Cuba

IFCO/Pastors for Peace has announced that 101 cities in the United States and Canada are hosting the 20th Anniversary Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba.... Posted Jun 22, 2012

On June 11, a hero to the Cuban people, an athlete known as perhaps the greatest amateur boxer, passed away at a much-too-early age from a heart attack.... Posted Jun 21, 2012

Cuban President Raul Castro’s daughter heard nothing but applause on May 23 as she made her first public appearance in San Francisco. ... Posted Jun 2, 2012

The “5 Days for the Cuban 5 in Washington, D.C.” are over, but its broad and unified call to the Obama administration continues to echo: Open the U.S. prison doors and return Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero and Rene González to their Cuban homeland. ... Posted Apr 25, 2012

Gerardo Hernández is one of the Cuban 5 unjustly imprisoned in the U.S.... Posted Apr 25, 2012



Once again, as during the 2009 Summit of the Americas, the recent VI edition of the outmoded Summit finished without a declaration. ... Posted Apr 19, 2012

How could a fair trial be possible in Miami for supporters of socialist Cuba? That is what organizers of the “5 Days for the Cuban 5 April 17-21” in Washington, D.C., are asking after Florida Marlins’ baseball manager Ozzie Guillen was pilloried by the big-business press for a seemingly respectful comment about former Cuban president Fidel Castro. ... Posted Apr 12, 2012

Despite Washington’s refusal to allow Cuban representatives to attend the ALBA conference, or even be Skyped in, the revolutionary island’s message came through loud and clear. ... Posted Apr 5, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI went to Cuba, made a few speeches and left. The visit was a victory for socialist Cuba in many ways. ... Posted Apr 4, 2012

Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and Rene González, known as the Cuban Five, have been unjustly held in U.S. prisons since 1998.... Posted Mar 14, 2012

On Feb. 24, attorneys for René González of the Cuban Five filed a motion with Judge Joan Lenard in Miami requesting humanitarian permission to travel to Cuba for two weeks to visit his gravely ill younger brother, ... Posted Mar 11, 2012

An Associated Press article by Desmond Butler refutes U.S. State Department pronouncements about Alan Gross. ... Posted Feb 27, 2012

On Jan. 19, a request for the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles from the United States was filed in the Panamanian courts, according to LaEstrella.com. Posada and four co-conspirators were convicted of the attempted assassination of the then-Cuban president, Fidel Castro, at the 2000 Ibero-American Summit in Panama. Their plot to bomb the crowded university venue with 200 pounds of explosives was thwarted, saving many lives. ... Posted Feb 15, 2012

Cuba — where the 99% took the power away from the 1% — marked the 53rd anniversary of its revolution on Jan. 1. ... Posted Jan 4, 2012

Cuba’s National Children’s Theater, La Colmenita, or “The Little Beehive,” concluded its U.S. tour in San Francisco on Oct. 29. ... Posted Nov 3, 2011

René González, one of the Cuban Five, was released from prison in Marianna, Fla., on Oct. 7.... Posted Oct 12, 2011

The struggle to free the Cuban Five from unjust U.S. imprisonment is now in its 14th year. Attempts by the U.S. government to undo the gains won by Cuban workers through the 1959 socialist revolution — including its targeting of the Five Cuban heroes — have been increasingly exposed over these years. ... Posted Oct 10, 2011

René González Sehwerert, one of Cuba’s five anti-terrorist heroes, will be released from prison Oct. 7, having served in full the brutal and unjust sentence he was given.... Posted Oct 10, 2011

This July 26 marks 58 years since the attack on the Moncada Garrison in Santiago de Cuba by heroic Cuban revolutionaries.... Posted Jul 17, 2011

The 22nd Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan sendoff on June 30 from New York’s renowned Riverside Church included a memorial tribute commemorating the life of the Rev. Lucius Walker, IFCO/Pastors for Peace founding director, who passed away last year shortly after returning from the caravan to Cuba.... Posted Jul 7, 2011

In El Paso, Texas — far from the White House and Congress, and the media centers in Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C. — facts of the U.S.-based terror campaign to destroy the sovereignty of socialist Cuba will be presented in U.S. federal court beginning Jan. 10, again laying bare the double standard of the U.S. so-called “war on terror.”... Posted Dec 23, 2010

Workers World Party sends condolences to the families and loved ones of the 68 people who died Nov. 4 in a plane crash in Sancti Spiritus province.... Posted Nov 10, 2010

