provided security and safety, monitored and directed traffic during the 1.5-mile march down University Avenue, a major street in City Heights. There were also medics available to assist during the rally and march. It was a vibrant, high-energy march.

After the rally, the March for Black Womxn, organized by and led by Black Womxn, began. Christina explained the significance of the M4BW chant: “Say Her Name.” Black Womxn, especially Black Trans Womxm murdered by state sanction, intimate partner, and inter-communal violence, were ignored in spaces where people lifted up those killed by state-sanctioned violence. The call and response chant began with saying the name of a Black Womxn killed by police, and marchers responded with “SAY HER NAME.”

Close to a hundred people were marching down University Avenue, chanting “Say Her Name” as the names of Black Womxn killed by state-sanctioned murder were shouted, stopping briefly as intersections were cleared by security for safe passage. The names of Black women included Cashay Henderson, and Jasmine Mack, both transgender women in Milwaukee and Washington, respectively. 

Everyone made it to City Heights park to meet up with other M4BW organizers already preparing for an afternoon of entertainment and a closing rally.

The entire march and rally was live-streamed on Facebook – “March For Black Womxn SD. Protect, Respect, & Listen to Black Womxn!”

This writer covered the 2018 and 2019 Black Women’s March.