Every speech Benjamin Netanyahu gives is an exercise in utter evil. At this point, Bibi’s evil rantings should shock no one. With that said, the fascist demagogue’s recent speech to the United Nations represented a stark display in U.S. imperialist arrogance and Nazi brutality. 

Netanyahu ranted for a little over half an hour. His speech was full of the typical lies, racist vitriol, and genocide apologia that have been Bibi’s hallmark throughout his political career. The Israeli Prime Minister again repeated accusations against Hamas of rape and beheadings on Oct. 7 – accusations that have been thoroughly debunked. Bibi painted a picture of an aggressive Iran hell bent on the eradication of the Jewish people. Another lie. 

One of the largest lies played a central role in the speech, this lie being that the current genocide against Gaza is all an attempt to rescue Israeli hostages from Gaza. If the current genocidal effort against Gaza was remotely related to Israeli prisoners of war, Netanyahu would have made a deal two years ago. Exacerbating the transparency of this lie is the fact that Zionist strikes have consistently killed their own citizens held prisoner in Gaza. 

This genocidal war is not about hostages or Jewish safety or self-defense. This war is about the imperialist attempt to break all resistance to their ambitions in the Middle East. Bibi’s speech highlighted these ambitions in substance and structure. He opened the tirade with not just firebrand anti-Palestinian rhetoric, but with a complete condemnation of the entire Muslim world. The Prime Minister bragged that Israel had assassinated so many religious and political leaders in countries like Yemen, Iran, and Lebanon – as if this should be a source of pride. 

At full froth, Netanyahu displayed a map identifying “The Curse.” The map is marked in red: Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen. While Israel is the face of imperialist war in the Middle East, there is importance in understanding that all these countries are enemies of Israel because they are enemies of the United States. 

Yemen, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran all represent two core problems for U.S. imperialism. One, they provide varying levels of resistance against U.S. / Israeli military rule in the region. Two, all five of these places have been historically or currently are markets closed to the U.S. on some level. In the present day, Western billionaires can’t make a profit from Gaza’s beaches, Iran’s oil, or southern Lebanon’s agriculture. And in the imperialist mind, if they can’t profit, then they would rather destroy completely. 

That is not to say all these places are politically homogeneous or share the same form of government. However, at one period or another, one way or another, these “curses” have represented a problem for U.S. imperialist economic and political domination of the region. Imperialism in its current phase is not willing to accept loss of profit or influence, no matter how small. 

This is exactly why Israel has so aggressively waged war against the people of the entire region for daring to assert any self-determination. Netanyahu said as much: 

“You know deep down that Israel is fighting your fight. I want to tell you a secret. Behind closed doors, many of the leaders who publicly condemn us, privately thank us. They tell me how much they value Israel’s superb intelligence services that have prevented time and again terrorist attacks in their capitals. Time and again saving countless lives.”

Netanyahu may be a liar, but here he’s telling somewhat of a truth. Many European leaders have publicly criticized or denounced Israel for their actions. However, the criticism has often proven to be performative as those same leaders approved new weapons sales to Israel. It isn’t hard to believe that these same leaders would thank Netanyahu privately for his country’s fascist service on behalf of imperialism. 

Netanyahu’s speech is a reminder of the role Israel serves. Israel’s role is not to avenge the Holocaust, or protect the Jewish people, or to preserve democracy in the Middle East. Israel’s role is to carry out brutal and asymmetrical warfare on behalf of Western billionaires while they sit safely in New York, Washington, London, Berlin, and Brussels.

To fight the enemy, that enemy must be identified. Luckily, Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently done the work making obvious who the true enemy of the working class and the Global South is: U.S. imperialism. 

Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, the Foreign Minister of Cuba, delivered a powerful message calling for “all human rights for all human beings,” as the keynote speaker at “Cuba and the U.N.: A Fight for the Global South.” 

The event was held at the SVA Theater in New York City on Sept. 27. Rodríguez called for a new world order free of blockades and exploitation, both in Cuba and in Palestine. His speech echoed the words of Assata Shakur, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

His speech began in solidarity with Palestine. Rodríguez strongly proclaimed that it is the U.N.’s duty to condemn the genocide committed by Israel. He continued that the global community cannot accept that the U.N. has no responsibility to the Palestinian people. The foreign minister further demanded that Palestine become a full member of the U.N., with the borders established before 1967. The opening speaker of the program also highlighted Cuba’s continuous history of solidarity with Palestine. From when Cuban leaders took the first steps in the 1960s by visiting Gaza and establishing relations to this week, when Cuba opened in the U.N. by speaking of how 2.2 million people in Gaza face a blockade and genocide, Cuba has demonstrated solidarity with Palestine.

Rodríguez’s speech continued with the struggle against imperialism by discussing the U.S. military presence in the Southern Hemisphere. Fighting drug trafficking is the excuse the United States uses to assert military rule and dominance as an imperial power in Latin America. Recently, U.S. naval forces have been deployed in the Caribbean and have committed strikes on Venezuelan ships, killing civilians. The Cuban people and the Cuban government reject the U.S. militarization of the Caribbean and targeting of Venezuela.

