No One is Illegal

In the internationalist spirit of No One is Illegal, it is important to stress Cuba's role in the Battle of Ideas. It is important because Cuba's protocal fundamentally is tremendous sacrifice for the betterment of humanity as a whole. By extension of its ideological example and leadership, what Cuba constantly provides the third world is free educational and medical expertise and training on the island to whomever desires it, and internationalist missions for immediate medical and education attention and for the creation of those systems wherever it is needed.

Just to give one example, Fidel Castro recently wrote about Cuba's contributions in Bolivia:

"In Bolivia, 119 Cuban teachers worked with the goal of transmitting their experience and knowledge, in order to declare it a territory free of illiteracy in just two-and-a-half years. From the start, our country provided the equipment and educational materials necessary to meet this challenge: 30,000 21-inch televisions imported from China; an equal number of VCRs, with 16,459 transformers and 2,000 photovoltaic systems, which comprised a whole network for the subsequent educational courses throughout the day; 1.359 million flashcards for teaching people to read and write in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara; reading booklets and other materials...

23,727 literacy stations were created, with 76.6 % of illiterate people joining up, and 62% of those who did not learn to read and write in elementary school are now able to do so; they were not charged a single centavo.

There are 1,852 compatriots working ardently in Bolivia; of those, 1,226 are doctors; 250 are specialized nurses; 119 are health technicians; nine are dentists; and 86 are professionals and technicians in other fields; plus 102 selected people, dedicated to the vital services of all types needed by Cuban brigades abroad and patients admitted.

The Cuban Medical Brigade is working in 215 municipalities in Bolivia’s nine departments, attending to modest people and those who ask for their services. They have optimal equipment, donated by our country. In 18 ophthalmological surgical posts, 186,508 patients have received eye surgery. Their capacity easily exceeds 130,000 annually.

Our doctors have now provided almost 12 million consultations since the first ones arrived in Bolivia.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of our medical cooperation lies in the education of 5,291 young Bolivians who are studying medicine in Cuba, including 621 at the Latin American School of Medicine, where three classes have graduated with excellent results, and 4,670 from the new program."

Also important to stress is the center for culture, arts, academics, and sports that the island of Cuba has become, the haven it continues to be for political exiles and prisoners, as well as the space and freedom it has provided for some of the world's leading thinkers. It has produced heroes the likes of the Cuban Five, and has provided support for Black political prisoners in the United-States such as Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur. Sister Shakur is a member of the Black Liberation Army who escaped from U.S. prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba. Assata was granted a home in Cuba along with strong support when Fidel Castro claimed that "they wanted to portray her as a terrorist, something that was an injustice, a brutality, an infamous lie."

This year 1,230 labour leaders of 129 organizations, from 56 different countries are participating in May Day celebrations in Havana.

From providing medical attention to 9/11 rescue workers whose cries for help fell on deaf ears in the United-States, to performing cataract surgery free of charge for Mario Tehran, the man who assasinated Che Guevara, Cuba instinctively grants care, equality, and human hospitality to anyone who may set foot on the island.

But perhaps it is Cuba's internationalist missions which exclaim loudest that No One is Illegal. Cuba sees no differences between educational and medical needs, it sees no differences between the mountains of Pakistan, the shores of East-Timor, or the deserts of Africa, and it sees no differences between Black, White, Yellow, Red, or any other colour. It sees no differences between the freedoms of the Cuban 5, of Mumia Abu-Jamal, of the countless innocent victims of security certifictes and the Patriot Act in Canada and in the United-States, or of any other political prisoners, or prisoners of racism.

The prejudice we face today is not a scattered and isolated phenomenon, but an established pattern intrinsic to so-called capitalist democracies all over the world. The systematic inequality and injustice of capitalism towards rebellious peoples, and the exclusion and discrimination against immigrants, refugees, and people of colour. Plainly, what goes on is discriminatory, racist attacks with malicious intentions by powerful people, against people who have no status, no money, and no security.

What Cuba strives for not only on the island itself, but all across the globe, is for the cultivation of an ideology which defends the capacity of human capital, and to generate spaces for the working class, refugees and immigrants, indigenous peoples, and social movements to advance new and traditional paradigms of Revolutionary change. But beyond just saying Cuba, we say Internationalism! There is a saying about Cuba that goes mas humanos, mas cubanos, or in english more humans, more cubans, or Jose Marti's martyr cry of Patria es Humanidad, Homeland is Humanity!

Toronto Forum on Cuba energetically joins hands with organizations, peoples, and movements here in Toronto and all over the world in proclaiming that No One is Illegal, Everyone is Equal!