Saluting Cuba: where there’s no 1%

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

We send the Cuban Communist Party warm socialist greetings and congratulations. The gigantic advances in health care, education, human solidarity and development, for which socialist Cuba is so well known, have been achieved despite the boot heel of the U.S. imperialist blockade, subversion, terrorism and overt attacks meant to redominate the comparatively small island.

Twenty years ago the revolution survived an unprecedented blow after its major socialist trading partner, the Soviet Union, was overwhelmed by imperialism and a newly installed bourgeoisie reinstituted capitalist economic relations throughout all the former Soviet republics. That was supposed to be the end of history. But today it is the capitalist system that is at a dead end, and more and more people around the world see socialism as the only alternative for humanity.

Following some easing of the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba, the Tempe, Ariz. Chamber of Commerce just announced it is sending a delegation there. National Geographic has also received State Department permission to send two dozen groups of 30 people each. However, groups must still get a license from the U.S. government, and travelers are barred from spending money there.

The U.S. is the only country to impose such draconian restrictions on travel to Cuba, which received 2.5 million foreign visitors last year, many from Canada and Europe as well as Latin America.

Those who visit Cuba will find a country where the workers and their independent union, Central de Trabajadores de Cuba, discuss every new government plan, including the 2012 national budget. Can we imagine what would happen in a city like Detroit, for example, if every workplace debated that city’s budget — which has been bled dry by the banks? If the workers and poor had a real voice on whether neighborhoods could be devastated by foreclosures? If students got to decide whether education should be free, or if they should instead be saddled with debt while preparing for jobs that no longer exist?

Finally, let’s not forget that five of Cuba’s heroes — Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and René González — have been unjustly held by the U.S. for 13 years. Four are still in U.S. prisons and one, René González, was officially released but is not free to return to his homeland. Also, his spouse, Olga Salanueva, is still cruelly denied a visa to visit him. It is time for the U.S. administration to demonstrate the humanitarianism that it professes by freeing the Cuban Five so they can return home.

Long live the Cuban Revolution!