Cuba has been a target of an asymmetrical war of attrition by the U.S., with an aim to conquer Cuba by isolating it with a blockade to cut off international trade. This year alone, the U.S. blockade on Cuba has cost the Cuban people 7.5 billion USD. The goal of the U.S. blockade is not hidden; in April 1960, a U.S. memorandum stated that the only means to stop Cuban support for Castro was to cause such great financial and life hardship that the people would turn against the government, so that it could be overthrown. 

This blockade continues today, resulting in blackouts, threatening the water supply, and restricting access to essential health and medical supplies. The U.S. propaganda campaign asserts that Cuban socialism is the cause of these hardships, when in reality, the cause is the U.S. blockade. The blockade has not stopped Cuba from persisting; Cuba is investing in solar power to decrease the economic deficit and provide the people with energy. 

Despite the U.S. propaganda campaigns against Cuban medical programs, Cuba will continue its commitment to medical cooperation. Currently, there are approximately 24,000 Cuban medical practitioners providing services in 56 countries worldwide. Rodríguez asserted that imperialism cannot erase Cuba’s economic and social accomplishments. 

The speech ended with a strong statement: Imperialism cannot cause Cuba to stray from the path of socialism. In a call to action, he concluded by speaking of how Fidel Castro believed a better world is possible, and that the only way to achieve this is for the oppressed and exploited to struggle. Together, no empire can hold back the change that is coming.

¡Cuba Sí, Bloqueo No!

 

President Donald Trump’s appearance before hundreds of generals and admirals at Quantico was not a routine address. It was a declaration of war — not on foreign rivals, but on the people in the U.S. 

At a time of austerity budgets and cuts everywhere, the two-hour special assembly of all admirals and generals in command positions worldwide cost approximately $6 million, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. It could have been done on Zoom for a few thousand dollars.

Flanked by his so-called Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Trump laid out plans to transform the U.S. military into a domestic instrument of repression, targeting immigrants, Black and Brown communities, unions, women, LGBTQ+ people and anyone who dares resist his agenda.

“We’re going to straighten them out one by one,” Trump told the brass. “That’s a war too. It’s a war from within.” He announced the creation of a “quick reaction force” to put down civil disturbances, casting protest as an “enemy from within.” 

He went further: U.S. cities, he suggested, should be used as “training grounds” for the armed forces. The meaning was clear — the normalization of military occupation on U.S. soil.

This was not theater. Trump has already sent National Guard units and Marines to Los Angeles, ordered federal forces into Portland, overseen the occupation of Washington, D.C., and named Chicago, Baltimore, San Francisco, and New York as future targets. 

The plan is clear: concentrate military power against the working-class, multinational centers of resistance that anchor U.S. cities.

Building a political guard

Hegseth railed against “woke garbage,” vowed to purge dissenting officers, and pushed directives that would gut protections against racism and sexual abuse, including rape. Even seemingly trivial rules — like beard bans — carry a racist edge, aimed at forcing out Black and Muslim soldiers, sailors and marines.

Hegseth has begun an “anti-woke” purge of the officer corps. He has fired dozens of senior officers, including the previous chairman of the Joint Chiefs, other top generals, combat commanders, and other commanders.

The goal in eliminating Black, Latine, women, lesbian, gay and trans officers is to ensure a political guard in the mold of the Waffen-SS.

Trump’s demand was explicit: any officer unwilling to join this war on the “enemy within” should resign. 

This was no isolated provocation. It is the spearhead of a coordinated, multi-front offensive to consolidate personal rule and unleash a historic assault on the U.S. working class.

This authoritarian offensive reaches far beyond the barracks. Trump has moved to neutralize every potential source of opposition — indicting critics, hounding media outlets, and leaning on corporations and social media platforms to silence dissent. TikTok, newly brought under oligarchic control, is being reshaped as a tool for suppressing digital protest.

Harshest on the most oppressed

As always, the harshest blows fall on the most oppressed. ICE operates as a Gestapo-like force, detaining tens of thousands without charge and deporting two million, according to Homeland Security, within months — spreading terror in immigrant neighborhoods and leaving families too frightened to leave their homes.

Meanwhile, the assault on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is a calculated attempt to roll back the gains of the civil rights movement. Corporations are eagerly complying, weaponizing discrimination to strip workplace rights from Black, Asian, Latine, Indigenous, women, lesbian, gay and trans workers.

Trump’s vow to use major cities (all with Black mayors) as “training grounds” makes the racist logic clear. Deployments to Los Angeles, Portland, Memphis, and the occupied capital (Washington) are not about “crime waves.” They are military operations designed to crush popular protest and silence resistance.

Purges and austerity

The authoritarian offensive extends deep into the government itself. The administration has purged an estimated 300,000 federal workers, clearing the way to turn the machinery of government into Trump’s personal party apparatus.

