Rock around the Blockade is a British campaign in defence of socialist Cuba
We campaign actively:
against the US blockade of Cuba;
in solidarity with revolutionary movements throughout Latin America.
for the release of the Cuban 5 falsely imprisoned in the US;
against the imperialist occupation and prison at Guantanamo Bay;
for a boycott of Bacardi, supporter of the Miami mafia
Cuba shows that there is an alternative to poverty, racism and war. We use this example to support working class struggles in Britain and to show that socialism is the only system that can provide for humanity. read more>>
On Tuesday 8 June Bolivar Hall, London was packed for the big-screen premier of the new Rock around the Blockade (RATB) documentary Cuba: Defending Socialism, Resisting Imperialism.
The event began with introductions from the producers, Anthony Bairstow and Ethesham Haque, activists in RATB, who explained that most of the filming was done during a solidarity brigade to Cuba in spring 2009.
With just one camera, they returned to London with over 20 hours of footage and edited it into a 50-minute documentary which provides a snapshot of contemporary Cuba and the challenges faced by the socialist Revolution. The narrative comes from the Cubans they interviewed - an organic farmer, a state farmer, a lawyer, an economist, and a speech therapist. There is also an interview with a young Trinidadian studying for free at the International School of Sports of Physical Sciences in Havana.
The interviewees discuss the economic and political situation, including:
US measures to bankrupt the Cuban economy
their system of elections and representation, counter-posed to liberal parliamentarianism
the Cuban-Venezuelan alliance
the importance of values in the education system
the use of natural pesticides and fertilisers on urban farms.
The film ends with inspiring footage of May Day in Havana 2009, where the energy and enthusiasm of the people is unmistakable and uplifting. The images and voices of Cuba are prefaced and post-scripted by interviews with four young people who participated in the 2009 RATB brigade. Reflecting on their experiences under capitalism, they discuss their reasons for becoming activists, their expectations and impressions on returning from Cuba and, in the case of the two producers, Anthony and Ethesham, provide an insight about their political motivation for producing the film.
Raul Sanchez, Consul in the Cuban embassy, congratulated the young film makers for the seriousness with which they had dealt with key issues in contemporary Cuba. The documentary was an important political tool, he said, in exposing the propaganda produced in the capitalist world to attack Cuba and socialism. Henry Suarez, First Secretary of the Venezuelan embassy, echoed this and added that the film told the true story about the Cuban Revolution, which had importance for Venezuela and the rest of Latin America. He commented on the relationship between Cuba and Venezuela, which he said was one of human solidarity, not just economics.
This was followed by comments and questions from the audience. Topics ranged from the impact of removing the US blockade and questions about the role and commitment of young Cubans to socialism, to points about objectivity, propaganda and Cuba’s record of international solidarity.
RATB would like to thank the Venezuelan embassy for inviting us to host the event and for their participation. Thanks also to the Cuban embassy for their involvement. Finally, we send huge congratulations to Anthony and Ethesham for the commitment and hard work that has gone into producing this excellent documentary.
Anyone interested in arranging a screening in their local area, school, workplace or community centre, should contact RATB: info@ratb.org.uk. Copies of the film are availble on DVD from RATB for £5 on our stalls or £6 including postage and packaging if ordered over the phone (020 7837 1688) or the website, www.ratb.org.uk.
Hundreds of revolutionaries take to the streets to protest at a parade by the ‘Ladies in White’ on 21 March 2010 shouting slogans against the European Union at Volker Pellet, deputy head of the German embassy, and Michael Upton (R), deputy head of the British embassy. These diplomats were violating the principle of non-intervention and non-interference by supporting the ‘Ladies’ who have publicly admitted being funded from the US.
In this time of global economic crisis people’s livelihoods are being attacked while bankers boast of their bonuses. Politicians compete in an electoral fraud to cover up savage cuts in health, education and social services. While British government complicity in torture is repeatedly exposed and the bloody imperialist occupation in Afghanistan intensifies, the BBC has dedicated its resources to focusing on group of less than 30 Cuban women, known as the ‘Ladies in White’, protesting against supposed human rights abuses in Cuba. Why is this?
