Statement of the Jamaica Cuba Friendship Association on the 63rd Anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution:
Dear brothers and sisters,
Reflecting on Cuba’s 63rd anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution, on the eve of the caravan arriving in Havana on that historic day of January 8, 1959, what captivated me most of all, was the powerful and liberating example that it represented for the struggling peoples of the world, especially those in our region, desperate to throw off the yoke of oppression that dehumanize their day-day existence.
The response of the Empire was typical of a school-yard bully who was upended by the unassuming student. It triggered a vile campaign of subterfuge, including assassination attempts, biological warfare, counter revolution and mercenary invasion, all part of the ‘tool kit’ that was thrown at the nascent peoples’ revolution, with an unprecedented bribery of a so-called Alliance for Progress, an outgrowth of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) costing USD 20 billion added, within the LAC, to wean them away from the ‘corrosive’ Cuban example and influence.
A disruptive influence which threatened the very foundation of status quo in the so-called ‘backyard’, of the most powerful economic and military empire in the history of mankind.
It is within this context that the illegal, financial, economic, commercial and criminal blockade of 60 years should be seen, and which the majority of humanity’s representative within the 193‑member UNGA have consistently condemned for 29 consecutive years and called for its unconditional lifting, with the opposing voices relegated to the ‘odd couple’ (for the most part) of the US empire and its surrogate apartheid partner, Israel.
The false narrative that has been peddled by the empire and its cabal of corporate media satraps Fox, CNN, NBC, BBC, UP, AP, to name a few, and regrettably been parroted by media houses in the so-called third world including Jamaica, that the gut-wrenching problems in the world of poverty, crime, hunger, unemployment, underdevelopment, climate change, wars, etc. are not those of the system of the ‘dog‑eat‑dog’ system of capitalism but are engaged in an ongoing scramble, to find convenient excuses to embrace and justify its existence.
However, this situation has been unraveled and undermined by the day to day lived experience of world’s peoples, with the current Covid‑19 pandemic as one such graphic example in the ‘battle of ideas’, to use a term coined by Fidel, the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution.
Compare and contrast the response and result of Cuba to that of the US empire, that use this medical and life threatening emergency, to ‘tighten the screws’ of illegal and inhumane blockade by the imposition of over 240 additional criminal sanctions by the Trump administration, which was opportunistically and hypocritically maintained and enhanced by the current ‘god-fearing’ tenant of the White House Joseph Biden, who is in a desperate attempt to try and accomplish what 12 other presidents since Dwight Eisenhower has so far not being able to do, that is regime change in revolutionary Cuba.
Of notable interest is that despite its enormous wealth, the people living in the US empire have the unenviable record of having not only the highest records of transmission and deaths in the world from the virus, but this is against a background of billions of its taxpayers’ dollars being given to the vaccine manufacturers as subsidies within an economic and health system which places profit over the lives and welfare of its citizens.
Our embattled and courageous sister country on the other hand, not only created 5 vaccines namely Abdala, Soberana 02, Soberana Plus, Soberana 01 and Mambisa with the former 3, before WHO for approval and the latter 2 in trial stages. Cuba also has the unique distinction of creating the first pediatric vaccine in the world for children between the ages of 2-18 yrs.
It has sent 57 brigades of the Henry Reeves contingent numbering close to 5,000 health professionals to over 40 countries across the globe to save lives and assist with better health outcomes; it has one of the highest vaccination rates of its population in the world; its students are able to attend face to face classes; and it has distributed millions of doses of its vaccines to sister countries of Venezuela, Vietnam, Nicaragua, St Vincent and the Grenadines with other countries waiting in the wings.
So that’s why we unapologetically supported the international campaign launched by Code Pink, for Cuba to be granted the Nobel Peace Prize and although they were not the ‘official winners’ as set out by the Nobel Committee, they have written another indelible chapter in the annals of proletarian internationalism.
In addition, we unhesitatingly rallied in support of the international saving lives campaign with our modest contribution of medical supplies to our sister country, brought on by the cruel and genocidal blockade, a campaign that continues in earnest and will be so, as long as this champion of humanity and the homeland of Marti and Fidel needs it.
I close with these words from Fidel: “The Revolution has awakened consciences, has taught to see and above all to see the great injustices and to see the great lies. The Revolution has been like a light that is turned on in the middle of the night, the Revolution has been like the sun, whose rays illuminate a dawn for the country. The Revolution has taught us what we have not learned in many years we have lived. The Revolution has taught us to understand each other, to love each other”.
Long live the Cuban Revolution!
Trevor G. Brown
President
Jamaica-Cuba Friendship Association