But authoritarianism here has a class purpose. “Make America Great Again” is not a carnival slogan or nostalgic appeal. It is a program to restructure U.S. capitalism by restoring profitability and global supremacy. And the chosen method is as old as capitalism itself: the ruthless intensification of exploitation.

Wages must be driven down, unions crushed, with the police and military force unleashed to discipline labor.

Trump’s bombast is camouflage; his tantrums are tactics. The real goal is to expand the U.S. government’s role in repressing working-class resistance and securing the conditions for renewed profits.

Class war budget

Trump’s budget exposes the blueprint: massive tax giveaways to the wealthy, financed through deep cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, and every program working people depend on to survive. 

In Marxist terms, this is not mere fiscal policy — it is the government acting as the executive committee of the capitalist class, orchestrating a direct transfer of value from labor to capital. Workers lose the meager social wage they fought to win; capital reaps the reward in the form of subsidies and tax relief.

And this is only the opening salvo. What is being prepared is not one round of cuts but a rolling offensive — a sustained assault on living standards and democratic rights until resistance is broken.

Dictatorship of the bourgeoisie

This is not McCarthyism in the midst of a booming postwar economy, when red-baiting was used to pacify a labor movement still on the rise. What we face today is far more dangerous: repression unfolding in the middle of a crisis economy defined by what capitalist economists call a “K-shaped recovery.”

The metaphor is telling. The upward line represents the soaring fortunes of the asset-owning capitalist class, fattened by imperialist super-profits and speculative bubbles. The downward line marks the opposite reality: a working class pushed into stagnation and decline, with its wages flat and its social wage gutted by austerity. 

The conclave at Quantico, the ICE raids, the mass purges, and the austerity budget are not disconnected episodes. They are interlocking parts of a single program: the construction of a dictatorship to wage open war on the working class.

At the U.N. on Sept. 25, just days before the assembly of generals and admirals, Trump laid the groundwork for a U.S. invasion of Venezuela. In the last month, U.S. forces sank three boats off Venezuela’s coast. 

Speaking from the podium at the U.N., Trump warned, “We will blow you out of existence / obliterate you.”

Trump is not merely eroding norms. He is actively constructing an apparatus of power designed to crush organized opposition. His invocation of “the enemy within” is not rhetoric. It is a declaration of class war.

Quantico was a show of force and a statement of intent. The White House is remapping the instruments of state toward political domination. The question now is whether the working class meets this offensive with fragmented outrage — or with collective power strong enough to turn back the billionaire oligarchs who would trample democratic rights to secure their domination.

The State Department recently updated its list of wars that Donald Trump allegedly ended. Trump now claims that he has brokered a peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Trump would have the world believe that this is another feather in his cap as a peacemaker. Previously, Trump and his State Department have taken credit for six other conflicts: India and Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Serbia and Kosovo, Egypt and Ethiopia, Israel and Iran, Thailand and Cambodia. 

We have previously reported on the patent factual inaccuracies of these claims. India and Pakistan have both denied that any third party played a role in mediating the Kashmir-centered skirmishes of 2025. The last war between Egypt and Ethiopia ended in 1876. Trump started the war between Israel and Iran, which he also claims to have ended. Does an arsonist really deserve credit for dousing the fire they started?

Even where Trump and his administration have played some role in mediating conflicts, there is still an inherent Western arrogance in claiming complete credit for any brokered peace. This arrogance is compounded when considering the continued U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza and the U.S.-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. 

Just three days before Trump’s claim that he was “the President of Peace,” his administration approved $6.4 billion in weapons sales to apartheid Israel. That is $6.4 billion to bomb hospitals and murder children — some President of Peace. 

While claiming to be a peacemaker, Trump simultaneously announced a strategy that ensures NATO’s war in Ukraine continues indefinitely. Three hours before his seven wars ended claim, Trump ranted on Truth Social that “with the support of the European Union is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form. With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option.” 

Trump’s latest rant makes the U.S. imperialist strategy in Ukraine even more apparent. As we wrote in March, Trump and his cohorts never planned to end the war in Ukraine. U.S. imperialism had no intention of ending its NATO war in an attempt to bleed Russia of resources and political will. Burden shifting the Ukraine war to Europe is an imperialist strategic decision aimed at refocusing for war on China. The Republican Party effectively used war weariness to parlay a 2024 election victory over the deeply unpopular Joe Biden. However, rhetoric is not the same as policy. 

Outright U.S military aid to Ukraine may have ended, but the Trump administration has continually arranged for Ukrainian purchases of U.S. weapons with NATO funds. In the end, the result is the same. The war rages on, and with it, so do massive profits for U.S. defense conglomerates. 

Donald Trump is nothing more than an imperialist war monger. The proof is in the pudding. Trump’s first fascist administration murdered Qassem Soleimani in cold blood. Just a few months ago, Trump ordered strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. Strikes on Iran followed a several-week-long naval and air campaign against Yemen. With Trump’s approval, Israel has launched its largest-ever ground offensive into Gaza. Bloodshed has not been limited to the Middle East. The U.S. military destroyed multiple small boats off the coast of Venezuela under the pretext of fighting “narco-terrorism.” These extrajudicial executions have accompanied an unprecedented U.S. naval buildup across the Caribbean Sea. 

To be clear, the fascist demagogue is not acting alone. He is supported by a whole circus of generals, DOD staffers, the defense lobby, and fascist demagogues like Pete Hegseth. Trump’s administration unleashing war across the planet is not a matter of one man or even a Republican majority in Congress. Imperialist escalation against the entire Global South is a reflection of the imperialist goal to break all resistance.

Trump’s continued war drive is a threat to the entire working class across the globe. Workers everywhere face a literal fight for survival. The only way forward is global working-class resistance against the global billionaire class. 

New York City, Sept. 26 – In a powerful gathering, activists and organizers convened at the New York Society for Ethical Culture to condemn the unfolding genocide in Gaza, to expose all those complicit, and to call for direct action against the Zionist regime and the capitalist-imperialist governments that are funding, arming, and providing the colonial infrastructure necessary for the genocide to continue.

The keynote address was given by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who made connections between the resistance struggles against colonialism from Haiti to Venezuela to Palestine. Other speakers included Nadya Tannous of the Bay Area Palestinian Youth Movement and organizer of the Mask off Maersk movement, Palestinian-American human rights attorney Noura Erakat and journalist Rula Jebreal. 

The Hague Group was formed in order to coordinate international action against the apartheid government of Israel and expose those who remain complicit in these atrocities. South Africa, which represents the co-chair of the group, has charged the government of Israel with genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Before attending this meeting, President Petro joined pro-Palestine demonstrators outside the U.N. He has called for the formation of an army of justice whose first mission would be the liberation of Palestine. In response to these efforts, the U.S. government has revoked his visa, highlighting its lack of commitment to international justice and human rights. In response, Petro has called for the UN General Assembly to be moved from the U.S. due to its lack of respect for international law. 

We must continue to defend Palestine and the leaders brave enough to resist the path of colonial-imperialism. Now is a time for action, and President Gustavo Petro is showing all of us the way of international solidarity. We must continue to stand firmly against the threat of fascism, and if we must pick up arms in order to defend the rights of the oppressed, then we will join the masses of the world to defeat the Zionist regime once and for all. 

“Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” – Nelson Mandela

Port workers are striking all over the world for Gaza. And in Los Angeles, 21 organizations from L.A., Orange County and the Inland Empire came together to protest in front of the federal building in Westwood. Just months ago, this same federal building was occupied by the National Guard. 

The protest was just a mile away from UCL.A. and the West L.A. Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and received a lot of attention and support from cars driving by the busy Westwood intersection. One woman who happened to be driving by even decided to grab her Palestine flag from her trunk and join the protest.  

All speakers brought their hearts and humanity into their speeches, creating a community space filled with bravery and determination to put a stop to this genocide. They reminded us of the dire situation in Gaza created by the Zionist occupation and funded with U.S. tax dollars. 

Together we stood in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotillas and the port workers around the world. Support for Gaza continues to grow in the U.S., and protests like these remind us that there is power in numbers. Now, our presence on the street is even more important as the fascists in the U.S. government try to silence our voices by any means necessary. We cannot let them.  

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Pacific Coast Pensioners Association (PCPA) recently held its 56th convention at the Westin Airport Hotel in San Francisco, from Sept. 14 to 17. Delegates from West Coast ports, including Alaska and Vancouver, British Columbia, were in attendance.

During the proceedings, Brother William “Bill” Proctor, delegate from Local 19 of Seattle, introduced the following motion: “That the PCPA donate $5,000 to the World Central Kitchen designated for Relief of Palestinian Women and Children.” The motion passed unanimously with delegates from the Pacific Northwest, Northern and Southern California speaking in support of the motion.

Unlike many of the younger, active members who are unfamiliar with the ILWU’s long history of concern and support for the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, the pensioners were part of forging that history.

The political and social consciousness of the Palestinian struggle is attributable to Local 10’s activism regarding the anti-apartheid solidarity actions in not working South African cargo, and observing community pickets against vessels carrying South African cargo.

In the 1980s, members of Local 10, such as Leo Robinson, were drawing a comparative analysis between the apartheid treatment of Black South Africans and Israeli apartheid treatment of Palestinians.

Bill Proctor started his longshore career in Local 10 in the 1960s, before transferring to the Port of Seattle in the 1980s. While a member in Local 10, Bill was quite active in the apartheid activities of the local. He was also one of the founding members of the Southern Africa Liberation Support Committee, organized by Local 10.

As the world is witnessing the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, labor must understand that “Peace is Union Business!” It has to take strategic action wherever it can to stop and resist the genocide. Solidarity is not an empty slogan.

Clarence Thomas, Executive Board PCPA

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New York, Sept. 26 — Over 10,000 people marched through Manhattan this morning, condemning Zionist leader Netanyahu’s appearance at the United Nations. They demanded that the war criminal be arrested.

People gathered at Times Square, where speakers denounced the U.S.-supplied and financed genocide that has killed at least 20,000 children in Gaza.

Many organizations helped build the protest, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, ANSWER Coalition, The People’s Forum, PAL-Awda, Nodutdol, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

There were contingents of Koreans, anti-Zionist Jews and people from the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Buses came from a number of towns and cities in the Northeast.

Environmental activists, who were in New York for U.N. climate week, including a contingent of Native people from Alaska, joined the march.

Protesters marched uptown in the streets, with the protest extending several blocks in length. People chanted “Free, free, free Palestine!” while drums were played. Colorful banners were carried.

Some marchers carried Colombian flags and a large banner supporting Colombian President Petro’s call for the nations of the world to send a multinational protective force to Gaza to physically stop the genocide.

Speaking to the General Assembly this week, the Colombian President Gustavo Petro called on the body to invoke its “unite for peace” power to circumvent U.S. veto power on the Security Council.

Marchers filled Dag Hammarskjold Park, located across from the U.N. After the rally and a Friday prayer and sermon, people gathered in the plaza, where they were surprised by a personal visit from President Petro and musician Roger Waters. Petro, speaking over a megaphone, repeated his call for an international liberation army to go to Palestine. He also called on U.S. soldiers to refuse illegal orders to fire on humanity. In retaliation, the Trump regime, in violation of the U.N. charter, cancelled the visa of the president of 53 million Colombian people.

The night before, six people were arrested in a midnight noise protest outside the Loews Regency hotel where Netanyahu was staying.

Inside the United Nations, dozens of delegations, representing the vast majority of humanity, walked as Netanyahu began to speak, leaving him to address a nearly empty hall.

The world says: Stop the genocide!

Statement by Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, during the general debate of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly. New York, September 27, 2025

Madam President of the General Assembly; Mr. Secretary-General:

As we deliberate here, 2.2 million human beings in Gaza are condemned to starvation by the actions of genocide, extermination, and ethnic cleansing carried out by the Zionist regime, which has the military and financial supplies and impunity guaranteed by the United States government.

On behalf of the government and people of Cuba, I reiterate our strongest solidarity with the Palestinian people and their just cause for freedom, independence, and an end to the Zionist occupation.

If the Security Council proves powerless due to the veto that the United States exercises or threatens to exercise, and is unable to take effective measures to stop the barbarism, this General Assembly has the duty and the capacity to promote concrete measures without delay.

At the very least, it must unequivocally declare Palestine’s right to be a member state of the UN, within the pre-1967 borders, with its capital in East Jerusalem and the right of return for refugees.

Eleven million people, including three million children, die every year from hunger and related diseases. The climate crisis is destroying nations and lives, devastating communities and economies. A handful of countries and individuals accumulate more wealth than the vast majority of all our countries combined. Colossal inequalities slow down and prevent sustainable development.

There has been no effective global response to today’s serious challenges. There could not be, because the current world order reflects a bygone era, when most developing countries did not even exist as independent states. Eighty years ago, the UN was founded with just 51 Member States. Today there are 193.

The most urgent priority is to create a new international order that guarantees peace, the right to development, sovereign equality, and the participation and representation of developing countries in global policy decisions; that provides for the common good and prosperity in harmony with nature; and that ensures the exercise of all human rights for all people.

Let us aspire to a new civilized coexistence, in which solidarity, international cooperation, and the peaceful settlement of disputes prevail as alternatives to war, the use of force, aggression, and occupation; a new coexistence opposed to aspirations of unipolar domination and hegemony. An order without blockades or unilateral coercive measures, based on multilateralism and with full respect for the Charter of the United Nations and international law.

Even with its limitations, the United Nations remains the most representative body of the international community. We have a duty to protect and strengthen it, in its intergovernmental essence, in its democratic foundations that cannot be diluted by generalized agendas, subject to capricious priorities and rules imposed by those who provide the most funding.

It is necessary to highlight the central role of the General Assembly as its most democratic and representative body.

The “UN80” initiative, launched by the Secretary-General, must have as its main objective the strengthening of the intergovernmental character of the United Nations and its capacity to better face the pressing challenges of the present.

We must reject the threatening proposal of a new doctrine called “peace through strength,” which amounts to imposing the arbitrary will of U.S. imperialism on everyone through the use of threats, coercion, and aggression.

It is a doctrine designed to satisfy the ambitions of a unipolar power already in decline, which also serves the interests of large transnational corporations at the expense of the rights of sovereign nations and their peoples, and of the values on which this Organization was built.

In the Caribbean Sea, the threat of war looms today, with an extraordinary naval and air deployment of an offensive nature, absolutely unjustified, with missiles and means of landing and assault, and nuclear submarines.

Ballistic missiles with nuclear capability are being test-fired. The United States uses the pretext of combating crime and drug trafficking, a myth that no one believes.

