New York — An approaching blizzard didn’t stop nearly 100 supporters of Cuba from rallying on Feb. 22 in Manhattan to say NO! to the U.S. blockade of the Caribbean country. Protesters picketed in front of the old Farley Post Office across from Pennsylvania Station. The militant action was called by the NY-NJ Cuba Sí Coalition.
Ever since the Cuban Revolution triumphed in 1959, the United States capitalist government has tried to overthrow it. The liberal icon JFK not only allowed the Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs) invasion to proceed. He also imposed a trade ban in 1962 that has since cost Cuba at least $170 billion.
Now, Trump says he will impose additional tariffs on any country that sells oil to Cuba. That’s economic terrorism. It follows the kidnapping of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro Moros and First Combatant Cilia Flores.
A member of Radical Elders explained how the trade blockade also hurts poor and working people in the United States who are cut off from medicines treating meningitis and other diseases. The Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, works with Cuban researchers to fight cancer.
The U.S. State Department is even pressuring the Italian region of Calabria to fire nearly 500 Cuban doctors who are essential to the area’s health system. Meanwhile, Cuba has trained over 200 doctors to treat poor people in the United States.
Other speakers included Roger Wareham from the December 12th Movement and Jason Corley from the NY-NJ Cuba Sí Coalition. Both linked the attacks on Cuba with Trump’s cutbacks against poor and working people in the United States. Bill Sacks from the Venceremos Brigade urged people to visit Cuba and see for themselves the revolution’s accomplishments.
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