London events reports
North-east England events reports
North-west England events reports
Scotland events reports
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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.
We got a good response and used the event to tell people about Cuba and how it is leading the fight back against the capitalist crisis and how the Cuban 5 are the vanguard of this fight back. We used the example of Cuba to show that people’s needs can be met without having to exploit or oppress others, without having to go to war and that despite the economic crisis which has also hit Cuba and with the added effects of the US blockade not one person has been made homeless, not one person has been made redundant in Cuba. Unlike in Britain where people are losing their jobs and homes, and instead of promoting solidarity with the working class in Britain and the working class internationally our government and media use racism to keep us divided to make it easier for them to attack our basic rights and make a profit out of it.
Free the Cuban 5! Viva Cuba!
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On Saturday 25th July Rock around the Blockade in Newcastle held a street celebration at Grey’s Monument, to mark the anniversary of the 26th July Movement.
Possibly the biggest Che flag I have ever seen adorned the Monument, along with 26 Julio, Cuba and Palestine flags. We also had an information stall with a canes attached flying the flag of the Tamil people. This, along with the weather being on our side, brought in a crowd of around 100 people who had a lot of interest in what we had to say.
We started by saying that we were there to celebrate the 26th July Movement and 50 years of the Cuban revolution and that we celebrate it because Cuba is a socialist country which is able to meet the needs of its people without the need for exploitation, oppression, imperialist war, racism or poverty. It is not just by chance that they are able to do this; Cuba can do this because the mass of the Cuban people are in power and are leading and pushing forward their revolution which puts people before profit. Unlike in imperialist Britain, one of the richest countries in the world, rich on the stolen wealth from the mineral resources and exploited workers around the world, and because Britain is a capitalist country and puts profit before people we have an NHS, education and housing system which is being sold off and privatised, our rights to welfare are coming under attack as are our civil liberties. The government gets away with this by using racism to justify its actions abroad and to keep us divided in this country by blaming immigrants for our problems. In Cuba, they have one of the best healthcare and education systems and they have their basic needs and rights met so that they are able to develop as human beings. As well as this, despite the global economic crisis we are in, not one person in Cuba has lost their job or home as a result, unlike in Britain, were the government is trying to pay itself out of the crisis by throwing money at the banks and by increasingly attacking the living standards of the working class here and internationally.
We played revolutionary music off a CD player, and then another speech was given about how the gains in Cuba would be impossible if the Cuban people hadn’t fought back against the Batista dictatorship and against US neo-colonialism. The Cuba people fought back to get power into their own hands, because when power was in the hands of a rich, minority elite the mass of the Cuban people had little or no access to clean running water, electricity, enough food, a decent job and home, education and healthcare and political representation. Cuban society is led and participated in by the masses through the mass organisations, the democratic system, where they elect representatives who don’t get paid a politicians wage, they don’t get paid more than they did in their previous job, and are recallable at any time, they are accountable to the people. Unlike in Britain where our politicians get into power with not many people voting, they aren’t accountable, can’t be recalled, earn over £60,000 a year and still have their hands in the till to get even more as we have seen with the recent expenses scandal. In Cuba, the people don’t give away their power when they vote.
After this we had music from Stan, a well know local band, which drew in an even bigger crowd. Check out their MySpace page: www.myspace.com/stanmyspace
Then we had speeches on the blockade imposed on Cuba by the US and the case of the Cuban 5, ALBA and the military coup in Honduras, and the Cuban Women’s Federation (FMC) and role of women in Cuba.
We stand in solidarity with Cuba to show people what can be achieved when the mass of the people have power, to show that things can change, that there is an alternative to capitalism. Cuba is truly a beacon to working class people around the world; we stand in solidarity with Cuba so that the hope for a better world is not extinguished.
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On Saturday 6th June activists from Rock around the Blockade and the Revolutionary Communist Group hosted a demonstration at Grey’s Monument, Newcastle in solidarity with the Cuban 5 and to demand their release. This action was called in response to the Cuban call for an international day of action to free the 5, because the Court of Appeals is making a decision this month as to whether or not if they will hear their case.
We were there for 5 hours telling people about the case of the Cuban 5, handing out leaflets, with placards and banners reading ‘Free the Cuban 5! End the Illegal US Blockade!’
One question which is asked often is ‘Who are the Cuban 5, and what’s it got to do with us in Britain?’