The attack and destruction of boats with no identification or known destination, the murder or extrajudicial execution of civilians, the interception of boats or fishing vessels, and the aggressive actions of the United States create a dangerous situation that violates international law and threatens regional peace and security.

We reaffirm our strong rejection of threats of aggression against Venezuela and our full support for the Bolivarian and Chavista government of that sister Latin American and Caribbean nation and for the Popular-Military Union led by the legitimate president Nicolás Maduro Moros.

We repudiate the Monroe Doctrine and any attempt at militarization, intervention, or imperialist domination in Latin America and the Caribbean, proclaimed a Zone of Peace in January 2014 in Havana with the signing of the Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

The accelerated arms race entails competition in the field of death and destruction, with the use of extraordinary financial and material resources that could be allocated to poverty alleviation, development, and cooperation.

Meanwhile, the meager goals of the 2030 Agenda cannot be met; Official Development Assistance commitments are ignored, and funding for tackling climate change is declining.

In 1960, before this very Assembly, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, said, and I quote: “Let the philosophy of dispossession disappear, and the philosophy of war will disappear.”

Madam President:

Climate change is advancing inexorably and rapidly. The first six months of this year have been the warmest on record. Last year was already the hottest on record. Today, even from this very podium, science and decades of collective work to protect the planet are being questioned.

If the unsustainable production and consumption patterns of capitalism are not radically changed, we will exceed the fateful threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius before 2030.

The external debt of developing countries, already paid several times over, is growing and accumulating astronomical amounts of interest as a new form of colonization. The commitments made at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development must be implemented, with additional resources and a specific multilateral mechanism for debt negotiation.

We suffer the consequences of powerful cultural domination in an era in which digital technology is impacting our lives in an increasingly accelerated and comprehensive manner. A few transnational corporations, almost all of them American, impose their operating systems and control the content that is seen, read, and heard, manipulating human behavior. We suffer the dictatorship of the algorithm.

We need to establish common standards at the UN as soon as possible to unleash the transformative potential of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence, for the benefit of all, while mitigating the risks.

In addition to the challenges Cuba faces as a small developing island nation, our country suffers the devastating and cumulative impact of the policy of hostility and economic suffocation imposed by the United States for more than six decades.

The blockade against Cuba persists and is becoming extremely harsh. This is a true, comprehensive, and prolonged economic war, aimed at depriving Cubans of their livelihoods and sustainability, of their existence as a united, cultured, and joyful people.

Anyone who claims otherwise is deliberately lying. The very promoters of this war boast of its destructive effect and its ability to strike at the standard of living of an entire people from any corner of the planet.

The aggression has escalated to unprecedented levels in the last eight years, including actions of persecution and economic pressure on third parties, the States that you represent, which are increasingly elaborate, surgical, and extraterritorial. It causes multiple and extraordinary impediments to productive, commercial, and financial activity, as well as to the services and policies that guarantee social justice and life itself.

Cuba today faces a serious situation of prolonged and daily power cuts, difficulties in affording food, insufficient availability of medicines, a decline in public transport, limitations in community services, and pronounced inflation that depresses real incomes.

In 1960, Deputy Secretary of State Lester Mallory drafted the infamous memorandum on coercion and blockade against Cuba that has guided the US government’s conduct throughout all these years and continues to do so today. It stated, and I quote: “…all possible means must be used quickly to weaken the economic life of Cuba…a course of action that…will achieve the greatest progress in depriving Cuba of money and supplies, in reducing its financial resources and real wages, in causing hunger, desperation, and the overthrow of the government.” End of quote.

The current US Secretary of State is the reincarnation of that macabre individual.

Madam President:

Cuba is a victim of terrorism and has been for decades of US state terrorism. For years, and even today, terrorist acts against the country are organized and financed from U.S. territory. Recognized perpetrators of horrendous acts of aggression against the Cuban people, resulting in thousands of deaths, mutilations, and extensive material damage, live here quietly and with absolute impunity.

In fulfillment of its responsibilities against terrorism and in line with the UN’s efforts to combat this scourge, the Cuban government has officially shared with the US government in recent years the names and details of 62 individuals and 20 organizations based in this country who have been responsible for violent and terrorist acts and who, from this territory, continue to participate in acts of this nature against Cuba. No response has been received, and it is not known whether the United States authorities have taken any action against any of them.

It is cynical that the United States government, for purposes of political and economic coercion, labels Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism, a slander that is not shared by this Organization or any of its Member States.

Many of the national institutions, both banking and financial as well as commercial, of almost all the countries represented here, are subject to intimidation because of this false designation by the United States government. As a result, their banks often avoid dealing with Cuban entities, offering us credit, supporting our commercial activity, or channeling our bank transfers.

Added to this is the intimidation of citizens of more than 40 countries whom the US government threatens with reprisals if, by virtue of their rights, they decide to visit Cuba.

The United States has unleashed a virulent campaign of discrediting and persecuting Cuban medical cooperation, and of harassing and coercing the authorities of the countries that receive it. It is a strategy directed directly from the State Department.