The Ladies in White are the families of 75 Cubans found guilty in 2003 of violating the country’s constitution by accepting payment from US-based and US government institutions for promoting their objective of destabilising and overthrowing the Cuban Revolution. Like every country in the world, Cuba has the right to defend itself against subversion and terrorism, and the right to imprison those proven guilty of these crimes. Acting as a propagandist of British government foreign policy, the BBC seems to think that only those countries that comply with the dictates of British and U S imperialism have a right to defend themselves. For 50 years Cuba has fought to defend its independence from US imperialism’s attempts to return Cuba to the status of neo-colony. To demonise Cuba, the media ignore its immense achievements in health, education, culture, science and sustainable development, to focuses on ‘human rights’ by which it means the ‘freedom’ of capital. It ignores the violation of human rights inflicted by the US’s criminal blockade, its sponsorship of terrorism and constant interference in domestic affairs, all supported by the European Union.
In the 1980s, the BBC did not hail the families of Irish Hunger Strikers as human rights activists. It censored coverage of the worldwide movement built in their support. For 35 years the mothers and grandmothers of 30,000 young people tortured, murdered and ‘disappeared’ by the US-backed dictatorship demonstrated at the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Where was the BBC? The BBC do not report on the international campaign to demand freedom for the Cuban 5 – five Cubans incarcerated for over ten years in the US for gathering information about acts of terrorism being planned by extremists in Miami. Even when the BBC does report on hunger strikes taking place throughout Britain’s racist immigration detention centres – a recent hunger strike at Yarlswood Detention Centre involved over 50 women - it does not link the protests to the issue of human rights.
The British media has found the resources to give significant coverage to the hunger strike and death of a single man in Cuba, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who they have honoured with the label ‘political prisoner’. In reality he was not goaled for ‘dissident’ activity, but for petty crimes, included attacking someone with a machete. The world corporate media ignore or skip over this rather inconvenient truth to eulogise Zapata as a martyr for the cause of human rights. Among the rights which Zapata himself was demanding were a television, telephone and a cooker – in his cell. Thus, even while Zapata’s mother thanked Cuban doctors for the care they gave him, Zapata became a pawn in their propaganda war against Cuban socialism.
We condemn the hypocrisy of those who preserve today’s world of exploitation and oppression. Cuba is fighting for a new world of justice, peace and prosperity. The success of Cuban socialism has exposed the fundamental corruption and exploitation of capitalist society. The Cuban Revolution has shown the poor majority of the world population that fundamental change is not only necessary but that it is possible. We must contribute to this international movement, starting here in Britain: exposing media lies and defending Cuban socialism; exposing fraudulent elections and defending our rights to work, housing, health, education, culture and sport – human rights universally enjoyed by everyone in Cuba.
Dominic O’Hara
Download this letter and send it to Chris Bryant, Minister of State for Europe and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to demand to know why British diplomats have been supporting the demonstrations of the Ladies in White. Quick! Email or post it before 5 May!
On Monday 11 January 2010 the London Guantánamo Campaign held a demonstration outside the US Embassy in London to mark 8 years of the Guantánamo Bay torture camp. A vigil by protesters in orange jumpsuits and black hoods was followed by an hour of speeches demanding the closure of the camp and justice for all detainees.
Nicki Jameson spoke at the demonstration on behalf of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! She pointed out that the US presence at Guantánamo Bay is an illegal occupation of Cuban territory dating back to the 1903 Cuban-American Treaty, which was signed under threat of military action.
Despite Barack Obama’s pledge to close the camp by 22 January 2010, this deadline will not be met. Just under 200 prisoners are still held there. Of these around 50 have been cleared but will not be released until the US can find countries to accept them. There may be sufficient evidence to try around 25 in the US, but much of this evidence was obtained using torture.
It is not clear why the US are still holding the approximately 120 remaining detainees. One of the speakers, journalist Andy Worthington, suggested that in Shaker Aamer's case it may well be that his release would be too embarrassing for the US government because of his extensive knowledge about what has happened at Guantánamo.
There are still 2 men with British connections held at Guantánamo Bay. Shaker Aamer is a British resident, with a British family living in Battersea, London. His 4 British children include a 7-year-old son he has never met. The London Guantanamo Campaign is also demanding the release of Algerian asylum seeker Ahmed Belbacha, who was formerly living in Bournemouth, on humanitarian grounds.
Other speakers were Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London; Chloe Davies of Reprieve, a legal charity which fights for human rights for prisoners; Lindsey German of SWP/Stop the War campaign; Joy Hurcombe of Brighton Against Guantánamo and John Clossick of the Save Shaker Aamer Campaign.
For half a century US imperialism has gone to staggering lengths to destroy the Cuban Revolution and damage the example it sets for the oppressed people of the world. This aim is embedded in the US Constitution itself. The US blockade (1961), invasion (1961), the threat of nuclear war (1962) and attempts to isolate Cuba on the international stage, have failed to destroy the Revolution. The Obama administration is stepping up efforts to create an internal opposition among the Cuban people, ‘investing’ $55 million in 2009 alone in this endeavour. These attempts are failing miserably. Imperialist powers and their allies continue to underestimate the revolutionary strength of the Cuban people, demonstrated in December 2009 when just one neighbourhood in Havana took to the streets in response to a group of imperialist-paid mercenaries known as the Women in White.
The Women in White are the families of 75 counter-revolutionaries who were gaoled in April 2003 for being paid agents of the US government involved in sabotaging the Cuban Revolution. For years their monthly demonstrations have been ignored by the Cuban people, who realise they represent nothing more than a photo opportunity for the international bourgeois press. However, last month a crowd of Cubans responded, surrounding the women and banging on the car of a British diplomat who was present. Diplomats from the US and German embassies were also accompanying the Women in White, in violation of international diplomacy laws. The words of the Cuban people in the video demonstrate their refusal to tolerate the Women in White’s false claims to be fighting for freedom. They are losing their patience with the self-aggrandizement of a tiny group of mercenaries who would return Cuba to imperialist domination in exchange for a few material privileges.
In the video, one of the women in white admits receiving money from the allies of the US government, linked to terrorist organisations based in Miami. Among them is Santiago Alvarez who left Cuba soon after the Revolution and has since been involved in many terrorist actions killing Cuban people as a leader of the Miami Mafia. He was arrested in the US in 2005 when found in possession of numerous weapons, including fully automatic machine guns along with ammunition. Alvarez is a key ally of Luis Posada Carriles, a terrorist who has boasted his involvement in blowing up a Cuban civilian aeroplane, killing 73 people in 1976.
Throughout their history of financing right-wing terrorist groups to overthrow progressive governments and attack revolutionary movements, the US government has often acted covertly through non-governmental organisations. Also in December 2009, an employee of a CIA front organisation was detained for illegally distributing sophisticated satellite communication technology to mercenary groups in Havana and giving free mobile phones to citizens in an effort create inequalities and destabilise Cuban socialism.
Following these events, Raul Castro said to the Cuban National Assembly of People’s Power: “The United States won’t quit trying to destroy the revolution…They are giving new breath to open and undercover subversion against Cuba…The enemy is as active as ever.” Nonetheless, as the video shows, the Cuban revolutionaries are also active and they will defend their Revolution.
Long live the Cuban revolution! Imperialism OUT of Latin America!
On Saturday 12 September 2009, to mark the 11th anniversary of the incarceration of the Cuban 5, over 60 people protested in a busy shopping street in the Angel, near central London , to demand the release of the Cuban 5, as part of an international day of action.
The event was called by Rock around the Blockade (RATB), a campaign in solidarity with socialist Cuba and against the US blockade, to demand the immediate release of the five Cuban heroes. Under the title Break the Chains: Free the Cuban 5, Free all Political Prisoners of Imperialism, the rally highlighted the use as a torture camp of Guantanamo Bay , in illegally occupied Cuba , to hold prisoners of the imperialist ‘war on terror’. Speakers also exposed the situation of refugees and asylum seekers in Britain , thousands of whom are daily detained and deported under Britain ’s racist immigrations laws. Detainees include nearly 500 children currently incarcerated. read more>>
On Saturday 12th September members of Rock around the Blockade in Newcastle held a demonstration as part of the international call for solidarity with the Cuban 5 to demand their freedom.
The demonstration was at Grey’s Monument in Newcastle city centre where we had placards and banners of the five Cuban heroes calling for their immediate release, an information stall and speeches about the case of the Cuban 5, about rendition flights Britain has been involved in and the ‘war on terror’ which is used by imperialist countries like Britain and the US when they want to terrorise Muslim communities to justify their actions in the Middle East and to attack progressive governments like that of Cuba, all the while self-confessed terrorist Louis Pasada Carriles walks free on US soil. There was also a speech about ALBA and the coup in Honduras and how the gains and example of the Cuban revolution are acting as a beacon of inspiration to the working class internationally and sparking off socialist movements in Latin America. read more >>
Cuba Solidarity Campaign: the dead hand of sectarianism
On 6 December 2008, two activists from London Rock around the Blockade (RATB) were thrown out of a conference on Latin America organised by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC). Their crime? Handing out fliers advertising an RATB rally in London 17 January 2009 organised to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. RATB had requested a stall at the Latin America conference but CSC Director Rob Miller had personally refused. When he and fellow CSC Executive Committee member Natasha Hickman saw the RATB comrades publicising our event, they insisted that they leave immediately, threatened to call the police and summoned security officers to enforce their decision. read more>>
Helen Yaffe, Palgrave Macmillan, 20 February 2009.
Based on new archival research and interviews with his contemporaries and colleagues, this book records Guevara's contribution to industrial organisation, economic management and socialist political economy debates as a member of the Cuban government. It rescues the history of his work as President of the National Bank, head of the Department of Industrialisation and Minister of Industries from 1959-1965.
Guevara created the Budgetary Finance System, an economic management system unique to socialism and based on the productive and managerial techniques of US corporations. It was also consistent with his Marxist analysis and included policies to promote education and training, establish administrative controls, forge workers' participation in management, found science and technology institutes and raise consciousness whilst institutionalising psychology as a management tool. In addition, the book shows how Guevara was able to predict that capitalism would return to the Soviet Union
Available at the reduced price of £15 from our stalls or send a cheque to
Larkin Publications,
BCM Box 5909,
London
WC1N 3XX
for £17, including p&p.
Viva Cuba! is the newsletter of Rock around the blockade, with news and analysis about socialist Cuba, struggles in Latin America and reports of RATB campaign activity in Britain. It comes out every two months and you can subscribe by joining RATB!
Cuba: Defending Socialism, Resisting Imperialism brings you voices from Cuba, a country fighting for social and economic justice, representing the aspirations of the poor and oppressed worldwide, building socialism in a capitalist world....
In June 2001, a Miami jury found five Cubans guilty on charges ranging from spying to conspiracy to commit murder and endangering the security of the United States...
RATB campaign against the genocidal blockade of Cuba. Recently, British banks have joined the blockade by refusing to allow commercial companies in Britain to transfer funds to Cuba.
The now infamous US prison complex at Guantanamo bay has held more than 750 people since it was opened as part of the so-called war on terror in 2002...
Rock around the Blockade launched a Boycott Bacardi Campaign on 13 August 1999 to highlight the organised attempts by the Bacardi company to undermine the Cuban Revolution...
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On Monday 11 January 2010 the London Guantánamo Campaign held a demonstration outside the US Embassy in London to mark 8 years of the Guantánamo Bay torture camp. A vigil by protesters in orange jumpsuits and black hoods was followed by an hour of speeches demanding the closure of the camp and justice for all detainees.
Che Guevara