The answer lies in the system we live under and the current situation in Britain and around the world. The economic crisis we are in is lining up to be the worst the world has ever seen. Billions are getting pumped into the decaying financial sector to try and encourage borrowing and lending and restart the economy. The government pointed the finger of blame sternly at the rich bankers for risky and unregulated lending and for greedy bonuses. The whole economic crisis has been pinned to bad decision making by these bank managers. Then, the government and opposition parties who tutted and shuck their heads at the bloated wage packets of the bankers, have had their MPs caught up in their own scandal. The expenses scandal has saw MPs who already make £64,766 a year (around three times the average wage) claiming up to £24,006 a year tax free ‘additional allowances’ for second homes. On top of this they can claim staffing allowances of £100,205, incidental expenses of £22,193, communications allowance of £10,400 and several more. MPs are up in arms, are saying this behaviour has to stop, are saying their needs to be tighter regulation, are saying they need to restore people’s trust in their representatives. The fact is most of these are involved in the scandal, and no one would be complaining if they hadn’t have been caught, there would be no reshuffling of government, and when times were good before the crisis there was no shouting about how much bankers pay themselves, they were the good old boys of the City, the entrepreneurs. The fact also is that most ordinary people in Britain have never trusted the MPs or classed them as representatives of the people, and no amount of reshuffling will change that.
At first glance it may seem then that there is no accountability in government, no democracy. That would be a misunderstanding of democracy, as it does exist, but it exists for the rich, for a minority, and not for the mass of the working class. The state, by state we mean the government, police, army, prisons, judiciary system, church and other institutions, exists in order for one class to have control over another. In a capitalist country the state with all of its arms and institutions serves to protect the interests of the rich and keep down any resistance to this by the working class. The interests of the rich are to get richer and more powerful. Capitalisms only interest is to increase the rate of profit, this is unsustainable and can only be prevented from collapse by massively attacking the working class internationally: forcing people in to working in sweat shops, and stealing mineral wealth, imposing poverty and starting war and justifying this through racism. The living standards of the working class in this country are also attacked. This is done by forcing people in to the worst, temporary, low paid and often part time jobs, privatising social services such as education, healthcare and housing and taking away the right to benefit and our civil liberties: rights to protest against what is happening to us and the working class internationally, through the use of anti-terror laws. This will get worse as the crisis deepens.
The only way out of this for the working class is through an anti-racist, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist movement to forcibly seize state power, smash the state and its ways of working and build a new state structure which is ran by and for the working class. Appointing representatives from the grassroots by universal suffrage into government and other posts, cutting away as much bureaucracy as possible, having all representatives accountable and recallable at anytime and paying them a normal working wage is how it would run. This will ensure that society is built to meet the needs of the majority. The state is still necessary at this point to ensure that the bourgeois don’t return to power, to order productivity, for distribution and to ensure that the individualist mindset developed under capitalism withers away and the consciousness of the people is raised to want to input into society.
Cuba is a country where the working class seized state power through revolution and are building a society to meet the needs of its population, and also to help undeveloped countries around the world (with medical staff, teachers and training). They freed themselves from imperialism, from a neo-colony of the US and from the Batista dictatorship and from capitalism. They have shown that an alternative to capitalism is possible, and provide a beacon of hope for the working class internationally. The US wants to extinguish this living example of socialism as do Cuban exile groups living in the US. Parts of this community have formed terrorist groups to attack Cuba with the aim of destroying Cuban socialism and returning to exploit the mass of the Cuban people once again under capitalism. The Cuban 5 are five men who went to the US to infiltrate these groups and find out future terrorist actions they had planned. The 5 compiled pages and pages of evidence of planned attacks which was passed to the US government to act on. But instead of arresting members of the terrorist organisations they arrested the 5 under conspiracy to commit espionage! They have not one scrap of evidence that these men were spying on the US government, yet they have been serving up to life sentences for ten years now. They are political prisoners, they were on the forefront of defending their country, of defending Cuban socialism and have been imprisoned for daring to doing so.
So when people ask ‘Who are the Cuban 5, and what’s it got to do with us in Britain?’
We answer that they are 5 Cuban heroes, and what it has got to with us in Britain is that their fight for justice should be the fight of the working class, of socialists, communists, and progressive people all around the world. Cuba is leading the fightback against this global capitalist crisis; Cuba provides the hope for the survival of humanity, and the Cuban 5 are at the vanguard of this. It has every thing to do with us in Britain. We must join their struggle out on the streets, putting pressure on our government and showing support for the Cuban 5; their case will not be won in the courts alone.
Free the Cuba 5! Viva Cuba! Onwards towards victory!
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Six North-East comrades went on the 2009 RATB solidarity brigade to Cuba last month and, since then, have been sharing our experiences with anyone who will listen. At stalls, film showings, protests and at three Report-Back Meetings held in Newcastle, Durham and Sunderland, we brigadistas have offered up the knowledge that we gained while in Cuba. Our speeches at the meetings covered topics including education and healthcare, the democratic system, internationalism and ALBA, the effects of tourism, agriculture and food production, culture and youth, the current economic crisis, mass organisations and CDRs, recent political developments and the relevance of Cuba to Britain today! The meetings lasted a long time as brigadistas answered many questions from the audience, but the discussions remained interesting and inspiring throughout. People arrived ready to learn about Cuban Socialism and left ready to fight for revolution in Britain. With the help of video footage from our time in Cuba, we brigadistas showed the North-East that another world is possible and will continue to do so in the months to come.
Viva Revolutionary Solidarity! Viva Cuba!
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