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!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
CTC Workers notes
Interview in 2000 between US-Cuba Labour Exchange and Leonel Gonzalez Gonzalez, Director of Foreign relations CTC
" We have been trying to reason as to how for us democracy menas real participation of the people and that the workers and the people might be consulted for the purpose of enforcing the most important laws in the country.....Let me explain, for example, how the process of the worker's parliement in Cuba took place in the most difficult moments of our crisis. And how in any other country in the world people would have reacted differently in such a situation in the sense that those decisions are made without consulting the people. In the case of Cuba, this process of discussion and debate was an extraordinary experience that corresponds witht the method we have always applied, but in those circumstances acquired a very special connotation."
"To think only that a woman for example, has no right to maternity leave....I don't know what this country is going to do with the new convention on maternity that has been recently endorsed in International Labour Organization which establishes a minimum of 14 weeks maternity leave. So if the U.S. comlied with this I think the U.S. women would receive a great prize, one that they deserve, one that they need. Lastly, women are half of humanity and the mother of the remaining half."
"Who are these prisoners after all? Fundamentally, African Americans, immigrants, Latinos, who of course, are the most exploited sectors, the most discriminated sectors, the poorest within the U.S....Cuban workers are also fighting for a new and fair trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, so we call on the North American workers to join hands and efforts to claim for a new trial where justice may prevail in the case of Mumia." Leonel Gonzalez on Mumia Abu-Jamal.
" We have been trying to reason as to how for us democracy menas real participation of the people and that the workers and the people might be consulted for the purpose of enforcing the most important laws in the country.....Let me explain, for example, how the process of the worker's parliement in Cuba took place in the most difficult moments of our crisis. And how in any other country in the world people would have reacted differently in such a situation in the sense that those decisions are made without consulting the people. In the case of Cuba, this process of discussion and debate was an extraordinary experience that corresponds witht the method we have always applied, but in those circumstances acquired a very special connotation."
"To think only that a woman for example, has no right to maternity leave....I don't know what this country is going to do with the new convention on maternity that has been recently endorsed in International Labour Organization which establishes a minimum of 14 weeks maternity leave. So if the U.S. comlied with this I think the U.S. women would receive a great prize, one that they deserve, one that they need. Lastly, women are half of humanity and the mother of the remaining half."
"Who are these prisoners after all? Fundamentally, African Americans, immigrants, Latinos, who of course, are the most exploited sectors, the most discriminated sectors, the poorest within the U.S....Cuban workers are also fighting for a new and fair trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, so we call on the North American workers to join hands and efforts to claim for a new trial where justice may prevail in the case of Mumia." Leonel Gonzalez on Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
NACLA Notes
Attack on Peace Community in Colombia - Teo Ballve - Feb.19.2008
“You come face to face with the perversity of justice in this country, because the mechanisms of impunity operate in both directions: they not only declare the guilty innocent, but they also declare the innocent guilty,” says community leader Milton Barrera.∗
“You come face to face with the perversity of justice in this country, because the mechanisms of impunity operate in both directions: they not only declare the guilty innocent, but they also declare the innocent guilty,” says community leader Milton Barrera.∗
Monday, February 18, 2008
Public Transit Pragmatism
I see all the time, and my friends tell me of examples about this as well, of people completely lacking basic human common sense in terms of public transit etiquette and efficiency. In recent years I've lived in both Ottawa and Vancouver, and now Toronto, and the TTC riders of Canada's first city definately take the title of obliviousness.
A first example would be that people just cannot wait for others to get off the bus or train, they have to immediately push their way on, or worse stand directly in front of the doors and wait for the others to run them over. This kindergarten logic, let people off first, then get on after. I can understand sometimes people are late for work or anxious to get home when the train in nearly full, but even this is ridiculous; if you're the first one at the door you will get on, otherwise you wait your turn, and if you don't make this ride you'll get on the next one. When this happens on occasions when there is clearly enough room on bus, I'm just completely baffled at what people are thinking. Theres enough room on the bus for eveyone, you're gonna get on, don't worry about it!
Then you have people who insist on being the first ones off the bus. Again, we're all going to get the opportunity to step outside; theres enough room out there, theres enough room in the world, on the outside for all of us! As if the streets are so packed that you're gonna get stuck inside the bus forever!
Yesterday I hopped on the bus from my street to Pape station to catch the subway there. Its a ten minute walk, literally a two minute bus ride; the bus is packed, a woman gets on at Sammon. Ave one stop before Pape Station, there is an empty seat in front of me but I dont take it because the bus is so congested and we're all getting off at the last stop in 27 seconds. This woman miserably scuttles her way through half the crowd, I saw her eye the seat from afar to I knew exactly what she was doing, pushes my backpack out of the way, and sits down for 4 seconds before we all have to get off at the last stop. Just an absolutely unreasonable display of stubborness.
Then you have people who are sitting at the back of the bus, but for some reason feel they have to go all the way to the front doors to get off. You just passed the back doors, they're there for you to use, feel free.
Thats all I have for now. I will provide more examples as they come to me. And believe me I will not be short on inspiration.
A first example would be that people just cannot wait for others to get off the bus or train, they have to immediately push their way on, or worse stand directly in front of the doors and wait for the others to run them over. This kindergarten logic, let people off first, then get on after. I can understand sometimes people are late for work or anxious to get home when the train in nearly full, but even this is ridiculous; if you're the first one at the door you will get on, otherwise you wait your turn, and if you don't make this ride you'll get on the next one. When this happens on occasions when there is clearly enough room on bus, I'm just completely baffled at what people are thinking. Theres enough room on the bus for eveyone, you're gonna get on, don't worry about it!
Then you have people who insist on being the first ones off the bus. Again, we're all going to get the opportunity to step outside; theres enough room out there, theres enough room in the world, on the outside for all of us! As if the streets are so packed that you're gonna get stuck inside the bus forever!
Yesterday I hopped on the bus from my street to Pape station to catch the subway there. Its a ten minute walk, literally a two minute bus ride; the bus is packed, a woman gets on at Sammon. Ave one stop before Pape Station, there is an empty seat in front of me but I dont take it because the bus is so congested and we're all getting off at the last stop in 27 seconds. This woman miserably scuttles her way through half the crowd, I saw her eye the seat from afar to I knew exactly what she was doing, pushes my backpack out of the way, and sits down for 4 seconds before we all have to get off at the last stop. Just an absolutely unreasonable display of stubborness.
Then you have people who are sitting at the back of the bus, but for some reason feel they have to go all the way to the front doors to get off. You just passed the back doors, they're there for you to use, feel free.
Thats all I have for now. I will provide more examples as they come to me. And believe me I will not be short on inspiration.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)