It seeks to denigrate this cooperation, which has saved millions of lives and, in many cases, has been the only option for large population groups to access health services.

This altruistic and supportive cooperation is based on absolutely legitimate bilateral agreements and is fully in line with international standards on cooperation of this and other international organizations.

I confirm, once again, that Cuba will maintain its commitments to all countries with which it has bilateral medical cooperation agreements and programs, and will remain willing to expand this cooperation with all governments willing to develop it, respecting international law and their national legislation, for the well-being of their peoples.

Since 1963, almost the same time as Mr. Mallory’s memorandum, 605,000 doctors and specialists have performed more than 17 million surgical procedures and more than 5 million deliveries in dozens of countries. At this time, more than 24,000 health professionals are providing and will provide services in 56 countries.

The aggression against Cuba is reinforced by a powerful destabilization machine that, from U.S. territory and with funding from the federal budget of that country, imposes an offensive aimed at disrupting public peace, promoting acts of violence, disorienting the population, and discrediting our country.

This is an unconventional warfare strategy that combines emotional manipulation with information intoxication in an attempt to impose a climate of despair and political demobilization.

In the face of such an asymmetrical onslaught, the determination of our people is strengthened. We are aware of the great challenges we face and the need to set in motion, with creativity and the cooperation of all, economic recovery and strengthen our well-known and effective social policies.

Last July, President Miguel Díaz-Canel described and quoted: “We are not an accident of history. We are the logical consequence of a history of resistance and rebellion against abuse and injustice.” End of quote.

We will not waver in our determination to build our dreams of a socialist country, better and more prosperous for all, based on the constitutional order freely chosen by our people, which guarantees sovereignty, national and cultural identity, and reflects the dream of the Apostle José Martí, summarized in his memorable aspirations, and I quote: “the Cubans’ cult of the full dignity of man” and “conquering all justice.”

We have designed a realistic economic recovery program, adapted to the very peculiar and extraordinary conditions of our country, aware that we must overcome the devastating impacts of the blockade, overcome the deficiencies of the current economic structure, and, I quote, “change everything that must be changed.” We avoid getting our hopes up, but the results are already beginning to be felt at the macroeconomic level, although they are not yet reflected in everyday life, nor are they perceived by families.

Cuba is a peaceful nation. Despite all the damage that the United States has caused and continues to cause us, we have always been willing to engage in dialogue without preconditions and to try to move toward a respectful and civilized relationship with that country, without subordination or limits to our sovereign prerogatives. Both peoples would benefit from such an opportunity.

A considerable number of Cubans live here in the United States, many of whom today feel threatened, since they have been vilely betrayed by politicians who have made careers, especially in Miami, and enriched themselves, supposedly representing them. With the perennial sowing of hatred and political manipulation, these politicians now opportunistically support the xenophobic, racist, and repressive measures of intimidation and retaliation that are unjustly applied against them.

This is particularly the case in the State Department.

It cannot be forgotten that the vast majority of Cubans have come to this country for more than 60 years, driven by the conditions caused by the blockade and attracted by the privilege of politically motivated laws and practices of encouragement, welcome, and protection, regardless of whether they emigrated regularly or not.

Madam President:

We reaffirm our commitment as a partner country of the BRICS.

We reject the application of unilateral coercive measures that seek to subjugate the sovereign will of peoples. We express our support for Belarus, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Iran, Russia, and other nations that are victims of such measures.

We ratify our solidarity with the Government of Reconciliation and National Unity of Nicaragua.

We reiterate our support for the inalienable right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence.

The sister nations of the Caribbean deserve fair and differentiated treatment, as well as reparations for the horrors of colonialism and slavery.

The international community has a great responsibility to the Haitian people. We maintain our modest cooperation in health matters with that sister country, and Cuba will join any international effort to support it, based on respect for its sovereignty, without impositions or military interventions.

We support Argentina’s legitimate and sovereign right to the Malvinas Islands, South Sandwich Islands, South Georgia Islands, and their surrounding maritime areas.

Cuba remains committed to peace in Colombia and stands in solidarity today with President Gustavo Petro.

Africa, the cradle of humanity, can always count on Cuba and the solidarity of the Cuban people. We support its just claim for reparations for the damage caused by colonization.

We reaffirm our solidarity with the Sahrawi people and their right to self-determination.

We reaffirm our support for the “One China” principle.

We oppose NATO’s aggressive military and nuclear doctrines.

We firmly believe, without utopianism, that a better world is possible. We believe in the duty to fight and work to achieve it.

I reiterate the words of President Raúl Castro Ruz, spoken from this podium in September 2015, and I quote:

“The international community can always count on Cuba’s sincere voice against injustice, inequality, underdevelopment, discrimination, and manipulation, and for the establishment of a more just and equitable international order, at the center of which are truly human beings, their dignity, and their well-being.”

Thank you very much.

Source: Cubadebate, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English

It’s not surprising that Assata Shakur is not one of the most well-known names in U.S. history – even though she should be.

