Cuba’s solidarity with Palestine resonates at AGM
Campaign News | Sunday, 30 June 2024
Delegates listen to the Cuban ambassador speaking at the 2024 CSC AGM
Cuba’s longstanding history of solidarity with Palestine and current support for the people of Gaza was central to the discussions at the CSC Annual General Meeting in London on 22 June.
Welcoming 80 delegates to the headquarters of the National Education Union (NEU), the Chair of the union’s International Committee, Louise Regan, said she was proud of the work that the union did with CSC, including its regular delegations and practical support through material aid campaigns – from Viva La Educación to their recent donation of £10,000 to the Cuba Vive appeal
CSC chair Kevin Courtney said he was looking forward to chairing his first AGM and introduced clips from Cuban news reports showing Viva La Educación aid being delivered to schools.
CSC director Rob Miller reviewed the last year of work, including the #OfftheList campaign to remove Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, the success of the first Screen Cuba film festival, the arrival of educational aid in Cuba, and welcoming Equity, the latest trade union to affiliate. Although trade union affiliations had increased slightly, individual members were slightly down, so Rob urged delegates to help support CSC’s work by encouraging friends and colleagues to join.
Cuban Ambassador Ismara Vargas Walter said she was very proud to take part in first AGM: “Being here is a special moment. Way before coming to the UK I knew about the work being carried out by CSC. I’m very glad you showed the clips from Cuban national news which gave you the opportunity to the reaction of our children.”
She praised CSC members for contributing to many appeals over the years, which “contributed to the dignity of the Cuban people.”
The annual plan and financial report were presented, with several delegates contributing to the discussion and asking questions before they were unanimously passed.
The Director of the Cuban Friendship Institute (ICAP), Rigoberto Zarza Ross, said it was an honour to be present at the AGM of one of the most important solidarity organisations in the world which had been carrying out active and comprehensive solidarity with Cuba for more than forty years. He gave an overview of the situation in Cuba and the intensification of US economic warfare and funding for anti-government groups. Rigoberto was not hopeful there would be better policies from the US after the presidential elections. He finished by quoting José Martí who said: “He who will rise with Cuba rises for all times.”
Motions to recognise Cuba’s consistent record of solidarity with the Palestinian people, support for the Cuba Vive medical aid appeal and the Screen Cuba Festival were moved, debated and unanimously passed by delegates.
A controversial motion which criticised the Executive Committee’s decision to refuse a stall to a publisher at the 2024 Latin America conference was resoundingly defeated. The group was denied a stall because of their support for Israel’s actions in Gaza, and the debate on the motion saw delegates queuing up to agree with the Executive’s decision to support both the Cuban and Palestinian struggles and bar the stall.
During lunch, award-winning Cuban journalist Liz Oliva Fernández featured in Uphill on the Hill, a film by US-based media company Belly of the Beast. The documentary explored why the Biden administration had embraced Trump’s Cold War-era policy toward Cuba and the impact that the Cuban-American lobby in Congress has on US policy towards the island.
Cuban internationalism, young workers and solidarity with Palestine
To close the day, participants in CSC’s Young Trade Unionists’ May Day Brigades spoke on a panel: ‘Cuban Internationalism, Young Workers and Solidarity with Palestine’.
Recalling his experiences on this year’s brigade, Vice-Chair of RMT Young Members Freddie Seale said: “One of the incredible things about the brigade is how it demonstrates how many countries owe some kind of debt to Cuba. There were delegates from Chile, which was the site of Cuba’s first medical mission abroad; from Ghana, where Cuba has had medical missions stationed for over 40 years; and of course South Africa, where Cuba played such a key role in bringing about an end to Apartheid.”
The 2024 brigade witnessed the extent to which the Cuban people stand side by side with the Palestinians, and Freddie quoted from a Palestinian trade unionist he heard speak at the International Meeting of Solidarity with Cuba and Against Imperialism in Havana on May 2. “The cause of solidarity with the Cuban Revolution is also our cause. Because love is paid with love and solidarity is paid with solidarity.”
For Micaela Tracey-Ramos, her first visit to the island on the 2022 brigade was transformative: “I was in Plaza de la Revolución for the first May Day after COVID, and saw Cuban health workers lead the march. I can quite honestly say it changed my life.” She explained how central internationalism has been to the Cuban Revolution, going back to the ideals of José Martí, who proclaimed that ‘Patria es humanidad’ (Homeland is humanity). The phrase adorns one of the walls of the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp, where she and hundreds of other brigadistas have stayed over the years. This ethos has guided Cuba to share the gains of its Revolution all over the world – be it their efforts to bring about an end to Apartheid in Southern Africa, its numerous medical and educational programmes, or its steadfast support for the Palestinians. “Cuba’s internationalism is based on notions of solidarity, not charity, and is a commitment maintained despite the blockade and the cost to Cuba itself. Internationalism should be central to our politics and we have a responsibility to extend our support to Cuba too,” Micaela concluded.
As a delegate on the 2023 brigade, Nazifa Zaman contrasted what she learnt about Cuba’s approach to health with her own experiences in Britain as an organiser for the Royal College of Midwives and the current destruction of Palestinian health infrastructure in Gaza. “While the Zionist entity bombs Palestinian hospitals and the British government sells off our NHS bit by bit, Cuba continues to pursue community-led health care, with one of the highest doctor-to-resident ratios in the world.”
Nazifa celebrated Cuba’s medical internationalism, something which became clear during her visit to a hospital in Sancti Spiritus in 2023, where “pretty much every medic in the room stood up when asked if they had participated in an international mission.” She noted that “by 2014, Cuban medical professionals had performed 1.2 billion consultations overseas, attended 2.2 million births, and performed over eight million surgeries.”
The final speaker, Coll McCail (2023 brigade), spoke passionately about the long history of solidarity between the Cuban and Palestinian people over the past 60 years: “These are two peoples who have stood united in their resistance to imperialism and two peoples whose struggles, like those fighting for liberation the world over, are deeply intertwined.”
“The architects of the blockade that suffocates Cuba for daring to chart its own course are the same people whose bombs and bullets seek to beat down the very hope of Palestinian self-determination.” Charting the many examples of material support the Cubans have extended to the Palestinians over the decades – from training the Palestinian resistance in Jordan, to diplomatic support, to training Palestinian doctors – Coll described this as the fulfilment of a promise Che made to a Palestinian refugee in Gaza in 1959. That Cuba would “denounce what they had seen before all of humanity.” Coll’s experiences on the brigade last year, he said, made him realise that “two hundred years after the Monroe Doctrine was first declared, Cuba continues to defy US imperialism. “For Palestine and for all of us,” he said, “Cuba is not a state sponsor of terrorism. Cuba is a state sponsor of hope.”
Cuban Internationalism, Young Workers and Solidarity with Palestine’ panel
