Political Affairs Podcast #111 – Labor on the march!
On this episode we'll play our interview with Scott Marshall, chair of the Communist Party's labor commission, about the recent AFL-CIO national convention and labor's role in the demonstrations at the G-20 events in Pittsburgh.
The economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba for half a century now is rejected every year by the vast majority of the 192 UN member countries, a fact that should motivate the US government to ask itself: why do these nations run the risk of opposing the most powerful country on Earth?
In 2008 185 nations voted against Washington’s blockade, while three were in favor, including the USA.
Whoever wants to access the truth can do so. This year, Cuba has once again substantiated at the UN General Assembly the socioeconomic, moral and ethical reasons compelling the country to insist on the lifting of the blockade.
Cuba has explained that the direct effects of this measure have caused losses of over $96 billion ($236,221 billion considering the current price of the US currency) to the island’s economy.
These cold figures translate into many lives lost and large amounts of material resources the island has been prevented from buying.
In this regard, this criminal war also damages the very same US people, because it denies them the right to trade, benefit from Cuban products and services at low prices, enjoy therapeutic services exclusive to Cuba, and spend a healthy vacation in one of the warmest, most peaceful and quiet countries in the world.
It is widely known that this anti-Cuban policy also supports the “industry” of counterrevolution, which the blockade is part of, and by way of which privileges are paid to representatives of the Miami-based pro-annexation mafia, using substantial funds from US taxpayers.
Obama lifted some of the most unpopular restrictions on Cubans living in the US, ordered by his predecessor, George W. Bush, related to trips to Cuba and the sending of remittances to relatives. But the travel ban on Cubans living in the US who don’t have relatives on the island is still in force.
Nothing has been done to re-establish the constitutional rights for US citizens to travel to Cuba freely.
Nowadays, the real structure of the blockade remains intact, including its illegal extra-territoriality, which prevents subsidiaries from US companies in other nations to have commercial bonds with the Caribbean island under the threat of heavy sanctions. Between January and September 2009, 23 companies or individuals have been fined.
Detailed information of these facts is found on the report presented by Cuba to the United Nations on this issue, as well as the full names of the children who are waiting for complex heart surgeries that can’t be performed because Cuba is prevented from purchasing the products that are essential for this humanitarian work.
These are only some of the reasons explaining why the US should end this economic war against the small Caribbean nation. The actions of solidarity of the peoples that admire Cuba’s resistance and the growing support of those opened to the truth, are still key factors to elucidate this dilemma between right and evil.