That is par for the course when it comes to Black heroes, so we must make sure that this Black woman and her relevance to our movement remain visible.

As Assata said in an open letter to our movement:

“Like most poor and oppressed people in the United States, I do not have a voice. Black people, poor people in the U.S. have no real freedom of speech, no real freedom of expression and very little freedom of the press. The Black press and the progressive media have historically played an essential role in the struggle for social justice. We need to continue and to expand that tradition. We need to create media outlets that help to educate our people and our children and not annihilate their minds.”

The 1960s and ‘70s saw frequent frame-ups and assassinations of Black leaders in the liberation movements by the FBI, especially targeting the Black Panther Party, like the assassination of Fred Hampton in Chicago in 1969.

As a Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army member – frequently threatened by the police — what happened on May 2, 1973, was due to come.

Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli and Assata were pulled over by troopers on the New Jersey Turnpike, supposedly for a “faulty tail-light.”

Assata was told to put her hands up and was then shot in the front and back. In defending Sudiata and Assata, Zayd was killed. One of the troopers, Werner Foester, was dead, and Assata was sentenced to life in prison after being charged with murder and attempted murder, even after medical evidence showed that she was shot with her hands up.

But in 1979, her comrades successfully helped her escape from prison and by 1984, it was known that she was given asylum by the Cuban people. Their representative, President Fidel Castro, had a history of defending the right of self-defense and self-determination for African people in Angola, with continued solidarity with Black liberation leaders in the U.S.

Assata was able to live her life honored by the Cuban people and remained there as an educational teacher.

After learning of the asylum, the New Jersey police were so upset that they asked Pope John Paul II, who was visiting Cuba, to help get her extradited to the United States. When Assata heard about this, she wrote a letter to the Pope to give the other side.

“Police brutality is a daily occurrence in our communities. The police have a virtual license to kill, and they do kill: children, grandmothers, anyone they perceive to be the enemy. They shoot first and ask questions later. Inside the jails and prisons, there is at least as much brutality as there was on slave plantations. An ever-increasing number of prisoners are found hanging in their cells.

“The United States is becoming a land more hostile to Black people and other people of Color. Racism is running rampant and xenophobia is on the rise. This has been especially true in the sphere of domestic policy. Politicians are attempting to blame social problems on Black people and other people of Color. There have been attacks on essentially all affirmative action programs designed to help correct the accumulated results of hundreds of years of slavery and discrimination. In addition, the government seems determined to eliminate all social programs that provide assistance to the poor, resulting in a situation where millions of people do not have access to basic health care, decent housing or quality education.”

Yes, history does repeat itself, the Trump Administration makes that clear. It’s also clear that the push toward fascism and genocide didn’t start with Trump.

Clinton Correctional Facility is where Assata was spending her life sentence. Although it wasn’t named after Bill Clinton, the name fits. His administration collaborated in putting political prisoners behind bars, and targeting them with assassinations, while joining the club of Democrats pitching the ball for Republicans like Trump. Assata’s time in prison also included torture, abuse and solitary confinement.

In 1979, Jimmy Carter’s administration created the bounty against Assata. Bill Clinton increased that bounty to $1 million. And it was Barack Obama’s administration in 2013 that doubled that bounty, with the FBI declaring her the first woman to receive the designation of Most Wanted Terrorist – making the $2 million bounty to “capture” – a more likely unofficial “capture and kill” directive. But she fought and she won!

Assata has been and remains an inspiration in our fight against genocide from Los Angeles to Chicago to Gaza and Palestine. In her autobiography, published in 1988, she teaches us the necessity of self-defense and self-determination. She writes about what is most necessary in building a united working class, which especially inspires people of color with her appreciation and study of Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il Sung, Che, Fidel, and Huey Newton, enriching her understanding of Marxism-Leninism.

In 1996 in Cuba Assata Shakur stated: “The liberation of oppressed people in the United States, has to do, not with climbing of some ladder to success, not for asking to be just like Rockefeller or just like DuPont or just like Ford, because that would only continue the oppression and exploitation of oppressed people in the United States and specifically African people, born and raised in the United States.

“Socialism is an integral part of building social justice on this planet. The condition of my people, my history, was very much connected with other oppressed people. And I began to see that the same foot that was on the necks of the Vietnamese people was on the necks of all oppressed. …and so I began to understand that imperialism has to go. It is a poison that is killing people all over this world. The priority of this planet has to be completely changed. …that’s what my basic political commitment is at this moment.

And Assata, who knew Cuba would have an effect on the Pope, ended her letter:

“On this day, the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., I am reminded of all those who gave their lives for freedom. Most of the people who live on this planet are still not free. I ask only that you continue to work and pray to end oppression and political repression. It is my heartfelt belief that all the people on this earth deserve justice: social justice, political justice, and economic justice. I believe it is the only way that we will ever achieve peace and prosperity on earth. I hope that you enjoy your visit to Cuba. This is not a country that is rich in material wealth, but it is a country that is rich in human wealth, spiritual wealth and moral wealth.”