Three million Canadian workers defend Cuba
By Minnie Bruce Pratt
Three million workers in Canada have come to
Cuba's defense as the Bush administration intensifies hostile
measures against that revolutionary country.
The Canadian Labor Congress represents those workers. In a
June 2 letter to Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, its
leadership, headed by Kenneth Georgetti, issued a vehement
condemnation of U.S. attempts to destabilize Cuba.
The CLC is the national voice of the labor movement in
Canada, the equivalent of the AFL-CIO in the United States. It
includes 12 provincial and territorial federations, 137
district labor councils, and most national and international
unions inside Canada. One of the CLC's main goals is "to
increase solidarity between workers in Canada and other
countries."
The CLC letter calls on the Canadian government to reject
anti-Cuba measures put forth in a U.S. government report,
"Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba." Within the 450
pages of recommendations sent from Colin Powell to George Bush
is an open call for the overthrow of the Cuban government.
Counter-revolution
The report calls for overturning Cuba's system of socialized
property and a return to the "freedom" of capitalist
exploitation, in a so-called transition to democracy.
The Bush administration intends to funnel $59 million in
U.S. tax dollars toward subversive activity on the island in
the next two years. Some $18 million is earmarked for military
over-flights to disrupt Cuban television and radio
broadcasts.
Plans for economic disruption include severely restricting
both which Cubans now residing in the United States are allowed
to visit the island, and how much money they can send to
relatives there. These policies will be an extension of the
U.S. economic blockade, set in place in 1961 to strangle Cuban
development.
The CLC letter staunchly defends the gains Cuba has won
under socialism: "The new measures recently announced seek to
strengthen and deepen the failed policies of economic embargo
of the past four decades. The Cuban people have withstood the
ill effects of the U.S. blockade on their island and have built
what many consider to be outstanding improvements in social
indicators such as health, literacy, and education, and made
social gains unrivalled in the developing world. These latest
repugnant measures by the U.S. government will not succeed
either, but they will bring more suffering and hardship to the
people of Cuba."
The CLC letter points out that the proposed measures would
be in direct contradiction to Canadian law: "[P]ersons of third
countries may be subject to arbitrary charges and arrest in the
U.S. for having invested in Cuba. In the case of Canadians this
is a flagrant contravention of the Order of the
Attorney-General of Canada, made under the Foreign
Extraterritorial Measures Act which prohibits Canadian
corporations from complying with the extraterritorial measures
of the Helms-Burton Act."
Revolutionary solidarity
The CLC calls on the prime minister "to immediately reject
in the strongest possible terms any perceived compliance or
acquiescence by your government in any of these Draconian
measures." And it admonishes him "to uphold the principle of
sovereignty of nations especially in the face of the hypocrisy
of well-known recent violations of democratic principles
committed by the United States government in Iraq, Haiti and in
Venezuela."
The letter concludes, "We, as Cana dians, must roundly
condemn and reject this latest illegal and inhumane U.S.
government interference in Cuban affairs, affirm the
internationally recognized right to the self-determination of
countries, and proudly proclaim our independence and
sovereignty in pursuing a foreign policy that continues to
maintain and develop our friendly relations with Cuba."
A previous gesture of solidarity with Cuba from Canadian
workers occurred during the 1995 IFCO/Pastors for Peace
U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan. Some 200 U.S. citizens had
crossed the border from Buffalo, N.Y., into Canada with 150
tons of humanitarian aid intended for Cuba. U.S. authorities
and anti-Cuba terrorist groups had violently harassed previous
caravans. In solidarity, however, dock workers in Montreal
loaded the tons of supplies onto Cuba-bound ships for free.
(Nomads)
This summer, four groups will travel to Cuba in dramatic
opposition to the proposed counter-revolutionary measures and
to the continuing travel ban and economic blockade. In addition
to IFCO/ Pastors for Peace 15th Friend shipment Caravan, there
will be additional travel challenges by the African Awareness
Associ ation, the Venceremos Brigade, and the New York
Committee to Free the Five.
The five Cubans being held in U.S. prisons are Fernando
González, René González, Antonio Guerrero,
Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino. In
2001 they were convicted of conspiracy in U.S. courts, after
they had penetrated Miami-based anti-Cuba right-wing org ani
zations in an effort to thwart these groups' violent plans
against Cuba.
In Cuba, workers and their families are also rallying to
defend their revolution. On May Day 2004, some 7 million Cubans
marched against the new U.S. aggression.
The Cuban Workers Federation issued this statement: "In the
name of all the Cuban workers, the CTC firmly rejects the
cynical and intrusive measures announ ced by the U.S.
government, designed to destroy the Cuban Revo lution. ... We
state our most firm willingness to resist and overcome each
aggression. We will defend at any price necessary our
extraordinary work of social justice, and our hopes and dreams
for a better world for all the peoples of the planet."
Reprinted from the June 24, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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