Gracias! Season’s Greetings and best wishes for 2021
Campaign News | Friday, 25 December 2020
The Cuba Solidarity Campaignwishes you a peaceful break and best wishes for 2021. We know 2020 has been incredibly difficult for many of our friends and supporters, and we are grateful for your continued support throughout the last year.
Despite the hardships of recent months, we have drawn hope and inspiration from the actions of Cuba’s international medical brigades. It is impossible not to have been moved at the sight of more than 4,000 Cuban doctors, nurses and technicians working alongside health workers in 40 countries in the fight against COVID-19.
During this time Cuba itself has suffered not only the impact of the pandemic, but also the worst sanctions imposed by the US government in decades. The intensification of the US blockade under Donald Trump, together with an overnight crash in tourism, has had a devastating effect on the Cuban economy. It is a testament to the Cuban government’s commitment to the wellbeing of its people that in the face of such attacks Cuba has a death rate of 12 per million from the pandemic, much lower than rich European countries and others in the region.
At CSC, despite having to cancel study and speaking tours to and from the island, and events and activities planned for the year, we have adapted quickly to ensure we can continue to campaign and keep our members up to date.
More than 5,000 people have watched our series of online meetings broadcast across Zoom, Jitsi and YouTube. We have brought speakers from Canada, the USA and Cuba together including three of the Miami Five, the Cuban ambassador to the US, representatives of Cuban and British unions, medical professionals and politicians including Jeremy Corbyn MP.
If you missed out on any of these they are all available to watch on our YouTube channel here.
We ran two major online campaigns in the spring which gained 17,000 online signatures and raised more than £28,000 to buy medical equipment to support Cuba’s efforts to treat COVID-19 patients at home.
Our current campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize 2021 to be awarded to the Henry Reeve [https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/nobel-peace-prize/] International Medical Brigade has more than 7,800 signatures. We have also worked with parliamentarians and academics to secure more than 20 official nominations have been registered with the Nobel Prize Committee.
And we have continued to publish our quarterly magazine Cuba Si and operate our online shop.
All of this would not have been possible without your support: taking actions, attending online events, donating, and sharing our activities on social media.
We are hopeful that the election of Joe Biden will see improvements in US-Cuba relations. But, as the last four years have shown, even the small steps towards the normalisation of relations with Cuba taken by the Obama administration were reversed in a heartbeat by Trump - replaced with the harshest sanctions ever seen. All this was coupled with increased funding for groups seeking to undermine and destroy the gains of the Cuban people and their Revolution.
This is why we need to be vigilant and committed in our campaigning in 2021. If you are able to support us and are not already a member of CSC, please consider joining here.
And if you are already member, and are able to, please donate to help us continue our work in 2021 here.
Once again, thank you for your tireless work, enthusiasm and support for CSC during 2020. We wish you and your loved ones a safe and Happy New Year and all the best for 2021.
The Cuba Solidarity Campaign Team