The U.N. General Assembly on Oct. 26 voted 187 to 2 against the 48-year economic blockade of Cuba. Only the U.S. and Israel voted for it. Palau, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained. This international repudiation, the strongest yet, is the 19th consecutive resolution condemning the U.S.’s criminal and cruel strangulation policy.... Posted Oct 27, 2010

More than 130 countries of the United Nations met Sept. 20-22 to review progress toward the Millennium Development Goals.... Posted Oct 3, 2010

For the seventh consecutive year, workers, union leaders, and immigrant rights and social movement activists will gather in Tijuana, Mexico, for a U.S./Cuba/Venezuela/North America/Latin America/Caribbean Conference at the Hotel Palacio Azteca on Dec. 3, 4 and 5.... Posted Sep 30, 2010

On Sept. 17 Harlem’s Convent Avenue Baptist Church filled with people celebrating the example, ongoing legacy and life of the Rev. Dr. Lucius Walker. Walker, 80, died suddenly Sept. 7 at his home in New Jersey. The headline in Granma, the daily newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, announcing his death stated, “We do not want to think of a world without Lucius Walker.”... Posted Sep 26, 2010

The plight of the Cuban Five is never far from the minds of progressive people around the world. This Sept. 12, exactly 12 years since their arrest in the United States for defending Cuba from terrorist attacks, organizations and individuals intensified demands for their release through petitions, demonstrations and ad campaigns.... Posted Sep 19, 2010

Most people who are familiar with Miami would be surprised to find themselves in the midst of a crowd of young people singing, “Happy birthday” to Cuban socialist leader Fidel Castro. “Happy birthday Fidel. Happy birthday Fidel. Happy birthday Fidel Castro. Happy birthday to you!”... Posted Sep 1, 2010

This August saw a happy birthday anniversary for Cuba, for Latin America and for the world’s working and oppressed peoples. Fidel Castro is back. He is back with vigor, as one can see from his return to the television screen with appearances before the Cuban National Assembly.... Posted Aug 18, 2010

On Aug. 8, star actor Danny Glover visited Gerardo Hernández, one of the Cuban Five anti-terrorist heroes now imprisoned in the United States.... Posted Aug 11, 2010

On the morning of Aug. 3, Gerardo Hernández was freed from “the hole” due to mass pressure — individual, diplomatic and legal. He has been returned to his former incarceration status. It is time for the U.S. government to free the Cuban Five and send them home.... Posted Aug 4, 2010

The Pastors for Peace 21st Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba arrived in Havana on July 22.... Posted Jul 30, 2010

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the annual U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan, sponsored by IFCO/Pastors for Peace.... Posted Jul 18, 2010

Reporters for big media outlets owned by corporate giants are nevertheless supposedly independent and unbiased. What happens if the U.S. government is also paying them while their articles and broadcasts inflame the atmosphere against defendants during a high-profile political trial?... Posted Jun 24, 2010

We haven’t heard that the FBI is investigating the Tea Party gangsters who attacked Black and gay members of the House of Representatives this March. We haven’t heard that this arm of the capitalist state is probing into the loan agreements between the big banks and the universities that offer loans to students and turn them into indentured servants. What we did hear about was that FBI agents have started to harass U.S. residents who visited Cuba in the summer of 2009.... Posted Mar 28, 2010

On March 11, using the pretext of a suicide of a prisoner in Cuba, European Union politicians attacked socialist Cuba, once again falsely alleging human-rights violations and demanding the release of a small number of paid U.S. agents imprisoned there. By doing so the EU Parliament not only ignored the overriding 50-year violation of Cuba’s democratic right to self-determination, but joined in it.... Posted Mar 18, 2010

More than 10 years ago, the U.S. government jailed five Cubans after one of the most unjust and ludicrous trials that has ever occurred in this country.
Many people, especially people of color, are behind jail doors unfairly in this country. Many of them are innocent or never had a fair day in court, to say the least....
Posted Feb 24, 2010

Many people think it is human nature to be greedy, to put the interests of the individual before the common good — in a word, to live in a dog-eat-dog society. At the same time, they may be moved by suffering and want to help others but usually find themselves stymied. Hey, that’s capitalism, what can you do about it?... Posted Feb 17, 2010

While five Cuban heroes remain imprisoned because of a cruel vendetta by the U.S. government against the courageous socialist republic of Cuba, more and more voices of opposition to their unjust incarceration are being raised worldwide.... Posted Jan 28, 2010

While U.S. focuses on troops and control of airport.... Posted Jan 20, 2010

The new year began with the U.S. government announcing new intensive airport screening for anyone traveling from or through 14 countries — the four unilaterally designated by the U.S. as “states sponsoring terrorism” and ten others allegedly “of interest.” One of the most obvious indications that this arbitrary list has nothing to do with protecting air travel or residents within the U.S. is the listing of socialist Cuba as one of the 14.... Posted Jan 15, 2010

Where in the world today is unemployment only 1.8 percent, and every 2009 student graduate found a job? “In Cuba,” reported Raymundo Navarro.... Posted Dec 23, 2009

The Sixth Cuba/Venezuela/Mexico/North America Labor Conference met Dec. 4-6. The gathering was comprised of labor organizers, political activists, youth and students from all across Latin America, the U.S., Canada, the Philippines and other countries.... Posted Dec 10, 2009

On Dec. 1 a statement began to be circulated entitled “A Declaration of African-American Support for the Civil Rights Struggle in Cuba.” The statement has 60 signatories—well-respected Black intellectuals, cultural performers and political activists, many of whom were leaders during the Civil Rights era and continue to be today. The statement alleges not only racism in Cuban society but systemic racism. It insinuates that racism is a policy of the Cuban government, not merely a lasting vestige of the neo-colonial government before the 1959 socialist revolution. To anyone who has ever been to Cuba or is in the movement to defend the Cuban Revolution, such a statement seems odd. It seems rather ironic coming from the U.S., despite the existence of the first Black president.... Posted Dec 10, 2009

Cuba solidarity activists were invited to the Cuban Mission to the United Nations on Oct. 29 to hear from Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez, who was in New York to attend the annual vote on a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning the U.S. blockade of Cuba.... Posted Nov 8, 2009

On Oct. 13, a 21-year-plus-10-month prison term was imposed on Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez by the same Florida U.S. District Court that initially condemned him to a life sentence plus 10 years. The steadfast support of the Cuban people and government, amplified with worldwide solidarity, forced the U.S. government to back off some of the unjust and wildly excessive life sentences imposed on Guerrero, one of the revolutionary heroes known as the Cuban Five.... Posted Oct 22, 2009

Ignacio Meneses represented the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange at the Second Nuestra Americas labor conference held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sept. 22-24. Since 1991 the Labor Exchange has built international ties between working people in the U.S. and workers throughout Latin America, particularly in Cuba.... Posted Oct 8, 2009

Juan Almeida Bosque, who recently died in Cuba at the age of 82, was one of the original band of revolutionary heroes who stormed the heavens and brought down the brutal dictatorship of U.S. lackey Fulgencio Batista on Jan. 1, 1959. ... Posted Sep 23, 2009

“Please tell President Obama that if he wants you to believe in his promise of change, then he must free the Cuban Five!” Ricardo Alarcón, president of the Cuban Parliament, told members of the 20th Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan when they arrived in Havana this summer from the U.S.... Posted Sep 21, 2009

The 1959 Cuban Revolution overturned the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. The revolution ended Cuba’s status as a U.S. neocolony and made possible a complete overhaul and rebuilding of the medical system in that country along socialist lines. In 1960 revolutionary physician Che Guevara formally addressed the Cuban Militia. His speech has since been published as an essay titled “On Revolutionary Medicine,” which outlines the socialist view of the relationship between revolution, private property and medicine.... Posted Sep 13, 2009

Like the Gulf Coast of the United States, the island nation of Cuba was hit hard by hurricanes Gustav and Ike in the fall of 2008. However, in Cuba, no one, not a single person, was left to their own luck to survive the hurricanes.... Posted Sep 4, 2009

A three-day summer celebration of the Cuban Revolution’s 50th anniversary here in Detroit also welcomed the 20th Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan. The message carried by this caravan is: “The time is now! President Barack Obama: free the Cuban Five, end the blockade of Cuba, end the travel ban and normalize relations.”... Posted Jul 16, 2009

International Longshore and Warehouse Union members from Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, gathered in Seattle for the 34th ILWU Convention from June 8 to 12. The delegates adopted resolutions introduced by Local 10 calling for freedom for the Cuban 5 and by Local 34 to end the U.S. blockade of Cuba.... Posted Jul 6, 2009

