The Canadian Network on Cuba is sounding the alarm. Get ready for urgent anti-imperialist action. The cross-country formation held its 12th biennial convention in Toronto, June 5-7.
Some forty delegates, representing over 20 organizations, gathered at the downtown Steelworkers’ Hall to hear reports from officials of revolutionary Cuba and to adopt an Action Plan. The aim of the CNC, in concert with solidarity movements across North America and around the world, is nothing less than to prevent a U.S. invasion of the Caribbean island nation — which leading activists warn could occur at any moment.
Washington’s decades-long economic war against the socialist republic has sharpened under Donald Trump and Marco Rubio into a policy of siege and collective punishment designed to strangle the Cuban economy and inflict maximum hardship on 13 million people. The hegemon and its imperialist allies are set on a course of starvation to force political capitulation, leading to the liquidation of Cuba’s widely admired social achievements.
The gravity of the situation prompted the CNC convention to unanimously call for monthly mass demonstrations, and emergency actions as may be necessary, united by the demand “No War on Cuba!” A week of education and solidarity actions is already set for June 28-July 4.
Below is a text and video of the Socialist Action presentation to the CNC convention.
Cuba and the Permanent Revolution
by Barry Weisleder
For Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste across the Canadian state, everything that we do is profoundly influenced by the example of the Cuban revolution and by the Fidelista current that has led the country for over 67 years. For that reason, we are members of the Canadian Network on Cuba. SA actively supports CNC campaigns, including petitions and cross-country demonstrations that demand an end to the genocidal blockade of Cuba by the U.S. empire and its vile collaborators. We campaign inside the Canadian Labour Congress and (until recently) inside the New Democratic Party for the same. We call out the hypocrisy of the Mark Carney Liberal government. Ottawa falsely claims it is a friend of Cuba, yet it fails to denounce Washington’s economic warfare and multiple U.S. threats to seize control of the island nation. Carney even refuses to insist that Air Canada and West Jet resume flights to Havana and opt to re-fuel in Mexico and neighbor Caribbean countries, just as Canadian carriers do in one or another European country when fuel shortages arise there.
We have to ask why Carney, at a bare minimum, fails to demand an immediate end to the vicious, illegal trade embargo that is strangling 13 million Cubans. Why is the Canadian ruling class content to be an accomplice of an unprovoked economic war? Unfortunately, the answer is all too clear. It reveals the desperation and weakness of the capitalist rulers, the fallibility of imperialist domination of the global south. The example of revolutionary Cuba is a moral threat to the global system of exploitation and oppression. Cuba has demonstrated, especially before the present heightened and intensified blockade, that a better world is possible. Cuba’s internationalism, its egalitarian example, its very sovereignty poses a moral and political danger to a system that is choking humanity and nature. The Cuban revolutionaries, including Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, Vilma Espin and Che Guevara, led millions of workers and farmers to power. They expropriated the capitalists, as Che said, “right down to the nails in their boots.” They harbored no illusions in a mythical ‘national bourgeoisie’. They did not tie the revolution they led to a strategic alliance with so-called ‘patriotic’ capital, a stance that proved fatal to the working class in so many struggles including Spain in 1939, Indonesia in 1965, and Chile in 1973. The Cuban revolution, like the Russian Revolution in 1917, proved to be a Permanent Revolution, tied to the prospect for a world proletarian revolution.
And so, the Cubans sent teachers across Latin America and the Caribbean. They sent aid and engineers to earthquake victims in Pakistan. They sent soldiers to defeat the armies of Apartheid in Angola, asking nothing in return. Is Cuba a dictatorship? Yes. It is a dictatorship of the proletariat, an economic democracy. We defend it as one of humanity’s greatest achievements!
Inspired by the Cuban revolution, ten months ago Socialist Action launched an insurgent campaign for Eco-socialism, anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism inside the only labour-based political party in North America. Yves Engler, the foremost critic of Canada’s foreign policy, became the Socialist Caucus candidate for NDP leader. Predictably, NDP officials blocked the campaign, and the subsequent leadership campaign of Bianca Mugyenyi, which together attracted thousands of supporters and raised $200,000 in donations and pledges. On May 24, at a coast-to-coast conference, a new movement was launched. It bears the title of our iconic policy book: “Capitalism Can’t be Fixed – Onwards to a Socialist Future”. The new Socialist Movement aims to put solidarity with Cuba at the top of the foreign policy agenda.
Be certain of this: the new Socialist Movement is inspired by the Cuban revolution, by its insurgent character, by its resilience. The future class struggle left wing in this country must be internationalist to the core to combat and overcome Canadian imperialism both at home and abroad. And there is no better revolution to emulate than the Cuban revolution.
Imperialist Hands Off Cuba! Abajo a la Bloceo! Viva la revolucion socialista! Viva Cuba! Venceremos!