For many of us living in the so-called United States, learning about the history of this country is not something we are often actively involved in. Our history courses and media, education systems at large and common conversations are filled with misinformation, or disinformation, meant to not only simply confuse people but to create a situation where people are often incapable of thinking for themselves.
This is not primarily a US-phenomena, but one that certainly is extremely advanced and developed in the US. The leadership of the nation to become known as the United States of America, since its initial inceptions and occupations of land, have been wealthy, powerful colonists, slave owners, and Capitalists. This means that the way by which they gained power was not by overthrowing an oppressive regime or system and replacing it with a revolutionary one, but instead, they overthrew the previous colonial power before them, Britain, to accumulate more wealth and control themselves, to become the next. This much is clear in the processes which took place for them to do so: Indigenous genocide, land theft, mass enslavement of Africa, the occupation of the Carribean and much of Latin America, and internally, there were and still are no true political "rights" for the mass majority of people.
This is not an ideological or political critique, necessarily. This is a material analysis of the actual patterns, behaviors, histories and actions taken by the factory owners, the police, the government officials, the stockbrokers, the intelligence agencies, and others. When we look into the history of these actions, there are many to show the true nature of the US-system and what Capitalism and Imperialism really have done to the world; what they have created; what they are doing.
So, when this nation's leaders stand before the tv cameras and press conference journalists and say, "Cuba is a dictatorship" and assert, because this is taken at face value for truth, that therefore they must be overthrown, what do we make of this? When they do this, they are first saying that they have the moral authority to make such accusations - as the so-called "Land of the Free" - and military might to occupy or overthrow this or that nation. Secondly, they are saying that others should follow suit because they have such a high authority. But after WW1 and WW2; the previous occupations of Cuba and Haiti (to name two among many); current occupations of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, Hawai'i; the genocide of Indigenous Nations of Turtle Island; Korea, Vietnam; the Cold War; the bombings of Japan, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan; the destruction and occupation of Libya and all of North Africa, and the wars since then, why is it so many believe them? Why is it that my father, my teachers, my friends, and many around me believe so strongly that Cuba, among so many others, is a totalitarian, evil, devilish hellscape?
What is the content of such thoughts and practices?
What is it that allows one nation to decide for others what they can and cannot do?
When we actually analyze the facts of the matter, we see that the United States government and its Capitalist interests, along with friends in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, have been exploiting the people, the land, the water, and the air for 500+ years. They have enriched and enshrined themselves in ultimate power, so as to be able to continue to exploit people further. In this sense, how can such a nation then be seen as "Democratic" and somehow have the authority or audacity to throw such accusations against any nation, let alone one like Cuba?
We see that the oppression and occupation of nations like Cuba is necessary for the US and Europe for a few reasons:
1) they shine as an example of something different - like them or not, call them Socialist or not, the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban people have been able to build a nation that looks and is fundamentally different to any of the Capitalist nations that surround Cuba, making it all the more necessary to confuse and lie to people about it.
2) the Cuban government and its people have successfully stood the test of time, the ultimate attempt at assassination: the US Blockade of Cuba. This is no simple embargo; the US blockade of Cuba is an advanced form of economic warfare, legalize, and Imperialism that has constricted the economy and production of Cuba, to do what? To kill people, so that the government can be blamed. And in many ways it has been successfully fought in every arena by the Cuban people, who are still under the blockade today.
3) if Cuban people, Nicaraguan people, Venezuelan people, Chinese people, Vietnamese people, Nigerien people, Burkinabe people, Malian people, and others in history have been able to stand up, in their own ways, who is to say that the masses of this or that Western nation might not join suit? Who is to say the masses of Turtle Island won't begin beating the drums...?
But most importantly, the US must squash and crush Cuba because it is also a testament, as others, to the brutality of Imperialism, slavery, and genocide. The death toll in nations like Cuba is catastrophic, and something no government can put an end to. It is only the masses of people in the Imperialist core, united with the masses in the rest of the world, who can finally put an end to this suffering.
Crop yields are down, disease is spreading, scarcity is growing, food production is low, the masses are suffering.
This is not Cuba's fault. If it were up to the Cuban people there would not be a soul who goes hungry, but when one lives in an Imperialist and exploitative world, one deals with all the consequences that creates, including mass starvation, hunger, and other "side effects", even in a Socialist country. Cuba has been fighting tooth and nail to overcome these problems, by engaging with the mass organizations, calling out and criticizing the failures in the government, in production, in administration, transport, and distribution of resources and food stuffs. Can we say the same for the US government? No! Instead, they spend billions to extract these resources from the global south!
The Cuban government and the Cuban people have also explicitly spoken out against the need to overcome the difficulties they have faced since the 90s, the fall of the Soviet Union, the Special Period, Neo-Liberalism, 2008, climate change, and the pandemic, combined with pre-existing realities. Cuba now has to import over 60% of their food for consumption, but to combat this they have called for new cooperation and coordination, they've spoken about an increasingly low intake of nutrition, and an increasing level of inflation and scarcity being cheered on by the US + European Capitalists who want to see Cuba fall, while actively working as an entire nation to vanquish these difficulties through collective action.
The difference between what is happening in Cuba, and say the same trajectory that is happening in the United States is that in the US when crop yields are down, more and more is imported, taxes are raised, prices are raised, and production dies down, thousands are fired. In Cuba, millions are brought into action; in the US, millions go hungry, the wealthy collect the crumbs and siphon them up to the top. These problems are inherent to a Capitalist system. But when these same problems are occurring in Cuba, a Socialist nation, their solutions are more mass organization, more study, more funding for social programs (not less!) more participation by the people and more militant action by the authorities with control over the economy, politics, and society: the people.
When the hurricanes that hit the Caribbean came through Cuba, people were prepared as they could be, evacuated, and afterwards, many of their homes began to be rebuilt right away. Whereas in New Orleans, during Hurricane Katrina, or during the many hurricanes hitting the Caribbean and Central/South America these past years, the Capitalist economies have ignored the masses, left hundreds if not thousands to drown, die, or go homeless; rebuilding efforts are stalled because of costs, or because they lack the coordination to do so outside of groups from other areas or from the Federal Government. People suffer, with more money being brought to the wealthy few, who close factories, lay off workers, move their production elsewhere, and keep on exploiting. None of this wealth or power is used to help the impoverished and destitute many suffering in these situations.
And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Cuba had offered to send relief efforts, doctors, technicians, and other experts to help during the Katrina catastrophe, and the most recent hurricanes, and climate disasters, and were denied their visas and entry into the United States under the lie that Cuban doctors are "spies" or "terrorists".
That is the difference between the US - the largest, wealthiest Imperialist nation in the world - and Cuba, an island 90 miles off the coast of Florida, with only approximately 11-12 million people. One nation cares for its people and is run by its people, another runs off the back of its people, and cares for nothing but profits.
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The death toll of the blockade could be 1, and it would be too many. But we know thousands have suffered and died because of this absolutely disgraceful act of human brutality against humankind. Sanctions, blockades, embargos are all a part of economic war, an attempt to kill or cripple not only the Cuban economy, production, or leadership, but the people and their revolution. In the words of Thomas Sankara, "Imperialism is a system that occurs not only in the brutal form of those who come with guns to conquer territory. Imperialism often occurs in more subtle forms, a loan, food aid, blackmail. We are fighting the system that allows for a handful of men on Earth to rule humanity."
Those who don't come with guns, often come with briefcases, aid packages, military aid, or some sort of "plan" to bring Africa, Asia, and Latin America out of "their" positions, through the "help" of another, mainly in the form of loans...aka in the form of debt.
Thomas Sankara also said, "He who feeds you, controls you."
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The fact that the United States has the guts to stand in front of the world and call itself a democracy, a free nation, one built on equality, is a slap in the face of every African, Asian, Latin American, Caribbean, Indigenous person, and oppressed people everywhere. It is a spit in the face of history! And it is a spit in the face of us, the so-called "organizers" here in the States who have yet to concretely deal with these issues, once and for all.
When we look at the situation of not only Cuba, but all nations suffering economic warfare from the US + Europe, we see that they cannot continue to fight without any sort of support here in the Imperialist core. The global south has given so much to us, and yet we give them nothing back in way of support, struggles or solidarity minus a few delegations, a few webinars, and a few demonstrations. Where is the real militancy? Where is the real revolutionary formula? Where is the approach that doesn't compromise? Where is the fighting spirit of the people?
It isn't gone, it isn't missing, we are just not seeing it. But if we look deeper, we know that in Cuba, in Venezuela, in Nicaragua, in Vietnam, in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and many other places, the masses are on the move, they continue to fight, they continue to struggle, against all odds - so let us not take the easy road out - let us not forget our responsibility to them and to humankind! All Power to the People!