In Cuba the campaign against homophobia has access to all the mass media and is an ongoing educational effort, not just a one-day affair. This information may surprise many people in the United States, who get very little news from the corporate media here about the great social progress that has been made in Cuba as a result of its revolution. However, readers of Workers World newspaper were fortunate enough to learn a great deal about Cuba’s campaign to rectify old prejudices through the series of articles called Lavender & Red. ... Posted Jun 24, 2009

The Supreme Court has confirmed the U.S. legal system’s ongoing hypocrisy in the treatment of the Cuban Five. The court on June 15 made public a list of what cases it will hear during its coming term—and the appeal of the Cuban Five was left off the list, with no explanation.... Posted Jun 18, 2009

When it became clear that the countries of the Organization of American States—all but one—would vote on June 3 to readmit Cuba to membership, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, representing the one, walked out. Cuba has applauded the efforts of member countries to finally reverse its expulsion from the OAS, which Washington had engineered in 1962 after the failure of its invasion of Cuba. But Havana has said “no thanks” to reentering the OAS, which for half a century has done Washington’s bidding.... Posted Jun 10, 2009

Coming to Cuba from the U.S., where youth mortgage their future wages for a college education and health insurance fails to guarantee coverage for catastrophic illnesses, the notion that health care and education can be free really caught our attention.... Posted Jun 3, 2009

First-time visitors from the U.S. were unsure what the day would hold as they watched dawn break in Revolution Square on May Day morning. The international delegations—more than 2,000 in all from 70 countries, including union leaders and revolutionaries, often both in the same person, and representing 200 union and solidarity organizations—streamed off buses and into the reviewing area at the foot of the José Martí statue.... Posted May 13, 2009

The Obama administration has begun to roll out its strategy toward Cuba and its allies in Latin America. In response, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, retired from his posts but still very active, published a statement in which he recounted the devastating humanitarian impact of the almost half-century-old U.S. blockade of Cuba.... Posted Apr 22, 2009

Congressional Black Caucus says: ‘Talk to Cuba’ * Hotel bombings finally tied to Posada * Smash the U.S. blockade... Posted Apr 18, 2009

“If the government belongs to the people and we’re the government, then why is the government going after my pastor?” This question was put to attorneys for the Special Commissioner for Investigation (SCI) for the NYC Department of Education, which wants the New York State Supreme Court to hold IFCO/Pastors for Peace in contempt of court.... Posted Mar 21, 2009

Considering how much money Washington spends on its covert and overt war against Cuba, it must be quite embarrassing that its predictions almost always turn out to be false. To judge by the statements of U.S. officials and their parrots in the corporate media, the Cuban Revolution should have been overthrown decades ago.... Posted Mar 15, 2009

The Solidarity Center hosted a meeting and reception on March 4 to welcome two revolutionary women who traveled to New York City from socialist Cuba to participate in International Working Women’s Month activities at the United Nations.... Posted Mar 11, 2009

Friends of the Cuban Revolution rallied in front of the Cuban Mission to the United Nations March 1 to counter a simultaneous rally of right-wing Cuban exiles.... Posted Mar 8, 2009

The struggle to free the Cuban Five entered a new stage Jan. 30 when the defense team filed a formal request—a petition for a writ of certiorari—asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decisions of lower courts that have caused these five Cuban antiterrorist heroes to be imprisoned in the United States since 1998.... Posted Feb 4, 2009

Workers World Party extends our deepest congratulations and solidarity to the Communist Party of Cuba and the Cuban people, who are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the heroic triumph of the Cuban Revolution.... Posted Jan 7, 2009

Cuba is actively helping Haiti develop a literacy project.... Posted May 27, 2008

An April 28 Washington Post editorial grudgingly admits the Cuban economy is growing and life for Cuban workers is improving.... Posted May 1, 2008

The Cuban government condemned the attempts to organize a politically motivated crusade to make the 2008 Olympic Games in the city of Beijing, China, fail this year.... Posted Apr 3, 2008

Stop a minute and consider this: socialist Cuba has survived against all odds. It inspires people around the world, and for millions revolutionary Cuba represents a David vs. Goliath victory against the greatest enemy of humankind, U.S. imperialism.... Posted Oct 22, 2007

Members of FIST and Workers World Party traveled to Cuba from July 18 to 28 to defy the travel ban and to witness the gains of the socialist revolution.... Posted Aug 16, 2007


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