A demonstration in support of the San Isidro movement at the Ministry of Culture in Havana on Nov. 27.Credit...Yamil Lage/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesA demonstration in support of the San Isidro movement at the Ministry of Culture in Havana on Nov. 27.Credit...Yamil Lage/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

As Washington prepares for the next difficult period ahead politically in the Americas; as US prerogatives have been continually set back in Venezuela and Bolivia; as the political authority and credibility of revolutionary Cuba has soared in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in stark contrast to that of Washington and its neocolonial allies; as the consequences of Trump’s 4 years on the politics and class struggle across the Hemisphere are bound to accelerate…

Of course now is the time to try and whip up an anti-Cuba campaign of lies and disgusting slander. To try and paint Cuba as a place of persecuted artists and suffering rappers! We can take some comfort in how weak, pathetic, and politically impotent this propaganda “offensive” is and will be.

Nevertheless it indicates that liberal US imperialism as registered through the New York Times editors has not changed its perspective of subverting and defeating the Cuban Revolution. This does not preclude retreats and concessions like under Obama’s 2nd term (which the NYTimes notably promoted at the time).

But the anti-blockade and solidarity movement should have no illusions! Only the militant fortitude and political skills of revolutionary Cuba and its leadership; complemented and supplemented by the action and mass work of anti-blockade forces — that is our growing movement — in the belly of the beast and internationally. Only this will FORCE an end to the blockade. Only this will paint them in a corner from which they cannot escape and checkmate them.

The prospects for dealing decisive blows to the blockade in 2021 are greater than ever for our growing international movement. Great advances have been made towards unity, collaboration, and coordination in struggle, starting in the US and Canada. On May 21, 2021 let’s hit the streets in solidarity with the UN General Assembly anti-blockade vote in internationally coordinated protests!

Let’s keep our eyes on the prize!

Let’s Make 2021 the Year to Smash the Blockade!

They Call Us Enemies of the Cuban People https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/opinion/cuba-san-isidro-movement.html?referringSource=articleShare

Ike Nahem

By Ike Nahem

Ike Nahem is a longtime socialist, anti-imperialist, and Cuba solidarity activist. Ike is a retired Amtrak Locomotive Engineer, and proud member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, a Division of the Teamsters Union, and Railroad Workers United. He is a founder and leader of the New York-New Jersey Cuba Si Coalition, and the International US-Cuba Normalization Conference Coalition. Ike is the author of numerous widely circulated essays including To the Memory of Malcolm X; Fifty Years After His Assassination; The Life of Fidel Castro: A Marxist Appreciation; and Political Legacies of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ike can be reached at ikenahem@gmail.com

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