Let Cuban families live! End the blockade of Cuba!

First published at www.frfi.org.uk

In December 2021 the Cuban National Assembly of People’s Power approved the 23rd draft of the updated Family Code. The document includes laws regarding families, marriage, domestic issues and the care of dependants. Legislators consulted the Cuban people throughout the drafting process, complying with Covid-19 related restrictions by using email and video conferences. From February, Cubans all over the country will have the opportunity to study and debate the contents of the draft, edits will be made as a result and a final draft will be subject to a referendum before it is ratified. Mariela Castro, head of the Cuban National Centre for Sex Education, laid out the intention behind the changes: ‘It will guarantee the rights of groups of people whose realities were not sufficiently understood at the beginning of the revolutionary process… This bill does resemble the society in which we live: a complex, diverse and plural society’.

Cuban medic vaccinates a woman with syringe

First published at www.frfi.org.uk

On 25 January 2022 at a conference organised by the Progressive International, the Cuban government announced plans to provide 200 million doses per year of its Covid-19 vaccines to underdeveloped nations. This internationalist programme will include provision of vaccines at lower than market prices to poor countries, technology transfers to allow local production, and medical brigades to train local health workers in the delivery of the vaccines. With Cuba facing a difficult struggle to tackle inflation and boost economic growth, the success of its domestic vaccine drive and the export of vaccines for mutual assistance with other low-income countries will prove crucial. WILL HARNEY reports.

The monthly caravan protests against the US blockade of Cuba continued this month, showing the world's opposition to the genocidal US blockade. This month, activists from Rock Around the Blockade and the Revolutionary Communist Group reflected on the last year, under Joe Biden the US blockade has only tightened. This is a naked attempt to strangle Cuba's shining socialist example. Get in touch if you'd like to participate in the activities next month! Here are some photos and videos from around the country:

London

signal 2022 01 29 18 44 46 996

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 285, December 2021/January 2022

Since the ‘spontaneous’ coordinated counter­revolutionary protests in Cuba in July, the United States (US) has stepped up its attempts to overthrow the Cuban Revolution. The Biden administration has introduced new measures to intensify the blockade and has allotted $20m funding for regime change in Cuba. The US’s latest stunt was orchestrating a new wave of protests to take place in Cuba on 15 November. Despite their best efforts, the protests amounted to very little. RIA AIBHILIN reports.

Orlando Ernesto Rey Santos

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 285, December 2021/January 2022

FRFI speaks to Orlando Ernesto Rey Santos, lead negotiator for Cuba at COP26 and Climate Advisor in Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment. He discussed the island’s participation in the United Nations Climate Change Conference and its evaluation of COP26 which he attended in Glasgow from 1-12 November 2021.

The monthly caravan protests against the US blockade of Cuba continued this month, showing the world's opposition to the genocidal US blockade. This month, activists from Rock Around the Blockade and the Revolutionary Communist Group joined with organisations around the world to decry imperialist attacks on Cuba and show that there are people all around the world who support socialist Cuba. Get in touch if you'd like to participate in the activities next month! Here are some photos and videos from around the country:

On 14 and 15 of November 2021, the RCG, RATB and allied groups organised rallies in defence of the Cuban revolution outside the Embassy of Cuba in London. The US State Department under President Biden has provided millions of dollars to fund a 'colour revolution' campaign in Cuba, organised by Miami-linked Cuban dissidents, which aimed to draw anti-government protesters into the streets on 15 November to create confrontations with the police as a pretext for US intervention. This date was chosen by reactionaries to sabotage Cuba's plan to re-open the economy to tourism after its successful Covid-19 vaccination and containment strategy; the anti-government protests were intended to prolong the hardship endured by ordinary Cubans under the illegal US blockade.

Cuban medic administers Soberana02 vaccine

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 284, October/November 2021

‘Cuba has developed different RBD-based public vaccines, the most administered worldwide (protein-based), and among them the only SARS-CoV-2 conjugate-vaccine (RBD-TT), designed especially for children.’ 

– Tweet by Fabrizio Chiodo, Italian scientist working with Cuba’s Finlay Institute.1

'Let Cuba Live' solidarity protest in San Francisco (photo: PSL)

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 284, October/November 2021

US President Joe Biden made it an election promise to ‘promptly reverse the failed Trump policies that have inflicted harm on the Cuban people and done nothing to advance democracy and human rights’ (Americas Quarterly, 4 March 2021). But instead of reversing the 243 new sanctions inflicted on Cuba by the Trump administration, Biden’s government has:

  • added new sanctions and renewed old ones;
  • continued multimillion-dollar funding for regime change in Cuba;
  • announced plans for a pirate Wi-Fi network across Cuba to host more imperialist propaganda.