Apart from “Homeland and Life”, they shouted “Down with the dictatorship”, “freedom”, and so on. In these cases, the counter-revolutionary component (in terms of slogans, the people who encouraged them, etc.), was much more dominant than in San Antonio de los Baños. There are many rumors about this, and as is often the case, many of them are false, but it seems that there were protests in a significant number of cities and towns across the island. Very quickly, the information about the protest in San Antonio de los Baños spread through social media networks, and was distorted and amplified by counterrevolutionary elements that were calling for similar protests to take place in other parts of the country. I have seen that some launch the slogan “Patria y Vida” but the majority, I believe, is just going with the general flow.” It was a very heterogeneous mass where various thoughts and ideologies surely coexist. What started as something small, grew as they moved through the main arteries of the town. “Since yesterday, a call was made in a FB group in which the majority is Ariguanabense, in order to protest against the blackouts of up to 6 hours that the town suffers. But according to reports from comrades there, they were not the majority: The same powers that apply a blockade against Cuba, which prevent it from trading on the world market, from purchasing medicines and supplies to manufacture them, are now demanding that the Cuban government open a “humanitarian corridor”! A serious situationĪt the protest in San Antonio de los Baños, some raised the slogan that has brought together the counter-revolution in recent months: “Homeland and Life” (“Patria y Vida”, in opposition to the slogan of the revolution of “homeland or death – we will win”). We could not imagine a greater degree of cynicism. We know what is really behind these so-called “humanitarian interventions”: imperialism. We have seen this before, in Libya, in Venezuela, in Iraq. ![]() This hypocritical campaign is a clear attempt to justify a foreign imperialist intervention against the revolution, under the cover of humanitarian aid. Where was the campaign in favour of an “international intervention” in Brazil, or Peru, or Ecuador – all countries that have suffered Covid-19 mortality rates 10, 20 or 50 times higher than those of Cuba? The hypocrisy of the personalities (artists, musicians, etc.) who have promoted the campaign is incredible. Two, with the excuse of the health emergency situation (partly real, partly exaggerated) to promote the idea of the need for a “humanitarian intervention” by foreign powers to “help Cuba”. One, try to create a social uprising, protests in the streets, through the dissemination of exaggerated, biased or directly false information (for example about the health situation in Matanzas, the area most affected by the pandemic) and the abstract call to protest in the streets. For days there has been an intense campaign orchestrated by counter-revolutionary elements on social networks under the slogan #SOSCuba. The slogans that brought hundreds of people out to the streets in San Antonio were “we want vaccines” and the demand for a solution to their immediate problems, which was put to the local authorities.īut we would be blind if we did not see that there was also another factor. But this factor must be added to an accumulation of problems, which have become particularly serious since the beginning of the pandemic 16 months ago: shortages of basic products, shortages of medicines, the fall in the purchasing power of wages.Īdded to all of this is the worsening of the pandemic in recent days, with the arrival of new, much more contagious variants, at a time when only 15-20% of the population have been fully vaccinated, putting the healthcare system under a lot of strain in several provinces.Ĭlearly, there was a genuine component to the protest in San Antonio (something that President Díaz-Canel himself later recognised) that grew out of the real hardship facing the people. The immediate motivation for the protests, which brought hundreds of people to the streets in San Antonio, were prolonged and constant power outages. The protests began in San Antonio de los Baños, Artemisa province, 26 km southwest of the capital Havana. ![]() On Sunday 11 July, there were protests in various towns and cities in Cuba that have enjoyed widespread coverage in the international media (how could it be otherwise?) Where do these protests come from? What is their character? How should we, as revolutionaries, respond?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |