Tour rallies support for Cuba
By Gloria La Riva
San Francisco
"Why does the U.S. have an obsession with
Cuba? Is it because Cuba is a dictatorship as they have
claimed? No, it is because Cuba is revolutionary,
anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist."
Andrés Gómez, a longtime leader in Miami's
progressive Cuban community, was cheered by a crowd of almost
120 people in San Francisco's Mission district on June 21. He
spoke while on a tour of Sacramento, San Francisco and San Jose
to analyze the increased U.S. aggression against Cuba.
Gómez's own history qualifies him to speak against
the U.S.-sponsored anti-Cuba terrorists in Miami, whose sole
aim is to try to overthrow the Cuban socialist revolution.
Gómez was born in Havana in 1947 into a well-off
family. In 1960, after the Cuban Revolution had overthrown the
pro-U.S. dictator Fulgencio Batista, his family moved to
Florida. Within a few years, influenced by the great struggles
against the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement,
Gómez and other Cuban-born youth rejected their parents'
beliefs and formed the Antonio Maceo Brigade to defend the
Cuban revolutionary process.
He has faced great danger over the years for his work in
Miami.
A major point of confusion in the movement is over the
trials that took place in Cuba in April of this year.
Washington portrayed the 75 people who were arrested as
"dissidents."
Gómez said that the trial of the 75 showed they were
in the employ of U.S. intelligence services, but were falsely
promoted by the capitalist world media as human rights
activists and independent journalists in order to "discredit
Cuba to international world public opinion, to isolate Cuba, to
make it more vulnerable."
"Independent from what?" he asked. "Independent from human
decency. Any Cuban who would receive directions and be financed
by the government of the U.S. against the evident interests of
the Cuban people is a traitor."
The chair of the event, Sebastiana Pastor, reminded the
audience that "Before every war launched by this government, a
campaign of lies and demonization had to precede the bombing to
create pretexts, justification and confusion. Tonight we want
to shed light on Washington's lies and build support for Cuba's
right to defend itself."
Alicia Jrapko of the Cuban Five Committee spoke on the five
Cuban political prisoners serving lengthy sentences in U.S.
prisons because of their heroic task in infiltrating anti-Cuba
terrorist groups based in Miami. "The Cuban people for more
than 40 years have suffered all kinds of terrorist attacks from
groups based in the U.S. and from the government itself," she
said, "including military invasion and more than 600
assassination attempts against the leader of the Cuban
Revolution, Fidel Castro." She spoke of the Cuban Five
committee's efforts to free the men for the last two years.
Gloria La Riva, speaking for ANSWER, talked of the
multi-pronged campaign used by U.S. imperialism. "Cuba is not
an easy country for the U.S. to hit head-on politically or
militarily, because of the tremendous prestige of the
revolution and its long history of solidarity with the
world."
She denounced the European Union's new economic and
political measures against Cuba. "It shows the subservience of
many of the world's governments to U.S. imperialism. It is the
people of the world who must stop U.S. aggression."
Rosa Peñate read a new poem by Ramón
Labañino, one of the Cuban Five. "No Soy" (I Am Not)
reviles those who would sell out their country of Cuba to the
U.S. for a few dollars.
A stirring taped statement from Mumia Abu-Jamal about the
latest attacks on Cuba was played. Abu-Jamal affirmed Cuba's
right to defend itself.
In Sacramento, a crowd at the Hart Senior Center heard
Gómez speak on the Cuban Revolution and the sentiments
of unity, solidarity and pride that the Cuban people feel for
their accomplishments. Maggie Coulter of Sacramento Area Peace
Action chaired.
In San Jose more than 100 people gathered in the Laborers'
Hall to celebrate the upcoming 50th anniversary of the
revolutionary spark lit on July 26, 1953, when Fidel Castro led
an assault on the Moncada army barracks. In addition to
Gómez, Dolores Huerta, United Farm Workers co-founder,
spoke eloquently about the social gains of the Cuban people
since the triumph of the revolution in 1959, including the
dignity enjoyed by farmworkers in the countryside.
The tour was coordinated and sponsored by the ANSWER
coalition, the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five,
Sacramento Area Peace Action, Grandmothers for Peace, and South
Bay Mobilization Against the War.
Reprinted from the July 10, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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