by Abdul Rahman – The Peoples Dispatch
The Students Federation of India (SFI) organized a Cuba solidarity meeting in India’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi on November 7 on the anniversary of the 1917 October revolution.
Scores of students participated in the meeting, which was addressed by Fernando González, member of the Cuban National Assembly and one of the Cuban Five, Abel Despaigne, Charge de Affairs of the Cuban Embassy in India and M. A. Baby, convenor of the National Committee for Solidarity with Cuba and a Polit Bureau member of the CPI (M), among others.
Speakers noted how Cuba has been under punitive economic blockade imposed by the U.S. since the 1960s. They highlighted that the American blockade harms the overall Cuban economy and creates suffering among the Cuban people, and deprives people from across the world from benefiting from the innovations done in Cuba in various fields such as public health care.
Baby, during his presentation, pointed out how the U.S. has shown complete intolerance to the political choices made by the Cuban people, by imposing a punitive economic blockade on the island nation.
He underlined that Cuba is a symbol of defiance against imperialist bullying and an expression of solidarity with humanity. Baby harshly criticized the U.S. for imposing the blockade, claiming that it is nothing less than “economic warfare” against Cuban people.
He underlined that the U.S. has no respect for the international law and consensus among the international community, citing the example of how it has failed to listen to repeated adoption of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) anti-blockade resolution by an overwhelming majority every year since 1992.
Again, this year on October 30, 187 countries in the UNGA, including India, voted in favor of a resolution demanding the immediate withdrawal of the U.S. blockade against Cuba. The resolution was opposed only by the U.S. and Israel, with Moldova abstaining.
Baby noted how the U.S. has wrongfully put Cuba on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, claiming that when the U.S. and Israel are actually exporting terrorism and committing genocide in Gaza by killing thousands of children and innocent civilians, Cuba is exporting medicines and doctors to the poorest nations to treat people who cannot afford healthcare.
Baby praised the steadfastness of the Cuban people, saying “all sophisticated weapons and sanctions used by imperialist power have failed in front of their resolve. The Cuban people are more powerful than all the weapons and tactics of imperialism.”
Former political prisoner and member of the Cuban 5, Fernando González, who spent one and half decades in U.S. prisons, spoke about how the Cuban revolution in 1959 was the first time in the history of the country when common people felt real freedom from any kind of imperial intervention and colonial exploitation.
González claimed the U.S. was restless from the first day of the Cuban revolution, due to this newfound freedom. He noted how the U.S. tried to destroy the revolution by means of war and terrorism, but when it failed, it imposed a blockade.
González cited official U.S. documents regarding how the blockade was intended as a means to destroy the Cuban economy and make people hungry and desperate. This criminal attempt continues even after six decades, Gonzalez said, punishing Cubans for choosing their own fate in defiance of imperialist wishes.
However, González declared, the imperialists will never succeed in their criminal intent because they forget that the “Cuban revolution has built a society around humanity, and not around profit-seeking individuals.”
