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This new pamphlet, produced by Rock around the Blockade, collects together a series of articles from
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! that marked the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution in 2009.
The articles analyse different aspects of the development of socialism in Cuba: from health and education, to economic management and Cuba’s trade and cooperation agreements with progressive Latin American and Caribbean governments.
The pamphlet is free to download here and we encourage you to share it widely.
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‘Accordingly, the individual producer receives back from society – after deductions have been made – exactly what he gives to it’ (Marx, 1875)
‘wages today are clearly insufficient to satisfy all needs and have thus ceased to play a role in ensuring the socialist principle that each should contribute according to their capacity and receive according to their work…the Party and government have been studying these and other complex and difficult problems in depth, problems which must be addressed comprehensibly and through a differentiated approach in each concrete case.’ (Raul Castro, 2007)
‘[we have] the dream of everyone being able to live on their salary or on their adequate pension…’ (Fidel Castro, 2005)
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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?
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Wednesday, 28 April 2010
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.
Chris Bryant MP
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London SW1A
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Dear Christopher Bryant, MP
On Saturday 10 April 2010 you addressed a plenary session of the Society of Latin American Studies annual conference in Bristol, speaking as a member of the British government; Minister of State for Europe and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. One of the attendees asked you to explain why Michael Upton, deputy head of the British Embassy, in Havana had been participating in demonstrations by the ‘Ladies in White’, in contravention of the United Nations Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in the Internal Affairs of States, Resolution 36/103, 91st Plenary meeting, 9 December 1981.
The Ladies in White have protested monthly for seven years without interference or restrictions being placed on them by the Cuban state, its agents or its citizens. Recently, in a televised interview, their leader Laura Pollan admitted having received external funding. This money comes from Santiago Alvarez, a Miami-based Cuban exile, who has been linked to terrorist actions against the Cuban people. In November 2006 he was sentenced in the United States to nearly four years in prison for his part in a conspiracy to stockpile weapons for possible use against Cuba. Alvarez is also a key sponsor of the terrorist Luís Posada Carriles who has boasted about his part in the bombing of a Cuban commercial flight in 1976, which killed all 73 people on board.
Your initial response to the academic who raised the question was to claim that you could not see any problem with diplomats participating in demonstrations in their host countries. This suggests an alarming lack of knowledge about the international principle of non-intervention and non-interference, particularly given your governmental responsibilities. However, when the Ambassador of the Venezuelan embassy in London, with whom you shared the platform, affirmed this principle contained in Resolution 36/103, you agreed to investigate this extremely serious matter.
We are therefore writing to request an immediate investigation to determine why British diplomats are violating the terms of their post.
Yours sincerely,
RATB
We are asking all supporters of socialist Cuba and Cuba's right to self-determination to write to Chris Bryant at email address provided - or post the letter above as soon as possible.