The sovereignty of Cuba is the issue
Campaign News | Monday, 26 April 2010
CSC statement on the international campaign against Cuba
The international campaign against Cuba
Statement issued by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, April 2010
The sovereignty of Cuba is the issue
The hopes of a change in US policy towards Cuba with the election of President Barack Obama have been dashed by the ever more hostile stance that is being adopted by his administration. Increasingly their statements echo Bush era policies of regime change.
Unfortunately, the European Parliament, dominated by conservative forces, has joined the anti-Cuba chorus by passing an aggressive anti-Cuban resolution in March 2010.
The background to this was the death of hunger striker, Orlando Zapata.
The resolution however, uses this human tragedy to push for a dangerous and entirely US led agenda. The resolution calls for unconditional support for a "political transition to multi-party democracy in Cuba". In essence, this is a demand for 'regime change'.
Such a policy echoes the Bush era ‘Commission for a Transition to a free Cuba’. This policy saw the US appoint a de-facto Governor to run the new US led administration in Cuba post Castro. It envisaged US troops on the island helping ‘keep order’. It planned the complete privatisation of Cuba’s services and national assets, handing them on a plate to the voracious scramble for Cuba's resources among the Miami-Cubans and multinational companies.
Such a policy tramples over Cuba's sovereignty and the rights of the Cuban people themselves.
At the same time the members of the European Parliament ignore the terrorist attacks organised and financed from the United States that have killed over 3,000 Cubans. They do little or nothing to condemn the illegal and inhumane US Blockade.
The multi-million dollar efforts on the part of the US to destabilise Cuba is no secret. It develops and finances opposition groups inside the island, coordinates their activities and links them into international efforts to demonise Cuba at every available opportunity.
Like every other country in the world the Cuban political system is not perfect. Yet, it stands in stark contrast to many other countries in the region where for decades there has been widespread human rights abuses, torture, disappearances, political murders, assassinations, military coups and subjugation of whole sections of the populations into poverty. The regimes which perpetrated these atrocities had the real support of the various US administrations. Only now is this being
reversed by the many new progressive governments in the region, governments which have strong affinities with Cuba.
In this recent history, Cuba has been the unique and honourable exception and is a living example of a country where the lives of ordinary people are respected and flourish.
We once again totally reject the latest aggressions against Cuba. We should defend the policy of constructive engagement which Europe was beginning to practice last year.
We must campaign against the aggression against Cuba and the illegal Blockade. We must campaign for Cuba’s self-determination and development free from external interference. Most importantly we must stand firm in defence of Cuba’s sovereignty - this is what the honorable people of Cuba deserve.
