First published at www.frfi.org.uk

Rock around the Blockade (RATB), the Revolutionary Communist Group’s campaign in solidarity with socialist Cuba, has joined other groups to launch a new international campaign to challenge the British  and European banks illegally implementing the US blockade against socialist Cuba. Such a campaign is long overdue. 2022 is the 60th anniversary of the blockade, and its extraterritorial application (outside the US) is a violation of international law as well as UK and EU laws. The damage dealt to Cuba’s development and living conditions is clear, with an estimated cost of at least $144bn. The campaign gives people outside the US a practical way to challenge the banks to unblock Cuba. NATHAN WILLIAMS and WILL JONES report.

Longest and most comprehensive blockade

The Cuban revolution which triumphed in 1959 demonstrates to the whole world that it is possible to rise up against imperialism and build socialism, even under the nose of the United States, the world’s dominant imperialist power. For this reason socialist Cuba has been under relentless attack from the outset. In February 1962, US President John F Kennedy announced what would become the longest blockade in history. A memorandum written two years earlier by US Assistant Secretary of State Lester D Mallory reveals the blockade’s purpose. Beginning by recognising the mass support for the Cuban Revolution, as well as for communism, this memorandum states: ‘The only feasible means of alienating internal support is disenchantment and disaffection, based on economic dissatisfaction and hardship’. The blockade is enforced by a series of US laws and measures including the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA) of 1917 and the notorious 1996  Cuban  Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Helms-Burton) Act. The US’s obsession with destroying the Cuban Revolution is evident in the extent of this legislation, and that Cuba is now the only country included in TWEA, a piece of legislation dating back to the first imperialist war.

The US calls this an embargo, which is when one country establishes a policy not to trade with another country. But when military threat or force is used to close another country’s borders to international commerce – preventing normal relations with third parties – this constitutes a blockade. The blockade of Cuba is an act of war. The US laws are not only enforced domestically but also imposed on other countries’ dealings with Cuba. This extraterritorial application is central to the blockade. It was the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, section 620(a) which forbade assistance to the Cuban government and countries assisting Cuba. The 1963 Cuban Assets Control Regulations, under section 5(b) of the TWEA, meant Cuban assets in the United States were frozen, and all financial and commercial transactions were prohibited without a permit. Direct and indirect export of US products, services, and technology to Cuba were prohibited, as were Cuban exports to the United States and transactions in US dollars in Cuba by citizens of any country. Penalties are now imposed by the US Treasury through its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). 

Beyond these acts implementing economic warfare, the US aims to undermine Cuba internationally. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a key partner for Cuba, the US manoeuvred to take advantage. The Helms-Burton Act, as well as the 1992 Cuban Democracy (Torricelli) Act strengthened measures directly against Cuba and its participation in international trade. In 2005, further US regulations stipulated that Cuba must pay for goods in full, in cash, before shipment, with transactions made through banks in third countries. Between 2009 and 2015, under the Obama administration’s first six years, OFAC issued 56 fines amounting to nearly $14.3bn to financial institutions for suspected dealings with countries on the US’s sanctions list, which includes Cuba. OFAC issued fines to British and European banks: ING ($619m), BNP Paribas ($8.9bn), Commerzbank ($718m), Credit Suisse ($536m), and the Royal Bank of Scotland ($100m). Such fines are a reminder to financial institutions that they are tools of imperialism. The threat of US fines is enough to compel foreign banks to break the laws of their own countries to take action against their own account holders.

The Trump administration escalated the economic warfare to new levels. By re-adding Cuba to the list of ‘state sponsors of terrorism’ in January 2021, an egregious example of imperialist bullying, the US government forced foreign banks to restrict transactions relating to Cuba under their financial crime policies. The immediate effect of this was to put Cuba on the banks’ blacklists, blocking trade in goods and services, remittances, and even humanitarian donations. This was barbarism in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic when the World Health Organisation was urging for sanctions regimes to be lifted.

Tell the banks – unblock Cuba!

Because the blockade is presented as a bilateral issue between the US and Cuba, it has often seemed that only people in the US can directly challenge the legislation and political system which uphold the blockade. The apparent limits to what can practically be achieved by individuals and organisations outside the US have been frustrating for those who want to contribute to the struggle and educate others about the blockade. But the new campaign launched by RATB and others aims to show that the blockade can be directly exposed and challenged from anywhere in the world.

The basis of the campaign is simple. Banks in Britain and the EU enforce the illegal US blockade of Cuba despite UK and EU laws which are supposed to stop this. Simply sending an international bank transaction referencing ‘Cuba’ has the potential to alert the banks’ internal review systems designed to ensure compliance with OFAC. Our investigations have found that banks including HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide, NatWest, Santander, Revolut and Wise will delay and sometimes reject payments, with Lloyds reportedly stating to a customer that ‘although Cuba is not a UK sanctioned country, we also adhere to US sanction [sic] policy’.  Wise stated to other customers that their attempted payments ‘may potentially violate international sanctions laws’, an outrageous falsehood since only the US sanctions Cuba. This behaviour is open to customer complaints and legal challenges. In British law, the Protection of Trading Interests Act 1980 (amended as part of the EU withdrawal in 2021), for example, makes enforcing another country’s sanctions a criminal offence; the EU maintains similar laws.

On 24 July three European-based solidarity organisations launched the 1c4Cuba (one cent for Cuba) campaign at an online public meeting. Over 130 people took part from around the world. The campaign was founded by Cuba Support Group Ireland, Cubanismo.be (Belgium) and RATB, with organisations based in countries across Europe and further afield looking to become involved. This initiative involves civil actions, legal challenges, and street protests mobilising as many people and organisations as possible. By collectively calling out and demanding that banks stop reviewing, delaying or blocking transactions related to Cuba, 1c4Cuba aims to considerably increase the risks for banks of complying with US sanctions. It gives people outside the US a direct understanding of the extraterritorial imposition of the blockade.

It is an urgent, necessary cause, as Johana Tablada, Deputy Director of US Affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry, emphasised when addressing the campaign’s launch: ‘While the US government fails in their main purpose of overthrowing the Cuban Revolution...they did not fail in harming the Cuban population.’ Joining Tablada as guest speakers were Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute and author of Washington Bullets, and Helen Yaffe, Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow and author of We Are Cuba: How a revolutionary people survived in a post-Soviet world. The speakers described the reality of the blockade, Cuba’s struggle and achievements, and the complicity of imperialist-dominated financial institutions. During the meeting, many participants made their first ‘1c4Cuba’ transactions, and organisations from Britain, Europe and beyond expressed their enthusiasm to join the campaign.

The campaign combines humanitarian and revolutionary opposition to the blockade. Prashad concluded: ‘For me, the defence of Cuba is a defence of the possibility of socialism, and the defence of the reality of Marxism in the world… Marxism is the real movement of history in the world, and Cuba is one of the front lines of that. We are not in solidarity with Cuba out of some sort of NGO or charity instinct. We are in solidarity with Cuba because we want a world revolution. We are fed up with the wretchedness, the depredation of capitalism.’ Against the inhumanity, the ideological cruelty and exploitation, the power of the US, standing with socialist Cuba against the blockade is an easy choice. As Prashad finished: ‘This is common sense. Let’s make this common sense into a mass movement.’

To take part in 1cent4Cuba as an individual or group against the US blockade and complicity of banks, follow the instructions on www.1c4cuba.eu. We encourage organisations to get in touch about expanding this campaign to their countries.

‘I am angry, because we have foreign bodies and countries around the world who have to play the bidding of the US government’s cruel and inhumane policy of maintaining a 60-year-old blockade against the people of Cuba… We have to tell the banks to unblock Cuba. Cuba has the right to live. Cuba has the right to develop. Its people have a right to happiness and dignity. Why are European banks and – I would say – governments around the world collaborating with this policy which is nothing less than genocide? We need to unblock the banks. We need to stop with the war against Cuba. We need to stand with the Cuban people in these difficult times.’ Manolo de Los Santos, People’s Forum, New York City

‘Despite the fragility of the United States...they have a grip on the international financial institutions; therefore, we have to build…to fight against US domination of the banking system. That’s the reason this slogan is so important, my friends: “tell the banks: unblock Cuba!”’ Vijay Prashad, Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute

‘The resistance, the unity of our people in times of need when the US doubles down on their measures, their aggression … also coincides with the growing feeling internationally of support to the Cuban population and the Cuban Revolution.’ Johana Tablada, Deputy Director of US Affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry 

‘This 1c4Cuba campaign aims to change the calculation made by banks, so that imposing sanctions on Cuba is “high risk”. It’s a beautifully simple campaign… this campaign offers a way for those of us, not just in Europe and Britain, but in the rest of the world, to take direct action at very low cost to ourselves, to do it collectively and make this our responsibility to combat US sanctions which are threatening the very existence of Cuba.’ Helen Yaffe, Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow